Remus lifted his scythe and brought it down onto yet another patch of wheat. Watching the fragile stems come apart under the wide arc of the scythe, he rested the tool's shaft over his shoulder as he wiped the sweat from his brow, looking up into the darkening sky. It was getting late, his wife would be calling him in soon for supper. Staring at the myriad stars glittering in the sky like diamonds, Remus sighed at the beauty of it all before starting to turn away, but something caught his eye. A shooting star. Smiling as he remembered his mother telling him to make a wish upon seeing one as a child. He remembered wanting to join the Astra Militarum like his father, wanting to wear Imperial armour and serve the Immortal Emperor.
Shaking his head as he looked at his fields of wheat, he whispered to himself "We all serve the Emperor in our own ways".
Turning away Remus began walking towards his homestead where his family awaited him. He could almost smell the delicious meal his wife was cooking already. Stopping in his tracks, he noticed an odd glowing light behind him. Turning slowly, he realised it was coming from above him. The shooting star, it was descending right towards his fields. Frozen in terror and awe, he stared as the light became harsh, the roaring projectile getting closer and closer before slamming into the ground in the distance, but the shock of the impact sent tremors through the earth knocking his feet out from under him. Landing hard on his back, he let out a moan as he felt his spine hit something underneath him, a rock or the shaft of his scythe he could not tell. Grumbling to his feet, as his eyes broke through the sea of wheat, he gasped in horror as he saw his precious fields engulfed in flames. The fire was starting to spread, devouring everything in its path like a swarm of locusts, leaving only smouldering ashes in its wake.
Walking backwards, he was about to run to grab a hose, but amidst the roaring flames, he heard another noise. Crying. Staring into the inferno again, in complete shock he listened to the unmistakable bawling of an infant child. Spurring into action, deluding himself that somehow his own child had been out in the fields too, he sprinted out towards the crash site.
Carefully weaving through the burning patches of wheat, he finally made it to the meteorite crater, only to see a strange object in its centre. The odd spherical object was about the size of a large dog, the metal pod was dented and glowing white hot. Right through the middle there was a crevice where the pod had split, the shredded metal jutting out like a splintered bone. Climbing down into the crater, and as he got closer, Remus realised the whining was coming from inside the pod. Moving over to it, already feeling the heat from the glowing metal, he took out his flashlight from his belt and shone it into the black split, peering inside. And he found a baby. With odd tubes and wires trailing from over its naked body, the child was bawling uncontrollably and squirming in its place. Getting a closer look as the pod cooled and started to return back to a metallic grey, and he realised the infant was covered head to toe in scars. But these wounds were old, long healed over leaving detailed discoloured patches on the skin, and it seemed to have sustained no damage whatsoever from the impact. It had burn marks and scars, sculpted almost like tattoos over its body, creating odd patterns that seemed to spin and swirl like the raging fire outside the crater, but the oddest scarring of all were the markings on the child's face. Scorch marks lining under its eyes and forming black rows over its lips, with lighter scars forming odd details, they all came together to create the image of a black and white skull over the child's face...