Joline and I slowly get our breathing under control, once we're done huffing and puffing I examine the room that we're in. It's a large room full of bookshelves, probably some kind of former administratum area. I point my las pistol at the other end of the room, set it at max power and pull the trigger.
The newly created hole in the wall reveals our target, the bridge connecting this sector to the rest of the hive-world. Civilians are desperately crossing the bridge, although most of them fall off the bridge to their deaths instead of reaching safety. We walk to the hole and begin discussing some form of plan.
Joline points at the bridge. "Can't we just blow it?"
I shake my head. "It's made out of reinforced ferrocrete, we don't have anything strong enough to destroy it. We'd need an artillery strike or something in that area of power to destroy it."
Joline points her las pistol at a building nearby the bridge. "Then what if we blow that building and make it fall on the bridge? It might not destroy it, but it should at least make it uncrossable."
That's not a bad idea. I nod. "That's probably going to work, try it."
Joline shoots at the building, the shot explodes but the building still stands. The imperial guard captain provides some advice. "Shoot at the pillars on the hundredth and fiftieth floor, those will make the building tilt and collapse on the bridge."
Joline looks at the enormous skyscraper. "Which floor is that supposed to be?"
The imperial guard captain points at a floor. "That one, see the pillars."
Joline nods and fires her pistol at said pillars. "Yep."
The shot blasts the support pillars into smithereens, the building slowly begins to lean towards the bridge. The crossing civilians, seeing that they're about to get crushed, start to hurry even more in crossing. The only thing that they manage to do however is send even more of themselves falling in the resulting chaos.
The building continues to slowly tilt, until the remaining support pillars snap and it plummets right onto the bridge, crushing a large number of civilians and blocking the bridge with the resulting rubble.
Somehow this hasn't deterred the horde of men and women from escape, they're desperately trying to climb over the tower of rubble, most of them fall simply from how packed they are and how chaotic everything is.
That should do it. I hand my las pistol to the head of the household guard. "If you see any rebels don't hesitate to shoot. Try to avoid the mound of rubble, we don't want to accidentally clear the bridge."
I then turn towards the vox operator of the imperial guard squad. "Inform the lord commander that we've secured the bridge. We can't hold the thing on our own once the rebels organize themselves, so ask for reinforcements."
The man nods. "Yes sir!" He takes the vox from his command link. "Squad 45641-11 has secured the bridge. I repeat, squad 45641-11 has secured the bridge! Over"
The voice of the lord commander is heard from the comm-link strapped to his back. "What is your situation, are the lord and lady navigator secure? Over"
I gesture for the man to hand me the vox, Joline takes it from his hand before he can do so. "Yeah, we're fine. We've shot a building and crashed it on the bridge. Send some guys to hold it, we don't have enough guns to shoot everyone who'll come."
Pavlo's voice is heard from the comm-link. "There are ninety three imperial guard squads converging on your location. Just stay safe until they secure the bridge, Over."
Joline hands the vox back to the imperial guard. "I'll go and take potshots at any rebels that I see, have fun getting bored."
—
It takes about an hour for the imperial guard to slowly trickle towards the bridge. The first squad that arrives is alone, fifteen men end up getting crushed to death by the rushing civilians. The next squad to arrive is smarter, waiting for more imperial guard to arrive before securing the scene.
After twenty seven more squads arrive, totaling to about four hundred something men, the guard then fires into the column of rushing civilians. Each shot that lands either instantly kills or heavily wounds. Las fire is pretty useless against anything above flak armor but is extremely damaging against exposed tissue.
This still doesn't stop the endless amount of civilians rushing in. I'm not sure whether it's panic that keeps them rushing to their deaths or just the momentum of everyone behind them.
By the time that the eightieth squad arrives the guard have managed to stop the tide of hive worlders. Joline continues searching for rebels, taking the occasional potshot when one is seen through a window or hole.
I stand up from the rubble I was sitting on and stretch my back. "Let's go explore a little. We need to soul search as many rebels as we can, hopefully we'll find out something of worth."
Joline takes another potshot, turning a rebel's head into ash. "I call dibs on any psykers!"
I sigh. "You already have Joline, let's just wait until the imperial guard properly sets up camp, you'll be able to take your pick at that time."
—
By the time that the guard is landing en masse we end up finding three more groups of rebels, soul searching them didn't reveal anything we didn't already know. I shoot the kneeling rebel in the back of his head. "This was a waste of time, most of the rebels have probably disguised themselves as civilians."
Joline is leaning her back on a nearby wall, she nods. "Yeah, do you think any of them are going to try to spy on the two of us?"
I snort as I shoot the next prisoner. "This area is completely enclosed and they don't have any way to transmit data. Even if they knew anything they wo-"
"Please spare me! I can serve as yo-"
One of our imperial guard bodyguards silences the rebel woman with a las shot. "-uldn't even be able to inform the enemy about anything."
The captain of the imperial guard executes a rebel who tried to escape. Joline shrugs. "Speaking of the enemy, why haven't they fired any artillery?"
The imperial guard captain gives the answer. "PDF are not armed with ground to ground artillery, especially in hive worlds. Ground to air defense systems are probably littered everywhere however."
The locations of those ground to air systems are heavily guarded, with it being almost a certainty that they have weapon systems capable of penetrating our armor. We're not taking a risk in attacking them, it's better to let the imperial guard throw themselves at them until they run out of ammo.
I holster my las pistol after executing the final rebel. Joline stretches her back and then lays down on the floor. "Actually, what's your name, captain? You didn't introduce yourself when we met."
The imperial guard captain salutes, forming the imperial aquila. "Imperial guard captain Varence Junta at your service!"
