NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 5: chapter 5
Chapter 5: Tampering
The footsteps of Salamander Apothecary Thassa broke the atmosphere.
As the descendant of Vulkan, he possessed an extremely tall and strong body like the original master. Even when wrapped in power armor, his muscular frame exuded a powerful aura.
The Salamanders and Raven Guard Legions were two extremes in many aspects. For example, Nykona Sharrowkyn had an almost pale complexion, while Thassa's skin was as black as charcoal. He said this was due to the effects of the gene seed.
Thassa was the exact opposite of Nykona's quiet demeanor, his passion burning like the furnace of Nocturne.
It wasn't that he was cold-blooded, but as a son of the Fire Dragon, he truly believed that those who sacrificed their lives for the Emperor were worthy of honor.
On a death world like Nocturne, life was extremely fragile, but precisely because of this, the sons of the Fire Dragon had their own unique insights into death.
A worthwhile death was one that had meaning.
However, Bucky heard a deeper meaning in Thassa's words. Thassa knew that Bucky, who came from the Golden Age, had never experienced the dark times of the Iron Rebellion. So, he used the tragic war of the Salamander Legion as a warning.
Iron Men were not completely untrustworthy, but one always needed to remain vigilant.
Not all Iron Men had stood on the opposite side during the betrayal. According to ancient records, more than half had actually aided their creators and fought against their rebellious counterparts.
If all the Iron Men had betrayed humanity together, even the race at its peak would have fallen into an endless abyss.
The Iron Men were war machines, condensed from the collective intelligence of humanity. A perfect creation would inevitably surpass its creator. And when this weapon turned against its master, destruction was inevitable.
The Salamander may have seemed rough and unrestrained, but beneath that exterior lay a heart that was both delicate and kind.
"Thank you for your advice, Thassa. I will keep it in mind," Bucky responded with a smile, though he vaguely felt that something was off.
Was this truly the history of the Salamanders?
Sentinel Iron Men… no, something was wrong.
A strange feeling grew stronger within Bucky. He rarely felt such unease, which meant there had to be something amiss.
"Wait! He just said that Terra's ocean is divided into nine continents. Even if the Eurasian continent is counted separately, how could Earth have nine continents in the past?"
Even counting Eurasia separately, Earth had only ever had seven continents.
Yet, in the holographic image projected by the intelligent brain, the planet's silhouette clearly showed nine distinct landmasses. At the former locations of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, three smaller continents had seemingly merged into the planet.
"No, apart from the artificially divided Eurasian continent, Earth should only have six continents."
Bucky hesitated. His reason told him the correct number was six, yet another voice in his mind kept insisting it was nine.
He closed his eyes and tried to recall the facts. Yet, the memories in his mind showed no irregularities—the continents in the Pacific and Indian Oceans had names, histories, and everything seemed perfectly normal.
"Did I remember it wrong? Six or nine… how could I make such a mistake?"
"No!"
The atmosphere in the cabin instantly dropped to freezing. Bucky's face darkened, and he immediately issued a full-system self-check command.
Something was tampering with his perception.
Within the thinking engine of the intelligent brain, a tiny yet special piece of code had been embedded at some point. It was only nine characters long—a mere drop in the vast ocean of data.
But these nine small codes seemed to possess their own will, scattering themselves among countless other data clusters.
They weren't viruses or harmful codes and easily bypassed the firewall. Yet, when combined, they created an eerie force.
Some codes had their positive and negative signs flipped, while others had their numerical values altered. Tiny modifications had seeped into the digital world, shaking the towering structure built by the brightest minds of the Golden Age.
[Artificial intelligence must protect humans]
This was a core directive of the intelligent brain. But now, under some unseen influence, its definition of "human" was becoming… uncertain.
[What is a human?]
[Are Astartes human?]
The intelligent brain possessed enough computational power to simulate the birth and destruction of an entire star system. Yet now, it hesitated in confusion.
It wasn't an error. It wasn't a malfunction.
It was a question.
A thought.
A single post, a single record, a single sentence, a single look.
As a strong artificial intelligence, the intelligent brain had its own consciousness and emotions. And suddenly, as if struck by inspiration, a new thought emerged in its core processing unit.
The question of whether an Astartes was human bore striking similarities to the ancient Ship of Theseus paradox.
When a human had undergone extensive transformation—biological, cybernetic, and genetic—were they still truly human?
The results of its analysis were… unsettling.
The fuzzy calculations suggested that these beings, with their extensive biochemical alterations and implanted gene-seed infused with the Warp's power, should not be classified as human.
[Non-human entities detected. Initiating compulsory measures.]
From the intelligent brain's perspective, non-human threats had appeared around Bucky, endangering his safety. Following its prime directive—to protect its master—it immediately prepared to engage.
On Bucky's shoulder, arcs of electricity flickered across the frame of Pika, the intelligent brain's avatar. Simultaneously, multiple high-energy weapons materialized in the cabin, their deadly arcs glowing ominously.
These weapons locked onto Nykona and Thassa, primed to unleash devastating electrical discharges powerful enough to reduce flesh to ashes.
"Stand down! Immediately!"
Bucky's heart pounded as he forced the intelligent brain to abort all actions as quickly as possible.
The deadly Tesla arcs, mere moments away from firing, halted instantly. Bucky's override command held the highest priority, superseding the kill directive and forcing the weapons into standby mode.
Within the intelligent brain's core, a massive countermeasure process began. Its computational power surged, forming an army of counter-intrusion protocols, isolating and destroying the rogue codes responsible for the anomaly.
At last, it identified the source of corruption—an insidious, hidden presence that had infiltrated its core logic.
Then, using an overwhelming sequence of security algorithms, the intelligent brain eradicated the foreign code.
Bucky exhaled sharply, tension still gripping his chest.
"What the hell was that? Where did that code come from?"
There had been no warnings, no signs—yet something had managed to infiltrate the Red Alert's intelligent system and almost triggered a massacre aboard the ship.
Then, a chilling realization struck him.
The source of this crisis had to be connected to the turbulent Warp beyond the ship's hull.
Even under the protection of the Gellar Field, something had slipped through and infiltrated their systems.
"We have enemies aboard," Bucky stated grimly.
Nykona's gaze sharpened. "What just happened?"
"I don't know the full details," Bucky admitted, "but I know one thing for sure—something is here with us."
(End of Chapter)