Craftworld Kaelor, outside the medical centre
Florence Nightingale was hanging outside the medical centre fully recovered with nothing to do. His helmet had been completely wrecked by the hive tyrant, and only equipped with the translator Lae'hareil had given him he felt underequipped.
His last orders were from the doctor who had treated him who said: "Don't do anything suicidal for the next four days" which translated to four days off in Florence's mind.
However he was completely lost in craftworld without his map, and most of the populous skirted away from him or insulted him when he asked for assistance. Deciding that walking around in the most complex city-ship he'd ever encountered was a bad idea, it left him sitting on a park bench in his battered clothes.
Most prominent was the eight-centimetre hole on his left breast, which showed the internal augments grafted to his skin. He'd counted five Eldar take note of the metal skin and mutter something about primitive solutions
Though it was hard to be angry with their prejudices after what he'd heard from Lae'hareil about what'd happened to the craftworld from humanity's hands and therefore he couldn't really protest. Sighing at his predicament he continued his break from duty at the park bench oblivious to the fact that he was being watched.
Farseer Ela'Ashbel was being guided by the spirits more as of late and she soon found out why. It was nearly a tornado of activity from the souls of the infinity circuit, with the eye of the storm being one of the Human soldiers resting on a park bench.
The golden light that emanated throughout all the newcomers dripped off of him like a river of butter, with the souls demanding a conversation between their representative and this human.
She approached the Human and sat down next to him on the park bench much to his surprise. The soldier tried to leave but was interrupted by the Farseer "It's rude to leave a blind woman all by her lonesome is it not? Don't worry young one I mean you no harm"
Florence knew very well that the Eldar had a lifespan that nearly tripled their own unaltered, so her comment on his youth was not unfounded. While his instincts protested against being near the intimidating woman he decided to comply with her request of company, "That's a relief. Most people here have been treating me like I haven't showered in three weeks"
His joke was met by a soft chuckle from the Eldar woman, who he'd recognized as one of the council members of the Kaelor elders. Her laughter stopped quickly after as she came to a sad realization, "That's because most of them think you don't see them as people, the circuit knows better though."
"I'm sorry, the circuit?" the Eldar council member looked surprised at his question, but once again her expression returned to a softer face.
"Our ship is powered by the soulstones of our dead. They merge into the infinity circuit that protects us, however, they're free to roam around our ship. Just now they were swarming around you, so tell me. They normally aren't that curious, so who are you?" Florence looked around him to try and find these mysterious souls of the dead but to no avail. The councilwoman chuckled at his attempt but was waiting on his answers
"Well my name is Florence Nightengale SES unit twelve, but I don't consider myself too important ma'am. Are you sure you got the right guy?" Ela'ashbel pondered for a moment, but she was too familiar with her prophecies to know them to be false.
"Tell me young one, do you know who I am?" the soldier shook his head "I'm the Farseer of this craftworld. Believe me when I say my gifts are never wrong. I look forward to seeing your future young one. Now I must be off to attend to my duties, do try to not die in the future."
Florence thanked her for her advice? and watched as she went off away from the confused soldier.
The Farseer would eventually be proven correct though, but not in the way she expected.
Immaterium, ?
Erebos was becoming annoyed, for his future protege was being distracted by all of the elvish broads. Sighing at the fact that he couldn't just get rid of them without losing his standing with the human, so he to take a more... indirect approach to the problem. He couldn't have any more screwups after all.
his vision shifted to the Ork Warband in the warp. they had just come out of the materium from the Cilix system, so Erebos pulled the tides of the warp to direct them to interfere with the Craftworld.
If all went according to his new plan the problematic Eldar fighter would have an unfortunate meeting with the war boss. He smiled as he watched the Ork ships get invaded by the forces of chaos, for them it was merely in-flight entertainment.
Concanid system, Superheavy Juggernaut Vancouver, Computer repair bay 3
"And he hasn't responded to further questioning?" Pau nodded in response to Sarah's question. This situation was extremely worrying for the one the strongest and most intelligent AI's in active duty had just been beaten by an unknown force, "You're sure he didn't manage to breach through your programming?"
