Sergeant Jari Su glanced around the training field outside the primary barracks. Former Navis Imperialis 5th Voidmarine Regiment, Noctis Gladius. He had been inducted into service aboard the Argent Drake. It paid better, he was equipped better and not that he'd admit it but the Argent Drake was by far the most terrifyingly effective and comfortable vessel he'd had the pleasure of serving on. Practically an Arc Mechanicus in miniature. It was by far not the first time he had to give this type of shortened training program for new crew or individuals suffering from cryo induced amnesia but this group was larger than was typical. He had a good eye for people. The largest portion were obvious voidsmen, the ones that really drew his attention were the small contingent of soldiers. They might not realize it but they were instinctively standing at rest. The one woman, Lael Zyne, at the fore in particular made his neck itch, like he was looking at a predator, she gave off military officer vibes. He'd had commanders like that before and knew that look well. That woman was a lethal human machine. Then there were the oddities. A noble type and the kid. The only kid in the whole group is Acolyte Nicole. Wearing red Mechanicus robes and she unlike the rest had a fully armed skitarii escort loitering in the back. He was pretty sure the kid, despite having to attend this class, ranked higher than he did in the ship hierarchy. Jari even noticed woman Lael kept glancing over at the kid. Something odd going on there but that was really not his problem. He was here to beat common sense and survival skills into them. On the dot he blew his whistle "Attention!" He yelled watching as most of the individuals snapped into place. Some of the crew were a bit behind and the kid looked unsure where she should stand. "Alright everyone. I am Sergeant Jari Su. You will refer to me as Sergeant Su or Sir! Welcome to my class. I will be teaching you all how not to get yourselves killed while working onboard our glorious Argent Drake. You will also be given basic combat training. While class is in session my word is law! Is that clear?!" "Great now by my count it's morning, let's go for a jog! Nothing helps you wake up like a couple laps around the track!" Jari had a few subordinates helping out given the size of the class. They knew what to look for and were quick to correct the form of the runners. Amusingly enough a few of them were slower than the kid. The kid had pretty good form but he noticed that Lael wasn't even breathing hard and was loitering near the back of the pack. Jari moved to the other side of the track. "Kid's fine, quit holding back" he told her when she passed by. She gave him a look but did move to the front within the next minute. After a few laps most of them were breathing hard "Alright last lap! Report in as you finish!" Jari made his way towards the middle of the field and watched as Lael got there first and stood at ease. Jari gave her an approving nod and then reached over to grab onto a vertical bar as the majority of the runners got close to finishing. Then at his signal the artificial gravity shut off sending most of them sprawling and shooting upwards or tumbling forwards. "We are in space! You need to always pay attention to all three axes! Maneuvering in zero-g takes some adjusting too. Your current goal is to get over here in the next five minutes." He looked around and noticed Lael was not struggling at all. Surprisingly the kid had used a mechanical tendril to anchor herself to the floor and was gliding forward with careful controlled motions. A good portion of them got the hang of maneuvering within the first minute which was impressive. Only two got sick. The whiny noble and one of the voidsmen. "Wonderful now this lovely garment in front of me is a void suit. The ship has them stationed in emergency compartments all over. We're gonna spend the next few hours learning to put them on! If you can't get suited in half a minute in gravity and out well…. You get to run extra laps!" He declared with a wolfish grin that promised even more creative punishments for those slow on the uptake. —--------------------------------------------------- I found the training methods employed by the sergeant creative and surprisingly effective. It wore them out but by the end of the day everyone knew how a void suit worked. It was a novel experience to be sure. I had underestimated the number of different alarms that could go off on the ship. There was one for fire, for depressurization, for boarders, for entering and exiting the warp, for combat, and a host of other area specific alarms. Luckily I could peruse the entire list which I had downloaded from the noosphere and commit them to memory. The first day of their impromptu bootcamp had been entirely on ship safety, navigation and proper protocols. Then at the end of the day they were randomly quizzed on several topics. I also got to interact with a lot of the individuals who had been thawed. However some of them seemed rather deferential towards her. Miss Lael who led the group in all the physical exercises checked on me regularly and kept calling me 'young miss'. According to the Magi she was formerly my personal guard. By the end of the day I was physically worn out. My mind still felt sharp but I had inloaded a lot of new information from the library already and didn't feel like making the long trek to the librarium. Feeling grimy meant I had my first opportunity to go visit the officer baths. "Delta. I plan to avail myself of the baths once I return to my quarters and then retire." I informed the Protector. "Acknowledged. Will you require assistance?" Delta asked in binary cant. "Negative. My implants are all water proof and impervious to most types of corrosion. Though a small censer of sacred oils and a wire brush would be welcome afterwards. I need to practice appeasing my gear." Delta nodded and indicated that they would have one brought over. The officers deck had a communal vaguely hot spring