10
Chapter 10: Interlude 4 - Isaac and The Artisan
Isaac
The journey home was both uneventful and problematic. It was uneventful in that I wasn't attacked by a stray Ork despite my rampant paranoia and admitted excitement but was problematic because it was repeatedly made obvious to me that I was a bigger part of the Ork gestalt than I had thought. Kha had told me that I was now an equivalent to an Ork, even if not one of Gritzz's exact stature and strength, in the Ork gestalt. When she said it, none of us really knew what that meant. She had claimed me resistant to the effects of the Great Ocean like all Orks were but even her knowledge of the phenomenon was vague.
I was starting to see what the other consequences of the connection to this psychic gestalt meant. I could sense the Orks, roughly. I could tell the direction they were in, but not the distance or the number of Orks that were in the group of Orks. I could also roughly gauge how excited they were. These Orks were really excited. This was bad, because excitement like the type I felt bleeding off of the group usually meant that they were getting ready for war.
Despite this, I couldn't help but feel excited for the upcoming fight as well. Another consequence of being plugged into the Ork gestalt. I now had a preternatural enjoyment of violence, or at least the anticipation of it. This was a problem. I already hated the idea of getting my mind messed with by something as innocuous as alcohol and this was much worse than that. After taking care of the upcoming Ork attack, I would have to prioritise research on the Ork gestalt and the effect it has on me.
I made it home in record time due to the effects of my implants, in five minutes instead of the almost two hours it would take me normally. That was about sixty kilometres per hour and that wasn't even my highest speed. When I ended my run, I wasn't even winded. Even if there were unintended consequences of the augmentation process, it felt good to make my body do things it never would have been able to do a week ago.
I navigated the mines Esau had set up, which wasn't difficult since he had marked them for me before I left, and made it to the fort. The design of the walls had changed since I had last seen them only a few hours ago. They were now a pentagonal shape with each 'corner' as it were replaced with a bastion. I barely had to ask myself the question before it became apparent to me why he did it; one of Esau's problems was the lack of a way to have a proper fire arc as turrets would have difficulty down along the wall. With this new design, Esau could direct fire in a way that was impossible to do with the old design.
I opened up the gate, a thick metal door you would associate more with a bank vault than any regular entrance, and made my way in. Curiously, while there was a bevy of activity as drones travelled up and down the walls carrying items, there was nobody in the yard. That was strange. I had called ahead and told Esau that the Orks were coming. I didn't expect him to be here standing at attention, but it was strange nonetheless.
I listened for activity, and heard the sound of what must have been a heated debate on one of the bastions adjacent to the gate I had just walked through. I made my way to it and just when I was to begin the tedious journey that was an enemy to all of mankind, climbing the stairs, I heard someone call for me.
"Father!" I heard Esau call for me. I turned my head upwards and saw him looking down on me from atop the wall. "You're here earlier than expected."
Before I could formulate an answer, Esau jumped down from the top of the twenty five metre structure and landed on his feet, right in front of me, the impact barely phasing him. I was mortified. Despite intellectually knowing he would be alright, my heart stopped as he fell.
I looked back up, through sheer disbelief and I saw Kov looking down on him from the top of the wall in a mix of awe, frustration and envy. That would be something else I would have to take care of, wouldn't it?
I pointed up at the wall and asked as calmly as I could;
"Why did you jump down?"
Here, I could see Esau become embarrassed. Both of us knew that he didn't have a good excuse for jumping off of a twenty five metre high structure, superhuman physiology or no. It was reckless and Esau was never reckless.
"I was looking forward to working with you, Father." I could tell that it was no lie, he did want to work with me, but that was an excuse. I could accept him making the jump because he thought it would be fun or something, but Esau tended not to do things because he felt that they would be fun, he did things because he felt that they needed to be done.
That was depressing.
Briefly, I considered the fact that Esau lacked many avenues with which to have fun. He couldn't play dice or cards because his brain would calculate the best ways to win every time. He couldn't play sports like soccer because he was better than everybody else. So as a default, he resorted to building things. I wondered if he even understood that that was the reason he enjoyed craftwork so much. I resolved myself to opening more opportunities for him to just be a kid, with no thoughts of war or having to build things relating to war.
