A false calm played out on Terra.
Preparations for the celebration proceeded according to plan.
Dorn pored over the horrifying evidence and numerous files, personally compiling countless records of actions that seemed normal yet made no sense whatsoever.
Even without the Celestial Lions' case, the Inquisition's dangerous conduct was enough to shake the foundations of the Imperium.
Dorn and Guilliman often had their differences.
But for the sake of the Emperor's great work, Dorn was willing to set aside some of their prejudices against each other.
Yet as Dorn examined more and more material, the anger within him continued to build.
Almost every Astartes force had suffered unjust treatment at the hands of the Inquisition, and hundreds upon thousands of successor Chapters had been betrayed in one inexplicable campaign after another.
Dozens more Chapters had inexplicably been struck from the rolls over the past several thousand years.
As the day of celebration drew ever closer.
A Titan Ship dispatched by Iax rapidly approached Terra.
Within the vast expanse of the Titan Ship's Internal Starport lay a sight they had never imagined.
Three Cruisers belonging to the Inquisition and a Battle Barge of the Red Hunters were surrounding and attacking the Celestial Lions' sole remaining Chapter flagship—the Assault Cruiser Sword of the Seventh Son.
Nearby, the Celestial Lions' Battle Barge Ravi had already been reduced to a battered wreck.
But all of it had been frozen in stasis.
An enormous temporal stasis bubble enveloped the entire battlefield.
Lance beams, Macro-cannon shells, and missiles hung frozen in the void. Everything had been paused.
Using Spatial Shear derived from space-folding technology, Iax had bundled up the entire battlefield, both warring sides included, and stuffed it into the Titan Ship's enormous Internal Starport.
After receiving Guilliman's request, Iax had taken mere seconds to analyze