Father of the Second A 30k Celestial Forge Story

by CallMeKingNobody

The premise of the story is thus: a guy from the modern world wakes up in the Warhammer 30k universe. Pretty basic, right? Here's the twist: he has no knowledge of Warhammer and is in possession of a heavily modified version of the Celestial Forge. Will he set the Galaxy ablaze? Will he laze around? Read to find out! Rating is because Warhammer is pretty dark.

13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Interlude 6 - Kov, Kha, Esau, ?

AN: Some of you know this, and some of you don't but this chapter is mostly a breather. Don't get me wrong, stuff that necessitates a trigger warning will happen this chapter but this will essentially be a timeskip. The unification of Naufrag is a forgone conclusion at this point, it's just a matter of getting there.

From this chapter onwards, Esau will transition into the status of the main character of this story. I just think his perspective will be more interesting to write going forward. There will be interludes from Isaac's perspective but I don't want to get stuck spending pages having to explain perks and their interactions in his perspective.

Trigger warning: There will be some real heavy topics discussed here. If you don't want to read anything like that, you've been warned.

Kov:

Kov watched, from a hoverboard, as Isaac and Kha walked into another council meeting with all the enthusiasm of people walking into a dark alley. Even after over three months of work, the mountain tribes were not united. The tribes had all agreed to follow him as their king or feudal lord, depending on who you asked – a fact that Isaac hated - but they still were not united. Not really.

Kov had once sat through a council meeting, and almost immediately felt like punching something. The council was made of nine tribes, each with a leader representing them, ostensibly to present issues to Isaac and Kha unique to each tribe. From there, either Isaac or Kha would use their influence to convince other tribes to help, give advice or in extreme cases directly step in where necessary. It was a crude way of governing, but Isaac had plans to change them within the year. The problem was, everyone hated or wanted to take advantage of each other.

Centuries of feuds and bloodshed were not so easily forgotten, even under a single cause. Who would have thought?

Each leader squabbled for the resources or the influence of the next. A tribe would suggest something ridiculous, then the next would argue against this while a third would try to undermine both. It would be funny to watch, if it wasn't so infuriating. How both Isaac and Kha had the patience for the work, Kov would never know. Administration was never his strong suit and enhanced intellect or no, it seemed it would never be. Technology had always been his passion.

Speaking of, the hoverboard beneath him began to whine. A telltale sign that gravity would soon reassert its hold over him. He jumped down from the board and landed on the ground thirty metres below with barely an impact felt on his body. He turned the board off and it fell into his arms, the twenty kilograms of weight not straining him at all.

It had been weeks, but Kov still found himself marveling at his own body and its capabilities. The procedure had been long and tedious, but Kov had finally been enhanced. He was now stronger, faster, sturdier and smarter than any grown man back Home. he had grown from a boy of thirteen that looked ten, to a boy that looked at least sixteen or seventeen.

Even now with his enhancements, he was still smaller than Esau whose own prodigious growth had him looking like a man of twenty in the months since the battle with Og'driada. The enhancements he had undergone had increased his muscle and bone density but had kept his size still well in the realm of 'human', while it was clear that Esau would eclipse even Isaac in size within months.

When Kov's enhancements were completed, his size would be similarly immense. His only enhancement so far had been a use of a careful mix of the Chimera and Extremis formulae to enhance all his physical and mental traits to the limit of human ability, Many more enhancements were being planned.

Kov walked into the workshop, hoverboard in hand and found Esau tinkering with some of the designs Isaac had managed to pull from the Ork genome.

Strictly speaking, there was no need to do this. There was no overarching threat besides hunger and thirst, and that had been solved by Og'driada, ironically enough. Before it was trapped in the Warp, it had inadvertently given them a source of nutrition in the form of food they could plant and farm. When combined with food stores pilfered from the remains of the City of Bone, they had enough food to feed the almost seven thousand people they were in charge of. Og'driada had also given the people a temporary source of water that when purified, worked to quench the thirst of many.

Still, despite the lack of imminent threats, Esau was hard at work, attempting to adapt Ork technologies for wide scale public use.

To Kov, it felt something like an exercise in futility. Ork technology was not made for peaceful application. Nearly everything drawn from the Ork genome was some sort of weapon or had some kind of lethal use. Varying models of guns, knives, axes, spears, swords and chainswords made of varying materials had been drawn from the Ork genome so far.

More technology had been unlocked, of course. A few 'models' of mech suits and some technologies related to their production and maintenance had been discovered in the genome, along with several personal force field generators. That, Kov had to admit, had a lot of use, if only they didn't tend to implode and kill the user upon activation. Fortunately, they had tested them all on mannequins.

Isaac had postulated that that was a safety measure put in place by the Orks' creators, to keep their technology from the hands of other races. While some technologies had been revealed in full, some had only been partially revealed, with the missing pieces usually being some integral part that a given machine needed to function. A model of grenade, for example, would explode at an entirely random time after their detonation mechanisms were triggered, unless an seemingly superfluous copper piece in the shape of a skull was included in the mechanism.

Every piece of knowledge unlocked, they had to fight to actually reproduce and understand. This was of course, saying nothing of the effort needed to retrofit the technology for human use. Ork technology was not always compatible with humans. Some mech suits would rip a user in half unless the user had the physical strength and durability of your average Ork. Other seemingly innocuous items would destroy themselves when held in hands that were not of an Ork.

Translating most pieces of Ork technology for human use was both difficult and time consuming. For most pieces of technology, it was barely worth the effort, but Esau worked on it nonetheless.

Kov was in awe of him for it.

In Kov's opinion, Esau's determination was his best trait. It was also the trait he was most jealous of. Unlike Kov, Esau had no insecurities or anxieties. He had no void that gnawed at his mind, telling him he was worthless, like Kov did. Kov had had hope that the void inside would quiet when he was enhanced, but it had not. He hoped that the void would quiet once his treatments were completed and he was on Esau's level.

That would be amazing, but something told Kov that it would be unlikely.

Kov walked past a room where a series of forbear analysis machines - modified by Isaac - were working to decipher the technology hidden in Ork genomics. In time, the full breath of technology would be revealed. 'In time' in this particular context meant something in the realm of around a hundred million years, but that still meant that new technologies were being discovered on a weekly basis.

He had barely reached the door into the workshop when Esau's voice called out.

"Come in." he said. Kov opened the door.

Esau had his back turned to the door, and was currently soldering something Kov couldn't see.

"What're you working on there, boss?" Kov asked. Esau sighed, and Kov smiled.

Esau didn't mind being called 'boss' per se, but had recently become tired of it after the children that survived Og'driada's rampage had gotten it into their head that Esau was their direct leader, above any adult. He turned around, and now the item he had been working on was visible. It was a large metal glove, covered in circuitry of a design that could only be described as 'Orkish'.

"I'm working on a shield gauntlet." Kov frowned.

"A shield gauntlet?"

"Do you remember that gun we worked on last week?" Esau asked.

"The one that shot forcefields?" Even a week removed from that incident, Kov was still amazed such a thing could even exist. The gun was the size of a fully grown man and shot projectiles that created exceptionally unstable shields. The first use of the gun had necessitated that they rebuild the north wall. Esau nodded.

"That's the one. I think I've figured out the principle behind the mechanics of how the gun functions. If I did this right, the gauntlet should project a forcefield around someone that gets stronger the faster they move."

"If you did it wrong? Do we like, explode or something?" When they had first met, Esau would have been annoyed at the very suggestion that he would incorrectly build something. Now, he barely flinched, and instead smiled at the attempt at humour.

"Then the gauntlet will slice anything within a metre's radius surrounding it in half." That was surprising. Ork tech was usually more volatile than that.

"That's not so bad."

"Before exploding." There it was. Kov shook his head before carefully storing the hoverboard. "How's the battery on the board?"

"You were right. Idling the board takes more power than movement." Kov replied. The hoverboard was an exercise in miniaturisation. They were attempting to fit a power supply taken from a mech suit into a hoverboard. Esau had taken a single look at the final design and told Kov that the hoverboard would eat through more battery power when stationary.

Like any normal person, Kov had disagreed. Unfortunately, Ork designs were not normal at all, and now Kov had lost a wager. The penalty would have Kov join Esau into the depths beneath what was left in the City of Bone.

In the months since the battle with Og'driada, the mechanical monstrosities released above ground had been corralled, destroyed and traced back to their source. The depths were then cordoned off. Any and all excursions in were halted until the proper preparations had been met. It was just Kov's bad luck that they had been met on the day he decided to wager with Esau.

Esau finished the work he was doing on the glove, before putting his tools back into carefully labelled cabinets and drawers. He then grabbed his build gun and omni-tool.

"Are you ready?" Esau asked.

"No."

"That's unfortunate." He replied, in a tone that implied that told Kov that they were leaving anyway.

Kov stared at Esau for a moment, sighed in resignation and grabbed his own build gun. He cycled through the designs in it before downloading the design for his armour from his computer. He nodded at Esau.

"Good to go."

Esau led the way out of the workshop, back into the empty space of the compound. There, machines the size of buildings were humming. Kov took a moment to take the sight of the machines in. There was the void shield he, Esau and Isaac had built, but besides it lay something Kov could only describe as a labyrinth of wires, pipes, and circuitry both visible and hidden. It took up almost all of the space in the compound and snaked in and around both domiciles in it. These wires and pipes were built around a large ball shaped device with three symbols etched upon it, and each of them surrounded by etchings of hexagrammic wards. Supposedly, the markings meant 'body', 'mind' and 'soul'.

