Editing Commissar Techpriestess love story (section)

=== Chapter 24 ===
“What’s the matter cutiecogs?” Caelistis asked, “Are you worrying about your big strong commissar?”
Octavia nodded, taking another nip from the bottle she cradled in her lap. Caelistis hugged her closer, “Look, I know it’s hard when they go off to play solider, but believe me, he can take care of himself. He wouldn’t have lived this long if he couldn’t.”
Her cognitor concurred, the fact that Rogal was still alive meant that he did possess excellent survival traits, no one tended to survive long in the guard without them. Still, her cognitor reasoned, the odds of survival dropped every time he went into combat, and now, with it being a pitched battle, versus orks, with his injured arm. Her thought process was thrown by Caelistis poking her belly with a mechadendrite, “No, don’t try and work out the odds. No good ever came of that. Listen, did he ever tell you he has an honourifica?”
Octavia shook her head, “No?”
Her slim friend grinned, “Figures, Tiberius said he wouldn’t talk about it.”
“He said Tiberius has one?”
Caelistis nodded, “He does. He doesn’t talk about it much either, but he told me he has one, and he showed me the report. The pair of them pulled off a suicide mission like no other, staggered back to the base bloody and bruised, and were, yeah, awarded an honourifica each.”
Octavia’s fleshbrain perked up, her Commissar was an honourifica recipient. She pulled up his service file, her eyes working from side to side as the data scrolled past her vision, when she heard Caelistis click her tongue disapprovingly.
“They both asked for it to be redacted from their files, neither of them felt they deserved them.” She said, taking another draught from another mechadendrite borne bottle. Octavia stopped, the bright red [REDACTED] blinking. She sighed again, before downing more of the smooth amasec her roommate had brought home.

Caelistis, flopped back on her bed, her free mechadendrites pulling a pillow under her head, and she rolled to face her petite friend, “But, that’s beside the point. If we’re going to snuggle like a couple of collegia girls, you need to tell me gossip.”
Octavia gave a small smile “What sort of gossip?”
The taller priestess of the machine god giggled, trailing a mechadendrite over her friends stomach, “JUICY DETAILS” she cried, clapping augmented hands together with a metallic crack, “You promised,”
The smaller priestess lay back, covering her head with the obsidian coat she was using as a blanket, and pulling the bottle she was drinking from underneath the jacket with her. Caelistis poked at the coat covered lump with a mechadendrite, and was rewarded with a nervous giggle. She poked again, and was rewarded with Octavia slapping away her mechadendrite with one of her own.
“Cael, stop, I’ll spill my drink,”
“Then get out here and tell me what you and that mammoth man have been doing!”
Octavia pushed the coat down with her mechadendrites, her cheeks pink, “We’ve been, snuggling.” She said quietly, her mechadendrites wringing nervously.
Caelistis grinned wolfishly, “That’s not juicy, I want juicy, intimate details. I want to hear how he pinned you down and ravished you, or how he lifted you up and ravished you, or anything, so long as there is ravishment,” The slim priestess said, taking swigs from three different bottles. The small disciple of the machine god whimpered nervously, her friend turning to face her, “JUICY DETAILS, I SAY!” she roared happily, amasec thick on her breath. Octavia took another long drink to calm her nerves, as her fleshbrain began working out exactly what to say.

“Well, I took the chance, like you told me too.” Octavia began, a blush beginning to spread across her cheeks, “ So he pulled me inside the tent, we tried to talk…”
Caelistis grinned goofily, “Like that was going to last,”
Emerald eyes narrowed in annoyance, “Hmpht, we did talk, a little, but then…” A dreamy smile crossed Octavia’s face, her fleshbrain reliving the lunchtime romance. A mechadendrite slid under the coat to stroke her thigh, but froze when she was interrupted,
“But then?”
“Butthenhethrewmeonthetablecauseiaskedhimtoandweforincatedlikeapairoflumbunnies,” Octavia blurted out, quickly clamping a hand and mechadendrite over her mouth. The taller techpriestess tried in vain to keep a straight face, and failed miserably, throwing herself back on the bed laughing.
“You, making like a lumbunnie. I can’t believe you said lumbunnie.” She managed to gasp out between bursts of laughter, as Octavia took another drink to hide her nervousness. She had always been shy, but somehow, Caelistis had always managed to get her to open up. The inebriated techpriestess calmed herself, rolling onto her stomach and crossing her ankles in the air,
“So then?”
Octavia looked around nervously, “So then, hewaslikeamachine,relentlessandpowerfulandhedidthingsthatmademypotentiacoiloverload” the blushing brunette paused for breath, “andishockedhimandblewtheglowglobeaboveus. Then we snuggled, and realised we had damaged his arm.”
Caelistis looked confused, “What was that last bit?”
“We realised we’d damaged his arm?”
The slender techpriestess shook her head, “No, before that,”
“We snuggled?” Octavia said, realising what her friend wanted to hear, and deliberately avoiding it,
“Little more,” Caelistis purred, relishing the blush that now covered her friends cheeks, “Something about a glow globe?”
The brunette priestess eep’d, before mumbling an answer.

Octavia let out a quiet eep, and her friend grinned. “See, and believe me, when I say affectionate, I mean, affectionate. He won’t want to let go of you,”
“Cael, stop,” Octavia pleaded, but the cable haired disciple of the machine god continued,
“There’s nothing like being very aware of your own mortality and the fact you survived another battle to make a man want to show his woman how much he loves her, in the most passionate ways possible, it’s true.”
“I suppose then, that said woman, having been very afraid for her man, would return the favour,”
Caelistis winked at her, “Exactly, so you might want to pop over to the infirmary to, stock up,”
The petite priestess finished her drink, “Right, well, I will make a note to do that.”
The conversation drifted to small talk, which eventually lead to Caelistis stripping down and snuggling up to the jacket covered ball that was Octavia. The libertine priestess kissed her friend on the cheek, cuddling her close, a mechadendrite pulling the blanket over her,
“G’night, ‘Tavia,”
“Goodnight, Cael”
Caelistis slipped off to sleep quickly, the amasec in her system accelerating the fact. Octavia lay awake, staring out at the dark room, the little blinking lights of various appliances trying to lull her to sleep. “Omnissiah, protect him, Omnissiah bring him home, though he is made of weak flesh, please treat him as your own,” She whispered to the night, praying to the machine god to watch over her Commissar.