I hate working with the Adeptus Mechanicus... The muttered words echoed only in Paulus's mind, never becoming sound.
He was a Space Marine, the enemy of all heretics, the terror of countless xenos. His place should have been on the front lines, charging into battle and purging heretics with Bolts and a Power Sword.
Not here, acting like some elite bodyguard, following a group of Tech-Priests lost in binary murmurs and archaeological fervor as they dug aimlessly through these lifeless, dust-choked ruins.
Paulus had never had much patience for the Adeptus Mechanicus's practice of treating technology as a mystical religion, subjecting everything to elaborate rituals and data analysis.
To warriors like him, war demanded efficiency and destruction, not chanting scripture over a rusted metal plate.
Yet all his complaints about the Adeptus Mechanicus remained strictly within his own mind.
Obedience was the first tenet encoded into the very foundations of the Adeptus Astartes' genes, especially when an order came directly from a Primarch.
Lorgar's will was beyond question, and its deeper meaning was not something a mere Company Captain could fathom.
Perhaps the Primarch believed that the potential value of this ancient knowledge buried underground outweighed a company's contribution on the battlefield.
And so Paulus suppressed every emotion and carried out his duties with the steadfastness of stone.
The man he was charged with protecting was the leader of this expedition, known as Archmagos Lucasstro.
This high-ranking member of the Adeptus Mechanicus resembled a walking sacred icon, shrouded in heavy red robes embroidered with intricate cog patterns and binary code.
Most of his body had already been replaced by machinery. The few exposed patches of skin were pale as paper, gleaming with the cold light of metal implants.
Most of his face had been replaced by a complex array of