Chapter 51 Definitely Family

The Shipgirl, formerly the Red Tear, offered Vane a deep, impeccably formal curtsy.

“Honored Creator, please accept my most profound gratitude. It is you who have bestowed upon me true life and emotion, allowing me to genuinely experience the beauty and sorrow of this mortal realm.”

“I humbly beseech you, grant me a name. I shall bear the name you bestow as I sail across the stars.”

Vane carefully inspected the Red Tear Shipgirl and nodded in satisfaction.

“From this day forward, your name shall be Sanguinis. After all, your true hull is the Red Tear, the undisputed flagship of the Blood Angels.”

“I thank you for this name, Honored Creator.” Sanguinis curtsied once more.

A microsecond later, her personalized ship-rigging materialized. A pair of massive, hyper-advanced metallic wings flared from her back, accompanied by several scaled-down, lethal naval macro-cannons and lance batteries that hovered ominously around her, radiating a chilling, oppressive aura of absolute firepower.

Sanguinis gently flapped her metallic wings, gracefully landing on the deck in front of Sanguinius, and offered a perfectly executed, aristocratic bow.

“Sanguinis greets you, Father.”

Sanguinius’s eyes violently bulged, his jaw completely unhinged in absolute, paralyzing bewilderment.

He had lived through the apocalyptic Great Crusade. He had survived the catastrophic betrayal of the Horus Heresy. He had literally just ascended to godhood and formally declared open war on the Chaos Gods.

But absolutely nothing in his ten thousand years of existence could have prepared the Great Angel for the sheer, physics-breaking absurdity of this moment. His newly forged divine brain completely short-circuited.

What… what kind of plot progression is this?!

“You’re talking to… me?” Sanguinius pointed a trembling finger at his own chest. “I am your… father?”

Dante, Corbulo, and the other Chapter Masters violently snapped their heads toward their Gene-Father, their faces reflecting equal levels of profound shock.

Our dad has a daughter now?!

Are we literally getting a little sister?!

Sanguinis nodded with absolute, unshakeable conviction. “Yes. You are Sanguinius, Lord of the IX Legion. You are undeniably my Father.”

“I vividly recall the exact moment of our first meeting. I was freshly forged, barely christened, when the Emperor personally presented you to me. You placed your hand upon my primary command cogitator and solemnly swore an oath to Him, promising to repay His gift with absolute loyalty and glory.”

“I witnessed you meticulously rebuild the IX Legion. I witnessed your agonizing betrayal at the hands of Daemons on Signus Prime. And I proudly witnessed the glorious establishment of Imperium Secundus! That was an era of supreme glory, Father! Lead us once more to recreate Secun—”

“Enough! You are absolutely my daughter! I completely acknowledge you! Please stop talking!”

Sanguinius screamed in sheer panic, aggressively interrupting Sanguinis before she could finish the sentence.

If I let her keep talking, she’s probably going to loudly suggest we launch a military coup on Terra and initiate the Siege of the Lion’s Gate 2.0!

This is an absolute nightmare! Between the Forefather extorting me and my new Shipgirl daughter proudly shouting my darkest treasons in public, my ten-thousand-year reputation as the ‘Flawless Angel’ is completely, irrevocably ruined!

When I finally return to Terra, I literally cannot fathom the sheer volume of catastrophic rumors that will be circulating!

“Oh look, if it isn’t the Great Emperor of Imperium Secundus!”

“Is he back to usurp his father’s throne?”

“…”

Right at that moment, Vane touched down on the deck, casually interrupting the touching family reunion.

“You two can finish your emotional bonding later. I have a highly critical financial update for you, Sanguinis.”

“Honored Creator, what is the matter?” Sanguinis asked respectfully.

“It concerns your Father. He owes me a rather significant amount of money.”

“Do not worry, Honored Creator! No matter how devastating the storm or how crushing the burden, I shall proudly stand by my Father’s side and face it together!”

Sanguinis’s voice rang with absolute, unwavering filial devotion.

Hearing her resolute pledge, Sanguinius felt his heart melt. A warm, genuinely happy smile spread across his face.

