Heliosa, Third Continent, War-Hold Forty-Nine.
The heavy lander set down outside the mountain pass. The warning lights shifted from red to green. As the ramp slowly descended, Wilshire stared at the black machines before him.
A golden light flickered in his eyes, like miniature suns.
The full-fledged "Notary" spoke in Dunnic: "In accordance with the 'Contract' that has been 'witnessed' between us, I now request your deployment."
"Execute Gabriel Attack Protocol. Target: Avenian."
From beneath the armor around the black machine's neck, the collar faintly glowed with golden light.
"I am the Overseer. I respond to your command." The machine, slightly smaller than a Warhound Titan, its joints showing signs of riveted coupling, straightened. A crimson light flickered atop its head.
Wilshire stepped back cautiously, watching as thirty intelligent machines formed up around the Overseer and marched down the ramp.
The disc atop the Overseer swiveled, its crimson light sweeping across the surrounding peaks.
Clang!
It strode forward. The intelligent machines fell into three precise rows around it.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
They marched in unison, their footsteps a single sound, heading towards the roar of boltguns and the flare of golden light.
Wilshire followed alongside the formation, watching their every move.
He saw the machines approach the Chapter's line. As their mechanical arms rose in unison, he instinctively tightened his grip on the control device in his left hand.
The Marshall of Ordnance, Gabriel, had embedded detonation runes in their control cores.
The "Notary" watched the silver holographic masks on the machines' faces, identical to those of the Olamic Quietude's Elite Warriors, bloom with red runes.
Beams of searing, blinding light, from the heat-ray guns in their hands, passed over the advancing Shadows of Order and struck the gleaming bridge.
With a deafening roar, light black armor shattered.
Wilshire's left hand relaxed slightly, but he still held the semi-oval control device.
The Shadows of Order parted to the sides. The Overseer strode forward.
Its crimson disc projected beams even brighter than the heat-rays, similar to the archaeotech pistol beams carried by Shadows of Order officers, harvested from planetary radiation layers.
The beams struck the Avenian warriors, who had been pouring down from the bridge's gaps. They pierced the power-armor-like reinforced fibers in an instant, erupting in gouts of black smoke.
The Avenian's resilient bones shattered, their bodies scattering.
The Overseer charged forward. The intelligent machines followed.
The Overseer swung its arms, wielding a power maul identical to those of the Olamic Quietude's Super-Elite Warriors.
Sizzle, sizzle...
Where the maul swept, the air rippled.
Crackle...
Amidst the detonating bursts, light black armor scattered like rags.
Five Avenian warriors were torn apart by the force field, exploding into bloody mist.
The Overseer stepped onto the bridge. The second and third rows of intelligent machines immediately formed a perimeter around it.
Boom, boom, boom...
Amidst the roaring energy whine, fleeting distortions flickered in the mountain air, like greasy fingers drawn across glass.
With a crisp snap, hyper-dense metal slugs, fired with immense penetrating power, left pinprick wounds in the light black armor, only to explode in a spray of gore upon exiting the Avenian bodies.
A dense hail of fire from the mountains hammered against the machine hulls.
On the black-painted metal bodies, the golden sun emblems on their chests were shattered, but the intelligent machines' attacks never ceased.
Wilshire watched the machines attack the surging tide of Avenian. Every heat-ray, every gravity slug, flew past the Shadows of Order.
He opened his helmet's internal comm channel, connecting to Gabriel.
"Marshall of Ordnance, your intelligent protocols have passed combat testing."
Gabriel's voice came through immediately: "Your Chapter need not fear intelligent machine betrayal."
"Even the Overseer's intelligence is not as advanced as the Slaughtersong's."
For the past decade, the Marshall of Ordnance had been conducting research on intelligent machines aboard the Second Chapter Master's flagship, the Dark Age of Technology intelligent ship.
The Slaughtersong's, with its unique artistic sensibilities, particularly its fondness for music appreciation, possessed far greater intelligence than the intelligent machines, programmed for guard duties, and the Overseers that supervised them.
"My Lord will be pleased with our achievement. Apart from the First Legion, granted by the Emperor, we are the only ones who command intelligent machines."
Wilshire brought his hands together in an inverted clasp, saluting the Black Emperor in orbit.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...
A shrieking cry broke his prayer. A golden light, edged with cold, flickered in his eyes as he looked towards the shrieking giant birds.
Over a hundred Shrike Riders screamed downwards.
Their snipers' rifles aimed at the bridge, unleashing a barrage.
Bullets hammered against an intelligent machine's holographic mask.
Bang!
The mask shattered, revealing a head covered in silver circuitry.
Boom!
The intelligent machine crashed to the ground. The control chip in its head was its weakness.
'It's time.' Wilshire strode onto the bridge. The heat-rays and gravity slugs from the machines arced around him.
The "Priest of Light" stepped forward, facing the diving Shrike Riders. He leaned back, spreading his arms wide, as if embracing the sun.
A pillar of pure, searing light descended, enveloping four Shrike Riders.
White feathers, black-armored forms, melted and dissolved under the "Holy Light."
As the golden motes faded, green lightning lanced towards them.
Captain Porti of the Seventh Chapter, seeing the signal flare skyward, led his company in a surprise assault.
Catachan wolves leaped up the mountainside, their claws gouging rock, their pads clinging to the crevices.
The "Pyromaniac" hurled "Blazing Spears" upward, their spirituality guiding the blazing white flames to strike the silver towers.
"Aaaah..."
Screams echoed through the valley. Charred, burning bodies tumbled from the towers, crashing into the Avenian crowed.
The surging Avenian line was thrown into chaos by the raining fire.
Crash!
A silver tower exploded. Blackened debris rained down, engulfing a dozen Avenian warriors.
Porti clamped his legs, and his Catachan wolf leaped high, clearing the bridge in a single bound.
The "Conspirer" thrust his hands forward. The compressed white-hot flame detonated, and countless fire-ravens erupted into the sky.
The scattered spirituality guided the ravens skyward, swarming in groups of three or five towards the white birds.
Bang, bang, bang...
Short, sharp explosions. A dozen shrikes were torn apart. White feathers scattered.
With a shriek, dozens of shrikes dove straight for Porti.
The "Conspirer" raised his hands. Two serpents of flame erupted from the ground, weaving a blazing wall above his head.
Bang, bang, bang...
Heavy impacts. The shrikes screeched in agony, their cries drowning out the Avenian riders' screams.
Woo!
Amidst the flames, a cold wind suddenly rose.
An icy gale, cold enough to freeze marrow, sprang from nowhere. The Catachan wolves shivered, their teeth chattering.
....
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