An Archmagos, and a few trusted colleagues, have a warp accident leaping them back to Cyberpunk 2076.
Cyberpriest 2076 (40k Cyberpunk crossover.)
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Prologue; A little accident.
Kadaeux
Delta Imperator
- Location
- Vortice between realities
Prologue;
A little accident.
The Forge was quieter than it had been for centuries as Rholl Illandict examined the forge, claiming his place as an archmagos of the Mechanicus, he had claimed this forge for himself from its deceased predecessor. Servitors moved into the chambers and began hauling out detritus marked by his dendrites as he examined the chaff from the gold. There were any number of factorums, including an augmetics lab, a munitions lab and an exotic technologies lab, these three were the ones clustered closest together and so Rholl felt little need to move the focus of his own works out of those labs. The clickering of his walking platform against the deck. A flock of servo-skulls searched through the debris and alighted on a colossal and complex piece of machinery.
Thirty metres high, it looked at first glance to be a highly complicated part of a teleportarium. A burst of binaric sent the flock into the eaves as Rholl strode up to it and studied it, his augmetics clicking as they focussed and studied it. A quick touch and... life filled the machine. "Praise the Omnissiah. I wonder what it..."
"Magos... is that supposed to..." His Skitarius Marshal said looking at it.
How could he admit to his Marshall that he wasn't sure. He'd just inherited the lab, and there wasn't exactly a doctrina wafer with the instructions. In any case, before he could answer, it activated, and went very very wrong.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The explosion rocked the meat plant and Brick wondered when his ass and head had swapped places. Half the boys he'd been drinking with a moment ago go, the other half were flying like he was, when the smoke settled and he could decide which way gravity decided was up he turned and found half of the meat packing plant they were using for a hideout simply gone. And in its place something else had co-joined with the building. A mix of archaic styles and something else. But cleaved into his hideout as if it had just swapped places.
A stink of ozone filled the air and he reached for his pistol as several of the others got up. Communiques flicked between them as they tried to figure out what happened, finally one of the new boys, his neural split not even a month old, braved up and went for the doorway. The door didn't shift, and nothing the new boy could do would establish a connection with its net.
When the door opened however. A chromed up woman stepped from within. A blast of noise from her caused his vision to go wonky and he shook his head before turning back to her. "Hey you. What the hell happened?"
She cocked her head as if she didn't understand and yammered at him in a tongue that sounded like English, Latin and some other languages tried to mutually molest one another. It was then that a pair of actual flying skulls zipped from the hatchway and took up station near her. She babbled again and waited.
"Look lady. I don't know what you're saying." He snarled, and she rolled a hand towards him. A skull on a tether rose behind her shoulder and pinpointed him with a sliver of light.
....
These savages were augmented. Yet did not know the holy tongue of the Omnissiah. Or even the tongue of loyal Imperial Citizens. That was not a good sign. The Magos was struggling within the labs to figure out what the hell had just happened, and the intruder protocols had fired when the younger one near her had tried to gain entry to the hatch. And so, without the direction of the Magos she had to make a judgement call on what the hell to do about this. She checked her weapons uplink to the arc pistol she preferred over the radium serpenta. The battery crackled with full charge and she took it up in hand.
The... what were they? Combat servitors? That might explain a lot. The leader seemed to be speaking again and his own weapon was aimed at her now. A binaric blurt reinforced with a databurst from her control stave sent out her orders to those few that had made the translation across to wherever here was. She was dismayed that only three databursts returned to her.
Rho-.50, Mu-223 and Sigma-777. Three princeps of her crack units, the .50s were the Magos' crack Ranger unit, the .223s were Sicarian Infiltrators, and the 'Sevens' were Sterylizors. To have only the princeps from each was a blow. And put them in a vulnerable position, she ignored the feedback from servitors and servo-skulls, the only gunskulls present were the two she had ordered out with her.
+++Translation Routines working.+++ Well if that wasn't a comfort... she paused as she read the annotated noospheric tag. The transmission had been sent from Rholl. +++Temporal/Dimensional Translocation.+++
She waited as the servitors became increasingly agitated, the one closest to her was about to pull the trigger when her mind was flooded with the corrected linguistic database.
Omnissiah save me. This language was so regressive she might as well have been reading a childrens book for its simplicity.
"I am Marshal Triana Omnis." She said in their primitive tongue.
...
The woman spoke words he actually understood. "Who the fuck are you, and how did you get here?" Her words had come out almost mechanically, and he was certain he heard movement in the building. There was a blurt of noise once more that made his visuals flicker before she turned to the boy closest to her. Her brow furrowed.
"I am Skitarius Marshal Triana Omnis, servant of Archmagos Rholl Illandict of Stygies VIII. I do not know how we came to be here. I would suggest your servitor lower his weapon." She said and Brick watched as her left hand, a long hand with razor claws began to crackle with energy. "And identify yourself in turn."
Brick laughed richly as he rose to his full height when something moved in the rafters above and he looked up to see it there. It hunched in the rafters above and, through he'd never seen its make, he recognised a flamethrower when he saw one. He stopped laughing and began to search through the chamber even more closely and saw at least another red-robed concealed in cover, a long rifle in his arms.
She spoke again and Bricks attention returned to her. "I am not famed for my patience."
"I'm Brick, leader of the Maelstrom you see about you."
...
The Maelstrom. That was bad, if they had been relocated to a region of space populated by Huron Blackhearts corsairs and their cultists. With a single binaric trigger she gave the order. The order was rescinded almost instantly by the Archmagos as he began to emerge from the Forge and the Maelstromers turned to face the new arrival. He stood almost twice as high as Triana did and his back writhed with his mechadendrites, the Omnissian axe in his hands crackled with power.
His gaze passed over their opponents and settled on Brick. "You lead these creatures?" The Archmagos' voice rang with an unnatural perfection as he rose to his full, intimidating height. The one called Brick was focussed on the servo-arm, she checked herself and saw that the Archmagos had socketed the Eradication Ray in place.
"I do." Brick said, his confidence wavering.
...
Who the fuck were these people. They were borged up more than he and his boys were. He wasn't sure they weren't full borg. And this massive monster that had arrived looked at him like he was some kind of insect. The weapon attacked on the massive harness on his right flank snapped up and into position to face the young Maelstromer that had been acting so twitchy, the cheap hundred cred pistol in his hand didn't even get a chance to fire as a pallid cyan light burst out in a stream of fire. The newbie simply ceased to exist and so did a cone behind him.
Brick hurtled himself back over a clutch of crates as he sought cover when he heard another blurt of cybernetic noise and suddenly the woman exploded into life hurtling her way across the room. When he rose to fire at her he found her own pistol aimed at him and a lightning bolt ripped out and Brick saw no more.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pain. Brick had never been a fan of pain. And he was pretty sure he was dead, so why was he experiencing pain? That'd be a real bitch. Died and feeling just pain, surely death wouldn't be so cruel. His implants reported a violation. A painful and extensive violation, and it took Brick only a moment to reactivate his optical implants. The more of his implants came on line, the sicker he felt. He was stretched over a rack and wires were forced into his ports.