Having a loyal daughter is actually quite wonderful.

“Your Father currently owes me a flat total of fifty billion star systems.”

The deeply devoted smile on Sanguinis’s face instantly, violently froze, as if she had been physically petrified by a Medusa.

A microsecond later, she aggressively threw herself to the deck, dropping to one knee before Sanguinius, clasping her hands together in an expression of absolute, tragic sorrow.

“Father! Your daughter is deeply incompetent and hopelessly weak! I mathematically lack the capacity to shoulder such an astronomical, reality-breaking cosmic debt!”

“Since I cannot alleviate your crushing financial burdens, I possess absolutely no right to call myself your daughter!”

“Therefore, for the good of the Chapter, we must immediately, formally sever all familial ties!”

Sanguinius: “…”

Wait… this exact speech sounds incredibly, suspiciously familiar.

AH! AH! AH!

This is literally the exact same excuse I used on the Forefather ten minutes ago to try and dodge the Emperor’s debt!

You treacherous little brat! Why are you exclusively inheriting my absolute worst traits?!

And give me my heartwarming familial moment back, you absolute scam artist!

Vane watched the exchange with a deadpan expression. That hyper-speed, completely shameless backpedaling? Yep, she is undeniably 100% Sanguinius’s offspring.

“I honestly don’t care if you two legally disown each other. Both of you are deploying on an intergalactic Crusade outside the Milky Way. You aren’t coming back until the debt is paid in full.”

Having delivered his ultimatum, Vane turned and walked away, heading back to tinker with the mobile fortress’s AI to prepare it for paving the Nether Highway.

Watching Vane leave, Sanguinis slowly stood up, her face etched with profound, existential dread.

Fifty billion star systems… I’m going to be functioning as an indentured wage-slave until the heat death of the universe!

Sanguinius heavily patted his daughter’s shoulder, offering a deeply sympathetic sigh. “There is no other way, my daughter. It is my fault. I deeply apologize for forcing you to inherit such a catastrophic financial burden the moment you were born.”

“Spend some time getting to know Dante and your brothers. I need to go coordinate logistics and requisition a standard battleship to replace your hull in the fleet.”

Sanguinius spread his blazing wings and launched into the air, flying off to sort out the sudden gap in their naval formation.

Seeing both the Forefather and her Father depart, Sanguinis violently snapped her metallic wings and launched herself into the air, hovering imperiously over Dante and the assembled Chapter Masters.

“Listen up! From this exact moment forward, every single one of you is my younger brother! Whenever you address me, you will respectfully refer to me as ‘Big Sister’! Do you understand?!”

Dante, Corbulo, Seth, and the other Chapter Masters—all towering, heavily scarred, eight-foot-tall transhuman demigods of war—stared at the delicate, baseline-human-sized girl with absolute, unadulterated disbelief.

You want a legion of ancient, hyper-lethal transhuman warlords to call a tiny girl ‘Big Sister’?!

Are you making a cosmic joke?!

If word of this ever leaked to the other Chapters, our reputation would be permanently, irrevocably destroyed!

“Dante! Are you going to immediately submit and call me Big Sister, or are we going to do this the traditional way?” Sanguinis pointed a delicate finger directly at Dante.

“What do you mean by ‘traditional way’?” Dante asked, genuinely confused.

“A duel to the death, obviously! The winner establishes absolute dominance and becomes the leader!”

During the Great Crusade, Sanguinis’s primary hull had served as the mobile headquarters for the IX Legion. She had spent decades passively watching the Blood Angel Astartes brutally beat the absolute hell out of each other in her internal gladiatorial fighting pits to resolve disputes.

She found it incredibly entertaining when the losers suffered complete mental breakdowns and secretly hid in their barracks to cry.

Now that she possessed a physical, humanoid avatar, she was absolutely determined to honor that glorious Chapter tradition! Anyone who refused to submit would be brutally beaten until they cried!

“A duel? With you?”

Dante slowly looked Sanguinis up and down, genuinely wondering if his transhuman hearing was failing him.

