[M36.245.08]
Raizhar Nyos Yllithian, Archon of the Howling Kiss, secured himself into the Impaler Assault Module. The module was more of a ship in its own right, unable to fit in the Corsair Escort, so was secured under it. Looking around, he exchanged fierce, blood thirsty grins with his Kabal members.
Their anticipation was rising, his as well. He couldn’t wait to start. It would hopefully distract him from the greater drain upon his soul from She Who Thirst; now they were out of the Webway.
Shaking his head, he turned to his warriors once more. It wasn’t so long ago that he was one of them, only recently ascended to Archon, the leader of a Kabal. It had been his cunning and skill that had seen him raise himself ever higher.
They had stalked this freighter for several days before a location was picked. It was unremarkable except for the snake eating its tail on its side.
He pushed that from his mind; who cared what the ape drew on their primitive ships?
Alongside his one hundred and fifty Kabal warriors, he had invited an allied Wych Cult. They both had links to the same larger Kabal. It was only temporary; he would continue to grow. This raid would be the first of many steps to climb to the top of Commorragh.
That brought his mind onto Asdrubael Vect, the now supreme ruler of the Dark City. Raizhar could respect his cunning to take control and flip the city on its head. Raizhar doubted he would remain in power long, but it was impressive while it lasted. He had many rivals and enemies still alive, so one was bound to vanquish him.
But he would always be remembered.
He had changed the entire structure of Drukhari society, after all.
Gone were the noble houses and in their place were the Kabals, with only the worthy rising.
He was impressive, but Raizhar could have done it better. If he had been in the same position, he had no doubt he could have done the same, better even. He wouldn’t have let the humans flee afterwards.
He discreetly checked either side of him using the periphery of his vision. Good, his Sslyth bodyguards were still close. They had been expensive to acquire, but more than worth it. His Kabal had the joy of leading the raid on the human ship, so they were seated at the cone of the Assault Module.
Just behind him, in their daring outfits, were the Wych Cult, who would follow them in. He could see Yllithra Vayne, the Succubi and the leader of the allied cult. Seeing their outfits, he felt his blood rise, but he pushed it away. There would be time for that when the slaves were captured.
There were two further Kabals in the Assault Module. The Gilded Fang and the Obsidian Lash, both of a similar size to his own. Although poorer, since he had been on one of these raids before, so had already reaped the plentiful bounty, strengthening his Kabal significantly.
The two final Kabals of the raid weren't with. The Shattered Halo had a fleet of Slavebringer Assault Boats and would join them once they had removed the few defensive turrets. Finally, there was the Veiled Scream, the most powerful of their group and wouldn’t actually be doing any of the fighting.
It was their Corsair Escort they had travelled in.
Raizhar had his suspicions when he had first been approached, trying to find their angle. There would've been one.
But despite himself the plan had been solid. Not perfect, he had corrected a few of their mistakes of course, but solid. It was also tested, the Veiled Scream having already done several raids, just on a smaller scale. So it gave credence to their claims of finding a ripe hunting ground.
Even so, claiming to be able to get 20,000 plus slaves on a raid was a large number.
They had of course kept the location carefully hidden, but they probably needn't have bothered. With the instability of the warp cutting off many of the ape’s settlements, it was a bountiful time to raid. Many of the Kabals were doing just that, gathering strength to push ever higher.
The final two unaccounted portions of their raid would go to the two Kabals that would secure their entrance into Commorragh, so their plunder wouldn’t be stripped from them upon arrival.
Warning lights flashed overhead as the mooring latches smoothly retracted. Raizhar breathed in, filling his lungs with air and braced. Waiting for the Impaler to burn for the target. Even prepared, he was slammed back into his seat as the pod accelerated forward at the very edge of what his body could handle.
He licked his lips. He could well imagine the now panicking humans.
They only had moments, and then the Module jolted again as it punched deep into the freighter.
Before it had even come to a halt, he and his warriors were moving. The nose cone slid back and he leapt into the narrow, rusted corridor. He drew his monomolecular knife in his left hand and the splinter pistol with his right. They fit comfortably in his hands, having used them for centuries.
