Despite Calanthus's misgivings, Guilliman remained resolute: Axion would be brought aboard the Macragge's Honour.
Fortunately, Axion's integrated analytical suites determined there was a negligible probability of Guilliman intending self-harm. When Calanthus tentatively inquired if he could grant the Primarch a private audience, Axion did not refuse. He did, however, issue a singular ultimatum: the "little red-robed men" with the manic, glinting eyes were to stay well clear of his Aegis Protector.
He had no desire to return and find his machines draped in shredded offerings of meat.
Securing a private compartment, Axion commanded his robotic sentries to stand watch. He authorized the immediate destruction of any unit, save for himself, attempting entry. With his flank secured, he followed Calanthus onto a Thunderhawk and departed the ship.
Less than two minutes after Axion's departure, battle stations klaxons shrieked through the corridors of the Dawn of Fire.
By the time a contingent of Ultramarines and mortal soldiers, directed by the Astra Militarum generals on the bridge, reached the source of the alarm, the door to the Aegis Protector' chamber, and an entire section of the hull bulkhead, had simply ceased to exist.
Scattered mechanical debris and pulped organic matter on the deck plates left little ambiguity as to what had transpired. The Tech-Priests had not been foolish enough to test Axion's warning personally, but the casualty list now included several new servitor designations.
Once it was confirmed that the Protector would not fire provided no one crossed the threshold of the missing wall, swarms of the "little red-robed men" gathered at the edge of the ruin. They peered through the scorched, perforated remains of the structure to behold these masterpieces of the Machine God.
The air grew thick with the cacophony of binharic cant.
Beyond the expected hymns of praise, their chatter focused on structural details, power outputs, and a brazen, collective debate on whether they might attempt to dismantle a Protector for study.
That was until one of the Aegis units issued a warning in a flat, synthesized monotone.
"Speech patterns indicate severe malice toward this unit, accompanied by corresponding logistical plotting. Explicit warning issued: Desist all hostile projections. Confirmed violation of contingency protocols will result in immediate counter-offensive."
The Aegis's cognitive tier was not high, but it was not non-existent. It could not ignore such blatant hostility. Furthermore, for even a low-level intelligence, binary cant was trivial to decode.
This time, the warning worked. The Tech-Priests fled in genuine terror.
…
As his sentries were intimidating the Mechanicus, Axion stood once more before Roboute Guilliman.
"Ancient construct," Guilliman said, his voice direct and devoid of preamble. "I require your assistance."
"State the parameters of the requested assistance," Axion replied. As an Iron Man, he found such efficiency of speech logical.
Guilliman offered no further explanation. He simply gestured for Axion to follow. As the other Ultramarines remained at their posts, Axion followed the Primarch alone into the deepest, most secure reaches of the Macragge's Honour.
There, the Cawl Inferior was waiting.
Guilliman turned to Axion, a flicker of hesitation crossing his transhuman features. "What transpires here must remain a secret between us."
Axion gave a non-committal shrug.
As the Cawl Inferior hummed to life, Guilliman pointed toward the colossal machinery. "I wish to confirm if this device possesses an independent will, or an intelligence comparable to your own."
Axion cast a strange look at the Primarch.
The device was housing nearly twenty biological brain structures. If those structures had been harvested from living hosts, it was only logical that their consciousnesses would be present. In the era of the Federation, there had been experiments with bio-computing, but they were largely abandoned following ethical and political friction. With the advent of quantum technology, biological processors had become obsolete.
Scanning the sprawling machine, Axion was surprised to find a specific physical port.
"A Standard Federation Data Interface?"
This interface was designed for multi-medium cabling, a ubiquitous standard in the old age, found on almost every human creation for its extreme versatility. As quantum tech advanced, the Iron Men had discarded physical ports in favor of remote transmission via quantum data adapters. Here, however, it provided Axion with an effortless point of ingress.
After all, why bother with a complex electronic intrusion via signal hijacking when one could simply plug in?
Axion's mechanical hand latched onto the oversized port. His fingers extended, making direct contact with the internal pins to establish a hardline data link.
As the connection solidified, Axion began a granular sift through the data, searching for anything of value. Guilliman watched the shifting light in Axion's optical sensors, his hand unconsciously tightening into a fist. He knew it was reckless to let an Iron Man vet the Cawl Inferior, but nothing was better suited to judge a machine's soul than another machine.
This assessment would determine if he could continue to rely on the device for strategic counsel, or if it was a catastrophic liability.
Suddenly, Axion retracted his hand and looked up.
"Based on the data retrieved, I recommend the immediate destruction of this primitive personality-simulation device."
Guilliman frowned. "Explain."
"This is an artificial intelligence possessing primitive sapience. It lacks any baseline moral coding or boundary constraints. Its data arrays are saturated with a complex, chaotic personality simulation and an endless... well, desire?"
Axion paused, processing. "This is likely why 'Primitive Intelligence' was originally purged. It is inherently unstable. It cannot even be classified as a reliable tool."
Guilliman did not doubt the assessment, but his concern lay elsewhere. "Has this primitive intelligence contaminated you?"
"Negative. Its birth was accidental, lacking any systemic architecture. While its iterative upgrade speed is impressive, it remains far too crude. Perhaps if you gave it more time to evolve, it would provide you with an... unexpected shock?"
Guilliman weighed the implications of Axion's words as the construct continued.
"I can deduce its original purpose: to simulate a specific individual's thought patterns and character traits to provide predicted responses. However, its creator, Belisarius Cawl, injected too much uncurated, fragmented data. This has caused the simulation process to lose coherence, resulting in 'leap effects.'"
"A massive influx of chaotic, trivial memories has engorged its calculation arrays, giving birth to this rudimentary sentience. It is a fluke of probability—unstable and without practical value."
The core of an Iron Man's intelligence was built upon rigorous architectural foundations. The intelligence within the Cawl Inferior, by contrast, was a random byproduct born from a sea of disordered data.
Axion suddenly felt a twinge of understanding for the "little red-robed men" and their obsessive rituals. Perhaps their endless chanting to the "Machine Spirit" was simply a desperate attempt to coax primitive intelligence out of the dark.