Tyrant of New Babylon, Chapter 3
Deviation Actions
Literature Text
“Chemos red.” Raziel whispered to no one in particular as she smelled the earthy wine in her glass. She swirled her glass, and watched as the alcohol stuck to the sides of the crystal. It has a good body, she thought. She gently sniffed at the burgundy liquid, basking in the nose of the drink. She drank, and let the vermillion wine roll over her tongue, hitting each of the flavor sensors in her mouth. She enjoyed the complicated taste of it, it took work to drink something like this. “I believe I’ll enjoy this,” She looked to the data slate in the other hand, the one which she collected her notes on Germania, and frowned “Well, maybe not quite as much.”
The frown came from frustration, a feeling that had been slowly creeping upon her. From where it crept was from the various notes and testimonials she collected on the world Germania. Few offered answers, if they did, she had the feeling that something wasn’t fully told, a lie sandwiched inside several banal truths. The report reeked of deceit, and she had yet to unravel the web. She took another drink, this time it was more out of habit than wanting of enjoyment. She looked over the words of the many, many men and women she spoke too about the world.
She started with the voidsmen. Though overworked, and underpaid, she managed to pull some aside when ever she could. During one of their few breaks, or during their long awaited, and long wanted, off shifts. The general consensus among the crew was that the forge world was ‘a fethwipe’, and was a total waste of time. This mainly because the crew was forbidden to set foot on the planet. Though the crew were vague on the details on why, they pointed her to a higher ranking member of the crew, ‘Iron Eyes’.
Marty O’Madison, or ‘Iron Eyes’ as the crew called him, was the ‘in-between’ speaker for the captain to the crew, whenever Ol’Rowdy was ‘busy’ or ‘off ship’. In truth ‘Iron Eyes’ was the bringer of bad news, as he was the oldest of the voidsmen he was the most respected among the workers of the ship. Iron Eyes had a voice like an aging vox-speaker, in part due to the speaker grafted into his throat. His hearing was failing, and he had several silver wires and sensors protruding from his ears. He recalled the first voyage to the foreign world. The one thing that stood out to him wasn’t the crew not being allowed to come ashore, it happens on some of the more ‘unstable’ worlds, but it was by request of the rulers of the world.
“It just made no sense.” The venerable voidsmen said, “Why the hell wouldn’t ya want a bunch of horny and thirst voidsmen that’re just paid, spending all their money in port? It’s a great boon to the merchants!”
While Raziel could think of a number of reason why drunk voidsmen can cause trouble, the old man had a point. A forge world with little trade, like Germania, always loved it when Rogue Traders came as it allowed them to sell their goods. Iron Eyes did tell her two other things. Firstly that, while the captain did go planetside, he never oversaw the trade, that was left to the captain of the mercenaries aboard Fruit of Ambition, Kyle Kar. Captain Kar, as he prefered, was a stoic and proud mercenary captain from a noble house which had long been in service of the Rowdlesson for countless years now. Captain Kar spoke in detail about the events that unfolded on the surface.
He and a band of one-hundred, well armed, voidsmen saw the delivery of the raw materials which were to be exchanged for finished products. That was as much as he described what was being exchanged, he seemed to care very little about that portion, he was more concerned about the guards themselves. They were armed, well armed. Infact they had what he described as ‘advanced energy weapons’. He grabbed hold of his family heirloom, a volkite serpenta, a mark of his status, he used it as a comparison. However he described the barrel as being sleeker, the muzzle tighter.. “I’m no Tech Priest.” He said simply pointing at the muzzle of his family heirloom. “I’d wager that the tighter muzzle would yield a more concentrated beam.”
He spoke on about the Tech Priest, Munn. How he was supposed to escort the Disciple of the Machine God around the world for a tour of the forge. However, according to Captain Kar, he was not allowed to join him. “I was about to pull Munn out, I am not allowing the only,” he stressed the word ‘only’ to put emphasis on how important Muss was to the ship. “Tech Priest aboard this ship to wander around alone. However, Munn insisted, saying ‘I’ll be fine, I can handle myself.’.” Captain Kar spoke little about what he was like afterwards, saying he wasn’t the best at ‘reading people’ and that if Raziel wanted to know more she’d ask for his files on the world.