An incredibly short time for most powerful Drukhari. But no matter, he would catch up the True Born and show them.
He could already feel the panic rising across the ship as he, his Kabal and their allies charged down the corridors, following the memorised directions. They had the important task of taking the bridge and stop the distress signal. Before they had even started their assault, the ship had been sending it out, even if they had been expecting an Ork raider ship thanks to the Escorts' mimic drive.
The distress signal was odd, using a gabled code of hissing and static. Why they used that, Raizhar didn’t know, nor care. The primitives could keep their weird rituals. If it were important, his translator would change it into his civilised language.
The code was irrelevant anyway. Once he was on the bridge, he would follow the long held tradition of forcing one of the humans to retract the signal.
As the corridors blurred past, he could feel the sweet pain and suffering flare up around him as the other Kabal warriors started to slaughter the crew. His already fast movement increased as he drew in the that pain and suffering as a sweet, sweet nectar, further fortifying and strengthening his body.
He knew the high would fade as would the strength, but it would still have an impact. Permanently strengthening his body, if only by a minuscule amount. For now he just enjoyed one of the greatest highs a Drukhari could experience. There were few other greater pleasures than sucking in the suffering of others, using it to fuel his soul and stave off She Who Thirst.
He came across his first humans. He carved through them, his blades slicing skin and sinew with wicked ease. He took a moment to enjoy himself, carving them up, prolonging and revelling in their suffering.
This pain further fuelled him, and he was even stronger when they set off again. The next group he didn’t delay and used the Splinter Pistol to fire precise shots, one at each of the humans.
They moved one, leaving the howling screams as the humans melted from the inside, the potent venom dissolving their organs and breaking down their blood. If he looked back, he knew he would see blood pouring from their eyes and ears as their insides dissolved.
He was nearing the bridge when he actually experienced resistance, rather than the rabble of poorly trained humans. If they could even be called that. There was a reason they were the slaves and he would be their master.
By the time he reached them he was a blur, several times stronger than he had been at the start of the raid, the copious amounts of pain filling his soul allowed him to push himself, normally not something advisable. Spend too much yourself and then She who Thirst might claim you.
He put his greater strength to good use, bounding round corridors, running circles around the useless apes.
He span into another corridor leading to the bridge, when he was met by a hail of las bolts, many in colours he didn’t recognise.
He pirouetted and dodged as best he could before slipping back into cover.
He felt a moment of fear for his life before he brushed it aside. His high making it seem inconsequential. Like this, he was unstoppable. With a nod at his fellow slavers, he threw the haywire grenade perfectly, clinking it at the human's feet. With their electronics going haywire, they pushed up the corridor once more.
He took great pleasure in causing the few who managed to hit him great pain. He disabled them; he would enjoy breaking them at home when he had the time to create proper artwork.
The retreating humans dropped one by one, although there was always another to replace them.
The linchpin of the human formation was a man, clad in trimmed-down red robes with distinctive armour. He recognised him as a Tech priest. They were delicious to break; forcing them to confront their emotions was incredible.
Or even better, converting them to have xeno bionics and watch their minds fragment.
He would be a valuable slave to take back. By his hip was a metal dog, but he paid it no mind. He had battled enough of them to know it was no threat and he had taken its measure during the fight already. Several similar armed troops flanked the priest.
He could see they were a cut above, even with a cursory glance. Of note was that they had not suffered a loss. But that would change.
He wanted the group to break and flee. The mindless terror was delicious, so he needed to break the lynch pin to their formation. His knife slashed out, it and his arm becoming a blur of death.
Raizhar was impressed the man managed to bring a blade to block his strike, even if his arm faltered under his blood-fuelled strength. He pressed forward, licking his lips in glee. The man slowly gave ground, taking small cuts across his body, but as the exchange turned from seconds into minutes, Raizhar felt his unease gnawing at him.
He didn’t like his prey challenging him. The adept was surprisingly proficient. Not at his level of course, but he couldn’t land a decisive blow.
This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. There should have been no threats. Just slaughter.
He ducked back from the man's counterattacks. He was about to engage once more when he saw Yllithra. He nodded at her unasked question.
