6 Primaris Technology (II)

After pulling out the disposable blood-drawing needle—or rather, the short dagger—Alpha Primus jumped down from the cold iron bed he knew all too well.

Cawl hummed as he rolled past nearby, the mechanical tendrils on his back stretching dozens of meters to help him operate the complex instruments, connect cables, and handle a whole series of tasks that did not actually require his personal attention.

Belisarius Cawl was a freak.

Outside the laboratory, he delegated everything completely. He had even refused to receive the Lord of Iron in person, claiming that his research was not yet complete. Yet inside the laboratory, he became a control freak who preferred to do almost everything himself, refusing even to employ servitors.

Alpha Primus had once found this confusing, and he still did.

Fortunately, he had learned not to ask questions, lest Cawl stand there awkwardly, caught in a dilemma like a massive slab of bulletproof steel, wanting to explain but unable to, and ultimately having no choice but to wave a hand and take him to see the newly made dessert machine.

Cawl had already updated this machine to its one hundred and twentieth version. It was now enormous and could produce and season every dessert the Imperium currently possessed, as well as every dessert it had once possessed—though whether the latter still tasted authentic had become a question no one could verify.

Perhaps one day, the existence of the Astartes would be questioned in much the same way.

Did they truly exist? Did we really mass-produce such war machines? Was there some moral deficiency in doing so?

Pondering questions that would likely never arise, Alpha Primus silently left Cawl's laboratory, only to run headlong into a group of Emperor's Children in the corridor.

He recognized the man at their head—Kius Solani, once