Chapter 475: Securing the Sentinels
A servo-skull is a flight-assist tool constructed from a human skull, typically used for illumination, reconnaissance, and mobile broadcasting duties.
Some are additionally fitted with low-yield laser weapons, or even loaded with explosives to serve as improvised kamikaze drones.
Being selected for conversion into a servo-skull is generally considered an honor bestowed upon a citizen of the Imperium.
Right now, this particular servo-skull hovered ahead of the group, its integrated light illuminating the way, Kian's team following close behind.
"Twenty meters ahead. Approaching Prayer Bay 86."
The servo-skull's voice chimed in, and Kian ordered:
"Skip it. Proceed directly to Prayer Bay 87."
Prayer bays were where finished products sat, each assigned a dedicated attendant to pray over it one-on-one, soothing its machine spirit.
Bay 86 wasn't even worth entering. Its heavy door had already been torn open by force, and a quick glance inside revealed it completely empty, not even a single screw left behind.
"Proceeding to Bay 86."
The servo-skull redirected, leading them toward a new heading.
Over the following hour or so, Kian's team wound their way through bay after bay.
But nearly every single one had already been ransacked by the Orks, their stockpiles of Sentinels stripped down to absolutely nothing.
As time wore on, Kian's expression grew grimmer and grimmer. Was he genuinely about to walk away from this entire operation without recovering a single Sentinel?
They eventually arrived at the entrance to Bay 103. The corridor leading to it was choked with collapsed metal and structural debris.
This, it seemed, was where the shrine's self-destruct protocol had reached, everything ahead crushed flat under a collapsed superstructure.
Kian's disappointment deepened. Was this really it? Nothing to show for the entire trip?
Little Joel came up beside him and asked: "Sir, what now?"
Kian, expression sour, answered:
"Damn it. Every surviving stockpile's been picked clean by the Orks, and everything left over got flattened by the collapse. This whole trip's been a waste of time. Let's fall back."
Kian turned to lead the retreat, and Little Joel scratched his cheek, thinking.
As they passed Bay 102, he glanced inside for a moment.
It was a massive chamber, its structure fully intact, though every Sentinel inside had already been cleared out, absolutely nothing left.
He glanced back at the rubble-choked corridor leading to Bay 103.
Something clicked, and he suddenly shouted: "Sir, wait!!"
Under the confused stares of the group, he ran into Bay 102 and started knocking on the dividing wall between it and Bay 103.
"Sir, look. Bay 102's structure is completely intact. Bay 103's access corridor got crushed, sure, but that doesn't necessarily mean the storage bay itself collapsed.
If we punch a hole through this wall from here, there might be a pocket of untouched space inside Bay 103, with Sentinels still sitting there, waiting."
Kian froze for a second, then hope flooded back in, and he immediately called for someone to blow the wall.
The plasteel wall between the two bays was half a meter thick. A trooper with a plasma rifle fired a shot to blast an initial opening, then a tech-priest tossed a melta charge through the gap.
The charge detonated, and once the smoke and dust cleared, the group crowded around a hole in the wall large enough for several people to pass through at once.
Kian switched on his weapon light and stepped through first, and the moment he saw what was on the other side, he broke into a grin.
Roughly half of the massive Bay 103 had been buried under collapsed structure, sure enough. But the other half was completely intact.
And that intact half was packed, wall to wall, with Sentinels. A quick count put the number at over four hundred.
All four hundred-plus were the same standard model, five meters tall, single-pilot, the driver seated motorcycle-style on a saddle mount.
Ahead of the seat sat a massive ballistic shield, fitted with two mounted weapons.
One was a Lumberer stubber. The other was a full 100mm cannon.
That 100mm cannon was, unambiguously, a tank-grade weapon, absolutely absurd to find on a unit like this.
Kian genuinely wondered whether firing that long-barreled cannon even once would send the tall, spindly Sentinel toppling backward from the recoil.
What he didn't know was that the tactical doctrine for this Sentinel variant was exactly that: dart out from cover, snipe a high-value enemy target with the long-barreled cannon, and let the massive recoil throw the walker backward, using that momentum to yank itself right back into cover.
Kian waved a hand and shouted:
"Move! Get every one of these Sentinels loaded up and out of here, they're priceless!
Call for backup, figure out transport, I don't want to leave a single screw behind!"
With the order given, the team sprang into action.
Just then, Little Joel walked over to the far wall of Bay 103, knocking on it, and turned to Kian.
"Sir, half of this wall is still intact too. Let's blow through and check the other side. Maybe Bay 104's got an untouched section too."
Kian, taking the hint immediately, sent men to blast the wall.
A thunderous blast rang out, tearing open the divide between Bays 103 and 104, and the group surged through into the next chamber.
Bay 104 sat even closer to the collapse zone. Four-fifths of the entire massive bay had been crushed under falling debris, leaving only a fifth intact.
But standing in that surviving fifth were over eighty more Sentinels.
These were a more advanced model, bulkier, a clear heavy-upgrade variant of the standard Sentinel.
Its pilot cockpit was no longer the open, exposed frame of the standard model, instead partially enclosed with armour plating and shatterproof glass.
It looked something like someone had bolted a rain canopy onto a motorcycle, enough to shrug off small-arms fire below the level of a heavy stubber.
Its weaponry had been substantially upgraded as well.
Mounted between the legs, Apache-gunship style, sat a chin-mounted Lumberer stubber.
On the left side of the cockpit, welded directly to the frame, was a plasma cannon, identical in spec to the type mounted on squire-suits.
On the right side sat a six-tube rocket launcher pod.
Overall, this was a heavy Sentinel variant, combining the standard model's high mobility with meaningful protection against light weapons fire, and a substantially reinforced weapons loadout.
Used well, this thing could actually ambush a squire-suit.
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