After that dreadful display, we went back to our room to lick our wounds. Jaune didn't seem to mind, almost as if he expected that to happen. The Plague Dogs didn't raise their heads the entire time from the gym. Logan tried turning over his desk when we returned to our room, only it was bolted to the floor.
I wasn't feeling anything like that…I was angry yes, but it was more an annoyance than anything. It was odd, the more I thought about the sparring session, the more annoyed I got at my performance. I would see gaps in my defense, places where I should've countered, or even openings in her defense.
Jaune got up to face the raging wolf, but my mind was focused on the imaginary fight in my head. I could see an opening in the custodes' form, but that had to be on purpose. Maybe I could've raised my leg for a swift kick? My imaginary opponent brought her elbow down and her knee up, crushing my leg between her joints. Knew it, bait, there has to be an opening somewhere…
A faded voice echoed in my ear, pulling me from my fight. With a few blinks I was back in our dorm with Snitter was shaking my shoulder worriedly. "Toshi!" he whined, "Stop them!"
I looked over to see Jaune and Logan tumbling around on the ground. Todd was holding a red sheet to Rowf's nose. I got up, grabbed the back of their necks, and smashed their heads together before holding them apart in the air. We may all have the same implants, but I was still older and had a fair bit of strength even before the surgeries.
"Enough!" my voice boomed in the tiny room, "What's going on here?!"
"Dog boy here thinks we should just charge in again!" Jaune pointed at Logan.
"It's six-to-three!" Logan protested, "We double their numbers! We can beat them with overwhelming force!"
"I'm wondering if the mutt's idiot brain is being mounted by the most ridiculous idea in the universe!" Jaune yelled back, "The curly haired one kicked all four of your asses without even breaking a sweat! She sent you across the gym with one punch!"
"Details."
"Those aren't just 'details' you jackass!"
"Both of you shut your mouths!" I shook both of them in my grasp, "While I agree that overwhelming force COULD work. If you all work together and were smart about it, you might just have a chance. Now until then I suggest you two keep to opposite sides of the dorm at all times."
"Toshi he can't be trusted!" Jaune objected, "The Mad Dog'll throw off any hope of unit cohesion!"
"Do you two not realize what's happening here?" I threw them on opposite sides of the room. "We are being tested by The Custodes! If we can impress them, who knows how far we'll go in our respective legions?"
Before I could get another word out, a group of apothecaries came into our room. We were supposed to sleep through our surgeries but when they put the mask on me, I closed my eyes but activated my new implant. My body was asleep, but my mind was not. I went back to my imaginary fight to study and practice.
…
In the observation gallery above us, the three custodes in question were watching our surgeries.
"How did they obtain The Emperor's gift?" the curly haired one asked the redhead with the long ponytail. "I thought you said it couldn't be passed on to anyone outside your homeworld?"
"Not what I said, Elyze." She snapped, "I said: 'It takes putting our own soul into them to force their aura to manifest and awaken.' No one from Remnant has ever been successful in unlocking someone else's aura that wasn't also from Remnant."
"Until now that is." The last Custode added.
"Only one of them is from Remnant, Myrella." She pointed at Jaune, who's stomach was currently exposed.
"Come off it Pyrrha." Elyze scoffed. "You're saying he has a large enough soul to awaken five non-Remnants' auras, and NOT die?"
"I'm not saying that." Pyrrha scowled, "The situation speaks for itself."
"What are your thoughts on them?" Myrella asked.
"They've got potential…" Pyrrha started.
"Buuut?" Elyze made circles with her hand.
Pyrrha pointed at Jaune, "His family give's their first-born sons to the Warmaster's Legion." She then points to The Plague Dogs, "All of them are from Fenris and can be traced to Russ' Legion."
"Then there's the Terran born." Myrella finished. "It's been a while since we've seen a Terran born astartes. He's also much older than the usual crop of recruits."
"What'd you expect, he's going to the Third Legion, they'll probably take what they can get." Elyze crossed her arms looking down at us, "I suppose we'll just have to wait and see."
