บท 20: 'A History of the Adeptus - Part 1'
I lied, we won't go back in time, we went both back and forward in time. Enjoy.
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- Location: Aquila's School of Magic, Grand Library -
- Date: 1st of September, 1913 -
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(3rd Person POV)
"Dude, what are you doing here? Didn't you say, you wanted to keep reading to a minimum?", a sixth-year Aquila student asks one of his friends as he walks into the library and meets him there.
"Sure but after what we saw yesterday ... I had to learn more about them.", the first one says.
"Come on Fabio, what does the exhibition have anything to do, with you reading a book about ... 'A History of the Adeptus' - Part 1?? Did that really impress you that much?", the first student asked Fabio.
"What?! Don't act like you weren't impressed, Frank. The entire world is currently in the process of coming up with a prototype 'Tank' while there are 'humans', and I say humans with quotes, who can cut through a tank, ripping apart a piece of paper. And they are all here in Cadia. Imagine what would happen if the rest of the world found out about this?! Their armour is so cool and their martial prowess is unreal. And let's not even talk about the Adeptus Magicae ... Besides, the book was written by the Emperor himself."
"... ok yeah, they were pretty mental. Let's see the book then.", Frank says and then sits next to Fabio on the comfortable couch, "What did you read already?"
"Nothing much, just the basics of what an Adeptus is or what they were originally."
"Oh? And what was that?"
"Well, apparently the Emperor first touched the field of genetic engineering, in roughly 300 BCE. The Romans thought they were at the height of their game when they invented the Manuballista a few centuries after that, just to put this into perspective."
"For real? I feel like the Emperor was doing calculus while we were still shitting our pants."
"I feel the same. But now let's continue reading. I'll read out loud."
"Sure, go ahead."
"[Chapter 1 - History: Spartan-I
The idea of an advanced and superior soldier came to me when I had finished creating 'Eagle Eye'. That was in 300 BCE. After I had finished the creation of 'Eagle Eye', I knew that both the Ministry of Magic and Warfare, would not fill themselves or at least not as fast as I wanted to. I was ready to start my conquest and establish the Imperium.
So after I had completed Eagle Eye, I went around the Alps and took any village I found under my control. I picked up the least wanted men. Criminals, the sick and the homeless were among them and I began to delve deep into the human genome. Having traversed the globe extensively, I meticulously documented an in-depth book about the magical creatures of our world, capturing nearly every detail possible about them (1).
But we humans are still something else entirely. I saw our potential as something that should be used and discovered, so I began my research into the field of genetic engineering.
*1: See 'Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures - Vol.1-5'
The initial group consisted of 1'300 men of differnet ages, sizes and intelligence, as well as physical prowess. They were-]"
"Wait wait wait! We already know about the Spartan-I Unit. We discussed the Second Punic War in the third year, so skip to the end of the War.", Frank stops Fabio from reading.
"I guess you're right. But there's some great detail on how the Spartan-I unit performed in the Second Punic War, though.", Fabio said.
"What's there to know, they massacred the Carthaginians, then the Romans and also the Celts with ease. Let's skip that part.", Frank groaned.
"Well, it was a bit more complex than that, but I agree with you. Ok, let me see here ... Hannibal's embarrassment, Cisalpine Gaul ... ah here it is.
[Chapter 2 - History: Spartan-II
After seeing the effectiveness of the Spartan-I Unit, I decided to adjust some things and introduce some others. I noticed the physical decline that they suffered and the strain their bodies would not allow them to live very long, and the longer they fought, the shorter their remaining lifespan would be. That had to be changed.
So I went back to the drawing board. First, I put all of the 100 of the Spartan-I into stasis and then took samples of all different tissue types. It was important that I could see the process which was going on in their entire body, at the same time. Using the Charm, I had created for this purpose, 'Historiae Analysis', I projected the genetic samples of each 100 Spartan-I.
I compared their genes and the tissues with the samples taken a year prior and confirmed my suspicions. The Spartans were dying. The increased mental resistance to pain and fatigue, allowed the Spartans to push their bodies beyond anything humanly possible to that time and to normal humans in the rest of the world. But it also caused them to kill themselves slowly. The improved musculoskeletal and neurological series were performing as planned, but hte rest of the body was suffering and breaking down.
Therefore, I began to look for improvements in the other organs. And the easiest solution was found rather quickly. If the existing organs couldn't handle the strain, then I simply had to add more of them. This might seem simplistic, but it was very effective. More enhancements and augmentations were created.
Aside from the brain, virtually all other organs in the body were either modified in some manner or replaced. Several organs were biofabricated, including the lungs, which was a special case, but more on that later. The lungs implanted into the Spartan-II Units were biofabricated and lined with a SOLARIS pulmonary surfactant. The SOLARIS a polymer that enhances oxygen intake and allows the Spartan-II to process airborne toxins or foreign gas mixtures, I thought this was good to have, given what would come in the future.
