Part of the battle cry of the 18th legion Salamanders
Aonghus looked ahead to the brothers with him, the majority were Salamanders or Iron Hands, a smattering of Ravenguard in his Thunderhawk and throughout the assembled forces, in his squad were 4 of the other brothers from the Blackiron Brotherhood, they had the most terminator armoured warriors in this warband. That thought alone should have made him shudder instead he felt a deep cold rage, they had once numbered 20 brothers now only 12 remained. Aonghus wasn't even their leader, their leader was a veteran Sergeant called Drollin, the man had been dour even by the standards of the Iron Hands, but since Isstvan he'd become a fire brand, his wrath like a plasma bolt.
He looked at the small team of Blackshields nearby they were being led by a Nightlord, of the 66 Blackshields that had pledged to the Salamanders 20 were Nightlords, 14 were Deathguard, 12 were Emperors Children the rest were a mixture, 4 World Eaters, 5 White Scars, they even had a handful of Thousand Sons. The worst were the Bastards of Horus which is, maybe ironically, what they had referred to themselves as. Of the five, one was a Bastard of Horus, there was one of the Thousand Sons with the final 2 being Emperors Children. Another thing that made him boil, Fulgrims scions were a sore sight after Isstvan, had it not been for the Salamanders these warriors would have been slain on sight.
"We are 1 minute out mi'lords," came the voice of the pilot over the vox, she was good pilot for a mortal, the Thunderhawk had been used as Vok'las personal command transport meaning she'd gotten decent exposure to Astartes and taking them into the heat of combat, that meant she at least deserved respect. If she survived longer, he'd have to learn her name, the practice had been encouraged and heavily advised by the Salamanders war leader. As the transport entered the designated hanger the pilot chimed in over the vox again, "Giv'em steel and blood Lord Gorgon, their flesh is weak." He knew it was simply an attempt to relate to the Astartes, she'd probably heard other Iron Hands yell the cry as they left the hawk in the heat of battle. Despite knowing this he couldn't stop the small smile forming under his helm, "Keep the engines hot pilot, we go to retrieve our wayward brothers." she laughed as his voice boomed out, the 5 terminators marched off the hawk and let loose their fury.
Janeway looked to the huddled group of survivors, the soldier who'd paused and looked at her to see if she'd heard it too, the sounds of heavy gunfire. "i trust the explosions we can hear are your friends?" Janeway looked at Vok'la who without even breaking stride barked an order out. "Olygan, Jagon forward, Centurion and Cailean with me we are the shield for these people, You men carry the Adept." Shrade threw the body into their arms as the scrambled to catch the strange mechanical body, "good heavens!" the young woman yelped out as arms and loose mechandrites flailed about.
As they arrived at the hanger bay doors, they slid open to a scene of carnage. Janeway froze on the spot along with others even the soldier stopped mouth agape as she tried to process the scene.
A large group of warriors in similar armour to their caretakers were busy fighting a bloody and ruthless boarding action against the insectoids, the chittering creatures scaled out of alcoves and roof sections trying to drop down on the warriors only to be burned by flamethrower weapons from warriors in livery like Vok'las. "Stay behind us and protect each other, Centurion we are moving." Vok'la stomped forward boltgun raised he held out the eviscerator Blade swinging it downwards onto one of the aliens who screamed. Janeway heard yelling, she had her arms out to the sides trying to shield the people from the mayhem when one of the aliens lunged at her, she was tackled out of the way by the female soldier who was being dragged back to a throng of the creatures. She watched helplessly as the woman bashed at the creatures exo-skeleton, "VOK'LA SHE NEEDS HELP!" she yelled, the battle-captain swiftly turned to see what was happening, he was mid battle cutting down another xenos, before putting a few bolts into baying crowd the woman was being dragged to. "We have her Battle-Captain." there was a chill in the air as he noted hoarfrost coated part of the deck and creatures, the chittering and hollering turned to incessant screaming and jabbering as warp-flame burned the creatures, the one dragging the woman was violently thrown off her.
