Under normal circumstances, trying to get a shelter put up on a planet that had been forcibly stripped of all resources on a bare island in the middle of a sea of toxic sludge would be an exercise in utter futility, existing only to curse those who found themselves in the situation to one of several forms of painful death.

I had a Valkyrie Core, two Fabrication modules that had been getting the constant upgrade treatment since day one of my syncing with said core, and a pile of materials that had been prepared in advance for the original escape plan, anticipating a similar, if not so extreme situation. That it even took as long as it did to put together was more due to my being careful with the construction rather than anything looking like an actual obstacle.

And, in an astonishingly short time, we had a secure shelter from the elements.

I quickly shooed everyone inside the new structure, which I had partially buried underground as a structural support, before sealing the place up and building an air scrubber unit with the spares I had available.

"Well, then. So far things are looking good. What's our next step?" Harry asked, his tone containing a very noticeable note of sarcasm. I didn't blame him.

"Firstly, we get this place set up as a proper airlock, and then we head into the Hangar to get cleaned up and debriefed. You actually need to hear this and my reasoning for why I did what I did." And dear god was that explanation going to take a while, but it had to be done.

"It's a sound plan, so far." Mio chimed in. "Honestly, with where we are located, I highly doubt that we will be faced with anything resembling a focused search. Most authorities will have placed us either in the Underhive or within foot travel distance of the Hive, not hours away by vehicle."

Harry made a gesture signalling his acceptance as I finished the touches on the reinforcement of the outer sections of the newly-formed pseudo-airlock chamber, mostly as a way to stall the clock on the purifiers cleaning the air for us to breathe in. I also made a very deliberate point of creating a perfectly good door attached to a non-external non-load bearing wall as well.

Soon enough, the air had been scrubbed and purified down to the level of being safely breathable, if a little cloying, and we all finally piled our way back into the workshop...which had...undergone some changes.

The first and biggest one was that the normal entry hallway was gone, and had merged with the rest of the Hangar as a proper part of the structure. All of the various workshops and facilities, once scattered around through the entry hall, had moved around to accommodate this, with clearly posted directions and the usual custom decals that tend to get put up by local personnel as time passes. The various tools and gadgets of the trade were present in all their glory as well, complete with the usual structures to exist inside of a hangar as its support and maintenance facilities.

Of note was the appearance of a new facility that seemed to be underground, and didn't have a clear label attached to it. I made a note to check with that later. First, it was time to relax a bit.

The four of us (Rico having de-unisoned with me once we made it back to the Hangar proper), made our way to the kitchen area and set down to a bit of quick grub. It was Harry who eventually broke the silence.

"So, then. I was promised an explanation as to what the hell was happening earlier. I'd like to hear it now."

Mio finished gulping down one of the odd snack foods that she had come to like-some kind of licorice or another, from what I could guess. "Well, we have recovered the STC. That is part of it."

Harry was surprisingly unfazed by this revelation. I chose to interject after a bite from my sandwich. "The STC was one of the old ones. Fully complete, no corruption. And it still has the AI installed and functioning as well."

That got a reaction from him, and from reading the look on his face, it was the same reaction I had when I discovered the time bomb that we were sitting on. It took a great deal of effort for him to even choke out the response that he did.

"W-where, is it now?"

"I have it. Used Rico as a smokescreen to do a snatch without being implicated in the mess. There was no way I could let that fall into the hands of the Ecclesiarchy. It would be nothing less than catastrophic." Harry nodded in agreement, and I took a quick drink from a mug of water before continuing. "That thing is fully capable of taking whoever has it from effectively stone-age tech to levels equal to what you know as the Dark Age of Technology. Hell, it was designed to do just that, as a bulwark and failsafe from Old Night.

"The reason why you usually only find fragments of an STC or mere design documents at best is because they are derived from the real thing, which is designed to work with whatever tech level you have until you hit the top again."

Mio jumped back in. "From what I have gathered from my own interfacing with the intelligence inside the machine, it is also capable of analyzing any technology we give it and adapting it to its own practices, as well as doing research and development as needs arise. Whoever designed it is paranoid as all hell...and a genius to boot."

I shrugged. "Proper STC are all supposed to be like that. From what little I know of the matter a combination of chaos involvement, xenos betrayal, and general bad luck led to most of the STC spread across the galaxy to be damaged to the point that they are little more than repositories, and not the actual uplift machines that they were meant to be."

Harry seemed to have regained his composure, now, and finally decided to properly respond. "So then...why exactly were you so suspicious of the Ecclesiarchy? Seems like an overblown response-"

I cut him off. "Stop. please. We both know that the Ecclesiarchy is little more than the main puppet of the Inquisition. And I have no intention of giving them any more power than they already have. You know firsthand what would likely happen then."

Harry stopped his mini rant as the reminder of the ramifications of that severe of a shift of the balance of power would be. I hated doing it to him, but he knew I was right.

"In any case, we now have access to a genuine full-up Standard Template Construct. My suggestion is that we scan it, duplicate it, upgrade it if possible, and then find people or groups that would be trustworthy enough to actually hand those out to. I am also putting forward that we never, under any circumstances, lose the original, just in case this becomes a thing. Any objections so far?"

Rico, who was munching on a cookie that, while large for a normal human, was nearly half his size, chose to interject. "Do we know if we can even use anything inside of this STC thing? Maybe we could hook it up to the Computer systems of the Hangar and have it scan in stuff as we do it?"

