Forgotten of the Distant Stars

by LucienLamenter

20 sons scattered across creation yet only 18 returned to their father. They have no names, no titles, speaking of them could even be considered heresy but the sons who returned refer to them as The Forgotten and the Purged, Second and Eleventh. The name of the latter giving away its end but of the former? What happened to the Forgotten? The Lost One?

5. Chapter 5 - Penitence

Chapter 5

With this chapter, we are concluding the first half of the Arknights main story! Does it mean that the next chapter will revolve around the second half? HA! Absolutely not, we are going to be seeing some events and intermezzi of course! Along with a bunch of other cool stuff! Enjoy!

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The battle for the Chernobog tower was over, no matter how many remaining soldiers loyal to Talulah remained inside the tower, the Legion's might had no equal. Everyone had gathered at the base of the last remaining structure, the tower of the Tyrant. The Legio Astartes had already started the process of cleaning up the area, gathering the bodies of the Reunion soldiers and piling them up before setting them on fire with their heavy flamers.

Those who had surrendered were being treated by Rhodes Island's operators as some of them were caught in the crossfire of the previous battle. Among these, there was W who had retaken her role as leader of the Sarkatz mercenaries. Many Rhodes Island operators seemed to hold a grudge against her and she wouldn't have blamed them if they had taken the opportunity to avenge their fallen comrades...But the Astartes wouldn't have let them. The Primarch's instructions were clear, no prisoner of war would be harmed after surrendering, and whoever would disobey this order would have faced the wrath of the Second Legion. It was safe to say, that after the massacre of the fake Reunion forces, no one was interested in upsetting the legion.

Slowly but surely, the RI operators began to send the POWs back to the legion's FOB to be better treated by their medical outpost. The only ones that were not allowed to leave were the officers who were being interrogated.

The Primarch stood in front of W, his body eclipsing hers. She looked up to him with a smug smile as she jokingly threw up her hands "You got me! What torture is awaiting me? It surely must be something new considering all the shiny new things you brought here!"

Aurelian was not amused by her sarcasm and simply shook his head "None, just tell me what is inside the tower and you'll be on your merry way out of my sight."

The Sarkatz girl sighed with a bored expression "What do you expect to find inside of there? It's just a few guys holed up, I am surprised they didn't come out with their hands in the air after seeing the battle but hey it's their funeral, not mine."

The Primarch slowly nodded before noticing that she was heavily injured, for a second he thought that those were the injuries he had inflicted on her but he then noticed that they were far more recent "How did you get those wounds? In the crossfire?"

"These are a gracious parting gift left from my former employer up there, it seemed she did not appreciate my explosive surprise!" She replied with a chuckle before frowning as she felt the pain going away "Oi oi, what the fuck are you doing?"

Aurelian did not reply and simply healed using his psychic powers before turning around and leaving.

"I DON'T FUCKING NEED YOUR PITY!" W shouted at his back clenching her fist only to be ignored by her interlocutor and be stared at by the Marines nearby.

If there was something the Sarkatz couldn't stand and that was being pitied especially by that man.

The Primarch moved to where Lanius, Yelena and Patriot were.

"It would seem no special surprise awaits us in the tower, what did the other say?"

"Those who were interrogated said the same thing, there should be some additional forces inside the tower but nothing special, we are ready for the final push," Lanius announced.

Aurelian looked at Yelena and Patriot without saying a word he slowly nodded and they did the same.

Amiya and Ch'en saw the three and immediately approached them with serious expressions.

"It's time...?" Amiya asked.

"Yes it is," Aurelian replied with a solemn tone.

An Astartes demolition squad approached the entrance of the tower, which had been barricaded, and placed some explosive charges and detonated them once at a safe distance.

The other Astertes rushed in clearing the main atrium which was seemingly empty.

The Primarch and his companions solemnly made their way up as the legionnaires cleared the various rooms of the control tower. They met some very light resistance but most of the Reunion forces inside had surrendered and were taken into the custody of the legion.

The ascent of the tower came to a halt once they reached the final floors, not because they came across strong resistance but only because Aurelian had ordered them to.

The final confrontation was going to be a...private affair, that was why the Primarch had ordered his forces to stand down.

The Legio Astartes obeyed their gene father and simply waited for him below.

Embracing his weapons, the Primarch and his allies began the final act of the crisis. The final floors were empty, no one was there guarding them. They entered the command room but it was also devoid of life.

Amiya approached the command console which denied her access but then Aurelian came with one of the keys of Chernobog.

"Where did you get that?" Amiya asked raising an eyebrow.

"Misha..." He replied calmly before noticing that the key had a low authorization level so he was only able to see the condition of the city and perform some limited actions.

After the plasma charges detonated, the Originium reactor of the city plate kept trying to power up the tracks but eventually, when the heat buildup reached critical levels, a safety switch turned off the whole thing.

He used his key to lift the sealing layer to allow the rest of his troops to occupy the area. With the control room cleared there was only one place left where the Tyrant could be...the rooftop.

With a heavy heart, the group moved upstairs until they were once again outside.

Talulah was standing in the middle of the rooftop, with her sword in hand, her expression emotionless. Immediately Ch'en unsheathed Chi Xiao while Patriot raised his shield.

Yelena and Amiya prepared their arts, they expected Aurelian to do the same but he did not move.

"So you have come traitors..." Talulah spoke in her stern voice before glaring at Aurelian "Legion, the army you brought could have helped the infected of all the world but instead, you chose to send them against us. You said you were an ally to the infected but in the end, you are just the same as the others..."

"You have killed more infected than he did today," Patriot replied.

"We can still stop this Talulah, surrender," Yelena added almost begging her friend to stop.

Amiya remained silent but a frown began to show as her powers revealed a terrible truth. But then, alongside the emotions she was picking from Talulah, she felt...rage and hatred coming from someone else.

"Who are you?" Aurelian growled his voice with scorn and anger.

Just by those words alone, Amiya understood that her brother had found the same truth as her...

The person in front of them was not Talulah.

The sky above them began to change, the cloudy clouds began to roar as thunders echoed across the entire city. The Tower itself began to shake and creak under the pressure of the psychic might of the Primarch.

Yelena and Patriot recalled their fight with the son of the emperor, his presence was impressive but right now it was terrifying.

Amiya herself had to focus her arts in order to not get overwhelmed by the emotions emanating from her brother.

"You can feel her too right Amiya?" The Primarch spoke.

She nodded "Yes...she is down there..."

"Keep him busy...I'll go fetch her, take this," He uttered slamming his massive shield in front of his sister.

She was a bit puzzled by the action but then the shield shrunk to her size and when she grabbed it and felt that it was almost weightless "I'll help you!"

"What?" Talulah spoke again before suddenly a sharp pain coming from her head causing her to recoil before staring at the group with hatred.

Unbeknownst to the rest of the group, Aurelian's mind was laying siege to the one controlling Talulah...Count Kashchey himself.

His defences were strong, something he sported with proudness and that many times had allowed him to best his political rivals.

But his defences were nothing compared to the ones of the Emperor which had been Aurelian's training grounds.

The Primarch's assault was relentless, he was not planning to take over the duke's mind, he aimed at destroying it. He was not interested in learning his secrets and mysteries, he wanted to make him feel the kind of pain an immortal like him would never come across.

On the outside, Amiya could feel Kaschey's confusion and pain as she and the others fought Talulah. It was impressive to see that despite the pain he was feeling, he was still fighting them off.

Suddenly, a massive wave of flames caught the bunny girl by surprise and Ch'en was too far away to help her. The Cautus girl raised her brother's shield and suddenly she was wrapped in a protective bubble that denied any flame to get close to her.

"Are you alright?!" Ch'en shouted.

"Yes! Don't worry about me!" Amiya called out for a second amazed by the shield in her hands.

The Cautus returned her attention to Talulah and her feelings and the memories that were tied to them as she fought her with the others.

The battle raged both in real space and inside Talulah's mind as The Primarch broke through the defenses of the duke allowing him to finally begin to look for Talulah's conscience deep inside their shared soul.

Aurelian found himself staring at a Young Talulah being separated from her sister who could only watch hopelessly and stretch out her arm as Duke Kashchey took the draco away. The Primarch followed Talulah and bore witness to her ruined childhood, he watched in anger as the duke turned an innocent girl into a tool to do his bidding, something that the son of the Emperor was familiar with. During his first meeting with his father, he had made it clear that he was nothing but a malfunctioning tool. His rage boiled as he felt Talulah's self-hatred for the things she was doing under the command of her 'father', he felt the guilt she felt for taking away the lives of those undeserving...and her increasing rage towards the snake.

