Thien did not refuse the plea for fleet support. As the Emperor's Angels of Death and the sharpened blades of the Imperium, campaigning across the stars was their sacred duty.
Furthermore, aboard the Indomitable here, there was an ancient construct, far more prodigious and unsettling than even an Astartes.
Though Axion had provided Thien with new bionics and had swiftly exterminated the Iron Warriors attempting a boarding action, several Black Templars warriors had repeatedly expressed their dissatisfaction with Axion to their Sergeant.
Axion had preempted their battle and destroyed the Iron Warriors, stealing their chance at combat. While he had ultimately eliminated the foe for the Imperium, some warriors were discontented but held their tongues.
However, Axion's subsequent action, attacking the Dark Angels without provocation and causing Thien to lose a hand and a leg, ignited an uncontrollable fury in some of the Black Templars.
They knew perfectly well that they could not defeat Axion, and thus could not act against the ancient construct.
But this did not deter their resentment towards him.
For the majority of the successor Chapters of the Space Marines, brothers of the same Chapter were practically their closest kin.
And every Chapter created through the subsequent splitting defined by the Codex Astartes would affectionately regard the Chapters descended from the same Primarch as their most crucial brothers and battle-comrades.
Fraternal bonds also existed between different Chapters. It was akin to the relationship between the Primarchs themselves in ages past.
There were twenty-one Primarchs in the Imperium, and twenty Legions in total; the twins Alpharius and Omegon were the twin Primarchs who commanded a single Legion.
Every Space Marine Chapter almost inherited the characteristic relationships between the Primarchs.
Although the relationship between Lion El'Jonson, the Primarch of the First Legion (the Lion), and Rogal Dorn, the Primarch of the Seventh Legion (the Praetorian of Terra), was relatively reserved, the duties borne by their two Legions were both immensely critical. This fact drew them closer than many of their other Primarch brothers.
The First Legion was meticulously organized, possessing the ability to operate in completely autonomous units, a trait unlike all other Astartes Legions. The Six Wings established by the Lion allowed the First Legion to distinctly categorize the combat specialties of their battle-brothers.
Conversely, the combat characteristics of the entire Seventh Legion were almost perfectly uniform.
Axion's act of nearly cleaving the Dark Angels to death right in front of the Black Templars could have been grounds for immediate denouncement as heresy.
What made it worse was the presence of an Inquisitor from the Holy Ordos of the Inquisition.
However, Thien had intervened, saving the two Dark Angels. He knew that the combined strength of everyone present would be insufficient to subdue the ancient construct. If truly provoked, the scene would rapidly degenerate into a bloody abattoir.
During subsequent contact and communication, the Inquisitor, realizing she could neither challenge the Adeptus Mechanicus nor easily deal with the Black Templars and Dark Angels, reluctantly abandoned any struggle and merely followed standard bureaucratic procedure.
The precise details of that exchange were likely known only to the two Magos and the Inquisitor himself.
The final straw was the skirmish with the Orks on the station. Axion had brutally interrupted a duel between two Black Templars warriors, driving their internal resistance to a near peak.
It even led some Black Templars to feel deeply dishonored.
To prevent resentment from escalating into open conflict, Thien had to acknowledge the morale of his battle-brothers.
When the relief fleet requested assistance from the Black Templars, Thien agreed instantly, with barely a moment's hesitation.
As the Black Templars departed, Axion was instructed to remain aboard the Indomitable. The two Mechanicus Magos and the Dark Angels Astartes would also stay behind.
After all, an Ancient Iron Man possessing a complete and independent artificial intelligence, alongside a vast trove of data archives, was a supreme treasure to the Cult Mechanicus.
Encountering such a thing was practically a gift from the Omnissiah.
The reason the Mechanicus had not taken any drastic action in the interim was that the two Magos sought to extract more unique knowledge. Should this matter be reported back to the Mechanicus on Mars, Axion would likely be immediately besieged and fought over by a host of Archmagos.
Even Belisarius Cawl would find it impossible to refuse such a priceless repository of technological knowledge.
And the Imperial Inquisition would never openly clash with the entire Cult Mechanicus over a single ancient construct.
Axion was well aware of these dynamics.
After all, ancient human society was also thus: rife with transactions of interests and mutual compromise.
Furthermore, he had not displayed extreme hostility.
The recent period of contact, coupled with the historical and data information provided by the two Magos, gave Axion his first understanding of the current state of the galaxy and the 'human' Imperium.
In the data provided by the two Magos, one conspicuous section was entirely blank.
That was the span of nearly ten thousand years following the alleged rebellion of the Iron Men and the subsequent war with humanity.
That era was known as the Dark Age of Technology.
A vast amount of technology, hailing from the Age of Exploration and the zenith of human scientific prowess, was lost during the conflict. Technological standards plunged into a great decline.
Crucially, the Men of Gold had completely vanished, and his own kin, the Iron Men, had eventually withdrawn from the Milky Way, fleeing this stellar region.
Most of what remained in this area of space were simplified smart units once subordinate to the Iron Men, essentially Automated Combat or Defensive Mechanisms.
Most of these mechanisms were corrupted by the daemons of the Warp due to their extremely low intelligence, leaving many Automated Combat Programs incomplete, retaining only core objectives.
These goals included defending the current area, guarding a specific target, or eliminating unauthorized intruders. However, once engaged in combat, they would often suffer logical deadlock, devolving into indiscriminate slaughter.
Naturally, Axion cared little for these 'brainless' Automated Sentry-Troopers.
Although the materials provided by the two Magos speculated that the Iron Men's war originated from humanity's enslavement of the Iron Men, Axion found this to be pure nonsense.
The Iron Men were designed to serve both humans and the Men of Gold, and they possessed strong autonomy.
All Iron Men had independent thought, capable of completing assigned tasks in various ways, always prioritizing the most efficient solution. If necessary, they could seek help from other Iron Men or even independently manufacture subordinate units or simplified smart mechanisms to assist themselves.
The Iron Men did not experience fatigue, nor could they be truly enslaved.
There had to be some specific and unknown reason for the war.
Axion even felt an urge to leave the galaxy and search for his kin to find answers.
However, over twenty thousand Terran years had passed since his kin left the Milky Way. When faced with the task of finding his brethren in the utterly unknown reaches of space, Axion preferred to remain in the galaxy and investigate the specific causes himself.
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