"Fabricator-General, those mortals are using Warp Engine overloads to neutralize the power released by Gungnir."
In the Command Room, the report cut through the continuous low alarms like a steel wire and pierced Utio's auditory array.
The Tech-Priest's words were forced through a metal vocalizer, dry and precise, devoid of emotion, yet they still made the atmosphere in the Command Room abruptly freeze for a moment.
The surging torrent of data seemed to pause as those words fell, and every mechanical tentacle froze for half a second.
Utio's massive body slowly ceased operating.
The mechanical body, like a miniature mountain, gave off heavy hydraulic noises. The powered joints in his neck turned at an extremely low speed, and the red lenses on his head locked onto the speaker amid a faint mechanical hum.
For that brief moment, no one moved.
The Tech-Priests seemed to have been paused. They dared not so much as twitch their fingertips, as though afraid the slightest noise above their heads might draw the Fabricator-General's attention.
"Hmm..."
Utio gave an extremely soft, almost inaudible murmur.
The sound squeezed out of his vocal array like the vibration of some enormous gears failing to mesh.
Then that mountainlike body began moving again, slowly and steadily, each step drawing a dull thud from the floor by the Control Panel.
He turned toward a control console, and the mechanical tentacles beneath his red lenses slowly rose and rested on its surface.
He lowered his head and studied the data on the screen for a while before speaking. "Calculate how many more they must sacrifice under the current circumstances to achieve complete neutralization."
"Yes, my lord." The Archmagos of the Traitor Adeptus Mechanicus beside him responded immediately.
The mechanical body, almost as massive but half a head shorter than Utio's, leaned