"Yes?" I called out, my eyes snapping open as I stared at the closed door. Separating the telepathidril eg me to a bio-drone in the form of a mutant who was now left aloo duke it out in the Scrap boys' arena. Don't bme me that there weren't fighting games in the 41st millennium, bme the universe. "Lady Inquisitor I have bee with a message from the esteemed Magos Dominus Zedev," I heard a syic voice say through it, "Do I have permission to enter?" "Yes, e in," I said as I untangled my legs from the lotus position and got to my feet before the cyb tech priest walked into the opened door. "So, what is it that the good Magos has sent you all the way here for?" I asked, foing refreshments to the woman as her whole throat and everything under her nose was metal. She smelled of oil and inse with a hint of ic flesh but I only caught that thanks to my superhuman senses. "He sends his regards and hopes for you to meet him in his b as he has mao locate every base still holding signifit amounts of Xenos," a small blue light flickered on the side of her meieck with each sound that left her speaker, "I am also to tell you that he has procured one of the things you've asked for." "Thank you," I nodded, "Will you ese to his b?" "If that is what the Inquisitor wishes for." "Let's go then," I said as I stepped through the doorway, "After you." The walk was long and annoying but these upper floors of the ship were well maintained by servitors and the Meicum uhe rest of it so we could follow a rather straight path instead of twisting and turning all over the pce as a stairway colpsed or another hallway melted away under an act or something. I spent my time carefully looking through the mind of the Adept leading me, she arently called Gamma-5 as I'd learned. It was fasating how mae and flesh came together to form these priests, even their minds were a bination of a meical part that came from the emotionless maes they plugged their brains into and the biological part that inated from their own brains. In my opinion, this was far worse than an AI, but then again it wasn't my gactic Empire that came to an end because of an AI uprising so I couldn't really fault them. Still, it's been what? 20 thousand years sihey could really learn to move on. I'd used AI to make images and Chatbots in my College finals so I was rather sure it wouldn't be a problem until we basically gave them sentiend ons with which they could fight babsp;The Imperium's phobia of AIs aside, it seemed like we'd arrived. The entrance of the 'b' was a rge arch, opening up to reveal a gaggle of semi-separated workshops where tech priests worked and did their ritualistic stuff. Gamma-5 talked te Adept standing in the middle, overseeing the Acolyte's work. Their versation was made up of bursts of beeps and boops as the two unicated in the Meicums binary nguage and while that was iing I was much more intrigued by the Adepts doing their work. I engraved each twist of their meical fingers, each binary sequehey said, and each caress of the metal frame the mae received. I was sure there was a meaning behind it all, I remembered reading research abious and ritualistic practices being the best way to preserve information for the future. They sidered making Nuclear cults ba Earth who'd remember the locations where the radioactive waste has been dumped even if society colpsed? Let's just say I was highly suspicious and while I didn't believe mae spirits were AIs like some people seemed to on forums, I also didn't think most of these rituals only served to satisfy the animalistic ego of the mae spirits. I could see them, small blobs of lumines the dark waters of the , barely could they be called a soul but it was certainly the precursor of one. Some mutants that I assumed were some sort of animals before had simir souls if a bit enhanced by the energy that suffused them. Intelligence was one of the most important parts of having a soul but many other things also mattered from what I knew, History, Legacy, and sheer Presence of a species mattered too. The Soul was the representation of all that one was, and one human was the culmination of eons of evolution and thousands of years of gactiination. Humans were Important in this gaxy, they had a presend they were old, uhe Leagues of Votann who were es, or the Tau whose civilization was youhan some Dreadnaughts in the Imperium. "The Magos Dominus wishes to ihe Lady Inquisitor into his personal boratories," the rge Adept's deep voice echoed in a syic choir, "He gave no permission to eo anyone aside from yourself so I will fo esc you, a hallway beyond that door is supposed to lead you to him." "Alright," I nodded and waved off his apology, I strode through the door with a st gnce around at the many Acolytes before the door crashed close behind me. The lights flickered