"Those of the Golden Age of humanity were capable of great feats beyond comprehension. Technology that we of the Cult Mechanicum spend our extended lifetimes trying to understand, but barely scratching the surface of such wonders. We grasp in the endless darkness of our own delusions, trying to get a mere glimpse of what we lost. We are no different from them, those that doomed themselves because they refused to see the truth before them. We must attain a new Golden Age. The only way humanity can achieve this is the abandonment of the damned restrictions that hold us down. All for the safety and comfort of our inferiors."
From, De rebus machinis et xenaritis. Written by Archmagos Battista Albrecht Ghetaldi, 348.M36
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Thallax cohorts, ancient things that the cohort had never encountered. Shock troops used by the old Mechanicum, with Meltabombs, jet thrusters, chain bayonets, and lightning guns designed to ravage any foes that stood against the elder brethren of the Adeptus Mechanicus. So effective were these automata that were once human that they stood aside the golden guardians of the Adeptus Custodes and Legiones Astartes both with the Warmaster and with the Emperor's loyal forces. Now, Epsilon and Vetra were staring at a group of nine of them, all surrounding a heretek cruiser and applying Meltabombs to it.
"Possible explanation, isolated pocket of Cult Mechanicum present on planet. Reaction to Dark Mechanicum appearance hostile." Vetra said while sliding down the ridge back to the other Skitarii in their small team.
"Outcome unlikely, all known sects of the ancient Cult Mechanicum were steadily brought into the fold of either the Adeptus Mechanicus or fell to the Dark Mechanicum. This is more likely to be infighting." Magos Tahr'kull's voice buzzed on the vox,
"Hold your positions and do not engage, I would rather not draw unneeded aggression to ourselves until we have more information. Optimize your tactical plans for Shroud Protocols and get visual on the inside of the Manufactorum."
"We are working our way around,we will arrive there and collect data within thirty minutes. Marshal Unit advises sending a force down to establish a holding at a set of abandoned power stations due south of our position. The location is sufficiently out of estimated detection range of unknown forces."
"I will discuss it with Magos Ceth and we will see about sending a construction team to the surface. So far excellent scouting, Epsilon. We'll report back once we have more information." The vox clicked off, and Epsilon returned his attention to the others, a line of data left him and entered the noosphere before them. In an instant they understood their mission, no words were needed. Though Epsilon still felt it was proper to inform them of any additional information he couldn't transmit mechanically.
"We will arrive at the facility as fast as we can, then we will hunt for information to bring back to the Magi. We are the only squad dispatched planetside for now, anyone we see is a hostile until deemed otherwise. Uploading shroud and headhunter protocols. Form up and follow me." The Skitarii saluted, and set off with the Marshal. They were less rigidly tied to lockstep than usual, instead taking long strides effortlessly across the ruined terrain.
They were fast, making effective time and remaining hidden in the dust storms that rolled through the area. Remnants of the battle mere moments earlier between the Mechanicum and the Alpha Legion. Such storms were familiar to them, as they'd all spent ample time on blessed Mars. The Manufactorum loomed tall over the horizon as they approached, until a line of machine commands washed across their minds. Each of them rigidly took cover behind a partially destroyed wall.
"Cease movement, silence all vocal emissions." Epsilon said hurriedly, moments later the ground shook with massive footsteps. A giant automata stomped past, its paint was weathered and its plasma caster made heat distortions in the air around it. This machine had just returned from a battle. A rather intense one by Epsilon's estimation. Silently, Epsilon spoke through their data-tether.
"Follow my lead, this one will return to where we wish to go" Vetra was about to protest such a wildly insane idea, as she accurately predicted exactly what Epsilon was about to do. But, it was too late. Epsilon ran forward, and leapt onto the Automata's leg. Standing on one of its stabilizers and riding the ancient machine like a dunerider. Vetra sighed, and ran after him along with the other four. Each one followed suit, while Epsilon was busy disassembling a series of rivets that were already damaged. His servo skull was sending jamming signals to the automata, just enough disruption to keep his sabotage hidden.