"That is a wonderful idea, and one that I was going to suggest myself." Mio exclaimed. "I approve wholeheartedly."

"I don't see anything wrong with it myself," Harry added in. "Besides, I'm not so good on the technical side like you two are. I think I'd be better off trying to get some intelligence assets going for whatever we choose to do next."

I shrugged. "I don't see a problem with it. Would probably help when we head back in to deal with that Genestealer infestation too."

"I have a suggestion of my own." Mio added, seeming to be somewhat morose as she did so. "We have, for the most part, been getting by solely on superior firepower, and not so much anything looking like skill. When we faced that statue thing, we were barely hanging on. It literally let us beat it, not the other way around. I feel we need to work on our basic skills as much as possible in order to remove this disadvantage. Also, I believe that Satori and myself have powers that are, or could be, useful against chaotic effects or similar. This needs to be explored as soon as possible and improved upon."

Oof. Sometimes I hated it when she had points like that. They tended to hit with unerring accuracy and hurt like all hell because of it...and she was right, anyway. I definitely needed to actually dig into my abilities and get them up to proper battle standards, and Mio was missing an entire school of magic from her usage pool, as well as either not knowing or not understanding what her Null Skill was. Hell, I think there was a good bit of tech that I had never gotten around to analyzing and using just sitting there gathering dust that we could use.

And then there was the other elephant in the room, in the form of Photons. The technology was currently being sorely underutilized, and I needed to change that, especially since it seemed to not only have a strong effect against most of the stuff in this universe but seemed to synergize with my own odd light affinity.

I decided. "If we do this, that means we all do this. Including you, Harry."

Harry blinked at us owlishly, as if I had grown another head. "Now, Green, I know that you two have strange powers due to whatever it is you are pulling from, but you are speaking as if I can learn to do the same thing, which is impossible."

"Actually, with the exception of Originium Arts, everything we have used to this point can be taught to others. Originium Arts could, too, if we were willing to infect you with the damned stuff to give the necessary boost, but I don't see that as necessary."

Harry stared, again. "So, you are telling me that this is not some special talent you were born to, but something that everyone could learn, if they bothered...or knew how?"

"Yes."

"It's actually a lot easier than it looks." Mio added. "I'm sure you will do just fine."

I watched Harry sigh in frustration at our antics. "Alright then, I'll play along. But you two will be teaching me EVERYTHING you've got, you hear me? No holding back."

That was more than fair.

We spent the rest of the meal chatting about random things and putting up early concepts for a training regime to use. I still wanted to have some tinker time, and I know Mio felt the same way…

It had been three days since they had arrived at this place, a "home away from home" as they referred to it, and Mio found herself in meditation to focus and draw out her powers.

According to Satori, she should have had access to a fairly basic and oddly rigid system of magic due to their forge powers, and he suspected that hers had manifested differently than his own. In particular, he wanted to know what her so-called "null magic" spell was, which was a kind of shorthand for a special ability that was normally unique to a given person.

Hence, the meditation. The Idea was that by focusing on the power itself, she could figure out exactly what her Null magic was, and then begin to work it into her own style.

This, of course, required her to know just what the hell she was looking for. It was really frustrating.

The good point was that most of her other "supernatural" skills were coming along nicely. Her own Arts proficiency was already at the point where it was becoming near-instinctual, and she felt that soon it would be nearly second nature to utilize the physical boost arts as she wished. Caster arts were a different story, but even those were better than they were previously, and she had ideas she wanted to work with in that area as well.

It most definitely helped that she was training herself to utilize her natural multitasking to limits that she had previously thought impossible, even through the use of Rico's odd magic style, and had several instances of herself doing training in the various methodologies she wanted to expand upon and test out.

Still didn't help with finding that damned skill of hers...although she got a good grasp of her dearest's skill, which he called Metamagic. And no, being able to use his skill was not part of hers; that was one of the first things she checked on.

'As if he hadn't already given me everything but what I wanted anyway…'

And since her thoughts had drifted that direction, she might as well go through with it. Satori, her dearest, was noticing. She had caught the snatches of thought from him, where he had, at least in his mind, referred to her as his. And as much as this was what she wanted, had willingly signed up for, even...seeing, feeling it happen was a completely different experience. Especially because she knew that the "loyalty" programming she'd modified for herself was solely to align her own goals to his, not to make her fall in love with him...or him with her. As natural and right as it felt, it was still a scary prospect in many ways.

And one that she was finding that she was all too willing to dive into headfirst for his sake. And noticeably more now for her own sake.

'Dammit. I'm drifting again.'

She was aware of her own desires. She knew what she wanted from him, and knew all too well that he wanted the same from her, no matter how much either of them tried to deny it. Still, something inside of her still recoiled in terror at acquiescing to the inevitable. It was terribly frustrating, to the point that she really wished that one of them could just fucking spit it out already, but nooo. She's a coward, and he's still confused and uncertain of his own heart, even though they BOTH know that it's going to happen, and that they both want it to.

Ugh. Why was love so damned complicated?

A spark within herself caught her attention. It would seem that during this inner monologue she had managed to grab hold of something. Curious, she slowly brought this spark of power to the surface-

And screamed in agony as her entire body burned from the sudden changes being inflicted upon it. One of the instances of her mind not consumed with pain noted that Satori was screaming out in the same pain, which meant that this was either an attack of some kind or a new power coming to the fore. A quick examination by those same detached instances of herself concluded that it was something power-related, as an entirely new set of...something began to trace pathways through her body in an odd but strangely recognizable pattern, similar to the arteries and veins of the body, but with many of these new pathways wrapping around and even through not only those same blood channels but the major organs as well-even the muscles seemed to be involved, receiving numerous connections at various points.

