No...
No...
There were indeed no human faces in there, but more precisely, there were no complete human faces.
Those alien bodies, so unlike humans, were intact, layered and interlocked into massive black cubes. Angron had no way of calculating how many of these black cubes there were, much less how many people had been used to assemble them.
The things identifiable as human limbs had been pieced together into eight-pointed stars symbolizing Chaos. Human skin, internal organs, limbs—entire human bodies except for the brains—were the basic units making up those eight-pointed stars.
Though bizarre, it was far more orderly than the Warp.
That was what Angron thought, and then he saw the black cubes stir to life. Radiating currents spread across the cubes, which then distorted and extended, linking together like nerve cells.
Every current carried a command. The spectacular sight of countless commands being received and issued in a single instant left Angron unable to describe it in words.
"Leman Russ's machine spirit! If you truly are as steadfast and unyielding as the Adeptus Mechanicus priests claim, then crawl out of this blood swamp already!"
++Signal received... procedural compliance: 0%... entering random selection... random value selected... no response...++
"Glorious, omniscient, omnipotent Omnissiah! We pray to you here! May your eternal primal power bless these machines of the gods with victory and prosperity!"
++Signal received... procedural compliance: 0.0005%... entering random selection... random value selected... no response...++
"Rearrange the orbital positions of the Blackstone magnetic-pole atoms. Invoke backup directive 0-Bα-1 to adjust the energy output flow!"
++Signal received... procedural compliance: 51%... entering basic response procedure... selection result: provide technical support.++
"This is a xenos relic buried deep within the monastery. Throughout the Chapter's long existence, not a single Techmarine or Chapter Master has been