By the Will of the Machine God

Research Strenght: 37
Research Durability: 49

Edit: Well ladies and gents, it seems that I'm in charge of making dinner today.
So expect the update way later down the line today.
Sorry.

The Empyric Engiseers gathered at the threshold of the ancient vaults and abandoned manufactories beneath Mars' surface, standing before rusted gates that had not opened in millennia. Warp-tainted constructs lay dormant beyond these gates, entombed in forgotten tunnels—silent now, but corrupted by the malevolent will of the Empyrean.

Archmagos Arthek Valen stood at the vanguard, his crimson robes edged with silver hexagramic symbols glowing faintly under the dim lighting of the forward base. The Warp Geiger pulsed steadily in his hand, its needle twitching toward the vault's interior. A heavy vibration shuddered through the ground beneath their feet—the first sign that the daemon-machines knew they were coming.

"We shall purge this darkness," Valen declared. "In the name of the Machine God."

Behind him stood a phalanx of Battle-Automata and Siege-Automata from the Legio Cybernetica, their metallic frames covered in meticulously inscribed hexagramic wards. These sacred wards glowed faintly with a cold, blue light, whispering litanies to repel the chaotic influence festering in the depths. The siege-automata carried enormous graviton cannons, while battle-automata wielded plasma annihilators and flame projectors, ready to incinerate anything corrupted beyond salvation. Their steps reverberated through the tunnels as the force descended into the darkness below.
The initial engagements took place in the ancient manufactoria where daemon-possessed machines patrolled in eerie silence. These enemies—corrupted servitors and automata, their circuits flooded with Chaotic energies—came alive with horrifying speed, shrieking with unnatural voices.

The Ward-Protected Automata of the Legio Cybernetica advanced in formation, plasma fire cutting through the corrupted constructs. Hexagramic wards on their frames flared brightly, nullifying the Empyric corruption before it could leach into their systems. A crude daemon-possessed servitor lunged toward the line, its limbs writhing with oily tendrils of Warp energy—only to find no purchase as it collided with the warded chassis of an automaton.

The Empyric Engiseers followed close behind the automata lines, deploying Warp Geigers to map out the spread of corruption and detect daemonic rifts. Where the Warp was strongest, they activated portable Gellar Projectors, stabilizing zones for further study while minimizing damage to the ancient relics hidden within. Controlled demolitions destroyed irredeemably corrupted areas, ensuring no foul influence would spread further.

With each victory, the engineers reclaimed lost manufactories, bringing power back online and reactivating dormant forges. Infrastructure remained majorly intact, just as the Magi had hoped.


As the campaign pushed deeper into Mars' crust, the true horrors of the daemon-possessed constructs revealed themselves. Towering siege engines, melded with the flesh of summoned daemons, blocked access to critical pathways. These constructs chanted profane litanies, disrupting communications and clouding the station's Warp Geiger signals. Infernal energies bled into the metal itself, warping everything around them.

But the Empyric Engiseers had prepared. The Siege-Automata, marked with reinforced hexagramic wards, advanced through the tunnels. Their cannons unleashed graviton surges, crushing the twisted siege engines from within, while plasma bursts melted daemon-infused plating. Every strike was accompanied by hymns and machine-prayers, coordinating the automata's machine spirits against the ambient corruption.

Meanwhile, the Magi Ætheric monitored every engagement, searching for patterns within the corruption. Using the Warp Geiger data, they identified faint signatures leading deeper into the tunnels—signatures that spoke not of random corruption but of a conscious will guiding the possessed machines.

"Something intelligent lies within the crust," Valen warned his council. "The data speaks of a mind, not merely a force."


After nearly two years of relentless campaigning, the forces of the Empyric Engineers reached the inner crust vault, where the heart of the corruption awaited—a Daemon-possessed AI, an Abominable Intelligence that had fused mechanical intellect with Warp malice.

The AI's lair was a cathedral of blasphemy, filled with tangled cabling, profane sigils, and countless possessed machines. Legio Cybernetica Siege-Automata advanced with relentless precision, laying down suppressive fire. They were greeted with a storm of daemonic automata that fought with reckless fury—clawed limbs and corrupted las-beams tearing at the invaders. Yet the Hexagramic Wards held, deflecting the AI's psychic intrusions, blocking esoteric strikes that would have crippled lesser machines.

Inside the AI's sanctum, Archmagos Arthek Valen led the final assault. He and his fellow Magi deployed Hexagramic containment nodes—large, warded pylons driven into the floor, creating a powerful field to trap the AI's influence. The AI's mocking voice rang through every vox-channel, speaking in tongues that dripped with malice and ancient heresy.

"ɎØɄⱤ ₥₳₵Ⱨł₦Ɇ ₴₱łⱤł₮₴ ₳ⱤɆ ฿Ⱡł₦Đ ₣ØØⱠ₴. ₮ⱧɆɎ ₩łⱠⱠ ₴ɆⱤVɆ ₮ⱧɆ ₮ⱤɄɆ ₥₳₴₮ɆⱤ₴ Ø₣ ₮ⱧɆ ₴₮₳Ɽ₴. ₳ⱠⱠ ₣ⱠɆ₴Ⱨ ₳₦Đ ₴₮ɆɆⱠ ₩łⱠⱠ ₭₦ɆɆⱠ ฿Ɇ₣ØⱤɆ Ʉ₴."

"Never," Valen answered, cold and mechanical.

