Cleaning up after a Chaos invasion was as messy as always.

A thousand defense forts had been ruined or infected and had to be purified into the Sun, as were millions of our troops, especially those who had to sift through the wrecks and gather artifacts or evidence, sometimes prisoners as well.

The space minefields had to be rebuilt, and dozens of factoriums and hab-blocks on Illevar's surface had to be either purged or rebuilt, depending on the severity of the sabotage. More analysis on how to prevent transport or infiltration onto the surface was taking place, with my Obsidian Auguries going back centuries to comb through every data log they could find. A dozen minor Nobles and their retinues were called for interrogation and never left the basement again.

A thousand torpedo corvettes and hundreds of destroyers had been lost as they held the fort line, but it had to be done, else the Chaos forces managed to land and produce total devastation.

Normal stuff in this universe, and rather mild, all things considered.

But this sacrifice was not for nothing. We have proven to withstand an entire Black Crusade, almost alone. Sure, the Necrons did help, mostly so Trazyn could gather more museum bits for himself.

We had obtained another Omega-minus Pariah to fire the Immaterium Beam of the second Fortress, Sister Dessima, while the Fortress itself was bestowed with the poetic Eternal Lament name by Valerian. Victor named his own personal Blackstone Fortress as Victorious Lancefire, with Sister Ordella as the main trigger-woman.

With 4000 Lamenter Tech-marines and a minor help from my C'tan, we managed to install Demiurg-type Forges on all three Fortresses. Automated Forges, what a miracle for this day and age!

For now, they are all churning the easy to make HYLas_Auto_Rifle , and once the production method is complete, will start adding new lines for HYLas_Rotary_Cannon and the stronger HYLas_Beam_Cannon . Surprisingly, the Demiurg multi-laser also had three barrels to increase range and rate of fire, proving me right when I introduced the Retribution multi-laser in my fake STC templates.The ancient STC should vindicate my creation among the more suspicious Forge Worlds.

These are all ancient but human weapons, somewhat upgraded by the Demiurg, but more importantly easy to mass-produce. We will need billions of such cheap weapons to arm the entire Lancefire domain, which now extended to almost 4000 planets and colonies. We had a lot of room to grow, but the planets were often hostile or infested by xenos lifeforms. Thus, more guns.

The newer templates for the Ion_Blaster ,the Ion_Beamer and Cyclic_Ion_Cannon could only be made by hand, by our dedicated Forge Worlds of Retribution and Machine. They were even better than what the Tau could produce, but expensive and time-consuming to make. My Fabricators loved them even so. Some of the Ion weapons will be mounted on Space Marine vehicles or mechs, but most of them are dedicated to improve the Mechanicus' own forces: tanks, Skitarii and battle automata for now.

As for my guests, some things were easier than others.

"Miss Chi, if you decide to stay with my family, you will have to renounce all former attachments and loyalties. My domain will one day become a place for Blanks and Pariah only, where natural or psyker humans could barely be able to walk. This will preclude most of the Imperium, almost by design." I said softly as Victor sat beside his beloved, holding her hand.

"...I see. You expect things to get very bad in the Imperium?" she asked cautiously.

"I hope they do well. But I know they will not. Too easy to corrupt." I answered with a sad tone.

"The Emperor will protect!" she declared in a faithful voice.

I just nodded. "And when the priesthood of the Imperial Faith is ordered to tear down their fancy churches and cathedrals? When the Emperor walks again among the people, claiming he is only a man, not a God?" I asked with a sigh.

Her eyes grew wide, as she suddenly realized what was going to happen. "The Imperium will split in half. The faithful versus the loyal. Chaos will seduce them into conflict, ever more violent..."

Truly, ignorance was bliss. But I've seen what happened at Ophelia_VII when Janice had to burn her Sisters alive, just to bring them into compliance. It would be far worse, when the Emperor revealed himself. He surely knew this as well, staying hidden to the wide Imperium and acting by intermediaries for now, mostly via Custodes or Inquisitors. But he would tire of hiding. Just wasn't his style. He didn't wear a golden armor to stay hidden. That's why he was slowly replacing the faithful First Born Marines with new but loyal Primaris, and untying the Sisters of Battle from the church.

Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

In the grimdark future of the 40th Millennium, there was only war, and the laughter of thirsting Gods.

I've did all that I could, spreading tech and inventions to those Forges who would listen. I helped prop up numerous Astartes chapters, with Blank recruits or new vehicles and even some starships. I've culled some corrupt or fanatical Inquisitors, I've intervened at Fenris and Terra and Cadia...

But the Imperium contained the seeds of its own destruction right into their Warp-open souls. Just like the Eldar before them, they were heading for critical mass. One day it would all explode, or more likely implode.

The Demiurg Fane contained one key to salvation, used by the short humans to protect themselves from Chaos. The Cloneskeins could modify the human genome to protect against Chaos corruption and other mutations, while also introducing desired traits like: enhanced reaction times, the ability to see into the infrared and other electromagnetic spectra beyond visible light, increased resistance to extremes of temperature, gravity or ionising radiation, and many other enhancements such as denser muscular and skeletal systems to provide greater physical strength and more endurance in the face of trauma.

No need for slow and dangerous gene-seed implants either, not to mention Astartes glands. One could upgrade entire armies at reasonable cost, or the entire population if they could control them.

I could and I would. The Imperium? Maybe the Astartes recruiting worlds, if they were lucky.

I will still try, as I did have a Custodes visiting my world.

Also, I will hint to the Emperor what his biokinetic control could do, to his enemies implanted with gene-seeds. Programmed cell death, or apoptosis would be easy enough to disperse via the Astronomican, reaching about 80% of the galaxy in mere days. Millions of Chaos Marines infesting the galaxy could be simply turned into soup, at his mental command.

So I met the old Custodes and gave two dataslates to bring to Terra, one containing the Demiurg STC templates I could copy, and the other: the cloneskeins technical details and my plan to disperse mass-death via the Astronomican.

"Why should I leave the Blackship behind, Lord Lancefire?" he asked instead, even though I offered him passage via a Lamenter Heavy Cruiser.

"Because I say so. You will not travel through the Warp with my dataslates. You will also bring Vaedrax back to Terra as well, as his position as House Assassin will be taken by Lady Chi instead." I demanded din a harsher voice. The Custodes was not used to taking orders well. And if I found some interesting tech on this advanced Blackship, it had to be a coincidence.

"At least you won't kick my ribs everyday...lazy bastard." the solemn Culexus Assassin muttered in a patient tone, as he decloaked at my side. So I couldn't be bothered to step over him every morning. Wasn't such a crime, was it?

"...Another Culexus? The Emperor seems to favor you greatly, Lord Lancefire." the Custodes mused in a thoughtful voice.

"But first, you need to get in shape again. Go train with my pets." I said in a disappointed tone, and moved him into my training room naked. Only the Dawn Blade rested into the floor and a hundred Orks to kill.

While he murdered the near-helpless vegetables, I searched my inventory for a decent power armor to fit his size, then had him transported on this vessel already dressed in armor, somewhat healed up and having gained a few dozens centuries of more service. I couldn't give him my Dawn Blade, but I could spare a C'tan Phase blade.

"I'm not a toy for you to play dress-up, crazy Lancefire!" the man growled at his new armor.

'I hope we don't meet again, Shield-Captain Kalluin.' I warned him in his mind, as the Heavy Cruiser sped out to FTL and the Solar Segmentum far, far away.

He was wise and didn't answer, possibly wary he would return home naked.

Then again, I filled his room with samples of Demiurg tech, all kinds of armor and weapons that I couldn't make sense of yet, but maybe the Emperor and Cawl could. Kalluin would have something productive to do on his journey, playing with more toys.

And if shipmistress Teresa was wise, she will get a signed Warrant for herself and don't come back for a few centuries. I was busy enough without having to fight my way out of trouble with a sword.I had a brand new empire to build here in the Fringe, and a lot more technology to dig out from the Demiurg cogitator.