Chapter 17
Inquisitorial Vessel 'Hidden Blade', Somewhere within the Damocles Gulf
Maylena Airhart
Lady Inquisitor Maylena banked ship-ward in her little fighter craft, fully intent on relaxing for the entire duration of her flight. She enjoyed the tranquility of the void, the absolute silence that engulfed her when she took to the wing and just let herself… fly. What's more, she deserved a break from the seemingly endless stream of missives and data packets from her agents in Tau space.
Kor'ili as the Tau called it in their strange tongue, was one of the major staging points for the Tau's expansion efforts beyond the Damocles Gulf, and as such it was wheeler one of her major infiltration operations was taking place.
Except that planet seemed like it was going insane. Her operatives were in constant contact, the ones that were left anyway – that fool Sergei and his idiocy nearly blew her network wide open! How had she misjudged his aptitude for this job so badly that he would bring an Inquisitorial Rosette, one he hasn't yet earned, into an active mission. But beyond the now dead interrogator's stupidity, it was like all the cells she had been developing on the planet were making their moves, eager to see the yolk of their Xeno oppressors cast off.
It was all very… inconvenient.
And all because one local would-be warlord couldn't keep it in his pants until the Imperium arrived.
On the other hand, a man like this 'Sakuna' might just be a perfect fit for His Majesty's Most Holy Inquisition. Once his rough edges were polished that is. Or failing that, his machines can be turned over to the Mechanicus, she could always do with more favours from them.
She was knocked out of her relaxing flight by the sudden crackle of her Thunderbolt's vox unit. "INQUISITOR! INQUISITOR MAYLENA!" It was Lark, her youngest and by far most enthusiastic Interrogator, why was he the one calling her? she adjusted the volume to something manageable and moved to reply, only to be interrupted "Lady Inquisitor! You must get back inside!"
"Calm yourself!" She snapped, only a little bit annoyed at the boy's presumption to give her orders. But he wouldn't act like this normally so she would give him the benefit of the doubt. "Now, use your words and explain."
There was a brief pause, and then he started talking once again. "The Navigator has just warned the whole ship that there's a massive warp storm incoming." The moment the words reached her ears, her blood turned to ice. "The light of the Astronomicon is flickering, and… and…"
"Spit it out!" she demanded, having already moved to return her craft to the Hidden Blade's hanger.
"Emperor forgive me, they say that there is something happening in the Warp, a great flickering light reminiscent of Him-on-Terra. It showed up just a moment before they noticed the warp storm."
That… that was unbelievable! And it was little wonder that Lark hesitated to speak of it so openly. Good boy Lark, she'd make an Inquisitor from you yet. "Did they say where this flickering was coming from?"
"The Navigator did not say, they were too busy preparing to deal with the oncoming storm. But the Astropaths were able to give me a vague answer." There was a pause, and for a moment Maylena wondered if the connection had failed. "They think whatever it is, it's in Tau space. They couldn't give me a more accurate reading than that."
Tau space? Were the xenos tampering with things better left untouched? None of her agents had even hinted that they were involved in such research. Something else then? But what could it possibly be?
She was still pondering that question when she finally touched down on the hanger floor, hopping out from her craft and letting the cog-boys do their thing. 'Tech Priests Maylena, you're not in the Imperial Navy any more.' She was met on the way to her chambers by Lark, and by that point she had more than enough time to form a response. "Get word to the staging system for the Damocles Crusade. Tell them they need to strike now and that we'll be joining them."
"At once Lady Inquisitor!" he bowed before hurrying off.
Good, the last thing they needed was the Crusade fleet doing something silly like destroying whatever it was that was causing this Warp anomaly, which, if it was something the Tau did, it no doubt could. No matter that it was perhaps the smallest crusade fleet in all of Imperial history. She let slip a small grin, what an interesting discovery, and she had no doubt that she would be the one to retrieve or destroy it, the Damocles Gulf did a remarkably good job of obscuring beacons like the ones they would be searching for after all.
Within the Warp, Aboard the Slaughter's Slaughter
Ftag'Nafn'Tzaril
The Lord of Change sighed as he clutched his staff. It was a useless, unnecessary gesture, he was a being of warpstuff after all, even if he was currently bound into this material form. He needed neither air in his lungs nor support for his legs.
Nonetheless, he found the gesture, and the ritual of the gesture cathartic. It altered his thought patterns just enough that it improved his odds of an epiphany. And an epiphany was priceless in the Crystal Maze, no matter how powerful or insignificant the Tzeentch Daemon who had it was.
