The Scream of the Machine Spirit

Li Wei stood in front of that desiccated corpse, feeling a churning in his stomach.

Observing the remains of this Tech-Priest at close range was far more terrifying than seeing that green light from afar.

This looked nothing like a dead man, feeling much more like a pile of scrap metal forcefully jammed into a physical body.

The mummified corpse wore dark red robes, the edges completely carbonated.

The left half of his face was replaced by a brass mask, connected to three thick tracheal tubes that plunged directly into his already withered chest cavity.

And his remaining right eye, although dried out, remained wide open, staring fixedly at the console before him, as if seeing some ultimate truth—or ultimate terror—before death.

"Do not stare at the dead." Gregor's cold voice came through the earpiece. "Find the data port. Usually located at the wrists or the back of the head of these Tech-Priests."

Li Wei fought back his nausea and shifted his gaze to the corpse's hands.

That pair of hands was not resting on a keyboard—this extraordinarily complex brass machine had no keyboard whatsoever.

There were only countless levers, dials, and typewriter-like keys.

The corpse's ten fingers were long since no longer flesh and blood, having turned into ten sharp metal probes that were deeply inserted into the slots of the console.

It was as if he had welded himself to this machine.

"Sir... his hands are jammed inside and cannot be pulled out," Li Wei reported with a trembling voice.

"Then help him pull them out." Gregor's tone was as casual as saying 'pour me a glass of water'. "Due to bodily rigor, you may need to use a bit of force. Do not break the interface; that is worth more than your life."

Li Wei clenched his teeth.

He reached out with both hands and grabbed the corpse's cold, branch-like wrists.

The texture was coarse and greasy, like touching aged-cured bacon.

"Sorry about this, buddy. You aren't going to be using it anyway."

Li Wei closed his eyes and yanked hard outward.

Crack!

It was not that the interface loosened, but rather that the corpse's wrist bone snapped.

Those ten metal probes remained tightly jammed into the machine, but the palm had been forcefully ripped off by Li Wei, with no blood at the break, only dried black powder and a few severed copper wires.

Li Wei almost threw the severed hand in his grasp.

"I... I broke him off!"

"Of no consequence. As long as the port is exposed," the Inquisitor said without a ripple. "Do you see that slot engraved with a skull? Plug the data-slate in."

Li Wei took a deep breath, tossed away the severed hand, and wiped his sweaty palms frantically on his clothes.

He approached the console and, amidst a complex row of instruments, indeed spotted a port glowing with a faint red light.

He took out that heavy "flash drive" engraved with the golden double-headed eagle crest and aimed it at the port.

The very instant the metal contacts touched.

Hum--!!!

The originally dead-silent shrine suddenly erupted with a massive roar.

The sound did not resemble a machine starting up, but rather a sleeping giant beast being kicked hard in the ribs.

Every instrument dial pointer on the console instantly jumped frantically, slamming into the red zone.

That ghostly green screen began to flicker violently, and countless lines of binary code and Gothic prayers that Li Wei could not understand scrolled past like a waterfall.

Simultaneously, a scorched stench filled the air.

"The Machine Spirit is displeased!" The blind psyker's scream suddenly came through the earpiece. "It is angry! It is refusing! I hear its screech! That is millennia of resentment!"

Startled, Li Wei stepped back, nearly dropping his laser rifle to the ground.

"Sir! This thing looks like it's going to blow! It's smoking!"

"Steady." Gregor's voice remained frighteningly calm. "The data-slate is forcibly overriding its underlying protocols. This is digital exorcism. As long as it doesn't blow you to pieces, do not pull it out."

Li Wei stared at the madly shaking machine before him.

Was this supposed to be a computer?

This was clearly a lunatic having a fit!

Suddenly, everything froze.

The roaring noise vanished, the instrument pointers returned to zero, and the cascading waterfall on the screen also stopped.

The entire corridor plunged into absolute darkness.

Even the beam of Li Wei's flashlight seemed to grow dim.

"Is it... is it broken?" Li Wei asked cautiously.

The next second.

The screen lit up once more.

But this time, it was no longer that eerie ghostly green, but a blinding, warning-filled blood red.

