Mechanicum:The Horus Heresy Book 9 Part 4/7

AUDIOLIBRARY

Transcript

00:00:00Work on the newly reconstructed Akashic Reader was almost complete.

00:00:04The tolerances and capacity of the receptors altered to allow for the increased power expected

00:00:09to flow through the device upon its next activation.

00:00:13Many months would need to pass before Mars and Terra would be in alignment once more.

00:00:18But for the next few rotations the power of the Astronomican was still a vast resource

00:00:23of harvestable psychic energy.

00:00:26British psychers were already being installed within the coffers, though there had been

00:00:30no sign of another empath for the throne atop the dais, a fact for which Dahlia was pathetically grateful.

00:00:37As the activity in the dome neared completion, Dahlia approached the workbench where Zeus

00:00:42and Caxton worked on the helmet assembly.

00:00:45Zeus was plugged into the lathe via extruded dendrites in his wrist, and the hissing of

00:00:50the laser lathe cutting through high-grade steel was a shrieking banshee howl.

00:00:56Dahlia winced as the sound bit into the meat of her brain.

00:01:00Caxton saw her coming and smiled, lifting his hand in greeting.

00:01:05She smiled and returned the gesture as Zeus looked up from his labors and shut off the lathe.

00:01:11Dahlia, said Zeus, withdrawing his mechadendrites from the workbench and flipping up his protective goggles.

00:01:17— How are you today?

00:01:19— I'm fine, Zeus, she said, her gaze shifting to the dais where the bronze-armored figure

00:01:24of Adept Zeth and Rho-Mu-31 supervised the work of Melusine and Severin.

00:01:29— Please, can you turn the lathe back on?

00:01:33— Back on? asked Zeus, glancing over at Caxton.

00:01:37— Why?

00:01:38— Please, just do it.

00:01:41— What's the matter, Dahlia? asked Caxton.

00:01:44— You sure you're all right?

00:01:45— I'm fine, repeated Dahlia.

00:01:48Please, turn the lathe back on.

00:01:49I need to talk to you both, but I don't want anyone to hear.

00:01:53Zeus shrugged and reconnected with the workbench to activate the laser.

00:01:58Once again, the hiss of cutting metal filled the air as the manet plate moved the steel

00:02:03around the spitting lathe.

00:02:05Both Zeus and Caxton leaned in as Dahlia spoke.

00:02:10— The damper we used in the reader, the part that blocks external interference from

00:02:14interfacing with the empath's helmet.

00:02:17Can you make a portable version of it?

00:02:20Zeus frowned.

00:02:21— A portable one?

00:02:22Why?

00:02:23— To block out vox thieves and disrupt picked feed, said Caxton, guessing Dahlia's meaning.

00:02:30— Yes, agreed Dahlia, exactly.

00:02:33— I'm not sure about this, said Zeus.

00:02:37I don't like the notion of secrecy.

00:02:39Nothing good can come of it.

00:02:41— Look, can you make it or not? asked Dahlia.

00:02:45— Of course we can, said Caxton, his boyish face alight at the prospect of mischief.

00:02:50— It's simple, isn't it, Zeus?

00:02:53— Yes, it's simple.

00:02:55But why would you want such a device? asked Zeus.

00:02:58— What's so secret that you'll need to stop anyone hearing it?

00:03:02— I need to talk to you, Melusine, and Severin too, and I need to be sure we're the only

00:03:07ones listening.

00:03:08— Talk to us about what?

00:03:12— About what Jonas Mylar said to me.

00:03:14— I thought you said he didn't say anything, pointed out Caxton.

00:03:18— I lied, said Dahlia.

00:03:23They met at the end of shift in the Refectoria Hall, an echoing space filled with replenishing

00:03:28servitors and hungry labourers, menials and adepts.

00:03:32The hall was rife with rumour, the few information networks that were functional burbling with

00:03:37fragments of frightened talk of catastrophic accidents and unnatural incidents all across

00:03:42Mars.

00:03:44Gathering like conspirators, they sat as far from any listening ears as it was possible

00:03:48to get, but with each clique muttering their suspicions about what was happening beyond

00:03:52the walls of Adept Zeth's forge, no one was paying them any mind anyway.

00:03:58As they huddled around the smallest table that could accommodate them all, Dahlia took

00:04:01a long, hard look at her friends, judging how they might react to what she was about

00:04:06to tell them.

00:04:08Caxton seemed to be enjoying himself immensely, while Zuz looked nervous at their conspiratorial

00:04:14gathering.

00:04:15Mellison's posture spoke of her unease, and Severin looked as expressionless and pale

00:04:21as she had since Jonas Mylar's death.

00:04:24— Zuz, said Dahlia.

00:04:27Did you bring it?

00:04:28— Ay, girl, I did, nodded Zuz.

00:04:32It's working.

00:04:33No one can hear what we're saying.

00:04:36— What's this all about, Dahlia? asked Mellison.

00:04:40Why did we have to meet like this?

00:04:42— I'm sorry, but I didn't know how else to do this.

00:04:46— Do what? asked Zuz.

00:04:48I don't see why we need to skulk around like this just because the damned empath spoke

00:04:53to you.

00:04:55Severin's head snapped up, and her eyes flashed.

00:04:58— Jonas spoke to you?

00:05:00Dahlia nodded.

00:05:01Yes, he did.

00:05:03What did he say?

00:05:05— Not much, admitted Dahlia.

00:05:07And what he did say didn't make much sense then.

00:05:11— And now? asked Mellison, the one light of the refectoria gleaming from the metallic

00:05:16half-mask of her face.

00:05:18— Your words imply they make more sense now.

00:05:21— Well, sort of.

00:05:23I'm not sure, but maybe.

00:05:26— Clarity, Dahlia, said Mellison.

00:05:29Remember clarity in all things.

00:05:31First of all, tell us what the empath said.

00:05:35— His name was Jonas, snapped Severin.

00:05:37He had a name.

00:05:38All of you, he had a name, and it was Jonas.

00:05:41— I am well aware of that, said Mellison, without pause.

00:05:46Dahlia, if you please.

00:05:48Feeling everyone's eyes upon her, Dahlia reddened and took a deep breath before speaking.

00:05:53The words came easily to her, each one seared onto her brain like an acid etching on glass.

00:06:00He said,

00:06:01— I have seen it.

00:06:03All knowledge.

00:06:04And even though he was right in front of me, it sounded like he was speaking from somewhere

00:06:08really far away, like the other side of Mars, or somewhere far underground.

00:06:13— Is that it? asked Severin, disappointment plain on her angular face.

00:06:20— No, said Dahlia.

00:06:22I told him I was sorry about what was happening to him, and he said that he didn't want my

00:06:26pity.

00:06:28He said that he'd seen the truth, and that he was free.

00:06:32— Free of what? asked Zeus.

00:06:34— I don't know, said Dahlia.

00:06:36He said,

00:06:37— I have seen the truth, and I am free.

00:06:40I know it all.

00:06:41The Emperor slaying the Dragon of Mars, the grand lie of the Red Planet, and the truth

00:06:46that will shake the galaxy, all forgotten by man in the darkness of the Labyrinth of

00:06:50Night.

00:06:51It was horrible.

00:06:52His mouth burning with fire, and his voice fading away with every word.

00:06:58— The Labyrinth of Night? asked Caxton.

00:07:01— Are you sure that's what he said?

00:07:03— Yes, absolutely, said Dahlia.

00:07:06The Labyrinth of Night.

00:07:08— The Noctis Labyrinthus, said Melusine, and Caxton nodded.

00:07:13Dahlia looked at the pair of them.

00:07:15— Noctis Labyrinthus, what's that?

00:07:18— The Labyrinth of Night.

00:07:20It's what Noctis Labyrinthus means, replied Caxton.

00:07:25— What kind of place is it? asked Dahlia, elated to have found some meaning in words

00:07:30that had previously been meaningless.

00:07:32— Is it a mountain?

00:07:33A crater?

00:07:34What?

00:07:35— Melusine shook her head, a nictitating membrane flickering over her augmatic eye

00:07:41as she dredged information from her memory coils.

00:07:44— Neither.

00:07:45The Noctis Labyrinthus is a broken region of land between the Tharsis Uplands and the

00:07:49Valles Marineris, said Melusine, the words spoken with the tone of someone retrieving

00:07:54data from an internal memory coil.

00:07:58Notable for its maze-like system of deep, sheer-walled valleys, it is thought to have

00:08:02been formed by faulting in a previous age.

00:08:05Also, many of the canyons display typical features of grabbens, with the upland plain

00:08:10surface clearly preserved on the valley floor.

00:08:15Dahlia frowned, wondering what this desolate region of Mars had to do with what Jonas had

00:08:19said.

00:08:20— Is it empty?

00:08:22— More or less, said Caxton.

00:08:24Adept Lucas Crom has his Mondus Gamma Forge to the south of it, but apart from him, we

00:08:30are the nearest forge.

00:08:32— So there's no one there at all?

00:08:34— It's not a region of Mars anyone has any real interest in, said Melusine.

00:08:40I'm told a number of adepts attempted to found their forges there, but none lasted very long.

00:08:45— Why not?

00:08:46— I don't know.

00:08:47They just didn't.

00:08:49Supposedly the forges were plagued by technical problems.

00:08:52The adepts claimed the region was inimicable to the machine spirits, and they abandoned

00:08:56their workings to set up elsewhere.

00:08:59— So nobody knows what's there, said Dahlia.

00:09:04Whatever Jonas was talking about is somewhere in the Noctis Labyrinthus.

00:09:07It's got to be.

00:09:09The grand lie and this great truth.

00:09:13— It's possible, conceded Melusine.

00:09:16But what do you think he was talking about?

00:09:18Have you any idea what this dragon is?

00:09:20— He speaks of the Emperor slaying?

00:09:23Dahlia leaned in closer.

00:09:24— I don't know exactly what it is, but I've been working through my remembrances

00:09:29of the texts I transcribed back on Terra, and I've found out quite a bit.

00:09:34— Like what? asked Severine.

00:09:37— Well, Jonas spoke about the Emperor slaying the dragon of Mars, so I looked into any references

00:09:43to dragons first.

00:09:45— Looked into how?

00:09:46— You know, in my memory, said Dahlia.

00:09:49I told you.

00:09:50I read stuff and I don't forget it.

00:09:53— Melusine smiled.

00:09:54That is a useful talent, Dahlia.

00:09:57— Continue.

00:09:58— Right.

00:09:59Well, we all know about mythical dragons.

00:10:01— Of course, said Zeus.

00:10:04Children's stories.

00:10:05Dahlia shook her head.

00:10:07— Maybe.

00:10:08But I think there's more to Jonas's words than that.

00:10:11Some of it, anyway.

00:10:12I mean, yes, I found lots of stories of heroic knights in shining armour slaying dragons

00:10:17and rescuing maidens in return for their hands in marriage.

00:10:21— Typical, said Severine.

00:10:24You never read of a maiden rescuing a man from a dragon.

00:10:27— I guess not, agreed Dahlia.

00:10:29I suppose it didn't fit with the times when they were written.

00:10:32— Carry on, Dahlia, said Melusine.

00:10:36What else did you learn?

00:10:38— There wasn't much that could be called fact, but I remember several tracts that purported

00:10:42to be historical works, but which I think were probably mythology, since they dealt

00:10:46with monsters like dragons and demons, as well as describing the rise of warlords and

00:10:50tyrants.

00:10:51— Do you remember the names of these books?

00:10:55asked Zeus.

00:10:57Dahlia nodded.

00:10:58— Yes.

00:10:59The main ones were the Chronicles of Ursh, Revelati Draconis, and the Obite Fortis.

00:11:05They all spoke of dragons, serpentine monsters that breathed fire and carried away fair maidens

00:11:10to devour.

00:11:11— I know those stories, said Caxton.

00:11:14I read them as a child.

00:11:16Bloody stuff, but stirring.

00:11:18— I know them, too, cut in Zeus.

00:11:21But for my people they're more than just stories, Caxton.

00:11:25The scholars of Nusa Kambangan taught that they were allegorical representations of the

00:11:29coming of the Emperor, symbolic representations of the forces of light overcoming darkness.

00:11:35— That's right, said Dahlia excitedly.

00:11:38The Slayer represents some all-powerful godhead, and the dragon represents dangerous forces

00:11:43of chaos and disorder.

00:11:45The dragon-slaying hero was a symbol of increasing consciousness and individuation, the journey

00:11:50into maturity.

00:11:51— Can't they just be stories?

00:11:54asked Caxton.

00:11:55— Why does everything have to mean something?

00:12:00Dahlia ignored him and pressed on.

00:12:02The one thing a lot of these stories have in common is that the dragon, even though

00:12:06it's beaten, isn't destroyed, but is somehow sublimated into a form where goodness and

00:12:11sentient life can flow into the world from its defeat.

00:12:15— What does that even mean?

00:12:17asked Severine.

00:12:18— All right, put it this way, said Dahlia, using her hands as much as her words to communicate

00:12:23her increasing passions.

00:12:25In Revelati Draconis, the writer describes a dragon slain by a sky god with a thunder

00:12:30weapon to free the waters needed to nourish the world.

00:12:34Another tale speaks of a murdered serpent goddess who held mysterious tablets and whose

00:12:39body was used to create the heavens and earth.

00:12:42— Yes, said Caxton, that's right.

00:12:45And there was a story in the Chronicles of Ursh about these creatures, the Unquerhi,

00:12:51I think they were called, who were destroyed by the Thunder Warrior.

00:12:55Supposedly their remains became a range of mountains somewhere on the American continent.

00:13:00— Exactly, said Dahlia.

00:13:02There's a footnote towards the end of the Chronicles where the writer describes a race

00:13:06of creatures known as Formorians that were said to control the fertility of the earth.

00:13:11— Let me guess, said Zeush, they were defeated but not destroyed, because their continued

00:13:17existence was necessary for the good of the world.

00:13:21— Got it in one, said Dahlia.

00:13:24— So what does all this mean?

00:13:26asked Severine.

00:13:27— It's all very interesting, but why does talking about dragons need a vox blocker?

00:13:32— Isn't it obvious? asked Dahlia, before remembering that her friends didn't possess

00:13:36the innate faculties for data recall that she did.

00:13:39It's clear that these defeated forces, these dragons, were still considered valuable, and

00:13:45it follows that these early writers understood that the conflict between dragon and dragon-slayer

00:13:50wasn't a contest of genocide for one or the other, but an eternal struggle.

00:13:55For the good of the world, both sides needed to have their powers expressed and the balance

00:13:59maintained.

00:14:02Even these ancient enemies needed one another.

