After the battle my regiment was given leave to explore Franc as they wished, having illuminated the rebels and brought them to full compliance in a matter of days, the area was considered safe (for the Thunder Warriors at least). Julianos and I decided to find one of the oh-so-famous Franc feed houses and indulge ourselves in some foreign delicacies before rigorous training believed of the newly conquered Franc military in order to keep the local populace in compliance.
"Do you know what I found odd Tiberius?" Julianos pondered suddenly.
"What?" I asked him, genuinely curious about the answer; it was not often that Julianos was curious about things.
"The colours of the Franc's flag were certainly odd, to say the least, Red, white and blue… Who puts that much white in a flag? A whole section of it no less?" he asked. His question was random… But I was fairly sure he had a joke in there somewhere.
"I don't know Julianos, why do they have a strip of white in their flag?" I enquired.
"Well surely, judging by what we have seen today, it is so that they can simply remove the other two colours, and are left with a clean strip of white… with which to wave around and surrender to us with!" He started laughing at that point, his booming voice echoing off the tall walls of buildings on either side of the road we were walking down.
"Clearly this is the reason brother," I replied. "We should have kept up their traditions and torn up their flag, rather than burn it."
"Oh but burning it was so much fun, Tiberius!" he practically jumped at the memory of it. "And the shock on people's faces when they saw their flag go up in flames was timeless." We laughed for a while longer, reminiscing about kills and moments in the battle until we eventually managed to find a feed house. A squat little building, stuck between two sky-scrapers with the main entrance to it at the bottom of about 3 or four steps. A loud gaggle of voices could be heard emanating from the doorway already.
As we stepped through the door the place fell silent. The people were obviously all of the same race and probably local; with ever so slightly olive skin and dark hair that both men and women alike had grown to at least shoulder height. We had not bothered to disguise ourselves in any way. Dressed in ceremonial power armour, our helms attached to our belts and our short standard cut hair blazing golden compared to the local's jet black hair. That and we were at least a meter taller than any of the other people in the house. The atmosphere instantly turned to hostile, and I was worried that the situation may have got ugly, had Julianos not suddenly straightened it out.
"Please! Friends! Continue, we are but servants to the Emperor as are you now. Regard us as brethren and not conquerors. All we have done is set you free of your false ideologies and shown you the guiding hand of the Emperor." Julianos boomed cheerfully. He had a reputation as a people pleaser and also a fantastic warrior. He was the perfect embodiment of what an Astartes should be.
The general murmur of chat kicked up again, and Julianos and I strolled into the feed house casually and found a place to sit. It was a booth against one of the walls close to the back of the house, being the size an Astartes is we had to sit on a sofa, rather than a normal human sized chair. Julianos and I had found that out in an awkward fashion, during basic training.
We had only just received our Gene-seeds, and were still getting used to our super human stature. We had gone to one of the mess halls, after being invited by some of our friends still waiting for their gene-seed. As a result, we had to go into the normal mess hall, rather than the oversized Astartes halls. As we sauntered in a cheer rose from the table that our friends were sitting around.
"Here come the huge idiots!" one of them called out and laughter erupted around the hall.
"So how does it feel to finally be an Astartes?" someone else called out.
"Odd," I replied. "I'm still getting used to being so tall, and so heavy." With Julianos and I made our way to the table and started to sit down.
"Hey are you sure that'll hold you weight Tiberius?" my friend, Andron, asked.
"Don't be foolish, Andron, of course it will." I replied and sat on the chair. At which point it promptly broke. There was clatter as the chair splintered and sections of it flew into the air, landing on the floor far away from where the chair used to be. There was an awkward moment of silence, nobody really wanting to laugh at an Astartes. Then Julianos broke the silence, his laughter boomed out of his chest, which obviously shocked him a bit too, which then caused the rest of the hall to laugh as well. Eventually I decided to laugh as well and perhaps in the process saved my self some dignity. Julianos helped me to my feet and, not wanting to test the resolve of another chair, stayed standing until training started again.
