Interlude 4
A Private Event
New Avalon
15th January, 3024
"It's too tight." I said trying to loosen my collar in the instinctive way every groom had since the dawn of suits. Though it was no traditional suit, but the formal uniform from my homeworld.
"Stop playing with it and swallow this." Trotter said, his own suit well made as he passed me a pill.
"I don't need a pill to calm down." I said swallowing it along with my lie. Around the cathedral my people were waiting for Behemoth's arrival. Yang stood next to me as best man as I was frog-marched to the Altar. Outside I heard one of the Armigers give off low howls as Medusa guarded the Cathedral with the Davion honour guard. Though I was far too small a fry to warrant Hanse appearing in person, Otto was present with the First Princes blessing.
The attendees were predominantly crew of the Raven Guard, with some friends that Markham had made living on the Davion homeworld. I found myself unable to focus, a nervous energy filling my bones. The implants in my skull rang lightly as I looked at the door.
Whoever had built the Cathedral had wisely ensured there were no clocks or other visible timekeeping devices in sight. A situation helped by Trotter refusing to let me wear my Chrono. "Is it normal to sweat like this?" I muttered and Yang jabbed me in the ribs.
A choir sung their hymnals as the music changed and I felt my heart stop. The doors opened and everything in me simply ceased to register. The reality of it slamming down like the foot of the Preceptor on a foolish infantryman. The dress stole my breath for its strangeness. The music began to roll and Miranda walked down the isle.
--------------------------------------------------
Behemoth
He stood there polaxed as I advanced, my smile concealed by the veil I wore. Butterflies seeming to multiply at an exponential rate. His formal uniform sent the blood singing, the pistol on one hip and toothed sword on the other with refractor field amulet square on his chest. The slight haze of its active field creating an almost aura or corona around him for the spectators to see.
Few understood the significance of that, but I knew. As I knew he and Markham had arranged for a platoon of troops with freshly manufactured Hellguns to be hidden in the antechambers. Even Medusa in the Armiger was a concession to paranoia, wrapped up in the myth of tradition.
And then i was there, at the Altar standing next to him as the priest looked at them. Next to the priest Trotter had taken his own place. I was not overly religious, but a marriage required a certain gravitas, and Trotters place as Sacristan was administering the rites of the Omnissiah.
As the priest spoke the ancient rituals of marriage my eyes could not part from his, nor his from mine. The 'I do's' were done before Trotter stepped forth. Speaking in High Gothic as one of the other Sacristans translated for those not trained in piloting a Knight.
"In the eyes of the Omnissiah do I bring these two betrothed to the altar to join their houses in the ritual of marriage. Before the Omnissiah we stand. Knight Lords of War. With this ritual we will bind these two, in fortunes, war and love to fates that cannot be unbound. To health, to glory, to victory, to unending unity of heart, mind and spirit. May the spirit of the machine bind with the soul of this man and woman and strengthen house Giordino eternal."
He held out a hand to Yang who brought forth the rings, a part of the ritual delayed to the annoyance of the priest.
They were not simple devices. The most finely crafted keys that had ever been developed. I hadn't even realised that Trotter had possessed the other one until Miranda had proposed to me. A matched pair of encryption cipher keys.
Kane put the first ring upon my finger. "In the light of the Omnissiah, I put on you this sign of union."
I picked up the other and placed it upon Kane's ring finger. "In the light of the Omnissiah, I put on you this sign of union."
"And now, you may snog the bride." Trotter said stepping back.
---------------------------------------------------
It had been a week since the wedding and I still found myself grinning like an idiot, especially when I saw her. And yet, for now business had become more complicated. Drawn in upon ourselves the honeymoon period was over and it was back to work. As such I sat back and gathered our ToE. The matters coming to a close.