00:14:05— Your logic being that it is the struggle, not the victory, that supplies the needful

00:14:09conditions for the world, said Melusine.

00:14:13Dahlia beamed at Melusine.

00:14:14— Yes, it's like summer and winter, she said.

00:14:18Eternal summer would burn the world up, but eternal winter would freeze it to death.

00:14:22It's the fact that they alternate that allows life to grow and flourish.

00:14:27— Well, I ask again, what's the point of all this? said Severine.

00:14:32Dahlia looked into the faces of her friends, unsure of how to phrase the next part of her

00:14:36confession.

00:14:38Would they believe her, or would they think her proximity to the flaring energies of the

00:14:41Astronomican had unhinged her?

00:14:45She took a deep breath and decided she had come too far to back out now.

00:14:50When I was in the coma after the accident, I think—I think I became part of something,

00:14:56some other, much larger consciousness.

00:15:00It felt like my mind had detached from my body.

00:15:03— An out-of-body hallucination, said Zeus.

00:15:07Quite common in near-death experiences.

00:15:09— No, said Dahlia.

00:15:12It was more than that.

00:15:13I don't know how else to explain it, but it was as if the Akashic Reader had allowed my

00:15:18mind to link with something old.

00:15:22I mean really old, older than this planet or anything else we can possibly imagine.

00:15:27— What do you think it was? asked Melusine.

00:15:31— I think it was the dragon that Jonas was talking about.

00:15:35— The dragon he said the Emperor slew?

00:15:37— That's just it, said Dahlia.

00:15:40I don't think it's dead at all.

00:15:42I think that's what Jonas was trying to tell me.

00:15:45The dragon of Mars is still alive beneath the Noctis Labyrinthus, and I need your help

00:15:50to find it.

00:15:54He opened his eyes and tried to scream, feeling the heart-sick spike of agonising pain in

00:15:59his chest once more.

00:16:01He thrashed his limbs, palms beating on slick glass surfaces, his movements glutinous.

00:16:07His world was a blur of pink, and he blinked in an effort to clear his vision.

00:16:12He reached up to wipe his eyes clean, the sensation of movement like swimming through

00:16:16thick gluey water.

00:16:19A shape swam at the edge of his vision, humanoid, but he couldn't focus on it yet.

00:16:24His head ached and his body felt unutterably heavy, despite its apparent suspension in

00:16:29buoyancy fluids.

00:16:31He felt weightless pain from every portion of his body, but that was nothing in comparison

00:16:37to the crushing weight of sorrow in his heart.

00:16:40He remembered sleeping, or at least periods of darkness where the pain was lessened, but

00:16:46nothing that truly eased the abominable, unfocused sadness he felt.

00:16:51He knew he had woken here before, having heard fragments of distant conversations where words

00:16:56like miracle, brain-death, and infarction were used.

00:17:01Without context, the words were meaningless, but he knew they were being applied to his

00:17:06condition.

00:17:07He blinked as he heard yet more words, and fought to get the sense of them.

00:17:13Forcing himself to focus on the voice, he swam through the jelly-like fluid of his world.

00:17:18The shape spoke again, or at least he thought he heard its voice, the words soft and boneless,

00:17:24as though filtered through faulty augmenters.

00:17:27He pulled himself forward until his face was pressed to a pane of thick glass.

00:17:32His vision swam into focus, and he saw an antiseptic chamber of polished ceramic tiles

00:17:37and metal gurneys beyond the glass.

00:17:41Mirror-like devices hung from the ceiling, and a number of fluid-filled glass tanks were

00:17:45fitted into brass sockets of the far wall.

00:17:49Standing before him was a young woman, robed in blue and silver.

00:17:53Her form wavered through the liquid, but she smiled at him, and the sight was pathetically

00:17:57welcome.

00:17:58"'Princeps Cavalleria, can you hear me?' she asked, the words snapping into sudden

00:18:04clarity.

00:18:06He tried to reply, but his mouth was full of liquid, bubbles forming on his lips as

00:18:10they worked to form sounds.

00:18:12"'Princeps?'

00:18:13"'Yes,' he said, his facility for language returning to him at last.

00:18:20"'He's awake,' said the young woman, the words said to an unseen occupant of the

00:18:24chamber.

00:18:26He heard the relief in her voice, and wondered why she was so pleased to hear him speak.

00:18:30"'Where am I?' he asked.

00:18:33"'You are in the Mediquet facility, Princeps.'

00:18:36"'Mediquet?

00:18:38Where?'

00:18:40"'In Ascreus Mons,' said the woman.

00:18:43"'You are home?'

00:18:44"'Ascreus Mons.

00:18:47The fortress mountain of Legio Tempestus.'

00:18:49"'Yes, this was his home.

00:18:54This was where he had formerly been awarded his Princepshire nearly two centuries ago.

00:18:59This was where he had first ascended the groaning elevator to the cockpit of—'

00:19:04Time surged in his chest, and he gasped, drawing in a lungful of oxygenated fluids.

00:19:10His conscious mind rebelled at the idea of breathing liquid, but his body knew better

00:19:14than he that it could survive the experience, and gradually his panic eased, though not

00:19:19his pain.

00:19:21"'Who are you?' he asked as his breathing normalised.

00:19:26"'My name is Agathe.

00:19:29I am to be your Famulus.'

00:19:32"'Famulus?'

00:19:33"'An aid, if you will.

00:19:36Someone to minister to your needs.'

00:19:37"'Why do I need a Famulus?' he demanded.

00:19:41"'I am no cripple.'

00:19:43"'With respect, my Princeps, you have just awoken from what must have been a traumatic

00:19:48severance.

00:19:49You will need assistance to adjust.

00:19:51I am to provide that for you.'

00:19:53"'I don't understand,' said Cavallerio.

00:19:57"'How did I come to be here?'

00:20:00Agathe hesitated, clearly reluctant to provide an answer to his question.

00:20:05Eventually she said,

00:20:06"'Perhaps we might discuss that at a later date, my Princeps, after you have had time

00:20:10to adjust to your new surroundings.'

00:20:12"'Answer me, damn you!' yelled Cavallerio, beating a fist against the glass.

00:20:18Agathe glanced over towards the unseen occupant of the chamber, her prevarication only serving

00:20:24to enrage Cavallerio even more.

00:20:27"'Don't look away from me, girl!' he snarled.

00:20:29'I am the Storm Lord, and you will answer me!'

00:20:33"'Very well, my Princeps,' said Agathe.

00:20:36"'How much do you remember?'

00:20:39He frowned, bubbles drifting upwards past his face as he sought to recall the last memory

00:20:43he had before waking.

00:20:46The towering monster of Legio Mortis bearing down on him.

00:20:51The furious beat of Victorix Magna's heart as it ruptured under the strain.

00:20:56The death-scream of Magos Argaia as he perished with it.

00:21:00A yawning black abyss that pulled him down into darkness.

00:21:06Hot agonising pain surged in his chest as Princeps Cavallerio relived the death of his

00:21:11engine, weeping invisible tears in the blood-flecked suspension-fluid of his amniotic-tank.

00:21:172.03

00:21:25Mondus Oculum, the jewel of the northern forges, most valued and most industrious of

00:21:31weapon-shops.

00:21:33Greater even than the Olympica Fossae assembly yards, only Lucas Crom's Mondus Gamma facilities

00:21:38replicated the work of the fabricator Locum's mighty forge, but even his great forge could

00:21:44not match its output.

00:21:46Covering hundreds of thousands of square kilometres between the domed mountains of Tharsis Tholus

00:21:51and Saronius Tholus, Kane's forge complex was a magnificent, monstrous hinterland of

00:21:57hive-smelteries, weapon-shops, armouries, refineries, ore-silos, fabrication hangars,

00:22:04and industrial stacks.

00:22:07Numerous sub-hives, Uranius, Rabon, and Lebatus being the greatest, towered over the production

00:22:12facilities, the sinks and towering hab-blocks home to the millions of adepts, menials, labourers,

00:22:18and muscle that drove the machines of the northern forge.

00:22:24Like most forges of Mars, the iron-skinned manufactura of Mondus Gamma were geared for

00:22:30war.

00:22:31The conquest of the galaxy demanded weapons and ammunition in quantities unknown in earlier

00:22:36ages of the galaxy, and the hammer of beating iron and the milling of copper jackets was

00:22:41unceasing.

00:22:44In the collapsed caldera of Uranius Patera, gigantic Tsiolkovsky towers lifted thousands

00:22:49of cargo-containers from the supply-yards into fat-bellied mass-conveyors in geosynchronous

00:22:55orbit, ready to be transported to war-zones flung out across the Imperium.

00:23:00Each tower was like an impossibly thick, pollarded tree, yet rendered slender by their height

00:23:06as they vanished into the poisonous, striated clouds that pressed down on the forge.

00:23:12Both Mondus Oculum and Mondus Gamma in the south were facilities geared for war, but

00:23:17it was a specific branch of warriors to whom the industry of these forges was dedicated—the

00:23:23Astartes.

00:23:25Crafted within these forges were the guns and blades wielded by the Emperor's most

00:23:29terrifying warriors in the prosecution of his grand dream, fabricated by the most skilled

00:23:35adepts and warranted never to fail by the fabricator Locum himself.

00:23:41The battle-plate of the Astartes was painstakingly wrought upon the anvils of master metalsmiths,

00:23:46augmented with the highest specifications of manual dexterity and tolerances.

00:23:51Bolt-guns, las-cannons, missile-launchers, and every other weapon in the Astartes' inventory

00:23:57was produced here, the martial power of the legions first taking shape in the sweating,

00:24:02red-lit halls of Mondus Oculum.

00:24:05Armoured vehicles rumbled from assembly-lines housed in vast, vaulted hangars, an entire

00:24:11city-sized regions were dedicated to the production of unimaginable quantities of bolter ammunition.

00:24:17But Mondus Oculum did not simply gird the Astartes for war with weapons and armour.

00:24:23It was also a place where minds were honed.

00:24:26Astartes' warriors, deemed to have an affinity with the mysteries of technology, were permitted

00:24:30to study the ways of the machine under the tutelage of its master adepts.

00:24:36Fabricator Locum Cain himself had trained the finest of them, T'Kel of the Salamanders,

00:24:41Gebron of the Iron Hands, and Polonin of the Ultramarines, warriors who would take what

00:24:46they had learned back to their legions and instruct their neophytes.

00:24:51Mondus Oculum, beloved of Mars, the jewel of the northern forges, most valued and most

00:24:57industrious of weapon-shops, domain of the Fabricator Locum of Mars, the man second only

00:25:03to the ruler of Mars himself, and, correctly, one of the few forges of Mars to have avoided

00:25:09outright collapse.

00:25:13Flanked by a chittering retinue of new spherically modified servitors with blank golden face-masks,

00:25:19harried calculus loci and a number of specialised data-scrubbers whose fear was evident in the

00:25:24harsh binary blurts of cant passing between them, Fabricator Locum Cain sought to stay

00:25:29calm by immersing himself in thoughts of the mundane as he passed beneath the gilded

00:25:34archway that led to the Armorium.

00:25:39Beyond his forge events of a great and terrible nature were unfolding, but for now, for this

00:25:45moment, he concentrated on keeping the processes of his own forge working as normally as possible

00:25:50in the face of the devastation.

00:25:53The cavernous chamber beyond the arch was brightly lit, its roof hundreds of metres

00:25:57above him, and its far end lost to perspective.

00:26:02Load of servitors and whining elevators carried racks of Astarte's battle-plate, stacking

00:26:06them in metal-skinned containers arranged along the height of the walls and in long

00:26:10rows that stretched off into the distance.

00:26:14Hundreds of quality-checking adepts moved through the chamber, hard-plugging into each

00:26:18container and checking the measured readings of each suit of armour with previously in-loaded

00:26:23specifications.

00:26:25Very rarely would armour produced at Monder's Oculum fail to meet Cain's necessarily

00:26:29high tolerances, an occasion that would result in a thorough investigation as to the cause

00:26:34of the defect.

00:26:36Such defects would not be replicated, and those whose laxity had allowed it in the first

00:26:41place would be punished.

00:26:43Only once every suit had been checked and certified battle-ready would it be shipped

00:26:47to Uranius Patera and the orbital elevators.

00:26:51But never to fail was a promise Fabricator Locum Cain took seriously, even now.

00:26:58Especially now.

00:27:00Cain took a deep breath, inhaling and sorting the chemical scent of the air before turning

00:27:05to his Magus Apprenta.

00:27:07"'Can you smell that, Lachine?'

00:27:10"'Indeed, my lord,' replied Lachine, using his flesh-voice in emulation of his

00:27:14master.

00:27:16The boy's voice was nasal and unpleasant, and the sooner he was augmented with a vocaliser

00:27:20the better,' thought Cain.

00:27:22"'Calcined aluminium oxide, a lapping powder that can reduce lapping and polishing time

00:27:28of armour by at least twenty per cent, and which is particularly effective on hard materials

00:27:33such as silicon and hardened steel.

00:27:35Also micro-crystalline wax and dilute acetic acid.'

00:27:40Cain shook his head and placed a hand on Lachine's shoulder.

00:27:43The boy was much shorter than Cain, and his demeanour entirely literal, a useful trait

00:27:48in an Apprenta in terms of efficiency and work, but a frustrating one for conversation.

00:27:53"'No, Lachine.

00:27:55I mean what the smells represent.'

00:27:57"'Represent?'

00:27:58"'Query.

00:27:59I do not understand your contention that odour is a signifier.'

00:28:03"'No.'

00:28:04"'Then you are missing out, Lachine,' said Cain.

00:28:08"'You register the chemical components.

00:28:10I, on the other hand, register the emotional ones.

00:28:14To me the gentle reassuring smell of lapping powder, polish and oil represents stability

00:28:20and order, the certainty that we have played our part in ensuring that the Emperor's warriors

00:28:25are equipped for battle with the best armour and weapons we can provide.'

00:28:29"'I see, my lord,' said Lachine, but Cain knew he did not.

00:28:35"'At times such as this I find such things a comfort,' explained Cain.

00:28:41"'A great factory, with the machinery all working and revolving with absolute and rhythmic

00:28:45regularity and with its workers all driven by one impulse and moving in unison as though

00:28:50a constituent part of the mighty machine, is one of the most inspiring examples of directed

00:28:55force the galaxy knows.

00:28:58I have rarely seen the face of an adept in the action of creation that was not fine.

00:29:03Never one which was not earnest and impressive.'

00:29:07Cain paused as a lifter servitor passed, carrying a rack of gleaming freshly dipped

00:29:12suits of battle plate.