She's proved herself to be pretty capable thus far. Varence has shown that she is skilled in combat and strategy. "How would you feel about joining our house's armed forces? We would use someone like you."
She isn't for the household guard, not out of lack of qualifications but simply because she'll die if the glances at our third eye on accident. That doesn't mean that she's useless, she can help train our household guard and serve us that way.
Varence shakes her head. "I apologize, but my calling is to serve in the imperial guard."
I could force the issue, but that would just lead to resentment. Having the people on your side hate you is not a good thing for one's survival or mental health. I nod. "That's alright, we won't make an issue out of it."
Joline groans. "This is sooooo boring."
I unsheathe my rapier, pick up two pieces of nearby rebar and cut them to the same length as the rapiers. "We can spar with these until the imperial guard secures the area. You up for it?"
Sparring with power rapiers is both suicidal and stupid. Joline rises up. "I guess that works for killing time."
—
It takes the imperial guard five hours and two more waves of drop pods to eliminate the enemy ground to air defenses, allowing the main force to safely land and set up camp. We've relocated to the landing site.
Joline points at a ten year old kid. "That one's a psyker, can we keep it?"
I sigh. "You're responsible if they turn into some eldritch abomination or gets possessed by some eldritch abomination."
Joline goes to the cowering kid. "What's your name kid?"
The child stares at Joline. Her power armor is covered head to toe in dry blood. Joline ruffles the kids head, leaving flakes of dry blood on her hair and face. The kid faints.
Joline catches her victim before their head can impact the ground. She wisely nods. "Your name is Flakey now."
I look at 'Flakey'. They've got grown, shoulder length hair and, just like all of the other inhabitants of this hive world, are in a state of severe malnutrition. "Do you even know whether they're a boy or girl?"
Joline pulls down the kids pants, revealing that they're a she. "It's a girl."
I sigh. "Pull the kid's pants back up, let them have some decency. What do you even plan to do with the kid?"
Joline shrugs. "Having a psyker around can be helpful for some rituals."
We're going to have to soul search the kid before doing anything with her. "Do you want to go to the ship or wait around until the guard sets up camp?"
Joline rises and picks the kid up like a sack of potatoes, staining her with blood. "Let's go to the ship, we can come back after resting for a bit."
—
Resting for a bit ended up turning into spending half an hour taking off the power armor, then taking a thorough bath to clean up all of the dry blood we got on ourselves when getting the power armor off only to then turn a two hour nap into an eleven hour nap.
After getting ourselves armed and armoured we don't waste any time and head on to the imperial guard camp. Since there's no anti-air to threaten us this time we land with a system ship.
The camp is extremely busy, the locals have been conscripted to do the heavy labour and to later do the heavy dying. Tents are thrown about on each level of every building in the landing site, creating a weird mix of urban sprawl and camping area.
Joline points at someone. "DIBS!"
I take a look at her newest victim. A twenty-something year old man, blond hair and blue eyes. His face is immediately twisted in anger the moment that Joline points at him. He screams "That's it! I can't take this shit anymore!"
Ordinarily he would get instantly shot for making a ruckus, Joline involving herself with him stalled the trigger happy imperial guard from turning him into a scorch mark. The man shoves his hand in his pants and pulls out an autopistol. I unholster my las pistol and point it at him.
The guards are about to shoot, but hesitate when Joline holds up a hand to stop the man. All of this happened almost simultaneously. The man puts the pistol at his temple and shoots. His corpse smacks on the ground, his mouth still wide open as if he was still shouting.
Joline retracts her pointing finger. A pink arm comes out of the man's gaping maw. I fire my las pistol at max power, blowing both the corpse and the emerging daemon into smithereens.
I holster the las pistol and tap Joline's shoulder. "Please be a little more tactful next time."
Joline sighs and give me a resigned nod. "Fine, but I'm still calling dibs."
—
In the end it takes the imperial guard five days to finish setting up camp and unloading all of their war machines. We still haven't received a response from the inquisition. Joline and I spent most of our time training the course untravelled, hoping to at least get to the point where we don't instantly vomit after using it.
Joline retches, but manages to keep the contents of her stomach inside. I rub her back. "See, it wasn't so hard."
Joline's tired eyes convey her happiness. "It's your turn now."
By the end of the five days both of us can use the course untravelled without vomiting instantly. Me being somehow different from other navigators comes up once we discover that I can use this power on others as well.
Joline instantly vomits, not having expected to get forcefully teleported by me. I rub her back. "The score is two to one for me."
—
In the end it takes a full month for us to receive a response from the inquisition. We are to restore order on the planet, they will take care of the cult if it manages to survive.
Joline and I are currently at the ship's bridge, listening to the strategy meeting.
Pavlo points at the bridge leading to our sector. "The rebels have been attempting to attack us, thankfully we now have confirmation that they have no heavy ordinance, so we can deploy our war machines without fear."
He then crosses his arms. "Our only issue is that this world's main tithe is manpower. A purge would just be a more expensive exterminatus. We need to pacify the population."
The navy commander, a short red haired woman named Jilka, sighs. "And that will take time, will it not?"
Pavlo nods. "It will take a considerable amount of time. Even if we use the local population to establish order it would still take anywhere from two to three years to ensure that the situation is under control."
—
I stare at Joline. She stares at Flakey. Flakey stares at Joline. Joline points at the picture book on the desk. "This is a dog. D O G."
Flakey tilts her head. "Food?"
I snicker just to make her angry. Joline takes a deep breath, trying to control herself from falling for my bait. Flakey points at a picture of a cat. "Friend!"
Joline smiles. "Yes friend! Servants! Acquire us a feline!"
