Yep. Sounds like he was just brought up and we'll likely see that meeting next chapter.
I like Nier and am enjoying these chapters, so I'm perfectly fine to see more.
Fabricated Hazards (factorio fanfic)
don't the machines have a backdoor into Yorha systems and the bunker won't they find out immediately?
Answered questions #41
- Pronouns
- That/Thing
He's had space stations on nauvis but he hasn't gone up. He is currently in space over earth, in YoRHa's orbital bunker
The machines could win the war whenever they want, they know where every outpost is and they can take out YoRHa with the click of a button.
And the resistance hasn't been centralized yet, the engineer hasn't even talked to them. I think the resistance has a broader command structure that could be considered centralized too.
At best what the engineer is doing is creating a safe place for non combatants, while supplying the rest of the war effort.
The engineer might still end up needing a larger transport option like a cargo-tron it's just not needed immediately, courier drones can fulfill the job. But even if he makes a cargo-tron it won't be used in combat. It'll just be good at running away and slowing the enemy.
Might be a good way to add slow down capsules to the game, as I keep forgetting they exist.
There will be a nauvis interlude before the end of the nier ark, but I'm willing to supply a hint. Nauvis has never been limited to the planet, just limited to where her creatures are.
They do, but I don't think it's a back door into the memories of every Android, and white isn't a part of the system anyway( I think ). And as the info about a human being present wasn't put into the system, just told
Over the comm's to commander white. Well the machines heard some androids think they found a human and will investigate, engineer showing up on the bunker will just confirm it for the machines. Which he does in the next chapter.
I need a character breakdown of commander white to really write her well. I've only gotten to the route a adam fight in nier and I did that today
- Location
- North America
that is the fucking sickest hint I heard about a god not knowing how powerful they really are since learning Haruhi is a sleeping elder god pretending the be a school girl.
- Pronouns
- Male
Wait what?
- Location
- North America
From the wiki "Haruhi also, unknown to her, has the god-like abilities to change, destroy, and reshape reality. It is said that if she were to become bored enough with the world, she could create closed space, meaning a new world which could prevent destruction in the "real world". After revealing themselves to Kyon, the trio of Yuki, Mikuru, and Itsuki all state their respective higher-ups sent them to watch over her. Itsuki specifically mentions they must keep her entertained so she doesn't become too bored."
In other words "Ayo. Keep that elder god sleeping and dreaming of being a school girl having wacky adventures with her friends so she doesn't kill us all"
ch. 32 (nier)
- Pronouns
- That/Thing
I have to admit that seeing the earth from space was a breathtaking sight, it was almost enough to distract from the stares I was getting from all the androids. Back on earth my outpost was growing fine, and any hostile machines near it had been purged. With the situation on the ground as secure as it needed to be for phase one I was free to enact the rest of the plan.
Namely coming to space to meet with YoRHa's leadership to ask them some pertinent questions. Like why humanity wasn't on the moon, and why they were lying about it.
We do realize that a single one of these androids could kill us, or just keep us from leaving, right?
yes, but I was trying not to think of that. Already being outside my armor is making me feel vulnerable, the stares do not help.
Androids are programmed to enjoy human company and like following our orders, we need to show them that we are actually human for that though, so we can't be wearing our armor.
Doesn't this feel a little manipulative?
It feels manipulative because it is. We need them to listen to us, or at the very least let us work unimpeded.
There are currently 13 androids staring at us, not including the 3 we brought with us, and why do they get to wear power armor?
It's a statement and an additional level of security.
I had spoken to commander white before, but only through 13B as a proxy. That was only a few hours ago though, and it was largely to clarify that I wouldn't be going to the resistance base, and that I was willing to meet up with her to discuss why in person. I had spoken to her, she had not spoken to me. Partially because I didn't want to talk over a secure line, and partially because I wasn't sure my theories were right and I couldn't talk to her without confirming them.
I had just told 13B that I would meet with the commander when I had secured my outpost, while that was true I was also sending probes and long range scans into space, just to check on that whole moon thing.
One probe later confirmed the most important of the theories, there were no humans on the moon. My already knowing this would give me a fair bit of advantage in the coming talks.
The journey to space had been odd, YoRHa only had a few flyers capable of taking anything organic to it, so I had essentially been stuck in a cargo hold. Just an empty one with only a few of my destroyer drones, panther in a smaller body, and the battler trio. The bunker itself was a sterile white environment, but also a fair bit larger than I expected, filled with what had to be hundreds of androids and fairly large production facilities.
If I hear a stuttered glory to mankind or watch another android fall over when they see me I will go insane.
Still I didn't have much time to take a closer look on the way to the commander's office, 13B had arranged both the transport and the meeting, and she was currently setting quite a rapid pace through the bunker, at least it felt rapid, androids could move startlingly quickly.
According to 13B I was to meet with the commander as soon as possible, and she took that quite literally. By having the commander send a supply shuttle down to pick me up, and by escorting me up to the bunker, in her new power armor.
The artificial gravity is messing with my head, and I am nearly certain we are walking upside down relative to when we came in here. Also, it is a circle so the entire walk is uphill. I hate this.
The door to the commander's office was unadorned, just like every other room. Which showed good things for her not being egotistical. "I'll be talking to the commander alone, you can guard the door" as I walk through the door, directing my drones and panther to stay outside, I see 13B nod through the drones sensors before standing to the side of the door, with the other battlers following suit.
The first thing I noticed about commander white was that she wasn't a YoRHa android, the wear on her suggested a significant age, then that she was taller than a YoRHa android.
She was sitting behind a sleek white table in what had to be the most uncomfortable metal chair I had ever seen, she looked at me and said "you're the human then?"
I paused to take in the rest of the room, the tone of her voice was a little doubtful, "as far as I'm aware, yeah, the only human." she nodded at that, and I decided to keep my momentum, before she realized what only meant, "I do have some questions that I was hoping you could answer" she paused for a second to think "I serve humanity, I would be glad to answer any questions you may have"
And there was my opening, "mainly about why there is no one on the moon, and why exactly YoRHa is lying about it"
That brought her up short
It took her electronic mind less than a second to process what I had said, and her face rapidly paled. Why add that? It just interferes with their ability to lie. Was that the intent?
"I don't know what you mean by that, there are hundreds of thousands of humans on the moon, YoRHa takes orders directly from the council of humanity" denial rather than a straight answer, worrying in that it means she can lie to me, or that she actually believes humanity is on the moon, both of which are bad for my plans. We can make it work, plan C it is.
We didn't have a plan C, we just had two plans and both could still work.
Correct, I just made a new one, it'll work better.
A glance around the room doesn't show any obvious cameras, but I can't discount that someone could be listening in. Ideally this talk would have been in my nice secure outpost, but I'll just have to make do. "I'd believe you if I wasn't human myself and didn't know full well we wouldn't have tolerated being on the moon for five thousand years, even discounting that fact if we had been on the moon we couldn't survive on earth anymore. No, even if I hadn't checked I'd have known there were no humans on the moon."
It'd be very embarrassing if there were humans in scan proof bunkers on the moon with artificial gravity so they can actually tolerate earth.
The chances of that being true are less than ten percent, an acceptable risk.
Also the fact that there is one structure on the moon but it definitely can't house a sustainable population of humans.
By this point I have sat down on an equal uncomfortable chair just in front of her desk, she's stares at me without blinking for 10 seconds before she speaks, I feel vaguely as though I kicked a puppy "I had been hoping It would take you a bit longer to figure that out, you are correct, there isn't and there has never been a moon colony" she pauses for a second, taking a breath I'm still not sure the androids actually need, before continuing "Project YoRHa was founded to give hope to the androids, we had been fighting for so long and with no end and sight, and with nothing to fight for. Project YoRHa was founded to give the rest of the androids that something."
And I called it, ha, also sad
I had been betting on androids wiping out humanity or something.
"That answers one of my questions but raises so many others, now continuing this thread, what happens to the androids that inevitably find the truth, I doubt you just let them go free" white winces at that, my tone there at the end might have been a little to hostile, but communicating with thoughts tends to end up with emotions laced into the dialogue.
Did we ever figure out what we even sound like?
Not really the time, research later, talk now.
Commander white actually looks pained when she speaks "Older resistance androids know its a lie, some of them were even around when humanity went extinct, only the younger ones believe it, and of those only YoRHa androids really discover the truth, with those we wipe their memories and send them back" by the end there she had trailed off enough that I could barely hear her, even with my enhanced hearing.
That's basically murder right?
It depends on how much memory is getting wiped, if it's just the day they found out then not really, anything over a week or a month though? Yeah we can go ahead and label that murder.
Aren't YoRHa androids only like 5, a month is a significant portion of their life.
She doesn't sound happy about it, which might be worse, if she hadn't thought it was wrong she could be taught that it was, but she's remorseful and still doing it.
She was desperate, we can't really judge.
That was both better and worse than what I had been expecting, "and your doing that because they find out humanity is gone, well now it isn't even said human isn't on the moon." I take a short pause of my own before continuing "I'm willing to help you keep up this ruse on a few conditions"
At least until the war is over, then we can ease the androids into living for themselves or just accepting that humanity is gone.
"First, any androids that find out the truth are to be sent to the other side of the portal, where I will deal with them. Secondly, I want YoRHa's aid in supplying the resistance. This war has gone on far too long to be reasonable. And third, the ruse only lasts until the war is over, then we will slowly spread the truth"
Really, this mud ball is not worth five thousand years of effort.
I wouldn't say it's worth a century, just make Mars or Venus livable. It genuinely would have taken less time to give Mars or Venus an earth like environment.
"How would you 'deal with' any of the androids I would send you?, and YoRHa does not have the production necessary to supply the resistance, if we could have we would be." suspicious and distrustful, good if she had just been willing to hand over her subordinates I wouldn't be able to trust her myself.
"Simple, I'll explain the situation and give them three offers, the first is a simple piece of programing that will prevent the androids from telling anyone else the truth, if they willingly accept this you can safely have them back, if they don't accept that option they can either stay on the Nauvis side and help defend my outposts, or they can stay on the Nauvis side and not do anything." a pause on my part "The third option will be reserved for the ones who either can't handle the truth or who become actively problematic. I will have them put to sleep until the war is finished and they can be dealt with. Ideally with therapy."
That isn't simple.
I'm more upset about the fact androids even need therapy.
She didn't look quite convinced yet, which was fair considering she had just met me, more talking it was "and given the fact that there will actually be a visible human I imagine few androids will even find out the truth, you can even send observers to check on them if you don't believe me."
"I want to have someone examine that code before I allow you to do that, and if it's viable I see no reason they need to cross the portal in order for a software update. We are more than capable of doing that ourselves" more than fair, and it showed she was actively considering my offer.
Just glad 16S was so helpful with our understanding of android coding, it'd have taken us much longer to get a working code without him.
A flashdrive forms on my palm, one containing a prototype I had designed a few hours ago. "I'd be glad to have you look at the coding, I'm not exactly an expert on android coding just yet, and having someone more experienced give it a look would be a good idea anyway" at which I slide the drive across the table where she grabs it and slides it into a drawer.
That arm stuttered, does she not have routine maintenance done?
With that and the visible wear on her artificial skin, probably not.
Is that the same as a depressed person not doing personal hygiene?
