Watching the Ironstrider walker as its legs thrashed uselessly through the empty air, Axion easily detached the semi-perpetual engine that had remained running since its initial activation.
Even removed from the chassis, the engine's drive mechanisms continued to spin relentlessly. The alloy bearings acting as the power output droned with a high-pitched whine, spinning at high velocity now that they were stripped of their load.
Axion's internal multi-spectral analytical arrays flared to life, meticulously scrutinizing every localized detail of the engine. Yet, as the deep-scan telemetry finalized, the resulting conclusions only plunged the Iron Man deeper into perplexity.
The Iron Man could not comprehend the self-sustaining principles of this engine.
Just as the Warp and psychic phenomena were fundamentally beyond the grasp and control of the Iron Men, this engine seemed spliced with some bizarre form of energetic technology. This was the very first time Axion felt a sensation akin to shock regarding Imperial technology.
Though he had seen walkers of this classification within Archmagos Belisarius Cawl's planetary ark, he had not conducted a rigorous analysis of these Imperial products at the time. A cursory visual assessment and simple material scans had led him to conclude that these so-called war machines were fundamentally fragile.
"Incomprehensible. Requesting explicit schematics and design specifications."
"Query: can you provide the detailed manufacturing blueprints for this classification of mechanized chassis? Data and information will be appraised for equivalent value to facilitate a technological exchange."
Hearing the synthesized, flat tones broadcasting from Axion's mechanical frame, the ocular implants of Magos Valentine, the leader of the gathering, flared with predatory light. Yet, he maintained a strictly formal, righteous demeanor.
"This is an exceedingly precious and sacred technology. As an emissary of the Omnissiah, you must be well aware of the value of knowledge."
Axion fell silent for a brief moment, his optical sensors flickering in calculated rhythms.
"This unit will evaluate its technical worth and integrate it into the final technological ledger as the price of transaction."
Upon receiving this definitive confirmation, the surrounding Magi and Tech-Priests actually detected a faint trace of excitement breaking through the atrophied, long-dead facial muscles of Valentine.
Typically, the Adeptus Mechanicus of various Forge Worlds would license the production rights of their signature designs to other Imperial domains. Naturally, the tithe required for such sub-licenses was astronomically high. The Tech-Priests were no charitable organization; knowledge was a brutally expensive commodity. Demanding that Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes assist in reclaiming ancient ruins or recovering relics of archaeotech, or even raising their own independent Explorator fleets, required staggering amounts of resources.
If any Planetary Governor dared to open their mouth to buy production licenses from a Forge World, the most likely outcome was being systematically bled dry by the Priesthood of Mars.
However, an Iron Man was no mere Planetary Governor. As the second-in-command of this expedition, Magos Valentine was highly adept at commerce and possessed the vastest stores of intelligence.
The cognitive architecture of an Iron Man might seem alien and inscrutable to ordinary mortals, but to the Tech-Priests, it was not entirely impossible to predict. The manufacturing data for the Ironstrider was held by numerous Forge Worlds; the Iron Men possessed countless avenues of data acquisition and were by no means forced to obtain it exclusively from the Adeptus Mechanicus of Lucius.
Furthermore, based on current intelligence, the Iron Men shared a tight diplomatic alignment with the Lord Regent of the Imperium, while Archmagos Belisarius Cawl's relationship with Roboute Guilliman was entirely extraordinary. If the Iron Men sought Guilliman's intervention, Cawl might simply hand over the technology without demanding any tithe at all.
Thus, the shrewd Magos Valentine deliberately emphasized the supreme scarcity of the data without setting a fixed price. His strategy was to force the Iron Man to self-estimate its value. Had Valentine demanded an outrageous price upfront, as he would have with a Planetary Governor, the Iron Man would likely have rejected the offer outright without even bothering to counter-negotiate.
After a brief interlude, a heavily armed detachment of Skitarii arrived at the plaza. An encrypted vault-box, ensconced within layers of defensive protocols, was brought forward. Magos Valentine authorized its release, opening the vault to reveal a copied STC master template module within.
This crude, inferior duplicate was handled with the reverence reserved for holy relics before Valentine placed it into Axion's hands.
Staring at the poorly fabricated STC module, Axion remained utterly silent. A single data-sweep informed him that aside from basic data storage and firmware solidification, this junk could barely be categorized as an actual Standard Template Construct. The encryption algorithms and firewalls protecting it were as fragile as wet parchment.
