Beautification of the Inner Sphere (Patreon)

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Beautification of the Inner Sphere

Chapter 1

-VB-

“Laeran,” Fulgrim rolled the name on his tongue. 

His brother, Horus, sent him a message for his next conquest. This one, however, was not against another human world. No, the target of he and his Legion’s crusade would be a xeno world inhabited by some kind of warp-worshipping insect-snake xenos. 

And from what he read about the scout’s observation report, these xenos were a race of self-modifying individuals that changed themselves to fit their jobs. 

It was an interesting way to live.

But it was a xeno race that also worshiped the warp, which made them flawed and disgusting on principle. 

Worse, by modifying themselves so, they locked themselves into a single path, abandoning all other pursuits for an extreme.

That, he decided, was the very opposite of the path of perfection that humanity should strive toward. Even the Martians didn’t do that; they at least tried to make their bodies as capable as they could in all directions.

Yes, they were the very kind of filthy xenos that needed to be eradicated for human civilization’s path to perfection to succeed. 

If they were left alone, then they would become seeds of … degeneracy. 

There were already plenty of humans who were degenerate that he had to deal with. He didn’t want or need to expand that to xenos as well.

“Abdemon.”

“Yes, father?” one of his lieutenant commanders, Abdemon, stepped up from among his brothers. 

“We have our heading. It seems my brother-commander Horus wants us to eradicate a particular xeno race,” he hummed as he handed over the orders. “Tell me what you think about them.”

Abdemon took the datapad from him and read through the reports that came with the primarch’s letter. 

It didn’t take long for him to understand the situation. “This will be a very good test for my brothers. It is never in question that we will be able to do it. The problem will be how many of my brothers will throw themselves into the fight like lunatics in whatever pursuit they are currently on before we realize we have to fight like a legion.”

Fulgrim chortled. 

Abdemon never quite minced his words and made a number of sarcastic remarks about his brothers. But his words came from a place of worry and concern; while his Emperor’s Children took to his personal philosophy, they sometimes lacked the restraints that he had to know when to quit while they were ahead. 

All of them, especially the original two hundred, were very eager to prove themselves not just to him but the wider Imperium that they possessed no defects. 

He never thought that they had defects, however. Sometimes, it was just as hard to convince someone that they had no problems as to convince them that they were already great. In his eyes, all of his children within his Legion were simply making their way onto the path to perfection at the pace that they could make. 

“Then let us gather the Legions and set off! Glory waits for us!” 

“I wonder how many we will have to bury this time.”

“Oh, shush you.”

-VB-

From their home base on Chemos, the Emperor’s Children Legion loaded themselves up for another expedition. And to do so, half of the Legion was called up to fight. Of the five Millennials, three were called up to take part: the 1st, 2nd, and 4th Millennials. 

To carry these Astartes and the main force of ground troops, the Legion brought forth nine warships.

Pride of the Emperor, Gloriana-class Battleship.

Proudheart, Dictatus-class Battleship. 

Andronius, Olympia-class Strike Cruiser. 

Phoenician, Dauntless-class Light Cruiser. 

Athenius, Hunter-class Destroyer.

Fulgrim’s Joy, Hunter-class Destroyer.

Fulgrim’s Virtue, Credo-class Corvette.

Longinus, Battle Barge Battleship. 

Callidora, Battle Barge Battleship. 

Chemos Ascendent, Battle Barge Battleship. 

As far as the void elements went, this was the full might of the Emperor’s Children Legion, sans a few corvettes, destroyers, and a single frigate left to defend Chemos.

The deployment of three of five Millennials also told all of the Astartes that this expedition was not a routine Compliance mission but a serious cleansing.

And coming along with these warships and three Millennials were Chemos’s own homegrown regiments. 

5th Chemos Mechanized Infantry Regiment

7th Chemos Mechanized Infantry Regiment

13th Chemos Heavy Infantry Regiment

16th Chemos Heavy Infantry Regiment

20th Chemos Light Infantry Regiment

21st Chemos Light Infantry Regiment

22nd Chemos Light Infantry Regiment

In total, those seven regiments represented eleven million troops. Along with two million crews serving aboard the nine warships, this brought the total personnel of the expedition fleet to thirteen million. 

It was, as Fulgrim saw it, a respectable expedition fleet in his eyes. Not too large as to be unwieldy but not too small as to be ineffective against more serious threats. 

Which the “Laerans” were supposed to be. 

