"Although I cannot understand certain terms in your speech, you seem to have shown sufficient curiosity about my existence."
Guilliman could sense that the Man of Iron before him harboured a certain, well, peculiar curiosity about him.
"Yes. I am curious about the connection between your birth, the Creator, and the Engineer. I need to seek the truth buried in the past."
Iax made no attempt to conceal his purpose.
Deception and cunning had no place in the thinking of the Men of Iron. The same held true of their battle strategies.
Once, the armies of the Men of Iron had spanned the Milky Way, with few enemies able to rival them. Every battle strategy ultimately boiled down to smashing straight through the enemy.
If they could not smash through, they simply hit harder.
Battlefield command was more concerned with micromanaging high-value units.
After all, some war machines focused their intelligence on the fighting before them and overlooked the broader battlefield situation. Using a cannon to kill a mosquito had been a frequent problem in the past, and the Men of Iron in Iax's series had been designed to fix the bugs in those idiotic machines.
"Although I am sceptical of claims about prophecy, the personnel you dispatched did indeed find me and bring me before you."
"As for my awakening, I am quite certain it was nothing more than an accident."
"However, I am now beginning to take an interest in the Emperor and these prophecies. Perhaps some of them can help me uncover truths long buried in dust."
Guilliman raised a hand, politely interrupting Iax before he could continue, then regarded him seriously.
"Perhaps the Emperor would wish to see you, but not now."
Iax had naturally prepared for this possibility. Clearly, achieving any of those objectives would