…
I was sitting in my bed after the operation, Logan and the others were all talking about the new implants. A second stomach, or was it a modification to the one we already had? I wasn't really listening as I watched them roll Jaune down a different hallway while we were sent back to the dorms. Even with my aura accelerating my healing, I still had a gaping hole in my stomach and a new organ stuffed inside me. I could only watch as he was taken away. An apothecary came in to examine us? Odd, they never had before…
"Where's the Luna Wolf?" I asked as he typed in something on his wrist mounted computer.
"He'll be back." The apothecary said before examining the others. Something was off, his armor was loose? He looked like it was his first time wearing it. "By the way, this is for you."
He handed me a datadisk, it contained information about a training program on Mars and that The Third Legion needed more techmarines. I slid the datadisk under my mattress, I'd never thought about learning with the techpriests of the mechanicum.
Do it… I looked over my shoulder hearing another whisper.
Designing new weapons and armor sounded like fun. I looked up after hiding the information and the apothecary was gone? Without a sound?
Our sparring match with the custodes was cancelled and the time we were given was to rest. Logan and the others did just that, however I was worried about Jaune. I would wait up seeing when or if he'd come back. A medical servitor came into the room and told us to follow it. We did so obediently and wound up back in the OR, but once again Jaune wasn't there. Now, I was getting angry, I turned around to glare at the servitor, but its undead eyes saw right through me.
Patience… the word echoed in my mind. All in good time.
I could see the apothecaries behind the OR's doors on the opposite side of the room. I shook my head of the voice and grumbled under my breath and hopped on the operating table.
…
The next implant was a third lung, that was perfect for me, the extra capacity helped immensely with my meditations. It did other things but right now it was helping me train my body more. If I couldn't help Jaune, I could at least distract myself. I also found a broken armor shell on one of my walks…
I don't remember how exactly I found it, nor how I started said walk, but it was a scrapped piece of machinery that was going to be dismantled. I asked if I could keep it and told them I would be going to Mars when the implants were finished. The smiths on the station said if I could get it up and running it was all mine. I would spend my days in the gym and my nights in the forge trying to repair the suit.
"Toshi?" I heard a voice enter the forge.
"Snitter?" I pulled up my welding goggles and saw him in the doorway.
"You missed dinner again." He said putting a tray of various colored cubes on my workbench.
"Oh, sorry about that, I've just been stuck on this damn power core. If I can get that fixed and the armor moving, the rest will just fall into place." I walked over to my workbench and took a bite out of one of the bricks on my tray.
Protein, vitamins, immunization supplements, all packed into one cube no bigger than a slice of bread. I hated these at first, but then I remembered life on Holy Terra; how people in the lower cities would kill for just a bite of this. I counted my blessings and forced the thing down my throat.
"Are you really gonna go to Mars?" Snitter asked nibbling on his own brick while taking a seat.
I gave a half-hearted shrug, "I never really thought about it, I honestly didn't know what I would do when I got to the legion to begin with…but if they need techmarines, then why not take a chance?"
"That's all well and good, but it means nothing if you don't take care of yourself." Snitter said as he put another brick on my tray before walking out.
I opened the back panel exposing the reactor. It was mostly intact but the plasma core itself was long extinguished. I threw the empty core away and started repairing the reactor itself. Thankfully the station's forge had everything I needed to repair the mechanics, but then I was left with the biggest problem, no core. I began looking around the forge hoping to find one but had no luck.
Check the scrap… a voice whispered.
"Snitter?" I whirled around but saw no one, it wasn't the first time I had heard something. "I've got a bad feeling about this…"
I descended into the lower forge where all the unsalvageable scrap was sent to be melted back down to ingots. I had to be extra careful down here, I didn't come all this way to die from a jagged piece of broken steel.
Exploded plasma weapons, shattered power armor, I did laugh when I found Logan's breast plate. The custode's fist print was clear as day, it was nothing sort of a miracle it was only the plate that was damaged.