The maids immediately bow and leave to search for a cat. In a spaceship. I ruffle Flakey's hair. "Where do you expect them to find a cat? In the hive world below us or in the space ship?"
Joline blinks. I ruffle Joline's hair. "I win."
—
The preparations for pacifying the planet don't take too long after we get the confirmation from the inquisition. Three days is all that it takes for the imperial guard to train a whole lot of the locals and arm them with las guns.
There are two things that were clear from the scrying ritual. One, there's some form of Khorne cult on the planet, and two, there's some form of treasure hidden away. Whether it's rare minerals, archeotech, people or something else is not sure, what we could infer from it is that there's loot.
I take a step back, avoiding Joline's swipe. "When will you have enough blood for another scrying ritual? We need to get some more information on where to search."
Joline parries my strike. "Two weeks. It's a different ritual, for this one we're going to either need to find another psyker or have Flakey help us."
I parry her counterattack. "We can go take a stroll on the planet, just don't point at people and shout at them."
Joline sticks her tongue at me. "Fine, but you're not allowed to call dibs on anyone, understood?"
I try to avoid her lunge, but get my shoulder clipped. "Yeah sure."
—
The first psyker that we find is an eighty year old woman, who has somehow managed to slip under everyone's radar for her whole life. Joline blinks at her. "I'm not going to snitch, I just want to know you've managed to stay hidden all this time."
The old woman laughs. Her dentures fly out of her mouth and smack Joline in the face. The woman freezes and I begin laughing.
Joline takes a deep breath. "Just tell me and I'll leave you alone."
The woman bends down to pick up her dentures. "Nothing much sweetey. They only check for my kind at work. Since I just work as a prostitute for a gang they never caught me."
Work? Not worked?
I tap Joline's shoulder. "So do y-"
Joline shakes her head. "No, we're going to look for someone else. She's too old and might just die from the strain of the ritual. There's more than enough people for there to be another psyker in this sector, right?"
The only other psyker we find is a thirty year old bald man who immediately begins running away the second that we try to talk to him. A bolter round from our household guard is fired as a warning shot, which makes him freeze in place.
We take him to an empty room, blindfold him and soul search him. Turns out, he's a gang leader that hasn't managed to escape the sector in time. He's also not really suitable to keep around long term, as his stability is… questionable. Joline sighs. "I thought he was a member of the cult when he ran away like that."
I nod, having thought much the same as her. The man is still trembling like a leaf, terrified out of his own mind. I look at Joline. "Do you need him to be willing for the ritual? Or can you just do it without his cooperation?"
Joline punches the man in the back of his head, knocking him out. "I'll just teach Flakey what she needs to do for the ritual. This guy is one misstep away from spontaneously turning into a mutated blob, so he's too much of an unknown to use in that specific ritual. There's another that can work with him, and it doesn't even need half-navigator blood either."
—
Joline puts the blood red chalk back into her pocket. This ritual doesn't need two people to enact, so Flakey and I are just watching her from the sidelines. The ganger is strapped to a stone table in the middle of the navigator's sanctum; large buckets are placed under him, Joline's runes surround him.
Joline a snake from the waiting hands of a maid. She forces the snake to bite the man before giving it back to the maid. She now takes a deep breath and begins chanting.
"Haec vita viam ostendet"
"Thesauri sub nobis absconditi"
She takes a ritual knife from the waiting hands of a maid.
"Sanguis eius de circino erit"
"Sicut anguis nobis labatur"
"Ad thesaurum motivum ducta sit"
Joline slits the man's throat, the blood immediately begins falling into the buckets underneath him. Once all has been drained Joline slits her own wrist and lets a small amount of her own now green blood into each bucket. Her green blood does not mix with the rest of the blood in them. She begins chanting again after adding her blood to the last bucket.
"Sanguis meus erit acus"
"Me ad id quod quaero indicabit"
Joline extends her wrist to one of the maids, allowing her to begin patching up her cut. "That's done. Now we just need to make compasses out of this."
Flakey raises her hand. "Why is your blood green?"
Joline blinks, removes the bandage from her arm and shows Flakey the red blood flowing out of the still open wound. "That's just the blood in the buckets, my blood is still red, for now atleast."
—
AN: Didn't have time to double-read this chapter and catch any mistakes, please mention anything that you notice xd.Last edited: Friday at 4:03 PM Like ReplyReport Reactions:Pyrususer, NOTHING HERE, Sovereign Of All and 94 othersSickolifeThursday at 10:14 PMAdd bookmarkView discussionThreadmarks Chapter 5 View contentSickolifeMaking the rounds.Saturday at 11:02 PMAdd bookmark#28Making a compass from the blood in the buckets turns out to be fairly simple. Joline simply instructs the maids to fill glass spheres with the blood and seal them afterwards. The result is a palm sized orb of blood. Most of the blood is a regular red, with a small patch of it being green. The green blood is 'attracted' to the treasure, so it makes a blotch on the sphere in the direction of the treasure. It's currently pointing towards the planet, so it should be working in theory.
We've got four similar spheres made, mostly to serve as backups just in case anything unexpected occurs. We'll need to get some more preparations made, since our first venture in the warzone proved that lasguns are superior to bolters when it comes to fighting massed enemies, mostly because bolters can run out of ammo pretty quick. That might not be an issue however if we can requisition some of the conscripts, in that case the heavy hitting bolters would be the superior choice.
There's also a neat trick we can do with two of the compass spheres and a bit of math. Joline, some maids and I gear up and head down to the planet, Flakey we leave in the sanctum, we'll get her some power armor once she's done growing.
After landing we quickly begin searching for an admech acolyte, we don't need anyone special, just someone really good at maths. We find a kneeling acolyte working on a piece of artillery. I cough, attracting the attention of the acolyte currently working on said piece of artillery. "We're going to be borrowing you for a while, don't worry, we won't take much of your time."
