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Made in gb
Mastering Non-Metallic Metal







As I ran out of space in the article section, I thought it would be easier to do my (ever increasing) fluff in here.

The (Mad) Scientist and His Army of the Second Law
Why?
You may well ask why and if you haven't seen my P&M blog then I'll explain it briefly here.
Spoiler:
When thinking about what I wanted to do in terms of an army, and before I knew much about the 40k universe, I always liked the idea of Chaos, as the concept of a chaotic army sounded perfect for how I would expect myself to play and it sounded fun.

However, when I started looking into the army composition I noticed that it wasn't really the composition that was chaotic and in fact the armies of Chaos (like all other armies) was very structured.
In fact Orks seem to be the most chaotic of the armies but there is still too many similarities from model to model (for me).

Don't get me wrong, this makes a lot of sense for a game and I understand that.
But I wanted a really chaotic army and decided that, as I wasn't going to be playing any time soon and I am more of a painter/modeller, I would go all out to make the most chaotic army possible.

With this in mind I started thinking about a little reasoning behind why an army like what I was envisioning would exist.
The first question I asked myself was: What is chaos? Coming from a science background I inevitibly answered "Entropy", which is the measure of the degree of disorder (Chaos). The scientific theory that deals with entropy is the second law of thermodynamics (I'll let you type that into your preferred internet encyclopaedia if you are really interested) and that, therefore, gave me the name of my army.

Once I had a name for my proposed army I needed a reason why it existed. I knew people would ask "why are all your models different?" and I needed a better answer than "I just felt like it". I felt it needed a reason within the universe and started to think how an army could be formed of different races that until recently would kill each other on sight and who would do this.

"Who" was easy: All the best crazy and chaotic ideas and plans come from your typical mad scientists. So I had my leader and figurehead.
You may be wondering why he is The (Mad) Scientist and not A mad scientist. This is purely so I didn't need to create a name for him that would place him in any particular race or region and could be somewhat faceless.
The Brackets are due to the fact that he refers to himself as "The Scientist" and the (Mad) is added just so you know.

"How" was more difficult. The beauty of being in a universe 40000ish years in the future is that anything is possible and I decided to keep it simple; I'll brainwash them all, job done.

Or so I thought. This simple excuse has blossomed into a fairly large ball of fluff. This means that a simple explaination now takes a considerable amount of time to explain. I have been adding bits and pieces of the fluff to my P&M blog as I go along, but it's now getting complicated as to what I have told you and what I haven't yet. So I thought I'd put it into one place, together, without any distractions, and with some structure (It's surprising how much structure is required to construct something that's supposed to have little structure). And while I'm at it, I may start to turn this into a Codex: The (Mad) Scientist's Army, complete with rules and, of course, the background.


Codex: The (Mad) Scientist's Army of the Second Law.

The savant awoke in his bed chamber, a tantalising glimpse of a dream fading as he sat up;

"We want information...information..."

"Who are you?"

"...You are number 6..."

The last of the dream faded as the savant whispered to himself "I am not a number..."

He forgot about the dream and prepared himself for the work ahead of him, he had to go into the archives and process the latest data received from across the galaxy. He was not the only savant working on this, there were many men who spent the vast majority of a standard day processing and cataloguing incoming data. Today though, he somehow felt more alone than usual as he took his place in front of the cogitator.

As was usual, he took a deep breath and muttered a prayer to the Emperor before connecting the multi-stranded, purity-sealed cable from the socket at his temple to the cogitator and began to access the databank. What wasn't normal was the strange feeling of warmth that started at the back of the savant's skull and slowly spread forward as if his head was slowly being immersed in warm water.

Before he knew what it was, the muscles in his neck jerked slightly to the left and his whole body froze. His consciousness however was unaffected and he watched as his right hand moved by itself and started to type commands into the cogitator, there was nothing the savant could do to stop it, he could do nothing but watch with horror as his body accessed the mainframe of the archive.

Then, as if something had unlocked in his mind the savant knew what was happening, it was like remembering something that you didn't even remember that you knew or had known.

But still, the savant could only watch as a small piece of AI intelligence was transferred from his own mind into the database. Immediately alarms started sounding and the savant could hear people rushing and shouting in the room around him. And still, the savant could only watch as his hand laid false leads and covered tracks, burying the AI deep in the mainframe.

He watched intently, trying to remember all the steps so he could lead others to it, to remove it, to destroy it, before it could do what he knew it would do. If that AI could not be found quickly it would transmit the entire contents of the imperial archive to whomever it was that had implanted this thing in his head. He could not allow this to happen, but he could not move.

The savant heard the noises of people approaching him from behind and then felt a hand on his shoulder. His hand stopped moving, he could just about sense that someone was talking to him but could not tell what the words were. Then his whole body shook, he stood up and then everything went black and the savant knew no more.

Excerpt from an interview following the incident:

"What happened next?"

"We traced the illegal access to the savant concerned and approached him with caution, he would not respond and then he stood up..."

"Go on"

"...he...he screamed...I can still hear it now, it was inhuman...and then...and...then his head exploded"

"Hmm, the blast injured many people, not least yourself, could information be found from the remains?"

"N...none sir, his entire cranium was atomised and we could find no trace of what it was that he was doing on the mainframe"

"Keep looking, there must be something, he did something"

"Yes Sir"


----
In the deep-space radio-frequency inspection suite of the Ordo Xenos:
Spoiler:

The acolyte in charge of the scanning equipment picked up a weak signal that, at first, appeared to come from Mars; but was found to have been bounced through many systems on many allied planets before being directed at Terra. After scans and checks for safety of the signal itself, a recording was sent to the Inquisitor-in-charge for assessment. This is what he saw:

The signal was decoded into a video format and the initial frames showed one end of a room with wooden panelling on the walls, some metal filing cabinets that look like a guardsman had spent 15 minutes introducing it to the blunt end of his Lasgun, and two pictures on the wall. One picture showed an underwater photograph of a large water-bound mammal seemingly minding it's own business. The other was a painting that showed, in the lower left corner of the canvas, a beautiful woman standing at a fence-like structure that came up to her hip and in the background, a huge battle scene complete with large explosions, tanks, troops and blood and gore where possible; this was clearly the focus for the painter and took up the majority of the space in the picture's frame. In front of all this was a desk made of a dark, red-ish, wood. The desk was clearly well used, but well loved, as it was highly polished but worn at the edges. On top of the desk were untidy piles of paper a few test-tubes in a rack containing various liquids of differing colours, writing equipment and various clutter including a bowl with a plant in it. The plant was in flower and was displaying small, bright, flowers of many colours.

As the Inquisitor regarded this view a figure walked into the scene and seated himself at the desk. This person was wearing a white lab-coat with many tools and pieces of equipment hanging out the pockets, opening the lab-coat to sit down he revealed that he was wearing a brightly coloured shirt underneath and khaki shorts with extra pockets (also bulging with tools etc...). On his head, the person was wearing a very badly made mask of a man's face with wild grey hair. After sitting at the desk for a short while, the figure held up a sign on a stick that had been laying on the desk, which said "Allow me to make myself more comfortable?", the question mark was emphasized. The figure threw the sign over his shoulder and pulled the mask off his head to reveal that his face looked exactly like that which the mask had been representing badly, the figure smiled widely and addressed the camera...

"Hello. If my calculations are correct you should be reading this at 15:34 local time, if not, your clock is wrong or your subordinate is not working hard enough. Ha Ha."
The Inquisitor glanced at a clock in his office and it read 15:35, he frowned.
"I'm sending you this message to inform you of what is wrong with the Universe. You may think that this Galaxy is messed up, but it's nothing, a tiny speck of dust compared to the Universe, so insignificant that it may as well be named after a chocolate bar for all the difference it makes. Ha Ha. It can and it will get worse if nothing is done now."

The Inquisitor thought about stopping the video and doing something more important, like going for a leak, but the next thing the figure said, and the way it was said, stopped him in his tracks and he forgot all about his bladder.
"I know, Inquisitor Vrek, what is wrong with everything and how to prevent the problems the galaxy is having with these warp incursions and the endless fighting. I can stop the problems you have with your enemies and return the Galaxy and the Universe to a favourable equilibrium."
Inquisitor Vrek had to rewind the video to make sure he didn't just imagine or mishear that this strange man had used his name, there was no way that this nobody could have known that this video would find it's way to him and at a time that he also seemed to know...

The video continued "You are likely thinking, what does this man know that we don't, and you are right to be sceptical. But I know, for want of a better word, everything."
He reached out and prodded the plant on his desk. "Take this petunia for instance. Sat in it's bowl, not a care in the galaxy you might think. BUT..." said the man, raising his voice "...You'd be wrong. I know what it knows. I have... methods... that allow me to read, record and implant the knowledge and memories of ANY living creature, and I have."
The bowl of petunias thought to itself "Oh no, not again"
The man on the video leant forward and whispered to the plant "Yes, this again"
Sitting up and looking back at the camera he continued calmly, while caressing a leaf, "You see Vrek, I know what this plant knows, and from that I know what it is thinking. But I won't bother you with the philosophy of a petunia, it's not something you would understand" with that, the man pushes the bowl off the desk and a smash is clearly heard on the video. Inquisitor Vrek felt himself relax a little.

"You want to know how to stop those nasty, filthy xenos and daemons and their accomplices from making a mess of your imperium. I can help, you see. I have extensive knowledge from every corner of the galaxy, every race, every species and I even have a contact on the other side. You would like him, he's bright and shiny and a smashing chap, very talkative. I know their plans, their motives, their drives... and their weaknesses. This information would be incredibly useful in anyone's hands as I'm sure you'd agree." Vrek felt himself nod gently in agreement.