Yes, that would work out nicely. As a Succubi of the Wych Cult, she would enjoy the challenge; she may even thank him for finding her a good fight. A favourite in the gladiatorial arenas, she would be more than up to the task.
With the humans distracted, he pushed forward once more, joining his warriors as they swiftly forced back the humans. The occasional soldier dropping screaming to the floor in pain. Those behind him would deal with them, securing them as slaves.
Raizhar felt powerful, but it was somewhat ruined by the combat servitors. They fought as silently as they did, not a word or even a grunt escaped their lips. He knew they felt the pain; he could feel their nerves endings light up in agony. But none of them let it affect them, or more importantly, their souls.
With none of the power Raizhar associated came with mortals pain. It was hollow.
Growling, he pushed forward more aggressively. He wanted the bridge claimed so he could move on and claim his spoils. He couldn’t let the others claim too much of an advantage.
Finally, they pushed into the bridge.
As he stepped in, he revelled in the fear and worry he could feel in the room. The faces of the humans at the monitors were white with fear. The woman in command stared back at him defiantly, but he could feel her fear.
He would enjoy breaking her, already imagining the torture he could put her through.
He turned his attention to the final members of the room. Sat along the far wall.
They too, were clad in the Mechanicus robes.
More tech priests. A cruel smirk flashed across his face. More valuable slaves. For their supposed vaulted logic, he could feel their concern.
All except the central figure.
Him… he felt nothing from. Not fear, concern or even apprehension.
He was a blank slate, a still pond. As Raizhar inspected him, the man was doing the same. Carefully looking over him, an academic interest crossing his face.
His heart started to pump faster. The man unnerved him. Something wasn’t right.
His carefully honed instincts were screaming at him to save his own skin. No retreat and regroup. Yes that was the move.
"Sorry Kellen," The still man said, his voice mild. "I have everything I need now."
Raizhar carefully weaved through the battle, trying to make it to the door.
It was too late.
A shout came from Yllithra as the hound pounced on her. A flicker of movement caught his attention. On reflex he ducked, the blade slashing millimetres from his head.
The priest from earlier was standing in his way. With a growl, he launched himself forward, attacking with a blistering array of attacks.
He put all his might into the blows, expecting to push the human back, allowing him to retreat. A painful shiver tingled up his arm as the human stopped the blade dead. They duelled in the centre of the bridge. Raizhar tried to go on the offensive several times.
But each attempt was futile.
The human was no more skilled, but he made up for it in power. Each blow threatened to knock his blade from his hand. The hand was already shaking from the strain. Again, he fired his pistol, but the fletchette was caught by a shimmering shield.
He wasn’t the only one faltering.
The servitors they had slowly pushed back, shifted. Power poured off them, white light glowing through the cracks in the plates of their armour. The slow las bolts came faster, heavier and with far more accuracy. Where before his Kabal had been able to dance through them, now the servitors almost seemed to predict them.
They were dying.
He could not allow him to be next. Reaching behind himself, he pulled out a grenade and threw it at the still seated man. It bounced perfectly to land just at his feet. Raizhar turned, already anticipating the flash of the grenade going off.
With it, he would finish off his attacker.
But it never came. He stayed on the defensive, waiting for the explosion… yet nothing came. He risked a glance at the seated man and almost stumbled in shock.
The grenade was held up by several metal tendrils snaking from a floating head. The man looking over it carefully.
He felt a shiver through the room. His Kabal faltered. Glancing over, he saw Yllithra die, her head crushed by the mastiff. It looked unharmed, its bronze paint was chipped, revealing the golden metal that almost glowed under it.
That was all he had time for as the human was on him in an instant, and it was all he could do to stay alive.
Even as hard-pressed as he was, he didn’t lose sight of his goal and led the fight to slowly get pushed to the exit.
Just a few more steps.
He was at the threshold and turned to run when the human shouted and leapt for him.
Raizhar slashed out without thought. But his knife ripped from his hands, and then the human had him in a bear hug. He tried to twist and get his arms free so he could grab the many blades hidden in his armour, but it was to no avail.