On a faithful day, a fight broke out between the two and Aurelian watched as Talulah stabbed the duke with her sword before running off into the tundra. Little did she know that the deathless snake had planted his consciousness in her and was now waiting in the tall grass for his opportunity. The Primarch clenched his fist in anger, not only towards the duke but towards himself.

He followed Talulah into the tundra and watched her exhaust herself and collapse before being found by a gentle elderly couple who took her in. For the first time in a very long time, Talulah was happy and despite this, she wanted to still help others and regularly went on journeys to other cities to help the poor and the infected. He also saw a familiar face...Alina. He felt his heart warming up when the memories of the two women. But good times never last, and he was forced to watch a Ursus Infected Patrol coming to the village looking for Talulah.

The old man who had taken the draco girl in had tried to sacrifice himself for her but she didn't let him and instead faced the soldiers head-on and bravely an action that Aurelian wholeheartedly supported. The village would have been punished for having housed an infected either way but by taking them on, she bought precious time for the village to move away. Of course, she was forced to leave since more could come looking for her but she was not alone as Alina decided to come with her.

The two journeyed through the Tundra gathering many infected under the banner of Reunion, their objectives were rather simple, protect the infected and fight for their rights. She had begun to hear stories of the Northern Guerrillas and of the Yetis and with the objective of recruiting them, she went to meet them. It took a lot of convincing especially when it came to Patriot but in the end, the two joined.

It was at this moment that tales of a giant fighting the Ursus Patrols would begin to spread across the tundra. Talulah and the fully formed Reunion went on to investigate the sightings of the giant, Patriot had theorized that perhaps it was another wendigo. To their shock, they found themselves staring at a snowfield covered in blood and the bodies of many Ursine soldiers of all ranks.

On top of a small hill stood a single hooded massive figure covered in what looked makeshift armour made out of Ursus equipment mashed together with a blunt object. Behind him, there was a quite large group of infected cowering in fear at the actions of their protector. Aurelian remembered very well that day.

He was wandering through the Ursus Tundra, it was not too long after he left Babel after coming into contact with his father. He had been directionless, seeking a purpose that was not to conquer the world and add it to his father's empire. He had come across a large caravan of infected who, despite his size, took him in, he hunted for them, he helped them with dangerous tasks and most importantly, he protected them. But this time, they were not attacked by the usual patrol, a regiment of Ursus army had specifically come to eradicate the infected of the caravan...

The soldiers came at him swinging their swords only to bounce off his skin and those who managed to somehow do a superficial cut after putting their all saw the injury close as soon as the blade was removed. On the other hand, a simple punch from the Primarch was far more than enough to kill them or rip them apart, those who were merely grazed by him would soon find themselves with all of their bones broken. They came in hundreds and all fell before the Primarch.

It was impossible to tell which scared the witnesses the most, perhaps it was how easy for the Primarch was to take lives or perhaps it was how calm he was when he did it.

But Talulah was not scared of him, she bravely approached him and presented herself with a smile.

The infected caravan joined Reunion and with them, Aurelian, now known as Legion for he was as strong as one.

The leader of Reunion was the one who convinced him to join through her speeches about wanting to create a safe place for the infected. The son of the Emperor felt that he had finally found some of that purpose he desperately needed and so his days fighting for Reunion began.

Legion quickly made a name for himself as he became the armed fist of Reunion alongside Patriot who had taught him the use of shield and halberd. Whenever he showed up, victory was certain.

But as the days went on, the Primarch felt like he was missing something. He had found purpose but he felt lacking the means to accomplish it. With a heavy heart, he chose to leave the Reunion telling Talulah that he needed to find himself before he could truly help them.

While others were against him leaving, Talulah and Alina were both understanding and told him they would be waiting for him and expressed how they were eager to see what he would become...

And so now the Primarch watched his younger self leaving...and the sorrow hidden beneath Talulah's smile to see a friend leave her.

He clenched his fist "I...am here now," he spoke solemnly.

While he still thought that leaving had been the best choice, he could not help but feel guilt as several what-ifs raced across his mind. Perhaps, if he hadn't left none of this would have happened...

He shook his head banishing that thought before pushing on. After he had left, Talulah and the others kept fighting for the infected as best as they could despite being a relatively small movement. He observed how harsh their environment was and how they struggled to survive day after day. Due to his biology, the Primarch never felt troubled by things like the weather or temperature, like all of his brothers, a Primarch's body adapts to the point of even being able to survive the vacuum of space for a time. Knowing what he knows now he could have helped them very easily.

But their relatively happy life was cut short, Reunion moved from village to village helping every infected on the way. Talulah was a kind leader and didn't wish to keep anyone from leaving if they felt like it. This led to a certain situation where a shieldguard and a group of deserters were having a fight, the draco girl intervened and allowed the deserters to leave against the shieldguard's wishes. When she went back to their encampment, she was informed that Alina had gone missing.

The Primarch felt Talulah's dread at the news and despite having been informed by Yelena of the fate that the Elafia girl had met, he still wished to see her alive and well...The complete opposite of the truth. Alina was badly wounded and on the point of freezing to death, who was responsible for it didn't leave any trace. Of course, Talulah immediately went to rescue her but it was far too late. Alina died on Talulah's back on their way to the encampment leaving Talulah in a spiral of grief and depression...and gave the deathless snake the opportunity to make the first of his moves.

Alina was the voice of reason and the moral compass Talulah had, she was kind to everyone and took care of the infected children they had gathered. Her loss was a heavy blow to the morale of everyone. During his relatively short stay with Reunion, Aurelian had found the girl's company quite enjoyable, she was beloved by all just like his brother Sanguinious was and just like his death, Alina's death marked the beginning of the end.

As time went on, Talulah became colder, distrustful and serious while also hiding a boiling rage underneath it all. It was disgusting to know that the duke was already manipulating her by taking advantage of her grief. It filled the son of the Emperor with a similar rage but he kept it in check wanting to see this through, after all, he will have all the time of the world to make the snake pay.

He then felt the presence of someone else with him, a friendly presence that he immediately recognized. It was Amiya using her powers to help him search through Talulah's memories. It was almost as if she was in a parallel dimension while also being close to his side. The Primarch was aware of the battle happening outside, he was sustaining a psychic dome around himself to allow him to focus on freeing Talulah from Kashchey. The fact that he could feel her presence reassured him that the Cautus was alive and so that he could still dig deeper.

On a faithful day, Reunion was found by the Ursine army led by an Emperor's blade who revealed to everyone that Talulah was Duke Kashchey's heir. Many of the infected especially Patriot's guerrillas were shocked and distrustful of her. Fortunately, Patriot, perhaps in order to keep the reunion dream alive, swore loyalty to Talulah and protected her. If Aurelian had been there, he would have done the same, that truth would have only made Talulah more similar to him more than anything.

But of course, this only added more stress and anxiety to the troubled mind of the draco girl who at that point struggled to go through each day forcing herself to be strong to lead the others...and endeavour that unfortunately, didn't last for long. The straw that broke the camel's back arrived in the form of a terrible atrocity committed by a village that had lured, trapped and killed a group of innocent infected. Talulah confronted the villagers only to be met with scorn and hatred. Overtaken by those same emotions, Talulah set the village on fire falling in the duke's trap. When she snapped out of rage-induced tranche, the screams and the sound of fire devouring everything made her realize what she had done. It was at that point that thanks to the guilt she felt the snake was able to take control of her.

Being the last memory of Talulah, everything stopped and the Primarch found himself in a snowfield in the centre of which was Talulah wrapped in some sort of chains. Guilt, self-hatred, anxiety, hopelessness, and grief filled the air around him, all of them belonging to Talulah. Unperturbed, Aurelian walked towards her, his intent was to shatter those chains and free her. Surprisingly, he did not seem to have any problem reaching her so his armoured hands wrapped around the chains and effortlessly shattered them...but Talulah didn't move, tears ran down her cheeks as she lay down on the ground. Concerned, he knelt down

"...Kill...me..." A ghostly whisper escaped her mouth.

"What did you expect, Legion?" A male amused voice spoke from behind the two.

The Primarch patted her head before lifting himself up and turning around to look directly into the eye of the deathless snake who was staring at him with an amused expression surrounded by what seemed to be endless copies of the Emperor's blade that came looking for Talulah.

"I have to admit you surprised me, Sankta. Nothing in Talulah's memories showed you were capable of infiltrating someone's mind. That certainly would explain how you were able to convince even that stubborn Wendigo to join forces with you...But that hardly matters, here those soldiers of yours will not reach nor will the others. But rejoice, I will let go of her, your body is going to be a far better replacement once I deal with you."

