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Logical Irrationality
Chapter 3

-VB-

'I'm supposed to have already this universe, not get myself even more deeply involved in it,' I thought with frustration aimed at myself rather than the situation.

My mind paid attention to three main threads. The first was the rescued children. I had thousands of subthreads running my human software simultaneously to calm down the children. Food wasn't hard to manufacture once I had scanned examples of the human foods and made all varieties of them for the children to eat. Mostly, I provided sweets for the children to suck on so that they didn't wallow in their past experiences.

Second, the continued extermination of the orks needed my attention. I did not just kill the orks but I also burned their fungus. With Progenitor scanning technology, I found even the spores stuck in the smallest cracks. Those I could not burn were treated extensively with anti-fungal chemicals. I did all this because orks were not a race but an ecosystem and the fungus that they ate and spread was the basis of that very lifeform. So to remove the orks, their fungus had to die off completely. Where chemicals and fire could not reach, my nanites did.

Third, I talked with the Tau commander on the moon of Kaurava II.

"So you claim to be an extragalactic being," the Fire Caste Commander Shas'O Or'es 'Ka hummed.

"What you believe as a claim or not is unimportant," I replied evenly at the commander's lack of professionalism. "What is important is whether or not you will heed to my demand."

“You cannot expect us to simply hand over all of the human civilians,” he scoffed at me.

“It is a choice between agreeing to do so and not being annihilated by a machine army currently on its way to outweighing the very moon your outpost is built on or being annihilated by said army.”

He was probably not someone who would believe anything he hasn’t seen, so I made sure he could see it by breaking through the firewall and directly feeding his screen a video of the current ongoing extermination of the local ork warband in 4k definition.

"You are not bad. Good is subjective but you, just like the Imperium, are not bad, merely naive and surviving," I continued. "But you are guilty of the weakness, and in your weakness, you will allow your charges to die. Do the adults want to stay and not take my offer of safety? Fine. However, all orphans are the wards of states, so I will force you to give them to me."

"... why not help us?"

"Excuse me?"

"Why not help us? What the T'au do for the galaxy-"

"Is meaningless when your galaxy is surrounded on all sides by voracious and unending swarms of Tyranids. The T'au Empire, even if it gathered all of its soldiers and warships, couldn't survive a hundred years of constant sieges. You didn't even defeat Hive Fleet Gorgon on your own."

"So you are just going to give up?"

"I was never here for long term business. I have already done more than what is strictly necessary. After all, I have removed two unreasonable factions, the Necrons and the Orks, from this system, but you and the Imperium will just turn on each other, won't you? This is why this galaxy is hopeless. A galaxy of unending warfare. It is … pointless. All of it." I paused. "You have your answer, and I demand my answer. Yes or no?"

"... yes. Take the damned orphans."

I didn't need to, but I wanted to, even if it meant wasting time and energy. "Enjoy the galaxy while it stands."

It took them exactly one week to get all of the orphans that I marked, which only served to make them even hastier to get me out of their hair, and then I was off that system for good.

-VB-

Pelia glared at the robots that herded her and the rest of the orphans around like they were cattle that she remembered her parents used to herd. Different robots killed her parents, but they were robots still! They were evil!

… But these robots stood taller than any others. They weren't as scary as others, too. These robots were kind of bland, actually. The robots of the slit-faced blue xenos looked ready for war while these… kind of looked dull and bored, like they were going to their jobs.

That was until she saw it.

It towered over everything around it. Standing on its four legs, it was a veritable titan.

And it greeted her and the other orphans cheerfully.

“Welcome to my home, boys and girls!” the titan laughed as its opened its arms. “Soon enough, there will be more human-sized robots who will come around to help you. Make sure to tell them your names and what you like and don’t like, alright?”

She did not expect such a cheerful welcome, and didn’t know what a robot was.

Then they appeared.

They appeared … clean. Clean and human. They did not have the appearance of the armored and toiling men and women whose bodies served the Imperium and the Emperor.

Her heart seized in her chest as she remembered the sermons of the priests (before they were all summarily executed by the slit-faces).

These “robots.”

They were the Men of Iron.

O-Oh dear Emperor… she was at the heart of humanity’s downfall.