She looked up at her saviour finding a black helm, bone white skull face place and blood red batwings staring down at her, the figure turned on the creature throwing a backhanded fist into its head smashing it like a fruit, "mierda..." she muttered looking up at the armoured giant, it raised its gun and with one hand, hip fired at more aliens coming in the doorway. "Back to your flock little girl." the damn thing sounded Russian or something, she nodded quickly before noticing a large, jagged shard of glass like material, she hurriedly tore some strips of her loin-cloth off and wrapped it around her hand and half of the material picking it up she turned on an approaching alien and drove it into its face as she scrabbled and then hap-hazardly commando rolled back to the group. "HA, this one fancies herself a fighter Battle-Captain." she noticed the Russian Batman wannabe had followed her back, a small squad behind it. It pointed at the growing crowd of bugs, "Sorcerer, purge this filth." she looked at cpt. Janeway then behind when she heard her gasp the civvies looked horrified like something out of a war doc, she turned to see one of the robot-super-soldier things raise a sword as lighting lept from its fingertips into the swarm. She noticed some of the other robots in bigger armour, they looked like walking tanks one had a-a, holy shit was that a minigun on its arm? She noticed they were falling back, it wasn't the sane way, they were holding ground until the last possible second then falling back some choosing to disengage and making it out after what should not have been humanely possible.
"On to the hawk now, Pilot Stackton, we have civilians aboard." the big guy the 'Battle-Captain' was holding on to the door with his gun raised and was firing, the Batman looking Hijo de puta was doing the same, she noticed their wizard hop on followed by the Roman plague doctor guy, the 'Centurion' it stopped and looked at her nodding it stalked off. She looked down at herself, she was covered in cuts and bruises, exhausted, and her hand was bleeding despite her best try at covering the sharp makeshift dagger. She felt a hand on shoulder and looked at Janeway, she seemed concerned, "that was some fine fighting out there...?" she was looking for a name, "Lieutenant Contreras, Mam." better give the standard info, the Battle-Captain was staring at her as he held onto a bar to support himself, "well done auxilia."
The hold of the 'Thunderhawk' was dim, red lights bathing everyone, Janeway noted the Lieutenant panting a bit, it looked like the adrenaline was wearing off. The other rescued captives were staring at her worried, "our Apothecaries will look her over when we arrive." Vok'las voice cut through the vehicle as if to signify the timing of their arrival the pilots voice cut in, "Mi'lord Drakonn, we are arriving, Lord Apothecary Haxtalus awaits." As the hawk engaged the landing mechanics in the Ignis' hanger the hawk's ramp thumping on to the deck.
Vok'la strode off the hawk, followed by Shrade and Cailean, Olygan hefted the Adept over his shoulder and followed they were approached by a warrior in Salamanders armour with white accents. Janeway stepped down supporting Contrares the other civilians following tentatively until they heard stomping, they rushed to the sides with a- "holy shit..." the young man looked up as the brothers of Blackiron stomped onto the hanger Aonghus at their head, "Battle-Captain our war-gear requires maintenance I will join brother-sergeant Drollin in the gathering." the thick almost Irish sounding accent of the giant was tinged sounding like an electronic growl. Vok'la merely nodded at the warrior Hextalus walked over to converse with his captain, "is this them, the survivors?"
"Aye brother it is, the little warrior there injured herself fending off the xenos, stabbed one with a shard of shrapnel see to them." Vok'la looked to the group they were once again huddle together with the men in front it was an attempt to feel secure, "Little flame...Janeway brother-apothecary Hextalus will see to them, he could use your assistance." she looked around almost confused until she realised why, the fear on the groups faces, the little boy and his sister was palpable, they were so lost, so out of their depth it was almost comical it looked like a bad holo deck program these people seemed like stereotypical characters out of their times brought together by villainous aliens.
"Right, come on people, this handsome gentleman is gonna give us the once over, make sure those big bad bugs didn't leave any nasty surprises." she looked to the warrior approaching them, he was carrying a pad of some kind and had a-a skull floating around him? The sudden addressing had gathered some of them to their senses the apparent matriarch in Mrs. Lockart trying to straighten her entirely inappropriate clothes and the 'gentleman' with her daughter- moved to the front, both lost their confidence upon seeing the little floating skull.
