Herald of the Stars: Chapter Eighty-Three (Patreon)

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“I do not view hope as a poison, Envoy Lynu, so long as both parties remain genuine and cooperative, that is.”

“Yes, Magos. You have made that abundantly clear. Now, there is something I wish to ask of you.”

“Go ahead.”

“Is there anything you can do to increase our protection against such horrors as the two-headed bird?”

“The walls of the vessel protect you as does the gellar field. It is unlikely you will be leaving their protection. Your species is psychically deaf enough that under normal circumstances, you won’t have to worry about it anyway.”

Lynu holds her hand clasped tightly in her lap, “Even so, Magos. What little understanding I have of the warp and its whispers imply that deafness does not mean immunity; it is a limit of power and the two-headed bird that crawled from the warp had enough to do almost whatever it pleased.

“While there is some merit in claiming that once reaching such a point whatever protections we can muster become irrelevant, it would give us great peace of mind to have them anyway. Something clearly warped our ethereal to madness, however. Perhaps a little extra protection at the right time and place would have prevented much sorrow. Doing nothing shows we have learned nothing. Neither you nor fortune will save us twice. Knowledge and preparation might just manage it though.”

“It is exceptionally expensive to ward people against the warp. What are you willing to pay?”

“How about a technology for a technology?”

“You would still need to earn the tools and materials.”

“That’s just another trade, Magos. What do you want?”

“I have noticed that despite your losses and low population, you do not suffer from insufficient personnel. Coupled with your attempted cloning of mixed psyker and tau humanoids, I can only assume you have exo-wombs that can grow intelligent, educated individuals. I want that technology.”

“Are mechanicus members not grown in such a manner?” says Lynu. “I thought you could already do this.”

“On forge worlds, the technology is available. I do not have it for my fleet. While I can grow blank servitors, and I do have teaching engines, the separate parts are not as compatible as one might think. Rapidly growing an intelligent and educated individual is a completely different challenge to a servitor. I can do it the long way, but then one might as well use the traditional method of procreation and education.” I smirk, “Think of this as a limited time offer. Once I can purchase it from the imperium, you’ll have to think of other things to offer.”

“You are most generous, Magos. We do have rapid growth exo-wombs and knowledge implantation technology available to trade. What manner might this protection come in?”

“I have two for you. The first is something I use, warding electoos.” I power up my electoos, and a blue, almost purple light seeps from my skin as thousands of tiny runes glow with an eerie light.

“That is a most unusual display.”

“It works and I am pleased with the results.”

Now that Lynu asked, I will make this a standard implant along with the MIU for all personnel, not just the servitors, and including prisoners. Lynu doesn’t need to know this though. No reason I can’t get her to pay for a technology I now intend to apply to them anyway.

Technically I’m not supposed to sell anything to a xeno, but anything I can do to reduce chaos corruption in the galaxy is a good thing and one of my primary goals, so I am willing to flout the rules for this one technology. Trading with a hidden agenda will make for a good excuse when someone inevitably complains about it and, so long as the tau never find out, is a good way to squeeze their technology from them without fostering resentment.

One might wonder why I bother at all, but trading rather than seizing means I can return to consult with their experts on their technology as part of the trade and acquire the theory behind their works. With scientific theory and engineering principles available I can apply them to imperial technology, effectively integrating xeno-tech without directly using it, as direct use of xeno-tech is forbidden as it rarely ends well for the humans involved.

Warding electoos for all personnel would be almost impossible to afford without the moth class ships; I believe it is worth the expense and the materials can be recycled after death, so over time it should become more affordable.

“What is the second type?” says Lynu.

“A silver blood substitute that doubles as a sacred oil for the machine cult, called sacred blood. I do not know how this would work for tau physiology and it does have side effects and complications, which is why I currently only use it for servitors. You would likely have to adopt the faith to get the most from it too.

“One that note, becoming adherents of the machine cult may reduce the inevitable stigma the tau will experience aboard the Distant Sun and within the imperium. It will be much easier for me to get you the sanctioned xeno status and thus be granted a modicum of freedom within the imperium if you are one of the faithful. This does not equate to protection, however.”

“I will keep your suggestion in mind. What sort of side effects?”

“In humans, sacred blood turns the skin grey and a partial marrow replacement is required to make space for the implants to manufacture and recycle the blood substitute. Alternatively, sacred blood must be periodically replaced from an external source, which is what I usually do for servitors as the implants are expensive.

“This marrow surgery is exceptionally invasive and debilitating, so instead, a complete skeletal replacement is undertaken, called a black skeleton. For servitors, they are grown on it anyway, so I can fit them with the implants if I have a specific task in mind. Retrofitting people is much more tricky, but still easier and less painful than marrow surgery. This improved skeleton is a more resilient and logical design, making the user less prone to injury, but does not heal naturally and must be repaired or replaced with surgery if broken.”

“Rehabilitation for a complete skeletal replacement requires up to two terran years if done naturally. An auto-sanguine implant, an implant that enhances healing and eases inflammation between implants and the user’s original flesh, can reduce rehabilitation to three months and no physiotherapy is required.