Relating back to what he had done, my enhanced intellect made connections between the clues before me. He had jumped off of the highest point possible. Kov was frustrated as a result and when I had arrived, I arrived to them arguing. That was strange. Kov adored Esau and would have never had started the argument with him in the first place. Esau had likely started it. Perhaps by saying something offhand that happened to annoy him?
No. Esau was perfectly capable of making his way through a conversation, despite being ignorant of some social cues. Esau had also spent more time with Kov than anyone else here and was one who knew the most about him. There was no accident here. Esau had brought up a potentially sensitive topic on purpose. But what-ah.
"You were trying to convince Kov to get himself enhanced." I said, finally. That was the only thing that would have started an argument between the two. The conclusion surprised even me. Of all of us, excluding me, it had seemed that Kov would have been the most likely to want to be enhanced. Yet it seemed that that couldn't be further from the truth.
"I was." Esau admitted. "He expressed some fear of the upcoming battle, and I suggested that while he would not be able to contribute directly to the fight, I could enhance him to a level where he could assist in any further battles. With your help off course."
I kept my face neutral.
"Kov refused?" I asked.
"He did. He cited a fear of death during the procedure. That was understandable, so I assured him that, with your help and further research into augmentation, the chance of death was miniscule." Christ. "He further cited a fear of surgery in general. He claimed the work was gruesome for him to even potentially endure in general, because it reminded him of the torture he underwent at the hands of the Drukhari. I retorted that strength would help keep incidents like that from happening again. Then you arrived."
"Then you jumped from the top of the wall to prove your point. That the ability do things like jumping off of the wall was beyond him without augmentation surgery."
"I did, yes." he said, stoic.
This had all happened in the five minute span it had taken for me to tell Esau that the Orks were coming and run over here. How the hell was I going to handle this? Esau was clearly in the wrong but handling him was like handling a bomb. I closed my eyes and ran through all scenarios available to me, then made my decision.
"Esau, I'm disappointed in you." I said. Esau's face changed expressions rapidly. From, surprise, through confusion until it settled on dismay. I continued regardless. "What you did was wrong and it was petty. You should have known better. I should have taught you better."
His expression returned to confusion.
Instead of rushing ahead with the process of augmenting myself, I should have instead worked on instilling in him a core set of values that to follow. In a normal child, that would be a process of a few years of trial and error. For Esau, I would have to compose something like a dissertation and present my values to him intelligently with reasons why certain values are put ahead of others. Thankfully, despite being part of the humanities, Philosophy counted a science enough for me to have gotten information on it.
I sighed, before going to a knee so that I looked him eye to eye. I put a hand on his shoulder before I continued.
"What you did was wrong. While there was nothing inherently wrong in wanting Kov to get stronger. That's fine, but you had no right to insist upon it as you did. Much less prod at his insecurities the way you did. You need to apologise to him."
"Why should I? I was only attempting to help him." He said, balling up his fists besides him.
"You saw it as being helpful, I can't fault you for that but, you didn't take into account his opinion and when he told you his fears, you ignored them."
"I came up with alternatives-"
"You made them seem like non-issues. When the truth of the matter is that they are not. Both you and I know that I survived the augmentation process because of the alterations the Forge made to my body. It would take months of research at least to get anything close to viable for implantation in anybody else. I understand you want more peers, but this isn't the way to get them."
He looked down, refusing to look me in the eye.
"Then when he mentioned a fear of surgery, you made his trauma seem trivial. I don't know what he experienced but both of us understand that the Drukhari could have done any number of things to him. I know you don't see where the issue is, but that kind of thing stays with you for a long time, sometimes even forever. Do you understand?"
He mumbled an answer, so I repeated the question/
"Do you understand?"
"I…understand." He said, though I could tell he didn't, not really. He would, in time.
I stood up and dusted myself off.
"Now we're going to go up the wall, you're going to apologise then we're going to get ready for the Orks, alright?" I started to walk to the stairs up the wall, and he followed.
The journey up was as tedious as I feared but soon we were on the walls' battlements. Here, Kov was standing, facing away from us and out into the wastelands. He was fidgeting with his hands, a nervous habit he performed when distressed. Did he think I was going to chastise him?
"Kov," I said, stirring him from his thoughts. "Esau has something to say to you."
Here, I gently pushed Esau on the back and nodded encouragingly. He walked over to Kov and said the most awkward apology I had ever heard.