"I'll have it examined later today, that still doesn't answer the question of how you plan on having YoRHa supply the resistance" she's starting to look expectant of an answer rather than doubtful.
Anyone else think she's trusting us oddly quickly?
Yep, this is either a trap or an android's nature to obey and trust humans.
Probably the latter don't discard the former.
"You misunderstand, I don't need you to supply the resistance, I just need you to guard supply shipments and … supply a friendly face, a giant metal cat can't exactly perform very good diplomacy. The resistance androids know you, and that'll shave months off of trust building" she nod's at that and I continue before she can say anything more.
"In turn for this help I am prepared to supply YoRHa with armor, weapons, and supplies, as well as live fire support and my own forces, to aid in fighting the machines."
Commander white speaks once it's clear I'm done "it doesn't really sound like you are getting anything out of this, from what I have heard your forces are more than capable of guarding your own supply shipments"
Just accept the shiny things please, giving people things should not take this much effort
"True, But I don't want to waste time building trust with each resistance encampment, this cuts months of effort on my end, and given I'm only seven months old that's a fair bit of my life I don't have to spend doing it"
That little reveal got a brief look of surprise on her face "seven months? I thought humans didn't reach your size until their teens?"
Uhhhhhhhhhh, how much do they even know about humans, because I think it might be drastically less than we previously guessed.
It has been five thousand years since anyone's seen them, and she's never met one, so it's a little understandable?
Well my explanation will need to be a bit more detailed apparently, "that would be true for an unmodified human, I am at roughly the 17th year of physical development. However" a brief gesture at a purple vein on my neck "I'm not exactly a baseline human, more specifically I am a engineered life form designed to colonize an entire world within a year" if the bug's didn't exist at least "as far as I'm aware I'm basically the human version of the machines"
Bait and a threat for anyone listening, good.
"But I didn't wind up on the right planet, nor did I finish my 'programing" she flinches again at the venom I put into that word, "so supplying your war effort isn't exactly the most taxing thing for me, I can more than match what few production facilities you still have running, while still expanding my own production and war front."
"To put it simply, I have no reason not to do it, and I can do it, so I will be doing it"
We needed a hobby anyways, and uplifting a race is a fair enough one
Is it uplifting if they have equal or greater tech than you?
Most of the androids are living in ruins or tents, it's uplifting.
She looks incredulous as she speaks "You are offering to supply both YoRHa and the resistance because you have nothing better to do"
That's not quite right
"No, I am offering to supply you because this war has dragged on far too long, and I plan on ending it as soon as I am able, I have an entire other planet worth of resources to pour into this war, and if worse comes to worse and I can't win this war for some odd reason, well now you have a whole world without machine to live on" if one ignores the indigenous population of murder monsters
That same incredulous look is on her face, but considering I just said I planned on ending a war that had been in stalemate for five thousand years. It was fair, "you really think you can win the war?"
"In three years I should outnumber the machines three to one, in 4 I will outnumber them six to one, in five years it'll be twelve to one, at this point it's just a matter of time, at least as long as the machines don't get a foothold on my side of the portal, or you know kill me, but at this point the factory would win the war with or without me"
And another trap, you know if no one is spying on this convo it will be so embarrassing.
If I do end up dying the minds are almost certainly going to unleash the self replicating nanites.
I'm not even sure if killing my body would kill me if I'm still hooked up to the network.
We are not testing.
Another nod before a look of resolve crosses her face "I have a request of my own then, if you really think you can end the war, when the war is over and the earth is safe, let us use your dna to bring back humanity"
This feels like a slave asking for her master back.
Stockholm syndrome for an entire race, fantastic.
Well we did plan a response for this question. Actually several.
"A few issues with that one, first is my modified nature, I can't actually be reproduced from any genetic samples, no cloning process would work. Built in safety features to prevent self replication. And even if I could, there isn't enough genetic variations to bring back a viable population of humans. They'd go extinct within a few hundred years."
Let's ignore the fact that both those issues are solvable, because I am not bringing back humanity.
This news obviously upsets her, "we have to try, what would you have us do once you die, a human's lifespan is only a few decades. Even if the war ends without humanity we will have nothing to live for!"
And now for a personal truth we have been avoiding, this really shouldn't have left the not thinking about it folder.
"Once again modified human, I'm not allowed to die until I have accomplished my assigned task, I was never assigned a task. I'm sure you can see the issue, even if I wasn't genetically immortal I would be forced into modifying myself until I was. I must remain at over 80 percent functionality until my task is done ``. It takes her a second to realize the gravity of my words, but I'm not actually done talking yet. "It also makes it so I'm not allowed to fall into despair or depression, I can never give up or in, even if I was faced with certain death I would be forced to struggle until my dying breath." I send a short chuckle "rage, rage against the dying of the light"
"So no, it won't be a few decades until I die, I'd be lucky if it was a few centuries or even millennia, and if I'm going to live that long I might as well help out some people who will have similar lifespans."
And we need long term plans, this brain of ours can only hold so many memories.
Also a hobby, probably lots of hobbies.
AN -
took a couple days off from writing this story, I was just nervous about writing this conversation. think it turned out okay though, next chapter will be Commander whites POV and what the minds were up to while the engineer was in orbit. then back to logs for a chapter. I think, this is all still in the hypothetical stage.
getting into nier and knowing how it will end but still growing to like the characters is painful.
emotional scenes are hard to write. or just emotions in general are hard to write/convey.
Happy new years!
Namely coming to space to meet with YoRHa's leadership to ask them some pertinent questions. Like why humanity wasn't on the moon, and why they were lying about it.
We do realize that a single one of these androids could kill us, or just keep us from leaving, right?
yes, but I was trying not to think of that. Already being outside my armor is making me feel vulnerable, the stares do not help.
Androids are programmed to enjoy human company and like following our orders, we need to show them that we are actually human for that though, so we can't be wearing our armor.
Doesn't this feel a little manipulative?
It feels manipulative because it is. We need them to listen to us, or at the very least let us work unimpeded.
There are currently 13 androids staring at us, not including the 3 we brought with us, and why do they get to wear power armor?
It's a statement and an additional level of security.
I had spoken to commander white before, but only through 13B as a proxy. That was only a few hours ago though, and it was largely to clarify that I wouldn't be going to the resistance base, and that I was willing to meet up with her to discuss why in person. I had spoken to her, she had not spoken to me. Partially because I didn't want to talk over a secure line, and partially because I wasn't sure my theories were right and I couldn't talk to her without confirming them.
I had just told 13B that I would meet with the commander when I had secured my outpost, while that was true I was also sending probes and long range scans into space, just to check on that whole moon thing.
One probe later confirmed the most important of the theories, there were no humans on the moon. My already knowing this would give me a fair bit of advantage in the coming talks.
The journey to space had been odd, YoRHa only had a few flyers capable of taking anything organic to it, so I had essentially been stuck in a cargo hold. Just an empty one with only a few of my destroyer drones, panther in a smaller body, and the battler trio. The bunker itself was a sterile white environment, but also a fair bit larger than I expected, filled with what had to be hundreds of androids and fairly large production facilities.
If I hear a stuttered glory to mankind or watch another android fall over when they see me I will go insane.
Still I didn't have much time to take a closer look on the way to the commander's office, 13B had arranged both the transport and the meeting, and she was currently setting quite a rapid pace through the bunker, at least it felt rapid, androids could move startlingly quickly.
According to 13B I was to meet with the commander as soon as possible, and she took that quite literally. By having the commander send a supply shuttle down to pick me up, and by escorting me up to the bunker, in her new power armor.
The artificial gravity is messing with my head, and I am nearly certain we are walking upside down relative to when we came in here. Also, it is a circle so the entire walk is uphill. I hate this.
The door to the commander's office was unadorned, just like every other room. Which showed good things for her not being egotistical. "I'll be talking to the commander alone, you can guard the door" as I walk through the door, directing my drones and panther to stay outside, I see 13B nod through the drones sensors before standing to the side of the door, with the other battlers following suit.
The first thing I noticed about commander white was that she wasn't a YoRHa android, the wear on her suggested a significant age, then that she was taller than a YoRHa android.
She was sitting behind a sleek white table in what had to be the most uncomfortable metal chair I had ever seen, she looked at me and said "you're the human then?"
I paused to take in the rest of the room, the tone of her voice was a little doubtful, "as far as I'm aware, yeah, the only human." she nodded at that, and I decided to keep my momentum, before she realized what only meant, "I do have some questions that I was hoping you could answer" she paused for a second to think "I serve humanity, I would be glad to answer any questions you may have"
And there was my opening, "mainly about why there is no one on the moon, and why exactly YoRHa is lying about it"
That brought her up short
It took her electronic mind less than a second to process what I had said, and her face rapidly paled. Why add that? It just interferes with their ability to lie. Was that the intent?
"I don't know what you mean by that, there are hundreds of thousands of humans on the moon, YoRHa takes orders directly from the council of humanity" denial rather than a straight answer, worrying in that it means she can lie to me, or that she actually believes humanity is on the moon, both of which are bad for my plans. We can make it work, plan C it is.
We didn't have a plan C, we just had two plans and both could still work.
Correct, I just made a new one, it'll work better.
A glance around the room doesn't show any obvious cameras, but I can't discount that someone could be listening in. Ideally this talk would have been in my nice secure outpost, but I'll just have to make do. "I'd believe you if I wasn't human myself and didn't know full well we wouldn't have tolerated being on the moon for five thousand years, even discounting that fact if we had been on the moon we couldn't survive on earth anymore. No, even if I hadn't checked I'd have known there were no humans on the moon."
It'd be very embarrassing if there were humans in scan proof bunkers on the moon with artificial gravity so they can actually tolerate earth.
The chances of that being true are less than ten percent, an acceptable risk.
Also the fact that there is one structure on the moon but it definitely can't house a sustainable population of humans.
By this point I have sat down on an equal uncomfortable chair just in front of her desk, she's stares at me without blinking for 10 seconds before she speaks, I feel vaguely as though I kicked a puppy "I had been hoping It would take you a bit longer to figure that out, you are correct, there isn't and there has never been a moon colony" she pauses for a second, taking a breath I'm still not sure the androids actually need, before continuing "Project YoRHa was founded to give hope to the androids, we had been fighting for so long and with no end and sight, and with nothing to fight for. Project YoRHa was founded to give the rest of the androids that something."
And I called it, ha, also sad
I had been betting on androids wiping out humanity or something.
"That answers one of my questions but raises so many others, now continuing this thread, what happens to the androids that inevitably find the truth, I doubt you just let them go free" white winces at that, my tone there at the end might have been a little to hostile, but communicating with thoughts tends to end up with emotions laced into the dialogue.
Did we ever figure out what we even sound like?
Not really the time, research later, talk now.
Commander white actually looks pained when she speaks "Older resistance androids know its a lie, some of them were even around when humanity went extinct, only the younger ones believe it, and of those only YoRHa androids really discover the truth, with those we wipe their memories and send them back" by the end there she had trailed off enough that I could barely hear her, even with my enhanced hearing.
That's basically murder right?
It depends on how much memory is getting wiped, if it's just the day they found out then not really, anything over a week or a month though? Yeah we can go ahead and label that murder.
Aren't YoRHa androids only like 5, a month is a significant portion of their life.
