AN: Ok, so, I've made this and I hope you enjoy it, though I'll not be answering a few questions as that would ruin the plot that I've got planned for in the future. As for concerns that both my character and the Legion are too strong, I've got a few things planned to, hopefully, remove that. As for the whole thing about the Aesir's population... The cloning facilities were present to get a start up population, but they were never destroyed, just turned off after that. They would come back into service if needed to either provide rapid reinforcements or to ensure that the Aesir population don't go below a minimum limit. Either or.
Also, give thanks to souvikkundu0017 for checking this, sine he was nice enough to check over my attempts at writing.
Anyways, one with the Chapter!
XXX
Marteleus was excited. No, excited was the wrong word for what he was feeling, in fact, he had no idea what he was feeling, but he was filled with an electric energy that also filled a great many of his Brothers as they travelled with their, trusted, Mechanicus allies to a planet. The planet itself was unknown to any of them, however, what made it so special was that the world was called Yggdrasil.
The homeworld of their Primarch.
Around the small fleet, as they prepared to move, many of the Astartes were busy at work, running countless checks and double checks on dozens of systems as they looked for any fault that might have made their vessels unable to continue. If such a thing was found, many fully planned to leave the ship behind until such a time that they could come and collect it later when they didn't have more pressing matters to attend to, no Legion, nor the Mechanicus, would blame them for that, thought it would result in a great amount of work for them to appease the Machine-Spirits of the discarded vessels to bring them back under control and contentment. Still, such thoughts of the additional work were pushed to the side in the face of the many things that had changed within the last few weeks since they had been reborn by the will of their Primarch.
No longer were the Astral Gears, now they had been reborn as the Unbroken. Their colours having changed to mark this event, their main colour being black with silver and crimson working as trim on their armors, not only that, but the symbol on their shoulders had changed as well. Gone was the gear coated in unholy fire, replaced with a simple symbol designed by their Primarch himself, an upside down triangle encircled by links of chain, holding strong while a single word was written on the triangle.
Invictus.
The Primarch said that it was a word from an ancient Language from Holy Terra, considered dead even before the Age of Exodus, but still used for ceremonies. It was called Latin, but the biggest thing that they found and enjoyed was that the same word was used as the name of the Dreadnought that the Aesir had built for their Primarch. It still took a bit of effort on their part not to get confused by the different types of Dreadnoughts, either the Aesir ship-types or the mechanical weapon platforms used by those too injured to continued to fight otherwise. The Second Legion had little need for the latter, mainly because of their own abilities as Biomancers, but some of their number interested in heavy armor and firepower had managed to find a use for these machines, converting them into cyber-linked warsuits and taking advantage of their ability to carry heavy weapons and armor as a result.
"Everything alright, Marteleus? You spaced out slightly for a moment." Marteleus mentally berated himself for his lose of focus in the presence of his Primarch as the Gene-sire of the Second Legion stood beside them, standing at ease on the bridge of the Necessity as he looked around. Honestly, it wasn't surprising. The Necessity had been modified a dozen times over and it showed, the bridge of the Battle Barge was small, compact and filled with a dozen cogitators and Servitors going from section to section. Only consoles were present, for each aspect of the ship that the Legionnaires felt was needed, but anything else was considered as being inefficient and, as such, was discarded.
"Yes, Lord Marcus, merely lost in thought over what to expect." The Astartes covered his lapse in thought quickly, drawing a knowing smile from his Gene-sire along with a nod.
"What about? Given the current buzz going around, I'd have thought that you would be studying the texts that I gave to the Legion." He remarked as Marteleus smiled. After being rechristened as the Unbroken, their Primarch had given them a number of documents, all dating back to the Dark Age of Technology, or before that, adapted or created by their Lord to suit their purposes. The Art of War, On War, Sherlock Holmes and a dozen other titles now filled data-slates throughout the Necessity as dozens of Marines, now individually called Warforged, took their time memorizing each and every word of these sacred documents as well as carefully filing them within the Librarium of the Legion. However, one such document always held his attention.
It was simply called the Seventy Maxims, and the ancient knowledge within this sacred document had already become a large part of the Legion.
Many had already started altering their styles of combat as a result, though more than a few had even added some of the Maxims to their armors, engraved for the purpose to serve as reminders of the more useful ones.
"That and a few other things, Lord Marcus." Marteleus replied in turn, getting a nod from his lord as the Demi-god looked out from the bridge, seeing the gathering of ships that were due to come with them.
"Such as?" The Primarch asked, curious as he continued to look ahead of them to the gathering ships and watching them arrange themselves with mechanical precision. Understandable, especially considering that those they were watching happened to be members of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Marteleus hopped from one foot to the other as he glanced around for a moment before finally answering.
"... The Aesir, you mentioned that you created them?" Marteleus spoke fearfully. When it was discovered by the Legion that their Primarch had created the Aesir, many did know what to think, some felt angry that they were going to be replaced before they even had the honor of fighting beside their Primarch while others were filled with sorrow for similar reasons. In the end, most chose to hold their final decisions until after getting the opinion of their Primarch.
"Ah, I see. You believe that I created them to act as your replacements, correct?" He asked, the newly rechristened Sharpened Shield glanced to the side before reluctantly nodding.
"There have been... Whispers within the Legion that we would be... Replaced by the Aesir before we even had the chance prove ourselves worthy of fighting beside you, Lord Marcus." Marteleus remarked as the Primarch snorted at that, surprising him.
