\\ DATA STREAM START
Data streamed across the screens before me, and after much deliberation and consideration, the weighing of options and probabilities and statistics, drawing on my knowledge of sociology, psychology, and local law, I came to the inevitable conclusion.
This was a fucking stupid plan, and I was fucking stupid for having fucking thought of it.
Also, various more 'fucks' in there, because fuuuuuuuuuuuck.
Things began to assault my head from the inside as the Machine Spirit awoke, starting to speak with me through the data-jack connection I had with it. 'Speak' being a relative term here, the data streams and queries and processors and such all sort of blending together in my head… sort of.
Long story short, the Imperial Knight was… grumpy.
The cameras came online, and I could see, I closed my real eyes and focused on the data it was sending me as the world came into stark relief. Things like the gray towering walls, like the large, nearly mausoleum-esque shell that housed the Knight, like the rich green of the trees of the park beyond the pews.
Like all of the Chaos Stormtroopers surging towards our position.
Ooohhhheheheh yeah, this was gonna suck.
Lasers streaked out between the oncoming traitors and the squad of the Imperial Guard that'd been here. Poor bastards hadn't expected this any more than I had, they'd just been taking a break on patrol.
"C'mon c'mon c'monnnnn… boot up…" I muttered under my breath
Audio came in, senses I didn't have assaulting me through the data jack, radio, short-cast, vox, I was suddenly hearing it all and the Machine Spirit wasn't playing nice. Fucking hell.
A Questoris Knight Magaera, Ordnatus Acies Dominus was a nigh unique piece of machinery, thirty-five feet tall from its massive mecha boots to the top of its chassis, its hunched over head between its shoulders, a blessed work of the Ommnissiah due to its guns, complexity, guns, purity, guns, oh, and did I mention the guns? And it was apparently cranky when it awoke!
The pressure at the base of my skull increased, almost like a finger was being dug into my head, a line of fire running up my left bicep and my spine to join it as Ordnatus Acies Dominus' Machine Spirit queried, its voice registering somewhere between the grinding words of an avalanche and golden text.
\\ WHO SO'TH LIFT THE FIST OF GOD?
"Emergency Protocols: Adeptus Mechanicus Override ; Codesign: Theta Mu Seven Three Five Omikron Gamma Four Theta ; Emergency Pilot Sanctification: Lexmechanic Andoriol Phi 2319," I rattled off the 'sanctification ritual' as quickly as I could, desperately trying to get the powerful Machine Spirit to accept me as a pilot so we could fucking survive! I didn't even know if it would accept my new, likely very low ranking override code but damnit, I had to try! "Acknowledge."
'Please oh please oh please–'
\\ PRIMARY CODE ACCEPTED
'Oh thank god! The god-emperor mind, but thank god–!'
\\ SECONDARY VERIFICATION REQUIRED
'FUCK.'
\\ ASSERTAINING PILOT VIABILITY: NOBILITY
The pressure on my skull increased, and it was like a line of fire ants up my arm as the Machine Spirit made its demand.
'Wait, what-? What are you talking about?!' I squirmed in place at the query, trying to ignore the pain and pay attention to what was happening in the alleyway at the same time.
The mighty Imperial Knight had been held in a mini cathedral set at the intersection of two factories, pews lined around it for the sermons and services that were held around the technological wonder, which was venerated here on the Forge World of Iacroaria. Beyond the little cleared space for worship and housing was a park.
… well, I called it a park because that's what it was analogous to, but in reality it was a place for the genetors to test out their variants of organics, perfectly arranged rows of a variety of trees and pens for beasts of various kinds. But that wasn't as important as the guys with laser guns shooting at us from behind those trees!
The audio sensors linked up with my mind with a jerk and a screech, "–rm up! Form up! Toothy! Get in cover you idiot!"
