It is a legendary time.
Mighty heroes battle for the right to rule the Galaxy.
The vast armies of the Emperor of Mankind conquer the stars in the Great Crusade.
His finest warriors are destined to crush and erase myriad alien races from the pages of history.
Humanity is beckoned by the dawn of a new era of cosmic dominion.
Shining citadels of marble and gold praise the Emperor’s numerous victories as he brings system after system back under his control.
On millions of worlds, monuments are raised to the glory of the great achievements of His mightiest champions.
First and foremost among them are the Primarchs—superhuman beings who lead the Space Marine Legions into war.
They are majestic and unwavering, the pinnacle of the Emperor’s genetic experiments, while the Space Marines themselves are the strongest warriors the Galaxy has ever seen, capable of defeating a hundred or more ordinary men single-handedly.
Many tales are told of these legendary beings.
From the halls of the Imperial Palace on Terra to the far reaches of Segmentum Ultima, their deeds define the very future of the Galaxy.
But can such souls always remain untainted and devoid of doubt?
Or will the temptations of great power prove too strong even for the Emperor’s most loyal sons?
The seeds of heresy have already been sown, and only a few years remain before the greatest war in human history begins…
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The impact was the first thing I felt.
It felt as if I were a meteorite, falling to earth at an incredible speed and passing through dozens of tons of rock and soil.
Steel shuddered, a pale light blinded me for a moment, and nearby machinery began to emit an irritating beeping…
Where did this even come from?
I did not recognize the place where I was.
A strange metal box, lit by several tiny bulbs, full of peculiar machines and possessing a single window through which one could look out.
Except now it was covered in cracks and smeared with some kind of grime, making it impossible to see anything.
I had a whole host of problems myself.
First, my head was splitting with an incredible ache, and my entire consciousness felt murky, as if I had woken up from a very long sleep.
It took a criminally long time to inspect myself and notice the critically important details.
I was a small child, dressed in a light white t-shirt and shorts… But shouldn’t I have been?
Attempting to catch the thought only led to a sharp headache.
Memories of things I could not have known and could not even have imagined came rushing back to me.
My mind groaned under the sudden influx of everything imaginable: from unknown languages I could now speak fluently to technologies that defied imagination.
Blueprints of incredible machines appeared in my mind of their own accord, preventing me from thinking clearly.
However, there was no time for that now.
I needed to understand where I was and, preferably, get out of this incomprehensible metal barrel.
So, overcoming the headache, I tried to stand up and look around.
Trying to ignore the foreign thoughts informing me of the structure of the unusually hard carbon glass, I spent several minutes trying to see as much as possible, pressing myself first to one part of the window, then to another.
Unfortunately, due to the dirt, it was only clear that outside was some kind of dark stone chamber, illuminated only by a faint green light.
There was no movement of shadows, no hint of motion.
Sounds and smells did not penetrate my chamber, so information was sadly scarce.
I turned to the mechanisms behind me and tried to find some version of a camera, but that too was in vain.
There were no other items—no food, water, notes, or other data storage.
Having no other choice, I reached for a bundle of wires beneath me.
Using the knowledge embedded in my head, I attempted to short-circuit them to open the door.
The whole process was accompanied by a strange feeling of almost reflexive understanding of a machine I was seeing for the first time in my life.
Though it was hard to sort through the whirlwind of thoughts, one specific fact shone in my head like a star: no one understands machines like I do.
I only had to look at a mechanism for blueprints and schematics of its design to surface in my mind.
I understood how each part of my chamber was built, why it was created, and what function it performed.
It took less than five minutes to pluck the right wire with my fingers, pull it from its socket, insert another, and then trigger a small lever to the side…
With a click, the window in front of me shifted and creaked upward, revealing a spacious cave full of stalagmites glowing with green light and unusual metallic columns.
But stranger still, all the stones and walls were covered in glowing runes and other inscriptions in a language unknown to me.
Leaning my head out of the chamber, I looked around for traps or anything living.
However, my gaze met only dead stone and steel.
