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We can attach small weapons to servo-skulls. Like bolt pistols and plasma pistols.
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Jan 3, 2015 05:36
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And grenades. And canisters of ammonia/bleach. And biological agents. And spiders.
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Jan 3, 2015 06:29
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Mexican Deathgasm posted:Just caught up on this thread, it's great stuff! Thank you! Its always good to have another reader. It looks like B is winning, so Ill chomp that out in the next few hours. Im increasingly terrified of your skull plans though. poo poo's going to give me nightmares. 
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Jan 3, 2015 07:21
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Jan 3, 2015 07:58
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B - accept food and supplies from the Subsixers, but don't let the soldiers mingle with them.
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Jan 3, 2015 09:43
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Take a look at google images Krubera Cave sometime, that was in my mind when I wrote the sketch for this. Except, obviously, we’re going in reverse. Forward or back? You looked at Tanya thoughtfully. “How much further to the platform, do you think?” She shifted uneasily, looked around her. “I don’t actually know. No one has made it that far and told us. We’re prolly three quarters of the farthest I’ve been though. Its hard to feel confident enough that you are the best that ever was, you know? So I’ve been cautious in my ascent.” Best to trust the local guide. “We’re going to need more supplies, then. And now that I’ve seen what we’re facing, I have a few ideas on what to make.” She nodded, perhaps gratefully. You got the feeling that she respected this ascent more than anything this side of Mother. You could easily see a religion forming around it, a pilgrimage to tiers of shrines. And for the most devoted, the chance of death and glory. Perhaps after the war, you could set that up. The struggle here needed to be remembered. The descent, thankfully, was much easier. Gravity was assisting you as opposed to resisting, and you got to work different muscle groups. You were still sweating and achy almost immediately, and took frequent breaks in the different alcoves and chambers on the way down. You were able to pay more attention to them, and noticed that several of them had maps detailed in brass on the walls. Some of the chambers were as big as the city below. All dead ends though. It looked like they had spent generations exploring their surroundings, marking tunnels, cave ins, new passages, stripping them for any materials that might keep the city alive. You could almost feel the desperation involved. An endless series of maps and tunnels, dozens or hundreds of people dying to find them, to get supplies. And still never closer to the surface or an exit. No wonder Mother was half crazed. She had seen her hopes dashed a thousand times, for a thousand years. The townsfolk, at least, seemed unaware of your dark thoughts when you returned. Their hymns were continuing, and your soldiers were at ease, talking with the locals. They leaned on their weapons, helmets off, pictures of relaxation. It was a good thing you returned when you did, you expected they all would have joined the Cult of Mother in a few days. They cheered when they saw you, and you took your place on the Chimera to say a few words as they looked at you expectantly. “My friends! I have travelled the ascension!” More cheers, and one of the locals asked, “Did you see the platform? Did you see the Foreman?” Best to dodge that one. “I have spoken with the Machine-Spirits of the elevator! I know what we must do!” Utter chaos. Hugs, cheering, crying. It was something indeed to be on the edge of prophecy. “My friends, it will not be an easy journey. Tanya and I require supplies, and my convoy needs food as well. See to it, and I will begin crafting the device!” The crowds immediately scattered, bringing whatever they thought you might need. Insect meal, cave fish, mushroom bread, fungus mead, all the adaptations of cave life. Absently, you look for signs of a food processor - protein slurries and the like. If Mother had lied, this would be much easier. No such luck though. Quietly, you radioed new orders. “Be polite and friendly with their festival, but don’t be seduced into their society. Remember the God-Emperor, and teach them His lessons. Pack the vehicles with all the food we need, but not the mushrooms. I don’t trust it.” Matthias looked at you curiously, so you explained. “Some fungi have to be adapted to. I don’t want a convoy with the shits.” He nodded knowingly. In the meantime, it looked like the locals had stripped half their city to bring you tools. Wires, simple machine parts, gears, pipes, fibrous rope, and the assorted pocket trash that built up over generations. Nothing with Machine-Spirits though - the complexity of what you had to work with was less even than the Tribes. What do you build? This is a shorter post, but it moves the plot along a bit I think. Loel fucked around with this message at 10:17 on Jan 3, 2015 |
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Jan 3, 2015 09:54
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Ohone is Mechanicaus, and the Mechanicus does not sweat. They make a machine to do the work for them. A full tech priest should be able to build a line-acending unit with ease, especially with assorted machine parts and a mechanized convoy to work with. Run a line up to the lift with the skull, then use the ascender to climb it. Make it crank driven or something for speed if you want, but anyone who gets friction can make it.
