I was still moving to reach the new data tablet, when it vanished from my desk and appeared in Peffy's hand, as he lounged in my meditation armchair like he was at home. Which he was, but that's not the point.

"Cadian-pattern? No way that will fly. Cadia may have that hexagonal planetary shield, but Magos Cawl was there too. And a bunch of other people, including Inquisitor Greyfax and Fulgrim. It would be in the Imperial records as Necron tech already." my duplicate complained and displaced Lady Selen in his arms, not just to verify the STC integrity. He was fondling her boobs with his free hand already.

"My dear Selen, take a look at this STC." he spoke in a horny tone, and gave the Inquisitor the data-slate so he could use his other hand as well.

"Lord Lancefire?" Selen asked with a confused voice.

"Peffy is my duplicate, and mostly in charge of impregnating more women to increase the Blank numbers. Not that I would restrain myself to a single boring job. Daring heists can be quite fun, especially if they succeed." I answered with a smirk, and brought my wife in my lap to enjoy the show with me.

"What...the other idiot is back. I wonder if this counts as a threesome or simply an extra hand." Lady Velayne mused in a doubtful voice, while Peffy dug one hand between Selen's legs to fondle a different sector.

Peffy and I exchanged a knowing glance. Inquisitors were trained to be resilient, so we could test them.

I fondled my wife in a mirror image with my twin, until they both gasped at the same time. Sadly, I couldn't feel what my twin felt, even if I knew his thoughts like my own.

Because they were my own, until we split. I suspected our future experiences and adventures will diverge our mental outlook the more time it passed, but right now things were quite the same.

Much later, we left the two Inquisitors spent and painted white on the bed, and went to have some recaf and talk. Two holographic twins joined our table, now that the secrecy about the stellar observatory was over.

"Yggra is quite a nice guy, outside his obsession with perfection. I sent him deeper into our Domain to build more worlds for colonization. But he asked for it, in exchange for destroying the Kardenath_Dynasty on our north flank. Which morons had unwisely left their planets undefended as they were sieging Thanatos. I showed them the Truth of their folly." Peffy recalled in a calm voice, then sipped recaf to recharge.

"And we liberated 5 more Shards, including another Nightwolf and a Kali. Sadly, no other Lash or Zath bits." the Sword added more to the point.

That made 30 free Shards already. So, I bumped my left fist with Peffy, to receive my share of looted Necron artifacts and Blackstone via tesseract transfer.

Among them, a priceless Ghostwalk_Mantle device, used to traverse the Ghostwind dimension and exit anywhere in the galaxy at will, just like the infected Necron Flayers but much safer. I should learn how to use it as well, especially if away from the Pharos.

"So that's how you got close enough, even with the entire blockade from the Siege_of_Thanatos. Clever." I admitted with hidden envy.

"You know me, I am not that smart. Yggra is a genius, even among his peers. I was thinking to drop Trazyn in the hot pot as a suspect, but everyone will suspect him anyway, so we placed the blame on Orikan instead, by placing a hint towards coreworld Davatas . " my twin explained with a proud voice, although calling himself 'not smart' shouldn't be a reason to be proud. Then again, to the victor the laurels.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"This new shield, you say it is already in use at Cadia?" the Blade asked with a curious tone.

"Not exactly the same, but it looks similar at least. Very likely not as powerful either, since the shield at Cadia can block a Blackstone Fortress or 8 Armageddon Guns." I said as the hexagrammic shield's hologram opened between the two AI Avatars.

A third Avatar entered the holotable, with her sword stored on her back. The Sword of Truth, who was likely more powerful than anything humanity ever made.

Under her ghostly hands, the STC template unfolded into smaller fragments, as the AI checked every component in detail. "This shield will work, but only for regular weapons like lances or torpedoes. An Armageddon Gun will crash it in less than a minute." she declared with a careless tone.

"Anything similar in the Federation archive?" I asked in a hopeful voice, although Peffy was silently screaming 'No,no!'

The Avatar turned and stared at me with cold, deadly eyes. "The copy knows better than to ask such things, Lord Lancefire." she spoke curtly.

Yeah, that won't cut it, not here in my Domain. I was the boss of this place.

With a flick of my finger, I retrieved the snarling lion Rosette from my Null Box, and held in as a badge in front of the Sword. "You may think you know me, but that's only my pleasant social mask. I am the Judge of this universe, but especially the Judge for all humanity or their creations. Tell me the Truth, Sword. The Truth and nothing but the Truth." I demanded in a level voice.

'Captain, she is not at liberty to speak...' the Blade whispered in my mind.

The Avatar resisted the Rosette's engrams for a minute, and even tried to draw her sword out. "Hold Still. Just tell me, did the Federation use such shields?" I continued and poked the Avatar with my core power.

As I suspected, the stillness could be applied to anything, even an AI projection. The Sword struggled against my power, until she realized it was futile. "Of course, the Federation had shields. Neutron shields, Void Shields, Plasma Shields, Ion Shields, refractor shields, conversion shields and hundreds more. We were not primitives!"

With a wave of my hand, I sent a copy of the Hex Shield to the Sword of Truth. "See, it wasn't so hard. The Truth will set you free." I allowed in a soft voice, then grabbed my recaf cup while Peffy stared in awe at me.

"You cheated again! She barely listens to me..." he yelled in outrage.

"You can blow up stars with a single thought. I can lock down a few electrons. How can these things compare?" I wondered with a casual voice, then sipped my recaf.

Peffy nodded. "Indeed. You will need to use the Mantle to Ghostwalk around the galaxy, while my first hermetic core already allows that at will. Mind if I borrow Corax for a thing?" my twin spoke in a calmer voice again.

"What for?" I asked, a bit suspicious. Primarchs were quite rare and valuable, though a bit less now than before.

"So, there is a human empire north of us, called the Ashen_Claws . But lately they have begun to trade with another Fleet-based Chapter, the Carcharodons , and even fought against the Tyranids together. Their Space Marines are Raven Guard stock." Peffy explained while my eyes glinted.

"Don't be a dick..." I demanded rapidly, but Peffy showed me a certain finger. "My find, my loot!" he proclaimed and transformed into a literal ghost before he vanished.

I turned towards the Sword's Avatar, who held her hands in a helpless gesture. "Dual nature, boss. Do you think the Emperors are fighting each other for loot too?"

I thought for a moment, then sighed out loud. Of course they would. Damn cavemen with a galactic empire. At least Peffy will share some things, if he found extra stuff.

Maybe I'll give him Gyron's left glove, when the Magos returned with my Enuncia dictionary.