Chương 18: Chapter 17: Days and Decisions

Location: Argent Drake Astartes Barracks I am sitting with my legs crossed on a cushion, meditating. Across from me is Brother Librarian Astrovas. Meditation has been fantastic in helping me with some of my pent up mental problems and stress. I think part of me is still subconsciously coming to terms with my new reality, especially since I have had time to process a lot more of my innate knowledge of this universe in general.

The lessons on the warp and psykic abilities have been more than interesting enough to hold my attention. Astrovas is attempting to divine using his Emperor's Tarot. This is far from his first attempt but something about my psy suppressor has been making it difficult for him. At first we thought it was the wards on my armor but even in plain clothes it still had inconclusive results.

"Prerequisite Criteria Met: Administrative Access has been granted to: Psyber Limiter Rho."

"Prerequisite Criteria Met: Administrative Access has been granted to: Psyber Limiter Pi."

"Prerequisites Not Met: Psyber Limiter Systems: Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta, Iota, Kappa, Lambda, Mu, Nu, Xi, Omicron."

"Prerequisites Not Met: Psyber Enhancement Systems: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Omega."

"Prerequisites Not Met: Psyber Control Systems: Sigma, Tau, Upsilon, Phi, Chi, Psi." I keep my emotions calm as I slowly feel out the new access. It's pretty much just a toggle, each limiter is on or off. It's currently on so I toggle just Rho off. Looking at my display I can see the suppressor has gone down five percent.

"Suppression: 95%" Astrovas looks up sharply.

"What did you just do?"

"I met the prerequisite for two of what looks like fourteen limiters. I can toggle it on and off. Doing so lowered the suppression by five percent. What did it do?" I ask as I look up to meet Astrovas's gaze.

"Well before when attempting to probe you psychically you felt almost like empty space or a weak Null. Now you have a similar presence to that of a typical non psychically inert person." He informs me and I nod slowly.

"How about now?" I toggle off the second Pi limiter as well.

"Now you feel like you went from Rho to Pi. From a normal human to a human that is barely sensitive to psychic fluctuations." He says staring at me intently. I froze and blink "Um. Those words you just used are from the Psyker scale aren't they? My limiters are called Pi and Rho. I can also now and have been informed that I have limiters titled Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta, Iota, Kappa, Lambda, Mu, Nu, Xi, Omicron. But I cannot access them at the moment." I explain softly.

Astrovas nods "That all but confirms you are at the minimum Delta class. Gamma is how Lady Supine is rated. Mine is Beta. Navigators do not follow the same scale." He answers while looking contemplative.

"Leave them off while I divine then turn them back on. We will make up a report and inform your tutors and the Magi of this development."

"Yes, Master Astrovas." I go back to meditating but the sensation is different. I can vaguely sense at the limit of my senses small eddies of energy swirling around Astrovas as he divines. This time he flips three cards and hums as he looks down at them.

"Your past, present and future have been revealed."

"Your past card, The Hulk. Lost but found inside this vessel that was a hulk but resurrected. Your present The Silver Door. Many choices and opportunities await you but also faint danger. Your future… The Daemon but inverted. I shall draw two more cards." He flipped over the thin wafers after shuffling and focusing.

"The Sword. The Shattered World but inverted."

"What does that mean?" I ask as I lean forward to peer down at the cards.

"You will oppose Daemons and Chaos. You are destined to stand against them and their machinations. You will help heal the world. The Sword puzzles me."

"Well I could have told you I don't like Chaos. If I have an opportunity to help a world I suppose I would. Why is the sword strange?"

"The Sword is a weapon. There are other cards in this deck, such as The Lord of Swords that wield weapons. The Sword generally stands for something being a weapon or finding a weapon. I could perhaps redo the Tarot." Astrovas leans down to scoop up the cards but jolts as they give him a small electrical shock when he does so, his expression turning extremely serious.

"There will be no further divinations today please reactivate your suppressors immediately Nicole." I don't hesitate to flick them back on. I feel totally fine but Astrovas looks mildly perturbed as he picks up the cards gently.

