LeKan now walked alone through the silent and dusty corridors of the Imperial Palace, a glowing data-slate in his hands. Few servitors were in this wing and the age hung in the air like fog, undisturbed for centuries. It was a dark wing, for the illumination-strips in the walls and ceiling were either damaged or had burned out long ago. Technologies such as the illumination-strips were rare, they were paper-thin, and glowed with an internal light. The Adeptus Mechanicus simply couldn't replicate them in any numbers now, and the cheaper 'glow-globes' were more common, but did not have as much life. It was a trade, of sorts.
While in the Librarium, LeKan had come across an interesting tome, detailing the defense of the Gold Wing, the south-eastern wing of the Imperial Palace, during the Horus Heresy. The tome, written by a Custodian by the name of Haldon-Tai, mentioned a storeroom of data-slates that contained detailed plans of the Imperial Palace. The storeroom was well-hidden, for if Horus had stumbled upon such information, the defenders of the Palace would have a much harder time.
The parts of the tome detailing the location of the storeroom were both encoded and gave directions based on starting in a Custodian training hall that had long been abandoned, due to structure damage that had been inflicted in the Heresy.
LeKan had started his search at that training hall. It had taken him almost two hours just to find the location, but what he found was amazing. The floor was buckled, but everything else was almost completely intact. Banners hung from the ceiling in great rows above the dormitories, depicting the Emperor, the first High Lords of Terra and several figures that LeKan did not know. He had carefully taken two of the banners down and stowed them in a void-box so the Librarians could take a look at them. From the time he had found the training hall, he was mapping the area with a data-slate, for future generations of Custodies to travel to.
The training hall itself was incredible. At least a square mile of obstacle courses, gunnery targets, wrecked close-combat servitors, and a sealed armory, with the Eagle and Lightening Bolt, both were ancient symbols of the Custodian Guard. Amongst those symbols were the sword, the lion and others besides. He spent almost three hours working on the combination, when the rustle of footsteps behind him alerted him to danger.
LeKan spun and readied his Spear, prepared to defend himself against any threat to come. From behind a row of combat-servitors, came a man. He was dressed in the long robes of an Administratum adept. He looked disheveled and had a wild, crazed look in his eyes.
"Don't you see? The four shall cast the Him down, for one could not! Don't you see it?" the adept ranted. Clearly, he had been wondering about somewhere he should not have been.
"Please calm down, adept. If you desire, I can take you back to the Adepts quarters."
"NO!' the adept screamed, his voice echoing off the walls. 'The four must be stopped or He will die finally from ten-thousand years of un-life!' The adept advanced on LeKan, still screaming off the top of his lungs. 'The four are coming! Why aren't you stopping them? You are of the Custodies! You must stop them!"
The adept was still closing with LeKan and the Captain had enough of the mans ranting. Even though, he still had turned on his vox-recorder and recorded every word. However, the adept could only be referring to the God-Emperor, but who were the four?
LeKan readied his Spear, though he could easily kill the man with one blow. A strange, whirling sound came from behind the adept.
The insane man stopped for once and slowly turned. The dozen or more heavily armed and armored close-combat training servitors, whom LeKan had discounted as unfunctional, came to life, awoken by the adepts screaming and movement. Very advanced sensor technology at work, newer training-servitors relied on tech-adepts closely monitoring their actions.
The first four, armed with swords and some form of auto-pistol, moved forward on tracks, their pistols barking. The adept stood no chance in his robes and he fell, into a pool of his own blood. He should not have been here, and paid the price.
LeKan opened fire with his Spear, the modified bolt-gun mounted on the tip roaring. The servitors, armored only in thin sheets of metal, were easy prey. The first two exploded from within from LeKan's first shots and the other two closed rapidly, wheezing smoke from exhaust pipes mounted on their backs.
They swung their rusted swords in the exact same up-down slash and LeKan blocked both with the adamantine haft of his Spear. He lashed out with his armored foot and kicked the first where its chest would be, if it were not half-machine. The servitor fell backwards, a massive dent in its chest, sparks flying. The second swung its sword again, this time in a left-right cut that LeKan deflected with his forearm. The ancient sword shattered and LeKan swung his Spear, using the power-axe to bisect the servitor. The half-man, half-machine fell apart into a pile of gears and shriveled organs.
Another four advanced, this time, they carried pair of tulwar-style chainswords, spinning in great figure-eights as the quartet advanced, again on a pair of treads. These had thicker armor, and were of better construction.
LeKan again opened fire with his Spear, this time spraying sideways to try to damage all four at once. The heavy bolts only barely penetrated, most detonating on the thick armor, to leave blackened craters. One of the servitors damaged in this fashion slumped over, smoke and oil pouring from a ruptured fuel-line. A second later, the servitor exploded, spraying shrapnel in a wide arc, destroying the servitor next to it. The other two split off and advanced in a pincer-movement, their chainswords spinning, rusted chains screaming like hell-cats.
LeKan stepped right, his Spear slashing up, carving the servitor in two. The Captain danced right again, for the other servitor had spun, twin chainswords glancing off the riveted metal floor, raising a fury of sparks and a scream of metal on metal. LeKan slashed his Spear left, cutting the ancient servitors head clean off, in a spray of oil and sparks. The decapitated machine slumped forward, chainswords resting on the floor.
The next four came forward, and LeKan braced himself for the next battle. These four carried a modified boltgun in one arm, and a glowing sword in the other. Power-swords.