[M36.236.06]
Magos Dominus Solvexa Ferridane settled into her seat within the Observatorium, her mechadendrites folding into stillness. As befitted her new station following her meteoric ascension, she was seated in the Probatum Magisterium behind the five judges.
Even though the room was packed, with every seat filled and even had adepts standing along the wall, the room was silent. A tense unease pervaded the room, even reaching into the noosphere. Any tech priests who could were attending this momentous hearing.
Aleric existed in a state of simultaneous revilement and reverence. His Abominable Intelligence had possibly saved the forge world, but at what cost? He had saved them through one of the most relived acts and heresy of the highest order.
Solvexa found her conclusions…inconclusive.
He had told her it wasn’t one, merely a new type of machine spirit. If anyone else had said that she would have scoffed, thinking they were trying to deflect. But not Aleric, she trusted him and he had never given her a reason to doubt him. The research he had shown her all pointed to him being correct. Although it did lead him into other heresy, with creating new technology.
It also didn’t feel…malicious. Powerful yes, but not as she imagined a heretikal intelligence to feel.
Many of her peers told a different story, the tale expanding in scope with each retelling. Many reported encountering a cold, heartless monster. Alien, hungry and filled with white-hot and yet icy rage.
She had felt the hunger and rage, but also a protective quality, an almost warmth. She wasn’t the only one. Tyr, Ro and Sygex had reported the same. Sygex likened it to the Machine Gods' embrace. Reassuring but also alien—but with them none the less.
It wasn’t in question that Aleric had released it. That had been established beyond dispute through formal investigations.
She checked the monitors again. Lysa was still stable. It had been a near thing. And while she lived, it wasn’t without consequences. Much of her chest had to be rebuilt with inelegant, sub-optimal bionic replacements. Not that Solvexa expected that to last.
But she lived. Shaken but alive, Kellen the same.
She had been there when Aleric was taken to the cells. It had been a near thing of her joining him, but clear evidence refuted her having any involvement in the heretical act. Normally any heresy this great would have been dealt with swiftly and quietly.
But there was no way to do that here. Some still advocated for it. Others were too scared to voice their opinions, the purges too fresh to risk it.
Aleric hadn't helped. What with the calm, knowing expression fixed on his face. It made it look like he was almost looking down on them, like everything was under his complete control. And considering he still communicated regularly with her and others, something that shouldn’t be possible in the Cells, maybe he was.
Then there was the White Shade, whom she was almost positive was Aleric. All logic converged upon that conclusion, something she had calculated long ago. He had been less than subtle with the information provided. Most of which he should have no way of knowing. She had never asked, but she had seen the twinkle in his eyes sometimes. That knowing smile as he skulked to the back of the room, out of sight and mind.
This suspicion had more or less been confirmed six months ago. They were given an information packet which he'd snorted at. When she raised her eye in a silent question, he’d hesitated, then nodded once before turning away.
It had been several weeks since the end of the war and while things were still in chaos, they were slowly stabilising to the new operational baseline. Corrupted temples and labs had been reclaimed and cleansed and were now being put back to service. The forge worlds' output was still much reduced, and it would be years, likely centuries, before they had caught up with missing supplies.
With the Stratix under control, eyes slowly turned to the wider sector and subsectors. Luckily, despite disruption from the war, most planets were relatively stable. There had been an increase in ork sightings and raids, with many raiders flooding the sector.
There had been several reports of dead ships, devoid of crew, reaching gravity wells.
That might well be her next target. It was not a race she had fought frequently and it would be good to observe how her predictive algorithms adapted for them.
She would not accept anything for many years however. She had been propelled up the forge, which meant she hadn't yet established the logistical networks required to sustain her position. This left her in a precarious situation. She would need to spend at least a decade, likely longer, consolidating her authority before she considered deploying one more.
Which would be acceptable; there were more than enough conflicts projected to endure for decades to participate in.
Her attention was pulled to the large, ornate doors as they were pulled open. A maniple of Praetorian Skitarii marched in with synchronised precision, Aleric chained in the centre of them. Their arc weapons ready to be discharged at a moment’s notice.
A shiver rippled through the room as he entered, head held high. He walked as if he owned the chamber. And from the fragments she had gathered…that might not be unfounded.
He was unceremoniously pushed into the chair at the centre of the circular chamber. Heavy bolts and adamantine restraint-bands locking into place.
