Excerpt from the memoires of Private Raz V’a van;
“We were the legionaries of Malus, The World Breaker”
About two days before the battle, I managed to find a small pub within a nearby trading post and on this uncolonised planet it was the only civilian settlements you could find, it’s name was quaintly called the WestCoast, the place seemed to be ok with serving Imperial troops, but in regards to their hospitality I suspect that the big pieces of sharpened steel we carried with us played an important factor.
I sat there for a few hours, ordering local cuisine until I noticed that it was time to return to the battalion, I was about to get up and join the rest when a certain biological need compelled me to visit the bathroom, so I ventured towards the higher levels of the pub and after finding the restroom and sitting on the toiled in order to relieve my need, I saw that to the wall of the stall I was using there was some kind of talisman or totem attached to it.
I’m not sure what it was called or what it even was, but it looked appealing so I extended my arm to touch it, and as I did so a strange and not altogether unpleasant sensation washed over me.
I quickly removed my hand, and could have just ignored the totem there and then, but curiosity got the better of me so I touched it again.
I closed my eyes for a few moments and when I opened them what I saw before myself was beyond description, colors flashed and faded, matter appeared and disappeared, before me there was a great void which appeared to be infinity itself, and a great ma.s.s which seemed thicker than the black eternity of s.p.a.ce, and more thin than the spring sunlight of the most sacred planet.
But the most strangest and indescribable thing of all was that the sight before me seemed not to change or even remain constant, what it was I could not guess, all I know that it was something I was not suppose to see.
“It is existence.” a voice said behind me, I wanted to look around and see who did it belong to, but I decided to get my bearings straight first.
“Existence? Why is it here, why am I hear, why me and who are you?” I asked it.
“It was never just here, it’s everywhere, this moment and this place is one of the few instances when you can see it. As for you, I’d say that you are here but because you chose this.” the voice replied.
“I….I chose this?”
“Yes.”
“What the h.e.l.l does that mean?”
“Well don’t ask me, I can’t explain it and I don’t have time to!”
“Wait! How did you get here, who and what are you?”
“My name is Icarius Reign, as to how I got here; well I’ll give you an answer when I find one, until then bye!” the voice replied and that was the last I heard of it.
With its absence, the sheer incomprehensibility of this place started to get to me.
I closed my eyes, pressed the palm of my hands to the side of my head in an attempt to block out both the pure madness and untainted sanity which resided in that place, I screamed to the heavens for release and I received it.
As I opened my eyes, I saw that I had returned to the bathroom and after a few long breaths to calm myself I walked out of the stool and left the pub, there where eyes upon me, with various reactions to what happened in the bathroom or what they thought happened .
What really went on that day I am not completely sure , maybe it was real, maybe it was caused by the stress for the upcoming battle, maybe that amulet was some weird drug, maybe it was me finally cracking up, or maybe it was that meal I had, for at that point in my life, I was not aware of the significance of the name Icarius, but thrust me, that name would one day be on everybody’s lips!
Private Raz V’a van; Imperial Engineers Corps