Epilogue
The Galactic Federation spread across Imperium Nihilus, saving world after world from the threats of the galaxy. Herald ships led the way, a new craft joining their numbers each day. A single ship was dedicated to each sector liberated from the darkness, along with a more flexible fleet of millions of warships.
The Tau and their Empire were among the first to be subsumed. A hundred worlds were visited by a hundred Herald ships and each were forced to surrender in weeks. He found that many of their leaders had only surrendered in the hopes his jamming of their communications might be lifted so they could send for aid from the rest of the Empire. Their reactions at learning that the entire empire had fallen in less than a month was… suitably humorous, in the eyes of both Rexes.
The Ork hordes the Twin Rexes found were sealed away inside Tesseract Labyrinths while the pair studied the greenskins. The chaos warbands that roamed suffered the same fate. Perhaps one day they would be freed, but only once it could be insured they were not a threat to the common people.
Eldar Craftworlds were discovered and left alone, though not all were so accepting of the decrees of Yvraine and Eldrad that the Federation was not to be interfered with. These Craftworlds received the wrath of the Elder Rex and his fleets. Once defeated, they would be placed into the care of the Younger Rex, who was in charge of the civil aspects of the Federation, along with the Federation Council.
Dark Eldar raiders were sent to the Ynnari for rehabilitation. Most of the time, anyways, the Elder Rex was still quite vindictive towards them and the Younger Rex could not bring himself to stop the occasional murder of a truly deserving Drukhari. The Ynnari did not trust the Twin Rexes enough to just give him access to Commoragh, but Rex continued to search for a way.
Tyranid Hive Fleets were massacred on sight. They attempted to adapt to the weapons of his Heralds to some effect, but he would respond by throwing moons at them, forcing them to change their adaptations to deal with kinetics, and then repeat the process.
A large number of Space Marine chapters were found in Nihilus. They proved the most violent of the Twins' opponents, but they defeated them all the same. They did not wish to kill them, but neither could they break them of their indoctrination, so he instead sent them through portals onto the other side of the Maledictum and told them not to come back. Some did anyways, sometimes with splintered Imperial fleets, but he always tossed them back again.
Null Field Matrices suppressed the Warp around star systems, putting an end to a myriad of Warp Storms in Imperium Nihilus. Warp drives were replaced by far more reliable Precursor FTL engines.
Those Imperial and alien worlds that were not openly hostile to his forces would be visited. Any who wished to have a better life in the Federation was permitted to join and move to a Hivite. He did not make these offers to planets, but to every individual. Some refused, far more accepted. The rulers of some worlds attempted to fight him, but he forced them to stand down either through a display of his military might, through political methods or, as a final resort, through the use of Locusts.
With the implementation of new ships, new methods of faster than light travel, exponential growth, and vastly improved resource production, the whole upper half of the galaxy was cut off from the Warp within two years. None could stand before them.
The Rexes learned much in that time about both the galaxy they now inhabited and more of its technologies. Nothing so powerful or overwhelming as the Necron technology, but many things useful to the people they protected.
Disease was eradicated on every world that joined the Federation. As was poverty, homelessness, and poor living standards. The people were encouraged to spend their days improving themselves. While the Younger Rex was initially against creating propaganda, he eventually acquiesced to his elder, focusing on undoing the rampant xenophobia and arrogance of many of their peoples.
While some, like the Tau, were distrusting of the Federation, these naysayers slowly lost more and more influence as it was proven the Federation had only the interests of the people in mind. To allow participation of said people in the governance, a new institution, the Federation Senate, was implemented. One seat per Hivite city, elected by the population. These would be the people allowed to propose policies, though the Twin Rexes held veto powers. These proposals would not be voted upon by the Senate body, but the people themselves in the largest direct democracy the galaxy had ever seen.
The first meeting of the Senate, several thousand individuals, held aboard a specially constructed space station, was a turbulent one as humans, eldar, Tau, and other xeno members of the Federation interacted with each other for the first time. Rex and his units were visibly present to ensure no fights broke out and to mediate. In the end, nothing was accomplished for the first month, but things became easier with time.
