*000000*

I had intentionally gone for a single-core design just to test the theory work and accompanying math needed; now I could push it further and see if it was possible to build an orb with more processing power.

I blatantly scoffed at even the idea that my orb wouldn't work properly. I had leveraged most of my skills in it's creation, after all. What might be faulty was the basic spell equations needed to operate it, and even that would be more or less trial and error as I worked out the new formulas. Having already known the full underlying process behind why the orbs worked was a big bonus in this regard. (That actually building an orb proper fully disabused me of the field durability issues I'd originally expected to see from the orb was a bit of humble pie on my part, but I took it in stride. Progress waited for no one, after all.)

Anyway, back to improvements.

I started on the design work for working in another computing core, complete with a few improvements in where I had noted some...slack. The second build was shockingly faster even than the first, somehow, and I now held in my hands this world's first dual-core computation orb, and one that was set for general purposes, at that. I gave the internal a quick once over before getting set for a brief test of the improvements I had made.

Unsurprisingly, they worked as intended.

Fully emboldened by the success, I set to designing and building up both a three and four-core model as well, just to see if it was possible. Used up most of the prepared materials that the workshop had available, but I could get some more later on, or just wait long enough for it to replenish itself. (it was convenient like that).

The three-core had some minor issues that were quickly cleared up with a small tweak to the build. The four-core, however, tried to tear itself apart for some reason. Curious, I looked it over and saw the problem involved in the gearing and setup processes, then just did a (relatively) quick mod and the problems went away just like that.

I got a strange feeling I had just completely spat on someone's life work by doing so, though.

Shrugging, I then considered what I had learned...which honestly was not much, as I had been sticking to the basic principles of operation for the cores and nothing too groundbreaking from a more modern (or advanced) perspective. The real tests were going to be from the expansion of the technology into the digital age, and a third option that had appeared to me during my tinkering: the possibility of using pure mana as a sort of "virtual core" setup allowing for nearly infinite processing power if used right.

First off, though, I had an idea that needed checking.

Computation orbs had one major flaw aside from the low-tech nature of the build: Power. Rather, the fact that the vast majority of mages would never actually be able to use the damned things to anywhere near full capacity simply due to lack of natural mana output.

My solution to this was very simple: the capacitor.

Basically, I would find a way to create a form of battery for the excess mana produced when not in operation, or when not under extreme load, and then channel it into a form that could be used later by the operator of the orb, regardless of their actual personal output, as long as it was not zero. Combined with some of the efficiency tweaks and mods I was making to the designs I'd made, this should allow all but the absolute weakest of mages to have a usable ability with the orbs.

I began the planning process for how to adapt the damned orbs for a battery that wasn't complete garbage (or far, far too large for proper operation) and paused when a feeling of warmth spread over me.

I looked over at the timer for my Core and was startled out of my working trance at the display.

0:00.00

It was finished.

Feeling absolutely giddy at the news, I all but dropped my current work to rush over to my core and resync.

The difference was the equivalent of high noon and pitch black,

Everything seemed so much smoother, so much faster, so much MORE. I played around a bit with the various settings I now had access to, trying to find an ideal setup for my use...and really couldn't decide one way or another. Giving it up as a wash for now, I left it to my core, which really needed a name now, to figure out as we worked together.

The biggest change other than the vastly improved sensory awareness granted was that the impeller was improved a great deal in strength and thickness. My control was still shitty, as was true for all newbie valkyries, but a quick check showed it to be more responsive than examples have shown most low-sync hours valks would have. Noting major by any stretch, but it would likely help in practicing later on.

The second biggest change was that I now had the super-neat "constant improvement" code built into my core, and it had already started on what was available to it at the time, doing some improvements to both the fabricators and the medical suite installed on my frame, as well as some general purpose tweaks to the frame itself. If the code that we had created worked out, then the speed and overall efficiency of the process should improve as time went on and our sync (and tech base) improved. (A feeling from within suggested that the code would work just fine.)

Now that I had access to my best tools though, I could push the computation orb project even further than before...and possibly even go beyond!!!

ONWARD!! FOR SCIENCE!!!

I hate my life.

It had been three whole weeks, and I have been banging my head against the wall that was the computation orb to no avail.

