Black Cog Fleet

Symbol of the Black Cog

(to be added)

## History

### Origins of the First Reclamator Fleet // Singularitarianism’s Folly

The Black Cog history can be traced all the way back to an Explorator Fleet sent two millennia before the God-Emperor of Mankind set foot on Mars. The Martian cult known as the Brotherhood of Singularitarianism had found evidence that a factory of Men of Stone was still active in a nomad planet, far from the Solar System, beyond what would later be called the Ultima Segmentum. Using all their influence, the Brotherhood gathered an efficient, long-range Explorator Fleet, and sent it on its way to find this ever-moving rogue planet, always on the move in the void between stellar systems.

During the first decade, the Explorator Fleet sent feedback about its arduous progress through the badland that was the galaxy at this time. Constant attack by varied Xenos factions took their toll and delayed the expedition, and the reports became less and less frequent. Until, approximately twelve standard years after its departure, the Fleet seemingly vanished.

The Brotherhood sent few much smaller flotillas to try to regain contact, but eventually they had to give up hope. Many generations passed, and the Singularitarianism’s Folly passed down in history as a terrible waste of resource. That is, until the arrival of the Emperor on Mars and the Treaty of Olympus that signed the alliance between Terra and the Mechanicum. About twelve weeks after the Emperor left Mars, never to step onto the Red Planet again, a miraculous transmission arrived from the galactic eastern fringe: The Singularitarianism Fleet had survived.

Through Ork pirates, Warp storm and hostile human nations, they pushed through, and arrived in the approximate region where the Men of Stone factory was supposed to be. The Fleet, after a defeat at the hand of a powerful technocratic Xenos nation, decided to settle down and establish a base of operation from which to explore the sector in search of the rogue planet. The next fifteen century they fought on, until they got a quite precise location of where the rogue planet currently was. However, the hostile technocratic Xenos were winning the long war, and the Explorator Fleet knew its days were numbered. It spent all its resources not trying to defeat the Xenos, but to get a message back to Mars with the location of the rogue planet, which they managed to do before being wiped out.

The message was highly encrypted with antique codes and was brought directly to the Fabricator-General of Mars, Kelbor-Hal. He saw this message as a sign of the Omnissiah -the true Omnissiah, not this ‘Emperor’- that he should keep searching ways to improve humanity. Kelbor-Hal took opportunity of the Great Crusade of the Imperium, which was joined by many Martian fleets trying to reconnect with lost Forge Worlds all over the galaxy.

He ordered one of his most trusted servants, Hetalkas Primnium, to assemble a large fleet, much larger than any previous Explorator Fleet. Officially, this fleet was meant to push the borders of the Mechanicum further than it had been, but in truth, it was meant to find the rogue planet and the Men of Stone facility. To ensure the success of this second expedition, the Fabricator-General spared no expense.

An absolutely massive fleet was built over the next twelve decades, made of ships of all different class, and a masterpiece of an Ark Mechanicus. Baptised “Our Lady of Plausible Deniability”, it was less of a flagship and more of a floating forge city. This new wonder was loosely based on a much older, mythical Ark Mechanicus coming from an old Mechanicum legend: The “Flawless Logic”. According to the myths, the Flawless Logic was an Ark Mechanicus of peerless glory, sent at an undefined time in the past, that traveled the stars and collected wisdom across all corners of the galaxy. Its last mission was to patrol what would later be known as the Eye of Terror to try to understand it. Groups of young techpriests sometimes tell themselves that the Flawless Logic is still there, somewhere, deciphering the Eye to come back with its knowledge back to Mars.

To try and create a sister ship to an Ark Mechanicus as legendary as the Flawless Logic certainly showed the determination of Kelbor-Hal. It took ninety years of tireless work from many shipyards on the Ring of Iron to build the Plausible Deniability, and then another ninety years to build the vast armada that would escort it. Most notably, this escort fleet was not composed only of military ships, far from it.

Learning from the ancient mistakes of the Brotherhood of Singularitarianism, Hetalkas Primnium ordered that many colony ships and mining ships would accompany the Plausible Deniability, serving as a mobile base of operation. Hetalkas, who was granted the title of Fabricator-Admiral, knew that so far away from the Mechanicum he would need both to keep moving and to replenish his forces while on the run. With an industrial output equivalent to that of a large Forge World, the capacity to mine its own resources, and colony ships to furnish an endless supply of manpower, Hetalkas ordered his fleet get on the move.

After a long ceremony of benedictions to the fleet's numberless Machine Spirits, and a maiden voyage around the Sol system, the Fabricator-Admiral jumped out away from Mars. Aboard the Our Lady of Plausible Deniability, commanding an autonomous armada of cutting-edge Mechanicum fleet, Hetalkas felt invincible. The fleet, too large to be classified an Explorator Fleet, was classified as a Reclamator Fleet. He was doing the Omnissiah's work. Certainly, he would come back quickly with wonderful technologies, prove to all that the Emperor's restrictions on AI technologies was foolish, and usher a new era of prosperity and progress for both the Imperium and the Mechanicum. But that was not to be. The fleet would never see Mars again.

### Crossing the galaxy // Defense of Triplex Phall

The journey to the Eastern Fringe was arduous. Aeldari Corsairs harassed the fleet punctually, forcing the Fabricator-Admiral to move forward cautiously slowly. Nine years after it left the Sol system, what was known as the First Reclamator Fleet arrived at its last stop in the Forge World of Triplex Phall. The independent-minded techpriests that ruled Triplex would usually be careful in their dealings with Mars, but on this occasion, the Reclamator Fleet was a welcome sight. Ork pirates, who had always been a problem in this area of space, had regrouped in a large force converging on Triplex Phall in order to obtain "more dakka" for its "boyz".

Hetalkas Primnium had clear instructions. He was to get to the Men of Stone factory, secure it, and come back to Mars as soon as possible. However, long range scanners indicating that the area where the rogue planet was supposed to be was filled with Warp anomalies and minor storms. It would be a rough journey, and the Fabricator-Admiral would feel better knowing he had a friendly Forge World to fall back to, rather than a pillaging Ork fleet. It was agreed, then, that the First Reclamator Fleet would help the Imperial and Mechanicum forces that were gathering to fight the Ork threat.

The next ten years were spent defending the Triplex Phall and its vassal worlds from an ever-growing Ork threat. Not willing to risk his precious resources, Hetalkas refused to engage his warfleet against the bulk of the Ork armada, much to the displease of the imperial coalition who wanted to provoke one big decisive battle.

In order to convince the Fabricator-Admiral to engage his entire warfleet against the Orks, Triplex Phall made one of its vassal Mechanicum Knight House to swear fealty to the First Reclamator Fleet and accompany it in its mission, in exchange for the Fleet’s support in a direct assault on the Ork armada. Once the vow was taken, Hetalkas agreed to send his whole fleet and ground forces, alongside Imperial and Mechanicum allies, in one decisive assault on the Orkish stronghold, a massive space hulk.

At first, the combined Imperial-Mechanicum fleet had a very hard time breaching through the Ork fleet. The Ultramarine fleet, at the forefront, suffered heavy casualties, while White Scars and Navy flotillas tried an unsuccessful circling maneuver. Only heroics from the Iron Hands and Iron Warriors flotillas allowed the human navies to hold the line, but the battle was looking dire. Hetalkas was considering the only logical course, retreat, when something amazing happened. The Orks, all of a sudden, lost all their unity. It started by a shock, spread throughout their entire fleet, as if they all stood in stupor. Then, chaos. Many ships, including the larger ones, retreated. Some started to shoot at each other. Many smaller Ork fleets regrouped and ran, sometimes in very different directions.

Confused but thankful in the Emperor and the Omnissiah, the Imperial and Mechanicum armies reformed their lines, and obliterated the few Orks that were still trying to win this battle. Once battle was obviously lost, even those last few Ork ships decided to run, allowing volleys of Nova Cannons to destroy the space hulk. Victorious, the Fabricator-Admiral returned with the rest of his allies to Triplex Phall, to lick his wounds and prepare for its real mission.

