The Bucephalus.
Third Legion Space Marine Eidolon was tidying up his personal quarters.
Strangely, even in the absolute safety of his private room, he still wore his full suit of purple-and-gold Third Legion pattern power armor.
He never took it off.
"My lord!"
"Please, you go and rest. Let me handle these miscellaneous tasks!"
A mortal servant, having finished his duties and returned, saw this and immediately came forward to persuade him.
"Ah, right. Friend, this is for you."
Eidolon didn't stop. Instead, as if remembering something, he took out a letter from his person and handed it to the mortal servant with a smile.
"My lord, this... I can't accept this! It's too valuable!"
"Take it. Consider it a small token of my personal gratitude."
"Thank you, my friend. You've always done a great job since I've known you."
"My lord, I—!"
Eidolon comforted the mortal servant, who had burst into tears, and saw him off, then continued with his tidying.
There was much more clutter than he had imagined.
The precious sword captured in the last war, the medals awarded for valor, some canned food and letters sent from home...
Home.
Yes, it had been a long time since he had truly been home.
Eidolon's thoughts drifted back to the past.
He was born into a noble warlord family of old Europa.
His family had wisely chosen to side with the Emperor during the Unification Wars on Terra, and he and his siblings had entered the Emperor's preparatory forces at a very young age to undergo the augmentation surgeries.
Speaking of siblings, Eidolon rummaged and held up an old photograph from under a pile of clutter.
There were three people in the photo.
Two were in the purple power armor of Space Marines, and the other was in the golden armor of a Custodian.
On the left, also a Third Legion Space Marine, was Eidolon's older brother.
His command skills were outstanding, leading his troops to victory after victory, and he was appointed Captain of the Third Legion's Sixteenth Company.
As for the one on the right, she was his smartest and most promising younger sister.
Her outstanding potential was noticed by the Emperor, and she became an extremely rare female Custodian in the Custodian Guard.
In the middle of the photo was him, Eidolon. An ordinary Space Marine.
Eidolon stared at the old photo, slightly dazed.
And then?
Then they died. They all died.
Except for him, Eidolon.
At that time, the Emperor was at Proxima Centauri accepting a surrender ceremony, when a severe rebellion suddenly broke out.
The rebels wounded the Emperor with a vortex weapon from the Age of Strife. It was only thanks to the desperate protection of the Custodians and the Third Legion Space Marines serving as his guard that the Emperor managed to escape the perilous situation.
But his two siblings were not so lucky.
They remained on that planet forever.
And, they became the golden, two-headed Aquila emblem on his armor.
The Emperor said that this was an honor that only the Custodians and their Third Legion could enjoy.
To wear the two-headed Aquila, the symbol of the Imperium, on their armor, to commemorate their heroic performance at Proxima Centauri.
The Third Legion would forever be the paragon for all Space Marines.
Paragon.
What a beautiful and noble word.
But compared to the honor, he would rather have his brother and sister back.
Eidolon sighed softly and tucked the old photo into another letter in his hand.
After clearing out the room, Eidolon packed his remaining personal belongings into a small suitcase.
Closing the door, Eidolon walked with heavy steps across the smooth marble floor, the sound of the suitcase wheels echoing as he passed through the silent halls of the ship.
He found the person he was looking for.
"Scribe."
"My quarters have been cleared out. After I leave, please give this box and this letter to my family."
"What are you doing, Eidolon?"
The other person was somewhat surprised.
"You're going to meet your Primarch, not fight in some apocalyptic war!"
"I know, Scribe."
"But after all..." Eidolon said, pointing to his helmet, "you know my current situation."
"Oh... right, right."
He sighed and took the letter from his hand.
"Farewell, Eidolon."
Watching his lonely figure depart, the Scribe whispered a blessing and put the letter in his pocket.
Eidolon and this mortal scribe were good friends.
Although he also knew that this guy was not a good person.
The recruits of the Third Legion all came from the descendants of Terran techno-barbarians, and many were even hostages from major warlord families.
Faced with such an army, it seemed the Emperor and Malcador had never fully trusted them.
This scribe was one of those sent to monitor them.
He could feel the mortal's hawk-like gaze constantly scrutinizing everything about the Third Legion.
But they were still friends.
Where was I?
Oh, right, the Betrayal at Proxima.
Some often said that the Third Legion was the unluckiest legion, and being near them brought bad luck.
Eidolon really wanted to refute this claim.
But it seemed the other side had more evidence.
After the Betrayal at Proxima, the Third Legion was reduced by sixty to seventy percent, suffering heavy losses. But just at this critical time when they urgently needed reinforcements, another major disaster struck—
The warship carrying the Third Legion's gene-seed suddenly vanished during a Warp transit, without a sound.
No one knew where the transport ship and the gene-seed had gone.
But without gene-seed, they couldn't perform the genetic modification surgeries, and without the surgeries, their Third Legion would have no new Space Marine recruits.
Having lost a large amount of gene-seed and not yet found their Primarch, the Third Legion's replenishment of personnel was extremely slow, with less than a tenth of their peak strength remaining.
They could only pin their hopes on the extremely rare gene-seed stored in the laboratories on Luna.
Hoping that this last sliver of life could lead their Third Legion back to its peak.
"Hey!"
Eidolon's reminiscence was suddenly interrupted.
"Eidolon! You're moping here again!"
It was a purple figure in full Crusade-pattern power armor. From the decorations on the armor and the tone of her voice, Eidolon recognized her.
Iulia, a Third Legion Space Marine, Eidolon's squad-mate.
An idiot.
She chattered in his ear every day, very noisy.
But without her, it always felt like something was missing.
Yes, "her."
Iulia was a female Space Marine.
Although it sounded somewhat shocking, in a few legions, female Space Marines did exist.
This was due to the gender of the Primarch.
It was said that only in the few legions with female Primarchs was it possible for female Space Marines to exist.
Of course, this naturally included the Third Legion, which everyone was most concerned about.
After all, those who were compatible with the Third Legion's gene-seed and could complete the transformation were all absolutely handsome men and beautiful women.
And that ghoul legion that no one wanted to talk about.
No one cared if there were women among those madmen.
If there were, they would be madwomen.
When female Space Marines first appeared, some on Terra had raised questions.
What if Space Marines procreated and created a new type of human?
But according to subsequent research, just as Custodians cannot have little Custodians, Space Marines also have a natural reproductive incompatibility and cannot have little Space Marines.
But the doubts were never completely dispelled.
Who knew if some mad Apothecary would modify the organs of Space Marines to allow them to reproduce?
One of the important duties of that scribe was to monitor whether they would cross that "red line."
"Come, come, Eidolon!"
"Look at these buildings! How beautiful they are!"
Iulia excitedly approached Eidolon, sharing photo after photo sent back from the first landing party.
"Did you hear! Chemos was a dead world just a few decades ago, and now it's been built into a beautiful technological city! This is all thanks to the Primarch's political and ruling talents!"
"Our Primarch—she's really amazing!"
"Also, did you know—?"
"The Primarch has a mortal husband!"
"She's married! She got married a long time ago!"
Oh?
This piqued Eidolon's interest.
This was the first time they had encountered a married Primarch.
What did the Emperor have to say about that?
Iulia suddenly drew out her words, mysteriously leaning in close to him and whispering.
"And because of it—she argued with the Emperor on the spot!"
-------
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