The Protégé & the Prophet (IC)

Tech Priestess Magos Errant Shushila Chloe stood tall, the caffeine all but forgotten. The station wide lockdown had been jarring, but she kept calm. There was a precedent of this happening in the past, but it was only when the Port had faced a threat to its entirety. She needed to find out what was going on, and the timing couldn't have been worse.

She moved over to a bank of high-powered vox transmitters placed perfectly flush into the wall. Even with most of her physical body gone, replaced over the years with various bionic and cybernetic enhancements, she moved with elegance and poise. Tall, over six feet, she pulled the hood off of her head to reveal smooth black metal where her cranium had once been. Thing, intricately braided mechadendrites that started at her scalp hung down and across her shoulders. They unraveled with a thought and began plugging into the complicated vox array in front of her. In miliseconds she was locked in to frequencies that ran across the station.

To her alarm, most of them were dead. Simply blacked out. The only thing she could think of that could accomplish such a task was the purposeful destruction of key electro-junctions throughout Port Wander. With no reports of blasts, whatever terrorists had done this must have used EMP devices. Outside of complete Warp interference, that made the most logical sense.

This was not good.

She received a binary pulse from one of her combat servitors. It had seen the "Emperor's Bastard" Rook Malachai to the junction in the old maintenance tunnels without incident.

+++Omnissiah go with him and keep the Cog above his head+++ she quickly prayed. But she knew that the Omnissiah alone would not see this through; the Omnissiah lubricated those who lubricated themselves, after all.

Before the comms went down any further, she sent out a highly encrypted burst of Techna-Lingua to someone she knew she could trust beyond question.

+++Cessia, meet me in my quarters as soon as you receive this. I will explain upon arrival.+++

The announcement of a curfew had caused no small amount of frustration. It disrupted Cessia's intended routine for the day in a way that only unannounced and unexplained changes could, all ability to visit one of the Medicae facilities for a very interesting autopsy that was scheduled to take place had been removed, it had been scheduled after the hour of curfew and now Cessia found herself in her personal chambers pacing back and forth in a thoroughly human fashion. She was thankful no one else could see her.

Disruptions to routine happened often, but Cessia struggled to manage them on the best of days. Only when things were well explained and reasoned could she perform the necessary mental adjustments to correct for the new set of circumstances she was placed in.

She had been about to begin ensuring the machine spirits of each of her logs of information were satisfied, a task that she did not find as stimulating as an autopsy would have been but it was necessary.
And then a coded message arrived, from Shushila. Cessia carefully placed all of her scrolls and slates back in their proper locations before rushing from her chambers and flying through the halls of the Mechanicus towards Shushila's quarters.

It was in these moments of necessary physical exertion that Cessia always wished for further enhancement to her physical form. She could run quickly, but she could be faster if only she was able to install more augmentations.

When she finally arrived at Shushila's quarters, Cessia waited at the entryway to be allowed in, or waved forwards by the servitors in place there. Her optical mechadendrite poked from the hood of her robes and observed their surroundings, a place Cessia had been countless times but analysis, when the time presented itself to do so, was always beneficial.

Magos Errant Chloe's quarters were, by necessity, far removed from the main halls of Magi. The woman was something of a pariah among the Mechanicus elite on Port Wander, but her brilliance and extremely loyal following had made her nearly impossible to push out. It was better this way. She preferred the solitude.

The plasteel door in front of Cessia was nearly black, like burnt chrome, with the thinnest outline of the Holy Cog inlaid into it in fine silver. It slide opened on mechanics so well lubricated that they made not a sound. Once Cessia entered properly, it slid back into place behind her like a whisper.

The Magos turned to regard Cessia. There was the softest movement beneath her dark, amber robes. Cessia knew this to be a myriad of mechadendrites, moving to and fro, like waves. It was, in reality, quite calming. As one who spent many of her formative years as an Enginseer Cybernetica and then Digitalis, each mechadendrite served a unique function in the manipulation of machine, both virtual and physical.

"Artisan-Genetor... Cessia, thank you for coming so quickly." Her voice was a digital reproduction, that portion of her anatomy having long since been replaced. Yet, even still it had sounded warm and concerned. The fact that she was speaking in Low Gothic and not Techna-Lingua reinforced the importance and secrecy she was maintaining.

"You have no doubt heard the calls for curfew from the Arbites over the Vox. I have been monitoring the frequencies and have made some disturbing discoveries. Shockingly, the curfew order is station-wide, not just within the surrounding sectors. Something big is happening, but I don't yet know what it is. Which brings me to the more disturbing news: there are communications blackouts spiraling from one end of the Port to the other. How and why this is happening, I simply don't know. Thus, I have called you here to task you with an important assignment."

She waited a moment to let Cessia process the information as it had been presented before continuing. She had sensed her protege's eagerness as soon as the Artisan-Genetor had entered her chambers and felt duty-bound to let her know the extent of what the assignment entailed first.

"Before I give you the details, you must know that it will take you off of Port Wander. It could mean you leaving here indefinitely."