They fell to the floor and the human twisted. Suddenly Raizhar was desperately holding onto the humans arms, fighting the inexorable pull twisting his neck.
He felt the bone grind and then give out.
His last thought was disbelief. How could this happen to him? He was to be the next Asdrubael Vect. He was to kill him and take his place on the throne; he had merely spent the last few centuries keeping it warm for him.
With a roar, he marshalled all his strength and heaved. How dare this human try to get in the way of that?
His failing eyes saw a large jaw closing around him and then a crunch and darkness. The light fading.
He felt his soul start to drift, then he felt Her. The tugging on his soul as he was dragged screaming to Her domain, his soul on fire in an endless torment.
To join the countless others already there.
---
I stayed seated, looking at the now quiet room as the last of the Drukhari fell. I released a breath I didn't realise I had been holding. That had been more excitement than I wanted when we reached the Gravis Expanse. It had also been closer than I would have liked. They had been far more terrifying than I had been led to believe.
And they were a small group, I shuddered to think what the truly powerful ones could field.
Even though the fighting on the bridge had come to an end, battles still raged throughout the ship. But as my Runescript ravaged their technology, they were pushed back. My people and servitors contributing in large part of this.
It had been hard to make. The virus part hadn't been, that was fairly basic. I didn’t know what I could do with the unfamiliar technology, so I kept it as basic as I could.
It was connecting to it that was the problem. Or maybe not connecting to it, but understanding the operating system would be more accurate. It was only thanks to its part-belief nature that I had been able to interface with the alien technology. They had no external connections I'd been able to detect, so had to fall back on sound waves to transmit my code.
To give myself time to learn it, I made my people slowly fall back. If they needed to and could have just held, was up for debate, but I didn’t like their chances at first. Knowing how skilled and fast they were was very different to experiencing it in action.
The steady retreat allowed them to acclimatise to their style.
It also bought time for me to deal with the vessel outside. They were in constant communication with them, so if they started to get crushed, I wasn’t sure what the ship would do and had no interest in finding out.
I did not enjoy my time as a sitting duck.
I infected their ship's systems, locking up and shorting their engines and weapons. With their systems sporadically cutting out across the ship, but I didn’t have actual control over it. The electronic countermeasures quickly threw me out, but it seemed to be enough to scare them off.
Those on the ship were less lucky and their countermeasures were weaker. For example, five of the six fighters had been grounded, with only the last limping away.
I kept track as the boarders were pushed back, but not without losses. I lost far more than I would have liked. No one important so far, but I still didn’t like to lose anyone.
I turned to the captain, her hands still clenched on her chair. "That should be the last of them captain."
She released a sobbing gasp. "Thank you Honoured Magos."
The relief was palpable as it washed over the room, several others breaking down as well.
I left them too it, heading towards the hangers. I wanted to check out the fighters they arrived in. I was desperate to understand how their defensive field worked. I would have preferred the voidship to understand how it mimicked another ship signal, but that ship had sailed… literally.
It was out of range now, and each subsequent attack on their systems had failed, clearly having learned how to counteract it.
Not a problem, I'd learned a lot as well and with all the technology to break down, I was sure to learn even more. So next time, they would not be as lucky. But it did show me where some of my deficiencies were. Maybe I should acquire some xeno tech to play with?
I shook my head. Later.
When the warning had sounded across the ship, I'd hurried to the bridge. At the time, the captain had been quietly confident in repelling the boarders. But then they had thought it was orks, and she had dealt with them before. She was already organising checkpoints that would funnel the orks into kill boxes by the time I arrived.
For a ship that size, they shouldn’t have enough forces to overtake us, particularly with my people added into the mix.
They also weren't known for their strategies, so the bridge hadn't been relaxed per se, but maybe a tense confidence.
That had crumpled when the ship neared theirs and the Assault Pod, an almost six hundred metre long pod, detached from the underside of the voidship. As soon as it was free, it burned towards us, reaching ludicrous g forces, ones that would kill an ordinary human.
That was all the warning we had.
Several fighters appeared from nowhere and took out the few point defence across the ship and then proceeded to board us as well. Even if they hadn't, the turrets had been unable to target them; whatever countermeasures they had in place far outstripped our own.
