' A Future In the Past '
AU: tricked ya! I got nothing ta say, on with the story.
"This is not possible" Tianna stated aloud, more to break the silence that had fallen over the area than anything. But there it was, a picture, supposedly made before the dark age of technology depicting a fully armoured ultramarine, the image even depicted the more modern mark seven Aquila power armour, with its improved chest plates and covered power cables...
Tianna knew the standard stories and epics told by the ecclesiarchy by heart, she could recite them in her sleep! (and once had, to the annoyance of her fellow initiates at the time) but she also knew most of the REAL history of the imperium, more so than the average citizen for sure.
She knew that there had been the age of apostasy, when the predecessor's to her order were first created under the mad cardinal, she knew of the great crusades, when the glorious god-emperor of man had led his sons in the conquest of the galaxy, she also knew of the age of strife and the age of technology that predated it, though records of that time were scant and rarely found.
So she was able to know, without a doubt in her mind, that this picture predated not only the armour, not only the marine, but theIdea of space marines , this was big, this was before the iron men had rebelled and almost wiped humanity from existence, warp, this was before the fall of the eldar! She carefully detached the poster, wincing at the slight scratches caused in her excitement earlier, and placed it within the storage container attached to her power pack, so that she could bring this to her superior's attention if she got back.
Tianna then turned to the rest of the room.
It was dark but not so much that she had needed to activate her helmets night vision, it was dim yes , with the only light coming from the hole she had made in the ceiling(she winced remembering) and her armours glowing display's on her power pack but that was all that was truly needed to illuminate the area in a soft glow. There were many shelves, she noticed, and she had to wonder what they contained, as the dirt and rubbish of centuries (times a couple hundred!) had settled over them, she saw one shelf nearby that contained objects with the rough outline of what might be a book, and trundled over to it, her footsteps leaving deep footprints in the dust on the floor.
She picked one of the bookish lumps at random, and , carefully mind you, shook it, dispelling most of the accumulated crap that had settled over it. "definitely a book" she thought, as she looked upon it, she wiped away the remnants of filth from the book with the front of her armours surcoat , she smiled at the thought of what her sister superior would have done if she had seen her sully the cloth in such a manner, but considering the situation, it could be excused (damn thing was filthy anyway, what with falling in a MIDDEN HEAP of all things...) and revealed the title: Warhammer 40k codex SPACE MARINES it said boldly, with another picture of an ultramarine, this one a centurion with a power fist, pointing meaningfully off into the foreground.
Better prepared to the shock of seeing something so new in a place so seemingly old, she didint drop the book in shock, she did, however, still let out a loud gasp of wonder at another one of these seeming relics. She tried to open the book, but it refused to open, "was it somehow glued together? Is it unsalvageable?!" she worriedly thought, it had been here a long time, surely it would be beyond rep- "oh" she thought, belatedly, "there is a wrapper on it". She removed said plastic wrap, thanking whatever shop owner who had felt the need to waste plastic on all of his products, took a deep, filtered breath, and finally opened the book.
It was written in the same primitive form of low-gothic as the poster, and she was able to read it, albeit with minor difficulty.
Tianna must have read for the better part of an hour, entranced by what she read, "it was a game", she thought, they had had a game that had involved all the major factions in the galaxy as well as some minor ones, before some of those races had even come to be. She checked the date located on the book, 2030, what was the mill? She looked again, no M marker, so that meant ether A: the producer of the book had made a rather large typo, which she doubted, or B: this book was made in the early second millennium, thirty nine THOUSAND years ago.
...
She felt kinda faint.
...
She snapped herself out of it and continued reading (after a few minutes staring listlessly at a wall and swaying a bit) , the game had been fairly complex, and had involved primitive small random number generators (called dice) as well as measuring tools and miniatures made of resin, many pictures were shown, and she looked at all of them, drinking in the sight. They were very detailed for being so small, and included most of the races of the galaxy, there were space marine terminators there, fighting what were apparently tau pathfinders, and in another, she saw a space marine tactical squad facing off against their tainted counterparts.
Seeing the chaos marines sent a shudder up her spine, she turned the page quickly.
She saw many things in that book regarding space marines and their works, the chapters, the stories (some of which she had not known of), things such as unit configurations and weapons, vehicles and formations, it was a chroniclers' wet dream! And all in the form of a playable game! Tianna had played her share of regicide growing up in the convent, and she could say she had been pretty skilled at it, but the complexities of this blew that game out of the water. Things such as morale, tanks, air support, all of it was an integral part of the game, and quite frankly, it looked amazing.
She had to wonder if it had been designed as a means for the lords and commanders of the past era's to train in tactics and strategy, as the price of such figures would have been –well- beyond the price range of the common man, "obviously a game meant for the wealthy" she thought. Maybe she should try to recover some of these things herself? Her prioress would love the novelty, as she, Isabella was her name, was known for her taste in tactical and strategic wargames, she had played Regicide against her frequently as a child, she remembered, partly as a means of entertainment, partly as a way to train the mind...And partly to bury the memories of their parents' deaths, that had still been fresh in their minds at the time.
After finishing the book, and looking through the attached profiles at the back, she set the book into her container and kept looking, she uncovered many books , each detailing a different army and race, she almost ran back to her flamer when she uncovered the codex for chaos marines, but restrained herself, a conflagration here would destroy EVERYTHING with all the dust in the air and dry wood, but she was quite willing to leave it where it sat, (after beating it with a ripped off table leg for a bit) she didn't trust chaos iconography, you never knew when they would get all glowy and sprout tentacles and stuff, (she had read the reports on the battle sisters who had discovered a chaos temple on Calamari 3 in the eastern fringe, and she had not liked it one bit)
She couldn't fit all these books in her container, but she could mark the area for when (if) she came back on her (otherwise fething useless) nav computer, she did, however, find one book that she had to take, had to with all of her being, sure, it had one of those flouncy martyred ladies on the cover as opposed to the black armour of her own ebon chalice, but there it was: Warhammer 40k Codex Adeptus Sororitas.
...
...
"Squee!"