Cessia admired and respected the Magos in more ways than were easily notated. She was nearly everything Cessia one day aspired to be both as an individual and as a member of the Mechanicus. She had proven herself skilled enough to earn some degree of separation and independence, and Cessia desired that more than most other things on her long list of goals.

As the Magos looked at her, Cessia gave a short overly mechanical bow of her head, something she had calculated to the specific number of degrees that worked best on most people, followed by creating the symbol of the Cog with her hands in front of her chest. The Optical Mechadendrite snaked around and examined the room, focusing in finally on the Magos as she began to speak.

Much information was given in a short span of time, though still relatively lengthy when compared to the speed of the blessed binary. Cessia took a few moments to process what was said, sorting through potential reasons for communications blackouts and coming up with nothing that made her relax. This was bad, and she was being asked to help.

"Statement: The calls were heard, I had not considered it as being anything worth noting but the communication blackout has given cause to amend that conclusion. Continued: I am honored that you would consider me for any task you consider important." She took a few steps closer, clasping her hands beneath her robes and carefully considering what she wished to say next. The risk of leaving Port Wander could be both a blessing and a curse, it depended on the details of the assignment.

The risk was worth it, Cessia decided. She must impress the Magos.
"Statement: I accept this risk. Query: What is the assignment."

While Cessia's voice was not yet created by the blessed machine and rather her own human vocal cords, she spoke with little tonal differentiation and had taken to using prefaces on all of her speech to aid in understanding. It had gotten her no small number of confused looks, but such trivial things were worth the cost for her to be understood.

Shushila bowed with respect when Cessia accepted the assignment. It was not protocol for a senior to bow to her younger, which only emphasized the importance of the task. After that, the Magos got down to business.

"Appreciation, Cessia. There was a former Tech Priest Enginseer in here before you arrived. Through an acquaintance he had been sent to me. If you're curious as to why he is a "former" tech priest, be assured he has quite a unique story, but we haven't time to get into it. I have entrusted him with a package of enormous import. I cannot emphasize that enough."

She moved back a ways, seeming to float over the ground as her black steel mechadendrites did the work for her.

"You must ensure that the package makes it aboard his ship The Hudson in one piece. He and his unit of Imperial Guard have been attached to a Rogue Trader in command of that ship. The one who contacted me, a Tech Priestess Biologis, designation: 'Mae' is aboard that ship. The package must be delivered to her. I trusted him to do this alone, but given this new turn of events, I must ensure secondary protocols. That is you, Cessia."

Cessia was more excited than she would ever admit to having the possibility to directly aid a tech priestess Biologis. And should she end up on this ship as a permanent assignment then she would have ample opportunity to gather as much information from the Biologis as she could store.
She made the symbol of the Cog once more beneath her robes, muttering a brief prayer to the Omnissiah in thanks for this turn of events.
"Statement: This is a welcome opportunity, Magos. Confession: The chance to work aboard a vessel with another Biological focused tech priest is a prospect that excites me. Query: What is the Package, and what is its function and importance to Designate Mae."

Only after she had already asked her questions did Cessia realize she had never left the station, nor had she spent time with Astra Militarum beyond passing observations and uncomfortable interactions at Medicae stations in the station.
"Addition: What is the nature of the Imperial guard unit. Should I be prepared for danger."

Shushila was already on the move, checking and rechecking various vox frequencies from the panel in one wall. Mechadendrites moved to and fro completing multiple tasks at once. One of them shot out before gently stopping a mere centimeter or two from Cessia's hand. It dropped a small data chip that could be loaded onto her datapad.

"That, I am afraid, I cannot divulge. The package itself looks like a human child's toy. It is soft and plush, a tentacled creature with a bulbous head and twelve legs, purple with green spots. If the Enginseer Rook Malachai is incapacitated or killed, it will be easy to identify."

When asked about the nature of the Imperial Guard unit, Shushila smiled. Well, she would have if she still had a mouth. Instead, her remaining organic eye sparkled.

"They are a penal unit. My brief search of the records show that the penal colony they hail from had produced 665 regiments before them. They are the 666th. They saw action on a planet called 'Hervara,' and apparently fought vigilantly, and effectively, enough to be considered an investment from a watching Rogue Trader. These are people the likes of which you have never encountered before - gruff even for Astra Militarum standards. Yes, you should be prepared for danger. Are you armed?"

Beside another wall, one of Shushila's combat servitors seemed to power up and move forward. Both of its fists were oversized gauntlets, devastating in close combat. Underneath each forearm was mounted a multi-barreled autogun with an ammunition feed into a massive back on the servitor's back. Its chassis was reinforced with plasteel directly over the skin. It stood ready, awaiting burst-code order from Shushila.

Cessia had only basic combat training, and knew very little about how to optimally engage in combat with another entity beyond firing a weapon at them and hiding behind cover. So the implication that she was walking into danger was disconcerting. Still, she did not let that show on her face and instead inclined her head slightly in understanding.