The location looked unfamiliar and all he could see was a wan light and smell a thick cloying incense. +Interesting. Very interesting. Primitive data structures. Imperfect bioneural integration.+ The words were coming across his call network. And his eyes flickered as he received the communique.
He realised that it was being translated from a binary language of some unfamiliar kind. Almost like his hardware lacked a module to include other linguistic context. He feigned a lack of understanding before chuckle resounded in the air and he frowned.
+You are connected to my own synaptic networks and I am forcing a translation routine to operate in your architecture. I don't wish to communicate as slowly as your more basic linguistic routines would allow for.+
"What the fuck do you want with me?" Brick roared with his actual voice. Certain that the stranger could hear.
+Use your inside voice. Your meat words are too slow and you lack the proper augmetics for binaric speech.+ The voice chided. +As for what I want, I want to know and understand the world I have arrived in. A spatial-temporal accident has displaced me here. And it seems that I've been returned to a time some thirty eight thousand years into the past, give or take a millennia. A most curious event. But one worthy of pursuing. Unfortunately, that means I need to know things Declan Griffin.+ His blood froze as the machine used his true name. +This is, more unfortunately, going to be an inevitably destructive process. Neural interrogation is by necessity unpleasant when you're seeking answers to one or two major questions. But I am afraid I know too little, meaning I need to know far more.+
"Meaning what." Brick snarled out loud.
The creatures face appeared in front of him and Brick felt the clamps engage on his skull. The sound of an electric bonesaw coming to power filled his ears. +Unfortunately dear Brick. It means a mindrip. A complete neuro-integration.+
Brick's eyes were involuntarily pulled to a bell jar full of preservative fluids. He had a sick feeling in his stomach. "I can tell you anything you want to know!?"
+Oh I am sure you would try my friend. But I just don't have that kind of time, it's not the questions I can think of that trouble me, but the ones I wouldn't think to ask. I am truly sorry.+ He howled with pain as the saw engaged.
The jar had wires in it. And it was just the right size for a human brain.
A little accident.
The Forge was quieter than it had been for centuries as Rholl Illandict examined the forge, claiming his place as an archmagos of the Mechanicus, he had claimed this forge for himself from its deceased predecessor. Servitors moved into the chambers and began hauling out detritus marked by his dendrites as he examined the chaff from the gold. There were any number of factorums, including an augmetics lab, a munitions lab and an exotic technologies lab, these three were the ones clustered closest together and so Rholl felt little need to move the focus of his own works out of those labs. The clickering of his walking platform against the deck. A flock of servo-skulls searched through the debris and alighted on a colossal and complex piece of machinery.
Thirty metres high, it looked at first glance to be a highly complicated part of a teleportarium. A burst of binaric sent the flock into the eaves as Rholl strode up to it and studied it, his augmetics clicking as they focussed and studied it. A quick touch and... life filled the machine. "Praise the Omnissiah. I wonder what it..."
"Magos... is that supposed to..." His Skitarius Marshal said looking at it.
How could he admit to his Marshall that he wasn't sure. He'd just inherited the lab, and there wasn't exactly a doctrina wafer with the instructions. In any case, before he could answer, it activated, and went very very wrong.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The explosion rocked the meat plant and Brick wondered when his ass and head had swapped places. Half the boys he'd been drinking with a moment ago go, the other half were flying like he was, when the smoke settled and he could decide which way gravity decided was up he turned and found half of the meat packing plant they were using for a hideout simply gone. And in its place something else had co-joined with the building. A mix of archaic styles and something else. But cleaved into his hideout as if it had just swapped places.
A stink of ozone filled the air and he reached for his pistol as several of the others got up. Communiques flicked between them as they tried to figure out what happened, finally one of the new boys, his neural split not even a month old, braved up and went for the doorway. The door didn't shift, and nothing the new boy could do would establish a connection with its net.
When the door opened however. A chromed up woman stepped from within. A blast of noise from her caused his vision to go wonky and he shook his head before turning back to her. "Hey you. What the hell happened?"
She cocked her head as if she didn't understand and yammered at him in a tongue that sounded like English, Latin and some other languages tried to mutually molest one another. It was then that a pair of actual flying skulls zipped from the hatchway and took up station near her. She babbled again and waited.
"Look lady. I don't know what you're saying." He snarled, and she rolled a hand towards him. A skull on a tether rose behind her shoulder and pinpointed him with a sliver of light.
....
These savages were augmented. Yet did not know the holy tongue of the Omnissiah. Or even the tongue of loyal Imperial Citizens. That was not a good sign. The Magos was struggling within the labs to figure out what the hell had just happened, and the intruder protocols had fired when the younger one near her had tried to gain entry to the hatch. And so, without the direction of the Magos she had to make a judgement call on what the hell to do about this. She checked her weapons uplink to the arc pistol she preferred over the radium serpenta. The battery crackled with full charge and she took it up in hand.
The... what were they? Combat servitors? That might explain a lot. The leader seemed to be speaking again and his own weapon was aimed at her now. A binaric blurt reinforced with a databurst from her control stave sent out her orders to those few that had made the translation across to wherever here was. She was dismayed that only three databursts returned to her.
Rho-.50, Mu-223 and Sigma-777. Three princeps of her crack units, the .50s were the Magos' crack Ranger unit, the .223s were Sicarian Infiltrators, and the 'Sevens' were Sterylizors. To have only the princeps from each was a blow. And put them in a vulnerable position, she ignored the feedback from servitors and servo-skulls, the only gunskulls present were the two she had ordered out with her.
+++Translation Routines working.+++ Well if that wasn't a comfort... she paused as she read the annotated noospheric tag. The transmission had been sent from Rholl. +++Temporal/Dimensional Translocation.+++
She waited as the servitors became increasingly agitated, the one closest to her was about to pull the trigger when her mind was flooded with the corrected linguistic database.
Omnissiah save me. This language was so regressive she might as well have been reading a childrens book for its simplicity.
"I am Marshal Triana Omnis." She said in their primitive tongue.
...
The woman spoke words he actually understood. "Who the fuck are you, and how did you get here?" Her words had come out almost mechanically, and he was certain he heard movement in the building. There was a blurt of noise once more that made his visuals flicker before she turned to the boy closest to her. Her brow furrowed.
"I am Skitarius Marshal Triana Omnis, servant of Archmagos Rholl Illandict of Stygies VIII. I do not know how we came to be here. I would suggest your servitor lower his weapon." She said and Brick watched as her left hand, a long hand with razor claws began to crackle with energy. "And identify yourself in turn."
