Rebirth & Redemption Chapter 5

Fulgrim closed his eyes and bowed his head as much as the field would allow. Then, it was like something that had been missing snapped into place. His eyes snapped open and he looked at Andrew once more.

"If my brother who I wrongged second most is alive and in need then what can I do, save answer?" A small smirk adorned the corner of his mouth for the first time.

"That said, if we are to escape this vault of curiosities, we must be more stealthy than Skivers and as cunning as Alpharius. Your actions so far do not seem to have drawn an alert, but I have to believe that would change were I freed from this accursed field.

What's more, if this mad Necron held a supply of my gene-seed, and now even holds my own person, I have to believe that it also holds my or my Brother's gene-sons. If you have any more stories, please leave that brick here so that I may catch up somewhat on what is going on, and go out to scout. It is a dangerous mission, but absolutely vital!"

And so, Andrew ended up scouting the tomb, while Fulgrim learned more of the current grim dark state of the Imperium.

Thinking back, Andrew partially wished he'd said something to Fulgrim about manners, or asking please, but at the time he had just instinctively acted on the command he had been given. But the truth was, that as far as he could see, Fulgrim was right. Fulgrim taking action at this point was too much of a risk, and yet the information was vitally needed. Plus, for some reason he couldn't help but like Fulgrim, and not want to have him think he was petty or foolish.

"Blasted Primarch charisma." he muttered as he cautiously looked around another corned. "Sure it's going to be vitally important when we escape here, but not being immune is a real pain."

The entire complex seemed to be a maze of nearly identical galleries filled with an extremely eclectic mix of exhibits. It reminded Andrew of maze zones in some RPGs, where if you didn't take the exact right path it would randomly shuffle zones so you could wander lost forever. Fortunately, his implant was capable of mapping his path and overlaying directions.

By sheer bad luck, the first human he saw was Fauston Sedrorn an Iron Hands Devastator Sergeant with a Combi-Plasma with his squad. Fulgrim had deduced a combination of necron hieroglyphs that would free another's head from stasis as his was, but originally Andrew ignored the marine as a lost cause.

Fulgrim, however, insisted on recording a statement for Andrew to wake the marine and play for him. This went about as well as Andrew had predicted.

"... and AFTER I've finished turning his BASTARD skull into a URINAL, I'll take the FINGER BONES I cut off earlier and I'll..."

Andrew had to give it to him. He'd been at this for over an hour and hadn't repeated himself once. Still, it was time to get this conversation moving. Andrew hoped he had an argument that would get through.

"You aren't being logical about this."

"WHAT did you say to me?!" The space marine seemed completely flabbergasted.

"Think about it. First of all, you are hanging here, paralyzed and helpless in a xenos museum, potentially for all eternity."

The Iron Hand growled and his face turned red, as he evidently tried to free himself from the necron technology holding him stationary. When that did absolutely nothing, he turned back to Andrew, and seemed to be listening.

"Secondly, while I freely acknowledge your tremendous martial skill, he's a Primarch. If you went up against him by yourself, you'd lose without accomplishing anything."

This provoked some mutterings of disagreement, but no concrete rebuttal, so Andrew moved on to his last point.

"Finally, you are missing the opportunities this presents. Whether you believe me or not, this is not the same Fulgrim from the Heresy. His mind is different but it's also a completely new body. That means that Fulgrim's soul, and his Primarch power, are currently split. I believe that if nothing else, as long as both exist both will be weakened. And who knows, with Clonegrim here, it may be possible to kill Daemongrim once and for all."

Andrew watched Faustus' face for a moment, then sighed. "How about this? You swear to wait on your revenge and contribute fully to everyone's escape, and when we've all escaped this place, you and Fulgrim can have a duel, okay?"

Faustus face grimaced and twitched, before with gritted teeth and a voice like someone was trying to pull out his proginoid gland, ground out the single word: "Agreed."

The next one Andrew met was Celestian Superior Serica Hearth of the Order of the Glowing Chalice, along with a few dozen of her Sororitas. This one turned out to be not that hard, if very nerve wracking. He just had to be careful how he presented it.

