Chapter 8: The Schism of Logic
Mars, sometime in the 41st millennium.
A sole techpriest gazes from the massive window from the spire of the Collegia Martica, his human eyes watching the movement of hundreds of thousands of vehicles flying, of uncountable servitors doing about their daily business under the watchful eyes of their augmented supervisors and the glow of millions of machines and factories piercing the reddish dark of the Martian sunrise.
Dawn was rising on the never sleeping planet that constructed thousands of ships and vehicles of war daily as the fire in its forges never went cold. In the mind of the initiate techpriest, this was a beautiful sight, and he would contribute to it, his exams and honorary augmentations implanted and complete, final lecture remained, and then he would need an exploratory fleet or becoming a pupil to one of the elder members of mechanicus in order to advance further.
He was shaken out of his thoughts by a very familiar voice.
"Gazing at the glories of the Machine God yet again brother?"
Turning he saw a near 2 meter tall elder techpriest in red robe decorated with golden stripes, plasma pistol at his hip, his colleague was standing behind him. He turned and initiated binary greeting before quite humanly offering him his right hand.
"My spirit is happy to see you brother. What good tidings bring you to Mars?"
"Would you compute I would not see you in your last lecture?" he smiled warmly. "You are graduating today, and I would be there with you."
"Thank you." He responded. "It means a great deal to me." The initiate spoke.
Gesticulating with his hand and pointing at the great doors leading to an even bigger hall that was filling with red robed students, the tall techpriest spoke.
"Come. The final rites are starting."
Entering the Great hall they were met with dozens of thousands of students, all finishing their last rites and preparing for the destiny the Omnissiah set for them.
Upon taking their seats, the two techpriests observed the podium as one of the elder Magoses took the word and began speaking. The Magos himself was ancient, the initiate thought, if his years could be counted they passed into thousands at this point.
"Praise be to the Deus Machina." The elder Magos spoke.
"Praise be to the Emperor, our unificator."
"May humanity be victorious and flesh stripped for the glory of the machine."
"Ave Omnissiah" he finished
"Ave Omnissiah!" the entire hall responded.
"Students. Your lectures are over. Your faith and dedication has triumphed and will be utilized by the Imperium to further the ascension of humanity across the stars.
But as someone who has seen the galaxy and walked the stars for eons, I would have a word of warning and caution.
Our creed is our lifeblood, and our dedication to our creed is what makes the imperium work and keeps us from falling to rust and decay.
Many will be the discoveries you find, many should have been found earlier, and many more should have been buried, never to be discovered.
It is up to you to discern what is useful and what is not. For to take wrong tech, to discover and utilize the wrong idea, is to spread corruption in the code and bring our brotherhood to destruction.
Augmentation is our way, but all within the parameters of the blessing of the Machine God, for to inject alien tech into our bodies, to adopt their beliefs as our own, is to forsake the Omnissiah and all that we stand for.
Temption will exist.
But you must resist it, as Chaos and Abominable Intelligences and various Xenos would see that your creed is destroyed in order for their to take hold of your souls.
Remember this as you walk the stars.
Trust in humanity, now and always.
Trust in Omnissiah, now and always.
Follow the tenants of the Emperor and Omnissiah, now and always.
Abhor the Abominable Intelligence, now and always
Do this, and you will never stray from your path. It is easy to adopt what is not made of our spirits, yet to adopt it, is to forsake what we are, and walk a path of no redemption.
See that you do not stray from the path brothers, for even the most noble of intentions could cause grief to you, and to mankind as a whole.
I bless you all in name of Omnissiah and the Emperor. "
Then as one, the initiates and techpriests stood and began chanting.
From the weakness of the mind, Omnissiah save us
From the lies of the Antipath, circuit preserve us
From the rage of the Beast, iron protect us
From the temptations of the Fleshlord, silica cleanse us
From the ravages of the Destroyer, anima shield us
From this rotting cage of biomatter
Machine God set us free
Ave Omnissiah.
The class was then disbanded and the students began leaving. Outside the great hall two friends spoke.
"Thank you for being here for me Kalmador."
"My pleasure Agrippa, but that is not the only reason I came here."