"That will be all. May the Emperor's light guide you Nicole."

"May the light of the Omnissiah shine upon you Brother Astrovias and may his words reach your ears and guide your hand." I say with a small bow of my head. I reach over and start to donning my Mechanicus robes and the parts of my carapace armor I had taken off as I get up from the meditation space. I might as well go check in on the old boys club while I am nearby.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------- Location: Astartes Barracks Vehicle Bay Venerable Baldos stood in the middle of the bay set aside for him and his brothers. He once had far more names however they had been long forgotten. Little Brother Nemeth Solantar and Brother Lodah Dragonmaw do not know the burden. Only Brother Logen Silverfury knows of his great aches and the weight of the years. His sleep had gotten deeper each time, he nearly failed to rouse onboard The Hollow Star.

Yet that persistent ache in the back of his mind had eased in the past few weeks. Such a curiosity, that such an unusual little individual was able to lessen that strain. He knew not how and suspected the little one might not know herself. He had conferred privately with Brother Silverfury to confirm his observations.

"Brother Silverfury. I wish to speak with you. Privately." He had told his companion the other day.

"Of course Venerable. How may I be of service?" He replied as they moved away and initiated a secure and private communication line.

"I shall be upfront with you Brother. The strain of my age seems to have lessened as of late. I need to know if you have experienced it as well. The others are too young to know it yet." Baldos stated firmly.

"I have indeed. My mind has a… clarity that it has not experienced in centuries." Silverfury admitted calmly.

"Then we are truly blessed. To have encountered the littlest one. Despite her abnormalities and casual treatment." Baldos stated fondly.

"But how can this be? I have never heard of such an effect. It cannot simply be due to the exquisite maintenance." Silverfury said wearily.

"I do not know Brother, nor do I care. The Emperor has blessed us with not a temporary balm but what is, according to all measurable metrics, a cure for our most insidious ailment." Baldos stomped one of his large legs against the floor and flexed his clawed hand.

"My mind is sharp and my movements crisp and more responsive than ever. As if I was freshly interred less than a decade ago. I do not crave the release of the deep slumber." Silverfury stated as he flexed his close combat weapon.

"Neither do I. I do not intend to lose this blessing, Brother. We shall ensure the safety of the littlest one. She must be protected." Baldos declared.

"I concur. However, Venerable, you have already insisted on adding a Brother to her fairly potent personal detail. Brother Astrovas tutors her in the way of the mind. Brothers Cogfist and Cogmane work alongside her in the forges. We cannot easily accompany her about the ship." Silverfury said as he considered the issue.

"I am aware. I simply wanted to express my stance. I shall endeavor to ensure any and all threats to the littlest one are purged with prejudice." Baldos said with an intensity that burned slowly and deeply, like a bed of heated coals.

"We should inform our other two Brothers." Silverfury said, his tone insistent.

"I believe that is prudent. I have spoken with Brother Astrovas. His divinations suggest that those that harried us are unlikely to give up easily. They will be back and in greater numbers. We shall unleash our fury upon them when they do." Baldos chuckled darkly and was soon joined by Brother Silverfury.

"We shall do that later. Let us return to our berths. The littlest one comes." Silverfury said as his slightly longer range auspex picked Nicole up first. It had been a good conversation between him and his Brother. Now all four had been inducted in the know as had the Captain. Baldos had been informed little Nicole was going down to explore the lower decks and instructed Brother Silverwalker to take his full combat kit rather than the partial kit he had been utilizing thus far.

The depths of a ship this size and this old no matter how talented the Twist Catchers were and how firmly patrolled. The dark corners of a vessel tended to accrue sly and dangerous entities. Especially one once hulked. Mutants or worse might be lurking below. Perhaps he or one of his brothers should go on a walk near one of the primary elevator lifts and linger there for a few hours. Just in case. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

After all, little Nicole seemed quite talented in conjuring up interesting things. —------------------------------------------------ POV: Nicole I feel a little vexed as I examine my freshly updated map. There are now three highlighted sections. One conspicuous void is a few decks directly under the medical bay. Another is on the far end of the ship and deep down in an of lower storage that was sealed off forever ago and never checked on. The file literally just says "plasma leak?" with a freaking question mark.