Heavy mechanical meshing sounds emanated from inside the console.

Clack-- clack--

A line of huge red characters surfaced on the screen.

Though Li Wei could not read them, he could sense that it definitely did not mean anything like "welcome".

"Data link established." A hint of satisfied cadence finally entered Gregor's voice. "Well done. Data is transferring. Now, stay where you are and do not move."

Li Wei let out a sigh of relief.

"Is that it then? Can I go back..."

"Illegal intrusion detected." A cold, emotionless synthetic electronic voice suddenly resounded through the empty hall.

The sound was immense, causing dust on the ceiling to patter down.

Li Wei froze.

"Who? Who is speaking?"

"Unauthorized organism contact with sacred terminal detected."

"Initiating defense protocol: Purge."

As that electronic voice fell, Li Wei heard a sound that made his scalp tingle.

It came from the depths of the darkness—specifically from behind this giant machine.

Clank... clank... clank...

It was the heavy sound of metal footsteps.

And there was more than one.

Li Wei raised his flashlight and tremblingly illuminated the source of the sound.

The beam pierced the darkness, revealing three massive figures.

They were not demons.

They were not the sort of Warp Ghosts that feared Li Wei just now.

They were pure steel.

They possessed human skeletons, but their entire bodies were forged from heavy brass and black iron.

Their heads were bare metal skulls, their eye sockets flashing with emotionless red light.

Their right hands were not hands at all, but high-speed spinning chainswords; their left hands were rotary cannons still spooling up.

Combat servitors, or perhaps higher-grade Skitarii Automata.

To these killing machines possessing only logic circuits and no souls, Li Wei's Pariah constitution was entirely meaningless.

Before him, they would feel no nausea, no fear.

They would execute only a single directive: chop the intruder into minced meat.

"S... sir!" Li Wei's voice changed pitch. "There are robots! Huge robots! They're coming over!"

"I see them," the Inquisitor's voice remained calm. "Those are defensive units of the Skitarii. It appears this ruin's security clearance is higher than anticipated."

"Then what am I supposed to do?! My magic resistance is useless against them!" The three iron giants' red eyes had locked onto Li Wei, and their rotary cannons began to spin slowly, emitting a despair-inducing motor whine.

"You have a laser rifle," Gregor stated flatly.

"With this piece of junk, I couldn't even kill a rat!" Li Wei yelled in despair.

"Then run." The Inquisitor delivered the final command.

"The data still requires three minutes to finish transferring. During these three minutes, you must stay alive. By whatever means necessary."

"Good luck, Void-1."

The comms in the earpiece hung up.

Bzzzt-- The opposing robot's cannon emitted its final warning sound before firing.

Li Wei stared at those pitch-black gun muzzles, his mind completely blank.

Run?

Where was he supposed to run?

This empty hall didn't even have a single piece of cover!

At that critical juncture, Li Wei's peripheral vision caught sight of something beneath the console: beneath the brass throne where the desiccated corpse sat, there appeared to be a maintenance access panel.

Without the slightest hesitation, he unleashed the fastest speed of his life, practically diving headfirst toward that access panel in a scramble.

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!!!

Tongues of fire spewed forth.

A torrential storm of live ammunition instantly shredded the spot where Li Wei had stood just a moment ago.

The metal grating on the floor was blasted into fragments, sending sparks flying.

Li Wei felt several scorching metal shards pierce his thighs, but he could not spare a thought for the pain.

He frantically pried open the rusted hatch, caring not what lay beneath, and plunged straight inside!

The very instant he jumped in, a string of bullets grazed the soles of his boots, completely blasting that mummified corpse priest into powder.

Darkness swallowed him whole.

Li Wei tumbled all the way down the chute, finally crashing heavily onto a pile of soft, foul-smelling refuse.

Before he could even celebrate surviving, the beam of his flashlight illuminated the things beneath him.

They were corpses.

Corpses wearing tattered jumpsuits, long since rotted away.

This was the waste disposal chute.

Directly overhead, the sound of heavy footsteps and the roar of idling chainswords echoed down.

Those iron monsters had not left; they were searching for the entrance.

Li Wei covered his mouth, doing his utmost not to vomit amid the stench, nor to emit a single sound.