"Statement: I possess a weapon but I do not often carry it with me, there is little need to within the halls of our order. I do not possess armor beyond these robes. But I will manage these concerns and accomplish the task assigned to me. Query: Is the package durable enough to survive the death of the Enginseer. If he is damaged beyond repair in a combat situation it is possible the package may also be destroyed if it is fragile. Statement: I would like to account for this risk.

Cessia pulled her hands from beneath her cloak and let them hang once more by her sides as she thought over the increasing amounts of data she was being given. A penal unit would be an interesting challenge to acclimate into, and once more it was easily worth any difficulties with the unit to get even a moment of interaction with Designate Mae.

Shushila thought for a moment. There was the tiniest hint of movement from one of her hands and a utility servitor came from around a corner holding something in its hands.

"If I had more, I would provide it, but this should do for now - until you can acquire more. This is the first of some prototypes I have been developing. I hope it serves you well."

The servitor handed Cessia a vest. While it looked big, she could tell that the technology that aided in its creation would form fit it to her abdomen. It was woven of tiny, ultra-dense, interlocking pieces of plasteel. Upon closer inspection, each "chain" in the weave was a tiny cog.

Add to your inventory:

"The package is damage resistant, to a point. Like all creations, enough energy will undo it. Regardless of the state you find it in, retrieve it and make sure Mae gets it. A sliver of the data it contains in Mae's hand is worth the entirety of platinum in the sector."

Shushila waits to see if there are anymore questions. If there are, she addresses them. If not, her hand moves again and a door near the combat servitor across the room slides open. It leads into some long-unused maintenance tunnels.

"The data chip contains maps of these maintenance tunnels. It should help you exit the Halls of the Mechanicus without issue. Most of the entrances will have been sealed by now, but follow the information on the data chip and you will find ways around that. Cessia, you have been a wonderful protege. This, fortunately or unfortunately, will be the culminating point of our work together. Complete this task and your destiny will be laid out for you."

She let the words hang before making the sign of the Cog in the air.

Things were moving faster than Cessia preferred, the expectations were high and the information she was given was extremely limited. But the gift she was given easily distracted from those concerns, so great was the craftsmanship and detail on display. She cradled the piece of armor in her arms and allowed her mechadendrite to put all of its focus on examining the vest in as much detail as it possibly could.

There was one final question. "Query: Where will I locate the enginseer after exiting the tunnels. Statement: Thank you for trusting me with this honor. Should I be given opportunity to return to Port Wander in the future I will be sure to visit you once again and exchange data gained during our time apart."

And once her question was answered, Cessia stepped into the tunnels and loaded the chip into her dataslate. She paused for a moment to put the armor on beneath her robes before following the map as best as she could towards the most efficient exit.

Shushila's mechadendrites slide from the Vox-wall and returned to their metallic, beautiful braid behind her head. She motioned to Cessia's dataslate.

"I placed a tracking device in the package itself to ensure it made it off the station. Once you exit the Halls, simply follow the signal."

Shushila moved with Cessia to the secret opening in the far wall. The combat servitor had already moved ahead some paces to lead the way. Shushila then turned and looked down into Cessia's eyes. Her bionic replacement slowly opened fully. Her organic eye shined without any need for enhancement.

"If we meet again, the stories we will share will span multiple day and night cycles. And the knowledge we will impart will enhance us both. I look forward to that greatly. Cessia, the package must be delivered. Mae is all that matters."

At this, she switched to Techna-Lingua.

+++Keep the Eight Mysteries of the Omnissiah close to your heart. Let them guide your quest for knowledge and understanding. Hold true to the Eight Warnings, they shall steel your heart against the wrong paths. But to hold Orthodox and rigid to all at all times will only bring destruction. Flexibility is the only property that prevents complete fracture. Go with the Omnissiah, Cessia.+++

With that, Shushila stood back and watched the protege depart.

+++++++

OOC:

The combat servitor leads Cessia out into a clearly long unused maintenance tunnel. In any other part of Port Wander, this would not be odd, but in the Halls of the Mechanicus, it felt wrong. Utility corridors, even unused, were routinely maintained. If tech priests couldn't be bothered to do it, repair servitors could. This went to show how off-the-grid Shushila's quarters were.

After twenty minutes or so of walking, the servitor stops at a junction. A large thoroughfare big enough to hold two Banebalde superheavy tanks side by side moves from left to right. Directly across from Cessia the small utility corridor carries on...

Test Time :

Cessia returned the eye contact given by the Magos, looking confidently up at her mentor and giving one final mechanical nod to her statement that Mae was all the mattered. The return to Techna-Lingua was a welcome one for Cessia, and she lightened up visibly at the burst of the holy binary of the Omnissiah spoken by Shushila. Before she stepped into the tunnel, she responded with her own burst of machine code. +++The Ominssiah's warnings and mysteries will guide my every action. However, with your example as a guide I will not let them bind me to binary choices or blind adherence. I will see you in future cycles, Magos.+++


As she reached the junction in the tunnel, Cessia turned her attention back to the dataslate and the navigational information contained within it. She had all she needed to navigate, and was confident in her ability to properly utilize the information given to her in her attempts to track down the Enginseer and the valuable item he carried.
She gave little time or energy to thinking on the task ahead of her beyond the next steps in the sequence. She feared that if she dwelt too heavily on the aspects of this mission that were beyond her usual realm of comfort that she would become unwilling to continue, or break down as her biological circuitry had been prone to do her entire life. She would not let that happen if she could prevent it.

