I released a sigh of relief as the door to my sanctum came into view.
It had been a stressful morning. Far more so than I had expected when Viel called for me, and to be fair, his work was fine. I just needed to delve into another vault. Something I was well versed at by now. It was the following jobs that had been different.
As Viel relied on me more frequently for noosphere stuff, I had gained some recognition, so others within the Collegex had started to ask for assistance. It began small, a favour here and there for less experienced adepts. That was perfect for me.
It gave me exposure and allowed me to build up contacts. This careful and steady building had been shattered when Xaldris and Theta-61 had started to make use of my experience.
Obviously, as Viel's right and left hands, they had access to far more information. I wasn’t 100% sure, but maybe 95% that they knew my background, even if it was never mentioned. What they did know was what I did for Viel and how good I was.
So they had started to ask for help as well.
Again, not a problem per se. Helping important members of the Collegex was never a bad thing. I had already received some help when I needed it from them. Xaldris had dealt with an adept who was getting in my way and Theta had given me a large number of supplies I'd needed.
Particularly some hard-to-acquire components and materials.
The first part was fine.
I'd had to break into a rival of Xaldris' sanctum and download all the data he had on a specific experiment he was working on. He was nearing the end of a specific experiment, something Xaldris had been working on as well. One he would finish and publish before Xaldris could do so, making his work obsolete and his time wasted.
So as he had asked, I stole all his data and then corrupted his notes as I left. This should set him back years, and made it very hard for him to recover—if he ever could.
As was my normal practice, I saved a copy for myself and then passed it over to Xaldris once I was done.
Another successful job complete.
The second was trickier, not hard; it was actually easier. But more delicate. I'd again had to break into a rival's sanctum, but this time it was a magi within our Collegex. That one, I had made sure to receive the orders in writing, so to speak.
I was not going to be used as a scapegoat, even if it was only to copy the data and not sabotage it.
The job went smoothly and I was in and out with her none the wiser, but I wanted none of it to blow back onto me.
The search engine I had started to design when I came back from the expedition a year ago, had been a boon for this. Far greater than I could have ever predicted, so much so, I had removed it completely from my Aleric identity and transferred it completely to my secret identity.
I’d endlessly iterated on it. Refining its capabilities until I ended up with something completely different to what I had envisioned in the first place. But I was thankful I had. It still had the search functionality, very efficiently, I might add, it just had so much more to it now.
This had come at a cost of size. As the programme grew more complex, so too had the hardware it had needed. It was now loaded onto a specially built cogitator set in one of my workshops. Around it, several servitors and servo skulls were linked to it, to help with the processes and to add some needed protection.
Using the readily available data, my programme, although virus might be a better word for it, had spread out across the noosphere. Infecting machines, vaults, data caches—the works. It didn’t do anything, and I had designed it so that if an adept had picked up on it, it would look like a machine spirit doings it task, so would be left alone.
Superstition and tradition helped me there.
Make the programme look like it came from an old machine spirit and it was left completely alone. Providing of course, it wasn’t threatening, and it wasn’t.
It merely listened.
This had allowed it to learn the verification protocols and codes for more secure sections of the noosphere. Like important forge temples and adepts' sanctums. This had started a chain reaction, allowing me to access more and more, slowly infecting a significant portion of the forge world.
Once it had access, it would create a backdoor that I could then use.
Some sanctums were harder and more secure than others… unsurprisingly. The Fabricator Lords and Archmages' sanctums were impossible for me to crack at this stage, but I would. It was just a matter of time. If needed, I could help to get in manually.
This carried greater risks but was quicker and more guaranteed than just waiting and hoping.
This access had given me a far greater picture of the forge world. Having seen how effective the gang-run one was, inspired me to create a sort of information broker. I hadn't pulled the trigger, but was slowly setting it up.
More importantly, it had gained me a significant portion more on the Moirae Schism and who was a part of it. I'd even made contact with a few of them using my separated identity. Nothing major, just putting out some feelers.
Nothing had come of it yet, but I knew an adept would be reaching out soon.
One thing I was surprised by was how many there were. A far larger number than I think anyone expected. That wasn’t a major problem in and of itself; it was the other group that was.
I had noticed them a few weeks ago. A group within the group, and this one was far more careful and malicious.
So much so, I hadn't been able to track any of them to their original identity and the one time I had come close—I had lost a BH to the attack.
Since then, I had pulled back, letting them keep their space. I made sure it looked like I had died to cover my tracks.
