The Second Son
Of past, present and future
Aries was alone in his chamber next to the room he awakened. He was in the palace of Atlantis, the White Spire. It was on the side of the largest peak of the Dragonspine Mountain, the nesting territoy of dragons in the ancient times. Nowadays only a few peaks south to the castle were used by the beasts. The castle was monumental, its greatest tower easily reaching out the clouds.
It wasn't only a castle for him, but the Fortress Monastery of the Emerald Dragons and the Dragonknights, the elite of the Legion. It was an impenetrable fort filled with ancient space weapons and large lance weapon systems to destroy any enemy warship.
He summoned a council to the meeting hall on the floor above his chambers. He had only a few hours before it and he had to gather his thoughts and all information available to him. While usually he had not possessed the thirst for every little detail like some of his brothers, now he needed every ounce of it to plan his next course of actions.
Yet, even as datapads, scrolls and tomes were placed before him by faithful servitors he couldn't help but ponder over the past. It may be because of the chamber being the exact same it was when he was the last time there. Everything was polished so it appeared as if only a day passed not nine thousand year.
They didn't know exactly what happened at the Horus Heresy but knew the Imperial account of what transpired in it. When the Second Legion first appeared in real space along with Avalon they reached out for the Imperium. Before long it became clear that the Imperium transformed itself into a theocratic empire with the Council of Terra ruling it in the name of the God-Emperor.
When Horus was appointed as warmaster at the end of the Ullanor Crusade Aries thought very little on it. Horus joined their father the earliest and had a rather close bond with every single one of them. Who could be an alternative to him?
There were a few name that came to his mind, but all fall short compared to the Primarch of the Luna Wolves. Aside those who he didn't even considered for one reason or another, a handful of Primarchs could have filled the role.
Rogal Dorn was a great tactician and strategist, but was cold and stoic to everyone even his own brothers and scions. Aries heard that his disposition towards regular guardsmen was neutral at best and impatient at worst.
Roboute Guilliman was just as much of a tactician and maybe even greater stategist than their brother. He was also less impatient than him. Yet, he was rigid in his ways. He wouldn't be flexible enough to accept his brothers more improviser style like Russ' or even Aries'.
The only one who could truly replace Horus as a warmaster was Sanguinius, but he wouldn't accepted it even if the offer was made. His angelic brother was too humble to place himself above his brothers and wouldn't be good at enforcing his decree as well.
What happened at the Horus Heresy was unclear from the official Imperial record. Aries was sure that the record was heavily edited at the best points and completely false on others. What was certain that Horus and Sanguinius died on Terra while Ferrus Manus died before that and the traitors retreated in the Eyes of Terror while the loyalist disappeared one by one, save Dorn who was slain in the end of the 32th millenum.
Without the Emperor something drastic had to be done to prevent any infighting. For that reason the remaining Primarchs divided their legions into several chapters each a thousand men strong. Officially it was an unanimous decision, but Aries doubted that Russ wouldn't protest it. But the concept of it was good, though it relied heavily on the chapters aiding each other.
After reading the last report on the table he stood up, knowing that he had only a few minutes before the meeting begone. His walk to the chamber above was short and filled with silence. The two Dragonknights who stood guard at the door of his chamber stepped in line behind him but made no move to engage in conservation. Usually Aries would have been happy to talk with his scions but he still deeply thought out plans after plans.
Taking a mental note to talk to his honour guards he stepped into the chamber the two guards following closely. The chamber was dominated by a large table with a projektor at the middle. The sides were decorated with tapestries and statues of notable figures. He regocnized both Gwaine and Zane near the end of the chamber one on either side with the legion banner hanged between them. It was a black with a green dragon head on it with a golden trim, more than six feet wide and nearly twice as long. He sat before it at the head of the table, his honour guards standing at attention on either side of the banner.
After a few minutes the chamber's door opened and with Cullen's leading them the most influental figures of the Realm of Avalon came. Along with servant and servitors carrying food and drink, tomes and scrolls. All bowed down before Aries who stood, welcoming them with a smile.
