Capítulo 8: Rho Epsilon-5
Our plans for immediate adventure and the rescue of our big sister were dashed as soon as we realised that Mrs Robbins was still here, along with our baby brothers—peering out of the window of our house.
That made sense, and we each shared a sheepish look with each other when we collectively forgot that they existed. Well, sometimes Mrs Robbins would take them with her when she went to the church, but we really should have expected them to be near our mom. We each nodded, silently agreeing to never admit that we made such a blunder.
I checked the charge level on my Laspistol's power pack and casually replaced it with one of the two spares I had taken from Dad along with his Laspistol. I had fired a good twenty-five shots or so, so it was half-empty. I handed the second spare power pack to Pete, who nodded and placed it in his pocket.
"What do we do now?" he asked. He was a year older than me, but he wasn't stupidly arrogant to demand to be in charge because of that. He knew that Dad generally put me in charge when it was just us around. I sighed. I wanted to do something primarily so I wouldn't have to think about Willy dying.
This was a hard world, and death in a fight or combat wasn't that unusual. We had been blessed that none of our sib cohort had died yet. Still, I really, really loved my brothers, even if I teased them mercilessly. I could tell that if I started crying, Pete would be inconsolable, so I closed my eyes for a moment and steadied myself.
"We'll stay here and protect the babies," I decided, my eyes still closed, and then, after a pause, opened them and added, "...and Mrs Robbins, I suppose."
Pete nodded and asked, "What about Alicia?"
I paced a bit, ignoring Mrs Robbins's stare at us from the relative safety of inside the house. The fact that Dad's regiment hadn't left at least a few soldiers here to guard the family of their CO was a bad sign. It told her that they couldn't spare a single soldier for the job.
I glanced up at the skyline, the dim orange glow of a fire and smoke still present in the distance. The fact that the enemies knew the location of our house indicated an impressive insight into Landing. But I hoped that such a "decapitation" strike wouldn't extend three people further down to the Captain that Alicia was visiting.
I didn't think it was likely. We'd already have lost if they had successfully attacked all of the officers of the Planetary Defence Forces. There would be much more fire, lasgun shots and more explosions.
"I think she'll be safe. I doubt that her suitor will be able to stay with her, but he'll probably arrange for her to be somewhere safe for now," I finally decided. The only other option was for us to split up, and while I felt I might be able to do that, especially with my special abilities and high numbers in Hiding... I didn't want to do it. It sounded needlessly risky.
If I knew for a fact that Alicia was in danger, I would do it in a second, but from everything I could tell, she was likely fine.
I glanced sideways at the spot where Willy was shot and sighed. I did want to clean up that spot on the porch before Alicia got home. Perhaps I was taking on too much responsibility... maybe it was insane to expect a twelve-year-old girl-childe to clean up the blood and bits of skull from her recently murdered brother, but I didn't think anyone else that could do it would be better. Dad, for sure, could do it, but I expected him to be busy even after he recovered. I didn't want Mom or Alicia to have to see it.
I tried to think of what Dad would do and finally nodded at Pete. "First, let's quickly police up the weapons and anything of value the attackers had. Then we'll return to the house and guard it until we know something more."
Pete nodded and followed me out of the property onto the street. "Damn, Pipes. Did you really shoot all of these guys?"
I glanced at him and nodded. Now that I could see their dead bodies, I was a little more grossed out. The lasbolts hadn't caused as much blood as I thought they would, with the wounds mostly self-cauterising, but I still had the urge to vomit.
"Where did you even get a Laspistol?" he asked as he pushed the muzzleloading rifle away from the first body, and I quickly relieved the dead man of his powder, ball and pouch.
I said, deciding to tell the truth as simply as I could, "I was given it for discovering an important piece of archeotech. I am joining the Mechanicus."
We moved to the next body, and he asked, "The Mechanicus? You're going to be a crazy bint in red robes, worshipping machines?" I glared at him sideways, and he held up his hands in surrender.
I didn't think they... we... worshipped machines. Not precisely. It was more subtle than that, but I didn't know enough to gainsay my brother at the moment. I finally said, "I really like and have a really high affinity for machines."
As we moved to the next body, I frowned and held up my hand a couple of feet away. I had been using Observe continuously, as I did most days, and this next guy was still alive. It wasn't reading as a corpse, but a person still. However, he was clearly playing dead.
"Stop. Back up, this one is still alive," I said. There was a groan from the man who rushed to his feet, brandishing some sort of large knife. If it were in my hand, it would be closer to a short sword. I tried to avoid making an 'eep' noise and started lifting up my Laspistol barrel. However, before I could bring the pistol up, I heard the quick crack of three shots and saw red las bolts strike the assailant in the chest.
