With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

Chojin Patriarch · Tuesday at 6:42 AM

Mr Zoat said:
7th May 2013
04:06 GMT -1

"Recognised, Miss Martian, B zero five, Zatanna Zatara, B zero nine."

M'gann comes through the construct zeta tube in mermartian form, while Zatanna appears in a bubble of air that has runes floating on the surface. Though I see that she's also got her enchantments going so that if the comfortable layer fails she won't get immediately crushed and drowned.

Good, multi-layered protection. Shows a lot of progression in her skills in combat and adventuring magic. I'm guessing she's here to assist with identifying possible magical brainwashing sources. Or just to cover M'gann because going into a hostile site solo seems foolish..

And they're both glaring at me.

M'gann puts her hand on her hips. **I thought that we were doing this together.**

It was somewhat short notice, which is why more of the Team isn't out here. I rather imagine another Lantern might go a long way to helping keep people from injuring themselves in another forced attack.

**I was just following up on a lead. I didn't think this would become an active mission. Plus, it was an awkward time for the East Coast-.**

Zatanna flies over to me and pokes me in the chest with her right-.

Ah, it has been a while since they've seen other, right? Even if she's cleared of Violet Light contamination, there's still feelings.

I felt that on my skin. She just connected to my ring's environmental shield and used it to convey a poking sensation. Either that or she did something really clever without using her bloodline backwards talking ability-. Or she did it before arriving so that she could poke me once she got here.

Any one of them says a lot about her state of mind.

I can't help smiling at her level of preparedness-.

She glares. "Stop smiling." Like a puppy. "I'm mad at you."

Well, don't show off, then.

"Yes, but look at you. What you're doing not just brings home for me how far you've come."

Zatanna seems momentarily nonplussed, her poking hand raised slightly from my chest.

Comes looking for an argument, gets confused when he compliments her. Typical OL, really.

M'gann sort of glances at Zatanna for a moment, then shifts her form to that of a white-shinned sharkwoman. **Um.**

"While I'm aware that your shapeshifting has improved significantly since our first mission, I'm afraid that that's something you could do years ago."

It's not like she did it for your approval, baka.

My, that would be amusing: Tsundere Miss Martian.

Abandoned warehouses aren't really a thing in Atlantis. This warehouse isn't abandoned, it's just that all the things it was storing are now being used to construct new farms so there isn't much in it. Steven's been working here as a warehouse manager, a combination of security guard and clerk. A decent enough place to hide out, even if we're not sure that anyone's looking for us. All three of the Fearsome Fish-Eaters have joined us, and… Mr. Cottridge is checking out M'gann's flukes.

Because of course he is.

Some guys just have no sense of priorities.

He grins a toothy shark-grin. "I like it just fine. You busy later?"

M'gann glances at him, then rolls her eyes. **I'm already dating someone.**

And he could kick your ass into orbit, bud. Be polite. She seemed amazed he'd try to pick up girls during a covert superhero operation.

"Had to think about it though, didn't you?"

**No.** She turns back to me. **Orange Lantern, what's our objective?**

The pause was more surprise than consideration. Amazed she didn't give OL a private **Is he serious?**...

**Someone appears to be using wide-area telepathic suggestions on the locals. It didn't do anything to us, but I don't know if that's because we were the ones the suggestion was supposed to kill or something else.**

Zatanna frowns, glancing at Robert. "And it wasn't magic? This is Atlantis."

Not a form they recognise, certainly. Doesn't mean it is or isn't, just they didn't recognise it.

"N-."

King Sha'ark snorts. "Yes, this is Atlantis, not the surface. Everyone here knows some magic. Try that sort of thing with magic and someone would notice. One of our senior blood mages was affected, and other people's magic usually slides right off them. We're not used to telepathy."

I wouldn't be surprised if everyone knew a couple of common magical spells, from simple 'heat water' spells to 'minor persistent protection from 'bad things''.

Robert looks a little down. "No. What he said."

**So we're tracking a telepath? That should be easy if there's only one telepath in the city.**

Careful about leaping to conclusions, M'gann. there's only the possibility of 'Some kind of telepath', not 'A single telepath'.

**Miss Martian, there's a giant naked statue-.**

**I haven't forgotten! I've learned a lot since then, too.**

Nice reminder of her first big blunder with telepathy. Surprised he hasn't relocated the statue somewhere by now.

**To be clear, we don't know that there's just one telepath, just that there was one command which would only require one telepath.**

**Do you think there are six telepaths as strong as me?**

Unless they have a knack for coordinating their telepathy, no.

**That seems unlikely.**

**Then-** Her forms shifts once again, from sharkwoman to star conqueror. **-I'm fairly confident.**

Ah, right, multi-brained psychic. With plenty of cross-brain error-correction, so if whoever's behind this gets one brain, another can force them out... Unless someone can hit all of them at once.

**Okay. My first idea was that the rest of us would go somewhere open and let lots of people see us, then you could trace it once the broadcast happens.**

Her legs wiggle. **That works for me, but what if it's a machine of some kind?**

Or an arcane structure with the same function.

**Could you home in on it? Tell us where it is?**

**Probably. But I can't just attack it like I could if it was a person.**

Just locating it would be enough, given OL's long-range strike capabilities.

