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A Mother Goo in a Grimdark World (Grey Goo SI X Warhammer 40k)

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Chapter 33: Rumble and Trouble
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    • -=-=-=-=-=-
    Chapter 33: Rumble and Trouble
    -=-=-=-=-=-    ​

    It's kind of scary how effective the tactic of 'make a storm and use it as cover for an orbital invasion' is. Like, it is REALLY effective.

    Then again, the sudden attack out of nowhere and said attack starting off with basically 'controlling' the weather to fling lightning around like I'm the mythological gods of storms hurling thunderbolts. It would cause a lot of understandable confusion, which is only worsened when the meteor pods appeared from behind the clouds and they are both far too close and going far too fast for anyone to reliably hit with any form of point defense.

    The Drukhari have pretty much been caught with their pants down, some in the more literal sense as the world in and around Delta City was subject to numerous lightning strikes and meteor pods landing dispensing their lethal payload.

    Countless goo pouring out of buildings where meteor pods crashed into, cascading down like a silvery waterfall, multiple other meteor pods landing in the streets, parks, and even on top of the dark eldar's vehicles. Grey goo spreading everywhere forming their morph shapes as numerous drukhari tried to get themselves together while attempting to make sense of everything that is happening around them. Which to be fair, Skyfall Operation is meant to spread chaos and make enemy forces lose cohesion as they try to get themselves in working order while the world around them is set ablaze.

    I'd say it is effective, with the dark eldar running around like headless chickens, then again the dark eldar are more backstabby and may be sadistic cowards. So their need for self-preservation and most likely innate superiority complex will make them run around to find a way to make sure they stay alive, to probably escape and cause suffering another day.

    That will not happen. I will make sure of it, case in point that one kabalite warrior that has attempted to escape my drover morphs. A lightning bolt flew into his direct temporary flight path, he could not dodge and I watch with a slight bit of satisfaction as the dark eldar folded and continued his trajectory, landing in a crumpled heap smoke sizzling off his form.

    Meanwhile with the other drukhari, I had my children show little to no mercy. Why waste the time inflicting the pain and suffering on them as a form of irony when I can subject them to the cruelest irony that they absolutely deserve? Giving them an all expense paid trip to Slaanesh in the form of making them commit no-breathe would make me incredibly guilty had I done so to any other person. But they are dark eldar, so fuck'em.

    I did have some of the drukhari spared, mostly the ones who I saw were working on weapons, and the somewhat 'healthier' drukhari. Simply so I can try and pluck the equations for their weapons, mostly the dark lance waveform weapons, while the others were to be part of my siphon experiments.

    On a side note, all three resistance groups have taken it upon themselves to join in 'The Karmic Retribution', I was pleasantly surprised that a lot of the imperial civvies chose that name. Then again, the dark eldar have been doing so much fucked-up shit, I guess my assault coming in to slaughter them could be seen as 'Karma come late' as you will.

    Watching impassively, my children caught one or two escaping kabalite warriors. These children didn't morph into a shape and are still proteans, so the drukhari were struggling pointlessly as they were slowly consumed by the protean goo masses. That was unpleasantly pleasant, or is it pleasantly unpleastant?

    Anyway! Going back to the matter of dark lance weapons, these smaller blasters and blaster pistols are actually pissing me off quite a bit. I have so much processing power as the Consciousness behind the Yggdrasil Network, and yet I can't figure out how is it that these dark eldar are compressing the necessary components into pieces SMALL enough to be able to make a hand-held waveforce cannon! It's driving me nuts! My children have eaten several of them and the most I got from breaking them down is maybe creating a version of my waveforce cannon that is slightly more energy efficient as well as create a version small enough to actually put on a vehicle chassis.

    Here's the kicker though, as of the moment I can only choose one or the other. Not both. The energy efficient one is still the same size as my naval-gun sized waveforce cannons, but if my calculations are correct then the energy usage would be similar to the smaller waveforce cannon except its power isn't diminished.

    So yeah, I will be making sure I learn everything I can about the dark lance so I can perfect my waveforce weapons.

    Returning to Delta City, there isn't much to say about what is happening. Lightning and meteor pods strike down, grey goo comes out en-masse, drukhari are mostly slaughtered with no mercy, few drukhari captured for later ethically questionable actions, resistance forces fighting alongside my own although they were suffering more losses than myself, and most of all civilians rescued from the absolutely disgusting accommodations the drukhari called these 'Enjoyment Centers' if my broken drukhari tongue translated right.

    As soon as the civilians are clear from those buildings, I am having my children not only blast it into rubble, but I'm going to set fire to that rubble and throw drukhari bodies into said fire.

    I could clearly see the three resistance groups are also feeling something similar to my current emotions, the indignance, the rage, and the desire to make these dark eldar pay. Some of them actually cheered when one of the hecatoncheires dashed forwards to tear a hole through a kabalite warrior and see it slice him into giblets. I would say that the hatred for them might be quite great, but then again these xenos are dark eldar so... sucks to be them. The Drukhari I mean.

    There ARE some who are slowly beginning to escape, namely the dark eldar on their jet bikes and some raider and ravager skiffs that have been put into overdrive.

    The races of warhammer 40k always have to have some form of luck if they somehow survived this long. These escapists are slowly picking up speed to the point they can let their instincts take over in order to dodge the lightning heading their way.

    If that's how luck wants to play, fine. Cast your die dark eldar. From within the network I sent a command to the numerous Spike morphs in the sky, their weapons unfolding from hidden compartments.

    To be clear on what weapons they have, they have tempest grenade prongs nestled in, longbow repeaters, and a hyper focused lancer stellarator. Basically a regular plasma stellarator, but it has several focusing arrays added onto the barrel to increase its range. Not the most elegant of weapon designs, especially the power is diminished at greater distances, but the stellarator's ability to increase its power the longer it runs will offset it.

    With that said, looking through multiple optics I watch as numerous plasma charged nanite bombs, and lancer beams flew from the Spike morphs closest to the bottom of the clouds fire down at the escaping dark eldar.

    Roll your dodge die drukhari, let's see if your vaunted mobility will save you now.

    So far quite a few failed on their part, several tempest nanite bombs crashed into some skiffs blowing holes into them and sending them spiraling out of control. Some were detonated by lightning and a few had stellarator beams following their streaks.

    A particularly unlucky ravager skiff was the victim of a stellarator beam blasting in front of him, the skiff attempting to change its course couldn't in time and so the vehicle was sliced in half.

    I could not help but let out a half growl in my private domain, as despite the absolute bullet hell I threw at the escaping drukhari, I didn't manage to get all of them.

    Around ten skiffs and fifteen jetbikes, with enough drukhari to exceed the normal number of passengers these vehicles should support. Which makes it all the more whimsical that they managed to Neo their way through the rain of plasma and lightning while ALSO being able to navigate in a heavy rainstorm.

    Though they may have escaped Delta City, but my forces are attacking multiple dark eldar encampments within the region, whether from orbit via the Alphatron, or from the ground via my guerilla proxy the Mechamorph Knights that turned into an army instead of a guerilla force once the attack began

    So I split off whole packs of Hunter frames, flights of Harpy and Wyvern frames, and a veritable tide of the faster goo morphs to spread out from the areas they are attacking in order to search and destroy any drukhari outliers and escapists.

