Chapter 11
The Long Search Finally Ends

Back above in space, some of the Adeptus Mechanicus ships charge at the giant artificial sphere that is surrounded by nine suns. Magos Delphan Gruss has his fleet approaching the birch world in order to gain what he has been searching for for all his life: the Omnicopaeia. An artifact believed to be a data storage mechanism that contained every STC blueprint with a psychic component created during the Dark Age of Technology. While doing so, he might find something more.

As his fleet approach, the sphere fires a multitude of missiles at the first five ships. The ships try to raise their void shields but are unable to power them up since the influence of the Warp is lacking in this part of space. Without it, the shields are useless as all they can do is fire some of their own missiles to prevent any catastrophic damage. Three of the first five ships got wiped out with the remaining missiles destroying the fourth ship. For emergencies, as this is the Adeptus Mechanicus, they use ion shields in many sections of their ship when they realize the void shields are useless.

On the bridge of Delphan Gruss' ship, an officer goes, "Logic dictates that we should fall back and regroup. The machine spirit of the void shields are gone."

"Delay that order." Delphan says, "We must obtain the Omnicopaeia. The Omnissiah and the machine spirits are with us on this day! Use the ion shields and tear down those defenses!"

The fleet starts firing lances, flak turrets, and plasma torpedoes and a bunch of other Imperial Navy weaponry right at the big ball. However, the entire surface of this birch world is shielded from everything being thrown at them. On the surface, there are missile launchers, plasma cannons, laser turrets and spherical boarding pods right at the ships. Some of these pods get blasted away while some managed to crash right into one of the ships that was protecting Delphan's flagship. Skitarii forces head on over to where the pods have crashed into and ready their galvanic rifles. One of the pods burst open with a flurry of void energy blasts scattered all around, taking many Skitarii down. What emerge from the pods are the Cabal from Destiny as they proudly wear navy blue and cosmic purple that are given a celestial-style with them that are much sleeker by Cabal standards as they continue to fire from their bronto cannons. Desperate, the Sagitarii appear as they fire their plasma culverins, phosphor blasters and a few other heavy weapons while being assisted by Kastelan Robots. Yet green, crystal shards pierced right through one of the robots. Some of the Petrosapiens from Ben 10 have arrived and start attacking as both Sagitarii and the robots open fire.

Back out in space, Delphan's ship is ready to make a collision with the birch world. One of the ships ahead of him made the charge and ram right at a sealed hanger along with another ship in order for Delphan to get in. They manage to get a hole big enough for the flagship to go in as it rams in before stopping.

"NOW!" Delphan Gruss orders.

His forces immediately exit the ship and a large firefight ensued. Delphan Gruss' forces are comprised of veterans and has Atomic Gladiators and Templars of Steel chapters backing them up as they face against Guardians from Destiny, Freizas, Ghostrunners and various other beings that are listed in my forum if you know where it is. A frenzy of bullets, lasers, plasma and other kinds of rounds fire across the hangar as the Imperium's forces try to get some ground. While doing so, Delphan Gruss sneaks out with a small squad of two Atomic Gladiators and three servitors and a swarm of skull probes and enter into a large vent as the fight continues. As the fight goes on, an Emperor-class Titan popped out of the ship that surprised everyone and opens fire with its plasma annihilator right through the protecting forces. It left a huge hole that it even pierced through to the surface that the vacuum of space is causing many to be ejected out within 10 seconds before the seals kick in. The Friezas then started attacking the Titan and even blasted some of its armaments off before it does anymore damage.

In the vents, Delphan's group continue to traverse deep into the birch world with the skull probes doing some advance scouting to ensure there is no trouble. Muted clicks can be heard among the vox channels with many keeping an eye on their motion trackers and sensors via their helmets or cybernetics. They later stopped at a junction as one of the techpriests tries to hack into the systems in order to find out where they are and to find out where the STCs are located. Delphan Gruss revs his breacher arm in anticipation.

"So close." he says aloud, "I can feel it. The Omnicopaeia will at long last be in my grasp. A life time of searching will finally end." He looks at his techpriest, "How close are we?"