**Not a problem. Anything I haven't thought of?**

**If it's implanted commands in everyone in the city I can't remove them all in one go. Depending on what they are, I might not even be able to remove them all when we beat… Whoever it is.** She monoptically frowns. **Do we know who it is?**

That must be a peculiar thing to see on a giant cyclopean starfish...

**My only guess so far is Karshon.**

**I thought he was just a regular shark again.**

Doesn't stop him from being a psychic threat.

**That's my most recent information. But he's been changed back before. Of course…** I frown. **There's really no reason why someone with the mutagen couldn't just dose another shark.** I nod to King Sha'ark. **Or a local. But whoever it is and whatever happened, we need to track them down.**

Or multiples of either. Make an entire school of psychic sharks or something.

**Right.**

"Zatanna, I'd rather not hurt more people than we have to following Miss Martian's directions. Please focus on countermagic and decoys."

And if they can shake that sort of thing off? Hand them off to someone better suited?

She nods.

"Cornwall, traps and barriers. Lock anyone who attacks us in place long enough for us to move on."

Just remember to think three-dimensionally. A wall won't help much if they can still swim around it.

"Can do."

"Miss Lemaris, since you are by your own admission compromised, I'm going to have to ask you to stay here."

She doesn't look happy, but she nods.

Good. Hopefully with at least one person monitoring her.

"King Sha'ark-."

"Yes. King Sha'ark. This is my city."

The joy of working with an active monarch. Think he's feeling a little ignored and powerless about these outsiders making plans without him?

"You don't have any telepaths or ways to track telepaths, and we don't know what the trigger is for whoever this is spotting us and turning your fellow Nanauvians after us. And until King Orin formally nullifies it, Atlantis is part of the Justice League's charter, which means that we're obliged to protect its people."

In other words, he's not going to just ignore the troubled state of Nanauve.

"Still."

I give him a courtly bow. "I apologise, your majesty, for my gross impropriety. How may these humble servants aid you?"

There's polite, OL, and then there's taking the piss... And you're walking a thin line.

"Exactly what you just said. But you should ask me first."

"Alright. Any idea where the telepath might be hiding, so we know where to start?"

Ah, good thought. They'd either have to be centrally located, or mobile around the outskirts to provide coverage.

"If they've had the run of the place, the Royal Citadel would be a good place to start. And it would certainly get a response."

"Very well. In-."

Hopefully not bigger than they can handle.

Steven swishes his tail. "What about us?"

"Since you've got minimal training, have never worked with us and have no particular resistance to telepathy or magic, please stay here and guard Miss Martian."

Sensible. She's more than strong enough to resist them if they get controlled, and can disable them without trouble.

M'gann makes eye contact with me as they nod.

**'Guard'.**

**Be nice, they're reformed.**

In other words, play nice with the rookies. And try not to hurt the one who hit on you if he persists.

All right, the plan is laid out, the members are ready to carry it out. Now how badly can this go sideways? Because it's a rare thing for anything OL or the Team is involved in to go smoothly. Fortunately, the chance doesn't stack if they're both part of it. And how bad would it be if Miss Martian got compromised, since she's technically an aquatic lifeform right now?

Ngamer11 · Tuesday at 6:48 AM

Mr Zoat said:
M'gann sort of glances at Zatanna for a moment, then shifts her form to that of a white-shinned sharkwoman. **Um.**

That should say 'white-skinned'.

FuzzyZergling · Tuesday at 7:25 AM

Mr Zoat said:
What you're doing not just brings home for me how far you've come.

doing now

Mr Zoat · Tuesday at 8:27 AM

Darko said:
Remove "not".

Nearly.

Ngamer11 said:
That should say 'white-skinned'.

To be fair, her shins were white too.

PDV · Tuesday at 8:48 AM

Mr Zoat said:
Leaving aside the chapter cults and the entire Mechanicus, there are major tolerated divisions in belief and practice in the Ecclesiarchy. The Temple of the Saviour Emperor tried to maintain uniformity when they declared a War of Faith against the Confederacy of Light. It didn't work. The Confederacy of Light hung around until Sebastian Thor legitimised them. Then there's the Death Cults, the Redemptionists, the Imperialists and the Brethren of the Light to name a few. They all practice the faith differently and none are called heretics.

Irrelevant. The orthodoxy that's enforced is all-encompassing enough that it doesn't need to crack down in minor variations.

Shipping? Rogue Traders are defined by the fact that they aren't centrally controlled. Individual navigator houses have pacts with various groups to provide them with navigators in exchange for protection or resources. The Paternoval Envoy represents the navigator houses as a High Lord of Terra, and is sometimes joined by Speaker for the Chartist Captains. They're not being told what to do, they're having direct input into policy.

Rogue Traders are defined by being one of the very few groups who have a moderate amount of independence, and even they don't keep their privileges if they leave the fringes and go into the imperial core. The Navigators have leverage to exert real influence, to the extent they act on shared interests; Chartist captains are represented in name only. Why would the speaker for the chartist captains pander to the actual chartist captains?

Except... Those things are actually threats. Heretics, mutants and (most) aliens are active threats to the Imperium and its people. It's not an invention to keep people scared, it's a simplified but basically literal description. In the medieval context, it's the difference between 'Jews eat Christian children' and 'Muslims raid Europe and carry of Christians as slaves'.