    Looking back in Delta City, I had some goblin and hobgoblin frames spread out into the buildings with fabricated cloths holding the insignia of the imperium. Simply so that any civilians they meet won't run away at first glance... at least I hope.

    Already I had found several civilian prisoners, they shied away at first screaming until some pointed out the numerous sigils depicting the Aquila of the Imperium adorning the cloth on my children's frames. Most were still fearful and in denial sadly, no doubt the damned dark eldar toyed with them not only physically but also emotionally. Although a few were absolutely desperate and threw themselves at their own cages begging my children to help them. It was a somber sight.

    When one of the goblins let out one of the 'calmer' civvies, it was like a dam burst and all of the civilians started screaming, it was going to be hell trying to stop them from going out of control. They were going nearly rabid with desperation at seeing an end to their suffering in sight. I cannot blame them, but I cannot let them risk each other like this, I can see some of them were hurting themselves on their cages and even each other.

    I... really can't blame them, who knows how long they have stayed under the spiked boot heel of the drukhari? How long they have suffered, and are probably still suffering as I remember the drukhari use a myriad of different neurotoxins, so who knows if they still have some active in their bodies. So I had to try and get them to forcefully calm themselves down, I can't use gas as that might react badly with any possible neurotoxin inside their bodies, it might even prove fatal considering their degraded physical and mental forms.

    So I ordered several hobgoblins to aim at a random spot at the ceiling and had them shoot loud blank shots. The noise from the crackling rifles quickly silenced the civilians, and from outside I saw the resistance groups and the drukhari that have managed to get themselves into a relatively unassailable position look around for whatever made those noises. Thankfully the civilians were now no longer throwing themselves at their cages, nor are they accidentally hurting each other anymore. Which is good, I then controlled a hobgoblin at each building and tell them to calm down and that they are safe, just don't rush out otherwise the dark eldar might take them again.

    It was kind of scummy to use the dark eldar as a threat, but that simple threat made the civvies calm down which is what I needed, and so my children began bringing them out while providing medical aid. Before anyone tried rushing out, I had the goblins keep them away from the door. It's good that I made it so that all my combat frames had vocal synthesizers, cause my children just told them to wait as the outside was still a warzone.

    A ping through the network alerted me however, and looking at who made it, I noticed it was one of the other search teams in a building and looked through their optics.

    Oh that's convenient, although he isn't looking too hot. Conn Miller, he is alive and his face is gaunt and his missing a leg. How I know he is still alive is because of his chest moving up and down, despite his disabled state he doesn't look like a drukhari prisoner. He is opening his eyes, the guy doesn't look too banged up.

    So I took control of the hobgoblin and spoke aloud. "Conn Miller. Are you alright?"

    Conn looked at my hobgoblin with a half-lidded gaze, breathing heavily as he sat up straighter. "N-not really. Had to chop off my leg to not starve, and hide from those accursed knife ears for a long time."

    "My forces are currently breaking the Drukhari's hold on Delta City and will be providing medical aid to the civilians and the resistance groups that assaulted the city with me. Do you wish to be given medical aid now or do you want to be brought to somewhere safer first?" I asked.

    "H-here is fine. Also... you got any food on you?" The man must be starving, so I took control of the puppeteer and had it flow out before I used the nanomachines' mini-fabricators to use the mass and fabricate something of a basic chicken and flash cooked it. Fabricating a plate with a fork and knife I gave it to him.

    "It's the most I could do on short notice."

    "Y-You just made it from a-air. I-it smells d-divine." It's just fried, it hasn't been salted or anything and yet the guy was crying as he tossed aside the utensils and just began eating it with his hands. It's moments like these and the civilians in those buildings that make me angry at the setting of 40k, the grimdarkness of the 'future' is too horrible to live in, especially on worlds that are far too close to hostile factions' areas of influence.

    The guy was just chowing down, and I split off a piece of the puppeteer from the hobgoblin and had it fall onto him, he didn't notice as the goo was now taking a look at his wounds, specifically where his leg used to be. I leave him to his devices and switched over to watch over the entirety of Delta City.

    There were a few pockets of Drukhari resistance here and there, I had stopped the meteor pod shower from targeting Delta City a while ago as there was no need for any more reinforcements with how much goo force is there already. The nimbus morphs stopped making it rain and now only the Spike and Stormcloud morphs were firing lightning and plasma at the drukhari forces left in the city.

    With but a simple command, my forces began assaulting these forces, some spare bastion morphs not protecting their smaller brethren were rolling menacingly towards the dark eldar, with some dweller morphs rolling behind them. That looks non-threatening from a distance, but as you see them quickly closing in on your position I do not doubt for a moment that they would be the most terrifying things to see on the battlefield... Actually, seeing the dweller roll around like a baneling, I wonder if I can launch the dweller out of a cannon as a form of 'explosive' ordnance, would be dangerous as a dweller has a powerful enough energy and nanite payload to cripple or even one-bang main battle tanks.

    It might be worth looking into some other time, when I am not currently assaulting dark eldar forces. Urgh, I just saw one of them actually stab their officer in the back and assume command, how the hell do they function and live for this long if they like to assassinate each other like this?

    A ping through the network alerted me, and seeing as the drukhari opposition is all but dealt with. Both surprising and not surprising considering what they can do, but now to see what the alerting ping is about.

    Looking through the optics of one of the hunter frames, I see... Huh, the dark eldar that escaped my rain of death with far too much luck on their side. I had forces shadowing them and, oh that is interesting they just disappeared a short distance right before they came to a mountain. This was most intriuging, I then gave the virtual equivalent of a headpat to the hunter and all my other children that shadowed the drukhari, chuckling privately as they sang at me through the network.

    After I crooned back at them, I took control of a nearby Spike morph and aimed the focused stellarator at the area where I saw the dark eldar escapists disappear to. The focused plasma beam cut through the air before it hit something that isn't there, a cloaking field mixed with a deflector shield? Most interesting, I then stopped the Spike's attack and manipulated the morph to replace the focused stellarator for a single waveforce cannon. Let's see them handle something similar to their darklance.

    After a short charge up, the cannon fired a massive wave-like ray of energy that not only impacted the 'air', but also 'cracked' it. Once the beam dissipated, the cracks began spreading like wildfire until a sound like shattering of glass followed by a deafening thunderclap resounded throughout the area. The invisible field fading away into shards revealing what I was not expecting, it wasn't a webway gate, it was a large archway that went down into the mountain.

    Do they think they can escape me by traversing the depths? Wait, no. That can't be if there was some kind of protective field covering it, no this pathway must be leading to a webway gate, after all there must be at least one webway gate on this planet being an old aeldari shipyard.

    From within Yggdrasil, I gave out another set of commands. This time to create a veritable flood of goo morphs supported by flying frames such as the harpy, hydra, and wyvern. The hunters, harpies and wyverns already in that area gave pursuit, hunters dashing ahead while cloaking themselves while the harpies and wyverns purposely lagged behind for more goo forces to catch up. The explosive crashes outside the entrance from multiple meteor pod landings showed that reinforcements will not be far behind.

