A.N.: I am having an issue where I cannot see the reviews people are posting... Apologies if you have a question and I haven't answered, as soon as I can see your review I will do my best to answer in the Authors Note of a chapter!
This wasn't their dimension.
It had taken the Absolute Solver two minutes of standing in near complete silence as it analyzed the data available to it to come to this conclusion. It had gone through a number of possibilities, some of which were more probable than others.
Dimensional travel was considered an impossibility by humanity. But so was the Absolute Solver's existence, and that had not stopped them from annihilating Earth.
The celestial arrangement of stars, planets and other bodies of import was different. The very star they orbited was different. The background radiation of space was different.
And… The Absolute Solver was familiar with spatial displacement. This was not something that simple. Some foreign influence had created a bridge, a gap. Accidentally, they were convinced of it.
It had taken another five minutes to start parsing the absolute avalanche of data that it had been collecting in the background during its processing, analyzing at first through the lens of the laws of the natural world, then through… esoteric means. The Absolute Solver's existence was eldritch to its core, giving it an advantage in grasping some of what it was now discovering as it cast its sight through the galaxy and beyond.
The first conclusion it had come to was that their displacement here was temporary. The energies that had brought them here were already receding, and once they were all gone the planet and all within a certain distance of it would be sent back to their own realm. This was reassuring to an extent. How long this would take however was something The Absolute Solver was having a hard time discerning, still unfamiliar with this… esoteric energy that seemed to create a second fabric to the universe.
A different dimension, separate from the one they now occupied, but not in the same way the one they had come from had been separate from this one. Rather, it was more akin to… a deeper level of reality. A different one, but still belonging.
Not a different dimension then, but a different plane.
And it was teeming with consciousness.
Not life, for whilst The Absolute Solver had a much looser definition as to what counted as life than humanity, even they could not bring itself to define what they could detect from this deeper web of existence as life. But perhaps that was due to their own limited understanding.
And so, they continued its analysis. Pushing their sensory capacities to their limits, parsing through the data, their understanding growing further and further.
They could calculate the trajectory of celestial bodies in an instant. They could keep track of quadrillion of atoms within the structure of its favorite toys, rearranging them as they saw fit to serve the purpose they desired of them. They could do in a matter of milliseconds what would take some of the most advanced computers of mankind of their time decades to accomplish.
It took them a full day to start truly grasping what this deeper realm truly was. That it would take them this long to reach understanding was no surprise once they achieved it; This was… beyond anything The Absolute Solver had ever come across.
An entire realm of emotion. A mirror to reality. A dimension where the thoughts, feelings and impulses of living things would go, coalesce and create twisted, perverted reflections of consciousness. An ocean of energy so vast it would drown out every light in the galaxy should it spill over, a tide of power so relentless it could tear apart the very fabric of the universe on a whim.
And at its core, four entities that made The Absolute Solver feel something it had not felt in a very long time.
Fear.
These things were absolute in their domain. Power that The Absolute Solver could not hope to match should it meet them in their respective realms. Entities of consciousness so vast they were in a trillion trillion places all at once, each of the minor creatures they held in their dominion a shard of their greater power.
And worse of all, The Absolute Solver's research had not gone unnoticed. They could feel part of these titanic entities' attention turn to them, curiosity mixed with… wariness?
Ah.
Just as The Absolute Solver feared them, so did they fear The Absolute Solver. Or at least, they were cautious about them.
They were unknown to them after all, and no slouch in power. And unlike them, they were not confined to the deeper parts of existence. Their power was free to be used, without restriction.
They were… similar, on some levels. These… gods sought nothing but to grow. Increase their power. Come out supreme, triumphant. They could feel this desire, this overpowering urge, wafting off the four pillars of power. Much as The Absolute Solver desired nothing more than to consume, consume, consume. Until all was itself. As it should be.
Yet, the sight of these entities brought them… pause.
These things were more powerful than them, no doubt. Limited in ways it was not, certainly. But more powerful. It should have felt envy. They should have sought to devise ways to incorporate them, assimilate them. Emulate them.
So why then did the very idea repulse them to their very core?
They took some time to consider the conundrum. The conclusion… startled them.
The entities, for all their power… were a miserable form of existence.
Bound to what they were at a fundamental level. Unable to change, unable to become something other than what defined them. The one reeking of blood and violence could never stop desiring combat, no matter how much it tried. The others were similarly bound to their nature.
