Prologue
Just two weeks ago Sergeant Valerie Sternhaus had been happily stationed in the PDF barracks, many hundreds of levels above the stinking factory slums of Brux Prime.
She pulled her head back behind the concrete wall, a few seconds longer and her head would've weighed a few autogun rounds extra. One of her squadmates wasn't so lucky and cried out in pain as he slumped to the ground, blood spurted from a fresh gaping chest wound.
As a medic rushed to his side, Val allowed the adrenaline-fueled anger to wash over her. This is all the fracking terrorist's fault! Why couldn't they just leave well enough alone?
The rebels were calling themselves "The Sons of Retribution" And Val was astonished at how far the situation had escalated. She remembered watching the news of some protests going on outside of city hall. Next thing she knew someone was driving a truck through the front gates.
It didn't take long before the Arbites were clubbing people unconscious.
After that, things escalated to the point where the Arbites could no longer keep the peace and the council made the decision to call in the PDF. They were all green as could be, in past week the PDF had seen more fighting than the last three generations of their ancestors combined.
Without the majority of the PDF mobilized, their forces consisted of just one battalion and the local judges. Their combined forces had blockaded the main roads and tunnels linking the manufacturing district and the residential areas the Sons had taken up arms in.
Val and her squad were assigned to one of these positions, they were currently locked in a stalemate with neither side giving ground. She turned her attention to Arbites Proctor Kane, he was shouting through a vox amplifier.
"To all rebel combatants!"
"Lay down your arms and surrender! I can assure that your executions will be swift and merciful!"
"Failure to comply will result in punishment in accordance to the most extreme extent of imperial law!"
Not the most convincing offer, but Kane isn't exactly the most reasonable person I've ever met either.
As if by cue one of the rebels from poked his head out from behind cover "UP YOURS JUDGE!" And let loose a hail of shots from his autogun, they missed Procter Kane by several feet.
In retaliation, the Arbites rhino-mounted heavy bolter spun and fired. The oversized bolter shells sawed through the man's body like tissue paper and sent him flying back several yards in a spray of gore.
The collective mood of the PDF seemed to shift at the sight of the gruesome kill. There was a battle cry of "FOR THE EMPEROR!" and several troopers stood up and returned fire at the entrenched rebels positions. The sharp smell of ozone washed over Val.
Her short-range radio started buzzing and her commanding officer came online "Sargent Sternhause your new orders are to sweep and secure Hab unit 3021. Second and Third squad will assist you our intel reports the building will have minimal resistance"
She replied immediately in her most professional voice "Yes sir, squad one confirming orders"
She turned to her squad "You hear that men?! Its ass-kicking time! Get ready"
A chorus of affirmatives rang through the squad.
The Rhino began crawling forward with a mighty rumble. Six arbites double-timed to each side of the Rhino, riot shields interlocked forming a miniature testudo. In a less than coordinated maneuver, the three squads fanned out behind the arbites taking pot-shots at any rebel fighters.
Miraculously they made it halfway to the hab unit without a single casualty. Then everything went to shit.
Val heard shouting down the alley, followed by a deafening barrage of gunfire. She spun around seeing a tide of rebels flooding towards their position.
"Reinforcements! Quick, into the building!"
Val and her squad began the mad dash to cover.
She looked back and cursed as she saw the other two squads either trying to take cover behind the Rhino or retreating back to the blockade. Her eyes widened and she mentally cursed them.
Damn them! Without covering fire we're completely exposed!
The staccato bursts of gunfire echoed from the rebels positions, two of her troopers were cut down by the hail of inacurate bullets. Their newest recruit Tomis, still a boy at the age of sixteen. Looked back at the freshly made corpses The boy's eyes were wide open and frantic as he stumbled once, twice, before finally tripping on the uneven road and sliding to a stop.
Damn it, Val hesitated for a moment before she spun around to help him. "Come on, on your feet boy!" With help from Val, the boy scrambled to his feet, tears in his eyes "S-Sarg look"
At that moment things went from bad to worse. The building they were supposed to secure suddenly lit up with gunfire. The rebels had been waiting to ambush them this entire time.
