Duncan finds the banging tent quickly, it's a makeshift forge where red robed figures are working to fix an thunderwagon.
They see you enter. "Oh Ancestors not another one"
"Your not the first to make that offer but I don't have the authority to give you what you want. Only the ancestors can judge the worth of your cause"
You spot an MIU at the base of his neck. Old scars radiate from it.
Jak knows how most others react to his blunt manner of speaking, so he keeps his disbelief that anything referred to by the term 'ancestor' is capable of judging anything to himself.
Davien's gaze follows the figure in power armor for awhile, turning only in response about ancestors judging worth.
And how, pray tell, does one's worth get judged by these ancestors?
Duncan looks at the red robes and smiles. "What do?" He says as he looks at the strange looking giant metal box.
"Lets hope they're receptive to us then."
"It carries us places. You wouldn't like it, it's small and dark"
"Only those that have been blessed with our gift to speak to the souls of machines can commune with them"the old man says, his glaze lingering on Notch.
"Before you answer be warned, those that are spoken to carry their words forever in there bones"
You've heard of some engine sages uploading their minds into great machines before their deaths. This sounds like this.
The physical risk should be minimal if you can match this machines wavelength an pacify it quickly.
Do not anger it and have a medic standing by.
Jak rolls his right wrist over, showing one of the interface ports for his MIU, "I have been gifted by our engine sages with the ability to commune with the spirits of the machines. If you allow it, I will speak to your ancestors and bring our cause to them."
Notch shows his own implants.
"I have inherited these, blessed ports of my own tribe. I would support Jak if I can, else I can wait."
"I've heard these things can be taxing sometimes, I'll be close to hand."
"Then follow me."
The old man leads you out of the tent and across the camp until you reach the Baneblade. He opens the back ramp revealing the rear of the vehicle has been converted to hold a massive data core.
In from of it is a single steel slab chair with restraints.
"Please sit"
"Ooh, dark box bad. Metal lots arm man like dark box. Dunc see hims make big metal towa make da perty light blow oles in mountain. Him likes lots. Dunc wan hep, Dunc carry an lif cause Dunc gud lugga. You giv Dunc lugga stuffs. Dunc lug gud." He happily begins moving closer to see what the red men do in the banging tent.
Jak moves reverently forward into the back of the mighty machine and settles into the chair. Intoning the correct Prayer of Communion, Jak begins the ritual of connection that one must observe when blessed with such an opportunity as this. At the proper time, Jak extends his MIU probe and begins the communion with the ancient machine.
As Jak is seated into the chair adepts rush forwards to strap him in.
One of them leans over and whispers to him
"I'll pray for it be be over quickly"
Then the connection is made and a rush of information and power surges into Jak along with the voices of hundreds.
After a few minutes the voices harmonize with Jak prayer and speak as one.
The technicians stare at Duncan for a few minutes before it dawns on them what he means.
"You want to reload a main ship cannon? I mean maybe we could put together something to do that, some kind of micro generator to power the reloading mechanism, maybe? but we'd need the Wayfinder permission to offload that kind of serious equipment and you'd need someone to install it no way an Ogryn can handle that kind of delicate work"
Notch watches with clear interest, trying to decipher what he is seeing.
It looks like Jak has made a connection but is currently trying to process the sudden inload of data.
You might be able to help him if you connect as well
"Ok, I tell der Jak man. He know dat stuff." Duncan sits down on the ground and starts watching them work on their stuff. "Dunc like you. Not mean to Dunc, not yell Dunc go away."
Krevlor gets some of his gear ready that he suspects might aid in the recovery.
Unaccustomed to communicating with this manner of gestalt machine spirit, Jak keeps control of his thoughts and maintains his prayer of supplication until the voices resolve out of the cacophony and into intelligible data.
Pausing for a moment, Jak wonders how much to say, how much to tell these leaders of the Tech Tribe. He reflects on the things he has seen in the last few weeks and the things he has learned. Jak swiftly decides that nothing less than the truth will serve and orders his thoughts, "Our world is being assaulted by aliens and mutants. Our faith in the Emperor has been supplanted through trickery and deceit with faith in a mutant creature. And now, a creature from the stars of truly titanic proportions has assaulted this world. It has attacked my city, and while I know you bear no love for the city, it will turn on the rest of this world once it has digested us. Also from the stars have come allies; humans that still follow the true Emperor, that fight agains these creatures and these mutants. We beseech you to join your strength to ours that we may throw back the devouring beast, destroy the subtle mutant, and take back our world."
