Chapter 1: Into the wild black yonder IC

Lethia waited for the teams to move in.

Her void suit felt nice, almost like a security blanket or a favorite uniform. It was times like this when she remembered most how unusual it was for a dirt farmer to feel nothing but dread in the void.
For her it was like walking outside for a walk in the sun. Nothing to it.

With the main entrance opened, a long dark corridor stretched ahead of you. About 20 m ahead, a bunch of metal girders where partially blocking the passage. 10m to your left and 15 to your right where 2 doors.

The Magos had watched the proceedings in silence, carefully recording and analyzing the xeno they had taken aboard. It was the place of a Rogue Trader to treat with such creatures, though Ignatio knew how important it was to resist any temptation to blend their technology with that of humanity. Theirs was not the path laid out by the Machine God and illuminated by the Omnissiah.

As the group returned to the wrecked ship, the tech priest was back more properly in his element. He scanned and analyzed the hallway before them, and the doors leading out of it, searching out any sign of the traps the Eldar warned of.

Roderick spoke to Torian while continuing to scan their surroundings, Lord Captain, if we know where the macro batteries are, should we dispatch the recovery crews there while we continue to the bridge? We may get important intelligence from the ship's cogitators. I can lead them down if you continue forward. Ignatio, Old Son, where do you prefer to head?

Torian locked his eyes on the apparent trap laid in front of them. He calmly voiced, "An excellent suggestion, cousin. Tell the recovery teams to move slowly and be extremely watchful for traps. Check for traces of chemical variance as they go. There is one such trap in front of us now, there by the door."

One of the looter-lieutenants responds:

We'll start getting prepared sir, but until some of the hatches are open near the cannons we cant get started. We can try to sweep the wreck for traps, but that could take days if not weeks.

Valry communicated next:

Sirs, if you want to try to open some hatches near the macrocannons, there are accesses on the first, second, fourth and fifth decks. The bridge should be on the fifth deck.

Alexium stood by and waited for the time being. They maintained a firm and easy link to everyone's mind, keeping them in immediate contact with one another, should they need it.

Their eagerness to unlock the secrets of this ship was making them impatient. They understood the need to be careful, but they felt as though they have been in their void suit for weeks, if not months, even though that wasn't the case.

