Chương 11: Chapter Ten - Tool Use

"Here you go," Alexis muttered as she finished up and closed one of the panels behind 054-648's back plate. The damage was less from the fight and more from casual wear and tear. The servitor's usual task had him moving about very little, but they had been traversing entire decks, and he had probably rolled around more today than he had in the last year. Really, whoever had turned 054-648 into a servitor had done a very poor job of it.

"Are you feeling better?" she asked. The fleshy bits didn't so much as twitch, but her dataslate beeped, and she saw a confirmation code scrolling across it. Smiling, she unhooked it from the servitor's chassis and slid the slate into the biggest pocket of her satchel. Then she looked at the monsters they had faced. The three genestealers had been carefully shoved into the middle of the corridor into a heap by K84-321.

When a crew came down to clean the place up, they wouldn't have any difficulty finding them, which she hoped would help.

"Were those... really genestealers?" she asked.

"According to the databases on this ship, yes. They match the profile for a fresh genestealer. These three may have been born human, but their genes were altered to turn them into what they are now." Alexis swallowed, then shook off the fear.

"Okay, then." She wasn't sure what to say about that, but... yeah, it was a lot.

"We did well, right?"

"No significant injuries incurred. Three enemies downed. A categorical success." She couldn't help the smile that stole onto her lips.

"Good!" It wasn't often that a superior praised her, so she would take what she could get!

"Now... we could have done better, I think." Alexis rubbed at her front where she was pretty sure she was going to bruise. Her red robes had a big tear running across them, but the bodysuit underneath was just fine. The scratch hadn't penetrated it at all, though it had left a small mark on the material. That was fine! The armour had done its job.

"Improvements are possible, yes. In tactics, approach, and gear. You have earned thirty points from the battle." Thirty points! That was... twenty short of the catalogue she wanted to buy. Alexis frowned. That meant she had...

"How many points do I have now, Miss Vyper?"

"You currently have 82 points." She wasn't good at numbers, but even she could subtract fifty from eighty.

"Okay. I think I want that basic tools catalogue, please? If... if I spent twenty points after that on tools, I'll have, uh, twelve points left?"

"Correct. Purchasing now!" New Purchase: Basic Tools Points Reduced to: 32 She winced at how small the number had gotten, but that was okay. She'd work it back up!

"Alright! Well, I think all of you deserve some nice new tools, but I don't know what I can afford with only thirty points. Plus, I should probably keep a few, in case I get hurt, or need them for an emergency. That would be wise." Alexis frowned and looked over 054-648, then she reconnected her dataslate into the servitor and looked into a few things. He had a minor cogitator uplink. A sort of crude MIU, or mind impulse unit.

It allowed any sufficiently trained member of the Mechanicus to send commands to a servitor directly, either through the noosphere, or via other means. She was able to poke and prod at it for a moment before she nodded along. There were some indications that 054-648 had some amount of practical experience with some tools, including a rivet gun.

"Hey, 054-648, if I equipped you with a ranged... tool, like a rivet gun, or a plasma torch, would you be able to aim it correctly?" she asked. Her dataslate beeped several seconds later. A confirmation. She smiled, then patted the servitor. She... had a lot of sympathy for servitors. A lot of people didn't. They sometimes preferred to think of them as things rather than people, and she understood that. People had personalities, and self-awareness, and agency. But servitors did have that! Not a lot, admittedly.

Their personalities sometimes took a long time to discover, but she had seen servitors that were rude, or unhelpful, or even kind, in their own way. Sometimes they would open doors for people when it wasn't necessary for them to do so, and that was enough for her to decide that they could be... individuals. Even if it was in a limited way. As for self-awareness and agency, those were... a lot hampered by their servitorization.

It was an unfortunate statistic, but the moment a servitor's augmetics started to wear off or wear out, something like sixty percent of servitors found a way to cease their own functioning. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. Fortunately, most servitors were vat-grown. Those had nearly no personality to speak of, and they were a lot more compliant. The not-vat grown ones, like her three friends here, were a little more willful. They had been people, once.

