As for Delphi, their noosphere defenses only attacked Lash, not any human. Similar to the Omega Vault in that aspect. The tentacle girls only wanted to welcome me kindly and smother me with love, but not everyone is into hentai of that sort. It is not like we fled from Delphi, and their excessive love for tentacles. No, we merely advanced in the opposite direction. Sounds much better, I know.

Thus, the Singularity and its escort of 100 Cruisers arrived in the Vidar_Sector , where the Necrons were most recently active on Avarris , a Knight World with three different Knight Houses that somehow managed to withstand the awakening of the Necrons under their feet, and fought on by the grace of their Knights' Ion Shields.

My Titans from the Deus Ex Machina Legion and my Lancefire House Imperial Knights deserved to stretch their legs a little, and help their less fortunate fellow Knights.

The only aid I provided was an escort of Ion Sentinels and Tarantula turrets to guard the cities, and even that was resented by the Noble Knights and their ridiculous sense of honor. There was little chivalry in our Necron enemies that flayed civilians alive for their sick reasons.

Then again, my daughter Bianca and her Red Hot Castigator were a bit overpowered for regular Necrons. But all is fair in war, and I didn't even use special tricks this time.

But as a nice gift, my wife Velayne arrived from Forge Machina with a pair of Inquisitors eager to learn how to kill Necrons better. Then she abandoned the two women in my care, to pick up the twin Joans and do silly finger tricks to amuse them.

Inquisitor Shalisha_Talaris was a veteran of the Tyranid Wars, and usually worked with psykers to divine the future or read the enemy. But with Necrons things didn't work that way, since her team of psykers had no souls to read from the Necrons. She also came with a pair of Deathwatch Marines, just like Velayne.

Merelda Jerico was an older acquaintance, and she inherited her mother's Lady Jena_Orechiel band of misfits and a pair of Blank women in her escort, both my daughters now serving as Interrogators and trusted helpers for the Inquisitor. You might say the galaxy was a small place, so I did.

"The galaxy is a small place, after all." I quipped out loud, and the three of them jumped in my arms, with filial joy for my girls and a less-respectful kind of joy from Merelda, guessing by her tongue counting my teeth.

"Father, you look well! Much taller than the pict-captures we have." Sorana exclaimed as she stepped away a bit to measure me up and down.

"And much too young, even with gene-seed or rejuvenat theraphy." my other girl, Mirella noticed with a keen eye.

"Are you still...you know. Able?" Merelda wondered with no ulterior reason. Certainly, but not right now.

"Quite able, I would say. This entire fleet is crewed by my children. And some of their children." I confirmed with a nod towards the bridge crew.

The main holoscreen lit up with a replay of Bianca kicking a Necron Monolith vehicle into orbit, then shooting it mid-flight with a Volcano cannon from the Red Hot's right arm. "Am I hot or what?" Bianca boasted from her Throne Mechanicus, then pulverized the top of a mountain with her left-arm Plasma Annihilator. Which gun then promptly and unexpectedly transformed into a giant plasma bomb.

Her synthskin suit was still smoking when Bianca landed on her ass in front of me, while the Red Hot Castigator continued to explode in larger and larger fireworks on the main screen. "Very hot. Hotter than the sun, even." I said in a gentle voice, while Bianca sobbed. "Red...don't die...."

The planetary crust cracked as the antigrav shoes fizzled out, and the huge Titan fell into a deep crevasse, leading into the Tomb complex below. And then it went even hotter and detonated with a bright red flare that put a solar flare to shame.

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Bianca crawled to my feet and grabbed my knee. "Daddy, you can make another, right?"

Her teary eyes made my heart crack, mostly because the Necron Tomb was now a glowing hot crater and kinda empty of loot.

"And the lesson learned was?" I asked with a curious voice.

"Heat management?" Bianca whispered in a sobbing voice.

"You can make Titans like that? Aren't they relics from the Dark Age of Technology?" Shalisha demanded with an Inquisitorial voice.

"Yes and yes, Inquisitor. But even relics can be replicated from the right STC. And on that note, do you know why the Damocles Conclave is actively trying to destroy any STC we find?" I asked instead, while helping Bianca stand up.

The Inquisitor exchanged a silent gaze with her black-armored Space Marines. "I think they are hunting a rogue AI." she answered with a deep frown.

"The only rogue AIs in the galaxy are those we call Daemon Engines. And no, I spoke to an Inquisitor named Jolinne, who claimed she was sent to the Fringe exactly to find and destroy any STC I might have, on the pretext of being a proscribed AI. This Custode behind me was there." I continued as my thumb pointed at Valerian, who managed again to stay so still that he was invisible to the eye.

"The Machine Spirits of the STCs may be advanced archeotech, but they are loyal to humanity. To seek their destruction is a crime against the Emperor and the Forge. And all humanity as well." Valerian spoke in a deep voice, while his eyes glowed gold, despite this system being devoid of the light of the Astronomican.

"The puritans have gained a lot more strength lately." Merelda whispered in a secretive tone.

I glanced at the screen and the hot Blackstone crater that remained when Red Hot went critically hot. Luckily, Forge Antax was nearby, and would be pleased with such a plentiful source of Blackstone. A Lancefire always pays his debts, and I owed Antax pretty much everything in my early life.

"Daddy...!" Bianca growled and tugged at my glove. She was not Canis, and my tesseract glove wasn't the source of my powers anymore, but she guessed mostly right.

"Maybe next month. There are three Forge Worlds in this sector, and I have never been to Lentrel Prime so far. You reflect on your failings until then." I answered with a level voice, but Bianca was already running off, not even hearing the 'maybe'. Damn my bleeding heart.

"Daddy! We never got any gift from you..." the older Blank daughters claimed in fake sobs, as if they lacked anything while part of the Inquisition.

"There is still a battle to be won, and then cleanup. Go meet your family and stuff." I waved them off while Merelda casually climbed her plump ass on my throne's armrest, and leaned on me. "Still able, you said?" she whispered in a horny voice.

"And getting harder every minute." I answered with a sneaky tone.

"I've learned plenty of secrets since we last met." Merelda added with a coy voice.

I mean, half the galaxy was literally made of secrets, but sure. I might find something nice, and would only cost me a few nights in bed with a horny woman.

Shalisha stepped closer and moved to the other side of my Command Throne, and just a yawn away from being devoured by a hungry wolf. "Lord Lancefire, I could also be a great ally, and help with that mess at Damocles." she offered with a low whisper.

"Climb on then. The battle will last a few more hours, and then we can have dinner. Ovigor meat, fresh from Attila." I allowed with a generous voice, and my other armrest received an armful of bouncy ass to balance things out.

'I'll see about dinner, Captain. Be careful with the Inquisitors...' the Blade spoke in my ear, as if I needed any warning not to get burned again.

But I just couldn't help myself, when meeting named characters. Maybe I was a magpie deep inside, like the Emperor said. I always wanted more.