Herald of the Stars: Chapter Two Hundred and Fourteen

Chapter Master Lir, Canoness Ephrine, Librarian Aengus and I say our farewells and thanks to Trader Calligos then depart Emperor’s Vow and travel to Grave’s Bite in my shuttle.

Lir chuckles merrily when I park his Thunderhawk inside the vehicle bay of the Class three D-POT while Ephrine immediately tries, and fails, to requisition a D-POT for her Mission. Aengus wanders off to chat with the shuttle crew.

After a short safety tour, we swap stories in the luxury lounge. Nothing serious, just humorous errors and lucky breaks. The journey to Grave’s Bite only takes twenty minutes. Upon our arrival we split up, with Aengus showing Ephrine around the vessel, a task he takes to with great enthusiasm.

Lir takes me to his quarters, an unexpected sign of trust and respect given the circumstances. He doesn’t have much compared to most Imperial senior officers and his rooms are small, for a Space Marine. There is a private chapel, sleeping chamber, armoury, trophy room, music room, library, and a kitchenette.

We sit in the music room on hard chairs, surrounded by dozens of polished wooden stringed instruments, shiny brass, and multiple percussion instruments. The central piece is a gilded grand piano, one that was clearly looted from some noble as I can pick out the delicate repairs to the frame from las and stubber fire.

Lir fetches us a glass of flavoured mineral water and places a dataslate on the recaf table between us. I take a sip of my drink and discover a pleasant, sweetened citrus water. I immediately notice that the liquid is fortified with vitamins and minerals to a level that would have unpleasant side effects for a normal human if they drank the whole of one of Lir’s oversized glasses.

“I have examined the reports and viewed the footage from the disastrous assault on Dying Light,” says Lir. “I was not impressed by Verlin’s slow thinking. While there is something to be said for trying to stop a ritual, he should have noticed that it wasn’t working sooner and not wasted all that ammo. Had he been more conservative and better fortified his position, casualties might have been much lower. On the other hand, being ready to strike the moment the ritual dropped, even with minimal ammo, took out everything but the main knight and devastated the traitors forces before they could establish themselves.

“As for the sorcery, I admit that was partially my own fault. I should have provided Verlin with a Librarian. The Knight Abominant and its sorcery was the primary source of casualties and Verlin did not have the tools to counter it. In all my service, preparing for teleporting Knights is not something I ever thought we would have to prepare and train for. As such, I am left with a dilemma.

“Verlin messed up, but only slightly and it is debatable how much difference it would have made. He’s also determined to punish himself and I have often found the tasks we assign ourselves to overcome our faults are far more effective than anything that I could assign. I am willing to leave him be and make Odhran’s appointment a permanent one. Odhran was a Veteran Sergeant, so Force Commander is a reasonable step up.

“As for where I’m going with this and why I am actually here there are two reasons, the Horn of Ghosts and the contents of that dataslate. Is there anything you would also like covered in this discussion, Magos?”

I take another sip of my drink, “Thank you for the drink, it is rather good.”

Lir nods and waves at me to continue.

“I appreciate your candour, Lir and I am pleased you are at least understanding of the trials we have encountered. As for my own points, I am curious about Chorda as well as your opinion on the debate I had with Balor and Verlin on what to do with Verlin’s failing body. Do you need me to fill you in on the details?”

“No, I am aware of what you have offered and the various consequences and barriers to their execution. Your willingness to cooperate, even when it will cost you dearly on a personal level, is why we’re still talking.”

I wince, “Fair enough.”

“We’ll cover what we can do for each other in a bit, it should all tie together at the end. First, the Horn of Ghosts. As you now know, the Horn of Ghosts is what makes our chapter special, providing our chapter with a significant advantage with our infectious bite and improved awareness at the cost of faster degradation of geneseed and increased Inquisitorial scrutiny. This means that to replace all of the marines you lost, Grave’s Bite is required to transport the Horn of Ghosts to you.

