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Azrael The Deplorable: Perhaps you're right. But if I made the Imperium too close minded then there wouldn't be a story to begin with. Well... There would, but it would be a story about the Spartan 2s being in the Imperial Guard rather than becoming Astartes. And them becoming astartes is the entire premise of this story. As for Halsey, I killed her off because I have tried writing this story numerous times in the past in different methods but I could never avoid making Dr. Halsey a marry sue. Like she would just join the Adeptus Mechanicus and would become a second Belisarius Cawl, perhaps even finding a minor STC fragment and reverse engineering it so she could make her own STC. I didn't like either of those ideas even though they are perfectly in character for her. So killing her off was my best option.

Guest: They don't know any of the technology is of alien origin. The spartans never told them that and they have no way of knowing otherwise. And the imperium has to at least let the Spartans become astartes otherwise the premise of this story changes entirely and it would become a completely different story.

jjcoop95: The mantle isn't just forerunner technology. Its about being the most technologically advanced species and taking stewardship over all other life and maintaining the biodiversity of the galaxy. They could do that if they found a fully functional STC that was actually willing to cooperate with them as well. But that's purely hypothetical. John is biologically human... well... astartes but close enough. So no, even if he had the Isodidact as a geas, he would not be considered a xenos. Besides which, why would they look that closely at his genetics now after centuries of loyal service?

Guest: Yeah, how would I have done that? The UNSC didn't have access to forerunner technology at the time period in which the spartans were still fourteen. And the Imperium isn't exactly keen on using any tech they deem to be of xenos origin. Also, this isn't Golden Age of Technology mankind. This is post Age of Strife, post Great Crusade, post Age of Apostasy mankind. Technology has degraded significantly from the Golden Age. Also, a spartan in Mjolnir armor can flip over an M313 Elephant which weighs 205 tons due to how much Mjolnir armor increases their strength. So don't underestimate Halo tech.

As soon as John exited the building he rejoined the battle outside. Raising the company banner with one hand he opened fire with his master crafted plasma rifle with the other hand. Running through the battlefield towards a group of dark angels he smashed and blasted Skitarii and Dark Magi left and right with his gun and the company banner.

As soon as he got close enough he ordered, "I need at least one of you to head back to the entrance and go get reinforcements. Send them to the Biological Repository, the Dark Mechanicus released a parasite that they plan to use as a weapon against the Imperium. It has to be stopped before it can spread. And bring this banner back to our fleet. The Company Ancient is dead and we can not afford to lose it."

A spartan marine in the squad grabbed the banner and took it from John. "At once, Master John." He said before turning and running back towards a thunderhawk.

"What of the rest of us, my lord?" Another Astartes inquired.

"Vox communications are being jammed so I'm going to the biological repository to warn the fourth company of this threat in person. We were separated earlier so Leon should be arriving soon. With the rest of my command squad dead I'm leaving him and the Lieutenants in charge in my absence. Whatever happens, do not let the Dark Mechanicum get whatever they came here for." John explained.

"Understood. We shall not fail you, Master John."

John nodded before turning and running towards another empty Thunderhawk. It wasn't currently being used as vox communication was down and thus it would be impossible to get in contact with the pilot while it was in the air in the event of an emergency. Otherwise it would have been providing air support for the battle.

Climbing inside he got into the pilot seat and activated it. Moments later it lifted off and he immediately started making a Beeline for the Biological Repository/ He pushed the Thunderhawk to the absolute limits of its speed. Even so it took him over half an hour to arrive at the coordinates, only to see that no one was there save for a few Pelicans and Thunderhawks. There weren't even any corpses other than dead skitarii, magi, and the mechanical remains of daemon engines despite there being very clear signs of battle. There were no Astartes and no guardsmen. There were puddles of blood, bone, brain matter, and other such things but no bodies.

Landing, he exited the Thunderhawk and looked around. Seeing the entrance to the facility already wide open, appearing to have been blasted apart, he assumed the entire fourth company and any surviving guardsmen were already inside. Why there were no forces stationed outside to guard the entrance and protect the transports he had no idea. Perhaps there were other circumstances he wasn't aware of?

