Zardelle and I were tucked away in a small room in the Red Corsairs barracks, just outside the main armoury. I'd demanded some space when I started to take over more roles and effectively became the unit's quartermaster. It was now a combination of my office and the storage room with all the papers and records for the unit.
And let me tell you, it was far more than I was expecting. I don't know how she found time to do anything before I took over. More than that, I had no idea how Dressi, the quartermaster for the entire gang, could cope. It took me less than a week to crack; it was that disorganised.
Orders and requests, all done by word of mouth or paper. A bloody nightmare.
After a week of that, I quickly decided to build something. Just some basic inventory management software—nothing fancy. It had a whole host of issues at first. It took several months of hard work to get the worst of them dealt with, but now… now it was a dream.
All handled by the cogitator in my office. It was so successful in fact, that others asked for it and eventually most of the gang were using it. There had been some teething issues and some fat fingers, but overall, it was a huge success.
It wasn't complete, not by a long shot. For one thing, many orders still didn't flow through it. There were entire warehouses of stock that had not been inventoried yet. But it was getting there. Peggi had jumped on the idea and was in fact, a major driving force behind it. Her, Lanto and Dressi.
More than anything, it gave me back some of my time, so that was invaluable. I could feel myself growing; the more I spent taking things apart, the more I learnt about them, their principles, and I could then apply that to other things, which could teach me more.
From the carapace armour, on its fourth iteration, to the robotics and bionics which had helped me upgrade my MIU several times over. Even the laser engraving machine let me manufacture the crystals for lasguns.
That was a bit further away, but I managed to make a few shitty ones, and I would only get better.
It was a wonderful cycle.
It even allowed me to find out what the lumps of crystal I found were. Data storage. A huge amount of data storage. I hadn't cracked how to read them yet. But I was close.
The doors creaked open as Clara walked in. As soon as she entered, she flinched, shifting uncomfortably from Zardelle's field, which filled the room. Now that I was pulled out of my thoughts, I noticed how agitated it was.
My constant work on the meditation exercises and other rituals had come a long way. It took a lot for me to notice it now. They were also affecting more than just my resistance to the great ocean. I was getting sick less, like when something unwanted entered my body, be that pollution or poison, and I could force it away somehow.
Like I was deciding not to let it affect me. It was a weird feeling, but useful.
My resistance was so strong that unless I looked out for Zardelle's field, I wouldn't actually notice it. It was like a strong breeze blowing that just bit harder.
I had no idea how it would interact with psykers. But I could only hope it would be the same. I'd need to run some experiments, but I needed a psyker for that. So was likely a long way off. I had also been practising shunting it into someone else.
Ever since I'd accidentally done that with Snuffles, I had worked hard to replicate it deliberately. It had been hard at first, but I was getting better. I still needed to test how much it would change, but I needed better sensors before I could do that.
Looking a bit green in the face, Clara, one of Peggi's people, moved to the empty chair. I nudged Zardelle, pulling her from her thoughts. "Aura."
Blinking and refocusing back on the room, she turned her mind away from whatever had agitated her, and the field immediately shrank down.
The knockoff spook let out a sigh of relief, nodding gratefully to me. She placed some paper on the table and cleared her throat. "Zardelle, Aleric. Thank you for agreeing to this meeting on such short notice."
"Of course, Peggi said it was urgent." Zardelle said.
"It is. It is about the mission. We now have more information and would like to make some changes as well as add an extra mission."
"Lay it out, and we will see, it is very last minute."
"Agreed, and Peggi sends her apologies. For the actual mission itself, there are minimal changes. Still capture the manafactorum as they requested. Once done, we would like you to place some items. Here." Passing over a small bag, I took it and started to rummage around.
My eyebrows raised, I said. "There are regalia from House Caelvorn."
"Correct. With the war on the horizon, we feel now is a good chance to weaken our enemies. If we can get them, House Caelvorn and Nyrexia to fight each other using their guilds and gangs as proxies, it will make it far easier for us in the future."
"And this won't upset the guild?"
"It shouldn't do. They just want their competitors out. That will happen; we are just getting something extra."