"Please friend, take a sit and let this council meeting start." after everyone took their place he turned to Cullen "Legion master please introduce the other members of the council."
"Of course, my lord." Cullen said "First we have Lady Elizabeth of House Navarra." he dibbed his towards the woman sitting across him. She appeared what commoners would refer 'middle-aged', though Aries suspected that she was well over a hundred years old maybe even two, appearing as she did only thanks to the rejuvenat treatments. She had brown hair cascading in soft waves, her skin sun-kissed. She wore what was a female officer uniform if only entirely white save the golden trims made out of the finest materials. Her face was carefully controlled, yet Aries could see a little amount of awe seeping through of it. Her grey eyes rested on him, analysing him even as she bowed. "She is the govenorn of Avalon and the Archon of the Senatorum."
"My lord, it's an honor to meet you." the lady demurely greeted him. Her voice was soft and melodical.
"The pleasure is all mine, mylady." Aries assured her "You are of House Navarra? Are you by any chance related to Admiral Titho Navarra?" Aries asked remembering one of his subordonites from the Great Crusade.
"Yes, he is my ancestor and founder of House Navarra." Lady Elizabeth replied with a hint of pride in her voice. Not without reason Titho was a genius navy officer who led his fleet to many victories.
"He was a good man just as he was a good officer. If you only half as good as governor as he was as an admiral then Avalon is in good hands." Aries stated.
"I will try to uphold my ancestor's ideal." Lady Elizabeth sent him a smile and smirk to someone else down the line. Aries wasn't the only one who noticed, but decided not to comment on it as nobody seemed surprised at it.
"Lady Elizabeth had done an examplery service in the decades as planetary governor." Cullen said. Elizabeth taking the praise with a gracious bow. "To my right is Commander Tiberius, commander of the Astra Militarum. Next to him is Admiral Felix, Lady Elizabeth's nephew and commander of the Astra Armada." The two men were nothing alike. Tiberius had an old, vethered face with a marred left cheek. Felix on the other hand looked the youngest in the room. His features were similar to his aunt's but wore a smirk even as keeen eyes roamed over the table.
Both men bowed to Aries, with a "An honor mylord." The primarch only nodded to them, carefully studying seemed experienced and stoic. Only time will tell if he was flexible enough in the warroom for Aries' taste. Felix was either arrogant due to his high rank despiete his youth or something happened between him and others. Aries could look past arrogance to a degree if a person's talent worth it.
"Allow me to introduce the next two council members." Elizabeth gestured to the two seat left to her "Lord Leto of House Armicus, the Head of Treasury and Master of Administratum and Lord Artimus, Head of the Merchant Guilds."
Leto was the second youngest of the group, but otherwise was opposite of Felix. He had shoulder length blond hair with hazel eyes. He bowed to the primarch with a small smile. Artimus on the other hand seemed guarded, courtious but guarded.
"Next we have..."
"I will introduce myself." the vox-caster made voice of the next man came in emotionless sound. The figure was clad in crimson robes with Mechadendrite floating around him. Aries knew that his body was more like a machine than a real human. "Archmagos Maximus of the Chief Forge World of Rhodos, Magos Superior of the Realm's Council of the Adeptus Mechanicus."
"May the Machine-God grant you knowledge." Aries greeted the Magos in the traditional Mechanicus way.
"For the Omnissiah we fight." the Archmagos quickly put behind his surprise at the ancient greeting coming from the Primarch "Had you received training by our Adepta, Primarch Draugnir?"
"Yes, though not as excessive as some of my brothers." Aries replied lightly, thinking of Vulkan or Ferrus Manus "From what I understand my knowledge is that of an Enginseer, maybe an Artisan."
"How much time passed between your studies?"
"I led my legion to battles on the Great Crusade and only had little time to study with Enginseer Dexeta. Maybe what could translate to a little over five years overseveral decades." he explained.