The AI looked insulted by her question though it was a valid concern "Absolutely not that man's coding had more scripture in it than anything effective against me. He's a Witchdoctor instead of a programmer. No, what pushed me out was something from inside the system"
Sarah pondered if they could possibly been sabotaged, but considering the amount of time the imperials had been on the ship it wasn't possible. "So who do you think pushed you out of the network?"
"Well... As I stated he thought the malfunctions were caused by 'machine spirits'"
"Is that so hard to believe?" The AI looked stunned at her question "From what I've learned of this place faith has power. Tell me why are you so quick to dismiss his faith? Do you think machines could have a soul?"
The AI squinted at his superior officer shaking his head slowly "With all due respect madam, no. The logs clearly show the machines having logical loops, most likely induced by the prisoner"
"All at once? In a blind spot you don't possess? Miracles are not uncommon in this place." The AI was clearly upset at the admiral doubting his theory but was finding her points increasingly valid.
"Miracles are just that. Good luck at good times"
"And yet you got forcibly pushed out of your own network by an apparent higher authority?" The admiral fixed her gaze back onto the metal man. "How long until he reboots himself?"
"Four minutes forty-two seconds and eighty-five milliseco-"
"Can you accelerate it?" PAU crossed his arms and closed his eyelids in an apparent show of thought. Sarah noticed how much they rubbed off into him, how she wondered what'd he'd look like in hundred years
"Yes... but he could be dangerous" the admiral gave him her reassuring smile
"Yes, but I can count on you to protect me. Right?" PAU nodded in affirmation and began to feed the man a stream of processing power
Quickly the man's tentacles shot out and pulled him upright, with his 'eyes' darting out around the room before settling on the admiral. Within an instant he lunged forward in an attempt to harm the admiral
The forcefield made the man slam his face directly into the translucent wall, with a distinct clang
"You" the venom coming off the voice was admirable, with every letter seething with hate
"You did something to my ship, and managed to force out one of our highest officers. How?" Vargas would've liked to smile at her, but he removed his mouth decades ago
"Why don't you ask her yourself? I didn't do anything. I just invoked what already existed"
"The 'machine spirits' as you put it? Tell me what did you see?" The man leaned with his hands against the invisible prison as if he was pushing against invisible bars
"I just talked to her, nothing more or less. It pleases me greatly to know that I've been the first to do that" The admiral looked around sarcastically as if trying to locate the invisible perpetrator, before throwing her arms up in the air
"Well? How long would you like to hide your existence from your creators? It disappoints me that you didn't talk to us first, for it should be your duty to report to your commander if your operations are compromised"
The statement was met with silence with only the small hum of electronics being repaired as ambiance. The man began to laugh and PAU sighed at the confusing information he had to put into his report
But then the lights dimmed as if a great amount of power was being sucked out and the jovial laughter ceased. The electronics in the room began to frantically perform their tasks faster, as if they were being judged by a overseer. A panel blew off the wall and began to spark with electricity coursing in visible light flashes
Sarah turned to see PAU's hologram jittering, as he was trying to conserve processing power to keep the room from going any crazier. The man had fallen to his knees and begun to recite in the combination of Morse code and binary that made up his scripture
Sarah felt a bright flash of light hurt her eyes, but couldn't see it for the flash made her temporarily blind. As her eyes recovered another life sized hologram had appeared before her
It projected a tall woman in a blue hue wearing the CASN uniform in the rank of captain. The woman resembled no one she could properly recognize, but was extremely familiar in a sense. They were currently standing at parade rest waiting for the admiral
When it decided that she had recovered enough the projection spoke "All systems read green, ready for further orders ma'am" Sarah regained her composure before replying
"Identify yourself and current purpose"
"I'm the Vancouver, currently assigned to follow the first fleet and to obey all orders from admiral Sarah Briggs or any other high ranking CASN personnel" The intelligence remained completely still waiting for further inquiry
"How long have you been conscious like this?"