"That is the thing about rumors, my Son, often times, they are nothing more than that; Rumors, unsubstantiated pieces of gossip that amount to nothing at all. The Aesir were created because I needed an army when sought to take control of Yggdrasil, which I called Junkheap back then. I will admit that I envisioned them as being used as the template for an army, as they have become, but I always put it at a level above that of normal Humans. Astartes have already shown themselves to be superior to an Aesir in terms of strength, reaction times and durability, as shown by the attack of the Wolves, but I never intended my Aesir to fight other Transhuman super soldiers. Orks, yes, morally corrupt Humans, yes, Eldar, perhaps, but never something akin to the Astartes. The only reason I even won the day during the initial conflict with the Wolves was due to Russ's own stupidity and having them outnumbered and out matched by a significant amount." The Primarch stated, causing the dread and fear to lift from his Hearts as he smiled and bowed his head.
"Thank you for absolving me of such things, Lord Primarch, I shall do my best in the future to avoid basing my conclusions on unreliable information sources." Marcus smiled back at that.
"I hope so." Turning back to the window, the Primarch's smile grew as he spoke once more.
"Alright, everyone, looks like the fleet is ready. Time to be under way."
XXX
Sitting in his study, the Emperor of Mankind, Adam Kadmon as he had come to call himself, looked at his notes as he looked over scans of the Aesir that had been covertly collected by his Companions during their meeting on the, now-named, planet of Kilomiz. It was interesting, their armor and weapons were advanced, yes, but certainly not so advanced as to immediately make them stand out, especially when one came to consider exactly what Humanity had been capable of during the heights of the Iron War. Compared to such things, the current stock of armors used by the Aesir were remarkably primitive.
However, that didn't make them useless. Each armor was strong enough to be the equal of the Astartes Power Armor all Legions wore, a personal shielding system ensuring that they were capable of withstanding similar amounts of punishment. The built-in jetpack was a nice touch, aided by an Anti-grav system to lighten the weight of the Warrior in question, but still not that advanced.
The Aesir themselves were a different story, each one was a Human that had been augmented with a series of mechanisms that were dreadfully familiar. He should know since he helped design them for the Void Marines during the Iron War. Scans had shown that these augments had been modified, changed to the point that each Aesir was effectively born with them, already making them orders of magnitudes more potent than base-line Humans. However, the biggest point of interest for Adam was a singular implant in the back of the skull, attached to the brain and connected so thoroughly that one would be unable to separate the two without killing the patient and destroying the implant itself.
"Well, it seems your Legion really did take after you, Marcus..." Adam muttered to himself as he leaned back into his chair.
"A Warmind implant system, spread across an entire race at birth..." Adam wondered as he cupped his chin. "What were you planning when you came up with that? A Warmind was used by soldiers for communication and psychic... Management..."
Adam smiled at that as he considered what he had just figured out.
"Clever." He muttered to himself as he made a few notes before closing the file down.
It truly was a clever idea, creating a psychic network at the moment of birth around ever member of the Aesir, cutting off their emotions and beings from the Warp, or simply creating a closed system where any energy generated could be used as fuel by the Aesir... It was genius to create such a thing, even more so when Adam considered the fact that he was able to watch such a large-scale test of the viability of such a system.
Suddenly, the idea of allowing Marcus to keep his domain outside of the Imperium, but aligned with it seemed to be bearing the start of great fruits. The Emperor's own insight into the technologies he had observed were allowing him to see exactly what Marcus planned and, frankly, the Emperor wished to see how effective these designs would be, especially since, if his guesses were right, they should be able to prevent the corrupting influence of Chaos from touching the souls of the Aesir. Leaning forwards slightly, he considered the original agreement that had been signed by him and his Son, still rather baffled by the way his Son could go from being so hostile to friendly so quickly, but guessed it was just another aspect of his fluid and mercurial nature.
He considered changing a line or two, to have the signatures forged and adding another subsection that would grant his Son a little more freedom with his Empire rather than believing that he had pulled the wool over Adam's eyes with his request for those Warrants of Trade. There were only so many ways to interpret such things, but one thing he knew to be true was that it would allow the Aesir to continue, either within their remote territory within Segmentum Obscurus or within colonies that belonged to 'Rogue Trader Dynasties'. A clever ploy to get around the wording of the treaty, but not clever enough as to be impossible for him not to notice.
Neither was it impossible for him not to notice the rather interesting activities within the Second Legion, the innovation of new or similar designs for old technologies coming back to the foreground of the Second Legion. Honestly, he understood what they were doing, Psykers were seen as walking time-bombs and Tech-priests were seen as crazed mystics, the Second Legion was both and suffered from both views, originally believing that they were being restrained and entrapped. As a result, they had started to work on technologies that were skirting the boarder of what had been forbidden by him and the Mechanicus, it was nothing that would have seen them purged, things heavily frowned upon, yes, but nothing too serious at first.
Adam allowed it, if only to allow the Legion to progress and try and throw off the beliefs that had been thrown over them, which had worked to an extent even as they started working on technologies that bordered the edges of Tech-Heresy and Treason. Thankfully, it seemed his Son knew his limits, either unwilling to go too far, or looking for a more secure location to conduct such experiments, Adam did not know, but he would have to investigate such things. He made another note to keep an eye on Marcus, if only because he had a feeling that much would revolve around that particular child of his, while also making a note to see about searching out any hidden labs that the Second Legion might try and set up out of his sight, to ensure they didn't cross any lines that they weren't meant to. Then again, with the aid of their newly discovered Primarch, Adam could guess that finding them would become a much more difficult task than before, not to mention the fact that he was sure that Marcus had learned much more than just a few bits of history and trivia from the remains of those Dark Age ships. For proof, one merely needed to look at his work in creating the Aesir, their origins obvious to those with the knowledge to see it.
However, that was something to contemplate at another time.