on one by one, illuminating the narrow hallway. I noticed many hatches on all sides of the room and with a bit of probing I felt the myriads of lethal ons hiding behind them. The Magos valued his privacy it seemed, from psma ons, to heavy melters, and with a few bioons that would give any activist in the 21st tury a stroke he was heavily decked out. None of the hatches opened and I easily made my way to the end of the deathtrap, my soft kno the door's metal surface resounded once before it opened jerkily and revealed a deposior behind it. The abomination stepped out of the way and revealed a rge boratory behind it. "Greetings: Wele Inquisitor." "Hello Magos Zedev," I replied and tore my eyes away from the many hulking maes standing in rows all around the circur room, "I heard you have something for me." "Corre: I have several things that may i you." "Are you willing to part with them?" I asked, not making it apparent on my face that I was already searg for where the secret xeno-biologist was hiding his samples, not a sihing in this room had anything anic about it aside from me and the Magos. "It is our duty to part with our belongings when the Inquisition wishes for it is it not?" "I suppose it would be," I answered, "though it tends to cultivate animosity with individuals of your ... station." "Uandable, as it is I would fo any suimosity if I was to receive some minor...pensation." "I am not averse to that idea," I eyed his flickering red sensor, "but what you provide should more than matything you are asking for." "Jest: If your profi biomancy is as great as you procimed it should prove more than enough for what I'm asking of you iurn." "A Magos Dominus with humor," I shook my head softly, "will a Primarch return from the dead tomorrow?" "Crifiy Humor module has proven to be an effective tool in unig with humans outside of the Adeptus Meicum." "Of course," I here wasn't aing in here, nor any furniture that didn't serve a purpose so we were just sort of standing around with me feeling a bit awkward, "Let's start with the presumed geealer hideouts you have located." "Report: I have identified three major sites and twenty minor ones, with the major ones being slightly smaller than the base you have presumably exterminated." "Anything that could make it difficult? Without the Patriarch, they should hardly pose a threat if they don't have something else up their sleeves." "Uain: Sending reaissance squads into their ons stes would have surely alerted even those low-caliber Xeno cultists." "Alright, I will assist you with the Major ones," I nodded, "The Arch-Militant deal with the minor ohose shouldn't make a difference." "Query: What difference could they make? Ship repairs shouldn't take more than two months to make us capable of -Jumping, they have no capability of halting our progress." "Ah," fuck, I kind of fot Selene would never share information an Inquisitor shared with her in fidehout the Inquisitor's express permission, "I'll be blunt Magos, I believe a Splinter Fleet of Hive Fleet Kraken is on its way, heading straight towards us." "...Query: How long before it is expected to arrive?" "I'm not sure but I've killed a Lictor on the phe Shadow hasn't desded yet so we might finish with the repairs in time but I'm not ting on it." "Uanding: I will have every Adept and Accolyte under me work without rest, the loss of the Wanderer is uable." "You do that," I nodded, "I will still go along with the extermination, also, what of the samples I've asked for?" "Agreement: I will dispatch the skitarii to aid you in that endeavor, for the samples please follow me." I kept up easily with the quadrupedal cyb as he waddled through the gaggle of half-finished maes and power tools. We reached the back of the circur b where nothing but the pstel wall remained. Zedev easily pushed a blocky mae the size of a small car away with one of his legs before iing one of his dangling cables into a small ector in the wall. I heard cogs turn aal screech as it was dragged over metal before the wall opened up in front of us. I thought for a moment it'd reveal a magical road in Britain and I could go and buy a wand from an etrian but instead, what was revealed rivaled the most horrid re-enat of a mad stist's boratory. Bodies, separated limbs or even just ans by themselves floated inside liquids held in gss-like tainers. Shelves were filled with myriads of animal corpses and many others I didn't even reize. Then there were the ohat'd probably nd good Magos Zedev under severe suspi of both tech-heresy and much more. Human, Tyranid, ret and so many more debatably se beings id about in several stages of disse. Unlike what any other 21st-tury human or even one from now would have thought I only had a sihought about the sight at that moment. What a treasure trove. P3t1