[M36.245.010]
The lift jerked to a halt, opening onto the space station. It had been easy to gain access. None of the systems even knew I was there, and the guards just saw another adept going about their business. If they cared to check, they would find the same thing.
The security doors were the same. So I moved through the station undisturbed.
As I walked, I rooted through the noosphere, which was surprisingly small. Even though the space station was from the Golden Age of Humanity, the noosphere was surprisingly shallow and weak.
I paused my exploration as I reached Morwenna's prison. Manipulating the noosphere, I gained access and slipped through the now-open doors, dropping my hood as I did.
It might have been a prison, but it was definitely a gilded one. Plush carpets and antique wooden furniture decorated the room. Decadent decorations were everywhere; most gold-plated, and my auspex determined it was actual gold.
What a waste.
There were multiple rooms. It even had its very own pool.
On one side, a fire roared; it was fake, but it cast the room in a warm glow that it would have otherwise lacked.
On the table was what was left of a beautifully prepared meal, barely touched. With the doors shutting behind me, I heard a clattering as Morwenna stomped in. "I will not… Aleric?"
Her face flashed through a range of emotions before settling into a careful mask. "I thought you went with the Inquisitor?"
I smiled at her, but didn’t answer. Instead, I moved over to the plush sofas in front of the roaring fire and got comfortable. I waved her down opposite me. The sofa was too soft, almost trying to eat me, but better than the egalitarian furniture of the Mechanicus, which was all hard metal surfaces.
Although I was sure it would be easier to clean and maintain than the countless tassels of this sofa.
She hesitated but sat primly opposite me, although not in the seat I waved at. She was the picture of perfect posture, sitting perfectly straight, hands resting comfortably in her lap. She could well have been at a tea party if it weren't for the tension in her muscles.
"No, I joined the Mechanicus and have just returned from Forge World Stratix." I said, picking at my red robes.
"So have you just come to gloat?"
"Now you know me better than that. Why would I waste my time with that?" I said, scoffing, "No, I have a proposition for you."
"Oh?" she said suspiciously.
I stopped and took her in before bursting out laughing. "Not that sort of one. Clearly, a change of leadership is needed, and with the governor soon to have a tragic accident, how would you like to fill the role?"
She spluttered in surprise before her head whipped around, scared. "There are…"
"I have already dealt with them. No one can hear us." I said, waving my hand dismissively.
"You're sure?" She asked. I nodded, and she slumped slightly, relaxing just a fraction and shifted to a more comfortable seating position. "Then yes I would be interested, but how would it even work? I have no backing, so have little to offer the Midnight Court."
It obviously pained her to say it, but to be honestly that made me want to work with her more. She could admit weakness. Now that might be her trying to manipulate me, but at the end of the day, I didn’t mind that. If she fulfilled her part, then we could both use each other.
I already knew she was cutthroat and cunning; I first learned that when I worked with her years ago. "That might be better."
"My lack of power helps?" she said, outraged.
"Yes. The plan isn't final, but if you are on board, you can help create it. Peggi and I have some ideas, but I am sure you can think of things we might have missed. It will be your life on the line as well. As for why it might be better? There is a caveat for us to put you on the throne, so to speak."
"Okay." She said, but instead of tensing, she actually relaxed. I understood her reaction. No one got anything for free in the hive; if you couldn’t see the cost, it would be hidden somewhere.
I let the moment sit before moving on. "If we went ahead with this, you would need to join the gang."
Morwenna shook her head. "I can't do that; it would destroy all credibility with other nobles, and I doubt the gang will welcome me with open arms. I already had close ties to it."
"Yes, but with this, Selina and Lanto would be above you. Your bosses. And no one would need to know, on the surface, you will be a noble and the governor. But you will be part of the gang and work towards its growth, not your old house." I could already see her starting to object. But I waved her words aside. "I think you need to understand something. You would be the governor because we allow you to be. By the time I am done, the Midnight Court will have complete control over the solar system. With or without you. The gang has the manpower, influence and my burgeoning control over the Adeptus Mechanicus; there isn't much that we don’t control."
She twitched when I mentioned my control over the Mechanicus. "But there is no leader for the Mechani—"
"True, but that is changing. By the end of the year, I expect to have complete control over the hive cities. Now, as I was saying, all that is left is the Ecclesiarchy and Adeptus Administratum. The Ecclesiarchy are much weakened from recent events, and we have enough dirt on them to keep them in line. So that leaves the Governor."