Navigation Roll:

Spoiler:

Cessia checks out the data slate, using the information on the chip Shushila had given her to find her location and the faintly blinking dot that represented the package. It wasn't far, not really. It would take her about a half on hour of travel time if she could maintain a steady pace, but that was if she went by the main thoroughfares, which was no longer an option.

She knows that if she headed left at the junction, she would go deeper into the Halls of the Mechanicus and away from her objective. If she turned right at the junction, she would head toward her objective, but would have to encounter whomever was tasked with guarding the blast doors that would have no doubt been closed and locked off by now.

Luckily, her expert navigation of the map showed another way - one that didn't force her to have to sweet talk or ninja her way out of a risky situation with the guards. A few meters back there was a door to her right. According to the data slate, this would run nearly parallel to the main thoroughfare and take her in the direction she needed to go discretely.

A quick check showed Cessia that it was, in fact, locked.

Security Test:

Security Test:

Cessia placed the dataslate on the ground beside the door as she pulled open the panel beside the locking mechanism. She had seen and used these mechanisms before, she had helped repair a few that had lapsed in their reception of the blessings of the Omnissiah and she was relatively well versed in how to bypass them without triggering an alarm or other warning system that would defeat the purpose of her sneaking this way in the first place.

It was an exciting prospect, skulking through the passageways of the station in an attempt to get to a target that her mentor had provided her. She felt truly guided for the first time in her life, where before she was simply exploring her interests and delving into the sciences that most excited her, now she had a specific task and was able to put the skills she had learned towards that task.

As she began to poke and prod her way through the console she softly chanted a prayer to the Omnissiah in an effort to appease the spirit within the machine and tease it into allowing her safe passage.

Spoiler:

There was a *click* as the machine spirits gave up the ghost, so to speak, and acquiesced to Cessia's prodding. The door was open and her way was set. Behind her, the combat servitor began to thud back toward Shushila's quarters.

It was darker inside the side maintenance hatch, but not dark. It took Cessia's physical eyes a moment to adjust, even though her optical mechadendrite required no such time period. From here, it looked as though the hall stretched on as far as the eye could see.

Cessia hardly even noticed as her eyes began to adjust, such was her focus on the optical mechadendrite she allowed to snake out from beneath her robes to see through the darkness for her. She took the dataslate from its resting place beside the door and entered, shutting the hatch behind her and pulling up the navigational data once again as she began her walk through the darkened tunnel.

It was instances like this, where she was aware that an unaugmented human would struggle to see, that Cessia pondered the potential of bio-augmentations that would be more acceptable to the general imperial populace. They could be hidden, but equally as effective as cybernetics. And when combined with cybernetic augmentations by those who were enlightened enough to wish to embrace the Omnissiah as the Mechanicus did? Then that individual would truly be able to surpass the limits of their form in all ways possible.

She pondered this as she followed her dataslate to her destination, and would stop to find a way out of the maintenance tunnel once she was nearing the supposed location of the ex-engineseer.

The corridor stretched on and on. Tracking her progress, she could see that she was nearing the heavy blast doors that closed off this section of the Halls of the Mechanicus from the rest of Port Wander. As a major player in the politics of the Port, the Mechanicus was nearly self contained. As such, during any type of Port-Wide lockdown, they policed and protected themselves.

As such, when Cessia encountered the wall of pure Rockcrete that blocked her forward movement, it wasn't altogether unexpected. This must have housed the enormous gears and pistons that kept the blast doors in place. There was a ladder going straight up for about twenty feet, and a small door to her right. A quick check of the handle showed that it was unlocked.

Cessia opened the door, risking a brief glance through to see what was on the other side, she used her mechadendrite to glance around any corners present to get a more complete picture of her surroundings. No matter what she saw, she then closed the door and climbed up the ladder, her optical mechadendrite poking up ahead of her to see what was at the top before she got there.

She wanted all of her options open, and checked her dataslate after looking in each area to see which seemed to be a more direct or safer route to her destination.

Upon opening the door, Cessia sees that it is a small hallway, even smaller than the one she is currently in. It look like it is a maintenance door to access the side of the pistons used to keep the main blast door in place. That blast door, of course, was currently closed and blocking the main highway access point to the Halls of the Mechanicus.

The pistons were mostly in a locked position, meaning that Cessia would have to maneuver over and under in order to pass through. However, every now and again one would shoot back and hit an impact point on the wall. Passing through here would mean potentially being hit by one of the shooting pistons.

Spoiler:

The ladder leads to another maintenance access point for the inner workings of the blast door. From here, technicians could see to repairs of the massive gear mechanism that assisted the pistons. There was a very thin catwalk which spanned about ten meters and led to another landing, and another ladder that headed down on the opposite side. Passing here would mean potentially falling into the mechanism.

