In the large new Hall of Remembrance, set inside the Black Lament cavernous depth, I had gathered all my Lamenters Marines and the Mourners as well, standing in a different squares facing a slab of blackstone as a podium, hosting hundreds of battle standards and Crusade reminders, be they picts, hololith vids, or even weapons and armor from our defeated foes. Brother Helios did have a flair for grandiose yet grieving monuments to our suffering.

"Astartes! We are the defenders of Humanity! As you have just experienced here at Forge World Goth, that also means purging the corrupt from within Humanity's ranks. I know there were other Chapters that only recruited their Marines from the dark Underhives of the Imperium, looking for fast or shrewd killers among the younger boys who dwell there. Expedient way to boost numbers, yet look where it led them! All of them are getting replaced with Primaris clones, and slowly discarded into obscurity. This is not because the Firstborn bodies were weaker, but because they were also prone to corruption.

All of you, on the other hand are not. You bear my own brand of Blankness, and just like that you become immune to corruption and what they fear. Most of you have also fathered your own children, before drinking from the chalice of sanguination and become the bearer of the gene-seed. Your children may also one day continue your duty, as Marines or Battle Sisters or fleet personnel and whatever other roles they may take.

For the Blankness we all carry is the true Salvation for Humanity.

Our next target is the Cyclothrathine Holdfast , a hidden lair of Chaos forces centered on Hellforge Cyclothrathe . This will not be an easy training mission like cleaning Forge Goth, as these traitors have remained unbroken since the Horus Heresy, hidden behind arcane Chaos Sorcery and Dark Mechanicum's noosphere jamming.

For that purpose, I have decide to prepare you how to combat Chaos and give you time to learn how to construct and use the new STCs we obtained from the small humans calling themselves Demiurg or Gnostari.

Click, and 7 Techsorcists from Forge Goth appeared in the middle of the podium. A single tech-priest stood a bit aside, possibly my Pollux.

"I believe one week will be sufficient for everyone to become proficient in hexagrammatic procedures. I'll check inside every day or so." I explained curtly, then sent everyone inside the accelerated time field of the tesseract.

At my side, Lash glanced at me with a wolfish grin. "A week? That will be over 2000 years for your poor kids!" he spoke out loud.

"All ships! Form up on the Black Lament and go autistic." I ordered on the vox, before hugging Canis at my other side.

It was time to sail forth and locate the Hellforge, hidden among nearly impenetrable Warp Storms and spatial disturbances, as well as dense nebulae and clouds of metal dust.

Luckily, I did have the tesseract arcane-tech sensors, as well an almost stable C'tan at my side. Keep him well-fed, and he would even help sometimes in battle or provide C'tan tech artifacts.

Soon enough, the fleet departed known Imperial borders and thus became my eminent domain by the grace of the Warrant. Pretending to be an Inquisitor was a bit daunting, even for my calloused nerves.

Far better to return to my Rogue Trader origins, and boldly explore the unknown and the dangerous, for adventure and loot.

Most of the records pertaining to the Horus Heresy had been redacted from Imperial cogitators, likely as to not provide weak-minded citizens with more temptation than normal. Sadly, this also included what Horus had done here, but I could imagine he gifted the Forge World with enough advanced tech or valuable STCs, enough to convince them to take his side.

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As I walked out from the Hall, I met a pair of Silent Sisters posted as guards, as well as two battalions of Auxilia Armed Sentinels providing some fire support just in case.

"Ladies! Anything nice to chat about?" I asked politely.

A flash of fingers replied, saying something like 'boring duty, when do we climb your lance again?'

'You do have mind impulse units ladies' I commented wryly, as Canis bravely walked forward to be petted by my concubines.

'You said we will get Volkite pistols soon!' Felicia growled in a data transmission.

'We should have enough in a week. I just had my boys learning the new tech.' I explained with a thumb pointed at the door behind me.

'Tonight?' Letitia asked in a warmer tone.

I shook my head and walked past. 'Tonight is quite full.'

The two Sisters glanced at each other, and grabbed their blade pommels tight. Phase blades and quite deadly to anything.

'They are a bit cute' Lash commented as he gently nosed them away, also acting brave since C'tan blades would not hurt a C'tan. They simply got absorbed back into him. I know because Canis tried to slice Lash a little, and lost half of his Phase claws, to the C'tan's amusement.

Every day, I would enter the Labyrinth and spend some time with my kids, monitoring their progress and settling disputes. Even if it sounds incredible, my sons were still human and centuries of tedious learning in the same company would sometimes create sparks. They also got stronger and better every day, both in body and Astartes abilities or tactics, but also gaining new equipment as the Tech-marines added more and more advanced Demiurg tech to their armor and weapons.

By the time the hell week passed, many of the Tech-marines had reached either Techsorcist level and a dozen even Forge Master level. Master-crafted artifacts were an order of magnitude better than normal ones, so I was quite pleased. The time was not wasted, even if 2000 years is actually a long time.

Forge Goth's tech-priests had also advanced greatly, improving their own arsenals with Weave shields and even began to copy the Barrier-tech Warding shields to install them on our Librarians. Intuitive thinking may have helped them more than I thought possible.

More Terminator Tactical Dreadnought armors were produced for the Mourners, even using some knowledge from the Gnostari exo-armors to make them more durable.

The last day was spent absorbing the tech-sorcery lessons as digested by my sons, and installing Chaos-proof hexagrammic wards on our armor and weapons, including the Mind Impulse Units.

Sadly, I also had to modify my own armor and install a special fold to carry my dedicated Chaos-interface mechadendrite. It just wasn't safe to link directly with any Chaos infected machine, not even for a Blank.

Pollux came beside me and measured me from head to toe before grunting a single disgusted word. "Passable!"

Still better than a failure, I guess.

"I love you too, Pollux. Now, we're close enough to the Hellforge. You think we're ready?" I asked with a nod at my Astartes.

"Don't play around this time, Lancefire! There's a strong reason why the Imperium didn't manage to conquer the C++ Holdfast for 12 millennia." Pollux muttered in a warning voice, then returned to study his Ordo Malleus special warding skull.

I nodded gravely and gently brought everyone out from the tesseract.

"Astartes! The Hellforge stands 300 AU in front of us, filled with Chaos horrors and Mechanicum abominations. Are you ready?" I shouted from my podium. We were about 10 times further than Neptune was from Sol, and still outside the comet cloud.

"They shall know fear!" a loud shout filled the Hall.

They certainly will. I was here, after all. The Master of Fear - Pavore Dominetur, the motto of my order Titanicus Terranic Ordo Sinister