Note: Just to let you know why I changed this chapter, one individual, Brother Bov, left a review I genuinely agree with. The original chapter was rushed and wasn't as good as it could have been as a result. I didn't expect so many people to read this so I originally didn't try as hard as I should have to make it the best it could possibly be.
Now that being said, there are some things he and other reviewers pointed out that I will not be able to fix. At least not in a way that feels satisfactory. The Spartans being separated so soon and being willing to undergo further augmentation so soon after their initial augmentations. I'm going to have to take a few liberties in that regard otherwise the spartans would simply never split up. Though I will try my best to give them a reason to in the next chapter. Whether that reason is satisfactory or not, I don't know.
Spartan John 117 cursed as he looked down at the corpse of Dr. Halsy. He knew she had to be a corpse as she had a massive hole through her chest from being hit by a stray shot from one of the large green skinned aliens that were currently attacking the wreckage of the UNSC Commonwealth. She had been the last non-spartan survivor of the passengers and crew. Everyone else had either died in the space battle, died in the crash, or died fighting the green skinned aliens on the planet's surface. John had thus assigned himself and the rest of his particular squad of blue team to defend Halsey from the aliens while she tried to repair the ship's communication system to call for help, but they had failed.
"All surviving spartans, Dr. Halsey is down! I repeat, Dr. Halsey is down! Without those communications systems active we're on our own." John announced grimly as he pulled the trigger of his MA5B Assault Rifle and unleashed a three round burst straight into the head of one of the Green Skinned aliens, killing it.
Another alien charged at him with a large, crudely made, cleaver-like weapon. John dodged out of the way of its swing and punched it in the face knocking out a few of its teeth in the process. It laughed at him and swung again. "I loik deze 'umiez!"
John dodged out of the way again and kicked the alien in the stomach using the full weight of his body and armor, knocking the alien off balance and denting its armor. John then drew a frag grenade and pulled the pin. Hearing the alien start shouting "WAAAAAGH" after it regained its balance, John had an idea and took that opportunity to shove the grenade down its throat before immediately retracting his arm. It tried to bite down on his arm but it was just a hair too slow to react. John then jumped away from the alien before its upper body was blasted open a moment later.
Just as John was raising his Assault Rifle to continue firing he and the rest of his squad received a message from a group of Spartans fighting to protect another section of the wrecked ship. "Jorge-052 to anyone nearby! Unknown aircraft closing in from the north! Requesting reinforcements!"
"Blue team form up! We're pushing to the north!" John ordered.
There were a few flashes on his H.U.D. indicating confirmation.
"Blue Alpha is on the way. Try to hold out until we arrive." John ordered through his helmet's built in radio. He, Kelly, Frederic, and Linda then proceeded to start killing their way through the aliens in order to get to the northern section of the wreckage.
Frederic fired a continuous volley of bullets from his M739 SAW into the aliens in front of them, cutting down a few of them.
Linda blasted a few heads off with her M392 DMR. She would have been using a sniper rifle as that was her preferred weapon however as the wreckage limited the range at which she could engage the aliens she decided to opt for something that could be used at closer ranges while still serving a similar purpose.
John continued firing three round bursts into the aliens, trying to support his team mates and keep the aliens from getting too close to any of them.
Kelly rushed towards the aliens while ducking and dodging around any melee attacks they attempted to use against her and blasted them with her M90A CAWS. Naturally she was putting herself at the most risk by charging straight towards the aliens but with her drastically enhanced perception and reaction time combined with covering fire from her squadmates and the protection of her new Mjolnir combat armor she had very little to be worried about.
Furthermore, unlike the aliens that she and John encountered on that ship over Chi Ceti IV who had been using advanced energy weapons, these large green skinned aliens were using simple ballistics weapons. At least those that had guns at all were using ballistics weapons. Granted these were large caliber and or fired explosive rounds, but they were still ballistic weapons which meant Mjolnir was a bit more effective against them. Besides which, these aliens' aim was absolutely horrendous which made avoiding their shots even easier. However the ones with guns were actually few and far between. Most were armed with crude Melee weapons. If all of them had guns then she would have taken a much more cautious approach.
As they continued to push their way through the aliens they received another message over their comm systems. "Update: the unknown contacts have landed and are exiting their vehicles… They're firing on the aliens. Think they might be friendly?"
"We can only hope." Linda responded.
"One of them is shooting lightning from their hands!" Another spartan exclaimed over the comms.
"What? Do you mean they're using some form of arm mounted directed energy weapon?" John demanded, confused by this.
"No, they're literally shooting lightning from their hands! Get over here ASAP, you have to see this for yourselves."
Frowning in confusion John looked at the rest of his squad and said, "You heard him. Double time Spartans."
