9: Chapter 9 Mechanical Reaper and the Light of Promethium

Cassius desperately activated his multi-legged platform's maximum speed, but an Ork jumped onto his back, its crude Choppa hacking fiercely at his mechanical head—

A blue beam of light shot out, piercing through the Ork's chest.

It was Icarus's rescue; when these fellows entered its optical detection range, its database retrieved The Main Brain's early warning.

The warning was pinned to the top of the log:

[Threat Level: High. Defense Protocol: Fully Activated.]

It switched from hovering state to combat stance.

Eight Construction Drones unfurled like petals, hidden weapon interfaces emerging from behind the waist armor. Icarus did not use the drones this time, nor did it immediately deploy the defense positions within the base—it planned to test the capabilities of these greenskins before deciding whether to prepare for a relocation.

[Knight Mode Activated.]

Icarus's mechanical structure began to reorganize. The back armor plates spread to both sides, revealing a complex internal weapon mounting system. Two mechanical arms retracted, replaced by heavy weapon mounting platforms extending from the shoulders.

The projection of a Gauss Machine Gun Tower unfolded in front of it, but this time the command was not to build, but to [Summon].

The defense tower, which should have been fixed to the ground, appeared in the air as a holographic projection in front of Icarus.

Within milliseconds, the projection gradually solidified and then... docked with Icarus's weapon platform.

Its hands became two Gauss machine guns.

[Ammunition Link Established. Energy Supply: 100%. Firing Authorization: Released.]

Icarus's sensors locked onto the densest area of the Ork swarm.

[Purge Protocol: Executed.]

Brass bullets in the ammunition bay began to flow, continuously loading into the Gauss machine guns.

The roar of the Gauss accelerators shook the battlefield. Metal slugs tore through the air at speeds invisible to the naked eye, each shot exploding into a spray of flesh within the Ork clusters. The green tide was forcibly torn open, severed limbs and broken bodies falling like harvested straw.

Icarus was calculating.

Ballistic trajectories. Hit rate. Ammunition consumption. Enemy swarm density. Data streams refreshed frantically within its core processor, generating optimization curves.

Efficiency insufficient—decision finalized.

Icarus raised an arm and made a concise gesture toward the rear.

The missile towers in the base behind it began to rotate, six missiles igniting simultaneously, screaming into the sky trailing bright exhaust flames. They traced perfect arcs through the sky, passing over the hovering Icarus and slamming precisely into the heart of the Ork swarm.

The light of the explosions illuminated the gloomy sky. Their severed limbs and shattered weapons were frozen in time by the firelight.

The flames engulfed the roar of the WAAAGH!, replaced by the thunder of explosions.

The Skitarii soldiers stopped firing, watching this scene in stunned silence.

Gluck gripped his Rad-carbine tighter. He had seen Warhound-class Titans fire, seen Knights charge, but he had never seen... anything like this. The machine didn't roar, didn't shout, didn't even move—it simply hovered there, carrying out a massacre with absolute precision and efficiency.

In just two minutes, the Ork wave was completely crushed. The surviving greenskins began to flee, or more accurately: retreat.

Icarus raised its arm again, making the same concise gesture.

The missile towers spat out several more missiles, precisely hitting the fleeing Orks one by one.

The consumption of excess firepower was not within the calculations of Icarus's core program; every enemy not eliminated would always appear from an unpredictable place and destroy the production line, causing even greater losses—this was its past combat experience.

[Threat Cleared. Remaining Hostile Units: 0.]

Icarus disarmed and landed in front of the Skitarii squad. Its optical lens calmly scanned these warriors fused of machine and flesh, and an inquiry came from its speaker:

[Threat cleared. Do you require assistance?]

---

Cassius crawled down from the multi-legged platform, his upper body detaching from it. His lower body had been severely damaged by the Orks' Choppas, with hydraulic oil and coolant leaking from severed lines.

He didn't care about his injuries. His mechanical prosthetic eye remained fixed on Icarus, data streams refreshing frantically.

[machine spirit readings... still stable. Combat consumption: zero fluctuation. This... this defies all mechanical dogma...]

Gluck gripped his Rad-carbine and walked to Cassius's side. He secretly looked down at his own weapon—the energy indicator was still stable, even steadier than before the battle.

[It... soothed the machine spirit,] Gluck's electronic voice synthesizer whispered in disbelief, [during the battle.]

The hatch of another chimera troop carrier opened, and a Tech-priest in heavy protective gear stood by the vehicle, holding a control terminal and scanning the field of Ork corpses.

The Heavy Incinerator Cannon on the roof began to rotate.

[Incineration Purge,] the Tech-priest's mechanical vocalizer emitted a monotonous binary tone, [Initiating.]

Orange-red flames erupted from the muzzle, covering the nearest piles of corpses.

It clung to the Ork corpses, burning fiercely, without weakening even slightly in the thin atmosphere.

Icarus's optical lens focused, staring intently at the incinerator's muzzle.

[Analyzing composition... Detected: Hydrocarbons, hydrogen isotopes, highly volatile gel matrix. Database matching: Promethium.]

Its production protocols ran at high speed.

Promethium. The standard fuel of this world. Used for vehicles, starships, flame weapons... and, according to the fragmented information it had just parsed from the scan data—

[Derivative applications: Synthetic Protein Bars, plastics, dyes, pharmaceuticals...]

Icarus's optical lens flickered slightly.

A substitute for petroleum seems to have been found.

Moreover, it is more than just fuel.

Cassius struggled to support his body with his remaining mechanical arm, looking at Icarus. His mechanical prosthetic eye captured the subtle changes in the machine—the adjustment of the optical lens's focal length, the slight fluctuation of the energy field, and... some kind of hidden [intent] he could not yet understand.

[You...] Cassius's mechanical vocalizer emitted intermittent binary tones, [What are you?]

Icarus was silent for a moment, filled with deep pity.

[I am Icarus.]

It gestured for Cassius to look at the base behind it and paused for a moment.

[I can also... produce food.]

Produce food.

In Cassius's cognition, this phrase was bound to "automated planting pods in cleanrooms," "protein recycling factories in the lower Hive City," and "compressed rations during the Imperial Navy's long voyages."

In the dark universe of Warhammer 40,000, amidst endless war and scarcity—

Food is the most fundamental scarcity.

Icarus's optical lens gazed calmly at him, at this group of warriors who were nearly starving to death.

Data streams flowed silently within its core processor. It scanned the physiological states of these people—muscle atrophy index, subcutaneous fat thickness, hemoglobin concentration, hormone levels. All the data pointed to the same conclusion: long-term malnutrition, chronic starvation, the body consuming itself.