-A Silent Ship has just entered Kodolfispace.-

It had been a year of slow and steady expansion for Rantha Corp, with the occasional explosion, stray ‘borgs ‘going cyber’ and not at all sent by the Mekkers, things falling from the sky onto production facilities, and rogue transportation somehow crashing their way into our holdings.

There had also been a lot of unfortunate deaths in the management hierarchy of the Mekkers, unexplained system failures, rogue coding, Axiomatic Events, hackers disrupting research results with fatal equipment failures at key times, and rogue borgaii troopers going cyber and shooting up lots of Mekkers nearby.

The raids of large amounts of data and processed raw materials also infuriated the Mekkers, but not nearly as much as the coders who went in and used their own systems to ship out items without paying for them, and weren’t caught until proper eyes-on inventory was done months later when the systems kept conflicting with shortages.

While there were certainly aliens out there who could program in TL13 code, the number of humans who could do so were basically controlled by the Mekkers, or members of the Warp using chaositech to bend the systems. Cyberpaths never bothered to learn true coding to that depth, as they could simply manipulate the systems directly to get what they wanted. Finding out there was someone capable of mucking with the fundamental coding of their system who wasn’t an alien was not welcome news, but what could they do?

Ranthacorp had expanded in many directions, and Green and Gold was growing blok by blok, adding some new levels of violence to Downspire and stirring things up. Astonishingly well-trained gangbangers and street scum were being recruited into the Planetary Guard and the Fleet, which resulted in them being posted around the system, and their competency got them promoted with impressive speed into places where information flowed.

When the Silent Ship came unannounced into the system, two Marked in Kolosti Station traffic control were among the first to learn it, and that meant I did, too.

I had no doubt it was a maneuver by the Mekkers, who were happy to scream Warp Sorcery and psyker at anything they could not explain. Since I had a mindblade, I was definitely some sort of psion; I wasn’t a Mentat, which meant I was unregulated, and all these new psions popping up Downspire definitely had something to do with me.

Ergo, if the Silent Sisterhood, the people who cleaned up rogue psions like nobody else, could be brought in to whisk us all away for experimentation and disposal by some of the darker branches of the Empire, all the better for it.

I wondered just who and what they were, and how their powers worked. None of the Silent Ships that carried off rogue psions into the darkness were beyond the Rift when it opened up, so there hadn’t been any encountered by any of the Marked as yet. Since they might be able to detect the presence of a Mark, all Marked were directed to disconnect their Marks when one of them was around, just to be on the safe side. They could be easily re-established with a touch from another Marked later.

Me I wasn’t worried about, or the kids. With our Nulls up on full and simply disengaging the Marks, there was nothing to sense.

But, if they were being directed to go after me, it would be best if I was proactive about it.

------

“Touché!”

There were some grumblings from the other party as golden sparks danced up his arm from the hit, but the numbness was not something that would endure long, and if it was a little sharp, that just told them they had lost.

The blue mindsword opposite me dispersed, and the rueful Coronal Knight shook his head at me. I just winked at him, and shooed him from the ring for the next eager sparring partner.

My having two Suns and five Stars on my golden mindblade had gotten around for some strange reason, and it hadn’t been long before the semi-challenges and sparring offers had come in from Coronals eager to see just what this outsider bladebelle had to offer.

Some were friends of The Twat, too, and eager to avenge him and put me in my place.

It came as a great surprise to them that I could thrash all of them, and I could do so one after another. It was probably the fact that they couldn’t even use psi and cheat that spurred someone to collude with the Mekkers, and so a Silent Ship had changed course to come and investigate this new psion.

When the women in form-fitting black and grey power armor came into the room, quiet spread like a wave. The lean, long-armed knight opposite me managed not to lose focus, keeping up a quick array of thrusts and over-cuts, trying to make contact and discharge a hit, and finding his blade simply wasn’t going in the direction he wanted it to fast enough to do what he wanted.

With a flick of my wrist, Chalice slid down his extended thrust, pushed it wide before he could react or respond as I slid into his stance, and he had no chance of getting away before I tapped his chest and did a polite discharge. “Touché!” I informed him politely.

He swore to himself as he pulled back, then followed suit with me as I retracted my blade and turned to look at what was going on.

There weren’t a lot of Umbrans here, as most of them did not pursue the path of a mindblade, but those who did all seemed to have materialized to watch as the women in dark armor cut a swathe through the room. The members of both Orders present backed away to give them room, and couldn’t hide the twinges of fear and revulsion that came across their faces.

These people were psi-killers, and certainly were not here for a show.

I calmly measured the faces of everyone in the room, marking those who had an element of schadenfreude in them, and especially those who were gloating. Those petty sorts were going to find their own kinds of petty revenge coming to them. The girls were already planning their comeuppances...

