The familiar, low hum resonated once more.
Deep within Fabius, a cold dread welled up. Perhaps because of his inherent distrust of the Chaos Gods, Slaanesh's blessings clung to him like a thin, pathetic veneer. Pain brought him no pleasure.
And this time, the agony was agonizingly prolonged.
In a fraction of a second, Fabius's lucid consciousness registered the terrifying sensation of the brain within his current vessel boiling away. Meanwhile, the still-active Panacea continued to exert its miraculous, horrific efficacy. Death and rebirth occurred in perfect, agonizing synchronicity, inflicting upon him a somatic torment of nightmarish proportions.
Monitoring Fabius's vital signs, Axion silently logged a new entry into his data-vaults.
Centuries of memories from this specific flesh-vessel laid themselves bare across Axion's databases. However, the vast majority of the data regarding cybernetic fabrication and genetic augmentation proved to be of negligible value. The most abundant and recent recollections stored within the grey matter detailed Fabius's vivisections and experiments upon the Tyranids. He had harvested countless genomes from the xenos monstrosities, testing all manner of grotesque enhancements.
Most crucially, Axion extracted from those memories the existence of Alpha Primus's gene-seed, along with a portion of its deep-seated secrets.
A mechanical tendril slithered into Fabius's human-skin lab coat, probing a concealed lining to retrieve a specially reinforced metallic canister. Within it, the gene-seed of Alpha Primus pulsed with a rhythmic, frantic vitality.
This sparked a novel concept within Axion's logic-cores.
Though biotechnology was not the primary forte of the Iron Men, they were far from devoid of rudimentary mastery over the biological arts. After securing the now-delirious Fabius in a holding cell, Axion brought the gene-seed to the hangar bay. A heavy transport craft conveyed the genetic specimen to the fleet's industrial vessel.
There, a massive bio-analytical apparatus was hastily erected across the hull architecture.
This specific gene-seed was far more intricate than any specimen Axion had previously observed aboard the Macragge's Honour. Standard biological scanners were utterly inadequate for deciphering such a complex synthesis of biological data. It took several hours of deep-level analysis before the esoteric secrets of this unique gene-seed were fully mapped.
Minutes later, aboard the Void Sword, an entire row of sub-decks was subjected to rapid, automated reconfiguration.
With the completion of the primary incubation chamber, Axion initiated the next phase of the experiment. Under normal protocols, deploying clones for mass testing would have been the optimal path. However, under the ancient Federation laws, the arbitrary cloning of human specimens constituted a severe transgression. The Iron Men were strictly prohibited from independently conducting biological experimentation involving humanity.
Machines, after all, operated solely on cold optimization; they would execute trans-ethical experiments without a shred of hesitation. Such conduct was entirely intolerable to their creators.
To circumvent this, Axion selected Imperial psykers as his test subjects. According to historical records, while they could be logically categorized as an extension of the creators, in the strictest sense, they were scarcely considered human.
The parameters of the test were straightforward. Axion recruited exactly one hundred volunteers whose psychic classifications spanned every tier below Alpha-level.
As automatons entered the chambers bearing vials of heavy sedatives, the hundred subjects were systematically anesthetized. Monomolecular blades sliced effortlessly through the skin of their necks, cutting through muscle tissue with minimal hemorrhaging until they laid bare the deep neural clusters. Cultured gene-seed strands replicated from Alpha Primus's template were then grafted directly into their flesh.
Following the implantation, a few droplets of the Panacea were introduced into the open incisions.
The shimmering elixir reacted almost instantaneously. The severed flesh began to knit together with unnatural speed, and under the catalyst effect of the Panacea, the potent genetic sequences within the gene-seed began to force an aggressive synthesis with the subjects' native biology.
The vital signs of the test subjects spiked violently.
Immediately following this surge, they plunged into a state of profound, catastrophic caloric deficit. Their flesh withered away at a visible rate, while their skeletal structures began to warp, elongating and thickening before the naked eye. It was glaringly obvious that without an immediate infusion of mass and energy, these subjects would rapidly burn out and perish amidst the violent metamorphosis.
