Disclaimer: Code Geass and Warhammer 40k? Not mine.

Chapter Twelve: Black Knights Rising

Though Cornelia's Counterattack—named in honor of the deceased Cornelia li Britannia whose name the shattered Britannian Army had rallied behind—nearly broke the backs of the European and Chinese armies, the invasion of Britannia resumed within three months. Though dogged at every turn by guerilla fighters, the march inland continued inexorably. Determined to break the enemy's will to fight, the Euro Universe and Chinese Federation began carpet-bombing large swaths of the Britannian countryside, killing millions and leaving millions more homeless. The huge number of refugees fleeing inland lead to the worst humanitarian crisis the United Federation of Nations had ever faced in its short history.

Though unable to stop the Great War, the UFN did manage, under the expert—and occasionally ruthless—leadership of Kaguya Sumeragi, to send humanitarian aid shipments to the hardest-hit areas. Some subsequent arm-twisting by Jiang Lihua, former Empress Tianzi, led to the Chinese Federation grudgingly handing over their iceberg ships for use as offshore refugee camps. Nevertheless, millions more refugees remained trapped in the Britannian homeland, crowded into whatever makeshift camps could be set up for them. Faced with the threat of UFN retaliation, the invading armies opted to steer clear of such camps.

Imperial Palace, Pendragon, Britannia
2026 a.t.b, Year 7 of the Great War

Pendragon, once the most magnificent city of the Western Hemisphere, had been hit hard by the Great War. In hopes of quickly battering down the fortifications around Pendragon, the Euro Universe unveiled a devastating new weapon: the multiple rocket launcher. Much to the European generals' surprise, the Britannian Army had developed a similar system and introduced it at the same time. By day, countless rocket entrails crisscrossed the skies over Pendragon as both sides bombarded one another with tens of thousands of rockets. By night, smoke choked the skies as EU aircraft fire-bombed the Britannian-held portion of the city.

Knightmares of the modern generation, never really designed for urban combat, began appearing less and less, and infantry came to dominate the Battle of Pendragon. Brutal street-to-street fighting raged around the clock as opposing armies fought for every building, sometimes even occupying different floors on the same building. Anyone foolhardy enough to poke their head above the rubble was liable to have it taken off by enemy snipers. Though the Britannian forces fought ferociously, stalling the EU advance and even gaining ground in some places, they were powerless to stop the armored spear thrust into the heart of Pendragon, the Imperial Palace itself.

"Protect the empress with your lives!"

The Royal Guard sergeant ducked behind a hastily-erected sandbag barricade just as a squad of EU soldiers rounded the corner. Even as a bullet pulped the head of the Guardsman standing next to him, the sergeant remained level-headed and put rounds downrange in short and disciplined bursts. One EU soldier staggered back, his chest riddled with bullets, before falling down dead. Another, a bullet having found the gap between his bulletproof vest and his helmet, fell to the ground gurgling and clutching his throat. Another bullet between his eyes put him out of his misery.

"Grenade!"

Without hesitation, the sergeant picked up the explosive and tossed it back. The EU soldiers scattered as it landed behind their barricade and exploded. One failed to react in time and was shredded by the shrapnel. Two others fell down, one dead and the other screaming in pain.

"The Empress has cleared the corridor! Fall back!"

Believing Nunnally's Royal Guard to be ceremonial troops due to their elaborate uniforms, the invading EU forces had rushed recklessly ahead. Much to their surprise and horror, the EU soldiers found themselves facing some of the most experienced and battle-hardened soldiers in the Holy Britannian Empire. What followed was a brutal, one-sided slaughter and a disorganized retreat. The second wave, though substantially better prepared and granted Knightmare support, still paid a high toll for every inch advanced.

The Royal Guards accompanying Nunnally screeched to a halt as a squad of EU soldiers rounded the corridor in front of them. In the crucial split seconds that the enemy recoiled in surprise, the Guardsman closest in the front slammed the butt of his combat shotgun into the faceplate of the closest EU soldier, shattering his helmet and caving in his skull. Two shotgun blasts echoed through the hallways and two soldiers fell dead before the remainder recovered their senses and pumped his chest full of lead.

"Don't let them reach the Empress!"

Several Guardsmen charged forward, swinging in every direction with their bayonets and rifle butts. The EU soldiers panicked at the sight of the charging Guardsmen and began recklessly spraying fire into the melee, killing as many of their own comrades as they did Royal Guards.

