{oOo}
Teleute's body was no longer entirely familiar to her.
It was her soul that the Lunar Wolves found valuable. Her body was merely human and this was not, to them, sufficient. Leman Russ had already had biologists from the crimson-clad Adeptus Mechanicum treat her pre-emptively with anti-agathics calculated to slow her aging. To the ancient stronghold world of Cthonia, Master Cuchlain had called blue robed emissaries of the Filia Mercurium who had been studying this matter for some eons.
When Teleute came out of the vat they had placed her in, she crushed the first hand offered to raise her to her feet. She felt terrible about that of course but was even more appalled when she found that the hand had been augmetic. For the weeks it took to learn to regulate herself, only space marines of the Lunar Wolves entered her presence, and that in full battle plate.
According to mirrors she looked much as she had before the process: slim, dark of hair and pale of skin. But she could feel things moving inside her, organs akin in a distant fashion to those implanted in the Space Marines. The cost of them had been incalculable: the ancient secrets used to create the Primarchs and their legions had never been intended for women. Nor were the costs merely fiscal: Fabius Bile himself had sought the lore and thousands upon thousands of the Filia had died screaming under his torments rather than reveal the secrets to Fulgrim's Fleshcrafter. (No one told Teleute of the thousands of volunteers who'd perished in almost equal torment as experimental subjects during the lengthy development process).
Once she had learned a measure of self-control, the backbone of the Chapter and the Legion took her in hand. Sergeants of the Lunar Wolves and Black Legion, as well as three successor Chapters that could also claim Horus as progenitor, put her through a rigorous training regieme calculated to make Teleute ready to fight alongside the Space Marines with boltgun, chainsword and a myriad other weapons. Now, with any error likely to be painful, she truly mastered her new physique and into the nights officers and chaplains moulded her mind, preparing her not only for battle but for leadership in battle.
It was almost a shock when a Captain of the Black Legion summoned her to the docks where a strike cruiser was waiting. It was time for her to see war.
{oOo}
AN: More from Heresy & Rebirths Teleute.