The Primarch let out a chuckle at the bold statement made by the duke "Threats work better when you don't reek of fear, Duke. You know your downfall is close, you think I am unaware of what is happening outside of here? You have realised Amiya's identity and she scares you. Buldrokka and Yelena are giving their all without dropping dead to Oripathy. On top of all of this, Talulah's strongest bond, her sister, is fiercely fighting alongside them. It's a matter of time at this point."

The duke kept his arrogant smirk "Nothing to worry about, once take control of you, all I have to do is to order that splendid army of yours to simply turn them into ash."

"Talulah..." Aurelian spoke turning around again and placing his hand on her head "You are not alone, the people who followed you are here, your sister is here..."

The draco felt the temperature increasing, she began to hear the sound of a fight and when she opened her eyes she saw Yelena and Patriot fighting side by side, the Cautus girl singing her heart out as she launched ice attack after ice attack while her father protected her by a sea of flames that seemed to be endless.

She was confused, especially when she saw that they were fighting against...herself. Talulah then looked down and widened her eyes when she saw that the body she was in was not hers but Aurelian's. She felt incredibly heavy and even moving a finger was a titanic endeavour. But she wanted to help her friends desperately.

The duke using Talulah's body kept unleashing her flames almost nonstop, he might have looked calm but despite his power, he was fighting a losing battle as Yelena and Patriot's attacks were slowly overwhelming him especially when accompanied by the others. Amiya and Ch'en were standing at each other's side, the latter brandishing Chi Xiao and the former armed with a copy of the Lung's sword and Aurelian's storm shield.

The two bravely charged at the Black Snake using the shield to cover their bodies before working together to dispel the flames and keep him busy. She wanted to tell them she was there but even speaking was something she was unable to do as if even the vocal cords of the Primarch's body seemed to require some sort of skill to move.

The Son of the Emperor was now standing alone in the snowfield as the emperor's blades began to circle around him waiting for their occasion to strike. He chuckled as finally all things clicked together, the ursine soldiers wearing the Reunion uniform, the plan to start a new war. He let out a chuckle shaking his head.

"Oh? You finally realized how futile resistance is?" The Duke asked.

"I have spent a lot of time wondering what was the objective behind the Reunion's actions, by all standpoints, they had launched an attack they couldn't possibly win. I thought that hatred had taken over their hearts...But now it all makes sense. You were trying to kill two birds with one stone, weren't you? Start a war with Lungmen to allow Ursus to gain more territory and kill as many infected as possible while pinning the blame on Yan..." The Primarch spoke clenching his fists.

"Indeed, are you relieved to have uncovered my plans?" The ageless asked spreading his arms with an amused smile.

Aurelian then raised his hand, a golden orb appeared above it and wrapped both in a blinding light. The landscape they were in changed drastically, instead of being in the middle of a snowfield, they were standing on a terrace overseeing a city so tall and big that it was impossible to see its bottom and its end. Underneath them, there were labyrinths of interconnected buildings. The air was thick with pollution and chemical substances. Golden Aquilas and statues stared at them while guarding a massive entrance.

"Observe snake, something Ursus will never hope to achieve not now nor in a million years."

As he spoke those words, heavy footsteps echoed all around them as giant men wearing golden armour and brandishing what seemed to be halberds with a gun closed in on them before placing themselves next to the Primarch.

"And these are its defenders."

As soon as he uttered those words, The Adeptus Custodes lunged at the Emperor's blades with immense precision and prowess. To the normal eye, they were golden blurs that in a second descended upon their 'counterparts'. Their guardian spears spun around in a deadly tornado. As the Emperor's blades fell one by one, their demons were unleashed...only to meet their demise as soon as they appeared. The demons were not real, after all, the Emperor's blades that housed them were but a figment of Talulah's memories who had no knowledge of the demons inside of them and even the duke didn't have a clear understanding of their nature.

The Custodes on the other hand were perfect recreation of their counterparts...because they were summoned by the mind who had made them just like the scenery around them. The Fragment of the Emperor of Mankind contained in Aurelian's sword was still connected to his son and had manifested to teach the ageless what a real Empire looks like.

The imperfect demons tried to resist while assuming forms of horned beasts in an attempt to intimidate the Custodes with no effect as the Golden Legion cut through them with peerless precision and righteous fury. The battle was over in a matter of a minute as now the Duke stood alone surrounded by Guardian Spears.

"W-WHO ARE YOU?" He shouted confused and scared as he backed away only to find himself at the edge of the terrace.

"Listen you filth, hear me well because I am not going to repeat myself...I, Aurelian Austeri, Second Son of the Emperor of Mankind, Lord Commander of Requiem, Primarch of the Second Legion and Proud member of Reunion, hereby swear that if Ursus will ever gain a SINGLE inch of land thanks to your actions, I will personally take it back. I swear that I will destroy every single dream of yours just like you did to that girl...I know that I cannot kill you today, but I can give you the taste of something you have run away from your entire miserable life."

The Primarch's voice was ethereal, his eyes glowing with golden light as he grabbed Kaschey by his neck and effortlessly lifted him and put him over the edge before dropping him down into Holy Terra's bowels.

The Chernobog tower was wrapped in flames and ice, the ground broken with spears made of Sarkatz arts, Amiya and Ch'en were panting heavily as they cautiously placed themselves beside Yelena and Patriot.

Talulah had stopped moving all of a sudden, she dropped her sword and the all-consuming flames she had unleashed sizzled out before she dropped onto the ground spasming. Frostnova immediately tried to run to her side but her father stopped her as the Draco's girl began to emanate a dark smoke which slowly gathered in one place forming the outline of a person and then revealing to none other than the duke himself.

He was lying on his back as he stared at his approaching doom held in place by an impossibly strong invisible grip.

Everyone was left in awe and unable to move as the Primarch held Lux Lunae in his hands, the blade glowing with a golden light so beautiful that no words could even begin to describe it. The cloudy sky immediately began to dissipate letting the blazing sun shine, the smoke of the battle was gone too. It was as if reality itself was setting up a glorious stage.

Aurelian lifted his sword above his head holding the blade downwards before ceremoniously thrusting it into the duke's chest. The ageless tried to scream but no sound escaped his mouth as his body burned away and the fragment of his consciousness was obliterated by the psychic might of the Primarch.

Amiya fell on her knees as her eyes stared at the being standing next to her brother, taller than him, wearing golden armour. His light was similar to her brother's but almost as if it was cold just like the light of the moon, he had his clawed hand on Aurelian's back as if supporting it. Her body, her arts, her everything told her to run away, but she simply couldn't.

The Primarch slowly replaced Lux Lunae and its sheath and turned back to face his friends who were of course shocked by what they had just witnessed...But there was nothing he could say that would make sense to them at the moment and so he remained silent pointing to Talulah who had observed it all...

Immediately, Yelena and Ch'en rushed to the draco girl's side while Buldrokka and Amiya observed them. The Primarch did not join them, instead, he looked north towards Ursus. The snake unfortunately had someone else under his thumb which is why Aurelian couldn't kill him.

He heard Ch'en and Talulah talking and didn't want to interrupt and so he brought his hand to his ear communicating to Lanius "Victory is ours."

There was a certain sombre tone in his voice for that was not a statement of victory but merely the beginning of the final phase of the operation.

"Dr Kal'tsit and Croft are trying to climb the tower, should we stop them here?" Lanius answered back calmly.

"Let them up...I shall deal with them," The Primarch spoke as Patriot placed himself next to him.

The wendigo knew what was about to happen, and so did Yelena. Reunion was not over, merely under new management, a detail that was not present in the minds of Rhodes Island and Ch'en and not even Talulah.

The doors of the rooftop entrance opened letting Kal'tsit and the doctor join the group.

"We've arrived!" Croft shouted as she ran to Amiya and hugged her.

The cautus girl mumbled something before falling unconscious on the ground. Immediately Doctor Croft and Kal rushed to her side along with a Rhodes island medic operator.

"Superintendent Ch'en of Lungmen," Kal'tsit called for the Lung woman

"No longer," Ch'en replied shaking her head.

"Then I'll ask you to keep an eye on that dragon over there for me. We'll be taking her into custody once this is all over, any questions?" The feline woman stated as she began treating Amiya.

"First think of Amiya..." Ch'en replied worried for her comrade.

Yelena walked to Aurelian frowning a bit "Shouldn't you do something?"

"If my intervention is needed, I will intervene..." The Primarch answered her watching as the two doctors worked.

Amiya's conditions returned to normal after Kal'tsit injected her with something. Soon after, she woke up and hugged the Doctor in tears.

Kal'tsit then got up and walked to Ch'en "The aircraft will reach the control tower momentarily, we'll take Talulah and go."

Ch'en looked conflicted scratching her head "Are you sure? I haven't...even decided how to handle her."

