- K'Vari, Star Breaker -
Ritske would soon be loyal to K'Vari. With the measures he had placed she would join him, either by choice or by force. It would be far more pleasant for her if she chose the former. The means he had in place allowed him to apply a most unpleasant sort of pleasure, and one that would not accept refusal.
The Eldar would soon be dead or enslaved. Either by Gregori's order or by his own volition the peacekeeper would investigate K'Vari, either directly on his ships or indirectly via the Obsidian Crusade. On his own he would certainly be quite competent, even with the security K'Vari kept, but little did the little assassin know that the hunter had become the hunted. A specialised death squad awaited the right moment, a group that would be defeated by neither stealth nor skill. He would be nothing more than an unfortunate casualty at worst, or at best an excuse for K'Vari to demand reparation from Gregori.
The main forces of the Imperium Reborn were compromised. They were oblivious, spread out, and the Obsidian Crusade would wipe out the forces on their homeworld if necessary. A group of uncoordinated rebels would be swiftly dealt with. An army of highly trained men with nothing to lose, armed and armoured in the very best K'Vari had to offer, would not be so easily dispatched. Should it be necessary he could with relative ease capture this planet's strategic resources, to hold it hostage. Should Gregori personally be present on the planet it would be fairly easy to send the entire little Imperium into anarchy with one well-timed coup.
The remaining problems were as such. The Ordo Chronos, the Adeptas Sororitas, the Relictors, the dual Inquisitors, and the Adeptus Astartes of the Space Wolves and Black Dragons chapters. Each of those groups formed a potential threat and obstacle, and each would need to be dealt with in turn. Once he had most of these factions in hand, he would possess domination over the Imperium Reborn. While he could not replace Gregori, he could at least play the strings behind the scenes.
Now he would need to deal with the most pressing matter. He was at his most powerful while the main forces of the Imperium were distracted, so he would need to ensure they stayed distracted. And that distraction could easily work in his favour. So Gregori wished to have this forge world? That was a motive that could be exploited. This Forge World would become the distraction K'Vari needed, so that he could strew the string of his webs until he had bound the entire Imperium to his will.
With a great burst of crackling energy, an immense hole in reality seemed to pop into being. Warp Stuff attempted to pour into the materium as the Battle Barge slowly moved into the Empyrean. Within moments he would be gone, sailing on the tides of the warp as if they were merely stormy water. Far above the primitive human warp technology, K'Vari had no need for navigators or an Astronomican. It was both his Stryxis heritage and his technological knowledge that allowed him to navigate the Warp with such ease. He could move from system to system with a casual mobility that was surpassed only by the warlike Biel-Tan Eldar. Within moments K'Vari would arrive at his destination, the very forge world that Gregori sought to incorporate into his realm. With just as thunderous a spectacle the ship emerged from the Warp, sending out coded signals to the inhabitants of this system.
This would not be the first time he had come here to trade. Where there was war, there was profit, and with war erupting across the galaxy, K'Vari was a very well-travelled creature. Those that dwelled here despised him, but knew his prices, if not fair, were worth it. All sides received his attention as his ship moved from place to place. Weapons, soldiers, assistance.... traps. Those previously ill-equipped and weary were revitalised as K'Vari gave out discounts like it was Christmas, all the while bleeding the world dry for those things his most generous ally would have valued. The Forge World itself was unfortunately not a prize to be traded away, even against K'Vari's considerable arsenal of goods, but he had done what needed doing. Those who fought here were equipped with a blueprint for a mass-producible Bolter variant, a smaller design of the sort often favoured by Inquisitors and Rogue Traders, not requiring the superhuman strength of the Angels of Death to wield. With the ability to construct such weapons they would form far more formidable enemies. More dangerous yet were the rumours and secrets he sold freely, truth and lie mixed equally, of enemies lying in wait and forces waiting just beyond the edge of the system. Incursions of Chaos, small Imperiums, the New Devourer reborn.... it didn't matter what enemy they feared. What mattered is that they holed up, and prepared their weapons. Gregori would find his enemies prepared and ready.
Of course, K'Vari also set several traps beyond the understanding of those he sold them to. Foremost among them was a rare item from across the galaxy, sold as a relic of great power and placed as a trap upon the surface of the Forge World itself. Insurance, to make sure that matters here did not progress too far, and Gregori did not retrieve his prize too easily. He needed to make sure that this Forge World was won at the cost of blood and pain, and that his honoured trading partner would return victorious only at great cost. The more he needed, the more K'Vari could provide, and the more influence he gained. And it would certainly help if some of those forces within Gregori's little council managed to get themselves eliminated in the struggle.
His business concluded K'Vari once more left, his ship moving through the Warp back to it's original position. There was no doubt that his little excursion had been noticed, although those at home base would know little more than that his ship had warped out. There was no way of telling where he had been or what business he had conducted, and he responded to Vox-transmitted demands only with the scan reassurance that he had merely gone on a trading expedition.
This was but the third in a long series of schemes for which he was laying the groundwork. For even as K'Vari himself went about his business on another world, his agents were securing another of his devious goals. Next up, Gabriel Corbec and his soldiers.
