Dark Angels

Iax's brazen scanning was also detected by the Dark Angels and the Adeptus Mechanicus Sages, but the two Sages showed no reaction.

The Dark Angels beside them, however, were unexpectedly tense.

"Ancient Construct, what did you just do?"

An authoritative, muffled voice emerged from a helmet covered in gold ornamentation.

Hearing him speak, everyone turned to look at Iax.

Sien stepped forward.

"Dark Angel, are you not being overly sensitive? The Ancient Construct Iax has done my battle-brothers a great service. He single-handedly eliminated thirty Iron Warriors traitors. I believe he is different from the Abominable Intelligence we know! I question your accusations against him."

When it came to "archaeology," the Dark Angels were unquestionably among the best in the field.

As the First Legion, they were the earliest Space Marine Legion to be founded. They possessed vast amounts of information unknown to others.

Their understanding of constructs from the golden age, and even the Dark Age of Technology, was also the deepest.

Every Dark Angel knew that these ancient technologies contained unimaginable technological wonders.

The many secrets circulating within their ranks even held the power to overturn the entire Imperium.

The First Legion was a blade directed not only outward, but inward as well.

The Imperial Inquisition and the Officio Assassinorum were responsible for scrutinizing Imperial institutions, but they could not always deal effectively with certain threats arising from the Space Marines.

It was not that they lacked ways to deal with these dangerous warriors, but sometimes leaking information to the Dark Angels was a very simple solution.

These warriors loyal to the Emperor were equally adept at handling secrets.

Once that information was passed along, the Dark Angels naturally had ways to investigate the truth behind it.

Ultimately, they would take the right action for the Emperor and the Imperium.

Before the First Legion, no secret remained a secret. All information would fall within their grasp.

The First Legion had no secrets.

From the moment Iax first boarded the Resolute, covert channels had sent word to the First Legion, the Officio Assassinorum, the Inquisition, and the Adeptus Mechanicus.

These organizations were not as slow to react as the Departmento Munitorum.

It was precisely through their cooperation that the Departmento Munitorum had been able to issue a dedicated mission document to the Resolute in such a short time.

The implications of an Abominable Intelligence capable of cooperation were extraordinarily complex for the entire Imperium.

The terrifying technology he possessed was coveted, while his staggering combat prowess inspired awe. Had the Men of Iron previously discovered by the Imperium not all possessed Abominable Intelligence, slaughtering people indiscriminately whenever they went out of control, Iax's traits would not have attracted so much attention.

An Ancient Machine Intelligence, an artificial intelligence possessing reason and no lust for slaughter.

The Dark Angel ignored Sien's question and instead stared straight at Iax.

Iax answered without concealing anything.

"I was verifying whether these 'humans' matched the humans as I understood them."

"You had better not conceal anything or lie."

The helmets worn by the two Dark Angels had clearly undergone some special technological modifications, but they had merely detected Iax's scanning. They did not understand what it meant.

Under the tutelage of the First Legion's Interrogator-Chaplains, subduing someone and then interrogating them at leisure was what they did most often. Their ceramite-clad hands unconsciously moved toward the weapons at their waists.

Sensing the Dark Angels' suspicion and hostility, Iax vanished in an instant. His hyper-acceleration state activated, and his mechanical body moved faster than even the Astartes present could react.

The Triangular Blades extending from both his arms were coated in pale golden Particle Oscillation, and were about to cleave the two Dark Angels in half.

Yet the moment the Dark Angel spoke, Sien had acted on a premonition.

He could not stop Iax, nor could he keep up with Iax's outrageously fast movements.

So he chose the two cousins as his targets.

He kicked one Dark Angel away while shoving the other hard to one side.

Iax had not used a short-range Warp jump. Instead, he had run toward them, giving Sien time to act.

The swiftly descending blades flashed through the positions they had just occupied.

Splat!

With the sound of blood spraying, an arm and a leg were severed from Sien's body in an instant.

Thud.

The ceramite-covered limbs fell heavily onto the metal floor with a dull thump.

Sien grunted and fell to the ground. His superhuman body was rapidly stemming the bleeding, continuously secreting hormones to suppress the pain.

Only then did the two Dark Angels react, immediately drawing their Plasma Pistols to strike back at Iax.

But Iax casually severed their weapon-bearing arms. Then he bent down and helped the maimed Sien up.

The blood spilled on the floor rapidly congealed into clots before their eyes.

The severed surfaces of his body had already stopped bleeding. Flesh writhed frantically around the wounds, blood vessels contracted, and muscles gradually tightened as his body's recovery mechanisms went into overdrive.

"Why did you save them? I could sense suspicion and hostility in their emotions."

Confusion came through Iax's emotionless synthesized voice. His red electronic eyes stared fixedly at Sien, whom he was supporting.

Beside them, the two Dark Angels whose arms Iax had casually cut off helped each other stand, but neither spoke nor made another move. Their orders were to recover this Ancient Construct, not destroy him.

Yet in reality, they could not even see his movements clearly. Though anger surged within them, remaining rational was essential.

Losing an arm was hardly a fatal injury for an Astartes, and their earlier suspicion and hostility had indeed stemmed from their own arrogance.

But now they also understood why the Black Templars, an equally arrogant force of Space Marines, behaved so humbly before Iax.

Before the other Black Templars or the Imperial Navy guards could take any action, the maimed Sien, supported by Iax, raised his remaining hand and stopped them all.

When they had first read the briefing, they had doubted whether this Ancient Construct had truly killed thirty Iron Warriors almost instantaneously.

Now, however, they no longer doubted it.

After all, his blade had sliced through ceramite armor in a single stroke, even cutting through the thick pauldrons along with it.

Had it not been for this Black Templars sergeant, there would probably have been four halves of Dark Angels lying on the floor.

Even the First Legion, with all its secrets, could do nothing about injuries like that.

Sien struggled upright, pulled off his helmet with his remaining hand, and looked earnestly at Iax.

"Perhaps this is the price I should pay. Our Dark Angels brothers may have harbored some hostility, but that is absolutely no reason for you to kill them. They possess more information. Perhaps you can rely on them to find the history you need."

Iax did not care about the Dark Angels standing nearby with their arms missing, but he could sense Sien's goodwill.

"Perhaps this time I owe you. I do not like owing anyone anything. The Men of Iron are not skilled in biotechnology or medical technology, but I can manufacture mechanical prosthetics for you as compensation and an apology. However, you may have to find someone yourself to connect them to your body."

The eyes of the two Adeptus Mechanicus Sages beside them were practically shining.

A powerful, efficient ancient mechanical construct who possessed an independent consciousness, was neither chaotic nor bloodthirsty like Abominable Intelligence, and could even manufacture ancient technology.

This was nothing short of a manifestation of the Machine God.

The two could not even restrain themselves from singing the Binary Hymn.

Others might not have understood what they were singing, but binary programming language was one of Iax's foundations. Naturally, he understood every word without difficulty, and then looked utterly bewildered.