Chapter 83: Deconstruction and Re-Sanctification
The mechadendrites first removed the non-structural plating from the servitor's limbs and torso. What was revealed beneath was not a basic motive-system, but tightly integrated, specialized instrumentation-modules, their runic-lights pulsing. Joric manipulated his specialized tools, precisely sanctifying and disconnecting the data-tethers and energy-conduits, beginning the orderly rite of extraction.
The first item to be extracted was a Molecular-Bonding Analyzer. It was solidly installed in the servitor's left arm, its precision augur-head and internal sensors forming a single unit, capable of rapid, deep-analysis of materiel-microstructure—critical for Joric's reverse-engineering of this world's heretical composites.
Next, from the servitor's right arm, Joric uninstalled the core components of a High-Precision Materiel Spectrometer, its sensor-arrays and diffraction-modules tightly integrated, designed to identify the signatures of unsanctified compounds.
His mechadendrites then probed the servitor's reinforced thoracic cavity, carefully excising a Multi-Functional Micro-Probe Array. This device, composed of multiple nano-level probes and their manipulation-cradle, was designed for fine physical manipulation and synchronous energy-detection of minute samples.
From the other side of the cavity, he retrieved several Data-Storage Cores, sealed in sturdy, vibration-dampened casings. These cogitator-units were currently blank, awaiting the holy imprint of Joric's future research.
These specialized instruments, while not the most advanced archeotech by the standards of the 41st Millennium, possessed a foundational design-litany and fabrication-standard far superior to the common tech of this cyberpunk reality. They were the critical tools Joric required to begin his deep analysis and holy integration.
The deconstruction now entered its core phase.
Joric's mechadendrites opened the servitor's main structural-cavity, revealing the radically modified interior. The space that should have housed its own cogitator and motive-unit was now completely occupied by the true cargo: the Compact Plasma Reactor. Its casing was forged from a dark, heat-resistant alloy, covered in efficient cooling-conduits and energy-output ports. Even in its inert state, one could sense the awesome, terrible power coiled within.
Acquiring it meant Joric could establish an independent, powerful, and sacred power-core for all his high-draw equipment—including the Dimensional Sextant itself—and lay the energy-foundation for all future, large-scale projects.
Finally, from an isolated slot beside the reactor, Joric retrieved the servitor's original power source—a Standard-Pattern Fusion Core. Its power output was trivial compared to the plasma reactor, but its design was sanctified, mature, and reliable, perfect as a critical backup or for powering secondary systems.
Joric's mechadendrites, moving with dazzling speed, separated the Plasma Reactor and the Fusion Core from the chassis, connecting them to a temporary buffer and diagnostic-array. He confirmed that both had survived the violent, un-sanctified journey through the dimensional-void, their machine-spirits intact and functional.
With its core purpose fulfilled, the servitor's chassis was now an empty, hollowed-out husk, its motive-systems and now-redundant cogitator still in place. It stood inert, its purpose served.
A mortal might have felt a pang of sentiment for the loyal construct that had completed its mission. But in Joric's value-system, sentiment is an inefficient, meaningless data-error. Its pre-set task was complete.
However, waste is also a form of blasphemy.
A structurally sound, motive-capable servitor chassis—even a hollowed-out one—is still a valuable resource, a vessel of blessed metal and reliable components. It would not be scrapped. It would be re-purposed.
He began the second phase: integrating this Imperial chassis with the heretek-products of this cyberpunk world.
Joric selected several salvaged cybernetic components from his stores, and after a brief ritual of calibration and modification, began installing them into the empty servitor frame.
(Servitor fabrication, by holy Imperial doctrine, begins with a standard human-stock bio-chassis. This is followed by a full cognitive-purge and frontal-lobe ablation, ensuring no excess self-awareness remains. A well-sanctified servitor can function for centuries, even millennia. Servitors are the foundational labor force that supports the very operation of the Imperium. By the 40k era Joric was most familiar with, the Imperium had truly become a vast empire built upon a throne of corpses.)
The newly re-sanctified servitor soon returned to a basic humanoid form. Aside from the vacant, docile look in its new optical-lenses, it looked almost... human.
Joric designated it as a Menial Servitor, tasked with cleansing the sanctum, organizing the tool-arrays, and, when necessary, acting as a lab assistant. Or a test subject.
Joric turned his full attention from the re-purposed servitor to the newly arrived, power-filled Plasma Reactor. He personally integrated it into the sanctum's main power-conduit network. With a deep, satisfying thrum, the sanctum's lumen-strips brightened, and idle machinery hummed to a new state of readiness. The entire facility's energy-level had ascended to a new, holy plateau.
He glanced one last time at the Dimensional Sextant, which was still slowly spinning, its energy levels now depleted, the dimensional fissure having sealed itself. He then looked at the new, holy research instruments from his home universe, now sitting on his workbench.
A successful rite. It had brought him the sacred energy and research tools he craved, and even an extra menial-construct. External threats were pacified, internal resources were supplemented.
Joric's crimson optical lenses pulsed steadily. There was no celebration, no sentiment.
He simply, calmly, turned and walked toward the newly installed Molecular-Bonding Analyzer.
The next step: a deeper analysis of the Biotechnica gene-editing samples and the local, heretical alloys.
Within the sanctum, a new cycle of the Great Work... had begun.
(End of Chapter)