Reviews:
Guest: I only made it a short fight because I did not want to waste a paragraph of nothing happening besides dodging, blocking, and attacks bouncing off Ira's armor.
ImaginativeFury: Have to set the two types of speak different somehow and I am saving all Italics and all Bold for something else. Also the idea of stating that they are speaking in Lingua-Technis would become repetitive and boring. I could use something different out, but I will not be using "" for Lingua-Technis. Do not like it, read something else. I notice that you wrote this on Chapter Three (The Fourth Post), which was written before I made a new paragraph anytime someone spoke. It can be confusing there but that is only a small section of the overall story, and was fixed in Chapter Six (The Eight Post). Also I would be willing to change from the dash to either '=Speech=', '+Speech+', '++Speech++', '~Speech~', or 'Speech'.
Votes for Trial of Penny:
Automata [2]
Silica Animus [4]
Feudal STC [2]
Speech Syntaxes:
-Speech- Lingua-Technis
"Speech" Low Gothic/English
Notes: I realized that the chapter titles and chapter titles in the jump menu are messed up because of the two polls, it is going to be confusing if I try to talk about latter chapters, but if I do it will be in this format: Chapter Title (Jump Menu Title). For example this chapter is Chapter Eight (10). Also, I could not find any forge in Beacon Academy in cannon. Either I am blind or it does not exist.
Chapter Eight: Official First Contact
Enginseer Eights wandered thru the halls of Beacon Academy looking for the forge that Dominus Ferrum say on her way here. With the benefit of hindsight, he should have asked for directions before leaving the office. Ira said she saw the forge, but he was too focused on planning inducting people into the Cult Mechanicus. If a few of the natives join the faith then integration into the Adeptus Mechanicus will be smooth and cost less resources. And efficiency is key.
As he took his time to inspect the school itself, he noticed a few thing. Students, on average, travel in groups of four to two. None of the students are armed, and all wear a school uniform. But his cogitators recall that team JNPR did not wear any set uniform in combat. For the school itself, it designs reminded him of a mixture of Eldar and Imperial architecture. The idea of mixing anything xenos and man increased bile production in his organs. He neared another door to a room and gently placed his hand on the doorknob, checking if it is a lecture hall. Last time he did not was awkward, he barely escaped the green haired recaff addicted teacher. The door swung open from the other side and slammed into his faceplate.
He turned to see the bow wearing student from the landing pads exiting what appeared to be a library, there were students in there holding card around a board with plastic figures on it which made him question the purpose of the room. The bow wearing student appeared slightly annoyed and deep in thought. Before she could say anything the Enginseer interrupted her, "Do you know where the forge is?"
"It is on the other side of the school on the lower levels," she answered before walking down the hallway from where he came. The information was helpful but lacking at the same time, similar to having a front line of conscript guardsmen. Eights sighed before returning to his wonderings thru the school.
Dominus Ferrum stood behind the professor as she watched the students spare each other. Four classes have already passed and she started to notice a few thing, in particular Auras and Semblances. She recorded every fight to be review in the future, to create a database of every student here and to learn more about their technology. She made a note on the files before sending them to the Magos Dominus, 'Unlike Forge World Stygies VIII, we will find flaws in their technology to exploit in the future.' The tech-priest had to be sure she would not be labeled a heretek for proposing studying xenos technology in depth, the inquisition hates the Adeptus Mechanicus enough.
The dominus stated thru her vox, -Eights, how is it going finding the forge?-
A quick replied answered her question, -I am on the opposite side of the school from it, at least that is what one of the students told me. But there is no truth in flesh, only betrayal. - She sure hoped he found the forge soon, for her internal clocks suggested that it was approaching dusk. But then the idea of auras surfaced again from her cogitators. If it is not heresy, the soldiers of the Adeptus Mechanicus can be imbued with it making them thrice as strong and resilient. She noticed that the students have no armor and use aura to compensate for it, but what if you combined the two. If any attack went thru the armor then the aura could act as a second layer of defense. But this is only possible if it is not heresy.