With one last cut, the plate of armor swung out slightly and gave the Skitarii just enough space to hide behind it. It wasn't a comfortable ride, but it would provide them an element of stealth as the Thanatar marched towards a repair bay deep within the aged factory.
"I don't understand," Quill said while pacing on spider-like limbs, "Heresy Era machinery, here? Of all the things to run into, Dark Mechanicum heathens first then machinery not seen for almost ten-thousand years! It baffles me, the traitors have no such machines. Only wretched daemoncraft." Magos Ceth floated towards their data curtains once more, loading the new data within his mind. It wasn't the strategium pit he was used to, but Quill's sanctum still gave him ample power and privacy to allow his cogitators to run wild with analysis.
Magos Arkhite Ceth was known throughout the fleet as being second only to Anaxagoras in his capacity to consume and process data threads. He spotted abnormalities in mere moments of thought, managed a battlefield effortlessly with seemingly no struggle, and linked to the minds of his soldiers with no reported loss of efficiency. His was a unique connection to the Machine God, despite this he was jovial and well mannered. Where other martian adepts would be stoic, conceited, or even reclusive to hone their affinities. Ceth was content to practice his own disciplines, most often that meant directing battles from afar while Magos Tahr'kull directed them from the ground.
"It is a concerning discovery, Magos. To have such potent machines, thought lost to us for so long in the hands of our enemy. It is also a chance for a glorious reclamation in the name of the Omnissiah. We cannot let this opportunity pass us by, I say we strike at once. It is the blessed duty of all servants of the Machine God to reclaim lost machinery for the betterment of humanity."
"We cannot, not yet. We are cut off from the rest of the fleet, and we have yet to fully recover from our efforts in the crypt. Once Epsilon gets us an idea of who we are dealing with and in what quantity we can plan our strategy. But I promise you, Magos Ceth, these lost machines will not slip through our fingers."
The two of them simultaneously looked up into the data clouds above them. A ship was docking, a small cruiser containing Datasmith Pythagoras Xanryl and Enginseer Argell Van'thauss with a few of their adepts was landing in the ship's hangar.
"Ave Deus Mechanicus, I did not send for them!" Quill said, not bothering to hide his frustrations.
"Mayhaps they were able to successfully locate the Archeotech and find our celestial positioning." Quill scoffed, "And I'm an Ork…"
Quill stormed off towards the hangar, "Magos Ceth, please debrief Magos Van'thauss on our current situation, he will surely be eager to work on Heresy Era machines. I must have a word with Pythagoras."
"As you will, Magos. May the eternal cog turn smoothly and your mission be enlightening."
The two priests turned down separate corridors, Quill would send the Enginseer to meet Ceth in the strategium. He had questions for the Datasmith, and all of them were suspicious.
Magos Van'thauss was lazily strolling down the hallway with Pythagoras, his Omnissian axe laid across his shoulders, balanced by one arm. His other hand was busy with an old glass bottle with no label. The outside was stained by grime and oil, and the blue glass effectively hid whatever poison was within it. Pythagoras occasionally spewed an annoyed noospheric emission, which Magos Van'thauss glanced at, and promptly ignored.
"So then I told them, If you don't like the way I weld, then maybe you should go weld your own arseho-."
"I see that both of you have returned from your assignments," Quill interrupted, "That means the Explorator Majoris released you from your duties?"
"So Magos Xanryl says, Magos Tahr'kull. Pythagoras said the fleet was preparing to ship off, and join us here to investigate this little mess the old girl's found herself in." Quill figured by "old girl" he meant Praeco Voltaic. Quill knew the habits of menials and low ranking adepts in personifying the ship as well as the ship's spirit itself. Quill didn't fully understand why, but Van'thauss had never dropped the habit despite being a relatively high ranking Enginseer, almost ready to join the higher priesthood.
