Grim Dark Tech Support: A Dark Mechanicum Quest

You begin your investigation with a very simple idea. The Precogitator relies on organic components even more than the average machine built by the Mechanicum. Organic Components, especially neural tissue, are highly vulnerable to fluctuations in temperature. Messing with temperature would thus be a relatively subtle way to destroy the machine. It's a good hypothesis. It also turns out to be a dead end in less than a day of looking into it.

The Precogitator's temperature is not, in fact, rising. When the remote diagnostics that tell you this come in, you actually physically get up and measure the temperature yourself. It wouldn't do, after all, to be deceived by something as simple as Scrap Code messing with the diagnostic data.

You have calibrated your internal thermometer to within a millionth of a degree of accuracy. None of the Cogitators are running even that much above their recommended operating temperature.

[Roll: Myges Talef: Cogitator Architecture: 3d6:1,3,5: Partial Success]
[Roll: Eta-Nu 9-35: Cogitator Architecture:3:Failure]

In hindsight, your failure to spot what was going on is somewhat embarrassing. It isn't even you, in the end, who stands in between two massive rows of Data Looms, cooling snakes hissing, fans whirring loudly, and asks a question that should be utterly obvious. "Are these actually processing anything right now?"

Twenty-four hours have passed, at that point: the possibly uncomfortably literal deadline is just a bit more than four days away. You turn your head to Talef slowly. His cooling unit is working at overdrive. Hot air blows in your face. Suddenly, you understand what he means.

The moment the static recedes from your visual processors, the information you seek is disturbingly simple to find.

It is also just plainly disturbing.

"That can't be right", Myges Talef cants, for the seventh time. You are inclined to agree with him. What you are seeing before you is utterly impossible.

Cogitators are known for producing a lot of heat: it's one of the reasons large-scale projects such as this one tend to be moved onto ice worlds. The Precogitator is a prime example of this: perhaps even the prime example. You cannot actually reasonably quantify how much heat it is generating, minute by minute, other than it being about the output of a middle-sized fusion reactor. The heat, you have discovered, is captured by massive cooling snakes, who in turn transport it straight into a hole in the ground. You go to look at it, at one point relatively early in your investigation. It isn't even a particularly large hole. A massive cable runs into it, surrounded by cooling snakes, and the amount of water that runs through those pipes can't actually be that high.

And yet, it absorbs every bit of heat pumped into it, and reliably returns water a fraction of a degree above its freezing point.

It's impossible. Actually, mathematically impossible. Talef has run the calculations, and the only way it wouldn't be impossible is if…

"This planet's core is at absolute zero", Talef says, also for the seventh time, and you can tell how upset he is by the way his cooling fans whir slightly asynchronously. You are profoundly grateful for the modifications you have made to your brain and digestive system, because you would probably be sick if you hadn't.

This shouldn't be possible. It certainly isn't natural. It might be a Warp Phenomenon: the Empyrean is ever fickle. If it were, though, something would have in all likleyhood already crawled out of the hole and devoured the entire compound. That leaves two possibilities, neither of which are very appealing: Xenos, or humans during the Dark Age of Technology. You look down the hole with a shudder. Neither of these options points to people of particularly sound mind, and you can only think of one reason why either would want the core of a world chilled to absolute zero.

"Containment", you tell Talef, who becomes more miserable at your words. "Anything else doesn't make any sense. They froze something so hard it couldn't even move its atoms anymore."

Talef turns to you, very slowly. "You're suggesting whatever is in there is trying to get out", he says, and you cant a miserable affirmative. "That'd be the work of…millimeters at a time", Talef continues, "over years and years and years."

Again, you cant in the affirmative. "Or not", you add, "if it is likely to reach critical mass in…just a bit over three days, now?"

The Magos Infofector sends a stream of binaric at nobody in particular, and for once he fulfills the cliche associated with his patron deity. That is some foul language. It is not, in your opinion, inappropriate.

"Alright", Talef cants, once he has calmed down, "what do we do with this information"

"We have two problems we need to deal with", you opine. "One is the issue of heat, the other is whatever it is that is causing the heat. Unfortunately, I have not the slightest clue where whatever is causing the second is…"

You pause. Talef is looking at the cable running out of the hole. There is a look of sheer disbelief on his face. Slowly, very slowly, he unfolds a Mechadendrite from his back and runs it across the cable. The fans of his cooling unit stop moving, for a few seconds. You recognise the Mechadendrite: it's a diagnostic tool, meant to measure electrical current. "I think", Talef says, slowly, "that I know where the Scrap Code is coming from."

He sends you a readout, and you understand his sudden silence.

The cable..cables, really, more precisely, because it's hundreds of them running side by side, are not delivering the motive force to their destination in an even, orderly manner. They are pulsing, waxing and waning, in a manner that almost seems like binaric.
The Precogitator is drawing power from some manner of unknown device, and that same device is using the opportunity to send signals to the entire system.


"Well", Talef says, and you do not appreciate his attempts to inject levity into the situation at all, "at least we now know where it originates from."

You do. That much is true. It comes from a hole in the ground, at the end of which lies an intelligence capable of injecting a highly sophisticated piece of scrap code into a cogitator environment using an electrical cable.

This does not make you very optimistic. Still, these are the cards you have been dealt. Now, you simply have to decide how to play them.
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There are several approaches you might take, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. Dealing with the heat first might slow down whatever looming catastrophe is threatening the Precogitator, but it will also very likely tip off whatever is down there, potentially causing it to come after you. The reverse is much more likely to catch them unawares, but will also likely mean that the heat is going to have built up further, likely compromising its containment procedures further. In addition to deciding on the order of operations, you will also need to decide on the exact approach you will take: some of these will take more or less time, be more or less risky, and have, as a result, better or worse results.
[Order of Operations]
[] Heat First
[] Source First
[Heat Solution]
[] Shutdown
-The heat is originating from the Auxiliary Cogitators and Datalooms, many of them idling away and performing additional tasks for no reason but to produce additional heat. Shutting down some or all of these is likely to gain you additional time, at the cost, of course, of potentially shutting down something running an absolutely crucial process or causing permanent damage, but it is likely to be quick, and result in a significant heat reduction
[] Biological Solution
-Given the heat that is being put out and the general harsh conditions for life, the creation of an organism absorbing a significant amount of the heat on such short notice is absolutely impossible. Of course, you are a Magos Abominus: the impossible is your baseline, and you already have several decent ideas for what baseline you might modify. Bacteria, mostly, but also some mollusks. This will take time, though: even the three or so days that remain to you are cutting it short. The upside is that it'll create a solution that'll potentially work permanently.
[]Auxiliary Radiators
-Some of the heat is already flowing to places other than the planet's core: the vapour-spewing gargoyles upon the walls of the fortress are evidence of that. It would, in theory, be possible to slow the flow of heat towards the planet's core down somewhat by simply overstraining these systems. This is a solution that is both quick and and relatively easy to do, but will likely reduce in a slowdown that is not all that long
[Combination]
-You do, of course, have Myges Talef at your disposal, and nothing is stopping you from sending him to do another of these solutions while you focus on the first. This has the advantage of potentially enabling you to get things done faster, and the disadvantage of you both working in different locations, unable to assist each other in case of crisis.
[] -Write-in: what do you do, what do you send Myges Talef to do
[Source Solution]
Going for whatever Xenotechnology is down there is very likely to be suicide on your own: you will need people to fight whatever is down there. Further, you will need to find a way to make your way to wherever you need to go.
[Allies]
[] Biological Monstrosity
You're going to need to work quick, and even if you do this'll take a lot of your valuable time, but you are reasonably confident that you will be able to cook up something large, monstrous, cold-resistant, and utterly lethal. It'll be under your control too, more or less.
[] Court of the Hollow Idol
Taal Voyos does not like you, and has not made a secret of that dislike, but he does wish for you to succeed in fixing the Precogitator. Going into hostile environments and shooting whatever nasty lurks there is what the Space Marines were created for, but of course they could get slightly weird about whatever Xenos or Dark Age Technology is found down there, and it is likely to be a rather convenient place to discard a bunch of Tech Priests that have outlived their usefulness.
[] The rest of your Subordinates
Regicia Ko-Bea is not likely to be much use in a fight, but 8-Doxa Krananima absolutely is, and while you can't be entirely certain about Theama-Nul you are fairly certain someone has gotten angry enough at him to try and shoot him in the past, and he is still alive. The main asset remains 8-Doxa.
You just have to find him.
[Combination]
[Write-in] Which two solutions do you try to make work together

[Route]

[] Bore
-There is some digging equipment around: of this, you are absolutely certain. Rigging some of it up to simply bore straight down in parallel to the hole that has already been driven into the ground should not be much of a problem. Your enemy will likely hear you coming, and if you run into something important along the way you are likely to break it, but you're also going to be down there fast enough that any loss in the element of surprise is likely to be quickly compensated by your speed

[] Navigate
-Magos Gwo has to have discovered whatever he is drawing power from somehow, and you have a fairly direct orientation aid in the form of the borehole. You can't move down the borehole directly, of course, on account of all the pipes and cables in your way, but you can move down into the basement of the fortress and then into the bedrock of the planet using paths that surround it, and hopefully reach wherever it goes. This is likely to take time, of course, and there is no telling what additional dangers may lurk beneath the ice.

[] Direct Route
-of course, the option always remains to simply enter the pipes and descend through them. Yes, they are filled with scalding hot water, but you have the capabilities to stand up to that, at least mostly. Yes, getting out of them is going to require you to break through the pipes, but you can do that too. It's fast, it's subtle, and it only has a relatively small chance to cook you.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Before you can put your plans into action, however, alarms start blaring throughout the Fortress, and you suddenly find yourself surrounded by Space Marines of the Court of the Hollow Idol. They haven't raised their bolters, you note, though of course they're not likely to need to do so to kill you. You endure about ten minutes of the silent treatment they give you, before reluctantly activating your vox emitter, blowing the dust from it with a burst of high-frequency feedback. "Esteemed Space Marines", you begin, static squealing alongside your voice as you calibrate the proper volume, "might I enquire to the reason for our detainment?"

"Someone broke into our data vault less than an hour ago", one of the Space Marines tells you. You cast a suspicious look to Talef, but he very probably couldn't have: he was here with you, an hour ago, and busy enough not to be able to do something like that remotely. "It wasn't us", you respond, on the off chance it might help you, but the two of them seem to have gone back to ignoring you, hands somewhat closer to the handles of their bolters then they were before. "We are somewhat busy", you tell them, "there's a good chance this entire facility will be destroyed if you detain us long enough."

"You heard the Magos", someone says from behind you, and you resist the urge to swirl your head and weapon arm around towards the newcomer.

You have not heard him coming. None of your other auto senses picked them up either. That should be completely impossible.

The newcomer is a Space Marine much like the two next to you, though judging by the state of his armor and the way the other two come to attention when they see him, he is of much higher rank than either of them. The man is not wearing his helmet, showing a face of unusually pleasant proportions for a Space Marine, it's eyes the color of molten gold, it's fine features framed by golden hair that falls upon his shoulder in a cascade of golden locks.

The man smiles at you, and you see that his canines are slightly elongated: sharper than they should be even on a man as genetically altered as this one. His armor is one of the later Marks, carefully repainted in the colors of the Court of the Hollow Idol, though one detail differs from all the rest that you have seen so far: a ruby-red blood drop decorates the center of the Court's symbol, it's wings having been remade into the wings of the hollowed-out Aquila.

One of Sanguinius's descendants, then, fallen from grace in the long millenia since the Siege of Terra.

He brushes away one of his locks of hair, and you note that his hand has been replaced with a cybernetic, and a fresh one. It's fingers seem to be made at least partially of ceramite, and they remind you of nothing so much as the hands of a doll, though he moves them with incredible precision. "Well?", he asks, looking to the two Space Marines that guard you, "will you let these Tech Priests get back to the task that we called them here for?"

His right, you note, has fallen to the hilt of the power sword he keeps by his side: an incredibly detailed basket hilt detailed to resemble wings, the power generators fashioned into the shape of another blood drop. "But the intruder…", one of the Space Marines begins, before stopping himself. The newcomer has smiled at him, and by the way that smile barred his sharp teeth it is much closer to the threat display of a primate then to an expression of joy. "Do either of these fine beings at all resemble the description of whoever intruded", the Space Marine asks, and both of them shake their heads, somewhat reluctantly. "But we didn't really get…", one of them begins, only to be silenced by a long stare from the man's eye. "And do you think we would not have gotten an extremely detailed description of this Magos or any of their companions", he asks, voice caustic enough to strip paint. The Space Marine seems ready to argue, but then thinks better of it. "No, Captain Camail", he admits. There is a short pause, and then the Space Marine, Camail, you suppose, snaps. "Go", he hisses, and the other two Marines flee in terror, leaving you behind with your unlikely savior.

"My apologies", he says, his voice smooth as honey, "but there has been some unpleasantness. Tensions are somewhat high, at the moment. You are, of course, free to continue your mission. I have been asked to deliver a message to you by your exceedingly talented colleague, Magos Ko-Bea?"

He raises his newly attached hand, in which you see a data crystal, ready to be read. It does, you note, look rather like your wayward subordinates work.

Captain Camail turns to leave as soon as you take the Data Crystal into your possession. You do not see a reason to ask him to stay. The moment you read the thing, an image of Regicia Ko-Bea appears before you, dressed in her full splendor, specks of blood upon her bear forearms. "Hello there, darling", she begins, seemingly in the process of operating on somebody as she speaks into the pict caster, "I don't have much time. Sorry for leaving you hanging like that, dear, but I had some things to take care of that couldn't wait. Listen, there's something I need you to do for me, if you could? Sorry, I don't really have much time to explain, but that Terminator Lord, Taal Voyos? I need you to kill him for me. I'll explain why later"

The message cuts out, after that, and you are left baffled…and with a choice to make.

You will fulfill her request…

[] …right now
-she probably has a good reason for asking, and though killing a Terminator Lord isn't exactly an easy proposition, he is not going to expect the attempt, and you can probably get it done and get back to work rather quickly
[]...if the opportunity presents itself
-going up against a Terminator without preparations is an insane proposition, but who knows? Perhaps there is going to be an opportunity to accidentally fire a poisoned needle into the back of his head, somewhere in your near future. Seems like an easy enough thing to do.

[] …after you've heard the explanation, maybe
-tracking her down is likely going to take time, but you are very interested in what she has to say, and if she has a good reason you might wish to hear it ahead of time.

[] …after you're done with everything else, maybe
-something is very likely to just straight up end the Precogitator and everything inside it three days from now, and you're going to deal with that first, talk to Regicia, and then perform an assassination, if you like her explanation.

[]...under no circumstance
-you're not just going to kill somebody just because an incredibly talented and well-built Magos asked it of you, that'd be completely insane.
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Please vote by plan

Plan Template:
[Order of Operations]
[]...
[Heat Solution]
[]...
[Source Solution]
[Allies]
[]...
[Route}
[]...
Regicia's Request
[]...