Capítulo 55: Chapter 7 Part 6
Chapter 7: Chaotic complications
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Part 6
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Victory Bay
Kronus
Usually, feeling happy because your immediate superior, his superiors, and everyone above you in the Adeptus Mechanicus hierarchy on the planet suffered a sudden and very much fatal case of death, wasn't a nice thing, much less a good thing. Usually, that is. In this particular case, Magos Scipio-Ro-11 begged to disagree about any such sentiments considering the circumstances. His late and generally not lamented superiors were all rather conservative, and as if that wasn't enough of a personal failing, they enjoyed broad support among the rank and file of Mechanicus Adepts on Kronus.
Considering the deals Inquisitor Veil already had in place with the Necrons, said conservative elements were going to be a big problem even without official support from their superiors. In fact, they already were, with Scipio-Ro-11 having to all but shout down some of his colleagues right in front of General Alexander and the Inquisitor, not to mention the aliens. To be fair, he had to shout down some of his allies too, who practically demanded schematics and working prototypes for study from the Necrons, which was a potential sticking point, one that thankfully the Xeno chose to ignore because if anyone unaugmented could understand binary in that meeting, it was those aliens.
The Inquisitor's lack of tact didn't help matters. This was no news, no grand revelation, that the Imperium had stagnated or even regressed technologically in places, especially when compared to the heights of the hallowed Dark Age of Technology. Any aspiring Mechanicus Adept with two brain cells available to rub together could such correct conclusion with data freely available on almost all civilized Imperial worlds. That by itself was not in contention, usually, it was simply a regrettable fact. However, said fact wasn't something people tended to comment on or discuss in public, much less in front of high ranked Imperial officials, or worse, aliens, even if everyone in the room likely knew or suspected the truth anyway. It was simply not the done thing and more ammo for the Inquisitor's and more importantly, progress' enemies to use.
This was a case of faulty parts, Scipio-Ro-11 didn't need at a time like this.
"This is Heresy!" One of the loudest conservative Adepts proclaimed aloud, his shrill mechanical voice whistling through the air like a whip. The only saving grace was that the extensively augmented old cyborg kept on speaking Binary.
The number of resigned or worse, angry, agreements that met the sentiment were less than heartening.
But of course, the more forward-thinking, or simply saner, Adepts hurried to oppose their counterparts, loudly proclaiming how Inquisitor Veil was doing the Omnissiah's work. Naturally, that didn't go down very well and Scipio-Ro-11 had to speak aloud, voicing as much disappointment as his augmented throat could produce. By the Motive Force, this was going to get ugly much sooner than he feared…
"Fellow servants of the Great Cog is this how we show ourselves to the Imperium at large?!" He snapped as if speaking to small children, using simple and easy to understand words for all the good it was going to do.
"This is a travesty, Magos Scipio-Ro-11 and I for one won't stand for it!" That same cyborg declared heatedly. "Any studying of diseased Xeno tech must only be done so we could properly annihilate it faster, easier and if practical, safer! To even entertain the thought that we would study abominable Xeno technology to reproduce it and thus sully the hallowed knowledge the Omnissiah granted us? It's preposterous, I say!"
A concerning amount of the present Adepts nodded in agreement, while the others glared at Sulla-Alpha-5 and his cronies as if they just crawled out of a Dark Mechanicus lab.
Perhaps some great orator, or a Magus more experienced in the politics of their organizations might have found a way to defuse the situation instead of merely doing their best to stave off an inevitable explosion. Scipio-Ro-11 was neither of those things, instead, he preferred the company of war-machines he tinkered with and the feedback of the soldiers using it to the words of most of his Adeptus Mechanicus colleagues.
"That's not for us to decide!" Scipio-Ro-11 snapped back. "I can see where you and your supporters are coming from and certain precedents and policies do support your view!" He grudgingly admitted. "Other precedents, policies, and the mandates of the Ordo Xenos of the Inquisition do support Inquisitor Veil's actions barring sanction from Higher Authority, which isn't currently present on Kronus. The final disposition of any captured, recovered, or diplomatically acquired technology and schematics won't be decided by any of us but proper high ranked Adeptus Mechanicus Magi and experienced Inquisitors! Now what we need to do is our best to ensure that Kronus doesn't fall to Chaos before reinforcements could arrive and solve the issue we're having! We have a tremendous amount of equipment to fix so let's get to it!"
He did his best, including pulling rank, yet all he could manage was getting everyone to go busy themselves fixing everything the recent fighting broke, while quietly or not so quietly fuming at the situation they found themselves in. At least, the noises concerning a possible heresy subdued. Instead, now Scipio-Ro-11 had to deal with his supporters, who clamored to be among the first to study the interesting Necron technology acquired by the Inquisitor… Why was he even bothering at this point?! There were vehicles to fix and Machine Spirits to placate, Omnissiah damn it!
