800.M30 Segmentum Solar, Sol System, Luna
Dravion Karth and all the other Astartes aspirants were brought to a room that looked Chem-scrubbed. There are all sorts of machines that make one think they are about to be cut up and fed to the animals.
Some of the aspirants shake slightly were they stand because of the prospect, but true to their training they do not weep or shout.
They accept what is about to occur as a part of the process.
"Aspirants, the Great Work commences. Today, your fragile humanity is discarded. You shall become the anvil upon which the Imperium is forged." A selenar gene cultist stated as other members came into the room.
"You will be appointed a med cradle, if you do not have not been appointed one you will wait in your quarters until such time that you are called." She said again
"Commence sequence. Filter the viable for processing."
The cultists came and started distributing numbers to the aspirants. They called for number 1-50 to move to their assigned beds. The rest were sent back to their quarters to wait. Dravion was part of the first batch of aspirants.
Once the aspirants were put unto their med cradles, they were put to sleep by a sedative. The first of the gene surgeries that remake them would begin.
The cultists retrieved the organ from a container, it is a heart, the first organ. The implantation process involved clearing space in the thoracic cavity to nestle the secondary heart alongside the original.
Then creating branching veins and arteries to connect the 2 hearts to allow them to function as one.
Blood spills out of the chest cavity as the cultist utilize the mechanical arms to reduce bool pooling in the chest cavity. The veins and arteries are connected to an artificial pump to maintain circulation of blood. Then the connection for the 2 hearts is created.
The 2 hearts are then reintroduced into the cavity of the chest of the aspirant. The connecting veins and arteries are stitched back into place.
A new organ is then collected from the container, this is called the ossmodula. Tubular in shape and is connected between the chambers of the heart responsible for distributing blood flow. This organ is not there to strengthen the heart but to pump hormones into the bones.
At this point some of the aspirants begins to convulse, not out of pain but out of organ rejection. The cultists seem not to care, they went about their business continuing to add the necessary organs.
Some of the aspirants calmed down as the surgery continued but some began to tremble violently. Their body convulse more vigorously causing the blood moving through 2 hearts to rupture the sutures that connects to the veins and arteries.
Machines beeped louder as some of the aspirants' bodies could not take the procedure. The cultists who saw their subject experiencing this, simply disconnected the machines from the patient and had another cultist take the still convulsing body away from the theater.
While that went on others moved on to the final organ to be implanted at this stage. The biscopea, implanted in the chest cavity in a similar way as the ossmodula. This organ also there to secrete a hormone that encourages muscle growth.
While others gasped after the surgery, Dravion's breath was a slow, agonizingly steady thrum.
Those that were able to pass through all these surgeries were wheeled out of the operating room. They are then put into hypno-vats that will force-feed them nutrition.
Theta waves used to instill centuries of tactical history forced into a brain that is still only ten years old, weapons schematics, and 'loyalty theta' protocols.
This is the second layer of programing for the future Astartes. You cannot make what you cannot control, especially something as undecided as humans.
801.M30 Sol System, Luna
A buzz was spreading in the solar system that the Emperor's son has been found. The entire Imperium is in a celebration mood about it. That is all by the ways side, Dravion Karth has now been Sanctioned completely.
The celebration is assumed to occur in the 5th month of the calendar. Even the selenar cultists that manage the gene facilities have been excited.
Dravion and his friend Harnath, both succeeded in the completion of their first implantation. They no longer looked the same as they did. Both at such a young age are 6feet 2inches and 6feet respectively. Their muscles able to put a grown man to shame.
"I had not thought the selenar capable of such... visceral sentiment. They seem more machine than flesh." Dravion said as he spoke to his friend Harnath.
"Can you blame them? Horus Lupercal is found. The First Son returns to the Solar gravity, it is a hinge-point in history, Dravion." He replied in a deep booming voice.
"I understand you meaning, but we shall not get a chance to meet him." Dravion said with a sigh
"It would have been better if we are to be part of his legion, the Luna wolves. They are the ones who took Luna for the Emperor."
"Perhaps, but we are the XIV and the II. Our path is the long grind, not the glory of the wolf-pack. We serve where the Emperor commands."
That statement got a simple nod from Dravion. After some rest they were told they would soon have to move on to the next set of surgeries. The only thing that made both of them a little sad was that they were in different legions.
Harnath was induced with the II variation of the gene strain, and Gravion got the XIV variation of the gene strain. That means Harnath will become a 'Flowing Blade' and Dravion will become a 'Dusk Raiders'.
They both stood up and went back to the entrance of the lab. The majority of aspirants that could not pass through the first set of surgeries were dead. The few that survived will probably be sent out for combat very soon.
Upon entering the surgery room for the second time, they can now be called initiates. They have passed through psychological and biological reprograming and come out as different people.
This time the operation room had more machines than people. The selenar gene cultists are improving their methodology. It is unknown how many died before they streamlined the process, and made it less error prone.
The Initiates arranged themselves onto the operating tables like before, this time with many machines hanging over their heads. As their eyes shut closed from the sedative administered a thought flashed through Dravion's mind.
'When would it be my turn to stand where others fall, and be the last thing the enemy sees?'