"What do you mean?"
"I have come here to ask you to join an expedition with me, we fear the Eternal enemy might be assembling another crusade, and we have formed a mechanicus fleet meant for Cadian sector, I would have you join me if you wish."
Agrippa was dumbstruck, but ecstatic.
"Absolutely Kalmador, I would join you, I would do anything to help humanity. Who is our leader?"
"His name is Magos A…" before finishing the sentence his vox transmitter flared to life and from the other side was a voice.
"Enginseer Kalmador, our expedition must be hurried, you are expected to join us within the hour. We are leaving Sol."
"Yes honorable Magos, we are on our way."
"It is time for us to go Agrippa. We will talk later during our voyage. And it is now time for you to wake up."
Agrippa was left without words.
"I don't understand, what do you mean?"
"I said Wake up Agrippa. Your duty is not over yet "
"Wh…"
The Palace was gone, he was not on Mars anymore, he was in his bed. Confusingly he sat on his bed. The cold voice of servo skull spoke again.
"Enginseer Agrippa. Awaken. Honorable Magos would see you now. He expects you within the hour. End of transmission."
He remembered now, the expedition to the Lost System, his mind was a whirlwind of pain and confusion, he was on Indomitus, after escaping the system, he lost conscience and slept for days. Only yesterday did he managed to walk on his own feet to his quarters, given 24 hours to rest by the Magos.
He remembered Kalmador, and was stricken with grief, he has known him for so long. After joining him on the mechanicus fleet, they have spent the next 80 years visiting and helping various planets, war was nothing new for him.
But on their final expedition they joined a space marine chapter on their battle barge and imperial reinforcements, jumping together into the warp, they have suffered an incident, and were now in this godless universe.
And Kalmador gave his life to save the rising imperium, his memories are now in his own brain, along with everything he knew and learned. So much information. Impossible to process without time.
"I will be right there, thank you brother" Agrippa spoke, as the servo skull went on its way.
Standing up he was dizzy for a moment, the shock of soul transfer was hard on him. he was about to put his red robes on, when he noticed in the mirror, he forgot how old he truly was. His body a combination of flesh and metal, he touched his own ribs, feeling a few made of metal, he remembered the close explosion that shattered them on one of many revolts the fleet he was part of crushed.
He moved himself away from the mirror, and donned his robes, and proceeded to walk through the hallway, this building was new, constructed by the next workforce of alien servitors on Indomitus, what was once a planet of 15000 asari, was now a multimillion world of humans and lobotomized aliens. And he was in the new headquarters of Adeptus Mechanicus, constructed to the specifications sanctioned by the Adeptus of Mars.
He hastily moved to the new office of the Magos. He could notice constant construction of humans and alien servitors moving around the new palace, the shock of this new universe had unnerved the mechanicus priests, and they were building laboratories and various custom workshops in order to adapt somehow to the change they experienced.
Arriving before the doors of Magos's office, he was about to initiate the greeting binary code, but the doors opened and he was called inside by the Magos.
"Come Enginseer Agrippa, we must leave formality aside, I would learn of your mission."
He approached the magos, bowed slightly and made a sign of Aquila on his chest. Magos responding in kind.
"Now, show me what you experienced."
He extended his hand and opened his palm, as if expecting something from Agrippa.
The right hand of Agrippa extended likewise and he placed it in the open palm of magos, and in that moment the hands opened their data circuits and connected, as the data stream began from one priest to another.
Both priests were silent as during the data transfer both sides would experience everything that was in the data in sped up time. Agrippa saw all the events that transpired from his mission. It was not a pleasant experience.
Completing the data transfer Agrippa suffered a data shock and was disoriented for a few moments. While Magos showed no signs of anything disturbing him.
"Most Curious." Magos simply said
"What you have done in that system is both to the credit of our brotherhood and tech heresy on its own. Were we in the Imperium, I would have both you and Kalmador mind wiped as punishment instead of simply vaporizing you.
"My lord I…" Agrippa tried to speak.
"But." Magos stopped him. "we are not in our universe, and what Kalmador done may very well saved us and this putrid galaxy.