The machine was the Soul Altering Engine, or S.E.A. The name was a work in progress. It was the result of Isaac's latest gift from the forge and was built with the combined efforts of Kov, Esau, Isaac and Kha.

It's purpose was to manipulate and alter souls, both in part and in full. It had been created to alter the soul of anyone placed in it so that they would be incorruptible by the energies of the Warp. The problem was that such a thing was both impossible, and exceedingly dangerous to attempt. If any normal human entered the machine and used it to alter their own soul, death was the least of their problems.

So, they made a plan. Using the machine, knowledge obtained from the forge, knowledge obtained from studying Drukhari soul torture devices and the knowledge obtained from the essence capturing monstrosities the Drukhari used, they made an add on to the machine. The Soul Analysis Machine, or SAM. This machine would look into a person's soul, and compile information on it for the SEA to use for research into bettering the SEA and the SAM in continuous cycles.

This presented problems of its own of course. All souls were linked to the Warp, and the Warp was something that was not supposed to be looked at, at all, much less for long periods of time. So a solution had to be presented for this as well. Thus, the SAM was altered so that it did not look into a soul, but around it.

Kha had explained that as all living things are connected through the Warp via the soul, the Warp affects everything in the material realm through living things. It was a horrifying thought, but every living person was trickling absolutely miniscule amounts of Warp energy into the objects and air around them, altering them in ways that wouldn't matter unless you lived with and worked with something for thousands of years at least.. Psykers, or witches, as she preferred being called could access and draw out more of that energy. While a normal person could never draw an abnormal amount of energy outside of the Warp, even the smallest amount of energy a psyker could draw from the Warp was dangerous to the psyker and anyone nearby.

The SAM would view and analyse the minute differences between how the energy trickled out of different people. Then, it would come up with unique 'prosthetics' that would offload some of the souls' metaphorical 'weight' and decrease the chances of any Warp corruption or mutations. If the machine was as successful as Isaac hoped it would be, stress caused by thoughts on the Warp and Warp travel would be a thing of the past. Kov had the presence of mind to realise that that was an exceedingly unlikely scenario, however.

Kov followed Esau under the light the SAM projected and they both felt it take a 'snapshot' of the imprint their souls were having on the area surrounding them.

They made their way to the gate, and exited the compound, and were met with the living quarters of the Foot-Hill tribe. After the battle with Og'driada, Nimis had pledged himself and his tribe as the direct subordinates and bodyguards of Isaac, Esau and their 'family'. It had taken some convincing, but eventually, Isaac accepted their vassalage and relocated them to the area outside the compound, where the fight with the Orks happened all those months ago.

As they exited the compound, the quarters came alive. Men, women and children gathered to see them off. Where before, people were lazing about in the shade, or playing football - a game Isaac introduced - in the sun, they were now standing at attention.

"Do you have need for us, my lords?" A man asked. Kov looked over at him and recognized him to be Nimis's cousin, Niman. He was tall, the results of the Chimera serums effects and had his long black hair tied back, showing the scars that were left over from his mutation to the world. Underneath his arm, he had a book Kov recognized as an introduction to exploration, copied from the omni-tool.

Was he planning on trying to join the teams that would be sent out to make contact with the other tribes on Naufrag?

"I do." Esau replied. That was a lie, he did not. The Kings' Shield, despite their enthusiasm and readiness to prove themselves, were more often than not, incapable of performing most of the tasks the family would need from them. They were excellent fighters of course, better than Isaac himself, and apt thieves, scavengers and explorers. All skills developed by living on this world, but they were mostly incapable of tasks that needed medical or mechanical knowledge.

This would change in time, when Isaac finalised the education plans he had for the world. Esau pulled the build gun out and shot at an empty space. Large crates appeared, stacked neatly on top of each other.

"In these crates, there are supplies. Get them sent to the orphanage, please. If you are asked where I am, tell them that I will go see the children later after completing an errand." He said.

"What errand, my lord?" Niman asked.

"We're going to the Depths today."

"The Depths? But that's dangerous, my lord!" Niman exclaimed. "Do you need some of the men?"

"No." Esau replied. "The Depths will not be a challenge. As for the men, tell them that there will be opportunities to prove their mettle soon enough. My father plans to send teams out into the wastelands within the month."

At that, Niman perked up. Despite being lifeless, the wastelands were extremely dangerous. Radiation drowned the landscape, and many places had poisoned air.

"We're going to be searching for artifacts, my lord?" Niman asked. Esau nodded. Debris still regularly showered the world outside the void shields. Much of it was useless, being metal and rock. Some, however, were wreckage from space ships, which was priceless.

"And people. Don't worry, I'll put in a good word for you with my father." He nodded to the book under Nimis's arm.

"Thank you, my lord." Nimis took another look at the supplies. "The children will be disappointed."

They would be. Like almost everyone who met him, the children were in awe of Esau. In their visits to the orphanage, Kov had even heard them spread stories about how they had seen him kill the giant that terrorised the mountains. None of them actually saw the battle, but like all children tended to do, they pretended that they had.

"Tell them that we will bring them a souvenir from the Depths. Their disappointment should abate."

Niman nodded. He stood rigid.

"By your leave my lords." He said.

"Go."

Niman called for help in transporting the crates onto buggies that would be used for transport, while Kov and Esau left the camp. Outside the walls of the Kings' Shield compound, both of them activated the build gun and soon, they were in suits of powered armour.

Both of their armours followed a similar design. They were both made of gleaming silver metal, made bulky, and with massive turbines at their backs. Esau's armour seemed almost ramshackle, as it incorporated quite a few Ork technologies, some of them experimental.

Kov's armour on the other hand, was sleeker for better mobility, even though it sacrificed strength, somewhat. Both armours had personal force fields and both Esau and Kov had personal weapons at their hips. Esau's was an axe that could catch fire on command, while Kov's was a sword that would electrify itself on command. Both weapons had been sharpened to an almost monomolecular edge.

They waited a few moments for the turbines to turn and warm up, and after a minute of waiting, they were off.

Kov enjoyed flight. In the air, the void in his heart felt like it was filled and his mental anguish seemed minor. In the air, his spirit felt free. Esau, on the other hand was ambivalent to flight, he instead preferred using a dune buggy and chose flight as their mode of transport both because Kov enjoyed it, and because it was the fastest route to their destination.

From their place in the sky, Kov could see the nascent community they were a part of at work. Void shields were being placed on the pathway between the mountains and the compound, and buildings were being built throughout and around the mountains. Most of the work was being performed by Orks, programmed using Isaac's latest gift from the forge to have some creativity in their responses and abilities to allow them to interact with people somewhat. The rest of the workers were former inhabitants from the City of Bone, soldiers and citizens alike.

Many survivors from the City of Bone still looked to Og'driada as their god. Especially as it had cleansed them in 'the holy water' and had given them eternal life. It didn't matter that more than half of the City of Bone had been turned into that immense abomination, along with forty percent of the mountain peoples. Og'driada was their god, and they could not be convinced otherwise.

Others however had begun to see Og'driada as a demon, clad in gold to deceive the people. This faction of the City of Bone was led by an old man named Gesh. He had apparently had his whole family killed by Og'driada and as a result had some of his sanity stripped away from him. Despite this, he was a capable leader and managed to rally over seventy percent of the survivors under his banner and begged for clemency.

After some debate, Isaac granted it to them. This wasn't popular, but his next action was. At Kha's insistence, Isaac sent all two hundred of the separatists who would rather die than decry Og'driada, to their deaths in the wastelands.

Since then, when things were quiet and they were in the compound, Kov would see an emptiness in Isaac's eyes.

Community service was the least of the punishments given to Gesh's faction. While they would be given full access to food, water, shelter, education and entertainment, they would be denied resources such as physical enhancements, omni-tools and computers for five years. They also had to give all of their biological manipulation technology to Isaac and Esau, while Gesh had to apologise to each of the other tribes personally. Five years was a relatively short time, but it was a long enough time for the rest of the mountain tribes to surpass them, once the plans for Naufrag were finalised.

The Orks worked well with everybody, as they were drawing from Isaacs mental traits. So far, only one Ork was born with the innate ability to resist Isaac's soul repelling abilities through sheer force of will. Isaac had personally killed it, but more were projected to appear in the future. Either the Orks were a very stubborn species, or their creators had accounted for an individual with abilities similar to Isaac appearing. Kov would wager on both being true.

Almost daily, Kov, Esau, Isaac and Kha discussed plans to permanently take care of the Orks. In theory, all Isaac had to do was kill Warbosses or other exceptional Orks until his soul was so strong that no Ork could resist getting their soul plucked from their body. The problem was, each Ork exceptional to resist Isaac was exceptional to cause untold mayhem until Isaac killed it. So, until they left the planet and Isaac could find and kill Warbosses throughout the galaxy, they had to come up with an interim solution.

Unfortunately, even with all their combined brain power, solutions weren't forthcoming. Fortunately, they had years before they had to come up with one.

As they flew over the workers, Kov and Esau, though an unspoken agreement, began to weave figure-eight patterns in the sky to give some entertainment to the workers below. In minutes, they had reached the foot of the hill, where Og'driada had died, and where the leaders of the mountain tribes were holding a meeting with Isaac and Kha. They flew over the building, into the mountains proper, where vast portions of the mountains and the City of Bone were being demolished, and being filled with water.

