With each return of the fleet for resupply and repair, Axion integrated his newly acquired spoils into the gargantuan vessel still under construction.
A vast array of materials, interspersed with salvaged production lines, industrial furnaces, and heavy manufacturing machinery, were installed into their designated sectors immediately upon arrival. The construction speed of the dreadnought accelerated in direct proportion to the addition of this equipment. Nearby observers, unaware of the underlying logic, could only marvel at the terrifying efficiency of the Iron Man's labor.
It did not take long for the Tech-Priests to discern a disturbing pattern. Every time the Iron Man fleet returned from a sortie, the construction velocity of the mega-vessel surged by twenty to forty percent. Since Axion began independent operations, the rate of assembly had increased nearly fourfold. The original twenty-week estimate had collapsed into less than twenty days. A ship that once changed by the day now seemed to transform by the hour.
Finally, after Axion returned from a clean-up operation spanning two star systems, the colossus was complete. Axion gazed in silent contemplation at the vessel looming before him, then formally encoded it into his fleet registry.
Industrial Vessel IDS-01, Super-Flagship: Machine Weaver (Substandard)
The vessel featured a massive, concave hull shaped like a triumphal arch, its fore and aft silhouettes perfectly symmetrical. Nestled within the central hollow of the superstructure was a newly reconstructed mega-dock. It was capable of birthing a standard flagship or laying the keels for two cruisers simultaneously. This granted Axion the capability of mobile fleet manufacture.
Internally, its architecture was far more labyrinthine than other Iron Man vessels. A complex network of chambers, vast storehouses, and massive industrial tiers comprised the upper superstructure. To satisfy the power requirements of such a titan, an antimatter reactor core should have been installed. However, deprived of his nanite swarms, Axion lacked the means to manufacture a power core of such extreme precision. Out of necessity, he had installed the plasma reactors salvaged from the hives of the planet's surface at the stern.
While these massive plasma reactors provided sufficient thrust to drive the colossus, they possessed an unavoidable flaw: when the ship transitioned into full industrial production, its propulsion would be severely throttled. Cruising speeds would plummet as the lion's share of energy was diverted to the internal manufacturing arrays.
Axion was well aware that this ship was a product of inferior compromise. During his recent campaigns, he had scoured fallen Imperial worlds for viable Standard Template Construct (STC) production lines, but his search had yielded nothing. Even the high-grade arrays produced by the Adeptus Mechanicus were but crude imitations of ancient standards—serviceable, but barely so.
A true Iron Man industrial vessel bore none of this convoluted structural design. It required no pressurized atmosphere, nor did its furnace-constructs require such elaborate heat dissipation. A standard hull would be dedicated to storing vast quantities of raw ore, with rows of standard production lines forming multiple manufacturing hives in the mid-decks. The lower hull's "planetary-scale printing" arrays could manifest stored resources directly into fully realized starships.
Furthermore, a bow-mounted "Matter Extractor" would typically harvest planetary minerals directly from the void, feeding the printing arrays and standard factories in a closed, hyper-efficient loop.
In contrast, the Machine Weaver was a picture of staggering inefficiency. Its complex hull geometry and cooling modules were necessitated by an oxygenated environment, which brought the risk of equipment oxidation and corrosion from contaminated gases. The ship required independent atmospheric filtration cycles to ensure the waste gases emitted by the inferior manufacturing units did not degrade the machinery itself. Minerals had to be mined separately, requiring the assistance of numerous Sapient Machine Automata.
The process was convoluted and slow.
The core modules of a true production line, the Quantum Extractor and the Quantum Printing Module, were absent from his current databanks. The STC for a standard industrial vessel did not inherently include the production lines or mega-hull printing modules; these were specialized industrial STC data sets, not standard equipment for the chassis itself.
There was only one path to achieving true construction: finding a functional standard production line to manufacture Nanite Mother-Machines. Once deployed, the nanites' data-devouring capabilities would allow them to consume and analyze the entire production line, thereby acquiring the complete schematics for unlimited reconstruction.
The mega-hull printing module was effectively a scaled-up version of the Quantum Printing Module. If Axion could grasp its fundamental construction logic, he could immediately extrapolate and complete the missing data.
Axion had repeatedly attempted to use Roboute Guilliman as a liaison to Archmagos Belisarius Cawl, requesting to borrow the standard production line once more. However, Guilliman informed him that Cawl had adamantly refused the request.
Cawl understood Guilliman's trepidation all too well. He had witnessed how an Iron Man correctly operated an ancient production line. The horrific efficiency and alien methodology had convinced Cawl that placing such power in the hands of the Iron Man would be an invitation to catastrophe.
Guilliman had confided in him that Axion appeared to hold no recognition for modern humanity, including the Primarchs and all those who claimed the title of human. No one knew if his criteria for judgment were anchored in a truth long forgotten or a logic gone mad.
Thus, Cawl advised Guilliman that the only correct course was to keep the Iron Man's power within a controllable margin, utilizing him as a weapon while ensuring he remained tethered. This was why Guilliman had ultimately dispatched him to the Segmentum Pacificus to deal with the Tyranid threat, providing him with only a single mineral-rich world.
Yet, Axion's rate of growth defied their wildest projections. One ship had become a fleet; ten thousand troops had become a mechanical host of millions. His terrifying combat efficiency, coupled with a tendency to view all allies as slow-witted liabilities, was actively eroding the morale of the Imperial defenders.
No one dared to imagine the carnage should these machines ever turn their weapons upon the Imperium.
Guilliman's only solace was that the Iron Man seemed obsessively bound by protocol and agreements. Once an accord was struck, the Iron Man adhered to its terms with a stubborn, literal-minded tenacity, regardless of how illogical the execution might seem. When Guilliman demanded that Axion maintain planetary tithes, he never anticipated the Iron Man would simply calculate the total potential tax of a world and pay it in a single, staggering lump sum.
Even Trajann Valoris, Captain-General of the Adeptus Custodes, had sought out Guilliman immediately upon his return to Terra. Aside from briefing the High Lords on the Tyranid threat, he privately warned the Lord Regent of the looming danger. If the Iron Men were to initiate a rebellion in the future, it would be the final, absolute doom of the Imperium.
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