Alexis waffled back and forth over her options for a while before finally setting her foot down.
There were two of those 'catalogues' that she really wanted. The first was Tools. Basic Tools all on its own sounded like it would provide her with brand new, very shiny gear. The kind of stuff that would have any magos drooling past their vox. Plus, anyone in the Adeptus Mechanicus knew that any well-made tool had a percussive maintenance mode which could serve as a weapon in a pinch!
The second catalogue was Armours.
She liked being alive and wanted her servitor friends to remain alive as well. That would be much easier if they were all armoured up.
The issue came down to points. Both catalogues together added up to more than she had. She had to pick. And even after picking, she'd only have a few points left to actually purchase anything.
In the end, with Vyper's help, she narrowed it all down considerably.
New Purchase: Simple Body Gloves
Points Reduced to: 67
Picking a catalogue that was a lot more specific lowered its cost by quite a bit, which was great, she needed those extra points.
New Purchase: Sized 'Adder-skin' Body Glove x 3
Points Reduced to: 52
Three boxes appeared at her feet. They were wide and tall, but very thin, though they covered three different sizes. The largest was for her.
She placed them on a workbench, then opened the topmost to reveal an expanse of matte-grey material. It was strangely coarse to the touch, and cool. She grabbed and unfurled it, revealing a body missing its head, made entirely of the same colourless material.
"The Adder-skin body suit is quite capable for something at such a low price range. It is capable of resisting moderately high temperatures and keeping you warm against some amount of cold. It can serve as a hard vacuum suit. The scales are decent at spreading impact areas, making it so that a puncture over one area will be spread across a space that will be, on average, five times its initial size. It is cut-resistant as well. Given that it is so inexpensive, however, you cannot expect it to endure constant abuse."
"Yeah, but this feels good, still," she said. "How is it compared to, uh, guardsman flak?" she asked.
"Worse in nearly every way, except for its heat-dispersion. It, however, gives full coverage and will allow you to wear other armours above it."
That would have to do!
"Okay, everyone, spin around, yup, you too KYS, I know you're a medicae servitor, but you're not my doctor, so turn, turn! A lady needs her privacy!"
The servitors did as asked, giving her a bit of room to work in. She really wished she could take a proper shower, even a cold one, but needs must. She undressed from her rather messy robes, then quickly slipped on the body glove. It fit perfectly, and while the exterior was rough, the inside was surprisingly smooth and soft.
Once redressed, she felt a little safer. Better than nothing! Though she did put her Martian-red robes back on, just in case. The body suit covered everything, but still! It was nearly indecent.
She grabbed the remaining two boxes, then moved over to 054-648 and K84-321. They each had a bodysuit of their own to put on, which proved a little bit tricky, though they all had zippers in the right places to make it easy.
In the end, she and two of her servitors matched. KYS was going to be worn in a backpack, since she didn't have legs of her own, so it didn't really matter.
"Okay," she said, then she let out a long breath. She knew that she was wasting time, now. So, with a shake of her head, she grabbed her biggest wrench, packed some tools into a small satchel, and headed out, her servitors dutifully following along.
KYS hung over her shoulders, cyberized head poking just over her own like a Magos' favourite servo skull, but with a bit more flesh to it. Her six arms were held in close around Alexis' sides, but were ready to spring forward to... operate if they needed to.
054-648 and K84-321 rolled and waddled along behind her, moving at a rather geriatric pace.
It was no wonder, then, that she ran into someone.
"Oh... hi, Rho-17 Kaster," she said.
The young Tech Acolyte stared at her, his remaining flesh eye narrowing. "Alexis Lambda-3. I saw you earlier. What you did was... anyway. Do you think you're all that, now that some of our superiors have acted favourably around you?"
"No? I uh, don't?" she tried.
"Uh-huh. Where are you going now?" he asked before glancing over the servitors behind her.
"I'm heading down a few decks," she said. "I think that the servitors there need repairs."
"Wouldn't you best be serving by remaining here?" he asked, then he gestured at the Servitorium, which was still a mess.
"M-maybe? But no one told me to."
"Hmpf, I could," he replied.
She shook her head. "I'm a Tech Acolyte now as well. We're of the same rank, and even if you have seniority... uh... I don't wanna, so I won't!"
Rho-17 Kaster shook his head. "Go on, then. Don't cause trouble."
"Okay, good. Tell Servitor Overseer Ash-Theta that I'll be back before my next on-duty watch."
"I will," he said before turning away. He refocused on what he was doing, which seemed to involve refilling some of the incense holders. She imagined that a lot of the machine spirits in the Servitorium would want some attention in penance for the damage they received. She darted away, but was slowed down by the speed of her servitors. That was maybe the only reason why she caught Rho-17 Kaster muttering her way. "01010100 01101000 01100001 01101110 01101011 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101."
She was out of the hall before she translated that from Binharic to Gothic. Thank you.
Maybe he wasn't that mean after all? She wouldn't bet on it, however.
Leading her servitors down a corridor, then down a ramp, she started to move into an area of the ship she wasn't as familiar with. Fortunately, Vyper was able to somehow make her dataslate show her a map of the ship's interior, including security stops, maintenance corridors, and more. It was disturbing information to have, but it was helpful.
"Okay," she subvocalized. "Where are these genestealers?"
Stolen novel; please report.
They had moved into a lesser-used corridor, behind a large, ill-maintained door. There had been something like a camp here, until the ship had had its accident. Now the beds and gear and items stowed away behind thin, makeshift walls had been thrown across the room to smash into the far wall.
It smelled like urine, burnt skin, and unwashed feet. This was definitely one of the places occupied by lower deckers. She saw them regularly enough. Heck, in many respects, she was one of them. The Servitorium wasn't far from the keel. The only thing that kept the ship's less... educated crew at bay was their fear of servitorization.
As if just anyone was grabbed and turned into a servitor... well, okay, that did happen sometimes, but it was rare!
Fortunately, she mostly slept in some bunks reserved for acolytum several decks above, not too far from one of the main engine rooms, and when she did interact with the crew, her red robes afforded her some respect. Most people onboard The Broken Scale couldn't tell at a glance that she was barely an initiate in the Adeptus Mechanicus. They saw red robes and scampered.
"Last reported sighting was on this deck. I suspect that what you're likely to find here are genestealers from lower decks, making their way up in the form of scouting parties. They have successfully secured one percent of the ship's area."
Alexis gulped. That was... actually a lot. "Where are they coming from?"
"My data with regards to these genestealers is limited. From what I can tell from the information I acquired from the ship's cogitator memory banks, the genestealers are a parasitic lifeform that can slowly morph the genetic code of a host. They, in turn, use the host to produce more genestealers."
"Like... they lay eggs?" she tried.
"No. It is likely that there are several dozen or hundred second or third generation genestealers somewhere within the ship giving birth to new genestealers at an accelerated pace. Per my calculations, one healthy captured female can birth a second-generation genestealer in approximately three months. A second-generation female's gestation time is measured in weeks."
Alexis felt a little sick. She... didn't like thinking about any of that stuff. The machine was so much better, sometimes. None of that birthing stuff. It was gross!
"Please focus. You are entering an area that may be under enemy control."
"Right, okay," she said in a whisper before turning to her companions. "Careful. We might encounter, uh, enemies. If you do... take care of them, please?"
None of her friends replied, but she assumed that they understood.
Stepping over something like a tent that had been crumpled up, she moved into a long, narrow corridor, one lit only by flickering lights overhead. She edged around a crumpled bulkhead, then paused. There was blood on the ground before her.
Nothing was there, though. She squinted and scanned to the left and right, but other than a few walls that had their panels removed, likely to access the pipes and wires behind them, there was nothing of interest.
She caught motion above, then she was gasping as something crashed down into her.
Alexis rammed into the floor, wincing as the backpack that contained KYS dug into her ribs and kidney, but she was soon more concerned about the heavy thing pressing down on her. It was a man? No, men didn't have that many arms.
By the light hanging above, she caught scaled, patchy skin, pale, almost human, but not quite. He, it, punched down with fingers that looked subtly wrong, as though some of his fingers had fused together.
She coughed as the blow punched her in the chest. Alexis swung, only realizing now that her wrench was gone.
The genestealer didn't even seem to notice her blow to its side, not that it moved it at all.
Then it leaned down, and she cringed away from the hot breath washing over her face. It opened its mouth, and a too-long tongue lolled out and started moving towards her.
The genestealer looked up, then recoiled away from a grasping arm.
It would have made it, too, if it wasn't for one of KYS' mechanical arms darting around snake-fast and grabbing the genestealer by its tattered worker's uniform, halting its motion for just long enough for one of 054-648's arms to grab onto it.
The genestealer hissed and spat, but 054-648 lifted it off the ground, then grabbed onto one of the monster's arms.
Both mechanical arms started to spin at the wrist. Soon, they met resistance as the genestealer's bones locked into place. There was a hollow crunch, and Alexis winced away as one of the creature's arms was ripped out of its socket.
She started to stand, then noticed that it wasn't the only one here. There were two more, and they were quickly rushing to her.
Maybe they were lesser variants, because both seemed more... people-like. Bald, with patchy, dirty skin and fevered eyes, but still human.
"KYS! Initiate emergency operation," she said.
The servitor's saw came on, and its forceps clicked menacingly while Alexis stumbled to her feet and ran behind K84-321 for cover.
One of the genestealers ran, full-tilt, into the servitor, only for him to only take a slight step back. He grabbed onto its middle with a pneumatic gripper and started to squeeze.
Alexis shook, but she still noticed her wrench on the ground and ducked, picking it up. A moment later, she was screaming and bashing the tool up and down onto the head of the third genestealer that had stumbled over to her and who was trying to claw at her.
With KYS' help, it went down, bleeding from several deep cuts, and with its head covered in bumps from repeated blows. Almost as an afterthought, K84-321 stomped on it a moment later, finishing it off.
Her heart was beating so fast she could barely hear over it, but she still looked around with wide eyes, searching for the next... only there was nothing left.
054-648 had gained a few scratches across his face, and somehow the genestealer had managed to rip off some of the panelling on his torso, but he was functional. KYS was unharmed, and K84-321 had a new dent on his domed head, but that was the worst of it.
Alexis's hands were shaking, but she was alive.
Kills Confirmed: 3x Genestealers
New Point Total: 82
***