Men weren't meant to exist in such a place, but there they were. Cawl was proud of that. Such things mankind had achieved. Such things he might achieve again.

During these periods of quiet, the automata could perform most of their duties without intervention. Cawl kept half an eye on what they were doing. He was not particularly interested in the holy study of robotics. It was fascinating, but his passion remained for bioengineering. Still, he had much to learn from the Legio Cybernetica and their grasp of the artificial mind. He could not ignore any facet of the Ars Mechanica if he were to achieve his ambitions of complete technological mastery.

Knowledge was all he craved. Cawl's lack of patience for politics and position was already becoming known. The amount of time he had left before he had to stop changing role was running out. He wondered what he should do next. Perhaps now was the time to apply himself fully to the role of biologian. Once he had accrued a little power and a little status in that sub-cult, he could recommence his wider-ranging exploration of science. That was permitted.

His wandering thoughts were abruptly refocused by an alarm chime.

<Hostile xenoforms approaching, my warriors,> said the domina, her voice reaching the speech centres of his brain via direct inload. <Prepare to intercept>

An auspex grid showed several hundred small dots converging on the extractors' position. They moved quickly, in straight lines against the wind, coming obliquely at the flotilla from the rear.

<A large shoal,> canted the domina. <Maniples seven through ten, reverse course to engage. The rest of you close up the net. Let the scows work as long as they can.>

Screed informed Cawl of a request from the Acquisitor Provost sent wordlessly to Aspertia Sigma-Sigma.

Status inquiry. There's a lot of them today. Shall we turn back? 

Negative, read the domina's reply.

Cawl jinked his maniple of automata to close up the gap as nine robots left the formation and headed for the rear. The area of protection around the extractors shrunk by twenty per cent.

The Vultaraxes, sensoria could not rotate backwards, and so Cawl could not see what happened behind the formation. But the sound of autocannon fire carried over the wind to the machines' audio sensors.

A shrieking alarm from a nearby flight desk, quickly silenced, signified the loss of the first automaton. Lesser alarms spoke of heavy damage to two more.

A second alarm alerted the centre to a second death. Then a third. 'They're breaking through!' One of Cawl's colleagues broke protocol and spoke aloud.

'Three units destroyed! You will pay for their loss,' snarled Aspertia back. 'Maniples six and two, reinforce.'

Cawl grinned. Two was his maniple. He was one of Aspertia's best. He knew she wouldn't be able to keep him away from the action for long, no matter how angry she was with him.