Vitaetus was excited, well as excited as a tech priest could be. He was before 1 of the massive entrances into the Librarius Omnis. It was built into the side of a large canyon face, the door guarded by a single Reaver Titan, the massive God Machine towering over all present. He and 249 other priests were all waiting for great doors to open for them, to descend into the depth of the planet. He had not met a single one of them but that was to be expected. In front and behind them were a total of nearly 3 000 Skitarii. Doing some quick math, he determined that the Archmagos in charge of the expedition, Archmagos Qvrten VII, had managed to get a full Macroclade of Rangers and Vanguard to accompany them down. He was quietly speaking with someone next to him, an Artisan seemingly obsessed with ranged weapons, about what they could hope to find down there and what they may find blocking their path.
As he was about to respond to a question regarding what he believed to be in the oldest vault or datastack, Vitaetus saw the Archmagos walking to the front of their formation to stand before the great doors. When he got to the front, the crowd was silent in just a second. After waiting for the echoes to stop, he began to speak. "Greetings honored servants of The Machine God. Today we are prepared to descend in the depth of Holy Mars, to find the knowledge that those who came before have left for us and The Omnissiah has deemed us worthy to find. In just a matter of minutes, we shall begin the rites and prayers to open the doors. Skitarii will lead the way. As discussed, before we enter the main atrium you shall all split up into groups of 5 with 40 Skitarii assigned to each group. The Technoarcheologist assigned to each group shall be in charge of the recovery of any artifacts while the others shall cover all data encountered. Every expedition prior had uncovered great relics and vast amounts of never-before-seen data to forward the Quest for Knowledge and I have faith in the Omnissiah that this shall be no different. And now join me in the cant for the Rite of Appeasement and Activation, so the machine spirits guarding the great knowledge inside to allow us entrance to the Librarius Omnis."
And so as a group, they all started praying, priest and soldier alike. They prayed for access, they prayed for a boon of knowledge, they prayed for safety, they prayed for the machine spirits to be kind and allow them safe passage. Finally after 3 days of praying the large 300 meter high doors opened and they all took their first step. Many would not make it out, some lost, some killed and others driven insane but they all knew the price they were paying to forward the Quest for Knowledge.
Vitaetus had a hard but enlightening time in the Librarius Omnis. He and his group had already been down there going on 2 years now. In that time a single priest from his group as well as 12 Skitarii had been lost due to a mixture of collapses, defenses or rogue machines. However, in that time they had made a couple of significant discoveries such as designs for a hovercraft of some kind as well as some ancient footage. Most of it was corrupted however a single image of a man descending down a ladder on a white surface. The importance of it was unknown but was archived nonetheless.
Recently though, when looking through an ancient databank, he had found mention of some sort of vortex weapons. All he was able to make out was that somewhere way below their position was the main server holding the STC for it as well as a handful of working examples. After he had contacted the Archmagos and gotten permission to descend down, deeper than any other group in the expedition, his group had set off.
They were currently going down a long elevator shaft, passing dozens of doors connected to it. Some were collapsed, others locked but all undoubtedly containing vast treasures. By his estimation, they had to be coming on nearly 20 kilometres beneath the surface of the planet and showed no sign of stopping. They were beyond ever the range for a noospheric connection to the main network, though there was still a smaller local network for the priest and Skitarii. He even had to adjust his gyroscope a couple of times due to the shifts in gravy from being so deep down. Whatever this weapon was, it had to be ancient and extremely valuable to have been buried so deep. After another 30 minutes, the lift had finally come to a stop in front of some secured blast doors. Looking down through the grated floor, he saw the shaft continued yet deeper, deeper and darker than he could make out even with his augmented sight.
He stepped to the side so another priest could work on opening the door while he spoke. "This should be the level. The datastack did not say whatever could be here so keep your optics focused. I want Skitarii to go in first to secure the area." Looking down, Vitaetus spoke ideally "The fact the shaft goes deeper is surprising. I'd wager it goes to the bottom of the crust but does it breach the mantle? Mars has not had an active core in 1 000 000s of years so heat would not be a major issue."
Another Magos in the group would speak up with his thoughts on the matter. "You have heard of Lucius, yes? Well, it is nicknamed The Hollow Forge for a reason. The entire inside from about 3 lines below the surface to the core has been removed and the core acting as both a sun and power reactor for the inside surface. Given that ancient man was able to build that momentous creation, despite that Lucian priest's supposed credit. It would not be surprising if this shaft goes all the way to the core. Perhaps at some time, they wished to restart it or mine it out and the part of the complex we are in is a repurposed mine."
Vitaetus would think about the argument and reasoning behind it before nodding. It was a reasonable guess and made sense. He was about to say as much when, with a loud grinding and shrieking noise of metal scraping against metal, the door opened partially. Something seemed to be stopping it from opening fully, causing it to be stuck ¾ open. While this was less than desired, it was still enough for even the bulkiest in their group to make it through, though only with inches to spare. Quickly half of the remaining Skitarii, 14 soldiers, would rush through into the room beyond. Once the all-clear was given the priest and remaining soldiers would follow.
Once they were through, they saw that it was a long hallway with numerous doors along the side, a few of them open but most locked. Looking around, Vitaetus was unsure where to go from here, all the datastack above had mentioned was that the weapon STC and display was on this level. After a few moments of contemplation and talking among themselves, the group split up, with 1 priest and 7 Skitarii each.
His group entered the first open room on the left and saw a large number of bookshelves in the room. Picking 1 up, he went to see what sort of holy knowledge was written only to find the ink faded beyond legibility. Saddened that the irreplaceable knowledge may have been lost forever, he gently placed the book down before continuing onward. Rounding a corner, he quickly glanced around before looking up at the ceiling before rushing to cover. There near the far wall was a powered turret. By his guess based on the details that could be seen, Vitaetus was 89.7% sure that it was a multi-las turret, only that it seemed to have a much higher output than most.