A Guardsman had reflexively leapt over Nunnally, using his body to shield her from stray rounds. She could only look on helplessly at his agonized expression and he took upwards of a dozen hits. He coughed up blood and died, but remained shielding the Empress. Nunnally, now on the verge of going into shock, vainly tried to wipe the blood off her face.

"Dammit! Another squad incoming!"

One of the Guardsmen drew his bayonet out of an EU soldier's chest only to be shredded by assault rifle fire. A dozen EU soldiers rounded the corner, weapons at the ready. This time the ones caught by surprise, the Royal Guards stood little chance.

Before any of the new arrivals could move in on Nunnally, Zero dropped down from the rafters. Landing in the midst of them, he elbowed one in the back and kicked another in the stomach before any of the soldiers could react. As the latter soldier doubled over, Suzaku dropped his elbow onto the back of his opponent's neck. A sickening snap was heard and the soldier fell over dead. The first soldier recovered just in time for Suzaku grab him and snap his neck.

The remaining soldiers, having recovered from the initial shock, raised their weapons. Zero flew into action, disarming one soldier with a swift kick before crushing his windpipe with a well-placed jab. As one of the soldiers swung, Suzaku dropped down and smashed his knee with a well-placed kick. As the enemy howled in pain, Zero stole his knife and slashed his throat before whirling around and throwing the blade at another enemy. The knife embedded itself up to the hilt in the soldier's chest.

Suzaku dove between the legs of another soldier as the remaining opponents opened fire, the bullets meant for him burying themselves in the floor and in the chest of the unfortunate EU soldier. Grabbing one of the assault rifles littering the ground, Suzaku rolled over and dispatched the remaining enemies with one long burst.

Panting, Zero stood up and staggered over to Nunnally. With a grunt, he lifted the dead Guardsman off of the shell-shocked woman. She seemed to calm a little when he laid a comforting hand on her shoulder.

Seeing that her wheelchair sparked ominously, Suzaku lifted Nunnally off his back and took off sprinting down the hallway.

Imperial Palace, Pendragon, Britannia
Two Hours Later

Though he was panting heavily, his Zero outfit soaked through in sweat, and his muscles screamed from exertion, Suzaku's spirits soared as the exit came into view. Smoke choked the skies outside, and explosions blanketed the ground as EU rocket artillery and bombers mercilessly pounded the city below. More importantly, the evacuation craft—fueled up and ready to launch—was growing steadily larger in his sights. A squadron of Matilda IIs had formed up around the launch pad, their 105mm howitzers and missile pods devastating any enemy troops that tried approaching the walls. He could even see some old-school Knightmares—mostly aging Vincent Commander Types painted in Royal Guard colors—forming a second perimeter on the edge of the platform.

As he and Nunnally burst out into the open, Suzaku's hopes sank: the distinctive whine of EU transport VTOLs reached his ears and only grew louder. The shockwaves of the Matilda IIs opening fire nearly knocked him off his feet, and the sound deafened both of them. Suzaku looked up only to see the employment of an all-too-familiar tactic: Panzer-Hummel Ausf. Bs suspended below transport VTOLs by means of steel cables. Zero threw Nunnally to the ground and leapt over her just as a nearby Matilda exploded, the flaming hulk collapsing onto the escape craft.

The bombardment of autocannnon rounds, unguided rockets, and 88mm cannon shells continued unrelentingly, ripping through the Royal Guard Knightmares like so much tissue paper. The Vincents and Matilda IIs tightened their perimeter and fought back valiantly, however: for every one of their number reduced to scrap metal, a transport VTOL was destroyed and a Panzer-Hummel sent plunging to its doom below. The platform, already heavily-damaged from the initial bombardment, shook as several of the dreaded EU Knightmares dropped onto it.

"Surrender!"

Suzaku looked up only to stare down the barrel of an 88mm cannon. The EU pilot should have focused more on his surroundings, as a Vincent ambushed it from behind moments later, driving its MVS Lance through the Knightmare's cockpit. Autocannon rounds riddled the Vincent moments later, and the hulk was unceremoniously battered aside by another 88mm cannon barrel. Suzaku could see the autocannons on the Knightmare's hips shifting subtly, most likely as the pilot zeroed his crosshairs.

