Previous Threads: https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=The%202nd%20Primarch%20Quest_Where the scars of New Varro's pass are the deepest and most unhealed, where the descendants of custodians, engineers and technicians have turned the labors of their ancestors into consecrated rite and holy ritual, you, Lieren wander through the frontier left so transformed by the hubris and wars of eras now long passed, meeting with these tribes to offer them sanctuary and prosperity in whatever form they desire, to map the lands that will one day bear the fortress of your gene-altered, warrior sons and to find a means to grant them reprieve of their long thankless tasks that have shielded and safe guarded the rest of New Varro from the Horrors and strangeness of the Desolation Frontier.The Fogbreathers are the first of the tribes you meet, those who keep the polluted and radioactive clouds of poisonous vapors contained within their tribal lands, through means that are still yet unclear to you, having turned the duty through the lenses of belief into the appeasement of a sleeping god of winds, whose breath had rotten. Vigilant, you search their subterranean holdings for signs of Na Gou's presence, knowing well the subtlest signs of the patriarch of all that is foul, and recognizing that these environment suit wearing tribals may have been misled by the spirit of rot as Mari's own caretakers had once been. But, you find no signs, at least upon the habitable levels of the facility they have cut and carved into warrens. Their leader is a sickened, weakened man by the name of He who braves the Fog, who you offer healing but who refuses, seeing you as a herald of a new age which will need a new leader.He agrees, along with his heir apparent, Shadow in the Cloud, to allow their youth to travel Long-Jia's systems, New Varro ranges, but to settle the tribe in the first towns built within their lands to learn how to continue treating their "Slumbering God", whom you suspect to be a malfunctioning air purifier much akin to the Lungs of the Mountain or a degraded terraforming device that was expelling the ruination it had breathed in.Shadow in the Cloud escorts you to the next closet tribe, while your sons begin the initial stage of exploration of the "Cursed Dark" beneath the Fogbreather's dwellings, having experience in such cramped climates from Terra. And have put in a request to transfer over Alf'Harim war merchants if they encounter stiffer resistance than expected.The next tribe, is known as the Storm Courters, whom live between great, twisted towers that pierce the sky that anonymously produces a lightning storm without rain, clouds or winds. Their leader is a bright eyed woman, who reminds you of Akanksha in many ways, who upon hearing your tales of the more peculiar weathers and climates of the worlds you've traveled, asks if they may be granted the right to find the "Most thrilling" and settle families of theirs upon them
>>6474806A request you happily forward to the Imperial Household, while learning all you can about the towers, or "Storm Spines" that they live within, and quickly recognize it as Archeotech that Liberty stays behind to study and learn how to repair while Bright Eyed, Lightning's Flash, follows you, Shadow in the Cloud, Kanzeon and your Astartes to their neighbors of the "Sand Crawlers"Who are cousin to the Fogbreathers and were very happy to welcome you into their cliffside dwellings, standing before a great sea of sand much like the "Sea of Murdering Stars", in that it is made of a particularly coarse and cutting material. But in the first night you spend, you see that something titanic is churning the dunes here, unlike the sea of murdering stars which is carried by wind like the other "Skinner winds" of New Varro. You watch from a distance, and Kanzeon stares with her eyes and "true eyes" in her sensors, and you come to understand the "Angry God" the sand crawlers appease with strange dances and long journeys across its territory is a collection of mechanical burrowers, automated and potentially possessed by rudimentary abominable intelligences. The leader of the Sand Crawlers, is an venerable elder who reminds you of late Wenyan and late Guozhi, you are quite fond of him for this resemblance and learn his private name of "Little Mouse" As you remind him of his brave, but late son who had saved both the Sand Crawlers and Fogbreathers with his last act, but who, as is the tradition of the sand Crawlers, his name has been purposefully sealed and forgotten out of respect for his soul's privacy. The Sand Crawlers ask only that you bring the rain to their dry lands, and have little in the way of avarice or greater ambitionsTaking a little known path around the territory of the "Dune Fathers", you arrive the "Forest that Swallows all hope" Where you meet the "Spook Hunters", a somber tribe of hunters that are cousin to the Storm Courters, who