The female tech-priest stood silently in thought as she waited for the class to be over. Meanwhile on the other side of the school, Eights had finally found the forge. He celebrated longer than he would be willing to admit. Unfortunately for him, it was time to regroup back at Cyber's position for resupply and recuperation. On the positive, he now has a large portion of Beacon Academy mapped out in his cogitators. He did notice some flaws in the school's defensives, specifically that there aren't any beside the geological location of the school. The cliff stopped invasions from anything that can't climb mountains. But avian Grimm and VTOL craft remove that advantage.
Unknown to most members of the Imperium of Man, tech-priest do actually sleep. But this is all depending on your definition of sleeping. A better word to describe it would be recharging. The same problem occurs when eating is brought up in a conversation. They can eat but they do not require food as often as humans, similar to members of the Adeptus Astartes with their food paste. But their free time in the place of eating is used in cleaning and blessing their augmentations. Routinely the ritual takes place to pacify the machine spirits, lengths in between rituals vary depending if they are in a war zone or heading to a war zone.
Ozpin watched silently as the soldiers of the Adeptus Mechanicus held their position outside of his school without stopping to rest. The warm cup of fresh coffee greeted his lips as he took a drawn out sip. The only audio the camera picked up was static coming from the group as a whole. The idea that is was audio malfunction was ebbing away. They are from space and probably have their own language, but since most of them were machines it might be a machine language they can easily copy. Then he can finally find out what they are saying, more work for Qrow to do latter. He did have some experience with programming languages when he investigated a skirmish, between Atlas and what was recently discovered as the Adeptus Mechanicus, two months ago. He came back with a bunch of random words and numbers.
The Magos Dominus overlooked the map of the planet below him in the Noosphere, the bordered were drawn out on the map with the four major cities labeled. He attached the partial layout of Beacon Academy and the videos of the student fighting into the Vale file. The recordings of the deals and every conversation with important figurehead were saved into the Important Conversations File, while the remaining recorded conversations were saved to the Common Conversations File. Enginseer Precision began working on personal files for every person that they meet, so far he had twenty two profiles.
A few profiles interested Pugnus the most, Ruby Rose, Yang Xiao Long, the bow wearing student, the mint hair student, and Pyrrha Nikos. All of them for different reasons, potential recruit, changing eye color, twitch bow, strange attitude toward the tech-priests, and whispering 'My semblance is not working on the cultist or weapons'. He set the profiles in varying importance from highest to lowest, Pyrrha, Ruby, Yang, Bow Girl, and Mint Hair. The Magos Dominus would prefer to remove the last to files, but the two tech-priests on the surface specifically requested them to be looked into.
General Ironwood sat in his Atlesian Battleship as he pondered his situation. The deal made earlier in the day played thru his head over and over again. 'I can agree to a cease-fire, on one conditions. One, any attempts to harm, steal, or destroy Adeptus Mechanicus property or equipment will result in the nullification of the treaty. I will also follow by the same rule as well'. They agreed to a cease-fire, there is a large difference between that and a non-aggression pact. Then he said 'I will also follow by the same rule', the General noticed how he said 'I' and not the 'Adeptus Mechanicus'. He left it ambiguous to keep a loophole open in the deal.
It made Ironwood unsettled, he was not scared but anxious instead. They were planning to strike Atlas and he knew it. But if he starts aggressions, the other Kingdoms might not support him and Pugnus could use it as reasoning to orbital bombard Atlas. The General checked the rules of war, and it does break it but the Adeptus Mechanicus did not sign it or officially recognize it. That means that they do not have to spare civilians. Ironwood planned to bring it up to Ozpin tomorrow, right now he needed some sleep.
The sun slowly rose into the sky from over the horizon, rays of light touched upon the white robes of the patrol detachment of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Their patrols lasted throughout the night, never ceasing and never slowing. From their past battles, they have developed a doctrine of slow moving armies that last long in attrition then the xenos or heretics. But this lost colony has different tactics, they have a doctrine of small fast moving armies that serve multiple purposes. It intrigued the Magos Dominus, but it will not change the fate of the planet. They will come into the fold of the Imperium as a forge world or a death world. Today will decide that, for the news reporters found out about the patrol stationed at Beacon Academy. He would be joining with them quickly incase anything happened. His internal clock told him that it was 8 a.m.
