An hour later, I arrived back in my own villa in Blanktown and setup one small apartnt for my new guest, including a bank of cogitators, and a small clade of tech-priests with knowledge of datasphere warfare and the special Runes of Engineering, a rather complex religious protocol for establishing a monitoring station, on par with a Knight suit of battlefield awareness.
Then I retrieved Elixa and her infocyte gear from her stealth shuttle.
"You will live here from now on, my dear Elixa. I want a signal intelligence operation prepared, to monitor this star system for infiltrators and other dangers. You can do that, right?" I asked gently, and patted her silky hair. It was cut kinda short, but that probably made sense if she needed to wear a sensorium helt and other devices like that more importantly the Deathstorm and Support variants, those that did not carry troops but on-board turrets.
Sure, these things were massive, highly armored and of course, hugely expensive. It was actually cheaper to deploy 5 Space Marines with 5 heavy bolters than one of these monsters.
They would also run out of ammunition pretty soon and then just lay there, millions of thrones expended for little gain and immobile. Perfect for Orks to dismantle and arm themselves with perfectly good weapons of the best quality.
No, what I needed was a cheap version, ard with a twin-multilaser, and a lascannon version for hard targets like vehicles or power armor, perhaps one with a spinning flail for close defense. Naturally, these autonomous turrets could have more armor than the re 10 mm of plasteel in the original template. It would depend on the Forge resources, but at least 10 cms of armor would be possible without making them too heavy. Perhaps even ceramite plates.
Drop those in a series of concentric rings, and a single dedicated light cruiser could transport and unload the equivalent of 20 regints of firepower in a concentrated pocket. Soon after, insert tech-priests and servitors to repair, refuel and clean up the debris, before landing mobile forces.
Sure, a cargo ship could carry even more drop pods.
The problems begin when encountering enemies. From raiders and pirates, to harassing corsairs or traitor warships, to full orbital blockade or a tyranid swarm on approach, it is much better to have a light cruiser actually deploy the drop pods.
It is much faster, has better armor and guns, but most importantly is faster.
Pretty much why all Astartes use Strike Cruisers to deploy drop pods filled with powered armored Brothers in ergencies. This also carries the risk of troop pods getting shot down, or the limited Astartes numbers surrounded and destroyed by overwhelming defenses.
And if you landed say Chira infantry transports, they could just carry these Tarantula turrets on top of their hull, and connect their power lines to the internal generator. Mobile turret obtained!
Or just place them on wheels and drag them into new fortified lines as the front lines moved, much like General Roml did in Africa during WW2 with his 88mm cannons.
The best thing was the ability for rapid defense of compromised positions, simply dropping these turrets in front of a Hive City or an important Manufactorum.
This ability was the most used option for Adeptus Astartes, and caused the most casualties, even if a thousand pods and a few tech-marines could do the sa job and possibly not lose a single life.
Even inside spaceships, such turrets could pop up from the deck plates and massacre invaders on long hallways and intersections.
Maybe even heavy flar turrets? Only for fixed positions, because prothium might not like being dropped from orbit.
Missile turrets were already used on many Hive World or Forge Spires, but in the field they would rapidly run out of missiles. Plus they were kinda expensive.
No need to drop them, they could be landed with the troops and not damage the fragile missiles either. But then, forts and command centers would have so anti-air protection, at least until the fighters gained air supremacy over the skies.
The door opened to reveal a completely different Elixa de Mornay, dressed in a tight dress of blue silk and a House Lancefire cape. "I look like a Lady now, right?" she asked in a timid voice.
I just smiled genially and nodded, kinda lost for words. "You are a gorgeous woman, my dear Elixa. As for a Lady title, you just need to ask. I bet a throne our children will be very smart." I complinted her in a shy voice, while Ludvaius just blinked at , then sighed in acceptance.
You should have expected this, Brother! I wouldn't let such a treasure get away, even if it ant a new wife.
Canis lifted his head to watch the new wolf mistress with curious eyes, then uttered a single "Woof!" which probably ant "Nice bitch, boss!"
"...What? How can you just propose to !" she exclaid in a rather outraged voice.
I just shrugged and rose from my adamantium chair to peek closely into at her blushing face. "Common sense, Elixa. You will have access to the House Lancefire secrets, thus you need to be part of my House. You would not betray your family and children, but instead work hard to keep us safe. I'm thinking to call your infocyte clade the Obsidian Auguries. Keeping watch from the shadows, for agents and subversion from other Houses, cultists or xenos." I explained as I reached the door and offered my elbow.
She blushed even harder as I escorted her to dinner, still grumbling at her new fate. "I didn't even say yes..." Elixa concluded as we reached the dinning hall.
I smiled inward and outward. She didn't say no either.
"Everyone, this lovely Lady is Elixa, our new spymaster." I presented her to my wives, a few of my children and a few Apothecaries who usually joined at dinner.
"She is all flustered and red, daddy! Did you bed her already?" Talia asked with an innocent 8-year-old voice.
Elixa coughed in surprise, while Decima glared at for a second, before approaching us with a queenly pace, slow and majestic. Well, she did oversee like a thousand star-systems for , and acted as a Rear Admiral for a thousand space ships for our Rogue Trader Dynasty.
"Quiet,Talia! Hannibal, stop giggling! Ludvaius stay by the door!" my sweet wife ordered, returning the room to silence. Then Decima poked Elixa's forehead, watching her reactions shift from social awkwardness to a combat posture, the mind implant powering up for extra speed and auto-senses.
"At least Lady Elixa has decent training. We shall see about other duties, after your Apothecaries and nurses finish the dical examination. Vindicare temple?" Decima continued with a frown.
"... Errr. Classified." Elixa answered with a wary glance towards . Probably shouldn't blurt out her secrets, if I wanted her to keep mine.
"Pef's mother was of Vindicare. Good assassin too, Lady Justine. Killed Fulgrim in her last mission." Decima explained in a softer voice, and gave a short kiss, before returning to her seat.
"Daddy is better though. He killed Lorgar and didn't even die." Talia comnted wryly, and without any tact.
I sighed audibly and sat down to eat. This looked like one of those dinners.
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