besides their adoration of storms and all dangerous weather also hunt "Thundering Birds" ritualistically and to cull their numbers when they come to their homeland to nest. The Spook Hunters hunt the infamous Shaggy Spooks, and prevent the halest of them from escaping into wider new varro by haunting their boundaries of the forest, patrolling the dried river beds and holding secret tunnels that cut through the "Earthen Womb" the horrors emerge from. Their leader, recalls Aruna in his demeanor and you can tell he to has lost his peers and equals to violence as Aruna had all but Akanksha. And this reminds you dreadfully of the cloned armies of the butcher king and the means which the Bureau upon New Varro produced Shaggy Spooks and other monstrosities. You prepare a task force of Marines to prepare to travel to this Earthen womb to exterminate the source of these monsters. Cont
>>6474807The leader of the Spook Hunter, Forlorn Shade, then tells you of their distant relations deeper in the forest, the "Flesh Breakers"whom are a tribe that is the ancestor of the Storm Courters and Spook Hunters, whom are mutants, you meet them alone, knowing your Astartes experience with true mutants and sensing the discomfort of the other tribals. They are not "Beast men" like the Tiger Folk or Angra, nor are they a larger sub species, like the Vishnu or Ogryn. Nor are they like the Oracle Breed, Lomb or Relieved, adapted to their environment. They are, as Forlorn Shade said, Closest to what they hunt, for they shelter within the heart of the forest sprouted out from a sea of corruptive and mutative substances and feed upon prey that is saturated with it, radioactivity and "Qi" from a wellspring that you recognize all to well.Warpstone. They are of many shapes and forms, but their eyes are clear and human, despite their twisted and "Melted Wax" appearance. And are quite happy to host and meet a Hunter. You offer them the only thing they all dream of, to remove the burden upon their flesh and minds and make them "Human" again, a belief they hold to stubbornly despite your long talk explaing they are human and truly so.Their leader, Alpha, explains to you there are two further tribes, who you meet and make the same offer to. The "Fish Friends", are a more extreme adaptation of the Lomb, and are curious to meet their "Star Cousins" and even more curious to meet the Se'ah'in and make friends with them, they are scaled people who care for the "Thinking Water", that is locked beneath the great lakes they travel across. It is an intelligence that seeks to reunite with its parts, something the Deep Diver thinks would bring about the end of days. And thinking back to your lightning raid on the Bureau headquarters, you are certain the lake had once been the capital of Old Varro, before isolation, brother wars and other disasters wrought ruination upon it.And near the shore, through great plains are the nomadic "Steel Fellers", who hunt the lopping, scythe limbed machines that reminds you uncomfortably of the Abominable intelligence created by the Mathoth, Humanity's lost friend & vanished ally. And your concerns grow when you learn from the Head Steel Feller, Bug Killer, that their tribe is young and formed from the descendants of a band of heros who traveled to slay a "Star Spawn" that fell upon their lands. Which they succeeded in, but not before its own spawn spread out and created their own hives. The sanctuary they ask for is merely to be allowed the right to travel freely. The Tribals of Desolation Frontier are remarkably free of covetousness and excessive desires, that much is apparent. They are a humble, dutiful peopleCont
>>6474808Seven Tribes, Seven Trials.And you know where to find the root cause of each, and while they were all willing to hear you out and trust you, they will not render support in your attempts to neutralize the source of their sacred duties. Without proof it can be done.And which of the duties do you "End" first, Lieren?>The Fog Breather's "Sleeping Wind God">The Storm Courter's "Storm Pantheon">The Sand Crawler's "Dune Father's">The Spook Hunter's "Earthen Womb">The Flesh Breaker's Warp Stone Meteorite and pollution>The fish friend's "Thinking Water" >The Steel Feller's "Metal Fiends">Write in
>>6474809>>The Fog Breather's "Sleeping Wind God"
>>6474809>The fish friend's "Thinking Water"We gotta triage what's going down here, and I think an active, incomplete intelligence that might be connected to the old capitol is probably the most dangerous out of all the options. The Metal Fiends are probably the runner-up, being a new threat capable of spreading, but can be defeated by the Steel Fellers. The Sleeping Wind God would have serious repercussions if it reactivated, but it's ostensibly stable for the moment. The Spook Hunters seem to have the Earthen Womb's danger under control for now, and all the other options don't really pose imminently catastrophic threats.