I cringed before suddenly flinching, letting out a little pained sound as Ordnatus Acies Dominus pushed again, lines of fire lighting up inside my head as the words displayed against the back of my eyelids:
\\ REITERATION: NOBILITY
"I don't know what you want me to do! I do my work for the Emperor! For the Ommnissiah! What do you want from me?! I'm barely more than a Menial right now! I haven't had a chance to do anything noble!" It was almost like someone had dug their fingernails into my arm and dragged them up, peeling away flesh as the Machine Spirit queried again.
"Narcia! Get a grenade over there! Volc! We're on suppressing fir- SKAK!"
Streaks of red surged over the stone pews as the traitors fired freely from the trees, making the guardsmen duck. Even a cursory glance told me that their numbers had increased, we were looking at nearly three dozen traitors slowly advancing through the trees towards us, firing and keeping a mere squad of guardsmen pinned. The Imperial Knight was nestled up in the corner of the two buildings, with two rows of pews leading out that became four near the street that separated the worship-plaza from the park, the loyal guardsmen using the stone pews and Ordnatus' mausoleum for cover.
"Damnit!" I snapped, slamming my fist into the inside of the Knight's chassis with a snarl, my heart threatening to beat a dent into the inside of my Cyber-Mantle as panic surged, "We're under assault by Chaos Guardsmen! If fighting them isn't noble then I don't know what is!"
\\ IFF DETERMINATION CLARIFICATION
I flinched as the query dug into the inside of my skull like fishhooks twisted about but snarled back, "They've got fucking mutations and daemon weapons! Of course they're Chaos!"
It wasn't a joke either, more than a few of the forces firing on us were obviously and horrifically mutated, one had his lasgun fused with his arm, another had sprouted tentacles, and so on. There was no doubt we were dealing with Chaos. How the flying fuck we were dealing with Chaos on an otherwise quiet Forge World I had no idea, but reality didn't care what was possible!
\\ IFF DETERMINATION ACCEPTED ; NOBILITY ACCEPTED
"Now can we–"
\\ COURAGE
"Damnit!"
There was no way this misfit squad of Guardsmen would hold! They were horrifically outnumbered, the traitor guardsmen slowly advancing on us through the trees despite the hail of lasfire, and I couldn't help. I didn't have any guns on me damnit! I barely had any augmentations at all! I couldn't help them down there, that's why I'd scrambled into the Imperial Knight I'd been doing maintenance on. I couldn't fight, no weapons or even things that I could jury-rig into weapons, but even without the appropriate neural jacks, I could at least try to start up the Knight.
\\ INSUFFICIENT COURA█
"Oh shove it up your ass!" I snapped at the Machine Spirit, anger bubbling inside me, "You can fry my brain! You are frying my brain! I knew this getting in! If that isn't courage then fuck off and let me out in either god damn order so I can at least try to help!"
\\ █ █ █
\\ PROCESSING…
\\ COURAGE ACCEPTED
"Thank you! Now can we–"
\\ HONOR
"Oh fuck off!" This time I punched one of the internal screens of the mech's cockpit, cracking the screen and sending a jolt of pain up my wrist as I likely cracked a bone or two in it, letting out a little pained noise and cradling my injured hand to my red robes.
This wasn't good. There was no two ways about it. My awareness danced about the feed that I was still getting from Ordnatus, trying to pick out how many traitor guardsmen there were, their weapons, anything that might help out if I had to leap out of this damn thing to help. Even if I hadn't been inclined to help, there was no question, they'd kill the 'loyal' techpriest to get the Imperial Knight, the mech was far too valuable. If I at least knew where their commander was, or the most dangerous one of them was I could get the squad to focus fire on… them…
… wait, is that a Chaos Space Marine?
No, wait, that's not a Chaos Space Marine.
That's a Chaos Space Marine in Terminator Armor!
Standing nearly ten feet tall, bulky, and most likely covered in over an inch of adamantium and plasteel with what looked to be a pair of power chainfists! And… oh for fucking fuck's sake, mechadendrites?! Are you shitting me?! A Chaos Tech Marine in Terminator Armor?!