"What the hell is that?" the man shouted pointing at the skull, Hextalus was busy tapping the pad he looked at the man briefly and noted down heightened stress responses and potential post-stress problems before choosing to address them, "this is a Data-skull, Unit 254-theta-9, it is currently scanning you all gathering biometric data myself and this vessels medical personnel will need." the skull hovered around the group using its occular Augurs it stopped on the boy for a brief moment relaying some surprising information to the Apothecary he looked down at the boy who was looking around in wonder he seemed the least apprehensive out of the group. The boy looked up at him, staring back he straightened himself not flinching under Hextalus' gaze, "a little warrior in the making i see, come, the Sanctum of "motoe wakusafisha" is awaiting." He held out his arm the massive drill on it pointing to the hangar entrance. Janeway helped the wounded woman but was stopped by the apparent medic, "i will bare her burdens, you've done enough Captain." the medic stopped them Janeway looked to the lieutenant, "be careful, i think she may have also fractured something." Hextalus gently scooped the woman up in one arm he turned to lead them out, he ran an armoured finger down her face to remove hair cradling her like he done K'tontassi's young one back on nocturne. He flickered back briefly K'tontassi was the daughter of the man who'd been his brother in his mortal life he remembered her birth and the joy it brought to the man's face.
"A fire as bright as this? I'll be more than careful tending her flame captain..." he moved on ahead of her and the group as he done so 2 more warriors followed behind them a Salamander and an Iron Hand. The Salamander lightly nudged the Girl, her younger brother grabbing her hand to pull her forward. "c'mon Maisy, Mister Hex is gonna make us better." she sighed, following warily, "easy Johnny your gonna pull my arm off." she moaned.
Hextalus was inputting results on the boy, Johnny he'd called himself, he looked at the screen he was genuinely confused but sure enough there it was, 98% match for Salamanders gene-seed compatibility, which meant it was likely even more so for Iron Hands Gene-seed with the 10ths noted stability, he could even be implanted with Ravenguard gene-seed in theory. He wasn't sure if he should share this with Vok'la, the boy was just that a boy, he wasn't a suitable recruit most come from families who spend their lives training their young men for recruitment or from harsh feral worlds and populations. "what's the matter mister hex?" He turned to see the young boy smiling up at him from the table he was strapped in to ensure he didn't hurt himself. "Nothing little one, you are handling this all rather well if I understand the situation correctly..." he trailed off as he worked on the results of the others comparing them all, not an adept comparison considering the small sample size of the group and their age ranges, the only reliable metrics were the almost even number discounting the boy and the 50/50 split of sexes.
In-fact it almost seemed like the xenos did discount the boy. "Little one tell me did xenos, the aliens...did they try to separate you and your sister." The boy pondered that his little eyes and nose scrunching up trying to remember. "Don't think so? They seemed kinda happy i guess?" he wasn't too sure but click clacking noise they made sure seemed happy from what he remembered, "hmmmm...this might be concerning..." the boy looked up slightly worried, "whys it con-sirn-ening mister hex?" He had to spell out the word, he didn't like the tone mister hex said it in, it was that serious tone adults use on big words he didn't understand like mister hex was trying to figure out a jigsaw or something. The giant paused and looked down at the boy the orange eye lenses auto focusing, "Just a thought little one, I want to see what miss Janeway and Brother Cailean pulled out of their machines before I say anymore." the boys face lost some its growing tension, "y-you sure i can try thinking harder to'member more?" Hextalus let out a throaty chuckle, the vox caster in his helmet making it sound like a poker raked through coals, "Careful little one don't think too hard," Hextalus tapped the restraints, "your clean and healthy, free from any xenos taint, come I'll take you to the others they should be at the gathering in the Pyre." the clamps undone and the boy hopped off the table, he ran over to pick up his little makeshift loincloth. "There little one those robes on the table use them." Johnny looked over, he picked up the black robes, they had flaming orange patterns on the arms and around the bottom he looked to mister hex then back at the robes, "the patterns neat, but why does it look like dress?" Hextalus shook his chuckling again, johnny liked the noise it sounded like a dragon. "Better a 'dress' then the nudity the xenos had you in boy, now come."
