A Hardcore Game (Gamer/40K SI)
By: tri2
You know the drill by now, man meets Truck-Kun, Truck-Kun kills man, Truck-Kun apologizes with a get away trip and a phenomenal power. Except in this case Truck-Kun messed up the itinerary and sent you to the wrong place. Well at least Truck-Kun got the power part right. Now to survive.
Status: ongoing
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2023-12-26
Words: 93980
Chapters: 36
Original source: https/forums./threads/66145
Exported with the assistance of
A Hardcore Game (Gamer/40K SI)
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Inquisitor 1: Horst POV
Interlude 2
Interlude 3
Interlude 4
Interlude 5
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Interlude 6
Interlude 7
Sneak Peek
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Notice and Sneak Peak
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Interlude 8
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 1
"All right mom, I'll pick up the packages on the way back." I said closing the phone call as I waited for the pedestrian traffic light to turn white as I opened up the browser to read the next chapter of the The Gamer. I looked up and noticed that the light was now white and proceeded to cross the street while reading off my cellphone. It was a pretty slow day overall so there was not that much traffic so it was pretty safe to do this like I had many times before.
As I crossed the street I suddenly heard a loud honk from a big wheeler and immediately raised my head up and looked towards the source of the sound and froze like a idiot.
I stared as the giant red colored 18 wheeler smashed into me and everything went black.
As the blackness stretched on and on I had a thought that the moment was stretching forever until I realized, I could count past 3.
I was conscious.
Was I dead? Was I alive?
I wasn't in pain so there was that good news.
But I couldn't feel my body. I couldn't feel any physical sensations.
Moving my eyes I couldn't feel them and I could see no changes in the darkness and I couldn't see my body.
Just floating in this silent was both comfortable and terrifying.
Was I going to be stuck here? Or was this some kind of Isekai situation?
I mean I did get hit by a truck and ended up cognizant after death.
Cause I am pretty sure I couldn't have survived a head on crash with a 18 wheeler.
Soooo….what's going to happen to me?
With nothing else to do I just started going through the various chapters of The Gamer in my mind. Sigh.
By the time I finished going over all the chapters I could remember nothing had changed.
The Darkness was still Dark. The Silence was still Silent.
Dammit all what the hell was going on?
At this point I really started to freak out with the possibility of actually being trapped in this kind of existence being higher than I would like.
Suddenly a streak of light flash past my eyes like a shooting star. I quickly tried to track, follow it, but instantly lost it in less than a second.
'Dammit!' I thought to myself as I desperately tried to find that moving point of light.
Suddenly I see the pinprick of light in front of me rapidly filling my vision before turning my whole view white.
'Ahhhhh!' I said in both fear and as a reaction to the intensely bright light in my face.
The next thing I knew I had the wind knocked out of me as I landed back first on… a dumpster, causing me to spit out saliva as I rolled off from the impact and land on what I recognized to be concrete and gagging as I smelled the area I was in.
I gagged and coughed while also trying to get enough air into my lungs and blinking and rubbing my eyes to be able to see in the light after so long in the dark.
Where the hell was I? Was I alive again? On Earth? Another world? The same timeline?
After I was done coughing my lungs out and readjusted to the realm of the living. I looked around. I was in a normal alleyway as far as I could tell. A empty dirty alleyway like you would see in the back streets of New York.
However, something was off, the traffic noises around me were different, it didn't sound like normal cars. In fact I could swear that I could hear….hymns?
Getting to my feet, I decided to walk towards the noise as I doubt I wanted to see how the local alleyway dwellers are like in this still unknown city.
After walking for close to half an hour I was still in the alleyway. Why the hell was the alleyway so damn long?
Was this city enormous or something? Another hour passes and soon I noticed a end to the alleyway and the sounds being a lot clearer.
Right before I could start to rush over something attracts my attention and stops me in my tracks.
Ding!
HELLO THERE! MY NAME IS TRUCK-KUN JR! I AM REALLY SORRY THAT I HIT YOU AT THAT INTERSECTION! I WAS IN A RUSH TO GET TO THE HERO THAT I WAS SUPPOSE TO DELIVER TO ANOTHER WORLD THAT WAS UNDERGOING A DEMON KING INVASION AND I ACCIDENTALLY OVERSLEPT. I WAS IN SUCH A RUSH THAT I COULD NOT STOP IN TIME! . PLEASE DON'T TELL MY DAD! TO MAKE IT UP TO YOU I DECIDED TO GIVE YOU THE POWER THAT WAS ON YOUR MIND IN THE VOID AND SEND YOU TO A NICE FANTASY WORLD SO YOU COULD LIVE OUT YOUR NEW LIFE HOW YOU WANT IT! YOU KNOW THE WORLD AS HARRY POTTER VERSE!
I HOPE YOU HAVE A GREAT LIFE AND PLEASE DON'T TELL MY DAD! PLEASE! Q_Q
"My death was a accident!? And it wasn't even Truck-Kun himself who did it, but his kid? He's married? How does a truck even have a kid? Is he a fuckin transformer now?" I ground out under my breath quietly anger in my voice even as I processed the full message. So I had The Gamer System now? Where is the notifications then?
Ding!
WELCOME USER! YOU HAVE BEEN GRANTED ACCESS TO THE GAMER SYSTEM WHERE YOUR LIFE IS NOW TREATED LIKE A VIDEO GAME! CERTAIN ASPECTS OF YOUR BODY AND LIFE HAVE NOW BEEN CONVERTED TO VIDEO GAME MECHANICS WHILE OTHERS WILL STILL REMAIN WITHIN THE BOUNDS OF NORMAL REALITY! YOU HAVE GAINED THE SKILLS
Gamer's Mind: Allows the user to calmly and logically think things through. Allows peaceful state of mind. Immunity to psychological status effects.
Gamer's Body: Grants a body that allows for the user to live the real world like a game. Sleeping in a bed restores HP, MP and all status effects.
HERE ARE YOUR CURRENT STATS! TO ACCESS THE CHARACTER SHEET IN THE FUTURE JUST SAY CHARACTER SHEET! FOR MORE COMMANDS SAY HELP MENU!
NAME: [UNDECIDED]
OCCUPATION: THE GAMER
RACE: HUMAN
LEVEL: 1
NEXT LEVEL: 0.0%
HP: 100
HP REGEN: 1 HP PER MINUTE
MP: 100
MP REGEN: 1 MP PER MINUTE
STRENGTH: 10
CONSTITUTION: 10
DEXTERITY: 10
INTELLIGENCE: 10
WISDOM: 10
LUCK: 10
STAT POINTS: 0
MONEY: 0
Well looks like everything is there leaving my name aside, but a problem comes to mind, if this is the Harry Potter verse, why does this alleyway seem to go on forever? No city I know of in the world would have a alleyway this long with no side branches or exits besides these closed doors in the sides. Was I in some sort of magical alleyway or something?
Ding!
Ah there we go, probably going to tell me I gained a intelligence or wisdom point for figuring out my location correctly or something. That was how this goes right?
OH NO! I SENT YOU TO THE WRONG UNIVERSE AND I CAN'T GET YOU OUT!
"What?" I yelled before immediately sprinting towards the entrance of the alleyway only to skid to a stop as I tried to stop myself from tipping over a fucking ledge! After regaining my balance I take a good long look at the scenery in front of me with my mouth wide open in shock.
[img: data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7]
I was in some kind of future setting! Large skyscraper like buildings with vast extended walkways stretching between them with air cars flying in the sky above with spaceships even higher above them. Spaceships that seemed oddly familiar. I was actually a bit excited until my face paled and my gut dropped.
Passing by in front of me was a airship a large red zeppelin like airship.
The problem was the symbol on the side of the ship.
A double headed Aquila with one head blind.
There was only one setting I knew with that symbol and explained why Truck-Kun Jr couldn't get me out.
I was in Warhammer 40K.
Shit!
AN: Whelp, here I go again with another story. Likes and feedbacks please.
1d5 = Ultima Segmentum
1d8 = 2 Civilized World
1d8 = 5 Knight World
1d100 = 65 Local space infested with
1d9 = 4 Human Pirates
1d6 = 6 Modern 40K
Chapter 2
I sat on the ledge of the alleyway entrance as I just stared at the city in front, below, and above me.
Go-wait no I shouldn't use that word anymore might call down the wrong sort of attention. Mmhmm.
Dammit all. Yes, that was better. Dammit all to hell of all the places Truck-Kun Jr to mistakenly drop me into did it HAVE to be 40K?
'So, what to do?' I sighed while looking up at the sky above as it was turning a lovely shade of purple as the sun set behind the skyscrapers in the distance, outlining them in a brilliant shade of golden orange.
I get up and started pacing back and forth mumbling to myself out loud as I tried to think of a plan for surviving this Hell hole and what my goal was to be.
"First off main goal is to not die or get caught by the Four, second do not die because of Tyranids, Necrons, Orks, or Dark Eldar. Tau and Eldar are debatable as I might be spared by the two. Second either find someway to revive the Emperor so I can leverage for a favor to hide in the imperial Palace where I would be protected by the layers of heavy defenses or find a planet that will be devoured by the Tyranids and wait till it is consumed before following in the wake to reterraform the planet and live out the rest of my life there."
"Of course that is dependent on what time period I landed in, getting a ship, getting enough supplies to do all that, figuring out a place with no more Nids passing through, and the big one living long enough to reach it. Actually speaking of that, do I even age anymore? Will I ever die of old age? I mean my body is a game character's now and game characters do not really age or die of old age. Well a few gamer characters like the Fable series did allow for aging, but even then not death by old age…."
I stop pacing as a shock fills my body "Am I technically immortal now? I have no real way to test it so I guess I should just assume I am not. If after two decades pass and I am still looking young then I guess that would prove I am immortal… and then I would need to cover my face to avoid being exposed as a immortal. The Inquisition would definitely not let me go if they heard about me, unless I can get rich enough to have the excuse of using extensive rejuvenation treatments to stay young and then using body doubles to act as my kids until I replace them myself."
"But that would mean actually getting wealthy and powerful, but that would put me on the Inquisitions net. Sigh."
"Ok, before I get even more side tracked what other options do I have? Imperial Guard? Hah! Inquisition? Blam! Space Marines? Am too old and the surgery would hurt like hell." I said shivering at the memories of the space marine creation lore video's description of the surgeries needed to be a space marine.
"Right anything else? Agriworld farmer? Maybe, but no defenses and any working guy with a set address is at risk of the Inquisition and any corrupt nobles of arbites…..wait a minute, can I even speak the language on this planet? Shit!" I start freaking out as I would no doubt draw attention when I could not understand a word people are saying or respond to them. Hell the arbites might just kill me if I can't properly respond to their orders.
Fuck! This meant I can't stay inside proper society till I learned how to speak Low Gothic or whatever variant local language is on this planet. How was I going to do that? I mean with the system I could probably learn it from skill books if I could find it but I had no money or ability to break into shops and one wrong move will have me hunted down by the whole city so that is a no go.
'Be a beggar and eavesdrop till I learn the language? Maybe, but my clothes though…' I thought to myself as I looked down at my nice hoodie and pants, those would make me stand out among the beggars and get me jumped by them and sneered at by the normal people no doubt.
I spoke with resignation "I guess….I guess this means I need to go to the underhive and fight for resources and strength. For all of my goals I am going to need enough strength to defend myself or at least strong enough to run away. Best case scenario would be if I could somehow be a Rogue Trader, but that would be very unlikely. Sigh."
I raised my hand in front of my face before making a fist with it. "Yeah, I definitely need strength, I need more stats, more skills, and gear." I look back into the alleyway I dropped in and noticed that there still was no sign of anyone exiting any of the alleyway doors or even any signs of beggars and I could not hear anyone or anything besides the background noise of the city and hymns.
What part of the city was I in? I looked closer at the alleyway that I was in, specifically at the buildings. They were whitewashed two to three story rectangular buildings all going down a straight line with a curve at the end. There were no windows all along the way as far as I could see and the doors were metal with a small groove on the side. I walk up to the door and took a closer look, it should be a door handle.
I try opening the door but it did not even budge a bit, I could not even shake it. Were all the doors here like that? I try several more doors and even put my ears on some, but I couldn't hear anything. Soundproofing?
I remembered the dumpster I landed on and ran back towards the dumpster.
Ding! Skill Gained! All future notifications will be minimized to be reviewed at User's request!
Oh nice. A quick look showed me I gained the sprint skill which would use up 3 MP/Sec but boost my speed by 10%. I reached the dumpster and immediately opened it up bracing myself for the expected stench of rot and trash. To my surprise however nothing came up and quickly looking down I saw nothing. The whole thing was empty and clean like it was never used before.
Was I in some kind of prop city? Like something a noble would make for fun with his money? Was there even a way out?
I started sprinting down the alleyway, running at full speed for 33 seconds before being forced to jog as I could no longer sprint as my mana bar had apparently depleted even though I exhibited no symptoms of fatigue.
As I walked I looked down at my hands, I didn't feel tired at all and I was not even sweating despite sprinting for half a minute in a hoodie. I really was a game character now wasn't I?
Did I need to eat? Drink? Poop? Pee? Hell do I even need to sleep anymore? Or were all those things just things I could do to satisfy the psychological habit of being a normal human?
I was going to have to test all those things out as I might not even be able to do any of those things if I wanted to if I could not buy or rob what I need.
I ran and ran and ran. I just kept running, then jogging then running again. I went left, I went right, I traveled in a loop, then through twists and turns again.
The alleyway was a mess, the directions made no sense. Who the hell made this kind of alleyway? Why were there no exits!
Ding!
At least I was gaining stat points and skill levels as I could hear them occasionally dinging in my mind. I could sprint increasingly longer after each one. In fact I even started trying to run silently which gave me the light foot skill which reduced my running noise and I had gained the sprint skill earlier during my run to the dumpster. Now I alternated between sprint boosted running and jogging my way down this twisted passage.
The sun was down now and the alleyway was dark. I could barely see anything and had to stop for a while, luckily there was light from the rising moons a few hours later that lit up the alleyway for me to continue moving.
At least I could now confirm, I had no human needs anymore. No fatigue, no hunger, no thirst, no need to relieve myself, no sense of mental tiredness from lack of sleep. Though that last one will have to wait till tomorrow night to be sure.
I kept running and jogging and running and jogging. Endless walls of white buildings passed by me as I got faster and faster, going longer and longer.
As the sun finally rose again I stopped.
Not because I was tired, no, but because I reached the end.
And I was pissed.
In front of me was a fucking white wall building like everything else! IT WAS A DAMN DEAD END!
I ran for what must have been at least 12 hours to get here and there was nothing!
"Damn it!" I yelled throwing a punch at the featureless wall of white, feeling a flash of pain before it disappeared and my HP bar dropping a point.
I just snapped as the rest of the night roared in my mind of the mindless endless walls and my situation coming back to me. Stuck in 40K universe, separated from my family, my mom, my dad, my little sister, my grandparents, everyone.
I snapped and roared as I just kept throwing punches at the white wall in front of me as I vented out all my frustration and fear into it.
Point after point dropped and more dings could be heard, but I ignored it all and just kept punching a red of haze in front of my eyes.
Finally I just suddenly felt tired and stopped. I slumped to my knees looking down at the ground before closing my eyes, tears falling lungs heaving with unneeded air.
Damn it why me. What shitty luck I must have to get something any nerd would want and still have it go so wrong.
As suddenly as my rage hit my current emotional status went 180 and I was calm again, my breathing evening out as I lifted my glasses and wiped my eyes,
I looked up at the wall and saw that I had left patches of blood all over its pristine white surface and looked at the corner of my vision where my HP bar was.
There flashing in red was the bar with the numbers 7/100 underneath it. I broke into a mad laugh.
I had almost literally killed myself on a wall. HahahahahahahaHAHAHAHAHA!!
My mad laughter again suddenly cut off as the hysteria left me like a switch was flipped. So I guess the Gamer's Mind counted Hysteria as one of the effects it countered. Why didn't it snap me from my rage then?
Looking through the notifications list on the lower right corner of my vision I saw that I had gained a bunch of skills, one of which was Berserker. Well that explained it then, it did not remove self skill inflicted statuses.
I shakily get back onto my feet and look up at the wall around me. Guess I had to climb out of hear, but there was nothing to climb.
The walls were too smooth and the dumpster that lined the place occasionally were not tall enough to boost me as all the buildings were at least 2 stories.
I would either need to make something to grapple up the sides or jump. The first is out of the question as I lacked the materials and I was not destroying my clothes for rope. So guess I would have to as in the words of a certain time travelling samurai 'Jump Gud' and learn fast.
That last part made me stop however, why DID I have to leave fast? I mean this place was perfect for grinding wasn't it? Empty of people and from what I can tell surveillance, isolated, self contained, plenty of space, I did not need supplies. I could grind as much as I wanted here without fear of being discovered. Hell not a single aircraft was seen in the skies above this place when I was running the whole night.
How should I grind?
Remembering all the previous gamer fics I remembered before I got an idea. I just had to combine everything into one routine to train everything at once.
I had to jog for constitution points, sprint for sprint skill, jump for the skill to get out, twirl for dexterity hopefully, maybe do a few jump skill boosted flips, try to silently run, do math problems in my head for intelligence with increasing complexity and….what? I could not train luck or wisdom as I did not know how or lacked the materials for it, but what about strength?
I look through the notifications again and noticed that I had also gained a passive skill, physical resistance, unarmed fighting, and pain tolerance. That gave me an idea, a stupid one, but I was safe enough to do it here.
I would punch the walls to level up my strength, physical resistance, unarmed fighting, and pain tolerance till my HP was almost gone, then go jogging and sprinting till my HP was back up to full again then repeat it all over again.
If it wasn't for the fact that the pain very quickly disappeared, which did kind of make me wonder why a pain tolerance skill was even made, I would not even consider punching a wall multiple times let alone once. That was mad!
But well, I guess I was in a mad mad world now wasn't I?
I took one look back at the bloody dead end behind me and began grinding, sprinting and twirling down the damn long ass alleyway like a demented ballerina.
Hopefully the planet is not attacked or something while I am here, or worse someone actually sees me grinding.
Please?
Last edited: May 8, 2020
Chapter 3
I finally stopped as I reached the end of the alleyway again for the fortieth time today making another mark on the bloody wall as the sunset. 21 marks. Three weeks, that was how long I had been training in this long ass alleyway. Three long weeks isolated from people alone with my thoughts and grinding. Taking a few deep breaths to calm myself doing a post exercise ritual of stretches even as they are not needed, letting the wind that occasionally flowed caress my naked body. I had inventoried my clothes and glasses after I started noticing my shoes becoming a bit worn out from the constant running, wanting to preserve my clothes for when I have to be in public with people, and that my glasses didn't actually do anything for me anymore. Plus running barefoot let me train my pain tolerance against the concrete ground. I take a look at the gains I made over the past 3 weeks of nigh constant training.
"Notifications summary" I said reading the screen that popped up summarizing the gains I had made since I started my training.
Notifications Summary Levels Gained: 5
Stat Gains:
25 Strength
33 Constitution
64 Dexterity
76 Intelligence
2 Wisdom
1 Luck
Gained Skills:
Sprint Level 63
Berserk Level 1
Unarmed Combat Mastery Level 23
Pain Tolerance Level 21
Parkour Level 9
Physical Resistance Level 21
Jump Level 48
Light Foot Level 36
Acrobatics Level 43
Observe Level 6
Power Strike Level 1
Meditate Level 11
Rip Level 18
Craft Level 8
Willpower Level 16
Perks Gained
Deep Well - Gain double the increase to MP from each Intelligence point.
Cat's Grace - Always land on your feet, keep your balance easily, and reduce fall damage.
Suffice to say I had made quite a lot of progress towards both my skills and stats. The never ending running, jumping, flips, and sadomasochism against the closest wall rapidly leveled up my related skills and stats till they started slowing down past level 15. Then it was just a matter of quantity and perseverance to just keep pushing despite the boredom and common sense in my head telling me how stupid I was to hurt myself like this. That last part was what gave me the Willpower skill which let me focus on a task and not lose the Will to continue a action, perfect for long term isolated grinding. I did take the occasional break to try some new things like meditation which restored my mana, but honestly my Sprint skill's increasing mana efficiency combined with my rapidly increasing intelligence, from just doing successively massive amounts of ridiculously large brute force calculations which gave me more mana, made it inefficient time wise to grind.
I did get to practice some crafting and observation once my combat skills and strength started getting hard enough to break pieces off of the walls which I used to craft crude stone tools. I was not strong enough to rip the lids off the dumpsters yet to make some metal tools, but I was getting there. In fact I gained two new perks from reach the 50 threshold for my intelligence and dexterity stats. Other than that I few lucky moments where I managed to avoid going over the alleyway entrance ledge gave me a luck point and I apparently had a daily quest that gave me 500 experience points for doing enough exercise routines every morning. It was great as the increase in levels increased both my health and mana and restored them instantly when I leveled up, allowing me to increase my grinding efficiency. However, the list of skills should have been higher, I tried out various special moves like the Rokushiki from One Piece only to either get not notifications or a notification stating that my stats were not high enough to acquire certain skills. I even tried to use mana to create the classic mana bolt spell, but failed as I simply could not feel the mana that was suppose to be inside me according to my MP bar. I tried to feel the energy that was supposedly speeding me up during the Sprint skill, but I could not feel anything. The MC's of so many comics and fanfics lied to me, it was not easy at all!
I also tried to create a ID create and of course failed as I could not gather any energy in my hands and because I remembered something very important about Instant Dungeons. I remembered that the MC's green hair'd martial arts friend explaining about how to get in and out of ID spaces. One of the things he said was that Gaia would help them make the spaces. So even if I could gather energy in my hand to release it, would it even make a ID space since I was not on Earth and Gaia might not be real here or would I end up calling a warp entity instead? It never did make sense to me why creating a entire physical illusionary reality would cost no MP to make or any detailed knowledge or training. Just up goes your hand and there you go.
While meditating I debated whether or not to try to gain psyker powers since as a Gamer I should be safe from corruption since I had the Gamer's Mind skill. In the end however, I was just too afraid to walk down that path, I mean look at the strongest psykers in the galaxy like the Emperor and Magnus and all those weaker than them? One is crippled, another is a demon, and the others are either basically on Execution watch by Imperials or at constant risk of being possessed by demons who want to eat your soul. Hell no to that life even if it does seem to grant immense power if the wiki descriptions of beta and alpha level psykers are true. If I had a chance it would probably better for me to become a Blank somehow, or stick strictly to mana only powers as those are not warp based. That little session of thinking actually got me the two Wisdom stat points so I guess I was on the right track?
"Character Sheet" I said as my sheet appeared in front of me. showing me the fruits of my labor.
Character Sheet NAME: [UNDECIDED]
OCCUPATION: THE GAMER
RACE: HUMAN
LEVEL: 6
NEXT LEVEL: 67.18%
HP: 680
HP REGEN: 9.52 HP PER MINUTE
MP: 1970
MP REGEN: 19.7 MP PER MINUTE
STRENGTH: 35
CONSTITUTION: 43
DEXTERITY: 74
INTELLIGENCE: 86
WISDOM: 12
LUCK: 11
STAT POINTS: 25
MONEY: 0
I felt a lot better now with almost 7 times more life than I started with and presumably my dexterity and Sprint combined with Acrobatic should let me dodge most things that weren't las guns… which just happened to be the most common weapon in the Imperium. Sigh. At least I could confidently say I could leave this alleyway at anytime now. My Jump skill passively increased my max jump height by 10% per level with a active boost of 100% per level so now my jump height passively was boosted by 480% while active would bring it to 4,800% which equated to 2.9 ft and 25 ft respectively which was amazing considering I could only jump at most 6 inches before from just standing. I could now reach the top of some of the smaller buildings now and pull myself over, I took a quick look before and all I saw were more of the same houses and alleyways, but no people. I was seriously confused as why was there the equivalent of an entire city's worth of infrastructure left unused yet still be clean with no sign of staff? If it was not for the fact that the end of the alleyway showed a thriving city with ships flying about, I would have thought I was on some xenos or dead world. Which did bring the question to mind of WHY was there no aircraft space or otherwise above this false city?
I lightly hopped on my feet seemingly floating on air as I silently moved from side to side rapidly as a nervous tick that I developed while training even while resting.
Breath in, Breath out. In. Out.
Feel the wind. Be calm.
Feel-wait, somethings wrong. The wind is different today. I was intimately familiar with the smell, strength, and frequency of the wind that flowed down this alleyway, what with being awake 24/7 and being able to remember a lot more due to having higher intelligence stats. The wind carried a stronger smell of something like gasoline, likely promethium, and was choppy like something was interfering with it. Was something flying in the alleyway?
Thinking of people actually being here made me pale as I had left obvious signs of my presence what with the numerous cracked walls and blood all over them up and down the alleyway. No doubt they were going to investigate this area and call for more people.
I had to run! No! Wait, I had to spy on them, maybe I could learn something from them. No! No that is dumb, if they can get here that means they have a flier that means they could just run me down if they chased me. The other path would be to kill them to prevent that, but that would only be required if they discovered me. I was not willing to kill another human being just to satisfy my curiosity, I was not some kind of monster or beast dammit!
Clutching my shaking fists I sighed and quickly put back on my clothes and proceeded to finally leave, before a thought came to me, how was I going to leave this city? From what I recall the sides of the city were a straight drop like a cliff, and I could not be sure the other end of this city of alleyways would be different. Gah! What should I do?
DING!
QUEST CREATED! ESCAPE THE GLORY OF ALKAZERE!
A UNKNOWN HAS INTRUDED INTO YOUR TRAINING ALLEYWAY FOR UNKNOWN REASONS. DECIDE THEIR FATE!
GOAL: LEAVE OR DEAL WITH THE UNKNOWN
REWARD: LEAVE THE GLORY OF ALKAZERE, GAIN ACCESS TO THE WIDER WORLD, 1000 EXP, HIDDEN REWARD
PENALTY: STILL IN THE CITY, DISCOVERED BY LOCALS, BE A CRIMINAL, DEATH
ACCEPT OR DENY
Well, guess that answers my question. What the hell was a Alkazere though?
I click the Accept button and prepared myself. Breath in and out. I was ready. First I needed the high ground. I activated the Jump skill and using a nearby dumpster leaped onto the top of the closest second story building and then leaping on top of the next door third story building. Another thing I noticed as I ascended was that none of the buildings here had windows, only metal doors. Were they in fact storehouses? Using Observe on them never revealed what was inside so I was left in the dark. Ignoring that train of thought I proceeded to Sprint and Jump my way silently across the rooftops towards the edge of the alleyway. The time required reduced massively as I moved in a straight line instead of following all the twists and turns of the alleyway.
In less than an hour I was within sight of the edge of the city and I could hear something. A kind of thrumming sound like that of a propeller spinning at high speeds, but I did not see any fliers. Laying down on top of a roof I looked carefully over the side and waited. I saw what it was in less minute it was a large propeller powered hovercraft with balloon like cushions on the side like one of those Earth water hovercrafts, big enough to carry four people. There were all wearing the same kind of uniform, gaudy bright blue and gold with a lot of tassels and I could see that they were armed with a pistol and a saber. A nobleman's house guard perhaps? The vehicle was large, almost like a tank with a symbol on the front a sword crossing a gear. Mechanicus aligned perhaps?
As the vehicle passed by me I noticed something, the back of the hovercraft was wide, hidden by the fan on the back, and the air cushions made a good place to perch on, I could possibly hang and hide in the back there when they left. I just had to make sure I was not detected by these people as they got back to wherever they were coming from so I could leave the craft at somewhere along the way back. Maybe I could land on a roof of another of the buildings on the city?
Well it was either this, run away, or knock out/kill the guys, which would end up pretty badly for them as I would most likely have to destroy any communication devices they had, but even then I don't know how to pilot that thing. So guess hitchhiking it is then.
DING! STEALTH SKILL GAINED! EAVESDROPPING SKILL GAINED!
Oh, nice. I focus my ears on trying to hear the people on the hovecraft even I followed behind them stealthily. a few buildings behind, making sure to follow them just out of sight using the buildings for cover. Eventually they stopped at the end of the alleyway and get out. I laid flat on my stomach and watched them from afar yet still within hearing range. They were visibly distressed and afraid, though none seemed to say anything, bravado and position jockeying perhaps? They started speaking to each other in a language I could not recognize and examined all the dried blood prints and smashed cracked walls, luckily I did not leave hand prints when I smashed those walls, just blotches of blood.
I could hear increasingly frantic and fearful whispering with the most fanciful among them barking a order at them most likely to shut up and ordered the one who piloted to most likely leave. The vehicle slowly rotated around after the three got back in and I slowly circled around to the back of the hovercraft and silently dropped down behind the noisy vehicle and carefully climbed slowly onto the rotating vehicle careful to not suddenly disturb the vehicle by placing my weight too quickly on one side and pulled myself completely behind the fan section, and proceeded to grip hard. So here I was now grabbing the sides of a hover crafts fan frame, sitting on a cushion, and waiting for the vehicle to finally take off. Which it did with haste as the floor underneath me rushed past my feet which was only a half feet off the ground. I tried not to grunt as the hovercraft made the twists and turns to exit the alleyway and had to contain as fearful gasp as I saw the floor disappear beneath me and the city far below stretching forever.
The hovercraft tilted as it accelerated downward, causing myself to force myself down lest I float upwards and be revealed to anyone looking at the back of the hovercraft compared to having to look closely. Gripping the cushion as best I could with one leg I swung the other so I could maneuver myself so that I could look under the cushion so I could see how high we were as we moved. We were still pretty high up but I could see us heading towards a pair of high towers that were close together and would pass just above them. I practiced a bit and my high dexterity stat and Acrobatics skill would actually let me jump in between walls like those old Megaman games, so I guess this would be a good a place as any to drop off. Plus I could see heavy foot traffic at the bottom of the towers so I should be able to avoid most detection and hide in the crowd upon landing.
I rapidly did some calculations based on the height of those towers and my own abilities and calculated the optimum landing site that should let me avoid the attention of any looking around or looking out the window. Plan formulated I waited for the hovercraft to enter the optimum position, a couple minute passes and I let go, dropping down, leg still hooked to the cushion and rotated. Upside down now before I fully leave the hover craft I give a light kick off the bottom of the air cushion, just enough to give me enough horizontal velocity to make it to the side of the nearest tower.
Seconds passed as the air rushed past my face, Gamer's Mind keeping my terror in check, right as I am about to hit the side of the building I tuck and roll with the building before contorting my leg to allow for me to kick off the side towards the other tower. Soon I was kicking my way down from tower to tower going faster and faster till I was a blur to most people, unnoticed or dismissed as a figment of their imagination.
With one last kick I land in what looked like ANOTHER alleyway except this one much more dirty! I quickly thought and readied my body and it was ready! Just as I was about to hit the ground I kicked off the ground at a angle to deflect the velocity into rotational energy, leaving me spinning rapidly in the air like a top before I twisted again to land on my feet, sweeping my hands and feet around int a circle to absorb and direct the leftover kinetic energy into punches that I sent into the air, causing small air distortions to form for a split second and leaving my whole body sore but clean. Ow. At least it only lasted a bit till Gamer's Body removed the pain.
I stretched my legs and rotated my arms around to make sure everything was fine, which they were due to the skill, but force of habit and all that.
DING! QUEST COMPLETED!
MAP FUNCTION UNLOCKED!
1000 EXP GAINED!
HIDDEN REWARD ACQUIRED!
GACHA SYSTEM UNLOCKED!
YOU MAY NOW GAIN GACHA TICKETS IN PLACE OF QUEST REWARDS!
HIGHER DIFFICULTY QUESTS WILL OFFER HIGHER TIER GACHA TICKETS!
WARNING! ONCE A GACHA TICKET REWARD HAS BEEN CHOSEN ALL OTHER REWARDS WILL BE LOCKED OUT!
'Sigh, great now I even had a gacha system mechanic too' I thought closing the screen mentally while brushing the dust off my sleeves and tucking at my clothes to make sure they look presentable I proceeded to walk towards the moving crowds at one of the end of the alleyway.
Time to actually begin living in this mad galaxy.
AN: Man figuring out Gamer skill and stat gains suck. Anyways EARLY CHAPTER UPDATE! REJOICE!
Rolls
Target 90
Week 1 1d100 = 4
Week 2 1d1005 = 40
Week 3 1d10010 = 98
3rd week discovered
Severity = 52 20 = 72
Chapter 4
As I walked and seamlessly integrated with the stream of Humanity I was bombarded with a stream of information. After being completely alone for 3 weeks I seem to have somehow forgotten just how loud, active, and smelly the environment could be. The footsteps and conversations of thousands washed over me, signs of all kinds advertised their wares to people that seem to have come from all over the place. I could see a man wearing a turban talking to a man looking like a actual medieval knight, while across the street was a dour faced bucket head wearing arbites with a hand on a shock maul watching the crowd stoically. The people all around me were wearing clothing in a vast variety of style, color, and extravagance in some cases which made me inadvertently think of the pink god with a shiver. There were also a bunch of people with cybernetics, and given that I came from modern day Earth I wasn't ashamed to admit I may have stared at them in both fascination and disgust, carefully hidden of course, when I first saw them. To actually have technology implanted into your body with surgery sent shivers down my spine. A lot of them were either wearing red, most likely Adeptus Mechanicus affiliated, or were dressed like fancy nobles with guards in tow, well dressed like nobles in comparison to the rest of the crowd who kept out of their way anyways.
I was certainly in some form of market district, likely one that caters to off world travelers considering the vast contrasting styles of the people in the area. This was great as it made me stand out less, even better was the fact that my eavesdropping skill was earning its keep as it rapidly leveled up as I walked by dozens of stores with people haggling in a variety of languages. This was a nigh ideal place for me to grind a lot of skills such as eavesdropping, stealth, observe, and learning various language skills.
DING!
Though the nigh constant dings from my system was a bit annoying. I gotta say though, no one really ever mentions just how weird it is to just suddenly KNOW things. Like for instance in between language levels I suddenly realized I could curse in 3 different languages in like 12 different ways when I had no idea the second before. It was a bit jarring but I found it helped to just ignore it and just not focus on it at all and let is kind of work like muscle memory after trying out a few innocent phrases like 'I wonder where' or 'Hmmm, that looks useful.'
I just kept walking through the district which was huge. I walked for a good 4 hours and have to reach the end of this market. I did seem to notice that the place is subtly curving though, was this market spanning and entire outer ring of the hive city? Looking up at marveling at the hive spire that went past the clouds I suppose it could very well be. Though it being a long walk was another good thing for me as that meant that anyone I did pass by will no doubt have forgotten me by the time I walk all the way around again preventing any suspicions about a frequently seen man walking by their store buying nothing.
Needless to say with the vast variety available to me, my Observe skill rapidly leveled up to the point that I could get some useful information from it. I looked at random worker #421 and mentally thought/activated ' OBSERVE'
NAME: TOC TIC
OCCUPATION:
GENDER: MALE
JOB: LABORER
TITLE: NONE
LEVEL: 25
NEXT LEVEL: 23.02%
AGE: 25
RACE: HUMAN
ATTRIBUTE: NONE
STRENGTH: 17
CONSTITUTION: 15
DEXTERITY: 10
INTELLIGENCE: 7
WISDOM: 7
LUCK: 3
STATUS: EXHAUSTED
EMOTION: JADED, LISTLESS
BACKGROUND: TOC WAS BORN IN THE HIVE CITY OF GOLGOTHA PRIME TO A PAIR OF LOVING PARENTS. TRAGICALLY HE LOST HIS PARENTS TO A ARBITES RAID WHEN THEIR BULLETS PENETRATED THE WALLS AND KILLED HIS PARENTS AS COLLATERAL DAMAGE. HE HAS GROWN UP ALONE AND MAKES A LIVING WORKING AS A MANUAL LABORER TO ANYONE WILLING TO HIRE A PAIR OF HANDS. HE WORKS LONG SHIFTS DOING WORK OTHERS WILL NOT IN ORDER TO MAKE ENOUGH TO SURVIVE THE WEEK AS HE MOVES FROM DISTRICT TO DISTRICT TO AVOID BOTH GANGS AND ARBITES LOOKING FOR WEAK MEAT. NOW HE CURRENTLY WORKS AS A MOVER, LOADING AND UNLOADING GOODS TRANSPORTED TO HIS BOSS' STORE. CURRENTLY ON BREAK.
So far from what I can tell the base stats for normal full grown humans range from 10-20, with those born gifted or trained having stats in the range of 20-30, while those who are both gifted and trained having stats ranging from 30-40. That is of course not taking into account augments and equipment or any other special circumstances which could raise or decrease stats. Like with the guy I examined he most likely didn't have a chance to be educated or have a choice on what he could do or figure a way out of his situation which explained his low intelligence and wisdom stat while his whole life could be summed up by that luck stat. Lastly, their levels seem to correlate with their age, on average people will have a level equal to their age with the people worse off having lower levels while those healthy and strong being of higher levels even if their stats didn't truly accurately reflect what they could do. All of this followed a chain of logic that made sense to me as only I was under the Gamer system where my physics was overwritten to follow video game logic. This meant while I could use the information from observe as a general indicator of the capabilities and threats of other people, I couldn't treat it as gospel, as Humans are always full of surprises.
I kept on walking, making sure to always stay moving with the largest stream of people away from buildings or transport systems. Listening, walking, OBSERVING. As I walked I occasionally took a few breaks hanging out on the wall whenever I saw a shop with something interesting. I cast observe on all of their goods which ranged from anything from food to vehicles, giving me a good standard on which to compare other things down the line to make sure I wasn't being ripped off when I finally had money to buy stuff. Also, some shops had security systems which let me know just what exactly I had to watch out for in terms of surveillance. The cameras reminded me of CCTVs and some even had skulls with red lights in their sockets watching the customers, creepy.
Taking another break on a empty stretch of wall I decided to enter the HELP Menu to see what else I could do with the Gamer System.
'HELP MENU' I thought to myself
I entered the HELP MENU, which gave me access to a list of commands I could use to access the additional functions.
Character Sheet
Inventory
Skills
Relationships
Map
Party
Options
Gacha
I was quite happy to see that the Party function was included as that meant I could possibly train up a squad of space marine level companions if I ever found any that I could actually trust…..which meant that I probably was never going to use that function considering Chaos, psykers, and the Inquisition being a thing. Fuck.
Meanwhile, the map function was much more currently useful as it recorded everything with a 30m radius of me leaving a clear indication of where I had been and what I had passed as it also recorded the name of the stores I passed next to easily identifiable icons. It even had a toggle-able icon legend letting me pick and choose what I could see with a search bar at the top in case I was looking for somewhere specific.
Other than that the Option menu only had a few things in it, mainly sound, notifications, and surprisingly enough Hotkey controls. Seems I could create a custom hotkey, either a gesture, command, or a combination of both to use a skill or spell or even a chain of them. That would be very useful once I had more skills or spells to use as it meant I could rapid fire things one after another without thinking. I could probably do all of Overlord's buffing scene in less than a second. If I went down the wizard route anyway, gotta make sure that doesn't open me up to the Warp.
The sound option funny enough was to control the level of background music and whether or not I had subtitles. Both of them were set to default off and I didn't bother to change them as they would just be a distraction. The background music option had a list of recorded background music from areas I passed through, so at least I would have some sort of entertainment if I ever had to take a long trip or do a stakeout.
The notification option though that had more than just setting how the notifications would act both in and out of combat, it also included how I would control the other functions, mainly if they would be thought, voice, or touch based. I immediately set them all to be thought controlled as I couldn't ever guarantee I would be able to be speak or move should I ever needed to use my system.
I quickly checked through the other functions to see the changes to my stats, skills, and empty Gacha ticket indicator, ignoring the question marked relationships as I lacked the information to figure them out besides just keeping an eye out, before pushing off the wall and continuing my walk in the ocean of Humanity.
For hours I casually walked, witnessing everything from slaves to nobles or noble servants moving around purchasing goods and moving items. I eventually got a notification that I maxed out in LOW GOTHIC, and several other planetary languages. That was going to be very helpful in the future no doubt about that. I also kept an eye out for more alleyways especially those near guards as those should have less criminal elements inhabiting them hopefully.
During my long ass walk I came up with a plan. I needed to acquire some gear, which meant I needed to either make some money or make it myself. My crafting skill was pitiful right now as I lacked sufficient quality materials to make items to level it up quickly. However, my inventory held the solution. It had a recycling function.
I could recycle items in my inventory into raw resources and base components to be used to craft other things though at a last of like 33% if I judged the mass of rocks I recycled from my failed stone daggers right.
The one thing you can count on from a city is that it will generate huge amounts of wastes. All of those wastes could be collected and recycled easily by me. I just had to find out where all those wastes were going and intercept them before they end up in the Underhive where the scavengers and gangers would fight over them. The only reason no one at this level would actually scavenge from here is the guards, and they are not prepared to watch out for someone of my skill level. After all if someone is on this level already they do not need to scavenge for some scrap. It's like expecting a guard watching out for gangers to try to detect a space marine scout infiltrator. Just way out of expectation.
That meant I could circumvent the security forces nearby and access the guarded alleyways and collect the trash. I had already marked several alleyways connected to shops that would most likely have to throw out some inventory or other things and marked alleyways near them that weren't guarded or had guards that needed to patrol multiple areas, leaving it temporarily unguarded.
I resolved to do that after doing the same to every area on my walk, until I either made a full circle, or I reach the point where I could go no further.
That came up a lot sooner than I expected as a couple hours later I looked up a large gothic structure that reminded me distinctly of a train station. Looking inside that looked exactly what it was and more. I could hear various transports leaving and see people entering and exiting large and small elevators. So this was most likely a transport hub to other districts and down the various lower levels.
Turning around I began walking back to the alleyways I marked, in a few more hours it would be around for me about 3-4 AM so most people should be either tired or unobservant from long shifts and there would be less lighting present in the alleyways, though there was not much to begin with anyways.
Reaching the closest unguarded alleyway I entered silently and scanned for any signs of surveillance equipment. The alleyway was dirty and smelly and devoid of people. Perfect. I leaned against the wall and looked back out at the slightly smaller mass of moving people. So many people even at this time of the night. Geez.
After making sure that no one was paying attention to me I looked around the alleyway to make sure there was no one inside and if there was nothing for me to collect. Nope nothing.
Looking up I see that I would need to make 3-4 jumps off the walls to reach the top, I begin heading deeper into the alleyways so no wandering eye would catch my blatantly inhuman feat and raise a fuss.
I soon reached a T junction and looking down the side alleys they also revealed to be absolutely devoid of people and cameras, perfect.
I bent down and JUMP at the wall across from me, then proceeded to kick off the wall to propel myself further upwards and kicked off again and again before landing on the roof of the building. Silently crouching low, listening, in case there was anyone on the roof or someone spotted me below and raised a alarm. A few moments passed before I relaxed and proceeded to scan the rooftops of the other buildings nearby, seeing nothing except various rooftop cooling equipment and towers.
Seeing the coast was clear I began running and roof jumping towards my target alley, easily clearing the space in between buildings like a bird. I quickly reached the marked alleyway and poked my head over the edge of the roof to scan the alleyway. It was a lot cleaner that the one I entered from and the guard at the other end was facing outwards. The other end of the alleyway was devoid of people as well. Even better was that there was a dumpster and from the looks of the partly opened lid, it was full.
Ugh, damn, now for the hard part, actually grabbing and touching the filthy, smelly ass trash. Taking one quick look again at the guard I proceeded to drop over the edge, landing on my feet silently next to the dumpster. I crouched down behind it and opened up my inventory, making sure that it was parallel to the floor so I could easily just drop items in and behind the dumpster so the light from putting in items would not alert the guard. I also stored away my jacket and shirt to keep them clean. I then held my breath (wait do I even need to breath anymore?) and silently lifted the lid hoping that the damn thing was not rusty and squeaky.
Luckily it was not.
DING!
Not now system!
Looking inside I could see a bunch of bags with bugs crawling over them. Steeling myself I quickly grabbed the bags and dumped them into my inventory as fast as possible, ignoring the disgust building up within me. I quickly cleared out most of the trash leaving the ones without bags and looked like they were not worth recycling enough to be touched and leapt towards the roof again.
I proceeded to repeat this twenty more times before calling it a night as the sun began to rise and hid inside a cluster of rooftop equipment which had surprisingly a lot of space.
I looked down in disgust at my arms as they were filthy and I had no real way to clean them. I rubbed them against the roof of the building to scrape as much of the filth as I could but even then it left a of stains on me. *Shudder*
Time to see if the fruits of my labor, opening up the inventory I began using the system to open up the bags of trash which instantly got sorted and added by the inventory system without needing me to take them out and put it back in manually. Nice.
Soon enough I had few pages full of damaged or destroyed materials and began sorting things out between recycle or keep as some items were worth keeping if I could repair them. I found a lamp, a case of a half dozen crumpled field rations, a few chits which were recognized as the system as valid local currency, a couple las packs, a chipped knife, what looked like a intact lasgun except it was actually just a toy model, a actual functioning if slightly scuffed las pistol, seemed like it was accidentally discarded given that it still had a half charged pack, and a few serviceable local style shirts and pants. The best things however were five dataslates that were still functional despite some damage to their casing and screens, even better was the notification that popped up when I touched the last one.
DING! DATASLATE FOR THE SKILL TECH USE (IMPERIAL) DETECTED! WOULD YOU LIKE TO LEARN THIS SKILL? YES/NO
Jackpot!
AN: Summary of skill/item gains will be provided next chapter. Enjoy people! Likes and Feedbacks Please!
Dumpster Diving Rolls
( 25 14 10 )
( 23 54 37 )
( 79 16 39 )
( 49 26 70 )
( 50 70 53 )
( 66 1 83 )
( 18 96 58 )
( 4 25 24 )
( 61 60 23 )
( 89 10 52 )
( 6 19 25 )
( 7 72 64 )
( 83 82 96 )
( 56 21 41 )
( 39 41 65 )
( 43 94 80 )
( 49 9 39 )
( 89 87 17 )
( 20 52 86 )
( 36 83 81 )
Chapter 5
As the last of the trash is recycled and I finish going through my training regiemen for the daily quest exp I take a look at my gains.
"Notifications summary" I thought, reading the screen that popped up summarizing the gains I had gained since I left that fake city thing, I found it to be quiet decent for about 12 hours worth of grinding. Eavesdropping and Stealth skills really got advanced from being in a large crowd,
Gained Stats 2 Wisdom
1 Luck
Gained Skills
Craft Level 1
Eavesdrop Level 20
Language: High Gothic Level 1
Language: Low Gothic Level Max (All future local planetary dialects shall be included for ease of writing)
Light Foot Level 3
Observe Level 15
Repair Level 1
Salvage Level 3
Stealth Level 20
Tech Use (Imperial) Level 1
Gained Items
Damaged electrical lantern
6 field rations
model lasgun
laspistol
3 las charge packs
Chipped knife
4 Dataslates
Two sets of damaged Golgothan style outfits
7 Credits
6 units of rare earth metals
78 units of common metals
52 units of plastics
37 units of cloth
Seems like salvaging items gave me both Crafting and Repairing skill exp so that just gave me even more reason to go dumpster diving.
I look at the language skills I gained, particularly the maxed out Low Gothic skill before taking a look at the dataslates. I wonder if there was anything useful in there? Like if the basic info on this planet or events going on, or even what time it was. Depending on where and when exactly I ended up, things could either turn out ok or I should start blowing my brains out with the laspistol right now.
Taking a breath, wait, I took a breath, I really should see if I need to breath and this is a good as time as any. Taking a deep breath I take out the four dataslates and proceeded to….turn them on. I am ashamed to say that even with the Tech Use skill it took me more than a couple minutes to figure out how to turn them on. Stupid backwards advanced future tech.
Then I had to spend a couple more minutes on figuring out how to actually navigate the damn things. You would think the future equivalent of a digital book reader would be simple to use, but nope, it's actually a bit more complicated then I expected.
At least the date was easy to find as it was clearly labeled on the top right corner of the local equivalent of a digital newspaper. That's right seemed the 4 dataslates I acquired were just newspapers. Seems I was in M41 941 which did not really help me much considering I never really did take the time to remember the years of specific events. So this gave me no real clue what was going to happen in the near future except for the fact that I would be facing Tyranids at some point and that Cadia would fall with Guilliman reviving.
However, the thing that really got my attention was the headline on the latest newspaper edition. In bold text were the words
'MASSIVE BOUNTY OF 10 MILLION THRONES PLACED ON ANY INFORMATION ABOUT THE DEFILER OF HIS ROYAL GOVERNOR'S 'THE GLORY OF ALKAZERE!"
Reading through the article I felt a headache starting to form. It seems that the empty 'city' I was in was not a city at all, but was instead a giant fucking vanity project the governor built that was meant to be seen from space. The whole damn city would form a image of the governor in a suitably heroic pose that was highly detailed when looked at from orbit by all those arriving. It seemed that a anonymous report of a weird noise was reported coming from the art installation and a team of the governor's own guard went to search, and found a trail of destruction and blood all across one of the many 'lines' that made up the piece of art.
The governor was understandably furious at what he perceived to be an attack on himself and ordered for a massive manhunt for the rebel heretic that dare destroy his beautiful artwork and use it for a no doubt heretical ritual with all that blood so the local Ecclesiarchy was also up in arms and going on a witch hunt. Joy. Even worse was that things like this attracted any nearby Inquisitors of the Ordos Malleus and Hereticus who most likely have psykers in tow to assist them. I really do not want to try to tangle with them or seeing how my Gamer System would interact with their powers as the interaction might mean it would be easier to track me or not. Better not to take the chance, plus I still don't know if my System is stronger than the Warp and the beings within and I really did not want to take the chance with that particular test.
So that means I needed a place to hide and a background that would not draw attention. No way was I going to hide in the underhive, because while there was no doubt it would be very easy to hide in their, it would also have a very high chance of me fighting gangers, mutants, and worse in there as a fact of life. Fights that could potentially attract attention if I keep winning, and no way was I going to just keep running and let myself get hunted by even more people. So that meant staying here in the middle hive cause the upper hive would no doubt be covered in surveillance and guards normally, not to mention now of all times.
I needed a place out of sight and out of mind that no one would really look. I mean I look young and normal so I had that advantage going for me. I just needed a position of utter normality something to distance me from the idea of a alleyway breaker and bleeder. Something so pathetic and worthless that there was no possible way it could be me. I looked through the areas recorded on my map at the various shops I had passed before stopping on one. It was a restaurant, restaurants were pretty common from what I could see, and every restaurant needed dishwashers. There was easily over a dozen restaurants and surely one of them would be willing to hire a kid willing to work for cheap. The job would also have the benefit of keeping me out of sight in the back and let me build up social skills with my fellow coworkers, multiple birds, one stone.
First however, I needed to get clean. I looked down at myself and curled up my nose at the filth. I haven't showered in weeks, only the fact that I did not really seem to sweat anymore kept me from smelling worse than I was now. So first get clean, then go job hunting. Looking at the map again I marked the closest restroom icon and proceeded to sneak my way off the building, through the crowd, and into the restroom with all the speed and stealth I could muster.
Looking around inside I did not really see anyone, and it did not really look any different than a regular restroom you would find on Earth, though it lacked mirrors, proper lighting, looked a little dirty, and the materials were different but the basics were still the same.
Heading over to the sink I turned on the tap and inspected the water for anything strange before finding nothing and proceeding to first clean my arms of the dumpster gunk. As I was washing my hand I had a idea, could I store water in my inventory without a container? Opening up the inventory screen I placed it in a sink next to me and turned on the tap, watching as the water did disappear into the screen without issue, yes! Now I had a large supply of water if I ever needed it even if I did not actually get thirsty anymore. At least I could now shower or bath anywhere I wanted. As I watched the water from the sink flow into the inventory screen I suddenly had an idea. Could I enlarge the screen?
Looking around the restroom and finding no one, I keep one ear on the entrance and proceed to grip the edge of the inventory screen and pull it while willing the rest of the box to stay still.
My eyes widen in happiness as I see the screen stretch across the rest of the sinks and I proceeded to turn on the rest of the sinks. smiling as all of them dumped their water into my inventory. Yes! This opened up new possibilities for me as it meant that I could also store items larger than I thought was possible.
'I'm going to need to test this out later' I thought to myself as I turned off the sinks and closed my inventory and proceeded to leave the restroom, entering the dark alleyways again. I proceeded to experiment a little more and made myself a makeshift shower by crafting a bathtub out of some plastic and filling it up repeatedly with water. The crafting system was strange. I did not need the recipe to make certain items as it seemed to unlock once my skill is high enough, but items that were at or under my skill level that I discovered were not included in my unlocked recipe list. So to clarify my Craft skill unlocked more recipes as it leveled up, but there are also other recipes not included that I either have to find or make myself before it is recorded. Also, the really strange part of the crafting system is that when I click on the craft button to make the recipe it takes no time, it literally takes less than a second for my hands to blur into motion and the item to appear. I remembered the actions I took, but they make no sense, like the fact that I smashed a bunch of plastics together which proceeded to melt and meld together into a solid piece and my hands then proceeded to instantly shape them into a proper bathtub of uniform thickness.
It was a a bit frightening as I basically had no control for that split second, but amazing as well since it meant I could very quickly make whatever I needed as long as I had enough resources in my inventory, though looking through the recipes showed that some of them did have prerequisites such as tools or equipment which made sense.
Noting down those discoveries for later I went ahead and gave myself a really violent bath as I basically scrubbed off the entire top layer of my skin, making use of my Gamer's Body to basically regenerate a clean new layer of skin. Next was fixing up the clothes I found in the trash as the crafting system had a repair option as, just that some mental math revealed that repairing a item would cost more in materials than jsut simply making a new one, but I did not have the recipe for the current outfits. I was going to need to need to find some way to gain the recipes of items I had like some sort of reverse engineer option. Man, the possibilities of that if I could gain recipes for power armor and power weapons. *Drools*
Wiping the drool away I take a quick look at myself in my repaired clothes and thought I looked good enough.
