Yggdra, Frija, their guards, and the bridge's crew were all taking in the sight of the transformed bike. Yggdra and Frija looked to have had an "Aha" moment while the guards were clearly unfamiliar with the weapon.
"Well, that would explain why the bike was so big," T-ELOS commented as she watched it hover in mid-air and occasionally fire a salvo of missiles at any Ork group that got too curious. "Though her manipulation of ice is incredible."
"That's what happens when I let her off the leash for one time. She goes, gets attacked by a Phrygisian and she Neblades the whole race before I even get the first report," Frija said with a sigh.
"Frija, it seems our Warden has been busy for good reason," Yggdra said airily. Honestly, I can't believe Esdeath was able to redesign one of those without using a computer to aid her. Very impressive.
The Archive was just as impressed, a lidded smile tugging her lips up. "Most definitely. The HAVEN Multi-Form Chaos Control Mech has been obsolete for almost two million years, not since our war with the Flood. It's certainly nostalgic. You piloted one before, if I'm not mistaken, Yggdra."
"Ah, that's right. That brings back fun times."
Alicia and Beth shared a curious glance and it was Frija who caught it and explained.
"1.8 million years ago, during our war with the Flood, we'd just come out of the war with the Forerunners who would later be defeated by the resurgence of the Flood in a case of Mutually Assured Destruction. We had just finished our newest OMEGA Weapon, the model Mark XII, when the Flood invaded our space. Caught unprepared, we lost many worlds and tens of millions of drones. The lack of fielding flesh and bone soldiers made sure we kept our edge over them but they had numbers and we only had one Mark XII while the older models were being repaired. We needed a unit that could be mass-produced, operate in contrasting environments, and lay waste to large groups of Flood parasites. We developed the HAVEN MFCC Mech. The Path of Defiance made millions and we deployed them on recently infested worlds to clear them out. After a few trials and numerous errors, we developed a model that helped push the Flood back across space while our ships bombarded the lost worlds with fire.
These mechs were capable of transformations using our knowledge of compartmentalization. The mechs could transform into either a tank or a gunship. This versatility proved instrumental in quarantining pockets of Flood infestation. During the last months of the war, something happened and one of the mechs became… corrupted," here her voice lowered, her face contemplative as she remembered that odd and potentially terrible event.
"The Flood weren't as reliant on living hosts as we thought. They were just as clever with technology and used the knowledge they gained from the Forerunners and The People to develop a virus that was transmittable by the sending and receiving of signals. The planet of the first corruption was lost within minutes. It didn't take long for the virus to transfer to a cargo ship and lay dormant until it reached another world. The virus continued lying in wait until dozens of worlds were secretly infected before it activated, turning tens of thousands of our HAVEN mechs against us.
We had to stop the spread by manually piloting the mechs to fight them but oftentimes we were forced to bombard them from the atmosphere. Once the worlds were reclaimed, Esdeath led a force that captured a Gravemind. Using her cryokinesis, she froze it solid to prep for transportation. A week later, it was imprisoned within Cocytus and another week later, the Gravemind kills itself to prevent further torture and the Flood leave all of Valkyria space.
The reclamation of our worlds in the war against our own mechs and the Flood cost us the majority of our HAVEN forces. We never knew if the virus was still lingering on one of the planets or in digital space so we stopped production of the HAVENs and isolated the virus. Since then, we've developed alternative weapon platforms to replace the HAVEN."
The Valkyrians on the bridge had been quiet and listening to the history lesson. It wasn't a relatively popular topic and the only Valkyrians still living since that war were the Valkyrian-Royals, and since there were only 13 (plus one baby), hearing a first-hand account of the war was a very rare experience.
"So," T-ELOS started, looking back at the screen, "Esdeath has taken a great risk in remaking one?"
"Not exactly," this coming from Yggdra. "Specs show that this model is completely different from the HAVEN MFCC. Esdeath has built this one from the ground up and modified just about every bit of it from the original blueprint. It's also an A.I. that can coordinate with Esdeath, and it's made from Life Armament, meaning it's as adaptable as Valkyrian flesh. Combine that with our far more advanced technology and the chances of that ancient virus infecting TATSUMI, especially this far away from our home galaxy, is zero percent."
Yggdra was clearly enjoying the spectacle of her forces slaughtering the technologically inferior Orks. "Perhaps, remembering this now and depending on how TATSUMI performs, we might restart the HAVEN programs," she mused.