The acolyte stands up, turning towards Joline and I, immediately noticing and recognizing the heraldry of our navigator house painted on the shoulders of our power armors. The man rises. "What is it that you require?"
Joline signals to one of the maids, immediately receiving two of the compass spheres. "These spheres point to somewhere on this planet, think you can figure out the exact location?"
The acolyte points to a building two hundred meters away from us. "Give me a sphere."
Joline wordlessly hands the man the blood filled glass sphere. The acolyte takes the sphere, holds it in place for about a second before moving five meters to the right. After standing still for another second he comes back and hands the sphere back to Joline. "23.11 Latitude 54.35 Longitude. Negative 10532 meters from sea level. Margin of error is 0.1%. Is there anything else?"
I shake my head. "Nope, thanks." Dealing with the admech thus far has been pretty nice, no time wasted whatsoever. We could've tried triangulating the location directly from the ship, but the gellar fields could have made the compass a bit wonky, even if they are currently inactive.
After reaching our sanctum we look over a hologram of the planet to see where those coordinates are leading us. It's underneath the governor's palace, probably a bunker of some kind. We can't go there until the imperial guard disables the air to air defenses near the palace.
If everything goes according as scheduled that's going to be around a year, give or take a month.
—
This is feeling more like some form of vacation instead of waging war. Not having to navigate the ship means that we have suddenly found ourselves with a lot of free time. Joline and I have continued training the course untravelled, since it is an extremely useful ability to have.
When it comes to training Flakey we've put her psychic training on pause until we can gather enough blood from our servants to enact a ritual to aid her. It is going to take one year and three months to gather enough blood for this ritual, so we've put other rituals on hold for now. Instead of having her train her psychic powers Joline is teaching her about sorcerous rituals.
That's not what we are doing right now however, right now we are learning math and tech from Dos Dol, an admech acolyte that volunteered to join my harem on Falgin. Dos Dol is a beautiful, red haired woman, her well kept long hair reaches halfway to her back. She hasn't abandoned her admech roots, as she has continued wearing her admech uniform. Her augmentations are mostly under her skin, save for the steel index and middle fingers on her left hand and the mechadendrites.
Right now Joline, Flakey and I are sitting down crosslegged, A disassembled las-gun is sprawled in front of us and Dol is on the other side of said lasgun, pointing at the power pack. "This is the lasgun, everything else in the lasgun is mere decoration around it." She picks the power pack up. "You can draw more power from it, draw less, make it explode and much more. The quality of the other parts can improve the function of a lasgun, but without upgrading the power pack as well other upgrades will not have significant effect."
Flakey raises her hand. "What's a lasgun?"
Joline ruffles Flakey's hair. "It's the gun that the green men use."
Flakey simply nods in response.
The rest of the lesson continues without much preamble, after Dos Dol is done explaining how exactly a power pack works Joline signals for the maids to bring us dinner. Joline gets her requested steak, Flakey and I get chicken, or something that tastes like chicken, sandwiches and Dos Dol gets- "Why the fuck did you ask for nutrient paste?"
Dol blinks at Joline. "Is there something erroneous with my choice of sustenance?"
Joline waves at the maid bringing the nutrient paste to leave. "Yes." She turns to the maid. "Bring her some sandwiches."
Dol shakes her head. "I still require the nutrient paste, regardless of whether I consume more opulent nutrients."
Joline sighs and waves for the maid to bring back the nutrient paste. "I'm going to be extremely upset if you eat that."
Joline, Flakey and I all wait in anticipation for the maid to arrive with the nutrient paste. Once the plate of nutrient paste is placed on the floor next to Dol she moves a mechadendrite to the paste, slurping it up with it in two seconds. I blink. "You have a mechadendrite for eating food?"
Dol nods. "My mechadendrites are custom made, they can be removed and swapped as needed."
Allright, having mechadendrites as a regular acolyte is unusual, but not entirely out of the realm of possibility. Having swappable custom made mechadendrites without being a magos is an entirely different matter. I take one of the sandwiches and hand it to a reluctant Flakey. "Why did you volunteer to join my harem? Most of the women in it are either regular farmers or workers, you're one of the only ten acolytes to have volunteered to join it and the only one to have such rare implants."
Dol sits down and then slowly takes a deep breath, preparing herself to explain her situation. "Most acolytes focus on a single discipline, hoping to improve their craft enough to become a Magos. I wished to learn all that I could, to study biology, technology, psychic phenomena, anything and everything."
Joline blinks. "So you got people getting jealous of you and undermining you?"
Dol shakes her head. "No, none attempted sabotage. I simply failed my examination to advance as a magos for the ninth time in a row, the magos in charge of my education then refused to recommend me for advancement again if I didn't focus on a single field."
I blink. "And you decided to join the harem of a navigator instead?"
Dol nods. "I did not hesitate when the opportunity to have a patron such as yourself came."
Joline swallows a bite of steak. "That's neat. I wish I could get some of those tentacles too, they look pretty fun."
Navigators aren't really compatible with most cybernetic implants. The data ports at the nape of our necks are specialized implants designed specifically to be used by navigators. Light or cosmetic implants aren't really a problem, it's only if we tried to replace something more substantial, like a hand, that we would start to have issues. The possible repercussions can be anything from our bodies simply rejecting the implants to us instantly mutating into a fish, or in my and Joline's cases snake-goats.
Dol begins eating a sandwich using a claw-like mechadendrite to bring the food to her mouth. "They are quite useful. I could attempt to design a mechadendrite that only links to your data port, it would, however, not be usable in combat."