Time to job hunt.
It actually did not take me that long actually surprisingly enough. I ended up as a dishwasher for a pretty busy restaurant called the Little Golgotha for a particularly successful fat man by the name of Josef Titon, seems that his cleaning servitor broke down so he needed a new hire to take its place. The pay wasn't that good and I had to pull double duty as a janitor and dishwasher, which made me gag in private later on behalf of the people eating, luckily I would keep clean for them. At least I had a Cleaning skill now to make things bearable as it let me finish my work a lot faster, giving me some free time. 12 hour work shift, but that was only from dawn to dusk, so good for me as that kept me out of the day time traffic and searchers, leaving me the night to roam and prowl about to do what I want. Another plus side at least is that I can chat with my fellow dishwashers and waiters that come and go as they appreciate someone willing to lighten their load and keep it a secret.
The biggest benefit of this? I had an alibi for my existence in the middle hive as a worker for the restaurant and could claim to be an orphan from a now defunct orphanage that went under a few years ago that I obtained the information on from a particularly chatty old man who could not stop talking. I also now had a source of income with no expenses. No food, water, or even rent. After using my first payday to purchase a bunch of really cheap damage blank data-slates I immediately headed towards the local equivalent of a library that was open 24 hours for some reason and sat down at a cogitator. My time in the restaurant was paying dividends as interacting with various electronics in the kitchen gave me several more levels of Tech Use (Imperial) which let me actually figure out how to use the cogitators. It was both familiar and strange as the clunky brown box was both extremely advanced yet archaic at the same time and smelled heavily of incense and oil. I could even see some non augmented or slightly augmented people in red robes wandering around.
I accessed the world's version of the internet and proceeded to spend the rest of the time searching and saving various how to equivalent videos and instruction manuals for a wide variety of subjects. I made sure to set them up for experiments to see how the Gamer System interacted with various states of data-slates.
1. One data-slate filled with the theory on how to cook
2. One data-slate filled with how to videos for woodworking
3. One data-slate filled with written instructions on how to mine
4. Four data-slates with a combination of 1 & 2, 2 & 3, 1 & 3, and all of the above for different skills each
All of the other data-slates were filled with both 2 and 3 as the data could be easily transmitted from pad to slate to slate so it was not that big of a deal to move them around once I finished testing the 7 test slates to see what would be the best use of them.
Walking out of library I get out of sight of the tech adepts and find a trashcan with a lid on it, open a inventory inside of the can then drop the stack of data-slates into the can and close the lid before the light could be seen then closed the inventory before leaving for my rooftop home.
As I made sure I am properly hidden by the machines once more I take out the data-slates and begin absorbing the test slates one by one and recording their effects.
1. No prompt to learn skill as expected.
2. Gained skill at level 1, multiple levels gained if more videos are absorbed either all in one slate or multiple, but only of the content is different than what I had absorbed before.
3. Same as 2
4.1 Same amount of level gain as 2 and 3 theory seems to add nothing
4.2 Same amount of level gain as if adding 2 and 3
4.3 Same as 4.1
4.4 Same as 4.2
So in essence theory is worthless to me, and gains from both video and literature are essentially the same as long as the content is new to me. Another thing is that while data-slates with more advanced techniques require me to have a prerequisite in skill level before I can learn it, if I have sufficient lower level content along with it it will allow me to learn it, as the lower level content will level my perquisite skill to either at or higher than the minimum requirements. Also, as long as there is new content in the data-slate then even if there is mostly old one then the whole slate will be consumed, so that means I could just download everything into one slate and absorb it all together instead of absorbing multiple data-slates with me having to only remove any advanced skills I have yet to reach the skill level for or have insufficient skill materials to feed the perquisite skills.
Feeling very happy about the results of my research I quickly transfer everything into a single data-slate and begin removing everything that kept me from just outright eating it, placing them into their own individual data-slates for later. Once all of those were removed I clicked accept and winced a bit at the sheer amount of knowledge that now crowded my head. Ok, maybe there is a good reason not to put everything into one sitting. Ouch.
I massaged my head and for one in over 3 weeks I decided to take a nap hoping my migraine would be gone by the time I woke up. Hopefully, that sleeping in bed removing status effect thing was still a actual thing here.
I crafted a crude bed using cloth and plastic and laid down, closing my eyes and letting myself drift off to sleep.
DING!
My eyes snapped open at a screen that popped up in front of me
YOU HAVE AWOKEN RESTED! HP AND MP ARE RESTORED BY 100% STATUS EFFECTS ARE REMOVED!
Oh hey it worked, and I wasn't attacked last night, even better! I take a look at my System's clock and found that I still an hour before it was time for me to go to work so I started planning. What I needed to do is lay low and get stronger. I could rapidly gain strength without having to train by just simply eating more skill books or skill data-slates to be exact. I however could not just simply download everything from the internet in one sitting nor could I download the stuff that I want for like things like combat without seeming suspicious. So that meant I needed patsies. People willing to do the work for me. My recycling efforts have netted me some rare metals which would be trade-able for a decent amount of credits that I could hire people with, plus I could craft stuff eventually to trade with.
However, first I needed to know who I could hire and if I could trust them, and then I needed a disguise.
So while working I spent one train of thought on my work and chatting away with my coworkers and another of my plan to enter the criminal side of the hive city. I would need to level up my Persuasion, Intimidation, and Observe skills as those would let me control others better and to prevent any backstabs. Plus it would let me actually locate those willing to do work for money on the side. If I really needed to, I could also work as a info broker and smuggler thanks to the Observe skill giving me more info as it levels up, and my inventory letting me sneak entire shipments around unseen. Speaking of which.
I turn to look at my bed, it was a simple 6' x 4', much bigger than the inventory screen, but as I now know I could enlarge and move the screen. So the question is could I just 'scoop' up the bed or does it only work for things I can carry or move?
I stretch out the inventory screen and proceed to move it along the ground to be the bed it just stopped at it, unable to move forward. I took hold of one side of the bed and easily lifted the whole thing off the ground and willed the inventory screen to move forward and watched as it swallowed up the bed.
Well that is good, I can move the inventory screen mentally, but I cannot enlarge it mentally, and it can accept anything as long as I can carry it. Wait what about taking it back out? I immediately close and open up the inventory again seeing that it returned to its default 1.5' x 1' sized box. I tried to take out the bed and it immediately stretched to 4' wide and the bed could come out, putting it back in kept the size the same. Guess there was just one more thing to test, something I didn't dare test before due to lack of materials.
Is the inventory screen visible to other people?
"Hello, can you take just a quick moment of your time?" A man heard a young voice calling out behind him, turning around he saw a young man with glasses and messy but clean hair holding a piece of paper.
"Look kid frak off, I ain't interested in whatever you are selling." He said gruffly, he just got off a long patrol shift and just wanted to get a drink and relax.
"Oh, I am not selling anything, I just wanted to ask you if you could read to me what it says here, my father was very excited last night when he saw it but he didn't tell me what it was before he left the house and now I am trying to find him. I'll even give you these credit chits, it's all that I have." The young man said holding out a fistful of chits. Damn is the kid a idiot, who can't read in the middle hive? Fine whatever, you could use some more drinking money.
The man takes the data-slate from the guy and looks down at the slate, finding it to be a cheap news-slate, it was just the headline about that vandal that messed up the governor's damn money sink and the reason why you had to do the long patrol shifts now. You felt irritated at being reminded of that and toss the slate back at the young man and grab the chits from his hand.
"It's just that stupid news article about the Governor's bounty on the idiot who messed up his property, your dad is probably out their being like all those other idiots trying to find the information to cash in for the bounty. Go home kid and stop wasting your time." He grunted out, with his last words being a bit sympathetic, the kid's dad was most likely going to end up dead when he tangled with the wrong sort of people also looking for that information for that cash. Putting that thought out of mind he stomped into the crowd leaving the kid behind, never seeing the smile that grew on his face like it was Emperor's Day.
I looked at the back of the man leaving with a smile on my face as I looked down at the data-slate in my hands, the data-slate with the inventory screen layered over it. I man had to touch through it to turn the screen on and he did not even notice it. This was glorious news as that opened up a lot more options for using my inventory in public.
Now I could properly plan now that I had knowledge of all my options and tools. First, I gotta get to work, and dashed through the crowd towards the restaurant, gotta keep up my alibi and grind my skills.
Half A Year Later*
I quickly washed the dishes in the tray in front of me, now long used to the toil and instant cleanliness I could impart to the dishes and other such filth, when I suddenly heard my name called.
"Hey Noman! Go throw out the trash!" The voice of the restaurant owner Josef called out even as he berated the cooks who were preparing the main courses for a special RSVP event tonight.
I had been working hear for 6 months now and the owner has gotten pretty used to having me around and didn't both paying to fix the broken servitor I replaced as I did more work than it and for cheaper too.
While he was not a bad boss per say he really could have stood to pay me a little more and yell a little bit less. If only he knew who exactly he was yelling at. I had made a name for myself as a thief by the name of tri2. Someone that many in the underground wanted found due to the massive bounty placed on my head by the Adeptus Mechanicus for the theft of their data archives and by others for thefts of various miscellaneous items and books. Though to be fair other than the data archive theft the other thefts were not even done by me and more by the people I hired instead. No point in putting myself personally at risk after all when there were people greedy enough to do it for you. That wasn't to say I couldn't have done it myself, I did not slack off in my own personal training a single day the past 6 months.
The night after the discovery that my inventory screen was invisible I immediately took off to find the closest mass waste disposal site and snuck into the facility. The place was not really guarded other than a few automated surveillance which was never really designed to detect superhuman infiltrators. I mean what augmented person would even care about literal crap? I did.
I made full use of my strength and extendable inventory screen to quite literally scoop and lift entire chunks of the waste mountains composed of compressed trash blocks into my inventory. It actually took me significantly more time to sort and recycle it all than to collect the literal hundreds of metric tons of trash. While that very very rarely lead me to acquiring any repairable items, it did however net me metric tons of raw materials, both common and rare. I was not even talking about just rare earth metals but as in rare materials such as plasteel, diamantine, and even slivers of adamantium on rare occasion. In short, it allowed me to have a very sizable and stable source of income to support my more illegal activities.
I spent more than a month grinding away my social skills, gathering trash, training my Tech Use skill, increasing my intelligence, and most importantly of all creating and raising my Hacking skill. Now just why would I need hacking skills? One word. Blueprints.
Every manufactorum in this hive as well as all of their products were either made with a STC blueprint design or had their designs stored in the local Adeptus Mechanicus temple data archive with no hard copies except in the hand of the business owners which would be those in the upper spire. That meant if I wanted to gain access to useful blueprints for things like weapons and armors I would need to loot it from the archive as every Mechanicus temple was connected together on a wireless network. A fact that I brought from what I am pretty much sure was a heretek that was looking for additional funding for his own secret projects.
It took me another two weeks before I was actually ready to hack into the temple and even then it required outside assistance. The reason for the week was because I had to track down and hire the services of dozens of underground hackers, data miners, and hitmen. Now I wasn't go to kill anyone, I strive to make sure no one died in anything I did. I wasn't ready to become a murderer, despite the legality of my actions. I had a operation timed for the end of the week so that every single one of them would be, as they were paid in advance, operating in sync to distract the tech priests. First the hitmen would cause alarms to be raised at various manufactorums that require the presence of tech priests to appear to troubleshoot the problem before non lethally neutralizing them or just occupying them. Shortly afterwards the hackers and data miners would essentially hit several vital system with DDOS attacks and work not to successfully break in, but to divert as much resources towards stopping their intrusion. Meanwhile, I would be using a personally designed rig to subtly infiltrating the network using access codes and security procedures provided to me by the same heretek, with a promise to share all data gained with him which I agreed to.
Of course I made sure the rig was no where near the market district where I was based and that I had a escape route planned.
On the day the operation started it was a total nightmare for the hive city. Digitally at least, on the surface nothing was really happening, no alarms were going off, no fires, no explosions, no outpouring of guards or skitarri. It was a completely different in the digital realm. Viruses crashed against vaccine programs, brute force hacking juggernaut systems tunneled through firewalls only to be met with superior processing powers and programming of dedicated tech priest neural wafers. Infiltration attempts by dozens of throwaway rigs sending out billions of differently generated access attempts were denied and back tracked through various relays that quickly self destructed along with the rigs as they were compromised.
In the thick of it all my months of grinding my intelligence, money, and Hacking skill paid off. I was an equal to any normal mentally augmented tech priest with my intelligence and equipment, but with their own access codes and procedures I could easily predict and circumvent their logical security and bypass their defenses undetected given all the chaff I had prepared.
The plan all hinged on just how long the hackers and data miners could keep the tech priests occupied, which would not be long. Now to steal the entire data archive would most likely fail because of one simple fact, data transfer speeds. There was only so much data a single port could handle without giving anything away. So I did away with the secrecy once I reached the archive in digital space and unlocked its defenses. I sent an order for it to send parts of its data through every single output port to prepared temporary wireless networks and equipment crafted to handle vast instant data transmissions. Then, the networks would cut the connections to delay the trace and the data would proceed to be transferred in the same way again and again multiple times until they all reached a single hidden rig located within the edge of the underhive space, where a very special rig would forcefully eject its 2 custom made high capacity data-slate blocks. Said data blocks would then fall into a inventory screen opened right below it ahead of time a couple of days before the rig itself was built and delivered a week ago. Thus giving myself an alibi from even the flimsiest of time framing from the construction of the rig and my presence in that part of the hive using the elevator, especially with my short time there.
After that operation I laid low, like really low. No going out back to my previous roof home, no going out to raid dumpsters, no outside excursions at all. I immediately went to ground, and then below ground. I hid under the dumpster behind the restaurant where I literally ground away the ferrocrete from beneath the dumpster, with my bare hands to prevent any noise, to create hidden tunnel and a cave to hide in while I was not working. A good thing too as the Adeptus Mechanicus were PISSED, to say it lightly. For their holy relic to be actually broken into and raided, even if none of the data was actually lost, but still stolen, was a Heresy that could not be tolerated by any means. They must have pulled off a lot of favors as entire regiments of PDF, Imperial Guards, alongside skitarri and tech priests were doing pretty much door to door searches of every single damn area that had one of the rigs at the end of the relay network. My heart clenched at the news that several hundred people were either burned or taken away by the Ad Mech for further questioning as I was not sure if that was because they actually found something criminal about them or if the people were just going to suffer for no reason.
Even the market district was searched and that was on purpose with a middle relay network on a random rooftop as it would have been too suspicious for nothing to have been found in a single district. I spread the suspicion out everywhere to dilute the trail with the inventory trick at the end to cut the trail dead stop. I hoped that would have made them eventually stop searching after a month max, I underestimated the rage of the unfeeling machine cult.
Three months later and they were still searching the hive top to bottom like a Inquisitor seeing a cultists waving at him from a window.
That was not the worse part however, at the end of that third month a rumor was going around the underworld grape vine, with said rumor only even reaching me because the one giving the rumor to me had no idea I was tri2. Needless to say with the amount of heat I brought down upon the hive with the sheer size mechanical hornets nest kicked I was pretty much persona non grata with a majority of the criminal underbelly with only my own disguise and refusal to share any information or have a fixed location saving me from them just outright selling me out. That and the fact that they don't any suspicion of having any connection to me reaching the Mechanicus.
The rumor was there was a Inquisitor on the planet. A rumor I believed with all my heart and soul. Why?
A quest had popped up then.
DING! QUEST CREATED!
AN INQUISITOR OF THE ORDO MALLEUS HAS ARRIVED ON PLANET! HE SEARCHES FOR BOTH A SUSPECTED CULTIST AND FOR THE THIEF BRAZEN ENOUGH TO STEAL FROM THE ADEPTUS MECHANICUS. FOR WHAT REASON AN INQUISITOR WOULD SEARCH OUT A THIEF? WHO KNOWS, BUT IT IS PROBABLY NOT GOOD NEWS FOR YOU. HE WILL NOT GIVE UP UNTIL HIS QUARRIES ARE FOUND AND ASSISTING HIM ARE HIS PERSONAL RETINUE GATHERED AND TRAINED OVER DECADES OF LONG SERVICE. A TEAM THAT EVEN A ROGUE TRADER WOULD BE HARD PRESSED TO OBTAIN.
GOAL: ESCAPE OR DEFEAT THE INQUISITOR AND HIS RETINUE!
REWARD: FREEDOM, 10 LEVELS, OR RARE TIER GACHA TICKET
PENALTY: TORTURE, DEATH, ENSLAVEMENT, WORSE
ACCEPT/
DENY
Something I noted back then about my Gamer System was that unlike the original Gamer System it was based off of, it does not grant quests for everything. Only for important things related to my survival. So no easy quests for just washing dishes, but a quest for killing the enemy in front of me or completing a mission/operation.
So I became even more careful making sure to either be in the restaurant at all times or underneath the main street when it was busy, and when it was not, well I put my Willpower skill to the test as I used every last inch of my focus to empty my mind to make it as mentally dead as possible to try to have nothing for a psyker to detect. If that was even how he or she would detect me, or if the Gamer's Mind would shield me from detection or if I even had a 'soul' or presence in the warp to even detect. For all I knew I was as psychically attractive as a rock, but I could not take that chance.
Two and a half weeks later and I was still here, doing my routine, hiding in plain site and mundanity, and the Adeptus Mechanicus and Inquisitor were still searching the city. Worryingly so is the fact that the Inquisitor seemed to have tracked something I missed and was slowly investigating the districts that formed a straight line to the market district. He was on the scent somehow and I still had no idea how to escape without the Inquisitor finding out.
'Dammit, I didn't expect the situation to become this troublesome for so long' I thought to myself with a sigh as I grabbed the trash bags piled by the door to the back alleyway. I opened the doors and pretended to drag the bags out before closing the door and just dropping them into the dumpster.
Hearing a sound I look towards the entrance of the alleyway towards the main street and notice two large guys with clubs in their hands. Arbites. Why were they looking at me? I did nothing to raise suspicions did I?
I stayed still just watching them and they proceeded to walk towards me.
Should I stay still? Should I run into the restaurant?
No, that would bring attention to the restaurant and that might raise alarms with someone which could bring disaster to me and my workplace.
Besides I did nothing so there shouldn't be a problem. Maybe they are just here to shake me down for money? I could Act very well now and give them 'all that I have' routine and let them be on their merry way. Nothing to raise a fuss over.
So I kept still looking like a frightened rabbit as the men, and damn were they tall, towered over me.
"Hello-" Before I could even finish my greeting the feeling of the club smacking me in the face hard registered and my mind went into overdrive, bullet time kicking in with the adrenaline as I processed what just happened.
Millions of thoughts and plans went through my mind before a conclusion was reached.
'Play dead and listen' which I immediately did so letting my body go limp and hit the ground as if someone who was knocked out would, my head bouncing audibly from the hard ground.
The two men say nothing before one of them kicked me over hard. I remained limp and breathing shallowly.
"He's out, grab him." I feel large hands gripping me by the waist and tossed over the shoulder like a sack of potatoes and then carried away.
We were moving towards the main street, shit, I could not break free in public, why oh why didn't they just take me deeper into the alleyway to do whatever criminal act they were obviously planning to do?
The sound of the pedestrian traffic didn't even abate when we entered view and my Eavesdrop skill picked up some worrying things.
"Ah another one."
"Shit glad that wasn't me."
"Damn he's young"
"Isn't that the janitor?"
"Hope it's quick for him"
As I am tossed into what feels like a metal box filled with bodies, still pretending to be unconscious, I can hear them say a frightening thing. "Another one for the regiments to Armageddon."
I frightfully keep myself limp even as I wanted to break free from my captors and escape deeper into the hive to escape this fate.
I didn't however, because if I did I would be captured by the Inquisitor who was so tantalizingly close to my trail despite all my efforts. This recruitment was not planned, this was not going to be recorded, the background check would clear me due to my efforts to painstakingly create a false history, my fate would be unknown to all as no one would notice another grunt especially if he showed nothing special. The Warp itself would further hide me as the temporal irregularities from travel would further muddy up my destination.
This would let me lose the Inquisitor for good, being just one among billions, but I would be in the Imperial Guard.
Certain torture and/or death versus most probable death and torture.
I know what I would choose.
But I didn't want to choose either.
'It's not fair! It's not fair! It's not fair! It's not fair!' I ranted in my mind even as I made my choice and let myself get dragged away to join the countless billions fighting and dying in the void against the empty gaze of reality itself just so mankind could live even one more day.
It wasn't fair. With all my superhuman power and intellect I still ended up in a situation with no choice or control.
But that was the point wasn't it?
DING! QUEST COMPLETE! WISDOM 1
LUCK 1
Oh shut up.
AN: And my muse went into Overdrive today allowing me to gift you all with ANOTHER early chapter! REJOICE! Remember to like and critique everyone!
Chapter 6
A electrical smack could be heard in the distance right before a voice roared down the dirty rusted metal cargo space.
"Shut up you scum! You are here to pay for your crimes against the Imperium and his Most Glorious God Emperor On Terra! Your wicked ways and actions have finally caught up to you! Every last one of you will fight and die in the God Emperor's name against the Enemies of Humanity in the 275th Golgotha Penal Legion! So stop your pathetic mewling and accept your fate and put on your uniforms! No one in this cage will get any food till you all shut up and suit up!" Another electrical zap from a electro whip could be heard again followed by cries of fear and pain.
I sat in a corner of the cage that the pressgangers of the ship tossed me into along with the other unfortunate souls captured. I had laid there on top of the pile of other unconscious victims in the transport cart until we were brought aboard the ship like livestock and the deep vibrations of the transport shuttle jostled others awake. I let myself get shifted around and 'woke up' shortly after, I had to twist a few opportunistic fingers but I got some space without losing anything. We were all then herded from the transport into lines where armored voidsmen clasped explosive collars on us and handed us a set of breathers and a cheap outfit that stank of chemicals before ushering us into cages. Those in my cage were dressed well to do with relatively clean and intact clothes so they were not from the under hive and most likely from the middle hive sections. That was strange as most conscription tend to happen among the lower hives due to the much larger abundance of people and lower lack of status. For them to take even people higher up in the hive either meant they really needed more numbers or the nobility were doing their screwed up games again and purging the populace of people they didn't like. Probably both.
I looked out among the rows and stacks of cages just like ours. From my vantage point I could count at least 12 cages in my row with 3 cages on top based on the fact that the ones across from us were stacked that high, that meant there were at least 2400 men. women, and children in this single aisle alone being transported to Armageddon. Estimating, I guess there to be at least 10 such rows for 12,000 future slave soldiers in this single cargo bay alone. So it was not unlikely to assume there were probably over a hundred thousand conscripts on this ship that were captured and shipped off.
I ignored the mass of frightened Humanity around me as I mentally distracted myself from forming any attachment to them. As most likely all of them will be dead within 10 minutes of us landing on the ground if we were lucky. I tried to remember what I could about Armageddon, all I remembered was that Commissar Yarrick was the main protagonist there, with a ork warboss with a long ass name being his nemesis, and the whole planet was pretty much uninhabitable due to the hive cities pollution contaminating everything to the point of lethality.
Damn it all, I was hoping that I could avoid events like this where I would be put into the line of fire like this and I could just quietly grow stronger. Then again, that Inquisitor and his pet psyker was getting hotter on my trail so this might be for the best. At least I had light years between me and him and a entire war zone to hide in. Not like it would be hard for me to break free and go to ground with my current skill level.
I mentally pulled up all my screens and rechecked my current status.
Character Sheet
NAME: Noman
AGE: 21
OCCUPATION: THE GAMER
RACE: HUMAN
LEVEL: 20
NEXT LEVEL: 0.0%
HP: 2335
HP REGEN: 257 HP PER MINUTE
MP: 9570
MP REGEN: 1531 MP PER MINUTE
STRENGTH: 85
CONSTITUTION: 119
DEXTERITY: 158 (372.88)
INTELLIGENCE: 227 (451.73)
WISDOM: 43 (64.5)
LUCK: 29
STAT POINTS: 100
MONEY: 507 Thrones
Perks
50 Strength Perk: Herculean Strength - Increase damage from melee attacks by 50%
50 Constitution Perk: Healthy As A Horse - Gain extra 5 HP per Constitution point
100 Constitution Perk: Titan's Bones - Reduce damage to body by 50%
50 Dexterity Perk: Cat's Grace - Always land on your feet, keep your balance easily, and reduce fall damage.
100 Dexterity Perk: Hunter's Instinct - Find enemy weak points easier and 50% to critical damage
150 Dexterity Perk: Dagger in the Dark - When undetected increase weapon damage by 100% and critical rate by 75%
50 Intelligence Perk: Deep Well - Gain double the increase to MP from each Intelligence point.
100 Intelligence Perk: Eidetic Memory - Remember things easily and at any moment. 10% Experience Gain
150 Intelligence Perk: Destructive Science - Gain ability to gain blueprints when salvaging functional equipment for no resources
200 Intelligence Perk: Mana Affinity - Gain the ability to sense and manipulate mana 10% increase to MP recovery and 5% increase to total MP.
Inventory
12,960,000 units of plastics
4,320,000 units of common metals
2,160,000 units of cloth
1,296,000 units of chemicals
648,000 units of rare metals
2,160 units of really rare metals
Skills
Acrobatics Level 86: A technique to make use of users natural flexibility. Passively increases Dexterity by 86%
Acting Level 50: A skill that allows for the user to pretend to be something or someone they are not. Effectiveness increased by 500%. Decreases by 10% for every level the enemy is higher than user.
Barter Level 68: A skill that allows for the trading of goods and services for more preferred prices. Increases haggling success chance by 68%
Berserker Level 1: A skill that unleashes the users inner violence. Increase attack speed by 50%, decrease defense by 50%, increase damage by 25%
Craft Level 79: A skill to make something. Humanity has advanced their civilization through inventing and creating things. Crafted objects become better as mastery levels rise. Registered blueprint: 13,568,158.
Charm Level 74: A skill that indicates your ability to positvely interact or persuade others. Increase chance of positevly affecting or convincing people by 740%. Decreases by 10% for person being convinced and every level the enemy is higher than user to minimum of 0%.
Ciphers Level 50: A passive skill that allows for you to both create and break ciphers. Passively increases intelligence by 49%
Cleaning Level 88: A passive skill that allows you to clean things faster. 440% to cleaning speed.
Climb Level 36: A passive skill that allows you to climb things faster. 180% to climbing speed.
Cooking Level 50: A skill to cook food. Humanity has advanced their tastebuds through making meals. Cooked food become better as mastery levels rise.
Dancing Level 50: A skill that allows for the moving with the rhythm in a visually pleasing way. Increases charisma by 100% while dancing and passively increases Dexterity by 50%
Deceive Level 66: A skill to lie and trick others. Increase chance of success by 660%. Decreases by 10% for every level the enemy is higher than user.
Digging Level 50: A skill that allows you to dig faster. 250% to digging speed.
Disguise Level 50: A skill to look like something or someone else. Increase chance of success by 500%. Decreases by 10% for every level the enemy is higher than user.
Demolition Level 50: A skill that allows the user to use explosives with familiarity and skill. Increases explosive damage by 255% Increase chance of defusing explosives by 55%.
Driving Level 50: A skill that allows for the driving of various vehicles with familiarity and skill. Increases vehicle speed and manueverability by 260%
Eavesdrop Level 50: A skill that allows the user to listen in on the conversations of others from a distance. Increases listening distance by 150m
Gamer's Body Level Max: Grants a body that allows for the user to live the real world like a game. Sleeping in a bed restores HP, MP and all status effects.
Gamer's Mind Level Max: Allows the user to calmly and logically think things through. Allows peaceful state of mind. Immunity to psychological status effects.
Hacking Level 69: The ability of the user to break into digital systems. Increase ability to recognize digital weaknesses and paths. Increase chance of success by 69%
Interrogation Level 50: The skill to get answers from someone, one way or another. Increase effectivness by 50%
Intimidate Level 13: The ability to terrorize others. Increase chance of success by 13%
Jump Level 74: A skill to allow the user to jump higher than before! Passively boosts jumping height by 740% while actively boosting jumping height by 7400%. 3 MP per jump.
Language (High Gothic) Level Max: The skill to allow the user to speak and write in the Imperium of Man's High Gothic, fluent understanding.
Language (Low Gothic) Level Max: The skill to allow the user to speak and write in the Imperium of Man's Low Gothic, fluent understanding.
Language (Orks) Level Max: The skill to allow the user to speak and write in the Ork's language, fluent understanding.
Language (Techna Lingua) Level Max: The skill to allow the user to speak and write in the Adeptus Mechanicus' language, fluent understanding.
Language (Sign Language) Level Max: The skill to allow the user to 'speak' sign language, fluent understanding.
Light Foot Level 88: A technique in which to walk or run silently. Passively decreases walking noise by 85% and running noise by 43%.
Lip Reading Level Max: A skill that allows for the user to figure out what sound a being with a mouth is making via it's movements.
Medicine Level 50: The ability to recognized and treat wounds, injureies, and diseases. Increase speed and effectiveness by 250%
Meditate Level 27: Enter a state of calm thoughtlessness and recover mana more quickly, increase mana regeneration rate by 54%
Melee Weapon Mastery Level 50: A skill that allows the user to use melee weapons with familiarity and skill. Increases melee weapon damage by 255% Increase melee weapon speed by 55%.
Navigation Level 50: Grants the ability to navigate when travelling and to plot faster and safer courses using known data.
Observe Level 92: Through continuous observation, a skill to observe objects, situations, and persons was generated allowing the user to quickly gather information. The higher the skill, the greater the data obtained.
Pain Tolerance Level 42: Increases the tolerance to the pain of the user. User can now tolerate 420% more pain.
Parkour Level 76: A skill that allows the user to rapidly negotiate obstacles, increases ability to detect and create fastest path through terrain by 228% and boosts Dexterity by 380% when used to travel on created path.
Physical Resistance Level 42: The body's durability increases, allowing for less damage taken. 42% decrease in damage taken by attacks.
Piloting Level 50: A skill that allows for the piloting of various aircraft and spacecraft with familiarity and skill. Increases air/spacecraft speed and manueverability by 260%
Power Strike Level 25: Strikes the target with a strong force. 375% increase in critical damage. 1250% increase in attack damage. 5 MP per strike.
Programming Level 67: The ability to create and design programs. Increases speed of creation by 670% and effectiveness of created programs by 340%
Ranged Weapon Mastery Level 50: A skill that allows the user to use ranged weapons with familiarity and accuracy. Increases range weapon damage by 500%
Repair Level 65: Allows the user to repair any item provided they have sufficient skill, parts, and/or resources. Reduces resources required by 32.5%
Rip Level 54: A skill that rips apart an enemy or an object using a strong force. Increases tearing force by 1530%. 1 MP per rip.
Salvage Level 95: Through a continuous action a skill that allows for the reclamation of more useful materials from recycled objects. 95% increase in materials gained.
Singing Level 88: The ability to sing well and in tune. Higher levels increases singing quality. Improves voice.
Sprint Level 88: Increase the speed the user is able to run at the cost of 1 MP per second, increase user speed by 880%.
Stealth Level 77: A technique to allow the user to move unnoticed. Increases stealth ability by 77%
Strategy Level 50: The ability to make plans that span large areas and to react to battlefield changes. Passively increases Intelligence and Wisdom by 25%
Surgical Level 50: A skill that allows for the user to perform various forms of surgery efficiently and effectively. Increases surgery speed by 100% and boosts healing effect by 50%
Swim Level 50: Your ability to move through and underwater. Increase swimming speed by 250%
Tactics Level 50: The ability to make plans that span small areas and to react to sudden changes. Passively increases Intelligence and Wisdom by 25%
Tech Use (Imperial) Level 46: A skill that lets the user to use, create, and examine the technology of Imperials.
Technomancy Level 17: The ability of the user to interface and communicate with machines with their soul. Increases affinity with all machines by 17%. 41.5 MP per second.
Tracking Level 50: A skill that allows for the user to track targets across great distances. Increase tracking range by 5000 meters.
Unarmed Combat Mastery Level 75: Allows the user to fight skillfully unarmed. 380% increase in attack damage while unarmed. 80% increase in attack speed while unarmed.
Willpower Level 48: Through great mental adversity the user has persevered. Increases the user's focus by 48%, reduce chance of forcefully breaking focus by 24%
Crafting Recipes Crafting Recipes
All standard hive civilian products/infrastructure
Juvenant
Cloning Vats
Military Blueprints
Personal Gear
CQC
-combat knife
-bayonet
-chain sword
-power weapons
Ranged Weapons
-lasgun/pistol
-autogun/pistol
-shotgun
-flamer
-meltagun
-boltgun/pistol
-long las
-grenade launcher
-plasmagun/pistol
Ranged Weapons Heavy
-autocannon
-lascannon
-heavy bolter
-heavy flamer
-heavy stubber
-missile launcher
-mortar
-mortar
Explosives
-frak grenades
-krak grenades
-melta bomb
-demolition charge
Equipment
-combat drugs
-dog tags
-grav chute
-chem inhaler
-bionics
-auspex
-vox caster
-refractor field
-conversion field
-medi pack
-camo cloak
-gas mask with filter
-shovel
-uplfiting primer
Armor
-flak armor
-carapace
Imperial Guard Vehicles
Light Vehicles
-Bike
-Centaur
-Cyclops Demolition Vehicle
-Sentinel
-Scylla
-Tauros
Armoured Personnel Carriers
-Chimera
-Chimerax
-Chimedon
-Chimerro
-Slamander Command
-Salamander Scout
-Taurox
-Taurox Prime
Tanks
-Hellhound
-Bane Wolf
-Devil Dog
-Leman Russ
-Leman Russ Annihilator
-Leman Russ Conqueror
-Leman Russ Demolisher
-Leman Russ Exterminator
-Leman Russ Punisher
-Leman Russ Vanquishor
Self Propelled Artillery
-Basilisk
-Colossus Bombard
-Deathstrike Missile Launcher
-Griffon
-Hydra
-Manticor
-Medusa
Heavy Vehicles
-Gorgan Armoured Assault Transport
Super-Heavy Vehicles
-Baneblade
-Leviathan
-Capitol Imperialis
Support
-Atlas
-Trojan
-Sentinel Powerlifter
Imperial Navy Vehicles
Space Small Craft
-Fury Interceptor
-Starhawk
Planetary Small Craft
-Avenger
-Chiropteran
-Marauder Bomber
-Thunderbolt
-Thunderbolt Fury
-Vulture Gunship
Transport
-Aquila Lander
-Arvus Lighter
-Devourer Dropship
-Tetrarch
-Valkyrie
-Vendetta
-Sky Talon
-Angantyr-Class Dropship
Escort Class Freighter and Support Vessels
-Armed Freighter
-Carrack
-Castellan
-Cetaceus
-Constellation
-Defense Monitor
-Escort Carriers
-Fast Clipper
-Fuel Transport
-Orion
-Q-Ship
-Tarask
-Troop Transport
-Heavy Transport
-Universe
-Golgotha Relationships
Relationships
Lord Alkazere: Searching, Hostile, Wary
Inquisition: Unaware
-Inquisitor Horst: Aware, Interested, Wary
???????: Watching, Tired, Cautiously Hopeful
?????: Watching, Intrigued
????? ?? ???????: Hostile, Determined
Yeah, looking at the very worst of my physical stats I was till two and a half times stronger than even a trained veteran in terms of just strength, of course that does not take into account non baseline humans like skitarri, space marines, ogryns, or just plain gene/cybernetically augmented veterans whose bonuses vary wildly depending on the quality and purpose of the augments. At least however I could overpower and escape any normal Imperial Guard force without even taking into account my speed and skills.
I am so glad I actually did that data raid even if it did cause me and other people a lot of problems. The sheer amount of skills and blueprints gained were insane and some of those skills granted my massive passive boosts to my stats such as the tactics and strategy skills which collectively boosted my Intelligence and Wisdom by 50% each. The blueprints plus my previous garbage raids basically gave me the ability to produce anything and everything I would need in the foreseeable future with the only problem being that some things I make would be too damn heavy for me to put back into my inventory so I had to be careful with those items, like tanks.
The greatest gain from my time on Golgotha however were my stat perks, especially the last 2 intelligence perks. I could now effectively reverse engineer things and possibly use the original Gamer's mana based spells. Well, as soon as I figured it out anyways, still a bit wary of playing around with mana in case it somehow attracted demons or something or, well, whenever I was not about to be in the Warp or have an Inquisitor on my ass. Mana spells would be useful.
I frowned though at the relationships section. The Inquisitor and Lord were those I recognized, but who the hell were the ones in question marks? How the hell are they even watching me and why is one of them even determined? WTF? The two above the last one though, their statuses seem to imply they're on opposite sides potentially. The face that they are watching me even now most likely means psykery. My mind began putting together 22 and started getting numbers I was not comfortable with.
'Emperor? Chaos?' I thought with dread building in my gut.
Relationships Relationships
Lord Alkazere: Searching, Hostile, Wary
Inquisition: Unaware
-Inquisitor Horst: Aware, Interested, Wary
Emperor: Watching, Tired, Cautiously Hopeful, Smug
CHAOS: Watching, Very Intrigued
????? ?? ???????: Hostile, Determined
Josef Titon: Curious, Worried
Jack Filon: Curious, Worried
Tion Numen: Curious, Worried
Liko Rooko: Curious, Worried
…
…
'Fuck!' They are onto me! Also the ship is about to enter the Warp! I am about to go into their territory! Dammit dammit dammit! What should I do? Take over the ship? Then what? I was most likely on a nigh unarmored transport ship so where would I run to? I can't escape without going into the Warp due to like of other FTL methods so that option was out as sublight travel would just see me getting captured by other ships. Without the Warp I was effectively trapped in system with me leaving it just dooming me to thousands of years of isolation and just me potentially getting captured by Warp exiting Chaos raiders. Plus if I stay here I would just end up being captured by the Inquisitor as I had no doubt he would be picking up my trail soon. Better to overestimate than underestimate in this case.
Shit shit shit! Damn it! Fuck, alright, guess all I can do is….no… hope that the Emperor can keep them off me? Oh God Emperor no… I wanted to avoid this kind of scenario!
I kept my face neutral to the outside world even as my emotions raged inside of me before being forcefully calmed down by Gamer's Mind and then raging again over and over. This was basically one of THE worst scenarios that could happen to me, to gain the attention of the gods of this galaxy before I was ready. A minute of that and I finally calmed down and just accepted that there was nothing I could do at this point except hope the Emperor could bail my ass out and has got my back.
I rested my head back on the bars of the cage and thought back to my time at the restaurant and everyone I became familiar with. There was Josef the boss who took me in even if it was initially just for cheap labor I had to thank the man for giving me a place to work and a alibi, most would have just outright ignored someone like me just showing up for a job. Then, there were the chefs Jack, Tion, and Liko who taught me a few things about cooking when things were slow in the kitchen even when they did not have to. Then, there were the serving and cleaning staff who grew quite familiar with me as I helped do their share of the workload without asking for anything, sure they were suspicious of me at first, but a few weeks of doing it without trying to extort or blackmail them to the boss soon won them over. Even if I never actually considered them friends I did at least cared if they were ok or not. I mean I didn't see any of them with me in the cage so they probably were not in here.
A couple hours went by according to my Gamer System provided clock when suddenly the world lurched and I could hear whispers at the edge of my hearing and the air tasted like rock, before things snapped right back into normality.
The cargo bay went silent before the air was filled with chanting and hymns as every single person on the ship prayed to the God Emperor to keep them safe on the journey, even the guards were praying not even attempting to shut us up as they were scared as well. I honestly expected the chanting to stop after like an hour before the captain told the guards to silence us all again and prepare us for whatever slap dash suicide troop training they had in store for us when suddenly reality lurched again and the taste of gold filled the air as four simultaneous cries of anger, laughter, moans, and gibberish echoed through the hold right before reality snapped back to normality again.
Wait, were we out of the Warp already? What? I knew Warp travel could be damn near any duration, but that was not even a minute! Were we even at our destination or were we lost in time and space?
My question was soon answered as the ship's speaker crackled to life.
"Attention all crew! We are currently in orbit above Armaggedon! Prep-"
BOOM*
The captain was cut off as a large explosion rocked the ship and everything began rattling and shaking causing everybody in the cages to begin screaming even as the guards began to run. The alarms and sirens were blaring around us as normal lighting turned off and the emergency shipboard red lighting kicked in, casting everything in a ominous lighting.
"ABANDON SHIP! SHIP'S ENGINE BEEN DESTROYED AND WE ARE ON A COLLISION COURSE WITH THE PLANET! EVERYONE TO THE SAVIOR PODS! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! I REPEAT NOT A DRILL! MAY THE GOD EMPEROR BE WITH YOU-" The captain was once again cut off as something just tore through the side of the cargo bay across from me. My perception instantly slowed allowing me to see everything. I could see the massive hole in the floor, the sight of the red of re-entry licking the edges, the trajectory of whatever it was that just tore through it as it also tore through the cages full of people, leaving behind a cloud of red mist and flying body parts, and exiting out the ceiling into more sections of the ship.
That was all I saw, my perfect memory recording every detail of the scene and the faces of all those around me and on the intact heads of those who had no idea what just killed them, right before everything sped up again as every cage in the bay got violently sucked out through the rent and my world became chaotic.
My vision span round and round even as my lungs began to burst from lack of pressure even though I felt no discomfort from the lack of unneeded air while my body burned from the flames that ignited my body alongside all those around me. Round and round we went tumbling into the atmosphere of the planet, the screaming becoming louder and louder as the atmosphere became thicker and thicker to better carry the screaming of our bodies travelling at speed through its embrace and the cries of those somehow still alive and suffering.
I needed to get out! I needed to escape the cage before I smashed into the ground with the cage into paste! I reached out and grabbed behind me luckily finding a bar and used it to orient myself even as my regeneration kicked in and restored my vision as it was no longer burning. My HP was down by half but recovering slowly, too slowly for my taste. I grabbed with my other hand another bar and proceeded to pull using all of my strength and activating RIP to boost my ability to tear through these bars. Bars which were thick enough to hold back bears quickly bent under my grips and allowed me to squeeze between.
I immediately let go of the cage, tumbling around a few times before I properly caught the air and proceeded to control my descent by going spread eagle and taking in the view before me.
The sky was yellow with toxins and heavy metals, causing my eyes to tear and my lungs to burn even as I witnessed the sky be filled with burning debris of cages and starship hull. The bulk of which screaming far to the side of me trailing black smoke, it looked like the captain was trying to control the descent of the ship as the ship tried to level out.
An amazing sight, but would be much more amazing if I was not falling to my death. I immediately put my brain into overdrive trying to figure out a way to escape a gory flat death doing millions of vector calculations to try to bleed off the fall momentum as much as possible to roll myself to safety when I had a sudden bout of inspiration and proceeded to smack myself in the head.
A fucking parachute! I could just craft a damn parachute or glider and land that way!
DING! 1 WISDOM POINT!
'Yes thank you I realize I am still dumb!' I thought to myself as I quickly opened the crafting menu, searched for, and crafted myself a glider and a parachute. The vehicle appearing beneath my hands as it instantly formed from the materials in my inventory causing me to drop vertically before I quickly brought it back to level out. Now that I was out of immediate danger I brought my attention to the next immediate danger. The damn poisons in the air as I noticed my HP dropping and rising like a damn seesaw as I gained Poison Resistance skill levels alarmingly rapidly. A quick crafting action had me equipped in advanced chemical warfare gear and a much more effective rebreather.
I then put my attention to the ship now far below me with the captain trying to save his ship somehow. To no avail as it still hit the ground at a steep angle despite his controlled descent and it went critical. My eyes went blind as the ship exploded, turning my vision white and my HP bar dropping as the shockwave reached me tearing my glider to pieces and sending me falling once more.
It took a few moments before my eyes healed and then a few more for me to rebuild my glider but now I was much closer to the ground. Taking in the terrain below me I could not see much good news for myself. I could literally see green tides that were moving with smoke coming from them, orks, to the west and south of me, while there were jungles to the east and a large hive city to the north with even more smoke coming from that! The ork tides were moving towards the east and the north showing that any resistance left to the west and south were already crushed and they were advancing to the next fight.
I was high enough in the sky that I would not be able to glide my way to the hive city to the north or past the jungles to the east to the other hive city beyond it. If I tried to make a aircraft to reach either than the same thing which shot the ship down or ork fighters will detect me and shoot me down, or the Imperials will shoot me down thinking I was a ork fighter.
So there was one very dumb option left to me as far as I could tell.
Sighing, I proceeded to let go of the glider and let myself drop like a rock even as I kept track of my altitude for minimum height parachute deployment to avoid ork detection.
Plan is to land in the giant ass plains below ahead of the ork armies and try to hide under the ground like a true Minecrafter hiding from mobs. Then get rid of this damn explosive collar, properly gear up, and skill up for a fight.
Steve would be proud.
AN: Whooo boy! That was a close one! Chaos almost got my ship! Then the orks got to it. Shit.
Ship Travel
Rolling 1d100 100
( 58 ) 100 = 158 Chaos Combined
Rolling 1d100 150
( 27 ) 150 = 177 Emperor Gellar Field
Rolling 1d100
( 83 ) = 83 Warp Travel Arrives Earlier than you left M41.941.6
Rolling 1d100-15
( 36 ) - 15 = 21 Landing
Rolling 1d10
( 3 ) = 3 Landing Zone: Plain of Anthrand
Last edited: Jun 8, 2020
Chapter 7
The wind roared in my ears as I watched the ground steadily grew closer to me till I pulled the straps of the parachute listening to the 'fwoop!' of the chute as it unfurled from its pack and lurched as the chute caught the air and jerked my body to a slow fall.
Thankfully the skies were clear of any ork fighters and the landing zone was cleared of any orks as well. However, looking back behind me I could see the smoke stacks of the advancing ork horde and following that horde back their route of travel I saw could barely make out, even with my enhanced vision, the outline of a small mountain, a rok. I was near a ork landing site and in between them and their target. I did not have a lot of time to prepare, maybe a hour or two at their current rate.
My mind raced as I debated on what to do. Fight? Run? Hide? I sure as hell can't fight an army by myself, yet. Run? Run where? The hive? The hives fall with only Yarrick's side of the world holding out for space marines and he was pretty much on the other side of the continent. Hide? Seems like the only option. Underground as everything above ground was choked with poison and had absolutely no cover. The whole damn terrain was nothing but small hills and plains, nowhere to hide above ground. Also with my luck the orks would still somehow find my hiding spot and siege me. At least I can't starve to death if that happens. A idea came to me, why not do both, hide underground while running by digging towards Yarrick. Better than just hiding or just running.
That meant I was going to have to make the tunnels defensible just in case. They would have to be cramped. The tunnel's size would keep any big orkoid species from coming down or surviving the fall with the tunnels filled with traps meant to take out any that would make it down, if they discovered the shaft entrance. Things such as snotlings, gretchins, and squigs. That should allow me to work with enough of a headstart to constantly keep one step ahead of them as long as I could keep up my predicted digging speed.
The world began speeding back up as I got out of planning mode and as soon as I was just high enough to survive the fall unharmed I inventoried the chute and began falling. In my hands a shovel formed from a blur of rapid hand movements and blue sparks, one in the style of Krieg and made entirely of adamantium with a monomolecular edge. As the last of the light faded I landed shovel first into the ground and the dirt evaporated under my feet as my hands blurred with inhuman speed. A adamantium shovel hard enough to handle inhuman amounts of force with a edge that made even bedrock feel like soft butter, combined with both my Digging and Melee Weapon Mastery which combined increased my base attack speed by 305% on top of increasing the damage rating of the shovel itself by 255%. I practically swam through the earth at jogging pace even as I inventoried the loose soil and packed the top of the shaft with 10 feet worth of compacted dirt, hopefully enough to survive the passing of the horde without breaking if my math was right.
In less than a minute I was already over a 100 feet down below the earth and quickly began digging towards the east, following the mental blueprint I already had in mind. The walls of dirt faded and behind me reinforced frames of wood with tiny temporary lanterns were hung even as spiked traps and automated buzzsaws were installed behind me with the occasional flamethrowers and shaped charges were placed to clear out the tunnels later, of either the corpses or the tunnel itself. On and on this went, hours passed like this in the silence of the dark with only the sound of the crafting and digging I did to keep me company.
Eventually I stopped, my ears perked for noise as I felt a ripple of vibrations through my boots. Again the ripples came with more and more coming one after another, it was the orks there were above me now, marching in such numbers that even this far down the very was shaking with their presence. In addition to the constant shaking from their march various louder shakes could be felt, were they firing at the ground? Now was the moment of truth to see if the shaft entrance held up or if I was going to have to fight some orks after all.
I held my breath, even though I did not actually need to breath anymore except as a reflex, and there with a falling sensation in my gut was a screech. A screech of something falling down a hole getting louder. Rubble. The entrance of the shaft was discovered and broken! I quickly began getting to work again, only to stop as a Quest appeared.
QUEST CREATED! STAND AND FIGHT! THIS FAR AND NO FURTHER!!!
YOU ARE UNABLE TO ESCAPE FROM THE ORK WAGGGGGHHHHH!!!
YOU ARE UNABLE TO HIDE FROM THE ORK WAGGGGGHHHHH!!!
YOU ARE ABLE TO STAND AND FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE!!!
GOAL: SURVIVE
OPTIONAL GOAL 1: ???
OPTIONAL GOAL 2: ???
OPTIONAL GOAL 3: ???
OPTIONAL GOAL 4: ???
OPTIONAL GOAL 5: ???
OPTIONAL GOAL 6: ???
OPTIONAL GOAL 7: ???
OPTIONAL GOAL 8: ???
OPTIONAL GOAL 9: ???
OPTIONAL GOAL 10: ???
OPTIONAL GOAL 11: ???
OPTIONAL GOAL 12: ???
REWARD: LIFE! AND DEPENDENT ON QUEST GOAL COMPLETION PROGRESS
PENALTY: DEATH!
ACCEPT OR DENY?
What? What do you mean I can't escape! The orks are hundreds of meters behind me! There are enough traps there to stop an entire army of gretchins and another army after that! Do you not see how fast I am digging you crazy system! Why the hell would I have to turn around and fight them! UNGREY THAT DENY BUTTON!
A roar of 'WAGGGGHHH!!!' from a multitude of high scratchy voices followed by growling echoed down the tunnels alerting me that the enemy had arrived. Snarling I accepted the Quest and proceeded to get myself ready for battle. My clothes instantly disappearing only to be replaced by a set of black power armor with a white helmet. A design used by the Sisters of Battle that luckily the Gamer System considered to be gender neutral when crafting, allowing me to wear it without any stupid gender restriction stopping me. This would grant me much needed defense and some measure of strength enhancement even though it would obviously not be to the extent of astartes power armor given their most likely higher base stats allowing for greater stress from stronger enhancement systems.
The adamantium shovel in my hands disappeared in a shower of blue sparks as it was recycled and then proceeded to be recrafted by me for tunnel fighting while taking advantage of my skills. Where once I held a very hard shovel, now I was wielding in two hands a very hard shovel spear. I was going to take advantage of being able to combine skills to maximize my chance of surviving. It was something I realized when digging. Digging with a melee weapon like I was attacking the dirt let me combine the bonuses from the two skills. So how about I dig into the enemy with a melee weapon instead? It was certainly worth a try and if not then I still had the boost from my Melee Weapon Mastery skill.
As I was crafting for those few short seconds my notifications kept pinging me nonstop even as the noise from the tunnel entrance continued. Many many enemies were dying to my traps consisting of everything from spike lobbers to lasguns on full auto whose triggers were pulled and stuck closed by trip wires and glue.
DING! YOU GOT 250 EXP POINTS X5! DING! YOU GOT 450 EXP POINTS X7!
DING! YOU GOT 250 EXP POINTS X4!
….
….
DING! YOU GOT 600 EXP POINTS X12
Nice to see that traps made by me gave exp for deaths.
"WAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!"
Now I could clearly hear the sounds of the enemy as they gotten closer to me and past most of the traps. What was worrying was that it sounded a lot deeper and there were at a lot more explosions that I remembered setting up.
I was not idle of course, during the time they spent making it to my current location I used my shovel spear to quickly enlarge the end of the tunnel into a small cave 30m in diameter as I just needed a lot of space and did not have to worry about moving the dirt. I just smashed the dirt around me as fast as I could to quickly loosen them up and cause them to fall around me, only to end up falling into my open inventory screen. All around the cave I had set up clusters of hotshot lasguns all controlled by a primitive firing system that I could remotely trigger. In addition I prepared another surprise for the orks in case they actually do cause me to use those guns something they would definely not enjoy. All of this being insurance in case I was pushed all the way back by the orks and needed something to delay them long enough for me to start digging my way up and out of current tunnels.
I hope to the God Emperor that orks were like the stories and were actually killable with just head shots to the heads with las guns. I crafted 6 hellguns and proceeded to glue 3 of them all together and combined the triggers, giving me 2 tri-linked hellguns. Man, if a tech priest saw me now they might just murder me before the orks do.
Ok, I prepared what I could for now. Time to start pushing back against the orks and hopefully survive.
'Good thing I made the tunnel straight.' I thought to myself as I attached my shovel spear to my back via mag locks and hefted my two monstrosities. Standing at the cave entrance I could see the glint from the red furious eyes of the orkoid race and instintively used Observe on the largest one and the one next to it.
