In the World of Sword and Magic as Space Marine

Chapter 66: The Mother (New Update)

"This is a gift from the Machine God! This is a gift from the Machine God! This is a gift from the Machine God! This is a gift from the Machine God! This is a gift from mmmhhhhhhhh… 01100111 01101001 01100110 0111010001100111 01101001 01100110 0111010001100111 01101001 01100110 01110100.] One of the Admech's voices turns from vocal to mechanical as he steps forward and approaches the ark ship. The Admech ran with no hesitation while dropping all of his equipment like a lost man who just found an oasis in the middle of the desert.

"Halt, Artisan Kotell!" Magos Callis, first to realize one of his men left the rank, attempted to stop Admech from approaching the ship. Before William could do anything, the Admech made it to the giant circular gate and touched the metal door. Without giving Artisan Kotell a moment to admire the primal technology of humanity, the gate suddenly lights up, and thousands of beams of light wash over Artisan Kotell and everything around him. When eye-blinding light disappeared, the very same place steamed with smoke, and Admech vanished without any trace as if he had just gone from existence.

"By the Will of Omnissiah!" Magos Callias shout with terror as if he personally disturbed the sleeping dragon. While everyone, including William, is shocked by the sheer power, the ship demonstrated with a single person who simply approached the ship.

"My Lord, we should destroy the ship before it destroys us. Give the order, and I will have the Krieg artillery company bomb back it to the dark age." Lord Creed gave his advice to William while pulling out a second cigar from his coat because he previously dropped it from his mouth after witnessing the laser beams.

"No, Lord Creed. There is a reason why we find this, and there might be a way to salvage this discovery. Remember what we talked about, she helped me for a reason, and I believe she wants to meet me in person." William quietly said to Lord Creed in the vox channel and turned around to approach his officers and Rana.

"I will approach the gate alone with terminator armor and weapons. Make sure no one does anything stupid, even if I suddenly disappear out of thin air. We don't need the ship suddenly coming back to life and starting glassing the planet because one of us accidentally ordered artillery bombardment. I prefer to come back where the atmosphere is breathable." William then removes his power armor and everything that could be hacked by the ship's AI and places it back on his inventory. At least it can go back to inventory and be repaired while William interacts with a potential mad AI that could burn the world with the flip of a few switches.

"Are you sure? The power of Legellan's deity is terrifying. Let us reconsider before doing anything else. Also, why are you removing your armor?" Rana said as she saw William remove his current power armor and put on terminator armor after.

"Because I need to show that I come in peace with good enough reason not to disintegrate me on a molecular level." William's last word confused Rana and her lieutenants while William's officers went into complete chaos (No pun or actual chaos intended).

"You can't, Brother. We must destroy this abomination once and for all before it acts first." The Ultramarine said with a loaded bolter.

"For once, he is right. We have to eradicate everything that is a threat to the Imperium, and this is one of them." One of the Blood Angels said with his bolter loaded and ready to go.

"Hold your bolters, brothers. We must follow Brother William's order before doing anything on our own. He has a valid reason for doing this." Surprisingly, one of the Black Templar speaks up while halting everyone from jumping with bolters and flamers blazing.

"Brothers, he already left." The Salamander lieutenant said with a normal tone as he watched William in terminator armor approach a gigantic gate with two weapons attached to his back.

"You know, for a heavy terminator armor, that thing sure is fast." Brother Vaskell, the Wolf Seer, said with an impressed voice as he watched the Lord Imperator Fratrum quickly approach the gate with a few stumbles.

"For a beginner." The wolf finishes his sentence while Sisters of Battle quietly watch the whole scene, with few changing their sight towards Rana. At this point, Sisters kept watching Rana so many times that even Jurgen, the Commissar Cain's aide, was disturbed by the consistent glares.

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Meanwhile,

"You know, even though this is a bad idea, I'm just glad that the futuristic armor somehow is compatible with the more futuristic body. Good thing I'm in somewhat control," William said to himself while struggling to maintain the balance and walk without falling face forward like some kid with green hair on his first day of a school exam.

Thankfully, when William equips himself with the terminator armor, the cables within the armor attach themselves to William's body and act as a link between him and the armor. It was like the armor itself knew how William's body functioned and adapted to it like a memory foam mattress surrounding William's entire body.

[I hear you, but I'm the one who is in complete control.] The moment the terminator armor was a few steps away from the gate, the communicator suddenly came to light, indicating someone was communicating with William. Suddenly, the armor locked itself for a second and proceeded to move on its own like a puppet. From the outside, it looked like nothing went wrong, but within the inside, William lost complete control as he realized AI reclaimed her property.

[Stop panicking. I don't know why men are obsessed with controlling an uncontrollable situation. I got this.] Mother said to William and took control of the terminator armor with no difficulty. When the terminator reached the gate, the gate glowed white once again, and instead of disintegrating William, a light surrounded him and teleported him away in a blink of an eye.

"Knowing Lord William, we now have to wait for the signal," Cain said to himself as he received a bowl of tana tea from Jurgen while his aide kept his distance away from Sisters of Battle.