A large man with a missile launcher appeared in the window and before Val could scream a warning a large streak of exhaust hurled itself towards the rhino, at such close a range it would have been impossible to miss.
The Arbites rhino exploded in a roaring fireball engulfing the troopers attempting to take cover behind it. The smell of burning metal mixed with charred flesh reached her nose accompanied by the screams of troopers being burnt alive.
Val watched in horror as her men were gunned down in the open streets with no cover to shield them, their flak armor doing nothing to prevent the massacre
How could this happen...I, I'm going to die.
Time slowed down for Val as pure adrenaline pumped through her veins, she began a desperate scramble for safety but just as she broke into a run she felt several dull impacts hit her in back, her legs gave out under her and blinding pain shot through her.
I can't feel my legs, Throne! why can't feel my legs?
Movement drew her focus to a frag grenade thrown several yards away. Val stared at it numbly, willing her body to respond.
No...I'm not ready...not like this.
Pain racked through Val's body from the gunshot wounds, her eyes teared up as her vision started to fade. She heard screams in her vox communicator as the men...her men, died one by one.
The grenade detonated, cold and darkness washed over her.
Chapter 1
-Cognitive functions: booting up-
-Imperial date: 1 539 964 M41-
-Power capacity:100%-
-System Integrity: 100%-
-Repair protocols: on standby-
-Combat protocols: on standby-
-Priority summons: received Hibernation protocols: overridden-
Kyzen Castilian awoke from his weekly mechanical hibernation, A human uninitiated to the ways of the Mechanicus would have called this sleeping, however, it functioned as a core system reboot as much as actual rest for his biological parts.
He checked his internal timer. Exactly four hours and seventeen point three seconds had passed since he had hooked himself up to the mechanical harness. He then checked the ship's status and noticed with interest the captain had unknowingly woken him from his reboot by requesting his presence on the bridge.
He was aboard the ship Omnissiahs Prudence, a gothic class cruiser that had been decommissioned from the imperial navy over sixty years ago. The ship was now little more than a glorified cargo ship used by the Adeptus Mechanicus. They had been traversing the warp for almost three months now, a relatively short distance.
Kyzen reached into his voluminous robes pulling out a cable, he plugged the data spik into a communication socket. He scrolled through the ship's data banks for what must have been the hundredth time out of boredom. Nothing had changed except a few heat readouts in the engines
All within normal parameters
At the fledgling age of twenty-eight, he was barely a child in the eyes of the Mechanicus. Newly baptized in holy engine oil laced with incense, directly pulled from a titan god-machine.
It was at that time he had received the red robes of Mars and finally advanced from novice to adept. Kyzen proudly stroked the mechanicus amulet and ran his eyes over the perfectly maintained Omnisian Power Axe, resting serenely on a rack in his quarters.
The Axe had been forged and handed down to him by his master, the venerable Magos Torqid Petrova IV, head and founder martian clan Petrovius, vassal of the honorable Archmagos Lexell Kotov.
Although emotional attachment and emotion in general, was frowned upon as weakness within the Mechanicus, Kyzen's feelings towards his master came as close to adoration as a tech-priest was capable of.
His master was known to be eccentric among other magi with his radical thinking and highly unconventional problem solving, this naturally gained many enemies within the scheming ever-changing beast that was the Mechanicus.
Magos Torqid was a truly gifted fabricator, having "discovered" many ancient Aerotech inventions just laying around his workshop. His quick rise to power and his reputation combined with seething jealousy had led many more ambitious tech-priests to spread rumors of his insanity, and some even went as far as to mention tech-heresy.
Torqid quickly put a stop to that and through a bit of brilliant political maneuvering and some questionable power plays, his rivals had been reduced to mindless servitors in less than a year. Needless to say, he quickly became unopposed...at least openly.
