Me and Her

Amid layer upon layer of data streams, he found that beautiful figure of electric current. He had never clearly seen that hazy glow before. From the face hidden in the data shadows came indistinct murmurs, as though dozens of sentences that should have been spoken at different times had all been uttered within the same second, piled together into incomprehensibility.

But Mannheim understood his machine spirit. Through long years of battle and companionship, he understood everything about it. The machine spirit was sobbing softly, begging those Orks to stop hurting it.

"Get up, good girl." Mannheim did not know why he had assigned a clear gender to the machine spirit he had never been able to see clearly. He had even abandoned the sacred form of address commonly used within the Mechanicus. His brain must have gradually been cooked by the torrent of data, leaving his perceptions in disarray.

The machine spirit murmured again, but this time its voice was filled with pleading and confusion. It believed it could not get up. It felt it could not do this while enduring such pain.

"Get up, good girl. Like before." Mannheim's gentle voice of electric current rose, soothing the restless machine spirit. "You won't be alone. I'll stay with you. I'll be here, watching over you."

The machine spirit's murmurs vanished. Mannheim's consciousness, floating in the sea of data, felt the machine spirit's gaze upon him. "All right."

Clear words entered Mannheim's consciousness. This was the first time he had clearly heard the machine spirit speak to him. Unlike his previous guesses based purely on tone and his analysis of chaotic murmurs, this exchange was full of firm, helpless resolve.

Its upper body tilted downward, and the Imperator Titan, on the verge of collapsing, slowly braced itself upright. As more parts fell away and more grinding creaks filled the air, the Titan regained its balance. It began trudging forward with heavy, sluggish steps toward the Ork Gargants.

Several volleys of shells slammed into the Titan, now stripped of the protection of its void shields. Mannheim heard the machine spirit's suppressed cries of pain. There was nothing he could do but encourage it forward again and again. "Come on, girl. We're almost there. Hold on a little longer. Just walk this final stretch."

The Ork Gargants were terrified at the sight of the moving Imperator Titan. They hurriedly reloaded their cannons. That spire-covered humie flashy thing had already blown apart quite a few of their Gargants and Stompas. They did not want to be the next ones to have their heads smashed to bits by humie giant shells. They had not had enough fun in this big Waaagh! yet—how could they just die so easily?

Gargant

After several rounds of probing attacks, the Orks were stopped by their Big Mek. "Stop shootin', you blind gits! Can't ya see that humie flashy thing ain't shootin' anymore?!"

"Yeah, right! Ain't heard that humie flashy thing go boom in ages."

"Mm-hmm, yeah, yeah."

"So what do we do now?"

The Big Mek directed the Orks. "Now we tie that humie thing up nice and tight with big hooks, drag it down, then give it a right punch in the face! That flashy thing'll be all dizzy-like and do whatever we tell it!"

"Dat's right! Too right! Too right!"

"Cunnin' and sneaky. I like it!"

With a new course of action, the Orks replaced their shells with hooks and claws of every size and style, driving their two remaining Gargants closer to the trudging Emperor Titan.

"They're coming."

"Don't be afraid, good girl. I'm here. I'm still here." Mannheim comforted the machine spirit, feeling his consciousness growing ever blurrier. He realized this was a sign that the toxic sedative was about to fail, and that the poison within it was on the verge of erupting.

The Gargants moved to within fifty kilometers of the Imperator Titan and fired all their loaded grappling claws. The claws, trailing tough, coarse cables, pierced the Titan's already damaged armor and tore at the wiring and structures beneath. Bound by these vicious weapons, the Imperator Titan's stumbling steps came to a halt.

Mannheim once again felt the machine spirit's pained, chaotic murmurs. He knew their final moment was about to arrive. Drawing upon the authority written into the implant embedded in his brain, he softly gave the machine spirit an order it could not refuse.

"Please... die."

The machine spirit struggled. It did not want to die like this, but the pain radiating from its body remained unbearable.

"Please... die. I'll be with you. I'll be here, watching over you all the while, good girl."

The machine spirit stopped struggling, as though it had given up. Amid silence and suppression, the core reactor's meltdown sequence activated. Broadcast systems installed throughout the massive frame began announcing its final lament, like a funeral dirge played through loudspeakers. Within Mannheim's drifting consciousness, he could hear the accelerating hum of the innermost reactor.

"Final Loyalty will begin in ten seconds."

"Ten."

"Nine."

The tens of thousands of servitors and Tech-Priests fixed at their stations to control the core reactor had been killed by the high-energy particle turbulence produced by the reactor overload caused by the earlier fierce battle. Those tiny, lethal particles had pierced their dutiful radiation-resistant shells, overloading and shattering their delicate internal components.

Divine Engine reactor maintenance Tech-Priest Unit 0037 had fortunately survived the particle strike. The Tech-Priests and servitors around him had stopped moving mid-action as if they had lost their commands, like a grand sculpture exhibition. Every slain priest and servitor remained frozen in the maintenance posture they had held in life, varied in form yet strangely harmonious.

++Reconnect to system. Detect remaining work units.++

++System connection successful. Scanning.++

++Remaining Divine Engine reactor maintenance Tech-Priest units: 141. Remaining Divine Engine reactor maintenance servitor units: 0.++

++Unit 0037 requests readjustment of reactor parameters.++

++Unit 0018 responds.++

++Unit 1134 responds.++

++Unit 9983 responds.++

The few hundred surviving maintenance priests rebuilt a network of shared consciousness and connected themselves to the reactor's data stream.

++Current work efficiency estimated at 5%. Insufficient to complete reactor remaintenance ritual.++

++...++

A long, suffocating silence descended over the hastily assembled network. Unit 0037 and the remaining priests were no longer sufficient to restore the reactor to stable operation.

But then, the reactor restarted, and a wonderful electromagnetic pulse unique to a Titan's machine spirit reignited the heart of this god.

It was the machine spirit! The unyielding soul of the Divine Engine!

Unit 0037 felt his hot oil boil, yet his instruments still showed that his engine oil and lubricating oil remained at the normal temperature for maximum operating efficiency. This emotional fluctuation, something only weak bags of flesh should possess, appeared in the data-processing templates of every surviving priest present.

++Reactor status scan... energy output ratio: 18.997%.++

++Reactor stability scan... 100.00000000000%!!!! Praise the sacred machine spirit! Praise the Omnissiah!!!++

Unit 9912 transmitted its modified data indicating fervor to every unit's data-processing center. This stirred within them boundless praise for the machine spirit and devout worship at the descent of the Machine God's miracle.

++The machine spirit seeks its final glory!!!! We shall never let it be dishonored!!! For the sacred machine spirit!!! For the Omnissiah!!! Overload protocol application approved. Voltage limit removed!!!++

++Overload protocol application approved!!! Voltage limit removed!!!++

Almost simultaneously, every unit released the limits on current input, channeling an even more surging torrent of electricity into the body. This extreme overload method violated the prohibitions of the Titan Mechanicus, but they did not care. They only wished to use their lowly bodies to fulfill the sacred machine spirit's final desire, as they always had.