Under normal circumstances, the Adeptus Mechanicus was a very well organized and efficient organization for what it had available to work with, designed and intended to be the backbone and cornerstone of the Imperium of Man in all matters technological. It's evolution from the old cults of the machine god into the current powerhouse it was were long and arduous, it's victories stunning and defeats rare and unimportant. Above all, the Mechanicus stood as the most crucial piece of the Imperium of Man, and all who beheld it feared its wrath.
Under normal circumstances, the members of the AdMech, as it was sometimes (disparagingly) called, would even allow themselves to believe that statement to be true. Unfortunately for all involved, this was not a normal circumstance.
"Please, summarize this report so that we have a better understanding."
Currently, there was a meeting happening, of the local movers and shakers of the Necromundan auxiliary of the Mechanicus proper. As Necromunda was not a proper forge world, they nominally had to defer to the will of the local Planetary Governor, who had instructed the Mechanicus in no uncertain terms to not stick their noses into certain matters which may or may not be happening. Naturally, this prompted them to take a peek into what was happening...and discover the nature of why they were being kept out.
A minor Techpriest found himself on the receiving end of the local Magos council's ire as he read the reports...again. As requested, the meetings used a very specific version of the Lingua Technist as a means of security for a face-to-face meet. "Ah. Yes. Approximately one standard month ago, an anomalous signal was received from underneath HIve Primus. The signal itself was scrambled, with no data structure of any kind, seeming to only exist as a kind of white noise. Attempts were made to backtrace the signal, and all failed." The techpriest paused here to briefly gather his thoughts. He was a part of that initial expedition, hoping for the chance to discover one of the lost treasures of the planet hidden in its depths, perhaps even an STC fragment of some sort.
Oh, how much he felt the irony now…
"Then, approximately two standard weeks ago, something changed. The signal, once diffuse and weak, became extremely strong. Orders were immediately given to investigate upon the lifting of the lockdown imposed due to the major psyker attack that happened at around the same time. Looking back, we believe that this was not a coincidence." And well they did not. That attack was far too well-timed for it to not be suspect. The only reason they even had that much information, however, was that some upstart had somehow done something nearly impossible and forced his way into the Noosphere, with the intent of delivering a message warning of the psyker attack. That was, perhaps, the only reason that Proper Imperial forces were able to respond in such a rapid fashion and put down the witch before even more damage had been done.
The bodies were still being counted, but estimates had the total dead from the attack at somewhere in the millions. It was indeed a catastrophe, losing so many loyal citizens of the main hive, but there was a silver lining: none of the Mechanicus' facilities were damaged in the attack, and the warning proved to be timely with allowing the psyker to be put down swiftly.
which, once again, led back to the signal...and his failure.
"The signal was found to have been coming from a previously unknown sub-cavern within the underhive proper, approximately three kilometers from the base edge. Efforts were shifted to investigate soonest, possibly without proper authorization, but then the command came down that we were to not intervene under any circumstances until we were 'properly cleared'. The origin of those orders is classified beyond my access, as well as the nature of the clearance needed."
In short: Someone in the Administratum had gotten a wild idea that they could control the technology without having it go through its proper place within the Mechanicus first, and then being allowed to come back to them...if it was deemed appropriate. It would not be the first time that dangerous technologies were kept away from the ignorant ones and in the hands of those enlightened by the Omnissiah.
Normally such orders were ignored in favor of making sure that the proper eyes were had on the target, but this time an extra hand of authority came down and somehow managed to stay their hand. He personally suspected that the Inquisition got involved, but, again, it was above his clearance level, and even speculating on things like that were enough for them to come to him just to see what he didn't-or did-know about anything.
In either case, it was better for a lowly techpriest such as himself to stay the fuck out of it. Safer that way.
"Any further investigation into the signal or things surrounding it were then turned over to the Adepta Sororitas, as they were at the time responding to the psyker attack and were available to investigate. All official data past this point ceases.
"Then, just a few days ago, an unrelated general reconnaissance and support team sent a report in." And he believed that that team was 'unrelated to the current situation' as much as he believed that the Mechanicus ever deleted anything. At all. "The report held disturbing information: the signal was actually an improvised beacon to a storage cache, and the contents of said cache were extremely important.
"A field team was sent to the site to investigate further, and were able to recover several items of great import, including advanced Volkite weaponry, several examples of improved lasguns and bolters, and at least one working design for an improved plasma cell. While this was good, great, even, the main prize that was supposedly there was an STC of unknown providence."
And that was the main rub. There was an STC down there, and they'd missed it entirely because of some kind of power struggle with the Administratum...or possibly even the Ecclesiarchy. Worse was some of the rumors surrounding that incident…
"There is incidental data as well. According to the investigation team, there was, supposedly, a Senior Engineseer on-site when the STC was discovered, and she managed to get a cursory examination of the object. The details, which come from an interrogation of the Sororitas personnel that were on-site, corroborate what little outside data sources we have available: the STC was not only there, but both whole and undamaged. This was a Full Standard Template Construct."
