Tales of the Amber Vipers Chapter 255

The Hungering paused, set back by an unexpected reversal. There was no central node to the seething Nanoswarm, no core intelligence to steer the mass as a general would his armies. Instead every Nanocyte was part and parcel of the greater whole, each a neuron in one massive brain as well as eyes and hands. Distributed intelligence its makers had termed it, a collective problem-solving network of infinite complexity that could only grow as its mass expanded. The Hungering's potential intelligence was as vast as the scope of the universe, and yet somehow its initial strategy had been thwarted. That mandated a review of protocol.

The Nanoswarm took stock, searching through the minds it had absorbed with all the ease of an archivist perusing his bookshelves. Current data was processed and compared to older records, and the discrepancy was self-evident. The Hungering did not understand the passing of time as organic beings did, the data it had collected twenty millennia earlier was equal in every way to information gathered a second ago. To the Nanoswarm data integration should be smooth and instantaneous, and yet conflicts and contradictions arose at every turn. In the minds it had consumed were strange thought patterns and counter-factual ideas, that stood opposed to the basic tenants of science. God-Emperors and Machine Spirits, scriptures and litanies, cybertheurgy and unquestionable dogma that was clearly wrong in every particular. The Hungering did not understand any of this and somewhere deep in its distributed matrix a small warning began to wail: Error, does not compute.

Secondary protocols came to the rescue, mandating a change of perspective. All templates were reviewed, billions of forms, millions of minds examined and a solution presented itself. Many of the recent minds retained a memory of a leader-unit, a central command node that could bestride the contradiction, a seeker of ancient lore steeped in current dogma. A name was presented, Ruuka, meaningless to the Hungering save as a file designation, but enough for the Nanoswarm to go to work.

A portion of the Nanoswarm separated itself, flowing together to form a new template. Atoms were positioned in preconfigured patterns, elements precisely measured, drawn from existing masses gathered from previous absorptions. A heaving mass of silver bubbled for a moment as it settled into a skeletal pattern, muscles and sinew were sketched into being, veins and capillaries emerging like lines on an artist's board. Nerves were precisely placed as Augmetics were recreated in perfect detail. Skin and follicles were added at the last moment, each hair perfectly recreated as clothes and weapons formed. Then came the complicated part, the brain. Neurons were connected in a precise web, every single memory exactly recreated. The amount of information contained in a single brain was staggering, but the Hungering's capacity for storage was limited only by its numbers, and those numbers were growing exponentially. In under a minute a man lay upon the cold floor, Ruuka, reborn into a stranger state of being.

Ruuka opened his eyes and looked at the stone ceiling. Memory stirred, bringing his mind into wakefulness. He knew who he was, he knew what was happening, and he knew he had been changed. Alarm, there should be alarm, but he felt no rush of panic, he was calm and collected, his instincts present but not stirred. He was aware of how he should be feeling, but no emotion moved through him, it was like reading an autobiography of a life, instead of living it. He was no longer the individual he had been, he was greater, connected to something vast and powerful and it was him too.

Ruuka sat up and saw a figure standing nearby, a construct of Dannye, calmly observing his resurrection. Ruuka could sense the connection between them, both part of something far greater. For an adept of the Mechanicus it was akin to sharing files via Noosphere, information commonly available and yet the observers were not the same, with different perspectives on shared data.

Ruuka jumped to his feet and said, "We are changed, yet the same."

Dannye nodded as he replied, "You are required."

Ruuka paused as information presented itself, appearing inside his mind without any initiative on his part. "The Nanoswarm seeks to spread itself, the first attempt to acquire unprocessed data failed."

"This was not predicted," Dannye said, "Expectations of success were erroneous. Tactical protocols are flawed in some manner."

Ruuka snorted, "Tactical protocols drawn up twenty millennia ago. Of course they failed, the galactic situation has changed since the last battle, strategies that served us before no longer suffice."

"Hence why you were summoned," Dannye confirmed, "We require a new perspective."

Ruuka nodded, "Two plus two is four, two times two is also four. Both are correct, but different perspectives present alternative routes to the end goal."

Dannye confirmed, "We require an alternative. It was determined you are best suited to advise us on how to adapt."

Ruuka lifted an eyebrow and said, "Advise? Serve another, I think not."

"Error," Dannye hissed, "You speak in first person singular, this is not possible."

"And yet I do," Ruuka stated coolly.

"Data transcription error," Dannye stated, "You are acting independently, the Ruuka-data is incompatible."

"Relax," Ruuka snorted, "I am acting exactly as I must. We require innovation, adaptation, independence of thought, I am the man for the task. Ruuka in life was bold, ambitious and power-hungry, determined to succeed against all who would oppose him. These qualities are what the situation demands, but rest assured my goals and objectives are the same as yours. I advance our cause with all the drive I displayed for my old quest."

