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Ferrus Manus the Crafter

Ferrus Manus, the first of his Primarch brothers to die, quite early on in the Horus Heresy. A tragic fate for him indeed ... well not as tragic as being reincarnated as him. Thankfully, the MC is given something that will suit him as Ferrus Manus, the Essence of the Crafter. He may or may not, even be allowed to keep his memories. __ I already tried this once, but not many were interested. This time, I'll just do it because I want to.

DaoistWDfd8h · Book&Literature
Not enough ratings
6 Chs

Beginning

I took inspiration from 'Imperial Iterator' on YouTube. Go check him out.

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(3rd Person POV)

"They shall be my sons, and in them will live the hopes of a unified Humanity. Theirs will be the strength to prevail, not only when victory lies within easy reach, but even when it seems unattainable when doom settles like a shroud all about. In those times of darkness, my noble sons will shine the brightest of all."

- the Emperor of Mankind

The massive scientific effort to create the Primarchs before the start of the Unification Wars in the 30th Millennium was known as the 'Primarch Project'. It is unknown exactly when the project began but Perturabo would later estimate his own birth to be the year 792.M30, which gives an approximate date for the project's end, though he was referring to his arrival on Olympia.

The means by which the Emperor crafted 20 individual superhuman genomes using His own arcane Perpetual genetic code as the base without resorting to the use of cloning is unknown to present Imperial science. There was a 2-stage process involved: first, the Emperor extracted a subset of His own DNA to act as the foundation for a pure, undifferentiated Primarch gene-stock template. The pure Primarch gene stock was then further differentiated into the 20 separate genetic templates that would serve as the individual Primarchs' genomes.

It is believed by modern Imperial scholars that there was more than just physical manipulation of the genetics involved in the creation of the Primarchs and that the Emperor called upon many techniques of psychic sorcery derived from the Warp to shape the extraordinary abilities and unnatural charisma of His transhuman gene-sons.

It is also now known that sometime during the Age of Technology, the man who would become the Emperor had travelled with several of His fellow Perpetuals, including Alivia Sureka, to the world of Molech, a Knight World only a few light years distant from Terra, in a one-way spacecraft. Sureka watched as the Emperor entered a secret Warp Gate present on Molech, where He bargained with the powers of the Immaterium to gain new abilities and knowledge, including most likely the techniques needed to create the Primarchs. Sureka was later tasked by the Emperor with remaining on Molech to guard the Warp Gate and keep others from using it until His armies returned millennia later to conquer it for the nascent Imperium of Man during the early days of the Great Crusade.

The Emperor's use of this knowledge meant that the Primarchs were intended to be spiritually as well as physically engineered which may explain why they possessed so much personal magnetism and charisma beyond what even their enhanced genetics would predict. But such arcane techniques also meant that the Primarchs were unusually vulnerable to the effects of Chaos since their souls would shine so brightly in the Immaterium and draw the attention of daemonic entities like moths to a candle flame.

This is why the Emperor carefully inscribed arcane glyphs of protection on the Primarchs' gestation capsules and crafted the most powerful Gellar Field ever made around the gene-vault deep beneath the Imperial Palace in the Himalazian Mountains where they were created.

Unfortunately, this protection proved insufficient, for the Ruinious Powers learned of the Emperor's plans and the existence of the Primarch Project. They decided they had no wish to see His attempt to weaken their power succeed by extending His new order of reason and scientific progress across the Human-settled worlds of the galaxy.

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The Ruinous Powers of Chaos somehow spirited the Emperor's unborn superhuman children away through the Warp in ca. 792.M30 from the gene-laboratories of what would become the Imperial Dungeons of the Imperial Palace. A massive localised Warp rift was created within the gene vaults of the palace, deep under the Himalazian Mountains on Terra where the Primarchs were gestating.

The gestation capsules containing the Emperor's unborn sons were scattered through the Warp to Human colony planets long since lost to Mankind during the Age of Strife.

It may have been at this time when first touched by the hand of Chaos, that the first seeds of corruption were laid in the breasts of those Primarchs who would eventually turn Traitor to the Emperor and His Imperium. Whether the Emperor was able to affect this outcome is unsure, but every Primarch landed on ancient worlds of Humanity, planets long since lost to the light of the greater universe beyond the stars.

This was a massive setback to the Emperor's plans. He had counted on His superhuman generals to lead his army of conquest out of Terra. Without them, His plans, so many millennia in the making, rested on a knife's edge. He needed an edge, something to give Mankind an advantage as they struck out against a very hostile galaxy once more.

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(Ferrus Manus POV)

In the Segmentum Obscurus, near the Eye of Terror, above the dark, geologically unstable Feral World of Medusa, a portal of the Warp opened. From this portal, accompanied by a short burst of chaotic psychic energy, one of these gestation capsules flies out. 

Medusa, which is several times the size of Terra, is the fourth world orbiting a supergiant star known in the ancient Terran astrocartographic charts as Sthenelus. 

The icy winds on the surface reach speeds surpassing 1'000 kilometres per hour. The lifeless soil constantly quakes from earthquakes before. Humans on Medusa lead a nomadic lifestyle, as the terrible climactic conditions do not allow them to stay in one place. The orbit of Medusa was filled with numerous shipwrecks and planetoid parts, some of which occasionally fell to the planet. 

