Alright, the Goo need an infantry unit, several actually, those that can enter buildings, take cover, and actually fight somewhat smart than just zerg rushing like most of the goo units I have. Using my control in the Network, I sort of create a little planning area. Its not much but it will do for now, ok this looks weirdly like a mix of CAD and Blender but with materials, shaping tools, and the like. I already had a design in mind, since its probably the best thing I could use for my goo.
Ok, design the skeleton frame, with reinforced ball joints, allow the limbs to basically move around and in unnatural ways, open up a small cavity in the 'abdomen' area, add the center core, taking inspiration from the human's Valiant units, add those gears here, here, and here. Add a sort of 'blood vessel' system but with thicker 'veins', a flashlight-camera hybrid on the 'face' with armor plating that can open and close with a small 'hole' to act as a visor for the camera to protect said camera and hopefully this looks alright. There, an altered creation of the Vex Goblin. It looks better armored, doesn't have that head fan and actually looks a bit more threatening too. I repeat this process until I had the hornless-Hobgoblin, and the armored up Minotaur, I can't create Harpies or anything flying like that until I found a way... to... hold up I'm being an idiot again. I look up the tech base of the Grey Goo-verse humans and, aha that is what I'm looking for. Anti-grav hover cores, with some ion propulsion emitters. I 'design' the Harpy and so far I'm happy with my designs.
Now a way to make them, maybe just have the units just constructed by the Protean masses? No that won't work, I need a Mother in order to do this right, they are the ones who are the most efficient when it comes to replicating nanites and using the fabricator part of said nanites. Fuck it, let's try it. I had one of the mothers inside the depths of the Incorruptus wreck begin constructing a single goblin.
I watch the process closely, inside the protean mass I watch as nanites fuse and flow together swirling almost gently around the constructing Goblin frame. Ok, so far so good. I watch as the Goblin is made and I notice the armor is kind of grey, the metals in the planning area didn't have any good descriptions to them. I checked to see how much mass did it take to make the Goblin as it finished. Not much actually, less than a single Drover which is good. Now I had the mother gently get away from it without accidentally eating it, for the most important part. It's simple enough to make a tiny protean mass, now I simply had to guide it into the abdomen and enter the system.
Slightly giddy, I watched as the core spun up with the help of the Goo coursing through it, I watched as the nanites flowed through the outer vessel system, along with the gear point system. Some of the goo nearly flowed out of the semi-exposed gears but quickly sucked itself back in. I watched as the Goblin twitched, then it convulsed, then the light camera eye flashed blue and then- BOOM -it exploded. What happened?!
I played back my memory and slowly watched what was happening to the Goblin frame. Ah, ok. I thought I could get away with just making a protean mass for each one, but nope. It does not know how to use the frame in the first place, I felt it croon sadly in the back of my mind through the network. I can't blame it, I blame myself for trying to be lazy with it. I took control of the tiny protean mass and ordered for the 'corpse' of the Goblin frame to be reabsorbed and rebuilt.
With it rebuilt and in front of me as a lifeless puppet, I guided the human child sized protean mass into the abdomen and flowed into the core first, the goo flowing with the viscosity of milk as I guided the nanites to flow through the built in vessels, channels, and gear points. Interfacing with the Spinal Computer, all of a sudden I can now see from the camera light of the goblin.
Alright good good good, so far no kaboom. Now, let's test the limbs. I motion for the Goblin to move its ball jointed limbs and feel like that was a bad idea since the Goblin frame is now flailing around. Ok note to self, tighten ball joints or maybe switch it out for something else. I tried to take a step forward with the Goblin and it basically did the splits and the frame popped a leg off.
DAMN IT! Ok ok, calm down Eien. You can do this. Let's just quickly go back to the drawing board and check out the Valiant tech and see if I can incorporate anything into the limbs. Alright, the Valiant's joints are also ball jointed. But what is keeping them from flopping... aaahhhh... clever, there joints have an extra gear that tightens the ball joint. I go into the Planning Room and slightly altered all the designs to incorporate that, eh I'mma just call it the Grip Clamp.
Now to test the extra 'blood vessel' system I added into these frames. I opened small 'gates' in the system and had the nanites flow throughout the rest of the Goblin frame to make the minor changes to the joints. Then once that is done, I had them flow back into the vessel system and close the gate. Alright that is a success.
Ok, let's test the locomotor and limb control again. I take a step, then another, then another, then another. I go for a slightly bouncy jog around the room. Yes... YES!!! I can walk again!
If anyone entered the room, they would be treated to the sight of a Vex Goblin dancing and prancing around the room.
AH! Focus! This machine has no weapons, so let's just quickly go through Grey Goo-verse tech and the Imperial weapons I... 'kindly requisitioned' from the good Inquisitor's armory. Now, back in the Planning Room. For the Goblin, let's go with a plasma shifting rifle! A more refined and more rapid firing version of the Strider's plasma projectile that has the capability of switching into a close range plasma shotgun slightly more powerful than the Drover's. Worked out a few kinks in the planning room and I had the mother goo in the room with the Goblin create the rifle. I giddily grabbed it and aimed it at the wall, no need for iron sights cause I got computer targeting. Heh.
I fire one shot, and that's good, I burst fired, oh that feels so good! The sound! It sounds like the Advent magnetic weapons in XCOM 2~ I had the nanites connect from the arm vessels into the Shifter Rifle and commanded it to shift into shotgun mode. It did and it did so quickly, oh yes. Now to fire -BOOM- FUCK! It exploded in my hand.
Checking what happened, apparently the firing mode shift caused the barrel to tighten and close up, so the plasma couldn't exit the barrel and thus kaboom. Ok let's redesign the thing, maybe make it a slight bit bulkier so I can fit two different barrels instead of shifting one.
One remade hand and Shifter Rifle later, I was the happy owner of a Goblin with an plasma assault rifle shotgun shifting hybrid. Now for the Hobgoblin's weapon. Yours will be very different, cause it will be something more along the lines of a magnetically charged rail gun using the Imperial's soda can sized Bolter Round. Fuck this is going to blow up some poor sucker's head.
I left the designer to figure out how to design this Geneva Convention violating piece of crap and had the mother goo create the Hobgoblin, the Minotaur, and the Harpy frames. I exited the Goblin frame and let it 'power down' before I basically copied my actions and experience and put it into a program for the newly named Puppeteer Protean and classed that line of code for the Goblin Frame.
Figuring out how to control the Hobgoblin and the Minotaur frames were actually fairly similar, so they were quickly done. It is the Harpy that is completely different, as I 'started' the main core of the Harpy I activated the anti-grav core that is connected to the main core. Flowing the nanites throughout the body I tried to control it's flight and -BANG- I wedged it into the damned ceiling.