Oh sure, I could push the level of the orbs up to some absolutely ridiculous stages; after all, I had managed to make a legit 16-core orb. The problem came from the fact that the sheer power draw for anything beyond eight cores became nearly unsustainable for anything but the highest level mages. I had been looking into ways to reduce the strain on the user, but nothing seemed to want to stick. It was frustrating on a level that I had reserved for the damned scrub gangs that still tried to make a nuisance of themselves whenever I chose to step outside for longer than ten minutes.

The capacitor project was going no better. Despite getting a decent one set up and operating, it had the relatively minor problem of being the size of a goddamn super duty pickup truck...for maybe five minutes of power output at levels worth the effort.

The issues with making a digital version of the orb were both lesser and more complex all at once. Making the circuits seemed easy as hell, until I ran into the issue that apparently the mana calculations needed a completely different design type and architecture tha anything even dreamed of by most in order to work right, and then add in the fact that the process nodes themselves were notoriously finicky and unstable for all that they seemed very easy to make, and the frustration factors piled up even more.

And I didn't want to just throw it at Thoth (the new name of my Valkyrie Core, and a reference to the Egyptian deity of the same name, who symbolized wisdom and Science, among other things) in order for him to fix it up. I wanted to actually understand this technology and why it worked from the ground floor and not just cheatcode it. Besides, this was literally MY OWN GODDAMNED TECH. I SHOULD be able to understand it, right?

But NOOO. The damned answers to the questions kept themselves away from me in any and all ways possible. I swear that this shit was going to be nearly impossible to do…

I stopped for a moment to consider other things for a bit. The issues I was having had plagued the early 21st century as well, with availability of power and overall power draw being the main advancement of computing during that era. Every major advancement seemed to be about efficiency in some way or fashion instead of raw power. Considering the advent and proliferation of the smartphone, this was no real surprise.

The issue is that none of the science principles that worked for those revolutions seemed to be taking hold here. I knew that a digital, or at least circuit-based version of the computation orb was possible, I just couldn't crack it. Likewise, I had no way of actually breaking the limiters keeping the capacitor project from advancing past the stage of near complete uselessness.

I'm supposed to be a super genius dammit! How can I not figure this shit out?

I took a shuddering breath. Nope, not thinking about it.

Instead, I would do some more practice with originium and the things it allowed for.

After the last incident involving me getting shot at, and the subsequent lay-low order, I had cleared out a small section of the workshop proper to use as a sort of training area for my experiments with Arts and originium in general, though I had yet to really work with the material properly just yet. It was something I was saving for the future, after I cracked the computation orb.

See how far that got me...

For the most part, my Arts usage had advanced in steady, predictable ways. I had given more thought on usage to some of the basic examples given by my Class training, and made some (admittedly small) attempts at branching out from there.

For example, let's take the Vanguard Class. It specialized in movement, both in terms of sheer mobility and of maneuverability. What this meant is that the skills adjacent to the class were all about getting in fast, kicking ass, and getting out again just as fast.

In a way, it was very similar to the general specialization for Alliance biotic operatives than anything else, as they had the same modus operandi. The main issues I was having in training the related Arts for the class was space, as nearly all of them involved movement of some kind, and usually enabled movement in unusual ways, such as the eponymous spider climb ability (which was actually hard as all hell to keep going, let me tell you).

The Sniper Class was exactly as I thought it would be based on my previous training, focusing on being able to both identify and then hit the target specified at extreme ranges. There seemed to be some extra stuff in there beyond a skill wall of sorts, but I could never seem to get past it with the limits I'd set for myself. Something else to work on for the future.

The Caster class was paradoxically the easiest to train in, as it focused on Arts to the excursion of almost everything else; a blessing and a cure all in one on the battlefield. I doubted anything but the strongest casters would be able to stand against even a newbie sanctioned psyker of the imperium, let alone the stuff the Eldar were capable of, so I focused instead on the utility portions of the Arts, figuring I could get to the rest later. The telekinesis trick I'd been using to help construct the computation orbs had been a godsend in training me on fine control with my powers, and I had managed to work in some similar uses as well, mostly based off of my memories of Golden Sun. Including all of the general purpose TK-adjacent utility psynergies, I also could adjust temperatures in objects by a small to moderate amount with a bit of focus. Along with a minor ability to affect the electromagnetic spectrum over a shockingly broad range that was growing faster than anything else, really. I practiced all of it whenever I had the chance, usually when I needed a break from banging my head into the wall over the orb tech.