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Jan 3, 2015 11:17
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Maybe just something that will pneumatically anchor into stone? Should be a fairly simple device, and our skull can carry it up successively farther as we climb.
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Jan 3, 2015 11:41
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A motorized wheel of turning hooks that can run up the rungs of the ladder, pulling us and our supplies along behind it. With some kind of safety that will make it stop if it encounters a gap it can't cross.
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Jan 3, 2015 12:03
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wiegieman posted:Ohone is Mechanicaus, and the Mechanicus does not sweat. They make a machine to do the work for them. This plan makes us Tech-Priest Batman, so yes, this.
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Jan 3, 2015 12:28
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Needs more explosions.
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Jan 3, 2015 14:09
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Hush you, you have your own CYOA for things to explode. Make us Batman
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Jan 3, 2015 14:11
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Plan batman
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Jan 3, 2015 19:20
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wiegieman posted:Ohone is Mechanicaus, and the Mechanicus does not sweat. They make a machine to do the work for them. I'm all for it.
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Jan 3, 2015 19:29
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Plan batman is a good plan.
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Jan 3, 2015 20:20
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If we need to we can strip a vehicle and, after apologizing profusely to its Machine Spirit, use its parts.
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Jan 3, 2015 22:21
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You guys do realize that this elevator might come out behind enemy lines once we get it working, right? Lets send the servo-skull back to get a message, find out where the elevator should come out, and get support up top if possible. If this works, we now have access to a tunnel system that can let us gently caress the enemy via underground troop movements. This is important strategic information for the war effort.
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Jan 3, 2015 22:23
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VanSandman posted:Plan batman is a good plan. Also... LowellDND posted:.... Heh. Lets go with a couple dozen, there was a platoon there for some reason or another. Well, that's a couple dozen skulls to be getting on with!
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Jan 3, 2015 23:17
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Tremynci posted:Well, that's a couple dozen skulls to be getting on with!
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Jan 4, 2015 00:13
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Are we certain that there is even a proper connection to the top? It could be caved in. I wonder, is building a bridge or some kind of gondola-type apparatus back the way we came an option?
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Jan 4, 2015 00:20
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Tremynci posted:Well, that's a couple dozen skulls to be getting on with! We don't have the equipment to make servo-skulls here with us, it's probably back on the Beast.
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Jan 4, 2015 02:03
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I'm imagining something like a wheel edged with a whole load of clamps/braking mechanisms that can 'roll' up a support structure by clamping, rotating, clamping again, unclamping first clamp, rotating and so on. Not sure if that makes any sense. Incorporate our riding servitor and throw on a side car for megabyte.
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Jan 4, 2015 05:26
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Sounds like a plan. Im about two pages in, so I should be wrapping up shortly.
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Jan 4, 2015 05:34
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I'd like to hear if we can get a bridge across that gap too. It seems like that would be a good thing to have once we do get the elevator working again, since we'll then be able to, as mentioned, pop up behind enemy lines.
