A Young One's First Prowl: Prologue

“Novice Klein to the bridge.”

The flagship of the Second Legion, Kagali's Ambition, floated into the frozen rings around the gas giant. Safely into the Luzen Corridor, the ship's escorts moved back and forth between patrols and garrison. The rest of the Second Legion's fleet was making the translation into the real-space of this nameless system.

A week sidereal had gone by since the ancient flagship had made that translation itself. A week where the fleet's probes and administratum cogitators began to produce the idiosyncratic information the Legion required to carry out their mission. A mission that only one legion in the history of the Imperium, or not as the case may be, has ever been sent upon.

Redemptus Forbidus.

The punishment bestowed on the Second Legion by the Emperor himself. Never to be forgiven. Never to be redeemed. And a punishment: no astartes' gene-seed will be harvested before he himself has saved one million souls from the isolation of Old Night. No respite for those who would rebuke their sire. And until each one of the Legion died unharvested or a savior, their names, the name of their legion, and the deeds they accomplished in the name of the Emperor would not be entered into the Imperial Record. They would not only be unable to pass their experiences on to a new generation of astartes, but they would be invisible in the eyes of history.

Even that, reminisced Chapter Master Ba, was a light punishment for Kagali's hubris. Ba could still remember the shock on the Master of the Fleet's face when the Supernova ordered the bombardment. It was the same look he had on his own face when Lord Kagali impaled the astartes on his claws after he refused. Kagali hadn't even tried to shake the corpse loose. His wild gesticulations to the fleet's second in command caused the Fleet Master's body to be dissected into several indistinct chunks.

Master Ba shivered at the millennium-old memory. Astartes were meant to die on the field of battle not be murdered at the feet of their commanders, he thought. He remembered the centuries of argument after the Supernova finally imploded. He and his fellow commanders had argued over whether to abandon the Codex Kagali. Filled with centuries of their lord's raving edicts, the Codex Kagali was a mirror of that created by Guilliman. The lord of the second legion, His Favored Sons, disagreed wholeheartedly with the “dictates” of one of the 'Emperor's Tainted Ones'. But he saw the sense in providing his future Favored Sons with a guide to war in the fashion that won them the Emperor's Favor.

Thus, the Codex Kagali was born. The information within was possibly helpful only in specific situations. But the remnant Astartes Chapters of the Second Legion now took most of their traditions from the codex. In fact, Master Ba mused, its what's causing me to send one of my precious novices to the Eastern Fringes on the off chance that my Master of Astropaths was correct in decoding his most recent loss's last message. A distress signal. In ancient Imperial code. Once received by an actual Imperial outpost, it was likely to sit in queue for months.

The scent of adrenaline overwhelmed the incense burning on the bridge. That and the smell of the jungle. The smell of Alisdra. It never failed to amaze him. They were always so eager to bleed. The young novice, in a simple robe, entered the bridge at a run and came to attention a few meters from Master Ba.

“Novice Klein reporting as ordered, sir!”

The ancient astartes chuckled. It was an oddly comforting sound. A familiar habit of the ancient, genengineered warrior. Like something he did often. Indeed, Captain Ba and his company of brawlers were well known for their comradeship. Something normally absent in the stoic, post-heresy Adeptus Astartes. But the Remnant Chapters of the Second Legion had more than just their primarch's ambition bred into them. The Emperor himself had told them that they had his humour as well. Master Ba liked to think he and his lost primarch would have gotten on famously had they ever gotten the chance to meet. He grew melancholy.

“Easy young one. Your chance to prove yourself has arrived.” The smell of adrenaline and eagerness literally rolled off the novice. Master Ba looked him in the eyes and the youth glared back with the same ambition he had shown Kagali back in the last jungles of the Afrik-Alliance. Younger than this one by half, Ba had impressed his recruiter custodian. He, as the firstborn, had been tithed to the Emperor's service and testing moved him into the the Adeptus Astartes.

This one, though, they had tithed from Alisdra. The gene-seed in the youth slowly changing his skin color to a dark brown; stimulating his muscles to grow, his bones to strengthen, his brain to connect synapses that had grown apart in millions of years of evolution. The future of the The Shining Sons, thought Master Ba. So eager to bleed.

“We've intercepted a concerning communication from the system of Styphus in the Eastern Fringes. They're calling for aid. Unfortunately for them, the closest aid is months away. Additionally, this is the first recorded communication of any kind from Styphus in well over four centuries if the cogitators are to be believed. And to complicate the matter further, the encoding of the message is ancient. From pre-Heresy times. Even if an Imperial listening station did pick up the signal, it would take months for them to respond to the message as it would almost certainly be sent back to Mars for decoding.”