The man shifted himself in his chair. Inquisitor Vrek, now didn't move a muscle even as a small fly landed on his cheek and a bead of sweat ran down the side of his nose. He felt comfortably numb.
"So we come to the nitty-gritty, the point, the deal..." the man lifts a small orb from within his desk "This, is what you want. It will allow you access to the information that I have collected. However, I couldn't just stick this in a box and risk some courier being waylaid and shot in the head over. No, I could only hand this over in person, to someone of your stature. I have included with this transmission, the data to find a small star-system where I'll be awaiting your arrival. To access this data you will need the passwords, they are your mother's maiden name and your first servitor's name, that should be plenty secure enough...Ha ha."

The figure started to rise and then sat down again heavily "Oh, and one final thing, I'm sure I don't need to tell you, but bring all the assistance and security that you feel necessary for the gravity of this information. I'll be waiting."
There was a pause and the figure appeared to be contemplating something. Then with a click of his fingers he reached below the desk and retrieved a large revolver which he aimed at the camera and fired. The video stopped with blackness.

Inquisitor Vrek sat in silence for a while and then seemed to come out of a dream with a start. He reached for the comm' device on his desk and set about arranging for troops and transport to the star-system in question...


----
About the Army of the Second Law:

Shortly after the Zeist Campaign (999.M41) a small but diffuse cluster of star systems in an area of Ultramar and previously known to harbour civilisations was found by members of the Ultramarine chapter to be devoid of all sentient life. It was thought that this might be due to the Tau or Tyranid infestation, but upon inspection the destruction was not typical of either race.

The only remaining signs that a planet or it's moons had supported a thriving civilisation was the crumbling remains of their structures and buildings. All machinery, resources and, more perplexing, any traces of the bodies of man or animal were absent. The plant life however, was thriving. From studying the degree to which the flora had encroached and covered the ruins of once great civilisations, it could be calculated that these planets had been deserted for centuries and no clue was given as to where or why all the people and fauna had gone. The greatest mystery was that one planet, near the middle of this cluster of star-systems, was completely missing and records showed that nothing has been written about this planet since early M35.

Unknown to the Imperial forces that found this mystery, the missing planet was not missing, but hidden to their instruments, their psykers and their naked eyes. This was the home of the Army of the Second Law.

Headed by The (Mad) Scientist, who's name is long forgotten, even by him. A genius left alone on a planet wiped clean of all sentient life by one of his experiments (in M35); an experiment that granted him a form of immortality and the collective knowledge and memories of the whole planet, he was slowly driven mad by this knowledge and loneliness while perfecting his techniques and experiments over thousands of years, on the surrounding star-systems.

The Scientist's Personal Journal entries:

Spoiler:
PJ-Day -1
Tomorrow I shall perform an historic experiment. The past decades of my life have led up to this point. I have detailed my previous experiments of knowledge sharing. There have been set backs, of course, but recent results with small mammals has shown that it is possible to take the knowledge of one or many individuals and implant it into others of the same or different species with no ill affects. I have scaled these experiments up to large groups and implanted many lifetimes worth of experience into one individual, officially a simple primate, unofficially... myself.

If tomorrows experiment works as I have calculated I will implant the knowledge of everyone and everything within range of my transmitter into my mind. This will increase my (already substantial) intelligence exponentially and I will instantly "learn" all the skills of anyone within a 50 mile radius as if I had spent years mastering them myself.
Not only will I be hailed as a genius, I will become a genius the likes of which has never been seen.

I will then be able to perfect the equipment for the application of helping those that are, shall we say, a bit dumb. Also, learning skills and knowledge will merely be a matter of sitting in a chamber and having the required knowledge implanted. Maybe I'll be able to overcome the problem of brain damage when too much information in implanted into a brain that cannot take it. Sadly, at first, some people will not be able to become instant genius', but everyone can be improved to greater or lesser extents.


PJ-Day 0
I am leaving this journal, together with my notebooks, in case something should go wrong with today's experiment, the probability of failure or worse is minimal. If someone should find this, follow my footsteps carefully, many things can go wrong with knowledge transfer... Zero hour approaches, there's no turning back now.

PJ-Day +2
I KNOW EVERYTHING!!! There was an electrical storm that was nearby that I didn't know about at the time, that was stupid of me, I should have read the signs. It boosted and deflected the signal I used and I have absorbed the memories and knowledge of every single living being on the planet... My initial calculations showed that even I would not be able to absorb so much knowledge but they were wrong, I see that now, and I see that with minor modifications to my equipment (most of which I have already performed in the past two days) I can implant much more information into any brain, it just requires the correct compression and a little reprogramming of the memory centres. I can't wait to publish these results, no one believed and will not believe what is possible (I know, you see). But it is now undeniable, I have proof... I even know what it's like to be a blade of grass in a freshly mown lawn, the pain... the pain...

PJ-Day +16
Ha Ha. There's no one left. They all went bye-bye. My transference of their knowledge was too complete. Ha Ha. Every mind on the planet was wiped clean. They all just dropped dead without knowing what was happening, who they were, what they were or even how to breath. Boom, gone, dead. He He. I'm all alone. Not that I need anyone, I know what any one of them would say or do in any circumstance. Indeed, that is correct... You see? Some of them, would agree.

PJ-Day +54.
I had forgotten about this journal. I've been busy. Busy busy bee me... yes, ah Ha, He He. I have vastly improved my knowledge transfer equipment. I have found that it is more efficient to read the knowledge from a dead mind, or more precisely, a non-sentient mind. All the flora of the planet happily carried on as if nothing had happened while all the fauna was wiped clean. Except, that is, for dead bodies... already dead bodies.

Having implanted the memories of some people I found in the street outside, that had been alive at the time, I found that the only memories they had were of the short time between having their mind wiped and dropping dead, fascinating, Ha HA. I tried the same with some bodies in a morgue and found that all their memories were intact AND I had already implanted those memories from the initial experiment.

As for improvement to my equipment, I have refined it so that it will not mind-wipe anyone again (or at least not by accident, Ha Ha). He He, and I can now store the knowledge I glean artificially as well. I have taken it upon myself to transfer my own knowledge and memories to storage as well, on a regular basis, as data and not as inefficient words like this journal. I will then be able to implant whatever knowledge is required into anyone or anything I choose, no need to explain anything to anyone again.


----
He developed an obsession for "true" chaos, through the study of the natural increase in the disorder of his home world as the familiar surroundings of a once great civilised (ordered) planet crumbled to dust to be replaced by the randomness (chaos) of the untouched flora of the planet.

PJ-Day +438.
Weeeeell well, hellooo what is this? My old journal. Not seen much use for a while have you? No, of course not, you can't talk. Only the voices talk, that's what voices do, that's what they are for. No, I know that... I know everything of course, you should know that... Where was I? Yes, I was about to create my latest entry in my journal, keep it up to date, yes. Ha Ha.

I have been sending out my robotic probes across the planet to find and return with news and equipment and materials, they don't talk either, no point in making them talk, just record and download to the mainframe here. I can implant it later, yes I do. Latest experiments are progressing well, but I need to acquire the materials. He He. Ho He. Ha Ha. What would a butterfly do? wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwdgrtthhggggh, Oh! I see.


PJ-Day +734.
What was once Order is no more. Straight is now bent, clean is now dirty, inorganic is now organic... Kind of, Ha Ha. Without civilisation here to trim and tidy and arrange, nature has fought back, the universe guides. The flora has moved into the cities and towns and walls have broken and collapsed. This is how it should be. It is beautiful.

I have calculated the increase in entropy of the whole planet, yes I have, and I have shown that this increase has led to greater stability in the planet and the surrounding space. The degree of disorder, you see, is directly proportional to the stability of space-time as the voices had told me. I didn't believe them at first, it made no scientific sense, but now, I have calculated it. I have proof.


----
Somehow, possibly due to him being the only living being in the star system, he was overlooked by the Chaos gods. He was therefore persuaded in his madness by the voices in his head that a fictitious god of disorder had tasked him with fighting the tide of order and uniformity created by the habitation of sentient beings throughout the galaxy. He had therefore to increase the disorder in the universe to a level he believed was appropriate and that the very nature of the universe tended towards without the structure and order brought about by civilisation. Without his help, he believed, the universe would die when the "unnatural" levels of order became too great for nature to function normally.

PJ-Day +1356.
The plans are ready. I am ready. The universe is ready. It is time to set in motion what will bring stability to the universe. The order that has resulted from civilisations is tearing the universe apart and they don't see it, no they don't, do they? No.

A hole appears in space and they try to fight what comes through it. They don't know that it's space-time itself, fighting back against the Order that they have created. But I know. I know what needs to be done. I have been chosen. By Him. The God of everything. The God of nothing. The God of nature. Nature is random, it is disordered. It must ALWAYS become more disordered... It's the LAW.


PJ-Day +1493.
Entropy must increase or the universe will be destroyed. He has told me. It took so long for me to see it, to hear what he was saying. But I HEAR you now. I will obey. I am the chosen. I will raise an army to break the Order. To spread Disorder. I must prepare...

I realise now that I am the catalyst, the universe is the flask and all the people and the beasties and the flowers and trees and the rocks and... everything else are the reactants waiting to become the products. They are all thermodynamically unstable and ready to change and yet kinetically inert, they try to change themselves but it is slow and they are destined to potentially wait forever without my guidance, I will help them blossom into the new forms determined for them. I offer myself up to speed the change and save the universe and as the catalyst I will not be consumed or changed and will remain, forever in my special sub-stoichiometric splendour.


----
He does not believe that all life should be destroyed, just that the structure of the various societies should be disrupted and randomised to allow nature to take it's course. Any that stand in his way, however, will die. After all, he's on a mission from god.

He therefore set about planning to build an army to spread death and destruction from one world to the next, destroying infrastructures and spreading "true" chaos, the greater the degree of destruction the better for disorder. An ordered and regimented army, however, just wouldn't do and he set about it's creation as he did for any of his experiments, by bringing together random pieces or elements and mixing them up in one pot.

He ensnared a drifting space hulk (possibly as early as M36), with a kind of tractor beam he invented solely for the purpose, and brought it in to crash into the planets surface killing nearly all life aboard which consisted of a large population of Tyranids and a small band of space marines that were exploring the hulk at the time together with their support craft. The survivors were left to die on their own or picked off by robotic drones created, but disliked due to their lack of disorder, by The Scientist.

