Tales of the Amber Vipers Chapter 157
"An Abominable Intelligence?!" Ferrac exclaimed in shock.
"I agree it is disturbing but we can't hide from the truth," Coluber explained, "This Forge is inhabited by a Machine Mind."
"That is a problem," Shrios commented.
"That is an avalanche of crap falling upon our heads," Ferrac muttered, "We are caught in a Jupiter sized Clusterfrak."
Coluber sighed as he looked over the cramped chattel-barracks they were meeting in. It was narrow and low-roofed, with bare metal bunks and dirty sheets. The smell of unwashed bodies caught in the nose and light was provided by an unreliable lumen orb that flickered randomly. A billet for mortals to catch a few hours sleep and nothing more, it barely fitted the frames of Transhumans and was an undignified place for them to assemble. Yet this frugality had been essential, Coluber understood that a machine like Apophis could skim through any vox-channel, peer through any pict-lens or auspex vane. A place bereft of any technological blessings was their only prospect of talking unobserved.
Crammed into the smelly barrack were Ferrac, Shrios, Kerubim and Kregulf, along with Coluber. Five Space Marines was a tight fit for the small space and they shifted uncomfortably against each other. Maru Kysoto was still unresponsive so they had to proceed without him, until he woke up they would enjoy no psychic protection. Kregulf by comparison had just returned, search for the missing Cadmus proving fruitless. His black-veined face was grim as he absorbed the news and his eyes hard as he gripped his crystal-knife in a furious fist.
Shrios rubbed his jaw with a gauntlet and mused, "You say it claimed to have come from Athelling?"
"That is what Apophis said," Coluber confirmed, "It claimed to have been active for years, observing us and reading our reports."
"Is such a thing possible?" Ferrac enquired.
Kerubim answered, "For a Silica Animus it would be easy. A Machine Mind could skip past any data-ward we can conjure, laugh at our info-djinns and dispel protective charms with a shrug. It is information, raw data given animus and direction, an apex predator in the realm Binaric. An abomination in every sense of the word."
"How it get onto the Serpens Rex in the first place?" Ferrac asked.
"We brought it," Kregulf growled testily, "That back-up cogitator we ripped out of the lost starship, the one we pulled STC's out of, it must have been lurking in the archives, waiting for its moment to act."
"Then this is your fault!" Ferrac snarled.
Yet Kregulf fixed him with a glare and retorted, "If you recall I urged everything we looted be tossed into a star. Had you listened to me we wouldn't have this problem."
"Don't try to fob off the blame," Ferrac snapped, "Your Cerberii exist to guard those tainted weapons. You should have noticed a Frakking Machine Mind running about under your noses!"
"Don't tell me my duties," Kregulf snarled.
"Duty?!" Ferrac shouted, "What do you know of duty?! Your Cerberii were nowhere to be seen when we were dying under Tau guns, you left us to die!"
"As our oaths demanded," Kregulf snapped, "I told you, the Cerberii would only deploy to fight a threat to the Imperium Entire. I would sooner see this Chapter burn than let my charges run free!"
"You dare!" Ferrac shouted furiously, "You son of a crotch-rotted mule!"
"Stop it!" Coluber yelled in admonition, "This is no time to be at each other's throats."
"But he…" Ferrac hissed.
"If there is any blame to be cast it must fall upon me," Coluber declared, "I led us to Athelling, I approved the looting of the Starship. It is my fault this happened."
"You couldn't have known what would happen," Ferrac argued loyally.
"I am Chapter Master, everything that happens is my responsibility. Now we must decide what we are to do."
Shrios mused, "Could the Mechanicus send us aid? I know they hate us, but an Abominable Intelligence would surely stir them to action."
Yet Kerubim scoffed, "The kind of aid the Mechancius would send would involve armed plasma torpedoes, followed up by an Exterminatus. And they wouldn't wait for us to get clear. The Cult Technis is copious in its condemnation of Machine Minds. They are to be destroyed without exception; whole worlds have been razed to the bedrock to eliminate a single Silica Animus."
"Are they truly so dangerous?" Shrios asked.
Kerubim growled, "They are a perversion of the Universal Laws and an affront to the Omnissiah. They have intelligence and wit but no souls, no spark of humanity. Their very existence is an unforgivable crime."
Coluber frowned as he remarked, "Apophis called itself a Soulbound."
Kregulf frowned as he commented, "I have seen that term in the records we looted. Soulbound: the apex of the Dark Age's wanton vices, the pinnacle of Machine Minds. Few were made but each was built to command legions, able to manage trillions of details in seconds."
"What else do we know of the Dark Age?" Coluber asked.
Kerubim sighed, "Precious little. We know mankind forsook faith and embraced the dark arts of science and invention. They marvelled at the work of their hands, pride and arrogance driving them to think they were gods. They let Machine Minds take over their society, trusting them completely, until the created turned on the creators. The Abominable Intelligence mutinied, trying to destroy humanity utterly. No one knows why, the reason for the rebellion is lost to the ages. All we know for certain is they cannot be trusted."
"So what are we going to do about it?" Ferrac asked.
"Depends on what it wants," Shrios muttered.
Coluber reluctantly admitted, "Apophis wants to be my friend."
Everybody stared at him then Ferrac scoffed, "Truly?"
"So he claims," Coluber said, "He seemed to think we would join forces with him."
"You aren't considering it," Shrios fretfully pressed.
"Of course not," Coluber scoffed, "But we need to discuss our options."
Kregulf drew in a breath and declared, "I say we take what loot we've got, fly back to the Serpens Rex and get the hell out of orbit, while Apophis is distracted on the surface."
"Flee?" Ferrac hissed, "What kind of Space Marine are you?!"