Ok so flying is a lot harder than it looks, flying without wings is definitely as hard as it sounds. I had a newly made Puppeteer Protean flow into the Minotaur frame and had it pull the Harpy from out of the ceiling. Repairing the Harpy frame, I set out to try again... this time there are Mother Goos on the ceiling and the walls to catch me.
Carefully floating up with the anti-grav core, I used the six ion emitters in the frame's three different panels and carefully floated around the room. Slowly I get the hang of it, and fired up the emitters a bit more and I planted the Harpy face first into one of the mothers, thankfully the sweetheart gently brought the Harpy out. With that said, I had the Harpy fly around the room basically just doing whatever, the six 'tentacles' (These are very thin can I even call them tentacles?) undulating behind me as I dashed around the room. My creations used the other frames to even clap for me, aww how sweet. I sent a thankful burst of code throughout the Goo Network and I felt it sing back at me. That feels... nice.
With that done, it's time for weapons testing. Oh, don't worry Harpy I will use you for a lot of flying later. Ok, after making the control code for the Harpy frame, the Puppeteer Protean now has the control codes for the Goblin, Hobgoblin, Minotaur, and Harpy! Now I just need to add the codes for how to use the weapons and we are golden.
Taking control of the Puppeteered Hobgoblin, I reached into the Mother Goo that constructed the finished design for my new Boomstick!... Alright let's not call the sniper rifle that. Let's see... uhh, let's go with the Cracking Rifle. Let's aim, charge the rails and -BOOM- Oh GOD... damn it? Huh the gun is still fine, the rails are a bit smoking but what made the boom... oh. The wall that I shot at had this rather impressive crater in it. Uhhhh let's change the ammunition to something a bit more... elegant. I designed a knockoff Bolter round sized bullet that is actually more used for penetrating armor... This is now an anti-tank rifle I am using as a sniper rifle. Man I'm glad I'm not part of the Geneva Convention right now cause I would be violating so many things. I'm now really giving it the name Cracking Sniper Rifle cause of the visible and audible CRACK sound when firing this bitch.
After redesigning the Cracking Sniper Rifle to have a bit more cooling on the rails, I started designing the big boi Minotaur's Cannon, the Minotaur are going to be my heavy bois so they should get a heavy weapon. I make large cannon, well I say large the thing can be one handed by the Minotaur. It is a plasma cannon with a unique feature, hehehe. The Destructor's plasma ball cannon is powerful, it really is. So for the Minotaur's Hammer Cannon, I decided to give it a bit of an extra kick. Within the chamber, the plasma will gather around into an orb that is then contained by a thin visible layer of nanites. The nanites will then act as a sort of bullet casing, and the built in magnetic rails will launch the plasma ball at a speed faster than the Destructor's slow moving plasma blasts.
Taking control of the Minotaur, I reach into the Goo Mother and pull out the constructed Hammer Cannon and took aim at the ruined wall. Standard procedure, nanites connect with the weapon and let it charge the plasma ball, coat it with nanites using their plasma cores to keep the plasma ball volatile but contained and launch it with barely any recoil. Voila! The plasma blast is exactly like the Destructor's just with a faster 'bullet speed', oh this is great!
Now for the Harpy. I think it's a simple thing, just add three built in plasma repeaters on the shifting frame and done. Taking control of it and letting the nanomachines molest the damn thing, now it's got plasma repeaters. Shifting the panels to reveal the repeaters, I rapid fire blast at the pretty much destroyed wall and nodded with the Harpy.
My infantry design is finished. Now. The construction.
Switching back my consciousness into my first Goo Mother body, I quickly glided along the floor, excusing myself past Magos Aronna and Captain Oleg who were surprised at me moving fast. I almost didn't notice them follow me, with Aronna Mekaw opening a Vox channel to I think was the rest of the Imperials. I exited the ship and landed on the ground before eyeing my Purger with a very very excited look in my eyes.
I could see with my 360 vision that the other Inquisitor Thrax and his entourage came out to figure out why I was moving (can I use running?) like the devil was after my ass.
The Purger, in the game it is simply an epic unit that deals damage. In real life however, the Purger is just a morphed mass of Mothers with slightly altered programming and a merged consciousness.
I took control of several other Mothers outside the ship and had them gather together into a large hole I had my Bastions and Dwellers dig out quickly. I can tell the Imperial party behind me were both extremely cautious and confused as to what I was doing.
"Are you making another Purger lady Eien? Don't you have enough tentacles for the moment?" Thrax my boy, your sarcasm fails you right now.
Brightly, I turn around and shake my head with a wide smile on my face. It must have unnerved them since the twin felinids actually hid behind Titus and Oleg, and Aronna's Mechadendrites twitched at my smile. "Nope! I'm just beginning the construction of the army."
Got to give credit, Inquisitor Thrax did not bat an eye at what I said. He just eyed the Mothers that are flowing into the hole. "I am assuming it will be slow?" Now the hole looked like a lake of Goo. The Goo can basically change their viscosity into that of water, slime, or even be solid enough to stand on. I feel like a little 'Presentation' is in order, ah I feel like a chuuni with what I am going to do.
"Not exactly. Just watch." The Imperials and I watched as the Lake of Goo, or rather. The Sea of Iron let out pulse of energy throughout it in intervals. We watched as with each pulse, shadows formed in the bottom, eerily lighted up by each pulse of energy. Then blue lights appeared from the bottom, slowly raising up from the bottom of the Sea of Iron. Until the frames of the army slowly exited the Goo, weapons in hand, bright blue lights emitting from their camera eyes as an army began forming in front of our eyes.
Spoiler: The Army arose from the Sea of Iron
I turned back to them as they stood amazed at how fast I'm forming these 'soldiers'. "Soooo~" They looked at me with varying emotions on their faces. Although Thrax, Titus, and Aronna may very well be made out of stone with them barely reacting. Impressive really.
"What do you think?" I couldn't help but smile cheekily. Man, I feel childish for doing that.
You know? It felt kind of odd riding a Bastion like this. I feel like I'm in the stomach of an AT-TE except it waddles around a bit.
We had just left the forest's treeline and we were now assaulting the Ork outpost there. I felt the Bastion I was in shake and quickly had it drop us off and switched out, I looked from the bird's eye view of one of my Harpies. I mean sure I can basically feel and see through the Goo Network what all of my units are doing, but it just kinda doesn't feel them same with just looking from a high area.
But anyway, this is basically my combat infantry's first field test. Just throwing them into the gauntlet immediately, I felt the stored mass in the Goo Network as it fluctuated with the use and gain from my units and my other goo still eating the ship.
As of now? My units are actually doing kind of ok! The Bastions acted like mobile defense transports as they 'sat down' and dropped off the infantry within them before acting as slowly moving phalanxes as my combat infantry took cover behind them or random large rocks. Its good that they aren't standing out in the open for enemies to shoot at them.
