Joline has begun snoring. Janna giggles. I continue lazily floating in the pool. We needed some relaxation after spending over a day stuck underground because of that damn elevator, so we're skinny dipping in the sanctums pool, who's idea even was it to make it that elevator that fucking slow?
Janna leans on the edge of the pool. "It couldn't have been that bad, I remember that I used to pull forty eight hour shifts all the time back on ."
Dol jumps from the water, grabs the edge of the pool and hangs from it. "The weakness of the flesh has been clarified, the strength and certainty of steel is without question." She lets go of the edge, the weight of her implants making her plummet back to the bottom of the pool. Janna and I both giggle at her joke, apparently Dol has a pretty good sense of humor when properly relaxed.
I turn towards the currently floating and sleeping Joline. "It's more that we just got bored to death there, we were still in an active warzone and had to be prepared for a fight to break out at a moment's notice."
Janna ahhs. "Yeah, that'll do it. There was this one acolyte that used to go on long spiels about the dangers of idle time."
I begin swimming towards Janna. "What happened to them?"
Janna scratches her cheek. "I was pretty young at the time so I don't really remember that well, he was expelled when I was still in the schola. I think he had an accident while trying to replicate a power pack modification."
Dol jumps and hangs off the edge once again, her firm grip allowing her to deny gravity. "Acolyte K91-653. Their specialization was on las weaponry production. They created a clandestine modified blueprint of the standard power pack and began production without proper authorization. The first produced power pack self combusted, killing him, seventy acolytes and heavily wounding a magos."
I blink. Joline mumbles in her sleep. "steeaaak." Janna giggles. I shake my head. "What kind of modification would lead to that kind of explosion?"
Dol gives me my answer. "They attempted to increase the charge rate without increasing production costs. There was no explosion, the fire from the first power pack set on fire all of the nearby materials required for further production."
I finally reach Janna and give her a quick kiss. "Isn't that tech heresy? I thought modifying or inventing new technology was completely forbidden."
Dol shakes her head. "All technology used was already known and standard." Dol lets go of the edge and plummets back to the bottom of the pool.
I motion for one of the maids to bring me what I prepared for today. "Say Janna, want to have your revenge on Joline for embarrassing you?"
Janna turns towards Joline. "Yes please."
I take the permanent marker from the maid and hand it to Janna. "You do the honors."
—
The next order of business for today is sorting through our loot. The weapons and armors are fairly simple, simply going into their own piles based on whether they are of drukhari or craftworld origin. The paraphernalia is sorted in the same manner for now, with one pile dedicated to the dark eldar and one to the craftworld eldar.
In order to sort the paraphernalia properly we will need the help of our prisoners, which brings us to the holding cells. The spartan cells containing only a toilet and a shower are found to the left and right of the hallway making up our sanctum's prison section. Its current residents are five menial thieves, an overly mutated mutant and the eldar.
We pass light containment, the first section of the prison. Menials and the like are held here in the event that they are not summarily executed. The five thieves are held in this section. The next section we pass is medium containment, where we hold people too dangerous for light containment, but not too dangerous for heavy. The mutant is held in this section, waiting for Dol to vivisect and study them.
The penultimate section, heavy containment, is for holding more dangerous individuals. At this moment it is empty. The final section of the prison is secret, only accessible from a cell at the end of the hallway. The nub on the nape of my neck allows me to easily open the secret entrance using my connection to the sanctum, which is the only way to open this door.
It is here that the cells containing the eldar are located. The craftworld eldar is leaning on a wall, sitting in a fetal position while loudly crying. The dark eldar is pacing through her cell, agitated. The moment that the sound of the door opening reaches her the drukhari locks her eyes on us. "Fuck me, torture me, whatever, I don't care. Just do something to me before I literally die from sensory deprivation!"
I'm not sure whether she means that literally or figuratively. Dol gives the drukhari a nod. "You will be kept wide awake and sober during your vivisection, no anesthesia will be provided. Is that to your liking?"
The drukhari smiles and gives a sigh of relief. "Yes, thank you very much. Please hurry up and cut me open."