To counteract this, Axion had the subjects cast into a monolithic, transparent reservoir that consumed nearly half the chamber, resembling a titanic, industrial pool.
This gargantuan vat was flooded with a highly oxygenated, synthetic nutrient fluid. The moment the withered flesh of the test subjects breached the liquid, their growth accelerated exponentially. Shriveled musculature swelled with dense, hard fibers, weaving together into thick corded bands. Their expanding torsos created vast internal cavities, and a myriad of entirely new, trans-human organs began to burst into existence within their chests.
The extreme density of their newly formed bones lent them immense weight, causing them to sink heavily to the very floor of the reservoir. A pale, orange-red fluid rushed past their lips, completely filling their lungs.
Within a span of mere minutes, these ordinary mortals had expanded to colossal proportions, standing nearly three meters in height. Yet, their physical statures possessed a dense, massive solidity that surpassed even the standard Primaris Astartes.
Splash.
"Cough! Cough! Cough!"
With a violent rupture of the liquid's surface, the first subject hauled himself over the lip of the titanic vat. The moment he breached the open air, he was racked by a fit of violent coughing, hacking up the residual fluid that had filled his lungs during submersion.
Soon came a second, then a third.
Within minutes, one hundred towering, naked figures, marked only by metallic bracers around their wrists, stood shivering within the chamber. The test subjects stared in sheer, breathless awe at their own bodies, feeling a raw, terrifying torrent of physical power they had never known. Though their nakedness brought a fleeting sense of shame, it was quickly eclipsed by the sheer gravity of their transformation.
They had not just now regained consciousness. In truth, their minds had snapped awake mere seconds after the Panacea had been introduced to their veins.
They had felt their bodies hollow out, a terrifying sensation of utter frailty that had filled them with dread. Yet their flesh had refused to obey, leaving them incapable of speech, unable to even scream. They had felt like men dying of thirst in the depths of a sun-scorched desert, staring down the precipice of oblivion, entirely powerless.
But the moment the mechanical entities plunged them into the great vat, that agonizing weakness had receded. They had been acutely aware of the fluid enveloping them, filling their lungs. They could feel the operation and mutation of every single organ, as if their own biology had been laid perfectly bare to their own minds.
As a profound sense of fulfillment washed over them, intuitively understanding the needs of their altered physiology, they climbed out of the water one by one.
Axion, meanwhile, was extracting far more sophisticated metrics.
The newly retrofitted chambers were lined with arrays of embedded bio-scanners, tracking the minute fluctuations of every subject's physical state. These individuals did not merely possess a physical durability nearly three times that of a standard Space Marine. More crucially, the psychic potency of every single subject had experienced an explosive, unprecedented evolution.
Consequently, Axion ordered an immediate evaluation of their psychic control.
The results, however, proved problematic. Though their psychic classifications now teetered on the verge of Alpha-level, their actual control over the warp remained virtually nonexistent, just as it had been before the procedure.
When Axion attempted to deactivate the psychic-drain siphon on a single subject, designated G-2992, a tempestuous warp-storm instantly erupted around the individual. Esoteric psychic phenomena manifested wildly in the air, inflicting minor structural scarring upon the hull of the Void Sword. The sudden, malicious whispers of the Immaterium swirling around G-2992 drove the subject into a state of sheer, unbridled terror.
Left with no alternative, Axion reactivated the psychic siphon to suppress the volatile reaction.
Axion promptly summoned Ersen to the containment deck. He required Ersen to guide these living test subjects, to teach them how to harness and master their newly amplified psychic might.
After all, if they were merely to be utilized as exceptionally durable psychic batteries, the entire endeavor was pointless. A simple battery could never match the efficiency of a proper pump; the fleet's warp-energy separators were vastly more efficient at distilling pure psychic force than the crude draining of living psykers.