Secunda let out an irritated grunt. She's been summoned before the left hand of judgment, yet, it would appear, that judgment was missing its left brain capability to give her cog-damned [i]directions[/i].

Way to go, Polla. Never change.

Toros sighed and started [b]parsing through the rest of the messages. Who the hell is Vergil Hawr?..[/b] It took her a couple of seconds to process Sororitas questions. Painfully slow, but then again, she was operating in the meat-time again, no neuro-boosted cogitator co-processing links.

"A [b]friend[/b], Kota? Been a long time since I've operated in the circles where we can afford ones. Do tell me more.", she glanced above the data-terminal screen. "As for the equipment, I'll pack myself up once we figure out where we are going. Should be some decent carapace around. Speaking of "where we are going", "being a test subject" and "heavy lifting"... Ever wondered how would you fare against an Astartes in hand-to-hand? We just might visit one of my... colleagues."

Toros would have never dared to call ZRK-333 a "friend", even in her prime. It was not a question of being personally squeamish, like in Stoll's case - quite the opposite, in fact. As far as Secunda could remember, ZRK-333 and Toros enjoyed a connection rather close - Archmagos trying to figure out the koans of Motive Force and the whole "go with the flow, Omnissiah will see you on the other side" thing, Electromancer trying to compherend the deeper layers of God-Machine dogmates and the half-light world of searching for new ideas in places irrational. Toros kept her memory of ZRK active as she strode through the minefield, clutching the gifted displacer field.

Calling Electromancer a "friend" would be an offending trivialization of their alliance and, arguably, an insulting hint at unprofessionalism. Toros has never seen ZRK-333 offended, and the prospect of offending the super-charged killing machine whose modus operandi was tied to self-reinforcing feedback loops supercharging her into action has always been estimated as "inadvisable for self-preservation reasons". Other reasons, if they existed, were not as important.

What was important is that someone was trying to set Electromancer up. Masquerading the combat servitor into something resembling Astartes, the whole displacer field thing... The obvious showmanship trying to pin the blame, enough to fool the grunts like November. Daring, of course, since even hinting that Astartes could perform an unauthorized assassination would sour the relationship with Eunicornus Kim of the First. Brackmann himself couldn't save you if the First decided to take offense. If the Angel of Death himself decided that her killer offended the honour of his Legion, they would have one extremely scary card in her thrumbo-fur linen sleeve.

What was also important was the fact that ZRK-333 spent two weeks integrating Archmagos' untimely death in her system of constants. Secunda was not sure how Electromancer would react or how she would process Electromancer's reaction herself. ZRK-333 would not have killed Toros through proxies. Secunda was about to see her in person.

Proto-maga shook her head. Meat-thoughts in the meat-time, as the Motive Force sparks struggle to fly through neurons, triggering fear of the unknown in place of healthy curiosity. [i]Go with the flow and Omnissiah will see you on the other side[/i]

[b][Sorry, Thanqol, I want to read all the mentioned inbox before locking in where to go next][/b]