Then there was the Medic Class. The Arts here seemed to defy everything I thought I knew about arts proper in the way that they operated, and came attached to quite a few specialty abilities depending on the user. As I was still new, I had no real specialties to speak of, but I did have a very useful, if basic, healing art that acted as a cellular regenerator. I suspected that this was one of the primary treatment methods for those infected with oripathy on that world. It was definitely something that I would be doing closer research on in the future.

By comparison, the remaining classes were almost carelessly simple in their functions. The Guard, despite its name, was a frontline melee combatant first and foremost, tasked with standing toe to toe with the enemy and taking them down by any available means. The benefit it granted me was a not insignificant skill in melee combat, particularly with blades of varying types, though I favored the sword, spear, and a form of partisan that was a very close mix between the two.

Specialists, on the other hand, were something of a grab bag: the title itself was meant as a catchall for anyone who had skills that didn't fall under the standard operator training classifications. In theory, this meant that anyone who had a unique and/or useful skill could be classed as one. In practice however it tended to work similarly to the more applied MOS of the various militaries of history: namely demolitions, assassinations, and other specific point work. That my personal rating was as an engineer was not a surprise in the slightest.

My practice with arts today would be focusing on the abilities of the Guard, to whom the basic skills I knew were of some minor body strengthening techniques. Supposedly one could push really, really far and do some downright anime shit at higher levels, but I wasn't there. Not yet.

My training continuing apace, I still had reserve brainpower to consider other issues while I attempted to distract myself from the orb problem. The higher ups of Van Saar, having noted that something was going wrong in their area of expertise, started looking into who and what the hell was trying to kill me off so urgently...and was finding jack and shit, which concerned them greatly. That I was currently able to handle myself to a degree was noted and ignored--this was an assault upon the house itself to be gunning after one of its assets. To that end, they had apparently pulled House Delaque into some form of contract to look into exactly what the hell was going on. Delaque had yet to send a report back in, which according to Harry was highly unusual for them, even if the work was being contracted out to one of the lesser gangs of the house. Still, something that could move around like that more or less undetected to a house that was known for specializing in the same was a scary prospect.

For most.

For me it was currently an annoyance, as my house minders, in the form of the Lieutenants three (and that's what they were, fancy title or not), were intentionally keeping me from wandering around too much until they had solid info. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal, considering I was hip-deep in my own tech development at the moment, but it was the times like this when I needed a real break that it grated.

Even when I was working out the alternate core configurations to allow for the eventual 16-core setup, which required something similar to the core cluster model of 21's t century multicore computing chips. the sheer strain on my psyche wasn't that bad, and I had been considering doing something absolutely silly at the time and just making a three dimen--

No.

No. way.

There is no way in hell it is that easy.

Stopping myself in mid-motion of a swing with the training weapon I had thrown together out of some junk, I turned back to the computation orbs set on the workshop table . If this theory was right…

It was a quick build, all things considered. I'd used the same materials leftover from my many other attempts. The same processes in forging and shaping the circuits to be. Hell, even kept them as oversized as normal in order to see what was happening and make changes.

The only difference was that instead of making it like a standard circuit board, I made the gates, pipes and arrays, as basic as they were, in the full three dimensional spectrum.

The resulting piece of circuitry was clunky, and actually a bit larger than it needed to be., at about the size of a pair of fists, cubed. I took a look at it, and fired it up.

And of course it didn't work.

The difference, however, was not in that it didn't work, but HOW.

It was a completely new failure mode. One that actually baffled me for a bit as I examined it and tried to draw some conclusions from the mess. And nothing seemed to make sense. The damned thing seemed to defy logic. How the hell does a system fail Left?

It was even more frustrating than it should have been, but I still felt that I was on to something here. So I made another one

And another, and another, and another.

All of them failed, but not in exactly the same way. Some failed left, others failed up (don't ask, I don't get it either) and one particular version seemed to just...absorb itself and fail that way.

But each failure point gave me more data. And I learned what I was doing wrong.