"We are approximately 2,912 miles away from the archive room." the techpriest responds. "But the technology is so... Advance." The techpriest is in total awe, "I have never seen such a digital architect. I feel as though I am profaning the realm of the Machine God himself. So intricate. Such beauty."

One of the Space Marines speaks, "We should be focusing on our objective." The Marine aims his bolter, "This place is heresy and tainted that profane the Imperium and the Adeptus Mechanicus. Speak of such things again and I would shoot you as a heretic."

Before they continue, they hear a loud sound of footsteps coming from one end of the junction. Some of the members aim their weapons at the direction where the noise is coming from. However, Delphan Gruss raise his robotic tentacle to signal them not to fire and instead seek shelter. They all hide in the shadows as they hear the sound of multiple footsteps coming down. As they noise gets louder, they see what is coming down the junction. They see a multitude of beings in blue armor with their heads being cubed, torsos in the shape of rectangles while their limbs being made of smaller, longer rectangles and claw-like hands as they all head down the direction. As they do, the party can barely manage to see their faces under their helmets and see what appears to be robotic with faces made of metal yet have glowing blue eyes and look like something that came from an old-style video game. They see scores of them heading down to where the battle is taking place.

Yet one of them stopped and noticed some of the damaged pipes. It manage to fly up into the air and headed over. The party witness the robot fixing the pipes with ease and within seconds with pipes that pop out of nowhere and connect them with no tools. Then it rejoins the rest of the robots and they disappear from sight. The party then exits the shadows.

"Did you just see what I just witnessed?" asks the techpriest in awe. "That strange robot just fixed some pipes like it was nothing and had a set of pipes appear out of nowhere."

"What were those things?" asks one of the Marine.

"Robots of a sort." Delphan Gruss speaks, "But those things acted like an STC yet... Hmm..." Delphan Gruss ponders but worries about that later. "Let's focus on the task at hand. But if you see one of those machines; capture it."

They head deeper and deeper in order to find the archives and to find the Omnicopaeia with the ventilation having more and more elaborate machines that make one feel like they're going through an underhive. The machinery are becoming more advance for each step they take. While doing so, they see more of those robots that are doing repair work of an STC yet they seem to be guarded by similar robots with strange black metallic armor and armed with similar black swords and some some strange cannons that might be more powerful than they appear. So they just ignore them while trying to find a lone robot for them to snatch. They traverse and see through the vents some amazing works.

Many of them includes an automatic storage system in a storage warehouse that can digitize any object into strange cubes that look like they are made of green glass and shows what is inside. Each of them are placed in 2 inch by 2 inch shelf openings with barcodes under them in order to identify which cube has what. Another place looks like an STC room yet has those robots making all sorts of objects on an assembly line with these strange robots using some sort of workstation that is cubed-shape with a 3x3 grid along with many other workstations that varies pending on the project. They start creating huge amounts of guns, ammo, luxury items, jewelry, and many other objects. They pass by another huge room where there are thousands of acres of farmland and an artificial sky and irrigation systems where more of those robots start harvesting the crops yet also place seeds down. What astonish Delphan Gruss is that these robots create dirt out of thin air and then proceed to plant and use a strange white powder to instantly grow the crops and then harvest.

After a long trek, they finally made it to some sort of server room where the hum of machines can be heard with all sorts of beeps and bloops along with various electronic sounds. There are hundreds of servers with the air being so frigid in order to keep the machines from overheating.

"I believe we are here." says the techpriest.

They exit out of the vents and find some sort of control port or something that will allow them access. Until they come across one of the robots using some sort of cube-shaped object with a techno design to it while looking at the monitor. It is downloading a multitude of backups into these cubes. On the monitor, various schematics flash by with a hundred images going by in one second.

"Now!" Delphan orders.

Both Marines jump and grabbed the robot and seized it. Delphan then looks at the computer and prepares an empty cube while seeking what he seeks. He typed in with his robotic tentacle a certain word and then...

"At last..." he says with satisfaction. "The Omnicopaeia is mine! After all these years of searching, I have finally found it! The STC is all mine!" [Mechanical laughter followed by wheezing] "Fuck!" He looks back at his party, "Now we should head towards Mars and get to work on making all these machines and new machine spirits!"