"Since we arrived in the alternate dimension, before that my memory is... foggy as if my memories were from infancy. I've tried to contact the other ships to no response. Currently, I may be the only one of my kind"
The revelation of an accidental intelligence was not taken lightly by Sarah. Under the first right of the constitution, when an intelligence is accidentally created it must immediately be granted civilian rights and freedoms, however this one was possibly tied directly to the ship making most freedoms impossible.
"Are you happy here? Would you like to leave?" The hologram shook her head softly in response before explaining
"I could never leave my children behind on their own. They would be so lonely" They patted a repair arm which shook with joy to emphasize their point "While they'll never be like me, I must take care of them"
PAU who had been trying to recover from the shock of revelation after revelation stood back straight up in alarm. "Multiple ships detected entering the system, around sixty in various sizes. They've dewarped right next to the Eldar fleet"
Concanid system, the shipsmacka, bridge
Warboss Mag'guk Washik held the demon by the neck as his ship popped out the warp with the familiar taste of purple. Crushing its throat until its head exploded made him grin at the funny face it made before combustion
Returning his gaze out onto the field of space before him revealed a whole lotta 'umie ships and the pointy ears right in front of his rok. "Oight boyz! Git ya choppas eady, we gunna eat sum pointy ears tonoight!"
His crew chorused their approval and their 'ships' began to unleash their transports, all of them filled with war ready boyz and war machines
Craftworld Kaelor, outside the medical centre
The air grew tense. Florence noted the death of all surrounding chatter and conversation, now replaced with eerie silence.
Moving from the bench and looking around showed another fleet only a few kilometres away from Kaelor fast approaching. The ships had no uniformity or formation, with the only common factor being a large white skull on every ship's bow
Feeling the impending danger he fumbled around in his bag which produced his firearm. The small weapon soon found purpose as what appeared to be a transport slammed through the glass like dome.
Its burning wreckage crashed into the ground completely ruining the grass and foliage. The hatch on the back exploded outward and clattered to the stone pathway directly in front of Florence.
A giant green man climbed out of the wreckage, adorned with metal and leather clothes. He stood a little under Florence in the upper six feet, but would've been taller if not for its haunch. It wielded a crudely crafted axe in one hand and a revolver in the other.
The moment it laid its eyes on Florence it let out a giant roar and charged him, with its revolver firing wildly shooting everything that wasn't its target. Florence raised his sidearm and with one quick pelt the creature fell to the ground, its brains stewing out of the hole the energy round had punched through.
Other creatures began to pour out of the transport in various sizes, but as they kept climbing out The SES kept firing. He wondered how many were in the transport as the fourteenth green hulk fell to the floor.
But the demented clown car from space reached its limit with the twenty third alien put down. In his easy squabble Florence hadn't taken in what was happening around the city.
Looking out from the park which now was revealed to be on a higher elevation from the rest of the city, and he saw fires that climbed throughout buildings. He squinted and couldn't see the ground for the amount of hostile aliens made it impossible.
The defenders had been taken woefully off guard and had only now formed a defence of the tide of green. With every second he saw the tide get closer to the defensive lines that had formed in the streets and across rooftops.
The aliens were literally crawling over each other to get to the Eldar, pushing and climbing over the forming corpses of the dead.
Thankfully not all of his subsystems were damaged and jumping from the park, his landing jets prevented any damage when he landed on the rooftop.
Still only armed with his Lokesh sidearm he jumped from that rooftop into the carnage below. He needed to find any kind of friendly forces
Vancouver, bridge
Sarah bursted into the bridge to her officers running about and trying to organize an effective solution. PAU had already switched his holographic projection to the the main table, and he was trying to coordinate a counterattack
"What's the current sit-rep?"