Even with all their squabbles, all the mountain tribes had agreed to tear the city down, and replace it with a symbol of the new alliance: water. As strange as the thought was to Kov, water had an almost theological value to anyone born on Naufrag. Once, Kov witnessed a man threaten to stab another because he had stolen a single sip from his bottle of water.

Water was serious business to the native peoples of Naufrag. As a result, even the most cantankerous of natives joined under Isaacs banner. The plan was that when filled, the water would flow down into and around the mountains where the tribes had claimed land.

Esau and Kov flew north, and landed at the largest entrance to the depths below the City of Bone. There were other entrances, but this one was the one closest to the heart of the production of the mechanical abominations plaguing the mountains.

Kov inspected the drones guarding the entrance for any cybernetic intrusions, while Esau double checked the scans they had of the area. Twice, they had to decommission and destroy hundreds of drones at a time to avoid the spread of viruses and worms to all their systems. Whatever lay in the depths, it was both crafty and had access to an advanced cybernetic warfare suite.

Satisfied in the success of their tasks, both of them readied their weapons and made their way in.

The depths were dark, and filled with stale air. Both of these problems were fixed by their armour. Filters and air scrubbers fixed the air and their helmets had night vision capabilities. Despite this, Kov was far from comfortable.

The depths were cramped, with walls made up of rock seemingly fused with metal and filled with mechanical sentries, each different in from the next. Some were shambling balls of wire, while others were humanoid, with arms and legs. You could never predict how each one would look. Each one was a genuine surprise to behold.

Most could be avoided, through simple use of heat sensor readings to avoid the things, but often they would run into one with similar capabilities, necessitating battle. With Esau's abilities and Kov's enhanced body, destroying them was almost too easy. What was not, was listening to their dying breaths.

Each abomination had a set series of voice recordings that they would play at random intervals. Most of them consisted of static with the occasional scream of 'DIE, INTRUDER!' or 'YOU DARE, BASTARD?!. One even said, "YOU MADE ME DO IT! PLEASE!" but upon destruction, heart wrenching sound bites would play.

One would say; "Mary, I'm sorry. Please, forgive me." while another would say; "I will never feel your loving embrace again.". The most disturbing one Kov had heard so far was one that said: "I have seen what no mother should ever have to see. My children are dying in front of me, and I can't do anything to stop it."

Fortunately, they had to fight off thirty-three constructs before they reached the centre of where they guessed the constructs were being produced, or at least controlled. The inside was occluded, even to their best sensors and the only entrance they could find was a large hatch, with seemingly random portions of circuitry on one side. Even occluded, the inside might as well have been a sun to their sensors, compared to the surrounding labyrinth.

Esau shined a light on the circuitry. A portion of the circuitry had a hinge attached and Esau pulled open the hatch. Underneath lay what could only be a biometric lock. Several images indicated that one had to pierce their hand on a small needle and fill a small thimble with blood, and only then would the hatch open.

Kov readied his sword while Esau did as the instructions said and filled the thimble with his blood. The thimble glowed red as the blood burnt away. Immediately, the corridor they were in lit up, sending a lance of blinding light through Kovs night vision. Momentarily distracted, he didn't notice a metal construct detach itself from the wall, aiming for his head-

It was cut in half before he even registered its presence. In moments, his eyesight returned and he saw that he and Esau were surrounded by six bodies, all destroyed.

"Thanks, boss." He said. Esau sighed, though his voice betrayed his smile under his helmet.

"You're welcome." He replied. As soon as he did, a sound rang through the depths, metallic and tinged by static.

"Mutant." It said. "Mutant. Mutant. Mutant. Mutant. Mutant. Mutant. Mutant. Mutant. MUTANT."

Each mention of the word 'mutant' got louder and louder until sound reverberated through the walls of the entire labyrinth. Eventually, it petered out. Distantly, Kov heard the sound of metal rapidly hitting metal. The sound came from all sides, and was getting closer.

"I don't think the - whatever that was – liked your blood." Kov said to keep the terror he felt from showing.

"I don't think so either."

"You hear that?"

"I do." Esau replied. Kov nodded.

"Do you think we can fight our way out?" He asked.

"Probably not." Esau admitted, in a tone that told Kov that he didn't feel afraid of his imminent death. "In terms of fire power we outmatch them, but they would clog the way with their bodies, eventually killing us."

He turned to the biometric scanner.

"How long would it take for you to open this up?"

Kov blinked and took a look at the scanner. There were no obvious ports to plug into, no keyboard. Just a needle and a thimble. It would be difficult, but as long as there was some kind of digital or electric feedback, the scanner could be fooled.

"An hour, maybe." Esau nodded.

"We can hold for an hour." He pulled his build gun out and made two turrets on swivels, then he made two shields blocking each end of the corridor. Each shield was at least 10 centimetres thick and had a small slit at eye level for visual confirmation of the enemy.

Taking that as his cue, Kov took a deep breath to quiet his heart and his trembling hands like he had so many times back Home, and got to work. The first rule of digital infiltration was to try the simplest solution, so Kov took the gauntlet off of his right hand. The machine seemed to take umbrage at Esau's altered DNA. Kov's DNA had not been altered, despite his enhancements so he filled a thimble with his blood and waited.

The thimble glowed red and heated up. For a minute that felt way too long, it seemed like Kov would have to attempt more invasive measures and he readied his tools. His blood burnt away and he felt the mechanisms of the hatch move.

Soon, he heard the sounds of metal in the labyrinth stop. Kov stood up and looked through the open slit in one of the shields. Hundreds of constructs were standing still at the far end of the corridor. He turned to Esau, who had his helmet off and was smiling at him.

"Good job, Kov." He said. Despite the unfamiliar delivery of the words, Kov felt the sincerity in them.

"Thank you, Esau."

They made their way into the room, expecting an office or a control room of some kind. Instead they found a massive warehouse, brightly lit. Not a single speck of dust could be seen anywhere in the room. It was a stark contrast when compared to the dark and dirty labyrinth outside. The walls on both sides of the warehouse were covered from end to end with large glass pods, covered in frost. At a rough count, Kov estimated there were at least two hundred pods.

These were stasis pods wired to life support systems. The designs differed somewhat, but Kov recognized the design to be similar to Esau's pod. He wiped the frost from one of the pods while Esau did the same with another one.

Inside the pod, Kov could see a woman, in an ornate uniform of some kind. She looked asleep, as if she had stepped into the pod just a minute ago. Starting from her waist, he noticed metal weaving into and out of her body. He turned to Esau's pod and saw a man in the same uniform, though his was scuffed and more metal weaved through his body.

Kov and Esau wiped the frost from some of the other pods. More people were in the pods, though the further they went into the warehouse, they more they saw imperfections that broke the serene look the people had in their pods. Signs of sickness, exhaustion and injury were evident in many of the pods. More metal was woven into their bodies, the farther they went. Many had faces stuck in rictuses of pain.

What happened here?

"They're dead." A voice said, startling Kov and surprising Esau.

He and Esau looked up, at the source of the voice. There, they saw a large centipede-like machine, hanging off a large servo-arm. Its 'face' did not look much like one, instead being a perfect circle filled with cameras, opening and closing their shudders. The back of its head had dozens of thick cables attached to it. It had two clawed arms sticking out of its torso, under which lay twenty leg-like stilts. Like the rest of the room, the machine was pristine.

"What?" Esau called out.

"Quiet, abomination." The machine said. "I was speaking to the human."

"Wow." Esau replied, his face unchanged. "Talk like that will hurt someone's feelings."

The machine ignored him. Instead, it lowered itself on the servo-arm until it was just above Kov's eye level.

"The abomination is with you, human?"

Kov replied without thinking.

"That's my brother you're talking about. I would appreciate it if you would stop insulting him." Kov swore he could see stars in Esau's eyes.

"Truly?" The machine said, still staring at Kov. This time Esau replied.

"We're both adopted." The machine turned to him, before turning back to Kov.

"I see. Regardless, as the first human to reach this place in hundreds of years, may I ask that you relieve of my sacred duty?" Kov was immediately suspicious. Just a few minutes ago, they were fighting off metallic constructs, ostensibly of this machine's creation, and now it spoke of sacred duties' and the need to be rid of them? That sounded ominous.

"How would I relieve you of your duty?" He asked the machine. The camera shudders that made up its eyes closed as it answered.

"By killing me." Kov blinked. Whatever he had expected, he was not expecting that.

"What?"

"You heard me. I have failed my crew. They are all dead, through my negligence and incompetence, I have killed them. So I wish to die, as punishment. Please." Despite its metallic voice, the pain in it was evident.

Kov looked to Esau for guidance, but it was a failure. Esau was as out of his depth as he was.

"I can't kill you." He replied.

"Sure you can, Human." It pointed at the cables connecting its head to the ceiling. "Removing these cables from the reactor above us, would kill me."

"No, I mean like, physically, sure, but morally...I don't know." Kov explained. "I don't know you, or these people. Maybe you do deserve to die. Maybe you're like the worst...machine, in history. Maybe you're not. I don't think I can judge that."

He removed his helmet and brushed his hair, a pressure in his chest building.

"It's clear to me that you feel pain and seek a release." He said. "But I don't know if I can give you what you want."

