Chương 47: Chapter Forty-One - Killclade

Alexis took a step back, then nodded to herself. K84-321 was strung up on a pair of chains connected to a winch fixed to a beam high above. She shifted that to the side, and the servitor made a small grunt as he was hoisted up another foot.

"Sorry!" she called out to him. It must have been uncomfortable to be held up like that, but there wasn't much she could do.

"Vyper, I think we're ready."

"Understood. Body incoming." New Purchase: Type 785 Heavy Combat Droid Armoured Chassis Points Reduced to: 428 That was a hefty number of points gone all at once. Exactly 250 of them. Alexis had shopped around for a while with Vyper, picking options and adjusting things. She wanted a chassis and systems that would keep K84 safe. That meant a fully-enclosed body, with all of the required life-sustaining systems that came with that, and pretty thick armour overall.

What appeared next to her made Alexis jump, if only because her little workshop was suddenly rather full with the noiseless appearance of a new body. The chassis was seven and a half feet tall, and was painted a deep Martian red, with some brass cogs on the edges, all of them slightly raised. The machine's upper chest was wide, with large pauldrons that led down to some beefy arms. The waist was narrow, leading to a complex hip structure covered by several additional armoured plates.

Alexis stepped back a little, then giggled. The chassis was awesome. It was like someone took the idea of a Castellax Class Battle Robot and then made it just a little more sleek. If anyone ran into K84-321 in a dark corridor, they were going to have nightmares. Actually, it was so large and intimidating, that she didn't know if it needed the advantage of darkness to be scary. This body could stand in a battlefield and it would be terrifying.

With the number of redundancies within and the thickness and quality of its armour, she was pretty sure K84-321 could get into a boxing match with an angry space marine and come out of it unscathed. Maybe? She giggled some more, then got right back to work. The chassis was useless without the servitor being within it. So she carefully lowered him down, then dragged a stool over to make the internal connections.

It was a solid hour before she was done, then a ping through her MIU was enough to enclose the top of the body, armoured plates clanking into place one over the other until the top-dome was fully enclosed.

"Alright, K84-321, let's do some testing, yeah?" The servitor spun around and immediately smashed his arm against the table behind him, crumpling it.

"Ah! Slow tests! Slow tests!" She had him walk up and down the length of the room and turn around in it. Fortunately, he was a quick learner, and she supposed that the new body was significantly more nimble than the old Mars-pattern servitor legs he had. Then came the time to install his weapons, which... well, it wasn't much. She used her mechadendrites to lift the pneumatic hands he had been equipped with before into place, then made all of the appropriate connections.

In the end, K84 was a little underarmed in her opinion, but that was fine. Once he crushed a few enemies up she'd be able to afford a better suite of weapons. Traditionally, Castellax Class Battle Robots had heavy bolters, but she'd read that some of them had flamers or even something called a Darkfire Cannon. She didn't know what that was, but she did know that she wanted one. For now, the pneumatic arms would have to do. There were slots in the arms for ranged weapons as well, but that was another future upgrade.

So were some things like additional auspex and even micro-shield generators. None of which she wanted to spend points on yet.

"Okay," Alexis said. She was pretty happy with herself. Only second bell and one big project done. Then she turned her attention to the next.

"CS-3-2/11, it's your turn." Somehow, the servitor looked apprehensive even without her facial expression changing at all. Removing CS-3-2/11 from her chassis was an easier job. Alexis didn't know which tech priest used the servitor last, but they were more meticulous about their rites of maintenance. Alexis hummed her own version of that same chant as she undid the armour and removed CS-3-2/11 from her chassis.

She set most of the parts aside, keeping only some of the life-support systems since they were perfectly serviceable and would save her a few points. She even kept the body glove, even if it was a smidge scratched up. Then Alexis bought her second big purchase for the day.

"Alright, as planned," she said.

"As planned." New Purchase: Type 857 Hunter-Killer Scout Chassis Points Reduced to: 138 The chassis appeared without much fanfare, and Alexis had to resist the urge to giggle, especially when she saw CS-3-2/11's eyes open wide and felt the servitor's immediate interest over their shared MIU connection.

"This is... more or less, a Vorax-pattern chassis," Alexis said.

"They were designed as hunter-killers, to find and hunt down hereteks. I thought it was fitting!" The chassis wasn't a one-to-one, but it was close enough. Painted in the same Martian red, with some brass highlights, the body was designed to look almost like a mantis, with a forward-facing head and a hunched back. That made it just a smidge shorter than Alexis was when standing up. Still, the frame took up a lot of room. It had two arms.

Its right was currently empty, but she intended to fit the welding spear that CS-3-2/11 had been using there. The left had a long, six-barrel Castigator Rotor Cannon. It was linked to a backpack that held most of its snub munitions. That rotor cannon could switch its firing speeds between a humble 600 rounds a minute to a humbling 3, 000. Though the latter would be costly in terms of munitions. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

The Almost-a-Vorax was equipped with some pretty decent sensors, and stood on two digitigrade legs that ended in sharp, pneumatic claws. It was also, Alexis knew, rather light. The armour wasn't as thick as K84-321's new chassis, but it could take a beating. More interestingly, there was still room for improvement. She had left some space free on the back. Having a set of turbines equipped there, and some hoverpacks, wasn't impossible. It wouldn't be subtle, but that was fine. She had KYS for subtleness.

