Chapter Text
In the darkness of space, in almost complete emptiness, where the light of a lonely red dwarf—which didn't even have a single formed planet in its system—illuminated a massive starship moving under plasma engines toward a cruiser slightly smaller than its companion.
The cruiser was very old. Thousands of years had passed since its disappearance, and now, after an inconceivable amount of time spanning millennia, it had broadcast its signal not far from the Aurelia sub-sector. Huge spires and countless gunports adorned the majestic ancient machine that had been traversing the cosmos for a long time. The ship was extremely dilapidated and heavily damaged; its void hangars were left open, as if someone had abandoned the vessel in haste and forgotten to return atmosphere aboard the giant.
A red space barge approached the drifting ship to the maximum permissible distance of a hundred kilometers, and from its depths emerged small shuttles carrying groups of space marines—warriors of the Imperium of Man. The dead ship cruising through the system would have impressed many with its monumentality, but not the battle-hardened representatives of the Adeptus Astartes, who now on their combat landing craft—capable of transporting the equipment of these enormous warriors—approached the de-energized hulk of the ship, specifically its void hangars. According to scout reconnaissance reports and the predictions of the Fourth Company's Librarians, to whom the landing barge belonged, the Blood Ravens Chapter would find ancient sacred war machines and relic weaponry on this dead vessel—arms that in the future would only be permitted to the most faithful and strongest of the Emperor's warriors.
Techmarine Sergeant Cornelius Septim led a small squad of six Techmarines who were to inspect and begin the evacuation of equipment from the dead vessel on-site. Cornelius knew, as did all brothers of the Fourth Company, that reconnaissance had reported the threat of Tyranids aboard this ship, and they would need to act quickly, not allowing themselves or their brothers to make mistakes. Captain of the Fourth Company of the Blood Ravens, Davian Thule, had personally informed Septim of his critical mission. Of course, they had a group of servitors for technical assistance in maintenance, but if there truly was a large amount of equipment aboard this ship, as the Company's Chief Librarian had reported, they would be tinkering with it for at least a day, checking the integrity of the mechanisms.
It was fortunate that they would be covered by battle-brothers of the Chapter who had earned the honor of Terminator armor during the campaign on Kronus. Leading them was Tarcus Tart. These magnificently trained warriors, clad in Terminator armor, were capable of holding back hordes of Tyranids, yet alone they would hardly have managed the task of covering the technical group. Therefore, a squad of Devastators under the command of the renowned Avitus Gard also landed on the ancient cruiser. His marines were armed with heavy bolters and meltaguns—weapons capable of tearing apart and incinerating multiple enemies at once. And Cornelius intended to complete his work as quickly and efficiently as possible, so that his battle-brothers would not suffer on what could be called a routine mission. After all, this was not a planet infested with Ork hordes, nor legions of Chaos traitors, nor an entire hive fleet or part of the all-consuming Tyranid swarm—just a single ship, swarming with bugs certainly, but not in such numbers that a portion of the Emperor's Angels might fail in their duty.
The landing craft flew into the enormous hangar and pressed their deployable magnetic grapples on their landing struts into the ancient vessel's deck. The craft's ramps opened, and from their interiors poured massive warriors—two and a half meters tall by the standards of ordinary humans—clad in power armor. Their armor was the color of blood red, adorned with skulls and symbols of the Imperium. On each warrior's chest sat a winged skull, the symbol of belonging to the Adeptus Astartes, and only the enormous pauldrons were of white parchment color—the right one bearing the company number and the marine's rank, while the left was covered with a black symbol of an eagle with a small drop symbolizing blood: the sign of the Blood Ravens Chapter.
The warriors, whose magnetic boots provided proper traction in the ship's space vacuum, spread out across the hangar. The Techmarines and servitors began receiving and inspecting the equipment that was arranged on special landing pads and secured by massive chains disappearing into the ship's deck.
A dozen blue Sicarans—ancient machines from the time of the Great Crusade, equipped with Herakles-pattern weaponry—hinted that an assault component of the Ultramarines Legion had been based on this ship. Therefore, the enormous Mastodon—a heavy tank capable of transporting up to forty marines simultaneously and able to withstand a Titan's shot—did not come as a tremendous shock to the Techmarines, though it did unsettle their sensibilities. For Mastodons were equipped with forward assault melta-cannons, turret batteries, the Sky Reaper, with two sponson heavy flamers and two sponson lascannons. This find interested the Techmarines most of all. Rhinos and Land Speeders were not such rare and magnificent machines, their existence stretching back into the very depths of history, having certainly witnessed the Emperor Himself when He led the Legions of Astartes with His Primarchs in the Great Unification Crusade.
Among the hundred-odd various types of equipment being inspected for damage and gradually evacuated by Cornelius's Techmarines, he noticed one vessel of particular note. It appeared as a small thirty-meter shuttle, circular in shape with a protruding cockpit lantern on a protrusion. What was remarkable was that the shuttle's ramp was open, and inside Cornelius found several skeletons of cousins from the Ultramarines Chapter, long decayed in their power armor. One of them held in his hands a partially shattered metal cylinder, long since empty. When Cornelius illuminated the container with the detector beams mounted on his mechadendrite, the armor's cogitator showed complete emptiness within the cylinder—not a single trace of organic matter or any other compound except for an unknown metal alloy. The Techmarine blinked in surprise... The metal alloy was unknown in the Imperium, which simply could not be. Scanning the deck and bulkheads of the shuttle, Cornelius achieved the same result—the alloy was unknown. No, all elements were present in the existing periodic table, but the very implementation of an alloy composed of six elements—though common, rarely found even within a single sub-sector—astonished Septim.