00:29:14The brutish monster was all muscles, pistons and jean-bulked torso, and it effortlessly

00:29:19bore the heavy weight of the armour in its hydraulically clawed fists.

00:29:24Each suit shone silver, the metal and ceramite unpainted and left for each legion to adorn

00:29:29with its own colours.

00:29:31"'Like knights from a bygone age of terror,' said Cain, setting off along the serried ranks

00:29:36of thousands upon thousands of suits of armour contained within the chamber.

00:29:41"'A byword for honour, duty and courage.'

00:29:45"'My lord?'

00:29:48Cain gestured towards the armour with a dramatic sweep of his hand.

00:29:51"'This armour is a resource more precious than the wealth of worlds, Lachine.

00:29:56On most days it gives me great satisfaction to know how much the Astartes depend on us.

00:30:01I can normally lose myself in this place.'

00:30:05He saw Lachine about to speak, and said, "'Not literally, of course.

00:30:10I look at the sheer volume of armour stored here, and, even though none of these suits

00:30:15are occupied by one of the Emperor's finest, I am still awed by the power of the Astartes,

00:30:20and take solace that we are protected by such awesome heroes.'

00:30:24"'Conclusion.

00:30:26Your words lead me to infer that on this day you do not take the same satisfaction you

00:30:31would normally.'

00:30:32"'Indeed I do not, Lachine.

00:30:35Despite my attempts to immerse myself in the daily tasks of the Forge, I find my thoughts

00:30:39returning to the chaos that has engulfed our beloved world over the last few weeks.

00:30:45Beginning on the day the freakish and unnatural storms had broken over the faraway peak of

00:30:49Olympus Mons, and the devastating machine plague had wreaked havoc across Mars, an epidemic

00:30:54of riots, suicides and murders had swept through Mondus Oculum, claiming thousands of lives

00:31:00and, more importantly, doing untold damage to the production facilities.

00:31:06Scores of factories and weapons shops had been destroyed, burned to the ground or smashed

00:31:11beyond repair in the whipping, shuddering waves of panic and psychosis that had swept

00:31:15through the habs and factories like contagious lunacy.

00:31:19The Forge Marshals had been unable to cope with the paroxysms of violence, and, though

00:31:24it pained him to do so, Cain had ordered them to withdraw and allow the rioters to run their

00:31:29course.

00:31:30''Who would have thought such trouble could have been touched off by a freak weather system

00:31:35over three thousand kilometres away?'' he said.

00:31:38''Studies by Magos Kantor have shown that uncomfortable cold weather can stimulate aggressiveness

00:31:45and the willingness to take risks while apathy prevails in the heat,'' said Lachine.

00:31:51''Additional, temperature has previously been shown to affect mood, which in turn affects

00:31:56behaviour, with higher temperature or barometric pressure related to higher mood, better memory

00:32:02and broadened cognitive style.

00:32:05Humidity temperature and hours of exposure to sunshine have the greatest effect on mood,

00:32:09though Kantor believes humidity to be the most significant predictor in regression and

00:32:14canonical correlation analysis.

00:32:17Implications for the climate control of forges and subsequent worker performance are discussed

00:32:21in detail in the study's conclusion.

00:32:23Would you like me to summarise them?''

00:32:25''In the name of the Omnissiah, please don't,'' said Cain, striding onwards into the depths

00:32:31of the Armorium.

00:32:34Lachine and his retinue struggled to match his long, purposeful stride.

00:32:39As the panting Lachine drew alongside him, Cain said, ''Certainly.

00:32:43It's absurd to believe that a meteorological phenomenon, even one so fierce, could affect

00:32:48the psyches of so many, yet the evidence before us is hard to ignore.

00:32:53However, the damage was not restricted to just the cognitive processes of the forge's

00:32:57population.

00:32:59That fact troubled him more than any other.

00:33:03As the storm raged over Olympus Mons, the vox lines and data highways of Mars had swarmed

00:33:08with screaming, shrieking packets of corrupted data that sliced into the delicate systems

00:33:13that governed almost every aspect of the workings of Mondus Oculum.

00:33:17The outlying forge cogitators and logic engines had clogged with corrupt data, howling ghosts

00:33:23of sourceless machine noise and dangerous code packets of infected algorithms that many

00:33:27of the most advanced Aegis protocols were helpless to defeat.

00:33:32Only Cain's swift action to shut down the I-O highways, and the fact that the vast majority

00:33:37of his systems had recently been upgraded to take advantage of Coriel Zess's revolutionary

00:33:42system of newspheric data transference, had spared them the worst of the attack, for an

00:33:47attack it surely had been.

00:33:50How much longer do the code scrubbers need before they will have my system cleaned out?

00:33:54he asked.

00:33:55Current estimates range from six full rotations to thirty.

00:34:00That's a wide range.

00:34:01Can't they narrow their estimation?

00:34:04Apparently the corrupt code is proving to be most resilient to their efforts, explained

00:34:09Lachine.

00:34:10Each portion of circuitry that is certified purged soon develops faulty lines of code

00:34:15at a geometric rate once again.

00:34:17They dare not reconnect any system touched by the polluted algorithms for fear of reinfection.

00:34:23Have they identified its point of origin?

00:34:26Not with any certainty, though the infection of systems appears to be spreading outwards

00:34:30from the forge of the Fabricator General, suggesting that it was the first to suffer.

00:34:36Or where it was released, muttered Cain.

00:34:39Despite repeated attempts to communicate with Kelbor Hull, every transmission had been rebuffed

00:34:44by squalling code screams, like barking dogs, or was simply ignored.

00:34:49Query, you believe this scrap code to have been released into the Martian systems on

00:34:53purpose?

00:34:55Even the normally logical and literal Lachine could not keep an emotional response from

00:34:59his voice at the notion that the scrap code had been unleashed deliberately.

00:35:04Cain cursed himself for his verbal slip and shrugged.

00:35:08It's a possibility, he admitted, keeping his tone light.

00:35:12He didn't particularly want to voice his suspicions to Lachine.

00:35:16His apprenter was loyal, but he was naive, and Cain knew that information could be thieved

00:35:21by any number of means from supposedly secure sources.

00:35:24No, the less Lachine knew of Cain's suspicions, the better.

00:35:30According to the code scrubbers, the scrap code had attempted to shut down the Vox network

00:35:34and defence protocols that protected his forge, and then released the tension in the Tcholkovsky

00:35:39Tower's guy wires.

00:35:41Lachine had shut off the links between Mondus Oculum and the rest of Mars in an instant,

00:35:45leaving them floundering in the dark, but safe from further attack.

00:35:50Even communications off-world had become next to impossible thanks to a sourceless backwash

00:35:54of psychic interference.

00:35:56Cain had only been able to maintain contact between the forge of Epluvium Maximal and

00:36:00the magma city of Adept Zeth thanks to the Noosphere.

00:36:05The news coming from both was neither reassuring nor particularly illuminating.

00:36:10Both Adepts had suffered similar outbreaks of inexplicable violence and madness among

00:36:14their populace, though only Maximal had experienced serious machine failures, losing three of

00:36:19his prized reactors to critical mass overloads.

00:36:23Zeth had spoken of a failed experiment that had seen virtually all of her Psykers dead,

00:36:28no doubt related to the psychic interference surrounding Mars.

00:36:31As if things weren't bad enough, Maximal went on to tell of fragmentary communications he

00:36:36had inloaded from the expedition fleets that spoke of an equally terrible catastrophe in

00:36:40the Istvan system.

00:36:43Details were sketchy, and Maximal had not wanted to speculate without firmer information,

00:36:48but it appeared that a dreadful incident had occurred around the third planet, which was

00:36:52now said to be a blasted, ashen wasteland.

00:36:56Cain knew of only one weapon that could reduce a planet to such a wretched, hellish state

00:37:00in so short a time.

00:37:03Had the Warmaster unleashed the Life Eater, or was this the desperate last act of a defeated

00:37:08foe?

00:37:10Maximal's sources had no answer to that, but claimed that the Astartes had taken fearful

00:37:14casualties.

00:37:16Whether they had suffered as a result of enemy action or a terrible accident of friendly

00:37:20fire was unclear, but for Astartes to suffer any loss on such a scale was almost impossible

00:37:26to imagine.

00:37:28Of all of them, Maximal's Vox systems had suffered least in the deluge of unclean code,

00:37:33and he was even now attempting to restore communications with agencies beyond the surface

00:37:37of Mars for further information.

00:37:40Via secure noospheric links all three adepts expressed their certainty that the infection

00:37:45of the Martian systems bore all the hallmarks of a pre-emptive strike, but without more

00:37:50solid data there was nothing they could do but strengthen their defences in case of further

00:37:54assault.

00:37:56Everyone had heard the fear in Maximal's ridiculously rarefied voice, and despised

00:38:01him for it.

00:38:02Maximal was not an easy adept to like, and Kane considered him to be little more than

00:38:07an archivist rather than an innovator.

00:38:10Coriel Zeth, on the other hand, had spoken boldly of resisting any follow-up attacks,

00:38:15and of how she had dispatched envoys to Allied warrior orders of Titans and Knights to secure

00:38:19their assistance.

00:38:21With Mars under attack from an unknown foe it was time to gather one's friends close.

00:38:27Kane respected Zeth, for she reminded him of a younger version of himself, an adept

00:38:32unafraid to push the boundaries of the known.

00:38:35To Kane Zeth represented all that was good about the Mechanicum, an adept who possessed

00:38:40a proper reverence for the past and what earlier pioneers had developed that meshed with an

00:38:45unashamed hunger to build upon that knowledge to reach still greater heights.

00:38:50An ancient alchemist and scientist of terror had once said that he had seen further by

00:38:55standing on the shoulders of giants.

00:38:58That perfectly applied to adept Zeth, and Kane knew that if anyone was going to advance

00:39:03the cause of science and reason in the Imperium, it was her.

00:39:08Emboldened by that thought, Kane watched as huge tracked haulers lifted sealed containers

00:39:13of Astarte's weapons and armour for transport to the orbital elevators of Uranus Patera.

00:39:19Come, Lachine, he said, even during a crisis the work of Mondus Oculum must continue.

00:39:27Grey dust, like ashen bone, billowed around the legs of the two knights as they loped

00:39:33along the edges of the Agonit Fossae, the long trench that carved into the plains west

00:39:39of the towering form of Assaya Mons.

00:39:43Leopold Cronus led the way in Pax Mortis, with Raph Maven following behind in the newly

00:39:47repaired Equitos Bellum.

00:39:51Cronus set a brisk striding pace, and Maven had to work hard to keep up with him, for

00:39:56Equitos Bellum was skittish, its controls tight, and the manifold willfully resisted

00:40:00him at every turn.

00:40:03It knows the thing that hurt it is still out there, thought Maven, angling his course to

00:40:08follow Cronus and the deep canyon.

00:40:11Dust clouds obscured the view from his cockpit, but there was little to see in this region,

00:40:16and he was piloting via the manifold anyway.

00:40:19The toxic deserts of the Pallidus stretched out to the west and south, and the northern

00:40:24sub-hives between here and Epluvian Maximal's Forge were little more than black smudges

00:40:29of hanging smoke and fear to the north.

00:40:33The knights followed the course of the chasm towards the Median Bridge, a section of collapsed

00:40:37rock where they could cross before turning eastwards towards their chapter house within

00:40:42the Assaya Casmata.

00:40:45How's it doing? asked Cronus, over the voxlink.

00:40:49It's hard work, admitted Maven.

00:40:51It keeps pulling at the controls, but there's no sense to it.

00:40:55Each time I compensate it returns on the opposite side a moment later.

00:40:59It will take time to readjust, said Cronus.

00:41:02The entire link assembly had to be rebuilt.

00:41:05I know, but it feels stronger than that.

00:41:09Stronger how?

00:41:10What do you mean?

00:41:11Like it's trying to guide me, said Maven, at a loss how else to explain it.

00:41:16Guide you?

00:41:17To where?

00:41:18I don't know, but it's like—like something's pulling at me, too.

00:41:25Maven heard Cronus sigh over the vox and wished he had something more solid to offer his friend

00:41:29by way of an explanation.

00:41:31All he had was a gut feeling and the firmly held conviction that his mount knew better

00:41:36than he what needed to be done.

00:41:39Their deployment had begun three days ago, when they left the Chapter House in a fanfare

00:41:44of cheers, squires' trumpets, blaring warhorns, and waving cobalt banners.

00:41:49Equitas Bellum marched out, and the brothers of the Knights of Taranis had come to watch

00:41:54it walk once more.

00:41:57For a mount to have returned from the verge of destruction was no small matter, and the

00:42:01occasion had to be marked.

00:42:04Like most of the warrior orders of Tharsis, the Knights of Taranis had been on high alert

00:42:08since the chaos that had engulfed Mars began.

00:42:12Thanks to the new spheric links installed by Adept Zeth, the halls of Taranis had not

00:42:16suffered as horrifically as many others had, though the engine-seers had been forced to

00:42:21order an emergency shutdown of the Chapter House's main reactor after a fragment of

00:42:25scrap-code attempted to disengage its coolant protocols.

00:42:30That speedy response had saved the order of Taranis from a nuclear holocaust, but until

00:42:35the code-scrubbers could purge the corrupted systems, those night-machines without full

00:42:39power-cells would not be able to recharge.

00:42:43Nor had that been the worst of the damage.

00:42:45Much to Lord Verticorder's anguish, the data-looms of the Order's Librarium had been corrupted

00:42:50beyond repair, taking with them a role of honour and battle stretching back a thousand

00:42:56years and more.

00:42:58At the request of Adept Zeth, Lords Catarix and Verticorder had ordered the Knights of

00:43:03Taranis to ride from their Chapter House in defence of Mars and the Magma City.

00:43:08Rumour had it that Zeth had also dispatched emissaries to Lord Cavallerio of Tempestus

00:43:13to petition their engines to walk, but no one knew what answer she had received.

00:43:19With several machines powerless to ride until the reactor was repaired, the Knights of Taranis

00:43:24were forced to operate in teams of two instead of three to cover the scale of their deployment.

00:43:30Old Stater had marched out alongside Brother Gentron, a rider newly elevated from the errantry,

00:43:35and Maven had been surprised to find that he missed the flinty presence of his preceptor.

00:43:41Maven and Cronus had ridden east, following a patrol circuit that carried them clockwise

00:43:45around the rumpled skirts of the ancient volcano, before turning to follow the line of the Otifossi

00:43:51southwards.

00:43:53As night fell on the second day of their ride, they turned west towards the Magma City to

00:43:58refuel and recharge before continuing on their patrol circuit.