This time, the cultist was dead before he hit the ground. I looked at my brother, who was shaking a little bit and sighed. I would have liked to have spared him that.
While watching the soldiers take away my mom and Dad, I wondered why I wasn't more upset about killing these men. Partially, this was explained by growing up where we had. A farm was, in many ways, a very cruel place.
By the time we were five summers old, we knew the concept of life and death, including the cost of chicken soup. Honestly, I felt worse about the goat I had raised being eaten than these guys who had literally killed my brother.
Also, although I had thought that I had no "skill" to help my mentality earlier, the truth was that I did. Gamer's Mind. I didn't really know how it worked, and I tended to discount it since I couldn't increase it, but I think it was very much helping me overcome the normal response to ending another person's life.
What was grossing me out now was just the biological factors that I didn't realise would happen but should have, like the smell of faeces on the dead men. I reached over, steadied Pete's hand, and smiled at him, "Thank you. I think I would have got him, but I just dinnae know. He was close. You saved me."
That got through to him. He blinked and then smiled. Then, he looked at the dead man and, turned around and threw up on the grass between the road and our fence.
Ugh. I always was weak against one of my siblings throwing up. If they threw up, then I would.
I turned and quickly threw up right next to him. If anything, this seemed to make him feel better, but I smacked him a couple of times and stole the small canteen he had on his waist to wash my mouth out before handing it back to him.
Then, I carefully raised my Laspistol and put at least two shots into each of the remaining downed men, just in case. Except for the witch, as he didn't have most of his head and was obviously dead. I was sure they were finished as I Observed them now, but I was doing this for Pete's sake this time. He'd remember this and proceed accordingly in the future.
Both he and Willy had wanted to join the PDF or even the Imperial Guard, and I think Willy's death cemented that all the more, so I didn't want him to be killed by some enemy-playing possum someday.
[MARKSMANSHIP - LIGHT has gone up a level.]
Pete saw me do it and nodded at me, and we quickly finished. The last guy we looted was the witch, and I frowned, holding my hand up and said, "This one is the witch; let me do this by myself."
"How do you ken him a witch, sissy?" Pete asked stupidly.
I sighed, saying sarcastically the way only a sister can, "I dinnae know, Pete. Maybe it is his blood-stained robes, with witchy-fecking runes sewn into them. Or maybe it's the fact that he has three fecking arms." Pete realised that he was being kind of silly and raised his arms again in supplication, even chuckling, which made me feel good.
I reached down, flipped the witch-man over, and frowned. He didn't really have much on him, but there was a flintlock cavalry-style Dragoon pistol on his hip. It looked almost like an antique but well-cared for, and I relieved the man of it. About to check his other hip, I stilled.
There was something that looked like a giant chicken's shank, toes and claws and all, except that it was about five times too big. The top of the shank was wrapped in tin strips of leather, which also dangled over the animal part, with little charms tied into the leather straps.
As my hand approached it, I got an unsettling alert.
[WARP RESISTANCE has gone up a level.]
I pulled my hand back as if it was burned and Observed the giant chicken shank.
[Warp fetish, good condition, provides fifteen levels to the Psi Capability stat while possessed but leaves your mind open to the whispers of the entity to whom it is dedicated to.]
[OBSERVE has gone up a level.]
I hissed and took a step back. The fact that it had some sort of effect even when I was close to it and not even "possessing" it was a bad sign. I stood up and said, "Alright, we're leaving this one alone now. Let's leave."
We'd only spent about five minutes out here, but I'm sure we'd get a mouthful from Mrs Robbins soon.
I'd like to use a stick or something to grab that chicken shank so I could burn it, but the explanation of how it worked I got from Observe meant that might not be enough. It could be argued that I didn't have to touch something to "possess" it.
Instead, after Pete was far enough away, I pulled out my Laspistol, took careful aim and shot the thing five times. The last shot caught it on fire, and it burnt with a fell green flame that quickly spread to the dead witch and, before my very eyes, burned the witch and fetish to ashes in less than five seconds.
It was remarkable to behold, and I was glad to be well away from it as it continued to burn a hole in the very bricks of the road for a moment, creating a person-shaped blackened detent on the street. Pete yelled, "For feck's sake!"
I nodded in agreement and left right away. I didn't want to breathe in any witch dust or anything. That couldn't be good for your lungs.