This had her sitting up thoughtfully, before slowly rubbing her hands together. "I have no reason to say no. How would I fit into the gang?"
"You have done right by the gang, so Selina feels you can be trusted. Even if it is only for your self-interest. You will join the inner circle. Only a select few would know you are a part of the gang. They will obviously know you are protected by the gang, but not that you are a part of it."
"So who would I answer to? Selina?" She said, nodding, her mind already picking it all apart.
I shrug. "Pretty much. Her and Lanto. Maybe Peggi as well, but otherwise, you would join near the top. As the gang thrives, so do you."
"Okay. I agree, what now?"
"Good choice. I think we are better than getting married to Niko of House Mylinnax. Here." I said, tossing over a box.
"A jewellery box? Wait, what?" She said, turning it over in her hands.
"That’s what it is disguised as. Peggi said it should be appropriate. Otherwise, it is a powerful and focused vox. Only specially built receivers will be able to handle it, but it will allow communication with Peggi in the hive. Do be careful. Using it drains the battery like you wouldn’t believe."
"No not about that! What was that about marriage?" Morwenna demanded.
I blinked, surprised. I assumed she already knew. Huh, they were keeping her more in the dark than I assumed. Not that it mattered. "Oh, you haven't been told yet. According to the information I have, your Family Head has completed a deal with Mylinnax's Family Head."
"But he…" she let her voice trail off, her composed mask cracking slightly with a nauseous look.
"Yes, a rather unpleasant sort." I didn’t blame her reaction. I didn’t know who he was at first, but a bit of research revealed someone who needed to die. When I got back, I would bring it up with Peggi and let her deal with it. Although I did want that device of his.
For once it wasn’t the Nobles' degeneracy that made him repugnant. He was an old noble, well over 500 years and nearing the end of what the Imperium could do to extend his life. Even with his vast wealth and connections. So he turned to a desperate source.
A Halo.
A marvel of technology. It just had a small, barely noteworthy downside of turning you into a literal monster. You lost all sense of self. But just that—otherwise it was great.
Ten out of ten would recommend.
The problem was that once the device had fully fused with the human, it was very hard to stop. They were significantly enhanced and next to impossible to put down. I saw some accounts from the forge world that said they could even raise them from the dead.
At this stage the human was long gone, leaving only the xeno device in control, allowing it to fulfil whatever last order it had. The few accounts of it getting this far were far from positive. So best to nip that in the bud ASAP.
"I can't believe… no, I can." Her eyes were wide in panic, her impeccable self-control fading for a moment.
"It doesn't matter now. It won't happen."
Morwenna nodded, taking a few deep breaths before her composure slid back into place. "So how do I use the vox thing?"
"It's pretty foolproof." I spent several minutes showing her how to use it before I called Peggi. We spent several hours planning and spit balling ideas. Mostly around how to position Morwenna when we did kill the Governor to make sure she took control with as little difficulty as possible.
We didn’t want another bloody fight to gain it.
Some parts of it were easy. With the access and skills I had, it was effortless to get the verification codes for the PDF forces for example. Using that, she should gain control of most of the forces on the hive. Some of course would rebel or join their houses for a bid at power. But by and large, they should fall in line.
There were the House's forces, which would be harder to control. But they were always going to be an issue. Morwenna mentioned several we would need to pre-emptively strike as they would rebel regardless. Several prominent figures within her own house would also need to go.
There was no way they wouldn’t try to seize control.
Morwenna also brought a lot of knowledge and was remarkably helpful in creating proper plans. More so than I expected, even if I shouldn’t be. She was, at one point in time, the heir to a Great Noble House. It was only her growth that got her cut off and betrayed by her Family Head, no less.
Anyone else, and she would likely have crushed them. She'd done so before.
She and Peggi also wanted to frame several families and factions for the assassination. Which somewhat dictated how I was going to do it. Part of me wanted to do it in person, but that was just my emotions speaking.
The easiest way would be through the noosphere, but that was obvious and might lead to more scrutiny than we wanted, so it would likely be a poison. Peggi was already procuring one that was created by a rival house.
One that had very close ties to a powerful branch of the House Baldryk.
It would be easy to administrate it; a small servitor would be perfect for the job. I would just need to create one.