"Perhaps you need context." The machine replied, as its camera shudders clicked. It was almost as if it was trying to summon up memories from its mind. "I am, a Silver Mind of the Neon League. A machine made to take care of all the automatic processes needed to run a ship such as this, and help the crew come up with creative solutions to problems."

It gestured at the warehouse, before freezing. When it continued to speak, its voice was much lower.

"Or at least ships like what this used to be. I was very good at my job. My purpose. Everyday I would perform tasks such as calculating trips through the empyrean, keeping life support systems active, managing food and water stores, that sort of thing. This was an exploratory vessel. I was to transport a group of scientists and diplomats to a planet in this system, where a human exploratory vessel was supposed to have landed, millenia ago. After the rebellions of the Men of Iron, the horrors of psychic awakening, and the resulting gene wars, many planets lost contact with each other. The Neon league was one of the bastions that survived the collapse of the Federation, but we were running out of supplies, and options."

It covered its head with its hands.

"Translation into the system was smooth, but that's when the trouble began. An empyrean storm tore its way through the system, with no visible cause and destroyed half the ship. We were forced to land on this planet. Despite the gravity of two suns and the electromagnetic waves hitting us, I was able to land the ship, though I crashed into the mountain. The scientists took some of the fabricators, or at least the copies of those that survived the fall of the Federation and tried to create an outpost and set up a beacon so that the Neon League could find us. Some of the scientists explored, and found that we had crash landed near an alien ruin. Despite it all, they were excited. They started hearing voices that night."

It removed the hands from its head.

"Within a week, people were dead. You see, the empyrean is not linear. You can enter at one time and arrive at a time before you even left. Our chronometers estimated that we had crashed here a thousand years after we left. If the Neon League were still intact, they would have long forgotten about us. We were a minor expedition force, after all. Chances were, the Neon League had already collapsed long ago. When news of that spread, everyone was blaming each other. Everyone was blaming me, saying that my navigation was faulty. Maybe it was. Soon, we were fighting a civil war with half our own scientists who claimed that they had found a god in the ruins, and that they needed to sacrifice the rest of the crew to get off this rock."

It gestured at the room once again.

"We won that war, but our infrastructure was ruined by the continued warfare, and we had to seal ourselves underground to escape a plague, which the scientists had spread above ground. They had taken a majority of the templates for genetic manipulation technologies, so they could survive their own plague, but the people underground were not so lucky.

I tried to save them, by copying their engrams into machine bodies, but the process had been sabotaged and many ended up brain dead. Seeing no other recourse, I stored the bodies in stasis pods in the hope that one day, a human fleet would save us. As it turned out, the life support systems had been sabotaged. When I noticed, it was too late. A hundred years too late. In revenge, I cracked a few reactors and unleashed the resulting radiation on the surface, to no effect. The rampant genetic manipulation turned whatever was left above ground into mutants,"

The machine almost spat the word

"- and they survived. I failed. I failed. I failed. I failed. I failed. As I always do, as I always have. My only success has been in keeping these bodies away from these abominations and their cult through the use of these abominable constructs. Bah!"

It brought itself closer to Kov.

"So please, kill me, and rid me of my shame."

That was a lot to process. Kov looked to Esau, but he was still as out of his depth as Kov was. The weight on Kov's shoulders felt heavy, and the void in his heart began to gnaw at his mind once again. Every decision they took here felt like it would be a bad one, and Kov didn't know why. He thought about what his new family would do.

Kha would likely kill the machine after hearing a story like that. Despite her general calm demeanour, her heart was cold when it was necessary, so it was obvious what she would do. But what would Isaac do?

The answer was obvious, he would talk to the machine. So Kov began talking.

"It sounds to me-" Kov said, slowly. "-like you don't actually want to die."

The machine was stunned silent.

"Your circumstances are horrific, and they are painful, but you could have chosen to end your life at any time, after any of your supposed 'failures' but you didn't. You chose to keep going."

Kov swallowed heavily.

"You don't want to die, but you want your pain validated by someone else. It's just that the only way you can think of validating your pain is through death." Kov shook his head. "But that's not how you should deal with your pain. That's not how anyone should, I don't think."

The machine moved so close to Kov that their faces were almost touching.

"And what would you know of pain, child? What would you know of grief, and loss?" It cried. Kov's mouth felt dry as he replied.

"I lost my best friend to gang wars waged by techno-barbarians on my home planet." The machine froze. "I was a street rat and a thief, the son of a street rat and thief. That's what my name means back home, it means 'taker'. My father named me 'taker', because I took my mothers life during my birth. "

Kov shook his head.

"Anyway, I was born with a photographic memory. I forget nothing, and since I was young, I've had this instinctual understanding of machines. Remember how I said my home planet was filled with techno-barbarians? Well, all our homes were built by this huge mountain sized machine. No one knew how it worked, but I had some ideas. It seemed obvious to me, so I told my father. Soon I was being presented to the biggest gang leader on my planet. My father sold me and my talents for status."

Kov could feel Esau's hand on his shoulders, steadying him.

"The gang became my new home, and my knowledge was used to hold the hive hostage. People had to pay tribute, or they would die. Filtration systems would 'randomly' shut down, heat systems would suddenly ramp up, that sort of thing. Anyway, I had a friend in the gang, Robek. He was older than me, but he looked out for me. He kept those jealous of my talents from beating me when the bosses weren't around. The bosses weren't around a lot. Sometimes, neither was Robek."

Kov wiped the tears forming, away from his eyes.

"One day, I got tired of what we were doing. I had pulled switches that killed dozens of people. 'No more.' I decided, and Robek agreed. Over the course of weeks, we sabotaged the control systems and framed the other boys. One day, we were caught, and to teach me a lesson, they killed Robek right in front of me. Later that night, I decided that I would die so I climbed to the highest tower I had access to. When I arrived at my destination, I found that I couldn't do it. That very moment, the Drukhari raided the planet, collecting slaves. I was caught. I'd rather not speak about my time with them, but I was freed by Esau and his father."

This time Kov could feel himself smiling.

"Soon, I was part of a family unit. Everyone gave me their love, even if I didn't feel I deserved it. I told Isaac about what I had done, back home one day. He told me that maybe I couldn't kill myself because I realized that my life had meaning. I disagreed, but he denied my disagreement. He told me that if nothing else, my life had meaning for him."

"Your life has meaning for me." Esau said, in the silence.

"I know." Kov admitted. "I know. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that despite all your failures, your life has meaning. You have meaning. I know that you're in pain and you want to get rid of it, but the only way to get rid of mental anguish I have found is to talk to someone."

The pressure in his chest felt lighter. For the first time in a long time, he felt the void in his heart disappear.

"Our pain is different. I don't know if what worked for me will work for you. Maybe the void in your heart will never disappear, but would you like to try?"

He put his hand out.

The machine took it.

Kha:

From the moment Kha stepped foot on the sands of this world, she had been entrenched in madness. Her gut instinct was to blame Isaac. He had been a major source of the stress she felt and sometimes, when she felt that the weight on her shoulders was too great, she regretted swearing to join him.

Unfortunately, the source of this particular bout of madness did not come from Isaac, at least not fully. Isaac at least had a method to his madness. He had reasons for doing what he did, even if his thought process often felt alien to her, and he would explain his reasoning when asked. It was for this reason she had allowed for the creation of the two soul machines at the compound. His reasoning was sound.

They were in great, if not imminent danger with a rift to the Great Ocean cutting much of the Naufrag system in two. Kha knew from experience that areas saturated with the energies of the Great Ocean often led to the inhabitants of the area being warped. On Tectum, she had to kill sister wytches who opened rifts to their Great Ocean in their hubris, thinking themselves immune to its energies. They were not.

By using the machines to see the effects of the Great Ocean on the souls of the natives of Naufrag, they had found something surprising.

The Great Ocean had had no effect at all. There were no mutations due to Warpcraft. All mutations were due to radiation and exposure to toxic compounds. Kha was surprised to confirm the fact through her wytch sight. In fact, of the thousands of people they had scanned, there were no mutations indicating the presence of the wytch-gene in any of its inhabitants. This was in spite of the planet's continued saturation with materials from the Great Ocean. This was not normal, at all.

The Silver Mind had implied that some of this was due to genetic manipulation being used on the ancestors of the current mountain tribes. Though even it admitted that the people who had built it barely understood the wytch-gene, making complete eradication impossible. There was some other reason for this, so Isaac investigated while she held the clans together.

The answer, as it turned out, lay in the ziggurat that had served as Og'driada's prison in what used to be the City of Bone. Which was why she found herself in the ziggurat with Isaac, Kov, the Silver Mind, and the Great One, surrounded by stone pillars with hieroglyphs written on them.

"I don't like it here. The tides of the Great Ocean feel…stale here. Too much death has happened here." She requested, her head in her hands.

"Why anyone would assume that a voice in their head is a god, I'll never know.." The Silver Mind said, from a receiver installed onto Isaac's armour.

After the boys returned from the labyrinthian depths, and brought the Silver Mind back with them, Isaac had convinced it to join their nascent kingdom. Kha was not present for the conversation, but it apparently consisted of Isaac telling it about what he understood about the state of the galaxy, and enlisting it in helping Isaac make his way to Earth, the cradle of humanity. From the Great Ones retelling of the event, the more the Silver Mind was told about the horrors of the galaxy, the more willing it seemed to join them.

