He looked at Bona, who lay asleep on the bed, and Teresa, who was casting a spell beside him.
The plan seemed to be going well.
Bona himself was not a Primarch, so he could not reproduce Guilliman's aura. He had to leave that to Horus.
With a few little tricks from Teresa to help, they worked to lead Yvraine astray.
In the meantime, they could ask Admiral Spire to slow the ship down and buy them more time.
Bona still did not understand why Slaanesh wanted to target an ordinary Aeldari. Yvraine was certainly a genius, but there were plenty of geniuses like her, weren't there?
Forget it. Not worth thinking about.
The next target was Roboute Guilliman.
Now that was a real headache. How was he supposed to brainwash someone inside a Stasis Field?
And he was in Ultramar, the Ultramarines' stronghold. Getting there by physical means was practically impossible. If he went, he would have to be prepared for an earth-shattering fight with a whole bunch of Astartes.
He would have to find a way. Invading a world of consciousness through Psyker Power was possible, but a Primarch's soul probably would not be so easy to breach.
Just as Bona was thinking about how to set Guilliman up, Captain Spire's voice suddenly reached his ears.
"My lord, there's a problem in the Engine Room."
"What problem?"
"The Tech-Priest and that Ork are about to come to blows."
"Oi, cog boy, what're you doing to my Waaagh Boy?!" Gagags roared furiously.
The Tech-Priest looked at the Ork as though Gagags had murdered his mother.
"*...&&￥...￥(01001001 01001101 01001101 01001111 01010010 01010100 01000001 01001100)"
Several very waaagh-looking things silently rose from the Tech-Priest's back and pointed at Gagags. Not to be outdone, Gagags pulled out his bigger, even more waaagh-looking Gagags Cannon and aimed it at him.
"Oh, cog boy, you wanna fight me? This pile of junk is mine!"
Only then did Bona finally arrive.
He looked at the two sides on the verge of fighting and felt a headache coming on.
"Are you trying to tear the Armory apart?"
"*...&￥...##￥...&&%%%%!&*%￥&"
The Tech-Priest looked at Bona, and the loudspeaker on his back finally produced intelligible speech.
"By the Omnissiah, I want this stupid Ork thrown off the ship immediately. His very presence here profanes the glory of the Machine God."
"Oi, cog boy, you're lucky I haven't flattened you already!"
Bona looked at the... enormous lump of metal before him.
A great many rockets had been crudely mounted on the original engine, with plenty more hanging from the outside.
Now Bona understood how they had escaped Commorragh.
What he did not understand-even allowing for his ignorance of mechanical engineering-was how these shoddily made rockets had actually worked.
"Let's put that aside for now. I'd rather know how Bals is doing."
"*(...&%￥￥, Bals is in critical condition. His survival probability is only 7.9141%. The life-support system in his Dreadnought has sustained 87.121% damage. I do not even know how he has survived."
Bona froze.
"That thing really is a Dreadnought?"
"I only discovered that after clearing away all the useless junk around it."
Bona looked at the Dreadnought before him.
Dreadnoughts, monuments to the dead.
These giant bipedal walkers, laden with heavy weapons, were a romance unique to the Space Marines. They would place their dying brothers inside Dreadnoughts, prolonging the lives of their battle-brothers.
Most Dreadnoughts remained asleep, awakened only when their Chapter faced an existential crisis. Then they would unleash all their fury upon the Emperor's enemies.
There was a saying among the Astartes.
You could ignore your Chapter Master, but you had best listen to a Dreadnought brother.
The Dreadnought before him looked so ancient that merely looking at it gave the impression of something dug out of the ground.
And Bona could clearly sense that the life within it was very faint.
He walked up to the Dreadnought, lightly cut his ring finger with a blade, and pressed it against the machine.
A gleam appeared in the Tech-Priest's aged, clouded eyes.
His scanner told him that the vital signs of the dying Dreadnought before him were rising rapidly.
"By the Omnissiah."
Bals, too, awoke from his slumber.
But because the Dreadnought's limbs had been removed, he could only observe the world before him.
"By the Emperor, I... am still alive?"
"Yes, warrior. You are still alive."
"Wonderful. It has been so long since I last saw my battle-brothers."
Bona looked at the Tech-Priest.
"Priest, I'll leave the rest to you."
"((&￥￥￥￥, I do not possess the technical knowledge required to repair a Dreadnought. Moreover, this model is exceedingly ancient. The probability of success is only..."
Bona firmly grasped the priest's shoulder, then handed him a book.
The priest accepted the book in confusion and watched Bona leave.
Still puzzled, he opened the book, and his eyes suddenly widened.
"Priest, please monitor your physiological signs."
Only the voice of the Cogitator array brought the priest back to his senses.
"By the Omnissiah."
Bona walked up to Gagags and looked at the Ork, who was even larger than a Thunder Warrior.
"Gagags, your design was a tremendous help."
"Oh! Gagags Ironclaw is the strongest Big Mek. I'm the strongest!"
After another glance at the engine stuffed full of rockets, Bona remained certain that he had no idea how the thing worked.
"I'll keep my promise. Once we reach somewhere safe, I'll let you go."
"But I'd rather you came with us."
"Wot?"
Gagags shouted in disbelief.
"Me, Gagags Ironclaw, I'm gonna be the strongest Big Mek."
"You humies are too boring. I'm not interested."
Gagags waved a hand dismissively.
"We'll fight in the most brutal wars. They'll probably be even more savage than the fiercest war you've ever seen."
"Our enemies will fill mountains and seas. They are resolute, savage, and merciless, with enough strength to destroy any Ork clan."
"So, are you scared, Gagags?"
The Ork Big Mek stopped, then turned and walked back, waving a wrench bigger than an Astartes' head.
"Humie, you think Gagags Ironclaw is scared?"
"I'm the strongest! Even those Dark Eldar are scared of me!"
"I wanna fight the most waaaghhhh war!"
"If you dare trick me, I'll twist your head off!"
Bona smiled faintly and wiped his face, which Gagags' roaring had covered in spit.
In the distance, Arlith silently watched Bona's every move.
She quietly wrote in her notebook:
He had been drawing on every available source of power to achieve his goals, even when that power came from Chaos or Xenos.
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