    I will root out the drukhari from this planet, and if I manage to find a functioning and active webway gate underground, then all the better.

    With that done, I looked back through my other children within the Delta Region and spotted weakening resistance in major areas of combat within Delta City and some of the major drukhari outposts within the vicinity of said city. If that was all the dark eldar had to offer, I am slightly disappointed. But hey! I managed to save whatever few civilians were left and I no doubt bagged a lot of drukhari shinies with some drukhari prisoners to get knowledge and experiment on.

    That sounds kind of horrible at the end, but the drukhari absolutely deserve it. They are one of the few species that deserve all the suffering they get. Think of it as []:[Karmic Retribution]:[], as the imperials called it.

    Before I could think of anything else I felt another ping from the network, man I've been getting a lot of notification pings. Then again, my children wouldn't ping me normally unless they found something they think I would find important. So I decided to take a look, oh it was one of the radiants watching the long battle between the forces of Chaos and the Orks.

    At first I didn't spot anything different, the two factions were more or less in a stalemate and- oh wait hold on. That's a lot of fire in the far distance around one of the squiggosaurus rexes. Up until the thing got sliced in half by something, the fires lingering on the two halves burned a bright color as its creator stepped out from behind the smoke.

    That is a bloodthirster. That is a BIG bloodthirster. That is a BIG bloodthirster that sliced a squiggosaurus rex in half.

    Right, that is a lot of trouble. I should prepare a purger or maybe a giant combat frame with siphons on the sword to make a weapon that can match with the greater daemon of Khorne.

    Despite the whole Chaos is an instant destroy for me, I've always had a bit of a guilty pleasure for Khorne back when I was still living back in my world. Ah wait, no focus Eien. Inform the resistance groups to begin helping with the civilians, then we can start designing something to combat the titan sized greater daemon and kill it without the thing escaping.

    Oh this is really a lot of trouble.


    Rather short for a chapter, but my brain refuses to work so here you go. Sorry if its not up to par, I may need to take a while off to get me creative brain juices flowing and for me to maybe throttle my muse into giving me a plan on how to write the next chapter.
     
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    • Ein should look into the good old WMD game, Fission-Fusion weapons can give you a lot of bang for a very low tech buck in atmo. She could always spec into the more esotheric stuff like Vortex weapons or take inspiration from her memories, I am very fond of the F.L.E.I.J.A., nothing says GET OFF MY LAWN like a Giant Glowing Spehere of DOOM...or ask our resident Man of Iron, they had such fun toys, "Sun-Snuffers" now that has a nice ring to it.
     
    Amazing chapter as always but I do want to point out something I learned recently myself after watching a recent Food Theory episode on YT. You apparently should not give anything but the smallest amount of certain foods to a starving person due to something called "refeeding syndrome". Something about how a starving body can't digest normal food outside of fats and amino acids.

    Though no need to change anything here as you can always mention that the attending hobgoblin did something to handle that if you feel it needs mentioning.
     
    Last edited:
    TheLunchKing said:
    "N-not really. Had to chop off my leg to not starve, and hide from those accursed knife ears for a long time."
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    This sparked my brain synapses, an old memory of a debate between eating your leg or starving. The debate ended with eating your leg would harm you and shorten your life more than simply starving would. Though, I can't recall the specific citation for that.
     
    Ace98 said:
    This sparked my brain synapses, an old memory of a debate between eating your leg or starving. The debate ended with eating your leg would harm you and shorten your life more than simply starving would. Though, I can't recall the specific citation for that.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Yeah here's what's going to happen if you try to cut your leg off to eat it if your starving your gonna get halfway through the leg near the bone possibly if you have a high pain tolerance and then your going to pass out from shock and bleed out if you somehow miraculously get farther than that you'll still bleed out and die when you nick the femoral artery in your leg it will take about 5 seconds because you'll have lost most of your blood when you were cutting so the lesson in this is don't cut off your leg
     
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    Omake 14: Reasonable Desires
  • Sidestory
    • A thing in my head that hasn't left after I had created the Reasonable Marines omake. So here ya'll go.

    -=-=-=-=-=-
    Omake 14: Reasonable Desires
    -=-=-=-=-=-    ​

    "Hmm, I'm surprised you come to me for this kind of deal. Why don't you just talk to your nearest Forgeworld?" I ask as I mull over the idea of essentially becoming the Milites Rationis Chapter's arms dealer. Looking up I continue speaking. "Moreover, what exactly is in it for me and how do I know you won't use these weapons against me in the future?"

    Solidus locked his hands together and placed his elbows on the table, hands covering his mouth from my vision. "Understandable questions, one we will answer to the best of our abilities. First off on why we do not simply just go to a Forgeworld or any Techpriest. Several reasons, chief being that we prefer a somewhat uniform weapon quality, and that not all forgeworlds can provide gear we wish to requisition at times. Especially non-lethal weapons, as most tech-priests that we have approached with those modifications have simply turned us away stating that it is an affront to the machine-spirits."

    "Rather foolish of them in my opinion." I heard Liquidus grumble before a slight look from Solidus made the other marine shrug uncaringly. Then Solidus turned back to me to continue speaking.

    "Another being that we have... eyes everywhere so to say, we have been watching you and your children matriarch, forgive us for that."

    I wave them off nonchalantly. "It is fine sir Solidus, I understand perfectly. I know very well my presence and forces are cause for concern and you'd rather take caution on my movements. The imperium has done so, the eldar have done so, hell even the orks and tyranids have done so from recent engagements with them. So I don't condemn you for doing that."

    "Thank you lady Eien. Moving back to the topic, another reason being that you would most likely hold numerous lethal and non-lethal armaments, as well as specialized weapons and vehicles. If not, we could provide schematics and you would ensure the quality of gear would be pristine and up to standard." Flatterer, they know I can create far better and far safer weapons than what the voodoo tech-witch doctors are cooking up with their oil snorting.

    "That is true, I do have and can recreate your schematics with better safety measures and overall quality. But that still doesn't answer why should I do this in the first place, and what assurance do I have you will not simply renege on the deal once you have what you want?" I have to figure out if these guys are identical with the Reasonable Marines I know, or if this is simply a more 'realistic' reasonable marines analogue.

    "We honor the deals we make Lady Eien. We prefer to deal with our problems diplomatically, with violence being a last resort and even then we much prefer to subdue first than kill. You have proven time and time again that you are someone that can be reasoned with, and that there is no need for you to be our enemy." Solidus stated, and that is a point to them for being diplomatic, and considering earlier they could have gotten the drop on me but didn't it showed that they were serious.

    That or of course they were lying to try and make me let my guard down. But if that were the case, then they would have kept their weapons even after I made the promise to treat this as a diplomatic discussion.

    "As for why should you do this in the first place? Well... if you agree with this, I can get you in touch with our Chapter Master. He is the one that suggested this to rest of the Five. He said and I quote. 'The Matron of the Grey Goo would be a better ally than a constant enemy.' Our chapter master would rather the Milites Rationis Chapter be allied with you matriarch, and should you and yours need assistance, he would send either ourselves or our other brothers to aid you." Hmm, that is a really tempting offer. Space Marine assistance is good, I have temporary allied with a few chapters before, though that is rare but the times we did work together it always went swimmingly.