Holding his master crafted plasma gun in one hand and the Purgatory Sword in the other hand he proceeded inside the facility. The further in he got the more signs of battle he could see. This went on for a while until he spotted movement out of the corner of his eye. Raising the Purgatory Sword, he walked over to where he saw the movement. And there he found a guardsman hiding behind a wall muttering prayers to himself while clutching his laspistol in his shaking hands like his life depended on it.

"Guardsman. Tell me what happened here." John ordered.

Hearing John's voice the guardsman's head shot up and he immediately raised his laspistol and began firing. "NO! STAY BACK! YOU'RE NOT TURNING ME INTO ONE OF THOSE THINGS!"

The beams from the laspistol were absorbed by the conversion field of John's iron halo. Reaching down, John grabbed the pistol and proceeded to rip it out of the guardsman's grasp. Tossing it off to the side he grabbed the flailing guardsman by the arms and said, "Calm down! I am Company Master John-117 of the Dark Angels third company. I am on your side, guardsman. You're lucky I'm the one who found you. The others in my chapter would not tolerate you assaulting them under any circumstances. Now, I can not help you if I don't know what happened."

"No. Nononono!" The guardsman was hyperventilating in sheer panic. "Monsters, monsters! By the God Emperor the monsters! You have to help me! Please! I don't want to be turned into one of those things! I can't! I can't!"

Seeing that this was going nowhere fast, John released the guardsman and said, "There are still Pelicans outside this facility. Grab your laspistol and make your way back out there, and hide inside one of the pelicans until help arrives. Or if you know how to fly one, get in and go fly away to get reinforcements. The path should be perfectly clear. At least, it was while I was on my way in. Run if you have to."

In tears the guardsman scrambled over to his laspistol before picking it up and sprinting back towards the entrance as fast as he could.

Having learned absolutely nothing from this encounter other than the fact this parasite apparently turned whoever it infected into monsters John continued deeper into the facility. At some point as the minutes passed he lost any hope of finding any living members of the fourth company and instead went on full alert. Anything that moved, he would exterminate. But there was nothing. Just the eerie stillness and silence of a facility full of the corpses of Dark Magi and Skitarii.

Suddenly a door exploded open and John's conversion field flashed as it was hit with plasma fire and shots from lasguns as what appeared to be mutated guardsmen and several mutated astartes flooded into the room.

John reacted immediately by throwing a grenade at the tide of monstrosities which proceeded to explode and shred many of the mutated guardsmen, leaving what were once his brothers. Without hesitation John began firing upon them with his master crafted plasma gun. Outnumbered and outgunned as he was he was forced to run, dodge, and hide behind cover as much as possible to survive as he knew his iron halo and back up energy shields would not be able to withstand this kind of fire power for long. He had to approach this tactically.

Then another door exploded open and more creatures came flooding in. At this point John realized he had no choice but to retreat. So he began trying to push his way back the way he came. Then another door burst open and sickly green lightning spilled fourth from it as yet another mutated horror came through. This one John recognized as a librarian.

The librarius then raised his hand towards John and unleashed a torrent of malignant green psychic lightning. "Rrr-rrr-rrruuunnn… Can't… c-co-controll…" The Librarius struggled to warn John in a voice warped by infection and in a tone wracked with complete and utter agony. Suddenly the Librarius howled in pain before unleashing a wave of malevolent green psychic fire at John.

John jumped behind cover to avoid the flames before returning fire, though the bolts of plasma splashed harmlessly across the Librarius's psychic barrier. The librarius then raised a hand and suddenly John found it nigh impossible to move as he was being held in a psychic grip. While he was trapped, the other infected continued to fire at him.

[Meanwhile]

Magos Biologis Aurgros of the Dark Mechanicum examined the infection forms and combat forms she had managed to capture. "Hm… I would have preferred to have captured more specimens but these will work. Technically I only need a single infection form for this first test."