Even restrained, the unease of the room spiked. Magi showed all too human emotions as they shifted uncomfortably in their seats. Unlike her, who registered a subtle reduction in tension within herself. He still had the same calm, confident look. Like he was humouring them as he lounged in the chair, rendering it more throne than a prisoner's chair.
She saw the twinkle in his eye, the slight twitch of his lips—amusement.
The Skitarii stepped back, still encircling him, and kept their rifles levelled at him.
The Fabricator General stood, silencing the few whispers.
Solvexa nodded at the name. It was a minor outpost in the far-off corner of the sector. A Frontier world, with barely any industry to its name. There would be little, if anything, he could do there. A tech priest would never normally be stationed on such a world, particularly one of his standing. But it was an effective way to remove him. She was slightly surprised that they didn’t advocate for harsher measures.
Either conversion or termination, but then their logic models properly told them the same story as hers. The calculated risks and uncertainty were too high for such an action. No one wanted to awaken the slumbering AI once more. The Archmagi and Forge Lords had found no viable method to remove or destroy it.
It was hidden away deep within the noosphere at the heart of the Crypt. Something that was effectively unassailable, and finding its hardware was out of the question. Even with Aleric supposedly locked up, cut off from the noosphere, the White Shade was still active and the Crypt was no less protected.
The single word, spoken almost softly, cut cleanly through the room. A slight smirk still on his lips. What felt like the entire forge planet froze, not daring even to breathe.
The Fabricator Lord paused, for a micro second. To unenhanced individuals it was unnoticeable but to her improved bionics it felt like an age.
"No." Aleric said again, this time in common. The language was almost more notable than the words. Rare was anything but binary spoken in these chambers.
Solvexa suppressed an involuntary wince. Threatening, even if most would not see it that way, his apprentices were what started this mess.
"NO." Aleric said again, louder—firmer.
The small smirk had dropped off his face and his eyes had hardened. He no longer lounged on his throne. Her algorithms highlighted the pulsing tension coiled within him as clear as day.
She wasn’t the only one.
Many of the magi around her flinched.
The Fabricator General's face twisted, filling with rage at the mockery. Locum Viel stood. He released a small data pulse, one she recognised. It would lock down any bionics of the adept, and with the backdoor Viel would have as Aleric's master, there was no protection against it.
She wasn’t surprised; many followed the practice. It was almost a traditional ritual to patch these weaknesses when the apprentice completed their training.
Competent Adepts did it earlier. She had done so years before the end of her apprenticeship and rise to Magos. With the war, she had forced Tyr to do the same when Archmagos Telok started looking unstable. He was still alive and experimenting, almost like he hadn't even realised the Forge World was under attack.
She would be surprised if it worked on him. She was proven right moments later.
"Enough!" Aleric barked, sitting up straight.
The lights of the room flickered, as if they could sense his displeasure. The chains locking him in place fell away and the Skitarii around him shifted. No longer guarding him as a prisoner but reconfigured into a protective formation.
Now free from his chains, he tapped his hand on the arm of the chair reinforcing his point. "It is you that don’t understand the situation you are in. I have permitted this farce to go on long enough."
Shouted the Lord Arcuitor, newly raised in light of Threxian Mordax heresy.
Aleric broke out into a deep, unrestrained laugh, his entire frame shaking with it. "Your right? I will voluntarily leave this world. But it won't be to some backwater; I will go to the Gravis Expanse. And it won't be banishment. Nor will it show on my records.”
The Gravis Expanse… his home system and a hive world at that. To be allowed to go there…
"Authority?" Aleric asked, breaking out into another laugh. First in his normal laugh, then deeper and heavier. A presence swelled through the room. Solvexa shivered, suddenly feeling cold. She half expected her breath to mist up in front of her, although her auspex stated the room was unchanged.
Within the noosphere, digital smoke bled from him to settle eerily on the floor, swirling to unseen data currents. Then Aleric's avatar shimmered. Darkness rippling from him, turning into cloaks that wrapped around him. His face now hidden by shadows, but for two dim white lights burning from under the hood.
Solvexa felt her pulse stutter. It was him, as she had expected. Even so, she found it hard to reconcile.
The Fabricator shouted, his voice strong, but she could see the sheen of sweat on the few remaining patches of organic skin on his forehead.
They didn’t shift or even acknowledge the commands he sent. The flickering lights plinked out one by one, casting the chamber in perfect blackness. Only her augemtic eyes allowed her vision.
