Reviews:
Brake kid: Thanks for the support.
H4mmond: Since I am in school I will be posting a chapter roughly once every week, but to be honest it will take longer than that due to more complex classes. I am planning to have this story more WH40k like while staying in the setting of RWBY. I will continue writing this story until I am finished with it, so there is no need to fear it being canceled early or on a permanent hiatus. At the start of writing this story, my computer did not think Adeptus Mechanicus was a word either. So you are not alone there.
Janne Rolfe Jalandoni: Even in death I will serve the Omnissiah, for the machine is immortal.
Forge Master 00: There should hopefully be no kids here due to the rating, but that doesn't really matter. Join the discord if you want to join the game or talk about the story and influence it.
Guest (The First One): I know you were disappointed in their punishment, but nobody can die in season one unless the author is a sadist. Killing off characters is for season two! Oh wait, I killed Torchwick in season one. Disregard my previous statement. But I can confirm Forge Master 00's statements. I used a mortal wound chart my D&D group uses, but I rerolled if I got the same result. For some reason I was getting broken teeth a lot.
Guest (The Second One): Pugnus knows about Cinder and her lackeys, and that Ozpin has a group already. He is just missing why. I can tell you that the fate of the maidens and a war against Salem will be a focus of a season in the future.
Speech Syntaxes:
+Speech+ Lingua-Technis
"Speech" Low Gothic/English
"Speech" Amplified Low Gothic
Chapter's Pre-readers: Forge Master 00
Notes: For some reason, I have been lacking the drive to write. There are going to be a lot of scenes that include Pugnus and Ozpin in the following chapters to set the chessboard for the final checkmate.
Changes: I am testing out a new syntax for Lingua Technis for the rest of season two because the minus symbols did not stand out enough for my liking. I found a name table for servitors and servo-skulls, so it will be decided by the Omnissiah's thrice blessed dice. Also, Skitarii will be named correctly now but the change to Domina will not start yet.
Chapter Twenty-Four: Game of Wits
One week, that is the time constraint placed upon the Magos Dominus. Not by any foreign power, but ordered by himself. He had one week to find out why Cinder Fall infiltrated Beacon Academy. Half of Pugnus' cogitators focused on the blueprint of the prestigious school projected into the noosphere, while the other half of his mind scanned his surroundings. The tech-priest could have split his mind further, but he wanted this objective done with minimal discrepancies.
Ozpin watched the Magos Dominus silently as he moved throughout his school, his movements patterns were bizarre. Pugnus spent minimal time within sight of his cameras, but when he did his head swiveled to observe every inch in the room or hallway he was in. He was certainly not lost, for he wasted no time to check each option at an intersection of paths. He was not admiring the construction of his academy, for it was clear to him that they held no emotions. The tech-priest was looking for something. The headmaster wanted to know what.
Pugnus stopped in his footsteps as he read the message that had been sent to him via the noosphere. Headmaster Ozpin invited him to his office to play a game of chess. His cogitators informed him that the game of chess was an ancient Terrain board game which later inspired regicide. He sent back a reply after careful consideration, "I will fulfill your wish in losing a game of chess."
Ozpin chuckled to himself as he read the reply. Never did he expect that he would laugh at a joke told by an emotionless cyborg. Through the cameras he watched his soon to be opponent walk towards the elevator to his office without hesitation. Even more proof that he is not lost. Once the Magos Dominus reached the elevator he entered quickly, but he swiftness was halted when his metal hand stopped an inch away from the button that would send him to the top floor.
One minute has passed. Pugnus started to inspect the elevator more thoroughly then the hallways. Two minutes have passed. His mechadendrites ruptured from under his cloak, to slowly touch every inch of the elevator. Similar to horror movies about aliens with tentacles. Three minutes have passed. All of his limbs were back under his robes, his electronic blue eyes bored into the floor as if he was attempting to go down. Once his timer reached four minutes, the Magos Dominus exited the elevator and took the stairs.
The stairwell door creaked open, a blatant sign of its lack of use. Ozpin placed down his coffee mug as he watched Pugnus entered his office. "Are you ready for our game of chess? You seemed prepared for it in your response, but the time you spent getting up here says otherwise. Unless it was a joke."
