The efficiency of the Iron Man was staggering. Divided into cohorts of ten thousand, the two hundred thousand subjects were categorized by psychic resonance before being meticulously remixed. Axion sought to evaluate more than just the baseline impact of living psychic units upon the condensed psychic crystal matrix; he required empirical data on the synchronization, output tolerances, and collective behavior of mixed-potency psyker clusters. The boundless compliance of the volunteers maintained the trial's momentum at a breakneck pace, causing Axion's processing architectures to register a distinct fluid smoothness in execution.
Yet, the cost in human friction was catastrophic.
In the primary crucible, the opening cohort was subjected to a raw psychic crystal measuring fifty centimeters in diameter, the absolute baseline power core utilized in medium-scale weapon specifications. Out of a testing sequence comprising ten thousand experimental assets, less than 0.35 percent endured.
The Beta and Gamma-grade psykers, who constituted the vast majority of the cohort, expired instantly upon initial contact with the high-density currents routed from the crystal. Psychic anomalies tore through the containment cells as empyric fire wrapped around their forms, rendering flesh and bone to absolute ash. The shrieks of their dissolving consciousness echoed through the testing amphitheater.
Meanwhile, Delta-grade assets were entirely subverted by the warp-surge, their physical iterations coming unstitched at the molecular level as their willpower was systematically pulverized by the pure psychic feedback.
In several containment cells, the sudden backflow of empyric energy resulted in localized psychic contamination of the crystal matrices. Within these compromised shards, fractured remnants of the subjects' last thoughts became indelibly etched. These crystal lattices, infused with human cognitive debris, demonstrated a primitive responsiveness to specific iconography and linguistic markers; most notably, when brought into proximity with an Imperial Aquila or hallowed statuary of the Emperor, they would pulse with a faint, shimmering golden luminescence.
Axion ordered these tainted specimens isolated and re-routed to the ordnance division for ballistic analysis, where they exhibited bizarrely potent incendiary characteristics.
A negligible handful of Delta-grade psykers survived, primarily due to a latent, baseline discipline over their own gifts. Through rigorous post-test interrogation and data-harvesting, Axion extracted invaluable insights.
These surviving Delta-grade assets had instinctively attempted to close their minds the moment the unadulterated psychic current breached their chambers, systematically rejecting the terrifying kinetic inundation. The energy had roared around the peripheries of their physical forms, expanding exponentially until the atmospheric compression left them suffocating.
It was, by their own accounts, akin to standing stripped bare within the howling apex of a localized warp-storm.
Yet, they held.
Every survivor recounted a singular, unshakable premonition: had their conscious intent faltered for even a microsecond to welcome that raw, violent power into their souls, they would have dissolved into the current exactly like their peers.
Following comprehensive biometric scans and psychic re-evaluations, Axion noted that the surviving subjects exhibited marked spikes in their psychic taxonomy. One surviving Delta-grade asset's energy signatures were already shifting dramatically toward Omega-grade thresholds.
Evidently, even though their cognitive defenses had rejected direct communion with the psychic flood, a residual portion of the empyric current had forcibly seeded itself within their physiologies.
Axion temporarily sequestered these assets from the active testing pools. He required longitudinal data to ascertain whether this artificial psychic escalation would remain stable over an extended duration.
If the metrics remained constant, the systemic engineering of Alpha-grade psykers might shift from theoretical postulation to practical production.
The sheer clinical detachment of the Iron Man's methodology transcended the wildest imagination of the Imperium. Had any Magos Biologis of the Adeptus Mechanicus been privy to Axion's protocols and subsequent yields, their logic-cores would have locked in an instantaneous, overloading seizure of ecstatic data-worship.
Inside Isolation Sector Seven, the secondary containment barriers rippled violently as Gamma-grade psyker D-1142 began to unwrite herself within the kinetic turbulence.
The girl, harvested from the deep subterranean mineral pits of Armageddon, drifted suspended in mid-air. Erratic arcs of static electricity danced through her hair, burning her stark silhouette repeatedly against the reinforced blast-walls.
The moment she was fully submerged into the pure psychic current funneled from the crystal array, Axion's scanning matrices flashed with seven thousand simultaneous trauma logs: her skeletal carbonization rate exceeded projected thresholds by 437 percent, and neural synaptic overload triggered a catastrophic chain reaction.