"Machine Spirit Vyper?" she asked.

"I'm listening." Alexis licked her lips.

"What kind of tool could I afford for 054-648 here that has a decent ranged option?"

"I've noticed you looking at his capabilities with a rivet gun. I can provide one which can interface into his arm directly. A Type 57 Pneumatic Rivet Gun would work. It has a drum which holds sixty smaller calibre rivets and ten larger ones. It's comparable to an Imperial standard autopistol up to a bolter in terms of kinetic capability."

"And it'll fit with his, uh," she paused to lean forwards and look at the interface, then she squinted and read off the serial number on it.

"Yes. It would cost 15 points. Ammunition reloads would cost one point each, though you can use standard bulkhead rivets as well."

"Well then!" she said.

"I think we'll try that!" New Purchase: Type 57 Pneumatic Rivet Gun Points Reduced to: 17 The box that appeared was a little more utilitarian-looking than the previous ones. She opened it up, then stared, then she started to giggle. The Type 57 Pneumatic Rivet Gun wasn't pretty. It was a heavy industrial tool. Still, the lack of any sort of decoration didn't make it not beautiful. The gun was a chunky, bulky thing, but it looked capable.

The kind of tool that would serve for ten thousand years with only minimal maintenance. She grunted, trying to lift it, then K84-321 came over and helped. With that, she was able to unhook and disconnect 054-648's arm and slot the Type 57 into place. Everything clicked satisfyingly, and her dataslate beeped as the connections were established with ease.

"Accuracy may suffer slightly. You may want to consider eventually improving your allies with targeting assistance modules. And additional armour to protect your investment."

"Yup! Soon!" she agreed before pointing at the far wall.

"Can you shoot at the middle of that bulkhead over there? Aim for the skull?" 054-648 spun, then carefully aimed. There was a powerful ker-klunk, then a hiss of steam. The far wall cracked as a rivet rammed into it then bounced off, leaving a fist-sized dent about three feet away from the skull. The next shot was a little closer. The third chipped the skull.

"Nice!" Alexis shouted.

"Okay! Let's save our ammo! Uh, who wants to go next?" KYS raised a saw-bladed arm. For her, Alexis opted for a better backpack. It wasn't much, but that was kind of the point. New Purchase: Type 89 Multi-Purpose Universal Pack. Points Reduced to: 12 The backpack was a matte black, and other than being exceptionally well made, it wasn't that special.

Still, she transferred KYS into it from the carry pack, and when she grunted and moved the servitor up and onto her back, she could immediately tell that this was better. KYS was a lot more stable, and her range of motion wasn't as limited.

"Okay, now for you," she muttered as she looked over K84-321. The Industrial Servitor had no connections for anything too complicated, and a bigger gun might unbalance him on his stubby metal legs. So, she started to wonder about his current gear. He had two large, mechanical grabber arms, and they were perfectly serviceable and able to grab onto things well. But then what?

"I think we need something like an extendable saw," she decided. It took a bit of discussing, but eventually she settled on a choice. New Purchase: Type 18 Gimbaled Pruning Saw Points Reduced to: 2 The saw had a base that had holes and bolts perfectly situated to connect to K84-321's hips, and a small uplink into the back of the domed head he had. The saw itself had three arms with mechanical joints and pistons that let them extend a little.

The saw itself was only two handspans long, and was rather delicate-looking, but it was still rather tough. Now, when he grabbed onto something, he could prune it. Plus, the humming sound from the saw was nice and growly and made him seem fierce. She liked it. It could move with surprising speed as well, and its range wasn't to be underestimated.

"Okay," she said.

"Two points left is... not a lot, but it'll have to do! Vyper, where can we find more genestealers? Like, just a few of them, though? I don't know if we're ready for more than that."

"Of course. According to local vox reports, there should be some fighting nearby. A group of the ship's guards are combatting them now."

"Well, let's go give them a hand, then!"