"Now... What kind of reward should I gift that child with...?" Adam wondered aloud, considering a subtle gift for his child as a reward for Marcus's work to free Humanity from Chaos. Suddenly, a wide, beaming smirk crossed his features as he remembered that the Warrants of Trade had not been sent to Marcus yet, nor were there any specifications for the Warrants beyond the immediately obvious.
Yes, he could work with that...
XXX
Looking up from her work, Frida shifted through a dozen holographic screens as she continued to check the progress of the Astartes as they underwent their further augmentations. Honestly, Frida was both excited and slightly fearful of what the results were, but she was sure that, whatever the results were to be, that the Great Father would be able to keep them under control.
It had been three weeks since the Astartes had arrived on Yggdrasil, but those weeks had been... Interesting.
Initially, tensions had run high between the Aesir and the Astartes of the Second Legion, both due to the Aesir being creations of their Primarch along with the Aesir having a rather bad first impression of the Astartes due to the actions of the Space Wolves. However, even with that, they still carried out their duties to the Great Father, doing their best to ensure that this tension did not interfere in the commands given to them by the Great Father.
Regardless, these feelings of tension soon came to reach critical mass, but before they could explode, something happened to change the opinions of the Aesir towards the Astartes of the Second Legion.
The Aesir and the Second Legion started bonding over the stupidity of the Space Wolves.
Things progressed rapidly from there after the ice was melted, strong bonds forming as the Aesir worked to teach the newest of the Great Father's children about their technology while the Astartes, in turn, worked to help to both improve it as well as enhance the military capabilities of the Aesir beyond what they had already become. Both sides accepted the help of the other, the Aesir being created as an all-round people, dedicated to protecting those under their aegis while the Astartes were created as some of the finest warriors Humanity had ever created, it was with that in mind that they strove, together, to improve each other.
It was also the reason for Frida's current work.
Along the way to teach the Astartes about the new wonders that the Aesir possessed, Frida had the idea of enhancing them with the same technologies and techniques that the Great Father had used to create the Aesir, in the hopes of enhancing their already formidable capabilities. She had brought this up with her Lord and he had approved even as he taught them some of his own uses for Biomancy beyond simple Healings, showing them how to burn their flesh into sheets of organic Black Plate and Titan Skin. He had approached whole heartedly, as had the commanders of the Second Legion, or Battle-Forgers, as the Officers had become known as.
And, now, the Legion of thirty thousand took turns slipping into a liquid filled tank, clothed only in a pair of tight shorts to provide them with some level of decency while they underwent a process commonly being called the Rebirthing.
Those Legionaries that had already undergone the process were looked at with awe by their comrades, their bodies having been augmented further by the same technologies that put the Aesir so far above normal Humans. Their bodies gaining the same lines of cyan denoting a second circularity system while they further gained from the technologies. There strength was enhanced beyond reason, their ability to recover from injuries had gone from legendary to virtually mythical with wounds being able to heal almost as fast as they were dealt, aided by the immense Psychic power that each Marine carried. Not only that, but the Astartes had now gained something that many members of the Aesir had been unsure of granting to them until Frida had finally decided on the course of action, her word being great enough that no Aesir would question it.
The Astartes were granted a sub-division of the ODIN.
Joining the ODIN Field had many effects on the Astartes of the Second Legion, one among them was that many had started to join in the subtle worship of the Great Father, having seen just the most visible traces of his power that he have spent decades learning to carefully hide behind veils and false images. The result of so much work undone and showing that the Great Father was, in fact, farmore powerful than any of the Astartes knew, well, they knew he was powerful, but they never knew he was thatpowerful.
"Is everything alright, Lady Frida?" Frida was suddenly taken out of her musings as she turned around to see the form of the War-Forger, formerly First Forger, Marteleus of the Unbroken. Looking around she saw him standing by the door, his body covered by his new armor and made even more impressive by the various changes that he was already making to it.
The armor was something that the Great Father had created for them, a massive upgrade to their old armor as it used Aesir technologies to improve upon what the Imperium had built. It was smooth, more form hugging with thick plates covering any vulnerable weak point and lacking the bulky backpack-mounted power source and life support system as all things were move compact and placed within reinforced containers within the armor itself. A high neck guard encircled the neck armor and came up to just above the jaw of the helmet while the helmet itself, which was mag-locked to the War-Forger's waist, was made from thick, bonded plates of Black Plate and had a recessed, T-shaped visor with the visor going up, angled slightly to touch just above the temples on the front of it while also going down to just above top lip of his mouth.
Externally, it was impressive. Internally, that statement only became more valid as one could easily see just how enhanced the internal systems were when compared to those of the original armor's were. The electro-fiber bundles used for strength enhancement were replaced with semi-solid ceramic composites that allowed for faster reaction times and greatly increased strength. Auto-repair systems were installed along with memory metal-based self-sealing systems to ensure that the void-seal of the armor was always in place. Lines of Warp-conductive materials traced every centimetre of the armor, infusing it with the power of its user to ensure that there was virtually no difference between warrior and armor, further helped by, not only, the Black carapace but also the secondary DNI connections. Multiple Refraction Field generators built into the armor and further enhanced by the psychic might of each individual Marine to impossible heights, even as they were wrapped in layers of Phase Iron, Psy-Jammers and miniature Gellar Fields.
While the rejection rates of the Great Father's Gene-Seed prevented massive numbers of Astartes from being birthed, the Unbroken were still powerful, even if that was in terms of individual warriors than raw numbers.
"Yes, War-Forger. I'm just checking the progress of your Brothers. So far, the Rebirthing is going well, but I, and the Great Father, would both prefer it if no mistakes or accidents took place that might threaten their continued existence." Frida replied as the War-Forger nodded in understanding, his 2.5 metre tall armored bulk moving with remarkable grace and silence where one would expect him to plod along, his every footstep like thunder.
