A/N – First half of the Choosing, second will be in the next chapter. Generally, they are designed to make them swear everybody and wonder why did they decide to take part in it.
o-0-o
Harry looked around the hall where Scipio waited for them and watched as most of his peers entered the room, their faces showing excitement and plenty of focus. As all of them knew that chosen ones would be treated as heroes by their communities and would receive much admiration from their peers.
"Since the time passed," Scipio said, impossible to read the expression on his face. "We will begin, do the usual workout you usually do during your classes, but each exercise will be repeated hundred times. Once that's done, at the end of the hall there are backpacks filled with something, you run there, grab one and go for a pleasant jog to the markers with the sign of the chapter. There you will meet another Sargeant who will give you further instructions. Now begin."
Harry dropped to the ground and started with the assigned exercises, he worked out a lot, but even that didn't prepare him for the demands of the chapter. He patiently did the push-ups and other exercises, ignoring the burning sensations in his limbs caused by the strain and instead gritted his teeth. Sweat poured down his whole body as he stopped thinking about the exercises and did them mindlessly, letting his thoughts wander on their own.
They somehow wandered towards the moment when four years ago for the first time he met his first cousin who was one of the Creeds and then just returned from one of the campaigns waged by the chapter. He was surprised and impressed by how powerful the Marines were, reading and learning about them from the books was one thing, having an opportunity to talk with one for as much as one had the patience for was something else. It was then when his mind was set on the dream of becoming a Creed, which made his cousin laugh.
"You don't know how hard the selection process is," he then said once he was calm. "Know just that it pushes you to and beyond the limits of your body. I won't tell you what it is, but enough for you is to know those two things. Study hard and workout, workout a lot. Then you might have a chance to win a place to be accepted for training. And assuming you can survive the training you will be sworn in as a member of the chapter."
Then Harry couldn't understand what made his cousin so amused, but now he understood it all too well as his muscles screamed in pain and wanted to get some rest. He gritted his teeth and focused on finishing them. He heard Scipio pass past his position, but he ignored the Sargeant that loomed over him and kept on doing his work.
"Those that feel that they cannot do it are allowed to forfeit," Scipio said and smiled. "We even want you to forfeit as it means lesser hassle later on."
Harry smiled at this, mind games and offering an easy way out of it was a thing he should have expected. He wasn't just quite prepared for how soon it would be used, he expected it to be done later on, not right at the beginning. But then, different people had different styles and different approaches to how to get something done.
He finished the last exercise and with a painted sigh he straightened himself and walked to the end of the hall, he noticed that some people were already gone. Some of them proceeding to the next stage, while some gave up and left the Choosing. He ignored them and scanned the crowd looking for one of his friends, yet he couldn't spot any of them. He shrugged off and without any more thoughts, he jogged to the place where backpacks waited for them and he grasped it before letting out a pained sigh as he lifted it off the ground. He didn't even want to know what was inside, enough for him was that it was heavy.
He placed it on his back and jogged out of the hall, on his way out of it quickly tying his longish hair into a ponytail so that they would let him see. He grabbed a bottle with some kind of a drink that was placed in a large stack outside of the hall and drank it hungrily. The cold liquid let him cool his body and get back some of the fluids the sweat took out and let him get some energy back.
Looking towards the horizon he squinted his eyes and noticed forms of several of his peers ahead of him, he quickly spotted that they paced themselves and didn't push themselves that hard. They just kept a steady and even pace, the time was important but more important was finishing the whole thing. He smiled when he noticed in the distance flowing silver and golden mane of his best friend since his arrival on this world, Aeneas Trojan. It didn't surprise him that his friend was that far ahead, he was one of the fastest out of the school and while Harry managed to stay in the best few percents he wasn't anywhere close to that level.
o-0-o
Aurelian sat on his throne in a throne room that was a part of his battle barge and looked around, the chamber was filled to the brim with Captains and Centurions of the chapter as well as dozens, if not hundreds of dignitaries from the planet. He looked at his hand-picked Praetorians, their bodies clad in Terminator armors surrounding his throne and reminding everybody who was the ruler of the place. "Bring him," Aurelian curtly said.
One of the guards nodded and looked towards a group of Sternguard Veterans that stood by the doors, they nodded and opened massive doors leading into the chamber. Moments later through the very same doors stepped in a pair of Marines, between them the former governor of the planet.
