The Black Crusade Saga, Jump #949

[40K Black Crusade part 1, jump #949]

Drawbacks: Motivated, Old Memories, Fanfare, Golden Light, Krumpin' TIme, Full Attention, Nobility, Chaos Bribe, Rage of the Primarch: Lorgar, Possessed: Sel'kie, Event Horizon, Need to Feed, Silent March (4700)

Rolled Saturn

Human, age 27

Imperial Voice (Free)
Stylish Brooding (Free)
Sound of Silence (Free)
Beginner's Luck (Free)
Ode to Mankind (4400)
Psyker Surprise (4300)
Blessed Use (3900)
Endowed Belief (3600)
Mankind's Hope (Free)
Suffer Not (Free)
Golden Army (Free)
Strength of the People (Free)
Strength of the Self (Free)
Strength of the Future (Free)
Sanguinor's Legacy (3300)
Foresight (3000)
Sanctioned Psyker Boone & Commisioner Raege (2800)
Faith In Numbers (2600)
Not Done Yet (2400)
Cleansing Act (2200)
Legion of the Damned (2000)
Magos (1700)
Aquila Dominance (1650)
Archaeoseed (1600)
Mechanicus Aide (Free)
Weapon Package (Free)
Human Package (Free)
Legacy of the Aquila (Free)
Badge of Office (Free)
Imperial Cloth (Free)
Glaive Encarmine (Free)
Imperial Banquet (+500, 2000)
Imperial Pet: Holy Eagle (1900)

Servo Harness (Free)

More Power (2600, 0)
Alpha (1800)
Divine Pronouncement (1600)
Banishment (1400)
Ride the Lightning (1200)
Theosophamy (1000)
Dark Call (Free)
Daemon Call (600)
Fiery Might (400)
Extended Reach (200)
Enchantment (0)

Psi Booster (400)
Luminen Capacitor (200)
Mechatendrils (0)

I didn't have an official position in his Imperium. To most I was just a particularly distant Living Saint with unprecedented healing talents. People had heard of me in different guises from the past, but put it down to an unreliable bureaucracy. The point is I had all the advantages of Emperor endorsement to go around healing, uplifting and purifying the remaining outposts of humanity over the centuries, without the disadvantages of being held back by space marine politics.

Not for the first time, I stared down the Emperor of Mankind eye to flame. The golden throneroom had been vacated. Between us lay the modified blueprints for the project he had betrayed once. "I have made clear" he said "my position on cloning hardworking Imperial citizens to create some sort of gestalt Order God"

Indeed you have. But have you said anything about eagles?

"...no"

Even with a newly unified Imperium, an allied Necron empire, the assumption of direct control over the Tyranids and the Craftworlds strongarmed into allies by their own artificial god countless underdeveloped hiveworlds still fall outside the reforms of Terra.

And yes, Chaos is attempting to flee the galaxy to unleash it's evil on the universe. Or survive. Magnus finally showed up to the palace with Ahriman in tow, and after a tense meeting told them where they'd be at the rim. Emps hasn't exactly welcomed them back into the fold but. He didn't STOP me from rezzing the Thousand Sons and infusing taint-cleansing souls into them.

There's an understanding. I act to support the Imperium, multitasking through it's bureaucracy beyond any mere human, painstakingly sustaining every human outpost not already under the Emperor's aegis. In return, that aegis has to be respected.

(Cont'd)


With the Immaterium partially sealed, the forces of Chaos in the materium moved slowly and those in the Warp ebb daily. Morale among them sank until Nurgle reluctantly claimed dominance over Khorne, who had already fallen to bickering with Slaanesh. Tzeentch had tried to throw himself into the Well of Eternity. Every day, more and more citizens of the Imperium spontaneously became beacons of purifying light or rarely sickening holes in the Warp, and even corrupted worlds are being redeemed.


Later, the Emperor gave me something I really think he shouldn't have.

"Take it"

What are you doing now.

"Take it"

I strive for the net increase of order, and on behalf of mortal life as an aggregate. Giving me something like THAT is nothing short of a betrayal of humanity itself, and everything the man who wielded it gave his life for!

"I want you to have it. Take it"

Just...stop. We both know I don't deserve that.

He actually smiled at that. "Oh, I really want to know which meaning you were using there. Nonetheless...take it"

I take the staff, and as Malcador begins materialises I know what must be done to balance the scales. The light of my soul pierces the terrified Warp, materialises his soul from it's depths and rescues it back to the land of the living. The Emperor silently embraces his friend, and when he lets go the Sigillite himself looks at me and says "He'll do".

"I thought you'd say that. Welcome back to the great work, old friend" Turning to me, he adds "I can't convince you to put the welfare of humanity above the xeno, but whatever you're doing I trust you to remember it's still the safer bet"

I think about that as the forces of Chaos reach the galactic rim, and find it proofed against the Warp. Right until the combined forces of Cegorach, the Silent King, the Hive Fleets and Vect hammer into them. The Chaos Gods themselves are pinned down by the mighty Aquila Dea: Goddess-Matriarch of Eaglekind, and gestalt-champion of the mightiest eagle-psykers I had been able to create.

