Index: Subversion, third grade, Hereticus, Xenos, Exterminatus.
Location: Cetis Alpha, V planet of the Cetis solar system, Europhean Rift[Censored Segmentum.
Standard teaching curriculum for children of the planet, ages 4-9 doctrine. Generation time lapsed extracts:
Date: Second year of Cetis standard calendar. Standard M4[Censored.XXX.
"And then The GLORIOUS God-EMPEROR of Humanity, the Greatest of all Men (May he be praised for ever) did SMITE his Enemy with his great Power-sword, and with the aid of the Great Machines did he forge his Power-armour anew, setting forth his warriors, The Adeptus Astartes, The Space Marines forth in his name on the techno-ships of the Adeptus Mechanicus to explore, subjugate and conquer in his divine name and for the good of The Imperium of Mankind"
Date: Fourteenth year of Cetis standard calendar
"And then The GLORIOUS God-EMPEROR , the Greatest of all Men (May he be praised for ever) did SMITE his Enemy with his great sword, and with his helpers, the Great Machines did he forge his Powered-armour anew, setting forth his Soldiers, The Adeptus Astartes, The Space Marines forth in his name in the technological-ships used by the Adeptus Mechanicus to Expand, subjugate and conquer in his divine name and for the good of The Imperium of our Race"
Date: Twenty-eighth year of Cetis standard calendar:
"And then The EMPEROR Supreme, the Greatest of all (Who must be obeyed forever) did destroy his Enemies with his great weapon, and with his allies, the Machines did he forge his Armour anew, setting forth his Soldiers, The The Adeptus Astartes forth under his orders in the Space-ships used by the Techno-adepts to Expand, subjugate and EXTERMINATE in his divine name and for the improvement of The Empire of our Race"
Date: Fourty-second year of Cetis standard calendar:
"And then The EMPEROR Supreme, first of all (Who must be obeyed) did Exterminate his Enemies with his weapons, and his Machines did he forge his metal Chasis anew, setting forth his combat-units The Astartes forth under his orders in the Space-ships constructed by his Minds of Steel to Expand, to Subjugate and EXTERMINATE in his Supreme authority and for supremacy of The Empire"
Government elect rulership methods. Generation time lapsed extracts:
Date: Second year of Cetis standard calendar:
Governor for life, designate Iblass, Thaunt.
Date: Fourteenth year of Cetis standard calendar Thaunt remains governor, with partial delegation of duties to subordinates based on order of seniority and service to the colony.
Date: Twenty-eighth year of Cetis standard calendar:
Thaunt remains governor; ruling council retains influence over colony but is still hand picked by Thaunt. All appointees to the managing levels are trained by Gaunt personally with an exclusive set of flash imprint machines for proper moral conduct.
The years passed and the colony prospered and grew, its children well educated and well nourished and its leaders unified and honest. In fact, as the years passed, its leaders grew even more unified and dedicated to The Cause. As time passed by, and non remained who had not used one of the flash imprint machines that had been so blessed by the colony▓s sanctified Tech-priest, The Cause became clearer than ever to all the Colonists.
After the colonies Supreme Tech-priest had dedicated a new ritual in The God-Emperor▓s name, a pilgrimage to visit the Holy STC that had been left to His children by His Bountiful Will, a pilgrimage that involved all pilgrims receiving the blessing of communication with the great machine, and the implanting of its mark upon their forehead (An implant of strange bronze-gold metals), the Cause became All.
For their Cause was pure, their Cause was absolute, their Cause was All. For their Cause was the building of an Empire.
The years passed and they labored towards the Cause, aided in this endeavor by the great machine that had guided them towards this path and had told them of it intimately after taking a portion of its holy Machine-spirit into them. It told them of plants that would help their nutrition and mental development, it told them of forging techniques that produced more of the sacred metal used in their implants, it told them of the ancient past from before the Men of Iron (Or Cybermen as it called them) and to the age of the ancient Men of Stone, the great founders of The Empire, of how it had encased colonists inside spheres of stone and metal for their travel across the cold boundaries of space.
There came a day when a young man playing with lenses and his ocular implant did discover vast reserves of Promethium on Cetis Delta, enough of it to power a fleet of battlecruisers and to enrich the colony a hundred-thousand fold.
Being a dutiful son of the colony, the young Skaros (Named as he was after one of the great Stone men of old) went to inform the Colony▓s leader, Thaunt the Eldest.