"Praise be to the Emperor for His Divine Grace! To have Reached his Almighty Arm into the Foul Domain of Chaos, Ripped the Weeping Essence of his Loyal Son from the Foul Demon that had Posessed and Consumed Him, then Reformed him in his Perfect Image so that he might lead a Penitent Crusade! It is No Wonder that the Despicable Xenos and the Foul Traitors Conspired to leave him Trapped in Durance Vile! Yet None can Stand in the Way of the Emperor's Will, and thus You were Brought Forth in this Hour to be His Instrument! All Hail the Emperor!"

Serica terrified him. Her eyes were constantly open just that little bit too much, her pupils just that little bit too small, and her smile just that little bit too wide.

She cleared her throat, and Andrew realized she was going to sing, and naturally would expect him to join her. One problem though, Andrew didn't know any Ecclesiarchy songs. Thinking fast, he started singing first, "Hold the Fort" a song from the American Civil War that had been modified into a hymn & now by modifying a few lines so that she could assume it was talking about the Emperor.

Terminator Sergeant Raziel Dolia was an easy find. He heard Andrew and Serica singing in the distance, and joined in. When Andrew followed the sound he was shocked at how drawn and withered the Lementer's face looked in his Terminator armor, and Raziel's story reminded Andrew again of how truly messed up the 40k universe truly is. Raziel had been part of a small group holding a strongpoint rearguard to allow civilians and members of his chapter to evacuate from Hive Fleet Kraken. He fought on as most of his detachment was killed, when the Lamenter's 'luck' kicked in. He and the other survivors were 'saved'... by Trazyn, who put him here in the museum.

What's more, something went wrong with the stasis beam, leaving him paralyzed but fully conscious and experiencing time. Stuck here in Solemnace he discovered that his suit's recyclers had been damaged in the fight, and so his 'food' and 'drink' had the taste and texture of the waste they were only partially recycled from. Fortunately for them, but unfortunately for him, the stasis beams for the rest of the survivors worked just fine.

What was worse is that somehow the stasis beam interfered with his Sus-An Membrane, preventing him from putting himself in suspended animation, so he was conscious the whole time. Finally, to add insult to injury, the damage to the recyclers meant that he was only getting around 400 calories per day for the past years.

When Andrew learned this, he immediately pulled out the rations he'd gotten from the vending machine, and fed them to Raziel. Andrew didn't know if it was his own lack of hygiene these past few days or the humiliation of being fed by a child, but he could swear that moisture leaked out of Raziel's eyes when Andrew gave him a chocolate bar and told him he'd done a good job and Sanguinious would be proud of him.

Ozal Onyxbranch was another hard recruit. The Squat Guildmaster was more interested in figuring out how the stasis beam worked or finding Necrons to kill than joining an escape attempt, but a bribe of some alcohol, a download of a science textbook from Andrew's revival 'welcome package', & a promise of a chance to fight Tyranids, and he was on board.

Ozal had walked him through the process of tricking the lock on a reliquary on a pedestal across the room into performing a factory reset, wiping the gene code scanner, and resetting the passcode from a lyrical chant to a basic 00000, but lost interest upon discovering it "only" contained an artificer crafted plasma/bolter combi-pistol or great sophistication and miniaturization.

The plaque mounted on the inside of the lid named it "Cleansing Faith", and claimed, with a bundle of ancient paper and a lot of impressive seals to back it up, that this pistol was presented to Sebastion Thor personally by the Captain-General of the Adeptus Custodes. Thereafter, if was used by Thor in his travels across the galaxy, including in banishing the traitor primarch Mortarian.

Then in 291 M36 he bestowed Cleansing Faith unto Alicia Dominica, which she wielded alongside the Blade of Admonition until her death at the Battle of Frideswide's World. It was then carried by the canonesses of the Order of the Ebon Chalice. At least that's as far as the plaque recorded, though obviously Trazyn either took it from them at some point, or perhaps more likely it was lost in some doomed last stand and Trazyn looted it before anyone could retrieve it.

