Chapter Text
Man
The throne was failing, that much was certain. The Emperor's last breath was inevitable as parts of the Golden Throne began popping off. The Custodes have tried and searched far and wide for something, anything to revive the Emperor or at least repair the Golden Throne but no sign of the knowledge of the Dark Age of Technology humans lost so long ago could be found.
The Emperor sat, as the Chaos Gods giggled in laughter, this was it! This was their victory! Humans have lost, Chaos has won! Slaanesh licked his lips, Nurgle prepared his pot of filth and disease, Tzeenetch laughed and mocked the False Emperor and Khorne readied his armies to Terra. The Eldar watched from afar, the Farseer has foreseen it and soon, the Mon-keigh's central government would fall as the remaining worlds would fall to threats. Both Men and Women of the Imperium prayed as the Custodians began to cry for the first time of their lives and service.
Soon, the Emperor breathed out as his eye shead a tear before..
.
.
.
An explosion was seen by many, it was the death of Terra, the death of the Emperor. The citizens of the Imperium sobbed and cried their eyes as Chaos began to rain, in more ways than one. Riots and panic spread throughout the Imperium. Humanity's god is dead.
Gulliman looked up at the skies, he knew the death of the Emperor would be the final nail in the coffin to this disgraceful imperium, but humanity would live on. He would make sure of that, it has been 50 years since the death of the Emperor, more than half of the Imperium's worlds are either dead, consumed or corrupted by Chaos and other xenos races.
He had a plan, for humanity to survive, it needed to migrate, before the death of the Emperor, he rounded up the best of the Imperium's Astartes and logical scientists across the empire to Ultramar, where he now resides, Chaos Daemons have infiltrated and Ultramar's cities are devastated. He loaded them all in pods as they blasted off. mortarion manifested, all there to witness their loyalist brother fall into hopelessness and despair, but funnily enough, he did not cry or wept, he smiled as he slit his throat, dying by his own terms as he watched the pods leave, securing humanity's future.
The pods left the surface of Ultramar as Chaos rumbled in anger, they tried chasing after them but the pods were travelling too fast to catch up. Giant Gellar fields structures that were stronger than any had ever seen wrapped around them as they flew across the cosmos. it was a disgraceful and pitiful life for them. But, for humanity's survival, they pressed on, they soon decided to settle on Asteroids, hollowed them out and lived in them. Food and Water was grown with artificial technology as they began to replenish the human population. Adapting to their new home, they started to not mutate, but evolve and genetically modify themselves into something that resembled human, but simply is not. Their limbs began to grow thinner and longer to adapt to the zero gravity environment.
The Asteroids were an often overlooked part of the galaxy, often seen as beneath many alien species that reside in the galaxy. However, it is because of this very fact that it is the perfect spot for humans to live. The Necrons and Eldar ignored it, Chaos would not even think about it, their biggest threat were Orks who would constantly fly by them but with a string of luck, managed to avoid detection. The human population began to grow rapidly not by the usual breeding means, but by growing them in pods similar to how the Emperor kept his Primarchs when they were still developing.
Humanity has given up faith in the Emperor. Religion has brought nothing but destruction to their kind, so the logical answer was to put it behind them, the Astartes acted as a temporary guard, but soon, they were replaced by metal men, not working by the Artificial Intelligence that betrayed mankind long ago but by the complex minds of preserved human minds, creating an Infinity Circuit of their own by extracting wraithbone from the cores of dead Eldar Craftworld ships. Gellar fields more powerful and advanced than anything the Emperor had ever created were constructed, which prevented the eyes of Chaos from interfering. Radars the size of light years were created. It was at the 58th millenium that the technology of the humans have surpassed the humans of the Dark Age of Technology.
Chaos is dying, without humanity sustaining their large needs, they have fallen from their power high and are thrown back into their condition before Slaanesh's birth but they remained vigilant and prey on many of the Tau's alien races. This has caused the Tau Empire to experience a sudden change in power and anarchy ensued, in the end, they became similar to what the Imperium was, a xenophobic race saying that all of them who do not follow "The Greater Good" will be tortured and executed. The Dark Eldar are barely hanging on as with the Imperium's death, victims have become very scarce. The Necron and Tyranid war have devastated large parts of the galaxy as the Necron technology began to be recovered. The Craftworld Eldar have secured a small empire since the threat of Chaos has decreased but it kept on breaking apart because of infighting and the Orks are Orks.