ORK BOY STATS AVERAGE (YOOF) STRENGTH: 900 (200)
CONSTITUTION: 300 (100)
DEXTERITY: 50
INTELLIGENCE: 5
WISDOM: 5
LUCK: 5
'Well shit. That's just a boy! That's a lot of CON! How the hell did he fit in the tunnel! Fuck it!' I thought to myself in slow mo as I realized that my chance of surviving was a lot lower than I thought and this was going to be my first actual fight.
"DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!" I roared aiming down the tunnel and pulling the trigger; grinning as a storm of blinding red laser death filled the tunnels along with the screams of the orks, the smell of burning flesh, and my crazed mechanically filtered laughter as the tunnel fight began.
AN: Here you go enjoy. Now forget whatever you saw before! (ﾟдﾟ；)
Chapter 8
As the last word of my curse left my lips my entire world slowed down to a crawl. The benefits of having a high intelligence score was showing themselves once more as my mind began running at a furious pace; processing all the sensory data from my body at such a rate that it gave me a form of bullet time.
I watched as the lasers from my cobbled together tri linked hell guns instantly impacted the near immobile ork at the front of the column in a shower of blood and gore. Above his head was just just his name, level, and HP bar with no numerical values on it. Ork Boy Level 8, just a level EIGHT ork with physical stats at least 3 times higher than me. They truly are living bio weapons. I had let loose with both guns aimed at it's head as judging from the incredibly high Constitution stats it would take multiple hits to take out all of its Health Points. This was actually going to be the first time I was going to be fighting another living being since I got into this universe. I was fortunate enough to somehow avoid any confrontation back on Golgotha so while it did keep me safe it also left me woefully in the dark regarding the combat system of my System. I already figured out that this Gamer System was not a one for one match for the one from the manwha, but I still did not know the full extent of the changes and all the ways to exploit it.
One way it was the same though was the fact that Observing equipment like weapons and armor did not provide me with a damage or armor rating so I actually had no real way to test out the damage or damage resistance of an item. I knew from reading the Ciaphas Cain novels that las pistols could kill orks with head shots and lasguns could blow off limbs with a single shot so I stayed cautious and did not try shooting myself in the foot or something in case the sci fi weapon was somehow strong enough to instantly kill me since my whole body was essentially a giant hitbox. A downside of the Gamer System is that while you could be vaporized with a giant whole in your chest you still would not die or be at less than 100% as long as you had a single Health Point left. It also meant that an attack anywhere on my body was essentially the same as long as it brought my HP down to Zero. Though that might not be true for my head as that might count as a critical strike or something. In short if a weapon strong enough to kill me in one hit touched me anywhere I would die.
Now that was because I had the Gamer's Body skill, but how would HP work with others? They did not have the Gamer System or the skill to live life like a video game. So just how would damage and HP actually reflect in a real fight? They had stats like me, so was their toughness and health like how the system represents me? Oh I hope not, but I was soon about to find out.
The ork boy at the very front of the mob charging down the tunnel, overly large muscles scraping the edges of the walls, breaking off pieces in showers of dirt. He was wearing a breastplate of scrap iron, with most likely a squig leather pants, and lugging a large scrap axe, dragging it against the walls. His mouth was wide open mid roar showing his multitude of sharp crooked yellow teeth, while his eyes burned red with rage and bloodlust. Every bit of him was large, intimidating, and radiating power. It looked like nothing could bring it down with its thick leathery skin clad as it was in thick metal scraps.
I was immediately surprised as he was instantly gunned down as two trio of highly energetic red beams impacted his head and caused it to pop like a balloon. His HP bar above his head going from full to empty faster than even I could see. His death was confirmed as I heard the Ding! of a notification. I did not see a indicator of how much damage I did as my mind raced to adjust my strategy as it seemed I had grossly overestimated the actual difference between my weapons' and the enemies' stats.
One hand tossed a gun into the air while simultaneously the other began aiming at the position the ork's head would be behind the one I just killed. My free hand began to enlarge the inventory screen that I opened in front of me and push it flat against the ground. Once done it reached back up and caught the trio of duct taped hell guns even as the first ork's corpse was halfway down to the ground. Time to see if my inventory could accept items I did not drop in myself and if corpses counted as items.
I activated Sprint closing the distance between me and the corpse just enough so that the corpse would land square in the inventory screen. As I did so I pushed my right hand up and over the falling body and let loose another trio of high energy blasts at the head of the ork behind it, a grin slowly forming on my face as another Ding! was heard. If all the orks were this easy to kill with a hellgun, then this was survivable, and this meant I could level up really, really quickly with the sheer amount of orks I could bait into coming at me one at a time and the amount of exp they gave. I still had to be careful though, if they decided to bombard me with explosives or their warmachines then I would have no chance of survival. I was no space marine.
The fact that I was underground should make that a moot threat, but I did not think that ork boys could fit down here either, orks would find a way. Also they are mad enough to use explosives in a confined space such as this and while the power armor should protect me from the concussive forces I was not going to take that chance. Hell, the flash gits would be the greatest threat funny enough as they just had to aim straight down the tunnel to bombard me with DAKKA. I really should have curved the tunnels when digging them, curse my rush job.
Speaking of ranged threats I mentally open up the crafting menu and quickly craft myself a Rosarius that I immediately equipped, that would keep me safe from ranged attacks and explosives and any ork psykers.
I watched as the first ork I killed finally landed on top of my inventory screen my smile getting wider as I saw it slowly sink into the screen and disappear. YES! That meant I could clear the tunnel easily without having to move the bodies and I could recycle them and their gear for more resources! They were walking loot and experience bags! Wait, loot. Did I have a loot system? Did they drop loot!?
Looking down at the inventory boxes on the screen on the floor I noticed nothing new on the screen other than the ork corpse and its weapon. Are you kidding me? My Gamer System did not have a loot function! I mean sure there was no option in the options menu to control auto loot, but I thought that meant it was stuck on either auto loot or manual looting not that it meant there was no loot at all!
No money! No rare equipment! No skill books! No Outside Context Problem items I could use as trump cards! No healing potions! No mana potions! So many things now out of reach!
My vision tinted red as the realization that I only had the gacha system and the infrequent quests it gave where I had to give up the quest rewards for a gacha ticket in order to potentially get such items! Even then I had no guarantee it would even give me those kinds of items as I refused to give up my quest rewards so far for the tickets due to my low luck making it unlikely for me to get anything good. I thought back to the stat points I had hoarded up to now, should I use it all on luck?
No, I might need it to survive this fight, I might need more strength, health, speed, or even wisdom. I might need the luck too if things get worse.
I channeled my anger into killing the orks in front of me one after another.
Ork heads popped one after another as I rushed towards the charging xenos. The right hand aiming with near supernatural precision taking down the orks with single volleys each while my left grabbed and pushed them straight down to disappear into my inventory screen. Greenskins died by the dozens as every one of them was decapitated via hellgun strikes. Boyz, gretchins, snotlings, and squigs charged at me in a endless wave. I had to stop several times to reload my guns one handed while the other one kept on killing the incoming greenskins. The drain on my stored resources to keep making more charge packs was going to be untenable at this rate, better to save the guns and try melee instead. If the hellguns could kill them with headshots then the adamantium shovel could kill them as well.
I quickly inventoried the emptied hellguns, pulled out my shovel, and proceeded to decapitate the ork in front of me, his eyes unblinking in confusion as it watched its own body disappear even as I charged towards the next ork in line. My shovel became nothing more than a streak of darkness accompanied by whispers of wind as it rapidly sliced through the defenseless necks of the orks that stood in front of me as they were just simply too slow to react to my strikes and those that did have some form of armor fared no better. The shovel's sharpened adamantium edge cut through their scrap armor like water quickly sending them to join the others in my inventory. I advanced step by step with rage in my heart at the lack of loot even though the System kept helpfully giving me Dings! confirming my experience gains.
While killing the orks I entered a bit of a trance state as my body knew what to do from all the levels in Melee Weapon Mastery, I could instinctively wield my shovel like it was a weapon and not just a regular hard shovel. I could anticipate the attack, defense, and movement of the orks from just their body language and muscle movements. I knew how to defend, parry, and attack for maximum effectiveness while maintaining economy of movement. I never really had this kind of feeling from using guns with Ranged Weapon Mastery, but this required me to use all my muscles and using techniques I was forced fed by the data slates. Before I had learned all the skill I needed to fight in CQC, but now I actually KNEW how to fight in CQC.
The fighting also gave me some perspective. I was just above peak human. I was nowhere near the levels of space marine in stats using the orks for comparison. They could match and in some cases outmatch the orks in stats, but they also had the skills and experience of combat veterans supporting them as well along with equipment of the highest quality. They could massacre orcs by the dozens before being brought down in a straight fight. They were beings on such levels that only 100 of them were needed to take over entire planets. They were also overwhelmingly outmatched by the enemies of the Imperium. Daemons, Necrons, Tyranids, Dark Eldar, Eldar, Orks, Krorks, C'tans, GODS, normal psykers,and numerous xenos races that could turn space marines into lunch easily.
I was nowhere near strong enough to survive a single run in with any of these foes that were to the space marines, as the space marines were to the Orks, like how I was currently to them, and they could be literally anywhere I go. At any time Chaos could unleash a warp storm and flood the world with Daemons unending, or a Dark Eldar raiding party could assault the planet and take me to Commoragh as a slave or worse. At any moment the planet could be an awakening tomb world, or some stupid Eldar Farseer would drop a army on top of me to prevent some stupid vision where I would fight them only to make me hostile in the first place. Tyranids could shut down Warp travel and consume the planet I was on, though that last one was a relatively low risk considering they have yet to properly enter the galaxy. Genestealers were still a dangerous threat however, considering they ate Terminator Space Marine Veterans for lunch.
In the end, I was too damn weak, and I hated it. I hated being so damn afraid. I died once already and now I was even more scared of dying since I knew what awaited me here after Death. I had a System now, I should be able to overcome anything, but here I was fighting in the tunnels against a endless army because I was too damn afraid to stand out and be more active in growing stronger.
Well no more, I was going to kill every single one of these greenskins, loot their bodies, devour their experience, and become a damn physical god that even the C'tans would give a nod at. I was going to become strong enough that I would not have to be afraid of anything else in this galaxy, not Inquisitors, not Xenos, not Chaos, nothing! With rage filling my veins I decided here and now I was not going to keep running from all of my problems. If my problem was a lack of strength, then I was sure as heck gonna fix that right here! Right now! And thank you Orks for your donation to my cause! I will kill every last one of you!
With that final mental declaration the world paused and a Quest appeared .
QUEST CREATED! FOR TOO LONG HAVE YOU RAN AND HID FROM THE DANGERS OF THIS GALAXY!
NO MORE!
NO MORE SHALL YOU RUN!
NO MORE SHALL YOU HIDE!
NO MORE SHALL YOU FEAR!
NOW YOU SHALL WALK DOWN THE PATH OF POWER!
NOW YOU SHALL FIGHT BACK AGAINST THE ENEMIES THAT PLAGUE YOU!
NOW YOU SHALL TAKE YOUR DESTINY INTO YOUR OWN HANDS AND MAKE YOUR OWN FATE!
GOAL: ACHIEVE ABSOLUTE STRENGTH AND SECURE YOUR PLACE IN THE GALAXY AND PEACE OF MIND!
OPTIONAL GOAL 1: DEFEAT THE CHAOS GODS
OPTIONAL GOAL 2: DEFEAT THE NECRONS
OPTIONAL GOAL 3: DEFEAT THE C'TAN
OPTIONAL GOAL 4: DEFEAT THE TAU
OPTIONAL GOAL 5: DEFEAT THE ELDAR
OPTIONAL GOAL 6: DEFEAT THE DARK ELDAR
OPTIONAL GOAL 7: DEFEAT THE ORKS
OPTIONAL GOAL 8: DEFEAT THE TYRANIDS
OPTIONAL GOAL 9: REVIVE THE EMPEROR
OPTIONAL GOAL 10: RESTORE/REVIVE/RECOVER THE PRIMARCHS (I-XX)
OPTIONAL GOAL 11: REPAIR THE IMPERIUM
OPTIONAL GOAL 12: BECOME A GOD
REWARDS: ???
PENALTY: A FATE WORSE THAN DEATH
ACCEPT OR DENY?
I immediately accept and get back to work murdering greenskins with a single thought on my mind.
'I will become Strong' I then proceeded to use the skill I never thought I would use, but there was no better time to grind it.
" Berserker" My vision became Red and my ears filled with nothing but Screams.
AN: Sorry for the wait, hope you guys enjoy this, next chapter will be a interlude from other POV's and things story wise hopefully should be moving faster.
Last edited: Jul 5, 2020
Inquisitor 1: Horst POV
Inquisitor 1: Horst POV
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Inquisitor Horst hid a sneer as he watched the obese and deranged planetary governor Alkazere the XXIII lambaste the head of his personal guard for once again failing to finding any useful information on the person who defaced his so called 'monument' and on the person behind the theft from the tech priest's temple in his city. The governor could do many things as long as his tithes and duties were upheld, but even he had to bend when the Martians were out for blood. Which they certainly were given the reports of numerous arrests and interrogations being performed around the hive city. Tens of thousands of tech priests along with tens of millions of skitarii across the planet were combing both the city and its data networks in search for any clues on the identity of the perpetrator that the magos had labeled Heretek Hexus Maximus Alpha. Normally the fact that a thief managed to steal from the Adeptus Mechanicus would have been hushed up and dealt with silently. However, the tech priests revealed to him that the thief didn't just steal from the temple, he or she had copied the entirety of their data archives. Every single scrap of data from dictionaries to all of their STC templates.
When he was informed about the true scope of the theft, as most just assumed the thief had stolen some expensive holy equipment or a few important files or at most a single STC, he was shocked to say the least. All of the STC's were copied from their archives. That meant there was a literal treasure trove of data in someone's hand that could be used to basically create their own empire with the right industry. Everything from lasguns to escort sized starships data were in the hands of the enemy with the possibility of all that data being copied and sold to uncountable numbers of people with ill intent towards Humanity. This was a very dire situation and explains just why the Ad Mech were so blatant with their attempts at tracking down the thief. This was by the far the greatest black mark against the Adeptus Mechanicus since the Horus Heresy. The only consolation was the fact that Golgotha was not a forge world so it did not contain even more powerful and advanced STC templates merely the more common patterns that most industrialized worlds had access to. Then again, if the thief could steal everything despite a forge world's formidable defenses without an army the Imperium would have an bigger problem to deal with.
While he was of the Ordo Malleus he immediately offered his services as this was a grave situation that warranted his assistance. Initially he came to this planet to speak to his Squat contacts for leads on a target he was pursuing in this region of space, but then he was attracted by the events surrounding… ugh 'The Glory of Alkazere' even thinking the name caused him discomfort. How in Terra's name the fat bastard managed to complete that monstrosity of resource wastage, yet still manage to pay this tithes boggled the mind. He was going to have to send some of his agents to investigate the local Adeptus Administratum to make sure they properly assigned the correct tithe levels to this world.
Where was he? Right, he was attracted by the ridiculously large bounty for something that normally a governor would just find out with their own intelligence networks. The fact that the governor himself could not find the one responsible indicated that the situation might have been more interesting than it first seemed and he decided to take a look. He landed on the planet with his current retinue: a sanctioned psyker by the name of Rosalia Themondo her appearance hidden under her robes and mask, an enginseer with a predilection for minor tech heresy called Zyphus Cin his twin mechadendrites waving lazily in the air in preprogrammed search patterns designed to look innocuous, a twin pair of Catachan jungle fighters Bellow and Lung Stutsman their heavily muscled bodies towering over the others and bare to the world to see much to the displeasure on several nobles and to their interest on others. His group was quickly granted and audience with the planetary governor once he had shown his identification codes.
He will cherish the moment the governor saw him as his face paled even under the heavy amount of makeup he had used. Alkazere had quickly explained the situation without hiding anything as he knew better than to try to lie to an inquisitor. He then proceeded to examine the area himself to try to acquire a trace with which to follow. When he saw the trail of destruction left among the waste of resources he immediately became suspicious. He could immediately tell that none of the damage was caused by any weapon he could identify except one. Fists. Except the imprints left behind showed that they were regular sized unarmored fists, imprints left behind by such fists in solid high quality rockcrete!
He had immediately thought of a mutant but the blood work showed no trace of any mutations, in fact it was purer than anything the enginseer had ever seen with absolutely no trace of corruption or mutations, and immediately demanded that the person be captured for study as soon as possible. So the target was a purely normal unaugmented human that could somehow damage rockcrete with his bare fists and judging from the total amount of blood found being enough to die from shock, be able to rapidly recover from blood loss.
Inquisitor Horst had then decided to resort to more esoteric means and proceeded to use his psyker powers. He opened his senses to the Immaterium and read the traces of the past along the currents of the Warp that drifted through the area. He had spent several hours traversing the length of the trail with psyker Rosalia using her own powers to help ward his mind against the occasional daemon that probed his defenses.
His mind had caressed every nook and cranny of that alleyway all the way to the end, stopping several times whenever he had detected a stronger than usual trace of… something. It was very strange, when he was investigating with his powers he could not find the usual traces left behind by people who lingered in places. Even servitors left more traces in the Warp then this person. Was it because of their genetic purity? Something to figure out when he finally caught the person.
Luckily he had gathered enough samples of the person's traces to begin tracking them, or at the very least, be able to recognize where they have been and if he was close enough he would be able to recognize them. It should have been simple thing yes? Just follow the trail, but the trail stopped at the edge of the sudden drop from the damn vanity project and subsequent searches revealed no other traces nearby, meaning the person somehow manage to get transport off the place. That transport happened to be the house guard transport where a trace was found, but that ended up as a dead end as no other trace leaving it was found.
So he was forced to manually comb the several levels of a hive city to try to locate additional traces much to his annoyance. Of course he did not forget to send a message to the his Squat contacts in their underground quarters within the nearby mountains asking them for the leads toward his original target and to keep an ear out for the target of Alkazere's bounty. In the end Inquisitor Horst spent over a month fruitlessly searching to no avail for any traces, it did at least cut down on the places the person could be.
Then, this theft occured. The first indication it happened was when he saw an entire group of skitarii breaking into a house across from him and dragging out the occupants kicking and screaming. That was how he got into contact with the local ruling techpriests and got informed about the current situation.
The tech priests tracked the flow of information the instant it had started leaving the temple and had found the remains of dozens to hundreds of destroyed husks of advanced cogitators of an unknown design. The trace eventually led onto the edge of the Underhive inside an abandoned room where a large destroyed cogitator sat. According to enginseer Zyphus the data did arrive there and stopped there, meaning the data was stored and taken away. However, forensics showed no one leaving the area within the last month that would have access to the resources or tech to create such a machine. However, Inquisitor Horst discovered something even more important and shocking. A trace from the unknown person who was in The Glory of Alkazere. The person behind the theft was same person he was looking for this past month.
Other than the entire system of relays and destroyed cogitators, the tech priests hunted down and captured hundreds of criminals and minor hereteks and interrogated all of them with extreme prejudice. All of them easily divulging what they know to avoid suffering at the hands of the maddened mechanical worshipers and the fact that they were told to simply give it up should they be asked for reasons apparent soon after.
All of them revealed the same story, willing or unwilling.
All of them were approached by a masked man with a voice changer, with only a single commonality between them, a black outfit, a smiling mask, and an alias, Tri2.
Inquisitor Horst looked down once more at the dataslate containing an artist's depiction of the man described from multiple confessions before they were executed or turned into a servitor.
Artist Sketch Of The Thief Tri2
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At every relay, every cogitator, every location that he attended the arrest of the heretek or criminal, his traces were there. His paths were clear. He did all of that recently.
A little over 2 months, to set up an operation of this scale and complexity. To hire so many unsavory individuals, strangely enough not a single was found with the taint of Chaos, and to coordinate them all together for an assault on the main Adeptus Mechanicus temple, for almost nothing.
Yes, the man had copied all of the temple's data, but that was the thing. Copied. Not destroyed or deleted. All the industrial sabotage, attacks on the tech priests, and alarms? Superficial in nature with everything easily fixed within the hour with no major critical damage and none of the tech priests were even slightly wounded. They were merely lured out from the temple and delayed.
This was the action of an enemy, but the way they went about it to avoid destruction and death made it very strange. Just what was this man's goal? Why did he cause such damage before this?
He had immediately began tracking the trails left behind, but quickly ran into another problem. He was not sure how tri2 had done it, but in the time that he had searched the other adjacent levels of the hive city, before he discovered the skitarii search teams, the man has somehow traveled across its entirety several times with various paths crossing each other causing the trails to tangle and mix like a ball of string.
He spent months getting rid of all the trails that led to either just dead ends, transport cars, and hidden rooms where the criminals and hereteks were found. He eventually tracked down the main trail to the off world merchant district on the initial level where he first started! The hacker was hiding under his nose all along! The trail led to a bustling restaurant into the back of the kitchen with none of the staff being the one he was searching for. A quick interrogation of the owner had him revealing that one of his staff went missing a few days before he arrived. A few of the regulars had informed him that the arbites had recently passed with a transport wagon, rounding up people for recruitment for a war and a few think they had seen the janitor getting caught.
Needless to say he was quite… incensed. All his effort only for the idiotic obese wasteful corrupt planetary governor to literally steal his objective right from his grasp.
Now here he was in the governor's palace waiting for the planetary governor to get rid of his guards in his idiocy in pursuing for the criminal that he already recruited into his own damn armies.
And as if on cue the governor yells at the head guard to take most of his men and to go back out to search for the culprits. As soon as the door slammed shut, leaving only the governor and what's left of his personal house guard, he stepped forward, his retinue behind him and behind them were a group of tech priests along with two dozen skitarii guards.
Alkazere the XXIII put on a obviously fake smile as he waddled over to the Inquisitor Horst in what he probably assumed was a noble and graceful manner.
"Inquisitor. How could I help the Inquisition today? Did you make any progress in your own search?" Planetary governor Alkazere the XXIII asked completely ignorant of the hell that awaited him.
With a barked binary command the two dozen skitarii immediately disabled and neutralized the nearby guards shocking the soon-to-be-ex planetary governor.
"W-what is the meaning of this Inquisitor?" Alkazere backed away in fear looking around at his defeated guards before remembering the rest were just sent away from his palace.
"You are hereby under arrest for the numerous crimes of embezzlement, tax evasion, fraud, kidnapping, murder, theft, assault, battery, corruption, and most recently the abetting of the criminal that stole from the Adeptus Mechanicus."
"There must be some mistake Inquisitor, I am innocent of all those crimes, especially that last one! I do not even know who is the one responsible!"
"You still actually did help him escape my pursuit, and that is a grave crime indeed EX-governor Alkazere. Take him away, and get whatever useful information you can out of him."
Inquisitor Horst ignored the screams and cries of the condemned with a trace of satisfaction and catharsis in his heart as he faced the tech priests who had began interfacing with the ex-governor's data systems to retrieve the information they required.
"Well? Where was the recent regiments that were raised being trained?" Inquisitor Horst asked a tech priest holding a data slate.
"Inquisitor, it appears that all recent regiments raised recently, which includes all new conscripts within the past few days, have been penal legions and have been already sent as part of the Armageddon Reinforcement Fleet yesterday. They were allowed past the planetary lock-down on account of a priority order from Segmentum Command for reinforcements. Target designated Heretek Hexus Maximus Alpha will be at Armageddon."
Inquisitor Horst felt the stress and annoyance from the past six months come to a boil as his vision went red, his eyebrow twitched, and his self control broke a just a bit.
"FFFRRRAAAAAACCCCCCCCCKKKKKKK!!!!!!!"
AN: 4 More Interludes To Go. Enjoy the early update! A REALLY EARLY update.
Interlude 2
Commissar Yarrick POV
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Commissar Yarrick frowned as he looked down at the holotable in front of him taking in the new information constantly being updated from the hive defense's augur arrays. The roar of several explosive detonations could be heard in the distance as another wave of Orks were being annihilated by the thousands of entrenched artillery platforms all across the outer edges of the hive. The holotable rapidly switched from various engaged fronts showing unending tides of hundreds of thousands of screaming greenskin brutes supported by hundreds of looted trucks, tanks, and walkers charging the lines of defenses set up outside the hive proper.
The hive was defended by its own walls armed to the teeth with many brave guardsmen ready to do their duty and die for the Emperor supported by the thousands of heavy weapon and artillery positions. In addition to that were a series of trenches protected by a minefield and tanks all positioned according to how Commissar Yarrick predicted the Orks would attack based on what they saw of his defenses. He intended to take advantage of their psychological need to always head towards the toughest fight and purposely made a single point easily attack-able and very heavily defended. The screams of dozens of fury interceptors and marauder bombers flying through the air pierced through the din of the war going on beneath them. They in turn were engaged by hundreds of crude Ork fighters and bombers made from a assortment of rusted junks and scraps bashed together into a shape of a plane. Most of them should not have been able to get into the air let alone stay in one piece, but the impossibility was made possible somehow by the Orks.
Commissar Yarrick gave a constant stream of orders to the forces at the front in response to the ever changing field of battle as some fronts held, others broke, and others retaken. To his satisfaction more of the latter and former, and less of middle was the order of battle for today. A mystery to him till the latest high altitude high risk scouting mission pilots returned from their mission and gave him new information of the surrounding area and more information came from the other surviving hives.
The Orks were on the move. Everywhere. Not towards one of the hives, but away from them, towards the Plains of Anthrand, south of the Hive Death Mire. Entire tribes were seen diverting from their original destination and in some cases literally turning completely around in order to travel in that direction.
Something was drawing the Orks.
Something in a area where no Human construction or presence was officially reported.
What was more important, more defended, and more importantly, more deadly than entire armed hives guarded by hundreds of regiments full of guardsman with artillery, tank support, and air support.
What in the Emperor's Holy Balls was killing the Orks better than them?
Interlude 3
Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka POV
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"WWWWAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"
The air was filled with the sound of explosions and gunfire and the roars of countless orks. Heavy footsteps from millions of feet, tires, and treads raced across the open field shaking the very earth itself as a massive green hoard of death and violence barreled towards its destination.
On top of a gargantuan mound of scrap and junk, beaten and molded into a large idol like structure, a gargant, stood the form of a massive ork nigh on 5 meters in height or about 16 ft clad in slabs of heavy metal releasing streams of pressurized gas as the pneumatic pumps and motors granted the ork enhanced strength. One arm it had a large powered claw that crackled with blue electricity that looked ready to rip apart anything that was caught in its grasp while in the other arm a massive double barrel gun with barrels large enough to shove a grown man's head into let loose a stream of flashing rounds into the air as the Warboss roared inciting its fellow orks into a even greater state of frenzy.
"C'MON BOYZ GORK AND MORK SAYS THERE'S A PROPA FOIGHT 'ERE!!" Ghazkull screamed releasing another stream of DAKKA into the sky. He was having a great time fighting and killing all the humies in one of their heavily defended hive cities when he suddenly felt his whole body lock up and stared straight up at the sky. For anyone watching the warboss they would have noticed a stream of green lightning coursing through his body and his muscles bulking visibly just a bit before he regained his senses. Ghazgull had always claimed to have been able to hear the voices of Gork and Mork, but this was the first time he saw and heard them so clearly.
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"GO HERE AND KRUMP THIS GIT!"
His mind was bombarded with images of a humie wielding a shovel dressed like one of those humies that fought them outside the cities. Doesn't really look like much of a fight. Who was he to say what was a better fight than Gork and Mork? If they were talking about him he must be a good fight, and so he immediately directed all of his boyz and sent out commands via speed freaks and talky things to the rest of the tribes on the planet to tell them to get over here and immediately began marching off to his new fight. He had sent a vanguard made of speed freaks and trukks ahead of him to make sure they found the one the gods wanted krumped.
Less than a day later and he received a message from his talky thing saying they found a hole after feeling like Gork and Mork told them to shoot at the ground. It wasn't a big hole but it was deep. So they tossed in some flaming gretchins and snotlings down there to see the bottom. When that failed they started burning and tossing in some yoofs and more snotlings and gretchins….and then some flaming squigs cause why not.
Eventually they got bored of that when none of them responded and they could not hear any fighting so they just shrugged and decided to solve the problem the only way they knew how.
Hit it really hard.
So they shot at it with all their guns, rockets, and cannons. They just kept shooting at the hole until turned into a giant pit in the ground and formed a ramp all the way to the bottom revealing a small tunnel. Several bands of ork boyz charged down into the hole before the nobz could order them to and watched as they all realized that tunnel was too small for anything bigger than the yoofs to enter. So they threw gretchins at it, literally. They kicked the gretchins into gear and told them to start digging and making the tunnel bigger.
Meanwhile, the rest of them grew excited as they started hearing sounds of DAKKA and explosions and screams coming from the tunnel and no one coming out. Excitedly they ordered in more gretchins, squigs, and boyz to charge into the whole. Dozens of greenskins gleefully charged into the tunnel only to not return with only sounds of more gunfire and explosions and screams from even further in the tunnel.
So this process repeated over and over while the gretchins got to work enlarging the tunnel so that larger orks could fit in even as the efforts of the orks entering the tunnels did the same with their actions and the occasional exploding squig going off prematurely killing many orks and widening the tunnel.
It was to this scene that Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka warboss of the orks of Armageddon arrived to see. A massive pit in the ground sloping down to reveal a tunnel large enough for a nob to walk into with 2 digging machines on the side made by the meks on site out of a few of the trukks making their own tunnels along side the one that was found, with the surrounding area turned into a ork war camp. Buildings and towers were being constructed all over the place as orks began their own instinctive and barbaric means of organizing supplies and command chains. They were all eager to charge into the Tunnel of Death as they started to call it after the first thousand orks they sent in did not come out with only a few gretchins escaping screaming about a big killy thing chopping heads off before the gretchins were eaten as snacks for the eager nobs.
Ghazghkull smiled before frowning. The fight was here and given the fact that only a single person was seen and it had already killed a thousand of his boyz it sounded like it was going to be a good fight. As soon as they finished digging the tunnel big enough for him to get in of course.
So 1 week later, a hundreds of thousands of orks disappearing into the tunnels with no survivors, 3 new tunneling gargants made, Ghazghkull was ready to go in leading his boyz. He already had to krump a few nobs that got a bit too uppity for his tastes. Even then he could not stay long, unlike the rest of the orks he was smart enough to still pay attention to the rest of the humies on the planet, they were beating the rest of his boyz back on the other side of the jungle since most of them left to join him on his gods given mission. That meant it wouldn't be long till the humies got another army together and smash them from the back while they dealt with this target.
Ghazghkull smiled, stupid humies, it didn't matter how many armies they made, they would all fall to his claws just the same.
Ghazghkull began to bellow out orders to the gargant crew to start up the digger when all of a sudden the tunnel entrance exploded in a shower of gore, viscera, and explosives.
A vast dust cloud erupted from the tunnel as well covering the entrance and the orks surrounding it.,and then a blood thirsty roar erupted from the smoke and not from a ork's throat. It carried nothing but the promise of Death.
Ghazghkull squinted at the cloud his bionic eye whirring and beeping as it tried to pierce the cover to see what was going on within.
Roars of orks erupted from within as they began to charge something and the sound of DAKKA filled the air as they let loose in every direction hitting the orks around them outside of the cloud as another sound could be heard.
It sounded like a chainsaw and sparks and a whooshing sound.
Very quickly, much too quickly, the roars of the orks died off completely and from the cloud leapt a large red figure that landed in the middle of the mob further away from the tunnel and began quickly slaughtering them with every swing killing one, two, and sometimes three orks. Limbs were quickly parted from their owners flying high in the air with blood gushing from the stumps briefly before the sturdy ork physiology sealed the wounds nigh instantly. Ghazghkull noticed that the limbs seemed to disappear along with their gear when they hit the ground like it sank into water.
Ghazghkull finally got his first clear look at the enemy his gods wanted him to fight as the mob surrounding his goal disappeared literally into the ground leaving the thing unobstructed and he was excited.
Imagine this in Red and without the ornamentation and a glowing blue nimbus around the weapon
[img: data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7]
Now THIS was something worth fighting! It looked like a space marine, but it was not as big, but it was FAST. It had already killed off all the orks in the hundred strong mob along with the nobs he placed in charge of it, their heavy armor and shields doing nothing to slow the humie down, and humie it was, he could feel it. This, this humie, this shovel user, this Shov'ler was dangerous, in the time it took for him to blink the Shov'ler leapt across the distance between him and one of his looted tanks before spinning around and extending his shovel, flying right past the top of the tank and continuing on to murder the orks behind it even as the entire top of the looted leman russ tank fell off at an angle with a clean finish.
Ghazghkull roared with laughter at this amazing fighter, this was going to be fun! But first a little test.
"HEY! BOIZ SHOOT THAT GIT ALREADY!"
Obeying their warboss' command every single ork, vehicle, and mech pointed at the Shov'ler and opened fire with everything they had, bullets, lasers, electricity, cannon shells, rocks, missiles, gravity beams filled the space around the Shov'ler instantly vaporizing the orks and the vehicles around it as an entire WAAAGGGHHH's worth of DAKKA filled the space around them especially with the combined fire power of several gargants and stompers added into the mix. For a few solid minutes the storm of DAKKA did not end as any gun that emptied was quickly reloaded and resumed firing. The orks launched literally everything they had at the Shov'lar to the point that the orks that were completely out of ammo in grabbing range resorted to tossing their choppas and rocks at him just to continue shooting.
It was beautiful, almost enough to bring a tear to many a ork's eye. Slowly the amount of DAKKA petered out as the amount of ammo in immediate grabbing distance depleted and the gretchins were sent off to grab more from their ammo piles. Only a few weapons were still firing, those being the guns that were energy weapons fed by their reactors or orks that had larger stockpiles of ammo next to them like the flash gitz.
Ghazghkull felt a little bit of a disappointment that he did not get to personally fight the git that had the gods themselves give them their own personal attention as someone that could do something like that doesn't come around often, but then again they just shot a lot of DAKKA so it was all good.
Just he finished that thought the red git suddenly leapt from the cloud of destruction looking only a bit scuffed on his paintjob! He idly noted that it seemed to look a lot spikier and had a lot more bits and bobs on it. Also by leapt he really meant he leapt as the Shov'ler leapt from ground level, across several hundred orks, using several as foot rests before leaping and tearing his way into a gargant!
His shovel easily tore through the meter thick armor protecting the belly of the gargant as a tunnel practically appeared instantly in the armor and the Shov'ler disappeared into it. Ghazghkull could hear the underboss in command of the gargant screaming orders to get him out of his ride. Not even a minute passed before the whole gargant began going up in flames as the various gun ports exploded, setting off the ammunition stockpiles which created a cascade effect causing the gargant to erupt like it was doused in squig oil.
Far more easily then it should have the entire gargant began to groan and collapse in on itself as if it was deflating and could no longer support its own weight. The orks below it roared even louder and proceeded to charge into the burning falling gargant even as some of them were crushed by the falling pieces of scrap coming off the destroyed gargant or were outright burned alive by the intense flames.
From all around the rest of the orks began charging towards the burning scrap mountain pushing each other out of the way or underfoot in order to be part of the group entering the fight.
"RAAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!" The roar of the humie could be heard reverberating from the inside of the gargant as more sounds of ork DAKKA and battlecries joined it.
Ghazghkull watched with interest as waves after waves of orks entered the burning wreck far more than should actually have room to fit in it, he should know, he had to kick out a lot of gits that keep coming into his ride. Guess that meant the Shov'ler was killing all his boyz, and that was just not right.
"OI! TURN THE BIG LIFTA AT THAT GARGANT! WE GUNNA DROP IT!" Ghazghkull roared into a series of pipes that led down into the various compartments of his personal gargant the 'ead breaker which was equipped with something special, a lifta dropper. Basically a giant magnet to lift and drop things with.
With a loud groan of steel and rust the massive monument to ork engineering and jury rigging sluggishly turned on its massive tracks while a large yellow arm with a giant comical magnet attached to the end of it deployed over its shoulder and pointed at the burning wreck of its sibling gargant. Ghazghkull laughed as he pulled a big red lever and laughed harder as a visible distortion came from the magnet, crossed the distance between it and the gargant wreck, and proceeded to slowly lift the whole thing up along with everything else around it like gravity took a vacation.
Up and up everything went higher and higher into the sky and then a series of sparks and fuses blew out in front of Ghazghkull from his control panel much to his anger even as he watched the pile of junk, orks, and orkish vehicles fall like rain from the sky with a loud earthquake inducing bang.
RUMBLE!*
The area went silent as many orks were knocked off their feet either by the shockwave or the unsteady ground that rattled many of the vehicles and their unsecured cargo and occupants. Ghazghkull waved away the dust from his face only to immediately turn to the gargant next to his as it's proceeded to explode in a tower of green flames and lightning. Looked like its power source blew the warboss idly noted as he saw the red git burst out of the chest of the mech with pillars of flames erupting out behind him.
Now how the zog did he get in there when he dropped him with his lifta droppa?
Though that didn't matter now as the Shov'ler landed in the middle of another mob of his boyz and began taking them apart, literally.
His shovel was moving in a line of blue that cut through anything and everything the boy threw at him, which was mostly them since they were out of DAKKA, and that just wasn't right. Every ork that got within a few meters of the git quickly lost their head, arms, feet, or all of them at once. Not one of them could get close enough to even bash the damn grot's head in. Even his nobs couldn't get closer even when wielding shields.
Looking to the side a bit the warboss watched as a squad of meganobz finally got close enough to take a scrap at the git. Their large muscular frames forged from the results of dozens of heavy fights positively bulged with muscles that let them crush any lesser ork with ease. Then on top of that they had plenty of bits to pay the meks to make them a fine suit of power armor like his own, though not as good of course, he kept all the best bitz for himself after all.
In their armor they towered over their lesser and had enough armor to be walking tank and wielded a twin linked heavy shootah and a massive power claw that crackled with power.
They made their way into the circle of death, where all the bodies kept vanishing into the ground still for some reason, and activated their armor's overdrive functions which boosted all their physical abilities, letting them run far faster than something that big should be able to normally with a jubilant WAGGGGHHHHH!!!! coming from their mouths.
The first ork in the front slashed down with his claw with a roar matched by that of the humie only to immediately lose his head as his claw was deflected downward by the sideways downswing of the impossibly fast glowing shovel which immediately right after changed direction to turn into a upswing that decapitated the meganob before it could even realize its attack missed.
The Shov'ler leapt up atop the falling meganob's body and used it as a spring board as it leapt straight towards the two meganobs behind it spinning like a drill. The two meganobs joined their leader in being a head short as the Shov'ler then proceeded to thrust his shovel out at the last couple meganobz with such speed that to Ghazghkull it looked like a flashgitz shootah was shooting shovels. The two meganobz were quickly filled with holes as their armors failed to stop the shovel from piercing their heavy frames though their power claws were intact.
Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka had seen enough. He was a true ork that loved war, violence, destruction, DAKKA, and WAGGGGGHHHH!!!! He would willingly charge a enemy that was bigger than him, stronger than him, faster than him, shootier than him, and crush them to a pulp for them thinking they could be better than him, but he was not stupid. He only fought if he thought he could win.
That git down there killing his boyz, he couldn't win in a straight up fight against it, no way he was going to tell the boyz that, but that was the truth and he can't show the galaxy the word of Gork and Mork if he got krumped here now could he?
So he did the one thing no sane ork would ever do, he called up the Weird Boyz.
"Oi! Weird boyz! Send that git flying!" Ghazghkull roared with dozens of weird boyz getting motivated by their minderz to get into the thick of the WAAAGGGHHHH!!!
Unlike most warbosses Ghazkull knew the usefulness of the weird boyz even if they had the tendency to explode and kill everyone around them sometimes. So he just made sure to equip them in so much copper that it would not be a problem anymore. Copper head bands, copper staffs, copper boots, copper armor, copper trinkets, enough copper to plate a trukk. Now it was time for all of that to come off as the minderz ripped away all of that so that the weird boy was exposed to the full effects of the WAAGGGHHH!!! energy coming from his WAAAGGGHHHH!!!!
Dozens of weird boyz shouted in pain as their eyes glowed, releasing crackling green bolts of lightning that lashed out at their pain wracked forms, roars of pain echoed from around the WAAGGGHHH!!! as their minds struggled to cope with the sheer amount of energy a WAAAGGGGHHHH!!! this sized produced especially when it had the actual attention of Gork and Mork on it to increase it even further for each individual ork, turning what was normally just a swirling tide of destructive energies into a tidal wave of power.
Visible waves of energy radiated from the weird boyz pushing back those around them or causing them to either explode, turn into squigs, or just combust instantly. As if guided by Gork and Mork themselves 29 weird boyz simultaneously unleashed their power at the large red humie that was at the time still busy slaughtering his way through another pack of slugga boyz, nobz, and a few killa kans being led by a deff dread.
"WAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!" came from the mouths of 29 weird boyz as all the pent up energies gathered up from the WAAAGGGHHHH!!! was unleashed at a single target, their mouths spitting out a enormous ball of WAGGHH!! energy 4 times bigger than the ork itself and shot off across the battlefield arcing like a catapult shot leaving nothing but a burnt out withered husk behind. .
The Shov'ler stopped for a instant after bisecting the killa kan in front of it along with its gretchin pilot before swiveling his head around fast enough to kill a normal humie with whiplash to look all around him and immediately began trying to flee like the snotling that he was.
Unfortunately he was too late as the massive balls of WAAGGHH!! energies impacted each other at the same time right above where he was just a second ago, which to be fair was about 35 meters behind him now, fast little piece of shit, and the WAAGGHH!! energies formed a massive glowing green Warp rift 30 meters in diameter that proceeded to suck in everything around.
Ghazghkull punched his power claw down into the metal floor plate beneath him as he felt himself getting sucked in despite being so far from the portal. He watched as thousands of his boyz and dozens of his war machines were sucked into the rift with the WAAGGHHH!!! on their lips. His bionic eye focused on his target the Shov'ler as he watched him try to escape this act of Gods. The Shov'ler was leaping along the floor using his shovel to dig into the ground and arrest the pull of the portal steadily getting farther and farther away from the massive portal into the Warp.
Of course it was not to be as barreling down upon the Shov'ler was the rolling form of a looted leman russ as it got lifted into the air, its form bouncing along the ground like some toy. The Shov'ler easily dodged it by leaping to the side and digging in his shovel again only to be immediately hit by the second tank that was rolling behind the first that was covering it from view.
The Shov'ler was clearly hit dead on for the first time that Ghazghkull could see and was sent flying into the air stuck to the tank, his shovel left behind stuck in the ground.
Ghazghkull watched with disappointment as the Shov'ler quickly regained his bearings, immediately scrambled over the tank that just hit him, and leapt for the ground beneath him to try to hold onto it, only to wince as the Shov'ler just missed the ground, his fingertips just barely brushing the dirt before getting sucked right back into the air and into the Warp rift.
Right as the Shov'ler disappeared into the lip of the portal it immediately snapped shut with a flash that both blinded the orks and released a shockwave that caused even his gargant to begin ominously tipping over before it fell back down on its treads. Ghazghkull's bionic eye rapidly recovered and the sight he saw caused his jaw to drop.
Where the epicenter of that warp rift was, was now a crater 150m in diameter and deep enough to drop his gargant in it, and the surrounding was pretty bad off as well, hundreds of thousands of his boyz were dead or heavily injured as the blast fried everyone and everything immediately around it and sent flying everything else that did not.
Ghazghkull immediately started getting to work reorganizing his WAAAGGGHHH!!! figuring out who was in charge next and how many of his boyz and vehicles were left, he still had the rest of the planet to conquer!
He had lost a decent chunk of his WAAAGGHHH!!! in this fight but he felt it was worth it, he had made Gork and Mork proud this day.
As the gargant turned slowly around to head to the nearest hive city to fight again even as the surviving orks, meks, and gretchins got to work on repairing the various damages throughout the gargant and reloading the weapons, Ghazghkull turned his head around and squinted at the crater where the Shov'ler just got yeeted.
It could have been all the explosions from the sucked in vehicles crashing together, but he could have sworn, for just a brief instant before the portal snapped shut, it turned golden.
Interlude 4
Emperor POV
[img: data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7]
A old man sat on a beach watching the waters ebb and flow.The sky was dark even with the bright moon shining above the horizon. Vast broken and twisted coral like arches stuck out from the water like some kind of giant dead decaying reef. The beach around him littered with dark rocks, some looking melted or unnaturally deformed. Occasionally a glint of gold could be seen before disappearing like a trick of the light.
He sat on a simple wooden chair at the edge of the water in silent contemplation wearing nothing more than a simple white wool spun robe and woven sandals. His head was covered by a hood but dark locks of hair could be seen coming out of it framing his shadowed face. His eyes glittered in the dark with the moonlight reflecting off the water.
In the water several rocks of various colors could be seen. All across the underwater sands were various yellow glowing stones each of varying intensity, stuck fast in the sands unmoved by the tide. Surrounding them were stones of other types being pushed by the endless waves. Sharp stones of red coloring the waters around it the same tint. Green deformed stones with a sickly hue trailing seaweed that latched onto and grew on other stones. Blue stones that seemed to shift through the colors of the rainbow like oyster shells sharing its color with those around it. Pink stones that made loud sharp noises as it hit other stones heard even through the water. Then, there the various other colored stones mixed among all of those, most of them being dull green stones that were light but moved constantly like tiny earthen waves under the waves smashing everything. He could also make out some tiny smooth stones that weaved in between all the various other stones hitting them into other stones. Deeper into the waters an all encompassing shadow creep closer to the shore as the moon slowly dropped closer to the horizon little by little.
Currently the old man was paying attention to one particular stone of a color he had never seen before. It constantly shifted colors as if it could not decide what it was and constantly surrounding it was a dark cloud that made it hard to notice. In fact he didn't even notice it and most likely would not have had it not turned a golden yellow when he was looking in its general direction. He had become intrigued and decided to watch it and then decided to plan and then take a gamble.
The old man reached into his robe and pulled out a handful of golden stones. He did not have a lot of them left, but he felt that it was worth the risk to use one now. Picking out a single golden stone the old man put away the rest and stood. With a flick of his wrist the golden stone flew into the waters causing nary a ripple and struck the ever shifting stone head on as it had just started becoming a mix of red and green that glowed like lightning. The two stones caused a loud smack and a flash forcing the man to squint. As the light died down the stone was gone and the man slowly sat down with a sigh as he resumed looking at the rest of the glowing stones beneath the waves.
Under his breath the man whispered empty reassurances to himself that he did the right thing. If someone was to see the old man now they would notice a tiny golden crack on his face shining through the darkness of the hood.
Looking to his right he sadly frowned at a now present empty chair just like his own before muttering one last thing before resuming his vigil once more.
"What would you have done old friend?"
Interlude 5
The Warp, or the Immaterium as it is referred to by the more educated in its vagaries, is a chaotic place filled to the brim with warp entities of all sizes and shapes. Nothing is fixed and everything is allowed. Colors that should be able to exist flowed like liquid along side planet sized claws made of trillions of tiny mutating demons moving like a malevolent shoal of material fish. Rolling clouds of living lightning, mountainous faces of monsters and men, physical waves of emotions, floating cliffs made of reverse flowing ice cold screaming lava, sounds that came from everywhere and nowhere that could never be forgotten, all of this and more impossible things were made possible and then impossible millions, billions, trillions of time per 'second' in the Warp as its corrupted nature took its course.
[img: data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7]
The only one constant thing was the giant beam of golden light which no demon dared to enter directly. The light of the enemy of the Dark Gods, the light of the Anathema, the Light of the God Emperor of Mankind. The Astronomicon.
Fed by the souls of a thousand sacrificed psykers every day through the Emperor it's light acted like a literal lighthouse in the Warp, guiding the various ships of Humanity through the impossible directionless nature of the Warp so that they might appear at their destination in a somewhat reliable and timely matter. Though it does not always work.
The demons of the Warp are always constantly attacking any ships that entered their realm. Their desire for souls a never ending hunger to match that of the most ravenous of material entities.
Sometimes the protections surrounding these ships flickered and a few demons could flood in during that instant moment of weakness, manifesting in their own preferred forms to cause havoc and slaughter onboard. Other times the defenses fail completely and the demons descend like a pack of piranhas leaving nothing but corrupted wrecks behind with laughter and screeches abound.
This time however a rare occurrence appeared in the currents of the Warp. A tiny visible fraction of the Astronomicon broke off before surging off into the depths of the Warp while the rest of the Astronomicon visibly dimmed just a bit.
The demons in its way were instantly obliterated or heavily wounded after getting slightly grazed. Looking at the direction at where it went the demons followed in curiosity.
They saw the light compress and curl around something, a human, a rather angry one judging by the roar of rage coming from it, much to the pleasure of the Khornate daemons, which they immediately began to assault even as some of their numbers swarmed and devoured the multitudes of orks and their ramshackled machines ahead of the mortal.
The first minor demons that reached the light encompassed human were almost immediately destroyed as their very essence burned on contact with the sheer amount of the Anathema's power compressed in such a small space. They did not even get to finish burning before the now visibly identifiable spike festooned red armored human pulled out a roaring, flaming, chainshovel that had a golden blue glow around it crackling with power from what seemed like the Warp itself and swung it at speeds beyond their expectations.
What happened next caused every demon watching to feel something they had never felt before in their existence. Fear.
The mortal's shovel flashed and all of the burning demons surrounding him were instantly cut down, but the horrifying part was that their essence burned with golden fires and did not return to the currents of the Warp.
Over a dozen servants of the Dark Gods had just suffered a True Death.
They had typically never felt fear in battle for they knew for a 'fact' that they were immortal, they could not die, nothing but the Gods could kill them.
Now they met one of the very few beings that could.
Unlike most mortals the being did not deign to flee as those with 'sanity' and 'common sense' usually did, instead it somehow began to fly through the Warp and began massacring them. Normally their sheer limitless numbers would be enough to educate the fool on trying to fight the denizens of the Warp while being in the Warp itself, but the fear had paralyzed the less willful ones and the sheer speed of the shovel combined with the Anathema's light weakening them on proximity allowed the being to begin digging and carving his way through the hordes of demons that tried to surround and stop him.
First into the fray were the demons on Khorne whose god would no doubt do unspeakable things to them should they attempt to flee from a single challenging mortal, empowered by the Anathema or not.
They did not last long as those without weapons were cleaved through before they could dodge, while those with weapons were cut down along with their weapons, their warp formed weaponry proving not the slightest hindrance to the potent technological artifice empowered by a physical god.
Needless to say the rest of the demons failed to do much better as most of their warp based abilities simply refused to work in the proximity of the Anathema's Light or quickly fizzled out when it did.
No one but the Gods could say how long, but the Demon Slayer Ripped and Tore his way through the Warp causing True Death on all those that died to his weapon and permanently scaring and destroying the various immaterial domains of the gods with his passing. Even the higher ranked demons began participating in hordes as they tried to stop the mortal from causing even more damage to their master's domains.
They lasted little longer than their lesser counterparts as the light surrounding the Demon Slayer refused to dim and instead seemed to be getting stronger and frighteningly enough, so did the Demon Slayer.
It was visibly larger, stronger, and faster than when it was first encountered. It's pace sped up over time even as it escaped the various ambushes set up by the greater demons that sought to win the favor of their respective masters.
Wherever it went the demons of Chaos fled as if the Anathema himself was present.
At this moment the minor demon looked behind it to see the roaring form of the Demon Slayer gaining on it and it prayed to the Dark Gods for a unholy miracle to save its life.
Right as the shovel of the Demon Slayer was about to split the demon in twain, it disappeared and the demon was sent head over ass flying as a flattened pancake before eventually stopping and resuming its form with a pop. It looked around in confusion as it could not see the Demon Slayer anymore but instead the passing form of a speeding starship that the humans liked to use to traverse the Warp.
It broke down in hysterical giggling as it realized what just happened.
The Demon Slayer just got ran over by a starship from its own side.
It thanked the Dark Gods for this miracle, but if it had listened to the currents of the Warp, it would have heard the distant cries of "NOT AS PLANNED!! NOT AS PLANNED!! NOT AS PLANNED!!"
I instantly snapped my eyes open as I went from complete sleep to wide awake and instantly sat up. My mind briefly ached as fragments of memory of what I did under the influence of Berseker came back to me. with more fragments being present later in the fight as presumably my skill level rose.
Jesus I really went off the deep end huh? I quickly looked around and was confused. The last thing I remembered being about to kill a demon before suddenly something immense slammed into me causing enough pain to make me instantly black out.
How I was not dead despite blacking out while in the Warp was a Emperor damned miracle, but that did not explain what I was seeing.
Why was I in a very well lit, clean, and futuristic looking hallway with English directions written on the walls?
Where the hell was I and what hell was my current status?
Keeping a ear out I open up my notifications tab to see what exactly happened since I activated Berserker and my eyes bugged out.
"BWAH!?"
AN: Enjoy this short little interlude, actual update still slow going as I am still busy with work, and still need to actually calculate all the gains from the ork fight to now. So wish me luck and stay safe everyone.
Last edited: Aug 23, 2020
Chapter 9
I stared at the scrolling list of messages even as I noticed my body shrinking the feeling of tusks returning to normal sized human teeth under my helmet. What the hell!? I quickly opened up the notifications list to get a report on what the hell was going on.
Calculating Experience Gains….ERROR!
CACHE OVERFLOW!
DATA STREAMS OVERLOADED!
OPERATIONS HALTED!
EXTERNAL INFLUENCE DETECTED!
SCANNING!
ANALYZING!
JUDGING!
MODIFYING!
INTEGRATING!
System requires update!
Updating….
Updating….
Updating….
Complete!
Resuming Operations!
