Chương 25: Chapter 24: Now this is hull racing.

POV: Nicole As I head towards the Pilot Chambers I realize it has been over a week since I stopped by the simulation pods. My Psychic lessons, the Tyranids, my crafting projects, and now the hunt for the Ordinatus cut into that time block. As I walk towards the bays a man breaks off from their group and approaches me despite my imposing cadre of guards.

"Pardon me, Princeps, could you possibly spare a few minutes of your time?" He salutes and asks politely. I look over and scan his flight suit, finding his rank insignia and digital identifiers from his MIU "Flight Captain Ace Grenada." I reply curtly before reaching up to pull back my hood enough to expose my face and look up. I hide an amused smirk as he stiffens in surprise and swallows as we make eye contact.

"What is the nature of your issue?" I ask out of curiosity. He coughs and stands at rest "I assume you are the individual using the identifier PriN on the leaderboards?" When I give him a nod his eyes light up.

"Myself and some of the other pilots would be grateful if you could answer some queries we had regarding some of the scenarios."

"Oh! Is that all? I can spare a few minutes." I say before gesturing for him to lead the way. He takes me over to the social area and offers me a central seat. My guards loiter behind me a little ways away with the guardian automata. Several of the other pilots have quieted and are sneaking glances over as he sits across from me.

"To start with, scenario O45C-T how did you complete it so quickly?" He asks and I break into an amused smile.

"I rammed it." I say getting a blink of confusion from Ace.

"That scenario is a trick. It's not really about effectively completing the mission. It's designed to test your willingness to do the extreme. The rating of the threat you have to face would normally result in that entire hive being purged from orbit. So I loaded an Arvus with the largest payload and went in a straight line. The Arvus was the only unit that could survive partial reentry at maximum acceleration. Survival is not one of the criteria for the scenario." I explain to him with a small wry grin.

Ace is staring at me wide-eyed, several of the pilots listening in have dropped their jaws and are no longer being subtle as I explain how I achieved my time.

"That's… amazing." He whispers and I can see the gears turning in his mind.

"What about…" He queries me about several of the other scenarios which I answer honestly. Some have clever tricks or hidden gimmicks but some I admit I did well due to my innate advantages. We end up drawing a modest but respectful crowd, including two Star Dragon pilots: Brother Gelis and Brother Arakim.

"Thank you for answering all my questions, Princeps." Ace bows lower than is strictly necessary. I wave it off "No problem at all. Your completion times are impressive for a normal human. Keeping up with an Astartes or someone with my level of MIU integration shows impressive levels of talent." He smiles wryly "I do my best. Have you considered trying some of the group simulations? I'd love to give dogfighting with or against you a try." He asks and a lot of the others perk up.

"I hadn't. My lack of experience would likely prove highly detrimental in such a situation." I notice a lot of expressions start to drop.

"However perhaps a group race would be more suitable than a dogfight." I suggest making Ace perk up.

"A race? What kind of race did you have in mind?" Ace asks.

"A Trench Run, three segments of the Argent Drake. Port, Starboard, and then Dorsal from nose to stern. If we want to make it interesting we turn point defense on for the dorsal segment. Everyone can take the craft they most prefer." I suggest. A good number of the newer pilots look confused.

"What's a trench run?"

"A trench run is when you have to stay within the confines of a ship's void shields the entire time dodging the hull, pieces of the superstructure, and point defenses all the while sticking as close as you can to the vessel. It's an absurdly dangerous high-risk maneuver that takes immense skill to perform. It's also known by other affectionate terms such as threading the needle, hull scraping, or a dead man's run." Ace explains loudly while unable to keep the eager grin off his face.

"Princeps, we wish to participate in this race." Brother Gelis and Brother Arakim interjects as they step forward.

"Of course! We can open it up to as many individuals as we have simulators. I'll need about half an hour to set up the simulation as the base model of The Argent Drake doesn't quite have the level of fidelity I want. Luckily I have the most recent full-definition hull scans on hand." I tell them getting nods from the Astartes as the pilots start eagerly discussing the race in small groups.