"I apologise for the things that I have said. I did not realise that I was hurting you as much as I was and for that I am sorry." It needed work and much of that was blatantly false, but trying to get more from him at this point would be like drawing water from a stone. Kov, to his credit, seemed touched. He had thought I would be chastising him.
"Alright." I said, finally in the awkward silence. "I do not expect any hugs but I do expect the matter to be dropped, alright?"
Both boys nodded, though Esau was clearly doing so under protest. No matter, the fact that he did so regardless was a point in his favour. Some part of him knew he was in the wrong even though he wouldn't admit it.
"Kov, Esau tells me you have fears concerning the battle with the Orks."
"I have concerns, yes." he said.
"Don't worry, you and Kha won't be part of the front line. Even with a large group of Orks, I expect this to be a battle with no close combat. We will be bombarding them from afar. I don't expect it to be clean, but I expect it to be fast and painless on our side Okay?."
That last bit was a lie, Orks were nothing if not unpredictable and any number of things could happen.
I saw something in his facial expression.
"You want to be on the front lines with us."
He nodded, silently. Esau was still in the wrong for pushing for it as much he did, but now I know he had so vehemently Esau would have seen a want to fight with us, but refusing enhancement to do so safely as Kov being both hypocritical and complacent. It was best to be honest with Kov here.
"That's just not possible. Not right now at least. Even if you were willing to get augmented, it would be a process that would take months at least to reach my level, much less Esau's."
In any case, I didn't want to have a child out in the middle of a battlefield. Esau would be in the thick of it, as I would be, but that was because I physically couldn't stop him from being there. And depending on the size of the Ork horde, I would need him by my side.
"Tell you what," I said, finally. "Esau and I will work on enhancement procedures that do not rely on surgery in the future. If that doesn't work out, we'll work on something like a suit of powered armour for you, okay?"
"Okay." He said, grateful. "Thank you."
"So! Where's Kha?" This time it was Esau who answered.
"When you informed us of the oncoming Ork horde, Kha returned to her meditations in her portion of the base to try and determine where the Orks would come from."
"Let's go talk to her then." I said, before I paused and asked Kov to go ahead. The moment he was out of earshot, I engaged Esau in conversation about what had just happened.
"I see now why you did it."
"I told you and you wouldn't listen." he said through gritted teeth.
"I see why you did it. " I repeated. "But you were still wrong for how you went about convincing him."
He turned to me, shocked. I continued speaking.
"You still had no justification for needling his insecurities like you did. As I just demonstrated, there were better options you could have taken only one of which was developing something like powered armour. Or do you deny that?"
We stood there in silence before he finally spoke.
"No."
"Alright." I said. I almost said something like 'good' but my instincts told me that he would see that as me shoving the situation into his face. That wouldn't be good for his long term development so I let the matter drop.
"We'll be having a few conversations about the proper procedures to follow when dealing with people and what is considered normal, but for now, give me a hug."
"Huh?" Esau asked in confusion. That was something my father would do after chastising me or my siblings. In my experience, it never failed.
It didn't fail here either. Esau came in for a hug and we followed Kov downstairs.
Thankfully going down the stairs was less tedious and soon we were outside the compound. Kov had waited outside for us and hadn't knocked or rung the bell. He was still afraid of Kha, it seemed. I rang the doorbell Esau had installed for her and she answered.
"Ah, you've returned. Come in." We entered. Her own portion of the base was a mirror image of ours, except without any alien knick knacks taking up space.
"You sound disappointed."
"I am, but not in you. I wished to find the greenskins in my divinations but I have not been succeeding. The malignancy in the currents here are making it difficult."
"Well then, I've got good news, of a sort; I know where the Orks are, roughly." Everybody turned to me.
"The greenskin essence." Kha realised.
"Yeah. It seems besides the increased muscular growth, I inherited some traits from Gritzz. I got something like a vision, telling me that the Orks were getting ready which was how I knew they were coming. As a result of this vision, I can also roughly tell the direction of the Ork encampment and the excitement level of the Orks." I said.
"You're hiding something from me. What else did you inherit from the greenskin warboss?" I kept forgetting that nothing escaped her witchsight, especially at such a short range.
"I wasn't hiding anything. I just thought right now would be an inopportune time to bring it up." I had wanted to bring it up in private with Esau first but what could you do. "I-uh inherited some of Gritzz's bloodlust."