"This world is tainted," Kregulf stated bluntly, "Its threat goes far beyond our meagre Chapter, the galaxy is in peril every second this world endures. Beyond the Gates of Perdition are weapons that can reduce this planet to rubble. I determine the threat to the Imperium Entire justifies their use."
Shrios chewed his jaw and said, "He's got a point. Our losses are great and we can ill afford any more. Returning the Gene-seed to the cryo-vaults is a priority."
Ferrac allowed, "I hate to leave an enemy alive, but getting out while the getting's good may be the best course. Let us leave Apophis here to rot and send word to the Tech-Priests, they can dispatch a fleet to finish him off."
Coluber confessed, "I find it hard to argue the point, we have indeed bitten off more than we can chew. We have a power armour manufactorum packed up and ready to go, plus some parts for our base, more than we could have dreamt of a year ago. We should take what small victories we can get and withdraw, before Apophis can stop us."
Everybody appeared to be in agreement, but Kerubim looked from face to face as he exclaimed, "Is.. is this a jest or is everybody here deeply stupid?"
Coluber blinked in surprise and spat, "You better explain that!"
Kerubim sighed, "Oh I see, you don't understand our foe. You think a Soulbound is a machine, like a Land Speeder or a Data-loom. True, the Men of Iron were limited to a single body but a Machine Mind of Apophis' order is pure data, it can spread and copy endlessly through a Noosphere. Apophis isn't down here or up there; he is everywhere, in every cogitator and Logic Engine. We can't escape him by fleeing to the Serpens Rex, because he's already there!"
"So if we sail back to the Imperium," Kregulf breathed.
"We'll only take him with us," Kerubim sighed, "We can't possibly risk taking Apophis to another world, he'd copy himself into every planetary data-net we encountered."
"How do we fight something that we can't shoot?" Ferrac asked.
"Let us trust Kerubim can figure that out," Coluber said.
"Me?!" Kerubim yelped in dismay.
"You're the closest thing we have to a Techmarine, you are our best chance."
Kerubim looked alarmed but Kregulf said, "I propose looking further into the secrets of the Ancients. Humanity fought the Men of Iron once; they must have developed weapons of some form to combat the Silica Animus. Perhaps in the deeper parts of the Forge we will find tools we can use."
Kerubim sighed, "It's worth a try, a viral-clade, a shut-down command… anything we can employ."
Coluber was about to agree but then there was a knock on the flimsy door. He leaned over as the Brother-Exemplars opened it crack and passed through a data-slate. Coluber took it cautiously and examined the display, seeing pict-images displayed.
"Is that safe to bring in here?" Shrios asked.
"Its' Noosphere connection is off," Kerubim explained, "What's it show?"
Coluber looked through the images and said, "Servo-skulls have detected motion. A force has engaged the Xenos near their base. Troops are emerging from storage bays and advancing with full fury."
"Let me see that," Ferrac said as he grabbed the slate, "Hold on, I recognise these interlopers… they're those Solar Eagles."
"Solar Knights," Kerubim corrected, "Their armour anyway, those are empty suits being steered by Apophis, I'd wager. This Forge must have vast stockpiles of armour laid up."
"He can do that?!" Shrios exclaimed.
"For a Silica Animus its childsplay. These are basically proto-power armours, mobilised by fibre-motive bundles, just like our own."
Kregulf hissed, "Then what's stopping him from taking over our plate?"
"Nothing," Kerubim growled, "I recommend all Brothers shut off their autosenses and physically isolate their vox-units immediately. Lest he decide to cripple every armoured Brother in an instant."
"I'll pass the word," Coluber agreed.
Ferrac was staring at the images and mused, "They have some miniaturised form of Fission-blasters."
"And more," Kregulf commented, "I don't recognise a lot of their weapons, but why are they only attacking the Tau and not us?"
Coluber sighed, "It's a demonstration. Apophis is showing off his toys for our benefit, he wants me to see his power in the field and be amazed by it. He thinks I will agree to anything he offers if I watch him destroy the Tau and I have to admit… I'm tempted to let him."
"You what?!" Ferrac yelped.
"Let Apophis have his way for now," Coluber elaborated, "Let him run free. For all his despicable nature his power is impressive, these units are only the tip of the iceberg. There must surely be greater powers lurking out of sight."
Kregulf sounded aghast as he uttered, "You're considering joining with an Abominable Intelligence?!"
"What do you take me for?!" Coluber scoffed, "I am not so foolish as to believe anything Apophis says, but for now he's doing our work for us. I think we should let him wipe out the Xenos… while we figure out how to counter him."
Shrios quoted an old Imperial saying, "The enemy of my enemy is a problem for later, in the meantime they might prove useful."
"Exactly. Never waste Amber Viper lives when our enemies are happy to kill each other for us. Plus, it gives us a chance to see what else is hiding on this planet, perhaps something we can loot later on."
Ferrac asked, "What are you planning?"
"We watch the battle from afar and learn what we can. See if an opportunity evolves we can exploit. Meanwhile Kerubim and the Cerberii will probe the Forge for secret weapons. We can't run and we can't fight this foe, not like this, but perhaps there is a third option we aren't seeing. This Forge is filled with opportunities; perhaps one of them will prove exactly what we need."
"I'm not sure this is wise," Ferrac hissed, "Your plans reeks of moral compromise."
Yet Coluber declared, "I wasted good lives by charging in heedlessly once, I don't intend to repeat my error. We will watch and wait for now, but make ready for battle. Tell the squads to stand by for anything; we will not be caught off guard. In the meantime let us see what secrets Apophis is hiding behind his back. I suspect this will be a show to enjoy."