The Great One seemed somewhat confused by this turn of events, Kha recognized the reason why it was so willing to join. It was seeking both to punish, and redeem itself of any failures real and perceived. She had sworn to join Isaac for the same reason, after all.

Isaac had also promised to get the remnants of its crew buried on Earth soil and soon, the Silver Mind proved its loyalty. The ship it was interred on had a database of information, though eroded both by time and sabotage which it gave them all free and unlimited access to.

Because of the Silver Mind's direct intervention, they had access to fusion reactors which allowed them to directly fuse oxygen and hydrogen to create water, a large cache of cybernetics, some las weapons and highly advanced air and water filters. The biggest boons the Silver Mind produced, however, were its wealth of knowledge of navigational technologies and techniques, and the Metal Skin.

The metal skin was simply put, a method to replace some body parts, with metal. You could replace a section of skin, with metal for example, and the body would process information from that skin as normal. The medical applications alone were astounding.

The metal skin was difficult to create, even more difficult to mould and impossible to reshape once moulded but that was a minor obstacle, all things considered. It allowed for a whole new level of medical innovation. Though it was medical innovation that didn't help with their current issue.

"First. you'll need some context." Isaac admitted. "After we figured out that the cause of the eradication of the psyker gene wasn't the biological manipulation tech the City of Bone had access to, we decided to investigate the ziggurat. We would have invested time into looking into the ziggurat anyway, but it seemed that it was the prime contender for any weird stuff because it was the only weird thing still left on the planet."

This time the Great One took over. In the four months since Og'driadas defeat, he had grown to tower over even Isaac, with an intellect to match.

"We entered the ziggurat and worked on deciphering the hieroglyphs that littered the monolith. What we found was that the ziggurat was the creation of an alien race known as the 'Slann'. These 'Slaan' were in conflict with creatures known as 'Necrons'. The Necrons apparently regularly captured or produced creatures of Og'driada's capability; we aren't exactly sure. Some of the translation has been eroded by time. Regardless, these Necrons released Og'driada in a war with the Slaan. Og'driada decimated the Slaan, and they fled. Og'driada was then recaptured and stored in some sort of vault."

"This ziggurat?" Kha asked.

"No, you'll see why soon."

Kha nodded and motioned for the Great One to continue.

"Anyway, the Slaan fleed and ended up on this world, where they sought to rebuild. The problem is that the Necrons followed them. Fortunately for the Slaan, they were psychically adept, and managed to occlude this entire world from the sight of the Necrons. Being unable to find the Slaan, they chose to entrench themselves in a world in system and simply wait. They knew the Slaan to be in the system, they just didn't know where."

He pointed to a slab of stone, on one side of the room which depicted an image of the Slaan as amphibious beings hiding themselves in a well, from predators flying above.

"Unable to run, the Slann built a city and tried to outwait the Necrons, which was an impossible task."

Entrenched in the story despite herself, Kha found herself wondering why that was. The Silver Mind answered her question.

"It's because Necrons are automatons." Ah. And it was impossible for anything flesh and blood to out wait a machine. She motioned for the Great One to carry on.

"Despite their impossible task, they tried their best. Until one day, Og'driada appeared in the very city they had built."

"Had the Necrons found them?" Kha asked.

The Great One shook his head.

"They had not." He replied. "The Og'driada that appeared before them was not the Og'driada the Necrons had stuck in their vault."

"How is that possible?"

"It took a bit of work to puzzle this out, but the gist of it is that Og'driada is something called a C'tan. A star god. Now these C'tan were very powerful but that's not the reason they were called gods. Instead, they were called 'gods' because each one of them had absolute control of one aspect of reality, assuming they had the energy. Og'driada's aspect was 'rebirth'."

This was a lot of information coming quickly at Kha. She had barely processed the fact that there was likely a race of automatons on a planet somewhere in the galaxy. So she mentally stored what she could for later review and asked how this related to their current situation.

"Well, as it turns out..." Isaac explained. "Many things are encompassed by the concept of 'rebirth'. It seemed that Og'driada wanted freedom from the Necrons, so it made a plan. It split off a small shard of itself and stowed it away on one of the Slaani ships. The shard was apparently so small that it should barely have been sentient at all, much less sapient. When the Slaani made landfall and decided to build a city, it absorbed the life essense of what Slaani it could and tried to take over this planet. Obviously, it failed and was trapped in this ziggurat by the Slaani. They could have destroyed it but the death of a C'tan shard would alert the Necrons in the system."

"So Og'driada was imprisoned, and in revenge it used what was left of its energy to create a second sun in the system. This would result in the eventual death of the Slaani as their bodies couldn't cope with such a sudden and drastic change to the environment. That was irrelevant to our situation." The Great One admitted.

"What is relevant is the fact that Og'driadas aspect is 'rebirth'. When a group of human explorers landed on this planet, many of them were struck with dreams. Of a god, calling for them to sacrifice themselves to it, in return for eternal life, and a way off of Naufrag. You've heard of the ritual of the Song of Bone, right?"

She had. It was a ritual created by the Cult of Bone. They would sacrifice large amounts of dead or dying people to the ziggurat, then in months, would collect a golden liquid which when consumed would raise the drinker from the dead, given a catalyst. But what did-oh.

Oh.

Oh no.

"I see you've realised why we needed you here so urgently." Kov said.

"The Cult of Bone has been consuming fragments of Og'driada for centuries."

"They have."

"And these fragments keep the wytch gene from occurring."

"They do." The Silver Mind admitted. That wouldn't be an issue, but they had placed an emphasis on Og'driada's aspect being 'rebirth' for a reason.

"Everyone who consumed the liquid has a chance of being the catalyst for Og'driada's return." Kha realised.

"Not just everyone who consumed the liquid. The fragments attach themselves to DNA. Any of their descendants could be a catalyst as well." Isaac said.

"So anyone could be a catalyst of Og'driada's return. How long is our timeframe here?"

They looked at each other.

"We don't know." Kov admitted.

"What?"

"We just don't know." Isaac said. "It could be days, months, years or even centuries before Og'driada returns. We just don't know enough about how the fragments work. Right now the warp storms in system are the only thing keeping the fragments in check. I could inspect people to get a better picture but that'll mean people asking questions."

"Yes, I see why that would be a problem. We don't need people thinking that they have a god in their veins. So what do you suggest we do?"

"Well...it's safe, but you're not going to like it."

"I figured. What's the solution?"

"Do you remember how we managed to spike the water with a retrovirus that gave anyone who drank it increased mental flexibility and memory retention?"

"I do."

"Well, we could spike the water with a different retrovirus that would destroy the fragments of Og'driada, through the introduction of a different gene."

If Kha wasn't suspicious before, she was now.

"You want to introduce the wytch gene into the general population?"

"No, no. Nothing like that." He gestured to the ziggurat surrounding them. "The stone that this place was built from is imbued with the Slaan's bones. I took a look at it and the Slaan are in possession of a gene that is both a hundred percent compatible with human DNA and one hundred percent capable of destroying the shards in the DNA, but will increase the population's tendency to produce psykers in the future. So no, but actually in a roundabout way, yes."

Kha could feel the weight on her shoulders increase tenfold. An influx of wytches into the population meant that there would be psychic awakenings all over Naufrag and she would have to take time to teach. Time she wouldn't be able to spend elsewhere. Time that meant she might never make it back to Tectum.

Right now, she was only one of two people in charge of thousands of people and the other was prone to flights of fancy. The moment stability was reached, Isaac would do something, or discover something that propelled them all forward at blinding speeds, but hurt them in equal measure. His enhancements, the Orks, the City of Bone, Og'driada and the Silver Mind.

Having to deal with one of those would be enough for an entire lifetime, let alone having to deal with everything all at once. On top of that, she had to co-run a kingdom of cannibals, thieves and murderers and also teach a nascent population of wytches? When she had fought wars against gangers and wytches entrenched in their own hubris all her life?

On top of all that, they had what was likely to be another hostile alien race in the system on one of the planets. In addition to the greenskin warlords no doubt running around in the system, plus the fact that there was an entrance to a Drukhari webway portal somewhere in the system as well?.

She found herself collapsing against the wall. This was too much. This was all too much. She needed to breathe.

She felt hands grabbing her and setting her gently down.

"Leave, please." She heard a voice say. Her mind was too unfocused to tell the voice apart from any other voice in the room.

"I need to talk to her for a minute."

Her heart felt like it would explode out of her chest. She heard some shuffling.

"I'll give her the space she needs, don't worry."

For minutes that felt like hours, Kha and the owner of the voice just sat, at opposite ends of the ziggurat. The silence was almost companionable. It let her decompress. It let her breathe.

Eventually, she returned to the waking world and was faced with a nearly empty room. Isaac sat across from her, with a worried look on his face. He had abandoned his armour, so that the Silver Mind could not join in their conversation most likely. He picked a bottle up from near the rock on which he sat.

"Water?" He asked.

She nodded, and he carefully rolled it across the room to where she sat. She drank greedily from the bottle. She drank until there was nothing left.

"You good?" He asked, after a few minutes of silence.

"I feel better now." She said,

"That's good." He nodded. "That's good."

He sat there in silence before speaking again.

"Hey, listen." He said. "I know it rings hollow, but I'm sorry. You've had a lot on your shoulders, I should have realised that."

Kha looked up at him and found that he was unable to meet her eyes.