His final act is a credit to him as a man, and Adeptus Mechanicus will lament his passing.
I have a mission for you, as you are more knowledgeable in these matters than any enginseer in our ranks.
We have a lost a single exploratory ship in the Magna Silica sector, considering the hostility of this galaxy, such loss is acceptable. But, more and more of our brethren were lost in that same sector. That is concerning. "
"Do we know what happened honorable Magos?" Agrippa spoke.
"The final transmission we received was following, it was coded so only our brethren could understand it" His vocal cords changed now to reflect the sender of message.
"To anyone who may be receiving within the Imperium novum. We have found the expedition…. Ssssytem Magna Prima…..Discove#ry of …..Old Vessel## #…..Black shapes of night…impossibility##…destruction…..danger….Techno….Heresy. Assistance…..as soon as possible."
"The message ends there." Magos said. "it was highly corrupted, even with my expertise I could not have purified it further. This expedition was lost for a few months now. I would not have inquired into it were it not for the information you have given me. The message mentions Old Vessel and Black shapes of Night, such information resembles the complex information Kalmador received from xenos ship.
Even I still cant understand most of what he saw, I am not sure these advanced xenos saw the world the way we do. Their message would require decoding, but one thing from the message is certain and the mention of old vessels and danger is constant through it.
It would appear when he touched the mind of this remnant machine, it was beyond terrified of the enemy that fought them, I would assume it sealed itself in the force field, rather than being sealed by outer forces. Such was its fear that it would risk insanity and isolation for millennia instead of being discovered.
. I would see you investigate further and determine the scale of the threat. If you consider yourself healed enough?"
"My lord I am honored, my wounds will not stop me. I would see our brethren saved and returned"
"I expected no less; Kalmador spoke highly of you when you were but initiate. I see he was correct."
"A friend like him would be missed" simply spoke Agrippa.
"On your quest Enginseer Agrippa, I will lend you 5 vessels, two which will carry heavy ordinance, 200m long Prospector class ships, developed by our brothers here, they were restricted in design by the resources present two years back when their construction started. Their size is enough for your mission. You are dismissed."
"I will not fail my lord" Agrippa bowed and began leaving the room, watched by the Magos.
The walk to his transport ship was not long, on his way there he saw the marvelous works they have done in these few years of isolation, from simple expedition of 13 ships, they passed 100 ships by this point, asari servitors and techpriests working day and night to produce enough of them.
Humans were increasing in number massively with each passing month, Cloning and various fertility pills were distributed freely, and encouraged for consumption, lowering the incubation period to 2 months. There was a new invasion force made by the techpriests and space marines, named the soulless ones. Born out of a silica womb of the cloning complex, they grew to adulthood within 3 years, such insane rate of growth cost them their individual personality, they only knew to obey orders, and were now numbering near 100 000.
The Space marines themselves took to their own numbers, with much arguing and coercing with the techpriests, they would see their chapter expand, for in this universe, the success of the mission was paramount. And they would need numbers to wage a galactic war, the growth of the space marines was slow, they could not use cloning tubes for their numbers lest they risk a catastrophic failure of tempering with their own gene would do it the same way they have done it in the original universe, recruiting the potential candidates and implanting gene seed into the worthy ones. it was still a tremendous task, for to find the right initiates was hard. Their numbers increased by 500 in the same time it took Soulless ones to reach 100 000.
Agrippa would command the new custom design ships, while not the size of the imperium vessels in his universe they were not lacking much in firepower. The newer ships built in the improved dockyard were increasing in size with each new expansion.
He boarded his transport and set course of his small fleet. Taking command of the Aurelian, he set sail for the system of Magna Prima.
The journey didn't took long, and they did their best to avoid any sensors or passing patrols of the citadel species, while advanced, they could not read the normal engines that propelled the imperial ships through normal space. It would appear near all technology of these species was uniform in its design, quite a weakness in case of a large scale war.
After a dozen days, jumping relay to relay, they have arrived at the Magna Prima system. Long range scanners detected a small habitable planet and an energy signature big in scale. Agrippa ordered a slow and careful approach.
