Lorgar's exploration was interrupted by a sudden uproar.
It came not from the unknown darkness ahead, but from behind him, in the area the Adeptus Mechanicus party had just passed through.
The piercing shriek of metal torn apart by immense force, the sharp reports of energy weapons, heavy impacts, and the distinctive, muffled thunder of the Skitarii's Bolters rolled down the winding metal corridor, mingled with warnings and cries in binaric, shattering the silence deep within the ruins.
"Those iron clunkers weren't stupid enough to trigger some security system, were they?"
Without a moment's hesitation, he turned. The joints of his Power Armour hummed low, and his towering form shot toward the source of the noise like an arrow loosed from a bow.
Although no psychic flames burned along his blade, he lowered it slightly, ready to strike at any moment.
The scene in the corridor came into view.
About twenty metres away lay a scene of devastation.
Five heavily modified combat Servo-skulls and two armed Servitors equipped with heavy cutting arms had been reduced to twisted wreckage crackling with electrical sparks. Metal shards and coolant were scattered everywhere.
The air reeked of Ozone and scorched insulation.
Several surviving Skitarii had taken cover around a bend in the corridor and behind overturned equipment crates. Wisps of smoke still curled from the muzzles of their Mars-pattern rifles.
The senior priest leading the party rapidly adjusted the frequencies of a complex scanner with several mechanical arms. At the same time, he issued shrill binaric commands to more Skitarii pouring in from the rear with heavy melta and plasma weapons, trying to establish a firing line.
And the source of all this chaos stood amid the wreckage.
It was a humanoid machine roughly three metres tall.
Its dark silver casing remained smooth and