The ranger team had to climb down a cliff face to get to the manufactorum. The rangers put their guns on their back and began the climb down.
Pullo slung the massive rifle onto his back and crawled backwards over the edge. The cliff was rocky with plenty to hold on to. The tread on Pullo's metal feet gave excellent purchase and he was able to find his footing as he went. His new hand was not working the best, and it was a few times he had to double check his grip visually before shifting his weight on it. He had to rely more on his organic hand for the climb. This went against how it should be. The flesh is weak, he should be able to rely on the strength and certainty of steel.
Pullo was the last one down the cliff.
They met the other units at the manufactorum. They could see the devastation up close. The air felt strange, there was a warm tickle to the skin and Pullo could taste iron in his mouth.
"Administer radiogardase dosage." was a recommendation that came from Lieus as they entered the building. This was a precautionary measure to help preserve their weak fleshy systems in the midst of the rad saturation that was caused by the vanguards' weapons.
Techpriest Sub-Domina Pelkha was there and was speaking to a knight pilot who had come down from his giant mech. Pelkha was a Tech priest who was subtle with her augmentations, she was shrouded in the orange robes of the Ryzan priesthood with her fast and her torso clad in red armour plates but her feminine human form was still recognizable under the garments. No augments were visible except for two mechadendrites sprouting from her back.
She spotted the rangers arrive and gave them the order, "Help with the cleanup, pile the ork bodies over there," as she pointed to a small but growing heap of green flesh.
So the rangers got to work, they had to work in pairs, the ork bodies were much heavier than a human and it took two Skitarii to drag them along the ground.
Akresa joined Pullo in moving the bodies, "Specify accuracy issue?" she asked him.
"Arquebus functionality is optimal, the machine spirit was appeased," explained Pullo, "prior injury is detrimental."
"Request maintenance from Tech Auxillium," suggested Akresa.
Pullo held up his new right hand, "Tech Auxilium rectified injury."
"Functional?"
"Confirmed."
"Confirm with Sub-Domina," said Akresa, glancing over at the tech priest.
"No," argued Pullo, "Importance negligible."
"Importance not negligible; individual performance affected; squad performance affected; military success affected." Akresa dropped the ork they were dragging, grabbed Pullo's arm and pulled him over to see Pelkha.
Pelkha noticed the two skitarii approaching her "What's this? Is there a problem?"
The knight pilot she was speaking with backed off a bit to give them the space they needed.
"Observe ranger unit 2044-Pullo," said Akresa, "Combat effectiveness reduced."
"Is that so?" asked Pelkha, "why is that?"
"Arm Augment unsuccessful." explained Akresa.
"Let me take a look." said the techpriest, so Pullo raised his arm for her to take a close look. She poked around the arm a bit, and said "the arm looks fine, who fitted it for you?"
"Tech auxilium Sejanis." replied Pullo.
"Well if I find a problem, it wouldn't be the first time I've fixed his work," said Pelkha. "He can be careless, and always offers to numb the pain; it's a waste of time for a skitarius. It can lead to less accurate integration. Did Sejanus provide pain relief?"
"Yes," said Pullo.
"I see," said Pelkha, "when was it administered?"
"Eighteen hours ago."
"Unless he used something extremely strong, that should have worn off by now. However numbing the pain likely resulted in less biological feedback."
"Machine spirit status?" asked Akresa.
Pelkha glanced over at the other Ranger and dismissed her concern, "Oh, they are fine."
Pullo waited patiently as Sub-Domina Pelkha moved away from his arm.
"There is nothing I can do for this, the integration was poor. It would require re-grafting and that is not…" she trailed off and quickly turned her back. She walked away a few steps , then looked over her shoulder briefly. She was having a silent conversation over the noosphere, for her ears only.
She turned around and went back to the knight pilot she was talking to earlier. "Can you gather your brethren, we have new orders."
The knight pilot nodded and called over to the other two pilots. Each one of them wore the overalls of house Treskothic, which matched the elaborate livery on their colossal war machines.