Ozpin got a call on his scroll form an unknown number, he personally had nothing better to do than send his pawns orders or watch what the students are doing. He answered the call to be greeted by a metallic voice, "It is nice to talk to you again Ozpin, this is Magos Dominus Pugnus Rubrum of Forge World Metalica. I have received word that the news reports in Vale are growing more…brazen about trying to interview with the forces under Magos Ira Ferrum. I will be landing at Beacon Academy to give a speech, I hope you can prepare one as well. And make sure to tell the good general this as well, don't want him starting a war by shooting my VTOL down." The call abruptly ended and Ozpin spent a long moment staring at his scroll before contacting Ironwood to prepare a speech.
The Enginseer was too busy scanning the sky to realize a small group of students was watching them from afar. The VTOL with the Magos Dominus was scheduled to leave at 9 a.m. and to land around midday, and the current times was 11 a.m. with no signs of the airship in the sky. It was concerning if anything happened to him, it would leave Ira and Quin in charge of the brigade. Their inaptitude to agree on anything would result in infighting and war with the feudals. Ruining the efficiency of the plan that Pugnus probably has to take control of this planet. Eights was in the dark with the plans more than he would prefer, he suspected that the female tech-priest was more informed than he was.
Precision suspected her of being tainted by a demon or Khorne before, but Pugnus wrote it off as a want to purge the enemies of the Omnissiah. Eights and Quin decided to stay out of that problem in case the inquisition was called in, both did not want those flesh bags messing around with their work. During that time of staying away from the female dominus and the other Enginseer, both Quin and Eights became allies. The male dominus had an unsafe addiction to anything related to phosphex, and Eights was glad enough to supply him with it in exchange for information. During the entire crisis, Cyber stayed with his Kastelans like he always does.
Ozpin walked up to the tech-priest who was scanning the skies intently. "How much longer till he arrives?" questioned the headmaster. Eights jumped a little, which was a surprising feat from a tech-priest weighing around two thousand pounds. He glared at the person who broke his concentration with his servo-arm ready to slap them, but since it was the headmaster the metal limb retracted behind his back.
"The Magos Dominus will arrive between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., you should be preparing for the crowd of civilians that will flock to him," suggested the Enginseer as he gestured to the few group of students that were waiting around the landing pads. The headmaster was more worried about what Pugnus was planning for his speech, he himself already had a speech prepared and Ironwood was busy playing with his robots to give a speech to the press. Ozpin used a portion of his speech to state how he will seek to improve relations with the foreigners to safeguard the public, mostly out of concern of attracting Grimm to the city. He did plan for a threat at the cultist themselves if their speech included one.
Pugnus Rubrum stood in his Valkyrie as it descended into the planet's atmosphere. Being the oldest tech-priest in the brigade, at 231 years old, he was not surprised by anything. But he planned to toy around with this Headmaster Ozpin before forcing his influence upon him, for he wanted to laugh at when the hope drains from his eyes. Hope is a rare trait to find in the forty first millennium. The current date was 466.M41 in the imperial calendar, nothing surprising happened. There were a wars on strategic locations, but nothing exciting. But a lost human colony does really get his servos rotating. What he preferred about feudals is that they will usually bend the knee out of fear or fight to the last man in the ruins of their city. But you will never know until you make first contact.
Speaking of first contact, the Valkyrie landed and the back door lowered. The Magos Dominus walked down the ramp slowly, his eradication ray and phosphor serpenta swayed with every step. He noticed a few of the students at the school give him weird looks before holding up tablets of glass which created a flash, his cogitators guessed that they were taking pictures of him. That is one thing he hated about this lost colony, the right to free press and free speech. It allowed for heretical ideas to be easily spread amongst the populous, but he can also use this to his advantage. On the far side of the landing pads, Enginseer Eights was standing next to Headmaster Ozpin. Both arrived before he did which shows signs of caving in, which expected of the tech-priest but not of the flesh bag.
"It is pleasing to meet you while occupying my own body Headmaster," greeted the Magos Dominus as he approached the two. The headmaster was silent as he inspected Pugnus with his eyes. He appeared more metal then Ira Ferrum, both of his arms were completely metal and reinforced with what he could guess to be steel. The Magos Dominus' posture was even worse than the Dominus as well, maybe he is more machine than man. Questions for latter.
Ozpin replied, "It is also nice to see you as well, thou I am surprised that you brought no bodyguards."