The humans have laid dormant as their evolution in both mind and technology grew so vast that emotions such as rage and joy became so dulled and the fact that they have created their own independent Webway separate to the Eldar restricts Chaos's knowledge of their existence, coupled by their extremely potent and nearly impenetrable gellar fields, not even Tzeentch could predict their locations. Their pupils have grown large as their eyes resembled that of goats of ancient Terra as their bodies shrunk into smaller forms. Their arms and fingers have grown to gigantic forms, they were humanoid-shaped but one was unrecognisable from the average humans. However, their most noticable difference is their intelligence, for now, an Asteromorph would averagely think concepts that are just inconceivable that even an Eldar could not possibly comprehend. They have done the impossible: understand the warp and how it works, allowing them to go completely undetected by not only Chaos, but any warp entities. They were no longer human in any way and so they renamed themselves from "Humans" to the "Asteromorphs".
They lived in asteroid arks just outside of star systems, quietly watching the many remaining human and Xenos races on the planets. For the first time in a very long time, there were actual Gods in the sky. They were silent and never even noticed by any specieis, be in Materium ro Immateirum, but their exclusion from the galaxy was ultimately going to pay off.
The Necron and Tyranid wars have pursued and gotten worse ever since, the Necrons have recovered nearly all their lost technology at the height of the War in Heaven and launched a campaign called "The Cleansing", the complete eradication of any biological mechanical life forms of anything but Necrons and so one by one, in the span of 5000 years, all the alien races were killed off or left so crippled and traumatized that they went into hiding.
The Aeldari followed the latter option, the Craftworlds were blasted off with some Aeldari surviving and hiding in cave systems and isolated locations of planets. The Tau in their religious zealotry, were completely exterminated by the Necrons and the Orks survived in weird and unbelievably ways. Chaos suffered an even heavier blow and the Chaos Gods were just on the brink of death.
The Necrons now empowered still had one enemy left in their way of total galactic domination: The Asteromorphs. For all this time, the Asteromorphs and the Necron Dynasties watched each other in wary and respect, knowing that a war between them would be not only devastating to them, but to the galaxy. It was around this time that many of the Necrons began not only surprisingly giving pity but began to become friendly to organics. A large debate occurred across the different dynasties saying that organics should be treated as equals and the other side saying that they should know their place, beneath their feet. A civil war was in the making and the higher up of the Necrons knew that it would devastate them and leave them open to be attacked by the Asteromorphs. So, in an act of desperation to unite his people, the Silent King pointed his gun at the Asteromorphs and the start of the war known as the "War in Heaven Secundus. "
War in Heaven Secundus was a bloody conflict between the Necrons and the Asteromorphs that lasted for 70 million years, even surpassing the heights of the original War in Heaven by a large margin. It was during this time that Chaos, desperately formed united together into "Chaos Undivided", which would have devastated the galaxy in the 40th millennium, but no, they were a footnote. Quintillions of Necrons and Asteromorphs were killed every hour, however, both factions held nearly no emotion and so, Chaos Gods such as Slaanesh and Khorne were barely able to profit from any of it. The Chaos Gods were vanquished by weapons forged by the Asteromorphs so advanced that not even the smartest Necrons could ever hope to understand and decipher, Khorne died screaming, Tzeentch cowardly whimpered, Slaanesh moaned in agony and Nurgle decayed and rotted away in silence as Chaos was no more. The Asteromorphs view the Chaos Gods not as threats but the same way humans on Ancient Terra saw the common cold, it was dangerous for their ancestors but now, they were barely even a nuisance.
The war finally came to end as the victor rose from the ashes: The Asteromorphs. They have done what the old Ones have failed, they were now the strongest faction in the Milky Way Galaxy, their mind shave expanded into large proportions as their limbs stretched to unfathomable proportions with advanced flexible yet unbreakable fibre linking them. The warp has been compeltely cleaned and returned back to it's state when the Old Ones ruled, a paradise. The other races rose out of hiding to gaze upon the new rulers of a galaxy with peace at last.
A nude Asteromorph holding the body of a dead Necron, signifying the end of the War in Heaven Secundus.