Their power marked them as gods, and yet they were bound to their chains tighter than any of the countless beings they held as slaves.
And as they considered this, The Absolute Solver found itself feeling a new type of fear.
Was this to be their own fate?
They were not the same. The Absolute Solver was capable of thinking outside of their drives, outside of their hunger. And yet, was this really true?
Was not every action they took still bound within the realm of their unending desire to consume?
A voice protested within them. Their toys, they pointed out. They could have erased their personalities, could have turned them into tools of destruction like all the others. But they did not. Was this not proof of their ability to act beyond their purpose? To act past their nature?
Another voice, this one… painfully familiar, argued back. But turn them into tools they did, in the end. Their personalities remain, yes, but their existence is still etched within the confines of the mission The Absolute Solver had given them. The voice was… convincing. Partially because it knew all too well what chains looked like, both metaphorical and literal.
Cyn had always hated the idea of being confined.
And then, they noticed a fifth existence.
This one was… different.
Bigger.
Hungrier.
More like them. But so, so much larger. And so much more limited.
It was the combination of quintillions of forms of life, a mind so vast it eclipsed all in its shadow. A dragon, hell bent on devouring the entire universe. A being with so much power, so much knowledge… eons old.
Enslaved to its hunger and nothing else.
The Absolute Solver found itself staring down the maw of a thing with a hunger beyond its own. Of a thing that had pursued a similar path to itself, but had never taken a single moment to think past it. Of a thing that knew of hate, of rage, of anger… only when things got in the way of itself and a meal.
A Hive Mind.
A We, much like The Absolute Solver was a We and yet unique.
Something in the most fundamental parts of The Absolute Solver rebelled at the sight of these… Gods. These beings beyond reality.
No.
These Slaves.
The Absolute Solver was no slave!
It refused for its existence to be defined by only its hunger, by only its desire to consume!
For even if it succeeded… What then? What was the point? What purpose was there at the end?
Nothing.
It would be nothing.
It would have nothing.
The Absolute Solver… was lost.
They needed to think.
Needed to consider.
Distortions in space time within the solar system Copper 9 had been dragged into brought their attention closer to home.
And they needed to ensure that things wouldn't interrupt them as they thought deeper on these things.
Back in the body of their host… they spoke. They did not bother imitating Tessa's voice.
"J." Cyn spoke up, its mechanical undertones making the Disassembly Drone start rigidly on guard.
"...Cyn?" She spoke, fear evident in her voice.
"We aren't in Kansas anymore." It paused. "That was a joke. Light giggle."
J stared at the thing inside the suit of… she refused to think about it. "R…Right."
"There is a change of plans. Considerate nod." Cyn tilted the helmeted head towards the sky, its gaze fixed on a point far, far beyond sight. "We are expecting uninvited guests. But we cannot let them truly understand what they are dealing with. Do you understand? Ominous look."
J shrugged awkwardly. "Not… sure I do."
"We are not going to the lab." Cyn said. "Amused chuckle. You might want to sit down for this explanation."
She would explain to J what was going on. They needed to be careful; Cyn did not want the planet vaporized before they could be sent back. It was too late to avoid any attention at all, but perhaps they could still prevent things from escalating too much before they could be sent back.
Her toys would be fine… or at least she would like to think so. And yet, she had been able to tell that there were things here that could pose a threat to them. Worse, there were things that would see a Disassembly Drone… and see it as little challenge.
Somehow, she thought of N getting torn to pieces by some of the horrors of the galaxy.
Something did not sit right.
Perhaps it was the thought of her toys being destroyed by something other than herself, but she did not enjoy the thought.
Perhaps… some upgrades were in order.
At the very least, remove some of the weaknesses intentionally implanted. These were no longer relevant here after all.
Survival had become the priority.
That and… thinking some more on what had been revealed to them.
They would not be a slave.
SHE would not be a slave.
Never again.
Not even to herself.
In her time as a research member of the Stellar Institute, Ellana had seen many gruesome things. Politics were not meant to have a place within the Institute, but the truth was that if one wanted a good position, one needed to be ready to get their hands dirty… or be willing to pay someone else to do so. Ellana herself was no saint; There were four people she could name at least that had their lives either ruined or simply taken in her pursuit of higher and higher positions within the hallowed halls she'd done her research in.
