Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
By popular demand
Jul 17, 2007

IT *BZZT* WASP ME--
IT WASP ME ALL *BZZT* ALONG!


D.B

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

paragon1
Nov 22, 2010

FULL COMMUNISM NOW
D B Hopefully this will be us taking advantage of the chaos to strike our most secretive chore off our list early, and not be slaughtered due to running ahead of our forces into an entrenched position

Maybe we'll be able to pick up a food processor and be able to take credit as being the tip of the spear into Gamma.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
A Let's use the cards we're given right now. The muties are in a frenzy which won't last forever, and we might be able to punch our way through before the Xenos reorganize. The sooner we can get the plant, the sooner we can safely focus on other priorities. Also, an initial breakthrough would give us an excuse to stay away from the front lines without seeming cowardly.

Lanky Coconut Tree
Apr 7, 2011

An angry tree.

The angriest tree
D. A.

We've landed in loot. Grab a Chimera or command vehicle, start rallying troops who will listen. The penals are our Ogryns now, we'll have to grab armour weapons and turn the pilgrims into mechanized infantry. Take the river bank with armour, charging into emplaced weapons is not what we do best.

Let's find the food plant and settle that first.

Sogol
Apr 11, 2013

Galileo's Finger

Lanky Coconut Tree posted:

D. A.

We've landed in loot. Grab a Chimera or command vehicle, start rallying troops who will listen. The penals are our Ogryns now, we'll have to grab armour weapons and turn the pilgrims into mechanized infantry. Take the river bank with armour, charging into emplaced weapons is not what we do best.

Let's find the food plant and settle that first.


+1. Begin to build an armed, mobile force from those who do not seem moved to immediately throw themselves upon machine gun nests. It does not matter what group they come from. Use those that are intent on throwing themselves upon machine guns as the buffer to allow building this force. The war is just a huge distraction. Stay on mission. Food Processor, Profit and Deception.

We are going to need any force multipliers of any sort we can encounter or invent in order to survive and to make it look as if we actually brought the resources for which we were contracted.

Begin looking for things to hack.

Pump it up! Do it!
Oct 3, 2012

Lanky Coconut Tree posted:

D. A.

We've landed in loot. Grab a Chimera or command vehicle, start rallying troops who will listen. The penals are our Ogryns now, we'll have to grab armour weapons and turn the pilgrims into mechanized infantry. Take the river bank with armour, charging into emplaced weapons is not what we do best.

Let's find the food plant and settle that first.

This.

MaliciousOnion
Sep 23, 2009

Ignorance, the root of all evil

If that map is to scale, fulfilling our obligations in Gamma could take a week, which is too long for us to be away at the start of this campaign. Also, we should be careful of the next round of drop pods, lest we end up like the guardsmen we landed on.

Volmarias
Dec 31, 2002

EMAIL... THE INTERNET... SEARCH ENGINES...
So, are they orcs or is this a gene stealer cult insurrection? I just want to know if we should expect an exterminatus or what.

Lanky Coconut Tree
Apr 7, 2011

An angry tree.

The angriest tree

MaliciousOnion posted:

If that map is to scale, fulfilling our obligations in Gamma could take a week, which is too long for us to be away at the start of this campaign. Also, we should be careful of the next round of drop pods, lest we end up like the guardsmen we landed on.

If Ohone can't run a simple physics calculation to determine the arc and landing zone of each drop pod above her she is no true tech priest

Volmarias posted:

So, are they orcs or is this a gene stealer cult insurrection? I just want to know if we should expect an exterminatus or what.

Looks like a genestealer cult

Wentley
Feb 7, 2012

Lanky Coconut Tree posted:

D. A.

We've landed in loot. Grab a Chimera or command vehicle, start rallying troops who will listen. The penals are our Ogryns now, we'll have to grab armour weapons and turn the pilgrims into mechanized infantry. Take the river bank with armour, charging into emplaced weapons is not what we do best.