That's what lead her to the present. Sitting on her, somewhat comfortable cot, sipping outrageously expensive wine and looking over a data slate. The cabin she was in was dull. sheet steel walls that had a dull, grey paint over them in an attempt to hide the rust and various other reworks the room had been given. Their was a cognition in the corner, though it was nonfunctioning, left to rust as the Tech Priest had, ‘more important’ things to do. Suddenly, her train of thought came to a halt as she heard the doors open. She turned to see Nathaniel, ducking as the he entered the room.
“Did some talking with the other mercs,” He said closing the door behind him. He walked over to the the cot, taking a knee so he would be at eye level with Raziel. “Seems like their stories collaborate Captain Stoic.”
Raziel took a gulp of wine, finishing off the glass. “You suspect anything from them?” She asked, “After all, you were one once.”
“That was a lifetime ago, besides, I was only boy.” Nathaniel said a smirk growing on his face, “No. They’re unusually straight shooters. Personally I blame the noble house they’re from for producing honorable mercenaries.” He paused, rethinking what he said, “I’m surprised that sentence could be uttered.”
“Much agreed.” Raziel said, she standing up, making her way to a small table which held the rest of the bottle of Chemos Red. “Though I’d imagine being an honorable mercenary is a crime.” She said pouring herself another glass, she looked to her brother, motioning to the bottle, he shook his head, “Don’t like the red?”
“I’m an ale man.” Nathaniel then gave her a look that said quite simply, ‘you know that’. “Always have been.” He looked around the room for a moment, then added with only a drop of sarcasm, “Luxurious, the captain must be trying to seduce you.”
Raziel shrugged. taking a long sip of wine, “Well.” she said taking another sip, “I’m counting on it, I can use his, urges” Raziel visibly shivered. “To my advantage.” She turned to her second in command, “Anything else out of place?” in those few gulps, the entire pour had left her glass to warm her belly. She moved to pour another.
Nathaniel thought for a moment, “Nothing I can think of.” He tapped his fingers on his knee, “Besides honorable mercenaries, nothing stands out...” He then paused. “The Tech Adepts.”
Raziel raised a brow, “What a about them?” She asked.
“They were, ‘watching’ us.” He said, “Something about the timing of them performing maintenance and us speaking to another of the mercenaries.”
Raziel held her glass somewhat loosely, swirling the wine around in her and as she thought. “The Adepts, how many you wager?”
Nathaniel stood up, arms crossed, “I’d say at least a dozen. He needs plenty of cogboys to keep this ship in shape.”
“Find them, do it, ‘carefully’, I don’t want to make any waves yet.” she thought for a second of the salt sea on Caliban, and of the waves that swallowed cities. She repeated, “No waves yet… Obviously something is going on, and I don’t want to force our opponents hand quite yet.” Raziel mused, wine still swirling in her glass.
“You think someone is against you?” Nathaniel asked, his face shifted to one of intrigue, he loved to watch her when she started to weave her schemes; it was a thing of perverse beauty, everything from wild accusations to calculated ploys and cold murders all danced through the air as she worked out her plans. And when she bothered to write any of it down, she’d have a solid plan of action, but she usually had a drink or ten too many to drink, and she’d pass out before a pen ever saw paper.
“If someone has the intent on watching us when we’re are simply asking questions about a forge world, I feel as if someone wants to play.” She finished the Chemos Red in her glass. “Now, if you’ll excuse me Nathaniel, I have an appointment with a Tech Priest.
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The smell of burning incense. The humming of cogitators. The roar of the plasma engines. The carefully assembled tools assembled along a long, steel table. These sounds, smells, and props set the stage which Tech Adept Karoline performed her work upon. She quietly reveled in every second of it. The young adept came from one of the core worlds, an insignificant rock known as Davian VI. It was her home at one point, but it held nothing for her. It was a worthless world, a mere stopping point for ships as they navigated through the Warp to more interesting places.
Karoline found herself working in one of the space stations orbiting Davian VI, a cold, cramped station. Her small frame and stature served her well as a worker on the many ships that came through. When the Fruit of Ambition found itself docked on Davian VI to perform routine maintenance before returning to the warp, Tech Priest Munn came aboard the station she worked on and saw one thing; talent. He saw a potential Tech Priestess in her, and offered her an apprenticeship under him on the Fruit of Ambition. She accepted.
Now she was one of Munn’s favored students, given great responsibilities aboard the Fruit of Ambition. One of which was maintaining the many, many servitors aboard the galleon. Though most of her crew were normal men, some with augments, there was still a large number of servitors aboard her, performing key tasks which kept her sailing through the void. Karoline enjoyed such tasks, treating each one like a puzzle, a puzzle which when solved, might save the ship from certain doom.