At the Celestial Orrery, I think about that as I gently set alight a very specific quantum entangled cluster of stars, massacring the terrified forces of Chaos. In the depths of the Warp their masters scream as the final tethers of their power in the materium are extinguished, and a great black maelstrom opens up in their domains.






[Black Crusade part 2, jump #949]

Good Ol' Fashioned Robbing: Plasma Wave Launcher, Augmented Ship Bridge
The Everlasting Empire: Everlasting Attire, Symbiotic Soul, Everlasting Imperialists (19), Trees of Eternity (18), Blackstone (17), Xenos Medicae Station (16), Quarters of Eternity (15)
Tribal Warfare: Holy Knight Attire, Psionic Focus, Aeldari Crystal, Baroque Core (14), Pools of Respite (13), Dreadfang's Legacy (12)
The Gravity Cauldron: Ancient Wings, Grim Fusils, Twisting Mist (11), Geode of Madness (10)
Shared Defeat: Conductive Mesh (9), Crystalline Array
Haunted Nether: Compact Thrusters, Looted Armor
The Soul of Iron: Iron Throne, Iron Factory, Iron Cult (8), Iron Men (7), Iron Web (6), Iron Field (5), Kyrios
Beginning of the Games: Tanks, Faction Troops, Weapon Collection
Myths of the Unseen Shrine: Captive Saint, Psychic Augmentation (4), Warp Forge (3)
Arrival of the Wild Card: Gilded Life Support Systems, Psychically-Treated Silicate
One Final Effort: Pylons, Gene Studies, Stormblade, OI-944 (2), Korvikemo (1), Psi-Tech (0)

Import Armor/Armor Combination: Susanoo, Final Batsuit (900), Material Donation: Shimmer of the Wishing-Heart (800), Aegis Upgrade (500), Necron Canoptek Scarabs (300), Necron Phase Shifter (0)

Weapon Import: Black Aquilla Glaive (Free)
Power Charging: Living Saint (Free)
Weapon Reformation (Free)
Animate (Free)
Blood Tracker (Free)
Grievous Strike (Free)
Purifying Flame (Free)
Empowered Light (800)
Warpflame (500)
Spell Focus (300)
Spiteful (0)


There's a tendency for certain patterns to recur throughout the multiverse. The world ending in fire and ice. The world beginning with a man and a woman in a garden. I am discovering, to my detriment, that for all my ontological supremacy the Chaos Gods are subtly engineering another: Not too long ago I slew them, raised the Emperor and Malcador, and raised high a dream of eagles.

It doesn't matter. I can't find the Chaos Gods' corpuses-the essential core of their being-anywhere in this existence.

That's why I'm playing it more low key this time. Imagine a single point of light rushing through space like a comet. Imagine a man in a typical Commissar outfit riding the back of Curator Veils, the feral and spacefaring remnant of a giant bat who was once a Master of the Bazaar. Imagine the bat was wheeling, howling in predatory exultation-

-and imagine an armada of Dark Eldar, daemons and orks in hot pursuit, their blasts deflected by twirls of the Black Aquilla Glaive. Low key is relative.

Right. The Glaive (I think, as I parry macrocannon fire). Eons ago at my nadir, the Emperor sent me a black chainblade. Eons later, he offered me Malcador's staff which became a gold twin to it. It had seemed only natural to pair the two as a symbol of my commitment against Chaos.

But we have different perspectives on the same end state of humanity, and-

-Oh, Boone and Commissar are following me somehow.
Giving them white lantern rings was a mistake.

There was a pattern of conflict there. We have, in the end, largely worked around it.

This takes priority, of couse. But as we close in I think about the eagle and reason out of chaos, and I see the seeds of another perfect being along the way. To begin with, I took the Unsung Peril. I brandish the sign of the Emperor's twofold favor at the captain, and he kneels. Now the incumberence of Red Hunter marines following me have an adequate vessel.

Truth be told, I value the ship far more for the fabled Ubertas Device than any of it's other capabilities
The Space Marines don't get to eat from it, of course. They get nutrient paste
And as for why Raege and Boone are following me-
-well, suffice to say this wasn't part of the plan. I tried to discourage them from staying by saying servants of the Imperium had to eat paste by regulation. They stolidly sat there and ate paste.

The first component was the Everlasting Empire. I greeted their oracle and voiced my approval and knowledge of what they were. I recruited them. They gave me a child that fattened upon my diamond will.

The second, the Forgotten Tribes of Dreadfang. The first one I met called me an eternal star god with the power of infinity, proving him an insightful sort. I affirmed him by executing the local ork warboss with a Black Aquilla Glaive technique I call the Thanoscopter. They gifted me a baroque core that tried to stare me down, and blinked first.