Finally, the process had finished, and a strange, yet comforting energy began to pulse through this new passage, seeming to enhance everything it touched. A notification on her HUD popped up as well, giving her a brief overview of what just happened. Normally they would be posted by the being that was the caretaker of the forge proper, whom her partner called Watts; this time, however, there was a completely different mark to it, one that felt distinctly female. It was quite confusing to her, but she read it anyway...and came up with less information than she went in with, somehow. Which made no sense whatsoever.

What did make sense, though, was that she had had a minor epiphany while her body was recovering from the strain of whatever this "chakra" energy was, and she had an idea that she thought might work.

Instead of reaching within herself, she instead channeled her magic outwards into the facsimile of a usable expression. She had long discovered that her affinity elements were those of the Flame, the Earth, and the enigmatic Darkness through some minor testing (which had also revealed the "glitch" in the Null magic system that let her use Metamagic), and for this test she had chosen Fire.

"Right. I'm still confused about the color, though...and since when do flames suddenly decide to not burn?"

The oddly cheery silvery-gray flames danced around her form, alighting playfully on her person wherever they seemed to feel like it, and yet not burning anything at all. It was something that she wanted to play around with in specific detail later on. Right now, though...she drew those flames back within herself, not to quench them, but rather to soak them into her very being.

The result was incredible.

The flames were suddenly as much a part of her as her own mind, and blazed brightly from within her, empowering and protecting her even as she danced in joy at her success.

And of course this was her ability. Hell, hadn't she been given a huge hint when she first was reborn, in the dark flame that liked to blaze on her tail? (and that was something else that she needed to look in to, as she could feel quite clearly that this was a separate ability entirely…)

No matter. For now, Celebration! Besides, it's not like it was stopping her from doing other things as well!

It was nice, seeing people you cared for happy. Especially when you cared for them as much as I did Mio.

Really, though, I should have expected that her null magic would be similar to some of the powers of Dragons in myth, in the embodiment of her elements the way she can do now. Makes me wonder if it was possible for her to switch it up and/or combine elements as she saw fit when using that Infusion skill of hers...I'd probably have to learn how she does it, just to test for myself.

It also is a very nice distraction from the agonizing pain of having Chakra coils not only burned open, but outright created inside one's body. It was better, now that the process had finished and chakra was properly flowing within, strengthening everything it touched, but the initial process is hell.

But it did make me notice something. I know that my body is an odd hybridization between flesh and blood and a sentient nanoswarm, but this new addition seemed to bolster everything in a way that I would normally ascribe to Aura. not only that, but my own Aura, which I was training with at the time, seemed to get a rather nice boost to it as chakra flowed through and within my body, almost as if…

Alright, this is getting just a bit weird for me. Sure, I know that chakra has a mental component and all, but for it to be tied specifically to the soul as well? I wasn't the best of fanboys for the later stages of the series (thanks in part to the numerous plotholes introduced later on, as well as the shift from "Ninja" to "Ninja-themed magic knights"), but this felt like it should have been mentioned somehow, that chakra was not just spiritual, but of the soul as well.

Whatever, I'd work it out in due time. Right now, I was more interested in the quick brief that came with the chakra itself, as there was an unexpected skill package attached. According to the brief, the skill package was for the skills and training of a "proper" Shinobi, and not just the odd super-flashy shonen battle standard of ninja. I was more than willing to work with this, but it would be a little bit before I could accept the skill package, as my chakra coils needed to settle in. Mio's too for that matter.

The only downside is that it had to stack on top of the normal skilset that came from being a proper Konoha genin, and integrating those would take a bit of time. Not too long, but long enough that it would be noticeable.

This, of course, meant that it was back to the lab again, so to speak.

My current project was working to establish a positive control of my Aura, and to strengthen it to the point where it was safe for me to awaken Harry's aura as well. This was not necessarily a difficult undertaking, but it was still relatively time-consuming.

Didn't mean it wasn't fun, though. And from my even brief experimentation, there was a LOT more to Aura than first appeared.

For one, it was actually a lot more efficient at boosting one's physical capabilities than I'd expected. I was vaguely aware that the lore presented in the series was skewed at best and wildly inconsistent, but what I was experiencing destroyed even my most optimistic expectations...and this was a power that was intended to grow with the user.

Which meant that getting enough control that I could safely awaken Harry's aura became even more of a priority than before, as this was a boost that could not be ignored.

The main "problem" I was having is that Aura as a powerset does not do anything by halves…and it was not taking my self-limiting well. Specifically, in one area that I had been avoiding for some time, at least subconsciously.

My mental faculties were scary now, with the baseline example being that of someone whose intelligence exceeded that of an entire stadium of super geniuses. While seeing this on paper is one thing, actually putting that into a proper framework was a completely different prospect, and even I had difficulties with doing so, despite being the one directly affected by the ability and it's boosts. The big point here is that I was severely underselling just what my crazy little mind was actually capable of when pressed...or when I consciously broke past the limits I'd unconsciously set for myself.

