The meeting

The Fabricator-Sage had no idea that an Ancient Construct had already entered the Hive City.

Still less did he know that this Ancient Construct would soon reduce the entire Hive World to ruins.

Using short-range spatial jumps, Iax easily cleared the towering walls around the Hive City.

His tremendous speed even led the Skitarii patrolling the walls to believe that interference in their sensors had produced a false reading.

A pale blue light flashed, then a dark silhouette vanished in an instant, leaving no trace behind.

Iax had only just entered the outskirts of the Hive City when shrill alarms rang out across it. This surprised him somewhat.

"Have I been detected? That shouldn't be possible. There was no reaction when the Raven approached to scout earlier. How could they have detected me?"

But when the purple Void Shield rose, Iax finally understood.

"It seems someone noticed the Shatterer Turret moving and grew frightened."

This had little effect on Iax, however. As he continued leaping between rooftops, his Bioscan Beam swept in every direction.

Here, Iax also saw many "ordinary people." They showed no signs of mechanical augmentation and had nothing unusual about them, yet none of their identification results matched the humans Iax had expected.

Iax even seized an opportunity to descend and knock out two ordinary people, subjecting them to a thorough examination.

Their physical biological structures were almost identical to those of humans, but at the genetic level, they possessed several disordered composite genes, with clear signs of natural iteration following genetic modification.

This left Iax with some doubts.

"Could my database be too outdated? Have humans undergone natural evolution and biological changes? But why are their genes so mixed while their physical structures remain unchanged? Rather than biological evolution, this looks more like genetic contamination."

Iax's database contained little information on biological genetics, and the Men of Iron were not proficient in Biology. Most of that information had been supplied by the Creator race and the Men of Gold; the Men of Iron themselves lacked the ability to research and develop biotechnology.

Almost all the intelligence of the Men of Iron had been devoted to advancing mechanical technology and technologies derived from artificial intelligence.

From his underlying data records, Iax knew that the Liberator Project had also been undertaken in the past. These third-generation, low-intelligence service machines manufactured by the Men of Iron were intended to perform more menial, simpler work, freeing more Men of Iron to carry out other tasks.

However, the records did not state the outcome of the Liberator Project. At the time his construction was completed, the project had only established its objectives. Iax knew no further details.

Faced with the current situation, Iax still needed more information and details. He had to uncover the truth of history before he could understand why things had become this way. Everything else was unimportant.

After storing all his conjectures in his core database, Iax continued toward the towering building not far away.

From his observations along the way, the higher a person's rank and social standing, the closer they were to the central district. And the closer they were to the upper levels of the buildings, the more lavish their clothing and accessories became.

Clearly, those of the highest rank would naturally be in the uppermost area of this city.

If the genetic profiles of those at the top were no different from those at the bottom, Iax could only deal with this city in his own way.

If they rejected his proposal, Iax would immediately destroy the entire Hive City.

The light of Warp jumps flickered.

Iax's form flashed in and out of sight.

Soon, he reached the tall building at the very center of the Hive City.

Gothic style architecture, broad corridors with elaborate ornamentation, cog-and-skull emblems everywhere, oddly styled decorations, and towering statues.

Thinking back carefully on the surrounding buildings, the entire city seemed to share this peculiar style.

Iax could not understand why. Did the concept of urban planning no longer exist in this era? Or was the Gothic style really that popular?

In particular, he recalled the clothing of the two ordinary people he had knocked unconscious earlier. They seemed to have been engaged in some kind of menial work.

If what Trazyn had said was true, and there were no other Men of Iron left in this world, then what about the Men of Stone and the Men of Gold?

If these people truly were human, how could they be doing work that looked so arduous? Biological bodies had limits, after all, while mechanical bodies neither grew tired nor needed rest.

Whether the environment was polluted or the work itself was arduous or complex, automated machinery could always handle such problems with ease.

"Social regression is possible, but regression on this scale seems far too bizarre."

Iax could not understand why things had become this way, but he could seek the answers himself.

After passing through several corridors and taking a few automatic elevators, Iax reached the top floor of the building almost entirely unimpeded.

The deserted building left even Iax somewhat puzzled.

Perhaps the alarm earlier had drawn all the guards elsewhere?

Still, having no one obstruct him was hardly a bad thing.

Iax looked at the enormous doors before him. Intricate patterns adorned their surfaces, seeming to tell some story, or perhaps convey a warning.

He reached out and pushed the doors open, revealing a vast hall on the top floor.

A figure in a red hooded robe slowly raised his head.

Only a quarter of his face remained flesh; almost all the rest had been replaced with mechanical structures.

His exposed electronic eye glowed red, while his remaining biological eye showed surprise.

"An Ancient Machine Intelligence? Mysterious construct of antiquity, tell me why you have come."

Iax's sudden appearance made the Sage standing in the hall somewhat nervous.

He was a Fabricator-Sage, not a Fabricator-General. Though he was not without combat capabilities, his meager strength might amount to nothing before such a machine left over from antiquity.

As far as he knew, Ancient Constructs possessed extraordinary, unfathomable abilities, and only a handful of Men of Iron existed throughout the entire Imperium and the Adeptus Mechanicus.

The destructive power and combat capabilities of such Abominable Intelligence were certainly beyond his ability to withstand.

Yet the other party had not attacked him immediately. Perhaps the written records were inaccurate.

Countless thoughts ran through the Fabricator-Sage's mind, but he did not know that Iax was no ordinary Machine Intelligence. His intelligent command characteristics meant that his virtual personality was more rational and controllable, and could even possess a clear awareness of self. Abominable Intelligence would only arise in robots built purely for combat, whereas Iax's role was command and coordination. His position was akin to that of an Imperial Warmaster: an Overlord among artificial intelligences.