The voidship still looked and read as an ork vessel, but the assault module couldn’t be mistaken for anything apart from the Drukhari.
The blood had drained from the captain's face and of those in the know.
I wasn’t spared either. I'd read countless stories and accounts of them; very few ended nicely.
I walked the corridors with a grimace of distaste while I did. Blood and gore coated the walls… and I mean coated. The Drukhari had gone to great lengths to make it as messy as possible. But it was the victims' faces, twisted in frozen agony that most affected me.
Although less than I would have liked. I was already well desensitised by now.
I had seen slaughter countless times. I had even organised a few. But the pleasure they seemingly took in maximising pain and suffering was alien to me.
Many of the guards that I had assumed were dead at first glance were actually paralysed.
There were lots of dead no doubt, but not nearly as many as I had first assumed. Although death might have been a mercy. My auspex could detect their pain, their nerves on fire with agony and their muscles locked in place. I had no idea what was doing it and could only hope it would wear off.
I would investigate it as well, to see if I could come up with an antidote of some sort. I doubted it, at least in the short term anyway. Judging by the rest of their technology, they were incomprehensibly advanced. But not out of reach. They were easily on the level of the Golden Age of Humanity technology. Worse, it was entirely different principles I had come into contact with so far.
I just couldn’t wait to dig into it and see what I could learn, but that could come later.
Not the entrance to the Gravis Expanse I had been hoping for. Apart from the disastrous ending, the journey had been good for me. At first, I had been irritated by the Fabricator General's attempt to be petty, but then I realised ten years of almost no supervision or others looking over my shoulder was exactly what the doctor ordered.
Not to mention the gang was in a good place, with everything stable. I was looking forward to seeing them again. I left Zardelle a message just in case the warp storms lifted long enough for messages to get sent out.
So I brought as many people as I could. All those I thought would be good contributors to my faction, mostly in that I thought I would be able to convert them to my way of thinking. This ended with close to four thousand people, mostly children or young adults.
Basically those still in their formative years and could still change, rather than those already set in their beliefs.
This did mean I had a rather limited number of older or senior tech priests. Even after ten years, my people were mostly around the junior or mid adept skill range. Some were better of course, and if they were on the forge world, they might be preparing for the next step to Magi.
Kellen and Lysa amongst them.
Not all our members wanted to keep learning technology however. Most of those Kellen had accumulated under him, followed in his footsteps, amounting to fifteen hundred all told.
I wasn’t sure quite what to call them. They were less Dominus's, but more than a Skitarii. Sitting somewhere in between the two. Not to mention the extensive other skills Kellen had trained them in, a large focus of that in combat.
For now I was calling them tech marines in my head. When Kellen came up with a better name, I would change that.
Whatever they would end up as, they proved their effectiveness today. Showing all the resources I had spent on them was worth it.
When I had found out the freighter I was travelling on, I'd made sure it wasn't just stocked with normal supplies heading for the hive planet. But that it was stocked with as many refined metals and rare resources as I could stuff into it. By the time I was done, there were more than enough resources for myself and many of the adepts around me for those ten years.
I spent much of the ten years focusing on bionics. The fear of being so close to losing Lysa, even with her armour and shield, kicked my but into gear.
This was helped by the copious number of milestones I had achieved at the end of the war. Particularly the more potent ones. The spark for single-handedly finishing off Dark Mechanicus completed my Mathematics fragment, pushing it right up to tier 2. When I'd tried to understand the milestone, I got something like 'Change of Fate'. Or something similar. Now, while none of the others were as impressive as that, some of them were close.
With almost ten years of development and sparks, I'd made huge leaps and bounds forward.
Unfortunately all good things had to come to an end, and in the last few years, I could feel my soul start to reach saturation. Reaching full capacity once more. I would guess I had five, maybe six years before they would stop once more.
If this were my last, I wasn’t sure. Either way, I didn’t have many sparks left and while I didn’t regret the fragments I had grown, I would be using the next few years to push Chemistry and hopefully Biology to tier 2.