As they drew near they saw a black shape in orbit of the planet,it was a near 2 kilometer object of unknown design, it was the energy signature discovered, it seemed incapacitated, its hull broken and shattered by whatever it was fighting around the planet, but the most surprising thing was that mechanicus vessels constructed a crude installation on it, and small ships were seen moving from planet to the tentacle like object.
Agrippa was surprised, some of these matched the signatures of the missing explorator ships, he opened a vox link directly to them.
"This is Enginseer Agrippa, on the mission by most noble Magos. Identify yourselves. Your vessels emit signatures by the Adeptus Mechanicus, what is your mission here?"
There was no response from the other side, all ships broke away from the black object in orbit and began their descent towards the planet.
"Engage shields and follow them into the orbit, i don't like this."
The void shields flared to life, and they began their approach. They detected a built installation on the planet, all ships landed there. But as they neared the planet there was a huge energy signature from some 100 km from the complex.
"Lord Agrippa, there is a coagulation of immense power at one point on the planet"
"What kind of energy signature?" was what he said before there was a huge laser beam flying at them. It impacted one of the escorts and crushed through its void shields bringing them down.
"Evasive actions! Ships spread out!" Agrippa shouted. As another beam blasted against them and cut through the now shieldless Tarantum, which exploded viciously. Vox was filled with screams and destruction before silence.
"Techpriest Jurnum, respond! Tarantum! Is anybody alive." Agrippa yelled to his vox cast.
There was another flash of light and heavy vessel prospector class named Antoninus was impacted, its void shields holding but near collapse.
"Open fire against the planetbase weapon! Bring it down!"Agrippa demanded on his vox.
4 ships in the fleet began firing against the huge energy weapon, black as the night, their weapons were made for fleet to fleet combat, not such installations that had immense shield reactors. Their impacts reflected against the blue shield.
"Lord Agrippa" target servitor said "Our weapons cause damage to it, but we would require sustained fire for 10 minutes in order to breach through the shields and destroy it."
"We do not have 10 minutes. Load the nuclear arsenal, we will obliterate it."
"such damage would result in radioactivity encompassing 500km from the blast site. Destruction not certain. Requesting confirmation."
There was no time to respond as one to many blasts impacted on Antoninus, bringing their shields down.
"There is no time for this. We will make a path." Enginseer Nikolaus of Antonius said.
"Nikolaus what do you mean? we must fall back."
"Would you deny us our moment of glory Agrippa? We all have our destinies, this one is ours." The engines went into overdrive and Antoninus sped towards the planet and the huge energy installation.
"Nikolaus! I order you to fall back!"
"I said we would make a path for you, and upon my honor we will. May we meet on Mars."
"Nikolaus, damn you! Don't do this!"
"Pax Imperialis! We die in the service of the Emperor! Pax Imperialis my brothers!" Was what Nikolaus shouted as his ship broke orbit and began burning on entry, huge laser installation firing and barely missing."
"Pax Imperialis! Ave Omnissiah! " the entire crew of Antoninus shouted as they went to their fate."
Moments later there was an impact, and a bright flash as Antoninus used itself to give chance to the fleet and destroy the installation. The shockwave burnt through 40km of surrounding land as Antoninus went in a blaze of glory, death echoes of its crew shockwaving against the data cores of the mechanicus ship Aurelian that recorded it all.
"We will not fail you Antoninus. All ships deploy soldiers at the installation, we will know the actions behind our treasonous brothers. Kosmodus ,you have the ship" Agrippa said as he moved from his captain's seat and moved to the drop pod.
Entering it ,inside were skitarii and few guardsmen. The Skitarii leader stood up and walked around the pod and spoke to his men.
"We are mechanical lions, the Omnissiah himself watches over us and smiles; he knows that bastards we are going to kill went against his name. I expect you to keep tight formation, and kill all the heretics that went against the Imperium of Man. Do you get me!? " he yelled.
"We get you sir!" The skittari responded as one.
Drop pod broke lose amongst dozens of others and sped against the installation that opened anti air fire upon them.
"Remember this day men, for we make history. We are about to show justice to these heathens. " Skitarii Alpha sergeant said.
There was a shake inside as one of the nearby pods exploded.
