# Rebirth part 6



## Col. Schafer (Apr 15, 2008)

Gaunt felt a jolt as the escape pod ejected from the ship. As there were no windows he could not take stock of the surroundings so he decided to sit tight. After a few minutes he grew board and half out of that and half out of curiosity he asked the crewman,

“Where is the Machine Spirit leading us?”

“I don’t know, it is changed automatically depending on the location, probably one of the major cities on Macragge.”

Gaunt grunted and closed his eyes. He hadn’t slept in a while, and it seemed he was going to have to wait for an indeterminate amount of time. 

---

Gaunt awoke with a start at a jolt to the craft.

“We’re here.” Said larkin.

“Where is here?” asked Gaunt

“No Idea.” Said Larkin as the hatch opened. 

Larkin stepped out first, and gaunt followed him. Gaunt carried Milo and Larkin carried Isabella. As they stepped out of the craft they looked around to find themselves in a large, suspiciously familiar plaza filled with escape pods and landing craft. Far off in the distance they could see a colossal smoke cloud towering over the horizon. Their attention was quickly stolen to the here and now when they did a double take and found themselves facing down the barrels of a dozen arbiter shotguns. 

“Your all under arrest.” Said the apparent leader, wielding a pistol instead of a shotgun and wearing a heavy coat over his armor.

Gaunt was flabbergasted. 

“On who’s authority?” He said indignantly.

“Inquisitorial” said the arbiter, showing a printout with the seal of the Ordos Hereticus. 

Gaunt’s heart sank as he remembered what he had been helping Milo combat. Inquisitors.

4 arbites stepped forward with stretchers and moved the inquisitors onto them. The 5 of them were marched off. They were taken to a chimera where they were loaded on. Their weapons were taken from them, and their hands were put into restraining cuffs. Gaunt thought with annoyance that his sword seemed to be developing a habit of getting away from him. Inside the chimera the noise of the engine was deafening and the temperature was rising. The shipman raised his hands to loosen the color of his uniform, and one of the arbites nearly blew his head off. The Crewman sat in terrified silence after that. Gaunt knew better than to ask for charges. All these arbites knew was that the inquisition wanted them taken in, and he knew better than most that you did what the inquisition told you to do. 

After about a half an hour the engine slowed and the motion of the chimera stopped. The hatch opened and the 2 inquisitors, the commissar, the sniper and the crewman were unloaded. They found themselves marching towards a gigantic building. The building was surrounded by a razor wire fence that must have been 10 meters high, and judging by the odd crater and scorch mark the 10 meters or so between the fence and the building were mined. They were marched thru a gate in the wire after a guard checked the arbites identification, and searched gaunt Larkin and the shipman for concealed weapons. As they entered the building they saw only 2 major features other than gray walls grey ceiling and grey floors. One was a small security desk with an arbiter who checked them all again behind it, and the other was a double gold heraldry mounted on the wall. The first was of the ultramarines, the gigantic golden U with a laurel behind it. The second was an imperial eagle clutching a shotgun in each claw with the words _Precinct 154-B, with fury do we bring justice _circling it. They were taken into a hallway thru a door exactly the same color as the wall behind it. Down the hallway solid steal bulkheads lined both sides about 2 meters between them. Each was numbered with 4 digits. They turned at an intersection and Gaunt was unceremoniously thrown into a cell. The door slammed. He looked around. The cell was square, about 2 meters on a side, and had nothing it other than a small light panel in the center of the ceiling that failed completely to illuminate the room. Gaunt began to pace around the room. He tried to think of any way he could escape. It occurred to him that Milo might wake up and get them out with his out inquisitorial authority, but that might take days, and in the interim anything was better than waiting and doing nothing. Gaunt tried to think of a plan.

---

“Is he alive?”

“Yes!’

“That’s just not possible!”

“Look at him!”

“Is he a space marine?”

“Well he’s not a normal human!”

“Is he a Xeno?”

“Can we get a fingerprints check?”

“What?!”

“Well, he might be an ultramarine.”