Spoiler:

Either way offered a means of crossing - both of which were potentially dangerous - but which was Cessia more comfortable with?

Neither option was great. But as far as Cessia was concerned, the risk of falling into something was far more permanent and much more damaging than simply being hit by a piston. Of course she would rather not be hit by a piston either, but the risk-reward  calculations were clear, she had to go through one of the paths and the pistons were 'safest'.

So after tucking her dataslate into her cloak and bring her optical mechadendrite into her cloak as well, leaving only the tip poking out from beside her neck to see, she watched for the best possible path and timing to get her through the pistons, and then made a dash for it using whatever path she had managed to figure out.

Awareness and Dodge:

Spoiler:

Cessia moved quickly, over a low locked piston and then again under a high locked piston. A third came flying out of nowhere, but her reflexes were quick and she easily got out of the way. It slammed into a recoil cushion with a loud bang, as hydraulics hissed and locked it into place.

For the time being, Cessia was safe.

The corridor ended fairly quickly after that. A set of rockrete stair forced Cessia down and right in a spiraling manner for three flights. They ended on a small landing with a steel, shut door in front of her. Above it in clearly stenciled Low Gothic and Techna-Lingua it read:


It was locked to the outside, but she could see a control console from the inside that would allow her out without issue if she needed. Naturally, anyone inside this area was intended to be there, and people on the other side had no business being where Cessia currently stood.

Beyond this point, she would be outside of the Halls of the Mechanicum and onto the mid-lower levels of Port Wander... opening that door would, almost literally, put Cessia in a whole new world.

Brushing her robes off and taking a few deep breaths, Cessia pulled out the Dataslate once again to navigate by as she looked at her last possible chance to turn back. As far as she was concerned, once she opened this door and exited out onto the station - a segment she had rarely ever been in, if at all - she would be committed to this task.

But she was prepared for that. She coiled her Mechadendrite around her more tightly, trying to conceal it a bit better but still allow it sight from the lower hem of her robes as she once more prayed to the machine spirit and unlocked the door, exiting out onto the other side and shutting it behind her. She was not an actor, but she also had difficulty displaying emotions on the best of days so she did not look any more out of place than anyone else. At least in theory.

With one more glance at the dataslate, she began to once more pick her way towards the destination, avoiding the people milling about on the level and trying her best to not get herself into any conversations with the unaugmented humans that very often found her extremely difficult to speak with.

The door required a bit of force to open; clearly, it had not been touched in some time. It closed behind her with a hiss, revealing a much less sterile scene than she was used to. The doors closed behind her and locked with a final, heavy hiss. They were sealed for good now and the only way she was getting back into the Halls of the Mechanicum was if he was extremely creative or lucky. Of course, her mission had her on a completely different trajectory now.

Cessia found herselfin an alleyway. Where she came from and what she entered could not have been more different. Where the Mechanicus thoroughfares were well maintained and sterile, the world he entered was filthy.

pic:

The streets were oddly devoid of life. Not even a single person wandered about. The citizens of this level were clearly taking the curfew order seriously. It was easy to imagine, given what little she knew about how the Arbites shot first and asked questions later.

An info-tower nearby buzzed and repeated a message in white digital Low Gothic: "All citizens, guests, and personnel of Port Wander be advised: The Port is officially in lock-down. Repeat: the Port is officially in lock-down. All entry and exit to external vehicles is hereby prohibited until further notice. Anyone attempting to surpass lock-down measures will be subject to the full extent of the Law, up to and including summary execution."

It continued

"Monorail traffic has been suspended. Violators will be subjugated to the full extent of the Law."

It was night cycle. Cessia knew that, but it was darker than it should have been. In fact, there were no standard night cycle lights on. There were only red, swirling emergency lighting at odd intervals...

Tech Use +0 please:

Tech use:

It was a relief that the streets were empty, at least for Cessia's mental state. However it brought up a new level of concerns that she hadn't thought of before. She was breaking the law right now, and with no other people on the streets of the station to provide her cover as she walked about it made her a VERY easy person to spot and punish for breaking the curfew. Troubling.

Doubly troubling was the strange lighting. Something had gone wrong in the station, and she prayed to the Omnissiah that it was not something that involved the ex-enginseer that she was attempting to find.
She stayed near the walls, hoping to avoid being spotted too easily as she attempted to figure out what was going on.

Spoiler:

In addition to the odd, emergency lighting, Cessia realizes that something about the gravity is off as well. While it wasn't immediately obvious, her deep understanding of how the Port was supposed to technically function led her to the conclusion that the gravity was currently less than what standard protocol required. This could have been caused by a number of things, but a massive power outage which also affected the artificial gravity power supplies, even temporarily, would have caused the fluctuation.

A power outage such as that was also a plausible explanation for the emergency lighting.

[OOC: Additional Info based on how good your roll was...]

...but for that to be the case, not only would multiple power-nodes need to go down, they would need to go down close to simultaneously. For that to happen would mean nothing short of a concerted effort to destabilize Port Wander.