This whole exchange has made the craftworld eldar's cries even louder. Joline points at the crying eldar. "Krauss, are all of them this pathetic or did we just bag the village idiot?"
I shake my head. "I… Honestly I don't know. They're all terrified beyond belief of dying, but they are also proud to a fault. She is still probably an exception rather than the rule."
Dol turns to the craftworld eldar. "What of you, would you prefer your vivisection done awake or under anesthesia?"
She begins hyperventilating even harder. "AAAAA HAUGH AAAAA-I DON'T WANT TO DIE! PLEASE HAUGH DON'T KILL ME! HAUGH I'LL HAUGH DO ANYTHING YOU HAUGH WANT!-AAAAA HAUGH AAAAAA"
Dol turns towards me. "What do you wish the final fate of the Eldar to be? Do you wish for them to survive their vivisection?"
Both the dark and craftworld eldar freeze and lock their eyes on me, waiting for me to decide their fate. I shrug. "Keep them alive, they can prove themselves to be useful."
The drukhari takes several deep breaths as she falls panting to the ground in relief. The craftworld eldar simply passes out. Joline snickers. "Pussies."
I sigh. "What are the two of you called? Can't keep referring to you as dark and craftworld eldar."
The drukhari points at herself as she continues panting. "I'm Khaeyl Ghorghast, I don't know what the idiot's name is."
Joline, Dol and I turn to the passed out Eldar. Her eyes begin to flicker as she wakes up. She freezes when she sees us, realising that she wasn't dreaming. I sigh. "What's your name?"
Her gaze erratically switches between Joline, Dol and I. Joline points her finger at the eldar. "If you pass out again I'm waking you up with an electric shock."
That throws the girl out of her stupor. She gulps nervously. "Anesh Undomniel."
I turn towards Dol. "Get them fitted with whatever you consider necessary to make sure they don't try anything funny, we'll get them to help us sort the loot before any vivisections."
Dol nods. "Explosive shock collars will suffice for now, proper disciplinary implants can be added after the vivisection. I am not yet sure of anything when it comes to their physiology, so the exact type of implants will be decided during the vivisection itself. Shock and explosive implants will always be an option."
Anesh begins tearing up, coming closer to another crying section. Khaeyl finally stops panting. "I'll help you with proper pain implants."
Joline gives Khaeyl a confused look, before she realises the drukhari's plan. "Kinky."
I pat Dol's shoulder, her head turns towards me. I give her a peck on the lips. "Get them their collars so we can sort the loot, I'm pretty curious what all the paraphernalia is used for."
Joline pokes me in the ribs. "Me too."
I give her lips a peck too, Dol gives me a nod. "Very well."
—
I hand Khaeyl a grey cube. She takes a look at it. "Sex toy."
Joline stares at the cube. "Ok, how? It's literally just a cube."
Khaeyl points at the grey cube. "You eat it and get constipated with it. Then it slowly releases a poison tha-"
I throw the cube into the growing pile of drukhari sex toys. I pick up a locked box from the pile of drukhari objects and show it to Khaeyl. "Board game, one of the better ones that that one kabal makes actually."
I look at the sex toy pile. Khaeyl shrugs. "It's not sexual and doesn't involve pain."
I place it down a bit away from me and point at it. "This is the pile for normal entertainment."
Joline shows Anesh an oddly soft pillow with a calming aura. "Me-Meditation pillow, i-it helps the younglings center them-themselves."
Joline throws it into the growing pile of meditation aids. Dol picks up a docadehedron made of bone and shows it to Anesh. "Th-That's a training aid for b-bonesingers. We are s-supposed to m-make a c-copy l-like it."
Joline throws the docadehedron into the pile of miscellaneous wraithbone objects. "Do you know how to make the stuff?"
Anesh takes a deep breath, preparing herself to not stutter. "I-I do. I walked the path of the bonesinger ini-initially a-and switched to the p-path of the wa-warrior la-later."
Khaeyl snorts. "Should've stuck to making wraithbone."