Let's find the food plant and settle that first.


I like this plan.

VanSandman
Feb 16, 2011
SWAP.AVI EXCHANGER
Oh, poo poo! GENESTEALERS!

Lanky Coconut Tree posted:

D. A.

We've landed in loot. Grab a Chimera or command vehicle, start rallying troops who will listen. The penals are our Ogryns now, we'll have to grab armour weapons and turn the pilgrims into mechanized infantry. Take the river bank with armour, charging into emplaced weapons is not what we do best.

Let's find the food plant and settle that first.


Do this.

Outrail
Jan 4, 2009

www.sapphicrobotica.com
:roboluv: :love: :roboluv:

Lanky Coconut Tree posted:

D. A.

We've landed in loot. Grab a Chimera or command vehicle, start rallying troops who will listen. The penals are our Ogryns now, we'll have to grab armour weapons and turn the pilgrims into mechanized infantry. Take the river bank with armour, charging into emplaced weapons is not what we do best.

Let's find the food plant and settle that first.


Cool

HiHo ChiRho
Oct 23, 2010

Lanky Coconut Tree posted:

D. A.

We've landed in loot. Grab a Chimera or command vehicle, start rallying troops who will listen. The penals are our Ogryns now, we'll have to grab armour weapons and turn the pilgrims into mechanized infantry. Take the river bank with armour, charging into emplaced weapons is not what we do best.

Let's find the food plant and settle that first.


This.

Volmarias
Dec 31, 2002

EMAIL... THE INTERNET... SEARCH ENGINES...

Lanky Coconut Tree posted:

D. A.

We've landed in loot. Grab a Chimera or command vehicle, start rallying troops who will listen. The penals are our Ogryns now, we'll have to grab armour weapons and turn the pilgrims into mechanized infantry. Take the river bank with armour, charging into emplaced weapons is not what we do best.

Let's find the food plant and settle that first.


gently caress it, do this.

mepstein73
Sep 18, 2012

Whether or not you find your own way, you're bound to find some way. If you happen to find my way, please return it, as it was lost years ago. I imagine by now it's quite rusty.
Plan Lanky Coconut Tree

Also, love the line, "This was your entire world, until it wasn’t."

Wentley
Feb 7, 2012

mepstein73 posted:

Also, love the line, "This was your entire world, until it wasn’t."

Totally agree.

Pinche Rudo
Feb 8, 2005

Lanky Coconut Tree posted:

D. A.

We've landed in loot. Grab a Chimera or command vehicle, start rallying troops who will listen. The penals are our Ogryns now, we'll have to grab armour weapons and turn the pilgrims into mechanized infantry. Take the river bank with armour, charging into emplaced weapons is not what we do best.

Let's find the food plant and settle that first.


Another vote for this plan

Ralith
Jan 12, 2011

I see a ship in the harbor
I can and shall obey
But if it wasn't for your misfortune
I'd be a heavenly person today

my dad posted:

A Let's use the cards we're given right now. The muties are in a frenzy which won't last forever, and we might be able to punch our way through before the Xenos reorganize. The sooner we can get the plant, the sooner we can safely focus on other priorities. Also, an initial breakthrough would give us an excuse to stay away from the front lines without seeming cowardly.
A

Waci
May 30, 2011

A boy and his dog.
Voting for Plan Lanky Coconut Tree.

McSpanky
Jan 16, 2005






Waci posted:

Voting for Plan Lanky Coconut Tree.

Loel
Jun 4, 2012

"For the Emperor."

There was a terrible noise.
There was a terrible silence.



Retreat, hell! We just got here!

Jeb had the right idea. Grab some of the local weapons and press the attack. You got up into a crouch, sprinted. Rolled behind the tracks of a hull-down vehicle. More drop pods were landing, bursting like egg shells. Inside, pilgrims were pouring out, staring about them. Dazed and confused. You screamed at them to get down. Some did. Others were eviscerated by machine gun fire.

