When I returned to Forge Machine, it had barely been two years yet the place was unrecognizable.

A hundred Mechanicus ships from different Forge Worlds, and even a couple of Inquisitor Blackships, now covered in expensive blackstone and being outfitted with extra torpedo cells and drop pods.

Someone had been paying attention, copying my tactics both for orbital and planetary combat.

Inside the Pharos a coterie of no less than six Inquisitor Ladies were busy interrogating the trapped C'tan, sitting on blackstone benches and writing down his words like gospel.

Zarhulash blinked towards me in the same second I checked inside the Pharos with my tesseract labyrinth. "Pef Lancefire has finally returned, Inquisitors. Part 34 of the War in Heaven history will have to wait." the C'tan explained in a wry voice.

Lady Velayne glanced in my direction as well, although she couldn't have possibly...unless she gained some control over her own tesseract. "Indeed, Lord Lancefire has arrived in system. You have been very helpful, Mighty Zarhulash." the woman announced politely and tapped the floor with her Bone Staff, and vanished.

She reappeared on the moon, right beside Lady Dae. "Pef is back, my dear Princeps. Have you finished the report on the Horus Heresy era?"

The Titan pilot nodded and held out a data-stack. "Everything I remember, from birth to death...or whatever this new life is. You will have to compile the rest of the pict-image from my moderatii's memories."

"Yes, I will do that, Princeps Lancefire. As for your mystery, I do have some clues now. Although a stasis field does sound as the more probable method for your unlikely salvation, I also believe it's incorrect. My classified source has revealed a dozen different ways to achieve your temporal dislocation and none of them involve a stasis field." Velayne said with a wry smile, and vanished again.

Damn woman! Don't ruin my marriage with your suspicions.

Perhaps giving the Inquisitors access to Zarhulash and his well of arcane knowledge wasn't all good.

Then again, knowledge was power and Zarhulash was ancient even compared to the Necrons. If I wanted to beat the Necrons, I needed ways to defeat their advanced technology.

That meant pinpointing weak points in the Necron defenses, flaws in their knowledge and operating instructions and many such advantages.

A couple of hours later, I teleported inside the Pharos as well and released Rafen and Canis from the labyrinth.

"Ladies, I hope you have received many lessons from the resident C'tan?" I asked politely.

A dozen pairs of eyes blinked at me, most of them related to me, except for Inquisitor Carmillus.

"We have learned of your adventures, Master Lancefire. At least this time you avoided massacring an entire Astartes Chapter, by appealing to the Inquisition to prosecute the traitors." the old woman muttered, and nodded approvingly.

I shrugged and went to kiss my lovers, and ignored the old witch.

"If the Astartes were Blanks they wouldn't fall to Chaos at all. Something the Emperor himself was working to address, as shown by his Silent Sisters and Ordo Sinister programs. Too bad those traitors on Terra desired to rule with psyker powers and without any controls, thus the persecution of Blanks and Pariahs." I explained in a stern voice, pointing an accusing finger at the female Lord Inquisitor.

The woman held my gaze for a minute, before glancing away. "I'll wait on my cruiser, Lord Lancefire. It is obvious we will never see eye to eye." she declared in a dignified voice and stepped on the teleport pad.

"As long as you avoid hurting my interests in the Eastern Fringe, we can be allies Lady Carmillus." I advised her just before she teleported away.

"Pef Lancefire, you should know that fourteen Warp Rifts were closed and two Warp Storms have been reduced by your friends." The C'tan spoke with a rumbling voice, surprising the remaining Inquisitors.

I just nodded and took out the Sounding Board to check on latest developments. It seemed Overlord Trazyn and his followers had been busy, clearing a path towards the Maelstrom and closing interface ports with the Immaterium. Perhaps not for the exact reasons you may suspect. A hundred Ork planets were also conquered and hundreds more worlds were being invaded right now. The Necron wizard was expanding his influence, and increased the size of his Dynasty.