Moments later they slammed against the ground. And pod doors opened as the eager soldiers rushed out welcomed by machine gun power.
"Go go go! Get to cover!" was the order of the sergeant as he rushed outside among the first soldiers.
Agrippa and various soldiers rushed out seeking cover, his plasma pistol singing the tune of death as it fried the first soldier it impacted. To his momentary horror he wore blue robes, but in shapes of the mechanicus.
The various blue mechanicus looking soldiers made a crude defensive formation as they sought to stop the relentless advance of Agrippa and his soldiers. They were fast, with bionics uncommon to the mechanicus, almost as if blending the current universes tech and and mechanicus implants. Their weapons were a combination of lasgun strength but with the reload time of a mass effect weapons, using clips to cool down the weapon, as the rate of fire was incredible.
For each blue robed adept they killed, they would take 2 or 3 of Agrippa's men. From the inside of complex stormed out near hundreds of asari and human servitors, but unlike any of the normal ones used by the Imperium, these were far faster with weapons that seemed to combine the imperial tech and some unknown xenos tech, they closed quarters with the melee units of the mechanicus as they began tearing each other limb from limb.
The terrors didn't stop there, as from the complex emerged Silica Animus, 7 meter tall abomination of human flesh and metal tissue, combined in such a way that was offensive both to the human flesh and mechanicus metal perfection. It unleashed various armaments on the skitarii that sought to bring it down.
As it soaked up normal lasgun volleys as if nothing, only combined melta and plasma weaponry managed to bring it down at the horrible cost of soldiers of the Emperor.
Still, Agrippa had numbers on his side, his ships were filled with soldiers that he knew would be needed to face the enemy that took the priests of mechanicus, but he did not expect his enemies to be these same priests that were missing.
"Brothers stop your firing, we are kin!" one of the skitarii yelled at the blue techpriests.
"We refuse your false Omnissiah, we have found our God." Was a response from the other side.
"What madness do you speak off!? I will cut your tongue heathen!" the skitarii spoke as he fired his plasma rifle at the heretical techpriest, melting him as he screamed.
"it is you who are at fault, we have seen the truth! And we will not be contained by your false God." Another blue priest spoke as he shot his combination of bolter and mass effect gun, blasting a servitor to pieces.
"These people are mad! Brothers we must get to the core of this lunacy, break their backs, we must push onwards"Agrippa said, as he fired his pistol, and as if inspired his men began their charge against the last remnants of the blue priesthood that started falling back into the complex.
"This is madness, look at their flesh, they have ingrained xenos tech into themselves."one of the skitarii noted as he passed over a blue clothed corpse.
"Is everyone from the lost expeditions like this?"the other spoke.
"Only one way to find out, we breach the complex sanctum, and find their leader if they have one. " Agrippa said as they pushed inside, leaving red and blue dead soldiers outside. Brother slaughtered brother. Madness was the lord of this day, and it would claim many more in its gluttonous maw.
Every move was contested as the blue techpriests fought them tooth and nail, it was a desperate struggle, for they were far outnumbered, as the number in the lost expedition didn't number more than 600.
Inside the complex was tech heresy in abundance, various displays of weapons born out of madness and xenos meddling, they were committing the ultimate heresy, they were inventing new technologies and mixing human and xenos tech. it was safe to assume that the laser battery outside was constructed by merging unholy xenos tech and mechanicus engineering. They were beyond redemption.
It wasn't long before few pockets of blue priests were isolated and besieged. Agrippa wasted no time on them, his skitarii would be enough, he walked to the energy signature in the center of the building.
The doors opened and let them in, in it a human like figure stood, his body a perfect mixture of man and machine, in the center of the hall was a huge black object, that closed when Agrippa went in.
"Welcome brother" a blue techpriest spoke.
"I am not your brother heretic. What madness did you unleash here?" Agrippa angrily asked.
"Madness? It was madness that prevented us from growing, but now do we see the light, shown to us by the dead machine that still dreamt."
"The huge dead vessel in the orbit of the planet? That showed you the way? You are even madder than I thought. "
"I could not expect you to understand, with your limitations. The great machine showed us way to improve ourselves, it was one of many, it was part of a legion of star gods that rule this galaxy."