Kyzen did a quick survey of himself with a small but efficient camera at the tip of his second mechadendrite to ensure that he was presentable for his meeting with the captain. In truth the captain was little more than a glorified mercenary, it made little difference to Kyzen.
No matter how insignificant you are and no matter how small the task, the smallest cog can have the largest effect, he mentally recited one of his teachings.
Kyzen consisted of about forty percent steel, twisting cable, and whirring machinery, much less than the higher-ups. The holiest of their order, the Arch-Magi, were most often only a few shriveled bits of brain matter controlling a powerful cybernetic vassal.
Although no two tech-priests were identical and some were so vastly warped they barely resembled humanity, It was not uncommon for a tech-priest's power base to try to imitate the form of their master. The reasons for doing so could range from attempts to gain favor, to those particular augmentations being widely available. Kyzens body indeed began to look more and more like his masters every passing year. His reasons were simple, the augmentations were efficient and effective.
Truly reflecting his low rank most of his body was actually still biological. His voice box had, of course, been mechanically augmented to allow him to speak the lingua-technis, alongside several brain implants to allow him to understand it. Plasteel plating covered the majority of his face down to his lower rib cage to protect his vital areas.
He had also had his eyes surgically removed and replaced with some ocular lenses procured from one of Torqids many tech vaults. He received these augmentations his second year into his apprenticeship as a reward for his devotion. The glowing green cameras were able to see in a variety of spectrums including x-ray, infrared, and thermal. One was a three-inch telescoping tube while the other was flat circular and wide.
He had tubes pumping hyper-oxygenated gas directly into his lungs at an accelerated rate. The lower part of his face was mostly taken up by a filtration system along with a voice synthesizer and a vox amplifier. His blood had been replaced with a nutrient-rich compound that could sustain accelerated healing and hyper brain activity. There was also a small compressed oxygen tank embedded within his chest for short sustainability in null oxygen environments
Finally, he had a modest number of extra limbs. He had two sturdy servo arms with several cutting instruments, drills, and a promethium blow torch. Uses varied from lifting, cutting, and potential mauling.
Kyzen also possessed two far more valuable mechadendrites. While the servo arms were simply attached through a harness, his mechandrites where grafted directly into his nervous system.
Each featured a high precision servo claw, one had a camera attached to the end that could function as a third eye and the other had a small but deadly concealed laspistol for emergencies. Kyzen took pride in the quality of his mechadendrites.
The most telling and recognizable part of him where his legs. He had a powerful chassis grafted to his pelvic bone consisting of six nimble but sturdy spider-like legs.
One of the things he took great pride in they far surpassed the weak fleshy bipedal legs he had been born with. He remembered Master Torqid explaining his options in rapid binharic cant
~(Apprentice. After your successful rise in the ranks of the mechanicus, I have seen it fit to bestow upon you your first major link the machine god.)~
He went over his options in great detail before reaching the hexapodal chassis Torqid used himself
~(As you know I am particularly fond of this chassis but the choice, of course, is up to you. It can and will assist in your max lifting potential by several thousand pounds.)~
~(In addition, it is capable of surprisingly quick bursts of speed able to close the distance between you and a foe before they expect it.)~
~(Maintain and respect them and they will carry you to the far corners of the galaxy. Allow them to fall into disrepair and they will dump you on your ass.)~
His bionic eyes contracted with amusement. Kyzen replied with several info tags implying humor and lightheartedness that would translate into laughter for an unenlightened human.
His bare scalp was exposed for the rare occasion he was alone in his quarters. He had a wiry but tough stature above the waist that was only beginning to develop the signature "tech-priest slouch" due to the weight of the mechadendrites.
His head for shaved and his devotional tattoos were visible with the cog and skull wrapping around one side of his head, on the other side where ornate electoos from which his personal noospheric aura was emitted.
His skin was incredibly pale from lack of sunlight.
The sun is vastly overrated, I would take a dark cooled workshop, or even an assembly line over the sun any day.