“Unfortunately, auto-sanguines are expensive and reserved for officers, so patients are usually hooked up to an external, supercharged auto-sanguine and kept in a coma. Two weeks later they are taken off the machines, wake up mostly pain free and ready for physiotherapy, which is a six week course. This saves me money, time, and resources.”

“This sacred blood does not sound like it is worth the effort,” says Lynu.

I nod, “From a purely cost to performance ratio, sacred blood is inferior to warding electoos for reducing warp based effects upon a person. It does provide an opportunity to double up on warp protection though. One’s immortal soul is worth protecting and, in combination with all the additional implants required, sacred blood does provide significant improvements in body performance whereas electoos provide none.

“For example, sacred blood lets a stationary individual hold their breath for an hour and clots rapidly when exposed to air or vacuum. It’s actually quite difficult to bleed out from an injury when you have sacred blood and, in an emergency, you can use it to patch up holes in your spacesuit.”

“How ingenious!”

I snort, “So long as you're not the one cleaning up, sure. Sacred blood is not as compatible with the body as the Imperium’s standard substitutes and much more pricey, but neither does it cause the withering of muscles, which would lead to complications over time. The heart, liver, and kidneys also require bionic replacements to handle pumping and processing sacred blood as it is a heavy, thick, and oily liquid. You also need a potentia coil to power them. These implants require minor surgery every ten years to perform maintenance on the artificial organs and provide their own advantages, like toxin and trauma resistance.”

Lynu sighs, “Well I did ask and you have provided. Of the two methods, which is the most effective?”

“That’s tricky to answer. I only have the electoos, as do some of the crew. Personnel with warding tattoos cannot be directly scried by psykers of delta power or less. It is therefore hypothesised that warded individuals cannot be targeted by warp entities without line of sight. This is challenging to prove, and like you said earlier, it is more a matter of power, and perhaps trickery, rather than an absolute protection.”

“The mass slaughter of Marwolv’s psykers suggests that these warding electoos are effective to a high level of power as those with the tattoos were spared a grisly death, but for all we know this could be some long term trick to make us waste resources or to prepare a large number of individuals as better vessels for warp entity possession. That isn’t what the data says. It isn’t what our limited testing implies. Unfortunately one can never be entirely sure when dealing with warp entities.”

“I believe poisoning with hope is fast becoming a distant dream Magos,” Lynu shivers. “Your words do not fill me with confidence. Are you really trying to sell me on these mystical wards or not?”

“I am not the one on a deadline to get the most value from my limited knowledge, Envoy Lynu.”

“That...is not inaccurate. Is there anything else you are willing to share?”

“We did discover that a pict-viewer or a mirror is sufficient to count as line of sight to employ psychic effects against warded individuals.”

Lynu frowns, “That would mean that for comprehensive protection, everyone has to have these electoos. When you said these materials are expensive, how expensive are they?”

“One can mine them from asteroids saturated in warp energy that might be pulled from the immaterium by a void ship’s wake between warp and realspace transitions, They can also be stolen from raids on demon worlds languishing in the warp and after sanctifying polluted ritual grounds or artefacts. Oh, and space hulks. The main issue is that the same energised elements compete for warp fuel synthesis.”

I’m not going to mention my sun diving moth class ships who can synthesise these materials too.

“Yet you ward every servitor. I think these things are more common than you imply.”

Alright Aldrich, time to mislead for all your worth! “Not at all, Envoy. This is more a personal precaution of mine after a possession event. Most would not choose to expend so many resources on such an endeavour. Many resources have been expended since I arrived at Marwolv to acquire these rare, warp infused elements. Even after all this time, warp transitions are limited.”

“I see. If you could humour me a little further?”

I nod. I’m rather proud of my wards, and though it is unwise, I feel I have enough control over Envoy Lynu’s information channels that I can afford to boast a little more.

“What happens to warded individuals within line of sight of a psyker?” says Lynu.

“When psychic effects were applied, with direct line of sight, it was discovered the minds of warded individuals could not be read without the individual becoming aware of it. Telepathic messages could still be sent, though psykers recorded an increase in exertion between twelve and eighteen percent depending on the individuals involved in testing. This makes electoo wards less ideal for astropaths.

“Hostile effects, such as warp fire and lightning, when tested to destruction on servitors with just the electoos, were not noticeably repelled. Sacred blood reduced damage to soft tissues between four point five and six percent.

“When tested on warded volunteers at much lower power levels, damage reduction from warp fire and lightning was up to sixty-two percent depending on the mental discipline of the individual, though the median average was nineteen percent.

“We are still waiting on the right criminals to declare their existence so we can test warded individuals to destruction.

“Unlike the servitors with just the electoos, servitors with electoos and sacred blood could not be forcefully controlled by a psyker. Servitors with neither could be overridden without line of sight.

“Servitors with electoos could be forcefully controlled with line of sight, to a much lesser degree, as if the psyker was sending instructions via a dodgy data connection suffering from time outs and packet loss.

“Servitors with just sacred blood could not be fully forcefully controlled with or without line of sight. They could be prevented from taking any actions, or halting an action they were performing, but not be prompted to complete new actions at the behest of the psyker.”

“What about testing possession, rather than control on people and servitors?” says Lynu.