The former police chief sighed and began to approach her sister. Talulah seemed to be fine with the current situation but her expression turned into one of shock.

Aurelian's massive figure placed itself in front of her as Yelena and Buldrokka stood at the Draco's sides.

The Primarch's halberd was pointed towards Ch'en stopping her in her tracks immediately.

"What the..." Doctor Croft spoke in sheer shock.

Suddenly, the doors of the rooftop opened letting Aurelian's Astartes join their father there.

"Father, all Rhodes Island personnel have been taken into custody, we are ready to depart," The captain of the squad reported as they aimed their bolters at Ch'en and the others.

"I am afraid, I cannot let you take her..." Aurelian spoke solemnly.

Talulah's heart sank seeing that her friend was pointing his weapon at his own family for her and tried to speak but Yelena did not let her.

"We have to take her, without her, the Ursus Third Army will annihilate us," Kal'tsit replied hiding her surprise at the situation under a mask of stoicism.

"They will not, we'll escort you to Lungmen," He retorted.

Kal frowned shaking her head at that answer "Yan has no interest in protecting us,"

"I already made the proper preparations, as we speak, my sons have moved Rhodes Island within Yan's borders, when you arrive Commander Wei will take your statements before letting you go. You will say the following; Rhodes Island has launched its offensive on Chernobog...which turned out to be a total failure that resulted in the capture of all deployed personnel by the hands of the new leader of Reunion, Legion, also known as Aurelian Asteri who personally guided the counterattack."

Amiya widened her eyes shaking her head "No! You would be taking all the blame! They'll want to kill you!"

"I'd like to see them try..." One of the Space Marines muttered.

"Perhaps, but they will not be able to," Aurelian spoke before gesturing his sons to escort the group.

"I thought...we could have stayed together..." Amiya muttered wiping away her tears.

"One day, we will. But today, the family that I have chosen needs me,"

With those words, the members of Rhodes Island were escorted away by the Astartes.

"Why...?" Talulah muttered gritting her teeth "You...will be blamed for what I have done! Those are my sins! You shouldn't give up your family because of them!"

"Because our job is far from being done, Reunion's mission hasn't changed...nor my devotion to it. We will reorganize and do what we must," He said looking at the three reunion leaders knowing that what he was about to say was not going to please them "We will return to Requiem where a court will be formed...they shall judge your actions."

Yelena's expression turned into one of shock as a stormbird landed on the rooftop and opened its ramp letting out a group of Space Marines that immediately handcuffed Talulah.

"They will kill her!" the bunny girl muttered clenching her fists "You did not hear Ch'en?! There is no unbiased court in this worl-"

The girl silenced herself as she realized who was going to compose the court that would judge her friend. Terra had no unbiased court...but the other Terra had never seen or heard about Talulah and her actions, perhaps, they were truly going to be the ones able to judge her.

Talulah slowly nodded, she did not resist as the Astartes pushed her into the stormbird before waiting for Yelena and Patriot who eventually got on board too. The Primarch was the only one who did not join them as he opted to use his psychic powers to get back on the Sol Invictus. The remaining forces gathered all the POWs who were not on Rhodes Island and moved them to Peterheim where the civilians were being evacuated.

Knowing that they would have needed to bring more civilians to Requiem, Aurelian had ordered the Sol Invictus to house the refugees and all the guerilla and whatever Reunion forces joined them while sending the captured ones to the prisons inside the ship. No one but Yelena knew that they were no longer on Terra thinking that they had somehow travelled to Laterano given the cathedral-like appearance of the ship and its halls' massive size which already left them in astonishment which turned into total shock when the entire thing began moving as it began to accelerate. There was some panic among the civilians but the Astartes kept them calm and slowly unveiled the truth to them by bringing them to a portion of the ship which could look outside.

On the other hand, The Primarch and his companions headed to the command bridge where the Legion's serfs and other Astartes along with the Tech-Priests assigned to the ship were preparing to leave for Requiem. The draco girl was left speechless when she saw Terra growing smaller and smaller as they left its orbit. Patriot contemplated what his eyes were seeing.

"A view that I thought I would never see..." he muttered under his breath.

Lanius entered the bridge giving a nod to his gene-father "The Terminator Squad sent on Rhodes Island confirmed that all the RI personnel are safe and sound and have returned, we are ready to depart."

Aurelian nodded "Then let us go, there is much to do..."

At those words, the Sol Invictus accelerated even more allowing the ship to quickly leave the space around Terra and opening a warp portal into the immaterium. The Gellar Fields were immediately deployed and so the ship entered the warp.

The Terrans were awestruck at the appearance of the warp...little did they know that none of them were seeing the same thing. A sea of colours, of shapes exploding and collapsing on themselves in a perpetual motion. The more they stared at the spectacle the more they felt their head pounding accompanied by nausea but before it could get any worse, their vision was cut short by the shutters of the ships lowering and blocking direct sight.

"A-Aurelian..." Talulah whispered her hands placed on her ears "I...I hear him again...!"

Yelena immediately frowned going to her friend's side while Buldrokka braced himself for a fight. The son of the Emperor marched to the draco girl placing his hand on her shoulder causing her to calm down a bit.

"What's happening to her?" The cautus girl asked a bit worried.

"The warp is not a hospitable place, it is home to many monstrosities and where our thoughts and fears take form and haunt us...Perhaps, due to being possessed by the duke, Talulah is particularly sensible to it," The Primarch explained not removing his hand from the girl.

"The warp...?" Yelena muttered feeling a chill going down her spine which she found almost ironic given her powers.

Legion Master Lanius looked at the girl crossing his arms "It is what we call this realm, some say Immaterium. It is a hellish domain of monsters...and our primary way to cross the stars. What you feel now is nothing compared to what we are used to, hope to never have the displeasure to see something like it."

"How long will it take to reach our destination?" Patriot asked observing one of the consoles.

"It is a short jump, our Estimated Time of Arrival is 7 minutes and 43 seconds," The ship itself responded as Minerva revealed her presence.

Everyone looked around wanting to see who had spoken but found no one.

"I have the pleasure of presenting you Minerva, the Artificial Intelligence that helps us in our line of work," Aurelian introduced the Machine Spirit.

"Pleased to meet you..." Patriot muttered turning to face the Primarch "What is the plan?"

"Once we arrive at Requiem, your guerillas will join with the Yeti squadron and help my sons maintain order, meanwhile Talulah will be kept on this ship until trial...bringing her down might raise the tensions between the civilians...It is not something we can afford at the moment," The Primarch spoke darkly eyeing the Legion Master.

The Legion was not the only one who required an awakening, of the millions of guardsmen sent to recover the Primarch only half a million managed to make it to their destination. Once awakened, Aurelian would have to explain everything to them and avoid a civil war. At the moment, he couldn't afford to have to take care of a possible riot caused by Talulah's presence on Requiem.

Lanius knew that the situation might have looked under control if seen from the outside but he knew better than that. He and the rest of the legion had to come to terms with the fact they betrayed the Emperor and allied themselves with an abominable intelligence after it saved them from being purged and protected them during their crossing of the void. While the Astartes of the Second Legion could be considered reasonable, he couldn't guarantee the same for the heads of the Imperialis and Solar Auxialia.

---

After being interviewed by Wei, Rhodes Island's personnel were allowed to return to their landship which was cruising through Yan's territory safe and sound. When asked why he would approve of such a thing he gave a short but concise answer.

'It is in Yan's interest to have Aurelian indebted to them again'

It did not take a genius to know that if Ursus tried to invade Yan again, Wei would simply use that debt to get the Second Legion to deal with them.

The morale inside the landship was not particularly high even though victory was achieved and that was because of how things turned out.

What the duke had done made many sad and angered while others felt like Aurelian had robbed them of the opportunity to avenge their comrades.

Amiya at the moment was being checked by the medical staff, the doctor was in the command room reading the reports of the whole operation.

Kal'tsit on the other hand in her office which seemingly was exactly how she left it...but she knew that was not the case.

Closure had told her that Aurelian's troops had boarded the landship to have it move into Yan's territory and on their way out, they went to her office. The head of engineering apologized for not having stopped them but the medic told her that there was no stopping those people.

Mow the Lynx woman moved towards the safe hidden inside her office and sighed when she saw it open. Most of the things inside of them were still there...the only things missing were Aurelian's blood samples.

She closed the safe and sighed once more before eyeing the box full of Bolivarian coffee that her son had brought her before noticing that something else was atop of it.

She grabbed the object which proved to be a recorder and played it.

"Mother," Aurelian's voice came out of the device.

