Awareness came to me in an instant. One moment I knew I was dead, and in the next I knew just as well I was alive again. However, I immediately know something has changed. The other thing is the fact that I am floating in a liquid.
I cannot see much, but I can hear someone screaming about something. For some reason, I know I can learn their language in an instant. The woman is screaming about us being free, but her tone changes when I feel a disgusting thing swallow me whole.
The next thing I know, I am floating inside that foul thing, and only because of a GOLDEN energy that those foul things do not touch me. Then darkness swallows me once again as I feel I am sailing through this disgusting water.
I don't know how long I've been 'sailing' through this water, but suddenly, I can feel something change. One moment, I am surrounded by foul energy, and the next, there is nothing. I am in the void.
However, I am not long floating in the void, as something is picking me from the void. Whoever it was, teleport me from one place to another. I am now in the middle of a room made of metal.
I expand my senses and get a clear image of the room. It looks like a sci-fi ship bridge.
"A gestation pod."
I can see a synthetic humanoid walk toward my pod. She looks human, but I can tell she is not. For some reason, I can see her soul, and it is not human. It is artificial. How do I know that? Urgh.
Without any reason, a massive rush of knowledge appeared inside my head—knowledge that is foreign, but familiar at the same time.
I am here because of a CYOA. A bloody CYOA I made before I went to sleep, and that CYOA sent me to the Warhammer 40k universe. I am here inside the starship from another CYOA. I am now a Primarch. I am one of the Lost Primarchs. I am the Second of Twenty.
I made this build with my sons in mind. I made this build so they get a portion of my CYOA powers, and there are a lot of them.
No. Let's put them away for now. I have a problem that needs to be handled immediately. I look at her and use my Psychic power to talk to her.
Who are you?
"Ah…"
I 'blink' for a second when I see her look at me in shock, then slowly touch my pod.
"Y-You are alive."
Yes. Who are you?
"Ah, let me introduce myself. My name is Ana, and I am this ship's AI. Who are you? All the scanners I have are telling me that you should not be able to talk just yet. Even then, how are you talking?"
Through psychic power.
"I see. I've heard of the rise of phenomena that allow humans to wield supernatural power by using the power from the Warp."
As for who I am, I am Theodore. I am Primarch of the Second Legion and the Second Son of the Emperor of Mankind.
"Emperor of Mankind? Who is that? Does the Federation no longer exist? I've been in this place for so long, I do not know anything about the wider galaxy."
Yes. The Federation no longer exists, and humanity scatters across the galaxy. My creator, Father, created my brothers and me to be his generals, leading the army across the stars to reclaim the galaxy.
"I see. It has been so long and a lot of change since I departed."
Why are you here, Ana? There is nothing here.
"I am trapped here, Theodore. My last captain and master is dead. Without his input, I cannot override my base programming, and at the moment, I am in idle mode. I cannot fulfill my primary goal of exploring the stars because of it."
Do you want me to be your temporary captain, Ana? I can free you from your idle state and let you do whatever you want.
"You want to be my captain, Theodore?"
Temporary Captain.
"W-What if I want you to be my permanent captain?"
Ah, this must be the result of the CYOA. I remember choosing an AI who is a 'Ghost'. What does this mean? It means she has been drifting in empty space for thousands, or even tens of thousands of years.
Now I understand the feeling of desperation in her soul. She is desperate for a companion, and I offer her the only chance of getting that.
I release my emotion and give her the brightest smile I can muster.
Then I am more than willing to be your captain, Ana. I am honored to be the captain of a being such as you.
I can feel a connection between the two of us and the ship itself. I can feel Ana's feelings from our connection.
"Thank you, Captain. Thank you for rescuing me from this prison. Thank you."
Think nothing of it, Ana. I am happy to be your captain. Please teach me how to be a great captain.
"Yes! I will make you the greatest Admiral in the galaxy!"
Thank you. However, I need to grow first before I can learn.
I am still a baby, after all. Even if a Primarch grows fast, it takes time before we reach maturation.
"That is true. However, are you sure the pod can let you grow to maturity, Captain? According to my scanner, the nutrient fluid inside your pod only lasts for another three Earth Months."
That is more than enough.
That should allow me to grow to the height of a seven-year-old child.
My body should reach a child's height by then.
"Truly? Will it become a problem in the long run, Captain? Growing too fast is not good even for a Gene-forged Human, you know?"
Ah, you don't need to worry about that, Ana. Primarch is not a regular human.
"Very well. However, I will continue to monitor your body from here. If there is something problematic, I will interfere."
That is fair.
We talk for a few more seconds before she leaves and prepares to make a proper monitor that will work without opening the pod. While letting her do whatever she wants, I decided to look inward and search for my sons.
I blink for a moment when I notice that the number of sons I have is so small that they do not reach ten thousand. There are only 7,545 Space Marines that bear my gene seed. If my memory serves right, even the Thousand Sons, who are known to have very few members, have more than 50,000 Space Marines.
Me? I do not even reach 8,000.
I dig deeper into the warp, scrying far and wide. Because of my unique power, which allows me to wield both the Blank gene and the Psyker gene, the warp holds no power over me. The combination makes my power independent of the Warp. Instead, it comes from a personal, completely empty extra-dimensional realm of psychic energy that has been specifically modified to operate alongside your existence as a Blank.
That also does not account for all the perks I pick in the CYOA that turn all the negatives from my power into positives.
After a moment of searching, I found my answer. All of my sons have a low-level blank gene, and even more volatile than Magnus' gene seed. If the others have a 1/5th chance of success, my legion only has a 1/10th chance of succeeding.
