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| | | Chapter 0.1: Recruitement |  |
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Wendigo Bob
Posts : 1630
Join date : 2018-07-26
| | Subject: Chapter 0.1: Recruitement Sun Jan 06, 2019 3:36 am | |
| It had taken 5 years to prepare the expedition. Finally, the whole fleet was assembled at Samech, with three vessels: The single photon, my personal flagship; The Opus Equus, a factory-ship; and the Omnissiah’s vigil, a powerful cruiser. 53 432 souls in the fleet, including 10 000 Skitarii, and 20860 servitors of various types. 12.8 Megatonnes of supplies and cargo. And yet all these had been relatively simple to prepare. I had the support of Skaros, Goth, Metallica and Triplex Phall, as well as dozens of smaller forge-worlds; materiel and base personnel would always be the easy part.
I had started with 10 286 candidates (themselves chosen from a pool of millions for their skill). Then they were evaluated for augmentation content (4196 candidates), personality content (235 candidates) and finally positive-anomalous probability distribution (PPd, known as luck to laymen) (3 candidates left) and finally a rigorous simulated fire exercise.
While sensoriums where typically used by merchants to manipulate their prey, I found the hard-light holograms and sensorial spoofers ideal for single-combat and small-squad training excercises. The final candidate was finishing up the training sequence. The other two had been sufficient, but the effectiveness of the final candidate showed she had that edge, that strong PPd that would be necessary for Project Athena. She also possessed better initiative than the others, trying multiple times to penetrate the machine-spirit of the sensorium itself. I allowed her limited ingress, and she did not disappoint, favoring modifying the situation for further advantage rather than merely removing obstacles. She had shown her worth as the Skitarius Alpha for the expedition, and as first Mother of Project Athena.
As she left the sensorium I approached and asked her a question:
(In techna-lingua) Skitarius 000000000012, what do you believe to be the greatest work of the omnissiah? +++++ | |
| | | | Iron and Metal
Admin
Posts : 5168
Join date : 2017-10-15
Age : 37
Location : Where the sun settles in its final location
| | Subject: Re: Chapter 0.1: Recruitement Sun Jan 06, 2019 10:15 am | |
| Zahleezah Zahzorahganz had just moved from her well hidden position atop a small synthetically projected hill of debris. The exercise had been less than lethal, which was lucky for her various targets. None had known she even existed as she took them out of the game, before targeting the game itself.
She compiled and collated the data collected on her data-slate and then slid it back into the flak-pouch situated tightly against her thigh. Near her, Toes-187 sat in a low crouch, slowly standing as the holographic battlefield began to dissipate. His bulbous, fully mechanical head looked to her and nodded. Job well done.
The shooting had been easy. The hacking, less so, but that was what made it so rewarding. To kill corrupted automata was second only to taking apart a member of the Ecclesiarchy.
She resisted the urge to spit.
She turned as the Archmagos addressed her. She didn't salute, nor did she make the sign of the Cog. She knew that this had been an evaluation. Her performance would be the only necessary platitude required. She thought for a moment. Her response, like everything that had led her to this point, was heavily influenced by her past, regardless of how hard the Skitarii masters had tried to wipe her memories.
+++Androgyny. The androgynous nature of the machine makes us all, truly, finally equal in the Machine God's eyes. The Emperor made the Astartes, but he did not make the machine. The Omnissiah brought equilibrium to a galaxy in desperate need.+++
Toes-187, smaller than her by a foot, was already breaking down their weapons and praying to the Omnissiah as he inspected and praised them for their hard work. | |
| | | | Wendigo Bob
Posts : 1630
Join date : 2018-07-26
| | Subject: Re: Chapter 0.1: Recruitement Sun Jan 06, 2019 11:20 am | |
| +++Interesting. None have given me that answer before, and few have attempted to distinguish the Omnissiah from the Emperor. Though you did bring forth the Omnissiah's major work: The Astartes. +++
I started pacing around her; such actions tended to emphasize a perception of deep analysis. My auspex measured the wear & tear on her bones, tendons, muscle, cybernetics. Within standard paramaters after this action. He would need to push her harder next time.
+++Do not take the machine of flesh lightly, nor forget the warning "A soul can be bestowed only by the Omnissiah". We are flesh first, to receive this soul. The omnissiah made the astartes of flesh first as well, do not forget it.