A series of clicking noises emitted from the Magos Dominus. He caught his mistake and switched languages, "Apologies for speaking in my native tongue, I have been speaking only in Lingua-Technis for so long that I almost forgot to switch back to low gothic. The response I gave was not a joke, but a statement of a fact. I also inspected your elevator and devised a way to upgrade the weight capacity to allow tech-priests to access it. I see that you have set up the board already. I would have assumed a man like yourself would have chosen the white pieces?"
"The color of the pieces does not matter, but I assumed you would have preferred having your colors match up with your side. I would also wish to introduce another objective into the game. For every enemy piece you capture, you are allowed to ask one question. The topic of the question depends on the price of the piece. The same rule applies for myself as well," Explained Ozpin as he gestured to the chair in front of him, "Come on, you can sit in the chair. It is your turn after all."
Pugnus remained motionless as he stared at the offered chair, "If you elevator could not lift me, do you believe that this chair could?" The tech-priest did not wait for a reply as he used a mechadendrite to move a pawn to the E4 space.
Ozpin smirked as he countered with E5, "It was out of politeness rather than usefulness." Less than a second after the Headmaster's hand placed the pawn, the metal snake move his knight to F3. D6 was played to protect his central pawn, again Pugnus played without thinking with a pawn advancing onto D4. Ozpin could already tell he was already on the back foot in this game. He had to apply pressure or he would lose. His white squared bishop moved to G4, threatening Pugnus' Knight.
The tech-priest cared little as his pawn moved to the E5 space, capturing a pawn. "Why did you challenge me to a game of chess, while you know that my brain is the fastest computer on this planet?"
"I rarely have the chance to play a challenging game of chess, I have already memorized Ironwood's, Oobleck's, and Port's tactics. All of my other colleagues refuse you play against me," answered Ozpin as he hand drifted to his bishop in enemy territory. With a flick of his wrist, a black bishop now took up a square where a white knight used to be. "How much do you weigh?"
"Around two tonnes. Which is 2.20462 tones in your planet's units." His queen avenged the knight. "Why did you send in your minion into a situation where it would die?"
"I would not call my pieces minions, but it was a test of your playstyle." The headmaster paused to allow his pawn to move to capture the white pawn on E5. "Why did you not bother to save your knight?"
Pugnus juxtaposed as he moved his white square bishop to C4. "It already served its purpose to my plan, similar to your bishop." Ozpin noticed a potential move that could have ended the game already, his black night moved to F6 to sacrifice itself of the king. The Magos Dominus moved his queen across its rank to B3. The headmaster took his time for his next move, mostly because he saw checkmate against him in two turns. He knew that Pugnus saw it as well, but that was always a given.
The black queen moved to E7 in a guarding manner. A white knight moved to C3 to secure the hanging white pawn, but also to potential threat his queen. Black pawn to C6, blocking the path to the queen. The Magos Dominus applied a tactic his opponent ordered earlier, black square bishop to G5. Ozpin had to gamble to get control of the game, pawn to B5. Threatening the spearhead of Pugnus' forces, but the tech-priest did something unexpected on his turn. He waited. He paused, his mechadendrite hovering over his knight. A series of binary escaped his vox. "My apologies Ozpin, the reinforcements have arrived. I am required to attend the burial rituals of my soldiers and the introduction of their replacements."
"How long will the ceremony take? So that we can continue our game afterwards," questioned Ozpin as the tech-priest walk approaching the stairwell door.
Pugnus stopped in his tracks, without even turning around he quipped. "You have to capture a piece to ask a question, Headmaster."
The day so far for team JNPR was different. Their history class gained a substitute teacher, their lunch table was half empty, and four seats in every class were left unfilled by their sister team. What surprised them was how nobody stopped to acknowledge the emptiness, besides themselves and team SSSN. The world kept on turning, and it felt that team RWBY just disappeared off the face of Remnant. The team leader proposed as they walked down the hallways. "We should visit team RWBY after combat class."
Nora jumped into the air with a fist raised, "Yes! Another perfect plan from our fearless leader!"
"Do you even know where they are being treated? Or even if all of them are conscious" questioned Ren.
Pyrrha countered, "We can always just call them to find out what happened."
Jaune fished out his scroll and looked at the recent calls, with a simple press of a button he called Ruby Rose and put the phone on speaker. Instead of the expected innocent and happy voice of the weapon fanatic, a stern and threatening masculine voice emitted from the scroll. "Who are you and why are you calling my daughter?"
