Project Mercury

[Nine_Breaker]

This is a project I've been meaning to get off the ground for quite some time. Some of you may notice the inspiration from Barret's dead work on the Shadow Walkers, however this is different in many ways (that may or may not be so visible right now). Anyhow, the real-life aim of Project Mercury is to create a DIY chapter with a series of short-stories and fictional reports like this one. The origins of this idea comes from some conversations and brainstorming Commissar Molotov and I went through years ago. But without further adieu...

 

Project Mercury

 

Date:..............2362487.M37

Ref:................DFY-3158849

By:.................Tech-Priest Ramius

Re:.................Strange Findings

Thought:....….Fear runs only as deep as the mind allows

 

 

My Lord,

 

I contact you on a matter of the utmost urgency and secrecy. The mission that you have blessed me with, to find further information pertaining to Chapter 0486 of the Adeptus Astartes, is a success. As you will soon see however, what I have uncovered does not bode well for any loyal servant of the Omnissiah.

 

Guided by your own previous investigations to uncover the mysteries of the 13th Founding of the Adeptus Astartes, I have finally managed to find what is certainly one of our lost gene-labs used during that most turbulent era after over three decades of searching. After acquiring the location of the installation on an unnamed dead world, my retinue and myself immediately departed to conduct a thorough search.

 

What we found inside the lab was disturbing to say the least. Despite the small size of the lab, the place seemed to be the site of a fierce battle. Or perhaps more accurately a cold-blooded massacre. Very little of the holy technology or the precious data it contained survived. The entire facility must have been engulfed in either an explosion or fire. I had almost given up hope when all we could find after two days of investigation turned up only blackened skeletons and scraps of scorched metal.

 

Almost, until now that is.

 

We stumbled upon a hidden chamber today. Inside I believe we may have found exactly what we have been searching for all this time. In this hidden section of the facility we found a stasis chambers of incredibly advanced design. I can hardly dream of what knowledge can be gathered from this technology if we can uncover its sacred mechanics. But the specimen inside these wondrous stasis chambers was even more of a mystery. The chamber houses what is without doubt an Astarte; the sheer size and musculature of it is unmistakable. The subject shows no signs of life and has probably been dead for millennia, kept preserved by the great technology around it. But even so I can not help but feel an inkling of foreboding in this place. The sanctioned psyker accompanying this mission even refused to enter this hidden section of the lab, and continued on about how we should not “wake him.” Of course this it is nonsense that you could wake a corpse in stasis, but his paranoid gibbering was somewhat unnerving.

 

Even with such great finding though, the most valuable item we have uncovered is but a simple data slate. It seems that an Inquisitorial liaison at the facility kept a detailed personal account during his stay via numerous vid-records. Fortunately for us, this part of the gene-lab was relatively unscathed by whatever catastrophe befell the rest of the site and the data slate was found almost entirely intact. Many sections have been corrupted by time, but even so I will do my best to decrypt and summarize is contents for you until the data in its entirety can be placed in your hands.

 

First of all, I regret to inform you that all dates on the vid-records have been corrupted and are lost to us. However, the earliest account I could withdraw from the slate somewhat intact originated seemingly just days from the activation of the facility going by the excited words of the Inquisitor. The agent, who I have identified as one Inquisitor Silas Marr, spoke of the potential of bonding Astartes with some type of warp-attuned xenos symbiote. There are clues to the origin of these symbiotic specimen, but it will take time to complete this part of the puzzle. Marr went on to explain that the purpose of this experiment, which we found to be Project Mercury, was to create a force of telepathically connected Astartes able to operate with unrivaled unison of purpose and integration of units on the battlefield.

 

Marrs’ later testimonies deem the first prototype Astartes a success. One in particular, known only as 09 from the surviving records, seems to have shown excellent combat leadership and is singled out for “additional attention“. All prototypes are tested in simulations within the facility and from what I can deduce performed with exceptional prowess in all aspects of warfare even when considering the high standards of Astartes. Marr fervently calls for the “expansion of Project Mercury” and says he is not the only one.