Hextalus held out his hand for the boy who ran over to grab it, he marveled at the gauntleted fist, "your hands are so big mister woah." Hextalus picked the boy up who laughed excitedly and placed him on the right shoulder. The boy turned and looked around; He could see everything from here. "How does that feel little one?" Johnny just stared he saw men and women run out of their way some were busy talking to each other, others were carrying things. The little robot head floated over to them beeping something a message on its screen, "yes take these results to Sur'kish and Uisdean and then tell them the gathering at the pyre has been put forward." Mr. Hex's voice was so deep it sounded like Mr Dragons, it rumbled and felt warm. As they continued Johnny thought of something that had been bugging him, "Mr. Hex whys your suit different from Mr Dragons? Yours has these white bits but his is bigger. The other guys have suits that look the same? Are you somebodies' boss?" Hextalus smiled under his helm the boy was inquisitive, the innocent questions being asked with no hidden motive, the woman Janeway and the others with the boy had asked countless questions but it all was in the vain of searching for hidden meanings or a way to help them with their situation thinking it may give them an upper hand over the Astartes, or maybe perhaps he was hyper analysing the situation...after all he like all the warriors aboard the vessel were still reeling from Isstvan and its consequences.
"My Armour is white to show others i am an Apothecary, a healer, i aid any of my brothers who are injured during battle." the boy hummed, thinking, "so you're like a doctor you make everyone better?"
"A simplification, but yes i 'make them better' my brothers wear standard armour Marks like 2, 3 or 4 but Brother-Captain Vok'la's armour is personalised Tartaros pattern terminator war-plate, a very rare and powerful armour." the boy considered what Hextalus said again for a moment, "whys Mr. Dragons suit gotta fancy name like 'tarderus' does yours have a fancy name?"
Patiently just like he'd done with K'tontassi all those years ago he answered all the burning questions, "yes it does, I am wearing Mk III 'Iron Armour' the Iron Hand warrior over there is wearing Mk II 'Crusade Armour' and there that Ravenguard is in a MK IV 'Imperial Maximus Suit' the Ravens even have their own armour named after their Primarch." He'd missed this, times like now reminded just what they were supposed to be fighting for...no, what they were still fighting for.
Johnny stuck his head Infront of Mr. Hex's to get his attention he kept doing this, he'd talk a lot then get really quiet like he was worried or something but big strong guys like him and Mr. Dragon don't get worried they handle it, that's what Mr. Dragon said. "whats a Prime ark?" he asked, trying to make him talk more.
The warrior had heard that these people may not be from their time, the warp was a strange place, and it was not unheard of for time to be skewed in it. When they retreated from Isstvan they spent but a few days in the warp only to find out 2 years had passed in real space. But to not know what a Primarch is...truly they were from time long forgotten. "The Primarchs are the Leaders of our Legions and the Gene-Fathers of Astartes like me." he thought back to his first time seeing Vulkan, his lord, his father. The sheer presence of the Lord of Drakes was like being near an open blast furnace the heat and power only comparable to other Primarchs. "huh-Mr. Dragon said you don't have mommy's and Daddie's you only get to see your families during special times but none of the other robots do."
"Ha, Machines, are we? Is that what you think we are?" Hextalus barked out, startling the boy slightly. Johnny thought back to what Mrs. Janeway said, "Mrs. Janeway said your awg-met-icks? Are those not robots?" Hextalus chortled the deep rumble sounding out across the hall causing crew members to pause and look at the passing warrior and his charge. He turned down an exit were 2 auxilia saluted as he passed, "no it is not, we are Trans-Humans, we have gone beyond mortal humans such as you." Hextalus spoke before remebering what the boy had said before. "And yes, we are perhaps the only Legion to still meet with those who knew us as mortals, others do not, simply casting these ties aside, we of the 18th believe this is a weakness. To be so far removed from what we are supposed to protect, this is likely the cause of Isstvan." he thought back to that dreadful day, truly it was perhaps the only time in his Astartisian life he'd felt true fear. Johnny noticed how he said that final word "Isdvan?" he said back to himself, "whats isdvan?" Hextalus didn't respond too caught up in the memories of ash and death, so they trudged on in a more sombre silence.
