[M36.246.11]
Lysa Drav hummed as she bounced in place. She was humming a boppy song today with a pleasing beat that she timed her actions to. She'd heard the tune on one of the many radios at the Court gang. Although she found the name slightly confusing.
Were they a gang or the government or something else?
The doors of the workshop opened and Katra wandering in, making a beeline for Aleric, distracting her, and she partially dropped from the noosphere.
“So is this the new weapon?” Katra asked, peering over Aleric's shoulder.
He snorted, shaking his head. Aleric glanced up although his hands and mechadendrites never slowed. "Heavens no. This is a Transuranic Arquebus. Or it started its life as that. I have made extensive modifications."
"Trying to recreate your monster are you?"
Aleric chuckled at that. "Pretty much, although my sniping days seem to be behind me. At least for now."
Monster? What on the Omnissiah's gasket were they talking about? She giggled to herself at the silly saying. She couldn’t remember who she heard do it, but she loved those ridiculous sayings now.
Unable to help herself, she asked. "Monster?"
"It was his old sniper rifle that he terrorised the hive with. Where did it even go?"
"It's around somewhere. I think it is in my old storage, but I’d have to check."
"What did you modify?"
“Basically took it to eleven and changed out the ammo. It will still fulfil the same role and have even more stopping power, but now it shouldn’t irradiate everything around it. I might even fully change out the ammo so it won’t even irradiate the target either. I am still not convinced about its effectiveness.
"Really?" Kellen asked. "But there have been multiple accounts of it being highly effective."
"Maybe, maybe. Anyway this one and those like it will only go to a select few."
She didn’t need to be told the reason why that was. It was clear as day. The weapon was a masterwork, taking the already formidable weapon, improving the design and then strengthening it even further. She couldn't wait to replicate the feat. She could not quite create masterworks yet. She was so, so, so close. But had not quite made it over that hurdle. Much to her frustration.
"So then where are the weapons we will be testing?" Katra asked, making no effort to hide her impatience.
That was something she loved about the hive, or rather the people within it. Except Selina, she was scary. Lysa knew logically she could crush her; her bionics were the best Aleric could make and Kell made he spare with him still. And he didn’t go easy on her! She pouted at that.
Anyway, she was still scary. Helpful to be sure, but scary. Still, she had learned so much from her and Peggi. She thought she was already good at managing her subordinates but even an hour with them showed how much she had to learn.
Which was perfect. She had to be the best at managing the adepts under her for Aleric. It was the least she could do to pay him back for all he had done for her and Kell. She doubly loved the gang member for all the stories they had of him.
Katra had been the best at this. Not only that, but she took her to the coolest places. She'd taken her to this awesome bar where she had tried an alcoholic drink and mild hallucinogens for the first time. She had to manually not filter them out or metabolise them. The disadvantage of her awesome bionics.
Granted, maybe she should have been more careful. But it was hardly her fault, no matter the scalding she got from Aleric and Kell. Completely unfair in her opinion, it was her first time. How was she to know? Besides, she fixed up the table and chairs she'd wrecked… and the walls… and the building… and the street… and the, anyway, that wasn’t important.
She was purely innocent in this affair and anyone saying different was a lying liar. She was grinning to herself when Aleric waved to the far corner of the room. Having missed what was said, she quickly reviewed her auspex. Nothing important. Katra just wanted to know where the weapons were and Aleric telling Katra to be patient.
A rather pointless thing in her opinion. Katra didn’t seem to be the most patient person. At least not when on the job, she couldn't deny her skill and focus when she was. At first she had shared the same concerns as Kellen and had been dubious of her ability to protect Aleric.
She'd thought at the time it was just nostalgia that had hired her. That was quickly disproven when she sparred with Kellen, fighting him to a standstill when he limited himself to her capabilities. In actual fact, she had started to push him back as she learned his style. It wasn’t pretty or efficient and yet somehow it worked.
Now she had more advanced bionics… well, she wouldn’t want to fight her that was for sure. Her experience had also been invaluable.
Shaking her head she pushed Aleric and the others from her mind and went back to looking at the entertainment.
"Cookie." Kellen called, hurrying over to his new dog. "Don’t trouble Snuffles."
