Editing Standard Template Construct (section)

== The Ark Mechanicus (SPOILERS FOR PRIEST OF MARS) ==
''You are Ark Mechanicus. You are Speranza. You are the bringer of hope in this hopeless age.''

{{Spoilers}}

In this novel written by [[Graham McNeill]], it is revealed that the Ark Mechanicus ''Speranza,'' an incredibly old and massive ship used by the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] to explore new stellar territories, has some of the most advanced technological achievements of mankind encoded in its very structure. This revelation, unfortunately, was only discovered during a brief moment when one of the main protagonists of the novel, Archmagos Lexell Kotov, made some sort of spiritual connection with the [[Machine Spirit]] of the ''Speranza''(alignment: True Neutral) in order to save the day, and he forgot what he had seen immediately after.

Which may suck, yes, but this was compensated by the fact that upon the Archmagos linking with the ship, the ''Speranza'''s AI went godmode, deploying all kind of unimaginably super-high-tech targeting systems that NOBODY knew it had, systems that were capable of functioning with 100% precision in the middle of a space-time gravitational storm, and detected and <strike>crippled</strike> fatally damaged an [[Eldar]] cruiser in [[awesome|ONE FUCKING SHOT using a dorsal mounted BLACK HOLE CANNON]] so unbelievably advanced even the [[Necrons]] would have been scratching their heads trying to understand how it worked, although the narration tells us it involves antimatter, gravitons, and [[Dark Eldar|dark matter]].

What makes it even better is that the Eldar ship was guided by a Farseer, and thus managed to actually DODGE the weapon's blast, which was explicitly stated to be moving at the speed of light. Of course, at the sort of distances combat is often fought in space, dodging light is very, very easy if you have foreknowledge of where it will be - for example, if you are a light-second away from the shooter, you have, by definition, an entire second to get off your sorry ass and move. The ''Speranza'' wasn't having any of it, and instead of missing like some plebeian battleship with its macro-cannons and lances, followed up with a chrono-gun shooting tachyons to shift the Eldar ship a nanosecond into the past to make the black hole shot connect. [[awesome|IT FUCKING TELEPORTED AN ENEMY SHIP THROUGH TIME SO IT WOULDN'T HAVE TO TURN AND FIRE AGAIN]].

Another conclusion that some reading this scene have come up with is that the black holes the Speranza fires also mess with time themselves, and that the end result shifts the target back in time a few nanoseconds, forcing two iterations to exist at the same place and time, destroying both. This thing can basically telefrag enemies, like some kind of continent sized Doomguy. Regardless of whether this explanation or the one above are correct, both are badass.

That's right, lads, the Ark Mechanicus ships which the Imperium already own and operate could be the answer to the missing information of the STCs and more. A shame not even an Archmagos can access the information without immediately forgetting it all once the interface with the Machine Spirit has been severed. Especially given that, once linked to the ship, Kotov realized that (perhaps all of) the Ark Mechanicus used by the Mechanicum ''are'' [[Powergamer| complete, self-updating STCs]].

Still. One-shotting an Eldar cruiser with sniper-precision in the middle of a space-storm that should have made locating said vessel completely impossible, much less being able to fire at it with any hope of accuracy.

Humanity's old tech was scary-powerful. How the mighty have fallen, eh? From turbo fuckyou chrono-weapons to ineffectual [[lasgun|flashlights]]. That's not even [[grimdark]]. That's just outright depressing.

Indeed, also, it may or may not be because every time a higher STC device works correctly the Imperium suddenly wipes out of the table anything and we mean ANYTHING that it's thrown at them, what's up, Hivefleets? Get some space DNA-recombinant insecticide that uses quantum-whatever to preemptively neutralize your evolutionary countermeasures! Chaos Greater Daemons? Pff, now you DO NOT exist with my Empyrean Bomb! C'Tan shards? Let me show you what is to alter reality with my time-altering macrocannon! So yeah, if the Imperium ever gets these things working and mass-produced it's warranted at least one of the major enemy factions will be eradicated or become a minor nuisance, like it was in the Golden Age Of Technology.

(Provided the Necrons, Orks or Chaos/Dark Mechanicum don't produce their own variants. Talk about a Grimdark Arms-Race!) If the enemies haven’t advanced for tens of millions of years, they’re not going to. The Necrons don't have to, because they literally have 60 million years on mankind (albeit those who stayed awake all that time went a little nuts). Sixty million years and still primitive compared to peak Dark Age humanity. Man we’re fucked up seeing as our cool tech are almost all doomsday devices.

The best part, though, is that we now can gleefully point out how ridiculously primitive the Eldar are. Remember: the Dark Eldar maintained the technology of the height of the Eldar empire, so they haven't regressed technologically. They're also insanely primitive compared to Dark Age humanity. So, the Eldar probably know that (not having lost history, probably) and it would explain their snobbery. They're fucking jealous and intimidated because they ''know'' how scary, stupidly, ''utterly'' '''beautifully''' '''''overpowered''''' humanity can really be. To add insult to injury, when Eldar fight even mere Imperial Guard, they suffer heavy casualties even if they win (and they sometimes lose to the Guard, let alone Astartes). Heck, Vect’s plan to get rid of his rivals by instigating an Imperial invasion of Commorragh nearly backfired when just a few elements of like two Chapters laid waste to the city.

Eh, that last part about the Eldar being 'primitive' in comparison to Dark Age Humanity is debatable. It's important to keep in mind that while Dark Age humans had a lot of really awesome shit kicking around, ''a lot of them fucking died when those same machines rebelled against them'' (noting the machines went nuts or were corrupted does not argue against the Eldar being less advanced). In the same book that the Ark Mechanicus one-shots the Eldar cruiser, it only does so because it ''can'', not because it's beholden to the Tech-Priest that's talking to it, or has some particular fondness for humanity. This motherfucker is TRUE NEUTRAL. It even tells the tech-priest that it doesn't care if it gets destroyed, because it will somehow continue even without its physical container. This machine does not give a SINGLE, ''SOLITARY'' FUCK about you. This is a rogue AI with the capability of generating pinpoint time-travelling singularities on a whim, with no sympathies or attachments to anything. And it doesn't go around blowing everything up because, well, it just doesn't and don't ask it why it doesn't. It's quite possible that the Eldar fully had the capability of creating ships with the same capabilities, but chose not to, because frankly it sounds like a really dumb fucking idea. Also keep in mind that the Fall of the Eldar wasn't caused by their technology, but by their culture becoming overly decadent and depraved. Eldar tech had progressed to a point of virtual stagnation, because what do you really need to invent when you've satisfied every need for your society? In the fluff, the Eldar had an interstellar empire around the same time humanity was figuring out agriculture, and that empire lasted until the Fall in ~M29. Meanwhile, humanity had ''already'' destroyed their own interstellar empires by around M25 (well, no, they didn't, Chaos, aliens, and the Eldar's fuckup destroyed said empire/federation, not human mistakes). Which kind of goes a long way in justifying the Eldar's views that humanity is a child race of reckless idiots (because the Eldar blame humanity for the consequences of the Eldar's mistakes). Neither side really wins, though, since while humanity followed the rule of cool and had a brief but more kickass empire than the Eldar, Eldar tech stagnated and their empire survived long enough to devolve into orgy cults so fucked up they created an evil god. Again, no real winners here. Meh, that just means we're better at killing than they are! That means we win! Wait...
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Imperial]][[Category:Adeptus Mechanicus]]
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