>>6474809>Thinking water.
>>6474809>The fish friend's "Thinking Water" This thing is probably the biggest threat here followed by the xeno AI and the warp stone.So in addition to archeotech breaking down and savage genetic abominations crawling up out of some bunker, there's also a bunch of Men of Iron and remnant mathoth AIs here. The Bureau really did nothing to justify their existence, huh?
>>6474893>The Bureau really did nothing to justify their existence, huh?...So uh, what if they *were* keeping this shit in check? Through remote archaeotech means or something?
>>6474954I doubt it, one of the sisters should have found evidence of that in their HQ by now surely. It could be they didn't know about any of the threats here aside from the invading alien AI since they were basically evil XCOM, the Steel Fellers could even be descendants of Bureau soldiers sent to deal with them.
>>6474809>>The Flesh Breaker's Warp Stone Meteorite and pollution>>The fish friend's "Thinking Water"either one of these
>>6474809>The Steel Feller's "Metal Fiends"
Calling the vote now. Sorry for the waitSleeping Wind God:1Thinking Water: 4Warp stone meteorite: 1Metal fiends: 1 Total votes: 6So Lieren will mark the "Thinking Water" for execution and carry out the decryWriting now
The unknown was often considered to be the greatest and oldest of all fears. And with good reason. The Unknown, was shapeless and nameless, more so than wind itself. One could not make preparations around the unknown, effectively, just as one could not defend themselves against a threat they are entirely unaware of, efficiently. The "Thinking Water", the shape of the threat it took, was easily grasped. A centralized, once necessary abominable intelligence or something near enough to match the existential threat AI represented to the many scions of man. One that was connected to the forlorn core of what had once been the center of power and authority of New Varro, before the tragedy of the long night left the world now called New Varro to its lonely vigil. It was like a toxin whose symptoms were being treated when they arose, or a wicked spirit sealed and locked away, or toxic chemicals stored in a shoddy container. It presented a grave threat to all of the people of New Varro. But the shape this threat too, the exact danger it presented, was unknown. What it would be capable of once it had reunited with even one of its similarly sealed components, is unknown. But you could imagine, and draw conclusions based on your experience and knowledge of the technology of the era that birthed the imprisoned intelligence. You had warred and fought against similar designs and equivalent technologies before to be able to well predict the cataclysmic and arcane powers it would be able to wield, even incomplete. Even damaged. Even Deprived and unaware. It is effectively a slumbering, mechanical god driven by hate. The Butcher's war began from the wrathful heart of a god-like soul locked in an iron cage, and you well remember the sorrow of that war. And the wounds it had left that all people who waged it are still healing from it. Friends and Sons lost to the every churning war machine masterminded by two vengeful minds. But they had humanity, even if it was but a spark, the Butcher King and Queen did love eachother. Truly. Even if it that love, that affection was solely for their other half and they considered all other men and women as fodder for their desired descent into daemondom, they had love. They had emotion. They had a heart, even if it had been corroded and blackened, twisted into the seed of madness from the suffering and isolation both of them had found in life. But a true abominable intelligence, has not even that singular redeeming quality, that one common spark of humanity, they lack wholly the capability to experience emotions or thoughts of mercy, regret or grief. And certainly not love. And if it is given a chance to, if the Fish Friend tribes slack even momentarily in their appeasement of this digital devil, it could connect to one of its fragments. And from there, the trickle would turn to a flood.Cont