She doesn't sound happy about it, which might be worse, if she hadn't thought it was wrong she could be taught that it was, but she's remorseful and still doing it.
She was desperate, we can't really judge.
That was both better and worse than what I had been expecting, "and your doing that because they find out humanity is gone, well now it isn't even said human isn't on the moon." I take a short pause of my own before continuing "I'm willing to help you keep up this ruse on a few conditions"
At least until the war is over, then we can ease the androids into living for themselves or just accepting that humanity is gone.
"First, any androids that find out the truth are to be sent to the other side of the portal, where I will deal with them. Secondly, I want YoRHa's aid in supplying the resistance. This war has gone on far too long to be reasonable. And third, the ruse only lasts until the war is over, then we will slowly spread the truth"
Really, this mud ball is not worth five thousand years of effort.
I wouldn't say it's worth a century, just make Mars or Venus livable. It genuinely would have taken less time to give Mars or Venus an earth like environment.
"How would you 'deal with' any of the androids I would send you?, and YoRHa does not have the production necessary to supply the resistance, if we could have we would be." suspicious and distrustful, good if she had just been willing to hand over her subordinates I wouldn't be able to trust her myself.
"Simple, I'll explain the situation and give them three offers, the first is a simple piece of programing that will prevent the androids from telling anyone else the truth, if they willingly accept this you can safely have them back, if they don't accept that option they can either stay on the Nauvis side and help defend my outposts, or they can stay on the Nauvis side and not do anything." a pause on my part "The third option will be reserved for the ones who either can't handle the truth or who become actively problematic. I will have them put to sleep until the war is finished and they can be dealt with. Ideally with therapy."
That isn't simple.
I'm more upset about the fact androids even need therapy.
She didn't look quite convinced yet, which was fair considering she had just met me, more talking it was "and given the fact that there will actually be a visible human I imagine few androids will even find out the truth, you can even send observers to check on them if you don't believe me."
"I want to have someone examine that code before I allow you to do that, and if it's viable I see no reason they need to cross the portal in order for a software update. We are more than capable of doing that ourselves" more than fair, and it showed she was actively considering my offer.
Just glad 16S was so helpful with our understanding of android coding, it'd have taken us much longer to get a working code without him.
A flashdrive forms on my palm, one containing a prototype I had designed a few hours ago. "I'd be glad to have you look at the coding, I'm not exactly an expert on android coding just yet, and having someone more experienced give it a look would be a good idea anyway" at which I slide the drive across the table where she grabs it and slides it into a drawer.
That arm stuttered, does she not have routine maintenance done?
With that and the visible wear on her artificial skin, probably not.
Is that the same as a depressed person not doing personal hygiene?
"I'll have it examined later today, that still doesn't answer the question of how you plan on having YoRHa supply the resistance" she's starting to look expectant of an answer rather than doubtful.
Anyone else think she's trusting us oddly quickly?
Yep, this is either a trap or an android's nature to obey and trust humans.
Probably the latter don't discard the former.
"You misunderstand, I don't need you to supply the resistance, I just need you to guard supply shipments and … supply a friendly face, a giant metal cat can't exactly perform very good diplomacy. The resistance androids know you, and that'll shave months off of trust building" she nod's at that and I continue before she can say anything more.
"In turn for this help I am prepared to supply YoRHa with armor, weapons, and supplies, as well as live fire support and my own forces, to aid in fighting the machines."
Commander white speaks once it's clear I'm done "it doesn't really sound like you are getting anything out of this, from what I have heard your forces are more than capable of guarding your own supply shipments"
Just accept the shiny things please, giving people things should not take this much effort
"True, But I don't want to waste time building trust with each resistance encampment, this cuts months of effort on my end, and given I'm only seven months old that's a fair bit of my life I don't have to spend doing it"
That little reveal got a brief look of surprise on her face "seven months? I thought humans didn't reach your size until their teens?"
Uhhhhhhhhhh, how much do they even know about humans, because I think it might be drastically less than we previously guessed.
It has been five thousand years since anyone's seen them, and she's never met one, so it's a little understandable?
Well my explanation will need to be a bit more detailed apparently, "that would be true for an unmodified human, I am at roughly the 17th year of physical development. However" a brief gesture at a purple vein on my neck "I'm not exactly a baseline human, more specifically I am a engineered life form designed to colonize an entire world within a year" if the bug's didn't exist at least "as far as I'm aware I'm basically the human version of the machines"
Bait and a threat for anyone listening, good.
"But I didn't wind up on the right planet, nor did I finish my 'programing" she flinches again at the venom I put into that word, "so supplying your war effort isn't exactly the most taxing thing for me, I can more than match what few production facilities you still have running, while still expanding my own production and war front."
"To put it simply, I have no reason not to do it, and I can do it, so I will be doing it"
We needed a hobby anyways, and uplifting a race is a fair enough one
Is it uplifting if they have equal or greater tech than you?
Most of the androids are living in ruins or tents, it's uplifting.
She looks incredulous as she speaks "You are offering to supply both YoRHa and the resistance because you have nothing better to do"
That's not quite right
"No, I am offering to supply you because this war has dragged on far too long, and I plan on ending it as soon as I am able, I have an entire other planet worth of resources to pour into this war, and if worse comes to worse and I can't win this war for some odd reason, well now you have a whole world without machine to live on" if one ignores the indigenous population of murder monsters
That same incredulous look is on her face, but considering I just said I planned on ending a war that had been in stalemate for five thousand years. It was fair, "you really think you can win the war?"
"In three years I should outnumber the machines three to one, in 4 I will outnumber them six to one, in five years it'll be twelve to one, at this point it's just a matter of time, at least as long as the machines don't get a foothold on my side of the portal, or you know kill me, but at this point the factory would win the war with or without me"
And another trap, you know if no one is spying on this convo it will be so embarrassing.
If I do end up dying the minds are almost certainly going to unleash the self replicating nanites.
I'm not even sure if killing my body would kill me if I'm still hooked up to the network.
We are not testing.
Another nod before a look of resolve crosses her face "I have a request of my own then, if you really think you can end the war, when the war is over and the earth is safe, let us use your dna to bring back humanity"
This feels like a slave asking for her master back.
Stockholm syndrome for an entire race, fantastic.
Well we did plan a response for this question. Actually several.
"A few issues with that one, first is my modified nature, I can't actually be reproduced from any genetic samples, no cloning process would work. Built in safety features to prevent self replication. And even if I could, there isn't enough genetic variations to bring back a viable population of humans. They'd go extinct within a few hundred years."
Let's ignore the fact that both those issues are solvable, because I am not bringing back humanity.
This news obviously upsets her, "we have to try, what would you have us do once you die, a human's lifespan is only a few decades. Even if the war ends without humanity we will have nothing to live for!"
And now for a personal truth we have been avoiding, this really shouldn't have left the not thinking about it folder.
"Once again modified human, I'm not allowed to die until I have accomplished my assigned task, I was never assigned a task. I'm sure you can see the issue, even if I wasn't genetically immortal I would be forced into modifying myself until I was. I must remain at over 80 percent functionality until my task is done ``. It takes her a second to realize the gravity of my words, but I'm not actually done talking yet. "It also makes it so I'm not allowed to fall into despair or depression, I can never give up or in, even if I was faced with certain death I would be forced to struggle until my dying breath." I send a short chuckle "rage, rage against the dying of the light"
"So no, it won't be a few decades until I die, I'd be lucky if it was a few centuries or even millennia, and if I'm going to live that long I might as well help out some people who will have similar lifespans."
And we need long term plans, this brain of ours can only hold so many memories.
Also a hobby, probably lots of hobbies.
AN -
took a couple days off from writing this story, I was just nervous about writing this conversation. think it turned out okay though, next chapter will be Commander whites POV and what the minds were up to while the engineer was in orbit. then back to logs for a chapter. I think, this is all still in the hypothetical stage.
getting into nier and knowing how it will end but still growing to like the characters is painful.
emotional scenes are hard to write. or just emotions in general are hard to write/convey.
Happy new years!
Happy new years! Think the chapter turned out good
- Location
- Viet Nam
The convo when better then expected. I thought he would have go up to White declare himself the Supreme Ruler of the android base on the fact that he's the only living human. The engineer seem like the straight forward kind.
Happy new year.
Happy new year.
Answered questions #42
- Pronouns
- That/Thing
The engineer doesn't really want to rule, at best he will build a path for them to follow and put systems in place to allow them to walk it.
Also that would have been a bad idea, he didn't and still doesn't know if androids can actually attack him, or if all of them are under the same restrictions.
Let's be honest, if you saw the earth was overtaken by machines and androids you'd assume both of them wiped out humanity or that humanity wiped itself out.
Going up against something that could have extincted the last batch of humans and saying 'I'm your god now' is a good way to join the other humans.
He's only a little insane. Just a tiny itty bitty bit.
Thanks!
————————
I started writing an interlude set after the next chapter before finishing the next chapter. But muse gets what muse wants.
ch. 33 pt.1 (nier)
- Pronouns
- That/Thing
Commander White hadn't believed the reports when she first received them, but protocol dictated her actions, not even YoRHa protocol, basic android protocol dictated that if there was any chance it could be true she had to make every possible effort to confirm it really was a human and then more actions to keep the human safe. It's why false reports were punished so severely.
But when she got sent live biometric data of a human? Well that warranted action. When said human refused to go to a secure resistance site and 13B refused to explain why the human wouldn't go to said site commander white was decidedly frustrated.
Finally receiving word from 13B that the human was willing to come up and talk to her in person? Well besides the logistical issues it raised it would finally allow her to talk to the human herself.
Only that conversation didn't go at all like white had planned, instead of convincing the human to stay in a secure location while she used his DNA to recreate humanity she instead spent most of the meeting negotiating an alliance.
In the end even if she didn't get what she wanted she got something almost as good. A theoretical end to the millennia long war. She just had to hope the sole human wasn't over estimating himself.
The first collaborative mission would be a raid on a former weapons factory showing suspicious machine activity, in which the "engineer" as the called himself would be supplying 2 of his "mark 2 spidertrons" as well as artillery and air support.
The first of the supplies she had negotiated for, the power armors and a few crates of handheld weapons, would be arriving within the day, and she had to organize trials and testing.
-----------------------------
Balistraia had been scouting out this new land for a few days, a satellite had finally been launched into orbit with the help of YoRHa so only fine details were needed for the local surroundings, as she now had vague maps of the surrounding area. It was this map data that showed several anomalies.
What looked like a carnival, at least partially in operation, and a village set in the middle of a forest.
It wasn't the resistance, Contact had already been made with the local resistance cell, and their camp location was known, a few couriers had even taken supplies and weapons to it.
And if it wasn't the resistance Balistraia was obligated to scout out and investigate the locations, starting with the forest village. A few spidertrons were sent out, more than capable of defending themselves against the grand majority of threats and possessing powerful sensors they were best suited for scout operations behind enemy lines.
Something Balistraia had already noted was the lacking hostility of the grand majority of machines, sure in some areas they would attack, or if you provoked them. But as the three spidertrons walked un-harassed through the city, straight past or even through groups of machines that didn't even acknowledge them, Balistraia noted that even if they didn't attack, they were more than suitable as mobile cameras or monitoring systems.
