[M36.245.08]
The regenerative machine gently hummed away. Its three transparent tanks, two of which were occupied, bubbled gently. A complicated mass of cables, pipes and wires ran through the centre linking all the capsules together.
The tanks were filled with the special blend of pink gelatine like fluids. The occupants were already unconscious, and had been before they were loaded, with dozens of cables and pipes snaking through the gel into them.
Now that they were in, it would take several days for the treatment and couldn’t really be stopped. Well it could… but it was best not to, with some rather horrifying consequences if you did.
I was looking forward to their reactions when they stepped out. The difference would be like chalk and cheese. As ever, I'd over-engineered the process, taking it further than I originally planned. I already had the plans from the hive world and the ones I'd snagged from Stratix.
Combining the two and I would have already had one of the best machines in the Imperium. But I wasn’t content with that, not when I could do better. With the help of my knowledge fragments, I meshed them together as well as adding several additional steps to the process.
I could do this because of the way this particular machine de-aged an individual. Some of the other methods were, I didn’t want to say barbaric, so let's just say inefficient.
This one worked with the body rather than forcing it.
The first stage fixed and healed any outstanding injuries it found. Bones not properly set were broken and straightened—mutations were chemically neutered and washed away. Even scars were removed if they wanted them to be. I would add that this was normal mutations; I had no idea if it worked on Immaterium mutations. But everything I knew about the process pointed to no.
When this was done it moved onto the second stage, which de-aged them.
Thirty for Selina and twenty-six for Peggi, which was what they had asked for. At least that was for the outside; internally, they would both be twenty-three again. It did this by fixing the degeneration cells naturally went through. Then it sped up the normal body's process of recycling cells.
Instead of ten years to replace the bones in the body, it was 36 hours; for shin, instead of days it was measured in hours and so on. I would actually be able to see the age fall away from them in real time if I so chose. I wouldn’t, mostly because they were both naked and it was like looking at an aunt or sister.
Weird and uncomfortable.
This had the added advantage that it helped heal any deeper damage done to the body, like pollution in the lungs or cancerous cells that the first stage might have missed.
I could have stopped there, and if I ever gave it to others, that would be where it stopped. It was already a miraculous treatment. Although its rigorousness made it slow. If you were injured enough, you might be in there for weeks, if not months.
Here, stage three would kick in and enhance what was already there. It wouldn’t be quite super soldier territory and certainly nowhere near a space marine, at least not yet, but it was a significant improvement over baseline humans, or any baseline animal for that matter.
Even without further treatments, their natural lifespan would measure in centuries. I estimated they could live up to a 1000 if someone was careful and had good genes. That could easily be increased if they went through more treatments. While the enhancements to the body were impressive: stronger, hardier, more resistant to poison and so on. It was the mind that saw the most improvements.
Not so much as intelligence, but faster reflexes, better pattern recognition, memory, all that good stuff. Even that wasn’t the most important part in my opinion, that went to the subtle improvements to the individual's tolerances. Humans were not made to live for thousands of years and the mind didn’t cope well with it.
That would now be changed.
I, Kellen, Lysa and several of our trusted subordinates had already gone through the process. Snuffles too of course. He was the entire reason I went through it in the first place. I'd made myself look thirtyish again, as it just felt the most natural and a good compromise.
My twenties felt a bit too young.
Kellen and Lysa obviously didn’t reduce their age and would still grow as normal until they were twenty and then slow down to a crawl. Kellen had pushed his height to 6,3, which was kind of what I expected, but Lysa surprised me.
She kept her height the same.
If anything, she went the other direction and stopped herself from growing any taller. Apparently she liked being fun size, which painted an image I would very much like to scrub from my mind.
The machine gave me a beep.
++Operation Status++
++Patient 1: Active, Green, Optimal - Time 59.59.17++
++Patient 2: Active, Green, Optimal - Time: 43.19.09++
With that confirmed, I left deep in thought. Lanto had wanted to beep his bionics even though the treatment would heal the missing body parts. But he'd grown attached to them.