The Techmarine decided that a sample of the unknown alloy and possibly the technology itself was worth taking with him and exited the open ramp, dragging the two dead Astartes and carrying them into his own shuttle.
When all the ancient Legion's equipment had been systematically evacuated from the dead vessel, Cornelius returned to the de-energized ancient cruiser and, together with his battle-brothers, began its cleansing and possible reactivation. They needed to reconstruct the events that had led to the extinction of an entire crew of the Emperor's Angels.
If the void hangar was empty of local population and dead cousins from the Ultramarines, the ship's corridors teemed with hordes of that small and irritating locust. The brothers of the Chapter pressed forward, breaching every cabin, purging the ship with the fire of their bolters and meltaguns. Ten days the Chapter spent on the complete cleansing of the vessel, and with great effort, they managed to refuel the plasma reactor of the ancient ship. The machine spirits responded once more to the humans' pleas, rose, and activated the air purification and filtration systems. The ship came alive before the Techmarine's eyes.
Throughout the vessel were hundreds of dead Ultramarines and regular crew members—their decayed bodies and gnawed bones lay in every compartment. The dead captain of the vessel sat in his chair, plugged into the main cogitator.
Cornelius connected to the ancient machine and requested the last data, entering the ancient access codes. The machine responded, and what the Techmarine learned did not please him.
An unknown vessel had appeared literally from nowhere before the Ultramarines' ship. Auspex readings showed an absence of life aboard and an excess of energy for such a small vessel. It was decided to bring it aboard. Investigation of the shuttle and an accidentally breached object had spread some kind of biological weapon that passed even through power armor filters, completely annihilating the entire crew within minutes. The ship, with its plasma engines still running, was doomed to drift eternally through the darkness until the Blood Ravens discovered it.
Leaving several brothers to await part of the crew from the barge Armageddon, Septim reported to the Captain and urged that they not board the unknown vessel, which had been delivered to the barge, due to the threat of spreading the unknown bioweapon. Captain Thule, a wise leader, heeded Sergeant Claudius's words. They could study the ancient ship later. For now, they needed to deliver the Chapter's new vessel to the void docks; for this, they had to verify the operation of the warp drive and Gellar field. The Techmarines and servitors, along with a few representatives of the Adeptus Mechanicus, set to work servicing the ship.
Several months had passed when the Space Marine barge Armageddon arrived at the Blood Ravens fleet's home base. Captain Davian reported to the Chapter Master, Azariah Kyras, on the work accomplished, as well as on the unknown vessel that, according to the ancient cruiser's data, had appeared in space literally from nothing, without utilizing the Warp.
The Chapter Master, whose motto was "Knowledge is power, guard it well," could not miss the opportunity to study a sample of unknown technology. However, the potential interest of the Inquisition and the Mechanicus—who had not yet been permitted access to the shuttle—could harm the idea of studying these technologies first and foremost by the Blood Ravens Chapter. Azariah ordered additional Techmarines to be transferred aboard the Barge Armageddon for further study of the technologies under the protection of the Chapter's Fourth Company.
Cornelius was overjoyed, for precisely now there was a brief respite in the endless battles, and it could last for more than a year. The Chapter's battle-brothers were managing their work with little need for equipment on the planets of the Aurelia sub-sector, where they were to recruit new aspirants for further expansion of the battle-brothers' numbers, as well as reserves to replace potential losses in upcoming engagements.
Using every precautionary method, the vessel was moved to the far section of the barge's void hangar and sealed behind massive steel plates, where a sterile zone and a fully equipped laboratory with all the Techmarines' necessary equipment were created.
First on the agenda was an inventory of the acquired sample of unknown technology. Cornelius, along with his brother Techmarine Marcellius, stepped onto the ancient shuttle while the other brothers and servitors examined the ship's outer hull, which proved to be extremely resistant to temperature effects.
The vessel had not changed over these months. The same dark, semi-empty corridors, at the exit of one of which stood an open container with iron cylinders in its slots—one slot empty. Cornelius closed the container and was again surprised at how simple and intuitive it was. Usually, in the Imperium, they extremely disapproved—to the point of persecution—of researching xenos technology. But the Chapter's Techmarines, by order of Master Azariah himself, engaged in some research into alien technologies, and it was not always as straightforward as this; xenos technology was usually... alien, literally alien to humanity, inconvenient and incomprehensible. Here, with this container and the vessel's design, Cornelius would not have been surprised if this vessel turned out to be human—which was not unlikely, given that humanity had lost countless technologies and knowledge since the Dark Age of Technology. Ordering his comrades to drag the container to the specially prepared isolation zone, Cornelius continued his investigation.
Advancing deeper into the shuttle, inspecting compartment after compartment, the marine brothers found three small cabins, a technical bay filled with strange empty workstations with one apparently welded element, a reactor compartment with access to two enormous engines and an unknown box that was damaged and slightly emitting radiation, a small hangar with an unknown type of vehicle resembling a small anti-grav IFV, and a storage area containing several types of human-scale armor and unknown weaponry. But when the Techmarines squeezed through the corridor into the ship's cockpit, they finally understood that these were human technologies. Yes, an unknown language was used in their systems; much was incomprehensible—but the ergonomics of the vessel suited an ordinary human best of all. One final compartment remained for the Techmarines to investigate—sealed by an airtight bulkhead; they had to breach it.