"Lord Trazyn, setting up a small stellar empire for yourself?" I asked the Necron with a mind transmission.

"Oh, the stranger is back, and much sooner this time. Well, Bardic has fallen as you promised. I expect you're in need of another trade?" Trazyn asked while taking out a dataslate.

I did want better technologies but most of all, I wanted something else.

"The Halo_Device, if it works." I said curtly.

"Ah yes. The effects of that device are rather strange, even for me and my orange helpers. Only the Orks seem to survive the transformation with any degree of sanity...though for Orks that's very low anyway. I needed a few billion test subjects to finalize a less aggressive variant." the wizard admitted with a wave of his robotic hands.

"And no human or Necrons, perhaps Dark Eldar?" I wondered curious.

"Not yet, puppy stranger. What I can tell you, is that the devices are not medical machines, nor psyker artifacts but a type of transdimensional interface. Something at the other end is configuring the receptacles for a kind of database download. The Ork brains are luckily completely empty and self-erasing. All we obtained are Orks 50 meters tall and even more savage." Trazyn complained and produced such a gigantic Ork held by thick chains of living rock, easily as large as C'tan or a medium Titan.

I mused on this for a minute. "The Tyranids should adapt to anything. Perhaps the Kroot or Barghesi as well. I expect the Jokaero simply died?" I added in a teasing tone.

The Old Ones had surely encountered the Halo Stars civilization, and were likely the ones that destroyed them. No wonder the races they created were not compatible, most likely by design.

"The Jokaero...managed to control the device to craft a teleporter, and attempted to escape or suicide. His body was splattered over a whole deck!" Trazyn the Infinite explained seeming outraged.

I closed the link and turned, as Velayne arrived inside the Pharos and came to hug me. "Glad to see you Pef. And look, I figured out what this thing is." she whispered holding the silver cube and pressed three runes at once, making a Necron engram project in a miniature star system.

I sighed inward and took her toy away before she blew up my new Forge World. Then I took out my dataslate and projected a galactic map from it. "Stop playing with pocket universes, my dear. And you, Mighty Zarhulash! You should know better!" I growled at the chained C'tan.

"Heh, it was a harmless function, Pef Lancefire. Merely a real time window." the ancient stargod muttered like a naughty child.

Damn galaxy was doomed with idiots like these!

In a second, I sent the cube over to Trazyn. "Please make a manual for this, before my agent blows up a sun, by accident. She already figured out a dozen functions, simply by pressing runes at random."

The Necron examined the cube and sighed then took out an identical silver cube. "I'll keep the sleeping army for myself. Here, take this pocket tesseract and a dozen Titans in exchange. Plus the dataslate with the latest technologies. But no crew! Damn Titan pilots are too rare, unlike those unsightly robots. I'll make them new ones and better."

With a twist, I collected the trade goods and began downloading the manual on my implant, learning how to operate yet another Necron device.

"What did you do?" Velayne demanded in an irate voice.

I just held out the data-stick manual. "Learn the manual before you play with the doomsday device, my dear xenos expert." I explained and stepped out from the Pharos and beside my Princeps wife.

"Pef! You're a bad husband and father. Your son can already walk, and you're never around." the woman complained and smacked my head not very happy.

I nodded and drew her into a hug. "Sorry love. I worked hard to acquire resources for our family. Spaceships, ancient technologies and a Titan maniple." I whispered in her ear and showed her the silver cube as proof.

Dae was quite smart, and realized what I held in my hand. "A portable storage dimension, and it can hold Titans inside?" she asked in a breathless voice.

"Exactly, dear Dae. But that can wait. First we visit my son, and then the bedroom." I continued in a teasing voice.

My wife hesitated for a moment, before relenting. "I guess you did work hard, husband. You are still allowed in my bed, as long as you bring me such nice gifts."

Perhaps she'll get more mellow with time? I thought about all those other women in my life, and they were just as demanding. Probably not then.