Crawling over to them, your voice cut through their babble. Your shouts echoed across the shore, interspersed with the staccato of gunfire, the thumps of mortars. “You have been chosen by the God-Emperor to liberate the planet of Golgotha! Get weapons from the dead! Find vehicles!” Some of them were quicker thinkers than others, or perhaps from Orders Militant. Soon Jeb had a team supplying him belts of ammo, and a string of machine guns and rifles were operating on a hundred meters of beach. Thankfully, enemy fire was dying down.

Best to stick to your strengths. Most of the vehicles here were burned out wrecks, the first target for the heavy mortars. You did find a Chimera, which you immediately marked as your flagship. Drafting more pilgrims, you pushed the bodies out of the cabin and ordered them to familiarize themselves with the controls. Vehicle driving was a common enough skill, even if ammo loading or radio might not be.

The Machine-Spirit was eager to be of use, once you proved your security credentials.

Your squads on the beach were having an effect - it was almost safe to move about and look for more vehicles. You found several Centaurs, armoured utility vehicles with mounted machine guns. Even found a Hellhound - a lovely piece of mounted flamers, good for close in work. Their Machine-Spirits were compliant as well, and soon you had them stuffed full of pilgrims. Unfortunately, they weren’t handling it at all well yet - moving in circles, firing guns in the general direction of north.

Baby steps.

Another pod landed, Vehicle class. Joy of joys. The Omnissiah must be looking out for you - you recognized the pod as your own request. Your Riding-Servitor brought you over there at speed, allowing you to reach it right as the egg burst. You couldn’t hide a grin as you looked up, up, up. Tank treads that could run over apartment blocks. Armor layered meters thick. A custom request Leman Russ Chassis. Weapon systems removed, with a massive open platform on top.

A sound and light system that could use a Moon as a screen.

Clambering aboard, you called Jeb over. It took him a minute to climb the ladder, and then standing topside he could only look over the landscape open mouthed. To the South, you could see strands of super-tensile wires dropping from the orbiting cargo ships. Space elevators, connecting the logistical trains on the ground into space. One of them, you knew, was the property of your Lord-Sire, who would charge a hefty transit fee to the merchants who had to use it.

A standard Imperial Guard division required a thousand tons of supplies per day. The war for Golgotha - one hundred Army Groups - would require six and a half megatons of supplies per day, greater than the carrying capacity of your Family’s ship - and your Family’s ship was large for a Trader. Every day of the war, hundreds of cargo ships would be arriving in orbit, docking with the space elevators in orbit, and shunting down the wealth of worlds. This was a hasty operation by Crusade standards, but the logistics and preparations involved were still mind-boggling.

The steel rain of pods was continuing, as far as the eye could see. South, west, north-east. Millions of troops were dropping to the earth, behind the lines of pilgrims, mutants, penal units, and the damned. You knew that entire divisions were melting away on the river bank, a stretch of hundreds of miles, simply to allow the Guard an uninterrupted landing. Speaking of which….

“Jeb.”
He looked at you, eyes wide with the scale of what was happening. To be honest, you thought your expression might be similar.
“Turn it on.”
Twisting behind him, he found a control switch. Pressed it.
The engine of the Leman Russ spooled on, multiple jet engines whirring with tremendous energy. Moments later, the light and sound system turned on as well. Light beams of millions of lumen, staring into the sky like they planned to challenge the stars. Hymns that shook the mountains.

Around you. Thousands, upon thousands of Dregs, poisoned by Abraxus. Watching you like fireflies in a lamp.

“Herd them North, Jeb. There is a radio, stay in touch.”

He grinned at you, and then began playing with the dials and buttons. If anything, the sounds and light became even more overwhelming, and the great treads began digging into the earth.