"Fixing" this was going to be an effort and a half...and I wasn't sure I wanted to, anyway. Sure, I could make a balance of keeping myself as I am even with the super-intelligence, but...wasn't that what I was now? Diving full-bore into that well of insane mental power without reason or even purpose was asking to get lost within my own mind, as weird as it was to say.

No...I would not be "fixing" anything. This was good as it was now, with me being aware that I had a limiter that only needed me to want to push past it to remove. I could work on using more of what was available to me, of course, and it would likely serve very well in other endeavors too.

Might wanna ask Mio about it. Surely my Dragon would have some kind of insight to give on this.

[Keep poking me like that, and the only "insight" you will be getting is insight my womb.]

"Okay, that one was actually pretty good…"

Now, back to training before Mio jumps me again, and I lose the rest of the day inside her…

Harry had to hold back a chuckle at the antics of his friends, as they once again engaged in their little game, completely oblivious to anything but each other once again.

Honestly, he was tempted to suggest that the two just take a day or three to get it out of their system, but he knew that it was pointless. That kind of love (and it was love, as much as they tried to dance around it) did not simply vanish after the attending lust was sated.

It was amusing to him that the two lovebirds there thought that nobody else noticed how close they had gotten in the last few weeks. Honestly, he thought it was good for them both, despite the memories that seeing them together threatened to drag up. He could ignore that part, though.

Besides, he had other things to interest him right now, like focusing on the equations in his head for a simple ball of energy that was his initial training exercise in mana use and operation. That he was having to do so while maintaining a mental partition in his head for the use of other spells was difficult, but still doable...and it left him time to contemplate on a lot of things.

"Alright, you look like you have gotten the hang of simple generation. Next, we will work on movement."

Harry grunted his acknowledgement. Rico, despite his small stature, was a harsh and relentless taskmaster, pushing him to his absolute mental limits and seemingly beyond in the meager days that he'd been working on his mana control. Fortunately, he'd gotten good enough even with that much to be able to do other things with the rudimentary Multi-threading technique that Rico had taught him.

And, to be honest...it was incredible, actually working with raw energy like this, with only his own willpower to guide him. There as a very legitimate rush in manipulating the forces of the cosmos like this, and for once he could see how the various psykers could be swayed by the whispers of chaos.

"So, how is this movement thing supposed to work?"

"More or less the same as before. The equations for what you want to happen are processed in the correct manner, and then the action executes. There is more to it than that, of course, but for now this is good enough. Once you get your mana control up to par, was can work with the stuff that kind of...defies the system. Or defines it, depending on who you ask, really…" and there Rico was, slightly drifting off into an academic tangent on just how and why the magic system he'd known ('been programmed with' to quote Rico) worked the way it did, even as he gave out instructions on the training exercise in question.

Which made sense, in context: this system was oddly contradictory in many ways. Hell, half the time, at higher levels, it seemed that all of the mental math focus kind of went out the window and the stuff just did what you wanted it to do anyway, which was an odd phenomenon for Harry.

(That he had deliberately done exactly that on several occasions just to get a feel for how it worked was completely beside the point. Fortunately, Rico never brought those instances up.)

Hell, the entire concept of this "magic" stuff was so utterly new and beyond anything he had context for that it was extremely tough for him to actually get his head around it all. That he, who was both known and tested to have absolutely zero psyker talent, was capable of such feats with just a little training was downright revolutionary in his eyes, and he had to admit that he was completely hooked… Having even a small cadre of xenos hunters with this, or even a sect of trusted witch hunters for the chaotic psykers, would do absolute wonders for survival rates among the imperial forces and the Inquisition…

And there they were again, those thoughts yet another reminder of why he was having such a hard time just rolling with things. He was still, at heart, an Inquisitor of the Imperium of Man. Despite his disgrace, he still saw all of these new advances and improvements and downright amazing feats of supernatural mastery by mere human hands as being the triumph of the Imperium.

'Maybe instead I should view it as the triumph of mankind, that we no longer have need of the tainted and corrupted warp to access immeasurable power.'

Harry chuckled silently to himself as Rico finished his explanation (and elaboration) of the training exercise and finally let him off the leash to try it for himself. It was surprisingly complex, for its simplicity, and maintaining the necessary equation for that one orb of mana while still holding up the mental partition was actually quite the strain.

And to think, both Satori and Miolala could do this with little effort. How?

"It looks like you're grousing about how the lovebirds are so good at this, while you struggle a bit." Rico chimed in, almost breaking his concentration over the effect before he reigned it in. "I wouldn't compare yourself to them: they have a bit of an unfair advantage over you in doing this. Besides, you are actually progressing at quite the rapid pace for someone who until now thought that this was impossible."

Harry could only nod at that, really.

"Also, I believe that Satori is working on something or another to give you an even further edge over the opposition, which is why he's training so hard right now. I would like to have you up to something looking like a standard before he is ready with whatever he is working on."

Well then. That was interesting. Seemed that Rico was a bit possessive of his student. Not that it mattered much, as they would be doing group training once he was up to the proper "standards". But the thought was nice.

Besides, it had been a very long time since he was even remotely proud to be called a student of anything.

'It really is nice to be able to actually learn again...'

It had been a mere four days since we had holed up in the middle of nowhere, not that you could tell from how we acted. Harry was, despite his attempts at hiding it, like a little kid again with a brand-new toy as he broke through yet another milestone in his mana control training. Mio, meanwhile, had finally discovered her null magic ability and was using it to devastating effect on me whenever she managed to get her perverted little hands on my person.

