Reviews:
Chapter Master Sinclair: Your vote has been put into consideration. Servitor-hood might be too nice for the general. Thanks for the review!
Abyssal Plague: Penny could still be considered tech heresy, but will Ironwood sacrifice his pride to live longer? Thanks for the review!
Sonic: Thanks mate!
Forge Master 00: Don't know who you are talking about because my RWBY lore is rusty. But in by format for writing chapters I already have your name in the review section because you do one for every chapter, which has helped me have ideas. Thanks for the review!
Mephistopheless: The debate between Penny being and AI, Men of Iron, Tech Heresy, or Robot will be part of a latter poll. (Probably after this chapter) A naval bombardment of Atlas is not happening now because they don't know where Atlas is and how far their sphere of influence reaches. Also settlers from forge worlds would take a year just to organize and another year to ship them to the planet with a shattered moon. Converting the populous will save precious time, which the Adeptus Mechanicus has little of when fighting the enemies of man. Thanks for the review mate!
Votes:
Kill Atlas [5]
Cease Fire Until They Find Penny [4]
Spare Atlas [1]
Speech Syntaxes:
-Speech- Lingua-Technis
"Speech" Low Gothic/English
Notes: Sorry for not posting sooner, family and school caught up with me. I am planning for the Ad Mech and Atlas to have a fragile non-aggression pact while the Grimm are more of a threat, idea from Staccat. BUT this will not last long so don't get upset over it. Sorry for long chapter, might do larger chapter in the future but at the cost of posting less.
Chapter Four: Live Target Practice
Two Months Later
Dominus Ira Ferrum stood in the hanger bay of the Astral Knight, a Dictator Class Cruiser,with the other higher up in the brigade, everything was set up for planet fall except for one thing. Where do they plan to land on the planet? The female dominus wanted to land where Malleus landed and exterminate all hostiles there to please the Omnissiah. Quin Decium argued that since Malleus was almost shot out of the sky by feudal anti-aircraft while in a light weight aircraft, that their heavy aircraft would be destroyed with their squads of Legiones Skitarii. Cyber agreed with Quin, which was a first, because he did not want his precious Kastelan Robots to be harmed. They continued their petty squabble as the twin enginseers recorded the dialogue. -For the love of the Omnissiah and everything that has a machine spirit! Will you stop bickering in acts representing juvenile flesh bags! - screamed the Magos Dominus thru his personal vox.
He gestured to the holographic map of the planet's surface, the central continent to be specific. Pugnus ordered, -You will land on the central land mass and you will not harm them, unless they work with Atlas. After you have secured the trust of the local militia, Quin will lead the second patrol detachment down to the planet. The rest remaining in orbit will act as reserved ready at all times for rapid reinforcement, I will personal lead the Knights into battle if needed.- The five others in the conversation responded as one, -As the Omnissiah will it.- The Magos Dominus nodded in satisfaction as he turned around to leave the group to their woes. Pugnus strolled deeper into the hanger bay to inspect the most holy Knights. He had served to Omnissiah for 231 years, 2 months, and 27 days, yet he never had the honor to repair a Knight Crusader in an active warzone. That task was saved for the senior tech-priest, which was never him until now.
Ira stepped into her Vulture with Datasmith-1721 and Enginseer Eights, she checked her Eradication Ray to be sure that the machine spirit was pleased. It was not, it craved for the blood of the heretic and xeno almost to the point of a Khornate Berserker in the midst of a grand battle. Her macrostubber on the other hand was passive and only cared that it and its yielder was safe. She had eight years to go till she served the Omnissiah for a century, she was the youngest Dominus in the brigade. And that made her the most expendable. Ira was always sent to the most dangerous part of the front line, but for some reason she felt the most at peace there. She had conferences with several Magos Dominus multiple times about these feelings being a demon tempting her, but he would always state that 'silica cleanses us from temptation'.