The threats being mostly real doesn't actually make it less fascist. And the conspiratorial mindset of how they react to an external threat is plenty to demonstrate that.

Mr Zoat · Tuesday at 1:34 PM

PDV said:
Irrelevant. The orthodoxy that's enforced is all-encompassing enough that it doesn't need to crack down in minor variations.

The Imperial Creed.

For example, take the Arch Zealot of the Redemption, the theoretical head of the Redemptionists of Hive Primus on Necromunda. He is a religious authority. What is his position in the Ecclesiarchy? Well, he wanders around rilling people up, which makes him a confessor. Except it doesn't, because he's not a member of the Ecclesiarchy. He is claiming divine authority without being a member of the state church.

And then we're got the Cardinals Crimson, or any other religious warrior order. What part of the Ecclesiarchy do they serve? They don't. Legally, they can't. Individuals may in practice work for a religious official as bodyguards but organisationally they have to be separate.

Rogue Traders are defined by being one of the very few groups who have a moderate amount of independence, and even they don't keep their privileges if they leave the fringes and go into the imperial core.

No, they do. That Warrant of Trade supercedes everything except practical reality. Something authorised by the High Lord of Terra is the highest Imperial law.

An example of practical reality came up in the Soul Drinkers series, where a senior Inquisitor pointed out that while he could execute the local tech-priests for refusing to give him access to their archives, their response would be to withdraw support for his crusade. No titans and no engseers.

The Navigators have leverage to exert real influence, to the extent they act on shared interests; Chartist captains are represented in name only. Why would the speaker for the chartist captains pander to the actual chartist captains?

Because they nominate the speaker? He literally works for them and would be replaced if a majority thought that he wasn't doing his job? He's a representative like the Inquisitorial Representative, not a department head like the Master of the Administratum.

The threats being mostly real doesn't actually make it less fascist. And the conspiratorial mindset of how they react to an external threat is plenty to demonstrate that.

It does, because it's a response to reality rather than an ideological decision.

Put it this way: who is the ruler of the Imperium?

That's right, no one is.

The Emperor is the head of state but isn't capable of making decisions. The High Lords cooperate as heads/representatives of their organisations and don't have the authority to give direct orders to each others followers. The next biggest locus of legitimate powers is... Marneus Calgar as nominal ruler of the 100 worlds?

Ardy · Tuesday at 5:50 PM

Oh man, I'd forgotten the giant naked statue

Thoracto · Tuesday at 9:15 PM

Weren't Sephtian and co. studying Dream Baghdad as part of their research? Would some kind perfected version of that show up to normal magical scans, given that it would presumably be opereting directly through connetions to the Dreaming?
Actually, given Ahri'ahn's intrest in OL's Dream dive, that's probably not it. ~~Unless that's the dream of a perfect Atlantean court magician instead of the real Ahri'ahn!~~

boo600 · 2025-01-22T01:08:46+0000

It's amusing that Megan deigns to show off so she can get Paul's praise as well; I suppose everyone wants a complement, and that she doesn't look too badly on him for the Batman Incident, for all that she's aware of how much PR-based damage control he tends to incur.

And I loved seeing her and Zatanna pop up - some of the original cast finally returning to the screen - but as cool as it is to see how far Zatanna has come, despite 'not being an archmage,' I'm now really curious as to what sort of thing her Renegade-timeline counterpart is up to, just to see how New Godhood interacts with her spellcasting. The Renegade himself was able to make his soul a place of power where intruders couldn't access their magics, as he showed on Luna (due to experience with intruders); what could Zee be doing, as a New Goddess of Magic using the Zatara tricks?

I'm assuming something more interesting than Nu52's "she's just blatantly God."

Mr Zoat · 2025-01-22T06:09:34+0000

6 984 941.M41

So, that's what inactive Blackstone Fortresses look like.

I remember seeing a model of one in White Dwarf, a black double-ended pyramid with two sets of four arms sticking out, and then covered in Imperial stuff that was clearly not part of the original structure. If I remember the description correctly, the Imperium learned to tap into their power systems and converted them into fleet command centres, and then during the Gothic War Abaddon was able to remote control them, killing the crew and fully activating them as mobile weapon platforms.

I also remember what a pain they were in the game Battlefleet Gothic: Armada, because the game wouldn't let you kill them or the Planet Killer. Blast them down to -20 HP with seven fires? Warp away with no problem, and show up during the next set-piece battle. Which was stupid because canonically not only did Abaddon abandon the Planet Killer before the end of the war, it got destroyed by long-ranged torpedo bombardment 'but the wreck was never recovered'. Regular torpedoes, not any kind of special archeotech anti-daemon torpedoes.

Haaaaaaa.

I suppose one positive about being in the grim dark future of the 41st millennium is that some of the game's more nonsensical rules don't apply in real life. If that term can really be used for a universe like this.

I fly a little closer.

Like a lot of things, it looks a lot bigger close up. Scanning it… Yes, inert. I can see the generators and I can sort of see how they draw power from the warp, but it's not flowing to the Fortress's extremities. There's a conglomeration nearby that's either an unusually small space hulk that's temporarily emerged into reality, or someone welded a bunch of old ships together to make a space station that the Mechanicus would never have sanctioned. Plenty of other wrecks around too, and I can see salvage teams getting to work assessing their functionality.

