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Chapter 8: The calm before the storm
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Part 1
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Victory Bay
Kronus
After the meeting, I found myself without an immediate objective to pursue, which meant that I finally had a bit of time for myself, which I put to good use thinking about what has been happening as of late. While doing that, I even found the time to get to the officer quarters, where I now had my own small room, get the first proper shower in a long while, a shave too, which wasn't a pretty affair. That's how I found myself in a tiny bathroom in the barracks, staring at my face, which I had trouble recognizing and not just because of the nasty, still healing jagged scar disfiguring most of my right cheek thanks to that damned Ork Nob I was dumb enough to charge like an imbecile.
As if that wasn't bad enough, I had another reminder from that encounter besides my Bionics, and right now, I could clearly see my brand new left arm – complete with another still not fully healed, even nastier scar, where it connected with what used to be my shoulder. That was gone too, because of an Ork ax.
Compared to that, having eight new golden teeth on the right side of my mouth, because of that Nob as well, shouldn't have even registered, yet I couldn't stop staring at them. The bloody things were polished so well, they sparkled in the dull light of the bathroom.
"What the fuck was I thinking?" I shook my head, and the face leering at me from the mirror was both familiar and alien. "I need better gear first thing. Then I need to think long and hard before charging Orks, especially if there are Adeptus Astartes nearby to do the heavy lifting, punching, and shooting…" Thinking about gear, after the recent losses there must be a lot of spare equipment being cleaned up and geeked over by the Mechanicus Enginseers… I paused at that thought. What in the Emperor's name did geeked mean anyway, and why did I think it?
It didn't matter. I had more pressing concerns, like ensuring that I won't have more metal in my body than the average Cogboy by the end of this campaign. In order to avoid that, I did need better equipment which would be my first goal after getting out of the shower and in hopefully clean clothes. Second, being an Inquisitor now, no matter how irregular my induction into the organization was, I needed a proper retinue to help keep me alive first, and intact second.
With new goals in mind, I left the bathroom and had to suppress a wince at the looks of awe, fear, or worry the few officers I passed by gave me. I had the nagging suspicion that after my exploits to date, people might just be expecting me to pull off more suicidal stunts in the future as a matter of course and flat out refusing might not be the best of ideas. There could not be rumors that the Inquisitor suddenly lost his nerve and daring, much less whispers of cowardice…
I got into officer's field uniform without insignia, provided by the General's aide, got my trusty las-pistol in a holster, and headed out, in search of a proper armory containing the nice stuff. To my surprise, Anteas materialized and fell in step next to me, moving very slowly for a Space Marine.
"Inquisitor, can we have a quiet word?" He asked.
"Sure. We probably can find a quiet space in the armory I'm looking for."
"What do you need?" The Librarian inquired with mild interest.
"Much better gear, obviously."
Anteas glanced from my cheek to the Bionic arm and nodded.
"That might help, however even Astartes in our power armor can be crippled by the nastier Ork specimens when we go in close combat." He paused, pointedly giving me a once over. "It seems to me that a Space Marine, you are not, Inquisitor."
"I somehow figured that part out myself, thank you very much." I did my best to keep as much sarcasm out of my voice, though I'm sure I failed miserably.
"I wasn't sure. Usually, you regular folks aren't too keen on charging Orks in melee, much less riding on top of an APC. When our job on Kronus is done, I'm sure that the recordings of your exploits will be an instant hit at least sector-wide, if not across the Segmentum. An Inquisitor getting down and dirty with the regular grunts, doing his best to fend off Humanity's enemies at a great peril to himself? That's likely going to be propaganda gold." Anteas lowered his voice to a whisper. "With the deals, we're doing with Xenos here, we might need all the help we can get when all is said and done."
Ah, that. Yeah, he had a point, it was just that I wasn't particularly certain that I would live long enough for the fallout to become an issue, however, a bit of contingency planning wouldn't hurt. It was just that I didn't really know where to start on that one, beyond praying fervently to the Emperor and hope that our reinforcements, when they arrived, would be under the command of someone reasonable. The same could be said for whatever Inquisitor would be dispatched to look into the unholy mess that was the situation on Kronus.
"Without those deals, we would be in an untenable position right now. Do you think we would be in any shape to attack the traitors if we had to fend off the combined Tau-Eldar offensive alone?" I pointed out the obvious.
