My Little Xeno

Marneus Augustus Calgar took a look at the assembled Ultramarines and the navigator. Varro Tigurius, Ortan Cassius, Seneca and Lady Angren were ready to board the Thunderhawk that would bring them all onboard the ‘Sword of Iax’, the strike cruiser that had been refitted for their mission and the associated long journey.

Also present was Cato Sicarius, and Calgar could easily see that the captain was a little miffed that it was not him who was in command of this mission. Of course, he would have been fully capable of being in charge, but this was something Calgar wanted to do himself, and it would cement the cut that the Primarch was the only commander of the Ultramarines now.

“Ready, everyone?” Calgar asked, more out of politeness than doubt.

“Last chance for a bathroom break,” Seneca grinned.

After rolling their eyes and answering Calgar’s question in the affirmative, they started boarding the waiting Thunderhawk.

“Excuse me, my Lord,” Sicarius said quietly, walking up to Calgar,
“do you really want to lead this mission yourself? I still think that you are too valuable and vital for the chapter to leave for a few years.”

“And you think you aren’t?” Calgar answered with leniency.

“Certainly not to the same amount as you.”

“Cato, I’ve been that ‘valuable’ and ‘vital’ for centuries, and I still went on mission for the good of mankind. Now that Primarch Guilliman has returned, I am not that vital anymore and can afford such a long-term enterprise. So, stop hogging all the fun.”

“Is that an order?” Sicarius smiled a little forced.

“Absolutely!” Calgar laughed,
“and now, goodbye, Cato. See you in a few years. May the Emperor be with you.”

“And with you… Marneus.”

Now Calgar entered the Thunderhawk and they left Macragge.
On board the ‘Sword of Iax’, magos Gearhart was waiting for them in the hangar. A mask and ocular augments were concealing his face - as far as he still had one - and four mechadentrites were folded to his back. As a less fanatic and more reasonable member of the Adeptus Mechanicus, Calgar had asked him to oversee the refitting of the ship and accompany them on their journey. Now he walked up to the new arrivals and said:

“Greetings, Lord Calgar. Greetings, honorable entourage. I am pleased to be able to tell you that all systems are operational, the new hydroponics system is working flawlessly and that we have enough spare parts on board to prevail in 87,314% of our standard worst-case scenarios. In short, we are ready for departure.”

“Thank you, Magos,” Calgar replied,
“are we complete? Has everyone settled in?”

“In addition to the standard crew, we accommodate 50 Ultramarines, 200 chapter serfs and two Knights. Brother Parvus is on board and is currently being looked after by my aide. Your personal Land Raider and the armament you listed are also stowed away safely.”

“Very good. We will meet on the bridge in ten minutes.”

Ten minutes later, they all were on the strike cruiser’s bridge and Lady Angren had taken her place as the ship’s navigator. The Hastings brothers were also present, but kept to the sidelines.
Calgar took a look around. The huge, cathedral-like room was bustling with activity. Servitors and crew were hurrying around, making a few last preparations and ensuring that the ‘Sword of Iax’ was fully operational.

“We are being hailed, my Lord,” a crewman told Calgar.

“Put it through to the command lectern,” Calgar replied and went to said lectern.

There, Guilliman’s face appeared.

“Status?” the Primarch asked.

“We are ready for departure,” Calgar answered.

“Excellent. Start your mission now. As of yet, nobody knows that you have left the surface, and I want you to have a considerable headstart before anyone notices that you are gone. May the Emperor be with you.”

“And with you, Your Excellency.”

The connection was terminated and Calgar gave the order to leave the orbit of Macragge.

As the ship turned its crystalflex windows away from the planet, a young woman clad in the robes of the Mechanicum burst into the bridge and hurried to magos Gearhart. The former chapter master had seen her before. Her name was Aleksa; she was Gearhart’s aide for a few years now.

“Sorry for being a little late,” she whispered to him, albeit a little too loud to not be noticed,
“did I miss anything?”

“A conversation with Primarch Guilliman,” Gearhart told her flatly.

“Oh…”

“You might be pleased to hear that we still do not know the reason for, or destination of this journey, though.”

