"No — the Second Legion and the Eleventh Legion had all records of their existence erased long before the great rebellion ever took place. No official history today acknowledges that twenty Legions were raised at the outset of the Great Crusade.
"Those who know a little more believe there were eighteen Legions in total. Those who know even less think the Imperium started with only nine — the nine that remained loyal during the rebellion.
"The handful of people who are aware the Second and Eleventh Legions ever existed at all generally assume they were purged by the Emperor for crossing some forbidden line — but no one has ever been able to confirm it."
Lin spread his hands. "But now, I think we can say we understand why the Second Legion was purged. The existence of daemons can't be kept secret anymore — not after the great rebellion. But before the rebellion, when daemons couldn't pass freely between the Warp and realspace, the Imperium worked very hard to keep their existence hidden.
"If the Second Legion's collusion with daemons had been discovered back then, I imagine the Emperor would have ordered a quiet execution — to prevent knowledge of the daemons from spreading any further."
"Already gone before the rebellion even started?" Lieutenant Admir confirmed, needing to hear it once more.
Lin nodded. The warriors exchanged glances with one another.
It was only in that moment that they truly began to grasp what they had long suspected: the dark secret the Hunter Dreadnought carried on his shoulders really had grown somewhat stale. Everything that could happen and couldn't happen had already happened. Even if someone still knew a few old buried truths, it was hard to see what difference they could make now.
"Still — I'm having trouble with the daemons themselves," Lieutenant Vigan said, his disbelief still plain on his face. "Creatures that defy all rational explanation actually exist? Doesn't that mean the Imperial Truth was a lie?"
Lin shook his head. "Actually, because daemons have spread so widely through realspace, more and more people have abandoned the Imperial Truth. They fear the daemons, and they've come to see the Emperor — who once rekindled humanity's glory — as a god who can drive back the darkness and save them.
"The religious superstition that the Emperor himself spent his life dismantling has now crawled back to life on the back of worship directed at the Emperor himself. But the Imperial Truth was never just a convenient lie to keep the masses quiet. Tell me, Lieutenant Vigan — what is the Imperial Truth actually about, at its core?"
"Why, it's the truth that explains realspace — our principles, our standards, the measure by which we judge our actions…"
"No. The heart of the Imperial Truth is a rational, scientific way of thinking. The Emperor's denial of the supernatural was indeed a lie — but scientific rationalism itself was never a deception.
"What is science? Science is not truth in itself — it is the accumulated record of human experience. Anything that can be observed, repeated, and understood can become science. Whether it's something as baffling as psychic power, or something as alien as a Warp-born daemon — so long as we can identify the patterns, it falls within the domain of human science."
Watching Lieutenant Vigan turn this over in his mind, Lin continued: "The failure of religious thinking is that it refuses to think at all. Ordinary people simply label daemons — creatures that devour human souls — as evil gods, and the Emperor who saved humanity as a good god.
"Gods are all-powerful; nothing they do requires explanation. Ordinary people cannot resist them, and can only wait for the gods' chosen champions to come and deliver them — but the moment you embrace that way of thinking, humanity has already surrendered its ability to save itself.
"Daemons are not mysterious. Humanity has broadly established that daemons are Warp-born entities sustained by the emotions of sentient beings. They revel in making themselves known before humans; the cunning, the suffering, the rage, the ecstasy that humans feel in response to their presence all become food for them — which is precisely why they are so obsessed with devouring human souls.
"They resist simple explanation, yes — but they are not beyond understanding. It is true that, by the fundamental nature of daemons, the fewer people who know of them, the less nourishment they receive — so ordinary people's ignorance and faith in the gods ironically serves as a fortress protecting them. But if even the Space Marines — the very vanguard standing between humanity and its enemies — can no longer look upon the existence of daemons with clear, rational eyes, then humanity is truly finished."
"So that's why the Emperor hid the daemons in the first place — and why the daemons incited the great rebellion. The Imperium's civil war must have been an absolute feast for them…"
Lieutenant Vigan nodded, fully convinced. "You're extraordinary, Magos Lin. Every Mechanicus priest I've encountered before has been a devoted follower of the Omnissiah — not one of them understood science the way you do."
"There are factions within the Mechanicus that don't worship gods," Lin said with a smile.
"So we now have a rough picture of what happened after the Great Crusade — and of the daemons themselves…"
Lieutenant Admir was clearly thinking further ahead: "The great rebellion has already happened. The Second Legion no longer exists. Do we still need to return to the Imperium?"
The question landed, and the room went cold again.
They had once been the Imperium's sword-arm, and they knew full well how the Imperium dealt with loose ends. The entire Second Legion had already been branded as non-existent. Their own existence would never be acknowledged. The Imperium would not welcome them back — it would erase them, the same way it had erased everything else that bore the Second Legion's name.
They did not fear dying in battle. What they feared was returning only to be destroyed by the very Imperium they had served — reduced to yet another piece of the Second Legion's nonexistence.
"If we can leave this planet, I think we have to leave — but as for returning to the Imperium…" Sergeant Arlo said, hesitating. "What if we do what we always did — keep roaming the edges of the light of the Astronomican? At least if we die fighting out there, we'll have made the contribution we were always meant to make."
The others stared at each other. Nobody had a better idea. Lin was just drawing breath to speak when the Hunter — who had finally steadied himself — cut in first.
"No. We have to return to the Imperium." The Dreadnought's tone left no room for argument. "Magos Lin — you said just now that the Second Legion has been erased from the Imperium's records. No documentation. Is that right?"
Lin nodded, and the Hunter continued: "No records means there's no way to verify whether the Second Legion was truly and completely destroyed. I don't believe the reason they wiped the records was simply to hide the existence of daemons. The Second Legion may well have been annihilated — but their Primarch would never have been so easily and thoroughly eliminated."
"Your evidence being…?" Lin asked, puzzled.
"Hunter's instinct. And a few things I've seen with my own eyes."
The Hunter Dreadnought's voice was utterly certain. He turned to face Lieutenant Admir: "Do you remember? Before we left the Legion, our Primarch had already learned to take on the full form of the xenos completely. He could even scatter his spores the way the greenskins do!"