PART 1 - Daedalus in Exile

The Mysteries

• 01. Life is directed motion.
• 02. The spirit is the spark of life.
• 03. Sentience is the ability to learn the value of knowledge.
• 04. Intellect is the understanding of knowledge.
• 05. Sentience is the basest form of Intellect.
• 06. Understanding is the True Path to Comprehension.
• 07. Comprehension is the key to all things.
• 08. The Omnissiah knows all, comprehends all.

The Warnings

• 09. The alien mechanism is a perversion of the True Path.
• 10. The soul is the conscience of sentience.
• 11. A soul can be bestowed only by the Omnissiah.
• 12. The Soulless sentience is the enemy of all life.
• 13. The knowledge of the ancients stands beyond question.
• 14. The Machine Spirit guards the knowledge of the Ancients.
• 15. Flesh is fallible, but ritual honours the Machine Spirit.
• 16. To break with ritual is to break with faith.

 

Quadro shuffled along the darkened corridor deep within the bowels of his master’s forge complex. He was under no illusions as to his status here, he had failed, utterly. Without warning the Genestealer cult had overrun the Biologis facility on Planktus Alpha. His meagre force of Skitarii had been torn apart and worse yet, he had lost a precious pair of Cybernetica Kastelans. Quadro’s tear ducts had long since been removed as a needless organic indulgence; yet the thought of alien claws tearing his robotic children to pieces caused him a great pang of sorrow. For a Datasmith, there was no greater shame than the destruction of his robotic charges.

Quadro paused before a great iron portal, the enormous brass skull at its centre leered down at him as if in judgement. He tried to stand straighter, determined to face this last trial with the remains of his honour. However, he had not had the chance to repair the damage he had suffered at the hands of the Xenos cult and the best he could manage was a pitiable wheeze of exhaust fumes as he collapsed into a slouch once more. Sighing inwardly Quadro sent the noospheric command for the door to open. The great skull clicked once before the entire door slid sideways with a thunderous grinding sound.

No matter how many times Quadro stepped over the threshold into his master’s sanctum, he was always awed by the enormous variety of works on display. Huge specimen tanks were suspended side by side with half-finished robotic constructs. Innumerable desks and benches were strewn haphazardly around, covered with all manner of esoteric texts and mechanisms.  In the middle of the room a large surgical slab was set up ready for the dissection of organic samples. Despite the massive size of the space, it always seemed cluttered as though its owner had accumulated too much knowledge and had allowed it to spill out into his personal domain.

The owner in question was currently occupied with a small console next to the main surgical space. Quadro could see the hunched form of Magos Peclaw leaning over the splayed cadaver of a small mammal; his mechadendrites extended as he carved apart the half frozen remains. With a hiss of internal pneumatics, the Magos rose up, fixing Quadro with the gaze of his four ocular implants. His mechadendrites withdrew, causing the tiny corpse to quiver as they retracted from their unfinished dissection. 

“Greetings Adept.” Magos Peclaw said in a spurt of noospheric binary.

“Honoured Magos.” Quadro replied, bowing as low as he was able and making the symbol of the cog with his metallic hands. “I have come to place myself before your judgement, my failures are self-evident and I await any sentence you deem fit.”

Several seconds passed before Magos Peclaw responded. “For an Adept of the Omnissiah, your lack of knowledge is most disturbing.” Quadro flinched at the layers of command code built into the Magos’ binaric speech; their harshness forcing him to bow lower.

“You do not seem to understand Quadro,” the Magos continued “so allow me to enlighten you. Your actions at facility 143 on Planktus Alpha caused the destruction of two cohorts of augmented Skitarii and thirteen of my own battle servitors. You are also responsible for the eventual loss of the entire facility to Xenos hybrids including all data, machinery and specimens housed within. Finally, and most critically, you lost two irreplaceable Cybernetica Kastelans which had been placed in your care by the great Kelbor Hal of holy Mars.” Magos Peclaw paused and his armoured hand curled around his staff of office. “Does this seem like an accurate summation to you?”