Fleet
3 Star Lord Jumpships. The "Divine Right", "Solar Macharius" and "Iron Duke".
1 Invader Jumpship. "Heavy Bargain"
1 Fortress. "Warden's Justice"
1 Overlord. "Behemoth's Rage"
1 Excalibur. "Warden's Wroth"
1 Achilles. "Hammerfall"
1 Union. "Wardens Rest"
1 Mule. "Trade Factor"
1 Leopard. "Hysteria"
Total War Transport Capacity;
76 Mechs
102 Heavy Vehicles
16 Infantry Platoons
10 ASF
22 Small Craft
Aerospace:
20 Stukas (2 Wardens Rest, 6 Behemoths Rage, 3 Divine Right, 3 Solar Macharius, 3 Iron Duke, 2 Hammerfall)
Mechs:
1 Dominus Class Knight
1 Questoris Class Knight
1 Mechanicus Class Knight
3 Armiger Class Knights
1 Atlas
1 Marauder
1 Warhammer
2 Catapults
1 Shadowhawk
1 Vindicator
1 Spider
1 Locust
Armored Vehicles
8 Leman Russ (4 Vanquisher, 2 Destroyer, 2 Executioner)
Infantry
To Be Hired.Click to expand...The outlook was, problematic. While I had exactly the sort of force projection capacity I wanted, what I did *not* have was the force to fill it out with. We had 61 empty mech cubicles, room for 94 more tanks, bunk space for sixteen platoons of infantry... and most of my fighters were sitting in small craft bays because I lacked the hangars to carry them.
But the way I saw it was we had enough for three operations groups. The Divine Right would serve as the flagship and factory ship, paired with the Heavy Bargain it would be responsible for managing our 'trade empire' as well as producing our own requirements. It would only need the one permanently assigned dropship, our Mule, though it would typically also use the Achilles to protect it. The "Munitorum" group.
The second group would operate off of the Solar Macharius. The Justice, Rage and Wroth representing its martial arm. It would be the true might of the Raven Guard. Until a greater force was found at least. Unless circumstances called for shuffling forces, it would be the "War" group.
The third group, operating off the Iron Duke would be the Hysteria and the Rest. I was sad to give up the Rest as my primary operations centre, it had served me long and well. But for now they would be our small ops group. And it was they who were going to take the job to wrest control of a mining world from their corporate overlords. The "Skitarius" group.
I knew the job we took for when we reached the Periphery was a dustball that was going to stiff our fees. Nobody else knew.
I put down the document and leaned back, the comfort of a full gravity with our grav plating easily taken for granted. I watched everyone as I gathered my thoughts. Prepared to give the orders that would make a real difference and set us on the path to true power.
"Lotara, I want you to take the Skitarius Group, for this job i'm issuing you with the Armigers as well as Dekker in the Lazarus. Brucey and his mate will provide ASF support if needed from the Rest. Dekker, you have operational command of the mission, but keep the impulses of the Lazarus to a minimum." It was a huge risk handing off control of the mission, but a piss-poor world like that wouldn't have any way to stop a Styrix and three Armigers from doing whatever they felt like.
"Darius, I want your business acumen on the Munitorum group, but I want you looking for off-grid work too. Before anyone objects, yes I mean to side-step the MRB and a whole lot more. I don't trust ComStar not to royally screw us after we got the better of that Precentor, the Primus might have jumped at the deal, but that fucker had a real problem with it all." Miranda watched the table with interest, her eyes had practically glowed on learning I named one of the Dropships after her.
"Spire, or should that be 'Admiral' Spire now?" I said with a wry grin. "Our job is to head for this system, Miranda and I discovered that the rings also were code-locks that unlocked forbidden files in the cogitator we recovered from Trotters Coffin-Ship. All I know is that those co-ordinates were locked behind a wall with the implication that my Uncle sent his heaviest ship there. It's not even labelled as a Coffin-ship."
I sat back. "However, I have extra orders."
The room went quiet as they all waited. "The Divine Right is to begin full scale fabrication of las weaponry devoting fully half its manufactories to it. The other manufactory I want to begin construction of two more Questoris pattern Knights." I held up a hand to forestall Yang, "I know we can't manufacture new Ion Shields at this point or Plasma Cores, I am hoping that we can solve that with this discovery to be made."
"Let's get back to the Periphery and build an Empire