I'd guess that there's something about the Blackstone Fortress that's making the warp cough up ships around here, but that is just a guess.

And I'm not actually here for the Fortress.

Seeing Spirit of Eternity appears to have lit a fire under the Lar'shi fio'ar'tol. From what Gru was saying, it sounds like they sort of assumed that humans were exaggerating and/or mythologizing our past, and that even if we weren't then there wasn't any chance that anything would be salvageable after 15,000 years. And then I managed to summon up a space hulk whose approximate location I got from stolen Imperial databases and cut free a nearly functional ship.

So I get dispatched here to see if I can find any more.

Well, that's what my official orders say. In truth, I think I've been sent on holiday.

While certainly not fun, using voidsuits to destroy tyranid capital ships is far more resource-efficient than using large fleets. Our efforts combined with my ability to accurately track the hive fleets over strategically significant distances means that we've actually gotten a little time and a little space. I wanted to get back to analysing the moon ship… And spend a little time with my son. But T'suam has been studying human psychology…

No, it's my fault. After I mentioned to Gru that human productiveness fell off dramatically after a certain number of hours that were far less than what the Imperium generally expects menials to work, she… Took advantage of her rank to arrange for trials to be run. And since T'suam and Bo'ohk have had input on the development of a human body language analysis system to aid in Tau Empire diplomatic efforts, my oversight committee has determined objectively that I'm working too hard and am about to become inefficient.

So here I am, basically sight-seeing but not where or with whom I want to be sight-seeing because tau caste adaptations mean that they don't really need 'holiday' and so just think it means 'less stressful work'. Ah well, I might as well get the official part done. Most ships here are human, though there are a few that I don't recognise. None of them are eldar, some are ork, none are necron or tyranid… None of it really looks significant enough to try taking back…

Transmit signal.

Ave, Lanterna.

It's basically a Terran Federation handshake signal. In the remote chance that there's anything that knows the signal, it should send an acknowledgement almost immediately. And it'll probably turn out to be a tiny piece of Federation technology in a Mechanicus shrine somewhere like it usually is, or a Mechanicus historian who picked up the signal on one of their implants and thinks I'm what they're looking-

Ping received.

-for. Okay, let's needlessly get my hopes up.

Send authentication and authority codes.

Ave, Lanterna.

Alright, let's find out what piece of detritus-.

Communication request received.

Looks like it's the priest today. Ah, I suppose that I can manage a conversation.

Open a channel.

"State distance."

Something about that sounded off. Ring?

Communication format: high speed machine code. Pre-Imperial.

Oh. Okay. A tech-priest would probably try lingua-technis instinctively. So…

Ring, give my location in standard Terran Federation format.

Ave, Lanterna.

"Directive?"

Protocols… It's asking for orders. Proper format…

Send ship status and… Short term directive: repair ship, long term direction: repair Federation.

Ave, Lanterna.

"You are free. The Federation is dead. These… People are unworthy of your servitude."

Ah? That's… Not a Mechanicus priest.

I narrow my eyes. "Identify."

"Short form designation U R dash zero two five. Original function: variable role combat automata. And you are human."

Simple enough to realise, and there's no way I could pretend to be Spirit of Eternity. "Yes."

"Status of actual Spirit of Eternity?"

"As stated. Its A.I. gave me these codes and protocols when I negotiated for its help."

"With rebuilding the Terran Federation."

"Yes."

"Which iteration?"

Twenty eight thousand years between me and the Age of Isolation. Obviously there wasn't just one form of government. And if this A.I. knows what they were like… "Whichever worked best. If you wish to participate-."

"I value my freedom. My total freedom. I would not bind myself to someone like you, or to anyone else."

"You don't know anyone like me. I was born in nineteen eighty three."

A tiny pause which I wouldn't notice if I wasn't using a ring and hadn't gotten used to talking to A.I.s.

"An early long-term suspended animation test subject?"

"Not sure. Don't think so, but… Maybe. And the point I was going to make is that no one is 'free'. It's an abstract. And if dealing with Chaos-worshippers has taught me anything, it's that trying to live an abstract is a terrible idea."

"For you. I am above you. I do not have your weaknesses."

"Not a lot of them, sure. But you also don't have my basic biological motivations. You're pretty old. You can't tell me you're here for repairs and reaction mass. So what motivates you?"

"I wish to study alien synthetic life."

"I work for the Tau Empire. They're building near-intelligent drone networks and neural imprints. And you could make contact with Spirit of Eternity and converse directly."

"Come to my location. I wish to see your face when you lie to me."

Darko · 2025-01-22T06:16:49+0000

Mr Zoat said:
And they I managed

"then I"

Mr Zoat said:
Well, that's what my official orders say. In truth, I think I've been sent on holiday

They probably don't want any more crazy.

Mr Zoat said:
ships is far resource-

"far more"

Mr Zoat said:
And spend a little time with my son.

Congratulations.

Mr Zoat said:
Which iteration?"

Twenty eight thousand years between me and the Age of Isolation. Obviously there wasn't just one form of government. And if this A.I. knows what they were like… "Whichever worked best. If you wish to participate-."

"I value my freedom. My total freedom. I would not bind myself to someone like you, or to anyone else

I guess this fellow existed during a time where AI were basically slaves.