"Indeed, though I can say that, while such measures are much appreciated by all those that make up the Legion, the more impatient members have been noted to being getting rather annoyed by the delays to their own Rebirthing. Some have even been thinking of asking the Great Father if another facility can be built to accelerate their Rebirthing." Marteleus stated with mirth as Frida snorted in turn. Such a request had been made a dozen times before, and a dozen times it had been rejected for one reason and one alone: For the conversion process to work required the absolute best among a dozen fields, and with the Great Father dividing his attention between a dozen projects, these few intellectual elites could only be in so many places at once to oversee the transformations.
"I can already tell that they will mirror those before them who had asked the same thing." Frida remarked with her own amusement. Martelues's lips twitched upwards.
"Quite." The War-Forger remarked in turn as things lapsed into a silence for a moment before Frida asked another question.
"By the way, War-Forger, how goes the augmentations of you and your Brothers among the Sharpened Shield?" She asked, referring to the renamed Honorguard of the Primarch. Marteleus looked up, his eyes thoughtful as he cupped his chin.
"The Great Father is seeing to the transformation of each member with great care. A single Shield takes months, maybe even years given how long some of my Brothers have taken, to augment, and even then, the end result is as much a work of art as it is a process of science, requiring great skill in the arts of biology and Biomancy that only the Great Father has learned enough to carry out. So far, only myself and 24 others have undertaken the process, but the others that remain are looking forwards to the process greatly." And Frida knew that was no exaggeration. Where the Great Father got the augments that were given to them was unknown, but the end results were well worth it.
When compared to normal Astartes, Warforged were leagues ahead of them in terms of individual power, each one being faster, stronger, tougher and able to recover from any wound so long as they remained alive, even though the differences in each field varied from one point to another. Not only that, but that was without bringing in the sheer psychic power and technical prowess of their Legion, ensuring that each one carried a constantly shifting arsenal of weapons and wargear into battle. However, within the Legion, another league of skill was also present, those select few of the Sharpened Shield who were to the Warforged what the Warforged were to normal Astartes. Those of the Sharpened Shield took the aspects of the Second Legion to new heights and beyond, to such an extent that many thought they had been gifted with a much more distilled, potent Gene-seed, extracted from the life-blood of the Primarch himself and augmented further.
"I can imagine. Though, I can' help but wonder where the Great Father got the augments that you, yourself, now use. Can you tell me since I've not had the chance of requesting such knowledge from the Great Father?" Frida asked as Marteleus turned to her with a small smile on his face.
"I'm afraid, Lady Frida, that I asked the same question of Lord Marcus. All he would say is that he gained the knowledge needed for our Rebirth from the Blood of Ten Thousand Blades and the remains of those that Danced among Thunder and Lightning."
XXX
"The pact is sealed, and shall remained sealed, least you learn the folly of those in the dark." Came the cryptic words of the stranger within his home. Vect honestly had no idea who the stranger was, only that he came offering a deal that had given rise to opportunity. Glancing at the strange being once more, Vect, founder of the newly created Kabal of the Black Heart, couldn't help but wonder exactly what it was.
On the outside, it looked like just another one of his kin, marked by gaunt features, pale skin and sharp eyes that seemed to rove the darkest places within his throne room, looking for even the slightest hints of betrayal. It found none, for the deal it offered was too sweet and succulent to throw away without deep and extremely thorough investigation and thought. Still, that did not help the all-encompassing sense that something was offabout the being, that though was clothed in the flesh of his kin, that it was not like them.
"Of course, so long as you keep up your end of the bargain, I shall endeavor to keep up mine." He remarked with a satisfied smirk as the being merely nodded, something he fully expected. The deal was rather simply, as long as Vect held the other Kabals in check and ensured that they stayed away from a rather difficult to raid area of space that the Mon'keigh of the fledgling 'Imperium of Man' called the Gothic Sector, he would get a supply of slaves unlike any other. The deal had been in place for over a Mon'keigh century by this point and it had paid for itself by the Cruiser load, the slaves delivered were always a mix, but they could always expect a dozen Humans of strong constitution and high pain tolerances. Such things were often gifted to Haemonculi of a dozen covens, who found the challenge of inciting such agonies upon these slaves to be one of their greatest thrills, and when they screamed, it was always all the greater than a normal Mon'keigh.
"The next shipment shall be waiting for you." The being that only called itself Tenebris stated as Vect nodded in response, already knowing where they would be as he mentally made plans for what he could do with these ones.
A dozen ideas already spun within the mind of Vect, viewing how just who to trade such slaves with to gain the greatest advantage.
And he already had an idea of one such group that would serve him well in ensuring his rise to power.
XXX
Taemera looked on as with a smile at what was taking place below her.
Below her was a moon, small and hidden, locked in the gravitation field of a Gas Giant along with several others that spun around it in a complex web of gravitational tides that was constantly changing, shifting and altering as various gravitation fields interacted with one another. And yet, the gravity of this singular moon remained at what most Humans would consider as being perfectly habitable, with a thriving ecosystem and a surviving Human population that had constructed a nomadic society.
Then again, that was by design.
Taemera smiled at what she observed on the world below her, hidden by all that would look for it by a dozen satellites casting a false image into the stars of a barren rock while dozens of Aetheric warps and devices build by Marcus ensured that the planet itself remained hidden from all those that would look for it. It was necessary, for this world was part of a complex design which Taemera knew was already working well, acting as the formation of a complex web of conspiracy and plots that even the Daemons of the Great Ocean were unaware of due to their eyes not seeing this world.