And the third-
-a marine, on edge and defiant for all his hardcoded loyalty, lost his life to the third.
I saw Boone try to heal him, nose bleeding from the effort, eyes running
"It's futile" I said.
She kept trying.
"It only gives it's all to the holder of the Life Equation" I said.
She sobbed from the strain, and kept trying.
"It's life, and light, and creation. It isn't fair" I said.
She screamed hoarsely, and...kept trying.
I saw a marine cry "Witchcraft!" and move to take her arm.
I saw the Commissar put a gun to his head, saw the others close ranks-

-and I blinded the marines with my blazing soul, and took Boone's hand, and gave her the power to raise a startled Space Marine from the dead.

That night, Boone and the Commissar dined richly while I nourished the twisting mists.

The marines never dared disobey me again.

Before, Boone and Raege had stowed away on my ship of all ships to evade Inquisitorial oversight about Boone's misplacement. I'd only given them the rings to survive the first quelling of Chaos. I had made my position about humanity clear to Raege, who admirably understood how futile fighting me would be but did not kowtow either, but it appeared Boone was still under the impression I was "a Hero of the Imperium". As if I had any lasting attachment, or investment, in this reality where love goes to die. To humanity.

I watched Boone use the pure light of creation like a fire hose on a haunted ship.
I watched her exhausted, but triumphant, waving at the departing spirits.

The fourth component.
The self-declared God of Iron. I didn't convince him with the Emperor's efforts or the lie of atheism, of course. Yes I affirmed, he still denied his divinity. What I did show Kyrios was the interactions between man and machine in other worlds, from the loyalty of the Exo to Zero's struggle to defeat Omega. I didn't frame them to deny sculpting humanity into a force of design. Rather, I simply suggested an improved design. At nay rate Kyrios slackened his hold on his followers and many might have seen it as a positive development if they didn't know what I had planned.

The source of the Warp anomaly neared. It was only logical to begin training Raege and Boone to use their rings in earnest.

>Dear Anon
>Why, of course they all remember everything! Bold of you to send your old comrades timelock technology, and assume I wouldn't use it to bolster the Imperium! You should see some of the things we're rediscovering from our Dark Age-time reversing ships to rival your heretical lauding of the Necron xenos. Oh, and-don't worry. I'm looking after the others. They miss you. It's like I said. Bizzare, borderline heretical harem comedy
>Warmest regards,
>Celestian Superior Arlissa Val'Rayan

One marine asked me why I fed the living mists a letter. I told him it was the affair of higher order beings beyond his ken.

This wasn't the heart of the anomaly. But you could see it from here. The daemon who tried to greet me confused everyone, upon realising I wasn't anywhere near the navigator he hijacked but approaching him on space batback. When we actually met eye to eye, his began to water from the intensity in mine.

Rather than try to contest the eyeballing after his speech he simply said: "How was Cats?". We shared a chuckle about idiots who put stock in prophecies. But first, pest control.

Step 1. Lure in the slaaneshi whore-man with Malfean dancing, debuff him with the light of my soul. Step 2. Hurl Black Aquilla Glaive at bunker to distract tzeentchian pawn. Evade. Feint. Trick khornate brute into trampling the nurgle filth's children. Step 3. Free homunculi while distracted. Summon Veils to avert sudden and inevitable betrayal. Step 4. Butcher abhuman abominations, concoct plague from the remains. Rising slice to rend incoming sorcery. Step 5. Order homunculi to decimate nurglite brood with plague while hamstringing khornate.  Step 6. Murder the dogs. Step 7. Trick the khornate into smashing the sorcerer's worshop in another blind rage rush. Low clockwise sweeping hamstring. Step 8. Reveal to Undivided battalion the Black Aquila is detachable. Parry, backhand slash, shoulder check, sheer off the man behind me's head. Step 9. Lift up homunculi as meat shield-

-and so on.

>Darling!!
>I MISS YOU. The new hospital's got all kinds of equipment, not just the medi-guns you left us! Can you imagine a juvenat gland that makes you closer to the Emperor's holy presence? Or YOURS, if you had a chunk of your soul? Haha, wouldn't it be crazy if I had a reliquary dedicated to growing what little pieces of yourself you left me keep into a worthy vessel. Please visit soon. Please?
>luv u XOXO
>Orders Hospitaler Lina

Raege said I dropped a letter mid-battle.

I told her it was less important than finding a port to let them off where the bureaucracy of the Imperium wouldn't grind up people who hadn't earned my undying contempt.

Raege had paid attention to the Imperium's revival in ancient history and shouted liturgies while solving the puzzles. Boone, I had noticed, had stopped crying and started killing.

"I'm told you have a life-sized version of this old thing?" said the daemon, gestering to his forge. "You're too kind. They're mostly mundane galaxies. I hadn't thought of making an immaterial one, truth be told. I must break you, you understand?" "I'd be disappointed if you didn't. I've lived long enough to wonder how I'd fare against our New Anathema. After all, the rules are that you MUST claim your prize, WHATEVER you feel comfortable in claiming" it replied, lunging at me.

