Chapter 18
Even in Death
Weldry
20th October, 3024
Connections were made, implants were installed and Trotter worked hard to make sure Raju survived the procedures even as Kamea watched with a moderate level of body-horror. But there was no other way. The Sarcophagus was his only option. The smell of antiseptics and specialised incenses laden with aerosolised chemicals that aided in keeping a clean room clean was pervasive, the sacristans worked hard at Trotters direction as Raju was installed.
"This... this is.."
"Hard to watch?" I said, the expression on her face a dead giveaway.
"I am beginning to doubt the wisdom of this course of action."
Lights began to flicker on the sarcophagus as the final connections were made, as Raju was lowered into the suspension tank. A steady glow began to come from the optical port as the seams and seals were welded shut. The final connections made, the suspension complete. "This is the important part." I stepped into the chamber through the airlock doors not bothering to close them, the requirement for sterility gone as Raju's destroyed limbs were removed.
Kamea followed almost timidly. A hololithic display had been configured to show a stylised face for Raju in deference to Kamea's needs. "Where am I," The voice, reduced to an almost impossibly deep bass by the synthesisers in the Sarcophagus. His machine eyes turned to me and paused, "Warden, you lived. That witch Victoria said you had perished under her mechs feet. That they'd killed Kamea in her dropship." His eyes swapped target and a sigh of relief filled the room. "My lady, it is a pleasure to see ... why can I not get up?"
"Raju.." Kamea said before stopping, not knowing what to say.
"Mastiff," I said and his optics changed back to me, "You know that I was from far beyond the Periphery, you helped me when nobody else could," I paused and brought over a stool taking a seat, "now this will be hard to hear, and eventually see, as you know you were taken to a concentration camp on Weldry where you appear to have been tortured for the past three years on and off. Your limbs were all but totally destroyed, your body was failing, the damage done was..."
I wondered how to phrase it.
"You were effectively dead my friend. I have been recovering the technology my Uncle sent out to me, and finally a Warship of my people. But even with all his advanced medical science we could not have repaired you to a fighting condition with mere augmetics. You'd have been left almost ninety-percent machine and unable to fight." I couldn't gauges his reaction, a downside to staring at a box.
"However, my uncle had a project called 'Dreadnought' to take those wounded to the point of death and inter them in a sarcophagus where their knowledge, skill and prowess in battle could be retained, unfortunately I was unable to seek consent from you for the procedure and had to rely on Lady Kamea to provide it."
The optics, unblinking continued to stare. "I don't understand."
"You were surgically altered, and interred into a highly specialised life support sarcophagus that is able to interface with a Dreadnought and pilot it during battle in a manner far far more real than any Mech." I said picking up a mirror and turning its reflective side to him. "All that is left of you, is within this sarcophagus."
There was a wordless cry of realisation as inconsistencies in his sensations came at him.
Kamea found words. "My Raju, I thought you were dead so long, when Warden offered this only way to save your life, what could I do but accept. To give you the chance to avenge what happened to you... for your death." She whispered the last. His optics turned to her.
"You've changed my lady. You saw what was happening on Weldry." A tearful nod confirmed his question, "Your people need you more than they could ever know. And if that is the case, then even in death I still serve." My spine chilled at the words, words every dreadnought in my memory had spoken at some point. An acceptance of what had happened to them. "Will this be installed in a Mech?" I heard him say.
I grinned. "Oh no Mastiff, there is no mere mech for a loyal warrior of the Sword of Restoration." I nodded and the techs began to turn the table the sarcophagus was secured to as the vast door on the opposite side of the chamber began to winch open. "You are to be granted the Telemon Class Heavy Dreadnought."
"What does it weigh?" Raju asked looking at it, clearly thinking in terms of a mech.
"One hundred and ten tons." I said, "It's not as fast as a Knight, maximum speed is about sixty-five kph, standard armament is two Caestus power fists with twin plasma ejectors on each, however both can be replaced with either the Arachnus Storm Cannon, which is effectively a rotary laser cannon. The other is the Iliastus Accelerator Culverin. As standard it also has the Spiculus Bolt Launcher, a rocket launcher." I moved up closer to it, "In addition, it also has a reinforced Atomantic Barrier, energy shield."
"It's all based on your technology, you are giving this freely?" Raju sounded almost surprised.
"Well if you want we could put you into the budget version for battle," I said a wry grin on my face as I showed him a picture of it.
"So what were you saying..." Raju said changing the subject.
"Did we do the right thing?" I asked him honestly, "Or would you have preferred to pass?"
The optics turned to face me, changing to a cold red. "At first, I would have said yes. But that platinum blond bitch betrayed Kamea, tortured me for years, you've given me an option that I could never have imagined... but there is a catch to this isn't there?"
Kamea nodded looking at his sarcophagus.
"The only people with the expertise to operate and effect repairs on the Telemon, and .. on you... are on this ship, even with Warden's fleet, the specialist equipment only exists on this behemoth of a Warship. As such, when you're not fighting for the liberation of the Aurigan people, you'll need to be brought back here until they can train people to maintain you in my service," She looked at me hopefully, "If they can even allow that much."
"What do you mean?" He asked, almost confused.
We sat down and began to talk of the last three years.
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Behemoth.
"Shit." I said as I examined the dispatch prepared by the ships crew. Delivered to us from the Divine Right in deep space the information in it was bad. Glitch looked at her own copy of it with confusion as we sat down for dinner, Dekker, Medusa and others all filing in one after another, all reading the same thing.
Ghost Ship sighted at Weldry.
A picture, blurry, taken of the Legacy in orbit over Weldry had been sent via the ComStar network and had hit virtually all of known space. "You're telling me Miranda." Glitch said as she shovelled a mouthful of pasta in as she tried to talk at the same time, "Glad we used the teleporters and normal dropships for the operation. Right now...." Her speech became unintelligible for a minute.
