A Light Not Extinguished

Chapter 22: The Emptiness that Stalks the Stars

Name: Lukaen Emrys

Date of entry into active service: M23. 467. 178.

Psychic Scale Placement: Omega-Minus

Current deployment status: Active

Current physical status: Organic neural systems have been fitted into a custom Y-286 type synthetic humanoid combat chassis. Due to integrated weapons systems, the capabilities of the chassis and status as a Blank, officer is to be considered armed and dangerous at all times.

Rank: Longinus Legion 2nd Battalion Commander, Oblivion Knight

Remarks: Has served with distinction and excellence. Remarkably eager for close-quarters combat. Knowledge of his existence seems to have spread in the empyrean, especially after the burning of Kyandaros when he performed [DATA EXPUNGED].

Was involved in the first colonization attempt on Cadia. Retrieved and claimed [REDACTED] for own personal usage. Although contamination is unlikely, officer must still be observed regularly.
-Federation personnel file of one Lukaen Emrys, last updated M24. 311.

M24. 312.

Oltesse System, Blackstone Fortress Soul of Fire

What makes a man who he is today?

There was a woman on a planet. The name is not important. Nor the time. She was expecting, but there were complications- dark thoughts that intrude on her mind, the immune system rebelling against itself, sporadic spouts of hatred towards the child inside her. The cause of the sickness eluded the artificial minds in charge of medical services, who immediately informed their superiors- in this age where medicine can accomplish anything, such things are rarities among rarities.

A psyker was eventually called in, revealing the source as a malady of the soul. The gestating infant had a negative rating on the psychic scale placement, potentially below Upsilon. The infant was immediately extracted, and placed into an artificial womb.

The proceedings were brief after that; the baby would be taken to somewhere else where he could grow up among his fellow kind, lest he be raised in an environment that actively detested him. His parents halfheartedly objected, but in the end it was quick, and the infant was sent away.

The ships of the Longinus Legion were unnerving things to behold. Long, smooth ovals, they blended in with the void around them, and as they transitioned into the Oltesse system they opened fire with their own uniquely devastating weaponry. Dissolutors operated on the same principles as the psycannon, except that they used the bodily remains of Blanks as ammunition to power the deadly anti-psi beams that were now turning psychomaton ships into dust.

The Blackstone Fortresses have long been a mystery to the Federation. What they do know is that they are most definitely weapons of mass destruction, forged in a time long before the Federation rose to power. It was agreed that they had to be taken out of the fight right at the start, during the planning of Operation Sundowner- no one wanted to see what capabilities they possessed.

But of course, there was an opportunity there, as well. Such marvels of engineering would provide great insight into the arcane secrets of the Aeldari, and if all else failed, such a large amount of Blackstone would certainly be of use to the Federation.

The first wave of boarding rams struck. The Fortress was unmanned, only the bare minimum of its defences activated. Deploying short-lived nanomachine swarms, the rams carved through the exterior of the Fortress, disgorging their crew.

One of them smashed through the centerpoint of the Fortress from above, right in the middle of the eight-pointed star and into a corridor. An entire Kill Team stepped out: Fallok-class automata armored in plates of phase-iron and wielding remission rifles, capable of wiping targets both from memory and reality with psychoactive ammunition. Cybernetically-enhanced Blank operatives,