She was currently in an Imperial Pelican she had stolen and was on her way to an Imperial base. A couple of her Skitarii were piloting the Pelican while she examined the specimens she had trapped in stasis.

There were five infected guardsmen, three infected astartes, two infected spartan astartes, and fifteen infection forms. She planned to unleash all of them upon the Imperials stationed on the exterior of the planet. She was hoping there were enough Imperials there for the parasite to form one of the "graveminds" the cogitators on this planet had mentioned. Or at least a proto-gravemind. She was very curious to see how they formed and was eager to study them as much as possible. She chose this one location due to the fact there should be enough Imperial biomass present to form at least a proto-gravemind.

After another fifteen minutes of flying they were nearing their destination. Several moments later the back of the pelican opened up and the Magos took that as her que to deactivate the containment units currently holding the infection and combat forms. Suddenly there was a hard impact as the pelican crashed into the ground. The magos allowed herself to be tossed around by the crash, fall to the ground, and play dead so the combat and infection forms would not attack her. She wasn't worried about being infected as despite being a magos biologis she was so heavily augmented as to be impossible to infect. Most of her flesh was internal and thus buried under thick metal. Fortunately they fell for her deception and rushed out of the open back of the pelican. Without a gravemind or proto-gravemind to direct them, they were not particularly intelligent, which worked to her advantage.

After they were gone she waited for about five minutes before getting up and exiting the crashed pelican. Looking outside she saw pandemonium as imperials were being killed and infected by the flood forms. Some were turned into combat forms upon infection while others were immediately turned into carrier forms to create more infection forms. The infected astartes were by far dealing the most damage to imperial forces, unsurprisingly, but the infected guardsmen were still serving their purpose well enough. And with so many corpses on the ground ripe for infection and the Imperials' attention split between the parasite and the Dark Mechanicum this was a prime launching point to begin the spread of the infection.

Satisfied, Magos Aurgros continued to watch the battle unfold, only joining in whenever a guardsman or commissar noticed her and decided to try to attack her.

[Earlier]

Supreme Grand Master Naberius was in the middle of repelling Dark Mechanicum forces that had boarded the Rock when his helmet's vox unit crackled to life. "Supreme Grand Master, this is brother Kepharel of the third company. Vox communications are not functioning within the shell of the planet thus Company Master John sent me to request reinforcements for the fourth company at the Biological Repository. Apparently the Dark Mechanicum have unleashed a parasite of some sort that had been stored there and plan to use it as a weapon against the Imperium."

"How significant of a threat is this parasite?" Naberius demanded as he melted a skitarii with his plasma gun.

"Significant enough that both Master John and the Dark Mechanicum seem to believe it to be a threat to the Imperium. More than that, Master John seems to believe the fourth company will not be sufficient to exterminate it on their own." Brother Kepharel responded.

"Understood… In that case I will be sending both the Seventh and Ninth companies to assist them." He said as shots from galvanic rifles impacted the back up energy shields built into his armor, his iron halo having failed.

[The Library]

John struggled futilely against the psychic grip to no avail. As his shields collapsed and fell he was certain he was going to die. That was until the Librarian had a massive hole blasted through his torso by a beam of golden light, killing the infection form and causing him to fall over dead.

Suddenly free of the Psychic grip John quickly looked and saw a living saint standing directly behind where the Librarian used to be. Raising her sword she charged forwards and began hacking into the infected guardsmen and Astartes drawing some of the fire away from John.

Not hesitating in the slightest John began firing with his mastercrafted plasma rifle at pretty much the same time. Now having assistance, John no longer had to retreat.

One of the infected Spartan Marines charged at John and tried to cut at him with his chainsword. However, John dodged the strikes and proceeded to blast the infected marine with his plasma gun at close range. This continued until the infected Spartan Marine eventually sustained too much damage and finally collapsed.

The battle continued for about three minutes before all of the horrors were finally put down. When it was over John approached the living saint and said, "What happened to the rest of the fourth company?"