The navy was another variable we needed to control. We would have the codes, but most captains were nobles. This ran the risk of them doing their own thing, which we couldn’t allow.
---
I stood, stretching and felt my back give a satisfying pop. I had made good progress, but I needed a break from the unending task of administration. My new role of Prefectus-Prime came with a crap ton of paperwork. Much of it just needed my rubber stamp, but I still liked to read through it, just to get a feel for what was going on if nothing else.
Resource allocation, ongoing and new projects, requests for resources for experimentation, promotions and transfers, all funnelled through to me.
It did remind me that I needed people to take some of the weight. I didn’t feel like I could lean on Lysa and Kellen further; they were already flat out, helping our people settle into the hive.
But I had to trust the person. Or did I? Maybe I just needed to place in some safeguards and then leave it to the gang. No, that wouldn’t work; they had no understanding of how the Mechanicus operated, which was very different to what they were used to.
But maybe train someone from the gang?
It was a thought and might tie in nicely with my other plans.
Regardless, I was pleased to see all the paperwork. It meant things were shifting how I wanted them to. My slow and steady progress in asserting my control over the Mechanicus was working. Under Peggis’ advice, I was making sure the key people were happy to keep most others in line.
Especially the administrators of Devisio Prefectus and heretek hunters of the Prefecture Magisterium.
I had given it a bit more of my time as we had… let's call it teething issues a few days ago. Surprisingly, not everyone was happy with my control and had tried to be a nuisance. Nothing overt, but they tried to skirt my authority. Something I couldn’t allow.
But he had seen the error of his ways.
A nice chat with some healthy threats tended to have that effect on people.
Even with the cushion my bum had gone to sleep. My augments to fully convert myself couldn’t come sooner. Well I could do them now, it just came with too many downslides. I was so close, and hopefully the ruins would have everything I needed to create them. Jumping to wake up a bit, I left the little room that had become my noospheric chamber. In reality it was just a storage closet, one too small to actually fit anything useful in there.
Hence the noospheric room.
I left the servo skulls I didn’t need and headed for the exit to my sanctum.
I was halfway across the room when I spotted Lysa in the corner, head down and shoulders slumped in the corner. She looked down, frowning and defeated, not a look I normally saw on her and liked even less.
It was so at odds that it changed my plans and I walked over. "What's up Lysa?" I asked, generally reaching out and squeezing her shoulder.
She jerked in surprise, clearly deep in thought. She turned towards me with a fake smile slipping into her face, but it was a fragile, brittle thing. "Nothing, just a long day."
Reaching out I flicked her forehead. "Yeah that’s not going to pass muster." I said, grinning. "Come on, what's truly the problem?"
She swiped at the offending finger and leaned back, trying to get out of reach, all the while pouting at me. "Just some adepts causing issues. Questioning my skills or expertise."
"One of ours?" I asked sharply. If it was one of them…
"No, several Magi of Noxium have made it very clear they don’t respect me or my authority. So it is just a constant battle to get anything I want done."
"I see…"
"Aleric. No."
"What?"
"I can see that look on your face, you are contemplating making an example of them."
I shook my head, probably unconvincingly. That was exactly what I was going to do. "What? No. I was just going to…"
"No. I will deal with it. I normally don’t care, but today it just got a bit much."
I dipped into the noosphere, its data blossoming around me, and checked her schedule. Good, she was free the rest of the day. "Come on." I said, grabbing her hand.
"Where?" She said, letting me pull her along.
"You will find out when we get there."
"No I have things I need." She complained but put up a token resistance.
"They can wait."
On our way out, we bumped into Kellen, who I dragged along as well. It might do him good as well. Although Kellen actually had work he needed doing so stayed in the noosphere for most of the journey.
We hopped in a shuttle and descended through the hive. The machine spirit did most of the heavy lifting and I just sat back, letting it guide us to the Fortress as I enjoyed a chat with Lysa.
---
A grinning Syla and Gwen met us by the door of the Fortress, already warned.
Lysa perked up when she saw them. She probably had an inkling by now, but I still refused to tell her, no matter how much she pouted and needled me.
I gave both a quick hug as I reached them.
"You came just in time," Gwen said. "We've just had—"
"Ah ah ah." I said. "It’s a surprise."
"Ohh, you'll love it." Gwen said, almost bouncing in place, her bubbly and loving personality coming to the forefront. She latched herself to Lysa's arm and pulled her along, talking a mile a minute as she did.