    But the thing is, do I want to? I mean having the Milites Rationis Chapter be an ally would be good, especially if they can provide assistance to the humans that decided to side with me. The Consonance as they like to call themselves in my name seldomly ask for my or my children's assistance, Sinatra is one of my children who works with the Consonance and is heralded as the First Princess much to my annoyance and to her confusion.

    Hmm, it might worth testing this idea. "I might accept this arrangement, but I need assurances."

    "Understandable, what would you wish for assurance?"

    "I will supply ONE company for now. However the Milites Rationis must not only ally with me, but also ally with the Consonance and help protect them. I may have forces watching them from afar, they wished for me to not coddle them and I respect that. I will defend them if things get too dicey, however they wish to stand on their own two feet with some seldom assistance from me. Several of my organic children are among them mingling with the civilians under my watchful eye."

    I can see they were listening carefully, so I continued. "If your chapter allies with them and promises to come to their aid like your chapter master say he wishes to do with me. Then I will extend my industrial facilities to the rest of your chapter. Weapons, gear, armor, vehicles, aircraft, and even starships should you wish to go that far."

    My offer made them look at each other before turning back to look at me. "It may not be what we initially wished for, it is an acceptable outcome. In return for you supplying one of the chapter's companies, we will engage in diplomatic relations with your Consonance and ally with them. With the promise that should we hold our end of the bargain you will supply the rest of the chapter?"

    Nodding my head, I affirmed what they said. "Yes. Do you think your Chapter Master would agree?" I was rewarded surprisingly with a nod of his head, Solidus seemed to agree on that front.

    "Yes, Chapter Master Shockwave would find your proposal reasonable and logical." You fucking wat? I blink slowly as I register the fact that name had rather disturbing implications and I can't help but think this was the beginning of a mistake.

    But if this Shockwave was really logical, then it might be a good idea to keep him where I can see him. So the alliance might be the best way to watch this chapter. Might as well get them to trust me better for now.

    "As a token of my goodwill before you return to wherever you came from and contact your chapter master. Allow me to give you three a few gifts, to give you an idea of what I can offer." My little bout of generosity surprised them and slightly concerned them from the looks of it. "What are your favored tactics and I will make you three your gifts in correspondence to them."

    Solidus, Liquidus, and Gasus looked at each other before they turned back to me. Silence reigned between the three of us before Gasus raised his hand, much to the surprise of his fellow astartes. "I... prefer sniping from afar and unseen, mostly with non-lethal means. However I still rounds that can kill if need be."

    Liquidus then followed suite. "Same, I prefer being camouflaged, mobile, and favor the use of silenced weapons." I could tell Solidus was weighing the idea of the gifts, and I can't help but slightly think they are being a little too trustful of me. But then again, throughout my multiple engagements with imperial elements, I have shown myself to be honorable but not to be trifled with.

    Oh Solidus is speaking. "I'm somewhat of an outlier. I favor stealth tactics as well, however I am more built for defending my brothers in the event a firefight breaks out. Shields, demolitions, and weapons that allow me to suppress enemy targets."

    Hmm interesting. Alright I got it. In front of the three reasonable marines' eyes, I placed my 'gooey' hand on top of the table and spread the nanomachine mass all over it all the while constructing weapons and a module that the three would enjoy.

    For Gasus, I went with a railgun-type sniper rifle with different types of rounds. Even with the inherent lethalness of a railgun, these rounds are special in which the velocity they travel will bleed off quickly before impacting their target's fleshy insides. This is the culmination of my research into the Dark Eldar's gravity plane tech, I have learned how to compress it into relatively small enough bullets, I say small it's a 50 caliber. Stun rounds, fast acting tranquilizer rounds, and standard slug and explosive rounds.

    For Liquidus, I chose to give him a high frequency combat knife, several heat throwing knives, a modular rifle that can fit in an astartes' hands, although it has a smaller caliber than standard bolters. It has a special silencer that does not just make the sound quieter, but it makes it nearly silenced.

    For Solidus, he is getting the bulkiest of gifts. A backpack with several 'limbs' that are attached to flexible shield panels that can interlock together, a shock maul, a large heavy machinegun, grenades, explosives, and a module he can use to generate a shield similar to the ones used by goomanity. All of them would be getting a stealth module that allows them to cloak and a little chip I decided to throw in just in case they want it.

    After I told them what these did, they were interested, though Solidus asked what the chip was. "The chip is an upgrade so to say. I think you would like it, you can have your tech marines look at it if you wish. But for now this is all I gift you with."

    The leader of their group Solidus held his hand out to me and I shook it with a small smile on my face, his was neutral but I can tell he was satisfied with our little negotiation and thankful that it didn't turn into a shootout. "Until we meet again Matriarch, hopefully as allies."

    "Likewise sir Solidus, give my regards to Shockwave." With a nod, the three took my gifts to them and left, wandering off into the desert.

    Hopefully these guys aren't lying, the chips I gave them has a little hop along to make sure I can spy on them just as they spied on me... After all, it's only logical to be cautious. Isn't it, Shockwave?
     
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    Empyreanic Studies (Bonus The Voice of the Old Ones)
  • Informational
    • Since my muse is not helping me recently for the next chapter. Have another informational, for those who are curious about the opposites of the Fundamentals, the Control Authority, and other related shenaniganry. Here is the opposite of Grimoire of a Cryptek, and with a bonus like that informational had.

    The things you will get a glimpse of would be the Domains, Dominus Valeryuel, Ego, Psignatures, a bit on how Refined Empyrea Souls or RES works in this fic. (Some words are not actual words and are made up) With the Bonus being The Voice of the Old Ones, aka Enuncia Lite.

    NOTE: As before with the Grimoire, these are my explanations and are local only to this fic. Just so you know. <:3


    Domains
    Unknown to most denizens of the materium and even the immaterium, the Domains are in many ways similar to their materium counterpart the Fundamentals, yet completely different. Domains are a combination of certain metaphysical Values, Attributes, and Thoghts that make up the ever shifting 'waves and currents' of the Sea of Souls.

    Just as Fundamentals are an absolutely vital constant to the Materium, the Domains are in return the constant fluctuating variable of the Empyrean. Without them, their respective planes will unravel and turn into nothing, similar to the X-Rea----[REDACTED] and all that exist in those planes will return to nothing.

    Within the Empyrean, one's Thoghts if sufficiently controlled can allow oneself to shape the empyrean around them, and give one power. However using one's Thoghts is incredibly difficult, Psykers are much more capable of using one's Thoghts, however this makes them incredibly tantalizing to the predatorial denizens of the immaterium. Emotions are a part of the Empyrean/Sea of Souls/Warp, and they belong to both the Values and Thoghts of a Domain. Certain emotions go into certain domains, there are countless numbers of possible Domain combinations and even two entities who have 'identical' Domains would have something that sets themselves apart from the other.