The presence spread out to fill the room, she felt a hold on her, like a great hand had reached out to grip her heart, freezing her in place. Her fellow adepts the same.
"No." Aleric said again, his voice hissing through the room and echoing into the noosphere as garbled static. Those across the forge world only able to watch on in horror. "I will go to the Gravis Expanse, and my people with me. You will elevate me to Magos, and there will be no mark on mine or my allies' records."
He looked around the room, seemingly meeting eyes with everyone, each priest shying away from his unflinching gaze. Only a select few didn’t, Solvexa amongst them, as she grinned slightly when their gaze met.
His gaze returned to the judges. "Is that understood?"
Solvexa felt the shackles that held her loosen. The Fabricator General looked like he would back down, but Locum Viel looked livid, pushing himself to his full height to look down at Aleric.
Viel finished his speech with a data pulse. The shutdown code that would kill Aleric splashed harmlessly against his data shields.
Aleric shook his head. "This is not a discussion. That was a statement." He said coldly as he slowly, calmly stood, arms folding behind his back. "I control this world. Only I have the power to shut it down, and I alone." Deep from within the noosphere, in the unplottable section that housed the Crypt, cold, white light began seeping outwards.
They could all feel the slumbering giant stir. More and more light seeped out, unfurling throughout the noosphere, subsuming and asserting control of the forge systems by system as it went. The newly placed protections were completely ineffectual; if anything, it spread faster than last time. Slipping into systems with startling ease.
The cold burning threat hovered above them, growing brighter and brighter, as the Fabricator General and Aleric stared at each other, neither flinching.
But Solvexa could sense the frantically pumping coolant running through his veins as his electronic heart thundered away.
Then the Fabricator General crumpled, seemingly curling in on himself. He said, his tone strained in a final attempt to preserve authority.
Locking the recording with the Sigillum Extremis Seal was almost unprecedented. Only the Fabricator Lords would be retain access and be able to share such information. She had never heard of such a strict security clearance requirement for a trial.
Whispers spread around the room at this ruling. Solvexa noted they were through vox or even voice boxes. The noosphere remained silent, none daring to interface with its domain while it was awake.
---
[M36.236.07]
Tyr said, already knowing the answer, having watched the voidship leave with her. The Fabricator Lords tried to get one over Aleric by sending him on one of the mineral freighters, a transit that would take ten standard years.
She had expected Aleric to fight it, but he had revealed that it actually aligned with his plans.
So she, several of her allies and friends watched the gigantic vessel burn for Mandeville Point. They had left by the time the glittering painted Holy Cog of the Cult Mechanicus was no longer visible on the hull of the ship. She smirked, remembering the look on the other Adept's faces. Somehow Aleric had changed it to show a silvery snake devouring its own tail, encircling the sacred cog.
It had been weeks since the trial, if that designation was even accurate. He had walked out free. More than free in fact. Hall and corridors cleared at his approach, adepts moving swiftly out of his way when they could. Even Archmagos afforded him significant distance.
Whispered conversations were spoken about the trial took place throughout the forge world. But none dared elevate such discussions beyond controlled channels. Both fear for the Sigillum Extremis Seal, but also the slumbering God-entity in their midst.
It was quiet without him in her workshop. Or more accurately, without Kellen, Lysa and their underlings. Still she didn’t begrudge how things turned out. In fact it couldn’t have gone better for her.
At first she feared her association with Aleric would cause her problems, but if anything, it was the opposite. Adepts fell over themselves to try and help her.
Tyr wasn’t unaffected either. He had been promoted to one of the vacant forges and was being groomed to take it over in a few years.
She'd said her goodbyes and sat in quiet contemplation within her sleeping quarters. She couldn’t remember the last time she had used them, so rarely did she need to sleep these days.
As she did, she turned to the final message she got from Aleric. Arriving at the precise moment the vessel broke orbit.
It thanked her once more for her support and help over the years for him and his adepts.
It wasn’t the only thing he left.
She glanced over to the corner where her new Omnissiah Axe sat as well as to the armband clamped to her left arm. The armband was one of the strongest conversion fields she had seen, and the Axe was on another level entirely compared to her previous one. She could not determine how, but its performance was just better. As though the Motive Force flowed through it, invigorating her.
She was pulled from her thoughts as the message vibrated and opened, revealing a concealed data-packet. A set of coordinates and verification codes tied to herself for the noosphere.
She could feel her anticipation rise. If it was what she thought it was… checking the coordinates, it led to the now-infamous section, the Hidden Crypt.