“I am going to provide you with the replacement marines. There will be an increase in full Battle Brothers from the first to fifth companies, as well as scouts from the tenth. Aengus will be second in command. Chaplain Riordan will oversee the scouts and the strike group’s spiritual matters.

“We will take the supplicants you and Odhran have gathered and they will be inducted and also passed off to Odhran, all ten thousand of them. If our averages hold, that will result in some two hundred scouts and up to six thousand auxiliaries. The rest will perish.

“Normally, this would push us way over the one thousand active marines, but we don’t know how long it will take you to tour the galaxy nor when we could next reinforce you. Not only that, what I want from those two hundred scouts is something a little different. When you bring them back to me, I want them to all be Tech-Marines. I’m expecting at least a hundred of them to survive long enough to make the cut, putting us back on target. Do you have any objection to this arrangement.”

“I do not.”

“Good. I didn’t think you were dumb enough to say no, or I would have never made the offer, but I’ve lived long enough to know that I should still ask.”

I chuckle.

“Now for the second reason I am here, I wish to thank you.”

“That’s not what I expected from this conversation.” I sit a little straighter.

“No, I suppose not! Providing my chapter the opportunity to kill traitors and foil a sector wide demonic plot has not only greatly lightened our Inquisitorial oversight, but it also helped me force an ‘apology’ out of the Inquisition, or at least the closest they’ll ever get to admitting fault and butchering much of my chapter and its serfs and blowing up our void ships.”

I hum, “Well, in that case. You’re most welcome.”

Lir grins, “As for why I’m even bothering to tell you this, why don’t you check that dataslate?”

“Alright.” I pick up the dataslate and go over the contents, my eyes widening as I read the contents until I am eventually gaping. “It’s all manufacturing grade STCs!”

“It’s all the Space Marine STCs you were missing. I had Lyre collect them all for me. He wasn’t happy about it. The Mechanicus don’t like to give up their monopoly and the Inquisition like the Space Marines to be dependent on the Forge Worlds. I only got this because I agreed to hand it to you, a Magos with a licence signed by the Emperor to produce Space Marine Wargear, as vetted by both my Barghests and the Inquisition. There is a small delegation from the Lathe Worlds I expect you to take off my hands too. They’re here to verify your documents and confirm your achievements.”

“Of course others have come to peek,” I groan. “Some days I feel like a zoo animal.” I shake my head and dismiss my negative thoughts. “I see now why you want me to train all those Tech-Marines. They’ll need copies for the STCs you’ve given me to perform their duties and anyone who complains about it will have little ground to stand on. What do you want for this, Lir? I’m going to get a lot of blowback from teaching that many Tech-Marines. They’re supposed to go to Mars afterall.”

“Aren’t you going to visit Mars on your pilgrimage?”

“You really have thought of everything.”

“Obviously. As for what I want, this is more of a gamble. The Barghest Chapter faces two crises with its sustainability: the degradation of geneseed and its low compatibility with our recruitment pool. It just so happens you are one of the few Magi who specialise in arcanotech implants. You also have JK-404 in your retinue, a Magos Biologis with a fascination for transhumanism. My hope is that you can either reverse, mitigate, or solve these two issues in some way. I also want you to try and acquire geneseed from other chapters while you travel to replenish our stock.”

Hence the massive pool of test subjects under the guise of making me pay for the Marines that were lost under my orders. The STCs are there to bribe other chapters with high quality wargear. Lir clearly never does anything for just one reason.

“That’s possible in theory,” I say. “I’d need a grateful Primarch to really make any progress on reversing degradation. I’ll need all the data you have on geneseed degradation to even have a chance of slowing it. As for providing a recruitment pool of Barghest attuned individuals, that’s more reasonable, though it has its own problems and is something I’ve discussed with Odhran before. We didn’t consider it worth it at the time, but I would be willing to reevaluate our previous conclusion.

“For more immediate solutions, I do have something I can offer you. I am reasonably confident I could develop and produce bionic equivalents to most of the geneseed organs. The Barghest Chapter has fairly unique auxiliaries as you have performed enough research to know when to stop implanting geneseed organs and have a lot of failed, and somewhat short lived individuals, who make up the bulk of your forces.

