The dark hull and iconic weapon configuration marked it immediately: a modified Cadian-class heavy cruiser, serving as an Inquisition Black Ship. Upon its prow was emblazoned the massive, bone-white sigil of the Holy Ordos.
As the docking clamps locked into place, a surge of Storm Troopers, led by a contingent of Adepta Sororitas, filed into the vessel. The sight left those present in a state of sudden, uncertain paralysis. The Storm Troopers remained silent, their matte-black hellgun barrels leveled at everyone in the vicinity.
While the vessel was being secured, a towering male figure approached the perimeter previously designated as a restricted zone by Hadrian. Carson and two of his Grey Knight battle-brothers stood waiting.
"Inquisitor Faral. It is a relief to see you," Carson greeted, recognizing the familiar face.
"Your mentor, Kaldor Draigo, issued a pan-sector notification to the Inquisition the moment you vanished. All agents were ordered to respond immediately to any trace of your signature," Faral replied. "You would be wise to send word to Kaldor as soon as possible, through our encrypted channels, of course."
After their brief exchange, Carson felt a rare, inexplicable stirring of emotion. Perhaps it was his mentor's concern that provided a flicker of warmth in the cold vacuum of his duty.
Led through a corridor that had been entirely cordoned off and cleared of personnel, the three Grey Knights returned to the safety of the Inquisition Black Ship. What followed was swift and clinical.
The mortals aboard the vessel remained blissfully ignorant of the Grey Knights' arrival and departure. Those few who had witnessed them, a handful of Ultramarines and several logistics servitors, were dealt with with Imperial efficiency. Using the servitors' identification numbers, the Storm Troopers easily located the "lucky" bio-mechanical drones and reduced them to scrap with focused fire.
Hadrian, Calanthus, and the members of the two strike teams were ordered to assemble at a designated extraction point. They were to depart with the Inquisition immediately to undergo the mandatory mind-cleansing protocols before returning to their duties. Even a direct order from Roboute Guilliman had to be momentarily superseded by the Inquisition's grim necessity.
To prevent diplomatic friction, Faral dispatched a meticulously worded report to the Lord Regent, ensuring the Primarch would not misinterpret the Ordos' intervention as an act of defiance.
As for Axion, the Inquisition's initial intent was dismissive. To them, he was merely a Mechanicus construct, something to be dismantled, crushed, and recycled for parts.
However, when two Battle Sisters and a squad of Storm Troopers located Axion in an isolated compartment, the situation disintegrated. Calanthus had not expected the Inquisition to move so aggressively against the machine. Axion, for his part, certainly did not expect his door to be kicked open by soldiers opening fire.
Since returning to the ship, Axion had sequestered himself in the chamber to refine his latest combat unit: the Aegis Protector.
The galaxy was littered with the lethal remnants of Dark Age technology; Axion knew that eventually, he would encounter a threat his current form could not withstand. Enhancing his survivability through auxiliary units was a logical imperative.
Using smelted materials from salvaged cannon barrels, Axion had handcrafted a skeletal chassis. He had then "requisitioned" a significant amount of material from the ship's supply vaults—some of it properly forged, some of it crudely jury-rigged. After long hours of labor, the two-meter-tall automaton was complete.
Constrained by primitive materials and tools, Axion could not fabricate a quantum power core. Instead, he had engineered a high-output nuclear fission reactor. Though it required periodic refueling, its power yield was sufficient for combat.
The Aegis Protector followed a standard humanoid frame, equipped with dual-layered energy shielding. Its left arm housed a molecular combat blade and a standard neutron-flux projector. Its right arm bore a reinforced slab-shield with an integrated power field.
In the age of the Iron Men, such units were defensive combat droids, typically utilizing tread-based locomotion to protect high-value targets. However, Axion himself was a humanoid-core intelligence, vastly different from the stationary command-nexus droids of old. To ensure the Protector could keep pace with his own high-mobility frame, Axion had adapted the bipedal locomotion of the Automated Sentry-Troopers, modified with "significant" improvements.
Under standard conditions, where Axion did not exert direct control, the machine functioned with a directive-logic similar to a servitor. For the Aegis Protector, that core directive was singular: Ensure the survival of the Command Core.
The moment the hatch hissed open and the Storm Troopers' shotguns roared, the Aegis Protector, which had been undergoing final calibration, blurred into motion, interposing itself between Axion and the intruders. Its surface energy shields flared, absorbing the incoming pellets instantly.
The neutron-flux projector fired in a rapid, staccato burst, riddling the lead Storm Troopers with lethal radiation and kinetic force before they could even scream.
The two Battle Sisters reacted with the speed of elite warriors. They dove into cover outside the doorway, their fury igniting as they saw their subordinates gunned down in the corridor. Yet, as they gazed upon the two metallic, gleaming entities, the usual litanies of condemnation died in their throats.
Cursing or accusing an automaton of heresy felt... fundamentally hollow. The Sisters did not understand the nuance of sentient machines; they knew nothing of the Abominable Intelligence or the Iron Men. To them, these were merely distance myths.
Seeing the fallen Storm Troopers, one Sister leveled her Exorcist-pattern bolt pistol and unleashed a hail of mass-reactive shells into the chamber. The explosions rocked the cramped space, the thunderous reports drawing every nearby soldier and Sister to the fray.
Detecting a renewed threat, the Aegis Protector responded with mechanical lethality. Its power shield expanded, and the monomolecular blade hissed from its housing. Ignoring the smoke and shrapnel of the detonating bolter rounds, it lunged toward the doorway, swinging the blade in a wide, scything arc at the Sisters pinned against the frame.
The two Sisters rolled back, narrowly escaping the strike. The shimmering blade passed inches from their faces, leaving two deep, molten gashes in the reinforced bulkhead on either side of the hatch. Had they been a fraction of a second slower, they would have been cleaved in two.
More Storm Troopers arrived. Though they lacked context, the sight of their dead brethren triggered an immediate combat response. They joined the firing line without a word.
The Aegis Protector stood like a silent sentinel before Axion. It did not retreat. It simply diverted more power to its frontal shields, absorbing the incoming fire while systematically picking off targets with its neutron-flux projector. The carapace armor that the Storm Troopers wore, normally the pinnacle of mortal protection, proved utterly porous against the neutron fire. It was a slaughter as lopsided as mortals facing the Adeptus Astartes.
More Sisters flooded the congested corridor, their bolters adding to the cacophony. The escalating roar of battle soon reached the ears of High Inquisitor Faral, who was still awaiting the assembly of the Ultramarines.