[M36.246.01]
I sat at the back of the meeting room at the very tip of the hive spire. This high up, we had a clear view of space and the stations orbiting us. If I looked down I would be able to see the swirling black storm clouds raging below. The room was as opulent as you'd expect, but I had to say it was almost tasteful compared to some of the rooms. The large table running along the centre was real wood. Imported by a trader from Holy Terra, if the records were to be believed. It was certainly possible, it cost an outrageous amount of thrones. Lining the walls were massive stone statues, each expertly carved. You had the normal figures and iconography, but also notable nobles of the hive.
That would need to be changed by the end of this. If our plan worked not many of the Houses would survive.
I dipped into the noosphere again, tracking the person the meeting was about. Vice Admiral of the System Defence Forces was one of the last pieces of the puzzle before we could commence with the assassination of the Governor.
The heavy fake oak doors silently swung open on their well-oiled hinges right on the dot of the meeting time. He had actually arrived early, but waited nearby to time his arrival perfectly. The elderly man swept into the room, his long navy overcoat swishing behind him as he marched into the room. Even if I didn’t know who he was, he screamed military. His posture was superb, with his hands folded behind his back, the long overcoat only resting on his shoulders, open to show off rows and rows of medals.
His Flag Staff trailed in behind him, each as fancily dressed as he was. It was obvious who the nobles were, with their far more flamboyant outfits. Finally, his guards took up positions outside the door.
I inspected each member, not finding any we didn’t plan for. The present nobles were all okay for them to hear this.
As he reached the table Selina and Lanot stood, both dressed to the nines, but more understated, with mostly dark tones. They should have looked smaller compared to the newest arrivals, but if anything, it showed their command, like they didn’t need to show off for everyone to know who was in charge.
And make no mistake, they were in charge.
"Vice Admiral Octavian Thore." Selina said, shaking his hand.
"Lady Midnight."
Ahh yes, her handle.
I tuned out the next few minutes as they went through the almost ritualistic greeting. Full of pomp and ceremony, I knew Selina and Lanto despised it, but the Vice Admiral was a product of the system and loved it.
After far, far longer than should have been needed to say hello, they settled to business. The Vice Admiral held out his hand to one of his underlings, even if the man wouldn’t agree with that assessment. He looked incredibly full of himself, almost puffing up as he brought the folder over and placed it into the outstretched hand. Slapping it onto the table, he flipped it open, showing what could only be classed as blackmail material.
Rather damning ones at that.
"What is the meaning of this? And what is your purpose of giving this to us? I will not bow to threats and if you think this will stop us from retaliating. You are most misinformed!"
"Please, Octavian, settle yourself." Selina said softly, her voice still cutting through the room, commanding attention. "It was mealy to gain your attention. We have no need of threats; we have something far better to offer."
"And that is?" The Vice Admiral said doubtfully.
"The Lord Admiral had been doing a sterling job for almost a hundred years. But I am sure he is rather tired of it by now and you would do very well in his position. You are due a promotion after all. We want to sponsor you in becoming the Lord Admiral of our fine defensive fleets."
Defensive fleets might be pushing the description slightly. There was one ageing Grand Cruiser as the fleets Flag ship. That was supported by a few cruisers, mostly of the light variety. That, combined with the handful of frigates and destroyers, made the bulk of the fleets heavy vessels. The rest were warp-incompatible patrol ships.
Here, the man's face went through a range of emotions, several of which were fear, greed, paranoia and greed again, before settling on a neutral mask. "While I might be interested, the Lord Admiral has the support of the Governor and will be with us for many decades. So there is little point in discussing such possibilities. Besides, I am not sure you are in the position to help me as you once were. Not from what I've heard."
Selina chucked at that. It sounded completely genuine and clearly unnerved the admiral and his staff.
"Octavian please. While the war might be bloody, we are hardly losing. And you think this is the only material we have?" She said, cocking an eyebrow at him. "No, our network is still thriving."
"Be that as it may, the Lord Admiral's position is secure. So there is little point in speculating on what might be."
"Quite right." Lanto said, nodding in agreement. "However, it doesn't hurt to have contingencies in place."
"But the Governor…"
"Will be agreeing to peace soon enough. But not to worry, until we have peace with the Governor, this will not go into effect. But we are already in talks to get this nasty business behind us. And when that is done, we want some friends in the Navy. We want you to be that friend. And we treat our friends well, as you well know." Selina said with a knowing smile on her face.
The admiral blustered, but even I could tell his interest.
I didn’t really need to be in the room; it was mostly out of curiosity more than anything else. I was just another faceless adept in the back of the room. Ignored and glossed over, I might as well be part of the furniture, just how I liked it.