The team leader's eyes widened as he struggled to reply, "Uh…a…I-i am Jaune Arc. Who are you?"
"I am Ruby's father. How do you know her?"
Jaune continued to stammer, but thankfully his partner came to his aid. "Mr. Rose, we are all friends with Ruby and her team."
A short pause came from the scroll before the man corrected them. "Mr. Rose? I am Taiyang Xiao Long. Surely my daughters talked about their huntsman father?"
"Neither Ruby or Yang talked about their family, except for an Uncle Crow." explained Ren.
Mr. Xiao Long sighed before responding, "She always did aspire to be like him. I will meet you at the hospital Ruby is in, the location is already sent to your scroll."
Magos Dominus Pugnus reached the temporary camp for his forces on Beacon grounds. The original plan was to be inserted onto the location of the FOB via air, but the dense foliage and trees prevented the most efficient route. Their current task was to create a convoy to protect the more expensive units until they reach their desired location. Thankfully for the servants of the Omnissiah, Grimm are attracted to negative emotions. Their emotion dampeners will have the results of them encountering a hoard reduced by 48.571% with a percent error of 31.578%. The idea of how the Grimm can scene emotions, if they even do, is all theory. With no studies done by the natives of the planet and no time for him to spare on an investigation, left the tech-priest with no facts to base his operations on beside firsthand accounts.
Pugnus was pulled out of his logic trance when his personal servo-skull, Claudio 377, appeared in the sight of his optical augmentations. +What are your orders?+ questioned the floating human skull.
In the noosphere, a blueprint of Beacon Academy appears was displayed, with a specific point of entry was highlighted in crimson read. +You will enter the ventilation shafts via the predesignated position, and follow the preordained path. During the entire mission you will be recording everything that you see, and every hour the video will be forwarded to the fleet. Do not be seen at any costs, if you are found out do not get captured.+ Claudio 377 dipped forward as it moved towards the school.
The newspaper headlines read: 'The Vytal Festival Moved Back a Week! Grimm Rampaging Vale!' Dr. Polendina snarled as he read deeper into the article. His entire plan had to be set back just because those pacifist Valians could protect their own capital. It could be considered overreacting to be furious after losing a week of time. He lacked the proper materials, but he could use synthetic replacements. He lacked followers, but augmentations could change that. He lacked the required technology, but he could use some from his home world secretly. He lacked time, but there was no way to get that back!
Dr. Polendina knows he has until the Adeptus Mechanicus annexes Atlas to finish his plan. Which is barely enough time to finish, for the slaves of the corpse-god have already hacked into every network connected to the CCT. For how else would they have known about Project Penny? If he is desperate enough to save his life, he could always betray Atlas when the war breaks out. But that would require him to destroy all of his work, and to persuade a tech-priest form Metalica that he was not a heretek. Highly improbable. His last two options are to assist Atlas in the war or go into hiding.
Verraeter's calculations stopped when he realized what the corpse dogs were doing. They were attempting a peaceful conquest of this planet. That means there would be no war, and then everything that Atlas owns would be turned over to the Adeptus Mechanicus. Dr. Polendina could not afford there not being a war. The Magos Errant added a new primaris objective to his cogitators: Start a war between Atlas and the Adeptus Mechanicus.
The Magos Dominus stood near the gates of Vale with his fellow Domini and Enginseers around him. His loyal forces stood at the ready behind him in convoy formation, the more valuable assets at the center surrounded by a wall of Skitarii and Kataphrons. Some of the locals were curious what has happened, but that was not important. Right now he had to debrief his subordinates. +Since you all were part of the planning phase of this operation, I will keep this brief. We are going to march to the future location of our FOB on this planet. We will not stop unless we are engaged. Once we reach our destination, a clearing must be made so that we can have our craft land supplies directly to us. Expected enemies are Grimm, but the quantity and quality is unknown. There is a squadron of Fury Interceptors a few clicks away if CAS is needed. Any questions?+
Dominus Decium asked, +Rules of engagement for any non-grimm contacts?+
+Do not fire unless fired upon. Any other questions?+ answered Pugnus. There was a pause before he spoke again, +Then we shall start the operation. May the Omnissiah guide us all.+ The gates of Vale creaked open at the silent order of the Magos Dominus. The legions of metal silently marched out of the city, as the locals watched silently.
Afterword: I am considering putting in short Omakes at the end of some chapters. What do you guys think?