The noise in the feed house was starting to get ridiculous; as people drank more and more their tongues became looser and looser. Eventually people were dancing and singing, one or two of them tried to get us to join in, so we decided that the time had come to leave. The food in the feed house had been exquisite - just as rumours had said it would be -and the wine even more so. We tipped the bar keep an extra five Aquilas and went on our way.
As were walking down the street Julianos suddenly announced "I got 30, Tiberius, what about you?" At first I was confused not really understanding what he meant. But then I remembered our bet from the battle. A smug grin spread across my face and I told him, in an obviously condescending tone "Only 30 Julianos? You're getting old brother."
"Is that so? Well in that case what did you get?" he suddenly realised that perhaps his count wasn't as impressive as he thought.
"Far more than that brother," I replied
"Well then, by the Emperor, tell me how many you got!"
"Oh no, it's far more amusing to watch you squirm, Julianos."
"That's just torturous brother. Tell me what you got, was it 50?" I shook my head. "40?" Another shake of the head.
"Oh Terra, just tell me already would you?" he laughed obviously being driven insane by the tension.
"If you insist brother; I got 35." I told him, trying to keep a dead straight face. He looked at me with a look of sheer distain. The look on his face made me think I had rapidly grown an extra head.
"35? You got 5 more kills than I did?" he asked, obviously thinking I was joking.
"Precisely, Julianos, only 5 more, and now you owe me 10 Aquilas." I replied, calmly, trying desperately to keep a straight face. Julianos looked like he was about to explode. He knew he would never live this down, especially seeing as he was ahead of me for the majority of battle and was mocking me for that fact. Then suddenly he erupted into laughter.
"Well I suppose in that case I owe you don't I?" he laughed and handed me 10 Aquilas. I grasped them triumphantly, not expecting to have beaten him, even if by such a slim count. There wasn't much an Astartes could spend money on except for food from local feed houses, but most of us didn't bother as we could get it for free from an Astartes mess.
The rest of the day went in a fairly uneventful fashion; we met other Astartes patrolling the streets, wandered past buildings that were fast being converted into barracks for training new forces to maintain compliance, iterators and remembrancers taking in the city and learning all its secrets.
"So, Tiberius," Julianos began, starting up another quick conversation. "What do you think the Emperor will do once he joins mankind together?"
"I honestly hadn't thought much about that, Julianos, I simply assumed we would have peace." I replied. Julianos chuckled at my reply.
"You obviously didn't pay attention much during the Emperor's speeches did you?" he asked me.
"It's not that brother, in all honesty I never attended one before. I was always busy in training cells for his speeches."
"Ah but they are glorious! You must hear one; If I'm not mistaken he's making a speech shortly, where we burned the flag, I believe," and with that Julianos broke off into a run towards the square. I chuckled and matched his pace towards the square.
We arrived just as the Emperor was starting, and By Terra he was a sight. He stood, tall and proud, clad from head to toe in his own personalised Regal Power Armour; a solid gold power armour, bejewelled with rubies and emeralds. The chest plate had His signature two headed eagle carved into it, and the shoulder plates had small sculptures of the eagles placed on them. Behind his head, yet another eagle pronounced itself, as if proclaiming the Emperor's power even more so. Clasped to random points on his armour were small oaths of moment from his own combat scenarios, it was rumoured that he had kept each of his oaths clasped to his armour so that he could be reminded of how the atrocities of war truly stayed with him. It was as if he was literally emanating power in a halo around him. A golden wreath, his sign of office, was clasped to his brow, making him look the striking resemblance of an angel from old religions.
"My sons!" his voice suddenly resounded from him, as if amplified by a thousand vox speakers, and yet none could be seen. "Today is a glorious day, we have shed from these fellow men their decadent ways and brought them the truth that only the Imperium can bring." His voice was… hypnotic. It made me want to listen until the last of His Words had slipped from His lips. And how easily those words did flow, like quicksilver being poured from a cup. His voice itself commanded respect, but not in a manner that was intimidating. It was a soft as a babbling brook in some places, as sweet as honey in others and then as intoxicating as wine throughout. He talked for at least half an hour, celebrating how we had illuminated the rebellion of Franc and how quickly the local populace was brought to compliance, when suddenly he called out my name.