But that wasn't the the reason he sighed this time, no, he was sighing because he had been forced to align himself with such an… odd Chaos warband. "Mah-reens, Look here nah!" By the four, he was saying it again!
It had taken an embarrassing amount of time for the Lord of Change to translate the idioms of Captain Slaughter into a form he could understand. What the warlord just said translated to: "Marines, Look here now."
That was the line he heard the most out of Slaughter, since he said it every time he was addressing his warband.
"It would appear that our sorcerers have found a way through the Warp to the target our new friend spoke of."
No, Ftag was the one who found it, but it was the duty of the sorcerers to lead their band through the rolling tides. Every time he did it, the Anathema's 'Legion of the Damned' would flood the ship.
It was by pure chance that the sudden surge of warp power came, allowing their ship the opportunity to make it through to the anomaly that had been causing such an incessant racket through the immaterium.
It was only a chance, but as every Tzeentch Daemon knew, chances existed to be taken.
"Be ready for anything, for it can only be anything that would vex a Lord of Change so." That didn't even make sense.
Perhaps Slaughter's Rejects weren't the warband for him? Well, it was too late now – they were already on their way. Hopefully this time they would arrive without interference.
—
Naruhito POV
I blinked as I stepped out of the chamber… no, wait, that wasn't correct. The reflex felt like blinking, and yet there wasn't even the briefest moment of darkness.
In the same instant that the urge to blink hit him, his eyes were moistened to just the correct amount and the light level was rendered optimal for his eyes.
Just how?
The moment the question formed into my head, data-streams from the Nanite Hives entered my mind, and thanks to my lightning-fast neurones I was able to process it and integrate the information. And there was a lot of information-
WHAM…
That was mild… it still felt like someone striking me in some place I couldn't see and yet still felt – but it was different from last time. All the times it happened before, it was like someone hitting me with a sledgehammer, a sharp ice-pick to the brain. But this time, this time it was more like getting hit with a nerf dart than a deadly weapon.
And this seemed to have a direct, real-world impact on me, because I didn't flinch when the strike occurred. The relief I felt at no longer flinching whenever it happened was more than I expected it to be, perhaps I wasn't getting as used to it as possible.
Though it did beg the question as to why, what part of my alterations caused such a drastic change to my response? Was my soul… larger? Maybe, but that would contradict the [Chip of Theseus] perk so probably not, could it be my new DNA, just what had I turned into anyway?
[Integrated genetic code, as per user designation:
Naruhito – Base Subject
Life Fibre Colony
Assorted Senju Clan DNA
Assorted Uchiha Clan DNA
Assorted Otsutsuki Clan DNA
Assorted Hyuuga Clan DNA
Assorted Uzumaki Clan DNA
Assorted Chinoike Clan DNA
Assorted …
I blinked down the list of the DNA I got from the clans of the Naruto world. Considering that the Naruto world was chock full of clans that had unique, hidden abilities it ended up being a long list. I didn't even bother wondering exactly how such a comprehensive formed in my head, my entire body was permeated with the nanites so they probably told me.
Emperor of Man DNA
Lion El Johnson DNA
Fulgrim DNA
Perturabo DNA
Jaghatai …
And the list went on an on, confirming to me that I was some kind of 'hyper-chimera', with all the power and abilities that implied.
Which wasn't quite as impressive as it sounded. While many of the abilities the characters I was made from now were inherent to their biology, most of their power came from things they practiced and perfected over the course of their lives.
What's more, with the DNA from the Naruto characters I once again encountered the problem of the benefits of their DNA not being Fiat backed, even if the DNA itself is. I had a chakra network now, but chakra wasn't a thing in 40k, so what was the stuff flowing through my new Tenketsu then?
Or maybe I spoke too soon? Using a combination of my Emperor inherited 'soul senses' and my Nanites' sensors, I observed as my body did something miraculous. My body, enhanced many times over was generating a prodigious amount of energy – I suspect most of that was coming from the Life Fibres but I couldn't be sure – and that energy was being merged with… with warp stuff!
I suppose that makes sense, the soul and the Warp are 40k's equivalent to the 'spiritual energies' of Naruto.
But the Chakra network… it was mixing them together, harmonising them, and filling my body with the end product. In the most technical sense, this wasn't chakra, but it was a bootleg, MacGyvered version of it – and I'm the one who gets to name it, so I'll keep calling it Chakra.