"How much is some?" Esau asked. I took a deep breath.
"More than what I would consider sane?" The reactions to this varied. Kov was dismayed. Esau simply raised an eyebrow while Kha looked vindicated somewhat before her expression changed to panic. Immediately I caught on to her reason for panic.
"I mean, I have no need to try and fight any of you or anything of that sort but I really want to fight the Orks. Multiple times, on my way over here, I even considered changing direction and going to fight them myself." I admitted.
The reactions got worse. Ah. I was smiling again. Shit.
"Father." Esau began in the resulting silence. "If you've inherited some of the warboss's memories and inclinations, along with some Orkoid abilities, what else did you inherit?"I found it a difficult question to answer. It was difficult to tell.
"Honestly, I don't know.'' I said eventually. He rubbed his chin and had a slight pout. His signature thinking face. Then he brought up an image on his omni-tool. It was an image of an Ork gun we salvaged.
"What is this?" he asked me. I blinked.
"It's a gun."
"What would an Ork call it?"
"An Ork would call it a 'shoota'. Look, Esau, what's the point of this?"
"You said that last portion in Orkish."
"Did I?"
"Yes you did. So besides everything you've inherited, you are also now fluent in Orkish." Interesting. I didn't see where that would be useful because Orks weren't the most talkative species, but it was interesting to know.
"I see where you're going. You want to know if I inherited any other skills from Gritzz, like any mechanical ability or something like that."
Esau nodded.
"I'm sorry to burst your bubble, son. Only a type of Ork called a 'Mekboy' can inherit mechanical knowledge, the same way only 'Weirdboyz' can perform magic."
"Yes, but all Orks can fight and Warbosses fight better than all other Orks." That was true. Orks only followed the biggest and strongest as Warboss so any Ork that got to become Warboss for any length of time only became one through sheer strength and martial ability. It made sense.
"By that logic, I should have inherited at least some of Gritzz's fighting ability." Esau nodded. "Huh."
"And his leadership skills as well." Kov added. I turned to him in confusion. Ork warbosses didn't have many actual leadership skills at all because all Orks instinctively follow the biggest Ork regardless of its actual ability to lead. Surprisingly, Esau agreed.
"That makes sense. You were more…hesitant to make decisions before Father."
"That makes no sense. I've always been making decisions."
"Yes, but I can bet that you find it easier to deal with the consequences of them now.." I frowned. Just one week ago, having my mind altered to the point that it has been would have driven me over the breaking point. Now, I just rolled with it and told myself that I would have to fix any errors in the future.
That was potentially a problem, and a big one at that.
"You're all ignoring something important here." Kha commented. "Isaac received all of these characteristics after absorbing the greenskin essence and connecting to the Great Ocean in the manner that all the greenskin are. This means that he and all the greenskins on the planet are connected to him and he, to them. We already know this because he can tell where they are and how ready they are for a fight."
She put a finger up for emphasis.
"If Isaac is getting this information from the greenskins, what are they getting from him?"
As if in answer, I saw green.
"I think we're going to be getting the answer soon." I said as soon as the vision ended. "The Orks are coming."
"How long until they get here?" Esau asked.
"Considering the terrain? An hour at the very earliest." I looked at all of them. "So we need to get ready."
We had all agreed that both Kha and Kov wouldn't be anywhere near the gate or the walls. Instead, they would both be in the bunkers controlling the turrets remotely. They would sit in a gyrating chair in a gyroscope that Esau designed to imitate the movement of the turrets and communicate using a headset.
Regardless, they were both outfitted with carapace armour and a splinter pistol. In addition, the bunkers were surrounded by razorwire mines that would send out monofilament wires flying out in all directions if the Orks ever made it in. Esau on the other hand was also outfitted with a splinter rifle of his own design with some custom poisons of my own design as a payload along with an omni-tool, a build gun and a night shield.
Night shields were Drukhari designed smokescreens that would theoretically hide whoever used it in darkness. I had reverse engineered them and Esau took one for himself, even if they were rated for use in vehicles. I couldn't fault his confidence. He was fast enough to make it work.
It took them five minutes to change.