Brick laughed richly as he rose to his full height when something moved in the rafters above and he looked up to see it there. It hunched in the rafters above and, through he'd never seen its make, he recognised a flamethrower when he saw one. He stopped laughing and began to search through the chamber even more closely and saw at least another red-robed concealed in cover, a long rifle in his arms.
She spoke again and Bricks attention returned to her. "I am not famed for my patience."
"I'm Brick, leader of the Maelstrom you see about you."
...
The Maelstrom. That was bad, if they had been relocated to a region of space populated by Huron Blackhearts corsairs and their cultists. With a single binaric trigger she gave the order. The order was rescinded almost instantly by the Archmagos as he began to emerge from the Forge and the Maelstromers turned to face the new arrival. He stood almost twice as high as Triana did and his back writhed with his mechadendrites, the Omnissian axe in his hands crackled with power.
His gaze passed over their opponents and settled on Brick. "You lead these creatures?" The Archmagos' voice rang with an unnatural perfection as he rose to his full, intimidating height. The one called Brick was focussed on the servo-arm, she checked herself and saw that the Archmagos had socketed the Eradication Ray in place.
"I do." Brick said, his confidence wavering.
...
Who the fuck were these people. They were borged up more than he and his boys were. He wasn't sure they weren't full borg. And this massive monster that had arrived looked at him like he was some kind of insect. The weapon attacked on the massive harness on his right flank snapped up and into position to face the young Maelstromer that had been acting so twitchy, the cheap hundred cred pistol in his hand didn't even get a chance to fire as a pallid cyan light burst out in a stream of fire. The newbie simply ceased to exist and so did a cone behind him.
Brick hurtled himself back over a clutch of crates as he sought cover when he heard another blurt of cybernetic noise and suddenly the woman exploded into life hurtling her way across the room. When he rose to fire at her he found her own pistol aimed at him and a lightning bolt ripped out and Brick saw no more.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pain. Brick had never been a fan of pain. And he was pretty sure he was dead, so why was he experiencing pain? That'd be a real bitch. Died and feeling just pain, surely death wouldn't be so cruel. His implants reported a violation. A painful and extensive violation, and it took Brick only a moment to reactivate his optical implants. The more of his implants came on line, the sicker he felt. He was stretched over a rack and wires were forced into his ports.
The location looked unfamiliar and all he could see was a wan light and smell a thick cloying incense. +Interesting. Very interesting. Primitive data structures. Imperfect bioneural integration.+ The words were coming across his call network. And his eyes flickered as he received the communique.
He realised that it was being translated from a binary language of some unfamiliar kind. Almost like his hardware lacked a module to include other linguistic context. He feigned a lack of understanding before chuckle resounded in the air and he frowned.
+You are connected to my own synaptic networks and I am forcing a translation routine to operate in your architecture. I don't wish to communicate as slowly as your more basic linguistic routines would allow for.+
"What the fuck do you want with me?" Brick roared with his actual voice. Certain that the stranger could hear.
+Use your inside voice. Your meat words are too slow and you lack the proper augmetics for binaric speech.+ The voice chided. +As for what I want, I want to know and understand the world I have arrived in. A spatial-temporal accident has displaced me here. And it seems that I've been returned to a time some thirty eight thousand years into the past, give or take a millennia. A most curious event. But one worthy of pursuing. Unfortunately, that means I need to know things Declan Griffin.+ His blood froze as the machine used his true name. +This is, more unfortunately, going to be an inevitably destructive process. Neural interrogation is by necessity unpleasant when you're seeking answers to one or two major questions. But I am afraid I know too little, meaning I need to know far more.+
"Meaning what." Brick snarled out loud.
The creatures face appeared in front of him and Brick felt the clamps engage on his skull. The sound of an electric bonesaw coming to power filled his ears. +Unfortunately dear Brick. It means a mindrip. A complete neuro-integration.+
Brick's eyes were involuntarily pulled to a bell jar full of preservative fluids. He had a sick feeling in his stomach. "I can tell you anything you want to know!?"
+Oh I am sure you would try my friend. But I just don't have that kind of time, it's not the questions I can think of that trouble me, but the ones I wouldn't think to ask. I am truly sorry.+ He howled with pain as the saw engaged.
The jar had wires in it. And it was just the right size for a human brain.
- Location
- yorkshire
Intrusting
- Location
- Viet Nam
Let see how the brutal efficiency of the Mechanicus stack up to the brutal cutthroat of the corporation.
- Location
- Puerto Rico
Awesome intro.
Looking forward to more.
Man, wonder how our Red Toaster is going to react when he discovers that he is on Holy Terra but a different one.
Of all the groups in CP I can think of that the Red Toaster would help would be NetWatch.
The BlackWall is about to get an upgrade that in cyberspace might make it look like Cadia.
That and curse Rache Bartmoss as the greatest heretic in the name of the Omnisiah, right next to Horus.
Looking forward to more.
Man, wonder how our Red Toaster is going to react when he discovers that he is on Holy Terra but a different one.
Of all the groups in CP I can think of that the Red Toaster would help would be NetWatch.
The BlackWall is about to get an upgrade that in cyberspace might make it look like Cadia.
That and curse Rache Bartmoss as the greatest heretic in the name of the Omnisiah, right next to Horus.
- Location
- Dallas, TX
Would they be likely to care so much for "Holy terra" rather than Mars? I thought techpriests were their own religion semi-separate from Imperial Faith? They view the Emperor as The Motive Force akin to Jesus where the Omnissiah is God?
It says a lot about Cyberpunk that the Adeptus Mechanicus might actually improve the general populations quality of life.
Chapter 1: Learning Protocol
Kadaeux
Delta Imperator
- Location
- Vortice between realities
Chapter 1:
Learning Protocol
Temporal and physical translocation. The device, now burned out, had malfunctioned, and relocated his forge through space and time. And now as he tapped into the neural matter of the creature called Brick. He saw the sheer difference of the world he'd found himself in. Holy Terra. And with only four Skitarii and a dozen Servitors. It had taken six hours to re-wire the meat packing plant into the forges systems, and now, a servo-skull was monitoring the local media systems for any kind of mention of the displacement event. But nothing was forthcoming on the subject and the level of inanities that filled the transmissions.
Brick's body was laid out on the slab as Rholl opened up another of the Maelstromers, Royce wasn't dead. He was knelt down, the arc pistol in the Marshal's hands crackling lightly against his skin as the psychotic Maelstromer stared at Rholl in almost pure awe. Rholl knew why now. The Maelstrom feared the weakness of their flesh more than the phantom threat of cyber-psychosis. It hadn't taken long for him to realise the initiation ritual for the Maelstrom was a neural split that gave them their characteristic visual implants.
"What are you gonna do with me?" Royce snarled, looking sideways at the brain in a crackling bell jar.
