70 A Second Chance 2

(Year 792, 30th Millenium)

-Planet: Earth(Terra)-

Colossal winds roar across the Himalayan mountains as the biting cold could freeze a normal man in mere seconds. The mountains themselves had long shifted and changed over the years with some mountains, being utterly and completely destroyed during the reunification wars.

The Earth had been reconquered from all of the tech warlords that once spread chaos across the entire planet in the wake of the rebellion of the men of iron.

The Thunder Warriors had long served their purpose and had been replaced by the Space Marines, or at least the first version of the Astartes.

Yet each of these new legions required a leader, as the emperor, in all of his psychic and physical might, could not be everywhere at once, even with his fellow perpetuals, Malcador and Erda, assisting him.

But it was in this mountain range that important work was being done to ensure a future. Months and years of work culminating in the most advanced research since the dark age of technology.

Through a combination of sorcery, genetic structuring, and almost divine intervention, 21 children had been created.

Each one, the pinnacle or one step lower than the being that created, each child himself. These Primarchs are second only in power and skill to the Emperor himself.

If the data were to be believed, if each one of these children were to grow to their full potential, the entire galaxy would have to contend with 21 demigods, each meant to fill a specific role.

At least, that was the plan.

[Alert! Alert! Subjects Have Escaped Containment!]

[All Personnel Are Advised To Search For Subjects A-1 Through A-21.]

Alarms began to blare across the hidden facility, and the cause was the disappearance of the children from their gestation pods. Upon further inspection, it seemed that the pods had been moved to another part of the facility.

[Alert! Alert! Warp Energies Detected!]

In one of the many hidden rooms created by Erda, all 21 gestation pods had been moved toward a giant vortex of pure immaterial energy. It was a plan made in desperation to preserve something seen as innocent.

What was not known was the fact that the woman had long been manipulated by the ruinous powers to separate all of the Primarchs. Because, as long as those children did not reach their full potential, they could be turned or they could die.

In the woman's eyes, she believed that she was preserving their innocence and the innocence of her children in her own way, even if she did not view them as her blood directly. Better, they are sent to the broader galaxy, then live as weapons under a being that even she could not think of as a father.

As the vortex grew in strength, it began to absorb everything within the room, and as it spread, the woman who had brought all of the pods there then went into what seemed like an observation deck.

Because while she could not have the children, she would watch to make sure that they could escape what she viewed as an empty future filled with blood and death. She had seen the visions and saw all of their fates, or at least versions of them, as prophecy had long been a detriment to the galaxy as they were ripe for misinformation and manipulation.

In the future, the children will have been no different than tools for the soon-to-be emperor of mankind. Thankfully, the emperor had been distracted by coordinating efforts to begin his Great Crusade and left one he thought he could view as a decently trusted advisor to her own devices.

The woman then acsended the ladder leading to the observation deck and watch as the warp vortex overtook the room, but then she noticed something odd.

One of the vitals for the gestation pods had changed slightly, and as she looked over to pod number 6, which was oddly next to pod number 9 that was showing the anomaly, she saw that the child within it had its eyes open.

This was not a good thing, as according to her calculations, if the children did not make their journeys, unconscious or asleep, there could be possible mental and spiritual damage due to being exposed to the warp in a conscious state.

So she clicked a button on her data pad. She tried to flood the gestation pod with a powerful sedative; with the amount sent into the pod, it definitively was powerful enough even to slow down the emperor.

But to the scientist's dismay and confusion, the child's eyes remained open, yet it made no movements as it just observed her with piercing eyes, just like his father.

There were no words said as none needed to be stated. The child looked across the room and saw all of the other pods and did not even emote, showing a face of acceptance and calm that she had seen before.

And instead of falling asleep, the boy in the pod would simply close his own eyes of his own volition, as if expecting or waiting for something to happen.

Awareness should not have been possible at this moment as even with the advanced minds of the Primarchs, they still had yet to develop their own ego, but the tired and blinded woman shook it off as a hallucination.

Checking the energy signature of the portal, the scientist watched as each of the pods fell into the vortex, and not a moment too soon as within the next second, she felt the presence behind her.

The woman did not turn around as she did not need to see the giant of a man standing 13 feet tall and with glowing yellow eyes that seemed to absorb all of the light in the room while staring at the warp vortex with more hatred than she could ever know.

