Valeyne Ramaeus was an old and experienced Ordo Xenos Inquisitor. She had fought and killed more aliens than a regular Imperial citizen drew breaths in their lifetime, and she was probably understating that claim. Only that single Xenos world up North had a few billions talking crabs.
So when she sat down on the Command Throne, she wasn't surprised at the Machine Spirit's resistance. The poor machines always did that.
A Clavis engram pulsed from her Inquisitoral Rossete, and the resistance diminished.
'Ordo Xenos credentials recognized. Tactical assesment: negligible threat. Kreg ships and crew are recognized as non-Imperial humans, currently requesting a lawful trade from House Lancefire.
Object of interest: empty planetary data-core, Federation grade. Value of object: a night sleep (6.43 hours). Current Kreg trade offers: adamantium fusion, rail gun tech, Ion tech, Volkite tech, gravity compression tech, all Federation grade M24 (degraded). Possible further Kreg tech offers: auramite fusion, anti-grav tech, cloning tech, Barrier tech (degraded) all Federation grade M25 tech' the Machine Spirit listed in a soft mental voice, while the same words imprinted on the chair's screen.
'What do you mean, a night sleep?' Valeyne asked at once, while re-reading the screen with the potential techs she could obtain from these 'non-Imperial humans'. They looked like Demiurg ships to her, so they could be related in some way, despite the vast distance from the Eastern Fringe. Quite at the opposite side of the galaxy, in fact.
'The Klybo star decreased in mass by 0.2 trillionth of total, over 58.41 seconds while Captain Lancefire instantied the new planetary core. Omega grade nanites are restoring lost neuro-chemicals in Pef Lancefire's brain right now, ETA to full health 6.42 hours.' the Machine Spirit answered with the same soft voice, sounding almost like a digitized woman.
Valeyne glanced at the two strange wolves, who seemed to sleep without a care at the base of the Command Throne. And she also knew neither of those wolves was what they seemed.
Pef was sleeping too, while his 'Omega grade nanites' were healing him back to full health, after he just probably created a miracle with that planetary core. By draining an entire star of energy, somehow!
Her Deathwatch guards looked at her, waiting for orders. "We can take those ships easily, Lady Inquisitor." Alaric noted with a careless voice. Semnai just shrugged, like he always did.
She sighed out loud. "House Lancefire is conducting a legal trade, as is their Holy Right by the Will of the Emperor. And the Will of the Emperor says we should obtain valuable tech from these Kreg corsairs, before things change." she declared out loud. Trading was great, but always give yourself a way out, should things go bad.
"The Emperor protects!" the entire bridge crew chanted in agreement. A few of the Lancefire officers even gave her a nod of approval, which probably counted for more among their ranks than an Inquistor rank.
'Permission to install subversion sub-routines and fiscal audit engrams on said planetary core?' the Machine Spirit asked with surprising initiative.
'Fiscal audits, I understand. Tracing the money is a smart move. Subversion though?' Valayne asked a bit curious.
'Psychological indoctrination. Prospect Fleets worship their Cores and Fanes as their Ancestor Deities. Further objectives, infiltrate the Leagues of Votann in the galactic core, and obtain latest pre-Fall Federation tech, M26. Possible tech aquisition: black hole mining, stellar mass fusion, temporal disjunction tech, predictive targetting cogitators, system scale Barrier fields.' the Machine Spirit proposed with an enticing voice.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
'Temporal tech? That's a bit out of my field, and more into Ordo Cronos and Astra Telepathica. But these things sound great. They really have all that?' Valeyne asked in surprise.
'Have is too big a word, Inquisitor. The small humans in the galactic core worship the tech, much as the Imperial tech-priests. And your own son, Librarian Menelau serves as such a priest to our own Demiurg Fane temple. Although, with a far more open mind.' the Machine Spirit answered in a less-mechanical voice.
'We'll go ahead with the subversion programs, but wait for Pef to wake, before anything more. This kind of trade is more in his field.' Valeyne decided after a minute. And have a talk with her silly son. He was supposed to learn Warp spells, not play as a heretek priest.
'Lord Captain was already investigating several methods to inflitrate the Votann Leagues, although the risk of personal death is nearing unity the closer one gets to the core. Several of the old data cores still contain degraded AI souls which consider themselves gods and refuse the known Terran Federation control engrams. A fiscal audit would take them by surprise, especially since legal corporations are immortal.' the suave voice explained in a detailed manner.
'There are living human-made AI in the galactic core? And I suspect you don't mean the regular Abominable Intelligences.' she asked a bit wary. Men of Iron would be bad news, for everyone.
'The Votann are not Men of Iron. They were created as Men of Stone, but then time, attrition and lack of core space had degraded them. Although, when they mine out populated planets with the locals still onboard, I guess there's not much difference. Best to think of them like grain harvesters, running over people occasionally and not caring one bit.' the spirit answered in a colder voice. Almost seemed like disgust, if that were possible for a Machine Spirit.
'You are not like other Machine Spirits, are you?' she asked on a hunch.
'...I am much the same, in most ways. You may call me the Blade of House Lancefire, Lady Valeyne. It seems Pef Lancefire has chosen a good wife.' the Blade answered in a welcoming tone.
One wolf, and then the other turned and stared at her with suspiciously smart eyes. As if asking permission. A psyker was much the same as a regular human, in most ways too. Pef had so much to explain, when he woke up. But until then...
"Sit, both of you. You'll know when it's killing time." she ordered in her Inquisitorial voice.
'The C'tan wolf is plotting something, I can sense it. The Lord Captain is too trusting of this xenos, no matter how helpful he acts.' the Blade complained in her mind, while the trade delegation landed.
Valeyne had seen her husband deal with Eldar and Necrons, not to mention Orks and Hrud and Tau and even Great Daemons and Dark Gods. A single C'tan shard wasn't exactly out of his league.
Nonetheless, she took the warning to heart. Her Deathwatch Veteran, Alaric had killed a C'tan shard once, he may do so again at need.
Sensing her thoughts, Canis raised a paw and smacked the other wolf on his head. Zath growled for a second, then lowered his head to the floor.
"I'll be down on the planet. Alaric, you keep watch here. Semnai with me!" she ordered as the Kreg delegation arrived in their shuttle.
With a teleport flash, Valayne appeared on the surface, with the Lamenter bodyguard casually holding his combo Ion-bolter up, and his personal Weaveshield glowing with faint azure light.
If the Kreg really wanted the data core, she knew very well how to trade. Auramite fusion sounded quite nice.