The little that had been left standing of the ruined citywas gone, its prefabricated structures and multiple blocks flattened beneaththe plasmic pressure wave radiating from the centre of the devastation. LupaCapitalina shimmered in a distorting heat haze, wreathed in clouds of steam asits weapon arm vented super-heated plasma discharge. Its warhorn blared ascream of triumph, but even as Hawkins picked out its towering form through thesmoke and dust, the sound changed to one of anguish as it beheld thedestruction it had unleashed.
Canis Ulfrica swayed in front of the larger battle Titan,its right arm and much of its shoulder carapace simply burned away. Flames anddrooling cables that spat arcs of lightning guttered from the wound. With theaching slowness of a wounded Guardsman who’d only just realised the gunshot inhis chest was mortal, Canis Ulfrica sank to its knees with a booming crash thatreverberated around the training halls. She fell no further, and a shriekingwail of grieving binary issued from the augmitters of every member of the CultMechanicus.
Despite the losses his own men had suffered, Hawkins felttears prick the corners of his eyes to see so mighty a machine humbled. The twoWarhounds circled the fallen Reaver, their heads thrown back and their warhornsblasting out howls of primal loss.
As destructive as the plasma bolt loosed by Lupa Capitalinahad been in the training halls, it was nothing compared to the devastation yetto come. Confined in an oxygen-rich environment without the vastness of anatmosphere in which to dissipate its heat and ionising electrons, the plasmaburned volcanic as it streaked the length of the Speranza. It burned its waythrough the starboard solar collector arrays, shattering millions ofprecision-finished mirrors and melting support struts machined to nanoscopictolerances. The brittle detonations of countless looking-glasses sounded like aglassy sea crashing on a steel shore, and the reflected heat boiled the fleshfrom the bones of the floating servitors whose lives were spent in keeping themirrors free of imperfections.
Another bulkhead was sliced through with horrifying ease,the superstructure around the chamber sagging as a central tension bar snappedlike overstretched elastic. In the vaulted chambers behind the solarcollectors, vast capacitors, long since beyond the reach of any in the AdeptusMechanicus to reproduce, were reduced to thousands of tonnes of scrap metal asthe plasma bolt bored through machines dreamed into existence in a past age.Irreplaceable technology melted to molten slag and a thunderclap of electricaldischarge exploded from the mortally wounded machinery as it screamed in itsdeath-throes. Every metal structure within five hundred metres became lethallycharged with thousands of volts, and hundreds of ship-serfs died as they wereelectrocuted in leaping arcs of red lightning.
The hangars of titanic earth-moving machinery fared littlebetter, with a hive-dozer five hundred metres tall cored by the bolt. Fuelcells detonated explosively and the complex machinery at the heart of itsengineering deck was flooded with volatile electro-plasma backwash. Hard rubberwheels melted in the heat, and every transparisteel panel shattered withthermoplasmic bloom. A giant crane mechanism, capable of lifting starshipsbetween construction cradles, was struck amidships, and the entire upper assemblycrashed down into the hold, smashing itself to destruction on the way down anddoing irreparable damage to three Goliath lifters and a Prometheus-classexcavator.
And the rogue plasma bolt was still not spent.
The command deck shone with a blood-red light as alarms,damage reports and emergency subroutines flickered to life. The Speranza shookfrom end to end, and Archmagos Kotov felt her pain as it reverberated throughhis connection to the vast machine-spirit. Crackling arcs of power wreathed thearchmagos, earthing through microscopic dampers worked into his cybernetic bodyas he fought to keep control.
His senior magi were meshed with their stations, each onerelaying news of the effects of the disastrous weapon malfunction on thetraining deck. Magos Saiixek’s multiple arms danced over the engineeringconsoles, rerouting engine power from the bolt’s path, while Magos Azuramagellicharted potential exit points for an emergency warp translation. Magos Blaylockco-ordinated the ship’s emergency response as Kryptaestrex ran damage control.
None of the news was good.
‘Any more from Dahan?’ asked Kotov, already knowing theanswer.