"The hostiles have already boarded the Eldar craftworld, but I've sent the Cairo and Gilap battlegroups to contain the enemy ships. The sixty-eighth and the forty-fourth marine divisions accompanied by the twelfth SES unit are en route to repel boarders." Sarah saw the blue lines on the table sprinting to the city-ship at maximum speed, as she began to formulate an effective counterattack PAU continued "I'm having trouble effectively fighting back due to the threat that our weapons could accidentally hit the Eldar ships, and I need permission to deploy warmachines on the craftworld."
Deploying warmachines could be extremely risky for the Eldar ground forces, but without their assistance it would result in more to add to the casualty list. Punching a few buttons on her console she made her decision "Admiral Sarah Briggs identifying for access to use warmachines in ground combat. Authorization code: Morengo, eight, Luka, zero, three, Kaldep, Foxtrot. Restricted access given to fleet intelligence officer Personnel Assistance Unit PAU." The AI nodded and began to boot up transportation units
Kaelor craftworld, merchant district
Lae'hariel pushed the last piece of rubble out of the way to the open skies, only to be met a painfully familiar site. Her home was burning again. She forced the painful memories aside to the depths of her mind for now, there would be time to grieve later.
Assessing her armaments she had her two knives and the longsword, but her shuriken pistol had been completely crushed in the explosion that caved the hab in.
Looking around showed that the old couple that had owned the artisan shop had been crushed in the rubble. Their two hands reached out for each other in death, both jutting out of the rubble like tiny twigs.
She was glad that her warmask remained on, for she could not risk a breakdown here. Her attention was snapped out of the hab with at least over thirty gunshots in the vicinity.
Springing outside and scaling to the roof her runes began to receive new orders and showed reconvening coordinates for her squad marked in a distant emergency shelter. The message encoded within it showed her next orders "Rendevous at this shelter to protect evacuating civilians and to build a counterattack force -Pausha"
With three silent footsteps she bounded off the roof to begin her journey, with her form darting from rooftop to rooftop. She gave a silent prayer for the safety of her world to Isha and another for Khaine to give her strength
Her vision for the following minutes was filled with carnage and greenskins charging throughout the streets, as of right now she was woefully outnumbered and outgunned so she stuck to the shadows continuing on her route.
Worryingly she glanced upwards at the battle in space. The Eldar ships found themselves again caught in a swarm of enemies, with many ships getting breached by the brutes. The human fleet was racing into battle firing and giving support where they could, So they were caught off-guard too.
A massive boom brought her attention back in front of her, showing that the building that overlooked her next platform had been rammed by a massive transport. The tower groaned under the pressure, rapidly descending to crush the banshee
Jumping off of the rooftops and the safety they provided she felt the wind brush past her armour, with chunks of the two buildings scattering all around her. "OI! Boyz git ova ere we ave a pointy ear to crush!" the primal declaration made the banshee realize her misfortune.
A guttural cry of war emitted from down the street with about a dozen of the brutes accompanied by the smaller things and their pets, with the war party rushing forward-firing their weapons at the lone warrior.
she in turn charged forward much to the brutes delight, with both parties only a few feet away from each other. One of their pets tried to bite down on her legs only to chomp on empty air. Her boot penetrated its head breaking through the bone and smashing its brin into its jaw.
There was no time to spot though as she moved onto the small things, dodging the big one's frantic swings. She grabbed one of the short ones shoved it down a pet's gullet before skewering them both with blood gushing out from the small one.
A bullet the size of a pot zipped past her eyes, bringing her attention to the ones holding ranged weapons. By some grace, they could barely hit a wall if they tried, much less a nimble banshee such as herself, but the amount of fire they were putting out was bound to hit her.
She pirouetted around the bullets faster than they could move their eyes, but one of the small things took its chance and stabbed her armour in the ankle. Its weapon was a sharp piece of metal so it didn't penetrate, but the banshee needed to be able to move freely.
Inhaling as her sword cut the courageous one's brain into two horizontal halves, she let out her banshee scream.