Pelkha also gave orders over the noosphere to the nearby Skitarii to gather around. A strange order, maybe she wanted to tell everyone at the same time. Some Skitarii vanguard were still carrying their guns and some dropped the ork bodies they were dragging.
The other two pilots came over. They were younger than the first one, who had grey hair and a beard. The other two could have been in their twenties.
"Thankyou Byria," said Pelkha, "I have gathered you all here because there is a new development on this planet. A great heresy has been committed, a betrayal of the Machine God's gifts and the very trust of the Omnissiah." Pelkha sighed and said to the knight pilot standing next to her, "thankyou for your service." She then gave the order to the Skitarii, "arrest the pilots."
Then a short sharp ping shot into the back of Pullo's brain and he was compelled to act. The nearby vanguard pointed their guns at the pilots while Pullo, Akresa and another ranger grabbed their arms, so they couldn't move. Sub Domina Pelkha then moved in and bound their arms with a bonding strip.
"What is this madness?" shouted Byria, the oldest pilot. "We have fought side by side for years!"
"The house of Treskothic is disgraced," explained Pelkha, "We are seizing the knights for direct service of Forgeworld Ryza."
"Why?" demanded Byria.
"Blasphemy," stated Pelkha, "Of the highest order. Committed by the head of your house."
Pullo received another ping in the back of his head and the rangers dragged the knight pilots to one of the dunerider transports.
"This is impossible!" shouted Byria, "we have been nothing but loyal!"
Pullo blocked out the protests, The tech priests knew best.
They then went back to clearing the battle scene of the orks. Once they had been piled up, the Sterylizors set fire to the pile. Orks must be burned to kill their spores.
Within an hour, a transport had arrived with three new pilots for the Knights so they could be recovered. These new pilots wore the colours of Ryza, not Treskothic.
The knight pilots would be moved onto processing, after they are processed, they would be unflinching servants of the Omnissiah and under the direct command of Ryza and its holy order of Techpriests. If the house of Treskothic was corrupt, this would solve that problem.
Back at the base, Pullo was taken by Lieus to meet with the leading tech priests under Pelkha's orders. His efficiency with the arquebus had been diminished, and he was unable to demonstrate otherwise.
The Techpriests were running the operation of the Ryzan forces in the immediate area. Techpriest Dominus Sumption was at the table along with Tritix and Sub-Domina Pelkha.
"The next item I would like to bring forward is a curious case of a Skitarii ranger, his weapon proficiency has dropped substantially since receiving an augmetic arm." announced Pelkha as Pullo stepped into the room.
"Why are you bringing this to me, a single skitarius is not my concern." stated Sumption.
Sumption was a large techpriest, he loomed over the desk and out of his long flowing orange robes came multiple steel arms, and one human arm. This was the only organic thing that could be seen on him. The arm was withered and its skin looked ancient.
"I bring this to your attention, for two reasons." began Pelkha "Firstly, this is not the first time Sejanis has produced a badly integrated augmetic. He is not following all the rituals correctly, this must be rectified."
"Understood," said Sumption, "what is the other reason I'm looking at this Skitarius?"
"This ranger has been instrumental in the recovery of STC fragment Malcus 37, it was recovered by his team after he was incapacitated. It seems his ability to use a gun is impaired, however. I think we should honour him."
"That shows wisdom, Sub-Domina," said Tritix "He who contributes to triumph must be recognized and rewarded, Gathalamorians 28.85."
Tritix was another old tech priest, he wore his hood down and Pullo could see the withered and aged face kept alive far longer than natural laws would allow. Cables ran into Tritix's brain, perhaps as a boost to his mental abilities, perhaps a form of life support.
Pelkha asked the two senior tech priests, "How best to honour his efforts?"
"Bless him with the responsibility of a greater machine spirit," said Tritix, "send him to the armoured maniple, there may be a place for him in a dunecrawler."
"Good Idea," said Sumption, "Pelkha, take this Skitarius, sync his new directive, then install him."
"But Sumption, I…" began Pelkha.