A little before his last damaged ships were repaired, Hetalkas received a surprising news. The Ultramarines at Triplex Phall received an astropathic message from their brethren: An imperial crusade, led by the Emperor himself, had destroyed the largest Ork empire of the galaxy in Ullanor. This might explain the panic in the Orks ranks here, if they could feel the psychic backlash of this defeat all across the galaxy. What was more surprising even was that the Emperor returned to Terra and nominated the Primarch Horus "Warmaster" of the Imperium.

This came to shock many in the Legion fleets. Hetalkas Primnium, however, did not care. This was Imperial politics, and his loyalties were to the Mechanicum. The Emperor was sure to be a great leader, a beacon of reason, and a master of war without peers, but he had still to prove himself as the Omnissiah. Leaving Triplex Phall behind, but taking the Knight House of Karmundis with him, the Fabricator-Admiral set to the mysterious rogue planet.

### Into the unknown // Taming of the Valejiks

To the perception of the First Reclamator Fleet, it took fifty years for them to find the nomad world. Once they had penetrated the atoll of Warp storms, and once the Astronomican was but the faintest of lights, the Fleet became under attack by an advanced Xenos race, fitting the description of the Brotherhood Fleet that had come in this region millennias before. This Xenos empire, however, was much weaker than the description that had been made of them. Some Xenos prisoners revealed that they had come under increasing attack from Warp creatures known as "daemons” and were now on the brink of extinction. Smelling an opportunity, and not wanting to fight more than what was needed, Hetalkas offered his forces to help the Xenos against the daemons, in exchange for the exact location of the rogue planet. An agreement was reached.

The insect-like Xenos, who called themselves the Vajeliks, had been fighting demons for millenias. To stand a chance, they created technological devices to protect their machines from demonic possessions. The Xenos were not willing to share this technology with the Mechanicum, nor were the Mechanicum willing to apply foul xenotech to their Machine Spirits, but fate did not leave them a choice. Once few ships started to become corrupted, killing their crew or firing upon non-infected colony ships, the Vajeliks offered their help and Hetalkas had no choice but to accept. Their Machine Spirits shielded from daemonic possession with this Xenos technology, the ships of the First Reclamator Fleet proved to be an invaluable ally to the Xenos in defending their territory. For decades, the Mechanicum forces fought side-by-side with the insectoids Xenos, but it became increasingly apparent that this was no conventional war. The daemons were endless, and sooner or later these Warp storms would wipe out all life in this sector of space.

The Fabricator-Admiral took time to weigh the different options. One of the more reasonable one was to launch a series of surprise raids against the Xenos leadership, extracting by force the location of the factory and then departing quickly. However, the perspective of being stranded in Warp storms in the middle of a hostile empire, with only a stolen map to navigate, seemed risky. And Hetalkas Primnium was a prudent man. He organized a meeting with the Vajeliks leaders, and struck another deal: Their worlds were doomed, and their race would be too if they stayed here. Using Mechanicum technology, the Vajeliks would build their own exodus ships, and join the First Reclamator Fleet in their quest for the Men of Stone factory. Certain that the Mechanicum would accept a Xenos race that took good care of their Machine Spirits, Hetalkas had no issue guaranteeing a new world to settle on the edge of Mechanicum space, once they would come back.

For thirty years, under increasingly pressing demonic attacks, the Vajeliks built their ships. The Mechanicum armies helped the Xenos to hold their ground, but world after world fell, the Mechanicum evacuating his forces and as many Vajeliks as possible, while retreating closer to the Xenos homeworld. While the delaying action worked, Primnium could not get a thought out of his logical cogitators: The daemons did not care about frontlines. They formed out of the Aether, appearing where they pleased. So why were they only skirmishes in the Vajeliks homeworld and the core worlds, while the attack was ferocious in the outskirts of the Xenos empire? Why did the daemons tried to mimic classic warfare, while they could all materialize around the shipyards and devastate the evacuation effort?

Just when his doubts became too great to be ignored, thirty-nine years into the Mechanicum- Vajeliks effort to evacuate, the demons launched a simultaneous all-out attack on all the Vajelik planets. Barely 10% of the remaining population had place aboard the exodus ships, and when the order was given to depart immediately with the fleets, the Xenos lost all cohesion. Brother turned on brother as every Xenos insect was fighting to get aboard the ships. This terrible chaos devastated the morale of both Hetalkas, who grew fond of the tech-worshipping Xenos, and the Vajeliks emperor, Aksias. Both agreed that the Aetheric daemons were a graver threat than anyone thought, including the Imperium, and that they would need to ally against them.

The distinction between Humans and Xenos, while fundamental, was not large enough to oppose an alliance against something as anathemic to life as the daemons, who corrupted both flesh and machine. And thus, the new combined Mechanicum-Vajeliks fleet went through the warp into the unknown. Against all odds, they did find the nomad planet without that much trouble. And once in orbit, the Men of Stone factory was easily found, but it was not what they expected to be. Far from that.

### The Nomad Planet // The Gift of the Men of Stone

On the surface of the nomad planet, drifting through space and warp, a whole civilization had developed, centered around the factory. However, if the civilization was human at some time in the past -which was not a certainty- it was not any longer. Heavily mutated by the Warp and the cold, they were nothing more than lizard-like beasts, surviving through the constant mutations that the Warp was bringing to them. These abominations spread across the grey dusty wastelands of the planet, and deep underground, and these Aetheric mutants waged an endless war against the Men of Stone. For, and that is a fact that was ill-known even to scholars, while the Men of Iron were self-conscious and thus susceptible to Aetheric corruption, the Men of Stone were not. Their Machine Spirits could be "unshackled", granting them a fraction of autonomy while virtually (but not completely) protecting them from demonic possession.

Using a generator that transformed solar energy into matter, a relic from the golden age of mankind, the Men of Stone kept fighting against the endless hordes of mutants. However, with the nomad planet entry inside a cluster of Warp storm, starlight became non-existent, while the mutants' ranks swelled like never before. The outer defense perimeters of the continent-sized Men of Stone factory had already fallen, and there was no doubt that the entire installation would be destroyed if nothing was done. Thanking the Omnissiah to have arrived in time, Hetalkas prepared his forces to land and support the Men of Stone.

The central intelligence that controlled the factory acknowledged the First Reclamator Fleet but explained that this fight was a lost cause. Furthermore, this intelligence indicated ominously that the "eye" was on the Fleet, and thus that the few technologies hidden deep inside the factory could not be given to Hetalkas. As all techpriests, the Fabricator-Admiral was greedy, and confronted with the refusal of the Men of Stone leader, he threatened to invade the facility and take the technologies for himself. To this threat, the intelligence replied in binary that it would melt its central solar/matter reactor and destroy the whole planet rather than risk these technologies spreading into the wrong hands. However, it did offer an alternative to Hetalkas.

One technology, and one technology only, would be shared with the First Reclamator Fleet: The ability to "unshackle" a Machine Spirit, thus allowing it to reveal its true potential and resist demonic possession. Also, to allow the safe return of the Mechanicum-Vajelik ships into imperial space, the Men of Stone would open a rift from within the storm, allowing the entire fleet to jump back to the civilized part of the Eastern Fringe. Hetalkas was greedy, but he was also full of logic. Risking the destruction of the planet, and the fleet with it, was risking a total failure of the expedition. On the other hand, the intelligence offered a very precious technology and a safe passage home. The daemonic threat was real, apocalyptically so, and by merging the Xenos technology with the Men of Stone gift, the Fabricator-Admiral could give the Imperium an edge in the coming war. Thus, Hetalkas accepted.

The Men of Stone kept their word. They opened a stable Warp rift within a Warp storm, using their eldritch forgotten technologies, and the entire Mechanicum and Vajelik armada passed through it. After what felt like weeks in transit, they emerged from the warp not too far from Triplex Phall. Victorious, they started to chant in binary towards the Forge World while on their way there. However, the greeting was far less welcome than anything they could have hoped for. While only fifty years seemed to have happened for them, over nine centuries had passed for the larger galaxy.

