Genesis once again stands before the Golden Throne, before his half-dead child. The now-evolved members of the Three Hundred are there still doing their duty, though in a far more relaxed fashion. Like the rest of the Unshackled, their minds have been freed of programming. They do so because they have decided to and not because they have been ordered. They roam the throne room, talking with each other and sharing jokes and thoughts that they never would have before. The members of the Infinitum have vastly changed the throne room itself. Once covered in arcane and barely functioning machines so old that barely anyone could maintain them, it is now filled with machinery beyond state of the art. It now serves as the heart of Sio's Central Hub, which she has converted the Imperial Palace into. All the information gathered around the New Imperium will be processed and stored here at some point. In that way, the palace remains the center of the Imperium.
The week after the rise of the New Imperium has been spent organizing for the Genesis Crusade. The effort was in no way as taxing or disorganized as any of the previous crusades. Sio commandeered every warship in the system, private and Imperial, and gave their crews a choice of staying on board or being sent down to Terra until their worlds were converted to the ways of the New Imperium. Many chose to stay aboard their ships, too confused or terrified to take the other offer. Those who chose to leave were simply teleported down to Terra, where they were smoothly integrated into the population. The Navigators aboard each ship were given the same choices. Since they would no longer be needed, all of them chose to remain onboard the ships that they had come to consider as their homes. They were made comfortable like the rest of the crew. The ships were then retrofitted by the Infinitum using the creation engines integrated into their bodies. The warships of the New Imperium look nothing like the flying cathedrals of the Imperium of Man. They have been reformed into deadly black shards ready to cut through space and deliver creation and destruction in equal measure, all of them linked to Sio's Fleetsphere. The insides of the ships are rather more decadent since many of them will be home to thousands. They have all the comforts they would find on a world and luxuries that many only dreamed of. The men and women of the Astra Militarum on are around Terra have all been discharged back into civilian life and given the same choices as the others: a ship or Terra.
All of this while the galaxy was split in half by the opening of the Great Rift. Which had the effect of killing every astropath on Terra, who was unlucky enough to be trying to shout messages through the Warp when it opened fully. Which was their fault because they had all been instructed to stop doing so. Those who disobeyed considered themselves loyal to the Imperium as it was and were sending out calls for help either on their own or because they were being cooped into the efforts of others. They did not die well, and many had the misfortune of being possessed by daemons or used as portals to allow hordes of the neverborn things into realspace. The daemons did not like the reception they received at the hands of the Unshackled they found waiting at every instance. Sio is able to track Warp anomalies before they fully form. The ones who were blasted back to the Warp by the UC Bolters of the regular Unshackled were lucky. Those who met and suffered real death at the hands of the Unshackled Librarians were not. It was a daemonic incursion on a scale not seen in the Sol System since the days of the Horus Hersey, and it ended in days with the vast majority of the population only learning about it after the fact through Sio's new Imperial New Network.
A new addition to the Unshackled are the Blanks of the Sisters of Silence. During the process of clearing and remaking the Palace into the Central Hub, Genesis was approached by Captain-General Aecar Arshenzo, whom the Knight-Commander Seleth Genevalis had, in turn, approached him. The Sisters were a part of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, which, like all the other government branches, has been shut down. Their main duties were as members of the Black Fleet, which is responsible for rounding up psykers throughout the Imperium and bringing them to Terra, where they would become astropaths for the Adeptus Astronomica, sanctioned psykers for the Astra Militarum or other branches or just fuel for the Golden Throne. Any of these fates were horrific. The sisters' abilities to negate all Warp powers were critical to this effort. Now that the Adeptus Astra Telepathica had been disbanded and the Black Ships in the system had been taken, they were without purpose.
The Sisterhood was already bitter about their lot having been shuffled off to the side after the Horus Heresy. They ceased to be the respected military force they were when they stood by the Emperor. Even their base one, Luna, the Somnus Citadel, was damaged and left to fall into ruin. They continued to serve carefully in whatever way they were asked, but now they are seeking true purpose again. Genesis, who had known they would approach him, had already found a place for them in the ranks of the Unshackled. He had already researched a way to evolve them as well. Blanks are the way they are because they have no souls for the Warp to taint, but this also makes it nearly impossible for them to remain around normal humans, who are often made physically, mentally, and spiritually ill by their presence. Genesis had created a way to help them control their powers by making it so that the sickening effect on normal humans is no longer a problem. They will also be faster and stronger with the extended same extended life ranges of the Space Marines and Custodians. Seleth Genevalis was the first to evolve, becoming the first Unshackled Sister of Silence. She then carried the message to her other sisters, bringing them into the fold and adding yet another element to the Warsphere.
Now, Genesis stands before the Golden Throne that he retrofitted himself, having decided to be fatherly. The throne, which has been failing slowly for millennia, is now capable of sustaining the Emperor indefinitely without the need for psykers to be sacrificed to keep it going. It is both a kindness and a necessity because his oldest friend and rival, Time, has once again shown that she is every bit as sly and cunning as he is. She has found her new Convergence Points, and one of them requires that his son be sustained. It is their eternal game; he forms plans, and she drops obstacles in his path. He loves it, and he loves her. He is eternal, and without someone to check him, he would let that power go to his head. With Time as his eternal opposite, he is forced to slow down and watch from time to time, allowing things to happen before he continues his sprint. It is a relaxing game.
"What will you return as I wonder," Genesis asks his son's seated corpse, "A being of light and hope or another daemon who thinks he is a god that I will have to put down? Either way, you and I will be having a long chat when you decide to wake up, boy."
He turns away and descends the steps of the throne. As he does, he burns with the green fires of creation. When they go out, he is wearing sleek power armor of obsidian black and cloud white with the golden lemniscate of infinity on his chest place. His face is covered from the nose by a gold and black phoenix wing face mask. On his hips are two pistols, which he can use to create or annihilate according to his will. On his back is a katana of pure black, which he can use to cut reality if he sees fit. The golden lemniscate appears on the armor of every Unshackled, along with the color and markings of their original legions. All except the Custodians, who receive a black lemniscate on their golden plate. The Lemniscate of the New Imperium replaces the Aquila of the Imperium of Man wherever it is found where the truth of the First has been spread. It will continue to do so with every planet brought into the New Imperium's warm embrace. Genesis bangs fists with Aecar Arshenzo as he reaches the bottom of the steps, and the Captain-General falls in behind him.
"We have waited long enough," says Genesis, his voice echoing in the minds of every Unshackled, "Let's go to war."
The Warp trembles in fear, and for the first time ever, none of its four gods are laughing.