"Woah..." johnny looked at the massive door, he couldn't really understand why but they'd made a statue part of it, Mr. Hex said it had been carved from 'Volcanic glass and Worm scales?' what worms had scales? The statue was of man with a large Hammer, and he was surrounded by dragons breathing fire. Mr Hex called this place the 'Pire' and that it was where Mr. Dragon was having a 'gathering' all the big bosses were getting together to talk about what to do. The were was a loud groan as the doors opened to a room lit by fire in wall bound torches carved from the teeth and claws of nocturne firedrakes, gemmed ceiling decorations and long silver lamps shaped like winged dragons that rose from the floor. Along the wall were images of a man, Johnny looked in wonder he was fighting monsters in some and saving people in others. The heat cooled as they entered a large circular room, there was a big chair with a statue in it. He could tell it was a statue because of the glowing red eyes, it looked like they followed him as Mr. Hex brought him into the room Maisy, Mrs Janeway and the others were there waiting for them.
"So, whaddya think Captain these jolly green giants and men in black leaving us to sweat it out a bit?" the Lieutenant was in her fatigues choosing to ditch her previous attire, damsel in distress wasn't her style.
Janeway smiled at the woman, "More than likely, they seem to actually be treating us rather well, I would have thought they'd be more the shoot first ask questions never types." she fixed her own uniform slightly.
"How the hell are the two of you so calm, were in the middle of God knows were with these things." Dr. Bunfield protested that he and the others had been given simple overalls and robes as their clothes hadn't been rescued.
"Experience under pressure." Janeway replied slyly. She looked around at the architecture of the room. It was large, the entire ship was large clearly, would have to be to accommodate all these 'Astartes' her comms badges translator hadn't translated it fully something about stars.
"They certainly got some ah interesting tastes?" young Daniel Burrows said while point at the Statue in the throne, clearly trying to alleviate some tension poor boy was starting to get a little bit lovesick with miss Green which was not appropriate but then again, this whole situation played out like something from one of Mr Paris holodeck programs in Janeway's opinion.
"i will say this, the statue is remarkable, it looks as if it was actually alive, the doorway and decorations of this uh vessel are all quite well made." Dr. Bunfield said nodding, looking around and Janeway had to agree the aesthetics of this ship were certainly something, all very imposing and brutal.
"indeed, it's very imperial looking, the Klingons would kill for decorations such as this." the others turned their heads to her, "what's a Klingon?" asked Mr. Green, this one Janeway didn't have the best first impression of, he was brash and rather arrogant, being a little too close to the young Miss Lockart for her liking.
"Sorry Temporal Prime Directive." was all she stated walking over to nearby banner and feeling the material. They all looked at each other again the man stammering seemingly ready to argue before he was cut off, "You have time travel rules Ma'am?" she looked at the Lieutenant before flashing a smile and tapping her nose, "fraid so Lieutenant, you'd be surprised how many people want to mess with history." The others again began to bluster, feeling just a little bit left out, but as they argued back and forth there was a low groaning noise as the doors opened.
"Hiiii," Johnny waved excitedly from behind Hextalus' head the others turned Maisy looked really worried, "Jonathan Green you get down from there right now!" she yelled hurrying over to lift him down, there was sound like rumbling machines as the Giant reached behind him and lifted the young boy down, "no need to fear young one, you brother is fine, he reminded me of K'tontassi when she was his age." Janeway arched a brow up, "Your daughter?" she asked, it was an obvious fish, but since being brought here after their examination no one had spoken to them or approached. Young Miss Maisy was almost on the verge of a panic attack waiting for her brother. The Apothecary Hextalus, he'd been called, turned his head to her sharply and just stared, "No, she was the daughter of the man who had been my brother before my recruitment to the Legion."
As she was about to ask a question there was a rhythmic thumping Maisy quickly pulled little Johnny back to their group as more of these 'Astartes' appeared, the first was the Centurion as he arrived, he removed his helmet to reveal a face that was frankly in Janeways opinion disturbing, the skin was a pale grey, she couldn't see his eyes and what hair he had hung loosely to his scalp all in all he looked like a walking corpse. He was followed by a few others in armour like his, 3 more removed their helmets revealing similar dispositions. "Goodness gracious." miss Lockart whispered to herself. 2 of the warriors stared at the mortals one nudged his brother saying, "If the mortal thinks we're frightening wait until she meets the Gorgon-sons..." causing the other to chuckle darkly.