"Oh, the race settings will be tuned for maximum realism, everyone." I inform the eager pilots. Most of the sims were realistic but some limited the effects of stresses on the body but at the maximum settings the simulation pods could get incredibly close to the real thing. I quickly send off a few messages informing my contacts of the virtual race. One to Master Doll, the Magi, Arianwyn, the Dreadnoughts, a few other tech Priests I've worked with, and Lael who is taking a day off from guard duty.

They should be able to tune in and watch a stream of the sim-race which should be good entertainment. I don't think I am the only one with such thoughts as some of the support staff are already fiddling with the primary display screens in the lounge. I head off to one of the few free simulator rooms to log in and finish checking over the map and making sure everything is properly tuned. —--------------------------------------- Location: Lounge"Welcome one and all to our very first simulated race!

I am your host, Sergeant Jari Su." Jari was sitting down with just his face appearing in a small box in the corner of the video stream along with three other little boxes.

"With me are Captain Felixis of the Felinid scouts." Jari introduced him as the face of a lithe man with cat ears who appeared in one of the boxes.

"I am only here because Lady Magna asked me to speak. Do I need to say something nyan?" Felixis asked as he got settled into his chair, his voice oddly smooth and pleasant to the ears.

"Nope! Along with him is my buddy, Tech Priest L3-3T." Jari said as he brushed off Felixis's comment.

"You asked me to be here. I am the only individual present capable of logging into the simulation to serve as the primary observer. Your knowledge of Imperial Aeronautica is also lacking." L3-3T replied curtly while plugged into the ship's cogitator network and maneuvered the point of view to look over a slew of voidcraft arrayed in neat lines in space.

"And last but not least we have a very special guest. Lucius Grenada, the Master Helmsman of the Argent Drake and father of Ace Grenada, one of our favored racers." Jari spoke with a flourish.

"Heh, yeah that's me. This should be fun to watch." The gruff older voice said. No face appeared but an icon of the Drakios House lit up when he spoke instead.

"Thank you, Sir. Now according to the simulation parameters that we are seeing there are no restrictions to the type of voidcraft and the settings on the simulation have been set to be as realistic as possible. Would you care to explain how the race works Master Grenada?" Jari asks while peeking in as the number of individuals tuning in to their little impromptu commentary show for the race.

"Ehh? Alright. This is a Trench Run. They're starting at the tip of the Prow. They'll have to stick close to the hull dodging and weaving their way across the port decks through the engines and then back again through the starboard decks. After those two legs of the race, the third leg goes up through the dorsal exterior of the ship. If a pilot drifts too far from the ship, they will be shot by the point defenses, though I think the point defenses will be on for the third leg anyway. That's going to get messy."

Lucius said amused.

"Right! There seem to be a few favored individuals based on the public discussions in the chatroom for this stream. Two Astartes pilots are participating, your son Ace is heavily favored, and the one who organized this little impromptu event, our resident Princeps, Lady Nicole Cavalerio." Jari says with a small chuckle.

"It looks like they have finished selecting their vehicles nyow." Felixis pointed out.

"Yes, it looks like Ace and Nicole are both in Fury Interceptors. Both our Astartes have chosen fighter loadout variants of the Thunderhawk. Ace is piloting a replica of his actual fighter. Meanwhile, Nicole is using a variant I am unfamiliar with but looks like it lacks a nose gunner." Jari commented trying to get a response from L3-3T or Lucius.

"That's the singleton variant." Lucius muttered "A Fury typically has four crew minimum. A pilot, a co-pilot, a crew chief who also acts as the forward gunner, and an Enginseer. Some of the scout versions toss an astropath and another crewman navigator. That variant has one crew member who has to micro-manage all the jobs while piloting." Lucius explained with a small chuckle.

"Is there a reason no one else chose that variant?" Jari asked as he looked at the rest of the craft on the list.

"Because it would kill them." Lucius snorted.

"Extensive augmentation and advanced MIU interface ports are required to operate the craft in such a way. In addition, the individual must sustain the physical strain of operation along with the mental strain of all subprocesses." L3-3T spoke curtly.

"The Calixis Pattern Fury Interceptor has the highest cruising speed of the available Imperial starfighters while also boasting decent maneuverability." L3-3T added with a small warbling beep.