Once again, I was reminded how shit I was at this sort of thing and while the Mechanicus had its problems, they were definitely my people with their blunt logic. Not this saying everything and nothing at the same time. I knew what she was offering and I still had trouble following the conversation at times. I could almost feel Lysa taking notes beside me. She was another reason I was here. She had wanted to watch. She of course she could handle herself, I made sure of that, but still… So I just sat back and watched Selina weave the conversation together until the Vice Admiral came to her side and agreed to her terms, and just like that, the final piece of the puzzle should be in place.
By the end of it, it was like it was his plan all along. He spoke as if he had planned it all. I shook my head, hidden by my robe, in awe.
When the governor died, he would perform a coup and take control of the fleet and join our side. With that core of the fleet under our control and assurances made, the few breakaway ones, either loyal to noble houses or still loyal to the Governor would no longer be a problem.
With him gone, Lanto broke into a grin. "Beautiful as ever." He said, pecking Selina on the lips.
She pushed him away fondly, "Not in front of the…"
He pushed her hands out of the way, swooping in for another kiss. "Baa, there are only the inner circle here. "
Her face softened and she moved in for another peck before spinning towards us. "Thoughts?"
"I don’t think that could have gone any better." Peggi said from her seat, hands rapidly tapping away at the data-slate.
"Agreed, and with that, we should have everything we need." Lanto said, settling back into his seat. "We will have to wait a few weeks for him to prepare, but that was the last major obstacle. So there is nothing else holding us back. We also can't put it off much longer."
"Because Morwenna will soon be shipped out?" I asked.
Peggi nodded. "She's ready to go at a moment's notice. Thanks to you, we have enough of our people to take control of the space station. When the time comes, even if everything doesn't go according to plan we will still have control over the space station and much of the important infrastructure within."
"Speaking of that. Lanto, how is the war progressing?" I asked. I hadn't been paying much attention to it, just checking in on Kellen to make sure he was okay. But other than that, I ignored it, trusting them both to get it done.
"Not much has changed since last time. With the PDF taking a more defensive role, we have been able to refocus our attention back on the other hives. We have already reclaimed all the lost territory. Your people didn’t disappoint…" He nodded to me. "and with their help, we have massively accelerated our timeline."
"I thought they might." I said somewhat smugly, proud of Kellen and the people he had trained.
"How much faster?" Peggi asked, looking up from the notes she was taking.
"Considerably. If we hold pace, we will have the nearest hive gangs completely under our control."
"Good. And the guilds?" Selina asked.
"It is taking a bit longer than we would like but we are slowly infiltrating them. Now we have the same systems we have here in place, it should go much faster. Thank you for that Aleric. Lysa set it up perfectly." Peggi said.
I nodded; it was one of the first things she had asked me to make.
I had already informed her it might become obsolete soon, but it didn’t hurt to have a backup. I also didn’t know how long it would take me to cover the planet with the noosphere coverage.
---
"It's time." I said. A rather poetic timing as well. Right at the start of the new year. M36.246.01. "You ready Morwenna?"
She nodded, the picture of composure, although I could see her heart rate spike as soon as I spoke.
We were in her room, come prison. Behind her was a team of gangers, an elite unit. I didn’t know any of them, having come up after I left, but they seemed good enough. Kellen and several of his people were also here. Mainly for me and less for Morwenna, but they would be coming along as well.
So we had more than enough firepower.
Kellen and his people were disguised in armour, rather than their usual battle robes. It wouldn’t do for them to be seen; it would lead to all sorts of questions.
With my access it had been easy to sneak the Court members in. Groups were scattered across the station at strategic locations, so when things went pear-shaped as they inevitably would, we should still be able to take control with relative ease. I had properly just murphy's lawed myself.
It was going to go horribly now.
Anyway, they were in position and waiting for our signal.
They weren't the only ones. The gang had been securing power in the weeks we had been building up to this. The war had been raging, and an outside observer might have the impression the gang was losing. Which was kind of the point; the gang didn’t want the Governor worried.
But we had quietly ensured our control over as many of the hives as possible. The nearest ones were coming directly under our control, but the further away ones, had been bribed or deals made, so they went with the flow.
The most recent success was a deal with the Adeptus Arbites. We didn’t kill them, as that tended to end badly for all involved; we had just leaked enough information to keep them busy and out of harm's way for the foreseeable future.
We had similar things in place for the Knight Worlds. We certainly didn’t want the monstrous machines fighting us. They shouldn’t do, they rarely cared for things outside their world. And we should be in complete control long before it ever became an issue, but there were plans in place just in case.
"You have your codes?"
"I am ready." She said again, sharper this time.
I tilted my head in acknowledgement. "Here we go then."
I reached out to the handful of tiny servitors I had created. They were more robots to be honest; it had been too much of a faff to make servitors small enough.