Joline motions for Khaeyl to shush. "How do you make it?"
Anesh gulps nervously and takes a deep breath before she points at a wraithbone flute still in the to be sorted pile. "Our song a-allows us to focus our psychic power, t-turning the energies of the sea of souls into w-wraithbone."
Joline turns towards me, I sigh. "It's a psychically active material created from solidified warp energy. It's a durable, light material that can serve as a psychic battery along with doing whatever else they need."
That explanation attracts Dol's interest. "Such versatility for a single material? How fascinating."
I show Khaeyl a flared glass tube with a pink liquid inside. "Sex Toy, it's fragile so don't throw it."
I gently put it down. "And that goes into fragile and dangerous storage." I turn to Dol. "Let's leave studying wraithbone and the like for after we finish cataloguing everything. There is going to be plenty of time for you to research their tech."
Dol nods. "Very well." She picks up a glass tube with green liquid and shows it to Khaeyl.
Khaeyl blinks. "Huh, didn't think this would be here. It's a healing serum for baseline humans that heals all wounds and mutations."
Dol looks at the liquid. "It functions on mutations as well?"
Khaeyl nods. "Yeah. It's a pretty common serum used to fix heavily mutated slaves. It's mostly bought to continuously mutate slaves for torture."
I shake my head at Dol's inquisitive look. "We're so mutated and genetically enhanced that at this point we're basically human adjacent. There's no guarantee that a serum made for baseline humans would function as intended for us."
Joline stares at the tube. "It's still a starting point."
—
The first to get vivisected is Khaeyl. Joline and I are present in the operating room as Dol slowly looks through and catalogues the insides of the drukhari. Khaeyl is wide awake as per her own request. Dol looks at the plates of bone underneath the drukhari's ribcage. "To clarify, you are not augmented or modified in any way, shape or form?"
Khaeyl nods, her peaceful smile contrasting with the macabre scenery of her opened body. "Yeah, what you're looking at is baseline eldar biology."
Joline stares at the somehow impeccably arranged organs. "Huh, I guess Eldar are just built different."
Khaeyl keeps smiling. Dol keeps staring at Khaeyl's organs. Despite Eldar looking outwardly human, the insides are a completely different story.
Flexible plates of bone are found under their ribcage, their organs are almost completely unrecognizable from human ones and that's without even mentioning that there's a point where biology ends and warp-fuckery begins.
Dol continues carefully cataloguing and recording every single detail that she can with the help of Khaeyl, who at this point has already proved her weight in gold. Without having someone to point out exactly what everything is and does this would have been a largely fruitless endeavor.
Once Dol is done with the vivisection she begins to install the obedience implants, which can be boiled down to: A pain generator for punishment, a sensory deprivation implant and a paralysis implant. We decided against implanting explosives, since a remote explosive could be hacked and used against us in an assassination.
After installing all of the implants Dol begins to stitch Khaeyl back up, administering her some medicine in the process. I blink. "Does our medicine even work on her?"
Dol looks inquisitively at Khaeyl, who gives her a nod. "Yeah, it hurts a lot but also helps healing a bit too."
Dol continues the process of healing Khaeyl. "The vivisection of the craftworld eldar will take place at a later date, after the drukhari has recovered from her own vivisection. Her input has proved itself invaluable in studying the xeno's biology."
Anesh's biology turns out to be much the same as Khayel's, they are pretty much the same species after all.
—
Now that Anesh and Khaeyl have gotten their implants we can actually begin to put them to work. Khaeyl knows no trade other than combat, so she's gotten recruited as our sparring partner. Dol basically never allows Anesh any free time, constantly having her create wraithbone for research and tests.
Time continues to pass in this manner. Dol does her research, Joline and I continue training both our martial and psychic powers and the imperial guard continues the conquest of the world below. Slowly but surely a picture of what exactly had occurred on Kinja begins to form.
The first and most critical piece of the puzzle is the tithe. A planet with a tithe such as this is akin to a white elephant. Owning it is prestigious, but it will inevitably lead to the arbites asking questions.
