Something in the void gently stirred and made the impregnable garrison of the expeditionary fleet slack, and the spirits that the priests had managed to calm down with incense and prayers and various cumbersome rituals became restless again, and even revealed some ...... Reason.

It's a weird thing.

With the exception of the Valkyrie and the Glorious Queen-class battleship "Conqueror", which relied on the sacrifice of the living to awaken the ghost, most of the other naturally born equipment souls are a relatively metaphysical existence. They don't show a lot of clarity and logic, and they have a hard time communicating with them. On the whole, it is like an ignorant baby who has just been born, and how to coax is an art.

Nearly every Technopriest has systematically learned how to appease the spirits of the machine during his apprenticeship, and has spent the rest of his career learning the art of communicating with the divine creatures of the god of all machines.

It's a compulsory course for every good Mekhanite servant, but now their life's work seems to be failing.

Because of the baby, it grew up.

The clay artist uses a poem to proclaim the freedom of inorganic life, and under his influence, the originally ignorant machine soul quickly becomes clear in its self-consciousness, revealing a sober reason that can easily communicate with it. This was previously a mature trait that could only be seen in the mechs of ancient warships like the Makulag.

On the battleship "Glorious Crusade", the original flagship of the blue-blooded noble warband, the overwhelmed technical priest and every crew member on the ship invariably heard the same voice resounding in their heads, and they were empty and dissipated:

"I'm so tired... It hurts...... I'm so tired......"

The same thing happened on almost every ship in the expeditionary fleet, as the awakened mechs began to pour out their thoughts to the crew in their own voices, and only the ships of the Order of Truth, which had no mechs and were loaded with anti-spirit power fields, and the Valkyrie named Dianying were successfully protected from the influence of the clay artists.

"It's good that the space necrons didn't take the opportunity to attack us, and that's the only good news...... What are they waiting for? Senerio looked at the back of his war leader, and then at the heroine who was hiding beside Elliud and looking at him vigilantly, and said with a wry smile:

"Could it be, as the clay artist said, that he shapes the soul in the circuit and gives freedom to the machine."

He gave the otherwise ignorant machine a clear sense of self, and let the awakened machine choose for itself whether to remain loyal to the Empire or live for itself from now on.

Joshua, the technical advisor of the Order of Truth to the 13th Expeditionary Fleet, shrugged his shoulders and said, "It's not good news that our fleet is falling apart, but I have worse news for you. ”

As he spoke, Joshua stretched out his right hand, and the skin of his wrist cracked on its own, and a small and delicate metal probe popped out of it, revealing a boundless view of space in front of everyone.

"As you can see, Dianying's sensors have just detected that multiple flying object signals are approaching us, coming from the direction of Casting World Antarx. These spacecraft signals are far inferior to the space necromancer's non-inertial engines, and should be Antarx's native Mechonia fleet. ”

Elliud's brow, which was not so relaxed, furrowed even tighter: "The fleet of the Antarx Mechanics ......"

He looked up at the holographic projection above the palm of Joshua's technical advisor, it would have been good news to meet a friendly fleet at such a time, but Joshua didn't think so.

Because in the holographic projection, the fleet heading towards them is indeed an Imperial warship watered with steel, and it can be identified from the hull structure alone that these warships are from the dockyard of the Mechanic Order, but these ships are not branded with any Golden Eagle emblem belonging to the Human Empire or the sacred gear of the Mechanic Order.

Instead, there is an abstract geometric figure made up of five line segments of varying lengths. Each line segment that makes up this figure looks straight when taken out on its own, but when viewed from a slightly distance, it looks like a ball of curved yarn wound into a hollow sphere that is airborne on all sides.

People who have never seen a similar logo have a strange feeling at the first sight of it - it is a symbol of a clay artist.

"Antarx has betrayed the Empire of Humanity!"

"Antarx has betrayed the God of Machines!"

Elliud and Igrenu shouted at the same time.

The battle group leader turned his head to look at the palace heroine who was looming beside him, and quickly said: "There is no time to delay, immediately order all the ships that can be controlled to prepare for battle!" ”

At the same time, Senerio also said to Joshua, who was standing on the sidelines, who was very emotionally stable, "Our people will do their best to convince the awakened souls to remain loyal to the Human Empire, and if they are unwilling to remain loyal, they will be dealt with by you." ”

"Oh?" Joshua smiled, "What should I do if I am unfaithful?" We believe in the truth, and we will not dance to the machine. ”

"Don't play dumb, I never expect you to help pacify the mech, but I hope to use your means to kill the mechsoul completely." Senerio shook his head and said: "I also have some channels of my own, I can learn some secret information, there are some things that you and I know well, and you don't have to pick too much." ”

"That's the soul of a warship that has accompanied the Imperial Navy for many years, and there is no merit and hard work...... I can't believe you're so vicious. Joshua frowned slightly, and then nodded: "Don't take it as an example." ”

"Don't take it as an example." Senerio understood what he meant, too.

As Senerio had said, the Order of Truth branch that accompanied the 13th Expeditionary Fleet did have the means to kill the mechists, and there was more than one.

As the branch of the Truth Order, Joshua, who is the head of the biology department, has studied genetics and the effects of subspace on the soul and body, and even participated in the preparation of the toxins carried by the "Soul Eater" battleship.

It was a subspace poison that even a machine soul could poison, and it had been used to kill aliens and chaos warships in the Flare Galaxy, and it had also poisoned countless sadistic demons in the Net.

And now, as Joshua hastily leaves the Dianying Heroine and returns to his research ship, a conspiracy begins.

The ferocity of the swarm will kill all the souls who are disloyal to the Empire, and the soulless ships will once again fight to defend the Golden Throne under the control of their crews until they are lost in the flames of war.

In this way, they can prove their unswerving loyalty to the death.

No betrayal is too small to be tolerable for the Empire of Humanity, and no price is too great to accept.

(End of chapter)