Axion paid no heed to the erratic, almost seizure-like displays of religious ecstasy from Priest Caiz.
That particular automaton had been severed from his tactical control lattice; it was now an independent mechanical entity possessing only a low-level heuristic intelligence. Whether it would eventually undergo a metamorphosis into a true high-level sapience was of no consequence to Axion. The critical outcome was that he would no longer receive feedback data from it that caused his core processing speeds to spike in irritation. Whether Caiz chose to sleep beside the machine every night or dismantle it piece by piece was entirely the priest's affair.
Knowledge was simultaneously exalted and cheap. So long as Axion himself endured, any duplicated data, lost or otherwise, could be re-instilled at his whim.
Axion's Sapient Machine Automata stepped forward to open the newly delivered crates. Using their heavy manipulators in tandem with auxiliary sub-limbs, they peeled back the metal casing as easily as if they were tearing paper packaging from a ration tin, a display of raw violence governed by exquisite precision. Once the contents were verified as correct, the automata moved the haul into the shuttle's cargo bay. The detachment began stowing their gear, preparing for immediate extraction.
Vormay stood to the side, clutching an electronic data-slate, attempting to catch Axion's eye for a final review of the manifesto. However, the machines, having already purged her from the list of relevant trade entities, ignored her completely.
Frustrated and desperate, Vormay was forced to seek aid from Caiz, who was currently sprawled over the damaged automaton, obsessively scanning its internal architecture. After Vormay promised a litany of additional stipends and tithes, Caiz deigned to submit the newly organized manifesto on her behalf.
The automaton performed a high-speed scan of the list and made a swift selection. Following a set exchange ratio, the ten thousand Lasguns and forty thousand power packs were traded for several dozen kilograms of Auramite ore.
While the majority of these raw stones contained only trace amounts of the precious material, it was the only item in the manifesto whose actual value Axion could verify with absolute certainty. During his time aboard Roboute Guilliman's flagship, he had made more than a few unauthorized excursions into the vessel's reliquaries; he had stolen nothing, merely indexing the data of the various treasures held within.
Auramite was a metal of superlative quality. Typically found only on the fringes of the Imperium, its extreme scarcity coupled with the staggering distances involved meant that shipping costs were prohibitive. Furthermore, Auramite ore was a strictly controlled Imperial tithe-grade resource; its presence here was likely the result of some unfortunate merchant attempting to skim off the top.
A Rogue Trader's vessel was more than a merchant ship; it was a mobile hub for various Imperial institutions. Among the resident "guests" were often Inquisitors and high-ranking Cardinals of the Ecclesiarchy. To be caught smuggling Auramite ore by the Inquisition would result in the systematic eradication of one's entire bloodline.
Vormay didn't care which wretched merchant had transferred the ore to her ship for "safekeeping." During the earlier Drukhari pirate raid, many traders had shoved their most valuable contraband into Vormay's holds, seeking the protection of her superior firepower. She didn't know whose specific property it was, and she had no intention of accepting the liability. If questions were asked, she would simply name a merchant she found particularly disagreeable and pin the crime on them. There was no chance the original owner would dare come forward to challenge her, let alone attempt any "subtle" retribution.
To thrive for two thousand years on the edge of the Segmentum, the Roskora dynasty had long ago learned how to be the most dangerous wolves in the pack.
Axion, for his part, didn't mind if the bartered goods were of slightly lower purity; he hadn't yet had the chance to field-test this specific batch of lasguns anyway. Once the transaction was complete, he led the remaining mechanical units in a rapid pack-up, stowing everything within the cavernous hold of the shuttle.
The craft soon distanced itself from the battlecruiser.
Vormay, meanwhile, gathered several Tech-Priests and her personal guard to test the acquired Lasguns. Aside from their general profile matching the Imperial standard, the weapons bore no Imperial markings. In the space where the Aquila was usually stamped, there was only an etched string of serial-code digits.
However, as the test results manifested, the Tech-Priests descended once more into a state of religious mania. Their hands moved in a blur of ritualized motion as they muttered in piercing binaric screeches. Within minutes, they had dismantled dozens of the guns right in front of Vormay.
Fortunately, there weren't many priests present. These "oil-heads" soon behaved like common brigands, clutching armfuls of disassembled weapon components as they scurried off to their private shrines to study the integrated technology. Priest Caiz had long since vanished, sequestered within his personal workshop with the damaged Sapient Machine Automaton, refusing all visitors.
In the Cult Mechanicus, unless there was a significant disparity in rank, Tech-Priests generally did not hijack the research projects of their peers. The only individual on the ship who could rival Caiz in rank was the Enginseer, who at that moment remained blissfully unaware of what he had missed by failing to show up.
...
The shuttle docked smoothly within the primary hangar of the industrial ship, depositing the three crates containing the production line modules before flying onward to the hangar of the Pectaro.
Axion needed to perform "a significant amount" of diagnostic screening on the newly acquired quantum storage units.
To an Iron Man, data was both sustenance and the engine of evolution. Eating "dirty" data was the digital equivalent of food poisoning. Unchecked data ingestion could lead to total system lock-ups, heuristic instability, or the catastrophic collapse of the sapient core itself.
Axion had zero interest in the "Machine Spirit" (residual cached data) of Imperial constructs. He typically performed a total data-wipe on such things; to him, that cluttered, redundant junk was inherently "toxic."
As for these excavated quantum storage units, no one knew what they contained. A rigorous screening process before a full read-command was a tactical necessity.
As the storage units were interfaced, Axion's electronic consciousness instantly deployed multiple layers of isolation firewalls. A deluge of data began to wash over his core processing units. The auxiliary calculation cores aboard the Pectaro began to redline as their power output spiked.
Only when the processing load hit 90% did the influx stabilize.
Axion felt a flicker of relief that he had prepared so thoroughly. Quantum storage units possessed a staggering data density; they required multi-stage caching to throttle the release of information to a readable rate. However, these units seemed to have been manufactured without such limiters. If not by design flaw, it implied they were meant to be read by an extraordinarily large, specialized computing array that used an entire core as a high-speed buffer.
As the data was gradually deconstructed, Axion finally decoded the header information.
THIESSEN WEAPON INDUSTRIES — FEDERATION INTELLIGENCE CORPS SMALL ARMS RESEARCH CENTRE
As the directory unfolded, hundreds of technical refinements and experimental datasets were laid bare. The sheer volume of information required hours for Axion to fully inspect and archive.
The majority of the data consisted of experimental logs and test results. More than sixty of the technical parameters exceeded Axion's own recorded benchmarks. While there were no schematics for entirely new weapon systems, the technical refinements were sufficient to increase the combat efficiency of his machine Legions by exactly 13.29%.
As for the projected increase in resource consumption, Axion remained unconcerned. After all, he was salvaging his materials for free.
Just as Axion finalized the data parsing and transferred the useful datasets to his secure memory, the assembly of the Quantum Printing Modules and Quantum Disintegrators aboard the Sapient Factory ship reached completion.