The pancreas is replaced by a superior, vat-grown organ, which I decided to call, the vending organ. The Spartan-II also underwent treatments to prevent organ rejection, since that was what the initial subjects, died the most of. Corneal implants were also provided, improving the Spartan's eyesight and night vision. I wanted to make the Spartan-II into an even more deadlier unit.
But that wasn't enough. I decided that having a special biofabricated SOLARIS lung was good, but the increase in oxygen had to be transported to each organ. So a circulatory and metabolic improvement was necessary.
The Spartans-II underwent numerous circulatory improvements. The heart was implanted with a synthetic, polythread weave which significantly increased its capacity to pump blood. The blood composition was modified to allow for faster clotting and immunity to most known to me toxins, at the time. Spartan-II were also subjected to K1.0 hemoescutcheon, aiding in the healing of wounds. The K-series hemoescutcheon was a project, I would improve upon up to the present day. Intestinal bacteria were altered to enable the digestive system to absorb more nutrients from food.
The Spartan-II template was complete. The initial Spartan-I unit was taken to undertake the improvements. The process was a failure. No matter how many healing spells and potions were used, the end result was the same. All of the Spartan-I died.
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Chapter 3 - The change: Spartan-V
The height of its effectiveness, saw the Spartan program after I had dedicated more time to developing technology to complement what the Spartan-II was lacking. Magic was a good way to do that, but I saw it as better in the long run, to improve my non-magical Warunits without magic. After the Spartan-II, there were improvements in the form of the Spartan-III and Spartan-IV.
The Spartan-V program, was an important one as it allowed me to make the first step towards the Adeptus series. A new branch and a big step in genetic engineering brought with it many solutions, which were a problem in the Spartan program. Using a combination of magic and technology, I managed to finally get rid of the quickly decreasing life expectancy of the Spartans program and achieve a high healing factor for the cells and was getting rather close to making the cells stay young eternally. But until that could happen, I would still need a lot of research and time.
But the healing factor and therefore the vitality of the Spartan-V was just high enough to cancel out the cellular degeneration and have them have normal and even increased lifespans. After this breakthrough, I managed to make a big jump in genetic engineering, which allowed me to make new changes and improvements. The birth of a new project. The Adeptus program.
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Chapter 4 - Firstborn
The leap in genetic engineering brought with it a new breed of warriors. One that was supposed to be something greater than the first batch. In the beginning, I tried to go the lab route. I manually created a genome which I then began to grow. I divided the first group into 100 different types. In all of these 100 zygotes, I changed certain things in the genome in search of the best results. Over the years of my research, I have started to understand the human genome better and with this, I managed to use magic and technology to change and improve things.
I found many different areas on the genetic material, I could change, to improve the human body of the growing humans. I did just that and to increase efficiency, I changed things to varying degrees across the 100 growing humans. The result?
The new breed of supersoldiers and the first of the Adeptus, the Firstborn.
They were faster, stronger, more durable, had much higher stamina, and overall increased lifespan. They were just as efficient as the Spartan-V after the augmentations. And the best part was that they had room to grow. The training was still necessary, but that was a good thing. The soldiers could choose their speciality, giving the army more variety and options. It was a full success. But still, it was not yet finished. There was more to get and it was visible as each of the 100 were unique in their own way. They were differently strong and flexible. Some were more massive, while not being as agile.
Others were just as muscular and agile but didn't have that fast reflexes and processing powers. It was a time for learning, not just for me, but for the Firstborn as well. Every one of the 100 Firstborn, went through a series of simulations and tests, to determine their state of mind and the way their brains functioned. The speed at which they could take in information and process it was coming close to mine, and I was so much older than they were, with more experience and training.
I was beyond pleased with the results but saw room for improvement. I thought to myself, since they were as powerful as the Spartan-V, this soon, then they should be able to take the augmentations with fewer problems than the Spartan-V did.
The process went as expected. All of the Firstborn Adeptus survived the augmentations. But the results ... they were less satisfactory. The differences from before and after the augmentations weren't as impressive as expected. There were more downsides than advantages and so I decided to stop using all the augmentations with the Firstborn. I had to change the augmentations, to suit the Adeptus better.
After figuring out what was wrong, I changed it with the second batch of the Adeptus. I decided to call them the Thunder Warriors. The Firstborn of the Adeptus. With this success, I knew the way towards even greater heights was there and knew what to do, on my way forward. The Imperium would see glory throughout their conquests.]"
"Why did you stop?", Frank asked.
"Well, we should go if we want to eat dinner with the others.", Fabio said.
"Dude, you can't just stop there. We're getting to the good parts. There are so many more sick and powerful chapters to talk about. The Primaris of the Astartes chapter, the Battle Sisters, the sick Custodes and the broken basterds of the Adeptus Magicae!"
"The book doesn't run away. We can read tomorrow. Let's go, I'm hungry."
"Urgh, boring. You do know that we can eat whenever we want right?"
"Yes, but I want to eat with the group."
"Alright then. Let's go."
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