Author's note
Well, I'm finally back with the last chapter. First thing's first. I do intend to write a sequel to this story. However, I intend to wait until I have the first few chapters written before I post anything, to be sure that it won't simply peter out into nothing in the middle.
Second, I also intend to edit and re-work this story for errors, spelling mistakes, etc. So if anybody has any suggestions, areas of the story they think needs more explanation for example, feel free to send them in.
zero0x3000; Thanks!
As for the Emperor, although he was part angel in his infancy (during which he gained immortality and psychic powers), the angel DNA was expelled by the accelerated growth he went through, so genetically he's fully human. A more complete explanation is in the prologue. Also Horus was very close to being a full clone of the Emperor, and he's got the full power of Chaos behind him. That always tends to twist the scales a bit.
Yoshomo; Thank you, and Ouch probably doesn't even begin to describe it!
Liljimmyurine; I'm glad to know you like it.
Of all the pictures I've seen of Horus vs. the Emperor, both seemed to be wearing Terminator Armor. Although neither the Primarchs or the Emperor (presumably) have the implants to be able to fully use Terminator Armor (as they have no Black Carapace implants), I imagine that a virtually anyone would spring for Terminator armor if they had the choice (with the exception of Sanguinius who, If memory serves, only wore a cloth robe in battle).
As for the Emperor arriving alone shrugs call it dramatic necessity.
nick2951; Sorry I didn't update sooner, but my life was fairly hectic for a while. Then my muse abandoned me for over a week. Anyway, better late then never I hope. And I'm glad you enjoyed the Emperor's last stand.
Rahhel; Thanks, it took me ages to get the fights right.
As for the language thing, I suspect I'll probably say that Shinji and Asuka were communicating soul-to-soul directly in a way that surpassed language. Hence Shinji couldn't learn German, because anything that Asuka said arrived in his head as Japanese.
If that makes sense.
melgar; Thank you.
I haven't seen all of NGE either, I only saw up to Episode 16, the rest I've assembled through reading websites and fanfiction.
When Asuka tossed the lance to Shinji, I felt it was a simple choice; either the massive rocket launcher or the holy lance that from personnel experience (having been impaled by several copies of it before) she knew would go through virtually anything. Besides, it was probably closer to hand.
I don't think that my writing skills are up to the ask of describing how Shinji and Asuka came to terms with finding themselves 28,000 years into the future, so I kind of side-stepped the issue by having them come to terms with it while they were still in Units 01 and 02. Hence, I don't really want them to forget that time. Good idea otherwise, though.
As for the arm, Xellos That… is a secret.
As always criticism and advice is welcome, flamers get a one-way ticket to the Ocularis Terribus.
Chapter Seven
Five Minutes After the Death of Horus
Rogal Dorn glanced down the corridor leading past the main viewing chamber near the command deck, ignoring the almost painful tension in his body. He'd been fighting his way through the cursed ship for over an hour. Although he had managed to gather 17 loyalist marines, of varying legions, during that time, the fighting had been tiring…and disturbing.
It was too much like fighting through a loyalist ship. Yes, the structure of the ship had seemed more organic then metallic, but the overall floor plan seemed virtually identical to any other Battlebarge. Now though…
Dorn knew that something had to have happened. The kill-team had just left the bridge (although they had killed the crew there, Dorn hadn't been satisfied with what would normally been a prime target; there was no sign of the Emperor or Horus) when the shop had quivered and a psychic scream of anguish had filled Dorn's mind. Now, the ship was altering itself, metal groaning as it reformed back into what appeared to be it's original shape as psychic energies seemed to flow out of the very walls themselves.
"Stay here. Maintain overwatch." Dorn ordered over the Comm. Net, before pulling the door open. The chamber on the other side was not all that much different to the rest of the ship, aside from the immense view port in the wall. Dorn's gaze took in the varied corpses that littered the room. Most were unidentifiable. Two, oddly by themselves, were even worse then the others, so covered with scratch marks, blood and dust that they were unidentifiable. The body, which captured Dorn's attention, however, was the broken form of Sanguinius.
Oh Sanguinius… Dorn walked over and gently closed the angelic Primarch's lifeless eyes. "You WILL be avenged brother." Dorn growled, thumping his fist to his chest in the mark of respect to the fallen. "I swear it." His statement was answered with a groan.