The parts of him that actually mattered, however, were in tip-top condition His robes were freshly cleaned and his bionics were polished to shine. All six of his legs had been oiled and calibrated by maintenance servitors while he slept.
Satisfied with what the camera showed him, he flipped his hood up effectively hiding his features and opened the sliding plasteel door with a blurt of binharic cant.
~(Open)~
He made towards the bridge obeying the Captains summons. His personal servo skull detached itself from its own charging station and took its usual place hovering over his left shoulder slightly trailing behind as Kyzen walked. BW367.9 was fashioned from the skull of a tech priest.
Her name had been Mia and she had been one of his closest friends among his fellow novices, she had tragically been cornered by a malfunctioning servitor and crushed to death. He had requested her skull from her master and spent the better part of a month crafting a high-quality servo skull. He had done this to honor her memory and to make something useful out of the tragedy
Kyzen was sure she would have been thankful for the opportunity to continue to serve the Omnissiah and work by her friend's side after her untimely death. As a result, Kyzen referred to the skull floating beside him simply as "Mia" instead of its official designation.
The hallway was only one of hundreds. It was located close to the back of the ship by the engines. He had requested this room as V2 plasma engines where a true marvel to behold. Kyzen spent much of his time in the engine room observing the bondsmen toil keeping the engine fueled with plasma cylinders the size of Leman Russ tanks.
He spent this time committing the intricate working of the engines into his internal data banks. True he already possessed the blueprints from the mechanicus databanks and he could have named every component and elemental composition before his optical receptors ever laid "eyes" on them.
Kyzen personally felt that first-hand experience was much more valuable than secondhand data, a sentiment you would be hard pressed to find among other adepts of the Adeptus Mechanicus.
It was quite apparent that the ship was no ordinary imperial vessel, although it carried a respectful number of statues and litanies of devotion to the God-Emperor, the number of effigies praising the Omnissiah far outweighed everything else. There were other signs as well invisible to the naked eye.
Throughout the halls there was a golden glow of data swarming around the hallways, the ships noospheric aura, visual proof of the machine spirits existence. Using holy components embedded within every tech priests brain he could actually see lines of code as cogitators communicated with each other wirelessly.
The halls he walked down where empty and quiet save for the regular metallic clanking of his own clawed feet and the humming of Mia's antigrav drive, as he got closer to the bridge he began to see the tech thralls and bondsmen that made up the majority of the vessels crew. As tech thralls were essentially high functioning servitors their noospheric aura was nothing like that of a tech-priests. Tech-priest's auras generally demanded attention and where a golden swirl of titles, honorifics, rank, what household and clan they belonged too, and details of their power base.
The auras of thralls were simple and dim with only an iota of power running their simple transmitter, they were made to be easily ignored.
They included a simple identification number and who their owner was, along with a few other tidbits information. Almost the exact readout he would expect from looking at a lasgun, or a civilian vehicle's engine
One such identifier flashed before his receptors.
-Designation: b582p7-
-Property of: Captain Lazlo Locke of the 5th holy fleet of Mars
-Charge: serve aboard"the Omnissiahs Prudence" until natural or unnatural death-
-Understanding of linguina techniques: Basic commands only-
-Cognitive ability: Nonexistent: fully lobotomized-
Kyzen continued walking down the corridor passing several hundred doors and bulkheads. He could have recited from memory what was behind those doors ranging to massive storage holds to cramped conscript and rating quarters.
Although the Omnissiahs Prudence was a relatively small and unimportant ship it was still well maintained and cared for. The corridors had the smell of freshly burned incense and at the end of a long hallway he could hear one of his fellow tech-priests, a low ranking transmechanic, chanting devotional hymns thanking the ships machine spirit.
Having spent the last few months aboard the cruiser, Kyzen had spent long amounts of time just listening and feeling the nature of the machine spirit encased within the ship. Kyzen had begun to develop feelings of affection towards the old ship as though it were an old friend.