As if summoned a servo skull floated into the room followed by Amhlaidh and Drollin with representatives of the Iron Hands aboard. Amlaidh was un-helmeted showcasing his Cybernetic enhancements, his left eye replaced with an occular implant and steel strips bolted into parts of his skull and jaw. Wiring coming out of parts of his skull connecting to his armour with techna linguis script tattooed around his head. Drollin was also without his helmet revealing a large vox grill where his mouth should have been, his eyes were hard with a military haircut of short black hair. He looked at the group briefly terrifying some of them the lieutenant let out a low whistle, "looks like one bad mother fucker, the armours like a walking tank coulda done with some of them back in the Afghanistan pull out." There was a deep horn blow that reverberated throughout the room, a group of warriors walked in their armours being heavily mixed, the most dominant colour was Green, most of them bearing heraldry similar to the battle-captain. A few broke off moving over to the 'Iron Hands' and 'Ravenguard' groups what greatly disturbed Janeway was the clear number of cybernetic prosthetics these individuals had. Among the green clad warriors Janeway saw 5 warriors approach one removing their helm.
Jagon stopped in front of the group with his helmet removed, he unfortunately suffered from the genetic mutation of his legion, that being a real son of Horus. His physical appearance was that of the War Masters his head clean shaven it unerved many to see him unhelmeted yet Vok'la had decreed that no 'brother' would be subjected to scrutiny aboard the Ignis. He was joined by Ivranik the leader of their blackshield warband, he was a Nightlord renegade, the man was loyal to the Emperor which surprised many and had been one of the few to not take too well to his Nostraman brothers. His opinion on his Primarch was unknown, he acted indifferent to the lunacy of the Night Haunter which grated on some of the Salamanders and Ravenguard. With him stood the 'Herald' a rogue son of Lorgar, perhaps the only rogue son of the Bastard 17th. One of the Thousand Son sorcerers stood behind him along with a representative of the Deathguard contingent of their warband.
"Captain Janeway, this is First Claw Ivranik the Red, he leads our warband and represents us during the gathering." He saw her give Ivranik a quick once over doing a noticeable double take when seeing the 2 skulls of traitor Astartes hanging from his hip, or the skin of warriors pinned to his shoulder pauldron. "Greetings little humans, I heard from one of my warriors that one of you is quite brave." he'd removed his helmet revealing a rather normal looking man, his skin pale and hair jet black and oily. The accent almost sounded like an eastern European one from earth. he looked to the lieutenant, "was it this one bastard of Horus?" Jagon looked to his warleader nodding "aye first it was" the 'Herald' interjected, "the reports say you are from before the fall, before the long night, it this true?" he'd also removed his helmet to reveal an older man his face weather beaten and swarthy, an unknown scripture tattooed around the sides of his head the greying hair in an overcut.
"I believe I would be the closest to your time when I was taken it was 2376, they picked me up in the delta quadrant I need to get back to my crew they're stranded 75,000 light years from home." Janeway responded, the Herald's brow furrowed this was truly strange to hear, questions would have to be asked during the gathering.
Janeway and her follow kidnappees noticed the surrounding Astartes were quiet watching her exchange with the 3, when she felt a thump, then another and another...Amelia yelped out in surprise as she was looking into the dark doorway that the thumping was coming from when she saw it. It was massive, it-it was walking into the doorway and it...she really couldn't believe it was shaped like a man. As it entered many of the Salamanders saluted it, the 'Herald' bowed his head and even a few Iron Hands dipped theirs. "I have been awakened from my death to bring fire to the foes of our legion, yet here we are gathered, if you want my wisdom Vok'la I say this, unleash me upon the filth who thinks themselves capable of harming innocents such as these while the sons of Vulkan still draw breath." The metal giant's voice boomed out like a rush of volcanic ash, it stood in all its terrible glory, proud and hot, the green and gold of his legion emblazoned across him. Narclastus stopped when he noticed a small form in front of him, it was a boy, who was gazing up at him with wonder.
The room had gone completely quiet Maisy realised Johnny wasn't by her side when she heard Mr. Tree, and the others whispered frantically as Danny squeezed her hand to hard, she looked to the big machine that had walked into room when "Johnny!" she yelled and tried to run forward to grab him before being grabbed by Miss Contreras, "cool it, don't be stupid..." she fought against the marine slapping her arms kicking her feet anything she just couldn't let that thing hurt her brother.