So I need to make some that matched his previous ones in utility. It went without saying that their capability would far exceed his old ones.
I reached another medical lab, Katra strapped in the centre. I felt another flash of white-hot rage, but pushed it aside. The governor would die in good time.
She was stable at least.
She had been worse off than Lysa had been; without the Praevestora armour, she would no doubt be dead.
Carefully positioning myself so she could see me, but not wake up with me right in her face, I gave the command. The servo skulls flooded her with chemicals, waking her from her coma. She would be paralysed from the neck down, partly from her injuries, but I had also made sure to block neurons from moving up her spine.
I couldn’t have her thrashing around.
Her eyes snapped open gasping, and she tried to shake the mask off her face.
"It's okay, Katra. It's okay. You're safe. It's me." I said, trying to calm her down.
It took a few minutes, but her breathing eventually deepened and steadied. "Aleric?" It came out robotic as it came from the vox grill on her face. Speaking would be somewhat hard without lungs.
"Yes." I said, a grin lighting up my face.
"What happened?"
"You're safe in hospital, we are just getting you fixed up. You would need to ask Lanto, but that can come later when you are up and about again." I said, moving closer. I was careful not to move the thin sheet covering her body. Not to protect her modesty, there wasn’t enough of her body left for that.
I was impressed she was even alive. The xeno power armour was a large contributor to that. Not just taking the brunt of the damage, but its built-in medical systems had stabilised her.
"Why am I… Why… Why don’t you tell me what I already know. I'm fucked, I felt my injuries."
I nodded slowly and calmly, a small smile on my lips. "You would have been. But not with me here. I didn’t wake you as a consolation prize. I have a few questions I need answered." I paused to make sure she was happy and when she nodded, continued. "You are about to go into surgery. Do you want to be fully restored or use bionics instead?"
"Bionics." She said instantly. "I need to be stronger, so bionics."
I thought about pushing back but decided now wasn't the time, so just nodded and got down what she wanted. Not just her preferences, but nice to have things as well. What did and didn’t she like about her old ones? What styles did she like? That sort of thing.
I would be making the best I could.
Once I had most of what I needed, I put her back under and started the slow process of connecting her up to the gurney that went into the regen machine. Even if she wanted bionics, I still wanted to put her through the machine. Not just for the enhancements for her mind, but to stabilise and make sure there were no underlying or hidden dangers I might have missed.
A few hours later, when I was sure the process was proceeding with no issues, I left. I still had a lot to get on with.
As I strolled from the room, I couldn’t help but turn to those that didn't make it. Most I didn’t give a shit about to be honest. In fact, when I heard Catiel and Gea were dead I couldn’t help but smile. But Jeraks was a blow. I felt responsible for him. I had spent years training him after all.
He had grown on me…
I pushed the thoughts away. I would remember him later. For now, I wanted to get cracking with her bionics but that would need to wait.
When I officially moved to the hive, I was assigned a sanctum befitting my status as a Magos. It was okay, it had enough room for everything I needed. I would eventually need to expand, but I already had plans for that involving the underhive.
Time would tell if that panned out.
Regardless, I sat and dived into the noosphere.
The first thing I noticed was how much smaller it was. Unlike the sprawling noosphere of the forge world which covered the entire planet, this one only covered the hive. I did have connections to the others in the cluster, but they weren't strong ones.
It was also old. Ancient even. It might actually be older than Stratix or at least parts of it were. So there were hidden depths, not to mention the ruin, which it was connected to. Even if the ruins were a step apart from it, with heavy partitions dividing it.
I spent thirty minutes exploring, just to get a feel for my new home before I started planning. I hadn't explored it when I was here before. I obviously had access to it, but never had the confidence to truly swim the data oceans.
So I had two major goals for the short term, and a third linked to the others for the longer term.
First, I needed control over the Mechanicus of the hive world. What form this control would take, I didn’t know. I didn’t need complete control over them, certainly not the day-to-day decisions. I didn’t care what they did most of the time as long as I had overall control and direction. Like final sign off, planning, that sort of thing.