    An example would be Khorne, the Blood God. Whose Domain would be a combination of War, Hatred, Wrath, Rage, Murder, Blood, Strength, Courage, and Martial Honor.
    Meanwhile Khaine, the Bloody Handed. His Domain is a combination of War, Wrath, Destruction, Murder, and Fire.

    The two share some identical Values, Attributes, and Thoghts. However they have their differences, and while they both embody identical metaphysical forces. Even the difference of a single part of their Domain will make deciphering the two similar entities rather simple.

    Dominus Valeryuel
    Dominus Valeryuel (Loosely translates to Variable Ruler) is the power of an entity that has 'forged' their Domain, it is essentially the Entity's ability to gain power from its Domain, ability to use power from said Domain, and form the extensions of the Entity embodying the essence of their Domain.

    The Ruinous Powers all have their own Domains, and in turn they have their Dominus Valeryuel. It is what allows them to create their daemons, carve out their realms within the Warp, as well as corrupt, bless, curse, bestow, among other things. Daemons are a constant show of their power, and more or less they are but a drop in the ocean that is their patron god. They are connected, and through this connection they have a very, very, VERY limited form of Dominus Valeryuel called Dux Valeryuel (Loosely translates to Variable Extension), and it is through this limited form that daemons are capable of the things they do. Like a bloodletter's martial prowess being that of an expert despite it has just recently formed, a Slaaneshi daemon being one of the fastest despite its size indicating that it should not be so.

    Domains of the Empyrean and Fundamentals of the Materia are both attracted and repelled by each other, in which Dominus and Authority are capable of being used outside of their respective realms, however outside of their realms the two powers of Mind and Science would need appropriate vessels in order for the power to be able to be channeled outside of their respective planes in the first place.

    Like if warp based abilities were to break through into the materium, there would need to be some form of vessel that can hold the power for said warp based ability. They can be portals, cultists, daemonic hosts, daemons pulled into the materium and so on.

    Likewise, for system and object based powers were to be broken through and used in the immaterium, there would need to be a vessel that can channel said power on the other side. A good example for these vessels (being the only examples) would be things like Necron Dolmen Gates, Colossi, Fundamental Eyes, Cryptek Staves, among other things.

    Ego
    The Ego and Psignature are parts of a being, to those that have a soul, to those that are psykers, those that are pariahs, entities from the immaterium and to some extent even the daemons of the Ruinous Powers all have an Ego and a Psignature.

    Ego is a part of a being's Soul or RES. The Ego or AE is many things, it is that being's sense of self, their personality, their emotional drive, their inner goals, and all of that. One could forgive calling it a being's Thoght, it is similar but the Thoght is power of a mind made manifest, the power to use one's emotions and thoughts combined with the energy of the warp to affect the world around them.

    The Ego on the other hand, is more like a window, a road, it is something one can see and those well-versed in the powers of the warp are the only ones able to see it. Beings such as Navigators, Psykers, Astartes Librarians, Eldar, Daemons and other Warp Entities can get a glimpse of someone's soul by looking at their Ego. Even Daemons possess an Ego although the window into their being is most often redundant considering what they embody.

    The average citizen of the Imperium doesn't have the power of a psyker, as such their Ego isn't prominent and compared to others, it is akin to something like an unremarkable closed door. Barely noticeable, but if something notices it, that door won't be able to keep anyone out for very long. Where in contrast, a Psyker's Ego is far more prominent, unique, and very easily noticeable, not to mention un-awakened their Ego is like a door that is just slightly open letting anyone in easily if they aren't careful. Warp Predators and Daemons find the Psyker's Ego extremely tantalizing and untrained Psykers will find themselves repeatedly dogged at by Daemonic Forces or Warp Predators within their mind waiting for them to slip up.

    On the other hand, trained Psykers can control their leaking Ego and 'close the door' reinforcing it as they do so. Learning this, trained Psykers pose a much larger threat to creatures of the empyrean, however their abilities also make them very tantalizing targets, even more so than untrained Psykers. Whereas the untrained psykers smell to the predators and daemons like someone is just beginning to cook something delicious, a trained psyker is already 'fully cooked' and is considered the main course, their psykic powers are fully developed and their soul will be all the more delicious for it.

    Comparing to Pariahs, Navigators, and Beings like the three Eldar, they are different. Due to the Asuryani Eldar's innate psykic biology and their honed abilities, their Ego is easily closed and protected with a Spirit Stone/Heartstone, and they are masters of leaving themselves unseen against the predators of the warp and the forces of the Great Enemy. Drukhari Eldar no longer have their innate psykic power active and their Ego is blocked off from view using the suffering Ego of others. Essentially their whole modus operandi is to use the Ego of others to protect their own Ego, as a sort of double layered Ego. The Exodite Eldar are different, they too have their innate psykic biology and the ability to use the power of the Warp, however their Ego isn't protected by a Spirit Stone or by the extracted Ego of other beings, instead the Exodite's Ego is protected through the power of their planet's World Shrines, World Spirit protecting the Ego of the Exodites ensuring their souls are protected.

    Pariahs and Navigators are for lack of a better term a "Subspecies" of the Psyker Gene. With the simpler of the two, Pariahs are all "Psykers" in the technical sense, but not all Psykers are Pariahs. The Pariah gene is something that is grown in tandem with the Psyker gene, it cannot exist without the other. The Psyker gene would open the Ego into a field, while the Pariah gene generates a certain psignature of a certain wavelength, one could think of the Pariah's Ego being a door, but the Pariah gene makes it so that it is like being in a ship with the door open to the vacuum of space. It is theorized that the Pariah gene was inserted into the human species by the Necrons, and an even more morbid theory is that the psykic interaction of a Pariah drains the Warp energy around them and SENDS it into the Deep Dark (Deep Warp) although that theory has not been confirmed.

    The Navigators are loosely connected to the Psyker gene simply because their Warp Eye is classified as a Psykic ability, the Navigator gene does not behave like a Psyker gene in which the body grows the psyker neural structure where the power of the warp is channeled through, instead the Navigator gene grows a single powerful organ directly connected with nerves to the brain and is the only place where the power of the warp is channeled through. Without a psyker neural structure to bleed off the power of the warp, the energies through using the Warp Eye will instead travel through the body in an attempt to bleed off, this gives a rather large chance of the navigator gaining mutations.

    Psignatures
    A Psignature is unique in which only those who have psykic abilities have a Psignature, with some notable exceptions. Being the Pariah and any regular human that has decided to perform rituals (normally cultists). Daemons also have a Psignature but it is a drop in the ocean compared to their patron god's Psignature. Aside from the Daemons, all Psignatures are unique, and if one puts two psykers of equal power next to each other while looking at their psignature, it would show rather telling features such as color, intensity, size among other things. Some Psignatures carry small attributes and the emotions of their soul.

    Navigators despite having Psykic abilities do not generate a Psignature, and the Pariah generates a wildly different Psignature that interacts with the Ego field their inherent Psyker abilities generate, creating the Pariah effect.

    Among the daemons, their Psignatures are mostly identical, the only changes the daemons can go through is the change of intensity and size. The daemons of the ruinous powers are capable of upgrading themselves through the action of eating souls, killing, gaining favors from their god, and even subsuming other daemons until they evolve into their next stage. In which case the psignature would strengthen and also evolve with the daemon. Psignatures like the Ego can only be seen by those with Psykic abilities.