00:44:03The forge of Coriel Zeth never failed to amaze Maven, glowing like an ember in the distance

00:44:09while the skies above seethed with orange light as though the clouds themselves were

00:44:13afire.

00:44:15Riding closer, lava-filled aqueducts had shone like threads of gold as they carried molten

00:44:20rock from the top of Etna's dam, the monolithic structure that formed the entirety of the

00:44:25volcano's southern flank.

00:44:27Near the Magma Lagoon, surrounding the city, towering walls of ceramite and adamantium

00:44:33ringed the enormous city, and the light of the planet's life-blood dispelled the darkness

00:44:38as the knights marched along the mighty, statue-lined Typhon Causeway towards the Vulcan Gate.

00:44:46Silver and black spires jutted over the walls like metallic teeth, and only after convoluted

00:44:51binaric interrogation by the Gate's defences had they been allowed inside.

00:44:57They had stayed within the circuit of the walls just long enough for their mount's power

00:45:00cells to be brought back to maximum charge before riding out.

00:45:05The two knights had continued on their patrol circuit of the enormous volcano, skirting

00:45:09the Magma City's port facilities where millions of tonnes of war material was ferried into

00:45:14the hungry bellies of mass conveyors hanging low in the crowded skies.

00:45:19No sooner had they left the smoking grandeur of Zeth City, the Maven had felt Equitas Bellum

00:45:25pulling at him, an insistent urge that nagged at his hindbrain and sent painful skewers

00:45:30of pain into his mind whenever he resisted.

00:45:34With their course soon to carry them eastwards towards home, the pull was getting stronger.

00:45:39A Maven gripped the controls tighter as he felt a building ache behind his eyes.

00:45:44He felt every one of his hard plugs scratching with irritation, as though Equitas Bellum

00:45:49was trying to dislodge him like a wild cult.

00:45:52What's the matter with you? he hissed.

00:45:55As if in answer, a ghostly flare on the auspects spiked the south.

00:46:00A Maven flinched as a surge of recognition pulsed in his mind.

00:46:04The image vanished almost as soon as it appeared, and he wasn't even sure he'd seen it.

00:46:09But for the briefest instant, it had looked like a dreadfully familiar spider-like pattern

00:46:14of electromagnetic energy.

00:46:17The Maven drew his mount to a halt, feeling the pain behind his eyes ease as he did so.

00:46:22The tall machine's hydraulics hissed as it sank down onto its haunches.

00:46:26Cronus, wait! he called, rotating the knight's upper body with a deft movement of the controls.

00:46:33There was nothing to see here, just bone-white ash and dust whipped in from the southern

00:46:38pallidus.

00:46:40He heard the relaxing groan of metal as Equitas Bellum settled, feeling the tension in his

00:46:45limbs and the restless hunger for vengeance burning in its core.

00:46:48What is it? replied Cronus.

00:46:51And Maven read the tell-tales of his brother's machine, assuming a war-posture through the

00:46:56manifold.

00:46:57What do you see?

00:46:58I don't know, admitted Maven.

00:47:01I don't think there's actually anything out there, but Equitas Bellum's got the scent

00:47:05of something.

00:47:07Did you get an auspect's return?

00:47:09Sort of.

00:47:10Maybe.

00:47:11I don't know, said Maven.

00:47:13It was like a ghost image or something.

00:47:15It was just like the energy signature I saw right before the attack on Maximal's reactor.

00:47:21Pax Mortis rode alongside him, and Maven could see Leopold Cronus through the armor-glass

00:47:26canopy.

00:47:28His brother looked unconvinced, but not yet ready to write off Maven's and Equitas Bellum's

00:47:33instincts for danger.

00:47:36Send it over, ordered Cronus.

00:47:38The auspect's log for the last few minutes.

00:47:41Maven nodded, ex-loading the data from his auspect's panel to Cronus' machine in a brief

00:47:46data squirt.

00:47:48As he waited for Cronus to review the data, he cast his gaze out into the depths of the

00:47:52Pallidus.

00:47:54The ashen deserts were desolate and uninhabitable, a landscape of tortured grandeur, rendered

00:48:00barren and toxic by rapacious over-mining and unthinking plundering of the resources

00:48:04buried beneath the Martian soil.

00:48:07Pollutants blown in from the equatorial refinery belt carpeted the barren, scarred rock, making

00:48:13it a treacherous landscape of sand-covered crevices and sinkholes.

00:48:18Nothing lived in the Pallidus, yet Maven found himself unaccountably drawn to grip the controls

00:48:23of his mount and ride south into the wasteland.

00:48:27His power cells were fully charged, and he had more than enough reserves of nutrients

00:48:32and water to last him for weeks, if need be.

00:48:36His hands twitched at the controls, and he felt the heart of his mount respond to his

00:48:41desire.

00:48:42It goaded him with warlike whispers and an insistent pressure at the back of his mind.

00:48:48His lip curled into a snarl as he thought of hunting the monstrous, dead thing that

00:48:53had almost killed him.

00:48:55It was out there, and Equitas Bellum knew it.

00:48:58He could feel the certainty of that fact in every molecule of his being.

00:49:03The ghost image had been a reminder of his duty to his mount.

00:49:06"'There's nothing here,' said Cronus, breaking into his thoughts.

00:49:11"'Auspach's track is clean.'

00:49:13"'I know,' said Maven, with calm, cold certainty.

00:49:18"'There's nothing nearby.'

00:49:19"'Then why have we stopped?'

00:49:22"'Because Equitas Bellum is telling me where I need to go.'

00:49:26"'Go?' asked Cronus.

00:49:28"'What are you talking about?

00:49:31The only place we need to go is across the Median Bridge and back to the Chapter House.'

00:49:35"'No,' insisted Maven, "'it's out there.

00:49:39The thing that tried to kill us.

00:49:41It's in the south.

00:49:42I know it.'

00:49:43"'How can you know it?'

00:49:45demanded Cronus.

00:49:46"'There's nothing on the Auspach's.

00:49:48You said so yourself.'

00:49:49"'I know that, Leo.

00:49:52But I saw what I saw.

00:49:54Equitas Bellum can feel it, and I trust its instincts.'

00:49:57"'And what?

00:49:59You're going to go after it on your own?'

00:50:01"'If I have to,' said Maven.

00:50:04"'Don't be foolish,' warned Cronus.

00:50:06"'Catarix will have your spurs if you do this.'

00:50:08"'He can have them,' said Maven, powering up and raising the knight to its full height

00:50:14once more.

00:50:15"'I need to do this.

00:50:17Equitas Bellum needs this if it's ever going to be whole again.'

00:50:20"'You're willing to risk your spurs by going off-mission on what?

00:50:25A hunch?'

00:50:26"'It's more than that, Leo,' said Maven.

00:50:28"'I know it's out there, and I'm going after it, whether you like it or not.'

00:50:33Once again Maven heard Cronus sigh, and though he hated to abandon his friend, he knew he

00:50:39had no choice.

00:50:40Equitas Bellum would give him no peace until they had been avenged.

00:50:44"'Very well,' said Cronus.

00:50:47"'Where is it?

00:50:49Give me a heading.'

00:50:50"'Leo, you're coming with me?' asked Maven.

00:50:54"'This thing, whatever it is, already got the better of you once before,' said Cronus.

00:50:59"'So logically you're going to need my help if you're going to take it on again.'

00:51:03"'You're a true friend,' said Maven, so very proud of his brother.

00:51:08"'Shut up, and let's go before I cease sense and change my mind.'

00:51:13Maven smiled.

00:51:14"'Follow me,' he said, turning his mount and riding into the pallidus.

00:51:20The hunt was on, and Equitas Bellum surged with wounded pride.

00:51:25Maven welcomed it.

00:51:28Dahlia awoke with a scream, her hand clutching her chest, hyperventilating as the fragments

00:51:34of the darkness within her skull threatened to spill out and consume her.

00:51:39Serpentine shapes lurked in the shadows, and Dahlia hugged the sheets close to her body

00:51:43as she heard the hiss of a draconic breath drawn at the beginning of the universe and

00:51:48saw the gleam of teeth in ever-widening jaws.

00:51:52A voice in the darkness spoke her name.

00:51:57Even with her eyes shut she could see him—the hooded man with the wild eyes and the mark

00:52:02of the dragon burning beneath his skin.

00:52:05Its silver fire was a web of light within his flesh.

00:52:09She forced her eyes open as the light levels in the hab grew from night-light to full illumination.

00:52:15Beside her Caxton stirred, half-asleep as he fumbled with the lumen controls.

00:52:20"'What—what's the matter?' he asked groggily.

00:52:25Dahlia's eyes flickered to the corners of the hab, where of course there were no serpentine

00:52:30predators lurking in the shadows to devour her, and no hooded man with glittering mercury

00:52:35for blood.

00:52:37She saw a gun-metal grey footlocker overflowing with clothing, the small table strewn with

00:52:42machine parts, and oil-stained walls hung with thin sheets of paper covered in scrawled

00:52:48diagrams.

00:52:49A dripping tap echoed in the ablutions cubicle, and an uneaten meal lay in its foil wrapper

00:52:55next to an empty water-bottle.

00:52:58She focused on those simple domestic items, their familiarity an anchor to the real world

00:53:04and not the realm of dreams and nightmares, the world of dragons and hooded men.

00:53:09"'Are you all right?' asked Caxton, sitting up in bed and putting his arm around her.

00:53:15The haptic implants in his fingertips were cold against her bare skin, and she shivered.

00:53:21He mistook it for fear and pulled her close.

00:53:23"'I'm here, Dahlia.

00:53:24There's nothing to worry about.

00:53:26You just had a nightmare.'

00:53:29Ever since waking from her coma, Dahlia had discovered that she could not bear to be alone.

00:53:35Night would not come, and a gnawing terror of sinking down into darkness for all eternity

00:53:40would open like a yawning chasm of emptiness within her.

00:53:44She feared she might never emerge from it should she fall in.

00:53:48When she had confided this to Caxton, he had offered to stay with her, and though she recognised

00:53:53male desire in the offer, she recognised her own need as well.

00:53:58His moving into her hab unit had seemed like the most natural thing in the world.

00:54:04They sat there for several minutes, Caxton rocking her gently and Dahlia letting him.

00:54:09"'Was it the same as before?' he asked.

00:54:12She nodded.

00:54:13"'The dragon and the hooded man.'

00:54:15"'Every night the same dream,' he said in wonder.

00:54:20"'What do you think it means?'

00:54:22Dahlia pulled free from his embrace and turned her head to look directly at him.

00:54:27"'It means we need to leave.'

00:54:28"'I'll wake the others,' he said, seeing the determination in her eyes.

00:54:34She leaned in and kissed him.

00:54:36"'Do it quickly,' she said."

00:54:422.04

00:54:46The Magma City never slept, its industry continuing through every hour of the day and night.

00:54:53Despite the crowds of robed adepts, menials and workers that filled its streets, Dahlia

00:54:59still felt acutely vulnerable.

00:55:01Their small group was clothed in nondescript robes, a mix of reds and browns that marked

00:55:07them as low-grade forge workers, a common sight on the thoroughfares of Adept Zeth's

00:55:12forge, yet each of them felt as though every eye was upon them.

00:55:16The constant thrum and low vibration that permeated every surface of the city was more

00:55:21pronounced on the streets, and Dahlia wondered if they were being watched even now.

00:55:27Throne knew how many different ways there were of monitoring a person's whereabouts,

00:55:30biometric readings, facial recognition, genetic markers, spy-skulls, or even good old-fashioned

00:55:36eyes.

00:55:37"'Lift your head up, girl,' said Zouche.

00:55:40"'You look like you're up to no good with your head down like that.'

00:55:44"'We are up to no good,' pointed out Severin.

00:55:47"'We're leaving the forge without permission.'

00:55:49"'I said this was a bad idea.'

00:55:51"'You didn't have to come,' shot back Haxton.

00:55:56Severin shot him a withering glance and said, "'I needed to come.'"

00:56:00As though that should settle the matter.

00:56:03Dahlia listened to them bicker, recognising the fear behind it.

00:56:07She understood that fear, for each of them was a member of the Cult Mechanicum, augmented

00:56:12in ways both subtle and gross, and each stood to lose a great deal should they be discovered.

00:56:18"'We have to do this,' said Dahlia.

00:56:21"'Whatever we unlocked with the Akashic Reader, it's hidden in the Noctis Labyrinthus.

00:56:26We have to find out what it is.'

00:56:29"'You mean you have to find out what it is,' said Zouche.

00:56:33"'I'm quite happy not knowing.'

00:56:35"'Then why are you here?'

00:56:38"'You said you needed my help,' said the Short Machinist, and Dahlia could have kissed him."

00:56:45She took a breath and lifted her head.

00:56:47"'Zouche is right.

00:56:49We shouldn't look as though we've anything to hide.

00:56:51I mean look around us.

00:56:52The place is as busy now as it is any other time of the day.

00:56:56Blue-tinted lumen-globes sputtered and fizzed atop black poles, their glass reflecting the

00:57:02golden-orange glow from the clouds.

00:57:04Soaring above them, higher even than the silver pyramid of Zeth's Forge, was the dark mountainous

00:57:10shadow of Assaya Mons.

00:57:13The volcano's side had been quarried away five hundred years ago and replaced with the

00:57:17gargantuan structure of Etna's Dam, its monstrous cyclopean scale almost impossible to comprehend.

00:57:25Dahlia recognized the name it bore, which had belonged to a legendary fire-goddess of

00:57:29a long-dead volcano that rose from the Mediterranean dust-bowl of Terror.

00:57:34It was fitting that the name should be appropriated for a rekindled volcano on Mars.

00:57:40As it had been when Dahlia had first arrived on Mars, the magma city thrived and pulsed

00:57:45with activity, with its inhabitants making their way to and fro on foot and by any number

00:57:51of bizarre mechanical conveyances.

00:57:54Rainbow-skulls of gold, silver, and bone darted through the air, each on an errand

00:57:59for its master, and Dahlia wondered which of them served Adept Zeth.

00:58:03"'It may be busy,' said Caxton, "'but if any of the Protectors realize we shouldn't

00:58:09be on shift, we'll be in real trouble.'

00:58:12"'Then best we don't attract their attention by standing around yapping like straight dogs,

00:58:18eh?' said Zush.

00:58:19"'Come on, the Maglev Transit Hub is just ahead.'

00:58:24They followed Zush, trying to affect an air of nonchalance, and give the impression that

00:58:28they had every reason to be there, though Dahlia suspected they weren't succeeding too

00:58:32well.