The hulk, a collection of ancient and more recent spacecraft, granted The Scientist access (using the robotic probes he designed and built, themselves from ancient knowledge) to the raw material he required to start his army, body parts. He also discovered a vast collection of wargear, equipment and STC data aboard the hulk.

PJ-Day +2484.
I am ready. Readyreadyready. Yesyesyes. Ha Ha. They are coming. As was foretold by him... or was it me? I knew they would come. A great spaceship. Filled with all I need to Start my mission. It's coming. I am ready. It will land in the desert. All wrapped in metal, a lovely present for meeeee. He He. I have my robots ready to retrieve the raw materials for my army, The Army of The Second Law. And then I will set my plan in motion. They are coming. They are coming...

----
He set about rebuilding whole bodies from what he found and learning about the unique biology of the various species from dissection and by absorbing the knowledge and memories of the dead.

Using all manner of techniques he persuaded, tortured, and brainwashed the reanimated, disembodied, heads of the creatures and humans to follow his command and believe in what he believed. He also implanted small bioelectronic devices into the skulls of his army that would allow the various species to recognise each other as "friends", either directly or by a sort of hallucination to disguise the different, hostile, species. Anyone else, therefore, was recognised as the enemy in a similar way.

He could then breath life back into the reassembled bodies and use extracted DNA to clone further members of his army that could be brainwashed from scratch and trained by memory implants.

He then sent small scouting parties to raid other planets, particularly scenes of recent battles for fresh and diverse "raw materials" to increase his disordered army and to supply various pieces of hardware required for weapons and vehicles, ready to spread the word of randomness to the rest of the universe. He also utilised techniques to kidnap or lure "raw materials" directly to his planet in some cases.

He has also developed the transportation technology of the various species encountered through the universe to allow retrieval of equipment and "raw materials" from the battlefield so as to avoid loosing precious hardware and to acquire more from opponents during and after battle. His technology cannot be used to transport his army across the battlefield, only to transfer anything, with one of his transport gizmos attached, to his ship in orbit. All members of his army have a gizmo implanted together with the behaviour implant and all pieces of armour and weaponry have one or more of their own.

During or after battle The Scientist's minions will collect "raw materials" and equipment from the enemy, win or lose, he will always escape harm with the additional knowledge and materials to create more soldiers for his ever increasing (and increasingly random) army.
----
The Scientist continues his research into all manner of science and, having lived many lifetimes, he has produced a vast quantity of notes.

The Scientist's scientific Journal entries:
SN-5436.
I watched a rock. To see what it did. To find out; do rocks have feelings too?
True, it lacks organic matter, being made of minerals. And life is based on organic matter. But I can't hold that against it, ha ha.

I know that the closer you look at the surface of a rock, the rougher it looks. The rougher the surface, the greater the area.
How far do those little lumps and bumps go? All those pits in the surface add up...
...and on the surface of those pits are more pits, only smaller...
...and on the surface of those pits...
The total area of the surface of this rock could be infinite...
...and as the rain washes away particles and dissolves the minerals, the surface area increases...
...and if the surface area is infinite, how large is the rock? For if the surface is infinite and the volume finite, then the volume to surface ratio will be zero.

If I cut the rock in half to study the interior, I do not find the bulk volume of the rock, I create more surface and the rock becomes both smaller and larger and stays the same. You can multiply zero by any number and it's still zero and you can divide any number by infinity and you always get zero.

There is no rock, but the rock is infinite.

What is true of the rock, is true of the universe. It is infinite and contains an infinite number of stars, about which an infinite number of planets and moons orbit. Only a finite number of those bodies harbour life and therefore the average population of any one celestial body in the universe is zero. And yet, there is life everywhere to be found and studied and guided towards perpetual entropy increase. To become more complex, while becoming smaller, larger and remaining the same...

...as I look into the rock the rock looks into me...


----
How The (Mad) Scientist recruited...

...Tyranids
As the majority of the samples first obtained by The Scientist a lot of his early experiments were with these creatures. In probing the minds of the bodies recovered he learnt that they could easily be recruited to his army by careful direction of their hunger to consume all bio-matter and only required implants to prevent them attacking absolutely everything, for example, the other members of his army. However, to direct them he needed something more, a synapse creature.

He learnt of the hive mind and the way that a consciousness was spread throughout all the tyranids. The remains of a synapse creature was found within the crashed hulk, but was too badly damaged to be of direct use. It's DNA was therefore used to clone two new creatures; one to act as a general, to control the lesser tyranids on the battlefield and the other to disguise his own planet and base of operations from the hive mind, this second creature was vastly mutated for the purpose. A great deal of electronics were required to keep these two from realising that they were no longer working as part of the hive but against it.

----
Spoiler:
Scientific Notes. Tyr213: An interesting species, the tyranids, they will kill and eat (if possible) any organic matter placed before them. They can learn to overcome obstacles, usually in the most destructive way possible, but they cannot be trained. For example; Hormagaunt 03 was placed in an empty room that it could not escape from. It tried to escape by damaging the walls and floor for 3 days straight with little rest, truly remarkable stamina. Then suddenly it just stopped and went into a hibernation-like state and stayed like that seemingly indefinitely (300 days at least in tests).

The introduction of organic matter, be it in the shape of flora or fauna (animal or man) resulted in 03 instantly attacking and devouring all that it could. That is probably unremarkable and unsurprising, but when placed in similar circumstances where killing or eating the organic matter would result in a gentle shock (not quite enough to kill it, but should certainly discourage it); 03 would, without hesitation, kill and (attempt to) eat it's prey and would do this repeatedly. Even upping the shock and killing 03 would not teach it to leave the prey creature alone upon revival. You could probably teach an ork this simple lesson without much trouble, Note to self: Try this experiment with an ork.


SN-Tyr 245: Implanting the knowledge from the varied tyranid creatures found on board the hulk was an enlightening experience. I have learnt that they share a consciousness that is linked to much greater intellects over immense distances, I have been able to calculate the distance and judging by the information within these few samples I know when and where they expect to arrive (see 242-244 and the following entries).

I know that the vast majority of the tyranids are essentially mindless, driven only by instinct and the direction of the "hive mind", however there are a few larger specimens that have possession of their own faculties and act as a kind of booster or relay station for the "hive mind". I have one here and am in the process of cloning it. Once complete, one of the clones will serve to control the lesser tyranids and another one or two I'll use to shield my planet and army from the hive as I do electronically for other species' sensors.


SN-Tyr 462: From experiments on the genetic make up of these creatures I have discovered their big secret, it's remarkable where they originated from and how they "evolved" before they started on their "mission", the reasons for all this can only be guessed at.

Also, I have unlocked the ability to blend the genetics from one tyranid to another allowing me the ability to replace lost limbs and weapons for the more "damaged" soldiers with whatever I choose.


SN-Tyr 534: The majority of soldiers have accepted their implants, work well and do as commanded. A few have had problems with accepting their fate, as it were, and have caused minor problems requiring destruction by detonation of the brain implant (I have only been killed once and that was a lucky strike, the poor, deluded, little monster). The replacement clones have proved easier to work with as their mixed genetic code has allowed me to start with a blank slate.


----
...Spacemarines
Also found aboard the crashed hulk. Biologically easier to work with initially than the tyranids due to The Scientists greater knowledge of the human body. However, psychologically the marines were harder to break than the tyranids due to their religion and morals, but it was not impossible. Absorbing the individual knowledge and memory of each marine gave The Scientist the advantage of knowing their personal weaknesses and given time to work with their disembodied heads using physical and mental torture was able to make the marines susceptible to accept personal programmed delusions into their minds via The Scientist's bioelectronic implants. Each marine believed that they were still fighting for the Emperor and they were standing side by side with the other members of their original chapter.

The Last moments of Battle Brother Raymius.
Spoiler:
Battle brother Raymius lay on his back, the battlefield was quiet now that the battle was over. Raymius thought back over what had happened, surrounded by the bodies of the fallen enemy and his battle brothers, they had fought bravely against overwhelming numbers of Tyranids. Raymius himself had slaughtered many of the vile creatures until something huge and black had come up behind him, he had reacted too slow and had paid the price for that mistake.

The thing had ripped him in two, Raymius could not now even see where his legs lay, he was covered in blood and from the waist down...missing. Raymius lay there, with the world around him coming and going to greyness, until he started to hear noises, movement, someone or something was picking over the bodies. Every now and then a strange noise, not unlike a thousand people quietly saying "wop" would float over the marine and then there would be more shuffling and rustling. Raymius opened his eyes as he heard the noise approach him, it was a Dire Avenger. Unmistakeable in it's blue armour and high helmet, the filthy Eldar scum was looting the corpses! If he had the strength, Raymius would teach the xeno a thing or two, but then he saw another figure... a marine... from the Imperial Fists! Why were they helping each other, and why would a marine stoop to looting corpses? Another shadow fell over Raymius, he could not see what it was, it bent over and placed something on his chest and then everything went black with a "wop".

As suddenly as it had gone black, it was immediately bright, strong lights positioned around a large metal-walled room, many more xeno scum were here, including Orks and they appeared to be stripping and sorting the equipment from the bodies. A shadow fell over Raymius again and a voice said "This one's still alive, got no legs, but still moving" another voice answered "He said that He would want to see any survivors, plug him into some support and send it to Him". Raymius was dragged from the room, down a narrow corridor and into a room where he was fitted with a life support system and placed on a glav-platform before being taken to meet whoever this "Him" was.

The first meeting between Raymius and The Scientist as he referred to himself, was strange to say the least. He was tall, for a normal human, thin and had messy grey hair and wild staring eyes. The Scientist wore a brightly coloured shirt (with flowers and strange trees on it) and khaki shorts with many bulging pockets with various tools and things hanging out here and there. Over these clothes The Scientist wore a white lab coat (open at the front for the moment) dirty, well used and with strange designs drawn over most of it, he would stand in front of the marine with his hands in the lab coat's pockets and stare intently at every part of what remained of Raymius, muttering to himself.

