Chapter 3: Chapter Three: Death Knell
The shuttle sped out of Terra's orbit headed towards the shining crescent of Luna. Thinking back to a similar moment in the distant past the Emperor allowed himself a moment of reminiscence of that fateful summer day when he watched the first human to set foot on Luna from Mission Control. Snapping back to the present, the Emperor began to speak with Valdor.
"There has been an incursion in the Laboratory. The Great Enemy attempted to steal the Project, but they were stopped by an unknown actor who left a psychic beacon in the chamber. Stranger still, Malcador believes the Beacon is meant for me alone and has some interesting theories about its origin."
Valdor stiffened at the news of the incursion and immediately began planning more thorough security measures.
"What does the Lord Sigillite think it is?" asked the Captain-General. The Emperor's lips formed a grim smile as he responded.
"He thinks it's from Me, or at least a version of me. The psychic signal the beacon let off is close to my own. Stranger things have occurred in the galaxy" The Emperor's eyes began to glow softly as he formed a mental link with Valdor in order to not just tell but show him all he needed to know.
"The currents of the Warp have always been dangerous and bizarre, Even during the Golden Age, it was not unheard of vessels arriving before they left or worlds obscured by Warp-storms to experience time differently. It's not inconceivable this is a message cast from some distant future as a warning or trap."
"A trap?" responded Valdor, he and his fellow Custodes had faced countless forms of warp trickery including Skin-Witches, Flesh-Formers, and other warp empowered horrors impersonating the Emperor, and the idea of a weapon designed solely to hurt his Liege brought forth the closest thing to tranquil fury a Custodes could properly feel.
Continuing, the Emperor showed countless more snippets of knowledge and data to his bodyguard as he spoke "Yes, this might be some twisted thing created by the Four in the Warp to ensnare me. It could even be something cast from an alternate reality, research into that ended badly towards the end of the Dark Age. Or perhaps something hitherto unseen by human eyes."
Valdor saw thousands of realities and futures laid before him and watched many snuffed out by monsters and abominations his creator sought to deny. Countless realities had died thanks to the multitude of threats both material and immaterial that haunt the universe. Valdor was the most exalted of the Custodes and had been given the privilege of seeing some of the knowledge and wisdom his Emperor possessed numerous times, but it still disoriented him to have his consciousness even momentarily stretched to the macroscopic view that the Emperor held of history and existence. Continuing to speak, the Emperor mused to himself
"Malcador seemed to believe time travel is involved. He described the psychic signal as both similar to mine, and horribly distorted. As if it had been both bleached of intricacies, and grotesquely amplified." The shuttle continued its journey to Luna uneventfully as the Emperor and Valdor discussed the last phase of the Unification of Terra along with possible security measures to prevent another attempt on the Primarchs.
A few short hours passed, and they were on the final approach to Luna. The Emperor fondly remembered ancient times when to touch Terra's moon was considered all but impossible and how glorious it had been when a single small step for man opened up giant leaps for mankind.
This peaceful recollection was shattered when the shuttle came within a few miles of Luna's surface. The Emperor's peerless psychic senses detected something strange deep within the Moon below. Something that despite being trapped beneath miles of sanctified and fortified stone and steel, still called out to him. Landing within a hanger hidden from prying eyes near Luna's North Pole, the Emperor and his Custodes left the shuttle and prepared to descend into the bowels of the ancient Laboratories where wonders and horrors of genetic artistry were created.
Not a soul was to be found, all diverted to allow the ruler of both Terra and Luna absolute secrecy. The Emperor and his guards soon approached the laboratory where the Primarchs had been crafted and now grew. Waiting for them was the withered form of Malcador the Sigillite. After bowing to his master and friend, Malcador began to speak.
"I take it the situation in the Yndonesic Bloc was resolved?" Giving a curt nod of confirmation the Emperor then locked eyes with Malcador and for a brief second the two greatest Psykers in the galaxy touched minds. To those with the psychic sense to detect the momentary connection where memories and secrets were exchanged between the old friends, it would have appeared like a lightning bolt traveling between their souls.
Instantly, other details that Malcador had feared to send even though the most secure channels entered the Emperor's mind, while in turn new knowledge and plans related to the burgeoning Imperium entered Malcador's. This method allowed the two to work in almost perfect unison in their frantic struggle to allow humanity a shot at surviving the horrors of the galaxy.
Malcador joined the Emperor's entourage as they silently entered the laboratory where the Imperium's greatest secret was kept. Servitors had already cleaned away most signs of the battle that had been fought here less than 48 hours ago. All that remained were discolored patches of wall and floor where bolter holes had been patched and strange scorch marks that no amount of scrubbing could remove.
Slowly walking past the gestation capsules, the Emperor eyed his creations. He mused on how close he had come to losing them to the Neverborn and wondered what twisted mockeries of his ambition would have been born from these twenty Transhumans. The Custodes retreated to the entrance and corners of the room to stand guard over their master and his magnum opus. Flanked by Malcador and Valdor, the Emperor reached the end of the Chamber where reality and the warp touched.
The semi-closed rift leaked energy that crackled and lapped at the air in the form of distorted flames. The Emperor had sensed the rift and the energy from orbit but only now when he had passed through the countless wards and defenses built into the very structure of the lab did he feel it in its entirety. In a moment that Valdor would remember for the rest of his existence, the Emperor paused mid-stride as the nature of the energy became fully apparent to him.
The psychic aura cascaded over the Emperor as his impossibly developed psychic perception analyzed it and the ancient transhuman's mind realized what it was. It was the spiritual death scream of a psyker, the final warp-born howl of a dying powerful psychic as its soul left its body. That alone would never be enough to shock the Master of Mankind, for he had personally been the cause of multiple Alpha class psykers emitting such a thing. What disturbed him was that the scream was his.
Not even Malcador had realized the nature of the signal, for not even the Anathema of Chaos could envision his own death. For even in the worst possible future the countless seers of the galaxy witnessed, the Lord of Perpetuals was a constant. Slowly speaking to his twin advisors and friends, the Emperor dictated instructions for how they should proceed:
"It's genuine, this is no trap but a message sent to me. Only I am capable of receiving it. Malcador, be prepared to enact Contingencies: Terminus, Star-Child, Secundus, Malice, and Dragon."
Malcadors eyes shot open as every single worst-case scenario plan he and his master had developed was mentioned and that whatever this message was it could trigger them. Valdor spoke up with an almost pleading voice
"My Lord if this is that dangerous, isn't it better to destroy this message rather than let whatever purpose it holds be fulfilled?" Quietly, in a voice that ordered the death of worlds and planned the salvation of species, the Master of Mankind said.
"Its purpose is to save humanity, and if that requires damning me I will gladly do it a thousand times over." And with that, the Emperor of Mankind reached out to the beacon and touched the mind of its creator.
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