"The Ancient Sage awaits you...."
A voice drifted past his ear.
Zhou Ye hadn't actually needed Ai-chan to track the signal. He had simply been too busy devouring fries — his Gene-seeds, rather — and had lost track of what was around him. Now that he was paying attention, he followed the source of the voice directly, walking toward his destination.
It didn't take long before he found a cave, ancient beyond reckoning. He followed it deep inside, descending to a depth underground that was difficult to judge.
He found his target. A Contemptor Dreadnought, riddled with impact damage and old wounds.
Zhou Ye pulled out a hand-fabricated STC Template — the consumable repair type, the same kind the Tech-Priest in the anime had used to restore his Kastelan Robots — and got to work.
Strictly speaking, he could have used his Authority of Creation directly. He could have extracted the occupant without causing any further damage. But he couldn't find a good reason to do that. Rylanor knew too many secrets. Having someone like this follow him around constantly wasn't something he was comfortable with.
Better to put him in a stasis field and let him sleep for now. As for the degraded soul fragments — he could use the Authority of the Herrscher of Sentience to partially replenish those on a case-by-case basis. Having an ancient Dreadnought around to educate his recruits would save him a considerable amount of effort later.
He was planning to split his forces eventually. Bringing homunculi along as his own escort was fine — no problem there. But sending them out to lay Star Rail tracks and interact with strangers would cause problems. Properly modified Space Marines were essential. But if he was being honest, he didn't actually have much experience raising Space Marines from scratch.
So having a loyal Ancient around was very necessary. He remembered a story about a squad of World Eaters that had boarded an Ultramarines vessel, and the Smurfs had been backed into such a corner that they awoke an ancient Contemptor Dreadnought in desperation. The Dreadnought promptly smacked a Butcher's Nails-implanted World Eaters Dreadnought into silence with one swing, then turned to the Ultramarines with a completely baffled expression and asked them why they were being boarded.
Szzzt....
A burst of light. The damaged Contemptor Dreadnought was whole again in an instant. And then a massive purple Power Fist reached out and closed around Zhou Ye.
"You... who are you?"
"Esteemed Ancient of the Emperor's Children, I am the Chapter Master of an Ultramarines successor Chapter — the Star of Trailblaze."
As to why he had chosen the Ultramarines — the reason was simple. Why not benefit from the biggest tree's shade? Right now the entire galaxy was covered in blue grandsons. And more importantly, the Ultramarines were quite a complicated organization internally. They had absorbed far too many loyal holdovers from rebellious Legions. So if your Chapter found itself unable to trace a clear lineage back to a specific Primarch, attaching yourself to the Ultramarines was completely bulletproof.
"The Ultramarines' color scheme is not like yours!!!"
"That would require us to go back to the Codex Astar— the Codex Astartes from the very beginning."
Zhou Ye watched the Dreadnought set him down, then began his explanation slowly and carefully. He covered the aftermath — the great betrayal, Malcador burning away to nothing, the Emperor ascending to the Golden Throne. Then Guilliman, desperate to prevent Horus Heresy 2.0, breaking apart his own Legion — and then getting his throat cut by the Daemon Primarch Fulgrim before he could even finish the job, after which he was put on display as Ultramar's most popular exhibit.
The last sentence, of course, he kept entirely to himself.
Crack!!!
The Contemptor Dreadnought beside him very nearly crushed the rock wall with his fist. The fury radiating off him had become almost physical.
But....
"If you know I am of a Traitor Legion, why did you repair me."
"Because loyal blood still flows here. My Librarians just fought like hell to pull something out of the chaos of the Warp for me...."
Zhou Ye produced a container from his side as he spoke. Inside it, several objects floated in quiet suspension. At the sight of this, the massive frame of the Contemptor Dreadnought began to tremble.
"Gene-seeds. Their Gene-seeds!!!"
The Contemptor Dreadnought was, in that moment, like a child who desperately wanted to reach out and take the container, but was terrified that his millennia-decayed and freshly-repaired frame would crush it. He knew these Gene-seeds. He knew them intimately.
These were the Gene-seeds of his brothers. The brothers sold out by that treacherous bastard Fulgrim and by Horus.
Fresh. Untouched. No intermediaries.
"Ancient of the Emperor's Children — are you willing to lead the newborn Phoenix? Our Chapter suffered severe losses before. We even lost a significant portion of our Gene-seeds. And frankly, appearing openly as Emperor's Children in the current Imperium is somewhat inconvenient... and furthermore, Fulgrim has already ascended to Daemon Prince. Your virus bomb alone cannot kill him. If you want vengeance on that traitor, we need to think long-term!!!"
Zhou Ye ground his teeth as he said this. He had consumed an Ultramarines Gene-seed earlier. The overwhelming, all-consuming hatred for Fulgrim contained inside it had been almost tangible. He was simply drawing on the emotions he had sensed in that Gene-seed to give his words the right weight.
The ancient Contemptor Dreadnought fell into silence. He looked at the Gene-seeds in Zhou Ye's hand.
"How many do you have?"
"Most were contaminated. The usable ones number approximately five hundred."
"....."
In the silence, the Contemptor Dreadnought slowly rose to his feet.
"Agreed."
"Ancient, your condition is poor. The STC Template can repair physical damage to a Contemptor Dreadnought, but it cannot address the deterioration to your body and soul. I recommend you return to sleep first, and allow my Apothecary and Techmarine to perform some maintenance and adjustments. During that time, I will place you in a stasis field."
He had no real alternative here either. The Hyperion wasn't fully converted yet. There were far too many secrets aboard. If this Ancient refused, he would be forced to use other means. The worst-case outcome would be destroying the Dreadnought entirely.
"When the newborn Phoenix is finally raised, I will awaken you. And you will stand before the recruits and tell them the story of the glorious age ten thousand years past."
"....."
.....
"Good. Looks like he was willing to listen. I nearly had a heart attack. Ten thousand years clearly weighed heavily on him."
Watching the Contemptor Dreadnought sink into sleep before him, Zhou Ye exhaled slowly. He then carefully retrieved the virus bomb. Useful for the future — now he could carry out an Exterminatus order without having to personally put a single shot through an entire planet.
"Time to leave. Looks like Fulgrim isn't coming. Rylanor of the Emperor's Children — if I could get my hands on Akurduana's Gene-seed too, now that would really be something. Then I'd truly have pulled a Fulgrim on Fulgrim."
---o---