---xxxxxx---
I was right about Mrs Robbins, she had been haranguing us for a good half hour, but her heart wasn't in it. She had been there when Willy was born, and I think she was just yelling at us in order not to cry herself.
When she yelled herself out at us, I told Pete to stay inside with Mrs Robbins and the babies and then returned to the porch in front of the house.
I looked down at the pool of blood that had seeped into the wood of the porch and sighed. I didn't really want to do this, but I wanted Mom and Alicia to see this even less.
I got some tools and was glad to find out that the running water was still working. First of all, I used the hose to wash away as much of the blood as I could into the grass and dirt of the lawn.
[HOUSEWORK has gone up a level.]
After that, I used boiling water, soap and a stiff steel brush to clean the rest of it up. It left a bit of an off-colour spot where I had to brush the top layer of wood off, but it looked a lot better than before. Perhaps we should sand the whole porch and put a layer of varnish down. The wooden planks were still kind of new, so it might be worth doing that.
[HOUSEWORK has gone up a level.]
As I finished cleaning, moving quite rapidly with my close to 200% bonus to my speed and efficiency in cleaning, I cleaned my tools and replaced them in the shed. As I was about to return to the house to get something to eat, the vox that I had taken from my Dad chirped and I heard Dad's voice ask, "Piper, do you still have my vox?"
My hands moved faster than they'd moved when I was trying to shoot that guy who jumped at us earlier. I grabbed the device, pushed the button and said, "Dad! Yes! Are you okay? How is mom?"
His voice came back quickly, "Switch to channel thirty-four, and use your nanny's first name, along with how many hectares our farm was for the scramble code. Can you figure that out?"
I blinked. I'd never received training on how to use a vox unit, but I was an official member of the Mechanicum! Uhh... sort of.
If I couldn't figure it out, then I would be in trouble. I replied that I could and sat to look at the controls of the device. I had seen my Dad use it in the past, so the push-to-talk button was obvious. I Observed every component and finally nodded.
There was an alphanumeric code that could be entered using two knobs. Right now, it had a long, seemingly random code inside the window. Changing the code was clunky; you had to use a knob and rotate it through all letters and numbers one at a time.
Mrs Robbins' first name was Clodagh, although how I actually remembered that I had no idea, and our farm was a total of 549 hectares.
[MEMORISATION has gone up a level.]
This was a pretty large farm, and we leased part of it to a couple of other families for a share of their produce, but I assumed he meant the total area and not just the area that we cultivated ourselves.
I twisted knobs until CLODAGH549 was in the window, hoping devoutly that capital letters were okay. If I used lowercase letters, I had to rotate the knob past the numbers and past even the punctuation and special characters.
I then rotated the other knob until the channel displayed as "34". Pushing the push-to-talk button again, I asked, "Can you hear me, Dad?"
"Yes!" he said, "Good girl for figuring that out!" I preened a bit at his praise, and grinned.
Then he continued, "Is everything okay at home? I'm not going to be able to come back any time soon."
"Aside from what happened to Willy, everyone else is fine. How are you? Are you hurt badly? What's wrong?" I asked.
I could hear the wince in his voice, "I'm not actually hurt that badly. Your mom lost the arm, but there might be options for prosthetics or even regrowing it later. I just had a concussion and a flesh wound. I can't say a lot, but the attack was a lot more effective than you might think. Please do not tell anyone, especially your brother, but the Governor was killed, as were both the CO and XO of the first Regiment."
I widened my eyes in shock. The Planetary Governor, the Duke, wasn't even on the planet very often. From what I learned, the conditions on the large orbital space station were much more luxurious than the conditions on the planet. He had to adhere to the restrictions on burning promethium, too, so he basically just stayed in orbit most of the time. To somehow sneak so many people into the island of Landing unnoticed, arranging everything so carefully. I shook my head, and I said what was on my mind, "Treachery..."
That got a snort of a laugh out of my Dad, and he said, "Ye see to the heart of things, baby girl. Both the Palatine, who is in command of the mission here on the planet, and I agree. I can't say much more, but I think you all should be safe by now. We've eliminated over half of the enemies, but the rest took to boats and might get away, at least for now. Your friend Sister Superior Lucia is already on the move with a strong force, and we'll be following once we ensure the city's safety and security."
I wasn't sure I'd call that terrifying woman a friend, but I didn't correct Dad. I could just imagine Sister Lucia's face when she realised she had an opportunity to chastise not only traitors but mutants, heretics and unregistered witches. She would be so excited.
Instead, I rushed inside and found Pete and Mrs Robbins. I allowed them to speak with him for a moment before he had to go. He said he'd detail a couple of men to retrieve Alicia and return her to the house in a couple of hours, too.
