The Tau getting ahold of Drukhari tech via enthralled Wyches? Granted, I'm sure they'll be repurposing a LOT of it for The Greater Good, but goodness, how will the Imperials react the the Tau wielding dark matter weaponry and incredibly advanced cloning technology?
Huh. I guess Tezumak's reaction wasn't that bad, then, if we're cutting away.
Or this is the equivalent of a 'back from commercial' scene to draw out a cliffhanger. At any rate, it's nice to see 40k Paul again. Our boy P'ol.Because not all races come to the same technology from the same route either. And something about it is clearly not like the rest of the galaxy?
To be fair, I suspect the normal reaction most experienced would be horror that someone could to that to one of their own kind. Especially since the Tau don't have the same hang-ups about Artificial Intelligences (or 'Abominable Intelligences', as the Imperials would put it.)
...Is that a 'Despicable Me' reference? Because the main character's name is about all I know of the franchise.
But then you get the issue of two different version of the same tech having odd synergies with other systems when combined that might go away when split off. Which would mean running multiple test beds at once. Including a control model.
Never mind the possibility of a ship coming out in a different frame of temporal reference to its starting point. Consider the tale of an Ork Waaagh that got shunted into their own past, and derailed when the Warboss attacked himself so he could have two copies of his favourite gun.
How convenient.
Ah, now i see the issue. It's too perfect a coincidence. I take it from context that this is the ship the Tau gained their interstellar flight capabilities from. Which they found at just the right time to be able to understand it without having developed their own methods yet.
When in doubt, assume Tzeentch did it for a laugh.
The Necron do use inertialess drives in their ships, at least according to Battlefleet Gothic. And were right pains to fight in-game because of it.
Perhaps one was a backup system? A safety drive if the experimental one conked out while they were in deep space?
True, orks are musters of kludging tech. It's literally in their Mekboyz' blood.
Not that kind of fake!
He means it's a dummy, bait, a trap for the young races.They wanted you to develop along lines they desired. A system where you would expand slowly enough to have a strong empire before you met Humanity. Like someone wanted you to be able to defend yourselves against the Imperium.
In reality, they were retconned away because they didn't sell well. Such are the whims of the true Gods of the Warhammer galaxy.
Aye, that's the rub, isn't it? How to prove it was a seed for your advancement?
And since P'ol can travel quickly enough, he can reach those places in a reasonable time.
Or they might discover an altruistic but reclusive people who are happy their ploy worked and welcome the Tau with open arms. Won't know for sure until you go looking.
...Yeah, no matter how you justify it, I don't think your hosts would appreciate you nosing about in their files.
Interesting. That's a very noteworthy detail. Perhaps the ship had a crewmember or two after all...
Because of course it would be booby-trapped. Just in case it got found by the wrong people.
And that's no joke. Remember the movie 'Event Horizon'? That is a good example of just that sort of thing.
Yes, most everyone he has access to is more like a sledgehammer than a lockpick.
Ah, the S&M Eldar. Not surprising, given that the average Drukhari has only a fragment of a soul at best. And not much of the 'cold' lights in them, at that.
Which basically just leaves you with low level Imperium technology.
Dark Elder aren't psykers.
'than a laboratory'
Second 'the' extraneous.
'daemons'?
Reminds me of a cool fanfic I read where Slaanesh died and they were able to grow their souls with torment rather than just maintaining them against Slaanesh's predation. Naturally they just got even more evil and powerful.
I'd forgotten that, it's true that they don't normally do psykers. My guess is that maybe they do have at least enough ability to do a low-level thing like reading a database, and they just don't do it because they don't want to get tortured for eternity after losing their souls to Slaanesh, so they'll be forced to give up their souls to read the database? Doesn't seem like a great idea to bring Slaanesh's attention here, though.
Wyches aren't exactly the technical specialists of the Dark Eldar culture, and tau don't have the psychic presence to use a lot of their stuff anyway.
It's really more 'whoops I didn't finish the segment I was writing, what have I got in the buffer'.Huh. I guess Tezumak's reaction wasn't that bad, then, if we're cutting away.
No. If you reach back to last time she was mentioned, her name literally means 'lantern'. Well, 'lantern light', technically, but 'gru' means 'lantern'.
In this story and back in the day, yes. In modern 40K they use fairy magic instead.
But they'd already featured in a Ciaphas Cain novel, so it was already too late.
Thank you, corrected.
It's more that the orange light ate the thing linking them to Slaanesh, so they can use baseline eldar level psionics reasonably safely. Assuming it isn't trapped, reading a database shouldn't strain them.
Dark Eldar came into being in 3rd Edition with literally no mention of them before that. I'm still mildly disapointed that there's never been a non-Citadel Journal Codex: Exodites.
That's definitely an invalind argument in general, there are lots of verbs that are synonymous but have different rules about when you can add objects and ablative clauses.
No, it's not that they don't do Psykers, it's that they straight up can't.
That's some major retconning to make your SI special there.