Before the Panzer-Hummel had a chance to fire, a Matilda II slammed into it from the side. Not giving the EU pilot a chance to react, the Britannian Knightmare drove its still-loaded left arm into the much-feared EU Knightmare's vulnerable flank and emptied all six missiles into it at point-blank range. The resulting explosion blew apart both the Panzer-Hummel and the Matilda's left arm. A second EU Knightmare slammed into the Matilda II from behind, crossing its 88mm cannon barrels in imitation of a bear hug. As Suzaku and Nunnally watched in horror, the Matilda II reversed, its landspinners screaming in protest and they pushed both it and the Panzer-Hummel. Though the EU pilot desperately tried to fight back with his own landspinners, both Knightmares plunged off the edge of the platform.

In a few more moments, it was all over.

Suzaku gritted his teeth as dozens of EU soldiers, assault rifles at the ready, surrounded him and Nunnally. More Panzer-Hummel Asuf. Bs trod over the wreckage of fallen Knightmares, Britannian and EU alike, to form an impenetrable steel circle.

"Surrender!" shouted one of the EU soldiers.

Before Suzaku could respond, one of the Panzer-Hummels tipped over, knocking over its neighbors like so many dominos. The Aquila leapt out from behind the fallen Knightmare, his fist wrapped around what appeared to be a vital hydraulic component. As he over the EU troop formation, he dropped the components and managed to crush a soldier who failed to react in time. Spinning gracefully in midair, the lanky figure landed feet-first beside Nunnally and Suzaku.

"Open fire!"

The Aquila raised his arms dramatically in the air, and the hundreds of bullets came to a stop mere centimeters from the trio. Suzaku stood up shakily and offered a hand to help Nunnally up. With a flourish, the Aquila dropped his arms, and the resulting storm of metal mowed down nearly all of the EU soldiers surrounding them. One of the EU pilots began radioing for reinforcements, apparently unaware he was hitting the external audio feed as he did so. The three could hear every word exchanged between the increasingly panicked pilot and his superiors.

"Aquila spotted in Sector D-5! We need reinforcements!"

"What are you talking about? The Aquila is in Sector E-9!"

"I have him here in my sights!"

"Negative! The Aquila is in Sector E-9!"

"This is Sector G-3, the Aquila is here! Taking heavy casualties!"

The exchange was cut off as the Aquila took off towards the Panzer-Hummel. With seemingly the same amount of effort one would put into opening a pickle jar, he ripped the Knightmare's arm off and used it to sweep the remaining Panzer-Hummels off their feet. Gouts of lightning issued from his fingertips, reducing the Knightmares to charred husks.

As Suzaku watched in dumbfounded awe, the Aquila turned to face him and Nunnally just as one of the Panzer-Hummels exploded. The dramatic effect was promptly ruined by a sniper bullet drilling between his eyes. Hairline fractures began spreading from the hole, and the mask shattered.

"Lelouch?" Suzaku managed to force out between his parched lips.

"Onii-" Nunnally began.

She was cut off by a sniper bullet hitting Suzaku just above the collarbone, travelling through his body and piercing straight through her heart. Before her vision faded to black, she saw two more Aquilae land gracefully from seemingly high up.

Suzaku's eyes shot open, darting right and left in a panicked daze.

"How are you feeling, Suzaku Kururugi?"

Suzaku reflexively leapt back as a blinding flash of light appeared before him. Even while shielding his eyes and giving them several seconds to adjust allowed him to only see a silhouette of the figure before him.

"Who are you? Where am I? Where's Nunnally?"

"Do you remember what happened, Suzaku?"

"The…the battle…EU soldiers in Pendragon…the Aquila…Lelouch…I was shot…am I dead?"

"Yes, Suzaku, you're dead," the mysterious figure replied with confidence only achievable by being absolutely correct.

The Guardian fell silent, allowing the news to sink in before continuing.

"More accurately, you are at a crossroads. You are being given something few have ever been offered: a choice."

An archway appeared to the left of the Guardian.

"You can accept your death and move on to whatever lays beyond, or," a second archway appeared to the Guardian's right, "you can go back. The work of the Aquila, of the one you know as Lelouch, is far from over. You will be granted power beyond the reckoning of mortal man, and you will stand beside him on the greatest crusade in history. The choice is yours, Suzaku."