Rholl moved across the room, the clicking of his legs echoing in the space. Cyberware stripped from dead Maelstrom decorated the various tables. "What should I do with you?" The words had a strange mechanical overtone to them as he picked up a stripped Mantis blade. More of the strange mechanical speech filled the chamber and a cyborg with corpse-pale skin and no light in its eyes crossed the chamber and took the device from the creatures hands. "I am Archmagos Rholl Illandict of the Adeptus Mechanicus. A 'tech priest' in common parlance. Misfortune has caused my displacement to this location and I am lacking in friends and allies. Logic dictates that I correct this. I can see you, you didn't shed any tears when Brick was harvested for his neuronal matter."
"He was weak, but you are an out..."
"From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me, I craved the strength and certainty of steel. I aspired to the purity of the blessed machine. Your kind cling to your flesh as if it will not decay and fail you. One day the crude biomass you call a temple will wither, and you will beg my kind to save you. But I am already saved. For the machine is immortal." Rholl watched the goosebumps rise on Royce' skin. Magos Faustinius had been capable of a good turn of phrase, and he felt no guilt for cribbing it now.
Rholl turned to face Royce full on and lifted a hand. Royce stood and looked up, the much taller tech priest capturing his gaze.
"Serve me Royce. Declare the Maelstrom to me. And I will lift you all to the purity of the machine." Rholl said and Royce looked down, considering the situation. With Brick's death, he now lead Maelstrom, or would he lead beneath this creature. Suddenly, his implants came live as he received twenty thousand eddies from Brick. The Magos had access to Bricks accounts. He looked at the bell jar again. Was that the alternative?
"What do you want me to do?" He growled.
The Magos nodded and turned away. "Come here and lay down on this table. I will begin by implanting a subcutaneous microbead and a microcogitator for translating binaric. After that, I need you to secure a vehicle for me, a Chevillon Emperor. When you have accomplished that we will talk about larger duties."
Hesitantly, Royce laid down on the slab and was unconscious moments later as he was injected with powerful tranquilizers.
...
Sigma-777 looked at the bright lights of Night City she perched on the edge of a skyscraper. The wings of her scapuli superior twitched as she cocked her head and flight dynamics displays came into her vision. The Flechette carbine maglocked to her thigh was a comforting weight next to the taser goad. She'd been sent here because of something called a 'scav haunt' on the side of a skyscraper. The chopshop for augments didn't have open windows, and its balcony was occupied by rubbish and a man who was smoking.
A sneer crossed her face under the helm she wore. A flying machine bearing the moniker 'trauma team' screamed past her perch on powerful engines, and with a binaric screetch she dropped from it and roared towards the target balcony. The smoking man squinted into the night too late as her wings snapped open and the talons of her feet clutched his face and removed it from the body. Gurgling on blood the man dropped. A quick flick and her carbine was in one hand and the tazer goad in her other moments after releasing the melta-bomb at the wall.
...
The wall turned red and flowed like liquid for a moment before blasting into the structure and they turned from their work shock freezing several of them in place long enough that the salvoes of fire from the flechette carbine turned them into little more than minced meat as the massive winged woman surged into the modified apartments. Her gun was silent, though their dying was anything but. And when the shock was over and they turned to face their attacker, a scream of mechanical noise and jet engines filled the chamber as the winged apparition surged back out through the hole she had created. The attack was over as quickly as it had begun.
None of them were thinking clearly enough to realise the door alarms had been tripped. When Mu-223 entered into the apartments, none of them had even considered the fact they might still be under threat. Only once the domed helmet began its audiovisual jamming did the scavs realise they were still under attack. Several collapsed, deafened and blinded as the jamming signal actually interrupted the neural signals travelling from their eyes to their bodies.
None of them survived once the Princeps laid in with his Flechette Blaster and Taser Goad, followed in by a group of Maelstrom. "Secure all cyberware. Mu ordered as he shut down his helm and studied the ruination. These creatures were little better than unaugmented humanity, their entire purpose was to kidnap augmented people and harvest them for their augments.
He didn't feel any guilt over slaying such insects. They deserved no better for their crimes against the Omnissiah. He knew that Sigma was going to be back again in moments and headed out just as she alighted on the balcony, she had her phosphor torch in hands this time. The Maelstrom looked at the winged woman with something approaching awe. The power of augmented flight.
They took the hardware the scavs had taken and fell back from the apartment. Mu looked around and picked up several of the weapons the Scavs had used. Most were not all that dangerous, basic stub or auto pistols. But the shotgun he saw was not terrible, and he clamped it onto his own thigh. "Sevens." He said bowing to her.
"Mu. Nothing else worth taking?" She said igniting the pilot light on her phosphor torch.
He looked around. Plucking several datachips from their housing and one of their portable cogitators. "Nothing." Mu headed for the door. "No evidence." He said and bowed slightly before slipping through the door, his robes flowing around him.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
David had known rough days before, but as he looked out the window he thought this might be one of the roughest yet, having been beaten by that shit at Arasaka Academy he was in pain and angry at the world. He'd seen the flash of a firefight across the way and dived over to watch from the window. There had been no flashing from gunfire for several minutes when suddenly blinding light of a burner as flamethrower bathed the apartments that had been attacked in white hot flame, backlighting the winged figure as it leapt from the balcony and soared into the night the screaming of jets on its back lighting it only to someone who had been looking when they activated.
"Nova." David said in awe.
Learning Protocol
Temporal and physical translocation. The device, now burned out, had malfunctioned, and relocated his forge through space and time. And now as he tapped into the neural matter of the creature called Brick. He saw the sheer difference of the world he'd found himself in. Holy Terra. And with only four Skitarii and a dozen Servitors. It had taken six hours to re-wire the meat packing plant into the forges systems, and now, a servo-skull was monitoring the local media systems for any kind of mention of the displacement event. But nothing was forthcoming on the subject and the level of inanities that filled the transmissions.
Brick's body was laid out on the slab as Rholl opened up another of the Maelstromers, Royce wasn't dead. He was knelt down, the arc pistol in the Marshal's hands crackling lightly against his skin as the psychotic Maelstromer stared at Rholl in almost pure awe. Rholl knew why now. The Maelstrom feared the weakness of their flesh more than the phantom threat of cyber-psychosis. It hadn't taken long for him to realise the initiation ritual for the Maelstrom was a neural split that gave them their characteristic visual implants.
"What are you gonna do with me?" Royce snarled, looking sideways at the brain in a crackling bell jar.
Rholl moved across the room, the clicking of his legs echoing in the space. Cyberware stripped from dead Maelstrom decorated the various tables. "What should I do with you?" The words had a strange mechanical overtone to them as he picked up a stripped Mantis blade. More of the strange mechanical speech filled the chamber and a cyborg with corpse-pale skin and no light in its eyes crossed the chamber and took the device from the creatures hands. "I am Archmagos Rholl Illandict of the Adeptus Mechanicus. A 'tech priest' in common parlance. Misfortune has caused my displacement to this location and I am lacking in friends and allies. Logic dictates that I correct this. I can see you, you didn't shed any tears when Brick was harvested for his neuronal matter."