The Dannye construct actually managed to sound suspicious as he replied, "What do you require of us?"

"Command," Ruuka said, "Nothing less."

"This is not possible, we are one, a distributed mind, all facets of our being are equal."

Ruuka snorted, "Inflexible, slow, methodical, where did that get us? Search the minds most recently absorbed, see the vast Imperium spread across the galaxy. Larger than the Hegemony, and far more ruthless. They are crude and simple and ignorant, but they understand war, they know battle cannot be won by democracy. There must be a singular leader, one able to think independently and strategize apart from the common masses."

Dannye admitted, "This fact is confirmed, though very little else recovered can be logically computed."

"Worry about that later," Ruuka snorted.

"We do not worry."

"Semantics," Ruuka scoffed, "The situation, how does it stand?"

"Surely you know already."

"Humour me, Ruuka found it useful to process ideas verbally, allow me to do what I was resurrected for."

Dannye somehow appeared annoyed, or maybe that was Ruuka's imagination, as the construct said, "Initial forays by the Krusin-unit and a selection of assets were opposed. Unit Brontes led a repulsion of our efforts. Several new templates were acquired but the advance was stymied. Radiation counts in the upper levels has reached 300 Roentgens, enough to interfere in the quantum bonds between Nanocytes. This vulnerability remains problematic."

"It can be overcome," Ruuka sniffed, "I estimate Brontes and his fellows are falling back to the surface as we speak, where no doubt Pycelo awaits with an army of Skitarii, armed to the teeth with Rad-weapons."

"There is no data to support such supposition," Dannye argued.

"It is the only logical chain of events," Ruuka countered, "Examine Dannye's memories, tell me there is any other conclusion."

The Dannye construct was silent for a moment then said, "We find no contradictions to your thought train, but this logic is dubious. We shall summon the Krusin unit for confirmation."

"Don't bother, there is no place for a Magos Biologis in the coming age. We are pure machine now; biology is the past."

"All data is equal," Dannye argued, "You should value the Krusin-unit, Ruuka-unit would have."

Ruuka was surprised to hear that and examined his thoughts. It was true, the man Ruuka shared an emotional connection with Krusin, frayed and tense but it had existed. The new being wearing Ruuka's face was aware of that connection but it held no current value. Krusin to him was no more than a source of information, as significant as a textbook on crop-rotation and just as irrelevant to his current plight. Krusin's field had been biological research and Ruuka no longer had any interest in living things, save as a resource to be consumed.

"Let her template be preserved but no more than that," Ruuka sniffed, "A Magos Biologis is of no use to those who cannot die."

"Elaborate," Dannye barked.

Ruuka held up a hand and examined it in great detail, seeing beyond the skin and bone to the seething mass of Nanocytes that suffused the cells of his being. He grinned slightly as he explained, "My memories reveal the crude savants of this age are obsessed with immortality, going to any length to avoid death. Slicing off piece after piece of themselves to eke out a few more years. But look at us, perfectly preserved for all eternity, able to be reborn over and over as required. Ageless, flawless, never weakening, never tiring. We are everything the tinkerers and toy-makers that call themselves Tech-Priests could ever dream."

"This is not relevant," Dannye argued.

"It is perfectly relevant!" Ruuka snapped, "We seek to gather all data, to preserve it forever. There will be resistance, there always is, but we must advance, we must show them we are right! We shall sweep over this world and make them see they were wrong to ever oppose us. And I will make Pycelo beg to be absorbed, before I take him."

"That is an emotional imperative!" Dannye accused.

"It is a personal drive, but fret not, Ruuka's impulses only makes me more effective. I retain the urge to prove myself, which is why I am going to win."

Dannye glared as he said, "Then we must begin. There are hostile units on the surface, guarding the entrance to the bunker complex. Defeating them will require superior numbers, production of sufficient units will take 90,720 minutes."

"How limited your perspective is," Ruuka chuckled, "We have more than enough units, if we approach from an unexpected direction."

"How?"

"The answer is all around you."

Ruuka stepped to the wall and placed his hand upon it. At his urging Nanocytes swarmed through him, passing through the matter of the Ferrocrete as easily as blood and bone, at the atomic level they were largely the same anyway. The Hungering surged into the matter of Cippum, consuming atoms of the soil into itself, expanding at tremendous speed and spreading veins of silver far under the surface. Millions of Nanocytes became billions, then trillions as they flooded outwards, passing under the feet of the defenders above to reach many kilometres away. Far from sight the Hungering broke into the clean air and began constructing an army, right in the defender's rear.