At this point they stopped killing every alien they saw and just ran, quickly cutting down any alien that tried to get in their way or chase after them which, unfortunately, was most of them. They arrived at the northern quadrant of the wreckage within two minutes and were immediately surprised by what they saw. Around half a dozen massive warriors in heavy black armor cutting down the aliens one after the other with strange guns and glowing swords. And one of them, who appeared to have armor of a slightly different design, was indeed unleashing torrents of crimson lightning upon the aliens that ripped them to pieces. There was another wearing slightly more ornate armor from the rest as well so it was difficult to determine if they or the one shooting lightning from his hands were the leader.
John and his team joined the rest of the spartans there in shooting at the aliens. However, the aliens appeared to have stopped focusing on the spartans all together and were instead focusing all of their attention on these new warriors.
With the aid of these new warriors the rest of the battle in this particular quadrant of the wreckage only lasted for another five minutes before all of the aliens in the area were dead. As the warrior shooting lightning from their hands shredded the last alien to pieces, the other warrior wearing the more ornate armor approached the Spartans."Which of you is the leader?" He, as his voice obviously identified him as a male, demanded.
All of the spartans present looked at John. Getting the message John stepped forwards and said, "I am Spartan John-117 of the UNSC. Who are you?"
"I am Watch Captain Chiron Invorak, Captain of Watch Company Primus of the Deathwatch of the Adeptus Astartes, in service to the Ordo Xenos of the Inquisition and the Emperor of Mankind. We picked up your vox signals and could tell you were in trouble and our Librarian, Brother Ruhiel, apparently had a vision and claimed that you held some value and were worth saving. I would have sent a standard squad to come retrieve you, however the rest of my company is currently caught up fighting Orks all across the rest of the planet and are unable to disengage at this time. Regardless, I have some questions for you." Captain Chiron stated in a serious tone.
John knew he was being talked down to and while he did not appreciate it he knew it would be wiser to keep his mouth shut about it for the moment. "Fine. I'll try to answer any questions you have, but my brothers and sisters are still fighting these 'Orks' elsewhere in the wreckage."
"Hmph… Very well. Brothers, if you would. Brother Ruhiel and I will be fine here." Captain Chiron said, motioning into the wreck with his glowing sword.
"Spartans, go with them and show them the way to our main battle lines." John ordered, not motioning or looking away from the larger warriors even for a moment.
The rest of the larger warriors then began following the majority of the spartans present elsewhere into the wreck. Only three other spartans remained with John: Frederic, Kelly, and Linda. The larger warriors didn't appear the least bit concerned about the fact they were slightly outnumbered which told John he needed to tread cautiously here. He had already seen their skills in combat and knew they were not to be taken lightly.
After the other astartes and spartans were gone Captain Chiron said, "So, let's start with an easy question, shall we? You sound quite young. How old are you?"
John was silent for a brief moment as he weighed his options. Technically he and all the other Spartans ages were classified. However these 'astartes' were perhaps their only hope of getting off this planet and they might not agree to help them if John refused to cooperate with them to some extent. Besides which, something was very clearly wrong here. "The Emperor of Mankind?" The last John knew there were no interstellar human empires or governments other than the UNSC. And their weapons and armor were very clearly far too advanced and expensive for them to be insurrectionists.
"Before I answer that, have you ever heard of the United Nations Space Command?" John inquired.
"No. I have not. Why?" Captain Chiron inquired.
"The information you're asking for is classified. But… Something's wrong here. The UNSC is the only interstellar human government barring insurrectionists, and you are very clearly not insurrectionists. For you to have never heard of the UNSC means… I'm honestly not sure what it means… Furthermore, your weapons and armor don't look like any I've ever seen before, but they're too advanced to have not been manufactured by a major company or at the very least professionals in military science." John explained.
"I have been reading his surface thoughts and can tell you he is telling the truth, Watch Captain." Ruhiel stated.
"Hm… I see… In that case allow me to change my question. How did your ship arrive here?" Captain Chiron inquired.
"We were on a mission to retrieve the armor we are currently wearing from a UNSC installation on the planet Chi Ceti IV. As we arrived in the system our ship, the UNSC Commonwealth, was attacked by an unknown alien vessel. While the ship engaged the alien vessel we took Pelican drop ships to the surface of the planet to retrieve the armor. After acquiring it we returned to the ship. The alien vessel had energy shields of some sort so myself and two other spartans volunteered to board the alien vessel and plant three warheads in a critical area of the ship. Only two of us made it back." John explained.
