Imperial Stormtrooper: But the Imperium IS misdirected. The majority of humanity knows only fanaticism, misery, and acculturation. Moreover, Guiliman blames his father: "We had dreamed of a glorious future. Was this really what we wanted?" And no, comparing the Imperium of Man to Slaanesh is NOT an argument... a god of Chaos and depravity is obliviously out of competition. The Imperium succeeds in bringing together the WORST aspects of humanity's WORST dictatorships: political commissars in the army like Stalin's USSR; legions of genocidal 'übermenschlichen' forming a separate army, like the SS. Inquisitors and witch hunters everywhere, justice nowhere, as in the Golden Century's Spain; a decadent and corrupted aristocracy living only for pleasures and fame as in Versailles at the time of Louis XIV; and to top it all off, a relentless and shameless ultra-capitalism, turning beautiful planets into ash deserts with a toxic atmosphere, reducing workers to slavery.
Madara95 and Azazel72: Thank you for the correction. I have fixed my mistake. Don't hesitate to point other canonical errors. I say it again, I'm not very familiar with Warhammer 40k lore.
MSala: Thank you for your support.
Abdiel Amaro: I don't really understand what you mean by 'plots conveniences', but the Emperor summons Tanya because he sees something in her (read this chapter for more information). Otherwise, the reason behind the script is that... if the Psykers had been able to read her mind she would have been burned as a heretic. If the Psykers had not been able to read her mind, she would have drowned in a test to stage if she was a witch. Since I did not want to end the series at the second chapter, I needed a Deus ex Machina... and that's what I did... literally besides, I got a God(-Emperor) out of the Machine (Throne) (1). On the Psykers and Pariahs subject, I do not know everything, but I understood enough to insist on the fact that Tanya possesses in a CONTRADICTORY way some of the Pariahs' abilities when she is a Psyker. And the reason of this contradiction is... Being X.
Jcherebel: Thank you. To be honest, I look forward to being AFTER the meeting with the Emperor. I think that my interpretation of the character may earn me boos from the fans of the Warhammer universe. After all, for me, the Emperor is a psychopath! That's why I sent Tanya into W40K. I never understood why so many people sang the praises of the Emperor...
Andod: Thank you, I am also very pleased with this passage.
Cat Eyes In The Night: read this chapter and you will know.
Tracitus: Let us pray to the God-Emperor that my inspiration does not linger and that I continue to deserve the concert of praise received for the first two chapters.
Guest: When I was a child, I thought goldfishes were small fishes until I saw a documentary on Bangkok. The city's rods are filled with big fish... goldfishes. In fact, the goldfishes seen in small bowls cannot grow because they are in a too-small space. Human thought and imagination are like goldfish. You know the real size of the Imperium because you have the point of view of an outside reader, who just has to type a few words on a search engine and learn everything you need to know. Tanya was raised in a hive-city, and she has only quit the sud-level where she was born to go from prison cell to another prison cell. She has no idea of the actual size of the Imperium. Don't forget that, as an actor in this story, she has only a limited point of view. She also did not receive a very thorough education ('just enough to be useful, not enough to be dangerous' see Chapter 1).
Chapter Three
The Emperor Protects
The Imperial Palace was the largest single man-made structure in known space. Its footings sank deep into the planet's mantle, its towers probed the airless limits of the atmosphere.
At the time of the Age of Unification, the Imperial Palace had been the most beautiful creation of men. Its splendor surpassed the wildest dreams, its fame spread throughout the galaxy, and no artist, no king, no emperor, or poet had imagined anything equivalent.
That's what the chronicle of Terra told.
Then there was the Horus Heresy...
Ten thousand years later, the palace still bore the scars of the siege led by the traitorous child of the Emperor.
The Inner Palace retains a lot of its antique aspect. With the higher density of population per square kilometer in the Imperium, the Inner Palace was the most active know hive city. Billions of adepts from all branches of the Adeptus Terra work in the Imperial Complex, part of the bureaucracy of the Imperium of Mankind.