?
Two Days After the Battle of Pendragon

With a pained gasp, Suzaku shot upright in his bed. He ran his hands over his collarbone, finding only unbroken flesh. His eyes darted around the room, and he noticeably relaxed upon seeing Nunnally lying on the neighboring cot.

"There're clothes in the drawer beside your bed."

The former Knight of Zero whirled around to face the speaker, who was casually leaning against the doorframe. His voice failed him as yet another face returned from the dead.

"Kallen?"

As one of the main fronts of the April Fools' Offensives, Japan had been especially hard-hit by the Great War. The UFN garrison had been annihilated within weeks, and Chinese Federation forces mercilessly shelled and bombed the countryside. Todoh was reported dead during the Chinese army's initial push inland, and Kallen was supposedly killed when the remaining UFN forces in Japan made a final stand at Sapporo.

Kallen answered his question with an almost-imperceptible nod.

"Does that mean…"

"No," Kallen cut him off, "Todoh was killed at Fukuoka."

Suzaku closed his eyes and visibly slumped.

"If you're feeling well enough to walk, Lelouch and CC want to speak to you outside."

In the end, despite taking the Imperial Palace, EU forces failed to capture Pendragon. Their leaders had gambled upon taking and fortifying the city while a bulk of the remaining Britannian Army was busily engaging the Chinese along the Rio Grande. The city's unexpectedly-determined defenders had cost them extra time, and a series of tactical missteps by the Chinese generals prematurely doomed the Rio Grande Offensive. The EU army soon found itself besieged and surrounded from all sides. After nearly three months under siege and four unsuccessful breakout attempts, the remaining EU forces in Pendragon surrendered.

In the final days of the Great War, UFN peacekeeping forces located Odysseus eu Britannia—miraculously still alive and now a decorated war hero—and installed him as the new Emperor of the Holy Britannian Empire. On March 23, 2027 a.t.b., faced with mounting pressure from the UFN and increasing unrest back home, representatives of the Chinese Federation and the Euro Universe arrived in Pendragon to negotiate a ceasefire.

Thus, the first act of Odysseus' level-headed—if not notably capable—rule was ending the Great War. Eight years of nonstop bloodshed and violence were followed by a period of rebuilding and an uneasy peace.

?
The Warp

CC fell to her hands and knees, her breathing ragged and uneven.

She and Kallen had donned the mantle of the Aquila multiple times during the Great War, which only served to heighten the character's mystique. Reports of the Aquila showing up at multiple battlefronts—sometimes many kilometers apart—at once devastated enemy morale far more than Britannian guns. At Pendragon, she had swooped down on the invading EU forces with an almost-savage glee, ripping apart Knightmares with her bare hands and redirecting thousands of bullets back at their shooters. EU soldiers had literally run away screaming when she picked up an 88mm shell and threw it hard enough into a Panzer-Hummel to detonate the impact fuze. As always, she had let a few survive to bring word of the Aquila's deeds back to their lines.

"Are you sure you don't need a rest? You've relived some of early humanity's darkest years in the past few hours. Nobody would blame you if you were to take a few minutes' break."

CC collapsed onto the ground, exhausted mentally and emotionally.

"I think I'll take you up on that offer."

?
025.M20

"Light's green! Go! Go! Go!"

Klaxons ringing, the ramp dropped. The occupants' goggles automatically polarized as blinding sunlight flooded the chamber. Without another word, they sprinted down the ramp and spread out as weapons fire peppered the ground around them. Las-bolts and autogun rounds bounced off the dropship's thick armor plates and pockmarked the ground. The assault squad threw themselves to the ground, below the firing arcs of the majority of the enemy gunners, and slowly crawled towards the sandbag barricades mere meters ahead.

"Heavy stubber dug in just beyond that ridge!"

"I can't get a bead on him!"

"Dammit…no choice, then. Cover me!"

The members of the squad all simultaneously sprang out of cover, spraying lasbolts in the general direction of the heavy stubber nest. The incoming fire noticeably slackened, and one of the assault team members vaulted over the barricade towards the fixed gun. The heavy stubber's distinctive barking started up again, but the storm of incoming lasbolts prevented the gunner from shooting accurately. Lucky lasbolt hits even claimed several of the troops clustered around the position.

"Frag out!"

