[RM.31] Rho-mu.31

It had been a long journey and the sight of the two deserted townships had unsettled everyone. They had all heard tales of settlements abandoned when the ore or whatever had originally drawn the settlers there had dried up, but Red Gorge and Crater Edge hadn't felt abandoned, they had felt empty, as though the people there had just vanished. Gone in a heartbeat. 'Perhaps they were pressganged?' suggested Severine. 'I've heard of that. A forge master isn't going to meet his quota and sends his Protectors out into the wastelands to capture more people to work in their forges.' 'Don't be ridiculous,' said Caxton. 'That's just scare stories.' 'Is it?' challenged Severine. 'How do you know?' 'I just do, all right?' 'Oh, well I feel better already.' 'What do you say, Rho-mu 31?' asked Zouche in a tone of doom-laden theatrics. 'Has Adept Zeth ever sent you off to procure slaves to toil in her volcanic forge?' 'From time to time,' admitted the Protector. That shut them all up. 'You're joking, right?' said Caxton. 'Tell me you're joking.' 'I am Mechanicum,' said Rho-mu 31. 'We never joke.' Dalia looked into the green orbs of Rho-mu 31's eyes, and though they were devoid of anything resembling humanity, she saw the wry amusement written in his electrical field. She smiled at the horrified expressions on her friends' faces and turned away so as not to spoil Rho-mu 31's fun. 'That's… that's terrible,' said Severine. 'The Mechanicum uses slaves?' was Caxton's disgusted comment. 'I thought more of you, Rho-mu 31,' said Zouche. 'I thought more of Adept Zeth.' When he judged the silence had gone on long enough, Rho-mu 31 leaned menacingly towards them and said, 'Got you!' A moment's stunned silence followed Rho-mu 31's words, and then the tension in the compartment was suddenly, explosively, relieved by hysterical laughter.

Mechanicum by Graham McNeil