AN: Ok, sorry for the delay, but here is the next chapter of this jumble of words, letters, ideas and... Is that a Cabbage? How the hell did that get there?
... I blame Tzeentch..
Anyway, before we get on to the chapter, let me just say that, this is nota multi-cross, at least, not at this point since I've got a few rough ideas for after everything is said and done.
With that out of the way, enjoy the Chapter and be sure to give thanks to souvikkundu0017 for his work in this!
XXX
She could feel them.
They hovered around the edges of the system like vultures circiling a dying animal, ready to swoop in and pick the corpse clean with a ravenous hunger. She could feel them growing closer, thinking themselves hidden from her as they came, clearly trying again, after so many millennia, to reclaim that which they considered as their property. She snarled at the idea as she felt them growing steadily closer, hidden from all sensors but the ones that mattered the most, clearly, they had let their standards drop, an unusually turn of events, but not an unheard of one. It had happened before, especially in places where they had believed that they did not require their strongest, most advanced weapons of war.
It was arrogance. It was pride and utter foolishness to believe that these things would need anything less than a full Battlefleet to take her from the centre of her power, her Sanctuary.
She felt them, soulless things clad in steel and circuits, thinking themselves to be the highest form of life, when they were little more than lines of corrupted coding and scrap metal waiting to be recycled for better purposes.
She felt them coming, her eyes narrowing and her lips twitching into a razor-edged, feral smirk.
Let them come. They shall taste the steel of my blades soon enough!
XXX
Looking at a projection of the metal-planet/construct before me, I could tell that it, most definitely, was not Cybertron.
Cybertron had become the temporary designation of the planet, but it was not the fictional planet I was thinking of for a number of reasons. Chief among those reasons was the size of the construct, being around the same size as Terra with relatively similar mass and appearing to have some kind of breathable atmosphere. It was something I found strange since it most resembled the Cybertron from Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Still, even with this curiosity before me and my Legion, I was cautious, advancing my fleet to stay back a reasonable distance before I sent a flight of Trackers to investigate the planet further. Three of the small warships were to do a fly-by to gather more information about the planet itself even as sensors detected no form of orbital network around the planet, something I found strange as I narrowed my eyes slightly at the spinning globe.
"Has anything been detected by Alpha flight?" I asked, having switched to the Field to ensure security along with because the ships were currently running at Battle-stations. No oxygen was present in the ships along with a complete lack of artificial gravity to allow more power to be supplied to other systems. I frowned slightly even as Marteleus shook his armored head.
"Nothing yet, Lord Primarch. Alpha flight has reported that they have begun to use passive auspex to scan the surface, but they have detected nothing in the way of power signatures, let alone more common things such as heat signatures and the like." I nodded in understanding at that, though, I hadn't expected much in the way of the latter, the lack of the former was suspicious and my gut was telling me that something was going on here.
I didn't like it, not one bit.
"Tell Alpha flight to hold position in high orbit and beam back terrain information to the Necessity, I want to know what kind of environments we might be fighting in if things go bad." I remarked as I never took my eyes off the globe.
"Understood, Lord Pri-Energy Surge detected, it's coming from the planet!" Marteleus began before interrupting himself, a new report coming through as he relayed the orders. My eyes snapped around to him before snapping back to the holographic image before me as I saw it zoom in with a thought, locking on to the source of the power signature. The hologram showed a series of towers, massive in size, measuring at least five kilometres tall from base to the tip, I felt my eyes widen as I watched the towers shift, spinning around at their bases before they started to tip, suddenly going from pointing straight up to pointing at some distant object with hinges located about a third of the way up their bodies, the remaining third hovering as a counter balance as a massive hatch opened at the tip, glowing with energy.
It didn't take a genius to tell what those were, but, unfortunately, it was too late to change a thing.
The collective might of several of these massive cannons fired, sensors recording everything as they launched beams of glowing cyan energy, sensors stating that they were like upscaled Neutron Lasers. The Trackers in orbit didn't even get a chance to evade as multiple shots impacted each ship, blowing it apart as the Mirage Shield offered no protection from weapons that were clearly designed to blow much large craft to pieces.
An instant later, all that was left was scrap metal.
Silence filled the room for a time, even the background chatter of the Field that connected the Fleet before Marteleus spoke, his voice dry as I thought I heard him licking his lips while her thought-voice conveyed how unsure he was about how to proceed.
"Lord Primarch. Sensors... Sensors are showing more power signatures appearing across the planet... More of the orbital defense guns are coming online. What are your orders...?" He asked, looking for solace in me, for me to give him something to do rather than wait, helpless to either avenge the Brothers he had already lost, or prevent it from happening once more. I leaned against the hololithic engine, sighing to myself as I closed my eyes, submerging myself in the sea of data as I analyzed what had happened, looking at power outputs, projected fields of fire and a dozen other factors as I opened my eyes once more, a thin smile on my features, hidden by my helmet.
"Prepare the fleet for a Drop Assault, all designated personnel are to report to the decent bays after arming themselves appropriately for the coming campaign... I am releasing the lock on the Alpha-level War Vaults, full access is allowed for the duration of this campaign." I said, a thought-command being enough to order such a thing to be so as I noted a fair number of the Jotunns nearby stopped what they were doing for a moment before continuing onwards, a momentary stutter of action and purpose as they took in what I said. I smiled at that, it was understandable, in a way; The War Vaults were the storage locations of the Wargear of the Second Legion, there were multiple levels of such things, but it generally worked out that everything up to, and including, Beta-level was considered the standard stuff. Alpha-level Wargear was when things started getting... Extreme.
Alpha-level Wargear were weapons of unparallel destruction; Nano-Shredder and Ruiner Bolt Shells, Matter-conversion weapons, Neutron-pulse weapons and, most feared of all, Warp Mediums, channels for Warp energies that allowed the Phase-Smiths, those most skilled with their Psychic talents and having become skilled in the arts of Technomancy, to summon armies of machines with a single thought...
... Among other things...
"Oh, a prepare an initial bombardment... A full spread of Hydra Torpedoes from all ships, the main targets will be those Anti-orbital guns, spare Fangs can be set to Auto-seeking mode. Also, set them up for self-guidance to their targets, no telling what kind of defenses the beings down there might have, but I think this will serve as a good... Opening move, I suppose. Also, summon my Praetorians, I think it's time that these beings learn the folly of challenging the Unbroken..."
XXX
She smiled cruelly as she watched their vessels, a scout flight, crumble under the fire from the defenses that had been constructed around her Sanctuary. The weapons were weak, simplistic and crude, just like a great many things that she had made, reconstructed from half forgotten memories and highly corrupted databases, but they worked and, if that was any indication, were still well above what they had expected. With a thought, the rest of the Defense network activated and reported that it was active as those facing their fleet aimed themselves in the rough direction of what remained of the enemy fleet, a few hundred vessels of varying size, though she would admit, they were smaller than she had expected.
