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Felicia Tayber

The sister of PDF Sergeant Alaric Tayber, Felicia Tayber is an Enginseer from the planet Perlia[1a].

History

First Siege of Perlia

Despite her innate rapport with machinery, which made her able to operate and maintain almost any equipment - even Ork vehicles - she was not considered eligible for the priesthood because of her inability to adopt the more spiritual side of the Cult Mechanicus (especially her Weakness of Flesh)[1a],[1b].

She was fitted with standard Enginseer augmetics, including a sleep-suppressing and intelligence-increasing brain implant, and one Mechadendrite attached to her body at the base of her spine, which resembles a prehensile tail[1a].

During the First Siege of Perlia, she met and formed a close friendship with Commissar Ciaphas Cain, who along with her brother, rescued her from Ork slavery[1a]. She fulfilled the role of mechanic and vox-operator[1b] during their escape to the Eastern continent, and from her custom Sentinel Powerlifter, also fulfilled weapons loading and defensive needs[1c],[1d].

She also outfitted her Sentinel with a data recorder that captured Cain's fateful duel with Warboss Gargash Korbul[1e]. These images - to Cain's mortifaction - did a great deal to cement his reputation as the "Liberator" of Perlia[1f].

Inquisitor Amberley Vail, while editing Cain's memoirs, speculated on the exact nature of the relationship that developed between Cain and Felicia; Cain did not say, but Vail found it suggestive that he knew exactly where Felicia's mechadendrite connected to her body[1g] and that the two were on first-name terms before the end of the campaign[1h].

Second Siege of Perlia

Some eighty years later, during the Second Siege of Perlia, Cain was surprised to be reunited with Felicia, who had been recruited by the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Ordo Xenos of the Inquisition to work on their joint project on Perlia, continuing their research into the Shadowlight. Apart from her undeniable talents, she explained, her recruitment was a convenient way for both orders to keep tabs on the few people who had learned of the artifact's existence[2a].

Although she retained her irreverent, emotional side, and a continued liking for good food, Felicia overcame her superiors' prejudices and eventually rose to the rank of Magos and became head of the project team. As she explained to Cain, she had no interest in any higher authority, since she hated administrative work[2a][2b].

She was also implanted with additional mechadendrites, and more than half of her skull was replaced with various augmetics[2a].

Believing that she was nearing a breakthrough, Felicia experimented with the nearly-finished Xenos machine of which the Shadowlight was a component; unfortunately, the experiment had the effect opposite than what she intended, causing a massive surge of Warp energy that was as good as a beacon to the Chaos forces attacking the planet, and a hidden army of Necrons, who had been lurking in Perlia's orbit to search for the Shadowlight[2c].

Felicia helped to defend the Mechanicus Shrine from the Chaos force, but she and her staff evacuated when the Necrons appeared. As a last resort, the facility had been mined to prevent the Shadowlight from falling into the hands of an enemy. With a heavy heart, Felicia triggered the explosives, and was flustered when they failed to go off, the Necrons having apparently sabotaged the detonators. She and the rest of her team made it to safety with Cain's force[2d].

Sources

  • 2: Cain's Last Stand (Novel)Ciaphas Cain: Defender of the Imperium (Omnibus) by Sandy Mitchell
    • 2a: Chapter 13, pgs. 640-643
    • 2b: Chapter 14, pg. 650
    • 2c: Chapter 21, pgs. 725-730
    • 2d: Chapter 24, pgs. 760-761