Omakes for the Omake Throne!
"Father Anthony, I have a confession to make."
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Ciaphas Cain, the Liberator of Slawkenberg, stared at the group assembled in front of him.
"This man, Orion, claims to be an assassin from the Inquisition, decided to defect to us," Cain said faintly, though he was sure everyone else would mistake his unease for something else. "Along with a treasure trove of technology."
Considering Agent Orion was meant to be a saboteur, he by trade needed to be at least passable when it came to manipulating technology. So while Orion was no tech-priest, he could at least do some repairs - because it was one thing for the Dark Age of Technology spacecraft to be lost via capture or destruction by enemies, it was another if it suffered a malfunction on a mission and the precious asset lost to the Inquisition that way.
Thus, Orion has at least some data on what the ship that brought him to Slawkenberg could do, and what parts are needed to repair things if damaged, even if he has no idea how it worked at a deeper level. Data which, through Father Anthony and Orion's Handmaiden lover, now trickled up to Cain himself. Needless to say, the capability to travel the Warp without a Navigator or Psyker, and the stealth technologies, were a massive boon if it could be recreated by the Borgs. Given that the Borgs managed to pull off so far, even without the actual ship that has now returned back to its Inquisitor, Cain would give it good odds that the Borgs can recreate the technology regardless with everything Orion handed over.
Cain desperately thought on how to avoid slaughtering the Imperium's forces once Slawkenberg has a Dark Age of Technology fleet, and how to leak this to the Imperium like he did with the Panacea...
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The Cainite Protectorate was quickly gaining planets to their cause, and mostly through taking them like scavengers after the Imperium abandoned them to re-consolidate their battle lines. Karamazov, damn him, had frakked things up so badly with the Imperial Guard the entire sector was still reeling against the Tau, Orks, Tyranids, and other threats. A rare few times the Cainite forces encountered the Imperium on a battlefield where all was not yet lost, they withdrawed immediately - which allowed them to stay on the bottom of the list of immediate threats, as unintuitive as it might be for forces of the Great Enemy. Inquisitor Amberly Vail secretly had thought it was because Ciaphas Cain was too cowardly to face the Imperium in open battle, but quickly dismissed it as impossible given the kind of ambitions the man had - he wanted to dethrone one of the Four, the Plague God, it did not get much more ambitious than that.
Nevertheless, if an opportunity arises to capture Cain, Vail would take it without hesitation. So when she found out the Cainite Protectorate had stepped in to fight Orks at one of the Imperium's planets, she quickly grasped the opportunity.
She still have the images of the Liberator making a 'Oh Frak' face, which brings a smile to her face, recorded from the helmets of Bone Knifes Space Marines. They through their Custodes contacts had obtained an Teleportarium and deep striked into Cain's camp as soon as they entered the system, before Cain could order a withdrawal. Unfortunately, the psyker aide Jurgen had managed to pull off an teleport of his own, rescuing his liege lord, before the Space Marines could capture them. The Cainite forces fled, leaving much supplies and technology behind, if not their people.
If it was any other forces of Chaos, Vail would have ordered all captured supplies burned in case of corruption. Due to the supply shortage in the sector however, Vail had ordered them tested first and destroy any tainted ones afterwards, because needing to destroy all those tanks and power armour on impulse - how Cain got them Vail had no idea, he hadn't captured a Forge World - when they could be used to fight xenos was painful. Especially when considering Cain seems to eskew Chaos' usual tactics, having foregone the corruption and daemonic forces, and fought like a Imperial Guard general, and so much of his supplies were surprisingly salvagable.
This was what led to Vail discovering Cain's personal spacecraft that was left behind, when he was not on his fleet's flagship, as something the techpriests described as 'incredibly important' and 'urgently needed' orders on what to do about it.
"You are telling me this ship is warp-capable, and does not require a navigator," Vail repeated what she heard. The warp-capable part was unsurprising, Cain could have wanted to go first as part of the vanguard at a pinch, knowing that man. It could hardly have been because Cain needed a way to escape and abandon everyone at first opportunity. But the part that does not require navigators for warp travel? That was the important part. One only need to look at the Navigator Houses on the Imperium gets away with their stranglehold on their 'dues', and consider what they might do to keep their monopoly, before concluding that this ship could have been carrying an Exterminus payload instead and it still wouldn't be as destructive to the Imperium.
"That's not all, Lady Inquisitor," the tech-priest intoned nervously. An mechadendrite was shakily pointed at the control room's panels, with some of the labels being 'Adumbria', 'Slawkenberg Council', and most damningly, 'Cain'.
"... I was not aware Cain and his heretics are still in the system," Vail slowly said.
"They're not." If the tech-priest could still gulp like a mundane human, he would have.