Of course, the Inner Palace was a complex far too vast to be known or memorized by a single human mind. A lifetime spent in this labyrinth was not enough to pass by all the chambers, and corridors of this extensive city. The Inner palace covered the entirety of what had once been the Himalayas mountain range. Its high towers reached the highest layers of the atmosphere and the underground part of the complex extended almost to the level of the molten rock.
Between the lower balconies of the high towers and the streets below, filled with light and teeming with people, there were often more than 500 stories. Some of the great domes in the Precinct were so vast they contain their own miniature weather systems. Microclimate clouds drift under painted vaults and rain sometimes fell.
In the past, the Outer Palace had looked so splendid. But during Horus Heresy, most of the fighting had taken place there. And, at the end of the war, only smoking ruins remained.
Obviously, the rubble had been cleared and a new city had been built during the last ten thousand years.
But the Outer Palace has retained nothing of it original beauty. It becomes a grim slum inhabited by millions of destitute people who have no employment beyond the few scraps they can squeeze from the tables of the more fortunate adepts.
The Outer Palace extended over most of what had been Asia, as well as parts of the Pacific Ocean that had disappeared (evaporated over the millennia).
Not surprisingly, the largest monument in the entire Imperial Palace stood at the end of the Avenue of Sacrifice. It was necessary to pass the Gate of Ascension then the Gate of the Lion before reaching the golden pyramid of the Sanctum Imperialis. It was in the depths that was the Golden Throne of the God-Emperor.
Few were admitted to the holy of holies in the presence of the Emperor.
These privileged included members of the Adeptus Custodes, the Highs Lords of Terra, and members of the Adeptus Mechanicus who maintained the machinery of the Golden Throne.
Most people who met the Immortal God-Emperor, only saw him once, whether they were the Sanctioned Psykers brought to the Emperor to strengthen their Souls against the assaults of the Gods of Chaos... or the Pariahs who were sacrificed in an attempt to regenerate the Emperor's vital energy.
Tanya Degurechaff was one of those 'Privileged'.
However, at that moment, she was not in ecstasy. A year earlier, the intervention of the Emperor had saved her life. At that time, she had certainly felt gratitude. However, as the months of hard training continued, Tanya's gratitude had given way to more and more concern.
She became obsessed with a question:
"Why?"
Why did the Emperor save her?
And to begin with, how did he become aware of her existence and why did she attract his attention?
The propaganda of the Imperium spoke a lot about the Love of the God-Emperor for humanity. Blah-blah! But Tanya did not believe it at all... not for a single moment. This 'God' was the creator of an empire whose foundations were xenophobia and oppression. In fact, fear served as cement for the whole Imperium of Man... fear and ignorance. Human life had no importance in the relentless gearing of this insane mechanism known as the Imperium. Millions of Guardsmen were daily crushed in these cogs during vain bayonet charges ordered by imbeciles who knew no other tactics than the frontal attack! The Astra Militarum believed that 'blood was the currency of the Emperor' and obviously they were paying cash. And let's not talk about the living conditions of citizens...
No, the leaders of the Imperium completely look down on human life. Their 'love' for the people over whom they were ruling was to send them to death so that they themselves would be safe in their golden palaces.
And if the 'God-Emperor' of the Imperium of Man had certainly not saved her by 'goodness' it was because he was waiting for something in return. And when Tanya got to that point of her thoughts, she came back to her original question: "Why her?"
And for months her mind was caught in this loop of "why?" without finding any way out.
The room was huge.
No... said so it seemed so... banal! You will never understand what I am trying to say if I start like this.
Let's take it from there.
Imagine a vast plain, a plain paved with smooth metal. And on this plain flowed the flags of the planets composing the Imperium of Mankind... In front of Tanya, the line of flags continued for kilometers. But the room was rectangular, and the road she was following was through its middle! On the right and left of Tanya, the alignments of flags disappeared in the distance. The young Psyker could barely spot the walls of the immense metal cavern, twenty or thirty kilometers apart!
This was a gigantic cave several hundred meters high, brightly lit, an artificial cave Large enough to contain Versailles, Buckingham Palace, and the Forbidden City, as well as a dozen smaller royal palaces!