"I see no reason to say no. What's the second part?" Zardelle said.
"That comes in two sections, but are tied together. Several blocks over there is a promethium lab under the Pale Foundry. We want you to burn it to the ground."
"Why? And why not send a team later?"
"I will answer the second part first. It is not easy getting to the district. The checkpoints are locked down, so even we have trouble passing through. As for why, this will cause the guild to need to dip into their supplies to meet a contract, weakening them."
"Okay, and the second part?"
"This comes to the other reason. Time. We have heard that Treg, the leader of the Ebon Pact gang, will be having a meeting there. He and several of his top gang members will be meeting a member of the guild backing them. We are not sure what they are going to discuss. But we want you to kill them."
Whistling, I was taken aback by the aggressive approach Peggi wanted to take. "What do you hope to achieve?"
"With him dead, his lieutenants will start a fight for control of the gang; either it will implode, or they will fight amongst themselves, again weakening them. Win-win. We have some contacts there to guide you, they are—"
----
Strapping the last of my gear on, my relic pistol strapped to my thigh, helmet on, the display flickering before initiating its start-up sequence, and then connected to my impulse unit. A faint static buzzed in the back of my mind as I turned for the door.
The rest of the unit were gearing up and followed Zardelle out. We didn't just have our weapons; we also had a fair amount of other supplies like food and water. We had a long journey ahead of us, much of it would be in the tunnels we controlled. Heading out, we all piled into the truck. Snuffles would be staying with Skyla for the mission.
I thought about bringing him anyway, but it wasn't worth it in the end. Too hard and noticeable to let him come.
I was very glad to be a number two in the unit in this instance, as I got to sit up front, not crammed in the back.
Once we were in the truck, we pulled away, winding through the streets until we reached the start of the tunnels. A large, jagged hole cut into the wall to access the passageways behind it. I had no clue who'd found and mapped them, probably hundreds of different people, but this was the true strength of the gang.
Access to these tunnels were one of our core pillars. There were dozens of checkpoints lining the street up to the hole, with hundreds of gangers spread across them. As we neared the final approach, a well-fortified barricade came into view.
Large turrets, autocannons and even a lascannon lined the walls. It was a patchwork structure, built from the building materials they could scavenge around it. But it was no less sturdy for it. As we passed through the gate, I saw it was at least a metre thick.
On the other side, there was another barricade waiting, smaller this time but still lined with guns. Waving us through the last checkpoint, we officially entered the tunnels. I'd expected them to be narrow, cramped things, but I had forgotten that actual tanks had driven through them, so the main tunnel was quite wide.
The luminescent bulbs hanging from the ceiling were enough to light the dark, rusted steel passageways. From this main tunnel, dozens of smaller paths led into the darkness. Many were blocked, but just as many weren't. The larger ones had gang members guarding them with barricades.
These smaller tunnels snaked all over the hive and were the gang's lifeblood for smuggling supplies. No one knew the full extent of the tunnels; some reckoned they stretched everywhere in the hive if you could map them. Which the gang was actively working on, constantly expanding their claimed tunnels. But it was slow, dangerous work. Many of the tunnels were unstable, or worse, claimed by others.
Regardless, we made good time, the truck trundling along. Occasionally having to move to one side as another vehicles passed us, but otherwise it was boring. Several hours later, we left the last of them behind and were officially in the lower hive. Just. There were still some factories and habs functional in the area, but they were on their last legs, and it wouldn't be long before they too, were abandoned and officially became part of the underhive.
There used to be patrols, but the last time they did, they were forced to retreat by the Court. Political pressure from the Valtorin stopped retaliation. So, the area was almost under the Court's complete control; only a few guilds were still running the factories and forges… and they paid for the privilege.
It didn't look much different from Glow Gate. Well, that wasn't true; it wasn't glowing for one. But it was the same narrow winding streets, except for the occasional main thoroughfare big enough for larger trucks. Some of the streets weren't and even years later, you could see the scars of the tanks barrelling their way through.