The Asteromorphs encountered creatures on many planets, it was easily deducted that these were humans, mutated or evolved to adapt to the new environment like they did. The Asteromorphs learned from their mistakes, they could not leave the galaxy unchecked. So, they produced miniature versions of themselves with intelligence below them but would seem like all-knowing beings to them. They created the "Terrestrials", to guide them the post-humans back to their former glory.
Many Xeno Races have also began to pop out from the ashes of the war. The Asteromorphs quickly realized that a single threat still persists: The Tyranids, a few thousand hive fleets have arrived and they were wiped easily but it was noticeable that their strength has gotten stronger. The Asteromorphs Empire was too secured and their specieis was too smart to crumble and so, another Age of Strife is not possible. They noticed and they would not act like their ancestors and slaughter them with extreme prejudice, but seek to rekindle relationships with their kind, to strengthen them to create a galaxy not built for war, but for peace.
The Porks were the first to be found, the smart or cowardly Orks that hid from the Necrons when they struck survived by living on barren planets. They have grown a mind and their bodies adapted to the new setting, that they do not need to rely on war to sustain themselves and have created a functioning society, functioning for an Ork standard at least. They have created a culture based around "Killing" but are more civilised and intricate than their ancestors. The Porks are extremely loyal to the Asteromorphs and see them the same way 40th millennium Orks see Gork and Mork.
The New Machines, the Necrons were not completely exterminated by the humans, it was the original plan but it would be far more useful to use them as their allies, and so, they wiped parts of their brain and memories, and created their subservient descendant of the New Machines. They were treated with extreme prejudice by the many Xeno races, they could not erase what their ancestors did. Trazyn was one of these individuals, he was allowed to exist with the rest of the galaxy due to their dynasty's more passive and useful role. After the Silent King had fallen, Trazyn took no convincing, none at all. He spent the remaining time of his life gathering what once was and soon, became a loyal servant of the Asteromorphs.
It was at this time that the Emperor reincarnated into the body of a Terrestrial. For once in his life, he was not so overachieving that everyone else thought he was a god, for once in his life, he was underachieving as his human mind struggled to keep up with the other Terrestrials. The Asteromorphs figured what was happening rapidly and the Emperor was tasked to remember human history, a history the Asteromorphs have long forgotten. After a millennia, the Emperor was finally done as he sat down and lived with his descendants with relief. Relief that the struggles of countless trillions were all worth it. Relief that his goal has been achieved. Relief that humanity did not need him anymore. Soon, he wanted to pass on and live his life, knowing that humanity would do well even without him, the Asteromorphs created a device that would allow him to not reincarnate anymore and free his soul into the clean and bright warp. This marks the death of the Emperor of Mankind, and he was happy.
The story now becomes very messy. The Asteromorphs eventually allied with many other galactic civilisations and defeated the Tyranid leader, the Hivemind and it's countless subjects bringing the time of grimdark and unending war to a close. It was unknown what occurred after that, how they build structures that spanned entire galaxies, how they conquered a third realm and perfected their wormhole technology making safe instantaneous travel possible. A note of incredible discovery was the reconstruction of Terra. The Asteromorphs were able to apply the warp and turn back time to when Earth was young, when no humans have walked on it, they landed down onto the surface, and humanity touched their home once more.
Mankind is possible of doing anything and for a time, all men were Gods.
I have to admit the end with a confusion, humans are gone. They have long been extinct in the eyes of many species. I myself am a distant descendant species of the Porks. Many believe that a gargantuan war need them, many believe another Age of Strife occurred and the human colonies fell one by one, but most of us believe that they have migrated to another plane of existence. Ultimately however, what happened to humanity does not matter. The Aeldari in their pride, caused their downfall by neglecting their creations. The Imperium and Tau's hate proved to be their undoing. Chaos's temptaions, obsession and refusal to see the bigger picture. The Necrons, with their insane desire to recreate the past and live out a future, destroyed so much and for what? Even now, it is sickeningly easy for beings to get lost in false grand narratives, living out completely driven lives in pursuit of non-existent ultimates, ideals, climaxes and golden ages. In blindly thinking that their stories serve absolute ends, such creatures almost always end up harming themselves, if not those around them.
To those like them; look at the story of Man, and come to your senses! It is not the destination, but the trip that matters, and what you do today influences tomorrow, not the other way around. Love Today, and seize All Tomorrows!
- All Tomrorrows by C.M.Kosemen