The plaque also claimed that the grips had been replaced with ones made from pieces of bone from both Alicia Dominica and Sebastian Thor, which was honestly Eeughk! Andrew wondered if perhaps that was the real reason Ozal had lost interest.

Honestly, Andrew knew he should have immediately brought it to Serica, but she scared him enough he was procrastinating. He justified it to himself with the fact that she was suspended and couldn't wield it, and he needed some method of self defense, but he was really just scared. It was heavy and bulky, especially with this young body, but he had to admit it was comforting not to be unarmed.

After that it became much easier. As the 'Envoy' of a "combined force of Sororitas and two Space Marine chapters" people joined up relatively easily. Captain Jennings assured me that as soon as the remnants of his 234th Elysian Drop Troop Regiment were awakened they would be honored to serve. Magos Endrew Omicron-5 likewise assured me that he was the commander hard coded into his Skitarrii, and that they would deal summarily with any of the other Tech-Priests who decided to hold up the escape with a search for archaeology. The assassins of the Emperor's Holy Blood cult were extatic to serve a Primarch. Magos Exitus and his Corpuscarii recognized the authorization codes Endrew provided and fell in line.

Discovering Lieutenant Penlan and her Valhallans was quite a surprise. She looked nothing like I had imagined, quite aside from being in her fifties at least. In the time since her last appearance in the novels she had picked up an augmetic eye, three replacement teeth, and a chunk missing from her left ear. She also had enough scars I couldn't tell which one was from Gravalax. She stood ramrod straight, with heavily muscled arms and torso, her platinum hair tied in a tight braid bun, and looked a lot more like a tough drill instructor from an action movie than any lieutenant. I thought she must be a family member of the 'Jinxy' I'd read about, but the way her weathered skin darkened at my accidental mention of her old nickname confirmed it. She was accompanied by one hundred and twenty three Valhallans of the 697th, of which a full 41 we from her 2nd Platoon 3rd Company, showing that whatever else she was good at keeping her soldiers alive.

Thad was probably the hardest sell of anyone. He was an utterly massive brute of a man, tall enough that he would have stood head and shoulders taller than an astartes, and would have even come up to Fulgrim's armpit, had they been in the same room together. He was a Thunder Warrior, and he just didn't give a care.

Hearing his story, he'd been born as a child named Thaddius in a small farming village in what sounded to Andrew like it was probably the Alps during the mid part of the Emperor's conquest of Earth. When The Radscorpions raided, the people knew better than to resist. They raped the women, stole most of the food, and took Thad and a bunch of the other older boys as "recruits". The Radscorpions were a relatively small and weak technobarbarian band. They sounded a lot like a Mad Max inspired motorcycle gang riding hoverbikes, and owed fealty to a larger more powerful group called The Dreadwyrms.

Thad had done what he had to do to survive and rise through the ranks. At the beginning he'd had ideas of taking over the gang and turning them into something beneficial, but those dreams died early. From that point, all he'd lived for was survival itself, and revenge against the leader of the band, who called himself Lord Claw (in the third person no less, apparently.) He'd hated his boss, hated his comrades, and hated himself, especially when he realized he'd started to enjoy some of the attrocities he was committing.

Over the years, and as he was rising through the ranks, he began hearing word of a new warlord expanding and conquering the other warlords. A warlord who won his victories with peerless strategy and invincible super warriors. A warlord who ruled with an iron fist, but directed that fist primarily at rebels and marauders, and allowed the common folk to mostly live in peace so long as they obeyed his laws. A man known simply as "The Emperor".

One day, while roving with some of the Radscorpions, they caught a scout of this "Emperor". By this time, Thad has risen to a junior sub-boss called a "Sting". He learned from this man, that the rumors were true. He slew his fellows, freed the scout, and after giving him the exact location of The Radscorpions' lair, he returned to slay as many of them as he could. He expected the whole lair to be flattened by artillery, but instead they were overrun & butchered by titans in power armor.

He and the other survivors were brought before the Emperor, and aside from The Claw's pet sorcerer, they were allowed to live, and were given over to be transformed into more of the Emperor's Thunder Warriors.