He paused for a moment in remembrance of Sam's sacrifice before continuing. "Once we were back on board the Commonwealth the warheads detonated and the ship exploded. However it appeared to have opened what we can only assume was a slipspace portal of some sort, but it looked… wrong. Our ship was forcibly pulled into the portal whereupon we were assaulted by creatures of unknown origin. We were only in there for approximately ten minutes but the majority of our crew either died or went insane while only us Spartans, a few hundred ODST, marines, and normal crew members in total made it out alive and sane. Once we were out we immediately evacuated the ship before it crash landed on the planet. More of us died in whatever space battle was taking place in orbit, others died when their life boats crashed into the planet, and the rest were killed by these 'Orks'. The last non-spartan survivor was Dr. Catherine Halsey. It was my squad's job to defend her while she repaired the ship's communications systems to call for help. Unfortunately we failed to protect her."
"Once again he is telling the truth. And I do not sense the taint of the warp in any of these four's souls." Ruhiel said in a serious tone.
"I see… You will search each of these spartans for possible infection before we bring any of them to our ship." Captain Chiron ordered.
"Of course, my lord." Ruhiel said, bowing his head slightly.
"What did these creatures look like?" Captain Chiron inquired.
"They were big, red, had strangely shaped heads with large horns and sharp teeth, and they were wielding swords that seemed to be able to cut through our armor like it wasn't even there." John responded.
Captain Chiron nodded. "Bloodletters… You did well to escape such an encounter alive and untainted. I am impressed. Now a follow up question. What year do you believe it is?"
"It should be november 27th, 2525. Why?" John inquired.
Captain Chiron shook his head. "Well, that explains why I have not heard of this 'UNSC'. It is currently the five hundred and fifty sixth year of the fortieth millennium. You were pulled approximately thirty eight thousand years into the future. This UNSC you used to serve no longer exists."
"What?! How is that even possible?!" Fredric demanded.
"Hm… It's not as far-fetched as it seems. There have been reports of chronological anomalies resulting from slipspace travel. This could just be a particularly extreme case, especially considering the unusual nature of the portal we were pulled into." Kelly stated.
"Indeed. Knowing this, would you now be willing to answer my questions?" Captain Chiron inquired in a patient tone.
"Not quite. How do we know you're telling the truth? You could be aliens trying to deceive us into divulging classified information for all we know." John stated.
"Hmph… Fine." The watch captain said before raising his arms and removing his helmet, revealing the head of a human being. "I am no xenos. Never compare me to such filth ever again."
"Apologies, sir. I just had to be sure. The aliens already glassed one colony. I couldn't risk divulging classified information to them and allowing more to be destroyed in the same way because we lost a potential advantage over them… I still find it difficult to believe we're so far in the future… To answer your question, every last one of us is fourteen."
Captain Chiron seemed somewhat taken aback by this. "That is… not the answer I was expecting. Ruhiel?"
"He is still telling the truth." Ruhiel stated.
"I see… Very interesting… You keep mentioning this 'Slip Space'. I assume it is a means of travel but our records suggest warp technology was not discovered until much, much later than the second millennium. So how does it work?" Captain Chiron inquired.
Linda took a step forward and said, "I don't know all of the technical details but we were given a general explanation during training. Slipstream space is a specific set of eleven 'non-dimensions' existing in a very small bundle 'above' the one temporal and three spatial dimensions perceptible to human beings. By moving matter from the three space dimensions and one time dimension of normal space to slipstream space, one effectively changes the laws of physics for that piece of matter. This allows for faster-than-light travel. UNSC slipspace drives use particle accelerators to rip apart normal space-time by generating micro black holes. These holes are evaporated via Hawking radiation in nanoseconds. That's about all I know."
"That sounds like a possible alternative to warp travel… Could this ship's Slipspace Drive possibly still be intact after the crash?" Captain Chiron demanded.
"It's not impossible but the chances are low." Frederic stated.
"As long as there is a possibility of recovering such valuable archeotech it doesn't matter how low the chances are. I will be sending techmarines to scour this wreckage in search of the Slipspace engine and any other potentially valuable ancient technology." Captain Chiron stated unfazed by the low odds of finding the Slipspace Drive intact.
"Wait, didn't you say this is the fortieth millennium? Shouldn't your technology far surpass anything from our time period?" Kelly inquired suspiciously.
Ruhiel shook his head. "No. Much has happened since your time period. Most of the technology mankind used to possess was lost during the Age of Strife. Unfortunately we do not have the time to stand here discussing history."
"No, we do not. I have a few last questions before we move on. What is a Spartan? You very clearly aren't normal fourteen year old humans. The way you fight, the speed of your movements, your stance, everything about you tells me there is more to you than just fourteen year old soldiers from the second millenium." Captain Chiron asked.
"Should I…?" John asked his squadmates. He was uncertain how far he should go in revealing UNSC secrets even if they were fourty thousand years in the future.
Frederic sighed and said, "You may as well… If we really have gone so far forward in time and the UNSC no longer exists then well… I'll be honest I don't like this. That being said, I'm sure most of this became public knowledge at some point. Though it would be more like ancient history now…"
"I agree." Kelly added.