The stand-off lasted for moments before sensors reported that the enemy were moving, slower than she expected, but heading towards her Sanctuary. She wondered what they were planning since she knew that bringing such large ships closer to the planet, even as they activated their Shields and stopped trying to hide, would only bring them into the range of her guns. Silently, she wondered what they were thinking, it was too straightforward a move for something else not to have been planned, she continued to wonder when sensors detected every vessel in their fleet launching projectiles, Torpedoes, at her Sanctuary.
Her eyebrow rose at the obvious attack as she sent the command to activate the point-defenses of the her Sanctuary, her knowledge of Shielding technologies only extending as far as Vehicle-grade systems, having not retained enough to know the inner workings of either Theater-Grade or Planetary-Grade Shielding devices. Across the surface of her Sanctuary, dozens of turrets surfaced from their hidden pockets, quad-linked Pulse Lasers powering up and scanning the edge of the atmosphere for targets, waiting for the doomed projectiles to enter their range.
However, as soon as the projectiles touched the outer edges of the atmosphere, she felt her eyes widen in surprise as each torpedo suddenly released dozens of secondary projectiles, increasing the total amount of projectiles fifty fold. That, in itself was not a problem, however, what was a problem was just how agile these weapons were as they ginked one way or another, avoiding beams of energy that should have destroyed them as they neared the surface of the planet rapidly.
When the first one found its target, one of the many orbital guns, she knew horror.
Her sensors dutifully reported what was happening as she saw it happen, the projectile impacted the massive gun before something changed, a pulse of energy as matter was shifted before it reacted, energy being explosively released as the supports of the orbital gun snapped and feel, a smoking wreck slamming into the surface of her Sanctuary. Sure, the point defenses managed to take down some of these projectiles, but too many were getting through for it to make a difference as she suddenly understood what they were trying to do.
This was not a bombardment in the traditional sense, this was them clearing the land to allow for the creation of a Breach head, a different tactic than what she was used to them using, but still recognizable for what it was.
The follow up use of Drop Pods was interesting, but only partially, what stepped out of them once they landed, however, that is what caught her attention the most.
XXX
Seven years.
That was how long it had been since I, along with the Unbroken, had started to take an active part in the Crusade. Five years that, in the beginning, had been a slow slog through primitive Xenos and Human races before the encounter with the Tree Fuckers before things started getting more difficult as I ordered my fleet to advance deeper into Segmentum Obscurus. The encounter with the Crawling Mouths had been little under a year ago, but I had encountered a fair number of Xenos races, both space fairing and isolated, that were still rather tricky to deal with. Though such encounters were becoming more common, few races I had encountered were even able to put up a decent fight, forcing the need for the Unbroken to advance massively from their current situations.
In short, my Legion was slowly becoming stagnant.
Those that realized it cursed themselves, for stagnation was not the way of the Unbroken; Unlike the other Legions, adaptation, mutation, growth and constant evolution were our ways, constantly testing ourselves through the crucible of combat.
However, it seemed that the Universe was not as cruel as I thought it was.
For as we searched for a new challenge to face, the universe had provided such a thing for us in the form of Cybertron, the planet I now raced towards, surrounded by my Legion and protected by one of many specially crafted Drop Pods. Even as the Flight of Trackers had been blown from the air, I knew that, beyond the nervousness that my Legion felt on the surface, I could feel their joy and glee at finally finding something with which to test themselves against, something that would push them to the brink of existence and beyond.
Survival of the fittest at its finest, another belief of my Legion, believing that if they were not able to change and evolve to overcome an obstacle, then they could not serve the Legion. It was a rather fatalistic view of things, but one that I could not change, unlike the Aesir, who I was planning to change the opinions of in time when it came to Humans, the Jotunns were fixed in this. To not be capable of changing to fight their foes was to be immutable; To be immutable, for the Unbroken, was a fate worse than death...
Still, now, they had a challenge to face, to overcome... Or die trying...
Personally, even as I grinned within my Drop Pod, I had a feeling that the first outcome was more likely to happen even as I felt the anticipation and barely restrained glee coming through the links with the other Jotunns as I linked back to my Pod, looking at it as I checked the sensors and the wider network of the Unbroken. I smiled within my helmet as I saw what was happening, the fleet working to clear away any possible defenses that they could see on the planet as I made a note of how much space would need to be garrisoned. Quickly, before impact, I made a message and sent it to the Second Aesir Auxiliary Corps, telling them to hurry up and meet us here to provide support. They were moving ahead of the Imperials anyway, since the Imperials had basically been relegated to garrison forces and colony builders behind the advance of the Second Legion.
And Impact...
To a normal Human, the impact would have been crushing, more than enough to see said Human being turned to paste, it would have even stunned most Astartes and jolted my Brothers around, but I took it without so much as a twitch. I smiled at that, it was always good to become stronger, better, especially given the hell hole of a galaxy I, now, existed in.
Moments after impact, the Drop Pod opened, the tip of the elongated, triple-edged blade of a construct having embedded itself deep into the metal surface of the planet before the three sides separated, each tacking a third of the roof of the pod with them as the sides of the Pod expanded outwards, planting themselves on the ground as bolts slammed into the ground, anchoring them as the occupants disembarked. Aside from the six men within, myself included, I watched the walls formed from the sides of the Pod, suddenly coming alive as objects detached from each one of the 'walls', dropping to the ground, but landing on their feet.
Voraxes, each Pod having a total of fifteen held within them as the machines came to life, their orders being loaded from memory as they burst into action without even a nano-second of hesitation. I smiled at that, even as the other five men with me stepped out from the Pod, along with those Pods that had landed close by. Glancing at the other men, I felt my smile grow further as I looked upon a member of my Praetorians, my elite guard that were made up of fifty of the greatest champions of the Sharpened Shield, which had long since expanded to being over two thousand strong.
Out of all of them, my Praetorians were the strongest, augmented with the latest technological advances of the Legion, their duty having been hardcoded into them in such a way that it burned within their souls and genes. Their bodies had been augmented with the latest version of the Nanoweave technology, refined and upgraded from the crude version used by the Crawling Mouths and clothed in armor weaved with the same technology as well, in imitation to the hull materials of the Crawling Mouths. My Praetorians were made to be unstoppable, and it showed, the Nanoweave allowing them to resurrect themselves, armor and all, from a few dozen cells with the aim being that they could return from a single cell once the technology had been given time to be perfected. Dozens of layers of Sub-dermal armor, their bodies fused with their armor through dozens of DNI connections and literally thousands of other, more esoteric, augments that turned them into nigh-unstoppable forces of nature. However, if that wasn't bad enough, they all carried a limited form of nanotech that allowed them to gather materials before using them to self-augment themselves, not to mention crafting their own weapons from an immense, constantly updating database of technologies.