It'd be a cascading catastrophe, as its chances of successfully reuniting with all of its parts would multiply drastically with even one component reclaimed and reintegrated. One would become two, become four, become eight, become sixteen...and so it would go. And that would become a disaster that would rival the Butcher's War, without the foibles of man and the flaws of their character to exploit. A being of pure logic, with the means and power to mock the mythological power of deities, driven towards malice and contempt for a mankind that had refused its rule and imprisoned it.You looked at your own reflection in the lightly rippling pool of waters, and saw a glimmer of the threat you would seek out and neutralize in the shimmering doppelganger you locked eyes with. You chose to feel, and taught yourself to be a man, but retained the logical, machine like foundation that instinctively sought out efficiency in all things, that had been the base of your mind and thoughts.So you well understood the threat an existence of great power, with such logical and efficient thoughts, could present. When they were not reined in and controlled by the emotions of a heart, that could be as much of a poison as it was a medicine.Kanzeon placed a hand on your shoulder, sensing your growing anger towards the Unknown you were soon to confront, and you saw the same reasoning and rage in her eyes. She to, understood the threat an unrestrained, unanswered abominable intelligence posed. Not only to those within the boundary of its demesne and ring of its authority, but to all whom it was aware of. They were dubbed as such, for reasons that would be clear to even the blind and dumb.With a simple nod, your beloved communicated her willingness to confront and bring a final shutdown to this plague of logic trapped within cold, uncaring steel.You rose from the lake side and looked over Deep Diver, and declared with a voice that boomed like thunder and carried like the winds "Fish Friends, let it be known that I, the man who named himself hunter, has Marked the Thinking Water that has enslaved and ruled over you with inhuman tyranny and cruelty as my next quarry, and shall bring about its death to prove to all who live within Desolation Frontier, that the age of hardships and duty is at an end, and the era of freedom and comfort has come!" You declare with a lash of your arm, with Deep Diver bowing and clenching their hands in a very New Varro prayer gesture, while the younger abhumans splash their webbed hands on the water surface, beating a celebratory song as your Astartes raise their voices in a loud cheer.A few had grown restless, knowing that some of their brothers had been trusted with the responsibility and glory to explore the Cursed Dark and the Earthen Womb. Where they would be joined by Alf'Harim and Squat irregulars and volunteers who had heard your call for actions, and enthusiastically offered their manpower and guns to the excersion Cont
>>6475910And how would you approach the thinking water, to begin the hunt, Lieren?>Quick and decisively, strike like lightning and move like wildfire. Take your sons present and dive into the water and strike at the Abomination's heart!>Patience is the greatest quality a hunter may possess. Take your marines and followers of the Aeldari who know how to string their bows, and observe the Fish Friend's offering ceremony to the Thinking Water and look upon it, so you may know its weakness>Bring Lomb and Se'ah'in soldiers and make use of them as scouts while you prepare your sons for Archeotech weapons and the peculiarities of fighting in water >"Liberty. Knock on our enemy's door and give our new friends a firework show">Write in
>>6475912>>Patience is the greatest quality a hunter may possess. Take your marines and followers of the Aeldari who know how to string their bows, and observe the Fish Friend's offering ceremony to the Thinking Water and look upon it, so you may know its weakness
>>6475912>Patience is the greatest quality a hunter may possess. Take your marines and followers of the Aeldari who know how to string their bows, and observe the Fish Friend's offering ceremony to the Thinking Water and look upon it, so you may know its weakness
>>6475910>Patience
>>6475912>Patience is the greatest quality a hunter may possess. Take your marines and followers of the Aeldari who know how to string their bows, and observe the Fish Friend's offering ceremony to the Thinking Water and look upon it, so you may know its weaknessWe can finally post again.
