What's it like to ride a Sage in the radiation wasteland of a Forge World?
(Oh?! How do you ride him? Tell me more!)
Over rivers of molten metal! Over great rifts in broken cliffs! Watched by Titan trains! Between the wheel hubs of giant mining vehicles!
Omega got dirty, literally dirty! Covered in radioactive dust floating in the air.
He sped along, the sun above his head disappearing and then rising high again, only slowing down when he reached a massive factory area.
After passing through crisscrossing transport channels, the half-human-half-motorcycle finally stopped by itself in front of a Mechanical Temple.
"Awesome… "
Sage Lauster didn't forget to let out a yell even after stopping the vehicle, apparently he had been cooped up for too long.
"Come down, this is where you'll be working like a dog from now on."
"Okay, Sage, I will study hard from now on."
"Heh…"
Sage Lauster didn't say anything more, he just transformed back into human form with a clank and walked in by himself.
The Mechanical Temple, constructed from gears, skulls, pipelines, and pistons, opened directly into an auditorium where people gave thanks for the blessings of the omnissiah.
On the walls were prayers carved in sacred binary and High Gothic:
Loyal cogs shall never rust!
From the mediocrity of thought, omnissiah, save us!
From the lies of the heretic, circuits, protect us!
From the rage of the beast, steel, preserve us!
From the temptation of flesh, silica, purify us!
From the ravages of the destroyer, machine spirit, shelter us!
From this biological cage, the machine sets us free!
Omnissiah! Omnissiah!
Omnissiah! Omnissiah!
Omega looked at the words on the wall praising the Source Power, the Omnissiah, and the Emperor, and information about the Adeptus Mechanicus popped into his mind one after another.
In this chaotic 42nd Millennium, the exact origin date of the Adeptus Mechanicus is indeterminable.
But the knowledgeable Sages believe that after humanity was enlightened by the Omnissiah and awakened the wisdom called "science," machines became the driving force and guarantee for human progress and survival.
In the distant 2K era, the worship of machines, the appeasement of machine spirits, and even the sacrifice of Priests were already widely accepted by humans of that time.
Progress in humility, destruction in arrogance.
As humanity progressed, from leaving their home planet Terra to the emergence of Warp engines, the entire galaxy became humanity's pasture. Unparalleled technological knowledge illuminated humanity's Golden Age, and also ignited humanity's arrogance.
Arrogance is both original sin and the abyss of destruction.
Golden Age humanity created the Stone Men, and the Stone Men in turn created the Iron Men, and ultimately the Iron Men rebelled and destroyed the galactic empire created by humanity.
Arrogant humanity did not learn its lesson, but instead ushered in the Dark Age of Technology.
Humans began to have no morality! No bottom line! No faith! Wantonly playing with the technological knowledge bestowed by the Omnissiah.
Selfish desires led to the birth of various tech-warlords who mastered dark, wondrous, and destructive technologies.
The tech-warlords, in their struggle for power and to possess everything, started wars against each other, and the Age of Strife arrived!
The Age of Strife tore down the last pillar of humanity's glory.
Until a Warp storm, sweeping across the entire galaxy, separated every human planet from each other.
This was the worst of times. Human planets lost contact, civilization regressed, and countless human worlds devolved into feudal and barbaric worlds due to the loss of technology, selfishness, and ambition.
The xenos, who had only survived under humanity's merciful protection, now raised their butcher knives and began to slaughter humans, invading, occupying, and destroying countless human homes, and the wails of billions of humans echoed throughout the galaxy.
This was the best of times. On Mars, humanity's largest research world, the great Omnissiah once again blessed this place. The earliest Tech-Priests received His enlightenment, the flame of faith was ignited, and the Adeptus Mechanicus was born.
The dogma of the Adeptus Mechanicus is: Knowledge is the highest manifestation of divinity, and all other living beings (limited to humans) and technology, as the embodiment of this divinity, are therefore also sacred.
Under this belief, a person's value is determined only by the total amount of knowledge that person possesses, and that person's body is merely a simple organic machine that can preserve this knowledge.
Believers should adhere to the core doctrine of "Omniscient Quest," constantly seeking new technology and knowledge to perfect themselves and thus draw closer to the Omnissiah.
For Adeptus Mechanicus believers, machines represent life, a higher form relative to the crude products obtained through biological evolution.
Because they are life, all machines must possess a "machine soul" — a machine spirit — to function normally and be used.
Source Power is the root of all machines' operation. (Living beings are also machines)
The Omnissiah is the creator and master of all machines.
The Omnissiah is the earthly incarnation of the Omnissiah.
The three are a trinity, yet each is independent.
Once a believer joins the faith, they are destined to serve the Omnissiah for life, and are not allowed to convert or apostatize.