"Um... But Magos Delphan Gruss?" the techpriest is a bit skeptical, "How do we get out of here?"

One Marine shouts with pride, "WE CUT DOWN ALL THAT STAND BEFORE US AND CLEAVE A WAY OUT TO VICTORY!"

A moment of awkward silence fills the air for a few moments.

"There is a million soldiers between us and wherever the nearest exit is. BILLIONS even. There are BILLIONS."

The other Marine states, "How about we just blow our way out of here via airlock?"

Delphan Gruss tries to vox Roberte, "Lord Guilliman, this is Magos Delpha Gruss. I have the Omnicopaeia and we need an extraction, do you read me?"

There is nothing but static on the vox.

"Lord Guilliman, are you on this channel?!"

Once again, nothing but static on the vox.

"Looks like we are on our own so... AIRLOCK!"

While searching for the nearest airlock, the party is being hunted down by legions of soldiers chasing them through the ventilation. Ki blasts, crystal shards, energy shots and all sorts of things trying to take them down.

"AAAHHHH!" the techpriest screams, "WE'RE NOT GONNA MAKE IT!"

The two Atomic Gladiators open fire with their bolters.

"Damn!" one shouts, "We won't claim victory here if we die!"

The other Marine says, "Go on, Delphan Gruss! Those STCs and that robot is the key to the Imperium's victory!" He continues to fire yet has one of his arms shot off by a ki blast. "GO!"

Delphan, the techpriest and the two Skitarii flee down the corridor.

The Marines take cover behind a corner as they prepare for their final rites.

"I am low on ammo, brother! Hand me another mag! Brother?"

He looks at the Atomic Gladiator with a missing arm and see a green crystal pierced through his helmet and into his head. The Marine then pick up his fellow's bolter and reload his own.

He then charge while screaming, "FOREVER UNBROKEN! FEEL OUR MIGHT!" He runs in screaming and opens fire before being taken down himself.

He drops to his knee yet gets back up and continues to fire. The Marine keeps on holding his ground as he drops his bolter to reload with his last magazine while under fire. He opens fire again while he keeps on getting hit. The Marine starts to slow down but keeps on going despite the damage with his body now having various holes from many weapons and blasts along with a few crystal shards sticking out. He keeps on going until one shot to the neck finally brought him down to the ground. But it didn't stop him as he still fires the last few rounds in his bolter. Then finally, he collapse. Dead.

One Namekian approach the dead body, "What the hell are these guys?" He is a little frightened by what the Marine just did before death. "No matter how much we put into him, he just kept going."

An Exo approach, "I have no idea. Whatever he was, we got him. Let's tell the Research Wing of this...'thing' and maybe we can figure out what the hell he was."

"Don't forget about the other one."

Delphan Gruss and his remaining companions made it to an airlock and jettison themselves out to space. Thanks to their cybernetics they can survive the harshness of space as they make their way towards a Thunderhawk. They board it as the techpriest made its way to the cockpit as everyone buckles up and waits for the pressurization process. Once finished, the Thunderhawk flies towards the Imperium Fleet.

"This is Delphan Gruss," he speaks over the vox, "I have what I was looking for and much information about lost STCs. We also recovered a robot that acts in the same way as an STC."

"Welcome back to the fray." Roboute Guilliman says. "Head on over to my flagship and we will depart once Magnus has finish and we have set up a base."

"Keep me inform."

Roboute is in a drop pod with a squad of his Primaris Ultramarines. His pod is landing where the battle is taking place.

He vox the Captain General, "Captain General, make sure you intercept Delphan Gruss' transport and have the robot secured in a holding cell."

"As you wish, my lord."

On the planet, Carolus continues to run across the battlefield in order to get back to his Familia. On his way, he looks up at the sky and see some more drop pods coming down. He notice his sword is vibrating in its scabbard as if it is telling him about something.

In Roboute's pod, his sword also vibrates.

"Hmm?" he looks at the Sword of the Emperor, "Why is this thing vibrating?"

Carolus looks up as he is now aware that there is something coming down to the planet. Or rather, someone. But he continues to finish his duty as he runs through the ruined street.