Calling the vote now, sorry for the longwait, meant to do this earlier but the site was fucking down. Patience is the greatest quality a hunter may possess. Take your marines and followers of the Aeldari who know how to string their bows, and observe the Fish Friend's offering ceremony to the Thinking Water and look upon it, so you may know its weakness:5Total votes: 5 So Lieren will patiently observing the offerings and rituals the fish friend tribe give to the thinking water, to learn its weaknesses, before striking
Fear is the mind killer. And you were well aware that you were afraid of the potential threat the Thinking Water could pose. You understood, your sons to had some level of fear. Kanzeon to. Even if they hid it well, the contents of their hearts was as clear to your eyes as the water you watched ripple at the shore line. Kanzeon had admitted her fears, without shame or guilt. And you to confided in your own fear.Fear could drive a beast to lash out wildly, and to throw themselves in the trap. Fear was a constant companion of hunters, as much a friend as a foe, as a tool to be utilized as a weakness to be aware of. Patience, in spite of fear, caution, was the greatest quality a hunter could then possess. And while your sons were eager to test their blades and fire off their bolters, you, advised them to be patient. And to observe. And so bid the Fish Friend tribe to continue their offerings to the thinking water and while they prepared, you sent summons to your Aeldari followers to come and join the hunt, knowing they well understood the terror and dangers of thinking, living machines.Leaving the rest of your sons to patrol and establish safe routes throughout desolation frontier, you took those Psykerists amongst them who had grasped and began to master to the "How Kurnous Strings his bow", to observe from the lakeside as the Fish Friend Clans gathered and collected their offerings. You had instructed them to refuse any requests of human sacrifice, which they had tearfully admitted were commonplace amongst the demands of the Thinking water. And watching them row out on canoes and sailed barges, you took account and paid close attention to what they were dragging out and their behavior and actions during the rituals, to decode exactly what the Thinking Water gained from both the materials and their ritualistic demands.You watched them sail out in the day and in the night, you watched by the shore, hearing reports from the Wanderers in the Fog and the two contigents of your Astartes who were fighting against other horrors of the frontier. The Aeldari lead by Carys arived, and joined you in the gravel shores where you had sit, motionless as the boulders looming over the boundaries of the river, and watched. Observed . Learned. And Realized.Through your patient and distant observation, the truth of the matter was revealed in parts. First, you realized what the Thinking Waters demanded, was irregular, without set schedule, but the materials they demanded would repeat and change in frequency and amount. It had not requested living sacrifice in the weeks you had watched it. Which revealed a dire truth. It no longer had need for human resources, or rather, their psyches. It had required their living, thinking brains to repair a component, you theorize and when you told Kanzeon of this thought, you had to quell her rage and calm her to prevent her from "Nuking the site from orbit and make Liberty's strike look like a warning shot"Cont
>>6477430But from the other requests, you also realized the Thinking Water wasn't able to easily repair itself, it was suffering set backs and challenges of its own, needing to replace and mend systems it had already brought back online. There would be times it request piles of ore and metal scrap, and others mere trinkets and powder. This told you, it was making its demands on a by needs basis. And that it was rapidly fixing the issues with itself, no doubt due to the increased processing brought about by its...biological components, but that it was unable to, even with increased clarity of its inhuman mind, able to instantly restore itself and reabsorb its lost componentsWhich were opposed to it, and living like it, you realized this, due to the increased frequency of conductive minerals, like gold and copper, it had requested and the ritualized performances of subservience and submission it showed. It was planning on using its forced worshippers, eventually, to strike at its rebellious fragments, which were draining and redirecting the resources it took from the Fish Friends offerings. You realized this, due to its infrequent but increasingly common demands for repeated sacrifices of the same materials and the increased frequency of its demandsAnd, by watching the elders of the tribe commune with their uncaring, greedy god, you understood how it spoke to them. Through the ripples, it was a form of morse code in the ripples. And through that, you understood where it rested beneath the water. Which combined with your observation of its needs, made you understand its weakness.It was currently working to "Digest" certain materials to repair itself and subsume its nearest component, which was delaying the effort through draining the materials brought to it, like a rogue organ turned parasite sapping nutrients from the host. And knowing this connection existed, meant that all parts of the Thinking Water could be wiped out with one move.If it was performed correctly.And what move would you use to try and slay the Living Water, in one strike, Lieren?>"Poisoning" its supply of sacrifices by Alchemically altering them and imbuing them with Empyrean energies >Swimming down to its body with a strike force of Astartes and Aeldari and planting a beacon for Kanzeon and Liberty to "Snipe" its central server from orbit>Refusing sacrifices, and when it lashes out, assault it and draw out its rebellious fragments to attack the main body. Like a serpent biting its own body >Send an army of astarte and aeldari down with the offerings, into the thinking water's body and perform simultaneous assaults on its main mind and fragments >Write in
>>6477432>>Swimming down to its body with a strike force of Astartes and Aeldari and planting a beacon for Kanzeon and Liberty to "Snipe" its central server from orbit
>>6477432>Swimming down to its body with a strike force of Astartes and Aeldari and planting a beacon for Kanzeon and Liberty to "Snipe" its central server from orbitThe last thing we want is for the fragments to have an opportunity to reunite, willingly or otherwise. Letting it turn on itself risks letting a piece manage to subdue another and cascade, poisoning the supplies runs the risk of the warp fucking with us, and launching a major assault risks giving them time to unite out of desperation. By painting the site, ideally they won't recognize (and agree upon) the scale of the incoming bombardment until they've already been destroyed.