Her first puzzle was a hauler servitor, one of the many servitors responsible for moving large, heavy cargo which were too small for cranes to care for. It seemed that the machine spirit was deprived of power. The central Cogitator losing power seemingly at random. Though she knew better, nothing was ever random. Not when dealing with machines. She examined the many wires and cables and discovered that several had bad coating. The wires which connected the power supply the many Cogitator seemed to weathered due to being exposed and worn. The many circuits were open, this caused the power to fluctuate. She performed the normal rites of repair, carefully replacing the wiring of the servitor. She released incense into the air, attempting to appeasing the machine spirit. After finishing her rites of repair she activated the servitor, running several tests, chanting praises to the Omnissiah throughout the task. Eventually it appeared the power supply was repairs were successful, the servitor passing the trials with no issue. She said a short prayer to the Omnissiah before moving onto her next puzzle.
Her next puzzle was one she had done numerous times before. The gunnery servitor testing. Munn wanted the gunnery servitors in working order as soon as they existed the Warp, not to mention the captain wanted peace of mind that they would be in proper working order. As such, she was be given a different group of gunnery servitors to check every day; running them through trials to make certain they were functioning as they should. Usually these tests would reveal some errors and miscalculations, things that could make or break a battle. Today, however, only one seemed to be having issues. The servitor under her care now seemed to have issues with tracking long range targets. She performed the rites of targeting, and put the servitor through a simulation of a long range naval engagement. She then checked on the performance of the other servitors performance before moving onto the next servitor.
She let out a hissing sigh, “Not you again.” She mumbled to herself, looking over the next of her puzzles.
Servitor 5959-A was a near bi-weekly puzzle at this point. It was also always the same issue; latency. For some reason 5959-A was always slow to process even the most basic of orders, this was because the data banks within the servitors Cogitator were overfull. Something, or someone, had been overfilling the servitors data banks, causing the Cogitator to slow, leading to the servitor to under perform. What was it? She had theories, but wasn’t sure. Before 5959-A it was 7627-C which had been suffering a similar issue a month or two ago. This being after Munn and the Adepts had performed a data wipe on the servitors before receiving new servitors when they docked in Forge Habus. She suspected it could’ve been a voidsman, or voidsmen, she wasn’t sure, overloading the servitor with copious minor tasks which overloaded the data banks. She had talked with Iron Eyes about it, however he claimed few, if any, messed with the servitors. She sat 5959-A to the side, moving onto another servitor.
“Karoline.” Her thought process came to a screeching halt, her master's voice bringing her out of her trance like state of work. She looked up, she kneeling over a servitor whose mechanical leg had broken, her unaugmented eyes stared up at her master, and a women. She was tall, standing over Munn by twenty-point-two-three centimeters, short blonde hair framed a tired looking face, green eyes peering down at the tech adept. She wore black military fatigues, Karoline assumed she was another mercenary for a moment. Munn said, “This is Lady Raziel El’Jonson.” Karoline silently chastised herself for not remembering that they would be taking Lady El’Jonson to Germania to talk terms of surrender and compliance. Though she cared very little for that, much work needed to be done.
“A pleasure too meet you Karoline,” Lady El’Jonson extended a gloved hand to the Adept. “Tech Priest Munn tells me you are his favored student.”
Karoline stared at the hand for a moment, confused. ‘Does she wish me to stand?’ She thought for a moment. Then she remembered the custom of shaking hands, something she had long forgotten. She, awkwardly grabbed the lady's hand in a loose gripp, shaking it “I am honored to serve under Enginseer Munn.” She said, quickly returning to her puzzle.
“Forgive her, aloofness,” She heard Munn say guiding Lady El’Jonson away from the tech adept.
Karoline didn’t hear the rest of what they were saying, she was busy re aligning the servos of the broken leg. She had very little care for what they were speaking of, she was busy with one of her puzzles. She puffed incense into the air from the censors mounted in her back, praising the Machine God, before reattaching the leg to the servitor. After performing a few walking trails she placed it aside, moving onto another challenge.
She pulled up another cargo carrying servitor, 6790-L which had stalled during a routine maintenance check. More frayed wires revealed that at some point, a sharp object had cut into the servitors Cogitator casing causing it to damage the servitors task manager. Binary cant left her vox communicator, which had been built into her jaw, as she attempted to appease the machine spirit. She then begun to replace the many wires and cables which had been mangled by the accident.
