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By Your Command – Extract

A Black Library Publication

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By Your Command

Gav Thorpe

+resetsoullogistics+imprintcorticalvalueset+setuserdefinitiontoundra+rebootfromstart+

{Awaken this dormant spirit of destruction.}

+calibrateaggressionmetrics+inloadtargetingdata+revisetargetingdata+rebootfromstart+

{Give life unto this shell.}

+inloadrunicadjustment//:parameter4+restartlodestoneprotocols+inceptdatasmithlogin+

{Look upon your servants and grant them the boon of your warrior.}

+activate+acknowledge+alpha-6-terror+

{Destroy the unfaithful. Secure the Casus Belli. Protect the faithful.}

+Respond, Alpha unit.+

Cogitators buzzed into a semblance of life, accepting the designation as the first of its maniple to be awoken.

[Alpha 6-Terror online]

Dim light seeped through the visual sensory circuits of the kastelan, blurring into recognisable shapes. A ceiling, crossed by parallel coolant pipes that dripped condensation. Metal walls inscribed with the twelve-toothed cog of the Cult Metalica. The figure of Datasmith Undra, garbed in hooded white robes, censer hanging from a chain in one mechanical hand and the rod of initiation clasped in an articulated claw. Focusing on the face within the hood, Alpha 6-Terror skimmed through a selection of spectrum filters until the bionic visage of the datasmith came into view. Multifaceted eyes regarded the kastelan from within a cluster of shifting ceramic scales, which slid into an approximation of a satisfied smile.

‘Bless the Omnissiah,’ declared the tech-priest.

Five other kastelans waited dormant behind Undra, their broad, tall frames dwarfing the tech-priest. Each was a duplicate – rounded plates and barrel chests painted white, marked with the symbols of the maniple. Arming servitors attached gun-limbs and shoulder-mounted heavy weaponry to the forms yet to be awoken. Alpha 6-Terror felt the input links of its own limbs and raised two massive hands. A cortical impulse activated the power field within, enclosing the fists with a sheen of blue energy. Another artificial nerve-twitch brought the shoulder-mount phosphor blaster online. A sense analogous to satisfaction permeated the kastelan’s programme as the first large calibre round clanked into the breach.

[Weapons active. Mission parameters detected. Destroy. Secure. Protect.]

Alpha 6-Terror waited for Datasmith Undra to perform the rituals of awakening on the other battle robots. Sensory banks continued to analyse the robot’s surroundings, creating an impression of the shrine-chamber and the environment further afield. As they synchronised with the archive storage of the kastelan, auditory inputs filtered out the regular noises – the hiss of the servitors’ pneumatics, the vibration of the Imperator Titan’s power system, the clump of Datasmith Undra’s tread across the plascrete deck.

An echo of sharp retorts and a growl of chain weapons slipped through the kastelan’s processors. They were accompanied by vocalisations of humans – and human-analogues – in anger and distress.

[Battle is ongoing.]

‘Yes, Alpha 6-Terror, the Casus Belli is under attack.’

The kastelan listened for five more seconds, analysing the sounds of conflict with the aid of its auditory archives. Fresh datastreams cut through its programming, seeking to fill in the gaps left by the mission inload.

[Auditory pickups detect boltgun fire. Boltguns are not standard issue for the skitarii or auxilia of the Casus Belli. Boltguns are standard issue armaments of the Space Marines of the Adeptus Astartes. Adeptus Astartes are not part of the standard crew complement of the Casus Belli.]

‘Yes, Alpha 6-Terror, we are being assaulted by Heretic Astartes. Check your deployment datalog for context.’

The kastelan accessed the information that had been installed as part of the awakening ceremony. Within, it discovered that the Imperator Titan Casus Belli, to whose defence the maniple was currently assigned, had been deployed with a supporting battle group to the planet Nicomedua. The Nicomeduans had rebelled against the wisdom of the Omnissiah, including a large proportion of their tech-priests and other members of the Cult Mechanicus that served them. The Imperator was currently embattled whilst eliminating a fortress-city known as Az Khalak. By gunship, renegade Space Marines allied to the hereteks had boarded the akropoliz – the massive superstructure atop the Titan’s shoulders that housed garrison chambers and a great part of the Imperator’s arsenal.

Among the din of battle, Alpha 6-Terror picked up wildly oscillating sounds that scaled up and down the audio spectrum, passing above and below even the kastelan’s detectable range.

[Systems detect unknown sonic weapons. Capabilities unknown.]

‘There are several types, highly customised. Multi-functional. Penetrative effects for certain wavelength projections have been estimated to a value equivalent to autocannon armour-piercing shells. Be wary of them.’

Alpha 6-Terror appended a warning sub-routine to the sound file it had created.

[Specify wavelengths.]

The datasmith squawked a pulse of binaric that in-loaded to the kastelan’s artificial consciousness. Delving into the contents of the data-packet, the robot decoded the high-pitched sonic attack that had been identified as the most damaging to armoured targets. It overlaid the data onto its warning systems so that it would know when one of the anti-armour pulses was being fired nearby.

The kastelan reviewed its motor and cogitation systems while Datasmith Undra finished activating the other robots. Every system seemed in good repair and responding within expected parameters.

[Mission and combat context fully established. Battle readiness now at one hundred per cent.]

‘Wait for the rest of the maniple, Alpha 6-Terror.’

[Battle readiness is at one hundred per cent. The enemy are slaying servants of the Omnissiah. Castigation of the foe is delayed.]

‘And you will be destroyed if you try to face them alone. They are Space Marines, Alpha 6-Terror. Set your peril quotients to their highest value.’

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A Black Library Publication

First published in the Limited Edition Imperator: Wrath of the Omnissiah in Great Britain in 2018.
This eBook edition published in 2018 by Black Library, Games Workshop Ltd,
Willow Road, Nottingham, NG7 2WS, UK.

Produced by Games Workshop in Nottingham.
Cover illustration by Maniak.

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ISBN: 978-1-78030-974-3

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