With a sensation almost like someone had speared my nose with a fishhook and tugged my head to the side, Ordnatus regained my attention:
\\ REITERATION: HONOR
"Oh for fucks- That thing's coming and he's gonna kill all of those guardsmen! He's gonna kill me!" I snapped, my voice cracking just a bit as my heart thudded against my Cyber-Mantle in fear. The Chaos Techmarine was already clearing the trees with thudding footsteps, walking on the asphalt of the road towards the marble plaza that made up the worshiping area for Ordnatus, "And once he does he's going to turn you into a chaos war engine! They need help! So either let me drive or let me out!"
\\ █
Pain and pressure seared at the base of my skull as I waited for an interminably long moment, eyes dancing about through the feed that was still being pumped into my head as I watched the Chaos Terminator casually walk forward through the hail of lasfire, the other mutants and traitor guardsmen still firing from their positions of cover as the Imperial Guard at the feet of Ordnatus fired wildly over the tops of the makeshift cover, trying to keep their heads down. There was even lasfire coming from between the legs of Ordnatus as some Guardsman had the good sense to stay behind the enormous armored legs of the Knight.
There was a scream as a las blast clipped the Felinid chick of the squad, blasting off a flak pauldron and knocking her over!
My teeth ground and I tried to stand out of the chair, the jack at the base of my skull tugging and my right hand reaching back to try and tug it free, "Damnit! Let me out! At the least I can bandage them–"
\\ CAST IN THE NAME OF GOD: YE NOT GUILTY
Wait, what-?
\\ FIRING SOLUTIONS AVAILABLE ; WEAPONS ONLINE
I blinked as a H.U.D. flared to life in front of the feed that was being pumped into my head, the pain and fire fading to mere pressure as I could feel the machine around me, the gyros and the calibrations, I could feel the firing arcs as lines traced their way to targets in my head.
Fuck yes! Open fire!
\\ FIRING.
The lightning cannon kicked and I could feel the jerk like it was in my own limb as untold amounts of energy lanced out, a barely constrained blast of power that slammed into the marble tile mere feet in front of the Chaos Terminator who'd thrown up his hands just as I pulled the metaphorical trigger.
And the world went white.
The optics of the Knight immediately compensated as the street and the outermost set of pews were enveloped by a blast of electromagnetic Suck A Dick. The blast sending a vibration up my– up Ordnatus' legs as it shook the pews, sending dust and bits of concrete flying into the air.
"The warp-?!"
I swept my head about, the linked plasma weapons on either side of Ordnatus' head firing rapidly, bolts of blue-white streaking out and following my sight line as it traced death through the trees, punching holes through the wood and grass well over the heads of the loyal guardsmen.
"Did the cog-head actually do it?!"
"No skakking shit he did!" came a jubiliant cry from one of the others near Ordnatus' feet.
More than a few of the traitor guardsmen threw themselves to the ground, avoiding the bolts of plasma raining down on the park, and my rushed sweeping fire missed another few, but well over a dozen of the enemies / TARGETS were slain / NEUTRALIZED. The dirt and smoke from the blasts was starting to– oh god damn, is that Traitor Marine still up?!
The lightning cannon was still cycling back up for another shot as I watched the superhuman and apparently superhumanly armored warrior roll back up to his feet despite the hulking suit of mechanized protection that had almost certainly played a huge part in his surviving a blast. A blast that had vaporized two stone pews, each nearly a dozen feet across, and had left a still glowing crater in the marble tile, I'd missed, but not by that much!
My head tracked down again, the bolts of plasma firing out rapidly as I tried to align them with what was by far the biggest threat on the field.
Red lenses met my video feed, and in that instant I knew, just knew in my soul that the Chaos Marine was meeting my eyes and staring me down.
