Wild Wild West

"Come check out what we just built, Valdor!" Perturabo said excitedly, grabbing and tugging on the Custodian's hand. None of the Primarchs could actually drag Valdor, though Vulkan was getting to the point where he could unbalance Valdor if he tried.
"What have you all been working on?" Valdor asked. Everyone was aware that the Primarchs had been on some sort of project, but no one was sure what. It was the first thing the Primarchs had kept away from their father since the encounter with the Klingons and the Enterprise over two months ago.
"We've been trying to recreate a holodeck," Perturabo said. "We've gotten a little help from Cawl, but we don't think he's figured out what he was helping us with."
"I thought that Kirk's Enterprise didn't have a holodeck," Valdor said.
"His doesn't," Perturabo agreed. "But it made us think of Picard's, and thought it would be fun to try."
"And you've succeeded it seems," Valdor said. Perturabo was still pulling on his hand. "I'm following, you can let go."
"Right," Perturabo said, dropping Valdor's hand. He glanced behind occasionally when he took turns. It seemed to be a reflex all the Primarchs had picked up. They stayed closer to the adults when they went anywhere with them, especially Malcador whom they were all still very protective of. The Emperor was fine with this as he wanted to keep the Primarchs close when he could. Valdor and Malcador had had to intervene when the Primarchs first started their little project.
"Is someone else getting your father?" Valdor asked.
"No," Perturabo said. "We wanted you to see it first. We'll show it to Father and Malcador after you declare it safe."
"If I don't think it's safe?" Valdor asked, raising an eyebrow.
"We'll try and fix it," Perturabo said. "And if we can't we'll have to scrap the project."
"Do you have a program set for it?"
"Yes," Perturabo said, brightening. "The Ancient Merican West."
"Why that?" Valdor asked, his confusion obvious.
"Father's spoken of that time," Perturabo said. "And Jaghatai wanted to add horses so there was something to race with."
"I see." Valdor said. "And everyone contributed?"
"Yes," Perturabo said. "We all added something. Though Rogal just added the buildings."
"That sounds like Rogal," Valdor chuckled. "What about Angron?"
"Arm wrestling," Perturabo said. They then entered into a room filled with racks of clothing. Valdor was led over to a rack that clearly held clothes made for him and the Emperor.
"Fulgrim?" Valdor asked.
"And Sanguinius," Perturabo said. It always surprised Valdor that the two weren't closer together as they had very similar ideals. "We figured it would be more interesting to make the clothes instead of having them projected over our own."
"That makes sense," Valdor said. He selected an outfit and Perturabo pointed him to a changing room. He rejoined Perturabo outside the door to the next chamber. Their outfits were very similar, though Valdor was wearing a vest with a medallion that stated "Marshall" on it. He had chosen it for that reason.
Inside the room was lined with drab towers with doors and a windows. Ferrus met them and handed Valdor a small cube with lights on it. They were on each face of the cube, and there was an interface port under a light on one side. Valdor raised a questioning eyebrow at it.
"It's for when there's shooting," Ferrus said. "We have servitors to use as the people in the scenario. The cube registers a lock from the autogun, or pistol, and lights up to show you've been hit."
"Then the servitor actually fires off to the side, or above," Perturabo said. Cawl had been very helpful in designing the cubes and the small sensors that were incorporated into the clothing. They went with a cube so it was always easy to see if there had been a lock.
"I see," Valdor said as he found the interface spike in the pocket of his shirt.
"Do you approve?" Perturabo asked. They had wanted to keep some danger to the simulation, to keep it as authentic as possible. Cawl had been involved in all of the safety programming for the holodeck, but Perturabo and Ferrus had still written some of it.
"It is a good idea," Valdor said. "I want to see it in action before I approve of it."
"That makes sense," Ferrus said.  "We can start the simulation and then you'll be able to see it."
The rest of the Primarchs came out from the towers they had been in, making sure everything was set, and Perturabo activated the hololith projectors. It took a moment, but then the entire room turned into a small, nameless town of the Merican western frontier.
"Impressive," Valdor said with approval as the towers turned into "buildings" and "people" came out to go about their business. He was aware that the "people" were dressed up servitors with hololithic shrouding to make them look just like normal humans.
"Thanks!" Perturabo said, he was quite proud of the display programming.
"Is there a story?" Valdor asked.
"Not really," Perturabo answered. "We wanted to be able to explore the setting and try different things in it. So the program is flexible based on our actions."
"That was one of the trickiest parts of programming it," Ferrus said. Many of the Primarchs had helped with that part, laying in different pathways for the program to take. Then the Primarchs began to run around the town, and Valdor began a tour of the town he was supposed to police.