"He was weak, but you are an out..."
"From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me, I craved the strength and certainty of steel. I aspired to the purity of the blessed machine. Your kind cling to your flesh as if it will not decay and fail you. One day the crude biomass you call a temple will wither, and you will beg my kind to save you. But I am already saved. For the machine is immortal." Rholl watched the goosebumps rise on Royce' skin. Magos Faustinius had been capable of a good turn of phrase, and he felt no guilt for cribbing it now.
Rholl turned to face Royce full on and lifted a hand. Royce stood and looked up, the much taller tech priest capturing his gaze.
"Serve me Royce. Declare the Maelstrom to me. And I will lift you all to the purity of the machine." Rholl said and Royce looked down, considering the situation. With Brick's death, he now lead Maelstrom, or would he lead beneath this creature. Suddenly, his implants came live as he received twenty thousand eddies from Brick. The Magos had access to Bricks accounts. He looked at the bell jar again. Was that the alternative?
"What do you want me to do?" He growled.
The Magos nodded and turned away. "Come here and lay down on this table. I will begin by implanting a subcutaneous microbead and a microcogitator for translating binaric. After that, I need you to secure a vehicle for me, a Chevillon Emperor. When you have accomplished that we will talk about larger duties."
Hesitantly, Royce laid down on the slab and was unconscious moments later as he was injected with powerful tranquilizers.
...
Sigma-777 looked at the bright lights of Night City she perched on the edge of a skyscraper. The wings of her scapuli superior twitched as she cocked her head and flight dynamics displays came into her vision. The Flechette carbine maglocked to her thigh was a comforting weight next to the taser goad. She'd been sent here because of something called a 'scav haunt' on the side of a skyscraper. The chopshop for augments didn't have open windows, and its balcony was occupied by rubbish and a man who was smoking.
A sneer crossed her face under the helm she wore. A flying machine bearing the moniker 'trauma team' screamed past her perch on powerful engines, and with a binaric screetch she dropped from it and roared towards the target balcony. The smoking man squinted into the night too late as her wings snapped open and the talons of her feet clutched his face and removed it from the body. Gurgling on blood the man dropped. A quick flick and her carbine was in one hand and the tazer goad in her other moments after releasing the melta-bomb at the wall.
...
The wall turned red and flowed like liquid for a moment before blasting into the structure and they turned from their work shock freezing several of them in place long enough that the salvoes of fire from the flechette carbine turned them into little more than minced meat as the massive winged woman surged into the modified apartments. Her gun was silent, though their dying was anything but. And when the shock was over and they turned to face their attacker, a scream of mechanical noise and jet engines filled the chamber as the winged apparition surged back out through the hole she had created. The attack was over as quickly as it had begun.
None of them were thinking clearly enough to realise the door alarms had been tripped. When Mu-223 entered into the apartments, none of them had even considered the fact they might still be under threat. Only once the domed helmet began its audiovisual jamming did the scavs realise they were still under attack. Several collapsed, deafened and blinded as the jamming signal actually interrupted the neural signals travelling from their eyes to their bodies.
None of them survived once the Princeps laid in with his Flechette Blaster and Taser Goad, followed in by a group of Maelstrom. "Secure all cyberware. Mu ordered as he shut down his helm and studied the ruination. These creatures were little better than unaugmented humanity, their entire purpose was to kidnap augmented people and harvest them for their augments.
He didn't feel any guilt over slaying such insects. They deserved no better for their crimes against the Omnissiah. He knew that Sigma was going to be back again in moments and headed out just as she alighted on the balcony, she had her phosphor torch in hands this time. The Maelstrom looked at the winged woman with something approaching awe. The power of augmented flight.
They took the hardware the scavs had taken and fell back from the apartment. Mu looked around and picked up several of the weapons the Scavs had used. Most were not all that dangerous, basic stub or auto pistols. But the shotgun he saw was not terrible, and he clamped it onto his own thigh. "Sevens." He said bowing to her.
"Mu. Nothing else worth taking?" She said igniting the pilot light on her phosphor torch.
He looked around. Plucking several datachips from their housing and one of their portable cogitators. "Nothing." Mu headed for the door. "No evidence." He said and bowed slightly before slipping through the door, his robes flowing around him.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
David had known rough days before, but as he looked out the window he thought this might be one of the roughest yet, having been beaten by that shit at Arasaka Academy he was in pain and angry at the world. He'd seen the flash of a firefight across the way and dived over to watch from the window. There had been no flashing from gunfire for several minutes when suddenly blinding light of a burner as flamethrower bathed the apartments that had been attacked in white hot flame, backlighting the winged figure as it leapt from the balcony and soared into the night the screaming of jets on its back lighting it only to someone who had been looking when they activated.
"Nova." David said in awe.
- Location
- yorkshire
Who's nova
Kadaeux
Delta Imperator
- Location
- Vortice between realities
Nova is cyberpunk slang for 'cool'
Crazy bastards. Mechanicus is really right at home here, the planet is choke full of 'their' people
Chapter 2: Laying Roots
Kadaeux
Delta Imperator
- Location
- Vortice between realities
Chapter 2:
Laying Roots
Gloria felt the stress from David's antics approaching a critical junction, failing to get the update had caused them to slide further into debt and she had yet to deliver the Sandevistan to Maine, and now she had to deal with this as well. Why didn't David understand the sacrifices she was making to get him the education he needed to get ahead in life? And now this argument as they headed home threatened to reduce her to tears. There was nothing right about the world and if she could just give David a chance to escape the crippling mediocrity that she suffered under then maybe the world would be just a bit brighter.
And then the world erupted in fire, the animals opening fire through her vehicle as David hunched below the window level, the corpo vehicle peeling ahead and her life flashing before her eyes as the animals deployed a rocket launcher against the corpo vehicle. And then the world went black as the crashing corpo vehicle smashed into them.
...
The Trauma team had just landed and discarded them as rubbish because they weren't clients, too poor to even rescue. David railed as he saw another vehicle pulling up. The fire raged around them but he could not help but notice the detail on the vehicle as it came to a halt. It was emblazoned with a half human half machine skull in a cog. His called out in desperation as he saw the back of it emerge and something else emerged into the light.
Multitudes of clicking legs and mechanical tentacles waved in the light as from the side doors two more augmented people emerged and looked around. They communed in a strange tongue before the inhuman one turned and hunched down low looking into the vehicle, seeing him suspended upside down. Suddenly the door to his mothers car was ripped clean from the chassis by a massive mechanical limb that had unfurled from beneath the robs and flickering light as the tentacles lashed in and cut the seatbelt. They curled in and gripped his shoulders and gently hauled him from the vehicle.