"Tiberius Domitian? I am told that you are the fine Astartes that finished the fight, and ordered the surrender of the Francs?" The Emperor called out. I was suddenly aware of an odd feeling. What was it? Nervousness? Perhaps. All of these eyes on me, it made sense to be nervous. But no it was stronger than that. Fear? Again, it couldn't be. We are designed not to feel fear. No, it was pride, a pride so huge that it had rooted me to the spot. The Emperor knew my name and celebrated my achievement. My victory.
"My son, don't be shy, come up here so that all these glorious people can see the man who brought an end to this conflict." The Emperor called out, his voice still smooth as velvet. A pathway suddenly cleared itself to the stage in the crowd. I stood, rooted to the spot, hardly believing that this was in fact happening to me. Julianos gave me a small shove and I snapped out of my daze. I started towards the stage and as I did a round of applause began. The closer I got to the stage, the louder the cheering, and so by the time I got to the stage people were literally whooping and shouting and cheering I even saw a few raised fists amongst the crowds. The moment I was in front of the Emperor, I dropped to one knee.
"What has been done was done so in your name, My Liege." I said, in as humble a tone as possible. The Emperor laughed and a wave of emotions passed over me in a single second, a combination of fear, pride, and a rage towards all who do not support him. He looked down at me, and then suddenly he himself dropped to one knee. I was astounded and had no idea what to do; The Emperor should never bow to any one, especially not me. He looked up at me, and then told me "you have done humanity a great service my son. Rather than let innocent blood be spilt, you chose to give them the option to surrender and as a result many lives were saved; humanity is better now thanks to your actions and so, from the bottom of my heart, I thank you." I was amazed. I was completely bewildered, by this strange turn of events. Then the Emperor stood up, and turned to the audience.
"Let it be known that this glorious son of mine has saved countless human lives, and for that he is a hero amongst you," He announced proudly, and just like that the crowd answered him with even more cheers of joy. The Emperor clapped me on the shoulder and pulled me in close, whispering to me "come to the base tent at midnight, I have things we need to discuss," and then said loudly for more the audiences benefit than mine, "go my son, continue whatever it was you were doing, and know that whatever you do The Emperor is with you, for you are now one of his Favoured Sons."
I wandered off the stage and back down towards Julianos. He had the largest grin on his face that I've ever seen.
"So… Emperor's favoured huh?" he asked, a slightly mocking grin on his face.
"So it seems; I never would have expected that." I replied. My life had been changed forever. The Emperor had pronounced me as a favoured Astartes and now had some sort of secret assignment for me. I could only imagine what it could be.
We wandered off to the Astartes base camp, and were instantly hit by a wall of Battle Brothers. At first I was confused but then, one by one, each of them placed their left hands on the right hand side of their chests, the Pro-Unity salute. Then as one they all chanted, in a chorus that sounded like the world itself was being torn apart by the Old World Weapons of Mass Destruction, "Battle Brothers, one and all, accept the Chosen amongst your ranks, and know from this day forth that the Emperor is with you, so long as this Chose One is with you. Kill For the Living. Kill for the dead and kill for the Emperor. WE ARE THE ASTARTES! WE ARE THE EMPERORS ELITE AND WE SHALL KNOW NO FEAR!" and then as one their fists went from their chests to straight up, and an almighty cheer that could make the earth shake resounded from all of the Astartes massed together. Then they all swarmed me, each one trying to congratulate me and clap me on the shoulder or give me a punch on the arm. It was rituals like this that set us apart from the Techno-Barbarians that we waged war on. Our spirit of camaraderie and brotherhood kept us tied together at the shoulder, and made us fight to save each brother that we stood with and each one would fight to save your life. And that is why the enemies of the Imperium could never succeed.