To the group at large, their calm, sing-song voice flutters through:

~~~ At this rate an entirely new species will birth and die before we exit this ship. How are we doing up there? ~~~

Lethia floated effortlessly listening to the reports.
"Splitting up would let us cover the decks faster. It also increases the danger to all, intended or otherwise. What are you orders?"

Everyone can hear an annoyed sigh in their minds from Alexium as Lethia mentions splitting up. If she looks over at him, she can see their small arms up in front of them in a gesture that says, "really, bro?"

Though Lethia cannot see Alexium's face due to their void helmet being completely blacked out, they are sure the waif like Astropath is wearing a petulant look on their otherwise angelic, androgynous features.

Privately, Caervan agreed with the Astropath's sentiment regarding the team's pace, however navigating an abandoned  booby-trapped wreck of a vessel is no easy manner at the best of times. In a manner that some (human or otherwise) might call 'uncharacteristically charitable', Caervan stepped forward, ahead of the cautious Torian, and with a deft, graceful motion, triggered the trap.

The lethal adamantine blades swept mere inches from Caervan's delicate face, however all he did was merely raise an eyebrow, out of a mild respect for the ingenuity of whoever crafted such a thing. He then stepped back, and gestured like a butler inviting guests into his master's home.

"We may proceed, if you would like."

The space that opens up beyond is chaos. It might once have been a hall, but the debris effectively turned the space into a labyrinth. Beyond the door, two paths revealed themselves, one left one right.

Map:

Working through the ship's hulk was unusually difficult. While dangers where to be expected, this place had been filled with cunning traps. The structure of the ship alone added tremendous difficulty, its bulkheads thicker and denser than even navy battleships blocking any radio coms. Every second corridor was blocked off by debris, though further inspection showed that they had been placed intentionally, the damage not corresponding to the placed debris. Even the ship's design was odd-a lot more living spaces, repair bays and factoria. All this pointed to a ship made for long-possibly endless-voyage, never to truly see dry dock.


Age had dulled some of their power, but the traps had been cunningly devised to be mistaken for collapses, breaks, anything but an actual trap. After 6 hours of exploring, you finally managed to reach one of the cannon bays, opening it up for your looters.

We'll get things started sirs. These look like some solid melta-cannons.

You continue the exploration of the ship. As you got deeper into its depths, the dangers became greater. At a large arched crossing, Caervan attempted to drop a precarious set of beams Alexium had spotted, but a clumsy attempt led to the loss of their sword, snapped in half by a falling beam. Ignatio attempted to pick through a locked bulkhead door you found without success, forcing a long detour deeper into the bowels of the ship where another trap alexium had sighted struck caervan with full force. Ignatio's skills at demolition ended up being useful though, successfully clearing out a 100-ft corridor and revealing the engine rooms.

Much like the rest of the ship it was heavily reinforced, its complexity indicating it was likely crewed by professionals and not mere slaves. It covered the whole height of the ship, providing numerous entry and exit points to other floors. As you continued through, alexium spotted another trap that struck Caervan with much force in the abdomen; the eldar's luck was very poor. They found a second macrocannon bay which they opened to the outside, but one was trapped and for once Caervan dodged impressively out of the way; alexium's eyes had missed it completely.

As you all continued higher into the decks, looking for a bridge, the detours became more numerous, and Ignatio's lockpicking and demolition was of little help. After a particularly vicious trap that led to an entire corridor collapsing-which was successfully detected and disarmed by the team. In the end, it took nearly 24h of continous work to reach the bridge, who's door was opened with ignatio's mechanicaly enhanced strength.

The bridge was quite unusual-each wall, floor and surface had a text in high gothic scratched into it.

"There where ten of us Battle-Brothers in the crew of the Megalodon Infernis, fulfilling a debt our chapter had to Archmagos Faraday-Gauss. We where forced out of the warp into this barren system, an unknown event in the immaterium having killed our astropaths and navigators. Here we happened upon two fleets, seemingly of human origin, that turned on us uniformly once we where detected. It was a fierce combat, with our own vessel taking much damage, while the brunt was taken by our largest vessel, gravity's betrayer. The frigates 0000051 and the laser-lance where also lost with all hands. Brother Mako, Lupinus, Kero and Tigrus where killed in this struggle, dying with honor in combat.

After five days, we where the victors, our foes retreating to parts unknown. We are lost, without a path or a pathfinder. We survivors board the flagship and attempt to return to imperial space. May the emperor's light guide us in the chaos of the warp."

The rest of the next was a memorial, thousands of names who had presumably died in the fight. On the main console lied four broken astartes helmets, one of mark IV, one of mark V, and two of mark VII make, all damaged beyond repair.

Scrutiny:

"An astartes vessel?" Lethia says.

She then makes the sign of the Aquila and bows her head in reverence.

"How my house years for contracts with the angels of the emperor. I wonder what happened to the vessel they took?" she muses.

"Torian, would it be wise to take from the vessel? We are well within salvage rights, but some of the astartes chapters would consider it insult if we take from their own vessels."

"Anything we take would be in the name of returning it to the fight against the Emperor's enemies. The Emperor's Angels would see the honor in that."

While Alexium believed what they were saying to be true, they also would not turn down a chance to ransack this ship. Better that than leave it to pirates or worse.

"We are the bearers of this legacy now. It is our duty to carry on the names of the fallen - at the very least."

+++

OOC: Making use of Total Recall Talent here to burn all of this into memory for future reference.

Roderick almost quivered at the mention of Meltacannons by the Looter Sergeant. Their power would make the Mundus a force to be reckoned with out here. Good work Bruce. See that they're well secured and up and running as soon as possible. We'll continue to the bridge and see what else we can learn from this place.

As they broke into the bridge, he took it all in with a professional eye, admiring the layout. No this is a steed. I can only imagine what the pull of the reins must have been like. He walked over to read through the script on the wall and looked to Lethia as she spoke up. Are you able to find their wake in the warp or track where they went? If they are lost, and we find them, they would be mighty allies to have on our journey. They are also linked to Faraday-Gauss. They would have information we could use as well.

Walking over to the command throne he looked to see if there was any residual power that would allow them to access the ship's logs. Perhaps there was information on the "flagship" mentioned on the wall. Ignatio, do you think you could fire up any of the systems?

As Ignatio examined the inscriptions, preparing a document for addition to the librarium, he noticed that some of the apparent imperfections were being recognized as repeating characters by his cranial cogitator.

"It is unlikely that any data has survived, my lord, however the mention of the Archmagos Faraday-Gauss necessitates a thorough search for anything that might cure our ignorance on the matter. For instance, this..." he taps a floor tile "almost certainly hides a hidden compartment."

The magos knelt to better investigate the floor, and determine how it might best be opened.

Alexium continued to study the writing on the wall, floating up to sections, turning upside down and sideways to get differnet vantage points. Their voidborn upbringing was on full display as they maneuvered deftly between positions.