Startled, Dorn looked up, instinctively leveling his Storm Bolter at the sound. One of the bodies had groaned. It was so battered, and burned that it was virtually impossible to identify the man, or even which side the warrior had stood on. Dorn studied the moaning figure as he came to his feet. There's something familiar about that…
Dorn's Storm Bolter hit the floor as his Universe seemed to collapse around him.
"MY LORD!" Dorn shouted, running forward and lifting the Emperor's torso. A single crimson eye fastened onto his gaze, before flickering sideways. Glancing over, Dorn spotted the other body. Now he knew what to look for, Dorn noticed the tell-tale marks, the spiked Power Claw-Bolter, the 'Eye of Horus' symbol almost hidden under dust and blood. Horus was definitely dead; living people tend to have heads.
"The traitor is dead, my Lord. Our mission is done," Dorn said, turning back to face the Emperor. The Emperor nodded weakly. A faint mental voice, battered and strained to the point of fracture, whispered into Dorn's head, giving him the Emperor's last orders.
"As you wish, my Lord," Dorn whispered as the Emperor's remaining eye closed, before activating his Comm. unit. "Acting-Fabricator General Kane!"
Receiving you, Dorn+ Kane replied over the link.
"Emergency extraction now. Lock on all friendly IFF beacons and get our warriors out of this cursed ship."
But what about your mission? The Chaos forces are all in retreat… Is the monster dead+ Dorn glanced at the charred, headless corpse lying next to the massive hole in the bulkhead. Psychic frost still covered both.
"Yes. The traitor is dead. Get us out of here."
There was a familiar sense of discontinuity.
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A Day After the Death of Horus
"GAH!"
Shinji thrust himself up on his elbows, eyes wide. A few seconds passed as he stared around, before sagging back to the covers in relief. Despite the stone walls, hissing pipes and leering gargoyles, the smell of antiseptic, the silence, occasionally broken by a groan, implied; hospital. Different to NERV's long gone facility perhaps, but still a hospital.
Shinji stared up at the ceiling of cracked stone, broken by the occasional pipe and suppressed an ironic chuckle. Now that is an unfamiliar ceiling, he thought to himself.
"Ah, I see you're awake Princeps," a voice came from the doorway. Shinji tried to push himself up on his hands, and nearly fell off the bed as he overbalanced. "Whoa, whoa. You need to be careful," the man said, running over to grab Shinji's shoulder. "You've taken some serious damage Princeps."
Part of Shinji's mind noted the small staff and snake pin on the man's uniform that identified him as a doctor. Most of Shinji's mind, however, was completely focused on his left arm, or rather the bandaged stump that had replaced his left forearm, just below the elbow.
"You're actually fairly lucky," the Doctor's voice continued, causing Shinji's stunned mind to slowly re-focus on the rest of the world.
"Lucky?" Shinji gasped.
"Yes, whatever removed your forearm was incredibly sharp, the slice is practically ruler straight." The Doctor shrugged. "Most of the work we had to do was just to 'tidy up' the wound. If it had been a crude cut, you would likely have lost the elbow as well. As it is, the Tech-priests are working on a mechanical replacement, and if things ever calm down, you may actually get a vat-cloned replacement." Shinji allowed himself to collapse back on the sheets.
"So, what about the war? The last thing I remember is seeing them vanish…"
"I don't know much, but the rumors from the injured Guardsmen here say that we've won. Apparently, the enemy force fled, abandoning any of their forces that weren't moving fast enough. Some stories say that the enemy literally vanished, leaving nothing but dust. I can't tell you much that's actually fact, unfortunately. All I know for sure is that the guns have stopped firing. High Command seems to be sitting on all the other facts."
"What about Asuka? I mean the other, ah, Princeps like me. The one commanding the red Eva?"
"I don't know for sure. I think that the remaining Titans were ordered on some kind of search and destroy mission though. Perhaps she went with them." Shinji chuckled, the image of Asuka finally getting to use the missile launcher like she wanted.
As the Doctor left, presumably to check on his other patients, Shinji let his eyes close. So, Shinji wondered as he slowly slid back into sleep, now what?
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With a faint hum, the silvery glow of a stasis field snapped into life, outlining the shape of the human inside. Fabricator General Kane moved back from the gold-coated console and turned to face Dorn.
IT'S DONE. THE EMPEROR IS ALIVE, AND THE STASIS FIELD WILL MAINTAIN HIM INDEFINITELY. HE WILL NEED A NEW SOURCE OF…ENERGY TO MAINTAIN THE CONNECTION BETWEEN MIND AND BODY, HOWEVER. THIS MEANS THAT…+
"I don't care," Dorn growled. "Our Lord is alive, yes?"
