Warhammer 40k: The Men of Iron Return to the Galaxy Chapter 274 274: Testing

Half a month vanished in the blink of an eye. Only hours after the Dawn of Fire transitioned from the warp to the outer reaches of the Sol System, a far more magnificent warp rift tore open in the void not far from the vessel.

The silver fleet of the Iron n had traversed nearly three tis the distance of the Dawn of Fire, yet arrived scarcely later than Guilliman himself.

Upon visually confirming the Iron n fleet's rapid arrival, Guilliman, sowhat taken aback, transmitted a request for an audience with Axion. Axion did not refuse; he, too, had need of a eting with the Primarch.

Aboard the Titan's Spear, the whimsical Troupe Master of the Harlequin troupe inford Axion that the Webway passages within the Sol System had been almost entirely sealed by the Emperor. Their combined strength was insufficient to break seals placed by the Master of Mankind himself. To access the Webway, the most viable path was to reconstruct a Webway Gate.

Although their ships carried a supply of Wraithbone materials, the quantity was only sufficient to construct a small portal for individual passage. Axion found this situation sowhat frustrating; he required a gateway for deploynt, not re infiltration. A portal limited to a single person was far too small and would severely hamper search efficiency.

In response, the troupe suggested that the tens of thousands of Aeldari psykers aboard the Titan's Spear could assist in cultivating more Wraithbone materials. With a sufficient supply, a Webway Gate of adequate dinsions could be manifested.

Axion readily accepted. Under the guidance of the Troupe Master and a Shadowseer, several Sapient Machine Automatons provided assistance in constructing a specialized containnt pool.

The Aeldari captives did not resist the arrangents of these envoys of the Laughing God; on the contrary, they seed eager to begin. Vast quantities of Wraithbone powder were deposited into the pool, which spanned several hundred ters. Subsequently, those captives possessing psychic potential began to channel imnse amounts of warp energy into the basin.

One by one, arcane runes upon the pool's surface flared to life, drawing psychic resonance from the Immaterium to foster a unique psycho-conductive environnt. Once the manufacturing conditions were stabilized, master artisans from among the captives, those forrly responsible for ship maintenance, stepped forward. They began to ticulously weave the Wraithbone with their psychic might, transmuting the powder into solid form.

After dozens of hours, a fresh segnt of Wraithbone snaked upward from the powder. Nearby, an automaton equipped with integrated multi-spectral sensors recorded every millisecond of the process.

Minutes later, several uniquely configured Sapient Machine Automatons arrived at the site. Each unit featured a Psychic Crystal embedded into the wrists of its primary arms and its four auxiliary sub-manipulators. These psychic-attuned machines stood beside the pool and began weaving Wraithbone, replicating the energy-control patterns of the Aeldari.

In the psychically saturated environnt, excess energy was not only absorbed by the growing Wraithbone but also drawn into the Psychic Crystals mounted on the machines. This was the first ti Axion observed that the Psychic Crystals possessed self-recharging properties.

When, hours later, a block of Wraithbone appeared, more regular and massive than the one crafted by the Aeldari master artisan, the expressions of the watching Aeldari shifted from disdain to surprise, and finally, to sheer horror.

For Axion, however, these dozen or so machines underwent a strange tamorphosis. The energy flowing from the Psychic Crystals through the power conduits initiated an indefinable optimization of the chanical structures. The resulting architecture seed more logical and superior even to Federation designs. Certain circuits rged into the chanical fra, becoming internal structures with vastly improved circulatory efficiency.

These findings filled Axion with clinical satisfaction. Inside a reinforced testing chamber within the Titan's Spear, the machines began executing fresh trials to evaluate performance. The data confird that the new structural modules increased average chassis efficiency by 5.13%.

Imdiately, every ship and every machine within the fleet shimred with silver light. Nanite mother-machines began a simultaneous update of all structural designs. A new stage of evolution was initiated. The lines of every machine beca more fluid, and operational efficiency saw multiple improvents. Most notably, the energy depletion of large-scale machinery saw a significant decrease. This surplus energy could be diverted to weapon systems, further augnting their lethality.

Having discovered these properties of the warp, Axion retrieved all stored psychic crystals and produced a "psyker-variant" prototype for every chanical class. In the testing grounds, these experintal psychic machines simulated every conceivable combat scenario, allowing the warp energy to force adaptive changes upon the chanical fras.

This produced a plethora of bizarre structures and catastrophic failures.

A psychic version of the Automated Sentry-Trooper encountered an issue where its neutron beam failed to fire. Instead, the psychic energy created a vortex within the neutron projector, forming an energy-containnt field that trapped the discharge. The weapon essentially transford from a ranged cannon into a lee instrunt similar to a laser-cutter. However, when the structure was reverted to a standard quantum core, the energy violently shattered the containnt field, detonating the Sentry-Trooper into a pile of scrap.

The long-range Erratana-class Armored Wardens suffered similar anomalies. The results were grotesque: their formidable atomic pulse cannons were replaced by two massive psychic blades protruding from the barrels. Their engagent range dropped from kiloters to re dozens of ters. A machine only a few ters tall wielding two glowing pillars of light spanning thirty ters was an absurd sight.

Yet, the destructive power of these psychic lee weapons surpassed even molecular vibration blades. A Destroyer-class Heavy Automaton, capable of shrugging off standard kinetic strikes with its armor, had a third of its leg assembly sheared clean off when a psychic-modified Armored Warden simply turned around.

Axion mused that such technology might be better suited as close-quarters weaponry for Titans. However, the psychic drain was staggering. The six psychic crystals embedded in the Armored Warden were drained to husks in a re fifteen seconds, shattering into stardust before the entire chassis lost power.

Recalling the previous Armored Warden that had exploded and left a crater in the deck, Axion did not attempt to replace the power source. Instead, nanites consud the machine, reducing it to a slurry of composite particles to be recycled in the Sapient Factory.

Aside from various localized explosions, no other extraordinary phenona occurred.

The series of experints quickly exhausted the supply of psychic crystals. Axion's sole takeaway was that Sentry-Troopers could utilize psychic crystals to beco dedicated lee units. While the psychic light-blades produced by the modified neutron projectors were devastating, they were tactically impractical for his current doctrines.

To the Iron n, who operated on a basis of pure physical logic, the notion that inscribing strange runes on a weapon could alter the fundantal nature of energy was anathema to their understanding. Yet, for this soul-reactive energy, it was undeniably the correct approach.

Under Axion's "coercion," an Aeldari master artisan was bribed with a single Psychic Crystal to forge a blade in the Aeldari style. The artisan crafted a solid longsword without any internal circuitry, simply carving several peculiar runes upon the blade. Once a second psychic crystal was slotted into the hilt, the weapon naturally projected an energy field akin to a molecular disintegration field, vastly enhancing its destructive potential.

This was, truly, a phenonon that defied the Iron n's understanding of the universe.

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