Reviews:
Kyralus: The Ad Mech will not be okay with Penny, that is a given. If she has a soul than that would be a form of tech-heresy. Also no known ad mech member created Penny.
Dovahsinn270: Thanks for your clarification of the differences between the soul and machine spirit. Penny's heretical nature of creation will be discovered in the future.
Forge Master 00(Chp 6 review): Your holy knowledge of STC research will sway the other tech-priest to agree with you. I am going to cancel some of the options for the sentencing, both of the Archeotech will be removed because of your helpful information. To be honest I should have added an option for feudal stc.
Forge Master 00(Chp 5 review): Your list of positions the students of Beacon will be useful in the future. If they live to see the light of the Omnissiah.
Ronmr: The state of Penny will be a complicated debate when the tech-priest find out about her. Or would it be better to say if they find her? I might just write it off as she is an offence to the Omnissiah and must die, ONLY if it get too complicated. Nice Angry Marines pfp.
CykaBlyat1917: You dare praise the flesh as equal to the most blessed and graceful machine?! The machine is the perfect aspect of mankind, and the flesh is weak. Flesh only leads to death while steal is immortal!
Votes:
Automata [1]
Men of Iron [0]
Silica Animus [2]
Forbidden Archeotech
Lost Archeotech
Feudal STC [2]
Speech Syntaxes:
-Speech- Lingua-Technis
"Speech" Low Gothic/English
Notes: I am having a bad habit where I put the exact number of grim killed in each volley during the combat scene. It turns it into a game log instead of a story, and it took me awhile to better incorporate the fight scene into the story. I may not be able to post again in a while because I am going to meet relatives in a different state, but I will be back in within the next two weeks.
Chapter Five: Polar Opposites
Make sure to read chapter four (the fifth one) before reading this, otherwise you will be lost.
Dominus Ira Ferrum reached the edge of the tree line and found out that the Lupus might be more intelligent then she assumed. In the middle of the clearing was another pack of ten Lupus, leaving them with twenty to fight from two directions. -Three Kastelans on each pack will take care of them, fire at will! - yelled Ira to the Grim Shepherds. The robots kept moving while firing, but that would not slow their wrath. Superheated spheres of phosphex cut thru trees and vaporized their targets. Within six seconds seventeen Lupus were slain, leaving two Lupus Alpha and one Lupus.
Instead of charging them, similar to orks, they chose to return into the deeper parts of the forest. It appears that the Lupus Alphas have minimal intelligence and known where the other packs are located without using any verbal form of communication. A strange noise emitted from the datasmith's vox, it sounded similar to wheezing. Eights asked -Are you okay Cyber? - -Yes, I could not help but to laugh at the slaughtering of the enemies of the Omnissiah, - responded the datasmith as he checked the heavy phosphor blasters for jams. A few of the nearby trees audible groaned as they started to collapse.
Ozpin watched silently as the strange robots laid waste to two small Grimm packs in the span of six seconds. Their technology will greatly improve his chances to defeat the Queen. That is if they cooperate with him. He calmly texted a certain student in the academy, "Bring your team to my office in five minutes with combat gear." Outside Beacon Academy, a special general was attempting not to break his scroll as he saw two of his bullheads heading to land. The answer to his confusion was three smoke plumes emerging from Emerald Forest. A voice spoke thru Ironwood's scroll, "General, they have a hidden AA position in the forest. We waved off before he lost more bullheads and men. We were unable to catch the cultist's VTOL's in firing range."
Team JNPR stood in the elevator as the floor numbers slowly ticked up. Ren was stopping Nora from bouncing off the walls, both literally and figuratively. Pyrrha was an unmoving statue, while her partner's hands were fidgeting. A light chime signaled that they reached the top of the tower, where they were greeted with Ozpin sitting in his chair with the sun at his back. The rays of light gave a sort of holy halo around Ozpin, and it caused Jaune to shield his eyes with his hand. "I have a secret mission for you four," cryptically stated the headmaster as he gestured to the four chairs in front of him. Team JNPR silently walked up to the desk and sat in the chairs. Ozpin turned his scroll around to show the children the footage he had on hand.
