Chương 20: Chapter Nineteen - Pushed

Alexis moved over to one side of the large communications room, feeling more than a little awkward as people stared at her. There was an air of hostility in the room that wasn't necessarily aimed at her, but she was certainly close to where it was aimed. She supposed that she understood. She had shown up, unasked. That wasn't something that most Acolytes did. There was an order to things. One didn't simply volunteer their time, even if it was all eventually in the service of the Omnissiah.

Better to wait and be asked than to show up and take space. That, and she didn't recognize anyone here, so they likely didn't recognize her in turn. That meant that she could be an enemy actor. Obviously, she wasn't, she knew that, but it didn't stop her from feeling a bit awkward.

So, after making sure that the Tech Priest whose body she had found was carefully placed next to the other bodies of those who had died, she moved away, but not before folding his arms over his chest and intertwining his fingers together, as though he had passed making the sign of the cog. It wasn't much, but some amount of dignity was deserved. She moved to the corner, where a heap of servitors had been discarded like broken toys. It made her stomach twist a little to see so many destroyed servitors.

Some of these she may have helped before. She gestured her friends forwards and they set down CS-3-2/11 onto the ground. It was a little out in the open, and she found herself feeling rather self-conscious, but... well, there was work to get done. Kneeling, she pulled out her tools and started to undo some of the housings around her new servitor's legs even as she connected to it... her, with her datapad and checked through the servitor's functions.

This one wasn't made from a vat-grown subject, so the organic parts had been a real person, once. Alexis reached up and touched the remains of an aquila tattoo on the servitor's upper back. It had been ruined when the servitorization implants were installed. She sighed and got back to work. One leg was crushed beyond easy repair. The actuator had popped out of place, and there was a leak. Worse, some of the steel had simply sheared off.

She removed both legs just below the knees then walked over to her spare parts pile... that was, the pile of dead servitors. She returned with two newer legs. A bit thinner, but they were taller, and of a better make. She screwed those into place, then ran some diagnostics. It came back acceptable, though a slight application of sacred oils couldn't hurt. When was the last time any of these servitors had had maintenance? Shaking her head, she started on the next most-damaged part. The combat servitor's main gun.

It was a heavy arc rifle, and it was messed up really badly. The gun had taken a hard blow from above, and all of the radiating fins were bent right out of shape. Opening a side panel, she discovered that the insides weren't much better. Several wires had been clipped apart when the gun's chassis was crushed and the liquid-cooling unit had leaked all over the insides. Was it repairable? Yes. Could she do it? No.

Alexis stood, intent on removing the entire weapon to find a replacement when she jumped almost out of her robes on noticing someone standing just steps behind.

"Ah! Uh, hi!"

"Greetings," the Tech Priest replied. Their voice was nasally, as if they were talking with a pinched nose, but it still came out as somewhat feminine, an impression that grew as Alexis looked them up and down. There was a definite pinch in their robes that suggested that they were a woman. Or they just had interesting biotics under there?

"Hello? Can I help you?"

"I was observing," they said. They continued to stare. Half of their face was replaced by a trio of augmetic eyes. The other half had a perfectly normal eye.

"Feel, ah, free?" she said.

"I'm just repairing CS-3-2/11 here. They took some pretty bad damage, but I can get them back up to a functional state in no time!"

"I observed as much," they replied.

"W-what's your name? I'm Alexis Lambda-3!" She paused, then extended a hand for a shake. Her hand was covered in sacred oils and some other fluids, so she pulled it back a moment later to wipe it on a piece of cloth.

"Sorry."

"Accepted. Why are you here?"

"Uh, I wanted to help?" The Tech Priest stared.

"Improbable." The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Huh? I mean... maybe? But that doesn't make it not true." She smiled for good measure.

"Do you work here?"

"I am Transmechanic Alma-9. I work here, yes. Your presence is unusual."

"Sorry about that. But I think a lot of unusual things are happening today." Alma-9 froze, then nodded.

"Understood. Are you a Servitor Underseer?" She shook her head.

"No. Not yet, in any case. I'm just a Tech Acolyte. I work under Servitor Overseer Ash-Theta most of the time."

"He is known," Alma-9 said. She turned her hooded head and scanned the room, then returned her attention to Alexis.

"I will do you a favour."

"You will?" Alexis asked.

"I suggest you vacate the premises. We have been suffering from frequent attacks. Judging by vox signals, the next is incoming. Your limited capabilities will add nothing to our defences." Alexis stood a little taller at that.

"I appreciate it, Alma-9. But I am... not that bad of a fighter. I've fought a dozen genestealers already today. I believe in myself. And in my friends." She gestured to her companions. That, however, proved to be a mistake. High Transmechanic Dracovos spun around from across the room, then shot over so quickly that Alexis found herself stumbling back.

"Thou art a greater fool, then," he hissed.

"Alma-9, return to your station."

"As directed," Alma-9 replied before bowing and stepping away. Dracovos turned his attention back onto Alexis and she found herself shrinking back.

"If you will stand in our way, then I will insist that you do the same for the adversary. Junction 54 on Deck QG2-5. The enemy will cross that location. Go there now. Buy us time." She swallowed. Wasn't that one of the junctions she had passed, the one with a lot of bodies in it? There were a few barricades and nothing else there.

"Y-you're asking me to die?"

"Your loss would be insignificant. You have already imposed on our courtesy." Alexis froze, nodded, then screwed up her courage.

"F-fine then. But I won't be working for you for a year."

"I have no need for a corpse." Alexis narrowed her eyes.

"What merit would I gain if I succeed?" she asked. Dracovos' mechadendrite spun around, grasping claw opened and heading for her neck. It was intercepted halfway by KYS' saw. Sparks flew, then the scene paused. 054-648 was pointing his heavy rivet gun at the High Transmechanic. K84-321's extendable saw was out, and the servitor had taken a heavy step closer to loom menacingly nearby. Dracovos stared at her, and even if he had no eyes, she could read the hatred in his expression.

"Depart. Do not linger in my station any longer."

"Fine," Alexis replied before stepping back. Her friends lowered their weapons. She wanted to shake. That... she had stood up to a superior, someone several rungs up the ladder from her. In any normal circumstance, she'd be turned into corpse starch, or a servo skull placed in a lavatory! She picked up her things, then commanded CS-3-2/11 to follow along. The Voidsmen-at-arms guarding the entrance let her out, and it was only once she was gone that she allowed herself to start shaking. She was so dead!

"What will you do now?" She swallowed.

"I... I guess I need to do what he said. T-technically I didn't break any rules, right? I only asked for a reward for my work, that's not against anything. It's just, maybe a little rude. But if I run away, then he'd be allowed to do whatever he wants. So I need to, ah, be better than him."

"I see. That's a brave choice to make. I estimate that several dozen genestealers will be pushing through that junction within the next half hour." Alexis stepped it up, walking faster while her mind went to work. Could they barricade the passage better? Could she take on that many of them? If they came in a trickle, then maybe? She'd have to buy upgrades for her friends as she went.

"Why are they coming this way?" she asked.

"I don't know, but I speculate that the genestealers use something to communicate with each other, or with another organism further out. They were cut off from that at the moment of the crash. It's possible that by taking over the communications suite of the ship, they intend to make up for that loss somehow. That is merely speculation."

"I see. Well, we won't let them have it, then," Alexis said.

"The look on that jerk's face when I show off a heap of dead enemies will be priceless! But... uh, let's focus on surviving that long, first."