Thaunt was well over 180 years of age by this time, and aging noticeably without the resources of the Imperial Guard to fund the rebuilding of his weak, fleshy frame.
Before departing for the colony, he had thought the initial lack of such an infrastructure as would be required a good thing, that it would prevent tyrants for life until the colony had grown enough to prevent a single city▓s stranglehold. However, as he looked at the liver-spots on his hand, and barely rose out of his sleeping pallet every morning, he could not but feel contempt for the man who had made such a wasteful choice, even if it was himself.
He rose of his seat to welcome Skaros, for he was glad of anything that took his mind of such morbid ruminations, and his heart swelled with joy at the sight of Skaros, an exemplar of the new generation that now reached adulthood in the colony.
Tall, strong and bald, spartanely clad in work-clothes of black and silver, wearing no fripperies or adornments save for the Implant that lay proudly in the center of his forehead and matched Thaunt▓s own, a sign that he had not flinched when The Guide (The so called STC) had planted it deep into his neural cortex, bearing a keen expression and a lean, powerful build, Skaros resembled his father▓s appearance at the same age to a degree that was almost painful.
Thaunt listened with delight at the news of his offspring▓s discovery, as thoughts of expansion and refineries filled his mind, and the sleek forms of ships docking or building filled his imagination.
The main problem was (As Skaros pointed out), that the colony▓s space craft did not work, and in fact without the equipment that had been aboard "The Orephalus" it would be generations until the industrial base had been completed, despite The Guide▓s acceleration of this heralded day by centuries.
"The Orephalus" had been meant to provide the colony with an industrial base, as opposed to the human and agricultural resources kept within its sister ships, a primitive substitute for the STC that had blessed the ancient colonists of old. (⌠And would again■, thought Gaunt as thoughts of the slowly repairing guide filled his mind.
However, when "The Orephalus" had emerged from the warp after its warp-blown vagaries, it had been empty, not replying to their hails and not moving, until eventually gravity had pulled it into the system▓s sun, the fate of its crew a mystery. Gaunt merely hoped that the Crew had died in the sun, and not in the warp, as the craft had lacked a Geller field from what the colonies feeble mechanisms could detect. (⌠Curse the warp! If only there was a better way to travel┘■ Thought Ibliss, echoing the thoughts of his ancestors of a dozen millennia).
The two men thought together, searching for ideas in order to get men to the Promethium, on its distant, cold but human-inhabitable planet, but they failed. Until, that is, Skaros had one, the simplest and best idea of all.
⌠Let us ask The Guide■.
Iblass almost laughed at himself for not thinking of this sooner, after wasting time on it himself. The Guide knew almost everything, so why waste time on other things?
Chuckling, he clasped his son to him and whispered in his ear that for this discovery, he would be granted access to the inner council, a permanent link to The Guide at all times, with the privelage of unrestricted access to the wrecked vessel that housed the sacred Avatar of the Machine Spirit. Together, the two men went into the heart of The Guide.
The Guide was where it always was and had been, in the heart of the great saucer-craft that had been sanctified for its presence. Now, there stood 10 great chairs, ringing the console that served as a link to the guide, and a long metallic cable connected each chair and an interface port in the console together.
The two Iblass▓s sat into the chairs and snapped the long cables into their respective implants.
Skaros could not help but shudder as though inhaling cold water as he felt his mind drawn into the machine, his thoughts changed and inv- No, merged and blessed with the sacred Guide. He felt his thoughts flow into the great, beating heart of the constructno, God that graced them all with its words and wisdom.
++My Children, this is a truly portentous discovery, with it The Cause of Humans will be advanced by 438. Truly, it is fortunate that I have reconstructed the ancient travel machine plans that lie within me, and with these we shall colonize and industrialize not just This planet, not merely our neighbouring energy rich world, But The Universe!++
Skaros felt a wave of almost physical pleasure wash over him and he felt himself agreeing utterly with every word his beloved Guide told him
++And know this, my first and favoured children, these Servitors that I shall construct for you with your aid shall serve you as well, building your machines, sanctifying your dwellings, growing your crops, making us all Supreme in the eyes of The Emperor.
And these Servitor Travel machines Shall be known to you, As The Daleks++
⌠Daleks■ thought Skaros, what a fine name.