Five years after the 'birth' of the Younger Rex, the Maledictum disappeared under the effects of a massive array of Null Fields and the Rexes made contact with the Imperium proper. Namely, its own two leaders, the Lord Commanders Roboute Guiliman and Lion El'jonson. The two primarchs, while not exactly pleased to see an artificial intelligence that was in control of half the galaxy, informed the Rexes that the Emperor had commanded them to seek what was essentially pseudo-membership in the Federation. They still wished for some independence.
The Twins accepted, provided they could make membership offers to any Imperial worlds they saved without retribution. The Primarchs begrudgingly accepted.
Many inquisitors, Sisters of Battle, Space Marines, and members of the Mechanicum were outraged by this, with some going so far as to engage in open conflict with the rest of the Imperium. The Twins and the Primarchs crushed these rebellions.
Ten years after that, the Imperium's fleets were all retrofitted with Precursor ftl engines. While the Navigator Houses were more than a bit upset by this, they no longer had any power and fell into destitution in the Imperium. This, however, was necessary for the return of someone far more important.
After over ten thousand years, the Emperor of Mankind rose from the Golden Throne.
The Emperor took control of the Imperium and continued the efforts of Guiliman to reorganize the dying government. It would be the work of centuries to undo the damage and corruption, but the Rexes had been so charmed by the not-a-god that they were willing to wait. The gift of Dark Age of Technology-era goodies, delivered by gold-clad custodes, also helped.
The Necrons who were not hostile to the rest of the galaxy were left alone, but some had to be eradicated or sealed away in Labyrinths. Rex met many of their most important figures, including the Silent King Szarekh, Imotekh the Stormlord, and the Phaerons of many other dynasties. He was guided in these meetings by Canorak, who was more than willing to subsume the remnants of any necrons that refused to cease their hostilities.
One necron who gave him almost no trouble, just a headache, was Trazyn the Infinite. The necron magpie was incredibly stubborn about freeing the sentient members of his collection, specifically the humans like Creed and even a clone of Primarch Fulgrim pre-corruption, but the arrival of a hundred Herald ships… convinced him. The Younger Rex gave him a copy of many of the technologies he had gathered in an effort to assuage the necron's anger, something that was only marginally effective. Many necrons who had been unwilling donators to the Infinite's museum found this hilarious and told the Rexes as much, Orokin the Divine most notable among them.
Kira married a woman by the name of Lea and adopted several children over the years. She and her family, along with anyone else interested in receiving them, were given life-extending treatments, allowing them to remain strong and active even after a century of life.
The Elder Rex eventually found a way into Commoragh and liberated the slaves of that realm. Enraged by what he saw, he fell upon the Drukhari in a vengeful wrath, one the Younger Rex could not bring himself to try and stop. When the bloodshed finally ended, only a few hundred million dark eldar remained in the city and were imprisoned in Tesseract Labyrinths until the Ynnari could find the time to rehabilitate them. Once freed, many of the slaves chose to end their own lives, despite both Rexes attempting to provide them therapeutic treatments.
Rex sent fleets of Heralds to outside the galaxy to face the Tyranid swarm, annihilating them over the course of centuries.
After two centuries, the galaxy was, while not united, free of war and many of its threats. There were many squabbles between various factions, both petty and justified, but these would never break out into anything worse than the temporary cutting off of diplomatic relations. His fleets ensured that.
After five centuries, the Chaos Gods were starved of souls and they turned upon one another in a bid for survival. After four hundred years, Khorne reigned victorious for another century before he too faded away. The Warp remained turbulent for many more centuries, but it would calm eventually and the Realm of Souls would return to what it once was.
In the end, the Twin Rexes kept the galaxy safe from threats both within and without. Although they were not satisfied with only this.
They knew there were other universes, other realms, some just as dark as this one had once been. They and their allies turned their focus to seeking a way past the barriers that divided them. And both Rexes agreed on which universe they should seek out first.
See you soon.