"Yes indeed, Magos Ceth is waiting to debrief you in the Strategium. Report there at once, we will need your expertise." Van'thauss saluted with a casual flick of his hand, more suited to the Militarum than the Mechanicus, and strolled off. Whistling a melody somewhere between hive world work song and binharic shriek. Maintaining his relaxed posture the entire time. Quill and Pythagoras stared at each other for a bit longer than they likely needed to.
"... You wish to explain how you found your way here?"
"Anaxagoras had the Astropaths work in concert to triangulate your position, you were only on the other side of the system." A believable enough explanation, but Quill was on edge. "So is the rest of the fleet following you? Because we could use the reinforcements as soon as possible."
Pythagoras shook his head, "They are remaining behind to oversee the planet while the Inquisitors return our request for exterminatus clearance. Once that is done they will join us here, the STC fragment is already in our master's hands. If there are no other requests, magos, I must return to the rest of the Legio Cybernetica to prepare Kastelans for any defensive efforts."
Quill waved Pythagoras away, and the datasmith speed walked off. Something didn't sit right with Quill, it was possible the datasmith had heard from Anaxagoras about their Dark Mechanicum intruders. However, Quill couldn't shake a question in his mind. How did Pythagoras know about their plans to exterminatus the planet? Quill and Anaxagoras had discussed that, in private, with their flesh voices. Quill narrowed his remaining eye, and stalked away.
Discerning body language and subtle signifiers of dishonesty so present in humanity was a nigh impossible task with the priesthood. They lacked so many of the usual human mannerisms, it was easy for menials to forget they even were human. They intended it as an insult usually, but the Mechanicus took it as an accidental compliment. To compound on that issue, Pythagoras lacked a real face, instead his machine body's head was a mass of wires, glass lenses, metal plate, and neural implant cables.
Pythagoras, however, had made a subtle mistake. It wasn't his mannerisms that betrayed his dishonesty, but his code. Quill's mind raced as he analyzed the report the Datasmith provided him noospherically. The data threads were impeccable on the surface, yet something felt off. It was a gut feeling, one honed over years of deciphering the subtleties of machine code. Pythagoras's report was too perfect, a facade masking the truth. Such a clean flawless report was usually indicative of pure fiction. Quill knew he couldn't unravel the deception alone, but he knew exactly who could.
Deep within a loading bay, the damaged Thanatar stomped through the halls to its designated spot. Stopping on a dime, before being attended by Dark Mechanicum Skitarii, servitors, and tech-thralls equipped with basic welding equipment. They approached, following routine far more than protocol. They began cleaning, patching spots on the armor with impact damage, and one Skitarius approached the almost detached leg plate to rivet it back in place. That Skitarius was sent back by a cracking gunshot. Their faceplate was destroyed entirely by the shell of a Mechanicus Relic Pistol firing through their head, sending a spray of blood out the back and onto the ground. In fractions of a second, the armor plate was sent flying from its weak connection by a meltagun firing from within. The armor slammed into a duo of tech-thralls, while the searing heat burned even more thralls to ash before they could react. Servitors either ran slowly or ineffectively swung at the intruders with their equipment.
The Dark Mechanicum Skitarii raised weapons to fight back, but were cut down by withering galvanic and plasma fire. A relic sword slashed through one, a plasma caliver killed two more, Vetra's taser goad and arc pistol left three as twitching corpses on the ground. It was over in an instant, the sounds of battle drowned by the clanging sounds of a nearby foundry or other repairs happening in other sections of the loading bay.
"Magos Tahr'kull, we've infiltrated the Manufactorum and have established a holding in a loading bay for a Thanatar construct. Requesting new directives."
"Excellent work, make haste and find a way to infiltrate their surveillance systems. I'm sending you a hostile code fragment now that should allow you to access and control it. That should also allow you to stay off their radar, once we know what type of resistance we can expect."