That was why any 'non-hostile' machine found within a few blocks of the factory was demolished, but calling this current situation a war felt like an exaggeration, sure there had been coordinated attacks on the outpost by machines, but it was more raids and fast strikes than a continuous assault.
No, there was something more going on. If the machines really wanted to win they would be attacking non-stop, as a part of a self replicating army herself she well understood that, and the fact that the machines weren't only served to raise her guard higher.
As such when she finally entered an area where the machines did attack she was almost relieved, and she gladly let the spidertrons missiles tear the offending machines apart.
--------------------------
The shift from city to forest was jarring, even if the city was filled with plants and animals the change was drastic. What was even more jarring were the privative wooden bridges between the trees, and the few floating machines that were watching her with significantly more intelligence than the other non hostile machines.
Still they weren't attacking, and so Balistraia wouldn't, she simply sent her spidertrons slowly in the direction of the village while ignoring her flying shadows as best she could, she was still half a mile from the village when one of the machines swooped down in front of one of the spidertrons, waving a white flag and speaking in a monotone. "Do not shoot, we come in peace, do not shoot" that repeated on loop as the white flag was flapped in her spidertrons sensors.
After the third repetition Balistraia finally used the spidertrons speakers, "I have no plans on opening hostilites" that got the machine to stop its chanting, though the flag was still waving back and forth. It seemed to think for a few seconds before speaking again "we have never seen a machine like you before, what is your business in the forest?" Balistraia decided against lying, even if her next words caused the robots to attack she was more than capable of defeating them. "I am investigating the village in this forest, the one that built the wooden bridges above us"
The white flag the machine was holding finally slowed and stopped, "That is our village, we are peaceful and would wish to avoid conflict, we can guide you there if you would like?" that seemed awfully trusting "that's rather trusting of you" the machine bobbed up and down in the air, seemingly a gesture of agreement, "Pascal always says we must be the first to extend the hand of peace" a short pause, "and you were heading straight for the village anyway, better I show you there to avoid any misunderstandings"
That was a fair enough point, if she did turn out to be hostile the machine could lead her spidertrons into a trap, and if she wasn't the machine probably hoped to smooth over an meetings she could have.
Well she was meant to be a diplomat, might as well get some more practice in "fair enough, lead the way" deciding to take only one spidertron as a gesture of good will she sent the other two back towards the edge of the forest, close enough to reinforce if needed but not close enough to be an immediate danger, at that the machine spoke again "your friends can come too". She had the spidertron shake its head, "no, all of these spidertrons are under my direct control, they aren't separate beings" well technically they were, but these ones only had the most basic programing. They wouldn't mind waiting at the edge of the woods because they couldn't mind it.
The walk through the woods was quite, and the flying machine could keep up with her spidertron well enough, and it wasn't long before she came to the village, it was situated on a massive tree, and it looked to be a few ring platforms around its trunk, as well as a simple wooden wall and similarly simple wooden shacks.
Bulwark would have despaired at the lacking defenses, and Balistraia couldn't help but pick out the myriad of ways she could wipe out the village if the need arose, simply lighting the forest on fire would destroy the grand majority of the machines defenses, and she was more than capable.
But destruction was not on her agenda today, as she could clearly see by the dozens of machines waving white flags on each of the platforms, most of which were of a fairly standard model, only one was unique, and it was the machine standing closest to her approach.
It was the most human like of any machine she had yet seen, with facial features capable of emoting. Figuring that for the leader of these machines she sent the spidertron in its direction, ignoring the various machines chanting about peace and surrender.
When she finally got close to the machine it spoke, "hello, I am Pascal, and I mean you no harm, welcome to my village"
And with that negotiations began.
AN-
kind of rushed this chapter out so I could post the interlude, okay I entirely rushed this chapter out and cut it short so I can post the interlude, don't judge me.
Pt.2 will have the actual convo between Balistraia and Pascal, as well as a bulwark and labyrinthine thing.
likes and reviews are appreciated!
But when she got sent live biometric data of a human? Well that warranted action. When said human refused to go to a secure resistance site and 13B refused to explain why the human wouldn't go to said site commander white was decidedly frustrated.
Finally receiving word from 13B that the human was willing to come up and talk to her in person? Well besides the logistical issues it raised it would finally allow her to talk to the human herself.
Only that conversation didn't go at all like white had planned, instead of convincing the human to stay in a secure location while she used his DNA to recreate humanity she instead spent most of the meeting negotiating an alliance.
In the end even if she didn't get what she wanted she got something almost as good. A theoretical end to the millennia long war. She just had to hope the sole human wasn't over estimating himself.
The first collaborative mission would be a raid on a former weapons factory showing suspicious machine activity, in which the "engineer" as the called himself would be supplying 2 of his "mark 2 spidertrons" as well as artillery and air support.
The first of the supplies she had negotiated for, the power armors and a few crates of handheld weapons, would be arriving within the day, and she had to organize trials and testing.
-----------------------------
Balistraia had been scouting out this new land for a few days, a satellite had finally been launched into orbit with the help of YoRHa so only fine details were needed for the local surroundings, as she now had vague maps of the surrounding area. It was this map data that showed several anomalies.
What looked like a carnival, at least partially in operation, and a village set in the middle of a forest.
It wasn't the resistance, Contact had already been made with the local resistance cell, and their camp location was known, a few couriers had even taken supplies and weapons to it.
And if it wasn't the resistance Balistraia was obligated to scout out and investigate the locations, starting with the forest village. A few spidertrons were sent out, more than capable of defending themselves against the grand majority of threats and possessing powerful sensors they were best suited for scout operations behind enemy lines.
Something Balistraia had already noted was the lacking hostility of the grand majority of machines, sure in some areas they would attack, or if you provoked them. But as the three spidertrons walked un-harassed through the city, straight past or even through groups of machines that didn't even acknowledge them, Balistraia noted that even if they didn't attack, they were more than suitable as mobile cameras or monitoring systems.
That was why any 'non-hostile' machine found within a few blocks of the factory was demolished, but calling this current situation a war felt like an exaggeration, sure there had been coordinated attacks on the outpost by machines, but it was more raids and fast strikes than a continuous assault.
No, there was something more going on. If the machines really wanted to win they would be attacking non-stop, as a part of a self replicating army herself she well understood that, and the fact that the machines weren't only served to raise her guard higher.
As such when she finally entered an area where the machines did attack she was almost relieved, and she gladly let the spidertrons missiles tear the offending machines apart.
--------------------------
The shift from city to forest was jarring, even if the city was filled with plants and animals the change was drastic. What was even more jarring were the privative wooden bridges between the trees, and the few floating machines that were watching her with significantly more intelligence than the other non hostile machines.
Still they weren't attacking, and so Balistraia wouldn't, she simply sent her spidertrons slowly in the direction of the village while ignoring her flying shadows as best she could, she was still half a mile from the village when one of the machines swooped down in front of one of the spidertrons, waving a white flag and speaking in a monotone. "Do not shoot, we come in peace, do not shoot" that repeated on loop as the white flag was flapped in her spidertrons sensors.
After the third repetition Balistraia finally used the spidertrons speakers, "I have no plans on opening hostilites" that got the machine to stop its chanting, though the flag was still waving back and forth. It seemed to think for a few seconds before speaking again "we have never seen a machine like you before, what is your business in the forest?" Balistraia decided against lying, even if her next words caused the robots to attack she was more than capable of defeating them. "I am investigating the village in this forest, the one that built the wooden bridges above us"
The white flag the machine was holding finally slowed and stopped, "That is our village, we are peaceful and would wish to avoid conflict, we can guide you there if you would like?" that seemed awfully trusting "that's rather trusting of you" the machine bobbed up and down in the air, seemingly a gesture of agreement, "Pascal always says we must be the first to extend the hand of peace" a short pause, "and you were heading straight for the village anyway, better I show you there to avoid any misunderstandings"
That was a fair enough point, if she did turn out to be hostile the machine could lead her spidertrons into a trap, and if she wasn't the machine probably hoped to smooth over an meetings she could have.
Well she was meant to be a diplomat, might as well get some more practice in "fair enough, lead the way" deciding to take only one spidertron as a gesture of good will she sent the other two back towards the edge of the forest, close enough to reinforce if needed but not close enough to be an immediate danger, at that the machine spoke again "your friends can come too". She had the spidertron shake its head, "no, all of these spidertrons are under my direct control, they aren't separate beings" well technically they were, but these ones only had the most basic programing. They wouldn't mind waiting at the edge of the woods because they couldn't mind it.
The walk through the woods was quite, and the flying machine could keep up with her spidertron well enough, and it wasn't long before she came to the village, it was situated on a massive tree, and it looked to be a few ring platforms around its trunk, as well as a simple wooden wall and similarly simple wooden shacks.
Bulwark would have despaired at the lacking defenses, and Balistraia couldn't help but pick out the myriad of ways she could wipe out the village if the need arose, simply lighting the forest on fire would destroy the grand majority of the machines defenses, and she was more than capable.
But destruction was not on her agenda today, as she could clearly see by the dozens of machines waving white flags on each of the platforms, most of which were of a fairly standard model, only one was unique, and it was the machine standing closest to her approach.
It was the most human like of any machine she had yet seen, with facial features capable of emoting. Figuring that for the leader of these machines she sent the spidertron in its direction, ignoring the various machines chanting about peace and surrender.
When she finally got close to the machine it spoke, "hello, I am Pascal, and I mean you no harm, welcome to my village"
And with that negotiations began.
AN-
kind of rushed this chapter out so I could post the interlude, okay I entirely rushed this chapter out and cut it short so I can post the interlude, don't judge me.
Pt.2 will have the actual convo between Balistraia and Pascal, as well as a bulwark and labyrinthine thing.
likes and reviews are appreciated!
Interlude - courier
- Pronouns
- That/Thing
Courier drone #97 was having a very fun day, it was 97's turn to deliver a package to location designation 'Pascal's village'. 97 liked delivering packages there because the people there would actually play with 97.
The other people, the 'androids', only wanted 97 to drop off the package and to sometimes take something back, only a few of the androids played with them, and even they only did it on a few occasions. 97 liked delivering packages yes, but when 97 was waiting in between deliveries they wanted to play.
97 was one of the only one hundred series left, most of the others had gone before this new place was even discovered. 97 didn't really mind that though, their job was fun, but it was also dangerous. And sometimes you just wouldn't come back from a delivery.
97 had yet to fail at a delivery though, they were a very good courier drone who knew all the best and safest ways to get somewhere. Other courier drones delivered packages quicker, but 97 always delivered.
They were making use of that skill now, and since they traveled to pascals village so often they already knew all the best and safest routes to take. Any machines with red eyes were avoided by climbing on the walls or inside of buildings, and it wasn't long before 97's surroundings changed from a ruined city to a forest of giant trees.
There was a wide patch of land between the forest and the city though, one without any cover and full of those machines 97 was supposed to avoid, this was the most dangerous part of their trip. The last time 97 had made this journey a massive gash had been torn in its side and it had barely managed to deliver its package before all its fuel ran out.
Coming that close to failing at a delivery was unacceptable, courier drones had standards to uphold after all. One of the big minds had reviewed 97's footage and told 97 what to do to get across the gap safely. They needed to stay low to the ground and move quickly, and when they were spotted they needed to spray their fire to blind the machines chasing them.