It wasn't about the shape. Sure, making a 3D circuit helped a bit, but it didn't NEED to be that way, and in fact would work better in a 2d config until I had a basic operations process worked out. What was important here was that I now had an idea of how the mana flowed and operated in the circuits proper.

Which meant that I could now create a proper circuit for it to work in.

The design process, oddly enough, only took an hour, even without me leaning too hard on my abilities. The build took less time, as I was now used to putting the experiments together. No 3d circuits for now, at least not as we would normally think of them. Instead, it was similar but vastly different to a "standard" integrated circuit, with several of its most defining features (including the transistor) either missing or so completely redesigned as to be unrecognizable. But it was finished.

And the test spell was fed in, which did nothing more than create a small but of light.

I waited with baited breath as the test started...and then whooped with joy as the tiny glow appeared above the circuit itself.

Oh HELL yeah. I had created the very first digital operations orb.

You would have thought that I would have immediately ran through the whole super-iteration process with this new discovery, but I didn't. I really had no need to do so right now, for one, and for two, the capacitor problem was now more important than ever, as I had noticed even in the initial test of the digital orb that it was going to be a power-hungry beast. Which meant that I needed a way to supply that power in a reasonable fashion.

Well, part of it was pride, I'll admit. The postmortem on the experiments with the digital orb made it clear that the fix was staring me in the face the whole time and I'd ignored it because I knew better. After having been fed my considerable helping of humble pie on the subject, I was hesitant to push too hard with the capacitor project without actually looking at what I was doing, both right and wrong.

So for now, I let it sit. Besides, I was expecting a visit from Harry soon, and hopefully with an update on the whole assassins thing. Maybe even a decent timetable on when Van Saar could get together a training platoon for me to start working into shape.

It was around this time that I began hearing an odd and kind of ethereal tune. I know I had heard it before, but I had trouble placing it. It was kind of uplifting, in that sense of wonder way, that used to be reserved for things related to outer space. What sounded similar to..sea life? Echoed in the background in a pleasing way. And yet that tune ,it seemed so familiar...almost like a song without words, one for an eternal story. An impulse led me to seek out the source of the music, only to find it playing from seemingly everywhere and nowhere at all.

Wait a minute...It reminded me a lot of the title theme of--

A vision appeared to me. In it, I saw the endless sea of stars, the countless planets, moons, comets, even nebulae stretched across it's vista. Each seemed only to add to the gathered splendor, acting in a way that created an amazing backdrop of colors.

Flash focus,, to a world beset by a crisis beyond anything they had seen before. The planet itself was dying, and very soon it would no longer be able to support life in any form. The people of the world sought a solution, any solution, that would save them.

Flash away again, to another, different world, where beings wielded what seemed to be the very stars themselves in all things, growing powerful beyond measure with the mastery of this strange power. A castoff remnant of the knowledge is tossed away like trash into the void, unneeded and unmissed by these great beings

Flash again, to a distant future. The great ones had fallen, somehow destroyed by their own hubris, and their works left to be cast adrift. The only salvation: a race of purpose-designed inheritors of their legacy, wielding only a fraction of the power that had been available to those who had eventually created them.

I got the distinct feeling that this was just meant as a reference point, really

Flash again, back to the cast off remnant, now an asteroid containing the lost fragment of a whole so much greater. This fragment fell to the doomed planet that I had seen first.

And with it, hope.

Within, lay the means to access that great and terrifying power, even if it was only barely understood at the moment. It was used to advance the understanding of the doomed world to unseen heights, allowing them to build a series of arkships to escape their world, and begin the search for a new home.

A final, all-consuming flash blinded me, leaving me in a white void once it finally cleared away. Before me was...something, a thing, a creature, possibly even a consciousness? of unimaginable power.

And it began showing me things. The works of those who had wielded the light, and the same works of those who had despised it, who sought to corrupt it into their own image.

It was beautiful and terrifying in equal measures (and felt oddly familiar as well), and just as relentless in the barrage of information, both of what was and of what could be.

And within it all, even as I was being overwhelmed by the sheer deluge of knowledge, to the point that I could barely process any of it at all, let alone hang on to it, was a simple question.

What path did I choose?