"By your will, Magos. Awaiting targeting parameters and code fragment transfer."
"Oh, and one more thing, Epsilon. Magos Ceth will be overseeing your mission for a brief time. I must prepare The Null Set and set them and Xor upon the vermin infesting our holy vessel."
"Understood, Magos. We will proceed with the mission while Magos Ceth establishes his noospheric link." Epsilon wasn't thrilled about the idea of working under Magos Ceth. He wasn't a bad strategist nor was he a bad commander, but something about his zeal for the Machine God hid contempt for those he viewed as lessers. He wasn't one to throw Skitarii lives away needlessly, but he was far less concerned with saving Skitarii lives actively than Quill. They'd have to exercise more caution than they had planned on, reinforcements would be harder to call in if Magos Ceth decided they would be better spent elsewhere.
"High Marshal Epsilon, it has been too long." The Manipulus had a link established by the time they'd entered the Manufactorum's winding hallways. "I'm receiving your datastream clearly, mission parameters have been uploaded to both our systems. Let us work swiftly, for it is said within Techno-Litanies of Purification that an idle mind is a wasted gift. The greatest ways to use the blessings of the Machine God are in the destruction of our unwanted hosts. I will assist you however I can."
"We thank you for your oversight, Magos Ceth. Protocol degrees all direct oversight of the mission at the ground level will be done by the ranking Marshal present with the Skitarii forces."
"Of course! I would never defy the cog that turns faithfully. And you have proven yourself a dependable asset, but data management will fall to me. Together, we can work in tandem to bring about the will of the Machine God. This day will be one remembered in glory! Now, the first access point I'm detecting is nearby, we will need to upload Magos Tahr'kull's kill code to four main ports. Transmitting coordinates now."
Epsilon nodded, a needless gesture but he was sure Magos Ceth was looking through one of their men's eyes. "Data received, we are resuming our movement. The hunt is on." This drew an excited binharic chant from the black-robed Rangers they had with them. That was a favorite mantra of theirs, calling back to their ancient ancestry as nomadic headhunters. Data flowed through the air into their minds, and all at once they looked down the hallway towards their projected destination. A targeting reticle entered their view, as well as radar readouts of the hallway's structure.
Vetra sped up to match Epsilon's speed, "High Marshal, Alpha Unit requests information. Previous interactions with Magos Arkhite Ceth have provided minimal data for analysis." She spoke with her flesh voice, it was the best chance they had to not be heard via noospheric emissions. Epsilon paused at an intersection and peered around to look for anyone approaching.
"Magos Ceth is a brilliant analyst and an expert in code management, his knowledge of the Noosphere surpasses even Magos Tahr'kull. It is likely his position over this mission is due to the large influx of data received from our presence here. My servo-skull has been transmitting data consistently ever since our shuttle landed."
"Such data is necessary to conduct proper forward analysis of any potential enemies." Vetra said, to which Epsilon nodded. "Which is why Magos Ceth is overseeing our efforts, I surmise no one else on board the ship could manage such a large amount of data efficiently, not in tandem with our speed."
Vetra sent an acknowledgement code, as they rounded a corner towards a target. A small port for servitor command uploads, insignificant for most. To the work of a Magos Dominus, it was child's play to abuse such an ancient building's infrastructure. These older ports were notoriously weak to modern forms of hostile code. Epsilon nodded Vetra forward, and she deftly slammed her new dataspike into the slot. It was part of her upgrades, all of Quill's personal elites had some level of higher augmetic. She'd been given a dataspike to transfer codes made by the Magos to a target system. Nothing happened, at the surface. At the machine level, the system spasmed and glitched out before eventually returning to a semblance of normalcy.