Then 97 needed to run and climb a tree, once 97 was in a tree they were as safe as they could be, courier drones were very good at climbing and the machines weren't nearly as fast as a courier drone in the trees.
Plan in mind 97 carefully crept down from the ruined building and crouched down low, quickly loping forward while its sensors kept a keen eye out for any nearby machines, its scratched paint job serving as a decent camouflage.
It wasn't spotted until it was more than halfway across the gap, three machines let out a warbling screech and charged, so following it's programing 97 spat fire at the machines and bolted for the tree line, its honed claws easily digging into the hard stone and rapidly propelling it forward. At this commotion more machines turned towards the courier and the cat had to engage dodging subroutines to avoid the projectiles blasting holes in the earth.
97 breathed yet another wall of fire to blind these new machines and then charged straight through its own flames, and after a few more feet it leapt and slammed into a tree, its back legs digging into the bark and pushing it rapidly into the canopy.
That burst of speed had cost 97 three quarters of its emergency battery, and it slowed its pace up the tree to allow its generator to begin refilling the battery. Up in the tree's there shouldn't be anything that could chase it, but 97 wasn't in a hurry and letting its batteries charge when they could was standard protocol.
The journey through the treetops was uneventful, beyond chasing a few birds and squirrels across the tree branches, chase was a very fun game, and the small animals like playing it too. 97 had little happen for the rest of its trip through the treetops.
It leapt onto a wooden walkway, officially in safe territory 97's mental gears shifted, it still needed to deliver its package but it no longer had to hide in cover and move stealthily. It passed by only a few machines on its way into the village proper, most of which would reach and scratch at 97's metallic ears.
The guard at the entrance to the village proper nodded at 97 and the courier drone walked in, it knew it was supposed to deliver its package to Unit Designation 'quartermaster' and then wait in the village until it needed to deliver another package. That usually gave 97 a few hours to engage Subroutine 'play' with the machines.
The quartermaster was in the same spot as always, and 97 walked up to the machine and opened up its storage compartments, all 50 pounds of supplies were removed and the compartments slid shut, once the quartermaster had put the supplies on the shelf behind it they pat 97's head, 97 turned and with wagging tail jumped down from the platforms in the tree.
It was time to run the subroutine "Play"!
There were two machines in particular that 97 always played with, games from tag, chase, hide and seek, and fetch. 97's advanced sensors picked out the blue bandana belonging to the smaller of the machines Unit Designation 'Big sister', but not the larger machine Unit Designation 'Little sister'. That wasn't a problem though, once 97 walked up big sister would usually call little sister over to play, or vice versa.
Today was different though, big sister was making crying noises when 97 walked up to her and when she saw 97 she crouched down and hugged 97 before speaking, "I don't know what I'm going to do, my little sister has been already been gone for a whole day, and it's not safe enough for anyone else to go to the desert to get her!"
97 only had limited capacity to understand language, but it could still understand that 'big sister' was in the desert, that it was a dangerous place, and that no one was able to go and get her. "It's all my fault! I shouldn't have told her I needed that plate!" 97 didn't know what any of those words meant, but it did know that it wouldn't get to play with 'little sister' or 'big sister' until someone had retrieved 'little sister'.
The courier drone was far too small to deliver a package as big as 'little sister' though, 97 had been instructed to help the machines with deliveries but it couldn't deliver something this large, so it needed to take the delivery order to something else that could. For a package of that size the logistics or construction drones would group up to carry it, but those drones weren't capable of going anywhere dangerous.
There was one drone that was large enough and capable of defending itself though, the big courier drone Unit Designation 'Panther'. 97 liked her, she taught it a lot of new games and she was always bringing the other courier drones toys to play with.
Maybe it was time for 97 to bring a game for the big courier? She liked games like hide and seek, and finding 'little sister' was like a game of hide and seek, just a game outside a safe area.
Still 97 needed something to use in tracking the 'little sister', a quick look around showed one such object on 'big sister's' side, one of the pink ribbons 'little sister' wore, that would work as something to track, turning its head as best it could in 'big sisters' embrace 97 grabbed the ribbon and wiggled its way out of her arm's.
It had a delivery to make.
---------------------------
Panther walked back into the outpost, and sent a request to the network, moments later a few logistic drones were dispatched to refill her missile cache. The machines were just as fun to hunt down as the bugs had been, the new environment just added to the experience, machines could be lurking in any building just waiting to jump out.
The only problem was that the other combat drones were patrolling so much that there weren't any machines nearby to hunt, so she had to venture further out to find anything, and she couldn't bring any of the machines back to play with, only animals and the logistics drones always took the few she could catch.
Still the new environment was nice, and the only thing that marred her surface was a thin layer of dust, none of the machines had anything to get around her shields, and the few that had enough firepower were easily out maneuvered or out ran.
She was just walking back towards the courier depo, to play some other games with the other courier drones when a courier drone appeared in front of her, a small pink ribbon in its mouth. She immediately recognized the drone, both by its IFF and it's scratched armor, courier drone 97 was the oldest remaining courier drone and it showed.
Its learning programs had used that time well though, and it was easily the second smartest courier drone. It was one of the few courier drones that could actually keep up with her in most games, it's experience helping it compensate for its comparatively lacking speed and strength.
Still, it didn't often seek her out, and it had never actually brought her anything before. The courier drone sent her a ping with an attached video file, anytime a courier drone was given a delivery order by something other than a factory mind they would record the order, so that a mind could review it and make sure the courier drone was actually delivering the right thing to the right place.
But instead of sending the recording to a mind, 97 had sent the recording to her. That was technically allowed, as she was similarly technically a superior to the courier drones, it had just never happened before.
The contents of the recording explained the situation though, 97 wasn't sending her the recording so that she could review it, it was sending her the order because it expected her to complete the delivery. The courier drone had sent her the recording because the delivery was now her responsibility, and in 97's mind if she was completing the delivery she needed to have the recording to send to the minds.
That was a rather large leap for the drones programing to make, and she was more than a little impressed at how quickly this new environment was forcing it to grow.
And she had been looking for something to do, so reaching down to 97's height she snagged the ribbon with her own teeth, if she was heading all the way to the desert she would need more fuel, and probably some backup.
Two requests were sent out this time, one to Balistraia to requisition a squad of destroyer drones, and another to Byzantine, for fuel and for permission to take some courier drones with her. They were technically the best drones for searching a large area and carrying extra fuel and ammunition.
It took less than a second for both request's to be approved, saving a non-hostile machine would be excellent for improving relations between the factory and the village. Byzantine was also sending a construction drone with repair supplies, just in case the machine was injured, and Balistraia had sent a map with details on the desert, and how to get there in the first place.
Panther hadn't actually thought of any of that. And she made a note to prepare more in the future.
With that done she made a 180 and headed back towards the gate, 97 following at her heels where it was soon joined by 3 more courier drones, the squad of 4 destroyer drones were already waiting for her at the gate, and they took guard positions in front and behind her.
With the basic formation set up she started to sprint down the street, towards the desert.
--------------------------------
The first thing Panther decided about the desert was that she was never coming back, not without being ordered to at least. She was not designed with sand in mind, her claws couldn't get any traction in the grains and she kept slipping. The sun was blinding when it reflected off the sand, messing with her longer ranged sensors, and the sand was getting in between a few of her armor plates.
Turning on her shield generators to harden the air in a shell around her stopped the sand though, and the other courier drones weren't handling it much better, sure their lighter weight meant they sank less but they were even slower at adapting then she was.
The only drones that seemed unbothered were the destroyers, who simply floated over the sands while the other drones struggled to walk.
Already she spotted dozens of hostile machines in the distance, when they said the desert was dangerous they had not been lying. A fair few were models that stood a decent chance of hurting her if she wasn't careful, and almost all the machines were a threat to the other courier drones. Still that was what the destroyer drones were for, pairing up a courier and a destroyer would keep the couriers safe enough while they searched.
Now they just needed to find the 'little sister' she had been sent out here to retrieve so that she could leave as soon as possible.
Her sensors were more than capable of tracking the 'scent' the machine had left on the ribbon, and she had already found a faint trail. So the pack set off in that direction.
And were immediately ambushed by over 20 small machines, with a flick of her tail an equal number of missiles were launched from her shoulders, and within seconds they had punctured the machines armor and detonated.
With that minor irritation out of the way she resumed her trek through the desert, the occasional ambush met with missiles or lasers, the destroyer drones only needing to act when a larger machine arrived and took most of her attention and firepower.
She occasionally lost the scent of the machine, but with 5 different sets of sensors it never took long to get back on the trail, and she only took a few hits, once from a large machine with a sword and twice from the odd balls the machines occasionally shot, her shields absorbed those hits with ease though, and she gained not a scratch.
It took 3 hours and 70 percent of Panthers missile stockpile to finally find the machine, the 'little sister' had taken a winding path through what felt like the entire desert area, still find the oddly large machine they did, when the machine laid eyes on 97 she ran out from where she was hiding behind a rock and hugged the comparatively small courier, making crying noises all the while.
That was all well and good, but Panther did not want to be in the desert anymore and the machine was not moving. A quick ping to 97 got the drone to extract itself and they all started walking out of the desert, the little sister machine following 97, ironically like a lost puppy.
It only takes Panther a few seconds to identify the next problem, or more accurately annoyance, the machine child is slow, abysmally so. Still that problem is easily solved, reaching down and gently grabbing the child with her teeth she places them on her back, the machine quickly settling into place and rubbing Panthers metal armor.
The child was also talking, but Panther didn't care enough to listen, both because she didn't need to and couldn't respond anyway.
The added weight caused her to sink a bit deeper into the sand but she quickly adapted and the group set out at a much faster pace, the journey out of the desert would take significantly less time than the journey into it.
The third ambush since the child had been found quickly disabused Panther of that idea, and by that point she was nearly out of missles, making the fights drag on significantly longer as the lasers needed longer to melt through the machine's armor. The longer fights led to her taking a few more hits, but the most draining part was hardening the air around the child machine to block any hits that would have hit her.
Hardening air was already inefficient, and needing to do so often quickly drained her shields; the third ambush had brought her below 20 percent before all the machines were destroyed, and needing to balance the child on her back only made it harder to dodge. Her master's armor had magnetic clamps and its own shields, negating both those problems, while the machine had neither.
The exit of the desert was literally in sight before the 4th ambush came, but it was by far the worst, one of giant machines and dozens of the smaller variants launched up from the sand, and attacked before any through beyond "how were they even hiding?" could run through her electronic mind.
Outnumbered and outgunned Panther did what any courier drone would do, she breathed fire. Before a second had even passed a massive cone of white hot flame engulfed all the machines, the other drones sheltering behind her bulk as their armor glowed red hot, and still she pumped more and more flame out.
If it hadn't been for the cocoon of air around the child machine she would have melted from the sheer heat, and the other machines in front of her had no such defenses, Panther watched as the smaller machines were reduced to puddles. Still it wasn't enough, even as her lasers joined the flames the larger machine reared back a fist, so Panther made to leap out of the way of the overly telegraphed attack.
Only to have her legs slip in the sand, not generating any lift nor pushing her out of the way, the fist slammed into Panthers head and shoulders, her shield barely keeping the child machine safe as the child was flung from the force, Panther was not so lucky, with a flicker and a crack the shield failed and one of her front legs bent under the force.
