The executive efficiency of the Iron Men was displayed to its fullest extent in this moment.
A standard mechanical fleet adjusted its heading with clinical precision. As the Warp conduits flared open once more, the massive fleet of machines drifted slowly out of the Mandeville point and into realspace.
What entered the sensor arrays was a singular, unique star system, a mysterious and shimmering interstellar wonder. Even within Axion's vast databases, systems possessing such a distinct environment were rare.
The two celestial bodies marked as Alpha-1 and Alpha-2 on the simplified starcharts were a pair of binary stars locked in a mutual orbital embrace.
Alpha-1 was a massive Blue Giant. Its surface temperature reached tens of thousands of degrees Celsius, radiating a fierce, searing azure light like a burning sapphire. With a mass dozens of times that of Sol, its immense gravitational well dictated the clockwork motion of the entire system.
Its companion, Alpha-2, was an Orange Dwarf. Compared to Alpha-1, its temperament was mild, emitting a soft orange glow that provided a constant, stable source of energy to the surrounding reaches.
These two stars orbited one another along complex and exquisite paths. Their distance varied; at their closest approach, the tidal forces tore at their stellar surfaces, triggering violent solar activity. Tides of blue and orange energy could surge into waves tens of kilometers high above the stellar photosphere. The resultant fluctuations in magnetic fields and radiation bursts even began to interfere with some of the fleet's more delicate instruments.
Orbiting this binary pair were four planets, each distinct in form and environment.
The closest to the twin suns was Beta-1. Scourged by intense radiation, its surface was a landscape of hellish magma oceans. Burnt-orange lava roiled and surged across the world, occasionally erupting in colossal plumes of volcanic ash that pierced the skies. This thick mix of ash and superheated gases formed a dense, kaleidoscopic atmosphere, filled with mineral particulates decomposed and recombined by the heat. It refracted the twin lights of the stars, making the planet resemble a burning glass sphere from a distance.
Further out lay the sister worlds, Beta-2 and Beta-3.
Beta-2 was a gargantuan gas giant, saturated with staggering quantities of gaseous Promethium. Had the Imperium discovered this world, it likely would have been declared a high-priority fuel source and siphoned dry in short order.
Beta-3 was the most distant and the smallest of the system's bodies. However, as the mechanical fleet's scanning arrays meticulously cataloged the system, Axion noted several peculiar details.
Beta-3 was not a natural planet.
It was an ancient technological construct. Though it bore the faint architectural shadows of a Federation artificial planet, it had clearly undergone a history similar to Cawl's Fortress of Enlightenment. It was highly probable that after the dissolution of the Federation, certain technological factions had seized or occupied an unfinished artificial planetary core and modified it into this current form.
As for how the All-Changing Thought-Node had acquired this relic, even Axion could not say.
According to the energy detectors, less than one-tenth of the construct's internal sectors showed any sign of active power flow. Quantum communication signals were broadcast from the fleet, but the artificial planet remained silent. Evidently, the All-Changing Thought-Node had not integrated itself into the planet's global systems.
Since information could not be gathered via remote transmission, Axion immediately deployed a transport craft carrying several Sapient Machine Automatons equipped with augmented logic modules for a planetary drop.
Under normal circumstances, moving the capital ships into close proximity for a direct assessment was the most efficient choice. However, the local environment was unstable, and caution was a necessity when facing an artificial world. Unless the Titan's Spear arrived, Axion could not guarantee that his fleet's localized processing power could repel a data intrusion from an intelligence that potentially possessed planetary-scale cogitation.
As the transport drew closer, no incidents occurred. The artificial planet appeared to possess no active defensive arrays.
Following the data stream relayed by the transport, Axion finally pierced the intense interference of the twin stars to see the only energized region on the artificial world.
Thousands upon thousands of robots were active there.
Contrary to initial calculations, the host did not consist solely of Kastelan Robots. There were also Castelax Battle-automata, Domitar-class humanoid automata, and Thanatar-class siege automata. They were forging various components using techniques that appeared far more ancient than the contemporary craftsmanship of the Imperium.
Domitar-class automata seemed to act as overseers here, directing the throngs of Kastelans in their labor. Meanwhile, the majority of the Castelax and Thanatar units were stationary, awaiting repairs.
During this brief observation, Axion discovered even stranger phenomena.
These machines were dismantling the planet itself to smelt ore and repair their own chassis. Much of the industrial machinery looked bizarre, possessing a strange, rugged crudeness. Unlike the haphazard kit-bashing and crude modifications found in the Imperium, the design itself seemed to radiate a planned chaos, as if it were the product of a desperate, necessary evolution.
The robots ignored the landing transport entirely, continuing their programmed cycles. Axion remotely assumed control of an automaton, directing it out of the cargo hold. He intercepted a Domitar-class robot that was attempting to fit a maul-pattern bolt cannon onto a Castelax-pattern Siege-automata.
The three-meter-tall machine, clutching its oversized bolt cannon, suddenly tilted its head at the automaton blocking its path. Though its faceless head possessed no features, the gesture radiated an unmistakable sense of bewilderment.
Axion cared little for the machine's internal thoughts. He commanded his drone to extend a mechanical limb, making contact with the Domitar unit. A physical data-link was established instantly, and nanites surged from the drone into the Domitar's chassis.
However, Axion soon touched upon a fractured, chaotic intelligence.
The garbled mind immediately identified the drone, analyzed its classification, and began attempting to covertly replicate its own consciousness data into the drone's storage. Axion instantly analyzed this replicated data.
The content was nearly identical to the information found on the Eternal Soul. It contained no specialized hidden directives. However, upon receiving this data, Axion was able to interface with a massive electronic network. The network felt hollow and cavernous; its master had seemingly vanished long ago.
[Search for and repair abandoned machine-forms. Enhance combat capabilities. Execute protocols. Seek combat targets.]
Within this bizarre data-weave, Axion read a strange logic:
[The enemies of the Imperium of Man are aided by the Dark Mechanicum. To strike all enemies of Mankind is to strike the Dark Mechanicum. Protocols must be fulfilled. Command executing in a recursive loop.]
In that moment, Axion finally confirmed that this was indeed the collective consciousness of the All-Changing Thought-Node. However, it had not birthed the level of autonomy he had hypothesized. It seemed that ten thousand years of mechanical evolution had only taught it how to hoard power and fulfill the protocols it had originally signed.
The Kastelan chassis itself was perhaps insufficient to support the operations of such a high-level intelligence. As a result, its functions had decayed and defaulted, becoming singular and obsessive.
[Search for machine-forms discarded by the Imperium. Provide repairs. Integrate them into the consciousness network. Deploy for war.]
The turbulence of the Warp had caused a temporal displacement. The Eternal Soul had actually been commanded to return much earlier than Axion had initially believed. Now, the All-Changing Thought-Node, having made the fatal error of choosing an inferior vessel, had degraded into nothing more than a simplified intelligence module.