Morlan easily surmised the origin of the Plague Marines.
After all, this world contained only one Hive City belonging to the Adeptus Mechanicus and a single orbital spaceport on the surface. The spaceport had not been captured during the preceding low-orbit naval action, otherwise, the surface would already be saturated with troop deployments.
The sudden presence of these Plague Marines could only mean they had been temporarily deployed via boarding pods from the enemy Cruiser Morlan had detected. Their landing had clearly been timed to coincide with the exchange of fire with the massive turret, the drop-pods mingling with the torrent of macro-cannon shells and other ordnance descending through the atmosphere.
It was equally evident that a substantial number had been vaporized by the sheer power of the colossal energy beam that had struck their line of descent.
Morlan did not deem this handful of Plague Marines worthy of his direct concern.
Setting aside the protection offered by the Triaros, the accompanying Skitarii contingent and the Battle Servitors were sufficient to deal with them. While the resultant casualties might be high, a few Plague Marines were not a critical issue.
"All is the will of the Omnissiah. Praise the Vice-Regent of the Machine God."
Morlan even performed a silent rendition of the Aquila sign before settling back into his seat in the crew compartment, a feeling of security returning to him.
The Battle Servitor whose console had been temporarily seized immediately resumed control of the weapons array mounted on the Triaros.
The barrel of the Mauler Bolt Cannon flared, and its unique, thick beam of heavy-weapon energy cleanly severed one Plague Marine, blasting it into two ruined sections. The residual energy of the shot was powerful enough to lift and violently hurl another Plague Marine, whose position overlapped with the first, into the air.
None of the Plague Marines present were particularly unique champions, but every one of them was a hardened veteran. Their bodies were bloated, and their movements were sluggish, but only when compared to other Adeptus Astartes.
For the lightly augmented Skitarii and Combat Servitors, these foul-smelling, hideous warriors, riddled with grotesque biological tentacles and growths, were nigh invulnerable. Standard Adeptus Mechanicus lasguns left barely a mark on the traitors' corrupted power armour.
The only units capable of inflicting effective damage were the few towering Battle Servitors scattered throughout the ranks. While their heavy bolters could penetrate the ceramite armour, now weakened by Nurgle's corruption, their reduced striking power was insufficient to cause grievous harm to warriors who had shed conventional weaknesses.
Furthermore, the tall, bloated Plague Marines were not as slow and sluggish as a layman might assume. Even as the Battle Servitors' heavy bolters maintained a constant, deafening roar of fire, their accuracy was not absolute. The occasional burst of black ichor that sprayed from the traitors' hides was of little consequence.
Even the Plague Marine that had been bisected by the Mauler Bolt Cannon still dragged its broken body across the ground, its bolter firing in a continuous, furious frenzy.
As the two sides drew closer, the low-cognition Combat Servitors were the first to react. Upon determining that conventional fire was ineffective, the remaining scores of Servitors immediately hurled themselves at the advancing Plague Marines.
These dreadful warriors exuded the blessings of the Ruinous Power Nurgle; flesh and machine alike were instantly infected by the strange pestilence upon contact. Flesh rotted, and mechanisms corroded, yet their sacrifice was not without meaning.
Entangled by the mass of flesh and metal, the Plague Marines lost their previous fluidity of movement.
"Hoooh… Wretched mortals! Futile resistance! We shall bring the blessings of the Grandfather, bestowing upon you eternal benevolence," roared the leading Plague Marine in a distorted, guttural voice. He wildly swung his massive arms, one hand continuously firing his bolter, the other ripping apart the Combat Servitors that charged him and tossing them aside.
The nearby Battle Servitors did not miss the opportunity. Quickly swiveling their tracked chassis and rotating their torsos, they fired their heavy bolters, reducing both the entrapped Plague Marine and the entangling Servitors to shattered, greasy debris.
High above, the circling War Raven faithfully transmitted the entirety of the sudden engagement back to Axion.
Watching the mixed-flesh Servitors charge the tall, grotesquely green warriors, Axion felt a flicker of confusion.
"What are these entities? They appear wholly distinct from the Adeptus Mechanicus recorded in my database. These bio-mechanical hybrids resemble some form of xenos organism with long-range projectile capability. And what are those strange behemoths? They do not appear to be combat automatons. Bio-synthetic soldiers?"
As a forgotten Man of Iron, Axion's database, reactivated by accident, was severely outdated, with most of its information pre-dating the twenty-second millennium. Based on the residual data and fragmented information he had been able to acquire, Axion calculated the current epoch was at least thirty-six millennia later. What had transpired in the intervening time was entirely unknown to him.
All networked devices and stellar data-storage centres had vanished from the sector, leaving Axion with no way to connect to the network and update his own data banks.
However, Axion did not intend to allow the two factions to continue their protracted engagement; he required information.
The simplest solution was to assert control over the scene through brute force, letting firepower speak for itself.
The Fragmentation Cannon turret was not merely a gun emplacement; in addition to its deflector shield generator, it was equipped with supplementary defensive automatons. The most numerous of these were the Automated Sentry-Troopers.
These were small, humanoid combat units, less than two metres tall, armed only with two basic weapons: a light neutron beam emitter and a light grav-autocannon. Dozens of these once-expendable units were stored in concealed maintenance bays on the turret's flanks.
Though they had endured countless millennia of neglect, there remained one or two well-preserved survivors within the pile of scrap metal. As the long-dormant mechanical bodies were reactivated, their brittle chassis underwent a brief charging cycle before stirring to life once more.
Possessing a rapid dismantling and reassembly capability, the two operational Automated Sentry-Troopers quickly scavenged sufficient replacement parts from their fallen comrades on the ground.
Having replaced a few slightly better quality components, the two Sentry-Troopers strode out of an access hatch on the base of the turret.
Facing this new era of technology for the first time, Axion felt a trace of concern about the potency of the weaponry. However, based on the data transmitted by the War Raven, the energy levels of the weapons used by both sides were ridiculously low. Aside from the oddly shaped transport vehicle, which seemed equipped with a somewhat powerful but crudely manufactured energy weapon, all the other armaments appeared dangerously fragile.
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