Ni'iktu (War Moons of Talax)

The Heretek takes the data wafer and plugs it into a socket located on his temple. His eyes go dead for a few minutes before they snap back to life.

"I don't recognize the unit in question. Must be an ancient design that has long been forgotten. However, from the pict recordings I have noted a few details. I don't know if you saw in the heat of the battle but the unit lacks amble rear protection. It seems to have salvaged its rear facing panels to reinforce its frontal armor. Also, the servos in its right leg are seizing up. I would expect the unit would look for a replacement leg before it becomes totally useless. Lastly, there is a control unit on its chest plate. If you can establish a link with it from your suit you might be able to activate shut down protocols."

Archimedes listens without making a move, not that the Heretek would see it under his helm in any case.

"I was unable to make a note of these facts at the time. What about its weapons? Rapid fire-high caliber? he did not seem to be too low on ammo even after thousands of years. He also seems to have a servo arm as well. Is there anywhere this thing could be restocking such ancient supplies? It would be an ample place to launch a surprise attack. The control access pad will be a hard one to gain access to unless i disable it first. Lacking EMP weaponry I dont think thats applicable."

He listened for the heretek's opinion on the weapon and where it could be restocking the ammunition.

"Technically it's a power fist... but yes it seems to have an ample supply of ammunition for it's assault cannon. It probably found a weapons locker where it restocks and repairs. Let me see if I can bring up schematics of that deck." Keltec says as he slinks away.

He's back within a few minutes with a data slate, "I've narrowed down the possible locations of the weapons locker from the schematics that I have."

He hands the data-slate to Archimedes which has marked out 3 locations.

Location 1: The most central point of the deck and the main junction of all the corridors. Weapons Locker probability: 55%
Location 2: Bow starboard. An offshoot corridor that dead ends. Weapons Locker probability: 35%
Location 3: Aft port. Located right near a small defunct cathedral space. Weapons Locker probability: 10%

He takes the data slate and studies it for possible ambush locations. At the one with the highest probability he would have ample chances to get behind it. At the second he would not unless he hemmed himself into the corridor first, not a viable solution. The last was an open area, if he could get the drop on him he would have a decent preemptive strike, but if it failed he would be out and in trouble.

"Ill take him down." he says matter of factly as he turns and leaves.

All of the options were moot if he chose the one the automaton did not frequent. He finds a small out of the way corridor, thinking long and hard about his options before moving forward.

Spoiler:

[No need to roll. Invoking foresight will help immensely in picking the correct weapons locker.]

Archimedes pulled upon many years of experience and a general knack for foresight to determine his best options. The central location was the most obvious but the most obvious was not always correct. Even with the Keltec's high probability the central location would be the hardest to defend. The avenues of approach were many. Even the automaton would face difficulties in covering them all from a rush by the scum.

If that was the original location of the weapons locker the automaton would of moved its contents to an easier to defend position. The easiest was the dead end corridor... one way in, one way out.


Archimedes re-entered the scum deck and proceeded to the lonely corridor. He didn't rush as time was on his side. He crept along letting the miasma and fleshly coverings of the deck soften his armored boots.

He halted 30 meters away from the corridor entrance. No need to rush in just yet.

[Give me a Perception +10 and a Survival +0.]

[Meant Awareness so that will be 2/3 DoS.]

Archimedes spots a series of devices hidden away around the entrance of the corridor. They appear to be screamers.

Archimedes takes a second to inspect the screamers from a distance.
They were hidden, well placed to sound the alarm suddenly.

He had 2 options, he could either attempt to move around and bypass them, or he could attempt to disable them.

Either way I have to avoid detection, why make it harder and disable them? he thinks.

He creeps forward in an attempt to bypass them completely. As he does so he draws in the Camoline cloak tight with one hand, while keeping a ready bolter in the other.