‘Negative, archmagos,’ said Kryptaestrex. ‘His floodstreamis offline. He is likely dead.’
The inload from Magos Dahan had come to the command deckincomplete, and further requests for clarification remained unanswered. Thefragmentary data the Secutor magos had managed to exload before going offlinesuggested that one of the Titans of Legio Sirius had fired on another, but whathad driven it to do so remained unquantifiable.
Was is treachery? Had the rot of betrayal and corruptiontouched one of Sirius the way it had with Legio Serpentes on Uraniborg 1572?The thought sent a shudder of dislocative current through his body, and theSperanza groaned as it felt his fear. Was he to be forever cursed and tormentedby the Omnissiah? Was this crusade into the unknown not penance enough torestore him in its infinite graces and binary glory?
‘Starboard solar collectors are gone,’ said Tarkis Blaylock,restoring his focus. While Kotov was connected to the ship’s Manifold, Blaylockremained apart from it. To have both senior magi plugged in while such adisastrous turn of events was playing out was against procedure, but Kotovdesperately needed Blaylock’s statistical expertise to aid him in co-ordinatingthe emergency response of the Speranza.
If Kotov could not have Blaylock, then he would have thenext best thing. He exloaded a series of code-frequencies and brevet rankprotocols through the noosphere to Linya Tychon, together with a data-squirt ofwhat he required of her. She answered almost immediately, already aware of thedanger facing the Speranza. Her inload/exload capacity adjoined his own and theburden of processing the vast ship’s needs eased with another to help shoulderthe load.
Throughout the ship, every magos able to link with theManifold added their own capacity to calming the wounded vessel’s pain. Entiredecks echoed with binary prayers and machine code hymnals, echoing from prow tostern as the Cult Mechanicus bent its logical will to the restoration of purefunctionality.
‘Is the Geller field holding?’ asked Kotov, diverting ameasure of his attention to bridge control.
‘It’s holding,’ said Azuramagelli. ‘The field generators aresituated in the prow, but with the capacitors offline, their continuedoperation will burn through our reserves much quicker.’
‘Have you calculated an exit point?’
‘Working on it now,’ said Azuramagelli, managing to conveyhis irritation even through the expressionless vista of his brain jars.
‘Construction engine Virastyuk reports ninety per centdegradation of functionality,’ reported Magos Kryptaestrex, his sonorous voicelike that of a mother listing her dead children. ‘Lifter Nummisto is destroyed.Rigs Poundstone and Thorsen are damaged too. Badly.’
‘Where is the plasma fire now?’ demanded Kotov. ‘How far hasit burned?’
‘It is in the aft decks, burning through the transportholds,’ answered Blaylock. ‘Integrity fields have failed, and the loss ofatmosphere has helped bleed off 102K of plasmic energy, though the teslastrength of the bolt remains unaffected. Thirty-two per cent of our drop-shipfleet has been blown into the warp, together with forty-five per cent of theGuard’s armoured vehicles.’
Kryptaestrex grunted, his multiple arms and wide bodyjerking with the force of his displeasure.
‘The Cadians aren’t going to like that,’ he said.
‘If we cannot dampen this fire, then their dislikes will bethe least of our concerns,’ said Kotov. ‘When this is over, I will build themreplacements in the prow manufactories. Now where are my containment doors?’
‘Blast containment shields are raising between sections Z-3Tertius Lambda and X-4 Rho,’ said Blaylock, reading the damage-control inloadsfrom noospheric veils of light. ‘There is an eighty-three point seven per centchance they will not halt the blast and it will breach the main plasmacombustion chamber.’
‘But they will at least dampen its force?’
‘To some degree, yes,’ agreed Blaylock. ‘But given theenhanced conditions for plasma burn aboard ship, they will not stop it.’
‘Vent the chambers beyond,’ said Azuramagelli. ‘It’s theonly way.’
‘No,’ said Saiixek. ‘Those are the worker habs for theengineering decks. I need those menials to maintain engine efficiency.Diverting to obtain more would greatly delay our mission.’
- Priests of Mars