Master Ba nodded to the Master of the Fleet who handed Klein a portable cogitator with detailed information on the system, and the message. Never breaking attention, the novice stowed the cogitator within his robe. Ba nodded and continued, “you, fortunately, are only two weeks away. Questions?”

“Milord, the Codex Kagali states: ...the novice will, when his chance to prove himself is at hand, resolve any and all conflicts or problems that present themselves in the area he is sent to. These may not be readily apparent or even capable of being accomplished. The novice will, however, show the endurance of a hero and persevere regardless of circumstance, unto death...”

“Oh my. You are a stiff one aren't you. Youngling, if we still followed the Supernova's codex that strictly we would have failed at our mission centuries ago. No. Now, rather than any and all problems you encounter, its the mission you are sent on that's important. Your mission is to travel to the Styphus system, to...,” Master Ba looked over at his cogitator unit and checked the name of the closest thing to an Imperial seat in the system, “oh...how original...travel to the main planet Styphus Primus, and meet with the Governor or his appointed proxies and resolve the urgent problem that they are so desperate for aid with. Your strike cruiser is being prepared. You have thrity minutes sidereal to familiarize yourself with the situation and then depart for Styphus. Anymore questions?” Ba smiled at the young Alisdrian.

No. He thought, the young astartes. I must stop separating them in my mind. They are all my Shining Sons.

The novice stiffened and his chest swelled with pride, “No, milord.”

The chuckle again. Ba clapped the young astartes on the shoulder, “oh come now boy. If you can't call me by name, at least give me the courtesy of a Kosi...” The mischievous smile on his master's face made the novice suddenly break out in uncertainty.

With a stutter, Klein caught himself too late but made a valiant attempt,“very well, milor...Kulisa Kosi.”

This time outright laughter. Half of the bridge crew were hiding laughs as well. The Master sat down on his command throne and beamed at the novice, pushing his concern over the young one's uncertainty away, “Very Good Klein! Kulisa Kosi!” An ancient title from the old tongue of the Afrik-Alliance. Rising Sun! Ba laughed to himself again, “Very good. Dismissed.”

Novice Klein turned and headed for the Master of Astropaths quarters. Master Ba watched him go. He hadn't suggested talking to the man who decrypted the message. But the young one had thought to do it as a matter of course. Not many are that astute. This one would require watching, lest his ambition run wild. Still, he thought, its what I would've done as well. As the novice disappeared into the blue light of the Astropath's Sanctum, Ba stroked his braids, “ very good Klein, very good.”

CHAPTER RESOURCE INFORMATION BREAKDOWN:

ATTENTION * ATTENTION * ATTENTION

The following report contains data without update since 0536684.M40!

Out of Date information is HIGHLY likely!

Regard Accuracy Accordingly!

ATTENTION * ATTENTION * ATTENTION

System Designation: EF-456-91
System Nomenclature: Styphus

Population: 6,700,000 human souls; Approximately 1,000,000 human and abhuman souls live within the rest of the system. The people of Styphus are mostly ancestral terrans although the Imperial attempts at governance were forced through necessity to tolerate the presence of several abhuman populations as well as several transient xenos populations.
Notable Mention: LowGees: Abhuman inhabitants living in and around the mining communities of the seventh planet's gas-resource rich rings. HiGees: Abhuman inhabitants that mine valuable minerals from the mountains of the superdense fourth planet. “The Alihnaab”: The system’s population swells by several hundred thousand whenever some connected nomadic groups of xenos arrive in system for a century festival on Mandsibah, the larger of the two lunar bodies orbiting Styphus Primus.

Government: System-wide High Council, two-thirds of whom are hereditary lords and the remainder of whom are guildmasters from the system's important trading and manufacturing guilds. Lord Governor McCray Simon is the public face of the council and commander of the Imperial Planetary Defense Forces.

Defense: The system has approximately 200,000 soldiers under arms at all times, with about one-quarter on duty at any given time. In times of crisis, the Lord Governor has access to approximately another 200,000 well-equipped but poorly trained soldiers by calling up the abhuman militias.

Chapter Designator: II-III/L
Chapter Nomenclature: The Shining Sons

• Possible Mechanicus Resources: Trujillo Arms. Rowe & Bertram Trading House. Prospectors, Blacksmiths and Smelters guilds.
• Possible Apothecarium Resource: Station of the Mutants (Styphus Quadrus).
• Possible Ministorum Areas of Investigation: Theater of the Coffin (Styphus Primus); Battlement of Barriers (Styphus Quadrus); Steeple of the Blade (Styphus Primus); Vault of Riddles (Mandsibah, Styphus Primus lunar body); Spire of the Holy Griffin (Styphus Septus); Catacombs of Storms (Styphus Primus).