---xxxxxx---
The next few days were a bit of a mess. Alicia came home and was nearly inconsolable when she learned about Willy. I was so glad that I took the time to clean up the porch so she didn't have to see the evidence of his death.
The next day, Mom came home and was rather subdued. She was clearly upset, but worse, she was worried about Dad. He had become one of the most important men on the planet in one day. There was nothing I could say to her to convince her that he was safe because I didn't really believe he was either.
I wasn't sure how, but when they discovered I was the one who had shot all the men outside, things got complicated for me.
Sister Jorus herself came over to the house to talk to me, sitting me down alone in Dad's study. She asked, "You did something really amazing, Piper. I just wanted to talk about how you feel. Do you regret anything? Have you been having nightmares?"
I blinked, "Are ye daft, Sister? They had just killed my brother and were reloading. It was really gross, and I threw up afterwards, but I ain't going to feel sympathy for bloody cultists of the Ruinous Powers who were trying their best to kill me kin." And then I realised what I said could be considered quite ill-mannered when speaking to a nun, and I quickly added, "uhh... ma'am."
Rather than look offended, Sister Jorus had an expression of pure satisfaction on her face as she nodded. "You're absolutely right, Piper. How did you know they were cultists, though?"
"One of em was an obvious witch, a mutant too with a literal third arm. Was wearing blue and gold robes, covered in blood, with fey runes stitched into em," I explained.
She frowned and said, "I don't remember hearing about that one's body being recovered. Did he get away?"
I shook my head, "Nah, ma'am. He was the one I shot him first, the fell-looking fella. But then, when my brother and I searched the man for any valuables, I noticed he had this giant chicken foot. Just looking at it made me itch behind the eyes, so I made sure not to touch it and shot it several times with my Laspistol. It quickly burned his entire body to ashes. You can see the black spot right outside the gate, ma'am."
Sister Jorus' eyes widened, and she nodded slowly as if remembering the spot in question. "That was a good idea, Piper. Emperor knows what that was, but it certainly wouldn't have been good or healthful to have any contact with it. Just a couple more questions: did this witch have any items that you took from him?"
I nodded, "Aye, he had an old Dragoon-pattern cavalry pistol. Want me to go fetch it for you, Sister?"
She looked unsure for a moment before nodding, "Yes, please."
I skittered back into my room, grabbed the pistol and returned. When I got back, I opened the frizzen with my thumb, demonstrating to the Sister that there was no charge loaded in the pan, and then reversed the weapon and handed it to her, barrel first, "I've already unloaded it, Sister. It's actually quite a beaut, but I was only going to keep it for a wall-hanger. It's not like these types of weapons have much utility in the grand scheme of things anymore. But if it's contaminated by warp-feckery, then maybe it's better if you dispose of it, ma'am."
Sister Jorus chuckled and shook her head, saying, "Piper, you might be the smartest girl your age that I've ever met."
I had wondered about that. My Intelligence was eleven, but until recently, I had no idea how that compared to other people. However, now that my Observe was level fifteen it was showing me the lowest stat each person had when I used it on people. Pete's lowest stat was Intelligence, and it was only at a three. Sister Jorus' lowest stat was Strength, at only a ten.
She looked at the pistol and shook her head, "This is a special pistol. See, here?" she turned it around and showed me the butt plate where the maker's marks were stamped, "It was made in the armoury of Rousay. That was the largest city in the northern continent, and this pattern of pistol was only produced for their nobility. If you remember from your school, all the people there have been relocated to our continent. All other continents on this planet are, eventually, going to be devoted entirely to the cultivation of the special flora we're known for."
I blinked. I had read about that, but... "But, what I read says that those plants can't be cultivated."
She waved a hand, "Aye, that was a poor choice of words. They can't be cultivated in a normal farming way... But they can be released into a new environment and allowed to grow wild. Human presence, especially permanent structures, seems to interfere with their lifecycle, but now that we've relocated all the people away... it will eventually turn all other continents on this planet into a jungle where they can be harvested—in a short thirty or so years, according to the Magos."
I nodded. That seemed to be quite fussy and picky for what amounted to a fancy vine, but I wasn't an expert. I then thought about what she was saying from a different perspective, "Say... I bet some people might be a bit sore over having their entire lives uprooted and shipped off to start over from absolutely nothing."
She grinned, "Yes. This was already suspected, but I will definitely let the Palatine know about this pistol. We might be dealing with a more organised insurgency than we thought. Last question: where did you get your Laspistol?" She nodded at the holster that I talked Alicia into making for me. She was a lot better at sewing leather and the like, and I didn't leave anywhere without it now.