And once the entire expedition fleet was assembled in orbit of Chemos, they set off to the nearest Mandeville Point to enter the Warp. 

And once there, they opened the rifts and disappeared.

This would be the last time anyone saw the third Primarch. The Emperor of Mankind reacted instantly when this happened. He would later claim to his children, the Primarchs, that he had felt Fulgrim disappear in the warp as if all trace of him was gone. What he did not reveal to them was that he could not sense his son even with his power, and knew that the Ruinous Powers would have begun gloating the moment they got their grubby hands on Fulgrim. Yes, even to the emperor, this disappearance was a mystery. 

Unaware of the emperor’s near instantaneous reaction to his son’s disappearance, other Legions and the Imperial Army would investigate the disappearance, including sending more expedition fleets to Laer. They did not find any trace of void in and around the Laer System and world, and carried out the cleansing in the place of the Emperor’s Children. 

The best speculation anyone had was that the Emperor’s Children must have been caught up by a warp current that shot them far into the future, which was a known event if very rare to the point of being unknown to most. This meant that the most anyone could do was simply prepare for Fulgrim’s reemergence from the warp.

The Emperor’s Children, those who had been left behind on Chemos, lamented not having gone with their Primarch, but upon hearing of the speculation of warped time, swore that when Fulgrim reemerged from the warp, he would not find them lacking. 

The emperor chose not to tell them the most likely truth.

That his son, Fulgrim, was most likely never to return to them.

And this was proven right when eight of the nine ships tore out of the warp in orbit of Laer in the 41st Millennium without Pride of the Emperor and their primarch aboard it. 

-VB-

Fulgrim/I gritted his teeth as something ravaged with his mind and body. He/I gripped the arms of our command throne in pain while the warp outside shifted and turned in ways he/I never saw before. 

I/Fulgrim felt like throwing up but held it in with our -.

… Our? 

Narrowing my eyes, I/Fulgrim tried to reorient ourselves.

I was ***** ******/he was Fulgrim, the Primarch of the Emperor’s Children.

Oh my God/what warp trickery is this?! 

Fulgrim/I winced as something happened again, both inside of us and outside. 

The warp transition suddenly came to an end, dropping Pride of the Emperor into normal space. The entire battleship shook with some kind of backlash.

And I/Fulgrim suffered one, too. 

We felt something break in our minds. Something that kept us us. Our egos? 

Uh oh/Is this your doing?! 

No!/Then stop it!

I can’t stop what I don’t know anything about!/Then how are you here in my mind?! 

Sto-!/You -! 

AHHH-!/AGGHHH-!

AHHGGGHHH…!

“Ha… ha…!” I started panting as the pain subsided and whatever it was stopped… and then that’s when I realized what was going on.

Fulgrim.

I was in Fulgrim’s body. 

No. I was Fulgrim? 

What … what was happening? 

Why am I here? 

“My lord, we have been thrown out of the warp!” 

“Yes, I can see that,” I drawled out as I stood up. To my surprise, I found myself moving extremely gracefully despite the fact that I was wearing a multiple ton power armor. But then again, that was probably why: power armor. 

I took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. 

‘Steady…’ I told myself(?). “Determine our current location immediately,” I ordered. It came naturally, commanding, I mean. I also had a bunch of facts and theories blurring pass through my mind. So much information in so little time. It was like I was thinking of three separate things at once. I didn’t know people could do that! 

… It could be because I was inside (or was?) a primarch.

Speaking of which…

Primarch?Warhammerisreal?HowdidIenduphere?!WasthatthewarpIjustsawbeforethis?OhGodIaminsideofFulgrimwhobecomesademonprincewhichmeansSlanaashisrealANDWANTSTOBUTTFUCKMEWITHTHEIRFUTACOCK -!

I took a deep breath in.

No no. It’s okay.

All I have to do was … ignore Chaos. 

Yes.

Ignore it. 

Ignore it like that crazy ex- who can’t stop texting in the middle of the night begging me to take her back.

“My lord, we detect no other ships exiting the warp,” one of the non-Astartes bridge crews reported.

I frowned. 

I(?) really hoped that the rest of the Emperor’s Children safely made it to their destination… preferably after the whole Heresy business came to an end.

“Then what is around us?” I asked instead. 

I got my answer not too long after. 

We were in orbit of a world that did not exist in Pride of the Emperor’s database. 

And not too long after, I got another answer that confused the hell out of me. 

Tancredi? Federated Suns? 

I thought I was in Warhammer 40k!