Four Vultures and one heavy troop transport left the safety of the fleet and into the exosphere of the lost human colony. All on board the vessels were silent, you could hear the subtle creaks in the hulls as they were being affected by the planet's gravitational pull. The four ships still in orbit stationed behind to shattered moon and out of sight of the feudals, Pugnus did not wish to start massive distress of their ships being sited now. They will show them the true power of the Adeptus Mechanicus when they start to doubt. He fleet could not stay long in orbit and would have to leave at some point in time, they could not be a crutch used to keep the primitives in line. His skitarii would do just fine.
Ozpin and Glynda stood at the foot of the clock shaped window in the headmaster's office, in their view was an Atlesian Battleship (they have no official name but you know what I am talking about). The professor commented with disdain laced in her voice, "Ironwood certainly loves bringing his work wherever he travels." "Well, running an academy and a military makes him a busy man." reasoned Ozpin. Her lack of answer cause him to continued, "But yes, those are a bit of an eyesore." A beeping sound from his desk drew the attention of the two people in the room, a holographic message was asking for access. "Come in," stated the old man as General Ironwood slowly strolled into the headmaster's office.
The Atlesian headmaster greeted his fellow headmaster, who returned the greeting in kind. They two went at their ping pong game of words as Professor Goodwitch left the room. Each asking questions they already knew the answer to and stating warnings of what they know will come. They passed who was talked back and forth to each other for a few minutes, all just to keep the other on their toes. Ironwood finished the match as he answered, "I'm just being cauti-." Ozpin tilted his head at the general's unfinished statement. The Atlesian marched over to the window and stared at the five white airships landing in the distance. He muttered under his breath, "Now there are more of them." Ozpin jested, "Are those your new airships General?" Ironwood did not take his eyes off of the five airships, they are different than last time.
"They are owned by a new cult that calls themselves the 'Adeptus Mechanicus'. They see the flesh is weak and seek to remove the authorities of Atlas. A few of my soldiers shot them out of the sky half a year ago, and a squad had a skirmish with them four months ago," explained the General and his left hand tightened, making his knuckles as white as his coat. Ozpin quickly pulled up the camera feed of roughly were they were landing, between Mountain Glenn and the School. The weird VTOL aircraft landed and the back door lowered and three figures with white robes and red edges exited the craft. The first figure was hunched over with metal coming out of his back, in his hand was a double handed axe, hanging on his side was what appeared to be a glowing weapon. The second figure stood up right but two metal tentacles originated from under his robes, in his hands was a similar axe to the first figure. The final figure was the most converted. His entire upper body was machine with his left hand being twice the size of the other, in his right hand was a pistol with a blue glow.
The three figures stared at each other for a long and silent moment as the VTOL airship left them. The microphone could not catch what they were saying and only gave static. Ironwood's eyes widened as he inspected them, while Ozpin was mostly concerned what the general did to upset them. The third figure snapped his vision onto the hidden camera as the microphone caught a metallic voice, "Greetings feudals, I am Cybernetica Datasmith-1721 of Forge World Metalica. I am part of the landing party with a patrol detachment. We are under orders from Magos Dominus Pugnus Rubrum to avenge Dominus Malleus Rubrum who was attacked by an unprovoked Atlas six months ago."
Ozpin could not help but to glare at Ironwood at his brazen militarism. Ironwood tried to make amends, "I will send a squa-." The wizard cut him off, "No. I will send a team of students to talk with them for their first mission. Your soldiers will stay out of this problem that they caused." The general crossed his arms and asked, "And why not send a team of fully trained huntsmen instead?" The headmaster gestured to the 'Datasmith' on screen who was still staring at the camera unmoving. "I only know one person with a semblance of polarity and they do love their metal," he explained with a smile on his face.
Cyber turned to Dominus Ira and stated, -The feed has been shut down, and I know where the signal came from. It is not far from here.- The Enginseer, Eights, cut in, -It would be better to regroup with our forces and build an FOB like the Magos Dominus has ordered us.- Cyber hardened his grip on his gamma pistol as he stared off into the distance. The sound of trees cracking, inhuman screams, and the distinct sound of phosphex weapons being fired. Ira ordered, -We only have three units with phosphex weapons. Datasmith-1721, go and run to you machines.- Cyber did not waste a second as he started sprinting to his most prized Kastelan Unit Alpha. Ira did not know why the datasmith loved the robots of war, but one of the senior enginseers explained to her that he was saved by those Kastelan Robots more times than he had fingers since he started his holy service to the Omnissiah.