If I were human, I would say the shaking of my bones would be troublesome. If I were human, I would say the dissonant hurricane roar of primal nightmare would make me flinch. If I were human, pushing myself to the apex of my native capacity in this universe merely to prove a point would be folly. But this was natural to my cosmic principle. THIS explosion of arete made supernal was what I made myself to be, and it was what I decided was the only thing I could be, and nothing else.

And then mid-swing, Boone suddenly blindsided the thing with a shimmer of psychic torpor while Raege blew it's head off with a massive bolter. "No fear. Never, ever any fear again" Boone kept repeating, until she passed out.

>To my dearest captain, O captain,
>I still have the lock of hair you left me. It makes for an excellent bookmark. I wish you could see Malcador striding up and down the halls hitting the High Lords of Terra upside the head with a stick. The task of restoring the vaults of Imperial lore is equaled only by the task of educating others about the Emperor's renunciation of divinity. But it's not. If you only just. You're not here and (unintelligible)
>i miss you
>Orders Dialogous Fia

"Is that from someone who loves you?" asked Boone, looking over my shoulder.

"It's rude to pry" I told her.

"Will you write back?" she asked.

"I...don't know if I should" I admitted.

That forge sure burned things well.

I found a useful resource that definitely did not enrage me by deeming me something I manifestly am not. Having at last gathered all the components, I immediately set about creating a new gestalt entity to surpass my prior efforts. Victory was in sight. The human problem was about to be solved with an ideal lifeform template. And there Raege was, breaking up a fight between the Baroque Core and the Gem of Madness ("Come into me!" "I'm looking at you!" "COME OVER HERE AND BE MADE ANEW" "I'M LOOKING AT YOU REALLY HARD") at gunpoint.

Then Cadia exploded, the Eye of Terror sliced the galaxy clean in half and I sensed the return of a man I'd obliterated from history as an afterthought.

Like I said, patterns. Or destiny. Or the inscrutable deterministic set of causal possibilities.

As I watched the techpriests drool over the Element of Dawn they hammered into my new chassis, as I wondered how aware the Imperium was about Guilliman's deal with the Eldar, I sent the Emperor a simple message: I TOLD YOU SO.

He sent me one back: HIVEMINDS ARE BAD, DO NOT GENERATE MORE HIVEMINDS

We spent many, many months arguing about hiveminds while multitasking our various machinations when a Warp Ghost came to greet me. He found out, painfully, that by then I was using the Warframe as my primary avatar. He was even more baffled when I deemed only Boone and Raege worthy to accompany me, the Hunters gone to save the Imperium or whatever and Veils going on holiday.

I practically rolled my eyes at the parade of life choices on the journey over, while Boone held a stiff upper lift. Perhaps not so oddly in hindsight, it was Raege who looked the most shook by old comrades. Both stared giggling when Erebus began his monologue about Chaos and inevitability. I decided not to dignify this farce by how proveably wrong it was. I simply hummed the the Ghostbusters song over and over again until I finally met the Armless Menace himself.

"I confess, I hadn't expected Guilliman to just run off with an Eldar witch like that" he admitted midway through his own pitch. It was the only sensible thing he said. But unlike Erebus' waffling, it deserved a retort.

"You shouldn't have reminded me only a fool trusts a daemon in your pro-Chaos pitch" I pointed out.

"Can. Can you actually take this seriously instead of cherrypicking an ad-lib?" demanded the flustered Despoiler.

"No, I can't. I can't take someone who sold out to powers I've slain over and over again, who've only come back because of a glorified cosmic phylactery seriously. Abaddon" I said sternly, but patiently "you do realise you're talking to someone who fought and won against the worst your world could offer at the NADIR of his power? I clawed off my flesh rather than endure my humanity. I killed Orokin the Diviner with his own superweapon. His CHAOS ABSORBING SUPERWEAPON. And I. Improved. His work"

There was a pregnant silence as Abaddon practically choked on his own tongue in sheer fury at a legitimate argument he hadn't expected to come up.

"Oh come on! Orokin was BULLSHIT! He doesn't count! He doesn't count for anything! That's cheating! YOU'RE CHEATING!" he finally burst out.

"You tried to bribe a cosmic force that rules entire multiverses with a suit of armor"

"BUT IT'S A VERY PRETTY SUIT OF ARMOR I MADE TO FLATTER YOUR TENTACLES" he wailed in desperation.

"I have an entire Walk-In Closet Dimension"

"That's it! Slow down-I mean kill this unstopp-delusional force of-this, this INGRATE! This shootable MAN" shouted Abaddon, backing away in horror at the sheer stupidity of his entire enterprise. It was too late, the gloves were finally off even before loyalist Alpha Legionnaires turned out to be a thing. Daemons banged futiley on the shimmering barrier I'd willed into existence around the expanded Eye of Terror. The Silent King held to his mutual defense pact. Obedient tyranids bolstered floundering Imperium defenses. The two new tamed powers of Chaos quashed their lesser kin.