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Jan 4, 2015 05:47
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I’m Batman First things first. You glanced through the crowd, looking for what you needed…. Ah. “Come over here here you grouchy bastard.” Your servitor rolled over to you, sunken eyes watching you, its mouth opened to a soundless scream. You pulled out some tools from your robes, started unscrewing parts, changing the components of your mount. You weren’t entirely clear if servitors could feel pain, but it was at least a familiar one to it. You often had to change parts on your servitor based on what the terrain was in an upcoming race. This build had served you quite well with its triple independent pairs of tires, but it was useless for such a steep incline. “Ah, there we go.” The arms were removed with a loud clang. Turning to Matthais, you said “I need a couple hundred pitons. Ones that can support a half ton of weight. Go talk to the locals, get them made.” He considered your words thoughtfully, his face an expression of total focus, and then he walked into the crowds. You knew you could trust him with that. Meanwhile, you needed to work on the next step. Grabbing sheets of metal, you took an acetylene torch, began reshaping the form. In a short matter of time, they were spiked wheels, teeth matching the gears of the elevator column. Assigning the cooling of the project to others, you began work on your servo-skull. It was easier to work with, built with modularity in mind, and you began to remove sensors and transmitters. Carefully, you placed them in your vehicle for later use. Next task. You welded a pneumatic drill to the mouth of the skull, and quickly rewired the Machine-Spirit to handle the change in equipment. A few tests and … yes. The skull could punch through concrete without effort, and could follow orders for distance. Absently, you considered a melee weapon skull that used the drill to punch skulls. It could even have little grasping claws to collect them afterwards! The townfolk were abuzz with your projects, dismantling extensive rods of metal, core infrastructure, and cutting and bending them into the pitons you wanted. The spiked wheels had finished cooling as well, and you began forcing them into the arm sockets of your long-suffering servitor. You knew that your servo-skull, while incredibly mobile, couldn’t carry the hundreds of pounds of rope you needed. However, your riding servitor was fully capable, and simply needed a change in limbs. The lack there, of course, was that the riding servitor lacked the skill and finesse for rope work. As such, you combined the two models. Grabbing a few hundred meters of rope, you wrapped them around your servitor. Individually, none of them were more than fifty meters, so it would take an extensive set of material to get to the platform. Carefully, you clicked the servitor into the gear shaft, and looked at it warningly. “Climb until you run out of rope, and then return.” You then turned to your servo-skull, used it to jam the first piton into the ground level. “The riding servitor will extend the rope as it climbs. Follow it, and drill the rope into the wall every ten meters. When a rope ends, grab a new one and start it. When the riding servitor returns, come with it.” The clicking of the riding servitor, and the steady beat of the drill, began to echo through the column. Tanya looked at it doubtfully. “It doesn’t climb very fast. I think I could catch it even with the head start.” You shrugged. “He’s carrying a lot of gear - enough rope for three people.” She shook her head. “You should find a bigger giant next time.” “I’ll be sure to do that.” Glancing at the townsfolk, you said “They’ll come back several times. Each time they do, wrap the servitor in rope.” You thought for a moment, screeched in binary. <Servitor. If you see the platform above you, return and tell us. Otherwise, collect more rope and ascend until you do.> That would be several hours, easily. You began rummaging through the piles of rubbish, looking for more supplies. The people who weren’t working began to help as well, although they brought you as much junk as anything. Finally, you had enough pieces for the last step. A friction based climber; it would slot the rope through the gears, and carry the rider to the top of the rope. It would be a bit of a hassle to unclick it before each piton, but that was the price of safety. With that in mind, you added a double set of harnesses, composed of rope and clips. There. Not bad for a Tech-Priest in the middle of nowhere. You split your convoy in two: pilgrims stay down here and work on converting the locals, and prior military climb with you. You went first, as was your duty. Tanya took one look at the mechanism and scoffed, instead climbing up the wall like a spider. Instead, you took Matthais as your partner, and began ascending. When you got to the barracks, Tanya was waiting for you. You nodded to her. “If there is anything up there, I want to be prepared. Lets begin stripping this room of weapons, ammo, gear. Skulls too. Matthais, take a full body weight worth down. Bring up another person, then take down a stack of gear. We’re going to fill the convoy with ordinance. Tell the troops to keep anything they like, and the rest will be in our reserves.” All told, it was nearly a day to get two squads of troops into place in the barracks. They were pleasingly well equipped, though, and you had a bushel of skulls for later renovation. The vented air had preserved them astonishingly well, and you were already full of ideas for what to do with them once you had the resources. You had everyone get some food and sleep, and posted a guard schedule. You rested uneasily, planning ahead for the next stage of things. What would happen if the platform needed supplies you didn’t have? What if there were entrenched enemies there? Had the xenos claimed it? Could the elevator column be used to get behind xeno lines? During the second shift of the watch, your riding servitor had returned. It looked like the rope had been fully secured as far up as your light could go. You considered sending Tanya up to take a further look, but you disliked the idea of sending people up by themselves. Instead, you let everyone get a night’s rest, in preparation for the climb tomorrow. In comparison to the prior day, this day’s escalation was surprisingly mellow. Everyone was familiar with the pattern, and comfortable with trusting the mechanisms you had set up. This alone was encouraging - you wanted your troops to have as much faith in you as they did the God-Emperor. Accomplishing a climb that had never been done, that shocked all the people who had lived there, was an excellent start. At one chamber in particular, Tanya called a halt. “This is far as I’ve gone.” You glanced about you. It looked like a small office, lights and wires still in place. Even the papers were still there, although they crumbled at the touch. On one wall, a series of names and phrases, the uppermost faded and in an accent you couldn’t define. As the names descended, they became more familiar, letters you almost recognized. This is the place of remembering. For those who have come, we salute you! For those who have fallen, you will not be forgotten. Even if we do not succeed, know that we climb for Subsix. Do not let our memories turn to dust. It was a somber place. Almost holy - the last place many people had come before they had died. Almost ritually, you said, “Write your names. We must hold to the traditions of the past.” What do you? A. Situation normal. Send the servitor up the rest of the way, continue as planned. B. Trust not. Send Tanya or the skull up to scout things first. C. Even that’s too risky. Pop flares and see what’s up ahead. D. Maybe there’s something in the office you can use. Investigate it further. E. Something Else. Loel fucked around with this message at 23:44 on May 16, 2016 |
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Jan 4, 2015 05:49
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D There's a reason that plaque is there.