I took great pleasure in watching Lysa try to get a word in. It was incredibly satisfying watching the shoe be on the other foot for a change. The look on her face was enough to make me laugh.
We reached the cyber mastiffs breeding area, which was just how I remembered it. There was new equipment and stuff scattered about. It had even been expanded, but at its core, it was the same, which I found surprisingly nostalgic.
We walked through the hundreds, if not thousands, of dogs all at various stages of the process, with hundreds of people moving around. Some carrying supplies, others sitting and playing with the dogs, or taking readings. But all of them were hard at work and greeted Gwen and Skyla with large grins when we walked past.
My powerful auspex could hear the murmurs long before we reached the puppy creche, but when the door opened and a cacophony of yips and barking of tiny dogs came from the room.
It wasn’t Gwen leading Lysa by this point but her getting dragged behind Lysa. Excitement plain to see on her face.
I slowed down, letting them move ahead. Lysa did freeze for a moment when she saw the several dozen puppies. Not uncertainty, but more overload from the cuteness.
She let out a squeal that I thought was exclusively for anime and rushed to the waist-high gate on the far side of the room. Behind it in the enclosure were a mass of squirming puppies, all desperately curious about us and had been as soon as the door was opened.
"Come on in." Gwen said, stepping over the fence and into the crèche. Lysa joined her a moment later. They had to be careful not to step on any of the little bundles of joy since they were swarmed as soon as they entered. Gwen introduced her to them and soon Lysa was sitting on the floor, dozens of puppies clawing over her.
She had a look of pure bliss and content on her face, clearly loving the experience.
I rested against the fence and chatted to Skyla. I had been trying to find the time to catch up to my old friends, but the last few weeks had been far too full on. I was hoping when the hives were under control and the Governor dealt with, my time would be freed up.
"Still enjoying running the cyber mastiffs?" I asked her. Kellen was still distracted in the back, most of his attention taken up by the noosphere.
"Yeah, still love it." She said. My auspex pinged, flagging it as possibly untruthful. I almost pressed, but left it for now. There would be plenty of time for that later. We carried on chatting, catching up after so long. We had exchanged a few letters, but with the ten-year gap, it was good to catch up with her.
Maybe thirty minutes later, Kellen blinked rapidly, regaining awareness around him.
"Finished?" I asked.
"For now." He said, looking at the puppies as if he was only just now seeing them.
"Come on." I said. Stepping over the fence, beckoning Kellen to join me.
As we stepped in, we were swarmed by the curious pups, temporarily deserting Gwen and Lysa. They soon lost interest in us and went back to playing with them.
There was something heartwarming about seeing Lysa sitting on the floor with dozens of puppies crawling over her, all trying to get her attention. Reaching down, I picked one up at random and carefully held the squirming mass in my arms.
I turned her… sorry, him over and started to rub his belly.
He soon settled and it gave me a chance to inspect him.
It had been over fifteen years since I had last checked over a puppy, but the knowledge was just as fresh as ever. A powerful advantage of the knowledge fragments, the knowledge was always there, ready to be used and never fading.
A healthy dog, all told. 5.456kg, a good weight for an eight week old pup. The breeding programme was obviously still working. Not that I had any doubt, not with Skyla and Gwen running things. I was about to place the dog back on the ground when I smirked to myself.
Turning, I offered him to Kellen. He froze from where he was smiling at Lysa playing. He shook his head, backing up slightly. Shrugging, I placed the pup back on the floor, who charged back to play with the others.
Time slipped past.
Skyla and I had moved back to lean against the fence with Kellen sitting resting on one corner, looking relaxed. When he sat, he had a few pups go over to investigate, but soon lost interest in him. I half expected Lysa to get bored, but even several hours later, she was still going. She only stopped when the bitch was led in, having been fed her meal.
With a slightly put-upon look, the bitch forced her way into the creche, past the wall of her puppies and settled in the far corner. The pups charged after her and proceeded to jockey for position to drink.
One of the pups, a bitch by the looks of it, finished feeding and toddled away. She had been one of the first in there, muscling her way to the front. She staggered away from her mum, smacking her lips and yawning—her eyes struggling to stay open.