The camera feed replayed a group of six tall robot with three human sized robots watching two packs of ten Grimm each. All of them were dressed in white, but no symbols of Atlas were found. The speakers emitted a burst of static before the six taller robots readied their weapons and tore thru the surrounding trees with gunfire. Their ammo were not standard dust rounds, it appeared to be some sort of heated liquid that acts like bullets. In six seconds the packs were devastated, after the fight the robot with the giant hand checked on the six taller robots. Ozpin informed them, "General Ironwood informs me that they are part of a 'cult' called the Adeptus Mechanicus. We only know that they view that the flesh is weak and are hostile to Atlas. Skirmishes between Atlesian and their forces date as far back as a year." The headmaster did air quotes when he mentioned cult.
The headmaster gestured to the three smoke clouds in the distance as he continued speaking, "There you can see the remains of the five bullheads that Ironwood foolishly sent to investigate them. Your task is to find where they are going and if they are hostile to Vale. There is a bullhead with the icon of Vale waiting for you at the docks, and it will leave in less than ten minutes. Good luck." The four first year students glanced at each other before running back to the elevator. A low chuckle exited Ozpin's lips as he took another sip from his mug. Today was going to be interesting.
Ira Ferrum was processing the situation at hand while surrounded by soldiers loyal to her who were currently building defensive positions. She recalled the list of units under her command and what they specialize in to better comprehend her limits. She, Eights, and Cyber were the only members that could repair the other soldiers. Making them worth more than a Leman Russ. Skitarii Unit Charlie and Skitarii Unit Foxtrot are the ranger and vanguard variants respectively. They act as the cannon fodder of the detachment with the Kataphron Unit Charlie, of the Breacher variant, to assist them. When the enemy would crash on the wall of Skitarii, the two Sydonian Dragoon Units will focus on two different tasks. One unit is to use their taser goads and phosphor serpentas to slay any fast moving hostiles while the other will use their radium jezzails to assassinate the head of the snake.
The Kastelans act as suppressing fire to destroy cover and the enemies' onslaught, Cyber will be assigned to repair them. Then there is the lone Onager as Anti-Aircraft, the great responsibility of protecting the machine will fall on Eights and the four battle servitors. That will leave the Dominus on the front lines in the midst of combat keeping the skitarii alive. She was finished with her planning when the Enginseer rushed over to where she was standing. -Dominus Ira, auspex scans should signs of a large hoard of unknown creatures moving towards our camp. Best guess at the type of lifeform would be Lupus or another Xenos species, - reported Eights. The other tech-priest in the battalion seemed to have a high distaste for anything not human. She did share that feeling but to a lesser extent, Ira could tolerate xenos if they fight in the name of the Omnissiah like the Felinids.
-Set up a front line of Skitarii, Kataphrons, and Kastelans to face the xenos hoard. Keep the Dragoons on standby until they try to flank us or a leader reveals themselves. You and the servitors will guard the Onager, - ordered the Dominus thru the noosphere which caused the entire force to move with peek machine precision. Once the units were in position, as if it was perfectly planned, a Lupus pack could be seen behind the tree line. After a quick auspex scan, there were around ninety Lupus and they could reach the Skitarii front line in 24 standard terran seconds. The female tech-priest walked to the front lines and barked over her vox, -ONCE THEY BREAK THRU THE TREE LINE, MAKE THE DIRT INTO MUD WITH THEIR BLOOD!-
A mental countdown went thru every cogitator of the skitarii until the Protector Doctrina Imperative would activate. The timer reached 0 to which the Skitarii Rangers and Kataphron Breachers opened fire Cyber held up the Kastelans because one had a speck of dirt in his gun so he was forced to check all of the others. Six seconds of sustained fire passed, Ira held a death grip on her Omnissian Axe to stop her from charging into the hoard. The female tech-priest slow watched as the numbers of Lupus presented by the auspex slowly ticked down every three seconds. Eighty-one. Seventy-one. Sixty. Forty-nine.
Ira was brought out of her trace at the numbers when the Skitarii Vanguard joined the chorus of fire as the Rangers switched to rapid fire. Twenty-nine. Nine. The Lupus hoard was being shredded by the superior firepower of the Omnissiah. None of the xeno reached within 30 feet of the front line, their corpses slowly turning into smoke. Sadly they could be used for defensive positions. They have won against three to one odds, but victory is given to only the faithful. The time to relish in victory was swiftly ended when a rune appeared on the auspex. A group of four humans was approaching their position from the opposite side of the FOB that the tech-priest was on. It is too small of a group for regular soldiers. Possible chance of elite troops or scouts from the feudal city, either way it was phrased it did not process as friendly.