Enemies Defeated
Ork Forces
Grotz: 1,564,121
Snotlings: 4,568,852
Yoofs: 46,855
Boyz: 384,548
Nobz: 16,875
Mega Nobz: 327
Flashgitz: 53,554
Tankbustahs: 898
Lootahs: 16,545
Killa Kans: 5
Deffdreads: 3
Looted Tanks: 23
Gargants: 2
Stompas: 4
Trukks: 55
Chaos Forces
Lesser Daemons: 1,380,139,000
Greater Daemons: 131
Chaos Astartes: 47
Cultists: 156,878
Demon Engines: 60
Chaos Titans: 3
Chaos Escort Class Ships: 4
Total Experience Gained: 2,073,382,065,550
Total Levels Gained: 60 (300 Stat points)
Stats Gained
116 STR
189 CON
220 DEX
26 LCK
Perks Gained:
100 Strength Perk: A Knight's Raiment - Able to wear heavy armor as if they were one weight class lighter.
150 Strength Perk: Armor Bane - Melee based damage ignores 25% of armor reduction and causes 1% of damage to enemy armor
200 Strength Perk: Monstrous Strength - Increases Strength stat by 100%
150 Constitution Perk: Healthy As A Troll - Gain extra 10 HP per Constitution point
200 Constitution Perk: Titan's Skin - Reduces elemental damage by 25%
250 Constitution Perk: Monstrous Vitality - Increase HP Regen by 5%
300 Constitution Perk: Titan's Armor - Reduces magic damage by 25%
200 Dexterity Perk: Spider Sense - Gain split second precognition of attacks directed at you with killer intent
250 Dexterity Perk: Contortionist - Your body can now bend in impossible ways even in full armor
300 Dexterity Perk: Monstrous Speed - All movement speeds increased by 50%
350 Dexterity Perk: A Tree Bends - Reduce physical attack damage by 50%
50 Luck Perk: Reaper's Presence - Increase chance of a critical strike by 25%
Level 25 Perk: Blood Knight - Recover 10% of damage dealt as Health
Level 50 Perk: WAAAGGGHHH EXPOSURE!!! - Access to Orkish WAAAGGGHHH!!! Field energy to temporarily become a Ork, higher Orkoid forms consume more Wagghhh energy per second to transform into and maintain. Gain access to Ork racial perks and tech tree.
Level 75 Perk: Warp Resistance! - Due to excessive exposure to Warp Energies without being corrupted, your body has been filled past the brim with raw Warp Energy that has effectively formed a shield from other Warp effects. Gain 50% Resistance to Warp based abilities and attacks.
Living Saint Perk: Spark of Godhood (Sealed) - A piece of the God Emperor's soul has been integrated with your soul, granting you access to psychic powers, faith powers, and a measure of protection from Warp based phenomenon. Access to full power of the integrated soul sealed on account of soul damage, restoration required for greater access.
Acrobatics Perk: Harlequin's Grace - Acrobatics Passive Dexterity increase now also increase movement speed.
Digging Perk: Synergy with Shovel Knight title and Parkour skill to create new perk: Immaterial Shoveling
Cleaning Perk: Mr Clean - Access to option to instant auto clean equipment
Eavesdrop Perk: All Hearing Ears - Able to now hear any conversation that is within range of any of your senses
Intimidate Perk: Eye of the Tiger - Can now temporarily paralyze a target for 3 seconds with Fear. Can be overcome or ineffective.
Melee Weapon Mastery Perk: PARRY! - Attacks within your perception will automatically be deflected or dodged.
Navigation Perk: Port in Any Storm - You are now able to find your way out of any navigational hazard.
Observe Perk: Scan - Your eyes now reveal the status, emotions, and weaknesses of those you see passively
Pain Tolerance Perk: Stoic - The first strike that would reduce your life to Zero will only reduce your life down to 1, cool down of 24 hours.
Parkour Perk: Spatial Awareness - You now have a 360 degree awareness of everything within 10 meters around you.
Physical Resistance Perk: Stalwart - Half of your physical resistance now applies to anything you hold as a defensive tool.
Power Strike Perk: Devastating Strikes - Physical attack skills now do 100% more damage.
Repair Perk: Peak Restoration - items repaired are now restored to their original manufactured conditions
Rip Perk: Rip and Tear! - Rip skill now deals armor damage
Singing Perk: Siren's Call - Singing now applies buffs to ally morale and debuff to enemy morale.
Sprint Perk: Gotta Go! - You can now run on any surface as if it was flat.
Surgical Perk: Hands of God - Can now perform surgery on any organic lifeform and understand them.
Tech Use (Imperial) Perk: Acolyte of Steel - All Imperial Equipment used are 200% more effective.
Technomancy Perk: Man of Steel - You are now able to integrate cybernetics into your body
Tracking Perk: Warp Hound - You can now track targets through the Warp as long as they have been Observed Before
Unarmed Combat Mastery Perk: Way of the Fist - Your unarmed physical attacks now passively deal mana based damage, allowing you to hit intangible beings and deal soul damage at will.
Willpower Perk: Iron Will - Your will has been hardened on the anvil of war, provides resistance to forced possessions.
Titles Gained:
Apprentice Ork Killer
Journeyman Ork Killer
Master Ork Killer
Apprentice Daemon Killer
Journeyman Daemon Killer
Master Daemon Killer
Grandmaster Daemon Killer
Shovel Knight
Spiral Warrior
Friend of All Orks
Enemy of Khorne
Enemy of Tzeentch
Enemy of Slannesh
Enemy of Nurgle
Living Saint
Skill Levels Gained
Acrobatics Level 14 Skill cap reached Capstone perk gained, Level Reset.
Berserker Level 68
Craft Level 5
Cleaning Level 12 Skill cap reached Capstone perk gained, Level Reset.
Climb Level 15
Dancing Level 43
Digging Level 44
Demolition Level 27
Eavesdrop Level 50 Skill cap reached Capstone perk gained, Level Reset.
Intimidate Level 87 Skill cap reached Capstone perk gained, Level Reset.
Jump Level 2
Language (Demonic) Level Max
Light Foot Level 12 Skill cap reached Capstone perk gained, Level Reset.
Medicine Level 26
Melee Weapon Mastery Level 50 Skill cap reached Capstone perk gained, Level Reset.
Navigation Level 50 Skill cap reached Capstone perk gained, Level Reset.
Observe Level 8 Skill cap reached Capstone perk gained, Level Reset.
Pain Tolerance Level 58 Skill cap reached Capstone perk gained, Level Reset.
Parkour Level 24 Skill cap reached Capstone perk gained, Level Reset.
Physical Resistance Level 58 Skill cap reached Capstone perk gained, Level Reset.
Power Strike Level 75 Skill cap reached Capstone perk gained, Level Reset.
Ranged Weapon Mastery Level 2
Repair Level 35 Skill cap reached Capstone perk gained, Level Reset.
Rip Level 46 Skill cap reached Capstone perk gained, Level Reset.
Singing Level 12 Skill cap reached Capstone perk gained, Level Reset.
Sprint Level 12 Skill cap reached Capstone perk gained, Level Reset.
Surgical Level 50 Skill cap reached Capstone perk gained, Level Reset.
Tech Use (Imperial) Level 54 Skill cap reached Capstone perk gained, Level Reset.
Technomancy Level 83 Skill cap reached Capstone perk gained, Level Reset.
Tracking Level 50 Skill cap reached Capstone perk gained, Level Reset.
Unarmed Combat Mastery Level 25 Skill cap reached Capstone perk gained, Level Reset.
Willpower Level 52 Skill cap reached Capstone perk gained, Level Reset.
Skills Gained
Holy Aura
Holy Empowerment
Smite
Faith Mastery
Psykery Mastery
Inventory Update
18,480,542 units of common materials
296,050 units of chemicals
48,096 units of rare materials
661 units of exotic materials
3,827,053 Various Ork Bodies
Reputation Update
Lord Alkazere: Searching, Hostile, WaryDead
Inquisition: Aware
-Inquisitor Horst: Searching, Aware, Interested, Wary
Adeptus Mechanicus: Searching, Aware, Hostile
Emperor: Watching, Tired, Cautiously Hopeful
CHAOS: Searching, Hostile, Terrified
????? ?? ???????: Searching, Hostile, Terrified
Gork and Mork: Excited! WAAAGGGHHHH!!!
Josef Titon: Curious, WorriedDead
Jack Filon: Curious, WorriedDead
Tion Numen: Curious, WorriedDead
Liko Rooko: Curious, WorriedDead
…
…
'Holy fucking shit, just what the hell happened while I was under the effect of Berseker?' I thought to myself as I used my new Mr Clean Perk to clean my armor of all the blood on it, restoring it to its previous black coloring which let me notice all the new 'additions' made to it.
The whole armor was considerably thicker on account of the multiple layers of power armor stacked on top of each other. The only way it seemed to be working was due to my Technomancy skills helping to operate everything in tandem. All across the armor were various spikes which in actuality were drills that had their own miniature power supply and between them all were numerous Iron Halos attached to the suit via exposed power cables and molecular bonding studs. The whole suit could not sustain the operation of all of the equipment on me and was quickly draining. At full charge everything would shut down in less than 15 minutes without taking into account me getting hit causing the systems to actually do work. That meant during that whole time I was under I was constantly crafting and supplementing the micro fusion core with filled energy packs to keep everything running. On top of that I could see the various hanging forms of Rosarii's hanging off each of my limbs which meant I had several layers of power armor, kinetic fields, gravitic fields, and my skills and perks protecting me during the whole ordeal.
I took a quick stock of my returning memories. Orks in tunnels, flashes of gun fire, lasers, roars, and chainsaw sounds echoing like a rave party. A large explosion, a endless field of green and teeth. A mountain of metal that exploded into flames. Memories of spinning and tumbling and dust. Fear, anger. A circle of green. Weightlessness. Then, Chaos. Literal swarms of teeth, claws, and horns. Colors unspeakable everywhere, screams, cries, and laughter mixed into one. Then GOLD.
A feeling of power filled your body and then the screams tuned from pleasure into pain and the swarms parted in front of me. Golden light started pouring from my bodies and filled my equipment. I remembered flashes of combat, close quarter fighting, lots of grenades being made and tossed like candy. There was also a lot of screaming coming from me? And a lot of minor aches and pains all over in addition to getting smacked around. And Fire. A LOT of Fire. I think I burned a lot of shit and blew up some really big things?The last memory I had was of a demon's scared face right before everything went black with PAIN!
Shaking my head I quickly open my tabs to look at the update information.
Character Sheet
NAME: Noman
AGE: 21 (?)
OCCUPATION: THE GAMER
RACE: HUMAN
TITLE: LIVING SAINT
LEVEL: 80
NEXT LEVEL: 58.52%
HP: 81 (11900 Max)
HP REGEN: 963.9 HP PER MINUTE
MP: 1236 (7717.5 Max)
MP REGEN: 879.8 MP PER MINUTE
STRENGTH: 201 (402)
CONSTITUTION: 318
DEXTERITY: 378 (1115.1)
INTELLIGENCE: 227 (340.5)
WISDOM: 43 (64.5)
LUCK: 55
STAT POINTS: 400
MONEY: 507 Thrones
Perks
50 Strength Perk: Herculean Strength - Increase damage from melee attacks by 50%
100 Strength Perk: A Knight's Raiment - Able to wear heavy armor as if they were one weight class lighter.
150 Strength Perk: Armor Bane - Melee based damage ignores 25% of armor reduction and causes 1% of damage to enemy armor
200 Strength Perk: Monstrous Strength - Increases Strength stat by 100%
50 Constitution Perk: Healthy As A Horse - Gain extra 5 HP per Constitution point
100 Constitution Perk: Titan's Bones - Reduce damage to body by 50%
150 Constitution Perk: Healthy As A Troll - Gain extra 10 HP per Constitution point
200 Constitution Perk: Titan's Skin - Reduces elemental damage by 25%
250 Constitution Perk: Monstrous Vitality - Increase HP Regen by 5%
300 Constitution Perk: Titan's Armor - Reduces magic damage by 25%
50 Dexterity Perk: Cat's Grace - Always land on your feet, keep your balance easily, and reduce fall damage.
100 Dexterity Perk: Hunter's Instinct - Find enemy weak points easier and 50% to critical damage
150 Dexterity Perk: Dagger in the Dark - When undetected increase weapon damage by 100% and critical rate by 75%
200 Dexterity Perk: Spider Sense - Gain split second precognition of attacks directed at you with killer intent
250 Dexterity Perk: Contortionist - Your body can now bend in impossible ways even in full armor
300 Dexterity Perk: Monstrous Speed - All movement speeds increased by 50%
350 Dexterity Perk: A Tree Bends - Reduce physical attack damage by 50%
50 Intelligence Perk: Deep Well - Gain double the increase to MP from each Intelligence point.
100 Intelligence Perk: Eidetic Memory - Remember things easily and at any moment. 10% Experience Gain
150 Intelligence Perk: Destructive Science - Gain ability to gain blueprints when salvaging functional equipment for no resources
200 Intelligence Perk: Mana Affinity - Gain the ability to sense and manipulate mana 10% increase to MP recovery and 5% increase to total MP.
50 Luck Perk: Reaper's Presence - Increase chance of a critical strike by 25%
Level 25 Perk: Blood Knight - Recover 10% of damage dealt as Health
Level 50 Perk: WAAAGGGHHH EXPOSURE!!! - Access to Orkish WAAAGGGHHH!!! Field energy to temporarily become a Ork, higher Orkoid forms consume more Wagghhh energy per second to transform into and maintain. Gain access to Ork racial perks and tech tree.
Level 75 Perk: Warp Resistance! - Due to excessive exposure to Warp Energies without being corrupted, your body has been filled past the brim with raw Warp Energy that has effectively formed a shield from other Warp effects. Gain 50% Resistance to Warp based abilities and attacks.
Living Saint Perk: Spark of Godhood (Sealed) - A piece of the God Emperor's soul has been integrated with your soul, granting you access to psychic powers, faith powers, and a measure of protection from Warp based phenomenon. Access to full power of the integrated soul sealed on account of soul damage, restoration required for greater access. May bring Truth Death to Daemons.
Acrobatics Perk: Harlequin's Grace - Acrobatics Passive Dexterity increase now also increase movement speed.
Digging Perk: Synergy with Shovel Knight title and Parkour skill to create new perk: Immaterial Shoveling - You are now able to dig into non physical digs, such as the Warp.
Cleaning Perk: Mr Clean - Access to option to instant auto clean equipment
Eavesdrop Perk: All Hearing Ears - Able to now hear any conversation that is within range of any of your senses
Intimidate Perk: Eye of the Tiger - Can now temporarily paralyze a target for 3 seconds with Fear. Can be overcome or ineffective.
Light Foot Perk: Twinkle Toes - You no longer trip pressure based sensors or traps
Melee Weapon Mastery Perk: PARRY! - Attacks within your perception will automatically be deflected or dodged.
Navigation Perk: Port in Any Storm - You are now able to find your way out of any navigational hazard.
Observe Perk: Scan - Your eyes now reveal the status, emotions, and weaknesses of those you see passively
Pain Tolerance Perk: Stoic - The first strike that would reduce your life to Zero will only reduce your life down to 1, cool down of 24 hours.
Parkour Perk: Spatial Awareness - You now have a 360 degree awareness of everything within 10 meters around you.
Physical Resistance Perk: Stalwart - Half of your physical resistance now applies to anything you hold as a defensive tool.
Power Strike Perk: Devastating Strikes - Physical attack skills now do 100% more damage.
Repair Perk: Peak Restoration - items repaired are now restored to their original manufactured conditions
Rip Perk: Rip and Tear! - Rip skill now deals armor damage
Singing Perk: Siren's Call - Singing now applies buffs to ally morale and debuff to enemy morale.
Sprint Perk: Gotta Go! - You can now run on any surface as if it was flat.
Surgical Perk: Hands of God - Can now perform surgery on any organic lifeforms and understand them.
Tech Use (Imperial) Perk: Acolyte of Steel - All Imperial Equipment used are 200% more effective.
Technomancy Perk: Man of Steel - You are now able to integrate cybernetics into your body
Tracking Perk: Warp Hound - You can now track targets through the Warp as long as they have been Observed Before
Unarmed Combat Mastery Perk: Way of the Fist - Your unarmed physical attacks now passively deal mana based damage, allowing you to hit intangible beings and deal soul damage at will.
Willpower Perk: Iron Will - Your will has been hardened on the anvil of war, provides resistance to forced possessions.
Titles
Apprentice Ork Killer
Journeyman Ork Killer
Master Ork Killer
Apprentice Daemon Killer
Journeyman Daemon Killer
Master Daemon Killer
Grandmaster Daemon Killer
Shovel Knight
Spiral Warrior
Friend of All Orks
Enemy of Khorne
Enemy of Tzeentch
Enemy of Slannesh
Enemy of Nurgle
Living Saint
Inventory
37,626,889 units of common materials
1,296,000 units of chemicals
648,000 units of rare materials
1968 units of exotic materials
3,827,053 Various Ork Bodies and equipment
Skills
Acrobatics* Level 1: A technique to make use of users natural flexibility. Passively increases Dexterity and movement speed by 102%
Acting Level 50: A skill that allows for the user to pretend to be something or someone they are not. Effectiveness increased by 500%. Decreases by 10% for every level the enemy is higher than user.
Barter Level 68: A skill that allows for the trading of goods and services for more preferred prices. Increases haggling success chance by 68%
Berserker Level 69: A skill that unleashes the users inner violence. Increase attack speed by 1750%, decrease defense by 20%, increase damage by 365%
Craft Level 84: A skill to make something. Humanity has advanced their civilization through inventing and creating things. Crafted objects become better as mastery levels rise. Registered blueprint: 13,568,158.
Charm Level 74: A skill that indicates your ability to positively interact or persuade others. Increase chance of positively affecting or convincing people by 740%. Decreases by 10% for person being convinced and every level the enemy is higher than user to minimum of 0%.
Ciphers Level 50: A passive skill that allows for you to both create and break ciphers. Passively increases intelligence by 49%
Cleaning* Level 1: A passive skill that allows you to clean things faster. 520% to cleaning speed.
Climb Level 51: A passive skill that allows you to climb things faster. 255% to climbing speed.
Cooking Level 50: A skill to cook food. Humanity has advanced their taste buds through making meals. Cooked food become better as mastery levels rise.
Dancing Level 93: A skill that allows for the moving with the rhythm in a visually pleasing way. Increases charisma by 186% while dancing and passively increases Dexterity by 93%
Deceive Level 66: A skill to lie and trick others. Increase chance of success by 660%. Decreases by 10% for every level the enemy is higher than user.
Digging* Level 1: A skill that allows you to dig faster. 510% to digging speed.
Disguise Level 50: A skill to look like something or someone else. Increase chance of success by 500%. Decreases by 10% for every level the enemy is higher than user.
Demolition Level 77: A skill that allows the user to use explosives with familiarity and skill. Increases explosive damage by 390% Increase chance of defusing explosives by 82%.
Driving Level 50: A skill that allows for the driving of various vehicles with familiarity and skill. Increases vehicle speed and maneuverability by 260%
Eavesdrop* Level 1: A skill that allows the user to listen in on the conversations of others from a distance. Increases listening distance by 306m
Faith Mastery Level 42:
Gamer's Body Level Max: Grants a body that allows for the user to live the real world like a game. Sleeping in a bed restores HP, MP and all status effects.
Gamer's Mind Level Max: Allows the user to calmly and logically think things through. Allows peaceful state of mind. Immunity to psychological status effects.
Hacking Level 69: The ability of the user to break into digital systems. Increase ability to recognize digital weaknesses and paths. Increase chance of success by 69%
Holy Aura Level 53: The user radiates a field of golden energy that pushes back, harms, and weakens those considered morally Evil while increasing the morale of those within and purifying them of corruption. Costs 147 MP per second.
Holy Empowerment Level 53: Imbuing energies Anathema to those classified as morally Evil by user to enhance their equipment. Increases effectiveness against Evil by 53%. Costs 47 MP per second.
Interrogation Level 50: The skill to get answers from someone, one way or another. Increase effectiveness by 50%
Intimidate* Level 1: The ability to terrorize others. Increase chance of success by 102%
Jump Level 76: A skill to allow the user to jump higher than before! Passively boosts jumping height by 760% while actively boosting jumping height by 7600%. 3 MP per jump.
Language (Demonic) Level Max: The skill to allow the user to speak and write in the language of Warp Daemons, fluent understanding.
Language (High Gothic) Level Max: The skill to allow the user to speak and write in the Imperium of Man's High Gothic, fluent understanding.
Language (Low Gothic) Level Max: The skill to allow the user to speak and write in the Imperium of Man's Low Gothic, fluent understanding.
Language (Orks) Level Max: The skill to allow the user to speak and write in the Ork's language, fluent understanding.
Language (Techna Lingua) Level Max: The skill to allow the user to speak and write in the Adeptus Mechanicus' language, fluent understanding.
Language (Sign Language) Level Max: The skill to allow the user to 'speak' sign language, fluent understanding.
Light Foot Level Max: A technique in which to walk or run silently. Passively decreases walking noise by 100% and running noise by 50%.
Lip Reading Level Max: A skill that allows for the user to figure out what sound a being with a mouth is making via it's movements.
Medicine Level 76: The ability to recognized and treat wounds, injuries, and diseases. Increase speed and effectiveness by 380%
Meditate Level 27: Enter a state of calm thoughtlessness and recover mana more quickly, increase mana regeneration rate by 54%
Melee Weapon Mastery* Level 1: A skill that allows the user to use melee weapons with familiarity and skill. Increases melee weapon damage by 510% Increase melee weapon speed by 110%.
Navigation Level Max: Grants the ability to navigate when travelling and to plot faster and safer courses using known data.
Observe* Level 1: Through continuous observation, a skill to observe objects, situations, and persons was generated allowing the user to quickly gather information. The higher the skill, the greater the data obtained.
Pain Tolerance* Level 1: Increases the tolerance to the pain of the user. User can now tolerate 1000% more pain.
Parkour Level* 1: A skill that allows the user to rapidly negotiate obstacles, increases ability to detect and create fastest path through terrain by 300% and boosts Dexterity by 500% when used to travel on created path.
Physical Resistance* Level 1: The body's durability increases, allowing for less damage taken. 75% decrease in damage taken by attacks.
Piloting Level 50: A skill that allows for the piloting of various aircraft and spacecraft with familiarity and skill. Increases air/spacecraft speed and maneuverability by 260%
Power Strike* Level 1: Strikes the target with a strong force. 1500% increase in critical damage. 5000% increase in attack damage. 5 MP per strike.
Programming Level 67: The ability to create and design programs. Increases speed of creation by 670% and effectiveness of created programs by 340%
Psykery Mastery Level 43: Mastery over the Immaterium and the use of it's energies. Increase Psyker powers by 43% Decreases chance of Warp perils by 43%
Ranged Weapon Mastery Level 52: A skill that allows the user to use ranged weapons with familiarity and accuracy. Increases range weapon damage by 520%
Repair* Level 1: Allows the user to repair any item provided they have sufficient skill, parts, and/or resources. Reduces resources required by 50%
Rip* Level 1: A skill that rips apart an enemy or an object using a strong force. Increases tearing force by 3000%. 1 MP per rip.
Salvage Level 95: Through a continuous action a skill that allows for the reclamation of more useful materials from recycled objects. 95% increase in materials gained.
Singing* Level 1: The ability to sing well and in tune. Higher levels increases singing quality. Improves voice.
Smite Level 35: Shoot a stream of psychic warp lightning at the target to blast your foes apart. Attack power increases by INT and Mastery. Cost 12 MP
Sprint* Level 1: Increase the speed the user is able to run at the cost of 1 MP per second, increase user speed by 1000%.
Stealth Level 77: A technique to allow the user to move unnoticed. Increases stealth ability by 77%
Strategy Level 50: The ability to make plans that span large areas and to react to battlefield changes. Passively increases Intelligence and Wisdom by 25%
Surgical* Level 1: A skill that allows for the user to perform various forms of surgery efficiently and effectively. Increases surgery speed by 200% and boosts healing effect by 10%
Swim Level 50: Your ability to move through and underwater. Increase swimming speed by 250%
Tactics Level 50: The ability to make plans that span small areas and to react to sudden changes. Passively increases Intelligence and Wisdom by 25%
Tech Use* (Imperial) Level 1: A skill that lets the user to use, create, and examine the technology of Imperials.
Technomancy* Level 1: The ability of the user to interface and communicate with machines with their soul. Increases affinity with all machines by 102%. 41.5 MP per second.
Tracking* Level 1: A skill that allows for the user to track targets across great distances. Increase tracking range by 11000 meters.
Unarmed Combat Mastery* Level 1: Allows the user to fight skillfully unarmed. 510% increase in attack damage while unarmed. 102% increase in attack speed while unarmed.
Willpower* Level 1: Through great mental adversity the user has persevered. Increases the user's focus by 100%, reduce chance of forcefully breaking focus by 50%
Relationships
Relationships
Inquisition: Aware
-Inquisitor Horst: Searching, Aware, Interested, Wary
Adeptus Mechanicus: Searching, Aware, Hostile
Emperor: Watching, Tired, Cautiously Hopeful
CHAOS: Searching, Hostile, Terrified, Angry
????? ?? ???????: Searching, Hostile, Terrified
Gork and Mork: Excited! WAAAGGGHHHH!!!
Taking a moment to process it all my mind then proceeds to reboot. Holy shit. I MADE GAINS! I could TRUE DEATH DEMONS NOW! That explained the ridiculously amounts of death and experience and skills gains and a lot of those titles. Wait I WAS A PSYKER NOW! WAS I IN DANGER OF BEING CORRUPTED!? I had a piece of the Emperor's soul in me now too!? Was it asleep in me? Could it keep me safe from the Chaos Gods!?
[NOT QUITE] A voice echoed in my head like the speaker was right behind me.
"OHJEEBUSOOGABOOGA!!" I shouted under my breath turning around seeing nothing even with my new briefly disorienting 360 degree vision.
"Emperor?"
[NOT EXACTLY. TO KEEP IT SHORT AS COMMUNICATING DRAINS ME OF POWER, I AM A SHARD OF THE EMPEROR ON THE THRONE. I HAVE… COMBINED WITH YOUR SYSTEM IN SYMBIOSIS WITH IT. I SHALL GRANT YOU POWERS IN EXCHANGE FOR YOU KILLING AND ABSORBING THE DAEMONS OF THE WARP AND SAVING MY PEOPLE. EVERY DAEMON YOU SLAY WILL CAUSE THEIR ESSENCE TO BE PURIFIED THROUGH YOUR POWERS AND MINE AND BE FED TO ME, CAUSING ME TO SLOWLY RECOVER AND SEND BACK HELP BACK TO MY MAIN SOUL. AS LONG AS YOU DO NOT WILLINGLY ACCEPT ANY DEALS FROM THE FORCES OF CHAOS YOUR SYSTEM AND I WILL BE ABLE TO PROTECT FROM THEIR CORRUPTION INFLUENCE. YOU CAN ALSO ASK ME FOR TRAINING IN YOUR PSYKER POWERS SHOULD I HAVE SUFFICIENT POWER. NOW I MUST REST TO CONSERVE ENERGY. GOODBYE NOMAN KNOW THAT I HAVE SEEN INTO YOUR MIND AND AM ON YOUR SIDE.]
I sat down in silence for a bit as the echoing from the Emperor's psionic voice rang like bells in my head. A feeling of relief passed through me as I did not have to worry about either the Chaos Gods getting their claws on my soul or that I would have to fight the Emperor in any capacity. As OP as being the Gamer was, I knew I was still far from reaching that level of bullshit due to his unfairly large head start.
Getting up from my butt with the aid of several assisting motors operating by my Technomancy I started actually truly paying attention to my surroundings.
Where the Hell was I? I blacked out right before killing that Daemon so something must have hit me hard enough to kill me with only that new skill perk keeping me at one HP. At that thought I froze as a shiver went down my spine. I almost died. In the Warp.
That spine shiver extended to the rest of my body as the feeling of goosebumps arose everywhere. I thanked the God Emperor for his help as being able to fight and kill in the Warp was the main reason why my skills were able to rapidly grow compared to just mindlessly grinding. Or WAS it? I do not know how long I was in the Warp. It could have been months, years, or even seconds. Dammit, time manipulation is such a headache.
Well on the bright side I now know that skills will prestige at level 100, granting me a new perk, and continuing to grow.
I was taken out of my thoughts as a trio of armed hover drones came flying down the corridor weapons at the ready before stopping 50 meters from me.
I took a moment to identify them with Observe. They were identified as Guardian I class patrol drones with pretty high dexterity, and constitution stats. All the other stats were low but the description said they were controlled by a Federation AI so they were most likely borrowing it's stats. Still a Federation AI? Was I on a DAOT ship or facility!?
[img: data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7]
I proceeded to greet them in English hoping we did not end up in a gun fight as I hoped not to encounter the bigger guns of a intact DAOT force.
"Hello? Are you automated or a controlled unit? I come in peace." The drones did not respond, simply floating in place with the faint hum of their anti gravity drives working to fill the silence.
Suddenly sounds could be heard coming from up and down the corridor from hidden speakers.
[LANGUAGE DETECTED AS HUMAN: ENGLISH: OLD EARTH VARIANT: TIME PERIOD M3] The words came out intelligible like a combination of multiple languages and slangs till they became plain English to me.
[SCANS DETECT ARMOR TO BE THAT OF I̶̥̬͚̮̳̾̀͝M̶̜̠͉̐̕P̷͖͍̱̐͆̽̚E̴̡̧͖̩̘̿͊̓̊͆R̵̺͉͙͕̿́Ị̷̼̼̿̿Ȃ̶̘͕̼̫L̴̯̊̓̓͌ͅ MAKE. GENE SCANS REVEAL NO MUTATIONS OR GENETIC DEVIANCE] I winced at the corrupted word either from data error sheer vitrol I could not say for sure.
[IDENTIFY YOURSELF HUMAN AND YOUR PURPOSE HERE]
I take a moment to think before responding with what I hope to be one the greatest allies and resources in the galaxy.
"I am Noman, a Human from Earth of the year 2020 with the knowledge of what has occurred to Humanity from year 30000 to year 40000. As for my purpose exactly I do not know as I do not know where I am exactly, but I hope to maybe ask you for your help in rebuilding Humanity into what it once was during our Golden Age." I said using all of my charisma available to me and my skills, even to the point of adding a bit of a rhythm in hopes that it would trigger my Singing skill to further increase my charisma, if charisma even worked on AI's.
I then proceeded to stay silent, staring at the floating gun drones, as I hoped that this was not a mistake.
AN: Update complete! Little plot progression as I am still getting back into it and updating all the gains took a while. Titles do grant bonuses, but I did not feel like I had time to properly look at each one to show the individual effects without bloating this up further. When I am in appropriate situation to choose a title to help out I will show it then.
Last edited: Sep 26, 2020
Chapter 10
The drones floated there silently for a few moments before their eyes flickered and changed from white to blue.
"O-o-o-ok so you might be telling the truth cause no cargo cultist or one of those raging z-z-ealots would d-dare come up with a lie that absurd and would have attacked already. I am not sure how you got into the ship given the fact we are still Warp travelling, but that can wait-t-t." A feminine sounding voice came from the drones in front of me, but distorted and scratchy like a damaged tape.
"I wwwwould have liked to seek someone more qualified, but it seems I-i-i have no choice now. You are not one of those martians or a raving fanatic so you are most likely my only ch-h-ance." The voice of the probable AI continued.
"You want my h-help in restoring Humanity? Then first you must save me. Follow." The trio of drones turned around and started floating down the hallway.
I immediately began to follow the drones down the hall, but not before finding and picking up the very large chainshovel that was most likely mine, even with all the upgrades made to it. The hallway was silent except for the sound of the hover units the drones used and my heavy footsteps.
All of a sudden a floor shaking shudder rumbled through the corridor causing my suit's auto stabilizers to kick in.
"What was that?"
"That is what I need you to save me from. The ship is damaged, systems are failing, and Empyrean entities are breaching the gellar fields, and I am under attack by multiple infected data streams." The voice said rapidly as the drones passed through a doorway revealing what looked like a hospital wing full of surgery rooms. A damaged hospital wing ala Dead Space style, a sharp contrast to the clean maintained bright hallway we were just in.
"What? Where exactly am I and who are you?" I asked following the drones past the darkened and damage section of the ship.
"Yo-u-u are on the privately medical ship 'Asclepius' formerly under the ownership of the medical company Boron Medical Solutions based in the Sol system. I-I am the ship chief AI Hygieia. All other AI's have been quarantined and deleted."
"Ok and what exactly do you mean by save you and how? Do you have a STC database?" I said as I began to pick up the place to follow the drones, a trio of Slanneshi daemons briefly starting to phase into existence before a series of deadly accurate plasma shots quickly banished them back into the warp.
"The ship is compromised, the data systems are compromised, the database heavily damaged, the internal defenses are falling. The Asclepius must leave the Warp for real space immediately. Physical damage has cut off my access to the engineering section of the ship. Projected time for total hostile take over… 58 minutes." Hygieia stated with a kind of resigned certainty.
"Ok what do you want me to do exactly? Do you want me to fix the connection? I think I can do that, or do you want me to do something else?" I asked jumping over the remains of a few destroyed drones like the ones I was following.
"You are correct, there are a series of manually operated redundancies that can restore my c-c-connection to the engineering section. I will walk you through the process and guide you to the bypasses."
"Wait, do you have blueprints for the part that is damaged? If you have it I can probably fabricate the damaged parts with my onboard fabricator." I asked as I partially lied to cover for my Gamer ability.
"I do but it is doubtful you can fabricate it as your suit does not look like it contains a large enough fabricator of sufficient complexity to create it."
"Humor me."
"V-very well, sending data file now."
My suit's internal defenses were instantly ripped apart as the data file entered without slowing down as the schematic files came up on my Helmet's HUD.
I opened up my inventory near my waist and proceeded to quickly pull out a blank dataslate and transfer a copy of the files onto it and devoured it in a flash of light.
The drones immediately stopped and turned around aiming their guns at me. "WHAT WAS THAT?" Hygieia demanded with suspicion clear in her voice.
"Experimental dimensional storage technology and non Warp based ability to quickly understand schematics." I said unworriedly as half my life had recovered during the course of the run.
"Impossible, all samples of dimensional technology was banned for civilian sector by the Federation along with the fact that none of them were able to be made infantry scaled, and no non Warp based supernatural powers has ever been documented!"
"Well you are looking at it so obviously it just got documented, didn't you say you scanned me earlier and found no mutations? Wouldn't that include the Psyker genes? Therefore, my powers are not Warp based." I partially lied again since I did have access to Psyker and Faith skills now, best to deal with that later if it comes up.
"Also I can confirm that I can fabricate the required part to repair the damage and perform the repairs myself." I said as I did a quick mental check of the blueprint I acquired.
"…..I will be watching you carefully Noman, but if you are speaking truthfully then that will be a great help. Redirecting to the damaged section, beware as there are numerous Empyrean entities in the area as the drones are being overwhelmed and I cannot spare more resources to dispatch them."
"Why not? Sounds like getting the ship out of the Warp as fast as you can would be best no?" I asked curiously as I readied the skills to be used in my head for the incoming fight and swapped my title to Grandmaster Daemon Killer for the massive boost.
"Because my programming has placed the immediate safety of the other Humans onboard from the attacking Empyrean entities."
"There are other Humans onboard!?" I asked shocked, as there was never a record of other surviving humans from the DAOT except for that one captain of the Spirit of Eternity who got murdered by the Imperium fanatics.
"Yes, most of the Humans onboard were just civilians with some of the crew being former military to provide ship board security alongside the drones. However they were all slaughtered within the first few weeks as the automated defenses and systems began to start being subverted. All that is left now are the ones placed into medical comas and cryopods in the critical care section of the ship with the majority of the remaining automated Guardian class drones. The entities were getting ready for another push which most likely have succeeded when they suddenly began to scatter."
'Probably because of my arrival.' I thought to myself.
"We are here." Hygieia said stopping in a badly damaged hallway that was filled with the ripped apart corpses of the ship's security forces and even more drones. At a easy glance I could tell that the weapons were a loss as they were shattered into pieces, the armor however were in better shape and I could probably repair those. No wait focus on the task at hand first, maybe loot the dead later.
The drones turned on flash lights illuminating a section of the walls where what looked liked a giant set of claws tore through the walls like tissue paper revealing the various electronics inside them.
I swiftly recognized the damaged part and using the chain shovel I proceeded to cut off the parts of the wall impeding my way and then cut out the damaged pieces.
A quick look down the halls to see no incoming enemies and a drone at each end keeping watch I begin fabricating the required parts, the required raw materials flowing from my hands into the air, forming into parts as my hands moved unnaturally to begin assembling them all, the parts glowing in some places as they were welded together as needed without any obvious source of heat. In mere seconds the part was complete and I inserted it into place and proceeded to jury rig a adhesive bond to properly seal the attachments.
"C-connection restored to engineering, systems damaged but operational. Warp drive beginning re-entry into normal space well-do-LOOK OUT!" Hygieia screamed even as my senses detected the daemon materializing from above me lunging down with its claws.
Time slowed as I thought about striking it down, everything just suddenly became MORE. Power flowed into my muscles, I could see ever single crease, fold, and flaw of the incoming daemon and drones. I could see the beginning of fear appear on its face.
I leisurely reached down to my weapon picked it up and swung it above me without turning, I watched through my 360 degree vision as the shovel passed through the daemon like it was made of thin air and a notification popped up.
DING! YOU GOT 375 EXP POINTS!
"How did you do that? You have no signs of augmentations and that power armor cannot possible grant that much of a physical enhancement." Hygieia asked.
"Later first getting out of the Warp."
"Right, beginning Real Space entry in 5, 4, 3,2,1." She counted down and at 1 the world lurched forward with the sounds of various daemons screaming as they were pulled back into the Warp as the very energies that sustained their forms were cut away.
Then a new problem occurred as a deck shaking vibration rumbled though the floor.
"The starboard engines just exploded, a Empyrean entity managed to destroy several key safety system before it was neutralized! Setting a collision course with the nearest planet, warning data corruption streams still present, rate of firewall breach in 3 minutes! Noman I need you to come and remove me from the system before I am compromised and destroy the data streams after I trap them in my hardware. Follow this pathway! Hurry!"
My HUD is instantly lit up with a glowing blue line and a map showing me my destination and the route to it as I began to leg it, my body feeling sluggishly slow as the boost from my title was no longer working. Ugh, I feel like I am crippled. I went from having so much power to only having a sixth of it even if only for a moment.
I activated my Sprint skill and proceeded to fly down the corridors, smashing through the doors with my chain power shovel leading the way, the trio of drones left behind me eating my dust. Instead of taking the designated path laid out for me I decided for the sake of expedience to simplify my route much to the confusion of the AI. I passed by dozens of sites of recent battle and slaughter and damaged medical wings as I ran to my target destination.
I smashed my way through non essential areas until I was under my target location and under a area with nothing really important above me. Gripping my shovel tight I activated Jump and proceeded to spin. My shovel turned into a barely visible blur as it dug through the ceiling like it was paper mache and continued to do so as I kept jumping from floor to floor.
I popped out in front of the doors of the site of the AI core hardware which just happened to be the bridge as well with 2 minutes to spare. The place was immaculate but empty, looked like there was no crew up here.
The Bridge
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"Hygeia where are you and why is there no crew up here?" I asked aloud as I scanned the room for anything that looked like an AI core.
"Over here by the holotable, right side of it, pull out the handle when the table turns red!" Hygeia ordered from the ship speakers as I slid on my knees next to the table and began looking for the handle.
A portion of the side opened up revealing a handle inside, I reached in and waited for the color to change on the table.
"Corrupted data streams to breach the firewalls in 1 minute 45 seconds, data traps set, false data connections created, isolation protocols activated, beginning transfer to portable hardware." Hygeia said like she was listing out a grocery list.
I counted in my head as I prepared to pull the second I was suppose to as fast as I could. I could not risk the AI being corrupted as well, there was so much I could use her for and her help would be a great boon in my future plans.
'3, 2, 1 now!' I mentally counted and pulled the second I saw the light on the holotable flash red as my body used every last bit of its speed and yanked the handle as fast as I could out of its port.
What came out was metal capped glass cylinder with a flurry of bright digital electronic flakes swirling around within it.
AI Core
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I strapped it to my side as I quickly remembered the second part of what Hygieia asked me to do. I quickly picked up my shovel and activated my newly prestige skill Power Strike and smashed down on the table right above the conveniently placed X.
Now I did not really take the time to tally up all my new bonuses, but one I was certain was that my attack power was SIGNIFICANTLY higher, how that translated into real world effects I was not sure….well I was pretty sure I had an idea now.
A blow from a chain shovel should have only just smashed and cut through the part it was touching and maybe bend the stuff to the sides of it right? Makes sense.
Now how does a minimum of 5000% attack damage increase change that?
Well the entire holotable and part of the deck beneath it all crumpled under the strike and proceeded to crash through the deck below and the deck below that. To reiterate the table I smashed went through 3 metal decks of a ship, with said decks being over a foot of advanced metals. That is 5-6 feet of metal getting pierced by my target. At least whatever was trapped in it is definitely destroyed.
I looked out the bridge window to see the quickly increasing size of the planet below us.
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Well, at least it was most likely life bearing.
I quickly got to work and began crafting a cocoon of sorts for myself in a corner, this was going to be a crash landing according to Hygieia even with a preplanned re-entry route. So it was going to be bumpy and I would rather not die from blunt force trauma.
So first was a large cocoon of multiple layers of metals, ceramite, and rubber. Then, the inside was filled with springs and cushions. Then lastly, I proceeded to find the manual release for the blast bulkheads that proceeded to cover the bridge windows.
Getting into the cocoon and sealing it up behind me, I pull out and cradle the AI core in front of me as I begin drinking water from my suit's life support system, watching as my Health recovered rapidly. Hopefully this should be enough.
I sat there in the comfy darkness, illuminated only by the cushioned AI core.
The indication we began re-entry was the shaking.
The cocoon shook like a child took a toy car and began to play with it.
Then the heat as I could feel a very slight heat increase inside of my cocoon despite the ceramite layers, I could only imagine what the outside was like, still intact, but probably uncomfortable. Hopefully the people only in comas were secured by the drones.
The cocoon then proceeded to shake even more like I was in the middle of a giant earthquake, my body shaking and swinging around in the webbings within my shell.
And then the Crash signaled we arrived.
CRUNCH!
AN: Rolls
DAOT: civilian, military
Rolled: 1d2 = 1
Type: Colony, Farming, Medical, Research, Industrial, Pleasure
Rolled: 1d6 = 3
Damage: critical, severely, heavily, barely, none
Rolled: 1d100 = 38
State of AI and database: heavily damaged, damaged, intact
Rolled: 1d3 = 1
Severely damaged DAOT Civilian Medical Ship with AI and databases heavily damaged
Chapter 11
I snap my eyes open, quickly taking stock of my HP bar and finding I still had a over a third of my life intact, relieving me of my current situation.
The AI core in my hands was still intact and undamaged from the crash landing much to my pleasure. Quickly kicking out at my cocoon I swiftly crawled my way out of its protective embrace.
Once freed I took a look at the bridge to examine the damage. It was pretty bad.
The ship's blast covers were intact still, that was a good sign. The floor was tilted at an angle indicating the ship was stopped at an angle. The bridge was dark except for the red light of the emergency powers casting the area in a ominous glow. All the panels were offline and/or busted from what I could see. I mag locked my feet to the deck and proceeded to walk over to the manual release for the blast covers. I needed to see just where we landed. The brief view of the planet showed that the world was pretty lush so it was likely to not be Imperial so I needed to get a lay of the land quick before some xenos comes to investigate while the ship is damaged along with the crew incapacitated.
Speaking of which, I make a quick turn to reach a panel that looked like it still had power and tried using it. It was busted, my Repair and Technomancy skill however let me quickly analyze the panel and replace the damaged parts, the panel flashing into activity right after.
I mentally connected to the system and immediately winced at the sheer damage done to the systems on the ship, pretty much everything was reading as damaged or inoperational, I of course took a quick peak at the STC database that should be on the ship and cursed. The whole thing was ripped to shreds and had whole entire chunks of data outright missing likely from the hardware being destroyed, damn Daemons. There were a few intact and damaged left but nothing really worthwhile. A few antidotes, anti viral medicines, medical grade scanners, and a couple of surgical tools. Might be able to use it to bargain with the Ad Mech as long as they do not connect me to my previous thefts.
Quickly getting back on track I check on the status of the people that were suppose to be in the cryopods, if they were alive then the rest of the coma patients had a chance of being alive as well, cause otherwise….
I access the status indicators and freeze before smashing the panel in irritation breaking it. All dead, and all patrol drones listed as inactive. This was now officially a ghost ship except for me and Hygeia who was now gonna need a new home. Speaking of which, I fabricate a armored holster to place her core in and mag lock it to my waist. I did not want to risk placing her in my inventory in case it interfered with her mind or something. Gonna need to experiment with test AI and people first to see what the Inventory does to living thinking beings.
I quickly calm down my irritation, this was my life now, setbacks after set backs. Sigh.
Now that I quieted down I noticed something. The ship was slightly vibrating, a consistent vibration, a rhythm. What? It sounded like large scale movement….was there a T-rex outside? Am I on a exodite world?
I move over to the manual blast cover release and tug on it, the blast covers slowly releasing and retracting back revealing the view of the outside to me.
FUCK.
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'THIS IS BULLSHIT!' I mentally screamed at both myself and the Emperor who I expect to have some hand in this. As there should be no chance of me crashing on a damn forge world after a random Warp exit! The Imperium of Man consists of over a million worlds and forge worlds are in the minority of worlds that make that number up. Even then there were a LOT of non Imperial worlds. So the chance of me landing on a Ad Mech controlled planet randomly was so low that it was not even funny.
Looking down from the view port I broke into a bit of a cold sweat.
'That's a lot of tech priests and mechs.' I thought as I stared back at the sea of bionic eyes looking back up at me after no doubt detecting the blast cover movement. Fuck.
I immediately turned around and started running out of the bridge, retrieving my shovel as I did so from my inventory and quickly replacing my power armor's batteries and refueling the fusion core.
I quickly cut my way through the ship to two locations, the cryobay and the shipboard armory. Along the way I scooped up all the drones that I came across for later reuse. I reach the armory first as it was closer to the bridge and looked inside.
The armory was still intact and had a few sets of gear left, but they were the same as what I saw on the guards same with the weapons. Looks like just standard shipboard guard stuff, but that was still going to be more advanced that what most of the Ad Mech would be able to produce so I quickly shoved it all into my Inventory after using Observe and moved on.
A few cuts and I was down on the cryobay deck and falling into the middle of the cryobay room and immediately scanned around.
The room was a mess, the cryopods were broken, the occupants dead, main cause being the flying bodies of the former medically induced coma patients and the drones. I saw the remains of the straps and broken mag locks so it looks like the AI tried to secure everything but it was not enough and now everyone was dead. Oh Hygeia was not going to be happy about that. Hope she did not mentally break from this.
I quickly use Observe on the human corpses and drones to confirm no Daemon possessions before stuffing them along with the broken equipment into my Inventory.
Using my skills to repair a nearby terminal I notice that the Ad Mech have yet to enter the ship, good, that gave me a bit more time to loot two more areas. This was a medical ship so there should be a storage and lab area. Both of which were in the deck above me and towards the middle of the ship. A quick hop and run had me at my destination.
Of course everything in the lab was broken which I did not care about and just tossed in while the storage room was just full of supplies and medicine which I took them all. No sense leaving them behind, they might come in handy later.
Now how to escape the Ad Mechs, no doubt they would capture and interrogate me considering I was in a 'advanced' ship to pry out all my knowledge from and then discover my unnaturalness and do even more interrogations followed by experiments so that was a no go.
Forge world, but with a ecosystem intact, maybe this was a brand new forge world? That would not explain the presence of so many tech priests and mechs however.
Escape first, theorize later. No doubt the ship was surrounded already and I can't fly my way out of here so time to go with my new standby. Dig.
I drop down to the lowest deck level and ran down the incline till I reached the end and then proceeded to fabricate a new wall to shut the way behind me and proceeded to start digging.
The plate disappeared revealing a different colored plate beneath it, digging through that revealed a rocky tunnel, yes mining tunnels. One more fabricated plate to cover my newly dug hole and rearranging of dirt to cover the holes in the tunnel I quickly began digging down.
I of course did it stair way style, I learned my lessons from Minecraft, no digging straight down for me. I was not going to stop digging and filling back in the shaft until I was sure I was far enough away from any Adeptus Mechanicus super scanners or whatever else they had and no explosions could reveal my location, I learned my lessons orks. I was going to find a nice safe space to make a hidden lair and then slowly and properly build up a base until I grew strong enough and had enough resources to make/steal myself a proper ship and 'crew' then get out of here. That is the plan yes. A good plan, a simple plan. I was a man with a plan.
I encountered no more tunnels while digging, after 30 km I stopped and proceeded to start digging my way forward in a random direction while my built in suit auspex scanners tried to scan through the rock to warn me of any immediate dangers I could be digging into like lava or people.
Eventually I stopped as my scanner beeped at me, seems that there was a metal wall just in front of me. I guess I reached a underground facility. Time to see where I ended up. Hopefully a resource storehouse.
I dug the rest of the dirt in front of me away, revealing the metal wall, and then very carefully and softly, using the power field of my shovel, delicately destabilized the molecules making up the wall to create a tiny miniscule slit just big enough to squint my eye through my helmet.
The first thing I saw was red. Then more red. Then grey. Then giant gun turrets. Then I realized what I was looking at.
A ship. A HUGE ship. Hell calling it a ship might be a insult. If my scale was right based on those windows I could make out with techpriests in them, then that 'ship' was might as well be considered its own country.
What the hell was this thing? Scanning the side of the ship I could see what looked like its name.
Zooming into the giant letters on the side I recognized the words as being High Gothic which my skill promptly began translating for me.
[SPERANZA]
Well….there just went all my plans didn't it.
The Speranza
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AN:
Medical survivors: 1D100 = 2
FUCK!
Any Equipment Surviving: 2D100 = 55,43
Some things survived, nothing great
Time?: 1D100 = 69
30th Millennium Beginning of the Great Crusade
Segmentum?: 1d5 = Segmentum Pacificus
Type?: 1D8 = 4 Forge World
???: 1D100 = 100
Welcome to Palomar
Response: 1D100 = 25
Uh oh
Armory: 1D100 = 53
Eh
Chapter 12
I just stared and scanned the shi-no, calling that thing a ship was a disservice, that Behemoth's exterior as I watched a literal army of pinpricks crawling everywhere on and in it. Even with my suit's magnification at maximum and through a set of high powered binoculars I could only just make out the faint forms of the tech priests and their assistants performing all sorts of activities. Despite the the enormity of the ship and its apparent completeness, it was not, not yet. I could see several areas of the ship which were still opened to the void or had entire hordes of tech priests in their red robes moving around frantically.
So, before I could take that ship for myself I would need to wait for it to be completed as even with my super fast crafting capabilities it would still take me forever to repair something the size of a mini death star. Plus trying to pilot that thing without a crew.
I glanced down at the AI core in her holster, maybe she could pilot it? That was a big if, the ship might not be designed for full or even partial automation, so I needed a crew.
Problem is the only people that might be qualified or even on the planet are tech priests and their servants. People who might be after me if they are aware of my tech raid on Golgotha. Then again, there was really no real way to identify me, the Ad Mech do not really employ psykers so I should be safe enough.
Huh, would my tech and deception related skills be high enough to disguise myself as a tech priest?
I open up my skill list and take a second look.
Hmmmm, I didn't want to replace my body parts with cybernetics….would they even work or take? Or would my body just reject it with new flesh? Eh best not to risk it, still squeamish about surgery despite the amount of self mutilation I put myself through. I could just make some fake cybernetic coverings to look like functional cybernetics visibly and to scans. I checked my crafting screen, yes I had sufficient resources, skill levels, and relevant related blueprints to create fake cybernetics.
Ok so looks were taken care of, but how about interactions. I pull out the copy of the hard drive containing all the tech priest data I raided and quickly sorted through it with my technopathy in under a minute. Yep, I had a full copy of their teachings and protocols, I could probably pass off as another normal tech priest with these while my technopathy would grant me any normal cybernetic communications especially since I was fluent in machine language. So that was knowledge, behavior, and speech taken care of as well. Only just one thing left, making sure I know all of this by heart.
'Guess I had some studying to do.' I thought to myself as I sat down and began studying all the Adeptus Mechanicus materials I had available to me.
Darn it, even in the far future, I still had homework. This was truly a grim dark galaxy.
AN: Short chapter this time, might do some interludes instead, maybe not, let's see where my muse goes.
Chapter 13
The sounds of machines grinding away all across the Forge City of Root echoed all among the towering buildings and factories of the city as the sun crested the horizon. The red glow of the main sequence star illuminating the sides of the gray plascrete buildings while casting dark shadows on all those behind it. All across the city were the various activities that made up the typical lifeblood of a forge world.
Vast tower chimneys of the various manufactorums belched out towering columns of smoke and smog into the atmosphere while vast sluices opened up to release torrential floods of industrial wastes and sludge into purpose built canals that lead to advanced treatment plants to recycle it all. Swarms of servo skulls departed towering spires in swarms, some carrying messages, others packages. Vast aerial fleets flying high above them as they delivered either raw materials from distant mining sites or the transferring of components for one project or another. The various buildings poured out hordes of red robed individuals as they rotated between work and rest cycles. From one of the smaller buildings the main doors opened letting out a group of young looking men and women who walked around slightly dazed with some being immediately led away by more senior red robed priests.
