Montoya backed away from the restrained human after administering enough medication to wake the man. A pair of tough looking young men took up positions on either side of the main examination table.
"Doctor, tilt the table so that he can see." Instructed the captain. The doctor shook his head but did as he'd been asked. After a few seconds the man's eyes flickered open, squinting as if unused to such strong light. An expression of distrust with perhaps a tinge of hatred settled upon the man's face as his eyes focused and he took in the room.
"Who are you?" he rasped, still not accustomed to using his real voice.
"I am Parek Serth, Captain of the Starship Sinite. Our people are descendents of a pair of colony ships that left Earth for a distant galaxy millennia ago."
"The Imperium has never... you..." Dawning realisation lit the man's face. "You left in the Dark Age of Technology?!"
"We left at a time when Standard Template Construct warships and weapons were common place. At a time when humanity's future was more than guaranteed it seemed. Obviously we were mistaken."
"What you speak of is..." The man coughed several times then caught his breath. "You speak highly of the most Dark times of man. When machines thought for themselves and would likely have destroyed us all were it not for our will and determination. We have done away with thinking machines of any kind since the rebellion of the Iron Men or so it is said. If what I saw while I was alive was any indication, we were successful at carrying out the Emperor's Will in that regard across the entire Imperium."
"We suspected that a machine rebellion might have occurred, but never suspected that things could have gone this badly. Who is this Emperor?"
The man's face turned bright with rage and he struggled against the restraints for a few brief seconds before giving up. He whispered the word 'Blasphemy' under his breath several times then seemed to calm.
"I am Brother Lavidean Atar, and though you may have stripped my body of the gift of the gene-seed I will always be a Space Marine and servant to the Emperor. You are heretics by definition but I recognise that you must have left the galaxy before the Emperor revealed himself. I will share some of my knowledge in the hopes that the word of the Emperor may yet convert some of you."
Brother Atar chanted his way through yet another litany to the Emperor. As per usual it contained instructions on various ways of killing those not loyal to the human Empire. The whole thing made Parek sick.
If what the Space Marine had told them was true, more than a million human worlds had been under the sway of this dark Empire for ten thousand years. Attacked constantly by alien races, Mutants and Rebels it seemed as if the entire galaxy now knew nothing but war. As for the enemies of mankind, some made even less sense than the current lack of technological invention.
The Eldar, were known of course from the old archives, and could generally be negotiated with under the right circumstances. Others such as the Orks were not so well documented but entries did exist, mainly taking the form of containment via bio weapons.
Chaos was deeply troubling. Was it truly possible for magical like properties to exist? Telepaths were one thing but this seemed different.
"The Tyranid." Spoke Brother Atar as he resumed his catalogue of aliens races. "We have called them the Great Devourer, for they consume all."
Parek snapped from his musings. "The who?"
Atar looked up. "The Tyranid. Devourers of all life. Able to strip entire worlds down to naught but barren rock in but days."
"Yes! That's it, that must be the race that consumed that entire galaxy of life."
Brother Atar paused. "You have returned to Holy Terra to fight the Tyranid?" Asked the Space Marine with much scepticism.
"Yes." replied Parek without hesitation. "We have."
Atar laughed and it seemed a dark and evil thing coming from him. "You and your kind are truly mad, Captain from the Dark times. We have fought the Tyranid hordes before, and a great cost, but have been triumphant. The Imperium will do so again if it must, by the will of the Emperor."
The captain was not amused. "Sinite, how many hive fleets have entered the galaxy so far?"
"Three Captain." came the Ai's voice from an overhead speaker. "We've been taking great efforts to track each hive fleet on our approach."
Atar looked suspiciously at the ceiling, but eventually concluded that the voice had to have belonged either to an officer in another room, or someone interfaced with the ship. "Three?" He asked when he realised what the woman had said. "There had only been one so far and signs of a second when I was last awakened."
"We are currently tracking upwards of one hundred hive fleets still in the inter-galactic void. It's difficult to get an exact number because of their proximity."
"Emperor Protect." Brother Atar looked downwards. The Ultramarines had defeated one hive fleet but at the cost of it's entire First Company and countless warships. "Very well, you shall require my help if you are to have any chance in convincing the Imperium of your intentions. Even then, you may yet make an enemy of the Inquisition."
"What about the other enemies of the Empire?" Asked the Doctor. "If we assisted in their defeat do you think conditions would be allowed to improve for the citizens? Our boarding team found signs of rather sever malnutrition among the dead crew."
"Conscripts and slave ratings from some distant world most likely, pay them no mind." Said Atar dismissively.
Parek and Montoya exchanged concerned looks.
"Slavery is allowed in the Imperium of Man?" questioned the Captain.
"In the proper places, of course it is, how else would we get anything done? Nearly all are criminals not even deserving of being called heretics. They pay for their crimes and serve the Imperium."
"We have a lot of work ahead of us." said Montoya looking to the captain.
006
