Imperium Ascendant

Chapter Thirteen: Children of Mars

Moving at velocities once thought impossible to a Ship its size the Bucephalus cruised out of Terra's gravity well and plotted a vector for Mars. Its colossal Plasma drives increased in power and the Emperor felt the Cognatu-Ferrum making near instantaneous adjustments to the city-sized vessel as they accelerated to a low fraction of LightSpeed. Ancient artificial gravity generators compensated for the ever-increasing G-forces and if not for the celestial bodies moving in the view-screens one would have a hard time telling the ship was even moving.

After a few seconds of flight the ship passed close to Luna, even from here, the Emperor could detect the slight gap within the Warp located upon Luna's Surface. Within a requisitioned Lunar watch-fort dozens of Psychic Nulls trained. The women who would eventually from the Anathema Pskyana had been gathered from both Luna and Terra throughout the Unification Wars.

Countless abominable experiments both during and before Old Night had given the Sol System a higher than galactic average rate of Pariah Gene holders. The Emperor had briefly considered wiping them out, the nature and origin of the Gene were one of the many mysteries he still sought to unravel and his suspicions about its origins worried him, but for now, they were far too useful and loyal to deserve such a fate.

As Luna passed by and the void beckoned the Emperor muttered to himself a phrase once carved upon the entrance gate of the first Port Luna "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" only Valdor was within earshot and he simply nodded slightly and the Emperor smiled softly.

The First of the Ten Thousand had embraced the role of the warrior more than most of the Custodes and the Emperor could hardly blame him. Valdor had fought by the Emperor's side since he had been born from a Flesh-Forges within the Emperor's Himalazian stronghold. He had been built from the ground up as a masterwork of Gene-crafting the Emperor had only been able to improve on twice. With Taranis, whose abilities had come at a cost and the Primarchs.

Eventually, Terra and Luna became specks within the ships viewport and The Emperor probed the Cognatu-Ferrum to ensure all systems were functional. It passed with flying colors and the Emperor left the Command Throne, his psychic power still feeding into the Vessel through the countless Psi-filament circuits that acted as the ships nervous system. With Valdor in tow, the Emperor went to speak with one of the maiden voyages passengers.

He found the passenger staring out the main-view port of the vessel into the void. The passenger was practically pressed up against the Titan-sized view-hole and the Emperor could tell his enhanced senses were locked into a small red dot not visible to the naked eye. The Emperor couldn't blame him, it was the nature of all humans lost in the wilderness to seek there home.

Throughout the unification wars, numerous Martian expeditions to Terra had been captured by the Emperor. Most of these were primitive things lead by a particularly desperate, insane or foolish Tech-Priest and had been dealt with easily. There Automata were recycled, there weapons and tools were confiscated, and most of the Tech-Priests had been agreed to serve after speaking with the Emperor. The ones who hadn't met the unpleasant fate of having scores of Terrawatt clan members and even former Mechanicum members dissect every aspect of there being in search of technological secrets.

That was the typical pattern, the passenger had been the leader of one of those hunts for archeotech, but he had been anything but typical. An entire Skitarii Maniple, two Knight-Walkers and a few squads of Legio Cybernetica brazenly landed near one of the early capitals of the Imperium and attacked it in search of a stasis-vault of technology the Emperor had declared off limits yet too valuable to destroy. This surgical strike was not the haphazard salvage run but a retrieval operation. The Thunder Warriors had crushed the Skitarii utterly and the leader of the expedition had been captured alive. That leader now stood before the Emperor, A Tech-Priest known as Belisarius Cawl.

Cawl was a brilliant and extremely dangerous Tech-Priest who had been slated for execution due to his crime of data-predation, blasphemy, unsanctioned-augmentation, and attempted an assassination of higher-ranking servants of the Machine God. When his assassination attempt on his Master failed and a punitive force closed in on his position Cawl had activated a Backdoor he had built into the Forge he worked in. About half of the cybernetic and mechanical forces of his former home along with numerous allies rebelled and escaped with him to Terra.

Seeking an advantage over the vengeance of the Martian priesthood and possibly a way to buy his way back into there good fortunes he came to Terra in order to claim a particular artifact. Cawl had scoured records and long distances scan to find the location of the infamous Meme-Virus Primarium.

This fusion of warp and nanite technology from the Golden Age allowed accesses to all knowledge possessed Meme-Virus infectees. This prime-virus would have allowed Cawl to not only vastly increase his own wisdom but infect foes with it and not just steal there knowledge but turn them into data-addicts ever feeding his memory banks. Ironically Cawl had never intended to use it in its most malignant ways and only intended to use it as a token of peace with Mars.

Thankfully he had been stopped and captured. The Emperor had met with him and Cawl had simply looked upon the Emperor once before he started begging for the right to serve him. The Emperor had poured through the mind and soul of the tech-priest and found a soul of unfathomable curiosity and conviction. Cawl wanted to elevate himself and his species with the knowledge of the cosmos and the Emperor was reminded of ancient friends and allies of a long extinct order of knowledge seekers.

