Titan's Legacy

Deep beneath Mars Headquarters, shrouded by layers of interwoven machinery and cables, the gathered tech-priests crowded around the communication servitor. This dull-witted being, its mouth replaced by an ornate bronze grille, was the room's only link to anything beyond the plasteel walls, the receivers, and the Machine Priests.

These priests were the Oskuritarii of the Council of Three Sages, guardians of code, responsible for managing all Binary Cant resources entering and leaving great Mars.

Information revealed all, presented problems, exposed secrets, and guided the servants of the Machine God onward. Thus, information had to be protected and controlled. This was the only truth they upheld, and the entire reason for their existence.

The First Seat's metal grille crackled. ++Steel Skull is dead?++ All knowledge began with a question.

++Probability: 88.45.++ As was the Second Seat's function, it answered the questioner.

++Dispatch a search party?++ The Third Seat spoke last. They had performed this complete process of questioning, answering, and acting countless times. Like the endless ocean of sacred code flowing into the cogitator archives, it never ceased.

++One Mechanical Ark will suffice?++

++Estimated arrival at the world of Armageddon: 57 years.++

++Acceptable.++

++Machinery is infallible. Mannheim has failed the Machine God.++ The First Seat reached its conclusion through the information it had received.

++Recommend deletion of records.++

++Erasing Captain Mannheim from historical records.++

++Agreed. He is merely flesh.++

The three spoke in unison, their voices affirming like a chorus.

++Machinery endures!++

The butler of Armageddon's governor, Herman von Strab, could be said to be the second most powerful man on the planet. Whether the nobles of the upper hive or the industrial magnates of the mid-hive districts, all wished to cultivate a good personal relationship with him, so they could gain more privileges and opportunities from von Strab.

Yet this butler, who always looked arrogant before everyone else, was now pale-faced. Great beads of sweat on his forehead laid bare the anxiety in his heart. When he pressed his eyes to the scanner before von Strab's golden doors, the heavy, magnificent doors opened without a sound.

Von Strab lay sprawled in a massive recliner made from the hides of alien beasts, admiring the performance of scantily clad dancers moving seductively before him. He stuffed precious grapes, specially delivered by a Rogue Trader, into his mouth one cluster after another, chewing them in great, lavish bites. Beneath his feet, a slave lay prone on the floor, using a modified tongue to clean the grape juice that had fallen onto the smooth, spotless marble.

The butler knew that von Strab was in a very good mood. The bloated body reclining in the chair hummed a badly off-key tune, occasionally clapping for the dancers' movements.

Von Strab sensed a familiar shadow quietly draw near at his side. Turning his head, he smiled. His most loyal old butler had arrived.

"Master."

"Mhm, mhm, I heard you. What is it?"

"I came to report to you regarding the Titan Legion..."

"Mm-hm! The Titan Legion! Ah, let me guess. They must have slaughtered those wretched, lowly Orks to the last, yes? Hahaha!" Von Strab's confident, arrogant laughter made the butler's expression grow even uglier. He no longer knew how to tell him the unbearable bad news he had heard.

After carefully choosing his words, the butler spoke cautiously. "Honored master, the Iron Skull Titan Legion did indeed complete its mission. A total of six million Ork armored troops, along with all the Gu Juji, were eliminated."

"Hahaha! Excellent! I knew that cowardly-looking Mannheim had been deceiving me, prattling on about how the God-engines lacked the strength to deal with so many Ork forces. But look at me! Through sound reasoning and determined argument, I finally enabled that disobedient commander to win a decisive and glorious victory!"

Watching the ecstatic, near-mad von Strab, the butler wisely shut his mouth. He knew that delivering the bad news now would only make him walk into the line of fire. He was not that foolish.

Immersed in his joy, von Strab gesticulated wildly for quite some time. First, he loudly bragged about his divine mastery of warfare and how he had held back the raging tide of Ork attacks. Then he began viciously cursing those rigid commissars who had never obeyed his commands and only knew how to act on their own—especially that brat named Yarrick!

Whenever he thought of Yarrick's disrespect and immense insult toward him, he wanted nothing more than to skin him alive and throw him into a chemical pool to burn to ash! Or use a sharp knife to slice away his flesh bit by bit, force-feed it to him, then have the doctors heal him so he could be tortured all over again!

Von Strab dearly wished to see Yarrick's expression when he heard of this glorious victory. It would surely be magnificent. With that thought, von Strab ordered the butler, "Immediately spread word of this glorious victory. And make sure that damned commissar Yarrick is especially informed. Have Mannheim come see me as well. I shall treat him to some 'grapes' imported from an agri-world."

As he spoke, he lifted a cluster of exceptionally fresh, plump purple grapes and waved it before the butler.

After swallowing with extreme difficulty, the butler did not move. He merely stared nervously at von Strab's feet.

Seeing this strange behavior from a butler who had always been loyal and efficient, von Strab was somewhat puzzled. "Is there something else? If so, say it already! I do not have time to waste on you! I still need to command the army and drive those Ork beasts out completely!"

Closing his eyes, the butler slowly raised his head. Like a man about to walk to the execution block, he said sorrowfully to von Strab, "The Titan Legion eliminated six million Ork troops..." His throat felt dry and hoarse as he forced out the rest of the sentence. "The Titan Legion also... was completely wiped out... The Imperator Titan Steel Skull self-destructed... The Steel Ball Skitarii were wiped out as well."

"What did you say? What did you say? Say that again?"

Shocked by the butler's bad news, von Strab awoke from his fantasy of victory. His teeth chattered as he questioned the butler again and again. The butler did not answer him directly, only lowered his head to avoid von Strab's gaze.

As though shocked by von Strab's disgraceful appearance and the butler's news, the dancers onstage stopped moving one by one, knelt down, and lowered their heads, not knowing what to think.

Realizing from the butler's state that the Titan Legion had been completely annihilated, von Strab felt dizzy and nauseated. This unfamiliar tension, the feeling of calamity bearing down on him, was something he had never experienced before. Sweat poured from his bloated body as though it were flowing water.

With a retch, von Strab vomited up the precious grapes he had eaten, mixed with wine. The slave, conditioned into instinctive obedience, quickly crawled over and began licking up von Strab's vomit.

"Get away!" Von Strab kicked the loyal slave aside, drew a luxurious custom-made light boltgun from the desk drawer, and blasted the oblivious slave into two pieces.

"How is this possible? How is this possible? Those were God-engines! God-engines! How could they lose even to those beasts...?"

His body covered in blood, von Strab staggered toward the bedroom. It was the first time the butler had seen his master in such a dazed state. After watching von Strab's figure disappear completely from view, the butler silently gave the dancers and the dead slave an Aquila Salute.

The bolder dancers who had seen the butler's gesture collapsed at his feet one after another, weeping and begging for mercy. But the butler remained unmoved, merely watching these people who knew what they should not have known with cold eyes.

After several sharp bursts of laser fire, the butler snapped his fingers. Several cleaning servo-skulls descended from the ceiling and began clearing the scene. With a silent sigh, the butler left the once-again spotless room and closed the doors behind him.