YES, BUT…+
"The other considerations are for other people to deal with. I and my Legion are leaving," Dorn replied, turning and walking out.
WHAT? BUT WHAT ABOUT TERRA+ Kane asked running after him. Neither paid much attention as golden armored Space Marines silently closed and took guard positions outside the room they had just left.
"The Space Wolves and Dark Angels are here in full strength, the Ultramarines will arrive shortly and the Blood Angels and White Scars still have a fairly large level of combat capacity. Terra will be fine." Dorn paused as he tapped the controls of the door to the palace's upper landing pads. It hissed open, revealing a small landing platform sticking out from the side of the palace. A yellow painted Thunderhawk dropship stood there, waiting. "I, however, intend to pursue my wayward brethren. I will pursue them all the way to hell if need be." The door hissed shut behind him.
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A Month After the Death of Horus
A man who was not a man stared out at the shifting colors of the Eye of Terror as his anger almost physically coiled and twisted around him. Under his command, the Black Legion had retreated into this holy warp doorway and carved out this world for their own.
"The galaxy shall burn," Abaddon, Captain of the 1st Company finally growled, turning from the window. He stepped onto the lift, his bodyguard carefully shuffling in to avoid knocking him, a difficult task for a heavily armed terminator. The lift shuddered as it descended to one of the manufatorium levels, past vast spaces where hundreds of slaves toiled over the weapons that would soon support their cruel master. Abaddon strode towards the gantry outside the lift as soon as it shuddered to a halt and the door opened.
This level was nearly quiet, the faint screams from the levels above and below almost inaudible. Suspended in the middle of this vast area, suspended by dark, magical arts, hung a single, blood-stained object. As long as a Basilisk cannon, vaguely cylindrical and topped by a massive hand, it floated serenely before the marines, the faint words ' EVA01TEST ' visible underneath the orange-red stains. Abaddon watched it slowly spin for a while, before his mouth split into a bloodless grin.
"The galaxy shall burn."
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Four Months After the Death of Horus
Within the darkness, two figures stood, illuminated only by the faint glow of a data screen.
IT IS DONE+ one of the figures, shapeless in a bulky robe muttered. Several mechendrites pulled out of the console, taking up their customary position around the figure. +WERE THIS ORDER TO COME FROM ANYONE ELSE…+
"The program-prayer is in place?" the second figure, a seven foot tall armored figure asked. "The Warp drive will peak as ordered?"
YES+ the robed figure growled angrily as they turned to leave the compartment. +BUT THIS PROGRAM-PRAYER, IT'S A HERESAY AGAINST THE MACHINE-GOD! WHEN THE MAGI HEAR OF…+ Without warning the armored figure reached over, grabbed the robed Tech-priest's head and pulled hard. With the dull snap of bone, the Tech-priest slumped to the floor. The armored figure stepped back, waiting for the writhing mechendrites to still, before reaching down and lifting the corpse up.
Lifting up a deck hatch, the figure dropped the corpse into the maintenance shaft beneath. With luck, the body wouldn't be found until long after the journey began. Turning, the figure quickly made his way to the ship's exit, the glow from a flickering candle revealing golden power armor for a second before he passed back into shadow.
"As He wills it."
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Cyclops Class Cargo ship, Sol's Fury
Part of Imperial Mass Cargo Convoy 10-7446b
En Route to Gryphonne IV, Forge World
Personnel and Cargo Classified-Adaptus Mechanicus Priority a16-62
It was the middle of the night period.
Shinji stared into Unit 01's dark eyes from the gantry mounted on the wall of the Cargo hold. It had been slightly more then four months since he had left Unit 01, and Shinji felt like he had run the full gauntlet of human emotions.
Horror at the wanton destruction of the site of Tokyo 3 and the war engulfing the planet.
Shock at the shear length of time that had passed since the Angel war that he and Asuka had spent inside their respective Evas.
Wonder at the technology and people around the in 'the future'.
Hope when they had beaten off the legions of Chaos.
Fear when the Sky Fortress fell and the defenses fell one after another.