It's the biggest area of the three and the deepest. The other space is a little odd as it's a few decks under the Munitorum and Cryo Bays. It's not a huge space but what is odd is that there is only one singular long straight corridor to the space that would barely fit two Astartes side by side. The issue is they are hours apart so our excursion will only be able to cover one at a time as both Arianwyn and I have schedules and responsibilities that don't permit us huge portions of time off.

Since I can't make a decision I simply message Arianwyn and tell her to pick which one we are visiting at the end of the week! I just got permission to return to the Manufactorum today. Thanks to my psychic training progressing and unlocking the first controls for my Psybernetics.

"Master Doll, you wanted to see me?" I say as I approach his bay. Most of the Knight parts have been moved out and the other Tech Priests are working on assembling it without me. I look around to try and catch a glimpse of any parts they missed but to no avail. Archmagos Doll turns to me and nods "Yes, I wanted to ask you about these parts that arrived here." I look down and perk up seeing the rods and various components "Oh! Those are for the jump packs!" I say eagerly.

"Nicole, please explain. These parts are unusual." Doll says with great patience.

"Well you have the schematics for the Mechanicus Archaeopter and the schematics for Pteraxii." I say and Doll's red eyes narrow at me.

"So I figured I would make an Alatus-pattern Jump Pack with the wing style of the Pteraxii. The nano-carbon fibre-weave of the morphing wings are extremely effective, cut down on weight and look really cool! Plus they fit the dragon theme I want for the jump packs a lot better than the feathery metal wings or other more mechanical designs we have. I want to make mine far more compact than standard." Doll looks at the crates of materials scanning them and taking inventory with his optical dendrite.

"Just how many jump packs were you intending to produce? There is considerable excess." He states looking down at me with an expectant expression.

"A dozen or so?" I say meekly.

"I just want my own, the rest I was going to give to you to either give out or keep in the armory. Installing them will require they have a potentia coil and necessitate extensive neural interfacing." Doll nods slowly "Alright. That is acceptable." I perk up and smile "Really?!"

"Yes, your plan is to combine features of two highly effective patterns into a hybrid design of your own. You can proceed. However you are forbidden from entering bay one of my private forge and the bays housing Sword of Vengeance until I say otherwise." Doll states with clear amusement on his mostly metal face. I pout and let out a small whine. This doesn't phase Doll in the slightest.

"A surprise is being prepared and thanks to the Forge Frenzy all the important work on parts for the Knight are complete. The rebuilding and finishing is being handled and the various personnel wish to surprise you. It was the least I could get them to agree to doing. None of us want individuals of the creed bothering you to come thank you." Doll explains and I wince.

"Okay, fair if that will keep them from doing that. They can finish the Sword of Vengeance for me." My curiosity can wait if I don't have to deal with being awkward or cringy around the more evangelical Tech Priests.

"Good. I will leave you to it." Doll turns around and starts to walk off much to my surprise.

"You aren't going to help me?" I ask caught off guard.

"No, I have my own part to finish for your surprise. You can handle your own project. I will check the finished product and you can message me if you have questions." Doll says as his optical dendrite rises up to take a picture of my shocked face. I sputter and quickly recover with a faint blush "Thank you, Master Doll, I will do my best." The amount of faith I have just been given to work on my own was a bit of a shock. Now I just need to not screw it up. No pressure.

I turn back to the piles of parts and take a deep breath.

"Time to make some jet engines and some cyberpunk draconic wings." —---------------------------------------------------------------------- Location: Argent Drake bridge"Attention Ur-Haven port authority. This is Rogue Trader Lord Admiral Arken Drakios. I know you can hear me. Mechanicus Archmagos Akellonon Doll sent an inquiry into your systems two days ago and we received prompt replies. Myself, The Archmagos and Astartes Captain Bolaar Silvershield are no longer asking.