They were wholly my designs and not based on any STC or anything like that. They had taken weeks to make, with the components being incredibly small and fiddly to make. But in the end, I had ten mosquito-like robots. Almost impossible to see with the human eye. They each had a single injection of the poison, only a few ml per shot, but that was more than enough.
Just one of them should be enough to kill a herd of elephants, let alone a single human.
It had been sourced from a rival noble house that was a very convenient target to foist the blame onto. It wouldn’t actually throw anyone off for long, but it didn’t really need to. Just muddy the waters and paint a target on their backs for a while. Once they were dead, who was to say otherwise?
I connected to my little drones and directed them, unlocking doors, allowing them to slip through vets undetected and into the Governor's palace. I found him in his bedroom in a tangled mass of naked flesh. Men and women, all young, some little more than children, were part of the orgy.
I had to say I was surprised. I didn’t the ancient man had it in him, but then again, maybe I should have.
With other things to keep him occupied, my drone slipped in undetected. I only moved one forward, leaving the rest to hover near the ceiling.
With an imperceptible buzz, it hovered down and stabbed itself into his back. He groaned just as the bug stabbed in and injected its payload. I had undeliberately timed it perfectly, as disgusting as that was.
He didn’t even have time to finish his release before he started convulsing. For a moment the room thought he was joking before they scattered screaming, all thoughts of pleasure gone from their minds. In the chaos I retreated with my mosquitoes, hiding the evidence.
The guards stormed in, weapons raised. Not that there was anything for them to see, much less do. The former governor thrashed on the bed for a few moments longer before he slumped, dead. Very dead in fact. I knew even if they tried to resuscitate him, there was no chance for them to succeed. If they performed an autopsy, they would find his heart had burst alongside multiple critical organ failures across the board.
Not to mention what it did to his brain.
"Quick. Summon the Lord Medicae!" One of the guards shouted. Huh, someone with half a brain, good for him.
I had seen enough and disconnected, revenge satisfied. With his brain liquified he was no longer a concern.
---
Morwenna watched Aleric stir, clicking back into awareness once more.
"Is it done?" She asked.
He stood nodding, in a smooth, graceful way she was sure many nobles would be jealous of. She knew it wasn’t practised, but deadly grace.
"After you." He said, in that eerie, almost human, yet not voice. He waved a hand for the door. It is time to claim your throne.
It was terrifying to think that he had killed one of the most powerful men in the system, someone she had feared her entire life, without twitching a finger. She didn’t have the entire story, but she had heard enough of his exploits in his previous home to treat him even more carefully than she used to.
She still remembered him from his time as a fixer. Always with a plan and the way he assessed the world with a cool, calculating look. He had set her carefully calibrated senses off even then. He had only gotten worse.
Still at the thought of the old man dead, a smile flashed across her face. Perhaps she would have her freedom; all the politics and climbing she had done might be worth it.
Two gang members opened the door and she marched out. The household troops that were supposed to be guarding her were hidden in her room, dead.
She marched down the corridor, her guards moving with her. At first, she assumed they were there to keep her in line. It was what she would do, and they were to a point. But the more she learned about the gang, the more she allowed herself to hope she might have found long-lasting reliable allies, maybe, dare she say it, friends.
They were definitely protectors, having done so several times already. A branch family wanted her gone, while another House didn’t want her marriage to go through, bringing two old and powerful families closer together.
She ruthlessly crushed the hope for now. She had learned her lesson from her mother well, from when she had turned her childhood friend against her. Making her best friend at the time betray her. What should have been a fun afternoon of playing ended with her standing over her dead friend, holding the knife she had tried to kill her with.
Power was the only protection, and she had pursued it relentlessly ever since.
She had always known the gang was strong, but it was only now, when she was brought into the inner circle, did she realised how much she had underestimated them. She wouldn’t say she was a part of that close-knit group yet, but they were making an effort, which was more than she could say for most others.
A clear sign they wanted her to integrate.
She fervently hoped it was anyway. If they did and she found what she was after, after all these years, they would have her loyalty. That was for sure.
But that was getting ahead of herself.
She was still staggered by the access to resources they had. She discounted anything Aleric did because, as far as she could tell, he was no longer officially part of the gang. Even if he was still closely tied to it and saw them as a friend and ally, the gang seeing him the same way.
She reflected on how her now-dead family head had used the sector chaos and the orders to create more armies to his advantage. Sending the new PDF regiments to attack and clear out the underhive of the gangs' presence. If he hadn't, his assault would have failed before it had even started. The gang's reach was mindboggling as it was oppressive.
Even with his surprise attack, now she could see the movement of men and resources more clearly; she was sure he would lose. She'd found it hard to believe at first. The thought that a gang, any gang, could challenge House Valtorin was ludicrous. It should be preposterous… and yet the proof was in front of her.