*******************

Acolyte Tolreb looked up as his cogitator let out a chime. He rushed over to the unit on the other side of his lab. He had become aware of a new project that Belisaurius Cawl was working on. He wasn't sure what exactly it was, but it seemed to require a lot of safety programming. 

The cogitator chime had been to alert him that the project was in use. Torleb called up the scrap code that he had specifically created to disrupt the programming. He then uploaded it to the project and sat back to watch Cawl's career slide into oblivion.

******************

The Primarchs were showing Valdor around the "town" that the program created in the room. Vulkan had created a small, real forge that was set inside one of the buildings. He insisted that their research showed there tended to be a blacksmith in frontier towns who made various tools and weapons of the time.

"We have a horse you could ride," Jaghatai said. The "horses" were constructs, like the servitor "townsfolk" there were hololith projectors that provided the illusion that they were horses.

"In a bit," Valdor said. He wanted to check out each of the Primarch's contributions. He also wasn't as concerned about the horses due to Cawl's involvement. Jaghatai looked disappointed, but nodded. 

"When I've seen everything in the town," Valdor said. "Then we can test the gunfire protocols while moving."

"That's a great idea!" Jaghatai said, perking up. The autoguns that the servitors were equipped with were of a small caliber that the Primarchs could take if there was an accident. However, they had all agreed that the system would need changing if that happened to allow Malcador to use the holodeck. 

The rest of the town tour went well. The Lion had added most of the animals, both the visual programming and the sounds they made, for the region with the exception of the wolves. Those had been Leman's job, which he had done with great pride. Konrad had made some of the servitors outlaws he could find and punish. Roboute had programmed the mayor of the town. Mortarion ran the doctor's office while Magnus had the school. 

Horus hadn't known what to do, so he added drifters. Lorgar of course ran the small church. Corvus worked with Konrad sometimes, forming what they had learned was called a posse, but he also ran the jail. Alpharius had added traveling salesmen who weren't always what they seemed. Valdor then remembered what Perturabo had said Angron's contribution was. 

"Where is this arm wrestling?" Valdor asked Angron.

"In the saloon," Angron said. Ferrus had helped him program the arm-wrestling servitor so that it had a scaling difficulty based on a quick scan of who was sitting across from it. That way everyone could be challenged, but no one could get injured if it went wrong. Angron led Valdor over to the right building. 

Valdor sat down across from the servitor. It was disguised as a burly, unwashed man with a drink in his hand. Valdor idly wondered if Leman had included alcohol in the simulation. The servitor put its drink aside and squared off with Valdor, glaring at him a moment while the scan completed.

The two then placed their elbows on the table, grasping hands. The servitor's programming allowed for a small chance of it winning based on a calculation that Cawl had come up with. Valdor seemed to struggle for a bit but won the first round. He challenged it again and lost. Moving aside, Valdor insisted that one of the Primarchs take a turn to show how quickly the servitor re-calibrated.

Lorgar took Valdor's seat across from the servitor. It looked down at its new opponent a moment, a scowl moving across the hololithic face. Lorgar lost two rounds before barely winning his third. Angron frowned knowing that the small win chance programming shouldn't have come up as a win twice in a row. However, Valdor seemed alright with it, so Angron figured that maybe there was just a fluke and Cawl could adjust the calculation later.

"Alright, Jaghatai," Valdor said. "Let's take a ride."

"Yes!" Jaghatai cheered excitedly. He led the way to the stables so they could check out the horses. As promised there were two that were larger than the other horses. These were for the Emperor and Valdor, so they could both use the holodeck at the same time if they wanted.

Everyone selected their horses. The Lion's was black, which didn't surprise anyone. Jaghatai's looked white like the primary color of his Legion. However, he insisted that it was technically called a gray as the skin of the horse was black. Most of the other Primarchs didn't care and called it white anyway. Only the Lion, Jaghatai, Roboute, and Magnus called it gray.

For the sake of authenticity, the Primarchs had included raiding bands of Native Mericans along with the outlaws. Konrad and Corvus only sought to punish the outlaws though, just protecting the town from the Natives. These servitors were programmed to attack large groups on horseback along with wagon trains. 

The Primarchs hadn't gone far from the town when they were ambushed. There was wild whooping and the sound of autogun fire. Several of the Primarchs were struck, and Valdor took two direct hits himself. They beat back their attackers and Valdor escorted them to a cave opening so they wouldn't be attacked again.