I stepped in, the door shutting behind me with Snuffles trotting on ahead.
Kellen stood in the main room, cycling through the katas I had shown him.
As promised, I had started teaching them self-defence. Hand-to-hand, melee weapons and range weapons. Shooting was probably obsolete, as in time they would have targeting software to do all that for them. But I wanted them to have at least a basic understanding of it and some muscle memory, just in case.
Same with the hand-to-hand.
Not really needed, but still might save their life, so was worth it.
This meant a lot of the time was spent on melee weapons. I'd started with the basics, a dagger, a short sword about the length of their arm, another from the floor to their armpit and finally a much longer one that was the same hight they were.
They were obviously all still tiny, and the short sword was closer to a dagger for me, but it was the perfect proportions for them. So as I taught them the movements, they would learn a feel for it. Or at least that was the hope.
As they grew, I would scale up the weapons until they were full-sized.
Weirdly, I had also been able to teach them axe work through my blades skill. Which didn’t make much sense at first, but I suppose it was a blade, even if I didn’t think of it that way. Either way I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
They'd both dived into the training with glee.
Kellen, with his slow and systematic approach, refining each movement one at a time until he had mastered it and Lysa with her unbridled enthusiasm.
As keen as she was, it was pretty clear she had little talent for it. Maybe she would grow out of her uncoordinated stage, but at eight, I found that unlikely. I would at least get her to competent even if she would never be truly skilled at it.
Kellen on the other hand, seemed to be born for it. Picking it up as fast as I could teach him.
I walked past Kellen, exchanging the briefest of nods as I did and moved into the shared workshop to find Lysa standing on a stool to look at the workbench. Two years on, and she still hadn't grown much. They were both significantly healthier, having filled out and no longer looking gaunt or tiered.
Even with the extra food, I would be surprised if she reached five feet. Not counting any augmetics she might want to add later.
Something I had been looking into.
She was humming cheerfully to herself as she put together another BH-MS. Two BH-ATs hovered around her, helping her put it together. Rather than use mine, she had dedicated ones for herself now, having designed and built them herself.
They were very much copies, but that was fine; she was still learning.
I paused, looking over her shoulder. Watching her work and the smooth skill with which she manipulated everything filled me with pride. While she might not be particularly coordinated with her feet, her hands and any bots she controlled were another matter.
I was continuously impressed. Like Kellen with combat, she picked up technological skills easily, breezing past what many adepts would struggle with.
She was only picking up pace as she learned more and more of the reasons why things worked the way they did.
I had decided I would teach them as much as possible. I was still careful, but it was a waste not to. Adepts were supposed to know some already, not enough to infer, but obvious things were learned. Like gravity, velocities and so on.
But she was well past that and moving into deeper waters.
Not that Kellen was that far behind. His hard work had paid off, allowing him to keep pace with her, no matter what he might think.
"How you getting on?" I asked, making sure to wait for her to finish soldering in the chip.
She gasped and spun. "Aleric!" Jumping, she landed in my arms, hugging me.
Smiling, I spun her around a few times before setting her back on the stool.
Once she had her feet under her, she pointed at the mostly finished servo skull. "I finished one more and I'm nearly done with the last one." She said proudly.
"Well done." I said, ruffling her hair.
Scowling, she flapped my hand away and them finger combed her hair flattish once more.
Smirking, I waved her to carry on, pulling up a stool to sit and watch. I noted a few things for her to improve on as she went and made a note to show her a few other techniques she should learn. But overall, there was nothing wrong with the final skull.
When it hummed to life, I sent it through the normal diagnostic processes, but was confident it would find nothing.
It was very similar to the ones I made for the expedition; there were some optimisations and changes, but by and large, they were the same model. The BH bobbed to one corner, its dozen auspex orbs lifting to latch onto it.
With that done, that was the last of the servo skulls I would make for a while. Solvexa was on the death world, whipping her Skitarii into shape. I knew she had lost a few, but otherwise was making good progress with them, or at least she seemed happy with them when we communicated.
I had been glad when I wasn’t invited. Well, a mixture of both. I did miss the camaraderie from the gang, even if I had no interest in the danger that came with it. For all the grimness, as a Tech priest and the connections I was making, I felt fairly safe and secure in my position.
While we didn’t have the instant communication of the noosphere, there were still strong communication relays across the system, so we had relatively frequent contact. This was supplemented by any void couriers that were trapped within the sector when the warp storm rolled in, cutting us off from the greater Imperium.