Inside the small chamber were several types of automatons, which delighted the marines, for connecting to them and extracting information should be far simpler than accessing the ship's systems. There were also several bunks suited for a standard, medium-sized human. But most importantly, in the corner stood a two-meter-tall, half-meter-wide, apparently steel, gray slab. On its front, slightly convex surface, with astonishing detail, was depicted a human with a neat chin, aristocratic sharp features, and closed eyes. With hands folded on his chest in a pose almost like the Aquila, he lay as though reconciled with his dead existence.
Marcellius approached the slab and carefully examined it, scanning it with all instruments.
"There is definitely organic matter inside; otherwise, there's almost no data. Probably dead for a very long time."
On the side of the steel container, ancient runes shimmered, and several hoses were attached that might once have supplied energy.
"This could be an ancient hibernation technology."
"I cannot deny that, brother Marcellius, but let us be cautious. One item from this ship was enough to destroy an entire crew and marine complement on a full cruiser. We should study the data first." Cornelius turned toward the automatons—and perhaps they were not mere automatons, for one of the robots represented a humanoid, gleaming steel figure frozen in time, its empty, extinguished visual sensors boring into the wall. Iron Men... A chill ran through Cornelius's entire body, but he suppressed it with force of will.
"Understood, brother Cornelius. I recommend we proceed with sample extraction and investigation of the portable technology types, as well as the automaton memory banks." Septim turned to his brother and nodded decisively.
A full year they and their brothers spent studying the vessel's technologies and the droid data banks... True Abominable Intelligence.
At first, everything was simple enough: disassemble the weapons and armor, perform reverse engineering, then reassemble and test them. Gas cartridges—gas harvested from some gas giants and used to create the most highly active types of promethium—had to be refilled, as did the remarkably capacious and durable batteries of the handheld weapons. Afterward, the marines deployed to the moon of the planet Calderis and conducted tests.
All handheld weapons were designed for ordinary humans, and the Techmarines' servitors did not even need to adjust the weapon operation algorithms. Though the rifle and two pistols differed in size and energy consumption, they fired the same type of ammunition, but with several effects. Specially ionized gas, upon striking a target, could instantly penetrate standard Astartes power armor, after which the energy would saturate the material behind the first layer of armor, leading to detonation of the object at the impact point. The weapon was not plasma or laser; it employed a more advanced principle of energy manipulation. The second mode was less powerful, immediately transferring energy to the material and causing detonation.
Armor was also investigated. Thanks to its special construction and unknown alloys, it could with difficulty dissipate energy from one or two shots before the armor elements crumbled. Energy shields, integrated into the armor and mounted on its sleeves, could reflect up to three shots, depending on the shot's energy saturation. Most interestingly, this type of defense excellently withstood laser radiation and plasma shots, with difficulty handled a meltagun's stream, but was not very protected against bolters and was easily penetrated by standard armor-piercing ammunition of that weapon type. This suggested greater development and prevalence of energy-based weaponry in the past.
Also discovered aboard the vessel was a tool that still operated without recharging, using for its work a stream of solid light particles held by a special field, literally sawing through almost any material at tremendous speed. The technology was as astonishing as it was dangerous, akin to power swords.
The Techmarines were equally impressed by the energy cells. One small cell the size of an ordinary human finger could store enough energy for hundreds of shots from the vessel's weapons. A standard lasgun, according to calculations, could make several thousand shots.
The workstations were connected to the barge's power plant and, for now, could not be used due to the language barrier, but they might contain part of the STC, as one of the three workstations began operating upon being powered on—perhaps pre-programmed—and recreated part of the armor elements from powder stockpiles located in a special compartment of the workstation. The workstation employed miniature fields that absorbed large amounts of energy and assembled equipment literally atom-by-atom. The technology was extremely promising for further study and dissemination. The difficulty lay solely in the construction of the field emitters, which could not be simply assembled; there would be a long study of this technology ahead, as well as disassembly of parts of the vessel itself.
While one group of Techmarines, under Marcellius's supervision, studied weapons, armor, workstations, and the vessel itself, Cornelius worked on the automatons... Or rather, as he later discovered, the droids.
Connecting to the memory banks of these robots was extremely difficult; they used completely unfamiliar encryption types, and new contacts had to be made for the round spike-connectors. Later, they had to select and literally recreate, using the networked cogitators of the entire Space Marine barge, new software for the unknown machine—a task of extreme complexity.
Several months were spent on that alone. Then, the cogitators that Cornelius had managed to connect began deciphering the main language of the software on which this sample of human technology was based. This took several more months. What was Cornelius's surprise when, using the created translator, he began to make sense of the machine's enormous data banks.
Hundreds of thousands of language databases for tens of thousands of intelligent species, of the most varied and sometimes absurd appearances, alien to humanity. Data on a galaxy that was so similar yet completely different from the "Milky Way"—to say nothing of the fact that the galaxy of the "Celestial River" is located in a cluster of seven other smaller galaxies close to it, whereas the Milky Way has only two. But most importantly, the droid, as Septim learned, is a cybernetic lifeform existing for communication and interaction between species. What a force of hatred and rejection toward this heretical technology Cornelius felt! He restrained himself with enormous effort from immediately destroying the droid and continued his study. After all, the final data could only be transferred to the Chapter's main library—the Tech-Priests could do so only when the vessel was fully studied and the Chapter's high command decided what to do with the acquired technologies: destroy them, use them themselves, or hand over part to the Tech-Priests.