It kind of feels like overkill, since well. This IS just an outpost, but I got a big robo army, and I want to see it blow shit up. I watched as Harpies flew over the place in flocks, blasting at any orks that took the high ground or even just picking them up and ripping them to pieces with their tentacles... yeah that was kinda gruesome.
Goblins and my few recently created Guard Hobgoblins were advancing with the Bastions, Minotaurs occasionally stepping out from underneath and firing their hammer shots at fortified emplacements or just at a random ork. One of the bigger Minotaurs grabbed a charging ork and basically yeeted him at another ork. That looked funny. Ah, one of the goblins got unlucky and got shot till it fell down defeated, too damaged to get back up.
I couldn't help but eye it and see if my 'vessel system' would pay off. If my harpy had a mouth, it would be smiling wide right now. Why? Because I see the downed Goblin's Puppeteer flow out of the exposed parts, trying to meet my code and trying to rebuild the goblin, my harpy did a barrel roll as I saw the goblin reactivate and stand back up. Aw hell yeah! I got my own [Reanimation Protocol] right here!
Then I saw another goblin become a victim of a rokkit basically leaving nothing but scrap. Ah, ok that's fair. Complete annihilation won't allow them to fix themselves back up. I should go back to my first body and see how the imperials are reacting.
CAPTAIN TITUS POV
The bastion we were in stopped at a small hill overlooking the battlefield, Inquisitor Thrax and the rest of us stood as we saw the first shots from the orks land around the assaulting army of the machine Eien.
My eyes hardened as I watched the army of machines march slowly with those bastion forms. Watching this unyielding tide of metal march slowly towards the orks feels both awe-inspiring and dread-inducing. Was this what my ancestors faced when fighting the Men of Iron? Did they also pick themselves back up even after being delivered a 'fatal blow'? Are we making a mistake letting the machine grow the longer we don't do anything to it? I understand what inquisitor Thrax says about being both outnumbered and outgunned, but still...
I heard the Magos' breath catch within her throat and I could not blame her for that. Seeing this machine's army must be grating her nerves on levels like an annoying ork screaming all day.
Hearing the telltale sound of goo swirling around, I turned to look at Eien forming up again. I walked towards the abominable intelligence and saw her turn to look at me. I feel like she didn't need to do so and just did it to make me more 'comfortable' with her, frankly seeing something clearly not human mimicking one feels very wrong. But I didn't let that faze me.
"You have returned Eien." I saw her nod at me and turn towards the battlefield, the orks were being overrun. One of those larger mechs fired at the gate of the outpost, that mech was larger than a dreadnaught. I don't want to see if this is effective against one of ours.
The machines swarmed in as soon as the gate broke down, some even decided to climb up the scrap walls in order to get in that way, those flying tentacled machines were swarming through the skies and either firing on orks or even grabbing them and dropping them from great heights. I can't help but picture imperial soldiers in their places, terrified and panicking at the tide of metal.
"Yep, my combat infantry despite being hastily redesigned are doing quite well if I do say so." My mind ground to a halt as I heard that sentence. 'Hastily Redesigned?'
I turn and questioned her, I noticed inquisitor Thrax and Magos Aronna were watching the one-sided massacre as well as listening to our conversation. "What do you mean by 'hastily redesigned' if you do not mind me asking?" I tried digging for information.
Eien turned her/its head towards me and turned back to the ork outpost as it caught fire while the few remaining orks there fought to the bitter end. "These frames were more for menial jobs than outright combat. They do their job well, but I will have to make more pure combat frames in the future." She/it said as if she/it was just talking about the weather. If I was a lesser man, I would have shuddered at that. I could definitely believe that this might have been the same thought process that the Men of Iron of old would have when they first started the rebellion.
This machine is kind, and I hope it stays that way. The Imperium does not need more enemies than it already has.
EIEN POV
The battle was over, and some Goo Mothers I brought began cleaning up the battlefield, splitting themselves and begin taking down the ork corpses and the outpost. Orks will inevitably somehow make another outpost here, so I just want to make it more difficult for them, even if it is just a little bit.
Gliding towards the others, I could feel the Ultramarine follow behind me while the other imperials turned from the finished battle to look at me approaching them. I look at them all and motioned for them to come closer, only the Inquisitor did so. Ok, hurt my feelings a bit more why don't you? I couldn't help but sarcastically think.
Shaking myself from my thoughts, I sprouted a radiant stalk on my shoulder and showed another map. It was a zoomed in version of the area we were in.
Spoiler: Da Map
Pointing at the blue text, I state the obvious. "As you can see, we are currently here. At the location of the once Ork outpost, the radiants I sent a while ago are keeping track of the Ork presence and we will need to cut through eastward. We WILL get spotted by some ork watchtowers high in the mountains and I don't know if we might get into a fight with the orks to the north if they decide to come down and try and set up an ambush." Thrax tapped his chin with a gauntlet clad finger and pointed at those ruins. Ah, those.
"Those belonged to what I think were the Imperial Guard and civilian villages, when my radiants explored those ruins there was nothing of note there. No corpses of any kind, whether human or ork. It was kind of concerning." The inquisitor nodded his head and turned towards the twin felinid girls.
He gave out orders to the two, they were dressed in what I think is armor somewhat similar to Imperial Guard ratling Sharpshooters just modified for the girls. "Ka-Le, Ka-Li. Head out and scout the area. if you find any watchtowers. Silence the orks inside or take out their communications to lessen the chance of us getting attacked on our way to the fortress." His order was met with twin replies from the felinid girls, ah right I never mentioned their equipment. They actually were wearing something akin to camouflage and both were wielding some kind of sniper rifle, a pistol, a sword, and a backpack.
Despite all that gear they got on all fours and seemed to dash across the ground quickly, cloaks flapping in the wind. Huh, they are actually faster than I thought. Looking back towards my forces, the goblins, hobgoblins, and the smallest minotaurs have all packed up back in the bastions with only the larger minotaurs riding in the back of the bastions' head.
The harpies don't really have much choice but to just keep up their flocks and flying around in the skies, mostly staying out of sight in the clouds or even close to the ground. Looking back to the map, I point at what seems to be an open area filled with fires. "As far as I can see, this area is a huge ork training ground, mek assembly site, among other things. To the north is the Chaos VS Ork line, most of the ork forces I noticed are over there. Once we get passed this area though, we will be right behind the ork forces sieging the fort."
They all nodded at that, I turned off the eye stalk and morphed it back into my body. I moved to the edge of the hill and watched over my forces, the goo mothers were splitting into more mothers, large proteans and small proteans. Good they haven't formed into anything yet I'd rather they form when we fight. This first battle was simply to test my new combat frames, with that test done I can now bring in my arsenal.