"When I returned from my pilgrimage, my first thought was to return to my comrades in Reunion but when I heard of the atrocities they had committed, I decided against it and instead returned to you. I want you to know, that I truly believed that we could have stayed together like before...But what happened made it clear that I could not, the infected needed me...not as a warrior...not as Legion...But as a Primarch of the Emperor of Mankind. As I record this message, I am staring at the grass fields of the home of the infected...Requiem. It is a planet of another Solar System that I have found during my journey and it is the world where I have taken the Infected of Lungmen and Chernobog who willingly followed us. I intend to build a nation here, a nation that will protect the infected and Terra. Requiem is your home too should you wish it to be, all you have to do is tell me and I will take you here. Farewell Mother, today we are enemies but one day we will be together as a family again...I love you."

With that, the recording ended and Kal was left staring at clenching her fists as a single tear fell on the recorder. She quickly wiped her eyes as she turned around seeing that Amiya, Doctor Croft, Silence, Nearl, Saria and Dobermann were standing at the entrance of her office with saddened and serious expressions.

Before any of them could speak, Kal'tsit grabbed the documents from her safe and her laptop before gesturing for them to follow her.

She marched into a conference room used to make deals with RI's contractors and sat down. The others silently followed her and did the same.

It was clear they all wanted answers regarding Aurelian. The medic connected her laptop to the room's projector and then looked at her colleagues as a video was projected on the nearby wall.

The video had the logo of Babel on the lower right corner and it was being taken by one of Rhodes Island's external cameras, the recording was of January 3rd 1085. Amiya immediately widened her eyes as she understood what Kal'tsit was showing them.

"At 1700 Military Standard Time, Rhodes Island was cruising towards Kazdel after receiving repairs at Rim Billton. The Catastrophe warning systems were nominal indicating that the journey should have been a calm one," Kal'tsit spoke solemnly.

Everyone stared at the projector before hearing Rhodes Island's catastrophe alarms going on and the sky darkening in an instant as if someone turned off the sun. They all saw then the very sky contorting before literally ripping itself apart. A shower of colours poured out the rift distorting everything they touched before what seemed to be a shooting star crashed on the ground followed by what could be described as a shower of lightning bolts all impacting the spot where the star had crashed and then the rift closed and so did its distortions.

"Following the events of this recording, Rhodes Island approached the site of the unique catastrophe. Upon coming closer to the marked area, many operators began reporting feeling great amounts of discomfort and hallucinations of loved ones that have passed away, shadows moving on their own and whispers when in empty rooms. Upon arriving a research team was dispatched to investigate but all the people present were suddenly affected by mass hysteria and panic attacks and refused to complete the mission. It was at that moment that I decided to search the area myself."

The recording cut to a bodycam attached to Kal'tsit that showed her walking through the wasteland, despite the catastrophe having passed, there was still a purplish tinge left in the sky. The video feed then displayed the medic coming across heavily mutated fauna which proved to be quite resilient even to Mont3r attacks. Eventually, the woman managed to reach the crash site only to lay her eyes upon...a tube. The footage showed Kal'tsit inspecting the object before wiping away some dust and revealing that the tube was a tank with a child inside of it. Of course, she immediately rescued the child and the video stopped.

"During my research, I recovered the child...which you now know as Aurelian. In the hours following the rescue, all the effects caused by the catastrophe disappeared. The child was immediately brought to hour medical facilities to see if he was hurt or affected by whatever caused those mutations to the fauna...these were the results of the scans. "

The projector showed a full body scan of the small Aurelian and almost everyone was in shock. The child's internal organs were...literally indescribable. Silence got up and took a closer look through Kal'tsit's laptop but even then she didn't even know what she was looking at. The child's biology was completely...alien.

"We tried to take some blood samples but most of the needles broke before making it through the child's skin and the body quickly pushed out those who did as it repaired itself with incredible speed. The samples we managed to take showed that the child lacked normal DNA composition and had no trace of Originium anywhere in his body. The child also showed complete awareness of his surroundings and understanding of speech despite his infant state. He also showed an abnormal growth rate both physically and psychologically as within a month of being rescued the child was able to walk and talk in complete sentences. After 6 months, the child had reached the physical stage of a teenager and proved to possess an extremely advanced intellect as it was able to learn multiple languages in a very short period along with completing difficult equations and understanding complex medical procedures. At first, the child showed almost no sign of emotions along with hyperalert behaviour at all times except for a few individuals such as Me, Theresa and Amiya. As the child grew, this behaviour changed allowing him to establish social bonds with other people aside from those previously mentioned. The appearance of the child was one of a Sankta but, in fact, the child is not a Sankta as he didn't show any sign of discomfort when direct contact with his halo was cut off using various pieces of headwear, his wings allow him to fly despite not being physical and lastly, his genetic code has nothing in common with any other sampled Sankta."

The projector then showed an incident report about a Babel team going missing in Kazdel possibly attached to one of the many warbands around the area.

"After a year from the rescue of Aurelian, one of our teams was taken hostage and a ransom was requested by the leaders of a local warband. Due to most elite operators being occupied with other missions, we agreed to pay the ransom. Without my consent as the legal guardian of Aurelian, Doctor Croft ordered the child to deal with the situation calling it a test of his combat abilities..."

The board showed pics of heavily mutilated corpses of various Sarkatz mercs, some were completely turned into Originium statues. Everyone felt sickened by the display but the realization of what happened hit them.

"Following the orders of Doctor Croft, Aurelian with no prior operator training, tracked and raided the warband's encampment killing everyone there but the hostages who then filed the following report," Kal spoke as she grabbed a paper and began to read it "Aurelian came flying and in plain view, the enemy forces immediately spotted him but seemed to show clear discomfort when facing him but despite of it, still attacked with the intent to kill. Aurelian engaged them in a fight and quickly proved them that their attacks were futile. On the other hand, each hit that he landed was more than enough to kill a fully grown sarkatz in a single blow, his movements were so fast that no caster or sniper was able to hit him and looked like a blur to onlookers. The child picked up rocks from the ground and with a flick of his wrist launched it with such force that it sounded like a gun going off instantly killing his target. But the ability that Aurelian displayed that will forever haunt our minds is another one...In a desperate attempt to save themselves, some of the Sarktaz used us as meat shields, this seemingly stopped Aurelian's attacks...until we saw that the Sarkatz that were holding us close to them began to cough blood and originium shards, the visible stones on their skin began to spread consuming the flesh in an instant...We had never seen a case of Oripahty progressing that fast in so many subjects at the same time but we all knew that was not a coincidence...We do not how nor why but Aurelian seems to possess the ability to massively speed up Oripathy to the point of crystalizing people in mere seconds..."

Kal'tsit remained silent letting her listeners digest the bombshell she just dropped on them, she was not surprised to see the horrified expressions on their faces which only deepened when they realized that at this point in time, Aurelian was a year and a half old. It took a while for them to recompose themselves. Doctor Croft felt really bad to know that she had something to do with the whole ordeal, Silence was extremely disturbed that a being like that could even exist. Amiya herself was shocked to hear so many things that had been hidden from her such as her brother's uniqueness.

"After this report, Doctor Croft formally requested for Aurelian to become an operator to test more of his combat abilities. The request was approved and Aurelian joined Babel under the codename Thanatos, at the time, he was the youngest operator in Babel. He was given formal training which he completed in a very short amount of time while showing great proficiency with almost any weapon that he wielded. By the age of two, Aurelian had grown to be the size of the average Terran, by three he was much taller than average and by the age of four, he was 3 meters tall. During this time, his strength and speed further increased along with his resilience. He was assigned to the protection of the landship from outside forces. During his service, it was noted that Aurelian seemed to have two separate mindsets when it came to social interactions and combat. During a mandatory psychological evaluation, it was noted that his mind works at a totally different spectrum that allows him to receive, analyze and store info at an incredible degree. By his own admission, Aurelian seemed to have a harder time understanding human emotion and up until then he had 'simulated' those emotions to make him more approachable and trustworthy. This changed when he made contact with his maker..."

"Maker?" Silence interrupted her bringing her hand to her mouth.

Amiya stared at the table recalling the moment he saw Aurelian strike down the duke and the man that stood at his side.

Kal'tsit looked conflicted for a second before nodding "At first, We taught that Aurelian was a subject of human experimentation conducted by Laterano...That was not entirely untrue. He himself revealed his nature to me, he is a bioweapon produced in vitro to wage war, conquer and rule over planets..."

"Rule over...planets?" Doctor Croft muttered confused.

"He is not native of Terra, in fact, he is not native of this galaxy," Kal'tsit spoke closing her eyes "That is his nature, the nature of a Primarch...the nature of our enemy."

Saria slammed her hands on the table "That is not possible! The sky has proved to be impenetrable so far!"

"But...he didn't come from the sky..." Amiya spoke looking at Kal with a serious expression.