After several more hours travelling along this level, we reached another tunnel entrance. This too, was controlled by us, but it wasn't like the others. The others we had by force; this one however, was negotiated off the Gilded Chain. One of the most powerful guilds in the hive and one of the main sources of House Valtorin's power. They had a large amount of control over the guild, which controlled the logistics within the hive. Every major checkpoint was theirs, or nominally theirs.
Once through this and with the help of a few lifts, we reached the mid hive. This was where most of the hive's inhabitants lived and worked. As soon as we drove out, I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of people, thousands upon thousands, everywhere I looked.
All of them were haggard and in threadbare clothes, but they still looked far healthier than many in the underhive. They looked like they had at least eaten in the last few months. Not a high bar, I'll admit, but still an improvement.
The streets looked actually cared for, not well, but someone made an effort to keep the main road clear and in good repair. Dozens of trucks and lorries travelled along it. I wouldn't call it a motorway but definitely an A road. The other major difference was the peacekeepers walking the streets, dressed for war. Not that I blamed them, they only had the most tenuous control over the area, and these weren't the police I remember from my old life. No, they might as well be called soldiers.
Rather than the overt control the Court had in the lower levels, here we had to be more careful, subtle. But make no mistake, the Court was in control. Gang tags lined the streets and walls, marking our territory. Some shops or buildings had more intricate tags showing they had voluntarily paid for extra protection or were valuable in some form or another.
Or more likely were told to pay or die. Whichever worked.
Gang members were still visible on the street but weren't as obviously armed, only noticeable by their gang symbols, be that on their clothes or as tattoos. Down here, being a member of the Court still carried weight, and even the peacekeepers might be careful. If you fucked up, they would still execute you, but they would be more cautious about it, weighing up if it was worth the fallout.
Showing off your gang affiliation further up the hive, though? That was a pretty good way to get executed in the streets. The peacekeepers were judge, jury and executioners after all and only answered to the guilds, nobles and the occasional Adeptus Arbites.
Unlike the peacekeepers, the local police force, who were no better than any other two-bit thugs of the gangs, just working for the nobles and guild instead. The Adeptus Arbites on the other hand… now they were the real deal. No less brutal, in fact, I would say the opposite—they were more brutal and were few in number. But also had the knowledge to back it up.
Our hive cluster had thousands—ten thousand at most, which might sound like a lot, but with a population of over 40 billion in our hive cluster, it was a drop in the bucket. So, they only dealt with the most important cases and also watched the watchers, making sure the peacekeepers were still loyal to the imperium.
They didn't care about the small things like corruption as long as things ticked along, they were happy.
I had never seen one in action, but I'd read the reports, and they painted an impressive picture, not just of their lethality, which went without saying, but of the breadth of knowledge as well. Thousands of cases of law and precedent on how to resolve a case, which, to be fair, normally ended in death, but they were still following the law, so that's something. I had spoken to Lanto and some of the older gangers; they had some stories to tell. Let me tell you.
The peacekeepers were not much better armed than the gangs they fought, maybe on par with the PDF in some ways.
They had access to some heavier things, such as tanks, but they were rarely used. The Adeptus Arbites on the other hand, were galactic and had all the access that came with it.
With my access to the hive's systems, even the nobles' data. I'd been doing a huge amount of reading and research, learning all I could. I focused on the broad strokes, the major organisations and how they worked together, but that was enough for now. I was glad I'd avoided spending a spark on it.
I still might need to in the future, but for now, I could save them for other, more important things, like further enhancing my Reverse Engineering fragment. We reached a checkpoint, this time not controlled by us, so we were not waved through.
Heavy turrets, scanners and guild enforcers lined the barricade. Queuing up, the guards checked each truck before waving it through, though the occasional one got pulled off to the side for a more thorough search. It looked like we'd be stopped when Zardelle pulled out a token, handing it over to the officer.
It was a small metallic card, very much like a credit card, with the Gilded Chain symbol embossed on the front.
Scanning it through a machine, it chirped and flashed green. Losing interest, the peacekeeper passed it back and walked on. When we were far enough away, I asked. "Where did you get that?" I asked Zardelle.