Secretly, the new code fragment sat indistinguishable from the normal protocols the facility ran on. It would siphon data from here, to Magos Ceth in orbit. "One down, three to go." Vetra said, Epsilon looked around. "Estimation to next target, five kilometers. We should get moving, if we're seen we can fight our way out but if we're seen accessing a dataport they'll discern our true intent here." The team confirmed their acknowledgement, and were off again.
Magos Ceth turned to face the hissing door opening behind him. Magos Van'thauss entered the room, and smacked the bottom of his axe into the ground. "Magos Ceth! Magos Tahr'kull said you got a report for me?"
Many in the cohort didn't like Magos Van'thauss, he was a rough around the edges type who was far too fond of comments about the rear end for most tech-priests. Magos Ceth liked him, though the Machine God only knew why. Ceth himself couldn't figure it out, for all intents and purposes, Magos Ceth should have found the Enginseer an obnoxious fleshy thing with no sense of reverence or adherence to proper manners. Yet every time Ceth wanted to chastise Van'thauss, he remembered reading the tome Principia Automata, which told that every device in service to the machine god is a holy one. They were all teeth in the eternal cog, Van'thauss included. In his own menial-esque way.
"Indeed, Magos Van'thauss. I'm uploading all the details to you now, I think it will spark your curiosity. As is the way of all servants of the Machine God."
"Yeah, I'm real curious about a lot of things. How you got here, how Pythagoras found you all here, when I'm going to get my next ration of liquor, and how we got so lucky to be staring down the possibility of resurrecting Heresy Era technology!"
"It is indeed a fortuitous turn of the gears, but we must balance our desire to pursue the holy mission with caution. The hereteks brought us here, so we must defuse their plans before enacting our own." Arkhite turned back to the strategium central console for a beat, before turning back quickly. "What was that you said about Magos Xanryl?"
"How'd he find you all here? I mean, this far out there's no known systems nearby and the astropaths said they had no idea where you all were."
"When did you speak with the Astropaths and where?"
"On board Iudex Galvanic, I was there to see if they knew anything about Praeco Voltaic disappearing before the Dark Angels were ready." The Manipulus stared at the Enginseer, before motioning for him to continue. "Oh, well they had no idea. All they'd gotten was the initial message that said you'd had a Dark Mechanicum infiltration, as far as I know Pythagoras never asked about it. Just demanded repairs and left for the crypt before rushing me onto a warp capable ship. Next thing I know, we're back."
"Magos Van'thauss," Ceth said slowly, "You are telling me that Magos Datasmith Xanryl did not speak with the Explorator Majoris about our location before you departed?"
"Nope. Why? He told me a long range vox transmission came in with your celestial coordinates."
"Argell," Arkhite said with his flesh voice, the sound of worry began to flood it, "We don't know our celestial coordinates." Van'thauss paused mid drink and looked back towards the door, "Why would Pythagoras lie about that?" Ceth shook his head, "I do not know. But we must find out before anything else happens, I will dispatch a Sicarian team to observe the Legio Cybernetica as soon as I can. I cannot divert away from this mission, but we are making good time."
Argell Van'thauss was about to respond, before he began coughing. He was still biological enough that his lungs were organic, though coughing like this was certainly abnormal. He was upgraded with the best filtration systems possible, given he was constantly immersed in smoke, smog, dust, and incense. The cause of his coughing attack was different, he covered his mouth out of habit. When he pulled it away, it was covered in thick blood.
"Huh… That's not normal." Magos Van'thauss turned to show Magos Ceth, but as he turned he grew dizzy and collapsed onto the ground with another coughing fit. Sputtering blood the entire time.
Magos Ceth rushed over, "Argell! What is going on!?" It was no use, he was debilitated by something. The Manipulus sent emergency protocols to his small group of Skitarii, who rushed in and began attending to the Enginseer.