Spoiler:

Archimedes sneaks forward carefully and brings up his Camoline cloak as he faces the array of screamers. He took one long step and passes through the threshold. The properties of the Camoline cloak seemed to do the trick in bypassing the screamers as he wasn't greeted with their wailing.

He proceeds down the lone hallway before reaching its natural end at a bulkhead door. At first he thinks its locked but he presses the bolter barrel against it and pushes. Its old hinges give some resistance but it finally swings open with a screech.

Archimedes leads with his bolter first... and nothing responds. He then brings the rest of his bulk into the storeroom. The automaton is not home but this was surely its base of operations.

Along the back wall there are stacked cases of autocannon rounds, human bolter rounds, and promethium tanks. One the leftmost wall hang a twin linked human heavy bolter and a heavy flamer. Each seemed to be designed to work solely for the automaton and were of no use to Archimedes without modification. A workbench below them indicates the automaton is starting up a new project or some sort...

The right side of the storeroom is neatly complied selves of an array of supplies. It's mainly human shotguns, their shells, las-carbines, and their power packs but Archimedes does spot a few things he might like.

2 Melta Bombs
Power Blade
Neural Whip

[Feel free to take all or any of those.]

Archimedes finds the stash and nods in approval. This would help him greatly in subduing the automaton.

He stashes the power blade on his chest webbing, and the nueral whip on his belt.

He hefts a melta bomb, testing its weight. It had been many a year since he held one of these powerful devices. Convinced they would do the trick, he lets the bolter hang over his shoulder from the sling, keeps one melta-bomb on his belt and leaves the other in his hands, ready for deployment.

Now that he had the right tools, he finds a spot near the door, hidden enough where the automaton would walk in and pass him by without a notice. Then he would attack from the rear.

In the darkened corner, he awaits his nemesis......

[Just a reminder that Orozco is looking for a workable body... not one of slagged scrap. ]

The wait was long but everything would come to those that were patient. Something Archimedes knew all to well from his life as an Alpha Legionnaire.

The familiar thud of the automatons steps carried down into the storeroom and only got louder until it was finally at the door. The lumbering metal beast stepped in and Archimedes had the element of surprise...

[Archimedes has a surprise round here.]

Crouched low and in the dark, Archimedes takes the opportunity and slides the Meltabomb along the floor towards the automaton's propulsion system.

Spoiler:

[He's hulking in size so a +10 for that and nothing for range. So that's a hit!]

The meltabomb comes to sliding halt at the back of the automaton's legs and ignited in a flash of blinding light and intense heat. Some of Archimedes paint on his power armor is stripped off from the heat and if he wasn't wearing it he would of been subject to severe burn wounds.

In the aftermath the automaton's legs have been blown off and parts of its upper body slagged. It doesn't look to be responsive with its power fist and autocannon limp.

Additionally, the explosion caught the workbench area and the two weapons on the wall are gone along with the workbench. Luckily, the explosion didn't catch the large stash of ammunition along the back wall...

[End of combat. Archimedes now has himself half an automaton... to carry it/drag it out going to need a Strength -30. Also, give me an Awareness -20.]

Archimedes stands to full height. Curls of white smoke sizzled off the armor in places.

The job was done, and with no return fire- a perfect ambush.
"The primarch's will be pleased." he says to himself.

Nothing worth keeping was left, the room was slagged now. There was nothing to do but take the wreckage back to the heretek.
He grabs an arm and begins to drag the thing, not caring too much about setting off the screamers. The dregs of the ship would know who did this, and not to mess with him.

Spoiler:

Archimedes created a enough commotion where the dregs of the deck had become more curious instead of scared. Archimedes could see many eyes peering through the darkness at the wrecked automaton.

The curious crowd started to grow into a mob. A piece of metal came flying out of the darkness and bounced harmlessly off one of Archimedes pauldrons. The mood had switched from curiosity into something much more violent.

[Archimedes is outnumbered at least 30 to 1. Some have thrown things but they all bounces harmlessly off Arch's armor. The mood of the mob is swinging into something much more violent then where it was moments before...]

