From The Aquiline to The Abyss

[Vulre Oakenlimb]

Sivo knelt underneath the airlock, fervently praying to the machine god, alternating between requests for absolution and a quick death. The hull screamed, the unnatural powers of the warp imbuing it with an existence of its own, mouths and eyes erupting from where there was once only blessed steel. The mouths gibbered, speaking of what they had witnessed over the ship's centuries of service, each of them talking over the other, a chorus of the damned. Elsewhere, more mortal screams were heard. Some were cut short by a Daemon's claws, others were warped into cries of joy by the vile depravity of the arch-enemy.

Sivo's prayers escalated in volume, a night-futile attempt to drown out the madness rapidly encircling him, corrupting this once-venerable vessel. "Oh great Machine God, we beseech thee to deliver us from danger." The words left his vox-grille, echoing across the deserted hallway. All of the others present had either been slain by the arch-enemy, fled, or had been... changed. The still-warped corpse of a voidsman lay near him, the dark blue uniform shredded to tatters by the spikes that had erupted from his body. Scorch-marks from massed lasfire still marked the body. Were they dissipating? It was worrisome. Sivo returned to his prayers, begging the machine spirit of the airlock to grant him a rapid demise. He had arranged himself so that the weight of the airlock would shatter his skull, preventing him from being used by the arch-enemy. How had it come to this?

Sivo reflected on this: How did The Aquiline succumb to daemonic invasion? The Geller fields were functioning perfectly well, holding back the madness and death of the Warp. Until... He remembered now. Mutants. Every ship had them, lurking in the underdecks. They were inevitable. They had swarmed from the maintenance passageways, daubed in unholy symbols, baying for blood, tentacles and claws seeking throats and arteries. The Geller field generator was left largely unguarded: Who would be mad enough to consign the entire ship, including themselves, to eternal torment?

Mutants.

They had thrown themselves upon it, destroying the blessed circuitry, smashing the sacred engine, ripping apart the hallowed gears. As the Skittari moved on them, it was already done. The bubble of reality shearing its way through the Warp popped, leaving the ship to the mercy of unreality. Daemons stalked the halls, either in their own forms, or infesting a human host. Either was terrifying.

He could hear them approaching. Machine spirit, I beg you: End your loyal supplicant's suffering. He heard a grinding, as the machine spirit made its approval known. The heavy steel slab descended, as Sivo deactivated his optics, awaiting absolution.

The steel beneath his legs disappeared, replaced with... Nothing. He floated in a void, with no sensation, no input, no data.

My name is Omni. This is not the world you know. This is the Omniverse. You interest me, so I have made you part of it. The Omniverse is a place that reflects the wishes of those who are part of it. But! There are rules. I will explain them only once, so listen carefully.

A being floated into existence before Sivo, a blank slate, a creature without scars, augments, marks, or a face. It was a vile mockery of the pure human form. In its hand a multicolored sphere formed, the individual pigments warping and mutating, an effect that may have been beautiful to one not so wary of the temptations of the archenemy.

This is Omnilium. It’s what ties the Omniverse together. Without it, you are nothing. With it, anything you desire can be yours. But you will need more than this. If you desire it enough, you will find it. You will find that using it comes naturally. Just think of what you desire most.

The sphere floated forward, before falling to pieces, fragments of glittering light melding with Sivo's form as he attempted to scream, only to find himself unable to.

That’s all you need to know right now. You’ll figure out the rest soon enough. I’ll be watching … and waiting.

Sivo was plunged into darkness once more, cast away into another strange realm.

Sivo's optics awakened again, sensing more than that void. He was underwater. His arms reached out, the steel-swathed limbs finding the lip of the pool. His arms groaned as he pulled himself out of the pit. His frame impacted on the blank white surface of the ground, his robes waterlogged and dripping, his vox-grille shorting out, creating noises akin to gasps for breath. Water flowed from the lascarbine at his hip, but he was too exhausted to make the necessary supplications to the machine spirit to allow it to function. Inter-Dimensional travel is an exhaustive experience to one so unprepared. Sivo's mind retreated, attempting to process the information that his entire existence has changed. The red-swaddled figure knelt, dripping at the foot of the fountain of Inifinity, oblivious to the porcelain-armoured figures cautiously approaching him, pointing their blasters at his chest.