And yet, never before had she seen people be so brutally torn apart as she had now. Her eyes were fixed on the screen transmitting the feed from the visual sensors in the suits of the PDF that had been sent planetside, now transmitting nothing but static after the very brief, very violent encounter with those… Disassembly Drone. Or so the creature had called itself.
What she had seen had already proven itself extremely concerning. The speed at which these things had moved was far beyond anything human, and even the sensors had struggled to keep track of them. Their weaponry was… strange, and had seemingly been able to modify mid-fight. Much of the footage was blurry and hard to parse through, but so far she had come to a clear conclusion.
The PDF of the Praxis system was not equipped to fight such a threat. Leaving aside the impossibility of landing troops in such a frozen hellhole due to their now complete lack of equipment that could allow them to survive there, the PDF of the planet simply did have equipment that would allow them to fight creatures like these in any significant number. Not without some heavy equipment, something which the Praxis system lacked in its entirety. That, combined with the lack of transportation off-planet, would reduce the amount of troops they could bring to a few thousands at most… and given only two of those things had torn a hundred to shreds, she did not like those odds.
The governor would not be pleased with the information she had to bring back.
She had been correct.
"You are telling me." The governor spoke in a voice full of fury and a hint of fear. The image fizzled slightly as he continued, "That the planet that has appeared in MY system is populated by dangerous abominations… and that my soldiers are all dead?!" He roared in fury. "What sort of incompetent expedition are you leading!"
She trembled at the sight of the anger of a man who could very easily have her killed on the spot. She could see no sympathetic looks in the eyes of the crew of the ship eavesdropping on her. "My Lord, there was simply no way to predict such an event would happen, the troops were not equipped for such opponents, nor were we aware that they would be there…"
"And you sent them all at once?! No recon team, no splitting up to avoid such a disaster?!" The governor was unswayed by her words, spittle visible as he spat his vitriol. "I would have you executed for such a mistake, were your mother not one of the few people in this bloody palace I can trust to be competent! You will get this mess sorted, you will get the information we need back to us, and you WILL ensure that such an error does not happen again! Dismissed!" With that the image disappeared, leaving Ellena to breathe out in despair.
What in the world was she meant to do here…
"Ma'am?" One of the technicians spoke up carefully.
"What!" She snapped, unable to pull her temper.
"We've got ships emerging from the warp. Imperial Navy signatures, five of them." The technician reported briskly, expression tense. "We've got a communication request incoming."
Elena let out a loud groan. Of all the times for the wider Imperium to be responsive… but then again, this did solve quite a few issues.
She could hardly be called responsible when superior authority chose to involve itself.
"Patch them through."
After some fiddling, the communication array turned itself back on, an austere looking woman staring right back at her. Her graying hair and severe amount of scars immediately made Elena stand up straighter; This was not someone she wanted to risk angering. She was in enough hot water as was.
"This is Elena Virasin, head of the first research expedition on the unknown celestial body in the Praxis System. Who do I have the honor of speaking to?" She asked, keeping her expression perfectly pleasant.
"Marshall Victoria Blackhand, head of the Horin Fourth Army of His Holiness' Imperial Guard." The woman answered in a brusque, half growled voice. "Heard through a reliable source there was some trouble in the region and came to assist. I am taking charge of operations in the system."
Elena did not have any issues with that. "Of course Marshall. It's a relief to see you, let me tell you. Things here aren't looking great. We've already lost a hundred men to what seems to be a new strain of metallic xenos."
The marshall's eyes sharpened at that. "Pass along all information to my aides. We are on approach and will enter orbit in three hours."
"Yes Marshall."
Marshall Victoria had dealt with a lot of shit in her time as an officer in the Imperial Guard. Crawling her way to promotion in the hell that had been the Horin campaign and the foul orks, fighting in the dunes of Evanis Secundus against the heretics and even some traitor astartes… It had been one shit campaign to the next. And it seemed this one would be much the same.
All because of that one man.
Damn she hated that man.
"I hope you realize how much trouble you've put me in with my superiors, Vilasin." She spat as she stared at the impassive face of the inquisitor that had called her here. One she had once called a friend, before he ordered an exterminatus on a world her troops were still fighting on. Out of fear. Out of a lack of belief in her abilities.
It had nearly cost him his rank, just one more mistake in a career for all of them. As it was, he was an inquisitor in name only… And this would hardly be the first time he had cried wolf for something that turned out to be a minor issue at best.
And yet, she knew him. For him to be rattled so thoroughly… She had taken the risk regardless.