Both Goo Units and Combat Frames will make my army a force to be reckoned with. A presence was detected beside me, I quickly had a brief look and saw it was Inquisitor Thrax. We stayed silent as we watched as my army prepared to move out.
"You do know that once we reach the fortress, almost all of my entourage will immediately be outwardly hostile to you right?" The thought did cross my mind, and I'm glad that Thrax knew and honestly told me that once they were no longer in danger that they would not be so 'friendly' and I use that term loosely with me.
I nod my head. "I know. Which is a shame, since I believe you are one of those kind of people who would rather judge based on actions rather than from their reputation. Most imperials from your database abhor your... abhumans. Such a rather insulting word. But you. Inquisitor Thrax, you actively seek out those with talent, regardless of their appearance and reputation." It would be so easy, just to immediately go nuts and just slaughter everything in this universe. The more units I have, the faster I grow, exponential growth gets like that.
The silence between us grows as my forces finished packing up. "I will also have to compile a report to send back to the imperium. You will be worth I believe to be twenty pages. Maybe even another report." I close my humanoid shape's eyes and sighed. Oh, I most definitely knew that he was going to do it. One way or another I will be revealed anyway, but after dealing with this planet, maybe I can eat one of the planetoids in this warpstorm covered system.
Thrax turned back and headed towards the bastion they hitched a ride on. Looking up at the pinkish swirling sky, I slid back and head to another Bastion. I'd rather not be with them for now, heh. I guess the feeling is now kinda mutual... man I'm really alone.
-------------------oOo-------------------
It was a few explosions, but the possible ambush quickly became a very much real ambush right now. We were being bombarded by what I think are ork lobbas. I heard a brief static before it corrected the imperial's vox channel in my head. Thrax is barking out quick orders and it appears that the felinid girls are set up nearby to do some sniper rounds.
Ordering the harpies, I had them come down from the cloud camouflage and ordered them to wreak havoc on the ork artillery as my bastions dropped off their combat frames.
Damn, these orks are throwing quite a bit at us. Nobs and boyz are doing their best in trying to take out my forces, but with the bastions and my actual combat units repair capabilities. They don't have much to damage me.
"OI ME'DAL LADY!" What. I turn quickly towards the source of the noise and lo and behold it was the fucking Warboss. The very same Warboss who was out hunting near my base one day and decided to attack me with the help of one Murphy. "Am gonna do yer a faver, you'z turn back now, and me and da boyz won' embarrass ya." Hold up, what. Did an ORK give me the option to retreat?! Wait, this is the same ork who knows how to cut his losses and haul ass.
I narrow my eyes and call back out. "Before I answer that! What is your name ork?!" The warboss, hmm I haven't actually gotten a good look at him back in the forest during the skirmish.
But now, I can clearly see him. He looks menacing, he actually kinda looks like if a dreadnaught got orkified and- hold up is that a Commissar hat on top of his head? That is indeed a Commissar hat on top of his head. "Aight, I'mma answer that. Da name's Grimgor, da Black General." My eyes widened at that, I quickly looked at his weapons and he has a lot of dakka in his right arm, but his left he is wielding a bloody two headed power axe. This feels like a joke. Grimgor? The black ork from the Age of Sigmar spinoff of warhammer, is a talking smart commander?
Hmm. He's not just alone as well, come to think of it he is in a rather safe location despite its seemingly open area. Grimgor is easily the biggest, but his Nob guards are easily near his size. If I didn't recognize those Mega Nobz in Mega Armors, I would have thought he was being guarded by more Warbosses. Though, these nobz look a little different. For one their Mega Armor is even MORE armored, both arms were a weird mix of power klaws and heavy dakka guns along with a tower shield on both arms. I'm going to call these guys Praetorian Nobz for now.
I can't just fire at him with a hobgoblin, call it a gut feeling, but I don't think this ork titled the Black General would risk his life like this out in the open without a plan. If he is advertising himself as a general, then I'd rather not find out the hard way if I fire at him with a hobgoblin.
Oh wait he needs a reply. "How bout you go krump yourself you git!" This was not the best of taunts but surprisingly, Grimgor didn't rise up to my taunt, which usually would have gotten any other ork riled up on principle. I was treated to the sight of that warboss actually giving orders, I looked through one of the harpies to get a better tactical view of the battlefield.
Wow those orders are actually really impressive, coming from an ork that is. Nobz and shoota boyz are running in with killer kans supporting them, while I see that a- hold on now that is a Squiggoth. That is an honest to god Squiggoth supported by some, those are Squighog Boyz. This Grimgor is an actual fucking strategist?!
Ok I am NOT losing a battle of strategy against an ork! How the hell did he even get Beast Snaggas into his forces anyway?! Those guys are supposed to be Nomadic and not stay in one place! No matter, I directed two bastions to keep the squiggoth busy while I directed a few destructors, minotaurs and goblins from the reserve to take care of that flanking ork force. The bastions at the main line are making sure to lock most of those killa kans down while the goblins, hobgoblins, drovers, striders, minotaurs, and nearby destructors deal with the nobz and shoota boyz on the front line.
This feels so surreal, this not-Grimgor is not only a competent strategist, he also has somehow made it so that his orks actually listen to him, he should be a Warlord at this point not a fucking Warboss.
I could see Inquisitor Thrax and his retinue actually down there fighting. Oleg with his storm bolter and lots of ammunition, Magos Aronna actually has some form of power fists and she's literally just giving orks a brutal beatdown, her mechadendrites slicing, piercing, or in one case shooting orks left and right, Oleg and Aronna are covering each others back.
The two black templars and two apothecaries are fighting as a group, seems like they are doing extremely well for themselves- oh that asshole. He 'accidentally' shot one of my goblins in the back of the head. I'll get back at him later, moving on Thrax and Titus were fighting solo but they more often than not had each other's back like Oleg and Aronna do- oh Thrax just stomped on an ork nob'z head and crunched it like a melon.
Meanwhile I see the twins are actually picking their shots really well, as good as my sniper hobgoblins which is really impressive. Speaking of which, my standard hobgoblins supported by the spotter hobgoblins are doing really well. They are popping ork heads left and right, hell one of them even shot into and killed a killer kan. Some formed crescents interfaced with a spotter hobgoblin and actually launched their destructor nanites even farther, hitting the whole blob of orks behind the primary battleline.
Now, lets see if I ca- BOOM - What? I turned to where that explosion came from and saw that the Squiggoth fired it's kannon and it struck a large minotaur straight on the chest and knocked it down. Ok that squiggoth needs to go, I used the harpy I was controlling and called some more harpies with me and we descended upon that squiggoth and its riders like birds of prey. Some of the harpies took an ork, dropping them from above or just shooting them dead with their plasma repeaters. Hmmmm I can't help it. I want to see if ork tech is truly being powered by belief, I used my tentacles and broke down the squiggoth's kannon and stuffed the results in the back of my mind for later.