There were all sorts of ways this could be beyond useful, but by far the most important way was that it was far safer to use this Chakra than psychic powers as there was no chance of suffering the 'Perils of the Warp'. It will also provide at least some passive resistance to warp phenomena since my body essentially metabolises Warpstuff.
Blood of L̸͕͟o̢̗̰r̮̞͡k̷̢̤h̨̗͝a̴͖̼n̦͕͠]
…holy fucking shit, talk about saving the best for last. That didn't come from the [Sample Collection], that was the Ebony Ingot. I'm not really sure what it will even give me, do I count as a god now? Or does this just give me an extra large serving of Metaphysical Mass?
I was only a little bit annoyed when I wasn't instantly supplied an answer by my Nanites, but I guess even they have limits. So instead I turned their attentions back to my body and the other changes it had undergone.
Beyond my altered DNA, my bones have been altered, becoming a super-alloy of Thaumium and Auramite. I thought that was all had happened to my bones, until I noticed the patterns that had been etched into the inside of my own skull. It took me a moment to parse what I was perceiving, but thanks to my many perks working together I eventually worked out that it was a new Fuinjutsu seal, one designed to mimic the effects of my mind control technology.
If I wasn't already aware of where the control inputs were to the seal I might have been worried about that little revelation.
-*-
PhD in Bullshit Physics
Wherever you go, you'll find you have an understanding of how physics works in that universe. Whether it be wormhole space travel, teleportation, gravitational insanity, you'll have a theoretical understanding of it. Of course, this doesn't mean you'll be able to build any of this stuff on your own, but you'll at least know how the world works. Usually.
-*-
I'm sure that'll be helpful.
Anyway, my control over my own mind is now self-reinforcing thanks to this seal. Seriously, they would need to be between my skull and my brain if they wanted to alter my thoughts in any meaningful way, and if they somehow get there then I've basically lost anyway.
The only other anomaly I found in my body was a sphere that appeared completely opaque to both my nanite sensors, and my psychic senses. Or rather, the material of the sphere was opaque, but I could still detect ridges in the surface.
This was and altered version of the transmutation sphere, only the paper of the sphere has been transmuted (and wasn't that ironic). But it was what it had been changed into that was far more impressive, I had been worrying that the ingot of Ur-metal had somehow been lost, but no, it had become the new substrate for the transmutation sphere.
I devoted every nanite I could to studying the sphere, measuring and feeling every curve and contour of it, taking in every last detail of it. It wasn't a perfect match to the previous one, I could feel some of its 'rings' twisting off into… nowhere? No, that wasn't right- so that's how the old paper one remained so rigid! It wasn't a sphere; it was a hyper-sphere! There were extra rings of paper in a fourth spatial dimension holding the old setup rigid!
What were my clones in testing doing to not think of something like that?
Unfortunately, I couldn't entirely blame them for that. Even I was having a hard time reverse engineering everything the sphere could do. And that was with Fiat backed researching speeds. It was literally, infinitely more complex than a transmutation circle, even more so now that I could tell some of it was hidden away in 4d space.
And perhaps the most profound change was to the nanites themselves. I was connected to a lot of them. A lot, a lot, so many in fact that I should be bursting from the seams with nanites.
[Fractal Nanite Dimensional Seal Matrix under construction, currently 16 layers deep.]
The words didn't really convey the meaning very well, but I knew intuitively what was going on. The nanites were replicating, and hiding away in pocket spaces created by atomic scale fuinjutsu seals that have been inscribed into the bodies of the nanites.
But it wasn't just one layer of separation between me and the nanites hidden away in pocket spaces. I had pocket spaces within those pocket spaces, 16 layers of them, all filled with nanites. If one of the 'higher layered' nanites gets destroyed, then it would release the nanite from the layer below it from its pocket space. Immediately ready to take on its duties within my body.
I could probably survive having my flesh totally disintegrated, now that I have those ready to repair it at a moment's notice.
And that wasn't all they could do. In the moments that I had been observing them, I constructed in my mind a software patch for the nanites. This patch did nothing for their functionality, instead, through the [Science and Mysticism] perk (not to mention a little bit of chakra provided by yours truly), I granted them the ability to create Shadow Clones of themselves.
Now I didn't have to wait for the long, tedious, resource intensive process of them self-replicating, instead I could just provide them with a little bit of chakra, and 'poof' double the number of nanites.