"No problem. Your the first Orgyn to come in here without breaking anything"
"We're based in a starship swollen with technological wonders. We don't need to seize yours."
"We can offer you a place of safety within the starship. That gives us both better odds of living through this war. You can negotiate with Lord Dominastrum about afterwards."
"Sounds good to me. We'll do it. Where are the thieves and what are they packing?"
"That is acceptable. Will your people be able to provide details of the attack and the composition of the attacking force?"
"Let's get the lowdown from your Wayfinder then."
They attacked yesterday morning and damaged the baneblade tracks along with stealing a lot of parts.
It was palace mutants backed up by strange insect like creatures
They retreated westward
Notch tries to raise the scavenger squad on his microbead.
Krevlor keeps a good eye on Jak for the next while in case there are any after effects he can work with.
After separation, Jak intones a prayer of thanks to the spirits of this mighty machine while he waits to be released from the chair.
When he finally rises, he looks over at Krevlor and nods, "I remain functional at peack efficiency. Thank you for your care."
Seeing that Notch is already working on trying to raise the forces in the target area, Jak turns to one of the attending tribesmen, "Please show me the damage that was inflicted by the attack of the citadel forces. I would like to evaluate it and any need for supplies from our forces at the Omissiah's Wraith."
You make contact with the Silent Brotherhood, who are in the area.
They've just started their search but they've spotted the tracks of a at least 10 man (?) group and the tracks of supply carts
[ooc]Make a command test to give this squad any orders
The Baneblades tracks are broken by what looks like a hunting lance strike.
A couple of the other tanks have claw and blast marks.
2 need refits.
Jaks MIU has some eletric burns around it but nothing that needs medical treatment, though you wouldn't recommend making it a regular occurrence
Everyone make a +0 awareness test
The Imperial drop troopers are watching you.
"That went fairly well at least."
Jak surveys the various damaged tanks and compiles a list of what spare parts would likely be needed to effect repairs. Once done he turns to one of his escorts, displaying the list to them on his dataslate, [b]"Which of these parts do you have on hand?"[/ooc]
The damage to the armour can be patched easily enough but the real problem is that thread damage.
The whole motive engine on the left side is shot and at least 4 of the thread plates and mangled beyond repair. Your servo arm will help some but what you really need is a micro forge to melt down the parts and reforge them.
The engineers had one but it was stolen
"Understood, Silent Brotherhood. Give us cooordinates and directions so we can catch them. That group likely has stolen vehicle parts of importance. We will catch up but track that party until we do. Over."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Krevlor looks about "Where's Dunc gotten off to..."
The Silent Brotherhood voxes over the coordinates and begins their search
Notch turns to the others.
"Silent Brotherhood have the trail. Let's catch up to them!"
You leave camp and meet up with your comrades without any issues but as you are re-arming yourselves a man in green power armour, flanked by 5 of the Helldivers steps out of the bushes and walks up to you.
They are armed with combat shots guns and grenade launchers
"My name is Lord Sigismund Hallerman, General of the 13th Helldivers and I want to know what you people did with the Inquisitor"
"Lord Hallerman, we're the Steel Seekers under Lord Dominastrum. We saw the inquisitor back in the Omnissiah's Wrath. Why, what's the problem?"
"The problem is that no-one has heard from him in two weeks. We pleaded our forces to fight for this world and sent him as our envoy though he really sent himself. My men have bleed for you. What games are you playing?"
Our squad is out here working with potential allies against the insect things. We appreciate the help against those, by the way. We're not in the loop with whatever the Lord and Inquisitor are up to. I advise that you look for the Inquisitor back at the Omnissiah's Wrath. Maybe he's there or at least the higher-ups can point you to where he's gone to."
"We can try to send word to our bosses but there's a lot of layers between us and anyone who might have been within a stones throw of the Inquisitor."
Davien sits silently for a few moments
Did the lord... was that why he seemed pale?... I shouldn't say too much before talking to the group. I had wanted to do more research, why hadn't I realized at the time who it was... whats going on?
finally Davien steps up tentatively.
I'm glad to have met you general. I fear however I have ill news for you. Based on the description I fear your inquisitor may have perished. I had not made the connection before, but the description matches the man that was found.
"How did he die?"
I do not know exactly what happened. We could ask once we return, or at least try to get someone to get a full report on it to you. It sounds like this inquisitor was important, so someone in the upper ranks should know.