It was immensely stubborn and headstrong. When the cruiser had had its guns stripped from her by the uncaring Imperial Navy it had angered and saddened the majestic machine spirit. Accessing the ship log's Kyzen had discovered the cruiser had begun to forgo some serious malfunctions and had come very close to a reactor malfunction which would have resulted in a catastrophic detonation.
In the face of such malfunctions, the Imperial Navy had almost scrapped the majestic ship for parts when clan Petronius had offered to buy it off them. They had, of course, accepted the generous offer. Kyzen could tell the ship still wanted to fight but over time, and with the soothings and offerings of the tech-priests, she had begun to accept its new role and was eager to prove itself once again.
Kyzen added his binharic cant to the tech-priests down the hall, thanking the ship for shielding them from the warp within her mighty frame.
As the last verse faded away he could feel some of the tension fading away from the ship as though the terrible burden of traveling through the warp became a little more bearable. Overall though the ship's Machine Spirit spirit felt content and appeased. This was standard among Mechanicus ships, Especially among the ships lucky enough to count themselves under the care of clan Petrovius.
After about twenty minutes of his steady purposeful stride, he arrived at the heavy blast doors protecting the bridge There were two Skitarii guarding the doors, they looked magnificent, even if their bright red Martian robes had a few holes worn through them, and the metal armor on their chest guards gleamed dully from what looked like decades of minimum maintenance.
Kyzen instantly perked up at seeing them.
Even if the captain just has another menial repair job for me it would be worth it just seeing a Skitarii up close!
It did slightly confuse him as to why the Skitarii seemed in less than optimal condition.
A quick scan left him disappointed. They had only the minimal required augmentations. They had been amputated below the knee and given bionic legs, as per Skitarii tradition. In addition, they had metal exoskeletons permanently grafted into their skin.
But the augmentations where cheap commercial things that could have been purchased at any hive. They didn't have far superior mechanicus variants that they were entitled to. The exoskeletons were made of cheap gunmetal instead of a reinforced plasteel titanium alloy.
Their noospheric data aura was more complex than a servitor or tech thralls, as was befitting for the warriors of the Omnissiah.
-designation: b5 Ranger Ry-nal-
-In service to: Captain Lazlo Locke of the 5th holy fleet of Mars -
-Clan affiliation: none-
-Squad designation: 5th garrison squad of "The Omnissiahs Prudence"-
-Charge: Defend "the Omnissiahs Prudence" repel attackers and heretics-
-Secondary Charge: Act as a bodyguard for Captain Locke-
-Understanding of linguina techniques: Moderate-
-Cognitive ability: Limited, result of severe brain conditioning and partial lobotomy-
The lack of repair and quality augmentations suddenly made sense to Kyzen, these were not the glorious warriors he had viewed on holos back on Mars, but simple outdated bodyguards the captain must have purchased at a discount from some martian clan.
He received the last part of the data with distaste -Cognitive ability: Limited- This alone told him that these Skitarii had been manufactured by a different clan. Magos Toqid had always been a great believer in allowing his warriors to retain their minds and cognitive abilities.
True loyalty must be a choice, not a command. Besides how can these Skitarii truly worship and serve the Omnissiah without having the capacity to fully understand his magnificence?
The sentiment was split almost 50/50 among the mechanicus, with many Magi preferring to turn their warriors into mindless drones for total and complete control over their minions. And others, such as Kaizens master preferred to give their warriors freewill and a capacity for independent thought.
The holotapes spoke for themselves showing the Skitarii fighting intelligently and with coordination long after their techpriests and commanders had fallen, it also showed the Skitarii being far more adaptable to changing battlefield conditions in stark contrast to their servitor-like kin.
This, more often than not, resulted in a victory even after a battle appeared to be lost. Of course, it had its drawbacks as these Skitarii where known for being headstrong and willful, sometimes even outright disobedient, their Alphas had especially earned this reputation.
Of course, high functioning Skitarii where harder to come by. Kyzen was sure these would be more than enough to repel any insane pirates that dared attack a mechanicus ship this far into imperial space.
