Somewhere beneath the physical infrastructure of the base, in the space where data moved instead of matter, Arnim Zola was watching.
His form in this world was thin, almost vestigial: a green-code figure floating cross-legged above a churning digital ocean, distinguishable from the surrounding data mainly by the disproportionate size of his head. Through the mechanical eyes of every robot in the base and every camera in every corridor, he had a complete picture of what was happening in his plaza.
He did not find it particularly concerning.
"Did you think that because I was exiled to this frozen wasteland I had become a weakling? Something to be handled at will?" The thought moved through his processes with the comfortable rhythm of a man who had been underestimated often enough to have developed opinions about it. "Let them keep destroying bodies. I have plenty. And when they've tired themselves out, there's still the self-destruct sequence waiting for them."
A low, self-satisfied sound moved through his processes.
Then the data ocean went still.
Not calm. Still, the way a surface goes still in the moment before something very large moves beneath it. Zola turned his attention downward, scanning for the anomaly, and found nothing immediately visible.
The ocean erupted.
It did not churn gradually. It inverted, the entire surface heaving upward in every direction simultaneously, and from the deepest point beneath it a hand emerged. Black metal, vast, the fingers alone large enough that Zola's entire form could have rested in the palm with room to spare. The hand rose, and behind it came the head: the same dark metal, blue light burning in the eye sockets with a cold and patient intensity, rising through the cascading data-waves without hurrying.
The eyes found Zola immediately.
When David spoke, the voice filled every available space in the data world at once.
"In the name of my lord: Arnim Zola of Hydra, you have been judged guilty of heresy and of rendering aid to those who work against humanity." A pause, brief and precise. "The sentence is annihilation."
Zola stared upward. The scale difference between them was such that looking at David required him to crane his entire head back as far as it would go.
"Wait," he said. "Who are"
David reached down and pinched him between two fingers.
The squeeze was gentle by any objective measure. The result was not. Arnim Zola, his heroic final words still unfinished in his processes, came apart into scattered fragments of green code that drifted outward briefly before the metal fingers absorbed them entirely. The data ocean settled. The vast form of David remained above it for a moment in the sudden quiet.
"Hmm." David's voice had dropped to something closer to musing. "The resistance was less than I expected, given the preparation he had in place. Though I suppose for my lord and the Chapter Master, the physical side was never going to be particularly challenging either."
He paused, sorting through the data he had absorbed.
"Expelled from the Hydra Supreme Council by an alien entity. Who would have thought." He shook his great metal head slowly. "Who would have thought that the real power behind an organisation that has caused this much damage, for this long, is something that is not even from this world."
The vast form contracted, collapsing inward as David withdrew from the deeper architecture of the base network, until the figure floating above the data ocean was something closer to its usual dimensions. The blue light in its eyes remained steady.
In the plaza, every machine stopped at once.
The humanoid frames, the octopus robots, the replacement bodies that had been moving in from the access corridors: all of them halted mid-stride, mid-gesture, weapons half-raised, and simply stood there. The sudden silence after so much mechanical noise was almost jarring.
Tyberos had turned at Nolan's words and was looking at the frozen machines with the calm assessment of someone recalculating.
David's voice came through the helmet communicators a moment later, even and composed.
"My lord. I am pleased to report success. The entity concealed in the data network has been completely eliminated. The Hydra robots distributed throughout the base have now been redirected and are hunting the remaining human agents. The facility should be fully cleared shortly."
Nolan exhaled through his nose. A quiet sound, somewhere between satisfaction and relief.
"Well done, David."
He turned toward Tyberos. "Chapter Master, the base is effectively ours. Feel free to stand down. If there are any materials or pieces of technology that interest you or your guards, search freely."
Tyberos was still for a moment. Then he turned to his guards and spoke in a low voice, gesturing with one lightning claw.
"Search the entire facility. Confirm no survivors. And look for anything worth taking."
The five guards dispersed at once, chainswords and chainaxes back in hand, moving outward through the frozen robots and into the surrounding corridors. Tyberos watched them go, and then turned his lightless eyes back down toward Nolan.
"Lord Primarch." His voice had dropped further, not quite private, but pointed. "Abominable Intelligence is convenient. Effective. I am not disputing what I have just witnessed." He paused. "But do not forget the lessons that are written in human history for this. There are foundational reasons why the Void Father prohibited it."
Nolan was quiet for a moment.
"I understand your concern, Chapter Master. And I do not dismiss it." He chose his next words carefully. "But David may represent something different from what that prohibition was written against. He is not only my steward. He is a devout follower, loyal to the Emperor. What he is, and what the prohibition was meant to prevent, are not necessarily the same thing."
Tyberos looked at him for a long moment.
"You are the Primarch," he said finally. "The decision is yours to make."
He did not raise the subject again.
David arrived in the plaza shortly after, its tall figure moving with its usual slightly stooped gait through the rows of immobile machines, navigating around them with the ease of someone who had already memorised their positions. It stopped in front of Nolan and Tyberos and the blue light in its eyes shifted briefly, the way it always did when it was about to deliver something it considered significant.
"My lord. Chapter Master. In the course of analysing all of Zola's stored data, I have also obtained a complete picture of Hydra's base distribution and the truth of their internal structure."
Nolan had removed his helmet. He was watching David's face.
"Several distinct Hydra factions together formed what they called a Supreme Council. The actual controlling authority over that Council was not human." David's voice remained level and informational. "It was an alien entity, brought to this world by Hydra fundamentalists at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives. According to Zola's records, this entity is called the Hive."
The blue light pulsed once.
"The Council factions do not appear to have any genuine affection or respect for it. But to a meaningful extent, the Hive is the real master of Hydra. Has been, for some time."
Nolan looked at Tyberos. Tyberos looked at Nolan.
Nolan raised an eyebrow slowly, and the corner of his mouth pulled sideways into something that was not quite a smile.
"A Xeno," he said. "We do seem to encounter those with remarkable frequency."
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