Kov and Kha went to their battle stations while Esau and I went through any and all design changes we had to make. First we recalled all the drones along the walls and reclaimed their materials using the build gun. The interaction with the creature in the Drukhari ship told us that the sensory suites on the drones were too weak and we figured that in changing the sensory suites, we might as well change the designs of the drones from the ground up.
We had already scanned enough of Drukhari technology that we didn't actually need to innovate. Instead we just put together everything that worked. We used Drukhari darkstar reactors as power sources, which was a bit like using a miniature fusion reactor to power a TV and a miniaturised repulsor under each drone for movement. The repulsors were from the hover bikes the drukhari used and included a set of tentacle-like manipulators like the ones on the abominations we had taken apart to use as tools and weapons.
The drones were divided into four types of drones; Sensor drones looked something like your standard UFO and floated above our compound taking in all kinds of sensory information, Maintenance drones would work to fix any available broken equipment while working to provide the guns with ammunition through the use of fabrication processes cribbed from the build gun, Fighter drones would engage with any Ork in one on one combat, using knives sharpened to a single molecule to slice through even the thickest of Orks and finally Burner drones would strafe the battlefield dropping flammable chemical mixtures and setting them alight to kill both the Orks and their spores.
The reason we had used darkstar reactors as power sources for these drones was because we wanted to be able to use them as last ditch weapons and as replacement power sources for the railguns we were adding to each bulwark. We still lacked anything traditional explosive so this seemed like a good stop-gap. Each one looked visually, like a normal military rifle, except much bigger as each railgun had to be capable of supporting two electromagnetic rails and conductive metal ammunition the size of a fist.
All in all, this took about thirty minutes to implement.
That done, we looked over the layout of the yard and found no problems. We moved over to the nature of the traps surrounding the wall and found many problems. In twenty-nine minutes the Orks would attack.
The nature of the mines already present would work well but the nature of mines meant that they would work only once before they stopped being operational. That wouldn't do. So we added rows of stone at the edge of what could generously be called our property to stop the possibility of any vehicles making it close to the wall. Esau came up with the idea to make pit traps in multiple rows surrounding the walls with spikes and hooks at the bottom, hidden by scrap. When sufficient amounts of Orks became trapped, Burner drones would set them alight, turning them into a fire trap.
In ten minutes, the Orks would attack.
We performed a final check on everything we had on our persons and made some final modifications to our gear. I added a spear to my gear, with the spearhead being resistant to heat warping while being superconductive at the same time. Underneath it, hidden in the shaft, I had a small darkstar battery that would transfer heat at the flip of a switch. The shaft was heat resistant, which would keep the heat from burning me.
I was barely done inspecting my spear when sensor drones picked up smoke on the horizon. The Orks would be attacking in three minutes.
They moved quickly, coming in from the east, in the direction opposite the direction of the crash site. Had they sporulated from a splinter of the ship Gritzz was on? As these things go, the ship was likely to break up in orbit, dropping pockets of Ork spores all over the place. I hated what it meant, but we would have to systematically search for and incinerate any Ork we found because otherwise, we would have no peace.
The smoke was accompanied by a wall of noise. Thousands of Orks were shouting, screaming and talking. That was strange. The shouting and screaming was typical of Orks but the talking, before a fight? That was unheard of.
I looked through the drone sensors by linking through them on my omni-tool. I zoomed into the Ork horde in the distance. Even for a group of Orks, they looked eclectic. They wore scraps and leathers that you would expect out of something like Mad Max as was usual, but some Orks wore nothing but plastic bandanas while others wore implements that weren't clothing at all. Like crates and buckets.
I tapped into the communication network we had set up.
"I think I know what my connection to the Ork gestalt has done on the Ork side of things."
"What do you mean?" It was Kha.
"All of these Orks are Oddboyz." I said.
"Oddboyz? You mean the horde is made up of Ork engineers and doctors?" Kov asked.
Esau sent them both a photo of the Ork horde as it travelled.
"They also have Weirdboyz.'' Esau said, indicating to a small group of Orks that were surrounded by a green corona of energy. They seemed to be in pain. "One of which seems to be the Warboss."
In the middle of the travelling horde, just behind the front row of disorganised babbling Orks and in front of the Weirdboyz, walked an absolutely huge Ork standing at at least three metres tall. It was dressed in robes and carried a jagged rusty pipe that passed for a staff. Its eyes glowed with a brightness that was visible even from where I stood. The Weirdboss was staring at me.