My gestation capsule starts burning a trail through the cloud-dominated sky as it enters the atmosphere. I do wonder about myself right now. A few moments ago, I was but a dead man and in the next, I'm an infant Primarch who was tasked with the bullshit task of saving humanity and kicking Xenos butt. At least I was allowed to get one special Meta Essence. 

The R.O.B. told me that I would be reborn as Ferrus Manus, the tragic Primarch in my opinion. How he managed to get defeated in a duel against his brother Fulgrim, when he could battle the Emperor of Mankind upon their meeting is ... beyond me. But no matter the inconsistencies in the lore, this time will be very different. 

I asked for the Essence of the Crafter. I thought that it worked best for Ferrus Manus. The potential the Essence of the Crafter holds is immeasurable, in my opinion. To be able to design, build, and maintain anything from machines to a simple shovel is a skill that will be broken in this universe ... actually in every universe. 

I can force specific abilities onto items through sheer skill and can craft things on a conceptual level. But the most broken ability has to be the fact that I can conjure dead or inorganic materials which I might need to work with from thin air. This can be anything I can imagine. I already have a few ideas on what to do with this and can't wait to start crafting. 

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*CRASH*

My capsule impacts the highest mountain in the world of Medusa, called Karaashi, the Ice Pinnacle.

The impact shatters the mountaintop, burying me and the capsule deep in the ice in a tremendous explosion of steam.

*BOOOOOOM*

The land shakes under the impact which can be felt the world over. Mountains are toppled and great chasms form as the planet rumbles under the coming of the Primarch. I know that Medusa rumbled with such ferocity that the Medusans later said that many of the world's mountains simply shook themselves to pieces. 

It is hard to believe that through all of this, I am still perfectly safe in my capsule. The gellar field surrounding it is no joke. A good idea for me to have a look at it at the earliest time and replicate it or create something better. Humanity was unsaveable in 40k in my opinion. The moment a race stops moving forward and settles is the moment they are doomed. You can't stick to old relics so desperately and expect them to help you against species that are so much more advanced than you are. A wound has to be healed and not just bandaged over thousands of times, at one point it will fester and the infection will kill you. 

I look around the capsule. I suspect the mechanism that turns off the gellar field is probably outside because I can't see it right now. I don't know why I am able to move around like this, but Primarch body I guess. I move around and then after a few moments understand the mechanism behind the capsule. It is rather simple actually. 

I use the full strength I have access to right now, and pull a plate off the side, freeing some cables that look atrocious. Like a newbie who creates his first PC and just shoves the cabling inside to finish the work. I take a couple of them out, to get better access to them and start my work. I instinctively know what to do and can tell that the work ... is terrible. I knew that we were in some deep shit, but geez. This is worse than I thought. 

After rearranging a few things and connecting several cables with one another, the capsule begins to hum gently and then power down. The Gellar field recedes and saves the power of the core, allowing me to use it in the future, for some project that I might need. Finally, I am free. I pull myself up to stand and look around. Before starting to walk away, I think about what I do know about this planet I landed on. 

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According to the Mechanicum records, Medusa was populated during humanity's technological peak and was highly valuable, as it possessed vast deposits of rare recourses. For this reason, during the Age of Strife, neither Mars nor old Earth forgot about the existence of Medusa, as it happened with many other planets. Genetic research will show in the future, that the world's population descends from several different groups of survivors, only a part of whom trace back to the original colonists. Others presumably are descendants of the crews of ships sent by Mars in search of the legendary Medusa that had crashed. 

These various waves of survivors turned into warring tribes of techno barbarians, locked in desperate conflict with each other. Due to the ever-shifting landscape, where mountains and seas could swap places each season, humans are forced to wander the planet with an enormous machine. The protective mechanisms of these fortresses were partly based on STC systems, mining and assembly complexes. Massive machines powered by thermo-reactors slowly but unstoppable crawled across the devastated surface moving people to safer territories. 

The Medusans retained, albeit in a highly distorted form, the beliefs of the Cult of Mechanicus. Adding to them an additional array of strange superstitions and rituals. They zealously safeguarded the remnants of past technologies, preserving knowledge about cybernetics and mechanics. Yet they lost any semblance of civilisation, reverting to the primitive hunter-gatherers. 

Tribes waged unending wars for resources, enslaved each other and committed murder. A bloody struggle is the natural daily reality, where only the strongest and most ruthless survive. 

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The place where I crashed just now, is considered a cursed place. Home to ominous shadows of dead iron-skinned monsters from ancient times. I of course understand what that means and who they are talking about. 

The Necrons. 

*CRAAAKKCKKK*

I am pulled out of my thoughts by a strange sound. The wall in the far distance of the ginormous hall I landed in, comes alive and a monstrous mechanic creature begins to move. This is it! The deathless horror of the great silver wyrm dubbed Asirnoth, who Imperial savants will later hypothesize to have been a Necron machine construct impervious to harm. 

The construct seems disoriented and ... confused. Maybe his programming is failing him, or maybe the sudden awakening due to my rather bombastic entrance has destroyed the protocols telling it what to do now. Whatever it is, I observe it and see as it makes strange sounds and then crashes into the wall, beginning to dig its way out of here. 

"Until next time, Asirnoth."