Datasmith-1721 ran thru the unknown forest headlong to find his goal. He gave them the nickname Grim Shepherds, for they guided the flock of the Machine God's servant during the grimmest of times. Thru the thick tree trunks he could six robots of war in a defensive circle laying fire into pitch black creatures with bone white plates. They were stuck on their Aegis Protocol, which did help their armor but the Protector Protocol was more suited for them. Thankfully their Repulsor Grids were active and were absorbing 73.66% of all of the creatures' attacks, and 40.33% of the time the beast would be fried. Cyber could not but to sigh at the beauty of the Kastelan Robots mowing thru the weak creatures. The changing of the protocols would weaken the Repulsors Grid, but their Heavy Phosphor Blasters would at twice the rate. Which would be more preferable in this situation.
Ironwood quickly left the office as Ozpin sat into his chair as he minimized the camera feed showing the three members of this new 'cult', as described by the brash general. The mic picked up more static, which annoyed Ozpin a little bit, but his despair has put on hold when the sound of Grimm was picked up by the microphone. He reopened the feed and saw the, what was his name? Cybersomething Datasmith. The wizard had a hard time remembering the name for the figure, but he decided in his brain to refer to him as CD. Anyway, CD started running towards the sound of Grimm in the distance which were answered by a sound that sounded similar to gunfire. Must be some of the patrol with them. Ozpin switched from camera feed to camera feed to trail the dead bolting figure as he ran thru Emerald Forest.
After a few minutes of running, Ozpin saw what CD was searching for. It was a group of six white painted robots standing at 14 feet tall, with an LMG mounted on their shoulder and two more LMGs replacing their hands. They laid endless fire into the beowolf pack, their claws bounced off of the robot's armor. Also a field covered the robots body when they Grimm would strike at them and turn the attacking into black smoke, but this happened rarely. Whenever one of their LMG fired a white sphere that hit a beowolf, it would cling onto the target and start to melt the Grimm alive. The beasts' inhuman cries and roars filled the silence from the 'cultists'. Once the Grimm hoard was fading into black smoke, CD was inspecting the corpses from every angle. But when it would eventually disappear and the man who glare at the smoke as it dissipated.
Cyber glared at the creatures that attacked the Grim Shepherds, their bodies faded leaving no trace of them being there. Somewhere in the deep recess of his brain, he felt a sense of disgust. They were dumber than the orks but their bodies faded out of the materium similar to the daemons of the warp. These creatures had not right to exist, they need to be cleansed. And what is better to solve the equation then burning phosphex. Cyber quickly reported over the vox channel, -This is Datasmith-1721, the Grim Shepherds have encountered a pack of hostile creatures. I assume they are of daemonic origin based on the fact their bodies are turning to smoke. - The communication channel was silence for longer than it should have. -Repeat last Cyber, - ordered the Dominus. The datasmith chose to shorten his report, -The blessed machines have exterminated a pack of local daemons, and I do not recognize their species.-
Ira barked over the noosphere, -All units; regroup at grip ref 257-521. It is located in the middle of a clearing were we will set up a landing point. Location will not be referred as LZ Saltus. - All of the squads replied different messages but with the same meaning. Moving to destination. The Dominus and Enginseer waited for the Datasmith and Kastelan Robot to catch up with them before heading to LZ Saltus, it was safer to travel in numbers. Dominus Ira led the group, cutting down any foliage in their path with the Omnissian Axe, with Eights and Cyber marching behind her will scanning the tree line with their auspex. The six battle-automata that make up the Grim Shepherds marched in ranks of two, their heavy phosphor blasters ready if any hostiles are spotted.