The Scientists had gone extinct with the Iron War and now only cults of data and machinery existed in there place but Cawl and like-minded individuals brought the Emperor hope of maybe a return to humanities inquisitive roots. When he had been captured Cawl had expected a barbarian tyrant seeking to bully him into service, any being that called itself the "Emperor of Mankind" had to be.

Belisarius had been utterly shocked when the being he had met, not the brutish gene-bulked thug he had expected but a Man of Purpose and intellect beyond Cawls wildest dream-protocols. Many on Mars accused Cawl of being a lunatic, a renegade unable to accept his place in the cosmos and serve his betters and the Deus Mechanica properly. This was not exactly the case.

Cawl had honestly wanted to be a good servant of the Machine God for as long as he could remember, his faith comprised a core tenet of his belief and serving the source of knowledge and wisdom was his only true ambition. The problem had been the Mechanicum did not measure up to Cawls self-imposed standards. They were a bickering dogmatic group of knowledge hoarding egomaniacs. Belisarius Cawl had simply wanted to serve a master he deemed worthy, none on Mars had been but he one of Terra was.

The Emperor and Cawl had quickly grown to admire each other and a working relationship between the two had formed. After decades of service, he had earned the Emperor's trust and had been even allowed to work on the Primarch Project. He had been responsible for numerous break through on the Black Carapace and even tutored the Primarchs on numerous occasions. Now side by side they were returning after to Mars after nearly a Century.

They did not speak to each other, Cawl had barely seemed to notice the Emperor and acknowledged his presence with a quick bow. The two of them simply stared into the void as the Red dot in the distance slowly grew. The once multi-year journey would take only a few hours and that was with the Bucephalus flying at low power to not attract the attention of the countless Xeno Raiders stalking Sol. The Flagship could fight off virtually anything that could attack them but the Emperor did not want to risk a full-blown battle before what was supposed to be a diplomatic mission.

Eventually, the Emperor spoke to Cawl: "They might not accept you back like you hope." The Tech priest simply responded: "I will face the Judgment of Mars if that is to be my fate." It was, in a alternate reality the Emperor had been forced to hand his ally over to the Mechanicum as part of the Treaty of Olympus, he had managed to get Cawls sentence commuted to the first of his many Memory wipes instead of execution but he hoped like many things, that Cawls fate could be changed.

Speaking softly the Emperor continued: " I have seen it, they will demand your execution and I will only be able to save your life not your mind." To that Cawl seemed slightly shocked but he returned to the mechanical stoicism typical of his kind. The sudden hum from Cawls Atmosphere intake suggested he was doing the Mechancium equivalent of taking a deep breath before speaking. "I have planned for such even my Lord, within my Lab there is a data-core activated by the biometrics of you or one of the Primarchs. It contains a data program I call the Cawl Inferior. Consider it a contingency if such a fate occurs."The Emperor's eyes widened and visions of possible futures entered his mind.

*An avenging son stalking the ruins of the palace seeking any means to undo what has been done*

*Hidden laboratory discovered and a secret uncovered. Communications with a group of refugees from Trisolian open up new possibilities*

*The Master of Masters is reborn and travels the galaxy in search of knowledge, his inferior hoarding memories and thoughts to be stored in case of calamity*

Smiling softly the Emperor responded "You never cease to impress me Cawl" the Tech Priest bowed low and responded "You honor me with such words my Lord" After that, they simply stood next to each other as Mars grew in the viewport. The Colossal Ring of Iron was now barely visible and the Emperor was reminded of ages past when under his prodding humanity had reached for the stars and first came to Mars. It had been one of his more oddly named identities but still highly successful in helping humanity advance. ɽãΝO͍ʙĚȘ

Soon millions of challenge hails from Mars and its countless orbital installations. The Emperor ordered them all to be answered with a simple message in perfect High Techna-Lingua. "We are the Imperium of Man, we seek to meet with the Mechanicum of Mars for peaceful contact" Billions of Weapon Platforms locked onto the Bucephalus yet none fired. The Emperor subtly influenced the trillions of machine spirits preparing to attack his ship to stand down as they approached Mars.

The Twenty kilometer vessel soon pressed into the upper atmosphere of the Red Planet and the heat of the ship caused rolling storm clouds to form almost instantaneously as it slowly lowered towards the surface of Olympus Mons. The Emperor and Cawl nodded to each other and the Emperor made way to the main gantry of the Bucephalus. As he did he psychically pulsed one of his personal servants to bring a certain item to him. The Handmaiden along with two bulky armory-servitors (gifts from Cawl) met him. She bowed and the Emperor handed his blade to the Servitors and she gave him his Sceptre: The Augustus Xexillium.

He was coming not as a Warrior-King but as a figure of unification and his symbol of office would be more fitting than a weapon of war. Finally, the Imperial Flagship, covered in storm clouds touched the surface of Mars and the Emperor walked down the gantry and set foot upon the second home of the Human Species.

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