>>6477432>Strike forceThe refusal of offerings just makes the rebellious segments the new issue.
>>6477432>Swimming down to its body with a strike force of Astartes and Aeldari and planting a beacon for Kanzeon and Liberty to "Snipe" its central server from orbitAll life is equal but clankers aren't alive.
Calling the vote now. Sorry for the wait. Swimming down to its body with a strike force of Astartes and Aeldari and planting a beacon for Kanzeon and Liberty to "Snipe" its central server from orbit: 5Total votes: 5Lieren will lead a strike force of Aeldari and Astartes to plant a beacon fo Kanzeon and Liberty to strike at the heart of the Thinking Water SystemWriting now
The sky has darkened, covered by clouds nearly as thick as Shangrala's own mists and fog, promising a storm to wipe away all tears and detritus from the world. With a helmet of star metal covering your head, you look at the sky in contemplation. Carys has arrived, as have the members of her flock who have learned from you how to string their bow like Kurnous once had done. They stand astride your Psykerist sons who have learned the same technique, who have been given wraithbone charms in the shape of antlers, to wear upon their wrists. A token of respect and sign of acknowledgment. The white contrasting the colored gauntlets signifying the sects they claim membership to.And they have in turn, given the Aeldari Huntsmen their own tokens. Dog tags, showing they have accepted them as they had their allied forces from Terra. There was no ceremony, only a silent and mutual exchange of medals of honor and admiration. They stand in formation now, their faces locked on the dark, churning waters ahead as you roll the beacon Kanzeon had created specifically for this hunt.It is like an unblossomed Lotus. A tear drop shaped device with petals of Star Steel so fine it feels to the touch as easily bent and bruised as flower petals. Once it planted and activated with a thought, a specific, coded phrase only you and Kanzeon know. It shall become a beacon that will allow Kanzeon and Liberty to lock their weapon and defense systems onto it and drive a spear through the heart of the thinking water."My astartes, we are soon to descend into the depths. Into a kind of battlefield none of us have yet to explore or master" You begin, taking the first step into the roiling waves, star light peeking through the clouds promising cleansing rain, and secure the beacon within your armor "To fight against a foe of the like of which menaced our ancestors, an abominable intelligence. One that is rooted upon the heart of the old civilization of New Varro, giving it access to the wonders and horrors imagined and brought into being by generations long passed in the night"You pause"You know your duty. My father reshaped you in my image, to be his finest warriors. Without fear or doubt. His space marines" You say "I have nothing to say of encouragement to you, my sons. You are of my blood, and ardent in your belief and duty. You know the task, and know how to fulfill it. I trust you shall distinguish yourselves, and add this night to the roll of your greatest honors and battles"Smiling as your Astartes raised one fist and pounded their chest, sounding a beat like an artillery barrage you turned to Carys and her journey men, who were dressed in Aeldari armor with Long-Jianese trappings.Cont
>>6478526"And you fair and noble Aeldari, who trust in my vision and dream of the world strongly enough to forsake all you have known, know the kind of horror we shall face. Death is ever looming, but we do not go to court it, friends" You say staidly "We go to bring it to this abomination, that even now conspirers to enslave or annihilate the people of New Varro. That you would so readily come to aid in this endeavor, proves the quality of your character and the virtuousness of your hearts. We cannot fail. We may fall, but we shall not falter. We will bring the doom the Thinking Water has long eluded, and remove one threat from the galaxy, and show all whom doubt what out two peoples, our two species and empires, may accomplish through joined hands and unity!"Carys clasps her hands together, and leads her followers in chanting a Mantra, unique to the Journeymen Aeldari, steeling the heart and soul against the instinctive and existential despair and dread Sie Nie's predation inflicts, to prepare their spirits if they fall to confront the Maiden of Wanton Pleasures without a trace of fear within their expressions or bearing. They are prepared to die for people they do not know, whom they had once called Monkeigh. It is a beautiful sight, one you wish to and shall share. But you will strive to ensure the Snake of Hedonism claims not a single Aeldari soul this night."Astartes, Aeldari. Join with me on this