"Great." Kov said.
"And they have Madboyz as well." I commented, staring back into the Weirdboss's eyes.
"What are those?"
"Orks that even other Orks consider insane." I replied.
"Wonderful."
Just outside the edge of our property, the horde stopped and silence reigned over the Orks. Were they waiting for something? Had they seen through the traps?
Just then, a column light so bright that it could be seen in broad daylight erupted in the mountains to the west. The Weirdboss kept its eyes on me and I kept my eyes on it. As if that was the signal it was waiting for, the Weirdboss raised its staff and all the Orks ran forward!
And my blood sang.
The dragon teeth fortifications were less useful than I hoped they would be because for some reason, these particular Orks had no vehicles. Instead, select Orks had favoured mech suits, or the Ork equivalent anyway. A strange choice. Mech suits drew more from resources than vehicles did and were impractical to boot. Still, the dragon teeth funnelled the Orks into loose rows we could saturate with gunfire.
And saturate them we did, sending splinter round after splinter round at the Orks while Kov and Kha operated the turrets and laid down sundering fire that took down Orks in swathes. Kha was more precise, while Kov seemed to be laying down fire at anything that moved. It was pandemonium.
The smell of oil and gunpowder filled the air, with swathes of Orks shooting returning fire so inaccurate that most shots hit other Orks instead of coming anywhere near us. The occasional shot that came close missed as Esau decided to activate the night shield, covering us in darkness making it difficult for the Orks to see us, not that this deterred them one iota.
He ducked down behind the battlements and activated the fighter and flamer drones. A quick communication confirmed that he had calculated that controlling them would make the fight much easier than launching splinters at the Orks.
It was a fair assessment of the battle.
Each Ork took an ungodly amount of splinter rounds before it went down, and some had even begun to stand again, uncaring of the searing pain in their veins. I had hoped these would be more useful, but what could you do? The drones began replacing the ammunition in the guns by the minute and they still only barely managed to keep them at bay. I had wanted to delay use of the railguns until we had enough Orks lined up to take out the maximum amount in a single shot, but that seemed pointless now.
Orks began getting through the dragon's teeth and coming into contact with the mines adding to the chaotic nature of battle. As if the floodgates were opened, more Orks tried charging forward, trampling all over their brethren and getting stuck in spike traps, where fighter drones would tear them apart.
"Start firing the railguns!" I shouted into the communication network, a little too loudly. Almost immediately, the railguns opened fire, firing slow shot after slow shot of supercharged metal into the Orks, tearing apart even those in mech suits.
By my count, the dragon's teeth had allowed us to take down hundreds of Orks but they just kept coming. Briefly, I pondered that. Orks reproduced quickly but not nearly fast enough to have produced thousands of ready fighters in a few weeks. Was it my fault? Had my connection to the gestalt field made them reproduce faster somehow?
From Gritzz's experience as a warboss, Orks reproduced as fast as they needed to, until a point of saturation was reached in the environment whereupon they stopped, until a fight broke out. Gritzz didn't see or articulate it in that way, of course, but with my view of his memories, I could see it for what it was. It was an inbuilt system of population control and somehow, through my connection to Gritzz's essence, I had broken it somehow.
Or had I?
Based on my studies of the Ork genome, they had some indicators for when saturation is reached in their environment and this was variable based on the threat they were facing. Even then, Orks did not sporulate ex nihilo, so why were there so many of them in so little time? Could there have been more of Gritzz's crew alive, or had there been Orks present already on the planet in underground tunnels?
I felt a pressure in my head.
"Get back Esau!" I shouted. "Into the compound! The Warboss is trying to cast a spell!"
Esau jumped off of the battlement into the compound. I jumped off as well, trying to follow him when I was hit with a sudden weightlessness. I was floating. Suddenly my surroundings turned inside out and I was right in front of the Weirdboss. Instead of wading through the traps to get to me, he had decided to get me to him.
I barely got used to the change in surroundings and the vertigo is caused when the Weirdboss vomited pure psychic energy at me. I jumped out of the way and cut through a nearby Ork with my spear. Orks generally don't interfere with the bosses fights but that particular Ork hadn't seemed to get the message.
I cast a quick look around me. From here, it was evident that there was a limit to the numbers of Orks. A rudimentary count had the numbers at around three thousand. Which was still crazy for only two weeks of development. Still, this gave me the hope I needed. We could beat these numbers. We wouldn't be fighting forever.