They then discussed The Scientists plans and ideals and it was clear to Raymius that he was insane. The discussion ended abruptly after The Scientist had mentioned his immortality and Raymius had scorned him and preached about the Emperor, The Scientist had said he would show him what was what and had Raymius taken to another room, empty save for a small stage at one end. Raymius was positioned facing the stage and the room's single door.

The Scientist entered the room followed by a huge mechanical monstrosity, 10 feet tall at least, all pistons and sharp angles. The Scientist spent a great deal of time describing how he would create some new legs for Raymius using a similar pattern to that of the machine. Raymius was not interested and would rather just be killed than brainwashed and mechanised by this madman.

After 2 or so hours, The Scientist then said he would show the marine something that would shake his faith in his "dead" emperor.

"Heretic" thought Raymius "I'll see you die a painful death for this" he said aloud.

The Scientist laughed at this for half an hour, breaking down into hysterics many times before saying "that is precisely why I have brought you here Raymius".

While the marine was still trying to remember when this madman had discovered his name, The Scientist asked "are you a god?",

Raymius answered "no" curtly,

"ha, but you believe your Emperor is? We shall see..." Without pause The Scientist shouted "KILL" and the machine suddenly sprouted all manner of sharp implements and blades, Raymius tensed but could not move.

He was not in danger though, the machine turned upon The Scientist and proceeded to tear him to pieces, blood and flesh were spread around the room in a flurry of violence. The screams of the madman (mixed with laughter) were still ringing in the marines ears when he was dragged from the room and taken to a holding chamber by some of the madman's lackeys.

It could not have been more than an hour after this that the door to the room he was in was opened and Raymius was struck dumb, he could not believe what he was looking at... The Scientist stood there, as clear as day, a huge grin on his face and not a scratch on his body.

"You see" The Scientist said, "I am truly immortal"

"What trick is this, that could not have been you in that room" Said Raymius

"Oh it was" said The Scientist.

They talked and Raymius questioned The Scientist about what had happened and could only conclude that he was present in the otherwise empty room. The Scientist even described what it felt like to be torn apart and Raymius knew what this was like as well.

"We are alike, you see? Both torn asunder and now both here" The Scientist said.

"I am not like you" Replied Raymius coldly

"No, indeed not. How rude of me, here I am uninjured and you still have no legs." Said The Scientist "where is your god emperor now, to bless you with new appendages? We both know where he is, you may call it a throne but it is a coffin. Is he here to save you from damnation? No. But I am here, I will always be here...Ha Ha. I will give you new legs, better legs and you will follow me to you next death and the death beyond that, again and again"

Raymius could not find the words to describe this man.

The Scientist continued "May I call you Ray?" and without waiting for a reply "Not that it matters, you will be number 11 soon. Well, Ray when someone asks if you are a god, you say YES! Ha Ha, well I do... What would your Emperor say? Oh nothing...because he's DEAD, HA HA!"

The Scientist left Raymius to the last of his thoughts and doubts before he receives the customary brainwash and conditioning. He was still laughing as the door slid shut behind him, "What is life anyway?" he said to himself "I think I'll go and check on the next bodies I'll have..."


----
In an office on one of the Imperial's frontier worlds:

Spoiler:
A private conversation between a commander and a subordinate;

"Sir, you asked me to determine the delay with the repair work to the Predator..."

"Yes, why are they taking so long? We have already received all the other equipment that was sent with it, it wasn't heavily damaged if I recall correctly "

"No sir, it wasn't heavily damaged" He swallowed nervously.

"Well then, what's happened to it? "

"It's missing Sir..."

"Define... missing "

"Sir, they didn't receive it"

"WHAT? It was pulling the trailer that everything else was in, I saw it leave in the capable hands of one of our own marines. We already have all of that equipment back. How did the trailer and it's contents get to and from there...WITHOUT the predator that was pulling it? "

Mouth dryer than any known desert, he replied "We... don't know Sir"

"Well is someone finding out? Where's the marine that was driving? He might have noticed where the vehicle he was sat in had gone? "

"Ah, he's missing too sir, he...erm..."

"What is it? "

"Records show that the marine that was driving has... been dead for 5 months... Sir"

"I'm not going to like this, am I? Would you care to explain that, I shook his hand! "

"Sir, he was killed during our last major encounter with the Orks.
His body was never recovered, although several of the other battle brothers reported seeing him killed by concentrated Ork fire during the second wave of their attack.
However, after the battle no trace could be found of him, one other and several Orks. Only blood stains were found at the scene, no bodies, no equipment. Sir
"

"And now, you are telling me that he returned here... 5 months later... and then vanished again... along with a whole tank! "

"Y-Yes S-Sir..."

"...From the middle of our base of operations... surrounded by thousands of our brethren... on a planet that we supposedly control... AND NO ONE NOTICED! "

"No sir. Some tracks were found leading from the trailer and down an alleyway..."

"Good, and where did these tracks lead to? "

"Nowhere sir, it was a dead end"

"Well surely some information could be found from it. What direction were the tracks headed? "

"No sir, the alleyway was a dead end. The tracks led up to the wall at the end and then...stopped..."

The Scientist surveyed his latest addition. "Not bad, a few tweaks here and there and it'll be ready, Ha Ha ".


----
The squad leader for the ratling squad approached his commanding officer.
Spoiler:
"Sir, the enemy on the east flank appear to have a tank."

"Yes yes, and the south group have a wave serpent. Why are you telling me this?"

"Sir, it's not an Eldar construct."

"Now that is noteworthy. We have reports that there are more than just those skinny xeno' scum moving about as well."

"Sir, I have personally seen Astartes from several chapters moving side-by-side with Eldar and Orks."

"Damn them traitor legions!"

"Sir, these were from... loyal chapters"

"What in the name of the Emperor is going on out there?"

A guardsman entered the bunker, saluted the officer and handed him a report.
"Thank you, dismissed."

The guardsman leaves, but hears the officer from the far side of the thick door.
"THERE'S TYRANIDS AS WELL!!!"

"Sir..." the squad leader continued "...this tank... er..."

"WHO GIVES A DAMN ABOUT A BLASTED TANK!"

"Sir, it has several... modifications... from the standard template design"

"Oh, just to add to the heresy..." said the officer, calming down a little "Have you ascertained anything of use, or is it the usual spikes and chains thing?"

"Sir, there appears to be a great deal of functionality in it's design..."

"Like what?"

"Can't say, Sir. I didn't get a good look at it myself, but the second squad are tracking it now."

"I want a report about this asap"

"Yes Sir."

"At least it's not these walker things we heard about from that jungle planet last rotation"

"No Sir, no reports of such things."

The officer sighed. "Good. Now get on to that tank."

----
Report code 0111000001110010:
The unidentified armoured vehicle (chassis to be confirmed) is conveyed on tracks (confirmed by tread pattern). Approximate weight of between 60 and 80 tonnes (based on indentations) and body width of approximately 3.5 to 4 metres (based on track spacing).

Approximate damage output indicates an autocannon or equivalent, supplemented by a high-rate-of-fire weapon (similar to that of a heavy bolter or autocannon) and an energy weapon of unknown type (possibly linked to sounds of thunder audible in the area).

The vehicle has left evidence of being used in an aggressive manner: One case of a building being breached by the vehicle and many cases of flora and fauna being impacted, moved considerable distances and dissected by what appears to be a moderately sharp implement (more so than would be expected from a simple dozer blade), not used with the same finesse as that seen by the Dark Eldar but more than the blunt force of the Orks.

Report code 0110010101100100:
Further clues to the identity and position of the unidentified tank have been obtained from interviews of local habitants. Transcripts of the more useful parts are attached below.

Voice 1, (Imperial): "Tell him what you told me about the... tank."

Voice 2, (Local, female): "Th...the monster?"

Voice 1: "Yeah, it's a tank. Tell him about the monster. What is it with these locals?"

Voice 3, (Imperial): "Beats me. Just describe what you saw, this thing will record what you have to say."

Voice 2: "It... It has these eyes. They burn so brightly and they search you out, find you, and then it chase you."

Voice 1: "Tell him what you call it."

Voice 2: "Here, we call him El Diablo Cazador"

Voice 1: "and we know what that means, sound familiar?"

Voice 3: "Yeah, probably a better name for that tank really"

...

Voice 1: "Then what happened?"

Voice 4, (Local, male): "There was a loud noise, like a howl, but more than just animal... Then El Cazador, he came crashing through the trees, knocking them over, cutting them down. It spat thunder at our truck and turned it into fire, had we been inside at the time, El Cazador would have had us roasted. I lay on my back and my wife, my dearest, she ran, he chased her..."

...

Voice 3: "...and then you fired upon the tank?"

Voice 5, (Local, male): "Yes, we were afraid and didn't mean to, we were surprised to find it sat there quietly in the glade and raised our weapons without thinking."

Voice 3: "What happened next?"

Voice 5: "Our bullets bounced off El Cazador's hide and it angered him. He raised his shield and chased us..."

----
"Sir, we have received a transmission from the squad tracking the tank."

"Good. Have they found it yet?"

"er... Yes Sir... kind of.."

"Spit it out lad"

"Well, Sir... it's probably just best that you listen to the recording..."

The young sergeant hands the commanding officer the recording and leaves the room while the officer is still processing the unusual response. He decides to leave the matter for now and will talk to the sergeant later, after he's assessed this recording...

It starts with a synthesised voice of the recorder; "Recorded 22:04 local time BZ356.3P-0"
This is followed by a brief pause, some static and then the recording starts.

"We have tracked the tank known as El Cazador to the small town of Yaut-ja to the south east of HQ. We have yet to positively identify the chassis of the tank yet, but all indications point to Human in origin and not Xeno' or demonic.

A voice in the background can be heard "Point has sighted it, Sir"

"Ah, we have visual. I'll leave the com' open as we observe."