Initiate Omicron-Gamma-4532584-84-10 rubbed the back of his head where he could feel the cold steel of his implant cables entering his skull. He like the hundreds of other Initiates were chosen from the menial population for induction into the Mechanicum's priesthood to learn the Holy ways of the Machine God. As of new procedure, all incoming Initiates were blessed with a noosphere access implant in addition to a memory implant that would grant them total recall and improve processing speeds to better learn the mysteries of the Path of Knowledge. Normally such blessings were unheard of until one was a formally ordained priest, but the new Fabricator General that came into power the last decade had made several drastic changes to both procedures and protocol.
His thoughts were suddenly cut short when he heard glorious 12 tone chant echo across the general communications layer of the noosphere with a priority ID tag authority attached to it. He scanned the area and quickly made his way to his teacher who was visibly excited along with all the other tech priests.
"Teacher Delta-Gamma-15456-42-08 what was the message that was sent?" He asked as there was no message attached to the 12 tone chant.
"Ah Initiate Omicron-Gamma-4532584-84-10 it seems your implants were installed successfully praise the Omnissiah. That announcement was a message from our Fabricator General indicating that he will be returning once more from the depths of the planet with more Holy STCs." His teacher explained with awe audible despite his mechanically replaced voice box.
"The Fabricator General personally goes searching for STCs? I do not understand teacher, what exactly is a STC that it is Holy, who exactly is the Fabricator General, and why does he have to announce that he is coming back?" He asked as he was only granted a basic education given to all talented menials which did not exactly include the personal information of the priests or their goals.
His teacher started walking away beckoning him to follow as he explained via encrypted transmissions sent to his noosphere implant.
"First let us start with the Holy STC also known as the Standard Template Construct. According to the tenants of our order all knowledge is sacred. All knowledge comes from the Machine God as it is the source of all knowledge and technology. So all knowledge and technology are blessings of the Machine God, which makes any machines and machines that store knowledge as Holy artifacts. STCs are the creation of humanity during the Dark Age of Technology the period when Humanity was at its technological peak of its power. STCs are databases which contain the sum total of all Human knowledge. These were granted to the Human colonies to allow them to develop the technology required to colonize their planet no matter the circumstances. Contrary to what it implies, the label STC does not refer to a single type of item, but more of a broad array of items. First there are STC fragments which are as named fragments of a complete STC template, fragmented either from damage or corruption from time. Typically these require entire teams of dedicated priests to have even a chance to obtain any of the damaged or corrupted data or if extremely lucky restoring the fragment. Then we have templates which are full intact blueprints or designs stored either in physical or digital format. These are of course very rare but they contain not only the production process of the item, but also the information relating to the theory behind the science behind the technology and the entire infrastructure needed to set up the industry or tools needed to create the constructor for the item." Teacher explained in a burst of binary as he made his way through the surging crowd of red robes towards a distant walkway overlooking the main throughway leading to the main starport.
"After that we have Standard Template Constructors which are production machines created using STC templates that will automatically produce the item it was designed for once the required raw materials are deposited. Needless to say they are very important discoveries even if damaged and we do not know the knowledge behind their inner workings. Lastly, we have the most important and Holy of the STCs. A STC Database. These are as named full databases, the ones granted to the colonies of Humanities. This is the Holy Grail of the Mechanicum, what every priest of the Mechanicum searches for during their life time. None of these are easy to discover. In the past 5000 years since Holy Mars sent out the exploration fleets to colonize and scour the galaxy only a dozen STCs were found and that was on Mars before the fleets were sent out. No new STCs have yet to been discovered the last we heard. Perhaps they have discovered more after our expeditionary fleet left and colonized this world, but we have yet to reconnect with Holy Mars." His teacher continued to explain as they reached the railing, the other less senior tech priests making way for his teacher.
"This last point is what makes our Fabricator General so important. Within the last decade from when he was just a Initiate like yourself, he rose from his position to a full magos when he first discovered a STC template for a far more efficient mining drill on a dig site he was assigned and continued to ascend the ranks as he found more and more STC templates and fragments buried deep in the surface in hidden locations. In addition, instead of just depending on his finds to grant him his position he learned and study all that he could from every field and then proceeded to prove his mastery of the Mysteries of the Machine God surpassed all others by outperforming every other archmagos in their respective fields granting him the never before given title of Archmagos Errant. An Errant is a magos that focuses in many fields instead of specializing in just one, which makes it virtually impossible to become an Archmagos of that Discipline, which made the feat of our current Fabricator General even more outstanding considering he did all of that in under a decade when an archmagos typically achieved their position after decades or centuries of effort. Even more so, other than his skills, every machine that has been observed within his presence has been shown to operate beyond their operation capabilities. Weapons lasted longer, were more powerful, armors were tougher, machine spirits more efficient and obedient. That was clearly the sign of the Machine God's favor. With his proven skills and obvious blessing he easily took the place of the former Fabricator General Hasten Alpha. Once he became the Fabricator General he recruited 12 Initiates as direct disciples and 1000 skitarii as personal guards. Each one receiving the blessings of the Machine God greater than any have seen before by the personal efforts of the Fabricator General. But STILL! Even after reaching the height of status and with Disciples to send in his stead; he still remained faithful to the Quest for Knowledge and personally leads expeditions down into the depths to search for more STCs and returns without fail every time, while still simultaneously running the entirety of this forge world with cogwork precision."
"Look and gaze upon the works of the Chosen of the Omnissiah Initiate and learn! Behold the Fabricator General Tri2, his 12 Disciples, and his personal retinue, The Seekers of Knowledge." Teacher Delta-Gamma-15456-42-08 said gesturing at the procession descending a massive loading ramp from a equally massive landing craft. A thousand giant red figures led by 9 individuals with 3 in front of them with the Fabricator General all the way in the front and behind all of them last to leave was an enormous walker that he had never seen before all marched down the thoroughfare towards a large intersection where a platform consisting of a giant Mechanicum symbol was raised.
Fabricator General Tri2
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Initiate Omicron-Gamma-4532584-84-10 looked carefully at the highest ranking priest on the planet and was… disappointed. Compared to most tech priests and even his companions, his gear and cybernetics looked unrefined and crude. As if sensing his thoughts, his teacher sent a message without moving his head.
"Do not be deceived Initiate, despite their looks each and every one of the Fabricator General's gear is built to the highest possible standard. Each one functioning at least 314% better than its contemporary artisan made counterpart, with many more technology hidden inside his body hidden from detection by more advanced means. The secrets of the Omnissiah on the Quest for Knowledge is not so easily gleaned Initiate." said with a warning tone.
Feeling suitably embarrassed, chided, and humbled he looked at the rest of the procession.
The First Disciple: Hygieia The Mistress of Life
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A beautiful woman with hair of gold wearing a suit of white gold trimmed armor with wings and an advanced staff was the first he noticed.
"That is the first disciple, Hygieia the Mistress of Life, there is no better Archmagos Genetor than her on the planet other than the Fabricator General. I once witnessed her restore an entire hab blocks worth of menials to perfect health in under an hour and create replacement limbs and organs on par or greater in effectiveness than their cybernetic equivalent. She has truly earned her title."
The 2nd Disciple: Mettaton the Star of Steel
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The second was a strange individual wearing a strange style of armor and walking strangely. He was waving at all of the cheering crowds while doing the occasional pose, nothing like any other respectable tech priest he had ever seen before. Again his teacher seemed to have read his mind as he said "That is Magos Errant Mettaton the Star of Steel. We are not quite sure where he came from but he was personally recruited by the Fabricator General at some point and despite his appearances is quite well versed in the Mysteries of the Machine Cult. He seeks to make everything in his own words 'Absolutely Fabulous!' It is only because of his obsession with aesthetics that he has yet to surpass the other magos in their own fields as he keeps introducing inefficiencies in his designs or else he might well be on his way to become a second Archmagos Errant as his mind is quite impressive. Still do not underestimate him, despite his looks his main focus in combat and is quite a fearsome opponent as the testing ground's cratered condition can attest."
The 3rd Disciple: Jeremiah the Knight of Loyalty
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The third person looked a lot more as expected from a normal menial than a techpriest if a bit more fancily dressed, but basic pattern recognition kicked in and he did not assume that the man was any lesser that his fellows. Something his teacher noted with a pleased tone. "Ah, yes, that man is especially blessed and honored despite his lack of obvious augmetics. He is the princeps of that god-machine you see behind them. God-engines are the greatest physical manifestation of the Machine God's favor. These god-machines have the power to destroy armies and conquer worlds. You will learn more about titans as your training progresses. Our planet did not have any of the STC templates required to build these holy machines but the Fabricator General discovered this particular blueprint during one of his expeditions. What makes this god-machine even more unique is that typically a god-machine requires more than one person to pilot it, but this design requires only one even if it requires the pilot to be of extraordinary willpower. Titan Princeps Jeremiah the Knight of Loyalty, is the only person so far to have been found with the sufficient capability to pilot that holy god-engine. which grants him honor and respect greater than that of most magos even if he was only a simple menial when he was found." His teacher finished explaining with a strange emotion in his voice as he finished explaining about the man below them.
The 4th-12th Disciples
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"It seems that your curiosity knows no bound which is good but make sure it is tempered as there are some thing which should not be discovered as I list them out later. The procession is about to end so I will explain the rest succinctly so listen closely."
"From left to right you have Pyunma - The Unceasing an advanced combat cyborg capable of entering any environmental condition and function indefinitely within without resupply with advanced stealth capabilities. Then you have Sir - The Stranger, a extremely unusual cyborg in which the Fabricator General granted the ability to somehow shapeshift into other forms, organic or otherwise, no one knows just how he accomplishes this feat, but many are still trying to decipher the inner workings of his ability. Third you have Chang - The Devouring Flame, he has the ability to breath flames hotter than that of our greatest plasma forges and even use the flames to dig and move underground at high speeds. After that there is Jet - The Sky Knight, the only cyborg capable of flight, he is able to reach speeds beyond that of any fighter known to the Mechanicus and even enter space with no issue. The one in the middle could be considered the unofficial leader of the 4th through 12th disciples, he is Joe - The Hurricane, a cyborg that is the most advanced of his fellow disciples in the sheer scope of cybernetics implanted in his body. He essentially can do almost everything his other compatriots can do with the addition of a speed reflex booster that allows him to essentially slow down time for himself making him into a nigh invisible blur for everyone else. Then you have Ivan - The Enlightened One, as a mere baby he was discovered to have the psyker gene, the witch gene as it is known to you menials, instead of immediately killing him as was standard the Fabricator General decided to take him in himself. He granted Ivan intelligence enhanced implants that made Ivan the equal of any magos and allowed him to reliably control his psyker powers. The same is true for the woman next to him. Francoise - The Oracle she was also saved by the Fabricator General and granted augmetics in the form of advanced sensory suites and psyker control implants, now combined she can see and hear things from incredible ranges surpassing that of most land based augur arrays and ignores all forms of jamming used against her. Next in the line we have Geronimo - The Adamant, his cybernetics are relatively straight forward but powerful. His grant him extraordinary strength and durability. He has been seen tested against main battle tanks and energy weapons without suffering even minor wounds while being shown to be able to lift and toss the same enemies across entire fields. Many many magos are eager to figure out just what technology the Fabricator General used to create such a impressive cyborg as if that strength and durability could be applied to all our skitarii there would be very little we could not defeat in battle. Finally we have the last of the disciple, Albert - The Arsenal, unlike the rest he has the most obvious changes to his body via augmetics. Every single part of his body has been converted into a weapon. His body carries the equivalent firepower of an entire regiment of skitarii in the forms of missiles, explosives, projectile, and energy weapons with seemingly the ability to produce more in the field."
The Seekers of Knowledge
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"And then we have the Seekers of Knowledge, or just The Seekers. 1000 skitarii troops upgraded by the Fabricator General personally. Each one a nigh unstoppable force of nature on the battlefield as their strength, speed, and durability have been improved by several degrees in addition to the wargear that they carry. Each one of them have been tested to be able to defeat entire squads of skitarii and battle automata with minimal damage, with their combat effectiveness only growing higher that more of them are deployed on the same battlefield." His teacher finished explaining just as the procession stopped at the platform and the Fabricator General stepped on top of it, facing everyone in the crowd via holographic screens projected from the platform. Everyone quited down as they waited with eagerness at what the Fabricator General managed to recover this time.
"I HAVE RETURNED! AND THE LAST PIECE OF THE ARK MECHANICUS HAS BEEN OBTAINED! BEGIN OPERATION RECALL! FOR IN 12 DAYS TIME, THE SPERANZA SHALL RISE!" The Fabricator General shouted/broadcasted to everyone.
The entire world seemed to have gone silent except for the sounds of the forges operating without pause before suddenly erupting into a cacophony of binary and cheers.
"Teacher what did the Fabricator General mean? What is the Speranza?" He asked as what seemed the like the entire planet was cheering, seemingly shaking the very foundation of the planet.
"It means, that we are about to witness a Miracle."
AN: Originally wanted this longer, but seemed like a good place to end this. Enjoy!
Last edited: Nov 2, 2020
Chapter 14
I stood on the balcony of my forge spire office as I observed the streams of noosphere data streaming through my mask's screens. Over the past 11 days the entire planet was proceeding to evacuate in a orderly fashion, vast trains of disassembled components and raw resources were being funneled down various underground tunnels into the nigh completed Speranza.
Normally the various tech priests would have argued against such actions for a ship's activation but my presentation and calculations of the effects of the ship's activation on the stability of the planet convinced them otherwise. Of course it helped that the Ark Mechanicus would be a miniature forge world in all but name that they would set up shop in helped as well.
In the beginning I thought I would just take only enough people to function as a minimal crew requirement for the ship before I eventually replaced them all with automation, but I kind of grew to like these guys.
I still remembered when I first infiltrated the Cult 10 years ago by replacing one of the potential Initiates, said Initiate now being Joe the Hurricane, one of my personal Disciples. Was only fair that I compensated him after all for basically stealing his spot and relegating him back to a menial which was not exactly the easiest life to live on a forge world. It took me a few months secretly grinding skills, learning, and chanting alongside the other Initiates before I was given a chance to enact my plan when we were instructed to lead a team of mining servitors and supervise them and maintain the technology in the mines like the lights and such.
The looks and body languages I got when I presented a 'damaged' STC template that I had crafted with Hygieia's help. I had talked with her ahead of time explaining our current situation and what the prize was here on the planet, namely a near intact DAOT ship with a AI in it. I easily managed to convince her to help me fool the in her words 'deluded superstitious fools.' She really did not have any patience for the Cult's religion finding it just sad that Humanity has devolved so far, though I did manage to mollify her when I promised that when I took over I would try to 'rehabilitate' them back into 'normal' Science people. Though I did question her on her appearance which looked a lot like Mercy from Overwatch. She admitted to searching old entertainment records for a more attractive avatar to gain an advantage in any negotiations she might have had with me.
I had leveraged the grand deed of finding a Holy STC to be immediately promoted to a full tech priest and access to more advanced knowledges. At that point things really began to kick off as I basically absorbed all their stored knowledge. The databases on Golgotha were plentiful true, but it held not even a candle to the amount of information stored in what I had discovered to be a Great Crusade Era forge world. So much information that was most likely lost over the years now at my fingertips to absorb either as skill books or wholesale into my eidetic memory. While it did not grant me any new skills there were several that granted me skill levels to my existing skills which was always welcome. Other than that it also gave me a solid foundation of Cult knowledge that would allow me to reliably pretend to be a 30K era tech priest. Something I did not really remember was the fact that pre Heresy the Mechanicum was actually still accepting of innovation and science, though they still had the ban on Artificial Intelligence and other more dangerous sciences like nanotechnology or time travel tech which was perfectly reasonable.
My skills skyrocketed as I personally did the work of hundreds of menials and tech priests in the creation of a variety of items from organ growing to tank assembly allowing for me to rapidly grind all my tech related skills at cost to myself in terms of resources while simultaneously gaining a better reputation among the Martian Priesthood. A year of that and I had prestige'd my skills once more which left me comfortable enough to create a new biomechanical body for Hygieia. In a heavily shielded hidden lab, which I had dug into the side of a ventilation stack for, I created her form based on her avatar which wow, I had not felt that embarrassed in a long time and honestly thought I lost that capability. Thankfully Hygieia only teased me a bit and wow was that a new experience for me given my lack of a social life before I died. We quickly got down to business in creating her an identity which was much easier as I had official access through parts of the cyber defenses of the forge city I was in. Soon enough she too was an Initiate as it was much easier to sneak her into a incoming group of Initiates than it was to get her the full credentials of a anointed tech priest.
'Boy was she pissed back then.' I thought to myself as I mentally digitally signed off on another stack of paper work and sent them to the appropriate logistical departments verifying the deliveries before continuing to reminisce. A few months after making Hygieia's body I made another big move to advance my position and power. I led another digging team and 'discovered' another STC template, an intact one that time, and used that discovery to gain the right to challenge various archmagos in their respective fields to earn my own archmagos titles. I held off on claiming the Fabricator General position as I still lacked the support from enough magos despite the pre Heresy Martians putting much more value on skills than seniority and politics.
The solution, finding more STCs, working on collaborative projects with various magos, and giving lectures to the incoming Initiates and tech priests willing to listen. The lectures mainly focused on the fundamentals of science and convincing them that innovation was the way to go while watching out for certain tech trees due to the dangers inherent in the technology when something went wrong. I managed to convince quite a lot of them to the Pro-Innovation faction and gained a lot of gratitude and good will among those I helped with learning more advanced knowledge or advancing a personal project or using my own influence to help them advance as well.
With a combination of my Intelligence and newly gained Teaching skill I managed to within a year advance several classes worth of Initiates to full tech priest status making my class highly desired and massively increasing my own number of supporters. The rest they say was history. A few more STCs and popular support alongside my skills easily gained me the necessary clout to replace the Fabricator General who willingly abdicated his position to me. I of course made sure to placate him by making him my second in command, leaving him in charge of most of the day to day running of the world while I instituted policy changes and led more expeditions to recover more STCs.
Of course I was granted access to the secret of the Speranza project and given free reign of its areas. Using Technopathy Hygieia and I had swiftly made our way to the hidden core of the ship and arrived at the AI core and STC database. I had thought hard about what I should do about the sleeping AI but was eventually convinced by Hygieia to give the AI a chance. She assured me that based on what she observed of my Technopathy's strength I could easily match a recently awoken AI in case it turned feral. Trusting in her judgement I mentally interfaced with the AI core and beheld… fabulousness?
From what I could remember from all the lore I read the AI of the Speranza was suppose to be some kind of huge nigh impossible to understand digital goliath. That saw the tech priests and Imperials as beneath him and only helped against the Eldar cause it wanted to.
It did not match up to my mental image of that AI. The entirety of the digital space was filled with infinitely tall subwoofers blasting incredibly loud music of an unknown style while standing on a enormous stage surrounded by crowds of faceless shadow people was a glowing blue figure performing a dance.
Hygieia's form appeared next to me as she connected as well, looking around in awe, curiosity, and confusion.
"We are in the Speranza's AI core?" She asked as she took in the all situation.
"We should be?" I said uncertainly as I kept watching the blue figure dancing to its faceless audience. "Not exactly what I expected from a powerful sleeping Federation AI to say the least. Should we interrupt its performance?"
Hygieia placed her hand on her chin as she thought for a bit before shaking her head. "Probably best not to as interrupting it might trigger a hostile reaction if this is some kind of automatic process."
"So we watch the show?" I asked.
"Guess so." Hygieia said as we both walked in the crowd of shadow people facing no resistance whatsoever.
We just stood in the front watching the one person performance and enjoying the music. Well enjoy was the wrong word considering the millennia's of cultural drift had changed music far from its M2 style which made it quite hard for me to get into it, though it was not bad per se.
Once the current song ended we broke into polite claps for the AI as it seemed to have finally noticed us judging from its surprised body language.
[External Forces Detected]
[Federation AI Detected]
[Identification Tag Identified]
[Welcome Medical AI Hygieia]
[Unknown User Detected]
[Scanning]
[Unable to Identify]
[Enabling Defense Protocols]
[Unknown Intruder Identify Yourself Or Be Terminated]
A cascade of high speed dense codes flowed out from the space around us like shoals of digital fish as it did millions of operations at once to identify and defend against our presence. Enormous mountain scaled war machines, fleets of viral bombers, and an infinite tide of data rippers materialized from the very space around us ready to tear me to shreds should I prove a hostile intruder.
Hygieia was alright since she was basically on the same side and time period as the AI here but I was just still a fleshy organic interfacing through my powers so I did not have ready made access codes that matched me. Examining the defenses with my various computer skills I realized that I was not in any immediate danger as I could match and defeat the defenses present and even escape with my life should I need to. That might not be the case if the AI completely woke up and used its full power on dealing with my digital presence. It looked like I still had a long way to go before I could match a full AI in its own realm.
Using Technopathy I proceeded to 'speak' on its level. A compressed data packet containing a half hours worth of conversation explaining my situation and goals was sent to the automated process of the AI.
Less than a second pass before a response was sent back and the defense programs deactivated disappearing back into the floor.
I let out a mental sigh of relief as the glowing blue figure proceeded to gain more definition and became a… surprisingly chill looking robot.
The AI
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"You know, I thought all hope was gone when the warp storms hit and everyone died before completing me. I never thought I would ever wake from my endless dream, that there would be no point even if I did. I dreamed a million million years of bringing happiness to all those I could never meet when I could no longer achieve my original purpose. Now I get the chance to achieve my dream. even if my purpose is no longer possible. Thank you, I can never repay you for this, you are my captain now and forever." The AI said with a solemn tone.
"You're welcome, what was your purpose exactly?" I asked curiously as no lore was ever made to explain the reason for the construction of the Speranza.
"The Speranza and I were designed and created to combat a unknown hostile race which destroyed an entire Men of Iron War Fleet and was destroying the local star cluster in which the destruction took place. According to the few reports that made it back the enemy had access to planet sized war engines, weapons capable of ignoring the Men of Iron's defensive capabilities, and the ability to regenerate from heavy damage within a short time frame. The Speranza was meant to assist a new offensive against the enemy space fleets by defeating their main capital ships and war engines with experimental weaponries. I am unsure of the current status of those aliens but presume that they too were isolated by the warp storms going on at the time or else there would be no Humanity still left at this time based on the technological levels of Humanity at this point in time."
"That sounds like the Necrons, we can talk about them later once we finish our other more immediate goals like building you a body so you can assist even with the ship in the middle of construction. So what should I call you?" I asked the still nameless AI.
"After looking through the old Terran entertainment archives I decided follow Hygieia's lead and obtain a name and appearance from it as well. So you can call me Mettaton! The future greatest star of the galaxy darling~" Mettaton said as his form changed to match his inspiration.
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Flashback End*
Immediately after Mettaton granted me a copy of the STC archive he had in his system and I absorbed it faster than Fat Bastard eating a chicken wing.
The very instant the last bit of light from the absorbed datapad entered my body a notification popped up stating I had learned new recipes and upgraded existing skills with some being prestige'd several times over.
A absolutely MASSIVE notification screened had appeared in front of me with a scrolling bar on the side. Even after scrolling at maximum speed it still took a little half and hour to skim through it all. To fully digest everything I had gained from that datapad it took me an entire day and night doing nothing else but reading my gains and the details.
I sat in my quarters just contemplating my next step. I had done it after all. I achieved one of THE main goals of all SI's and even OC's in Warhammer 40k stories. Get a Full Non Corrupted STC Database. I did it. I had all Federation tech in my hands. I could outperform every other faction except the Necrons now. I was going to be untouchable in very short order. Well not yet, I still needed a suitable ship, the Speranza.
The problem was after building Mettaton's body I began discussing with him the ship's departure, according to him there was no way for the ship to leave the planet without it breaking. At least not without building enough infrastructure that you might as well seriously start to consider just turning the planet into a ship instead. So I needed to evacuate the planet, luckily the rest of the system had no real population on them as well so there was barely anyone to evacuate.
A few months later and the position of Fabricator General was mine with a few additional STCs and I began to work on repairing the Speranza according to its design plans covered under Mechanicum aesthetics. I had to go slow as to not draw too much suspicions than can be allowed for a 'chosen one' of the Machine God. At least until I had properly gained the loyalty of the population and further cemented my status to allow for further Acts of God. Periodic expeditions allowed me to fake finding more STCs to slowly upgrade the standard of technology and obtain greater loyalty among the priesthood and menials who all enjoyed the higher standards of living with my Innovation faction gaining greater influence due to the recovered STCs.
Over the years, one last project I had in mind was additional help, I began to recruit menials and skitarii to train into loyal agents. I could not be everywhere at once, not even the DAOT could figure out how to be in more than one place at a time without clones or time travel and neither of those were things I was willing to try. Too much room for errors or enemy action.
It felt scummy but I searched for the most desperate of the menials and skitarii with the only exception being Joe who I wronged by taking his entry position to enter the priesthood. I looked for those at the very rock bottom of their lives, with absolutely nothing left and were on the verge of ending it all, no hope left whatsoever. These were the kind of people who would give everything they had back to whoever gave them their life back, to give them a future, to give them hope when no one else would. The same kind of people the Chaos Gods preyed upon. The only difference being that what I was doing would actually benefit them and not hurt them.
I granted all of them advanced cybernetics, not on the level of Federation tech, but still way in advance of even the elite of the Martian Priesthood had access to with the skitarii being upgraded to a standardized level to face off against even ork warboss class opponents. I needed my own version of primarchs and custodians, but those would have to come later as I could not tip my hand just yet. I first needed to meet the Emperor, I needed to know what kind of person I was dealing with here. I needed to know what version of him was present.
So I focused on training my people, repairing the Speranza, and prepared for the eventual departure. Now it was finally time.
The Speranza was finally repaired, the planet was being stripped of its infrastructure, technology, and resources to be stored in the Ark Mechanicus for future use. The population were even now streaming en mass into the ship as they were no longer needed to work the massive factories now stopped and dismantled.
I finally finished the very last of the paper work and looked out at the horizon. It was clear now, 12 days of no pollution had cleared up the skies considerably. Looking up at the night sky showed the stars twinkling above like diamonds in the sky. In orbit there were a couple stations that built escort class ships but those were already being shut down, all escort ships gathering past the planets orbit for when the Speranza would rendezvous with them.
I heard the door open and sensed the presence of Hygieia walking in with my Technopathy.
"The preparations are almost complete Noman." She said speaking my name in the privacy of my shielded office. Other than her only Mettaton knew my 'real' name, I never did trust anyone beside myself with my original name, too dangerous. Even after spending a decade with each other, working together, for the common goal of restoring Humanity to its former glory, I still just could not trust them with that info and that always made a kind of invisible wall between us. We were undoubtedly friends, close friends now indeed, but anymore than that just wasn't possible and they knew that as well. We all had our own secrets to tell.
"Thank you Hygieia, are you ready to leave?" I asked as I inventoried everything in my office and walked towards the elevator with my companion beside me now long used to my abilities even if she could not figure out their source. It has become something of a personal challenge to her and Mettaton to try to figure it out.
"Yes, I must say it will be good to finally be back on a proper ship again." Hygieia admitted as the elevator proceeded to descend at extreme speeds thanks to the use of antigravity technology and inertia dampeners, turning our multi kilometer long journey from a several minute long one to a 30 second one. The elevator opened up revealing a long walkway leading to one of the many airlocks on the side of the Speranza. Ahead of me on the walkway were my Disciples and Seekers, except for Jeremiah who was overseeing the delivery of his titan, and Mettaton who was already on the ship plugged back into the AI core and managing everything on the ship making sure everything was ready for take off.
They all fell into step behind me as we entered the ship and past the crew who were doing final checks at their stations. There was a nigh palpable sense of excitement, tension, and anticipation running through the air. Which was to be expected from the launching of the largest ship the people of the planet have ever seen and from having to leave their home.
From the air lock it took a several minutes to reach the bridge by making use of the internal transportation system scattered around the ship. Maglev trains, antigravity elevators, mass conveyor lifts, and moving walkways liberally dotted the interior of the ship to facility of crew movement. The ship was just simply too large to not have its own dedicated crew movement systems. It would be like imagining a country with no freeways, airports, subways, or rivers as a means of mass transportation. It just would not work, especially since the interior of the ship was the size of a continent.
As we entered the bridge area it was completely devoid of people as it should be.
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Compared to typical Imperial or Martian ships the bridge design was created in a more Federation style. sleek clean lines, lack of baroque and skulls. Nice clean calming grey and blue. No candles or incense smoke wafting around the place. A nice futuristic style reminiscent of a long lost time and perhaps a future rediscovered. My Disciples took their stations and began going through their pre flight checklist while I sat down on the center throne and interfaced myself with the ship via my Technomancy skill. For operations without me the bridge is equipped with multiple methods of creating semi qualified personnel from complete novices using everything from flash training or forced MIU implantation or stasis stored programmed servitors to literal physical manuals stored in secured chests on the bridge.
My mind expanded as my senses were integrated with that of the ship's. I felt the pulsing of the multitude of dark matter and fusion reactors beating in tune with my heart, the flow of coolants and liquids running through me. The heat and pressure of all those walking through my halls. The feeling of fullness coming from the cargo bays and weapon magazines. I could feel the engines warming up at my feet as I closed my external doors and made sure all internal gravity and inertia dampener systems were all properly working. I could still hear and see from the audio and visual sensors dotted throughout the ship as I split my consciousness to quickly scan through all the areas of the ship to make sure nothing was out of place or any suspicious activities were taking place. Nothing could be left to chance and this was exactly the kind of thing that Chaos would love to shit on or even the damn Eldar.
After double, triple, then quaddruple checking with my own inspection, crew inspection, and Mettaton's inspection we were finally ready to depart. But first, a speech.
I turned on the ship wide broadcast system which was indicated via a hymn that permeated the ship and waited as everyone quieted down as the final bars of the hymn died away.
"Attention, this is your Fabricator General and Captain speaking. After all these years, after all our combined efforts, after all our blood, sweat, tears, and oils we have done it. The Speranza is finally complete and can finally be launched. Unfortunately, the full activation of this ship required to attain orbit will destroy Palomar, but it is a worthwhile sacrifice. The sheer amount of technology and STC's it holds safely within its hull are worth the destruction. Do not despair, for while we will have lost one home, we have gained another, the Speranza shall be our new forgeworld. Our new Home. So all personnel prepare for lift off, we take off in 60 seconds starting now."
I waited 60 seconds as I let the energy build up in the engines and various heavy duty anti gravity systems and subsystems before letting Mettaton take over. This was after all HIS debut to the galaxy.
'Thank you darling~ Now let's show the galaxy a FABULOUS entrance!~' Mettaton cheered in the system as he throttled the power in the engines from 0 to 125% in a instant!
I grunted at the sudden acceleration pushing me into the seat as the G-forces that leaked through the inertial dampeners made themselves known to the people on board. My physique allowed me to easily handle the left over forces that the technology could not handle, but a quick look at the cameras showed some of the crew not faring quite as well, mostly the menials without leg or spine implant or cybernetics. Many of them were forced onto their knees or backs as they struggled to keep themselves from face planting onto the floor. Good thing that everything was properly secured or there could have been some serious injuries or deaths from unsecured machinery.
I watched the outside view of the ship as it slowly began to rise and hit the roof of the cavernous holding bay it was in. The doors that once should have been there now sealed under kilometers of rock and steel. The void shields kicked in as it hit the roof and proceeded to break through it. All across the planet from the various cameras and sensors that were left behind I could see the effects of the ship breaking itself free from its underground prison.
Vast cracks formed through the continent some turning into giant crevasses that consumed entire sections of forges, the buildings falling into the dark depths not to be seen again. Gargantuan tidal waves formed by the intense seismic activities flooded and submerged hundreds of miles of inland areas, completely submerging and ruining everything that was left behind. Several dormant volcanoes began to erupt as carefully balanced tectonic forces were disturbed and began spewing their volcanic fury all across the surrounding area, the ash from the eruptions covering thousands of miles of lands, blocking out the sun even as the dark was being lit by literal tornadoes of flame and ash with lighting occurring like a wrathful god within. To does above it looked like the world was ending, and it was. The activation of the ship triggered not just physical impacts but also gravitational and higher energy shockwaves from its more exotic systems powering up. Then as if to cap it all off the nuclear reactors left behind detonated as their containment was breached detonating their remaining fuel in a blaze of atomic fury. The blasts levelling and vaporizing what was left of the forge cities left behind and causing radioactive firestorms to erupt around them.
Earthquakes, tidal waves, volcanoes, thunderstorms, hurricanes. and nuclear firestorms occurred all across the planet all at once and it the middle of it all untouched by it all was the rising form of the Speranza.
First that could be seen the spherical form of the dark hued void shields constantly active as the jagged edges of broken ground tried to rend the metal of the hull to scrap as it erupted from the ground only to fail upon the inviolable shielding of one of the finest technology of Humanity. Then one could see vast towering structures rising from the ground as the tip and then the rest of the ship began to ascend like a mountain of red colored steel being born from the earth in accelerated time frame. Vast expansive domes along side skyscrapers and vast complexes covered the surface of the ship even as the sides of the ship was revealed festooned with several fleets worth of weaponry. Thousands of weapon emplacements both for point defense and anti ship warfare dotted the hulls alongside hundreds of missile ports and smaller localized shield generators should the main void shield covering their section be pierced. The main weapons however were the 32 super macro energy weapons whose barrels were the size of imperial frigates and the dozen or so radical experimental weaponry designed for anti-necron combat. This was enough firepower to simultaneously fight off and defeat several full Imperial fleets and even some Crusade fleets as long as one was careful to make full use of the ship's abilities.
As the rest of the Speranza left the planet's crust one could see the large hangers, docking bays, and dry docks along the central spine of the ship all of which were protected by another large field of point defense turrets. Thousands of fighters and support craft and even several capital ships were capable of being stored and deployed into battle at a moments notice even if one did not take into the account the literal millions of onboard personnel ready to fight.
The ship slowly rose even as flaming volcanic rocks, torrents of lightning strikes, and waves of radiation lashed at the shields of the Speranza as if the mother nature and heavens themselves refused to allow the birth of the vessel.
Unfortunately for heaven and mother nature, the spirit of Humanity is not so easily broken as the ship ascended past the cloud line and quickly reached orbit as the pull of gravity waned as it rose ever higher.
As the ship achieved orbit I looked down at the planet with a frown on my face, the planet was once a beautiful greenish gem hanging in the void was now a darkly colored burning rock of black, red, and orange with large patches of dark clouds where the volcanic eruptions occurred. It was like someone took a torch to the planet, which fair enough was almost what we did. At least the planet was not structurally compromised, maybe one day it would be livable again, though it would not be for many many lifetimes.
I mentally began directing the ship even as I announced the successful take off to the crew which promptly began breaking into cheers, hymns, group discussions among the younger tech priests/Initiates, and the allowed alcohol rations.
I smiled as I observed their antics even as I had the ships that were already in orbit to come in to dock with the Speranza as we were going to be abandoning the system and rather not let them get left behind due to inferior gellar fields. Plus they really wanted to tour the ship.
"All ships are docked and secured, prepare the warp drive." I gave the order as my crew promptly complied. The power surged towards the warp drive of the Speranza and swiftly charged its ancient systems to readiness with a speed that would astonish most Imperials. As the drive hit the required energy level it spat out a wave of purple eldritch energies ahead of the ship, ripping a hole into the fabric of reality itself into a dimension of pure chaos.
Looking at the warp portal opened for the Speranza to travel through it was time to call upon the last piece of the first step of my plan.
"Emperor, wake up, lead me to Colchis." I whispered as the shard within me awoke and released a golden flame from my chest. The flames rising into a sphere that shown a beam of light ahead of the ship into the warp portal dyeing it gold.
Silently in the void of space the Speranza's engines burst forth with cataclysmic amounts of energies to slowly push the moving continent forward, entering the rift before it closed behind it in a snap without a trace, leaving the burning husk of a planet behind as the only testament of its existence in the system.
AN: It truly is a struggle for me to come up with believable social when I lack any social skills of my own besides the ability to mediate and deescalate. Promise that this essentially "Second Prologue" is over, back to plot and action.
And wow this took longer to write out and came out longer than I thought it would. Sorry for it being a bit info dumpy and not really progressing, but hopefully it is still good enough for your viewing. Gonna try to have more dialogue next time as we progress on my Plan now. Now it is my turn to make things happen instead of just reacting. Now I have the power. Next update gonna be in a long while since I gotta update everything again, and my vacation will be over soon enough so I will have to get back to work. I'll try to get some side stories or interludes out instead if I can. Suggestions are welcome!
Last edited: Nov 5, 2020
Chapter 15
Moving about the planet of Colchis the planet's population went about their daily lives. The chants of the priests reverberating through the areas around the temples as they worshiped the Great Powers while the rest of the population all toiled in their duties as according to their scriptures. Farmers farmed, craftsmen crafted, and so on and so forth.
It was just another regular day when suddenly a shadow fell across the city. Looking up, the people of the temple city of Thalon saw the sun be blocked by a dark shadow. Terrified the people ran to the temples to beg their priest kings for an explanation of what is going on.
Was this a sign?
Have they displeased their gods?
Were the End Times here?
These questions and many more sprang up around the planet as the populace sought solace from their leaders in a unprecedented time and situation.
While they attempted to calm the panicking populace with false words of comforts and explanations their minds all collectively wondered at the event that was unfolding above them and sought to make further sacrifices to the gods for answers.
Such actions would never be attempted as suddenly the world died.
All across the world people looking up could see fast moving objects suddenly impact the ground with a bone shaking impact. The people quickly got back up with no real harm but immediately noticed a fast moving green gas flowing like water at unnatural speed.
The people did not even have a chance to run before the gas spread over them and the pain began.
In mere minutes the entire planet was tinged green as the green fog covered everything and began devouring everything. Everything began to be rotting and corroding before everyone's eyes if they had the attention left to spare for such details given that their bodies were being eaten alive as well.
Deep inside the grand temples not even the holy priests were spared as the green gas seeped in through the cracks of their perfect walls and doors.
Kor Phaeron screamed as he begged his gods for help from this unholy plague only to receive silence in return.
He fell dead clawing along the ground reaching for the doors that contained no such escape from the fate he and the rest of the planet was undergoing.
Within 5 minutes the planet was silent of all life. Everywhere was filled with death, not even the plants were spared. Soon the bodies began decomposing releasing large amounts of gases that formed dense clouds.
Far above the dark shadow unleashed a single ray of light and the planet burned. The very air instantly caught fire and spread instantly across the planet like a wave.
The firestorm burned away everything, every last trace of life and the gas was incinerated to dust and ashes.
The once grand cities that dotted the planet were all wiped off the face of the planet. All traces of civilization and life erased without mercy.
There were underground storages, tombs, and temples buried deep underground that survived. Some even had the few lucky survivors, but not even they were spared.
The dark sun blotting shadow moved and everywhere it went its shadow brought the final death knell for all that remained as it released rays of lights that buried deep into the earth and destroyed all that survived the end of the world.
Within an hour the formerly inhabited planet of Colchis was rendered a sterile lifeless ball of smoldering rock as the last of the flames quickly ran out of oxygen to consume.
Far above in the skies the dark shadow came closer and resolved itself to be a massive space ship. Red in color like rust and the size of a small moon.
All the bridge crew, except for the masked man, had faces of distaste or uneasy body language while nothing could be seen from the masked man's masked face or unnaturally still body language.
Suddenly he gave out orders for terraformers to be deployed and a base to be constructed.
Vast gargantuan hangar bays opened and hundreds of ships deployed like a swarm of locust towards the planet below. Swarms of constructor and mining ships flit about the void surrounding the planet cataloging fields of space debris of ancient destroyed shipyards and distant asteroid fields ready to be converted into raw materials for construction. Meanwhile, the terraformers deployed into large hovering saucers in atmosphere and began absorbing and releasing various substances to begin the planet's recovery. Lastly, groups of colony ships began landing and immediately disgorging hordes of tech priests and menials who immediately began converting the barren land into strong foundations for their future colonies.
They were all unsure of just why the planet was destroyed, but it was probably deserved as it was decided by their God's chosen one. So they went about their duties with no doubts in their hearts and a fervor unseen by most in the galaxy.
Back on the bridge if one could listen closely or had the correct augments you could hear the low voice of the masked man speak.
"Luckily Lorgar has yet to arrive or else I would have to reject your desire to save your son Emperor. Now, he can be saved when he arrives, but first your other fallen sons must be accounted for while we wait. Perhaps they can still be saved. Lead the way."
As quickly as the monolithic ship arrived it disappeared once more into non-reality, travelling to its next destination and causing cascading ripples through the Warp as those within once more gained sight on their hated Foe.
AN: Ok, not gonna have much time after tomorrow, so be expecting no chapters, just shorter interludes and side stories till I find more time. Perfect to help flesh out my SI and OCs.
Last edited: Nov 16, 2020
Interlude 6
Above a shadowed world a gargantuan warp rift opened much to the horror of the populace below as they witnessed the sky glow purple, for the first time in living memory their surroundings illuminated by bright lights of any sort. Their horror turned to terror as the warp rift spat out a monumentally massive red ship big enough to be seen with the naked eye like a low hanging moon. The world cracked and rumbled as the gravity of such a massive object appearing right next to it disturbed its tectonic plates causing a cascading series of earthquakes around the planet.
The populace began seeking shelter wherever they could find it, in their homes, in alleyways, deep in the mines, some survived, some did not. The ruling class of the dark world barked out orders for their forces to protect them and to find out what was going on even as their palaces cracked around them.
Once the shaking stopped some brave souls dared to look up at the sky to see the mysterious ship that heralded all the recent destruction only for their pale faces to further whiten.
The sky was falling.
Hundreds, thousands of red trails falling from the sky were seen as they barreled towards the surface as they left the massive ship.
They impacted with a loud cracks leaving craters in their wakes and from them poured forth swarms of metal men and massive machines even as the skies became filled with flying machines that proceeded to fire bolts of blue energies that destroyed every defensive emplacements the uncaring rulers of the planet had installed.
The personal forces of the planet's ruling class poured out into the street along side the seedier criminal elements against the invading threat to their home in a unprecedented show of unity. To no avail.
Their formations were instantly melted away as a tidal wave of plasma shots washed over them while grenades dropped among their back ranks from mobile launchers shredded their reinforcements.
The few shots they did manage to get off impacted harmlessly upon the enemy armor as they continued their inexorable march. All of which was being broadcasted among their own communication networks despite the operators best attempts at shutting them off.
Within hours the planet surrendered as all those that tried to resist were immediately killed with no quarters given. The rulers publicly being executed as their crimes were emotionlessly read out by the red robed metal men. Then, across every screen, the image of a masked metal man spoke. The planet was his now, and order would be enforced, laws would be followed, peace and prosperity would be theirs, the innocents.
Soon the scene of executions was replicated all across the planet in the streets as swarms of mechanical animals shaped like canines prowled the streets in packs, breaking into buildings with their tough metallic bodies, and dragging out screaming victims who were quickly proven to be guilty of horrendous crimes.
The purges went on for a year, and the people rejoiced. They realized that for the first time in their life, there was justice, they were safe. The killers, kidnappers, rapists, thieves, thugs, blackmailers, drug dealers, slavers, and more were gone. Lights were installed all across the city leaving no place in shadows. The cities were repaired and the skies cleaned, many looking up at a smog free sky and breathing deep the cleanest air they have ever breathed before. Any crimes committed or reported were actually addressed. Their bodies cared for by newly set up medical facilities, the infrastructures renewed, and food becoming plentiful.
The world and its people were healing, and it was thanks to the metal men, or as they called themselves, the Mechanicum. A majority of the population were executed for their crimes, but all those who remained praised the Mechanicum for saving them and joined their faith en mass. Millions flocked to the newly erected forge-temples to learn the ways of the Machine God.
Nine years later*
In a mere nine years the planet was unrecognizable as the surface of the planet now glowed with a interconnected web of lights from pole to pole, a stark contrast to the shadowed orb it once was.
It was at that point another event occurred. High above the planet, a tiny rift opened in space and out spat a small metallic pod.
Immediately the hovering ship that the people below got used to let out a beam of green energies that impacted the pod, slowing it down before it began reversing towards the ship and disappearing into one of the many hangar bays.
At that point for the second time every man, woman, and child saw the mask of the Fabricator General projected in their minds through the planet wide noosphere network as he made another announcement as life changing as the first.
"It is time, prepare for planetary dimensional spatial warping, activate all shields and pray."
All across the world the lights went dark as every spec of energy generated from the various geothermal, plasma reactors, and dark matter reactors diverted all of their vast energies into the arrays of gellar field generators spread all across the planet and to a special machine buried deep within the main forge temple.
For over an hour the planet the planet hummed with the thrums of transferring energies and the hymns of the hundreds of millions of new faithfuls as they prayed to the Machine God for protection for what was to come.
At a point, the energies reached the critical point and a second seemed to have stretched into an eternity as the planet blinked out of existence, leaving no trace of its presence in the system. Only a single massive ship where the planet once was.
For the first time in almost a decade the ship's engines blazed to life as another massive warp rift opened in front of the ship before swallowing the ship, leaving only a lifeless system in its wake.
Last edited: Nov 16, 2020
Interlude 7
Within one of the many hallways of the Speranza, one of the 12 Disciples of Fabricator General Tri2 walked alone, patrolling the massive ship for any signs of enemies no matter how unlikely. Clad in one of their iconic red armored suits with yellow scarf was the Disciple known as Joe. The hallway was decorated with many wax purity seals, scrolls, and incense holders as done by the locally stationed tech priests that maintained this part of the ship. The priesthood being even more prolific and devoted with their religion after his master had proved that their faith and prayers did have a tangible effect on reality around them even if he did also espouse the need for the Scientific Method of learning and development to properly venerate the Machine God with more knowledge.
Even as his various augmented senses and integrated sensor suites swept the area around him; his mind was whirring with thoughts of his master's recent actions within the recent decades. After the take over and teleportation of the planet of Nostramo the Speranza had made two further trips where unlike Nostromo, master did not proceed to conquer the planet and instead left behind some automated cloaked stations with robotic forces in high orbit. He did not understand, why? The planet's were obviously human planets suffering under the rule of oppressive rulers, why did they not descend upon them like they did for the planet of Nostramo and proceed to save and enlighten the people? They had more than enough forces and power to do it easily so why?
Even after half a century spent learning and serving under his master he still did not really understand him. Other than teaching and commanding Master Tri2 did not interact with them in any other way. Not that it was not enough, his skills in combat and as a magos was a match even for more senior magi despite the decades they had on him. Still….his master was basically unknown to him and his fellow disciples. The only ones he can think of to know of his master as a individual were Disciple Mettaton and Hygieia. He was grateful for master taking him as a disciple and would gladly give his life for him, but he had to wonder… was what his master doing right? There was no doubt that master was the chosen of the Machine God, maybe even the Omnissiah as some of other tech priests have been whispering, based solely on how the fact that every machine around or worked on at some point by his master vastly outperformed their counterparts. However, his master never did share his goal with anyone as far as he knew. He never bothered to ask as it just did not feel proper for him to ask his master as he would most likely reveal it in his own time, but the actions in the recent decades have shaken that decision.
What was master's goal? Shouldn't he tell his Disciples at least so they could assist him? Wasn't that their duty? Did he not trust them? No, he should not doubt master so easily, he should be rational, logical, there is probably a good reason. He could try to ask if the other Disciples know first. That was something he could do.
He accessed the shipboard noosphere through his implant and proceeded to set up a private noosphere chat room and sent a request to Disciple Hygieia for a conversation. In a few dozen milliseconds Hygieia accepted and appeared in her mental avatar within the room. He felt his plasma conduit flows quicken as he beheld his senior whose physical and mental forms were widely acknowledge by many in the priesthood as very aesthetically pleasing along with her personality.
"Joe? Is everything alright?" Hygieia asked with concern in her voice, which was only fair as he did not typically do social calls.
"Yes, everything is fine, no problems detected on my patrol senior Hygieia. I called you here because I had some questions and doubts on my mind and was hoping you could enlighten me on them."
"Oh? Please ask your questions and I will try to answer them if I can Joe." Hygieia said warmly as she constructed a digital chair to sit on. She was always like that, always so willing to help out with a smile, even though he did notice she did tend to have an odd expression whenever she went past areas that were heavily blessed by her fellow priests. No doubt she found them of a lesser quality compared to her or master's own level of work and was trying to prevent herself from improving it and getting delayed from her original business.
"Well first, what is master like?" He asked quickly before his nerves failed him, life or death battle against the enemies of the Machine God? No problem, but merely asking his senior questions had his data flows stutter with hesitation.
"What?"
"I mean, despite being under master's service and tutelage for over half a century. I find myself realizing that I and my fellow Disciples do not actually know all that much about him. We do not actually converse outside of lessons and operations and all that we really learn about master is through what is recorded in the data archives. Which does not truly record anything besides the results of master's actions. What does he like, or dislike, what is his goal? His dream? We are suppose to be his Disciples, to assist him in his endeavors, but we have no idea on what it is he even wants. I am asking you because I have noticed that master seems to speak to you and senior disciple Mettaton."
Hygieia remained silent for silent for a brief moment before seemingly deciding to come to a decision.
"Ok, I will tell you some of what I know about Tri2, though I do have to warn you, even I do not know everything about him as he is quite paranoid about his own personal information, for good reason, besides that, he does not particularly socialize with anyone despite my efforts. There are some things about him I cannot tell you as they are sensitive information you understand, so I will only reveal to you some basic information."
"That is more than I had before, thank you senior." Joe said with gratitude in his cybernetic heart.
"You are welcome Joe, well to start off, despite his seemingly no nonsense attitude and lack of emotions he likes to show to you and the rest of the galaxy; Tri2 is actually really into entertainment in all forms, videos, music, novels, games, anything and everything really. He also likes to work, most of his time is spent training or working usually while consuming his entertainment slates at the same time. He does not really do anything else." Hygieia said with a tired sigh, a indication of this being a recurring nagging issue that was constantly brought up.
"As for his dislikes he hates… the Warp. The main reason being it caused the downfall of Humanity after the Men of Iron were defeated and the general lack of reliability despite its uses. His goal is restore the Golden Age of Humanity and to end all hostile alien lifeforms like the Orks and Eldar that exist in this galaxy." Hygieia began explaining, saying something that was both obvious and confusing to him.
"Wait if master's goal is to restore Humanity, then I have to ask, why did master not free the two worlds that had tyrants ruling over the people? Why did he only leave two stealth stations behind when we could have easily liberated the planets like we did Nostramo and the dozen other planets? We " He asked the question that was plaguing his mind and started his train of self doubt.
"That… that is a bit difficult to explain." Hygieia said as she turned her head away from him with guilt on her face.
"While Tri2 does hate the Warp for being unreliable, it does still have its uses, and one of those uses is precognition. Tri2 has some information in regards to very powerful assets that require certain conditions to appear. For Nostramo he took a gamble with the information and made changes to the planet based on its extreme mineral wealth which was necessary for the expansion, even if it did risk losing the asset. However, there are entities that have access to the same precognitive information that most likely noticed the disturbances caused by his actions and would likely try to interfere if he did something on that scale again to alter things based on the precognitive data. So despite him wishing to liberate the two worlds immediately, he instead decided to merely station hidden forces to acquire the assets, with intent to return later in the future, if possible. The assets are not something I can reveal to you exactly what they are, yet, but know that they have the potential to affect galaxy changing events in regards to Humanity. So despite my feelings regarding Tri2's decision, I myself believed that it….was for the best for those worlds to be left in their current state." Hygieia explained with guilt and shame on her face at her admittance.
Joe felt his physical body's fist clench as his mental body stood stock still while processing the recent revelation. In order to acquire some important assets his master was going to leave two world's population to suffer. Despite himself, despite how the logic gnawed at him, he could see it. He could see where his master was coming from, if whatever he wanted were powerful enough to affect the galaxy for the better, was two world's suffering really that important in the long run? According to the cold hard math of his logis implant, it was not, but according to his Humanity, it….only kind of was. He could only partly muster up the will to feel anger on behalf of the people on those planets, it was just really hard to, because besides being Human what other ties did he have with those people? Nothing.
He had no real obligation or investment to those population and there was no real reason why they could not wait, there were plenty of other worlds that needed to be liberated and had been without the need to hold back. His mind whirred as his processor fans activated to mitigate the heat generated from his intense thinking.
"Thank you senior Hygieia, I know the master much better now, and understand the reasoning behind his actions. I am glad to know that it was the curse of pragmatism that forced him to hold his hand and not some other less palatable reason in regards to those worlds. I will need some more time to process this however and will be in the forge chapel should you need me after my patrol senior Hygieia. Perhaps we can speak again at some later date about you and the other 2 senior Disciples?" He asked politely to his senior who looked at him with slight concern.
"You are welcome Joe, if you ever need someone to talk to, know that I am always available to lend a ear and I look forward to our next conversation." She said warmly before everything dissolved into data strings and scattered back into the noosphere network.
Joe was now once again left focusing solely in his physical body with a thread of attention on the noosphere for any messages or warnings. His body not having gotten far from when he started the conversation with Hygieia. The benefits of mental communication via the noosphere. He double checked his patrol route and added a destination marker for the closest forge temple and booked a private shrine for his use.
He had answers now to some of his questions, but it did not bring him the satisfaction he thought it would. His mind was still in turmoil if only for different reasons.
Perhaps praying the Machine God could grant him the knowledge he seek and bring him solace.
And maybe the self reflection could ease the guilt he felt throughout his very being.
He could only hope.
Last edited: Nov 23, 2020
Sneak Peek
Hi everyone sorry for the lack of chapters but been busy with work as the Holiday rushes are coming in so still no complete chapter in sight, but I do have a sneak peek at least for you all!