Covered in runes—each unique in its own way—the air seemed to tremble slightly near them.
A very bad sign, even if I couldn’t say exactly why.
A desire grew within me to decipher them and study their function, but common sense and the survival instinct proved stronger.
In any case, I could return to them later to investigate.
Satisfied there were no visible or audible threats, I took my first step.
My small foot met a perfectly smooth stone surface, but the cold of the stone did not bother me.
To my surprise, though my body looked weak and underdeveloped, I felt an extraordinary strength and energy within it.
Clenching and unclenching my fists, feeling the movement of muscles, the stretching of ligaments, and even the beat of my own heart, I realized I was very strong.
Now was not the best time for training or discovering the exact limits of my capabilities, though the realization was interesting.
For some reason, I had a pile of facts in my head confirming I was stronger than average, but practically no data on what that “average” actually was…
I decided first to inspect the place where I had arrived, as well as the chamber in which I woke.
Despite the massive influx of new information, my brain stubbornly refused to remember what had happened before my awakening.
It was as if I hadn’t existed at all before this.
Looking at the engineering marvel from a new angle, I noticed a large golden digit on it.
“X”.
The tenth.
Another fact appeared in my head, one I was as certain of as anything in my life.
This was not a letter, not an identification mark, and not some random label—it was specifically a number.
The information felt seared into my mind, so vital was its importance.
I was the Tenth.
The tenth what?
I suspect I will find out later.
If someone built this masterpiece of engineering, they must surely know about me.
I wasn’t sure if that meeting would happen soon, though.
My current situation felt like either a strange experiment by unknown forces or an emergency evacuation.
Looking up, I saw a pile of spilled earth at an angle from which my chamber had presumably arrived.
Unfortunately, there was no passage there anymore; everything was buried under earth and stone, so I would have to find another way out.
Though several exits led from my cave into other corridors, it was unknown what lay around the corner.
I wouldn’t last long without food and water, so I needed to move out as soon as possible.
But first, I had to arm and protect myself in some way to be ready for unforeseen threats.
Fortunately, I had a good source of resources.
Glancing at the capsule, heavily damaged by the impact, I stretched my hands and began to map out the structure of my first creation.
It was as if a switch had flipped in my head, filling it with a myriad of ideas.
Unfortunately, I lacked the time and resources to realize the more interesting blueprints, so I would start with something simple and less resource-intensive…
The tunnels were a wondrous place.
It was unknown where the glowing runes drew their energy, and particularly unclear why they were even here, but the mystery was exceptionally engaging.
Searching for an exit, I also tried to see if there was anything in my head even remotely similar to the language they were written in, but there was no result.
In the process, however, I realized that I somehow knew twelve other different languages and dialects.
Another mystery for the future.
In theory, it would be good to eventually write down everything I knew about them to identify the cultural characteristics of the peoples who created the dialects.
It was already obvious that I knew languages of peoples at different levels of development—one dialect had twelve words for snow but lacked even the concept of an atom.
Another had names for various versions of fusion reactors but knew nothing of the principle of changing seasons.
My mind worked on this task in parallel, while the bulk of my mental resources went toward exploring the cave.
In my hand, I gripped a crudely made metal spear with an incredibly sharp tip.
Though I hadn’t tested it on living creatures, as there was no one here but me, it could scratch the metal of the capsule walls.
It would suffice for now.
I also considered making armor, but the metal I managed to scavenge was limited.
Even for a small spear, the scattered pieces of metal from the broken chamber were barely enough.
I had to dent and shape it into the right proportions so I would be carrying a spear rather than a shovel, but it turned out to be surprisingly easy to do.
Yes, it turned out I was strong enough to crush steel with my bare hands.
Even if this metal was only workable because it had suffered the most during landing, it was still impressive.
Though I wouldn’t call myself a genius of biology, a body of this size physically cannot contain such strength…
I stopped before taking a new step.
I moved with maximum caution, suspecting a trap at every turn, which required calculating every movement while not forgetting other details.
Studying the unknown inscriptions, I began to notice patterns.