"Mu-223, please retrieve the narthecium from the Emperor and initiate a scan of this boy and his genesire." The figure said in english and David focussed on his face, there was little if anything human about it. "Male child. I noticed the Medicae vehicle depart. Why have they not rendered service?"
"Because," David coughed, his ribs hurt, "Because we 'weren't a client' fucking gonks just left us... is mom ok?" He tried to make his way over to his mother but the tentacles held him back, Mu-223 noticing David wasn't in crippling pain applied the triage principles and conducted tests on the mother first, his domed helmet didn't turn as he concentrated on the narthecium display.
"Human female. Late thirties terran standard. Severe internal injuries, contusions. Probability of death without medicae treatment, one hundred percent, probably requirement for augmetic repairs to..." Mu-223 paused at a binaric blurt and studied the boys pale face.
"What is your name boy?" The tall monster said laying a thin hand on his shoulder.
"David Martinez." David said in fear.
"Please, get any belongings you need from the damaged vehicle, Mu-223, Rho-.50 please load Ms Martinez into the Emperor, out appointment with the ripperdoc called 'doc' will have to wait. Be, gentle." The machine studied David and he wondered what it saw.
"Why are you doing this?" David said, near to tears, "We can't pay you."
"Calm. Not all repayment can be in something as crude as economic currencies. But I would not leave you both dying on a bridge for something as inhuman as basic currency." More was said in the strange blurting languages as the three of them communed and David watched the strange legged figure moving around his mothers car and studying it. Only once he had retrieved his mothers belongings along with his own did he turn and see that his mother had been carefully put into the vehicle and the strange being was climbing back up into its rear transport bay.
It was then that the NCPD showed up. The one called Rho-.50 moved to place himself between the cops and David. But they showed little interest in Rho, instead trying to see David. "You ok kid? Do you need help? Trauma team called the meat wa... ambulance and they are on the way."
"Yeah. Some help they were, my friends are helping me out officer." The cop immediately lost interest. Case closed. No paperwork worth his time. And no bribes to make it his interest. All in all, a good outcome. Only as the cop turned did David see the one called Rho-.50 putting a massive handgun back into its holster, the whine of a powercell powering down barely audible over the burning vehicles. Without hesitation he clambered into the backseat.
...
The shock had hit him and he'd fallen asleep as the Emperor had driven through the city and on being startled awake by the Emperor coming to a stop David felt a much more real fear grip him. He knew what Maelstrom looked like, and two of the goons outside were definitely Maelstrom. Or had been... The doors all opened and the massive being clambered out. "Please come with me David. You two, I want this woman gently brought to the augmetics lab." The maelstromers came over and gently lifted his mother from the vehicle moving her over to a stretcher that they lifted from another table. David followed the large man. "I am Archmagos Rholl." The being finally introduced himself and David almost didn't notice.
They went from what looked like a meat packing plant to something that had swapped places with part of it. The Maelstrom passed through a hatchway with Gloria held between them and into an annex, they passed into a hatch on the left and so did the Archmagos, David followed him closely, the Maelstrom had put her down on what looked like a lab table and after making a complicated hand sign over their breast, retreated from the structure. It was only then that David realised Rho and Mu hadn't followed them in and he wondered if he should be here. But the Archmagos waved David over as he adjusted Gloria, strapping her in by the iron bands on the table. David began to wonder if he had royally screwed up.
Suddenly the roof came into animated life as tentacles with scalpels, saw blades, chainsaws, injectors and more lowered from somewhere above. And vaults were emerging from the walls as a ray of light began to play over his mother and the Magos entered an alcove where cybernetic arms sprayed him down with some sort of chemical before he turned to David. "David. Please enter the decontamination shower and hold your breath for thirty seconds."
David entered and held his breath when suddenly his skin felt like it was on fire as he mentally counted down from thirty and when the spraying stopped, the pain was gone as well. But still he breathed hard and coughed as he drew in a fresh breath. "That fucking hurt!"
"It would. The micromist was used to generate a conductive surface and microarc generators were used to kill any microbial or parasitic infestations on the body or in the subcutaneous layer." The Magos hadn't even turned and David saw him hunched over his mother, limbs flickered and the strange non-language burst out in a constant stream. The Magos then continued to speak to David. "Your mother has suffered severe traumatic broken bones, soft tissue damage and spinal cord injuries. I will engage in replacing the damaged section of the spinal cord with artificial fibres, and the tissue damage is easily corrected. But your mother has sustained damage to her skull and occipital bones. I am going to have to replace that region, if I do not do so there are a number of dangerous bone fragments that..."
"Do whatever you have to!" David said panicked, he didn't want to know this.
"Very well." David threw up as the sound of a bonesaw began and he saw blood spurt from her head as the bone in the area was excised and he chose not to look as the Archmagos selected from a series of implants and... he turned and hid behind a table, waiting as he heard the sounds of a meat packing plant with his mother on the table and his mind conjured the worst expectations but then he heard something unexpected.
After six hours. "Where's David?" his mothers voice asked.
He stumbled to his feet and turned to see his mother standing there, looking around. Her right eye had been replaced by a complicated cybernetic and he hesitated, but she otherwise seemed to be perfectly healthy. "Mom? Should... should she be up like that?"
"Of course? Why wouldn't she? I may not be a Magos Biologis, but I am an Archmagos of the Mechanicus, and augmetic surgery is one of my specialisations." Rholl said as Gloria went over and enfolded her son in a deep hug. She knew the truth, the cities meat wagons might have saved her. But in all probability, they'd have stablisied her and then harvested her organs, telling David that he couldn't see her because it 'wasn't in the package'. She cocked her head.
"My vision feels strange," she said turning to the Magos, "Are you qualified for..."
"I am not one of your surgeons or a so-called 'Ripperdoc', Ms Martinez." The Archmagos declared as he cleaned her blood off of his instruments, watching her through the skull rising over his shoulder on a mechanical cable. "But I did see this possibility happening. It may take some experimentation to have the augmetics I implanted 'talk' with your own cybernetic implants. A question of formatting and neurocybernetic signals. To understand, it is much like combining a hydraulic and pneumatic system, they are not entirely dissimilar, but you cannot just plug one into the other and expect smooth operating. I am happy to help you with the corrective work."
His mother turned to the Magos and David grabbed for her arm. "Who the hell are you then!?" She snapped, fearfully.
"Archmagos Rholl Illandict of the Adeptus Mechanicus. And the person who saved your life." He answered still not facing her.
"And how much do we owe you for this charity." Gloria said, wariness in her tone.
"Nothing, though if you would prefer to work for me instead of breaking your back harvesting people with your meat-wagon." The Archmagos looked straight to the bag David had taken from the car, when he checked it he saw an implant that had been removed from someone.
"Work for you..." she almost snarled, and yet sounded hopeful, "doing what?"
"Various duties, but part of it would be one you are familiar with, bring me objects of interest from the deceased, there would also be bringing me people who the monsters running the medicae facilities in this Emperor-forsaken city would murder for their organs and implants." The Archmagos said, "I can also offer your son gainful employment."