As Cessia moves a bit farther into the Commons sticking to the walls, she gets a better feel for the layout. The main highway that led into the Halls of the Mechanicus, now sealed by a massive blast door with the sign of the cog emblazoned on the outside, ran "north" and "south." Not far off it intersected another of these massive highways. This one ran "east" and "west." Both thoroughfares had multiple breakoffs where smaller streets and alleys met up with them.

Rook, the ex-enginseer, was somewhere south east of her current position. The fastest way to get to him would be to take the east-west thoroughfare and break off south in one of the alleys farther up. But there was something out of the ordinary going on.

She notices some commotion about 500 meters out on the east-west thoroughfare. It is far enough for her not to be noticed but also for her not to be able to make out many details.

It looked like vehicles were parked at the wrong angles, blocking any traffic that could hypothetically come that way. Odd, as there was a curfew in effect. Could the dredges of society already have caused such pandemonium in such short time?

No part of Cessia even considered approaching the vehicles as an option. There was no good reason that people would be out on the streets blocking the lanes during a lockdown, so logic dictated that they were either malcontents that would be hostile towards her and attract the attention of the Arbites in the area, or they were the people responsible for the blackout in the first place.
Either option was concerning, and not something she felt equipped to deal with.

She looked at her dataslate in an attempt to find a route around, she was not in any sort of rush to reach the Enginseer since he didn't look to be leaving the station, so the safest route even if it was the slowest was the one she would take.
Likely this meant going through alleys to avoid the main thoroughfare so she ducked into the nearest one as she looked over her maps, both for the cover and to potentially get herself a head start if it turned out to be the correct path to take.

Her goal was to avoid the road entirely if possible, or to cross it at a point very far away from the makeshift blockade that she had spotted and then continue her path towards the south east where her target was.

Navigation:

Cessia takes a moment to gather herself and her situation, studying the data slate closely. An alternative route almost immediately presents itself. If she followed the north-south highway a few dozen meters south, she would hit a side road to her left - taking her to the east. This road eventually broke up into a number of alleys.

Once she had found a route through that would take her to the faintly blinking signal that represented the package, she started to move.

Off of the main highways, things got darker and dingier. The side streets were far less maintained; cleaning crews kept the large thoroughfares clean, but here there was no such service. There were dumpsters, so obviously crews would come take refuse to incinerators and reclamation plants, but judging by the overflow they hadn't been through in some time.

Cessia perhaps understood the term "culture shock" a little more clearly now. The Halls of the Mechanicus were immaculate. Even where holy lubricants overflowed and spilled out, they were still serving a function and a purpose. This was much more chaotic. Much more contaminated.

The farther off the highway she got, the darker it became. Emergency light bulbs were fewer and farther in between.

Spoiler:

Side streets then broke off into alleyways, which were even dirtier, and more cramped. The physical makeup of this level differed from block to block. Some blocks were purely hab units - cramped living quarters for those who lived and died on Port Wander. Farther in, some of the hab units started on the second floor, leaving the first floor a series of shops. There was anything from markets, to pawn shops, to repair shops. All had their doors closed, or metal entrance gates pulled down and locked.

She was nearing her target when she turned a corner and saw four pairs of eyes staring back at her.

They were children, hungrily taking bites out of a bar of some kind and then passing it around. There were three boys and one girl who was a head taller than the rest. They were dressed in dirty clothes, but not rags or the like. No doubt they lived in one of the nearby habs.

None of them said anything, waiting to see what this strange creature in front of them would do.

Cessia allowed her mechadendrite to poke out fully from her robes as she got to the darker sections of the station, it allowed her to see quite well in close range and given how cramped these corridors seemed to be she felt this would be a suitable strategy.
Wherever possible she pulled herself into a tight stance to avoid touching the walls and getting grime on her robes, this was not the place to go around looking like one of the many homeless people that likely 'lived' near here.

Cessia had been so focused on keeping clean and on watching her dataslate for navigational information that she didn't even notice the immature humans that had placed themselves in her path. She had been about to bump into one of them when she finally looked up and came to an abrupt stop. Her Mechadendrite kept moving, looking at each of the people before her and attempting to categorize them as threats or non-threats.

"Statement: You should be at home, a curfew is in place and it is against the law of the station for you to ignore that order. Concern: You could be killed if you are found out by the Arbites."
She had said her piece to the people in front of her, and all Cessia wanted to do was bypass them and continue on her path through the station. So, in a very socially inept way, she simply tried to walk through the group of them and continue down the alleyway rather than waiting for them to respond to her or part so she could pass. It was inefficient to wait for the unaugmented mind to process what she had said, this was faster.

"An' you shoul' min' ya fekkin' business, metal mouth!" It was one of the smaller boys.

"What you s'pose to be? Our mums? Ha! Shove it up your butt!" One of the other boys.

The girl stayed silent while they started making fun of Cessia. Just watching her. Finally she spoke.

"Coppers? Here? Hah. You ain't from 'round here, are yuh?"

They stood firmly in her way. When he bumped into them, one of the small boys fell over and dramatically grabbed his knee. He begin to wail as though Cessia had chopped off the limb. Above them, a light in one of the habs came on.