"Most impressive." Maximus was pleased at hearing that even if his metalic voice did little to show it "It seems my exceptions are alredy exceded. "
"How dare you!" a woman, two seat away from him, stood up and another in a female power armor on the other side seemed eager to do the same. "His holiness has nothing to prove to you!"
"I have nothing to tell you, Divine Victoria III."
"You.."
"Peace!" Aries said. For a moment his presence which he carefully controlled was out of its bound. All in the room fell silent as his presence shone with ethernal light for a moment. Even those who had no connection to the Warp could feel the power rolling off the Primarch. For those who had it was like a sun flickered up for a moment before it died out, letting a glimpse of his might shown to them "No need for violence. If anyone among this Council has grievance with each other we can spoke of them later."
"Acceptable."
"As you wish, your worship."
"Please finish the introduction Grand Master." Aries motioned to the others down the table "We will have much to discuss."
"By your command." Cullen replied "Next to Archmagos Maximus we have Lord Zaed representitive of the Navigator Houses." the blind man bowed to him and with a raspy voice greeted him.
"My lord."
"Divine Victoria is the leader of the Draugnir Cult." Cullen said, with a little hesitancy in his voice. The woman was a bit older than Lady Elizabeth garbed in a green robe decorated with gold and silver wearing a cowl to hide her blond tresses. She wore a symbol, a black dragon head with flames coming from its maw with emerald as its eyes. On her fingers there was a ring of similar symbol. Aries only red about the Cult lightly, not really having the time to do more in study into theological texts.
"I believe we will have much to discuss, Divine Victoria." he said very curious how the Cult started and whah it represented today.
"Of course, your worship."
"Master Alexis, Grand Master of the Officio Assassinorum and Arbites." The man short black hair started greying on his sides, yet his blue eyes were vigilant. He wore an Ignotus pattern power armor. He bowed simply to the Primarch, face sat in a mask not changing since the flicker of surprise on it at the psychic burst only a minute earlier."
"Last, but not least there are the two last member: Kyros, Master of the Librarium and the Adepta Telephatica." the space marine was shorter than Cullen, his dark hair long reaching between this shoulder blades. He wore a heavily modified power armor with the legion's color. He sent a psychic greetings to his lord, which was returned.
"Lastly Sister-Commander Amelia of the Brides of Draugnir." the woman was of similar age as Felix. She wore a much less bulkier stylished power armor, displaying her feminime shape. Her heart shaped face was framed by white curls. She had plum lips set in a slight smile. Her golden eyes looked devoutedly at the Primarch's large form.
"Your worship." she bowed deeply.
"I'm pleased to meet all of you." Aries said "As you know I only woke not a day ago. I want to be informed of our current status. Let's start with what resources we have on hand." he looked over to Lord Leto who quickly looked at the scrolls handed to him by an assistant.
"The realm of Avalon consist: four Forge Worlds, five Hive Worlds, thirty-two Civilised Worlds, thiurty-three Agri Worlds, twenty-seven Mining or Indrustial Worlds, thirteen Fortress Worlds, eight Holy Worlds and twenty-four Feral or Death Worlds. A total of one hundred-forty-six worlds with its population between five hundred and six and half hundred to seven hundred billion people." Lord Leto said "The Treausy is nearly full, we can easily afford a few greater expanses."
"Thank you." Aries said "You did well, Lord Leto if what you say is true."
"I can assure it is true my lord."
"What of our armies?" the Primarch asked next.
"I can only share the latest information delivered to me by the others." Leto replied, the second half being directed to the others in the chamber "If you want please feel free to correct me." he looked over another scroll, provided by another servant "We have the Legion, forty thousands legonaire. The Army has about two and half thousand regiments with dozens being trained at the moment. The Adepta Mechanicus offer four Titan Legion, at least two hundred Skitarii or Myrmidon regiments. The Brides have eight cadre, each for the Holy Worlds." there he looked over to Felix.