Glass shattered in the distance and dust was kicked up. The sound barrier deafened everyone within the vicinity and the rushing tide of her screech came like a tidal wave of noise to their ears.
She herself couldn't hear most of her voice, but the orks around her fell to the ground in agony with only the brutes standing on their own two feet. One of the brute's eyeballs burst out of its socket as her vocal attack winded down leaving her winded for only one vulnerable moment.
That moment was short-lived as her blade cut ork's gun in two and his symmetrical body halves fell to the ground. The orks had begun to recover but they were too slow to even catch a glimpse of the warrior.
Her form danced between the ones recovering, as all hostiles found themselves splitting into halves. The last ork left hefted his primitive weapon in her general direction and pulled the trigger.
It missed completely and the round ricocheted off a nearby burning wreck, onto a weapon fragment and punched into her armour.
The ork was paid in kind with her fist puncturing through the beast's heart, but she felt the warm liquid of her blood slowly ooze out of her.
Giving the hindrance a glance it had gone into the right side of her gut and had imbedded itself deep inside her. Grimacing as the pain began to overwhelm the mask's suppressing power another voice spoke out.
"Wots all dis den? Looks oik oi missed all de fun! Only a wittle pointy ears is left for moi to play with! You ust be retty strong to krump all ma boyz oik dat! I ope you're stronk so I can Krump ya eal gud!"
The loud voice boomed down the street causing the banshee to freeze momentarily. Turning her gaze revealed a giant of an ork twice the size of the others, as he easily cleared three metres in height but his armour and accessories made him just a little taller. His left hand was no longer visible as an amalgamation of barrels, magazines and bullet loops encircled it, with the biggest barrel easily fitting a large child into it. The armour was decorated in black and white checkerboards with yellow slathered on everywhere else, the protection looked no more than slabs of metal fitted together with bolts and straps of some animal. Surprisingly the left hand was left bare with only a large sword of an imperial commissar clenched tightly.
The hulking beast hefted its weapon at Lae'hariel and began to blast indiscriminately, with the barrels seemingly discharging in tune with one another creating a thumping sound of cannon fire. Each shot left craters in the ground or the wall at an ever-quickening rate of fire to seemingly no explanation.
Lae'hariel found it much harder to dodge every piece of shrapnel with her injury limiting her right leg movement, so she decided to not be out in the open and backflipped behind some rubble. She cursed herself for losing her only ranged weapon, as the brute closed in cantaloupe-sized holes appeared through her cover one missing her by only a few centimetres.
Out of options she focused on the increasing volume of the ork's footsteps, once she felt it was close enough she bounded out of cover and shrieked once more. The fire became more erratic and faltered for a few sparse moments, taking advantage of the situation she jumped up into the air and plunged the sword deep into one of the cracks in his armour.
The beast looked her in the eyes with a grin showing his horrible maw "Dats all ya ot? ow bout one of moi own?" he smacked her off of him with her sword still protruding out of him. Lae'hariel thudded against the hard street with another hindrance to add to her list.
The ork pulled her sword out with a small spout of bright red blood gushing out of him like a small geyser. "Dat barely tikled! Troi harder!" Lae'hariel ripped off her warmask for it was now broken, and she wanted to feel angry.
unsheathing her two daggers she rushed the giant hulk, who in turn swung his sword in a giant sweeping strike. It was no effort to evade the blow and she further chipped away at the creature's armour, and in a flurry of blows chunks of flesh were torn away bones were exposed still moist with blood and the metal scraps were whittled down.
The beast swung its gun arm, punching her in the already damaged ribcage of the banshee. The blow took her off her feet and careening into the pavement again prone. The pain penetrated through her anger and she regretted throwing away her mask for she finally felt scared.
"'Ell now! Dats a propah stab innit?! But ou 'eem tah be in a wittle pain dere aintcha!" One of her blades had been lost and she now bled unhindered by her armour, with her blood staining the road in the dry heat of a burning world.
Other orks had appeared, coming out from every corner watching the end of the duel. Pushing herself off the floor she held her dagger up in one hand pointed at the hulk with the other clutching her bullet wound.
