Chapter 3
Sachiel was finally getting used to her new body. Movement started to become natural to her and she did not mind her mechanical voice as much as she did before.
Entering the Warp went smoothly enough, and the Geller-field seemed to hold out the demonic influence of the Immaterium as well Zeruel could ask for. Still, sometimes howling could be heard, shadows seemed to move or things seemed to fly past the ship's cathedral-like windows. For a girl of Sachiel's age, even entombed in a walking tank, that was still frightening enough that she hid in a corner of the ship and covered her sarcophagus with her power claws. There was not much Zeruel could do to put her at ease, he had to constantly monitor the ship's course in absence of a Navigator, and he was constantly fighting the Heritage of Zestra III's controls so that the Destroyer would not be swept away in the erratic streams of energy, perpetually apologizing to it's machine spirit as he did so.
As a result of the short jumps they could make, they would not normally stay in the Warp for long, however, much to Sachiel's relief. With a loud abysmal scream that almost drowned out Sachiel's, despite her powerful vox unit, they rematerialized in realspace. Zeruel approached her, but had no clue how to calm her down. This is the first time he saw a Dreadnought be afraid of something, or a girl for that matter. Her screaming had stopped, but she still covered the optical sensors in her sarcophagus. Zeruel put his hand on one of her power claws, and gently pushed it down. She did not resist, even though it would be as easy for her as breathing used to be. She looked Zeruel in the eyes and asked "Is it over yet?". Silently praising the Omnissiah for his guidance, Zeruel nodded. "We're in the Kaiyodo system." He said to her to change the topic. "We're almost in orbit around Kaiyodo IV. We need to stock up on supplies there." Sachiel got back on her feet. "I'm sorry I couldn't do anything to help during... *that*". Zeruel turned around and started moving towards the shuttle bay. "There was nothing you could have done anyway." He said over his shoulder. "But I can use your help soon enough, if you don't mind." With neither of them saying any more, Sachiel followed him to the shuttle. From there, Zeruel contacted the spaceport on the world below for permission to land. The spaceport operator was surprised to hear an Astartes ask for permission to land, in all stories he had been told the Space Marines basically did as they saw fit, however, he was more than happy to oblige. Zeruel pressed some runes on the console before him, and willed the machine spirit into coordinating the landing automatically. The flight down was quick and effortless. They had landed on a Forge World, Sachiel noticed. She had learned about those in school a few years ago. Apparently Forge Worlds are run by worshippers of the Omnissiah, which was supposedly borderline heresy. But Zeruel also worshipped the Omnissiah, and Zeruel was nice, so it could not be so bad, could it? "Zeruel" She asked. "Why are we on a Forge World?" Zeruel stepped out of the shuttle and answered her. "Several reasons, the most important one being we need some parts for maintenance, as well as new weapons. This was also one of the easiest destinations to travel to from where we were and it's directly on our route home."
Outside the shuttle a crowd quickly gathered around the duo. Sachiel took a step back, feeling intimidated, and nearly stepped on someone behind her. She carefully turned around and apologized. "I'm sorry, I'm really sorry. Are you ok?" Her vox boomed. The young woman nodded with a pale face and slowly got up again. She had fallen but not sustained any injury. Sachiel turned to Zeruel. "I don't like this." She told him. "I don't want this." Zeruel shot a gout of flame from his flamer-mechadendrite into the air, and everyone around them took a few steps back. "My apologies, people, but you should not come too close to my companion. As you saw earlier, it can be quite dangerous." Not a second after Zeruel had said that, the crowd made way for a robed figure, heavily augmented. They greeted, and exchanged a series of long and short beeps, which later Zeruel translated for Sachiel and explained was a type of Lingua Technis. "My apologies for the unprofessional behavior of my subordinates." The figure had said, a Magos according to Zeruel, who replied "I'm the one who needs to apologize. Had I been sufficiently prepared for this situation, my show of force would probably have turned out to be unnecessary." To Sachiel, the both of them seemed to be on fairly good terms, and she attributed that to their shared faith.