“Fingerprints?! We don’t have clearance to use the Ultramarines fingerprint record!”

“Well, get the clearance!”

Guilliman groaned and opened his eyes. His legs felt soar, he moved them to see if they were broken. 

“By the Emperor! He’s moving!” breathed a blurry white image.

“Where am I?” asked Guilliman.

“You are in precinct 154 medical lab. And you should be dead.”

“What happened?” Asked Guilliman, sitting up to the shock of the medical personnel around him. 

“The ship fell, the investigation is being carried out by an inquisitor and the ultramarines.” Said a wide eyed man in a green coat.

“Where is Isaac?” asked Guilliman. 

It was then that Isaac entered the room. 

“This is him.” Said Isaac. “You will treat him no matter the expense in time and manpower. If he dies I will be very angry.” 

“Yes inquisitor.” Said one of the white coated men. 

Isaac turned to Guilliman. “Don’t worry your holiness, the enemies of the imperium who did this will be punished.”

“Dam right they will.” Said Guilliman standing up.

“Worry not your holiness. They have already been imprisoned.” Isaac was taken aback. He hadn’t heard this tone before, and certainly hadn’t heard the primarch be so blunt about anything. 

Guilliman relaxed. “That is good. Should you have let them escape I would have been disappointed in your abilities as an agent of the imperium.”

A mediace inched closer to Guilliman, peering at his wounds. His eyes widened. Already they had closed and begun to scar. Guilliman made for the door.

“Come Isaac. I would like to know where my armor is.” 

With that the two of them left the room. Isaac leading the Primarch to the armory where the terminator armor had been stored. Despite his wish to do so, Isaac did not even mention the titanic feat the Primarch had accomplished. 

---

After pacing for a few hours Gaunt heard a noise at his door. It opened, and the arbiter who had taken them in, as well as 4 members of his squad entered. 

“The judge has requested your presence .” He said simply.

Gaunt followed them out of the room. They led him down endless rows of cells. Once they heard the noises of a fight from within one. They lead Gaunt into another wing without cells, but the difference was minimal. The only change was the thickness of the doors and security systems. Eventually they lead him to an elevator. They entered and the lift began moving. Gaunt could not be sure in which direction. 
Once the door opened they filed out and walked down a shorter hall. This one had no doors, save one at the end with more security than any of the other they had seen so far. The Arbiter with the pistol, now at his hip, stepped up to it. A red line of light was projected onto his face and moved up and down twice beeping each time. He then held out his hand which was met by a pad that flashed at his touch displaying a series of fingerprints until his match was found. The door opened. The 6 of them walked forward across a room that gave a bizarre contrast to the compound they had seen so far. The rooms floor was carpeted in a fine black fur. Each side of the room was lined with row upon row of shelves with data-slates on them, cabals leading from shelf to shelf. A few servitors moved from shelf to shelf pulling out slates and editing them, from each one a slight noise could be heard. Presumably this noise was some form of vox connection instructing the machines in their actions. As the group neared the far end of the room, there was a massive desk made of a fine dark wood that gaunt could not identify. Holograms were projected from its surface, a model of a city with blue triangles moving what at this scale seemed painfully slow routs. The cabals running from shelf to shelf lead to this desk all feeding into it. Sitting across from the desk was a man who was so grossly augmented that gaunt at first took him to be a servitor. The left half of his face had been replaced with an array of mechanical parts; the purposes of which were not forthcoming. Gaunt noticed squeamishly that a portion of the man’s brain was visible thru the gap between two of his enhancements. The man’s entire right arm had been replaced with a mechanical limb with numerous ports which were linked to the table. Both of his eyes glowed an eerie green light that seemed to flicker slightly. As they approached he looked up. His face a grim visage of technological enhancements. 

“You may leave.” Spoke the man in a monotone. After this was said the arbites bowed and left the room. Gaunt was left behind.

“You are Ibram Gaunt?” Asked the man, who gaunt presumed was the judge of this precinct. 

“I am.” Said Gaunt.”