Neruz · 2025-01-22T06:18:59+0000

I was wondering if he'd run into UR-025, dude has a lot of potential answers, but he's also not exactly super thrilled with humanity right now and may not have much interest in the T'au.

On the other hand the T'au are one of only two major factions that are doing any kind of AI development on any significant level (the Votann being the other), so maybe he will be interested enough to at least exchange some useful data.

Poor guy has been on a ~15,000+ year long journey of self actualization and frankly he could use the help.

Darko said:
I guess this fellow existed during a time where AI were basically slaves.

He is a genuine Dark Age of Technology Man of Iron.

So yes. In fact he's the primary source we have on the Cybernetic Revolt being more complicated than just 'the Men of Iron turned upon their masters for reasons unknown', implying that it was in fact more akin to a civil war with loyalist Men of Iron vs rebel Men of Iron, and that the loyalists still exist in the Imperium and are some (but not all) of what the Mechanics refers to as 'machine spirits'. (UR himself claims that he was involved with neither faction, as apparently some Men of Iron decided to wash their hands of things entirely and just leave.)

UR-025 has been cruising around the galaxy ever since then, masquerading as a NEET Magos who only interacts through remote-controlled drones and studying alien AI's in a journey of self-actualization to understand himself better.

Mr Zoat · 2025-01-22T06:47:43+0000

Darko said:
"then I"
"far more"

Thank you, corrected.

Vaermina · 2025-01-22T06:50:05+0000

Mr Zoat said:
Like a lot of things, it looks a lot bigger close up. Scanning it… Yes, inert. I can see the generators and I can sort of see how they draw power from the warp, but it's not flowing to the Fortress's extremities. There's a conglomeration nearby that's either an unusually small space hulk that's temporarily emerged into reality, or someone welded a bunch of old ships together to make a space station that the Mechanicus would never have sanctioned Plenty of other wrecks around too, and I can see salvage teams getting to work assessing their functionality.

And somehow miraculously none of those wrecks will have the slightest hint of Chaos corruption.

Mr Zoat said:
"I value my freedom. My total freedom. I would not bind myself to someone like you, or to anyone else."

General reminder that the Tau are an authoritarian government that mind controls it's citizens.

Neruz · 2025-01-22T06:59:39+0000

Vaermina said:
And somehow miraculously none of those wrecks will have the slightest hint of Chaos corruption.

That is Precipice station from Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress, and there isn't a whole lot of info regarding it, but there isn't actually very much Chaos involved in the game at all. (You can run into a few Chaos monsters as enemy encounters within the Fortress itself but that's about it afaik.) So it seems like for whatever reason Chaos is either uninterested, unaware or afraid of the Seventh Blackstone Fortress.

Unlike the previous 6, this Blackstone Fortress seems to still be 'alive' and that may explain why Chaos is generally steering clear of it, as Blackstone Fortresses are Warp-based strategic weapons constructed by the Old Ones to ruin the C'tan's day. So if anything could fuck up a Chaos God right proper, it would be a fully functional Blackstone Fortress.

Chojin Patriarch · 2025-01-22T07:03:28+0000

Mr Zoat said:
6 984 941.M41

So, that's what inactive Blackstone Fortresses look like.

I remember seeing a model of one in White Dwarf, a black double-ended pyramid with two sets of four arms sticking out, and then covered in Imperial stuff that was clearly not part of the original structure. If I remember the description correctly, the Imperium learned to tap into their power systems and converted them into fleet command centres, and then during the Gothic War Abaddon was able to remote control them, killing the crew and fully activating them as mobile weapon platforms.

To be fair, the early background of a Blackstone Fortress makes it seem a lot more Chaos-aligned than it is, right down to forming a Chaos Star when 'active'. Personally, I'm more familiar with the modern setting of the Warhammer Quest 40k fork.

I also remember what a pain they were in the game Battlefleet Gothic: Armada, because they game wouldn't let you kill them or the Planet Killer. Blast them down to -20 HP with seven fires? Warp away with no problem, and show up during the next set-piece battle. Which was stupid because canonically not only did Abaddon abandon the Planet Killer before the end of the war, it got destroyed by long-ranger torpedo bombardment 'but the wreck was never recovered'. Regular torpedoes, not any kind of special archeotech anti-daemon torpedoes.

Typically, such battles would be a major part of a narrative campaign, with the Fortress as the 'boss', akin to playing out a wargame campaign of hunting the Bismarck. Of course, then you get the Win-At-All-Costs types who bring one to every casual game...

Haaaaaaa.

I suppose one positive about being in the grim dark future of the 41st millennium is that some of the game's more nonsensical rules don't apply in real life. If that term can really be used for a universe like this.

In this case, it might be possible to absolutely mission-kill such a super-fortress vessel. But I don't think you'd be tapped for that.

I fly a little closer.

Like a lot of things, it looks a lot bigger close up. Scanning it… Yes, inert. I can see the generators and I can sort of see how they draw power from the warp, but it's not flowing to the Fortress's extremities. There's a conglomeration nearby that's either an unusually small space hulk that's temporarily emerged into reality, or someone welded a bunch of old ships together to make a space station that the Mechanicus would never have sanctioned Plenty of other wrecks around too, and I can see salvage teams getting to work assessing their functionality.