"Erebus! Erebus get in here you useless fuck!" squaled Abaddon as he frantically tried to teleport out while I simply activated Orokin's work and revoked the property of teleportation from both the materium and the immaterium. A high-pitched squeal echoed from where Erebus was last seen. He was running for his life. Behind him walked the only being feared as much as the Emperor and myself by all of Chaos.

"Hi, senpai! Is that a few new girls I see?" asked Usagi Tsukino, Sailor Guardian of Love and Justice as Erebus was engulfed in forever explosions. A proud twinkle came to my eye. Erebus was being purified, obliterated and resurrected over and over again. All that training to emulate the Omega Sanction with her powers had paid off.

I narrowed my eyes at Boone, who was hopping up and down hopefully. At Raeage, who glared meaningfully. "Alright, final exam time" I said to myself. Abaddon screamed as I jabbed him with the BAG, it's sheer cutting power sever. "Girls, in 30 seconds I'm going to let this Choas man go crawling back to his masters' feet. Impress me!"

And-they did. Chains of white light locked around Abaddon's arms, holding fast even against the strain of teleportation. His face turned red, then purple, then black and started to bubble as he roared with the pain of 1000 shoulder aches. And with one final space-time wobble, he vanished. His arms ripped clean off.

Boone waved one at me as a trophy. In spite of myself, I smiled. "Okay, okay you guys-you guys are alright. You have proven yourselves WORTHY of remaining discreet from my hivemind health benefits plan. Welcome to the family". Raege ruffled Boone's hair.

I was saved from a potentially awkward conversation about how I reconciled my crusty, gruff, humanity-scorning exterior with a hidden but everpresent tendency to adopt humans by an ominous old woman approaching the group. As the Astartes hid behind Usagi and she introduced herself, I wondered if I could trust a handmaiden of the Emperor who also served a man I had literally just disarmed. In her favor she looked like she was fighting back a laugh, but there was only one way to be sure.

"So, what do you think about Erda?" I asked.

"Erda? What's the worst thing to ever happen to humanity since Chaos and anal prolapses have to do with the price of fish?!" barked the woman. "I come bearing you a gift of greatness, and you bring up HER? FUCK Erda! I wouldn't piss on her if she was on fire!"

"Good enough. I trust you" I said. Behind me, I ignored Usagi reading Boone the one letter I'd kept in my back pocket.

>Hi, buddy!
>I once told you relationships are like looting, but-I think you're really more of a siege kind of guy, you know? You never let your guard down. And you never run away or laugh-laugh authentically, I mean. I just wanted to remind you that even though we fight for an Imperium which, for all it's many flaws, we still believe in-we hope we can still hang out when it's all over. I worry about you, because I know you're worrying about us.
>Hugs and kisses forever for my hero
>Cierra

"Yeah, you guys are alright" I said to nobody, "But to hell with mankind", resolving to improve the perfect defenses around my back pocket.

>FIN




[Black Crusade part 3, jump #949]

Previously on Black Crusade: https://pastebin.com/swEW2Weh

I stood on the bridge of the vessel, mulling over what the once-handmaiden had told me. Thrice before, the light of my soul had donned a golden sheen (once admittedly, with more of a green-sigiled trim) and thrice before I had seen the tides of Chaos melt before my visage. I had asked Moriana what made this opportunity any more different. Her answer: This was the day when all my work would pay off.

"Why do you do this?". No techpriest dared interrupt my musing, not now I'd ceased to restrain the radiant form and emanations of my thrice-Anathema soul. The disparate, strong life I had raised to new heights was too focused. No, it was Boone. The little sanctioned psyker stood before me, eyes wtering, only the rune of fealty above her head saving her eyes.

WE ARE HERE, CHILD I said, finding mere words beneath me and imposing meaning with sheer force of will, BECAUSE IT IS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME UNTIL THE DARK GODS CRACK THE SEAL OF LIGHT I HAVE PLACED OVER THE EYE OF TERROR. WE ARE HERE TO COMPLETE MY ASCENSION. WE ARE HERE BECAUSE TO BE ANYWHERE ELSE WOULD BE FATAL.

>Serpent's Gaze

"No, I mean-why do you help people?"
HELP PEOPLE? IS THAT ALL YOU THINK I AM DOING?
"You're so bright. Like an exploding star, an', an' I'm sure yer strong enough to do whatever you want" said Boone, slipping into a little pidgeon in panic "but you keep stopping to-to fix people. Like me. And the big cats. And the man in the machine"

I could feel the Emperor's gaze on this moment. As the planetary defenses and the commanders' thoughts filled with panic bordering on awe at a living legend's descent, I derisively wondered if it was too late to resume my original plans and Anti-Life the galaxy.

YOU MISUNDERSTAND, I told her. THE VICTORY I WANT DOES NOT END WITH ME FIGHTING AND WINNING

1/9

"But I don't get it. You hate" she said, cringing "humans. Why don't you just wave a hand, get rid of them all? Put something better there instead of having to put up with...with me". Behind her, the felinids stared up with awe at mankind's works, and OI-944's hologram with mild derision.