Dismounting, you grabbed your Riding-Servitor, drove to the Chimera. You rounded up a few of the surviving Imperial Guard that you found, tried to put on in each vehicle, to stiffen them. You told your servitor to follow the Chimera, and then jumped down the hatch. Inside, a handful of pilgrims looked up at you, along with a Sergeant Matthais. You nodded to them, and they made the sign of the Aquilia.

Pointing at the maps that were taped on the interior of the cabin, you said “Tell me where we are.”
Sergeant Matthias looked at them briefly, then back at you. “We’re about one hundred and fifty klicks south of the Hive.” His accent was difficult but not impossible, oddly thick in places. “The river runs south-west/north-east almost the entire length of the Hive. There is a bridge about a klick East of here and an old Dam two klicks to the West. I don’t know if either are standing.”

You grabbed the radio, spooled it through channels. “Nallani HQ, come in.”
It took a few tries, but you found an active line. “This is HQ, who is this?”
“Emissary Ohone. I’m at the river bank at…” you glanced at the map “these coordinates. My infantry units have pushed across the river, and I am reinforcing them with a mechanized company.”
“Roger that Emissary. Good luck.”

Flipping back to the company channel, you call up your vehicles. “Pilgrims, this is your Tech Priest.”
After they acknowledged, you said “Two of you go west, two go east. Tell me if the bridge or dam is still standing.”

The waiting was only broken up by the steady patterns of drop pods landing in the South. You took the time to give a crash course to the pilgrims on how to use their stations, and then the radio flicked on.
“Mistress Tech-Priest, the bridge is impassable.”
“Mistress Tech-Priest, the dam is still up.”
“Excellent. Bridge team, come to me. We’ll go together to dam squad.”

You put Jeb and his army of Dregs up front, to soak up any damage. Then your vehicle, then the Centaurs, then finally the Hellhound to cover the rear. The dam strained with the weight of the machines, but your practiced eye was confident in the strength of the holy designs. You spread out the vehicles a bit just in case though.

The other side was an Industrial Park of some sort - multiple large buildings, battered by age and the war. Holes large and small had torn up the sides of the buildings, and there were easily a thousand xeno bodies who had been eviscerated. The ground was soaked in the blood of the Dregs, settling on the ground like a perverse pollen. You ordered the weapons and ammo to be collected, and then drove up an elevated position, looked North.

The wasteland between you and the Hive was a desolate place. Rolling, ashen terrain, pockmarked by abandoned factories, facilities, and craters. The roads were old and damaged, broken here and there, blocked by the slumping of walls or rubble or the weight of long centuries. You could see a scattering of open and collapsed tunnels, suggesting the entire plain was catacombed with underground passages and storage chambers. In the distance, you could see thousands of combat Dregs still rushing north, towards some target only they could see.

What do you do?

A. For the God-Emperor! Push North, do not stop!
B. The combat Dregs have done their job, you should hold this position until the Guard claim it. This will also let you get credit with the officers.
C. Split your team. Leave some on the surface (who?) and take some underground. There’s a treatment plant somewhere under there and you intend to find it.
D. Take everyone into the depths and let HQ know this position has been cleared.
E. Something Else

paragon1
Nov 22, 2010

FULL COMMUNISM NOW
C, the pilgrims Holding a position is easier than taking one, we should leave the non-mutated inexperienced behind.

Time to assert our salvage rights!

HiHo ChiRho
Oct 23, 2010

C the pilgrims stay behind.

mepstein73
Sep 18, 2012

Whether or not you find your own way, you're bound to find some way. If you happen to find my way, please return it, as it was lost years ago. I imagine by now it's quite rusty.
I feel like you're really in your element here, LowellDND. C seems like a good option, fortify this position with Jeb's disco-troops while you push down to find the treatment plant. Best to take this Matthias fellow with us, along with a good few tougher troops; seems like an interesting character.