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Jan 4, 2015 05:54
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Interesting. I like the sound of sending the skull up first, but D does seem prudent to do. I agree with Deadmeat; there's got to be a reason this is where the names are written.
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Jan 4, 2015 05:58
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D in case there's a trap ahead.
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Jan 4, 2015 06:05
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D Might as well take a look around, there must be a reason why this office was important...
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Jan 4, 2015 06:09
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Don't be in too much of a hurry to investigate! 
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Jan 4, 2015 06:20
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D
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Jan 4, 2015 06:39
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D
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Jan 4, 2015 06:55
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WagonbanDing
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Jan 4, 2015 07:12
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Why not B + D, look around the office as the skull scouts? I assume it'll be going out of vision range anyway and there's no point standing around
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Jan 4, 2015 07:47
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Xun posted:Why not B + D, look around the office as the skull scouts? I assume it'll be going out of vision range anyway and there's no point standing around This one.
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Jan 4, 2015 08:28
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A The war isn't going to wait for us.
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Jan 4, 2015 09:03
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Better send tanya and the skull while we Delve into this matter.
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Jan 4, 2015 09:08
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Hunh, I really thought D was the dead option this round. Have some flavor text! Apocalyptic Log Research File of Senior Engineer Stelmakh, Commanding. 836.M38 Mother has commanded that we continue pushing the barriers of the disaster that has befallen us. This document is to detail the methods attempted so far. I have placed in this place for those that follow; you need to know what we know, but what Mother cannot. While the expeditionary forces have acquired knowledge about this place, base camp Subsix seems to lack all memory of it. I fear Mother is censoring information for her own purposes. The earthquake that created what we now call the Fissure was a nightmare. We lost contact with all other stations, and no survivors came to Subsix. Radio contact with the surface was blocked or cut. I cannot reach the full length of the wires to be sure. It is possible, even likely, that the earthquake caused the damage, but my heart fears that Mother wants to keep us down here. We have sent teams to the primary exits - the Fissure and the Elevator Column. Some teams never returned, while the ones who did said there was a presence in the darkness. There is something there that we can feel, that we can see on the edge of our vision. If we get too close, it takes us. The darkness is deeper there - it has the feel of a hole in empty space. Only the bravest of us can approach it. Even now, my very hand shakes with the effort of the memory. Even worse, bringing this information to Mother results in complete denial. She ignores the statements we give, the papers we report on it go missing, and the friends we quietly tell have ‘forgotten’ by the next time we see them. This happens too often to be coincidence - to the best of my knowledge, it is universal. I fear Mother knows what is in the dark. I fear she is feeding us to it. Those that follow, do not trust Mother. With prayers to the God-Emperor, I believe we have sanctified this place. All that swear to His service, on their life and honor, shall be protected. You will be able to remember this place, and what comes after. Mother will deny all knowledge, and the people who stay below will forget. I am taking the climb for the last time. I do not expect to return. In the God-Emperor’s Name Stelmakh - Same choices as before, except D A. Send the servitor up the rest of the way, continue as planned. B. Trust not. Send Tanya or the skull up to scout things first. C. Even that’s too risky. Pop flares and see what’s up ahead. D. Cut the ropes. No one should leave Subsix. E. Something Else.
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Jan 4, 2015 09:39
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B
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Jan 4, 2015 10:04
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| # ? Apr 30, 2024 04:36 |
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A Please don't get Tanya eaten
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Jan 4, 2015 11:01
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