YES. I DO. THAT IS WHY I STRIVE TO DO BETTER THAN THEM. I waved a hand anyway, enjoying the panic as ammunition unloaded and resource fabricators slotted themselves and my allies scrambled to do their part for the fortifications. I SPENT MY FIRST CONQUEST OF CREATION MUSTERING UP ALL MY SECRET ARTS AND DREAD GOD-SLAYING MIRACLES, STRIVING TO WIN THE CONFLICT THAT PLAGUED IT. BUT IN SHATTERING THE CYCLE OF REVOLUTION, I HAD LEFT ONLY A SHATTERED ANNEX. HAD I NOT PUT MY TRUST IN OTHERS...

I trailed off, reminiscing. Boone looked like she had regretted asking me anything. I put a hand on her head. KNOW THIS: THERE IS TRACE OF WORTH IN A HANDFUL OF YOU, INCLUDING YOU AND YOUR CARER, THAT I WILL DO ALL IN MY POWER TO SAVE. TO EXALT BEYOND THE PRISON OF YOUR HUMANITY. THAT POTENTIAL TO DEVELOP FREE FROM MANKIND'S FAILINGS AND SMITE CHAOS, I SENSE IN ALL I HAVE SAVED ON THIS JOURNEY.

STRENGTH, BEYOND STRENGTH. ALL OF THIS IS TO ENSURE THE UNIVERSE WILL BE POPULATED BY OTHERS WHO CAN ALSO ACHIEVE TIMELESS PERFECTION. A STRUCTURE AND HARMONY THAT WILL BE TRULY ANATHEMA TO CHAOS.

>Preparations: Fortress
>Forgotten Past
>Heavy Arachnus Blaze Cannons
>Psionic Annihilator
>Turret Emplacements: Volkite (950)
>Trenches-Warren System (900)
>Death Traps: Acid Pools, Lightning Orbs, Gravity Plates (800)
>Force Fields-Void Shield Arrays (650)
>Blessed Furnace (550)
>Purified Wards
>Psionic Dampener
>Barracks-Luxury Quarters
>Water Filtration
>Hydroponics Section-Arboretum (500)
>Monotask Servitors
>Hanger Bays/Landing Pads
>Medicae Station-Augmented Restoration Zone
>Beast Pens (450)
>Surplus Plasma Reactors-Baroque Supplies

2/8

>Teleportarium (400)
>Superconductive Lines-Conductive Mesh
>Consecrated Temple (300)
>Orbital Defenses (200)
>Apothecarion (0)
>Pylon Devices

HERE, I PROVE MYSELF RIGHT I told Boone as I tampered with the geneseed, adding the Primaris enhancements I had helped innovate here, inducing the development of organs that would glut psychic symbiotes to be as vast as strong as their enhanced hosts or swarms to grow vast and fierce enough to rend Titans. HERE I WAGER THAT, GIVEN POWER OVER PHYSICS AND GUIDANCE FROM ON HIGH, PEOPLE CAN BUILD A GENTLE KINGDOM RINGED IN SPEARS SURPASSING ANYTHING MANKIND HAS EVER ACHIEVED.

"And if they give up along the way? Or, or just feel too sad or...act too bad to meet your expectations?" asked Boone quietly.

THIS MOMENT, CHILD, IS WRIT IN FATE. IT WILL DECIDE WHETHER THEY WILL OR WON'T.

>Preparations: Army

YOU WOULD KILL YOURSELF TO SPITE THE IMPERIUM AS IT IS NOW? TO FIX POSSIBILITY SO IT MUST JOIN ME, OR DIE?
"Yes"
GOOD. YOU ARE A GOOD HANDMAIDEN. Too late, I realised my thoughts had touched on an opportunity I had thought long passed.
She stared at me with the intensity of the soon-to-die. "There is one thing you should know. The ritual cannot...rewrite the pasts of those unhinged from reality. Do you understand my meaning?"
I ALREADY KNEW. I looked away from her, staring at a distant horizon. THERE IS NO NEED FOR CONCERN. I WOULD NOT HAVE ASKED. WHAT IS DONE, IS DONE.
She gritted her teeth, swaying in the force of what I was feeling and wouldn't speak of. "I am not withholding your Choir of Righteous Fury from you. You made your choice long ago"
"And so did they" I whispered, fighting off the dreadful gravity of feeling human all of a sudden.