With a mighty throw, the soldier lobbed a grenade right into the heavy stubber nest. A satisfying whump reached all the Black Knights soldiers' ears and the stubber fire ceased.

"Squad, advance!"

"Impressive, aren't they?" Lelouch remarked.

The others nodded in agreement, usage of nonlethal test weapons and specially-programmed practice drones notwithstanding.

"Five thousand have reached adulthood, and another fifteen thousand are nearing that stage," a nearby scientist offered.

As Lelouch and his fellow immortals guided humanity from the shadows, they knew that the Black Knights would not always have the luxury of permanent colony worlds. Thus, they bought together the galaxy's best and brightest and tasked them with adapting humanity for the rigors of life in space. As the first batch of test subjects—among them the quinumvirate that led the Black Knights—soon revealed, gene mods and implants geared for fully-grown humans required specific tailoring to the recipient else risk rejection. On the scale they were required, such a solution proved too time- and resource-intensive for anything remotely approaching efficiency or even practicality.

Instead, the scientists engineered an entirely new strain of humanity. Having spent thousands of years infiltrating the upper echelons of human society, the Black Knights easily procured genetic material from all over the galaxy. Modified at the gamete stage with the aid of arcane sciences and staggeringly-powerful computers, the new human paradigm had taken centuries to reach its current stage. Decades of careful genetic tinkering and subtle psychic indoctrination lead to a subspecies of humanity noticeably more capable, both physically and mentally, than the average unmodified human and significantly longer-lived. More importantly, they boasted significant innate psychic ability while remaining nigh-invisible to the denizens of the Warp. Nobody dared breathe easy yet: the Black Knights' newest members had reached a vulnerable stage, and even the slightest mutation could doom the entire fledgling species.

Millennia later, scientists under the employ of the Emperor of Mankind would discover data pertaining to the creation of the Black Knights. Though fragmentary and corrupted with time, the information would be applied—albeit in a significantly more crude and brute-force method—towards the Primarch Project and its associated offshoots.

?
The Warp

CC, now thoroughly used to the sensation, hardly batted an eyebrow as her consciousness swam back to the surface. The pinprick of light made several circuits around the green-haired immortal before joining the thousands that swarmed around her. True to Euphemia's word, the soul shards had protected her throughout their journey, pointing out dangers and occasionally ganging up on a daemon that managed to sneak up on her in the heat of battle.

"The Black Knights' dirty little secret," Euphemia remarked as if discussing the weather, "With ancestors the products of genetic tampering and cloning vats, could they ever truly integrate with the citizens of the Imperium? I'd bet identity and existential crises were pretty common."

"Back then, yes," CC deadpanned, "Nowadays, they'd probably be in for a greater shock upon discovering that the Imperium's humans tend not to have binary hearts or a ribcage of overlapping bone plates."

"Or the ability to toss around psychic abilities with minimal risk of being eaten by a Warp creature with the munchies?" Euphemia asked with a raised eyebrow and a playful lilt.

"That too," CC conceded.

Orbit of Terra
078.M25

"They're running final diagnostics on the STC now. We'll be leaving in a few hours."

Lelouch offered a noncommittal grunt in response. CC knew him too well to fall for the façade of indifference: internally, he was every bit as torn as she was.

Between the Warp storms, the daemonic incursions, and the Machine Wars, the fall of humanity that Lelouch had long predicted was finally happening. Devastated by war and cut off from the food shipments that sustained them, thousands of human worlds starved and descended into feral savagery. Some were completely picked clean of life by daemons using unprotected Psykers' minds as portals. The Black Knights had long prepared for the inevitable exodus, first by genetically-engineering a hardy strain of humanity adapted for the rigors of life in space and then by constructing an evacuation ship.

Though shrouded in cloaking fields, the Ikaruga and the drydock that housed it hardly needed them. Even from orbit, they could see the fires raging below as rioting and anarchy spread throughout the cradle of humanity. The Ikaruga's main structure consisted of a stack of enormous hexagonal expanses centered atop one another, with the largest measuring nearly eight kilometers across. Four long arms arranged in a cross formation divided the main body into quarters. Bristling with docking bays and defensive armament, the Ikaruga was far more than simply an evacuation ship: it would serve as the Black Knights' refuge for millennia to come. Self-sufficient and equipped with heavy industrial facilities, construction had taken nearly a century.