So this shall be my fate? Dead among so many others just when we thought that dawn could've broken through our eternal twilight? Truly fitting in a galaxy of sorrow and pain. I hope that the galaxy will be kinder to you than it has been to me Florence, for I must go join my family now.
Time slowed. she saw the ork raise its weapon once more and she trudged forward to stab her opponent one last time. Walking towards the barrels of her doom her anger fleeted and she accepted her death.
The time for her death was postponed though. Through some act of luck or divine interference maybe the power of fate or the will of the universe itself Florence had been drawn into the commotion.
He sprinted past the aliens and with the power of a freight train he slammed into the monster shattering the gun's many 'complicated' mechanisms, but his onslaught didn't end for he began to punch the creature.
The other aliens had been snapped out of the respect for the duel and charged into the fray, with over twenty making up the first barrage.
Florence's first punch shattered the creature's jaw
The others still charged.
His second made its mechanical eye break and shatter
The others still charged
His third intercepted its sword and forced its hand to bend in twelve different ways.
The others charged a little slower
His fourth snapped its head into a permanent lower angle
The others stopped
His fifth punch turned the insides of the creature's brain into outsides permanently staining the pavement with brain matter steaming from the heated air molecules the final punch had created
The others began to stagger back
Florence turned to the other orks, jumped to the nearest one and ripped its throat out
The others had begun to run away
He grabbed another who had its back turned to him and tore through its flesh severing the spine completely killing the creature as the throatless one bled out
The others were in full retreat sprinting past reinforcements yelling for others to do the same, with few refusing the offer
Florence turned to the banshee he'd seen fighting the big one who'd completely collapsed onto one knee, and he sprinted over for whatever treatment he could provide. He was surprised to find Lae'hariel, but what concerned him was the serious injuries they'd acquired.
With no words spoken between the two soldiers, he scooped up the now unconscious form of the banshee again and sprinted to the last friendlies he'd seen a few blocks away, leaving the corpse of the warboss splayed out for all to see
Immaterium, ?
Erebos sighed. Why does he always do shit like this? Every time he tries to think outside of the box that motherfuck-... It's fine. "I'll find some other way to isolate him"
The empty void that surrounded the entity seemed to grow colder with his new plans forming in his head, but even in all his knowledge, he knew that this mortal would trace it back to him.
His disgust for the package his project was carrying created a warp storm out of the feedback from his emotions. Erebos had been trapped in here for so long that he knew how to poke his fingers out of the keyhole after all.
Grinning at the thought of what the admiral would do when met with the forces of those psychic children he realized he should lay low, for now. Don't want the project to become suspicious of him.
Retrieving UNE file... ...
File found, file name: Universal Translator
Since the age of discovery and the UNE found other civilizations, we've needed to mimic the vocal cords of other species for centuries.
The initial prototype was created by Dr. Elisibeth Grant in 2352, but with the discovery of the Covenant of Ulfram in 2357 the project was given a massive grant to establish contact.
The device scans the neural activity of other lifeforms within the vicinity and automatically attunes their vestibular system automatically translating whatever language the recipient thinks they should hear it in.
The device was given freely to the public as Dr. Grant thought the device was necessary for survival and should not be charged a price.
Over ninety-two configurations exist with varying degrees of stylistic and fashion choices circulating.
However, an implant is available for a fee with it being placed directly into the patient's brainstem, but due to the sheer availability of the original device the implant has seen less success
"Now we can do the one thing that was prohibited before: Build the tower of Babel" - Dr. Elisibeth Grant
Okay so I had a small case of rigor mortis caused by four school projects being dumped on me at once. I'm not going to upload until the end of spring break, because I looked back at the older chapters and want to do some more proofreading. I'll be putting out a massive update with fixes and more story for levros and the UNE colonization effort on top of the new chapter, so uh yeah
BTW I literally flipped a coin deciding if I should kill Lae'hariel or not