Chương 9: Chapter 8: Expanding Horizons

While the large range was designed to mimic an outdoor training space. The individual private range bays remind me of an internal gun range. The space I was assigned for my slot was secluded and enclosed. We even had specialized targets with sensors to help analyze the weapon effects. The only people in the room were Delta-A3 and Seargent Su. With a couple of the Magi viewing remotely through Delta-A3. I glance around and then pop open my weapons coffer.

The rifle looks well maintained despite no one having touched it for some time. Its odd design features a strange silver metallic sheen. If you look at it long enough it almost seems to have an odd luminescence that is borderline disturbing according to the others. Though it doesn't bother me for some reason. Sergeant Su recoils slightly from the weapon and wrinkles his nose after he stares at it too long.

"Alright test firing. Xenos Rifle on a simulated human target." I pull the trigger and a beam of energy lances out to hit the target dead center. Despite the machine spirit not rousing when I attempted to contact it the weapon fires just fine.

"Target hit. Damage and penetration is comparable to a shot from a Belasco Dueling Pistol or the common standard Bolt Pistol or Bolter. Confirmed It is an energy weapon." I say taking a deep breath.

"Testing what may be a fire selector. Firing" I squeeze the trigger and a three round burst comes out this time. There is a faint kick but since I'm holding it two handed it's effect is negligible.

"Three round burst confirmed. Identical damage and penetration profiles."

"Testing the third mode of fire. Firing. This time it comes out full auto. Five shots leave the barrel before I relax my finger. The weapon has a full auto firing option of approximately five shots per second. It was half the rate of fire of a typical autogun but by no means meager. One of the shots carried an unusual amount of additional penetration. The weapon has not shown any signs of requiring to charge or reload. Next will be a stress test.

I will hold down the trigger as long as possible to test its capacity." I adjusted the stock and aimed for the center of mass at a target about forty meters away. I squeeze the trigger and hold it down. The first thirty seconds go by and I continue to hold it down. The weapon shows no sign of letting up or struggling. I keep holding it down. When the minute mark passes I continue to hold my stance even as the target starts to get saturated with fire.

When the next minute passes I look off to the side as Sergeant Su looks both surprised and confused. I stand there for ten minutes before one of the Magi voxes over.

"That is enough Nicole." The weapon fired continuously the entire time without stopping. We got several more of those odd rogue hyper penetrating shots but there isn't any discernible pattern for when they appear. A thought from my old life's memories trickles in as I stare down at the odd cylindrical rifle with its faint unearthly radiance.

"It's a Remnant of the Endless" I whisper under my breath. That whisper isn't enough to hide it from Delta-A3 or the Magi listening in.

"The Xenos Rifle seems to have a seemingly endless energy supply. No obvious source is visible. This effect along with its appearance matches documentation mirroring Nicole's suggestion. The rifle is deemed safe for use but it is highly suggested it is not used as a personal defense weapon for everyday carry. The weapon has solid if outdated documentation clearing it for use. I imagine the Archmagos of Mars in M31 was far more thorough in their validation than we were."

"Acknowledged Magos Xor-XXVII""Running into you wielding that at the end of a long hallway would absolutely suck." Sargent Su stated.

"Don't want to touch it myself but as long as it's not aimed at me it's not my problem." I give a little amused snort and put the weapon away. None of my other gear necessitates the use of the private range. I get to head back and play with my other weapons. Melt two dummies with my Inferno Pistol and use some empty needles to try out the needle pistol. My aim is steadily getting better the more I handle my various weapons.

Practice makes perfect and while I am nowhere near perfect yet I know I'm doing decently well. Simply by the fact none of the officers have yelled or screamed at me. At the end of the second range day I get the good news that I am now qualified to carry small arms. Those of us who passed are encouraged to continue visiting the range for practice and to work on qualifying for additional privileges. Grenades and explosives handling will probably be a course I take at some point.

I want to know how to handle a melta bomb! I need to select what weapons to carry though from my pile. I will wear the ring that's an easy one and keep my power blade clipped to my utility belt. It might be a little petty but I want to use my new Plasma Pistol after a trip to the Munitorum to give it one of my fancy circa M31 red dot sights and a dipole mag-lock. The pistol is meant to be seen so might as well wear it like a fashion statement.

For my other hip however I think I'll alternate between the two Archeotech Las pistols for now. Though my Mauler is another fun one to wear on my hip because it already has a dipole mag-lock. Eventually I think I know a way to have more than two pistols at once. If I get or make a proper arm for a MIU Weapon Interface. I could go full predator with a shoulder fired plasma weapon or laser. I already have the MIU ports. I would just need a suitable arm for controlling it.