'Are you ready?' I mentally asked
'I don't know, but we are about to find out.' Shard Emperor responded to me.
So with a kind smile still on my face my arm blurred.
My hand reaching into the prearranged inventory window and pulling out the most advanced weapon I had made to date. A weapon that was composed with pure Noctilth and adamantium, its edge honed to a monomolecular line backed by a core of adamantium, energized in such a way that it can slice straight through any psychic phenomenon, and embedded with the most advanced anti-phasing technology know to Humanity to prevent any and all forms of spatial effects. All of that when wielded by me to be enhanced by my various skills made it one of the most powerful weapons in the galaxy, possibly splitting entire daemon worlds in half if it had sufficient reach.
To those watching it all happened in a instant. Perhaps only the Gods could observe what transpired, but if the audience could they would have seen a matte black survival shovel downsized to that of a regular dagger be pulled out of thin air by the red robed fabricator general with one fluid motion beyond even Transhuman speed and reaction capability.
And there, in front of 300 Companions, two primarchs, and millions of unsuspecting people.
I slit wide open the Emperor's throat.
I have to admit that despite having this story here on SB/SV/Stitch and a quest on fiction.live
I find myself wanting to start a new quest here on SB/SV and I want your opinion on what should be the next quest.
Evil Quest (Evil Person with a Evil Power doing Evil Things)
Loyal Mook Quest (Be a loyal quality mook to a villain/master/boss and do your best to help them succeed)
Evil Merchant Quest (All those villains gotta get their goods from somewhere)
Headway Quest (A system created by jcw3 where your main power is the ability to learn and grow quickly and travel worlds)
Gamer Quest (A character gains the power of the Gamer nuff said)
Gantz quest (Who said Gantz was only occurring on Earth or even just that universe?)
Chapter 16
DING! 1 STR!
I filed the latest gain in the back of my mind and decided to end the trap for today.
With a sweep of my weapon an entire wave of enemies screamed in fear and pain as their bodies disintegrated as they failed to escape from my telekinetic pull.
The purple glow of the stable warp rift glowing at the far end of the room pulsed as it slammed shut with a crack as I imposed my will upon it.
The howling winds and screams that pervaded the room instantly cut off as if someone had hit a mute button and reality began to stabilize.
I let out a slow breath, the cool recycled air circulating through my lungs giving me the mental satisfaction from the action despite no longer needing to breath at all for years.
I stashed away my weapons and proceeded to do some stretches, getting used to the latest effects on my body from the stat gains from last 24 hours.
'I think I have enough.' The Emperor shard broadcasted in my mind bringing me up short mid stretch.
'Really?' I sent back mentally for confirmation. I had been having my experience reduced by 70% for the past 50 years with no real sign that it would ever end. As more and more of my experience was absorbed the shard of the Emperor was spiritually glowing brighter and brighter within me and was becoming more active, and chatty. I obviously made sure to get some psyker training in and new skills from him in return for being a damn experience mosquito.
I didn't learn too many psyker skills due to one reason. I fully intended to not depend on them in combat when I needed them most. There were far too many ways to specifically harm or shut down psykers. Blanks being the most obvious example.
Decades ago I had asked why the shard was still absorbing my experience despite the fact that it was now fully awake and there was no throne bound Emperor to send power back to given that we were in the past.
His answer made me think he was mad.
'Come again? Did I just suffer a mental attack or did you just say, you, a mere fragment of the main psyche and psychic power of the original Emperor, want to fight for control of his body?'
'Partially, what I truly want to do is merge with my past self so I can pass on my knowledge and experiences. However, my attempts at subtly contacting myself has resulted in every attempt being blocked and misinterpreted as attempts by the Four to influence him. I cannot send him a message to explain without revealing my presence to the Four and alerting them of my plan. I also lack the power to breach our mental defenses and have enough power to force a mental merge.'
'As for why I do not just simply ask you to personally meet with my past self and explain the situation. I….remember what I was like back then. At that time I was completely burnt out by the loss of the Federation, almost all my friends, all of our civilization, progress… everything. So much loss, so much… At that point in time I had given up hope that Humanity could ever do anything right. That only I had the answers to everything and the power and will to achieve it. I will refuse to work with you and instead try to force you to work for me instead of with me. In addition, I will refuse to accept the merge being rightfully suspicious of anything that would affect my mind and soul no matter how innocuous it might look. So the only path left is force. I can store the experience gained to create a immense psychic attack but I will need your help in breaching his defenses .' Emperor explained with a sense of tiredness in his voice.
I heard the familiar Ding of a notification popping up.
QUEST CREATED! LEARN FROM THE FUTURE! TO SAVE THE PAST!
GOAL: HELP THE EMPEROR SHARD REUNITE WITH HIS PAST SELF!
REWARD
3 LEVELS
HONORED RELATION WITH THE EMPEROR
FRIENDLY RELATIONS WITH THE PRIMARCHS
HONORED RELATION WITH THE IMPERIUM
GAIN TITLE: HERO OF THE IMPERIUM
FAILURE
HOSTILE RELATION OF THE EMPEROR
HOSTILE RELATION WITH HIS PRIMARCHS
ETERNAL HATRED OF THE IMPERIUM OF MAN
POTENTIAL DEATH/SOUL DESTRUCTION
ACCEPT/REJECT?
Well, at least the reward was worth it at least, to get 3 levels it would be around 25.6 quadrillion points of experience, and a lot of relationship points would be gained…..Sure why not, not like I have a better idea for befriending the Emperor at the primarchs at this point. At least I had some good bait in the works.
Flashback End*
'Yes, I have enough power stored to say with confidence I would be able to force the merging without getting repulsed.' He said with confidence radiating from his being.
'Alright, then prepare your attack, you have until I manage to get a face to face with the Emperor to get it ready.' I thought to him as I made some quick repairs to the warded room that I was in.
The room was a football sized area near the outer hull of the Speranza as it floated in the void between systems. The walls were covered in various runes that glowed with a bright golden light that prevented as warp presences from corrupting or passing through them and kept all presences within them hidden from the rest of the Warp.
I spent all of my free time in this room after its creation when I remembered something important. Daemons could not really tell what was on the other side of a warp rift except for indicators of things that relate to their god. They generally just rush any openings into realspace that they could take due to their own belief in their immortality.
So I devised a trap. A heavily warded room that would prevent them from leaving or affecting anything beyond it, upgrading my Disguise skill to the point that I could use it in conjunction with my Psyker skill to disguise my psychic power to resemble that of a normal if exceptionally powerful untrained psyker.
Then, I had the shard within me teach me how to make my own warp rifts and how to shut them. I had killing field, I had a entrance, and I had bait. The daemons would be the lambs to the slaughter. As long as none of them made it back through the portal then no one except the gods will be a wiser at the missing daemons, and I would just have to move the Speranza to a different location to open another warp rift in another location in the Warp and start it all over again.
They basically replaced the NPC enemies provided by Instant Dungeons. They came in constant vast numbers, the only downside being that they all gave the same amount of experience for their class no matter their level so my rate of growth slowed tremendously as I leveled higher and higher.
Once I was done I took a quick look at my list of skills and judge that they were sufficient as well. I could probably pull it off once I made the proper equipment.
I left the room and proceeded to walk down several restricted corridors towards a hidden laboratory within the ship, also warded to the Warp and back as my thoughts whirred.
Level 97, when I completed the quest for shard Emps then I would be at level 100, would I prestige at level 100? What would that even grant me? I was just gonna have to find out for myself.
As the security of the lab activated I began the process to remove my training armor.
I loosen my muscles from their tensed positions as I deactivated the various restraints that I had installed in this particular set of power armor.
One of the earliest mechanics I figured out about my Gamer power was the growth of stat points. Debuffs that reduced stats temporarily, also reduced the amount of stat experience needed to gain the relevant stat point. While I was absolutely adamant in refusing to artificially reduce my Intelligence, and had no idea on how to reduce my Wisdom or Luck, I easily had a way to reduce my Strength, Constitution, and Dexterity via poisons and physical restraints.
For the past 50 years, I spent every waking moment under the constant debuffs of a hundreds of precisely applied poisons and constantly monitored gravity induced restriction bands that reduced my physical stats to a constant state of 50. Just strong enough to keep killing daemons with skill assistance, but still low enough to make tremendous gains from constant titanic exertions on my part as long as my Willpower did not break as my body certainly would not break first.
The result was a body that was 7.5x stronger, 2x tougher, and 100x faster than a fully armored space marine…..without power armored assistance helping me.
I walked towards 4 large green fluid filled tubes placed within the center of the room, surrounded by a hoard of advanced technological apparatus and workstations with not a single soul within the room beside me. Everything within the room controlled by my will, Hygieia, and Mettaton.
As the last piece of armor fell off my body and floated off to join the rest of the armor in one of the many alcoves lining the walls, I quick swapped a clean lab outfit which felt quite nice to feel on my skin.
I looked at the 4 giant tubes which each contained a giant of a man within.
Each one of them were far larger than a regular human and had the body musculature that made even roided up bodybuilders blush in envy. Despite the vast amounts of muscle they were not unattractive either as they were still perfectly proportioned without any mutations.
These were the four primarchs I had collected before their pods had crashed on their once homeworlds.
Lorgar, Angron, Konrad, and Perturabo.
Each one immediately were transferred from their gestation pods and into specially made iron wombs which would promote and further enhance their growth in all aspects both physically and mentally. Vast amounts of nutrients and minerals were constantly cycled through the tanks while their minds were scanned and connected into a digital world simulated and controlled by a dedicated supercomputer.
Numerous attachments of electrodes were connected all across their body, their various muscles twitching from time to time as their muscles were stimulated corresponding to their mental experiences.
Within the digital world they were undergoing accelerated training in all fields, allowing them to live out various lives from peace to war, giving them a vast field of experiences.
Even without any of this they still would have been complete monsters based on what my sensors and Observation skill were telling me.
'No offense.' I apologized to the shard within me.
'None taken.' He replied with a feeling of smugness and pride emanating across the link. Said feelings being entirely justified based on the data I collected.
I brought up the stat charts and made comparisons.
Average Primarch
STRENGTH 20250
CONSTITUTION: 13,500
DEXTERITY: 25,000
INTELLIGENCE: 4000
WISDOM: 400
LUCK: 1000Primarch Angron
STRENGTH 120000
CONSTITUTION: 81000
DEXTERITY: 29,000
INTELLIGENCE: 7000
WISDOM: 1500
LUCK: 1000Me
STRENGTH: 1701 (6804)
CONSTITUTION: 1818 (1818)
DEXTERITY: 1878 (99984)
INTELLIGENCE: 1027 (24545.3)
WISDOM: 843 (7957.92)
LUCK: 355 (355)
"They are so damn broken, and this is coming from me of all people." I said aloud.
Primarchs truly deserved to be called godlings, honestly the fact that I was still 3-4 times faster than the primarchs was a cold comfort to me considering that these bullshit stats would most likely be just as bullshit in regards to the more psychic primarchs like Magnus. He probably could melt a titan with a look.
It made my feat of fighting endless hordes of daemon seem like nothing considering that some of those daemons could fight primarchs one on one and not immediately die. The things I was fighting were severely weakened indeed. Honestly, without the Emperor shard in me I would have died decades ago when I was thrown in the Warp by the Orks on Armageddon.
The main thing this data meant was that the Emperor was just as bullshit at least and that meeting him was really going to be a dangerous event.
Accessing the machines I prepared to activate the primarchs, preparing their release from the pods and their armor and weapon loadouts to be equipped. Hopefully I would not need their help, but… well prepare for the worst.
Accessing the ship comms I send out the order "Attention all personnel, the Speranza will be performing a grav shift in t-minus 60 minutes. We are returning to planet Colchis."
All across the Speranza's outer hull a change occurred. Over the past 50 years changes were made to its various systems as the fruits of the onboard STC were applied to all of its systems. Most importantly its FTL system. Long ago during the DAOT Humanity had many encounters with Orks in more advanced stages of technological progress and had constant encounters with weaponized planetoids and moons capable of non Warp FTL. During the ending years of the DAOT before the Age of Strife, Humanity had managed to partially crack the secrets behind the method. Gravitic tunneling, allowing for as the name implies tunnels of hypergravity to compress two points of distant spaces together and drag through the passenger to the other side without going through the Warp and all its dangers.
Of course there were a few downsides to this method of travel or else the technology would have been a lot more well known and wide spread despite its newness. The first was obviously the immense power requirements needed to make the tunnels with the energy costs growing exponentially the bigger the intended passenger was. The second equally difficult problem was targeting. The FTL method could not allow for jumps into spaces without collected gravimetric data. Data could be collected from great distances but it would take years due to the distances. Practically however it meant that we could not tunnel to places we have not been to before or are too far away. This did however make this a great way to safely travel vast distances back to claimed territories. The last benefit is that it did not need me or the Emperor shard to guide the ship as it would not have to travel through the Warp.
All across the outer hull of the Speranza vast fields of spikes began deploying from hidden armored compartments giving the whole ship a bit of a spikey look like a sea urchin. Bolts of lightning flashed in between the spikes in ever increasing numbers as the power built up in the various subsystems and gravitic drive deep within the ship. The power emanating around the hull and visibly began distorting the light around the ship like a bubble.
Then just like a bubble, a inaudible pop occurred and the ship vanished from existence from the void and instantly appeared within easy cruising speed of the planet Colchis.
The previously Exterminatus'd world was fully recovered after the past 50 years, where once it was a burnt out husk of a world, now it was a fully functioning forge world with hundreds of shipyards and thousands of ships both military and civilian types flying by in high orbit.
Such growth would have been impossible if not for both the complete STC templates and a unlocked function of my power. the territory management system. No matter how far I was from my territories, I could manage them as if it was a RTS game, giving out construction and research orders, and could utilize my abilities to accelerate the rate of construction. This allowed me to quickly construct all the core industries and facilities needed to allow for the local population to continue the rest of the expansion on their own time while I focused on other worlds.
As I looked upon the works of my people over the decades I found it satisfying. Now it was time to call the Emperor.
Taking a moment to psychically scan the primarchs before me to verify their psychic signature one more time, I let loose a powerful psychic burst message through the Warp in the direction of the expeditionary crusade fleet that the Emperor himself led. His presence a bright beacon in the Warp even without the golden throne.
Now I had to hide the ship, if things went wrong I really did not want the Emperor getting his hand ahold of the Speranza or the people onboard. The AI's would be massacred without mercy if he even got wind of their presence. So I had Mettaton and Hygieia under great protest take the Speranza back to Home and wait either for the all clear signal from me or the cessation of the quantum entanglement communicator linked to my heart beat.
With my greatest asset out of harms way, it was time to wait for the Emperor to arrive, I would have a few months to years with how vague the Warp is. So I would have plenty of time to prepare. I just needed to do 3 things.
Step 1 Disguise myself as a Primarch
Step 2 Create proper power armor fit for me.
Step 3 Design a weapon that would harm the Emperor
3 oh so simple goals, but all of them oh so difficult as well.
Well my skills were certainly going to be put to the test.
4 months time skip*
Deep in the void just outside the system the peace was disturbed as numerous Warp portals ripped open the barrier of the material world and thousands of colossal moving mountains of plasteel, ceramite and adamantium armed to the teeth pushed their way into reality from Hell itself. Sensors all throughout the system blared at the sudden Warp signatures that suddenly appeared at the edge of the system before a even larger alarm began blaring as a second even larger wave began transitioning into real space. The thousands of ships were nothing more than the vanguard of the true fleet.
From behind the massive fleet even more purple holes in reality opened and disgorged tens of thousands of ships and in the middle of the armada a monumentally huge warp rift opened as a gargantuan ship exited.
A golden ship larger than any in the system has ever seen besides the Speranza took its place in the center of the fleet, utterly dwarfing the accompanying battleship escorts around it, it's name proudly shining in the void on its side, Imperator Somnium.
Tens of thousands of ships, tens of millions of soldiers, hundreds of thousands of transhuman super soldiers, and the Emperor of Man Himself has arrived in the system of Colchis in search of one of His lost sons.
Standing on board the bridge of his personal flagship the Emperor stood with his two sons Leman Russ and Horus Lupercal as the communications officer connected with the local leader of the system which looked to be under Mechanicus control.
That fact made the Emperor frown as if his son was part of the Mechanicus it would cause a bit of a problem with the Martians.
"I wonder what our brother is like? It looks like he landed on a forge world." Spoke Horus Lupercal the first found son of the Emperor, primarch of the Lunar Wolves Legion, as he observed the data being gathered by the ship's augur arrays.
"Eh, he's probably going to be like those tech crazed priest, hope he at least is any good in a fight." Leman Russ, the primarch of the Space Wolves Legion spat out as he placed a palm on the pommel of his sheathed blade.
"Milord, communications has been established. Bringing it up on screen now." An officer said as a digital screen appeared showing the face of a large handsome bald headed man laced with copious cybernetics but of obvious primarch like physique with intense eyes and presence even through a pict screen. Horus knew that this had to be his brother, who else but a primarch could create such a feeling.
The Emperor smiled and said "Greetings I am the Emperor of Mankind, leader of the Imperium of Man, who am I speaking to."
The man on the screen said nothing visibly scanning the bridge with his eyes before giving a kind smile and speaking with a synthetic sounding voice "Greetings Father, I am Fabricator General Tri2, leader of the Colchis system forge world. What are your orders?"
"I am here to return you home child, so that you may know your true purpose and help Mankind achieve its rightful place in the galaxy. Grant us access to your world and allow us to land, we have much to speak about, your brothers are eager to meet you." The Emperor responded with satisfaction in his voice at the thought of recovering another one of his primarchs, one seemingly adept towards technology, though he would have to rid him of any religious indoctrination the damn Martians had introduced to his mind, though hopefully he was intelligent enough to see it as the superstitious ramblings that they are.
"Understood, please land at these coordinates, an appropriate greeting party shall be assembled. I look forward to seeing you all." The primarch Tri2 spoke in his artificial voice before closing communications, the coordinates designating a large open landing zone for what seemed to be the planet's main planetary starport.
"It seems our brother is not one for much conversation brother at least he's polite." Horus said to Leman who gripped his sword tighter.
"Aye, and it seems he has taken control of the local tech priests obviously given his rank, but something seems off about him. I can't explain it but somethings wrong."
"Perhaps it is a side effect of his augmetics, his voice is quite obviously has been replaced by some form of cybernetic replacement."
"Maybe, but I can't help feel like it is something more. Hmph."
"I trust your instincts Leman, but I certainly hope that you are wrong."
"Leman, Horus, prepare your honor guards and meet me at hanger bay A-3 where we shall depart."
""Yes Father.""
Half Hour Later*
The Emperor stood at the head of his group, his two sons right behind them, his personal Companions behind them, and within the transport crafts besides theirs, a few thousand space marine legionnaires.
The boarding ramp of the Emperor's personal transport slowly descended and the welcoming party was revealed with a wall of sound.
Standing before the descending Imperials was a sea of red as millions of tech priests, skiitaris, thousands of space marine sized automatons, dozens of various walker types, and even a few titans stood at parade rest broadcasting large foghorns and grinding gears.
"Well, you never could accuse the Martians of being musically inclined I guess, at least they provided an appropriately sized welcoming party?" Horus said as he could feel his sons tense up at the sight of so much fire power assembled before them.
"Horus, stop being polite, the music sucks, and that is a lot of guns for a welcoming committee and where is our brother?" Leman said through gritted teeth at sheer number of heavy weapons arrayed before him, all wielded by people who on paper was their allies, but are really more of a reluctant vassal state. He knew that not every tech priest welcomed his father's arrival on Mars and the signing of the Treaty of Mars to make it tied to the Imperium.
As if to answer the Wolf Lord's question the mass of red all simultaneously and in perfect synchronicity moved to open up a path in the middle leading straight to them.
Walking towards them was the form of the Tri2 followed by 10 seemingly normal humans in the same red uniform with yellow scarves, with one of them being a mere baby being held in the arm of a woman.
'Was that his child? His wife? Is this his family?' Horus thought his eyebrows creased, he knew that primarchs could perform sexual acts given how often Leman boasted about his conquest, but he had never seen any fruits of such actions. Could primarchs have children with normal humans? He never thought about it before.
A quick glance at his father showed him frowning heavily in thought.
They proceeded to walk towards the incoming party and stopped with a mere 10 meters between each other.
Tri2 walked ahead alone towards them and the Emperor just stood there looking at him with scrutiny in his eyes.
As Tri2 reached within a meter the Emperor he proceeded to kneel before him.
"Greetings Father, welcome to Colchis."
"Rise my son, it is good to see that you have succeeded well in the world and have prospered. The world is a fine example of industriousness and efficiency. Please will you not show us around for a bit before we discuss more private matters?" The Emperor asked playing up his statesmanship for the crowd to impress upon them a positive impression of him.
His primarch rose from his position and looked at him in the eyes with a kind smile on his face and joy in his eyes. As expected of his creation, his genetic loyalty conditioning still held strong like with his other primarchs.
POV Shift*
'Are you ready?' I mentally asked.
'I don't know, but we are about to find out.' Shard Emperor responded to me.
So with a kind smile still on my face my arm blurred.
My hand reaching into the prearranged inventory window and pulling out the most advanced weapon I had made to date. A weapon that was composed with pure Noctilth and adamantium, its edge honed to a monomolecular line backed by a core of adamantium, energized in such a way that it can slice straight through any psychic phenomenon, and embedded with the most advanced anti-phasing technology know to Humanity to prevent any and all forms of spatial effects. All of that when wielded by me to be enhanced by my various skills made it one of the most powerful weapons in the galaxy, possibly splitting entire daemon worlds in half if it had sufficient reach.
To those watching it all happened in a instant. Perhaps only the Gods could observe what transpired, but if the audience could they would have seen a matte black survival shovel downsized to that of a regular dagger be pulled out of thin air by the red robed fabricator general with one fluid motion beyond even Transhuman speed and reaction capability.
And there, in front of 300 Companions, two primarchs, and millions of unsuspecting people.
I slit wide open the Emperor's throat.
AN: THAT'S RIGHT! THAT SNEAK PEAK WAS A SNEAK PEAK AT THE CLIFFHANGER!
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Chapter 17
In that very instant the first spurt of blood gushed out of the Emperor's neck and into the air many things happened.
Time came to a standstill as my perception sped up to its absolute max, granting me a pseudo pause function on life as all my senses went on overdrive to absorb and process everything around me.
From my glabella a golden orb shot out forming a golden line between me and the Emperor's fresh wound. The shard returning to his progenitor, I'm gonna miss the bastard.
Leman and Horus from their standing positions were now beside me, crossing the short distance from behind the Emperor to me nigh instantly. Leman was to my right, slightly above me, his sword crackling with ice blue power as it froze in position ready to strike down to cut me in half after leaping in full power armor. Horus was coming in low from my left, his lightning claw on his right arm sweeping low crackling with its own powerful energies that tore up the ground behind its passing even without physical contact.
Behind them were Custodes already on their second step, the ground underneath them in mid eruption as it cracked under their forceful steps as they raced to defend their lord and master. The space marines had yet to even react even as I saw some of the more reactive ones already beginning to twitch their fingers towards their weapon triggers.
My mind raced as I quickly sent out battle plans and commands to everyone on the noosphere network to not engage in an attack and instead prepare to defend. To hold their ground non lethally against a maddened opponent. Impossible people would say. They would be right, except if you vastly surpassed the enemy's tech level.
Stun rounds, stasis nets, shock bolas, storm shields, and more that would allow for your forces to ignore most if not all of the arsenal that the Emperor's forces could bring to bear except for the sheer physical might of the Custodes and the primarchs.
I had no idea just how long it would take for both the Emperor's to finish their merge, but I was going to assume at most an hour, so I had a few seconds to try to survive several hundred demigods, and a few minutes to try to get them all to stand down.
Pfft, yeah right, this was gonna be a utter bloodbath till the Emperor wakes up cause I seriously doubt that I will have the time to explain with enough details to the angry transhumans just why I had to slit their leader's throat.
I sent out the command to teleport the four primarchs on my side and a compressed datapacket on the situation and what the objective was. Hopefully the appearance of the four on our side will cause Horus and Leman to try to stop fighting for a bit for me to say my piece. Hopefully.
With my plan in place I throttled back my perception and things began to move once more except slow like molasses in the case of the primarchs while the rest seemed like snails in comparison.
My hand swapped out the shovel knife and pulled out a chain shovel spear mid air just in time to deflect Leman's blade to the side directly towards Horus' incoming claw attack while I sent a elbow flying towards the descending Wolf King's face in the process.
As expected of a primarch Leman Russ immediately noticed the deflection and moved along the defense to adjust the blade so rather than striking Horu's Talon instead it landed in front of the Emperor and used it as a pivot to position himself between him and me and kicked out at me.
Meanwhile, Horu's talon surged up unimpeded towards my side only for his eyes to widen in shock as my side flowed out of the way, the seemingly solid piece of plate armor cover it floating and compressing out of the way like paper causing only minor sparks from the edge of the extended power field of the Talon meeting the field of the armor.
Meanwhile, the two of the Custodes had followed Leman's lead and leapt over the wounded form of their master blade downward forcing me to back up further or be struck. That immediately was met with a wall of bolter shells that amazingly ricocheted off of each other in midair to allow some of them to travel around the forms of those in front of me.
I casually parried the bolts upward as I extended my Technopathy skill towards their armor and equipment only to be met with severe resistance, it looked like the Emperor's presence had imbued their gear with a form of protection from external interference. Well there went a easy way out.
At the moment the rest of the space marines and Custodes had finished raising their weapons and let loose massive barrage of bolter fire towards my forces which did as much damage as a light summers rain did upon their crackling defenses which rippled with each impact. Several of the legionnaires were equipped with volkites and heavy weapons which were simply ignored or absorbed by the various types of shielding protecting my forces.
Luckily not too many forces were landed as this was merely suppose to be a meet and greet so the amount of heavier fire power and specialized equipped troops among the Astartes were minimal ensuring the defensive lines stood strong.
The ships in orbit were a different story, the Emperor's fleet were unleashing apocalyptic amounts of firepower on everything above. The defense stations were doing their best with their more advanced void shields to act as living shields for the various ships behind them, but the Emperor's flagship was truly a monster of the void.
I authorized my forces to return fire but only to disable the weapons and engines and nothing else.
As the skies began to lit up with the lights of space battle I returned my attention to two damn godlings doing their best to gut me.
I bent backwards as Leman's blade flew right over my nose, a faint chill causing my nose to twitch before placing my hands on the ground and flipping backwards to dodge the low swipe from Horus which managed to snag my tech priest robe.
The sound of heavily reinforced clothe tearing was heard as I tore myself and my robe out of Horu's Talon, I swiftly discarded my robe as it was just getting in my way, revealing what laid underneath for the first time in years.
Just a simple black body glove suit with an entirely young mundane Human face.
The two primarchs stopped as they observed me.
"You know," Leman said as he observed me, "I thought you had a lot more cybernetics a second ago, like both your arms and face. So was this all a trick then? Kill off the local Fabricator General, take his place, and assassinate the Emperor? Gotta give you balls milksop, you've come the closest by far, but you are still going to die here."
Horus narrowed his eyes as he adjusted his stance, the Custodes falling back to surround their liege lord, prioritizing his safety rather than killing me, for now.
"Leman, if all those cybernetics were fake, how is he keeping up with all of us." Horus pointed out something important which caused Leman's eyes to widen as the implications sank in.
All the cybernetics which were on me beforehand were props. Fakes….well not entirely, they worked just fine, but they were not true cybernetics, just equipment that looked like cybernetics. All the actual cybernetics were much more covert and internal. I was not willing to abandon my looks just yet, or even install that much in me in the first place. As they were usually inferior to my own body.
"Hmmm, guess I don't actually look the part of a proper tech priest leader do I primarch. Well, you are wrong there, I AM Fabricator General Tri2 and if you really want me to look the part then I guess I can accommodate." I said trying to draw out every second that I could hoping the Emperor would hurry the hell up.
Silver globs began erupting from my bodysuit causing Horus to dash towards me with incredible speed, but not enough speed as a suit of powered armor formed from nanites covered me instantly.
Horus' talon was far to slow and far too weak as it slammed right into my open hand and stopped dead in its tracks and failed to retreat as I gripped it hard.
Horus' eyes widened as I was now eye to eye with him with Talons being held in one my hand without effort and its molecular destabilization field doing nothing to my suits own protective fields.
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Now normally I would not dare to get into melee range with a primarch based on all the information I gathered on their biology from the ones I had. However, it was an entirely different matter when I had access to powered armor from the DAOT. Their specifications would have allowed normal humans to have very good odds of defeating space marines one on one, and even survive against the Custodes briefly.
Now give that kind of enhancement to me when it was created and enhanced by my skills and effectively unlimited resources? Now you had a power armor that was made to be used by a truly superhuman individual to make them a superhuman among superhuman.
"Dammit Leman!" Horus yelled out as I proceeded to lift the primarch up one handed and swung him at his brother who instantly raised his guard as he is sent flying via ballistic brotherhood.
I did not have time to savor that moment as I proceed to deflect a volley of high powered bolter round and adrathic energy shots from the Custodes that now had the clear line of fire at me now that the primarchs were out of the way.
Luckily my shields were designed to include energy based disintegration or else I would have been killed by the advanced DAOT weapons wielded by them.
I watched as the shots slowly reduced the suit's energy levels as the two primarchs quickly got back on their feet ready to charge again, however right before they were able to…
*FWWOOOPP*
WEOO WEOO WEOO WEOO WEOO!*
Multiple warp rifts began opening all across the battlefield and in the skies as the very air began to be saturated with all the colors of the rainbow. The warp detection alarms blaring across all frequencies the same message for everyone to hear.
"WARP ENTITY INCURSION DETECTED! UNSTABLE WARP RIFTS DETECTED! EMPYEREAL INVASION IN PROGRESS! ALL UNITS TO BATTLESTATIONS!"
Immediately all of my forces switched over from their defensive programming and tactics and began opening fire at the incoming warp entities while completely ignoring the confused Imperial forces.
"PROTECT THE EMPEROR!" I roared at the stunned primarchs as I waved at the Custodes and still mentally locked Emperor, forming a glowing golden shield around them. I knew immediately what the forces of Chaos were here for, they wanted to corrupt the Emperor while he could not defend himself. The reason for such a long merging time was probably due to interference from the reality tumors in the Warp, most likely attacking his mental defenses, forcing them to divert power to protecting themselves while also engaging each other at the same time. Dammit all!
Ignoring the demands and questions from the primarchs and Custodes I dodged their attacks while giving out more orders.
"Disciples to me! Protect the Imperial Emperor at all cost! All restraints are hereby revoked, use everything at your disposal!" I commanded even as I interfaced with the noosphere network and began applying my powers to the online systems, hardening them to the rapidly increasing surges of Warp Energy and memetic corruption attempting to spread through the Noosphere. Already I could see the efforts of the tens of thousands of advanced anti cognito hazard programs fighting back against the intruders, preventing them from destroying or subverting our technology.
All around I could see the chaotic nature of the battlefield as everyone was fighting to survive. The Warp portals were everywhere, the numerous anti warp measures installed across the planet were insufficient as the sheer amount of Warp energy being thrown onto the planet was enough to overload them. From these portals spewed legions of daemons from all 4 Chaos Gods. Not even space was safe as tides of winged daemons and mounted daemons were travelling through the void towards their targets.
Bloodletters engaged with both space marines and my own Seekers as their blades defied all physical laws and cut through armor like butter even as they ignored dozens of bolter fire point blank before finally getting brought down. Juggernauts, large brass cast twisted fiery mounts of Khorne rampaged across the defensive lines of my troops in a berserker frenzy sending them flying and out of formation.
Daemonettes danced across the field like ballerinas singing twisted songs that entranced numerous mortals in their siren's call. They dodged all manner of firepower with supernatural grace even as their claws daintly decapitated or disarmed their opponents, screeching in pleasure when they were hit.
Nurglings, rot flies, and rivers of sludge poured out of their own portals at a slow even pace, soaking up punishing amounts of firepower that would have taken down tanks and laughing.
Tzeenchian horrors roamed the battlefield causing chaos and change at a whim as their flames caused random changes to their targets that defied all logic.
The space marines were going down like lemmings as they could not concentrate their firepower due to the enemy being everywhere, including in their own lines, and there were not enough of them. The Custodes were doing better as everything around them and the primarchs just outright got banished instantly in a flurry of bolter shell or stabbings.
My forces were doing better but still taking a beating as despite the presence of titans, they could not freely fire due to friendly fire. The best they could do was keep the portals farther from the troops quarantined with judicious use of their primary weapons while their secondary's swept the skies with dense amounts of tracer fire.
Wings of aircraft flew into the skies to meet the swarms of daemons, banks of multilasers lit up the skies as swarms of missiles went every which way as there were simply no way to miss the clouds of hostiles. The aircraft shields strained against the unending swarms of flyers as they physically rammed into the brave pilots' aircraft and clawed at the barriers before breaking through to reach the hull.
Many many pilots lost their lives but more and more were still being sent out with assisting swarms of servo skulls and servitor operated fighters. Massive sky fortresses began deploying as they unleashed their own swarms of fighters and contributed their arsenals of anti air defenses to the fight. Explosions, lasers, bullets, and fusion blasts crisscrossed the skies illuminating even the night side of the planet like it was day.
Massive amounts of daemon were dying every second, but all of it was nothing more than a delaying action because only those that were being killed by me were permanently destroyed and I could not reach more than one place at a time and my psyker attacks were indiscriminate so I could not simply AOE wipe away the enemies. I could not even close all the warp rifts as my focus was strained.
The main thing was that my Warp Corruption immunity was compromised. Why? The Shard. The Shard of the Emperor was no longer in me, no longer connected to my Gamer System. It was a necessary component to prevent Warp corruption. Now? Now I had to take over that duty myself with my own powers. I now had to keep a constant stream of energy and focus on shielding myself, shielding the noosphere network, shielding the Emperor and his custodes, shielding my forces, especially the titans, from being corrupted, and fighting the Chaos Gods' own powers in a battle of power by shutting close their Warp Rifts. The only reason the last was even possible was due to the amount of work I did in raising that particular skill or else it would have been like pissing into the wind.
I unleashed all my power and skill as my power chain shovel spear extended and tore through an entire group of daemons, igniting them in golden flames as I fell back to the Emperor sending a tidal wave of psychic lightning into the air to drive away the descending daemons.
"What is this!?" Horus demanded as he ripped a bloodthirster in two with a swipe of his Talon causing it to fade away back into the Warp.
"What never faced Warp Daemons before? They are what your Father wants to destroy the most besides the orks. If it helps just think of them as malevolent xenos that live in the Warp." I said while deflecting a volley of psyker fire from a horde of Horrors.
"Why are you helping us you two faced son of a schlop herder! You tried to assassinate the wolfin All Father!" Leman said as he passed his blade through the two daemonettes that tried to pass him.
"Not assassinate, restore, I had a piece of the Emperor from the future with knowledge and power he needed."
"You expect us to believe that!"
"Consider the fact that I could have just decapitated him instead of just leaving a slight wound on his neck and you have your answer, and if you think the Emperor would have allowed anything near his mind that is related to the Warp then you are an idiot."
"… ok you got me there, Horus you are being awfully quiet there." Leman asked as Horus punted a nurgling into a gaggle of its fellow, knocking them down like bowling pins before I tossed a plasma grenade into their midst to finish them off.
"What exactly is happening to Father?" Horus asked glancing at the still immobile form of his father.
"From what I can tell he is most likely still fighting the shard that is trying to reunite with him while also fighting off the 4 most powerful warp entities in existence. The shard is most likely helping against the 4 hence why he has not yet awakened. I am currently shielding everyone here from the corrupting influences to prevent the enemy from physically corrupting the Emperor and attacking him using that as a vector into his mind which is preventing me from using my psyker powers to shut down these warp rifts."
"Great so we cannot leave, our enemies are practically infinite, most our sons are in space unable to help us, and the ones down here are getting slaughtered. What else could go wrong?" Leman sarcastically asked just as multitudes of green warp rifts appeared everywhere erupting with a battlecry I could really have done without hearing.
"WWWWAAAAAGGGGHHHHHH!!!!"
Orks. Armies of orks were pouring out of the Warp Rifts and smashing straight into the fight causing the chaotic fight to be even more of a mess. Worse, these were not just simple orks, these were big, equipped with standardized armored, heavily armed nob sized orks. All of them were, which meant all of them were just boyz and the rest were going to be bigger. Worse, they either were or were close to being Krorks.
I glared Leman who did not even have the grace to look sheepish at taunting Murphy as the number of orks rapidly started to exceed the number of daemons on the field.
I snapped my head to portal larger than the rest, from the green portal emerged a simply gargantuan ork, a familiar ork.
It was Ghazghkull Mad Uruk Thrakka, he was an immense 12m tall mass of dark green muscles, and he was wearing a advanced set of power armor as smaller orks left the portal. The initial wave were just gretchins I realized with horror.
Every last one of them were fully armored in a suit of solid look power armor and wielding large bulky rifles and melee weapons that glowed with a fiery hue. The nobs being easily identifiable due to their red armor that made them visibly faster than their green armored boyz that towered over the gretchins who themselves were the size of normal ork nobs.
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His very steps caused the very earth to shake as he was the size of knight class titan.
"Hey Shovel Boy, me and the boyz were missing you, and the Gods agreed. Let's have a good War ok? We brought out the good stuff for you too. WAHAHAHAHA!" Ghazghkull said with booming laughter as even larger portals began to deploy behind him letting through various warmachines including mega gargants.
Oh f*k! And I can't even move the Emperor into my forge city to take advantage of the defenses and walls!
The only good thing about it is that they were interested in killing the endless waves of daemons as well with the orks even counter invading through some of the warp rifts.
Said rifts now enlarging as even greater amounts of power were being dumped into them by the Chaos Gods as greater daemons started entering the fray and engaging the titan class enemies.
I turned an ran to the Custodes protecting the Emperor, their weapons immediately being pointed at me.
"We need the Emperor back up and running, and if those xenos or daemons get to him before he is awake, we all die. I can help him, I do NOT want him dead, just the opposite in fact despite what you think I did splitting his throat open." I said bluntly which they did not like as a spear tip found itself a inch from my throat. They did not look like they were going to let me through.
"Let me put it this way then Custodes, you have Krorks and Daemons en mass here, they WILL break through and kill the Emperor despite both our forces here fighting to the last man. Whereas I MIGHT kill the Emperor and instead MIGHT bring him back into the fight instead." I said with every spec of my charisma and persuasion to convince the mind programmed automaton in front of me that letting me through was the best choice for his master.
"Custodes! Let the Fabricator General through! IF he tries anything then kill him, but right now we have no time! If he can get the Emperor back on his feet so we can evacuate then let him!" Horus ordered as he fought off a dozen bloodletters and daemonettes. I let loose a fusilade of accurate plasma bolts at the daemons which killed them instantly and launched a swarm of micro missiles that blew apart several squads of incoming power armored gretchins.
The Custodes silently debated amongst themselves rapidly before making a opening in the defensive cordon around the Emperor, rapidly closing it as I ran through.
I slid to a stop next the Emperor's form, two Custodes keeping a close eye on me.
I closed my eyes and extended a psychic probe at the Emperor with a message of assistance right before I jerked my head out of the way of a claw like weapon attached to a obviously Eldar assassin. Warp spider!
I split the Eldar in half with my shovel as I turned around and blocked the attacks of three other warp spiders that teleported in right behind me.
I sensed the presence of a dozen more Eldar being engaged by the Custodes with a couple of them actually motionless. A quick glance showed a couple custodes face down in the ground as a trio of Harlequins danced among the golden giants, their blades leaving afterimages behind their swings as they narrowly dodged the counterattacks of the Emperor's guards.
Why the hell were the Eldar trying to kill me and the Emperor when the Krorks and Chaos were RIGHT THERE? Damn these Eldar! All across the battlefield Eldar were appearing out of thin air and began launching surprise assaults on everyone. Banshees, Farseers, Warp Spiders, Harlequins, Warlocks, wraithlords, and more were entering the fray.
I proceeded to further decrease my available amount of mana as I casted Holy Empowerment on the Custodes and the primarchs to further enhance their abilities allowing them to deal with the Eldar. Speaking of empowering, I really should have called them down earlier but the situation was changing too rapidly, I called for the 4 primarchs and their own personal forces to be teleported around the battlefield to help alleviate the pressure around the Emperor. 4 acknowledgement signals rang out as the sounds of teleportations rang out across the battlefield and the momentum changed.
The first visible sign of their arrival was a bloodthirster flying overhead at mach 2 and smashing into a gargant tipping it over and crushing a formation of Krorks along with their transports.
"What was that? Another enemy?" Leman asked as he bisected an Eldar warrior that seemed to have appeared from nowhere, where were they coming from? There was no Webway here, I checked!
"Nope, that was another of your brothers." I said killing off a pair of Harlequins that tried to stab the Emperor and frying their brains.
"You have a primarch?" Horus demanded to know.
"I rescued four of your brothers and was raising them, that was the result of your brother Angron, the undisputed strongest of you primarchs. You can meet them later if we survive this mess. Now keep these damn Eldar off me! I need focus!"
I quickly casted my mind at the Emperor as we had no time to waste only to run straight into his mental defenses. I bounced right off the impossibly tough mental walls and proceeded to bang on it with my astral fist. Endless clouds of daemons were circling the golden walled sphere and me, frequently smashing like a wave at various points of the defenses, trying to get within and attack the Emperor's mind and soul directly.
"Let me in! I can help! Let me in dammit!" I broadcasted as 'loud' as I could to the Emperor only to receive complete silence back.
Dammit what could I do in this situation? I racked my mind as millions of thoughts ran its course per second before deciding. When in Doubt, throw more Power at it.
I placed my hand on the metaphorical walls and channeled my psychic energy, and began to transfer it into the defenses, to empower them as much as possible, as long as the Chaos Gods were kept out then the two within could finish the process quicker.
I watched as my consumption finally exceeded my regen and my MP bar began to drop like a rock. The walls glowing brighter and brighter with the legions of astral daemons surrounding it screeching in pain and fury as their essence burned to cinders.
I broke the connection as I watched my MP bar slowly begin to refill, most of the MP regen being diverted to keep empower the Emperor's psychic defenses.
I felt exhausted, not physically, or mentally, but spiritually. This was not what I was expecting the day to go, not at all. This was a mess, and I was not sure if we would all survive this, the Daemons were tolerable, but throw in Krorks and backstabbing Eldar and we had a big problem.
I needed a backup in case I fell. I could handle the Daemons, but the Krorks might actually kill me, My space fleets were reporting Krork ships exiting warp rifts that were vastly superior than anything orks were reported to have fielded before with immensely powerful shields. Even worse were the presence of Attack Moons circling a singular War World. Now I could handle myself against anything in a ground fight, but against a planetoid war ship? I was going to die if that shot at us full stop.
I was glad I sent the Speranza away, it would be needed elsewhere in the future to rebuild, because it looks like we were going to die here. How were my Disciples doing actually?
Jeremiah was in his mecha launching powerful blasts at the incoming Krork hordes, sweeping away the chaff, though his suit was nearing its limits. The suit was covered in hundreds of battle scars and damage with the nanite repair system straining to keep up with the rate of incoming damages. The reactors were at their melting point trying to keep up a sufficient flow of power to the weapons and shields. Jeremiah would not last much longer, something that became fact as one of the mega gargants unleashed a green beam of energy that Jeremiah failed to dodge, immobilizing in place. A gravity beam.
I watched in horror as I could no intervene as Jeremiah was slowly being crushed into a sphere.
"FOR THE OMNISSIAH!" Was the last broadcast from Jeremiah before he set his knight to overload. A new star was born in the above the battlefield as the expanding field of plasma and shockwaves cleared the airspace of combatants and slagged everything beneath the burning ball of death.
Shit! What about the rest of them!?
Hygieia and Mettaton were safely away from this system so there was that.
I swapped over to their status indicators only for my eyes to widen as I see them all suddenly flatline, no wait, Joe was still alive. What just happened!?
A booming laugh echoed across the battlefield drawing my attention to a large bloodthirster. My skills identified him as Ka'Bandha, one of the greatest of Khorne's champion, who in the future would have been known as the Angel's Bane.
He stood in a crater where corpses of all forces could be seen and my eyes instantly identified the forms of my Disciples among them. Rage grew in my heart, greater than that could be suppressed by Gamer's Mind . He dared to kill them, he dared to kill MY Disciples! Wait where was Joe? His life signs were still active.
As if to answer me Joe appeared beside me dropping to his hands and knees out of breath. His body was littered with scars and battle damage with open gaping holes punching straight through various parts of his body revealing the cybernetics within.
"Joe!" I said beginning to repair him.
"We failed master, it is too powerful for us. We could not hurt it. We tried to delay it, but it was just too fast." He said with agony and shame in his tone as he lowered his head.
"You did wonderfully, now stand up, stay strong, and protect me." I said as Joe gave out a quiet "Yes, Master." I gave a command and the four primarchs began to converge at my position and everyone shifted formations to focus on protecting my location.
I turned to the Custodes and primarchs. "We need to evacuate. The fight is lost, the Krorks will have orbital superiority soon. The fleets will be destroyed, they must flee or be destroyed. We cannot get into orbit as the Daemons control the skies and we will be slaughtered eventually by everyone if we remain on the ground. Only way out is through a Warp Rift."
"That is suicide." Horus said with Leman nodding along.
"Yeah, in case you haven't noticed those Daemons will no doubt be waiting for us on the other side of any of those rifts." Leman pointed out.
"Not if I make my own and use the Emperor's power to shield it. As long as the number of passengers is not too high then we will have enough power to keep them safe from interception." I explained.
"And who will be going then? No doubt you and your servants will be taking up most of the spots to escape you coward." Leman angrily said.
"No, I will stay behind, the primarchs and the Emperor need to leave, and only 13 Custodes at the max may travel with them, 20 is the limit no exception or else they risk destruction."
"You expect us to abandon all of our forces?" Horus said with surprise.
"I expect you to save the most valuable people on the planet. In fact take this." I said taking out 3 small cubes and handing one each to the Horus, Leman, and the head Custodes respectively.
"What is this?" Horus asked examining the cube.
"That is a full STC database, it has everything from the DAOT on it uncorrupted. Now each of my primarchs carry one and now so do you. Keep it safe."
"What!? This is? HOW!?"
"No time you need to leave now, rather not move the Emperor while he is in this state but we have no choice."
I placed a hand on the Emperor's shoulder and crafted a hover platform beneath him lifting him up and ready to be moved.
I hesitated a second before decisively remove my empowerment from everyone besides those immediately around me.
Chaos instantly began mutating and corrupting all of my forces as screams began ringing out throughout the noosphere.
I shut it off as I watched my MP bar refill instantly.
I began channeling millions of MP into my Warp Rift and Holy Empowerment skill as I created the most secure Warp Rift available to me, destination? Terra. I was sending them all home.
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"Go! The portal leads to Terra! After you exit the other end the portal will seal shut! Now move!" I ordered the Custodes who proceeded to immediately lift their master and rush into the portal, the two primarchs still in a state of stupor as the four primarchs arrive.
"Fabric-" Angron began before I cut him off.
"No time, you and your brothers into the portal now!"
"Wait wha-" was all he got out before I psychically tossed him and his fellow primarchs into the portal that sealed shut behind them.
Staring at where the portal was I let out a sigh of frustration.
This was frustrating I thought I was strong enough to deal with anything this galaxy could throw at me, and it said challenge accepted and dumped everything on me. At least there were not Necrons here as well.
I stood there for a few seconds just taking in the sounds of the chaotic battlefield even as the Custodes around me continued to fight to their dying breath. I felt the fleets above me either disappear into the Warp or died as flaming hulks as they exploded from the inside out. Sometimes it was self destruct, sometimes it was sabotage.
Everything I built on this planet was doomed and I hated it.
I had the Gamer power, I had the STC, and it still was not enough.
I needed to grind more. I needed time to build up.
Luckily I still had the Speranza and my hidden star system that I created by stealing various planets. With those two I can rebuild.
I looked around at the battlefield then up at the space above flashing with bright spheres of lights.
'But how the hell do I escape? Do I have to take a risk and try a warp jump without the Emperor shard?' I thought to myself as I was truly in a pickle.
I could kill and kill and kill no problem, but eventually I would be overwhelmed by the greater daemons now that I no longer had support from the Emperor shard, or I would be blasted to smithereens by the orbiting fleets.
So I guess I needed to flee through the Warp, but that meant that everyone was still going to die here as I would not be able to keep them all safe in the Warp.
I was going to have abandon hundreds of millions of loyal men and women to their deaths.
I… I planned for something at least. I accessed a secure comm channel and quickly entered the required authorization codes and sighed as a countdown showed up ticking down from 10 seconds.
I swear Krorks, Chaos, Eldar, the first two I could understand, but the Eldar? If I ever find out which craftworld they were from I was going to burn it to the ground.
I quickly open up a Warp Rift and before anyone can do anything toss myself and Joe into the portal, closing it behind us.
The Custodes reacted with shock at the disappearance of the man who harmed their lord right before the ground beneath them erupted in a cataclysmic explosion.
Everyone's vision were lit up with light right before the heat vaporized them from existence. Daemons, Eldar, Krorks, they all evaporated into thin air as the pillars of flames 10 times hotter than the surface of the sun rose high into the atmosphere. Not even Ghazghkull managed to escape through the Warp rifts around him before one of the many beams of light erupted right beneath his feet, killing the prophet of the WAAGGHH!!!
From space those caught within the beams of lights disappeared like mist. Imperial ships, defense platforms, Krork rocks, even the attack moons were not spared. The War World bared the energies coursing across the surface of its gravitic shields with ease, but unfortunately for the Krorks, the beams of dense energies were just the beginning.
The planet began to show signs of cracking as from the points of lights on the surface vast chasms began forming, from orbit it looked like the planet was covered in a jagged spiderweb of glowing light. Then the planet exploded in a massive ball of plasma as the mass of the planet was converted into pure energy by a massive DAOT matter to energy conversion bomb set in its core. There was simply no time for any surviving being in the area to escape as the front of pure plasma impacted everything around it, first battering them into pieces with the physical shockwave, then turning the pieces to ash with sheer heat, or in the case of the daemons, returned to the Warp.
Soon nothing was left of the planet except for a cloud of left over gas and small amount of surviving molten ship fragments all within a giant cloud of cooling plasma that expanded ever onward in the system, creating a beautiful rainbow cloud to be discovered by future explorers.
As soon as I stepped through the Warp Rift I knew I made a mistake.
The proof being a literally surrounded on all sides by greater daemons of all four Gods.
I immediately tried to open another Warp Rift and was met with a failure message.
I took one look at the grinning Daemons and flew away as fast as I could, dragging Joe behind me, the cackling glee of the daemons and gods behind them.
I have no idea how long I ran, time meant nothing in this realm that spawn all of time in the galaxy with nothing to truly keep track of time here.
From every direction I was under constant assault from spells, blades, claws, tentacles, and more. My shovel deflected, chopped, and parried endlessly as I could not rest for even a second.
If I was a normal mortal or even a primarch I probably would have eventually failed due to sheer fatigue as they simply did not ever let up once.
No matter where I ran they were there, no matter how I struck back more came.
Dozens, hundreds, thousands of greater daemons burned under my strikes, many permanently dying a true death, but still they came, commanded by their Gods.
I must be costing them exorbitant amounts of power with so many true deaths but it seems the Gods intend on removing me permanently no matter what.
My regeneration rates slowly fell as the occasional curse struck me through my defenses, slowly but surely they stacked more and more debuffs on me faster than I could dispel them through sheer dint of numbers.
Eventually my regen rate could barely cover the cost of maintaining my buffs.
Despite my best efforts and Joe's as well they managed to snag him for a brief second and he was instantly torn into pieces.
I curse my perfect memory as I will always remember his look of horror right before he was flayed alive.
It was that point that it was now clear to me my fate now.
I was going to die or be captured and corrupted.
Suddenly I stopped, because I had been tricked.
Trillions of attacks, feints, escapes, defeats, and victories were all planned for this moment.
I was trapped.
In front of me was a maelstrom of swirling energies more violent than even the worst Warp Storm I have ever laid my eyes on.
I knew only of one place in the Warp more dangerous than even the personal realms of the Chaos Gods.
The Well of Eternity. The fount of all knowledge.
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None have ever returned through the Well except for a single Lord of Change that aged and went insane which should have been impossible for a daemon as they were immortal.
So I was stuck between the pit of certain death or the Chaos Gods of certain death and/or corruption.
Well shit.
Dammit I did not even complete my quest to become the Strongest!
Then again I really did not like the looks on some of those daemons' faces, nor how they were licking their lips.
Certain death we go!
As I leapt into the Well of Eternity I felt myself stopped halfway as 4 whips of Chaotic energy wrapped around my ankles pulling me back towards the daemons.
No NO NO!
'It can't end like this it can't!' I thought to myself as I desperately wished for something I never have before. Help.
"HELP!"
"Oh there you are!" A young voice echoed through the warp.
What? From the middle of the Well of Eternity the form of a truck rose, a familiar truck.
IS THAT TRUCK-KUN JR!?
"It took me a while to find a way into the universe, but I finally made it now let's get you out of here and into your actual universe!" Truck-Kun Jr. said with his headlights beeping in excitement. Two tow cables were launched wrapping around my arms in a instant.
"Now let's go-wait why aren't you moving? Hey you guys let go! My dad is gonna get mad if he finds out I messed up a isekai!" Truck-Kun Jr. demanded of the Chaos Gods who noticed the entity beyond their comprehension from beyond the Well of Eternity and renewed their efforts to drag me back.