"See, this is why you DON'T listen to strange voices in your head, damn, Snitter was right. I need to take better care of myself." I turned around to go back upstairs; thinking nothing of it, I threw Logan's dented plate behind me. There was a loud clang as it hit a pile of junk, then a roaring cascade rang out as the pile collapsed. Wincing, I slowly turned around to see the damage when my jaw dropped. "No fucking way…"
There it was, plain as day, it was the torso piece of an old Cataphractii Pattern terminator suit. The limbs were missing, and the front half looked like it was torn off the unit, but none of that mattered, they had the same power core! With all my strength I pulled the massive piece of scrap from the debris and hauled it back upstairs. I lay the broken suit next to mine…
"Moment of truth…" I held my breath as I popped open the access panel exposing the reactor. It was rusted and not in the best of shapes. I slowly turned the cap and gasped. The bright blue glow of the live plasma core lit up the entire forge, "Yes…" I barely whispered before transferring the core to my suit. It slid in perfectly, I gingerly placed the cap back on and shut the panel on my suit. I was still holding all the air in my three lungs as I hit the power button on my suit.
"ONLINE." The machine spirit awoke and the lights inside my suit lit up like Shibuya Crossing.
"YES!" I screamed.
…
I presented my work to the forgepriests stationed here and they couldn't believe it either.
"How did we miss a functioning plasma core?" one asked.
"What do we do?"
"We keep it!"
"Do you really mean to break a deal you made with one of my sons?"
"Lord Fulgrim!" The mechanicum priests fell to their knees.
So, this was my "father"? I never knew my father, and it didn't take a genius to figure out we were the farthest thing from related. He was at least twice maybe three times my height. His skin was flawless, smooth, perfect; while mine was scarred, calloused, and covered from neck to ankle in tattoos. He was beautiful, there was no other way to say it, but despite all that, I did feel a strange connection. Maybe if I had been taken at a younger age like the others, I would see him as my actual father.
"Forgive me my lord…" the mechanicum priest began.
"Honor your agreement and give my son his armor." Fulgrim cut him off, "Honestly I should have you give him more considering he found YOUR lost prototype and got it working again, with parts and a power core YOU overlooked."
There was nothing but silence and clicks as the mechanical augments in their heads began to move at a much faster pace. Without another word, their machines went silent, and they moved toward the armor. My father put his hand on my shoulder when I went to stop them. They began to repair the systems I couldn't and began swapping out aged ceremite plate and rusted mechanisms with fresh new ones.
"It will take approximately five Terran hours before the armor is complete." One said before returning to the armor.
"Plenty of time to meet your uncles." Fulgrim patted my back before we left the forge.
We walked through the space station in silence, I don't know what I expected when I met my gene-father. I honestly thought I'd never meet him at all. One thing was clear however, he stood up for one of his sons, one that he'd only just met. I adjusted my pose to try and match his perfect one, I knew right away, I'd follow him to the bitter end. I opened my mouth to ask a question but was cut off by a loud howling? I then heard a yelping noise, akin to a whipped dog.
"Snitter?" I rushed toward the sound not even remembering who I was walking with. "Snitter!"
I rushed over to the scene and saw Jaune being screamed at by a hulking beast of a man. He had long blonde braided hair adorned with several smaller trinkets. He had turned over a table that hit Snitter, Rowf and Tod were at his side where Logan was standing by the big one.
"How dare you squander my father's gifts without his sacred blessing! If he wanted them to have it, he would've blessed them with it himself!" he roared at Jaune, he said more but they were in a language I had never heard before, it was almost like barking. The big one raised his hand when a massive claw wrapped around it.
"Interesting." The larger man growled, I couldn't tell if it was him or the armor that made him so large. The claw seemed to tighten around the other's fist. "Since when I wonder, are you entitled to discipline astartes outside your own legion, Russ?"
"Lupercal." The beast now known as Russ growled before wrenching his hand free. "Fine then, scold your son before giving him a time out." Russ scoffed before walking away with Logan.
"Don't worry about him, my son." Lupercal smiled down at Jaune, "Leman Russ' bark is far worse than his bite."
"It's an honor to meet you Warmaster." Jaune saluted, "My family has…"
"Yes, yes." Lupercal nodded, "I read your file, your family has been giving theirs first born to the Luna Wolves for generations." There was an unmistakable gleam in Jaune's eyes when he heard the words. He tried standing even taller to impress the Warmaster. "However, you should know the legion's name has changed, you are now a Son of Horus."