Joline pauses, taking a second to process Dol's response. She smiles beautifully at Dol afterwards. "I wish that you're the first to get pregnant."
I choke on my sandwich. In the end Dol ends up being the twentieth of my harem to get pregnant.
—
My sparring rapier lightly smacks the side of Flakey's head. "Keep your sword in guard. Keep your blade blocking the line between my blade and you. You don't need to hit my blade to parry, just move yours in the way of my strike."
The training swords that we are using are made out of a sort of soft foam, so getting smacked by one doesn't hurt. Flakey nods and we reset. She takes a clumsy swipe with her sparring rapier at mine. I smack the top of her head with my sparring rapier. "Don't aim at your opponent's sword, aim at their body. The head is almost always a good target."
There's a reason the most used piece of armor in ancient and medieval times were helmets. The head is almost always a viable target, so making sure to protect and guard your head is key to not dying. Flakey and I reset. Joline groans. "Kraaaaaaaausssss, I'm bored."
I take a lazy swipe at Flakey's head, she manages to parry it successfully. Progress! We reset. "Go bother Dol, the two of you have been getting along extremely well lately."
Flakey takes a clumsy swipe at my legs. I parry and counter, she fails to stop my counter. We reset. Joline sighs. "She's still sleeping. Apparently she still needs to get her beauty sleep even with all of her implants."
I drop my sparring rapier and ruffle Flakey's head, she's been progressing really well in her training. "Speaking of implants, have you talked to her about getting implants for our household guard?"
Joline nods. "Yeah, she'll need some rare metals that aren't readily available here to make them. We can buy them for her when we get to a forgeworld."
—
Joline smiles maniacally as she relentlessly tickles Flakey and I with her mechadendrites. "Behold my power! The endless ma-"
I teleport her with the course untravelled. She projectile vomits at Dol, who casually dodges the flying vomit. While she's busy recovering I unplug the link between her and the mechadendrites, making them crash on the ground. Flakey grabs one of Joline's ankles, I grab the other. Joline pleads. "Me-mercy?"
We tickle her mercilessly.
—
I stare at my firstborn child. He stares at me.
He shits himself and starts crying.
—
I was always somewhat conflicted when it came to my harem. The reason isn't really related to the harem itself, if I said that I didn't enjoy having one then I would be lying. My reprehension is related to the resulting children.
I don't want my children to be disposable troops, trained and prepared to die for the most minimal of gains. Right now I am holding my seventh child, a girl named Kasey.
This world is cruel, despite how much I wish to keep my children away from danger said danger will inevitably come to them, regardless of how much I protect them from it.
I don't care what happens to the Imperium, I don't care whether that golden retard shits himself and dies on his golden toilet. What I care about are me and mine. Dad, Mom, Joline, Flakey, Dol and now my children.
If we want to keep ourselves safe then we need power. The only language that this world speaks is violence. If we want to tell people to keep away from us, then we need to speak with them in the only language that they understand.
I hand the baby over to Joline, who takes a good look at her. "You know, this is the second psyker this far. The first time we could assume it to be a coincidence, the second is already a pattern."
A heavily pregnant Dol nods. "Individuals with psychic potential are much more likely to birth children who share their abilities. Is this not normal for your kind?"
Joline shakes her head. "Us navigators use the warp, but we aren't really psykers. We are more like someone using a piece of warp tech than a real psyker."
I switch my gaze to Kasey's sleeping mother, a pretty woman named Janna with shoulder length blue hair. "We've checked most of the harem for psychic potential already, none of them have been either latent or active psykers so far."
Joline passes the sleeping baby to Dol. "We can't assume this is a coincidence anymore, there has to be an explanation for why two out of seven of Krauss's kids have been psykers."
Dol scans the sleeping baby with a mechadendrite, making sure that there's no abnormalities. "I suggest we cease any further inseminations and terminate any remaining pregnancies. This many psykers in such an enclosed space would be a disaster."
I shake my head. "Psykers descended from a navigator are much more stable than even sanctioned psykers. Our genes grant them increased willpower and resistance to warp influence. We are not terminating any pregnancies."
Dol puts the baby back to her crib. "I still suggest that we cease reproduction until we can assess the source of this anomaly."
Joline gives me a thoughtful look. "I have an idea. Krauss, can you try using immolate the soul on this pillow?" She takes a pillow from Janna's bed and holds it up.
I shrug and set the pillow on fire with immolate the soul. Joline gives me a nod. "Now try to move the fire, make it into a ball somewhere in this room."
I blink. I haven't tried manipulating the flames from immolate the soul in that manner yet. I focus on moving the flames away from the pillow. Joline, Dol and I are staring at the fist sized round ball of flames floating between the three of us. Joline takes a deep breath. "You're a psyker. That's why you can use your navigator powers in more unexpected fashions."
Dol blinks. "Such a thing is possible?"
Joline shrugs. "In theory there's no real reason for it to be possible, in practice the chances are extremely low for even a single navigator to ever be one. We are already much more genetically stable than regular humans, otherwise we wouldn't be able to look into the warp without turning into a blob. This and our strict breeding programs prevent us from getting the 'psyker gene' in our family lines."
Joline crosses her arms. "There's about a million living navigators at any one point, it's not really out of the question for one or two to have true psychic potential, but such a case would be an isolated incident. The secret nature of most navigator houses would lead to such a case being kept secret from the world at large."
I should have realised this much sooner. Joline and our parents didn't realise this because navigator souls already look almost identical to psyker souls, as our third eye is already capable of drawing in the warp. The difference in the soul's appearance itself would be extremely minor.
Dol blinks, appearing surprised. "What are the ramifications of this?"