Those silver flames of hers being a conduit of emotions was simply devastating when she used them in our various *ahem* relaxation sessions. Mio, being a cheating cheater who cheats, proceeded to spam them at every opportunity.

Mio's teasing (and promises) aside, my activities focused on pushing my Aura to the limit. In the process, I had managed to not only get in a shockingly large amount of experience in using said Aura in basic forms, but had managed to get it close to a point where I thought I might be able to reach Harry and awaken his own. But that could come later. Right now, we were taking time to actually eat together in one of the break rooms, the Kerbals packed in with us as everyone tried to make the best of the event.

"...So, then we can use the capacitor designs to redo a lot of the electrical systems, right?"

Mio was chattering rather excitedly with Bob at the latest find from the STC, which I had unpacked and hooked up to the central mainframe for the time being. The current project that the Kerbals were on was some kind of self-sustaining battery system for extended trips, which I suspected used solar cells or something similar to achieve the effect.

Bob, as usual for the Kerbal's leadership team, was completely unfazed. "Apologies, ma'am, but we have a solution in the works that doesn't need that much of an overhaul. That capacitor system is on the table as a potential design for a satellite, so we'll see what the rest of the team comes up with."

Mio's pout was completely ignored by the rest of us as we continued eating.

Wait. I might as well address this now…

"Hey, Bob. you and the guys alright with working like this?"

Bob's reply was immediate. "We're fine, sir. We got plenty of clear sky to work with here, and lots of good materials to experiment with as well. Just about the only thing I've been hearing complaints about is that the crew is wondering if you had anything you unwanted us to work on, instead of our own projects. They want to feel useful.

"Also, Werner down in R&D is getting impatient...when we don't have him duct-taped to the floor, anyway. Don't worry about the mad scientist, we can handle him fine."

I nodded. "Alrighy then." Always nice to have things going somewhat smoothly. "Second question. You guys checked out the spacedocks yet? We've eben kind of busy for a bit."

Harry gave me a look at the mention of having a personal space dock. Sorry, Harry, but the Forge is insanity incarnate. It does this, and all we poor mortals can do is hold on for dear life.

Bob, on the other hand, merely shook his head. "No, sir. We have generally avoided that area due to the combination of microgravity and depressurization past certain points. The place is set up to need better EVA gear than we have available at the moment. If there is-or was- a way to get the section re-pressurized, we could probably do some work...but right now? It's beyond us."

Hm. that explained a lot. It was likely that the Space dock just opened up to a random safe sector of the local space and needed to be manually sealed off or something. I'd have to get in there and check it out-actually, wait a minute. I have a better idea.

"Mio, I'm going to have you head into the space docks when it's convenient and see what the deal is. If we can re-seal the place and/or get some actual atmo in there, then we need to do so as soon as possible. I want you to use your Valkyrie Core for this, so you can get used to using it. Any objections?

Mio quickly nodded her assent of the plan. "Anything else you want me to take care of while I'm there?"

I thought about it for a moment before shaking my head negative. "Nope. nothing that I can think of right off the bat. Basically, use your best judgement once you get there, and try not to expose the rest of us to hard vacuum, please. I prefer being able to breathe."

The only reason I didn't get beaned by the flying cup of liquid is because I was boosting myself with both Aura and movement arts...and I had moved before finishing my comment. Mio left the impromptu cafeteria with a huff, likely to go and grab her core from wherever she had stashed it. I could still feel the traces of both amusement and pride in her thoughts, though...as well as a very blatant notice that I was not getting sleep tonight. Horny woman...

I turned to Harry once she had left. "Alright then, Harry. I have something that will help keep you alive. The good news is that it's totally intuitive and warp-free. The bad news is that I'm not 100% sure that the process won't kill me just yet. It's a risk I'm willing to take, though. You interested?"

Harry, for his part, had to actually stop and think about it. "...I'm not sure about this. I'm barely getting my mind around this whole 'magic' thing, and now you want to give me something else? I want to say yes, but...well." He made a vague gesture that I translated as 'see previous.'

I simply nodded. "I can at least give you the rundown on the stuff, make sure you know what and how things work. That way, when you do feel you're up for it, you are ready."

Harry give me a relieved nod at that. I had a suspicion that he thought I was going to force the issue, which for something like Aura is nothing short of catastrophic. Besides, I wouldn't do that anyway.

"Alright then, on to other concerns. I have yet another new ability set to get used to, and I need to figure out what changed around here from when it came in. you mind tailing along with me for a bit?"

"It would be good for you to get a break in for a little bit, Harrison." Rico added in. "Your training is already progressing at an impressive rate as is. No need to rush things."

Harry chuckled again. "Alright, fine. Let's go get this place properly mapped out."

The layout of the Hangar had been changed around more than I'd thought. Most of the "normal" workshops have been moved to the ground floor areas unless strictly needed otherwise, and the Resource Generator warehouse was merged into one of the corners of the place that didn't have anything in it at the moment, while somehow not taking up any space. There was now a dedicated room with the Simulator cabinets (yes, plural: apparently the Kerbals took only having one as an insult and made more in their spare time) and related documentation awaiting anyone who wanted to use it, with the optimization computer's main unit sitting on a shelf nearby. Surprising no one, the Kerbals had rigged a dedicated server setup to the system, copying over all of its relevant data and details into their new modelling rig, and then used it for their future projects. An Ingenious use, if anything.