Ironwood watched the five cultist airships leave Emerald Forest. They did not approach the city of Vale, they must have dropped off soldiers in the forest! He only saw the contents of one of them before he stormed out of Ozpin's office, the three of them must have been the leaders of the force sent to the woods. To kill a snake, you must first cut off the head. He barked to the nearest soldier, "I want five bullheads to follow those cultists from a distance. I want to find out where their base is, kill them if needed. Set every squad of soldiers into the city on alert for those damned cultists." The soldier quickly scampered off, while repeating the orders thru his scroll. As the cultist's VTOLs were becoming dots on the horizon, five Atlesian bullheads took off and trailed them. Ozpin watched from his office window at the top of the tower, he could not help but to sigh.
The convoy marched thru the strange forest, only the sound of servo joints and the cutting of foliage could be heard. Eights called out, -At least 10 local creatures, 200 meters, direct left.- The snap of the Kataphron Robot's heavy phosphor blasters answered his call out. The female dominus glared at the pack, they were not rushing the convoy head long like the orks. But they rushed the Kataphrons earlier without a care in the world, which might have been a probing attack. They started to remind Ira of tyranids more than orks, and logic dictates that there could be more species of these creatures. -Don't fire, I want to know if their action are by accident or strategies,- ordered the Dominus.
The pilot of the vulture yelled, -Five unidentified VTOLs trailing us, less than a click out!- -Launching communications with them,- responded the co-pilot. Meanwhile on the Atlesian bullheads a mysterious metallic voice spoke thru the speakers, "We know you are trailing us. If you do not state where you are from we will consider you hostile. 10 seconds to respond." The pilot turned to face the co-pilot, both had no idea what to do. The co-pilot shrugged and stated, "Atla-." "Turn around or be fired upon," interrupted the metallic voice.
The anxiety of a pending encounter crept into the cogitators of Ira Ferrum. She stared over to the pack to spot a strange gesture. One of the creatures turned to charge them, but the snap of the pack leader kept the creature in formation. How peculiar. The dominus saved the recording and gave the two species names. Lupus for the creatures in general and Lupus Alpha for the larger pack leader, named after the extinct species with similar appearance from Terra. A call came over the vox channel, -Dominus Ferrum, we have five Atlesian VTOL craft trailing us. We have warned them to turn around or be fired upon, what are your orders? - -Give Onager Unit Alpha a little bit of target practice, - coldly responded the female dominus.
The pilot of the Atlesian bullhead called Ironwood after the metallic voice stopped replying to any questions they asked. The co-pilot started talking, "They found out that we are trailing them, and they started a call with us. The demand that we turn around or be shot down." The general slammed his fist into the bullhead he was standing next to, denting the perfectly smooth hull. He barked, "They have taken a hostile stance, shot four of them down to send a message! DO I NEED TO REFORM THE AIRFORCE LIKE I DID TO THE ARMY?" The pilot shook his head quickly. "All bullheads, knock four of their VTOLs out of the sky," coldly stated the co-pilot over the channel. The other co-pilots responded, "Roger tha-."
Ozpin watched from his office as the skirmish over Emerald Forest started. A previously unknown anti-aircraft position fired missiles, rockets and high caliber gun fire from under the canopy. That was probably from one of the 'cultists' soldiers that landed in the forest. Two Atlesian Bullheads exploded in the air while a third have losing altitude. The two other bullheads quickly waved off and started to return back to Vale. The headmaster quickly pulled up the video feed from where the missiles roughly originated. To his surprise he saw a pure white four legged crawler surrounded by ten robed cyborgs shorter than the three unknown figures from before. Smoke was still dissipating from the crawler's weapons, showing signs of recent use.
Cliff hanger because reasons.
Known Units: Here is a list of known Ad Mech forces on Remnant (including names)
Grim Shepherds: Six Kataphron Robots all armed with three Heavy Phosphor Blasters.
Onager Unit Alpha: One Onager Dunecrawler armed with an Icarus Array, going to give it a special name next chapter. You can recommend your own in the reviews.
Skitarii Unit Charlie: Ten Skitarii Rangers armed with Galvanic Rifles and a Enhanced Data-Tether.
Ira Ferrum: One Dominus armed with an Eradication Ray, Macrostubber, and Omnissian Axe.
Eights: One Enginseer armed with a Laspistol and an Omnissian Axe.
Cyber-1721: One Cybernetica Datasmith armed with a Gamma Pistol and a Power Fist.