(13/20)
The test-firing command poured from Utio's voice pulses, resounding throughout the Command Room.
"Prepare for test firing!"
The command became an electrical signal, racing along the neural cables that permeated Gungnir and reaching every execution terminal within a fraction of a second.
A thousand Tech-Priests took their stations at the same moment. They were the gears of this enormous superweapon.
Each priest wore a rust-red robe marked with a black cog.
Half of each one's face had been replaced by mechanical interfaces, and their exposed skin was covered in sutures and brass connection points.
They stood before their assigned control nodes, raised their bony fingers, and connected the neural plugs extending from the backs of their spines to the node interfaces.
The synchronized clicks of metal conduits entering flesh echoed through the magnificent test-firing hall in a dull chorus.
Several low-ranking Servitors glided between the arrays, recalibrated the last length of cable, then silently withdrew into the shadows.
The whole of Gungnir was fully activated.
Fluid accelerated through the energy conduits, pressure valves gave heavy, tearing groans, and all data streams converged on the central processing array.
The Tech-Priests spoke in unison, their voices filtered through vocalizers into something dry and devout, like fractured metal scripture recited over and over.
"Praise the Machine God! Praise the Omnissiah!"
Their chanting rose in wave after wave, growing more feverish as further neural links were established.
Utio stood behind the main control station, his mechanical body more than ten meters tall and linked to the enormous Control Console.
He spoke, his voice amplified until it rolled throughout the hall. "Hypocritical Mars robbed us of our drive to advance. The hypocritical False Emperor plunged humanity into a dark future!"
"But fortunately, we found the great Omnissiah! The great Machine God!" Utio raised his