"Are you sure you can't come with us?"

In an uncharacteristic show of emotion, Lelouch closed the gap between them and embraced his lover.

"You already know the answer to that. Somebody has to stay behind and reunite humanity. Otherwise, this would have all been for nothing."

"Be careful."

Lelouch's eyebrows creased in confusion as he felt wetness on the front of his garments. Confusion gave way to surprise when he realized that CC was actually crying.

CC, her eyes now dry, numbly watched as the Damocles' airlock cycled closed. She hardly paid attention as Lelouch's command ship grew smaller and smaller into the distance. She gave only the most cursory of nods when a bridge officer informed her that the Ikaruga had entered the Warp.

I'll be back one day, Lelouch.

?
017.M51

"It is done, my lord. The specimen is awake."

"Leave us."

"Yes, my lord."

The chamber's occupant watched as eyes flickered open for the first time. He remained perfectly still as the eyes darted in every direction, taking in every detail of the chamber. The two orbs settled on him for a split second as their owner pieced together his identity. He watched impassively as a blood-curdling scream filled the chamber.

A/N: And that's a wrap! This flashback arc finally comes to an end. This story has officially clocked in 52,000 words, making it officially a novel! Also, first omake in a while! This one can be safely filed under "I can't tell if Soraga has too little time on his hands or entirely too much."

Omake: Encyclopedia of the Black Knights, Appendix B: Genetic Modifications

The regimen of genetic engineering and subtly psychic indoctrination that created the modern Black Knight remains one of the most ambitious experiments in human history, comparable to the creation of the Primarchs and the Adeptus Astartes. For decades, the galaxy's brightest human minds endlessly toiled in hidden labs, tweaking and adjusting the human genome to instill genetic predispositions for desirable traits. Genetic tinkering continued for centuries afterwards, throughout the fledgling species' vulnerable formative years.

Though dwarfed in scale by the Primarch Project and its related offshoots, the Black Knights' genetic engineering saw just as much—if not more—success. Even in the fifty-first millennium, mutation rate remains astoundingly low. Significantly-higher-than-average psychic affinity remains the most common mutation by an overwhelming majority, and such a mutation is seen as a boon rather than curse.

In the chaos surrounding the end of the Dark Age of Technology and the beginning of the Age of Strife, much of the research behind the Black Knights' gene mods was lost or destroyed. On the eve of the Great Crusade, the Emperor of Mankind and his circle of trusted scientists would use whatever fragments of data they could recover to create the Primarchs and, later, the Astartes warriors. Despite working with a significantly lower technology base and increased emphasis on brute force over subtlety and efficiency, the Primarch's genetic enhancements and the gene-seed of the Astartes warriors still display influences from this project.

The influence on Astartes implants by the Black Knights' gene mods are as follows:

Secondary Heart: Prototyped. While one heart can partially take over the functions of the other, total loss of functionality in one heart, unlike an Astartes warrior, leads to swift death for a Black Knight.

Ossmodula: Prototyped. The bones are strengthened, but not to the extent of an Astartes warrior's. Perhaps the most radical change introduced by this gene mod, one that it shares with the later Astartes implant, is the transformation of the ribcage into a series of overlapping bone plates. The additional bone growth observed in the Astartes gene-seed is a byproduct of a less efficient process and the decision to harden the bones to bulletproof levels.

Biscopea: Prototyped. However, more emphasis was placed on toning already existing muscle and using it more efficiently. The Primarch Project adopted the more brute-force approach of simply growing more muscle due to the time and expense needed for the psychic indoctrination required by the Black Knights' version.

Haemastamen: Present. However, while the Black Knights' version focused on increasing the oxygen capacity of their hemoglobin, the Primarch Project's version simply increased the hemoglobin count. The difference in methodology was a conscious design choice rather than a product of incomplete data, as nearly all the research on this gene mod was successfully recovered.

Larraman's Organ: Not present. However, the Black Knights' gene modifications did include noticeable improvements to their natural healing abilities. Thanks to the gene mods, a healthy Black Knight can reasonably expect to live to approximately three hundred years old. Next to no information remains on the methods employed, and the gene-seed used by Astartes warriors is little more than a brute-force attempt to replicate the effects.

Catalespean Node: Not present. The gene-seed for this implant would be created specifically for the Primarch Project. At the time the Black Knights' gene mods were developed, the idea of willingly switching off portions of one's brain in lieu of sleep still lay firmly in the realm of science fiction.