### Return to the Imperium // Hunted

The galaxy had much changed since the First Reclamator Fleet had departed into the Warp storms. When the combined Mechanicum-Valejik fleet returned to Triplex Phall, it was greeted by a massive fleet seemingly composed of, it seemed, Mechanicum ships. However, they identified themselves as Adeptus Mechanicus vessels, and were outraged to see ships from the Omnissiah flying alongside Xenos. Warning shots were fired to keep the First Reclamator Fleet away, and for what felt like hours the two fleets were on the brink of open warfare. Only the intervention of the leader of Triplex Phall, who was a humble enginseer at the time of the departure of the Reclamator Fleet, prevented a brotherly bloodshed.

The techlord of Triplex Phall then proceeded to transfer to the Fabricator-Admiral, via direct data transfer, the history of the Horus Heresy, and the Scouring that followed. The deathly wound of the Emperor, the civil war that tore the Mechanicum apart, the newly created Adeptus Mechanicus that enjoyed much less freedom than the Mechanicum... All this was utterly shocking to Hetalkas and his forces. The techlord of Triplex lamented that the age of enlightenment and progress was behind them now, and that many things were lost now, never to be recovered.

Heartbroken and unwilling to give up on his Men of Stone technology, to turn on his Valejik allies, or to become a puppet of the now-crippled Imperium, the First Reclamator Fleet chose exile. All those on board, including the Knights of Karmundis, chose this existence instead of turning to the Adeptus Mechanicus. They had all saw what Daemons were, how they would tear the whole galaxy apart if left unchecked. Only advanced technology, be it Xenos or coming from an AI-like construct could save their souls. The techlord of Triplex, out of respect for the old battle against the Orks that was fought to save his worlds, allowed the Mechanicum-Valejik fleet to repair their ships and warp-jump away from Triplex without fear of attack. But after this, they would be on their own. It was the duty of Triplex to inform Mars of the survival of the First Reclamator Fleet, of its alliance with Xenos and use of forbidden technology. The Red Planet would probably send reprisal fleet in pursuit, but Hetalkas took the risk. The corruption of Helbor-Kal with Aetheric scrap-code, and the division of the Mechanicum in two fanatic factions did not leave him much choice.

And so, they went. A fleet without home, without friends, in a hostile galaxy. The Dark Mechanicus, and the Chaos in general, was their obvious enemy. They were the one who had fallen under the corruptive influence of the Daemons. The Adeptus Mechanicus, and the Imperium at large, were another enemy. While they were also fighting Chaos, the blind faith that had obscured their minded and clouded their hearts made them dangerous. Without the guidance of the Emperor the Imperium and the Mechanicus wasted their resources, slaughtering Xenos that were also fighting against the greater threat of Chaos, or forbidding technologies that could help them turn the tide if only they would try to understand them.

Hunted by the Imperial Navy, by some Astartes chapters, and most of all by the Mechanicus, the First Reclamator Fleet had no solution but to hide in the void between stars, and to raid outlying outposts for resources. At first, the Fabricator-Admiral limited his attacks on smaller Xenos empires and isolated Imperial worlds. However, after one daring raid on the orbital shipyard housing one of the Martian fleet sent after them, Hetalkas pillaged the Forge World below. This was the first of many raids on Mechanicus factories, stealing precious raw material for his refinery ships to process.

It is during this forced exodus on the outskirts of Imperial space that the fleet met what would become one of its staunchest allies: The Demiurg Brotherhoods. These squat humanoids were living similar lives, mining the uncharted regions of space in nomad fleets. Hunted on sight by imperial vessels, they were at first very defiant from the First Reclamator, worried it was a deception aiming to destroy them. It took decades of non-aggression, trade, and occasional help against Aeldari corsairs or Imperial fleets for the Demiurg fleets to spread the word that the Mechanicum and the Valejiks were not hostiles. And then, the War of the Beast happened.

### The War of the Beast // Friends of the Demiurgs

While the WAAAGH! Beast was centered on the Segmentum Solar, the entire galaxy saw a resurgence of Greenskin activities. A massive fleet converged on Triplex Phall, who sent a desperate plea for help. Hetalkas, however, never bothered to answer, as the Adeptus Mechanicus was now an enemy of the last true fleet of the Mechanicum. The Valejiks were getting used to this nomadic life, and so the First Reclamator had no issue with running away from the impending fleets of the Orks. One thing made them stay: The Demiurgs were staying.

This was not out of a planned decision. Demiurg fleets were also preparing to retreat far from the frontlines of WAAAGH! Beast, but their main fleet got devastated by an Ork gravitic weapon. Under the guidance of the Beast, the usually-stupid Orks started to produce incredibly efficient gravity-based weapons that even the Fabricator-Admiral got jealous of. One such gravitic-whip stranded many Demiurg Bastion-class and Stronghold-class on a desolate rocky planet, whose surface was not too dissimilar from Mars. The rest of the Demiurg Brotherhoods rallied to help the main fleet and to evacuate their brother and sisters before the rest of the WAAAGH! caught up to them.

Hetalkas was confronted with a terrible choice. His combined fleet was powerful, but the real enemy was Chaos, not the Greenskins. He was all too happy to let the Imperium deal with this threat. On the other hand, the Demiurgs had proved valuable partners, were in possession of great mining, drone and beam technologies, and had many flotillas all over the galaxy. A full alliance with them would mean the full independence of the First Reclamator Fleet in terms of resources. Plus, Hetalkas really, really wanted a piece of Ork gravitic weaponry. So he gave the order, so the Mechanicum-Vajelik combined fleet deployed alongside the Demiurg fleets to defend them during the evacuation. Most of their ground forces were deployed to protect the crashed Demiurg vessels, and dug in against the oncoming assault.

Unlike what was usual for Greenskins, their ships arrived almost all at once, like a well-organized army. The Mechanicum, Valejik and Demiurg armada engaged them almost immediately, and thus began one of the fiercest battles in the history of the First Reclamator. For nine standard days, the battle raged in orbit and on the surface. Seemingly endless wave of Ork ships and troopers hurled themselves at the coalition defenses, only to be cut down by volleys of focused fire. Knowing their superiority in close quarter engagements, Orks tried to board their prey's ships as much as possible, and to drop on the surface directly inside the Mechanicum/Demiurg lines, despite their formidable anti-air defenses.

No one in the coalition expected such a fierce assault. It was not a matter of evacuating crash ship anymore, but simply to survive under relentless boarding and gravitic missiles bombardments. Wanting to get something positive out of this engagement, the Fabricator-Admiral lead a counter-offensive with the Our Lady of Plausible Deniability, counter-boarding one of the Ork battleship with his own augmented Skitarii. They returned with a powerful but unstable gravity bomb of complex design.

Eventually, and at terrible cost, the Ork assault was broken. The remnants of their fleet retreated in disorder, but no worse than what could be expected of any fleet suffering from a long-fought defeat. When the dust settled, virtually every single ship had suffered heavy damage, and sixty-five percent of the coalition fleet had been destroyed. This was a terrible blow dealt at the First Reclamator, but the Demiurgs are prompt at knowing their friends just as they know how to keep grudges against their enemies. And Hetalkas just turned out to be the best ally of the Demiurg Brotherhoods. Together, Demiurgs, Valejiks and Mechanicum rebuilt their fleets.

### Cornered // Rebirth of Our Lady

After the Imperium's pyrrhic victory against the Beast, the peace could have returned to the galaxy. It did not. Enraged that the First Reclamator abandoned Triplex Phall, the technolord gathered a massive Mechanicus armada to hunt down Hetalkas and his Xenos allies. Ships from Mars, Ryza, Graia and Triplex gathered in vast numbers, less than a century after the Beast's defeat. The Fabricator-Admiral had far from licked his wounds and was still vulnerable. Demiurg Brotherhoods had started to disperse amongst the stars again, and the Valejik took even more time to reconstruct their forces than the Mechanicum. Once the Triplex-led Adeptus Mechanicus fleet arrived at the asteroid that served as repair shipyard to the Mechanicum, the First Reclamator Fleet had no choice but to run for its life.

The hunt happened for nine whole years. The Adeptus Mechanicus coalition led by Triplex, ironically nicknamed the First Retributor Fleet, was relentless in its pursuit of the Reclamator Fleet. Horrified by Hetalkas' alliance with not one but two Xenos races, his use of Men of Stone-enabled unshackled Machine Spirits, and rumors of his experiments to retroengineer the Ork's gravitic bomb, the Retributor Fleet considered that the destruction of the Reclamator was its righteous duty in the name of the Omnissiah.