And all variations upon base existence, be it sex, age or human sub-species have an optimal state that can be achieved. While all souls are equivalent in the machine-god's eyes, we are not equal in purpose. +++
I halted my pacing, facing her, looking he directly in her eyes.
+++You have already earned the rank of Skitarius Alpha in the fleet. It is well deserved, and shall not be taken from you.+++
I approached my face even closer to hers, eyes still locked. Using the electoo tattooed inside my living eyes, I continued transmitting a message in binaric cant, using confined laser emission. Short of placing themselves directly between me & her, none could intercept this transmission. The sensoriums colors also started shifting strangely at my command, the early sequence of the hypno-conditioning that would gift her the authority she would hold.
+++Before you now stands one of two choices; after the choice is made, there is no turning back, and no second opportunity.
You take the blue athority engram, and you remain a Skitarius alpha. You fight, you lead the forces of the omnissiah, and you may even go beyond what any of your kind has done before, in the eternal mold of the Skitarii.
or,
You take the red authority engram, and you gain the opportunity to go beyond. You will be taken beyond your cherished androgyny, not for inequality but to provide a true balance to the omnissiah's glorious astartes.
So is your choice. The security, happiness and ignorance of blue, or the knowledge, freedom and risk of red.+++
The shifting colors became ever-stranger, invisible to the minuscule creature on the ground and entirely directed at the Skitarius; the moment her decision was stated, she would receive the authority engram in an instant; no chances for second-guessing. | |
| | | | Iron and Metal
Admin
Posts : 5168
Join date : 2017-10-15
Age : 37
Location : Where the sun settles in its final location
| | Subject: Re: Chapter 0.1: Recruitement Mon Jan 07, 2019 3:13 pm | |
| Zahleezah never took the machine of flesh lightly, but the Archmagos wouldn't have known that. Her past was her own, forged in the apocalyptic wasteland that had birthed her. Her humanity was the one thing that her people had rallied behind - it had been them versus the tainted machines, day after day. Perhaps that was why the initial Skitarii brain wipes had failed - something in her past...
She snapped back from the memory to respond.
+++I never have, nor will I ever take lightly my humanity, nor my soul. Without my flesh, I can have not a soul; without my soul, I am nothing.+++
The cursed machines be damned. The combination of true flesh and pure machine were the only path forward.
Her bionic optics locked onto Archimedes' eyes as the transmission came through.
+++There is no choice; there is but one way forward.+++
Destiny and the Omnissiah had led her here, and it was not to stagnate, of that she was sure. Toes-187 finished with the weapons and cradled them over his back with a practiced precision. He watched the exchange, his bulbous robotic head tilting slightly sideways.
Zahleezah shut down her internal firewalls and accepted the red authority engram without another thought. | |
| | | | Wendigo Bob
Posts : 1630
Join date : 2018-07-26
| | Subject: Re: Chapter 0.1: Recruitement Mon Jan 07, 2019 5:03 pm | |
| I sensed her release her firewalls; how little she knew. This was no mere download; it was high-grade hypno-conditioning that only a full sensory shutdown could have prevented. No electronic re-writing was this; the mind itself would bend to my power.
The elaborate wave-forms of the opto & sono-engram collapsed as she made the choice. Intense data-streams penetrated her brain directly from the optic and vestibulocochlear nerve, stimulating her brain to produce a large number of inter-neural linkages. A thousands data-bursts became indelibly etched on her brain, the codes to use every turret, weapon emplacement and defensive measure on the fleet. Through this, she received the full martial authority derived from my Explorator's Writ.
But that was only the surface; the mere dataset of the blue engram. Supplementary sets bored deep beneath the base codes. Suggestions, ideas. The notion that one could become...optimal. Supreme. Little direct information beyond a single word, repeating until it bored into the core of her: Athena. ATHENA. ATHENA!. Without too much surprise, the sequence made her lose all control of her limbs. As she started falling to the floor, the chambers hard-light holograms held her on place. I let my voice boom forth, to end the sequence and seal the conditioning.
+++From this day forth, you shall have a second name: Athena Prima. And once your optimum have been determined, your true name shall be earned.+++
I looked at the small creature that followed her, with his bulbous robotic head. It's noospheric ident, Toes 187, was a typical attachement. With the sequence finished, the doors of the sensorium opened, and two servitors entered pulling a gurney.
+++Toes-187, assist your mistress. Keep guard over her while she is brought to the medicae. It will take some time for her to awaken. Her dreams will be...complicated. Your presence shall provide conceptual comfort to her.+++ | |
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