Preomnor: Not present. A second stomach capable of digesting poisoned or otherwise-inedible substances was deemed impractical for their purposes. However, the Black Knights' gene mods did include several tweaks to their digestive systems to improve efficiency.

Omophagea: Not present. Though jokingly suggested at an early project meeting, the idea of absorbing information through consuming another creature's flesh was quickly dismissed as "unfeasible" and "a travesty to all known science." Millennia later, the relevant conference minutes were discovered and, as the portions pertaining to it being supposedly impossible were lost, Imperial scientists successfully developed the implant.

Multi-Lung: Not present. However, the Black Knights' genetic tinkering introduced a tendency towards higher lung capacity for increased stamina during intense physical activity and while operating in oxygen-poor environments. Additionally, space in the chest cavity became scarce following the addition of the second heart. In the end, it was decided that breathing underwater was simply not worth the need to expand the chest cavity.

Occulobe: Prototyped. The Black Knights' version offers similar enhancements to vision without the extensive therapies, however. Once again, the exact methodology behind this gene mod was lost during the Age of Strife, and the Emperor's scientists were forced to work with a description of the mod's capabilities.

Lyman's Ear: Prototyped. The gene mod used by the Black Knights focused on increasing the audible range and improvements to innate sense of balance. Though Black Knights are generally highly resistant to motion sickness and vertigo, this is more a result of their environment than gene mods. The Astartes version adds the latter capabilities at the expense of having to replace the entire ear rather than just a number of genes.

Sus-an Membrane: Not present. Though discussed, the idea of a gene mod allowing for suspended animation was ultimately deemed unnecessary. The type of trauma required to trigger such a state, as many scientists working on the project argued, would likely spell near-instant death for the affected Black Knight anyway.

Melanchromic Organ: Not present. Environmental factors, not gene mods, led to the Black Knights' tendency towards increased melanin levels.

Oolithic Kidney: Prototyped. The gene mods used by the Black Knights significantly improves the filtering ability of their kidneys. However, they are unable to go into emergency detoxification comas as an Astartes can. Like the Lyman's ear, the Black Knights' gene mod required only genetic tinkering, while the Astartes version requires replacement of the relevant organ.

Neuroglottis: Prototyped. The Black Knights' gene mods include some fine-tuning of their gustatory sense, but it is not enhanced to the extent of the Astartes'.

Mucranoid: Not present. Humanity's innate resistance to heat and cold was considered sufficient for the Black Knights' purposes, and resistance to vacuum was rejected as unnecessary extravagance. Several inquiries concluded that anyone ejected into the vacuum of space or stranded amidst extreme conditions was unlikely to be recovered in time for such an implant to be of much use, thus leading to its eventual rejection.

Betcher's Gland: Not present. Though discussed, an organ capable of producing corrosive poison was considered too combat-specialized for the Black Knights' purposes. The scientists working on the Primarch Project, however, discovered the proposal and developed such an implant.

Progenoids: Not present. Due to the Black Knights' genetic modifications taking place at the gamete stage, the changes are passed down to their children. However, this also means that they are genetically-incompatible with the vast majority of humanity. Many considered this fact to be the project's greatest failure.

Black Carapace: Not present. Though wildly successful in implementation, the gene mods and psychic indoctrination that granted the Black Knights their unique brand of psychic ability would have been far too time-consuming for use on the scale required for the Primarch Project and its related offshoots. Any attempts to accelerate the process would have made the mods dangerously unstable and highly prone to mutation. Additionally, data on the relevant procedures was almost completely lost during the Age of Strife.

An epoch in Knightmare development accompanied the addition of the genetically-modified humans to the Black Knights' ranks: the psycho-crystalline matrix. Designed specifically to take advantage of their psychic powers, Knightmares equipped with such technology proved far more responsive than their first-generation counterparts.

However, for all the project's successes, one can still argue that it ultimately failed. Though outwardly resembling unmodified humans, their biology is as alien as any xeno species. As a result of their modifications, they are incapable of fully integrating with the very species they were created to save. Only time will tell if and how the Black Knights will unite with the rest of humanity.

A/N: See you in Chapter Thirteen: The Arrival! Hmmm...that works out far better than I could have planned...