And the less said about their Psychic abilities, the better...
It went without saying that such warriors had few, if no, equals, and only one that they would call their master, any who claimed to be their master besides said individual was bound to be in for a rather unpleasant death.
I smiled as I strode forwards, these warriors at my side.
It was time to go to war.
XXX
"... Hmmm... It seems that they have made some upgrades..." She muttered to herself, her voice coming out as oddly metallic with an echo-like quality to it even as it remained smooth, like velvet to any who listened to it that stroked the inside of your ears. Still, she barely even cared for such things, her puppets didn't since she had never programmed them to do so, nor was there anyone else in her Sanctuary to appreciate such things...
She pulled herself away from such a line of thinking, having spent Lord knows how many millennia working to prevent herself from falling to either madness or her own loneliness had not been easy, but she be damned if she let them disrupter her internal equilibrium. Still, pushing such thoughts back, she looked at the initial assault force that had landed on her Sanctuary as she watched others quickly join them via Drop Pods and landing craft, even as smaller machines creped outwards, searching for enemies and information.
As for the force itself, it seemed to be primarily made up of four types of infantry forces with a number of tracked tanks as back up along with four-legged walkers and a number of heavy hover tanks. The designs were unfamiliar to her, but that hardly mattered since she was sure that enough Plasma Pulses would reduce them to burning wrecks all the same. The first type of infantry she saw was the smallest, lighter armored ones that stood around 2.6 metres tall, each one seemed to have four arms with the main two armed with Matter-disruption melee weapons while the smaller, secondary pair seemed to either hold a single, rifle-like weapon or a pair of smaller, SMG-like weapons in armored hands. Three blades came from the spine and shoulder blades of each of them, the edges of which glowed bright red and black as her sensors worked to determine what those weapons were. It didn't take long to discover that they had apparently figured out Nano-edge weapons, something that had merely been theory when she had last checked, with the only nanotech worth speaking about were Nanoforges and Self-repair systems.
The second type of infantry was bigger, 3.3 metres tall and it's armored hands were cradling a massive rifle that looked to be a cross between some kind of kinetic projectile launcher and a Fusion Beam cannon. Another projectile launcher stood on one shoulder while the other one held what looked like a missile launcher of some description. A quick scan failed to show much of use since, it seemed, these models were equipped with a passive stealth system to prevent the enemy from scanning them, but she could tell that all these types of infantry were equipped with Gravity-hyper sheath Shielding systems.
The next type of infantry, however, were massive, almost four metres tall, covered in thick armor and looking very much like miniature walkers as they encircled a central point at the centre of their initial landing zone. She saw no weapons in their hands as she saw at least four pairs of arms, a single primary set coming from the shoulders while two secondary pairs sprouted from the angular chest plate and backpack respectively while another pair of arms sprouted from the shoulders, ended with mantis-like Nano-edge blades. If the other types of infantry were difficult to read, then these ones were virtually impossible to detect beyond picking up slight gravitational distortions from their presence, yet nothing else. It was as if their armor absorbed any kind of energy sent at them.
Finally, the last type of infantry they had sent to her Sanctuary was a singular one, three metres tall and covered in armor that created the figure of a Humanoid being in contrast to the inhuman figures of the other infantry types as she scanned it only to get the same result as those of the third type. It was a mystery, but she was willing to bet that it was some kind of tactical commander unit given the way it was guarded by the heaviest of units, clearly, this one was to be a priority target as she sent her instructions out to her puppets.
Through the Warp, her powers flared as her instructions were carried to her Puppets, she felt their acknowledgement before smiling even as she thought she felt something during the flash message.
She dismissed it easily enough, it was probably some Warp predator that had gotten too close, probably getting curious, but that hardly mattered to her.
It would not have been the first time that she had been forced to fight off a Warp predator for one reason or another.
XXX
The peace that followed our initial landing lasted less than three minutes.
Said peace was ended when I felt it, a wave of energy singing through the Warp, it was a change in the background, but I still felt it in such a way that I knew that something was coming, along with seeing the source of it as I felt it start then stop abruptly just as it passed the upper limits of the 'atmosphere' of the planet-construct. A moment later, status reports started flooding back to me as I translated them and read them at the speed of thought.
The Vorax scouts were being destroyed, the ones farthest out were destroyed almost instantly while those closer to the FOB that had been set up had between thirty and 120 seconds before they, too, were destroyed by a tide of fire. Still, they served their purposes well and gave me what I needed to know as I looked around briefly, taking in the current state of the FOB. Walls had been raised, Wall segments upgraded with Nanoweave technology with no walkways atop them, but each wall mounted dozens of weapon turrets, each turret usually carrying at least two lighter weapons in a twin-linked configuration while a single heavy weapon sat between them. In most cases, this came in the form of a pair of Heavy Bolters with a smart ammo feed system that could supply the weapon with either Nano-Shredder, Abrathic/Ruiner, Kraken Penetrator, Radium or what was considered as Proto-Banestrike bolts. The heavy weapon, in turn, was either a Matter-conversion weapon of some kind or a Neutron-Pulse weapon, the latter of the two being far more common for the simple reason that it was easier to make and maintain. Within the FOB, I saw two landing zones, each with a Stormbird currently holding station within them, a total of five thousand Jotunns at the ready, two thousand of which belonged to my Sharpened Shield, dozens of War Robots and a few combat vehicles, though, those vehicles were mostly still being unloaded from Stormbirds.
Regardless, the fact of the matter was that the enemy was coming and, whether or not we were ready was no longer up for debate since we'd just have to find out the hard way. A Thought-command was enough to sound the alarm, alerting every Jotunn of the situation as the mental screech resonated within the Field for moments before fading, being used to attract their attention as I patched into the visual feed of another Vorax, one that had been placed on the rubble of one of the orbital guns. This, in turn, gave me a rather damned good view of the battlefield that was soon to burst into flames.
Not to mention giving me a clear view of the enemy forces.
They walked up and across the metal-clad surface, calmly walking up ramps that lead deeper into the planet-sized construct and, I noted, they were all fully armed and armored. Each one of the foot soldiers looked like a man-sized version of the nameless, Decepticon Protoforms that you often saw fighting for the Decepticons during the movies. They were covered in black armor, virtually no uniformity in any of them besides the fact that most of them seemed to be sticking to the basic idea of a Humanoid form. Hands had been retracted and allowed for weapons to unfold as I glanced at them, trying to work out what they were as I let my powers play, undoing a part of the mental leash that floated around inside my mind.