There was a deep chuckle that sounded like the rumbling of a mountain, the 'statue' seated in the throne moved, leaning forward its red eyes glowing reflecting the firelight in the room. "You have nothing to fear here Maisy Green, the Honoured Ancient will not harm your brother, this I vow to you as the battle-captain of this brotherhood in fact the insinuation that he would is perhaps the gravest insult he's ever been given." The figure brought its hands up to its face placing its them under the chin, staring at the interaction. "Hello Johnny, I see Hextalus treated you well." Johnny looked up was-was the statue talking to him how'd it know him? Wait? The young boy tilted his head to the right squinting at the statue before gasping and point, he jumped up and down pointing at the statue, "Maisy look look its Mr Dragon!" he yelled excitedly.
Janeway really couldn't believe it, this whole time Vok'la had been in the room and not only that, but this was Vok'la...un-armoured? Just what the hell happened to him she thought he was human, but then she remembered the term 'trans-human' had been mentioned instead of augment...is this what it meant to be a so-called trans-human. "Who did this to you?" was all Janeway could utter, not managing to hide most of the horror in her voice. Vok'la rose out of his throne the mass of grey ashen skin only broken up by his glowing red eyes and battle scars. As he stepped down it allowed for Janeway to get a better look.
She noted the human features past the skin and eyes he seemed possess average features of someone from African descent, a deep scar splitting his left cheek and lips his hair shaved off close to the 'grain'...shame he'd have looked nice with hair. She blinked rapidly at the stray thought and noticed the large, green-scaled loin cloth sweeping the floor. It appeared to be held in place by wraps of leather and adorned with teeth and fangs of various sizes. He stopped at the bottom of the steps that led up to his throne.
"Honoured Ancient, Brothers and Kinsmen we are here to discuss the events of the vessel we boarded in our 'liberation' of the rogue adept Signus Pax-6." Vok'la stood in the center of the room he glanced at Sur'kish and Usidean, "what have we pulled from the Adept brothers?" Sur'kish held out a hand pointing as his mechandrites activated the built in floor holo-plinth, "we managed to scrape information relating to the production and cultivation of genetic material including machinery that we could produce to aide our kin in the Apothecarion." Sur'kish was steady with his response, this was the news that they'd all hoped to hear, a way for their legions to continue and potentially rebuild. Vok'la sighed slightly, "Could?" he voiced looking between the 2 warriors. Usidean nodded, "the Xenos had the same idea as us it seems, information pertaining to plans for such equipment has been removed, although it would seem the creatures were focused genetic material splicing." Janeway jumped in, walking into the center of the room beside Vok'la, "that would explain some of the creatures that attacked us in the cryo-bay, many of them seemed to be a mixture of the aliens and different species, unfortunately I've seen this before in the Delta Quadrant." she paused as she now noticed the full attention of a room of 'trans-humans' staring right at her, she coughed lightly before continuing, "when we first arrived, we encountered the Vidiians who would kidnap travelers to harvest their organs obviously they needed a level genetic manipulation expertise to ensure the organs fit their biology...we also encountered a species that would manipulate the genetics of males from different species to lure them into 'mating' unfortunately that usually ended with the death of the male." she paused, looking round them as a rumble came from the giant robot.
"you've suffered much it would seem, but you are not telling us the specific example that prompted this..." it spoke 'gently' which was still like the rumbling of a warp core. She stood stock still; she had thought about 'them' briefly but still the creatures were organic? Which would mean a potential organic method of conversion...but then again, these critters seemed to get around and in theory nanoprobes could be retrofitted to do quite a lot she knew that from her encounter with species 8472. "The scale of conversion and with how invasive it reminded me...of the Borg" she now held her chin as she paced in circle. "Borg? I am unfamiliar with this xenos breed." Usidean spoke up, Janeway looked at him, then just a little past him she could see the survivors all huddled together, she had revealed a lot of information but were these people ready to hear about the Borg? "They aren't a species per-say, they like to call themselves a collective-" she was interrupted by Amlaidh, "Cailean retrieved much data some including holo-recordings of the previous raids, one was labelled under Cybernetic organics construct encounter #4-M2.368." as he said this the plinth shifted to show the recovered footage of 2 borg Drones attempting to repair an obviously damaged hallway of a borgified vessel, Janeway watching intently nodded, "those are drones, usually they leave those around them alone unless directed to by the collective or they need resources."