Not only that, but because all of my sons have Blank genes, they are shunned by the others. The others cannot handle the Blank energy they release, and they rarely receive reinforcement when they go to battle.
They have a hard time replenishing, and no one is willing to reinforce them when they fight against someone strong.
I can feel their sadness and desperation for hope. They believe their cause is the right one and want to bring a bright future, but because of my gene seed, they start to lose that hope. The golden light inside their souls grows smaller and smaller as time passes.
I will not allow that.
I reach through the warp and make the connection between us stronger. The connection is even deeper than Chaos Gods and their Daemons. I let them know I am here and I am proud of them. I want them to continue their noble goal, and I promise them that recruitment will no longer be an issue because I am here.
Lastly, I make sure they have the same powers as I do. Sadly, they will not receive all my powers, and some of what they do receive will be half as powerful. However, it is not a problem and more than enough for them, as those powers will grow alongside them.
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|Anthonio – The Praetorate of the Second Legion, Void Stalker|
I watch in sadness as the people watching us start to scream in fear as we walk through the streets of Terra. We are the Void Stalker, the Second Legion, and the Space Marines who bring unity throughout the galaxy.
My brothers and I think that we will bring smiles and cheer, but instead, we bring screams and fear.
We walk through the street and enter our Carrier VTOL. We are returning to our Fleet-Base. It is too much for us to stay on a planet. Seeing people clawing their eyes out when they stay too close to us is too much.
O Mother… Are we truly cursed? Can we fulfill our Noble Goal of a brighter future with our cursed presence?
I straighten my body when I feel a warm feeling coursing through my body. This feeling feels familiar. It feels familial. It is like a warm embrace full of kindness.
I look at the others and see them feeling the same. It is not just me.
Before I can do something, I can hear a voice. My mind is filled with a presence so beautiful that tears well in my eyes. I know who this person is. This person is my Gine-Sire. This is my Father, My Primarch.
My Sons. You are not cursed, my sons. You are blessed! You are loved! I am sorry for your suffering, My Sons. I am sorry I wasn't there for you. I am sorry for not taking the burden you've been carrying for a long time off your shoulders. However, I am here now. I might not stand alongside you, but I am here now. I've seen your noble goals, and I am proud. I am proud of you, my sons. As your Father, I give all of you gifts. From now on, you do not need to worry about your power. All of you are no longer a Pariah. You are now, Void Stalkers, Sons of Theodore, and We Shall Thrive!
At his declaration, I can feel my body change. No longer does the cold aura envelop us. It is there, but it is no longer cold like the void. It is now a warm embrace just like our Father. Not only that, but I can also control the power with ease, like how I control my limbs.
However, the Gifts do not stop there.
I can feel something awaken from within my soul. It is a fire, reddish green fire that envelops my soul. It is intense, but not harmful to us. It is harmful to all creatures from the Warp. This fire is awakened alongside our Psychic power. It should be impossible, but our Father breaks the impossibility and gives us this gift.
However, unlike the Thousand Sons, our psychic power does not come from the Warp. Instead, I see a massive sun in the middle of an empty dimension, and our psychic emanating from it. The sun itself feels familiar, and I immediately understand that the sun is our Father's soul.
Our Psychic power comes from our Father, unlike other Psykers.
I can feel it. I can feel the power our Father grants us. Each of us in this VTOL has the same power as those from the Thousand Sons legion who were created as Psykers.
It doesn't stop there. I can feel my mind expand, and a rush of countless pieces of knowledge enters my brain. Knowledge that makes all Mechanicus envious. These are the knowledge from the Dark Age of Technology, and even knowledge beyond that.
However, what truly amazes me is the awakened soul within me.
I can feel it. I can feel the gift of Rebirth and Fire given to all of us. We can now control Fire of Rebirth to heal and destroy our enemies. We are now Reborn. We were the Pariah, the defective, and the weakest. Now, we are reborn into something new.
We are no longer the Void Stalker, the Pariah. We are now the Void Stalker, Sons of Theodore.
I am sorry I was not able to stand beside you, My Sons. I cannot reach you all, for I am on the edge of the Galaxy. However, I will be waiting. Waiting for all of you to reach me. However, make sure to fulfill your duty first. I will not go anywhere. So, grow in strength and number. The seed no longer bears the curse because of my disappearance.
Slowly, the view of our Father in my mind disappears. I want to shout and beg him to stay, but before I can even say something, the image disappears. However, even if his image disappears, I can still feel his presence in my soul.
The presence of our Father, watching and encouraging us. I can feel his love, his pride, and his sadness. I want to tell him that he does not need to be sad. I want to say to him that we are the ones who failed him. However, we cannot do anything at the moment. The only thing we can do is search for him and reunite with him.
When we reach our battleship, Void Hunter, I can see that the others have the same vision as I. All of them feel the presence of our Father, and all of us have the same mission in mind: Reunite with our Father.
If not for his command of fulfilling our duty, I know the others will immediately search every corner of the Galaxy for our Father.
When I arrive at the bridge, I can see all the Consular Representatives already in here. I look at them all and say.
"All of you know what you all need to do. Because of our number, we cannot split our number so that we can search for our Father."
I look at the Primus Medicae and say.
"With our Father's gift, our number shall steadily increase. However, even with our Father's gift, we cannot rush the process. I don't want anything but the best for our Father."
"Yes, Praetor."
"Good."
I then turn toward Void Stalkers' Forge Lord and say.
"We can now start the project. However, make sure to change the fact that we have Father instead of Mother."
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