"The fastest and most maneuverable craft for this would be the Swiftdeath Fighter, but that pattern is almost exclusively used by the Archenemy so no surprise no one is using it." Lucius commended off-handedly.

"Oh, I can see The Argent Drake in the background. Mag-nya-ficent." Felixix said with a faint purr.

"Yes, this is a bit of a treat for anyone who hasn't seen the profile of our lovely ship externally. The Argent Drake sports a sleek pleasing aesthetic despite her massive size. She looks smooth from a distance but the closer you get the more pieces you will see sticking out." Lucius said in a tender tone.

"The countdown to start the race has begun! L3-3T can you zoom us back in please?" Jari asked as he leaned forward. All the eyes tuning in focused on the screen and then abruptly the void craft all surged forward. However a dozen or so of the craft accelerated faster than the rest.

"What's going on there?" Jari asked his panel.

"They hot launched. Takes a lot of finesse and skill to do it without overheating the engines." Lucius explained softly as the craft zoomed forward and got in close to the hull of the Argent Drake.

"Oh! Towards the back of the pack. We have our first two losses. It looks like a pair of pilots suffered a collision. Unfortunate." Jari called out shaking his head.

"The primary issue with this kind of race is that you want to keep your speed high but if you don't have the reaction speed, control, and a bit of luck you're gonna slam into something. The Argent Drake isn't going to be all that bothered by a gnat smacking her hull, but you also need to maintain constant spatial awareness." Lucius hummed as the vessels entered the first hazard area, the macrocannon batteries.

"The glorious macrocannons of the Hecutor-pattern Plasma Broadside. Praise the Omnissiah!" L3-3T spoke reverently. The massive extruding barrels helped break up the pack of voidcraft as they had to weave between the ship-grade weapons.

"We have another pilot down! They tried to fly around the outer side and exceeded the maximum distance from the ship and got nailed by a point defense laser!" The explosion briefly appeared in the background as L3-3T moved to the point of view to follow the leading craft.

"At least they should have a fairly easy time when-nya they reach the hangars right?" Felixis asked.

"You would think the smooth flat stretch of the hangar bay would not be much of a challenge. However, it seems like Nicole has arranged for the hangars to be launching waves of shark assault boats and support craft!" Jari said excitedly.

"The launches have been scrambled and staggered. Normally we would launch them in waves." Lucius commented as he watched the lead craft as it rolled and skirted past the launching craft, missing them by inches in some cases. Further back a series of explosions took place as the pack was further thinned by an unlucky collision.

"They're pushing their craft hard! That's a lot of g-forces they experience when they pull off those quick course corrections." Jari said as they watched the ship's best pilots race. The fact nearly a dozen pilots had crashed out already was both humbling and exciting.

"It appears the pack is spreading out further. The leaders are approaching the drive cones" Felixis pointed out as the dozen of lead craft made their way through the rather unobstructed and well armored aft section of the ship that guarded the Engineerium and various internals before transitioning to the drive cones.

"Leg two of the race is essentially leg one only in reverse. I expect those who make it around will have hit their stride and warmed up enough to handle it. The real mess starts with leg three. The dorsal side of the ship houses the lance turrets, massive sensor spires, and other protrusive components. It's a much more varied terrain." Lucius pointed out.

Even to the untrained eye, the viewers could tell the various pilots completed the inverse second leg of the race in a fraction of the time and with far more grace. Several of the lead craft performed flashy maneuvers when it was viable to do so without slowing their pace when simpler adjustments would have had similar results.

"Our four favorites are in the lead, but we have a few surprises in the top ten." Jari mentioned with a small grin.

"As you said, Lucius, it looks like no one got knocked out on the second leg, though it did spread out our pilots. The frontrunners are making the turn around the prow facing the Argent Drake head-on and entering leg three!"

"Up past the torpedo tubes they go! The sloped frontal armor of the ship is thicker than you think. You need salvos from macro weapons or the directed piercing of lance to punch through it. They are about to enter the labyrinth of spires. This is where it gets interesting!" Lucius spoke eagerly.