"Governor von Ludenhoff," Aurelian said once the man was dragged to the place directly in front of his throne and forced to kneel. "You and your actions have caused a danger to the Imperium and death of the countless servants of the Emperor as well as the death of over two hundred of my Creed's."
The governor spat onto the ground and looked at Aurelian. "Why should I even bow to the Emperor? He's a corpse and Astra Militarum is away when we need support, while orks are here and can get me what I want."
Aurelian at those words just smiled and looked at the governor. "I thought that those deeds could be because of incompetence, yet it seems that it was because of traitorous actions," he said and smiled ferally. "Everybody that wasn't killed in combat and plotted against the Imperium and the Emperor is sentenced to death. Their families will be resettled to Shangri-La and until we are sure that we can trust the nobility of the world we want two hostages from each family that will spend next fifteen years on Shangri-La with the exception of the House of Vinar as we don't have any doubts about their loyalty and fealty. The new governor of the planet is head of the House of Vinar and let it be that way until the end of times."
His words caused a mixed reaction, some were shocked, some surprised, but overall they were relieved. In most cases, such rebellions ended with much bigger sanctions and here they didn't suffer that much.
"Until the time the world is able to defend itself and train its own Planetary Defense Forces, we will provide it with two Companies of the Creeds and three regiments raised on the planets of the chapter. Maintenance of their barracks and all of their needs will be covered by the hives where they will be stationed and they will provide training to new PDF forces. Those that disagree with our decisions can petition to the Administratum or the Inquisition to change the decision we have made and think are the justest. The court dismissed."
At those words people quickly filled out of the room, leaving Aurelian alone, letting him think about the future of the Imperium and perils coming towards it. He felt in his bones coming of changes, he just was unable to pinpoint from where they would come and what would they change.
o-0-o
Scipio walked between the ranks of teens that still were doing the exercises and nodded to himself, this year batch seemed to be a bit better than the last one. Then by this point only maybe twenty out of the three hundred that started were jogging towards the next task, this year over sixty were on their way there and a hundred gave up and forfeited. However, that was a thing he accepted and didn't think badly about them as he knew that if they had a desire to join the ranks, they would apply for a chance to be allowed to take part in it once again.
He checked the time and smiled to himself. "You have five minutes to finish, after that point each second will be worth ten seconds of time added to your end result," he said and swept his eyes over their sweat-drenched forms. "I suggest that you finish it quickly as even ten seconds of added time hurts badly as those that started the next part before the end of the time have the remaining time for this part subtracted from their final time."
This wasn't quite the truth, yet they didn't need to know that bit of data and more motivation was always nice as it helped the wavering and doubtful ones. He smiled when quite a lot of them started to move more lively as they managed to find more energy inside of their bodies.
o-0-o
Harry let his body move completely on its own and instead let his thoughts wander and yet again they pulled towards the time when he first met his cousin. A person that at first looked like an impassable mountain, but then became a lot less scary person and a much friendly one.
o0o
Harry just returned from school and was about to head to his room when he saw in the garden something or rather someone he didn't expect to find. A towering form of an Emperor's Creed Marines was letting one of his younger adopted siblings ride on its shoulders. He chortled at it and the Marine almost immediately looked in his direction, as if he could hear him.
"What's so funny?" the Marine said, his eyes scanning the shadows in which Harry was hiding. "Also, I can see you just fine, darkness doesn't hide you from me."
Harry reluctantly stepped out of the shadows, keeping a respectful distance from the Marine, a small blush was dancing across his face and his eyes were looking at the ground in front of him.
"I won't hurt you," the Marine said and glanced at the kid on his shoulders. "Cousin, can you move a little less, it's slightly annoying." He then shrugged and added. "Besides, get off my back and go find your mom."
Harry watched this exchange with some puzzlement and shock, he knew that Creed's were allowed to freely interact with the society and to have families. However, seeing it first-hand was a thing that shocked him.
"No need to do that, Brutus," someone said, right behind Harry and he quickly identified that voice as one of his mothers. Then he felt a gentle squeeze on his shoulder, a squeeze that reminded him of the fact that he wasn't alone and there were people he could lean on for support and help. "Hadrian, there's someone you should meet," she said and he looked at her. "Your first cousin, Brutus of the House of Aurelian."
He looked at her and later at the Marine that walked towards them.
