Born Again

As darkness fell over the wide spanned plains of Nova Epistola, Chief Apothecary Aldaris Proximae implanted the 17th and last of the available zygotes in to the new recruits. He found himself watching the ancient oscilloscope, that tech priest Breuss had converted for him into heart-beat monitor, with a sense of contentment. Priest Breuss was a close friend of Proximae who in ancient times served as the tech marine in Lord Raziel’s retinue along sides Proximae. Proximae had not seen battle in a century or more. His current Captain had ordered him back to his home world to study the possibilities of mass producing new Adepts. Although never weary of his job he grew more and more fond of the memories that where engraved in his mind. Memories of the days he fought in the command squad of the Chapter Lord himself. The smell of glycerine and blood where all the things he lived for, now....now he remained stationary on Nova Epistola to expand the numbers of his chapter. His days of glory were over and he regretted that deeply.

He envied the youths on the implantation bench before him. They had many decades of battle in front of them, some even centuries, like he once had. Aldaris could not remember the last time he had worn his suit of armour to the fields of carnage. Though he would never forget the feeling he would get when fitting it on the eve of confrontation. He would give all his possessions to be amidst his brethren in close quarter fighting once more.

But since Lord Raziel was put in stasis to preserve him from time’s dreadful claws, Captain Zargos explicitly forbid Aldaris to participate in battle since that day. First Aldaris was furious, but he could not speak against his superior and bowed his head. Zargos told him it was for his own good.

“Such wisdom must be saved from the possibility of destruction” were the exact words Captain Zargos used that particular day. Words that shattered his universe. Although trough psycho-therapy he had learned never to question his superiors, he could not disagree with the Captain more.

“Name one Apothecary that has functioned in combat duty for five centuries in a row” was his reply, but Zargos did not speak one word and signed the poor Chief Apothecary’s release form which commanded his retreat to Nova Epistola. Aldaris has not rested in his research since that moment.

Trying to prove him self worthy of service to Zargos’ command squad. Roughly two centuries passed and Aldaris managed to discover a batch process of implanting zygotes into several recruits at once. The failure risk was cut down to 30% of the failure risk that comes along with the gene-seed implantation of a single recruit at a time. Aldaris used servo application when implanting the gene-seed, something he became renowned for. His way of application received a official recognition from the Ministorum Terra. He was a truly celebrated gene expert. Still he longed for his old job as Chief Apothecary and communications specialist in the Chapter Lords retinue in the first company of the Chapter.

If only he had a way of reinstalling his youth and that of Lord Raziel, they could relive old times and continue to vanquish the foes of the Emperor for many centuries to come. Of course he experimented on the Laraman cells and the secondary heart, but he seemed to only find methods of slowing the aging process, not reversing it. He used these methods in creating new adepts but he remained looking for something that would give him back his youth completely.

That something came in the form of a rumour. A rumour spread by tongues long forgotten. A rumour so hideous that it could not be believed or conceived by any mortal. Aldaris wasn't just any mortal, he was Human indeed, but one of unmatched intelligence and experience.

“I, Lord Raziel of the rogue Resurector Space Marine legion, will now tell you a tale of how my regeneration, and there for resurrection, came about.”

Copyrighted Rachid-Yassir Garti.

Edited by Paul Quattrociocchi.