Goootta admit, even with the blue-white streaks of death only a few feet from him and myself in a superheavy combat walker, I was more than a bit intimidated. But even if the plasma weapons couldn't puncture his armor, they'd slow him down, knock him down, stall him long enough for the lightning cannon to finish charging up.
An angry beeping rang in my ears and my stomach fell out as the plasma weapons signaled their overheat, cutting off before more than a single bolt of plasma had glanced off the Terminator's thick armor.
I bristled, and Ordnatus took a half step forward with it as I snapped, "Son of a–! Guns! What guns do we got?!"
\\ HEAVY STORM BOLTER AVAILABLE
The Knight's left hand was barely halfway up, the paired heavy bolters on its back just starting to cycle up as the Chaos Terminator waved those chainfists about quickly, warp lightning flaring around them just as the first bolt shells began exploding at his feet.
But with a flash of… something… the Terminator was gone.
… oh, of course, how silly of me, it wasn't just a Chaos TechMarine, oh no, it wasn't just a Chaos TechMarine in Terminator Armor, no no, it was a Chaos Techmarine Sorcerer in Terminator Armor that I'd managed to piss off.
Of course.
Fuck.
\\ FIRE INCOMING
Brilliant red streaks impacted the thick armor like raindrops before Ordnatus activated its own Ion Shield, targeting reticles appearing on the traitor guardsmen in a blur and my arm already raising–
Ordnatus arm was raising! Not mine. The feedback was just ridiculous! But it drew me back to reality rather than my entirely reasonable fears about a Chaos Techmarine Sorcerer! 'Holy crap you're eager!'
But the Machine Spirit responded almost like it was prompting me, the pressure in my skull and arm almost like a dog tugging at a leash as Odnatus' voice said:
\\ TARGETS ACQUIERED
"Didn't say it was a bad thing!" I returned to the Machine Spirit, my voice cracking even as I pulled the mental trigger and opened fire with the bolter on the back of Ordnatus' thunderstrike gauntlet, the gun roaring as it sent explosive rounds downrange and tearing up the trees and grass, not to mention the traitors still unfortunate enough to be alive.
"Targets?" I demanded of the Machine Spirit as my… not my eyes, my awareness darted around the feed that the Knight was pumping into my head. An angry red arrow drew my attention down, the barrels of the cooling plasma guns swiveling as well as I hastily searched for the traitor that had gotten to the lines of the Guard-!
… wait, nothing…?
No.
No no no. Bad Ordnatus.
\\ TARGETS ACQUIRED
No. They're not targets. Those are our allies. Yes, that's an Ogryn, and yes, that's a Felinid, but they're Inquisition accepted Abhumans, not Chaos mutated monstrosities.
"By the Throne, good work cog-head!" there was an almost unnoticeable ping as I think one of the guardsmen slapped the side of Ordnatus' leg–
'Gah!' My teeth ground together as my heart-rate that had been trying to slow down spiked again, and it was like someone had dug a finger in my ear and tried to tug my head around as the Machine Spirit gave me the equivalent of a nasty pop-up.
\\ ASSAULT DETECTED ; OPEN FIRE?
'No! Damnit no! Stop that! Gah, damnit, they're our allies, and if there's traitors here we have other problems!' I ground my teeth together for a moment as I drew myself back into the pilot's seat, my hand clenching for just a moment as I moved to force back the Machine Spirit, but the pain of my likely broken hand drawing me back. With a little grunt, I ordered, "Give me the external vox."
"Yay! The bad men are dead! Hehehehee~" the ogryn of the squad was almost giggling. The big guy had an even bigger gun, it… I'm… actually not sure what it was at the moment, I hadn't been paying attention.
One of the other guardsmen rushed over to the Felinid, helping her up… she seemed conscious, if dazed. A little bit of blood was seeping from her left shoulder, the pauldron long gone and the skin of it scorched pretty heavily… but she still had her arm at very least.