She looked around the room for a place to nap and started heading for Gwen before she caught sight of Kellen. She cocked her head before her tiny body was racked by another huge yawn. With her belly bulging with milk, she trotted over to him and climbed into his lap.
She walked in circles a few times, finding the best spot before curling up contentedly, purring softly. Amazingly, she soon rolled onto her back, a huge show of trust.
Kellen froze, clearly unsure what to do, arms held awkwardly by his side, hardly daring to breath let alone move. If it wasn’t so adorable, I would have laughed. It made a change from his disciplined stoic nature.
After a few moments, he slowly stroked his finger along her head. She leaned into it, purring louder. A small smile crossed his face as he started to relax, continuously stoking her.
The other pups started finishing and scattered around the room to sleep. Some curled up near siblings and their mother; others headed for Gwen and Lysa. But no others made their way to Kellen, the small pup keeping his full attention.
To save ourselves from the same fate, Skyla and I left the pen and just watched from outside it, chatting quietly to each other. Gwen and Lysa were still talking to each other. I was surprised how well they had hit it off, but maybe I shouldn’t be.
I was distracted by the arrival of Merek. Their commitment to each other over the years was inspiring.
In his arms was a young child, who was looking around with glee, hands waving uncoordinatedly around him.
As soon as he caught sight of us, he wriggled and squirmed out of Merek's hands. Once he was placed onto the floor, the boy charged over to them on unsteady feet. "Mummy, mummy. Look what I made!" He shouted, waving a piece of decorated paper.
It was a finger painting of them as a family, or at least that was what I thought it was by the context. It could have just as easily been sigals to the chaos gods. Either way, he seemed unordinarily proud of it.
As the young boy reached Skyla, she knelt and scooped him up into her arms and settled him at her hips. "That’s very pretty. Did you make that all by yourself?" She said in a baby voice.
The boy nodded rapidly. "Uh-huh. Teacher Bennett helped only me a bit." he said proudly, stumbling over his words.
As the boy nattered away, Skyla ran her hand through his hair lovingly and placed a kiss on his forehead. The boy looked at her, confused, before carrying on with his story. What he was talking about, I wasn’t sure. Something about a religious story, one I vaguely recognised from the few sermons I heard as a child.
Leaving them to it, I moved over to Merek and shook his hand. "Merek. How are you doing?"
"Aleric. Didn’t think we would ever see you again." He said, giving me a respectful nod.
"Naa couldn’t stay away from the gang forever."
"Well you couldn’t have arrived at a better time. Things have started to go to shit."
"So I have heard, so I've heard."
"But you're fixing it right?" He said with underlying tension in his voice.
Surprised, I glanced at him and caught the lines of worry on his face.
I clapped him on the shoulder. "Yes, it will be fixed. Peggi and I already have a plan and by the end of the year, things should settle down. In fact, the gang should be in a better place than ever. That I can guarantee."
Merek released a small sigh of relief. "That’s good to hear, thanks."
I nodded. "You don't need to answer but do you and Skyla still enjoy running the cyber mastiff programme. I am surprised you have not moved position."
"Move up to where?" He said back to me immediately. "We already have a great gig and power within the gang. We could have moved up, maybe, but that would start to take away time for other things." Waving a hand at the playing kid. "Like being a family. Maybe in time we will want something more, but who knows. Anyway…" he changed the topic and we spoke about random things before getting incredibly engrossed with bionics.
Both of us shared a fascination with them.
I was quietly impressed by his knowledge. Nothing compared to my own, but that wasn’t a fair comparison. He was actually pretty close to what a high-level adept might know. Which was nothing to scoff at, and he didn’t have any of the resources and knowledge they did.
Of course, he didn’t have any of their restrictions either, but it was an impressive feat.
"How's the old man?" Suddenly remembering I hadn't met Thul yet.
"Still trundling along. If you want to see him, you will need to drag him from his lab."
"I might do so." Already thinking of putting him through the regenerative treatment. I wouldn’t put him through the third stage I didn’t think, but that might change.
An hour later we were still going when Skyla walked over to us, having pulled her boy away from playing with the few puppies that were still awake.
He had been kneeling in front of them, stroking them with a deep, serious look of concentration only a young child could pull off. Like the weight of the world was on their shoulders and it might end if he stopped stroking the puppies. He would waddle to one, stroke it for a bit before moving over to another, then another and keep repeating the process, merrily wittering to them as he did.
It was adorable.