"Yes, he is also a member of the Emperor's Creed chapter," she said and looked at Harry. "He won't bite you, even if we adopted you, you are still a part of the family."
Harry nodded and made a couple of reluctant steps forward, still unsure if that giant of a cousin wouldn't hurt him. Which made Brutus chuckle and lower his massive form closer to Harry's level. "I won't hurt you cousin," he said and placed his hand on Harry's shoulder. "Trust me, if I wanted you and everybody dead, all of you were dead before you could say a word."
Harry looked at the gauntlets hand resting on his shoulder and looked into the golden eyes of his cousin. This moment he felt something snap between them, something weird and hard to describe, yet it happened. He blinked and looked at Brutus who seemed as surprised as he was.
"What was that?"
"Don't know," Brutus said, placed his hand on Harry's forehead and traced the scar. "But that scar, I've seen a similar sign during one of the campaigns."
"What does it mean?"
"One of the runes used by the Vlka Fenryka," Brutus said and Harry blinked in surprise. "You know them by their more common name, the Space Wolves."
"Ah," Harry said. "We are supposed to learn about them in few days."
"It might be useful to know about their true name," Brutus said and looked at Harry. "So, cousin mind letting me learn a thing or two about you. I might let you annoy me with the questions about the chapter and few more things."
Harry smiled and after a quick glance at his mom nodded and looked at Brutus. As he did it he was yet unaware of how badly it would change his life and the future to come.
o0o
Harry felt his body start to ache him and get him out of the thoughts that left a bright smile on his lips. He looked towards the horizon and saw that the end goal of the jog was close as he could see a pair of poles with chapter signs grow with each of his steps and his tiredness seemed to disappear on its own.
He crossed the line and almost stopped in place right after passing it, he dropped the backpack and looked at the Creed that waited for him. The Creed noticed him and nodded at him. "Very good, fifteenth time," the Marine said and looked at the scroll he was holding. "Next task is to swim ten lapses, stroke is up to you."
Harry nodded and looked at the pool behind the Marine, there were some people already in the water and they were swimming in their clothes. He ran towards the pool and once he was at the very edge of it jumped and in the air moved so that he slammed into the water hands first. Not breaking the move he moved into the freestyle stroke, kicking the water and moving as fast as possible. He loved being in the water and if he could get a chance to catch up on time he wasn't going to let it pass.
o-0-o
Quintus listened to his vox and then smiled before looking at the Headmaster of the school. "It seems that the first two tasks are almost done and we have hundred and twenty that passed the first trial. I must say that I'm proud of this school and its students."
"We do our best to prepare them for their future life," the Headmaster said with a bow of his head. "Also this year is an exceptional one as we have many showing great promise, Hadrian and Aeneas being the best ones."
Quintus nodded and looked at the manilla folders with data about each student, he quickly found ones about the students mentioned by the Headmaster and pulled them out. "Both stand at hundred and seventy centimeters, sixty-five kilos of weight, fit and healthy and either good or very good scores," he said, his eyes scanning data. "I can see the reason why you're proud of them. If they pass the trials they should make fine Astartes."
"If I may ask, what kind of a test did you prepare for them?"
"History, logic, science, and knowledge of the wider Imperium," Quintus said. "We want to see how well they know those areas and if they possess a brain that can think. It shouldn't be an impossible to complete the task and we already have our eyes set on few candidates."
"That's good," the Headmaster nodded. "We are happy to provide the best possible candidates we can."
Quintus nodded and tapped his vox. "Get a Thunderhawk ready, we have a rather sizeable group of potential Aspirants."
o-0-o
Harry emerged from the pool and shaking the water out of himself he walked to the Sargeant who gave him a look and nodded. "The same way you came, this time with no additional weight," he said.
Harry groaned but nodded and ignoring the scorching sun as well as his muscles and tendons that screamed in pain he started the jog back. He kept a steady pace, hoping not to lose any advantage he had gained when swimming those few laps.
o-0-o
A/N – Regiments and chapters are used interchangeably for 1000 strong units, if they operate with other chapters they use chapters not to irk them, alone prefer regiments. Centurions are leaders of them and each has ten or twenty men strong bodyguard unit – Praetorians.
Before people ask for Primarch, I think it is quite obvious who it is, especially based on the criteria used when choosing Aspirants and the color scheme. No more will be said for now.