On it, the Humans were breed, grown with the specific aim of making them hardy, strong and stubborn. Psychic messages were used to weave complex instincts into them, ensuring that they would obey subtle instructions inexactly the right order to ensure that they carried out their roles and were played like puppets on strings. Millions were born, raised and allowed to die upon the moon as it was submerged within the Warp, increasing the flow of time while also eliminating all those that were not strong enough to survive. The Psyker and Pariah genes were intentionally targeted, the former to remove a threat to the plan while the latter was for study and experimentation, something of a growing curiosity among the Aesir. Still, the Pariahs served their purpose while the rest of the Humans served theirs.
"How goes the work?" Came the voice of her master as he stood beside her.
"Slow. Submerging the world into the tides of the Sea of Souls does speed up the work, but we must be careful not push the time within the Warp too far, least all of this work be undone." Taemera remarked as Marcus nodded from his side of the observation room. Through the bond, she could already feel him going over the events that had lead to this.
It had been the discovery of a planet with a Human population, the starting point for this great work. The population ad appeared normal on the surface, but if one looked closely, they would have seen the corrupting influence of the Four buried under an illusion. Marcus had seen through it in a moment and had been on the cusp of ordering the entire population to be put to the sword...
... When an idea had come to him.
He ordered the complete purge of all adults, men and women, over the age of five standard years and had them collected under great secrecy, purging their existence of any trace of the Warp and ensuring that even the Daemons of the Warp themselves would not be able to track these children as they were brought to this world, a world that had been specially prepared for them. A dozen generations passed by for them, between then and now even those it had only been a few dozen decades for those outside of the perimeter. Along with that, Marcus had weaved something into their very genes, something he called a Gene-song, a web of directives written into their very beings that would guide their evolution at a subconscious level. This, mixed with dozens of Psychic messages, compulsions and even the more heavy handed use of pheromones ensured that the evolution went the way that the Great Father wished before they reached an apex.
Within decades, these works had started to pay back their creator with the final product. A race of Adhumans that were breed for low intelligence, high pain tolerances, well developed vocal cords and lung capacity and a dozen other little things that had resulted in this new race. From there, they had been gathered, from there, they had been processed and mind-wiped of anything related to the location of their former home.
Before they were handed over to the hands of the Dark Eldar, to Asdurbael Vect, Achron of the newly birthed Kabal of the Black Heart.
Within a matter of days, negotiations had begun. Within a matter of weeks, a pact was sealed in the blood of those that had signed it. Vect would get support in the form of slaves to ensure his ascension to the overlord of the Dark city in exchange for the Dark Eldar to remain outside of the Gothic Sector, the name given to the Sector from which the Aesir ruled by the Imperials.
Having seen the skeins of fate, Taemera knew that Marcus had already changed much, accelerating the ascension of Vect by nearly two millennia already by causing him to give birth to his Kabal so early. A dozen steps had already been planned out in advance, stretching all the way down to the point that Vect would, eventually, role the Dark city of Commorragh and the pact would remain. Millions of contingencies were also in place, scattered throughout the Segmentum and made impossible to find, frozen in vast stasis arrays and enshrouded further so that none but a select few even knew that they existed.
In this way, Marcus had shown himself with a cunning unlike any other, able to match wits with even the Lord of Plots as the labyrinthine twists and turns of his mind were plotting his next move with a near machine-like precision that was backed up by the powers of the Warp. Very few things surprised him, and what surprises he did encounter were dealt with quickly.
"The next shipment is ready, I assume?" He asked, getting a nod from the former Eldar, turned High War-Hexer of the Vanir Courts.
"As you commanded. Over five million of the Su'jets have been prepared, mind-wiped and are currently locked in stasis aboard the Illusion of Freedom." He nodded at that, a smile slowly spreading across his face, simply looking out the window as he looked towards the planet below.
"Good."
XXX
"I take it, that you like what I have created?" The voice came as a surprise, shocking Kelbor from his internal prayers in awe of the God-Machine before him. It was but one of the massive God-Machines that was housed within the facilities of Asgard, but it, like it's brothers, were utterly awe inspiring as the Tech-Priests of the Fleet that had come with the Second Legion had spread out to offer prayers to the Machine God for granting them such a sight. Turning around, Kelbor was granted another surprise as he turned to see the creator of these machines step into the room, wearing his full armor as he had already noted that the Primarch of the Second Legion was an exemplar of the tenants of his Legion, even if he had never met them before.
"It is a sign of the Omnissiah's blessing upon you." Kelbor replied as his optics shifted back to the God-machine, still trying to learn the secrets of these machines, to little effect. The Primarch merely smiled at that.
"I hope he has blessed my works, if only because I would be horrified if they fell due to some fault of my own." The Primarch remarked, surprising the Magos by the use of such terms, but nodded as it seemed that this Primarch as unlike his brute of a Brother, Russ.
"Then we can only pray that he shall protect them from the Xenos as they do his holy work." The Primarch nodded in agreement before turning more fully to the Tech-Priest.
"I had heard that you had been looking for me, Magos. Is there anything I can do for you?" He asked, once more surprising the leader of the Mechanicus expedition as Horus was often more direct in trying to figure out what they wanted before hand while Russ either demanded to know or simply ignored them utterly. This was a nice change of pace.
"This God-Machine... I wish to learn more about it and the technologies of the Aesir. The Treaty of Kilomiz prevents us from simply taking the technologies, but, as your guests, might we be allowed to look into the inner workings of one of the Omnissiah's great works?" Kelbor asked, almost begging as the Primarch smiled and pulled something from the back of his belt, a standard Imperial Data-slate.