"The guild paid for it."
"How is it different from the ones we normally get?" I knew we had access to them as well, having had to procure a few as part of my role as the unit's quartermaster. Tokens were a form of identification that allowed you to pass through the various checkpoints in the hive. From the automatic doors in some areas to armed barricades like this one.
Without one of them, it was next to impossible to move about the hive unless you used the smugglers' paths or bribed the right person, both of which had their own risks. They could only be issued by the Gilded Chain; without it, you were shit out of luck.
They came in various levels, some only allowing you to move within your level, likely getting you access from your hab to your place of work. Others gave more freedom, but there was a token for everything.
"They're low-level tokens, so most can get them with ease. This one is not. I doubt we could buy one without a huge amount of bribes, and there is no guarantee that it would work. This will give us access much higher than we normally would get, particularly armed as we are."
The journey really put the size of the hive into perspective; we had to take a break and change drivers to give the other a chance to nap. We had been on the move well over 24 hours in total before we reached the next major checkpoint.
Unlike the few we had passed through moving through the different districts, this one was to get us further up the hive. Heavy fortifications and enough enforcers to fight a small war. I felt myself involuntarily tense when they scanned the card. I had little doubt we were very dead if it came up bad; luckily, it flashed green after a moment.
Waving us through, we were directed to a large train cart. They piled us in and then clamped the truck's wheels so we wouldn't shift. The person directing us then moved to the vehicles behind us. A fuel truck of some sort.
The driver said. "You can hop out and stretch your legs if you want; we will be on the train for several hours."
Not hesitating, I climbed out of the truck, moaning as I stretched out for the first time all day. The others around me doing the same. Looking around with interest, I watched the train personnel direct trucks and tankers with practised precision, loading them up and then locking them in place. The trains stretched far off into the distance, several kilometres long, with no windows, just a metal tube.
I did spot heavy blast shutters between the different carriages ready to drop down at a moment's notice. Checking my chrono, we waited for another thirty minutes before the entire train started to vibrate as its powerful engines flared to life. There was a slight jolt, and then we were away.
Without any windows, there was almost no feeling of motion, just the sound of clattering rails as the only sign we were moving.
Once out the other side, the scenery changed once again. Far more dramatically this time. We were now in the beating heart of the hive. Here were the most advanced forges and manafactorums. The advanced technology was made here. That and any other advanced processes, like some of the promethium refiners, not the basic ones which were almost exclusively down below, but the more advanced types, high-end types like rocket fuel.
That sort of thing.
Gone were the gang signs, the streets were almost clear and certainly in better nick. There were no leaking pipes or faulty streetlights, for one, the air was also cleaner, with only the faintest mist in the air.
I paused my respirator to taste the air.
It was almost clean and, compared to the underhive, actually pleasant to breathe.
The people were different too, dressed in well-cared-for and clean clothes. Still tired after a long shift, but they looked almost happy. There were even children happily mingling on the street, which was a shock. The final thing was the peacekeepers.
They were out in force. In the previous section, there were a few patrols, but they mostly kept to their checkpoint. Here, whenever I turned around, another popped into view. There were even some heavily armed jeeps or tanks at the side of the street as well.
The streets themselves were also wider and not towered over by the surrounding buildings, making the place feel far less built up, even if that was only an illusion. We'd only driven a short way in before we pulled off into a side alley and hopped out.
Waiting for us was a young woman. "Good you're here." Pulling out a chip, she passed it over to Zardelle, who scanned it to make sure she was with the gang. When she had, she sent a confirmation over our vox channel and then nodded at her.
"You here to lead us to the target?"
"Yes, and then I will show you to the secondary targets."
"Good. Lead on."
Leading us through a maze of back alleys, I quickly got lost and very much doubted I would be able to navigate my way out easily. We occasionally passed people who gave us a side eye but otherwise ignored us, which was hurting my mind. A group of people in cloaks carrying weapons were clearly not a good thing, but they seemed almost oblivious to it.