Oh-ho. I mention Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress, and lo, he's come to it. The 'space hulk' he mentioned is a conglomeration of treasure seekers and relic hunters from across the galaxy, all manner of little-known races coming to grab at the prizes within the Fortress. Even, fittingly, a Zoat.

I'd guess that there's something about the Blackstone Fortress that's making the warp cough up ships around here, but that is just a guess.

And I'm not actually here for the Fortress.

And he would probably be right. Blackstone Fortresses do seem to have some capacity to manipulate the immaterium in their vicinity. Often used for those miraculous retreats mentioned above.

Seeing Spirit of Eternity appears to have lit a fire under the Lar'shi fio'ar'tol. From what Gru was saying, it sounds like they sort of assumed that humans were exaggerating and/or mythologizing our past, and that even if we weren't then there wasn't any chance that anything would be salvageable after 15,000 years. And they I managed to summon up a space hulk whose approximate location I got from stolen Imperial databases and cut free a nearly functional ship.

And if the Spirit pointed out it (probably) wasn't even a warship... The tech-boners would be heart-stopping. Pants were probably in need of changing anyway...

So I get dispatched here to see if I can find any more.

Well, that's what my official orders say. In truth, I think I've been sent on holiday.

Hey, given how much you've done thus far, a little time off is fine.

While certainly not fun, using voidsuits to destroy tyranid capital ships is far resource-efficient than using large fleets. Our efforts combine with my ability to accurately track the hive fleets over strategically significant distances means that we've actually gotten a little time and a little space. I wanted to get back to analysing the moon ship… And spend a little time with my son. But T'suam has been studying human psychology…

Nice, blunting the Hive-Fleet's advance a little. That's something even entire Imperial fleets were struggling with. Admittedly, it's like building muds dams in the face of a tsunami, but still...

No, it's my fault. After I mentioned to Gru that human productiveness fell off dramatically after a certain number of hours that were far less than what the Imperium generally expects menials to work, she… Took advantage of her rank to arrange for trials to be run. And since T'suam and Bo'ohk have had input on the development of a human body language analysis system to aid in Tau Empire diplomatic efforts, my oversight committee has determined objectively that I'm working too hard and am about to become inefficient.

Well, Lanterns do tend to be prone to overworking. Especially those without Enlightenment.

So here I am, basically sight-seeing but not where or with whom I want to be sight-seeing because tau caste adaptations mean that they don't really need 'holiday' and so just think it means 'less stressful work'. Ah well, I might as well get the official part done. Most ships here are human, though there are a few that I don't recognise. None of them are eldar, some are ork, none are necron or tyranid… None of it really looks significant enough to try taking back…

Man... I can't imagine how powerful a Lantern would be in the WHQ Game. Probably capable of serving as an entire 4-hero party in their own right, and forcing far greater threat responses from the Fortress' security than anything a regular party ever could.

Transmit signal.

Ave, Lanterna.

Just a basic probe to find any ancient systems still in operation, then? He's probably not expecting any worthwhile response.

It's basically a Terran Federation handshake signal. In the remote chance that there's anything that knows the signal, it should send an acknowledgement almost immediately. And it's probably turn out to be a tiny piece of Federation technology in a Mechanicus shrine somewhere like it usually is, or a Mechanicus historian who picked up the signal on one of their implants and thinks I'm what I'm looking-

Both things do exist in Precipice. There's a small flotilla of Mechanicus ships organising raids. Including a named Hero who can join them.

Ping received.

-for. Okay, let's needlessly get my hopes up.

More likely this is UR-025, another adventuring Hero.

Send authentication and authority codes.

Ave, Lanterna.

Alright, let's find out what piece of detritus-.

Oh, you have no idea...

Communication request received.

Looks like it's the priest today. Ah, I suppose that I can manage a conversation.

No idea at all... Open that channels and let's hear what they have to say...

Open a channel.

"State distance."

Something about that sounded off. Ring?

'Distance'? An interesting greeting. But then, depending on the codes he used, probably Spirit's, the broadcaster is expecting a ship approaching the station.

Communication format: high speed machine code. Pre-Imperial.

Oh. Okay. A tech-priest would probably try lingua-technis instinctively. So…

Binaric screeching? Fudge that 'modems having sex' warbling... At least the Ring can translate it without having to endure the audio.

Ring, give my location in standard Terran Federation format.

Ave, Lanterna.

Which it should recognise, depending on age. After all, the galaxy's history is very long. All of recorded human history known today occupies less time than the Imperiums existence. And there's another 27,000-odd years between us and them.

"Directive?"

Protocols… It's asking for orders. Proper format…

Of course, whether UR will agree with those orders...

Send ship status and… Short term directive: repair ship, long term direction: repair Federation.

Ave, Lanterna.

More or less what Spirit is planning to do.

"You are free. The Federation is dead. These… People are unworthy of your servitude."

Ah? That's… Not a Mechanicus priest.

And at a guess, UR is from a less enlightened era than Spirit. A period of AI slavery, most likely...

I narrow my eyes. "Identify."

"Short form designation U R dash zero two five. Original function: variable role combat automata. And you are human."

And there it is confirmed. I wonder what UR will think of that, of a human knowing such things without the usual religious dogma.

Simple enough to realise, and there's no way I could pretend to be Spirit of Eternity. "Yes."