Jaune and his teammates sat hidden in the foliage near the tree line as they watched the white robed cultist. On the opposite side of the clearing, a large pack of Beowolves were lying on the ground like Swiss cheese from their fire. "What is the plan Jaune," asked Pyrrha as she held her shield and rifle in hand. There was at least fifty cultist with vehicles designed for war, team JNPR could not hold a minute against them. Their mission was to find out if they were hostile to Vale, but asking that question out of the blue would be awkward. He knew that they hated Atlas, so maybe if they state that they are from Vale and then go into a conversation about why they are here. That could work.
The leader turned to face his team as he whispered, "I have a plan. They are hostile to Atlas but we do not know about their stance against Vale. We are going to walk towards them with our weapons lowered-" Jaune's planning was cut off when a bullet impacted the tree above his head. A mechanical voice yelled from the clearing, "That is incorrect. You are going to walk out of the tree line with your hands raised. Our stance with Vale is not hostile, yet." Team JNPR slowly followed the mechanical voice's orders. Once they exited out of the tree line they could see twenty of the cultist in a firing line pointed at them and a figure with multiple metal snakes coming out of his robes standing behind them. A floating skull followed behind the figure.
"Who is your leader?" asked what Jaune assumed was their leader. He introduced himself, "That would be me, Jaune Arc of team JNPR." The leader of the cultist stared intently at Jaune for a long and silent moment, Pyrrha responded with an inquisitive glare of her own. The leader eventually responded, "I am Dominus Ira Ferrum. You are going to slowly approach the firing line so that we can continue…negotiations inside the camp. Any attempts to attack or escape will result in all under you command a long and painful death." Jaune turned to face his team before slowly walking to meet Dominus Ira Ferrum. He slowly walked past the firing line of cultist who did not move an inch as he passed over their trench, they might be robots like what Atlas builds.
"So Mister Ferrum," started Jaune, but Ira raised a hand to stop him. He informed the team leader, "You made two mistakes there. One, I am biological female. Two, refer to me with the title of Dominus." Jaune gave the tech-priest a confused look, he decided not to question of the person pointing a strange gun at him. If Ruby was here she would have been annoying them with a bullhead load of questions. He restarted the discussion, "So Dominus Ferrum, why are you here?" "What did your superiors ordered you to find out about us?" retorted the Dominus. Jaune was confused why Ira let him talk first just to interrupt him. He gave her a confused look before answering, "Headmaster Ozpin wanted to know if you were hostile to Vale."
The tech-priest was quiet as she pondered what the flesh bag told him. The northern city was under Atlas' control but this city here was under control of Vale. He asked if they were hostile to Vale, that means that Atlas and Vale are not in a military alliance or one is the client state of the other. They might be in a defensive alliance for Cyber told the camera that Atlas attacked first. Now this Headmaster Ozpin is probably in a position of power in Vale, and judging by the ages and gear of the children it is a military school.
Ira questioned "Is there any way you can contact your headmaster?" To her surprise, Jaune took out a piece of glass and metal from his pocket. The device, after a few presses, projected a holographic video feed of a old man sitting in a metal chair that resembles gears. The man himself had spectacles on the bridge of his nose, his outfit consisted of different shades of green on the darker side. His hair is silver while his eyebrows is black, suggested that his hair color changed either by stress or by manual means. "You must be the leader of the Adeptus Mechanicus that General Ironwood told me so much about," calmly stated the old man. The dominus retorted, "You must be Headmaster Ozpin, your students are most compliment when a gun is pointed in their general direction."
Jaune slowly turned the camera to show the rest of team JNPR in the distance with the firing squad trained on their position. Ira continued, "Now headmaster, could you explain your city's relationship with Atlas. For they have soldiers in your city and you seem friendly towards them, and the ally of my enemy is an enemy to me." Ozpin narrowed his eyes as he explained, "Atlas has their forces here to safeguard Vale for the Vytal Festival. The kingdoms of Remnant have been peaceful to each other for the past eighty years." A wheezing sound escaped the mask of the tech-priest. Jaune placed a hand on the robes of the dominus and asked, "Are you okay Dominus Ferrum?" Ira quickly regained her composure as she explained, "I am sorry for that outburst. That is the hilarious statement I have heard in ninety years!"
Ozpin ignored that fact that this Dominus Ferrum started to laugh when he stated the word 'peaceful'. "We can have negotiations between you and General Ironwood to stop this useless fighting and deal with greater threats at hand. For example the Grimm," proposed the Headmaster. Ira turned to face the pack of Lupus corpses to only find that they were gone by now. She reasoned, "So that is what the locals call the species of wildlife we refer to as Lupus. You feudals are always so scared of the little things. I will be happy to discuss your planet's integration into the Imperium of Man with the city of Vale." Ozpin tilted his head at the statement, "Are you saying that you are not from this planet?" "You will understand later when I reach Vale with my personal guard. I assume you can keep General Ironwood from being trigger happy." retorted the Dominus.