Linda said nothing but just nodded.
"Alright… We're super soldiers known as Spartan 2s. We're the second generation of spartan super soldiers. We were chosen at a young age for our genetics and were inducted into the Spartan Program. We then went through intense training that killed many of us. Eventually we were allowed to go on missions infiltrating insurrectionist bases and assassinating key targets. Then only earlier this year we received augmentations that enhanced our physical capabilities even further." John explained.
"What do these augmentations entail?" Captain Chiron inquired in a tone that made it impossible to discern any readable emotion.
"Carbide ceramic ossification of our bones making them nearly unbreakable. Muscular enhancement injections to increase tissue density and decrease lactase recovery time. Catalytic thyroid implants in the form of platinum pellets containing a human growth hormone catalyst implanted in the thyroid to boost growth of skeletal and muscle tissues. Occipital capillary reversal for submergence and boosted blood vessel flow beneath the rods and cones of our retinas to increase our visual perception. And superconducting fibrification of our neural dendrites via alteration of bioelectrical nerve transduction to shielded electronic transduction. This resulted in a 300% increase in our reflexes and as far as we can tell caused a marked increase in our intelligence, memory, and creativity. We also have cybernetic implants in the backs of our skulls in order to directly link our armor to our nervous systems." John explained, trying to remember as much of what Dr. Halsey had told him about their augmentations as possible.
"That sounds very much like our own augmentations… And just to be clear, none of these were genetic alterations?" Captain Chiron asked.
John shook his head slightly. "No. They were all surgical and chemical enhancements."
"Interesting… Very interesting… Then I may have an offer for you later. But for now I have one last question. How many of your brothers and sisters are left alive?" The Watch Captain inquired.
"As of our last headcount? Thirty. Unless more have died since then." John informed him.
"Good. Now, let us rejoin our respective brothers and sisters in combat." Captain Chiron said before adjusting his grip on his glowing sword.
"Alright. Follow us. We'll take you to the southern battle line where the fighting is currently the heaviest." John said before turning and running off towards the south.
Killing the remaining Orks took about half an hour. The Spartans were then informed they were lucky as that had been a small splinter force of particularly poorly armed Orks, likely having been attracted to the crash in search of things to loot. Ruhiel then examined each and every last one of them and confirmed that they were all clear of corruption despite their short stay in the Warp. After that the Watch Captain called for transports to extract all of the spartans back to the inquisitorial ship Watch Company Secundus was staying on.
Once they were back on the ship, Watch Captain Chiron had John line them all up for an important announcement.
"Attention Spartan twos of the UNSC, I am Watch Captain Chiron Invorak of the Adeptus Astartes. You currently stand aboard a ship belonging to the Ordo Xenos of the Inquisition approximately thirty eight thousand years in the future from your time period, the second millennium. The UNSC no longer exists, the rest of your crew is all dead, and there is no way for you to return from whence you came. However, that does not mean you are without purpose. You can still be of service to humanity. I have spoken with the Lord Inquisitor in charge of this vessel and with several of my brothers from other chapters in the Adeptus Astartes and have received permission to extend to you an offer." He said, while pacing in front of the Spartans.
After a short pause he continued. "For the males among you, I wish to offer you all a chance to join the ranks of the Adeptus Astartes as initiates. I would extend the same offer to your sisters but unfortunately only males can survive the genetic modifications of the Adeptus Astartes and their talents are too valuable to waste in such a fashion. For the females among you there are places for you within the ranks of the Inquisition, the Adepta Sororitas, or the Imperial Guard. For the males while you are unable to join the Adepta Sororitas as it is an all female organization, like your sisters you may also choose to join the Inquisition, or the Imperial guard. However I do believe you would be better served as Astartes and would strongly encourage you to consider joining us instead."
"That being said, you will all be provided with dataslates containing all publicly available information on each organization and an overview of known galactic history since the time period you all came from. So you will be allowed to make informed decisions on which organizations you wish to join. And there are brothers here in Watch Company Secundus from multiple chapters who will be speaking with all of you as I am currently in order to discuss a bit about their chapters and if they may be right for you. And you will be sent to fight alongside various kill teams consisting of brothers of different chapters to better determine which chapter best suits you, and the brothers will be keeping track of your particular fighting styles and will make suggestions as to which chapter would be best suited to your fighting styles."
"Once you have made your decisions on which organizations and chapters you wish to join you will be sent back to our Watch Fortress to await transport to the organizations you chose to join. That is all. Medicaes will be with you shortly to treat your wounded. Spartan John-117 come with me, I have more I wish to discuss with you." The Watch Captain finished.
John stepped forwards and began following the Watch Captain out of the hanger area of the ship. The Watch Captain then led him to what seemed to be an office room of sitting down on one side of the table in the middle of the room he motioned to one of the seats across from him. "Sit. The seats are designed to withstand the weight of fully armored astartes, so the weight of your armor will not be an issue."