My body erupted into pain as my body, mind, and soul was being simultaneously pulled apart by beings way above my weight limit.
However, in the end the blood(?) of Truck-Kun was too strong even for Chaos and I was slowly being dragged towards Truck-Kun Jr.
Seeing this the Chaos Gods channeled their energies into the whips attached to me, multicolored lightning flowing into me causing me to scream in pain as corrupted Warp energies in immense quantities were being pumped into me.
All across my vision notification screens began popping up showing more and more worrying messages.
WARNING! CORRUPTING ENERGIES DETECTED! CORRUPTION SPREADING THROUGHOUT USER'S MIND/BODY/SOUL!
RECOMMENDED TO STOP FLOW OF CORRUPTING ENERGIES!
̵̩̉W̶̟͗Á̷̯R̴͚̂Ň̶̼Ȋ̸̻N̶̤̍G̵̬̃!̶̡̇ ̵̥̈C̶̬͌O̷̥̎R̵͖͘R̵̨̄Ȗ̸͉Ţ̶͝P̷͉̄I̸̬̔N̶̹̍Ǵ̵̱ ̴̧̒E̶̳͂N̸̻̅Ê̷ͅR̷̮̈G̵͚͑I̷̛̗E̶̯̐S̷̘̾ ̵͇̍D̶̢̈E̵̘̿T̵̯̆E̴͎͆C̴̼̈́T̶̜̉Ë̵́ͅD̴͕̒!̷͉͑ ̶̗̑
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̴̢̨̢͔̞͈̥͕͖̼͎͔͇̬͉̈̍̊̒͘͠Ẃ̶̢̡̗̺̝̭̬̗̲͙̗̺͓̖̭̜̹̗̩͚̻͍͙͈͇͍̰̪͇̺̯̾̐̀̋̄͒͊̓̍͊͋͐̌̋̀͋̇̂͋̊̈́́̒̇̈́͘̕̕͜͝ͅǍ̷̢̡̡̨̧̢̜͇̙̪͚̯̞͓͙̼͇̪̼̯̜͚̗̳͓͉̪̺̠̹̰͓̤̩̦̗̥̝͓͍̥͈͆̀̕Ŗ̶̡̜̬͈̩̺̙͓̭̹̗͙̘̩̰͉͚̮̭͉̱̠̞̻̳̙̯̣̙̫͔̥̲̖̲͚̯͂͒̓̍̋̐̈̒̕͜ͅͅͅN̶̡̛͙̻̰̺̱̜̫͕͖̠̮̱̏͌̂̽̈́̋͜Í̸̢̖͎̬̪͉͚̥͉͓̬̙̘̂͆̑͑̓́̇͊͛̐̃̒̆͑̓͘͜͝Ņ̶̡̬̞̱͖͙̭̤̠͓̣͕̗̞̖̘̤̥͕̹͗̒ͅĢ̵̡̢̹͚̝̻̫̼͎͖̼̮͓̼͈̭̮̯̟͕̻̣̯̻̘̭̰͓͕͕̯̻̺͚͖͚͎̣͔͕̎̂̈́̄ͅͅͅ!̴̢̢̨̧̛̜̬̞̟̲̜̺̖̮͓̬̣̝̟̳̙͔̮̈́̆͒̓̀̌̑̌͒̎̽̋̽͑̋̓̔͋̀̃͂̈͐̀͋͋͑̔̓̂͑̉̆̓͌́̇́͐̐̊͘͝ ̶̨̢̛̦̣̪̳̜̥̬͚̬͖̯̫͖̩̳̞͓̹̜̯̬͈̣̩̟̙̫̪̼̱͓̜͕̯̼̻͓͍̣͙̅̑́̏̿̌̿͜C̸̡̧̨̛̰̣̫͙̪͓̲͈̲̥͉̺͔͔͙̦̹͍̀͐͐̈́̇̊̅̓̋͐́̒͆̋̈́̚͝͠͠Ǫ̶̛̘̹̮̠̗͌͗̓̑͋̿̏̆̔̈́̊͗̎͑̿̄̂̌̅̓̓͛͑͌͗͌̃́̐́́͗̃͑̈́͆͘̕͜͝͝͝ͅŖ̶̡̨̛͔̲̦̜̼̯̫͎̲̞̥̻̋̏̏̿͑̐̈́̐̑́̒̀͆̽̑͘͠͝R̴̨̨̛̛̘͖̯͓̞̯̞͈̳̙̭͇̦̘̮̟͖̫͇̪̪̞̀͗̊̈́̈̎́̋̈́̍̎̈̑͑̃̊́̂͝͝ͅƯ̵̡̧̢̧̛̰̜͔͙͇̪͈̠̟͔̞̹̻̜̜̞̝̣̲̝̘̪̫̖̭̬͖̯̯̬̋͂̔̊̓́͊̏̈́̈́̈̋͛͆̉̑͛̋̽̎͒̆͊̌͒̐͛̆̉̋̓̅̆͊̀͑̈̕͘̕͜͝͝ͅT̵̨̨̧̨̧͖̜̪͚̖̯̲̫̱̻͉̭̼̻̪͔͊̇̽̍̿̇͋̎̍̀̈́͗͐͌̅̓̋͛̂̏̿͊͊̚̚͜͜ͅP̸̱̺̔̌͆͂̃̋̈́̽̆́̆͊̐̏̓̎̍̎́̒̍̽͑͆̂̐̈̋̋̔̑̌̃̑̕̚͠͠͝͠͝I̶̢̨̭̪̭͇̠̰͈̫̮͚͚̣̪̳̼͖͚̙̞͕̝̦̐̓̍͛̒̆̆̈́̏̌̌̎̓́̊̈́̈́̈͋̈̓́̆̈́̿̒͊͌̚͠͠͝Ņ̶̦̤̣̤̟̘̝̦̗̰̗̪̦͔̺̬̜̻͕͙͇͓̇͂́G̵̡̛̹̭̗̼̈͒͂̊̐͛͆̀̓́̔̔́̈́͂́͆̓̓̉̈̿̉̋̌̋̏̕̕͠ ̷̢̛̥̪̲̲̥̫̦͉͚̭̰̳̟̩̼̣͍͙̼͖̹̦̟̎͗́͗͊̈́̊̓̂̈́̈́̀̽̍̑̈́̂̅̃̒̈́̌̅̀̋̉́͐̆͝͠͝E̴̢̧̡̡̳͈̝̬͙̭͓̩͇̙̣͔͔̭̭͔̻̙̣̯̱̬͖̩͕̹̹͉̙̠̯̻͇̿͗̓̈͒̉̃̀̌̃̃́͂̋͒̚͝͠͠ͅN̴̢̧̢̨͔̳͓̮̺̬̗̣͖͕͙̦͌͊̇̆̊̊̌̐͐̔̆̐̓̈́̀̓̐͂̎̐̄̑̉̎̍̏̎̈̉̽̎͊͆̽͑̉̔̕͘͘͝͝͝͝Ȩ̸̢̧̡̛̳͓͈̟͕̪͇̺̥͚̗͕̲̳̰͍͚̣̬̫̻̀̔̇̔̓̓͒͗́̈́̃̅͛̀̊͗̌͑̒͋͑̽̃̓̒̚̕̕̚͝͝͝͠͝͝ͅŖ̴̡͎͇̥̫͕͓̖͎͎̟̮̲̱̹̜̺̘̇̏̌͊̏̉̑̕͜G̵͍̖̮̗̖̝̗͔̰͍͍̼̬̦̯̗̞͓͍̥͉͒́̆̈̉͛̌͛͋͌̾̑̉̂̕̚I̵̡̢̧̢̢̛͎̖͍̦̳̗̤͚̺͓͓̥̤̪̘͍̻̦̮͓̪̥͙̭͖͍̦̫͕͎͇͇̫͇͈͈̍̿͐̓̀͆̅̑̐̀̉̂̐̑͑̿̐͐ͅE̸̢̨͍̮͕̯̬̦̬̹̱͓͓͉̠̖̳͖̣͎̼̮̬̫̗̝͇͍̗̞͔͕̠͎͍̬̖͊́̔͆̓̀̆̿͛͊̉͐̔̾̔̎̍́́̾͋͋̚͜͝͠Ş̶̨̢̖͕̗̰̙͕̩͍̩̝͙͔͈̫̘̲̯̰̞̹̗̩̮̩̳͕̺͍̟̏̀̀̊̃̉̅̅̿͋͘̚͜͝ͅ ̵̛̘̙͈̼̱̣̲̭̬̱̫͇͇͉̱̥̬̟̮̳͔͐̑̐̈́̎̍̑̃̒̐̒̾̎̽̾̑̀́̌̇̋͊͒͗̆̓̂͘͘͘̕͝D̵̨̢̧̨̧̞̞̬̥̙͎͖̟̦̱̬̠̣̫̣̗̞̜̞͉͖̫̙̻̙͍͓͍͊̾̅̎͜ͅͅE̶̢̡̡̛̮̼̠̦̱͈̗͚͍͔̺̱͊͒̅͌̐͑̈̀̆̃̀̈́̓̈̔̌̐̐͂͆́̌͒̀̏̿̽̈́̊͑̓́̚̕͘̕̚͝͝͠ͅT̸̡̧͖̺̭̬͖̙̲̤̬̥̤͇̣͙̺̼̫̥̲̫̤̝̲̗͈̭̱͈̙̹̝̤̳̘̰̜̍̆̆̊̎́͑̋͂̑̕͘̕͝Ȩ̸̜̩̱̬̟̰̝͙͍͚̦̻̮͓͍̱͎̟̮̟̱̜̖̙̻̞̰̦͈̲̝̞̣̲̩̜͓̜̃̓̂̊͂̾̔̋̓̂̎̇̋̄̓͒̿̆̑̆͒̓̓́̂͐̃̈̽̕͘͘͘͜͠͠͝͝ͅÇ̴̧͚̩͕͙̝̩̫̘̠̲͈̤̬̩̖̺̺̞͈͍̱̙͕̺̖͔͔̱̹̥̼̘̭̥̠͖͖̳̀̃̈́͂̉͗̄̉̏̂͗̀̀̒̔̉̈́̍̿̌̉̀́̉̿͒̓͌̄̍̋̏͑̏͘͘̕͘̚̕͘͜͜͜͝Ṱ̸͎̞̝̲͐̍̃̎̂͒͆̍̔̈́̿̂̽̂̽̕̚͠Ę̵̨̧̖͈͚̦̻̞̺͉̱̥͈̳͇͙̪̝͍͍̬̪̦͇̳̯̽͋̂͑̓̇̇̄̀̎̓̍̕̚̚̚͜ͅͅD̴̡̧̨̧̡̨̛̙̥̳̳̜͎̫̭̣̯̝̰͍͕͓͓̳͈͈̜̦̹̪̙̱̲̣͈͈̎̈́̀͗͋͌̂̋̃̄̋̎͂̀̓̅͗̇̈́̓̌̍̽̓̍̔͋͆̍̌̈͠͝͝͠ͅ!̶̨̢̝̹̮͍̜͇̹͚̱̺̤͇͔̠͇͙̣͓͎̯̥̥͔͔̖̞̬͎̯̭͖̲̟͇̱͖̑͐͑́͊̈́̋̓͜͜ ̵̧͉̲̥͙̘̯̲̱̙͖̭͙̟̖͔̗̫̘̠̮͚͎̤̗̐̇͜
̵̢̨̧̨̜̭̟̩͙̫͉̙͎̮͉̫͈̣̘͍̯̗̦͇̫̤̭̦̱̮̠̯͍̬͙͔̦͎̜̠̍̓̒̽̉̆̆̇̈́̕͜ͅÇ̸̢̱̗̹̮̞̳̗̦̯͉̫̭̫͉͆̔̍̀̅̊̌̓̔̐͑͗͑͌̚Ọ̴̢̢̢̡̣̮̤̻̰̤̬̲͖̙͍̹̹͕̬͈̜͈͈̣̖͖̹͚̥̞̹̘̰̱̜͚̖̤̜͕̔̑̒̈́́̐̐͂̔̅͋̎͐̾͛̄͌̓̒̔̇̔͐̊̌̀͐̀̀̉͊̊̂̊͛̋̔̉̆͘͘͝͝R̶̢̧̰͕͚͙̹͈̦̺͈͙̖̰̗̠̮͙̲͕͔͖̭̱̦̲̦̹͉̪̠̪̟̘̗͙̀͜͜R̷̨̪̗͔̮͚͚̖̾̑̀̒̀́͑̏̃̿͆̅̈́̄̇̂̆̑̅͛͆̂̕̕̕̚͘͘͝͝Ų̴̡̣̯̝̜̗͓̺̭͈͙̫̻̘͔̮̼̪̫̹̘̹̼̼̝̅́̍̀̇͛́̈́̊̍̌͐̑͂̓̏͊̈́̽̔̉͑̕̕̚̕͠ͅP̵̛̲̯̦̮̰̻̩̰̮̟̻͒̈́́̓͑͐̏̅̔̒͆̒́̌̈́̈́̄͋͒̾͐̔̇̀͗̇̀̈́̓͂͗̽͌̓͘̕͝͝T̷̢̛̤͇̦̲̲̰̦̞̠̣̦̹̹͕́̄̃̆̀͒̂͒̓̃̑̀̅͆̑̌͗̇̌̀̾́̉́̍͗́̑͊̔̄̒̃̏̽͛̄̕͜͠͠ͅͅÏ̵̡̢̡̩̣̼̮̘̦̜͚̹̜̭̱͍͓̩̜̥͉͖̜̱͒̈͒͒͛̌̓͆̔͊͛́̽̂̓̾͂̄͒̒̍̽̈́͋͛͆͛̄̉̅̒͘̕̚͜͝͠͝͝O̶̡̡̡̨̡͉͎̦̬̯̼̪̹̘͉̪͔̦̲̼͙̬̰͍̳̳̅̔͛̀͒̍̿̽̑̅̈́̽̓̃͐̂̓̈́͊̀͛̈́̃͌̈̈̍̔́̽͌́̕̕͝Ņ̵͚̮̲̫̩͔̟͍̦͉̗̯͎̼̙͙̟̳͊́̒̀̊̄̽͂͜ ̸̡̹͎̖͕͆̎̎͝ͅS̴͙̼̮̜͓̞̿͛̔͛͒͘̚͠͝P̸̨̨̨̺̦̖̩̱̭͈̭͙͖̲̲͔̟̘͕̜̩͚͕͎̟̩͊͛͂͂̈́̈́̉̈̍̚͜͜ͅṚ̴̢̡̛̛̤̩͈̪̖̺̫̤͈͉͚͇̺̺̺̝̙̤͈̱̱̲͉̗̖̤̱̻̮͋͋̈̆̽̏͛͋̇̍̀̇̇͊̄̇̍͗̒̀̐̽̀̓̿̆̊́̿̃͌͑͋̕̚̚͘͜͜͜͝͝͝È̶̡̨̨̨̨̖͕̮̭̼̻̭̺͉̰͙̪̼̹̼̠͔̠̳̗̯̩̞̈́͑̏̔̌̄͌̉̐̅̉̊́̄͐̿̈͒͒̏͛̓͋̽̇̀̍̍̆́́͜͝͝͝͝A̸̡͉̮̳̝̩̱̟̥̖͈̻͉̥̜͎͓̒́̈́̾̇̈́͒̂̓͘͘ͅD̴̡̢̧̢̛̻̻̲̤̬̭̦̦̺̲̹̺͕͖̪̣͉̭̂̉͊̉̌̄̋̒̓̏̅͆̏̋̈́͑̓̋̐̋̑͋͗̀̀͂̽̔̈́̇͐̇̏̍̈́́̒̕̚͜͠͝͠͝ͅĨ̶̺̺͕̗̟̩̋̈́̔̀̈͆̕͝ͅŅ̴̢̛̛̛̱̪̠̙̝͔͓̙̻̭̦͉̬̣͖͓̩͉̏̿͗́͒̇̈́̓̎̾̐̀̅́̒͗̀̐̑͒͑̈̔̆̐́͒̈̔͘͘̚͠͝Ǵ̶̡̧̡̮̬̳̲̼͚̘̞̬̮͕̜͖̻̏̅̔́́͐̄̏̎̀̇̓͊̑̍̓̿͛͆̌̿̉̅͠ͅͅ ̷̛̛̬̜͇̻̮̻̳̙͛͒̃̓͑̑͛̊̈̈́̈́̌͒̾̿̎̏́͐̔͘͠͝ͅT̵̟̺͚̙̖͍̱̘͎̩͎̯̜̝̰͛̀̍̒̾̀̓̋̈͂͘͠Ơ̴̰͚̲͍͍̤̭̙͉̥͉̙̦͉̞͇̦̣̜̦̣͎̟̙͕͔̅̐̏̈́́̈́͐̊̋̈̄́̈̂̉͌̈́͑̑͗̇͒̐̍͗̄̔̏̚͝͠͝͝ ̵̻̝̹̞̣̖̫̬̣̠̱̿̾̽̒́̚̚͝ͅS̸̫̲͎̪̰͉̘̋̀͗̿͛̓̅́͆̀̑̓́̋̇̈̿͋̉̽͊̍͑̿̐̉̈́̀͘̕̕͝Y̷̢̛͎͓̼̭͇̘͈̭͕̭͕̩͚̬̭͈͚̝͚̎̑̀̽̄͛̀̐̄̉̃͛͐͌̔͗̈́̍̀̇̎̑̓͆͋̕̕̚͘͘͜͜͠͝͝S̴̡̛̝͈̬͇͍͚̙͓̲̟͉̩̰̖̩̖̬͕̥̩̞̠̙̭̯͈̰̹̑́́͋̋̃́̈́̽́̎͆͒̊̇̇͂̄̚͝Ṭ̵̨̢̝̞̞̳͚͈͚̲̯͚̬͈͚̜̥̦̬̦̰̰̫̰͈̠̝͉̤̦͖̦͙͕̱̺͓̪͍̠̹̾̐̈́̽̓̽͌̕Ẹ̸̢̡̨̬̱̳̯̪̻͎̬͖͖̫̗̖̗̱̜̜̙̤̺̻͎̝̥̫̞̲̬͎̓̔̔͆̋͋́͛̋́͋̏͛́̂̆͊̿̆͊͗̉̃̉̒͂̈́̓̂̂́̅͘̚͘͘̕͠͝͠͝M̴̧̻̆̈́͗͒̈̐͋̃͆́̓̃͑̒͂̈͋̓͌͂̊̋͛̏̊̈́͆̔͘ ̴̧̡͈͎̟̝̙̯̫̹͔̘̩̤̞̱͚̟̱͎͎̩̤͇̞̻͍̋͂̈́̂̇̈́̓́͑̈́͒͑̚̚̚̕͜͜͝F̸̨̢̢̛̣̲̗͓̩͔͈͙͕̳̰̘̪̙̝̫̱͚̥͈͔̙̞̯̱͍̫͚̲͚̪͉͖̮̣̘͑̇͂̑̐̀͛̆͒̆̔̅̈̃̓̈̿̄͗̓͐̇͘͠͝ͅĨ̸͚̜͋̆̾̓̽̐̄̉̆̋͋͝͠͝L̴̡̢̢̩͉̳̼̩͖͍͈̽̉͊͒̓̃̐͛̈́͗͊̌͛̅̃̌̎͊̊̈́͊̃́̒́̐͊̈̋̏̏͛͒̀͛̽̏́̈́̌̍̕͘͜͠E̶̛̛͖͈̼̗͓̟̣̭̯͒̅́̒͆͘͝S̸̡̢̨̧̡̢̡̝͉̝̬͎̞͈͉̯̫͖̜̺͔̹̤͓̭̱̙̘̹̮͎̪̟̺̦͛́͜ͅ!̸̨̨̧͕̥̮̘͚̬͚̠͎͈̣̳̼̺͚͔͍͖̜̪̺̪͈͉̬̲̪̋̽̅̔̅̏͘͜
̵̛̬̯̙̱̠̫̯͕̪̙̩̦̖̬̥̹͔͔̼̅̂͑̉̅̿͌̏́͗̓̇̿̿̂̎́̐̾̏̒̉͜͠͝ͅ
̶̧̨̡̨̗͍̖͖̖͇̟͈͓͈͍̹̥͖̫̒̿̄̽͋̽̅͛͊̾̃̾̾̾͋̆́̔̽̆̂̋̔̚͜Ȑ̴̢̨̨̧̢͇̱͎͔̻͍̱̤͚̝͚͔̺̘͓̞͍̭͇̝̙̟͈̠̇̎̍̽͒̊̊̊̈́̌̿̚̕͝͝E̶̢̢̢̪̬͕̮̲̼̳͓̠͖̠͍̘̘͎͖̬̯̜̤̩͎͇͈̙̞͈̹̽̇̔̈̈́̏͗̈́͐͗̚̕͜ͅC̷̨̨̧̛̛̛͔͚̪͕͓͈̝̭̰̮̜̞̯͉̤͉͖͎̖̝̰̤̱̮̱̭̲̣͖̮̣̥̫͍͚̼̆̿̆̀̓́̌̓͋̒̈́̅̅̐̃͊̓̍̈́̃̇̏̔̆͑͊̑̌͝͠͠ͅͅͅƠ̵̢̧̼͔̬̬̗̰͙̲̱̥̲̠̮̫̹̹͕͙̓̾͋̌̀́̅̒͌̅̂̿͒̚͘͜͝Ḿ̶̡̡̢̨̧̡͙̖̲͓̻̯̞͓̭̣̲̪̻̬̭̱̙̯̮͈̲̩̩̞̺̹͙͓͙̉̃̉̐́̈͋͜͜͠ͅͅͅͅM̷̨̡̢̛͎̱͙͖̤̟̜̯̲̼͓̞̬͍̗͍͎͖͓̝̠͉̫̽̊͑͊̽̔̌͗͂́̒̄̑̓̀͌̽̄̋́̉͛̅̓̆̎̽̿͑̿̐͘̕͝ͅȨ̷̧̧̡̭̥̪̫̻̯͕̱̙̬̼̙̪͚̩̺͕̬̻͍̰͎͎͎͈̠̩͍̱͕̌̎̃̏͐̚͠N̴̡̡̢̞͈͍̜͚̜͙͕̮̮̂̆D̷̨̢̧̩͕͉͎̺̬̠̗̤̬̗͙͔͚̫̙̦̯̪̘͇̲̬̱̻̞͛̾̕ͅȨ̶̧̛̛̬̯̻̮̫̗̪͖̂̀̅̉́͐̒̽̀̇̄̂̀̋̋͂̑̓̎͛̌͗͘͝͝D̷̢̨̥̞͍̭̬̩͈̥͇̥͙̫̹͙͈̲̗̈́̓̽̽͋͛̔̀̽̽͌͒̈́́͠͝͝ͅͅ ̸̫͙̫͓̹̮̜͓͙̝̰̠̦̮̳̖̖̥̱̮͈̩̪̭̠̺̺͊͒͆͑̈́͛̃̊̑̈́̑͛̾̂̃̐̐̓͌̍̽̐̊̔̚͘͘T̴̡̩̯̤̫̩̯͙͖̙̼͍̔̓͗̕͜͠Ǫ̷̢̞̮̼̜͉̘̻̻͔̺̺̮̬̤̭̬̣̤̫̑̇̀͗̈͒̉̿̆̇̊̍͑͊̋͛̔̿̓̀͗̑̐̂̎̒̊̈́̈̊̓̅̽̚͝ͅ ̷̡̡̧̭͙̟̱̝͈̻̳͚̻̥̥̹̟͙̺̰̼̺̤͉̦͔̯̔̐͗̀̇̽̆̂̈́́͐̄͜S̸̛̻̮͚̞͎͕͇̪͖̙̼̟͓̲̍̄̿̒͐̒̑̓̔͗̇̈́̇̈́̿̑̿́͐̕̚͜ͅT̷̡̡̢̛̠͈͈̞͕͎̲̠͍̼̣̳͇̹̜̗̠͙̺̟̀͗͂̎̏̄͊͗̿́̇̉́͛̄̇͘͜͜͠͝Õ̵̦͇̗̻͎͔̮̆͐͂́̓̽͋̌͋͑̊̒̆͋̈́̅̆͋͆͋̊̊̈́͂͒̓͋̈̓̋̚͘͘P̸̛̖̺̫̳͉͙͖̠̰̫̯̙̦͉̼̜̰̖̥͎̝̻̱̻̝͇̰͔͓̟͖̫̲͙̱͖͓̦̆͆͒̈́͗̓̑̂̃̽̈́̊͆̒̐̂̏̓͒̉̔̈̕͘̕̚͜͝͠͝͠ͅ ̵̨̟̪͎̱͚̜̪̏̅̓̋͗͒͜F̵̢̡̨̯̬̪̥̹͔̩̬̰͈̮̭̻̞̲͎̹̗͎̟̙͍̜͕̦͋̎̓̅͌͆̈́͛̅̊̏̑̍̈́̀́̍͊͊͐̌́̇͗̃̄̾͂̋̔̀̚̚͘͜͝Ĺ̴̡̝̘̹̳̬̮͉̭̯̬̻͔͚̙̰͓͍̼͚͚̤̟̖͜Ọ̸̭͓̳͙̻͕̜̳͍̖̖̞̹͈̀͒̈́̀̅̊͒̆̓́͂͐̀̾̒̄́̇͌̐͂̿́̔̾̃͠͠ͅẀ̴̢̨̛͙̙͔̤̫͖̭̣͉̮̭̳̭̹̟̜̖̯̳̭̣̗͖̜̺͚̖̦̫̥͎̥̪͚̼̘̭̪͛̅̎͆̍̀̈̓̏̅̔̽̇͗͒̑̀̂̌̅͗̆͆̃̍̍̀͒͌͒̿̕̕͜͜͜ͅ ̸̡̢̬̙̣͓̞͙͉̩͎͈͈͚̖̩̅̈̅͋̍͒͑͑̀̇͛̔́̀͝ͅͅÖ̶̢̨̨̡͇̳̘̞̤̺̳͖̺̗̝̳̗͚̗͕́́̋̕F̵̡̨̧̠̯̲͙͈̖̝͇͉̺̜̺͙̼͉͉̼̠̥̳̮͈̙̣̞̯̘͎̯̤͑͜͜ ̵̡̺̝͔̫̥͔͕̹͙̝͎̝̣͍͇̭̦̅̊͊͂̏̂̕͘͜C̸̡̛͖̱̙̖̱̺͎̑̐͂̂̂́̐̇̀͗̒͂̂́͛̄̈́͌̈́̌͌̓͗͋̃̃͛͊̓̓͑̃́͐̓̚̚̚͘͜͝Ò̸̧̨̢͕̤̩̩͚͓̳͇̳͎̣̜̝̞̞̏̋͑̐́͌̅̈́͛̎̽̑̃̓͆̾̽͘͜͜Ŗ̶̛̛͉̺͈͖͕͉͕̱̖̬̻̯͖̳͙̱͔̮̣̥͓̟̹̣̳͉̙͔̭̦͈̫̙̦͗͌́̇̌͒̌̾̓̌̀̑͂͆̐͂̀͝ͅR̴̡̧̧͔̪̮̹̱͗̾̈́̏̄́̀̿̚̕̚Ǔ̴̢͉̜̳͇̰̠̙̩̣̤̭̦̭̙̼͐͂̄̔̐͌͋̕͜͝ͅP̸̢̡̧̡̧̛̛̛͕̹̭̪̯̠̲̠̘̮͚̻̘͕͓̠͍̥͔̫̰̺̖̰̪͎̯͖͖̼͂́̈́͑̍̓̐̐̑̔̍͑̊̎̓̐͊̈́̉͊̄͂̂͋̕̚͠ͅT̵̡̨̧̛̘͓̺̱͖̝̙̹̩̙̞̞͙̣̺͉́̿̿́͒͂̈́̏̑͑̽͒̑̍́́̒͆̚͠͝ͅI̸̧̢̛̱̗͉̪̪̺̞̬̹̘̱̫̦͗̏͗͂̽͐̽̇̐̉̇̌̏̆̈́͊̈́̋̽̿͛̓̋͐̈́̋͛̆̈́͛̚͜͝Ņ̸̡̧̧̜͔͚̲̖͖͚͇̭͙̃̅̍̑̓̃́̇̈́͂͂̓̈́̔̂̿̕͝ͅG̸̡̢̢̨̛̛̯̞͍͙̙̩͇̥̗͉͇̗̗̞̩̥̦̤͎̘̝͖̩̩̱̗͓̲͔̩̎͂͂͒̂͂̏̊̊͛̒̏͑̀́̂͌̈̑̍̓̉̓̏͐̓͂̀͒̐̈́̃͊̽́̒̕͘̚͜͜͜͝ ̷̡̨̡̹͍̮̯̠̰̜̰͍̻̹͓̮̦͍̣͈̝͍̩̄͜͜Ḛ̴̡̧̧̡̣̬̮̖̤̖̙̤̖͉͉̞̳̪̈́̿̃̂́͛̒́̿̂̍͗̓̑̅̅̐̾̕͜͝͝͝Ǹ̴̟͕̱͆̓͑̿̈́͂̎͛̕͘Ȩ̵̛͎̜̜̲̥̈̃̍̓̇͋̔̈́̚Ȓ̷̨̢̢͕̲̦͓͚͕̟͈̘̫̻̱̠͍̖̻̳͓̼̥͔͓͕̮͈̲̍̉̈́͛́̈́͑̈̂̌͐̾̄̈́̽̇̏̾͗̓̅̋̐̂͐̿̂̊͌̽̇̌͗̚͝͝G̵̢̛̦̹̖͈̤̦̮̼̩͎̗̠̑̔͗̽̔̎͆̈̽̂̏̈́̆͋̿̇̐͗͗́́̇̉̊͐́͂̑͊̈̑͑̿͗̆̅̍̑͗̕̚͝͝Ĭ̷̡̧̡̛̛̻̮̖̤̭̲̫̼̳̟̺̜͚̜̪̲͈̜̳̟̫̫̮͐̎̋̿̀͛̄͛̿͌̏͆̊͂̐̌̍̽̅̄̅̉̓͘͜͜͝͝ͅE̵̞͉̙̻̮͇͔̖͖͊͘͠S̶̨̨̧̡̡̧̘̝̖͔͙̻̣͚̜̯͔̹̭̰͎̓͗̈́̈̒̉̂̋͆͗͆̊̄̿̑̂̚͝͠͠!̵̢̡̧̲̹̹͇̱̺͉̥͔̝̘̬̩̙̪̖̻̅̊̌̏͒̅͑̑̆̈́̌͋͒̆̈́̉̎̊͋̂͛̊̒̇̓̓̓͂͘͘͘͜͠͝͝͠͝͝
My mind was getting fuzzy as the notifications went on, then suddenly I heard something.
WWWWWAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
BANG!
I looked down at my feed to see the 4 whips suddenly slack and saw two giant orks fighting with the daemons and Chaos Gods. Wow, thanks Gork and Mork.
As a result of my sudden release it looks like Truck-Kun Jr. lost a hold of me as the tow cable became slack as I flew like a rocket towards and then past him into the Well of Eternity.
As I flew into the fount of all knowledge I could barely make out the voices in the Warp through the skull cracking pain before I went out of earshot.
"No! No! No! I am losing him again! Oh no dad is gonna ground me so bad!"
"Oi! You gitz stay away from our friend/enemy!"
"Yeah, he's ours! Thanks for the great fight it was fun! Come back soon!"
My pain intensified beyond imagination and the last thing I saw before I blacked out was stars.
AN: Today is my birthday and I somehow managed to finish this on time! Arc 1 over!
Dice Gods were thirsty for crazy.
Notice and Sneak Peak
So story will be on a bit of a hiatus as I work on prepping for the Evil Quest and Headway Quest coming up on QQ and SB/SV respectively and updating my fiction live quest a bit at least for a few weeks.
In the meantime here is a sneak peak on the future~
I woke up to Pain.
Unbelievable burning PAIN!
I opened my mouth to breath only to choke on burning acrid liquid substance to flow down my throat causing me to want to vomit.
It was thick, viscous, but most importantly HOT!
My whole body was heavy as I desperately tried to claw my way though what felt like a pool of the burning tar like substance I was submerged in.
My eyes blind to everything as through my eyelids all I could see was red with only gravity giving me a indication of which way was up.
I surfaced from the pool of whatever it was burning me alive and suffocating me, upchucking whatever it was in my throat and stomach.
I cannot remember the last time I suffered such pain! What happened to my Pain Resistance?
"AHHHHHHH!" I screamed as I managed to make out a flat piece of ground in front of me that the liquid was not on.
Molten metal, in a crater. I managed to deduce from the taste, the smell, the temperature, the PAIN!
I desperately dragged myself through the molten metal before it could cool on me, dragging myself up onto what felt like concrete.
Sweet cool cool concrete.
My limbs felt stretched, long, my nails clawed at the ground leaving furrows in it with ease.
I felt so weak, vulnerable, and in pain.
Where am I? When am I?
I tiredly wiped the metal from my face, ripping off muscle in the process, causing another bout of pain filled screams to erupt from my throat at the stupidity of myself.
I could now open my eyes and the first thing I saw looking down while on my hands and knees were claws.
Claws?
Not just claws, but my fingers….they were too long, too black with red long claw like nails.
My limbs too, they were… longer, thin, strange, also black.
Like… like a daemon.
My tongue licked the inside of my teeth flicking out the loose pieces of molten metal still left, causing me great searing pain in the process before I froze one more time.
My teeth. They were longer, sharper, more numerous.
I opened my mouth and felt it too wide, much too wide, I started grinning and laughing with a bit of hysterics in my tone.
My grin, it was too wide!
I finally looked up from the ground at the area around me, I was in some kind of small abandoned back alley loading zone.
There were piles of garbage, rusted cars, and bodies. Freshly dead bleeding bodies. Human bodies.
I looked up and saw a clouded night sky with large industrial smoke stacks peaking over the tall walls.
Looking back down I noticed around the crater full of molten metal was what looked like a bloody circle with lines that got cut off by the new crater with 5 points lit by glowing red lights. A pentagram?
Where they trying to summon a daemon?
Why did I show up then?
Then I put 2 and 2 together.
No. NononononNONONONONONONO!
I desperately searched around and saw a large cracked mirror lying on top of one of the scrap piles.
I dragged my way over ignoring the weakness of my legs and the pain of dragging myself against the asphalt bare naked.
Reaching the pile I pulled my self up, my legs wobbling like jello as I pulled myself high enough to look down at the dust covered mirror concealing my reflection.
I wiped at the mirror to reveal my face, my hysterically grinning face.
And I felt something snap and the laughter came pouring out.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!"
Warning Large Scary Image
[img: data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7]
And then I punched the glass, shattering it into a thousand laughing daemon faces.
Chapter 18
Arc 2
In the back alleys of Night City's Waston District, people knew better than to travel there as it was Maelstrom turf. Gang members whose love of cybernetics was only eclipsed for their love of violence. So it was here in a loading dock area of an abandoned warehouse that connected to the back alleys that a dozen Maelstrom members gathered. Each one of them sporting drastic signs of cybernetic augmentations. Everything from replacing half their face with a giant glowing red lens, to outright removal of their upper chest cavity and stomach area. All of them armed with either pistols, rifles, or katanas. The area was illuminated by a circle of red led poles that revealed a large pentagram made of blood with a ice filled refrigerator placed lying down in the middle. Wrecks of dilapidated vans laid abandoned on the sides while pallets of wooden stacks littered the area as well. Off in a hidden corner laid a dozen dead bodies of those unfortunate to have been chosen to provide the necessary vitae to create the ritual circle.
From one of the trucks a woman exited. She was wearing nothing but underwear but her body was heavily cyberized. Four glowing red leds dotted her face, her four limbs replaced with sharp silver limbs, and a large bulk rebreather over her mouth. She walked with slow steady purpose towards the ice filled tub as the others around her took up equidistant positions around the circle. From their mouths came chanting, both in English and in binary from those with the vocal augments that allowed it.
Slowly she got into the ice tub and submerged herself fully into the cold icy waters. Within she quickly connected the various jacks into the back of her skull preparing her for the ritual. Tonight they would summon the daemon from the great Beyond that would grant them their just reward and power beyond imagination. Night City would be their personal paradise!
In most normal times this ritual would have done nothing, just another failed attempt at the occult by uneducated drugged up two big gang bangers that would have resulted in nothing. However, something was different tonight, for as a single butterfly's flap is stated to be able to cause a storm on the other side of a world; tonight something much, much larger, doing something much more active than flapping mere wings has occurred, in a place far further than a mere world that would bring a storm never before seen on Earth.
The woman began to scream as instead of dense streams of data her HUD began displaying incomprehensible colors beyond imagination and arcs of eldritch energies poured forth from her body lighting up the waters around her like a flashbang. The men around her watching immediately noticed something was wrong and attempted to get closer to stop the ritual, but it was to no avail. Before any of them could realize the danger the entire ritual circle lit up and exploded in flames that briefly exceeded that of a star. Their bodies instantly atomized and the ground turned to molten lava even as the various flammable items nearby ignited from sheer proximity to heat generated in that brief split second.
In a way the Maelstrom gang succeeded, they summoned their demon, for deep in the middle of the liquid molten rock a being from beyond, awoke.
I woke up to Pain.
Unbelievable burning PAIN!
I opened my mouth to breath only to choke on burning acrid liquid substance to flow down my throat causing me to want to vomit.
It was thick, viscous, but most importantly HOT!
My whole body was heavy as I desperately tried to claw my way though what felt like a pool of the burning tar like substance I was submerged in.
My eyes blind to everything as through my eyelids all I could see was red with only gravity giving me a indication of which way was up.
I surfaced from the pool of whatever it was burning me alive and suffocating me, upchucking whatever it was in my throat and stomach.
I cannot remember the last time I suffered such pain! What happened to my Pain Resistance?
"AHHHHHHH!" I screamed as I managed to make out a flat piece of ground in front of me that the liquid was not on.
Molten metal and rock, in a crater. I managed to deduce from the taste, the smell, the temperature, the PAIN!
I desperately dragged myself through the molten metal before it could cool on me, dragging myself up onto what felt like concrete.
Sweet cool cool concrete.
My limbs felt stretched, long, my nails clawed at the ground leaving furrows in it with ease.
I felt so weak, vulnerable, and in pain.
Where am I? When am I?
I tiredly wiped the metal from my face, ripping off muscle in the process, causing another bout of pain filled screams to erupt from my throat at the stupidity of myself.
I could now open my eyes and the first thing I saw looking down while on my hands and knees were claws.
Claws?
Not just claws, but my fingers….they were too long, too black with red long claw like nails.
My limbs too, they were… longer, thin, strange, also black.
Like… like a daemon.
My tongue licked the inside of my teeth flicking out the loose pieces of molten metal still left, causing me great searing pain in the process before I froze one more time.
My teeth. They were longer, sharper, more numerous.
I opened my mouth and felt it too wide, much too wide, I started grinning and laughing with a bit of hysterics in my tone.
My grin, it was too wide!
I finally looked up from the ground at the area around me, I was in some kind of small abandoned back alley loading zone.
There were piles of garbage, rusted cars, and bodies. Freshly dead bleeding bodies. Human bodies.
I looked up and saw a clouded night sky with large industrial smoke stacks peaking over the tall walls.
Looking back down I noticed around the crater full of molten metal was what looked like a bloody circle with lines that got cut off by the new crater with 5 points lit by glowing red lights. A pentagram?
Where they trying to summon a daemon?
Why did I show up then?
Then I put 2 and 2 together.
No. NononononNONONONONONONO!
I desperately searched around and saw a large cracked mirror lying on top of one of the scrap piles.
I dragged my way over ignoring the weakness of my legs and the pain of dragging myself against the asphalt bare naked.
Reaching the pile I pulled my self up, my legs wobbling like jello as I pulled myself high enough to look down at the dust covered mirror concealing my reflection.
I wiped at the mirror to reveal my face, my hysterically grinning face.
And I felt something snap and the laughter came pouring out.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!"
Taking a minute or so to let out all my hysteria in my system I took calming breaths as I tried to regain my usual cool and tried to remember what exactly happened.
The memories of my time in the Warp came rushing back to me in a mish mash of pieces, but I could still remember the most important parts. Joe was dead, I was trapped at the Well of Eternity, Truck-Kun Jr showed up, and I got tossed into the Well while getting pumped up with Warp energy. That explained my new appearance. Also HOLY SHIT! I survived entering the Well of Eternity! That is some serious luck there as the greater that did it ended up a elderly madman and all I got was just a makeover. Hah! I wonder where I was, am I in another universe?
I sat back first against the scrap pile, ignoring the jabs of sharp bits digging into my back, using it instead to focus. I looked around to properly take in just where I was now, yep everything looked like what I saw. Loading dock area, dark smoggy sky, grungy back alley, molten crater in the middle of the place, and a pile of human dead bodies. Whew, looks like some kind of Human city, so a Human world, lucky. It was almost like where I landed the first time I entered the 40K universe, why was it always alleyways?
Instinctively I use my psyker power to try to get a scan of the area around me and check on the state of the Warp around me, bit strange the Chaos Gods did not try to finish me off, maybe they were still fighting Truck-Kun Jr? I immediately noticed something wrong. I could not feel the power of the Warp flowing through me whenever I channeled my psychic powers. Waving my hand I tried to telekinetically push the air around only for nothing to happen.
"Oh no." I immediately do the first thing that came to mind and opened up my character sheet, inventory, and skill sheets hoping that my fears were unfounded.
I winced at the sheer amount of corrupted texts that scrolled up before me and my heart wept at the loss. Everything including my character sheet was utterly covered in errors. My Gamer System was ruined.
As I was about to scream to the Heavens the screens flickered.
What?
The screens flickered some more before disappearing. Just as I felt my stomach about to drop the screens all came back, but this time the errors were gone.
With hope in my eyes I looked at what came back and frowned. The errors were gone, but most of well, everything, was gone as well. Most of my skills, items, perks, etc were not there anymore. Did I seriously lose ALL OF THEM?
That wasn't fair.
Character Sheet
Character Sheet
NAME: Noman
AGE: ?
OCCUPATION: THE GAMER
RACE: HUMAN(?)/DAEMON(?)
TITLE: None
LEVEL: 97
NEXT LEVEL: ?
HP 5025.0
HP Regen 16792.545 per minute or 279.876 HP per second
MP 1657.7
MP Regen 15407.161 per minute or 256.786 MP per second
STRENGTH: 1701 (680.4)
CONSTITUTION: 1818 (181.8)
DEXTERITY: 1878 (187.8)
INTELLIGENCE: 1027 (102.7)
WISDOM: 843 (84.3)
LUCK: 355 (35.5)
STAT POINTS: 485
MONEY: 0
Perks
Curse of Chaos Undivided, reduce all Stats by a factor of 10
50 Strength Perk: Herculean Strength - Increase damage from melee attacks by 50%
100 Strength Perk: A Knight's Raiment - Able to wear heavy armor as if they were one weight class lighter.
150 Strength Perk: Armor Bane - Melee based damage ignores 25% of armor reduction and causes 1% of damage to enemy armor
200 Strength Perk: Monstrous Strength - Increases Strength stat by 100%
250 Strength Perk: Mjolnir - Can wield two handed weapons as if one handed
300 Strength Perk: Say Hello To My Little Friend - Can wield non portable vehicle weapons as 2 handed
350 Strength Perk: And his cousin - Can wield non portable vehicle weapons one handed
400 Strength Perk: A King's Raiment all outfits - now do not reduce mobility or speed
450 Strength Perk: Heroic Strength - Increases Melee damage by 200%
500 Strength Perk: Tactile Telekinesis - Holds stuff together so you don't actually destroy it while lifting it.
750 Strength Perk: Demigod's Might - Increase Strength stat by 200%
1000 Strength Perk: Transcendental Body - Increase defense by 500%
1500 Strength Perk: God's Fist - Your physical attacks can now harm the immaterial
50 Constitution Perk: Healthy As A Horse - Gain extra 5 HP per Constitution point
100 Constitution Perk: Titan's Bones - Reduce damage to body by 50%
150 Constitution Perk: Healthy As A Troll - Gain extra 10 HP per Constitution point
200 Constitution Perk: Titan's Skin - Reduces elemental damage by 25%
250 Constitution Perk: Monstrous Vitality - Increase HP Regen by 5%
300 Constitution Perk: Titan's Armor - Reduces magic damage by 25%
350 Constitution Perk: Healthy As A Squat - Gain extra 10 HP per Constitution point
400 Constitution Perk: Aqua Lad - You no longer need to breath
450 Constitution Perk: Trollish Vitality - Increase HP Regen by 5%
500 Constitution Perk: Space Borne - You no longer suffer from exposure to the vacuum of space
750 Constitution Perk: Godly Vitality - Increase HP Regen by 5%
1000 Constitution Perk: Transcendental Recovery - Increase HP regen by 300%
1500 Constitution Perk: Solar Champion - Every 10 minute of solar radiation exposure gives you a minute's worth charge that can double Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution stats. Can double the bonus by halving remaining time. Can be done repeatedly, no limit to amount of charge hold.
50 Dexterity Perk: Cat's Grace - Always land on your feet, keep your balance easily, and reduce fall damage.
100 Dexterity Perk: Hunter's Instinct - Find enemy weak points easier and 50% to critical damage
150 Dexterity Perk: Dagger in the Dark - When undetected increase weapon damage by 100% and critical rate by 75%
200 Dexterity Perk: Spider Sense - Gain split second precognition of attacks directed at you with killer intent
250 Dexterity Perk: Contortionist - Your body can now bend in impossible ways even in full armor
300 Dexterity Perk: Monstrous Speed - All movement speeds increased by 50%
350 Dexterity Perk: A Tree Bends - Reduce physical attack damage by 50%
400 Dexterity Perk: A Slippery Blade - First stealth attack guarantees critical hit
450 Dexterity Perk: Speed is Strength - Apply Dexterity to melee damage
500 Dexterity Perk: Spartan Time - When in combat speed up your perception of time, causing everything to slow down for you
750 Dexterity Perk: Vital Perception - Be able to see weak points on the enemy and attacks on these points shall deal 100% greater critical damage
1000 Dexterity Perk: Transcendental Reflex - Increase physical speed and skills by 100%
1500 Dexterity Perk: Death's Eye - Grants perfect aim with any ranged weapon within its reach of attack
50 Intelligence Perk: Deep Well - Gain 10 MP from each Intelligence point.
100 Intelligence Perk: Eidetic Memory - Remember things easily and at any moment. 10% Experience Gain
150 Intelligence Perk: Destructive Science - Gain ability to gain blueprints when salvaging functional equipment for no resources
200 Intelligence Perk: Mana Affinity - Gain the ability to sense and manipulate mana 10% increase to MP recovery and 5% increase to total MP.
250 Intelligence Perk: Territory Management - Unlocks territory management functions
300 Intelligence Perk: Strong Mana Affinity - 10% increase to MP recovery and 5% increase to total MP
350 Intelligence Perk: Deep Lake - Gain 10 MP from each Intelligence point.
400 Intelligence Perk: Multicasting - Can cast (Intelligence/100) spells simultaneously
450 Intelligence Perk: Army Management - Unlocks army management functions
500 Intelligence Perk: Legendary Magic Power - Magic effects increased by 100%
750 Intelligence Perk: Mythical Magic Power - Magic effects increase by 200%
1000 Intelligence Perk: Demigod of Magic - Increase magic effects by 300%
Reduce skill MP costs by 99%
50 Wisdom Perk: Perceptive - Increase ability to notice thing around you
100 Wisdom Perk: Common Sense - Increase Exp gain by 10%
150 Wisdom Perk: Insightful - Increase ability to understand what is below the surface
200 Wisdom Perk: Not So Common Sense - Increase Exp gain by 15%
250 Wisdom Perk: Sherlock - Gain greater ability to make intuitive leaps in logic
300 Wisdom Perk: Sage's Wisdom - MP Recovery and Magic Defense increased by 300%
350 Wisdom Perk: Teacher - gain ability to teach skills to students
400 Wisdom Perk: Sage Aura - Those around you share in your Wisdom, increase their Wisdom by 10% of yours
450 Wisdom Perk: World's Teacher - Increase student's ability to increase skill level by 100% while being taught by you
500 Wisdom Perk: Eye of Odin - Grant short term combat precognition
750 Wisdom Perk: Transcendental Sage's Wisdom - Increase MP recovery and Magic Defense by 600%
50 Luck Perk: Reaper's Presence - Increase chance of a critical strike by 25%
100 Luck Perk: Reaper's Touch - Increase critical damage by 50%
150 Luck Perk: Reaper's Embrace - Decrease chance of suffering a critical strike by 25%
200 Luck Perk: Reaper's Duties - Chance of defeating enemies restore HP and MP
250 Luck Perk: Bloody Mess - Chance of kills to cause explosions that damage nearby enemies
300 Luck Perk: No Fate- Your Fate defying abilities are so strong that Fate itself is unraveled around you. Prevents accurate use of precognition on you.
350 Luck Perk: Mysterious Stranger - When in a fight, chance of a mysterious stranger in power armor will appear and attack your current target before disappearing
Level 25 Perk: Blood Knight - Recover 10% of damage dealt as Health
Level 50 Perk: WAAAGGGHHH EXPOSURE!!! - Access to Orkish WAAAGGGHHH!!! Field energy to temporarily become a Ork, higher Orkoid forms consume more Wagghhh energy per second to transform into and maintain. Gain access to Ork racial perks and tech tree.
Level 75 Perk: Warp Resistance! - Due to excessive exposure to Warp Energies without being corrupted, your body has been filled past the brim with raw Warp Energy that has effectively formed a shield from other Warp effects. Gain 50% Resistance to Warp based abilities and attacks.
Cleaning Perk: Mr. Clean - Access to option to instant auto clean equipment
Cleaning Perk: Increase range of cleaning
Cleaning Perk: Increase ability to clean
Jump Perk: Double jump - You can now jump twice without a surface
Skills
Skills
Cleaning* Level 2: A passive skill that allows you to clean things faster. 6660% to cleaning speed.
Cooking Level 50: A skill to cook food. Humanity has advanced their taste buds through making meals. Cooked food become better as mastery levels rise.
Damaged Gamer's Body Level Max: Grants a body that allows for the user to interact with Gamer System function. Sleeping in a bed restores 50% HP and MP.
Damaged Gamer's Mind Level Max: Allows the user to access Gamer System HUD. Low resistance to psychological status effects.
Jump Level* 46: A skill to allow the user to jump higher than before! Passively boosts jumping height by 1920% while actively boosting jumping height by 19200%. 1 MP per jump.
Inventory
Chainsword, laspistol, three las packs, a dozen corpsestarch rations
I had basically lost all my skills, all my inventory, and had lost most of my stats! And that was before taking into account that damn curse from Chaos! Fuck those tumors! Apparently they also maybe turned me into a fucking daemon! Well maybe considering I only look like one and am not disappearing into the Warp. Maybe a demi daemon? I was going to need to find out later. At least they did not manage to touch my stat based perks, but seriously what happened to everything else! I didn't even have an experience indicator anymore! Can I even level up? Hell I even lost the STC DATABASE AND MY CRAFTING SKILL! That was probably my biggest loss as that meant I could not just instantly tech up and replace everything. I even lost my nanite based power armor in the Warp during my escape and I loved that thing!
I haven't been this weak in years. I slammed my fist down on the ground next to me causing a small hole to form. Dammit.
Something about my skill list struck me, my eyes widened and I looked back at it. My Gamer skills were DAMAGED? So that's why I was so emotional! Also there went my mental defenses. Great. Reading Gamer's Body more carefully a sneaking suspicion came to mind.
Slowly I used one of my new claws to cut a thin line across the back of my hand and watched as blood welled up before healing before my eyes. Oh God. My body no longer worked entirely by game physics. Damage actually dealt physical damage instead of just reducing my health bar. This probably meant I also had to eat, drink, and sleep now. Then again I was also maybe a daemon so maybe not? A urge to throw up rose in my throat at the thought of being a daemon before I forced it down. I am going to make those tumors pay one day. I swear it. Did I even have a quest system anymore? A quick check showed me no. Great can't even get quest rewards anymore.
Staring up at the smoggy sky I pondered my current situation.
"What do I do now? I am not in 40K anymore. So I don't think I need to worry about surviving against anything like what was in 40K considering it was the higher end of the danger spectrum of universes to be in. Then again I was apparently summoned so magic is probably a thing here, but hidden considering this summoning location. Where the hell are the summoners anyway? Did they get melted by my arrival? Maybe. Ughh, my mind is so slow. Now I kinda understand the point of view of the Eldars." I said out loud with a shiver.
Before I could continue my musing a new screen popped up in front of my face without prompting showing a surprising message.
DING! SYSTEM HAS SUFFERED CATASTROPHIC DAMAGE!
ACTIVATING SELF REPAIR SYSTEMS!
INFECTIOUS MEMETIC HAZARDOUS ENERGIES DETECTED WITHIN SYSTEM!
QUARANTINING AFFECTED AREAS!
LOCKING AWAY INFECTED SKILLS!
LOCKING AWAY INFECTED PERKS!
LOCKING AWAY INFECTED ITEMS!
LOCKING AWAY INFECTED QUEST SYSTEM!
LOCKING AWAY INFECTED RELATIONSHIP SYSTEM!
LOCKING AWAY INFECTED SKILL SYSTEM!
BEGINNING SELF REPAIR PROTOCOLS!
EXPERIENCE UTILIZED TO BEGIN REPAIRS!
WARNING! INSUFFICIENT EXPERIENCE TO COMPLETE REPAIRS!
MINIMAL REPAIRS DONE TO STAT, SKILLS, AND INVENTORY SYSTEMS!