3/8

>Emperor AngelicX19 (5)
>Army Imports
>Everlasting Armies
>Rise of Dreadfang
>Awakened Horde
>Bastion of Iron
>Golden Army
>1000 Aquila Manifestations

I spoke my intent to Moriana. There were multiple possibilities in reach where the Alpha Legion's mission had borne fruit. Perhaps this was why they had damned themselves by throwing in with me: The opportunity to see their project bear fruit many times over. The subjugation of the Emperor's disparate soul under a new cause. The Anathema-shards flocked and banked around me, as if caught in a great gyre, buffeted by the new psychic radiances I charged them with. I almost smiled. In the coming months I would make clear this bastion would have nothing of the old legacy of the Imperium, but be the seed of a new order beyond the-

>Erda (0)

-"Oh. Oh no. Not HER" said Moriana suddenly. There was an odd dimensional disturbance in the veil of time she was struggling to sustain. WHAT IS WRONG? SPEAK QUICKLY, YOU ARE RAPIDLY DISINTEGRTING. "She's coming through, the stupid bint! Damn it DAMN IT why does she have to ruin EVERYTHING arblrblrblb" shouted Moriana as one last non-Emperor soul summon tripped through her smouldering, ashen ruin.

OH. IT'S YOU.
"Where's Angron? Have you taken out his thorns?! What about Magnus, have you told Lemun to stop bullying him?"
STOP TRYING TO ADJUST MY RAINMENT OF LIGHT.
"Have they been feeding you well? You're not working too hard are you?"
WOMAN, I AM BRINGING ABOUT A NEW PARADIGM OF EXISTENCE. YOU KNOW I PREDATE YOUR EMPEROR. YOU KNOW MY PRIMARCH BODY WAS A MERE VESSEL FOR MY SOUL-
"But are they they feeding. You. Enough"
YOU STOP THIS RIGHT NOW YOU ARE EMBARRASSING ME IN FRONT OF THE GIANT CAT PEOPLE
"Actually no my lord, we're still in awe a goddess walking through time to pat you on the head!" shouted a big tigery man in the back.
SHUT UP. YOU. ARE. EMBARRASSED ON MY BEHALF.

4/8

And so I spent the next few months of fortification preptime being followed around by a fussy woman who kept trying to force a homemade sweater on my big shiny god-king body while Boone asked me where the fuzzy hat fit into my grand plans for universal dominion and Commissar Raege shot anyone who looked like they were going to laugh.

>Exekyle Abaddon, Warmaster of Chaos

An Astartes force of nearly fifty thousand, many of them touched by Chaos, found that even approaching the Pylons was disorientating. Especially after Kyrios and OI-944's amplifier drones started projecting the wave at the fleet. By the time Abaddon's forces had broken through the orbital defences, braved repeated psionic bombardment, clashed against the void shields and pitfalls of holy fire, braved massive flesh-eating swarms that chanted disturbingly Imperial prayers as they lit on fire what they bit,  endured the bright holy wars inscribed everywhere, fought through neverending clone armies that refused to die, clashed with giant cat people armed with power weapons, struck aside psychic symbiotes overcharged by a geode to which nearly all ambient psychic energy had been redirected to-

Abaddon's honor guard had closed ranks around the man as he approached me, all shiny and shit on the battlefield. He had new, warpstone arms. "You empty, hollow furnace" he boomed. "Your bleak transcendence disgusts me! When the gods saved me from your ghost-eating technique, I saw the truth. I saw a warrior of Chaos Undivided who even the gods feared! And in that moment I realised Chaos is NOT mankind's bane. It is our BIRTHRIGHT. The epitome of everything that makes us HUMAN. I draw the Emperor's bane today not just for my own ambition, but because ambition is the birthright of all living things! So lay on, you ghastly demiurge, and feel the true wrath of mankind's OH NO EAGLES OW OW OW STOP PECKING AT ME OH GODS THEY'RE IN MY ARMOR"

5/8

There probably was a more dramatic way to hamdle Chaos' champion than spend most of the battle reinforcing my armies with my vast powers, and exhausting his, until he had no choice but to step forth and be dogpiled by fiery birds. And Emps soul-shards.

There was probably a more respectful way to handle his champions than to just sic even more Emperors Angelic on them.

There was probably a more sure way to ensure Abaddon stayed down than to simply take away his sword with Null Anima Gloves, pin him through one leg with it and leave him to be run over by Erda in a Baneblade. But I just didn't have time.

>PATH TO ASCENSION

YOU HAVE FOLLOWED ME THUS FAR. DARE YOU COME WITH ME TO THE END? I asked Raege and Boone as we gathered around the rip into the Immaterium, wreathed by wires. Raege nodded, gulping. Boone just stared at the portal. "He's there. The Master of Mankind"

YES. A MOST AGREEABLE LIFEFORM, IN MOST RESPECTS.
Raege's eye twitched, but she'd had a while to come to terms with how much heresy I was bent on and the Emperor's own willingness to tolerate it. "...most?"
THE EMPEROR IS TOO MUCH THE IDEALIST.

For a moment I withdrew the black sword the Emperor had passed down to me upon the Light of Terra, the nadir of my experiences in this reality. I thought about the impossible choice he would have had to made, whether to cut down an infinite threat to all humanity-or seek his gratitude so in the fullness of his power, he would undo his mistakes. "Will it hurt? Meeting the Emprah, I mean" whispered Boone. "Pain is heresy leaving the body, kid. Chin up. You've got some grime on your face, the Emperor won't like that" said Raege gravely.

I cast my gaze on the room. Something seemed...incongruent.