"The Armade has three battlefleets with additional smaller fleets." the Admiral indeed continued the debriefing "We have twenty-nine battleship, not counting the Emerald Sword. For cruisers we have little over two hundred-fifty of them. These warships are organised into three battlefleet, one defending the centre of the Realm while tow do the same for the outer rim of it. The Legion and the Brides also have enough ships to consider their fighting force at least on par with a battlefleet."
"Any information on the enemies we, may face?" Aires asked.
"The Fortress World of Arzavir is under a minor ork assault, a battlion from the legion and dozens of regiments will be sent to help the defense. Other immediate danger isn't known for us."
"What of the Imerpium?"
"It's border is about four to five sector to the galagtic west to us, my lord."
"We will start a slow expansion." Aries decided "And I permit new Astartes chapters being made from the legion."
"Divide the Legion? I don't believe it would be wise mylord." Cullen said, reluctant to go against his Primarch wish, but couldn't just let the legion disolve. Most in the chamber looked on in agreement with the Grand Master.
"No. Not dividing it." Aries replied, shaking his head "But those who are respected and have the leadership for it could found their own company, chapter if you will."
"My lord we don't have that many planets..." lady Elizabeth tried to inject, but Aries just raised his hand.
"Yes, but we will conquer most of the surrounding space and we will need astartes to defend it, each of these new chapters will be tasked to guard a piece of it." he turned to Cullen "We will speak more of how we will select who will lead the chapters and other matters related to it. I only want to know if there is any reason we couldn't do it?"
"It depends on how large each chapter would be." Lord Leto replied "But, within reasonable bounds it shouldn't put much burden on the Treasury."
"We will need every single information regarding our neighbouring sectors. We cannot do anything without knowing of their position." Ariees replied "I still need time to adjust, but I will make decision on our next course of actions within a month."
The Council ended not long after that. There was little any of them could do. It was clear that with his arrival the Realm will change both in size and how it worked.
Aries was back at his quartes. There was little to think about but the Council. All members seemed good at what they did, the reports showed that. But how well could they work together? That was the real genius of the Emperor and Horus.
They didn't persuade something to do their binding. No, that was simple and old fashioned way to do it. They made you believe that t was everybody best interest if you did what was asked of you. Their charisma was such that even the Primarchs were affected.
He himself was a born leader as all of his brothers. But he also knew that he didn't possess that overhelming charisma that those two. Luckily the none of the Council members were at each others throat as sometimes happened with his brothers.
Of course there were disdain, mostly by Archmagos Maximus and Divine Victoria. It was mostly theological as it turned out and it would take decades if not centuries before he changed their teaching subtly enough not to cause any aminosity.
Regarding the Mechanicus it seemed that there was three factions inside of it. The Loyalists were practically the same as in the Imperium. The second, the Revenalist determined that their technology suffered and couldn't be maintained without research. And the smallest was the Xenoists were those who wanted to study the alien technology and reverse engineer them. What was very surprising that all three could operate in the open, even if usually the Loyalist won the arguments. Not so surprising considering that each Archmagos came from that faction, 'till Maximus who was part of the Revenalists.
That lead to the Realm at least being on the same technological level as the Imperium was at the end of the Great Crusade, which wasn't true for the Imperium itself. There were a few innovations like other power armor variants in use.
But for all of this his flagship the Emperor's Will, renamed to Emerald Sword was unfunctional. He didn't had the time to see the ancient warship which was directly above the palace. There were many reasons to do so, but one stood out of others. When the Emperor sent him and Seichi on their mission he gifted each Legion a datacore with nearly every information concerning technology. If it remained functional they will have access to such mighty warmachines as the Fellblade.
It was the Cult of Draugnir he was worried about. The Cult looked at him as a two faced god and that was very dangerous. Why? Because there were hundreds of billions following the it. With how the Immaterium worked his followers gave himstrength, but and that was what really worried him could alter him.
He will have to speak with the Divine, but for now he had one other thing to do. Met with his partner, who stood with him in all of his battle.
"Cullen, where is Ancalagon?"