I ducked under another blast of psychic vomit before I sent a spear thrust at the Weirdboss's leg, cutting into it, but not through. It seemed to be made of tougher stuff. I pulled back and it roared in pain before answering with a clubbing blow with the thick metal pipe. I parried it and continued with my assault, ducking out of range of the blasts of psychic vomit before answering with superficial cuts along its robed body.
It seemed Esau was right. I had inherited Gritzz's fighting skills. The Weirdboss was clearly inexperienced so it couldn't have been one of Gritzz's boys. Still, it kept coming at me, so I kept cutting it up. Soon it got fed up and roared, a different kind of roar. The roar staggered me and allowed it time to gather psychic energy again.
It teleported me again.
It missed its mark, however and instead of dropping me on a mine, it dropped me right next to one. The pressure was still enough to set the mine off, and I was sent flying metres into the air, where I landed right in front of some Orks being set alight.
I stood up. I was still alive and any injuries I had were healing. Including the bones broken in the explosion. This was much faster healing than what should be possible with the implants alone, but I had no chance to consider it now. I had a warboss to kill.
"Make me a pathway!" I shouted into the microphone in my helmet. I didn't know if anyone could hear me or if the microphone was working, but I started moving forward, punching and tearing at everything within arms reach, my spear having been lost in either the teleport or the explosion.
Orks tried to swarm me, but their own dead and the dragon teeth clogged up the battlefield so much that they couldn't effectively move. I moved along, hopping across the dragon teeth, back into open field where Orks were waiting for me.
It seemed that Esau had been listening, because drones appeared and cut through any Ork that got within two metres of me. I started running forward and soon I built up momentum that allowed me to charge through the Orks surrounding the Weirdboss. It was time for round two.
The Weirdboyz surrounding the boss had died in the effort of teleporting me twice and I doubted that the boss could teleport me again on its own.
The boss saw me coming and swiped down at me with the pipe, hitting me across my shoulder. Somehow it was heavier than it was a few minutes ago. Much heavier. The sheer adrenaline running through my veins allowed me to ignore the pain of the hit, even as my bones cracked.
It had overextended somewhat, as I was able to sneak in an uppercut sending it staggering. My fist was ruined by the effort so I followed it up with a jumping headbutt, cracking the Weirdboss's nose.
Immediately, every Ork still alive across the battlefield froze and stared at me.
The Weirdboss roared. I headbutted it again, and again and again. I saw green again-
Suddenly I was in the presence of two green giants in a valley. These giants were in the midst of a wrestling contest that neither seemed to be winning. One was brutal but cunning in its every move, while the other was cunning, but brutal. I knew what these giants were. They were the gods the Orks worshipped.
They were Gork and Mork.
At the feet of the giants, millions of Orks fought each other in an unending war for the privilege of even a minutes' attention from their gods. The gods ignored them. Briefly, I was overcome with a need to join the unending fight. To bleed and make others bleed forever!
But as soon as the thought came, it faded away.
I wouldn't fight a pointless fight, even if it would bring me the attention of Gork and Mork. Somehow, I doubted that even if I managed to do the impossible and beat every Ork in front of me, I would ever get their attention. Not that I wanted it anyway.
So I turned away from them, and I was back to reality.
The Weirdboss was dead in front of me and all around me, Orks were cheering. The fighting was over, at least for now. We had won.
Action: Defeat the WAAAGH! of Warboss Zogsnagga and deny the temptations of Gork and Mork.
Reward: Magos Aetheric (Warhammer 40k - Adeptus Mechanicus)
The Artisan
The glowing light had encompassed the whole arena and reached out into the heavens. More proof that their cause was just. More proof that their sacrifices were to be answered. This was the moment they all had been waiting for. Their god would answer them soon.
And the Artisan would get the glory that he so richly deserved.
Like a light glowing in reverse, the light returned to the ziggurat and the glow became limited to the entrance. The bodies of the sacrifices had stopped screaming and been turned into light that entered the ziggurat. It was a good omen. Their god was awakening.
The raucous cheers of the crowds of the City of Bone turned into silence. No one dared speak, lest they lessen the impact of the awakening. The light dimmed until only darkness remained and impossibly, throughout the whole arena, throughout the whole city, the people heard the sound of shuffling. Of metal scraping stone.