6/8

YOU MAY GO I told the acolytes. YOU HAVE SERVED ME WELL. I DO NOT REQUIRE YOUR LIVES
"B-but my lord!" protested one. "The portal-"
-WILL ACCEPT A TITHE OF MY OWN SOUL. SEE? I said, parting the veil and flooding the room with golden light.
"This was meant to be the end of our lives. What...what should we do now?" asked another.
REMAKE YOURSELVES. BECOME A MACHINE. JOIN A COLLECTIVE. OR A SYMBIOTIC BOND. SHOW MANKIND THE LIMITATIONS OF THEIR FORMS. YOU SERVE BE BETTER AS SAINTS THAN MARTYRS.

YOU SEE? I told Boone. WHEN MY WORK IS DONE, SUCH PRIMITIVE TRADITIONS SUCH AS /SELF SACRIFICE/ WILL BE UNNECESSARY. ONCE THE SELF IS ANOTHER WEAKNESS CULLED FROM THE WEAK.

And then I reached out with Malcador's staff.

>Rewards of the Gods

>Tree of Life
The air was crystalline, like the tallest peaks of the alps at noon. The ground-if that's what you could call the tides of Chaos temporarily hardened into immutable law- felt like dry ice. "I thought I'd fine you here" said the Emperor, toasting me. We drank some of the rich cider from the great tree's fruit. "Russ told me about this place. I confess, I thought it was a myth" I admitted, not needing the Big Scary Concept Voice now I was in the presence of somebody who had nothing to prove.

"Take good care of it, will you?" he asked. "I didn't need it in the end, but someone else might"

>Lost Psychic Abilities
>Celestial World

Upon a world where faith burned like fire and will cast up golden crops as far as the eye could see, the Emperor laughed when I told him about Erda. "She's YOUR problem now" he laughed, spilling his drink. In the distance, Raege and Boone were stumbling in awe, the first mortals in many years to stand upon a world handcrafted by the Emperor himself.

"The Choir thanks you for-" he began offhandedly.

"I don't need you to tell me what I can hear, rapturous and ecstatic, over there" I complained, pointing into the Warp.

7/8

"You must realise" I told him seriously, "this is, ostensibly, the part where destiny decrees I destroy the Immaterium and remake mankind in my image once and for all? No matter the cost"

"And you must realise" he countered. "that destiny has, time and again, been an excuse for the mighty to do whatever they wanted to anyway. The way I see it, we can at last come to blows. Mankind can fight your cosmos of titans, and die like it was born: Screaming, and covered in blood. Or...we can maintain the pretense of civility a little longer, and see what our chosen races can achieve beyond the fetters of this little galaxy.

We thought on the option a while longer.

"I simply put it to you that as enemies, I think our conflict empowering Chaos even infintesimally would be repulsive to you" said the Emperor, watching Boone pluck flowers to make a wreath to put in Raege's hair.

"As they are now their failure, their imperfection serves Chaos. But I suppose as allies, guided by us...we could starve them. Poison the Immaterium even, with our shared light" I said, watching Raege stare at the sky with the confusion that was inner peace. "Abaddon was right, you know. Given your druthers your mission will, ultimately, remove what makes humans human. I've always admired that goal, unattainable as would have been without this partnership"

"You keep using that word to describe the REALISATION of our FULL POTENTIAL. Don't misunderstand me" said the Emperor sharply. "I fully intend for mankind to emerge dominant over your creations, in the fullness of it's psychic maturity. Only now...in the arena of culture, and diplomacy"

8/9

"A different challenge? Then I suppose we have a new compact" I said, shaking hands with him.
"Oh" he added "and one more thing I keep forgetting. That jumped-up spawn of Necoho you empowered? That was too far. I think a little balance will seal our compact, don't you?"
"I have just the candidates for you" I said, pointing at Raege and Boone.

>Sainthood: Sanctioned Psyker Boone
>Impressive Form
>Being of Souls
>Immaterial Constitution
>Immaterial Power
>Stuff of Nightmares
>Psychic Boon
>Second Chance
>Influenced Land (700)
>Face of Eternity (400)
>Purifying Flame
>Aura of Purity
>Psychic Suffocation (300)
>Empowering Flight (250)
>Protective Energies (200)
>Psychic Understanding (0)

"Congratulations, Boone. Through the Emperor's light and my tutelage you have cast aside the worthless husk of your humanity-"
"-BY WHICH HE MEANS ACHIEVED IT'S FULL POTENTIAL-" shouted the Emperor from over the hill.
"-and transcended IT'S FRAILTIES AND WEAKNESSES to achieve your perfect, final shape. What do you have to say, before we return to secure the galaxy once and for all?" I said.

I'm sure that Boone, in her right mind, would've said something epic and soul-scarring about how she rejected her humanity once and for all and it was just getting caught up in the moment that instead made her do loop-de-loops in midair while yelling "Hooray, I can fly! I CAN FLY!" and completely missing the point.

>FIN

9/9