Editing Aubrey The Grey (section)

===The Great Crusade===
[[File:Lumey.jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[Gaspard Lumey]]]]
Although Aubrey and Hektor had a rapport, the Emperor decided to put His newly-discovered son under the guidance of Gaspard Lumey, master of the [[Void Angels|Fifth Legion "Winged Victory"]]. What reasons moved His Unfathomable Mind are beyond the ken of mere mortals but Winged Victory had certainly won many great victories in the years preceding Aubrey's rediscovery. Perhaps more importantly, Gaspard had a reputation for ruthless wars against Xenos, a practice that Aubrey would need to embrace if he was to perform in the Great Crusade. Accompanied by a small force of his own gene-sons, then known as the Sixteenth Legion "Emerald Doom" Aubrey undertook the long journey to rendezvous with Gaspard. The Warp voyage gave the Primarch time to gain the trust of his men, though he knew that their loyalty could only be won in battle. 

Gaspard Lumey's [[Expedition_Fleets_(Hektor_Heresy)|25th Expedition Fleet]] dwarfed the forces of Aubrey's entire Legion. The sense of inferiority was only underscored by the Primarch's sophistication and his warriors' proficiency. While Lumey and Winged Victory were welcoming hosts and fierce allies, the Emerald Doom struggled to achieve their objectives in joint operations. These frustrations pushed Aubrey to make a thorough study of his brother's way of war. Fifth Legion's use of mobility appealed to Aubrey's tastes, though he felt that Winged Victory mistakenly emphasized manoeuvre as an end rather than a means to closing the battle for a decisive hand-to-hand clash. In reforming his own Legion, Aubrey melded swiftness and discipline with fire and courage to create a unique military doctrine.

Matters of war were not the only topic of discussion between the brothers. Aubrey the Grey did not meekly surrender his objections to humanocentrism and harshly criticized Gaspard Lumey for apparent inconsistency. If Gaspard felt that mankind as a whole should not be judged by the worst of men, why judge every alien species of their worst representatives? Aubrey also pressed the point that the Fifth Legion had benefited tremendously from the traditions of Gaspard's homeworld and felt that his own Lazarus had as much to offer to the Sixteenth. These discussions bore great fruit. Gaspard conceded the point in principle and agreed to support Aubrey in a petition not only for the Lazarites to be spared but for Imperial Law on aliens to be loosened. Under Aubrey's proposal, there would be no change to campaigns against terrible aliens - the old ''Xenos Horrificus'' that had tormented mankind through Old Night. But humanity should also recognise those aliens who were no threat and potential allies as ''Xenos Amicus'' and explore beneficial relations with them. The Emperor, in His Great Wisdom, gave this proposal sanction in the Edict of Tolerance of 903.M30.

[[File:Pre-Heresy Zealots Emblem.png|200px|thumb|left|The Standard of Aubrey, original Eternal Zealots emblem]]
Aubrey made first use of the Edict in that same year, negotiating the annexation of the Lazarite Empire. He stayed at Lazarus for several years after, hosting Gaspard Lumey for six weeks in 904.M30 and preparing the way for his Legion's relocation in 908.M30. The Emerald Doom's presence on Lazarus was nominally for the purpose of training a native auxilia, but it also allowed Aubrey to devote his attentions to repairing their damaged genetics. Selenar genewrights certainly played a part in this project and it is generally believed that [[Pallas Eugenesis]] herself visited Lazarus to help with the cure. Having exhausted the greatest minds among humanity, Aubrey used his Lazarite contacts to broker a deal with alien genewrights and by this expedient finally put an end to the degeneration of the Sixteenth Legion. As the numbers of his gene-sons began to swell with fresh recruits, Aubrey renamed the Legion the [[Eternal Zealots]] and set them to the task of driving injustice from the Galaxy.

Led by the Primarch's 71st Expedition Fleet, the Zealots took to their mission with gusto. Aubrey's crusading fire often put his men on thin margins, with the Legion ever pushed forward to meet difficult objectives when more prudent commanders might have called a pause to await replacements, but it also won many splendid victories for the Imperium. Thanks to their repaired genetics, the Sixteenth could absorb the losses incurred by their breakneck speed and still expand their ranks, but they became highly reliant on local supplies foraged by attached Rogue Traders. Aubrey often signed away economic privileges among Tolerated alien species as an incentive to his merchant allies, and though this expedient was a great aid to conquests in the short-term it sowed resentment among the Imperium's non-human populations.