"You're preaching to the choir, Inquisitor. While I certainly don't like the need, not at all, I do see the benefits. Besides, it has been known for Ordo Xenos Inquisitors to work with or even broker temporarily truces, even short term alliances with Xeno factions. It's just that, such arrangements almost always end up in betrayal. However, that's not what I need to speak with you about. An appropriate armory should be two blocks that way." Anteas pointed to a group of Gothic buildings to the right."
"You used your helmet's vox to ask for directions, didn't you?"
"Why would I need to do so? I'm an experienced Astartes Librarian, we always know the area we operate in like the back of our hand!" He almost sounded offended at my 'accusation'.
"That wasn't a flat out denial, mind you." I shot back.
We spent the next couple of minutes in uncomfortable silence, which was exacerbated by the looks the various locals milling around gave us. The undisguised awe aimed at Anteas was something else, however, some of it did splash upon me too. There was even a small group of kids, none could have been older than ten, who pointed excitedly at us while chattering at each other.
Soon, we got to a pre-fabricated armory building dropped from orbit, got past the guards, and found ourselves in a scene of barely controlled chaos. Inside, we could see a small horde of Mechanicus Adepts, servitors, the odd Servo-Skull singing in Binary flying around, all the while a single harried Enginseer, who appeared to be more flesh than metal for a change, tried to direct them.
The reason for all the excitement was obvious – the place overflowed with crates full of roughly packed equipment recovered from the battlefield. One corner had people and machines fixing up various armors, another dealt with normal human-sized bolters, a third handled plasma guns, while in the center of the room, a trio of red-robed Mechanicus Adepts with much more mechadendrites than arms and legs, rapid-shot Binary at each other while reverently inspected several power-blades.
This was the right place indeed. On the downside, there would be no quiet conversation while inside, so Anteas would have to wait. If it was something particularly important, he would have said so, surely.
While the majority of the occupants either didn't notice us or dismissed our presence as of no consequence, the Enginseer trying to ride a herd over them, saw us and headed our way. Surprisingly enough, she had only two mechanic tentacles coming from her back, and they ended up with sensible manipulators too. He had his face hidden from a re-breather, however, there was no other trace of augmentations on it. From what I could see, his two hands were flesh and blood too.
"Lord Inquisitor, my Lord Astartes." The Enginseer bowed slightly. "How can we be of assistance?"
"I require proper equipment for our impending actions against the traitors."
The man examined me, taking note of my Bionics, which made his blue eyes lit up in approval.
"I'll see what we can do. There is a lot of equipment available, or at least it will be once it has been properly re-sanctified, and its Machine Spirits soothed. What weapons and armor do you prefer?"
"What Stormtrooper protective equipment do you have available? Preferably fully environmentally sealed?" We were going to face Chaos and one of the last things I wanted was to survive the coming onslaught only to perish in agony due to some never sufficiently damned pestilence.
"There are more than a few armors we're patching up after their previous occupants ran afoul of the pointy-eared freaks." The Enginseer sniffed in disdain, then gave me a closer look. "At least one should be a decent fit without much work. What else?"
"I'll like to requisition one of those nice power weapons, as for ranged firepower…" I trailed off, looking from the plasma guns to the hot-charged lasguns used by the stormies.
"While I would usually recommend Bolters, you could seldom go wrong with them, those aren't ideal weapons for normal humans, especially if you lack either a light power armor or a suit with exoskeletal support like the better void-combat gear." Anteas shared some of his wisdom. "Considering what we're going to face, a plasma pistol if you have the misfortune of facing one of our traitorous brethren, otherwise a Stormtrooper rifle should be good."
"This sounds more than reasonable, thank you, Anteas. You heard the man, Enginseer. Would receiving this kind of equipment be possible?"
"I see no issues with it. We should have your gear ready, sanctified, and blessed within twenty-four hours on the outside, perhaps earlier if we have to rush it." He said it in such a way that implied rushing won't be a good idea.
"Twenty-four hours sounds good."
"I'm glad you agree, my Lord. Just stand here for a moment, while I have one of our Servo-Skulls scans you so we can get an armor properly fitted for you. Your gear should be ready for pick-up this time tomorrow."
With the scan done, the Enginseer went back to running the armory's crew and Anteas led us away for that quiet chat.
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Part 2
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Victory Bay
Kronus
We ended up in a secluded spot at the edge of the park where General Alexander had his HQ deployed, and Anteas looked me square in the eyes after making sure that there was no one around to listen.