Getting off of the now ruined kannon, I had some destructors and minotaurs focus fire the squiggoth till it died. The squighog riders looked like they wanted to keep fighting but I saw Grimgor look in our direction and he didn't even talk at all and the rider boyz actually turned tail and hauled ass from our flank. This ork warboss is dangerous as hell, he EARNED that moniker. The Black General.
I switched back into my main body and looked around, this battle feels very weird. Had it not been obvious that we were fighting orks, I would have thought that I was fighting an actual disciplined army.
Ah, a squad of shoota boyz somehow got past the main battle line and are heading towards me, hmm I actually haven't fought using my Eien form. Let's test that.
My lower protean mass half glided across the ground, back then I practiced modifying my humanoid body shape adding and subtracting nanomachines to get different shapes and effects. I added more nanites to my arms and felt them grow even larger, swiping one forwards I grabbed an ork boy who angrily yelled at me, so I did the mature thing and just used him like a club against one other shoota boy. Huh I actually killed them both with that.
I felt bullets get shot into me, some of the nanomachines got damaged from the impacts, but I quickly dashed towards the shooting shoota boyz and turned an arm into a destructor plasma cannon blaster, I fired them at the shoota boyz causing them to stop shooting in a panic, but that was enough. My other arm grabbed both orkz and I threw them high in the sky before shooting them with my plasma cannon arm. They exploded, and I reverted my arms.
Looking around, the battle was still raging on, I decided to move my main body towards where the imperials were, some part of my processing power was helping to direct the battle via the Goo Network. Multi-tasking is kind of difficult but I can do it.
Soon after I found Thrax and Titus, they were a little separated. I saw an ork with a rokkit aiming at Titus' back, he doesn't notice it. Dashing quickly I slid to a stop behind him, he turned his head back to look at me in slight confusion and slight panic at seeing me so close.
But I couldn't answer as I turned viscous enough that the rokkit entered me before stopping as it stretched my insides- and that sounded incredibly wrong. Ignore that! Anyway! The rokkit was stopped by me as I quickly got to work at dissolving it, while I ordered a hobgoblin to shoot that ork's head off.
I turned back to see Titus nod his head at me, I nodded back and he ran off.
Looking back, I saw Grimgor narrow his eyes at me before looking at the entire battlefield, he must have seen something he didn't like since he pulled a horn and blew into it. The echoing bellow of the horn started something in the fighting ork horde, since they started to actually fire while falling back. They were retreating!
Grimgor locked eyes with me and I did with him, before he opened an open vox channel. "Ye win dis time medal lady, wot's yer name?"
I didn't miss a beat as I broadcasted. "Eien." I don't know why I decided to do it but I also added in. "The Mother."
The warboss said nothing else as he simply nodded and jumped off the ledge and I saw his backpack explode into flames as he flew through the skies. Man that ork is smart and dangerous. Grimgor, the Black General.
The imperials were grouping up to check if they sustained any injuries, from one of the harpy's views I saw the twins making their way down towards the imperials as well.
My humanoid shape slumped and laid down on my stomach on top of my lower protean mass. Man, this warboss is an opportunistic, smart, dangerous, can actually use strategy and can get his orks to listen to him.
Damn, what a day.
Here we are again, the imperials and I were in a 'building' surrounding several holographic images connected with several Radiants and Spotter Hobgoblins. We had stopped just short of the hill in between us and the ork siege encampment ahead, this is so we could not spook them that we were here yet. But if that Grimgor is as skilled in tactics as he is, then I am sure that the ork siegers have been alerted to our movement behind them. Hell, I'm even thinking that they already know that we are here if that weird Warboss made sneaky kommando boyz as scouts.
Speaking of the Warboss, aside from the ork siege encampment, Grimgor is a very serious debate between all of us. The commissar stomped his boot on the ground. "I am telling you inquisitor! That ork warboss is NOT normal! What kind of or-" "I know commissar. The good captain Titus and I already knew that this warboss is a huge anomaly among its kind, we have fought orks throughout our years, we know how they think, how they fight. This... Grimgor, showed an incredible aptitude for thinking on a tactical and strategic level. After we relieve the Imperial Guard, the ork is going to be our main target." Aww how nice of Thrax, to leave me for last. I know what he is thinking, planning to 'use' me in order to take care of all the hostile factions on this planet before turning on me or whatever.
Captain Titus chose that time to chime in. "Back on Forge World Graia, I fought with one of the more 'tamer' versions of Ork Warbosses, and the difference between Grimskull and Grimgor are as clear as night and day. However this warboss came to be, I simply hope that it is only a one-time occurrence. Since a competent commander with a greenskin army will simply have the ability to not only drown their enemies with sheer numbers, but drown them with sheer numbers in a way that leads to the greenskins taking the least casualties." I could see Thrax and Aronna nod their heads at the Ultramarine.
It is a very common thought throughout the galaxy, even with the eldar race that the orks are a collective race of dumbasses. I disagree, they are just very simple-minded. There is no way that they are dumbasses with what I've gleaned from the Squiggoth's Kannon, and holy shit the sheer lack of safety measures on this bitch is insane. They know how to make their tech, and it might look mediocre, but it definitely works.
I let them discuss a bit while I kept my eye out for any of them addressing me. So apparently, just from looking at the Kannon, Ork Tech works like this. They definitely know what they were doing, this kannon works extremely well, it is a heavy cannon that fires shots that could cripple a Leman Russ. Sounds effective for being made by orks right? Well, here's the thing. This kannon has NO safety measures, from simulations firing this damn thing has a 40% chance of blowing the ammo backwards and killing the gunner, and yet these morons shoot it repeatedly like it's no one's business.
I have a theory on how Ork tech works now that I see this, the Waaagh! Field is powerful, yes. But the ork tech already works, but it is horribly unsafe, so I think the field makes it so that in the hands of an ork, this thing will always work properly. But put it in the hands of someone else? Then it's time to make red paste.
Though there have been records upon the Incorruptus (Which is actually getting close to being finished with the amount of Mothers I keep exponentially growing), specifically Thrax's public log about the Orks is that he witnessed an Ork Warboss 'believe' himself to be immortal and he was nearly invincible to everything, it took him coming out and the warboss believing that he is enough to kill him that he actually did die to Inquisitor Thrax. This heavily annoys me since apparently in this universe the Waaagh! Field is just fucking weird apparently.
"Miss Eien?-" "-The greenskin siege encampment-" "-is showing signs-" "-of movement." Ah, the felinid twin girls twin-spoke at me. This grabbed the attention of everyone including me, we watched through one of the invisible radiants nearby, there are six supa-kannons and three of them were turning away from shelling the fortress and are actually turning towards us. I had some small proteans quickly morph into some Tempests and had the harpy flocks screen the air for any incoming shells.