"With all due respect, sir, I would prefer to stand." John responded.
"Hm… Very well." The watch captain said before reaching up and removing his helmet and setting it down on the desk in front of him. "So, Spartan-117, or do you prefer to be called John?"
"Spartan-117 is fine, sir."
The Watch Captain nodded. "Very well. Spartan-117. How long ago did your brothers and sisters receive these augmentations you mentioned?"
"Just a month or two ago. However, part of that time was spent in cryosleep. So if you are asking about the biological effects, about a month or less." John stated.
"Good. That means there is a chance some of the chemicals used in the procedures are still in your systems. The Lord Inquisitor and the Magos Biologis in the Lord Inquisitor's retinue have both demanded we study your augmentations so that we may reverse engineer and replicate them for use in the Imperium." The Watch Captain stated.
"Just so you're aware, our augmentations have a fairly high rate of mortality and can cripple those who they don't kill. The brothers and sisters that are with me currently, aside from those who died today, are the only successful survivors of the seventy five of us that were conscripted. And all of us were chosen for our genetics to give us the highest possible chances of success." John informed him.
"That is not an issue." The Watch Captain stated.
"Then I volunteer myself for whatever procedures are required to study our augmentations." John told him.
If the Watch Captain was surprised by this, he didn't show it. "That will be unnecessary. If I were to leave it to the Magos Biologis, you would certainly be strapped to a table and dissected, likely while you were still conscious and without anesthetics. The Adeptus Mechanicus can be quite… aggressive when it comes to the collection of information. However, we do not require live subjects to determine the nature of your augmentations. The Magos will collect blood, tissue, bone, brain matter, and spinal fluid samples as well as harvest the cybernetic implants from at least one or two of the corpses you brought with you. But rest assured, I will guarantee the corpses of your brothers and sisters are treated with respect and are not completely desecrated by the Magos. We will also be taking one suit of the power armor you wear for study and reverse engineering."
"That would be appreciated. We would like to give them a proper send off. And as long as they have decent clothes to replace their armor for the funeral we don't particularly mind if you take every suit of armor from their corpses for study. We only received them today so we haven't had time to grow too attached to them."
"And you will be allowed to do so, of course. And I will inform the tech-marines and Adeptus Mechanicus of this and will ensure your kin are properly clothed for their funeral. Now, I would like to discuss with you in particular what you plan to do from here on out considering you are unable to return to your time period." Captain Chiron said, examining John with an unreadable expression.
"I haven't read anything about any of the organizations you listed yet, so I have no idea." John stated.
"I am aware. Allow me to give you a brief overview of each organization in their roles, then we will discuss your decision." Captain Chiron stated. He then proceeded to explain to John what each organization did and their roles in serving the Imperium. He was very clearly trying to direct John to choosing the Adeptus Astartes by glorifying the role of the Astartes and on the flip side he seemed to be attempting to vilify the inquisition.
"What chapter do you belong to?" John inquired.
"The Blood Angels. I am a son of the Primarch Sangunius. I think you would do well with us. That is assuming you survived our trials as we do admittedly have some of the harshest trials amongst the first founding chapters. The only other first founding chapter that rivals if not surpasses us in the harshness of our trials would be the Space Wolves. However, that is based entirely on my discussions with brothers in Deathwatch who belong to the Space Wolves as I have no idea what their trials actually entail. That being said, you would do well in any first founding chapters or just any chapter in general. However, to actually join any of said chapters you will first need approval from the chapter itself as they have every right to refuse you and are in fact very likely to do so if you don't have at least one brother from their chapter vouching for you. So it would be wise to look at multiple chapters and work to earn the approval of a battle brother from said chapter." Captain Chiron explained.
"Is there any reason in particular you are pushing so hard for us to become astartes?"
"Yes. There are very few individuals who can survive the process of becoming an astartes. The fact you survived your own augmentations is a good sign that you would survive the process of becoming an astartes as well. Furthermore, your performance in battle has impressed me. Even ignoring your augmentations and power armor, your skills as soldiers are extremely impressive. Most aspirants lack any combat ability before joining a chapter but the fact you do have them already simply means that they can be honed even further if you were to join a chapter and become Astartes. It would be a waste of potential if you and your brothers didn't become astartes. You could be infinitely more valuable to the Imperium and Humanity at large if you were to become Astartes than if you were not. And as a loyal servant of the Emperor it is my duty to encourage you and your brothers to reach your fullest potential as warriors, even if you choose to join a chapter other than the Blood Angels." The Watch Captain explained.
"I see. Is that all, sir?" John asked.
"I suppose. You may go rejoin your brothers and sisters in the hangar bay." The Watch Captain told him.