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near the Farseer Chambers
Carftworld Ulthwe
There were days that Rohan almost regretted leaving the Craftworld he was born on and ending up on Ulthwe. Well, to be fair, he didn't regret getting out of Biel-Tan and the insanity gripping it, merely the facts that he had to leave his young and stubborn foolish sister behind and the place he ended up in the end.
The war crazy Farseers and other leaders of his former home was bad enough. Those running Ulthwe, while not exactly worse, you had to be either Drukhari or She-Who-Thirsts worshiper for that, were too impressed with their prophecies and diving into the Ocean of Souls to seek them. Ten thousand years since the Fall and his people hadn't learned. Nevertheless, Rohan wasn't one to talk – he did follow the prophecy obsessed Farseers, didn't he? It was one of the preconditions of being accepted into his new home, even if the nonsense that came as consequence were often trying.
He was once again pondering the unlikely chain of events that brought him to Ulthwe in the first place and how likely it was to had been manipulated by Farseers, when the intricate doors leading into the Farseer Chamber opened and the High Farseer himself, Eldrad Ulthwan staggered out leaning on his staff. Bloodstained his splendid purple robes and he held a piece of torn cloth in his left hand, pushing it against his bleeding nose. The Farseer's eyes were bloodshot and his shoulders were slumped, his figure radiating bone-deep weariness.
The Black Guardian party standing as an honor guard in front of the chamber looked between each other and Eldrad, then glanced within the open door, where the rest of the Farseer Council sat in their seats in no better condition and called for medical assistance.
Eldrad's far off gaze snapped out and he looked at the Ranger.
"Ah, Rohan, good man." The ancient Aeldari forced a smile, revealing blood-stained teeth. "There are some complications we need to deal with and some of them concern your former home." Eldrad's words came out with a bit of a slur, further proving that whatever happened in the sealed and shielded chamber wasn't good at all.
"You don't say? What did you do this time?" Rohan bluntly asked. "For that matter, what did those crazies did as well?"
"We've done nothing but glimpse the future and it's changed." Eldrad sighed and for a moment he did look his age – an ancient and deadly tired man, instead of the energetic figure who led Ulthwan through ten thousand years of strife. "All the futures have and not for the better."
"Never sufficiently damned prophecies…" Rohan whispered with a gloomy shake of his head. "What do you want from me, High Farseer?"
"Your sister is on the world of Kronus, the Tomb World of Kronus." Eldrad began. He removed the cloth of his face, frowned when his nose kept bleeding, and pressed it back in. "I don't know what their Fareseers had seen if anything beyond what they wanted to see. Taldeer managed to do the unthinkable – she forced the local Human forces and the awakening Necrons into an alliance and potentially burned what little good-will our species have with the upstart Tau, all in one fell swoop." Eldrad explained with more than a hint of exasperation sneaking into his tired voice.
Rohan closed his eyes and did his best to retain his composure. Biel-Tan's endless crusade to restore the dead and damned Aeldari Empire leading to something like that? It sounded terribly in character. His young sister being entangled into such a mess, he could see it, even though he didn't want to believe it.
"What do you intend to do about it? What do you want me to do? You didn't call me to gloat, neither to merely inform me of the newest disaster." Rohan concluded.
"Damage mitigation. The future is not what it was supposed to be. The Enemy is moving to counter us and barring a miracle, our plans for long term salvation are now moot. We're going to need allies and all the help we could get in order to survive. Biel-Tan just turned from an occasionally useful liability into a noose around all our necks, one that might just drag us all into eternal damnation. No matter how exhausted we Farseers are, we should be able to force a Webway connection to Kronus and sent a war-party there. You won't have Farseer support on this one," Eldrad grimaced and leaned onto his staff in an uncharacteristic display of weakness. "Your orders are simple, aid the Humans, neutralize the Chaos presence on the planet, and investigate the extent of the alliance between the Necrons and the Humans there."
The High Farseer fixed Rohan with an intense stare.
"Under no circumstances, you're to show Ulthwe's forces as hostile either to the Humans or the Necrons presence on that planet, Biel-Tan already ensured Chaos might very well win there and convinced those two factions that some Aeldari is all but allied with the abominations."
"In other words, the situation is even more fucked than if the Drukhari did it and you need me to make it un-fucked." Rohan put it crudely and bluntly. What could go wrong, beyond everything? Damn it, Taldeer!
"Yes." Eldrad nodded.
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