[Vulre Oakenlimb]

Where am I? Where was I? Who am I? Questions akin to these traveled through circuits and cells alike, blazing a trail through the remnants of his mind. His memories seemed cherry-picked, not that Sivo knew what a cherry was. Their nutrient to mass ratio was deemed too inefficient to import to Kazzark. Emblazoned into his mind was the roar of the god-machines, the earth-shaking stomp of their feet, the pulse of entire worlds as their blood ran through foundries and factories, the comforting presence of steel. The Omnissiah.

That word sent power flooding through his limbs, the pistons and atrophied muscles spurring into motion beneath the drenched crimson robes. He rose to his feet, the Potentia coil embedded into his chest blazing into life, awakening the Lumien capacitors implanted into his abdomen, priming the ferric lures inserted into his hide, sending surges of power along the electoos emblazoned across both the steel and the flesh of his body. The weakness and fear he had known but a few moments ago had vaporized, replaced with the power of his faith. As the men approached, Sivo's vox-grille activated. "I am Sivo Sigma Three-One-Seven-Seven, designated as Prime. In which direction are the sacred machines?" The men stopped, stunned by the recent arrival's sudden return to awareness. The man at the point of the formation, likely a sergeant, spoke. "Coruscant is two hour's travel on foot the way we came from. A Prime like you can conjure something up though, and get there in 50 minutes, maybe. Damn fool primes these days, the Emperor's the only one worth listening to these days." Sivo, his audio receptors still recalibrating, failed to notice this disrespectful comment. The Storm Troopers moved on, figuring that a prime so devoted to technology would do no harm to the only bastion of science in the Omniverse.

Transportation. What would serve for the servant of the Omnissiah? Chimera Mark XI. Designation 0427-941-30XX-CHXXX. The information was stamped into his mind, and it began to make its mark on the universe. 38 tonnes of his mercy. 6.9 by 5.7 by 3.72 meters. The overall superstructure 150mm of steel, iron, and adamantium flowed into existence, settling into an invisible mold. Sparks flared along the edges as the hull plating 100mm was welded into existence. The engine block Vulcanor XVI Twin-Coupled Multi-Burn came into existence, tubes and wiring growing through the bed of the chimera as the floor plating slammed down atop it. Sivo focused his mind, losing track of time as he rattled off specifications 150mm turret plating.

Internal chronometers registered that it had been 10 meters since arrival. In that time, civilization had been located, and transportation had been created. Sivo stroked the control levers, whispering benedictions to the newly-born machine spirit. It lacked the fury, the purpose of what he remembered. He gently pushed the levers forward and began to move, and the Chimera responded eagerly, too weak of will, too newborn to respond with anything but total devotion. It was almost desirable, but it lacked something more, the entreaties to be made to a machine centuries, even millennia your senior. He sighed, hoping that there would be machines that required his supplications in this 'Coruscant' the soldiers spoke of.

The Chimera advanced, making its way towards the portal.

[Vulre Oakenlimb]

The chimera blazed along the blank white landscape Maximum speed under ideal conditions: 70Kmph, the treads making no mark on the strange surface that made up the area. There were no imprints marking his passage, no cloud of dust indicating the coming of the Omnissiah. He whispered another prayer to the machine spirit of the Chimera, urging rapid passage. He could see what the men spoke of. An arch of shining, solid, comforting steel surrounded a portal, through which glimpses of another realm could be glimpsed. Walls of iron, streets of stone. Even from here he could hear the hum of the machine spirits, the pulse of the Omnissiah. More immediate, however, were the few soldiers stationed outside the gate, waving him over, and in what appeared to be deep contemplation while gazing longingly at their weapons.

Their commander massaged the bridge of his nose, sighing in resignation. Sivo was protruding from the turret hatch of the Chimera, his bulky frame barely able to fit through opening. "So, let me get this straight... You're the prophet of this Omnissiah, and you've come to minister to our technology?" Did this unenlightened one truly not understand the intricacies of his sacred mission? The Machine Spirits of Coruscant had done far too long without the proper benedictions and prayers. "Affirmative." The commander banged his head against the side of the Chimera, dislodging a piece of filth. He did not expect the unenlightened to be so familiar with the rite of percussive maintenance. "Damn it all... Look, just go ahead. Don't cause trouble. Primes like you seem to be a dime a dozen these days." Sivo, satisfied with this, descended back into the hull of the Chimera. He rotated his form and entered into the driver's cabin, and wrapped his manipulators around the controls. He moved it forward, and the Chimera touched the portal, the edges alighting with a rainbow of colours as it passed from universe to universe.