40 Thousand Reasons

Chapter 133: Seven shards

While completing my task of ambushing the Tyranid fleet heading for Sotha, a part of my mind was busy digesting the new STC database from Trazyn.

It would be hard to sell most of them as proper Mechanicus designs, even if the Necron wizard had tried to give them the Imperium look, gothic and somber and gritty as hell.

A few exceptions were the advanced version of a Phased_Plasma-fusil using adamantium instead of plain iridium for extra heat resistance and durability. Now, these Dreadnought or Knight weapons could also be used to bash Orks in their teeth, and break those teeth with no worry.

I could even mount them on Tarantula turrets or light armored vehicles like Chimera and Weasels...which should be doable after Forge Retribution started a new Manufactorum line for these heavy weapons.

Same for a few Tau shields, which could possibly count as refractor shields of an ancient design. Maybe.

As for railguns, the Imperium had precious few such weapons, mostly sniper rifles and missile accelerators, and even those in very limited quantities due to the advanced technology that was never properly understood and replicated from ancient archeotech. Things like the Exitus rifle or the needle sniper rifle.

But the most interesting and valuable technology from the entire database were not weapons, but the communication systems, including advanced mechanical cogitators and superluminal transceivers.

For the Imperium, which depended completely on Warp and astropaths for long range transmissions, these devices would increase traffic volume and quality a hundred times. They still needed astropaths to bounce off the signal on the edge of the Warp and then onto their target, much like radio towers did.

Kinda primitive and skill dependent, but in a tight volume like an Imperial Sector, hundreds of worlds could be linked into a comm hub, possibly on the Sector's Capital. Or a Naval Base, or Inquisitorial Fortress too.

Range was limited to about 10 light-years, though of course with repeater-relay stations a message could arrive anywhere, barring accidents and gaps in the relays.

Very useful for deployed fleets as well, as the ships could keep in contact simply by staying in range of their FTL transceivers. For a transition system to the next technology level, it would work great.

"Lady Ezu, how to you think the Imperium will react to a communication system less dependent on the Warp?" I mused gently as I sent the last Nova mine into a cluster of destroyer-sized bioships, incinerating a thousand and wounding many more.

The woman tugged at her ponytail, letting her red hair fall down and frame her face, giving her a more pleasant appearance. "I shall have to examine such a device for any xenos influence or impurity. Is your bombardment over?"

I smiled thinly as my legs began to tremble. "For today, yes. At least a tenth of the Hive fleet heading towards us has been neutralized." I explained and ported straight in my room, letting Ludvaius disarmor me and tuck me in bed.

Perhaps nine hours later, my door opened to reveal the same Inquisitor, this time wearing a simple leather uniform and a violet toga.

"She really insisted, Captain." Rafen muttered and closed the door behind her.

I just stretched and held a hand out for a cup of recaf, to find Adrielle sipping from it while Ludvaius was staring blankly at the wall.

Damn mind control!

In a second, Ludvaius vanished in my labyrinth, and the cup appeared in my hand, due to Emperor's grace.

"For someone without psyker powers, you sure use plenty of them. Is it some kind of new mutation? Or a xenos artifact?" Adrielle asked watching me with an intense look.

"I think it's the C'tan, or some kind of control device over that thing, like the Necrons have." Lady Ezu murmured while sitting down at my cogitator and abusing her Clavis over-rides to rifle through my stuff.

The next second, my space wolf appeared beside my bed, to be scratched and petted.

"What do you say Canis? Do we eat these women?" I asked the wolf in a fake whisper.

My wolf just snorted and walked away, pressing the button for water and gulping from the dispenser with thirsty laps.

"I can't believe you slept with him, Adrielle!" the other Inquisitor exclaimed in outrage, watching the recording I've made for...recreational purposes.

"I can't believe you recorded...wait! Your bodyguard does pict-capture for all your bed adventures?" Adrielle asked in a slightly trembling voice, as the scene heated up on the holoscreen.

"Bionic eyes are so useful, after all. I did execute about 30 Inquisitors, with solid proof for their treason. You never know what Inquisitors would reveal in their most intimate moments. Want to see one having sex with a Slaanesh demonette?" I asked rhetorically.

