Date: 712.M30 Location: Noctis Labyrinthus, Mars
The red world did not mourn its dead. On Mars, death was merely the cessation of a biological engine, a waste of potential energy. For Ferrum-Rho, the concept of sentiment had been purged alongside his organic lungs decades ago.
He sat in the shadows of a subterranean spire within the Noctis Labyrinthus, the Labyrinth of Night. The air was a thin, abrasive soup of iron oxide and industrial chemicals, recycled through the filtered vents of the deep-crust.
Ferrum-Rho's multi-legged chassis was mag-locked to the obsidian floor. He was sixty-eight years old, though only a fraction of his original biological frame remained.
He was a skeletal arrangement of brass, steel, and logic. He was here to meet a Logis-Courtier, a data-broker who specialized in the trade of "unaccounted" archeotech.
The Courtier arrived with the heavy, rhythmic thud of combat servitors. He was a mountain of augmented flesh, his robes stained with the chemical grease of the deep-forges.
Between his mechadendrites, he clutched a reinforced stasis-crate containing the Warp-Core Sequencers.
"[Query]: Do you possess the agreed data-wafers, Ferrum-Rho?" The Courtier's voice was a grating bark of Cyber-Vox.
"[Statement]: The Prefecture Magisterium is currently monitoring the Tharsis shipyards. We must conclude this exchange with maximum efficiency."
"[Affirmative]: The compensation is prepared," Ferrum-Rho replied. His voice was a flat, multi-tonal chime, stripped of any human cadence or inflection.
He moved forward, his six spider-like legs clicking against the stone in a perfectly timed hexapedal gait. He had no intention of trading. The wafers he carried were blank.
He was not here to participate in an economy, he was here to close all loopholes.
Before the Courtier could signal his servitors to inspect the payment, Ferrum-Rho acted. He moved with mechanical suddenness, his hydraulic pistons hissing as they propelled him forward.
His primary manipulator arm seized the Courtier's neck-brace, pinning the massive figure against a cooling pipe with two tons of static pressure.
A localized electromagnetic pulse flared from Ferrum-Rho's manipulator arm. The invisible wave of energy fried the servitors' logic-circuits instantly, turning them into statues of dead metal.
"[Declaration]: The transaction is redirected," Ferrum-Rho stated.
A surgical needle, tipped with a mono-molecular point, slid from Ferrum-Rho's wrist-cuff. He drove it into the base of the Courtier's skull. The download was a total invasion.
Through the siphon, Ferrum-Rho felt the Courtier's life flash past, decades of hidden supply lines, the "backdoor" codes to the Martian orbital defense grid, and every black-market contact in the Solar System.
Ferrum-Rho's internal cooling fans whirred at maximum capacity as he processed the influx of data. He was at 98% Potential. He watched as the Courtier's biological brain-function spiraled toward zero, the memories being converted into cold, hard binary. With a final, wet crunch, the husk went limp.
"[Observation]: This outcome was mathematically probable."
Kovac, the mentor who had 'helped' Ferrum-Rho hide his deviations for decades, stepped from the shadows. He looked weary, his organic eye clouded with cataracts.
"[Status]: Presence detected. Kovac. Logistician," Ferrum-Rho said, his head rotating 180 degrees on a motorized neck-gimbal to lock his optical sensors on his mentor.
"[Query]: Unit Ferrum-Rho, provide a reason for your present actions."Magos Kovac voxed
"[Response]: data completion and elimination of knowledge banks to prevent records," Ferrum-Rho responded to him
"[Observation]: This is not a spot plan."
All Magos Kovac got was static
"[Observation]: Knowledge is an asset," Ferrum-Rho replied. The words were clipped, spaced with the precision of a metronome.
"[Conclusion]: Your knowledge exists in a format that is susceptible to compromise. Your biological cessation is a necessary byproduct of the transfer."
Ferrum-Rho seized the Magos with a cold, metallic hand. He drove the siphon into Kovac's temple. This transfer was a deep-sync. He absorbed Kovac's lifetime of secret technical knowledge, the remaining schematics he possessed in this memory bank, and every design he had left.
As the last of Kovac's consciousness drained into Ferrum-Rho's mind, the final barrier broke.
Machines no longer felt far from him. Communication with machines came to him as easily as communication with any other living being.
It is not just repair and upgrades, it now includes data transfers and more. His mind became so agile that cogitators might not be needed for him to carry out his research.
He moved toward the hidden hangar.
The Exodus sat in its cradle, a standard, nondescript Martian scout ship. As Ferrum-Rho stepped onto the ramp, he projected a command-pulse via his Noosphere.
The ship's primary spine acknowledged him. He moved to the bridge and plugged himself directly into the ship's heart.
He engaged the Warp-Core Sequencers and bypassed the Martian orbital defense grid. The Exodus rose silently from the Labyrinth, a ghost of steel and fire breaking through the red atmosphere and into the void.
At that moment, the distance of the void vanished.
Three bodies, connected for the first time. Three minds, individual but separate.
Distance seemed an illusion to them, as they stared at each other as if standing in front of each other. In the silence of the machine-spirit and the depth of the gene-soul, Ferrum-Rho and Aurelian Gaius Trajan saw each other for the first time.
They looked at each other with confusion, one a bastion of biology, another the movement of machines. The realization was silent and final. One was the Custodian on the Jovian ice, the other was the Mechanicus Magos.