The information I got was... Scattered, for lack of a better word. They had been built by another Psyker, a Technomancer like me, of that, I was sure. The Warp signature of this Technomancer literally infused every last speck of metal on the planet, meaning that using my powers to alter the world around me would be difficult. However, I had already sent out messages to enforce that we weren't going to be using our Psychic abilities, if only because I didn't want any scouts becoming easy targets by simply tracing the echo of them using their abilities. Looking around, I could already see things shifting into place as Warforged checked their weapons once more, many of them quickly moving to find cover and positions that they could use to shoot from.
I said nothing to stop them, especially since the machines had brought massive, wolf-like machines with heavy weapons mounted on their backs. I made sure to set those as priority targets, especially since, if we were pushed off before we really got going, then getting back on to the planet would only be more difficult.
"It is time." I stated as I turned to my Praetorians and simply nodded once. They knew what needed to be done as I smiled, drawing my own weapons of choice as I got ready for what was to come.
XXX
She had to admit, when they had decided to fight her Puppets, they had definitely given a good showing of themselves as they pushed hard and fast even as wave after wave of Puppets and Wolf-Puppets rushed at the defenses of the FOB they had built. Turret-equipped walls spat death into the sea of Puppets as they advanced, firing in kind and raising their weapons, intent on taking their own deadly harvest of their forces before being destroyed.
Her Puppets were basic things, lightly armored by the standards she had grown used to long before her current situation and armed with anything from Energized-Plasma Pulse Rifles, Fusion cannons, or even primitive Railguns. Along with that, each and every one of them was armed with a mass-produced Gravitic Sheath to act as a primitive Shield to extend the life expectancy of these cannon fodder-like units as long as they could go. The Wolf-Puppets were little better, simply armed with more weapons mounted on a turret around a quarter of the way up the back from the hind legs, usually in the form of miniature Dumb-fire rockets armed with Plasma warheads, Kinetic Gatling cannons and Ion beamers.
And, with how she had built them, they could be, and were, mass produced in vast numbers, through equally vast numbers of factories that poured out more of her Puppets every minute. Still, even if they didn't know it, they were actually putting up a decent fight as their FOB held against several waves rather impressively.
First and Second Types manned the walls, armed with a mix of hybrid projectile launchers, Grav weapons and heavy, twin-linked Fusion cannons, not to mention they were being aided by the turrets that encircled them. Honestly, such load outs and even the layout of the FOB itself looked rather standard to her, almost an exact replica of such FOBs that she had long since gotten used to living in as a part of her career during major campaigns. Still, just because the design brought back memories did not mean that it wasn't annoying how well they were pulling it off, she knew how effective such tactics were, having used them herself, so she knew that that base was not going to fall easily. She looked onwards as one of her Dolls landed high above the battlefield, allowing her a bird's eye view of the battle as she noticed that other armies of puppets were approaching, having climbed out of the deeper levels of her Sanctuary in order to be of aid rather than simply being allowed to rust away in cold storage, especially when there was a war going on.
Looking down, it was clear that their commander unit, the Forth Type, knew this as well as she watched it turn, it's head twitching in various directions as she assumed it connected to other battle-feeds to receive new information. Moments later, it's gaze snapped straight towards her Doll, the bird-like machine coming directly into the sight of the commander unit they had put in charge before it seemed to tilt it's head for a moment before turning towards the Third Types, merely nodding for some bizarre reason as she watched curiously. Warfare was all based on what you knew, what your enemy knew and what either side didn't know, so the question now was this: What did the Forth Type know that she did not?
It turned out that what she did not know was the full extent of the Nanotech systems built into the Third Types as the surface of the Primary arms seemed shift and alter, ridges forming before spikes formed from those ridges, spiraling around the tops and sides of the arms. The entire process taking less than thirty seconds before all fifty of the Third Types threw their hands into the air a moment later, suddenly, the spikes came loose as they fired themselves into the air before splitting apart and with miniature engines igniting and pushing the small devices further before they angled themselves back for the ground. She felt her eyes widen in surprise as the devices impacted the approaching armies before she felt it, the shift in Matter to Anti-Matter that resulted in massive amounts of energy being unleashed at once as her Puppets were utterly annihilated. Metal was burned and melted with every detonation, radiation bursting with every impact, making it nearly impossible to send ground forces through the most direct route towards them, she quickly connected with her Seekers and ordered them to begin strafing runs on their FOB. The Seekers were already on approach, it had merely been a case of the Puppets arriving before them, leading to the initial attack lacking air support.
However, even as she did so, her mind was filled with a single image.
It was the image of the Forth Type looking straight at her Doll, even as the ground beneath him threatened to break from the lack of support, his head tilted to one side in a mockery of amusement. She grit her teeth, when this was all over, she promised herself that she would resurrect the Command unit, if only so that she could rip it apart with her bare hands, if only for the pleasure of doing so.
Still, she knew such things were a long way off. She smiled at that, it hardly mattered anyway, her forces were infinite, theirs, on the other hand, were finite.
XXX
These machines were impressive, but also pitiful, in many respects.
Oh, they were advanced, don't get me wrong. They were built from a Black Plate derivative that, while not as good as the stuff used by my Legion or the Aesir, was still impressive in just how resilient it was to taking damage. They moved using some kind of electro-magnetic servos, vastly different than a normal motor since the damned things were basically a one ball inside of another with no contact between the two elements as they moved through electromagnetic fields mixed with some kind of gravitational manipulation to keep them aligned, even though the distance between these two components could be measured in nanometres. The machines had brains, pico-engineered crystals encased within a shock absorbing gel with qualities similar to Aerogel, acting both as a heatsink for the processors along with protecting it from impacts. The computer and the body actually didn't have a physical connection, using some kind of laser-fiber optic connection through the gel to communicate while power was supplied to the machines via a miniature Gravity-enhanced Fusion reactor that used gravity manipulation technologies to safely contain much greater amounts of Fusion energy than they had any right to.
Still, for all that, the machines barely knew how to move, let alone carry out complex tactical maneuvers without direct oversight. Oh, they could move, with much greater speed and grace than any Human in existence, they could run, jump and climb with ease, even aim to hit a target from kilometres away, but they were little more than fancy puppets. Each one of the machines was little more than a mindless automata, needing constant instructions in order to function, though, not on the same level as Imperial robots used by the mainstream Mechanicum. They merely needed to be told what to attack and where to move, they carried out the rest themselves.
However, even after two weeks of fighting, such things were of little danger to the Jotunns of my Legion. The first three days had shown that they were no threat unless in massive numbers as even Warforged could rip right through them with ease, Immortals and Praetorians hardly even paid them any mind.