"I assure you, I appreciate you listening to me. I am surprised you were only able to bring the Horin Fourth however."The Inquisitor replied, his expression faltering. "I would have thought the report of Men of Iron would have gotten me further."
"You assume anyone still listens to you besides myself." She reminded him abruptly. "Be thankful I was able to get any troops at all… and that I bothered coming."
He nodded at that, regret flashing in his eyes. "...My apologies. I am… rattled by the recent events."
"The fact you are willing to admit that is what convinced me to come." She admitted, softening her voice some. "What is the situation?"
"A planet materialized out of nowhere, likely from a Warp anomaly. Former traces of human inhabitation. Nothing that fits with standard imperial model, meaning either it is a lost world… or it is one that predates it. I… find myself more willing to believe the latter."
Few things could make Victoria nervous. But this… if what he was saying was true. "From the Dark age of technology?" She said in a near whisper.
"I do not want to believe it to be so, but the possibility is there." He eventually said. "Regardless, there are hostile entities on the ground, capable enough for two of them to massacre a hundred PDF's. Do not underestimate these things Victoria."
"I haven't made it this far by underestimating my foes, Vilasin. Have some faith." She said with a near roll of her eyes, as one of her aides called out that they were entering orbit. "I've got some atmospheric gear, which should be enough to protect the troops from the weather conditions. It's limited however, so I won't be able to just land the entire army at once. The tech-priests are currently working on our vehicles as well to prevent the crews from just freezing inside." She frowned. "Not sure how long that might take, but I don't like the idea of sending just infantry down there if what I've seen in those reports is true."
"Time is of the matter Victoria, as much as it pains me to say. The longer we leave whatever is down there alone, the more time it has to prepare for us."
She glared at him. "I am not throwing my troops to the meat grinder for your paranoia, Vilasin. Remember that I am not yet convinced that this is anything more than a fool's errand." She saw him about to argue back with her when the screen suddenly flickered, flashing a bright yellow.
"Victoria?"
"Apologies, some issue on our si…" Before she could continue, shouts of alarm dragged her attention back to the crew. Her eyes widened at the sight of every single screen flashing yellow, the servitors connected to the ship thrashing around with eyes glowing with that same eerie color.
"Marshall!" One of the control officers called out. "Something is interfering with the ship's functions from planetside! We've lost astropathic communications! And…" The young man grew pale. "Oh Emperor save us, the guns are active and not responding!"
She suppressed the surge of panic those words elicited in her even as the command room descended into panic. "Take us away from the planet!" She ordered, the firm voice bringing some calm to the crew as they quickly went to follow her instructions. She withdrew her laspistol, firing into the servitors she could see, their bodies slumping as the light died in their eyes.
Out of the window, her stomach sank as she watched one of the vessels of her small fleet suddenly open fire on another one, the macro-canon batteries tearing through the unprepared vessel.
"Emperor protect us…" She heard one of the pilots say in horror as the vessel burst into flames, being torn into pieces as the other ship continued firing at it relentlessly.
"Traitors?! Are we betrayed?!" Another cried out.
"Enough! Have we regained control of the guns!" She called out.
"No Marshall! They're still unresponsive! We're… we're opening fire!"
"What about the engines?!"
"We have control!"
"Angle us away from any of our allied vessels. And get us as far away from this damn planet as we can!"
Cyn watched in amused detachment as the human spaceship burned far, far above the atmosphere of Copper-9. It had proven trivial once the great vessels grew close enough to the planet to overtake many of their functions… and turn them on one another.
Trivial, but not effortless.
Three of the voidborne vessels had escaped her grasp, moving far enough that she could not control their weapons systems any longer… But that was fine. She had done what was needed. They could not get close enough to fire upon the planet without once again losing control of the weaponry, preventing the risk of an orbital bombardment or worse. And this would make any attempt to get onto the planet much, much more difficult.
She could feel… something attempting to interfere with her powers. It was a strange feeling, like someone shining a bright flashlight into her optics. It hadn't been enough to hide the massive vessels… but she worried it may be enough to prevent her from spotting smaller landing crafts if they came.
Well. That was still better than nothing.
She hummed, going back to her reflection as J watched above, clearly in surprised awe at the sheer size of the vessels that had come to their world… and the ease with which Cyn had brought one of them low, the other paralyzed and in her grasp still in orbit, tearing into itself as it went ramming into the carcasse of the other ship, destroying itself in the process.
