The Tech-Priests were not the only ones reaping a harvest. Techmarines from the Imperial fleet and their Astartes brethren were equally occupied. Because they had arrived later than the initial Adeptus Mechanicus vanguard, they bypassed the outer hundreds of meters of the Arks' structure, choosing instead to delve deep into the interior following the wake of the advancing Iron Men.
It did not take long for these Astartes, drawn from various Chapters, to discover relics of significant value.
One Deathwatch Kill-team stumbled upon a compartment containing a vast cache of discarded Mark II and Mark III Power Armour. The suits were marred by the scars of ancient battles, and the remains within had long since turned to dust; the heraldry on the plates remained the only testament to their identity.
As the investigation pressed deeper, they were stunned to find that the remains belonged not just to the Imperial Fists, but to the once-loyal elements of the Word Bearers and the Death Guard. Based on the cranial structures of the skeletons preserved within the ceramite, these warriors had likely fallen during the Great Crusade.
Several Blackshields stood in silence, staring at the armor and the bones. No one could say for certain why these disparate Astartes had been gathered in one place, only to die together.
Extracting data from shattered servo-skulls and lingering logic-engines, the Techmarines carefully recovered critical logs. These warriors were Loyalist stragglers who had been lost in the Warp while following the Emperor's Great Crusade.
After the remains were solemnly gathered, every shoulder guard was meticulously identified. The martyrs hailed from two tactical squads of the Imperial Fists' 3rd Company, a reconnaissance element of the Death Guard's 8th Great Company, and a support squad from the Word Bearers' 5th Company.
Their remains were recovered, and their identities re-verified in the annals of the Imperium. Even though the Death Guard and Word Bearers had turned Traitor, the Imperium would not deny the service of those who had remained steadfast. The wargear of the Imperial Fists would be returned to their Phalanx or Chapter Monastery, while the remains of the others would be interred with full honors alongside their equipment.
In the lower strata of another Ark, several pristine Baneblade super-heavy tanks were recovered, along with two Contemptor Dreadnoughts bearing the iconography of the Blood Angels. The Dreadnoughts were unresponsive, their sarcophagi long since gone cold. When discovered, they were housed within a failed stasis field; the flesh within had long ago withered into necrotic waste.
By examining the Mechanicus seals stamped onto the chassis, the Techmarines determined their date of manufacture. Both had been forged before the outbreak of the Horus Heresy. Their frames were bristling with martial might, equipped with Jotun-pattern Dreadnought Power Fists featuring built-in storm bolters, as well as Kheres-pattern Assault Cannons and twin-linked heavy bolters.
These ancient weapons systems were far more advanced than the ubiquitous Mark VIII Absolo-pattern assault cannons currently in service. The Havoc Launchers and Cyclone Missile Launchers mounted upon their carapaces further emphasized the overwhelming firepower of these elder patterns.
Furthermore, the presence of Atomantic Shield Generators, mysterious devices that provided the Dreadnoughts with formidable protection, was a significant find. The Legio Cybernetica had once mastered this technology, but through the attrition of endless war, low production yields, and the High Lords' inherent distrust of the Cybernetica, the secret of their manufacture had slipped away from the Priesthood's active archives. Consequently, modern Imperial Dreadnoughts lacked energy shielding, relying instead on thick slabs of reinforced plating for survival.
…
As the Imperial forces were busy scavenging, the mechanical legions began their withdrawal, marching back toward the surface of the Arks of Omen. Massive heavy carriers established gravity wells to recover the cargo pods that had been deployed earlier.
To the Iron Men, these massive space hulk conglomerates had lost their utility. While they contained ancient wreckage, its antiquity was limited. Axion had found no trace of Iron Men vessels or remnants from the Dark Age of Technology this time.
Most of the data recovered was functionally useless to him, merely footnotes to existing historical records or minor "war stories" from localized war zones. Such information, which would have been priceless to an Astartes Chapter, was mere "trash data" to Axion, whose singular focus was the history of the era before the Imperium's rise.
The silver mechanical army flowed back to their ships like a receding tide. Once the recovery was complete, the fleet weighed anchor. Without a moment's hesitation, the massive armada vanished back into the great Warp-routes.
They left behind a stunned and bewildered Imperial fleet.
Axion had considered reclaiming the raw materials from the hulls, but purifying ship sections tainted by the Warp required total deconstruction and smelting. With so many Imperial personnel currently swarming the wrecks, evicting them was deemed impractical. Furthermore, with his fleet now fully formed, Axion's need for raw materiel was no longer as desperate as it once had been. He set his course for Segmentum Pacificus; the Tyranid bio-forms contained exotic extra-galactic materials that were far more rare and valuable.
Back on the Arks, the eyes of the Tech-Priests immediately fell upon the Heavy Automated Defense Turrets the Iron Men had left behind. To Axion, these were rudimentary disposable units. He had only constructed them because the carrying capacity of his nanite swarms was finite; had he consumed everything in his path without expending material, the swarms would have reached saturation before hitting the Arks' cores. It was more efficient to expend excess matter on simple defensive emplacements.
Even so, these turrets remained magnets for the Tech-Priests' curiosity. This time, however, the priests dared not make a move.
Since the return of the Wrath of Fenris, Tech-Priests aboard the Battle Barges and Navy transports had been filing reports to Mars regarding the Iron Men. After extracting the combat logs from the Space Wolves' power armor, the resulting data had sent shockwaves through the entire Adeptus Mechanicus.
Many began to accuse Belisarius Cawl of concealing the truth regarding the Iron Men. Cawl, for his part, maintained an expression of total bewilderment.
Eventually, the Archmagi of the Mechanicus gathered information on Axion through various channels. They even quietly obtained records from the Inquisition regarding Caiz, a Reclaimator on the fringes of Segmentum Tempestus who had previously made contact with the Iron Men. With this mountain of data assembled, a massive, clandestine long-range conclave was convened.
The result of this meeting was the "Iron Men Contact Protocols"—a document whose importance rivaled that of the Codex Astartes. This directive detailed exactly how the Priesthood should interact with this "Ancient Legacy" and its creations. It explicitly forbade any member of the Adeptus Mechanicus from touching or attempting to deconstruct any automaton under Axion's command without his express authorization.