After the escape from the Ash boys crew, Dravion went in a wind about way crawling through tunnels and doubling back to avoid being followed. He finally met with Harnath in their secondary location.
"Draav, you're bleeding air. Why'd that beast Kleene tail you to the cache? He almost brought the whole Ash-crew down on our heads."
"The bastard tried to collar us. They're starving, Harnath. The vats are empty and they're looking for meat to trade. Our heads were the currency." he answered his friend. Looking down to see his hands as they shake ever so slightly.
"How much do we have left?" he asked
"At the rate you're burning fuel…twenty cycles, maybe…then we're chewing on rusted pipes for calories." Harnath said the truth.
He didn't know why, although is bigger than him, it didn't make sense with the amount of food he consumes regularly. He is not just doing it in excess, he shows signs that he has not eaten in a while.
"Sigh…i guess we are on our own now. We cannot stay in any vaults, all the other crews will hunt us down" Dravion said exhausted.
"Yeah, the boss made sure of that." Harnath chimed in
Dravion did not say anything else, he simply picked up a starch block and broke it in half. He tossed one to his friend, as they sat and ate their meal in silence.
800.M30 Sol System, Luna
The gene labs on Luna have been working at full capacity since the launch of the Imperial crusade led by the Emperor. Although minor instances of rebellion occur on some planets, the back line has been mostly secured.
With the inclusion of a group that came to settle on Luna. The rumor is that they don't speak, they cannot be seen. It was even said that when one sees them, you would feel the coming of the end.
In one of the tunnels between vaults on Luna. 2 boys could be seen eating. One of them looks to be 16 years old and the other looks 10, but don't let that fool you, both of them are 10 years old at this moment.
The 16 year old looking boy is Dravion Karth, he is tall with very lean physic. He looks like a ghoul that has not been fed all his life. His friend Harnath, although shorter than him, looks much healthier than he does.
During this 2 year period, they have been constantly on the move. Stealing food, and weapons when needed for trade. They have been hunted down by the Ash boys, Vector, Xender, Folic, Massacar, and all the gangs on Luna.
They have met those weird ones who call themselves genealogists, but are just mad people. But now the walls are closing in on them. They are begging to run out of space to hide, recuperate and rest.
"What's the play, Draav? We're out of tunnels, and my legs feel like lead." the tired voice of Harnath sounded out as he ate his starch block.
"We go to the Gene-Wrights…we sell what's left of our blood for a place in their labs. It's that or the reclamation vats."Dravion's voice, hoarse and unsteady, spoke in response.
"Are you sure they will still accept us?" Harnath voiced his opinion. Dravion now looks like a ghost that haunts children, so his worry is valid.
Some time ago he made this suggestion when they still had some leeway, but now he is not sure. As they were discussing their plans sounds came from their backs some distance in the tunnel
"They came through here, if we rush we should be able to catch them"
Hearing their pursuers again they stood up and began running in the opposite direction. With the amount of food Dravion ate, if he stayed in one place for a while he would be fine, but…
Running again is draining the little amount of energy within him. This caused him to be slower than normal. At the same time the entrance they were using to the next vaults saw new people coming in.
"There they are" the vector gang members were scouting this area.
Seeing them Dravion and Harnath pushed themselves. There are only 2 from vector's crew at the entrance, they can force their way through.
Meeting them head on, Dravion went for a slide with his chest facing upward, looking like he is going for the man's legs. The man jumped to his detriment as Harnath faking a punch at his opponent was already in the air waiting to deliver a punch to his eyes.
Dravion meanwhile had already kicked the legs of Harnath's opponent causing him to fall. Followed by 2 fingers straight into the eyes of the opponent. Dravion and Harnath got their balance and quickly started running.
They decided there was no longer any need to delay their plan. Nodding at each other, they began their run towards where the selenar cultists were. They had offered aid for experimentation before, now they had to take their offer.
Throughout these events, Dravion still feeling the drain on his body, begins to slow down even more. His body no longer has any energy to keep up running.
Just as they turned a corner, they saw them. 3 golden figures, women, swords by their hips, and eyes hiding behind helmets.
Then they felt them, the air around the golden women felt hollow, a freezing vacuum that made Dravion's heart hammer against his ribs in instinctive terror..
It was not a hatred born of anger, but a biological rejection—as if his very soul was trying to crawl out of his skin to get away from them..
Harnath stopped upon seeing them, but Dravion, already too weak to control his body, tried to stop but couldn't.
CRASH, SWOOP, BOOOM!!!
He collided with the golden armor with the force of a falling anvil; he was a starving boy, yet he possessed the crushing mass of a grown man.
She didn't even stumble. She looked down at the boy who had just hit her with the weight of a lead weight, her silence more terrifying than any gang-boss's scream.
She looked down, her face a mask of silent, golden indifference. She reached out, her gauntlet closing around his arm with the strength of a hydraulic press.
Even through the daze of hunger, Dravion felt the wrongness of her touch, the first time he has actually felt what it means to meet a null.
She picked the boy up with one hand, while one other woman went and grabbed Harnath. Placing them together in chains, they were pulled behind the women.
Dravion knew who they were, but could not understand what they were doing here. In his ignorance and daze, they were taken to a lab. Where it looked like they would either be useful or ….
'So I am the Astartes,' Dravion thought to himself as he looks around his body.
What he did not know was that there has been a tattoo in between his shoulder blades since the day he was born. A Romanic cross with bones at its center.