"I really don't like this project," said the Logis Jaxper as he stood at his console sifting through a vast data archive from one Magos Errant Bellegar's latest experiments into technology normally considered beyond foul to the average human.
Jaxper absolutely hated his job and oddly enough he didn't hate it because of the technology being researched. The truth was that Jaxper much like his superiors found alien technology such as by the Tau and Elder to be absolute works of art especially in comparison to the annoyingly short sighted human products. Those lines, curves, those subtly metallic differences in alloys that made the alien machines more durable and resilient, although these things irked him on a personal level such ingenuity also resounded with him on an deep intellectual level. Any normal tech priest would scuff at such things, by deeming human technology to be more pure and be extension more superior, but to those that actually studied the xenos technology, it was anything but inferior. In fact, the technology raised several disturbing questions regarding divinity. If xenos technology was superior to that of the Cult Mechanicus, then what did that say about the Omnissiah? Could it be that this entire time the Tech Priest had been worshipping an alien god? Was the Emperor of Man actually human? These things did not sit well with the young Logis.
"Magnificent!" yelled one Bellegar in the background. Jaxper was startled at his 'superior's' sudden outburst and turned sharply to see the senior Magos Errant standing in pose with this foot upon a stool and arm outstretched pointing towards the horizon, "BEHOLD Jaxper, I give you technology most foul but most wondrous… it is a glorious day for the Cult of the Machine!"
Jaxper looked at his companion, whose face was transfixed with that goofy attitude and as he started with his typical maniacal laughter, 'Muhahahhaha.' Jaxper hated, HATED, Bellegar. The creature was as much insane as he was obnoxious, always boasting and acting like a fool while he, Jaxper, did all the real work. And, what of the cult? It was always Bellegar, Bellegar, Belleger; the accomplishments and research. Jaxper did all the real work and all Bellegar really cared about was…
"Come Jaxper," said his 'superior,' fist rose in triumph, "It is time to unleash the might of the machine god."
The Logis sighed and unleashed an unenthusiastic 'woo' before following his companion out the door of the rockcrete bunker and onto the desert plains where a firing range had been set up by the Imperial Guard. There, a group of guardsmen were assembled around a trio of Colossus artillery units. Jaxper watched without much enthusiasm as one Bellegar wondered from artillery unit to artillery unit, talking to their respective gunnery crews with his iconic sense of showmanship. This inspired something of a sense of wonder with Jaxper, how somebody like Bellegar could possibly garner so many personal bonds with the guardsmen over so quick a time. Perhaps, it was an issue with his bionics, wondered the young Logis.
Oh by the Omnissiah, he really hated Bellegar, the more he thought about his own failures with human intimacy while in comparison. From a distance he watched that obnoxious creature shake hands with a guardsman and hug one of the large cannons like it was his own child.
"Behold!" yelled Bellegar, in an attempt to get Jaxper's attention, "I give you the Colossus artillery and with newly designed munitions rounds. Jaxper sighed deeply and wondered over the sandy terrain to where the new artillery shells were being stored. His legs, being fully mechanical, slowly started to grind sand within his pistons as he marched.
Eventually the pair stood over a wooden holding crate where Bellegar began elaborating upon the shell designs, "Behold the 14 AP shells, with new exterior alloys that make them lighter to load and faster to travel when fired. The alloys are based upon Tau technology and are duplicates of the same materials used in their Hammerhead tanks. Each round weighs half of that of its human designed and mass produced cousins. Also, the new shells contain newly produced high explosives based upon a chemical formula that guarantees longer storage duration."
Jaxper watched his 'superior' laugh manically after his speech, as the Logis reflected upon all the research that he had done so that these artillery shells could be produced in the first place. The very thought that Bellegar needed to explain his own work to him was infuriating.
"Now my boy," said Bellegar as he marched over to a distant Colossus cannon," let us unleash hell…
Everything seemed to pass by slowly as Bellegar moved to the firing switch. Jaxper watched as Bellegar, still laughing like an insane lunatic, hit the firing button to the Colossus cannon, but the cannon didn't shoot rather than it simply exploded into an eruption of fire and twisted shrapnel. Bellegar had a split second to see his death coming, and the horror of the moment, as his body was blow apart at the seams with artillery shrapnel and the ruins of the Colossus siege gun. The guardsmen, to their credit, ran for cover as burning wreckage rained down into the other test pits.
Jaxper was at first stunned, and then… he started to chuckle, before he knew what was happening he had burst out laughing. Guardsmen watched as the part man, part machine logis tech priest doubled over onto the ground laughing as hard as his body would allow. Neither stunned nor startled at the destruction or the sudden mental breakdown of the Machine Cult Logis, they began to clean up the tattered steel mess as bits and pieces of burnt metal continued to rain down upon the sands.