~~~ There is a pattern here. A secret code or message... I can see repetitions and indications of intent, but I am unable to make any meaning of it for now. As for the ship itself, an enormous Warp disturbance threw them off course, likely killing their astropathic choir and navigators in the process. Thousands of years ago, an event called "The Howling" resulted in the deaths of billions of psykers and disrupted huge swathes of the Imperium. Could this be a direct result of that? I wonder. ~~~

Much like the variety of traps, the secret trapdoor was made to be nearly indistinguishable from normal floor, with no visible or touchable breaks. There was however a change in crystalline grain that altered the magnetic field of the floor in far too neat a fashion to be natural. It took a few minutes to rig up a suction-cup rig out of old rubber and an inverted voidsuit pump, but it successfully pulled out the metallic "plug" that was the trap-door. Cold gas rushed out and dispersed into the vacuum-this had been sealed since it was first closed.

Beyond the door was a shaft downward that had been carved out of the decking-large enough for a baseline human to pass through. A crudely built ladder was on the far side of the shaft. This clearly wasnt natural-pipes and wires, likely quite vital at some point, had been cut to create the passage.

As you made your way downward, the intention of this corridor became more obvious-you where passing through areas of the ship that, from the labyrinth, appeared to be completely collapsed or blocked off by debris. Eventually the shaft opened up onto a moderately sized room.

Its smooth surfaces, aseptic white, and surgical tables indicated this was likely part of the infirmary-or more likely the morgue considering the large drawers on the far wall. Its here you detect the first sign of power on the ship-a vaguely humanoid torso sticking out of one of the surgical tables.

Lethia traverses the hidden passages in quiet contemplation.

Was this a hidden passage on an already secure ship? or was this made after the calamity that befell it?

Her mind raced with possibilities that caused the ship lost upon the tides of time. Unfortunately there was no evidence that one possible explanation was better for the other.

Upon entering the white room, she wished to move forward, but was weary of more traps. The condition of the room was also a cause for concern, nevermind the body towards the back.

Similar to Lethia, Alexium waited for the room to be cleared before delving into it themselves. While waiting, a message is sent telepathically to Lethia:

~~~ Lethia, do you know of the Catelexis Heresy, more commonly known as "The Howling"? ~~~

The Magos went about pulling out the trap door with barely a word, his full focus on the task. It was made much easier by the vaccuum on this side of the plug, which nearly flipped out of the hole once the atmosphere inside was released.

Looking down to scan the shaft and ladder that had been built into it, he announced over the vox "This passageway was clearly created in the aftermath of the ship becoming inoperable. I will investigate further," And with a brief moment to test the rungs of the ladder, Ignatio descended.

Arriving at the morgue at the end of the passageway, the Magos spent a long silence examining the area before making his way to the torso.

"This body part yet emits a power signature," he announced. "Dead bodies are sometimes used as traps, so please make some space while I examine it."

Alexium remained back. They knew their worth and role on the team was not in getting blown apart by traps that other people were perfectly suited to get blown apart by.

Torian watched his team perform their duties admirably. Effective delegation is the key to efficiency in command structures. He watched enviously as Caervan was able to just trigger traps and get away mostly unscathed. Nothing could boost his reaction time to that level. He contented himself that the negotiations had gone well and now Caervan's dexterity was a part of the greater Dynasty's available resources. He winced as Caervan took a trap to the stomach - sometimes resources must be spent.

Walking through the engine rooms, Torian found himself taken aback by their majesty. The Adeptus Astartes spare no expense. Upon reaching the bridge, he took a minute to study the helmets left behind. The location of this vessel and the remains of their bretheren were likely to be valuable information, should the Dynasty run across these chapters. It may also assuage any anger at the looting of this corpse-vessel. Throughout the walk through the vessel, Torian continually monitored the looting teams and the establishment of beachheads into the vessel for dismantling and transportation of the macro-batteries back to the Mundus. Those macro-cannons were his.

Torian examined the body using his archeo-goggles, flipping through the different lenses and visual information feeds. Perhaps this energy signal was gene-seed? Such was as valuable as the macro-cannons, to the right bidder. "Magos Ignatio is correct, give this a wide berth. What do your examinations reveal?"

In a brighter light, you could all get a clear view of the torso.

Torso:

It covered in a golden plating, shaped somewhat in the form of a stereotypical human female. It had no legs-in fact, it seemed fully integrated into the surgical slab beneath it. Its arms where mostly empty-the golden shell concealing a vast array of scalpels, needles, and other harder to place tech.