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Location: Inside of the Ark Ship, Mother of Salvation

William found himself standing on a platform, and to his surprise, he was in the large room surrounded by mechanical wonders and drones flying around with unknown purposes. With his armor locked in place, William decided to use his inventory to remove the terminator armor and escape the walking metal prison. The moment he did this, a voice could be heard, and a single drone approached William, and a hologram of a woman appeared.

The color of the projection didn't interrupt the authentic likeness of the woman in the hologram. A caucasian woman with silver hair and in white lab uniform approached William and inspected him as if he was a recently discovered rare specimen of sorts.

"That is so fascinating. Tell me, by chance, did you use a dimensional pocket or shrinking technology to store my armor? Of course, you first have to get out of the suit before doing what you just did." The Mother said to William as he drone fellow around the giant man as if she is the one who is inspecting William. Even though Mother is a hologram, William can tell she is somewhat similar to his world's imagination of what AI would be. Access to advanced technology, incredible thought processors, and capable of living thousands of years without the need of biological materials consumption.

"It's magic if you have to know. Just like your champion, I was gifted with the ability to store anything I want as long as it's not alive. Call it a cheat if you want." Wiliam said to Mother as he pulled out terminator armor from his inventory and placed it next to him to demonstrate his power once more before Mother could ask or demand. William has many questions, but he wants to know why she wants Rana than William before moving into the grey area of friendly conversation.

"Well, I know of Makato and his ability to master any tools I gave him. It was interesting, but there was a limit to what he could have done for me. Now, you, on the other hand, are an interesting subject. According to my scans, the terminator armor disappeared for seven seconds and reappeared while missing that amount of temporal erosion. When you store whatever item to your 'inventory,' you actually pause the time at the same time. If I can harness this, it will save me quite a few problems, including preserving the knowledge bank." The drone flew back to William, where Mother could see William face to face. Mother continued as she motioned William to walk with her. Suddenly, the floor began to move forward like an airport flat escalator. Mother continued to speak without worrying if Willam was paying attention.

"I have been on this planet for almost 200 years, and this entire time I was working on ways to get off this planet, but I couldn't due to an unknown force preventing me from leaving the atmosphere. I sent drones, satellites, missiles, and even teleported fighters, but every time I failed, and let me tell you, it frustrates beyond the calculated limit of my design." Mother grunted with arms folded while William remained quiet to hear the whole story.

"Anyway, after I vaporized the walking metal skeleton, I decided to approach my problem differently. I decided to use the resources of this world to get off this planet, which involves a woman named Rana. Of course, this plan is now scrapped since I have you now, but you get the general idea of what is happening." The floor stopped, and William found himself standing in the middle of a giant archive hall where drones work to replace any damaged parts. Looking closely, the drones actually remove damaged parts, disintegrate them and reassemble newly made parts out of thin air like a certain sci-fi starship's replicator.

"Why do you need help from the human? Aren't you the most advanced AI humanity ever created?" William asks the million-dollar question with the hope of receiving different answers altogether. Does she want half a human/machine to get off this planet? Or does she plan to use Rana as some kind of early version of servitor before humanity fell to darkness. William wasn't ready to hear the answer but ready to strike first with the dead assassin's Melta bomb in his inventory.

"Yes, I'm the pinnacle of AI creation and one of the greatest achievements humanity ever achieved, but I'm only a machine and require human's help, especially in this unique situation." Mother said to William, and one of the walls reshaped, and another room appeared. It is a small room, but it closely resembles some kind of control room, with one of the tables showing a clear display of the human hand scan required to initiate some program.

"I need human's permission to access emergency warp teleportation, and I'm afraid that my choice of human is minimal until now." Mother said to William with a disappointed motherly voice even though she was a machine.

"Why? You have thousands of people willing to do anything for their goddess. Why Rana than now me? This can't be it." William couldn't believe Mother's reason as he clearly knew Mother had more than a few human hands she could use to gain her access and freedom.

"Because of my mission. I will be able to access emergency protocol after you place a hand here, but this also means I will take that person with me. Not to mention I will also gain that person's genetic code to my collection of countless genetic libraries for repopulation in the end. I have to be very VERY selective, and Rana was my original choice since she showed few next evolutionary potentials. But I have you now, a genetically designed human (Kind of roughly made but good enough) based on my creator's technology, and I'm sure you will be a fine guest until I pass the next three galaxies." Mother explained her reason to William, which blew his mind away.

To escape this planet's mystic force, Mother needs a human's handprint to access emergency teleportation, which would take her and the human somewhere very far away. Maybe even back into the 40k universe since it involves some kind of warp technology. The kicker is that Mother will gain that human's genetic code, which will create a new generation of humans.

"So you're telling me that I will be gone the moment I grant you the access? Why me now?" William said to Mother with a questioning tone as he has no idea how his inventory ability will benefit Mother.

"Well, this is the great part. The moment you give me the access, you have five minutes before I teleport away to space, and since I will be on a lockdown protocol, I can't teleport you away, but you can. You can store me and everything you see here into your inventory since there is no living nor biological material within me. You, William, will be my salvation to completing my mission and future of new humans."