The emergency power reservoirs housed a micro-long-term recording device, one unmanaged by the central control system. It was an artifact of an ancient, rudimentary non-sentient design, originally intended only to troubleshoot why emergency lighting failed to activate in the event of an automated blast-door malfunction.
Now, it served as the sole witness to the operational trajectory of the unknown machine-construct.
This unidentified automaton had initiated its protocols within the armory, traversing dozens of compartments along the hull. Its path was efficient and direct, a clear indication that it possessed detailed schematics of the vessel. Upon reaching the bridge, it had decoupled from the ship via a docking interface on the starboard outer hull plating.
Analysis of the faint abrasions on the rotated manual overrides suggested a physical profile roughly equivalent to an Automated Sentry-Trooper, albeit one possessing immense torque, though the possibility that this entity had been specifically engineered for high-output strength could not be discounted.
There, however, the trail went cold.
The base's primary control system had been in a state of semi-offline degradation at the time, with less than half of its logic modules operational. Axion scrutinized the memory banks where the data flow should have been routed, only to find that these quantum storage units had long since sustained terminal damage; their internal quantum storage cores were purged of all information.
While the machine-construct's immediate destination after departing the vessel remained unknown, the base's crippled control system had logged a singular, peculiar entry several hours after its departure. After rigorous analysis, Axion was certain: this sequestered data packet remained on this planet.
In fact, it was highly probable that the very purpose of the Regression-class fleet's arrival on this world was to inter this specific data. Even the standing garrison orders were likely not issued through standard channels.
Otherwise, why would a vessel of such tactical magnitude be operating in isolation, devoid of a crew? The ship's reservoirs of Eridium gas were at full capacity, yet throughout all archival records of Augus, there was no entry indicating that the GST-33 Regression Fleet had ever been resupplied. This implied the fleet had made no use of its temporal technologies and had no logistical requirement to stop here for fuel.
Perhaps encountering a Regression ship at an Eridium refueling base seemed logical on the surface, but the granular details whispered of an ancient, buried secret.
Axion possessed a more direct resolution: mobilize the Heart of the Forge and utilize its doomsday weaponry to consume the entire world. The nanite cataclysm would meticulously savor every milligram of matter and every scrap of information the planet held.
The Eridium mineral wealth would be extracted and siphoned into the Titan-ship. As for the vanished SWPDP data storage module, it would be found, sooner or later. The Heart of the Forge possessed ample capacity to house the energy-rich minerals that occupied nearly half of the planet's crust. Even the atmospheric leakages would be vacuumed clean.
Axion had already calculated the planet's synthetic material content; the world itself provided sufficient raw mass to complete the structural repairs on the Heart of the Forge's damaged hull.
Before the Titan-ship's arrival, Axion's machine legions seized total control of the planetary assets, even rerouting materials from the fleet to begin sealing the ruptured storage systems. Once the containment tanks were restored, the atmospheric cyclers would swiftly filter the toxic green Eridium mists from the air, re-liquefying the precious mineral for storage.
…
The Dark Angels remained divided in their stance toward the ancient and perilous technological wonders of this world.
Interrogator-Chaplain Asmodai, viewing these relics as abominations of supreme blasphemy, urged the Lion to authorize the deployment of Vortex Torpedoes, scouring the planet to erase every potential threat.
Conversely, Grand Master of the Deathwing Belial argued that while these relics were dangerous, they represented ancient technologies of peerless potency. He contended they should attempt to negotiate with the Iron Men to secure these artifacts, sanctifying and refitting them to bolster the might of the Imperium.
Lion El'Jonson could scarcely remember the last time he had presided over a session of the Inner Circle with his sons. Drifting momentarily into the depths of memory, the Lion was brought back to the present by the petition of Chapter Master Azrael.
However, before the council could reach a consensus, an emergency vox-transmission shattered the proceedings.
Rushing to the observation ports, the Dark Angels and their Primarch watched in astonishment as the Iron Man fleet, which had been loitering in the system, began to shimmer and fade like a dying phantasm. It was as if the mechanical leviathans had never been there at all.
This unknown phenomenon unsettled El'Jonson. He issued an immediate command for all Dark Angels vessels to withdraw from the coordinates at once.
…
Meanwhile, at the site of the previous void engagement with the Necrons.
Three peculiar vessels drifted in the silence. Vast, distorted shrouds of kaleidoscopic light formed cocoons in the vacuum, and from within the shimmering unreality, the Iron Man fleet gradually manifested.
The warships stationed on the Eastern Fringe had synchronized their data immediately upon confirming unusual movements from the Orks of the Octarius Sector. Axion did not hesitate to pull the Regression fleet from the Augus base.
Since the primary artificial intelligences of these ships had been purged, many security protocols were void, allowing Axion to evaluate and utilize this ancient Federation technology. However, constrained by his own underlying core protocols, Axion could not utilize nanites to consume or scan these vital Federation vessels to bypass their technological secrets directly.
Axion retrieved the precise spatial coordinates of every ship from the engagement with the Necrons, then commanded the Regression ships to initiate a temporal rewind at each set of coordinates.
Within the envelopes of the chronometric fields, ships began to manifest out of nothingness. Simultaneously, those vessels that had appeared at the outskirts of the Augus base began to vanish. Pristine hulls emerged from the void; ships that had been crudely jury-rigged with battlefield salvage shattered as the scrap fell away, replaced by original components flowing backward in time.
Even the machine fleet that had been vaporized by the Heart of the Forge returned from the phantom-mists of the past.
The sheer potency of this surreal technology was staggering. Axion swiftly corrected the garbled data streams within the regressed ships and redirected the fleet toward the Imperium's Eastern Front.
Having completed the mass temporal restoration, the Regression fleet made a direct course for the semi-paralyzed Titan-ship, the Heart of the Forge. Soon, the hull sections that had been swallowed by the void were restored, and the behemoth set a direct course for the Augus base deep within the Ghoul Stars.
Though the data logs and records on these ships had reverted to their previous states, Axion had already secured redundant backups on vessels in other sectors.
Upon arrival, the Heart of the Forge commenced its work.
Efficiency was the only metric. This was precisely why the Federation had restricted the Iron Men's access to temporal displacement technology. Countless nanites poured from the ship's hull, a silver-grey mist that enshrouded the entire planet.
The consumption had begun.