Past that, the "main" workshop area had become most of what would have been the central pillar area in the hangar proper (which had expanded itself accordingly), now taking up all the space it needed in both horizontal and vertical planes. Aside from some minor tweaks for purposes of space, not much had changed at all with the workshop (well...workshops, now) themselves, featuring the same tools and equipment that had been present before.

...Or so I had thought, until I noticed the additions on the side walls. It would seem that the workshop had been updated to allow itself to be the ultimate resource for crafting any and all forms of ninja equipment as well. Stacks of chakra-sensitive paper slips and jars of chakra-conductive ink were set in spaces ready for their use, while a (relatively) small collection of what I suspected were nearly priceless gems and metals that had high conductivity to the energy were placed nearby. Hell, somewhere along the way there had been an actual, legitimate forge added to the place, complete with all the necessary safety measures and protocols...of a civilization over three Millennia beyond what the elemental nations were capable of.

Oddly enough, there even appeared to be a direct link from the Resource generator warehouse attachment to this place, I assumed that some kind of synergy effet was at work, but it did make things easier for sourcing supplies. Not that I couldn't make things better anyway, if and when I got around to it...and assuming that Mio didn't beat me to the punch.

Playing around with the new stuff was going to be fun. I could tell right off.

Also new to this layout was a room set underneath the pillar proper, accessed via a trap door, which turned out to be some kind of old-fashioned arcane laboratory. Initial glance showed it to possess both a proper research lab for magical studies (if more than a bit outdated for my known styles), as well as a wide "working" area for ritualistic and complex spellwork. Unusually, the place seemed to also have sections dedicated to the fashioning of operations orbs, a very incomplete section for what I believed was supposed to be for setting up and testing Device-type technologies, and even a small section dedicated to theoretical photonics, even if it was somewhat bare-bones.

I was somewhat at a loss as to why this place was set up in the way it was, but there were a few interesting books stashed in the small library that, from the spines, looked like they would be worth reading. For now, I left the place as it was, and posted a reminder and notice board near the entrance with a reminder to do a general reorganization of the place before actually getting started with anything.

Our makeshift hydroponics/greenhouse combo was moved to one of the outer edges, where it had plenty of space to utilize in it's floorplan. The now large growing area was only at beast an eighth full with some of the early tests we were doing with the local fungus and available plant seeds. With any luck we should be able to diversify this quite a bit before, or at least during, our trip off of Necromunda.

Other than that, the Hangar was still the same home, sweet home that we knew and loved (well, I did, anyway), and the two 20th Century aircraft still sat in their places, sleek and deadly as ever, awaiting my touch for a good general overhaul and eventually to rise into the wild blue above.

'I'll get to you in due time. Right now, I have some other things I wanna work on.'

Harry found himself rather impressed at the overhaul of the place, even if he was uncomfortable with the arcane lab. "Hm. I think I like the changes that have happened here. Makes it feel a bit more like somewhere to actually be, and not just a hodgepodge mess, Y'know?"

I laughed out loud at that. "Yeah. I agree. And I like it, anyway. I like it a lot."

"So, then. Everything up to standards?"

I nodded. "It's, as we used to say, 'close enough for government work'. Anything that isn't will be corrected in due time. Right now, I have something that I want to take care of."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Oh? And what exactly is that?"

I just started walking, Harry following behind, only after realizing that I wasn't going to answer him.

The central server for the Hangar was in the admin and crew sections over by the "cafeteria" (I was sorely tempted to call the small breakroom a DFAC just for the irony), which currently had a rather large piece of extremely ruggedized technology attached to it. Even from the far side of the hangar, the STC took up a lot of space. Which made sense, considering just how rugged these damned things had to be. Deciding to more or less throw caution to the wind for this, I walked up to it and laid a hand on the machine, the STC opening itself to my mind.

The full extent of the STC was laid bare to me, in the best ways possible. I immediately began a search of the databanks, looking for one specific item inside, which I had full belief would be in there.

And sure enough…

"I fully intend to duplicate this particular piece of tech, if for no other reason than to make sure we don't lose it again. I have a hunch that there will be more than Imperial groups seeking this out, and many of those intending to destroy it for fear of what it could cause."

I had it in my mind, the complete concept of what an STC was. And with that, I could improve upon it.

I focused myself on the task at hand, even as Harry started looking at me with that "you're crazy" look on his face.

"You do realize that if word gets out that there is more than one of them…"

I spared an idle thread of thought to answer. "If word gets out, then the very beings that would seek out and destroy this one STC here will try and find the others...or the person who is making them. I would think that the Eldar in particular would have a bit of a vested stake in making sure that Humanity never rises back to its days of glory."

Harry nodded in agreement, though he still had that look on his face. "Yes, the knife-ears will come for this, and all the others, in an attempt to screw us over at the worst possible time. Admittedly, they will actually have to get here, first..."

I deliberately ran everything I could through the gamut of abilities I had at my disposal. Everything that could be used, was used in my refinement process, as I stripped away the chaff and replaced it with things that were superior, reinforced critical sections, expanded data storage and processing power, and even did a minor AI tweak as well.

And then, after all that was done? I ran it through the miniaturization process and did it all over again until I was satisfied.

"They will indeed try, Harry. And they will inevitably fail."