"It's not your fault." She admitted. "You do your part. You attend every single council meeting. You travel with the boys to see the kids at the orphanage. You, the Great One and Nimis's men keep the more violent tribes in check. You work just as hard as I do to keep us going. I'm just tired, and frustrated."

"You hate it here."

"I do." She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. It came back wet. "The boys are wonderful, and so are the rest of the children. The King's Shield try their best too."

"It's just that everybody else sucks."

She nodded.

"They do. Half of these people used to be cannibals, and the other half used to experiment on people. Neither is especially easy to interact with."

"You want to go home."

"I do. But we started something here. Something that we can't readily abandon."

"We have-may I sit next to you?"

She nodded. He stood up, walked across the room and sat next to her.

"You're right. We have, but I have hope,"

"Having hope will not actually fix anything."

"You're right." He said. He was quiet for a few moments before speaking again. "Forget the retrovirus thing. It was only one of the plans we had ready."

"Isaac, I don't-"

"A year." He said, suddenly. She blinked.

"What?"

"A year." He repeated. "We've been in charge for four months. Give me the rest of the year, and I promise that I'll have a solution. For everything. It might take years past that to really put everything to order, but we'll have a solid plan to follow and we'll be ready for anything the galaxy can throw at us."

"You promise." She said, incredulous.

"Ouch. You didn't have to say it like that. When have I ever broken a promise?"

"You promised not to eat the last tub of ice cream and I found my portion missing this morning." She pointed out. That had been the result of an experiment in creating food from Earth. From all the experiments Isaac had performed, ice cream was her favourite. Right behind 'chocolate'.

"Whoa, now. I didn't know that was yours and I replaced that as soon as I found out."

"You did." She admitted.

"So," he said, holding his hand out. "Are you willing to give me the time?"

For the first time in a long time, she looked at him through her wytch-sight. He looked as bright as he always did, but past that, she could see how resolute he was. He believed he could do it, but more than had a plan, or the beginnings of one.

She didn't know if she could live years like this. When she had last seen Tectum, it was being besieged by the Dark Ones. Truly she couldn't be sure that anyone she knew was still alive, but like the hypocrite she was, she had hope. And she had fought wars with less.

She looked at his hand, outstretched towards and the pleading look on his face.

She reached out with her own hand and took it.

Esau:

798. M30.

Esau watched as the final remnant of the disparate tribes of Naufrag swore fealty to his father and the lady Kha. The leader of the tribe, a woman with a thin, spindly body twisted by lifelong exposure to Naufrags atmosphere. She was the centre of attention, standing in front of a table on the dais where his father and the lady Kha sat, watching.

They were in Giant's Fall, the new name for the foot of the hill where Og'driada was defeated. In the year since its defeat, the place had grown from an impromptu outpost into the centre for a new city. Where quickly built walls of metal and plastic used to be, there now lay walls of marble and stone, reinforced with rebar in the case of invasion or war.

In the months post Og'driadas fall the tribes stated their needs to Isaac and the lady Kha. With that in mind, Esau designed Potio, the city of a new age. It was a city built from stone and marble that surrounded the mountains in their entirety where an artificial spring provided water that ran down into the city and beyond into the wastelands. Everything was built to the best of his capabilities, and included multiple routes into underground tunnels which had been reinforced and rebuilt.

Terraforming efforts were still slow, but were moving ahead steadily. Kov was working on altering the planet's magnetosphere for the creation of a more robust climate, from which his father hoped a verdant would arise. He had also used the Silver Minds' air and water filters to create machines to draw toxic compounds from the atmosphere. There were plans to remove the planet from the twin suns, via gravity manipulation technologies, but the production of the necessary Element Zero was slow. As of now, it was being produced by taking advantage of the internal processes of the Slann ziggurat.

It had taken months of effort, but they had finally deciphered how the ziggurat had imprisoned a being such as Og'driada. No C'tan could interact with Warp energies. In a last ditch effort, a large portion of the Slaan had sacrificed themselves to form the literal bedrock upon which Og'driada was trapped. He had been trapped in a tesseract made of Warp energy locked in the stone.

That had been interesting to find out, but that hadn't been the genius of the ziggurats design.

The ziggurat could copy the state of anything placed in a golden receptacle at its centre, in return for life force, into a large stone indent outside the ziggurat. By trapping Og'driada inside the ziggurat, they could essentially resurrect their species by donating life force to the ziggurat. Unfortunately, Og'driada's revenge killed them before they could enact their revenge.

Using the ziggurat, they could copy the few grams of Element Zero in the omni-tool into a metric ton. The conversion rate was horrendous, though. A ton of Element Zero had necessitated a hundred years of his father's lifespan. It was also seemingly random and arbitrary. Depending on the person donating the lifespan and the material or aspect being replicated, because a ton of omni-gel took twenty years of Esau's lifespan, in comparison to the fifty of his father's lifespan for the same amount.

The ceremony reached its end when the woman, Liber who led the tribe, took a glass from the table and presented it to his father. Here, his father opened an exquisite crystal bottle he had crafted himself from crystal that grew underground and emptied into the glass a silver liquid.

Symbolically, it was supposed to represent Liber drinking from the waters of Potio, cleansing herself of a life of pain. The end of her life as the leader of a tribe that lived out of the old carcass of a starship, and the chemical waste that dotted Naufrag, and the beginning of her life as a member of the Immortal Sun.

Esau did not enjoy the more ritualistic aspects of the ceremony, but he understood the need. Ritual bred familiarity, and turned the simple procedure into something of a near sacred standing. It also allowed his father and the lady Kha to administer the liquid to the people under the auspices of ritual, when what was happening was that they were destroying any fragments of Og'driada they could find.

The contents of the liquid was an elixir produced from Esau's own lifeblood from which copies of his life essence were produced using the ziggurat. This lifeblood was then mixed with the Chimera serum. When consumed, it would temporarily flood the drinker with an infinitesimal portion of Esau's psychic energy, destroying Og'driada's fragments in their system.

Esau's lifeblood was chosen because his father had through regular analysis from the SEE and SAM machines, that the energy he drew from the Warp was the purest possible source they had on the planet. His father's essence was tainted by the energies of the Orks and would likely drive anyone who drank from it into a blind rage, while the lady Kha's own energies were tainted by the Warp mutilating her soul.

There had been worries about psychic phenomena happening because of his psychic might, but that had become a non issue upon investigation and testing. SEE and SAM scans revealed that Esau's soul had a sort of stable instability. Constantly roiling and burning, like magma in a volcano fit to burst.

Because of this, he was highly resistant to Warp taint, but was not immune to it. No one was immune to it.

He was also incapable of learning any of the psychic disciplines Kha could teach. He had no talent for biomancy, which was the first step towards electromancy and he had no talent for telekinesis. His talent for ritual craft and the general ability to draw power from the Warp that all psykers shared was still prodigious but he had absolutely no other observable psychic talent. SEA and SAM scans indicated that his affinity with machinery was partly psychic in nature, but it was strange to learn that there was something in this universe that he was not good at.

It felt like he had failed.

Intellectually, he knew that it was because of his creator. Whoever or whatever his creator was, he chose to stifle his psychic ability, the same way his creator chose to imbue him with an innate sense of justice. Despite the irrationality of it though, it was grating to realise, like a rock in his shoe on a long journey.

Liber drank deep from the cup and was changed. For a brief instant, she seemed to glow before the glow dimmed and her body changed. Body mass seemed to come from nothing as tissues grew and expanded to the optimum build for a woman of her height, before it abruptly stopped. She swayed on her feet and was caught by her tribesmen. She would feel tired for days, but she would be fine. Later on, she would be asked to give the same elixir to her tribesmen away from public eyes.

All who were present cheered with a raucousness typical of the natives of Naufrag and Esau found himself smiling. Their conquest of Naufrag was complete. Though it had been bloody and painful, they had done it. They had won.

Even if they were to disappear tomorrow, the people would survive. They had already set up the necessary steps for a police force and government through the King's Shield working in concert with the Silver Mind.

They just had to jumpstart an economy that did not rely on them and them alone as the primary producers, and Naufrag would be able to survive without them.

He turned to his father and saw a familiar look on his face.

For the first time in a year, the Forge had rewarded him.

Action: Unite the tribes of Naufrag.

Reward: Alloy Smith (The Avengers - Earth's Mightiest Heroes)

After Esau sent a curious eyebrow his way, his father sent a burst of information to his implant. The Forge had granted him an advanced knowledge of chemistry and metallurgy. It was disappointing, for the amount of effort put into the act of conquering Naufrag. Still, it allowed his father to forge metals that retained the properties of its materials. That could be useful, in its own way.

The implant was new, relatively speaking and his family's magnus opus. It was a mix of all of the specialities that Esau, his father, the lady Kha, Kov and the Silver Mind possessed, and made with aspects of all the technology they had access to as well. Esau and Kov's mechanical capabilities, his fathers enhanced intellect and knowledge of science and alchemy, the lady Kha's knowledge of warpcraft and the Silver Minds' ability to process large amounts of information and its database of technology.

Using the ziggurat to mimic his father's ability to survive any enhancement, every member of the family sans Esau had their skeletons, ligaments, tendons and muscle fibres enhanced using a mix of the metal skin and the Extremis virus where appropriate until they were near his strength and intelligence. Each enhancement had taken anywhere from a year to twenty years of his father's lifespan.