I had to force myself to focus, to place context to the scenes playing out before me, and even then I failed, swamped with the metaphorical (and likely metaphysical) weight crashing down on me. The strange light (or was it a darkness? It was getting hard to tell) watched with a passivity that would have been annoying if I had even a second to process it.

And the question repeated. What path do you choose?

I barely managed to focus myself, to cut myself off from the flood tide of data swarming me, to get a clever look at what I was dealing with...and what I saw horrified me.

The darkness, it sought out a means to control me, to use me for its own ends...and it had nearly succeeded, pushing me towards making a hasty choice that would have had devastating consequences had I accepted. It was a path of corruption, of being twisted into something that I was not, and being used to erase all that I held dear, even simply favored, into an all consuming black void of nothingness.

Something that I would not allow to happen, ever.

Finally having found myself, I rejected the false flow of damaging data, recognizing the attack for what it was at long last, and turned away from the source of the darkness, what I had once perceived as a blinding light.

Instead, I looked away, finding the final piece of the cast-away fragment of the bearers of this light, shining even still. They sang out to me, a promise of a brighter tomorrow, as long as one was willing to fight for it. A sentiment I wholeheartedly agreed with.

And thus, it was with a determined step that I turned away from the howling darkness that even then threatened to consume me utterly...and walked towards the light--

The trance ended just as suddenly as it began, and left me with the feeling that I had dodged a very large bullet, one that had specifically been aimed at me, no less...and had been rewarded handsomely for doing so, as well.

I consulted my memories...and nearly gasped in shock at what I had found.

It was a power unlike anything I had ever seen before in my life, the potential to wield the very light itself in ways that seemed almost magical in nature, to push for levels of technology that were likely unknown even during the dark age of technology.

It resonated with me on a level that I couldn't quite explain, as if it just somehow FIT.

It was also very much not something that was normally a part of the forge of stars, having added itself to my repertoire of its own accord. For what reason I did not know, and really did not care.

Because I recognized it for what it was now.

I knew it as the power of Photons.

The power best known, and used, in the world..no, universe, of the game series Phantasy Star.

And I was going to put this knowledge to GREAT use.

A knock at the front door of my actual lodging broke me out of my musings on my new prowess. Quickly moving to exit and close the workshop, I answered the door, thinking it to be Harry with that status update.

Instead, it was one of the Adjutants to that Augmek that I had met. The thin guy with the beard, Janus Farhish,. We had built up a small but firm rapport with each other after that first meeting, with him being suitably impressed with my skills and the sheer balls I had to display them in the manner I did...nevermind that I hate being an asshole as a rule...a trait that he surprisingly shared with me. It didn't take long for us to click after that, although his responsibilities kept him busy for a lot of my current tenure. And even then I usually had to come to him to get news.

Apparently something had changed.

"Hullo there, Farhish."I greeted him, even as I waved him inside. I used his family name as a form of respect, even though he insisted I could call him Janus. "Whatcha need so badly that you showed up in person?"

The look on his face turned unusually grim after my question. "I'm here because we have a lead of sorts on what might be happening."

I would have grinned at the statement, but something about his expression dulled the impulse. "And you had to come tell me in person? Usually you guys go through Harrisyn for stuff like this."

"That is part of the issue, I'm afraid" he replied. "Agent Cain was in the process of collecting the information that had been received and processing it when an incident occurred. He has yet to check in as per standard protocols.

"We have reason to believe that Harrisyn Cain has been either kidnapped or killed in order to keep him silent."

According to Janus, Harry had been missing for over 72 hours now. Normally this would not be a big deal, as groups or cells going dark for a bit were expected to happen every so often, and a system for discreet check-ins was used for those few that had need to be disappeared for a bit to let their comrades know that they weren't in a ditch somewhere or being processed into corpsedust.

Harry, however, was different. Being connected to a ranking Augmek the way he was, and being a sanctioned information broker for the house at that, meant that he had a much stricter check-in schedule than most, and was generally required to verify his existence in one way or another every week, Circumstances being what they were, and Harry being part of the investigation team, this was more than reasonable.

Whatever incident this was that I had missed due to my isolation must have been freaking huge if they were considering a 72 hour blackout a big deal.

Time for some Q&A.

"So what exactly happened that makes you think he's been compromised, then?" I asked. "Isn't the normal check-in schedule once a week?"