She saw little chance he would win. At least not without drastic actions.
And with Aleric's home… that dropped to zero. She had complete faith he could do as he said. When he spoke seriously his words had an almost weight to them, like she could feel the truth ringing within. He just felt… more, she couldn’t explain it.
His people were equally as impressive. She didn’t know much about Kellen, just that he wasn’t officially part of the gang, much like Aleric, but was trusted and was a part of the Adeptus Mechanicus. She had only seen Kellen truly move once during an attack, but the speed he moved…
She was certainly safe with all the soldiers around her; that feeling was only increased with the medallion hanging between her breasts. Her finger unconsciously brushed up against it, feeling its reassuring metal through her clothes. It was a gift from Aleric, with all the inner circle members having received one.
Supposedly, it was a conversion field, but she had her doubts. When she had tested it, it hadn't behaved like her old one, which had been stolen when her faction had been attacked. She wasn’t sure what it was, but she couldn’t deny its protectiveness, and she was thankful for its none the less.
They reached the central command station, which also served as the central administrator hub for the solar system.
It was here that the Governor could send and receive orders. It also contained everything related to the tithe, by far its most important function. When they neared it, the two guards stepped forward.
"Halt, this area is off limits." The left guard stated.
She sent the access codes to the guards. The one on the right glanced at it and his eyes opened wide, before saluting. "Ma'am." he said, stepping back to his post by the door. Clearly, he understood what was going on.
The other man was not quite so quick on the draw.
"No, we will wait for confirmation from the—"
That was as far as he got when Kellen blurred past, a single well-placed punch knocking the guard out.
His partner stayed at attention, pretending they didn’t exist. She had to give the man some credit; she took his name down. He might be someone worth cultivating.
She stepped over the unconscious body and swept into the room.
Monitors and screens dotted the room, with further workstations off in other rooms. In the centre was the command chair, decorated in gold and encrusted with jewels. At the centre was the large control throne, dwarfing everything else in the room.
She couldn’t help but like it instantly. That said some things about her, but she didn’t care. What could she say, she liked nice things. There had to be some upsides to nobility and power.
She ignored the hundreds of people working at their stations and moved to the chair. Several others tried to stop her, but all met the same fate as the guard outside.
The chair looked better than it felt; she'd need to grab a cushion next time. Once seated, the screen in front of it demanded her access codes, which she passed along. She knew it would work, but that didn’t stop the worry coiling in her belly. If they didn’t they would be in a world of trouble.
It wasn’t just the codes, but it needed to match her biometrics. That had been put in place millennia ago, supposedly to stop this exact scenario from happening. It had worked until now and yet somehow Aleric had found a way around it.
With a small hum and a beep, it granted her full access.
Morwenna releases a small sigh. "Good."
Now that she was in, she set about bringing the system under control.
She sent out a flurry of orders, from changing old passcodes to issuing new orders, like pulling back the PDF regiments, and hundreds of others, all to consolidate her power.
She knew by now all across the hives the Midnight Court would be acting. She wasn’t read in on the whole plan, but she had helped for significant parts of it, particularly around the nobles. Peggi had information on them all, but that didn’t tell the entire story.
Wherever they could, in coordination they started to round up the players. Those too dangerous were quietly killed off with accidents, but where possible, they were captured, or those close to them were to force compliance.
The navy was under control. She had just received a message that the newly raised Lord Admiral was in command after the previous one was caught in the same plot as the Governor. The newly promoted man had agreed to honour his commitments and was already stabilising things.
Several ships did try to break away, their captains either nobles of one of the houses or had close ties to them. Regardless, they were given no quarter and destroyed, weakening them temporarily, but they should be easy to replace.
The PDF soon responded the same and would follow her orders. Not that she had been worried about that. Many of them were in the gang's pocket. A startling number in fact, and the SDF the same, recognising her as the new Governor of the system.
Their prepared message would now be sounding through the hives vox systems.
Letting the masses know the Governor passed away due to an assassin and she had stepped in to temporarily stabilise the situation and bring the heretics to justice. It also reassured them that everything was under control, and for once, that statement was true.
She couldn't believe how smoothly it was going.
She received some reports of dissidents across the station but were crushed in short order.
With assurances that their plans were moving forward smoothly, she started to sweep through the hundreds of reports and metrics from across the solar system. Not to do with the war but with its running. How were the supplies doing? Was the tithe on time and within margins? Had they fulfilled their commitments to the sector?
What were supplies and storage like? Their defences? And so much more. In truth, it would have taken her years to read through all the reports, so she settled for reading the high-level ones and that was enough to give her a clear picture. Thankfully nothing was burning that needed her attention.
Not that she expected there to be. Her newly departed family head might have been a bastard, but he was competent. Frighteningly so.
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) - V > IXImperium: 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