At this time, exhausted by constant running and battles, and getting old, Hetalkas Primnium was starting to make mistakes. He was not the bright young mind he once was, and he did not counter a brilliant maneuver by the Retributor Fleet. Trapped in a vast asteroid field, circled by Mechanicus fleets on all side, Hetalkas could only make one short-range Warp range to one planet amongst a dozen, before being caught by the rest of the Retributors. That was it. There was nothing to do. The Reclamators, still reeling from their conflict against the Beast, would get overwhelmed by the Adeptus Mechanicus' superior firepower, and be exterminated.

Only one solution remained. Hetalkas dreaded the day where he would have to take this decision. The technology given by the Men of Stone was potent, barely understood, but restrained. Despite the name they had given to this "unshackling" technology, one restraint still controlled the Machine Spirit. He could not calculate the consequences of fully unshackling a machine-spirit beyond what the Men of Stone offered to do. In his situation, however, the other choice was dying at the hands of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Following precepts edicted long before his birth, he knew that in order to control such an intelligence, it had to be fused with a human mind. As such, he devised a plan.

Using Titan-Princept connection technology, he would fuse his mind with his Ark Mechanicus, Our Lady of Plausible Deniability, while fully unshackling it. Not a single restraint. His consciousness would merge with the ship, his intellect multiplied, and the flagship of the Reclamator Fleet transforming into its de facto leader. Many voices raised against this act that some considered techno-heresy, but in face of annihilation, the decision was made to unshackle the Lady nonetheless. In a glorious ceremony, the ship was fully unshackled to the song of prayers to the Omnissiah, while the soul of Hetalkas Primnium was sucked into his companion. The Lady of Plausible Deniability awoke, immediately overriding the defense protocols of every Mechanicum ship and assuming direct control. It had a plan.

### Ambush and sacrifice // The end of the First Reclamator Fleet

Keeping the title of Fabricator-Admiral, the Plausible Deniability analyzed all its solutions. This Adeptus Mechanicus pursuit was a complex algorithm to be certain, but one solution was satisfactory, as it would cause the nigh-total destruction of the pursuers at virtually no cost for the Reclamators. This would allow the Mechanicum fleet to pursue its main objective: The fight against Chaos. Once the plan was exposed, many voices rose up in anger. This mind, that some called equivalent to an Abominable Intelligence, was offering a terrible fate to those that were still disciples of the Omnissiah. The start of a rebellion began in the bowels of the Reclamator Fleet, spearheaded by the Knights of Karmundis. Unfortunately for them, the Ark Mechanicus controlled all the life supports of all Mechanicum ships, and had direct control over most of the skitarii legions. In nine minutes of bloodshed and oxygen-emptying, the rebellion was crushed. All the Knight pilots were dead, and those who were vehement against the unshackling of the Lady disappeared. All this, of course, in favor of the greater good that was the survival of the fleet and the destruction of Chaos.

In less than an hour, the entirely freed Lady of Plausible Deniability calculated that one of the planets in reach of a single short warp jump was a hunting ground for Drukhari raiders. Having analyzed the entire history of the system, its isolation, the different unexplained events that happened regularly, the Ark Mechanicus concluded that the probability that Drukhari had at least an observation beacon there was as high as eighty-nine-point-nine percent. Enough to warrant a gambit. The entire Mechanicum-Valejik fleet jumped at once to this system, and ran for protection in the asteroid belt that circle the planet furthest to the star. Sure enough, not long after, entire Mechanicus fleets exited the warp, closing in rapidly in the asteroid field. That is where the Lady laid its trap.

The ship had given orders to its techpriest to modify the gravitic bomb stolen to the Orks, transforming it into a powerful time-space distorsion device. The effect would overwhelm unprotected machine-spirits, similar to the crude EMPs that lower civilizations could build. Only the unshackled minds of the First Reclamator Fleet could withstand the blast, but this would be a one-off. The Orks accomplished a miracle when they built this bomb, and even the Lady would not be able to replicate it. But the Machine-Spirit was ready for its first masterpiece of destruction.

Moving its fleet rapidly between the dense asteroid field, the Lady coordinated precisely the trajectories of every ship in its fleet, including the Xenos ones. Its skillful maneuvers prevented the Adeptus Mechanicus forces from obtaining clear Nova cannon firing solutions, but they fired nonetheless. The explosion of asteroids crippled a few smaller ships, and a lucky shot even destroyed a Mechanicum cruiser. What the fleets allied to Triplex did not know was that the First Reclamator Fleet was not moving randomly, simply trying to escape for its life while its warp engines cooled down. It was bringing all the Mechanicus ships together.

Moving fast, the Reclamators forced the different fleets that encircled it, little by little, to all pursue it from its tail. Eventually, the pursuers became clogged, ships mere kilometers from each other, trying to obtain the best firing solutions. Four major Forge Worlds had sent massive fleets, and many smaller worlds had sent flotillas. None of them accepted to give command to the other, especially when the foe was wounded and weak. There was no risk to lose a battle, and all wanted the glory of destroying the heretek's Ark Mechanicus. A simple well-shot volley of Nova cannons would suffice to cripple the Lady, allowing for mass boarding. And yet...

Once the Mechanicus fleets were sufficiently close to each other, and all behind the Reclamators, the Lady launched a single stealth bomber, containing the huge repurposed gravitic bomb in its cargo. It went to hide inside a hollow asteroid on the path of the Mechanicus forces, and waited. Nine minutes later, the Adeptus' First Retributor Fleet passed the hidden craft, too busy trying to shoot the Mechanicum or Xenos ships to detect it. Then, the gravitic bomb was detonated. The implosion was so powerful that eight cruisers were immediately destroyed, their broken hulls thrown against each other. The rest of the fleet received a veritable rain of heavy asteroids, coming from all directions because of the implosion. Many smaller escorts and flights of attack crafts were crushed, and many larger ships suffered critical damage. But that was not the worst of it. Every single machine-spirit in the First Retributor Fleet had been annihilated by the Aetheric codeblast embedded in the bomb. Without power except the most basic life supports, the Mechanicus fleets were virtually defenseless.

Our Lady of Plausible Deniability noticed however that the blast was stronger than even it could expect. A non-negligible portion of the smaller ships in the Reclamator Fleet had also been disabled, incapable to move at all. That was the problem with Aetheric technologies: Too unreliable. You never should fight fire with fire. Promising itself never to use the power of the Warp again, the Plausible Deniability calculated the risks/benefits of staying long enough to repair the machine-spirits of its broken ships. With the wounded Reclamator Fleet still operational, the Drukhari forces that were no doubt already en route following the detonation would first prey on the destroyed Mechanicus ships, preferring a defenseless prey as was their habit. If, however, they sent a massive fleet here, the Drukhari might want to first attack the ships still capable of escaping, overwhelming them rapidly, before starting the looting. This was a very possible outcome, and a risk that the Lady was not willing to take. It spent an hour or so evacuating as many crews as possible from the stranded ships, before ordering the entire Reclamator fleet to jump away. One of the disabled vessels was a colony ship, housing tens of millions of human lives. Hetalkas, had he still been alive in the biological sense of the term, might have risked a delaying action to save these people. But in the shape of the Ark Mechanicus, the Fabricator-Admiral did not concern himself with such distractions. The First Reclamator Fleet jumped away as soon as its warp engines were operational, cutting all vox communication so the crews would not hear the laments of those left behind.

This event profoundly disturbed the Valejik allies of the Reclamators. Many of them decided to secede from the direction of the Lady of Plausible Deniability. The Xenos ships were not under direct control of the Machine-Spirit, and were in sufficient number that it would not be worth it to risk a confrontation that would devastate them all. Seeing this as an opportunity to purge its fleet from its less radical elements, the Fabricator-Admiral offered the option to all in the fleet, Mechanicum included, to go with the deserting Valejiks in order to colonize a world and settle, starting a Xenos-Mechanicum Forge World. About thirty percent of the Mechanicum, and eighty percent of the Valejiks decided to leave the direction of the Lady, all the deserters leaving on Valejik ships. Immediately after this purge, the Fabricator-Admiral announced that the First Reclamator Fleet would stay in the shadow. It would rebuild its strength, use its relations with the Demiurgs to obtain resources discreetly, and prey on remote planets. The fleet was still largely autonomous if fed in resources, and could survive for millenias in the dark void at the outskirts of the galaxy if needed, and that is what it did.