John snapped a salute before turning and walking back out of the office in the direction of the hangar bay. Upon returning to the hanger bay John was approached by several other Spartans.
"John, we have to talk." Naomi-010 stated.
"It seems everyone needs to talk to me these past couple hours… Alright. What is it?" John asked.
"While you were talking to the Captain, we've been reading up on everything in the dataslates we were given. We've only managed to read through parts of it since there's so much, especially about galactic history." James-005 explained.
"Yeah, and we need to discuss what we're going to do from here on out since the UNSC is gone." Grace-093 added.
John nodded. "Alright… The captain gave me a brief overview of the roles of each organization. I think we should join the imperial guard."
"That's what Grace and I said too, but apparently they disagree." Jai-006 said in a slightly bitter tone, crossing his arms.
"I was reading up on the Astartes and I think we should join them." James stated.
"If we did that, we would have to abandon our sisters." John said in a disapproving tone. "Not to mention the fact we would have to undergo further augmentation. It was awful the first time. I don't really look forward to going through that a second time."
"Neither do I… But pain is temporary. I think it was worth it in the end. Don't you?" James asked.
John was silent for a moment. Ultimately he couldn't deny that the augmentations were useful. Had they not had the augmentations he seriously doubted that he and Kelly would have survived on that alien ship nor would he and the other spartans have been able to survive fighting those Orks for as long as they did. So ultimately while it was absolute hell receiving the augmentations it was indeed worth it in the end.
"That doesn't change the fact we would have to leave our sisters behind." John said.
"I for one think you should do it." Naomi commented.
John shook his head. "This isn't a conversation we should be having by ourselves. If we're going to talk about this then all of us should be involved." He then raised his voice so every spartan in the hangar bay could hear him and said, "Spartans, form up! We have to talk."
The other spartans approached and they formed a loose circle. "What's going on?" Jorge inquired.
"Naomi and James think we should join the Astartes. Me, Grace, and John disagree." Jai explained.
"What? Why would you do that? If the boys join the Astartes, we can't come with them. And Similarly we can't join the Adepta Sororitas otherwise they couldn't come with us." Daisy-023 asked incredulously.
"That's what I'm saying!" Jai exclaimed in exasperation.
It was then that John noticed someone in heavy armor who appeared to be just a normal human rather than an Astartes approaching them as if to speak to them before apparently overhearing some of their conversation and stopping. He then walked over to a few nearby crates and leaned against them, well within range to hear everything the Spartans said. It seemed that whoever it was was intent on eavesdropping. Several other spartans noticed this as well but none of them said anything. While they all found being eavesdropped on rather annoying, especially given the subject matter, nothing they were discussing was really a secret thus they decided to just ignore him.
"While I don't particularly like the idea, let's just hear them out. They have to have a damn good reason to suggest something like this. And we have to understand their reasoning in order to have a real conversation about this." John stated.
"With the UNSC gone and humanity fighting hordes of aliens and… whatever those things we fought in this 'Warp' thing were, our duty should be to protect mankind to the very best of our abilities. If that means you boys have to leave us to go join these Astartes to become even stronger warriors then so be it. If you don't then what was everything we went through all for? We can't just let it all be completely meaningless." Naomi stated.
"What was it all for? It brought us all together for one thing. We aren't strangers anymore like we were when we were still just fresh recruits. We're a family now. And family sticks together. We can still fight for humanity without joining the Astartes." Jorge stated.
"But we won't be fighting as well as we could if we joined the Astartes. You saw them in battle. They're faster and stronger than any of us could ever hope to be, even in our armor. And a couple of them took wounds that would have killed us and were able to walk them off like nothing. None of us are psykers so we won't be shooting lightning from our hands like the librarius but we could be far more useful with those augmentations than we could without them." James stated.
"Well, he's not wrong." Randall-037 stated.
"So you're agreeing with them?" Frederic inquired.
Randall shook his head. "I'm not agreeing or disagreeing. All I said is he isn't wrong. The Astartes are the objectively superior super soldiers."
"I can't believe any of us are actually considering this… We should just join the Imperial Guard! Jorge is right, we're a family. I don't want to split up." Malcolm 059 said firmly.
"Personally, I was thinking we should join the Inquisition rather than the Guard." Margaret-053 stated.
"That would force us to split up eventually too. From what very little information these dataslates had on the Inquisition it seems that Inquisitors operate on a pretty solitary basis. So after training, assuming any individual Inquisitor was even capable of training thirty apprentices at once, we would have no choice but to go our separate ways. At that point we may as well have just joined the Astartes and you may as well have joined the Adepta Sororitas. Not to mention from what I've read they remind me of ONI to an extent, and I never liked ONI. Unless you're suggesting we should join the Tempestus Scions, in which case I would be a bit more comfortable with the idea." August-099 stated.