"Are you alright…?" asked one man, approaching the tech priest as he struggled to regain control of his emotions.
"Did you see it," said Jaxper, "Did you see that look on his face? It was priceless…"
"Sir?" frowned one of the guardsmen, "We should really get one of the new props out from storage for the next experiment."
Jasper slowly calmed himself down and stood from the sands, the small pieces of dirt falling from his robes as he did so, "Very well, very well," he said while snickering at the remains of Bellegar's limbs lay strewn across the ground, his metallic bits and pieces still sparking from power discharge, "Go ahead and bring out the next mockup of the Colossus artillery unit. I'll prep another duplicate for experimentation."
Jasper walked away as the assorted group of green tunic clothed guardsmen started to put another dummy Colossus artillery unit into place. These cannons being used for the experiment were not the real things, just another cheaply massed produced replica, fashioned in just the right way to fool the naked eye. As this duplicate was replacing the shattered remains of the one previously destroyed in the explosion, Jasper entered a vast chamber lined with numerous bodies upon hooks, but not just any duplicates, each one was a copy of Bellegar, an exact copy down to his eye color and clothing.
"Testing, testing one two three," said Jasper into a vox recorder as he studied the numerous copies of Bellegar, "This is Magos Errant Bellegar, now pretending to be Logis Jaxper for the Adeptus Mechanicus Men of Iron Project. As per orders the project has gone forward despite Imperial Decrees against the mass production of AI technology, indeed against all production or research bans into the matter, having long since been considered heretical. We have successfully completed numerical test 562, where Bellegar STC duplicate 562 successfully killed himself with the Colossus artillery unit. Thus far, we have concluded that the AI used by the Men of Iron is extremely limited between STC duplicates produced and allowed to operate within 48 hours of STC manufacturing."
The Logis stopped briefly as he skimmed through some data on a nearby cognitor, "I will now begin preparation work for numerical test 563, using STC duplicate 563 Bellegar. As per instructions, all Bellegar manufactured duplicates have been implanted with a pre-set neural scan obtained from me ten years ago. This has maintained consistent field results during experimentation."
Logis Jaxper/ Magos Errant Bellegar now approached one of his doubles. It wasn't really a double per say a mass produced doll with his collective mind installed in the firmware upon manufacturing completion. The actual doll didn't even resemble himself physically. It was far bigger and meatier, bold with numerous biological alterations to pull off the illusion of appearing like a Tech Priest. This was in order to fool the Iron Man into believing that it was human for the duration of the experiment.
As for the experiment, the plan was to keep testing the Iron Men until it could be surmised at what time duration they gained sentience. Thus, the continued efforts to blow them to pieces in ever increasing time increments. The effort was both for safety reasons… and because explosions were as the real Bellegar liked to often say, 'Jolly good fun.'
The real Bellegar, Jaxper, tapped the head of one of his duplicates, "activation code Verjira 5987513333549," he said. The Iron Man opened its eyes and dropped from the hook to the floor where he stood aptly at attention.
"Bellegar 563," said Jaxper, "report to room 12 of the bunker and run bootup sequence."
The Iron Man did an about face and walked away ignoring everything around him. Bellegar nodded and walked back to his control room. Once inside he found a digital message on his personal cognitor. With a slight bit of apprehension he activated it to read its contents.
"Magos Errant Bellegar, project terminated, reassigned to Inquisitor Rin, Special Project…" the man's eyes suddenly went wide as he finished skimming through the letter. As if expecting to have misread the messages contents he read back over the final few sentences with great care, "New model ship using Xenos technology in development. You are to report in as Chief Engineer."
Bellegar smiled fondly and tapped his vox ponder to speak to the guardsmen outside. Within a few brief seconds Sergeant Knox had reported back, "Yes sir?"
"Knox," started the real Bellegar, "We are shutting down production and testing. Pack up all the duplicates and prepare to move out."
"Come again?" asked the guardsman, "What about all the work that we've done here?"
"Don't worry about it," said Bellegar, "We're taking the Iron Men with us. This new project that we are about to be part of, it could use them."
Bellegar cut the vox link and reflected upon the idea of building a hybrid Cruiser. The idea both horrified him as the most barbaric form of desecration upon an innocent machine spirit, and a possible chance to see a great leap forward in human technology. It was exciting, it was new, it was…
The doors opened behind him, "Magnificent!" yelled one Bellegar in the background. Jaxper was startled at his 'superior's' sudden outburst and turned sharply to see the senior Magos Errant standing in pose with this foot upon a stool and arm outstretched pointing towards the horizon, "BEHOLD Jaxper, I give you technology most foul but most wondrous… it is a glorious day for the Cult of the Machine!"