Alexis lowered CS-3-2/11 into her new home and started to connect her up.

"Oh, look at you! You're such a pretty lady now," Alexis cooed. Her friend was going to be so much faster! Combat Servitors were nice and all, but even Alexis could outrun one. That sure wasn't the case anymore.

"This baby can run down a jetbike!" She was happily at work when a trio of thumps at the door made her heart leap into her throat. Alexis almost stumbled off of the stool she was using, and was only saved by one of her mechadendrites grabbing onto a workbench. She turned towards the door and stared. A moment later, the same three thumps repeated. Licking her lips, she jumped down, then moved to the door, mechadendrites swirling behind her with tools in hand. She paused, then girded herself and pulled the door open.

"Yes?" she asked. A familiar figure was standing there, and it only took her a moment to recognize them.

"Oh! Red-C61734! And Alma-9? Hi!" The two tech priests were standing in the Servitorium with as much decorum as they could manage. Alma-9 was the first to respond.

"Greetings. I am happy to see that you are yet alive, Alexis Lambda-3," she said, her strange voxed-over voice echoing over itself.

"Salutations: I've come to confirm that you're still alive. And to return an item of yours," Red-C61734 added. Alexis blinked, then noticed the item that was hanging from one of Red-C61734's mechadendrites. It was 054-648's rivet gun.

"Oh. Right. Come in? It's a little tight in here, but, ah, welcome to my workshop! This is where I... work. Uh. Yeah, I don't receive guests often, so forgive me for not having... niceties?"

"Acceptable. A workshop is not a place for common guests," Alma-9 said.

"We will not overstay our welcome." They moved into the room, then both of them stopped dead. Alexis wondered why, then realized that her other friends were staring back. KYS was perched up atop a shelving unit, partially obscured by shadow, but her eyes were locked on the two tech priests. K84-321 took one step closer and loomed above. He didn't really have a face anymore, but that didn't matter when it came to looming.

His arms were as thick around as either tech priest and he was three feet taller than the tallest of them. And then there was CS-3-2/11 who was pointing her only connected weapon and switching targets between the two. The barrels were already spinning up.

"Ah, enough of that," Alexis said. She waved her arms down.

"They're friendlies!" CS-3-2/11 stared some more. She was good at that, what with her new auspex being as large around as Alexis' entire face.

"Query: What the fuck?" Red-C61734 asked.

"I am also curious," Alma-9 added. She stared between the three members of Alexis' team.

"Ah, right. Well, I don't know if I mentioned this, but I am planning on becoming a servitor underseer one day. And as part of that, I thought having my own killclade would help? Uh... this is my current killclade? It's not very much, but I think it's a decent start." Red-C61734 raised the rivet gun.

"Statement: I came to question you about your possession of this system. Observation: Its quality is abnormal. The model is unfamiliar, though it doesn't use any unusual technologies or alloys. It is simply very well designed. Conjecture: You have discovered a cache of archeotech or ancient tools."

"Dismissed," Alma-9 said. She folded her arms together in her robes.

"A cache of tools would not contain bionics and what looks like several advanced robotic systems of superior quality. Alexis Lambda-3, your possession of any one of these items is highly suspect." Alexis gulped.

"I'm not a heretek, I swear?"

"Statement: I am unconvinced." CS-3-2/11 shifted to the side, her gun started to spin back up.

"Statement: I am mostly unconvinced." Alexis waved her arms at her servitor friend, lowering the rotor cannon down.

"Okay! Okay, let's not jump to any conclusions, or call out to anyone important. I'd rather not be killed today, please?"

"Understandable. However. Where did you acquire these items?" Alma-9 asked.

"I recycled them?" Alexis tried.

"Lie. If you are going to be untruthful, then I will have no choice but to report this," Alma-9 said. Alexis shook her head.

"No, no, okay. Uh... I have a backer?" She thought quickly.

"Sorta? I can't give you all of the details."

"Query: Because they are heretical?"

"No! No no, because... it's private? Look, everything I have I'm using to help the cult mechanicus. I'm a good tech adept, I swear!" Red-C61734 glanced at Alma-9, then back.

"Statement: We were discussing your involvement in the battle against the Genestealers. You assisted in several key battles. Without your presence, it's possible that the ship may have suffered more."

"Confirmed," Alma-9 said. She shifted and looked at Alexis for a long time.

"Alexis Lambda-3, your actions are suspicious, but they have been in service of the Mechanicus. Unfortunate. That does not answer the underlying queries; where did you obtain these materials, who is your patron, what is your ultimate goal?" Alexis sank into herself. She took a deep lungful of air, then stood up straighter. Honesty wouldn't work, so... the next step was obvious, doing something that would probably work with the majority of members of the cult mechanicus.

"Are you guys amenable to bribery?"