The most resentful were, ironically, Aubrey's own Lazarites. In 975.M30, the Lazarite Empire's banners were raised once more and a great revolt threatened several sectors. Worse still, other aliens incorporated into the Imperium rallied to the Lazarites, spreading disorder further. The War Council took swift and decisive action. Gaspard Lumey's Fifth Legion was granted full powers to annihilate the rebels, while Aubrey's men were required to surrender their warships and heavy weapons and report to the Imperial fleet base at Pandora. From there, the Eternal Zealots were transported to Lazarus to bear witness to Fifth Legion destroying their homeworld. As the last of the Lazarites was slain and their once-splendid monuments thrown down, Aubrey approached Gaspard. He offered his brother the blade ''Cintamani'' and challenged him to a duel, half in mind to die on Lazarus's soil, half to avenge his people's death. Many among the Primarchs would have obliged him, but Gaspard Lumey was a soldier not a warrior. He refused the challenge as it was part of the Lazarite tradition and that tradition was dead. Gaspard then broke ''Cintamani'' beneath his heel and left Aubrey to mourn the ruin of his life.

Severe sanctions limited the actions of the Eternal Zealots after the Lazarite revolt, but it hardly mattered to Aubrey. The Primarch was deprived of his people, his command, and his purpose. What the Legion could or could not do without him was of little interest. [[Johannes Vrach]] attempted to for several years, Aubrey lived as a hermit in the ruins of Lazarus, admitting no visitors other than [[Shakya Vardhana]]. What the two Primarchs discussed is unknown, but those few reports of the incident all agree that the Vardhana left Lazarus unhappy. Aubrey's solitude only ended when a secret message was delivered to him by a Legion serf. The sealed codex was keyed to Aubrey's unique genetics and encoded in the highest encryption protocols of the Sixteenth Legion. Yet its contents were seemingly mundane. Star co-ordinates. A date. An orbital scan of the world Paskal III. The Primarch stared at the scan for long minutes, then bade his serf to make ready for departure. Aubrey's faithful Eternal Zealots had discovered a way home.

Following the trail of clues that began at Paskal III was difficult. The 71st Expedition Fleet was severely limited in its activity and its movements constantly monitored. To shake off suspicion, Aubrey often relied on trusted Rogue Traders to track down leads too far out of his Crusade's area of activity, while leading the Zealots with an imitation of his old fire. In his heart, the Primarch felt nothing for the Great Crusade any longer. The Empire that Aubrey had sought to build had died along with Lazarus, but perhaps he might find a world of comfort, a place to rest and live out however many centuries his life would last. For months he and his agents gathered snippets of information, until finally the destination was revealed: a red dwarf star designated PA10. Aubrey secretly transferred to the Warp Runner ''Anticipation of Glory''. The ''Anticipation'' was routinely employed as a courier vessel so its departure from the main fleet barely required a log entry, but the small vessel was ranging out of Compliant space this time.

The Primarch arrived at PA10 and ordered his ship to begin exploring the system. As the ''Anticipation'' closed in on the red dwarf's inner system, it began to pick up a faint signal, which Aubrey immediately recognised as a Lazarite military code. The Primarch muttered to himself as he mentally decrypted the signal, then commanded that a lander be made ready for his personal use. Leaving the crew of the ''Anticipation of Victory'' to wait for further instructions, Aubrey piloted his lander alone to the dark side of a small, tidally-locked world close to PA10. Despite nothing displaying on his lander's instruments, the Primarch unerringly followed the right path. Abruptly, the lander passed through a holo-field and Aubrey's eyes saw what his mind had long beheld: a small cluster of twisted towards, ancient and alien in design. He touched down on a landing pad and was welcomed by a hooded figure, manlike in stature but not in proportion. This creature led Aubrey out of sight of the lander's vidcaptors. For 8976 solar minutes, he was completely gone from the records of his Legion. When Aubrey reappeared, he was accompanied by three creatures akin to the one that had greeted him. In silence, they boarded the lander and set course back to the ''Anticipation of Victory''.

Aubrey's companions were smuggled back into the 71st Expedition Fleet and dwelled in his private quarters, taking the place of Legion serfs. One by one, senior commanders of the Eternal Zealots were brought into conversations with the Primarch and his creatures and enlightened into the mysteries of the Transformative Revelation. The creatures identified themselves as the Hezeyar, an ancient race who had sought to bring all the species of the Galaxy into harmony. The Lazarites were but one project of the Hezeyar, still primitive but edging towards their enlightenment until they were slaughtered by the Imperium of Mankind. Yet the Transformative Revelation teaches that in destruction there is always creation, and the Hezeyar's sorrow at their protege's demise was alloyed with joy that Aubrey had learned to shake off the primitive superstitions of mankind. Finally, a human ready to be enlightened and to spread enlightenment! The Eternal Zealots, as Aubrey's sons, had a special part to play in the full awakening of humanity to the Galaxy's destiny.

Only one officer in the 71st spurned this corrupting message. Zachery Irisus, Grand Mentor of the Legion, denounced the Hezeyar's creed as a blasphemy against the Imperial Truth and begged his gene-father to return to the beliefs of the Imperium. Aubrey answered by stabbing his faithful Marine through the heart. Without a trace of hesitation, the Primarch knelt and ritually cut his gene-son's throat - the first of his many human sacrifices to the Gods of Chaos. Backed up by his senior officers, Aubrey falsified Irisus's murder as an honourable death in a fair duel and none of the Eternal Zealots dared question this obvious lie.