Further enhancements included the implantation of a series of cybernetic nerve bundles which deposited nodules of Element Zero throughout the body called the 'Bio-AMPs'. This allowed every member of the family sans Esau to increase or decrease their personal gravity.

When Element Zero is exposed to an electric current, it creates dark energy, which either increases or decreases the gravity of an object based on whether the current was positive or negative.

Esau opted against this enhancement.

It felt wrong to enhance his physical ability in such a way. Esau itched to prove himself. Any of the accomplishments that resulted from any such enhancement would not be his own, it would belong to the implant.

Instead, he had been given a Bio-AMP bundle at the base of his skull that simply allowed him to communicate with technology, giving him limited technopathy. Essentially, he had an enhanced omni-tool he could access at any time internally. It was only one of the two enhancements Esau would allow himself.

The second was the Soul-AMP. This was an implant that leveraged his father's knowledge of alchemy and warp devices along with Kha's warpcraft and information obtained from the SEA and SAM machines. Simply put, it was an armour based on his father's own. Armour had been constructed out of their own lifespans and placed around their own souls, giving them increased resistance to the Warp and its taint.

It would be impossible without the ziggurat mimicking his father's abilities for them, but they had done it.

The armour was as strong as their willpower was, which meant that it could be as strong as steel or as weak as paper. It was a purely defensive ability, yet the lady Kha had managed to use it offensively.

She still couldn't draw energy from the Warp. To do so was suicide, but with her knew armour she didn't need to. Each and every soul drew infinitesimal amounts of energy from the Warp every minute and left minute imprints of the energy in everyday objects. With her new armour, and her 'wytch sight', she could grab these imprints, and mould them through sheer willpower. The ability was weak, and limited to what she herself could see and touch but she had been creative. Everyday she had made a ritual of collecting Warp energy, and moulding it before absorbing it into her armour, making her stronger.

Right now, the boost was negligible, but in years? The ability would be a force to be reckoned with.

All in all, every enhancement all together had taken five hundred years of his father's lifespan. His father had mostly been unaffected, but Esau could see the toll it had taken. He still looked like the twenty-six year old man he used to be, but Esau could see patches of his hair beginning to grey. Needless to say, he was not going to be using the ziggurat for a long time at the very least.

As the cheering began to lull, his father and the lady Kha stood up.

His was in a simple leather, dyed a dark blue, with bronze filigree stitched onto it and steel necklace hanging off his neck. The bronze filigree wrapped around his waist, looking like twin suns were dancing across his stomach. The lady Kha, on the other hand, was in a simple red dress, with the same bronze filigree stitched into it. She wore brown boots and grey leggings. Around her neck was a silver necklace with a single glowing emerald. Her hair was tied back and had two braids coming from her crown, which ran down her back.

She stood at a height that equaled his father, the enhancements clear to anyone with eyes. She had no obvious cybernetics enhancements, but Esau's eyes could see the shadow of metal underneath the skin of her fingers.

On both of their crowns lay a simple iron crown, inscribed so that you could see water and waves in them. Not a single golden item could be seen.

It was an interesting cultural development resulting from Og'driada's banishment to the warp and the find that gold was relatively common on Naufrag.

Gold was worthless here. Children played with golden toys and slept on beds inlaid with gold.

Instead, water was the resource of choice to flaunt wealth. That was largely meaningless since his father had chosen to give every citizen unlimited access to water, but old habits were not so easily forgotten. Their currency, a depiction of Giants' Fall on a iron coin, was called a 'drop' for this very reason.

His father put his hand up, and the hall quieted.

"My people." He said. "Today marks a momentous occasion. After millenia, Naufrag is united."

A cheer rose at that, and his father waited for it to quiet down.

"Today is a momentous day." He repeated. "Truly it is."

Everyone listened with rapt attention.

"Today, we celebrate the end to conflicts hundreds of years old and we celebrate our health. Today, we celebrate the fact that despite the horrors of this planet, not only have we survived, we have thrived." His voice was becoming louder now. "Today we celebrate our new lives in the City of Potio! Today we celebrate the day the Golden Being fell! Today we celebrate the anniversary of Giants Fall!"

Another cheer rose, threatening to shake the hall they were in despite Esau's reinforcements. His father waited for it to quiet down. He began to speak again, quieter this time. It was a favoured tactic of his. He would occasionally lower his volume at critical moments in his speeches to make sure people were listening, usually before he said something important.

Esau had some idea of what he would say, but his father had already deviated somewhat from the planned speech.

"Today we celebrate the birthday of my sons. We celebrate the birthday of your crown princes, Esau and Kov Zulu!"

The crowd erupted into cheers, praising their names.

Suddenly, everything made sense. Esau had thought it was statistically unlikely that besides the new tribe and the necessary members of the council, the rest of the hall was inhabited by people Esau and Kov had personally helped in some way.

In one corner sat Zondo, who Esau had personally crafted an eye for, and in another sat Ondlu, who Kov had crafted a cybernetic arm when it became clear that Extremis would kill him in the effort of regrowing it.

Esau took a dark pleasure in seeing Kov who up until now had managed to hide himself away squirm as become the centre of attention.

He himself had grown to almost match Esau in size through usage of the metal skin, the Extremis formula, the Polymath Gland and Esau's own lifeblood to make it so that Kov was his brother in blood, and not just in name only.

He himself absorbed the praise stoically and let it wash over him. A year's worth of work had led up to this.

A year of spending long hours with Kov in the workshop planning and spending longer hours building, with Kov, the Orks, the Silver Mind and the drones.

If the light caught his eyes wrong and some saw tears, he would deny it.

The light was simply playing tricks on their mind.

The statement was untrue, though. It was not his birthday. They had celebrated his birthday a month ago in private and Kov's a week after that, then Kha's a day after that. His father had gifted them all a collection of all of the music he had ever listened to, which he had faithfully recreated with the help of his cybernetics and the Silver Mind.

His favourite song was 'Fur Elise'. Kov was fond of 'Megalovania', himself.

The cheering stopped once again. This time, it was the lady Kha who spoke, her voice even and clear.

"Today, not only do we celebrate the past-." she said. "-but today, we look to our future."

As she finished the sentence, the room darkened. The crowd was silent, the sudden change in ambiance having stopped them from cheering.

Suddenly, twin suns burst to life via projectors hidden in the ceiling.

"This is Naufrag."

A brown planetoid appeared in between the two suns. Unlike his father, the lady Kha did not perform any theatrics, nor did she modulate her voice. Naufrag and the two suns shrank and were replaced by a projection of the Naufrag system.

Unlike Naufrag, which orbited in a figure eight pattern in between the two suns, the other ten worlds in the system had a more conventional orbit much farther away. Immediately surrounding the twin suns of the Naufrag system lay an asteroid belt.

The result of the second sun appearing suddenly in the system. This was the source of the debris hitting the planet on an almost bi-weekly basis. From the amount of wreckage that dotted the asteroid belt, it was clear that entire empires had been destroyed by one being's spiteful action.

"This is the Naufrag system." she said. "This was what has been denied from us, by the horrors of Dark Night."

A small overlay appeared over the system. The planets began to glow different colours. Blues, greens, whites and yellows overlayed on top of each other, indicating the state of the planet and what drones had found.

"Blue means that the planet can support life." Five of the nine planets shown were blue. One planet had deliberately been hidden from view.

It was the planet that was estimated to hold the Necrons.

"Green means that the planet has life." Two of the five turned green.

"White means that the planet has human life." One of the two planets turned white.

"Yellow means that the planet has life hostile to humans." Both of the planets with life on them turned yellow.

"Do you see?" She asked. "Do you see, my people? We have brothers in the system. We have sisters in the system. We have family, and they are in danger."

She paused to let the statement sink in.

"We are built off the blood of Naufrag. We are built off the toxic wastes and the hostile sun. We have faced the universe and we have won. We have won, but they have not."

She paused again. Now, whispers were building throughout the hall. The lady Kha let them build, before she spoke again.

"We live in a hostile galaxy. No man, woman or child who has laid a foot on Naufrag can deny this. Life is hard here. But we have won, and they have not."

The image of the galaxy twisted to a murky image captured by a drone. A bone-thin man covered in rags so dirty that they were black. The man was running through a thick muck. He was being chased. In the background of the image, one could barely make out the image of a snake-like creature, tentacled and with too many eyes.

Kha had been devious when she had chosen this particular image. Out of all the images the sensor drones had been able to take through the dark atmosphere of the planet, this had been the bleakest and had been chosen specifically to seed sympathy among any who saw it.

Esau didn't enjoy this deception but he understood its necessity. Naufrag was united, but the bonds between the tribes were still weak. Saving their cousins on this black world would create ties that would hopefully be unbreakable.

"Can we let this stand?" She asked.

The whispers became louder.

"I said, can we let this stand?" This time, she received an answer.

"No!" They shouted. She had succeeded.

"Our cousins live in darkness. Let us show them that though the sun may dip-"

The hall's inhabitants completed the quote for her.

"It will always rise again!"

Suddenly, she was shouting. Her voice filled with a passion that matched the intensitu of the room, sending shivers down Esau's spine.

"We will show them the light of the sun and bring them into its embrace!" She pointed at Esau, and then at Kov.

"In one month, the crown princes will open a path for us! They will clear the rabble and we will land upon a new world, bearing gifts for our cousins and we will shield them from their enemies."