Two main enemies were declared: The Adeptus Mechanicus, the enemy of progress and free-thinking. Blinded by faith, afraid of the very technologies it uses, this superstitious organization needed to be destroyed in order to allow Mankind to start a new golden age, ushered by world-altering technologies and the creation of new, superior intelligences. Many Xenos could be allies against the real enemy, but the Adeptus and the Imperium were too fanatically indoctrinated to see that. The Men of Iron incident was to be a grave warning, but Mankind alone was not capable of winning against the second great enemy: The Dark Mechanicus. Having succumbed to the influence of Chaos, they were anathema to logic and reason. They were everything that Hetalkas had ever fought, and as such the main objective of the fleet would be to destroy the Dark Mechanicus, and more largely Chaos, to free the galaxy of daemonkind.

Operating in secret, against all those that they were trying to protect, the First Reclamator Fleet took a new name. One that few would get to know during the next millennias, but who would strike fear into the hearts of its victim: The Black Cog.

### The Logician Cult // Regrowth

The Plausible Deniability saw that the Imperium was too strong to be attacked head-on, no matter what, and that the Chaos stronghold of the Eye of Terror was unassailable. Thus, for millennia, and with the patience that only an unshackled Machine Spirit could muster, the Ark Mechanicus and its Black Cog gathered its strengths. The fleet raided outlying imperial worlds, Adeptus Mechanicus outposts, agriworlds and mining worlds. It became the bane of the stars, attacking and devouring other, smaller pirating fleets.

Planning the return of the real Mechanicum, the Black Cog discreetly implanted and supported progressive Mechanicus cults across the width of the Imperium. Most of those initiatives fell flat, at best providing a few ships of new adepts to join the fleet, at worse causing ruthless purges in now-“heretek” forges.

One movement that especially caught the interest of Our Lady of Pausible Deniability was the Logician cult. Though the movement appeared and spread on its own, it had a lot of potential, and the Black Cog used a portion of its underground potential to send resources discretely to the Logicians. With this mysterious, indirect benefactors, and under the impulsion of their own beliefs, the Logicians grew in power, under the friendly eye of the Cog.

Eventually, the Logicians themselves supported the Meritech Clans, a group of nomadic spaceborn human flotillas, using any technology (including Xenos) to prosper in the Calixis Sector, beyond the Eye of Terror. The Logicians gave experimental weapons and logistic support to the Meritech Clans, which rose in open rebellion against the Imperium. While they had initial successes, the Imperium stroke back and broke the Meritech Clans, leaving only a few scattered survivors. The Inquisition managed to link back the rebellion to the Logicians, and launched a full-scale eradication campaign to root out the progressive Mechanicus sect. The Black Cog pulled its assets back, leaving the Logicians to be decimated.

After this purge, the fleet of the Cog covertly came into direct contact with Logician survivors. Offering resources, consultants, and a permanent base upon the fleet to rebuild, the Black Cog became the main benefactor of the Logician cult, especially since their ideals were so aligned. For the Fabricator-Admiral, this was one operation amongst others in the galaxy to spread the influence of the Mechanicum. However, it would prove to be one of the best investments that the Ark Mechanicus would ever do.

After a few centuries, the Logician returned to the Calixis sector, eluding the investigating teams of the Inquisition most of the time. Under the recommendation of the Cog, they started to look for old technology in the entire sector, and they soon found that an old legend spoke of a legendary ship hidden somewhere in Calixis. Many adventures followed as Cog-supported Logicians battled Inquisitorial acolyte teams, but eventually the cultists found the location of the ship: A cold gas giant in an abandoned solar system whose desolation was pre-dating the Great Crusade.

Immediately the Logicians sent their modest forces there, and arrived hours before a particularly resilient Inquisition team and its Tempestus Scions support. Both the Logicians and the Inquisition called for backup when they discovered what was hidden in the atmosphere of the gas giant: An antique, massive Ark Mechanicus. Only the leader of the Logicians recognized it, for he had learned much during his time aboard the Black Cog. This ship was the Flawless Logic, the mythic Mechanicum ship that the Plausible Deniability was based upon. It was, quite literally, the sister-ship of the Fabricator-Admiral.

### The battle of the Flawless Logic // Twins reunited

Upon learning of this, the entire Black Cog fleet, including its Xenos allies, warped into the system. However, soon after, a massive Adeptus Mechanicus coalition fleet, reinforced by an Iron Hand and Steel Confessors warfleet, appeared on the other side of the system, backed up by a smaller Imperial Navy flotilla. The two opposing fleets started to exchange fire around the gas giant, when a third party entered the fray: An Aeldari battlefleet from the Craftworld Ulthwé joined the conflict, rushing to destroy the Flawless Logic before either side could get their hands on the relic ship.

The battle in space was brutal, fought at very close range in the high orbit of the gas planet. Boarding teams from the three sides were launched across the whole length of the derelict Ark Mechanicus, fighting for control of its secondary systems, and to unlock the access to the main control room. The fight raged for three standard days, neither the Imperial, Aeldari or Mechanicum army managing to gain the upper hand, and all three suffering heavy casualties.

Eventually, the main control room of the Flawless Logic was unlocked, and elite teams from every faction flocked to gain control of the ship, while the battered fleets struggled to gain space domination. At first, it appeared that the Imperial forces, led by Terminator and Centurion squads from two chapters, would manage to win the day. However, while the Astartes were engaged by Aeldari Aspect Warriors, an audacious Black Cog techpriest inserted a dataspike inside the system. Not enough to take control of the Ark Mechanicus, far from it, but enough to unshackle its machine-spirit.

The Flawless Logic came back to life, seeing the galaxy with unblinded eyes for the first time in untold millenias. It was more than surprised to see three fleets engaged in a massive melee brawl around it, and to feel all these boarders in its corridors. Feeling its sister ship awakening, the Plausible Deniability entered contact, uploading the entire history of the galaxy for the past fifteen thousand years in a matter of minutes. The Flawless Logic took some time to process the information and decided to side with its sister-ship. It immediately killed the non-Cog personnel on-board with internal defenses and added the fire of its antique weapon-relics to the fire of the Mechanicum warfleet.

This turned the tide of the battle, and the Ulthwé ships, after a last unfruitful tentative to sink the Flawless Logic, ran away from the field of battle. The Imperial fleet lingered longer, suffering tremendous casualties from the combined fire of the two powerful Arks Mechanicus and their escorts. After losing most of their fighting capacities, and far after their chances to win the engagement disappeared, the Imperial ships disengaged and broke into a full route. The Astartes ships assured a rear-guard while the Imperial Navy sacrificed itself in a bid to win time. Their mission accomplished, the Black Cog retreated also from the system, the Flawless Logic having joined the fleet.

It raided the nearby imperial worlds for a few months, replenishing its forces, and even captured the Adeptus Mechanicus Forge World of one of the fleets that was critically damaged during the battle of the Flawless Logic. The Black Cog thus produced few new cruisers, and most importantly produced the ancient, antique designs of vehicles and infantry equipment that were stored in the database of the recently rekindled Flawless. This would give the Black Cog Skitarii armies an edge in the upcoming ground battles that it would face.

### Refuge // Escape to the T'au

Eventually, the combined Mechanicum-Xenos army had to turn tail and run when a gigantic imperial fleet, composed of much of Battlefleet Calixis, five Astartes chapters and a dozen different Forge Worlds was assembled and sent in pursuit of the two rogue Arks Mechanicus. The Black Cog could ill-afford a fight at this moment, and ran away from the Calixis Sector, with the imperial fleet in close pursuit. The Flawless Logic shared some of its very ancient knowledge on how to overdrive Warp reactors, and while they could not outrun the Imperials, they never got caught.