As if that would actually work, he had said that so many times she actually had an internal counter for it. 134,023.
Dogs and puppies were everything she had hoped they would be and were her new favourite thing. Not enough to want one. The thought of looking after and providing for another like that held no interest for her. Aleric was enough. But she adored playing with them.
She still regularly visited Gwen, her favourite person in the entire hive, even if she was a bit excitable and noisy. She talked so much, how someone could keep talking, she had no idea. But she was quite a quiet person anyway so that didn’t matter.
At first she went with Kell, but now went alone since he had no reason to go. The dog that had stolen his heart had been transferred over to him. It took longer than it should have, Kell being blind to something everyone else could see. But that was okay, she loved him anyway.
"She's fine." Katra said. “If Snuffles has had enough, he'll tell her.”
“If you're sure.” Kell said doubtfully.
“Positive.”
“Fine.” He backed away to watch the puppy trapped in the growing dog's body try to play fight a tank that was more than happy to play. Ever since the treatment, Snuffles wasn’t acting his age. She'd only even known him while he was old so it had been somewhat of a shock when he got his regen treatment and started to act… well, like a puppy.
She didn’t understand it at the time, but Aleric had been so happy. He spent hours upon hours playing with him—he still did. That had petered off a bit with Cookie for Snuffles to play with, who was a constant part of their lives now and was around to stay.
She was still a while off receiving her bionics, but Kell had already badgered Aleric to help him design and produce some.
She paused watching the adorable fight and sank deeper into the noosphere, her sub-cogitators having pinged her. Rapidly flicking through the reports she rolled her eyes and sent out a flurry of messages and orders. Thankfully most of her time wasn’t taken up by fools. Much of the management of her subordinates had been delegated, with them having grown into their positions.
That left her time to do the things she actually wanted to do, like the scientific experiments from Aleric's notes to her current project, which was a silicon-based lifeform. It had been referenced several times in some of Aleric's notes and had piqued her interest.
The notes themselves didn’t go into any more detail and Aleric had nothing else to add which he sometimes did. She’d noted that over the years—him gaining knowledge from seemingly nowhere. They had always been curious, well she had, Kellen not so much. If it didn’t affect him, he tended to leave it alone. Anyway, she had been curious, and still was, but Aleric had pulled them both aside one day and explained what he could.
It was also the first time he outright stated he didn’t agree with the Cult Mechanicus, not fully anyway. That had been a shock, although it shouldn’t have been looking back. Anyway, he'd asked them not to press him on his secret as it was something he couldn't and wouldn’t tell them and just for them to trust him. Which they both did implicitly.
Fourteen minutes later, Aleric stood, clapping his hands. "Right done. Shall we get testing?"
"Finally." Katra said.
The gear was spread across several tables. Much of it she recognised, even if it wasn’t exactly the same. It had been designed on the long flight to the hive, something she thought Aleric regretted. Even if it gave them time to train the acolytes to how they wanted.
Glancing over the specifications, the noosphere helping, she instantly categorised them into three distinct groups.
The first and smallest pile were Aleric's masterworks. Those that were impossible for most others to make and unless she was very much mistaken, he'd used his super-secret method that he still refused to show them, to enhance the gear even further.
He promised he would one day, and he always kept his promises, but that day couldn't come soon enough. He was waiting for them to progress far enough in his techniques and meditation. That was enough to force her to do the boring exercises, no matter how mind-numbingly tedious she found it.
At least they were making progress. Kell more than her.
The masterwork pile would of course be for only a select few. Her and Kell and now Katra went without saying. But any others would be gifted as rewards like the bionics. Only given to those who deserved it or went above and beyond on things.
The largest number had been given out after the Dark Eldar raid.
The second category were incredibly advanced and hard to mass produce. Only elite or important people would receive something from this. Like the conversion fields.
Finally, there was the largest pile and the lowest quality. While they were the worst, they were by no means bad. They were still several steps about anything she had seen used in bulk and these were the things the gang would mass produce.
She tuned out most of the testing, not being particularly interested in the weapons. Leaving that to Kell and Katra to play with them. There was quite the collection., although not many held her interest.