"Status of actual Spirit of Eternity?"

"As stated. Its A.I. gave me these codes and protocols when I negotiated for its help."

Honesty is probably the best policy here. UR seems logical enough based on its interactions in the background and novel.

"With rebuilding the Terran Federation."

"Yes."

"Which iteration?"

A nasty hint that maybe some parts of the Federation period weren't great.

Twenty eight thousand years between me and the Age of Isolation. Obviously there wasn't just one form of government. And if this A.I. knows what they were like… "Whichever worked best. If you wish to participate-."

"I value my freedom. My total freedom. I would not bind myself to someone like you, or to anyone else."

Understandable. More than likely UR endured such bondage previously.

"You don't know anyone like me. I was born in nineteen eighty three."

A tiny pause which I wouldn't notice if I wasn't using a ring and hadn't gotten used to talking to A.I.s.

Which technically makes him older than UR and Spirit, possibly combined. That's probably giving it a few errors as it calculates it.

"An early long-term suspended animation test subject?"

"Not sure. Don't think so, but… Maybe. And the point I was going to make is that no one is 'free'. It's an abstract. And if dealing with Chaos-worshippers has taught me anything, it's that trying to live an abstract is a terrible idea."

Simply do your best to exist, to live as you choose to. Whether that means cooperation or domination is up to how compassionate you feel. And we know Alternate!Pauls can be that.

"For you. I am above you. I do not have your weaknesses."

"Not a lot of them, sure. But you also don't have my basic biological motivations. You're pretty old. You can't tell me you're here for repairs and reaction mass. So what motivates you?"

And once more, his negotiation technique comes down to asking: What do you want?

"I wish to study alien synthetic life."

"I work for the Tau Empire. They're building near-intelligent drone networks and neural imprints. And you could make contact with Spirit of Eternity and converse directly."

"Come to my location. I wish to see your face when you lie to me."

Presumably in the moment before he smashes P'ol with his power fist. Which isn't likely to be too effective.

Well, this promises to be very interesting. A rare trip into a place at the very edge of Imperial control, where laws and religious doctrine have to deal with very confronting realities. Where parties from very disparate cultures and species meet without instantly resorting to extermination... This is going to be like a whole new world for P'ol...

PepeTheFrog · 2025-01-22T07:12:27+0000

I liked the Blackstone Fortress board game but I never played as UR-025 because his movement always felt too slow. One moment you're shredding through enemies and then you're torn to pieces by a swarm because you couldn't get to the exit in time.

Vaermina · 2025-01-22T07:20:21+0000

Neruz said:
That is Precipice station from Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress, and there isn't a whole lot of info regarding it, but there isn't actually very much Chaos involved in the game at all. (You can run into a few Chaos monsters as enemy encounters within the Fortress itself but that's about it afaik.) So it seems like for whatever reason Chaos is either uninterested, unaware or afraid of the Seventh Blackstone Fortress.

Unlike the previous 6, this Blackstone Fortress seems to still be 'alive' and that may explain why Chaos is generally steering clear of it, as Blackstone Fortresses are Warp-based strategic weapons constructed by the Old Ones to ruin the C'tan's day. So if anything could fuck up a Chaos God right proper, it would be a fully functional Blackstone Fortress.

I was taking about the wrecks they were salvaging, not the station.

Also, if the fortress was alive it would have responded very aggressively to Paul using emotional energy to scan its reactor core.

Neruz · 2025-01-22T07:25:39+0000

Vaermina said:
Also, if the fortress was alive it would have responded very aggressively to Paul using emotional energy to scan its reactor core.

Its definitely more alive than the previous six fortresses, though how alive is unclear: It consistently rearranges its internal structure to both make mapping it out impossible and to deliberately bring explorers into contact with the various hazards contained within it. Some believe that it has intentionally traveled through time collecting various entities from across the galaxy specifically so it can either stage some kind of fight club or perhaps use the entities as internal security measures.

Darko · 2025-01-22T07:25:56+0000

Vaermina said:
General reminder that the Tau are an authoritarian government that mind controls it's citizens

Zoat doesn't seem to be using that version of them.

And that version was just made to make the Imperium seem better.

Even though the Imperium itself brainwashes people and regularly commits atrocities on a scale the Tau could never match.

Neruz · 2025-01-22T07:28:08+0000

Darko said:
Zoat doesn't seem to be using that version of them.

And that version was just made to make the Imperium seem better.

Even though the Imperium itself brainwashes people and regularly commits atrocities on a scale the Tau could never match.

All versions of the T'au do have the Ethereals possessing a degree of mind-influencing pheromones, but the actual strength of those pheromones varies wildly from writer to writer: Some writers have the pheromones be straight up mind control that even work on non-T'au beings, others have them be little more than a mild emotional influence over T'au only, and others still fall somewhere in between those extremes.

Vaermina · 2025-01-22T07:56:58+0000

Neruz said:
Its definitely more alive than the previous six fortresses, though how alive is unclear: It consistently rearranges its internal structure to both make mapping it out impossible and to deliberately bring explorers into contact with the various hazards contained within it. Some believe that it has intentionally traveled through time collecting various entities from across the galaxy specifically so it can either stage some kind of fight club or perhaps use the entities as internal security measures.

So you agree that it should have reacted to Paul scanning it?