It took twenty minutes for Esdeath to finish consuming the rest of the Ork slush, an amount that could fill a large pool. Her body had digested and absorbed the nutrients as fast as she drank it. She recovered the tiny bit of energy she used in the previous fight, as well as the memories of all the Orks. The two most important aspects she got though were the connection to the WAAAGH! and a nice physiological booster to her body.
The latter was something that Neblading would definitely benefit the Valkyrians. Apparently, the more the Orks fought, the stronger and larger they got. It was how those like Ghazghkull Thraka, even with his mechanical parts, stood at sixteen feet tall while the average Ork Warboss stood around twelve feet tall. This Oggaluz was bigger than any other Ork on this planet since the majority of them were part of his tribe before they'd joined Ghazghkull's WAAAGH!
If the Valkyrians all acquired that as well, it would certainly make things more interesting if they continued to wage war in this chaotic galaxy.
The main objective was completed though. Adjusting her genetic structure, she eventually found how to create a psychic signature. Due to the WAAAGH!, she felt compelled to simply cause mass destruction. The compelling was very similar to when Yggdra lost herself in that Uzumaki woman's personality for a moment and surged her presence over and through all of Outer Heaven. Esdeath felt the Valkyrians could definitely make their own version of the WAAAGH! gestalt field but there was something missing from the equation that she couldn't figure out yet.
Pushing humorous thoughts of an army of warmongering Valkyrians charging across space screaming "WAAAGH!" aside for now, Esdeath began focusing on the strongest sensation within the WAAAGH! She felt her mind being tossed and turned within the tsunami of feelings. It was impossible to individualize each signature since they were all craving the same things. It was like trying to find the darkest asteroid within an entire belt.
She couldn't make heads or tails of any of it, much less finding one specific Ork. There were simply too many and she may have had better chances had the WAAAGH! splinter group been much smaller. The more failure she had, the more upset she got and when Esdeath got upset, Nature itself would suffer.
"Wha—No, that—sartxit!—I think I—FAUSXIT!" she screamed in frustration, cursing the single-track minds of the Orks. She took a deep breath to calm down. So it seemed she had underestimated the chaotic order of the WAAAGH! Well, she had an idea she could try. Powering up her psychic energy as much as she could, not letting a single bit out into the WAAAGH!, merely focusing on it as a whole, screamed—
"OGGALUZ! YOU'RE WEAK AND I CHALLENGE YOU!"
The result was synonymous with an entire tsunami suddenly calming as the chaotic flows present from all the Orks stopped. All of them were focused on two points, one she knew was herself and the other had to have been Oggaluz.
"DON'T THINK ABOUT RUNNING CUZ ME AND MY TRIBE ARE COMING TO KILL YOU!"
The calmness ended as the Orks were going wild with anticipation for this battle while they were locked in another battle against an invading fleet. She could feel nothing but love for war and the excitement for more of it. These Orks truly loved battle. Whether they are winning or losing, as long as they could fight, they were having a good time. Esdeath could respect that.
"TATSUMI, bring me the Generator and transform back into your Interceptor mode."
The mech stopped its hovering and fell back to the ground, only reactivating to not cause a needless dust cloud. Its cockpit opened up again and Esdeath hopped up to the opening and reached inside, grabbing the Generator before jumping back as TATSUMI began reforming back into its hoverbike self. Esdeath, hair billowing in the gust, stabbed the Generator into the ground and activated it.
The tip began sprouting an electric field like before and within seconds, her 2nd in Command marched out. She saluted Esdeath once she saw her. "Ripley, relay the information to the soldiers. I've got the location. I'll lead at point, 1st and 2nd squads are my left flank, 3rd and 4th squads are my right flank, and 5th are to spread out ahead to recon and harass. The Orks will be expecting us as well," Esdeath commanded.
"Your orders are understood, Primal!"
Following her were the rest of the Sky Razers, all subtly taking in the world around them. Ripley made it quick work to organize the company of cold-blooded killers. Esdeath slid into the cockpit of TATSUMI, this time leaving the cockpit retracted and just her lower body and arms up to her elbows buried in the gel substance. She would not see this slaughter through anything but her real eyes.
She revved TATSUMI up, its engines now roaring instead of being silent like before. Behind her, the three hundred strong group activated their flight units, flames exploding from their twin wings to lift them up from the ground and their armor glistening off the red sun. With the distant sun hours from setting behind them, with machines sounding like a monster truck derby, she let a blood thirsty smile creep up her face like a snake.
"My prey is Oggaluz. He is mine alone. Take your pick of the rest. Sky Razers, bring Hell to these Orks.