"Is our dear brother causing trouble again?" Fulgrim asked catching up.
"Nothing you need to worry about, Fulgrim." Horus said almost immediately.
Dark winds are rising… the voice returned, though now, I couldn't help but agree with it. In a single day I met three primarchs, one of them was the Warmaster himself. You know it to be true… Why was The Warmaster wearing his armor, and what was his armor? It was a dark green with eyes in the joints and a massive one on his chest.
He and Fulgrim were speaking to each other just outside of earshot. I tried reading their lips, but they were speaking so fast I couldn't make out a word. They nodded at each other before returning to us.
"Well, this experiment is going well." Fulgrim stated, "We look forward to seeing you once your implants are complete."
Continue down your path…
The Primarchs left and I turned to Jaune, "So what did he, Leman, say? What did he want with you anyway?"
"You've got stones to call The Great Wolf by his name." Logan growled approaching us.
"Jaune!" Snitter rushed to embrace his friend.
"The Custodes summoned me." Jaune explained hugging Snitter.
"What did they want?" Logan and I asked simultaneously.
"They wanted me to share The Emperor's Gift with them." Jaune shugged.
"They did what?!" Logan roared.
"Yeah!" Jaune nodded innocently, "Turns out Pyrrha, the one with long red hair is also from Remnant! But she couldn't awaken Elyze or Myrella's on her own, so she asked me to." Jaune yawned loudly, "It took a lot out of me, just awakening Elyze's knocked me out for a week."
"Is it against the emperor's laws to share it?" asked Snitter, suddenly worried that they might all be in trouble for what Jaune had gifted us.
"No," I said, before Jaune could. "If it were then the Custodes would have punished us themselves, and they wouldn't have requested he unlock their own. It's more likely a difference of opinion. Your primarch must have felt the emperor's gift should not be shared without his express permission, but if the Custodes disagree…" I let it hang in the air. Neither a primarch nor a custodes was someone for us to argue with. "If we had done wrong, we'd have been told so by now."
I could tell the space wolves weren't convinced. Like me, they had an attachment to their primarch and obviously didn't want to be on his bad side. I could only hope Leman Russ would forgive them for crossing him on a matter they couldn't have known about.
The Space Wolves were trying to catch up with Jaune about what he missed. If the Custodes' had better quarters than they did, but none of them saw what had happened. Two more of our opponents just gained a huge advantage, their healing already outpaced our own by miles, now they had aura backing them up.
Not only that, but Jaune revealed to us that aura also brought with it a semblance. A sort of supernatural power, it wasn't anything like the psychic fires I'd seen before. He said each semblance was unique to the wielder. Before I could ponder on that anymore, it was time for more implants.
…
We were nearing the final stages, we had gotten our last implant a few months ago. It was a layer of black muscle that went under our skin. Apparently, it was how we would operate our power armor. Once my aura had healed my body and acclimated it to the new implant I went right to the forge. I had no idea Fulgrim had told the mechanicum to add the legion's colors to the armor.
The imposing figure was belied by the beauty of its ornate design. Despite the hulking brute soon to be adorned with said power armor, the eyes were drawn to the beautiful two-headed eagle carved into the breastplate, emblazoned further by a gleaming emerald. There were no visible eyes in the visor of the combat helmet, but any turn of my head would be as terrifying as my weapons drawn.
I had found out it was an Allarus Pattern terminator armor. It was meant only for the Legio Custodes, normal Space Marines shouldn't even be able to fit inside of it, but since I was an adult when I was recruited, the growth hormones only made me even bigger. I still don't understand how such a priceless piece of equipment went unnoticed, nor how a perfectly intact power core went unnoticed either.
Stepping inside I immediately noticed the armor itself had been modified. Before it was a little loose even for my larger body, but the techpriests had modified it to perfectly fit around me. I gasped at the sharp pain of the armor connecting to the black fibers under my skin. The armor didn't feel like armor anymore, it felt like my new layer of skin. It was like learning to walk again, I slowly put one foot in front of the other to go meet up with everyone.
