Vex Chronicles 1: Infection

Prologue

Eredius III, Vanahault farm district, cogitator complex

Tantus Cornellius of Demaskar smoothed out his suit. A gesture born from nervousness. But the woman just had that effect on him. Well, calling engineseer Corra a woman was a big stretch. The artificers had given her the proportions of one. But that was were the similarities ended. Her heavy robe in Mechanicus-red sat loose over a body of brass. Engineseer Corra had abandoned her humanity in search for the Omnissiah, her machine god. Corra's muscles were hydraulics, her mind the calculation power of a cogitator chip and her skin sculpted armor of brass.

"Query: Event occurrence times?"

Cornellius handed engineseer Corra the printouts. He had exhaustively documented every faulty response of this unit. A notion that should have impressed anybody. But emotions were no longer part of the engineseer.

"Query: Human error rate in documentation?"

"I used only my best data analysts. Those printouts are the truth, Lady Corra."

"Query: Faulty unit count equals one?"

"Yes. Cogitator 774 is the only one that needs the rite of restoration. It acted up ever since your Adeptus pulled that damaged ship into orbit."

It had been a few month since the bulk had fallen out of the warp. The Adeptus Mechanicus had never shown much interest in the Eredius system despite its technology dependent agriculture. But when the ship had been detected, an entire exploration flee had quickly appeared in orbit around Eredius III.

Every auspex unit in Vanahault station had reported the large object entering orbit. But cogitator 774 had believed to know more than every other sensor. That dreaded cogitator had detected life signs all over that wreckage.

Cornellius was a good prefectus agrarium and Vanahault farming station had grown renown under his guidance. But that was before unit 774's nonsense had became a constant. And the many rites of maintenance cut into his funds. It was always the same faulty data. There was never a random deviation that would speak for an actual defect. Unit 774 had never stopped to show xenos life signs...

The engineseer had dismissed Cornellius concerns again and again. At first it had looked like she had been right to do so. The last rites had stopped the faults. And then came yesterday...

The dreaded unit 774 had registered an impact on the surface. And the impact carried a life sign... The old fault had returned. Or so it had seemed. The registered impact had not been too far from Vanahault's extensive fields of crops. Cornellius was a man that hated unexplained occurrences. He couldn't calculate those into his profits. And so he had researched the incident beyond just calling for more rites of restoration.

To Cornellius own concerns he had found that one of the servitor-guided combine harvesters had registered a light quake. A very local event. And it verified an impact... Cornellius had not waited a single minute and had informed engineseer Corra on the emergency frequency.

Corra's mechanical eyes hurried in frightening speed through the collected printouts. And she came to the same conclusion than Prefectus Cornellius.

"Statement: Data error rate equals 7,375%"

Cornellius allowed himself a faint smile. He had been right to call the tech priestess. But that emotion was quickly replaced by fear. If that data was right... What had fallen into his farm district? Xenos...? That would cut into his profits! There just couldn't be another War of Cleansing, could there?

Eredius had already felt the festering pest of a xenos cult. And only the intervention of the revered Astartes of the Void Hunters had saved Ede Prime from getting overrun. In a months spanning campaign the joint forces of the Astra Militarum and the Void Hunters had pushed back the cult. And Eredius important agrarian produce was again flowing into the imperial sector of the Gaten Constellation.

Clutter from the ceiling made Cornellius flinch. Panic swelled in his chest. And even Corra's hand wandered to the archeotech weapon on her hips. With a heavy thud and the crunch of gravel, a heavy shape dropped down.

The window to the maintenance building stood still open!

Cornellius hurried to the window. But it was to late. The thing was light gray, armored and massive. Four clawed hands reached for the prefectus agrarium and grabbed Cornellius by the shoulder. The beast's nearly hypnotic eyes searched those of the prefectus. And when Cornellius stood stiff, the creature opened a maw, filled with needle sharp teeth. Cornellius could only stare petrified, as the long tongue slithered out and darted at him.

Pain exploded in the prefectus chest as the tongue pierced into him. Cornellius mind felt so sluggish. He knew that he had to run. But he just couldn't. With sheer force of will he threw himself against the hypnotic gaze. With the instincts of the damned he grabbed a heavy paperweight and smashed it into the beast's maw.

The xenos beast stumbled back, more confused than hurt. But it was enough to loosen its grip. Cornellius freed himself with a tear of fabric and flesh. With his scream still on his lips, he ran for his life. The beast didn't follow. It instead ripped into the workers and servitors. A globe of flame shot out of Corra's weapon as she tried to defend imperial property. Cornellius just ran.

Cornellius grabbed the vox the moment he was inside his private car. And he called for help as he struggled to get the engines running. Xenos infestation! On his farm! He repeated his call as the old industry vehicle tuckered alive. With burning pain in chest and shoulders, Cornellius fled onto the road that lead towards Ede Prime, capital city of the world of Eredius III.

Cornellius' rank as 3rd order prefectus agrarium allowed his emergency call to reach the right ears. Planetary forces had already been on alert from the fallen debris. But only the blessed unit 774 had spewed out the coordinates of the impact. The Planetary Defense Force responded immediately. The armed PDF troopers had trained for such an emergency case. Their bombers were quickly dispatched and opened fire on Vanahault station. Wheat, worker and station quickly disappeared in the raging flames of promethium bombs.

The fire ravaged through the wheat that was Vanahault station's lifeblood. Cornellius act caused great loss of harvest. But he had read the signs faster than anybody else. His call had prevented an infection. And when he cut down his own wheat to stop the fire to spread to other districts, he was declared a true hero of the Imperium. A notion only enhanced by his refusal to accept a post on another farm sector. Cornellius stayed in lands ruined by flames. He was a true citizen of the Imperium. Hard working, modest and strong in his believes. And so Cornellius started to rebuilt Vanahault from the ground up. And in his honor Vanahault was soon only known as Cornellius station.

Cornellius was a true diligent hero. Or so everyone thought. But putting him back in charge was like placing cancerous growth on the eredian's throat. The very same hero that had "prevented" the xenos infestation would turn into its father... Festering, boiling, hidden in plain sight for generations to come.