I take a deep breath. "My navigator powers are much more diverse in their use and my psychic abilities are much more stable. I don't need to worry about going mad because of the warp, my mind is genetically enhanced specifically for witnessing the warp."
—
Flakey looks at Kasey. Kasey looks at Flakey.
Kasey shits herself and begins crying.
—
One thing that I didn't expect when I thought of becoming a father was that my sister would be the one to find more joy in my children than I do. After the eleventh one was born I had already given up on keeping track of all of them, on the other hand Joline has started spending most of her time with the mothers of my kids. The one that she's most close to, other than Dol, is Janna. They've gotten close enough for her to have even begun inviting Janna to our dinners.
Joline gives a satisfied sigh, having finished her steak. "Say Krauss, do you know why Janna volunteered to join your harem?"
Going by the way that Janna started blushing it's probably something embarrassing. I shrug. "No, why did she?"
Joline looks at Janna, Janna gives her a clipped shy nod. Joline shrugs. "She had a lot of gambling debt and wanted to get out. Apparently becoming the concubine of an imperial noble was her solution to fixing her money problem."
Most of the harem has stories like this. The majority of the denizens of the Imperium live hard lives, the opportunity to live the rest of their lives in comfort as the concubines of an imperial noble is one that very few would let pass. I point my fork at Joline. "That's not really that embarrassing. With that reaction I expected something more."
Joline points her own fork at me. "She also thought you were a heavily mutated abomination and was really into that idea."
Janna chokes on her food. I sigh.
—
The imperial guard has reached the vicinity of the governor's palace, which means that we can finally begin our assault on the palace. Dol will be joining Joline and I in the assault, as she apparently was also trying to specialise in combat along with every other admech field.
Our household guard will be bringing bolters once again, since this time we have local conscripts to use as disposable meat shields. Anything that the wave of conscripts can't handle can be eliminated with concentrated bolter fire.
Since we are no longer limited to the capacity of a drop pod we will be bringing fifty of our guards, using all of the available power armors.
Flakey will remain in the sanctum, until she gets power armor she is not allowed to go into active war zones.
—
AN: One idea that really sat in my head for a long time was whether or not a navigator could be born as a true psyker.
As mentioned in the fic itself, navigators aren't really psykers despite being able to use the warp. They can set you on fire, but its more like they have an inbuilt genetic 'set on fire' power. A psyker would set you on fire by directly using the warp to do so, a navigator uses their inbuilt 'set on fire' power to do it automatically. Like ReplyReport Reactions:Evymel, CBTL, Sovereign Of All and 80 othersSickolifeSaturday at 11:02 PMAdd bookmarkView discussionThreadmarks Chapter 6 New View contentSickolifeMaking the rounds.Monday at 6:27 PMNewAdd bookmark#39The anti air defenses around the palace have all been disabled by the imperial guard in preparation for the assault on the palace, which allows us to land right in front of it.
The entrance to the palace is right in front of our landing site. A gargantuan gate made out of marbled ferrocrete greets us. The colossal gold plated gates have been blasted open, allowing waves upon waves of conscripts to surge into the palace.
The conscripts part ways on our approach, allowing us to go into the palace unhindered. The flooring has become unrecognizable due to the fighting, the stale blood of defender and attacker alike has stained it beyond recognition.
The foyer of the palace is just as gargantuan as the rest of it, the ceiling is over forty stories tall, candelabra the size of buildings are more akin to christmas lights, littered haphazardly all over. Some of them have fallen down, splattering steel and wax all over when doing so.
The captain of our household guard clears his throat, before loudly shouting. "You are now under the jurisdiction of house Hircus of the navis nobiliate!"
That makes the conscripts near us pause, the captain, Rauth, continues shouting orders. "Form firing lines and begin slowly advancing! Anything that is not part of official imperial forces is to be eliminated!"
The conscripts immediately follow their new orders, clumsily lining up and forming firing lines. There are only so many places that a path to the vault could be hidden in, so we will just beeline directly for each of them one after another. The first stop is the governor's office, located at the top of the palace.
We don't encounter any resistance at first, the deserted hallways having been long since cleared. Once we reach the second floor we begin to encounter light resistance, the occasional rebel skulking about. Massed las fire turns them into ash almost instantly. Our current destination is a stairway on the third floor leading directly to the governor's palace.
The first and second floors are nearly empty. However rebels become more and more common as we near the stairs to the third floor. On the last quarter of the journey we begin to encounter organized resistance, groups of rebels stationed and prepared to thwart off invaders.
There is no cover to protect the conscripts at this point, so all shots from the rebels either heavily injure or kill. We have enough concentrated firepower to literally turn both the rebels and the cover they are hiding behind into dust. Progress is much slower now that the rebels are actively resisting our advancement.
There is a way to go through the rebels much faster. "Dol, can I stand on your shoulders for a bit? I am going to clear the path ahead, make sure to close your eyes."
Dol gives me a pointed nod and kneels down. "Stand on my hands, I will keep you raised."
I give her a nod and do just that. She raises me, allowing me to see over the wall of conscripts. Activating the refractor shield before uncovering my third eye kills almost all of the rebels, only leaving a few stragglers alive to are quickly shot.
Our progress is much faster now, with Dol holding me up and allowing me to clear the enemies ahead. We quickly reach the stairs to the third floor in this manner, with me killing everyone ahead of us via impromptu navigator eye.
The rebels have constructed a makeshift barricade/fortress using broken candelabra pieces. A shot from my las pistol at maximum power clears an entrance, allowing the conscripts to surge inside and use their superior numbers to clear the makeshift fort. Reinforcements begin to come from the floors above, complicating manners somewhat.
The combination of massed las fire and my third eye however is enough to keep them at bay. The rebels stop sending scores of their men to die once they realise that there's something here making them drop dead.
