*Mars is in crisis, Dalia Cythera,' said Rho-mu 31. *Disaster strikes at every turn, and though Adept Zeth's forge escaped the worst of it, our beloved planet is on the verge of slipping into chaos.'

*Chaos? What are you talking about?' asked Caxton. *We heard some rumours of accidents, but nothing like as serious as you're making out.'

*Whatever you have heard, I can a.s.sure you the reality is far worse than you can possibly imagine,' said Rho-mu 31. *The terror of Old Night threatens to descend upon us once more, and I believe Dalia may hold the key to our salvation.'

*Me? No... I told you before that I'm n.o.body,' said Dalia, unwilling to be saddled with such responsibility.

*You are wrong, Dalia,' stated Rho-mu 31 as the mag-lev came to a halt behind her. *You have an innate understanding of technology, but I believe what makes you special is the ability to intuit things that others would not. If you think there is something within the Noctis Labyrinthus of importance, then I am willing to put my faith in you.'

*I thought you didn't believe in faith?'

*I don't. I believe in you.'

Dalia smiled. *Thank you,' she said.

*I do not require your thanks,' replied Rho-mu 31. *I am a Protector. I am your Protector. That is my purpose.'

*I thank you anyway.'

Caxton patted Dalia on the shoulder. *Well, if we're going to go, we should probably get on this mag-lev?' Dalia nodded and looked up at her Protector. *After you,' said Rho-mu 31.

ADEPT ZETH STOOD in the highest tower of her forge, the noospheric halo above her head twitching with information. She sorted through a number of active feeds with her MIU. None of them made for easy reading.

Most were streaming from the forges of Fabricator Loc.u.m Kane and Ipluvien Maximal, but there were others coming in from isolated adepts that had come through the Death of Innocence and were desperately seeking friendly voices.

Beside her, one of her underlings waited uncomfortably for the adept to speak.

*Be at ease,' said Zeth. *Rho-mu 31 is with them now.'

*They're safe?'

Zeth shrugged and glanced down at the woman beside her. *As much as anyone can be said to be safe on Mars just now.'

*And he'll keep them from harm?'

*That is his purpose,' agreed Zeth. *Though a journey to the Noctis Labyrinthus is not without peril. They will pa.s.s close to Mondus Gamma, the domain of Lukas Chrom, and he is a p.a.w.n of the Fabricator General.'

*That's bad, isn't it?'

*Yes, I rather suspect it is,' said Zeth, thinking of what Kane had told her. *It is imperative that no one else should learn of Dalia's whereabouts.'

*Of course.'

*Delete all records of her destination from your memory coils and supply me with a record of deletion. Understood?'

*Yes.'

Zeth waited for a few seconds until the deletion record arrived in her noosphere before speaking again.

*You should return to your duties,' she said. *Amba.s.sador Melgator will be arriving soon from Olympus Mons and I think it would be better if you were elsewhere.'

*As you wish,' said Mellicin.

2.05.

OF ALL THE visitors ever to climb the steps to her forge, Amba.s.sador Melgator was one of the least welcome. Koriel Zeth watched the man approach, his thin body wrapped in a dark, ermine-trimmed robe, his few overt augmetics concealed beneath a hood of dark velvet. Though Kelbor-Hal's messenger was still some distance away, Zeth's enhanced vision saw that the amba.s.sador had changed since last she had seen him.

His skin was waxen and unhealthy, yet his eyes remained dark pools of sinister purpose like a bearer of bad news eager to spread his misery. However, Melgator's presence, as unwelcome and unlooked for as it was, did not worry her so much as that of his companion.

Sheathed in an all-enclosing bodyglove of a gleaming synthetic material that rippled like blood across her skin, a slender female figure followed a discreet distance behind the amba.s.sador.

Zeth needed no help from the noosphere to recognise what this woman was.