For the first time, I felt like a true member of the Emperor's Children.
…
Today was the last match with the custodes before we joined our respective legions. Only once I found the others they were in power armor ready to deploy?
"Something going on, guys?" I asked, my voice was heavily distorted coming out of my helmet.
"The Fifteenth…" Logan shook his head, "They've betrayed us. Magnus…The Thousand Sons…they're sentenced to execution…"
"Yes." Elyze and the other two custodes approached in full armor. "As much as I'd like to have our final match, we have more important matters at hand. We depart for Prospero, the invasion has already begun, we are in the second wave."
"We're to face traitors?" I asked, shocked and a little worried for the sakes of the young recruits I called friends. "Not to question your orders, custodes, but are we ready for that?"
Elyza laughed. "No. You're not. That's why you shall be watching from a safer distance. The two of you, anyway. Leman Russ ultimately has the final say over his legion, and he demands all space wolves be with him for the assault regardless of their rank."
Logan, Rouf, Tod and Snitter looked inordinately proud of themselves for being singled out for such an honour, but I worried for them. We were better than we had been, but the last implants had not been so long ago and they had such little experience. Logan, Rouf, and Tod all followed while Snitter handed me a katana?
"I asked for it special, I think they thought it was for me, but I ordered it for you. So, you'll always remember us." Snitter hugged me, even in our armors he tried. I did my best to return it before he ran to catch up with the others.
It was an oddly childlike motion, and it made me realise for all his augmentations and abrasiveness, Snitter was a child. He was a child that had been turned into a man via genetic engineering, and who would now be sent to battle.
"I don't like this…" I watched him run off.
"Orders are orders." Jaune shrugged, "The Wolves have been sent to execute the traitors."
That didn't mean I liked it. The Space Wolves may have had their way of doing things, but they were still fresh recruits. Worse yet, they had a tendency to give into their rage whenever he or Jaune were not there to reign them in.
Whether or not their chapter considered that a "perk" of their gene seed, I didn't know, but it would get them killed if someone wasn't there to keep an eye on them.
The decision came easily…
"I'm going with them."
"What?!" Jaune gasped, "Those aren't our orders, Toshi!"
"I'm not abandoning the pack." I began toward the shuttles.
"We were going to have too eventually." Jaune called out to me.
He wasn't wrong, but something was gnawing at the back of my head, I couldn't just stand there. Rouf and Tod were certainly surprised when I boarded the shuttle, even more so when Jaune joined us.
"Well, maybe this could count as our graduation." He sighed as the doors closed.
One of the custodes chuckled, I couldn't tell who with their helmets on, "I think we can live with that."
The Custodes didn't seem surprised, nor opposed to what could have been seen as insubordination on our parts. I had to wonder if they had expected this, or even if they'd wanted it to happen.
…
Prospero, the beacon of knowledge the Thousand Sons have been guarding for a millennium, faces invasion. The Censure Host, lead by Leman Russ himself have dropped into the City of Light. It was the final push, Magnus has yet to leave his great pyramid, and the Thousand Sons are making their final stand.
Our arrival had been taken with grudging acceptance by the Space Wolves. We were allies, but we weren't of their chapter, so the ones in command had simply ordered us to stick to ourselves and support as we saw fit. Naturally, we hadn't been important enough to meet with Leman Russ himself, but a Rune priest had passed on the orders.
That was fine by me. Logan, Rouf, Todd and Snitter had not been welcomed into a pack as far as I could tell. The Space Wolf initiates were all formed into Bloodclaw packs, but those four had been trained apart from the chapter. Though it was subtle, and perhaps not intentional, many of the other bloodclaws were shunning them, or at the very least not welcoming them into their squads.
Better we were here to work with them.
"What's the sitrep?" I ask entering to the ship's meeting room. In the center of said room was a round table that projected a hologram of the battlefield. It was the entrance to the great pyramid.
"The Great Wolf is marching toward the great pyramid with the Space Wolves and some custodes." Jaune explained reading a tablet, As outsiders, we had no one in command to give us orders, so we were provided basic access to the Space Wolves' communications. "The Thousand Sons forces looked to be made up of: Ahzek Ahriman, a leviathan dreadnought, three contemptor dreadnoughts, three rhinos, two land raiders, at least ten terminators, a legion champion, who knows how many librarians."