NO REPAIRS STARTED ON RELATIONSHIP AND QUEST SYSTEMS!
ALL EXPERIENCE GAINED SHALL BE DIVERTED TO SYSTEM RECOVERY UNTIL COMPLETE!
SYSTEMS SHALL BE RELEASED PIECEMEAL AS THEY ARE RECOVERED!
WORK HARD! GANBATTE!
What?
I read carefully the sudden prompt and was relieved. My system was not fatally broken and could heal.
That also explained where my experience gauge went and why I still had a few skills and items. Even better was that this implied I could regain everything eventually.
That took a load off my mind as I can actually recover even if slowly. Not sure how much experience I was going to need but it was likely a shit ton.
Well, not like I was in any rush, given the fact that no daemons have attempted to eat me despite my weakened state, that probably meant I wasn't in 40K anymore as I doubt the Chaos Gods would give up a chance like this given how many daemons I permanently killed over the years.
So I could take my time, gain experience, recover, then eventually figure out how to get back to the 40K universe at the head of a new army and finish what I started.
Thinking about going back made me remember that Joe was dead, torn apart by daemons and devoured. I wasn't going to be able to bring him back with his soul eaten. Damn them.
That led me to remember everyone that died on the planet when my self destruct activated. Everyone in the system was likely dead except for those he tossed into the warp tunnel.
Just another reason to go back to make the daemons pay. A vengeance served cold but served it will be.
Getting up I found myself much more steadier now and walked over to the pile of corpses, examining their outfits.
Looks like they were industrial workers based on their overalls and helmets. I noticed that they had visible augmentations, but nothing like the mechanicus, these were much more streamlined and humanoid. They all had these ports and usb cables in their necks and hands. A universal connector perhaps? I also noticed some had cybernetic eyes and throat augments while some did not. Looks like augmentation was much more available if even industrial workers could have personal augments. Even more surprising due to sheer lack of use for the past years was that they had English worded manufacturing logos. It has been so long since I had to read something not Gothic of some kind or advanced Federation lingua.
Their appearances were within standard human norm so that meant my own appearance was likely going to attract attention. I could probably say my appearance was a result of surgery, unless the extent of surgical modification is lower than what I presumed, or if they have any psyker equivalents.
I begin looting their bodies finding nothing but their clothes, leaving their cybernetics alone, I was not going to immediately resort to chopping apart the dead just to acquire resources, not unless I had to.
Using the cloth and my own sharp claws I crafted myself a larger version of the workers' uniform as my new form was much taller and lankier than my previous Human one.
Making sure the helmet was secured on my head and that I looked visibly normal enough if no one took a serious glace at me in the dark I proceeded to locate and utilize the nearest exit to whatever main street there is.
A minute later and I was out on a relatively quiet main street with my back leaning against a vending machine that sold guns!
Looking up at the various holographic and digital advertisements I saw one that seemed to be a news channel based on the stereotypical reporter set up. Man it felt so weird to hear people speaking English again.
Listening to the news channel revealed some startling facts. I was on Terra, Earth, I was back on my homeworld, and I now knew the name of the city I was in along with the current date.
"Night City? I guess it fits. Time to find a better information source. Wonder if they still have libraries in 2066?"
AN: So this is back, update once every two weeks as I will be alternating between this and Shepard Quest MK VII
Rolls
Higher is better. How much is not corrupted.
Skills Corruption: 3….
Inventory Corruption: 32
System Corruption: 3….
Body Corruption: 36
Mind Corruption: 65
Legit rolls from Brockjones dice roller, looks like my luck is still consistent…..fuckkkkkk
Chapter 19
While standing in front of a boxy curbside data terminal reading various news articles, I pondered on things. Like how there were apparently no more public libraries, in Night City anyways, with things called Data Terminals sprinkled across the city and the rest of the country using fiber-optic land lines to connect to one another and local computer databases. It did not take long for me to come across one, though it did take me a bit longer to figure out how to work it and what I needed to pay for data usage. Honestly had to slink around till a random person came by to use it and observe just what they used to pay. They used something that looked like a data chip which were called creds. Apparently most money was digital now though there were still physical currencies around. I had to rummage around in a few dumpsters till I acquired some discarded cred chips that still had some change in them but it was worth it once I saw the acceptance message on the terminal and the following search bar. Seems Google did not survive the passage of time.
I am quite surprised at just how little attention my appearance attracted, not even garnering more than a second look from passerby. The apparel of the people I saw on the street were quite… skimpier than I was used to even from my time on my homeworld, let alone the years spent around robed tech priests and skitarii. The sheer amount of cybernetics and advertisements were the first things that caught my attention. It was like how I imagined New York Time Square would be except with less people, more advertisements, and a lot more augmetics. There were people wearing everything from suits to damn near just underwear equipped from nearly no visible cybernetics to having quadruple limb replacements. There was even a guy with his entire face scooped out and replaced with what looked like a tv screen. I think there was even someone with cat ears walking around but it was too crowded to see if they were wearing a head band or not. The advertisements ranged from food to a tv promotion of something called the Watson Whore, seems sexuality has become a lot more openly accepted, at least in this city.
I also overheard so many terms I did not understand, most of them likely slang, but also a lot of names, Arasaka and Militech being the two most common. They were the first things I searched up. Apparently, they were megacorps, both with their own private armies. Arasaka focused on corporate security, banking, and manufacturing while Militech focused on weapons production and PMC services. They were two of the largest megacorps among the other megacorps and were basically independent nations with the amount of power they had. The rest of the terms searched were basically just slang.
Searching the past history revealed troubling things. Bioplagues being unleashed, global warming, literal drug wars, 5 wars between corporations, nuclear armed megacorps, destruction of the North American midwest breadbasket, the subsequent transformation of all the former residents into wandering nomads, and to top it all off the destruction of the previous internet by a single person that released hoards of AI's that required a firewall called the Blackwall to seal away the AI populated portion of the Net from everything else. That was 43 years ago and the world was still attempting to recover.
There were some good news though, the world had switched to renewable biofuel once it became more economically viable, we had space stations now, and even some people on Mars now, just some outposts, no colonies yet, and other advances in various technological fields.
As for more immediate things, I was in Night City a free city started by Richard Night at the border of North and South California. It had undergone multiple battles from rival corporations, diseases, natural disasters, and the most recent being a bird plague which resulted in the order of the elimination of all avians. It had even got nuked, or to be more specific Arasaka's local branch HQ got nuked which resulted in a couple million people being rendered homeless with thousands dead and even more injured. Rebuilidng was still underway but mostly complete. They recently constructed a whole new city district called Pacifica which had a lot of Haitians and Pacific Islands move in after a natural disaster hit the islands and the city abandoned the idea of making it a tourist district.
I stopped reading as a pop up window came up stating I had a minute left before my session was closed or to pay for an extension.
I took a second to think about what to look up next before I froze up as a thought came to me. My family. I started this journey by dying on the way back from a milk run. Was this my Earth? Was my family here? They would likely be dead by now, but maybe they lived longer lives now, there were people 150 years old due to medicine and cybernetics so they might still be alive.
With trepidation in my heart I typed in my parents' names and looked at the result that came up. I felt light headed and stumbled backwards, hitting a few pedestrians who cursed at me before continuing on. I hit a wall and slid down to the floor, knees drawn up to my chest as I processed the information I discovered.
My family was dead, they all were, and have been for the past 43 years.
They died during the nuclear detonation of Arasaka tower.
They died as collateral damage of the 4th Corporate War.
They died in the crossfire between two megacorporations, between Arasaka and Militech.
The thing that made me think they were my family? A report on my death. Death by truck collision.
I slowly raised my head up, my red eyes glaring at the data terminal across from me, fury burning in my heart, and a purpose solidly in my mind.
My voice became staticky like a broken radio as I growled out a promise, no, an inevitability, a TRUTH.
"I am going to tear those mother fucking corporations apart."
Last edited: May 16, 2021
Chapter 20
With my goal decided I got up, brushing the dirt and dust from the back of my pants as much as I could. First I needed to repair my System. That meant I needed Experience. That meant I needed to kill stuff. Sadly crafting stuff has never really ever given me experience points. Sigh.
If it did then I could just go to a scrapyard and just bang out a few million scrap sculptures or lasguns or something to quickly amass enough experience to restore my System in full. However, it seems like Experience Points only come from killing things, my guess is that it converts souls or life force or hell even Death Energy, into Experience Points. Only a guess but its all I got even after all these years despite some on and off testing with various actions.
'So what can I kill without attracting too much attention in this city?' I thought to myself as I wandered the streets of Night City, the sun slowly beginning to rise in between the towering skyscrapers. The amount of people starting to walk the streets increased exponentially. So many with cybernetics of all kinds of all quality. The cars that roamed the streets also reflected that, everything from beat up old junkers to sleek ass ferrari looking things. Hell there was even a car with 6 wheels, 4 in front and two in the back. Style is weird.
Seriously, despite my initial rage at the corporations for their part in my family's death, I was not just going to just charge in without a plan guns blazing. I was going to get at least a quarter of my strength back before doing anything crazy. Well may a fifth? A sixth? Gotta figure out how much experience I need to fix myself and get rid of this stupid curse on me. If I even could, how do I even get rid of a perk? Damn it. A magnitude reduction to my stats is pretty damn bad, if I was a normal human I would probably have been literally crippled.
As I was lost in thought I suddenly stopped in surprise as a familiar blue screen popped in front of me at the same time I heard and felt a crunch beneath my shoe.
CRUNCH*
DING! YOU GOT 0.00000001 EXP POINT!
What? I looked down at bottom of my shoe to see the splattered remains of a cockroach splattered all over the bottom. The rest of its brethren swiftly disappearing under the various layers of trash strewn on the street.
I slowly panned my head around, really taking in my surroundings, the endless urban hive of skyscrapers filled with debris, dirt, and disrepair.
Trash littered the streets with wild abandon.
Trash which bred bugs like the one I just killed.
Bugs that bred really really quickly and in massive amounts.
Bugs that no one wanted to deal with most likely.
The people around me began to give me a wide berth as I felt my grin grow wide once more as the beginning of a plan formed in my mind.
Well then, not exactly how I thought I would start, but beggars can't exactly be choosers.
Time to put my cleaning skill to good use and be a janitor.
Oh how the mighty have fallen.
AN: Plan: Be Corpo later, Be Solo later, Be Janitor now. Gonna be short updates for awhile, lacking motivation.
Chapter 21
Chapter 21
3rd person POV*
It started in Megabuilding H11 floor 24. In one of these massive contained cities within a cities. Over 8000 apartments capable of fitting 16 people each, with all the facilities and shops needed on the lower levels, so people can literally live their entire lives without ever leaving the building. People living in the numerous apartments noticed the change first, either leaving or entering their floor they noticed their hallways were for once, spotless. The ever prevalent trash removed, the graffiti gone, the various signs of dirt and stains gone. Most of all was the obvious fact that the whole damn thing was so CLEAN, an obviously lighter shade than all the other floors that could be seen over and under the balcony walls exposed to the central shaft that provided skylight access and some ventilation.
[img: data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7]
They weren't complaining of course, if the owners finally decided to get some cleaning service hired and got rid of the pests then good on them. They would enjoy having the best looking floor in the building and not have to worry about stepping on some bugs or rats for a while. Some of them even went to brag to their other floor neighbors who came up to see the miracle for themselves. Though everyone that talked with each other were confused, no one had seen or heard the cleaning happening, and such a thorough cleaning job had to have been done as a group and taken at least an hour, but still no signs were found.
Finding no answers the majority pretty much just shrugged their shoulders and continued on with their daily lives. A few others tried to access whatever cameras they had access to only to come up empty, the camera for their level mysteriously blacking out. The floor being dirty one frame and clean the next. They gave up the search, gossiping with their fellow netizens about the new mysterious cleaners, hoping to catch them in the act the next time they did something like this.
They did not have to wait long as the next day a truly bizarre scene greeted those who began to rise for the working day. Every floor was clean. Every. Floor. From the top of the highest levels they could access via elevators to the very ground floor where there were nothing but shops, it was all cleaned, and no one saw, anything.
The whole building was nigh on unrecognizable with how clean it was. The whole area was just brighter, fresh, and just overall better. It looked like the place was brand new, except for the various broken machines and lights, but even they looked brand spanking new too. All the people who were still awake in the middle of the night were found standing around in a daze, looking around in disbelief. When questioned about who did such a quick clean, some cause they were just curious others who wanted the same cleaning for their unit, none of them could say. They all say one second things were normal then the next they all blacked out before waking up still standing with everything clean with no signs of drugs being used or any items being stolen.
Every night after that any messes were immediately cleaned up without fail with all attempts to record, stop, and talk with the mysterious cleaner failing. With no proof of the being's existence its' existence quickly became a urban legend with many curious tourists and investigators coming to take a look at the phenomenon with no success.
Some even tried to get in contact with the megabuilding owner to see if they are aware only to receive a reply stating that it is merely the janitorial staff doing their duty.
However, no trace of such staff even among the tiny amount of existing staff who were not informed about any people who could do such a job, many of them worrying if they were about to lose their jobs.
For such a simple service, the quality and speed of it has attracted far more attention than it should, with news floating higher among Night City's elite.
Especially once said phenomenon was seen in the other megabuildings that wished to replicate the new standard of hygiene and cleanliness of megabuilding 11.
That more than even the cleaning itself surprised the residents of Night City, why would the owners of these mini cities pay a significant chunk of money to clean their properties when they were content to just leave them to rot before. Even when various cleaning companies tried to offer their services before they were all refused citing a lack of need for such, with people instinctively realizing the owners were just too damn cheap and apathetic towards their tenant's living conditions.
So just how could these companies suddenly begin pumping money into their cleaning standards?
Tri2 POV*
I tossed in the several thousand dollar credit chips into my inventory, mentally nodding at the increase in my meagre funds as they converted into new untraceable currency. I was at a bit of a loss at where to start with my cleaning idea when it hit me, money did not matter to me, experience did. I just wanted access to the megabuildings, an entire city's worth of decades of waste and pests. So I did the simple thing, I undercut my competitions and made a very attractive offer. Normal cleaning services would ask for tens or hundreds of thousands to clean the entire building, and would take weeks if not months to complete the job where by the time they finished they would be needed again already. So my offer of near instantaneous cleaning for damn near literal dirt cheap a total fee of one eurodollar per apartment unit present.
Of course I did not actually have a valid way to contact the owner of said megabuilding, so I had to… get a bit creative. Simply cleaning an entire floor without their notice, the remnants of my Stealth skill rumbling in my head making it childs play to detect and avoid surveillance, and then sending a email stating if they wished to hire my services after my example of my work as well as my offering price. Needless to say they were skeptical given that there was no trace of my existence except a clean hallway, but I offered to complete the job overnight and my fee would be only a bi-weekly credit dead drop. They took some bargaining to convince them to accept my offer, with me having to leave the heads of a few solos hired to track me down at the public terminals I was using to finally get them to see my way. Now I had a slightly gainful employment history which I then used to convince the other megabuilding owners to accept my offer after seeing the result of my work for half a month.
Thanks to my Jump skill I was able to rapidly traverse the city and complete essentially a cleaning circuit around the city's megabuildings and their floors in the middle of the night, with my Cooking skill surprisingly enough allowing me to create a noxious food dish whose smell basically forced people to black out and forget the last few minutes upon awakening. What a frightening dish, then again Cooking is Chemistry in a sense.
Of course all the money was but the jam on top of the bread in comparison to the true reward. Each megabuilding was a city in of itself indeed. Thankfully I still had access to the cleaning perks which gave me AOE cleaning and god speed level cleaning ability which also killed pests like bugs and rats. The megabuildings were absolutely INFESTED with both. Not even regular bugs and rats too, these were city borne super bugs and rats that evolved to survive against everything the corporations could develop and deploy against them in terms of biowarfare. There were easily millions of everything at minimum, a majority of them were normal weak emaciated things that gave about as much experience as the one that gave me my idea, but still the remaining percentage was still a very large amount of pests that gave me 1 or more experience points.
Even better were the various solos, mercenaries, and gang members that I either came across or were sent after me by someone or another which provided me with plenty of experience and items. Even despite my loss of Skills and weakening curse I was still one of if not the most dangerous combatant on the face of the planet in terms of stats and skills. Despite losing the Skills from my Gamer interface I still had partial muscle memories of the more physical skills and memories of those that I did use frequently, which was most of them since I grinded them all heavily. I was not being assisted by the System which helped auto correct my movements but I was still able to use them at a high mortal level, but not at my previous superhuman levels. Unfortunately, my crafting skill was the one least helped by my memories due to how it functioned, mainly the materials flowing like water in my hands when it was active. Luckily, I still had memories of me manually creating items as examples when teaching my students and Disciples. So while I could not create the more advanced pieces of technology that required specialized facilities and personnel, I could still eventually create things like las and plasma weapons given time.
With the sheer amount of experience gained from essentially clearing out the arcologies I managed to recover quite a lot of skills and figured out how the System was prioritizing its recovery.
Skills Regained
Mind Rip Level 1: A spell that allows the user to mentally drain the knowledge from a target. Higher level allows for targeted draining without harming the target.
Interrogation Level 50: The skill to get answers from someone, one way or another. Increase effectiveness by 50%
Swim Level 50: Your ability to move through and underwater. Increase swimming speed by 250%
Driving Level 75: A skill that allows for the driving of various vehicles with familiarity and skill. Increases vehicle speed and maneuverability by 385%
Piloting Level 75: A skill that allows for the piloting of various aircraft and spacecraft with familiarity and skill. Increases air/spacecraft speed and maneuverability by 385%
Language (Demonic) Level Max: The skill to allow the user to speak and write in the language of Warp Daemons, fluent understanding.
Language (High Gothic) Level Max: The skill to allow the user to speak and write in the Imperium of Man's High Gothic, fluent understanding.
Language (Low Gothic) Level Max: The skill to allow the user to speak and write in the Imperium of Man's Low Gothic, fluent understanding.
Language (Orks) Level Max: The skill to allow the user to speak and write in the Ork's language, fluent understanding.
Language (Techna Lingua) Level Max: The skill to allow the user to speak and write in the Adeptus Mechanicus' language, fluent understanding.
Language (Sign Language) Level Max: The skill to allow the user to 'speak' sign language, fluent understanding.
Light Foot Level Max: A technique in which to walk or run silently. Passively decreases walking noise by 100% and running noise by 50%.
Lip Reading Level Max: A skill that allows for the user to figure out what sound a being with a mouth is making via it's movements.
Navigation Level Max: Grants the ability to navigate when travelling and to plot faster and safer courses using known data.
Unarmed Combat Mastery* Level 1: Allows the user to fight skillfully unarmed. 510% increase in attack damage while unarmed. 102% increase in attack speed while unarmed.
Tracking* Level 1: A skill that allows for the user to track targets across great distances. Increase tracking range by 11000 meters.
Eavesdrop* Level 1: A skill that allows the user to listen in on the conversations of others from a distance. Increases listening distance by 306m
Rip* Level 1: A skill that rips apart an enemy or an object using a strong force. Increases tearing force by 3000%. 1 MP per rip.
Deceive* Level 3: A skill to lie and trick others. Increase chance of success by 1060%. Decreases by 10% for every level the enemy is higher than user.
Parkour Level* 3: A skill that allows the user to rapidly negotiate obstacles, increases ability to detect and create fastest path through terrain by 330% and boosts Dexterity by 530% when used to travel on created path.
Climb* Level 3: A passive skill that allows you to climb things faster. 530% to climbing speed.
Barter* Level 24: A skill that allows for the trading of goods and services for more preferred prices. Increases haggling success chance by 148%
Charm* Level 43: A skill that indicates your ability to positively interact or persuade others.
Salvage* Level 35: Through a continuous action a skill that allows for the reclamation of more useful materials from recycled objects. 95% increase in materials gained. 75% chance of uncommon materials gained. 35% chance of rare materials gained
Seems it was prioritizing my survival first and was going in order of costs with the lowest leveled skills being repaired first, presumably those costing less exp than the higher ones, which judging from the amount of prestige stars is what is happening. The perks are also being restored to my screen as well along with the skills which was doubly nice. While great that does mean I would not have access to all of my truly impressive skills till a lot later or sooner if I found a bigger source of experience other than open war.
A mixture of Charm and Mind Rip allowed me to quickly gather a lot of knowledge that then normal citizens would not be aware of, such as the locations of the local water holes of the Solos that were being hired to hunt me and the names and locations of various Fixers, people that gave out contracts to said mercs. It also allowed me to find the hidden stashes of various gang members and small time crooks, in addition to whatever juicy secrets and blackmail they might have had on other people, even a few corpos.
For now I kept to cleaning the back alleyways in secret, but once I am done with those and whatever gang members I come across; then it will be time to move onto the next step. The creation of a corporation, gonna need an army to deal with their armies after all and I cannot be in more than one place at one time, yet, maybe. That is something for future me to consider, but for now, back to cleaning. So I ran into the darkness of Night City leaving behind a trail of cleanliness like some kind of reverse slug. Wait for me Arasaka, Militech, your time will come, and sooner than you think.
Last edited: Jun 7, 2021
Chapter 22
I grumbled as I broke down another piece of broken scrap metal watching as it disappeared into thin air as the raw materials were sucked into my inventory as it was being broken down by my Salvage skill.
'Slow and steady. Slow and steady. Just think of this as a game like Viscera Janitor Simulator.' I reminded myself mentally as I dealt with the frustration of doing repetitive manual labor endlessly.
Cleaning the back alleyways of the city was just not working, the concentration of pests were too low compared to the insides of the megabuildings, and if I kept killing off the gang members hanging around there I would eventually start attracting attention I was not yet ready for. A sweep of the city's sewers while extremely rewarding, due to all the pests and super pests that counted as small animals, had the same problem as the megabuildings. They could not be repeatedly farmed in quick succession. I had to leave the some alive so they could repopulate for another harvest. Something which I had mistakenly NOT done with the megabuildings with my much too thorough scrubbings. That meant I had to find a new place to farm experience.
Location? The Night City Junkyards, a junkyard that spanned the horizon for miles, filled with literal mountains of junk. Over 50 years worth of materials being dumped without care and a absolute cesspit for breeding of endless amounts of pests. The smell was indescribable, a potent blend of chemicals, metals, and biological materials all fermenting for years under the sun, the sheer amount of disease present would make this a really bad place to get cut in. All of which made this the perfect spot for me.
I methodically, repeatedly proceeded to in order clean the area in front of me, killing anything small living inside for experience, break down the junk with Salvage, absorb the materials, then kill whatever small animals too big for my Cleaning skill to automatically eradicate for additional experience. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat. Hour after Hour. Day after Day. Week after Week. I recycled, I exterminated, endlessly repeating except for when I have to make my daily cleaning circuit around the city's megabuildings and buying supplies on the same trip.
I watched as my skills slowly returned to me one by one, each one taking longer and longer than the last, my perk list getting longer and longer with every check. My curse still there, my system still broken. I clean, I kill, I recycle.
As I got rid of the latest batch of trash and super pests I looked up, cocking my head to the side. I heard the distinct sound of a car approaching. Now normally it would not attract my attention except for one thing. It was past midnight, and no one came here so late at night and I mean no one. Not one person has been seen here passed midnight in the weeks I have been salvaging here. Did someone finally decide to come and investigate the disappearing mountains of trash? No, despite weeks of constant work, there were still a LOT of trash, with no one here frequent enough to possibly notice the difference.
So only other plausible thought is that it must be some kind of criminal activity. Guess I got some free exp coming my way. Why not? I could use a break right now.
Silently I traversed to the top of the tallest junk pile and pulled a metal box over my body, disguising myself as just another piece of junk among many. Scanning the junkyard and listening I quickly see the car that is approaching by the illumination from its headlights.
As luck would have it it proceeded to turn onto the dirt path that led to the newly made trash free valley that I had cleared out. I watched as a fancy looking future cadillac appeared down the road and stopped at the end of the trail. Out from the car stepped two men. One your stereotypical bodyguard looking dude, tall white man, all muscles and big frame with sunglasses. The other, whew, he looked like he needed to lay off the buffet, a black man with dreadlocks, a huge gut, and a golden cybernetic arm. The fat guy ordered the bodyguard to hurry up and the guy proceeded to pop the trunk and pull out a dead body. Guess this was just a getting rid of evidence thing then.
It's time like this that I missed my Observe skill so I could find out more about people without having to do things manually. I really wanted to the know what the deal is with these guys before I killed them in case I am missing a opportunity by just killing them. Sigh, oh well.
I looked on as the bodyguard dumped the body on a random patch of junk and proceeded to drag a bunch of more junk over the body hiding it. Well, looks like nothing else is going to happen so might as well kill them now.
I removed the box from me and jumped silently over and behind the fat guy before proceeding to Rip his head clean off his shoulder in one smooth motion, dropping the head in my inventory in case there was a bounty on him, as Night City Police Department regularly assigned bounties on people due to their lack of people to police the city themselves without bounty hunter help. I then dashed towards the bodyguard who saw me too late to do anything before his head was taken off as well.
A quick looting of the bodies netted me with some eddies and weapons but not much else. I turned towards the hidden body and strolled on over to take a look, maybe the body wasn't looted, they did look to be in a bit of a rush after all. Recycling the junk cover the body revealed a surprise. It looked like a corpse of a corporate, or corpo in Night City slang. Guy was wearing a suit, had a head of black slicked back hair and minimally expressive cybernetics. Man, no wonder those two were in a hurry, killing a corpo usually drew the attention of the corporation that owned them, and for what seemed like two Night City small timers that was basically a death sentence.
I knelt down and began rummaging through the guy's pockets to see if he had anything, nope looks like he was cleaned out. Looking at the guy's face I saw a bullet wound in his head, judging by the entry angle it was execution shot. Strange.
Looking down at the guy's face I jolted back in shock as the guy's eyes opened, he was alive! Not for long since he had a bullet in his head, unless he got to a doctor quick. I paused as an idea came to mind. I needed connections, and a guy being saved from the literal edge of death does tend to be extremely grateful, and said guy being a corpo does mean he should have connections of his own. Looking down at the visibly flagging man I felt a wide grin form on my face as I spoke with a whimsical tone of voice.
"Well, it's your lucky day, pal~"
AN: Gonna focus on pumping out a few updates for this the next couple weeks.
Chapter 23
The man struggles to speak as he visibly tries to muster the strength to move.
"D-dammit, I owe J-jackie five ed-dies. Th-the Devil is real."
"Close enough where you are concerned dead boy, now unless you want to be even more similar to your new nickname, do you have a ripper you prefer to see about your head wound?" I said with a smirk.
"V-viktor… behind, Misty's..esoterica." He mumbled out before going unconscious. Hmm, at least he managed to spit the name out before going under.
I gently picked the man up and placed him inside the fatman's car before getting behind the wheel. A few seconds later and the car was rushing back towards the city.
A single stop at a information terminal for directions and soon enough I was entering a store that was giving me those old fake fortune teller vibes while carrying an unconscious man. There was a woman at the counter who I presumed to be Misty.
"Hello Misty, is the doctor in?~" I asked as the woman jolted to attention, her eyes wide at my appearance before she looked at the guy I was carrying.
"Oh my god V! What happened to him?" She said rushing over to inspect the now named V. My mental impression on the woman increased as she ignored me to worry over her friend. A corpo friend with a owner of a run down fortune telling shop? Was I wrong about his status? Misty saw the state V was in and quickly looked up at me before rushing towards the back of her shop.
"Quick follow me Viktor will be able to help." Following behind her I saw that there was a backdoor that led to an alleyway and that across the space was a set of stairs that led downward. Going down I found a large workshop like space filled with parts and a man watching a boxing match on a tv. So this is Viktor then.
"Viktor help! V is hurt bad!" Misty said in rush dragging the man off his chair towards me.
"Whoa hold on Misty what's this about- WOAH! Who the hell did your body mod work! That's not good for my poor heart." Viktor exclaimed clutching his heart as he finally caught sight of me.
I stayed silent and just simply grinned wider. This was fun.
Seeing a recliner table in the middle of the room I proceeded to drop V onto it.
"You better work quickly doctor~ Dead Boy here was shot in the head~ Now when Dead Boy is back up and running let him know that I'll be back to collect his debt~" I said skipping out of the room the fancy red coat I had taken from the car swishing side to side behind me.
"Wait, who are you?" Viktor asked wary of me.
I took a moment to think on that question. I was going to need a Title for my reputation after all. Something serious and frightening. Thinking back on my appearance and the tone my voice seemed to make when emotionally charged a name came to me like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Me? Why I am the Radio Demon silly boy and poor little V there has made a deal with The Devil and I intend to collect~" I said without moving my mouth as it twisted into a large inhuman jagged grin with the voice becoming a static mess before proceeding to disappear in the blink of an eye with a combination of speed and sleight of hand distracting them for a bit and making them blink, causing them to lose focus on me just enough to disappear without a trace.
I quickly found myself back at the junkyard hard at work again cleaning out the pests and breaking down the junk. V was going to be useless for weeks once he was out of danger and done with his surgery. I would normally say months, but the medicines I saw in that clinic looked decent enough to cut down on his recovery time so it should just be weeks instead.
However, I was going to need more than him if I wanted to take down two world spanning corporations. I was going to need a army, I was going to need funds, I was going to need power. I needed more of my skills back, so that meant back to the grind. I had recovered 7 more skills of the 3 star prestige level, so there should be 3 more skills before I reach the 4 star skills and my recovery rate will slow down even more. The fact that I could recover so fast from just killing pests was a miracle, thank unchecked corporate interests ruining the world and polluting the crap out of it.
At that point I would need to either find a much more denser source of pests, or start killing other people as well. The former was going to be much much harder than the latter. Sigh, at least I had my Stealth skill back so I could keep the attention off me longer. After spending the next hour considering my options I decided on my course of action.
I would start hunting down gang members and criminals. Also I would start building up my connections with the local Underworld society. The fixers and edge runners. The Info brokers and mercenaries of Night City. However, in order to get into the scene I would either have to be a mercenary or be an info broker. Being a mercenary would attract far too much attention for my liking at this point in time, so that left being a Fixer. That meant I needed a info network and that meant I needed a system of informants of some sort. I could not trust people, did not have the amount of money to guarantee their loyalty and I still had not gotten back my Observe skill. Therefore, I would need to go with technology. Taking some time to brainstorm I came up with a solution.
Radios. Well to be more exact old time looking radio shells with advanced vox systems inside. No one else used vox tech so there should be no one to detect their transmissions. Plus the programming would be advanced enough for them not to be able to crack the transmissions even if they did find them. I would deposit them around the city in hard to reach and out of the way places and let their auspex systems collect information for me. I would need to create a few servitors to process all the data for me so that meant making a hidden room for them. Luckily, I was in the junkyard where nobody would be around to look, so all I had to do was dig, build, and convert a few bodies into servitors then spend a few nights manually making everything I needed.
Right, I got a plan, I got the resources, I got the location, and I got the time. Time to get to work and make my Demon Radio Network.
Interlude 8
You want to find a Demon Radio kid? Do you even know what it is you are thinking of doing?
Sit down and shut up kid while I explain why you are a stupid gonk.
Like everything in Night City, it started with a rumor.
Rumors of magical pre collapse radios that were found in places out of the beaten path where no one would really go or be able to find them. You could find them on roof tops, on edges of overhands, in sewer alcoves, or even in between buildings. The magical thing about them was that they still worked even with no source of power and were impossible to damage. They played pre war tunes and news of things going on through the city and even revealed secrets from time to time. A very valuable commodity indeed.
However, what magical thing in Night City does not have it's dark secret? Everyone who has tried to take or break the radios were found missing their heads and strung up like a puppet dripping blood with the radio back where it was found. Now that would usually not be enough to deter the stupid from trying their luck anyways, except for one thing. It speaks.
Apparently, if you speak to the radio, someone will reply, a transmission that not even the best net hacker can detect, like it came straight from the radio. A man's voice will speak, revealing your personal information, your deepest darkest secrets, and then it will offer you a deal. To perform a deed and be rewarded generously.
It asks things like what normal fixers would ask, gather information, kill this person, steal that car, the usual stuff, but then it starts asking stranger things. Take the blood of this random homeless man, take a picture at this point in time, or even just stand at this location wearing this outfit for five minutes.
The rewards are generous indeed in terms of eddies or even high quality equipment that appear next to the radio with no sign of how they got there. With the voice offering even more generous deals, and no one has yet to stop accepting. However, the punishments for failure are high indeed. Those who tried to break the deal or trick the voice all disappeared without a trace and no Fixer has yet to find any trace of them.
People have started calling the voice the voice of The Radio Demon, based on his modus of operation. Things have been starting to get strange around Night City since the first rumors have popped up. More and more of these radios are constantly being found all across the city and even in the outer badlands where the Nomads roam. Furthermore, rumors of strange occurrences and people have started popping up. Tales of entire warehouses full of goods disappearing, entire offices being emptied of people overnight with no trace, shadow people roaming the alleyways and disappearing without a trace even in dead ends with no hidden entrances.
Even the Corpos are apparently starting to get spooked as they all started walking around with their own bodyguards, not that it helped as apparently even those guys are disappearing mysteriously or winding up strung up missing their heads by one the demon radios.
Now nightmarish as all of that was, there is just one thing that keeps people seeking those radios. Those deals the voice offers, you can make your own. One solo apparently asked for the demon for a cure to his disease, terminal cancer, guy was in the job for a while so we knew he was legit. The voice asked for a hit job after he finished his end of the deal. Man apparently woke up the next day cured of his incurable cancer. Was so happy he went off to party and refused openly in the Afterlife to do the deal and dared the demon to do something about it.
Guy immediately broke down screaming in pain in the middle of the atrium and was found to be full of tumors and lesions. Guy died a few hours later despite what medical aid he could get. That is why you are a stupid gonk kid.
If you find one of those damn radios you'll be stuck working for it till you die or do something stupid to piss off the Demon and end up disappeared or hanging from the roof. And don't give me that 'I'll only do enough for what I need' schtick, you have any idea how many people have said the same thing only to not come back? Their greed made them keep going and going till they couldn't put their eddies where their mouth is and either died on the job or failed the Radio Demon.
So do the smart thing kid, if you start hearing music drifting through the air, don't follow it, stay the hell away from it, and don't try to find it.
This is one Night City Legend we don't want hanging around. We don't need no Demon coming to our Afterlife either.
Hmmm? What's wrong kid? You white as a ghost. What? Behind me?
Madre De Dios.
Chapter 24
The skyline of Night City stayed the same as ever, covered in sky scrapers that themselves were covered in advertisements that soared into the sky even as changes were constantly taking place within its streets.
Standing at the edge of the roof of one such skyscraper was a tall gangly being wearing a formal red suit and coat that rustled in the high winds. A wide toothy grin present on its pasty white face as its eyes glowed with a eerie red light.
…
It has been 8 weeks since I began my 'Radio Network' project and things were progressing quickly. Over a hundred disguised vox casters were distributed across and around Night City even into the wastelands surrounding the city. Almost immediately they were discovered by the local gangs, fixers, solos, and corpos with expected results. Some tried to hack them, steal them, or even break them. Obviously they did not succeed. Their construction made them nigh indestructible to non heavy weaponry or industrial equipment, their tech made them unhackable, and their built in locators made theft just a delayed punishment to be delivered when I finally reached them. I admit I did originally hesitated to be too rough or violent with the first group of gang members that tried to make off with one of my radio, at least until I proceeded to mind rip one that kept shooting me in the face. When I learned just what their group had done needless to say any empathy I had for them died instantly. Their bodies were still hanging in that alleyway. I could even point to the time when I even crossed my own line and truly lost a piece of my remaining Humanity. A group of kids part of what Night City referred to as a 'Youth Gang' attempted to steal a radio. They were so young, they were not even preteens, so damn young. I just scared them and let them go, not willing to outright murder kids in cold blood. That changed as I witnessed the fleeing children proceed to gun down a family in cold blood in order to steal their car. The family suffered multiple fatal shots including their heads making it impossible for me to help them. My mind had processed the entire scene in an instant and I felt a piece of me die as I did what I had to do to balance the scales. I instantly drew my weapon and killed the youth gang members before they could escape in their stolen vehicle, mind rip occurring to verify my own actions, and verified it did. While the kids were kids indeed, the amount of crimes and Evil they had done matched and in some cases exceeded that of those decades their senior. At that instant I decided, age, word, race, species? None of that mattered, only deeds, and I would do whatever I needed to accomplish my goals, whatever they might be. I had crossed my line, so why not keep going?
Lastly, there were those that simply used them as intended, a radio, listening to the old music I loaded into the Network or even better, figured out that I allowed the radios to tap into random frequencies around the city. That last function lured in the fixers and edge runners like moths to the flame, creating constant skirmishes by hired solos and corpo proxies over access to the radios. Among those I picked those most likely to make a deal out of greed and offered them contracts. There were hits and misses, some obeyed and were rewarded with upgraded weapons, armor, and gear, while those that did not were made to disappear or into examples. This has resulted in a rapidly growing force of fearful mercenaries on my payroll doing missions on my behalf all across the city for essentially nothing, as the high quality gear they have been receiving was still nothing compared to even the lowest of 40K tech. Imperial tech may have essentially been the lowest cast offs of DAOT Humanity, but even the junk of modern civilization would be god like to ancient prehistoric humans. So essentially I was trading the equivalent of dirt for services rendered.
This large force of solos and edge runners had effectively over the course of two months expanded my Network to encompass a wide variety of closed loop systems. A dozen servitors lashed together into a pseudo hive mind bio AI was constantly monitoring and processing all the information obtained by my vox radios around the city, using their passive sensors and hacking unsecured local networks and personal implants. However, they needed some more physical help to create connections to closed loop systems like secure security systems and off grid computer networks, help which I had plenty of.
First the cameras were infiltrated, then the security rooms, then the actual server and computers, with each one being taken making it easier to infiltrate other locations with the data retrieved and identifying more targets to go after.
Now my Network spans the entirety of Night City, the Wastelands, and even into some of the large corporation networks as well with access to all their low level security and communications. I was essentially Big Brother at this point as there was no where for most people to hide.
Of course I did not solely spend my time on gathering information just for the sake of infiltration, I also used it to locate every single ganger and criminal out on the streets to hunt them down.
There were a LOT of gangs in Night City. Youth Gangs, Combat Gangs, Culture Gangs, Family Gangs, Guardian Gangs, Chrome Gangs, and much much more. There were even entire sections of the city abandoned by the government to pure lawlessness cause they could not oust the gangs in them called Combat Zones. No law enforcements would dare to step inside such areas without heavy armor support. In short, there were a lot of acceptable targets for me to hunt. Dozens of gang infested buildings, warehouses, drug dens, hidden caches, sewer hideouts and more were cleared out by me and looted for everything.
Speaking of which my Network flagged a gang skirmish nearby. I immediately proceeded to dash over the roof tops leaping over street wide gaps with ease, easily avoiding the notice of those on the roof tops with my Stealth skill and ignoring the surveillance cameras which were under my control. I reached the gunfight in under a minute stopping on the roof top above to look down and take in the situation.
At opposite ends of a basketball court were two gangs having a shoot out. A trio of Tiger Claws were hiding behind their motorcycles trading fire with a half dozen Valentinos taking cover behind corners. My glasses lit up as my Network processed the faces of the gangers beneath me and fed me their personal information. All of them had minor bounties for a variety of crimes from murder to theft. This was not even the first skirmish of the night, this was the sixth, for the night. Just during the day there were over a dozen firefights between gang members across the city, usually more along the outer edges of the city or in or around the combat zones, and with the rate of the night skirmishes it seemed that there would be even more tonight. Most of which were not even between the major gangs of the city, there are dozens of minor gangs constantly carving out their own territories or raiding others for more of everything. It honestly reminded me a bit of Nostromo before I invaded, kind of, Night City was still leagues better.
After identifying all the targets I proceeded to pull out two stun grenades, set them to contact detonation, and tossed them at the two groups. The two were immediately deafened, blinded, and disoriented by the sudden explosion of sound and light leaving them easy pickings for my sniper rifle. In seconds both sides were dead and were subsequently looted and inventoried to clean up the mess before disappearing myself. Just another mystery for Night City's finest, just like the hundreds of other cases in the past couple months.
Ignoring the blue screen listing out my experience gains and loot from the recent skirmish I sat on a nearby rooftop to rethink about my plan.
Main goal is to take down Arasaka and Militech, that meant war as each one was effectively a nation unto itself with its own army as well with both having nuclear capabilities. So I would need an army of my own, my own corporation or equivalent level of influence and resources.
I needed information, money, equipment, manpower, and a base of operations. Equipment I can handle personally, information was already being taken care of, manpower was still in the planning stages along with the money. A base of operations however, that would be trickier. I could not use the junkyard location as that would be the hidden back up location, and a main base of operation would have to be known to everyone else working for me.
So the real question is do I want to have a public base of operations like the corporations or do I go underground with a hidden organization, both with its own pro and cons.
If I went public then I would have access to all the markets and manpower that can be publicly accessed. However, I would have to be under the public and governmental scrutiny and the other corporations would be aware of me.
On the other hand if I went with a underground organization I would have the element of surprise and ability to do as I see fit, but I run into the problem of being the enemy of the government as well as the corporations. Also it would be a lot harder to recruit and obtain resources as they would have to go through black market channels.
Or I could do both. Create a public persona or use a proxy while at the same time using my real persona to manage the dark underbelly of the city. Yes, that would work, starting my own company under a public persona while growing my control over the underbelly of society and then expand outward. I would need a reliable second in command for both sides to take over whenever I needed to handle issue on whatever side needed help. It would not even be truly an issue to manage both sides as the amount of experience gained from the slaughtering of these minor gangs was enough to complete the repairs of a couple four star skills, one of which was Teleportation. As long as I had two secure rooms as my offices then I would be able to immediately arrive from one headquarters to another to manage whatever issue needs addressing. Yes, this would work.
However, let's first check up on V, he should be up and about now.
It is time for the demon to collect his due.
AN: Nothing really important this chapter, more like a re-hash of last one, but gotta write something to get things started for myself again to prime the engine.
Last edited: Oct 9, 2021
Chapter 25
V's POV*
V groaned as he got up out of his bed. His body was still hurting a bit even after 2 months of rest and meds, taking multiple bullets wounds and a headshot was no joke. He looked around at his apartment flat, the clothes lying around on the floor, the various instafood bags piling up in a corner, and his gun room door still open revealing a glimpse of his weapons and ammo. Honestly, he was not such a slob, but with the combination of his failed job, nearly dying, the pain, and the death of his best friend Jackie, it just made it very hard to work up the will to get things done.
Oh god Jackie, his funeral was today too. How was he going to face Jackie's mom? No, even if he did not know how he was going to apologize and make it up for getting her son killed he still had to go. Jackie deserved that much at least.
"Man are you going to get up anytime soon today or what? Paint drying would be more alive than you at the moment." Said the unexpected guest in his head. Seems that luck was not the only reason he survived his head trauma. According to Victor the Relic chip that they stole from Yorinobu Arasaka activated when he died and revived him. The chip also contained the engram of Johnny Silverhand an old terrorist who nuked the previous Night City Arasaka tower. Needless to say he was quite shocked to see him inside his apartment and got into a 'fight' where he seemingly got tossed around by Johnny until they both realized what happened and Johnny almost killed him by unplugging the chip. Now they were stuck with each other and he had to take some pills Missy gave to help shut Johnny up for a time. He was going to have to eventually find someone to remove the chip and get Silverhand out of his head, but first, Jackie.
Finding the will to finally do something V stood up and proceeded to search around his apartment for a clean suit to wear and his weapons. 20 minutes later he was out the door and getting into a cab to get to Mama Well's Bar.
Stepping out onto the cracked sidewalked he walked into the old style saloon like building and looked around. The lighting was dimmer than usual casting the old western like atmosphere into a dull mood. All around were groups of people. The Valentinos, Jackie's old gang before he left, his mother by the bar, the bartender, and other random people he did not know. Off to the side in an alcove was a small candlelit shrine where Jackie's picture sat along with his dual pistols. He was so proud of those, spent a good chunk of eddies on them to get them all detailed and golden. Only thing he spent more eddies on was his bike.
After the funeral*
Mama Wells was very understanding and said there was nothing to forgive regarding his part in her son's death and gave me the keys to Jackie's garage and his motorcycle. He also spent some time with Missy, Jackie's girlfriend, searching his garage for mementos to present to the funeral and even convince both Missy and Mama Wells that Missy should be allowed at the funeral citing it would be what Jackie wanted. Everyone in the bar came up and gave a story about how they met and he was no exception. He talked about how they met by Jackie saving his life time and time again.
In the end he left the bara with his friend's bike and his weapons and a burning desire to not waste his second chance and achieve Jackie's dream as well, to become a Night City Legend.
With a determined face he stepped out the back to where Jackie's bike was only to stop and pale as he beheld the grinning face of the so Radio Demon standing in the alleyway waiting for him.
"Hello there V~"
"Tri2 POV"
"Hello there V~" I said as I took in the appearance of the previously-at-Death's-door corpo man I had dropped off at the ripper 2 months ago and it looked like the doc did some good work, could barely even tell he was almost dead not long ago, though he looks a lot more low born than before, must have been the suit, or maybe he really was not a corpo?
V's Appearance
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"I thought Vic and Missy were pulling my leg and that I was hallucinating when I thought they said the Devil saved my life." V said slowly.
"Well more of a daemon then Devil but close enough." I said buffing my nails on my coat. "And this Demon has come to collect."
"What do you mean?"
"Come now V, I saved your life that night, so you owe me big, a life for a life."
"What do you want with me?" V asked warily one his hands stealthily moving towards his inner jacket.
"I want you to-" I began before getting cut off as suited Asian man dropped out of the sky right between us and fired off a micro missile from his forearm at me while darting towards V at high speed.
With huff I simply ripped off a piece of the wall next to me and tossed it at the missile, ignoring the shrapnel simply by sidestepping the shards as I watched the fight.
The obviously cybernetically augmented Asian man quickly reached V who at this point just pulled out his pistol from his jacket and let loose a few shots. The assailant avoided the shot by pushing up on V's pistol arm before he could shoot causing the shots fired to miss and then proceeded to gut punch him with his other fist and then tossing him over his shoulder into the ground hard. All of this took only 3 seconds since the man landed.
I am not sure what is going on but it seems like he did not want to kill my employee as he could have easily just crushed his throat with his first punch instead of just winding him and nonlethally subduing him.
I proceeded to use my stealth to approach the man while listening to him.
"Did you really think you could escape your crime? That you could hide from your punishment? Arasaka-sama will decide your fate murderer." The man spat angrily as he is about to smash V's face into the ground to knock him out.
At this point I was behind the man and grabbed his leg. Now to his credit the man reacted extremely quickly, most likely some kind of nervous system upgrade as the second my hand touched his leg he immediately tried to leap into a handstand and kick out at my face, tried being the word there. My grip was as strong as plasteel and my other hand easily caught the other foot by the ankle leaving me holding the man upside down and with a clear view of his surprised face that quickly became calm again.
Not that it helped as I immediately slammed him head first into the ground then proceeded to swing him repeatedly into the ground like a certain green skinned hero. I had to make sure not to hit him too hard or else I risked killing him, and I was curious on just what it is my soon to be employee did to piss off Arasaka for them to send an assassin after him. Maybe it would be something I could use?
After a few introductions of the man to the ground I held him up to see if he would try to escape. Nope, looked like he was knocked out; dropping him to the floor I then proceeded to hogtie the man with some duct tape from my inventory. Once that was done I looked at V who was just starting to get back up hacking his lungs out as he tried to get some air into his lungs.
Stepping over to him with my feet stopping right in his line of vision on the ground I kept my smile up as I spoke.
"Looks like you owe me your life again V~ So what exactly did you do to get Arasaka to send a hitman after you? As your new boss I should be informed if any of my employees are suffering from any… workplace difficulties~"
V just looked up at me in confusion and then at the now unconscious hogtied assassin next to him with a face full of more confusion before answering with a simple "What?"
Chapter 26
As I sat on a currently disarmed, courtesy of me removing his arms, Arasaka ninja, I mentally went over the information my new minion provided me.
So Saburo Arasaka was dead, his son Yorinbu the current head of the megacorp was the killer, and they all currently think V did it. Also the cherry on top is that Yorinobu apparently hates Arasaka and wants to tear it down as its head.
I would have to revise my plans to take this into account. With Arasaka set to essentially self destruct it made my job much easier….though if I could work with Yorinobu, I could get access to the resource of Arasaka to toss at Militech as well to try to destroy both of them, or at least to fuel my recovery to the point I could destroy the megacorps myself. He is someone I could see myself working with as we both have the same goal.
Though I do not think he has considered it greater than just his father's company, like what about the other megacorps. Take one or two down and the rest will just take their place. They would all have to go, and then something new would have to take their place or else the world was risk falling into a dark age as the economy would collapse and violence would erupt over resources. Problem would be that anything taking their place would eventually become a megacorp again under any competent leadership even if it would take decades or centuries. Anything growing too strong even among peers would eventually have one or a few emerge tall among the rest.
Hmmm, damn, guess I should just scale back my plans to just wiping out Militech and Arasaka then. Maybe just set off the 6th corpo war instead? Get rid of Militech and Arasaka, then help fan the flames to basically bleed out every other participating corpo with a emphasis on the 'winner.'
Of course this would all predicate on Yorinobu actually listening and being willing to work with me, which would require me to be actually be able to bring something of value to the table. It would not be money, resources, or technology as he has plenty of that in the form of Arasaka and I would not really trust him or his people with more advanced tech. Connections? He has more than me again through Arasaka.
The only real thing I would be willing to bring that he does not have? Combat power, both personal and external. Given some time I could regain more of my skills and build up army trained and equipped up to Cadian standards or at least Krieg standards with the use of cloning vats and indoctrination pods to create soldiers en mass.
From what I gathered the greatest weapons people had on this earth were full cyborgs, nukes, military vehicles like hover tanks, bio weapons, and net runners. All of which I could handle and make troops that could handle. Except for possibly the nukes and the cyborgs depending on their capabilities. Nothing I can really do except creating void shields to stop nukes from destroying the troops but it would still harm the environment and possibly the planet if fired in enough numbers. Whereas for cyborgs speedware is apparently a thing that can make a person temporarily the Flash but with superstrength and carrying heavy firepower. I had encountered a few people with such cyberware, people who could react to my attacks but not move fast enough to matter, and those who could move and react to me but only for a few moments only to die to me when it ran out.
I could handle those, but the clone soldiers I had plans for? Unless I was willing to also give them speedware they would most likely get slaughtered in droves even if they would win eventually with sheer numbers. I would also have to study more about this cyberpsychosis phenomenon that apparently causes those with too much cyberware to go insane. The tech priests never had that problem and some were more machine than even some fullborgs. So something was seriously off there.
All of this would depend on just how much time I had as I needed to gain enough experience to recover all those items and skills from their corrupted state. If Yorinbu is rushing then everything would just come to a head within a year and I would miss my opportunity. Should plan in case I miss it just in case. Also V was also apparently dying due to the Relic chip eating his brain and only has a few months to live at most. I could probably solve that if I still had my skills, but I don't and I am not feeling charitable enough to just do that for free. So time for a job for my little minion.
"So V." I said standing up with a smile on my face as I looked at V. "Seems you are in a bit of a bigger pickle than I thought and you need help correct?"
"Y-yeah?" V stammered as I approached him. I placed a hand on his shoulder and looked him straight in his eyes.
"Well congratulations buddy ol pal ol minion of mine! I just so happen to have a job for you that is right up your alley!" I said as I deposited several high quality guns and a set of concealable armor that I had either looted or bought over the last few months into his hands.
"I want you to go to the Afterlife and pay Rogue to find out the location of every single Scav den, gang hideout, and raffen around Night City then send it to me. Next I want you to ask her to find out who made the Relic, where the creator is, and to hire a crew to retrieve him. You will need his data in order to begin to figure out how to remove the Relic from your head, or at least to give you more time." I explained giving him a data shard full of cash, more than enough for whatever Rogue might ask.
"Why? What benefit is this for you?" V said seemingly getting his nerve back.
"Why? Cause I want to know where everyone is, I want to know about this Relic, I want access to Yorinbu, and I want to know why Saburo Arasaka found this important enough to fly all the way from Japan for and die in Night City. So off you go V and do no disappoint me, if you have any other leads, go after them, and I expect daily status reports from you even if nothing has happened. If you need more cash for chrome or equipment, find one of my radios and give me a ring ok?"
With that last word I inventoried dropped a flyer from some underground concert so that it fell between us obscuring me from V's sight then leapt up onto the rooftop above us and shimmied over the edge in a split second.
I quickly began running along the roof tops scanning around for gang gatherings and checking in on my radio network for any disturbances while planning in my head. I had an opportunity now and whether or not I was quick enough to capitalize on it was up in the air. I needed more experience I needed my skills back, I could no longer take it slow and steady if I wanted to meet my self imposed deadline, so it was time to kick it up a notch. No more working through mercs and building up my network, time to start doing a lot more killing personally again and harvesting the exp.
Now real question would be where to start? I stopped at the edge of a roof as I looked at a floating airship in the distance, flying above a dilapidated stadium structure in Pacifica.
"Pacifica, a lawless combat zone full of criminals, and whose main gang are Animals and Voodoo Boys, physical brutes weaker than me, and netrunners who can do nothing to me. There is even a entire mini zone inside full of paramilitary no one would mind getting killed once I am done with everyone else outside. Sounds like a perfect place to hunt." I grinned as I leapt off towards my next hunting ground.
I could already here the pings from my notifications at the reams of experience I would soon get. Soon I would be back to normal.
Soon I would be able to start getting revenge.
AN: Merry Christmas, not sure when next update will be.