"They're all infected. Outnumbered, caught off guard, ambushed as they split up, and out gunned the mechanicum killed them all. Then the parasite took their corpses and, unfortunately, their souls. As was displayed with the librarian still being conscious and actively attempting and failing to resist it despite being infected. It doesn't matter whether live or dead, if the parasite infects you it claims your soul as well. Psykers can resist it better due to being trained to resist the influence of the warp but in the end it doesn't matter." The living saint explained.

John frowned at that. He did not like the idea that his brothers' souls were forever lost to the parasite. After a moment of silence to pay respect to his fallen brothers he looked at the living saint and asked, "Are the Dark Mechanicum still here or is it just the parasite?"

"It's just the parasite. Unfortunately the Dark Mechanicum have already left and have taken both combat and infection forms with them. The infection is already spreading on the exterior of this world's shell in multiple locations. Other Living Saints and the Legion of the Damned are trying to quell the infection before it has a chance to spread but are meeting very heavy resistance." The living saint informed him.

"I see… My brothers will deal with the infection on the exterior, but the infection here has to be purged. I called for reinforcements, they should be arriving soon." John stated, adjusting his grip on his plasma gun.

"Good. Then I will be taking my leave." The living saint said.

"You aren't going to stay and help purge the parasite here?" John inquired in confusion.

"No. The Emperor has a role for you if this parasite escapes this world. I saved you so you could fulfill that role. Now I am needed elsewhere. The threat on the surface is significantly more dire." The living saint stated bluntly. Before John could say anything else there was a flash of golden light and the living saint vanished.

Taking this in stride, John began making his way back towards the entrance. He wasn't leaving by any means. He was just being smart by waiting for reinforcements before trying to purge this facility of infected guardsmen and Astartes. He knew he couldn't deal with this on his own, especially if there were any other librarians that had come with the fourth company.

[Meanwhile]

"By the Emperor, what are these things! No! NO! HELP! GAAAH—" Screamed a guardsman as an infection form jumped in him and burrowed its way inside his body.

The Master of the Sixth company snarled as he got lucky and barely managed to dodge a swing of a power sword before returning the strike with his power ax. He cleaved the left arm off of the infected spartan marine before him. His infected battle brother was mostly unphased and swung his power sword again, this time the sword cleaved into the Master of the Sixth company's armor and sliced his torso open, his energy shields not having had enough time to recharge after falling to a barrage of las fire from infected guardsmen. But he wasn't dead yet, so he kicked the infected spartan marine in the gut, forcing it backwards. He then drew his melta pistol and blasted a massive hole through the infected spartan marine's chest, this finally killed it.

Looking down at his armor the Master of the Sixth company cursed as he realized the strength of his armor was compromised. It would still function, but he was going to have to be careful to ensure no infection forms used the opening in his armor to get in and infect him. He had already seen infection forms do just that to several of his brothers.

The parasite had appeared seemingly out of nowhere and had multiplied at a terrifyingly fast rate, spreading across the entire battlefield in extremely little time. Now Imperial forces were fighting a war on two fronts as now they had to deal with this parasite whilst simultaneously battling the Dark Mechanicum.

Things were not going well, to say the least. It had only been thirty minutes and over half of the sixth company was already gone and the Imperial Guard was being absolutely decimated. And any corpses made by the Dark Mechanicum were prime targets for the parasite to infect.

He had already called for reinforcements and the Ravenwing were on their way at that very moment, but it would take time before the Ravenwing could get there. And by the time they did, he wasn't entirely certain that the sixth company would still be around. Even with the living saints and the ghostly astartes of the legion of the damned trying to help them.

Regardless, he fought on undeterred. Doomed or not, he refused to give in to these heretics or whatever this parasite was.

Seeing another infected astartes he blasted it to bits with his plasma rifle. Two more charged him with chainswords. Meanwhile another shot at him with its plasma gun. He tried his best to fight them but was eventually overwhelmed by numbers. His head was vaporized by plasma. His body was then quickly infected by the infection forms scurrying all over the battlefield.