"What happened? Is everyone alright?" Valdor asked, directing the first question at Perturabo and Ferrus. He was certain that they had a way of checking the programming. The Primarchs who had taken hits indicated that they weren't hurt, there were just some bruises from the shots.

"I'm not sure," Perturabo said. "That's not at all what should have happened." He turned to Ferrus, who also shook his head. 

"Stop program," Ferrus said to the air. They had included voice controls just like the holodecks on the Enterprise. 

Nothing happened.

"Aren't the hololith projectors supposed to turn off when that's said?" Leman asked. "It worked in our other test runs."

"It did," Ferrus said. "Rogal, where's the panel in this building?"

"Behind that stalagmite," Rogal said pointing. The landscape around them changed as they "rode". The constructs ran on a short track to simulate actually moving through the world.

Ferrus reached through the stalagmite and the wall of the cave to remove a panel in the wall. It revealed a cogitator interface that Ferrus used to check the programming. After a few moments he snarled.

"What is it?" Fulgrim asked, approaching Ferrus.

"Some scrap code got in here somehow," Ferrus growled. He was clearly distraught at the development. "It's breaking all of the safety programming. That's what happened with the ambush."

"Can you tell if it affected the arm-wrestling?" Angron asked. "It shouldn't have been able to beat Lorgar twice in a row."

"It looks like it's attacking everything that Cawl worked on," Ferrus said."But he was involved in just about every aspect of this project, so I don't know how extensive the damage is or what's been affected yet."

"Is there a way to shut this down from there?" Valdor asked.

"No," Ferrus said. "This is just a diagnostic interface."

"Is there a different interface?" Valdor asked.

"Yes," Perturabo said. "But it's on the other side of the room."

"What about the servitors?" Lorgar asked, eyeing the entrance to the cave. 

"We beat them," Roboute said. "They shouldn't bother us."

"What about Konrad's servitors?" Lorgar specified. "We haven't seen them yet."

"They shouldn't go after a group this large," Konrad said. He was really hoping that part of their programming would remain in tact. He didn't want anyone finding out that he had given them bigger guns to mark them and make them more of a "challenge". They had the same targeting and safety programming as all of the other servitors.

"We'll go," Valdor said firmly. "Stay together. Ferrus, lead the way."

They headed out, carefully moving across the room. Due to the tracks, they had to walk across the room instead of using the horses. Jaghatai wanted to add more tracks for the horses to run on, but they wanted a proof of concept before making any major changes.

Konrad was hopeful that they would escape the notice of his outlaw servitors. They were nearly to the other side of the room and hadn't been attacked again. He knew that the window for an attack was shrinking as they moved. Then, the outlaws arrived waving their clearly larger guns. Valdor shot a look at Konrad who ducked his head. 

The Primarchs quickly ducked behind the "cover" that was around. Rogal had included some smaller physical structures for small things such as rocks, trees, and fences. Several of them tried to get to the manual controls for the servitors. Valdor noticed this and was doing his best to draw the servitor's fire. 

Perturabo went to move towards a servitor. Rogal noted a second servitor tracking Perturabo. He shoved Perturabo out of the way, but took a grazing hit to the side. Valdor scattered the servitors near him, and scooped Rogal off the ground where he had fallen.

"There's a door over here," Ferrus said indicating a large boulder in front of a cliff face. They retreated through the boulder and into the building that formed the cliff. Valdor set Rogal down on a table in the building and began examining him. 

"I'm alright," Rogal said trying to sit up, but wincing and laying back. "The bullet just grazed me, and it's stopped bleeding already."

Valdor seemed satisfied and stepped back, turning to Konrad who stared at the Custodian's feet forlornly.

"They weren't supposed to go after large groups at all," Konrad said quietly, not looking up at Valdor. "I'll take them out. I could add caves to explore instead." He figured he could add bats and other things to be scary in the caves.  He risked a peek up when Valdor didn't say anything.

"If the programming can be fixed you can keep them," Valdor said after a moment. He could tell that the situation had hit Konrad hard, and that the Primarch was admonishing himself for it. Before they had learned of the scrap code Konrad had been excited to show Valdor his outlaws. "But they will need to have their guns replaced to match the others."

"Really?" Konrad asked, perking up a little bit.

"Yes," Valdor said. "Rogal's injury is not your fault."

"What are we going to do now?" Perturabo asked. "We didn't beat the outlaws, so they're still out there aren't they?"