Thus, studying the culture and history of a foreign galaxy, as well as its astonishing technologies, the Techmarines completed this year and reached the droid's last memories.
The master had ordered the machine to enter standby mode and himself lay down in carbonite freeze. Unfortunately—or perhaps fortunately—the droid's memory was regularly wiped, preventing the formation of an artificial personality. It was impossible to discover who the master of this machine was, beyond the standard designation of "Master Hors," and the decryption of the ship's primary onboard computer remained unfinished. However, the Techmarines connected the slab of unknown stasis material—carbonite—to the isolated power system of their barge and initiated the thawing procedure, which was detailed step-by-step in the droid's memory. It was worth discovering how the people of the Celestial River differed from the people of the Milky Way.
The thawing procedure of Object Hors was completed another month later. The Company's Apothecary, Hermut, who along with Neophytes had been permitted access to the object—allocated a separate isolated cabin—did everything possible for the object's survival and was hopping with delight. He constantly asked where Cornelius and Marcellius had found this human. As Brother Hermut said, the number of differences from an ordinary human in this being was so great that it could no longer be called merely human, yet it was capable of producing offspring with humans—astonishing, since the marine already knew this human was from another galaxy.
In order, starting from even the lowest level: this individual's DNA differs from human DNA; it consists of six helices, two of which carry protective and stabilizing functions, being not natural mutations but artificial enhancements, and are inherited. The organism is astonishingly clean of hereditary diseases, and even when the acid chains are externally damaged, they automatically repair themselves, consuming the body's resources. This being is stronger, tougher, and faster than an ordinary human due to better muscle configuration and bone density. The brain is more advanced in structure and an order of magnitude superior to the capabilities of non-genetically-modified human brains, bringing reflexes and information processing speed close to Astartes levels.
There are enhanced regenerative abilities aimed at acclimating to all non-lethal types of poisons and sedatives. In general, as Cornelius understood, they were dealing with a miniature copy of an Astartes—just not as tough, lacking the additional organs and superhuman senses—which was simply astonishing. But most importantly, in every cell of the object lived a colony of unknown organisms—approximately 19,000 per cell. They did nothing and did not even parasitize the object, but it was decided, just in case, not to consume the object's flesh to acquire its memories, to avoid contracting an infection.
However, Hermut solved this problem too, investigating these organisms that resembled simple amoebas. They symbiotically protected the object from some types of examination to which his blood was subjected. Outside the organism, the symbiote quickly perished even in stasis capsules, which greatly interested the Apothecary. It was decided to test the object for Warp exposure—though no random mutations were found—using a system for Immaterium influence; the Apothecary had not previously detected any.
The Fourth Company's attending Librarian reported that the object was soulless, casting no shadow in the Warp, and quite powerful. Afterward, Hermut fed a laboratory specimen 32—a rodent from Calderis—a portion of the excised flesh of Object Hors. After confirming the safety of this procedure, the Apothecary risked tasting the object's blood and found nothing; the memory showed only insignificant, blurred images—astonishing, apparently the DNA's protective function also blocked information reading.
But there was a problem: the object constantly acclimated to new and new sedatives and could awaken at any moment. It was decided to awaken Object Hors for further examination and to gain access to the ship's systems and possible explanation of Hyperdrive technology, for which no databases existed for reconstruction. No, the repair droid could quite fix and correct the malfunction of this type of engine, but recreating it from records and blueprints from this machine was impossible. Yet this was the most important technology—one that enabled relatively fast and, most importantly, safe travel across the galaxy without using the Warp. This technology seemed to Cornelius and Marcellius the key to humanity's primary problem and, among all the acquired technology types on the vessel, was the most mysterious and incredible.
It was decided to awaken Object Hors without the Apothecary's presence, since no one except the Techmarines was currently permitted to learn the secret information about this human's extragalactic origin.
Two Techmarines, armed with the translator created by Cornelius, stood over the human's body, which was connected to stabilizing medical equipment that maintained the object in its original state and administered injections of sedatives. The bulky medical cogitator, whose screen displayed the patient's condition, emitted a low beep indicating the object's awakening.
The reclining figure visibly grimaced and opened his eyes. Slowly looking around with an attentive gaze, the human made no attempt to rise but simply stared at the two Techmarines, one of whom was reviewing data from the cogitator.
Cornelius looked toward Marcellius, who gave him a curt nod. The Techmarine then pulled up an enormous chair—enormous by appearance—to the curved bed on which the object lay, and carefully examined him before beginning the interrogation.
Hors was an ordinary-looking human. True, he differed from people who were from the middle levels of any Imperial hive and especially the underhive. His appearance was not repulsive. Tall stature, developed musculature, sharp features, black hair, and an expressive gaze of dark blue eyes distinctly approached aristocratic features. But it remained to be understood who this object really was. His body was clearly trained, and traces of scars and burns on his skin showed that this human was no stranger to the dangers of space.
"I greet you aboard the Imperial Space Marine Barge Armageddon. I am Sergeant of the Techmarine Detachment, Fourth Company of the Blood Ravens Chapter, Cornelius Septim. State your name, human." The translator precisely duplicated the marine's speech into the language called Basic, or Aurebesh.