Using his optical mechadendrite to look around while staying in cover, Vitaetus quickly formed a plan. Ordering a Skitarii to move down either side of the room while staying behind cover. When they moved into position, Vitaetus gave further orders. "Skitarii, on the count of 3, I shall stand and draw the fire, as soon as I do fire on the turret, the side armour should be weaker." He then drew his Phosphor Serpenta, said a prayer and canticle of protection before beginning a countdown from 3 to 0. Once his countdown was over he stood up as fast as he could and brought his pistol to bear. Quickly running targeting protocols for the perfect shot, he fired.
His shot was flying through the air as the turret turned to face him though it never made it far enough in its arc. Milliseconds after his shot was sent, the craft of 2 galvanic rifles was heard echoing in the room. The servitor bullets flew true and struck the turret, causing all energy to burst out from the holes made in the side. This was quickly followed by the phosphor round striking the turret on the front, the shot burning through the reinforced metal in less than a second and fully destroying the weapon.
After making sure the room was clear before moving forward, Vitaetus holstered his weapon and walked forward to the datastack. He noted a door off to the side as he plugged himself in and began to pray and appease the machine spirit. His servo skull floating about sending out puffs of incense smoke, as the Skitarii waited behind him, keeping guard. After a moment, he was granted access though was disappointed at what was found. Nearly all the data was corrupt and unusable, only finding mentioned that the connected room kept functional examples of the technology mentioned in the room. Thanking the cogitator, Vitaetus unplugged himself and turned to enter the room.
Inside he saw dozens of glass cases. Many broke open or smashed under a collapsed ceiling. But there, along the far wall was what he came for, 3 examples of the weapon. The Omnissiah had smiled on him this day, allowing his first search to find what he sought. Vitaetus would open a vox channel to the others. "Magos Vitaetus here, I have found the weapons, 3 to be exact. I shall send 2 rangers back with 2 of them as I study the 3rd before returning to the elevator. Have you found anything else?" After waiting a few seconds, he received 2 responses from the others one after another.
"Enginseer Arques here Magos, nothing of note beyond a handful of turrets before reaching a dead-end due to collapses. Am returning to the main hall to move to the next room."
"Magos Fvtorv reporting, I have found an STC Fragment here. Glory to the Omnissiah for such a rare and holy find. It seems to be for some form of liquid fuel. Chemical analysts and simulations show it burns nearly 200 degrees hotter than standard flamer fuel. I shall take it to the elevator and leave it with your Skitarii."
Vitaetus would wait for the final and youngest member of their group to respond, one Adept Gregorus. After a moment of nothing, he would call out to him. "Adept, respond. Have you found anything of note?" And yet he received no response. Frowning, he would turn to the Rangers and give them orders. "Go find the adept. Find out why he has not responded or if he had died doing the work the Omnissiah required of him, secure his body for recycling. You and you," Vitaetus would point to 2 random troops, "take 2 of these to the elevator for extraction. I shall return with the 3rd once I have learned its secrets." He quietly watched them carefully pick up the weapons before all troops made their way back to the hallway. Once they were gone, he turned to the remaining weapon and called the servo skull to him.
Carefully extending and splitting his date cable, he began to pray to appease the weapons machine spirit. He knew it was a vortex weapon but not much more, he had to be careful as to not anger it and cause an accident. He would brush holy oils on it as he connected to the weapons cogitators and began to learn how it functioned. From what he could determine, the weapon sent a beam of exotic particles that were only found in a warp drive towards its target, causing anything it hit to be quickly sucked into the warp. A single shot could transport up to 3 cubic meters of matter. It seemed to only require power for this function and had no special ammunition, meaning the weapon could be scaled up or down as needed. He also managed to find designs for the weapon in a small memory bank as well.
Determining he had learned all he could, Vitaetus went to unplug himself when the worst happened. The weapon had powered on and fired directly at him. Quickly he managed to only stretch out his arm and grab the servo skull before he was sucked into the warp, feeling as though he was being drawn through a straw. Many in the coming days and months would question what had happened to the young but aspiring Magos. Some say he went mad, others that he fell into a deeper part of the Librius and had no way out. When his mentor-father had received the news of his disappearance, he was filled with grief for years. He tried numerous times to get permission to go down and look but never got it and in time would end up leaving Holy Mars on the Indominus Crusade to get away from the source of his grief.
Exactly what happened would only be known to The Emperor. Perhaps the machine spirit grew aggravated with his presence, perhaps a slight power surge from his mechadendrite. Whatever the cause was, 1 fact was certain, Vitaetus would never be seen again, or at least never again in his current time.
Hello everyone and thank you for reading this newest chapter. Sorry it took longer to get out so i do hope you enjoyed it. As always a big thanks to Jamius for help in writing and editing this fic, and to you all as well for enjoying and encouraging me to keep it going. Now for some of the reviews i fell I should answer.
Naveh Sorferts - I have plans for what he can build in the future and a rough idea on how he can start to take over the technological market of "modern: earth, but fear not. your bots and more shall happen.
OregonKlee - At the moment I don't have any plans for the dragon but that may change. I am thinking about having him fight a dragon in what would be his 4th year, though if I don't then that would be its own side fic for sure.
Gugino - honestly it is just something I came up with. I mean considering the sheer size of the mechanicus, im sure something ike that would happen somewhere but that's just what I decided on.
As a general reply, I plan on having magic and psychic powers be the same thing and technology working because it is both stupidly advanced and was designed to be able to work around warp energy as well as machine spirits actually being content.