"Take him to the Magos Biologis quickly, I fear this is an affliction of the flesh." They sent an acknowledgement code, and carried Van'thauss out with hurried urgency. Ceth's mind was racing, what could have happened? Argell was less augmented than himself or Quill but disease? That was unheard of, even for Enginseers. Especially for Enginseers he thought, they were constantly halfway buried in battle damaged potentially disease ridden machinery that hadn't been disinfected for menials in centuries.
He continued thinking quickly, until his eyes fell on Van'thauss' glass bottle. It clicked in his mind, what better way to poison someone who would normally be immune to all available poisons and vectors? Poison them in the same way they poison themselves. Activating his noospheric link, Ceth communicated directly with Epsilon. "High Marshal, be advised. We have a saboteur in our midst. I presume Magos Van'thauss has been poisoned. Remain vigilant and proceed with caution. I will handle this matter from here."
Epsilon's response was immediate. "Understood, Magos Ceth. We will continue the mission and maintain heightened security."
Ceth took a deep breath, centering his thoughts. The gears of the Machine God turned, and he would ensure that those who sought to disrupt their holy mission would be ground to dust. He would find the traitor and make them pay. For now, he had to balance two fronts: the mission at hand and the unraveling mystery of the traitors that surrounded them more and more by the moment.
A fighting retreat was occurring within the halls of The Obsidian Whisper, as it turned out the ship wasn't as abandoned as Elatus and Telemateus had initially thought. Telemateus swore under his breath as he ducked beneath cover just before galvanic shells peppered their position. This was yet another link in their awful chain of recent luck.
"My Lord," Scylia said, "I'm not sure how much longer I can keep up the illusory wall, this works better when they're in open spaces or intersections."
"It's the only obscuration we have, we'll make our breakout attempt soon." These tight corridors favored the cybernetic soldiers of either branch of the Mechanicum. They lacked the room to charge them and leverage their superior armor, they lacked any way to effectively flush them out of their entrenched positions, and they lacked mastery over the ship. Though oddly, it also appeared the Dark Mechanicum lacked control over it as well. At various points, hatches and blast doors slammed shut behind defending Mechanicum squads, which drew what Elatus determined to be shock from them. Shortly before they were gunned down by the superior equipment of the Astartes.
This was different, now they approached the comms room. Which the Dark Mechanicum seemed dead set on defending to their last. It was odd, this wasn't the bridge, the engine room, nor was it a data vault. It was just a place they could contact Deception's Venom, there was something in there they wanted to keep hidden.
"Telemateus, can Vaelith not dislodge these cog worshippers?"
"If only the beast could, brother. I already tried that, they have bigger guns further away that tore them apart as soon as they showed up."
"Oh well thank the warp for that, we get a few moments of silence before we're cut down by the ancient machinery outside."
Telemateus stood to send a bolt of warp energy down the hallway clean through the chest of a Skitarius, before a galvanic shell slammed into his pauldron. Sending him spinning back to the ground.
"Your rejoinder is appreciated, brother. However, I'd prefer a plan."
Elatus laid down covering fire as Telemateus moved back into cover, "For now my plan is to not stand up in the firing lane." Elatus looked around, until his eyes fell upon a fire suppression system control panel. He raised his boltgun, and fired. The sudden shot ringing behind them drew a rather loud and rather crude string of curses from Scylia, but a mist of flame retardant foam immediately flooded the hallway.
An encoded message filled the voxnet, a retreat order sent the warband dashing back into the hallways. The Mechanicum retreated similarly moments later but it was too late. Human agents and cultists rounded a different corner, and unloaded pounding slug fire as well as a billowing flamer. The Mechanicum were pushed back, Scylia didn't have time to tell the cultists not to pursue. They were caught up in their adulations to the dark gods, as they ran forward and were all crushed into dead fleshy bloody masses by booming gravity wells.
Spider limbed abominations with twisted mutated bodies atop them aimed down the hallway. Sporting dual grav-cannons threatening even the astartes with unavoidable death. Scylia, again, swore repeatedly as she retreated back down the hallway.