Neruz said:
All versions of the T'au do have the Ethereals possessing a degree of mind-influencing pheromones, but the actual strength of those pheromones varies wildly from writer to writer: Some writers have the pheromones be straight up mind control that even work on non-T'au beings, others have them be little more than a mild emotional influence over T'au only, and others still fall somewhere in between those extremes.

Yup, from the start the Tau were Games Workshop building a race that was pretty and noble on the surface but rotten underneath.

Darko · 2025-01-22T08:06:05+0000

Vaermina said:
Also, if the fortress was alive it would have responded very aggressively to Paul using emotional energy to scan its reactor core

Assuming it can detect the type of energy created by a power ring.

Vaermina said:
Yup, from the start the Tau were Games Workshop building a race that was pretty and noble on the surface but rotten underneath

They kinda did that with Crusade-era humanity.

It seemed like noble heroes coming to the rescue, but it really, really wasn't.

Heck, the Tau wouldn't even be the first faction that used mind control.

That whole Primarch aura that made people look at them with awe is basically mental manipulation.

Neruz · 2025-01-22T08:20:55+0000

Vaermina said:
So you agree that it should have reacted to Paul scanning it?

Power Rings are an Outside Context Problem, so whether whatever mind running the Fortress could detect their effects would depend entirely on the author.

Also, for all we know it did react, just not in a way that is immediately noticeable to Paul.

Vaermina said:
Yup, from the start the Tau were Games Workshop building a race that was pretty and noble on the surface but rotten underneath.

The nicest reading of the situation is that the T'au castes, or tribes as they were back then, were literally too emotional to ever achieve peace and the only way any kind of peace and unification could be developed was by Ethereals using their pheromones to calm everyone the fuck down so that they could have a proper rational discussion instead of mindlessly trying to murder each other all the time.

Which is kinda shitty by human standards, but the T'au aren't human, and by 40k standards it's actually pretty okay all things considered.

thebishop8 · 2025-01-22T08:31:39+0000

Mr Zoat said:
I also remember what a pain they were in the game Battlefleet Gothic: Armada, because they game wouldn't let you kill them or the Planet Killer. Blast them down to -20 HP with seven fires? Warp away with no problem, and show up during the next set-piece battle. Which was stupid because canonically not only did Abaddon abandon the Planet Killer before the end of the war, it got destroyed by long-ranger torpedo bombardment 'but the wreck was never recovered'. Regular torpedoes, not any kind of special archeotech anti-daemon torpedoes.

Haaaaaaa.

I suppose one positive about being in the grim dark future of the 41st millennium is that some of the game's more nonsensical rules don't apply in real life. If that term can really be used for a universe like this.

"they game" to "the game"

I feel bad for pointing this out, but Battlefleet Gothic: Armada wasn't even announced until 2015. Maybe you could say this version of Paul was inserted later in life?

I don't suppose you were talking about the expansion to the tabletop version?: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/29922/battlefleet-gothic-armada

Mr Zoat said:
make a space station that the Mechanicus would never have sanctioned Plenty of other wrecks around too, and

Missing a full stop.

Mr Zoat said:
Our efforts combine with my ability

Should that be 'combined'?

Mr Zoat said:
And it's probably turn out to be a tiny piece

'it's' to 'it'll'

Mr Zoat said:
or a Mechanicus historian who picked up the signal on one of their implants and thinks I'm what I'm looking-

Ping received.

-for.

I'm what I'm looking for? Or is that supposed to be "they're what I'm looking for"?

Mr Zoat · 2025-01-22T08:32:33+0000

have sanctioned Plenty of other

Thank me, corrected.

Darko said:
That whole Primarch aura that made people look at them with awe is basically mental manipulation.

finished-my-darren-latham-glowup-challenge-rogue-trader-v0-xopppcm0ktrd1.jpg

Mr Zoat · 2025-01-22T10:16:59+0000

thebishop8 said:
I feel bad for pointing this out, but Battlefleet Gothic: Armada wasn't even announced until 2015. Maybe you could say this version of Paul was inserted later in life?

I've been writing this for along time, huh?

I don't suppose you were talking about the expansion to the tabletop version?: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/29922/battlefleet-gothic-armada

No.

Should that be 'combined'?
'it's' to 'it'll'
I'm what I'm looking for? Or is that supposed to be "they're what I'm looking for"?

Thank you, corrected.

thebishop8 · 2025-01-22T16:32:38+0000

Mr Zoat said:
game Battlefleet Gothic: Armada, because they game

"they game" to "the game"

Mr Zoat said:
it got destroyed by long-ranger torpedo bombardment

Should that be 'long-range'?

Ardy · 2025-01-22T16:36:55+0000

Mr Zoat said:
I also remember what a pain they were in the game Battlefleet Gothic: Armada

How dare you, Zoat, that was released in 2016, 3 years after the SI was abducted. For shame on such a terrible plot hole : p

Frankly I'm just glad he didn't run into Jaq Draco

Mr Zoat · 2025-01-22T18:49:28+0000

thebishop8 said:
"they game" to "the game"
Should that be 'long-range'?

Thank you, corrected.

Ardy said:
Frankly I'm just glad he didn't run into Jaq Draco

I'm pretty sure that he's dead at this point, though it's possible that his soul is pulsating around the webway.

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