"Have you tried turning it on?" And let slip we know about their other STCs? went unsaid. Because communication technology that connected to someone else systems away, again without relying on psykers, could only have been a STC. For a Chaos force, and their allegiance to the warp-spawns, going this far to avoid using the warp was nothing short of shocking.
"The other side, the one labeled 'Cain', pinged us first, Lady Inquisitor," the tech-priest said weakly. "For 3.1 seconds, before they turned off the comms, not expecting this side to still be able to connect. ... Should we return the call, milady?"
"... If only to see what information they let slip. Leave me, I don't believe you have the clearance for the upcoming discussion."
The tech-priest left so quickly with relief, it could have been mistaken that he was fitted with repulsors rather than mere augmented legs. Vail clicked the runes and opened the comms.
"-What kind of loyalist Space Marines don't destroy 'heretek' technology once they got their hands on it?" Cain's baffled voice came across.
"Cain."
"... Inquisitor Vail."
"You don't sound surprised at my voice. Did you suspect I would be the one calling?"
"Merely resignation that the Inquisition is not yet done with me," Cain chuckled wryly.
"Somehow, I do not believe you," Vail said dryly. "Because from my point of view, this is looking like yet another 'gift' scheme of yours to spread technology that would tear the Imperium apart from the inside. Do you not have anything new?"
"I was fully expecting my ship to be destroyed, to be honest, and we would not be having this conversation," Cain said with aplomb. "And I doubt you'd spread the ansibles around to be fought over, if you wouldn't spread the Panacea around."
"The ansibles are hardly the most damning problem here," Vail retorted, putting the name 'ansible' aside to look up later. "The navigation system, Cain, did you expect me to overlook that?"
"... What about the navigation system?"
"The Navigator Houses will be up in arms if this ever leaks," Vail said, unimpressed at Cain's attempt to play dumb. "They would rather have the Imperium shatter, systems unable to reach other systems, and condemn humanity into yet another Dark Age, before they let themselves be rendered obsolete. Compared to them right now being the backbone of warp travel that the Imperium relies upon, for them there are no measures too drastic to avoid. For someone that gave me the originals to the Panacea STC, it is laughable to think you do not understand the significance of what you hold."
"... Would you believe me if I said I only used this because it's easier to build these things than to train psykers up to navigate the warp? And that if this is from the Dark Age of Technology then this has to be worth using?"
"I suggest to stick to being the Lord Liberator, Cain, because you'd be unable to make a living as a comedian otherwise," Vail gave an unladylike snort. "I highly doubt you dug up a second STC from the space hulk, so who gave this to you?"
"I am fairly sure that if I tell you, I'd be killed," Cain said sardonically. "And shouldn't you know already? The Inquisition gave it to me."
"What?" Vail wanted to call Cain out on his unbelievable lies, but the thing was, Cain didn't sound like he was lying. Unless he had got a boon from the so-called Dark Gods for deceiving others, but even then Vail was certain any psyker trickery off-the-cuff can't work from systems away, outside of ritual-work. Did some Radical Inquisitor decided to back Cain and his heretics?
"Really, the ansibles were the only thing I could think of that you can put to use, since I had thought the Inquisition and the Imperium already had that navigation system," Cain continued to say blithely, as if rare STCs were common outside of Mars. "Even if it's not shared widely. It is like how Space Marines have weaponry and other technology that is rarer and better than the Imperial Guards', it is just impractical to produce them on the scale of untold millions instead of-"
Vail terminated the call, unable to take the blatant groxshit any more, since it was apparent Cain wasn't interested in giving actual answers at that point. Though she kept in mind to get tech-priests that she could trust to come back and remove the ansibles from the ship, since she might one day need to call Cain again. If not actually putting the ansibles into use herself.
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What do you mean the Inquisitors, other than the brutes like Karamazov, don't all have these stealth ships in secret? Cain had wanted to say, but he was sure Vail wouldn't have believed him. Also, the Navigators, all the Schola had taught him was that they were necessary for warp travel, nothing about the politics behind them. On one hand, he couldn't believe the Imperium would let a group have that much power over its existence. On the other hand, the Imperium have dropped the ball many times that he could, unfortunately, believe it to be true. Still, he had managed to get the Ansibles, and a myriad of other useful technology he picked up over the years, onto his personal ship and he managed to conveniently lose it to the Imperials, even without him needing to fabricate a reason himself. Amberley Vail could be trusted to do the right thing with them, even if that might not be proliferation of the technology to benefit more people where possible. Cain felt he deserved the pat on the back for doing his duty to the Emperor, as momentary as this relief was.
Cain was completely unknowing of the Custodes that stowed over to his forces, after the Teleportarium given to the Bone Knives Chapter was done so that the Custodes had a opportunity to teleport to Cain's ships as well. The Emperor has plans for Ciaphas Cain, no doubt.