《40 Thousand Reasons》Epic - Chapter 97
Advertisement
A dozen thoughts course through my mind, and Mister Primarch Khan is right there in top three.
Sure, the guy is not a brainiac, evident by his very actions. Then again, he would be rather useful in stirring things up, especially very far from my own interests in the Fringe.
The bad part though, this guy is a moron. The first thing that goes through his head is "I am the sword." and then "Off with your head". I kinda like my head where it is.
Using the MIU implant, I contact my Juggler Biologis Magos and have him prepare a sedative capable of pacifying an enraged Astartes, plus another MIU brain drilling operation team, plus something to keep the guy breathing once all those combat drugs wear off.
Then I send Fidelia to the medicae lab to provide enforcement.
Once everything is in place, Jaghatai Khan arrives in the room to receive a paralytic spray in the face. No weapons of course, because the guy is lethal enough. He even manages to punch Juggler half-way into the next room. And Juggler is very good, I have seen him scoop out the brain of that traitor marine in a millisecond.
Then, Khan falls on his face, and Fidelia places him on the operating table. There must be 10 thousands white scars on his body, and inside as well. Makes you wonder how he survived til now, but Primarchs are bullshit, everyone knows that.
Doesn't look like one now, merely a battered gladiator in leather pants. Half of those too.
I return to watching the show, just as the last hundred plasma torpedoes detonate and collapse the defensive barrier around the high spires of Commorragh.
Thousands of high level nobles are forced to enter combat beside their bodyguards, massacring demons with ease. But I want my full set, so a few more Archons and their retinues get captured in my labyrinth. All except two: Asdrubael_Vect and Aurelia_Malys.
Where could they be? Hidden in some sub-dimension maybe.
Well, anyway there is plenty of looting here, artifacts from hundreds of species, though most of them are Eldar and human. I even find an empty tesseract, which is quite funny. They could have stopped my assault easily with it, if they knew how to use it. Their loss, my gain.
I could make it my Lancefire's clan treasure, after I taught Victor how to use it intelligently. Managing the defense and safety a small kingdom would be a piece of cake with such a tool, even if assaulted by Ork Waaghs or Tyranids Hives. Also, one of those chronophagic blades, and the clan would be set for the next 40 thousands years.
Advertisement
This was the great advantage of a Blank Dynasty. I wouldn't need to fear my heir falling to Chaos or getting ensorcelled. Sure, stupidity or fanaticism could always strike, even the best of us, even me at times.
So far, his Astartes bodyguard had kept him safe from plots or assassins, which was also good. Soon enough, his brothers will be Astartes as well, and that will count for something.
Coven by coven and army by army, the Dark Eldar slowly get decimated by the three-pronged attack, and in some places demons and Tyranids began to meet and devour each other as well.
We don't have troops on the ground, because I'm not that stupid, and there is no need. I can loot whatever I want, from my Captain's chair.
"All batteries, focus fire on the nearest Warp rift." I demand out loud. While the Tyranids are numerous enough to devour any world, demons are infinite. Better not play it too close.
The Eldar observe the change in focus and turn their lances on the forward rift as well, which helps close it quite fast. Then again, they have an Avatar and the Tyranid Silence is suppressing the Warp to some degree.
The remaining Dark Eldar ships turn their attention on the Warp rift to their back, which makes some sense, but not enough. I do want a large armada of advanced ships, so their cruisers also begin to vanish now, leaving only the smaller ships, from which I only collect a dozen per class, just to analyze the technologies.
Of course, this leaves the ground armies without cover, and hordes of Hive_Crones and millions of Gargoyles dive on their prey unimpeded.
Even a Greater Daemon arrived at the final moment, eager to feast on the well-deserving Drukhari. This finally breaks the Dark Eldar morale, and they attempt to flee and scatter. Tyranids all around though.
"Exterminatus inbound in 60 solar seconds. All ships retreat!" I order just as the second Warp rift is finally closed, by suicidal self-detonations of a dozen Dark Eldar destroyers.
We turn tail and head for the portal, while Commorragh becomes a feast for Tyranids and demons.
"Anyone knows who that is? Just asking, for no reason at all." I say in a gentle voice.
Ludvaius chuckles and pats Rafen shoulder. "That's Heartslayer, a Keeper of Secrets."
And? I think there's something more to it...and as that Avatar plunges straight through the hordes of Tyranids and demons, I think I have tiny clue.