"What?" She said shocked, "You want David!?"
"He is a bright young man, and with the right training and support, can bring down the corrupt overlords of this city." Rholl said turning back to his tools, they slid back into the roof and David could swear he heard something that sounded like a prayer to a machine spirit...
"What?" David said instead, "I'm just a regular kid who got my ass kicked less than a day ago."
"The weaknesses of the flesh can be overcome. That implant for example can be used to..."
"NO! No!" Gloria said rushing between them. "That thing is dangerous he can't handle something like that, it'll fry his brain."
"Ah yes. The 'cyberpsychosis', we have dismissed this claim. Implantation technology is not responsible for cyberpsychosis, human trauma is responsible for cyberpsychosis. Implantation addiction without proper care can be a symptom of underlying psychological issues that become exacerbated in situations of extreme stress. Some implants, such as that one, that interface more strongly with human neuronal matter can make the situation worse, with repeated use causing damage. However, that is because of improper care for the devices machine spirit and of course, an inadequately augmented brain."
Gloria looked confused, this 'archmagos' was dismissing a known phenomena. "Cyberpsychosis is..."
"A human condition. And one grossly exaggerated by corporations that benefit from it. If your son wishes to be augmented, we are prepared to provide him with what he needs." The Archmagos declared and David felt like a new path was opening before him.
"He doesn't need it..."
The Archmagos issued a blurt of code and what was left of the array rose into the ceiling and he turned on Gloria and walked over to her on his strange leg arrays. "Does he not? Tell me boy. Was the boy who beat you augmented?" David nodded. Gloria's face darkened. "Are the others like him similarly augmented. Do they have other implanted advantages that you could not afford that leave him steps behind others?" Gloria reddened more. "Do you expect your son to achieve, without augmentation, what others will who are augmented?"
Suddenly there was a gun in the archmagos' hands. "If you wish to cripple your son so because this world has conditioned you to expect a puppets string from every act of kindness take my weapon and give your son the peace he can never know in life." Gloria looked down in terror at the weapon. "Or, let him be a man and choose for himself."
Laying Roots
Gloria felt the stress from David's antics approaching a critical junction, failing to get the update had caused them to slide further into debt and she had yet to deliver the Sandevistan to Maine, and now she had to deal with this as well. Why didn't David understand the sacrifices she was making to get him the education he needed to get ahead in life? And now this argument as they headed home threatened to reduce her to tears. There was nothing right about the world and if she could just give David a chance to escape the crippling mediocrity that she suffered under then maybe the world would be just a bit brighter.
And then the world erupted in fire, the animals opening fire through her vehicle as David hunched below the window level, the corpo vehicle peeling ahead and her life flashing before her eyes as the animals deployed a rocket launcher against the corpo vehicle. And then the world went black as the crashing corpo vehicle smashed into them.
...
The Trauma team had just landed and discarded them as rubbish because they weren't clients, too poor to even rescue. David railed as he saw another vehicle pulling up. The fire raged around them but he could not help but notice the detail on the vehicle as it came to a halt. It was emblazoned with a half human half machine skull in a cog. His called out in desperation as he saw the back of it emerge and something else emerged into the light.
Multitudes of clicking legs and mechanical tentacles waved in the light as from the side doors two more augmented people emerged and looked around. They communed in a strange tongue before the inhuman one turned and hunched down low looking into the vehicle, seeing him suspended upside down. Suddenly the door to his mothers car was ripped clean from the chassis by a massive mechanical limb that had unfurled from beneath the robs and flickering light as the tentacles lashed in and cut the seatbelt. They curled in and gripped his shoulders and gently hauled him from the vehicle.
"Mu-223, please retrieve the narthecium from the Emperor and initiate a scan of this boy and his genesire." The figure said in english and David focussed on his face, there was little if anything human about it. "Male child. I noticed the Medicae vehicle depart. Why have they not rendered service?"
"Because," David coughed, his ribs hurt, "Because we 'weren't a client' fucking gonks just left us... is mom ok?" He tried to make his way over to his mother but the tentacles held him back, Mu-223 noticing David wasn't in crippling pain applied the triage principles and conducted tests on the mother first, his domed helmet didn't turn as he concentrated on the narthecium display.
"Human female. Late thirties terran standard. Severe internal injuries, contusions. Probability of death without medicae treatment, one hundred percent, probably requirement for augmetic repairs to..." Mu-223 paused at a binaric blurt and studied the boys pale face.
"What is your name boy?" The tall monster said laying a thin hand on his shoulder.
"David Martinez." David said in fear.
"Please, get any belongings you need from the damaged vehicle, Mu-223, Rho-.50 please load Ms Martinez into the Emperor, out appointment with the ripperdoc called 'doc' will have to wait. Be, gentle." The machine studied David and he wondered what it saw.
"Why are you doing this?" David said, near to tears, "We can't pay you."
"Calm. Not all repayment can be in something as crude as economic currencies. But I would not leave you both dying on a bridge for something as inhuman as basic currency." More was said in the strange blurting languages as the three of them communed and David watched the strange legged figure moving around his mothers car and studying it. Only once he had retrieved his mothers belongings along with his own did he turn and see that his mother had been carefully put into the vehicle and the strange being was climbing back up into its rear transport bay.
It was then that the NCPD showed up. The one called Rho-.50 moved to place himself between the cops and David. But they showed little interest in Rho, instead trying to see David. "You ok kid? Do you need help? Trauma team called the meat wa... ambulance and they are on the way."
"Yeah. Some help they were, my friends are helping me out officer." The cop immediately lost interest. Case closed. No paperwork worth his time. And no bribes to make it his interest. All in all, a good outcome. Only as the cop turned did David see the one called Rho-.50 putting a massive handgun back into its holster, the whine of a powercell powering down barely audible over the burning vehicles. Without hesitation he clambered into the backseat.
...
The shock had hit him and he'd fallen asleep as the Emperor had driven through the city and on being startled awake by the Emperor coming to a stop David felt a much more real fear grip him. He knew what Maelstrom looked like, and two of the goons outside were definitely Maelstrom. Or had been... The doors all opened and the massive being clambered out. "Please come with me David. You two, I want this woman gently brought to the augmetics lab." The maelstromers came over and gently lifted his mother from the vehicle moving her over to a stretcher that they lifted from another table. David followed the large man. "I am Archmagos Rholl." The being finally introduced himself and David almost didn't notice.
They went from what looked like a meat packing plant to something that had swapped places with part of it. The Maelstrom passed through a hatchway with Gloria held between them and into an annex, they passed into a hatch on the left and so did the Archmagos, David followed him closely, the Maelstrom had put her down on what looked like a lab table and after making a complicated hand sign over their breast, retreated from the structure. It was only then that David realised Rho and Mu hadn't followed them in and he wondered if he should be here. But the Archmagos waved David over as he adjusted Gloria, strapping her in by the iron bands on the table. David began to wonder if he had royally screwed up.