Janus was quick to reply. " Normally, yes. However, the nature of the...incident required that all members of the house with leadership roles or connected to them check in within a 72-hour timeframe before being declared missing." He moved into the living room area of the maintenance shop that served as my home, and took a seat. "Agent Cain has yet to use any of the normal methods to signal that he is alive and well, and our normal spy network has yet to find any evidence that he was captured."

I nodded along, slowly putting together a barebones picture of what might have gone down. "You have any details that I can use? What exactly happened, anyway?"

Janus gave a slight grunt of assent. " I can tell you that much, at least, as it was connected to you." He stopped a moment to collect his thoughts, then continued."What do you know of the current investigation?"

I shrugged. "Not much, really. From what I understand the investigation is stalled out for lack of any real leads or obvious culprits."

Janus nodded. "Close enough. What we have managed to find out is that one of the houses is potentially compromised, which one and to what level we're not sure, by an unknown third party. This faction appears to be the driving force behind the attacks.

"What complicates matters is that there is another faction involved. And they may have screwed everyone."

I blinked. I'd expected a crock of bullshit and shadowrunning shit, not someone flipping the table.

"We have no clue who they are, what they want, or why they chose to get involved. All we know is that they exist." Janus let out an annoyed sigh. "And quite frankly, it is pissing most of us off."

Yeah, I can see that being the bane of a lot of planning. Problem is, it left a lot of questions in the air. For example…

"And how exactly did Harry get caught up in this shit anyway? I thought he was doing rear-line work, more as an analyst and processor than anything that close. Why the hell was he even in a position to get got?"

Janus shrugged. "He was in a defended location. It's what makes this whole incident weird as all hell. We still have the raw information, nothing got lost, but for some reason he appeared to be a target of the actions that day, along with a copy of the intelligence that he was working through. We still do not know WHY."

Well shit.

"So do you have any way of at least confirming that he's even still alive, then? Some kind of beacon, maybe? Or even a vox signal to home in on?" I was reaching for straws asking this, but any port in a storm...and for some reason my trap senses were tingling…

Janus' reply was not encouraging. "We don't, really. All we have is a general timeframe of where he was and where he could be given the normal movement channels available. It isn't much, but we used it to secure all of the likely routes out of the area. Hopefully this keeps our mystery aggressors occupied long enough for us to catch a lead."

I stopped myself from replying right away as I crunched at the problem. Missing operative, no clue as to location, all normal means of tracing him are lost. Likely still in a preset area or areas, and is prevented from moving out of said area through monitoring of the exits.

Two major problems: unknown capability of aggressor, and unknown operations area of the same. Because we don;t know what they can do, we have no way of knowing if our planning and strategy is effective until already in the field. Because we don't know their operations area, we have no way of being sure that the enemy is actually contained and not getting clear with our missing VIP his was going to be rough...but I have to plan around it.

"Alright, I think I might be able to lend a hand, but I'm gonna need some things." I began. "First, I need several auspex scanners, preferably handheld but if you can get some of the stronger ones that works too. Second, I'll need around 48 hours to get ready. After that we're going to do a search and rescue...and possibly a search and destroy while we're at it, if this threat turns out to be bad news. Any objections to my plan so far?"

Janus shook his head. "None on my end, although getting that many auspex on short notice might be a bit difficult. I'll see what I can get going. As for you being in the search, while I cannot directly prevent you from involving yourself, I would strongly recommend you sit this one out. Don't want to lose another one of our guys to this mess."

Huh. I was touched that they considered me as one of them. All the more reason for me to not sit back and stay idle.

"I appreciate the gesture, but not happening. Where I'm from, we take care of our own."

Janus could only give me a solemn nod at that statement, before leaving to begin his preparations.

Alrighty then. I had 48 hours to put together something that could not only find Harry, but stand against whatever crazy BS managed to get the drop on him in the first place. This meant that I had to take the kid gloves off and go to town on everything that I had access to, getting as much ready as possible in order to ensure the maximum chance for success. That meant I needed to triage all of my projects and tech, just to see what I could get out the door on short notice.

Another brief sensation caught my attention. It would seem that I had some new toys to play wi--oh dear god.

So, Remember how I was talking about the whole triage of projects, needing to prioritize what would get out the door fastest?