Well, no reason to hide your author appeal on a relatively niche fanfic in a distant corner of the internet. Even though I've bought two OL t-shirts because of it.
Wrong Wiki, you want Lexicanum if you're looking for accuracy.
That contradicts your earlier statement. That description does not say it was engineered out -- that description says that it was neglected in favor of other things. And we've already CLEARLY established across the lore that "psyker" means someone with noteworthy psychic ability, not someone with any psychic ability at all.
is -> in
"virtually unheard-of" is pretty clear...
Thank you, corrected.
Hmm... Energy Constructs... In a region that I think had a Maltusian ship crashed somewhere nearish. I wonder if Tezumak would find a Green Lantern's power familiar. At any rate, let's hope this image stops his from lashing out.
Well, there are ways around that. A telepathic vocaliser or something, perhaps. Or.. .Tezumak's vocal cords should be fine. Perhaps a sensor pickup similar to a tracheotomy voicebox?
Ah, there we go. This would be all kinds of awkward if he couldn't communicate freely, after all.
Work like planting your golden foot up the arse of those responsible? I think OL can get behind that.
Well, that depends on the deity.
Which probably means she could easily overpower their wills again.
I wonder... There's hostages here who might like to exact some small revenge for themselves...
She's probably the best choice to check on them, yes. Very approachable.
Impressively brave, M'gann! I can't imagine she's comfortable with the flames, but helping a traumatised young boy is probably more important to her.
We can but hope. Except that we know she'll lose, and he'll just grow stronger for it...
OL, do we have to have the Constantine Plan talk again?
So no walking folks out inside the armour.
Well, at least they can get the priests mostly on their side. Wouldn't trust them in a fight, but they might be able to bluff their way to safety.
Which would leave whoever it belongs to in a pinch when this is done.
You're right, it's not a good plan. This is extremely foolish, OL.
Which is probably more than they told him, since why explain things to a thrall?
A rather motley collection of sprites, imps and spirits, then.
It won't start making you change shape or something, will it? Like the jaguar/eagle guy?
No harm in asking, certainly. Somehow, though...
...I don't think you'd be that lucky. If Sod's law is any guide, she'll be right under Tlazolteotl's gaze.
...Not helpful, T.
Fortunate. Let's hope that the process isn't too painful, though.
Eesh. The kids are going to need so much therapy after this.
Well, the bits have got to sort themselves out, lacking any surgical precision like yours.
To be fair, it probably won't take him long, if you stop arguing with him.
Kind of fatalistic, aren't you? Then again, given their religion...
Some would say that's a good thing, given, you know...
All right. If nothing else, having a local expert might make things quicker.
Thank you, corrected.
These two should swap places, since Break Time (part 25) was posted after Xenopsychology (part 18).
That should say 'taken'.
Worrisome is what it is. That suggests Mannheim has been draining everything in his path.
Ah, answering the wrong question, eh, OL? Or at least, the one you assume he was asking.
Gratifying to know you like OL. This little buddy-0cop sequence would be much more awkward otherwise.
Not quickly, I suspect. So he would have been worn quite thin by the trials.
The joy of his origins being so... Ambiguous in the comics. You can say just about anything about his people, because they would predate anything modern by centuries. And we all know how... Loose the modern world's grasp of such ancient times is...
Given the other option would be a greeting at gunpoint, this is probably better.
Flowing this openly, or at all?
Okay. So this is something much more recent. The sin-eating lady's work, then.
...Oh, hush, Mannheim. You'll get your turn to monologue soon enough.
Let's hope Tezumak can work that out before you get to the boss...
Could be trouble, if she's planning to cross over.
He's got a point. None of the local Gods saw this coming, I bet. Which makes me wonder about the circumstances of the lady's membership of their pantheon. Wouldn't be the first time a minor god has been integrated into another culture's deities, though she might have had the shittiest position. (What do I mean? Look up the theories about the migratory history of Ishtar and Aphrodite.)
...What's the bet Robert 'Cornwall Boy' Marrack is lurking in the building somewhere?
I mean, it's not without precedent in fiction, giant transforming buildings...
...And, the local deities do seem to be quite large folks. If yon earth goddess was anything to go by.
Which Mannheim probably might object to, given that he's intending to take the same position.
Which is no doubt a much more difficult task.
At least there's a likely source of leverage upon her. If she's working with Mannheim, he may have offered her the lives she needed. If not...
Huh. Someone's getting excited.
...Ah. That's probably not good, then.
Smart move. Those could have been used as an attack vector. Though you might have to make new hearts for whoever those belonged to if they're still kicking.
If you can. I suspect Mannheim will have a different goal in mind.
That'll be the other local gods, then. And definite proof that Tlazolteotl is working with Mannheim.
Not quite the reaction I'd expect. Either she's high as a kite, or she's about to...
...Well, shit. Just in time to see Manheim get his win.
On the up side, that kind of wound's not necessarily fatal around here.
Tezumak takes the left side and I take the right.