But I also didn’t want to manage the hives. So I would need to find reliable priests I could semi-trust to run it all.
I hoped to be able to train Court members to do the jobs, bringing them into the fold and help them rise up the ranks. After all, I didn’t know how long I would be staying, but I knew it wouldn’t be forever. That much I was sure of. I at least needed to go back to Stratix so I could pick up all the STCs it had.
In hindsight, I should have done that before we left, but I forgot. Hindsight twenty-twenty and all that. Then I wanted to explore other forge worlds. Not just to collect their STCs, but to see what they were like.
Would Mars live up to the hype? What about Terra?
All places I wanted to see.
There was also a plan starting to form about trading some STCs to make sure they wouldn’t classify me as a heretic. With that, especially Mars, it would give me a great deal of freedom. I could even trade several STCs for a ship.
I was sure if I traded something like the Gloriana class battleship, a 20-30 kilometre behemoth, I would get a great deal of leeway. Ships that they had never been able to construct.
If I gave them that ability…
I would need to plan it out, but the idea was percolating.
Also would visiting those places get me milestones? There was bound to be some events I could safely involve myself in to gain access to some. Which was all important what with my steady supply coming to an end.
Secondly, I needed to deal with the Governor. I didn’t expect dealing with him would be a problem; it was what came after that would be trickier. Dealing with all the other political entities, like the Ecclesiarchy or the Administratum.
Not to mention the other Noble Houses.
So I couldn’t just assassinate him, as much as I wanted to and I forced my rage to cool, taking comfort in the knowledge he would soon die.
Finally, I wanted the gang to somewhat stand on their own feet, or at least have some of their own production capacity. So that meant training techies. This fed into another want of mine. Creating standardised equipment for my forces.
From small arms to armour and everything in between.
The sooner I dealt with all that, or at least started them, the sooner I could get on with what I actually wanted to—tinkering. I had Drukhari technology to investigate!
With a general idea of where everything was within the noosphere I set to work, consolidating much of the critical infrastructure under my control. Creating back doors into them and giving me the highest levels of access.
The obvious ones were power generation. Hive Pomaria and Virelia both made extensive use of geothermal generation to power the hives. Hive Noxium on the other hand, had several powerful fusion generators and a source deep within the hive. That source happened to be the most powerful and was locked deep into the noosphere within the partitioned sections of the ruins.
That one I left for now, but made sure the others were under my control.
I did the same for the other critical systems, and almost eight hours later I was done.
A good first step.
Next—to create a foundation for the position I envisioned. Each hive city was a power onto its own, only answering to the forge world and Mars. They technically had a council for planetary decisions, but that was mostly ignored or in constant deadlock.
I wanted to sit between them and the forge world.
Signing of resources, projects, grants and so on. Having the power I needed to make sure they didn’t get in my way, but also not creating too much chaos or worse—take up too much of my time. I would be positioning this for more efficient cooperation between hives. They didn’t worry about this now as they were all disconnected.
But I planned to change that and expand the noosphere to cover the planet. It would just be too helpful for my control, not to mention the gangs.
I already had several ideas on how to go about it.
Now the high-level adepts. There were only a few Archmagos across the entire planet, and most of them were neck deep in research. As long as they carried on getting their resources, they wouldn’t care. So that left those in positions of power.
Arguably the more important ones to get on side.
The Prime Dominus of each hive, the Forge Masters, Adeptus Munitorum (administrators), and confusingly, Forgemaster, who were the de facto leaders of all Mechanicus members of their hive. Although I had seen it called Magos Intendent which was what I would be using. Far too confusing otherwise.
But then that was par the course for the Cult Mechanicus.
Once I had narrowed down the who's who for power, then it was a matter of learning more about them. What were they lacking? What could I provide to get them on side? The Forge Masters were easy; I already had a programme for them.
So they were sorted.
The Dominus should be easy as well. I had the crystal STC, which I could use. I'm sure they would want access to the new and latest weapons for their legions.