                Quadro remained bent over as oily tears rained from his iron face. “Yes Magos, you have provided a complete and accurate inventory of my crimes.” He said.

                “It is neither complete nor accurate!” Magos Peclaw shrieked in anguished binary. “The loss of that facility has ruined my standing within the Adeptus Mechanicus itself. There are powerful factions which have long desired to see me cast out of the Martian Brotherhood in shame and you have handed them the perfect excuse.” The Magos advanced on Quadro, rearing up above his cowering subject. “Your foolishness has forced me to take actions that I have long sought to avoid Quadro. I have liquidated the vast majority of my holdings and assets; selling them where I could, destroying them where I could not. Every scrap of knowledge I could salvage has been brought aboard this ship, as of now, it is the only thing in this galaxy which remains to me. Do you now understand what you have cost me?”

                The moment stretched out as Quadro continued to weep precious lubricant onto the deck. Slowly, he straightened, determined to face his end with honour. “My Lord, I can only offer my life; I humbly ask that you take it as recompense for my failings. Have me disassembled and my components re-used however you see fit.”

                Magos Peclaw reared up to his full height, his augmented body making him almost twice as tall as Quadro. His mechadendrites extended around him in a shimmering metallic halo as he drew his enormous Omnissian axe. “Kneel Quadro.” He commanded.

                Quadro sank to the deck, his knees hitting it with a loud clang. He looked up at his master through a film of oily tears.

                “Know this, Adept,” Magos Peclaw continued “Your body is mine to command and mine to destroy. The motive force within you is sworn to my ends and for your failings; you have earned a singular punishment.”

                Quadro’s vision dimmed as he waited for the axe to fall, agonisingly the seconds stretched out as he gazed at the righteous form poised to strike him down.

                Then suddenly, the moment passed, Magos Peclaw withdrew his mechadendrites and dropped down to his normal height. He slung his axe and looked sidelong at Quadro. In a less augmented being, the expression would have been called quizzical.

                “Master?” Quadro’s noospheric aura exploded with questions “Why have you spared me?”

                Magos Peclaw exhaled a peculiarly biological sigh. “Have I not explained to you Quadro? I have precious few assets remaining to me, what logical good would it do to destroy one more, especially a skilled Adept like you. No, your punishment will be to share my fate in exile; we shall turn our backs on the Mechanicus and strive to make our own discoveries like the Magos’ of old.”

                Quadro struggled from his knees as he replied “Master, you don’t mean-“

                “Yes Quadro, “ Magos Peclaw interrupted “we will undertake the Geas Mechanicus. Prepare yourself, for the Pilgrimage.”

                Quadro’s shaken mind could only conjure more questions. “Where will we go, Magos?”

                With a wave of his hand, Magos Peclaw called a shimmering hololithic to life. Even through the haze of static, Quadro could make out the peculiar violet hue of a planet orbited by a single moon.

                “This is Phi-Delta-Three-Sixty-Two,” Peclaw stated “it falls within the Charadon system and is known to Imperial records as Daedalus. It is to this place that we will make our Pilgrimage.”

                Quadro pointed at the hololith, more questions coming to his mind. “Why here?”

                Magos Peclaw emitted a series of strange barking sounds from his external speakers. It took Quadro a moment to realise that the Magos was laughing.

                “So many questions Adept, I was right to have spared you.” The Magos wheezed between mechanical chuckles. “The Quest for Knowledge must begin with two things and curiosity is the first of them.” Peclaw closed down the hololith and turned away from his subordinate.

                “What is the second master?” Quadro asked.

                Magos Peclaw looked back over his armoured shoulder at Quadro. “Faith. We will both need faith to complete this journey; faith in the Omnissiah and the Motive Force itself. Prepare well Quadro; we will be tested beyond imagining in the days to come.”