Editing Spared (section)

==Alt. End (Iron Handed)==

he turned, facing the battlesuit squadron. 

Cassius' vision blurred as bolter rounds exploded against the battlesuits armored carapaces sending shards of twisted and broken metal spinning off into the surrounding terrain, he felt cold as in the bottom of his vision his battle brothers came into view spewing death from the end of their Boltguns, Cassius felt as though his vital fluid was draining form his long preserved corpse as he saw the Shas'vre being brought low by Brother Lectus' Rocket launcher, the cockpit a skeleton of twisted metal, the ragged remains of a limp body barely holding onto life still visible through the broken carapace. 

Cassius could do nothing, his armored shell not responding to his touch for the first time, all he could do was watch, that was until his vision cut out and he lost consciousness to the sound of death as blue fire erupted from behind a hive tower and impacted his battle brothers chests. 

He awoke to the sound of power tools, much like those used by the Adeptus Mechanicus, yet they sounded different, his vision flickered as he saw the blue tau xenos on his shell, carefully cutting into him, and across what seemed to be a hangar a tank, a large glass tank filed with a translucent liquid, and through the liquid he could see a battered blue form.

Cassius lost consciousness again, and dreamt of a life never lived, constantly interrupted by pain and suffering.

He awoke, not to the sound of the Adepts chants or the rituals that normally preceded his awakening but to a strange new feeling, he could feel, he could move, for the first time since his interment in a Dreadnought he could move again, he could sit up.

He looked down at his body, and instead of the hull of a dreadnought he saw shining metallic legs and a new artificial body, he began to stand, his new augmentations taking the weight of his body, he arose, and began to walk steadily to what appeared to be a door, and as he reached it it opened, a strange creature stood there, like him it was a mixture of flesh and metal, yet it was... blue.

It started calling to him, and then he realized, it was the beautiful sound he had heard twice before, and he reached it and it greeted him. The figure guided him through what must have been another door until they finally reached what must have been an open observation deck, he walked forward feeling the wind on his face for the first time in countless centuries, it was wonderful, so wonderful, he collapsed onto the floor with contentment and the Tau female sat down next to him and wrapped its arms around his metallic chest, and they sat there, waiting and watching, and as the dual suns of the planet rose they sat, in complete bliss, holding one another as a new life dawned for both of them...