Again, there were no words said as the giant of a man placed his hand on the woman's shoulder and forced her to look into his eyes even as she struggled to remain staring towards the Vortexx. It was impossible to deny the giant man's strength.

Erda looked up at her partner, with whom she created the children and prepared for death. Yet as she felt nothing, she would reopen her eyes and stare upwards towards the emperor of mankind as he looked on towards the empty room.

"What have you done?" The words were said with silent intensity, even without meaning to there was an innate power behind the words, as if a symphony of voices had spoken all at once.

" Preserved something beautiful." The words came out before the woman could stop herself from uttering them, and as the emperor's psionic power began to grow, The entire mountain range began to shake as the nearby mountains began to fall apart at the seams.

Letting go of his partner's arm, he would shatter the windows that separated the observation deck from where the portal once was, and as he tried to sense for his creations, he found that they were already lost to him. His senses, honed after thousands of years, failed him as he could feel that he was being shut out of the warp by those things.

And then, all that could be heard was laughter from multiple voices, and as the room filled with their mocking jeers, all it took was one second for the Emperor to deny their victory.

But their voices spoke out into the empty room, and the sheer weight of each statement sent cracks throughout the entire facility.

"Their blood is mine! Their skulls shall make for excellent additions to my throne!" a voice soaked in madness and violence said to the emperor.

" Such useful children, I wonder how many diseases I could create from their blood. I wonder how they would look as they fall to sickness and age. They will make for good company for the goddess." A disgusting voice shouted to the void.

" Yes, so many schemes for the next couple hundred years to create. What say you, Anathema huhuhuhu? That red one looked interesting. I believe I shall add the child to my forces." a voice that speaks and never changes tongues said to the emperor.

" All of you are so dull. Did you see that forms such as perfection could not be seen for millennia? Let us not waste them and show them the beauty of depravity." All four voices begin to argue in unison, all of them discussing ways of manipulating the children, and the emperor had enough.

Grasping his sword, he lifted the flaming ionic blade, stepped into their courts, and lit them all ablaze. The journey was done in seconds, yet for the emperor, it lasted hours, as he said, a decent percentage of all of those courts to the sword.

But the mocking laughter did not cease but instead became ever louder. It would then stop, as if it was never there, and the Emperor turned to Erda as the woman's eyes cried out in rage for being so easily manipulated. The woman then bit her lip so hard it began to bleed as the emperor simply stood there as stoic as ever he was.

"What have I done?" The woman on the floor asked.

No answer was said by either of them, yet as the Emperor left the room, a storm of thoughts raged in his mind as now his great crusade had an additional objective to find his children. He would not let them fall to the ruinous powers.

He had already lost too much.

Sending a message to Malcador to meet him on his ship, the Emperor disappeared as if he was never there.

Erda lost and angry, left the room. But as she despaired her own failure, she was reminded of that child who stared right at her. The site haunted her, to be honest, but as long as they lived, they still had a chance.

The woman would stumble out of the room and grab a small land shuttle. Erda then left the facility, but as she turned around to look back, the whole facility exploded in flames.

-The Unknown Immaterium-

All 21 pods flew across the ever-changing landscapes. Thankfully, each of the pods was equipped with life-supporting systems in the event that they were ever taken from the facility.

But they were not built to traverse such a place as the warp, and in seconds, the high-density metals and polymers that created the pods began to deteriorate from being exposed to the powers of chaos and the sheer weight of all of the souls.

Thankfully, the emperor of mankind had the foresight to place minor psychic shields upon each of the pods, and in the event they were exposed to ruinous energy , the pods would be able to survive with the children, not being influenced by the dark powers.

Hope still remained as, at random intervals, each of the pods disappeared into other portals towards other worlds, and after an amount of time that felt like years, but in the immaterial time, it was more fluid than the ocean.

And in that ocean lay great terrors as in the distance, all that could be heard with a clashing of fangs and blades, in addition to the never-ending screams of pleasure and pain, it was an endless cacophony of ever-flowing emotion and souls.

It could've been years to seconds, but as each of the pods disappeared into the depths of the warp, the singular pot remained, but unlike the other occupants, who were still asleep, this occupant remained awake throughout the entire time.

There were no words, said, and there was no panic, and soon enough, just like the other pods, the last pod was sent out to a random part of the galaxy to be left to die.