AN: Posting another one. Made a metric shit ton of notes with ideas and plot lines while I was away. Takes some time to get through them. Counted 89 A4 pages worth of technical ideas and possible characters. Will try to incorporate as many as it is possible without breaking the story.

Now on with the good stuff.

Chapter 13. Wheels of Industry

Deimos Peninsula

Hill 18, 2300 hrs.

"Ok I'll bite." Blackwell flicked cigarette getting rid of excess ash.

"I'm sure you do, you see I made quite an investment in you and the rest of your kind." Ethereal voice of mysterious benefactor echoed around the still hill.

Mike looked around and confirmed that everything stood still, even a raven stopped in mid flight.

"Whoa, whoa stop. Investment? What are we split stocks?"

"In a way. Think of this as a mercenary contract. You work for me from time to time, you get paid with currency of your choice. Be it money, power, or resources." The Benefactor announced taking out a pack of cigarettes of his own and lighting a single cancer stick with a snap of his fingers.

"Also I am going to issue a bounty for some individuals who managed to earn my ire. Like this fucker here." Businessman kicked carcass of chaos sorcerer.

"So, how do I collect?" Blackwell asked in a cheeky manner.

"First things first. Bounty collecting one oh one. Big fish tend to hold on to their most prized possession even after departing from material plane. That goes for all of them even Tau and Orks." The benefactor began taking a drag from a cigarette.

"What is that?" Asked Wisp commander nudging body if his latest victim with his foot.

"Glad you asked. Why soul of course…" Blackwell's employer's voice turned downright demonic near the end of that sentence.

"You see, most small fry get automatically collected by you and your forces when you kill them. It is like breathing, you don't even notice it. Big fish need a bit of effort." Mysterious figure waved in direction of the sorcerer.

"You should feel a slight pull in your chest area, like a vacuum. Ooooor a black hole." Benefactor started to sound sheepish while mentioning the mechanics.

"This kind of because your soul is not really present in that shell you are wearing." Now Blackwell started to get worried.

"Where. Is. IT?" Growled commander crushing half burnt cancer stick in his hand.

"Oh don't worry. I have it. Had to separate it so you can collect other souls, like great big bowl. By my estimates you contain around one and a half thousand of them, with hundred on lease from me as a start." Suddenly black silhouette disappeared and reappeared right in front of the Wisp.

A cold feeling seeped from Blackwell's chest. A black hand seemed to phase through his very being digging around for something. A quick tug and a feeling of tearing marked the end of whatever process Michael undergone.

"I will now take that loan back and another hundred as interest." Chuckled the demonic being while showing off a great razor like golden teeth. Dim multicolored orb rested in its hand.

"After all I'm quite a loan shark." The benefactor opened his jaws impossibly wide tearing a fabric of sanity and splitting his cheeks. A quick toss and chomp of unhinged jaws, followed by sound of shattering glass marked the transfer of souls.

"Nope, you sir, are an asshole." Blackwell panted while kneeling.

"Too true, but this is business lad. Back to the lesson." The demon made a flicking gesture with its hands brushing some imaginary dust off his jacket.

"You got to feel what your enemies feel in their last moments and you have seen how it is done. Try now yourself. Oh and don't attempt to eat it, or I'll have to pull it out of you agaaaain ." Mysterious figure continued in singsong voice.

Blackwell sighed and repeated the process on corpse beneath his feet. The orb he extracted looked like a ball of tar with swirling grey currents. Mike tossed the object towards his employer and took out a new smoke. A crunch signified consumption of another soul.

"Spicy, yet sweet. Just how I like it." A content sigh escaped lips of the demon.

"Here catch, congrats on your first bounty." Blackwell grabbed a card that looked a lot like credit card back home. Four digit figure was printed on the golden surface.

"Ten grand?" Wondered Mike.

"He was a low grade soul, pretty low on the command ladder too, but he knew some good stuff. By the way that chit you are holding is universal credit coupon. You use it pay for stuff in the Ether City, on the other side of the portal." Benefactor waved his hand dismissively at the mention of sorcerer and pointed at the blinking PDA Blackwell held in his pocket.

"Look through the settings you will find 'teleport' and 'recall' functions." Businessman mentioned and started walking back to the tear in reality.

"I am Catilatio, but seeing how latin is a dead language you can call me Colin." Newly dubbed Colin disappeared in the rift. The rip in the fabric of reality started to close.

Suddenly Colin's head peeked out of the portal for one last parting remark.

"Oh and try not to die, respawn costs one grand apiece. Ta ta."

As the rift started to disappear Blackwell stood dumbfounded glancing at the credit card and simmering afterimage of the portal.

"What the fuck did just happen?" Wisp wondered while time restarted around him.

"Sir. The wind is shifting, that phosphorous is fast approaching our position. Second platoon already hightailed out of here. Your orders. Sir?" Random trooper from Crowguard approached Blackwell and waved at the fast approaching incendiary cloud of death.

"Oh fuck. Leg it boys, back to rendezvous point." Mike started running back to the location of destroyed shrine. The blood towers, once they lost Khrone's power, were just a shoddy scrap pillars that got bulldozed by armored vehicles.

Deimos Peninsula

Staging Point Zero, 0300 hrs.

New entrenched position was established around remnants of Blackwell's latest assault. Heavy weapon emplacements took positions in sandbag nests. Snipers scanned perimeter with their scoped rifles. Mortar squads sat around in holes from previous bombardment. Non-commissioned officers ran around the trenches getting updates from the troopers. Captain in charge of the defensive position barked orders at Lieutenants.

APCs and IFVs parked behind larger boulders to hide from the spotters. Dilos started to approach from south. Nefron and his Pheonix slowly approached from the west.

Everything looked ready for final offensive against chaos.

"Well fellas, our time window just got smaller. My scouts report last chaos elements crumbled half an hour ago and greenskins are hauling ass right at us. We have max two hours before this fight turns three way free for all." And just like that all optimism sapped from Blackwell, as soon as he heard Forthecho's report.

"Brilliant. Any other good news?" Blackwell asked over the com.

"Yeah folks back at HQ are getting reports of Necrons slowly massing on their east border."

"Forget I asked." Blackwell facepalmed.

This day just keeps getting better and better.

Next chapter: Punchline.

AN: Chapter turned shorter than I expected. So I explained the idea of economy in my universe. Also gave the first glance at the guy in power. Will try to put up new chapters every other day, or so.