And all this constituted only one room of the Sanctus Imperialis!
For an hour, the eight-year-old girl had been walking among four members of the Adeptus Custodes. According to her estimate, she had traveled four kilometers and the alignments of flags continued to extend in front of her. A flag per member planet of the Imperium had said one of her guides...
One flag per planet.
One flag per planet!
Every planet had its own hive cities populated by millions of people...
Hundreds of hive cities per planet...
Tanya's mind stopped working... refusing reality!
Despite her reincarnation, Tanya had kept her human mentality of the 20th century... her mind could not grasp the reality of the Imperium of Man! It was too big! Too crowded!
Two hours after entering the hall of flags, they arrived at a door... once again the words used to describe this monument seem ridiculous compared to reality.
A double door made of pure gold and carved with beautiful scenery: the God-Emperor slaying a titanic snake with a human crowned head.
Impressive!
But not really new. It looked a lot like many frescoes in the old churches of Europe that the salaryman had seen in his coworker's holidays photos.
But this quick comparison did not take into account the dimensions of the door.
The Eternity Gate had to be 50 meters on the ground and 250 meters high! This door seemed to have been made on a scale of a god with whom mortals were but insignificant ants! A four-lane highway would have easily gone through the opening.
A Japanese proverb said: 'Man builds his house according to his ambitions'.
It was promised because this door led to the Emperor's Golden Throne.
Anesthetized by the architectural excess of the Sanctus Imperialis, Tanya no longer thought of her exhausting crossing the endless corridors of this insane construction.
She hardly paid attention to the priest who came down on her waving an incense burner and praying to purify her. The young Psyker barely raised an eyebrow when she saw that the priest was flying thanks to two pairs of angelic metal wings and that a metallic halo surrounded his hooded head.
This was an almost insignificant detail...
After all, the human mind could only absorb a limited amount of absurdity before becoming mumble.
More annoying were the servo-skulls that revolved around her, they scanned her from head to toe in search of hidden weapons, mutations, Chaos Mark... or anything that could constitute a danger. Tanya had no doubt that invisible weapons were aimed at her, and that she could be vaporized in an instant.
The brief ceremony completed, the double door began to turn while an invisible chorus began to sing magnificent litanies to the glory of the God-Emperor.
But Tanya was disgusted.
Oh yeah, she was impressed.
How can we not be impressed by such a display of excess and wealth? But this only revived the memory of her miserable childhood in the misery of a hive-city on Armageddon.
After the initial shock, her rational mind took over. And everything Tanya discovered seemed to her to be a senseless waste. Misery and war were the daily lives of billions of humans... or rather billions of planets each inhabited by billions of humans.
And the selfishness of the rulers was such that they built such monuments to celebrate 'their' victory while the rest of the humans suffered and died everywhere in the Imperium of Mankind trying precisely not to lose this war.
At that moment a voice made her tremble:
[That's pretty true. But don't you think that's a partial view of the problem, Tanya?]
Tanya Degurechaff swallowing becoming aware of two things...
It was a mental voice that responded to her inner thoughts and delved into her memory. However, until then, no Psyker had succeeded in breaking through her mental defenses.
And there was only one Psyker in the whole Imperium to have such a presence in the Immaterium.
Her knees trembled and her eyes widened as the psychic power of the God-Emperor of Mankind spread to her nerve endings.
As in trance, Tanya Degurechaff walked along an immense avenue between two marble stands occupied by monks in red robes who sang hymns. This avenue was decorated with statues representing the Heroes of the Imperium, here a member of the Adepta Sororita, there an Imperial Commissar, further to Inquisitor and especially many Adeptus Astarte. Each statue was honored, offerings were laid and candles burned, celebrating the memory of their deeds. Crystal chandeliers hung from a ceiling shaped like an overturned boat hull that supported a forest of carved columns. Everywhere statues of angels decorated alcoves, the Imperial Aquila, and the skull motif was omnipresent.
The place looked very much like a Gothic cathedral with its colorful stained glass windows.