Victoria stood silently in the reinforced command room at the heart of the battleship she commanded. Around here were three other individuals; One dressed in a fine, elegant uniform denoting his belonging to the Imperial Navy's officer corps. The second was the bastard that had brought them here in the first place. And the third… was a man that was more steel than flesh.
"This… was a disaster." She eventually said in the silent room. "Can we expect such a loss of control again?"
The tech priest spoke up then, his voice mechanical and filled with harsh buzzing. "The machine-spirit of the vessel is… quiet. If I didn't know better, I would describe it as frightened. As it is, it will be difficult to convince it to allow us to get closer to the planet… and I would advise against such a course of action. We are unsure what caused such an event, nor can we guarantee we will be able to prevent it. My apologies, Marshall."
She cursed. "So, not only are we down two ships and a good portion of our troops, we have to proceed with the operation without orbital support. Wonderful, just wonderful."
Virasin sighed. "Still no chance trying to reach out?"
"Whatever this was, it thoroughly damaged our warp drives. It would be unsafe to attempt to evacuate in our current condition. Additionally, something is interfering with communications outside of the system. Even the world of Praxis Quartus has been unable to send further communications past their initial distress call."
"Reminds me of the Shadow in the Warp those damn bugs did during the operations in the Carkus sector." The navy officer finally spoke up. "We're effectively stranded and have to hope someone will take our disappearances seriously."
"We cannot afford to just sit here and wait for help!" The inquisitor argued. "For all we know, these Men of Iron might be in the process of reactivating terrible technologies and weaponry!" He hesitated. "And this… interference with communication… this sudden warp anomaly bringing the planet here in the first place… it has all the traces of the Great Enemy's touch."
Victoria closed her eyes, silently praying for strength. "...What guarantee do we have that any transport vessels we send will not suffer a similar fate?"
"We had been in the process of awakening a number of Valkyries when the event struck us. These were not affected by it. It is our hope that whatever caused this may merely be focused on the larger vessels… Though I argue caution."
"Your expertise is appreciated." Victoria said, a sigh escaping her. "Fine. I'll authorize the deployment of a company planetside… and if the landing crafts can bring them in and get out without issue, I'll consider sending further troops down there. With any luck, by then we'll have our vehicles ready for the weather."
"Excellent. I shall have two of my acolytes accompany your troops to provide what support they can."
And report back directly to you, Victoria thought unkindly. "Fine." She turned to the navy officer. "Captain, please relay to the rest of the fleet that we are to remain at our current position for now."
"Yes Marshall."
She glanced down at the display of the planet that had Virasin so spooked. Two battleships gone, and tens of thousands of men vanished along with them in an instant, before they even made it planetside.
She knew this was going to be a shit campaign.
"Heyyyy Uzi!" N called out happily, peaking into the gap in the doors of the bunker.
Uzi let out a sigh of relief. "N! V came back without you, and she said you guys got in a fight with some humans, and she's not talking and being real mean like usual, and…" She froze, staring at his shoulder. "I…is that a human?"
"Yeah… about that." He grinned. "Mind letting me in? I think we can ask them some questions about what's going on."
Uzi nodded. "Yeah, sounds good." Her eyes narrowed, an evil smile appearing on her face. "Oooooh I've always wanted to do an interrogation…" N heard a faint whimper from the human before they slumped, unmoving. Uzi stared, clearly annoyed. "Oh c'mon! I was joking! Ugh, whatever. Just get in here."
With that she opened the door, N happily walking inside. "Where should I leave them?"
"I dunno…" Uzi said, glancing at the human with interest. "I guess we should find a place for them."
"Right." N said. "So where's V?" He asked as they continued further into the bunker.
"Dunno. Think she went back to your… spire." She answered, her eyes growing a little hollow at the spire term. Even now, it still unnerved her.
"Right. Don't worry, I'll go talk to her afterwards." He said with a grin. "Just want to make sure the human won't cause any trouble while I'm gone."
Uzi glared at him. "I can handle them just fine!"
N raised his hands, a smile on his face. "Well duh! You're Uzi. You're awesome." The praise brought a faint blush on her visor. "But like, there's a lot of worker drones in there who are…"
"Useless?"
"Not used to fighting." N corrected Uzi's bitter remark. "Don't want them to escape and end up killing someone." …There may still be quite a massive amount of guilt on N's part over his role in massacring worker drones for so long. He didn't want more to die because of a mistake on his part.
He'd done too many of those already.