The expansive bulkheads of the compartment shimmered with a cold, silvery luster, casting a dim, ambient luminescence throughout the space. Between the passive lighting and the metallic sheen of the construction materials, this section stood out with startling clarity amidst the tangled, multi-layered wreckage of the Space Hulk.
Clang! Screeech!
A sharp snap was followed immediately by the harrowing sound of grinding metal.
An armored plate on the flank of the hall-like chamber slid open. Deprived of sufficient power or suffering from structural trauma, the mechanism emitted a piercing shriek as it moved. A metallic object twitched as if attempting to deploy from the recess, only to shudder and fall still.
The lighting within the compartment began to flicker and fail.
Bzzzt—
Keenly sensing the anomaly, Axion strode forward and dropped into a crouch, plunging his mechanical arm beneath the jagged edge of the armor plating.
Crack!
With a surge of mechanical might, there was a muffled sound of fracturing components. Axion wrenched an automated turret, bristling with sensor arrays and identification suites, from the hull's depths. The hydraulic locking mechanism groaned in protest as he manually forced the base to lock into its deployed position within the compartment.
As the turret was hoisted clear, the faltering lights stabilized into a brilliant glow.
"Heavy Automated Defense Turret?"
Axion instantly recognized the device that had nearly caused a total power failure. This was standard equipment within the fleets of the Men of Iron, typically mounted on transport vessels.
A conventional Men of Iron fleet was a weapon in its own right, teeming with various Marks of combat automata. Even the Iron Men themselves were usually shielded by escorts of lower-functioning drones. The concept of "boarding actions", so prevalent in the modern Imperium, was virtually non-existent in their era.
These turrets were concealed beneath secondary internal armor because they were designed for carrier utility. When a cargo bay was deployed, the outer hull configuration shifted. If a transport was forced to make a contested planetary insertion, it invariably required a "significant" amount of supplementary fire support.
Equipped with twin atomic pulse launchers and high-energy thermal beams, these turrets would deploy from the armored skeleton during offloading to provide temporary fire cover.
The thick barrels and ray-emitters gleamed under the passive lighting, appearing as pristine as the day they were forged.
A hexagonal, pyramidal mechanical structure atop the turret began to rotate, a standard-issue omni-directional identification monitor returning to life. A pale blue beam swept over Axion. Instinctively, he transmitted his core identification protocols in response.
"Er... ror. Iden... tification... Unknown model. Hu... man. Vali... dation... Grant—"
Before the synthesized voice could finish, the chamber plunged into absolute darkness. The turret's monitor spun to a halt as its momentum bled away.
Axion immediately accessed his internal archives, cross-referencing every record of transport-class vessels until he found a match for the turret's mounting specs and hull dimensions.
"An HG-class Heavy Carrier?"
Such massive vessels exceeded 15.5 kilometers in length, outsizing even the largest Universe-class mass conveyors utilized by the Imperium. A single carrier could transport three mixed-armor Iron Man Legions, three Apocalypse-class Titans, and two Punisher-class Mega-Titans. All cargo bays were modular and detachable, capable of being dropped directly from orbit onto a planetary surface when necessary. Once the mission was complete, the modules would be recovered and re-docked with the assistance of smaller tug-craft.
Though the primary power was severed, Axion noted with curiosity that the quantum signal had not vanished.
Fixing his sensors on the source of the transmission, Axion bypassed the dead turret, leading his Aegis Protector and two Peltast Sniper Automata toward the far wall.
Consulting the ship's schematics in his memory, he scanned the bulkhead obstructing his path until his mechanical arm found a recessed manual interface in the far right corner. He inserted his hand into the port and forced the internal drive to rotate.
With a heavy hiss of depressurization, the entire bulkhead retracted, splitting vertically into the ceiling and floor.
A cargo bay spanning several thousand square meters opened before him.
As his scanners pierced the dark, the state of the chamber became clear. The bay had been sheared at an angle, and much of the loose cargo had been lost to the void. However, in the center of the bay, a massive crate, fifty-five meters long and thirty-five meters wide, remained mag-locked to the deck plating.
The quantum signal was emanating from within that crate.
Wedged into a nearby fracture in the hull was a scarred mechanical claw. Its immense size and unique geometry allowed Axion to identify it instantly as a component of an "Octopus" construction unit.
This find allowed Axion to form a hypothesis regarding the signal source. Carefully, he used a molecular-vibration blade to score a small opening in the crate's exterior. He peered inside.
A gargantuan metallic apparatus filled the entire transport container. Mounted to its upper flank was a small instrument, pulsing rhythmically with a quantum signal.
Axion recognized the machine immediately.
"A Super Quantum Reactor Core. This is the power module for an Apocalypse-class Titan!"
After meticulously excising a larger section of the crate's shell, Axion located the identification code on a corner of the reactor core. Data comparison confirmed it: an unactivated Super-Quantum Reactor Core.
The small instrument beside it was a quantum locator meant to track the crate. Yet, what baffled Axion was the device's operational log: it had only been active for four hundred years. Furthermore, the internal chronometer was still using the archaic Federal Calendar.
According to the logs, this quantum core was significantly older than Axion's own construction date. The discrepancy was a riddle he could not yet solve.
Regardless, the core appeared to be in near-perfect condition.
Finding this component ignited a new fervor in Axion to explore the rest of the ruin. If he could locate the ship's sapient logic-core, he might understand what had befallen this vessel, and what other treasures remained in its hold.
If the rest of the hull or its cargo could be recovered, Axion could begin the immediate assembly of a functional Apocalypse-class Titan. While such engines typically required a dedicated sapient core for autonomous combat, Axion could construct a remote terminal and serve as the gestalt intelligence himself.
A Titan built with the technology of the Men of Iron was a terror that shared nothing in common with the primitive god-machines of the modern Imperium.
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