The final result of the design process was a series of items rather than one: a relatively decent-sized data storage terminal that was intentionally made all but indestructible; a much smaller but far more portable version that traded some of hte insane durability for portability, being about twice the size of a full-sized computer case, circa 21st century,; and a final version that was the size and shape of a particularly good datapad...and was about as durable as the damned Shiekah Slate.

And I had intentionally made sure that it was buildable by "normal" people to boot. Why?

I called up the Kerbals.

"Engineering, Bill Kerman here."

"Bill, Satori. I got a project for you guys. I need a good several of these things built up and ready to go as soon as feasible. While I prefer faster, I need the build quality. Schematics are going up in the system now."

"Understood, Sir. we'll get right on it. Updates will be in the blotter."

"Thank you, Bill."

Because I had Kerbals for that, thank you very much.

"That's it?" Harry seemed to be a bit unenthused by the process.

I nodded. "That's it. The Kerbals will take care of the hardware construction, and afterwards I'll upload the design AI to the new gear, then we can distribute as needed. Three flavors depending on how we need to deploy them: small and portable, Large and tough, and concealable stealthy option for when we need to do things below the radar...which will probably be a lot."

Harry gained a contemplative look. "Then that means that all we need is a rough list of who exactly we can trust to have the data."

"Yeah. it's something that we need to work on, but I do have a bit of a lead." I stepped back from the STC and turned to face Harry. "Van Saar has access to something that keeps them ahead of the game, but at the cost of a very nasty set of long-term radiation poisoning. After looking at the database...I have reason to believe that they have access to a damaged STC."

Harry nodded. "I suspected as much from my time with them. It's generally held close to the chest, and the advantage it gives them is indeed very nice. You're thinking of getting in touch and getting them a new one?"

I nodded. "Something like that. Either get them a new one or the means to repair the one they have. If nothing else, it gives them their leg up without the downside."

Harry's sudden grin was downright feral. "Well, then. Looks like we have a plan."

My own grin was no less vicious than his. "Indeed we do. Best part? It can wait. Van Saar is not going anywhere anytime soon. We'll have more than enough time to get back in touch with the people we need.

And when we did...well, I fully intended to go ahead with my plan to train up the locals as hard as possible.

Because there was another threat that I pointedly did not mention to Harry. The forces of Chaos would be watching my movements and attempting to find a way to hamper me if at all possible. I've heard rumors of some rather freakishly convenient Warp Storms from my time with Janus...if they are willing to act directly in the short term, then it could become troublesome.

"Now, if you will excuse me, I'm going to go have a lot of silly fun now."

But that was something for future me to deal with. Present me was going to take some time to revel in being a fucking Ninja.

Mio made her way past another set of airlocks for the area that had been deemed tentatively as a spacedock, her Valkyrie Core synced and her frame fully expressed as she floated gently through the airless environment. Gravity was indeed a suggestion here, with maybe one or two pockets of the stuff hanging around certain areas as she moved forward, but for the most part Microgravity conditions ruled.

Which was not a problem for her in the slightest, as her frame was fully zero-gee capable even before adding in the sheer hilarity that was an Impeller Field. The upgrades that had been slapped on to the frame by those "Chozo" were just more icing on the cake.

She was getting a lot of good practice time with her core, though, so that was a bonus.

The dock area was extremely large, with what looked like multiple sections for multiple ships to be docked in, and a gantry-like setup for each docking slip in order to effect repairs and replenishment. Various supply rooms and mechanical accesses were jammed open, the contents of the rooms in disarray at best and a lost cause at worst.

From the looks of things, something big had happened here, either a battle or some kind of disaster that had rendered the place completely unusable. She was still getting the odd radiation alert on her HUD, showing the areas of influence quite clearly even as she glided through them without issue. The gantries themselves were fine, oddly enough,or at least the arms were, but the various control and support sections for the actual operation of the apparatus were totaled.

If she had to guess, someone made sure that nothing could leave this place if it was here.

It still begged the question, though: "What happened here? And why?'

She had a nagging feeling that the answers would be very, very important.

Crossing over to another set of airlocks, these set to take her to the second of what appeared to be four slips for this yard, she took a moment to run a quick active scan of the environment.

The ping she got back was rather unnerving, especially when it abruptly vanished the way it did.

Mio was no fool. Something or someone was in here with her, and she would need to be careful as she advanced.

Manually cycling the Airlocks to get into the next slip, she found her way blocked by what looked like a combination of old supply crates and some very creative usage of one of the odder utility items at her disposal, the GLOO Cannon. The distinctive balls of rapid setting foam were noticeable everywhere. A low-power scan didn't reveal anything too amiss, so in light of a lack of better options she chose to carefully break her wey through the mess.

What greeted her on the other side was simultaneously awe-inspiring and horrifying.

There as a "Boat" there, classified as such by her solely due to it's size, locked into place by the gantry arms, which she could tell looked just as disabled as the rest of them. The ship was, at first glance, nothing out of the ordinary, being a smallish vessel shaped roughly like a slightly aerodynamically styled rectangular prism. There was an attempt at minor control surfaces there, but for the most par the ship was utterly utilitarian. Overall, it was really nothing special aside from her scanners saying it was equipped with one of those eternal fusion engines.

No, the "Boat" was fine. The Ship, on the other hand, was a work of art only possible by the works of the Omnissiah...or perhaps the combined effort of her and her (not-quite-yet) Husband.

No, her face did not look like a tomato at the moment, you can't see it and therefore there is no evidence, so it did not happen.