[Meanwhile]

Magos Aurgros was directing every skitarii and daemon engine she could to focus everything they had upon the living saints and the Legion of the Damned. It had been a very close call initially. They had nearly ruined her test by killing all the infected and infection forms she had brought before the infection could spread. Upon noticing this she had immediately taken action to try to stop them and had managed to slow them down just enough to where the infection was able to start spreading. It was spreading faster and faster the larger the Flood got but her own forces were dwindling and pretty soon the living saints and Legion of the Damned would be free to slaughter the Flood with impunity.

She was glad that she had a couple other lower ranking magi take samples to other battlefields and to their own ship. And a couple groups were going to take infection forms and would board one or two imperial vessels with them, before letting them loose to spread the infection throughout the imperial ships. It would be nearly impossible to capture or kill all of the infection forms inside an imperial ship, and thus would be nigh impossible to stop the infection from spreading inside one. So even if her experiment on the surface failed, which was starting to seem more and more likely as the battle went on, at least one proto-gravemind would surely form in the infected vessels.

She had no idea which vessels would be targeted, but she didn't particularly care. So long as a proto-gravemind was formed it was irrelevant where it formed as far as she was concerned.

[Meanwhile]

From his Golden Throne on Holy Terra, the Master of Mankind sensed the future he had been dreading for centuries now was nigh. A threat far greater and more sinister than even the malign forces of Chaos had been unleashed. Like a flood it would spread across not just the galaxy but the entire universe if it were to be allowed to do so.

The best option would be to quell it in its infancy before it had a chance to spread. Pieces were already in play: the Imperial guard, the Dark Angels, several Living Saints, and even the Legion of the Damned but he feared that they would not be enough. Not with the Dark Mechanicum doing everything within their power to ensure the infection spread. To that end, he had one more key piece on the board to move before the game truly began. And should his gamble fail that piece would be sorely needed by the Imperium in the days to come. He hadn't wanted to play this piece so early but events had forced his hand.

Sending a psychic wave out across the galaxy through the immaterium, he finally awoke the Lion. But not before filling his dreams with visions of what was to come.

[In the Depths of the Rock]

Lion El'Jonson's eyes snapped open as the visions of the galaxy being devoured by an all consuming parasite still played in his mind and the voice of his father still rang in his ears to stop it before it could spread.

Sitting up he looked down at himself and saw that his armor, which had been damaged during his battle with Luther, was now fully repaired. It was then he realized he was holding the hilt of his chainsword, the Wolf Blade, in a backwards grip. He assumed that the Watchers in the Dark must have laid it upon him while he slept and rested his hands on the hilt. When he awoke he must have grabbed it instinctually without even realizing it.

"Lord El'Jonson, you have finally awoken." Said a Watcher in the Dark.

"I have… How long have I been asleep?" The Lion inquired.

"Around ten thousand years, give or take." The Watcher in the Dark informed him.

He looked at the ground. "Ten thousand…" He then shook his head to clear his thoughts and looked back at the Watcher in the Dark. "My father has awoken me for a reason. There is something I must destroy before it consumes everything. A parasite."

"Very well. Follow me. I shall lead you to your sons." The Watcher in the Dark stated before turning and leading him through the labyrinthine depths of the Rock. "The Rock has been boarded by the Dark Mechanicum. Your sons are currently attempting to repel the invaders." The Watcher in the Dark informed the Lion as they walked.

The Lion drew the Wolf Blade and his Fusil Actinaeus in preparation.

Eventually they reached a door whereupon the muffled sounds of battle could be heard. Rushing through the door the Lion immediately joined the fray, firing his Fusil Actinaeus at a Dark Magos and blasting it to bits before charging forwards with the Wolf Sword raised and cleaving through Skitarii left and right.

Seeing him, his sons froze in what they were doing and several even fell to their knees.

Noticing this, the Lion looked at them and shouted, "On your feet! Are you children or are you astartes?! Repel these invaders!"