"You think you are above such orders?" Barked Sumption, his binhiric deepening and strengthening. "Know your place Sub-Domina, do as commanded!"
Pelkha stood more upright and agreed to do as she was ordered, "Yes, Magos Dominus."
She then left the room, Pullo followed.
They walked down the hallway towards the hangars, "I should be there," said Pelkha, "with the senior tech priests. When I was ordained as Sub-Domina I was to be raised in his ways and to learn under the Magos, but he orders me around like a servitor." She glanced over her shoulder at Pullo who was following a few paces behind, "not that you would know anything about getting ordered around, would you Skitarius."
Pullo did not know if he was meant to answer, he just followed as he was expected to.
Pelkha stopped at a door, and went inside. This was the station for organic data transfer. There was a chair in the middle of the room for Skitarii to be imparted with new knowledge.
This was a small room with shelves organized in different sections, for different directives and transfer formats.
"You are to be the new gunner of an Onager Dunecrawler. I am going to give you the knowledge you need to be able to use it."
"Sacred knowledge," said Pullo, "Praise be to the Omnissiah."
"Yes, yes," said Pelkha, "Where is your cerebral input?"
Pullo pointed to a spot on the back of his head.
"What is its' format?"
"Magnetic radial," said Pullo.
"Right," said Pelkha "Get me the device from shelf Beta-12 and cable 16.
Pullo felt a ping in the back of his head, then went to correct locations to find the equipment Pelkha needed. He gave them to her, then sat in the chair in the middle of the room.
Pelkha pulled back Pullo's hood, then unzipped the back of Pullo's mask and just peeled it back enough. Removing the mask fully would have been difficult, it was linked to his eye protection and his digestive augments, removing it would have taken some time, and would have left the weakest parts of his flesh exposed.
"Oh dear," said Pelkha, "The skin has partially grown over the port here. I'll have to cut it back a bit." She then used a sharp edge that she carried around with her on one of her mechadendrites. There was a little bit of pain, but it was necessary. Pullo then felt an impact as the Magnetic plug was pulled into the port in his head.
"There now we just need to wait until it's complete," Pullo didn't feel any different and he didn't notice the data being sent through his brain. It reminded him of the first day of training with the transuranic arquebus.
"Of course I'm grateful, Sumption does care for me and I'm learning a lot from him, sometimes I just wish he would start seeing me as an equal. Omnissiah willing, maybe he will."
Pullo just looked on.
"You are going to be in a dunecrawler, you might be ordered to fight what remains of house Treskothic. Will that play on your mind?"
"There was reported blasphemy," replied Pullo, "are the machines corrupted?."
Pelkha sighed, "Not really, the reports of blasphemy by house Treskothic are exaggerated. They just refused to go along with one of Sumption's plans. And it hasn't been the first time, they have refused orders either. Sumption has been displeased with the house and has wanted to take direct control of the knights for a long time. The problem is they always refuse to assist with offworld requisitions, which isn't constructive for a satrapy of a forgeworld, and then there is the pathetic output of their manufactorums…"
Pullo just looked on.
"Ugh!" grunted Pelkha, "You don't care about politics. The knights themselves are not corrupt, we are trying to capture them if possible, that's all you need to know."
Pullo nodded in understanding.
"The blasphemy story is working though and some knights are swearing allegiance to Ryza. Maybe they would prefer it if we were in charge after all." she explained.
There was a small beep from the back of Pullo's head.
"Looks like we're done," said Pelkha, pulling the cable out. "How do you feel?"
"I don't feel different," said Pullo.
"Good," acknowledged Pelkha, "now come with me."
She led him through the door and towards one of the hangars. "It's very important that you don't share the knowledge I have given you," said Pelkha.
"Knowledge is precious."
"So says the Machine God," said Pelkha, "I just can't keep all this stuff bottled up, and you're a very good listener."
"I do not ignore the wisdom bestowed by a tech priest."
"Exactly," said Pelkha, "I guess with the mental optimization you have, you could listen to me rattle on for hours."
Pullo said nothing.
"The machine spirits know I need someone who listens sometimes."