storm wracked night, and join me in the hunt of the Thinking Waters. Aid me in the subjugation of this nightmare, so these lands, this world may be freed from the threat it poses to all. Let us make these waters its tomb, and prove ourselves as protectors of New Varro and all her people! From Desolation Frontier to the New Varro Republic. Come! MY SOLDIERS! DESCEND WITH ME INTO THE DARK AND SHOW THIS DUPLICITIUS MACHINE ITS AGE HAS PASSED!" The ground itself shakes with the stomps of your sons and the psionic resonance of shared purpose between them and the Aeldari as a war cry sounds and carries to the sky, to reach the true ears of Kanzeon and Liberty in orbit"WE SHALL BE""VALOROUS AND INDOMITABLE!" "FOR NEW VARRO!""FOR THE JOURNEY""FOR MANKIND!""AGAINST THIS METAL S.O.B!"And you lead them into wading into the water, acting as the vanguard as your space marines swim behind you in formation and the Aeldari spread themselves out in their ranks.The faint light of the moon and stars are darkened and vanished, the lenses of your helmet alight, golden and blazing in the dark as you descend fathoms into the lake that flooded over what had once been a city so large to be called a Hive. A megapopolis that spanned the breadth of a lake that could be called an ocean.And from the dark, you were challenged.Cont
>>6478527"MY SOLDIERS! STEEL YOURSELVES! THE DARK WATERS SENDS ITS SERVANTS AGAINST US!" You boom, water rippling around you as you see, deep in the water, green black lights illuminate. And feel a momentary palpitation of fear from Carys, who has swam to come next to you, before it passes. And you understand. The color reminded one of her people's ancestral enemy, the thralls of the star killers.They are cephalopod and serpentine, squamous with slick, steel plates and with lashing, thousandfold tendrils that admit and alluring light and produce monocle sized filaments that could slice through the armor you well with insulting ease.How do you push through this wave of automated defenses, Lieren?>Look to Carys, and combine your psykerist powers to turn the water into your weapon, using the techniques of the Dai Monks>Lead the charge, drawing the Sword of Love and striking at the commanding unit as your astartes mass bolter and plasma fire on the soldiers>Order your troops to advance and prepare to capture the murderous metal devils in [Containment] >Feign a retreat, and encircle the enemy and hit them with barrage of plasma and bolter shells that would make the Firestorm envious!>Write in
>>6478529>>Lead the charge, drawing the Sword of Love and striking at the commanding unit as your astartes mass bolter and plasma fire on the soldiersi get the feeling that the longer we darw this out the worse it gets for us
>>6478529>>Look to Carys, and combine your psykerist powers to turn the water into your weapon, using the techniques of the Dai Monks
>>6478529>>Lead the charge, drawing the Sword of Love and striking at the commanding unit as your astartes mass bolter and plasma fire on the soldiers
>>6478529>Order your troops to advance and prepare to capture the murderous metal devils in [Containment]
>>6478529>Lead the charge, drawing the Sword of Love and striking at the commanding unit as your astartes mass bolter and plasma fire on the soldiers
>>6478529>Look to Carys, and combine your psykerist powers to turn the water into your weapon, using the techniques of the Dai Monks
Calling the vote now. Sorry for the wait.Lead the charge, drawing the Sword of Love and striking at the commanding unit as your astartes mass bolter and plasma fire on the soldiers: 3Look to Carys, and combine your psykerist powers to turn the water into your weapon, using the techniques of the Dai Monks: 2Order your troops to advance and prepare to capture the murderous metal devils in [Containment]:1Total votes: 6So Lieren will lead the charge, and attack the commanding unit as his Astartes mass bolter and Plasma fireWriting now
It is a seething mass, like a boiling den of Xue Marsh Serpents unearthed in winter. Gleaming quick silver scales and incandescent obsidian carapace glimmering with captured rainbow light. Of many forms, they move more like a tide of malevolent intent embodied within metal, as if they were a singular intelligence inhabiting a multitude of bodies. Your eyes narrow as you unseathe the sword of love, gold and silver intermingling on its blade as you channel the Cloak of the Ever Burning Will and shape it into the Evil Subjugating Blade of Gilded Witchflame upon its edge. With a flick of your wrist you give your command to your troops, and mark your target.For your observations had guided you to truth once more. Within the roiling mass of armor splitting nanofibers and whirling, lethal lights hid the command unit. Cleverly disguised through