"Weapons?" Logan asked, it was refreshing to see him calm. Fighting alongside your primarch must calm the wolves down some, at least till they hit the battlefield.
"Snipers, plasma gunners, missile launchers, lascannons, most likely anything that can shoot is being used." Jaune shrugged. "Plus, also, their warp powers."
"They got quite the arsenal for a bunch of nerds." Tod snarked. "What's our father's reaction to this?"
Jaune cleared his throat, "The Great Wolf answers their contemptor dreadnaughts with a few of his own, a kratos heavy tank, some custodes reinforcements, and enough Space Wolf legionnaires -along with their Fenrisian Wolves- to rival the size of a county."
"We outnumber them, this should be a cakewalk." Logan smiled as he looked over the map, "Prospero…the beacon of knowledge the Thousand Sons have guarded for millennia, now faces invasion. The Censure Host lead by The Great Wolf and his sons have dropped into The City of Light. Magnus the Red ordered the defenders to save the contents of his libraries, secrets of The Warp bought with coins of madness. The Great Wolf's inferno burns now, today, Prospero BURNS!"
The speech surprisingly got a large reaction from the other wolves on deck. I didn't think Logan had it in him. Elyze returned with her helmet in one hand and a holodisk in the other, she inserted the disk into the command table and a hologram of unit formations spawned from the table.
"Arc." She addressed, "This is everything we brought with us today, as a son of The Warmaster, I trust you to remain here and coordinate with us on the ground."
Jaune's chest swelled with pride and saluted her, "Yes!"
"Arashi!" she turned to me and the lenses in my helmet met her eyes, "I don't know how you got one of our armors, but let's see if you earn it. Let's go."
"Yes ma'am." The vox speaker in my helmet hid the emotions in my voice and answered her monotonally. We were put into a drop pod primed for launch.
"I read your file." She said as her magnetic seals in her boots locked her in place, "You were a father before this? I must say you're the oldest recruit I've ever seen."
"Aren't the Custodes' picked at birth?"
She gave a half-shrug, "You know what I mean, smart ass." She was quiet, "I read you lost your family, but I see you've adopted some puppies."
"What do you mean?"
She half-shrugged again, "I've hear the Space Wolf recruits often form packs, I wasn't expecting any outsiders to join."
Before I could answer the pod was ejected from the ship.
…
The planet was already burning, the only place left was the great pyramid where Magnus was hiding. Elyze went to find the other Custodes while I approached the wolves. They were in the middle of regrouping while Jaune gave out formations over the vox. While the wolves were eager to get back into the fight, there was an unmistakable feeling of dread in the air, by days end, the fifteenth would be no more…
As we approached the great pyramid in our new formations, we saw that the fifteenth legion was waiting for us, however there was one noticeable absence.
Their spartan land raider moved forward with no regard for the ruins it was demolishing. To its right was a rhino and two contemptor dreadnaughts, and on its left was another rhino and a leviathan dreadnaught. The Thousand Sons wasted no time firing upon us, their dreadnaughts and land raider all focused on one of the wolves' contemptor, its defense matrix was holding fast until the leviathan decided to target the unit of legionnaires behind our contemptor. Luckily their power shields held up but a third contemptor came up and unleashed his assault cannon into them, three brothers fell sending the wolves into a frenzy-like state. As they rushed, the spartan fired its eight lascannons into the failing contemptor. The defense matrix couldn't hold out and the dreadnought erupted. The massive fireball rippled out and engulfed the charging wolves…
Jaune quickly began giving orders over the vox but Russ and his entourage marched into the middle of the battlefield on top of a mostly intact alter of some kind and screamed, "FACE ME COWARD!"
While Russ got no response, the golden Custodes dreadnaught stepped forward and unleashed its arsenal onto a Thousand Son's rhino. It tried to evade but the shot still connected and irreparably damaged its treads. The Kratos wasted no time pouncing on this opportunity, its turret rotated and punched a hole clean through the rhino's hull. The surviving crew members limped out of the wreaked transport just barely clinging to life. A small pack of Grey Hunters advanced while the raging Tartarus pattern terminators charged into the spartan land raider. The Sargent leading said unit raised his thunder hammer and brought it down on one of the quad-lascannons. The rest began to chip away at the hull with their lightning claws.