00:58:33She could feel sweat running between her shoulder-blades, and fought the urge to scratch an itch on the

00:58:38back of her leg.

00:58:40She felt great affection for her friends, knowing that she wouldn't have had the strength

00:58:44or courage to make the journey on her own.

00:58:47She had told them she needed them, which was true, but not for the reasons any of them

00:58:51might expect.

00:58:53Their technical skills would no doubt be useful along the way, but she needed them with her,

00:58:57so the dark and terrifyingly lonely void that lurked behind her eyes every time she closed

00:59:02them wouldn't overwhelm her.

00:59:05She knew Caxton was with her because he was in love with her, and Zush had come because

00:59:09he was about as honest as a person could be.

00:59:13He had said he would come, and he had.

00:59:15He lived his life by doing as he said he would do, which even Dahlia knew was all too rare

00:59:20a trait in humanity.

00:59:23Dahlia didn't know why Severine had come, since the girl clearly didn't want to be there,

00:59:27and was terrified of losing her status as a Mechanicum drafter.

00:59:31Guilt was what Dahlia suspected drove Severine to make this journey—guilt for what they

00:59:35had allowed to happen to Jonas Mylas.

00:59:39It was a reason Dahlia was uncomfortably aware played no small part in her own determination

00:59:43to discover what lay beneath the Noctis labyrinthus.

00:59:48Lady Mellison had not come with them, and Dahlia was sad not to have her logical presence

00:59:53with them right now, though that was, she supposed, exactly why she wasn't there.

00:59:59Caxton had gathered them all in Zush's hab, a sterile and functional chamber that reflected

01:00:03the Machinist's austere, no-nonsense character.

01:00:07The only concession to decoration was a small silver effigy of a lighthouse that sat in

01:00:12a corner with a slow-burning candle smouldering before it.

01:00:16All of them had answered Caxton's summons—Severine looking rumpled and irritable, Zush as though

01:00:23he had been awake all along and had simply been waiting for them, while Mellison looked

01:00:27as calm as Dahlia could ever remember seeing her.

01:00:31With everyone gathered, Dahlia had outlined the substance and unnatural regularity of

01:00:35her dreams, the imagery, and the feeling that she was being summoned to the labyrinth of

01:00:40night.

01:00:41Summoned by what? asked Zush.

01:00:44I don't know, admitted Dahlia.

01:00:47This dragon—whatever it is.

01:00:50Don't you remember the stories? asked Severine.

01:00:54The dragons ate fair maidens.

01:00:56Then you and Mellison will be all right, quipped Caxton, wishing he hadn't, when Dahlia stared

01:01:02at him in annoyance.

01:01:03I had the dream again to-night, said Dahlia, the same as before, but it felt stronger,

01:01:10more urgent.

01:01:11I think it's telling me that it's time to go.

01:01:14Now? asked Severine.

01:01:16It's the middle of the night.

01:01:19Kind of appropriate then, eh? said Zush.

01:01:22We are going to the labyrinth of night, after all.

01:01:26They all looked at each other then, and Dahlia could sense their hesitation.

01:01:30I need your help.

01:01:32I can't do this alone, she said, hating the pleading note in her voice.

01:01:37No need to ask twice, Dahlia, said Zush.

01:01:40Picking up the silver lighthouse figurine and tucking it into his robes.

01:01:44I'll come.

01:01:45And me? said Severine, though she didn't make eye contact.

01:01:50Mellison? asked Caxton.

01:01:52What about you?

01:01:54You in?

01:01:55The stern, matronly woman, who had held them together and made them work better in a team

01:02:00than they ever could have managed alone, shook her head.

01:02:03She gripped Dahlia's hand and said, I can't go with you, Dahlia.

01:02:07I have to stay.

01:02:09One has to finish what we've begun here.

01:02:11Believe me, I'd like nothing more than to go with you.

01:02:14But I'm too old and too set in my ways to go gallivanting around Mars, chasing dreams

01:02:18and visions and mysteries.

01:02:21My place is here, in the forge.

01:02:23I'm sorry.

01:02:25Dahlia was disappointed, but she nodded.

01:02:28I understand, Mell.

01:02:30And don't worry about us.

01:02:31We'll be back soon, I promise.

01:02:34I know you will.

01:02:36Don't call me Mel ever again, said Mellison.

01:02:40They laughed and said their goodbyes before making their way towards a journey into the

01:02:44unknown and an uncertain future.

01:02:48So lost was Dahlia in her memory of saying goodbye to Mellison that she bumped into a

01:02:52passing adept who stared at her with amber eyes from behind a silver mask.

01:02:57He blurted a hash of irritated binary and Dahlia shrank from the force of his utterance.

01:03:03Any apologies, Adept Lascaux, she said, reading his identity in the noospheric information

01:03:07swirling above him, before remembering that she shouldn't be able to read such things

01:03:11without modification.

01:03:13The adept either didn't notice or believed she already knew him, and passed on his way

01:03:18with a final canted burst of annoyance.

01:03:21Dahlia let out a pent-up breath and turned as the sleeve of her robe was tugged.

01:03:26If you're quite finished, said Caxton, looking in alarm at the adept's retreating back.

01:03:31Yes, sorry, she said.

01:03:34The Maglev hub is just ahead, said Zeush, pointing to a bronze archway through which

01:03:39hundreds of people were passing back and forth.

01:03:43Dahlia experienced a moment of sickening realisation when they reached the archway and saw the

01:03:47wide steps descending hundreds of metres into the bedrock of Mars.

01:03:51We're going to have to go below the level of the magma, she asked.

01:03:56Of course, said Caxton.

01:03:57The Maglev can't exactly go through the lava, now, can it?

01:04:02No, I suppose not, said Dahlia, wishing she hadn't said anything.

01:04:08Caxton pulled her on, and she quelled her mounting panic as they began their journey

01:04:12downwards.

01:04:14Sizzling lumen strips that flickered and hurt Dahlia's eyes illuminated their route along

01:04:18a tunnel thronged with workers making their way to and from their shifts.

01:04:23They marched like automatons, one side ascending, the other descending, all in perfect unison

01:04:29towards or from the metropolis above.

01:04:32Zeush forged them a path downwards with his squat frame and robust language, and anyone

01:04:37who objected to either soon bit their tongue at the sight of his thunderous stare and bunched

01:04:42fists.

01:04:44Eventually they reached the bottom, the transit station itself, a gigantic hangar with a colossal

01:04:49vaulted ceiling.

01:04:50There seemed to be no order to the movement of the packed mass of people, just heaving

01:04:54bodies that moved according to tidal patterns rather than with any purpose.

01:05:00Robed protectors bearing crackling weapon staves and the four-by-four number grid symbol

01:05:04of Adepzeth policed the energetic scrum of workers, and Dahlia tried to avoid looking

01:05:09at them for fear of attracting their attention.

01:05:13Servo-skulls bobbed overhead, and grating binaric code spilled from vox plates set into

01:05:18the walls, announcing departures and arrivals, and warning travellers to beware of the void

01:05:23between maglev and platform.

01:05:25"'Now where?' asked Dahlia, unable to make sense of the overlaid binary instructions

01:05:31blaring from the vox.

01:05:32"'This way,' said Zeush, pushing through the crowds.

01:05:36"'It looks harder than it is, but after you've ridden the maglev once it's easy to find your

01:05:41way around.'

01:05:42"'I'll take your word for it,' said Dahlia, taking Caxton and Severine's hands like children

01:05:47on a skolem outing as they set off after him.

01:05:51Zeush led the way through a confusing series of ceramic-tiled tunnels until they stood

01:05:55on a crowded platform with hundreds of tired-looking workers.

01:06:00Distorted wavering blurts of code fragments coughed from battered vox amps set in wooden

01:06:04boxes mounted on the ceiling, and even Zeush shrugged when Dahlia looked at him for an

01:06:09explanation.

01:06:10"'I didn't get a word of that,' said Zeush.

01:06:14"'It's said the next maglev will be delayed by two hundred and seventy-five seconds,'

01:06:20said a powerful voice behind them.

01:06:22Dahlia flinched at the sound, recognising the harsh, metallic rasp of a human voice

01:06:27issuing from behind a bronze mask.

01:06:30She turned and looked up into a pair of glowing green eyes.

01:06:34"'Greetings, Dahlia Sithera,' said Romue Thirty-One.

01:06:39The enemy reaver was burning, the top portion of its carapace blown away by Cavallerio's

01:06:45blast-gun after a punishing barrage from the Vulcan had stripped it of its voids.

01:06:50He felt the heat build in his left arm as the weapon recharged, and a clatter in his

01:06:55right as the autoloader recycled the mega-bolter to fire again.

01:07:00The enemy engine toppled backwards, flattening an ore silo and sending up a blizzard of flame

01:07:05and smoke.

01:07:07Lost rock-crete dust billowed from its demise, and even as Cavallerio exulted in the kill,

01:07:12he knew the other reaver was still out there, lurking behind the burning ruins of the refinery,

01:07:17using the smoke and heat to mask its reactor bloom.

01:07:20"'Moderati, get me a mass reading,' he ordered in a squirt of binary.

01:07:25"'Yes, princeps.'

01:07:28Information flooded him through the manifold, a hundred different stimuli collected from

01:07:32the mighty engine's myriad surveyors—heat, mass, motion, radiation, vibration, and shield

01:07:38harmonics—everything combined to paint a world more real to Cavallerio than reality

01:07:44itself.

01:07:45He drank the liquid data down, swallowing and digesting it in a heartbeat.

01:07:51His awareness of his surroundings bloomed, and he saw the enemy reaver manoeuvring around

01:07:55the refinery, smashing its way through the walls and roof beams of the nearby steelworks.

01:08:01A flicker of heat and mass tugged at his awareness, and he felt the stealthy approach

01:08:05of the enemy war-hound before he saw it.

01:08:08"'Steersman, reverse pace, flank speed, heading 270!'

01:08:14A warlord titan was not built for rapid course changes, but the steersman was good, and the

01:08:19engine obeyed with commendable speed.

01:08:22The building beside Cavallerio exploded into a mass of shredded girders, torn concrete

01:08:27slabs, and sheet-metal roofing.

01:08:31Shadows of vaporized rock creep billowed, but Cavallerio's engine sight could penetrate

01:08:35it without difficulty.

01:08:38He saw the war-hound, a graceful low-pink predator of red and silver, dart from the

01:08:42shadows of a collapsed forge-hanger, its turbos blitzing with hard light.

01:08:48Cavallerio felt the impacts on his shields, but its angle of fire was poor, and most of

01:08:52the shots were void skidding.

01:08:55"'Censori, keep an eye out for that reaver,' he canted.

01:08:59"'Don't let him get too close.'

01:09:01"'Yes, Princeps.

01:09:03Moderati, firing solution!'

01:09:06The war-hound was nimble, but it had struck too soon, and without the shock-value of its

01:09:11turbo-lasers impacting on its target's shields, it was vulnerable.

01:09:16Data inloaded from the Moderati's station, and Cavallerio saw the vectors of fire slide

01:09:20into his mind at the speed of thought.

01:09:23He felt the wordless bray of the gun-servitor's acknowledgment, and opened fire.

01:09:28A sheeting storm of explosive rounds roared from Cavallerio's mega-bolter, obscuring the

01:09:34war-hound in a blizzard of detonations and flaring shreds of discharging voids.

01:09:39The war-hound staggered, pushed back against the brick walls of a weapons shop.

01:09:44Stone and steel tumbled to the ground, but Cavallerio knew the enemy engine wasn't out

01:09:48of the fight yet.

01:09:49"'Steersman, move in.

01:09:51Moderati, arm missiles.

01:09:53Censori, where's that reaver?'

01:09:55"'Moving in.

01:09:56Aye.

01:09:57Missiles arming.

01:09:58Reaver still closing, Princeps.

01:10:00Six hundred meters.

01:10:02Bearing zero-six-three."

01:10:05Cavallerio's engine closed the gap between it and the war-hound.

01:10:09He had to kill it before the reaver was in a position to help.

01:10:12Individually, neither of the enemy machines were a match for his warlord, but working

01:10:16together, they could potentially bring him down if he were not careful.

01:10:21The war-hound swayed as it picked itself up, its weapon limbs shaking like a dog climbing

01:10:26from the water.

01:10:28Its shields burbled and sparked, and Cavallerio read a flaring convergence of energy gaps

01:10:33clustered around the engine's hip.

01:10:36Information updates sluiced around him, and he updated his situational awareness, feeling

01:10:40the danger of the closing reaver and knowing he didn't have much time.

01:10:44"'Moderati, as soon as that reaver comes into view, hit its upper carapace with a barrage

01:10:50from the carapace launcher.

01:10:52Three missiles spread.

01:10:53Five-second intervals.'

01:10:55"'Yes, Princeps.'

01:10:56"'Gun Servitor Hellas Eighty-Eight.

01:10:59Slave weapon to my command.'"

01:11:01The implanted servitor wordlessly acknowledged his order, and Cavallerio felt the reassuring

01:11:05weight and industrial motion of the mega-bolter as though it was part of his flesh.

01:11:11It was reckless to take command of the weapon from the servitor, who could fire it far more

01:11:15effectively than he could, but, to make this kill, he wanted to feel the thunder.

01:11:22Cavallerio surrendered to the engine's killing lust, guiding it with his own need to defeat

01:11:26their foe.

01:11:27With a thought, the mega-bolter engaged and sawed off a furious hurricane of shells at

01:11:32the staggering warhound's wounded hip.

01:11:35At the same time, he felt the juddering shoom, shoom, shoom of the missiles mounted high

01:11:40on his carapace leap from the launcher.

01:11:43The reaver had joined the fight, and he had to finish the warhound quickly.

01:11:47"'Multiple impacts on enemy reaver, Princeps!'

01:11:51Cavallerio noted the update, but concentrated his attention on the warhound.

01:11:55Its voids had collapsed under his barrage, detonating with a blinding thunderclap.

01:12:00The explosion atomized one weapon arm and cracked its carapace open.

01:12:05Flames billowed from its rear quarter.

01:12:07Still it stood, defiant as a whipped wolf.

01:12:11"'Arming blast-gun,' intoned the moderati, plotting solution.

01:12:15"'Belay that order!' cried Cavallerio.

01:12:18"'We'll need it for the reaver.

01:12:20We close and kill it with hard rounds!'

01:12:23"'Incoming!' shouted the moderati, and Cavallerio felt the blistering pain of impacts on the

01:12:28voids.

01:12:30Missiles streaked from the enemy reaver, fired from an underslung rocket-pod, and the relentless

01:12:34impacts staggered his engine.