The ship was a sleek, angular thing with lines reminiscent of birds of prey. A large central body seemed to have all of the main amenities of the craft, being shaped in an very sharp delta pattern, with the rear portion of the delta having ports fro what looked like some very good engines. A pair of protuberances set at the rear as well, matching the slope of the craft and giving her the feeling that they were some kind of bay or dispenser for something. A pair of (admittedly unnecessary for space) stabilizers jutted out of the protuberances at an angle, completing the general look of something inspired by the days of aerospace circa M2.

The rest of it, though, was even better.

On either side, what looked like secondary engine mounts were attached to the central frame by a supporting brace structure, and from the looks of it, it seeled to =be on some kind of traversal mechanism as well. A pair of what looked to be some type of macro cannons set on the tips of each of those "wings" that the secondary engines had attached to, each clearly looking ready to roll on a moment's notice. A third, slightly larger cannon mount was set as a spinal weapon somehow, and there were clearly ports galore for various emitters and what might have been a type of point defense as well. The ship was, overall, sleek, deadly...and from her scans, the exact same as the Boat: completely untouched by anything that had happened here. Not even the paint was scuffed.

The horror, however, came from the effective charnel house that she had just stepped in to. Bodies were everywhere, blood floating frozen in the microgravity bouncing off of any and everything as it moved. Limbs clearly separated from the bodies of those whom they were once connected to floated endlessly on, while an odd black sludge seemed to flow intermixed with the whole mess.

Her frame's sensor had managed to count something like 300 unique bodies before she had it stop.

And again, she was forced to ask herself: 'What the Hell happened here?'

Another blip on her sensors caught her notice. Her HUD was directing her attention to a piece of debris floating around in the mess, what looked like the remains of a cup. Nothing about it seemed out of the ordinary as she approached it, just a few dents and scuffs...until her scanners pulled up a comparison chart with an item that was only a few meters away...and showed the exact same item. And further noted that scans hadn't picked up the first one until only recently.

The hell-

For a normal human, it would have happened far, far too fast to comprehend, a claw of liquid darkness streaking out at her from what used to be a dented cup, now turned into some kind of Xenos horror, and clearly intent on taking her life.

But she was very enhanced, and thus she saw it coming from well over a mile off. The Claw was almost painfully slow to her enhanced mind, and she contemplated it for a moment before just sitting there and letting it hit her.

As expected, the claw didn't even scuff her impeller field.

Several other black reatures, each of them formed of the black ooze that flowed thoughout the cavernous space, launched themselves at her as well, each and every one contorting in any and every way possible in order to shape their bodies into a weapon to kill that which intruded on "their" realm.

Not one of them even dropped her fields strength at all.

Larger, more nightmarish creatures began appearing, and took over the role of trying to crush through her defenses, all to no avail, while other parts of the black ooze tried to make a break for the airlocks.

Mio was not having any of it, and calmly raised a gauntlet on her new suit...the one that happened to have a very nice hypervelocity CANNON strapped to it.

It wasn't even worthy of being called a slaughter. The beatdown was so total that she almost felt bad for the things...and then she remembered that they were a very hostile and dangerous Xenos species that just-so happened to be infesting her damned HOUSE, and got back to killing.

[Honey? We have a bit of a situation]

and, of course, her beloved answered immediately. [What is it? Need backup?]

Mio chuckled at the concern in his voice, even as she sighed in relief that he showed that concern. [NO, it's fine. Just have weird black shapeshifting things in our hangar. I'm killing them now, they're super easy.]

The response she got back was attached to a spike of panic. [Lock down the entire area until you are absolutely sure you got all of the fuckers, and make sure you stay in touch, just in case. Call if you need me.]

So, it was a big enough deal that he was super worried, but he still trusted her to do the job.

This meant that the things were a legitimate pest to be annihilated.

Her frame immediately did a full in-depth scan of her entire area, finding each and every last one of the damned mimics in the section, and then proceeded to direct her on a least-time circuit that would allow her to hit every last one of the damned things with her firepower without hitting the ship with potential hull paint scratching bullets.

Honestly, it was fun.

I apologize for the lateness, but I have returned! With a new chapter as well!

Alright, I wanted to add in some other perspectives to this chapter, but it was getting long enough as it was, so I'm stipping here. Do enjoy your chapter.

Perk for this chapter:

-Workshop (Generic Naruto Fanfiction) (400CP)

Going out and beating people up is not all there is to being a ninja, certainly not in the myriad worlds of Naruto fanfiction. There's a lot of space for less outdoorsy activities, such as seal-creation, weapons-forging, and so on. That's where this beautiful place comes in! It's the ultimate workshop, perfect for just about anything you may care to work at. It has a huge supply of papers and inks for your fuuinjutsu needs, herbs and plants for preparing poisons or medicines, a forge and metal supplies for smithing, timber for woodwork, and so on, for anything else you may care to work on. The quantities of the materials generated depend on their rarity and value. Something like ordinary paper and ink, or plain steel and wood, would never run out no matter how much you use, while things like paper from special, chakra-enriched trees would be in far shorter supply. But no matter how rare something might be, so long as it's not absolutely unique, you can expect to find it here, and in sufficient quantities to work with. At the absolute slowest, for materials of priceless rarity like high quality chakra-storing gemstones or metals, you could expect a supply to regenerate bi-yearly, and proportionately lesser times for less rare substances. In future worlds this workshop updates with materials and ingredients of the respective settings, with the same replenishment rules remaining in effect.