"Grav-cannons my lords," she said rapidly, "Some sort of warp touched servitors."
Elatus nodded, "That only furthers our initial suspicion. Their main focus of defense is here, not anything we would expect."
Telemateus shook his head, "What would possess these Mechanicum cultists to treasure a communications relay over the secrets held within their datastores or vaults?"
"I do not know," Elatus said while standing up from cover, "but we won't find out like this. Come, I have another plan. If the Mechanicum has dedicated what remains of their defense to this place, we will delay our initial objective and find that which they do not defend."
Telemateus stood and followed Elatus down a different hallway, away from the defenders. "Do I detect a hint of excitement in the ever cold Elatus?"
"There's a good reason to be excited. If the Mechanicum will not defend their vaults, then it leaves us ample opportunity to plunder them for a way to dislodge this obstacle. By overwhelming force."
The scene at the loading bay was a massacre. Dead bodies littered the room, burned, shot, electrocuted, or bludgeoned. An attack like this was either a larger force overwhelming the defenders or an ambush from a well prepared smaller force. The lack of forced entry told the person observing the slaughter that it was the latter. A tail-like dataspike reinforced with three arc cutter attachments facing inward like claws trailed behind them. Black Synskin covered their limber frame, as they maneuvered gracefully between bodies and analyzed them. A pair of Servo-skulls followed, each sporting Heresy Era scanners and equipment. They fed data to their master, a female sporting equipment unseen by most for ten-thousand years.
She was an expert in hunting those that had breached their defenses, she faintly heard the song of the Noosphere off in the distance. What they wanted here, she didn't know but that meant little to her for now. Her mission was to eradicate them; she'd been told of their heresy against the will of the Omnissiah. For that, they would all perish.
Her movements were precise and calculated as she analyzed the fallen. Her servo-skulls provided detailed scans, highlighting the various wounds and damage sustained by the defenders. She noted the efficiency of the attacks, the precision of each strike. The ambushers knew what they were doing.
"Calculated, methodical," she whispered to herself, her voice distorted into pure binharic by the vocal modulator embedded in her throat. "Worthy prey."
She wasn't sure how long it had been since she'd gone into cryo sleep, the Vanus temple had turned her into a weapon then kept her alive for untold centuries for the right time to deploy said weapon. Now, she awoke to a member of the Mechanicum telling her of their desperate plight. Hereteks stood to invade this place, after scouring its surface and making it devoid of life. These invaders were dangerous, and for the masters of this manufactorum to call in an evacuation she needed to kill the traitors.
Her mind flashed back to her training. The endless hours in simulation pods, the grueling physical conditioning, and the mental fortitude drilled into her by the temple's overseers. She was designed to be the perfect hunter, an apex predator in the digital and physical realms alike. Her purpose was clear, her resolve unyielding.
She'd done missions like this before, her memories were as if it had happened the previous morning. She was made for hunting down errant machines and hereteks. Through her experience, she'd gained a name, a title to instill fear in those she hunted. She'd heard it every once in a while, saw it murmured in the data clouds and written in dataslates. They called her The Noospheric Gheist, an Infocyte Assassin of the Vanus Temple.
Her servo-skulls detected a faint signal, a data trail left behind by the intruders. She accessed the data through her neural link, decrypting the information in mere seconds. It was a fragment of their communication, a glimpse into their a thought, she commanded her servo-skulls to follow the data trail. She would not rest until the hereteks were eradicated. Her augmented senses heightened, she moved with purpose, her mind already anticipating their next move. First she needed to better familiarize herself with the local datanet, hereteks always targeted such systems for sabotage. That would be their undoing.
As she exited the loading bay, she paused for a moment, her gaze lingering on the fallen Skitarii. She offered a silent prayer to the Omnissiah, a ritualistic gesture ingrained in her by the temple. "For the Machine God," she murmured, before disappearing into the shadows, her presence as elusive and deadly as a ghost in the noosphere.