The others were less clear, and I worked through them on a case-by-case basis. I also marked if I thought I would be able to work with them long term. If I couldn’t, I would need to remove them. Either permanently or transfer them off-world.
I did pause to make the bionics I needed for Lanto. Katra would be in the tank for a few weeks to make sure she was fully healed, so I could hold off on hers.
I spent days compiling everything I needed. Thankfully I had Selina and Peggi to help me.
They were so much better at this than me. Something Lysa picked up on rapidly and started learning under them. There couldn’t be better people to learn how to manage an organisation than them. So she was involved as well. Which I should have done from the start to be fair.
Peggi and Selina obviously didn’t have access, something I was contemplating changing.
For now that would be dangerous; an unprotected mind would not do well. But that would be for much later. As a temporary measure, I just passed the data onto a cogitator they could use.
It was a slow, laborious process and that was only for our hive. We needed to do it again for the other hives in the cluster, so I could do them in one fell swoop. If I could get them on side, the rest of the planet should fall into place relatively easily. The hive cluster was the most powerful bloc on the planet.
I had high hopes for the Magos Intendent of our hive. He had consolidated power when Viel left and was now the undisputed leader. He was an older magos who could never quite push himself up to archmagos. Having failed several times, he was effectively blocked from trying again unless he wanted to move to another forge world, which had some heavy stigma attached to it.
So he had pivoted and transferred to Hive Stratix. Once here, he cultivated himself a power base, which he had maintained ever since. At first glance he was exactly what I didn’t want. Traditional and loyal to the dogma of the Mechanicus.
But Peggi had changed my mind on that. She believed that reading between the lines painted a very different picture of him.
Still loyal to the ideals of the Mechanicus, but far more willing to compromise. He had actual relations with human factions within the hive. A very rare thing for most magos. I think part of that was his still mostly human appearance.
There were even instances where he looked the other way on heretical modifications for war machines, appreciating the increases in efficiency.
---
I said nodding. I needed to justify the position I wanted to create. Just saying it was to control them probably wouldn’t work.
But then maybe it would have done. I still didn’t always understand the mindset of my fellow adepts.
He had just sat opposite me, looking tense; what little skin I could see was sweaty and pale.
It wasn’t him that answered, but a younger magi next to him. I had hoped to avoid meeting him; unfortunately, that wasn’t to be and he’d muscled his way into the meeting. He’d actually co-ruled the hive when Viel was around, but had been outmanoeuvred at his leaving.
This made him mostly irrelevant but still powerful enough to cause me issues.
He was also fucking stupid.
That was it.
I had already been subjected to twenty long, long minutes of his drivel before the Magos arrived, and I was done. Reaching into the noosphere, I unleashed a Runescript. It drilled through his defences and locked down his bionics, freezing him in place.
The older magos flinched at that, becoming even more tense if that was possible.
I needed him on board, so the position wouldn’t be as oppressive as I could make it; in time that would change, until every major decision went through me. But I wanted to work up to that, a frog in warming water and all that.
I paused to see if he had any input but he stayed silent, just looking at me.
Okay, this was getting in the way.
I sent a large data packet to both of them and then sat back as they rapidly read through it. I even relaxed my control on the younger adept.
He was focused on reading, so didn’t move even with control now returned to him.
I wasn’t sure I would be able to work with him. He was all that was wrong with the Mechanicus in one loud and opinionated package.
I enjoyed watching their shock as they read through what I had given them. They were right to be shocked; it was incredibly valuable.
the younger adept whispered, face slack in awe.
Thyrix said.
I grinned, already sensing I had them on board. Now for my ace. I sent another burst, far smaller this time but no less astonishing.
This time they both gasped before starting to mutter holy prayers.
Once done, then and only then, would I put the new position into practice.
Any that didn’t would quickly fall behind and lose power, authority and respect.
They were more of a conclave than an actual part of the hive.
It was Pomaria that caused me the most problems.
Either way, a different approach was needed.
It would only snowball from there… hopefully. That was the plan; time would tell how it turned out.