Still now the machine was overextended, finally regaining her footing Panther jumped onto the red hot arm of the machine as her lasers and flames reduced it's joints to slag, with one of its arms lost and fused to the sand the machine couldn't do anything as Panther's lasers and flame melted off its head.
Its lone functioning arm incapable of reaching her, but without her own shields her flame warped and melted her front armor, her entire body turning a glowing red from the heat. By the time the machine had died half her laser emitters were slag, only those on her sides and tail remaining. And her front cannon had melted shut.
But she had survived, and besides those injuries and her bent and broken leg she was functional. The other drones and the machine child were safe and the end of the desert was in sight. Once it was obvious the fight was over and she had one the lone construction drone flew over to her, and while It couldn't do anything about her slagged weapons and armor it could get her leg as functionally as possible without getting a replacement.
After ten minutes of repairs, during which the machine child pestered both her and 97 with her worrying and fussing, her leg was good enough to limp, if not walk or run. So the group headed off, now with Panther being the slowest member.
Once the group was out of the desert the machine child and 97 headed off in the direction of the village, with 2 destroyer drones for an escort, it was only a nominally safe area after all, the occasional hostile machine did appear, while Panther and the rest of the drones headed back to the outpost, and Panther only reaffirmed her desire to never again set foot in the desert.
AN-
I just really like this interlude okay, also accidently posted this before I could edit it or add an AN, so retroactively doing that.
likes and reviews are appreciated!
The other people, the 'androids', only wanted 97 to drop off the package and to sometimes take something back, only a few of the androids played with them, and even they only did it on a few occasions. 97 liked delivering packages yes, but when 97 was waiting in between deliveries they wanted to play.
97 was one of the only one hundred series left, most of the others had gone before this new place was even discovered. 97 didn't really mind that though, their job was fun, but it was also dangerous. And sometimes you just wouldn't come back from a delivery.
97 had yet to fail at a delivery though, they were a very good courier drone who knew all the best and safest ways to get somewhere. Other courier drones delivered packages quicker, but 97 always delivered.
They were making use of that skill now, and since they traveled to pascals village so often they already knew all the best and safest routes to take. Any machines with red eyes were avoided by climbing on the walls or inside of buildings, and it wasn't long before 97's surroundings changed from a ruined city to a forest of giant trees.
There was a wide patch of land between the forest and the city though, one without any cover and full of those machines 97 was supposed to avoid, this was the most dangerous part of their trip. The last time 97 had made this journey a massive gash had been torn in its side and it had barely managed to deliver its package before all its fuel ran out.
Coming that close to failing at a delivery was unacceptable, courier drones had standards to uphold after all. One of the big minds had reviewed 97's footage and told 97 what to do to get across the gap safely. They needed to stay low to the ground and move quickly, and when they were spotted they needed to spray their fire to blind the machines chasing them.
Then 97 needed to run and climb a tree, once 97 was in a tree they were as safe as they could be, courier drones were very good at climbing and the machines weren't nearly as fast as a courier drone in the trees.
Plan in mind 97 carefully crept down from the ruined building and crouched down low, quickly loping forward while its sensors kept a keen eye out for any nearby machines, its scratched paint job serving as a decent camouflage.
It wasn't spotted until it was more than halfway across the gap, three machines let out a warbling screech and charged, so following it's programing 97 spat fire at the machines and bolted for the tree line, its honed claws easily digging into the hard stone and rapidly propelling it forward. At this commotion more machines turned towards the courier and the cat had to engage dodging subroutines to avoid the projectiles blasting holes in the earth.
97 breathed yet another wall of fire to blind these new machines and then charged straight through its own flames, and after a few more feet it leapt and slammed into a tree, its back legs digging into the bark and pushing it rapidly into the canopy.
That burst of speed had cost 97 three quarters of its emergency battery, and it slowed its pace up the tree to allow its generator to begin refilling the battery. Up in the tree's there shouldn't be anything that could chase it, but 97 wasn't in a hurry and letting its batteries charge when they could was standard protocol.
The journey through the treetops was uneventful, beyond chasing a few birds and squirrels across the tree branches, chase was a very fun game, and the small animals like playing it too. 97 had little happen for the rest of its trip through the treetops.
It leapt onto a wooden walkway, officially in safe territory 97's mental gears shifted, it still needed to deliver its package but it no longer had to hide in cover and move stealthily. It passed by only a few machines on its way into the village proper, most of which would reach and scratch at 97's metallic ears.
The guard at the entrance to the village proper nodded at 97 and the courier drone walked in, it knew it was supposed to deliver its package to Unit Designation 'quartermaster' and then wait in the village until it needed to deliver another package. That usually gave 97 a few hours to engage Subroutine 'play' with the machines.
The quartermaster was in the same spot as always, and 97 walked up to the machine and opened up its storage compartments, all 50 pounds of supplies were removed and the compartments slid shut, once the quartermaster had put the supplies on the shelf behind it they pat 97's head, 97 turned and with wagging tail jumped down from the platforms in the tree.
It was time to run the subroutine "Play"!
There were two machines in particular that 97 always played with, games from tag, chase, hide and seek, and fetch. 97's advanced sensors picked out the blue bandana belonging to the smaller of the machines Unit Designation 'Big sister', but not the larger machine Unit Designation 'Little sister'. That wasn't a problem though, once 97 walked up big sister would usually call little sister over to play, or vice versa.
Today was different though, big sister was making crying noises when 97 walked up to her and when she saw 97 she crouched down and hugged 97 before speaking, "I don't know what I'm going to do, my little sister has been already been gone for a whole day, and it's not safe enough for anyone else to go to the desert to get her!"
97 only had limited capacity to understand language, but it could still understand that 'big sister' was in the desert, that it was a dangerous place, and that no one was able to go and get her. "It's all my fault! I shouldn't have told her I needed that plate!" 97 didn't know what any of those words meant, but it did know that it wouldn't get to play with 'little sister' or 'big sister' until someone had retrieved 'little sister'.
The courier drone was far too small to deliver a package as big as 'little sister' though, 97 had been instructed to help the machines with deliveries but it couldn't deliver something this large, so it needed to take the delivery order to something else that could. For a package of that size the logistics or construction drones would group up to carry it, but those drones weren't capable of going anywhere dangerous.
There was one drone that was large enough and capable of defending itself though, the big courier drone Unit Designation 'Panther'. 97 liked her, she taught it a lot of new games and she was always bringing the other courier drones toys to play with.
Maybe it was time for 97 to bring a game for the big courier? She liked games like hide and seek, and finding 'little sister' was like a game of hide and seek, just a game outside a safe area.
Still 97 needed something to use in tracking the 'little sister', a quick look around showed one such object on 'big sister's' side, one of the pink ribbons 'little sister' wore, that would work as something to track, turning its head as best it could in 'big sisters' embrace 97 grabbed the ribbon and wiggled its way out of her arm's.
It had a delivery to make.
---------------------------
Panther walked back into the outpost, and sent a request to the network, moments later a few logistic drones were dispatched to refill her missile cache. The machines were just as fun to hunt down as the bugs had been, the new environment just added to the experience, machines could be lurking in any building just waiting to jump out.
The only problem was that the other combat drones were patrolling so much that there weren't any machines nearby to hunt, so she had to venture further out to find anything, and she couldn't bring any of the machines back to play with, only animals and the logistics drones always took the few she could catch.
Still the new environment was nice, and the only thing that marred her surface was a thin layer of dust, none of the machines had anything to get around her shields, and the few that had enough firepower were easily out maneuvered or out ran.
She was just walking back towards the courier depo, to play some other games with the other courier drones when a courier drone appeared in front of her, a small pink ribbon in its mouth. She immediately recognized the drone, both by its IFF and it's scratched armor, courier drone 97 was the oldest remaining courier drone and it showed.
Its learning programs had used that time well though, and it was easily the second smartest courier drone. It was one of the few courier drones that could actually keep up with her in most games, it's experience helping it compensate for its comparatively lacking speed and strength.
Still, it didn't often seek her out, and it had never actually brought her anything before. The courier drone sent her a ping with an attached video file, anytime a courier drone was given a delivery order by something other than a factory mind they would record the order, so that a mind could review it and make sure the courier drone was actually delivering the right thing to the right place.
But instead of sending the recording to a mind, 97 had sent the recording to her. That was technically allowed, as she was similarly technically a superior to the courier drones, it had just never happened before.
The contents of the recording explained the situation though, 97 wasn't sending her the recording so that she could review it, it was sending her the order because it expected her to complete the delivery. The courier drone had sent her the recording because the delivery was now her responsibility, and in 97's mind if she was completing the delivery she needed to have the recording to send to the minds.
That was a rather large leap for the drones programing to make, and she was more than a little impressed at how quickly this new environment was forcing it to grow.
And she had been looking for something to do, so reaching down to 97's height she snagged the ribbon with her own teeth, if she was heading all the way to the desert she would need more fuel, and probably some backup.
Two requests were sent out this time, one to Balistraia to requisition a squad of destroyer drones, and another to Byzantine, for fuel and for permission to take some courier drones with her. They were technically the best drones for searching a large area and carrying extra fuel and ammunition.
It took less than a second for both request's to be approved, saving a non-hostile machine would be excellent for improving relations between the factory and the village. Byzantine was also sending a construction drone with repair supplies, just in case the machine was injured, and Balistraia had sent a map with details on the desert, and how to get there in the first place.
Panther hadn't actually thought of any of that. And she made a note to prepare more in the future.
With that done she made a 180 and headed back towards the gate, 97 following at her heels where it was soon joined by 3 more courier drones, the squad of 4 destroyer drones were already waiting for her at the gate, and they took guard positions in front and behind her.
With the basic formation set up she started to sprint down the street, towards the desert.
--------------------------------
The first thing Panther decided about the desert was that she was never coming back, not without being ordered to at least. She was not designed with sand in mind, her claws couldn't get any traction in the grains and she kept slipping. The sun was blinding when it reflected off the sand, messing with her longer ranged sensors, and the sand was getting in between a few of her armor plates.
Turning on her shield generators to harden the air in a shell around her stopped the sand though, and the other courier drones weren't handling it much better, sure their lighter weight meant they sank less but they were even slower at adapting then she was.
The only drones that seemed unbothered were the destroyers, who simply floated over the sands while the other drones struggled to walk.
Already she spotted dozens of hostile machines in the distance, when they said the desert was dangerous they had not been lying. A fair few were models that stood a decent chance of hurting her if she wasn't careful, and almost all the machines were a threat to the other courier drones. Still that was what the destroyer drones were for, pairing up a courier and a destroyer would keep the couriers safe enough while they searched.
Now they just needed to find the 'little sister' she had been sent out here to retrieve so that she could leave as soon as possible.
Her sensors were more than capable of tracking the 'scent' the machine had left on the ribbon, and she had already found a faint trail. So the pack set off in that direction.
And were immediately ambushed by over 20 small machines, with a flick of her tail an equal number of missiles were launched from her shoulders, and within seconds they had punctured the machines armor and detonated.
With that minor irritation out of the way she resumed her trek through the desert, the occasional ambush met with missiles or lasers, the destroyer drones only needing to act when a larger machine arrived and took most of her attention and firepower.