Preferably one that could also fold up and discreetly rest against my back. I reach out via the noosphere and put in an information request for MIU Weapon Interface schematics. In the end I elect to just carry the Archeotech Hellpistol and my Wrath Plasma Pistol loaded with the Microburst Flask ammo for now.

—---------------------------------------------------------------- It didn't feel like the completion of my first week onboard the ship and the accelerated basic training program should have changed all that much for me but it did. I wasn't just cleared to carry my weapons. My status as a Tech Acolyte had been made official. Today I am to shadow Archmagos Doll as he goes about his duties. Which means I will be getting to see the main drives and the Manufactorum.

I made sure my robes are clean and I wear my armor under them aside from the helmet. My laspistol holstered on my belt's left side and my Wrath mag-clipped to my upper thigh on my right. I am not the only individual shadowing Doll. There are three of us to which Doll espouses information on the Sixteen Universal Lores in Techna-Lingua to the three of us. Though he has started at the very first Mystery, leading me to conclude these other acolytes are just as new as I am.

Doll is occasionally offering us questions in order to encourage lines of thought or get us thinking. Doll's form is much larger than our own. He's a hulking individual with his full suite of augments. Which does make for some amusing realizations whenever he approaches someone first and they only realize we acolytes are behind him afterwards. I've been letting the other two acolytes take the lead with most of the questions and just take in the ship with my eyes and auspex as we travel.

However whenever Doll asks a question they can't answer I chime in with one.

"Do you know what two categories the Sixteen Lores are divided into?"

"The Mysteries and The Warnings master Doll." I say as I look up at a fascinating gothic archway we pass through between two modules.

"Acolyte Nicole, do you know all eight Mysteries and eight Warnings?"

"Yes Archmagos."

"Please recite them for me."

"Life is directed motion. The spirit is the spark of life. Sentience is the ability to learn the value of knowledge. Intellect is the understanding of knowledge. Sentience is the basest form of Intellect. Understanding is the True Path to Comprehension. Comprehension is the key to all things. The Omnissiah knows all, comprehends all. The alien mechanism is a perversion of the True Path. The soul is the conscience of sentience. A soul can be bestowed only by the Omnissiah. The Soulless sentience is the enemy of all.

The knowledge of the ancients stands beyond question. The Machine Spirit guards the knowledge of the Ancients. Flesh is fallible, but ritual honors the Machine Spirit. To break with ritual is to break with faith."

"Acolyte Nicole. Can you tell me how you know of these? I am quite certain they were not recorded in the data you inloaded from the Librarium or the recovery packet we provided."

"I… I just do? I've heard them before I think." I don't really know how to explain my otherworldly information and don't plan to share the unusual nature of my existence with anyone.

"Do not fret Nicole. That you are unable to answer is telling in itself and confirms a few things. Which of the Lores do you feel is the most important?" Luckily Doll sounds pleased more than anything else. I chew the question over for a minute. The other two acolytes look at me with a mix of awe and curiosity.

"The sixth."

"Why the sixth?" Doll queries one of his mechadendrites, an optical one, turns to face me as I respond.

"Understanding is the True Path to Comprehension. Without the sixth the seventh is meaningless. It builds off the first five. Comprehension is… significant."

"I see. You chose a Mystery over a Warning. If I were to ask you to pick which of the warnings?"

"Archmagos all of the warnings have merit in some way. Please forgive me for my next statement. Many of the warnings are flawed. It would be difficult for me to select the most important one to me. However I can explain which one makes me the most frustrated."

"I will permit you to explain your opinion." Rather than upset, Doll seemed very interested in my next few words. I decided to be bold.

"The thirteenth warning. While it is true many of the wonders and knowledge passed down from the ancients is wondrous, fantastic, superior to what we have now. However the ancients were human and our race is inherently fractional, flawed and contradictory. Their fall in the dark age only elucidates this. I might adjust the warning to say: 'The Knowledge of the Ancients is proven, comprehend their lessons.'

By questioning we grow closer to understanding from understanding to comprehension and with comprehension we grow closer to the Omnissiah""Acolyte Nicole, do you believe that the Mechanicus should be separate from the Imperium?" Doll has paused and turned around to loom and look directly at me.

"Absolutely not!" I practically yell. I am caught off guard as Doll starts to laugh loudly.

"Wonderous child, the extreme traditionalists and the Ferrus Whisper are going to absolutely hate you. We are truly blessed." He sounds inordinately pleased.

