Steel & Oil: Warhammer 32K

While Admir was still explaining, the Gene-Seed that had sprouted legs had already made a considerable break for it. Fortunately, Tom caught the little escapee with ease and carried it back to the examination table in his mouth.

Lin gave Tom a pat on the head and took back the self-ambulatory Gene-Seed. With the benefit of experience, he didn't hesitate for a second — one clean cut split it in two, and he placed the still-twitching halves under the electron microscope.

The research equipment automatically extracted a sample of raw fluid from the Gene-Seed and began sequencing the full DNA profile.

As it turned out, the sequencing wasn't even necessary. Simply observing the bisected Gene-Seed through the microscope was enough for Lin to grasp just how deep the chaos ran.

Beyond a double-helix backbone that was anything but stable, countless fragmented gene-chains drifted freely through the interior. Even as the Gene-Seed slowly lost activity from being cut open, those chains kept tearing savagely into one another. Every collision between two strands birthed an entirely new permutation, and the Gene-Seed cycled through possibility after possibility in a endless carnival of transformation.

Eventually, through all that mutual consumption, one dominant chain emerged from the chaos — and latched itself onto the double-helix core.

Lin had no idea what traits that inserted chain would express upon implantation, and he had no interest in finding out. The whole process — ten thousand changes collapsing at last into one — reminded him uncomfortably of the bird-headed figure in the Warp who delighted in toying with the threads of fate.

The gene-chains within the Gene-Seed had shown no specific markers of Warp energy during their mutual consumption. Even so, Lin didn't hesitate. He pulled out his promethium flamer and burned everything on the examination table down to ash.

A battle-brother's legacy came to an end just like that. Admir said nothing. The critical issue had long since ceased to be about one or two individual Gene-Seeds.

The two of them stared at each other in silence. The atmosphere in the laboratory drew suddenly taut.

A Gene-Seed that could grow its own legs was more than enough to earn the label of xenos contamination or outright heresy. The moment that label got out, it would be enough to drag every Imperial Astartes carrying those Gene-Seeds into an abyss from which there was no return.

Lin and Admir had stumbled, entirely by accident, onto a secret that every member of the Legion would be required to guard with their lives — and of everyone present, Lin was the only one who was not of the Second Legion.

And yet, in the end, Admir reached over and passed him the second Gene-Seed.

"We still haven't looked at the current ones," he said.

Lin nodded. The tension in the laboratory eased somewhat. He placed the Gene-Seed Admir had handed him on the table, made his cut, and extracted the genetic sequence for analysis.

The results this time were remarkably better than the thousand-year-old sample. This Gene-Seed already possessed a complete, stable double-helix structure, with no fragmented gene-chains consuming and recombining with one another.

Lin attempted to introduce several external gene-chains and found that it did not replicate the earlier seed's internecine 'ten-thousand-transformations' behaviour. Although the Gene-Seed still demonstrated strong compatibility with foreign genetic material, the presence of an intact double helix meant those fragments merely adhered to the structure rather than altering it — not enough to classify as xenos contamination.

Lin let out a long, slow breath. He pulled up the genetic profiles of both Gene-Seeds side by side on the display and began analyzing the structural differences between them.

Admir, seeing Lin's visible relief, visibly relaxed as well. He stepped forward and asked how things stood.

"Your current Gene-Seeds are stable — my initial assessment is that there's no serious problem, and certainly nothing that would compromise your identity as human beings. That said, I'll need to do a more detailed comparison of the differences so I can run purity screening later and identify which seeds are still viable for use."

Lin continued cross-referencing the two genetic charts. "Beyond that, I'm genuinely curious what kind of experiences could have driven such a dramatic transformation in your Gene-Seeds. I know that an Astartes's combat history and what he consumes can influence the Gene-Seeds continuously absorbing his characteristics — but…" He paused. "Hm?"

"What is it?" Admir asked from behind him.

"No… it's nothing."

It was very much something. As Lin processed the information flowing from his comparison of the two genetic profiles, he felt it feeding directly into the schematics already building in the back of his mind — schematics for constructing the Zerg.

A storm broke loose inside him.

He had only just realized it: the Second Legion's Gene-Seeds, in the way they altered their own traits, bore a striking resemblance to the Tyranid organisms he had dissected earlier.

But Admir was still standing right here. Lin could only force his shock down as hard as he could and keep his expression perfectly normal.

Why had the Second Legion's Primarch made a pact with Tzeentch? Why had the early Second Legion's Gene-Seeds been so relentlessly mutable? Why did the Second Legion's genetic expression share similarities with the Swarm? And why… had that old man in yellow dropped him onto this particular planet?

Question after question piled onto Lin's chest, leaving him feeling as though he were sinking into a swamp with no bottom. He tried to sort through some of it — but at that moment, Admir, standing behind him, spoke up.

"Fascinating, isn't it?" Admir said.

Lin was buried in too many thoughts. It took him a beat to register that this was not a question Admir should have asked — or could have asked.

He spun around, yanking out his Plasma Pistol, and leveled it at Admir.

But 'Admir' only looked back at him with a quiet smile.

"Fascinating, isn't it?" he repeated. "These people's Gene-Seeds."

Lin squeezed the trigger. The Plasma Pistol began charging in his hand — but 'Admir' simply raised one hand, and a ripple of psychic force smothered the charging coils.

Tom, sensing something wrong, launched himself at Admir — and was swatted aside by the same casual gesture, a pulse of psychic energy sending him tumbling unconscious to the floor.

But the brave little Felyne had bought Lin the moment he needed. Realizing he was dealing with a powerful psyker, Lin simply pressed his other hand directly onto the coils, using his nature as a Blank to cut off the psychic interference.

With the Plasma Pistol restored to normal function, he leveled it again. 'Admir' finally frowned, finding that psychic suppression alone wasn't going to stop the shot.

"Your particular gift exceeds even my expectations…" he murmured to himself. Then he raised both hands toward Lin, a clear gesture of non-threat. "There's no need to make this so serious. I have no ill intent — not right now."

"Who are you? Why are you possessing Admir's body?!" Lin kept every scrap of his guard up, the pistol still aimed and steady.

He was already cycling through every powerful psyker with any conceivable connection to Gene-Seeds, the Swarm, and this whole tangled mess, trying to work out who had taken up residence in Admir. But the answer he got still caught him completely off guard.

'Admir' turned the question back on him: "Does a god need a reason to inhabit his own Chosen?"

Lin blinked. "You're the Emperor?"

The moment the words left his mouth, Lin was quite certain he saw something pass across 'Admir's' face — a deep, weary exhalation of the soul.

"Is the only sun you humans can conceive of the one rotting away in the Warp?"

Lin kept his hand on the coils, letting the charge build. "I don't mind giving whatever other Warp-born filth is lurking out there a quick and merciful end."

"I have felt that sentiment very keenly, Lin — especially after you smashed my idol a few days ago."

'Admir' shrugged, and with those words, his identity was drawn toward a direction Lin had never once considered.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Miraboreas, the Black Dragon — Avenger of the Ancient Dragons, and the Proxy of the First Dragon." He spread his arms wide in an embrace that seemed to encompass the entire world. "Though of course, you may call me by the name you used before —

World Soul."

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