Outrail
Jan 4, 2009

www.sapphicrobotica.com
:roboluv: :love: :roboluv:

paragon1 posted:

C, the pilgrims Holding a position is easier than taking one, we should leave the non-mutated inexperienced behind.

Time to assert our salvage rights!

Sure. I find this all overwhelming, so it's immersive.

Lanky Coconut Tree
Apr 7, 2011

An angry tree.

The angriest tree
C. Commandeer an Imperial Guard and tell him he is now in charge of securing this area. Give him the unarmed, the inexperienced, some of the Dregs. Radio in to HQ and tell them where we are as well as that we're securing this location plus clearing filth from underground.

Successful Businessmanga
Mar 28, 2010

C I'm cool with the pilgrims holding it here, they should be capable of holding the position.

By popular demand
Jul 17, 2007

IT *BZZT* WASP ME--
IT WASP ME ALL *BZZT* ALONG!


C.Plan Paragon

suggested music for this update: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5zTJkTqn8U

Loel
Jun 4, 2012

"For the Emperor."

There was a terrible noise.
There was a terrible silence.




This makes me so happy :3:

HiHo ChiRho
Oct 23, 2010

I was thinking more of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb-gI_pFog0

Now if only we had a drugged out woman duel wielding pistols with bloodlust....

Volmarias
Dec 31, 2002

EMAIL... THE INTERNET... SEARCH ENGINES...

HiHo ChiRho posted:

I was thinking more of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb-gI_pFog0

Now if only we had a drugged out woman duel wielding pistols with bloodlust....

We can probably purchase the relevant skill for dual wielding, you know.

GhostStalker
Mar 26, 2010

Guys, find a woman who looks at you the way GhostStalker looks at every bald, obese, single 58 year old accountant from Tulsa who managed to win $4,000 by not wagering on a Final Jeopardy triple stumper.

HiHo ChiRho posted:

I was thinking more of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb-gI_pFog0

Now if only we had a drugged out woman duel wielding pistols with bloodlust....

The classic. We could probably find a Tanya in the Nallani Guard regiments to indulge us, those former Hivers are bound to have someone specializing in dual pistols.

Too bad Ram isn't here, besides being a fellow techpriest with a siege specialty, his built in speakers along with this song being installed in his memory banks (as he played it during Quint's duel with the Kroot champion) would give properly martial marching and fighting tunes, plus maybe get the dregs even more pumped out via disco soundstage.

Stealers are bad news, though it looks like the dregs pumped up on cambat drugs with backing from the pilgrims, some of who know what they're doing at least, are holding them well enough. Guess these are just low generation hybrids, and the later generations and patriarchs are back in the Hives, commanding the attack... Also, I underestimated the fury of penal troops who were previously just dregs in our Family's ship, but put through a physical strengthening regime and hopped up on combat drugs and Emperor knows what else, ripping apart the prop pods for improvised weapons and going toe to toe with low generation stealer hybrids, with massive losses for both sides.

Going apart from the :bandwagon: and hopping on [c]Plan C from Lanky Coconut Tree[/b]. Jeb and the disco soundstage controlled dregs, along with some inexperienced pilgrims can probably hold the position against low gen stealer hybrid rushes like we've been seeing, but if they bring out the higher generations as shock troops, we're probably gonna get pushed back. Leave a Nallani Guard officer or sergeant there along with a squad or two for backbone and heavy weapons, and let the Nallani HQ know that the position is taken and we're moving underground, and that they should send a team to take charge of the position from the Guard unit we left there. Gets us some credit with the HQ guys we could use later, too. Who knows, the reinforcements might be Nallani Mechanized Infantry coming in on Turkey Rotorships and give us the crossover we so desire...

And yes Lowell, the writing of these past couple of updates has been great, it looks like you write large scale combat scenes well. Keep up the good work.

GhostStalker fucked around with this message at 21:14 on Dec 29, 2014

Loel
Jun 4, 2012

"For the Emperor."