Oleg put his hand on his chin. "It appears that our latest adversary has informed the ork siege team that we were approaching. We cannot hide from them anymore." Yep, there is no hiding anymore. Then again I don't really need to hide since I can just overwhelm the siege encampment, then we can take care of the eldar to the north.
I looked up at everyone and clapped my solidified hands, causing them to look from the images to me. "I will have the harpies blitz them, then we can use the bastions to protect us from incoming fire while we advance. My tempests and other units will intercept any shells that go through the harpy blitz screening. Once the orks are taken care of, the encampment I'll leave behind enough forces to act as a new defensive line to protect the Imperial Guard's western front, then I will send the rest of my forces around the fortress to take care of Eldar to its north. Any objections with this plan?" Of course, that is what I am doing, but there are many other actions I will take that I am not going to let them know about.
Surprisingly it was the twins who spoke up, and Inquisitor Thrax actually nodded at their initiative, although the twins did not see that. "We believe-" "-that we should go-" "-on ahead and-" "-sneak past the orks-" "-and enter the fortress-" "-so that we can-" "-inform the commanding officer that you are a friendly." Ok that is still very odd to listen to, if I was still a human I'd probably be getting whiplash from looking between Ka-Le and Ka-Li back and forth.
Thrax stepped forward and reached for something on his person, ah that will definitely make things easier for the twins. He detached his personal Inquisitorial Rosette and gently handed it to Ka-Li. "It is a good idea, while we assault the orks you will head to the fortress and use my authority as an inquisitor to immediately reach the highest commanding officer in the fortress and tell them of our... unlikely ally." Unlikely ally huh? Well, fair enough I guess since it's not every day you 'befriend' something equal or possibly worse than a man of iron.
It is a good suggestion. But that would mean I would have to let up on the orks to not give them a major krumping at least until the twins get past them and into the fortress. But it would at least stop the IG from wasting their ammo on me, that's good enough for me. I informed them that I will be making as much noise to distract the orks so that the twin felinids can sneak past them.
Nothing else was suggested surprisingly. Well, other than the imperials choosing that they will fight on the coming battlefield, which I told them to not overdo it much to their surprise. "On any other engagement I'd let you all go nuts, I personally don't think you guys should help in taking care of the ork siege encampment. Simply because now that we know that the ork Warboss Grimgor is a smart commander, there is no doubt that this siege encampment is going to have something up its sleeve. If you fight, conserve your strength just in case."
Frankly, I'm surprised that they are even considering my words at all instead of just waving them off. Hell, even the BLACK TEMPLARS are considering my words carefully. Whether it is to see if there is any hidden meanings behind it or just actually considering I don't know.
But Thrax stopped and nodded his head at me. "It is a valid concern. The ork warboss is definitely dangerous with its intellect, I will listen to your suggestion." The acceptance of the inquisitor surprised pretty much all of the imperials in the party, but if he accepts it then they are to follow his lead which means they all will not fight as recklessly.
That moment, we heard distant explosions and looked up at the 'ceiling' before we looked back down at each other. I nodded at them. "See to it that you do inquisitor." With that said I morphed my humanoid form back into my protean mass and entered my personal Bastion while the imperials headed to theirs, as we entered the 'building' shook and the bastions moved from position.
I looked through the Goo Network and saw through the eyes of all my Radiants. The ones in chaos territory show that they are preparing an army of cultists and lesser daemons, they might try to engage my 'base', jokes on them the entire forest is pretty much saturated with units, both goo and combat frames. On land and underground courtesy of the Dwellers.
On the main ork territory, I don't see Grimgor anywhere, which is kind of suspicious but he might just be in that somewhat organized mess of a fortress. A lot of orks are restless and preparing for another engagement with the forces of chaos it seems, which is really suspicious. I though they would be dogging at our heels but no, the radiants I left behind my army do not detect anything, not even teams of kommando boyz sneaking through. What the hell are you planning Grimgor?
The Eldar siege team on the other hand, ah that helmeted Farseer dressed as a warrior is looking towards our direction, the direction of the ork encampment. He must have 'seen' me through his bull shit precognition. But otherwise he seems to be content with keeping his forces there continuing to shell the IG fortress.
Ah right let's get back to the assault, positioning the Bastions above the hill they formed a somewhat connected line of heads as they blocked the incoming dakka and kannon shells from the fixed emplacements. Doesn't seem like the orks are planning on leaving their fortification, a concerning boon, since that means we can just distract them while the felinid girls sneak by. Speaking of which I see them from one of the radiants near destroyed village, they were going through said village in order to not get seen.
With that in mind, I had some harpies break off from the screening flock and had them charge at the ork base. I need to put in a token effort at least, some of the bastions on the line dropped their units and began slowly lumbering towards the encampment, a few of the reserve bastions behind the line walked up to replace and plug up the line. Huh, Thrax and Titus actually went with one of the bastions, I thought he said that he would listen to my suggestion! Ugh. No matter, I'll just hope that they know not to attack the base full force yet.
Hmm, not much is happening since I can't really leeroy jenkins attack until the girls enter the fortress, the few bastion teams approaching the ork encampment were pinned down and I can feel that the bastions were trying to keep quickly repairing themselves lest they lose cohesion and leave their units to the tender mercies of the orks. The units were putting up an effort to shoot at the orks from behind cover, but I ordered them to only sometimes hit their shots since the girls were getting closer to the-
"WAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHH!!!" What was that?! That was not a normal ork yell, it was loud, REALLY loud. I definitely know that is not the warboss or anything similar since I can see on one of the radiants in the ork territory that Grimgor is standing on the 'balcony' of his own fortress looking down at his ork army.
What is tha- the gate was blasted off and one of my small minotaurs was near it, the gate crashing into it didn't do much but whatever that shadowed figure came out definitely did something. The minotaur was tackled, and I immediately took control and used my servos to grab the what I saw were power klaws and pushed it back with difficulty in order to get a good look at what this thing was, it was an ork and it was BIG, bigger than Grimgor even. I could see from its appearance and the white eyes that this is not an ork with its mind intact, damn it all Grimgor! Why the hell did you make your own equivalent of the Advent Berserker!
Spoiler: Ork Berserker
This berserker is basically some doped up super nob that has probably been an unfortunate recipient of like 10 different mad doks at least along with 3 mek boyz, their arms are encased in some type of scrappy version of a power fist, from a nearby goblin I see there are a few bionik eyes inserted in spots on the back of his upper arm, two on the sides of its spine, and one on the back of its head. The chest armor, the two shoulder pads, the armored lower jaw along with the armored lower half seems to be the only armor it got.