Yeah, that's gone now.

Because I had just picked up what by all rights looked like a goddamn tinker ability from Worm. The same Worm tinkers known for being stupidly fast in construction using what amounts to PAPERCLIPS to create weapons of mass destruction. That was bad enough on its own, but the specialization I had received was just outright devastating.

Miniaturization and Efficiency.

Best part? No limits, no caps, no black boxing, and no weird pulls to do stupid things. Just a massively broken power that would let me build fusion reactors the size of watch batteries with all of the output. To start.

In retrospect, that other ability to increase nearly every aspect of anything I built by a flat 15-20% across the board was very paltry. Even the minor boosts to durability and efficiency were outperformed by my other abilities...

Oh, and I also had the theoretical data on Tau energetics and plasma tech. So there was that too.

But that big part? That meant that the capacitor project just got a massive break added to it. I might even be able to get around whatever stupid limitation was holding me back before. And then?

I would equip my frame, and set out to find my friend.

And woe betide anyone who stood in my way.

In the end, I stuck with the basics instead of going full ham, keeping it simple while still allowing for some tricks up my sleeve if needed.

Janus had managed to come through in providing the auspex units with shocking speed. I then used them as a basis for my own custom scanner system, primarily intended to be upgradeable in the long term but for now just a smaller and slightly more efficient unit for Thoth to integrate.

Weapons wise, I was sticking to the classics, in the form of some lasguns that had the power output boosted, and a few slugthrowers of various calibers added into the mix for variety, all integrated into Thoth as part of a basic weapons compliment.. I considered pushing into the new areas provided by access to the Tau energetics, but decided against it due to time constraints.

Similarly, I didn't really do much with my limited knowledge of photon technology beyond building a basic photon rifle to use as Thoth's primary armament. I had considered going for a photon launcher, but decided against it due to lack of prep time in learning how to use it properly.

Even the breakthrough potential that I had available to me in the magic capacitor project was set aside in order to simply improve upon what was already there instead of throwing new shit into the mix...the result being a significantly streamlined and optimized 16-core Operations Orb waiting for my use as an emergency measure should I need it. In fact it was even more streamlined than it should have been, considering my skills and abilities.

Guess the stereotypical German Engineering is paying dividends after all.

As for my "mundane" gear, I had my usual complement of Alliance N7 gear, now reworked and optimized for the kind of close-in work that was likely to occur here. I had FINALLY decided to give my omni-tool another rework, mostly to streamline what was already there rather than add new equipment or programs to the gear itself, and had linked it to one of the refurbished auspex units that I would be using along with the search party. With any luck I would be able to use this to process the incoming data faster and "see" around any likely interference that we might come across. Considering our search area came dangerously close to the underhive proper, interference was likely.

I had also managed to get the kinetic barrier modules set up in a way that didn't require my armor to function, meaning that I could wear imperial standard stuff and not stand out like a goddamn sore thumb. With that accomplished, I tossed the Armor into Thoth's storage for him to integrate whenever he felt like it.

One very notable improvement to my gear was my Eagle heavy pistol. After giving it a very thorough inspection and maintenance, I had managed to improve it's workings to a surprising degree, especially since I didn't actually do a rebuild of the weapon itself, Just a disassembly for maintenance.

These perks of mine are bullshit. Really.

That took care of the tech side, and had barely taken a day.

The rest of that time was spent on any and all forms of information gathering, ELINT operations, and general planning for the op than anything else. Yes, I could have spent more time tinkering with the tech, getting more gains and better returns, but it was completely and utterly wasteful in the time frames involved.

Technology may indeed win the day, but only because of those who wielded it. And I would rather use what I had to maximum effect than bring in completely new and unfamiliar stuff and pray the edge holds. Skill trumps most things, after all.

But even with all of the preparations, all the gear, all the psyching up possible, nothing could prepare you for what would come once things got started. No operations plan in history has ever survived contact with the enemy, and this one would be no different.

And at last, the time had come, and the search team was assembled at the rally point, an old factory of some sort or another, long since abandoned due to the deteriorating conditions from what I could see.