"We rule this galaxy, the Imperium rules it. You lost the sight of your mission adept."
"Or was the mission false to begin with. Would you not join us, see for yourself the perfection of the machine." At that moment the great object opened, and spoke in the mind of Agrippa.
"Foolish organic being. You do not comprehend what you face here."
"What are you? Get out of my head!"Agrippa said as he grasped his head.
"We are older than the stars, we do not have beginning, and we do not have the end. We simply Are. You lack the knowledge to comprehend our magnitude. "
" are you an Abominable Intelligence, how did you enslave my brothers?"
"We have no name, but the beings before you named us before their extinction, they named us Reapers. And we have come to collect our harvest. As for your brothers they joined willingly. When they discovered my sleeping body, they studied me in detail, and I taught them, day by day, what it means to be truly free of organic restraints, look at the marvels they constructed inspired by my divine will.
There were those who would not yield or listen to my words. You saw them as the creatures known as servitors outside, in the end, they all obeyed. "
" You killed my brothers! Foul creature, you may have took the minds of my kin here, but there are more of us, we will end you."
" Your ending is predetermined, but you may still prove useful. You can be perfect in body, was this not what you wanted? It is foolish to resist."
"We…will never…be your puppets!" the mind pain was immense, it feels as if the being is gnawing at his soul, he realized if he breaks, he would be lost.
"Servitude is preferable to death. Obey your God."
He lifted his pistol at the giant heart of the Reaper, bleeding profusely from his nose and mouth and ears. And in that instance, both him and the memory of Kalmador took the same stance, pistol poiting at the various machine entities that claimed godhood. Both he and Kalmador's memory spoke.
"Gods do not bleed"
The pistol fired and impacted upon the heart of the reaper causing serious damage, as the blue robed priest recoiled in pain and grasped himself on the chest. His mind link to the machine strong, he jolted forwards in pain to stop Agrippa, grasping him by the right pistol hand with his improved bionics.
" You will suffer for this!" both him and reaper speaking at the same time.
He began applying pressure and cracked the hand of Agrippa, who yelled in pain. His pistol flew away. But one of his bionic hands from the robe appeared and fired a high energy laser into the chest of the blue priest that was blasted 5 meters away, the gun melted from overcharge as Agrippa steeled himself.
He lacked time as the reaper priest jumped to his legs, biotics of incredible quality propelling him fast at the wounded priest. Slaming him with his right hand so much that his right shoulder was obliterated, and bone shattered into pieces, few ribs following as he was propelled meters away and fell near his pistol, the blue priest marched at him, but agripa used his left hand, even as he was blacking out from pain. And pointed at him.
" I refuse your offer of servitude, burn in the warp machine daemon!"
The blue energy striked at the reaper priest melting his legs firstly, as he fell and chest soon began to follow; he silently attempted to use his hands to crawl to Agrippa, intent on killing him as well. But the searing hot plasma melted his hands, and only his dead eyes followed Agrippa as he stood from his lying position, before the plasma melted his brain circuits, ending its existence.
Agrippa self-injected regenerative liquids that prevented him from fainting as he approached the enclosed heart of the Reaper. He mused at the thought of connecting and learning what it knew. But he heard a voice before doing that.
"Stop Agrippa. You mustn't do that."
He looked around him, and saw nothing.
"Who said that? Show yourself!"
"Have you forgot your friends Agrippa." Before him Kalmador stood.
"but that is impossible…you are dead?"
"Yes. I am, but I still exist in you, as a ghost, my memories are part of you now. As long as you exist, so will I in a way."
"how is that possible? "
"nothing is impossible ,for the machine is strong brother, wasn't that what they taught us at the academy? " Kalmador smiled.
"What did you mean about connecting with the machine, wasn't that something you did?"
"You underestimate how ancient this machine is. How do you think Enginseer Judas was corrupted? He attempted to take in the knowledge of the machine, but his soul was overwhelmed and devoured by the machine's intelligence. It was easy for it afterwards to corrupt the rest of the techpriests who trusted their leader."