The puppeteer and by extension the minotaur I was in did its best to try and push back the berserker which was most definitely taller than my small minotaur but shorter than my current biggest minotaur. It opened its steel armored jaw and, oh come on! Why does it need to breathe fire?!
Welp, that just basically melted my minotaur and burned my puppeteer. Since when did orks dabble in bioengineering?! Alright, that's it no more waiting. I took control of all my forces and engaged a blitzkrieg style assault, bastions, destructors, and crescents from the lines and behind charging over the hill, once close enough the bastions dropped off their drovers, striders, goblins, hobgoblins, minotaurs as the harpies over head kept blasting the supa-kannon shells out of the sky.
Ah, the girls reached the fortress. About damned time. Wait Thrax sent a vox message to me telling me to not interrupt them, and now both he and Titus are charging at the berserker... I could just blast it to bits. Buuuut, I'll let them have it as this might be interesting to watch them fight a new foe.
INQUISITOR THRAX POV
I watched as this new ork 'berserker' melted the smaller minotaur by breathing fire on it. The small variant of the minotaur was about the same size as a terminator marine, and this thing is taller than that. The berserker roared to the skies exhaling fire, hearing the noises pick up I looked around and see that Eien deems it now the time to assault the base. I doubt the berserker will survive the army blasting at it from all sides, but I need first hand information on this thing. So I sent a message to the abominable intelligence and charged, calling out to captain Titus in the process.
"Ultramarine! To me!" I heard him seamlessly charge along with me to my right, I twirl Iron Blessing and pull up the plasma pistol to take aim at the berserker. One of the orbs exposed on its arm turned to us and the berserker snapped towards us in the process. Those were bionic eyes, and there are multiple of those things dotted over it, which means it can see everywhere.
The berserker roared and used its arms and legs to propel itself forward at high speeds towards us, I quickly fired my plasma pistol just as Titus holstered his Vengeance launcher, taking out his bolter pistol and firing as well.
Damn, this thing is not even flinching. At one point it leaped towards us with its gauntlets open and ready to rip us to shreds, I dodged left and Titus right as the berserker landed with enough force to kick up some dirt and dust, we aimed our pistols at the cloud of dirt but the damned ork actually swiped one of its arms outwards and twirled around, he actually nailed captain Titus launching the ultramarine back.
I fired my plasma pistol repeatedly, shooting it as I ran around it in a circle to get its attention. It worked, and the berserker turned to look at me as the plasma shots burned the skin of this ork, the skin burning off to reveal that the muscles had some form of strange hard flesh plating over it. I tsk, as plasma shots don't seem to be doing much to it. I holster my pistol and quickly ready Iron Blessing.
It roared at me before jumping up to try and land on me. I sidestepped, and as it landed to my left I twirled with my power spear and swung at its arm. Shit, the bionik eye saw me and the ork leaned to its right and threw out its leg to kick me. It hit Iron Blessing and forced me back, the berserker recovered and was about to charge me when a bolter round hit it in the head and forced it to the side. "By the emperor how hard is that thing's skull?" I heard Titus mutter loudly as he continued aiming for the head with his bolter pistol, standing up.
The berserker roared and I saw it holding one of its arms up to block the shots from Titus, I took out my pistol and aimed for the arm taking a few pot shots at the scrap power fist look alike. The armor held up for the first few plasma shots before it began melting into slag, just as it did the berserker opened its mouth and I could see it burning orange, backpedaling quickly Titus and I saw the berserker breathe out a cloud of flame hiding its appearance. Titus saw a chance and quickly holstered his pistol for that Vengeance Launcher, he fired one into the cloud of fire and detonated it before the fusion charge melted.
An explosion forced me to squint my eyes as Titus and I watched the cloud of smoke and fire for any signs of the berserker, a horribly burnt arm was thrown at me and I quickly cut it down with Iron Blessing. Behind that arm was a horribly burnt ork berserker with one arm reached out, ahh frak this is gonna hurt.
I felt the ork grab my arm and lift me over its head and slammed me into the ground. -SLAM- again -SLAM- and again -SLAM- and again before throwing me to the side. My power armor systems did not like that. "Arrgh..." I groan as I watched the berserker ready to charge at me before I saw another fusion charge land on its arm, it quickly changed targets and charged at captain Titus before he detonated the charge. Enshrouding the berserker in another cloud of smoke, it came out of the cloud filled with rage and tackled the Ultramarine. The two were struggling.
Standing up with a bit of difficulty, I had to remember that I wasn't as genetically modified as space marines. I spit out some blood and ran towards Iron Blessing, grabbing it I ran towards the scuffle and saw to my luck that the bionik eyes on its back were turned to slag from the explosions. I called out before jumping. "MOVE!"
I saw Captain Titus look up at me before he used the free leg space to push the berserker off him for a brief second and rolled to the left. The berserker turned its head at me and roared, roaring back I ran Iron Blessing through its mouth and out the back of its head. The ork body slamming down as I landed on it before pulling the spear out and decapitating the ork quickly in a swing.
Panting, I stabbed Iron Blessing into the ground and got off the body before leaning into my weapon exhausted. I saw Captain Titus looking a bit winded himself as he picked up his Vengeance Launcher, we looked around and saw that the assault was pretty much over. The rest of the inquisitorial party was heading over towards them. I sat down on the berserker's body and looked at Titus. "Well... that was easy." Heh, the ultramarine looked at me as if I was crazy. Which, to be fair I sometimes ask myself that.
EIEN POV
Damn. That. Was. AWESOME! As far as I know this is probably the first time they came across this type of ork and yet they took it out with only some minor injuries. Well, except for Thrax. He got the Loki treatment.
While the fight was going on I continued the assault, there were a lot of kannons and lobbas in this base. Must have been used against the IG's 'Power Armor' most of the time. Aside from that Ork Berserker, the rest were just standard shoota boyz a few nobz and a lot of gretchins and suicide squigs. It was an easy assault and it took the entire time of the Berserker fight.
I had the Goo Mothers come up to start cleaning up the corpses and base but leave behind most of it, ah it seems that Thrax is claiming the corpse for an autopsy of his own. Fair enough, he killed it so its his. I can just get another berserker some other time or perhaps just nab the info from the database later.
For now, as the mothers are cleaning up I left behind quite a bit of units behind to establish a new defensive line in the remains of the base,. Right I'm not using the ork artillery or munitions, so I had the mothers eat those. Crescents and Tempests will be my artillery with Spotter Hobgoblins to help target.
The rest of my forces were to circle around the fortress to the north to establish another defensive line and to intercept the eldar artillery shots. Its kind of weird that the eldar forces aren't moving at all, but if they are giving me time to set up and render their artillery attacks useless then that's good for me! Wait what, the farseer is still looking towards me but. He's staring at the bastion that held my 'first body', he then raised his hand and- hold on, they stopped firing their shots?
