Chương 70: Volume Two - Chapter Seven - Approaching and Planning

Alexis was back on the bridge. Two days had passed, and surprisingly little had happened except that the tiny star-like pinprick of light that was Chrysis had grown into a ball that was about as large as her fist if she held it out at arm's length. She could make out the rough shapes of continents with just her naked eye now, and even the greyish blob of the world's big hive city, Death Bane.

"Lord Captain, another message has come in from Honour Station," the Master of the Vox said. Alexis glanced over to where Clarice was standing. She was a few steps away from the ship's throne, looking over some reports on a dataslate.

"Bring it here," she said absently. The Master of the Vox did so, handing her a slate that she looked over for several seconds before letting out a sigh.

"Fantastic," she said. Alexis looked around, but the bridge was rather quiet at the moment. Honestly, she could have slipped away back to her quarters, but Octavia was busy avoiding the sisters, and Vena was organising something in the medicae deck. They had come to the agreement that one Vanguard ought to be watching Clarice at all times, just in case something underhanded was attempted. That was part and parcel of the duties that came with being in her retinue.

"Is anything bothering you?" Alexis asked as she came closer. Clarice met her eyes for a moment, then gestured to the piles of data.

"A lot. I've been sending messages back and forth to the station's procurement office. I'm trying to subtly imply that the writ has my signature on it by simply blustering past any questions regarding it. Somehow, that's worked so far, but one overly-zealous member of the Administratum would blow it all apart. In the meantime, we've secured the purchase of several thousand tons of promethium, access to the docks, and permission to speak with several guilds for repairs."

"That all sounds good," Alexis said.

"It is, but it was good, obtained with difficulty," Clarice said. She looked down, then back up to Alexis. When she spoke next, her voice was lower and carried less.

"How much of a show of force can we afford to make?"

"Ah, do you mean... me and Octavia and Vena?" she asked.

"Yes."

"No... I mean, a little one, sure. But nothing compared to anyone that's ranked high enough. I guess that if I try, I could maybe pass for a lower-ranked magos that's still inexperienced, but I'd have a hard time convincing anyone of anything more for now."

"For now?" Clarice asked. Alexis shrugged.

"We all grow stronger from facing foes. Those culties, the genestealers... if there are any of those on the station, we could root them out and become stronger. I wouldn't mind a few more friends, and more points to buy better facilities to take care of them." Over the last day and a half, after setting up her maintenance bay, she had gone through a full check-up of KYS and CS-3-2/11. K84-321 was still waiting for her to have some free time.

The tear-down and repairs were rather extensive, but the end result was a respectable increase in just about every measurable and quantifiable metric. Life support systems were running smoother, and their cybernetics weren't throwing up any errors and were just about as clean as they could be.

"I see. I recall Vena explaining something similar," Clarice muttered.

"In any case, I don't know how much any of you three could help here. On a ship as small as The Broken Scale, the word of a high-ranking Mechanicus tech priest, or medicae, and especially the word of an Imperial Saint holds a lot of sway. But this is a planet, one with ancient noble houses tied to Mars and Holy Terra that are older and stronger than my family's own. We are, undoubtedly, the smaller players here."

"Yeah," Alexis said.

"Um... well... uh... I don't know about Octavia and Vena, but I think that if I were given some time, I could maybe climb up a few ranks. It would require, ah, 'finding' an STC and presenting it to the right people, and growing my killclade a little. It's kind of a silly idea." Alexis felt Clarice's stare, then took a small step back when the woman didn't break eye contact. There was something very dangerous in her eyes.

"Truly?" she asked.

"Um?"

"What would you need to make that happen?"

"I... guess some enemies to fight?" Alexis said.

"Time?"

"How much time?" Clarice asked.

"I... don't know?" Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"What kind of STC could you procure?"

"Ah, I guess any that Vyper would be willing to sell? Machine Spirit Vyper?"

"Now that we are in-system and I've had the opportunity to peruse the contents of the local cogitators, I can safely say that copying a simple STC wouldn't be overly difficult. It would still be costly. Perhaps as much as ten times the cost of the specific item you want a blueprint for. More, if you want a more generalised STC that contains the equivalent of even a fraction of a Catalogue."

"She says it's possible, but expensive," Alexis replied. Clarice nodded.

"Time, then." She crossed an arm over her chest, and then reached up to pinch her chin.

"I see."

"You do?"

"Yes. And obviously Octavia and maybe Vena will want in on this. Yes, I can see how this could work. I will need to bargain for an updated view of the conditions on the surface, but that... no, we have voidsmen to train. If we make a point to recruit locally, we could do this for cheap. Follow me." Alexis followed. Clarice led her to the projector at the back, then gestured a tech adept closer. Soon, a projection of Death Bane and its surroundings was hovering there.

It included the best image of the ork encampments their ship's auspex could capture. From this range, they were mostly just blurry, hazy images of tents in untidy rows, with camps maybe an hour's walk apart forming a chain all around the city. There were other camps further back from the front as well. Alexis didn't know much about orks, but this seemed pretty well organised for a siege.

"We're going to need Vena for this. She has a mind for it," Clarice said.

"But let me float an idea by you."

"I'm listening," Alexis replied.

"What we need is a plausible location to find something of value great enough that it makes the entire stay in this system worthwhile. We also need a place where you can defeat enough enemies to make that purchase possible. It is rare that one has an opportunity to be thankful for the orks, but here we have it. There are going to be old cathedrals, small settlements, and ancient mansions that belonged to some of the older knightly homes. They are knight houses.

They will have facilities for the maintenance and upkeep of their knights. Those would all be plausible locations for finding some old archaeotech. And if they are used by orks, then the one clearing that area has plenty of reason to claim ownership of whatever was retaken, no?"

"Oh," Alexis said. The plan was easy enough. It was almost obvious when Clarice laid it out.

"I see. Yes. We find a, ah, plausible location, one with some orks. Go down, clear it out, and 'find' something valuable. Then we bring it back here and sell it?"

"Yes. We can even repeat the feat, though I don't think doing it a third time would be wise."

"It's a good plan," Alexis agreed.

"It's passable at best. I'll see what Vena has to add to it. Then we may end up talking with my cousin and Ordinator Velpexa Thame. We have a few shuttles that we can bring to the surface, but in ork-infested territory? Besides, the locals might wonder what we're up to."

"We can't use the search for knowledge as an excuse?" Alexis asked. That was sacrosanct, at least within some factions of the Mechanicus. It would be an acceptable excuse for several members of the Mechanicus to expend resources to chase something down, even in xenos-infested territory.

"No," Clarice shot the idea down.

"That may help, but it won't be enough. We're going to want more reasons than just the one. Ideally, I can find records of our family dealing with someone from Chrysis, to establish how we knew, then I may be able to convince the Sororitas and my cousin to assist. Call it a... training exercise or some such. My wisdom here will be questioned, you understand? If this fails, I will have thrown away lives and materials, and more importantly, used up favours."

"We'll make it work," Alexis promised. She was kind of excited, actually. Being the one to find an STC, even a simple, cheaper one, would be a lot. Doing so while killing xenos and helping on the surface was... well, it reminded her of childhood stories of brave Space Marines (accompanied by valiant tech marines and helpful Magi Dominus and Explorators) diving into enemy-controlled space to steal a critical piece of archeotech whose use and utility saved the lives of billions years later.

She wasn't sure if chasing the idea of heroism like that was appropriate, but she wanted to try.