Ruler of Medusa

Asirnoth was dead. Apart from the Necron construct, which was undoubtedly the strongest creature on Medusa, Ferrus also killed and fought many others, all of whom he defeated. Now, there was but one thing left to do. It was finally time for him to approach the humans on the planet and subdue them under his doctrine of strength.

Massive machines powered by thermo-reactors slowly but unstoppable crawled across the devastated surface moving different clans of people from one territory to the next. The techno-barbarians or engineer-mystics, were what humanity was like on Medusa.

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In a desperate attempt to preserve the technology of humanity's glory days, the Age of Technology, they transformed themselves, desperately trying to grow stronger. A particular clan drove their monstrous machine close to the shadow lands. The fight which most of Medusa knew by now, had finally finished. The tremors were no more and it stood to reason that one of the two combatants, whoever the second one was, was finally dead. 

"Lord Cybok, a figure is approaching from the north."

Radamok Cybok the leader of the clan, at least for now until a stronger man came, turned around. His body was a mixture of flesh and machine, looking remarkably similar to the Adeptus Mechanicus. The techno-barbarian's technological eye zoomed in and observed what the boy was talking about. And indeed. There it was. 

From the Shadow Lands, the techno-barbarians of the clan saw a giant of a man, clad in rudimentary armour walk towards them. The clans of Medusa had seen sightings over the years. Tales of the hunt in the mountains had spread and rumours started to spread. At this point, Ferrus had become something of a god among the humans of Medusa. 

A short while later, the powerful man stood before Radamok Cybok, looking down on him. But what stood before the techno-barbarian was more than a man. A being with a stern and brutal face, as if it had been carved from stone. A man with metal hands. The techno-barbarian lords of Medusa have found a new apex predator whose strength stood above all others on the planet and he was here for them now. A man who had come to bind them all to his will. A man whom they would call Ferrus Manus. 

"I have come from the Shadow Lands and seek the leader of this clan," Ferrus's deep voice is heard, and he pulls Radamok Cybok out of his thoughts. 

"You have found him. What is it you want?"

"I have come to challenge you for the role of leader of the clan. It is time that Medusa changes and becomes strong."

"The clans of Medusa already follow strength. There is nothing to change because only the strong survive."

"If you believe yourself strong because you could defeat someone who forgoes his humanity and exchanges parts of his body for old technology, then you don't understand true strength. I am here to show you clans how it is done."

Radamok Cybok looks at Ferrus and furrows his brows. They value strength above all else and this man was revered as a god. But here he comes and challenges their beliefs. There was a moment of silence between them. Radamok observed Ferrus and then ...

*VROOM VROOM VROOM*

In quick succession, the techno-barbarian lord raises his weapon and fires at Ferrus. A beam of thermal energy propagates through the air and almost hits Ferrus. The heat ray comes from a very dangerous and also rather old weapon which is pre-imperial, the Volkite Weapon. 

Blasts from Volkite Weapons are known to be able to penetrate the thick Ceramite plates of Space Marine power armour with one concentrated shot. Volkite Weapons produce a deflagrating attack, in which subsonic combustion is caused by a beam of thermal energy propagated through a target material by thermodynamic heat transfer so that hot burning material heats the next layer of cold material and ignites it. A Volkite Weapon's heat ray had a devastating effect on organic matter, explosively burning flesh into ash and jetting fire.

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Ferrus moves faster than Radamok Cybok can react and is already in front of him. He uses his metallic hand to grab the Volkite weapon and move its trajectory out of the way, just as another shot is heard. 

*VROOM*

The heat penetrates his Necrodermis hands and cuts deep, wounding Ferrus. But that is not what matters as Ferrus grabs Radamok by his throat, cutting off his air supply and lifts him up into the air. 

"Arck.."

Despite being a techno-barbarian, he is only human and what stands before him is a Primarch that specialises in strength and combat. There is nothing he can do about the outcome of this fight as it was already over, the moment Ferrus approached. 

"I know ... secrets ... about tech-"

"I am aware. But I don't need it. Anything I can create is better. Besides ... I will get your memories anyway."

"Mercy..."

"Denied."

*CRACK*

With a light clenching of his hand, Radamok's neck is broken. Before Ferrus lets the body go though, he takes out a small bead and places it on Radamok's forehead. A blue screen appears above the bead, and a highspeed movie starts to play on it, showing all the memories of Radamok and all of his knowledge. Ferrus then uses his fingers and begins to type at a blue keyboard that appears under the screen. With a series of taps, he compiles all the important knowledge Radamok has and files them for later research. After a few minutes, he is finished and takes the bead off his forehead. 

This technological marvel is called the memory scanner. It scans and compiles all memories of a person, no matter whether they are dead or alive. It can save this knowledge or simply show it if that is wanted. Using the keyboard it is possible to search for specific memories, like using Google. A nice little feature Ferrus added for convenience. 