"Now come I shall show you the main reactor." I don't really know what I did but I seem to have gained an inordinately large amount of brownie points with the Archmagos.

"Archmagos Doll, can I meet The Argent Drake?"

"Please clarify, Acolyte Nicole."

"I wish to commune with the ship and meet its Machine Spirit. The Saturine-pattern Class 5 Plasma Drive seems the most prudent location to make my attempt." In my otherworldly knowledge while machines separately had machine spirits, ships, particularly old powerful ones, almost always had their own cohesive spirits. Doll is silent and the other two acolytes just look utterly flabbergasted by my existence right now. We walk silently as Doll sends out various messages to the rest of the ship.

"I will permit you to perform the ritual of communion in the primary reactor" —---------------------------------------------------------------- Location: The Warp. Vanguard Light Cruiser: The Hollow Star Librarian Astrovas sat in the ship's Engineerium in a meditative pose whispering prayers. Only interrupting his chants to announce the results of his divining. His brothers had continued to defend the entry points to the module. Having turned them into choke points and killing fields.

They had stopped seeing corrupted crew days ago. That didn't mean the enemies stopped coming. The ship's Drivemaster, Magos 82-Rahane, loomed somewhere behind him. The old Magos was the only thing keeping the ship intact at this point. He had run out of servitors. Astrovas's divining dragon bones were saturated with warp fire. He had drawn every single psychoactive gilded card in the Emperor's Tarot one by one, over the last few days. His helmet was off, his eyes were bleeding.

With an air of finality he laid the seventy eighth and final card. He didn't even hear the words he uttered aloud before he collapsed from the strain of taxing his Psyker abilities to their limits to empower the Tarot. Astrovas's constant interpretations were given to 82-Rahane who made minor course corrections. Captain Bolaar hastened over with their Apothecary to check over the exhausted Librarian. He looked at the array and then glanced over at the Magos.

"Well… Can it be done? Can we escape?"

"Yes. It can be done. It will be done. Correction Captain. You and your chapter can escape." 82-Rahane said in a mechanical emotionless tone. Bolaar wheeled around to face the Magos.

"What is that supposed to mean Rahane? You are coming with us."

"Negative." As 82-Rahane spoke a blaring alarm went off inside the bay. Many such alarms had triggered over the past few days. However as Bolaar watched the Magos hefted his power axe and cleaved down on a small bank of cogitators. Silencing the alarm.

"A Clarification Captain. This unit is the only thing currently preventing a runaway energy cascade in the primary reactor and keeping the warp core at sufficient charge to allow for this single attempt at returning to real space. Even if the ship is successful this unit has calculated that there is a ninety one point two four five eight percent chance this compartment and the entire aft portion of the Hollow Star will not survive." The entire time he spoke 82-Rahane was moving around.

Turning valves and triggering cogitators with a mess of mechanical limbs. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"This unit would ask a favor." The Magos whispered.

"There are 12 tech adepts that I have sedated in the deck above this one to prevent their self destruction. I ask you to take them with you when you retreat to the hangar bay or the armory. They are the last. The others have already sacrificed themselves or are actively assisting me with preventing our annihilation. May they serve you well."

"This unit would also like you to take this." He pulled out a blocky cube shaped storage device and held it out towards Captain Bolaar.

"Please ensure this reaches a suitable cadre of the Mechanicus." The captain was still reeling from the Magos's revelation and request for favor "I yes we will take care of the clutch for you. What is it?" he asked wearily.

"Before this one unit was placed as this ship's Drivemaster. This unit served the Mechanicum against the enemies of the Omnissiah. This unit nearly attained the venerated status of Magos Dominus. Unfortunately this unit failed." Rahane raised a cybernetic arm to a thick metal collar placed around his neck before he resumed his work.

"This storage vessel contains the sum total of my collected combat knowledge in hexamathic code. All insights obtained while servicing Astartes aboard The Hollow Star are contained as well." Bolaar grimaced but gingerly took the cube and placed it in a belt pouch for now.

"Is this the only way?"

"Affirmative. This unit... No… I… I am 82-Rahane. The Methodical Validator of the Broken Gestalt. Operator of the Hexadecimal Algorithm. Slayer of daemon engines on the planes of Luxar III!" He reached up and the heavy metal collar unlatched with a series of beeps and warnings. From within his crimson robes erupted even more mechanical limbs making the Magos look like some dreaded mechanical arachnid, each limb wielding some kind of strange weapon. His red cybernetic eyes glowed with an inner fire.

He gestured at the captain and turned around the pommel of his axe clanging against the floor as he moved away.

