Lin's personally written antivirus program devoured the Tzeentchian Greater Daemon's blue data-stream without mercy. The Greater Daemon let out a dying wail as it dissolved into a cascade of broken, meaningless junk code.
The bizarre spectacle bled through the program itself, projecting a flickering phantom of the Greater Daemon's death-throes across the hull of the Dreadnought. Lieutenant Admir and his squad watched the scene with wide, uneasy eyes. Lieutenant Vigan had already raised his chainsword.
"Standard phenomenon during a Tech Exorcism. Nothing to be alarmed about."
Lin withdrew his consciousness-code from the Dreadnought's systems and left behind a secondary program to sweep up the remaining junk code. He offered the explanation without any particular inflection. "The Dreadnought was possessed by a digital daemon. That's why it wouldn't start up."
"A daemon? Those don't exist."
Lieutenant Vigan let out a cold snort. As a traditionalist through and through, he had no patience for such mysticism. "Enemy-injected electronic viruses, more like — and you lot make it sound like some kind of dark ritual. You have technology at your fingertips and not a shred of rational scientific thinking to show for it. That is precisely why I don't trust your Mechanicus cult."
"Daemons are real." Lin turned around. He had decided it was time to update these relics on the current state of the galaxy. "If you genuinely consider yourself a rational empiricist, then after being stranded on this planet for over a thousand years, you really have no business making confident pronouncements about the outside world. After the Great Crusade, the Imperium..."
"DAEMON!"
Just as Lin was about to deliver his history lesson, a roar like a thunderclap erupted from behind him. "I will tear apart every one of your deceits and lies!"
Lin's scalp prickled. On pure instinct he ducked his head — and a powered fist scythed through the air where his skull had been a half-second earlier.
The fist grazed the top of Lin's head and drove a crater more than a metre deep into the cavern wall. Lin spun around, heart hammering, and found that the Dreadnought — which had been lying dormant — was now standing upright.
Wasn't the power supply only supposed to be enough for basic life-support? How had it managed this? It had even launched an attack?!
Seeing that the first blow had missed, the Dreadnought shifted into a pursuit stance — but it seemed the initial surge of groggy, just-woken fury was beginning to subside. Registering that the figure before it was merely a Mechanicus priest, the ancient warrior hesitated, visibly uncertain whether to press the attack.
Lieutenant Admir, whose face had lit up with joy the moment the Dreadnought stirred, was now startled half out of his skin. He scrambled forward and planted himself directly in the Dreadnought's path.
"Commander! It's me — Admir!" He shouted at the top of his lungs, giving the half-awake ancient a chance to recognize him. "There are no enemies here! It was this Mechanicus priest in front of you who just woke you up!"
"Ah... Admir, brother. What's happened to me — have I been... interred in a Dreadnought?"
Lieutenant Admir gave a confirming nod. The answer seemed to drain something from the Dreadnought. The inexplicable surge of strength that had come from nowhere began to ebb, and his voice grew thin and faint. "Perhaps I failed in my duties..."
"It is done, Commander. You slew that terrible alien aboard the space hulk — you accomplished what no other battle-brother could." Lieutenant Admir's voice was gentle. "We never intended to disturb your rest. But our brothers still need your experience and wisdom to find a way out of this desperate situation. It is only for that reason we were forced to wake you."
"It is not done, Admir. None of it is done."
The advanced mechanisms of the ancient Dreadnought allowed the veteran within his sarcophagus to perform the very human gesture of shaking his head. "I will not blame you for interring me in this machine and waking me from it. In truth, I had hoped you would."
"But I am no longer certain I have the right to lead you. When I led the company into that space hulk and nearly got every one of you killed — I think I forfeited that right."
Sergeant Arlo, who rarely spoke, chose this moment to open his mouth. "Commander, every single one of us followed you that day of our own free will. We each understood clearly what the likely outcome would be. And we chose it anyway."
"I left my post as a training instructor and joined your company precisely because I felt that rather than raising a new generation of confused recruits in a Legion that had already lost its future, it was better to meet an honourable death as a Legion warrior."
"The brothers who fell on that space hulk felt the same way. They simply embraced the glory and meaning of sacrifice a little sooner than the rest of us. I cannot imagine a single one of them would strip you of your rank as company commander for allowing them to die with purpose — and neither should you."
"No. It was a trap, Arlo, brother."
The Dreadnought sank into anguished memory. "They died with honour in their hearts, yes — but their deaths were utterly without meaning. And the one who stripped their deaths of that meaning was me — the one who led you all headlong into the snare."
At those words, the assembled soldiers exchanged glances, clearly at a loss as to what trap the Dreadnought was referring to.
Even now, they still believed that the near-catastrophic battle aboard the space hulk had been nothing more than a brutal engagement against a pack of strange, psyker-capable blue aliens — a pyrrhic victory won at tremendous cost. But Lin, who had just witnessed and destroyed a Tzeentchian Greater Daemon with his own hands, found the Dreadnought's words entirely unsurprising.
Driven by a vigorous, insatiable curiosity — and the lingering shock of nearly being beaten to death by a Dreadnought that had just woken up — Lin stepped forward and deliberately steered the conversation in this direction. "At this point, honesty seems like the right policy. Do you mind sharing your secret with everyone?"
"Ah — Mechanicus priest. I am grateful to you for waking me, and I must apologise for my recklessness just now."
The Dreadnought continued, "But I have no desire to drag my remaining brothers — or you — into a darker secret. Let me face it alone. That is my penance."
Watching the Dreadnought waffle on like this, Lin felt a flicker of impatience.
He didn't know these warriors well. But the fact that they had endured on a primitive planet with a heap of broken equipment and monsters bearing down on them for a full thousand years had already earned his respect.
Seeing the Dreadnought squander that endurance with this posturing — and seeing no one dare challenge a figure of such venerated status — Lin dispensed with any pretence of diplomacy.
"Honoured Dreadnought brother, you may not know what time it is. Whatever you learned during your battle with that daemon — it has now been a thousand years. Some of the secrets you are so determined to carry alone have long since been rendered utterly worthless by the passage of time!"
"A thousand years?!" The Dreadnought was visibly shaken — yet remained stubborn. "At least this way they can have a new beginning!"
"You keep silent about ancient history, thinking that by doing so you can spare your brothers from the responsibilities and burdens of the past. But what you don't know is that right now, your brothers are trapped on a primitive planet. They have no means of escape, no fresh recruits to replenish their numbers, and barely any weapons or equipment left. They never had a future to speak of — it is the faith they carried from the past that has kept them going until now. And you want to wave your hand and tell them to let go of the past and start fresh?"
Lin allowed himself a thin, sardonic smile. "All that would do is leave them wandering this planet in confusion until they die."
The Dreadnought looked at Lin. Then at Lieutenant Admir. Lieutenant Admir gave Lin a grateful nod first, then turned to face the Dreadnought.
"He is Priest Lin — our ally for the moment."
"Just as he said, the past is everything to us. No matter how dark those old secrets may be, we wish to bear them together as battle-brothers. That is the only meaning left in our decision to keep fighting and to plan our escape from this planet."
Hearing Lieutenant Admir's words, the Dreadnought let out a long sigh. He fell silent for a moment, as though negotiating an internal compromise with himself.
At last, he chose to speak.
"It is a long story," the Dreadnought said. "About deception and betrayal..."