Hearing his orders the Astartes all snapped out of it and immediately began fighting once more, harder than any of them had ever fought in their lives. """"For the Lion!"""" They shouted as they tore into the Dark Mechanicum's boarding parties.

With Lion El'Jonson himself leading the charge the battle only lasted a few minutes. When it was over, the Astartes all approached him and kneeled before him. The one in the front removed his helmet and held it out for the Lion to take. "Your helmet, my lord." Supreme Grand Master Naberius stated.

The Lion accepted the helmet and donned it. "Rise, my sons. I know you must have many questions but now is not the time. There is a reason the Emperor has awoken me from my slumber. There is something that must be destroyed. A parasite that if not stopped will lay waste to the galaxy."

"Then it must be upon the world we are currently orbiting." The Supreme Grand Master stated.

The Lion nodded. "There is just one issue. My father has forbidden the use of exterminatus as this planet is apparently of great value to the Imperium. So we will have to go down there and cleanse it of this parasite ourselves. What are our current numbers?"

"Less than a thousand, my lord." Naberius informed him.

The Lion nodded. "I see… What happened to our legion to cause such devastation? Traitors? Did the Rangdan somehow survive the xenocides?"

"Er… Roboute Guilliman, my lord. In your absence he divided the legions. We are now called 'chapters' and our numbers are not allowed to exceed any more than a thousand." Naberius explained.

The Lion did not show it but internally he was absolutely seething upon hearing this news. "Then I will have to have a word with my brother later."

"Er… I'm afraid that will be impossible, my lord." Naberius told him.

"Why?" The Lion demanded.

"He is currently in stasis on Ultramar dying from a wound inflicted upon him by the traitor Fulgrim, if I'm not mistaken. The rest of the Primarchs are all either dead or have disappeared. Even the Emperor himself is bound to his throne on Terra. The High Lords of Terra have been ruling in your stead. You are currently the only Primarch in the Imperium." Naberius explained.

"Hm… Then I must speak to my father. Regardless, I will make do with the forces we have." The Lion stated.

The Lion activated his vox unit. "Attention all Dark Angels forces. This is your Primarch, Lion El'Jonson. I know my absence has been long, but I have returned and am reassuming full command of our legion. Yes, legion, not chapter. I do not care what my brother has decreed. I will not accept it. Regardless, the Emperor has awoken me to destroy a threat active on this world. A parasite. I have only just awakened so I am unaware of anything that is occurring at the moment, thus I do not know the areas that are infected. However, assuming we are still capable of them, I am invoking both the Dreadwing and Ironwing protocols to ensure the total annihilation of this threat before it can spread."

Naberius looked at one of the other astartes and ordered them to give him their helmet. Putting on said helmet, Naberius activated the vox system and said, "This is Grand Master Naberius. I am able to confirm the validity of this. The Lion stands before me now and I have returned his helmet to him. And with it I return the title of Supreme Grand Master to him."

"Naberius, come with me. I need you to fill me in on everything I need to know." The Lion ordered.

"Yes, my lord. I will help you in any way I can." Naberius stated, standing up.

Suddenly they heard more footsteps approaching and assumed it was even more Dark Mechanicum forces. However they were quickly proven wrong as infected battle brothers came running in and immediately began firing upon them. Meanwhile, dozens of tiny infection forms swarmed around the infected astartes' feet towards them.

The Lion didn't hesitate to charge forwards and cut the infected astartes to pieces with the Wolf Blade. Meanwhile, Naberius and the other non-infected astartes fired upon the infection forms.

When it was over Naberius growled furiously, "The parasite is here upon the Rock! The Dark Mechanicum dares sully the ruins of Calliban by bringing the parasite here!"

The Lion's expression was unreadable but his stance was practically radiating anger. "Attention all Astartes still aboard the Rock. Be warned, the Dark Mechanicum boarding party has brought the parasite with them. The Rock has been compromised."

Author's notes: Don't really know what to say this time.

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