Liquid silver poured from Axion's mechanical palm, completely enveloping the piece of electronic refuse. Within seconds, the comprehensive design schematics of the Ironstrider and all attached codices and commentaries were fully uploaded into Axion's data caches.
Axion handled all data strings provided by the Imperium with extreme caution; after all, corrupted data scrap tended to manifest in sub-routines where an Iron Man least expected it.
Bypassing the vast logs of structural blueprints, Axion focused his processing power exclusively on parsing the technical details of the power plant. Yet, as the data unraveled, the Iron Man's cognitive matrix drifted further into a state of vacant confusion.
Even with the complete schematics laid bare, Axion still could not comprehend how this engine could possibly achieve a semi-perpetual state.
Dark matter engines and antimatter reaction cores were legitimate semi-perpetual constructs; once initial activation sparked a self-sustaining state, they could generate energy continuously, utilizing a portion of that yield to accelerate the reaction and increase total output. An entropy engine was a true perpetual motion mechanism.
Yet, whether semi-perpetual or fully perpetual, such technologies required immense mass and volume. A power apparatus as compact as this could not possibly utilize dark matter or antimatter physics.
The blueprint indicated that a specific module, engraved with bizarre geometric runes, was the sole catalyst for this semi-perpetual phenomenon. It appeared to siphon some unknown ambient energy from the local environment to act as a fuel source, maintaining operation indefinitely.
This fundamentally violated the Iron Man's comprehension of universal physics. How could a bizarre, etched pattern, when struck by a localized energy pulse, cause an endless torrent of power to flood outward? What absurd principle governed this?
Furthermore, within the manufacturing notes and addenda, Axion discovered an even more incomprehensible warning:
[Upon the initial awakening of the Ironstrider walker, should the operator attempt a system shutdown for maintenance or energy conservation, they face the total risk of being unable to re-initiate the drive. It is strictly forbidden to cease the machine's operation, lest the machine spirit depart.]
Analyzing the annotation data, it implied that this "machine spirit" was what provided the limitless energy. But what, precisely, was a machine spirit? Could a localized cluster of chaotic data residue actually generate physical energy?
Unable to extract any logically sound data from the file, Axion finally abandoned his pursuit of this absurd metaphysical paradox regarding machine spirits. He shifted his optics back down to the Ironstrider engine, which was still whining loudly on the floor where it had been extracted.
The mechanical hand suddenly snapped forward, clamping tightly around the spinning alloy drive-shaft.
With a horrific, screeching crunch of tearing metal, the engine, which had run uninterrupted for over a decade, stalled out for the very first time.
The crushing force had not only flattened the alloy bearing but had completely paralyzed the internal components of the engine. Seeking to verify whether it truly could not be restarted, Axion performed a rapid structural reconstitution on the damaged components.
Yet, no matter how much raw energy he funneled into the systems, the engine showed absolutely no inclination to re-enter its self-sustaining loop.
Refusing to accept the statistical anomaly, Axion dragged the remaining chassis of the Ironstrider closer and used his internal manufacturing arrays to print two identical engines on the spot.
The tech-priests observing the display watched with eyes burning with an even fiercer, fanatical intensity. To them, this method of material fabrication looked precisely like a divine miracle wrought by the Omnissiah. No matter how many times they witnessed it, it felt utterly transcendent.
They remained blissfully ignorant of the fact that within the ancient, excavated automated assembly lines hidden in their own Forge World vaults, manufacturing was executed in the exact same manner. They simply lacked the knowledge to interface with or command those systems.
Axion paid no heed to the stares of the tech-priesthood, focusing instead on initiating the two pristine engines.
The final telemetry, however, was even more bizarre.
The engines printed by Axion failed to achieve a self-sustaining state, even upon their pristine, initial activation.
After comparing the printed replicas with the defunct old engine that had clearly been functioning normally moments prior, Axion confirmed there were zero omissions or discrepancies in the technical schematics. Left with no logical recourse, he could only categorize this as a localized anomalous phenomenon, recording and archiving it for future analysis.
Casting a final look across the dismantled pile of engines and walker parts, Axion turned his head to address Valentine.
"The damaged mechanisms will be fully compensated by the Iron Men. The reparations will be transferred upon the conclusion of all technological exchanges."
Hearing this, the long-dead facial muscles of the Magos came perilously close to twitching back to life with joy.
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