    Refined Empyrean Souls
    Refined Empyrean Souls are the Souls of most of the living beings within the materium, with notable exceptions. Those being the C'tan, Megarachnids, and possibly numerous other xenos and eldritch abominations hanging around within the Halo Zone, somewhere amongs the Halo and Ghoul Stars.

    The souls of living beings within the materium is made up of the warpstuff that is constantly present within the Empyrean, however comparing the soul to the wyld warpstuff within the immaterium is like comparing a refined metal compared to the ore it came from. The soul is essentially refined warpstuff, and the energy within the immaterium is wyld, untamed, and ever shifting.

    A RES is a coalesced form of warp energy, initially going through a process unknown to the vast majority of sentient beings, not even the 'Gods & Goddesses' of Life can lay claim to understanding the process, and the Old Ones themselves had inklings and theories but no concrete evidence as to how it is done. More or less, the energy is formed together into an orderly form before it is then 'born' into the materium.

    BONUS
    The Voice of the Old Ones
    The Voice or the Thuum is the Old Ones attempt at creating a simpler Enuncia, as the Voice of Creation was far too powerful for them to use without destroying themselves. In an attempt to make a milder but no less potent Language of Power, the Old Ones created the Thuum. While not as effective as Enuncia with it using more Domain than Fundamental, the Thuum is still a powerful language, words of power that combined with their vast psykic abilities and their arcane study of Astrologia made them powerful forces to be reckoned with. The C'tan while powerful themselves were more or less evenly matched by the Old Ones' might.

    The Thuum was used for many things by the Old Ones, for destruction, for creation, even for simple discussions although that last part was only done when the two discussers were far away from others. The Voice was used to create the Aethyr Gods, the pantheon of the Aeldari, with the Voice being more Domain than Fundamental it was far easier to be used within the Immaterium and it was also used to craft the basis for the Webway which was completed with their psykic engineering. The Voice despite being weaker than Enuncia by a large margin, it was still a powerful language that could change the world around the speaker.

    Sadly only the Old Ones held the secrets of the language and while the Aethyr Gods have heard and seen it in action, they did not understand what their Words of Power meant. Meaning that The Voice of the Old Ones is most likely dead unless someone finds a way to recreate them.
     
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  • Informational
    • Speaking about reasonable marines, apparently there is a marine chapter with an unknown founding called "Raptors" who are basically the canon version of them.
     
    Chapter 34: Plant the Seed
  • Threadmarks
    • -=-=-=-=-=-
    Chapter 34: Plant the Seed
    -=-=-=-=-=-    ​

    While my children are hunting down the rest of the Dark Eldar and I set aside a part of my focus to prepare for the inevitable confrontation with the Forces of Chaos. I am now also focusing on making good on my promise with El'dathar and have been at work with testing on how to 'catch' souls somehow with my siphons.

    But so far, my experiments with my siphons have yielded about similar-ish results. The four dark eldar in my previous possession are reduced to two, the sybarite and one of the kabalite warriors died. One via siphon so they are true ended, while the other was not caught by the siphon holding its body but the surrounding siphons just caught it and fed it to the mass storage. One would think that I should feel worse for doing stuff like this, and you'd be right normally, but these are Dark Eldar, these guys deserve every shit that comes at them.

    I've gotten somewhat promising results however with the both of them, these results can confirm that siphon arrays ARE capable of pulling and manipulating a soul on the lowest setting. Basically the siphon array can rip out a soul and keep it suspended as long as it is active.

    However due to its current configuration, it can only unravel and convert the soul into mass, which is not what I am trying to do unless I literally want to start devouring souls en-masse. But so far I am on the right track, the siphon arrays can pull souls out of their bodies, however that is where I am stuck at.

    I learned about how to interact with the empyrean souls with my siphon arrays, if I can improve upon the siphon and give it even finer control, then maybe I will be able to succeed in using them to bring the souls into the Yggdrasil Network. I have a theory that empyrea souls are not compatible with the Yggdrasil Network, but that is kind of warped-ish, because if that were the case then I would not be able to keep the amalgamate safe from Slaanesh's grasp, nor would I have been able to keep the dark eldar in my captivity from the whore grubby fingers.

    Then again, the amalgamate is still a 'physical' entity simply made from the collective souls and energy of the 6,666,666 aeldari. It is also within the Blackstone Fortress, an empyrea shielded vessel that gives the middle-finger to anything and everything that tries to use psyker abilities to enter or exit the ship. I haven't exactly tested if my presence is enough to protect that many aeldari, but then again I have constantly generated more and more Soul Stars and kept them safe within the network.

    Comparing the number of the amalgamated aeldari to the number of mature Soul Stars I have, it isn't exactly a contest considering I have so many mature stars, the number difference only grows if I take the immature Soul Stars into number.

    Now it could be something to do with their innate psyker abilities, however that could not be the case as well. Because Sinatra is a Soul Star with psychic power, granted she is the only one in the Yggdrasil Network however that just means that psyker souls are also compatible with the network. So the only problems that could be preventing me from grabbing an unbound soul is how to bloody grab it without it fucking off into the siphon or disappear into the warp in the first place. It's like I need some other form of interface or adapt...or, wait a minute. That might just work actually, it sounds stupid, inefficient and inelegant as hell but it MIGHT just work.

    Returning quickly to the drawing board I retreat into the Yggdrasil Network and enter my private domain, this is important and I am also rather curious if this is going to work the way I hope it does.

    Because so far, every single 'outsider' I brought into the Network was brought in through interfacing with their physical form. Organics with their biological components, and mechanical soulless automatons and beings such as Ronus and the Necrons with their mechanical equivalents. Not a single one of them have been transferred or connected wirelessly, they always had a way to connect their bodies to the Network.

    Which is why the first thing I tested was replicating the phenomena with the warlock girl, to some various results. At first I tried going all the way with the siphon wrapped around the first drukhari, his soul was ripped out and I could feel the mass count within the network trickle upwards. But the thing is, that was the CLOSEST thing to a success I had compared to the experiment with the sybarite.

    You see, when the siphon pulled out and took in the soul, I saw it enter the Network for a brief moment before it was shredded and converted into mass for Yggdrasil to absorb into its mass storage. On the other hand, the sybarite was only pulled out and simply 'kept at arms length' if you will, I had the siphon switch settings to its lowest while pulling the soul and the result was... interesting to say the least.

    The siphon array with its combination of energo-xtractor fangs, graviton lassos, and metaphysamorph heart are incredibly difficult to modify, these are the pieces Pathfinder Eien reverse-engineered from studying Silent One physiology.

    Now the thing is here, even past Pathfinder Eien had a horrible time trying to understand the Silent Ones 'technology' if you could even call that biological mess technology in the first place. These three pieces are what past Eien basically jury-rigged up to form the Siphon array, the one we know as the energy eating mass converting unit the array is attached to.

    They are pretty much inferior copies of their original counterparts, calling them bootleg versions would hurt my feelings but it isn't exactly wrong. The parts of the siphon array are an attempt to recreate the omnivorous capabilities of the Silent Ones, which past Eien definitely succeeded to a certain extent.

