[ominous music]
[boltguns firing indistinctly]
[ominous music continues]
[suspenseful choral music]
[gunfire]
[distant shouting]
[Sangrael] He is lost, brother.
The blackness comes for him.
[Ancaeus] I will see to Kazarion.
You ensure we do not lose that servitor.
[Ancaeus] I hope your wrath isn’t spent, brother.
We have plenty of these wretches to kill yet.
[soft grunt]
[ongoing battle sounds]
Thank you, brother.
I am with you.
The curse is a burden upon us all.
Salvation did not die with Rafael.
The madness shall not claim you while I draw breath.
[suspenseful music]
[distant snarling]
[metallic clank]
[click]
[clanking]
What have you done?
[Castia-Theta-9] I have prolonged your biological existence.
Your flesh is a wonder, Captain.
Without the Omnissiah's mysteries woven into it,
you would have died before I recovered you.
[pensive music]
I have implanted a series of neural cut-outs
to block the connection of nerve and muscle below the neck.
You cannot move,
you cannot feel...
yet.
Release me.
You are reasoning without a full data context.
Your body was in a coma.
It shut down to preserve the last core processes
of existence.
Without my intervention,
you would not be able to perform even your most basic functions.
[Castia-Theta-9] Your flesh would have failed.
Even for your kind, the pain would be too great to bear.
You know nothing of us.
Do I not?
[atmospheric electronic music]
You are such flawed creations.
We are the Emperor’s will made flesh.
We were taken from the dust.
We shed our weaknesses,
our frailty, to become... Angels.
And yet still you fail. You let pride ruin reason.
You let rage cloud judgement.
You are wondrous machines
crafted in a material that betrays the mind that governs it.
[whirring]
[tense music]
I have observed you.
I have successfully used what I observed to bring your fellow warriors here.
They are my brothers.
They are not tools to be bent to your ends.
[devices signaling]
I am an ally, not an enemy.
I serve knowledge and that alone.
I am purer in my purpose than you.
Nevertheless, you still have a limited but vital set of functions to perform.
I serve only the Emperor.
This world is a nest that must be purged. That is my purpose.
[atmospheric electronic music]
In this moment, our purposes are precisely the same.
[distant explosions, gunfire]
[fire crackling]
The false angels still live.
[Magus] Your trust in our flawed kin was misplaced.
The hunt continues even now.
We will tear the prey down.
They shall not live beyond the dawn.
You shall send true angels again to my side and they shall kill...
I will not.
[distant gunfire, explosions]
We shall not sacrifice their purity for your pride.
[sighs] The slaves of the machine-witch have found them.
They are going towards the root of the tower.
-They threaten... -Live or die...
They mean nothing now.
The hour approaches.
The storms clear,
and soon we will have the false angels’ warship.
The many arms of our god open to embrace us.
[Magus] There is nothing that can prevent that now.
Return, sibling.
We will not waste more of the pure on the blades of the unclean.
[distant gunfire, rumbling]
[thunder crashes]
[Acolyte] The coven is ready, blessed sister.
[lightning cracks]
[Magus] My glorious kin!
We have triumphed.
We have done our father’s work, even as he sleeps.
[deep rumbling]
[Magus] Now the path is opening.
We have risen from darkness.
The many arms open to embrace us.
And the final step of ascension waits for us to take it.
But we must take that step...
[tense drum music]
[Magus] We shall not yield.
We shall not falter.
We shall conquer and be found pure.
We shall rise to the light.
And we shall claim our heaven.
And go to the stars!
[tense drum music continues]
[screaming]
[tense drum music]
[whooshing]
[metallic creaking]
[running footsteps, shouting]
[rapid lasgun fire]
[suspenseful choral music]
[alien grunting]
[snarling]
[rapid cannon fire]
[groaning]
[snarling]
[groaning]
[devices signaling]
What do you want, Magos?
Knowledge, Captain.
Knowledge and its preservation, that is my purpose.
[mechanical straining]
[thud]
Remarkable.
I would not have expected you to be able to accomplish that yet.
I am a son of Sanguinius.
A semi-literal truth.
But of little use.
But this... this is a truth beyond all value.
A Standard Template Construct?
[ethereal electronic music]
You surprise me, Captain.
It is why I was here.
Why I was burrowing in the dark
while the world of flesh fell to its flaws.
It is beyond value and rare in the extreme.
Nothing must prevent its retrieval and study by the Adeptus Mechanicus.
Do you know what it contains?
[ethereal electronic music intensifies]
Secrets, Captain.
Great and terrible secrets.
[Orpheo] That is why you need us.
You could not defeat the xenos.
You could not get your prize off this world
with the cult controlling the dock.
[Orpheo] You needed warriors and a warship.
Correct.
I have been stranded here ever since I discovered this artefact.
You cannot comprehend the inconvenience this has caused.
My brothers’ blood salts the earth because of what you have done.
It was not my intent that they die.
Quite the opposite.
I need you.
To destroy the cult,
and to secure this artefact.
To take it and me away.
I cannot accomplish either task alone.
You are less than human.
And yet also so much more.
As are you.
We are not the same.
Oh, but we are, Captain.
We share a commonality germane to all sentient beings.
Survival, Captain.
The things we will do in order to continue,
to exist a moment longer.
[Castia-Theta-9] We would kill for it.
See empires sundered or worlds put to flame.
We would sacrifice everything.
To survive.
You said that you serve knowledge.
Knowledge is survival.
The Siren Tower must fall, and with it the heart of the cult.
Without that, they shall prevail and I shall remain,
and you shall fail in your purpose.
There is only one way it can be done.
I need the Angels of Death.
My brothers...
that’s where you’re leading them, isn’t it?
-To the tower. -Correct.
Now I see why you needed me, crone.
They will not follow you.
Will not do your bidding. You need me to speak to them,
to give the order to do what must be done.
[Castia-Theta-9] They lack coherence.
You are what gives them balance.
They need you.
Together you are the means to accomplish our aligned goals.
I cannot command them from here.
What do you believe I have been doing while we conversed?
Or did you imagine that I salvaged you from a need of personal interaction.
[switch clicks]
[whirring]
[electric crackling]
[groaning]
There is a limit to what I can accomplish with the material of flesh.
But I estimate it will be enough.
[whirring intensifies]
[ominous music]
[distant rumbling]
[Sangrael] What is this place?
You promised us we would be brought to our Captain.
[gun clicks]
[vox static]
[Servitor] This is Magos Dominus Castia-Theta-9 speaking directly
through the proxy-servitor unit before you.
This is a high speed macro-hoist.
[Servitor] Correct.
Further context.
This hoist’s original purpose was to move cargo into the orbital dock.
Now it shall carry you.
[gun clicks]
Where is our Captain?
The xenos cult is intending to take your warship
and flee this world through the opening in the warp storms.
This hoist will take you directly to their inner sanctum within the tower.
There the Patriarch, and the brood, lies in hibernation.
[ominous music]
[Sangrael] And then what do you expect us to do?
[Orpheo] Our duty, brothers.
[soft hopeful music]
Captain.
[Tiro] By the Throne!
For what else is there but duty
and the honour of the Angels?
[suspenseful choral music]