Steel & Oil: Warhammer 32K

When the Felyne spotted Lin, he immediately perked up with excitement. He had come in alongside Lieutenant Admir, and now he trotted over to nuzzle affectionately against Lin's leg — Lin scooped him up without missing a beat.

This particular Felyne, who bore an uncanny resemblance to a British Shorthair, was the very same one who had helped Lin slap the Energy Shield onto Lieutenant Admir during that desperate last stand. His quick wits and boldness had been indispensable to turning the tide of that battle.

Lin had taken a real liking to the Felyne's cleverness. He'd named him Tom, and kept him close as a laboratory assistant.

"I still don't understand why you had to name him Tom…" Admir watched Lin cradling the cat and shook his head with a helpless sigh.

"Give it a rest. At least I didn't call him Cat-One or Cat-Two," Lin said, unbothered. "This name is an ancient and closely guarded secret of old Terra. Anyway — did you bring the Gene-Seeds?"

"All of them are in this cryo-unit — everything from the brothers who fell aboard the space hulk back then, to the Gene-Seeds we've recovered just recently."

Admir stepped forward and set the cryo-unit down in front of Lin. Lin gave a nod. He cleared away the Tyranid tissue samples from the examination table, then carefully retrieved several cryo-vials containing Gene-Seeds from the unit.

This was the arrangement the Hunter Dreadnought had agreed upon with Lin in advance — to have Lin inspect the Gene-Seeds. Though the decision had nominally been deferred until Admir awoke, that consultation was more a formality than anything else. After all, they were the ones who needed Lin to help rebuild their company; they didn't really have another choice.

Admir's only condition was that he be present while Lin examined the Gene-Seeds. That was why he was here now.

Each Progenoid Gland was roughly the size of a palm, with a few fleshy tendrils clinging to its surface. At first glance, they looked no different from any other Gene-Seeds. But the secrets always lay within — and fortunately, this deserted space hulk was fully equipped. Lin had everything he needed to peer inside and find out what was hiding there.

The equipment needed a little time to calibrate. Lin dispatched Tom to handle the prep work, then settled in for some idle conversation with Admir.

"Your recovery has far outpaced anything I expected, Admir. It's only been three days and you're already indistinguishable from a healthy man."

Admir shook his head. "Am I really indistinguishable?"

Lin looked him over carefully, running through the same checklist he'd already reviewed many times since Admir's recovery: no dragon claws, no pointed ears, no scales. The only change was that the skin which had regrown was shot through with a silver-white sheen, like a Silver Rathalos, and its resistance to physical trauma had improved somewhat.

"I think you are," Lin said. By the standards of Astartes mutation, what Admir had undergone was actually quite mild — at the very least, the Wyverian Lin had privately imagined was nowhere in evidence.

But Admir remained unsatisfied.

"The abilities the Emperor granted us naturally have their worth — I've always understood there would come times when that worth had to be put to use," he said with a sigh. "But every time I actually use them, I find myself thinking of my gene-father, who made his pact with daemons. It makes me deeply uneasy."

"Having the same abilities doesn't make you the same person. Remember this, Admir — there is a line between use and collusion."

Lin still wasn't certain whether the abilities carried in their Gene-Seeds were reliable, but he was happy to offer some comfort to the warrior who had turned the tide of battle.

An indicator light blinked on, signaling the equipment was ready. Lin picked up one of the cryo-vials — a Gene-Seed harvested from a battle-brother who had died fighting Tzeentchian daemons a thousand years ago — and placed it under the microscope. "Besides, we may very well uncover the truth behind your abilities today."

Admir gave a noncommittal sound. "I only hope my brother's second sacrifice will have meant something."

"If there's anything to learn, we should be able to see it from the outside without cutting the Gene-Seed open," Lin murmured, brow furrowing. "But this…"

As the cryo-vial thawed, the Gene-Seed that had been dormant in storage roused to sudden activity. The tendrils on the rounded fleshy gland began to writhe and extend as though they were alive — reaching outward like the arms of a starving octopus.

Lin studied it for a moment, then turned to Admir with an uncertain expression. "Have your Gene-Seeds always been this… active?"

"The previous batch were like this," Admir answered.

Lin said nothing.

The Tithe of Eleven was a cornerstone of the Imperium, and no Space Marine Chapter was exempt. Every Chapter was required to surrender Gene-Seeds as their tithe, which were then shipped by the vessel-load to Mars for preservation.

As a Mechanicus sage who had never served on Mars, Lin had precious few opportunities to handle Gene-Seeds from different bloodlines.

But he had once had the dubious "privilege" of observing several Gene-Seeds of Ultramarines lineage aboard a Mechanicus transport carrying them for shipment. While Progenoid Glands all looked more or less the same from the outside, he could say with confidence that the Ultramarines' Gene-Seeds had never been this lively.

Faced with a Gene-Seed so openly advertising its appetites, Lin thought for a moment. Rather than cutting it open, he cautiously retrieved a small scrap of leftover flesh from the dragon specimen and placed it beside the Gene-Seed.

The moment those active tendrils sensed the meat, they lashed out and coiled around it, yanking it onto the main body with startling speed. Within moments, the scrap had been fully absorbed into the Progenoid Gland.

Then the Gene-Seed that had just "eaten" began to tremble.

As Lin and Admir watched with wide eyes, a tiny structure budded from the base of the gland — something unmistakably resembling a miniature dragon leg, complete with claws.

The Gene-Seed with its newly grown leg stumbled about for a moment, getting used to the appendage. Then, having apparently adapted, it launched itself clean off the examination table and sprinted hell-for-leather toward the nearest shadowy corner it could hide in.

Lin's pupils shook.

For just a moment, he seriously wondered if the coordinates for this planet had somehow ended up as the Eye of Terror.

What in the warp did I just witness? Is this really what a Loyalist Gene-Seed is supposed to look like?!

He turned to look at Admir. Admir was staring back at him with an expression of equal bewilderment.

"Gene-Seeds were always the Apothecary's responsibility. I never looked into the details myself."

Admir's voice had clearly lost some of its usual strength, watching the Gene-Seed make its very "independent" escape. "Our Apothecary died on the space hulk. Before he passed, he made us swear to keep the Gene-Seeds sealed in cryo-storage at all times and never let them come into contact with any foreign material. The brothers we put in charge of recovery afterward followed his instructions to the letter, without the slightest lapse — so none of us ever noticed a problem like this before…"

____

________________________________________

If you want more chapters, please consider supporting my page on (P). with 50 advanced chapters available on (P)

👻 Join the crew by searching Leanzin on (P). You know the spot! 😉