One such item was the modified heavy stubber only found in the masterworks, although he Aleric was working to get that into the other bands. He still hadn't named it and if he took much longer she would. But what drew her to it was the clever technology on the inside. For ammo any block of metal shoved into was enough. That was then converted to an alloy and slivers broken off and fired and hypersonic speeds.
These needles wouldn’t leave massive impacts but had an unbelievable penetration, over penetration in fact. Something that could be controlled by the gun if you were synced to it. IT could also modify the fletchette it shot on the fly. So longer narrow needles for armour, fracturing needles for softer infantry targets or heavy dense slugs.
Aleric had tried to fit in ways for more exotic effects but hadn't been able to create a stable enough machine for it. His current attempts had the nasty habit of blowing up at the slightest knock—and she might not be the best at combat but even she knew that might… just might happen on the battle field.
But he hadn't given up and already had several other ideas for it. The las weapons had inspired him.
Anyway what interested her the most weren't the weapons but the armour. Each fully enclosed power armour looked remarkably similar. The masterwork was clearly more refined, but at distance it would be hard to tell them apart. She suspected that was by design; regardless, she couldn't wait for hers.
It was here if anything, rather than the weapons that had the biggest discrepancy between the different bands, with the masterworks being heads and shoulders above the rest—supposedly. Today's testing would determine how true that was.
They looked awesome and very heretical, at least to her eyes. They had sleek, flowing lines rather than the more bulky and blocky armour that was common in the Imperium. The elite was a bit bulkier, needing it to be to provide a decent level of protection. The masterworks on the hand were much flusher to the skin. She would be able to wear it under her robes with no one the wiser.
There was a noticeable change in the more rugged armour sets. It became much closer to carapace armour, still very much refined and better than any the hive world would have available. But not too far off what the Court had access to before when Aleric was making it for them. The main difference was the materials used. They were significantly better than the normal materials used, but not so advanced that they couldn't be produced in the hive.
She would know, having overseen the refurbishment of the manufactorum herself.
The major thing that stood out was the prototype weight assist, basically an exoskeleton built into the armour to help the wearer. It put it somewhere between power armour and unpowered armour. Kell had been very critical of it and she could see his points.
But their testing today would see if the add-on was worth it or just got in the way and more to the point, how sturdy and reliable it was.
While all that was impressive and looked cool, a lot of the technology was under the hood, so to speak. Both in the materials used and the helmets. With each helmet, even the carapace one, having an internal display and sensors. Not to mention the environmental controls and shielding lining the suits that should block out external environmental factors.
They would see just what levels they could survive today.
Off in the distance were a number of vehicles, tanks and gunships. All prototypes and still in the development phases. They would not be ready for testing for a good few months yet. What drew her particular interest were the viodcraft. They were even longer off, but that would be something she'd pay attention to.
Not least because she'd helped make them. Large parts of it went over her head, at least for now, but taking part in Aleric's creations always advanced her knowledge by leaps and bounds.
She sat back enjoying the atmosphere, as Cookie and Snuffles trotted over and lay their heads on her lap. Stroking them absentmindedly, she watched on as the others tested the weapons to breaking point.
Most of the day passed before they finished testing. When they did, they gathered round, Aleric dropping into a stool next to her. He leaned back, feet up on the table, his mechadendrites snaking from his back and clamped onto the stool and table to stop him from falling over backwards.
"So, thoughts?" he asked.
"Adequate." Katra said, her face set. But Lysa had been around her enough to have refined her algorithms to detect the twitching of her lips.
"Ha ha. Very funny."
"Thank you." She said, chuckling. "But in all seriousness, about what I expected and yet still so much better. The masterworks are insane. I felt like a god wearing the armour and you are definitely making one for me. Even with my bionics it enhanced everything I did, not to mention the beating it could take. I still have no idea how such a thin layer could protect as well as it did."
"Well, it is—"
"And I have no interest in learning either." Katra cut him off with a pointed look. To which Aleric poked his tongue out at her. Something she had rarely, if ever, seen him do before they came back to the hive. If nothing else, that alone had been good for him, speaking to his friends from before.
"Anything else to add?" Aleric asked, a small smile still on his face.
"The heavy machine gun… what was it called again?"
"It doesn’t have a name yet but I am open for suggestions?"
