Matter and spirit, flesh and machinery. When a person's body had been replaced again and again until everything but their consciousness had been renewed, could they still be called themselves?
No one knew the answer. Neither the Tech-priests, who believed flesh was weak and embraced the ascension to machinery, nor Blackwatch, whose members had been resurrected countless times through biotechnology, could solve this ultimate question, which had crossed into the realm of philosophy. Or rather, no one cared.
Ever since Hogg created the Flesh Reshaping Chamber ten thousand years ago, the line between life and death in Blackwatch had begun to blur. After the Psychic Network came online, the already tenuous Veil between life and death had shattered completely.
In Blackwatch, losing an arm or a leg was only a flesh wound. Even if all that remained was half a spine, as long as the head hadn't completely shut down, the Flesh Reshaping Chamber could restore them. The only drawback was having to undergo the twenty-two surgical procedures all over again.
Hogg had placed great hopes in this technology from the moment it was invented. Thanks to it, not only Blackwatch but nearly every Legion's Space Marines had been spared the tragic fate of being entombed in a sarcophagus.
They said becoming a Dreadnought was an honor, but to Hogg, the price of that honor was far too high. He wouldn't let his sons suffer, no matter how much glory it brought them.
As the Flesh Reshaping Chamber spread through every Legion, the old refrigerator-style Dreadnoughts and even the oven-style models that came later were replaced by the latest Dreadnoughts.
Hogg had developed these machines based on the Invictus Mech, blending in some inspiration from the Scourge Dreadknight. The moment they were unveiled, they received unanimous praise from Space Marines