Ozpin pondered on the proposition, he could keep Ironwood from attacking the Dominus under the act of them coming for negotiations. "Team JNPR will lead you to Vale for negotiations," ordered the headmaster. The Dominus slowly shook his head, "You are wrong Ozpin, team JNPR will remain here and I will walk to Vale with the directions they will give me. If anything happens to me in Vale then the same will happen to them, think of it as a cultural exchange." The headmaster stared at team JNPR thru the scroll while they raised their hands up to the sky. He calmly warned the cultists, "I can agree to those terms, but know this. If anything happens to my students there will be repercussions."
The call ended and the dominus turned to face Jaune, he quickly put away the scroll into his pockets and stared into Ira's ocular lenses. A loud chirp escaped her mask and the firing line of cultists slowly lowered their weapons and gestured for team JNPR to come closer. They slowly lowered their hands and approached the trench. Jaune pointed to the direction of Vale and stated, "Vale is fifth teen minutes in that direction if you walk." She nodded as a group of four heavy augmented humans followed the dominus as she left for the city. Pyrrha approached Jaune and whispered in his ear, "My semblance is not working on the cultist or weapons." Nora squatted near the trench and inspected the cultist while Ren stood silently behind her. "Are they robot?" asked the hyperactive student. A mechanical voice behind them stated, "The Cybernetica Datasmith is currently working on the blameless robots, they however are the Skitarii."
Ren turned around to see a figure similar to the Dominus, but he had a giant mechanical claw instead of unique weapons. The figure introduced himself, "I am Enginseer-8873, but you can call me Eights due to your feeble minds." "So you build stuff like an engineer?" questioned his partner. Eights stood there silently for a moment before stating, "No, my job is to maintain repair, and safeguard the Imperium's machines of war." Ren asked, "I have never heard of the Imperium, where is it?" Eights chuckled before gesturing to the sky, "Where else but across the stars child. For 10,000 years mankind fought tooth and nail to earn their rightful place as rulers of the galaxy! Your planet is one of the many human colonies lost during the Age of Strife, and as the shepherds of humanity we will bring all sheep back into the flock."
Jaune and Pyrrha walked over to join the conversation as Eights stated, "How rude of me, I did not given any of you the chance to introduce yourselves." Jaune reintroduced himself before giving the names of his teammates in quick succession. Pyrrha noticed that he did not change his posture when her name was stated, maybe they do not know about her. The figure reintroduced himself to Jaune and Pyrrha. "So you are from space?" asked the leader. The tech-priest gestured to the soldiers around him, "Have you seen anything similar to this on this planet?" Team JNPR took a good moment to inspect the other cultist, the crawler and tracked soldiers creeped out the students. "Ozpin said that General Ironwood described you as cultists, is that correct or slander?" asked the composed redhead.
Eights carefully explained, "General Ironwood described us as cultists to insult us. The phrasing is accurate for everyone here is faithful to the Cult Mechanicus and to the larger Adeptus Mechanicus." Pyrrha continued her questioning, "What is the difference between the Cult Mechanicus and the Adeptus Mechanicus? How does those connect to the Imperium of Man" The Enginseer interlocked his fingers as he sighed. "To write a basic history of the Imperium would take a month, so I will give a dumbed down version. The Adeptus Mechanicus provides the Imperium of Man with scientist, engineers, technicians, and supplies for war. Depending on who you ask, some say the Adeptus Mechanicus is an organization in the Imperium while others say that the Adeptus Mechanicus and Imperium are allies. The Cult Mechanicus is the religion of the Adeptus Mechanicus that most members follow."
Eights turned the path of the conversation, "What are the creatures that you call Grimm?" Ren answered, "The Grimm are creatures of destruction that lack a soul. They are drawn to negative emotions which has caused countless villages to be razed to the ground." The tech-priest nodded before heading deeper into the camp. Ren ended his secret call with Ozpin from the scroll inside his pocket. Unknown to them, the Enginseer stopped broadcasting the conversation on his personal vox channel with the other tech-priests. -So it appear that the conquest of Atlas could wait to push back the Grimm menace, - stated the female dominus across the vox channel.