Spoiler:

Awareness:

"Correction: My mouth is not yet metal. Statement: You cannot be injured, I did not exert enough force to cause such a reaction. Request: Let me pass, I must reach my destination."

Cessia stopped when the kid fell over and both she and her mechadendrite regarded him with some confusion as she waited for the group to part for her to pass. She didn't really have any concept of how to properly interact with these people, she had not studied them and spent time perfecting responses for them before so it was a new, frustrating experience.

"You done broked it! Butthole!" said the "crying" boy. The taller girl tried to push Cessia, but did nothing more than slam her hand into a harder midsection and jump back, posturing.

"You ain't goin' nowhere, 'till you pay the toll!"

"Query: By what law are you enabled to charge a toll. Addition: What is the toll.

Now Cessia decided to ignore the boy on the ground, she was positive that he had not be injured and decided not to pay it any more attention than she already had. This was a waste of her time, and she desperately wanted it to be dealt with.

"Uhh... by Law of the Urchins of Super Greatness.. I... errr.. hereby... enact the law of... payin' the tolls!" The girl said confidently, hands on her hips.

The crying boy had by now gotten up and backed her with a savage nod and crossing of his arms against his chest. One of the other boys had picked up a stick, attempting to look very threatening.

"The toll is... all the... chocolate bars you have. Failing that... er... five pence thrones!"

Spoiler:

Bribing Children:

"Statement: That is not a law I was aware of. Apologies: Forgive my rudeness."
Cessia knew that this wasn't a law, of course, but the easiest way to deal with these children seemed to be giving them what they wanted. She fished around in her robes and eventually presented them with the money that they requested. And then, once more, she attempted to walk through the group towards her destination.

This was going to be a difficult mission if she ran into more of these people before she had time to formulate an approach strategy that was effective consistently.

The children cheered and praised their leader who eagerly took the five-pence-thrones and held it high for all to see. They moved out of the way and allowed Cessia to pass without issue. She was three blocks away when she realized that one of her vials of sacred ungents was missing.

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Cessia, had she been in less of a rush to find the ex-enginseer that her mentor had assigned her to help, would have gone back to the urchins and demanded her Sacred Unguents back. But she simply didn't have the time and while it hurt her for something so holy to the Omnissiah to be in the hands of such faithless cretins it was necessary for now.

It gave her even more reason to reach her destination quickly however, to avoid another similar incident. She wanted to have most of her possessions with her by the time she met with designate Rook. So back to the datapad she went, and her trek through the mazes of alleys and buildings continued.

Spoiler:

The rest of the trek was largely uneventful. Whatever was going on, it was clear that it hadn't moved this far south yet. Another check of the dataslate showed Cessia that he was just one block away from her destination.

Up ahead as she continued east, the alley dead ended into a T-intersection going left (north) and right (farther south). The faint blink of the package indicated that Rook was to the left. However, she also realized that this was extremely close to the main thoroughfare she had seen earlier with all the vehicles blocking the road. In fact, it looked as though the package, if it was still on Rook, was about a block or so south of that very intersection.

Perhaps it was unsurprising that the Ex-Tech Priest was so close to potential danger?

A quick look left, right, and then left once at the intersection showed the way to be largely clear. If she turned left, Rook should be about 40m up, and from the looks of it inside one of the small shops to the left.

If Cessia hugged the left wall, she would be more or less in open view of the main thoroughfare and potentially in view of whomever was blocking the road. If she hugged the far right wall, composed of solid rockrete hab blocks, she could at least hop from dumpster to dumpster, providing a modicum of cover from the main road.

Of course, she could just sit and wait, hoping to see something or an opportunity to present itself?

Another look at he dataslate showed that whatever shop Rook was in sat directly across the alley from a two story hotel. Her additional info noted the name of it as The Westin: Port Wander.

The question now was why the ex-enginseer had become an ex-enginseer in the first place. If he was the violent type, as Cessia assumed based on his placement in penal unit, then she had little doubts that he had either a part in the blockade or was somehow in danger due to it. However if he had been removed from the Mechanicus for other reasons then it was possible that the blockade was a coincidence.

Cessia did not wish to risk wasting time no matter what the origin of designate: Rooks removal from the Mechanicus, if he was in danger then she had to find a way to provide support and if he was controlling the blockade then her haste shouldn't cause a problem.

She ducked out of the alley and moved left, hugging the left wall and turning off her Optical Mechadendrite to conceal the light that it had been providing her. She didn't need to see, she only needed to hold the wall and move across the intersection and then reach the shop. So that was what she did, for better or worse.
Cessia did do her best to move quickly, her almost mechanical movements propelling her forward as fast as her legs could carry her. She was so close, and then she would finally have a clear goal beyond reaching her target. That would be appreciated.

Cessia begins forward, hugging the left wall. She keeps her eyes trained on the vehicle blockade at the intersection where the alley spills out into the main highway ahead. Perhaps too much so. Her foot catches a crack in a grate on the ground and tosses her forward. She slams into one of the pull down locked gates, causing a loud ruckus before falling partially to her knees.

