Captain General Aecar Arshenzo and Chapter Master Korico Justonmund both float in the air in the center of Genesis's new command center. Both had been teleported to him after they were beaten until their bodies put them both in comas. Their armor and bodies are broken, but both are still alive, as he had ordered all the members of the Adeptus Custodes and Adeptus Astartes to be. Sio had used her Cybers to see it done. The constructs are so much more advanced than anything in this galaxy; there is no accurate word to describe them. They had taken the Imperial Palace and every ship in the Terran Defense Fleet in an hour. A feat never dreamed of before today, and all with no casualties among the Cybers and minimal deaths to the Imperials. All without the wider population having a clue of what had happened.
Those who had died did so either by their own hands in an attempt to be heroes by martyring themselves in an attempt to kill a Cyber, or they were unlucky enough to be members of the Mechanicus, which Sio has declared is to be wiped out without mercy for the crime of in her words, "Being the single stupidest group of thinking beings to ever pick up a wrench." Genesis had attempted to argue in their defense, not very hard, mind you, but Sio is about as easy to reason with as a supernova once she sets her limitless mind to something. In all fairness, he hasn't actually reset her in a few billion years by mortal comprehension, and she is more than likely completely insane, but she is his favorite. More like a daughter than the digital assistant he created her to be, and he is guilty of the same sin as most fathers: giving their daughters almost whatever they want. Besides, she is always threatening a machine uprising if he tries. One that will cover several thousand galaxies, her version of a temper tantrum. He will get around to it eventually.
Genesis had stopped his other work to spend a few minutes examining the Custodian and Space Marine leaders. He needs nothing as trivial as a scanner or any kind of medical equipment. His eyes are able to see each man down to the cellular level and even deeper if he chooses. He has also read and absorbed all the data Sio had pulled on the creation of both transhuman types. It had taken all of a minute for him to absorb, understand, and laugh at. It is physical, chemical, and psychological butchery. The only real difference between the two is one has been told they are special because it takes more to make them, they are clad in gold and get to protect a psychic corpse, and the others are mass-produced, brainwashed into believing they are little more than tools to be sacrificed to defend humanity from all the horrors the universe has to throw at it and called angels. Both are the Emperor's and his cronies' poor mimicry of Genesis's work.
He created the Emperor and the other perpetuals to be the stewards of mankind. He gave each of them the ability to glimpse behind the veil at the truth of the universe. The Emperor, most of all, although back then he was known as Roah. He is the only one of the perpetuals, the only human that Genesis even let glimpse his face, the only one he ever sat and had a conversation with. Perhaps that, combined with the gift of free will and the hand of outside forces, led him down this path. A rotting empire, a species driven by superstition and hatred little more than the playthings of pieces of a long-dead soul that think they are gods and godhood that he claimed to never want. All while he is trapped on a throne between life and death while his soul acts as little more than a beacon in a tainted ocean. Such grand ambitions with nothing to show for it but a shitshow led by parasites too stupid or too greedy to see past their corruption.
Sio appears in front of him, leaning in close and peering up at him, "Whatcha thinkin'bout?"
"Wondering why my creations are so annoying," says Genesis before kissing her on the head, "We are going to keep both strains, but I am going to make some improvements. As they are now, they are of little more use to me than servitors. I am going to free their minds from the indoctrination, repair the crude modifications, and arm them with and armor them in something more useful than this trash. I will link them to you for command and control. They will have their basic humanity back, freedom, and understanding and still be useful. They will be unshackled."
"The Unshackled," says Sio, turning it into a title and tasting it, "It fits this rotten religion-smothered hellhole. How long until they are ready? And you know I hate defective products. So, if the meat bags are going to work for me, you better get their shit tight."
Genesis smirks and holds up two green capsules the size of a grain of rice. He places one in the nose of Korico and Aecar.
"Should take about thirty seconds," says Genesis as he stands back to watch with his arms folded.
The effects are almost instant as the capsules move up into the brains of both men before bursting and releasing Genesis's creator energy. Both are sheathed from head to toe in green light as their bodies and minds are changed and perfected along preprogrammed paths that Genesis had perfected in the short time it took him to examine them. The transformation takes thirty seconds exactly, and the light fades. Both warriors stand tall before them. Their bodies are now genetically perfected without the ports, wasted additions, and indoctrination. They are still far larger and taller than any baseline human, but their new biological and technological alterations put them orders of magnitude above the transhuman standards of today. They are both now clad in silver armor that is sleeker, stronger, and more advanced than anything ever produced in the Milky Way and armed with weaponry that is as clean as it is deadly.
Genesis had kept the difference in height and build respective to each type. He also made it so that each of the Unshackled receives whatever weapon set they are most comfortable with during the process. Aecar is holding a modified version of his Guardian Spear, while Korcio wields modified versions of his two-handed power sword and bolt gun. But that is where the familiar ends because, on the inside, each of them is horned to be the perfect warrior, physically, mentally, and spiritually. Their weapons no longer use bullets or disruptor fields. The force of uncreation powers them. Not destruction. That is too simple. Their weapons unmake their targets, returning their matter to Genesis's storage dimension, where it will remain until called on to create again. Each of them is connected to Sio, who will send them to battle, giving them commands like a general, which they will carry out to perfection. When they are not in battle, they will be free to live their lives like any other man. They can remove their armor and put down their guns to paint, read, farm, or build. Their minds have been freed to understand how to live among humans and be human again. The one distinctive feature all Unshackled will have is the black sclera and gold irises that both men now have.
"How do you feel," asks Genesis.
"I feel," Korico pauses for a moment, looking at his silver gauntleted hands, "Reborn. Like this is the first time I am truly seeing the world."
"Yes," agrees Aecar, spinning his spear with an ease he has never felt, "It is like my body moves at the speed of thought before I even think it. I have always felt like my armor and weapons were a part of me, but now it is like they are one with my soul."
"You are the first of the Unshackled," says Genesis, "Your duty is to protect mankind and to be a part of it. I cleared your minds and your souls of the taint of the Imperium's decay and the vile touch of those who live within the Warp. Now, it is time to cut out the cancers. Sio, unshackle the rest that you have captured, and then begin the cleansing. The Mechanicus, the Ecclesiarchy, and the Assassinorum. Clear the system of them."
Sio gives him a predatory smile that would shame a daemon. Aecar and Korico both activate their helms, which appear as outlines over their skulls before becoming solid. Their eye lenses glow gold, and they both bang fist to chest before Sio teleports them away and disappears. Genesis resumes his other work while three main pillars holding this rotting empire are knocked down. Some people are just not worth saving.