Editing Wilmut Sachs (section)

==Youth==

===Early years===

Wilmut was born to [[Ataulf Sachs]], the Genetor-Bailiff of Terra, and a woman who was formally his wife, but really just the intended mother of his heir. Genetor Sachs was obsessed with the purity of genome, so when he decided to conceive a child, he sent his thralls to scan Terra for the most genetically pure woman they could find. They came back with a modest commoner who Sachs could never really connect to, such was her intellectual inferiority to her betrothed. But Ataulf decided to put up with her annoying stupidity at least until she would give him an heir. Alas, Wilmut turned out to be an even greater disappointment for the Genetor-Bailiff. He planned for the boy to take his place after his death and continue his crusade against the mutants and the impure. But Wilmut was far more interested in improving on the human genome than in trying to fix it. This difference in views made the father and the son grow far apart. Eventually, Ataulf gave up on Wilmut entirely, sent him to a cadet school and moved on.

===Unification Wars===
{{Main|Unification Wars (Hektor Heresy)}}

As was common with the orphans found by the Imperial forces during the Unification wars, Sachs received a thorough military training. Although he showed himself as a talented and capable soldier, his true passion still lied in biology and genetics. Now that he had access to the vast archive of scientific data the Imperial forces were gathering in the conquered territories, nothing could satiate his craving for knowledge.  While his fellow cadets usually spent their free time enjoying the scarce pleasures the young Imperium could offer them, he was far more likely to be found with an ancient manual on genomancy. Noting Wilmut's scientific leanings, the pedagogues selected him for training as a field medic. But, although he excelled at his new occupation due to his natural talent, his aspirations were still set higher than that. Scalpels and syringes were crude tools befitting of a caveman to him, for he dreamt of working on a molecular level. Sachs didn't want to fix humans; he wanted to improve on them.

Although Wilmut was less than enthusiastic about medical lessons, his talent and impressive theoretical knowledge allowed him to effortlessly remain one of the top students. This was in a sharp contrast to his peer Edentis Pneuren, another contender for the top student spot. Unlike Sachs, Pneuren spent several years begging the staff at the military school to allow him to take medical training, for he felt like helping the injured was his true calling. Not as gifted as Sachs, Pneuren was nevertheless incredibly diligent and compensated with hard work what he lacked in raw talent. Although there was initially certain rivalry between the two, they quickly became good friends once Edentis realised that Wilmut was not at all competitive. Both students were often ahead of their class and managed to finish the training several years in advance of its formal conclusion.

As the two very best students in the field medic training centre, both cadets were eventually selected by the Imperial authorities for an implantation of geneseed to serve amongst the Space Marines - the ultimate supersoldiers of the future. At the age of sixteen, both Sachs and Pneuren received the geneseed of Johannes Vrach, the twelfth of the twenty lost Primarchs of the Emperor. Due to the unfortunate flaw peculiar to the Primarch's genome, the implantation made both cadets rather plump and balding well before this process would start naturally, giving them somewhat of a homely appearance so unusual for the Space Marines. On the other hand, it gave them above average resistance to poisons and toxins of any kind. It was based on this advantage that their squad, the Twelfth, was dedicated to fighting in hazardous environments.

The first several engagements of the Twelfth squad brought them little glory, although their performance was perfectly adequate. Their finest hour came during the [[Life Bringers#The Infiltration of Tarrant|Infiltration of Tarrant]]. The great Hive of Tarrant was firmly protected by a layer of toxic fog generated by an infernal machine built by the Hive's tyrant, the mad alchemist Hermes Geber. Unable to assault the enemy fortress directly, [[Hektor Cincinnatus]] opted to use the Twelfth Squad to infiltrate it and destroy the fog generator, allowing the rest of the Imperial forces to advance. Although the squad members managed to successfully accomplish their objective, two of their numbers met their demise by chemical weapons and another one, Gaius Martinus Vira, inhaled too much toxic gas during the operation, putting his life at risk. Since Pneuren was busy elsewhere, Sachs was the one to perform the detoxification, thus saving Vira's life and earning one more close friend.

The squad's new commander, Theophrastus Salk, was so impressed with the chemical weapons used by Geber that he decided to adopt them for usage by the Twelfth. While Pneuren was busy developing superior chemical protection that would render the application of toxic agents much safer, Sachs was tinkering with the captured chemical weapons themselves, making them more usable for a Space Marine. The toxic grenades that later became one of the signature weapons of the Brothers of Death were in fact his invention. The new breathing apparatuses and chemical weapons designed by Pneuren and Sachs were put to a field test during the siege of the Hive of Xebek. The resounding success of the operation was in many ways determined by the preliminary efforts made by these two.

===The Asclepeion===

Near the end of the Unification Wars, the Imperial strategists started preparing for the imminent Great Crusade. It was clear to all that it would require a very different approach from the one used during the Wars, but very few generals had any idea what exactly to expect. In this atmosphere of uncertainty, the suggestions from the veterans were listened to with great attention, particularly those coming from such distinguished individuals as Edentis Pneuren. He stressed the utmost importance of field medicine, arguing it to be one of the key success factors in any battle. His words resonated with Hektor Cincinnatus, who ordered to open the Asclepeion, a medical school for the Space Marines aimed to prepare them for the Great Crusade.

The school was staffed with some of the best physicians and genetors found in the young Imperium, but a headmaster befitting of such an establishment was not so easily found. Ultimately, the genetors suggested [[Lyster Larrey]], an Adept Biologis of Mars for this role. Larrey was glad to accept the invitation, for it gave him a highly coveted opportunity to study the biology of the Space Marines. As expected, both Pneuren and Sachs were star students in the Asclepeion, but it was the latter who quickly became Larrey's pet. The adept admired young Wilmut's burning curiosity, innovative mindset and craving for experimentation, for these qualities reminded him of himself. Although Pneuren was bz all accounts a superior and more diligent physician, it was with Sachs that Larrey spent a lot of hours in his laboratory, performing experiments that could be charitably described as extracurricular. Nevertheless, this did nothing to damage the firm friendship between Sachs and Pneuren; if anything, their time together in the Asclepeion only made their bond tighter.

While Larrey was by all means a formative influence on Sachs, the opposite is true to a certain extent as well. It was him who suggested to the adept that the positions of a field medic and a geneseed caretaker should be merged into one due to the abundant overlaps between the two. Larrey relayed the proposal to Hektor and suggested the name Apothecary for this new position. The Primarch found it to his liking and ordered the founding of the Apothecarion. Sachs and Pneuren were the very first Apothecaries to graduate from the Asclepeion, although their skill sets were quite different at this point. Edentis grew to become a peerless physician, while Wilmut deepened his knowledge of gene manipulation, which he fully intended to use for the glory of Mankind.