The search team was a mixed lot, and seemed to pull a bit from everyone and everything that was available at the time, from low-level gangers with improvised armor (if any) and basic weaponry, all the way up to what I would guess were Van Saar officers or at least superiors of come kind, given the more advanced armor rigs and higher-end weapons. (one of them even had a weird shield made out of an odd energy field, probably a form of plasma. I reminded myself to get a sample later to reverse-engineer)

One of the leadership types spoke up once it appeared that everyone had arrived. "Welcome, one and all. We're here today for a search team to locate one of our own...and to deliver vengeance upon those who dared to strike against us.

"We will be doing a coordinated sweep of the area, with the intention of either flushing out our prey or locating the hole that they are hiding in. Handheld auspex units will be provided to each team to assist in the search. Our objective is to locate and either retrieve our comrade, or confirm his death at the hands of our enemies. Killing said enemies is secondary, but highly encouraged.

"Any questions so far?"

Shocking to me, there were none. My mental estimate of the competence of the locals raised itself another notch as the leader, who I was now designating in my mind as a Sergeant, continued.

"Alright then. The teams are pre-assigned, with each of you going to be running with your normal crew plus one of my boys here," He motioned to the well-equipped group, "as backup and a bit of stiffening. Before you complain," and there were already some of the groups starting to grumble about it, silenced for a moment as he shifted tacks, "this is not a mark on the ability and competence of your people, this is instead a statement of just how seriously the higher ups are taking this. I don't think I need to elaborate any further than that."

Again, much to my surprise, there was no need to elaborate any further for them, although this time it was for more obvious reasons. The potential to gain favor with the brass was always tempting to those who were unaware of just how mercurial that attention was. It could just as easily turn bad as be good.

"If there are no further questions, let's get started."

I ended up "assigned" to the command group of this little operation, likely a move to keep an eye on the low-level VIP more than anything else. I didn't fight the issue, even though I would have had a better chance out on the front lines. (I'd thought about sidling in with one of the reserve teams, but decided against it for the time being.)

Instead, I used the assignment to more or less take control control of the sensor feeds being relayed from the auspex units the teams were carrying around, using it to create a composite picture of the area we were in. (the operators of said net did not mind in the slightest, as the setup they intended to use had certain flaws to it that my setup avoided)

And the results of the initial scan were not promising.

Despite being an old factory, the place was an absolute warren of tunnels both old and new, some seeming to be old waste tunnels leading off to one of the processing plants, others possibly being piped to the outside to join the rest of the filth that usually built up outside of longstanding hive cities. Add in the fact that we were extremely close to the structural layer separating the hive proper from the "true" underhive and it created a nightmare situation where anything and everything could be hidden within. And even with the limited improvements that I had made to the auspex units as part of the refurbishing I'd performed, they still could not penetrate through all of that ferrocrete, meaning that searching the tunnels had to be done manually. This was quickly turning into a recipe for disaster.

Which is why I'm still sitting here tense as all hell, waiting for the other shoe to drop, and equally surprised that it hasn't actually done so yet.

The teams were using relays for both comms and sensor data to be passed back up to the base station, so there was that much, at least.didn't stop me from being paranoid as all hell, though.

The teams were encountering very minimal resistance as they progressed, and all of it currently from the "wildlife" of the hive proper instead of any organized resistance. I was concerned that we might have had the wrong place, but the Sergeant assured me that this was the place.

Still, something had me on edge. I didn't like this one bit. Thoth seemed to agree, as he was straining constantly at the seams, trying to badger me into letting him send out an active ping, which I kept denying, mostly on grounds of EMCON, but also so that we didn't look odd with having advanced scanning gear in the area with no obvious source to the auspices currently in use.

What I did do, however, was direct some of Thoth's attention to upgrading our passive scanning abilities. I did not want to get ganked because I didn't see the asshole coming. So far, there was nothing new under the Hive, but if my hunch played out, that would be changing soon.

I was sorely tempted to deploy a few drones from my omnitool, but I held off, just in case. The drones themselves wouldn't draw more than a curious eye from some of these guys, but it was best to keep a potential trump card unknown, and thus available, just in case.

So all that I could do was wait, and keep the data streams coming so that the command team had all the info they needed to make a decision, should one become necessary.

I decided to start the check-ins early, just to assuage my paranoia.

"Team one, check in".

"Team one here, nothing so far."

"Team two, check in."

"Team two, nothing to report."