"Is there a need to protect myself while at your school?" retorted Pugnus was his eradication ray started to hum to life. The headmaster's knuckles turned white while he squeezed the cane in his hand.
"There is no reason unless you create one," answered Ozpin.
The Magos Dominus countered, "Correlation versus causation. I cannot be blamed for Ironwood's animalistic instincts."
The headmaster commented, "One should always trust their guts when faced with the unknown."
"There is no truth in flesh, only betrayal," recited Pugnus from the Dogma of the Mechanicus.
"If that is true, then why are you trusting us?" questioned Ozpin. The eradication ray hummed to life again.
Pugnus threatened, "I do not want to waste the ammunition needed to conquer this planet. I can spend as much time as needed for the machine is immortal." Both parties were silent, then an idea popped into Ozpin's mind. What if the Magos Dominus was older than him? That would make him more experienced than him and the Queen. Maybe the chess game could end in this life.
Team RWBY were in the middle of Professor Port's class, they were all watching the clock till the bell rung. That was until an announcement came over the loudspeaker, "There is a case of first contact with people not from this planet. All classes will be paused as a live recording of the meeting is taken place in Vale." The lights dimmed and the students started whispering to each other. Then the video feed was projected over the white boards with sketching of Grimm. A cyborg covered in white robes, similar to the anti-Grimm mercenaries outside Beacon, stood on the pedestal.
He spoke thru his vox casters as he spread his arms out wide, "Greeting Feudals, I am Magos Dominus Pugnus Rubrum of the Adeptus Mechanicus located on Forge World Metalica. The Adeptus Mechanicus is allied with the Imperium of Man, an empire spanning across countless stars and planets fighting to take humanities' right place as ruler of the galaxy. It is common for planets to be cut off from the greater Imperium only to integrated back in the Emperor's holy fold. I am here to help bring this planet peacefully into the Adeptus Mechanicus. There are many things that we can provide that your kingdoms can not. Let this be known, the Adeptus Mechanicus will not protect you from the Grimm. Rather we will crush the xenos before they can attempt to attack mankind." His speech riled up a concoction of conflicting emotions within the crowd, and as the speech continued the emotions became more conflicted.
Blake noticed how he only said about mankind and nothing about the Faunus, it was greatly concerning. Ruby was distracted on the idea that they were from space. Weiss was intrigued about how Atlas' army would compare to theirs. Yang was worried that they might indoctrinate her sister into their cult. Once the speech ended the reporters starting asking questions.
A female reporter asked, "Mister Rubrum, you said that the Imperium of Man was fighting for their place in the galaxy. Who exactly are they fighting?"
"There are three main enemies of the Imperium. There are the Orks, which is a xenos race solely built for war. The very idea of peace is unknown to them. Next is the Eldar, they believe themselves superior to man and wish to put humanity under their influence. Lastly is Chaos. They are demons that come from the immaterium that wish to corrupt all organisms to please their twisted gods," explained Pugnus.
"What are your views on Faunus?" asked one of the few xenos reporters. Blake perked up at the question.
The Magos Dominus carefully explained, "I have never meet a Faunus, but by how you asked the question I can assume you are one of them. There exist a race of abhumans called the Felinids in the Imperium of Man, they fight alongside the Astra Militarum. The Faunus strain appears closer to the human strain then the Felinid strain. Both species can live peacefully together as long as no Faunus view themselves as superior to mankind." While he personally would want to exterminate the abhumans, he wanted the public's support as he slowly influenced them to agree with him. Once they past the point of no return, then he can properly deal with the xenos.
"Do you have enough firepower to destroy the Grimm?" questioned a third reporter.
Pugnus cryptically stated, "I have more than enough." Orbital bombardments could be used on any high concentration of the xenos, but the only problem is that the populous might not like him destroying the planet's landscape. If they protest against that, he has six titans on standby on the Astral Knight. He would conquer this planet even it is the last thing he does. He walked away from the podium while remarking, "No more questions at this time." The headmaster of Beacon stepped up to the podium and gave his own speech, Pugnus does not really care for it because Precision would analyze it for him latter. There were also more pressing matters at hand, he had to organize the second wave of reinforcement to land with in 24 hours.