"It does look quite complicated but it's just the start of the leg so why would it be…" Jari got cut off as point defense lasers lashed out prompting dramatic evasive maneuvers from everyone.

"Question retracted. I forgot about the point defenses. Wow, that is a lot of lasers."

"Ehh, that's only a fraction of them. Little below half I think, which is fair." Lucius mentioned casually.

"How does our point defense system compare to other vessels?" Felixis asked.

"We have better point defense than the average Imperial battleship." Lucius declared calmly. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"That sounds like a lot." Jari commented.

"It is." L3-3T said.

"A wondrously potent and harmonious system gifted by the Omnissiah."

"There's the first lance turret. It looks like it split our leader pack in half." Jari muttered as he leaned forward.

"Oh! Someone just lost one of their wing weapons going through a tight squeeze! Who was that? Oh, it was Nicole!" Jari announced excitedly.

"Mmm, that was close but might help her in the end." Lucius commented.

"Why would it help, nya?" Felixis queried.

"Less mass. If my guess is right she might have done it intentionally." Lucius spoke and moments later was proven right as Nicole went through another gap but angled her craft in a manner that the weapon on the opposite side got clipped off.

"The rest of the racers have entered leg three and we just lost three to point defense shots and two made wrong turns and found unfortunate dead ends in the maze of metal." Jari said as his eyes darted back and forth.

"A sharp dive as they reach the middle part of the ship. Throne! Someone just clipped a radio tower and went spiraling off into a lance turret!"

"This is the hard part. The hull is all sloped upwards for the most part in the last section but if they go over a gap and stray too far the point defense will get worse." Lucius mentioned as the voidcraft shot forward.

"They have to get around the turret and then over the observation dome. It's a hard vertical climb up past the bridge, up around and over the ledge, past the navigator sanctum to the sensor spires and the finish line."

"Ace just pulled ahead with a beautiful over-under maneuver!" Jari called out "The two Astartes have split up, each taking a side for the last segment. The Princeps… hmmm what is she doing?" Jari asked as Nicole seemed to be headed in an unusual direction.

"She's being bold. I suggest no one else ever attempt what she is about to do outside a simulation." Lucius commented. Nicole's craft got thrown into some high-g barrel rolls as she corkscrewed upwards around a curved portion of the exposed hull, taking a few glancing shots from the point defense as she red-lined her engines. The maneuver Nicole performed worked but wasn't without cost and she still had to vault the bridge and finish the race.

Ace was right there as were the two Astartes who had both opted to tank a few fits and rush for the final stretch.

"Oh, this is going down to the wire! Who's it going to be!?" Jari cried out as the rest of the casters watched closely. Nicole's interceptor wobbled as an unlucky grazing hit caused one of the missiles on her wing to cook off and slow her down just enough. One of the Astartes lost an engine as it sputtered explosively and began spewing flames into the void just a few seconds from the finish line.

Ace and Brother Gelis were neck and neck, Ace lost a large armored panel to a shot of flak while Brother Gelis lost a tail fin as they rocketed across the finish in parallel.

"Oh man, what a finish! It looks like we have a tie between Ace and Brother Gelis! According to the data Ace's Fury crossed the line first but Brother Gelis crossed it first both by a difference in microseconds followed less than a second later by Princeps Nicole and Brother Arakim."

"If any of those last few hits had been worse or better across the final four the outcome was close enough that it came down to luck." Lucius declared "I think a tie is appropriate. I'm proud of Ace for doing so well."

"I think that's it for now. It seems like the rest are trickling across the finish line. I am sure the pilot trainers are going to love using this footage later. Thanks for watching with me and thanks to my nice guests. Now if you excuse me I need to get back on duty on time or the Major is going to stab me. Jari Su signing out." The transmission cut out with Felixis waving goodbye to his camera. —--------------------------------------- POV: Nicole I don't linger after the race.

It was fun but I think the simulations are having the opposite of their intended effect. The realistic sims are supposed to make the pilots understand how dangerous certain things are but I know it's a simulation and it is making my behavior reckless. I would never attempt some of the maneuvers I made in real life. I am glad the race seems well received and several of the pilots are grouping up for another go. Unlike them however I have things to do, like check on Baldos, and people to contact.

