>>5895200>>5895130>>5895402With the vessel overrun by xenos you don't expect you'd be able to carry your mentor to the medicae wing, assuming it is still operational even. There must be something you can do however even with only the basic medical supplies to be found nearby. His condition is dire but perhaps if you... looking about frantically for some lifeline or sign, it's the grip of your mentor's hand to your own which returns your focus.
<span class="mu-g">"Re- [-kch-] -move the vox czzzaster... I want tzzzo speak [-kch-] to you wzzzith my own voice..."</span>
You give some protest but when he struggles to do it himself, you oblige his wishes and help to remove the communicae apparatus from his face. Unfastening here, unbolting there, and the tangle of machinery comes loose from his mouth with spurts of blood although that may be from the many cords which trail from his throat as you pull the device away.
Never seen his face before, not fully. What little there is to be called a face anyway. As grim a sight as it is though, worth it for a smile... even if a forced one. No lips, bare skull and teeth.
<span class="mu-g">"I sent you to gather my data resources-"</span>
<span class="mu-b">"-I did! Everything is over there... well I hope so, after the explosion-"</span>
<span class="mu-g">"-forget it, leave it all. I don't want your escape slowed."</span>
That's right, you had to fetch the belongings of both of you. Correct in obeying your mentor and you're certain his plan was sound, had it not been for the interference of that wretched xeno. You can't help feeling some regrets now though, especially knelt here beside your mentor and seeing his condition in these final moments. If you had remained by his side or even... disobeyed him, perhaps he would have survived this with you? Though you acted as his assistant, in your years of service you also doubled as a bodyguard and certainly he had been acquiring combat equipment and augmentations for you, for that purpose. You want to believe that if the two of you had stood together, then like many times before you would have prevailed together... or at least, he wouldn't be dying alone.
And now, for all of that trouble and misfortune he <span class="mu-i">wants</span> you to just abandon him?
<span class="mu-b">"Escape? No, I am not leaving you!"</span>
<span class="mu-g">"You aren't leaving me Maven, I'll be right here... with the Omnissiah till the last."</span>
As if to emphasize his point, he takes your hands clenched in his and holds them against the altar of the Machine God looming over the both of you.
<span class="mu-g">"Now then, my forge-daughter... remember to order your data, you always keep your equipment so clean but you forget with your entries. Keep track of your tools, don't lose them... and promise me... promise you will find the Sovereign. You must find it, no one else can."</span>
<span class="mu-b">"I-I will, I will! I... I promise."</span>
Even at the end still admonishments, but you know they have always been for your betterment.