The Golden One had awoken and was leaving the ziggurat.
Somehow, the silence of the arena became even quieter. Even the Artisan found itself trying to hold its breath despite having long lost the faculties to do so in the first place. It backed away from the entrance, where it had been performing the proper ritualistic procedures as was written. It did not want to spoil the moment with its presence.
As if it were a trick of light, the Artisan could see a glowing golden figure in the corridor leading to the outside. Through sheer instinct, it understood its inferiority to the creature and it bowed down.
Seeing the artisan do this, the people in the arena did the same.
Slowly the Golden One moved, and soon it was outside of the ziggurat and in the heart of the arena. No one dared look at it, at their god. No one would dare blaspheme in such a manner.
But the Artisan felt a curiosity gnawing at it. It had to know what the Golden One looked like. Was it like the creature the stone tablets its ancestors had described? A great being, its likeness of a human being? Or did it look like something else entirely? Like a creature with many eyes and limbs? It had to see. It had to know.
It looked up, careful to ensure that it was still bowing. What it saw was beyond description. An angel, you could say. With the perfect features, the Golden One looked like it had been sculpted by an artist with skills beyond mortal ability. Its body was proportioned like the ideal form of a human male. Strong, muscular and defined. Its skin was a resplendent gold that managed to catch light such that everything else in its vicinity fell away. It was hairless and the Artisan was sure that its face had features that anyone, no matter their preferences, would find themselves fawning over. It had no eyes, instead having a beautiful light come out of its eye sockets in magnificent, impossible colours. It was almost perfect.
The Golden One's one imperfection was a gnawing void where the heart of a human would be. This void had cracked the physique of the Golden One, sending veins of cracks throughout its body, revealing a soft green glow underneath.
"You have freed me, people of the City of Bone." The Golden One spoke. Its voice was gentle like cool air on a hot arid day, gently playing on the listener's ear. It's mouth didn't move even though words were decidedly coming from it. "I wish to reward you."
With each word it spoke, a wave of emotion overcame the followers of the City of Bone. Unbidden, tears fell from the eyes of the people. Their time had truly come. They would finally raze the lands below after the right to enter had been taken away from them so long ago and sail across the stars as was promised.
"Alas, as much as it pains me to admit. I cannot. For I am still weak. I am but a shard, of a shard of what I once was." The Golden One hung its head, sending gasps throughout the whole arena. The Golden One continued.
"Over a hundred generations, your people have fed me the flesh of your foes and the flesh of your friends. Your loved ones. I am thankful. I am thankful because this has freed me from my bonds and allowed me to manifest before you all. I am thankful, but I am in need of your help."
Somehow, despite its facial expression being unchanging, it radiated a sense of sadness and dismay to all that were listening. All of the people felt the helplessness of the Golden One. Their god was thankful, but their god needed them. Doubts, if they existed disappeared as if they had never existed. A fire awoke in them. They would answer its call. Whatever that may be. And they would be rewarded. For had the Golden One not given them the secrets to eternal life? The secrets of the Songs of Bone? The Secrets of the Way of Flesh?
They all stood, in rapt attention. They swore that all would give all that they could to the Golden One. The Arisen One.
"I am in need, my people, of more than the flesh that you have given me. I am in need of that which will nourish me and give me life unending and glorious. My people, I am in need of souls."
Notes:
10.1. Perk(s) earned this chapter:
Domain: Skills: Magitech - Magos Aetheric (Warhammer 40k - Adeptus Mechanicus) (600CP): Though feared and maligned, the existence of the Imperium nonetheless depends upon exploiting the immaterium. Understanding it allows for travel, for communication, and to battle the daemonic on even terms. You have come to be one of the very few experts on the subject of the warp, and know how to manipulate it through technology. You can easily craft psy-implants that boost or suppress psychic powers, weaponry incorporating psychic components, or hexagrammatic wards. With enough time and resources you could build or even improve upon existing patterns of gellar field generators, warp drives, and immaterial sensors. You have even made inroads into understanding thethe genetic influence behind the manifestation of psyker, pariah and navigator abilities. This is not an easy path to tread, for the slightest misstep or moment of carelessness can see you damned, and even with the most exacting precautions it is a road fraught with peril.