themed bath, while cabins had individual washrooms most lacked personal baths or showers. The trade off for this was the communal area for bathing was spacious and high quality. An obvious luxury on a ship. It also made a good place for the officers to socialize. The baths had designated hours for certain gender specific usage times for individuals who felt strongly about such things and the remainder were open to mixed bathing. With the baths accessible at almost all hours with a rotating hour where they would be thoroughly cleaned each day. Some of the rooms for the highest ranked crew like the captain, Navigator and other highest ranking officers had personal bathrooms as did the Luxury Passenger Quarters though the majority of those were currently empty. It said a lot that myself and the other amnesiac individuals were being placed with crew rather than separate. It certainly encouraged integration. I was just glad that I didn't really need to worry about doing laundry. My Synskin underlayer was self cleaning and I was rapidly growing extremely fond of the comfortable underlayer garment. My robes could be cleaned upon my request and I had gotten them dirty enough at the indoor training field that I felt inclined to indulge in the service. Once I had stripped down I grabbed a smaller red bath robe and a basket of personal toiletries. While most of the more heavily modified Mechanicus personnel did not use the baths and instead had their own sterilization procedures the majority of acolytes and normal crew still did so. I have realized most of the crew possess some form of biotic or implant. The Levelist faction according to my research and my old memories is thankfully a progressive faction. That promote the sharing of knowledge in the name of the Machine God so all of mankind can experience the full spectrum of the Omnissiash's bounty. This leads to their faction being more personable and less distant than most of the other Mechanicus factions I recall from my previous life. A quick walk down the hall and I had reached the baths. The metal floor transitioning to an exotic stone tile. A handful of tasteful mosaics adorning the walls. The bath wasn't crowded but was far from empty. I made her way inside, hanging my robe and putting my slippers in an alcove before going to rinse off. I hadn't removed my Mechatendril, the shiny metallic appendage garnered some looks from the other crew. I was still wearing my necklace which if the obvious implants did not make it clear of my affiliation the cog and skull on that certainly did. Lael was already in the baths speaking with another woman and a handful of other officers. When I moved to enter the warm steaming bath and was about to go find my own little corner to soak they coaxed me into the conversation. "Ah, you must be the little one that's gotten the Mechanicus all riled up." The woman said with a small smile. Her tone and expression made it clear that the comment was good natured. "Hello ma'am, I am Tech Acoyte Nicole." I replied politely as I settled into the delightfully warm water. My basket of toiletries was suspended by my dendrite behind me. "Magna Matreus, I'm the ship's primary Purser. Assistant and second of Lord Captain Drakios's High Factotum and head Seneschal Fortunas Alfred Kantor the third. A pleasure to meet you young lady." I made sure to memorize her face, matching her with the name on the list I had made of important crew. Given her position placed her quite high in the ship's ranks. I also easily noticed the various subtle implants the woman sported. Given her rank Magna likely had her own private bath in her quarters and had come here on purpose. Lael politely nodded to me once again calling me "Young Miss." After a round of introductions the adults resumed their discussion letting me listen in. I only had to put up with a small amount of doting from the adults. A few of the elderly women complimented my on complexion and hair. "We're a ways out from the closest inhabited system but we should be there within a month or so. Given that Lord Captain Drakios has elected to wake Sir Fortunas from cryo. We will likely be loitering for a good while to do business and make repairs." Magna sighed looking over at Nicole and Lael "Honestly I should be thankful to your group. Despite the loss of two of our vessels the discovery of your pods and the resources within helped ease the financial burden on the dynasty considerably. The loss of the various crews hurt us the most. The ships themselves were valuable of course but given they were smaller vessels they were mostly used for the transport of less critical resources for this very reason. The warp being unpredictable as it is." "That seems hard to fathom that anything they found could compare to the cost of a starship ma'am'' One of the officers commented from within the steam cloud. Magna just gave a small wry smile "You would think. While I am not at liberty to say. I can tell you that all three remaining crews will be receiving a bonus and hazard pay when we do eventually reach port." This was well received amongst the officers. Starting up various whispered conversations and gossip throughout the baths as the news spread. I could see the Noospheric messages slowly trickling out as well from the individuals with implants for accessing it. I focused more on washing myself using the provided soaps though when I went to wash my hair Lael offered to help me out. This eventually transitioned into me sitting in Lael's lap having my scalp massaged and hair washed as I relaxed. While it was a bit childish I allowed herself to indulge in the light pampering since it was so pleasant. It also revealed I could make a throaty purring sound when sufficiently relaxed. Magna tittered "That noise has a strong resemblance to a sound some of our Felinid crew are capable of making." "Felinid?" I probed having an idea of what she meant but wanting to confirm. "We picked up a few family units a few generations back. Good workers most serve in the house guard. One of the Emperors registered ab-human species." Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. I nodded along. As the conversation moved along I did have to deal with a couple of probing questions directed her way about the nature of the recovered items. Those were easy to deflect however and once the gossip turned towards more mundane things like relationships and banter I smartly elected to retire. I thanked Lael for helping me, she had done a great job handling my hair, which seemed to please the muscled woman. Feeling much better once I dried off, I retired to my quarters. Collecting the censer of oil and brush from Delta-A3 on the way. According to the schedule the following day was going to introduce out group to various weapons and on the third they would be bringing their own or be given their assigned weapon for range practice. Where I would be allowed to bring three of my weapons. There would be multiple range days but I still needed to narrow down what weapons I wanted to bring along to try out. Thankfully I had been given a slew of data packets on how to care for my gear. This included a plethora of rites, chants and steps that I was still going over and practicing. Some of them felt a little off and as I studied my gear the items themselves seemed indifferent to some of the steps but responded well to others. I understood that machine spirits were a thing from Warhammer lore. However they were one of the more esoteric concepts with little tangible lore to explain what they were in reality. Mentioned in the novels and in passing in the various tabletop content but never explained fully. Magos Altair was probably the best person to ask about machine spirits. Or at least one of his immediate underlings like a Lexmechanic or a Vault Keeper. I sent him a query via the Noosphere. "Magos Altair. While accessing the local network I have found my permissions insufficient for locating data with regards to the treatment of machine spirits. I intend to familiarize myself with the spirits within all of my equipment and introduce myself to the ship. Any guidance your esteemed self as the Omnissianic Congregator could provide would be appreciated. Ave Deus Mechanicus." I had anticipated a delay and was quite surprised when I received a reply moments later. A large data cluster containing the protocols and steps she should take to familiarize herself with the procedures of treating Machine Spirits. "Acolyte Nicole please ensure you have an adept or higher ranked Tech Priest observe your first attempts at any of the procedures. I am sure you will study them carefully before making such an attempt. Myself or another Magi are available to monitor your attempts remotely if such an Adept is unavailable at the time. The processing power to do so is negligible." I could actually see the Noospheric link connecting my small but deep node to the Mago's much more robust cluster of nodes. I began perusing the files all while preparing my gear. Laying out a suitable cloth over my desk and setting her items down one by one. The Magos hadn't lied, the steps varied quite a bit for the type of spirit and even items of the same type but different make could require different steps. I did wonder if I could simply ask the item's spirit how it wished to be handled. They were my own items and so far, aside from the Xenos rifle, had all at least been more than willing to sync with me and provide information on their functions and capabilities. Flexing my digits I informed Altair I was going to begin and got to work. I elected to start with the simpler weapons and work my way up to the complex and ancient ones. Leaving the Xenos weapon for last if it even had a machine spirit. —-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Doll perked up as the advanced code he was running through late Magos Cavalero's data slate finally bore fruit. Inside the device a number of files had been recovered, most were simple text files. The one that stood out right away was one that appeared to be Magos Cavalero's personal Journal. The sparse information it provided was both a great boon and a mild concern. Doll invited the Magi to a private Noospheric call. "I have unlocked part of the dataslate. It confirms some of our suspicions. The magos was a cousin of the late Indias Cavalerio Princeps Senioris of the Legio Tempestus who fell during the schism. It also confirms that Nicole was genetically designed around her implants which are indeed dark age relics. According to the logs she has the neuro potential to be a Princeps but had not yet undergone training." "The material makeup of her implants was never fully identified but the lost alloy was classified as an Arcane nearly indestructible material that shares some properties with Auramite and Adamantine." "Well I feel much better at my failure to identify the material now." Gertrude admits. "Also as it turns out their house is responsible for the construction of the Argent Drake in secret after discovering a large salvageable cache of archeotech. He hired a cadre of personal guards from the Solar Auxilia along with crew and staff and slowly siphoned them off to their new vessel." "The last readable note mentioned they were fleeing the segmentum to avoid the Heresy and the fall of their house. With a large majority of their remaining assets being liquidated into portable items like relics, and other valuable materials. We can only assume something went awry in transit after that." "Well… we are either quite lucky or unlucky. When we eventually return to a proper forge world we will have to once again get into inter faction politics. However our claim over Nicole and the items is quite strong at the moment." "Just when I was enjoying our independence aboard the Argent Drake." "It's not like we have a titan on hand for her to interact with. We can give her permission to visit and access the simulators within the Pilot's Chamber and watch how well she handles operating vehicles." Altair mused. "Actually... I do not know