"Yeah that. That was very good and I want one. With my enhancements and the suit if felt like a normal rifle. But overall, I found myself impressed the most with the ruggedised ones."
"Really?" Kell said, surprised. "I found the more sophisticated versions to be superior.
Katra nodded from her seat. "That makes sense. You would."
"What does that mean?" Kell asked, confused. Not offended, he just didn’t follow her logic, although Lysa could kind of see where Katra was coming from.
Katra laughed, waving her hand reassuringly. "Nothing. Nothing. You just haven't seen what bored soldiers can get up to. So I prize the ruggedness of the design, so when some twat does something particularly stupid with the gun. Like I saw one bellend guarding a checkpoint started to twirl his rifle around his finger.
Not a problem normally. At least not until he dropped it out the window of a 15-story drop. So something that is nigh impossible to break or damage and can be repaired with spit and hope is a good thing."
"Huh. Makes sense. Skitarii and Mechanicus members would not disrespect a weapon in such a way." Kell said thoughtfully, his hands scratching Cookie's chin, having trotted over to him as he sat down.
They carried on chatting through the gear, pointing out faults they found or improvements that should be considered. They settled into a comfortable silence when Katra broke out into a chuckle, shaking her head.
“What?” Aleric asked.
“Nothing. Just thinking how far we have come. I mean, look at this place. Go back 30 years and if you had told me some hiver would be able to do all this, I would have laughed at them. Hell, I never had you pegged surviving.”
“Why's that?” Aleric asked, interested.
“Too soft.” She said with another shrug. “Don’t get me wrong, you were always skilled, but you were always lost in your own little world, and I didn’t think you had the stomach to cut it out long term. Like you remember that time in the building?”
“No. You might need to narrow that down a bit. I have been in quite a few buildings.”
“The one where you sniped someone. We had that massive fuck off climb to get to it.”
“Errmmm… Oh yeah, right I remember. It was an amazing shot. Yeah that was…" Aleric faded off, his eyes drifting into the distance, lost in thought.
Katra, seemingly not noticing, carried on. "Or your experiments. Remember how reluctant you were to experiment on the mastiff when modifying the bionics? But now you are willing to experiment on that kid in orbit. A tough but justified and sensible call in my opinion."
Aleric chuckled, nodding at her. "I do." But his eyes were still lost in thought. When the smile faded, it faded to a closed blank face. Others who didn’t know him better might not see it. But she picked up his tells, the tension in his jaw, the mask. Clearly the comments had affected him more than he was willing to show.
"Anyway. When will the vehicles be ready for testing? You promised me a drive in the tank!" Katra said, changing the subject. Maybe she had picked up on it as well.
Aleric was still distracted, but joined in again after a few minutes. They were just clearing up the weapons, many of which were broken beyond repair, when Katra muttered to herself. "Jeraks would have loved these."
Aleric just sighed and nodded sadly, reaching out to squeeze her shoulder. As the silence persisted, Lysa's thoughts drifted into the past and her own losses.
Her mother she could barely remember these days. Thankfully Aleric had found some images of her, so she knew what she looked like. But other than that, the memories had almost fully faded; only the loving warmth and her smell had remained. Not the worst thing in the world. She had a few fond memories of her. That was enough.
Her father was far more complicated. She still remembered him as the deeply loving man, the strongest person in the world and her hero, but that had been tainted for many years by his passing. He hadn't survived long after they met him that first time.
She had only been able to see him a few more times after that before the end. She didn’t understand at the time and thought he wasn’t eating enough. He looked so gaunt. She just couldn’t understand it. He had been moved to a very nice shift. She and Kell had snuck out and watched.
It was only when she overheard Kell and Aleric when they thought she was asleep did she get a bigger picture. And even then, it was only years later that it actually made sense. Nothing to live for? She was there. Why did he have to leave too?
But now with hindsight, it made a kind of sense, as much as it still hurt to think about. With them safe and going onto better things, he had secured their futures and had just given up. He didn’t stop eating or working or anything like that. His body could have gone on, but the soul could not and within months he went downhill and passed.
She was forever grateful to Aleric, something she only found out by looking years later, that he had pulled some strings and let her father pass on and not be converted.
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PointsImperium: 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 4) - XImperium: 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