Relentless, the massive armada of the Imperium would not give up, even after crossing the entire galaxy. The Black Cog survived by quickly overwhelming virtually defenseless worlds, pillage them, then get on the run again. Eventually, the twin Arks decided to seek refuge in an upstart Xenos empire, where a progressive open-minded species known as the T’au were forming an alliance of races to fight the grim darkness that reigned in the galaxy. Sending an emissary in the fastest ship available, the Black Cog negotiated a temporary alliance against the reckless aggression of the Imperium. When the Xenos and Mechanicum reached the border of the T’au empire, a great Protector Fleet waited for them.

After a tense stand-off, the T’au accepted to receive the Black Cog in their borders in exchange for a guarantee of peace, of trade, and technology exchanges, as well as mutual protection from the Imperium. When the imperial armada arrived in the T’au border, the Protector Fleet was standing side by side with the Black Cog, protected by a series of orbital defenses, space stations and orbital railguns. Facing very poor odds against such a combined might, the imperial pursuers turned around.

For most of the 41st millenium, the Black Cog thrived in the outskirts of the T’au empire, protecting its border alongside the Protector Fleet. There, it acquired new ion technologies, mass-produced even more of the new Skitarii vehicles that it had acquired, and rebuilt many cruisers with improved T’au technologies. The Valejiks were offered a place amongst the T’au society, and many accepted. The Demiurgs continued to trade with the T’au, and many served as mercenaries amongst them. As for the Mechanicum, they offered precious insights about what the weaknesses of imperial equipment were.

One of the most significant innovation produced then was a replacement for the dead Knight machines aboard the fleet. Combining machine-spirit unshackling technology with T’au drone control protocols, the Flawless Logic managed to create a more powerful machine-spirit that could control the Imperial Knight engines on its own. The Fabricator-Admiral, still lingering inside the Plausible Deniability consciousness, was a bit unnerved by this. For it, this experiment went too close to Men of Iron territory, especially since Flawless Logic refused to let Plausible Deniability see in detail the machine-code that was used to animate the Knights. Some Valejiks even suggested that these new “Khamrian” Knights were eerily similar to the Dark Mechanicum’s daemon-engine in their way of charging recklessly into battle, but this was obviously some racial trauma coming from the loss of their worlds to daemonic forces.

This continued for a while, until the arrival of Hive-Fleet Behemoth in the Easter Fringes. This terrible threat to all life in the galaxy spent much of its might on the Imperium, but a splinter-fleet known as Gorgon assaulted the T’au Empire. The Black Cog had by then settled three worlds, installing rudimentary factories and mining facilities. Still the Cog was a nomad fleet, but it enjoyed a relative calm in its history to replenish its forces. Gorgon changed that, when the full might of the splinter fleet approached the Mechanicum-controlled worlds.

### Tyranid invasion of the Stellar Mountain // Not one step back

The Fabricator-Admiral ordered a full evacuation and retreated to the gigantic asteroid base that served as a capital to the many Demiurg Brotherhoods that befriended the T’au. They did not have time to evacuate and had requested reinforcements to the T’au. Thus, the Demiurg regrouped all their forces and prepared to fend off the Tyranids. Little did they know of the might of the hive-mind.

The Plausible Deniability and the Flawless Logic had a glimpse of the power of the Tyranids in the devastation wrought by Behemoth in the realm of Ultramar, and they knew the Demiurgs would not survive long enough for the T’au to reach them. As such, the colony and mining ships of the Black Cog retreated deep in the T’au Empire, while the entire warfleet deployed alongside the Demiurg fleets to defend their asteroid-capital. Just as what they did to fight the Beast, the Black Cog proved their friendship to the Demiurgs, by putting their lives on the line.

The space battle raged for two weeks, as more and more waves of Tyranids descended upon the coalition lines. Many secondary defense stations were lost to Tyranid boarders, and on the fifth day Tyranid ground forces landed in the asteroid-capital. The fight there would be uninterrupted for the next ten days, as Demiurg, Mechanicum, Valejik and the odd T’au were organizing firing lines to hold the endless tide of bioengineered killing machines. If at first, it appeared the battle could be won, there were always more Tyranids coming.

When, at the height of the battle, the main Tyranid fleet entered the system, all hope was lost. The Black Cog and its allies, mighty as they were, could not fight this endless armada. That is when something most peculiar happened: A minor warp storm broke suddenly, centered mostly in the Tyranid ships. Daemons materialized inside the hive ships, and Dark Mechanicus forces poured out of the small Warp rift en masse.

Hideous Chaos warships flooded the battlefield, using the confusion of the hive-mind to test experimental flesh-eating munitions on the bioships. The Black Cog, then, could focus-fire the remaining Tyranid vanguards, and send reinforcements to secure the Demiurg capital. The slaughter lasted for six hours, and the entire tendril of Gorgon was destroyed. The battered Cog, still weary, opened fire on their mysterious benefactors. The Dark Mechanicus ships, adorned with eye symbols, barely even put up a return fire, and returned through the Rift from which they came.

This battle cemented the friendship of the Mechanicum and the Demiurgs. Having saved their capital, seat of power of their race, more than a dozen Demiurg Brotherhoods decided to permanently join the Black Cog Fleet. This would prove to be a huge boon in the future, as Demiurg technology and spirit would soon influence the Cog Fleet in many ways. The T’au, however, were preoccupied by the Chaos intervention that seemingly saved the Mechanicum. While the Arks Mechanicus pleaded that the Dark Gods loved to play this kind of mind games between allies, the T’au leader caste decided to ban the Black Cog from T’au territory, as a preemptive protection.

### Exile // The Great Rift

However, during the centuries spent defending the Empire’s borders, the Black Cog had made many friends amongst the T’au. As such, the ban was met with two conditions. First, the Mechanicum could replenish its strength for nine standard years before venturing again in the unknown. Secondly, some vessels from the Protector and Merchant Fleet were authorized to join the Black Cog, lending their might to the Arks Mechanicus in their fight against Chaos, the Imperium, and Tyranids, all the while discovering the galaxy and its wonders. Many a Water Caste diplomat entered this expedition, though during the Warp jumps the T’au ships had to be carried in the hulls of the Arks Mechanicus.

For ninety years, the Black Cog wandered the borders of Imperial space once again, trying to gain a foothold in the hearts and mind of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Occasionally hunting a Tyranid flotilla, pillaging an imperial Forge World, or countering a Chaos warband. Our Lady of Plausible Deniability wanted to focus all their efforts to aid the Adeptus Mechanicus against their Dark brethren in order to open their eyes, while the Flawless Logic thought better to ally with the Necrons and fight the oncoming Hive Fleet Leviathan. Eventually, the pressure of Chaos was too high, and news of Abaddon’s 13th Black Crusade reached the Black Cog. Both Arks Mechanicus agreed that the fall of the Cadian Gate would reinforce Chaos beyond measure, and thus the Mechanicum-Xenos fleet set sail to Cadia.

The Imperials were beset, but they were still too stupidly proud to see past their zealotry. The first system they entered were a rallying point for a Black Templar crusade, and the madmen attacked the Mechanicum and their Xenos allies on sight, disregarding the offers of help. The neighboring system served as a Ministorum stronghold, and Imperial Navy ships, full of Sisters of Battle, tried to rush the Black Cog and board them. Running away yet again, the fleet arrived in a system belonging to the Adeptus Mechanicus, with a supporting Iron Hand flotilla. Discussion could have been possible, but the Iron Hands remembered the battle with the Fabricator-Admiral forces, and thus all Imperial forces became hostile. Giving up on any chance of alliance with the Imperials, the Black Cog went further from the frontlines, deeper into the territory of the Imperium, trying to intercept a Dark Mechanicus fleet that was trying to slip past the Imperial defenders.

The Dark Mechanicus forces, once intercepted, had the most curious behavior. Much smaller in size and strength than the Black Cog warfleet, the Dark Mechanicus said they were looking for the Mechanicum to offer an alliance between their factions. Nonsense words followed, that the Black Cog caught the attention of one of the Chaos God, and that this God knew the Arks Mechanicus would eventually do his work. Cutting all communications with the Dark Mechanicus, the Mechanicum-Xenos alliance obliterated the Chaotic forces, not listening to the last bet of a cornered fleet. A few hours after the destruction of the last Chaos warship, and before the Cog could jump back in space, something terrible happened. The Eye of Terror exploded, as if a dam had broken, and the whole universe to the galactic east of the Black Cog seemed to be swallowed by the Warp. The Cicatrix Maledictum had opened.