 

The records become ever more fragmented and disturbing from here on. Marr makes note that many of the facility personnel, including himself, have been suffering from vivid nightmares. At this point, I can only say that the remaining recordings represent Inquisitor Marr’s sudden descent into a state of paranoia and madness. The triggering event seems to be when the researchers here noticed a strange activity in the Catalepsean Nodes and Sus-an Membranes of the New Astartes. The organs seem to have become over-active at some point, putting many in a state of perpetual half-sleep and an unfortunate few in deep comas. Of those that slipped into this mysterious plague of suspended animation, 09 was the only one to recover. Soon after the recovery of the prototype, events seem to have spiraled out of the control of Marr and the rest of the facility’s personnel with frightening speed. The remaining vid-records consist of near unintelligible babbling about a horrible alien evil and its deranged servants. My team and I have concluded that some of the New Astartes must have suffered from some sort of daemonic possession.

 

It dawns on me that we may have only scratched the surface of the mystery of Inquisitor Silas Marr and the events that took place at this cursed facility, but at least we have finally found the aforementioned surface. I have no doubts that much more will be revealed once the exact origin of the xenos symbiote can be determined and that location investigated.

 

Your humble servant,

Tech-Priest Ramius

[Nine_Breaker]

I'd also like to note that, like many good stories of any length, I have very little idea where I'm going with this. :lol:

 

Of course there is a Big Plan or whatever, but the details and such are keeping even myself in the dark. For this reason I just thought to myself a couple seconds ago that it might be kind of cool to make this a co-op project with one or two other authors (of my choosing of course). Any takers?

 

And as always, comments and criticism are welcome. Goodness knows I'm rusty enough to need plenty of the later.

[Guest Mordray]

Nice. Kind of reminds me of a similar work done for the 21st founding. Though the suggestion there though was that the project was actually working to recreate the primarchs...

 

 

It is an interesting concept. I'd often looked upon the 13th founding as moment not when new gene-lines are created but instead where the nature of what an astartes is tested and stretched to the breaking point if not broken entirely...

[Ace Debonair]

Wow, that was pretty awesome. ;)

 

Hopefully the big plot reveals itself to you soon - I'm wondering where this is going! :woot:

[Nine_Breaker]

"Four days. Four days have passed since Zero-Nine recovered from suspended animation and slaughtered all of the apothecarium staff. He became docile afterwards and was confined to a reinforced cell capable of holding an Astarte. For four days he, nor the other prototypes, have done so much as flinched or reacted to any sort of stimuli. The others believe that the fit was a byproduct of the shock of awaking from the coma. They are fools. I looked in his eyes and I caught a glimpse of the forbidden horror, an eternity of images that have branded themselves into my dreams. I looked and saw over the vast mountains, through the thick ice, into the dark waters, and witnessed the abyss. A piece of my soul was ripped away when I saw the form of that dead monstrosity who's dreams have touched the Astartes here. I will not speak of what I have seen for I can not any more than I can still the beating of my own heart. I know I saw but the edges of evil's intellect, but even now I can feel it stirring from its slumber. It dreams and the Space Marines listen, waiting. I fear that the dead silence that has fallen over this facility will not last much longer. Soon we will pay for our arrogance in blood. I pray our souls will stand in the Emperor's light, but I fear that this nightmare will continue past the grave..."

 

- Taken from the final recordings of Inquisitor Silas Marr... Fate unknown.

[amalric99]

Good start and I'm interested to see where this is going :wacko:

 

Couple of things:

It dons on me that we may have only scratched the surface of the mystery of Inquisitor Silas Marr...

This should read

 

It dawns on me...

 

- Taken from the final recordings of Inquisitor Silas Marr... Status unknown... Presumed dead.

Is this written at the same time as the investigation? i.e. M37.

They are investigating into the 13th Founding which according to the timeline would have been about M34, so the Inquisitor would definitely be dead.

I could be completely wrong fluff wise but surely Inquisitors wouldn't live for 3000 years? :unsure:

It just makes the last part of that sentence redundant. You may not need the status unknown etc...

[Nine_Breaker]

Very good catches. Edited both posts to fix those errors.