"Right now all they know is some sort of super-ship arrived at Weldry, hovered in orbit for an hour. Then left. A goddamned picture taken by a novice astronomer!" I almost tossed the dataslate before Kane walked in cursing and sputtering as he took a tray of food and came over. We had private quarters to eat in, but Kane had never wavered from sharing meals with his warriors.
"What the fucking fuckety fuck." He cursed as he sat down. "Damn it to a thousand hells, we killed a goddamned civilian jumpship to preserve the secrecy. We had our stealth systems engaged, yet some goddamned amateur manages to catch a picture of it."
"How did that happen?" I asked him.
"According to Scot, the ships chief tech-adept, the power needed by the Teleportarium was enough to knock out the Empyrean Mantle for almost half an hour, then again once we teleported everything back up. I didn't understand all the details, but he insists it was an unavoidable energy spike." Kane snarled and looked ready to throw his tray before simply settling down to eat.
I moved closer and hugged him as best as I could while also maintaining an eye on my tray, it wouldn't be beyond Glitch to nick it. "Ok. So right now it's a ghost ship, so what are the possible consequences?"
Kane finished a mouthful of food and cocked his head.
"It's not likely to be pinned on us yet. Or anyone probably, a ship this size is still 'impossible' to the Inner Sphere. What it can mean however is increased interest in the conflict here as well as independent groups wanting to get their licks in and hope to find the 'Ghost ship'. People we've sold technology to though, they might start to put two and two together and wonder if there isn't a link between them." He paused as he wolfed down another two mouthfuls of pasta.
"But it does have other consequences. It means we probably can't bring it to any other operation we run here for some time, selling of other new technologies is probably off the cards unless people can see the tech is installed on our Knights or infantry." His face went blank as he was considering his options. "I want a Yardship." He said almost to himself.
"Don't we all," Glitch laughed, "Pity that they all got blowed(1) apart in the Succession Wars."
She stopped when she saw Kane wasn't laughing. His mind elsewhere. "Sorry Glitch, I was considering the problems a Yardship might give us too." He returned to his meal.
"It wasn't a metaphor was it?" I asked looking at him with my head turned. "When you said about building an Empire, you meant it literally didn't you?"
Warden nodded as he ate. "With rejuvenat it won't be much difficulty to build our empire, there is a lot of worlds that aren't bound to the fates of the major powers, or even minor powers like the Aurigan's, Taurians or Canopans." He said checking his datapad. "With our technological advantages we can secure much of it for the benefit of others and build a stronger power. Once we secure a power base, maybe even take a slice of the Confederation."
The thrill of ambition stoked to flame rippled through me.
"How are we supposed to declare any legitimacy though?" Dekker asked chewing on something that was supposed to resemble a steak. 'Well done' was a crime against food.
"I was a Duke of my homeworld of Lathe. If I can get Lady Kamea to officially recognise that, then convince our friends in the Federated Suns to do so as well, then we'll have the basis of a real power." Kane said sliding a hololithic projector to the centre of the table
The sight of a true flag sent a further thrill through the blood as I put together more bits and pieces of the puzzle that Kane left around the state room. The memory of seeing a reference to the Argo made my blood chill as more and more it seemed like Kane knew what would happen, or had hints of things to come. Was he one of those?
I had heard the Sacristans speak of the Machine Spirits, of the Omnissiah, was he a prophet of the Machine God? Unknowing or knowingly? Building wealth, allies, money, preparing for this conflict on the rim placed perfectly to build a true nation.
Was I to be a Duchess to his Duke. Or would he claim the Title Emperor for truth.
Either way my musings were interrupted as he spoke again. "But I can't work with just what we have. We need to build a collective of loyal people, we have a start. And we can become more. The offer of freedom for those under Capellan oppression. The promise of employment to warriors of the Aurigan people once we finish destroying the Directorate, find dispossessed and offer to take them on as the next generations of Armiger pilots. Improve our factories and foundries and make them defensible, or mobile." His words flowed as he revealed the depth of his plans...
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For the first time I spoke of the depth of my plans and goals as the potential reality of it came into increasingly possible fruition. Pirate systems, independents and minor powers too frightened to allow their neighbours any traction were all there for the taking. Mandalas, out of the vestiges of its religious war was an open wound that could be brought into the fold.
But above all I needed a Yardship. Whether one of Comstars Faslanes, or find one of the two Newgranges that they had hidden and waiting. The jump capacity of the Legacy was greater than any Inner Sphere Jumpship or even Clan Warship, maybe even more than the Wobbies Far-Jump capacity. The bottom line was I needed a mobile ship construction capacity. Or hidden ability.
The yards that had built the Legacy were, according to Trotter, likely destroyed, and Lathe was too irradiated to venture a look. But I had no doubt in my mind that of the Coffin-ships that had been sent out others would have examples of our ship building capacity. Once those were found and mated with a Yardship, perhaps we could perfect my Uncles technology, or even start to bring down the size of ships to something manageable.
For an Empire to be built, and made safe, I needed the ability to move ships and people reliably across large ranges. I needed the ability to forge and build armies. The Legacy filled the second requirement in many ways, and its Manufactorum gave us a limited ability to produce ship equipment. But experimentation was required, our technology was significantly massier than that of the Inner Sphere. The Plasma Battery alone weighed at least twice as much as an Invader Jumpship.
They watched with rapt faces, the fires of ambition, stoked by the flames of the Throne Mechanicus stirred further by the promise of Empire. Maybe then we would be ready when the time came for the clan invasion.
I opened up one of the secured files on my datapad, password and biolocked.
A Yardship...
And a HPG.