"Master Doll. I believe I may have located the Ordinatus-Minoris, the class appears to be an Ordinatus Sagittar. It's disguised in a well-hidden alcove on the dorsal hull near the lower midship section. I nearly ran into it during the race. The cannon is facing straight up disguised as an old macrocannon. Forwarding location data."

"I will dispatch a team to investigate. Please refrain from investigating it yourself." Doll sends back and I can't really blame him for adding that second stipulation.

"I am enroute to inspect Venerable Baldos' upgrades." I reply to assuage his concerns.

"Good. There is much to do tomorrow." Doll reminds me. Tomorrow is the day I get to finally see Sword of Vengeance again. I'm excited to see how they pulled everything together. I ping Captain Bolaar, Brother Cogmane, and Brother Cogfist to come meet me in the Dreadnought bay if they are available when I arrive.

"Hi, Baldos! How are you feeling?" I ask as I approach the looming stationary limbless sarcophagus.

"Immobile and Irritated." He growls. His sarcophagus is hanging on a rack with both legs and arms currently removed.

"Oh don't be like that! Since you were already down an arm and a leg I decided it was the ideal time for some upgrades!"

"They are unnecessary," Baldos says in a very grumpy tone.

"You'll be able to punch things thirty percent harder." I tease playfully.

"Thirty percent?" Baldos grumbles consideringly.

"At the minimum thirty percent. These are the new fiber bundles that they used for my Knight! A very friendly Cybersmith was kind enough to scale them down to Dreadnought size, though they're having a bit of trouble going smaller than that at the moment." I mention with a small shrug as I inspect the installed fiber bundles on the four joints.

"But the power draw?" Baldos questions.

"Fixed with your new plasma fusion reactor! It's smaller but just as durable as your old one with higher output. It uses less fuel, and has just as much longevity."

"... WHAT?! Explain!" Baldos screeched.

"I… made it better?" I mutter slightly taken aback at his response.

"How!?" Baldos demands.

"I used some knowledge that has recently come into my possession, which I will not discuss, to improve the fusion reaction. It probably would be even better if I had schematics for the Leviathan Dreadnought reactor." I say wistfully. There is a loud thunk as Baldos smacks his head on the back of his sarcophagus.

"Do I want to know?" He asks, sounding tired.

"Nope!" I say with a bright smile and a giggle.

"Fine. How much longer?" He grumbles.

"Oh, you'll be put back together by the end of today. The Tech Priests installed them all properly." Out of the corner of my eye, I catch two Tech Adepts high-fiving one another after my statement.

"I have to do the reactor swap personally for… reasons. If you ever need to go back to the old one you can, it's a trivial swap for most Enginseers. It just might struggle to power the fibers and your weapons if you're moving a lot. Just if you ever, Omnissiah forbid, need to go supercritical please don't do it within a safe distance of anything you care about."

"What's the safe distance?" Baldos asks.

"Oh, you know a few… couple…. kilometers." I say as I turn my head to the side and cough. I can feel the heavy gaze of judgment from Baldos as I scamper around behind his chassis. I pull out the old core and swap it for his new compact cyclonic-inspired fusion core! I pass the old core off to one of the nearby Tech Priests and close the core housing back up before anyone looks at the new shiny core too long. I smirk proudly when it powers up just fine and Baldos starts running diagnostics.

"What in the Emperor's name… WAIT. IS THIS A?!" Baldos sputters in surprise.

"SSHHHH!" I hiss at Baldos putting my hands on my hips and giving him my best glare. It's not a very good glare but I get points for trying.

"I am going to kill so many of the Emperor's enemies," Baldos whispers happily. I nod "Yes, yes you are! Now are we swapping your Melta?"

"Twin-lascannon" Baldos decides.

"Excellent choice!" I say as I note that down and glance over as Captain Bolaar arrives with the two Techmarines.

"There you three are! I was just finishing up with Baldos. He'll be ready by the end of the day. I called you here because I have a problem and would like to suggest a trade." I say getting their attention.

"A trade?" Captain Bolaar asks.