Suddenly the roof came into animated life as tentacles with scalpels, saw blades, chainsaws, injectors and more lowered from somewhere above. And vaults were emerging from the walls as a ray of light began to play over his mother and the Magos entered an alcove where cybernetic arms sprayed him down with some sort of chemical before he turned to David. "David. Please enter the decontamination shower and hold your breath for thirty seconds."
David entered and held his breath when suddenly his skin felt like it was on fire as he mentally counted down from thirty and when the spraying stopped, the pain was gone as well. But still he breathed hard and coughed as he drew in a fresh breath. "That fucking hurt!"
"It would. The micromist was used to generate a conductive surface and microarc generators were used to kill any microbial or parasitic infestations on the body or in the subcutaneous layer." The Magos hadn't even turned and David saw him hunched over his mother, limbs flickered and the strange non-language burst out in a constant stream. The Magos then continued to speak to David. "Your mother has suffered severe traumatic broken bones, soft tissue damage and spinal cord injuries. I will engage in replacing the damaged section of the spinal cord with artificial fibres, and the tissue damage is easily corrected. But your mother has sustained damage to her skull and occipital bones. I am going to have to replace that region, if I do not do so there are a number of dangerous bone fragments that..."
"Do whatever you have to!" David said panicked, he didn't want to know this.
"Very well." David threw up as the sound of a bonesaw began and he saw blood spurt from her head as the bone in the area was excised and he chose not to look as the Archmagos selected from a series of implants and... he turned and hid behind a table, waiting as he heard the sounds of a meat packing plant with his mother on the table and his mind conjured the worst expectations but then he heard something unexpected.
After six hours. "Where's David?" his mothers voice asked.
He stumbled to his feet and turned to see his mother standing there, looking around. Her right eye had been replaced by a complicated cybernetic and he hesitated, but she otherwise seemed to be perfectly healthy. "Mom? Should... should she be up like that?"
"Of course? Why wouldn't she? I may not be a Magos Biologis, but I am an Archmagos of the Mechanicus, and augmetic surgery is one of my specialisations." Rholl said as Gloria went over and enfolded her son in a deep hug. She knew the truth, the cities meat wagons might have saved her. But in all probability, they'd have stablisied her and then harvested her organs, telling David that he couldn't see her because it 'wasn't in the package'. She cocked her head.
"My vision feels strange," she said turning to the Magos, "Are you qualified for..."
"I am not one of your surgeons or a so-called 'Ripperdoc', Ms Martinez." The Archmagos declared as he cleaned her blood off of his instruments, watching her through the skull rising over his shoulder on a mechanical cable. "But I did see this possibility happening. It may take some experimentation to have the augmetics I implanted 'talk' with your own cybernetic implants. A question of formatting and neurocybernetic signals. To understand, it is much like combining a hydraulic and pneumatic system, they are not entirely dissimilar, but you cannot just plug one into the other and expect smooth operating. I am happy to help you with the corrective work."
His mother turned to the Magos and David grabbed for her arm. "Who the hell are you then!?" She snapped, fearfully.
"Archmagos Rholl Illandict of the Adeptus Mechanicus. And the person who saved your life." He answered still not facing her.
"And how much do we owe you for this charity." Gloria said, wariness in her tone.
"Nothing, though if you would prefer to work for me instead of breaking your back harvesting people with your meat-wagon." The Archmagos looked straight to the bag David had taken from the car, when he checked it he saw an implant that had been removed from someone.
"Work for you..." she almost snarled, and yet sounded hopeful, "doing what?"
"Various duties, but part of it would be one you are familiar with, bring me objects of interest from the deceased, there would also be bringing me people who the monsters running the medicae facilities in this Emperor-forsaken city would murder for their organs and implants." The Archmagos said, "I can also offer your son gainful employment."
"What?" She said shocked, "You want David!?"
"He is a bright young man, and with the right training and support, can bring down the corrupt overlords of this city." Rholl said turning back to his tools, they slid back into the roof and David could swear he heard something that sounded like a prayer to a machine spirit...
"What?" David said instead, "I'm just a regular kid who got my ass kicked less than a day ago."
"The weaknesses of the flesh can be overcome. That implant for example can be used to..."
"NO! No!" Gloria said rushing between them. "That thing is dangerous he can't handle something like that, it'll fry his brain."
"Ah yes. The 'cyberpsychosis', we have dismissed this claim. Implantation technology is not responsible for cyberpsychosis, human trauma is responsible for cyberpsychosis. Implantation addiction without proper care can be a symptom of underlying psychological issues that become exacerbated in situations of extreme stress. Some implants, such as that one, that interface more strongly with human neuronal matter can make the situation worse, with repeated use causing damage. However, that is because of improper care for the devices machine spirit and of course, an inadequately augmented brain."
Gloria looked confused, this 'archmagos' was dismissing a known phenomena. "Cyberpsychosis is..."
"A human condition. And one grossly exaggerated by corporations that benefit from it. If your son wishes to be augmented, we are prepared to provide him with what he needs." The Archmagos declared and David felt like a new path was opening before him.
"He doesn't need it..."
The Archmagos issued a blurt of code and what was left of the array rose into the ceiling and he turned on Gloria and walked over to her on his strange leg arrays. "Does he not? Tell me boy. Was the boy who beat you augmented?" David nodded. Gloria's face darkened. "Are the others like him similarly augmented. Do they have other implanted advantages that you could not afford that leave him steps behind others?" Gloria reddened more. "Do you expect your son to achieve, without augmentation, what others will who are augmented?"
Suddenly there was a gun in the archmagos' hands. "If you wish to cripple your son so because this world has conditioned you to expect a puppets string from every act of kindness take my weapon and give your son the peace he can never know in life." Gloria looked down in terror at the weapon. "Or, let him be a man and choose for himself."
God damn was that mass effect reference nice. Ah yes, we have dismissed that claim. And now i cant stop thinking that the Archmagos talks in a flanged cybernetic Sparatus voice.
Kadaeux
Delta Imperator
- Location
- Vortice between realities
- Location
- India
Is archmagos a radical? Cawlite or Xenite?
Kadaeux
Delta Imperator
- Location
- Vortice between realities
He's from Stygies VIII. I'll let you draw your own conclusions from that.
Xenite. Stygies VIII = Xenite. Looking forward to how you will handle Soulkiller. Because that looks real close to necron biotransference, only you know, without the Eldritch God snacking on what used to be your soul. Also, good thing he is not a dogmatic Tech Priest. Things would have gotten real ugly real fast with a Marsian Priest.
A Martian Archmagos would already be purging the streets with "volunteer" Servitors while screaming in Binary about all the tech-heresy happening on this planet.
- Location
- yorkshire
i hope David meets lucy