Advertisement
"Well, the Avatar will get a bit burned, but he should be fine I guess." I murmur to myself and Canis.
My wolf nods wisely at me, so he agrees. Avatars are tough, something as minor as an Exterminatus shouldn't bother him much. Only fire after all.
I think I should delay the explosion a little and record more. I mean, who else has recordings of three factions of the Eldar race, battling each other in the middle of their ancient capital?
And the Tyranids all around, make it even more interesting. The Serenity holds position right at the edge of this dimension, with the Icarus above us and 999 corvettes like a rainbow and honor guard.
I'm not sure why I stopped. Logically it made sense to just bomb the place and run away, but it's good that I did. On the other side of that transparent portal, the two remaining Archons have circled around to strike from behind, as the Eldar cruisers find out right now.
Unseen weapons and dark beams strike those peaceful Eldar cruisers, and they all scatter in panic, losing half their numbers into temporal mine fields, and doing little damage, as a thick shadow covers those Archons and their reserve armies.
Well, I am kinda caught in the middle now.
What to do?
I try to extract the Eldar cruiser from beyond that barrier, but the real distance must be light-years not a few kilometers.
"Corvettes, 10 percent expenditure, through the portal!" I command on a hunch.
Beams will not cross over, or else we would be taking fire already. But torpedoes were physical objects.
I lean in my chair and target the raised platform with two Dark Eldar with the barge's Machine Spirit, and launch my own warhead among the 2000 torpedoes volleys from my corvettes.
He might be a potent psyker, but this Vortex warhead has a Blank logis-engine, and thus the Archon doesn't sense the danger, not until is too late. That shield of his is no protection against a Vortex warhead that can break a battleship in two.
The Warp rift splits the reserve army into a few smaller groups, and the rain of plasma torpedoes incendiate and immolate their decorated armors, and then ignites their souls, as their corrupted flesh gets evaporated. Demons pour through the rift, and engage those armies in melee, with little effect except holding them still as more plasma torpedoes rain from above.
Those two titanic beings are still fighting behind us, surrounded by monstrous Aberrations and demented Medusae, while a throng of massive Tyranid Pyrovore bombards the dregs of the Dark Eldar with acid bombs that dissolve flesh and metal.
Mountain shattering blows rain on each other, but the Avatar is made of burning metal, and simply reforms, while the Greater Daemon is made of nightmares and make-believe. There are plenty of nightmares around to empower the creature, and I am wary of my crew getting corrupted.
Time to burn it all. "All ships advance at speed and bombard that warp rift." I order as I mentally load another Incendiary and detonate it near the ceiling of the cave.
With a last look at the demolished Commorragh, I collected a hundred more Razorfiend_Cruisers and loaded them with the largest Tyranid organisms still alive, a dozen Broodlords and a Tyrant among them.
Might need them for some ambush, or just in case. I already had several Narvhals and those were the most useful and problematic bioships too, being the gravity tunneling little bastards.
Didn't find any STC here, so perhaps that Panacea was already saved by my comical STC containers, littering the Ultima sectors on thousands of transport ships and cargo haulers.
Hopefully, that caused a million psykers headaches as well.
The last Archon was still running, already a dozen kilometers away, when the Serenity crossed over, but she wasn't faster than a tesseract. Lady Malys joined my collection, frozen in a desperate rictus. Or perhaps it was excitement. Hard to say with the sadistic Dark Eldar.
She did have a lot of great loot though, including some kind of super powerful pistol called a blaster. It shot darklight, so it might pierce through battleship-grade armor. Like I said, good stuff.
Might need to disguise the shape into a more Imperial weapon, using molded resin or plasteel, but just in case anther traitor Primarch showed up, I wanted a surprise.
I named it Chekhov's gun, for old times sake.
A recon drone entered the burning dimension to send a short transmission, confirming those two monsters were still fighting each other among the ruins of Commorragh.
Oh well, I could sell tickets to that epic fight. Right?