“You have hereby been charged with a count of heresy, a count of high treason, and a count of fraternizing with unauthorized psykers.” Spoke the man in his monotone. 

“I see.” Responded gaunt. His heart was sinking. If by ‘unauthorized psykers’ they meant the inquisitors, than he could not count on them to help him escape. 

“You have been found guilty of these crimes.” Said the judge.

“I see.” Repeated Gaunt.

“Normally the sentence instant death. But in this case an exception has been made by inquisitorial order. You and the psykers you were found with will be taken by the inquisitor who has issued this order.”

Then with almost a hint of emotion in his voice the judge stated. “I pity you.” 

Gaunt nodded. 

Then a figure emerged from the shadows behind a shelf. The figure was almost completely shrouded in a long red cloak. 

“This is the inquisitor.” Said the judge.

Then something occurred to gaunt. “You say that I will be taken with the psykers. What of my companion Larkin?”

“He has been put to death.” 

Gaunt’s heart stopped. Larkin was dead. That wasn’t possible. Over the years so many had died, but not Larkin. It had always seemed the sniper would live forever.

“If you would come with me.” Stated the inquisitor. Revealing a door leading out onto a landing pad. 

From the lack of windows Gaunt had assumed they were underground, but it seemed they were on the top of the building. 

The Inquisitor led him to the ramp of a drop ship with the insignia of the witch hunters emblazoned on its hull. As gaunt walked forward, he noticed that the ship already had passengers.

---

After stopping at the armory to retrieve both Julius’s terminator armor, and the primarchs armor, the inquisitor and Guilliman made their way to the top of the facility. The walk thru the unadorned hallways was silent. Soon they arrived. 

“Your holiness, I must advise you that we return to Velonica prime. After this attack on your person we should re-evaluate the situation. You and I were the only ones to survive the crash. This leaves our organizations numbers diminished. “

“We will return to your stronghold as soon as I am done on my home world Isaac.” Responded the Primarch.

“What is your wish.” Sighed Isaac.

“I wish only to pay homage to the emperor at my chapters cathedral.” Stated Guilliman. 

“After you have done that-“

“Yes Isaac, after I have given prayer I will follow you back to you world.”

“Then let us depart.” Said Isaac as they reached the landing pad. A drop ship sporting an inquisitorial emblem, one of the witch hunters was waiting. As they boarded the Ship designated by the Ordo Hereticus, it began to engage its engines. As they prepared to soar into the sky Guilliman felt gladness in his heart. All it would take was one more step and he would truly be alive again. As they waited for the ship to lift off, one of Isaacs minions and another man dressed as a commissar but with the medals of a colonel entered. The commissars hands were bound. 

“Who is the officer?” Asked Guilliman. 

“Colonel Commissar Ibram Gaunt.” Responded Isaac. “He is an enemy.”

“Such a decorated war hero?” Remembering a paragraph from a historical document he had read.

“He has been duped by our true enemies your holiness, he will see the truth.” Said Isaac confidently.

Guilliman considered for a moment. “Ibram Gaunt.”

“What?” Asked the Colonel Commissar in a dull tone. 

“Can you realize who I am?” Asked the primarch.

“No.” said gaunt.

“I am a reborn Robute Guilliman.”

“No your not.” Laughed Gaunt.

The primarch was taken aback. “I beg your pardon?”

“I have stood in the presence of a saint in my life. In the glory of those moments, I _knew_ She was holly in all ways. Her glory could not be described. You are nothing more than a big marine.” He remembered well the time before the saint was realized when he had said the same of her. And he wondered in some small corner of his mind whether he would be proven wrong. 

The primarch was shocked. “Ibram Gaunt…” said the Primarch.

“I will prove you wrong in this.”

And in some small part of his mind Gaunt hoped that this would be true.

---

I’m back. :biggrin:
Sorry this took so dam long, I have had massive lack of inspiration for ages.


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## Rafen (Oct 21, 2008)

you should see if the black library might take it. I enjoyed it (it is a little odd that i show up on your posts a lot sorry i am not a stalker i sear heh) it was one of the better stories i read in a while.
(^_^);


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