\\ EXTERNAL VOX AVAILABLE
My heart was still thudding against the inside of my ribcage and the metal of my Cyber-Mantle, trying to come down from the adrenaline high. I asked, "How are y'all holding up?"
… witty. Good job brain. You're welcome Andy.
"A damn sight better now cog-head," one of the Guardsmen, the sergant I guess, stepped out from the pews, looking up in the general direction of my- Ordnatus' eyes. God damn this was some serious feedback. But the sergeant, a big guy who barely fit into his uniform and armor was beaming up at me, "You bloody mowed those skakkers down with that damn thing! I thought you were just tryin' to hide, but skak me, you proved me wrong."
"Do we have any idea what's going on?" A little part of me was unhappy about the assumption, and Ordnatus itself seemed unhappy about that, but the majority of me agreed, it was a pretty obvious assumption really. "Ordnatus here doesn't have updated vox protocols and…" I listened, confirming, "I'm just getting gibberish on the coms."
"Good damn question," the big man grumbled before shouldering his lasgun and snapping over at one of the other squad members, "Rook! What's the coms sayin'?"
"Unna! Sir! We've- We've-" the relatively young vox specialist started a few times before shouting out, "There's reports of heresy sir!"
"Well skak, I just might die from shock," the sergeant propped his lasgun against his shoulder, "What're the coms saying that's useful?"
… I think I like this guy.
"I- give… give me a moment sir."
The sergeant didn't really stand out aside from being damn tall and built like a brick house, but he definitely had an air about him that set him apart as he turned towards the medic and his patient as the rest of the squad gathered around near Ordnatus' feet, "Oi, Oconnel, ya dead yet?"
"Shove it up yourRRRrr- ah…" the Felinid, Oconnel apparently, had made a sound somewhere between a growl and a squeak as the medic had injected her with something before starting to bandage the shoulder, having cut away a good portion of her uniform to do so.
"Good to hear you're doing fine mutie," I very nearly flinched at that even as sergeant Umma turned back to his other men. Felinids were abhumans, they tended to have a very light dusting of fur and feline ears instead of humans, though they could be more or less mutated depending on their 'ethnicity'. They were mutants, technically, but even in the less xenophobic portions of the Imperium like here… the word was powerfully charged and could easily lead to a death sentence–
\\ TARGET ACQUIRED
'Damnit Ordnatus,' I rolled my eyes, following the targeting reticle to– 'That's not a– nevermind firing!'
A twitch of my mind sent several bolts of plasma downrange with a rapid set of snap-hiss sounds, blasting one of the traitor guardsmen that I'd apparently missed. There was a tickle of familiarity at that, the sound, it was the first time I'd really heard plasma weaponry fire… where'd I heard that before?
"Skak!" there was a light thump as one of the guardsmen fell over at the sudden sound.
"Oh calm down," the sergeant snapped before looking up at me again, "More?"
"Missed one. Past tense."
"Then keep an eye out there cog-head," Umma said with a little nod.
The soldier with the big vox-system nearly shot up, "Sir!"
"What'cha got?"
"Ch-Chaos is… they're massing forces!"
"Well skak," the big man deadpanned, "Where?"
"One… one klick from our position sir…" a dead silence fell over the group, the vox-specialist visibly swallowing, "They… there's a Warp Rift there that they're pouring out of."
Sergeant Unna frowned, "Well skak, looks like–"
But the vox-specialist wasn't done, interrupting his officer, "They-! Satellites… satellites report they have a Warhound Titan…"
There was an interminable silence at that before the sergeant muttered, a fair bit more subdued this time, "… well… skak."
\\ ENEMY LOCATION CONFIRMED ; MOVE TO ENGAGE?
I cringed at the leash-tugging in my head, I pointedly closed the metaphorical pop-up and asked, "… what forces does the Guard have in place?"
There were some uncomfortable glances amongst the squad before the sergeant sighed, "You're looking at them. There weren't any other patrols in the area. Warp, we were just here to keep us busy."