Vok'las' brow furrowed the beings would not have looked out of place in a manufactorum of the Martian Priesthood, there was something off about them, looking closer he noticed the face of one of the 'borg' it appeared human bar the pallid grey flesh and "this one has a nose ridge? It doesn't appear to be a deformity it looks too natural was it an abhuman? Shrade nodded his head at the image, the centurion had damned good eyes, even by the ravenguards own standards. Janeway stepped closer, "She was Bajoran they are a species the federation is allied with, they considered joining, likely assimilated during the battle of wolf 359 a few had been living as refugees and joined starfleet." she muttered and before any of his warriors could voice their concerns over apparent xenos affiliation Vok'la cut in, "Assimilation? Is this the reason you were concerned?" as he asked this a shrill shrieking could be heard from the projection and the surrounding group watched as many of the creatures dropped from the ceiling. 3 landed on top of the male drone in an attmept to take it apart the female immediately began to attemtp to assimilate one the creature writhed before rounding on the drone and pointing a weapon at it and firing, the beam that came out was a swirl of primarily purple light.
The purple beam contacted the drone stopping her for a moment before she began to twitch eventually hitting the floor and writhing, she contorted and twisted in unnatural shapes before howling in pain the whole time wearing a smile. Janeway stared at her perturbed, just what the hell could cause this to a Borg Drone? "The instectoid-breed's weapons are warp based, i am unsure as to the actual function but it affected the other creature's 'soul' as it were." This was the so called 'sorcerer' of the group, she remembered him from the fight to get off the station. In the footage 2 more drones appeared one was Human in appearance the other Romulan, the Romulan attempted to aid the downed drone from earlier which was being picked apart by the group of creatures. The Human-Drone moved to engage the creature which was injected with nano-probes [We are the Borg, lower your weapon and prepare to be assimilated, your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own.] As it said this the creature leapt onto it and spewed what appeared to be a cloud of black insects from its mouth onto the drone. The action caused the others engaging the Romulan-drone to pause. The Romulan-drone tried to assimilate another as the injured drone grabbed its ankles, reduced to a barely functional torso, but they both immediately stopped and turned on the drone hit by the insect cloud.
[51 of 74, respond to the collective] it couldn't even in the fuzzy holo imagery Janeway could see it writhing and contorting on the ground, she saw it skin begin to peel and blister as it vomited up bile..."what is happening to it?" she said slowly turning to look at the sorcerer he seemed to know he said its soul, as far as she was concerned there scientifically a soul it was the electrochemical and biological determinism of the brain and body, of the synaptic electrical signals and blood pressures around the brain creating responses that determined a person's actions and their advanced logical and rational enabling them to comprehend these things, she'd seen telepaths and species with abilities that could allow them to control such things to better effect their environment such as Kes or Tuvok. "To an extant yes that is real Captain but this, this is sorcery, this is clearly the taint of the immaterium." she snapped her head to the sorcerer. "You read my mind, rather rude of you Mr Wizard." he inclined his head "indeed this is more paracasual in nature than what you are used to, few in the imperium and throughout the crusade truly comprehended the Immaterium, I'd wager the Emperor and the Sigillite were the only 2 who ever truly understood. Not even my own Primarch, Magnus, with his mastery over the arcane sciences and wyrding ways truly grasped the depth of the warp. We of the 15th are perhaps the most adept in its ways of the legions enough to recognise this the work of the Grandfather, and the weapons are works of She who thirsts." Janeway quirked a brow, the group of escapees looked at each other with young Johnny voicing the question they were thinking.
"Whazzat all mean?" many of the assembled marines looked at the child before silently over vox or lowered voices began to confer with one another. "It means creatures that exist in the immaterium have given these creatures means of fighting that most species and peoples have little way to counter...they have "Blessed" them." Vok'la spoke, his disdain for these 'things' growing more and more.
"But what is the 'Immaterium'?" Janeway asked the sorcerer, she noticed perhaps for the first time an almost uncomfortable shift as many of the marines seemed to look at one another. "You are unaware of the Immaterium? We had been informed you made use of warp travel?" asked Amhlaidh he looked to Vok'la for clarification. "Our form of warp travel makes use of matter/anti-matter reactions to create sub-space fields around our vessels that allow us to navigate space..." Janeway started swearing to herself that she heard the old Dr. Bunfield mutter something about hocus pocus nonsense.