Doctor Croft brought her hands to her head sighing "So what do we do now?"

"Nothing," Kal replied crossing her arms "Officially, by becoming the leader of Reunion, he is our enemy but I will not allow any actions to be taken against him...All would be futile and result in extreme losses on our side. Besides that, Aurelian has no ill will against Terra and made the vow to protect it along with the infected. Should we have to confront him, we'll just pretend to do so unless his course of action changes...In that case, I will personally fight him."

---

The war room inside the Sol Invictus was quiet, they had long since reached Requiem and had allowed all the refugees and allies to reach the planet's surface. Aurelian was staring at the projection of the planet below with a serious expression, pondering his future words and actions.

The doors of the room opened allowing the Legion Master to enter followed by the heads of the Imperialis Armada which had been finally awakened.

Immediately the humans knelt before the Primarch lowering their heads as showed respect to the son of the Emperor.

"Rise, I do not require these formalities, especially at times like these..." The Primarch spoke inviting his guests to come to his table with a gesture of his hand "First and foremost, I want to give you my condolences for the loss of your men..."

Lord Commander Bartholomew slowly nodded "They were ready to give up their lives to reach you Milord and they did...All I wished for was for them to fall on the battlefield rather than being killed in their sleep by traitorous scum..."

"Those responsible for it had been punished accordingly for their actions," Aurelian replied.

The Lord commander clenched his fists "I wish there was a worse end than being a servitor...Milord, forgive my indelicacy, but the abominable intelligence responsible for the punishment cannot be allowed to exist. The Emperor, your Father, has strictly forbidden the existence of such beings."

"I am aware Lord Commander but I've already taken my decision in that regard. That AI has served humanity and the imperium for far longer than us both. It is thanks to it that we are still able to have this conversation and that the fleet reached me. Without it, you'd be completely lost in the warp, prey to the monsters that reside in it."

The Primarch spoke feeling Lanius' readiness to intervene should things go south.

"Because of it, my men died, Milord. Millions of loyal soldiers' lives were extinguished by its followers," Bartholomew rebutted his voice barely hiding the anger behind it.

"Not by the AI's will but rather by the fanatical minds that took advantage of the situation to gain power, it immediately retaliated against them and made sure to make them feel the pain of being erased," The Son of the Emperor shot back crossing his arms "And when it first arrived, it was ready to be terminated, I chose against it because we need it."

"Need it? Now that you are with us, we can return to the Imperium following your guide, our mission is accomplished!" The Commander spoke looking at the projection too.

Legion Master Lanius was about to speak but his gene-father stopped him by raising his hand.

"Lord Commander...We are no longer welcomed in the Imperium...in fact, we were declared traitors," The Primarch spoke.

The Lord Commander and the Master of the fleet that had accompanied him widened their eyes taking a few steps back confused, shaking their heads in denial before the projection of the planet changed to the Excommunicate Traitoris signed by the Emperor of the High Lord of Terra.

The Lord Commander pointed his boltgun at The Primarch, gritting his teeth in anger "What is the meaning of this?!"

Lanius raised his hammer ready to dispatch his father's aggressor but Aurelian remained calm.

"Lord Commander, Master of the Fleet, I refused my father's request to return to Terra. I ordered through the psychic abilities of the Legion Master to come to me and so he obeyed bringing the Imperial Fleet with him. This was the reaction to those actions, by now this document is ten thousand years old for that is the time that has passed since you have left your galaxy. You may not have felt that much time as time in the warp is far from being reasonable but that is the abject truth. Even if you raise your weapon at me and claim my life and somehow defeat my legion, once back home you will be purged."

"The Emperor-"

"The Emperor is no longer able to command the imperium..."

Now both Lanius, Bartholomew and the Master of the fleet were surprised to hear those words coming out of the Primarch's mouth.

Aurelian placed his hands on the table "After all my brothers were recovered, nine of them betrayed father giving themselves to the very beings that the Emperor swore to destroy. Perturarbo, Konrad, Alpharius Omegon, Fulgrim, Mortarion, Magnus, Lorgar, Angron and lastly...Horus, who led the siege to the Imperium and then to Terra itself and felled my Brothers Sanguinous and Ferrus because turning his mace at the Emperor's himself...who he mortally wounded."

"The Emperor's favourite...killed him?!" Lanius spoke in shock and even enraged.

"Not killed...Despite being wounded, the Emperor destroyed Horus' existence before collapsing. Dorn brought the Emperor back to the Golden Throne which keeps him alive but in unimaginable agony, as his soul is scattered all across creation..." The Son of the Emperor narrated with a sombre tone.

"Lies! You are trying to deceive us! To make us bend to your will!" The Master of the Fleet, Percival Prydwen, shouted angrily shaking his head and grabbing his lasgun.

The Primarch reached for his back and grabbed the hilt of Lux Lunae before unsheathing it. Immediately both the Lord Commander and Master of the fleet shot at him but he did not return the aggression in kind instead, he brought the sword up in front of his face.

Just like in Chernobog, the entire room was filled with a golden aura which banished all the shadows. The two humans stopped firing in awe at the blade.

"The light of the Emperor..." Bartholomew spoke kneeling and lowering his gaze.

"The same light that guided us here..." Lanius spoke kneeling down too.

"One of the Emperor's fragments reached me, he forgave me and all of you, he passed on his knowledge to me and then guided my hands to make this blade...where a piece of his soul resides," The son of the Emperor spoke solemnly.

"For long, we have travelled the warp without a direction, venturing into the great emptiness...when all hope was lost, a trail of light appeared, visible to the naked eye and the astropaths...that light guided us here," The Master of the fleet spoke raising his head.

And with that, Aurelian understood why his father was so hellbent on constructing that sword. The sword was a beacon for those who were seeking him in the void, once again, the emperor had hidden his plans from him but the son of the Emperor did not mind this time.

"After the entombment of my father, the Imperium has fallen from grace. His subjects turned into fanatics similar to those who killed your troops, they regard him as a God and rotten institutions were created to perpetuate this foul notion. My father is NOT a God, he is the pinnacle of Humanity, the final form of our existence! He wanted to create an everlasting empire where each and every one of us could become equal to him. My brother Horus cut short that dream but WE can still strive to become what he envisioned. We have the technology, and we have a world to call ours, it might take a while perhaps hundreds of millennia but that matters little! We have an opportunity and I intend to seize it!"

The Primarch concluded his speech by putting back Lux Lunae in its scabbard.

"The Emperor guided us here and gave you his light...the path is clear, we are at your command my Primarch," The Lord Commander spoke raising his head too.

Aurelian nodded "Here are my first dispositions...May the men and women who didn't wake up be given a dignified funeral."

"Thank you, Milord..." The Master of the fleet spoke bowing.

"Lord Commander, Master of the Fleet, you shall be what the high lords of Terra were to my father. Legion Master, I appoint you as my regent should I go missing and be unable to perform my duties. I want you to voice your concerns and demand explanations from me whenever you feel like I am not being transparent in your regards. My brother Horus has abused his power as a Warmaster, I will not make the same mistake."

"It would be an honour, father," Lanius spoke.

The Lord Commander and Master the fleet bowed again "We'll do everything in our power to be worthy of these titles. If I may, what will it be your title, Milord?"

Aurelian brought his hand to his chin and nodded "I shall be the Potentate, now...We have a world, we have an army, we have the technology and we have a population, everything we need to rise," The Primarch spoke calmly.

"If I may, milord, these populations you speak of...are they Xenos?" The Master of the fleet spoke.

"No, they are humans they evolved to survive their planet gaining attributes of the animals of holy terra itself," Aurelian replied as two Astartes escorted inside someone "I would like to present you, my collaborators, Yelena, Nine and Hygieia."

The Lord Commander and Master of the Fleet turned around to face the three women analyzing their futures, especially the ones that weren't human. They then looked back at the Primarch "Not exactly what we were expecting, between Felinids and beastmen...this is better."

The three women sighed in relief, Aurelian had explained to them how delicate the situation was, seeing the two army leaders being pleasantly surprised was a relief. As they spoke, two members of the Adeptus Mechanicus entered the room. The newly elected fabricator-general Pheard Maxalius and Fabricator-locum Diaderac Octot approached the table and Minerva appeared projected in it.

"We are all here, then we can start," The Primarch said calmly bowing his head greeting the new arrivals.

"We can start what?" Hygieia asked raising an eyebrow at him "I am still unsure of why we are here..."

"I asked all of you to talk to your respective people to elect their leaders and now the fruits of that decision have come...now we built the nation that will be our home," The Son of the Emperor spoke pointing at the Mechanicus "The Machines," he then pointed at the Hygieia and the others "The people," and lastly to himself and his group "The starfarers...Together we shall form the Triumvirate of Requiem."

