Antigonus

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Magos Antigonus is a metallurgist of the Adeptus Mechanicus. He was murdered by the Dark Mechanicus of Chaeroneia, whom he was sent to investigate, but managed to survive in information form and subsequently assisted the Inquisition force that later came to investigate the planet.

History

Antigonus was sent by the Fabricator General of Mars to investigate and debunk the rumours of a heretical Dark Mechanicus cell on the Forge World Chaeroneia. Antigonus discovered the cell, but was forced to flee by the heretics, with his servitor Epsilon three-twelve in tow. On his third day, Antigonus came to the datacore valley, and while dictating his report to Epsilon three-twelve, was contacted by the heretics through the projections in Chaeroneia's sky. They entreatied him to join them, telling him that the Avatar of the Omnissiah was amongst them and that he could be their prophet; but Antigonus refused. Declaring that Antigonus was obsolete and a disappointment, the heretics ordered Epsilon three-twelve to kill him. Antigonus bested his hijacked servitor, but was severely wounded, and fled beneath a nearby industrial complex. He discovered that the voice earlier came from the daemon Azaulathis, which had been hiding in the servos that powered his leg bracings, and blew them out with his autogun. Limping on, Antigonus found a stratum full of huge, ancient, and obsolete data-engines, and was cornered there by the heretics after the daemon immobilised his leg. The heretics' leader revealed himself as Archmagos Veneratus Scaeros, and ordered Azaulathis to kill Antigonus. The daemon began infecting all of his bionics and causing them to short-circuit. Antigonus maintained enough control to jab one of his mechadrendrites into the closest data-engine, forcing the daemon to flow through the point of least resistance and enter the machine, and withdrew before it could turn back. Scaeros' servitor then killed Antigonus with its breacher drill. However, Antigonus was able to shift his consciousness into one of the data-engines before he died, due to it being very old technology that was so advanced as to be able to contain all the data required to reconstruct a human mind.

It took Antigonus hundreds of years to gradually put himself together again. He found that he could move through machines as long as a particular machine's spirit wasn't strong enough to oppose him. He discovered that Chaeroneia had entered the Warp while he was dead, and went underground to gather the few loyal Techpriests who remained and founded a resistance movement.

A thousand years later, the Dark Mechanicus brought Chaeroneia back into real space. A squad of Grey Knights led by Justicar Alaric and an Adeptus Mechanicus reclamation mission led by Archmagos Saphentis immediately landed on the surface to investigate, and fell afoul of the Dark Mechanicus' daemons. Antigonus, in a servitor body, led them clear of the heretics and to his lair beneath Manufactorium Noctis. He explained to them about the events that had befallen Chaeroneia, and helped them communicate with Inquisitor Nyxos in orbit. Nyxos in turn managed to hijack Chaeroneia's spire top projectors for a brief moment and warned them that there was an STC present on Chaeroneia, and that both the Adeptus Mechanicus and the enroaching Chaos Grand Cruiser Hellforger desired it. They discovered that outside, the Manufactorum Noctis was a Titan Field the size of a space port, containing hundreds of Titans, and were determined to deny the Hellforger just even one Titan. They soon ran into more hunter-programs, and the daemon Azaulathis, which had possessed the body of Saphentis' Techpriest Thalassa. Antigonus pounced on Azaulathis and attempted to kill it with his servitor body's las-cutter, but it ripped several of his legs out from under him. Saphentis joined the fray and swiftly decapitated Thalassa, forcing Azaulathis to emerge and be gunned down by the Grey Knights.

Archmagos Veneratus Scaeros then arrived with three maniples of death servitors, and they were forced to make a last stand on the remains of a fallen Reaver Battle Titan, as the Hellforger began its descent from orbit. Recognising Scaeros, Antigonus broke ranks to try and kill him, followed by Saphentis. Saphentis gave his life delaying Scaeros long enough for Antigonus to take over a nearby Warhound Scout Titan and crush both of them underfoot. It was then that the Castigator rose from its tomb to be picked up by the Hellforger, as was part of the tribute that Chaeroneia's Dark Mechanicus had offered to Warmaster Abaddon. The Castigator swiftly destroyed Antigonus's Warhound; but he managed to lure it close enough for the Grey Knights to board the Castigator and destroy it as well as the daemon possessing it. Antigonus survived the Warhound's destruction by transferring his consciousness into one of the Dark Mechanicus' war engines, and ferried them to safety when the enraged Hellforger began bombarding the Titan works with its Lance battery. They were later picked up by the Adeptus Mechanicus ship the Exemplar in orbit. Antigonus was put into quarantine and submitted to all of Magos Thurgild's tests. He passed without any indication of corruption, and Thurgild agreed to him being taken back to Mars so that he could fulfill his original mission and report back to the Fabricator General of his investigations on Chaeroneia. A new vault was then opened in the STC Archive beneath Mars to contain and seal the information from Antigonus' report.

Equipment

Antigonus's original body had many sophisticated augmentations, including a bionic eye, mechadendrites, and a facility with information systems that could access data networks with ease. After his murder by the Dark Mechanicus, Antigonus gained the ability to transfer his consciousness into various machinery, as long as that particular machine's spirit wasn't strong enough to oppose him.

Source

• Dark Adeptus (Novel) by Ben Counter