*Sounds of movement and hushed orders.*

"It is positioned inside a building. All that is visible is an unusual dozer blade and the tip of what appears to be an autocannon. No lights are on and there doesn't appear to be any indication that the engines are running. Maybe the crew have disembarked for some reason, we could catch them unawares here."

*More sounds of movement*

"We have changed position and can now see a little of the front of the tank, it's shape is definitely reminiscent of Astartes design, but is not a mark of armour I recognise. If it is a rhino chassis, it's been abused to such an extent that the machine spirit must be in great pain."

*Quiet sounds of movement and then a brief pause*

"We are advancing on the tank in two groups, as we still can not see any crew outside the tank we will have to be careful, all is quiet"

*A pause and then a distant metallic chime, as if someone has just kicked a tin can*

"The lights are on! And they've moved to focus on the other group. They're like eyes... It's moving, incredibly fast, almost like an animal... It's charging the other group..."

*There is a roar of engine, a blast of a horn and then the sounds of a tank crashing into a brick building, followed by shouts*

"I can't tell if any of the squad are hurt, too much dust... Yes, there's one, he looks ok."

*The sound of a large-calibre rapid-fire gun can be heard*

"Man down, Alpha team... Attack that tank"

*The sounds of the attack can be heard, together with shouts and the sounds of the tank extracting itself from the building*
Raising his voice above the noises. "It has a turret and was at least originally a preda..."

*All other noises are drowned out by a deafening thunderclap. This is followed by automatic weapon sounds and then only the sounds of the tank's engines idling and heavy breathing are left*

The laboured breathing becomes faster and there are some sounds of movement. "The squad is lost, no survivors..." Sounds of the tank slowly moving closer can be heard in the background. "...last known coordinates for the tank are at my position"

The tank is much closer now, the concrete and pebbles can be heard cracking under it's weight.
The heavy breathing suddenly becomes much faster and the last sounds received are those of breaking bones...

The synthesised voice of the recorder signifies the end of the recording; "Signal lost 22:13 local time BZ368.2D-2"


----
...Dark Eldar
Lured to the planet by the apparent (but faked) bounty of plentiful, peaceful, easy prey for their slaves, the dark eldar raiding party was surprised by an ambush of tyranids (the first and not quite perfect batch, possibly as early as M38). The survivors who escaped with their lives unknowingly left all that The Scientist wanted in reality, the bodies of their dead. From their minds, The Scientist learnt a lot more about torture techniques from the experts of torture and put this to good use on others and on those that supplied him with this knowledge. He also learnt a great deal about the physiology and anatomies of all the other star-faring races of the galaxy from the dark eldar, the information being extremely useful in advance of choosing and collecting members of these races.

----
Spoiler:
SN-DE 012: Just as with their relatives of the craftworlds, these "Dark" Eldar have their souls tied to the false-god Slaanesh and their bodies become useless after death. Unlike their counterparts, they don't use these spirit stone things to prevent their own consumption, they attempt to avoid death altogether by, ironically, consuming the souls of other beings. They now have to do this or they slowly loose their own soul over time. The experiment I have running at the moment has reached a tipping point whereby the originally aggressive warrior is now so weak, so drained, that he has started to beg for help. So weak that he is barely breathing and might not last another year, let alone another decade.

SN-DE 056: I have found that I can imbue the essence of one of these Darkies, He He, Dark-Ees, I made a funny, Ha Ha. ...one of these Darkies into a device of my construction, housing a normal Sprit-stone. The essence is distilled and concentrated down, as it were, to keep a Dark Eldar warrior alive and well, without consuming souls, almost indefinitely. This will prove most efficient.


----
...Eldar
More difficult to find than their dark brethren, The Scientist acquired a great deal of information about them from the dark eldar which helped once "raw materials" were found. The first eldar acquired were a small pirate band that attacked a dummy ship which appeared to be lost in empty space but was actually a trap orbiting the planet (which was hidden to their instruments and their minds). Once boarded, the ship automatically dived into the planets atmosphere and crashed into the surface, killing all on board.

The Scientist then went to work as usual; however, due to the use of spirit stones by the eldar, resurrection of their dead bodies and minds proved difficult. He could access the memories stored in the brain matter, but the dead brains would not accept new implants and refused to be revived. He did, however, find uses for the spirit stones acquired in much the same way as the eldar did. The souls now trapped with The Scientist in their stones had no choice but to obey him as the alternative was being handed over to the great devourer and in time (with a little conditioning) they accepted their roles.

The Scientist decided on a different approach to recruit eldar that involved capturing them alive, a task that the dark eldar forces, together with some of the "better trained" tyranids at his disposal proved useful in achieving. The eldar's heightened response to emotions gave The Scientist the edge in brainwashing them.

----
Spoiler:
SN-Edr 785: Their willingness to study a "path" and become an expert in one field at a time has proven useful for me in training the eldar to my needs. I can override their instinct to stop and change and lock them on the path I choose for them, and after a short while they accept it. So once I convince the poor deluded souls to follow the path of the warrior (or whatever they call it) for example, I can keep them on it and train them up to become what they call "Dire Avengers" or even "Exarch". Therefore they become more deadly and useful to my mission then they would be normally be if I let them pursue other, less useful, paths.

SN-Edr 1454: I have found a way to make a device that acts as what the Eldar refer to as a "Waystone", in essence an empty "Sprit Stone". Once they die, their psychic energy or spirit or soul (however you want to look at it) is stored in the gem. The Eldar use these in order to evade one of those pathetic gods that would eat their soul and then the living relatives use them to power and control weapons and vehicles and the such. I use my devices to record their knowledge, memory and "self" (basically the same thing) so I can reinstall it back into the body. They are now just as useful and expendable as the other races, this saves a lot of bother. It's also amusing to see their faces when they wake up back in their body...


----
The kidnap of the eldar mechanic:
Spoiler:

Dîn-Curunir was a bonesinger and had been for many years. It would soon be time to leave the path of shaping and choose a new path, but he was not worried about this today, he had just completed a work of art for the Autarch and was heading back to his quarters, tomorrow would be a new day. Dîn-Curunir was so content that he failed to notice that he was being followed, although even the most observant of people may well have failed to notice this stalker, for he blended in to the crowds and passer-bys that were ever present in the narrow corridors of the craftworld as if he was meant to be there.

The stalker had in fact been there before, on the craftworld, had lived and worked there much as Dîn-Curunir and countless others did. His name was Ringuial before he was taken to The Scientist, now he was just a number. Ringuial did not miss his name or his past life, indeed he did not even realise that there was anything to miss. All he knew was that he had a mission to complete, and to do that he had to follow Dîn-Curunir.

Dîn-Curunir took the long route home, through the public garden that was near to his quarters, he was not in a hurry. He met a friend there and talked a little while before arranging to meet the next day, without knowing that he would not make it and would never be seen and never see or remember that beautiful garden again.

Dîn-Curunir had not been back at his quarters long, before he heard a quiet knocking at the door. Upon opening the door he saw a package on the floor, it was plain and had no markings on the outside. He reached down and picked the package up, it was light but appeared to have something of substance loose inside. Just as Dîn-Curunir was about to shut the door he noticed a piece of wraithbone, as thin as a keycard, that must have been underneath the package. He picked up the wraithbone and returned inside his quarters, closing the door behind him.

The piece of wraithbone looked as if it had been carefully cut from something larger, as skilled as Dîn-Curunir was at shaping waithbone he could have done little better at shaping the piece into a thin rectangle, he marvelled at the perfection of the edges knowing the skill required to achieve such a feat. Carved on the other side of the wraithbone were three words; Open The Box. Dîn-Curunir, immediately curious, put the wraithbone down on the table next to the box and started to open the package. There was nothing special about the box, but the contents was very interesting. What was inside was an electronic device made from a metal of some sort and pieces of carved waithbone, how was this possible? he thought. Who had done this? and why had they seemingly given it to him?

Dîn-Curunir reached inside the box to lift the device out and study it closer. As soon as he touched it there was a "fop" and everything went black. In the blackness Dîn-Curunir could tell that he was no longer in his quarters, but a smallish room with metal walls, the sheen was discernable by a small light-source in the middle of the low ceiling above him. There was something on the floor by his foot and bending down to study it noted that it was the device that had been in the box, he decided not to touch it again and stood up and started to make towards the wall of the chamber. No sooner had he taken one step, a bright light blinded him and a voice came to him from the darkness.

"Hello, you liked my toy yes? I thought you would. Welcome to my recruiting ship. We were parked no more that 100 meters from the craftworld you called home, you know, no one noticed and we are now travelling away away-O."

"Who are you? What do you want with me?" asked Dîn-Curunir sternly.

"No need to take that tone with me. You will create and repair wraithbone for me and my army, yes you will. You will do this willingly, I do not need your permission, no, I will let you keep all the knowledge that you will need... and nothing else." said the voice in a jovial manner.

"Who are you? I will not do as you say, I will resist with all my strength" Replied Dîn-Curunir.

A light illuminated the room and Dîn-Curunir could now see who he was talking to; scruffy shoes and bare skinny legs stuck out under a dirty lab coat, pockets overflowing with all manner of gizmos and wires and tools. The man was tall, his face thin and his hair wild and grey. His eyes were not visible to Dîn-Curunir as the figure wore glasses that obscured them, but not normal glasses or tinted glasses, these had fake bulging eyes painted on small white balls attached to the frame by long springs that meant the "eyes" bounced and dangled in front of the figure's face and large grin.
"You'll like it here" the figure said, Arms wide as if to embrace Dîn-Curunir, "You will. It'll be as if you were meant to be here, welcome to the family."


----
...The Tau
"Raw materials" for the Tau members of the army were gathered often by trickery due to the open and trusting nature of the Tau, for example; by sending a craft into the nearby Tau controlled space under the guise of friendship and then once the delegate, technicians from the earth caste (that was sent to aid repair to the apparently stricken ship) and their guards were onboard, the craft returned automatically to The Scientist on his planet for "processing". Further "raw materials" were also gathered from battlefields during the Zeist Campaign. The army recruits are led to believe that they are still fighting for the greater good by the use of the bioelectronic implants. Their technological knowledge has proven very useful to The Scientist.

From a speech in the headquarters of the Tau Empire:
Spoiler:
"We have received a message from the members of the Earth Caste that went missing in that strange, apparently stricken, craft 12 rotaas ago. It says they have escaped capture and are hiding out on a small moon where a faceless enemy is amassing a large army and plans to invade T'au space. The message originates from just outside our empire's controlled space. We must take this message seriously, a strike force has been assembled from the Fire and Air castes and a band of our Kroot allies. We will crush this treat before it starts and rescue our brethren, for the Greater Good."

"The Greater Good"

"We expect a report from the strike force in two rotaas time of the reconnaissance mission and, unless there is something we do not expect, the strike force will engage and destroy the enemy, for the Greater Good"

"The Greater Good"

*5 rotaas later*:

"We have picked up transmissions from the strike force, the entire force has been lost, no survivors that we can tell and no further transmissions have been received. I shall play the recording for you to hear, the quality of the signal is not good as something seemed to have been interfering with it at the time of transmission."

Signal: Received.

Recording:

Code: 3243434C

"...Recon team approaching moon...report..."

"...small moon orbiting...planet. No obvious defences...too far to see details on the surface..."

"...clear. When will you...tell us? It could be dange...dvise caution..."

"...coming into range...sensors online...scanning, please wait..."

"..."

"...That's no moon! It's a..."

"...Come in recon. Come...don't receive you. Oh...it's...this way...It's a T..."

Transmission ends:

"We have not been able to locate the moon since receiving this transmission, the area of space where it was originally located is devoid of planets and their moons..."


----
...Orks
Orks were the easiest to find "raw materials" for, due to the volume of warring orks and therefore dead orks throughout the galaxy. They were also easy to "persuade" into fighting in the army due to their violent and impulsive nature. The bioelectronic devices implanted in the orks led them to believe that The Scientist was the biggest, hardest ork they have ever seen and they wouldn't therefore ever challenge him. The devices also inhibit their violent tendencies whilst not on the battlefield to avoid accidents that would waste too much time. Collecting and controlling the distribution of the ork spores allowed The Scientist to grow any number of new orks to swell his army's ranks in a controlled manner. Due to their unique, genetically engineered, biology The Scientist found the ork body particularly easy to work with.

----
Spoiler:
SN-ORK 135: After studying the genetic makeup of these Orks is fascinating. Their bodies consist of two symbiotic organisms joined in a perfect union down to the molecular level, a work of art. The "animal" serving as a kind of matrix that allows the "fungoid" to function effectively; separated, these two organisms are nothing special but still interesting (see ORK113 - 125). Together though, the final product is perfect for the job it has been given.

The major gem in the genetics is the information stored in the fungal side: essentially blueprints for any ork you could desire. The final product seems to result statistically, but now I have to code I can make whatever subspecies I desire.


SN-ORK 256: An interesting point with the Ork and their psychic abilities is that IF they believe something strongly enough and IF there is enough of them together, what they believe has a high probability of becoming true. The down side of this is that most, if not all, the weapons that I have recovered with their Ork owners now refuse to work as they would if there were more Orks present. So I have had to have a look at the weapons and fix them so that they actually work and not just because they believe they should. I have also re-trained my little green mechanic friend so that he builds working contraptions.

----
Gobslag-Grimskab was usually a pretty miserable ork. He was always being told by the others to cheer up and "krump" something, and things were fine while he was fighting, but during the (relatively) quieter times his mind would wander slowly to darker thoughts. His depression meant he would throw himself at the enemy with reckless abandon (or at least more so than other orks) to the point that one day he faced a space marine dreadnought, one on one, in close combat, it didn't go well... or so Gobslag thought...

Gobslag woke up to see the opposite wall covered with lights and slowly realised that this was the ceiling and sat up. He was convinced that he had lost the fight with the dreadnought and been killed, he had accepted his fate as the last attack came at him, and he was definitely sure that it had been on a field and not in a small metal room. A thought slowly developed in his mind; was this what happened when an ork dies, is this where you meet Gork and Mork? Gobslag felt something he hadn't felt for a very long time and it took a while to realise what it was, it was excitement.

A door opened in the wall behind Gobslag and half an hour later he noticed it and walked though into a large room. In the middle of the floor lay a large "choppa" and as he considered the weapon a man walked into the room from a door to one side. The man cowered in the corner furthest from the ork, "Humie!" cried Gobslag and ran at the man, he was most of the way there with his arms raised above his head before he realised that he hadn't yet picked up the choppa... Gobslag stopped for a moment, the man looked up at him with fear in his eyes as Gobslag turned and collected the choppa, felt the weight of it with a pensive look on his face and then attacked the man as he had intended. A large squig fell from a small hole in the ceiling and Gobslag considered the turn of events while he ate lunch, not much happened the rest of the day and Gobslag slept on a small pile of clothing he found in one corner.

The next day, the same thing happened with a man to kill and a squig for lunch. Gobslag was getting used to this when the next day another man entered the room, but to Gobslag's surprise a voice called out from speakers and told him not to attack the man... He did anyway but was surprised when no squig was forthcoming. This continued for a few days, Gobslag lost track and, more importantly, was getting hungry when he hit upon a genius idea; he would not attack the man as the voice told him and see what happened.

So the next day, a man appears, the voice says not to attack and Gobslag remained in the opposite corner of the room (to avoid temptation). After 10 minutes the door that the man had entered opened again and the man didn't wait for an invitation to leave, once the door had closed a squig fell from the ceiling and Gobslag ate with a smile that said he felt like he had achieved something.

The next day however, there was no voice and Gobslag was caught in two minds when the man entered. Gobslag decided to attack the man as no one had told him not to... and as he raised his choppa to strike Gobslag was struck by a huge pain in his head, worse than anything he had experienced before. Gobslag waited until the pain subsided and tried again only to be struck by the pain again, he decided to leave the man alone after an hour of this and eventually the man was allowed to leave and Gobslag was rewarded with two squigs. The following days Gobslag left the man alone and was content to eat the squigs provided.

After a few days was met by the largest of warbosses he had ever seen. The warboss explained that Gobslag had passed the test and was now free to join the army and would be free to kill and not have to worry about being killed as he could be brought back as he had been already and could fight forever. Gobslag asked if the warboss was either Gork or Mork but did not receive a reply, he decided that it was probably Gork and Gobslag was happy every minute of every day after that meeting.


----
...The Imperial Guard
Due to The Scientist's great knowledge of the human body, he required few examples of actual Imperial guard soldiers to clone members for his army and the nearby human-controlled star-systems supplied ample "raw materials". It was however, necessary to steal equipment to outfit the clones (this was not difficult with the current members of the army). The soldiers were brought up to believe that who and what they were fighting for and fighting with were normal and so required little in electronic "aids" to add them to the army. Each soldier is also implanted with the memories of the training needed to fight effectively.

----
...Necrons
The Scientist has yet to acquire a single specimen to study and has various plans in action to rectify this, although he finds their uniformity abhorrent. It is only a matter of time though and The Scientist has lots of time. Having studied and observed, via probes and infiltrators, The Scientist has seen some usefulness in incorporating Necrons into the army. The Scientist has seen the fear, panic and disruption caused upon the mere sight of emotionless, metal killing machines and knows how useful this could be in his mission.
However capturing an intact Necron (or even substantial parts) has proven difficult, and so The Scientist (having acquired small quantities of the Necron metal) has started to experiment with replicating the metal and building his own "men of metal" and implanting the minds of others into the constructs.

----
...Chaos Daemons
The Scientist has yet to determine a method to recruit daemons into his army. He respects the chaotic nature of the daemons, but has doubts as to brainwashing them, maybe he could strike a deal somehow...

----
...Chaos Space Marines
Like the Chaos daemons, the Chaos Space Marines are unlikely to be brainwashed into joining the army directly. But The Scientist has plans in action to corrupt loyal Space Marines while directing them to his cause.
Having acquired various Chaos artefacts, The Scientist has experimented with exposing the minds and bodies of Space Marines, already under his control, to the artefacts for varying amounts of time. It can only be a matter of time before some benefit for the army is discovered or contact is established with those "lesser" Chaos gods...

(More will be added as I come to it... )

This message was edited 6 times. Last update was at 2014/09/04 21:08:17


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Mastering Non-Metallic Metal







This is the latest piece of fluff that was written in celebration of completing the build of my tank (see my main P&M blog).

The previous night had been dark, and it had been hot. The orange glow in the distance indicated that the fires were still burning in spite of the rain that had fallen for most of the day. There had been no attacks during the day-shift for the first time since the attacks began 10 days ago. Maybe they had run out of supplies, or even troops. After the fighting of the night before it would not be a surprise, but there was no way to count the enemy casualties as the bodies always disappeared before sunrise. Some people even reported that they had seen bodies disappearing as if they had been teleported away, but none had been confirmed... nothing had been confirmed, not even who the enemy was or why they were attacking.

Corporal Keveev checked the time. For the last 6 days the night-time attacks had started at any point within the next hour and a half. There didn't appear to be any pattern to it, but it always seemed as if the enemy waited until all the shifts had changed and everyone was at their most alert. It was one of a number of strange things about these attacks.

---
Keveev checked the time again and then started walking his patrol along the outer defence wall. He had been on the jungle planet, Cisoco for nearly 4 years now and had walked this patrol for the past 2 of those. He knew the top of these walls well. So well, that he would recognise the familiar features on the walls, floor, doors and hatches, storage containers, switches and anything else that didn't move regularly. He would walk around areas in almost exactly the same way every time, his feet falling in certain spots, stepping over a crack in the concrete or onto a stain or repaired patch every time he passed, almost as if they were a pattern of his very footsteps.

However, after the recent spate of attacks there were many differences to the previously familiar surroundings. Bullet holes, explosive damage, more cracks, scrapes and many bloodstains. Keveev stepped over a small crater in the concrete of the courtyard he was passing through and checked the time again, then headed towards the rear of the complex before he would start his circuit of the outer wall. Deep beneath his feet, the next shift of a different workforce was getting underway. A workforce that Keveev didn't even suspect existed.