And now… disappointment. The end of the greatest war humanity had ever fought and then…nothing. I suppose I should feel happy, Shinji mused silently, but… It was like the ultimate anti-climax. It had been like a return to business as normal, though admittedly a very active business as normal. Since the end of the Heresay, both Shinji and Asuka had been trying to come to terms with the changes around them since they had left Tokyo 3 behind so long ago. In a way the largest thing for them to deal with; virtually everything they had known vanishing into history, had been the easiest thing to deal with. After all, Shinji mused with dark humor, 28,000 years stuck in one place gave us plenty of time to come to terms with our predicament, even if it felt like a much shorter time.
Shinji let his eyes drop to the new, artificial limb protruding from his left elbow. It was quite good, almost as flexible and effective as his real arm even if the pistons and motivators were exposed to the air, and he had been offered a 'vat-grown' replacement. Shinji suspected that he would probably hold out on that, every time he heard 'vat-grown' his mind kept flashing back to when Doctor Ritsuko had shown him and Misato the Room of Gaulf. The image of the giggling Rei clones was more then enough to make Shinji stick with his new artificial limb, regardless of how uncomfortable it sometimes was.
Shinji's eyes rose back to the darkened eyes of his Eva. Ever since I learned of you, I always wanted to run away from you. And now I'm not needed, there are no Angels threatening humanity now, I can't bear to leave you. Well, I suppose there are worse fates. It least neither of us will have to fight again.
Shinji's chuckle caused Asuka to glance over from her own staring match with Unit 02.
"What's so funny?"
"Oh… it's nothing." Asuka rolled here eyes before returning to staring at Unit 02.
I wonder I she's having the same thoughts as I am… Shinji mused before letting his gaze drift to the shapeless robes and simple clothes that they both wore. Or given how much she enjoyed shopping, he chuckled to himself, she could just be moaning about the Imperium's lack of 'fashion sense'.
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Deep within the Cognitar backs of the Sol's Fury, a hidden program went to work.
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Tech-Magi Kroten flinched as the bass rumble of the immense Warp Drive came to a halt. As the various indentured crewmen and Tech-priest milled around in confusion, Kroten strode into their midst angrily.
"Shut up!" he shouted, in a voice that, almost uniquely in the Cult of Mars, came from his original voice box, "Mortan, take your work group and begin the prayers of Damage Assesment. Hartmoun, bring your people with me, I want access to the main drive protocols, and I'll need assistance with the entreaties of access. Move!"
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Daemons clustered around the ships of the convoy as they slowed to a stop. They ripped at the shields that surrounded the fleet, searching for a crack, a gap, any route no matter how small into the ships and their crews. They had been trying unsuccessfully for weeks, unable to penetrate the ships' defenses.
Nobody would ever know what caused it. A circuit failing in its duty to the Machine God or a servitor adjusting the field controls too slowly perhaps. Regardless of the cause, the result was terrifying. A tiny gap, measured only in millimeters, opened in the Gellar field for less then a second.
A single entity, twisted through the gap, lunging towards the ship within. It was desperate, inside the Gellar field, where the physics weren't the Chaotic ones of the Immaterium outside but were the hard and course laws of reality, it took energy to hold itself together. It flew through the ship, leaving a trail of cold and fear as it passed, searching for an open mind, a mind it could use…
And it found one.
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"Alert," a recording of a servitor's voice called out from the speakers of the Cyclops-class transport Sol's Fury, waking Captain Loriasien instantly. "Alert. Anonymous energy reading detected. Astropathic tower. Alert." As the warning started to repeat, Loriasien leaped out of the bed, grabbed his jacket and strode towards the intercom.
"Captain to the bridge," he said angrily as he pushed the button to connect him to Hormius, his Executive officer. "What the hell is going on?"
"Sir," Hormius voice came back, worried and slightly tinny, "I'm not sure. All control functions and communications from the Astropathic tower have stopped, and the energy readings have gone off the charts. We're reading over…" Loriasien stopped listening to Hormius as his jacket slipped from now nerveless fingers. There was no technology that could direct a ship through the Warp, only the psychic Navigators were capable of seeing into that desolate realm, and a ship without a navigator was a ship without a hope of survival.
"Hormius, listen to me," Loriasien said, speaking carefully into the intercom. "Send a message to the escorting Naval units. We are to perform an emergency jump out of the Warp. Ask them to jump out at their leisure and rejoin us at their discretion. Tell the Tech-priests to do what they can to get us out of the Warp safely, and…" Loriasien's voice dropped to a whisper, "send every security officer you can find to the Astropathic Tower. Have them heavily armed and prepared for anything. I'll get to the bridge as soon as possible."