There was a terrible noise.
There was a terrible silence.



Thank you everyone!

Down down to goblin town

Best not to get overly ambitious. This was a good position, and needed to be held. Raising your voice, you said “If you have military experience, to me! If you know how to use radios, to me!” As the crowd sorted itself out, you reviewed your thinking. Defending a high position over open terrain was easy enough; but a shock team that was advancing needed quality. With a bit of planning, you could split your forces effectively.

There were more combat troops than you expected - the militant pilgrims would serve the war well. The ones who knew how to operate vehicles, you ordered to your convoy. That meant your vehicles had 70-80% who knew how to drive, and the remainder had a day’s experience. If they survived, they would be well on their way to being the Omnissiah’s weapon in your hands.

The remaining combat troops, you made NCOs and officers. The oldest one, a grizzled Master-Sergeant turned monk, was named Father Kraig. He quickly sorted his command staff down to squad leaders, and they began mass sorting pilgrims to distribute. It was fortunate that many of the military people were pilgrims - they knew who could be trusted with a vital weapon.

The Dregs, you couldn’t really do much with. You told Jeb to keep them as a reserve force, and use them at his discretion. While you were setting up the maps and organizing the companies with Kraig, Jeb was playing with the lights. Hundreds of Dregs ran this way or that, up onto roofs, down into pits, shifting moods into anger, fear, or happiness as the lights took them.

Finally, you put a radio in each building, operated by soldiers who knew how to work them. Each building had a company of troops, in basements, on the ground floors, and the roofs. No camouflage to speak of, but good fields of fire. You made sure each house could connect to the vehicle radios, and then you called into HQ.

“HQ, this is Emissary Ohone. Come in.”
“Loud and clear, Emissary. Go ahead.”
“We’ve seized the factory lots across the dam, and are holding. I have two battalions of light infantry: Pilgrims fortifying. I’ve sent a Penal Regiment north to recon in force. I also have a mechanized company that I will be exploring the caverns in with. I am leaving Master-Sergeant Kraig in command. We have light weapons and ammo, but no food. I believe we can hold this position 24 hours given observed enemy disposition.”
“Roger that Emissary, we’ll try to move up a relief force before then. HQ out.”

Well, you’d done all you could. Time to take your convoy and go below. You didn’t want to become the Widowmaker, too focused on seeing battles and winning wars that you forgot the Family objectives: making money hand over fist, and getting credit for things you didn’t do. He had forgotten that lesson, and he had died for it.

A handful of Centaurs, a Hellhound, and your Chimera. Not a bad force for a smash and grab. The great tunnel loomed before you, one of the many roads that traversed the underground. Presumably used for maintenance of the dam at some point, it was now completely dark, visible only by your vehicles’ main lights and the occasional strobe of Jeb. The light didn’t go back far enough into the tunnel.

The darkness seemed endless.

Something about it put your teeth on edge, even as you radioed the order to press forward. Even the darkest places on your ship had light of some sort - the moss that clumped up on everything, or the packs of Fluoro cats. Here, though, it was darkness thick enough to wear, and the light from the vehicles seemed all the more stark for it. Your dismounts walked on the periphery of your convoy, checking for any traps that had been placed, but the uneven light made them seem inhuman, even ghoulish.

Apparently it hadn’t always been like this. The occasional light passed over the ceiling, investigating this or that, and you could see ceiling lights that had been stripped of their copper wiring. Sometimes, you could see bird nests settled into the lights, who looked peevishly down at the light interrupting their sleep. Fluors had her ears fully flared out, glowing fiercely, claws gripping the rail of your tank. You knew she would leap for a bird the moment it thought about coming close.

That would be a thing to see. You hadn’t had a chance to test her toxiclaws yet.