The Astartes gazed intently into the human's face, who studied him just as intently. After once again surveying the entire compartment allocated by the Techmarines for holding Object Hors, he nodded.
"My name is Naylus Hors. Thank you for saving my life." The one calling himself Naylus bowed slightly; the equipment translated his words almost perfectly into Low Gothic, after which the human rose slightly on his bed, propping himself on his elbows. The back of the medical bed, on the Techmarine's command, immediately rose so Hors could sit comfortably.
"Naylus Hors, what is your occupation?" This was an important question, for working with pirate scum, smugglers, or enemy scouts could be harsher than working with someone who had simply ended up in a bad situation. Moreover, the marines had already decided to attempt to recruit the object, which would likely bring more benefit than subjugation and eventual destruction. Now that the human was connected to the equipment, it would be impossible for him to lie without the cogitator detecting the deception, and from these words would depend the black-haired man's fate.
Naylus himself seemed to ponder for a second, then spoke confidently.
"I am a Master of the Jedi Order. And judging by your unfamiliar equipment and your ignorance of Basic, my ship, due to a hyperdrive malfunction, has been thrown into unknown regions of the galaxy." After waiting for the translator to complete its work, the man continued. "Since you may not have heard of the Jedi before meeting me, I will explain. The Jedi Order is an organization dedicated to the study of the Force, exploring its possibilities. We also engage in hyperroute reconnaissance, medicine, terraforming, agriculture, archaeology, and military affairs. I am a representative of the Order's archaeological research group, but since all Order members are Force-sensitive, I am simultaneously a warrior." After each sentence, Naylus Hors paused as if listening to the translation. The cogitator connected to the equipment indicated that the man was telling only the truth, though some words lacked semantic weight, as the translator asserted that the man was a psyker. But this was certainly not the case; moreover, he was a Blank, soulless, and by definition could not be a psyker.
Not a single muscle on Cornelius's face twitched a millimeter; he showed no emotion at all. Yet somehow Naylus noticed his slight confusion.
"You are perplexed?"
The marine looked intently at the man before him and decided to ask for the access codes to the ship's onboard cogitator, then conduct a more thorough interrogation.
"State the access code for the onboard cogitator."
Naylus gave no indication that this question surprised him and dictated a forty-character cipher for the cogitator. He also calmly underwent retinal scanning and biometric data capture for successful entry into the ship's control system.
Marcellius took the data and voice recording and left the compartment; his place was immediately taken by another Techmarine from Septim's group.
"You said all members of the Jedi Order are Force-sensitive. What is the basis of your sensitivity?" Cornelius again looked carefully at the cogitator's data, which showed the human's absolute calm even before a Space Marine—which, however odd, would be understandable given how many species existed in the galaxy from which he came.
"We feel and can use the energy that unites all existence in the galaxy." Naylus closed his eyes briefly, then sharply opened them, fixing his gaze on Septim. "On this huge ship, there are no Force-sensitives, though many living beings exist. But most of them are broken, their minds destroyed—yet they live... Who are they?"
The Astartes silently looked at the cogitator's data, then shifted his gaze to the human. The man had managed to sense the entire ship and its living inhabitants. Only psykers of great power could do that, but Hors was not a psyker. Otherwise, the junior Librarian—who, at Cornelius's request, had been assigned to their group and now stood outside the door—would already have identified him, especially given such obvious use of power. What was equally astonishing was that this man could sense other beings at all, and from him emanated no wave of rejection and revulsion, nor concentrated fear—which, according to available data, always accompanied Pariahs in their usually short lives.
"Servitors. Criminals, rapists, lawbreakers who have undergone lobotomization and been turned into robots, servants. They fulfill functions that in your civilization are performed by droids."
"Monstrous... But perhaps efficient." After a moment's thought, the man looked away, then tapped out a small rhythm on the bed with his fingers and looked at Cornelius. "But crime has not ceased to exist... And if you have so many of these... machines, then I think there must be a reason for it. I can see that you have an advanced civilization in terms of technology, so what is the reason for such a strange method of punishment?"
"Artificial Intelligence was prohibited from reproduction tens of thousands of years ago."
"The Machine Rebellion... Well, that's familiar. As I understand, my droids have already been destroyed?" Cornelius could see that the information about servitors clearly displeased Naylus, but he understood and overcame it, and clearly not out of fear—which earned the Techmarine's respect.
"No, we are extracting data from their memory banks. In the future, they will be destroyed."
"Understood. Am I a prisoner on this ship?"
Cornelius was again surprised by this man's lack of fear; his single heart—unlike an Astartes's—did not miss a single beat. And the marine decided to tell this remarkably resilient man the whole truth.
"I think I should inform you that you are not in your galaxy, nor even in one of the seven satellites of the 'Celestial River.' As I understand it, your hyperdrive was damaged, and your vessel emerged before one of our fleet's ships almost ten thousand years ago. The ship's crew was destroyed by an unknown biological weapon that you were transporting, and the drifting vessel, having lost its crew and functionality over millennia, was recently found by our Chapter, after which you were awakened. We are extremely interested in the information regarding the technology you call the hyperdrive, as well as the bioweapon whose containers were found on your vessel. That is precisely why we decided to contact you." For the first time during the entire conversation, Cornelius noticed Naylus's accelerated heartbeat as soon as the translator finished its work. The man closed his eyes and focused on something. Suddenly, he jerked his entire body, his face contorted as if in pain, yet he managed to compose himself.