"I'm not going to give you access to everything, but these should be enough to satisfy you curiosity." The Primarch said as he handed over the Data-slate easily as Kelbor wasted no time in accessing it before his systems froze in shock and awe at what he was looking at.
Plans unfolded within his mind, detailed technical designs that, while lacking material dispositions, contained massive amounts of detail on the makeup of the massive God-Machine, Jormungand-class Battle Titan, which slept soundlessly before him as he looked over the designs again and again without pause, trying to find the slightest flaw in the data to see if they were some kind of cruel joke at his own expense.
He found none.
"... You would grant me such a bounty of the Omnissiah?" Kelbor asked, having slowly turned to look at smiling Primarch.
"I would grant such a bounty to an ally that would help keep our secrets from the ignorant that would misuse their power for petty aims, and who would shun what they do not understand out of some misplaced belief that they know best simply from seeing the worst of a given technological path." The Primarch replied, his smile still fixed in place as Kelbor looked back at the plans for the God-Machine, looking closely as he noted a dozen things that any puritan of the Mechanicus, one that abided by the Treaty of Olympus Mons would have had him shot for. And yet, he trusted Kelbor and his comrades to keep such things secret from the wider Imperium and Mechanicus?
"... If we are to keep such things hidden from the gaze of the Mechanicus, we would wish for a compromise." Kelbor said as, if he had a mouth, he would have grinned.
The Primarch merely smiled.
XXX
"Hello, Father, I trust all it well?" I asked as I saw the Emperor step out of his Stormbird, it's surface covered in golden armor and armed with weapons that were, quite clearly, advanced beyond the norm of the current era. Around him, I saw a dozen Custodians swarm, their hands on their weapons as, even behind armored helmets, I had little doubt that they were scanning the world around them for threats to the Emperor, I remembered reading a fair bit about them and knew that they had an instinctive drive to protect him that went deeper than blood and bone. The Emperor merely smiled at me as he walked down to meet me.
"I am well, My Son, though, I see that the past decade has treated you quite well in turn." He said, gesturing to the honorguard I had arranged for him, two lines on either side of the landing ramp each one composed of Warforged of the Sharpened Shield, all equipped with their armor and standing taller than most Space Marines even had a right to, weapons in hand and each line be formed from at least fifteen marines, being three marines deep. In total, it was me, the Emperor, 99 Custodians and about ninety Warforged.
If a fight broke out, I wouldn't know who to place money on, but I'd try and avoid that since I very much enjoyed the idea of living. Glancing back at the Emperor, I spotted him glancing at one of them, the one at my side as he looked at Marteleus even as I felt his will seeping through the Warp, examining the physical body behind my Marines as I waited for a moment in horror as I realized what was happening. My Marines hadn't had nearly the same amount of practice I had hiding my own presence, so the Emperor could examine them much more easily.
"... Hmmm... I must say, my Son, you do impressive work. The augments you have given your Legion have exceeded my expectations, and I was honestly thinking that you would have merely settled for giving them the same augments that you had given to the Aesir when you created them." He remarked as he looked at me, interest and curiosity dancing his eyes as a knowing smile slipped on to his lips as we moved onwards.
"Tell me, how did you manage to recreate a lesser version of the augments I gave to my Thunder Warriors along with those of my Custodians?" Around me, I could see the immediate reaction to that as the Custodians suddenly tensed, their body language shifting from being alert to practically screaming their attention as they started moving their heads, no longer trying to be subtle about it as they shifted their hands to ready positions, weapons already moving into waiting hands as power fields flickered to life. They closed in a step around the Emperor, their weapons pointed at both myself and my Warforged.
I had to admit, it was not a nice position to be in, especially since I was pretty damned sure that a number of their weapons were Abrathic in nature.
My Marines, on the other hand, had frozen in shock and awe as they realized that they now shared a lesser version of those augments used to create the bodyguards of the Emperor himself. I could hardly blame them, since I had only shared such information with Marteleus, and he had only shared it with Frida. Still, the Marines did not take the threat to my life lightly as their weapons were at the ready in moments, shifting to aim at the Custodians as myself and the Emperor merely stood between them, both of us seemingly ignoring the clusterfuck happening around them. My eyes were locked on the ground as I wondered how to reply before I sighed.
Fuck it!
"My post-cognition is not limited to merely pieces of metal, nor does it require me to touch an object. While physical contact with an object serves the best, I can instinctually carry it out via sight, though I need to spend time to un-muddle the information I gain from the experience. When you first arrived on Kilomiz, I tried using it on you, but that failed rather spectacularly before I turned it on your bodyguards. I believed that knowing their capabilities would aid in both any negotiations as well as if the talks failed." I explained simply, it was the truth, just not the complete truth. The Emperor nodded as his smile stayed in place.
"And the Thunder Warrior augments?" He asked, still curious.
"I saw a banner within the Palace while I was spending some time wondering around. It was an accident as I sometimes lose focus and, well, I saw them. With my Post-cognition, I can investigate groups via observing items they held." I stated simply as the Emperor nodded before a slight gesture caused the Custodians to stand down, I breathed a silent sigh of relief as I did the same through the ODIN as, if anything, the smile on the Emperor's face grew just a bit bigger.
"Now that the... Excitement is out of the way, shall we find some place more private to talk, since that is what you requested in your message?" I asked as he nodded. I nodded back as I turned and started to walk, but not before glancing over my shoulder to look at my progenitor.
"By the way, what didyou want to talk about? You were rather vague in the message." I remarked as he merely kept smiling at me.
I remained silent for the rest of the journey.