    Past Eien's creations were simple to comprehend, the Energo-xtractor Fang to rip out energy and unravel it, the Graviton Lassos to create a pull that when worked together with the energo-xtractor fangs would basically attract energy and gather it while unraveling and shredding it, and the metaphysamorph heart to convert the energy into mass. Ironically the heart was the easiest thing to recreate as goomanity had transmuon engines, with the lassos being the next easiest due to goomanity's anti-gravity technology.

    The Energo-xtractor Fangs were the hardest thing for Pathfinder Eien to create, as these pieces were intended, if I interpret the memories correctly, to be what gave the Pathfinders the 'bite' to deal with the Silent Ones. The Silent Ones were basically beings of energy, and the fangs within the Siphon's array are meant to literally rip apart the Silent Ones in combat.

    Kind of scary when you think about it, past me decided to make something that feels like using a blender on an organic being, turning them into slush. Same concept here, only with the added procedure of turning that spaghetti of energy into mass.

    Anyway I am getting off topic here, while the pieces are incredibly difficult to modify, and I had no time right now to focus on continuing research on these avenues. I CAN however jury rig some kind of solution, for you see I just remembered about the one thing that might be useful here.

    The nerve cords, specifically the biological nerve cords I crafted and subsequently made part of Sinatra's physiology. These things are what connect her to the Yggdrasil Network and they had several biological components inside them that help protect the nerve cords from external damage. However that is not the function I am searching for, I am more focused on the connection between it and the Network.

    My idea as of now is to try and maybe get the siphon array and the nerve cord to work together to catch the soul and bring it into Yggdrasil, that is the goal here after all.

    I don't need to make something beautiful and working right away, I just need to test it and see if this will actually work, no matter how strange the application of the technology might be. Besides, it's not like I have a shortage of drukhari I can test on, I did capture quite a few number of them when Skyfall hit. They want to cause suffering, so their own suffering will be what is used to save others, as ironically fucked up as it is.

    Anyway, the idea is simple in theory and possibly execution. The idea is to connect a nerve cord to a siphon or place a nerve cord within the siphon array. In theory when the soul is pulled out, then the nerve cord should catch the soul and send it into the Yggdrasil Network. Now I have no idea if this is actually feasible but that is why we have tests and experiments, so for now I will make a variant to the siphon unit and a modification of the siphon array then I can test it on the last two drukhari underneath Castle Krakengar.

    For the unit, it is slightly complicated because if I am getting this right most empyrea made souls have a predisposition to the biological and organic. I don't know about any machines having souls, well aside from myself and my children but our souls are very different. But the siphon will need to interface with the organic nerve cord instead of the mechanical one.

    Thankfully, the pathfinder morphs are comprised of mostly nanomachines with some exceptions having constructed machines, even then the machines would be seamlessly interfaced with the nanomachines that made up the body carrying them. Creating the organic nerve cord and interfacing it with the siphon was just simple matter of slapping it on there and letting the pathfinder nanobots do the rest.

    On the other hand, the siphon array, the machine that is the unit's namesake was a bit simpler to deal with. Removing the metaphysamorph heart and putting the nerve cord in the center of the array where the heart used to be. Weaving the nerve cord's bio-circuitry into the array's machinery, I took a look at the result and slightly cringed.

    It wasn't pretty, but I really hope that it gets the job done. After all, I just need to test it, if the results are promising then finally I will be able to make considerable headway in helping El'dathar in saving his people.

    Taking those designs, I leave my private domain and exit the Yggdrasil Network, taking residence in my Eien body I left underneath Castle Krakengar to watch over and help with the experiments when needed.

    Now, let us see if this works. The two drukhari captives left were brought before me, the various scanners and sensors watching over them followed. Mentally calling forth the two siphons that snuffed out the two other drukhari, I idly took control and reshaped them.

    One being the siphon with the nerve cord attached to it, while the other had the nerve cord embedded into its siphon array. The first one looked like a siohon with an undulating tentacle attached to the back of its 'head?' while the other one looked as if it had a long 'tongue', I am feeling slightly uncomfortable the longer I look at it but it is only temporary.

    After all I just need to test it. With that said and done, I ordered my two siphons to begin the experiment, the two drukhari were laid in the pods I made just for them and the siphons wrapped themselves around the puppeted dark eldar.

    I watch closely as the two siphons activated their arrays, looking through the multiple scanners and sensors I watched as the drukhari convulsed and a transparent colored version of themselves were pulled from their bodies. Now, the first time I tested the siphon on the drukhari, their soul was ripped out by the fangs, pulled by the lassos, unraveled and shredded by the fangs and then absorbed and converted by the heart.

    With the sybarite, his soul was pulled out by the fangs but it was kept in place by the lassos and the fangs running on low, not enough to unravel and shred, but still powerful enough to stretch and contort the targeted soul.

    Now in here, the goal is to see if the nerve cords can 'catch' the soul before the energo-xtractor fangs do their thing and annihilate the refined warpstuff from existence.

    Carefully, I watch intently as the two siphons began their processes. The kabalite with the siphon that had the nerve cord attached to it simply did the same thing as the previous two siphon tests, the soul was schlurped and turned into mass.

    The siphon with the modified array on the other hand, showed some promise with its, rather interesting results. The soul was ripped out, but as the energy was being sucked in and pulled by the lassos into the fangs. I saw a rather interesting interaction, the nerve cords' ends were drifting across the soul and I could see that snippets of the energy was being barely pulled by it.

    THAT showed a lot of promise, it meant that the nerve cords are going to be a key component in the safe extraction and 'upload' into the Yggdrasil Network. Headway has been made, but now I have to ask myself the question of.

    How in the flying fuck do I do this?

    The Energo-xtractor Fangs, Graviton Lassos, and Metaphysamorph Hearts are some of the most complex pieces of technology in existence, and past me made the bloody things from Silent One studies. Even reading the files on some of these, with the help of past Eien memories no less, was incredibly difficult. Granted, I could read it and I could understand what past Eien wrote, however if anyone else tried to read it they would have judged the one who made it as insane.

    Even theoretical physicists or hell even metaphysicists would have a painfully hard time understanding it. You'd have to learn about the Silent Ones, their X-Psi Code which is not related to psychics but more so the theory of them originating from Ecosystem X-Psi. Understanding the Entropic Law in a far more intimate manner than I would have liked in the first place.

    There are many things that people will have to learn about first before even trying to make sense of these ramblings, one has to fight the Silent Ones and attempt to, urgh I just shuddered, 'understand' them as much as they can. After all, 'How can we defeat our enemy, if we do not know our enemy?'.

    But of course that only applies to foes you stand a chance against, past Eien at her best could only slow the Silent Ones' advance to a slow crawl and I/she was still losing.

    I don't know if I will have the time to further my understanding of the Entropic Law, so I have to try and make something that can draw in and 'upload' refined empyrea souls into the Yggdrasil Network. This also has the added problem of, what exactly will happen should a soul of the Empyrean be deposited into the network? Will it simply just sit there doing fuck all? Will it convert into a Soul Star with an underlying current of psychic energy within it?