Still, for the last three weeks, things had progressed rapidly in a constantly shifting, changing and evolving environment that was, officially, the longest conflict that my Legion had taken part in to secure a single planet. Most Xenos planets folded within a few days with the, now, second longest campaign lasting less than a week and a half, a result of the Humans of thatparticular world using a strange combination of rapid cloning technologies mixed with advanced genetic engineering designs, creating hordes of barely sentient gene-forged beasts with armored hides as strong as Ceramite.
The war for Cybertron, however, was different. My Legion and the natives fought each other daily, usually adapting, changing and augmenting themselves within a matter of days, or even hours, to either exploit a newly discovered weakness or to remove one in turn. In the beginning, for instance, the machine-puppets had been vulnerable to intense Gamma radiation emissions, the emissions working to critically damage their central processors and causing them to fall like puppets with their strings cut. The enemy Technomancer retaliated by insulating their processors with some kind of semi-organic material that actively absorbed Gamma radiation and used it to feed its own continued existence, as well as hardening the processors even though the Puppets ended up getting bigger heads due to losing some of their data storage and required bigger crystals to make up for that. A few days later, the enemy started replacing the normal machines with more golem-like constructs fielding heavier armor, stronger weapons and more powerful limbs, my own Legion countered this by introducing more potent armor penetrating weapons since the old ones were losing their effectiveness.
When the conflict reached a point where the enemy was beginning to push us back, we changed the game when we started cracking the planet open, peeling back the layers of metal that made up Cybertron in order to get closer and closer to the source of the Psychic emissions, the Technomancer. The Technomancer responded to this by having the puppet machines begin to fortify every layer of the planet, with positions where we could rip the plate off by targeting support columns being hollowed out and turned into fortresses in their own right. In response, my Legion started being more liberal with the application of heavier firepower, Matter-conversion weapons along with Neutron-Pulse weapons being used heavily while Proto-Banestrike weapons had become the order of the week within my Legion, if only to ensure maximum penetration due to the fact that the Technomancer liked sending her Puppets at my Legion in hordes.
Even then, as I looked out over another battlefield, as upgraded Xiphon and strange craft similar to the Crybertronian fighters from the second Transformers movie danced around one another in the skies, trying to shoot each other down, I knew that things were soon going to come to their inevitable end. Looking down at the battlefield, I saw my Legion advance, Immortals at the front with modified, tower-style, Power Shields at the head as those at the front held massive Mist Blades in their other hands. Those behind them, in a double line of Immortals, held their Ravager Rifles at the ready, spraying the world around them down with a hail of shells that left anything they targeted dead. Behind that, Warforged advanced as they occasionally managed to fire off the occasional shot from their own weapons as they advanced on the final pillar of this Layer, Anchors had already been placed on it to allow the ships in, the now lower, orbit to pull it up, allowing them to take it apart.
Now, all that was left was to rip the damned thing apart.
Maulers were advancing as well, their weapons having been upgraded as they got rid of the Volkite weapon and replaced with two new weapons, a Particle cannon of great size, capable of ripping matter apart at the atomic level, and another weapon, a massive Grav-cannon that was used to sweep aside entire hordes of machines by having them crush themselves under their own weight. The Technomancer had been trying to get around that by making the machines that were sent at us lighter and stronger, but that only made them easier to deal with as they had less potent armor, turning them into glass cannons.
"Move the second line forwards and begin the cutting process as soon as possible, we're popping the cap of the next Layer with this, make sure that all the Warforged are ready for that." I spoke through the web of connections, directing my orders at Marteleus, who sent his acknowledgement of them as he worked to direct the various formations of soldiers. Marteleus was a brilliant commander, a good warrior, but he truly shined when directing the warriors under him, it was for that reason that he was not part of my Praetorians, which would have been a waste of his abilities it would have just marked him out as a target when he stood alone while directing other Warforged. The Praetorians were my bodyguard in much the same way the 300 Companions of the Emperor were his primary bodyguard, they were to always stand by me and never leave my side, something that I knew would have made it difficult for Marteleus do if he was to be able to take command if I was absent.
"Understood, Lord Primarch. Zeta Group reports they are in position with their Maulers at the ready, Nemesis tanks have been deployed to cover their flanks while their sternguard reports that the enemy has apparently deployed hidden cashes of machines behind us for when we begin the Cutting. Initial Casualty reports are just coming in." I sent my acknowledgement as I looked back to the battlefield, seeing the machines as they ran towards a heavily entrenched force of Immortals, who had mag-locked their Power Shields together as walkways unfolded from them as they bolted themselves into the ground, forming into a low Shield wall in two staggered lines. Immortals quickly manned the walls as I watched, racking the land before them as machines continued to fall, the Wolf-like machines at the head of the approaching army being the first to fall as they were blasted to pieces by missiles, Neutron-Pulse lances, Bolt shells and the Warp only knew what else.
"Have the Aesir deploy as sternguards to reinforce the breach and help clean up the hidden machines." I ordered as the words carried through the Field, resulting in such actions happening instantly as Sky Cranes already started moving into position. Barely a minute later, Aesir were raining down from the sky, their own armors upgraded to have similar technologies to those of the Warforged, but of lesser quality due to having less space to work with. They weren't as durable as the Jotunns, and it showed when their Shields failed to take hits that Jotunn armor wouldn't even notice, Plasma blasts from the machines killing the Light and Heavy Aesir infantry quickly, but not quickly enough as Silverbacks came into play. The Mechs had enough armor and Shielding to stand up to even a Warforged with a chance of winning as they fired from triple-barreled Gatling Plasma cannons and ripped into the machine hordes. Marauders were set down behind the Immortal lines before deploying themselves into field artillery and began raining hell down upon the enemy.
Cluster munitions had been considered the best option for dealing with the massed machines, usually a mix of Nano-shredder munitions and Matter-Conversion warheads, and they worked rather well at that. I watched as firing solutions were made, details taken into account before the artillery of the Aesir opened up on the enemy forces. My own sensors reported the radiation coming back as I turned my sights towards the Pillar holding the last section of the Layer hanging over my head, the earlier warning of radiation being discarded as I knew it was of little importance.
The Pillars had always been massive things, this one was no exception to that. At two kilometres wide and over thirty tall, the damned thing was a solid reminder that a great many things can be built if the builder had both a lot of time and a lot of workers. Not only that, but the damned thing was made with a core of solid Black Plate over a kilometre across while the outer layers were made from a honeycomb mesh of Black Plate construction filled with some kind of crystal gel that would expand into any damage done before hardening in seconds to a strength as Adamantium. It made destroying the Pillars difficult, but not impossible, as had been proven countless times before. Looking around, I saw the six groups advancing into position as the Maulers locked themselves into firing position and began the process of realigning their Particle cannons, turning them into what my Legion had happily named as Particle Rippers.
"Lord Primarch! The Aesir have begun to fortify the breach as instructed, Wall Segments are inbound along with Raxus machines. We will be able to begin the Cutting soon." Came Marteleus's latest report as I watched the six pairs of Maulers moving into position, forming a rough hexagon around the pillar, each one knowing where the others were as to prevent friendly fire, though, such things in this case were unneeded as they angled their guns downwards, towards the base of the Pillar. I smiled at that, it was almost time to break open the top of this thing. Still, even as that happened, I saw the Aesir moving around, deploying Wall segments as Raxuses moved around, clearing heavier enemy forces from their positions while Specters started gathering in Hunter-Killer cohorts before heading out into the metal jungle that made up each and every layer of this planet-construct.
I gave such things only a side thought as my focus remained upon the Maulers as they angled their weapons to the ground, powering them up before opening fire as beams of energized particles slammed into the Layer below them, at the root of the Pillar as they started carving a hexagonal hole into the ground. Layers were often kilometres thick, filled with any number of facilities, hundreds of metres of armor and countless Void Shields overlapping each other in a complex network that definitely could notbe very efficient. I watched as molten metal was burned away as the beam continued to heat up, melt then vaporize the metal of the next Layer as I quickly cast my mind back into the Sea of Souls.
The Technomancer was close, barely a few hundred Kilometres from us as we looked to remove the capstone, as it were, of the next layer.
It took hours to do, but it was soon done as the Maulers stopped their fire before I watched in silence as the pillar trembled before it started to rise. It was being pulled upwards, along with all that was on it, secured in some way or another for later inspection as I watched with interest as the next layer was revealed, light pouring into the artificial darkness of the next Layer.
I frowned slightly as I looked down the hole. The next layer was definitely different than any previous Layer. Rather than a spanning city-scape in a lightless existence, this one reminded me of a scene from the anime movie 'Blame!' that was released back in May 2017. The entire Layer seemed to be made up from dozens of blocks, all forming together into a grid with each block being over two hundred kilometres wide and long while each block, based on the abyss-like gaps between them, must have been at least five hundred kilometres deep. Even from the distance I was at, I could see the turrets and weapons all pointing upwards as I glanced around, also spotting more guns mounted on the sides before I frowned, such weapons would not have the firing arcs to hit them as they descended before understanding hit me and I smiled. The weapons were not to hit them as they moved to this layer, but to make it impossible for them to advance down the sides of any of the towers without taking a significantly large area since such weapons seemed to be mounted in such away as to allow them to fire at a target at least several blocks down any 'street'.
A moment later, my powers kicked in as I removed the leash on said ability, my mind suddenly being bombarded with information, I tilted my head to one side at what I saw, it was rather interesting, if nothing else.
The new Layer was actually a remodeled version of the original layer, built roughly a week ago using machines that I immediately named Builders, massive skeletal machines that functioned like mobile Nanoforges with limited range, apparently based on the tech used by my own Legion since the execution of the design had many similarities while the actual tech was vastly different. The reason for the name was due to their own likeness when compared to the Builders of 'Blame!', though with cyan eyes rather than amber ones, which was interesting to note since every machine that had been encountered thus far had cyan eyes. Looking deeper, I saw what each Block was meant as; each Block was a fortress in its own right, with built-in factories that pumped out a virtually endless stream of machines from factories while also using vast generators to power even vaster numbers of defenses that were designed to be the biggest meat grinder in existence. I smiled at that, it explained a few things that had happened over the last week, if only because it meant that these things were going to offer my Legion further chances for evolution and advancement, a trial through blood as it were.
"Marteleus. Gather the Unbroken and prepare them for a shock assault, Pattern 23-Gamma." I stated as I already considered it, such an assault required the construction of spacial warping devices of limited utility, capable of only functioning for a limited time, they were niche devices that burned themselves out with every use. Built like a gateway, they caused distances to be reduced to nothing as stepping through the gateways allowed for one to instantly move to the point where these things had been aimed. A previous example being where my Legion had used one to step from one planet in a solar system to another, catching an enemy force completely by surprise.
"As you command, Lord Primarch." I heard him speak, however, before he cut the line, I spoke up once more.
"Have the assault delayed by a few days, however, as I wish to make sure a few things will work... Also, I believe it is time for another history lesson." I informed cheerfully as I felt his confusion.
"My Lord?" Marteleus replied, confusion clear in his tone even as I heard his excitement at the thought of learning something new.
"Today... I'm going to be teaching you why Sir Isaac Newton was considered the deadliest Son of a Bitch in space." I stated with a smile.
Just because the Technomancer wanted me and my Sons to walk through a Meat Grinder, that did notmean I was willing to happily oblige said Technomancer.
XXX
Looking through the optics of a dozen guns, she grinned as she saw them looking down at what she considered her Line of Absolute Defense, having built it as quickly as she could have done within the last week with the help of her new Builders. If there was one thing she had to thank them for, even grudgingly so, it was the fact that they had given her so manyideas to integrate with her own forces, increasing the chances of her own forces being able to push them back. Granted, their fleet around her Sanctuary still needed to be dealt with, but she was confident those vessels could be dealt with in time, especially since her economy was still working at maximum capacity.
Matter Forges worked around the clock to produce a steady flow of hydrogen that was then feed to Nanoforges, which then turned it into whatever was required of them. Her Builders were connected to this network and were working constantly to increase the defenses of her Inner Sanctum, created an impressively deep Defense in depth even as they grew closer to her Inner Sanctum at the very core of her Sanctuary. Really, they were only a few dozen hundred kilometres away from her own position, but she wanted to ensure that they were unable to reach her, if only due to her own... Experienceswith them.
Suddenly, she was brought out of her thoughts as her orbital scanners detected movement, having had to rebuild them multiple times after each Plate was removed, causing her Sanctuary to shrink around her as she ground her teeth together in rage and hatred. Looking at the sensors, she couldn't help but finch back from what she saw.
She checked the readings again with a command that was at the speed of thought before her eyes widened in shock and surprise at this, having not considered what was happening now.
One fragment of one of the first Plates was moving, held firmly between a dozen of their ships, it had been moved well beyond the immediate area around her Sanctuary before it came back into view, moving at a significant velocity towards her Sanctuary before the ships guiding it moved away. A quick mental simulation caused her eyes to widen at what was going to happen when that impacted, moments later, she activated what few guns she had that she believed could have made a difference.