"My new Master, Genetor Neurosage, gave it to me! He was so proud of me for discovering a piece of important archeotech that he gave me this pistol and offered me a place in the Cult Mechanicus. He said I had an uncanny affinity with machines," I told her proudly, only fibbing a little.
Surprisingly, she looked quite disappointed. But it passed quickly, "The Mechanicus is a very important part of the Imperium, and they worship the God Emperor... in their own way." The last sounded more like a grudging admission. Finally, she sighed, "Are you sure about this?"
I nodded, "I really love machines. Besides, if I hadn't made this decision, I wouldn't have had that Laspistol, and I might have been either killed or been forced to watch those cultists kill my family. Some might call that luck, but I think that was the God-Emperor lookin' out."
He answered my prayers, after all, so we were pretty close.
She nodded and stood up, patting me on the head, and said, "I think you'll do well, whatever you end up devoting your life to."
Speaking of which, I had forgotten to tell Mom about that. I kind of wanted Dad to be there with us, because I knew he would support me but I was less sure about Mom.
I sighed. I'd get around to it.
---xxxxxx---
The next day, a red robed Tech-Priest showed up at our door. I was the one to answer and he took one look at me and said, "Good. Come."
I frowned, and said, "Who are you? And why?"
[Tau Alpha-1000, Posthuman Male, assistant to Genetor Zephyrion Neurosage. A dogmatic believer in all of the standard dogma of Mars, he secretly hopes to catch his boss out as a Heretek. He does not like you but has been ordered to train you. Lowest stat, Strength(17).]
He looked very annoyed, "Female child, I am called Tau Alpha-1000. Magos Genetor Neurosage has ordered me to collect you and begin your initial training."
I didn't quite like Mr One Thousand here. But I nodded and said, "I'll have to tell my Mom I'm going out. Give me a moment."
Oh. I had forgotten to tell her last night about my joining the Mechanicum. This might be interesting.
I tried to be as matter of fact about it, but all that got me was my Mom chasing me to the door yelling, "Just what do you mean you've joined the Mechanicum?"
"Ahahaha... We can talk about it later, Mom! I can't leave Mr One Thousand waiting," I said in front of the red-robed Tech Priest, who thrashed a metal tentacle just like an annoyed tomcat thrashed his tail.
With that, we left. As we walked, I asked, "What will this training consist of?"
"A lot of reading. A lot of memorising. The Genetor, surprisingly wise in this case, said that you need to understand the proper dogma and liturgies from the beginning, lest you make terrible mistakes," he said tersely, and I nodded. That was good. I could do that.
As we got to what I called the Wizard Tower, he turned to me and said, "It is traditional for a new Initiate to take on a new designation that is in more keeping with the Mechanicum. You can still go by your old name when you leave this place, but I am demanding you pick a more appropriate designation now."
I frowned. His name seemed to be two letters of an ancient Terran language, followed by numbers. This language was actually the root of the entirety of Low Gothic that we spoke today, and they even used similar letters. I had some knowledge of this language just from levelling up Language: High Gothic too.
I thought about it, stretching my Memorisation to the max to remember what the letters for P and E were. Finally, I remembered them.
"Then call me Rho Epislon-5," Rho for P, my first initial. Epsilon for E, my last initial, and five because I was the fifth child of my parents who loved me very, very much. No matter what I did in the future, I would never forget them.
** Name: Piper Eversly (aka Rho Epsilon-5)
** Title: Noble Daughter
** Strength: 8
** Dexterity: 8
** Vitality: 8
** Intelligence: 11
** Willpower: 13
** Psi Capability: 29 (Zeta)
** Unspent Points: 3
** Skills: Gamer's Body (MAX), Gamer's Mind (MAX), Reading (40), Pain Tolerance (34), Athletics (33), Running (26), Fatigue Resistance (25), Cooking (23), Housework (17), Hiding (16), Observe (15), Language: High Gothic (14), Dissembling (13), Memorisation (13), Sword Mastery (11), Electronics Repair (11), Marksmanship - Light (11), Self-Discipline (10), Acting (9), Calculation (7), Prayer (7), Embroidery (6), Sewing (6), Marksmanship - Ballistic (5), Teaching (5), Horse Riding (5), Jury-Rigging (5), Telekinesis (5), Warp Resistance (5), Etiquette (4), Lying (4), Archery (3), Mechanical Repair (2), Eavesdropping (1), and Detection (1)
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