Warhammer: Empire Reboot

Page 791

The metal restraints snapped open.

Talion's body slid off the interrogation rack and fell to the floor.

Talion lay on the ground, taking a few seconds to realize that the restraints had disappeared.

He looked up at Heramon.

Heramon's expression was complicated.

Three hundred years of interrogation work became meaningless after a single communication.

But the father of genetics' orders are paramount.

“Get up,” Heramon said.

"The Father of Genes has returned. He has pardoned all the fallen angels who did not submit to Chaos. You may leave now."

Talion stared at his face, trying to find traces of a lie.

He found nothing.

Heramon stood up, turned and walked toward the door.

"There are still six fallen angel prisoners in the interrogation area. I'll go inform them."

He paused for a moment as he walked out the door.

"Three hundred years. What I did to you was my duty, please understand..."

…………

On the edge of the empire's dark side, lies a nameless, frozen world.

The temperature at the equator of this planet remains at minus sixty degrees Celsius year-round.

The surface is an endless ice sheet, beneath which lies a frigid ocean.

Cologne and his three brothers have lived on this planet for four thousand years.

They dug a cave 200 meters below the ice cap and used the residual heat from the power armor's reactor to maintain a minimum temperature.

Their food comes from giant crustaceans beneath the ice. Every few months, they dive into the icy sea to hunt an ice shrimp that is over ten meters long.

Kolon was the company commander. When the Caliban shattered, he and his entire company of thirty-seven men were thrown into the warp.

Only eight people remained after landing.

In the following centuries, four more died from the pursuit of dark angels and attacks by aliens.

Now there are only four left.

Cologne, Hermann, Joseph, and the youngest Fritz.

Fritz was a new recruit that year, having been in the army for less than a year when the Caliban collapsed.

Occasionally, Imperial probes would pass by the orbit of this unnamed planet, at which point they would shut down all power signals and wait breathlessly beneath the ice.

They rarely chat.

Four thousand years have passed; everything that needed to be discussed has already been discussed.

The past of each person, the details of each battle, the name and manner of death of each fallen brother, were repeated hundreds of times.

They simply lived quietly.

That day, Cologne was repairing a section of pipe made from an ice shrimp shell.

Fritz was sorting through ammunition deep in the cave; they had so little ammunition that each round had to be precisely numbered. Herman was on guard duty, and Joseph was sleeping.

Cologne's nerves suddenly twitched.

A certain frequency deep within the gene seed was triggered.

The Father of Genetics has returned, the Pardon has been granted, and the Resurrected Order welcomes you.

Then came a voiceprint.

Fritz emerged from the depths of the cave: "Cologne, you felt it too?"

Joseph was awakened by the noise, and he sat up to look at his three brothers.

The four people stared at each other in silence.

Cologne was the first to speak: "It could be a trap. The Dark Angels have used false signals to lure us in the past."

Herman said, "How do we know the Primarch has really returned? It's possible that someone obtained the genetic sample and faked the pulse."

Joseph said, "So what if it's a trap?"

The three people looked at him.

"We've been hiding in this ice cave for four thousand years. How much longer can we hold on? A hundred years? Two hundred years? And then what? Die under the ice, become fossils, and no one will even remember our names?"

The cave fell silent.

Joseph continued, "If it's true, we'll go back; if it's false, we'll die. Either way, it's better than waiting to die here. At least we'll die knowing why."

Cologne closed his eyes, thought for a long time, and then stood up.

"Pack your things, let's go."

Fritz asked, "Where to?"

"The Monastery of the Great Stone".

Herman paused for a moment, then asked, "You believe that?"

Cologne began dismantling the camp's life support equipment: "Joseph is right. Between waiting to die here and going there to die, choose the latter."

They emerged from the ice cave, climbed the ice cap, and set foot on the surface of this nameless planet.

The wind of the icy plains blew against their faceplates as the four stood amidst the vast white expanse of heaven and earth.

Cologne turned to his brothers.

"Let's go."

On the edge of an imperial agricultural world, an unnamed cemetery.

Gwen stood in front of a row of simple crosses.

The cross was made of wood and stuck in the yellow earth.

Gwen has lived on this planet for twelve hundred years.

When he arrived, the area had just experienced an orc invasion, and most of the continent had been burned to ashes.

He saved a village, then another, and then yet another.

For 1,200 years, he lived among these agricultural villages as a “giant wanderer.”

Help them repair irrigation ditches, help them drive away wild beasts, and help them guard the village entrance when the orcs attack again.

He watched as generations were born, grew up, grew old, and died.

He named them, attended their weddings, and stood in the last row at their funerals.

He watched the first child he saved grow into an old man and then die.

Then I watched as the old man's grandson also died.

Then comes the great-grandson, and then the great-great-grandson.

Gwen no longer wears power armor.

A piece of equipment was scrapped a thousand years ago, but he disassembled it into parts and used them to make irrigation pumps and threshing machines for the village.

He was wearing a coat sewn from local animal hides and was barefoot in the mud.

When the pulse arrived, Gwen was filling a new grave with soil.

This is the grave of one of his most recent friends.

An old woman named Alma, the miller's daughter, was seventy-three years old and suffered from heart disease.

Gwen sat by her bedside as she lay dying, holding her hand, and listened to her last words: "Mr. Giant, when are you coming home?"

Gwen did not answer, because he had no home.

The pulse's message resonated deep within his genetic seed.

The father of genetics has returned, and a pardon has been granted.

Gwen filled the hole with the last shovelful of soil and rested the shovel against the cross.

He stood in the cemetery and looked at it for a long time.

Names and faces from the past twelve hundred years flashed through his mind.

Then he turned and walked toward the village.