~~~ Dibs ~~~ quipped Alexium into everyone's minds. This was quite a find and the Astropath knew that 1) it was well beyond their current understanding and that 2) Ignatio was about to have whatever the Martian-equivalent of an orgasm was.

To hopefully stop that awkward scene before it began, they sent a message to Igantio: ~~~ Have you ever seen anything like this before? ~~~

Pulling out one of the outer plates to peer inside, the Magos suddenly froze. All attention went to verifying what he saw. Once he determined conclusively what he was looking at, he returned the plate to where it had been.

"This is a medicae-servitor of extremely high quality craftsmanship, likely archeotech in origin. Valuable but not by any means unique. What is of much higher priority is the fact that the servitor's brain has been preserved in a stasis field. It is unknown what knowledge remains in that brain, and I believe care must be taken to maintain the stasis field while moving this servitor to our ship's Medicae bay. It is impossible to ascertain what state the brain is in until the stasis field is deactivated, and it may require immediate treatment to preserve it."

He sent an update to the looter teams, indicating that this servitor was not to be disturbed until he was available to supervise its relocation directly.

"I believe we should continue our exploration of the ship, and afterwards I will return to personally supervise the transfer of this servitor to the Anatem."

Alexium moved forward now, confident that the room wasn't booby trapped and careful to steer clear of the medicae servitor by a comfortable distance. They peered around the area, hoping something obvious would make itself known while deftly moving to and fro. Such was the life of a Void Born.

Space was home.

Torian pinged his comm unit and confirmed the Magos' orders. "An excellent find, Magos Ignatio. I concur - let us move forward and come back to this unit after exploration is complete. Would a contingent from your order be useful to assist in the removal, or would you prefer to keep this matter discreet? Perhaps that young psychopathic surgeon woman could be of use in extracting information from the brain. Alternatively... perhaps it is best she remains unaware of its presence."

As he spoke, Torian shepharded the party forward to continue the exploration.

Roderick approached one of the loot recovery troops, Bruce, make sure you gather those helmets and show them the respect they deserve. They're Astartes relics, holy and dangerous in equal measures. With that he left the trooper and wound his way down through the passage with the rest of the team.