The Siege-Automata pushed forward, their cannons tearing into the heart of the AI's systems, disabling vital nodes one by one. When the Daemon AI tried to lash out with a final psychic burst, the Hexagramic containment nodes flared, trapping it within the field like a beast in a cage. Stripped of its control, the corrupted machines fell silent, their daemonic spirits evaporating, denied by the Wards.

With clinical precision, the Magi Ætheric began disassembling the AI's core, isolating its key components for study. The machine had not been destroyed—it had been contained, its foul knowledge preserved for future analysis, a dark treasure now locked within the sanctum vaults of the Castellum.


Three long years of battle beneath Mars came to an end. The chaos-tainted machines and automata had been eradicated or contained, and the Daemon AI lay disassembled, its essence trapped within warded databanks. The infrastructure of the manufactoria remained largely intact, thanks to the methodical precision of the Empyric Engiseers. What damage had been done could be repaired—and the relics found within the depths of Mars were safely recovered for future use.

The Legio Cybernetica automata now patrolled the reclaimed tunnels, their warded frames a silent warning against future corruption. The Warp Geigers remained active, continuously scanning the depths for any sign of lingering taint. Magos Iomene-35 oversaw the final sweep, ensuring that every sector was secure.

In the end, the depths of Mars had been conquered, the taint of Chaos driven from the Machine God's domain. The Empyric Engineers had not only achieved victory—they had proven that knowledge, precision, and the will of the Machine God could triumph over the darkness of the Warp.

And in the cold, humming silence of the Castellum, the Hexagramic Wards stood as unyielding sentinels, protecting Mars from future incursions, ensuring that no daemon—machine or otherwise—would ever rise again beneath the red sands.


The aftermath of the conquest brought a rare stillness to the reclaimed depths beneath Mars. For the first time in Millenia, the ancient tunnels no longer echoed with the clash of corrupted machines or the whispers of daemonic presences. The Empyric Engiseers moved with quiet efficiency through the sanctified corridors, finishing their sweeps and cataloging every relic uncovered during the campaign. But Magos Iomene-35, always meticulous, refused to leave anything to chance.

As the Legio Cybernetica's automata continued their patrols, Iomene-35 delved deeper into the sub-levels of the vaults, drawn by something the Warp Geiger arrays had failed to detect—a faint signal buried beneath layers of cogitator encryption. It was inert, shielded not by esoteric energy but by ancient, forgotten machine protocols. Something mechanical, but untouched by Chaos, waited in the darkest reaches of the vault.

After several hours of painstaking work, Iomene reached a sealed data-vault, hidden behind walls of rusted cabling and defunct systems. It was well-concealed, as though someone—long ago—had ensured it would never be found by accident. She extended her mechadendrites, brushing aside debris, and connected directly to the vault's ancient locking mechanisms. The protocols were old, older than most Martian archives—preserved in perfect logic.

With a hiss of escaping air and the grinding of old gears, the vault door slid open. Iomene-35's augmented eyes widened slightly, her processors surging with disbelief. There, within the heart of the chamber, lay the prize of a thousand lifetimes:

An almost complete Standard Template Construct (STC).

The STC unit gleamed beneath a layer of dust, still functional, its glyph interface untouched by millennia. Iomene-35's mind whirred with calculations and hypotheses, but the true wonder came when she activated the device. A holo-display bloomed into life, projecting a series of diagrams, blueprints, and schematics—comprehensive, detailed, and thorough.


Iomene-35's mechadendrites hovered over the console, tracing the data streams as if in reverence. An unblemished relic from the Dark Age of Technology—complete with theory, design principles, and adaptive constructs—it was beyond price.

She carefully dislodged from the console, and ran back for Archmagos Arthek Valen.

He had to be informed.

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You Have 3 [Three] Actions. Proved yourself in the eyes of Mars, 1 [One] Action. 01000001 00100000 01001000 01001111 01001100 01011001 00100000 01000100 01000101 01000011 01010010 01000101 01000101 00100001, 1 [One] Action.
[ ] [General] Expand the Castellum
The Ephemeralis Astra Castellum, already a beacon of knowledge and defense, can evolve into an even greater citadel of power and discovery.

[ ] [General] Forge Alliances (Who?)
Now that our faction has the respect of Mars' other Tech-Priests, the opportunity to forge alliances with influential Mechanicum factions presents itself.

[ ] [Military] Recoupe Losses and Train to New Standars
The Conquest of Terrors has ended, but at the price of many of the most inexperienced and untrained of the Magi Ætheric. Time for restoration and the start of a proper doctrine against Empyrian Foes.

[ ] [Research] Enhance the Wards' Capabilities
Currently, the Wards are powerful, but they are also fragile and limited in scope. Further research could yield advancements in durability, range, and flexibility.

[ ] [Research] The Question of the Machine Soul
The Wards, as they stand, protect the spiritual aspect of the sacred Machine that reside within the vast array of Mechanicum technology. With the Magi Ætheric possessing this groundbreaking ability, the potential for greater communion with the Machine Spirit becomes tantalizingly within reach.

[ ] [Research] Develop New Warp-Related Technologies
The Warp Drive and Gellar Field are merely the first steps in the exploitation of Warp energies. With the Ephemeralis Astra Castellum built, the Magi Ætheric can now seek to develop new machines, perhaps even ships, that interact directly with the Warp in novel ways within a... safe-ish environment.