What is this eldar's game?
A white flag? Parley?
What are you up to?
=III=
We didn't waste time to head out in the set up area between the Eldar siege encampment and the IG Fortress which we found out to be named the Castle Krakengar by its commander, General Maiori. If I didn't scan her, I would have thought the good general was a man, cause god damn she is tall buff woman. After the felinid twins spoke to her, she came out and witnessed me curb-stomping the orks.
After exchanging pleasantries, she suited up in her 'power armor' and came out with the still recovering inquisitor Thrax, captain Titus, Magos Aronna and myself commanding a guard Hobgoblin. She started speaking, and I like her, she's blunt and to the point. "This eldar's name is Farseer Zalava, he's been a confusing piece of shit ever since he and his damned eldar came into this system two years ago before the warpstorm hit a few months after. He came here in peace for most of the time and just kept warning me of something old and evil hiding in my fortress. I had the local church's priests with guards search this place up and down left and right. They haven't found a lick of anything 'old and evil' in the damned place. If you're asking me, this guy probably is just looking for an excuse to turn the fortress over and probably kill whatever inside including us since he just recently he stopped his peaceful annoyance and started attacks on imperials."
It was a valid worry for her to think that, especially since eldar farseers are among one of the most convolutedly complicated individuals. I mean, come on they make talking to Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean seem like an actual understandable conversation in comparison.
But... I think I know what old evil he was talking about since I saw a glimpse of it in the fortress, and I sincerely hope that I am wrong. I had sent a Hobgoblin with full stealth complement towards what I saw.
Inquisitor Thrax is putting up a strong front as he walks with us to the parley. "An understandable concern, but there may be truth to what this farseer is saying. Whatever the truth is, we need to uncover it." Magos Aronna shook her head slightly.
"With all due respect Inquisitor, you are in no shape to move at all. You should be resting back at Castle Krakengar." Ah, right the apothecary had to take a good look at the inquisitor since he got slammed back and forth like a toy.
Although Thrax seems to take offense to that. "The apothecary said that I am virtually fine, and that I can just rest later to recover my strength." I could feel Aronna's wave of frustration and judging by the minute gaze of Titus and Maiori they also felt it. I piped in to give support to the Magos' words.
"I did tell you to not fight so that you can conserve most of your strength, yet you decided to tell me to butt out and took on the Ork Berserker with naught but Titus alone as your back up." Aronna Mekaw looked at me with a second long thankful gaze before turning back to stare at the back of Thrax's head with exasperation.
Thrax didn't say a word, hmph he's now just ignoring us. Ah, we are here now. The Farseer in front of us was dressed in white and silver armor, it makes him kind of look like some kind of eldar ghost. This Farseer Zalava is definitely a skilled warrior as he is a powerful warlock.
He wasted no time and started talking. "So a lost explorer appears, once a life bringer, now a life reaper, along with a Warrior Inquisitor, a Wise and Young Leader, and a Regretful Aged Mother. You all must listen to me, an old and evil being is hiding in your fortress. I implore you once more General Maiori, let me and some of my aspect warriors in so that we may take care of it." His words drew forth a scoff from the general.
"-and let you slaughter my people while you 'take care' of this evil? Fat chance of that happening, the only way you are getting into my fortress is if you kill me and everyone else inside." General Maiori raised her bolter pistol towards the Farseer, the action caused the two Avenger Aspect Warriors beside him and the two Black Templars on our side to raise their own weapons at each other. Both Inquisitor Thrax and Farseer Zalava raised their hands and made for the five of them to lower their weapons, which they did so albeit reluctantly.
Farseer Zalava reached up and took off his helmet, uhhh that looks very weird. I didn't know eldar could grow a beard. Can they actually grow a beard? Wait, they probably can't. So what am I looking at? This eldar has short white hair and a somewhat decent beard that is also white along with white eyes... Actually is everything on him white or some variation of white?
"Are you sure I cannot convince you to do otherwise? For to do nothing is to invite that old and evil being to the secrets within that Fortress of yours." With every word from the Farseer, my suspicion grows. I now believe that what I saw was exactly what I thought of, with that in mind I had the sneaking Hobgoblin do their best to try and find what I saw.
Inquisitor Thrax shook his head. "I'm afraid that we cannot allow that, for you see the soldiers of the imperium would not take kindly to you entering and sneaking around inside of their home. Allowing it would invite both sides to conflict, your eldar and the imperial guard would simply come out more damaged and without anything to show for the pointless conflict." The good inquisitor knows of the farseers kind and is trying to probe him for any 'chinks' in his 'armor' so to speak.
Nodding at that, Farseer Zalava spoke solemnly. I actually almost believed it. "I have seen that, which is why I am trying to convince you to leave the fortress so that we may be able to take care of it." He's hiding information, and because of that it pretty much confirms my suspicions about what I saw.
General Maiori stomped her boot on the ground. "Don't give me that pile of crap! You know perfectly well that the two other Imperial Guard settlements were already overrun and taken over! The damned heretics to the west had converted Fort Joy and your dark eldar 'brethren' decided to take Delta City! Even if we did leave Castle Krakengar we have nowhere to go." Huh, so in the past two years the Imperial Guard presence on this continent went to shit. All memes aside, I'm surprised that they lasted this long actually.
We saw the eldar in front of us close his eyes and sigh before opening them again. This time his gaze seemed to be hardened. "Then we will meet again in the field of battle. We will come back in three days, and we will return in greater numbers." The Black Templars and General Maiori quickly aimed at the eldar party.
"What makes you think we will let you leave Farseer?" General Maori spat out, but this time I raised the arm of my combat frame, much to the confusion of the imperials except for Thrax, Titus and Aronna.
"Because they were never here in the first place. It is an impressive hologram." The Farseer's gaze 'turned' to me and I could definitely feel some form of mixed feelings from him.
"...Many thanks Life-Bringer/Reaper." That was all he said before the three holograms completely vanished in a blink of an eye. We had to prepare for their attack in the next three days. I'll 'go with' the imperials.
But for now.
=III=
I controlled the Hobgoblin that stepped into a dimly lit zone, filled with dripping and/or steaming pipes, if I was a human I would probably be suffocating in this heavy toxic air.
The hobgoblin I was in dimmed its eye as it turned around, I spoke through it. "So. You have come."
...
"It would be rude not to answer your call, and besides. It is an honor to meet my equivalent of an ancestor." Heavy thuds signifying something big moving, it appeared from around the cover, its form casted in shadow from the dim light behind it.
My hobgoblin's eye glowed brightly as we stood face to face. My glowing blue-grayish optic looking into the other's own silver glassed optics.