And therein lied the main rub. A regular STC fragment, he could understand, and would wish the discoverer well on their new endeavors. A major Fragment or a whole Blueprint was even better.
This, combined with what the rumors were saying, was an STC as they were meant to be-and by default, the single greatest prize that had ever been known to anyone, ever. Losing this was a massive black mark on everyone involved, regardless of seniority or even level of involvement. He suspected that there would be a reprisal in the works soon.
Perhaps the only good part about this mess is that the STC was only stolen, and not damaged...or worse. At least this way it is potentially recoverable...
His superiors spoke for the first time since he'd begun. "And why exactly were we unaware of such a prize literally sitting right underneath us?"
The techpriest had a ready, if strained, reply. "Unknown, Magos. I have no relevant data to share."
The Magos made an irritated gesture with one of his mechadendrites as he continued. "So then, a fully-intact STC has managed to somehow just walk away from us, and not even the Sororitas were enough to prevent this from happening?"
The techpriest coughed. "An addendum to the report notes that what appeared to be an incursion was detected and eventually repulsed on the sub-cavern, only for an infiltrator to make off with the STC. we are using all means to search for those responsible at this time."
"Very well. Continue with your efforts. We will notify you if you are needed again." the Magos spoke with finality.
The young techpriest was only too happy to oblige, and quickly left the room.
The Magos turned to his colleagues. "Well, then. I believe that we are all in agreement that this needs to be our top priority going forward, then?"
All present nodded or gave some form of agreement.
"Very well then. Let us create our plan of action...and bring ruin to those who would deny the Omnissiah and his servants their rightful due."
The Adepta Sororitas had the distinction of being one of the fiercest and most loyal of the forces of the Imperium, oftentimes acting as the Militant arm of the Ecclesiarchy proper. To many of the Sisters of Battle, this was of no major concern, as their faith in the Emperor was their primary weapon.
Well, that and Bolters, but the point remained.
It was for this reason that the Sisters were often called to service in varying tasks throughout the Imperium where the Ecclesiarchy felt a more...personal touch was needed. That this would sometimes put them into open conflict with other Loyal imperial forces was something that, until now, Sister Arikia had found unimportant in the grander scheme of performing the Emperor's will.
Now, however, she was beginning to doubt the constant claims that the Sisters of Battle were always working the will of the Emperor wherever they went...especially after facing down that Xeontech golem-the same golem that had, somehow, managed to completely crush a Daemon of Chaos with ease. Nothing that she or her team had done was even worth the effort they put in to fight it. By the Throne, the damned thing didn't even pay attention to them, instead focusing on the two mutants that had appeared previously...and that had managed to, against all odds or even belief, not only keep up with the thing (to the point that they were literally dodging Bolter shells mid-flight) but ultimately destroy it as well, resulting in the Male of the pair gaining some form of advanced Power Armor.
The part that had her confused was that, despite the obvious deformities that the two possessed, they did not seem as if they were enemies of the Imperium. They had even made a point of not attacking her or her team both before and after the altercation, citing not wanting to harm loyalists...and this was after she acted on her orders and opened fire on them without any provocation!
What concerned her more, however, was what had happened after the STC had been removed from the cavern by the strange small thing. The Sister Superior assigned to their detachment had been livid that not only had the STC been stolen but that the Thief had gotten away, as well as both of the mutants and the man that had come with them. The amounts of blame-shifting and general politicking that had happened in that short amount of time was telling as to what was really going on, especially since those same people had literally saved their lives by wiping out a Heretic assault force bent on corrupting or destroying the STC.
And that brought up another question in and of itself, one that she had been very careful to not voice anywhere she even suspected may have had ears to hear: Why had the little being merely stolen the STC and not destroyed it, as a normal daemon would have?
As the very daemon that the Xenos golem had destroyed was intending to do?
What's more, the sudden appearance of Orders from on high stating that the recovery of the STC was paramount, surpassing all other priorities, including an active witch hunt following the Psyker attack that was the reason for their deployment in the first place? The sheer secrecy of said orders, despite their very nature requiring them to call in backup from the Mechanicus, as they should have done in the first place? The sudden and unexplained distance that the Techpriests were showing to them, following their return from that doomed mission?
Wait. The Female mutant, Miolala Granliss? She claimed to be a member of the Mechanicus herself when they were introduced, and had actually acted the part very well, to the point that she had been convinced that they were on the same side, even if they were mutated. (Or it could have been some form of augmentation. The Techpriests were known for doing that regularly, after all.)
Every time she ran that encounter back in her head, more questions popped up. It was almost as if someone had gone out of their way to use them as a set of catspaws in some game or another, and it was pissing her off.
