A short story my brain vomited on me after watching a few nature documentaries and realizing the sense of loss a mind that remembers a living earth would feel gazing on holy Terra.

A Blue World

Countless were the teeming throngs that pressed against the sealed viewing ports of the venerable pilgrimage ship 'His Grace' as it made its final shuddering transition out of the warp and back into the material universe, eager for the first glimpse of the most holy of His worlds, to set foot on its soil for even a fraction of a second would make their long grueling journey worth it.

Those waiting for the lifting of the monolithic shutters that shielded them from the terrors of the Immaterium did not begin this pilgrimage, that honor lay with their forefathers, and their forefathers before them, a journey generations in the making from shrine world to shrine world as they drew ever closer to the source of the Astronomicon's light and the birthplace of humanity.
All stood quiet as the massive plates began to shudder open, the light of Sol illuminating the interior of the vessel briefly blinding those pressed closest to the front.

And there it was.

Terra.

Earth...

Home.

Hanging in the sea of stars was a hive world of endless temples and gleaming spires that stretched far into the yellowed sky. Fervent prayer and awestruck inhalation rippled through those bearing witness as the planet's rotation brought a glorious structure of shining gold into vision, seeming built into the highest peaks of the world, all knew in their hearts they looked on the Imperial Palace, where the God Emperor of Mankind lay interred upon the Golden Throne, forever tending to the great guiding light that allowed humanity to travel as the rightful rulers of the stars.

A few laughed joyfully, a few cheered, many more descended into fervent prayer, but all wept at the sight.

But not all were aligned in their emotion.

Scattered within the ranks of the zealous there existed a select few, imperceptible from the rest, that bore heritage from a small insignificant world that most, barring the most studious members of the Administratum, would fail to recognize the name of.

Buried deep within these souls was a connection to a great sea, a flood of thought, a rushing tide that even now, far from its source, directed a fraction of itself to this moment. and as it saw the world that had birthed humanity, the depth of the emotion it felt crashed into the awareness of those it peered through.

Loss

Grief

Rage.

Unbidden, memories from the gestalt minds of another, far larger being filtered through the link to those few of its flock who still stood conscious after the uncontrolled outpouring of emotion, and for the briefest of moments their vision flickered, showing not the Terra before them, but a world that was.

It was a blue planet, vast seas and swirling clouds cradled continents wreathed in verdant forests and rolling plains, while the poles were crowned in shining ice.
As the scattered witnesses slowly processed this strange double sight, new images of unfamiliar and wondrous things filled their minds;

Small feathered creatures that flitted through humid forests and sang with joy in their hearts.

Thunderous herd-beasts that shook the earth in their passing in an endless search for fresh pasture, and the hunters of grace and power that followed.

Rich seas teeming with shimmering schooling things and echoing with the voices of great, gentle leviathans with souls of their own.

The knowing eyes of a hairy creature that looked almost human as it sat in the crook of a tree, gazing at its newborn with a mothers love.

Countess sights and vistas, endless forms most beautiful on one pale blue dot flashed through the minds of those few who bore witness, until gradually, it faded back to the rock and metal of a world spanning hive city under a sickly yellow sky.

''Silence fills this empty grave, now that they have gone. But we ask that you remember this, those who linger on.''

And so, among the crowd of fervent humanity, some began to pray, not for the golden world before them, but the Blue that was lost.