Dark Imperium
Page 37
He nodded reluctantly. When one joined a clan, one joined absolutely.
Lurrgol appeared amused by Stronos’ hesitation. ‘Kardaanus and Vand look forward to fighting under you, brother-sergeant.’
Stronos had never met the clave’s two heavy-weapon specialists, but somehow he found he knew them well. They had a shared appreciation of firepower. ‘I look forward to fighting alongside them as well. With all of my clan.’ He glanced at Jalenghaal’s brooding form as, with a serried click, Artisan Rawl’s lasers snapped back into folding sheaths.
It is done,’ said the artisan. ‘May the Omnissiah watch over this instrument of holy war. May the Motive Force move it. May the Machine God see it unmake the impure works of the heretic, the abomination and the alien.’ He made a complex concatenation of gestures.
‘Ave Omnissiah,’ the four Iron Hands legionaries rumbled in unison.
Stronos rose. The cot creaked with the removal of his immense weight. He risked a turn of the neck. Stiff, but the pain was bearable.
‘How does it feel?’ said Burr.
‘Weak.’
Stronos grunted as he pushed the softseals of arm and neck joints to run his fingers down the forgechain. The augmetic vertebrae symbolised acceptance into his new clan. The first that every new Scout received was the plain steel of Clan Dorrvok. Next down his chain was the opalxanthine of the Clan Vurgaan, followed now by the acid-etched gold rosarium of Clan Garrsak. He felt a frisson of connection to his prior, lesser selves, an unbroken chain that ran back, through his initiation, to his long-discarded humanity.
‘With this link we bind you to our clan,’ Jalenghaal intoned. There was a single century cog-stud bolted into his helm. He clasped Stronos’ wrist in a grip that was stronger than superhuman and harder than plasteel. Stronos returned it with equal stiffness.
‘You are fully connected?’ asked Burr.
Through the constant feed of inload/exload from individual to clave to clan, Stronos found that he could see the ident-runes of every battle-brother aboard the cruiser, the Alloyed. Recognised by the interlink manifold as a sergeant, he was able to pinpoint their approximate location, determine their combat status, listen in on private vox loops, and even see through a brother’s eyes by siphoning input from his visual feeds.
It felt… godlike.
‘I am.’
‘What is the calculus of battle?’
Stronos quickly read the runes. ‘Full-scale deployment. An example must be made.’
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