Even if my soul did grow strong enough to gain more, it wouldn’t be for a long, long time. I was obviously going to try to strengthen my soul enough; it was something I still religiously did day in and day out.
But it wouldn’t be a quick thing.
I had even taken a risk and brought in a few others to train them. Kellen and Lysa obviously got the whole thing. But as part of pushing the Self fragment to tier 4, I’d gained several new rituals which were perfect for subordinates that I didn’t quite trust.
It provided less protection against warp effects, particularly for the body, but it stopped emotions drifting into the warp as well as protected their minds. Its main drawback was it was static. It would not be able to grow in time.
But they didn’t need to learn anything and many of them would never even know the differnce, which was a big plus.
I didn’t explain where it all came from to Lysa and Kellen, that was a step too far. Even if I did trust them… which I did, I would never speak of the fragments out loud. Knowing my luck, it would be overheard by someone.
So better to just not risk it.
They had been hard at work, especially when I showed them some of the things they might be able to do if they developed it enough.
Speaking of the warp, now away from oversight, I had developed and tested a lot of my theories surrounding it. Carefully of course, I didn’t want to rip the ship apart. But I had learned a lot more about how the glyphs interacted with each other and with the warp in general, helped by pushing it to tier 3.
Not just using them in small ways for my machine spirits.
Also, Crafting definitely used the warp in some form. Or at least my belief, Will or whatever it was, triggered the auspex I had calibrated for the tests. However, it wasn’t exactly the same, after all, it had only been limited, not cut off entirely when I had been in Zardelles Null field.
More testing was required.
That pool of energy had expanded massively, almost tripling in size with all its use. Like a muscle under constant strain. Crafting and my Runescript had been a major revelation. Not just increasing its strength as it drained my reserves like nothing else. But the constant use increased my control, not to mention some of the masterworks I had created.
To be immodest for a moment. I believe once my best creations were enhanced with Will they were well past what the Imperium would consider masterworks.
It was good training, but it damn near killed me making everything. Not just for myself, Kellen and Lysa. But for Snuffles, and the many personal servitors of those on board.
Snuffle, I had already finished, but as I learned more, I updated his bionics with the best I could make, slowly improving him with each iteration. To the point he was a whole new dog. He didn’t have any bionics he started with.
Except for the armour, which was still remarkably hard to forge, although it took to the Crafting like a fish to water. No matter how hard I tried, it never reached capacity when I forced Will into it. Although I did have an inkling of the material now.
And if I was right… well, let's just say I was glad I had painted him all those years ago.
I had another reason to take him apart and rebuild him.
It gave me access to his few biological parts. Even as more metal than animal, he was slowing down, with less energy.
Simply put, he was just old.
The bionics had already pushed his age far longer than he should otherwise have been able to live, but it was catching up to him. Something that I couldn’t allow.
So with no oversight, I had gone wild and created the best treatment I could, using my knowledge and STCs to develop a monster of a regenerative treatment. When I had access to his internals, I put him through the treatment. It dropped his biological age right back down to when he was a young adult.
It did much more than that of course. Cleaning up his DNA, increasing his longevity and general sturdiness of his few remaining biological parts and so on.
Compared to the treatments I had stolen from the Mechanicus when I had access, it was on another level.
Back to my Crafting, I had played with it a lot. Learning the mechanics, if not the processes behind it.
I'd also experimented with different materials to see what worked and didn’t. All materials could hold my Will to some extent, but the more Will it held, the more I was able to change. Like forcing reality to conform to my belief. So I could get some truly exotic effects I it contained enough.
I created one sword that was able to cut connections between servitor and adept. It burned itself out, but as a test… well, it opened some interesting ideas.
With all my free time, plus tier 4 Bionics and Crafting, most of my time was spent creating the best bionics I could, which were some of the best in the Imperium and much of the galaxy, for that matter. They weren't quite what I had been aiming for, still a little way off that, but I was so close. I had used the designs from the hive as a template and adapted them to suit mine or the user's needs.
They were already heads and shoulders above what most could field, and I had only improved them from there. Not necessarily in raw capabilities, I wasn’t quite at the level to being able to improve on the Golden Age of Humanity tech but adding glyphs, which I finally pushed to tier 3, or my Will when crafting them had taken me further than the originals.