"You are telling the truth, Cornelius Septim. And I will try to help you, provided you grant me access to information about your state and the world around us." Naylus opened his eyes; they had changed color, glowing yellow with red flecks, gradually returning to blue. "And I ask you not to conceal anything. My life is entirely in your power, but information in exchange for information—I must know what is happening around us... Why the Force is literally saturated with the hatred and death of countless beings. This is important to me, and I will sense your lies."
"I am prepared to grant you access to information in exchange for the technology." Cornelius was again astounded by the man's composure, daring to make demands in his position, and also by his abilities, which deserved even more careful study—but that lay ahead. For now, he was interested in the technologies and the possibilities they could offer all of humanity.
"As you may have heard earlier, I am a researcher, and I was interested in comparing the technological and social levels of development of long-vanished civilizations. On my ship are three datacrons and one Holocron, which I created to preserve information and for further work with it. In one of the datacrons are many blueprints, principles of operation, and methods of reproducing various equipment, including the theory of hyperspace and a blueprint—though already somewhat outdated—of a working version of the hyperdrive." Naylus was pensive and seemed elsewhere, which slightly unsettled Cornelius, but he was nonetheless glad that he had fulfilled his task. More importantly, the quantity of technologies and knowledge contained in these datacrons could be used for the benefit of all humanity and his Chapter. "I will indicate where I hid the data on the ship. As for the weapon... That substance was not synthesized in my state; I brought it from a planet that had been uninhabited for several thousand years."
"We will provide you with an infopad with a built-in translator connected to our databases. But I cannot initiate you into the secrets of our Chapter, so first we must prepare this equipment."
"I understand. I do not claim access to secret data, but I ask you not to gloss over inconvenient truths in the information you provide."
"Accepted, Naylus Hors."
Marcellius was deciphering the found vessel's cogitator. An astonishing machine that could calculate enormous numerical data for making hyperjumps; the cogitator's interface was so user-friendly that the Techmarine was initially at a loss. Absolutely any question that arose for the Astartes during his examination of the machine's capabilities and data was resolved by the system with literally one press. Instructions, explanations, warnings, autopilot... Even if one wanted to crash this marvel of engineering, it would be extremely difficult.
The Techmarine read reports on the last worlds visited by this vessel. He reviewed technical malfunctions, refueling and loading times. And the ship's last route—which had sustained a breach from some vessel precisely during hyperdrive use. The translator successfully did its work, allowing Marcellius, who had configured his helmet in real-time, to view and translate all documentation.
The work ahead would be lengthy, so the Fifth Company Techmarine Sergeant nodded to the success of this undertaking and delegated the work to one of the marines under his command. After all, no one had canceled Marcellius's own duties, and for the last year and a half, he had also managed the work of Brother Septim, who led the main research mission. Clearing up the not-so-frequent but still breakdowns of expensive equipment and commissioning damaged machinery fell to Marcellius. He was not opposed to this work, especially since he was also permitted to touch the technologies of a completely different galaxy, so the marine was even happy in his own way. Considering also that there were not many combat assignments for the Fourth Company of Blood Ravens stationed on the barge Armageddon at the moment—the brothers mostly managed them even without technical support—the Techmarines could engage in such interesting and important work.
The marine exited the vessel, leaving his brothers to handle the cogitator, and, removing his helmet, surveyed the small groups of his brothers engaged in disassembly, blueprinting, parameter comparisons. Several marines, using one of the vessel's printing workstations and observing all proper rituals, attempted to modify one of the newly acquired Scout armors to provide better protection against energy weapons.
The Sergeant himself, after checking his data and work plan, headed to another workstation. He wanted to make a blaster rifle properly scaled for an Astartes, and using the developments in force field containment from the acquired technologies, attempt to better stabilize and modify the Imperium's plasma weaponry. Under ordinary conditions, this would be impossible—insufficient knowledge, equipment, and capabilities—but the use of coprocessors and holographic blueprint tables in the workstations, along with the ability to model and instantly produce parts and assemblies of equipment compatible with the workstations, allowed the Techmarines to advance in assembly and reverse-engineering of any small-scale machines and weapons systems.
The workstations themselves were astonishing technology, capable of granting the Blood Ravens independence from Forge Worlds, enabling them to produce weapons, armor, and—if they could scale these apparatuses—even vehicles. However, the possibility of replicating the workstations was not provided, so initially the Techmarines decided to use the workstations to study weapons and armor, after which the equipment itself would be thoroughly investigated.
Marcellius was welding a large stock, appropriately sized for him, onto an almost fully assembled scaled-up blaster rifle. Many nodes in this weapon had to be enlarged, but still the Techmarine was confident he had succeeded. Illumination and testing of this new type of weaponry would take place tomorrow, as always, on Calderis's moon.
Satisfied, the marine disassembled and removed a small weld seam from the plasma charge excitation chamber, which oversaturates and alters the energy structure of the gas fed into the chamber upon firing. When the weapon was finally assembled, the marine set it aside with five more equally monstrous—by ordinary human standards—guns.
Marcellius's gaze fell on the open transitional airlock into their small research section, and he saw the human who had only yesterday been awakened from a millennia-long slumber. Hors was looking around with clear curiosity. Many marines glanced at him but quickly returned to their work; after all, if needed, they would soon be informed about this human and what they had learned from him. The visitor from another galaxy's gaze stopped on Marcellius himself, and the marine instinctively nodded to the black-haired man, who returned the nod.
Cornelius, with two more marines following the human, paused briefly, clearly discussing something. The noise prevented Marcellius from making out all the words, but Hors nodded affirmatively to Cornelius, and the two of them boarded the vessel standing in the center of the Chapter's makeshift research base.
Intrigued, Marcellius followed the human and the Astartes disappearing inside the vessel. Once aboard, he followed the sound of voices coming from one of the cabins. The doors were open.
"Here, under the deck." Hors closed his eyes slightly and, using his powers, telekinetically lifted part of the floorboard, setting it aside. Naylus bent toward the opening in the deck and pulled from its interior four small cubes, each the size of a human fist. Three of them glowed with an even blue light, strange runic script visible on their sides. But one of the cubes was gray, steel-colored, covered with runes, technical inserts, and stood out most from this small pile of technogenic metal cubes.
"Here. Three datacrons." The human, whose height barely reached the marines' chests, placed the three blue-glowing cubes into Cornelius's hand. "On this one are blueprints and operating principles of the technologies I found. This one contains many technical manuals and textbooks I brought for study—almost everything recorded there I have long since mastered. And in the third are my research, as well as historical records—I don't know if that will be useful to you..." After waiting for the translator to finish, Naylus ran his fingers along the side of the last cube, which began to glow with an even, pleasant white light. The cube rose from his hand and, splitting into parts, projected a hologram of a man who was the spitting image of Naylus Hors—more precisely, it was his hologram.
"Master." The hologram bowed and turned its head to examine the nearly two-and-a-half-meter-tall warriors of the Emperor. "Greetings to you as well, gentlemen."
"This is a holocron, an imprint of my personality and Force, which many masters of our Order create to pass on their knowledge and skills to subsequent generations." Naylus waved his hand, extinguishing the image, and the folded cube returned to his hand, ceasing to emit light. "For you, it is useless, as none of you possess the Force—I would sense it... And also, I will need it to work with the information you provide, esteemed Cornelius. I will also teach you how to work with datacrons. One need not possess the Force for this; working with information does not occur on such a deep level. Any datacron has connection ports and can easily output data to screens or holographic displays."
"On behalf of the Chapter, I thank you, Naylus." Cornelius nodded respectfully to the human.
Marcellius, meanwhile, could not take his eyes off the cubes in his brother Techmarine's hand. He could hardly wait to touch the knowledge contained in the textbooks on technologies from another galaxy. Yes, Marcellius understood that much deciphering of the acquired data lay ahead—the technical languages of different galaxies were completely different, a lesson the Techmarine had learned firsthand when he struggled to understand the construction of blasters and their technology. Now, he would be able to learn the very principles behind these technologies—the physics of the process, not just the technical implementation—which would open a new chapter in history for the Chapter and for humanity.
The marine also did not miss the fact that the human who had come aboard their ship had studied this data, meaning he himself understood technology and science, which opened enormous prospects for comparing and studying these sacred knowledge.
"Technology and theory of hyperspace operation are also present in the datacron. I am confident that reproducing the hyperdrive will not be difficult. But honestly, in our galaxy, no one still knows on what principle this engine operates—it is the legacy of other ages and civilizations..." The man thoughtfully rubbed his chin. "But this technology is reproducible. I think that is the main thing."
"We should begin studying as soon as possible, Naylus Hors. Time is very valuable." Naylus nodded and walked toward the vessel's exit. Cornelius let the man go ahead and followed, gesturing for Marcellius to come with him.
The Techmarine, descending behind his brother and the visitor from another galaxy, could think only of how quickly he could begin acquiring knowledge never before seen in the Imperium. He was ready to give his life for it—for knowledge is power, and it must be guarded.
Davian Thule was an old warrior. The Captain of the Blood Ravens' Fourth Company had been fighting for at least two hundred years. Many victories had elevated him among the Chapter's brothers and allowed him to take the place of Captain of the Fourth Company after the previous one's death.
This enormous warrior of two and a half meters' height possessed no small intelligence, and thanks to his tactical and strategic abilities, he could secure victory for his Chapter and the Emperor even in seemingly hopeless situations. The victory on Kronus became that pinnacle of the Chapter's doctrine which only the Chapter Master himself, Azariah Kyras—who had defeated a daemon on the planet Aurelia, lost in the Warp—could surpass.
Davian himself, at the urging of his old friend and brother Gabriel Angelos, did not fully trust the Master. Moreover, having encountered heretics and other servants of the Dark Gods in battle, he understood that Kyras's story seemed strange and treated the Master's orders with great caution. The Inquisition, whose investigations often troubled the Chapter, had found no changes in the Master, which partly calmed the renowned Captain's paranoia. But Gabriel would not stir up trouble without cause, so the Captain immediately viewed with suspicion the Master's request not to interfere with the Techmarines' investigation of the vessel found on the ancient Ultramarines cruiser.
The Fourth Company's Chief Chaplain was also dissatisfied with this order. As was their Company's Librarian. In general, the Captain, by decision of a small council of Fourth Company commanders, began monitoring the activities occurring on his Company's vessel. Acting in secret to prevent information leakage to the Chapter Master, Davian asked Cornelius—his subordinate, whom he had known for quite some time—to share information about what the Techmarines were doing on the Armageddon. The affair that had been unfolding for over a year now greatly surprised the Captain.
The Chapter's Techmarines were investigating what they initially thought was an ancient human vessel from perhaps the Dark Age of Technology. The possibility that such a small vessel—barely thirty meters—could make interstellar journeys, Davian agreed, was an astonishing find worth investigating. But everything turned out to be far more complicated.
Cornelius, who had delivered infopads with data to Davian via servitors, reported on Iron Men with Abominable Intelligence that, in their deactivated state, had been studied and completely gutted in search of data. And this data, after lengthy decryption that utilized almost all the barge's cogitators, literally stunned Davian.
Another galaxy. Millions of intelligent species. Billions of languages and dialects. Unimaginable technologies. And most importantly—there were humans there, who had entered space more than a hundred thousand years ago. So long ago that those humans inhabiting most of the galaxy, having not lost their history, no longer remembered when it happened... All this was vastly different from their own galaxy, which existed in eternal war. But what interested Davian was not the technologies, whose astonishing prevalence was most unexpected. Reading about worlds, the structure of the Republic, their armies and fleets, the Captain was lost. Wars in that galaxy were rare. According to the latest data present in the droid's memory, the last galactic war had ended forty years ago with victory over some Revan. Before that, conflicts on a galactic scale had not been numerous, although the last hundred years had been relatively warlike in that galaxy. For seven hundred years, the Galactic Republic had not fought. Captain Davian could not comprehend this data—seven hundred years of peace for almost the entire galaxy. Astonishing.
But an even greater shock came after the Apothecary's report and the next infopad delivered by Cornelius. The human aboard this small vessel had survived and successfully recovered from cryostasis.
The Apothecary, who did not know whom he was examining, swore that the genetic correction of this human was performed with astonishing precision and technological sophistication. True, these were not yet Astartes, who surpassed humans by tens of times in all parameters. Still, a more widespread and gentle version of enhancements—which were hereditary and did not accumulate errors in the genecode—was extremely promising. Davian understood his Apothecary, who demanded vivisection of the found specimen. The parameters of this human were approximately half as good as those of the Emperor's Angels—if one did not consider the brain, which in terms of perfection and capabilities was equivalent to an Astartes's—which was considered impossible for such a small body, since Object Hors remained human even externally.
Reading the data transmitted by the Techmarines about Naylus Hors, awakened from long sleep and studied for almost a year, Davian increasingly wanted to contact his battle-brother Gabriel. This Naylus was a Pariah—which was good, as a Pariah cannot be a servant of Chaos. Yet he possessed powers that approached sorcery more closely than anything else.
The Fourth Company's Chief Librarian, whom Davian had asked to examine this Naylus, said he did not understand the nature of these abilities, but it was certainly not the Warp... For the waves of the Immaterium directed toward Naylus broke against his protection without touching his body. Most astonishingly, being a Pariah and a fairly powerful one, Naylus Hors did not exude the repulsiveness that all who encountered such notable individuals had described.
Already four months after the object's awakening, the barge Armageddon hung over Calderis. The freshly recruited reinforcements were undergoing training under the Captain of the Fourth Company and his faithful subordinates. And still, research into the technologies of another galaxy continued aboard the barge.
Brother Cornelius delivered the next infopad, reporting the launch of a small production line aboard the vessel. The Techmarines had assembled a large printing workstation, carving out with enormous walls yet another part of the barge's void hangar. On this workstation, they planned to produce smaller workstations for weapons production, as well as vehicles and hyperdrives for ships. As Davian understood, they had not dared immediately aim for a battle barge's engine but decided to equip one of the Thunderhawks to test the possibility of jumping. If they could open a new type of galactic travel not through the Warp, it would open enormous opportunities for humanity. Davian understood this too—after all, the Warp is unstable and dangerous, and also infested with countless daemons.
The guest aboard the Armageddon, Naylus Hors, caused no problems. He studied the history of the Imperium, its customs and foundations, did not condemn the harshness and cruelty of its laws, and mostly simply listened in silence without making hasty conclusions. According to Cornelius's reports, within two months the translator became unnecessary for Naylus, and he began helping the Techmarines. Cornelius spoke extremely highly of Naylus: composed, diplomatic, strong-spirited. And as a warrior, he also proved decent, training with his lightsaber.
Of course, Davian would not have approved of giving weapons to a stranger, but the Techmarine vouched for the human, and Davian did not focus on this. And time, as it turned out, was not plentiful. Yesterday, a small Ork Waaagh! had emerged from the Warp on a colonized asteroid and almost immediately fell upon the planet, not allowing the barge and the fleet defending the planet to intercept their rock. Now, Captain Davian Thule was to lead the cleansing of Calderis from Orks, and he intended to do so with minimal losses. Also, as Cornelius had asked, he would take with him the newly constructed weaponry and test it in battle. Of course, the weapons had been tested on Calderis's moon many times over these months, but the Techmarines needed full combat trials before reporting to the Chapter Master on their work.
Davian was not opposed to helping his subordinate with this, and he himself wanted to test the new, astonishingly powerful weaponry. Therefore, he decided to equip the squads of new recruits with these weapons and, under the supervision of veteran squads with standard weaponry who could cover the novices in case of malfunctions, everyone wanted to ride fire and sword over the Ork Waaagh! that had so opportunely appeared on the horizon.