asked Magos Polk in a soft cant of binary. Zeth could read her apprenta's disquiet in the formulation of his numerics and hoped her own biometrics did not betray her unease so obviously.*Yes,' she said. *Do not speak to her if you can avoid it.'*Have no worries about that,' promised Polk. *Not if my life depended on it.'*Let us hope it does not come to that, Polk,' said Zeth. *But her presence here cannot be a good thing.'*Surely the Fabricator General has merely despatched her as a guard for the amba.s.sador after all the troubles we have had,' said Polk, his tone begging for rea.s.surance.*Perhaps, but I doubt it. To act merely as a bodyguard would be seen as beneath the skills of a tech-priest a.s.sa.s.sin.'*Then why is she here?'Zeth felt her irritation at Polk's questions grow, but forced it down. *I expect we shall find out soon enough,' she said. This meeting with Kelbor-Hal's lackey would need a clear head and Zeth could not afford to be distracted by Polk's fear, even though it mirrored her own.The tech-priest a.s.sa.s.sins were a body of mysterious and aloof killers who had existed since the settling of Mars in the distant past. A law unto themselves, they answered to no authority save that of unknown masters said to dwell in the shadows of the Cydonia Mensae.Melgator and his accomplice reached the plinth beneath the great portico, and Zeth wondered if this was how she was going to die, struck down by an a.s.sa.s.sin's blade, her vital fluids pouring down the steps of her forge.Melgator smiled, though Zeth found nothing rea.s.suring in its reptilian insincerity. The amba.s.sador and his companion came towards her, pa.s.sing into the splayed shadows of the piston columns and golden portico. Melgator moved with the clicking gait of one whose lower limbs were augmetic, while the a.s.sa.s.sin flowed across the milky white marble of the floor as though on ice.Zeth saw that the a.s.sa.s.sin's legs were long and multi-jointed, fused together just above the ankles by a spar of metal, below which her legs ended not in feet, but in a complex series of magno-gravitic thrusters that skimmed her along just off the ground. Her athletic form was beautifully deadly, honed to perfect physicality by a rigorous regime of physical exercise, gene-manipulation and surgical augmentation.Melgator stopped before Zeth and bowed deeply, his arms spread wide.*Adept Zeth,' he began. *It is a pleasure to once again visit your unique forge.'*You are welcome, Amba.s.sador Melgator,' said Zeth. *This is my magos-apprenta, Adept Polk.'She left her words hanging and Melgator read the pause expertly. He turned towards his companion, who wore a facemask fashioned in the form of a grinning crimson skull with a horn of gleaming metal jutting from its chin.*This is my... a.s.sociate, Remiare,' said Melgator.Zeth nodded towards Remiare and the a.s.sa.s.sin inclined her head a fraction in acknowledgement. Zeth took a second to study the hardwired targeting apparatus grafted to Remiare's mask and the long snake-like sensor tendrils that swam in the air from the rear portion of her cranium.*And what brings you to my forge?' asked Zeth, turning and leading Melgator towards the wall of bronze doors that led within. Polk dropped back to stand at her right shoulder, while Melgator and Remiare fell in smoothly to her left.*I come to you as a great shadow hangs over our beloved planet, Adept Zeth. Disaster strikes Mars at every turn and in times of such trouble friends should stand shoulder to shoulder.'*Indeed,' replied Zeth as they pa.s.sed into the forge and along its silver-skinned arterial halls. *We have suffered greatly and much has been lost that can never be recovered.'*Alas, you speak the truth,' said Melgator, and Zeth could barely keep the contempt she felt for his false concern from her field auras. *Thus it is ever more imperative that friends should acknowledge one another and do whatever is necessary to aid one another.'Zeth did not answer Melgator's leading comment and turned into Aetna's Processional, a pa.s.sageway of ouslite walls and burning braziers that led into a high-ceilinged chamber at the heart of Adept Zeth's forge.Formed from the intertwining of twisted columns of silver and gold, the web-like walls rose to a tapered point above the centre of the chamber. Gracefully curved sheets of burnished steel and crystal rippled overhead, winding through the columns to form an impossibly beautiful latticework roof, like glittering shards of ice frozen in the moment of shattering. The toxic skies of Mars were visible through the gaps in the columns as angled slivers of cadmium, hazed by the void shielding that surrounded the highest peak of the forge.Beneath the apex of the roof, a wide shaft descended into the depths of the forge and a fiery orange glow billowed upwards from the heart of the magma far below. Searing heat and waves of energising power rippled the air over the shaft as Melgator made appropriately impressed noises.Receptors like thin, slitted gills opened in the folds of his neck as Melgator partook of the invisible currents of drifting electricity.Remiare paid the hot majesty of the s.p.a.ce no mind, her own energy receptors kept hidden beneath her body-glove, and Zeth felt as though the a.s.sa.s.sin's attention was focused firmly on the cardinal weak points of her bronze armour. She shared a glance with Magos Polk, who a.s.sumed a deferential pose beside her with his hand tucked into the sleeves of his robe.*It has been too long since I stood within the Chamber of Vesta,' said Melgator. *Your current is exquisite. I can almost feel the fire of the red planet within me.'*It has always been here,' pointed out Zeth. *Those who are friends to the Magma City are always welcome to take sustenance within its walls.'*Then I should hope you count the Fabricator General amongst such friends.'*Why should I not?' asked Zeth. *Kelbor-Hal has never expressed his displeasure with me. He continues the great work of the Mechanic.u.m, does he not?'*Indeed he does,' said Melgator quickly. *And he sends me to you in the spirit of peace in these dark days of loss and death to a.s.sure you of his continued goodwill.'*The spirit of peace,' said Zeth, walking around the shaft in the centre of the chamber. Polk made to follow her, but she waved him away. The heat was intense and she could feel her organic portions begin to sweat. *Is that why you come to me in the company of one of the Sisters of Cydonia?'*These are troubled times, Adept Zeth,' said Melgator.*You said that already.'*I am aware of that, but it is a point I cannot make strongly enough,' replied Melgator. *An enemy strikes at us, weakens our forges, and only a fool dares to travel without precautions.'*An a.s.sa.s.sin is a precaution?' asked Zeth, turning towards Remiare. *Has the Cydonian Sisterhood fallen so far that they are now mere bodyguards?'The a.s.sa.s.sin c.o.c.ked her head to one side, like a bird of prey regarding a helpless morsel, and though glistening fabric obscured her expression, Zeth felt an acute tremor along the adamantium curve of her spine.*I can taste your fear of me,' said Remiare softly, her eyes like black marbles behind the horned death mask. *Yet still you bait me with barbed words. Why would you do this when you know I can kill you?'Zeth controlled her breathing and metabolic rate with a measured release of glanded stimms as Melgator said, *There will be no killing, Remiare. This is a mission of renewed friendship in a time when allies are to be more prized than pure-streaming data.'Melgator turned to Zeth, his hands held out before him. *Yes, I bring a warrior to your forge, but it is only because our very way of existence is threatened that I come so accompanied.'*Threatened by whom? Does the Fabricator General know who unleashed the corrupt code into the Martian systems.'*He does not know for certain, but he has strong suspicions,' replied Melgator.*Any you would care to divulge?'Melgator began circling the fire shaft towards Zeth, lacing his hands behind his back as he walked.*Perhaps,' nodded Melgator. *But may I first ask how the Magma City escaped the devastation so many other, less fortunate, forges suffered?'Zeth hesitated, unsure of how much Melgator knew and how much he only suspected. In truth, she wasn't entirely sure why her forge had been spared, though she had her suspicions, none of which she was comfortable sharing with a minion of the Fabricator General.In the end she decided on a partial truth. *I believe the singular nature of the noosphere prevented the debased code from entering my systems,' she said.*And yet the forges of Ipluvien Maximal and Fabricator Loc.u.m Kane suffered in the attack. They have recently upgraded their information networks to the noosphere, have they not? So perhaps there is some other reason you were spared? said Zeth, hoping Melgator would read the honesty in her cant and not the evasion of her words. She prayed that Polk's aegis barriers in his noospheric aura were in place.*Then might it be the latest endeavour taking shape within your Inner Forge? It has not gone unnoticed that your newest creation, whatever it is, requires lowly transcribers sequestered from Terra and a great many psykers secretly brought down from the Black Ships.'*How can you think you know what goes on within my inner forge?' asked Zeth, shaken to the core of her being that Melgator was aware of such things.Melgator laughed. *Come now, Adept Zeth. You think the workings of any adept on Mars are truly hidden? Information is woven into every pa.s.sage of electrons across the surface of the red planet and you know how the spirits of machines love to share their secrets.'*The workings of my forge are my own to know, Melgator,' snapped Zeth. *As I said, I believe that it was my adoption of the noosphere that saved my forge from destruction.'Melgator smiled ruefully. *Very well, I will accept that. Perhaps if you had freely shared the technology of the noosphere with your fellow adepts then Mars might have been spared the horror of the Death of Innocence.'*Perhaps if the Fabricator General had put more faith in the noosphere when I presented it to him, that might have been the case,' countered Zeth.Melgator smiled, conceding the point. *May I speak frankly, Adept Zeth?'*Of course, the Chamber of Vesta is a place of honest discourse.'*Then I will be blunt,' said Melgator. *My master believes he knows the source of the attack on our infrastructure and he seeks to rally all true sons and daughters of Ares to the defence of Mars.'*The defence of Mars?' asked Zeth, nonplussed. *Defence against whom?'*Against Terra.'Zeth was stunned. Of all the answers she had expected Melgator to give, this had not been amongst them. She tried to cover her surprise, by turning and looking out over the Martian landscape. The sky was turning from blue to purple, heavy, toxin-laden clouds sparking with lightning over the distant forge of Mondus Gamma.*Terra,' she said, slowly as though tasting the word for the first time.*Terra,' repeated Melgator. *Now that the Great Crusade is almost at an end, the Emperor desires to end his union with Mars and take our world for his own.'