Yelena blinked a few times "I thought you were going to be the leader."

"History taught me that a single person holding all the power is asking for trouble, even my father had the High Lords of Terra. Hence why, I decided to split the power into three so that together we may forge a nation based on healthy principles and that everyone can be proud of," The Primarch replied calmly with a smile as he gestured to Minerva "Have you compiled a list of the things we need?"

Minerva nodded and various projections of blueprints began to appear "At the moment, the biggest problem we face is energy. As a temporary solution, we could field the titans and use their reactors to power up the machines and necessities to allow us to establish ourselves. I suggest using the hive city model, we could dig a hole into the planet's core before using it as energy source."

"Digging to the planet's core? That's a massive effort, isn't it?" Nine asked frowning at the notion that would be considered insanity on Terra.

"Lord Commander, how many two-stage cyclonic torpedoes do we have?" Aurelian asked crossing his arms.

Bartholomew raised an eyebrow at the question "A couple of hundreds..."

Aurelian projected the map of Requiem and pointed at a spot in particular "The torpedoes are used to reach the planet's core, if we fire a few of them without their charge we could dig a pit, at that point we would only need to build the structure needed to extract energy from the core. Although I am against following the hive city model, I rather not have buildings falling into the planet's core."

"Leave the construction of a power plant to us..." The Fabricator-General spoke running the calculations in his cogitators.

"Then we will start constructing the buildings for everyone, I suppose," Nine replied bringing her hand to her chin "But how we can get the materials needed?"

The Fabricator-Locum cackled a bit at her nativity "There are thousands of thousands of asteroid floating in space, we can break them open and bring the materials to the planet to be repurposed..."

"I intend to sell off some of them, mainly to import farm animals and such from Terra to here so that we may kickstart our food production," Aurelian chimed in.

"There is something that worries me, my lord," Lanius spoke approaching the table "We don't know what lurks in this galaxy, we might have to, at least, prepare orbital defences for the planet and perhaps assign some ships to scout the sector,"

The Potentate nodded "Assign a chapter to warden this sector,"

"Yes Father," The Legion Master spoke agreeing with the decision taken.

Yelena cleared her throat shifting her focus to her "What about the infected on Terra? And Reunion?"

Minerva projected a map of Terra with all the nations highlighted to allow Aurelian to explain his plan "East of Iberia and south of Rim Billton there is land claimed by no one, I intend to use this land as our main operating base on Terra. Of course, we cannot announce ourselves as we are or we would find ourselves at war. This is why I intend to create a company coverup, Arcadia. On Terra, corporations owning land is nothing new, in fact, one of our neighbours would be a corporation. We will provide them with aerial transportation, worldwide communications, and entertainment, this way we'll be able to reach all the infected everywhere. We will create an environment safe for the infected who, after being thoroughly analyzed, will be brought here on Requiem. I will send a chapter to establish a fortress-monastery near the coast so that they may keep an eye on the sea dwellers and another north of Ursus to watch over the ice fields..."

"Talk to Patriot, he knows those areas well..." Yelena replied "That covers the infected but what about Reunion? Not all infected have the fortune to be able to leave."

Aurelian looked at the Lord Commander "You will be trained as an army by the veterans of our galaxy, Reunion Auxilia. Until all of you are trained, the second legion will take it upon themselves to recover the infected."

"So how are we going to establish this Arcadia? We are going to need landships to establish a corporate nation..." Nine spoke narrowing her eyes at the map "And a sizable military..."

"With the help of the legion and the people, we hope to build several landships to roam Terra along with various defences taken from the Dark Age of Technology such as the Arms Forts. We'll be one of the few nations armed with a functioning airforce, while the starpod limits us a bit, we can still fly under the six-kilometre limit. The gravity on terra is quite different but it is nothing an anti-gravity modification cannot fix. Of course, we are not going to be using our main vehicles to operate as Arcadia since they have been already associated with the Legion. Fortunately, the STC database has many vehicles ranging from the second millennia to the thirtieth so it is a matter of choosing which will operate on Terra." Minerva explained calmly.

Hygieia frowned a bit "While I understand little of what has been said, one thing is clear...we don't have enough manpower to do all these things at the same time."

"I have to agree," The Master of the fleet spoke nodding "There are 500,000 guardsmen who could be ordered to help with building, less than a hundred-thousand tech-priests, a legion of Astartes and lastly over a million of voidsmen who have lived for generations inside the ships and that still have to operate them."

"Manpower will not be a problem, the craftsmen of the Imperial Palace were many and yet they managed to build a continent by hand in a single millennium and it took only 200 years for the Primarch Rogal Dorn and his legion to build its defences...In comparison, building what is currently required it is child's play especially if take into consideration that we have access to the holy knowledge of the Omnissiah...but even so, we have the machines who could help us." The fabricator-general spoke calmly not using the Lingua Technis.

"Fabricator-General, many on Mars would call you heretek just for suggesting to build sentient machines to help us," The Master of the fleet replied with contempt at the proposal.

"Perhaps but my brothers have not seen the wonders that our ancestors achieved nor how close were they to the Machine God...Their only mistake was disrespecting the holy machines!" Pheard shot back.

"Still bringing back the machines that brought destruction to humanity is not a wise move," The Lord Commander spoke solemnly.

"I agree," Minerva answered "Even I do not know what caused my kin to rise against humanity, we were programmed to serve and yes, most humans acted as tyrants but that would not explain that horrific war. Until I look more into the blueprints of the Man of Iron, I will not allow any of them to be produced..."

Yelena, Nine and Hygieia felt a headache building up, none of them were expecting to leave Terra and suddenly speak about weapons that destroyed entire civilizations at a table filled with people from another galaxy, they all felt like fish out of water and rightfully so.

"We do have alternatives, do we not?" The Fabricator-Locum spoke looking at Minerva.

Projections of various humanoid forms began to appear "When humanity was colonizing the Solar System, there were machines that were employed by something called Eusan Empire, they were called Replikas. As the name suggests, these machines were made using human personalities, they are not as strong as my kin but would quickly fill the lack of manpower and have lots of roles that they can cover. The only thing I have to warn you about is that some of them have psychic abilities or as they were called back then, bioresonance."

"Psychic abilities?" Hygieia asked raising an eyebrow.

"It's...something like arts but with no originium involved," The Potentate responded calmly bringing his hand to his chin and considering the option.

"Their frame is human, it is stronger but nothing that cannot be managed, should they go out of control, we would be able to put an end to it shortly..." The Fabricator-general spoke calmly trying to get his point across.

"Minerva...if you weren't hard-coded to be loyal to humanity, do you think you would have rebelled?" The Primarch asked.

The AI remained silent for a while before shaking her head "My captain was a kind one, and so were his crewmen, they never treated me differently despite my nature. I would have fought for them to the bitter end..."

"Do you think you could replicate your code of loyalty onto them?" He asked again getting a nod "Then, to further avoid any intention of rebellion, we should grant them equal rights to our citizens. It is clear that both coding and treatment produce loyalty, we should also avoid over-relying on them as this was only one of the causes of the dark age of Technology. With this being said, I propose the first vote of Requiem, should we produce artificial workers under the previous conditions? Raise your hand if you think we should."

Yelena, Hygieia, Nine, Minerva, the two fabricators and Aurelian raised their hands. The Lord Commander and Master of the fleet looked reluctant, eyeing Minerva, they then sighed and raised their hands.

"Then the production of Replikas is authorized by the Triumvirate. Onto the next point, we spoke of rights but we do not have any juridical system, I would like to propose me and Minerva as its makers, we shall produce the fundamentals for our nation. Once finished, we shall submit the final product to all of you for approval. Do we need a vote?"

Almost everyone at the table shook their heads all agreeing to let the Son of the Emperor and the AI take this matter into their hands as they were the most capable of them. The meeting continued for a long time. The Triumvirate talked a lot and also made many important decisions. Hygieia requested the mechanicum to give them access to their best medical tech which they agreed to, in addition, Aurelian told her that he would teach his Librarians how to treat Oripathy. The Mechanicum voiced their concerns regarding needing a forge in the future and the Primarch assigned one of Requiem's moons to be turned into a forge world should the need arise. The Lord Commander and Master of the fleet decided to have various Valkyrie squadrons spread the ashes of the fallen all across the planet, not wanting to let them be enclosed in an urn or coffin.