Along the central support columns that framed the tunnel, you saw piles of trash and rubbish, stacked without rhyme of reason. Some of them looked like typical litter from a factory town; others seemed more like an impromptu camp site. Cardboard made into beds, ramshackle housing, a rotting sleeping bag. Hard to say how long they had been down here though. Recently abandoned? Their owners long dead? You had no idea.

It was hard to tell time passing down here, with the lack of external stimuli. No light to change with the ship’s hours. No prayers four times a day. Instead, it was only the slow creak of the treads of tanks, your soldiers constantly checking their automatic rifles and grenade launchers, the squeak of lights swiveling on their pintle mounts. In some ways, it made the eerie darkness that much worse, that much more quiet.

The change in light came slow, and uneasily. It was hard to tell at first, but light was coming up ahead. Your troops checked their weapons more thoroughly, anxious, as they turned the curve. On the far side, you could see some sort of office or control room, lights still flickering with a strange buzz. They reminded you of the lights on Alpha Deck. Your dismounts looked to you for guidance, and you nodded to them, made a gesture.

A team of them approached the office, rifles examining the angles and corners. They counted down, kicked in the door. Even as it fell off its hinges, they rushed inside, the vehicle lights blinding the interior of the room. Then they came back out, returned to their positions. One of them walked over to the vox on your Chimera, spoke into it. “Tech-Priest, its empty aside from the Machine-Spirits.”

“I’ll be right out.”
Shifting, you climb out of the vehicle, walk into the office. Sergeant Matthias had suddenly found his way next to you, and when you looked at him quizzically, he said “Just in case.”
Not a bad idea, at that. Have someone at your back when you communed with the Machine-Spirits.

… Although there wouldn’t be much to talk to here. Most of the machines had been stripped for their parts, the vandals. One console had a couple panels with flickering lights, suggesting the power capacity of the hydroelectric generators. At a guess, this was the control room for the dam, although it would be hard put to such a use now. 90% of the parts would need to be replaced, and who knew about the rest of the generators themselves.

It wasn’t a complete loss, though. Printed on metal and paint, a large wall mount showed a map of the facility. Tunnels, chambers, entry points, even the vents. Your eyes clicked, made a copy of it for later reference. From there, you returned to your vehicle, making a show of ordering a tunnel to go down. Having the appearance of confidence was just as important as being confident, sometimes.

Mentally, you mulled over where to go. Most of the dam was useless to your purposes, and no processing center was noted on the map. However, you did think that there used to be one in this area, simply because of the population numbers stacked on this part of the river. Or more technically, that had lived here at some point. You didn’t know how long it had been abandoned, and you rather hoped that the processing plant had managed the wear of time better than the dam had.

Still. Upriver it meant.

The tunnels were old, kilotons of concrete and steel. You could hear air cycling through the vents in the walls and ceiling, perhaps the last engines still functioning in this ancient place. Transitioning down tunnels had moments of increased tension, particularly at intersections or crossways. Your lights sent strong beams in all directions during those times, the operators sweating with anticipation. The quiet was getting to everyone, and you occasionally spoke on the radio, making sure you sounded calm.

The darkness was terrible here.

The edge of your map was a door mechanism of some sort, and you directed the convoy towards it. Still, the map had not prepared you for the sheer size of the thing. It towered over you, a great circle of steel on vast hinges the size of houses. A similar control room was built on the left and right of it, although it seemed strange that it needed two such things. You sent teams of infantry to investigate, and they reported seeing nothing. No xenos, no humans.

Eerie.

Examining the rooms yourself, you found that they monitored the reservoir behind the gate. Oddly, all of them were listed at 0%, suggesting the chamber on the other side was completely empty. Or, perhaps, the sensors were malfunctioning, and you were about to be inundated with an entire lake, doomed to drown in these black tunnels.

You checked the sensors several times, just to be sure.