01:12:37Shield energy ripped away from his warlord, and Cavallerio heard the frantic cants of

01:12:41the magos as he fought to rebuild them.

01:12:45The limping warhound stood its ground before him, silhouetted in the ruins of the collapsed

01:12:49building, and Cavallerio was forced to admire its pilot's courage.

01:12:53It was doomed, yet still it fought.

01:12:56Its remaining gun opened fire, punishing his already weakened shields.

01:13:00"'Shield failure on lower quadrant,' warned the magos.

01:13:04"'Critical collapse imminent!'

01:13:06"'Reaver closing, Princeps!'

01:13:08Cavallerio ignored the warnings, letting rip once more with the mega-bolter.

01:13:12A storm of shells and pulverized rock erupted around the warhound, driving it to its knees

01:13:18with the force of the impacts.

01:13:20Its carapace cracked open, and flames sheeted upwards as the remains of the building tumbled

01:13:25down around it.

01:13:26Cavallerio kept hammering the smaller engine until it was a ruin of splintered metal and

01:13:30fire.

01:13:32Sudden, agonizing pain speared into him, and he screamed as it felt like his leg was bathed

01:13:37in liquid fire.

01:13:39His awareness snapped back into widespread, and he saw the looming form of the Reaver

01:13:43closing with him, its immense bulk smashing through the high walls of the refinery in

01:13:48its hunger to reach him.

01:13:50Its warhorn blared in triumph, and its plasma-blast gun was smoking from a sustained salvo.

01:13:57Cavallerio read the situation in a heartbeat.

01:13:59It was on his exposed flank, and had him dead to rights.

01:14:04His shields were almost gone, the metal beneath buckled and molten.

01:14:08A volley of screaming rockets slammed into him, and he convulsed with psychostigmatic

01:14:13pain.

01:14:14The manifold erupted with warnings and damage indicators.

01:14:18The chin station exploded, immolating the moderati and steersmen in a hellish firestorm.

01:14:23The cockpit shook as more missile impacts slammed into the warlord's mighty torso.

01:14:29It's gone, canted the Magos unnecessarily.

01:14:32Missiles!

01:14:33he yelled, knowing it was too late.

01:14:36Full-spread!

01:14:37Safety's off!

01:14:39Streaking rockets and laser fire pounded the air between the two engines as they unleashed

01:14:43the last of their arsenal at one another at point-blank range.

01:14:48Cavallerio screamed as his shields failed, feeling awful, intolerable pain as the enemy

01:14:53engine tore the guts from him with an unending series of missile strikes.

01:14:59Great explosions of void failure flared around him, and at last both war machines were stripped

01:15:04of their shields, naked, and steel to steel.

01:15:09Cavallerio grinned through the pain.

01:15:10Now I have you! he roared.

01:15:14With his last breath, Cavallerio unleashed the full power of the blast gun into his enemy's

01:15:19face, and the world exploded in fire and light.

01:15:26He watched the last moments of the unfolding battle on the hololithic projection table,

01:15:31admiring the skill of the stormlord even as his engine was destroyed.

01:15:36Watching the miniature holograms of the engines stomping around the artificial landscape had

01:15:40been thrilling, but the tension in the warriors gathered around the table was contagious.

01:15:45He's doing much better now, isn't he? she asked.

01:15:50Princep Sharak looked over at her, his kind eyes and cropped salt-and-pepper hair, at

01:15:55odds with the killer she knew him to be.

01:15:58His eyes darted to the other side of the projection table, where two fellow-princeps, Vlad Suzak

01:16:03and Jan Mordent, stood watching the simulated battle.

01:16:08Suzak stood ramrod straight, as if on parade, while Mordent eagerly leaned forwards, with

01:16:13his elbow resting on the edge of the table.

01:16:16Yes, Famulus, he is doing better, said Sharak.

01:16:21But not well enough, put in Suzak, the straight-backed slayer of engines.

01:16:27It takes time to adjust, said Agathe, looking at the forlorn naked form suspended in the

01:16:32steel-edged amniotic tank, linked to the projection table via a host of insulated cables.

01:16:39To go from hard-plug connection to full immersion, it's not an easy transition to make.

01:16:44No, agreed Sharak, but the point remains.

01:16:48The Storm-Lord cannot command the Legio like this.

01:16:51Not yet.

01:16:53Agathe pointed to the projection table.

01:16:55He took on and defeated three engines single-handedly.

01:16:59Doesn't that count for anything?

01:17:02It speaks of great courage, said Jan Mordent, looking over at Sharak.

01:17:07Maybe we're being too cautious.

01:17:09It speaks of recklessness, snapped Sharak.

01:17:12It's just a simulation, Kael, pointed out Mordent.

01:17:16It's a whole different game when you're linked with the manifold.

01:17:19We all know the risks you take in a sim aren't the ones you take when your neck's on the

01:17:23line."

01:17:24I'm aware of that, Jan, but if this had been real, the Storm-Lord would have died and taken

01:17:30his engine with him.

01:17:32A war-lord, no less.

01:17:34But three engines, Kael, said Mordent.

01:17:37Come on!"

01:17:39Sharak sighed.

01:17:40I understand, Jan.

01:17:42I really do.

01:17:44But you've only recently been elevated to the precepture of a reaver from a war-hound.

01:17:49What's that got to do with anything?

01:17:51It means you haven't yet shed your own recklessness, said Susack.

01:17:56You have to think in terms other than individual heroics when you command a larger engine.

01:18:01You should know that, and Princeps Cavallerio should damn well know it.

01:18:06Agathe saw the flush of temper colour Jan Mordent's neck, but he controlled his anger

01:18:10and simply nodded.

01:18:12She saw his knuckles were white where they gripped the projection table.

01:18:17Softening his tone, Sharak said,

01:18:19"'Princeps Cavallerio should have waited for the engines of his battle-group to take the

01:18:23enemy en masse.

01:18:26We are not in the business of futile heroics, Jan.

01:18:29We are in the business of destroying our foes and then bringing our engines and crews back

01:18:34alive.'

01:18:35"'So the decision stands?' asked Mordent.

01:18:40Sharak nodded.

01:18:41"'The decision stands.

01:18:43Until such time as I deem Princeps Cavallerio fit to return to active duty, I will assume

01:18:49command of Legio Tempesta's forces on Mars.'

01:18:53Mordent and Susack nodded and saluted their new Princeps Senioris.

01:18:58Agathe watched the foetal outline of Cavallerio twitch in the blood-flecked jelly of his amniotic

01:19:03tank.

01:19:05Could he hear what his warriors were saying about him?

01:19:08She hoped not.

01:19:10If he had already suffered the pain of losing his engine, how devastating would it be to

01:19:14lose his Legio?

01:19:18Dahlia felt an icy hand clamp down on her heart at the sight of Rho Mu 31.

01:19:24Her perceptions seemed to contract to a bubble of warped reality, where the world around

01:19:29her ceased to flow.

01:19:31The motion of people, the sound of the vox system and the crackle of electricity, and

01:19:36the actinic reek of ozone were all held in stasis, while her personal experience spiked

01:19:42like an arrhythmic heartbeat.

01:19:44She could feel the panic in her companions and fought to control her breathing.

01:19:50Rho Mu 31 stood immobile in front of her, his robes bright red and his body carrying

01:19:55the strange aroma of spoiled meat that always seemed to attend the protectors.

01:20:00The power gleamed in the shadows of his cloak, where augmentic implants emerged from his

01:20:05flesh.

01:20:06Oh, she managed.

01:20:08Hello.

01:20:10As far as excuses or opening gambits went, it was fairly poor.

01:20:15The noise of the transit station swelled in her ears, and suddenly all she could hear

01:20:20was the rustle of a hundred conversations and the shuffle of a thousand feet.

01:20:24Rho Mu 31, she said, struggling to think of something more meaningful to say and failing

01:20:31miserably.

01:20:32She felt herself looking at her feet like a naughty child.

01:20:36Zeus came to her rescue, standing in front of her and craning his neck to look up at

01:20:40the heavily muscled and augmented Mechanicum Warrior.

01:20:44Rho Mu 31, is it? he said.

01:20:48Good to see you.

01:20:49We—ah, we were just taking the transit to the port facilities.

01:20:54Got some supplies coming in from the Jovian shipyards.

01:20:58The port facilities? asked Rho Mu 31.

01:21:01That's right, added Caxton.

01:21:04We wanted to make sure they were the right ones.

01:21:06You know, save the Stevadors the bother of getting them here and finding out they were

01:21:10the wrong ones.

01:21:11It would add days to our work, and frankly we don't have days to lose.

01:21:17Dahlia closed her eyes, unable to meet Rho Mu 31's gaze, as her companions told their

01:21:22terrible, unbelievable lies.

01:21:25She imagined the ground opening up and plunging her deep into the magma, or that an approaching

01:21:29maglev might fly from the rails in a cataclysmic crash.

01:21:34Anything would be preferable to this excruciating feeling.

01:21:39Severine joined with the others in weaving the deception, the lie growing ever more convoluted

01:21:43and drawing in elements and characters, many of whom she was certain didn't exist, until

01:21:48Dahlia could stand it no longer.

01:21:50"'Enough!' she yelled.

01:21:52Throne, don't you realise how stupid this all sounds?'

01:21:56A few heads turned at her use of the throne as an oath, but most people kept their heads

01:22:01down, knowing it was not wise to attract the attention of a Mechanicum Protector unless

01:22:06you really had to.

01:22:07The others fell silent, studiously examining the floor as though it held the key to their

01:22:12salvation.

01:22:14Dahlia drew herself up to her full height, which wasn't much compared to Rho Mu 31, and

01:22:19looked into the glowing green lights behind his bronze mask.

01:22:22"'We're not going to the port,' she said.

01:22:25"'We're going to the Noctis Labyrinthus.'

01:22:28She heard the collective intake of breath from the others and pressed on, knowing she

01:22:32had no choice but to tell Rho Mu 31 the truth.

01:22:36"'Why would you want to go to such a benighted place?' asked Rho Mu 31.

01:22:41"'Nothing good can come of it.

01:22:44Only the cult of the dragon is said to dwell within the Labyrinth of Night.'

01:22:49"'The cult of the dragon!' asked Dahlia.

01:22:51Her excitement peaked.

01:22:52"'I've never heard of it.'

01:22:54"'Few have,' said Rho Mu 31.

01:22:58It was an obscure sect of madmen, regrettably only one of many on Mars.'

01:23:03"'But who are they?'

01:23:05When the adepts who attempted to set up forges within the Noctis Labyrinthus abandoned their

01:23:10workings, not every one left with them.

01:23:12A few deluded souls remained behind.

01:23:16A rush of air filled the transit station.

01:23:19A maglev train was approaching.

01:23:20"'I need to go there,' said Dahlia.

01:23:23"'I need to go there now.'

01:23:25"'Why?'

01:23:26"'I don't exactly know, but there's something important there.

01:23:29I can feel it.'

01:23:30"'There is nothing there but darkness,' said Rho Mu 31, placing a meaty hand on Dahlia's

01:23:35shoulder.

01:23:36"'Are you truly sure of the path you are on?'

01:23:40Dahlia shuddered at Rho Mu 31's mention of the darkness, but slowly the implications

01:23:45of his words emerged from behind her fear.

01:23:48"'Wait a minute.

01:23:50You're not going to stop me?'

01:23:52"'I am not,' said Rho Mu 31.

01:23:55"'And if you insist on making this journey, I have no choice but to accompany you.'

01:23:59"'Accompany us?' asked Zeuch.

01:24:03"'Now why would you do a thing like that, and not drag us back to Adept Seth?

01:24:08You have to know we're travelling without her sanction.'

01:24:10"'Be quiet, Zeuch,' said Severine.

01:24:15Rho Mu 31 nodded.

01:24:16"'I am aware of that, but Adept Seth tasked me with keeping Dahlia Sithera safe.

01:24:22She said nothing about restricting her movements.'

01:24:24"'I don't understand,' said Dahlia, as the glowing stab-lights of a maglev emerged from

01:24:30the arched tunnel, and the smell of ozone grew stronger.

01:24:33"'Mars is in crisis, Dahlia Sithera,' said Rho Mu 31.

01:24:38"'Disaster strikes at every turn, and though Adept Seth's forge escaped the worst of it,

01:24:44our beloved planet is on the verge of slipping into chaos.'

01:24:47"'Chaos!

01:24:49What are you talking about?' asked Caxton.

01:24:51"'We heard some rumours of accidents, but nothing like as serious as you're making up.'

01:24:56"'Whatever you have heard, I can assure you the reality is far worse than you can possibly

01:25:02imagine,' said Rho Mu 31.

01:25:04"'The terror of old night threatens to descend upon us once more, and I believe Dahlia may

01:25:10hold the key to our salvation.'

01:25:13"'Me?

01:25:14No, I told you before that I am nobody,' said Dahlia, unwilling to be saddled with such

01:25:19responsibility.

01:25:20"'You are wrong, Dahlia,' stated Rho Mu 31, as the maglev came to a halt behind her.

01:25:27"'You have an innate understanding of technology, but I believe what makes you special is the

01:25:32ability to intuit things that others would not.

01:25:36If you think there is something within the Noctis Labyrinthus of importance, then I am

01:25:41willing to put my faith in you.'

01:25:43"'I thought you didn't believe in faith?'

01:25:45"'I don't.

01:25:47I believe in you.'

01:25:50Dahlia smiled.

01:25:51"'Thank you,' she said.

01:25:53"'I do not require your thanks,' replied Rho Mu 31.

01:25:57"'I am a protector.

01:25:59I am your protector.

01:26:02That is my purpose.'

01:26:03"'I thank you anyway.'

01:26:06Caxton patted Dahlia on the shoulder.

01:26:08"'Well, if we are going to go, we should probably get on this maglev?'

01:26:13Dahlia nodded and looked up at her protector.

01:26:16"'After you,' said Rho Mu 31."

01:26:21Adept Zeth stood in the highest tower of her forge, the new spheric halo above her head

01:26:26twitching with information.

01:26:28She sorted through a number of active feeds with her M.I.U.

01:26:32None of them made for easy reading.

01:26:35Feeds were streaming from the forges of Fabricator Locum Cain and Ipluvium Maximal, but there

01:26:40were others coming in from isolated adepts that had come through the death of innocents

01:26:44and were desperately seeking friendly voices.

01:26:48Beside her one of her underlings waited uncomfortably for the adept to speak.

01:26:52"'Be at ease,' said Zeth.

01:26:54"'Rho Mu 31 is with them now.'

01:26:56"'They're safe?'

01:26:59Zeth shrugged and glanced down at the woman beside her.