"We need to be off." Skyla said.
"No worries, I am sure we can catch up again later."
"You will have to come over." She started to turn away before hesitating. Turning she pulled me into another tight hug. "I am glad you're back Aleric." She stepped back, hands still on my shoulders. "I don’t know if we have ever told you, but I just wanted to thank you… Truly, thank you."
"What for?"
"This." She said, waving her hand around her. "Without you, none of this would have been possible. I don’t know where I would be, dead probably, and I certainly wouldn’t have met my light." Walking over to Merek, she slotted into his side, their kid on his other side and his arms going around her. They exchanged a loving smile.
"Agreed." Merek said. "Truly, thank you. None of this would have been possible without you. And if you ever need anything, never hesitate to ask. I am your man."
"We both are. Well, I am your woman. Wait, no, that doesn’t sound right."
"Just shush," Merek said fondly, "before you dig yourself deeper."
We laughed together, even the kid joined in, although looking rather confused, but wanting to be a part of it. Before long he started to shift around, growing bored.
"You gave as good as you got and don’t try to pass the credit. I might have set it up, but without both of you, it would never have reached the heights it is today. Never forget that. Actually, in a few weeks there is a treatment I want you both to have."
Their kids' grumbling started getting louder. "Sure, we can talk about it later. Right now, we need to get Aleric home for food and bed."
"Aleric?" I started to ask about the name, but they were already walking away. Maybe I would ask them later if he was named after me. Maybe not, as that felt a bit big-headed.
Either way, I wasn’t sure how to feel about it.
Shrugging, I walked back and leaned against the gate. Kellen was dead to the world by now. Fully engrossed with the puppy who had woken up full of energy. Currently, she was fighting his hand, playfully nipping at his metal fingers. She would crouch and then pounce, swiping at him. Before bouncing back, yipping, to try again.
She was clearly enjoying herself. She wasn’t the only one; a bright, unrestrained smile lit up Kellen's face.
As I watched them, I turned my mind back to the problems Lysa was having. It made sense in hindsight. They were adepts, but had only a few years of service. Which made them look inexperienced compared to many others. They weren't of course. I trusted them more than almost any adept, or magi for that matter.
I just didn’t know how to fix it, or even if I should.
I would need to talk to them separately. I got the impression that Kellen didn’t give a fuck what others thought of him. Lysa, on the other hand, for all her outgoing nature, was more sensitive, with a thinner skin. Not that it was a bad thing.
I eventually pulled the two of them away; we needed to get back to work.
We were just going our separate ways when Kellen asked out of the blue. "Can we go back sometime?"
With a knowing smile, I said. "You can go back whenever you want. Like her did you?"
I could see him try to formulate a response before smiling sheepishly. "Yes I did."
"No pressure, but if you want, it would be very easy to get her as your own. We could augment her similar to Snuffles."
He didn’t say anything but nodded thoughtfully and walked away.
I didn’t bring it up again, but I did note he made dozens of trips over the next few weeks to see the young pup.
I didn’t know if he actually wanted her, but it looked like he did. I had already contacted Gwen to reserve her for him if he so chose.
While Lysa went down a few times with him, she was far less interested in having one. She loved playing with them all, but an individual didn’t attract her attention. It amused me slightly that the girl who loved dogs didn’t want one. Of the two, I wouldn’t have pegged Kellen wanting one.
---
Imperium: Hive Cities Scavenger (Tier 2) - IIWarrior (Tier 4) - XImperium: Hive Cities Danger (Tier 2) - IIIHuman: Hand to hand (Tier 3) - VTerra Federation: Technician (Tier 3) - XTerra Federation: Software (Tier 4) - IXSharpshooter (Tier 4) - VIIISelf (Tier 4) - XVIIReverse Engineering (Tier 3) - VImperium: Canine Handling (Tier 2) - IVAkashic Throne (Tier 1) - IBlade Mastery (Tier 4) - IXPhysics (Tier 2) - XXIIIGlyphcraft (Tier 3) - IIIBlueprints (Tier 3) - IIIActing (Tier 1) - IMathematics (Tier 2) - XIIBiology (Tier 1) - XTeaching (Tier 2) - IIMachine Spirit (Tier 3) - VIIChemistry (Tier 1) - VIIIEngineering (Tier 1) - VIIBionics (Tier 4) - XXIICrafting (Tier 4) - X