The sheer impact of this revelation was far beyond anything Lorgar had expected.
Before landing, he had imagined countless possibilities.
A stern matriarch, a wise female seer, perhaps even some unique local form of intelligent life...
But never had he expected the "mother" welcoming him to be such a quintessential forbidden creation of the Dark Age of Technology—a Man of Iron, or rather, some more advanced intelligent entity.
"Uh..."
Lorgar heard an extremely faint, almost uncharacteristic breath escape his throat.
He felt as though the scene before him was hammering away at his entire conceptual framework with an invisible hammer.
A half-mechanical Primarch and a talking, gigantic intelligent Construct claiming to be his mother were putting on a touching display of mother-son affection?
WTF!
Am I dreaming?
His facial muscles maintained a Primarch's dignity, but the slight twitch at the corner of his eye might have betrayed the storm raging within him.
Just then, Turing's voice, blending human concern with mechanical precision, cut in and interrupted his silent inner screaming:
"Are you all right, Lorgar?" Turing tilted his head slightly. His dark brown organic eye showed clear concern, while his red mechanical eye flashed in sync.
"My prosthetic eye just performed a rapid biological scan. Your heart rate, adrenaline levels, and microexpression muscle groups are showing abnormal fluctuations, significantly above the standard baseline. This could indicate the onset of an acute stress response. Do you need me to call Novalors's medical units immediately? They're highly efficient."
"No, there's no need." Lorgar practically forced the words through clenched teeth. He raised a hand in an unmistakable gesture of refusal, his movements somewhat stiff.
He needed a little time to glue his freshly shattered worldview back together.
Then the gigantic intelligent Construct called "Silverheart" spoke again. Her gentle female voice carried an