Compared to a fully armored Astartes, her physical frame was impossibly frail. Dante honestly feared that if he accidentally flicked her forehead too hard, she would cry for a week.

“Stop whining like a coward! Winner takes all, no objections allowed!”

Sanguinis casually snapped her fingers. A massive, hyper-lethal Anti-Ship Sword—literally several meters long and radiating devastating energy—materialized in her hands. She casually rested the colossal weapon on her slender shoulder.

“Of course, if you want to unconditionally surrender right now and call me Big Sister, I will accept.”

Seeing the colossal Anti-Ship Sword materialize, Dante and the others finally snapped back to reality. This girl wasn’t a fragile mortal; she was the physical manifestation of a Gloriana-class battleship—the most heavily armed, apocalyptically powerful vessel in the Imperial Navy!

“Chapter Master… you should probably accept the challenge,” Corbulo whispered nervously. “Teach her a localized lesson in humility so she gracefully accepts her role as our little sister.”

“Exactly, Dante. We’ve spent millennia violently carving our way through the galaxy. We absolutely cannot back down from a challenge like this. It would be deeply embarrassing,” Seth grunted in agreement.

“Go teach her a lesson, Dante!”

“Just remember to hold back! Don’t actually kill her; she’s still technically our sister!”

“…”

Pressured by the collective pride of the Blood Angels, Dante felt obligated to accept.

“Very well. Today, I shall teach you the harsh realities of combat.” Dante drew his legendary Axe Mortalis, stepping forward with absolute, unwavering confidence.

Exactly sixty seconds later, the duel concluded. Dante was being frantically loaded onto a medical stretcher by a panicked squad of Sanguinary Priests and rushed to the Apothecarion.

The legendary Regent of Imperium Nihilus lay perfectly motionless on the stretcher, staring blankly at the ceiling, his eyes completely hollow as he experienced a profound, catastrophic existential crisis.

The Blood Angels who had witnessed the entire sixty-second engagement were completely stun-locked, paralyzed by absolute, unadulterated terror.

Dante—a warrior capable of single-handedly decapitating a Tyranid Swarmlord in honorable melee combat—had been effortlessly, brutally folded in exactly three strikes. He had been completely, humiliatingly dominated.

“Is there anyone else who refuses to submit?! Come at me all at once!” Sanguinis swept her gaze across Corbulo, Seth, and the remaining Chapter Masters. “I demand to fight ten of you simultaneously!”

“I refuse to believe this!”

Gabriel Seth, clad in incredibly dense Terminator armor, roared in sheer fury and aggressively charged into the dueling ring.

Twenty seconds later, he was being loaded onto a medical stretcher right next to Dante.

Witnessing two Chapter Masters get effortlessly one-shot, Corbulo and the remaining Astartes finally grasped exactly how catastrophically terrifying Sanguinis was.

Even with nineteen hyper-advanced, transhuman genetic modifications, they were mathematically incapable of surviving a melee engagement with a literal battleship.

Seeing that absolutely no one else dared to step into the ring, Sanguinis placed her hands on her hips and laughed triumphantly.

“From this day forward, I am your Big Sister! Hahahaha!”

Corbulo and the Blood Angels lowered their heads in absolute, crushing despair.

This isn’t how the plot was supposed to progress!

We wanted a cute, soft, adorable little sister!

Why did we get a hyper-violent, impossibly overpowered Big Sister who brutally beats us into submission?!

—

Meanwhile, deep within the Warp, the Four Chaos Gods had been actively monitoring Vane the entire time.

When they saw the Outer God casually convert a twenty-kilometer-long Gloriana-class battleship into a little girl, their cosmic brains completely short-circuited.

Damned Outer God! Can you please, for one single microsecond, actually obey the foundational laws of physics in realspace?!

The only God currently experiencing genuine joy was Tzeentch.

The sudden, physically impossible manifestation of a Shipgirl had introduced a completely unprecedented, apocalyptic variable into the timeline, violently altering the threads of fate. The resulting chaos made Tzeentch feel more profoundly powerful and satisfied than He had in ten millennia.

—

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