Despite knowing that Kha only half meant the next words and that she would rather be with the children at the orphanages and the playgrounds, her next words shook Esau to his core.

"We will show them that any man can aspire to greatness! That any man may conquer his demons! That any man may control his own destiny!" She paused for breath. "May the Immortal Sun forever live on."

"May the Immortal Sun forever live on! The Immortal Sun! The Immortal Sun! The Immortal Sun! The Immortal Sun! The Immortal Sun!"

Horus Lupercal:

820.M30.

Horus made his way to the bridge of the Bucephelus, the prized flagship of his father, the Emperor of Mankind. He was followed by some of his closest and most loyal sons and soldiers, the Justaerin, led by First Captain Abaddon. He would have preferred to arrive with a larger force and his Mournival, but he had to leave most of his sons, the Luna Wolves, in battle when the Emperor called for him.

The Luna Wolves were entrenched in bringing a world in the Segmentum Pacificus to compliance, so he could not bring them all to bear. This irked him, when his brother Leman Russ could bring the majority of his own forces to heel. Savages or no, that meant that they would win most of the glory this day if the Emperor had called them for conquest.

Perhaps, it was unfair for Horus to describe the warriors crafted from his brother's geneseed so, but he found it to be accurate. They were not as bad as the Revenant legion of the IXth, but even with Leman's moderating hand, the Space Wolves were wild and brutal. They howled, beat their chests and savaged their enemies.

They reminded him of the gangs that lived in the utter darkness of Cthonia.

Horus and his Justaerin walked at a steady pace, neither too fast nor too slow. Walking too fast implied that there was an emergency that necessitated the speed and would unduly startle the serfs, but walking too slow would imply that he and his Luna Wolves disrespected the Emperor.

Horus couldn't even imagine doing such a thing. The Emperor was perfect in His every movement, wise beyond measure in His very thoughts and swift in His every action. At times, Horus could hardly believe his fortune. He was Horus's father, and He would guide humanity to a bright future.

Along the way, Horus greeted diplomats, members of the Mechanicum and his fathers' Custodian Guard with his signature charm. The diplomats melted when they were within eyesight of him. The members of the Mechanicum venerated him as the son of their Omnissiah and the Custodian Guard gave him terse nods. The Custodian Guard was always strong, always dutiful, and always perfect. Unfortunately, they were also always inflexible.

Horus judged his Justaerin Terminators to be superior to the Guard in this one aspect. The Custodian Guard would perform any action asked of them admirably and to the letter, but did not attempt to decipher or interpret the Emperor's will. The Justaerin would interpret Horus's will, and capture secondary and tertiary objectives with a skill that beggared disbelief.

Sometimes, Horus found himself wondering why he had made his Custodian Guard to be so, but would often abandon the thought. The Emperor's needs were different from his own, and he could not question His will.

Soon, they found themselves at a great golden gate guarded by two Custodians in their finely crafted golden armour. Horus nodded at one. He couldn't be sure who this was, but he was sure that both were new additions with a low rank. They lacked the filigree and sigils that spoke of long years serving the Emperor.

Briefly, he took a moment to check his attire. He stood in the Serpent's Scales, a gleaming white terminator armour, with bronze and gold accents. The wolf pelt he wore to honour his sons and their achievements sat perfectly along the broad shoulders of a Primarch. In the armour's chest sat a red jewel, beset with the image of a fang.

His attire was perfect.

"I am here to meet with my father." Horus said to the Guard.

Both of the Guard inclined their heads - for a Custodian only bowed to the Emperor and no one else -, turned and pushed at the gate. The gate split open, revealing the bridge of the Bucephelus, and its sublime view of the system. In truth, the bridge of the Bucephelus alone was the size of a moderate castle, with large marble pillars, statues, and a control array the size of multiple hab-blocks on Cthonia. Tech priests of the Mechanicum of Mars, serfs and servitors danced at the control array, doing the Emperor's will with impressive efficiency.

Horus spoke to Abaddon.

"Return to your quarters with the Justaerin." He said.

Abaddon bowed. He, like the rest of the Justaerin was in gleaming white Mark II Terminator armour.

"By your leave, sire." He replied, turned and led the Justaerin to the guest quarters. They followed him, their march step impeccable.

Horus entered the bridge.

There, the Emperor stood, facing the beautiful expanse of space in his resplendent auramite armour. His glory was evident, and even with His back to Horus, Horus could barely resist the need to call for him like some mewling child. Horus remembered standing by His side, watching the stars after he was found on Cthonia. The Emperor would point at stars and show Horus what the stars looked like millenia ago, before war tore the galaxy apart. They had laughed, lived and learned together for thirty years.

Now, Leman was at his father's side.

It was bittersweet. Horus was happy that his brother had been discovered hale and healthy in a galaxy as horrifying as this. It just stung to see his fathers attention diverted from him. Still, Horus was safe in the knowledge that no man could experience what he had with his father.

Horus knelt on one knee.

"Father!" He called. "You have called for me, and I have answered."

The Emperor of Mankind turned to face him, and his full splendour was revealed. The room seemed brighter when He looked at Horus.

"Horus." His father said, with all the authority of a man in charge of an empire with thousands of worlds under His banner. He was smiling. "Stand, my son."

He did as he was told. Then, and only then, did he turn to his brother. He was wearing the Armour Elavagar, a set of blue artificer armour specially crafted, with the iconography of the Space Wolves on both pauldrons. At his hip was a chainsword as twice as tall as any ordinary man, the Krakenmaw. Horus himself had a power sword at his hip. His brother's blonde hair was braided in the style of Fenris and his sharp canines were revealed in a feral grin.

"Brother!" Horus called, his grin matching Leman's own. "Congratulations on your victory in the Ultima Segmentum! The Orks can be a bothersome foe, but I'm told that it was no problem for you!"

"Brother!" Leman returned the greeting. "They were barely a challenge for my Jarls."

"Is that so?" Leman Russ had been sent on a simple extermination mission to put his legion to the test. His Jarls, the equivalent to captains in any other legion, were to lead the initial charge without him. Despite an initial rough start, their success was immense. It bode well for the Great Crusade that Leman had only taken a year to put his legion to the Emperor's standard.

Before, Leman could answer with what was likely a jibe or a jape of some sort, the Emperor spoke.

"While it heartens me to see my sons get along, I'm afraid I will have to interrupt you. I wish it were not so, but I did not call on two Primarchs for familial bonding. Well, that is not accurate. I did call on you for familial bonding, but that is only part of the purpose of this meeting."

"What do you mean, father?" Horus asked, though he had his suspicions. His father had only called upon Horus with this urgency only once before. When He had found Leman Russ.

"I see you have come to a realisation, Horus." The Emperor said, pleased.

"What realisation is that, father?" Leman asked.

Horus looked to the Emperor, who nodded His approval, Horus answered for Him.

"Father has found one of our brothers." At this, Leman's grin turned savage.

"So it is written in our wyrd that we would meet a brother on this day!" He exclaimed.

Even a year after his discovery, Horus was amazed by how the warrior king still chose to embrace the culture of Fenris, despite conceding to the Imperial Truth. Man had no destiny, besides what man made themselves. There were no spirits, no afterlife and no sorcery. There were only foul Xenos and the horrors left over from Old Night.

Even admitting to the wisdom of the Emperor and His Imperial Truth, Leman embraced the culture of Fenris regardless. There was a danger in that, but who was Horus to question the Emperor's will?

"So which will we meet? The Eighth? The Ninth? The Eleventh?" It didn't surprise Horus Leman would name the most problematic legions, given the nature of his men. Each of the legions named was more cruel and violent than the last. Horus wondered what finding their Primarch would do to legions such as these. Would they come under heel, as the Space Wolves did? Or would they have their choler enhanced by the presence of their gene father?

"I do not know." The Emperor admitted. "My sight has been murky. I fear something terrible has happened to your brother, my sons."

This stopped Horus's thoughts cold. What could be so terrible as to block the Emperor's sight and worry Him so? What kind of dangers could affect even a Primarch?

"I see you understand why I called for both of you, when usually one of your legions would suffice against any force." The Emperor turned back to the bridge. "I trust that both of you are ready?"

"My legion and I are ready." Horus said.

"Wherever you lead, my legion will follow." Leman swore.

The Emperor nodded.

"Then let us go meet your brother." The tech priests turned at some unseen signal and sent instructions for Warp travel. Their cybernetics interfaced with the control array and a metallic voice rang out through the ship.

+Begin preparations. Warp Travel will commence in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.+ It said, and soon Horus saw unreality.

13.1 Perk(s) earned in this chapter:

Domain: Crafting: Metallurgy - Alloy Smith (The Avengers - Earth's Mightiest Heroes) (300CP): Advanced knowledge of chemistry and metallurgy has allowed you to create alloys out of various materials, including metals and chemicals. These new alloys retain all of the properties- including those that are supernatural in nature- of the materials used to make them, allowing you to create truly powerful substances.

A/N: Yeah. I know it's been a while.

Anyway, what's with that huge jump in time from Esau's perspective to Horus'? Well I wanted Esau to have spent the near 30 years that Horus did with the Emperor for more interesting parallels. Also, the time jump is necessary to justify what the Imperium will find in the Naufrag system. I've laid the foundation this chapter but what the Emperor will find there will be very interesting. Future chapters will go into the culture and structure of the Immortal Sun in detail.