My brain was working at its limit, allowing me to understand that they were all arranged in a specific order, grouped by a strange logic resembling a distorted version of the Fibonacci sequence.
However, the symbols ahead were different.
Taking a few steps to the side and peering closer, I saw that from a distance they formed a specific image.
The runes merged together, and the radiation from the stalagmites emitted light in just the right way for the eye to perceive it as a cohesive picture.
And I did not like it one bit.
The symbols formed the silhouette of either a worm or some kind of serpent, coiled around one specific rune that shone brighter than all the others.
The green light practically beckoned for someone to touch it and…
I simply turned around and walked away from that thing.
No.
Too obvious an ambush.
I left a reminder in my own brain to return to this problem in the future, but for now, it could be forgotten.
Exiting the labyrinth was a more immediate task, though the question of self-identity could not be left unanswered either.
I had a feeling that delaying it for too long could only lead to the worst.
.
.
.
Getting out of this endless network of tunnels forming a literal labyrinth was not easy, but the journey allowed me to understand much.
Even disregarding the obvious artificial origin of the local structures, I managed to learn a lot about myself.
Firstly, my mind was undoubtedly far superior to that of an ordinary human.
Although I had not the slightest hint of how other people lived, I managed to trick my own mind into obtaining the necessary information.
By simply imagining that I wished to artificially improve an average human, I received data on various implants and augmentations that enhanced specific qualities of the imperfect human body.
By assembling this puzzle, I learned more about myself.
I was certainly far from the concept of average.
Even forgetting the extraordinary physical characteristics, my mental capabilities were staggering.
If I saw a thing even once, my mind was simply incapable of forgetting it.
Because of this, I didn’t even need a map; I simply remembered the route, creating an image of all the tunnels and caves in my head.
Obviously, if I just wandered aimlessly, there was no telling when I would get out.
Since the entire structure here was clearly man-made, there would likely be people or other sentient beings.
Secondly, since there was air here, albeit stale, and no apparent ventilation, there had to be an exit somewhere.
I began searching for air currents, moving from one corridor to another, occasionally taking small breaks by the capsule.
My soul simply would not allow me to ignore such a marvelous specimen of incredible technology.
I didn’t touch the complex electronics that might be useful later, but I managed to turn the small bed into at least a semblance of warm clothes and shoes.
It was quite chilly in the caves, and even for my apparently enhanced organism, it wasn’t easy to walk around practically naked for hours.
After cleaning the glass a bit, I was able to see my reflection: a sturdy lad of about ten with short black hair and dark green eyes flecked with gold.
What was stranger was that I didn’t have a single mole, and my entire appearance seemed somewhat artificial.
Perfectly symmetrical and devoid of the slightest hint of imperfection…
Having inspected myself, I immediately returned to the task of finding an exit.
After some time of analysis and exploration, I realized that while the arrangement of the runes was the same everywhere, their structure differed.
In the endless labyrinth, one had to move toward the area where their glow was least bright.
Even if the difference was only one or two candelas, I decided to take that route.
It was justified when I felt a light stream of air for the first time.
I did not lose my composure or start running like a fool.
Instead, I began to move forward carefully, searching even more intently for traps.
The black stalactites shone more dimly, and the runes became smaller, but I continued my movement, seeking freedom.
I moved until the gloomy subterranean scene shifted into a heavy twilight, after which I stumbled into a cave almost entirely devoid of light.
Only a small, meter-wide opening, from which a cool wind blew, filled the room with a harsh gray light.
I had to climb slowly over the cold stone, poking ahead with my spear for traps, but the result was worth it.
Leaving the cave, I immediately raised my head, trying to find the sun.
But behind the endless, heavy gray clouds, nothing was visible.
The local climate was harsh and somber.
Instead of normal soil, endless expanses of black ice and gray snow lay before me, along with massive mountain ranges.
However, for me, none of that mattered.
Taking a deep breath, I felt the fresh, cool mountain air searing my lungs for the first time.
And a small ray of light, from the sun peeking out for a fleeting moment, lightly illuminated my figure.