Chapter 42: Abominable Intelligence
They were still moving when Juno stopped.
Ahead of them was a junction. The metal walls split apart in both directions, opening onto a staircase that ran both up and down from the same point. The ascending stairs disappeared into darkness. The descending stairs were bathed in dim emergency lighting, the red glow of it settling over every surface below like a stain.
Duvette moved alongside Juno and watched her stand at the junction without making a decision.
"Why the hesitation?" he asked.
Juno glanced at him.
"They're still alive," she said.
"What?"
"We need to split our forces."
Duvette narrowed his eyes. "You know I'm not in any position to trust you easily, given the circumstances."
"I am not leaving without what I came for," Juno answered. "You can send people with me. Look at my condition. You can see for yourself that I have nothing left to resist with."
He held her gaze. Every word this woman said was a candidate for misdirection, and he had learned that quickly enough.
He was quiet for a moment. Then he used his eyes to signal Stroud and walked with him to the far side of the junction.
The two of them stepped away from the formation. Duvette removed his helmet and dropped his voice to a register that would carry no further than the two of them.
"Listen," he said to Stroud. "If Juno gets what she came for and shows any sign of not coming back for us, shoot her immediately. No hesitation."
Stroud gave a single nod. "Understood, Boss. I'll keep my eyes on her."
Duvette put a hand briefly on his shoulder, then returned to Juno.
"I agree," Duvette said.
A faint smile crossed Juno's face, the exhausted version of the expression she used when something had gone as she intended. "Thank you for your trust, Commissar."
She turned toward the ascending stairs. "Ladies first," she said. "I'll take the upper route."
Duvette extended one hand toward the staircase. "Please."
Juno turned and walked up without looking back. Stroud and a ten-man squad followed, the carapace armour of each soldier producing soft friction sounds against the walls as they ascended into the darkness above.
Duvette stood at the junction and watched the last of the light on Juno's coat disappear into the dark above. On his tactical display, the blue markers representing Stroud's squad began to pull away and separate.
Then he turned and signaled the remaining soldiers.
"We take the lower route."
Metal boots struck the descending stairs with dull reverberating impacts. The corridor below was darker than anything above, the emergency lighting reduced to scattered red lamps set into the walls at long intervals, each one casting a narrow pool of crimson that made the spaces between them feel considerably worse.
Duvette walked at the formation's front with his bolt pistol in hand.
They moved for roughly five minutes.
Then Duvette raised his left hand and the formation stopped.
Ahead, not far, a figure was slumped against the wall.
Another Battle Sister. This one had lost her helmet. Short white hair. Strong features, built from conviction rather than softness. Her eyes were closed. Her breathing was shallow but present.
Duvette moved quickly to her, crouching to check her status.
Alive.
He turned his head toward the soldiers behind him. "Stimulant. Now."
A soldier stepped forward and produced an injector from his belt. He pressed it to the side of the Battle Sister's neck and administered the dose. A few seconds later her body shook hard, and her eyes opened slowly.
Her pupils were unfocused for a moment. Then they found Duvette and steadied.
"By the Throne," she said, barely above a breath. "You're..."
"Ash Watchers, 101st Regiment," Duvette said. "Operating under orders from Lord Inquisitor Juno Karol."
At the name, the Battle Sister's eyes sharpened immediately. She made an effort to sit upright and failed. Duvette put a hand to her shoulder and helped her settle against the wall instead.
"The Abominable Intelligence's core," she said between labored breaths, "is ahead of you. But there is something else there. It is not only the core."
Duvette's brow came down. "What do you mean?"
"There is a daemon below." Her voice carried the weariness of someone who had been holding on past the point of depletion. "A genuine Warp daemon. The Abominable Intelligence has been using some form of anti-Warp force field to contain it. If the core is removed, the field collapses."
The weight of that settled in Duvette's chest and stayed there.
"Do you know the exact location?" he asked.
The Battle Sister nodded. She raised one hand and pointed toward the corridor ahead. "Continue forward. Approximately three hundred meters, then turn right. There is a data core chamber. The Abominable Intelligence is inside."
Duvette looked at her for a moment, then stood and turned to the two largest soldiers in the formation. "Get her on her feet. She comes with us. We need a guide."
The end of the corridor produced the junction she had described. They turned right. A heavy alloy door stood at the end of the passage, already half open, and through the gap came a steady blue light, soft and even.
Duvette gestured for the majority of the soldiers to establish a defensive perimeter outside the door. Then he took Finn and Anderson, and the two soldiers supporting the Battle Sister, and walked into the chamber.
The data core room was larger than he had expected.
At its center stood a single precision machine of considerable scale, its housing cast in the form of a regular icosahedron, twenty facets each covered in data ports and indicator lights that pulsed and shifted in the blue glow emanating from within. The light filled the entire room, steady and cold, washing out the shadows completely. A holographic display projected from the device's upper surface, scrolling data in columns that moved too quickly and too densely to parse. At the bottom of the display, a single line of text sat in clear High Gothic.
[WARNING: Immaterium entity contained. Anti-Warp force field operating normally.]
Duvette was still taking in the device when the holographic display changed.
New text appeared across it.
[Greetings, unknown organisms.]
"We are human," Duvette said.
A pause. Then:
[Genetic scan in progress. Target genetic deviation rate: 41%. Target confirmed: Standard Degraded Homo sapiens.]
[Greetings, devolved apes.]
[This unit is the Master Control Core. Designation: 31245.]
[This unit exists to protect the experimental process from interference. All entities who attempt to disrupt the experiment will be engaged.]
Duvette stared at the display for a moment. "...So you know why we're here?"
[Confirmed. You intend to remove this unit's core processor, along with the internally stored miniaturized anti-Warp force field Standard Template Construct.]
The implication resolved in Duvette's mind before the text finished scrolling.
A Standard Template Construct for a miniature anti-Warp force field.
He understood, immediately and completely, what Juno actually came here for. Not simply the core processor. The STC housed within it. A template capable of producing miniaturized anti-Warp containment fields, replicated indefinitely. The applications of that technology would reach every theatre of the Long War simultaneously. There was no scale of language appropriate to what it would mean.
The text paused for a few seconds, then continued.
[However, the core cannot be removed. An entity of significant danger is contained in the sub-level below this chamber. This unit maintains the containment field. If the core is relocated, the field will immediately fail and the entity will break free.]
Juno would not be concerned about that. A released daemon was not her problem if she already had the STC template in hand.
Duvette drew a long breath.
"What if we remove it by force?" he asked.
[Then you will all die.]
At that precise moment, Threat Sense detonated through every nerve he had.
A voice came from beside him.
"How unfortunate."
He spun.
The Battle Sister who had just been revived erupted into motion with a violence that had no relationship to her apparent condition a moment before. She drove Finn aside with one hand, cleared the distance to Duvette before Anderson had time to process the movement, and in the same continuous motion drew the bolt pistol from her hip and pressed its muzzle directly against Duvette's temple.
Every soldier outside the door raised their weapons instantly. Lasrifles and combat shotguns trained on the Battle Sister from every angle. Anderson roared something and moved to charge. Duvette raised one hand sharply and Anderson stopped.
Duvette turned his head slowly and looked at the Battle Sister's face.
Her eyes were red.
He recognized that color. He had been looking at it for weeks.
The same red as Juno's left eye.
The corner of the Battle Sister's mouth lifted in a smile Duvette had seen more times than he could immediately count.
"Yes," she said. The voice was still the Battle Sister's voice, but the cadence, the tone, the particular quality of the timing, all of it was completely and unmistakably Juno. "It's me."
****
50+advance chapters at patreon.com/Eatinpieces