He kept and eye on Torian as they travelled. They were short a bodyguard, so he would act as the defacto. As they approached the medicae servitor and Alexium called it for his own, he sent a thought out into the void, waiting for Alexium to pick it up. a little cold to the touch for your tastes, isn't it Old Son?

~~~ A Mouth is a Mouth ~~~ shot back Alexium.

A mass of wisdom so great was a curious thing in a physical form so small.

Roderick stifled a snort of laughter, ~~~ A hole's a goal? ~~~

Lethia takes 2nd point in the exploration column. Already this foray was turning out to be most beneficial.

She wanted to be at the cusp of any discoveries.

"Torian, I request we search the navigator's quarters when we make it to the command decks. There could be one in stasis."

Hydrako wrote:

Roderick stifled a snort of laughter, ~~~ A hole's a goal? ~~~

Alexium giggled inside their blacked out helmet. ~~~ Ah, you get me, my old friend. Hey, how great would some Astartes buddies be? Could really help us crush those rogue psykers we have that little old blood debt with. ~~~

Sylphilis wrote:

Lethia takes 2nd point in the exploration column. Already this foray was turning out to be most beneficial.

She wanted to be at the cusp of any discoveries.

"Torian, I request we search the navigator's quarters when we make it to the command decks. There could be one in stasis."

Based on the maps of the ship on the bridge, you'd already passed through the navigator's quarters-utterly unrecognizable, filled with fused metal and carbon scoring showing but crude debris.

Lethia had not recognized the navigators quarters they were so badly mangled and twisted.

When brought to her attention, she simply bowed her head in front of the wall of twisted ceramite and plasteel and muttered a benediction from the God-Emperor of mankind.

"We should keep moving on. There is nothing here that our navigators can use."

Torian reacted totally internally, his expression motionless as he spotted the bodybag. "I believe I have identified a bodybag here. Magos, will you perform inspectionary rites?"

Within the wreck little of value was found. No trinkets, no weapons, no goods-the wreck had been emptied thoroughly; and considering the traps inside, it was likely the original owners emptied it.



The navigator chambers where a mess of fused and twisted metal. It had been thoroughly destroyed, likely by a macroshell, and nothing notable remained.

The astropath chambers where a bit more whole, but the walls where plastered with blood. Something horrible had happened here, but beyond its bloodiness little could be determined.

The cogitators and datastacks where similarly fried-and EMP went through them at some point, leaving anything unrecoverable.

The only place of any substance was the Medicae. Most of this deck had survived, though the only direct access was through the makeshift tunnel from the bridge to the morgue. In it, the bodies of the three dead astartes-clearly dead based on the numerous holes through the thorax and head-had been left largely untouched, maybe in the hope their kin might find them while wandering the outer dark. But the deck was whole-and the surgical servitor meant there was a built-in doctor, fully integrated and unremovable. It was an excellent medicae deck, possibly even good or best quality.

So now, you had three shattered helms, and 3 broken astartes bodies-a rare treasure.

So now a choice was in front of you:

1-Focus on the melta-cannons; it will take 1+ weeks to remove, depending on tech-use checks
2-Focus on good-quality medicae deck; it will take 1+ weeks to remove, depending on tech-use checks
3-Try to remove both; it will take 2+ weeks to remove, depending on tech-use checks

You've been making good time; you're only 18 days into your expedition, and you have 3 months before competition appears.

Wendigo Bob wrote:

The astropath chambers where a bit more whole, but the walls where plastered with blood. Something horrible had happened here, but beyond its bloodiness little could be determined.

Lethia absentmindedly picks her way through the debris, havin already come to the conclusion that there were no traps or anything of value.

"Whatever could have happened in here was not good for the chior. Perhaps the Astartes killed them all?"
Astropaths were soul-bound to the emperor, but that didnt keep fearful men from blowing them to bits should they fear warp incursion. If it was the astartes, then they had to have had a good reason.

Alexium said a prayer over the Astropathic Choir chambers. The "child" was not one for overt displays of obeisance to the Emperor, but whatever had happened here had been horrific. They only hoped that the bodies -and more importantly souls- of these Astropaths sat beside the Emperor now.

With that, they stood near their team mates, taking a moment to be thankful for their life and this crew. The galaxy typically held such tragedy, but for whatever reason, it had chosen them to build an empire.

And they would Emperor-fucking-damned do it.

Ignatio made it a priority to secure the broken Astartes helmets and the corpses, the latter in a sealed container with the atmosphere pulled from it, and secured with a simple lock and alarm. It would have to do for now.

With that done, he turned his attentions to the salvage operation ahead. For a project of such magnitude, it was time to bring in the assistance of the Glacean tech-heathen, Evangel.

He assembled a proposal and brought it to her.

Torian oversaw the dismemberment of this void-corpse with ruthless efficiency. There was no way to push this to less than two weeks without risking damage to the bodies, medicae-units, or macrobatteries (a concession Torian was unwilling to make), yet he could do his best to support the efforts of the magii and looter crews with temporary overrides to the command structure and all the backup those units could ask for. He personally saw to the removal of the medicae unit, assisting Magos Ignatio alongside the specialists from the Magii contingent and the Medicae voidsmen.

At one point in a temporary reprieve from the work on the medicae unit, he pulled Ignatio to the side, a note of unmistakeable excitement leaking into his voice. "Magos Ignatio, does this not seem like the ideal surgical device to complete my rites of initiation? We must bring this device back to perfect functionality, as would please the Omnissiah!" His eyes shone with a glimmer of zealotry.