Having said that, he turned to Calgar:

“Lord Calgar, I assume you had your reasons for this secrecy, but it would make my tasks somewhat easier if I knew where we were heading.”

“I will tell you as soon as we have translated into the warp,” Calgar replied.

“Exciting!” Aleksa whispered, again a little too loud.

It took them some time to reach the minimum safety distance for warp jumps, then they initiated the corresponding routines.

“Commencing the rites of translation…” magos Gearhart, having hooked up to a data port, informed them,
“Gellar field generators are online and working within specified parameters… doxology of the warp drive completed… drive fully charged. We are ready for translation.”

“Initiate jump,” Calgar commanded.

The main engines of the ‘Sword of Iax’ expired as in front of the ship real space was torn apart. A unnatural, purple-ish rift appeared where the warp drive did its work, discharges of electricity and less convenient energies lining its fringes. When this artificial gate to the immaterium had stabilized enough to be passed, the engines kicked back in and shoved the strike cruiser into a not-place every halfway sane human would call ‘hell’.

“Translation successfull,” magos Gearhart informed them.

“We are on course,” Lady Angren added.

Now the magos disconnected from his data port, walked up to Calgar and waited without saying a word.

“Yes, I will tell you now,” Calgar sighed,
“let us go to the ready room.”

Once there and after hearing destination and reason for their journey, Gearhart looked dumbfounded. He managed to do so despite his extensive augmentations.

“I think I am having a short circuit,” he stated in his usual matter-of-fact tone.

His aide was less factual:

“Holy Omnissiah! A weapon against Chaos, and a working and complete STC system? With an AI that is not insane? Wow! I think I’m gonna need a cold shower!”

“Aleksa, postpone that,” Gearhart said, then he turned to Calgar:
“Lord Calgar, would you mind telling me why you did not inform the Mechanicum? We could have sent an exploration fleet to secure the STC system.”

“That’s what I was worried about,” Calgar responded.

“Please explain.”

“What would such a fleet have done with the inhabitants of this world?”

“Those within a security zone around the STC system would have been eliminated, other specimens would have been studied.”

“Vivisected?”

“Certainly.”

“Yeah, and I wanted to prevent exactly that from happening… even if your magi would have been content with killing just the aliens…”

“My Lord?”

Now Calgar told him a short version of his past experiences with the Mechanicum, and once again, Gearhart managed to look dumbfounded.

“I can assure you that I do not approve of the methods applied by my Adeptus,” he finally stated.

“I know,” Calgar told him,
“that’s why I asked you to come along.”

“Thank you for informing us,” Gearhart said after a few seconds of contemplation,
“now, please excuse us. We have to do our duties. Aleksa, follow me.”

The magos and his aide left.

“Are you sure they are trustworthy?” Seneca asked when they were gone.

“Gearhart? I think so. In the case of Aleksa, I’m not so sure since I barely know her. Gearhart, however, trusts her… Perhaps I should talk to her…” Calgar answered, then he turned to Tigurius:
“… or should I say, WE should talk to her?”

“Anytime you wish, my Lord,” Tigurius replied.

After a long day of duty, Aleksa was back in her quarters. It was one of the concessions magos Gearhart had made to make her feel a little more comfortable. Another one was the recaf machine that was waiting for her on a wooden table.
She quickly lit an incense stick to convince her favorite machine spirit that it was time to do some work, filled the ingredients into the according chambers and put a cup under its outlet.

Just as she wanted to push the activation rune, there was a knock on the door.

“What a surprise,” she mumbled, left her beloved machine and opened.

To her actual surprise, it was magos Gearhart.

“Magos!” she exclaimed,
“come in. How can I be of service? A cup of recaf, perhaps?”

“If we can find a straw,” Gearhart said as he entered the room,
“and my mouth.”

“Oh… right… well…”

“Aleksa, tell me,” he interrupted,
“what do you think about the current situation?”

“It’s amazing that we have the chance to acquire an intact STC system… it’s much less amazing that we have to do so without help from the Mechanicum.”