Omega curled his lip: If I hadn't transmigrated, I almost would have believed it.
Sage Lauster stopped, performed the gear salute to the gear-skull in the center of the auditorium, and then continued walking in. Omega followed suit.
Further inside, after passing through several passages full of wires and pipes, they saw more than a dozen red-robed Tech-Priests bustling about, not knowing what they were doing. When they saw Sage Lauster enter, they quickly stopped to greet him.
"Sage, this time the trip to the Great Forge Temple was fruitful…"
"Alas, that old fool Will's position shield is still functioning normally. The omnissiah is truly blind."
The four-armed Tech-Priest walking towards them, upon hearing this, his face, fitted with mechanical bionic eyes, instantly contorted, then quickly returned to normal as if he hadn't heard anything, changing the subject and looking at Omega, who was carrying a mechanical great axe a head taller than himself.
"This is?"
"A semi-finished product."
"A semi-finished product?" the four-armed Priest asked, somewhat puzzled.
Sage Lauster found a chair and plopped down, letting out a cold snort, and explained to the Priests who had gathered around:
"If only he had some academic integrity, would he just slap his head and decide to shorten a batch's cultivation time by two-thirds! Couldn't he even glance at the experimental data of the biological Sages in the entire cultivation facility before making a decision?!"
"And what's the result? 87% can only be made into wetware, and the rest…"
Sage Lauster pointed at Omega, who was being observed, examined, and scanned by the Priests, and continued:
"The body's self-protection mechanism has locked down the transferred knowledge, requiring learning and guidance to gradually unlock it. The immature body also cannot withstand mechanical modifications, so he can only be kept as an apprentice for now."
As soon as his voice fell, the surroundings immediately erupted in discussion.
"What a rare sample, worth careful observation."
"It's over! My workload has increased again, now I have even less time for experiments!"
"I think the higher-ups of the Forge World are just sycophants of the Great Sage. Our Great Forge Temple is doomed!"
"So small and yet quite cute…"
"The mechanical great axe was bestowed so easily, what does that make all my years of effort?!"
…
"Enough! It's all decided, if it could be resolved, it would have been resolved at the Great Forge Temple."
Sage Lauster stopped the arguing Priests.
But someone still couldn't help but say:
"Sage Lauster, under these circumstances, being granted the identity of a Tech-Priest, doesn't that violate the regulations of the faith?"
The speaker was the Tech-Priest who had just complained about his efforts being denied, looking bitter and resentful. Omega, the "Half-Step Great Perfection Tech-Priest," naturally didn't want his red robe stripped off. This was a difference of heaven and hell, but he couldn't speak up now.
"Aid…"
Sage Lauster looked at this child, who came from his own district and whom he had watched grow up, and understood why he asked.
"Omega just needs time to grow. He has all the knowledge a Priest needs, becoming a Priest is just a matter of time."
"But…"
"No buts, Aid, remember, knowledge is sacred, the Omnissiah is fair, to everyone! To everyone!"
The Priests of the same Mechanical Temple clearly understood Aid's situation, and those close to him patted his shoulder, telling him not to argue further.
Finally, Priest Aid sighed deeply and chose to retreat.
Omega also sighed, finally feeling relieved.
May the 8700 brothers and sisters who became "wetware" protect me. I will definitely maintain you all well in the future.
At this moment, a Tech-Priest with distinct female features walked over with a vacuum cleaner-like machine to help Omega clean the "rad-dust" off his body.
Sage Lauster saw this and glared at Omega angrily.
Crazy motorcycle Sage! How inexplicable…
Omega thought as he cooperated by raising his hands and lifting his head.
"Alright, you can take off your mask now." The female Priest touched Omega's head and said.
Omega, whose mouth was dripping with honey, quickly acted cute and thanked her: "Mmm, thank you, pretty big sister."
"What a polite little brother."
Sure enough, the female Priest giggled at Omega's words, her secondary sexual characteristics swaying.
"Gulp!" Plural.
"Hmph!" Sage Lauster used his chilling aura to force the pack of wolves to flee in disarray.
"Liya, it's fine. This amount of radiation is nothing to his body. Even three to five times more wouldn't affect him."
Is my body that amazing?! It seems the female Priest and Sage Lauster have an unusual relationship.
"Is that so? I didn't know that, Father. You never taught me knowledge in that area. It would be great if you could spare more time to teach me." The female Priest cooed at Lauster.
So they're father and daughter. I've decided this big sister is mine, watch me cling to her leg.
Lauster replied testily and helplessly: "It's all in the study. You should ask yourself why you don't know."
"Nyah nyah nyah…" Liya made a face at her father.
Watching from the side, Omega felt that the warhammer in the books and the real warhammer were still very different. At least the Adeptus Mechanicus still had a lot of human touch, he could even see the Oil Girl making a face.