Advertisement
- In Serial107 Chapters
CHRONICLES of a PC Gamer Stuck Inside an RPG Book One: Duelist
[2/28/19 update: The CHRONICLES series has been removed from Kindle Unlimited. This means the beta version of this series is now available on RR. Enjoy!] Meet Lawrence Eugene Mulligan, a fantasy writer by day and avid PC gamer by night. One day, he woke up and found himself in another world, inside an RPG (role playing game). This litRPG genre web serial chronicles Larry's trials in trying to survive and find a way home. Book One: Duelist covers the first seven days of Larry's adventures inside Britannia. It is a slice-of-life magical realism story with LitRPG elements. This serial is written by Antony W.F. Chow, and the work has been officially published on Amazon: https://www.royalroad.com/amazon/B075SRPWZT The cover was created by Sid Ceaser using Dreamstime.com stock photo ID #30738296, Old Medieval Street; and the original image was copyrighted by Unholyvault. The image was used based on Dreamstime.com's Royalty Free license. All rights reserved.
8 122 - In Serial7 Chapters
The Traveling Musician
A man, a laptop, and the opportunity of a lifetime. To recreate himself in his ideal image. However, he is given a limit of 10,000 creation points to do so. Discovering that it was possible to change his race from a human to a god, the man decides to do just that. However, the cost to become a god wasn't a cheap, costing 15,000 creation points, more than he was allowed to spend. Finding a workaround, the man was able to change his race into that of the powerful beings that are gods. However, unlike what he had in mind, he finds out that he is not the powerful deity he believed himself to be. Instead, he has nearly all the characterstics of a common man, outside of his divine talent for music. And it is divine, for he became the god of music, and must now rely on his divine talents to survive and navigate a new world...
8 138 - In Serial14 Chapters
Rekindle
My Newest, and at the same time, Oldest novel. This is a Rewrite of my very first novel that I begun when I was just starting out. It follows the story of Mark Floyd, a broken man who once tried to do what he thought was right... only to be stabbed in the back and thrown away.Now, pulled into a conflict that spans time and space, Mark has a choice to make; Stand up once more, even if it means facing an unknowable future, or let the Embers of his heart die and sink back into darkness. ----------------------------------- “For gold is tried in the fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of adversity”. Once part of a Special Ops team in the US Army, Mark Floyd thought he had seen the worst that Humanity had to offer. That was until his final mission, one that would leave him a broken and shattered man, betrayed by the Country he served, and abandoned by society as a whole. His dreams filled with nightmares of the ones he failed to protect, mind and memories clouded by booze and more, Mark finds himself stumbling through life without purpose or desire. Life isn't done with Mark yet, however. For as long as even a single ember remains in a persons heart, here is still yet hope for the flames of Passion and Hope to be Rekindled. When the dying embers of Mark's heart catches the eyes of a Being far beyond his understanding, Mark finds himself thrown into a situation not even his years of training could prepare him for. Will this new chance be Mark's hope at both Redemption and Recompense? Or will it simply be the final nail in the coffin for a man already dead to the World? [This is a rework of my very first story. The general story will remain the same, however a few details have been tweaked, the chapters have be Edited better and some chapters have been broken down into smaller chunks for better flow and consistency. The biggest change will be to the System itself; It will be a lot less "Game-like", meaning no stats, levels or similar aspect, though skills will still be present in the form of "Programs". Instead, It'll focus more on the Sigil's nature as super-computers and how they change the world around them. This should make for a much more "natural" and less info-dumpy system.
8 119 - In Serial8 Chapters
Viking Rune Smith
Ragnarok is coming. To save this world, I mastered the secret rune magic, crafted the most powerful weapons and armor ever devised, and enslaved every living soul to me. Now, all men serve me, and all women desire to bear my powerful offspring. I am the All-Father, the Rune Smith. The God King. The only one standing between the end times and life everlasting. But once, my name was Aaron, and I came from a world named Earth and an Alaskan village named Talkeetna. This is my saga.
8 138 - In Serial26 Chapters
My unsent poems
Poems that have a destination but will forever stay in my drawer
8 116 - In Serial19 Chapters
Mrs.Heroic [MAGI X BHNA CROSSOVER]
She somehow ended up in a place where there was no Kings, instead there were hero's.A place without dungeons instead there were Quirks.A place where there were no slaves, instead, nothing.A place without Alma-Thurman instead Villains.------"What is your name?""My name is Morgiana Fannalis"------"Where are your parents?""I don't know."------"YOU WOULD'VE BEEN KILLED! WHY DID YOU FIGHT?!"".....I just wanted to be helpful."------"Why are you up late?""I'm just thinking about my saviors."------"Oh. Morgiana~~""WHY ARE YOU ALIVE?!"------"Do you like someone???""There was a person who said that he loved me, and that when he returns I should give him a proper answer, but I don't know how to love."------"You said you were saved, what were you saved from?""My past."------
8 125