"We've only been able to read for about an hour and a half. I don't think any of us know enough about all of the different organizations to make an informed decision. I suggest we continue studying and come to a decision tomorrow morning." Linda stated.
"I second this." Cal-141 stated.
"Alright. That gives us time to think about all of this anyway. All in favor of holding off on a decision for now and continuing tomorrow say 'I'." John ordered.
""""I"""" Echoed the majority of the spartans.
John nodded then turned his head towards the man leaning against the crates nearby and said, "Don't think we didn't notice you there. What is it?"
"I knew you were aware of my presence. I was simply waiting for your conversation to end. Greetings Spartan twos, I am Lord Inquisitor Thane Kravias of the Ordos Xenos. The Watch Captain already informed me of everything you told him. Regardless, as you are currently on my ship I have a few questions of my own. To that end I will be speaking with several of you in private. I'll start with you, girl." He pointed at Margaret. "Since you wish to join the Inquisition I thought we might discuss this whilst I ask my questions.. Killing two birds with one stone, as it were."
"Alright." Margaret said, walking over to the Inquisitor.
The inquisitor then turned and led her away. They ended up in a separate office from the one the Watch Captain spoke to John in. The Inquisitor sat down at his desk and proceeded to pour himself what appeared to be a glass of wine. "Would you like a glass as well? It's one of my finest bottles of Amasec. It was gifted to me by a planetary governor for cleansing her world of xenos filth a while back." The Inquisitor offered.
Margaret shook her head. "No thank you. I'm fine, sir. I assume Amasec is some form of alcohol and I would prefer to keep a clear head."
The Inquisitor nodded before raising his glass to his lips and taking a sip. Setting the glass back down he said, "Understandable… Whilst I am not a member of the Ordos Hereticus I'm afraid I must still ask you some basic questions as is my duty as a Lord Inquisitor. So, you're from the second millennium. That was quite a long time ago. Many thousands of years before our most holy God Emperor decided to reveal himself to humanity at large. So I understand that you may not currently worship the Emperor having never even heard of him before. However I must question if you and your siblings will be willing or even be capable of converting to the Imperial Cult."
"Permission to speak freely, sir?" Margaret requested.
"Permission granted." The Inquisitor stated before taking another sip of his wine.
"Originally I didn't believe in any gods in general since up until now I haven't seen any proof. I thought it was all fictitious nonsense that only the superstitious actually believed. That being said, we encountered literal demons just a few hours ago and we just witnessed a person shooting lightning from his hands. Both of which I used to think either didn't exist or were completely impossible. So the existence of a legitimate god no longer seems quite so far-fetched to me. It might take a while to adjust to actually worshiping one since I have never done so before, but if this god emperor actually exists then I will be more than willing to start." Margaret explained.
"I see. I am most certainly glad to hear that. And your siblings…?" The Inquisitor asked with an unreadable expression.
"Given everything that's happened I'm sure they'd all be just as willing." Margaret stated.
"Good, good… I would hate to have to declare them heretics. As I said, I'm not a member of the Ordos Hereticus or I would continue this line of questioning further. So let's change topics. You encountered a Xenos ship before destroying it and being sent to this time period via a Warp rift. Describe the ship in detail for me." The inquisitor ordered.
"I can do you one better. My helmet recorded the tail end of the battle. I can send you the recording, assuming my suit can connect to a dataslate of yours." Margaret stated.
"Very well." The Lord Inquisitor said before reaching into a drawer on the side of his desk and pulling out a dataslate. "Does the connection require a cable or can it be wireless?"
"I should be wireless." Margaret stated.
"Very good. Then just give me a moment and… done. All you need to do is accept the connection and transfer the data to me." The Inquisitor stated as a message popped up on Margaret's H.U.D. Margaret did as the Inquisitor requested and sent him the data. Once the transfer was complete the Inquisitor proceeded to watch the video with great interest. This lasted for about half an hour before the alien ship finally exploded and the video ended as a giant pink tear in reality tore itself open where the alien ship used to be.
"Interesting. There are no xenos ships of that design or anything similar on record… Perchance, might your siblings who boarded the ship have brought back any corpses for study?" The inquisitor asked.
Margaret shook her head. "No sir."
The Inquisitor slumped slightly in minor disappointment. "A shame. I was looking forward to the opportunity to dissect a form of xenos that has presumably been extinct for many millennia. Oh well. I shall still input this recording and the design of the ship into Inquisitorial Records for future reference in the extremely unlikely event that we discover these xenos are in fact not extinct… Do you know anything else about these xenos? What they were called or how they behaved?"
"No. I don't. Though after they glassed that colony they did send the UNSC a message claiming that humanity's annihilation was the will of their gods." Margaret stated.