"A trade. Baldos here gifted me the Dimachaeron limb. It's in great shape, the only issue is it's too fracking big!" I huff "Brother Cogmane and Brother Cogfist are far more adept at handling larger projects. I would like them to take the limb, dip it in adamantine, sharpen it, throw on a power field and a semi-collapsible knight-sized polearm base, and make a spear for my knight! In exchange, I will make you a squad's worth of Astartes-sized and compatible Argent-pattern Jump Packs."

I pull the top part of my Mechanicus robe down and turn as I extend the wings showing off the design. I can see the two Techmarines want to agree immediately but Bolaar takes the time to think it through.

"That is a bit of a big project. It will occupy their time for a while. Twenty packs."

"Twenty is too many. I could do a squad's worth in a reasonable timeframe. It's not that complex. It's just a lot of metal." I counter.

"Sir, If I may," Cogfist speaks up, getting a nod from Bolaar.

"There is an item we recovered from an enemy Dreadnought on Cadia that we have finished cleansing. I propose we use the Storm field generator when forging her weapon and in exchange, we receive two full squads worth of these draconic, ahem, Argent-pattern packs." Bolaar nods and turns to me as I perk up at the mention of the storm field generator.

"Alright deal, however! The spear needs to be balanced for one-handed use in mind." I remind the pair who both nod while I retract my wings.

"Two squads… I might be able to finish in a week if I get a little help. Oh! I will need to know the armor patterns for the squads."

"We will get you a list. Was that all?" Bolaar asks politely.

"Yup! That was it. I wanted to update you on Baldos and ask about the trade." I watch Bolaar leave and the two Techmarines eager to work on the project briskly walk off to fetch the Tyranid limb. —--------------------------------------- Location: Ur-Haven Inquisitor POV Radic Dhamne, Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor, was enjoying a smoke as he overlooked various paper records strewn across his desk when he received a message on his dataslate from one of his subordinates.

"What, ZR-999?" Radic asked before puffing out a small smoke ring that drifted over the vellum scrolls. ZR-999 replied mechanically"The sack of meat, designation: Governor, has broken the communications blackout." Radic was mildly surprised the Governor was bold enough to do so.

"He did? Well… It's no matter. We already handled the issue that necessitated that. What brought that on?"

"He is preparing for high-profile guests. Arrival imminent. Public communications data intercepted indicates. A Rogue Trader, an Archmagos, and an Adeptus Astartes Captain. Status: Enroute." ZR-999 informed the Inquisitor.

"That would do it, I suppose. He has been nothing but compliant." Radic admitted with a chuckle as he blew another smoke ring.

"Designation: Governor, mobilized additional forces, Designation: PDF, Guard, Arbites. To pacify Location: Halo Alphos." ZR-999 growled. Radic clicked his tongue and frowned "That is annoying. It may necessitate adjustments to our plans. What about the individuals we had flagged in the Halo?"

"Two flagged individuals. Status: present. Subordinate units Status: Present." ZR-999 stated curtly.

"We can see if the Archmagos ferrets them out. We haven't received a signal?" Radic asked as he finished his lho-stick and ground the smoldering bud into the ashtray.

"Status: Negative" ZR-999 replied.

"Our efforts have been focused primarily on Cycladon. If this location is going to get crowded we can relocate to the forward operating base and check in with away teams Alpha and Beta. The Governor is clean, so he can entertain the guests." He stood and grabbed one of the documents, he turned and held it over a candle until it started to burn.

"We move forward with the operation regardless. You can relocate and rejoin Alpha team, ZR" He tossed the smoldering remains of the paper into the ashtray.

"Order: Acknowledged." ZR-999 buzzed.

"How many flagged individuals are currently in Cycladon?" Radic asked as he grabbed his long black cloak and draped it over his shoulders, doing up the gold buttons one by one.

"New information compiled. Indications number: Nine." ZR-999 hissed.

"Well, I think it's time I paid them a visit." Radic reached down, scooping the bone-white skull embossed rosette off his desk. He tossed it up slightly and let it land against his palm before tucking it away in his breast pocket. He then scooped up a wide-brimmed hat with the Inquisitorial I on the front. He left the room and started heading for the nearby landing pad, where the shuttle he had requisitioned from the Governor awaited him.