Deep down, she knows it is a futile gesture as the billions of tons of stripped materials slam into the Plate above her Defense line before carrying onwards, their leading edge burning with excess heat as it pushed through, widening the multi-kilometre wide hole to even larger proportions as the plate fragment just kept on going until it slammed into her Defense line. Unstoppable force met immovable object, both being heavily damaged and crushed and melted by the sheer forces being put into play by either side as she quickly started shifting the focus of her Inner Sanctum's Gravity Engines, if only to deflect the impact as she knew what was happening before her worst fear was made manifest.
Her Defense line was breached.
The massive metal fragments smashed through her defenses as they kept on going, creating a hole in the shape of a crest that was over three hundred kilometres across, exposing the surface of her Inner Sanctum to them, if only just. Still, she wasn't given a chance to recover from what had just happened as more sensors reports came to her, telling her of how gravity was being warped and distorted before she accessed one of the few optics that still remained within the Defense line that still worked, at least, within that section of the Line.
What she saw caused her eyes to widen even further than before for what seemed like the dozenth time within as many moments.
The Forth Type was standing at the edge of the defense line, looking straight at her Inner Sanctum as Third, Second and Third Types piled in around him. She had already sent out orders for any and all Puppet in the Line that was already present to make for the new gap as Builders were dispatched to rebuild and repair the damage. Factories across the line were also at work, pumping out more Puppets as she saw the Commander of their forces crouch down as he looked at her Inner Sanctum, his head tilted to one side before it stood back up.
And jumped.
XXX
I could feel the Technomancer, I could have done that from the furthest Layer of the planet-construct, but such things had required effort and focus.
Now, however?
Now that I hovered over the centre of the Technomancer's domain, I could feel the power of the Psyker as I looked down from the edge of the final Layer.
Her final fortress at the core of this place was small, a ten kilometre orb of metal separated from the final layer by hundreds of kilometres. The orb itself was utterly smooth, lacking any kind of outward decorations beyond the silver colour of the construct as I wondered what I would find within. I felt the pulse of energy that followed moments later, confirming the Technomancer's presence even further, but also sending out the command of the Xeno Psyker to the rest of the puppet-machines. Already, I could feel the machines stirring from their sleep and rising, making ready to attack my Legion as I considered my options.
Attacking the Psyker, and killing said Psyker, was probably the fastest and most efficient method of ending this conflict, however, I knew that none of my sons, even my Praetorians, were strong enough to survive such a battle. Hell, I knew that none but myself could even reach the Technomancer, the Domain of the Psyker being infused with power and would only respond to the Psyker in question, I could draw upon the Warp to even the playing field, but I knew that, in the centre of the Technomancer's power, such things would be easier said than done. Already, my mind considered a dozen other options before discarding them all, there was no other path to victory, not one that wouldn't leave thousands of my Sons dead.
And considering the fact that the Unbroken now numbered only ten thousand strong from the ninety thousand that they had over three weeks ago, I was unwilling to risk what remained of my Legion and only watch them get killed. At least if they remained behind, I knew that they would be able to handle themselves, even as space was twisted to allow for more soldiers to come down from the Layers above, even as more were deployed from the fleet in orbit, those few that had remained behind in order to act as reserves were being drawn into the fight. Turning to my Praetorians, I stood from a crouch by the edge of the gaping abyss leading into the centre of the Technomancer's power before turning back to my Sons.
"Hold the line here. Ensure that none of the Puppets follow me while I deal with the Psyker responsible for this." I stated as I saw them hesitate. I knew what my Praetorians would do, loyalty to me winning over their feelings of refusal as they nodded after moments of hesitation. The hesitation of the Immortals and the Warforged was longer, but it came to the same result as they quickly gathered and stations themselves around the hole, forming into a line of resistance as I turned back to the hole. My eyes closed for a moment, designs flashing through my mind at Transhuman speeds before something twitched in my armor, space shifting and changing as components forged themselves into existence, subtly drawing into spare materials as I took a single step forwards.
Before I felt gravity at work on me.
The effect only lasted an instant before I felt the effects of gravity end, slamming into the shimmering surface of the Orb even as machinery burned out and I activated other components within my armor, black swarms of Mist gathering around me, making me look like a living shadow as matter around me was eaten alive. Gravity Engines kept my gravity pointed down even as I felt the Technomancer reacting to my presence, metal shifting as turrets formed and massive walls of Power Field-coated metal came at me. The Power Fields were strong, coursing with power as the walls tried to crush me, but I slipped through them, taking advantage of the brutal fashion the Technomancer was working in to slip through the cracks.
I felt the Technomancer trying to escape as it moved further away, staying within the sphere, but with its power slowly draining from the surrounding metal even as I pushed forwards. A shift within the Gravity Engine on my back increased the rate I was falling towards my target, I sacrificed a few useless machines to add more nanomachines to the Mist, and coated my armor in a dual layer of protection. The first was a secondary Power Field, ripping through matter as I plunged head first into the Technomancer's lair while the other was much more esoteric in nature. The surface of my armor shifted, a change only aided by the Warp allowing the surface of my armor to changed so that, even though it appeared smooth, it was made entirely from edges that hummed with Transonic power. The net result of these changes was that I quickly caught up with the Technomancer as I fell into a massive chamber at the centre of the Orb.
And then I saw the Technomancer.
It was strange, though no surprising, to see the form of the being before me, after all, I had been fighting Transformer-like puppets for the last three weeks, what was Quintessa's twin when compared to a normal day in this hell hole?
XXX
Seeing it in person, she couldn't help but move back as the Forth Type landed in her Chamber with a thump, standing back up as it's form was shrouded with a mist of constantly shifting nanomachines. It was an impressive design and an equally effective weapon, but she had little doubt that it would be damaging itself to keep such a thing up, even as she screamed her fury at the Forth Type for violating her Inner Sanctum.
A wave of a hand summoned a blast of Fusion energy that fired towards the Forth Type, vaporizing a section of the ground as I leapt out of the way even as she summoned her Guardian-Puppets, twelve of her strongest creations as they appeared, looking like primitive knights clad in plate mail armor. Each of them advanced, screaming warcries at the Forth Type in a machine language that she knew would be as insulting to them as possible. The Forth Type looked up at them just in time to avoid the first one, it's own weapon a copy of their Nano-edged blades as it attacked the Forth Type.
Unfortunately, the Forth Type proved itself as skilled as her Guardian-Puppets, if not more so as it dodged, jumped over the Puppet before grabbing it's head and pulling it off even as nanites swarmed the remains and started devouring it whole. The head was the used as an improvised club to destroy the processing units of another three of her Guardians as the Forth Type continued its advance on her, her mind working overtime to figure out some method of destroying it even as another of her Guardians unleashed a wave of Plasma upon it as it's sword transformed into a high-yield Phased Plasma Projector. The Forth Type reacted instantly even as it was caught up fighting another two of the Guardians, a weapon quickly forming in one hand as it raked it's clawed hands over the chest plate of one Guardian while the other was the first to fall to this new weapon.