Archimedes had no fear of the myriad horrors of the galaxy, he knew none against the rabble.

He turns up the vox amplifiers to max volume to bring his point across.

"I have liberated you from the metal beast that prowls these halls. Your appreciation is not necessary, but should you react differently......"

He waited a second before finishing his threat,
I. Will. Kill. You. All."

"I will not stop there. I will kill everyone inhabiting these decks. Your ghosts will beg for mercy as I paint the walls red with you loved ones."

He would not fire unless they provoked him further.

Spoiler:

The violent mood quickly swung in the direction of panic and fear among the dregs. They scattered back into the darker recesses of the deck and left Archimedes alone for the rest of his trip.


Archimedes dragged the dead automaton back to Keltec's workshop. Orozco's brain still sat on one of the workbenches while Keltec inspected it.

The automaton proves to be more interesting as Keltec rushes over to it, "By the gods. I didn't know our ship has such an impressive machine on board." Keltec sees the extensive damage Archimedes caused it. "To bad you had to slag it, Legion."

Orozco's jar bubbles as a psychic message is transmitted to both the Heretek and Astartes, "Is it still possible to fashion it into something I can use?"

"It will need a new locomotion system and some repairs but those are all easily solvable." Keltec responded.

"Excellent."

[800 XP, +5 Infamy, +5 Corruption.]

[We'll get back to the main quest in the next update.]

Archimedes takes the rest of the trip back to Ghibilline in peace. For him that meant spending time in the murder servitor pens like his first time aboard. No one else dared to enter the space and nor did the murder servitors bother him.

A claxon rings out four times signaling that the ship was about to make planet fall. Seems that navigator Abel got them there in one piece and without any warp incursions.

Archimedes reports to the bridge where he finds Keltec, Sarge, Iontine, Cashmere, and the newly bodied Orozco. Keltec modified the body just beyond the legs... which look much sleeker and mobile then the last pair. He gave Orozco new arms omitting the weapon mount and power fist and to top it off Keltec had a spare psychic hood laying around. Still, seeing that brain in jar on top of combat chassis was a sight to see.

Redbeard looks down at Ghibilline. "You are running the show here, Legion. I have no head in games of subterfuge and espionage. Whatever you need to see Ryborn dead though is at your disposal from this ship."

Iontine hands Archimedes the unmarked tome with a glass orb set in it. "As requested."

"Once you step off this ship Ryborn will get word of your return. Unless we make sure it isn't you that steps off this ship..." Cashmere said.

"Hmmm, we could make you look like Wyk!" Sarge said with more enthusiasm then usual.

[Once you have a plan in place we'll move back to Ghibilline proper this Thursday.]

Archimedes takes the items without a word. Quietly he moves to stand beside the automaton.

He speaks lowly, so that only those next to them might hear, "Are you pleased with the heretek's work? Im surprised the rest of the crew isnt more....concerned about your presence. It wasn't too long ago that very body was relentlessly murdering the work gangs."


After that conversation he approaches the heretek, "You replaced the legs faster than I expected. Did Orozco have any kind words for your work?"


He then approaches Cashmere, ""You are doing well? This will be he most dangerous part of our vengeance. Ryborn betrayed us, presumably for his own profit and glory. I will see his soul burn in a thousand hells before I give him the pleasure of victory. I will go to him directly and cut his pleasure seeking life short. Before I give you a mission of your own, I need to ask, are they any elements of discontent on the planet? I know they extoll the virtues of pleasure and excess, but there are always the disgruntled few who carry the privileged on their backs and butter the bread of the rich with their own blood."

Sylphilis wrote:

He speaks lowly, so that only those next to them might hear, "Are you pleased with the heretek's work? Im surprised the rest of the crew isnt more....concerned about your presence. It wasn't too long ago that very body was relentlessly murdering the work gangs."

"This body is more than adequate. The crew is afraid until they see its no longer the automaton but me."