"We can stay here until reinforcements come right?" one of the other guardsmen said, a squeak of panic in his tone, "We've got an Imperial Knight here!"
Said Imperial Knight made its opinion on that plan quite well known, and the muscles in my neck and chest spasmed at the intense feedback. I hissed through my teeth at the discomfort, "Ah… no… no, we can't."
The squad jerked in place at that, their heads craning up to look up the thirty some odd feet at Ordnatus' head. The soldier that'd spoken up before squeaking, gripping his long-las rifle almost protectively to his chest, "Wait, what?! Why not?!"
"Ignoring the fact that Imperial Knights aren't really a good defensive unit, or the fact that if we let them get set up and entrenched, I'm not sure if there's sufficient forces on this world to hold off a serious force long enough to hold the planet… Ordnatus Acies Dominus… ah… let's just say that the Knight won't let us do that."
\\ MOVE TO ENGAGE?
"What do you mean you crazy cog-head?!" my flinch had little to do with the one guardsmen's shout.
"The Knight wants to fight, and either I lead it to the fight, or it kicks me out." I summarized as calmly as I could, "There's… not really another option."
"That- that's madness! There's no way-! It's Chaos! The Great Enemy!" the young sharpshooter shouted, "And they have a Throne damned Titan!"
"And we have Ordnatus," I pointed out, and the Machine Spirit… not purred, but it was pretty close.
"Oi," the sergeant cut in, "Cog-head, you sure they couldn't be driven off?"
"Not against a Warhound Titan and accompanying forces… Iacroaria may be a forge world, but our production is more agricultural and mining than war. If they get entrenched…" I paused thinking of what was in this area. I mean, hell, I've lived here for the past three… no, four years. What my brain provided wasn't good news though. Thanks brain. Welcome Andy. "Yeah, there's an orbital defense station near here, if they get entrenched here, there's good chances that the planet as a whole could fall depending on how many forces they have."
"Skak."
"We- we don't need to rush in!" the same guardsman, one of the ones with a long-las, spoke up again, his voice cracking, "We've got ships in orbit! We could just hold position until reinforcements arrive!"
"You could," I pointed out, "I can't. Ordnatus wants to go now. I can only tell it no so long. And honestly? I'm going whether you're coming or not." They all fell silent at that, "Iacroaria is my home, and if Ordnatus will let me, I have the power to defend it from Chaos. I'm going to do that."
For a moment, I chewed my lip looking out at the trees, hoping beyond hope that they'd come with me. But honestly, I needed to plan how I was going to do this. Ordnatus had the guns and power to take on a warhound titan, but only if I was clever about it and forced the damn thing into close combat. Ordnatus had its thunderclap claw as well as the underslung chainsword beneath its lightning cannon, if I could get up underneath the warhound's firing arcs, I should be able to bring it down. But that was a lot of ifs, and ignored the very likely possibility of other forms of ordnance aimed my way as well as infantry that could muck things up… stalling may be my best hope but… ugh, it depended really heavily on how things actually were over there…
The sergeant's sudden voice snapped me out of my musings, "Okay, works for me! Form up! We're followin' the cog-head!"
"What-?!" the sharpshooter squeaked, "Are you crazy?!"
"Shoot the bad men?" the ogryn, a hulking, nearly ten-foot-tall mass of muscle and ugly, hefted his big gun after having approached well within personal space of the sergeant.
To my surprise, Unna reached up and patted the ogryn atop the head with surprising tenderness, "Yeah mutie, we're gonna go shoot the bad men for the emprah."
The small mountain of a man giggled gleefully even as the sharpshooter shrieked, "Are you mad?! We'll die!"
"Doing our duty." The sergeant replied succinctly even as I started to do some proper checks on Ordnatus Acies Dominus systems, despite its eagerness, the borderline AI was willing to allow this much.
"Our duty isn't to just throw ourselves under the feet of a Throne damned titan and hoping that it'll trip!"