We're now at a bit of an impasse. Going up the stairs would lead to anything going there receiving massed gunfire, sending the conscripts to die there instead would solve that problem. The problem with that plan is that the conscripts refuse to go to their almost certain deaths.
"We refuse t-" A bolter round silences the man, removing his head, the head of the conscript behind him and the head of another conscript before the explosive charge in the bolter round detonates, heavily wounding two conscripts with the resulting shrapnel. Rauth points at the stairway. "If you follow orders you have a chance at survival, if you don't then you will all die. Make your choice."
The conscripts hesitate, the head of the household guard shoots again, killing four conscripts. "Choose now."
The conscripts make their choice. They point their guns at us. Joline uncovering her third eye makes all of them drop dead. Dol kneels down next to one of the bodies. "Unexpected, but not unprecedented."
I sigh. "I'm surprised that they didn't do this sooner, it's not like we had babied them."
Joline shrugs. "This is probably why the guard recruits the top performers in the PDF, anything else and they would constantly mutiny."
Dol takes a long bar of steel from the ground and ties the body she is kneeling next to to the bar. "The lasguns the conscripts have been issued hold more value than the conscripts themselves, in hindsight their mutiny should have been expected."
I stare at the tied up corpse, it reminds me of a popsicle. "What are you planning to do with that?"
Dol throws a small piece of steel and the corpsicle into the air. The rebels above us shower the corpse in lasfire, the thing does not even manage to reach its apex before being vaporized. The piece of steel is left untouched. "Their reaction time is 0.3543 seconds. I will throw a corpse and a flash grenade. We can rush them while they are incapacitated. Is this plan agreeable?"
Joline nods. "That sounds pretty good, you should probably throw some grenades at them after the flashbang too."
I look at the lasguns, an idea coming to my mind. "Why don't we overcharge these power packs and hurl them at them instead of using grenades?"
Dol picks up a power pack. "I approve of this amendment."
Joline shrugs. "Preserving munitions isn't that bad of an idea. Let's go for it."
It doesn't take long for Dol to teach our household guard how to overcharge the power packs more efficiently, allowing us to begin our attack. Dol throws a corpse and a flash grenade into the air, the corpse gets vaporized and the grenade explodes, hopefully blinding our opponents.
Each of us throws two overloaded power packs into the floor above us before ascending the stairs, revealing a massive amount of rebels screaming in pain while holding their eyes. Uncovering my third eye kills the few of them that didn't get blinded. The incapacitated rebels are instead turned into swiss cheese via bolter rounds.
By the time that the shooting ends a literal river of blood is flowing down the stairs. Joline turns towards Dol. "Can you make power packs explode like the flash grenades? We don't have enough grenades to clear every corner like this."
Dol takes a power pack, tinkers with it for a bit before giving Joline a nod. "It is possible, the blinding effect will not be as strong however, as a significant portion of the energy will still be released thermically instead."
I shrug. "We can just throw more of them, we practically have an unlimited supply of powerpa-."
I am interrupted by a craftworld eldar turning the corner and freezing in place directly in front of us. The household guard immediately aim their bolters at them. Joline whistles. "And what business does one of your kind have in this here imperial palace? Did you get lost on your way to the toilet?"
The eldar, seeing that they were not immediately shot to death, raises their hands in surrender. That either means that they're alone and out of options or that they're waiting for their buddies to bail them out, you can never tell for sure with these guys.
The eldar is armored head to toe, so we can't tell exactly what's going on in their mind. They begin talking. "Monkeigh, either provide me with aid or face certain doom!"
I blink, before signaling for the household guard to hold fire for now. Joline points her las pistol at the eldar. "I'll kill you, shove your spirit stone up your ass and then blow it along with your body to smithereens. What are you doing here?"
Silence reigns for a bit after Joline's threat. The eldar keeps their hands raised. "I got lost."
I blink. "Elaborate."
The eldar tries to take a step back, a warning shot from Joline makes them stop. "I was searching for a relic of my people, I got lost while looking for it."
Joline begins howling with laughter. I hear Dol's voice over our vox channel. "Do not kill them, we have a unique opportunity to capture Eldar xenotech."
Since Dol used the vox channel that her, Joline and I are on, Joline also hears this. She points her las pistol back at the eldar. "Strip."
"W-what?"
Joline sets her pistol at max power. "You heard me, strip your armor and lay down your weapons. You try anything funny and your spirit stone gets crushed."
The eldar begins to strip off their armor, starting with the helmet, revealing that they are a she. Soon enough we are staring at her unarmored, wearing only her undergarments. Next to her is her armor, sword and some kind of pistol.
Joline shakes her head. "Undies too, I don't trust you not to have hidden anything there."
The eldar's eyes widen. "This is an insu-" A warning shot that evaporates the dead bodies behind her makes her change her mind. Her underwear joins the pile of clothes. Joline turns to the household guard. "Take the xeno to the ship and restrain it, store her armor somewhere secure, one of those places where things don't go in or out."
Four of the guard go to the eldar and proceed to escort her downstairs. Dol nods, before thanking us over the com channel. "Thank you, I will not forget this."
I shrug. "Let's just continue, there might be some spicy loot in that vault now that we know the eldar are involved, hopefully it's nothing too hot to handle."
Dol and Joline nod in response. We continue advancing. We throw ten flashbang modified power packs at each corner, making sure that if there is an enemy waiting for us, they're blind. Interestingly enough this floor is emptier compared to the third floor, the rebels are probably holed up in the third floor.
We encounter a squad of eldar after the sixth corner, bolter fire turns them into minced meat, but not before they land a killing shot on two of the household guard. I click my tongue. "Flashbangs don't do anything against them other than giving them advance warning of our attack."
