Chapter 8 Part 1

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, he 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.