It was… admittedly a bit of an excuse to avoid dealing with this.
\\ LIGHTNING CANNON: ONLINE ; TARGETING COMPARISON . . . 2 DEGREES OFF CENTER, CALIBRATING . . . COOLING SYSTEMS 1, 2, 3, ALL GREEN . . . SYSTEM OPERATIONAL
\\ REAVER CHAINSWORD: . . . SYSTEM OPERATIONAL
"You warp spawned coward!" the felinid snarled, reaching for her plasma rifle with her good arm, but the advanced weapon was just beyond her reach, "If I-! If we had a Commisar here, they'd have you shot!"
"Good thing we don't then huh?! This is suicide!"
"We don't have time to argue." The sergeant strode straight up to the sharpshooter, shoving a hand out towards the man, "Give me your gun. You can stay here, but we're taking the Emperor's power packs and grenades."
\\ THUNDERCLAP CLAW: CAPACITORS 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 . . . ONLINE . . . SYSTEM OPERATIONAL
\\ HEAVY STORM BOLTER: MECHANISMS OPERATIONAL ; TARGETING COMPARISON . . . WITHIN ACCEPTABLE PARAMETERS ; AMMUNTION RESERVES AT 86% . . . SYSTEM OPERATIONAL
I mentally glanced at the data stream from the cameras as most of my head worked on the systems check, I… wasn't exactly comfortable with this, but I didn't really have any authority to interfere outside of the giant robot. Which… could work… but, well… I wasn't sure how to handle it, and I didn't really have the force of personality to pull it off.
"But-"
"Hand them over, get lost, and we won't shoot you."
The Imperial Guard squad either shifted about uncomfortably or glared at the sharpshooter depending on their personal feelings, and I was rather decidedly in the former category even as I continued my check of Ordantus' systems.
\\ PHASED PLASMA FUSIL: ONLINE, COOLING SYSTEMS 1, 2, 3, 4 . . . COOLING SYSTEM 3 OFFLINE, REBOOTING . . . REBOOT COMPLETE ; SYSTEM ONLINE ; TEST FIRE?
A targeting reticle appeared over the sharpshooter as the Machine Spirit prompted, and I rather pointedly denied it.
\\ QUAKE CANNON: MECHANISMS OPERATIONAL . . . SHELL LOADED . . . AMMUNITION RESERVES AT 100% . . . SYSTEM OPERATIONAL
Okay, so, right arm was a giant laser gun and chainsword, left arm was a huge power claw with a pair of linked heavy bolters on the back of it, on either side of the head and set into the chassis were the plasma weapons, and on the left shoulder was a fuckhueg artillery piece because of course there weren't enough guns.
Yeah… between that and Ordnatus' Ion Flare Shield, if I could get right up into the smaller titan's metaphorical face, I could take it down.
If. If was good.
\\ MOVE TO ENGAGE?
Once again it was like fishhooks in my head, the fire starting to light up in my left arm and skull as the Machine Spirit pushed harder. It would not be denied much longer. The pain was throwing the dull throb of pain in my likely broken right hand into stark relief and I had to mention, "Sergeant… if you don't start moving, I'm going to have to. Ordnatus' Machine Spirit is… rather difficult to reign in."
My voice was rather strained in spite of my best efforts otherwise, but when I glanced down, I realized that I'd lost some time as the tall man threw the lasrifle over his shoulder, the sharpshooter long gone, "Right, Rook, where's this warp spawned mess?"
"One–" the vox specialist had to pause to swallow, "One klick to the southeast, sir."
"Right, Oconnel, you up to shoot some heretics?"
"I will claw your skakking eyes out!"
"Good to hear mutie!" Sergeant Umma said with near cheerfulness, "Let's move out!"
A twitch of my mind turned off Ordnatus Acies Dominus external vox, and I muttered to myself, "Showtime big guy."
A.N. - I don't know when to stop. Though this one's going longer / better than many others of mine.