She slipped from her sanctum and marched along the holy crystal corridors, the sacred data glistening around her, like flashing lights along the walls. She passed through the defences with ease and moved deeper into the Crypt. As she entered, the walls reconfigured forming a straight corridor to the fortress's heart.
As she passed, behind her, the walls shifted back into the labyrinthine configuration.
She stepped into the hallowed room, the hairs on her arms standing on end, an impressive feat for her bionic ones.
The power of the room was unquestionable.
She looked around in awe. She had never entered the throne room, even though she had heard of it; she had only ever reached the outer rooms. Normally as part of a group looking to trade for information. She knew hundreds that had tried to force their way deeper; none had ever returned.
Not to mention the assaults by the Dark Mechanicus.
In the centre was the huge throne, made of metal that shimmered in the dim white light. It looked like mercury. She could feel something watching her. Looking up, she saw a perfectly smooth sphere hanging high above the room.
Within the cloudy crystal ball, she could see dim lights flickering across it, dancing around the interior. It strained her mind observing it for too long, but it was hard to look away.
Tearing her senses from it, she followed the instructions and hesitantly sat on the throne. She tensed as the throne adjusted beneath her.
Fully settled in, two things happened. First, the slumbering orb above her flared slightly, casting more light across the room, and the great entity starting to stir. She could feel it assess her, passing through her shields with ease, before acknowledging her presence and return to dormancy once more.
She registered its welcome, with her having passed all the tests and verification protocols.
Secondly, she felt a connection request. She scanned it before accepting and was instantly bombarded by a wave of information. Hours passed until she reasserted control of herself having sorting through the information, creating new protocols and algorithms to handle the vast amount of data.
With the data under control, she realised what she was seeing and a rare, unrestrained smile crossed her features. It was awe-inspiring. The data of the forge was flowing through the throne and seated on it, she had access to it all. Any question or records she wanted were at her fingertips.
This must be where all the data The White Sha… Aleric gave them came from. More than that, with access to it, she could carry on the data broker, which would allow her to quietly increase her strength.
Perfect for her recent explosive growth.
An avatar shimmered in front of her, startling her, until she realised it was a recording.
Aleric said.
Think of it as my gift to you for the years of safety and support. As you have probably already determined, sitting on the throne will give you access to the data of Stratix.
Lastly, there is a failsafe that only you can activate. Once used, it will awaken the Machine Spirit to follow its objectives. Which are to protect you and the Forge World. In that order.>
The Avatar dissolved into fragmented light.
Diving back into the data streams she understood why none who came here uninvited ever returned.
---
Inquisitor Brigitta Al'Anoud stood on her bridge over the burning world.
It hadn't been a fanatical priest, as much as she wished it had been.
By the time they had arrived, the world had been far too gone. There had been no choice but to exterminatus it.
With the warp storms it had taken them far longer to reach the system than she would have liked. They had to pause, sometimes for years at a time, to let the storm die down enough for her to dare to attempt it.
The cult itself wasn’t actually the worst she had come across. No child sacrifices, or cannibalism, or even degenerate debauchery. If anything, it was tame compared to what it could have been. Part of that she attributed to its roots, having started as a Cult worshiping the Emperor.
But as was normally the case, over the years it shifted into the worship of the Ruinous Powers. Not helped by the fact that their temple of worship was of the Ruinous Powers. Even so, that would have been manageable, and not needed an exterminatus.
However, the Emperor Death Cult turn chaos cult had drawn in another party. It was the Dark Mechanicus that required the final option. During the cleansing of the cult she had discovered extensive laboratories spread across the planet.
This had led to the discovery of what had once been a large cell of Dark Mechanicus members. The labs had long since been abandoned, but what they had been developing remained. From their systems, she and her team had managed to pull their research, or at least parts of it.
There had been a unique bacterium in the extensive cave networks deep in the planet.
The traitors had used that to create a warp plague of some sort. Whatever fail-safes the heretics had in place could not contain it, and when it somehow sensed them, it activated.
The first they knew of it was when it started to aggressively eat through her men's armour.
It was only Zardelle's null field that allowed them to escape, even if they had an extensive decontamination process afterwards. Good thing, as several of her kill team had been infected, and they weren't the expected ones either. None of their armour had been damaged, unlike others.
The plague made short work of the planet, infecting everything, including the remaining cultists. From there, it had started to somehow create a tear in space, connecting to the warp.
Unable to allow that she had no choice.
If that was the end of it, she would have called it a good day.
However they found concerning information within the data Magos-Lex Antraxis and Magos Occularis Secundus had managed to pull from their systems.
During their collection of bacterium, the Dark Mechanicus had encountered an ancient ruin. According to their dating methods, one that predated the human race. The planet would have been completely covered in water at that point. In there, they had found coordinates to an ancient construct.
The small amount they had been able to glean before they were forced to leave mentioned a machine that could tunnel into reality and create a path.
She could not allow that to fall into chaos hands, a weapon that could create a warp portal? She shuddered to think of the damage that could do.
Unfortunately they didn’t have the weapons coordinates. The artefact that contained them, as well as access codes, had since been moved years ago. For some reason it was destined for the Forge World Stratix, which didn’t speech of good things.
Regardless, she had the ship's energy signature, so she could identify it should they encounter the vessel. If its destination was the forge world, the journey would take her past the Lupra System and the Gravis Expanse, which would give her a chance to resupply. She could also let Zardelle see her family, for what would probably be the last time.
It would be decades at least before they were likely to pass near the planet again and so, unless they gained access to decent regenerative treatments, rather than the slop most worlds had access to, they would be long deceased by their return.
Keeping Zardelle on side had rapidly become a priority, not that it was particularly hard. The advantage of picking people from the lowest points of society was that they didn’t need for much.
Even so, Zardelle had only grown in strength.
The years waiting for the warp paths to open had given Brigitta the time to make sure everyone was up to snuff and fully equipped. Zardelle being no exception, and with access to world-class tutors, her skill had blossomed.
More importantly, her null field had grown as well. At first it hadn't been noticeable, but now they knew to check for it, they'd been able to track its growth. Her strength was that, just her alone was enough to fracture some cults.
Sending them running in terror.
Not that she blamed them. She had tried to increase her resistance to the null effects through shock therapy.
That had failed spectacularly.
Even now, being in her field was as horrifying as it had first been, and Brigitta had stopped it when it was clear she would not build a resistance.
She might have kept trying, but Zardelle somehow had an ability she had never heard of. She could allow Brigitta to maintain her connection to the warp. Not perfectly of course. If she restricted the Immaterium at full strength it still limited her.
But the ability to maintain any connection while being surrounded by the Null field was incredible.
That had truly been a shocking revelation and a game-changer.
She had pressed her for information about it and Zardelle had finally cracked and explained the technique was from Aleric, because of course it was. Who else would it be? He had found years ago deep within the hive.
She was tempted to transcribe the technique, but after some thought and conversations with Rhassia, they determined it wasn’t worth it.
Firstly because she only had half of the impossible technique. According to Zardelle, it required significant investment that she didn’t fully know, having Aleric's help her during the first portion. Even then, the technique would have been priceless. And it was for that reason she kept it to herself.
She couldn’t have other trying to take Zardelle from her. They wouldn’t have the authority, but that might not stop the attempts, maybe even forceful ones. Not to mention other Inquisitors.
It wasn’t unheard of for fellow inquisitors to steal resources from their peers. Especially those of different Ordos, where some were in full-blown conflict with each other.
Zardelle had already proved her loyalty was above reproach and had quickly moved up the ranks to join her inner circle. Not only that, but also became a core member of it. It wasn’t just her skill and aura, which no doubt were a large contributing factor. But it was her different perspective that added a lot to her team.
If that hadn't been enough. The fields remarkably usefulness at repelling nobles sometimes felt more useful than against daemons.
Cursed parasites and useless sycophants.
Just blasting her aura quickly cleared a room or dissuaded anyone from troubling her, which was very much appreciated.
She had also helped her personally during the worst of the warp storms. Just having her near reduced the impact of the warp on her mind, giving her some welcome respite.
For that alone, she had become valuable. During this time they had even formed a sort of friendship and they’d talked for hours about all sorts. Brigitta wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice her if the mission needed it, but that wasn’t anything she wouldn’t do to herself.
Overall she wouldn’t turn on her now; she had her and her people's trust. Harming that wasn’t worth it. In fact, she might even need to find a new captain if she did betray Zardelle. Rhassia would be displeased with her as well.
So yes, not worth.
She was happy to keep it as her trump card. She could always trade for it in the future. She had little doubt she would bump into Aleric once more.
They watched the planet for several more weeks to make sure nothing was amiss and then left while the warp was relatively stable.
---
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