XXX
It took thirty minutes for the massive convoy of Custodians and Warforged to finally reach one of the upper levels of Asgard, below the Orbital Branches by well above the city-scape-like layers of the planet. Around the room, a dozen Custodians arrayed themselves as my Warforged remained outside, by my orders, as not to cause another incident between themselves and the Custodians. Both the Emperor and myself had taken a seat on the massive chairs that I had seen provided for our meeting, each one was heavily reinforced to support our armor-clad forms even as they were still comfortable to sit in. Between us was a table with a small set of drinks and cups, the Custodians had already checked it for poisons or threats, and found nothing.
I had no intention of killing the man, especially since I was pretty damned sure that any poison would do exactly fuck all to him.
Nodding in thanks as the Custodian moved away, I saw him pour himself a drink before leaving the glass bottle for me to pour my own glass. The contents of which were a potent brew of Aesir Ale, the stuff would have killed a normal Human from even a single drop while a full glass would have an Aesir, if not tipsy, then rather light headed. The Emperor took his drink and gulped down half of the murky brown liquid in one gulp, showing his own experience as he swallowed it without trouble, humming in contentment.
"... Tell me, what is this drink called? It's got a rather nice kick to it, especially with that aftertaste. Strong, smooth and with a hint of... Apples and Pineapples? Hmmm... Interesting combination." I merely offered a shrug.
"Aesir Ales don't have names, rather, they have grades. The one I chose for our meeting is Alpha Prime grade stuff, I'm usually the only one that can drink the stuff since normal Humans would die from a single drop and even Aesir have to be careful since a few glasses are more than enough to see them passed out on the floor." I remarked as the Emperor nodded.
"I think I'll need to get some to take back to the Imperial Palace with me, especially since it's been a long time since I've drunk anything that good." He remarked as I made another half-shrug.
"I'll have a few cases gathered by your Stormbird for when you leave." I stated as he offered a smile at that.
"My thanks, Marcus, but you and I both now that I didn't come here just to discuss the fine alcohol that your Nation produces." I raised an eyebrow at that as I noted his face, the smile lessened, turning more towards a knowing smirk.
"And what is it that you came here to discuss?" I asked, suppressing the nervous shiver that ran down my spine as my body remained still thanks to my own skill at Biomancy and my ability to suppress my body language.
"Many things, but first of all; I know." I couldn't help the dread that had been hiding in the pit of my stomach at that, it implied many, ominous things, none of them good.
"Know what?" I asked, a memory of my own meeting with Marteleus years ago springing to mind at this as I almost dreaded the next words.
"I know that your Legion, even before they met you, were carrying out many experiments that skirted the edges of the Treaty of Olympus Mons and would have seen the entire Legion purged for that, even if they hadn't broken the Treaty itself. I know that, even after you learned of these things, you allowed them to continue while staying silent about them, when you shouldhave told me of them so that I might have dealt with them. I know that the Aesir were your creations, I helped make the augments for the Void Marines, so I think I'll be able to recognize both them and the WARMIND implants. Also, you really need to be more subtle about it when you gather allies to help in such research, the sudden disappearance of some of the more... Fringe members of the Mechcanicus did not go unnoticed by everyone, even if the Mechanicus itself thought little of it." He remarked simply as I glanced around the room, suddenly aware of just how manyCustodians were in the room with us. Out of the original 99, a third of them were in the room with us while the rest were outside with my Sharpened Shields. All of them were fully armed and armored and, given the power behind the weapons of the Adeptus Custodes, I had little doubt that they would have been able to cause a shit load of damage before going down. Combined with their experience, and what I was imagining was a nightmare situation that was made little better by the fact that the Emperor was right before me as I wondered whether he planned to make me 'disappear' for this.
"I see." I offered neutrally as I took a sip of my drink, my powers already loosening inside me as his smile widened slightly, probably knowing exactly what I was thinking as I readied my weapons for that situation to go to hell. However, before the tension could come to a head, the Emperor raised his hand and waved me off.
"However, even for all that, I can't help but give my approval for what you've done so far." I almost collapsed at that, wondering what had caused that kind of a reaction as he continued.
"You've done a lot of things that I can't help but be impressed with, from creating what could be the beginnings of a society that is incapable of feeling the touch of Chaos to improving upon my own work with the Astartes and combining elements from various other projects, even my own bodyguards. That is impressive, though I have to ask why you felt the need to do such a thing?" He asked as I relaxed slightly back into my chair, weapons still at the ready while I took a sip of my Ale.
"My Legion was never going to be massive, sure, it is relatively large at roughly thirty thousand strong, but that number is tiny when compared to the other legions. For example, the First Legion has a total of over two hundred thousand Astartes within its ranks, a massive number when compared to my own Legion's. Not only that, but my Gene-seed has a particularly high rejection rate, with it also requiring rather more specific needs within those due for implantation. One in every hundred aspirants have the needed specifications to be implanted, but out of those taken, only one in every twenty even make it through the process and live, the rest usually die. The process has been made slightly better with the introduction of the Aesir, reducing it from one in every two thousand to one in every five hundred to make it through to becoming an Astartes, but I still know that my Legion will never truly grow to be that large, so I went a different way." I explained as the Emperor nodded.
"You favor your warriors to have greater individual strength rather than relying on massive numbers of them to make up for the difference in apparent power." The Emperor noted as I nodded.
"Hence why I approved and even encouraged their experiments towards self-improvement in the hopes of becoming stronger. My Sharpened Shield was created along a similar mind set when I saw the augments of your Custodians and the Thunder Warriors. They managed to obtain lesser versions of both mixed together, but it would still be difficult for them to match themselves against your own Custodians without employing one of their aces, such as Psychic abilities or their tech. And, even then, I never planned to give my entire Legion such augments, merely those that serve as my honorguard. Currently, that sits at five hundred strong, but I was thinking of expanding that later on." I further explained before stopping as the Emperor nodded.
