A difficult problem

After spitting out the powder, Sien leaned back on the medical bed and looked at Iax with some regret.

"I can't digest this stuff. Our regular food has large amounts of minerals added to it, and even quite a few metallic elements. Chewing on a chunk of steel isn't much of a problem when necessary. But these metals are beyond what my body can handle."

Iax nodded with some regret, then picked up the jar to throw it away.

Meanwhile, the two Sages of the Adeptus Mechanicus eagerly peering through the medical chamber's observation window almost jumped with excitement.

When they saw Iax casually toss the jar into one of the ship's rubbish chutes, they immediately sent two Servo-skulls to retrieve it.

The Inquisitor standing nearby, watching everything for an opportunity, furrowed his brow even deeper.

Clearly, everything this ancient machine produced held immense appeal for the Adeptus Mechanicus. And it obviously possessed extensive technological knowledge, which would only make it infinitely more attractive to them.

As an Inquisitor, he had travelled to many places across the universe and dealt with all manner of social classes and factions.

The Adeptus Mechanicus was undoubtedly one of the most troublesome factions.

Once those cogheads took an interest in something, stopping them was all but impossible. If you did not want to offend the Adeptus Mechanicus and find yourself secretly turned into a Servitor one day, or used as wetware for some machine, you had better have powerful enough backing and sufficient strength.

Unfortunately, this unremarkable Inquisitor had neither.

He was merely an ordinary man dispatched here to uncover the truth.

Against Xenos and daemons, he could call for support. Against the Rebels, he could do the same. But against the Adeptus Mechanicus...

Unless you wanted a machine spirit to go berserk one day and send you to meet the Emperor, it was better to forget it.

Perhaps he could turn this matter to his advantage and earn a little benefit by doing the Adeptus Mechanicus a favour.

The name of the Imperial Inquisition might be intimidating, but that depended on whom it was dealing with. Sometimes, it was not the Inquisition that inspired fear, but certain legendary Inquisitors.

Having grasped the crux of the matter, the Inquisitor felt considerably better. He then beckoned the two Sages into the Medical Bay.

Everyone inside the chamber regained a neutral expression as they watched the Inquisitor appear behind the suddenly opening automatic door.

The Dark Angels lying on the other two medical beds merely opened their eyes for a glance, then remained still.

Of everyone present, those two Astartes had suffered the worst luck.

They had thought they were simply heading out on a mission, only to nearly be cleaved in two, armour and all, right at the outset.

Now they had no choice but to depend on someone else's hospitality while their severed limbs were treated.

Since limb reattachment was a rarely performed operation, Apothecary Osen had reattached their limbs first, leaving Sien until last.

The two Dark Angels did not understand the reason and felt somewhat guilty.

Fortunately, the practice had not ended in failure. After just a few dozen minutes, some sensation had already returned to their arms.

They only needed to wait a few more hours for their bodies' regenerative abilities to close the wounds.

Their Power Armour, meanwhile, had been handed over to Techmarine Farrion for repairs.

Both knew very well that their mission had most likely failed. They lacked the strength to take Iax away by force. Its reaction speed exceeded the upper limit of an ordinary Astartes.

If it wished, it only needed to deliver another slash like the last one, and neither of them would be able to dodge it.

As soon as the two Sages following the Inquisitor entered the chamber, they hurried over to the Bionic Body Iax had left to one side.

They struggled to lift the astonishingly heavy Bionic Body and scanned it repeatedly, as though trying to understand the technology within.

But the metal casing Iax had applied at the end concealed every detail.

No matter how the two Sages used their integrated scanners and probing equipment, they obtained no particularly revealing information.

They could only make out the broad outline of the mechanical structures inside.

Even so, those intricate and complex mechanisms filled both Sages with excitement. But when they examined the Bionic Limb connectors, they spent a long time searching their memories.

"These don't seem to match any known prosthetic interface?"

The two Bionic Limbs were passed back and forth between the Sages, but Iax made no attempt to stop them. On the contrary, their fervour and excitement left it deeply puzzled.

The Adeptus Mechanicus had existed for tens of thousands of years, its history stretching back even further than the Imperium's. From their robes alone, Iax could identify the attire of Sages without either of them saying a word.

But why would the mechanical Sages of the Adeptus Mechanicus take an interest in such simple mechanisms?

According to the records in its database, every Sage of the Adeptus Mechanicus was a master of mechanical engineering, with design and manufacturing capabilities far superior even to its own. Moreover, these devices serving as Bionic Limbs were extremely basic. They were not even equipped with any additional weapon systems or transformation mechanisms, and their functions were exceedingly simple.

Yet the reality was entirely different.

Over tens of thousands of years, vast amounts of technology had been lost. Many surviving technological artefacts had become black boxes that could neither be analysed nor manufactured anew.

It was not that no one had considered developing technology again, but the Emperor had blocked that path.

The evil powers of the Warp could influence and distort realspace, leaving people unable to determine whether the various laws on which technology depended were correct.

Technology developed under such interference could very well become another kind of catastrophe.

The Men of Iron Rebellion and the Dark Age of Technology had both resulted from such catastrophes.

The Emperor knew the source of it all very well.

As the Medical Bay's automatic door opened again, Farrion's towering figure appeared in the doorway, encased in ceramite Power Armour.

"Sir, I was ordered to report to the Medical Bay immediately just after I finished repairing the Dark Angels' Power Armour. What happened?"

Farrion looked somewhat taken aback by the nearly packed chamber.

Iax snatched the Bionic Limbs from the Sages of the Adeptus Mechanicus and shoved them into Farrion's hands.

"I made these two prosthetic limbs for Sien, but my technical records contain no information on fitting prosthetics to biological bodies. Sien said this falls within your duties, so I'm leaving it to you."

Holding the two exquisitely crafted prosthetics, Farrion looked blankly at Sien lying on the medical bed, then at the bewildered Sages whose prosthetics had suddenly been snatched away.

"Biological modification—shouldn't these two Sages be better at that? Why call me here specifically?"

As he spoke, he carefully examined the prosthetics in his hands. Seeing the completely unfamiliar connectors, he turned for help to the two Sages of the Adeptus Mechanicus, who were arguing over their private communications channel.