Quote :

After that conversation he approaches the heretek, "You replaced the legs faster than I expected. Did Orozco have any kind words for your work?"

"Orozco didn't say he was pleased or displeased. Not like he possesses any facial features that I could gauge off of either."

Quote :

"You are doing well? This will be he most dangerous part of our vengeance. Ryborn betrayed us, presumably for his own profit and glory. I will see his soul burn in a thousand hells before I give him the pleasure of victory. I will go to him directly and cut his pleasure seeking life short. Before I give you a mission of your own, I need to ask, are they any elements of discontent on the planet? I know they extoll the virtues of pleasure and excess, but there are always the disgruntled few who carry the privileged on their backs and butter the bread of the rich with their own blood."

"It might come as a slight shock to you but here on Ghibilline there are no elements of discontent. Everyone is involuntarily happy and content. In the Imperium they would call this place a utopia... well a heretical utopia. If you wanted to cause change you would be looking at eliminating the whole Libertine Council. I know of a few others that would like to watch them burn but they are not from this planet."

He nods to Orozco's observation.
It made him wonder if the other crew knew that he was more than a jarred brain beforehand....

To the Heretek:
"Undoubtedly. It makes you wonder how exactly they got his brain in the jar in the first place and how they kept it there. I doubt he simply let them do it to him. Maybe a drug that rendered him inert while they did so?"

Cashmere:
"That news is less than adequate. Perhaps the council will not like what Ryborn has been up too? No. That wouldnt work either. I dont think news of that sort would surprise or infuriate anyone else on the council. There are no cults dedicated to opposing chaos gods?"

He had hoped to kill off the council to cover his tracks and make sure none of the other council-members followed in Ryborns footsteps. More and more it looked like he would have to settle for Ryborn himself.

Sylphilis wrote:

To the Heretek:
"Undoubtedly. It makes you wonder how exactly they got his brain in the jar in the first place and how they kept it there. I doubt he simply let them do it to him. Maybe a drug that rendered him inert while they did so?"

"There are countless ways for exacting a brain. The brain does survive for a short while even after a body has died. As long as a vessel has been prepared and the brain is extracted quickly and without complications it can be done. I suspect that is what happened to Orozco. He was killed, brain extracted, secured into the jar, and his conscious reawakened. Now that jar he's housed in... I've never seen a design like it before but whoever made it was a master of biology and associated technology."  

Quote :

Cashmere:
"That news is less than adequate. Perhaps the council will not like what Ryborn has been up too? No. That wouldnt work either. I dont think news of that sort would surprise or infuriate anyone else on the council. There are no cults dedicated to opposing chaos gods?"

"None. Ghibelline was scoured of all those who opposed the council and their Slaaneshi ways. Any agitators or rebels stick out easy enough to hammer but that hasn't happened in decades. The Libertine Council is so secure they actively engaged in spying and espionage across the Vortex... which is my job as a Council Agent. If you did want to cause the Libertine Council issues and see them removed I would stat over at Guelph and talk to the Pit-Lord."

[If pressed Cashmere gives Archimedes the low down on Guelph and Ghibelline's history (Tome of Excess p85 and Tome of Decay p92).]

To the Heretek he nods and soaks in all the useful knowledge.


He listens as Cashmere details the history of the Meinloka clans and the distruct between the two branches.
Indeed, the Libertine council was rather well entrenched with the pleasurable feelings rolling downhill as it were.
"Ill have to settle for Ryborn alone then. Since he will believe you dead, is there anything you wish off of his corpse? Or anything you may want from his offices should I find myself there?"

"He keeps a small safe hidden at the base of his bed. In it are his reports from his agents, a hefty bag of thrones, and one specific and special piece... a beguiling gem."

[Are we ready to make planet fall?]

He nods, "Ill do what I can."

[ready to go]

The ship's hull begins to rumble as it meets atmosphere. It meant Archimedes was back where his journey began.

[Continued in Ghibelline.]