A roar of thunder rang out and teleporting onto the roof of the ruined temple with an entourage of his own was The Crimson King himself, Primarch of the Fifteenth Legion, Father of the Thousand Sons, Magnus the Red. Seeing their gene-father on the battlefield invigorated the Thousand Sons just as Russ did with his. The spartan fell back while a contemptor stepped in and unleashed an apocalyptic flamethrower, melting all but one of the tartarus terminators. From the balconies of the great pyramid, rocket salvos rained down reducing the grey hunters to slabs of steaming meat and ceremite.
"Toshi!" A cry pulled my attention away from the battle. I knew that voice and my hearts immediately dropped. I pinged his location with my built-in radar and rushed towards him.
"Snitter!" I screamed rushing toward him. He, Rouf, and Tod were in a collapsing building. I entered to find Rouf and Snitter over Tod's body, he had a massive slab of marble in his gut and countless pieces of hot shrapnel ripped through his armor.
"Tod?" I knelt taking his hand while Rouf had his bolter in the window as he fired into battle. "Stay with me Tod, you hear me?!" his grip on my hand began to slacken, "Jaune?! Jaune, I need a medivac right now!"
"Toshi…" he hesitated, "It…it's too late…I can see his vitals from here…he's gone."
His seed… the voice was back, I looked around trying to find its source but all I found was a machine in my hand? The…gene-seed…take it!
Before I knew what I was doing, I had put the machine to Tod's helmet and an even smaller machine came out of the box and began burrowing in Tod's neck. It made his head jerk around before the tiny claw came out with Tod's gene-seed. It retreated into the small box and hung there in suspended animation before the box itself closed and vanished.
The chapter would expect it back and yet a strange part of me urged to keep it instead. The Space Wolf gene seed was flawed, not only for the mutations that led to the worgen, but for the unnecessary aggression that had as good as cost Tod his life.
If I could look over it, research it, maybe I could help…
Look out!
Before I even realized it, my katana was drawn and blocking two curved blades from a Thousand Son's legionnaire. The frost of the fenrisian steel began to freeze the steel blades. My armor increased my strength beyond what I thought possible as I cleaved clean through the blades, the ceremite armor, and the legionnaire's head.
More legionnaires bean to rush toward us, I stood up and moved in front of their path. I had killed men before, this would be no different. They swung their blades but I easily dodged them, their form was full of exploitable openings, it was pathetic. I would swing my blade at the right angle to cut an opening in their armor and swiftly brought my bolter up. The shell penetrated both his hearts and geneseed. This pathetic excuse for a solider wouldn't infect the genepool.
Another charged in frantically jumping around and swinging his scimitar. He was fast, but Pyrrha was faster, I held out my blade and he jumped right into in. His armor began to ice over from the blade and I forced it in deeper, the legionnaires' chest froze solid, and with one kick he shattered into pieces.
Leman Russ let out a powerful howl that was sure to be heard all throughout Prospero. Magnus was over his head, and he instantly brought his spine down on his armored knee. Magnus' broken body rolled off and over the edge of the rooftop ruins. Before the final blow was struck, Magnus vanished with a clap of thunder. Then one by one whatever Thousand Sons were left also vanished. Before long the entire planet was empty…
"There's nothing, Lord Russ." Jaune reported, "Everyone, even the cilivans…they're just gone."
The Space Wolves roared their displeasure like animals.
…
After the events of Prospero, we gathered the dead and brought them aboard for the apothecaries to tend to. I made sure Tod's body was somewhere in the middle of everyone. The apothecaries were too busy to notice none of them had actually extracted his geneseed.
Rouf and I did our best to console Snitter with Todd's passing. As much as I wanted to stay I had gotten word from Lord Eidolon to return to The Pride of the Emperor. As I departed I had a sudden sinking feeling…this would be the last time I saw them for a while.