numbers and resemblance to its subordinates, it hid amongst them. But it had made a grievous error. It had positioned itself in the direct core of its formation. And with nearly parallel and equivalent synchronization your Astartes raise their guns, as the Aeldari Accompanying them fall back, ceding the van to your sons as they form a wall of Star Metal and withering suppressive fire.You soar, like a serpent yourself, or an aquatic dragon through the water lit only by the glow of your optics and the attacks of the robotic legion. But this soon changes, as flash of orange red light emerge and the water vibrates and waves with premature detonated bolter shells that are shot down and pierced by flashes of green light, but the sheer volume of the barrage prevents the metal monsters from completely defending themselves from the first barrage. Then the dark is illuminated and becomes like a cloudless morning sky as the lake is boiled by dozens of rapid fired plasma shots, clearing the cooling water before your sons charge their plasma rifles and fire. The vanguard of the enemy is reduced to malformed slag as you shoot through their lines, darting and moving like a carp as you dive into the heart of the horde, which turns inwards and collapsed as the intelligence at its core realizes you have spotted it. However they are unable to overwhelm you, or crush you with their superior numbers.Because your sons do not stop shooting. Seeing you vanish into the cloud of quick silver lights, only improved their name and conviction. They hold formation and keep firing, meadow grass green arrows of hunting intent piercing through the cloud of hateful metal as you move through it, clearing the routes that are not opened through bolter or plasma fire or Kurnous' own arrows with long, sweeping swings of the Sword of Love and the waves of Golden Heart Fire that erupts behind it. You do not proceed unharmed, your are lashed with invisible, spider web lashes that move through the atoms of your armor to slice past skin, flesh and sever boneCont
>>6479842However, you had coated the inside of your raiment with the brightest flame of your soul, and melt those attacks before they can cripple or disable you. An opening presents itself, through the teeming mass of robotic adversaries. An opening. Without hesitation, you flick two fingers up. And use Spirit's Touch to hurl the Sword of Love through the swiftly sealing gap in the armor the enemy general has arrayed around himself.There is a flash, as the sorcerous blade strikes through their primary logic node, a bulging "mechanical brain" formed of tubes, wire and strange crystaline structure. Grey oil and pink plasma oozes out, the tortured organic components of the machine, the rendered grey matter of the sacrifices, pouring out of the machine, the last will of their original lives seeking escape, an end to their torment.One which you grant with a swish of your two fingersA pillar of golden flames erupts and shoots off towards the surface of the lake. A wave of warp fire spreads out, corroding and evaporating the machines nearest to their commander. And without the central intelligence guiding them, they become easy prey for the Astartes and Aeldari rushing to reach you in the center of their formation. Lights flash deeper in the dark, and you can vaguely sense rapid electric signals as the Thinking Water diverts its efforts and resources to its core facility's defensesAnd how do you breach these walls, Lieren?>Calling upon the Thousand Vessels that fill the golden sea and are filled in turn, rip them open a mountain splitting strength "Branch Snapping Breeze">Split your forces and infiltrate at different points, taking lessons from the War against the Yan, to sever multiple heads simultaneously >Capture the pillar of souls fire and, with the aid of Carys and her fellow former seers, adapt it to the perform an altered "The Water Becomes the Void, as the Void Becomes the Water">Act as a Diversion, sensing the think water's singular fear you represent, and draw its fire as your soldiers infiltrate its "Body">Write in And just realized I called it the Evil Subjugating blade, rather than the Spirit Subjugating Blade, in this update
>>6479843>Act as a Diversion, sensing the think water's singular fear you represent, and draw its fire as your soldiers infiltrate its "Body"
>>6479843>Capture the pillar of souls fire and, with the aid of Carys and her fellow former seers, adapt it to the perform an altered "The Water Becomes the Void, as the Void Becomes the Water"I cast BUNKER BUSTER
>>6479843>Act as a Diversion, sensing the think water's singular fear you represent, and draw its fire as your soldiers infiltrate its "Body"We want their attention on us, and not on the little device a few of our troops set up.