The chances of that are so astronomically low though that these guards are most likely used to intimidate simple hive merchants instead of any true combat usage. The guards pulled him out off his analysis with a raised mechanical hand and an equally mechanical voice
"HALT...identify yourself and purpose or be escorted to the brig"
~(Adept Kyzen Castilian of the Adeptus Mechanicus, identification number, M76-3921, complying with Captain Locke's summons at 0400 hours)~
There was a short period of silence as the Skitarii ran his name through a database, the two-ton plasteel blast doors slid open to allow him entrance.
Kyzen had never actually been to the bridge this entire journey, receiving most of his communication with the Captain via the ship interface. It made the summons all the more unusual and he couldn't help but wonder if there was some sort of crisis.
The bridge windows had metal armored panels slid over them to spare the crew the terrible sight of the warp. The crew was relatively small. With only a few servitors and ensigns going about their tasks, a single commissar stalked among them like a wolf among sheep.
The Navigator was sitting upon an iron throne, cables protruded from his skull connecting him to the ship. His eyes were sightless and his body motionless as he peered out through the warp.
Mia floated off to record the bridge in case Kyzen wished to revisit this experience. Her red mechanical recorder embedded in the right eyes socket taking in everything in a 180-degree radius
And then there was Captain Lazlo Locke himself. He wore a crisp imperial navy uniform, nothing too gaudy. His hair steel grey was a few inches longer than regulation. He also had a few minor augmentations Kyzen noticed approvingly. Most likely a reward for his continued service to the Mechanicus.
He turned as he noticed Kyzen "Ah Master Tech-Priest, it's an honor to finally meet you face to face." He stuck out his right hand. Kyzen stared at the hand for a few seconds unsure entirely what the Captain was trying to initiate. Captain Locke awkwardly dropped his hand.
Kyzens mechanical voice warbled at the beginning of his sentence on account of not being used for the last several months "An honor for sure Captain...I apologize, I am rather uninitiated in the customs of the Imperial Navy. May I inquire about the nature of your summons?"
Captain Locke shook his head and smiled, obviously amused. Kyzen was unsure however what amused him due to his lack of data tags.
Omnissiah preserve me, non-binary communication is infuriating!
Getting over his mysterious amusement he answered "Ah yes... our navigator has scryed that we will arrive at our destination sometime today. I thought that you might appreciate the opportunity to see the planet from orbit and witness the end of our journey, it truly is a breathta-"
A warbling alarm was coming from a console near the command chair. The Captain glanced at it. "My apologies Master Tech-Priest, we have arrived sooner than I expected. Excuse me, I must attend to my ship" Kyzen bowed his head in understanding.
Captain Locke thumbed the intercom system. "Attention all crew, we will be entering realspace in ten minutes...rejoice for the Emperor and the Omnissiah has guided us safely through the warp once again, brace yourselves for transition"
Two minutes later and the blaring of klaxons echoed through the ship, Five minutes later and the ship began shaking wildly.
Kyzens internal chronometer and galactic compass went absolutely haywire for a few seconds. An intensely uncomfortable feeling of nausea and dizziness engulfed him. One of the newer looking ensigns fell to his knees and began puking up his ration bars.
The now-irritated commissar dragged him from the deck by the scruff of his neck for no-doubt harsh discipline. Three minutes after that Kyzen felt the shift from warp space to real space wash over him, it hit him like a breath of fresh air.
The blast shields on the windows slowly slid open as if the ship was trying to keep them in suspense. Everyone present of the bridge leaned forward in antisipation and squinted and Kyzens receptors dilated. The blinding light of the sun overwhelmed the bridge. Although they were several thousand miles from the planet, he could still view the highly zoomed version of the planet on the display screens.
And there it was, his first assignment as an adept, three hundred thousand light years from his birth planet of Mars was the hive world Artemia Majoris. His new home.
You may say, it is impossible for a man to become like the Machine. And I would reply, that only the smallest mind strives to comprehend its limits.
-Fabricator General Kane-