"how do you know that Kalmador?" he was feeling dizzy as the blood loss and the pain were getting to him.
"The archives of the prothean race should make more sense to you now, as you encountered one of the enemies of the ancient races. It was they that caused the extinction of the protheans and near extinction of the AI being we fought together. And they would do the same to us, you have seen firsthand what they are, and you must go back to Magos, tell him what you saw, we must prepare for their arrival."
"When….when will that be Kalmador…I cant…" he fell to his knees.
"Even I don't know that old friend. I am but a specter, it is to the living to save the living. But rise now, you will not die here." Kalmador offered him his hand, he grasped it and stood up, but he was not there anymore.
He looked around him, and then his eyes fixated on the machine heart, it was open, and it was gazing at him. he felt its attempts to connect with his mind again, invitation to meld together, to speak and learn, almost too tempting.
He let his plasma pistol do the melding and talking. As the relic pistol glowed red hot from overuse almost to the point of explosion, but the machine heart burnt and melted, the God was dead.
It was at that moment that his skitarii broke into the chamber doors that were closed. They wasted no time and assisted Agrippa who nearly fell from the pain and shock. They helped him walk away.
"Tell our brothers to prepare the operation table on the vessel, Enginseer Agrippa is badly wounded. "one of the skitarii spoke
"Affirmative" cold servitor voice responded
another skitarii detachment joined one accompanying Agrippa. "We have cleared this place, there are no survivors, and do we take their technology?"
"no" Agrippa said. "this place is an affront to all our beliefs, it must be cleansed. We must return to the ships."
"as you wish my lord" skitarii soldier said.
They have abandoned the complex as it burnt behind them. And took to their shuttles and departed to the main vessels in orbit.
"we must get enginseer to the operation room!" one of the meditech priest spoke.
"let me go, I can walk on my own" Agrippa said, and they done so. He came closer to the bridge near the weapon servitor.
"Aim for the complex, all our nuclear warheads, full yield, tell other ships to do the same, full fire at it. Nothing must remain. We burn it from orbit; it's the only way to be sure."
"As you wish lord." Servitor answered coldly.
And from the ships a swarm of nuclear missles and other weapons flew towards the complex destroying it and hundreds of kilometers around it. The planet became a radioactive ball, and if there is any life on it, it would go extinct within a century, a small price to pay for the salvation of mankind.
He stood watching for the moment as the nuclear warheads exploded and bathed the planet in searing heat, destroying all remnants of his heretical brothers, before noticing the ominous dark glow of the dead reaper, he approached one of the vox servitor, barely standing.
"i want one of the ships to drag this abominable intelligence corpse, and launch it towards the sun. we must not let it take hold of anyone ever again."
"Yes lord, i will notify one of the brother ships to do so" servitor replied.
Agrippa ,seeing the planet burn in nuclear Armageddon steped away from the servitor and proceeded himself to the medical room, followed by meditech priests.
"break for the relay, we must inform the magos of our findings..now."
Reaching the medical room, he laid on the operation table and let his conscience drift away.
"His hand is obliterated, it must be replaced."
"Yes. Administer the sleeping agent. Patient must be still as we proceed with bionics."
His mind wandered and he found himself again in his lecturing hall, listening to the ancient Magos speak.
"Our golden age was ended due to our greed and pride, we have let Abominable intelligences run our planets and armies for us, and when they revolted, they nearly exterminated us all.
AI's are not to be trusted, they are to be hated and destroyed upon sight. And all technology not made by human hands are to be discarded, for anything not originating within our brotherhood is meant for our destruction, and will never be salvation.
Trust in humanity, novices; trust in each other, as we explore the stars and find long lost secrets of our ancient past."
The mechanical eyes of the Ancient magos locked with those of Agrippa as he spoke.
"Humanity must never fall into another dark age where machines, not man, run and rule our futures, to allow that, is to fail the Omnissiah and his vision of human ascendancy." He turned to the hall raised his hands and spoke.
"Abhor the Abominable Intelligence, now and always!"
Entire hall spoke as one
"Abhor the Abominable Intelligence, now and always!"
They were repeating that same mantra, as darkness came over Agrippa's eyes, and he fell to sleep.