“Do you think we should try to contact and tell them?”

Oh. Did he actually want her opinion, or was this a test of her loyalty? And if it was the second, her loyalty to whom?

“Well… to be completely honest… no,” she answered.

“So you suggest that we betray the Adeptus Mechanicus?”

“No! I mean… not really… perhaps a little… umm… yes, somehow…”

“Explain,” magos Gearhart said calmly.

Since she was still alive, and even got a chance to explain herself, the answer had probably not been too terribly wrong.

“You see, Magos, either we betray the Mechanicum or we betray the Ultramarines, and I can understand why the Ultramarines act the way they do. Involving our Adeptus would probably lead to those creatures being slaughtered, and if they really are the only ones who can wield this strange weapon, that would be a terrible loss. And to think that a fanatical magos like the one on the space hulk might lead the mission and turn on pretty much everyone…”

Aleksa shuddered and Gearhart walked to her recaf machine and pushed the activation rune. He waited patiently until the cup was full of steaming hot, brown liquid, then he handed it to his aide.

“Thank you,” she said.

“I concur,” he told her,
“as strange as it may sound, a slightly increased difficulty in acquiring the STC system is acceptable if it means being able to acquire the anti-Chaos weapon. Of course, not many magi would think so.”

“So, we just help the Ultramarines? No strings attached?”

“Yes.”

Aleksa was relieved to hear that and took a sip from her cup. While doing so, she noticed that her right hand was trembling a little.

“We need to recalibrate your bionics,” Gearhart noted.

“Guess so,” she answered, put down her cup and rolled up her sleeve,
“would be a shame if I spilled my recaf.”

The magos seized her right wrist with one of his mechadentrites and attached another one to her right upper arm.

“As usual…” he started,

“… this will hurt,” Aleksa finished.

For a few seconds, her arm seemed to be on fire and she had an attack of sweating, then the pain was gone and the arm worked properly again. Now that they were at it, they also checked the function of her other limbs, then magos Gearhart turned to leave.

“Aleksa, now might be a good time to take that shower you had to postpone,” he told her flatly as he walked through the door.

Well, no matter if he was joking or not, he was not wrong, but first, Aleksa sat down and enjoyed her cup of recaf.

Mere minutes after receiving the call from Calgar, Marcus entered the former chapter master’s quarters. Since it was not common that he, a simple chapter serf, was called by such a high ranking member of the Ultramarines, he had made haste, and now he was standing in front of the giant.

“Lord Calgar,” he said,
“how can I be of service?”

“Find Aleksa, magos Gearhart’s aide, and tell her that I would like to talk to her,” Calgar told him,
“ask her to come here at her earliest convenience.”

“Yes, my Lord.”

Marcus left and started looking for the recipient of his message. He expected her to be crawling through some maintenance tunnels and was really surprised as he got to know that she was in her room.

Having found it, he knocked politely, and was surprised a second time as the voice that told him to ‘wait a second’ sounded truly female instead of mechanic.
When the door opened, his surprise triple was complete: Not only did this ‘Aleksa’ sound like a ‘normal’ woman, she also looked much less artificial than he had estimated. A pleasant face, surrounded by shoulder-long, black hair. The only bionic parts he could see were her arms, which she used to keep a towel closed around her body while dripping water on the floor.

“Sorry,” she said,
“but I have just taken a shower. What do you want?”

Marcus stopped staring at her like a moron and started:

“Lord Calgar would…”

“Lord Calgar?” Aleksa interrupted with a smile and grabbed him by his shoulder with her right arm,
“do come in and tell me what he wants!”

Now she yanked him into her quarters and he almost lost balance. While trying to prevent himself from greeting the ground in a rather embarrassing way, her other hand closed around his wrist and he was forced into an upright and stable position. Effective, but it has almost cost him his wrist.

As Aleksa was behind him, he just wanted to turn around as he heard something that sounded suspiciously like fabric hitting the floor.

“Oh,” Aleksa said and grabbed his head from behind.

Then, she turned him towards a wall and said:

“Stay here and don’t dare to turn around, okay?”

“Okay,” Marcus confirmed, then she let go of him.