"Yes," Konrad said. "Like the 'natives' we have to either drive them off or capture them to shut off their hostility. They're probably confused by the boulder though."

"But there's only one door for this building," Rogal said. "So we'll have to go past them again to leave."

"The manual override panel isn't in this building?" Valdor asked.

"No," Ferrus admitted. "It's three buildings further along."

"Is there another override?" Valdor asked.

"There's one outside," Perturabo said. "It's supposed to be in case someone forgets to turn a program off."

Valdor activated his vox bead, but got only static. "Is there a block on vox traffic?"

"There's not supposed to be," Ferrus said. "But it's possible the scrap code messed up the vox network link up."

"Magnus?" Valdor asked, turning.

"I can try," Magnus said and head deeper into the building.

**************

There were many levels of psychic wards around the Throneroom. There were ways to worm around them if one knew where to look. Magnus knew some of them, but not all of them. He got around the ones he knew, trying to get to the Emperor's mind. It was only at the last moment that he had to overload a ward in order to reach the Emperor. 

**************

Alarums wailed and Ra Endymion spun about, bringing up his guardian spear along with the other Custodians in the Throneroom. A ghostly representation of Magnus had appeared, He was dressed strangely, but was still recognizable as the Primarch. All of the Custodians froze, turning to the Emperor for what to do next.

"Magnus," the Emperor said.

"Father," Magnus said. He looked like he knew he had done something wrong. "We need your help."

"Why are you dressed that way?" the Emperor asked, signalling for the Custodians to stand down.

"We... we made a holodeck," Magnus admitted. "Cawl helped us. Valdor was checking it out with us before we told you about it. We put a lot of effort into making it safe so we can all enjoy it. The program we have running is the Ancient Merican West."

"And something has gone wrong," the Emperor said.

"Yes," Magnus said. "Ferrus says that scrap code got in and it's destroying all the things that Cawl worked on, including the safety programming and vox network connection. We tried to get to the internal override but got ambushed."

"What happened?" the Emperor asked. 

"Konrad's outlaw servitors attacked us and Rogal got hurt," Magnus said. "We aren't in the right building to shut it off from the inside and Valdor doesn't want us going outside in case the outlaws attack again. We do have an external override, but we can't get out."

"I'm coming," the Emperor said standing. "Can you trace the scrap code?"

"Perturabo or Ferrus might be able to," Magnus said. "I'll let everyone know you're coming." With that the Primarch's projection faded away.

**************

"Father's coming," Magnus said as he came back in the front room with the others. "Can we track where the scrap code came from?"

"No," Ferrus said with a scowl. "Whoever put it in here covered their tracks too well, at least for what we can do in here."

"Another heretek?" Angron asked.

"Maybe," Ferrus said. "But it seems strange that it's focused on Cawl's work. The last heretek we dealt with wanted to attack Father."

"Maybe they're trying a subtler approach?" Roboute suggested. "Going after us is a viable way of getting at Father. It's why we were kidnapped that one time."

"They didn't get their way," Konrad said. "At least one of them is dead for that."

"It's possible that they are trying to go after Cawl," Perturabo said. "The Mechanicum isn't free of factions within it's ranks, or competition between tech-priests."

"If that's the case then whoever did this crossed a line," Leman said. "Sabotaging something that Cawl made is wrong."

"Indeed," Valdor said. "Once we are out of here we will see what we can learn. We will find whoever did this."

"And make them repent?" the Lion asked. He was the only Primarch who used that term instead of punishment.

"Yes," Valdor said. "After we learn why they did this."

+I am here+ came the Emperor's voice, projected so that everyone could hear it. +Where is the override?+

+To the left of the door+ Ferrus said. An expectant hush fell over the Primarchs, as they waited for the program to deactivate. After a minute Perturabo peeked out the door to the building.

"It's deactivated," he reported. Rogal carefully got off the table as they all headed out into the now blank room of buildings. The servitors had all frozen with the ending of the program, no longer hostile. Konrad entered the command to send the outlaw servitors back to their holding building so that he could handle them when he knew their fates.

The door opened and the Emperor entered, looking around at the deactivated holodeck. The Primarchs met him in the main walkway through the buildings. Many of them were still on alert in case there were dangerous servitors out. The Emperor noted Rogal's injury, and that it was already well on its way to healing without help. Konrad noticed where the Emperor was looking and ducked his head in guilt.

"Konrad?" the Emperor asked as the Primarchs came up to him.

"It was one of the servitors that I put in that hurt Rogal," Konrad said. 