"I have come to procure parts and supplies, Magos." Zeruel said, getting right down to business like most in the Mechanicus do. The Priesthood would always supply the Astartes with such goods in return for nothing more than the knowledge the find, and rumors they hear, of Standard Template Constructs. Such a construct had to be incredibly valuable to them, Sachiel thought. She would ask Zeruel why some time. "Follow me." The Magos simply said, seemingly expecting the request. Zeruel signed Sachiel to follow as well and she did so silently. They had landed right next to the warehouse area, not a coincidence, Sachiel quickly realized. Zeruel and Magos Lorentz, as his name turned out to be, discussed the full list of supplies they would procure. Even though she couldn't understand any of what the two were talking about, Sachiel did not have the time to be bored. A Forge World was very different from the Hive World she came from, and there was plenty to be seen all around her. After a short while the Lorentz lead them into one of the warehouses. It was a giant hall, larger than any Sachiel had seen in her admittedly short life, filled with many large crates. "Wow, this place is huge!" She exclaimed as cheerfully as her vox allowed. "Quite easily impressed for an Astartes, and a Dreadnought no less." The magos spoke in High Gothic. "I eh.. I've never actually been on a Forge World before." She stammered in reply. "It was eh.. never part of a mission." The Magos accepted her answer without giving it much thought which caused Zeruel to visibly sigh in relief. Sachiel did not really know why she had tried to hide what she was, but seeing Zeruel's relief it was probably the right thing to do. She would ask him why that is later too but he never gave her a clear answer so she dropped the issue. In the mean time, Zeruel had prepared some nyloplas band that he told Sachiel to grab and lift the crate with that it was wrapped around. He repeated this with a second crate and he took a third for himself with both his servo-arms. As per his instructions, she followed Zeruel back to the shuttle to load the crates. She looked at the crates, trying to read what was written on them. In High Gothic, the first said "Twin-linked Lascannon, Dreadnought mounted" while the second read "Missile Launcher, Dreadnought mounted". She was no expert, but those sounded like some kind of weapons to Sachiel. "Zeruel, are these... weapons? For me?" She asked him. "And ammunition." Zeruel added. "I thought you meant food and water when you talked about supplies. Even if I don't, you still need those, right?" Zeruel nodded. "We'll pick those up too, but there's a few more of these crates first." Zeruel's words ironically filled her with dread. She had never expected she would need to fight, or kill, yet now she was carrying weapons in crates large enough that she could have hidden in them when she was still a girl. She had not given it any thought, and as a proper girl, she never was supposed to fight. She was supposed to marry into wealth to support her family, and had thus always been raised to be gentle and caring.
By the time they left the planet, they shuttle had been crammed full with more weapons and munitions, with barely any space left for the food and water Sachiel had to remind Zeruel to acquire. All in all, they had gathered another Missile Launcher and Twin-linked Lascannon, two Twin-linked Heavy Bolters, two Twin-linked Autocannons, an Assault Cannon, a Plasma Cannon, a Multi-melta and a Heavy Flamers, along with ammunition where applicable, as well as heavy armor plates. Zeruel had said he wanted to be ready for anything. "Zeruel..." She started slowly. "I'm happy you got so many... things for me, but do I really have to fight?" "To be honest with you, I hope you don't, but we don't always get to decide what happens." Sachiel remained silent. "You don't know any of the tactics necessary for using these in battle, or even how to operate them. You have no experience in fighting, or any knowledge of it, it seems, and you'll probably hesitate at important moments. That said, I'll take any increase in chance of survival we can get, and it's best to be prepared. Don't worry, I'll teach you personally." Sachiel was not sure whether or not she should be happy with that, but at least Zeruel didn't plan for her to fight any wars. "I don't want to see anything like what happened back home ever again." She told him. "People only ever die. I don't want to die. I don't want you to die either." It was Zeruel's turn to remain silent, he had no idea what to say, or what to think of what she said. There had been little other than war on his mind for most of his life. There was not much else that he knew. It was also one thing Sachiel knew absolutely nothing about, short of it's