"Terminate test sequence," the flat, vox-synthesized tones of a Sapient Machine Automaton echoed through the command hub as the interior silver-grey bulkhead sleeves deployed thousands of kilograms of localized neutralizing powder.
It was entirely academic. The girl's irises fractured into a prismatic kaleidoscope of colors, her entire physical structure twisting like raw clay manipulated by an invisible, crushing fist, before detonating into a localized cloud of incandescent, glowing dust.
Before the industrial extraction vents could fully engage, these glowing particles self-assembled in mid-air, spelling out a series of crude, primordial psychic runes that hung suspended for 1.34 seconds before dissolving into nothingness.
Ersen tapped his fingers rhythmically against the viewport glass. This marked the seventh annihilation he had witnessed within the hour.
Ever since Axion commenced the psychic trials, the Word Bearer had remained anchored to the observation deck, absorbing every facet of the enterprise. The sheer, unyielding brutality of the process had initially stirred a deep, instinctual discomfort even within his post-human psychology.
Yet, the machine-servitor stationed at his flank had been explicit: every single asset had offered themselves up willingly.
Reviewing the data-logs projected by the automaton, Ersen watched as each mortal sat before the cold mechanical overseers, listening with absolute focus to the exhaustive list of mortality risks and structural trauma reports. On the faces of those who stepped forward to sign their lives away, there was no fear, only an expression of profound, holy fulfillment.
The audio files even preserved their hushed, ecstatic dialogues concerning the sanctity of sacrifice.
Faced with this realization, Ersen no longer dwelled upon the cruelty of the meat-grinder. Instead, he found himself offering quiet praise for the staggering courage and fanatic devotion of these base mortals.
Just as he had done in an age forgotten.
He praised the majesty of a necessary sacrifice.
The crystalline precision and granular optimization of the Iron Man's operation continued to fascinate the Astartes. Following the massive baseline trials conducted on the initial ten thousand subjects, Axion had harvested oceans of behavioral and physiological data.
From that foundation, the variables introduced into the subsequent phases grew dizzyingly complex.
The containment cradles themselves underwent several sweeping structural iterations. Ersen had even observed specialized testing pods lined entirely with wraithbone.
The most uncanny spectacle occurred when machine-servitors, their cybernetic chassis heavily inlaid with raw psychic crystals, knelt in precise, concentric circles. Moving with eerie, perfectly synchronized gestures, they began to conjure raw wraithbone and spirit-stone material directly out of the aether, using localized nanite mother-machines to instantly crush the psychoplastic constructs into fine dust before reshaping them into bespoke experimental components.
The sheer, unnatural wrongness of that sight pushed the boundaries of Ersen's reality.
As the days ground on, the initial two hundred thousand subjects were whittled down until only twenty thousand survived, the vast majority belonging to the final three refined cohorts.
When Ersen's designated rotation finally arrived, Axion had completed the definitive iteration of the apparatus.
As an Angel of the Emperor and a demigod of Mankind, Ersen's physical form was exceptionally resilient. Furthermore, having undergone the cellular purification of the Panacea, his biological baseline had been elevated to absolute genetic perfection.
Since his treatment with the Panacea, his psychic rating had steadily climbed from just beneath Omega-grade, finally plateauing at a threshold bordering an Alpha-grade classification. Even within the Blood Ravens, a Chapter renowned for its dense concentration of powerful Librarians, the Chief Librarian himself operated at a comparable level of potency.
Decades of monastic training and psychic warfare ensured that Ersen possessed a command over his empyric talents that no mortal could ever hope to replicate.
The sequence initiated without delay.
A highly specialized containment cradle, forged from a unique hybrid of wraithbone and an anomalous alloy, sat isolated in the center of a massive, heavily shielded testing amphitheater.
The pod itself was compact, but it was flanked by an intricate forest of uniquely contoured auxiliary systems. These housings were packed with various grades and calibers of psychic crystals.
Adjacent to several massive, heavy-duty physical disconnect switches stood a contingent of Sapient Machine Automatons. They remained frozen before the automated circuit breakers, waiting.
Should the experiment deviate into a catastrophic spike, the automated breakers would instantly sever the psychic conduit. And if those automated safeguards failed, the machines would manually detonate the physical lifelines with absolute prejudice.
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