“I believe I might be able to create demi-marines who, rather than accept more geneseed organs, receive bionic replacements. Ideally, this will give them almost the full capability of a Space Marine, without additional stress placed upon them by a proper geneseed organ. They’d actually be a bit like the Iron Hands, who are rather fond of replacing their fleshy bits, something I find rather wasteful when you’ve gone to the trouble of transitioning to a Space Marine in the first place.”

Lir laughs, “I will refrain from commenting on the internal traditions of another chapter. They would no doubt find us rather strange as well. Still, that is quite the claim, Aldrich. How confident are you?”

“I could have already done something similar for my Heralds. I have not done so on a mass scale for three reasons. The first is the vast expense. It isn’t worth it for anyone who won’t become a career soldier. The Warforged, who do have equivalent or superior implants, and even total body replacements, are arguably superior to a Marine, though who is more effective I could not say. Battlefields make for poor, consistent testing. The Warforged certainly do not have as much practical experience as a Space Marine, though they have far more simulation time.”

“We should arrange some joint exercises,” says Lir. “I’d like to participate myself, both on the front lines and as a commander, for a proper understanding of your capabilities. I may have been a little too swift in my previous evaluation.”

“We can do that,” I say. “My second reason for avoiding creating anything too close to a Space Marine is that it encroaches on the rights and duties of the chapters. I felt I would be insulting all that you go through if I were to callously replace you with mechanical monstrosities.”

“A wise yet dumb approach. One should always do everything they can, though you are correct that it would have soured our initial greetings to each other. There are many chapters out there to meet too,” Lir chugs half his drink. “I would likely have made the same choice as you.”

I say, “I’ll call that a compliment. Last, I didn’t want to make the Imperium nervous. My status as a Rogue Trader lets me freely travel the Imperium and beyond with any forces I please, but passing all through systems and sectors with a significant military power would likely cause all sorts of fuss from calls to censure me, or demands for ‘donations’. Unlike many Rogue Traders who are dependent on the Imperium, I am self-sufficient and politically connected enough that the only way to suppress me is with force, and that has its own set of problems. This wasn’t the case when I last evaluated my stance on this issue.

“At this point, I am unsure how much difference my holding back would make as we are in the process of replacing much of our void carapse with power armour, at least for our acolytes, the Heralds who stay on after mandatory military service. My last battle is also forcing me to reevaluate my stance on appropriate force.”

Lir frowns, “I can see why you would reach those conclusions. Strange as though it may seem coming from me as we flit between campaigns, our chapter achieves far more during times of rest, but there must still be something to build from. Appropriate force is a complex issue. Be careful not to lose yourself with unnecessary purges and excessive collateral damage. One gains little from ashes and fear can push people to do many things they later regret, be they enemy or companion. Do not let your most recent trials push you too far from your current path.”

“I will try. I am rather shaken from the last fight and though I will recover in time, I still intend to give myself more and greater tools. More options will only aid me. To finish my explanation, the Adepta Sororitas cause plenty of havoc without extensive augments. Herald conscripts currently receive six significant implants from me, and most of them spend most of their pay on more. Once I’ve put them in power armour and they've completed eight years service as an Acolyte, a demi-marine, or perhaps an elite Secutarii Hoplite or Peltast of the Titan Guard would be a fair comparison. The Imperium is going to be nervous no matter what I do. I wouldn’t put up with Raphael otherwise.”

“I can relate.”

“In short, I have every confidence I could turn your failed marines into demi-marines and massively boost your auxiliaries. I can work on the other problems for you, but I prefer a more ferrocrete offer for such a bounty of STCs. Trading for geneseed is somewhat out of my control, though I will try and get some for you.”

“This is a far better offer than I hoped. Thank you, Magos. I think it's about time I told you about Chorda. The planet, not the Rogue Trader dynasty who are quarrelling with Calligos over Lucien’s Breath and its Nephium deposits.”

“I appreciate the clarification. Calligos does seem a little prickly.”