if you recall, Lord Doll. We do still have the weapons and skeleton of a Cerastus Knight-Castigator in deep storage 30c." Zephyr said quietly. "WE HAVE A WHAT!?" screeched Xor. "The command throne requires intensive repairs. It was put into deep storage when Doll and myself deemed it infeasible to repair as we were lacking a pilot. Our attempts to offload and trade it failed to meet our minimum value. I bring it up now because the blessed fragment includes the schematics to make shells compatible with the Castigator-Pattern Bolt Cannon. It wasn't like we needed it at the time. The troops aboard Argent Drake have better gear, more armor, and more air power than most guard regiments. That's without including our troops or Lord Drakios's personal guard. We could probably let Nicole poke around the Shadowsword at some point." Zephyr explained. "It might now be worth working on when we make port and have time." Doll agreed, looking amused. "Moving on. Nicole continues to visit the library in her off time. According to reports from Altair she has been servicing and familiarizing herself with her gear and doing well in basic training. Though the skitarii did note her posture and natural movements show that she is instinctively missing the weight her dendrites. She has not taken off her mechatendril since she put it on." "Fine. We can allow her to train with the dendrite blades on. However she needs to finish firearms training before she can carry any ranged weaponry. If they are planning to use one of the firing ranges for marksmanship she can bring at most three of her weapons. Under guard. In a case." When the notification arrived Nicole carefully selected three of her personal weapons from her collection. --------------------------------------------------------------------- It turns out the machine spirit in my dueling las is a brat. I cleaned it. I rebuilt it. I even polished it till it was practically reflective and it still dry fires maybe half the time. The Blasco Dueling Pistol is much easier to work with. It simply wants no modifications and a good cleaning. The impressions from the spirit mark it as helpful if a bit wistful. The Command Laspistol is diligent and obedient but not a particularly strong spirit. The needle pistol's spirit is ultra slow to respond but did give me a full breakdown on how to care for and operate the weapon. The Archeotech Laspistol and Hellpistol both have strong if indistinct spirits. The Hellpistol's spirit is eager for violence compared the the laspistol. Both were forthcoming with their preferred handling methods which were nearly identical. The Mauler Bolt Pistol has a spirit that acts and looks like a loyal wolfdog. The act of appeasing takes a bit longer than the rest but it is downright helpful when it comes to handling. Big good boy vibes. The Inferno Pistol has a little fire wisp like spirit. It's a little precocious but I managed to coax it into giving me the information I needed with a few applications of oil and fresh ammunition. The Neural Jammer scares me. The spirit's appearance in my eyes is that of a serpentine viper made of lightning. It was cool and cooperative but the potency of the spirit was jarring compared to the rest. Updates are released by novelꜰire.net The Exitus Pistol's spirit was a bit odd. It looked just like the weapon itself and was very curt with me. Precise and to the point. Hard to say if I like its personality or not yet. The ammo is too valuable to waste though so I will not be bringing this to the range. The Digi-Las Ring gave me information that took the longest to unpack. Its care requires very precise instruments but luckily according to the weapon itself, it never needs to be reloaded and instead recharges over the course of a few hours. Finally of the weapons I had on hand in my vault is the Xenos rifle. It has a spirit of that I am certain. However no amount of me poking, prodding, yelling or begging roused it even a little. I cleaned it anyway but will have to come back to that weapon later once I learn more about weapon care. I am considering volunteering for a shift in the armory once the training is done. The lack of a plasma weapon in my collection bothers me. Especially since I am certain there is some variant plasma pistol that would fit the theme going on in my pistol collection. In the end I decide to play it safe. I elect to take the two archeotech las pistols and my good boy Mauler for my first range day. I may push it a little and wear the ring too. I put the three weapons in a separate case. The magi gave me permission to wear my dendrite blades and much to my relief my sense of balance is finally no longer feeling off. Maybe they will help me not get my ass kicked as hard by Lael or Seargent Su in melee sparring practice. I might have accidently smacked another trainee with my mechatendril hard enough to crack a rib and been banned from melee practice with the other trainees other than Lael. It would be so much easier if they let me use my power blade, instead I have to use heavy clunky training blades which sucks. My bruises from physical and melee combat training heal with impressive speed whenever I do get thumped hard enough to earn them thanks to my Autosanguine blood. Self healing nanite blood would normally feel like cheating but in this universe it's boarderline common among the upper echelons of the Mechanicus. Delta-A3 has been acting a little weird since the other day. Still just guarding me most of the time I am awake, and he is still very forthcoming whenever I bother him with questions. I just get the odd feeling that something happened and if some crazed crewman tried to jump me he'd rip their arms and legs off and then blast them with his Plasma Caliver. Though he did tell me he had been rewarded for his service and will be getting an upgrade soon. This would mean he would be replaced for about a week in about two weeks. Which I think will be good for him. I wonder if he gets a servo arm installed if he has to be forklift certified. Ha!