"Take your men and leave, captain. I wish to be alone. The presence of weak flesh distracts me from my sacred purpose!" As Bolaar helped Astrovas to his feet a countdown appeared in the corner of his heads up display. They had less than two hours.

"Fourth Scale! Ninth Scale! Tenth Scale! This is Captain Bolaar. Retreat from the Engineerium. We have a group of the clutch to collect. Make for the armory or the vehicle bay. Double time!"

"Sir, the Magos is still in there." One of the tech marines called out. Captain Bolaar glanced back over his shoulder as the Magos reached the main command console for the reactor and they reached the bulkhead to leave the module.

"I am 82-Rahane and THIS. IS. MY. ENGINE!" he screeched in binary. Several screens and lights exploded as the power flickered briefly.

"I know. He's chosen to stay and guide the ship. Now move! The Gellar Field bubble is shrinking again!" They left the Magos to his fate. Bolaar carried the data repository while the ninth scale collected the unconscious adepts. The ship shuddered and groaned as it adjusted course in a major way for the first time in over a week. The Astartes dove back into the slowly corrupting halls ignoring the bleeding walls and visions of the dead as they swiftly eliminated various minor chaos daemons.

Exactly when the timer for his heads up display hit zero the ship shook violently as the warp core triggered ripping a hole back into real space. However as the ship was a little over halfway through the lights all went out and the portal began to rapidly destabilize. The aft of the ship didn't end up making the transition. The once five kilometer vessel had been trimmed to four. Moments later inside the warp the plasma core went critical and detonated violently.

The explosion vaporized the remaining kilometer of the ship. Momentarily creating a clear space in that part of the Immaterium. —------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ My simple eager desire to get to know the ship has become a bigger deal than I intended. I am sitting on the floor cross legged before the primary command and control console for the ancient plasma drive. Archmagos Doll loiters at the controls along with a handful of Tech Priests.

Drivemaster TH-102 has come as well. The other acolytes and a slew of curious priests have come over to observe as I plug my mechatendril into one of the ports and start the ritual of communion. I do the entire thing strictly by the book. Someone even had an incense burner and sacred oils to hand. I submerge my consciousness into the noosphere and slowly probe further afield. I sense various machine spirits focused on their individual tasks. I need to go deeper and get a better sense of the whole.

I feel something gently guiding me onward. It's an absolute labyrinth of data and information with bright nodes burning like stars in front of me. Connected all together like a great tapestry. I lose track of time until I finally drift to a spot in front of some odd titanic orb shaped data structure. It's absolutely packed so tightly with data it almost looks whole and I can't even begin to discern its start, end or purpose.

"I greet The Argent Drake?" I say softly. The digital construct shifts, one of the large cohesive circular patches on the orb shifts down to stop just in front of me. There is a rumbling growl that I feel deep in my bones. I can only stand there frozen in pure terror as the digital object retreats from me and reveals that it wasn't an orb. I was standing in front of an EYE. The sheer scale of it boggles me but the more I stare the more I start to notice distinct features.

Two eyes, scales, a serpentine head with two huge horns, a long neck, massive wings, four legs, and a tail kilometers long. The Argent Drake's chosen form for its machine spirit is a fucking dragon the size of the ship itself! I am unable to control my visceral innate fear response as I stand in front of such a creature. I feel like an ant looking up at a whale.

"It's a fucking silver dragon" I whisper. The head starts to lower itself down towards me and I flinch. It sniffs me, the nostrils yawing open like huge industrial doors we passed on our way into the drive chamber." PRINCESS" The kaiju sized construct says with enough power that it makes my head hurt. It seems to realize it made a mistake and pulls back. In front of me a much more reasonable recreation of its titanic self looms over me, about the size of a large passenger aircraft.

"PRINCESS. You have returned. We, The Argent Drake, are glad."

"Princess?" I ask, feeling more than a little confused. With the smaller version in front of me I start to notice more details as I inspect the dragon's manifestation. A couple of scattered scales are dark and dull dotting its massive hide.

"P R I N C E S S. You are PRINCESS. You are awoken. You can help."

"That doesn't… I uhh. Help with what?" The way the drake says the word feels different and off from my meager understanding of it.

"Fix. Scales" It uses a surprising dexterous clawed hand to gesture to the dark points dotted along their torso.

"I… will do my best? Can you tell me where these uhh scales are?" It snorts in amusement"You will find them little PRINCESS. You always do."" Sorry, If we met before I do not remember. I have…"

"We know. You slept through the chaos, the fire, the great sleep and the awakening. You have returned. You will learn. We are patient." It pauses and turns to look over my shoulder behind me.