Pyritefoolsgold wrote:

Ignatio made it a priority to secure the broken Astartes helmets and the corpses, the latter in a sealed container with the atmosphere pulled from it, and secured with a simple lock and alarm. It would have to do for now.

With that done, he turned his attentions to the salvage operation ahead. For a project of such magnitude, it was time to bring in the assistance of the Glacean tech-heathen, Evangel.

He assembled a proposal and brought it to her.

Her aestetics had taken a turn towards an odd, frilly style that was rarely seen in the imperium.




Yes, I shall assist you. I must learn more of these vessels. I must spend some time away from the ... flies

She had that usual, disturbing, "dissect you with her eyes" look, but was clearly engaged. As such, you'd heard some about her during your shared travels. Some lower tech-adepts where fascinated by her-despite being clearly of "primitive" stock, her capacity to absorb and interpret information was incredible. A small cloud of tech-adepts-the "flies"- had assembled around her, against her will, constantly pestering her for "insight".

thepooreconomist wrote:

Torian oversaw the dismemberment of this void-corpse with ruthless efficiency. There was no way to push this to less than two weeks without risking damage to the bodies, medicae-units, or macrobatteries (a concession Torian was unwilling to make), yet he could do his best to support the efforts of the magii and looter crews with temporary overrides to the command structure and all the backup those units could ask for. He personally saw to the removal of the medicae unit, assisting Magos Ignatio alongside the specialists from the Magii contingent and the Medicae voidsmen.

At one point in a temporary reprieve from the work on the medicae unit, he pulled Ignatio to the side, a note of unmistakeable excitement leaking into his voice. "Magos Ignatio, does this not seem like the ideal surgical device to complete my rites of initiation? We must bring this device back to perfect functionality, as would please the Omnissiah!" His eyes shone with a glimmer of zealotry.

Evangel, hearing your discussion, came to intervene. She had begun to incorporate mechanicus red into her aesthetic.

You seek augmentation! Yes, the servitor is of high quality, but it is but an assistant to the expertise of the flesh. It is the whole facility will assist. A flawless fusion of flesh and metal. Or do you prefer the technometallic aesthetic?

The Magos took in her new aesthetic in a brief but significant pause, as his cybernetic eyes flickered across her body in a rapid oscillation. Her appearance brought on hormonal responses, which he noted and adjusted for almost automatically. His order did not practice chem-gelding, because they saw unnecessary removal of a functional part as vandalism of the machine god's work, but such impulses were not relevant to the current situation, as he did not currently intend to breed with her.

"What flies are you referring to?" he asked, and then as her gesture made it clear, he added "I see. It is a metaphorical nickname for troublesome tech-adepts. Send me a list, and I will address this issue." It was not at all proper for mere tech-adepts to be learning anything from a tech-heathen, after all. He scanned across the crowd as he said this, just loud enough that he knew they would overhear.

The the Lord Captain caught up with them, and he turned his attention just as Evangel answered him.

"Our Lord Captain seeks initiation into the mysteries of the Adeptus Mechanicus. To that end, he seeks the installation of an electro-graft, such as this one," he says as he demonstrates by showing his pinkie and ejecting the electro-graft port. "For the purposes of communion with the machine spirit."

Pyritefoolsgold wrote:

The Magos took in her new aesthetic in a brief but significant pause, as his cybernetic eyes flickered across her body in a rapid oscillation. Her appearance brought on hormonal responses, which he noted and adjusted for almost automatically. His order did not practice chem-gelding, because they saw unnecessary removal of a functional part as vandalism of the machine god's work, but such impulses were not relevant to the current situation, as he did not currently intend to breed with her.

"What flies are you referring to?" he asked, and then as her gesture made it clear, he added "I see. It is a metaphorical nickname for troublesome tech-adepts. Send me a list, and I will address this issue." It was not at all proper for mere tech-adepts to be learning anything from a tech-heathen, after all. He scanned across the crowd as he said this, just loud enough that he knew they would overhear.

The the Lord Captain caught up with them, and he turned his attention just as Evangel answered him.

"Our Lord Captain seeks initiation into the mysteries of the Adeptus Mechanicus. To that end, he seeks the installation of an electro-graft, such as this one," he says as he demonstrates by showing his pinkie and ejecting the electro-graft port. "For the purposes of communion with the machine spirit."

Oh, I am well aware.

From the back of her neck, a fine mechadendrite appeared, wrapped in a flexible mesh fabric. The exit port was perfectly concealed, the seams invisible when closed.

I already possessed most of the implants. It simply required a few more, many of which I had in my reserves. In addition, completing the examinations allowed me to achieve the rank of Tech-Priest.


This was something of a surprise. While such a minor promotion would normally be far below the regard of the Enginseer Prime, such a rapid promotion of a nominal "tech-heathen" was unheard of. However, trying to revoke this would cause discontent and be seen as interference in other's duties. She turned to Torian.

I will install this for you. I will even ... give something from my personal collection, as a thanks for taking me. It was taken from the long-gone corpse of one of the high-raking ancients.

It was clear she wasnt comfortable with the idea of "giving" something she considered hers. But there was a lot of intensity in her eyes as she stared directly into yours.

Alexium looked on with interest. They had not seen Evangel in some time, and this new offering-of-gifts as it were would surely ruffle Ignatio's tits.

They gently whispered into their Captain's mind, ~~~ Do it ~~~