But the nave of this cathedral was a kilometer long.
Staggering, the eight-year-old girl arrived at the foot of the golden throne.
Leaning against the wall opposite the door was a monumental mechanism. It was a sort of mountain of strange machines. Cables and relays brought together disparate technologies. The whole thing looked like a kind of do-it-yourself. But this arrangement was covered with precious metal sheets and the machines were decorated with skull-shaped motifs. While the slightest free space was occupied by candles or parchment strips covered with prayers set by red wax seals.
Between the machines went up a golden staircase...
The psychic power that had pulled Tanya forward released her.
She fell to her knees... not out of protocol, but simply because she was exhausted. Panting, she trembled, her eyes enlarged with terror.
The God-Emperor had entered her thoughts... but in return, she had touched him... and it was horrible.
Merciless, the mental power again insinuated itself into her neurons. Like a whip, the mental voice slammed:
[Look up, Tanya Degurechaff, I - The Emperor of Mankind- give you permission to look at my eternal martyr.]
The 'permission' in question was a mental order that imprinted itself on her thoughts as a red-iron mark. And Tanya could not refuse...
On top of the mountain of strange machinery, there was a golden throne. On its pedestal were placed human skulls.
But the occupant of this throne was wrapped in a field of stasis of a translucent blue...
It was a skeleton, arms reduced to yellowish bones clasped the arms of the throne. Rotting clothes no longer hid the rib cage. Surrounded by long grayish hairs and still covered with a few shreds of parchment skin, the grimacing skull seemed to look at her. Like a halo, hundreds of cables converged towards the head and one of the eyes was replaced by a red cybernetic implant. A red liquid that must have been blood was circulating in pipes and pumps. But the terrible mental power that had befallen Tanya emanated from that rotting corpse!
[That's right, Tanya Degurechaff, that's me, the Immortal God-Emperor of the Mankind! Me... in agony for ten thousand years, since my son's sword pierced me. Ten thousand years prisoners of a decaying corpse! Look at me Tanya and dare to say that I do not understand the sufferings of humanity! There is no human who suffers more than me. But I refuse the deliverance of death because I alone hold in respect the Ruinous Powers! I am humanity's only hope!]
Around Tanya the throne room suddenly fragmented into millions of colorful fragments that began to rotate around her before re-fitting to form a different landscape. Cliffs of volcanic rocks of a dazzling white reflected the light of the sun. The sky was blue with some rare white clouds.
The brown soil was dry, only a few strangely bright green shrubs were growing in this wild land.
"This is Anatolia... 8000 BC."
Tanya turned and her eyes widened.
A man was standing behind her. He was a colossus who wore gold armor almost identical to that of the Space Marines. The epaulets, chest, and knee guards were adorned with the Imperial Aquila. The man wore no helmet and his face had the features of a god as carved in the clay of arrogance and contempt. It was a mask with a bitter mouth, with eyes deep in the orbits. There was no trace of weakness in that face haloed in gold. If Tanya had had the slightest doubt about the identity of the one who was speaking to her, the sight of the laurel wreath placed like a crown on his long black hair would have dispelled these doubts.
"Your... Your Majesty?"
Hesitation and fear echoed in Tanya's voice. This earned her a scornful smile from the Emperor:
"Suddenly you're more respectful, Tanya Degurechaff."
Then the Emperor turned to look at the mountains on the horizon:
"I was born here almost 49,000 years ago."
"How can we be here, Your Majesty? 8,000 years before our era?"
The Emperor had a little laugh:
"We have not changed places. I am still on my throne of pain. And you are still kneeling at the foot of the golden steps. This landscape is a simple mental construct that I have projected into your mind to facilitate our discussion."
Having retaken up a little of her usual critical spirit, Tanya looked at the emperor with a little more assurance:
"And why did you want to talk to me, Your Majesty?"
"Tanya, I am dying... this is nothing new. But until then my throne kept me in a half-living, half-death state. You don't know anything about the Golden Throne, do you?"
