What's it like to ride a Magos across the radiation wasteland of a Forge World? In a word: awesome. Gamma got dirty, literally, covered in radioactive dust floating in the air. They sped along, hurtling over rivers of molten metal and great rifts in broken cliffs, all while watched by Titan trains and dwarfed by giant mining vehicles.
The sun above his head disappeared and rose again in a blur, only slowing down when he reached a massive factory complex. After passing through a network of crisscrossing transport channels, the half-human-half-motorcycle finally came to a stop in front of a Mechanical Temple.
"Awesome!" Magos Lauster yelled, even after the vehicle had stopped, as if he had been cooped up for too long. "Come on, get down. This is where you'll be working like a dog from now on."
"Okay, Magos," Gamma said, a wide smile on his face. "I will study hard from now on."
"Heh." Magos Lauster simply grunted, clanked back into his human form, and walked inside.
The Mechanical Temple, a monument of gears, skulls, pipelines, and pistons, opened into a cavernous auditorium where people gave thanks for the blessings of the Omnissiah. The walls were covered in prayers carved in sacred binary and High Gothic, proclaiming:
Loyal cogs shall never rust! From the mediocrity of thought, Omnissiah, save us! From the lies of the heretic, circuits, protect us! From the rage of the beast, steel, preserve us! From the temptation of flesh, silica, purify us! From the ravages of the destroyer, machine spirit, shelter us! From this biological cage, the machine sets us free! Omnissiah! Omnissiah!
As Gamma looked at the words praising the Source Power, the Omnissiah, and the Emperor, information about the Adeptus Mechanicus popped into his mind like triggered keywords.
In this chaotic 42nd Millennium, the exact origin of the Adeptus Mechanicus is indeterminable. Yet, the knowledgeable tech-priests believe that after humanity was enlightened by the Omnissiah and awakened the wisdom called "science," machines became the driving force for human progress. In the distant 20K era, the worship of machines and the appeasement of machine spirits were already widely accepted.
Humanity, however, grew arrogant. Their creations—the Stone Men and the subsequent Iron Men—rebelled and destroyed the empire they had built. Arrogant humanity then fell into the Dark Age of Technology, where tech-warlords used dark, wondrous, and destructive technologies to wage war. This led to the Age of Strife, a time when the last pillar of humanity's glory was torn down, and a galaxy-wide Warp storm separated every human planet.
This was the worst of times. Human worlds lost contact, civilization regressed, and countless lives were lost to invasion and slaughter by Xenos.
It was also the best of times. On Mars, the largest research world, the great Omnissiah once again blessed humanity. The earliest Tech-Priests received His enlightenment, and the Adeptus Mechanicus was born.
The dogma of the Adeptus Mechanicus states that knowledge is the highest manifestation of divinity. Therefore, a person's value is determined only by the total amount of knowledge they possess, and their body is merely a simple organic machine that can preserve this knowledge. Believers are destined to serve the Omnissiah for life, constantly seeking new technology and knowledge to perfect themselves and draw closer to Him.
Passing through several passages full of wires and pipes, Gamma and Magos Lauster entered a bustling workshop. More than a dozen red-robed Tech-Priests busied themselves, stopping to greet Lauster upon his arrival.
"Magos, this time the trip to the Great Foundry Temple was fruitful…" a four-armed Tech-Priest began.
"Alas," Lauster sighed, "that old fool Will's position shield is still functioning normally. The Omnissiah is truly blind."
The four-armed Tech-Priest's face, fitted with mechanical bionic eyes, instantly contorted before he quickly changed the subject, looking at Gamma, who was carrying a mechanical great axe a head taller than himself.
"This is?" the four-armed Priest asked, puzzled.
"A semi-finished product," Lauster replied with a cold snort, finding a chair and plopping down. "If only he had some academic integrity, would he just slap his head and decide to shorten a batch's cultivation time by two-thirds? The result? 87% can only be made into wetware, and the rest…" He pointed at Gamma. "The body's self-protection mechanism has locked down the transferred knowledge, so he can only be kept as an apprentice for now."
The workshop immediately erupted in discussion.
"What a rare sample, worth careful observation."
"It's over! My workload has increased again, now I have even less time for experiments!"
"I think the higher-ups of the Forge World are just sycophants of the Archmagos. Our Great Foundry Temple is doomed!"
"So small and yet quite cute…"
"The mechanical great axe was bestowed so easily, what does that make all my years of effort?!"
"Enough! It's all decided. If it could be resolved, it would have been resolved at the Great Foundry Temple," Lauster commanded, stopping the arguing.
But one priest, named Aid, still couldn't help himself. He looked bitter and resentful. "Magos Lauster, doesn't being granted the identity of a Tech-Priest under these circumstances violate the regulations of the faith?"
Lauster looked at Aid, a boy he had watched grow up, and understood. "Gamma just needs time to grow. He has all the knowledge a Priest needs; becoming a Priest is just a matter of time."
"But…"
"No buts, Aid, remember, knowledge is sacred, and the Omnissiah is fair—to everyone! To everyone!"
Finally, Aid sighed deeply and chose to retreat. Gamma also sighed, feeling relieved. "May the 8,700 brothers and sisters who became wetware protect me. I will definitely maintain you all well in the future."
At that moment, a Tech-Priest with distinct female features walked over with a vacuum cleaner-like machine to help Gamma clean the "rad-dust" off his body.
"Alright, you can take off your mask now," the female Priest said, touching Gamma's head.
Gamma, whose mouth was dripping with honey, quickly acted cute. "Mmm, thank you, pretty big sister."
"What a polite little brother," the female Priest giggled, her secondary sexual characteristics swaying.
"Gulp!" Gamma thought.
"Hmph!" Magos Lauster used his chilling aura to force the pack of wolves to flee in disarray.
"Liya, it's fine. This amount of radiation is nothing to his body. Even three to five times more wouldn't affect him."
"Is my body that amazing?" Gamma thought. He had a hunch that the female Priest and Magos Lauster had an unusual relationship.
"Is that so? I didn't know that, Father. You never taught me knowledge in that area. It would be great if you could spare more time to teach me," the female Priest cooed at Lauster.
"So they're father and daughter," Gamma realized. "I've decided this big sister is mine. Watch me cling to her leg."
Lauster replied testily and helplessly: "It's all in the study. You should ask yourself why you don't know."
"Nyah nyah nyah…" Leia made a face at her father.
Watching from the side, Gamma felt that the Warhammer in the books and the real Warhammer were still very different. At least the Adeptus Mechanicus still had a lot of human touch. He could even see the Oil Girl making a face.