According to reports, it wasn’t the worst one in recent memory. It was still okay to travel via the warp within the sector, like we were in the eye of the storm. But travelling outside it was next to impossible.
---
Later that day I moved to my private workshop.
Lysa and Kellen were getting on with their worksheets for the day, both customised to them.
On the workbench and littering the room, were bionics. It was well past the time I should have some of my own. I had used others' designs and patterns long enough, and now was the perfect time. Firstly, because I now had access to Skitarii and other high-level bionics. So I had spent my time researching designs or breaking apart ones I could get my hands on.
This was made easier by actually working on them, so I gained that knowledge naturally and didn’t have to use any of my resources to do it.
Skitarii had bionics ranging from the worst in the forge to the best, so I had seen it all. They also had many private patterns that other adepts had made.
Secondly, I now had enough access and permissions that I should be able to create bionics that were actually good. I also had enough political power to be more creative.
The spreading of my software had been remarkably helpful for this. I had dozens of favours owed and not to minor adepts either; I was talking about Forge Masters. Some of the most powerful magi in the world. I wasn’t untouchable, but I wasn’t far off.
It would take a major fuck up on my part.
Another reason was the kids. They needed bionics; their lack of them was actually becoming a problem. Nothing major, but they and I were being judged.
I still didn’t want to do anything major on them; I wanted them to mostly finish growing first. I had already had to change out Kellen's leg several times as he grew. I could have left it, but first, it would have started to hurt him, and more importantly, it would have affected his movement.
So they got changed out.
It was for this reason that I focused on internal augments. That and I could go hog wild on them, making them far more advanced than I would otherwise be able to. Bionics were a grey area, with adepts having far more liberty to be creative in making them.
It was actually partly a test to see how you could use existing blueprints and create your own, and with all I had seen, I was confident I could make bionics at the top of what the forge could produce—what with my access to foundational knowledge, so I knew why things needed to be the way they were, to the STC blueprints I had. Which allowed me to make the best component for the job rather than slotting in something that didn’t quite fit.
And all this combined with what I learned from the incredibly advanced bionics I grabbed all those years ago, and the Reverse Engineering fragment I knew I could produce some truly special stuff.
More on the advanced bionics, I had long ago learned everything I could from them. I might be able to learn more now that I have access to more knowledge, but I didn’t feel it was that important.
I had learned enough that a blueprint of them appeared within the STC Blueprint fragment, partly why I left them hidden in the gang. It didn’t have all the information on how to make it, so it was out of reach for now, but it gave me some very good ideas on what to work towards and some basic templates that worked.
I would still get to the external bionics of course, but that would come a bit further down the road.
The bionics were all at various stages of construction, with some taken apart to see what made them tick. All except for a group carefully locked away in a vault in the corner.
I had started with the MIU. It was well past the time that it got a major overhaul. Mine was the one I had created in the hive all those years ago. Slightly upgraded, but still the same at its core. So I had started from scratch, creating a significantly more advanced version.
I made sure it wasn’t too large and invasive. I didn’t want to do any truly major work on my brain, like The Rite of Pure Thought, which replaced the creative half of the brain with hardware. Or the less extreme version of the Skitarii, which could limit their emotions.
That process still required a large portion of the brain to be cut away.
So with the STC blueprints, like a transistor that was smaller than a picometer, I'd fabricated an MIU small enough to slot into the skull without affecting the brain. Or at least, without having to cut parts of it away, it of course still affected the brain, but all my biological knowledge pointed to this not being a negative thing.
The MIU I'd ended up with was sleek as hell, if I did say so myself. Heads and shoulders above what most anyone else had. Unless they had access to relics.
It could link to technology wirelessly from up to a kilometre away. An absurd distance, as well as providing me a significant amount of power to help me when I was connected to machines. With the safety measures I had in place, I should be able to connect to even the most powerful machine with no difficulty or risk.
I could also control my servitors from a safe distance, even when we weren't connected to the noosphere. Speaking of the noosphere, there was the noosphere connection.
I overhaled that as well. I kept it the same size, just made the connector stronger so it could connect from further away. It also produced its own small noosphere, like the Skitarii had, so if we moved out of range, I would still be able to instantly communicate with nearby allies.
