Icon of the Dark Mechanicum
Scrap-code, also spelled scrap code and scrapcode, and known as the Lingua Diabolis among the Adeptus Mechanicus, is a type of computer virus that has been infested with Warp energy and is capable of infecting all forms of electronic machinery and warping them in unnatural ways through the use of Chaos energy.
The term "scrap-code" also has a more mundane meaning used by Tech-priests to refer to electronic "noise", which is the unnecessary, excess data created by almost all cogitators. The Tech-priests expect such scrap-code to be generated over time by any electronic device, but have set thresholds beyond which all scrap-code must be expurgated to maintain the cogitator's operational efficiency.
Scrap-code from a certain point of view can be seen as the machine language equivalent of the Dark Tongue, seemingly nonsensical at first but possessing an anarchic power drawn from the Warp that can cripple a Machine Spirit (artificial intelligence) and pervert a piece of technology to the service of Chaos. It is said that even Imperial Knights and Titans have succumbed to this ravening, self-replicating electronic scourge.
Warpsmiths of the Heretic Astartes often oversee the implementation of scrap-code in Imperial cogitator networks, who in turn have learned this art from the teachings of the Daemon Primarchs Mortarion and Perturabo. It is also a machine language used by Hereteks of the Dark Mechanicum to converse and commune with the Chaos Gods and their various Daemonic manifestations such as Daemon Engines.
Scrap-code Generator[]
A scrap-code generator is a highly dangerous device that is illegal to possess within the Imperium as they are embodiments of tech-heresy of the worst kind. By being coupled with sanctified Imperial Machine Spirits, they are able to inflict electronic virus-patterns into the data currents of any Imperial cogitator.
A scrap-code generator can disrupt the machine's data currents and induce electronic seizures leaving the shattered remnants of the Machine Spirit (artificial intelligence) capable of being reformatted into a more pliable as well as useful configuration as programmed by the scrap-code generator's owner. This leaves the affected cogitator's Machine Spirit with new functions and new loyalties.
See Also[]
Sources[]
- Black Crusade Core Rulebook (RPG), pg. 186
- Codex: Daemonkin (8th Edition), pg. 6
- Of Honour and Iron (Novel) by Ian St. Martin, Ch. 12
- Know No Fear (Novel) by Dan Abnett, TARGET//ACQUISITION, Ch. 6; TARGET//ACQUISITION, Ch. 7