We didn't encounter a single peacekeeper patrol, which was clearly by design, as we had to duck into some hidey-holes to wait for them to pass or take a longer, looping route to avoid them. Still, after a few hours of walking, we stopped, still tucked hidden in the shadows and across from us was a large metal building, smoke pouring out of the chimneys.
"Here is your target. The guards and defences haven't changed from the reports. Is there anything else you need?"
"No, we have it from here. Aleric, you know what to do. Katra, stay with him. Everyone else, with me."
Nodding, I turned and started to scale the building, getting a boost from Katra and then scrambling up a story or two. Just enough to get a good vantage point of everything and get a look at the guards in the security booth posted out front.
I was not impressed.
If I saw any of the Court like them, they would get their ears boxed and be reported. Several were actually snoozing, while the rest were playing some card game. They were clearly not ready or expecting an assault. Twisting a bit, I slid my monster off my back and set myself up in a more comfortable position, connecting and powering it up.
The gentle hum, relaxing me, my heart and breath slowing.
Lining up on the first guard, I said, 'Ready for your go.'
The team started sounding off, reporting they were in position. When the last of them did, Zardelle said. 'Good. On 3. 1. 2. 3. GO!'
Distantly aware of the team exploding from their spots and charging towards the manufactorum, most of my focus was on the gun and the sights on the only guard paying even the smallest amount of attention to the area.
With a dull crack, lost amidst the city noise, it was on its lowest setting, he dropped. Then the next, and the next.
I hit the six before they realised anything was wrong, and it was far too late by then as Ryn kicked down the door, spraying his shotgun inside. Within moments, they were out of sight, heading deeper into the factory. Only the occasional crack of gunfire reached me, barely audible through my powerful sensors on my helmet, which was filtering out most of the background noise.
Brix had stayed out front and was moving the bodies out of sight. Scanning the street, I didn't see anything until Katra voxed me. 'Patrol, 4 o'clock.'
Panning over, I saw them.
A small squad, six in total, of peacekeepers, dressed in deep blue carapace armour. Lighter than most I had seen, with clear plates and gaps in between them, but well-maintained. They also had fully enclosed helmets and were armed with shotguns and shock mauls. One even had a bolt pistol, which almost made me want them to engage them.
I'd not yet had the chance to use one of them.
They also each had a clear insignia of the hive city on their badges rather than a guild or noble house. 'Patrol in coming, keep out of sight.' I voxed Brix, who had luckily cleared up the bodies but was still in sight.
With him diving behind cover, I then called on the general vox channel, letting the rest of the team know.
'Copy.'
In tense silence, we watched the group slowly move up the street towards us. The few people on the street gave them a healthy distance but had looks of respect rather than fear as they saw them, unlike those I saw further down, who were just feared. To give them their due, they were actually doing their jobs, heads sweeping back and forth looking for trouble. As they came parallel to us, they paused, looking at the empty security box for the manafactorum.
I sighed as one of them started to move towards it. I was just lining up my shot when he paused, having only moved a few steps and was called back to the group and then carried on down the street, unaware how close he'd been to death.
I kept track of them until they turned the corner at the end of the street.
'All clear.'
After receiving confirmation from Zardelle, I settled back down. Brix moved back out front to get a good angle in case things kicked off, but otherwise we waited. Luckily, we didn't have to wait long and soon the unit was leaving. Scrambling up, I climbed back down to join the rest of the group, and we followed our contact away.
"Any issues?" I asked.
"Nope, smooth. Evidence was planted, both in some obvious places and a few that made it look like we tried to clear it all up."
After thirty minutes of walking, we reached a dark T-junction in the back alleys where another of our contacts was waiting. Having checked their credentials like the other, Zardelle said. "Alright, this is where we split up. Katra, you're with Aleric on his mission. We should be in contact range, so use my personal vox if you run into issues."
We should have the range; I had been slowly upgrading all the team's comms units, giving them greater range. Most of them weren't amazing, only giving them an extra kilometre or so, but Zardelle's I had put a lot of work into and was as good as mine, so it could communicate tens of kilometres.
Which should keep us in range, even if the signal wouldn't be great.
"Got it." I said, nodding at her and moving to follow our contact.