It was not really a question and, in any case, the Emperor did not give her time to answer it. He immediately went on to say:
"This is a complex construction, thanks to the Adeptus Mechanicus. I created it to allow humans to fight the influence of the corrupt spirits who reside in the Immaterium. However, its main mechanism is not a technological element that is due to the genius of men. It's an artifact probably created by the Aeldari and far beyond our knowledge. A few years ago, members of the Adeptus Mechanicus detected signs of malfunction in this device. It works less and less well... when it stops, I will die. I do not fear death, quite the contrary, it will be deliverance. But I could no longer protect humanity."
There was a moment of silence and the Emperor turned to Tanya:
"I'm not a god. I have always believed that man should not rely on supernatural powers, he should chart his course by the force of his will and overcome trials by himself. For example, look at the creatures that roam the warp... they are monstrosities born of our darkest and most repressed thoughts: violence, sexual urges, fear of death, and desire for power. These thoughts have coagulated in the warp giving birth to the Gods of Chaos and the Daemons who threaten to destroy our reality. And only I can stop them... and ironically, for that, I pretended to be a god!"
He lowered his gaze to Tanya waiting for a reaction and she did not disappoint him:
"You mean that it was necessary for Your Majesty to claim to be a god to fight the Gods of Chaos?"
The Emperor nodded:
"That's right, Tanya. The Gods of Chaos are born of thoughts and impulses inhabiting the soul of an incalculable number of intelligent individuals, humans and Xenos alike. To fight their influence, the faith of all humanity was needed. The myth of the 'God-Emperor' was born to permit me to become the focal point of human belief. The Throne allows me to direct all the psychic power of humanity against the Ruinous Powers and thus I prevent them from extending their influence."
Tanya agrees:
"But you're going to die and..."
She hesitated, and the Emperor ended in her place:
"At this moment, nothing will protect humanity."
Tanya shook her head:
"I don't understand. Why are you telling me this stade secret, Your Majesty? I'm no-one, only one of you billiards of subjects."
The Emperor had a cold smile:
"Don't sell you cheap, Tanya Degurechaff. First of all, because I want you to know that I can protect you from the entity that you call Being-X... but also that I couldn't after I died, which means you better help me."
"Me?"
Tanya was taken aback, not understanding her own importance in the grand design of the cosmos. The man in golden armor went on to say:
"I'm not an Aeldari Great Farseer, my visions of the future are less accurate than theirs. Yet I have always been able to get glimpses of what is going to happen. Eight years ago, all my predictions of the future were distorted by the appearance of a child just born... a child reincarnated with the memory of her previous life and endowed with powerful psionics powers... a child who had not appeared in any of my previous visions, You, Tanya Degurechaff. I spent seven years looking for you because you are a new factor who changes the fabric of time. Do you understand? By reincarnating you here Being-X has added a variable in this ten thousand year war that opposes me to Chaos and Xenos, a variable that adds an advantage to the camp that will control it."
Seeing Tanya choking with stupor, the Emperor had a new smile devoid of heat:
"You see, I don't give a damn about your little fight with Being-X. But Being-X is now taking part in the confrontation. He has created a new challenge. And your soul is at stake in this fight. Because you were reborn on a world of the Imperium, I have a move ahead of all the other powers that might covet your soul. All races endowed with psionic talents must have felt the echo of your birth. The sorcerers of Chaos, the Aeldari Farseers, even the Orks are looking for you. The Necrons and the T'au should also move. The Xenos with no psionic powers have nothing to gain, but they are smart enough not to let their enemies gain an advantage they cannot use. Once the soul-bound ceremony is over, I should send you back to the world you were born in. according to my visions of the future, your first trial will take place on Armageddon in your eighth year. That's why you only spent a year at the Scholastica Psykana. I would of course have preferred to have more time to prepare you. Unfortunately, Being-X has set the rules of this game, so we have to play the game as he sees fit."
Tanya Degurechaff reflects for a moment, trying to put her thoughts in order and analyze the situation logically. Literally, the Emperor had said that Being-X set a battle-Royal game with her soul at stake. Tanya shivered and answered with a certain amount of irritation:
"And Your Majesty also wants to send me back to Armageddon because if I stay on Terra, I will attract in the Solar system all those who want my soul."