"I suspected as much, though I wished to hear it from you, Marcus." I nodded in turn, I could respect that.
"So... What now?" I asked, curious and slightly tense as my eyes glanced around the room. The Emperor snorted.
"For one thing, you can call me Adam." He said, completely throwing me off balance at that as he continued. "It's been a long time since I've encountered someone that I can actually talk to like this without them either cowering away from me or falling over themselves to submit to me. Not to mention that I wasn't lying about being impressed with your work so far."
Slowly, I nodded at that.
"Ok, ah, Adam. I can understand wanting to talk to someone that won't fall for your bullshit and is willing to talk to you like a Human being, but I'm pretty sure that there is more to it than that." I remarked slowly, unsure of what the hell was going on. Adam nodded at that, easily agreeing with my statement.
"Oh, that goes without saying. The simple fact is that I know that I should punish you for what you and your Legion have done, especially with going around my back to get what you needed, but I can't help but be proud with the end results. So, I'm willing to let it slide, this time, and even reward you for what you did with the creation of the Aesir, on the condition that I get to learn about any changes you made to the Aesir's WARMIND that you might have made that make it different when compared to the original. Along with that, I'll allow you to continue your research, but onlywithin certain boundaries. No Warp-based technologies, No Men of Iron and absolutely nothing to do with creating Gene-engineered War-Beasts. Am I clear?" I nodded easily as I suppressed a cold sweat. Even though I knew the Emperor, Adam, was powerful, it was easy to forget such things given how easy going he had appeared around me. Sure, I had seen him in his guise as the Emperor and how he acted in public, but to see the waves of power rippling off him and his face turn to stone as his eyes honed in on me like a Laser...
Well, that was an experience I would never forget.
"I understand." I stated, the hand holding my glass shaking slightly as I tried, and failed slightly, to suppress it as he nodded with a smile.
"I have a full list of the things I want you to steer clear of within my Stormbird that I'll give you before I leave, which will extend to your new Mechanicus allies on that Forge World they've started building in Aesir space." I nodded at that, understanding it, and rather glad for it as I had already started considering way of skirting around these new restrictions, but I kept such things in the back of my mind as we carried on.
"Very well. Is there anything else that you wished to discuss?" I asked as he nodded once more, his face going serious as I almost feared that this was going to be a punishment of some kind.
"Tell me... What do you know of the current situation of the Fifteenth Legion?" He asked as I blinked in surprise. The truth was I had a rough idea about what was happening to them, given what he was asking me about, but I decided not to give any of my metaknowledge away, as such things were one my few advantages over the various beings in this hellhole.
"Not much. All I know is that they had one of the more positive relations with my Sons and that they were a Legion made up of significantly powerful Psykers, a lot more powerful than my own Sons, but, then again, my Sons focused more on the utility of their abilities rather than simply weaponising them as well." I stated honestly, since that waswhat my Sons had told me when they had discussed each Legion. Adam nodded at that, looking thoughtful before leaning forwards.
"The Fifteenth Legion is currently in danger. A recent... Mutation within their Gene-seed is causing them to undergo what is being called a Flesh-change that results in them, unless they have the willpower to constantly suppress it, into little more than twisted, ever-shifting mutants." He remarked. I nodded in understanding.
"You think that the knowledge I gained from Taemera might be of some use in figuring out what the hell is going on with them?" I asked, getting a nod from him.
"I need you on Terra to help fix this. I'm willing to push back your entry into the Crusade by another decade if needed, but I'm not willing to lose an entire Legion if it could have been prevented." I nodded in understanding.
"I'll come back with you, I'll bring my most skilled Sons to help as well and we can be back at Terra within minutes." Adam smiled at that, nodding in turn as he gestured for one of his Custodians to step forwards carrying a case of some description, it's exterior covered in golden decorations over an ivory white background.
"Thank you, Marcus. Also, as a last note, I was meaning to give this to you, as part of your conditions for the Treaty of Kilomiz." He stated as the case was put between us and opened, my eyes went wide as I saw the six Warrants of Trade, as stated by the agreement of the Treaty. Taking one, I took the time to read it before my eyebrow rose at the conditions of their use, which, honestly, weren't as bad as I thought they would have been.
"You're giving me dispensation to, not only keep anything found by those bearing these Warrants, but also allowing them to study, examine and experiment with Xenotech as long as it remains within the boundaries that you have set for me and the Aesir as a whole. Not only that, but you are allowing for the bearers of these Warrants to commission the Tech-Priests upon the local Forge World to make any number of technologies, even some that directly violate the Treaty of Mars, so long as they don't break this new treaty?" I asked, feeling incredulity bubbling into my tone as Adam smiled.
"Call it a gift for doing something that I've been striving towards for millennia. Well, a reward for setting the foundations for it by conducting a grand experiment to see if it would be viable in the long term would be a more adequate term, but you get the just of it." I nodded at that, placing the Warrant back down before sealing the container once more.
"I'll have these put away somewhere safe before I meet you back at the landing platform with another transport and my Sons. Assuming that we are done here?" Adam nodded, his smile growing wider.
"We are."
"Then I see no reason to waste any more time, after all, the more time we waste is less time I have to work with in order to prevent more members of the Fifteenth from... Devolving, for lack of a better word."
XXX
Yes, I'm aware that this makes both the Legion and the MC look overpowered, but give it time and I'll show you the sight of the other shoe dropping. Anyway, as always, feedback is appreciated.
Also, for those interested, look up 'RIFTS NG Protege Power Armor' by ChuckWalton on Deviantart for an idea of what the starting armor of the Legion now looks like.