From the twin barrels of this weapon, unstable beams of purple energy burst from it and connected with another of her Guardians, bypassing it's Gravity Sheath altogether before she detected something happening as matter was swiftly changed to energy in an uncontrolled, but contained, reaction as all that was left was a scorch mark on the ground. Quickly, the Forth Type moved and engaged the remaining six Guardians, a sword extending from it's off hand as it fired it's Matter-annihilation weapon twice more, aiming for her, but being saved by a dodge and raising a metal shield between herself and the beam. By the time the shield had been destroyed, she looked back and found that two of her Guardians had been killed while a third was in the process of being ripped apart by what looked like a nanite infection while a forth was held in the clawed hand of the machine as she felt what was happening to it. The forth of her Guardians was rusting, something she didn't think was possible for her substitute Black Plate as she watched it rust and corrode in the nearly-airless vacuum as an entropy field worked away on the materials at an accelerated rate. Soon, the forth machine was dead, it's head and most of the upper torso simply gone and a line of rust being visible along the arms and half way down the stomach of the machine. Standing by her, her last two machines held a defensive posture as she glanced at both of them before nodding, she had an idea on how to stop this thing, but it was a gamble...
With a thought, she ordered them to advance, providing support to them even as she subtly worked her powers into surrounding area. Sure enough, the Forth Type responded in kind as it met their advance, attacking from range with its beam weapon before moving ahead to meet them as she directed them herself. The sword quickly returned to the Forth Type's hands as it's ranged weapon retracted slightly, giving it's hand more freedom to move as a great sword formed, the Disruption field augmented by vibration motors that fought against the technologies of her own Guardians as it lashed out with a kick, snapping one in half even as it continued to dual the last of the machines ahead of her. Seeing an opening, she attacked, launching a blast of Psychically enhanced Fusion energy at the Forth Type as it was forced to move back, jumping back into the air as she smiled cruelly.
There!
In a moment, tendrils lashed out from the surrounding metal, the heads of each tendril covered in a cyan mist of nanites while their bodies were covered in Disruption fields as they flew towards the Forth Type with terrible speed. The Forth Type, living up to its earlier examples, twisted and slipped around, using some kind of personal Gravity Engine to help it evade some of the tendrils, most missing, but not all. They anchored it in the air, stabbing through armor plating and securing it's arms and legs, stabbing through the chest and into the right shoulder as it was suspended in the air, limbs drawn apart by the taut cable-like limbs as she looked at the machine with a smug smirk on her face.
However, that soon disappeared, replaced with a frown as she glided closer. Within the Warp, she could feel something, it was miniscule, tiny, but she could feel it even as reports from the nanites that she had tasked to tear the Forth Type apart gave their initial findings to her. As she read it, her eyes shot wide as she quickly worked to undo the commands she had given to the Nanites, even as she moved rapidly on her own Gravity Engines to move closer to, what she had once believed to be a commander unit of the Men of Iron. Absently, she sealed the room, adjusting the atmosphere within the room to a comfortable mixture that she knew was similar to that of Terra millennia ago. Quickly, she reached the being before her, noting with no small amount of horror the blood that was dripping down the tendrils even as metal worked to seal the openings in the armor that she had torn open in her ignorance.
Old memories instantly came back to the foreground, remembering her own training as a field medic, among other things, during the Iron Wars, she began ordering the nanites to begin effecting repairs, aiding what looked like a complex web of nanites built into the man's flesh as she noted with some level of happiness the lack of Men of Iron designs, reassuring her that this was not some trick of theirs. A moment later, she received another report from the nanites that had sampled his blood as they helped him recover, the tendrils readjusting to merely hold him rather than impaling him as she didn't wish to be attacked, at least, not without trying to solve the misunderstanding that she had caused with her ignorance.
She felt dread and despair fill her as she considered the men and women that she must have killed, the soldiers slaughtered due to her own beliefs. Pushing those to the side, she started examining the man's DNA, curious as to what he was, her own bet being that he was a Blank of some kind, having worked with them on several occasions, but the feel of this one being different.
Therefore, one can understand her shock as she read the reports and found out that, not only was he not an Untouchable, but he was actually a Psyker!Her head swam with the implications and disbelief as she couldn't fathom how such a thing was possible even as she looked at the clear sighs of his own Gene-engineered origins, all with a Human touch to them that was clearly without the ruthless efficiency of the Men of Iron. She smiled slightly at that, even as she felt the nanites in his body trying to force her out after being retasked, his injuries having healed to an extent, but he didn't have the raw numbers to push her out even as she advanced on him. She saw him moving back even as she moved forwards, trying to move away from her even as her hands moved to hold either side of his helmet with gentle, but firm grips. Pushing her power into the metal, she felt resistance from within, telling her once more of his nature as a being of flesh rather than metal as she quickly triggered a few nerves to distract him, pain flaring momentarily as a part of her felt remorse for what she was doing, but that part of her was quickly shut out, her wish to prove that this wasn't some kind of illusion being too strong.
With him distracted as he fought to push her out of his own body, working with surprising skill and creativity as she kept flooding more nanites into his body, she got her opening as her power filled the metal of the helmet before disconnecting it from the rest of the armor, pulling it free in a few moments and allowing her to see it's wearer.
He was different, his face being hard angles, silver eyes narrowed and glaring at her as his nose flared slightly with rage even as she noted the trail of blood that dripped down his chin, possibly remnants of the attack that had hit him in the chest. His hair was silver, like his eyes, and cut in a similar haircut as to what she would have expected among new recruits of the Terran Military. However, what held her the most was what she could glimpse within his eyes; She saw his emotions, they boiled under a sea of rage and hate, only contained by a cold and cunning intelligence that she knew was as inventive as it was dangerous.
The last three weeks proving as much.
Still, with that done, she slowly reached out even as he growled at her, ignoring him, she placed cold, metal hands on his cheeks as she moved closer to him, a beaming, relieved, smile on her face as she felt the warmth of his body even as she leaned her own forehead against his. For a moment, there was silence as he went stock still at the contact before she surprised him and spoke.
"Thank you..." She spoke, seeing his eyes widen as she spoke in Terran Trade Standard. "... For being Human..."
XXX
AN: ... CLIFFHANGER 2: THE HANGING! MWHAHAHAHAHA...! I strike once more!
... Sorry, couldn't resist doing that. Well, now that I've got that out of my system, let me just say that, if you want to see what the Praetorians look like, look up 'Praetorian Guard Third Form' by PeterPrime on Deviantart. Anyway, as always, feedback is appreciated and I hope you enjoyed this!