I am demanding a response from your planetary governor within the next twenty four hours. Transmitting Imperial authorization codes. If there isn't a Lord Inquisitor enforcing this blackout then, I DON'T CARE WHY! YOU WILL RESPOND! End transmission." Around him the bridge was perfectly silent as he took a deep breath.

"Let me know the moment they respond. They needed to start making preparations for our docking days ago." Drakios growled there was no longer a good reason for them to ignore their hails.

"You know this happened once before. We got snubbed and ignored. The Lord Captain ended up in a duel with a planetary governor and cut off both his legs and his dic…." One of his older officers whispered to a younger officer.

"Ahem!" Lord Drakios gave the pair a slightly chastising glance. This entire situation was just adding to his stress levels. Lord Arken Drakios felt heavily conflicted. The last few weeks had been a massive trial. A simple supply delivery lost him two ships. His transport vessel, which had been fully loaded with supplies, and the raider they used to train new crew and as a scout. His three remaining ships had suffered damage and lost crew to varying degrees. A poor situation all things considered.

Then suddenly Doll informed him about some long-lost crew. Great, thaw them out and get them through basic training. Only it turns out one of the individuals was some long lost Mechanicus scion from a family of Princeps that was born before The Heresy and a living piece of Archeotech. Weird and unusual, but Arken was a Rogue Trader and that's par for the course.

Turns out the vault of her dead uncle had a solar system's worth of wealth in it and several artifacts that the Mechanicus would literally kill people over. Things like STC fragments and Relic Boltguns. Arken had worked with the Mechanicus since he was an heir. He had known Doll for almost two centuries now. He could confidently say he and the Archmagos were good friends and having an Archmagos for a buddy had a lot of perks, like keeping his family's golden ticket running.

Arken didn't know the ancestor that made the titanic gamble to salvage The Argent Drake but the signed deal with the Mechanicus was hanging in a stasis field in the great hall back on their estate in their dynastic capital. Arken's grandfather had been the one to start shifting focus from focusing on quantity of crew to quality of crew. That lesson had certainly paid off in spades. However these recent events had shown he didn't know his ship as well as he thought.

Little noble Princeps girl, turns out she can talk to ships. Talks to the ship and the ship starts running better. Talks to the ship and it shoots a chaos raider on its own and obliterates it. Fantastic. Suddenly he has to rescue Astartes. Good news, it's from a chapter he knows quite well. Bad news, their ship was corrupted scrap metal now. Now he had approximately one Astartes for every twenty five hundred crew. Doesn't sound like a lot, but that's a lot of angels.

Turns out Princeps girl gets along with ancient Dreadnoughts. Wonderful. Little Princeps girl finds a Teleportarium, not just any Teleportarium, no no no. A Dark Age Teleportarium hub capable of potentially teleporting vehicles. A priceless object that would have looked fancy on a battleship let alone here. It was hiding under their noses all along. Doll wants to fix up an old knight they had in storage so the little Princeps girl can be a proper Princeps. Great go right ahead.

Only turns out little Princeps is a psyker and makes the forge go nuts for a day and a half. No one died, everything's fine. Turns out everything is better than fine, little Princeps girl basically had a divine moment. Doll brings Arken a list of what they made during the event and the fair market value exceeds the cost of the ships he lost and that's just what Doll's willing to sell. Doll had literally handed Arken a brand new Lathe grade power weapon and told him it was a gift.

Little Princeps girl is suddenly friends with his favorite grandchild telling her tidbits of nearly forbidden knowledge like one might babble about local gossip. Little Princeps was going to go looking for more hidden loot or parts in the ship, and his lovely grandchild wanted to go along. That's fine, just send some of the house Stormtroopers with her. The little Princeps has a maniple of Skitarii, a Solar Auxilia and an Astartes. What could go wrong? Turns out, everything can go wrong.

Like a war being fought in the depths of his ship.