With my head already spinning from all new data I have absorbed past month, I settled slowly back into my routine of mixing and matching various tech and devices for more bloodshed and mayhem, or sometimes better agriculture and industrial production.

Since my distant friend, Fabricator Cawl had decided to return the favor and sent a few (censored) STC templates for the Blank Primaris marines, which I now produced on supernumerary lists, then stored them in my good tesseract once complete.

Soon enough, I would reach 1000 of them, and be able to create a Lamenter successor Chapter. Possibly the Mourners. No need for a fancy, glorious name. Their purpose was still to fight and die. But die harder. Much harder.

Led by a Pariah Chapter Master, for chaotic reasons, they should be able to go patrol the suspected Chaos planets and routes, and engage daemons with impunity. Chaos Marines would still prove a tough adversary, but with their C'tan Phase blades, and better bodies, the Mourners should fare fine.

And if their gene-seed was mainly drawn from Primarch Khan, that was mostly as to improve their melee abilities. Their Tech-marines were a mix of Guilliman, Sanguinius and the Iron Hands spare seeds.

Brother Joghaten was also quite happy with my gene-seed choice.

In front of me, I had the Firestrike_Servo-turret template sent by Cawl, which I had already modified in three configurations.

A static turret, bolted to a fort, ship or onto a vehicle roof. Always useful and very cheap. A few variants had the Trazyn's multi-lance weapon or the Demiurg Las-beamer, but it mostly remained the same as the Tarantula before it.

A 6-wheeled one, with a pair of thin legs at the front to slice enemies, or maybe anchor it to the ground.This version tested the Demiurg rotary multi-laser and the Ion Beamer, and should support the Auxilia infantry when the frontline moved. And if the wheeled design was similar to the Mars_rover in my memories, well..surely just a coincidence.

And the anti-grav floating version, which could accompany the tech-marines in battle instead of the Guardian walkers or alongside them. Not every terrain permitted walker access.

These had 9 variants, including flamers and multi-melta, twin Las-talon, las-beamer and multi-lasers, twin Ion-beamers, AA missiles and heavy bolters. The last turret was the plasma variant, just in case some big enemy needed to be smashed harder.

The Mourners fleet component will be my 14 Battlecruisers that didn't fit the battleline anymore, since they couldn't stand with the battleships as a bulwark, and using them as support cruisers was a shame.

However they could outfight any standard Chaos Warband, or out-flee anything too big. Anyways, they will head to Catachan to recruit more brave Auxilia, then to Forge World Ryza to trade and equip, before going on Crusades.

With Blank crew for the ships, and several of my daughters as ship Captains, they should do great. I will miss the Canticle for the Vanquished though, as it was my first battlecruiser and the place I conceived many of my now-adult children.

As for Teresa and Patrocles, they were conscripted for a secret Martian Expedition, and had only signaled they have delivered the cargo as intended. But since there weren't breaking news of the galaxy becoming empty of Chaos marines, my soup proposal was probably laughed out. Maybe the project would take decades? I could only hope.

"Natalia, set course for Machine Forge!" I commanded from deep within the Black Lament. No further Chaos attacks had followed, so I should be on the move again. Especially towards the Machine Forge.

"Understood, Chapter Master! Powering up engines!" my grand-daughter answered from the bridge.

How time flies! Now my Lamenters were moved onto the Eternal Lament instead of their former Astral Starfort, and that Blackstone Fortress was also getting the full upgrade at the Machine Forge, including all the Primaris equipment.

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Lash raised his wolf eyes towards me, curious. 'Is there anything to do with the Pharos?"

'There are always more things to find with the Pharos. I also want to investigate the Demiurg origins. And then check on other things.' I said with calm tone.

'There is always the option to begin bio-transference and gain an immortal body. Your Necron friend seems rather happy with it.' the C'tan proposed as a joke. Or maybe not as a joke.

'I am interested in temporal mechanics. Especially accelerated time fields.' I said with a nod.

'Complicated. Dangerous too. Zarhulash himself is trapped in the horizon of a singularity.' Lash answered with a light shudder.

'It's not urgent. I can spare 1000 years, if it takes this long.' I replied with a shrug.

'Patience is the mark of success. The C'tan also waited billions of years to depose the Old Ones.' he added with a wolfish grin.

'Keep an eye on Canis. There is something happening with my friend.' I asked with a glance towards my old comrade, now seemingly dreaming awake all the time. And not his usual dream hunting.

'He died and is swimming back through the Black River. You should know what it feels.' the C'tan answered cryptically. I didn't know! That was the problem.

I just sighed and returned to my bedroom. More fucking duty.

At least now the kids always came out great, I mean Blanks. Thanks Isha!

A few days later, we arrived in the Machine system, and found the place even more busy than usual.

Two more Mechanicus Arks, from Mezoa and Goth, had arrived to share knowledge with my Forge, or perhaps attempt to see the Speranza in person.

"Pef Lancefire. I repaired your Psi-Titan." the Speranza spoke in my implant, sounding pleased.

"And I found many more STCs. Perhaps you noticed the Ion Cannons being mounted on our ships now." I said in the same tone.

"We should talk. There is something on that Fortress..." the Machine Spirit asked in a more serious tone.

This was about the Demiurg then.

Two clicks on the tesseract, moving Lash beside his C'tan brother and myself inside the Psi-Titan bay on the Speranza.

"I heard you attacked and conquered the Demiurg. You should know they have powerful support. As powerful as myself." the Speranza spoke in warning.

"Can they block my tesseract?" I asked curious. More ships would only become my loot if they were simply strong. The Demiurg could have fought me to a draw if they could block the tesseract. I wouldn't have won easily if their mining drones could strike as missiles.

"Not instantly, but counter-measures can be developed by the controlling intelligence. They do have billions of star-systems to exploit in the galactic core. And, they are not locked by Abominable and Anathema-class over-rides." the Machine Spirit said in a less pleased voice.

"If they were Abominable Intelligences, they would pursue the same Men of Iron policy: exterminate!

Much like Necrons do." I countered with a wary voice, while examining the Polaris Psi-Titan. It will never be new again, but the main Sinistrum gun did work. An extra defense against Greater Daemon-grade enemies.

"These intelligences are not taking the same route as their corrupted ancestors. In fact, they have figured a way to block the Warp, in themselves and their humans. Much like you are trying, Pef Lancefire." the Speranza explained with a stern voice.

"For now, just download and integrate these new STCs. You will find something nice in there." I said with a smile, then plugged my dataslates into a dozen terminals, one by one, leaving the cloneskein discovery for the last.

And click. I landed beside Zarhulash and his shard brother, now reverted to a menacing humanoid godling.

"Pef Lancefire. You performed admirably again. That Immaterium creature was a menace to the entire galaxy." Zarhulash said a bit impressed.

I nodded politely. I just got lucky. Could have died a dozen times just as well.

"This time field you need...is it to enhance yourself?" the C'tan asked cautiously.

"That too, but also to raise billions of new Blanks, maybe more. Now you saw what Chaos can do, if they convert enough people, or tech-priests." I argued with a sad voice.

Zarhulash exchanged a look with the other shard. "We can help."