"Do we have a choice?"

"No, the size and composition of the arch-enemy legio means even with Magos Feist's database matching system we're going to need every advantage we can get."

"Even making a princeps and a freshly constructed titan a disposable asset?"

"Yes, even that."

"You know Mars is going to come knocking when this is over, we are exploiting our inroad to the sealed files."

"The Fabricator General will be understanding, the Collegia is another matter entirely. It's a shame we have to waste a new Princeps, especially one graded as equivalent to Prinzhorn, Omnisiah rest his soul."

"We need a Warlord, it can be refitted once he burns out. Forty standard years of principae duty and we roll him into the command staff, it's a price worth paying for increased odds."

"All we need now is our princeps to agree to this course of action."

"I'm sure he will, he knows there isn't another option. For him. For all of us."

The Princeps walked the cold corridors of the training hall, empty and running on minimal power. Rounding the corner into the dormitories he glanced at the sealed doors, many marked with wards and purity seals against scrapcode infection. It had been on the second day of the fighting that the augmetic burning virus had ripped through the legio fortress, and he was the only aspirant spared by his being in the medicae ward. He didn't deserve that mercy, but the Machine God had thought otherwise.

He heard his vox bead chime and he knew the meaning. He paused for a second, placing his hand on the door to a sealed room before turning back to the main hallway. It was empty but for a few courier servo skulls floating past, and the occasional secutarii lurking in search of potential intruders. The Princeps stepped onto a transport rail platform and hit the button for the cradles, listening to the twin hums of the platform and the void shield raised over the fortress.

The platform halted overlooking the construction cradles, the din of the ventilation system and the binaric chanting competing with the sound of repair equipment banging and sparking deeper inside the huge facility. He walked across a gantry towards one of the titans, trying to slow his breathing and settle the sickness in his gut. The Princeps approached a small group at the end of the gantry, kneeling and waiting for what came next.

The silver armored Princeps Maximus spoke first. His voice was gravelly but stern with age maintained with juvenat treatments, "It's a dark time indeed when we must skip the ritual pleasantries for an event as momentous as this."

The Princeps responded, "I will do what I must sire."

"Of course you will," he gave a weak smile, wrinkles showing at the small metal sensors at his temples and around the tiny wires snaking around his eyes back to his optic nerves, "when this is over there'll be celebration in spades."

The red robed magos beside him spoke next, impatience communicated by monotone augmitter. "Interrogative: You understand the consequences of this action?"

"Yes magos, I understand."

The Princeps Maximus spoke again, "That's the only question that really needed to be asked, you know the rites and you've proven yourself in the simulators. The Warlord Aquillis Redemptor is yours, go show the legio what you're made of."

The Princeps Maximus motioned towards the hatch into the titan, and the Princeps stepped inside. He walked alone into the titan, stooping under cables and machinery until he reached the cockpit. He sat on the command throne for the first time, his command throne. No other seats were installed in the titan, the nature of his connection made moderati unnecessary. He sat motionless for a moment, thinking of the previous months. Thinking about the medicae ward, thinking about the smell of rotting amniotics and spilt counterseptic, thinking about why he was the only aspirant left.

He shook off the memory, he had a first impression to make.

He reached back and plugged the MIU cable into the socket at the base of his skull, and allowed the connection to form. The machine spirit sat dormant and still, slow aggression simmering under the surface.

"I have the manifold." he whispered, savoring the words.

The Princeps roused the titan, and the machine spirit accepted its awakening. It formed itself like putty around his mind, imprinting and bonding. The Princeps had to fight for a few moments to keep sensation in his body, before sinking in at his own pace. First, he felt his skin become armor plating, then muscle was servos as hydraulics. His arms were heavy with weapons, and his shoulders twitched slightly as he felt the new articulation of the turbo laser destructors. His left hand balled into a fist before relaxing and a huge power claw did the same. His heart beating in time with the reactor, and he opened new eyes. He saw with detail and distance and light he had never been able to before, and he took his first step out of the cradle.

The Warlord plodded out, walking as naturally as any human but with a weight of both physical force and brutal intent that shook dust lose from nearby buildings. The night sky over Orestes shimmered with the reflective debris of short-lived orbital combat, and the strange layer of void shielding over the legio fortress occasionally rippled with stray artillery rounds. The Princeps let his auspex reach out, finding the patrols of friendly PDF and skittarii that stalked the surrounding area.

He stalked forwards, following the initial path set for him past ruined hab blocks and towards the outskirts of the hives.

He turned his head as he walked past the ruins of a small Imperial Cult chapel, something catching his eye, something radiant and-

He didn't finish that thought.