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After subduing the first clan, Ferrus boarded their long machine which transported the entire clan across the planet. It was something like a giant ship and a travelling train that drove across the lands. Overall, Ferrus recognised the lost technology which the humans were so proud of and even fixated on, to the point that they wanted to replace parts of themselves with machinery. 

No matter what Ferrus thought about strength, that was not it. What they couldn't ever forget, is that in the end, they were still humans. Their strength lies in their adaptability, their ability to change and improve, to think outside the box and to persevere despite the most terrible odds. Sure, they were weaker than the Necrons who were the exact opposite, at least most of them, but that was different. The best way was to use technology as a tool and not see it as something that it's not ... like a god. 

The fact that he had Necrodermis as forearms was not helpful in that regard. He didn't want his Iron Hands to get the wrong idea. To ensure that they didn't, Ferrus already had plans on how to teach them. Medusa would not be the same after he was done with it. But he had to be careful right now. The Imperium of Man was in a dangerous phase right now. The Primarch project was set to fail or at least do badly and fuck humanity sideways. 

The creation of AI was not only frowned upon but also seen as heresy of the highest order. That was typical for humans. At first, they did something and went full in. It might be a good idea at first and seems to work. But then, they overdo it massively and it turns to shit. The reaction to that is to go in the opposite direction. Similarly with the use of AI. At first, they did well and used it to further their technology and development. But then, they get lazy and forget that AI is still intelligence and that it has to be used as such. When the war with the Men of Iron broke out and humanity eventually won, they banned all things having to do with AI. It was seen as the most evil thing. But it is not. 

Ferrus is a smart man and thanks to his meta knowledge and the Essence of the Crafter, he will be able to create something truly wonderful. When he 'creates' an AI in the future at some point, he will be able to imbue it with absolute loyalty to him and his cause. No matter what, it will help him in all things. But the rest of the Imperium may not know about it. The use of overly advanced weaponry may not flow out into the universe and not even into the Imperium. Ferrus doesn't want the traitors to have better weapons than they already will. 

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Over the next year, Ferrus went from one clan to another, defeating the leaders and any others who tried to help them. He killed them all. He had a good reason for that. The leaders were those who held most of the knowledge about the remnants of the tech from humanity's golden age. But they were also the ones who were most fixed on the idea of changing parts of their body with technology. And that had to die out. 

The idea of strength was not what they imagined. Machines were not automatically the most powerful. The Necrons weren't the most powerful physically. They had the advantage because their technology might as well border reality manipulation. There were, however, things that could be done with technology that would improve the body and those were things that Ferrus already had plans for. 

After all the clans had been subdued, Ferrus, unlike his lore counterpart, combined all of them. He was aware that the process would not be instantly and would take time. So to speed up the process, he allowed a one-time free-for-all, battle to the death. Everyone who had a problem with someone was allowed to fight to the death using any weapon they chose. 

"What does this mean?" someone asked after Ferrus had transported all the humans on Medusa to a ginormous fighting arena. 

"The reason for this is obvious. A unification on a global scale is impossible to accomplish in a short period of time. So I give you a chance to settle your differences. You may take however long you want to fight and kill each other and prove your superiority.

After everything is resolved, the fighting amongst ourselves will be over and killing without proper reason will be punished severely. Despite what you may think, strength is not the opposite of losing or being powerful individually. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link."

Weapons were either brought from the people themselves or Ferrus provided them. And then it was hunting season. Never again was there to be such an event like this. People killed one another to the hundreds of thousands. It was a massacre. And during the entire time, Ferrus watched. No children were involved in this, but some women were. Everyone who wanted, could enter the fighting. 

Why would Ferrus do something like that? Was he not human? 

Yes. And that is exactly why he is doing it. He was culling the herd and ripping the cancer that was Medusa's culture by the roots. Everyone who would even consider killing each other like this had not place among his Iron Hands. This was just quicker in disposing of those. 

Was it cruel and terrible?

Yes. 

Did it fit into the setting of the galaxy?

Absolutely. If anything, it was not cruel enough. But he was still a reincarnator and despite living in the wild of Medusa and fighting for years on end and adapting to all of it, he remained human. He was a bit more like the Salamanders in that way. He was not a fan of protecting the weak at the cost of his own life, but in order to protect the weak, you needed to be even stronger than if you wanted to protect yourself. 

The guns galore was over after a full week. Finally, the worst of Medusa had died and Ferrus could start forming the remains to his liking. 

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This was a bit much maybe. But if you can't stomach this much, then you might not want to read a Warhammer 40k story. 

I can however promise that this is probably the only time Ferrus will ever do something like this. Again, there were no children involved in this.