Location: Battle Barge Emperor's Grasp
Deck 07 – Central Chapel of the God-Emperor
The chapel was vast. Lit only by flickering votive candles and the dull golden glow of stained plasteel windows, it felt more like a crypt than a holy place. The scent of incense was heavy — cloying, smothering — as if it were trying to bury something beneath layers of sanctity.
Brother Catalin the 2nd moved silently down the center aisle, armored boots echoing against ceramite flooring carved with Dornian scripture.
He passed statues of heroes long dead — Rogal Dorn, grim and eternal. The Emperor, seated in divine judgment. Saint Invicta, blade raised against the stars.
He knelt at a small altar in the shadow of a shattered Aquila, fingers locking together.
He bowed his head.
And for a moment... silence.
Then came the thoughts.
---
> "Damn it, Warhammer... why did it have to be Warhammer?"
> "All the fictions, all the stories... slowly... all the memories are coming back."
> "I was a man. In another world."
> "Now I'm a Space Marine. Can you believe it?"
---
He didn't speak it aloud. Even in this hollow, sacred place, the thought felt like a sin. Like a crack in the wall of his gene-forged identity.
But he knew. Deep down, in a place even the psyker couldn't see — Catalin hadn't always been here. Not in the Imperium. Not in this armor. Not even in this body.
> "Graia... that name... why does it sound so familiar?"
He clenched a fist, the servo-motors in his gauntlet whining softly in protest.
The name wasn't from mission logs. It wasn't from a tactical briefing.
It was older than his memory.
And worse — he'd just faced Chaos.
> "What luck."
He almost snorted. A rare thing for a warrior of his kind.
> "I barely survived the hive. I just got cleared by a Chaplain and a sanctioned psyker. And now I've got memories of a different world, the name of a Forge World echoing in my head, and the eye of the warp breathing down my neck."
He inhaled deeply.
> "Good thing I'm a Space Marine. This temperament... it's the only thing keeping me from losing my mind."
He opened his eyes. Looked up at the cracked Aquila.
> "Emperor protect me," he muttered aloud.
"Even from my own mind."
---
The candle before him flickered violently — as if in answer.
And for a split second...
He saw a world burning behind his eyelids.
Titan wreckage.
Screaming machine-spirits.
A face in the forge-fire.