From the day they met with The Emperor, every one of them was a fanatical believer in his cause of uniting humanity, driving out the xenos, and bringing peace and stability, but that didn't mean they were good people. Each of them had their flaws, most frequently sadism and/or berserk rage, and that was before their augmentations started to wear on their bodies and minds. Thad was one of the less effected, and so rose to the position of sergeant.

Thad said he was happy when the news came down that the Astartes were coming on line and no new Thunder Warriors would be produced, but it removed much of what little restraint the Thunder Warriors had retained. If they didn't need to take in new recruits, there there was no need to accept surrenders or leave survivors.

Thad didn't regret that. He said that they, more than anyone else, knew what types of people these were, and that in the locations they were deployed, no one was innocent. However, the truth was, that a lot of his brothers stopped caring. More and more often they had to put down their own, as some Thunder Warriors refused or were incapable of stopping fighting once the last enemy of a battle fell.

Thad refused to talk about Mt Ararat, but he did say that he managed to get part of his squad out. They served a Rogue Trader named von Valencius for a decade or so as shock troops and bodyguards, dying or going insane one by one until only he was left, and he was abandoned on a death world along with the rest of his guards to give the rogue trader time to escape.

Trazyn had grabbed him from that planet, and implanted him with some kind of Necron tech that had healed the damage his augmentations had done to his body, and seemed to be regulating both his bioware and cyberware to work more effectively.

Thad said he didn't hate the Emperor, which surprised Andrew, but he claimed not to care. In his words he was a "worn out tool", and he claimed the Emperor didn't need him, now that he had his astartes.

Andrew tried telling him about the Horus Heresy. He tried talking about how much the galaxy had regressed since the Great Crusade. He told him about Chaos, and the Necrons and the Tyranids, but he wasn't able to get through to him, but Fulgrim became invested after hearing about his story, and a recorded message from the primarch was enough to get through to him. He refused to promise to join them, but he agreed to help them escape, and said that he would see for himself if the galaxy really was in as much need as they said.

Perhaps the most surprising, and definitely the most interesting to Fulgrim, was the discovery of seventeen uncorrupted astartes of the III Legion, snatched up by Trazyn right under the nose of the Emperor during the Proxima Betrayal. At first Andrew didn't realize they were Emperor's Children. They didn't know or use that name, and they didn't wear the Aquilla, since those were earned for the sacrifice of their legion in the battle from which they were plucked. They also had no knowledge of their primarch, much less the Horus Heresy or the existence of Chaos.

They also weren't a unit, being made up of individuals who had fallen in that fight, but who were still relatively healthy, and probably ones who Trazyn could grab without alerting anyone to his presence.

The group included two scouts, one with an astartes shotgun and the other with a sniper rifle. The shotgunner, Benny Attikinsen, had lost an arm, while the sniper, Carl Hanth, had lost a leg. Simo Han was a tactical marine who's boltgun was customized for extreme range and accuracy, even by space marine standards. Alex and Josh had only joined the ranks of the tactical marines recently, and carried a standard bolt pistol and boltgun each. David was another tactical marine, but he had a plasma gun instead of a bolter. Frank was another tactical marine, and one of two sergeants. The other was an assault marine and apparently expert duelist named Harold. There were four other assault marines, but two of them had damage to their jump packs. Next there were three devastators. Surprisingly, there were three marines in Cataphractii pattern terminator armor. They told me that there had been less than fifty of them at the battle, part of an experimental field trial, apparently. Presumably their increased defense led to their disproportionate representation in the survivors. Two were equipped for close combat, and the third for fire support. Most valuable of all, the group included an apothecary, as well as one of the techmarines in charge of monitoring the field trial of the terminator armor, and wearing a set himself.

All in all, Andrew thought, it looked like their little escape attempt group was coming together nicely.

Naturally, it was right as he was thinking this that the Tyranids showed up.

Note: Skiver: a term during Fulgrim's youth on Chemos for someone who tried to avoid his or her full allotment of work. I made up this term but given the described conditions I have to believe that people like that were major public enemies, and that the people would have had a slang term for them.