Dol nods. "I will recalibrate the powerpacks for kinetic energy, encasing them in steel will provide shrapnel."
Joline picks up an aeldari chainsword. "That's a good idea, go for it."
We swap to using makeshift shrapnel grenades instead of flashbangs, which proves itself to be somewhat more effective. The next eldar squad that we happen upon is heavily wounded by the grenades, allowing us to dispatch them easily.
After that squad we encounter no other resistance on the way to the governor's office. Entering the office reveals more eldar, this time its a wounded drukhari in a broken armor. The eldar takes one look at us before raising their hands. "I surrender!"
If there is one thing that scares the ever living shit out of eldar it's dying for realsies, because what awaits them is an eternity of torture. Joline points her las pistol at the drukhari. "Strip."
This one is a girl once again.
Once they are in their underwear Joline orders them again. "Underwear too smartass."
The drukhari grumbles and follows her order. Her underwear lands on the floor with a metallic thud. Joline narrows her eyes. "That was a grenade wasn't it?"
The drukhari rolls her eyes. "No, it was armor plating."
Joline turns to the household guard. "Take her and her gear to the ship, leave the underwear here."
After five of the guards leave with the drukhari we begin searching the office. Her presence was a good sign that there's something interesting to be found here. The office is just as absurd as the rest of the palace, cyclopean candelabra litter the ceiling and the office is the size of a mansion. One wall is covered up to the ceiling by bookshelves and the floor is made out of solid gold.
Joline kicks the office table, sending it crashing into a wall. Her reaction to my incredulous look is to go. "What? I doubt some property damage is going to ruin whatever secret entrance there is."
Dol begins tapping her knuckles on the walls. "The walls are made of ferrocrete, a plasma torch will be sufficient. We only require the location of the secret door."
A glint of silver catches my attention from a corner of the room. When I reach it I instantly recognize the governor's seal. It's a piece of steel used to sign official documents, as far as the imperium is concerned whoever holds this is the governor. I lea- "Karuss, you're gonna want to see this."
I turn to Joline. She is reading a red journal. "Just come and read it,"
I leave the seal there for the time being, it's not going anywhere. Joline hands me the journal and I read the opened pages. I read the haphazardly written scribbles on said pages.
50000000000000000 bodies for the imperial guard.
10000000 artillery shells.
250000000 grenades.
The shells and grenades are not an issue, the manpower is.
Our current population does not allow for us to gather the required amount, even under the most strict breeding program it would be impossible to reach such a number.
This has to be a clerical error, hopefully the administratum can rectify it.
The procedure to correct the tithe will take a hundred years, the arbites are coming to collect in twenty.
I hand the journal back to Joline. That imperial seal can remain here for the time being, I doubt anyone aware of the situation is going to want it. "Leave the governor's seal here, let the tithe be someone else's problem."
Joline nods. "I wonder ho-""This section of the wall is hollow."
Joline and I turn towards Dol. She simply kneels down and begins cutting a hole into the wall with a plasma torch mechadendrite. Once she's done a short hallway leading to an elevator is revealed. Joline leans on my shoulder. "See? Told you it wasn't going to ruin anything."
Dol looks at the elevator. "This elevator is mechanical, the chances of it being trapped are almost null."
I turn to Rauth. "Keep this area secured. We will bring the goods with us. If we can't carry all of it we'll send the elevator with them. If that happens then just unload it and then wait for us to come up."
The elevator is pretty small, barely able to fit four persons inside. The lever that sits in its middle does not help. Joline pulls me and Dol to it. "Let's just go, if there was anything dangerous it would have been revealed by the scrying ritual."
We cram into the elevator before Joline pulls the lever inside of it. The elevator begins to slowly descend. I sigh. "How far below is the vault?"
Dol's response is immediate. "10213 meters underneath the governor's office."
I nod. "And how fast are we descending?"
Joline realises our conundrum. "Half a meter per second."
This elevator is going to take five and a half hours to descend. Dol realises our conundrum. "I will attempt to speed the descent, but speeding it excessively may lead to a crash."
—
In the end we reach the bottom in three hours. Large metal doors block the path forward. Dol gives us some good news. "I can cut through it with my plasma torch, I only require ten minutes to do so."
Joline and I patiently wait for Dol to cut open an entryway into the vault. Once it's opened we are greeted by our treasure.
Drukhari and Aeldari paraphernalia are littered across the room, weapons of various forms line the walls, suits of armor sit and collect dust. I blink at the centerpiece of the collection, a man sized box filled with small crystal stones. I blink. "That's a box with spirit stones. That's why eldar are all over the palace."
Joline picks one of the stones and uncovers her third eye. "Some of them are empty, some of them are full. Whoever was collecting most likely didn't know how to tell the difference."
Dol leans on my shoulder. "We are taking everything, correct?"
I nod. "Yeah, all of this is highly valuable. We don't really know what most of the paraphernalia is for, but we got two prisoners who can help us with that."
It takes two trips for the elevator to carry everything. Whilst the elevator was slowly going up and down Joline and I went to sleep, Dol stayed up to guard us.
—
I grunt as the elevator finally reaches the office. I look at the pile of Eldar stuff. Ideally I would like to move them without the eldar's knowledge, that would save us from having them come after us later. I turn to Rauth. "How goes the situation, has the palace been secured?"
He nods. "The imperial guard has secured floors one to six, there is heavy fighting on floor seven."
Joline sighs in relief. "That's good, the first thing that I want to do is take off this suit and take a bath, not fight more knife-ears." Like ReplyReport Reactions:Evymel, T314, Trilonias and 73 others