For the first time, the Emperor's laughter was warm:
"Your honesty is refreshing, Tanya Degurechaf. So, exceptionally, I permit it. For thousands of years, the only people who come to talk to me have been superstitious bigots with narrow minds. I like you very much, Tanya... and of course you're right. I would sacrifice you without any qualms if it allowed me to gain an advantage. It's up to you to convince me that you have more value in life. We are both rational individuals who think of the greater good of humanity as a whole and sacrifice those who are a burden... this, of course, is in the best interests of the whole. "
A techno-priest in a red robe finished blessing Tanya now dressed in the black robe of an Iptissimus telekine. On each shoulder, the dress was marked with a capital I superimposed on an open eye. The belt buckle wore the Imperial Aquila. This dress concealed a light armor capable of stopping laser fire. Although it was custom-made, Tanya now had most devices standard for the Adeptus Telepathica such as an auspex (a short-range detector) and two psionics amplifiers - rectangular boxes stuffed with electronics- attached to her belt.
Tanya felt strange.
Her mind was clearer and stronger. But at the same time, the Soul-bound had like... distorted a part of her psyche. It was the psionic equivalent of a bruise, an injury just sensitive enough to hurt when touched. However, Tanya felt that this wound would never really heal... a piece of her soul had been changed by the power of the God-Emperor, replaced by something he had added into her. Something out of the ordinary...
[You shouldn't complain, Tanya, some Psykers lose their sight or go crazy during the Soul-Bound event. You have had no negative consequences. And, because of the Soul-Bound, as long as you respect your part of the contract, I will protect you from Being-X.]
Tanya breathed in to calm down.
The Emperor did not seem to have heard of private life...
[Rest assured, I have more to do than spy on the thoughts of an eight-year-old girl. As soon as you're gone, I'll go back to the Imperium matters of state.]
[In that case, the sooner I'm gone, the better.]
[Your enthusiasm for accomplishing your mission is duly noted, Iptissimus Deguruchaff] mocked the Emperor. Nevertheless, he quickly resumed his seriousness: [You will not leave alone. You will travel with two regiments of Guardsmen, they are veterans who survived the fall of Cadia. You'll be posted to General Greilf's staff. These regiments are not at full strength, but I'm also sending reinforcements to the Blood Raven Chapter based on Armageddon. Note though that neither General Greilf nor Brother Captain Silacius is aware of your importance. I don't think traitors and Xenos already know who they're looking for, so your anonymity is your best protection. That said, an eight-year-old Ipssimus is a first in the history of the Imperium. I can only encourage you to be cautious. But first, you must rely on your own strength. In short: try not to be noticed, but be prepared for everything, in doubt count on the help of my loyal soldiers and Spaces Marines. Do you get it?]
Various thoughts intertwined in Tanya's mind. The paternalism of the Emperor irritated her greatly. The latter was undoubtedly aware of her state of mind, but this time he said nothing. Finally, Tanya replied as respectfully as she could:
[I get it, my Emperor.]
[In this case, you have your orders and I expect prompt and positive news. It is useless to remind that your soul is at stake.]
Tanya Degurechaff Iptissimus Telekine of the Adeptus Telepathica left the throne room, escorted by four Adeptus Custodes.
She was to join a spaceport on the edge of the Imperial Palace.
It was the beginning of a long journey.
(1) Unlike the Greeks who have left us mostly tragedies, the Roman theatre consists mainly of farces. That is to say comedy plays. Most of these pieces are a theatre of improvisation, one embroiders on a known canvas: the old rich merchant, the young wife, the secret lover, and the valet accomplice, for example. However, situations often ended in the absurd. And to reframe the story involved an actor brought by hoists and concealed ropes and who seemed to fly over the stage. This actor incarnated a god and revived the story. The apparition of this actor and the twist of the story that he causes are known as the Deux ex Machina. (It was the 'culture' time, thank you for your attention).