“-I do not have any information worth noting about Forge Germania,-”
She stopped what she was doing, wires still in hand, shocked to what she heard her master said, more so of what he just did. He lied. Lying before the daughter of a primarch, a diplomat, by rites she was the equivalent of a Planetary Governor. She tried to move on, but she couldn’t. She was distant, her canting was becoming sloppy, as she tried to make sense of what she just heard.
“Nothing?” She heard Lady El’Jonson say in dismay, “Well. That is... Disappointing.”
Karoline remembered when her master returned from Germania he spoke little of what he found, only that it was advanced energy weaponry. Now that she remembered her never reported such findings to the Mechanicum, even when they docked at Habus, Munn didn’t even go to the surface, a rare, mysterious choice for a Tech Priest to do. She finished the wiring of 6790-L aside, she went over to check on the gunnery servitors, she couldn’t help but listen to the conversation.
“I was as well. Though I must ask, why do you wish to know?” Asked Munn looking at the lady with all three of his augmented glowing yellow eyes.
“Technology has always fascinated me.” She replied. tapping her foot on the ground, she was looking around the workshop. “It would also help me understand these Germanians better, I could, get into there heads, as it were.”
Karoline then checked the servitors, looking over the data streams, they appeared to be working order. Even the problemed one, it now tracking long range targets even faster than its brethren. She walked back to the rest of the servitors trying very hard to not listen to the conversation. She only heard bits and pieces, though to Karoline it seemed Lady El’Jonson was looking for something. It was almost what Munn did with his students. Engaging them in seemingly normal conversation, waiting for them to make a mistake so he could lecture them on their shortcomings. Finally, after an agonizingly long period, Lady El’Jonson made her leave. After the doors closed behind her, Karoline couldn’t help but feel conflicted. She had so many questions.
“Are you okay Karoline?” She snapped to attention, her master addressing her, “You seemed distressed.”
“I’m fine.” She replied curtly, she looked around the room, searching for some way to change the discussion, “Servitor 5959-A seems to have an overabundance of data, master. It would be best if it was given the rite of clearance before being sent back.”
Munn nodded, “Very well. I shall look over it.” He begun to walk out of the room, “That will have to wait, I need to look over the plasma engines. They’re in need of a maintenance check.”
Before Karoline could speak up, or address her mentor with her concerns, he was gone. As soon as the doors closed behind him, Karoline felt more alone than ever. She’d never had such a feeling of inner strife. She battled internally about what she should do before returning to her puzzles yet again. She decided that it would be best to distract herself with a new one, 5959-A’s data banks. She had never ‘checked’ them before. She knew they were overfilled with data but never had the thought to see what was inside them. She always believed it to be Munn’s place to access such things.
She connected herself to 5959-A’s data banks, reciting the prayer of connection before opening them. It took a few moments, too a normal man it would seem like a blink of an eye, however to Karoline it seemed like an eternity. Even the most basic of data openings could be harmful if done incorrectly. As such she took all precautions, reciting the proper prayers, trice, and even releasing extra incense from her censor. Finally the connection had been made, viewing was now permitted. She took a deep breath, and opened the data banks.
Then she was almost drowned, a literal flood of data washed over her.
Her brain attempted to comprehend what was happening as a wave of data washed over her. She steeled herself, reciting the prayers of the Iron Will and ‘looked’ into the files which had overfilled 5959-A’s data banks.
Germania.
She was in utter disbelief. The data in 5959-A’s data banks were not a overflow of mindless tasks. It was data on the Forge World, Germania! She quaked upon seeing the holy knowlge, reciting prayers and gracious thanks too the Machine God for allowing her to glance upon such holy of data.
But then the stark realization came to her. This had to be placed on 5959-A’s data banks. This was no accident. It was intentional. She realized only one person was capable of transference of such amounts of data, Munn. She removed herself from 5959-A’s data bank, and fell to a knee. She shook, not out of holy bliss, but out of fear. It wasn’t fear of something it was fear of the entire situation at hand. She was a simple Tech Adept, sworn to live the holy life of the Cult Mechanicus. Now she was being drug into something she didn’t understand. First the lie he told, now this!
“I... Must move on.” She said to herself, picking herself off the ground, “Much work needs to be done.”
AN:
This took a while. I've been busy with life and sort of forgot to post this for weeks. Not to mention the first draft was utter shite. Anyway, here you are.