Jacob was lying on the operating altar. He raised his head and saw the pharmacist's pale face because he had not seen the sun for a long time. He could hear the vague working sounds of nearby machines, the weird chants of the servitors, and the occasional sharp screams. Screaming or howling, or the sound of a scalpel cutting into the body.
The table beneath him was stained with his clotted blood, its smell rushing into his nasal passages along with many chemicals, and his fingers fidgeted uneasily on the metal handle on the edge of the operating table.
Then he took a deep breath to keep himself calm.
After the Chapter returned from the battlefield on the Death Star, they, as the fourth batch of recruits of the Chapter, finally began the transformation surgery.
First, the pharmacists performed many strange medical rituals on him, and then everyone was scanned by many technological engines. The pharmacists poked him with sensing devices, put on a sensing helmet on him, and attached surveillance to his limbs. patch.
Before that, their diet had been changed to some kind of synthetic product, which had a strange chemical taste caused by many drugs, but he guessed that these things were for his own good, so he didn't worry.
And there was no use worrying, because he knew that all people lived completely under the mercy of fate.
At least he's alive, but not all candidates are.
Many, many of his friends, the boys from Armageddon, would never come back.
Some people call the orphans of the fallen soldiers that they, the Astral Knights, took away from Armageddon the "Orphans of Armageddon," but he prefers the name "The Sons of Armageddon."
Soon, Jacob pushed these distracting thoughts to the back of his mind. He didn't want to think about it anymore.
After his early transformations, his body had become a perfect amalgamation of genetic technology, ready to take the next step in making him one of the Astartes.
He's ready to implant what they call a gene-seed.
Death or sanctification is the only step left.
Jacob took another deep breath and tried to stay calm.
He instinctively dislikes this, hates being restrained, imprisoned, and being influenced by the will of others.
But there is nothing he can do about it now.
When he turned his head slightly, he saw a pharmacist walking over. He held a glass with both hands respectfully, which contained a meat ball with many warts and tissue tubes protruding from it.
At this time, the chanting of the surrounding servitors became louder and more rhythmic as the pharmacist approached.
That's the gene seed.
Jacob thought of what he had learned over the past few weeks, the most important component any Astartes possessed that would allow him to continue his transformation into the full superman he was.
Although it looks a bit ferocious on the outside, it is really a sacred thing. This bloody mass of flesh was born from another glorious Astartes, and is also related to the god who was called the Primarch in ancient times. contact directly.
Jacob was excited to think that he would soon have a part of God in his body.
The apothecary moved closer, and Jacob felt a needle prick into his arm, which to his heightened senses felt like the stab of a sword.
After a brief period of pain, coldness flowed into his blood vessels and spread from the place where the needle was inserted.
This thing may be an anesthetic, but it doesn't seem to be the case, because the pastor once said that they would not look at the anesthetic drugs during the transformation, which may have adverse reactions.
After a while, he relaxed and became numb, feeling as if his body was a distant thing, and his soul seemed to be floating on a frosty cloud, watching what happened to his body.
Soon, he felt his skin begin to tremble, a slight pressure appeared on his chest, and the pharmacist reached out and cut him open with a saw.
In an instant, the muscles separated and blood flowed out.
Jacob doubted even being struck by an ax would be anything worse than this, but he felt only slight discomfort now.
Finally, he saw the pharmacist make a complicated gesture over the container of gene seeds, and then use an armored hand to pull out the mass of flesh.
The gene seed made a strange sucking sound when it was placed into his chest, and began to connect to his nerves, blood vessels and muscles.
The strange feeling was unlike anything he had ever experienced before, like a living thing crawling inside his chest.
He imagined tentacles extending from the thing, blood vessels growing like roots from a seed, nerves connecting to his own.
The next second, images filled his mind as another needle thrust in, pain began to flow through his body, beyond the cold, and his consciousness fell into the dark abyss.
His last remnant of consciousness was an echo.
Sure enough, it’s not an anesthetic——
A few days later.
Jacob knelt in the meditation room. He felt better now, his chest no longer felt uncomfortable from the gene seed.
Although it had only been a few days, the scars caused by the ritual had begun to fade, and he only felt a slight sensitivity when touching those soft places.
He found himself probing with his fingers every day, like a man licking the cavity of a fallen tooth with his tongue. It was still hard for him to believe that these scars and tender spots were signs of the Emperor's favor, but he knew they must be. So true.
Then he pushed those thoughts away and focused on the podium.
The priest stood in front of the candidates again and guided them to start the ceremony. Jacob cleared his mind as he had learned and began to recite the strange prayer silently.
Feeling himself relax, he reached for the Crown of Knowledge, a strange ancient thing made of brass and steel, connected to the Knowledge Engine by brass and glass cables.
The priest told them that this crown of knowledge was the first time the Chapter had used it for recruits. It was a very advanced and efficient device. The huge machine it was connected to recorded all the history of the Chapter, as well as many more ancient ones. s story.
In fact, these were ancient devices that had just been brought out of the legion's flagship. They had been used for rapid recruit training in the past. They were very different from the existing brainwashing equipment. Soshyan decided to put them into trial after careful consideration.
By wearing the tiara, knowledge can flow into the recruit's head at an extremely fast rate, faster than anyone can memorize through ordinary methods - which can save them a lot of time spent in the library.
Jacob found the process both terrifying and miraculous, and after the tiara was put on and the priest said the correct prayers, knowledge emerged.
Not just in the form of words and memories, but also sounds, images and feelings.
He felt like he was being drastically changed by the machine, but he didn't care: the knowledge was worth the price.
Jacob learned so much in just a few days that it was significant in itself.
And the more he learns, the more he understands the Space Marines and the Chapter, and the more he wants to truly become a part of them - but this obviously takes time.