price, counted in millions if not billions of lives. He heard a sound similar to the first time Sachiel woke up in her metal shell, except it was a much lower pitched sound. "So Dreadnoughts *can* cry." He thought, and looked the other way, not knowing what to do or say to her. She stopped crying when Zeruel pointed out to her they had arrived back on their hardly void-worthy ship. "You should remember this pain." He finally told her. "Remember it in honor of those who have fallen. Remember it when we have to face more of those filthy xenos, and do unto them before they can do unto you." Sachiel gave his words some thoughts as she helped unloading the cargo again. "But why did they attack us in the first place?" She asked. "What did they hope to gain from us?" "Nothing really." Zeruel answered casually. "Just a good fight. All Orks really care about is fighting. They don't care if they'll probably lose, nor if billions of either side, innocent or otherwise, die in the process." Zeruel's voice changed, filled with contempt and shaking with anger. "They're too stupid to care. To them we're nothing but toys." The crate he carried cracked under increased pressure from his servo-arms before he regained his calm. "There's not much anyone can do except destroy them before they return the favor." Sachiel remained silent the entire time they were unloading. When they were finished, she asked Zeruel to show her the contents of the crates. "Can you show me what's in these? I'll have to use them, right? I don't want anything like what happened at home anywhere again, so how do I use them?" Zeruel looked up at her. "Are you finally willing to fight?" She stroked along the edge of the crate in front of her with her power claw. "I'm not, I'm scared. But I'll have to, I'm even more scared to see any more people die for nothing." The answer seemed to satisfy the Techmarine for now. "I think it's best if we start with that crate in front of you then. Long range weaponry is the least personal, and you can attack the xenos from relative safety." He opened the crate and put the lid against the wall of the storage chamber. Revealed to Sachiel was a double barreled weapon. The barrels were long, made of shiny polished metal, and at the end were 2 vertical slits on each side. The other end of the barrels were connected to what looked like a replacement arm with two large drums, no doubt to contain the ammunition. "These are Autocannons." Zeruel explained. "Normally the barrels are shorter, but according to the Magos those were on low supply so they used the longer variant generally used to shoot down aircraft. You'll have much reduced mobility in close quarters, but the range is extended by roughly 50% in return. You can engage most enemies long before they can return accurate fire." Sachiel looked around the storage chamber. "You said we have two of these, right?" Zeruel nodded. "The so-called Mortis Pattern Dreadnought always employs two of the same weapon systems. These loadouts are great for specialized tactics, like the long range engagements we'll start with. Alternative loadouts are Heavy Bolters against large hordes of weaker creatures, Missile Launchers for when you need some variety and Lascannons against huge creatures and armored vehicles. High power weapons like the Plasma Cannon and Multi-melta, and the Assault Cannon with it's huge ammunition supply are only available in combination with one of your claws or the Missile Launcher." Sachiel had already found out that Dreadnoughts easily store and remember information, but she tried her best to pay attention nonetheless, as it was a lot that Zeruel was telling her. He told her what all the weapons did, how they were operated and maintained, and some basic tactics to employ them with. Of course, theory is useless without practice, so he told her they would train with live ammunition once they touched down on a suitable planet. For now though, he had equipped her with the still unloaded cannons and told her to get used to the firing controls and targeting systems using a simulation program.
Zeruel sat down in his trademark way of sitting, resting on his servo-arms and directed a whispered prayer to the Emperor. "Please show me a sign, tell me I'm doing the right thing." He asked Him on Terra while Sachiel ran around the large halls of the ship, chasing after generic targets that Zeruel modeled in the program. He had foreseen that Sachiel might not benefit from shooting more realistic targets until she got used to the idea of combat. He shut off the visual sensors of his helmet to focus only on the readouts from Sachiel's simulation. "Hits: 32. Misses: 514. Friendly fire: 5." He sighed, having a newfound respect of the Scout Sergeants' patience in training new recruits. This was going to be a long journey.