Since the only thing he could see was wall and did not dare to chance that, he listened.
Aleksa was probably in another room now and sometimes, he could hear a sound like metal on tiles.
A short time later, she entered again and said:

“Okay, now turn around and give me your Lord’s message.”

Marcus did both, and Aleksa, now wearing the typical Machanicum attire, smiled:

“Thank you. I will see Lord Calgar immediately. Oh, and sorry for the… unusual welcome.”

“Don’t worry, I am not hurt. I must admit, though, that your strength is probably sufficient to lift a tank…”
He rubbed his wrist.
“…or to beat it up.”

Aleksa laughed and said:

“Well, my arms and legs are bionics, that’s rather obvious. But my spine, hip and shoulders are also artificial, just inside what’s left of my body.”

“Left of your body? Because you are a member of the Mechanicum, right?”

“Not exactly, I had a… little accident, but now let’s get going. I don’t want to keep Lord Calgar waiting.”

So they left Aleksa’s quarters and headed to Calgar’s. On their way, they made some small talk. Marcus had to admit that magos Gearhart’s aide was not at all how he had expected her to be, and he did not mean the fact that her bionics looked more like actual human body parts than the usual Mechanicum type.

“Tell me,” Aleksa suddenly said,
“do you know an Ultramarine named Antonius Varus? He should be a member of the second company.”

Marcus did not need to think about that for long:

“Actually, yes, I do. He’s not on board, though. I haven’t seen him for some time, but I’ve heard he’s listed as ‘missing’. Why do you ask?”

“Oh, just curiosity. I’ve heard a few things about him.”

“Well, he’s still one of the examples why the end doesn’t justify the means…”

“Huh?”

“He’s beaten an unbeatable test, but he disregarded the Codex Astartes while doing so. That means his actions were wrong, despite his success.”

“I see…” Aleksa mumbled, but she didn’t sound convinced at all.

“But I don’t only know him from that story, I also know him personally,” Marcus added.

“Oh? That’s great! Tell me how you met and how he is, please.”

“Well, to be honest… I was serving some hot soup during a celebration when I tripped and dumped a plateful into his lap…”

Aleksa stopped and stared at him.

“No way,” she said,
“what did he do? You don’t look mangled.”

“He didn’t ‘mangle’ me. He hissed: ‘It’s already deactivated, you don’t need to scald it.’”

Aleksa burst out laughing, and Marcus had to join her.

“Yeah, that was also Sergeant Seneca’s reaction. The other Ultramarines were not that lighthearted, but I just had to run some errands for him as a punishment. Every time he sees me now, though, he asks for his armor… or more armor.”

Aleksa laughed again and both continued their way.

“I think I’m going to like him,” she grinned,
“if I ever meet him, of course.”

“And?” Calgar asked Tigurius as magos Gearhart’s aide had left the room,
“what do you think?”

“No signs of treachery. She meant what she said. She’s not too happy with the whole situation, but she will help us as best she can.”

“Good. Anything else?”

“Magos Gearhart also tested her loyalty. Seems that we all agree that our course of action is appropriate. Further, Marcus has told her stories about brother Varus and now she is eager to meet him.”

“The stronghold test? The Tau?”

“The test and something with hot soup.”

“Come again?”

“I’ve never heard of that one, but Aleksa thought it was funny. Seneca should be able to give us the details.”

“Hmm. Guess we’ll have to talk to him later. Now, please continue.”

“She sees Marcus as a friend, despite this being the first time they met. She has even taken a liking to him.”

“What? This may be a ‘cruiser’, but it’s a strike cruiser, not a cruise ship! Do you think it’s a cause for concern?”

“Not really, my Lord. All told, Aleksa is just… kind. She mostly lacks the sobriety usually associated with the Mechanicum, but that’s not entirely unheard-of when talking about low level acolytes.”

“Hmm… so, she’s more human than expected… that may actually turn out to be good news. Anything else to say about her?”

“She’s naturally curious. Oh, and she has no idea what a pony is.”

“Well,” Calgar mused,
“that is something she will get to know.”