The final work I had done for it was stack firewalls and fail-safes into it. It should be next to impossible to hack into or use the connection to hurt the individuals connected to it, in this came my allies and I. I combined that with a vox and macrobead combination to have a relatively short range but incredibly secure vox connection.
With all of that, I should be able to always be in contact, unless we were on another planet and I was looking into ways to fix that problem too. Although that would not be in the short term, or even the medium term, for that matter.
The last set of augments I made for the mind were a combination of bionics that I'd changed and enhanced. Firstly, so they could all fit and not stick uglily out of the skull, as well as enhance them the best I could. There was the memorance unit and calculous logi implant to enhance the mind further, using something very similar to the electoo tattoos.
It wove a crystal lattice through the brain and chips. The crystals were actually grown using the same process as the las focussing crystals.
With them, I would have several exabytes of internal storage and processing power rivalling quantum computers. Able to make massive amounts of calculations happen in fractions of a second. Furthermore, it would allow me to have parallel thoughts, so I could work on multiple problems simultaneously.
A small but cool addition was the Locator matrix, which was basically an inbuilt multicompass so I could always tell where I was going. The final additions were a pain ward, which pretty much did what it said on the tin and some augur implants.
Moving from the mind, I had moved to the torso. I didn’t touch blood, not at this stage, even though I had some interesting ideas for it. I knew a fluid that acted like blood, better in every way. I just needed a way to produce it within the body.
It was possible, I just didn’t have the STC know-how, so it was on my list to research a solution.
Same with the heart. I left it alone for now, although you can bet I was going to improve it. This was more important for myself, what with my heart already fully grown. I wouldn’t mess with the kids until they were fully developed or close enough anyway.
The cardiac systems the Mechanicus already had were pretty close to what I needed, but I wanted to hold off in the hopes I could find a solution to my super blood. If I couldn’t, I would go with a slightly tweaked version of it.
The first thing I actually worked on here was the lungs. I already had a set and the kids had a purifier unit, which did a similar job, just much worse.
I made entirely new versions. I did encounter some setbacks; I didn’t have the labs to create some of the biological matter I needed to make them. I had the perfect biological membrane that perfectly scrubbed the air, pulling out 100% of the oxygen. That, in combination with miniaturised fibre scrubbers and artificial pumps, would allow me to breathe in even the most polluted environments, even irradiated ones.
I'd also designed a separate system that fed from an internal one-litre pressurised oxygen tank for when there was no air at all. The lungs would detect the lack of oxygen and switch over to a separate supply, with enough oxygen to last up to 5 days.
The kids wouldn’t get the buffer at first, their bodies not quite large enough for the tank, but when they grew, I would add it. The perfect filtering would be enough for now.
The next major systems I went for were the liver, kidneys and digestive tract, as well as anything that went with that, like the pancreas or stomach.
What I ended up with was a fraction of the size the organs used to take up, and able to pull out all the nutrients from food. It could also filter out all toxins and poisons within the body, far better than the organic liver or kidneys could do before.
This opened up quite a lot of extra space in the chest, which I filled with biological power cells and a full fusion generator. This arc generator was the best I could make. No ifs or buts, if someone saw it, I was totally fucked, so why not go all out?
It would last for centuries before I needed to refuel it and could produce more power than I would ever need. That, combined with shielding, meant it was undetectable by any auspex I had to hand. It was so good in fact, that I went through the trouble of making one for Snuffles as well.
That then allowed me lots of headroom to improve him. I hadn't decided with what quite yet, but I would be improving my most faithful companion. The more problematic thing for him was his biology, the little that remained.
It was old. It wasn’t failing, not yet, but I needed to look into rejuvenation treatments soon.
As part of this power upgrade, I also upgraded the nerve system. This increased my reaction times many times over, as well as allowed the transmission of more data. I had designed it so the power could be run through the same nerves, allowing it to be routed all around the body. This first allowed it to power my augments; no longer would I need to charge separate batteries.
I could also attach other technology and recharge it with my generator, which could be incredibly valuable.
The final addition for the internals was two-fold. First was subdermal armour. That I just used what was already available. I used a better material to create them, but otherwise left it as it was. Again, this was only for me; the kids were still growing and the armour wouldn’t be able to grow with them. My biological knowledge painted a rather gruesome picture of tearing skin if I did.
What we all got was a reinforced skeleton. I created a bone lattice from a heavier alloy than I would normally use, but it was too impressive not to. When the process was done, our bones just wouldn’t break. The energy needed to overcome the material would be enough to powder the calcium in our bones and liquefy our organs.
