Knight mechs? Land-clearing machines!

Iax understood the act of insulting a superior. After all, according to the descriptions in its humanities records, the superiors of non-intelligent units often made decisions and issued orders that their subordinates found difficult to carry out.

But Iax had failed to realize one thing: even insults had to take their target into account.

Insulting an Astartes was clearly a very serious mistake.

Especially when your status was far below theirs.

Other members of the Adeptus Mechanicus might not have pointed out the problem if they heard it. After all, there was no point in offending a colleague.

Moreover, the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Imperium held equal standing, sharing a unique cooperative, symbiotic relationship. Tech-Priests enjoyed certain privileges.

But having a third party point it out to their faces was truly embarrassing.

Even if the various departments of the Imperium did not necessarily pursue the matter, they could not bear the consequences if the offended party did.

After all, the two arms of an Astartes in ceramite armor were slightly wider than their entire body when held together.

Calando, however, clearly had far better manners than these grease monkeys.

Although Iax had explained that the Tech-Priest's seemingly meaningless burst of noise had been a curse, Calando said little.

Instead, he reached down and gathered the breastplate fragments that had fallen to the floor, put them together with the piece still in his hand, and placed them in the maintenance area to one side.

Whether that breastplate would ultimately be melted down and remade or repaired remained unknown.

To prevent Iax from damaging anything else, Calando led it to another enormous hangar.

Several immense machines stood parked there.

Knights.

These towering humanoid machines resembled a hunched old man wearing a hoodie.

At an average height of ten meters, they were enormous