Sapphire blades far outnumbered silver and gold combined in this Castle, which came as no surprise to me. A few Knights who worked closer with some of the Umbrans were even showing hints of red, which was a danger sign even the most constipated members of the Order were wary of... but which Mekkers, among others, only saw as a level of appropriate ruthlessness and a mindset that could execute such decisions without guilt.

Seeing they were coming my way, I came down from the stage with my sparring partner, who had a much more nervous look on his face than I did.

I just lifted an eye as they zeroed in on me. They stepped closer with the confidence born of everyone being afraid of them.

Hmmm...

I lifted my eyes and looked around them as they stopped three paces away. My sparring partner retreated to five paces away, while I just stood there easily.

I sat there, waiting politely, as they stared at me, and I looked them over curiously, not at all discomfited.

Psychic energy was flowing past my Null towards them. Naturally my Null itself wasn’t moving a whit, but I could feel the sensation like a breeze blowing over a stone.

This...

I gave them an assessing look, while they suddenly didn’t feel so sure of themselves behind their faceless helms.

“Vortices...” I mused aloud, studying them. “Well, how very unexpected. How long do you have left before you go into forced isolation? Ten years? Twenty?” They didn’t seem to move, but I could see their shock. “Thirty? No way, you got above three decades? Must be the armor, you poor things. Well, you definitely came to the right place. Who told you I could help you?”

A lot of people were staring at me, and a bunch of jaws were dropping as I stepped forward, and without any hesitation touched their arms, turned them around, and herded them back in the direction they’d come. “I’m Marquise and Colonel Sama Rantha, a pleasure to meet you. I’m something of an expert on your condition, although I’ve no idea how you found out. But that’s fine, that’s fine. Let me go introduce you to a few people. I presume you ladies have some time available?”

Stats and Skills are not psionic. These psi-killing women were as susceptible to Diplomacy as anybody else, and I was radiating good will, and a complete lack of fear of them. They could only nod at me.

“You’re the Sisterhood of Silence, right? I’ve sort of heard of you in passing, but, you know, everyone gets all jittery when they talk about you.” I gave them all a thumbs up as we strolled out back the way they’d come. “Good show! Buuuuut, that doesn’t mean you can’t talk, right? You’re like, the Silencers, not mute, right?”

“That is correct,” said one who sounded like the oldest, and had the most beat-up and subtly decorated armor.

“Oh good. If you had taken a vow of silence, you should have hunted down and shot whoever had that stupid idea.” We passed out of the room under the gaping jaws and eyes of all these people come to see me hauled away by the Sisters, while I chatted happily.

I waved my hands in front of them. “You’ve definitely got the highest Draw,” I said to the oldest of them, pointing the way to the stairs and the hallway out. “How much longer do you have in active service?” I asked professionally.

She hesitated, but my manner was that I knew what I was talking about, and that alone was enough to pique her curiosity. “A decade, perhaps.”

“There is purification circuitry in the armor, modulating the extremes of the psychic energy passing through you?” I went on.

“...Yes,” she finally admitted, while the two younger ones looked at one another. “Your knowledge of our Order is most unexpected, Marquise.”

“Mmm. I know almost nothing about your Order. But Forsaken I know a great deal about, although I have to say I never expected to see a Vortex alive, and had no idea the Sisters of Silence were Vortices.” I inhaled, and frowned. “Well, it does explain a few things now. Tell me, is there an opposite Order of Voids?”

They visibly started. “I’m going to assume that means yes. Well, no wonder I’ve never met a free Void. The Empire must snaffle them up at all costs...” We had Awakened millions of people by now. The odds said we should have run across way more than three Voids by now, but they continued to be elusive.

I could only imagine that their genetic profile was on a secretive filter passed through the entire Empire. When a Void was born, that gene filter was tripped, and they were probably ‘acquired’ by someone at some point. The likes of My Queen must have been missed, or weren’t strong enough to rate taking, especially considering he didn’t Open until he was a Seven.

The other two Voids had been gutter-born and likely never had a genetest growing up, or they might have gone missing, too...

“The existence of Voids and Silences is not common knowledge, Marquise,” the eldest of the Sisters said, as we turned into the soaring vault of the main hall leading out of the building, and the many flags and banners of great campaigns of the Coronal Knights here.

“I am not a common person,” I replied with a sniff. “Were you not given my personal file?” I flicked up my Band, and waved the data file to them, their systems accepting it smoothly. “I assume you deduced by my Sword Focus and mindclaw that I am a Null.”

One almost said something behind me, but was caught by the elder in time. “There was some alarm about numbers of new mindblades arising in the slums of the city, and their presence was traced back to you. It was thought you might possess some illicit way of Awakening new psions.” Which said activity would get a person in very hot water, because it inevitably led to rebellion, destabilization, and other fun events.