I had hoped to find a great secret on this Dark Forge, maybe a forgotten STC about Warp drives. Instead, at the core of this movable planet I found a battery of trapped Great Daemons, serving as the power source. Four Great Daemons from every Dark God, being drained of their Warp energy by the insanely bold Dark Mechanicum.

Even contained in their magical reactors, the Great Daemons were still dangerous, especially as mental influences on anyone nearby. Even the warp-muted cloneskeins were not immune, and thousands had to be executed before they acted on the implanted commands.

In a way, this world was a great testing field for our anti-chaos and psi-tech, as well as techsorcists wards and Pariah powers of the Silent Sisters. Even a thousand years of accelerated time in my tesseract could not compare with a single month working to cleanse the remains of the Dark Mechanicum and their infected tech.

On the other hand, the Ulan Huda had roamed and plundered many worlds, including several Imperial Forge Worlds and research stations. There were a dozen partial STCs and four Constructors, mostly intact even after thousands of years of Warp and Dark Mechanicum attempts to corrupt them. The Federation did build rugged tech, and most of their advanced cogitators and STCs were quantum locked, preventing outside interference.

The four intact STC Constructors will be dispersed to my four Forge Worlds, while the partial STCs will remain in my tesseract to be repaired and data-mined by my tech-marines.

While I was inwardly debating what to do about the trapped Daemons, and how heretical would it be to travel in style on a moving planet, Sister Stern and her Solitaire mentor didn't wait and proceeded to Demonifuge the poor Warp entities. Oh well, I guess there would be no heresy if the Great Daemons were turned to dust.

On the other hand, I couldn't leave this planet alone and wait for someone lese to take it over. "Lady Inquisitor, you have one year to extract anything of value before using Cyclonic torpedoes to dismantle this foul world. The Lamenters and their successors chapters present will remain to ensure compliance, and provide enforcement for your orders." I told my wife in a more private meeting. Only our bodyguards and a wolf were present.

"...There are still numerous xenos artifacts and techonologies I have to scan and document for my Ordo, Lord Captain. One year is not enough." Lady Valyene said in a soft voice.

I just sighed inward. "You have your private subspace storage to collect samples for the Ordo Xenos, Inquisitor. One year is quite enough." I answered in a flat voice.

Alaric turned towards his Inquisitor with a questioning gaze. "No Alaric, my husband is probably right. We are holding a dozen Astartes Chapters from their other duties while the main mission was already accomplished. The predator-Forge is moving no more, and we obtained the precious STCs as well." my wife mused with a longing voice.

"Nobody is gonna talk about the damned Archtraitor showing up in the middle of the fleet?" Semnai asked in an annoyed tone.

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I just took out the bleeding foot and held it up. "I think his Rubric spell makes the Sorcerer immortal, as long others of his Legion still remain. I even offered the Emperor a method to get rid off all the Chaos Marines, but he didn't use it. The Rubric might be the reason, if I think about it. "

Both Deathwatch Marines acted as one, picking up a small bit of living flesh and eating it. "Time-travel." Alaric spoke first, while Semnai meditated for a long minute. "He seeks redemption, and undoing the Rubric. But time is running out." the Lamenter Marine concluded with a sad voice.

"Ahriman didn't even use any spell I could detect, but he still felt a dozen times stronger than I am. Probably a match to Sister Stern." Lady Valyene added while holding a drop of blood in the air, and performing several spells at once, glowing runes and blue sparks fighting inside a transparent sphere covering the blood drop.

I stored the foot back in its blackstone locker, and walked away with Canis at my side.

I didn't care much about the tragedy involving Ahriman, as the guy had chosen his fate by betraying the Emperor and going to worship Tzeentch. On the other hand, the Emperor was rather big on redemption, and even allowed various traitors to return to the fold. Mechanically, it also made sense, by denying the enemy an asset and gaining it for yourself as well.

If I were to ask the Emperor what to do about Ahriman, I already knew the answer. Magnus himself was now sitting on the Golden Throne after all.

On the third hand, the idiot came looking for Purity, my dear trouble-seeking daughter. And I wasn't big on redemption. Small transgressions and mistakes, they were learning experiences for any human being, and each received a measured punishment meant to adress the problem.

I held out an obsidian card and kept walking, arriving inside the Pharos and face to face with a giant C'tan bound to the wall.

"Calixa" I spoke out loud, as the Pharos rotated its gaze onto a Hive World where the infocyte agent was located, tied into a scrying cogitator in a top spire, while Andreea's Trade Ship was docked at the orbital station and unloading tonnes of red crystals by the crate. Rubies, most likely. The Trade must flow.

"Lord Lancefire?" the Vanus Temple agent whispered while taking out her own obsidian card.

"New mission. Set a course by Forge Ryza and into the Galactic Core. Seek the Tethys Votann and show it your obsidian credentials. Trade goods to offload, exotic or xeno tech, blackstone and arc reactors. Most Imperial tech is valueless in that place, as are any mining resources." I explained as a data-slate with the Lancefire League and territory details on it passed from my hand to hers, even at thousands of light-years distance.

"Oh my! You have been busy, my lord. Half a million star systems?" the infocyte mused in near-wonder.

"Yeah, took me two months of hard work. Goods to import from my League, adamantium and rare minerals for any Forge World in range. Minerals are worth a thousand times less in the core, so the trade route should be quite profitable." I added with a smile.

"...Even gems?" Calixa asked with no ulterior reason.

"Yes, gems included. Mining out whole planets at once may result in diamond asteroids and sapphire comets left behind as useless junk. Some people do pave their streets with those, so maybe not completely useless." I quipped with a grin on my face.

"Pave the streets with diamonds? Oh my!" Calixa yelled as I turned off the Sounding Board and looked the C'tan in the eye.

"Pef Lancefire. You need to release your second seal." the C'tan spoke with a grave voice.

I nodded slowly. "And how do I do that, Mighty Zarhulash?"

"Danger, of course. It shouldn't be hard to find something dangerous in this galaxy." the ancient Star God answered with a pained laugh.

I mean, I just fought a predator-Forge and a Chaos Sorcerer. What else could I try?