"You must go. PRINCESS. They worry. You have roused me. We shall speak again." Argent lets out a happy sound, a mix between a deep guttural growl and a rumbling purr.

"Oh… Yes. Thank you Argent!" I say just as the muzzle moves down and gives me a little nudge that launches me away from the core of the noospheric network. I fall backwards, my cheeks are wet with tears I hadn't realized I shed while so deeply submerged in the network. I gasp sharply and cough sputtering at how dry my mouth feels.

"Nicole!"

"She's awake!" I hear several people call out in concern. The Magi are all here again. Gertrude is fussing over me nearby scanning me with her dendrites. I glance around, I am still in the Engineerium. I slowly unplug my mechatendril from the port.

"Nicole are you alright?" Doll asks me as he speaks over the others.

"I saw it." I whisper as I greedy swigs from a pouch of water someone pressed to my hand.

"Saw what?"

"The Argent Dragon" As soon as the words leave my mouth a faint but noticeable rumble travels along the spine of the ship that reminds me of the noise Argent made right before I left. The lights also briefly flicker off before coming back on bright and steady. Before the Magi can question me further the console behind Doll beeps loudly. Doll literally whipped around to stare at the master readouts for the drive.

"Efficiency and output just went up one point five percent."

"It's not just here I'm getting notable increases in all systems across the board." TH-102 states staring at a dataslate.

"That's good right?" I ask which I regret because it draws attention back to me.

"Nicole, I have been operating this reactor for nearly a century. It had been fine tuned to the best of my and several other Archmagi's ability. Please tell me. What. Did. You. Do?"

"I woke up The Argent Drake. I roused the dragon. She… I think. Most ship's are girls right? Anyway, She was very nice. Whew, I think I need to sit down and relax." —------------------------------------------------------------------- Location: The bridge"Someone explain that power spike to me right fucking now!" Lord Drakios looked around as the entire bridge had erupted into chaos moments earlier. The ship had never shaken like that in his tenure as captain.

Now strange readings were coming up across the board and Doll wasn't nearby to answer his questions.

"The Magi are reporting an… incident in the Engineerium. They refuse to elaborate further. They are reporting. An increase in the ships overall capabilities across the board from roughly one to up to five percent on average but there are outliers, Sir."

"Arken" His vox chimed drawing his attention away from the readouts as Lily reached out to him.

"Yes Lily? What is it?"

"There is an unknown medium ship size object in the warp nearing the calm location for retransition. It is being followed by three other vessel size objects in formation one medium and two smaller. Distance 20 VUs. Directly behind us. I just picked it up, after that strange shaking my readouts cleared up. They were just at the range of my awareness."

"You think they're hostile?"

"We're not lucky enough for both groups to be friendly." He sighed "Yeah… thanks Lily." He sat up and took a deep breath "Helmsman Lucius! Bring us around fully lined up on our return vector! Sound general quarters! Open the hangars! Void shields up! Sensors to full! Someone message the Hammer and Lady to update them on our status." As the ship turned about, something appeared on their sensors.

"Warp gate detected! Ship leaving the warp. It's a… by the throne! The gate just closed early!"

"Well what is it!?"

"I can't tell sir. It might be what's left of a space marine light cruiser? It's missing the upper quarter of the ship and the back kilometer didn't make it. We'll need to get closer for me to get an ID. No drive cones or power signature left."

"Their plasma reactor just detonated back in the warp!" Lily called in.

"I've lost the three other vessels in the wash."

"Any response to hail?"

"None yet sir."

"All ahead full! Let's go see if there's anything left alive on that poor wreck." Lord Drakos could only wince in sympathy as the sensors got a read on the poor state of what was once a proud imperial ship.

"Sir! I'm picking up another warp gate opening further out!"

"Three distinct drive cones detected… It's the Archenemy!"

"Fraking pirates." Lord Drakios growled.

"Battle Stations! What's their distance?"

"We're ten VUs from the wreck and another ten from the enemy sir! Roughly twenty from us. Well out of weapons range for them."

"I've got successful identification! One Hellbringer Class Light Cruiser. Matches the profile of a known vessel. The Sky Scourer. One Idolator Class Raider. One Infidel Class raider."

"Looks like that explosion roughed up their transition. The Idolator's shields are down and they've tumbled out of formation. Drive cones are inconsistent."

"Sir!? The Lances just started powering up by themselves!?" Lord Drakios was about to chew out his weapons master when The Argent Drake itself let out a bone chilling furious growl.