Norma opened her eyes. It would work, she was sure of it, the calculations were correct and could not be denied. This could change the path of the universe and give the Imperium the advantage it needed over it's enemies. She closed her notebook and sat back. It would have to wait until the current enemy could be driven off and the communication blackout that had cut off this planet from the rest of humanity had been lifted.

---
A new fire had broken out in the jungle to the east. Keveev checked the time, yes, it was probably the right time. He adjusted his lasgun's strap on his shoulder and continued to walk along the walkway of the eastern wall. His eyes were constantly drawn towards the smoke as it rose like a serpent from the trees.

An alarm sounded and people stared to run to take up firing positions as they had on the previous nights. Keveev's job was to keep walking his patrol and to help out where the fighting was fiercest. He kept walking and just as he stepped over a bloodstain that had been there for 3 days, he heard it... The unmistakeable sound of "That" tank. The tank that had tested their defences night after night. This time something was different, the noise had always been loud, but this time the noise was angrier somehow, and much, much louder.

---
Keveev scanned the tree-line to his left and spotted the first signs of the tank's approach; trees falling. The tank's main purpose, it seemed, was to create a path for the rest of the army, and what constituted the rest of the army was one of the oddest things about this army, if you could call it an army...

This tank, to start with, was obviously of Astartes origin. That in itself wasn't odd; the forces of chaos had access to Rhino-based vehicles and they had a tendency to modify their vehicles, as this one had been. But what followed the tank, could not be described as any "normal" chaos army. There would be xenos from every corner of the galaxy; Orks walked side-by-side with Eldar, Tau and there were reports of Tyranids being spotted... and then there were the Space Marines themselves, many of which sported the heraldry of loyal chapters. Was this all some kind of psychological ploy by the enemy to disorientate Keveev and his fellow soldiers? No one on his side of the wall knew, and as far as Keveev knew, he didn't much care why. They were the enemy whatever they were wearing.

---
The tank emerged from the trees in an explosion of splintered wood. It changed direction slightly to head towards the compound and then, with a plume of black smoke from the exhausts, drove headlong at the nearest perimeter wall. The defenders opened fire, but the larger guns were not positioned to fire upon the tank immediately and the small arms were ineffective against it's armour. As Keveev watched, the tank spanned the clear ground between the trees and the compound, cleared a trench without slowing, cut through the fence that surrounded the compound and then disappeared from view a fraction of a second before the wall, built to repel all attacks, was turned into flying rubble as the tank punched a hole right through it.

Now inside the compound, the tank opened fire upon the dazed and panicked troops that had expected the usual fire-fight from the top of the wall, and now had a close-quarters battle with a tank that had no qualms about charging men or buildings. The tank had never been so bold. It usually drove back and fourth across the open ground clearing the way for the rest of the army to advance. Now it was inside and it was creating havoc and drawing the attention of the vast majority of the troops.

Keveev looked out over the wall just in time to see a Wave Serpent drop a "squad" of enemy troops right by the opening and as he watched this was followed by a Tau Devilfish and a Dark Eldar transport that dropped even more troops and then peeled away to take pot-shots at the defenders still on the wall. The enemy troops filed through the opening, showing no fear as their comrades were cut down by a hail of fire (and in one case, getting too close to the tank and being run over) and created a cordon that would prevent the defenders from plugging the gap. The tank, meanwhile, headed towards the front gate of the compound.

---
The gate had been built to withstand even greater impacts than the walls, but only from the outside. The tank passed through the gate like a power sword through tissue paper. By this time the fastest of the enemy troops had reached the gap in the wall and were reinforcing the depleted ranks of the initial attackers. Anything outside the walls were by now free to walk right up to the compound without taking fire, as the defenders tried to kill those that had already breached the wall.

As the defenders fought a tactical retreat to the relative safety of the compound's buildings a pair of large Tyranid creatures came charging through the open front gate, followed by a mass of close combat specialists from all the races; Hormagaunts bounded shoulder to shoulder with Orks carrying huge bladed weapons and Eldar Striking Scorpions with their exotic weaponry. The defenders were completely overwhelmed.

Keveev ran into a toilet block as it was the nearest building to him and staying in the open was just asking to be killed. The floor inside was slippery as he skidded to a halt just inside the doorway, he was not alone. He could smell a foul animal stench over the usual smells of this block and he readied his lasgun. Creeping forward, the sounds of the battle outside fading, he peered under the divides and doors of the stalls and could see nothing. He prepared to kick in the first door when there was a thud and the world turned black for Keveev.

---
When Keveev awoke he head ached. He reached up and felt a large lump on the back of his skull where he'd been hit. As his eyes focussed on his surroundings he could make out the interior of one of the lower office rooms of the western wing, it had been ransacked; drawers had been turned out, chairs and desks overturned and the potted plants appeared to have been eaten.

Keveev looked towards the doorway and could make out the shoulders of an Imperial fist marine and a large Ork, they appeared to be guarding the room he was in. He scanned the room for anything he might find of use and noticed the time on a chronometer, askew on the wall, 20 minutes had elapsed since the attack started. Maybe the clock was wrong for some reason, Keveev couldn't believe that the entire compound had been overrun in less time than he would spend in the shower each day. He had many questions, but was afraid to ask either of the guards and suspected that the only answer he would get would be on the end of a large fist.

As the time ticked away, Keveev had a moment to collect his thoughts and tried to rationalise the recent attacks and compare them to tonight's. Had they just been testing the defences? Even with hindsight he didn't think so. There were moments in many of the battles that Keveev could recall, where the attackers would almost be able to accomplish what they had now managed, but then they would perform a strange manoeuvre that would go completely against the flow of their attack, or something would go wrong in their plans; like the one time a "squad" armed with heavy weapons had had a weapon malfunction and explode. The survivors had suddenly turned against each other and the rest of the army. This time though, none of that had happened and the attack had been almost perfect in it's execution. It was as if the person directing the attacks had either been replaced or had accidentally hit upon the perfect set of instructions, or at least avoided the bad decisions.

---
The noises of the fighting had quietened and Norma decided that she could now get back to her calculations in peace, before turning in for the night. She walked down the corridor from her sleeping quarters and exchanged brief greetings with the other scientists she passed on the way to her work area.

Keveev looked up as a tall man walked into the room. The man looked as if he belonged in some kind of crazy laboratory... or an asylum. The man smiled a broad smile. Keveev did not return it.
"Well hello there Corporal Keveev. So good to finally meet you after sampling your mind. Ha HA" The man said jovially.
The implications of what the man said were missed by Keveev. He really didn't like this man.
"What do you want?" He replied flatly.
"I want to be your friend. We're all friends here..." The man paused for a moment. "...and as friends I would like a favour."
Keveev stared blankly at the man and said "If you want something sharp inserted in your neck I can help you".
"Oh... Well, if you're going to be like that..." The man rummaged in his pockets for a minute and eventually withdrew a hand, holding a syringe. He took the syringe from the grey fingers and threw the hand over his shoulder.

Before the hand had hit the ground the man lunged, fast as lightning, and plunged the needle into Keveev's jugular vein. Before Keveev had had time to react, the contents had been injected, the man took a step back and gave him a look that a child would give a sick animal in their care. Keveev felt a warmth spread throughout his body. His back began to spasm and his jaw locked painfully, he could only manage a strangled gurgle before blackness enveloped him again.

---
When Keveev awoke again, his head hurt. This time the pain was not localised to a lump on his head, but it was more like his brain had just been kicked about the room for a bit and then squeezed back in his skull. Keveev took in his surroundings, he was in a different room, but it was still one of the offices and still in the west wing. He could smell blood and hear running water from the bathroom next door. He sat up and looked down at the desk he had been laying on, it was covered in blood and it was likely that is was his. He reached up to his head and it had indeed been bandaged, and bandaged expertly, this was no field dressing, it was the work of a medical practitioner. What had that madman done to his head? He heard the toilet flush and then footsteps approaching...

Norma ran through the calculations again. She could visualise the equations and the plot-lines in her head far quicker and more accurately than any machine. The engines could make the jump, and if large enough, could transport a huge vessel over vast distances... ANY distances, in the blink of an eye. But navigating the jump would be a monumental task, and would have to be done almost as quickly, or you could end up in a different star system or even in the heart of a star. The best way to navigate safely would involve knowing, not just predicting, the future. There was only a few people known to be able to achieve this and many of them were Eldar in origin. Maybe a gifted psyker could, with focussed training, achieve this. But then that would be relying on the warp again, and the whole point of this project was to avoid that. She closed her notebook and decided to go to bed. Maybe things would look different in the morning...

---
"So you see..." the man continued "...I am a man of science, not religion. I am The Scientist and I work to protect the Universe from total annihilation... from the rampant spread of order."
Keveev nodded. It made perfect sense to him now. "What do you need me for?" he asked.
"I need you to help me on my quest. Open the path I must walk..." The Scientist said "...Or to put it another way, I want you to open a door." He smiled.
Keveev smiled back. "Which door? and why me exactly?" he asked.
"I need you to open a door that you don't even know exists, to an area of this base that you don't know exists, so I can meet a woman that you... don't... know... exists." The Scientist replied.
"How do I open this door then, if I don't know anything about it?" Asked Keveev.
"That is the beauty of my plan. Because you know the areas of this base that you do know, like the back of your hand, you know where to look to find something you've never noticed before." Replied The Scientist with a smile.

Keveev walked along the corridor. A corridor like many others in the base, but one that had subtle differences that only the observant would notice, that only Keveev would notice; The angle of the floor, a slight change in the direction (and even the width) of the corridor, and the distances between the doors. This last difference was the key. You wouldn't notice by looking along the corridor, the space between the office doors became larger and then smaller. The largest space being about half way along the corridor. There was a portrait of The Emperor of mankind in the centre of this space, Keveev stopped in front of it. "Here" he said.