    Going back to what happened to the soul, well the nerve cords did apparently 'try' to pull the soul into it, but the soul was still pulled by the lassos and unraveled by the fangs. Only this time the shreds went out and were absorbed by the other siphons.

    The nerve cords are the key to manipulating the empyrean souls, if I can find a legitimate way to have them... hang on, I just got an idea. The nerve cords were very weak, but that just meant that if I do this right... then I have a manipulator that had a gentle and fine touch. Ok wait no, focus Eien, there are many things you have to take into account for this.

    Alright, let's go to Delta City's region and gather up the drukhari prisoners I got. In the Yggdrasil Network, the Soul Stars form above the Yggdrasil tree proper, then they get nestled into it's branches as their codes mature before they gently leave it.

    Now, what if I try to make a physical version within the material realm? Something like the trees in the Avatar movie, the ones where the Na'vi can connect their hair with. Except of course, the tree will be grown AROUND the target and while in it's cradle the nerve cords and modified siphons can be used to extract and upload the empyrean souls.

    The tree won't be made of bark and wood, it is going to be a mixture of mechanical technology, and organic biotechnology. The tree will essentially be an amplifier for the nerve cords or simply be the nerve cords on all of the roids.

    If I can find a way to make this possible, then that means the safety of the aeldari is one step closer to reality. I COULD tell El'dathar about this, but I don't want to give him false hope. He is already beating himself up for not being able to do anything while his people's eternal lives are on the line, I don't need him trying to volunteer himself in a fit of fanatical desperation to try and save his people.

    After tasking my children underneath to clear out the bodies, I gave another task for the ones in Delta region. Specifically the ones guarding the Drukhari, their task is to bind them with puppeteers and to transport them to an abandoned cave before saturating the place with siphons and guards while keeping it out of sight.

    Returning to the Yggdrasil Network, I began to create a design for a goo morph and looked through old memories to see if there is anything that could help. Aside from other rather dangerous goo morphs and technologies I didn't think goomanity could have created without being just a little bit insane, there was nothing else I could use in assisting me in this endeavor.

    However, while it would have been appreciated, it was fine. The nerve cords were designed by myself, I had the best knowledge on how it works and all that jazz. I still shudder though when I came across an unsettling memory of a species using Yuri-style Grinders, from said memories I remember that I took GREAT satisfaction in rooting out and purging that civilization.

    This is going to be really tricky to perform, even if the nerve cords are capable of transferring souls in that way, there is still the fact that I am trying to transfer a being of energy instead of a biological entity. Even if said being of energy used to be flesh and blood, the distinction is very important.

    So I have to figure out a way to make it compatible enough with screwing over all of the amalgamated aeldari. The idea I have with the tree MIGHT work but I will still have to conduct some tests, now the tests with the Drukhari souls are good, I would have a much easier time if I could get something like the amalgamate. A being of solidified energy, granted I am NOT going to use the amalgamate in my tests.

    However, there are quite a few beings to the west. But I don't want to touch them, doing shit like that might open up the Yggdrasil Network and give the ruinous four attack vectors I'd rather they not have.

    Maybe a chaos marine would do the trick, if I can find a repentant marine, and find way to purify them of chaos. But that isn't a thing I can really do, I will have to discuss with El'dathar on the possibility on beginning tests with the amalgamate and the reasoning for such.

    Little did I know, I would have slapped myself for not going to El'dathar sooner with my grievances.

    -=-=-=-=-=- Line Break -=-=-=-=-=-​

    "Oh is that all?" I stare at El'dathar with a neutral gaze externally but apparently I didn't hide it enough as he felt me questioning him.

    I watch the Knight of Vaul clap his hands together and nod with a thoughtful look on his face. "I can see you are curious about my nonchalance here. While I am adverse to you testing on... the amalgamate, I have some knowledge on Familia Craftsmanship."

    Ok this sounds rather interesting, I saw with my vision the two necrons were shamelessly listening in on our conversation. "Familia Craftsmanship? What exactly is that if you do not mind me asking?"

    "If it can help you save my people I will explain it as best as I can, I am no Familia Ancho Cryst but I know of some of their ways. Familia Craftsmanship is the practice of creating familias and improving them using the Sea of Souls, these beings are constructs made of solidified energy that at first are harmless and they have no form of sentience. Familias can evolve for lack of a better term, the more power you put into them and the more you interact with them. Whether it be through simple day to day interactions, or fighting together in the field of battle." Huh, psyker race has psychic familiars, go figure.

    I press my hands together and point with both of my fingers in his direction, my Eien form's face morphing into one of scientific curiosity. "Fascinating, so as they evolve do they achieve sentience or do they simply stay as mindless constructs?"

    El'dathar looked side to side with a pensive look and a wave of his hand. "It is... slightly complicated, not all familias are the same and they all don't grow the same. It is usually depending on their creator, however the familia can gain sentience, the necrons have run into a few of them. They can range from something the size of an average aeldari to something the size of a star sailer, ah that is a void ship of ours." That is really big.

    "I've heard about them, Overlord Kaz'mephtahl's dynasty came to blows with a massive psychic powered creature that took on his fleet and had been pushed back." Oh hey Aizaun, ah El'dathar despite his emotionless face, he was radiating a smug sort of energy.

    "That would have been Meahnkii's familia, a Familia Ancho Cryst. Her first familia, the 'Celestial Leviathan' she calls him is one of her greatest creations and is most certainly sentient. Another thing is that familias can either be tied to their creator's soul, their lifeforce, or tied to the Sea of Souls. That last choice makes them a permanent existence, where even if their creator falls then they will still continue to exist whether in the materia realm or the empyrean. In fact, I would not be surprised if that familia is still around." That is really interesting, man the aeldari lost a lot of their knowledge during their slow descent into their fall. Like come on, making familiars? Then again I think the Exodites are the ones that might have some snippet of that knowledge considering the whole world spirit and dinosaurs they rear.

    Watching the aeldari then turn his head to me, his eyes shone a little and I think he is feeling like he can now do something to help save his people. He placed a hand on his chest. "I know how to craft familias, they are beings of solidified psychic energy, if you need creatures like them then I would be more than willing to help."

    That's great and all, but still... the Aeldari did this practice during the War in Heaven, when the empyrean wasn't as chaotically batshit as it is today. Then again, if he does it inside the blackstone fortress then I think any familiars he makes would not be corrupt.

    Blinking a few times, I look at the knight of Vaul with a cautious look on my face. "I will have to prepare safety measures and we would have to perform any tests within this void vessel. I do not wish to know what will happen should you craft a familia outside of the fortress, the psychic energy within this talisman is purified, the one outside is not."

    As El'dathar nodded, and Aizaun began to mentally speak with Anckm'rab about the results of our meeting, I took a look at the prototype design of the goo morph that SHOULD in theory extract the ball of refined warpstuff that is a soul safely into the Yggdrasil Network.

    I have no idea if this will work but I really hope that this is a step in the right direction. I kind of don't want to disappoint El'dathar, he looked determined to help and I'd rather he not be the one to accidentally destroy his people.

    It would break the guy.
     
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