01:27:03"'As much as anyone can be said to be safe on Mars just now.'

01:27:06"'And he'll keep them from harm?'

01:27:09"'That is his purpose,' agreed Zeth.

01:27:12'Though a journey to the Noctis Labyrinthus is not without peril.

01:27:16They will pass close to Mondus Gamma, the domain of Lucas Crom, and he is a pawn of

01:27:21the Fabricator General.'

01:27:22"'That's bad, isn't it?'

01:27:25"'Yes.

01:27:26I rather suspect it is,' said Zeth, thinking of what Cain had told her.

01:27:30"'It is imperative that no one else should learn of Dahlia's whereabouts.

01:27:35Of course.

01:27:36Delete all records of her destination from your memory coils and supply me with a record

01:27:40of deletion.

01:27:42Understood?'

01:27:43"'Yes.'

01:27:45Zeth waited for a few seconds until the deletion record arrived in her noosphere before speaking

01:27:50again.

01:27:51"'You should return to your duties,' she said.

01:27:53"'Ambassador Malgotor will be arriving soon from Olympus Mons, and I think it would be

01:27:58better if you were elsewhere.

01:28:00"'Yes, you wish,' said Melusine."

01:28:062.05

01:28:10Of all the visitors ever to climb the steps to her forge, Ambassador Malgotor was one

01:28:15of the least welcome.

01:28:16Coriel Zeth watched the man approach, his thin body wrapped in a dark, ermine-trimmed

01:28:21robe, his few overt augmentics concealed beneath a hood of dark velvet.

01:28:27Although Kelbor Hal's messenger was still some distance away, Zeth's enhanced vision

01:28:31saw that the Ambassador had changed since last she had seen him.

01:28:36His skin was waxen and unhealthy, yet his eyes remained dark pools of sinister purpose,

01:28:42like a bearer of bad news, eager to spread his misery.

01:28:46However, Malgotor's presence, as unwelcome and unlooked-for as it was, did not worry

01:28:52her so much as that of his companion.

01:28:56Sheathed in an all-enclosing body-glove of a gleaming synthetic material that rippled

01:29:01like blood across her skin, a slender female figure followed a discreet distance behind

01:29:06the Ambassador.

01:29:08Zeth needed no help from the newsphere to recognise what this woman was.

01:29:12"'Is that what I think it is?' asked Magos Polk in a soft cant of binary.

01:29:18Zeth could read her apprentice disquiet in the formulation of his numerics, and hoped

01:29:22her own biometrics did not betray her unease so obviously.

01:29:26"'Yes,' she said.

01:29:28"'Do not speak to her if you can avoid it.'

01:29:30"'Have no worries about that,' promised Polk.

01:29:33"'Not if my life depended on it.'

01:29:35"'Let us hope it does not come to that, Polk,' said Zeth.

01:29:40"'But her presence here cannot be a good thing.'

01:29:43"'Surely the Fabricator General has merely dispatched her as a guard for the Ambassador

01:29:49after all the troubles we have had,' said Polk, his tone begging for reassurance.

01:29:54"'Perhaps.

01:29:55But I doubt it.

01:29:57To act merely as a bodyguard would be seen as beneath the skills of a tech-priest-assassin.'

01:30:02"'Then why is she here?'

01:30:05Zeth felt her irritation at Polk's questions grow, but forced it down.

01:30:10"'I expect we shall find out soon enough,' she said.

01:30:14"'This meeting with Kelmore Howells Lackey would need a clear head, and Zeth could not

01:30:19afford to be distracted by Polk's fear, even though it mirrored her own.

01:30:24The tech-priest-assassins were a body of mysterious and aloof killers who had existed since the

01:30:28settling of Mars in the distant past.

01:30:31A law unto themselves, they answered to no authority save that of unknown masters said

01:30:36to dwell in the shadows of the Cydonia Mensae.

01:30:40Melgator and his accomplice reached the plinth beneath the great portico, and Zeth wondered

01:30:44if this was how she was going to die, struck down by an assassin's blade, her vital fluids

01:30:50pouring down the steps of her forge.

01:30:54Melgator smiled, though Zeth found nothing reassuring in its reptilian insincerity.

01:30:59The ambassador and his companion came towards her, passing into the splayed shadows of the

01:31:03piston columns and golden portico.

01:31:07Melgator moved with the clicking gait of one whose lower limbs were augmetic, while the

01:31:11assassin flowed across the milky-white marble of the floor as though on ice.

01:31:17Zeth saw that the assassin's legs were long and multi-jointed, fused together just above

01:31:21the ankles by a spar of metal, below which her legs ended not in feet, but in a complex

01:31:27series of magno-gravitic thrusters that skimmed her along just off the ground.

01:31:32Her athletic form was beautifully deadly, honed to perfect physicality by a rigorous

01:31:37regime of physical exercise, gene manipulation, and surgical augmentation.

01:31:44Melgator stopped before Zeth and bowed deeply.

01:31:47His arms spread wide.

01:31:49"'Adept Zeth,' he began, "'it is a pleasure to once again visit your unique forge.'

01:31:55"'You are welcome, Ambassador Melgator,' said Zeth.

01:32:00"'This is my magus apprentice, Adept Polk.'

01:32:04She left her words hanging, and Melgator read the pause expertly.

01:32:08He turned towards his companion, who wore a face-mask fashioned in the form of a grinning

01:32:12crimson skull, with a horn of gleaming metal jutting from its chin.

01:32:17"'This is my associate, Remiari,' said Melgator.

01:32:23Zeth nodded towards Remiari, and the assassin inclined her head a fraction in acknowledgement.

01:32:29Zeth took a second to study the hard-wired targeting apparatus grafted to Remiari's

01:32:33mask and the long snake-like sensor tendrils that swam in the air from the rear portion

01:32:38of her cranium.

01:32:39"'And what brings you to my forge?' asked Zeth, turning and leading Melgator towards

01:32:45the wall of bronze doors that led within.

01:32:49Polk dropped back to stand at her right shoulder, while Melgator and Remiari fell in smoothly

01:32:53to her left.

01:32:54"'I come to you as a great shadow hangs over our beloved planet,' adept Zeth.

01:33:01"'Disaster strikes Mars at every turn, and in times of such trouble friends should stand

01:33:06shoulder to shoulder.'

01:33:07"'Indeed,' replied Zeth, as they passed into the forge and along its silver-skinned

01:33:14arterial halls.

01:33:15"'We have suffered greatly, and much has been lost that can never be recovered.'

01:33:20"'Alas, you speak the truth,' said Melgator, and Zeth could barely keep the contempt she

01:33:26felt for his false concern from her field-orers.

01:33:28"'Thus it is ever more imperative that friends should acknowledge one another and

01:33:33do whatever is necessary to aid one another.'

01:33:38Zeth did not answer Melgator's leading comment, and turned into Etna's processional, a passageway

01:33:43of ooze-like walls and burning braziers that led into a high-ceilinged chamber at the heart

01:33:49of adept Zeth's forge.

01:33:52Formed from the intertwining of twisted columns of silver and gold, the web-like walls rose

01:33:56to a tapering point above the centre of the chamber.

01:34:00Gracefully curved sheets of burnished steel and crystal rippled overhead, winding through

01:34:05the columns to form an impossibly beautiful latticework roof, like glittering shards of

01:34:10ice frozen in the moment of shattering.

01:34:13The toxic skies of Mars were visible through the gaps in the columns as angled slivers

01:34:18of cadmium hazed by the void shielding that surrounded the highest peak of the forge.

01:34:24Beneath the apex of the roof a wide shaft descended into the depths of the forge, and

01:34:29a fiery orange glow billowed upwards from the heart of the magma far below.

01:34:34Searing heat and waves of energising power rippled the air over the shaft as Melgator

01:34:39made appropriately impressed noises.

01:34:43like thin slitted gills opened in the folds of his neck as Melgator partook of the invisible

01:34:49currents of drifting electricity.

01:34:52Remiare paid the hot majesty of the space no mind, her own energy receptors kept hidden

01:34:57beneath her bodyglove, and Zeth felt as though the assassin's attention was focused firmly

01:35:02on the cardinal weak points of her bronze armour.

01:35:05She shared a glance with Magos Polk, who assumed a deferential pose beside her with his hands

01:35:11tucked into the sleeves of his robe.

01:35:14It has been too long since I stood within the chamber of Vesta, said Melgator.

01:35:19Your current is exquisite.

01:35:21I can almost feel the fire of the red planet within me.

01:35:25It has always been here, pointed out Zeth.

01:35:28Those who are friends to the magma city are always welcome to take sustenance within its

01:35:33walls.

01:35:34Then I should hope you count the Fabricator General amongst such friends.

01:35:38Why should I not? asked Zeth.

01:35:40Kelbor Hal has never expressed his displeasure with me.

01:35:43He continues the great work of the Mechanicum, does he not?

01:35:47Indeed he does, said Melgator quickly.

01:35:50And he sends me to you in the spirit of peace in these dark days of loss and death, to assure

01:35:55you of his continued good will.

01:35:58The spirit of peace, said Zeth, walking around the shaft in the centre of the chamber.

01:36:04Polk made to follow her, but she waved him away.

01:36:07The heat was intense, and she could feel her organic portions begin to sweat.

01:36:12Is that why you come to me in the company of one of the Sisters of Cydonia?

01:36:16These are troubled times, adept Zeth, said Melgator.

01:36:20You said that already.

01:36:22I am aware of that, but it is a point I cannot make strongly enough, replied Melgator.

01:36:27An enemy strikes at us, weakens our forges, and only a fool dares to travel without precautions.

01:36:35An assassin is a precaution, asked Zeth, turning towards Remiari.

01:36:40Has the Cydonian Sisterhood fallen so far that they are now mere bodyguards?

01:36:45The assassin cocked her head to one side, like a bird of prey regarding a helpless morsel,

01:36:50and though glistening fabric obscured her expression, Zeth felt an acute tremor along

01:36:55the adamantium curve of her spine.

01:36:58I can taste your fear of me, said Remiari softly, her eyes like black marbles behind

01:37:04the horned death-mask.

01:37:05Yet, still you bait me with barbed words.

01:37:10Why would you do this when you know I can kill you?

01:37:14Zeth controlled her breathing in metabolic rate with a measured release of glanded stims,

01:37:18as Melgator said, there will be no killing, Remiari.

01:37:22This is a mission of renewed friendship in a time when allies are to be more prized than

01:37:27pure streaming data.

01:37:30Melgator turned to Zeth, his hands held out before him.

01:37:33Yes, I bring a warrior to your forge, but it is only because our very way of existence

01:37:39is threatened that I come so accompanied.

01:37:43Threatened by whom?

01:37:44Does the Fabricator General know who unleashed the corrupt code into the Martian systems?

01:37:49He does not know for certain, but he has strong suspicions, replied Melgator.

01:37:56Any you would care to divulge?

01:37:59Melgator began circling the fire-shaft towards Zeth, lacing his hands behind his back as

01:38:04he walked.

01:38:05Perhaps, nodded Melgator, but may I first ask how the Magma City escaped the devastation

01:38:11so many other less fortunate forges suffered?

01:38:16Zeth hesitated, unsure of how much Melgator knew and how much he only suspected.

01:38:21In truth she wasn't entirely sure why her forge had been spared, though she had her

01:38:25suspicions, none of which she was comfortable sharing with a minion of the Fabricator General.

01:38:30In the end, she decided on a partial truth.

01:38:33I believe the singular nature of the new sphere prevented the debased code from entering my

01:38:38systems, she said.

01:38:40And yet the forges of Epluvium Maximum and Fabricator Locum Cain suffered in the attack.

01:38:45They have recently upgraded their information networks to the new sphere, have they not?

01:38:50So perhaps there is some other reason you were spared?

01:38:55If there is, I am not certain what it was, said Zeth, hoping Melgator would read the

01:39:00honesty in her cant and not the evasion of her words.

01:39:05She prayed that Polk's aegis barriers in his new spheric aura were in place.

01:39:10Then might it be the latest endeavour taking shape within your inner forge?

01:39:15It has not gone unnoticed that your newest creation—whatever it is—requires lowly

01:39:21transcribers sequestered from Terra, and a great many Psykers secretly brought down

01:39:25from the Black Ships.

01:39:28How can you think you know what goes on within my inner forge? asked Zeth, shaken to the

01:39:33core of her being that Melgator was aware of such things.

01:39:37Melgator laughed.

01:39:38Come now, adept Zeth, you think the workings of any adept on Mars are truly hidden?

01:39:45Information is woven into every passage of electrons across the surface of the red planet,

01:39:50and you know how the spirits of machines love to share their secrets.

01:39:55The workings of my forge are my own to know, Melgator, snapped Zeth.

01:40:00As I said, I believe that it was my adoption of the new sphere that saved my forge from

01:40:04destruction.

01:40:06Melgator smiled ruefully.

01:40:09Very well, I will accept that.

01:40:12Perhaps if you had freely shared the technology of the new sphere with your fellow adepts,

01:40:16then Mars might have been spared the horror of the death of innocents.

01:40:21Perhaps if the Fabricator General had put more faith in the new sphere when I presented

01:40:25it to him, that might have been the case, countered Zeth.

01:40:29Melgator smiled, conceding the point.

01:40:32May I speak frankly, adept Zeth?

01:40:35Of course.

01:40:36The Chamber of Vesta is a place of honest discourse.

01:40:40Then I will be blunt, said Melgator.

01:40:43My master believes he knows the source of the attack on our infrastructure, and he seeks

01:40:47to rally all true sons and daughters of Ares to the defence of Mars.

01:40:52The defence of Mars? asked Zeth, nonplussed.

01:40:57Defence against whom?

01:40:59Against Terra.

01:41:01Zeth was stunned.

01:41:03Of all the answers she had expected Melgator to give, this had not been amongst them.

01:41:08She tried to cover her surprise by turning and looking out over the Martian landscape.

01:41:12The sky was turning from blue to purple, heavy, toxin-laden clouds sparking with lightning

01:41:18over the distant forge of Mondus Gamma.

01:41:21Terra, she said, slowly, as though tasting the word for the first time.

01:41:27Terra, repeated Melgator.

01:41:30Now that the great crusade is almost at an end, the Emperor desires to end his union

01:41:34with Mars and take our world for his own.

01:41:38El Borhal thinks the Emperor attacked us, asked Zeth, spinning to face Melgator.

01:41:44Do you realise how insane that sounds?

01:41:48Melgator approached her with a pleading look.

01:41:51Is it insane to want to hold on to what we have built here over the millennia, adept

01:41:55Zeth?