There being a clerical error is obvious, there is no way a planet can provide fifty quintillion recruits for the imperial guard. The issue lies in how the adeptus arbites will respond upon their arrival.
The best case scenario is that the arbites is understanding and reasonable, which is unlikely when it comes to the imperiums taxmen. The worst, and much more likely, scenario is them demanding as much manpower as the planet can provide regardless of what happens to it afterwards.
For the governor to not be executed they will need to at least provide proof that they attempted all that is in their power to gather the tithe as required.
The initial governor bailed and ran away, which led to his pampered and decadent heir to take the position. Once that one found out the situation that they are in they immediately started preparations to train as many citizens for the tithe as possible.
The citizens disliked this, the next in line for the governorship took advantage of the malcontents and provoked a rebellion using the pdf, taking power. Once they also realized their situation this person went into hiding, just as the first governor had.
Which is about when we arrived, as some in the confused planet were not even aware of whether they are rebels or not yet.
We are two weeks away from having gathered enough blood for Flakey's ritual when the planet is completely pacified and conquered, allowing the ship to quickly resupply and refuel. Our next stop, a simple refueling station, will hopefully prove itself to be less of a clusterfuck.
The journey to the refueling station takes three months shiptime and two months realtime. We don't linger there. Resupplying and refueling takes two days, after which we promptly leave. The next stop is a forgeworld, where the guard will resupply on munitions and weaponry.
We will remain at this location for a couple of months, which allows Joline and I to properly rest and take it easy for a while. Flakey's ritual will be enacted in two days, after we've properly rested.
Dol has plenty of free time to advance her research, with the help of Anesh and Khayel she has successfully created a wraithbone lasgun powered by standard imperial powerpacks, the powerpacks themselves are apparently beyond their current capabilities, for now at least.
Dol holds the successful prototype in her hands as if it was a relic, which for her it probably is now that I think about it. She stares reverently at it. "186% increased efficiency when compared to the standard pattern lasgun. 121% increased power, 56% increased accuracy. This is a revolutionary armament!"
Joline stares at the slender boneclad lasgun. "I assume that it's really good then?"
Dol continues staring reverently at the lasgun. Joline shrugs, goes behind the still staring Dol and gives her ass a hard slap. Dol gives no outward reaction, simply continuing to stare at the lasgun as if it might spontaneously disappear if she takes her eyes off of it.
Joline comes back next to me and leans on my shoulder. "Can you please explain?"
I shrug. "It's really good. The only problem is that we can't actually use it. Even the most stupid hive world ganger could recognize it as xenotech at a glance."
That finally brings Dol back to the real world. She blinks, before shaking her head in denial. "It can be camouflaged as regular imperial tech, its smaller size easily allows for this."
I point at the obviously xenotech lasgun. "We don't have any good explanation for how strong it is. At most we could camouflage them as archeotech, but that won't allow for mass-scale deployments. The most that we could reasonably arm would be our personal bodyguards."
Dol looks at me as if I had just kicked her puppy into a vat of acid. Anesh gulps nervously. "I- uh- We can make a thousand a day?"
I sigh. Eldar tech is such bullshit, this isn't even surface level for the level of bullshit they and the necrons get up to. "We'll arm our personal bodyguards, but we'll keep enough stocked for an emergency."
Getting accused of tech-heresy would be preferable to dying in combat. The good news is that even inquisitors fear to tread in our sanctums, oh how grand the benefits of being unionized in the grim dark future can be.
—
We will personally be going to trade with the forgeworld, we need to buy some armaments along with supplying Dol with common and uncommon materials. We could have simply sent an envoy to trade with the forgeworld below us instead, but we want to sightsee.
Joline, Dol, Flakey and I exit our transport ship and are greeted by the sight of the forgeworld. Production belts upon production belts littered with components and materials flow chaotically everywhere, servitors are stationed in every nook and cranny, doing a hundredth of the work that a proper production machine would do.
In other words, the forgeworld looks exactly like what Joline's presence would do to a factorio lobby.