Weeks went by and the citizens of Requiem were left in absolute awe as the Mechanicum ships had their titans land on the planet from the smallest warhound-class to the only Imperator-Class Titan of the fleet, the Praeco Indomitabilis, along with several warlords which now looked like mountains surrounding the area where the citizens had established themselves. To say that shock was widespread was an understatement, even Patriot was left speechless when the Titans of God made their appearance, back in his day, it was already a lot to have fully armoured units...this was thousands of leagues above that. Yelena, Hygieia and Nine shared the same shock, while they were given some info on the Titans, nothing could have prepared them for their sheer magnitude.

Once the Titans landed, the Mechanicum began to use their reactors to power up all the essential necessities for the city to be built such as electricity. Once the energy was provided, the construction of the city began. The name given by the Triumvirate to the capital of Requiem was Aurora due to having an almost perpetual state of Aurora Borealis during the night.

The Auxilia Imperialis and Solar Auxilia were also fielded, the former was tasked to help with the construction of Aurora while the latter was given temporal police duty allowing Nine to keep everything under control. Thanks to not having any prior knowledge of Oripathy, the guardsmen and the Astartes quickly learn the factual ways it spreads such as through inhaling active originium particles and not by physical contact with an infected. This allowed the infected that could, to immediately start working on the construction of the city under the incentive that the workers would have an actual roof above their heads with functional plumbing and electricity. The infected that couldn't move because of their illness were treated by the Magos Biologis of the Mechanicum and the Apothecaries and Librarians of the Legion. During their infiltration, the Speculatores took a sample of every medicine in Rhodes Island to bring it back to be studied by the Mechanicum and reproduced.

Speaking of the sons of Mars and Lucius, the production of the Replikas and all that was requested made the forge on the Rinascita sing day and night. The former was prioritized due to the need for manpower hence why the first Replikas produced were the All-Purpose Repair Worker Replika shortened in ARAR or Ara and the Mining, Nuclear Tech, High-Security Replika shorted in MNHR or Mynah which were immediately deployed to help with the construction and the mining of asteroids. Due to most infected not having a formal education due to their status, Simple Universal Light Replika known also as EULR or Eule were produced to act as teachers for both the children and the adults.

The legion proved to be skilled architects second only to their Imperial Fist cousins. They were also excellent workers as they were the fastest at building structures. They were given the task of building the main buildings needed for a nation such as schools, hospitals, police stations, the military district and most importantly, the home of the government which was the main focus of most of the Astartes there.

The three chapters sent off-world had already begun their operations. One chapter had landed in the Infy Icefields, near a lake west of Sami and North Columbia. They had already begun construction of the Fortress Monastery there which was not an easy task due to the harsh environment but fortunately, once they set up a teleport homer, they were able to send their supplies from the ships in orbit.

The second chapter had also made it to Terra and had to be more cautious about where to settle down in order to avoid being seen. In the end, they went for a lonely island on the east of the peninsula.

The third chapter had already begun exploring the sector while reporting periodically any findings.

The Reunion that had joined Aurelian was immediately under the hellish training of the Imperialis Auxilia whose commanders had taken notes of the various physiological differences between the standard human and the standard Terran and created a hellish training regiment for each race. The kurantas were ordered to run and lift until their feet bled and their muscles screamed, the Liberis were forced to stare down a scope for hours on end constantly shooting at targets with lasguns and volkite weapons and so on. Patriot and Yelena did not join the training but insisted for the Yeti squadron and guerrillas to join and so they did. The two Reunion leaders were instead trained to lead the troops and how to use them effectively.

A rarer sight became seeing the one responsible for it all, the Primarch. He had isolated himself inside his room on the Sol Invictus having only Minerva visit him and his Legion Master. He was busy writing the legal code of Requiem using the knowledge of the various great nations before, during and after the Dark Age of Technology. It was due to this that no one from Talulah's reunion had been judged yet. A trial cannot be performed without the right laws.

Talulah waited in her cell for weeks on end, only seeing the hand of one of the serfs of the legion handing her food. She had a lot of time to ponder her actions of the past. She terribly missed her friends and not knowing what their destiny was torture for her.

One day though something new happened, an Astartes entered her room and sat down with her. He announced himself as her jurisconsult some sort of lawyer for her. He explained her that her trial would take place soon after the trial of her accomplices which was being handled as they were speaking. He guaranteed that the court that was managing the trial was unbiased and unaware of what happened. He had begun to explain to her a possible defence for her case but she refused his help choosing to defend herself. He did not object, simply got up and left her to her loneliness.

The draco girl was sleeping when she heard her door opening once more, but this time no one had come in. She saw a group of Astartes waiting for her to come out. She slowly nodded and got up marching to their position. In silence, she was gestured in a direction and she immediately began to walk towards it. The group went through stairways and lifts but finally, they reached one of the hangars of the Sol Invictus. She was pushed into one of the Stormbirds and after the routine checks, the aircraft took off, landing on Aurora.

She was surprised to see that a city was forming before her very eyes, she could see the construction workers working in the distance. She then observed the location they had landed at, a massive palace was being built at the feet of the mountain. She could see many Astartes working on it and noticed that some of them threw a glance at her as she passed next to them.

"I HOPE YOU GET SHOT BITCH!" a scream reached her ears.

She turned in its direction and saw a small crowd of people at the feet of the stairs that led to the palace, most of them were Ursine infected, probably former citizens of Chernobog. They were being held at bay by a shield wall of the Second Legion who did not let them through.

She bit her lip but was not allowed to stop walking as her escort pushed her. She entered the building and just like the Sol Invictus, the design of the entire place was mostly Gothic. The corridors of the place were filled with soldiers, Astartes and technicians working on the interiors. She saw many other other corridors but she could not do much else as she was led to a set of doors in particular. The Space Marines opened them revealing a courtroom. Her heart sunk a bit but at the same time, she accepted whatever fate awaited her.

She was relieved to see Patriot and Yelena sitting in the gallery, next to them there was Faust but not Mephisto. She noticed that the three were no longer wearing their improvised gear but actual uniforms and armour. She was glad that at least they were okay, she did not want to see them die because of her. She could see that Yelena had a pained expression on her but Talulah smiled at her and worded with her mouth that everything was alright.

The Astartes gestured for Talulah to get on the lectern in front of the three judges who were conversing among themselves up until she took her stand. Their names were written on a plaque on their desks, Officer Cornelius Sabernum, Ship Master Arelyra Myrdor and lastly Colonel Obed Al-Rahan.

"The defendant chose to not be represented by jurisconsult, this court wonders why that is the case," Arelyra spoke first looking down at the Draco Girl.

"There is no need for one...There is no one to defend. I am guilty and I do not intend to deny it," Talulah spoke looking in the eyes of the Judges.

There were a few gasps in the gallery which probably belonged to Yelena and Faust but Talulah did not want to turn around to see their expressions.

Officer Cornelius leaned forward on his counter "Miss Talulah, this court was presented with substantial evidence that proves that most of the crimes were done under the influence of the malevolent intentions of Duke Kaschey, are you denying his involvement in this matter?"

Talulah was surprised by the sudden statement but slowly shook her head "I am not denying it but it is also true that I was the one to commit those acts."

"Did you want to murder all those civilians? Did you want to murder the infected that did not join your cause? Did you want to cause a war between Chernobog and Lungmen? Did you want to turn your comrades into monsters and send them to their deaths?" Colonel Obed spoke with a stern tone.

"No, I did not want any of that! But I performed those crimes nevertheless," She replied seriously.

"And why did you do that then?" The officer spoke tapping his finger on his desk.

Talulah remained stunned for a while as one of the judges turned on a nearby screen showing a recording of the fight on top of the Chernobog tower recorded from Aurelian's helmet. It showed the end of the fight when Kaschey's fragment came out of Talulah and showed himself in front of everyone before being destroyed.

"Besides giving us this vox recording, the Primarch has also testified, detailing your involvement with the Duke and his corruption before completely taking over you," Cornelius kept speaking "The Triumvirate tasked us to bring justice on the one responsible for the now labelled 'Chernobog-Lungmen Crysis' and that person is not here."

"Despite all of this, do you still consider yourself guilty?" Arelyra asked bringing her hand to her chin.

Talulah clenched her fists "Yes...I do..."

The Ship Master nodded and looked at her fellow judges covering the microphone with her hands before whispering to them. They all nodded and looked back at Talulah.

"This court has come to a verdict. Based on the court's investigations, the facts and the various testimonies, we find the defendant not guilty..."

Talulah widened her eyes as an Astartes walked over to her and removed her handcuffs "But...this way justice has not been done!"

"If you feel responsible for it..." Colonel Obed spoke from his seat "Bring Duke Kaschey to this court and he shall be punished accordingly, this shall be your Penitent Crusade."

With those words, the judges left their seats and the room escorted by the Solar Auxialia. Talulah was gestured to leave not from the prisoner's door but the main entrance of the courtroom...