On most bones, it was spread to less than a nanometre on extremity bones like arms and legs, going up to a millimetre on the ribcage, skull and spine.
I also upgraded my one external augment. My cybereyes.
I copied an existing template to make them look quite human, and then stuffed them to the gills with new tech.
I broadened the range they could see to the full wavelength spectrum, right up to X-rays and down to gamma rays. There was anti-flash, incredible zooms, better than most microscopes and night vision capabilities.
It could even see gravitational waves and warp energy, although the warp energy was a work in progress. This didn’t let me see the warp, just its effects. So I would be able to see warp saturated areas and that sort of thing. I did want to make one that would be able to look into the warp, but I needed a lot more research before I was willing to slap them on me.
I had no interest in opening myself to chaos.
With this massive amount of information, I needed a lot of processing power to translate it into something my mind could actually understand and use, which luckily I now had. The eyes, combined with augur implants across my body, made my sensors on par with Snuffles.
One of these implants were for my ears and nose. While I couldn't smell as well as Snuffles, I was still better than a bloodhound, and my hearing was fantastic. The main reason for the ears were so loud and sudden noises wouldn’t stun me and less so for the enhanced senses. Although I wouldn’t say no.
Some of what I'd made had already been implemented, like my new software. Firstly, to make use of this new influx of information, I used techniques and ideas Solvexa had given me access to. Some of which were hers, and others were just examples of others she had come across. All of which, while not pretty, were most definitely effective and better than what I had.
Particularly at picking up and highlighting threats.
This new software was also in the BH-MS, hopefully enhancing their capabilities.
The final piece of the puzzle was adding some more mechadendrites. I obviously still had the old one, even if it didn’t see as much use now I had my BH's. So I replaced that and added two more, now that I had the extra processing power so I could.
Two mechadendrites were connected to my spine, one just below the neck, the other from the middle of my back. A final one was connected into the back of my right shoulder.
I'd gone with a design I had rarely seen and one I'd actually found when scouring an enemy's sanctum. Apparently, she had gained it for her master, an archmagos.
It was incredible: flexible, but it had metal scales running the length of it, making it far hardier than other designs I had seen, without losing any of the functionality or flexibility. It was still narrow enough to get into tight places thanks to using trimmed-down components from my STCs, like motors, actuators and so on.
The replacement was just better made than the previous one, but filled the same purpose. So it had a bunch of different multitools fitted copied from my transductor. The one from my lower back filled a similar role but was more focused on connecting to technology that didn’t have an MIU or was hostile. So it had sufficient air gaps and safeties in place.
Thanks to the enhanced motors, the mechadendrites were incredibly strong. Because of this, I changed how they connected to my spine, doubly reinforcing the area, so the bone reinforcements were almost a centimetre thick in places.
The final one, the one on my right shoulder, was different. It ended in a three-clawed grabber, and from the centre of this were two nozzles. First was a cutter and welder. It could be able to be used offensively, cutting through metal armour and bones with equal ease, but could still be used for construction thanks to the precise nature of the cuts and the secondary capability of bonding materials together.
The other was a narrow fibre cable that ran the length of the arm to its base, where a powerful las bolt could be generated. Thanks to the power I could rapidly fire power shots that neared some las cannons. This was of course, thanks to the focusing crystal and my advanced knowledge.
So all in all, a massive upgrade.
But it cost just as much, far more than I could acquire at once. I would probably be building them for the next few years.
That time gave the kids a chance to grow a bit more, so I could slot more of the augments into them as well.
---Imperium: Hive Cities Scavenger (Tier 2) - IIWarrior (Tier 3) - VIImperium: Hive Cities Danger (Tier 2) - IIIHuman: Hand to hand (Tier 2) - IIITerra Federation: Technician (Tier 3) - XTerra Federation: Software (Tier 3) - VSharpshooter (Tier 3) - VISelf (Tier 3) - XIReverse Engineering (Tier 2) - IImperium: Canine Handling (Tier 2) - IVAkashic Throne (Tier 1) - IBlade Mastery (Tier 3) - VIIPhysics (Tier 1) - 11Glyphcraft (Tier 2) - IIBlueprints (Tier 3) - IIIActing (Tier 1) - IMathematics (Tier 1) - XIBiology (Tier 1) - XTeaching (Tier 2) - IIMachine Spirit (Tier 1) - IChemistry (Incomplete) - VII