Magos Peclaw was furious. As one of the highest ranking
members of the Adeptus Mechanicus, such emotions did not come easily to him;
but this time someone had overstepped the mark. He perambulated through the
corridors of the Harpsichord at
great speed; carelessly knocking aside servitors and automated repair drones.
The engine bay of the great ship was only a few meters ahead and as he closed
the distance he felt his anger mounting further.
‘How dare he!?’ Peclaw thought, as he
emitted a shriek of agitated hexamathic code.
Reaching the engine room, the doors shot aside as if sensing
the wrathful approach of their master. Magos Peclaw crawled through the entrance
upon his many limbs; his ocular lenses focusing as he searched for the object
of his frustration. Across the room, he spied the robed form of adept Tarquon
working upon some enormous cable banks.
‘Adept
Tarquon!’ Peclaw raged, storming towards the aged Enginseer. ‘Cease your ministrations
and explain yourself immediately!’
Enginseer
Tarqon turned slowly to face his accuser. His bionic augmentations clanked as
he moved, the quality of the components much cruder than those possessed by
Magos Peclaw.
‘Honoured
Magos.’ Tarquon bowed slightly, making the sign of the cog with his mortal
hands. His servo arms continued to work on the exposed cabling even while his
back was turned.
‘I said
cease!’ Peclaw screamed, the force of his command causing Tarquon’s servos to
sieze momentarily. ‘What abomination are you creating here? What do you imagine
gives you the right to perform such experiments aboard my vessel? I demand that
you explain yourself immediately!’
Staring
up into his master’s withering stare, Tarquon replied ‘I am fully prepared to
give a complete explanation Magos; please bear with me a moment.’ He retreated
slightly to a nearby control console and made some swift adjustments. The blast
shutters slid back from the viewing station of the engineering bay and Tarquon
motioned for Magos Peclaw to join him at the viewport.
‘See
here, I have created a focusing array very similar to the Eradication Ray borne
by your esteemed self.’ He indicated a vast cylinder of focusing rings
extending outwards from the hull of the ship.
‘I see
what you have done,’ Peclaw replied scornfully ‘you should know that no experiments
in enlarging the size of Eradicator technology have yielded successful results.
The power demands are simply too great, even allowing for the most advanced
capacitance technology. You have been wasting your time when you should be
attending to your duties. The duties of an Enginseer!’ Here he paused and
leered down at Tarqon ‘Haven’t you got a Chimera to repair or something?’
Tarquon
furrowed his brow in annoyance ‘Magos Peclaw, I believe I have overcome the
capacitance problem using some of Archmagos Drecheyvac’s theorems-‘
Peclaw
cut him off ‘Drecheyvac! I should have known! I will be on my way to see that
old meddler next! I demand that you dismantle this ridiculous assemblage and
return my ship to full working order immediately-‘
Tarquon
interrupted, raising his voice ‘Magos please, if you will just allow me to
demonstrate. My Eradicator will work on a galactic scale, I am certain of it.’
He reached over to the control console and pressed a sequence of keys, the
whine of huge capacitors began to build in an ear splitting crescendo.
Despite
the mounting noise, the two Adepts of the Mechanicus continued to argue. Indeed
they were so incensed with one another that nobody was looking from the
viewport as the gigantic focusing array began to glow a ruddy pink with a
massive concentration of arcane power. As critical mass was achieved, the
energies released in an intense beam of etheric particles which covered the
distance to the nearest planet far faster than conventional physics would allow.
Unnoticed
by any living soul aboard the Harpsichord;
the tenth planet of the Charadon system evaporated quietly into non-existence.
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