Chapter 289: Weapons Upgrade
The investiture ceremony concluded. Kian walked out of the Ecclesiarchy tower and went directly to the Forge Temple in the Underhive.
He'd killed the Aeldari warrior and her equipment was now his by right. The problem was he had no idea how to operate most of it, so he'd handed everything over to Enginseer Antonius for analysis and maintenance.
He found Antonius in his research chamber, surrounded by the haul spread across the work surfaces: the Howling Banshee war mask, the wraithbone power armour split neatly in two, the shuriken pistol, the power glaive, all arranged with care.
The Aeldari warrior herself had been disassembled with equal thoroughness: skin, muscle, viscera, skeletal structure, and nervous system catalogued separately in clearly labelled containers.
Kian leaned in.
"What can I actually use?"
Antonius pointed at the power glaive.
"When it first arrived, I detected signs of what appeared to be material fatigue, consistent with sustained heavy use over an extended period. I've just run a second scan. It's completely restored. According to my archives, this is a characteristic of wraithbone, an Aeldari psychocrystalline material with limited self-repair capability. The blade is fully functional again.
The caveat: it draws on a psychic crystal for power and has no external activation mechanism of any kind. To use it, you need to be a psyker."
Most Aeldari weapons worked this way. No switches, no buttons. Psychic intent was the interface.
Kian took the glaive and ran his fingers along the hilt, then pushed a tendril of psychic energy into the grip. Something inside responded. The wraithbone lit up and a pale blue disruptor field bloomed across the blade.
He gave it a slow flourish. It was notably lighter than his power sword.
"Much lighter. Completely different."
Antonius nodded.
"The power sword's weight comes primarily from its internal high-output energy cell. That cell is its greatest strength: reliable, long-lasting, won't fail at a critical moment. The wraithbone glaive is light because it uses a psychic crystal instead. The tradeoff is energy capacity."
Kian confirmed this himself by pulling up the system comparison.
Standard Pattern Power Sword Reference value: approximately 1,300,000 Agri-Scrips Weight: 3.5 kg Energy: sufficient for 50 continuous metres of cutting through 60mm armour plate.
In practical terms: the disruptor field only drew power during actual contact with a surface. Fifty metres of continuous armour cutting was enough to work through well over a thousand opponents in a sustained engagement.
Wraithbone Power Glaive Reference value: approximately 8,300,000 Agri-Scrips Weight: 0.8 kg Energy: sufficient for 5 continuous metres of cutting through 60mm armour plate. Can be recharged at any time via psychic input. If not severely damaged, will self-restore to full condition over time.
One tenth the energy reserve of the power sword. But with his current psyker capability, recharging the crystal was trivial, and the self-repair property meant he could treat it roughly without concern. Need to push through a sealed armoured door? Use the glaive. If it takes damage, it'll heal.
His plan: keep the power glaive as a sidearm option. Primary weapon in both hands was the power sword. Against dense enemy formations he could activate both, open his arms wide, and rotate.
Next, the shuriken pistol.
Antonius held it out for inspection.
"Same situation. No external trigger mechanism. Psychic activation only."
He produced a cylindrical ammunition block and placed it on the workbench. From the outside it resembled a short stack of large coins pressed together.
"Two thousand monomolecular discs per block. With psychic activation, the firing rate is 120 to 150 rounds per second. Effective range: 200 metres. Each block provides fifteen full firing cycles."
He showed Kian the loading procedure: a psychic touch to the crystal set in the grip split the pistol lengthwise, exposing the internal cylindrical feed chamber. Block inserted, the weapon sealed itself automatically.
Antonius led him to the adjacent test range. Targets had been set up at 50, 100, and 200 metre intervals, each one a decommissioned servitor corpse.
Kian raised the pistol at the 50-metre target and activated it with a brief psychic pulse.
The sound was distinctive: a rapid, high-pitched shriek of displaced air as 150 monomolecular discs per second tore outward in a spreading pattern. One second of sustained fire reduced the target to fragments.
He swung to the 200-metre target and fired again.
The rounds scattered across the entire range. Of 150 discs, one or two found the target.
Antonius observed from the side.
"Aeldari shuriken weapons are not designed for precision at distance. They're designed for an overwhelming burst of damage at close range. Within 50 metres, the disc pattern is lethal to unarmoured and lightly armoured targets. Past 100 metres, accuracy becomes unreliable. Against heavy armour at any range, the discs have limited penetration.
This fits the Banshee combat doctrine: close the distance as fast as possible, deliver maximum damage in a single burst, withdraw. The weapon is an extension of that approach."
Kian nodded.
"How much ammunition did we recover? There was a full Aeldari escort vessel's worth of equipment."
Antonius gestured to a servitor, which stepped forward carrying a custom ammunition rig: a thigh-mounted or torso-mounted carrier holding ten ammunition blocks, each clipped securely in place.
"Beyond the samples I retained for research, this is the complete remainder. All yours, my lord."
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