There were more changes too, but all of those were the big ones, the ones that would be considered paradigm setting if I were in any other universe. And yet, I still felt unsafe, as though I could still be squashed like a bug.
It was only my perfect control over my own body that prevented me from giving an involuntary shudder.
"N-nothing happened?" One of my clones, #84 to be exact, said. Right, I did just interrupt one of his scheduled experiments. How long had it been since the door to the output chamber opened? 44 milliseconds? With an effort of will I returned my reference frame to standard levels.
-*-
A Spark of Madness
Greatness does not spring from mundane roots. The greatest geniuses are also madmen willing to spit in the face of common sense, and you have that spark of madness in you. Within your mind is a perverse wellspring of inspiration, and by immersing yourself in it you gain superhuman focus and the ability to ignore your basic biological needs such as food or sleep or similar things that might distract you from the task at hand, though you will need to recoup all of your "debts" once that task is complete. The products of this "Madness Place" will tend to be skewed towards perverse uses in one way or another, but they will always be highly effective at their intended purpose. You also gain an impressive maniacal laugh, as well as the ability TO DRAMATICALLY EMPHASIZE YOUR WORDS! and still be taken seriously.
-*-
Only to immediately return to the accelerated reference frame just so that I could instantly process the new perk.
Oh great, now I'm a mad scientist by fiat, as well as by necessity. That's just great. Well, it's not the worst possible thing that could have happened. Thanks to my new changes, I get the feeling that my soul might be something more like an impregnable fortress as far as Daemon kind is concerned. So long as I actively reject any influence from Slaanesh and her brood I should be basically safe from her influence… no, that's not enough. I'll need to do some soul edits on myself to be sure.
Once again, I slowed down, and this time I wasn't immediately struck with another new perk. Now I could address what he was saying.
"Oh, something did happen." Everything was different now after all.
I stepped out of the chamber, and froze. There was a noise, one that it took me entirely too long to realise wasn't coming from the physical world.
It was like thunder, thunder and a roaring gale. Like an oncoming storm that threatened to destroy everything in its path. I was really starting to hate my abstract senses, doubly so when I realised that altering my physical reference frame did nothing for my warp-based perceptions.
Not that I needed a lot of time to think about what was happening since it was obvious. My newly augmented soul, that was the cause without a doubt. Where before I got by on the fact that my soul was just another grain of sand, now I was more like a 10-tonne boulder. No. that analogy wasn't right either, fucking warp logic! Why can't it be simple? It's all bullshit metaphors and idiom with that place.
There was a warp storm, and it was headed straight for me. Not for the planet, but me specifically, though that wouldn't stop it from sweeping away the surface of the planet with its mere presence. I needed to do something about it now. Luckily for Kor'ili, I was ready and able to do just that, though it would suck for me in the immediate aftermath.
"And I would be glad to explain, but there's a really big problem that needs solving right now."
I gave orders to the nanites in my body, and in the blink of an eye they had doubled in number, then doubled again. I forced many of them to the surface of my skin, some in fuinjutsu kanji formations and others as transmutation circles. I would need both of those set ups and more besides.
I sped my mind up as far as it could go, and then got to work designing a fuinjutsu seal that would mimic the effects of a Scranton Reality Anchor. Not an easy task, since the seals themselves are within the purview of what an anchor would interfere with but that wasn't an insurmountable problem. The eventual result was a self-referential mess of a seal, and complex far beyond the ability of a normal person to write out by hand.
But I was neither a normal person, nor would I be writing it out by hand.
The whole design process took about 13 seconds, and I had to lean on basically every single one of my design related perks to make it work but now my 'Naruhito Reality Seal' was ready to go, and I was 98% sure that it would work without any real difficulties.
Figuring out a point-to-point teleportation technique by mixing together fuinjutsu tonal architecture was downright simple by comparison.
[VENUS: Naruhito, what's wrong?]
As I was moving to leave, a data stream from VENUS connected to my nanites, which then in turn relayed it straight to me. The fact that VENUS deduced that I could notice and react to my sudden enhancements so quickly raised my already high estimation of her by another notch.
[Naruhito: Warp-storm incoming. I'm moving to head it off before it hits the planet.]
And with those parting words, I disappeared with a *crack*.
And there's chapter 17. It was a bit exposition-y, but I really wanted to get the ideas down for what happened to him on paper. The next chapter will likely be the aftermath, and some character work, and possibly some action too.
I'll update the perks list tomorrow, and let me know what you thought of this chapter. See you later.