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Ignoring the frantic panic around them, the servitors wired into the Warp Drive continued to work, re-programming the prayer-equations governing the Warp Drive, all according to the actions of a single hidden program.
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"Captain on deck."
"Report," Loriasien snapped as he strode up to the pedestal in the center of the bridge and glanced over the consoles below. Above him, the massive Plasta-steel shutters continued to cover the bridge's glass dome, preventing the madness-inducing light of the Warp from reaching the bridge.
"I have some good news." Hormius replied, looking up from a nearby console. "The security troopers have informed me that two of our five Astropaths are safe and sane. They're being hocked up to the logic-engines now, and should guarantee us a safe passage out of the Warp. The troopers also found body parts corresponding to two of the other three Astropaths, but they have yet to account for the fifth." Hormius glanced down at the Dataslate that he was holding. "However, according the Tech-priests down in main engineering, the Warp-drive itself isn't responding normally, though they say they'll have it back shortly. On top of that, I've been receiving reports of some kind of intruder, heading towards the Geller generators. Reports, or at least as much of them as we receive, indicate that the attacker is our fifth Astropath. The reports however…" Hormius shock his head and silently passed over the slate. Loriasien read the report.
"…holy God-Emporor…" Loriasien gasped, before shaking himself. "Right, so the Astropath is possessed. Give the troopers orders to shoot on sight, and at all costs keep him away from the Ge…"
"Sir," an ensign called out from the level below, "a report from Tech-priest Gorazien in the Geller generator control room. He reports…" the ensign shut up as the ship shook.
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It had no name, only awareness and hunger. It was alone here, and its host was only a human, despite the changes forced on it. It needed its brethren. And it knew how to get them. The metal objects ahead of it were pulsing with energy. Although it had never seen Gellar generators before, it somehow knew that these brittle, metal contraptions were all that stopped its brothers from joining it. It raised a twisted hand-claw, and cleaved the generators in two.
With a disappointingly plain 'pop', the Gellar field vanished. And hordes of Daemons rushed in towards the Sol's Fury and the humans within.
"Alert. Gellar field failure. Anonymous energy reading detected. Deck 4."
Shinji staggered as the ship suddenly shook around him. As he and Asuka instinctively grabbed the railings for support, he was suddenly aware that he was standing on an all too frail walkway suspended 18 stories in the air.
"Alert. Anonymous energy reading detected. Deck 12."
As Shinji climbed back on to his feet, a groaning creak drew his gaze over to the massive bulk head. The metal was bending in, forming thousands of dents as if hundreds of creatures were ripping and tearing at the far side. Turning, Shinji and Asuka ran for the hatch leading further into the ship, only to see it cycle closed in front of them.
"Alert. Anonymous energy reading detected. All Decks."
The walls began to collapse in. Through the widening tears, foul light in colors Shinji's instinct insisted was impossible flickered and twisted. Monsters, creatures that shifted and twisted into shapes that would make Lovecraft giber in fear, pulled their way in and leaped for the two cowering morsels before them.
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It's work complete, the hidden program that had inadvertently brought so much chaos on the ship sent it's final command.
With a whine of tortured metal, the Warp drive sprung back to life.
The Sol's Fury vanished forever from the heaving currents of the Immaterium.
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To be concluded...
Vat-cloned; Pretty much as it sounds, cloning body parts or entire bodies in a vat. Mostly used either for medical purposes or providing the biological components of servitors.
Stasis field; a field that freezes time inside it. Appears to be only partially effective as the Emperor is apparently capable of extending his mind out beyond the field, most noticeably for the ritual of Soul-binding with potential astropaths.
Ultramarines; One of the largest Space marine Legions (accounting for nearly 3/4 of the marines in the field), the Ultramarines virtually held the Imperium together as other Legions recovered from their massive losses or left on Crusades of personal vengeance. Their Primarch, Roboute Guilliman, was one of the first High Lords of Terra and inscribed the Codex Astartes, which formed the basis of Space Marine combat for the next 10,000 years.
Abaddon; Later to be known as the 'Dispoiler' Abaddon was second in command of the Sons of Horus Legion. After their defeat, Abaddon took control of the Legion and lead them into the Eye of Terror. Many of the worst battles between Chaos and the Imperium were ordered or lead by him (such as the Gothic War).
Gellar field; An energy field that both protects and hides a ship from the denizens of the Warp. Interstellar travel is impossible without it.