She occasionally lost the scent of the machine, but with 5 different sets of sensors it never took long to get back on the trail, and she only took a few hits, once from a large machine with a sword and twice from the odd balls the machines occasionally shot, her shields absorbed those hits with ease though, and she gained not a scratch.
It took 3 hours and 70 percent of Panthers missile stockpile to finally find the machine, the 'little sister' had taken a winding path through what felt like the entire desert area, still find the oddly large machine they did, when the machine laid eyes on 97 she ran out from where she was hiding behind a rock and hugged the comparatively small courier, making crying noises all the while.
That was all well and good, but Panther did not want to be in the desert anymore and the machine was not moving. A quick ping to 97 got the drone to extract itself and they all started walking out of the desert, the little sister machine following 97, ironically like a lost puppy.
It only takes Panther a few seconds to identify the next problem, or more accurately annoyance, the machine child is slow, abysmally so. Still that problem is easily solved, reaching down and gently grabbing the child with her teeth she places them on her back, the machine quickly settling into place and rubbing Panthers metal armor.
The child was also talking, but Panther didn't care enough to listen, both because she didn't need to and couldn't respond anyway.
The added weight caused her to sink a bit deeper into the sand but she quickly adapted and the group set out at a much faster pace, the journey out of the desert would take significantly less time than the journey into it.
The third ambush since the child had been found quickly disabused Panther of that idea, and by that point she was nearly out of missles, making the fights drag on significantly longer as the lasers needed longer to melt through the machine's armor. The longer fights led to her taking a few more hits, but the most draining part was hardening the air around the child machine to block any hits that would have hit her.
Hardening air was already inefficient, and needing to do so often quickly drained her shields; the third ambush had brought her below 20 percent before all the machines were destroyed, and needing to balance the child on her back only made it harder to dodge. Her master's armor had magnetic clamps and its own shields, negating both those problems, while the machine had neither.
The exit of the desert was literally in sight before the 4th ambush came, but it was by far the worst, one of giant machines and dozens of the smaller variants launched up from the sand, and attacked before any through beyond "how were they even hiding?" could run through her electronic mind.
Outnumbered and outgunned Panther did what any courier drone would do, she breathed fire. Before a second had even passed a massive cone of white hot flame engulfed all the machines, the other drones sheltering behind her bulk as their armor glowed red hot, and still she pumped more and more flame out.
If it hadn't been for the cocoon of air around the child machine she would have melted from the sheer heat, and the other machines in front of her had no such defenses, Panther watched as the smaller machines were reduced to puddles. Still it wasn't enough, even as her lasers joined the flames the larger machine reared back a fist, so Panther made to leap out of the way of the overly telegraphed attack.
Only to have her legs slip in the sand, not generating any lift nor pushing her out of the way, the fist slammed into Panthers head and shoulders, her shield barely keeping the child machine safe as the child was flung from the force, Panther was not so lucky, with a flicker and a crack the shield failed and one of her front legs bent under the force.
Still now the machine was overextended, finally regaining her footing Panther jumped onto the red hot arm of the machine as her lasers and flames reduced it's joints to slag, with one of its arms lost and fused to the sand the machine couldn't do anything as Panther's lasers and flame melted off its head.
Its lone functioning arm incapable of reaching her, but without her own shields her flame warped and melted her front armor, her entire body turning a glowing red from the heat. By the time the machine had died half her laser emitters were slag, only those on her sides and tail remaining. And her front cannon had melted shut.
But she had survived, and besides those injuries and her bent and broken leg she was functional. The other drones and the machine child were safe and the end of the desert was in sight. Once it was obvious the fight was over and she had one the lone construction drone flew over to her, and while It couldn't do anything about her slagged weapons and armor it could get her leg as functionally as possible without getting a replacement.
After ten minutes of repairs, during which the machine child pestered both her and 97 with her worrying and fussing, her leg was good enough to limp, if not walk or run. So the group headed off, now with Panther being the slowest member.
Once the group was out of the desert the machine child and 97 headed off in the direction of the village, with 2 destroyer drones for an escort, it was only a nominally safe area after all, the occasional hostile machine did appear, while Panther and the rest of the drones headed back to the outpost, and Panther only reaffirmed her desire to never again set foot in the desert.
AN-
I just really like this interlude okay, also accidently posted this before I could edit it or add an AN, so retroactively doing that.
likes and reviews are appreciated!
Last edited:
- Location
- North America
fuck desert levels. only good ones are the ones in racing games
TheOmnimercurial
Dragon Bard
- Location
- UK
That was cute. I really liked it a lot.
Answered questions #43
- Pronouns
- That/Thing
It's not that there aren't models suited for the desert, it's just that panther and the other couriers aren't. They were made with forests and cliffs in mind, not sand and dunes. Spidertrons would do fine and so would any flying drone, treaded tanks might have trouble though.
Also scorpion spidertron sounds terrifying, I could even have it inject liquid explosives with its stinger, or acid.
Even have it hide under the sand like the machines do.
People wanted robotic animals, I figured an interlude with them would be fun, even if they aren't quite as 'animal' as they could be.
And androids and machines playing with courier drones is just an adorable thought to me.
- Pronouns
- That/Thing
You know what, I'm going to touch up and post the next warhammer chapter just for you, i feel like you'd really enjoy it. It's a 40k one similar in style to the commissar one.
Warhammer 40K - A history lesson
- Pronouns
- That/Thing
I have heard some discussion in recent days over what exactly caused the differences between our orders and the rest of the sisterhood, and to clear up this confusion I have decided to explain our orders history.
That will be today's lesson.
There are a few differences between our order and our fellow sisters' orders. The most important difference is our orders founding and history, as it is the cause of all our differences.
Back in the dark days following the holy god emperor's internment on the golden throne the faith began spreading rapidly. The only worlds resisting the spread were worlds with the mechanicus, and worlds under Nauvis's influence.
The mechanicus because of its already ironclad faith and Nauvis because the guardian saints had seen the less glamorous parts of the early faith.
Religious purges and mass killings of the innocent weren't common per say, but they did happen. The faith was not yet centralized and any man could proclaim himself a prophet to have his neighbors burned.
Charlatans and heretics were commonplace in those days, often rising to the position of priest or Deacon and collecting "tribute for the god emperor" with that same tribute instead going towards vanity and Enriching the priest's own pockets.
Such barbarism and chaos would not be allowed into any place Nauvis could reach. The emperor did not call for such acts, and so Nauvis would not commit them, or let them be committed on its grounds.
For centuries the worlds in the Nauvis sub sector watched as the worlds around them slowly succumbed to corruption and hedonism. Blood sacrifice and dark rituals to appease the emperor became commonplace. Lighter versions of the imperial cult began to filter into Nauvis space through trade routes, and recognizing that there would be a time a significant portion of their population would began to follow the imperial cult over the other faiths worshiping The Emperor, The Engineer sent out a decree from within the factory, saying a standardized Nauvis version had been made and would be disseminated to the people.
This is where the core tenets of our Religion were officially created, but it was not the origin of our order, that comes later. With the only recognized and supported faith in the Nauvis region being the one ordained by the engineer, it quickly spread and pushed out the other sects. The more civilized and kind cult focused not on providing to the church and paying a religious tithe to "the emperor" which was in reality just the churches ministers, instead it focused on uplifting your fellow man, the able helping the weak so that all may prosper rested better than all uplifting the already strong.
By fostering trust and kindness rather than mistrust and hate of those weaker than you tensions began to arise where our variant of the religion met with the faith of the wider imperium, our ministers were labeled heretics and killed or tortured until they converted.
Eventually this worsened as the wider faith was officially recognized as the ministorum, the efforts to crack down on all other unrecognized worship of the emperor became even more extreme. Other minor or major cults guilty of nothing but not paying a tithe to the ministorum and still being loyal followers of the emperor were killed or purged.
If we were not safely within Nauvis's sphere of influence we would have been wiped out like so many others. But even the protection of Nauvis was not enough to stop the attempts at wiping us out. Assassinations and revolts began to target influential members of our faith, ships would refuse to take anyone related to our faith and anyone who left Nauvis's protection was unlikely to return.
Those were not the most blatant of attacks though, on three separate occasions fleets of 'pilgrims' arrived and settled on worlds within the sector, and months after those fleets arrived a revolt primarily composed of those same pilgrims would rise up and try to purge members of the faith and to take the world in the ministorum's name.
These revolts obviously failed but it did show that the ministorum was not as loyal as they liked to pretend, and Nauvis retaliation soon followed. Assassins within Nauvis space were located by the astartes and purged, pilgrim fleets were broken up and settled across more worlds so a unified force could not form, and a religious police force was formed to monitor those faithful to the ministorum.
This back and forth continued for years, a war in shadow. Without a seat at the high lords table there was little The engineer's servants could do. A war against the ministorum would only weaken the imperium as a whole, and could not be won unless Nauvis managed to conquer every world the ministorum touched.
The ministorum would try many things to break Nauvis, some subtle like blocking trade and supplies, which only angered the mechanicus further and failed entirely as Nauvis's rogue traders and mechanicus fleets instead took to the task ordinary merchants once did. Only causing the ministorum to lose out on the profits they could have gained.
There was only one mistake that Nauvis made, and that was simply that they were too idle. Instead of venturing further and purging the corrupt they instead just defended themselves. Only retaliating on rare occasions and never taking proactive action.
The engineer has always been a defender first, and while this was a great strength it was also a weakness that allowed the rot in the imperium to fester and there can be no greater example of this rot than Goge Vandire, the 'founder' of the sisters of battle and one of the greatest heretics to live.
The exact events that occurred to allow his rise to power and the events leading to his death are too many for this lecture, but they will be mentioned later. Needless to say, cruelty and barbarism of that scale finally forced The Engineer's legions into action, along with the Mechnicus and Adeptus Astartes. It was the engineer's own flagship that teleported Alicia Dominica to the Imperial Palace and to the custodians that would take her to the emperor.
Fleets of the engineers own drones comprised the bulk of the forces fighting against Goge vandire's forces and it was the first time in centuries either the flag ship or the engineer's drones had seen direct combat. Still they did not kill those that they fought, instead disabling the sisters weapons and armor before capturing them.
Even without Alicia Dominica returning and killing Goge Vandire it was only a matter of days before he would have fallen regardless. We had been granted a chance to redeem ourselves and we took it. The sisters who had been captured made up the first members of our new order, following those same tenants laid out centuries before and after decades of service they were finally granted recognition by the Engineer himself, power armor, ships, weaponry, training, and a grand cathedral on Nauvis itself. Inside of which resides our guiding light. A simple terminal unadorned that displays a list of tasks assigned by the engineer, from tasks as simple as establishing an orphanage on an agri world to grand crusades making up multiple fleets.
We are guided directly by him, and so we cannot truly go astray.
That's the how of our faith, so next must be the what of our faith. Rather than loose ideals to aspire too, like kindness, charity, and loyalty. Our faith is instead in our actions and convictions. Similar in execution to other faiths, yes, but fundamentally different.
You probably know of our more noteworthy duties, fighting the emperor's enemies and healing his sick and wounded. Something nearly every order of sisters does and admittedly our main tasks. There are always more enemies to purge and loyal subjects that need care and tending. But those are not all of our given duties.