"Hmph… Then it just goes to show which of our gods were legitimate considering they are dead and we are not. The Emperor protects, even many millennia ago before he revealed himself to mankind." The inquisitor said with a slight bit of glee in his voice, likely enjoying the fact the xenos were eradicated by ancient man. He then took another sip of his wine and said, "Now, I know you're aware I overheard you and your siblings' conversation in the hangar bay. So you wish to join the Inquisition. Is that correct?" The Inquisitor asked.
Margaret nodded. "Yes, sir. It is."
"Why? Based on what your siblings were all saying I would have thought you would want to join the Imperial Guard in order to remain with them whilst still serving the Imperium."
"I'll be brutally honest, sir, I'm angry. Before we even arrived here in this time period aliens completely glassed an entire human planet and later killed one of my brothers, Samuel-034. Then after that alien ship exploded and our ship was dragged into that Warp portal and we ended up here I personally witnessed dozens of soldiers and crew members along with several more of my brothers and sisters be murdered by these 'Orks'... I hate them. More than anything I want to see them burn for what they've done. Joining the Imperial Guard would give me the opportunity to kill more aliens, yes, but I firmly believe our skills would be better suited towards the Inquisition. And in serving the Inquisition we would do significantly more damage to the aliens than we ever could while in the Imperial Guard." Margaret explained in a deathly serious tone.
The Inquisitor chuckled slightly. "Then you already agree with part of the Imperial Creed. 'Suffer not the alien to live.' I approve… My own reasons for joining the Inquisition were very similar. When I was but a boy Drukhari slavers invaded my home world. I personally witnessed them capturing, killing, and torturing the people of my home world in ways to horrific to describe… One even forced me to watch as he violated my sister. She did not survive the ordeal, though honestly death was a mercy compared to what that disgusting xenos bastard had done to her."
He then closed his eyes for a moment and muttered what sounded like a prayer underneath his breath before continuing on. "So I was captured and they tortured me as well, and I still bear the scars from what they did to me to this very day… However, by the grace of the Emperor, I was saved. An Inquisitor of the Ordos Xenos managed to rescue me before I was taken off world and brought to whatever unholy pit that the Dark Eldar bring their slaves to. Apparently she saw something in me despite how broken I was in both body and spirit, so she offered me a choice. I could join her and study under her to become an Inquisitor myself and hopefully save more individuals in my situation from the Drukhari and other xenos filth, or I could stay on my homeworld and just live with everything that happened to me. To me at the time, despite how broken I was, the choice was obvious and it led to me being where I am today. So I completely understand your hatred. Every last bit of it and more that you cannot even fathom not having experienced what I did. So very well. If you truly wish to join the Ordos Xenos I will be happy to oblige. I believe you and any of your siblings who wish to join you may make fine students indeed. Though your siblings were right in that I am but one man so I can only take so many students. I cannot adequately train all thirty of you by myself."
"I don't think all thirty of us will want to join the Inquisition to begin with so you don't have to worry about that." Margaret stated.
"I didn't think I would, but I felt it best to make that clear to you from the very beginning… If this is your final decision then your training begins tomorrow. I will come speak with you then and you can tell me if this is still what you truly want then. For now you are dismissed." The Lord Inquisitor stated.
"Yes, sir." Margaret stated before snapping a salute. She then turned and began walking back to the hangar bay.
The Lord Inquisitor got up and followed her. Once they were back he walked over to another Spartan and asked to speak with them as well. He then led said Spartan back to his office to speak with them.
Meanwhile the rest of the Spartans continued to read up on the Imperium and the organizations they would have to choose from for several hours until it reached time for lights out. All of them went to sleep in various locations around the hangar bay and all of them had dreams unlike any they had ever experienced before.
End Notes: I have two questions. First, should the Space Marine chapters start making use of Spartan Augmentations normally or should it be limited to the original male Spartans. The Spartan Augmentations and Astartes augmentations will stack on top of eachother to make even stronger warriors and I know people didn't like the primaris marines, that's why I'm asking before hand. Granted there would be less conflict over it in universe since the Astartes wouldn't be having new recruits they themselves had no hand in training forced upon them like the "reinforcements" Guilliman forced on everyone, and they would still be just as susceptible to their chapters genetic flaws as the normal astartes but still.
Second, what about the Geas or Genesong of the Librarian? Should the Astartes genetic augmentation procedure interact with that and cause the original male Spartans to evolve even further than they would have otherwise? (Keep in mind, if this happens I will make it so the Imperium can replicate the process so the same evolutionary process can be done to the female Spartans.)
And don't worry about the Spartans becoming over powered. I have an enemy in mind that should be a sufficient foil for them even if the Geas thing does come into play.
I love comments so any thoughts or suggestions you may have would be very much appreciated! I don't mind criticism either since I can only improve if I know what I'm doing wrong. So don't be afraid to leave a review!