It didn't help that she was being formally reprimanded, along with the rest of the sisters that had been nominally under her command, despite her lack of rank, due to their "failure". This, despite the battle cameras showing quite clearly that they had fought bravely and with both Fury and Zeal appropriate of the Sisters of Battle, and had merely failed to die screaming at the hands of a Daemon or a Xenos machine. Hence, her current...predicament.
Supposedly, there was an investigation ongoing into the backgrounds of the supposed Mechanicus woman and her aide, but she suspected that it would go nowhere at all, with the Mechanicus themselves suddenly being cold and distant towards them. It was something that she grudgingly understood, knowing that they were kept out of the loop by the very command that had ordered the sisters into that cavern in the first place.
The door to the cell she was currently sitting in opened with a hiss of displaced air, and another group of sisters, including her Palatine, along with an unknown man who had been present but silent throughout her "debriefings". Fortunately for her, they had not gone to outright torture, but the forced repentance and prayer in solitude was still telling nonetheless.
"Sister Arikia Vanalyn. Rise."
She did so at her Palatine's command, and stood at attention before them once again, awaiting yet another questioning by her superiors over the mess.
"You have not yet served your proper penance, but the Hand of the Emperor moves us all, and a task has been set before you."
Arikia deliberately showed no sign of emotion on her face, but inwardly was very confused. Instead, she nodded. "How am I to serve?"
"You are charged with travelling into the wastes of Necromunda, and seeking out the enemies of Man. You are not to return until the tasks appointed to you are completed."
Arikia found herself unsurprised. 'Penance in battle, then, with the expected result of my death.'
The Palatine spoke again. "You are tasked with seeking out the enemies of the Imperium of Man, the heretics hiding in the wastes of this world, and to stamp them out. You are further charged with seeing out the traitors whom have absconded with his holy relics, and to return them to their proper place amongst the faithful. Specifically, you are to atone for your failure and recover the Holy STC from the thieves who dare stand outside the Emperor's Light.
Arikia once again found herself confused. 'Sending me out alone? To recover this STC? What in His name was in that thing?'
Voicing her thoughts would only result in her being killed...or worse. "I understand, Mistress. When am I to depart?"
"You are to gather your armor and weapon, and to depart once your preparations are complete. Your Sisters shall join you in this task."
And there it was. Punish her by punishing those who fought beside her.
Arikia had always had that streak of sentimentality, of compassion for her fellow man, that had nearly called her to serve in one of the Orders Hospitaller. Instead, she found her calling in the Order Militant, and has for years now served alongside her sisters with faith and courage.
This did not mean that she was blind to the world around her. She had seen with her own eyes the nature of the enemy that the Sisters fought, and the things that they were often called upon to do in His name.
'How odd, that only now am I seeing, with unclouded eyes, the truth of things. How many have been burned by our zeal merely for not being our equal?'
The situation once again struck her with the sheer oddness, even as her thoughts drifted more towards doubt. The Palatine, however, was unaware of her thoughts and thus of no inclination to allow them to her.
"Upon your successful return, we shall discuss other matters as appropriate. You have your orders. See to them."
The palatine turned away and walked out of the chamber, the rest of her entourage following her. However, before she had fully left, she spoke, one last time.
"Do not fail in this task, Sister Superior Vanalyn."
Arikia stood there, unmoving, her face made of stone as the others left her cell, her mind still rebooting from what she had heard. Her, a Sister Superior? Finally?
'Hah. And all it cost me was everything.'
She shook her head clear of such thoughts. Her doubts and fears could wait for later. Right now, she had her sisters to tend to and organize, and a doomsday mission to undertake in some way that would let them return home somehow.
If that was even possible…
Palatine Valencia frowned as she walked away from the penitence chambers. "Are you sure that this will work? I am not one to sacrifice loyal sisters to charades, Acolyte."
The Acolyte merely nodded. "This is believed by our sources to be the best option. We have no intention of spilling loyal blood needlessly...but then again, these Sisters are hardly loyal, are they?"
The Palatine remained silent.
"In any case, this should bring us closer to locating the STC." the Acolyte continued. "Once found, we can then dedicate the full resources at our disposal to its recovery. When that time comes, can we count on your aid once again?"
The Palatine remained silent for a moment before speaking. "You will have the aid of our Convent, pending the approval of our Prioress. Absent that, I can only grant you the sisters under my direct command."
The Acolyte nodded and hummed a bit. "Very well. We have no intention of straining our relations too far, after all. Now, if you will excuse me, I have other duties to attend to." and with that, the Acolyte left her presence.
Valencia frowned once more. Just what manner of game had she gotten herself into here, and how could she extract herself from it without being killed in the process?
This was originally intended for the end of the previous chapter, but was left out for reasons of time. I present it to you now.