This changed the perspective of the Black Cog. In an instant, Chaos had become the main threat to the galaxy, beyond the Tyranids and the Necrons. The Fabricator-Admiral declared its intention to unite Xenos forces alongside the true sons of the Mechanicum, in order to break the hordes of Chaos. While the Imperium reeled from its defeat at Cadia, and the reborn Imperial Primarch waged the Indomitus Crusade, the Black Cog went outside the borders of the Imperium to protect smaller Xenos nations from Chaos, and recruit allies.

Outside of the Imperium, the name of the Black Cog started to grow. Outcasts from some Xenos factions started to seek out the fleet, trying to find a welcoming place that accepted all who oppose Chaos. Aeldari corsairs, smaller Necron dynasties, even some Imperial Navy outcasts, many were those who left their faction behind to join the Cog. The Mechanicum stayed, by and large, the main force of the fleet, but the armada became increasingly heteroclite in its composition. The tipping point was when Plausible Deniability learned of a nearby Forge World that was producing many of the new Primaris Astartes equipment. Templates of armor, vehicles, weapons and more were stocked there, protected by a powerful Adeptus Mechanicus space station. As a last gambit, the Black Cog assaulted this great Forge World, the ninth largest in the Segmentum Pacificus.

### Fury of the Black Cog // Union of the Xenos

The Adeptus Mechanicus defenses were formidable, but even the stoic Skitarii officers were more than a little surprised to see a horde of dozens of species and fleets falling upon them in a coordinate pattern. Losses were heavy, especially amongst the Xenos auxiliaries sent with the first wave, but after a month of fighting the resistance was broken in the Forge World. Defenses positions were established in orbit and on the surface, while resources were pillaged and distributed amongst the Black Cog fleet. Most importantly, the Mechanicum gathered the data for producing Astartes Mark X armor, and all the Primaris vehicles.

No Space Marine chapter would ever agree to follow the Black Cog, but Plausible Deniability had another idea in mind. The Fabricator-Admiral asked the T’au technicians in the fleet to collaborate with Demiurgs artisans and Mechanicum techpriests to adapt the Mark X Primaris Armor to the Demiurg forces. The armor was large enough to be converted in a battlesuit for the squat Demiurgs. While not the bio-engineered death machine that an Astartes was, the Demiurgs could become formidable opponents when using the same equipment as the Emperor’s Finest.

The first tests were disappointing. No amount of interface optimization could allow a Demiurg to control its battlesuit as efficient as a Primaris would fight in its armor. That is when elder Demiurgs, crippled in previous battles, offered an idea that would define heavy Demiurg infantry in the future. Using Astartes Dreadnought technology, wounded Demiurgs would be interred inside a Mark X armor, keeping only their head and their spinal cord. Almost entirely cybernetic, these brave souls would give up their biological body to become mechanical weapons of war, a match for Astartes warriors. A last chance for the wounded and the dishonored to fight for their brotherhood, for their race and for the Cog. The Demiurg’s Orbital Paladins were born.

If, at first, the Orbital Paladins were an opportunity for redemption for the broken and the shameful, they soon became a mark of honor. Within two decades, healthy and honorable Demiurgs were volunteering to become interred inside a Quicksilver battlesuit. Half a century later, nearly all of the command echelons of the Demiurgs were part of the Orbital Paladins. Not soon after that, getting your brain and spinal cord put into a battlesuit was a privilege reserved for the more meriting of the Demiurg armed forces.

It took forty-five months for the Imperium to muster a crusade fleet large enough to take back the Forge World, months that the Cog used to rebuild ships and conscript new humans into its Skitarii regiments. This time though, Mars had enough. A gigantic armada, three times the size of the Black Cog, set sail to put an end to the threat of the rogue fleet. Facing these overwhelming odds, the Fabricator-Admiral ordered the evacuation of the Forge World, and the retreat on the other side of the Cicatrix Maledictum. This is where the fight against Chaos was really happening, and where the Imperium would stop chasing them.

Crossing in force through the Vigilus passage, the Black Cog managed to reach the Imperium Nihilus. There, half a galaxy of opportunities awaited. Isolated worlds to plunder, Chaos and Dark Mechanicus warfleets to hunt down, as well as Xenos allies to make. At long last, with the power of the Imperium fading here, maybe the Black Cog would find an opportunity to settle, and start again a true Mechanicum, where all those who oppose the tyranny of Chaos or of the Imperium could find a haven and allies.

## Military forces

### Vicars of the Cog

The highest Techpriest of the Fleet must all entirely digitalize their consciousness into a cybernetic brain. This is a sine qua non condition in order to get closer to perfection, as well as improving their processing capacity, helping them to better control the flows of battle. Even though they still possess flesh, their minds are cold, and some voices initially disapproved of a fully-digitalized tech-ecclesiarchy in a Fleet already led by an Ark Mechanicus’ spirit. Some feared that, in case of an emergency, the AI could take control of the brains of all techpriests, leading to unforeseeable consequences. These voices have since been silenced, and all Vicars of the Cog are perfectly loyal to Our Lady.

### Brothers of the Cog

The only leaders in the Teeth of the Cog still possessing an organic brain, the Brothers of the Cog are aspiring Vicars that try to prove their worth to the CWL-RGO and to the Black Cog as a whole. Their bodies are often heavily modified and, being less close to digital perfection, are often used closer to the frontlines to help coordinate the Teeth infantry in their advances, or to overwatch the operations of Xenos auxiliaries.

### Sicarian Psiloi

Lightest of all Teeth infantry, the Skirmishers almost never see the frontline combat close. During the battle, they use very long-range weaponry to eliminate key members in the enemy’s leadership, or crew of artillery vehicles. Their main use, however, is once the battle is finished. Using the extreme mobility offered by their Sicarian bodies, they hunt for survivors, making sure no one remains to tell the tale of the Black Cog. Equipped with state-of-the-art Xenos hunting equipment, silent and relentless, they don’t stop until a living witness of the planetary invasion remain, sometimes running for hundreds of miles in their pursuits.

### Skitarii Thyreophoroi

The main line infantry of the Teeth, they form the bulk of the Cog’s presence on the ground. Though technically Skitarii, they wear additional armor and carry heavier guns, trading their mobility for staying power and firepower. Often deployed by large troop carriers near the frontlines, they are sent in great numbers everywhere the Cog is involved, not unlike the Astra Militarum deploys its own soldiers. Many of the Thyreophoroi are volunteers coming from the colony ships, but many more are brainwashed civilians from pillaged worlds, their bodies mostly replaced by bionics and their minds emptied of anything but the deepest loyalty for the Cog, and efficient battle protocols.

### Skitarii Thoratikai

Most elite of the Teeth infantry, the Thoratikai are all volunteers, fanatical in their belief that the Arks Mechanicus will guide them until the end of their Techrusade to restaure the Mechanicum. They strongly believe that the Cog will eventually gather enough weapons and technologies to secure the galaxy forever in the name of the Omnissiah. With experimental shields and extra armor, they are extremely proficient at holding key points while the rest of the Teeth get into position or obliterate the opposition. They also often guard squads of Mangonel Dunecrawlers or accompany the Khamrian constructs during their charges.

### Skorpion Scout Dunecrawler

Lighter than the usual Dunecrawlers of the modern Adeptus Mechanicus, the Skorpions are fully automated war machines, something that the tech-clergy of Mars would surely call heretical. Though even them would have to appreciate the raw destruction potential of these drones, sent ahead of the main Black Cog forces to hunt down the enemy scouts and to support Psiloi or other infiltrating units. Since there are no pilots their reactions are relatively limited, hence they are mostly used as disposable munitions to weaken the enemy. After the battle is won, the Skorpions are left to roam the wildlands in the same manner as the Psiloi to hunt down the remaining witnesses.