Lady Ezu coughed politely and turned off my cogitator, before a demon jumped out. "If you have such proof, then it is probably nothing to worry about, Lord Lancefire. Now, you were saying something about a warp-less transmitter?"

I nodded and finished my recaf, while Adrielle slumped and fell into an armchair, looking defeated.

"A infocyte friend of mine recovered it from a research center, deep in Tau territory. The current theory is that the Tau are using an ancient STC cache to advance their technology at a fast pace, using weapons and templates from the Dark Age of Technology." I lied with a wide grin, and held out a data-stick imprinted with a dozen human looking tech of alien design.

"An infocyte...friend of yours. Tau territory, that makes it the Eye of Damocles...she wouldn't be Calixa, would it?" Adrielle asked glancing towards her colleague with a knowing look.

"... I am not at liberty to disclose ongoing operations, or operatives. Surely if you had the need to know, someone would have told you. You may examine the data-stack, but no copies. Not until we know for certain how the Imperium would react. Especially the Astra Telepathica." I said in a stern voice, then threw off the bedding and entered my shower.

Damn woman had said she had no psyker powers, and yet was able to keep Ludvaius sedated with so much ease.

No wonder Chaos Sorcerers were so adept at infiltration. People would only see what you wished them to see, including even Astartes. I was so glad for my Blank genes now.

A few minutes later, I found both women examining the STC templates on my cogitator, no doubt after having made copies for their own use.

"It seems to work quite similarly to the Macharius drive, even though there are some signs of xenos tampering." Lady Ezu said in with a deep frown, and then turned to stare at my naked body.

There was something in her eyes, temptation and revulsion and sadness. She probably lost someone, like everyone living in this hellish galaxy did.

"Really? You're thinking of bedding him, after you yelled at me for it?" Adrielle exclaimed in outrage, possibly reading her friend's mind.

"He is clean though...no sign of corruption. And he even showers himself." Lady Ezu mused in a longing voice.

"Woooo?" Canis asked and stood up, his head reaching over the two women in a menacing stance.

I just sat back in my bed, and smiled angelically. "I only have time for three rounds, before my bridge shift starts." I explained politely as my spear raised itself for battle.

I think the red-headed woman gulped a little, before throwing a warning look at her grinning colleague. "This better never leave this room. And I get two rounds."

Adrielle grinned wider and leaned in her armchair. "But of course, my dear. Enjoy your present!"

A dozen rounds later, I showered again and went to check on Zarhulash again, leaving those two sleeping in a mess of sweat and gene-seed.

"If you want to live, Mighty C'tan, you will need to help as well. I have seen a Necron World Engine, flying through the void. We'll need something like that, and move the planet elsewhere." I announced in a serious voice, holding out a data-stick and a brain download implant.

The C'tan examined me for a minute, before nodding minutely. "Just engines will not be enough. A Reality Cage and Transdimensional_Beamer to assemble what we need at a higher speed. It would look like a green pistol to humans."

Thus I began searching among my trove of Necron weapons for green pistols, proposing a few hundred green weapons and getting rejected, until the good one appeared.

"And this thing will generate enough energy to move a planet?" I asked a bit doubtful, holding the gun in my hand.

"Of course not. But there are seven more shards asleep beside me. We shall use one of them as a power source.

The Pharos will lose some range, but we gain mobility and eventually a few weapons." the C'tan proposed and pointed with his eyes at another wall.

The living rock drew apart to reveal a yellow human shape, with tentacle hair and closed eyes. The creature felt strong and menacing, even asleep and bound with living rock chains.

"What now?" I wondered glancing at Zarhulash.

"Now, you lock his location in your mind, and shoot him. He will appear in a transdimensional pocket, inside the weapon. Sadly it won't remove the binding, but it will allow me to convert his transdimensional mass/volume into engine components, what you call blackstone." the C'tan explained patiently.

Mystery solved, I stored the new superweapon in my tesseract and smiled inward. I might be evolved from a monkey, but I wasn't one.

"Perhaps some other day, Mighty Zarhulash. Not to be rude, but you are lying about some things right now, and it hurts my feelings." I commented in a sad voice, and focused back on the Sounding Board.

The C'tan had been helpful, giving me a weapon that would work on his kind. But he was planning his escape, and we couldn't have that, could we?