"I wasn't your fault," Rogal said. "It was going to hurt Perturabo worse if I hadn't pushed him."

"It wasn't your programming that caused the problem," Ferrus added. "Unless you added the scrap code."

"No!" Konrad cried out. "Why would I do that?"

"Good point," Ferrus said, there was a hint of amusement in his silver eyes. 

"Wait," Konrad said pulling up short. "Did you just make a joke?"

"I make jokes all the time," Ferrus said. "It's not my fault if you don't catch them."

Konrad shook his head, but the Emperor caught his smile.

"We do still need to find who added the scrap code," Valdor said. He was eager to find the person or persons responsible for putting the Primarchs in danger.

"Cawl is trying to track them down now," the Emperor said. He had made contact with the adept on his way to the holodeck. He had wanted to ensure that it wasn't intentional sabotage. 

"Does he blame himself?" Perturabo asked. He rather liked Cawl and didn't want him to feel he had been responsible when someone else entered the scrap code.

"Some," the Emperor admitted. Cawl had thrown himself on the floor of his workshop when the Emperor had told him about the situation. "He is mostly blaming himself for the code being able to access the program at all."

"No wall is completely secure," Perturabo said. This earned him a glare from Rogal.

"Let's get out of here and find who messed up our holodeck," Horus said. 

******************

Tolreb was brought to the Throneroom several hours later. Cawl had traced the scrap code's signature to his lab and Tolax had been sent to retrieve him. The Primarchs were there as well. Magnus was watching fascinated as the Emperor fixed the wards that Magnus had broken in his call for help.

"Acolyte Tolreb, my king," Tolax said. The Primarchs looked over, several of them scowling at the robed acolyte. Perturabo and Ferrus had been looking over the program with Cawl trying to determine if they would be able to salvage any of it.

"I can explain, Omnissiah," Tolreb said, bowing deeply, and trying not to cower at the look of anger on the Emperor's face. He waited nervously for the Emperor to speak.

"You put my sons in danger," the Emperor said after a moment. "Rogal was injured. There is no acceptable explanation for that."

"I wasn't aware that anyone was in danger," Tolreb said quickly. "I never meant to hurt anyone."

"That point is moot," the Emperor said. "One of my sons was harmed by your scrap code."

"B-b-but," Tolreb stuttered unsure of how to continue. He truly hadn't meant for anyone to be injured. He didn't think anyone would be anywhere near it. Cawl had labelled the program as a simulation. No one could be hurt by a simulation, he grabbed on to that. "It was a simulation."

"Not wholly," Perturabo said as he looked over. "Didn't you ask why it had so much safety programming?"

"No," Tolreb admitted quietly.

"Can it be fixed?" Magnus asked Perturabo.

"No," Perturabo said sadly. "The scrap code did too much damage to the framework of the holodeck programming. If we want to keep it, we'll have to start over from scratch." 

"Well, it would just be the program," Jaghatai said. Leman and Angron nodded.

"And we've already made it once," Lorgar said. "It should be easier the second time."

"If it's been done once, it can be done again," Alpharius agreed.

"But now Father knows about it," the Lion said. "And he probably guessed the scenario from how Magnus is dressed."

"We were always going to tell him," Horus said.

"I'm right here," the Emperor said at about the same moment. This caused some giggles from the Primarchs. "And knowing the theme of the scenario isn't the same as knowing the scenario itself."

"Fair enough," the Lion said. 

"What about the acolyte?" Konrad asked. 

"He broke your program beyond repair," the Emperor said mulling the situation over. He then turned back to Tolreb. "Why?"

"I..." Tolreb trailed off as he realized how bad his reason was going to sound. "I was trying to make a strike against Cawl." He finished in a whisper.

"Why?" the Emperor repeated.

"Because he has longed enjoyed your favor," Tolreb said. Now that he was going it was hard to stop the words from coming. "I wanted to prove that he wasn't infallible."

"I'm not infallible," Cawl said. "I shrunk the Lord Primarchs with an invention once."

"And I ended up in a pipe while he was fixing it," Mortarion said. 

"But you still enjoy the Omnissiah's favor," Tolreb said to Cawl.

"Yes," Cawl said. "I believe it is because I corrected the situation that put the Lord Primarchs at risk."

"Just so," the Emperor said. "You can also regain my favor if you assist Cawl and my sons in recreating their holodeck program."

"Very well, Holy One," Tolreb said. The Emperor dismissed everyone from the Throneroom so they could get started.