As she steadies herself, she notices the shop just ahead of her on the left has its front gate opened. There's also a thick puddle of liquid building up that was clearly coming from the inside. Her optical mechadendrite easily identifies the substance as blood.

As the mechadendrite snakes around and looks inside the storefront for the source, it spots bodies in various locations sprawled out. They were clearly dead. The closest was face down with the right side of its head and face missing - sprayed over the shelving in the store. The next was more to the left, missing half of its lower abdomen just above the right leg. The leg was nearby. Two more bodies were at the base of a narrow staircase at the back of the store; both were unmoving.

The wounds indicated heavy trauma. What caused it exactly would require a closer look.

Spoiler:

Cessia muttered a soft thank you to the Omnissiah when it seemed that no one had immediately noticed her fall. She was not adept at sneaking around like this, and she took a mental note to perhaps learn more about how to do it properly should this task she had been given end up involving more of it.
That was when she noticed the blood from the shop. This made all of her concerns regarding what might be happening with the blackout and the ex-enginseer seem all the more real, but given the amount of noise she made it seemed that the safest option would be to duck inside the shop for cover for at least a few minutes.

And completely unrelated of course this allowed her to satisfy her immense medical curiosity as to what had caused these injuries and how long ago it occurred. As she stepped inside, Cessia allowed her mechadendrite to snake through the shop and gather close up images of each of the corpses even as she herself knelt down to focus on the two farthest from the door where she would be most difficult to see from the street.
Soon she became totally focused on the medical mystery infront of her, though she kept an internal clock going that would encourage her to stop and leave in a minute or two to continue with her mission.

Medicae:

Spoiler:

The deaths were recent. Very recent. Within the last twenty minutes, this massacre had taken place. The body closest to the door with half of its head off was done in with a single shot from a large caliber weapon. Upon further inspection, Cessia realized that it was lying on the legs of a second body. It had been concealed as it had fallen back behind some shelving when it died. That made three bodies near the entrance of the shop and two in the back near the stair case.

The two near the front that still had their heads in tact both had their lower abdomens and legs utterly destroyed. It was as if someone had made them swallow a small grenade and that's where it erupted. Perhaps a shotgun blast at very close range? Cessia didn't know much about war or weaponry, but she knew that whatever had done this had been vicious. At the very least, she was dealing with two shooters. It was highly unlikely that one person took on five others with two different types of weapons.

At the back of the shop near the staircase, it was much more difficult to tell details as the bodies were far away (14 meters). There were large pools of blood. The optical mechadendrite picked up on super heated brain matter on the walls. Perhaps a third shooter?

But even with all the gory detail laid out in front of her, what really interested Cessia was a similarity that all the corpses shared.

None of them were human.

Spoiler:

FL:

Cessia found this all fascinating. She had not had nearly as many opportunities as she would have liked to investigate combat wounds as close up as this. She had of course read all the texts available in the halls of the Mechanicus on such things, but never had she worked on them so directly. Even as her internal clock ticked down she began to poke and prod at each of the corpses to try and glean whatever extra information from them that she could.

And that extra information sent her into a spiral of theories and questions and problems that she couldn't have even imagined just this morning. It was shocking that something like this had started on port Wander, and the fact that these were already so advanced in generation was the most concerning factor... Things could be very bad, the probability that there were those even further advanced than the corpses infront of her was non-zero.

The only good piece of information was that someone was killing them. Perhaps it had been accidental, but any help in destroying these creatures would be beneficial in the long run.

Cessia went to each body and gathered samples from the blood and gore that was spread around the shop. If she could get any intact tissue samples, especially of the mutated parts of each body, she would gather those as well with practiced slices of her scalpel to remove them from the corpses and store each of the samples both of tissue and blood in the vials she kept within her medkit for things exactly like this.
She wished more than anything now for access to a proper lab, somewhere to analyze these and figure out everything she possibly could from them.. Both to help the station and to further her own research.

Once the samples were collected, ideally one from each body, she quickly made her way back out of the shop and moved even quicker than she had been before towards the blip on her dataslate. Things were more urgent than ever now, and she prayed to the Omnissiah that she would not be too late.

As soon as Cessia exits the shop into the alley, she is confronted by three figures.

Two were men and one was a woman. The woman stood at the far end of the alley holding a hell pistol. She was absolutely elegant and quite beautiful by human standards. The elegance was stark given that she was standing in an alley. Her dress, while practical for movement, looked more at place in a high end restaurant.

The two men looked far rougher. They were both well built, muscular, and bald - but not at all like the creatures Cessia had just studies. The one on the left had hazel eyes and a thick black beard. He was clearly wounded - badly - and had recently been bandaged. He carried himself with the confidence of a natural born leader and had a heavy looking pistol in his right hand. While he didn't wear any armor, just a leather comfortable jacked and fatigues, he had the look of a soldier.

The one on the right stood 6'3", about an inch taller than the bearded one, and had oddly white eyes. He wore dark, well used red robes that hid - poorly - artificial bulk underneath him. Cessia had seen this enough to know a tech priest hiding mechadendrites when she saw one....