The gate had to be opened from access keys in both rooms simultaneously, and you sent Matthias to the other one. You had his complete attention as you showed him how to work the mechanisms, and you made a note to investigate it later. Most people you met were much more ambivalent about the Mysteries. Grateful they existed, happy to let the Tech-Priests manage them, but generally sensibly fearful about learning more. Matthias, though, drank it up like water.

Meeting his eyes across the gap, you counted down, pulled the levers. The door, great monster that it was, was perfectly weighted, moving open with barely watts of encouragement. It was pleasingly silent, as well, and you took a moment to admire the sheer craftsmanship of such a thing. Most tasks were done with brute force, but there was a certain something to be said for elegance.

Behind that vast door was only darkness, and silent. Your convoy was spread out in a half circle in front of it, beams of light looking into the cavern beyond. You waited a handful of minutes, two, but there was no change, no rush of xenos or wave of water. Cautiously, you gave the order to advance, eyes looking about in all directions.

It was a large chamber, cavern floor eroded by water from some long ago. You didn’t know what disaster had moved all the water out, but the place was almost unpleasantly dry here, even still. Your vehicles felt like tiny toys in the sheer presence of the place, and the rumbling of the engines echoed weirdly from unseen walls.

It took some period of time to even find the other side, and the cavern resolved into two pathways. The left, and northerly tunnel, stayed on a mostly even plane. You believed you could hear something from it, although no one in your convoy could identify what it was. The right tunnel, going south-east, was an incline that descended deep into the earth, and it was utterly quiet.

After some thought, you give the order to...

1. Go north, and the tunnel with the sounds
2. Go south-east, and the quiet downward tunnel

Also, will you introduce Matthias into the Mysteries?

A. Yes, it is time you took an Apprentice, and drawing from the laity can be a good perspective.
B. No, it is forbidden. You should choose someone who was raised in the Ways.

mepstein73
Sep 18, 2012

Whether or not you find your own way, you're bound to find some way. If you happen to find my way, please return it, as it was lost years ago. I imagine by now it's quite rusty.
1, and rather than making him a tech priest per se, why not just bring him in as a close ally, perhaps even friend? He seems competent, eager to learn, and tough enough to have survived to this point. I still think he's going to prove to be interesting, so let's call it B for now, but keep him in mind as not necessarily an apprentice, but a good fellow to have around.

paragon1
Nov 22, 2010

FULL COMMUNISM NOW
When presented with such an option, I always go left 1

A
Clearly the Omnissiah meant for us to find this man, in this place.

HiHo ChiRho
Oct 23, 2010

1A. How hard can it be to forge someone's credentials in a society where the population sliders go into many-lots?

Waci
May 30, 2011

A boy and his dog.
1. I suspect that the more interesting discoveries will be made in the other tunnel, but we should check on the source of the noise first to avoid being attacked form behind later. For Matthis, A, but try to do it more or less properly. There has to be some way of inducting people into the cult.

Outrail
Jan 4, 2009

www.sapphicrobotica.com
:roboluv: :love: :roboluv:
I had chills reading that.

w.
B.



Doing forbidden things is what will get us places. If he knows we are teaching him things he shouldn't know he'll know he can rely only on us to protect him.

Plus we need another Woodhouse. Lets get one who understands what we're about.

Edit: I'm a moron, changing vote to 1. A.

Outrail fucked around with this message at 06:48 on Dec 30, 2014

Waci
May 30, 2011

A boy and his dog.

Outrail posted:

B.

Doing forbidden things is what will get us places. If he knows we are teaching him things he shouldn't know he'll know he can rely only on us to protect him.

Plus we need another Woodhouse. Lets get one who understands what we're about.

You voted wrong, what you're looking for is A.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

HiHo ChiRho
Oct 23, 2010

Outrail posted:

I had chills reading that.

w.
B.


Doing forbidden things is what will get us places. If he knows we are teaching him things he shouldn't know he'll know he can rely only on us to protect him.

Plus we need another Woodhouse. Lets get one who understands what we're about.

Uh what is w?

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply