Steel & Oil: Warhammer 32K

The Deputy Forge Director had never felt such fury before.

Lin's words were an insult to the Omnissiah — a denial of everything he had worked and sacrificed to become.

"Utter nonsense! Logic and probability constitute the Omnissiah's truth — His power flows between steel and circuitry!"

"I will crush you, you heretic from Huangquan VIII, with absolute logic!"

Such bold words were not without foundation in data. Though he had once again stumbled into one of Lin's logical traps, the Deputy Forge Director still believed in himself — believed in his data, believed in his logic.

Lin had broken free from an absolute disadvantage through cunning calculation. But a reversal of that degree was not enough to tip the scales of victory.

With three Death-Bound Warriors still at his command, the Deputy Forge Director held every advantage. He bore the Omnissiah's name upon his back — he could not lose.

True, Lin's scheme had forced him to divert the suppressing fire, giving Lin the opening to close the distance. But the data gathered during their exchange of fire would not vanish simply because of that ridiculous bit of scheming.

Now was the moment for that data to prove its worth.

Having driven back the Felynes, the Deputy Forge Director and his Death-Bound Warriors swung their guns back toward Lin, who was charging at full speed. The predictive curves modelling Lin's movements began rapidly converging toward an absolute interval. The Gestalt Experience Matrix and cognitive network under the Deputy Forge Director's command methodically eliminated projection after projection.

When the probability of a hit reached one hundred percent — certainty made manifest — the Deputy Forge Director issued his command without a moment's hesitation.

The Death-Bound Warriors' gun barrels bloomed with searing light. Obeying absolute probability, upholding the truth of the Omnissiah, the shots struck Lin without fail.

The Energy Shield was still holding, but the earlier exchange of fire had already worn it dangerously thin. On top of that, Lin had diverted most of his power to the thrusters at his back. Though only three Death-Bound Warriors were firing now, the Energy Shield still shattered after absorbing barely half the barrage.

The remaining laser beams punched clean through Lin's body. Alarm klaxons screamed inside his skull. Sparks erupted from ruptured conduits within him, and under the scorching glare of the beams his entire frame took on an almost crystalline quality — like glass melting under extreme heat.

But the thrusters were not destroyed.

He kept moving forward.

The Death-Bound Warriors had no time for a second volley. Carrying the momentum of his full-speed charge, Lin simply hurled his Solar-Powered Warblade — the razor edge took down the Death-Bound Warrior standing guard in front of the Deputy Forge Director. Then Lin cleared the toppled warrior in a single bound and slammed bodily into the Deputy Forge Director himself.

It was not some elegant technique. It was pure, reckless impact.

Metal fragments erupted from the collision like a violent squall, scattering in every direction. Pinned down by the sheer force of the blow, the Deputy Forge Director stared in stunned disbelief at Lin — whose body was already half-shattered — close enough that he could see through the cracks in Lin's frame to the gears within that had already stopped turning.

A Lin who had been swept by a full volley of laser fire had just crashed into an undamaged Deputy Forge Director. The outcome was naturally in the Deputy Forge Director's favour. In his calculations now, every alternative had been eliminated, leaving only a single result glowing red — marking his victory.

It was the victory of logic.

And yet he could not bring himself to believe it.

He could not believe that Lin would end this battle in such a laughable fashion — winning by losing more than he gave.

Though every remaining possibility pointed to his own victory, he found himself involuntarily questioning whether this logic, guided by the Omnissiah, could truly withstand scrutiny.

He questioned — but his commands did not hesitate for an instant. Even now, pinned beneath Lin, the Deputy Forge Director ordered the Death-Bound Warriors to open fire on both of them.

The Death-Bound Warriors' fire would tear through Lin and him alike. But by comparison, all he wanted was to ensure Lin died completely.

Yet Lin, who had planned for this all along, moved far faster than the Death-Bound Warriors could react. Even in the moment of that suicidal charge, he had already drawn a data-cable.

Using the lead time his advance planning had bought him, Lin forced the cable into the Deputy Forge Director — pinned beneath him — before the Death-Bound Warriors could shoot his arm off, and rammed the data he had long since prepared violently into the Deputy Forge Director's frame.

A torrent of data surged through the cable and into the Deputy Forge Director's systems. He understood instantly: this was a meticulously orchestrated data-intrusion ritual.

But as a Magos Dominus who specialised in commanding the Frateris Templar, every augmentation the Deputy Forge Director possessed had been built to handle data at massive scale. Combat within the data-realm was equally his domain.

He had envisioned Lin crashing into him and attempting to exploit his weakness in close quarters to bring him down. What he had never once considered was the possibility that Lin's charge was cover for a data-intrusion.

Lin wasn't even a combat-specialised Magos. On what grounds did he dare challenge him on his own area of expertise?

The Deputy Forge Director could not make sense of the situation. He was forced to factor in Lin possessing some formidable intrusion virus as a variable, and he abandoned command of the Death-Bound Warriors, throwing his entire being into repelling Lin's assault.

The machine-spirit did not move to defend against Lin's intrusion. On the contrary, it recoiled and gave way before the incoming code, retreating at every turn. That sight sent a cold jolt through the Deputy Forge Director.

He could almost hear the machine-spirit screaming.

None of his internal defence protocols had activated. This virus had to be extraordinarily potent — perhaps derived from some ancient and sacred technology…

The Deputy Forge Director dared not be careless. He swiftly relinquished direct command of the Death-Bound Warriors and focused his entire mind upon this arena of data warfare. But as he personally seized control of the defences, he discovered to his astonishment that Lin's code had no particular characteristics beyond its self-replicating nature.

In the brief time elapsed, Lin's code had already propagated to every corner of his frame. Yet beyond slowing his systems through sheer volume of self-replication, it produced no other effect whatsoever.

This was barely worthy of being called an aggressive intrusion.

Perhaps this is a virus designed for use against the Frateris Templar during command operations… his logic concluded.

If he had been struck by such a virus while commanding the Frateris Templar at peak load, it would certainly have caused a momentary delay in his command response. Had the opposing commander been a seasoned veteran, there would have been a strong chance they seized on that opening to reverse the tide of battle.

But this was a duel — his duel with Lin. Surely Lin wasn't foolish enough to use something like this as his trump card in a one-on-one fight?

The Deputy Forge Director could not read the situation clearly. Beyond the machine-spirit ceasing to answer his calls, he detected nothing out of the ordinary.

Even so, his instincts drove him to purge every trace of Lin's code from within his frame — and he turned the intrusion back along the data-cable, launching a counter-attack against Lin.

Lin used his one remaining hand to physically sever the data connection, but that brief moment of intrusion had already given the Deputy Forge Director a clear and complete picture of Lin's condition.

Nothing more than a spent arrow — a machine whose very machine-spirit had already died.

But Lin was still smiling. That smile made the Deputy Forge Director uneasy. He could not fathom why a man on the verge of death still carried such confidence. The only explanation he could conceive was that Lin genuinely had victory within his grasp.

But that contradicted everything logic told him.

For the first time, the Deputy Forge Director felt a taste of something that existed beyond logic — fear.

He could not stop himself from trying to speak to Lin: "You…"

"Shh."

Lin raised a finger to his lips, signalling the Deputy Forge Director to be quiet.

"It's about to explode," he said.

The Deputy Forge Director's gaze followed Lin's gesture down to Lin's waist. His optical systems automatically switched to thermal scan — and he found a lit fuse at Lin's side.

He could not see beyond that, but he could already guess that at the end of that fuse there had to be a grenade.

The Deputy Forge Director's pupils contracted sharply.

Instinct told him something was deeply wrong. But logic told him that unless it was a thermite charge, it could not kill a deeply augmented Magos.

Besides, the grenade was strapped to Lin's body — the blast force would pass through Lin before it ever reached him. If it truly was some lethal weapon, then they would both die together.

Yet everything about Lin's manner declared that grenade to be his decisive winning move.

Under these circumstances — what possible reason did Lin have to think he could win?

What on earth was he trying to do?!

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