Many of my tech marines had them. They were specialised of course, but they were all based on the same models.
It was my final add-on that I hoped would take them to another level entirely. I was trying to combine the technology of spatial manipulation from the hive and combine that with miniaturisation of the digital weapons to create a new form of bionics.
My hope was to allow more to be stored within the bionics. Bigger motors, pistons, capacitors and so on, all in the same size bionics. I was at the precipice of it, but I needed a few more years of experimentation and development. I could hardly wait; they were to be one of my magus opus, at least for now.
Combined with some of the materials I had access to, like adaptive metals, I was looking forward to what I could create.
I hoped, when completed, I would get me another milestone.
I turned my mind back to the bodies.
As much as I wanted to explore the captured craft, I helped clear up and counted our losses. Even in the few short minutes of the raid, hundreds had died, and thousands more had been paralysed, ready for capture. Luckily the paralytic agent did ware off over time, even if it wasn’t a pleasant experience.
I made sure to keep a sample to experiment on later and watched the recordings several times with Kellen. Mostly going over what we could have done better. It kept coming back to just learning to react to their speed. Not to mention, they somehow got stronger the longer they fought.
I had never heard of anything like it. Well that’s wrong, orks of course had something similar, but still…
We created some hypotheses on how to counter them but we had no idea how it would go. I was glad I had bumped my Reverse Engineering spark up to tier 3, as that should help a large amount. While clearing up the bodies, I turned over the spark in my mind. It had blossomed when the raid had been repelled. It was war leaning of course, so it was just a matter of where to put it.
I wasn’t really sure of where to place it considering the sparks I had placed in my defence. While maybe not optimal, I wanted to stay alive. I knew I would never push those skills any higher, nor did I ever want to train them. So it seemed like a good use of the points to sure that up before focusing on my creation sparks.
With that in mind I had pushed the Warrior, Sharpshooter and Blade Mastery to tier 4. This allowed me to push hand-to-hand to tier 3 without much fuss.
Sharpshooter wasn’t much, and I didn’t know if I was ever going to put it to use, but it only required so few points so seemed worth it. The others most definitely were worth it. It wasn’t as an overwhelming amount of information as, say, tier 2 Mathematics, but it was close.
The Warrior focused on personal combat of course, but was more around the awareness of the battle and my allies upon it. As well as self-discipline. Blade Mastery was pretty much what I hoped for. I had great fun confusing Kellen fighting him with blades in four arms. As unwieldy as it was.
In the end with the new milestone stark, I tried something I had been thinking about. Leadership. Now it wasn’t leadership in the conventional sense. While I am sure it could teach me, it seemed a waste. Kellen and Lysa had that covered. I focused it more on the morale figurehead type of thing.
Like a powerful General leading an army, inspiring his troops. When the fragment locked in, I wasn’t sure it was exactly what I wanted, but I would test it and see.
ANA bit of a time jump, hopefully it isn't too jarring and now we have a short stint in hive to see how the gang is getting on.
PointsImperium: Hive Cities Scavenger (Tier 2) - IIWarrior (Tier 4) - VI > XImperium: Hive Cities Danger (Tier 2) - IIIHuman: Hand to hand (Tier 3) - III > VTerra Federation: Technician (Tier 3) - XTerra Federation: Software (Tier 4) - IXSharpshooter (Tier 4) - VI > VIIISelf (Tier 4) - XI > XVIIReverse Engineering (Tier 3) - I > VImperium: Canine Handling (Tier 2) - IVAkashic Throne (Tier 1) - IBlade Mastery (Tier 4) - VII > IXPhysics (Tier 2) - XI > XXIIIGlyphcraft (Tier 3) - II > IIIBlueprints (Tier 3) - IIIActing (Tier 1) - IMathematics (Tier 2) - XI > XIIBiology (Tier 1) - XTeaching (Tier 2) - IIMachine Spirit (Tier 3) - III > VIIChemistry (Tier 1) - VIIIEngineering (Tier 1) - VIIBionics (Tier 4) - IIII > XXIICrafting (Tier 3) - VII > X