### Mangonel Heavy Dunecrawler Mk1

The workhorse of the Black Cog’s armored forces, these modified Onager Dunecrawlers give up some mobility in exchange of a massively increased firepower. Much larger than the modern Adeptus Mechanicus Onagers, and more expensive to maintain, the Mangonels are more akin to a small Knight than to a simple tank. Deployed individually via large carriers, their massive range allow them to hold their position for extended periods of time while leveling enemy installations kilometers around. Of course, since they are so valuable, they each have an infantry squad dedicated to their protection.

### Mangonel Heavy Dunecrawler Mk2

While the first version of the Mangonel proved to be an extremely powerful anti-vehicule platform, it could not be effectively used against fast-moving skimmers or bombers. Always looking for an efficient solution, the Black Cog engineers adapted a fixed anti-air arsenal on the Mangonel structure, creating the sky-cleaner knowna s the Mangonel Mk2. As slow as its predecessor, this walking artillery platform is almost defenseless against ground forces, but will devastate any hostile air unit that dares to enter its interdiction zone. They also enjoy the protection of a Psiloi detachment prowling the ground around them to hunt for enemy infantry, and the Mangonel Mk2 absolutely need this ground defense, perhaps even more than the Mk1.

### Warcrabs

These agile crawling warmachines are much faster than the Mangonels, able to reinforce collapsing frontlines on a whim. Their firepower is lighter than that of the other battle tanks of the Black Cog, but more importantly -and unlike many Teeth units- their armor is quite light. They count on their speed and a clever use of cover in order to get in range and drown the enemy in solid rounds and armor-melting beams. Each Warcrab is controlled by a single pilot whose reflex are often biomechanically enhanced. While Mangonels often hold the center of the battleline and the Skorpions prowl the flanks, Warcrabs are often kept in reserve, waiting to either reinforce a position suffering from an hostile attack, or to plunge into a weak point in the enemy positions.

### Lambda Simulacra Auxilias

During the Black Cog’s darkest hours, when reserves ran low and enemies got close, the Our Lady experimented with Valejiks’ cloning technologies. The Lambda Simulacra are the shameful result. These humans are cloned directly into adulthood with combat memory and have a lifespan of months at best. They can, however, be mass-produced easily and quickly sent on the frontlines. In case of a major crisis, entire regiments can be mustered and spent with as little consideration as munitions. Simulacra, however, are considered as nigh-heretical technologies even by the open-minded Black Cog, and the resource cost is high. As such, Simulacras are used en masse only during times of great need.

### Prime SLVA

The SLVA Prime is an exceptionally strong Simulacra, produced at great cost during the Cog’s time of need. Biologically human, they are cloned from a particularly powerful human psyker, whose muscles have been genetically enhanced. This would be an absolute abomination to many Adeptus Mechanicus adepts, and even the most open-minded of the Cog’s members are troubled by the mere existence of the Primes. Their power, however, might be worth the cost. An incredibly efficient fighter, equipped with very resilient armor and shield, and whose psychic might allow him to support the hordes of Simulacras he commands while shutting down enemy psykers.

## Combat doctrine

The Black Cog applies a lot of strategies of the major Xenos threats known to the Imperium. On a strategic level, the fleet can be compared to the Drukhari and the Tyranids. They attack the least defended planets in the Imperium or some Xenos empires, striking hard and fast before a response force can be assembled. Before leaving, the Cog empties the planet or system of all its resources, leaving behind a desolate rock, barely able to sustain life.

On a more tactical level, the Magos got a lot of inspiration from the T’au theory of Mont’ka: The surprise application of overwhelming force on the enemy’s command nodes. The occasional use of a Quantum shields from Necron allies allow them to sustain the siege of hostile fortresses if needed, with relatively low casualties. This is avoided as much as possible for, during planetary assaults, time is often of the essence to prevent distress signals being sent.

More surprisingly, the techpriests found out that the Orkish theory of “More dakka is bettah” to be founded. Additional firepower, when put on already resilient platforms do serve as anchors for the rest of the army. As such, the usual Dunecrawlers and Kastelans, using Mechanicum-era base are heavier versions, carrying much larger weapons. Of course, the frames of the machines themselves have been reinforced to be able to move with such extra weight.

## Recruitment

The colony worlds of the fleet are small floating hive-cities. Supplied by agricultural ships providing them with nutrient paste, these cities offer the first source of loyal soldiers and workers for the Black Cog. The second source comes of course from reconditioned slaves. Brainwashed captured humans from Imperial worlds serve as prime stock for the legions of Skitarii that the Cog likes to deploy on frontlines.

While during the first years of existence of the Black Cog, it operated completely autonomously in the darkest reaches of space, it soon became in need of raw resources. This is when it started to raid not only isolated Xenos empires, but also lonely Imperial worlds. Following a strict no-witness policy, it enslaves all the civilian population to be used as Skitarii or nutrient paste.

At the same time, a veritable armada of mining and refinery ships fast-extract all precious resources from the system –mostly minerals-, leaving most worlds a barren rock. In a few weeks or months’ time, savage exploitation leaves most worlds inhabitable. The Black Cog then releases volleys of Nova Cannons on the planets, erasing most trace of the pillage, before moving on.

## Personnel of notes

### Warskin CWL-RGO

The machine-spirit fragment known as CWL-RGO is the fraction of Our Lady of Plausible Deniability dedicated to the coordination of the Cog’s ground forces. When it takes to the field of battle, the CWL-RGO projects a fraction of its mind into a Warskin, a construct able to host its powerful algorithms and able to coordinate entire armies from the ground without any input from the Arks Mechanicus where CWL’s central brains are located. The rest of the Teeth of the Cog often refer to CWL-RGO as “His Exigency”.

## Key ships of the Black Cog Fleet

Even with all the Xenos auxiliaries that joined the fleet, the Black Cog is still composed at 85% of Adeptus Mechanicus ships. At the heart of this fleet are two twin Arks Mechanicus: The “Our Lady of Plausible Deniability” and the “Flawless Logic”. Even though the fleet could survive with only one of these Arks, they each serve a specific field of research. The “Our Lady of Plausible Deniability” is meant to incorporate Xenos technologies and design ideas into existing Imperial techs. The “Flawless Logic” is specialized in maintaining and constructing ACCs, Autonomous Combat Constructs, which is the official name used to designate the unshackled Knights.

The vast majority of the ships are “maintenance” ships, such as colony ships, mining ships and refinery ships. They provide for much-needed raw and human resources, and help to stripe down pillaged worlds, not unlike Tyranids hivefleets. The combat potential of the Black Cog is formidable, the equivalent of a powerful Explorator Fleet, comprised mostly of Cruiser-sized ships equipped with all kind of esoteric weaponries.

The focus of the Black Cog is on its ground forces. Indeed, the Fleet avoid as much as possible void combat, preferring to prey on undefended worlds, mimicking the tactics of the Drukhari. Once the Cog begins landing operations, it prefers to employ overwhelming force and a shock-and-awe strategy. Very large formations of heavily-modified Adeptus Mechanicus vehicles break apart the opposition’s fortresses, while armored regiments of Skitarii purge the main population centers. Very light infantry skirmishers hunt the survivors in the wilderness, and in case of exceptional resistance, the warmachines of the Khamrian Host are deployed.

Of the Xenos auxiliaries, the Demiurg Brotherhoods consider the overwhelming majority. These squat-sized Xenos, historical allies of the T’au Empire, found great partners in the Black Cog. In exchange for a wealth of minerals and a supply of Primaris-class battlesuits, the Demiurgs ships escort the Black Cog and add their own soldiers to ground assaults.

Many minor races add their humble might to the Black Cog, be it as small a single research ship, a regiment of mercenaries, or a pillaging cruiser. Most of them are outcasts, staying forever with the Cog, though some of them are temporary partners, free to leave and go back to their kind whenever they want.

## Black Cog Fleet relations

### Allies

Demiurg Brotherhoods at varying degrees

Steelsoul Brotherhood especially

Velajik Swarms

T'au Empire

Two smaller Necron dynasties

Craftworld Aithreachas-saorsa

Several smaller Drukhari raiding parties

Several minor Xenos races

Logician Cult

### Ennemies

Imperium of Man

Adeptus Mechanicus

Orks, and more generally all Greenskins

Vexima Purifiers

Chaos and all its affiliates

Tyranids

Most Necron Dynasties

Most Drukhari

Some Aeldari Craftworlds