February 11th at 10:58am
Commissar Bryce straps a flak vest over her generous chest and ties up an officer`s sword on the belt while looking at the Mech cultist.
-Whispers? What are you talking about?
-You can not hear them. Their cry in machine language is weak… faltering…
-All I can hear is a static noise...

The now armored and heavy figure of LIV crawls between some boxes and gasps for the briefest of moments. The rest of the group heads towards her and find her kneeling down in front of a still shape. The stench of decay floats around the corner where an almost desiccated corpse lies with its back against a rusty box. The remains of a red robe and multiple mechanical augmentations leave little doubt about its nature. Close as they are now, all of the group can hear the faint sound coming from the corpse, like an off signal radio.

-I know him-
-Ref 1- Adept 01000100 01100001 01111000 01110101 01110011 Maniple MCCX, C series, unit XI.
-Ref 2- Missing in action after my forced repurposing as a Techno-Organic-Processor.

The mechanical woman touches the back of the neck of the corpse, and the white noise gets a little bit stronger, and then it goes back to almost zero, weaker than before…

Doctor Bast takes a look at the corpse. It´s wounded and shows bites marks. One of his cybernetic arms is missing and some bare wires hang from the connector.
-Probably he succumbed to the sepsis due to the infection-

Thanatos grunts behind the cladded mask of her combat armor.
-But what was a cogboy and the whole army of the planet doing here in the asshole of Chagoth? Why is all of this equipment here? And what in hell are those rat things?!-

-Command- Trying to access the neurocogitator of CXI to copy the memories stored inside.
-Ref 1- The spirit machine is blocking my routes-

The Commissar looks at the puzzled mech cultist.
-Can`t you just break into it as you did with the other one?

-Negative.
-Ref 1- It is not a regular cogitator.
╙►Additional information: It is a bio-processor connected to the organic self of CXI.
-Ref 2- I can only dialogue with it, but it is not willing.

-Damn it! Why? We need that information!

-Ref 1- The organic life of Adept CXI is over.
╙►Consecuence: The spirit machine of his technological self is fading away.
-Unknown Variable.
╙►Consecuence: Access denied

Soldier Tempesti rises his arms exasperated and shouts at the mech
-Stop that toaster mumbojumbo nonsense and speak clearly! What the furth does all of that mean?!

LIV stays silent for a second looking for words and then turns her red artificial eyes to look at the soldier`s mask.

-It means there is no logical reason CXI`s machine spirit will not commune with me. It is blocked and running out of the signature bio-energy it needs to keep its functionality.

The voice of doctor Bast whispers in the almost complete darkness of the underground storehouse.
-It`s the departing.

-Ref Missing- Term “departing” unknown.

The little doctor kneels before the corpse and holds his hand. The mechanical augmentations inside it whistle as it twitches almost imperceptibly. Thanatos Tempesti looks at the corpse and then back to LIV.
-It`s.. complicated. “The departing” is a battlefield slang term. We... soldiers use it to name the terror of facing your own death after a mortal wound, during the last seconds, when all the pain is gone and all that is left is sorrow and regret.

-Ref Null- That is a mere imperfection of the neuro-biological transmitters. The spirit machine feels nothing. There is no regret, only efficiency, only duty.-

Doctor Bast tooks off her googles and looks at CXI`s motionless bionic limb`s led lights, their shining almost extinct and mutters.
-Even so, he is afraid of dying.-

(Continues in part III)