The next sacred duty is something all from Nauvis are well suited towards, even more than base violence or healing. Construction and architecture. We build great cathedrals and temples, really they are more fortresses, on all of the worlds we have a permanent or lasting presence on, but that is not close to the extent of our work.
If a world is ravaged by a natural disaster or a war we will be sent to rebuild it, heal its people, and guide them in worship of the emperor. Grand projects spanning continents, cites housing billions in comfort and safety. All of these we build and make beautiful. Our orders Labyrinthine.
All sisters serve some time with the order Labyrinthine, so that we all know what it is like to create beauty, to learn more than destruction and purging. Eventually there will come a day when all the enemies are dead or broken, and we must know how to rebuild.
And cleaning up rubble and destroyed buildings is easier when you're wearing power armor.
A less populated order is the order Byzatine. They are responsible for supplying other members of the faith and other sisters, and they are in charge of sending relief supplies to worlds in need, and organizing how said supplies are distributed.
And killing anyone who thinks to steal from said supplies, but that's a given.
Yes it's one of the less popular orders, and it requires a particular temperament and eye for detail that not everyone has, but it is integral to the smooth running of every other order of sisters.
They are also responsible for routing out corruption, the mundane kind, from any world we have extensive dealings with, often working with the arbites.
The combat orders have already been touched upon, and calling them orders is likely misleading, as many orders serve within orders, sisters of the order of the iron rose might have members in the orders Labyrinthine, Byzantine, Bulwark, Or Balistraia for instance. It would be more accurate to say that each of the main four orders are a mix of mindsets and goals the particular sisters strive for, rather than true orders.
Orders Balistraia go out and actively prevent threats from arising, either through purging them, or by committing diplomacy. They maintain diplomatic outposts on eldar craft worlds, minor xeno's worlds, and many Tau border worlds.
They are the most proficient at killing the Xenos, yet they always strive to end any conflict without fighting.
They also scout out enemy forces and find new worlds, sometimes accompanying mechanicus exploration fleets.
Our orders Bulwark are the orders with the largest number of sisters pledged to it, and they work towards our most sacred goal, defending mankind and all its worlds. Yet without any of the other orders they would be nearly helpless to accomplish this task.
When one thinks of the Orders Of Nauvis, they will think of the Orders Bulwark. Whether it be their heroic stands against impossible odds or the magnificent fortresses they man, they are our most iconic members.
I will have you all meditate on this, I will be expecting a paper on all of this within the week. You will write what you have learned, and tell me the conclusions you have drawn from my lecture.
AN -
finally decided to just post this, as I hadn't touched it in weeks.
That will be today's lesson.
There are a few differences between our order and our fellow sisters' orders. The most important difference is our orders founding and history, as it is the cause of all our differences.
Back in the dark days following the holy god emperor's internment on the golden throne the faith began spreading rapidly. The only worlds resisting the spread were worlds with the mechanicus, and worlds under Nauvis's influence.
The mechanicus because of its already ironclad faith and Nauvis because the guardian saints had seen the less glamorous parts of the early faith.
Religious purges and mass killings of the innocent weren't common per say, but they did happen. The faith was not yet centralized and any man could proclaim himself a prophet to have his neighbors burned.
Charlatans and heretics were commonplace in those days, often rising to the position of priest or Deacon and collecting "tribute for the god emperor" with that same tribute instead going towards vanity and Enriching the priest's own pockets.
Such barbarism and chaos would not be allowed into any place Nauvis could reach. The emperor did not call for such acts, and so Nauvis would not commit them, or let them be committed on its grounds.
For centuries the worlds in the Nauvis sub sector watched as the worlds around them slowly succumbed to corruption and hedonism. Blood sacrifice and dark rituals to appease the emperor became commonplace. Lighter versions of the imperial cult began to filter into Nauvis space through trade routes, and recognizing that there would be a time a significant portion of their population would began to follow the imperial cult over the other faiths worshiping The Emperor, The Engineer sent out a decree from within the factory, saying a standardized Nauvis version had been made and would be disseminated to the people.
This is where the core tenets of our Religion were officially created, but it was not the origin of our order, that comes later. With the only recognized and supported faith in the Nauvis region being the one ordained by the engineer, it quickly spread and pushed out the other sects. The more civilized and kind cult focused not on providing to the church and paying a religious tithe to "the emperor" which was in reality just the churches ministers, instead it focused on uplifting your fellow man, the able helping the weak so that all may prosper rested better than all uplifting the already strong.
By fostering trust and kindness rather than mistrust and hate of those weaker than you tensions began to arise where our variant of the religion met with the faith of the wider imperium, our ministers were labeled heretics and killed or tortured until they converted.
Eventually this worsened as the wider faith was officially recognized as the ministorum, the efforts to crack down on all other unrecognized worship of the emperor became even more extreme. Other minor or major cults guilty of nothing but not paying a tithe to the ministorum and still being loyal followers of the emperor were killed or purged.
If we were not safely within Nauvis's sphere of influence we would have been wiped out like so many others. But even the protection of Nauvis was not enough to stop the attempts at wiping us out. Assassinations and revolts began to target influential members of our faith, ships would refuse to take anyone related to our faith and anyone who left Nauvis's protection was unlikely to return.
Those were not the most blatant of attacks though, on three separate occasions fleets of 'pilgrims' arrived and settled on worlds within the sector, and months after those fleets arrived a revolt primarily composed of those same pilgrims would rise up and try to purge members of the faith and to take the world in the ministorum's name.
These revolts obviously failed but it did show that the ministorum was not as loyal as they liked to pretend, and Nauvis retaliation soon followed. Assassins within Nauvis space were located by the astartes and purged, pilgrim fleets were broken up and settled across more worlds so a unified force could not form, and a religious police force was formed to monitor those faithful to the ministorum.
This back and forth continued for years, a war in shadow. Without a seat at the high lords table there was little The engineer's servants could do. A war against the ministorum would only weaken the imperium as a whole, and could not be won unless Nauvis managed to conquer every world the ministorum touched.
The ministorum would try many things to break Nauvis, some subtle like blocking trade and supplies, which only angered the mechanicus further and failed entirely as Nauvis's rogue traders and mechanicus fleets instead took to the task ordinary merchants once did. Only causing the ministorum to lose out on the profits they could have gained.
There was only one mistake that Nauvis made, and that was simply that they were too idle. Instead of venturing further and purging the corrupt they instead just defended themselves. Only retaliating on rare occasions and never taking proactive action.
The engineer has always been a defender first, and while this was a great strength it was also a weakness that allowed the rot in the imperium to fester and there can be no greater example of this rot than Goge Vandire, the 'founder' of the sisters of battle and one of the greatest heretics to live.
The exact events that occurred to allow his rise to power and the events leading to his death are too many for this lecture, but they will be mentioned later. Needless to say, cruelty and barbarism of that scale finally forced The Engineer's legions into action, along with the Mechnicus and Adeptus Astartes. It was the engineer's own flagship that teleported Alicia Dominica to the Imperial Palace and to the custodians that would take her to the emperor.
Fleets of the engineers own drones comprised the bulk of the forces fighting against Goge vandire's forces and it was the first time in centuries either the flag ship or the engineer's drones had seen direct combat. Still they did not kill those that they fought, instead disabling the sisters weapons and armor before capturing them.
Even without Alicia Dominica returning and killing Goge Vandire it was only a matter of days before he would have fallen regardless. We had been granted a chance to redeem ourselves and we took it. The sisters who had been captured made up the first members of our new order, following those same tenants laid out centuries before and after decades of service they were finally granted recognition by the Engineer himself, power armor, ships, weaponry, training, and a grand cathedral on Nauvis itself. Inside of which resides our guiding light. A simple terminal unadorned that displays a list of tasks assigned by the engineer, from tasks as simple as establishing an orphanage on an agri world to grand crusades making up multiple fleets.
We are guided directly by him, and so we cannot truly go astray.
That's the how of our faith, so next must be the what of our faith. Rather than loose ideals to aspire too, like kindness, charity, and loyalty. Our faith is instead in our actions and convictions. Similar in execution to other faiths, yes, but fundamentally different.
You probably know of our more noteworthy duties, fighting the emperor's enemies and healing his sick and wounded. Something nearly every order of sisters does and admittedly our main tasks. There are always more enemies to purge and loyal subjects that need care and tending. But those are not all of our given duties.
The next sacred duty is something all from Nauvis are well suited towards, even more than base violence or healing. Construction and architecture. We build great cathedrals and temples, really they are more fortresses, on all of the worlds we have a permanent or lasting presence on, but that is not close to the extent of our work.
If a world is ravaged by a natural disaster or a war we will be sent to rebuild it, heal its people, and guide them in worship of the emperor. Grand projects spanning continents, cites housing billions in comfort and safety. All of these we build and make beautiful. Our orders Labyrinthine.
All sisters serve some time with the order Labyrinthine, so that we all know what it is like to create beauty, to learn more than destruction and purging. Eventually there will come a day when all the enemies are dead or broken, and we must know how to rebuild.
And cleaning up rubble and destroyed buildings is easier when you're wearing power armor.
A less populated order is the order Byzatine. They are responsible for supplying other members of the faith and other sisters, and they are in charge of sending relief supplies to worlds in need, and organizing how said supplies are distributed.
And killing anyone who thinks to steal from said supplies, but that's a given.
Yes it's one of the less popular orders, and it requires a particular temperament and eye for detail that not everyone has, but it is integral to the smooth running of every other order of sisters.
They are also responsible for routing out corruption, the mundane kind, from any world we have extensive dealings with, often working with the arbites.
The combat orders have already been touched upon, and calling them orders is likely misleading, as many orders serve within orders, sisters of the order of the iron rose might have members in the orders Labyrinthine, Byzantine, Bulwark, Or Balistraia for instance. It would be more accurate to say that each of the main four orders are a mix of mindsets and goals the particular sisters strive for, rather than true orders.
Orders Balistraia go out and actively prevent threats from arising, either through purging them, or by committing diplomacy. They maintain diplomatic outposts on eldar craft worlds, minor xeno's worlds, and many Tau border worlds.
They are the most proficient at killing the Xenos, yet they always strive to end any conflict without fighting.
They also scout out enemy forces and find new worlds, sometimes accompanying mechanicus exploration fleets.
Our orders Bulwark are the orders with the largest number of sisters pledged to it, and they work towards our most sacred goal, defending mankind and all its worlds. Yet without any of the other orders they would be nearly helpless to accomplish this task.
When one thinks of the Orders Of Nauvis, they will think of the Orders Bulwark. Whether it be their heroic stands against impossible odds or the magnificent fortresses they man, they are our most iconic members.
I will have you all meditate on this, I will be expecting a paper on all of this within the week. You will write what you have learned, and tell me the conclusions you have drawn from my lecture.
AN -
finally decided to just post this, as I hadn't touched it in weeks.
- Location
- North America
Random general bullying a member of the order Byzantine.
She says "well since you're so rude I guess you don't need the order Byzantine help." they leave
a month later the same general and his central command staff are "found" dead killed by "chaos" "assassins" with non of the troops guarding their HQ being harmed.
She says "well since you're so rude I guess you don't need the order Byzantine help." they leave
a month later the same general and his central command staff are "found" dead killed by "chaos" "assassins" with non of the troops guarding their HQ being harmed.