"Inquisitor, I can't say that I'm particularly happy with the deals you had to make so we could win today's battle on the cheap. The Emperor knows, if we suffered more casualties today, we would hardly be in place to deal with the heretics. However, the way you spoke with that Xeno back in the HQ, what you said…"
"Nothing more than common knowledge?" Where was he going on with this?
"Well, not exactly. I'm sure that most Tech Priests know the technological state of the Imperium in general, Astartes, especially those of us who take pride in recovering and preserving knowledge, like the members of the Blood Ravens know it as well. I'm sure that there are nice, safe civilized worlds where most people are educated on more or less true general history of the Imperium in particular and what we do know about Humanity's ancient past. Yet, it is not a common knowledge how much we've fallen since the Dark Age of Technology, neither about the slow slide back from the peak during the Emperor's blessed Great Crusade."
I squinted at Anteas, trying to process what he was telling me. That was bloody common knowledge as far as anyone paying attention, surely?
"I can see you aren't getting it for some reason… You don't act like a noble, you aren't speaking as one, so that can't be it." The Librarian shook his head in exasperation.
"I'm trying to process the idea." I stated flatly, disbelief plain to hear in my voice."
"If it makes you feel better, you can blame either the Administratum or the Inquisition." He shrugged. "I'll speak bluntly, using small words, Inquisitor."
"Yes, you better do that."
"At least half of the officers present in the HQ during the meeting, much less any of the rank and file who might heard rumors about what you said, to a Xeno no less, well, they will be shocked by the very idea that we not only lack some of the best technology in the galaxy, but that the Imperium isn't advancing, neither is it stagnating, but generally technologically regressing or at least part of it are. You really shouldn't have said that to the Xeno in public, Inquisitor, it's bad for morale. It makes people think thoughts neither of us they rather think."
The first thought I had once my mind processed Anteas' explanation was to wonder in what kind of madhouse of a feral world I ended up in and where did most of the Regiments here came from. Yet, I only had to give one look to the city around us, and even if it was on the tiny side for the Imperium, Kronus was a more or less proper civilized world.
"I can honestly say that this particular point never crossed my mind." I shook my head in sick fascination. "I'll try to take it into consideration in the future before accidentally hurting the troops morale." I paused and grimaced. So much for upholding a proper image for the lie that I was a real Inquisitor. "Any other recommendations?"
"Not charging Orks without a proper power armor, unless the situation is that desperate?" Anteas tried to lighten the mood.
"Dully noted."
"In the same vein, you might want to ask around and see if our Mechanicus contingent has recovered any protective relics that might help keep you from losing any more pieces. Like a conversion or scatter field generator. Even if they're a family Relic, you should be able to requisition any such piece until the end of the campaign."
That's another thing that hadn't really crossed my mind. Vaguely knowing how expensive one of those things were at the best of times, the very idea that I could get my hands on one anytime soon was ludicrous. Then again, I was supposed to be an Inquisitor now, probably the worst equipped and prepared for the job Inquisitor in the galaxy…
"That's another thing I'll keep in mind. Thank you for the suggestions, Anteas. I take it that Captain Thule and General Alexander aren't too pleased with my conduct during the meeting?" And why didn't they say something about it after it instead of sending the Librarian?
"Not particularly, no, however given the circumstances, it's not their place to undermine your authority in any way, shape or form." He grimaced. "Especially when it comes time to justify why they listened to you and stopped their forces from shooting at each other. Me on the other hand? I'm currently part of your retinue and merely offering advise, which should be a part of my job, surely?" He flashed me a toothy smile.
"Politics." I nodded in understanding. That was currently cause number two on the list of most likely things to get me killed. Obviously, number one was enemy action, with number three being a fellow Inquisitor getting me interrogated and shot as a heretic and only because there were currently no reinforcements in sight.
"Speaking about being part of my retinue, any idea of appropriate members to poach from General Alexander's command?"
"Now we're talking! We might keep you alive still!" Anteas happily sounded his approval. "First, we'll be facing heretics, which means that troops with a bit of experience in the matter won't go amiss. I'll recommend checking if those who were with us during the search for Inquisitor Requista are still alive an in any condition to fight. Second, a Mechanicus support would be prudent, though we must be careful about them, I'm sure your actions and the possibility of useful Xeno technology is going to divide their ranks."
"I like these ideas. Lieutenant Pickos' Platoon, the Stormtroopers who acted as my bodyguards…" Perhaps that medic who put me back together after my encounter with the Orks and Kroot and wasn't there some crazy Mechanicus Biologist acting like a cyborg-buzz-saw or did I imagine that due to the stress of combat and the drugs?
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