01:41:57Is it insanity to suspect that a man who has all but conquered the entire galaxy should

01:42:01allow one world among millions to remain aloof from his empire?

01:42:05No.

01:42:07The attack on our world's information systems was but the first strike in breaking the Treaty

01:42:12of Olympus and bringing the Mechanicum to heel.

01:42:16Zeth laughed in his face.

01:42:18I see now why you brought this assassin with you, Melgator, in case I should call you traitor

01:42:23and have you killed.

01:42:26Melgator's stance changed from one of supplication to one of aggression in an instant, and hands

01:42:30that had once been outstretched towards her now dropped to his sides.

01:42:34You would do well to choose your next words carefully, adept Zeth.

01:42:40Why would that be?

01:42:41Will you have Remiari here kill me if you don't like them?

01:42:45No, said Melgator.

01:42:47I would not be so foolish as to anger the Omnisire by murdering an adept of Mars in

01:42:52her own forge.

01:42:54The Omnisire! spat Zeth.

01:42:57You speak of the Emperor breaking faith with the Mechanicum, and in the next breath use

01:43:01him as a reason not to murder me.

01:43:04I speak of the Omnisire as an aspect of the Machine God yet to manifest, not the Emperor.

01:43:12Most believe them to be one and the same, but not you.

01:43:16You already know what I believe, said Zeth, angered beyond caution.

01:43:21There is no Machine God.

01:43:24Technology is science and reason, not superstition and blind faith.

01:43:28It's what I've always believed, and it's what I still believe.

01:43:32Now, if you're not going to kill me, get out of my forge.

01:43:36Are you sure about this, Zeth?

01:43:39Asked Melgator.

01:43:40Turning your back on the Fabricator General will have dire consequences.

01:43:45Is that a threat?

01:43:46A threat?

01:43:48No, merely a reiteration that we live in dangerous times and

01:43:53that the friendship of powerful allies would be no bad thing in the days ahead.

01:44:00Friendship.

01:44:01Kelbor Hal asked me to side with him against terror, barked Zeth.

01:44:06What manner of friend would ask such a thing?

01:44:09Melgator slid his hands into the sleeves of his robes.

01:44:13The kind that knows what is best for Mars.

01:44:19Melgator slowly descended the steps of Zeth's forge, savoring the memory of

01:44:23Adept Zeth's admission of her disbelief in the Machine God.

01:44:27It was all the excuse the Fabricator General needed to seize the magma city and

01:44:31learn all the secrets of her forge, and Zeth had handed it to them on a plate.

01:44:37He wiped a hand across his brow.

01:44:40Sweat beaded on his forehead in the intolerably dry heat that

01:44:43wrapped the city like a shroud.

01:44:45Melgator had traveled far and wide in his role as ambassador, but

01:44:48this place had to rank as one of the most inhospitable on Mars.

01:44:53The sooner it was plundered and laid to waste, the better.

01:44:58Beside him, Remiari hovered effortlessly above the steps,

01:45:01her masked face unreadable in the orange-lit gloom.

01:45:05Zeth knows why she escaped the scrap code's attack, said Melgator.

01:45:10Or at least she suspects she knows.

01:45:13Of course, answered Remiari.

01:45:15Her apprenter was bleeding fear and information from his new spheric aura.

01:45:21I have stored everything I could access from his files on Zeth's work in my

01:45:24memory coils, and I will ex-load them to the fabricator general's logic engines

01:45:29upon our return to Olympus Mons.

01:45:32You can lift data from the Noosphere?

01:45:35I didn't know that, said Melgator, more than a little unnerved.

01:45:40Of course, the secrets of the Noosphere are well known to the sisters of Cydonia,

01:45:45as are the means to manipulate the mind structure beyond it.

01:45:49What about his Aegis barrier?

01:45:52Simplicity itself to overcome.

01:45:55Did he notice your presence?

01:45:57Asked Melgator.

01:45:58No, but I decided to fuse the portions of his mind that would have remembered anyway.

01:46:05If he did not detect your intrusion, why the need to burn out his memory synapses?

01:46:10Remiari turned her deathly face towards him, and

01:46:13Melgator was reminded that the assassins of Cydonia did not take kindly to questions.

01:46:19Because I enjoy making living things suffer, said Remiari.

01:46:24Zeth's apprentice will no longer be able to form memories that last.

01:46:28His usefulness as an individual is at an end.

01:46:33Melgator swallowed,

01:46:35warier than ever of the monstrous creature beside him.

01:46:39At last, he reached the bottom of the steps, where a skimmer palanquin of bronze

01:46:42and polished timber panels stood ready to carry him to the landing platform,

01:46:46upon which his transport waited.

01:46:49So how did Zeth defeat the scrap code attack?

01:46:52The black, soulless marbles of Remiari's eyes flickered as she retrieved and

01:46:56sorted the data.

01:46:58I do not know, and nor does Zeth, not completely.

01:47:02Though, the apprentice was of the opinion that a female named Dahlia Sithera

01:47:07was responsible, the transcriber Zeth brought from Terra.

01:47:12She did it, so it would seem.

01:47:15Then we need to eliminate her as soon as possible, said Melgator.

01:47:19Where is she?

01:47:21Unknown, her biometrics are not registered in the Martian database.

01:47:26She was working in Zeth's forge, and she's not even cult mechanicum.

01:47:30Apparently not.

01:47:32Zeth, you're almost making it too easy for us, chuckled Melgator.

01:47:39Can you track this Dahlia Sithera?

01:47:41I can, but it will be easier just to take the information from the people she knows,

01:47:46said Remiari.

01:47:48Archived work dockets list her as being assigned to a team of four individuals.

01:47:52Zeus Shahair, Severin Dalmar, Melusine Oster, and Caxton Togau.

01:47:59Only Melusine Oster is still within the magma city.

01:48:02Where?

01:48:03Within Assiamon Subhive, Epsilon, Aleph, Ultima, said Remiari.

01:48:0950th floor, shutter 17, off shift until 0746 tomorrow morning.

01:48:16Find her, hissed Melgator, learn everything she knows.

01:48:23The maglev was full, every seat taken.

01:48:26But the threatening presence of Rho-Mu 31 assured them a private cabin,

01:48:31though it was still cramped with the five of them wedged in tight.

01:48:34Rho-Mu 31 stood at the door to their cabin,

01:48:37his weapon stave held tight across his chest,

01:48:39leaving the four seats for Zeus, Dahlia, Severin, and Caxton.

01:48:44Zeus and Severin sat across from her,

01:48:46and Caxton lay with his head on her shoulder, snoring softly.

01:48:50The pale artificial light from the window gleamed from his tonsure scalp,

01:48:54and Dahlia smiled as she leant back against the faux leather chair.

01:48:59She looked out over the Martian landscape as the rest of her companions slept.

01:49:03Even Rho-Mu 31 was resting, the glow of his eyes dimmed as he conserved power,

01:49:08though his internal auspex was still vigilant.

01:49:12Beyond the energy-shielded glass, undulant plains stretched off into the distance,

01:49:17the grey emptiness of the polluted wastelands somehow beautiful to Dahlia.

01:49:22Unfinished or abandoned maglev lines stretched off into invisibility

01:49:27in long rows of sun-bleached concrete tees,

01:49:30and the sight brought a forlorn ache to Dahlia's chest.

01:49:34It had been years since she had seen a landscape as vast as this,

01:49:38and even though it was bleak and inhospitable, it was wide open,

01:49:41and the heavens above held the landscape protectively close to them.

01:49:45Bands of pollutants striped the sky like sedimentary rock,

01:49:49and columns of light pierced the darkness as ships broke atmosphere.

01:49:54A shiver travelled the length of Dahlia's spine

01:49:56as she felt the aching loneliness that had become part of her soul

01:50:00since her connection with the thing beneath the Noctis Labyrinthus.

01:50:04The desolate emptiness outside was so endless

01:50:07that Dahlia could easily imagine Mars to be dead,

01:50:09a world utterly scoured of life and abandoned for all eternity.

01:50:15She was tired, but couldn't sleep.

01:50:19The black emptiness behind her eyes lurked in the back of her mind

01:50:22like a hidden predator that would strike the instant

01:50:25she allowed the shadows to cloak it.

01:50:27Can't sleep, eh? asked Zeus, and Dahlia looked up.

01:50:31She had thought him to be asleep.

01:50:34No, agreed Dahlia, keeping her voice low.

01:50:37A lot on my mind.

01:50:40Zeus nodded and ran a hand over his shaven scalp.

01:50:43Understandable. We're out on a limb, Dahlia.

01:50:47I just hope this journey turns out to be worth it.

01:50:50I know it will, Zeus, promised Dahlia.

01:50:53What do you think we're going to find out there?

01:50:56Honestly, I'm not sure.

01:50:58But whatever it is, I know it's in pain.

01:51:02It's been trapped in the darkness for such a long time, and it's suffering.

01:51:06We have to find it.

01:51:07And what happens when we do?

01:51:09What do you mean?

01:51:10When we find this thing, this dragon, are you thinking about freeing it?

01:51:17I think we have to, said Dahlia.

01:51:19Nothing deserves to suffer like its suffering.

01:51:22I hope you're right, said Zeus.

01:51:26You think I'm wrong to want to help?

01:51:28Not necessarily, said Zeus.

01:51:31But what if this thing is meant to suffer?

01:51:34After all, we don't know for sure who put it there,

01:51:36so perhaps they had a very good reason to do so.

01:51:40We don't know what it is, so maybe whatever it is

01:51:43should be left in the darkness forever.

01:51:46I don't believe that, said Dahlia.

01:51:49Nothing deserves to suffer forever.

01:51:51Some things do, said Zeus, his voice little more than a hushed whisper.

01:51:57What, Zeus, demanded Dahlia.

01:52:00Tell me, who or what deserves to suffer forever?

01:52:05Zeus met her stare.

01:52:07She could see that it was taking all his control to maintain his composure,

01:52:10and she wondered what door she'd opened with her question.

01:52:14He sat in silence for a moment, then said,

01:52:17Back before people lived freely on Nusa Kambangan,

01:52:20it was once a prison, a hellish place where the worst of the worst were locked up.

01:52:25Murderers, clone surgeons, rapists, gene thieves, and serial killers.

01:52:32And tyrants.

01:52:34Tyrants?

01:52:35Oh, yes, indeed, said Zeus,

01:52:38and Dahlia thought she detected more than a hint of bitter pride in his voice.

01:52:42Cardinal Tang himself was held there.

01:52:46Tang?

01:52:47The Ethnarch?

01:52:48The very same, nodded Zeus.

01:52:52When his last bastion fell, he was taken in chains to Nusa Kambangan,

01:52:57though he was only there a few days.

01:52:59Word got out of who he was, and another prisoner cut his throat.

01:53:05Though, if you ask me, he got off lightly.

01:53:10Having your throat cut is getting off lightly, asked Dahlia,

01:53:13horrified by Zeus's coldness.

01:53:16After what Tang did?

01:53:18Absolutely, said Zeus.

01:53:20After all the bloody pogroms, death camps, and genocides,

01:53:25you think his suffering should have ended swiftly?

01:53:28Tang deserved to rot in the deepest, darkest hole of terror,

01:53:32condemned to suffer the same torments and agonies he inflicted on his victims.

01:53:36In the end, his suffering was much quicker than the millions he put to death during his reign.

01:53:42So, yes, I make no apology for thinking he got off lightly.

01:53:48Trust me, Dahlia, there are some that deserve to be left in the darkness

01:53:53to pay for their crimes for all eternity.

01:53:57Tears rolled down Zeus's cheeks as he spoke,

01:54:00and Dahlia felt a wave of sorrow as she felt a measure of his pain,

01:54:04even though she didn't fully understand it.

01:54:07My parents died in one of Tang's camps, continued Zeus,

01:54:11wiping the tears away with the sleeve of his robe,

01:54:14for the crime of falling in love when they were genetically assigned to other partners.

01:54:20They kept their relationship a secret, but when I was born,

01:54:23it was obvious to everyone they produced an inferior offspring,

01:54:28and they were hauled off to Tang's death camp on Rune Island.

01:54:32Oh, Zeus, that's terrible, said Dahlia.

01:54:36I'm so sorry. I didn't know.

01:54:39Zeus shrugged and stared beyond the glass of the compartment.

01:54:43How could you? But it doesn't matter. Tang's dead, and the Emperor guides us now.

01:54:50People like Tang won't ever rise again now that the Imperium is in his hands.

01:54:56You're not inferior, said Dahlia, cutting across his train of words.

01:55:00What? he said, looking back at her.

01:55:03I said you're not inferior, repeated Dahlia.

01:55:06You might think you are because you look different to the rest of us, but you're not.

01:55:10You're a brilliant engineer and a loyal friend.

01:55:13I'm glad you're with me, Zeus. I really am.

01:55:16He smiled and nodded.

01:55:18I know you are, and I'm grateful for that. But I know what I am.

01:55:24You're a good girl, Dahlia, so I'd be obliged if you didn't mention this to anyone.

01:55:29You understand?

01:55:31Of course, said Dahlia.

01:55:33I won't say a word.

01:55:35I think the rest are going to sleep all the way there anyway.

01:55:38Quite probably, agreed Zeus, a discreetly extended mechadendrite

01:55:42linking with the port in the compartment's wall.

01:55:45Flickering light ghosted behind his eyelids as he linked with the Maglev's on-board logic engine.

01:55:50It was easy to forget that the Mechanicum had substantially modified Zeus,

01:55:54for most of his augmentics were subtle,

01:55:56and he was reticent about openly displaying them to one knot of the cult Mechanicum.

01:56:01It's going to take us two days to reach the point nearest the Noctis Labyrinthas,

01:56:05an outlying hub of Mondus Gamma in the northern Syrian sub-fabrics.

01:56:10Two days? Why so long?

01:56:13This is a supply train, explained Zeus.

01:56:16We're going to pass through a lot of the borderland townships on the edge of the Pallidus.

01:56:21According to the on-board timetable, we're about to reach Ash Border.

01:56:25Then we'll pass through Dune Town, Crater Edge, and Red Gorge,

01:56:29before we begin the descent to the Syria Planum and Mondus Gamma.

01:56:34Not big on originality when it comes to their settlement names, are they?

01:56:37observed Dahlia.

01:56:38Not really.

01:56:40I suppose they just name it as they see it, said Zeus.

01:56:43When you live out on the edge of civilization, there's a virtue in simplicity.

01:56:49I think there's a virtue in that, wherever you are, said Dahlia.

01:56:55The Hab was warm, but then it was always warm.

01:56:58Hot air rising from the Maglev.

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