---
Norma performed her usual night-time routine; brushing her hair out from the tight bun she wore while working, laying out her personal items in a neat line on the sideboard and praying to The Emperor. This time, without thinking, she also retrieved a bag from under her cot and left it next to the sideboard, she would need it but did not yet know why.

The Scientist stood at Keveev's shoulder. "what can you see in the picture?" he said.
"It's one of the most common depictions of The Emperor. But, that path there in the background. It usually disappears over the horizon... there's usually some trees, but not that building. I've never seen a building like it... and the door... it looks like a key..." He reached out and pressed his thumb against the door. It lit up and there was a click and hiss of escaping air. The painting and the section of wall it was attached to slid to one side to reveal a narrow passageway that passed between the walls of the neighbouring offices which would easily be mistaken for one wall, the hidden corridor ended at a metal door.
"Well done" Said The Scientist "I can take it from here. Take this and I shall see you later. Ha Ha." He handed a small metal sphere to Keveev and as soon as he took hold of the device he disappeared with a "fop" from the corridor, leaving The Scientist alone.

---
The Scientist walked up to the metal door and studied it for a short while. An Ork approached him and saluted awkwardly "De... er... The H-ole base has been searched Boss. All rel-err-vant materials have been transported to the mothership."
The Scientist nodded absent-mindedly and pulled out a scale model of a tank from a pocket. It is the size of his palm and is bronze in colour. The Scientist pressed a few buttons on top of the tank and examined a lens built into the underside of the tank, polishing it on his shirt.

The Scientist bent down and placed the tank against the door near the floor by the lower hinge. It stuck in place with magnetic tracks and immediately started to move across the surface leaving in it's wake molten metal and a cut through to the other side of the door. The tank traces a path up one side of the door, across the top and down the other side. It reached the floor and emitted a beep, The Scientist bent over and picked it up. Placing it in his pocket, he turns to the Ork, who is still saluting. "Yes, yes. Thank you number.. er.. 12, your pronunciation is coming on well, keep it up. Could you give this door a knock for me, there's a good fellow.".

Norma was awoken by an unfamiliar alarm. She sat up, looked about her room and located her tablet. Flicking it on she sees that the alarm is to signify that the door that leads to the above complex, has been breached. There are shouts from outside her door and the sound of running footsteps. She quickly dressed and hurried to the door. Opening it she stops the first person she sees and asks them what is happening.
"The door's been breached... there's a lunatic running about with an Ork... They're killing people." The breathless man said. "The guards we have down here are.. all dead... Hide yourself... or something..." He ran off without looking back. Norma shut her door and locked it for the first time since arriving on this planet...

---
Norma scoops her things into the waiting bag, ties her hair back in a quick ponytail, puts on her shoes and then freezes. The sounds outside her room are now quiet and far away. Suddenly there is a nearby scream which is cut off by the report of a firearm. The sound is thunderous in the confined area and Norma claps her hands to her ears in response. She removes them just in time to hear a man's chiding speech "Now, now. That wasn't very nice. She was only surprised to see you. No need to do that." The reply is quite clearly an Ork; "Sorry Boss". Norma picks up her hairbrush as if to defend herself with it. Her eyes are fixed on the locked door to her room.

There is a knock at the door. Norma does not move and is now barely breathing. The man's voice comes through the door to her "Norma. I know you're in there. Your name is on the door. Ha Ha."
Still petrified with fear, Norma starts to back away from the door.
"I only want to talk to you, Norma. Well, to be honest, I want to probe your mind and learn all that you know. Ha Ha. But I won't harm you, you will help me a great deal, and I will help you."
In fear and with the untapped strength of the added adrenalin, Norma throws her hairbrush at the door and screams "GO AWAY!". The handle of the hairbrush penetrates the thin door and stops when it reaches the bristles. Suddenly there is a roar from the Ork and it punches it's way through the wall of her bedroom. She clutches her bag of personal belonging to her chest as it shouts at her "You could have had somebody's eye out wiv dat!". The Scientist walks into the room behind the Ork and says "It's ok, no harm done. Be nice, Norma here is a friend. She's going to help us ..." He looked at her, "I see you are ready to leave, Norma". She hugged her bag more strongly and smiled weakly at the man.

---
Wide-eyed, Norma sat opposite The Scientist. Still clutching her bag, she sat quietly listening to his explanation of how his knowledge absorption technology worked, and she was fascinated. This man had a greater intellect then anyone else she had met, he was also clearly insane. But she couldn't help but listen to him, they were both scientists after all and she could learn a great deal from him, if she could stay alive to benefit from it...

They were sat in a comfortable, yet functional, room on his spacecraft. In her room, he had handed her an object; it was spherical and made of metal. As she weighed it in her hand and observed the fine detail on it's surface, there was a faint "fop", everything had gone black for a short while and she had found herself laying down in a room aboard his ship. She predicted that this technology worked on similar principals to that used by the Necrons; how he had acquired this technology, she could only guess. But she didn't need to guess that where she woke up, was not where she had arrived after the teleportation: She knew there was some missing time, and she could see that his knowledge absorption technology would allow for memory modification. He likely already knew all that she knew, so the only question was; why was she still alive?

---
"You're thinking about my little teleportation gizmos, aren't you?" The Scientist said.
Norma looked into his eyes and said "Based on the Necron phase-shift technology." It was a statement, not a question.
"Why yes, well observed." He replied. "Particularly tricky to get hold of the information required, but has proven useful... for short ranges..."
"And you want to have it working for longer ranges?" Asked Norma, although she suspected that this was not what he really wanted, but did not want to admit it to him... or herself.

At this point an Ork (huge, scarred and looking ready to charge into battle at any moment) entered the room carrying a tray on one hand. On the tray was a large glass of brown liquid with foam on top, which the Ork placed in front of The Scientist, and a small glass with a wide top and long stem. The Ork placed this second glass in front of Norma and said "Somefink for the little lady." The liquid in the glass was in two layers, the top being yellow and the lower being red, they were slowly mixing where they met. The Scientist looked up at the Ork and said "Very nice, 12. You're cocktail making is coming on in leaps and bounds". Norma just looked in puzzlement at the small paper umbrella in the top of the glass.

The Scientist looked at Norma as the Ork left, "No no, I want something better. I want what you have been working on these past 5 years." Said The Scientist.
Norma took a breath and swallowed her fear "But what do you want me for, you already know everything I know, do you not?"
"Oo, you are sharp. I could do with you in the morning to shave with. Ha Ha." Replied The Scientist, genuinely surprised. "But actually, I need you to unlock your full potential."
Norma wondered what he could be getting at, but didn't need to wait long to find out.

---
She walked beside The Scientist, through a laboratory of strange experiments, Norma had been told to follow him and he had led her on an almost impossibly complex route of his ship. She could keep track of the turns and distances easily, but was puzzled by the construction of the ship itself; it was needlessly complex. Where a simple grid layout of the rooms and corridors would do, this ship had countless twists, turns and dead-ends... and yet, still seemed to make full use of the available space.

Norma stopped next to a sealed transparent box. Inside was a small, pink, slug-like creature that briefly looked up at her and then was replaced in the blink of an eye by a teddy bear. The bear was then replaced by a bucket and spade and then a pot of red flowers. After a pause, the flowers were replaced by a small, yellow, dump truck and then in quick succession; a doll wearing a long hoop dress, a white rotary-dial telephone, a toy elephant, a hat, a baseball mitt with ball, a toy boxer, a toy drum, and a yellow lamp that lit up. Norma looked closer, fascinated, it appeared that the objects were, in fact, shape-shifting.

The lamp became a red toy car, a roller-skate, a traffic cone, a lampshade, a toy penguin, a piggy bank, a Ken doll, a blue potty, an alarm clock, a tennis ball, a tennis shoe, a large pot, a yellow ball, a floor-scrubbing brush, a bucket, a tiny blue toy whale, a statue of a tribal man, an incandescent light bulb, a red horn, a small yellow ball, a red sock, and then a fluffy white rabbit. The rabbit glanced at her and then hopped to the far side of the box. The Scientist walked up to Norma. "A little experiment in polymorphism. Not quite perfected yet." He turned away and Norma followed him, leaving behind a basketball in the box.

In the next laboratory there was a large metal sphere on a pole. As Norma watched, bolts of electricity leapt from it's surface, accompanied by a loud crack, to a variety of tall metal spikes surrounding it. Norma asked The Scientist what it was for and he replied "Well, it's just one of them, isn't it... Got to have one of them in your lab, haven't you... You can't do science without one." They walked on.

---
As they walked to the next lab they passed a small room, stacked to the ceiling with boxes. Some of the boxes were open, and contained pieces of paper that were covered with writing. In the middle of the room, surrounded on all sides by boxes, was a man that was wearing the standard clothing supplied on Cisoco, his head was bandaged. The man was picking up piece after piece of paper and reading it carefully before replacing it in the box it came from. The Scientist paused at the door and turned to Norma "This is an experiment in learning enhancement. This man already had a good mind for observation and memory and I'm working on enhancing it through drugs and training." Turning to the man he said "How are you getting on my dear fellow?"
The man looked up, "I've memorised 4296 packets of data and can draw 2 prime computations so far. It is by will alone I set my mind in motion..." The man continued to read. The Scientist walked on and Norma followed.

In the next laboratory, filled with small experiments, Norma noticed a small cube that didn't look like a cube should. It was difficult to focus on it's shape and appeared to be more than just a cube. Before The Scientist opened his mouth to explain, she said "It's a 4D cube isn't it?"
"Yes, represented in 3 dimensions. Of course all objects are 12 dimensional, that we can only see 3 of them does not stop them existing. I just thought I'd see what advantage could be gained from creating objects of higher dimensional proportions in 3 dimensions. You should see the 9D cube... that makes your eyes want to crawl under a rock. Ha Ha."

Turning left they walked down a corridor that passed the windows to several rooms. Between the various beasts and monsters that appeared to be from a mad-man's dreams, there was one room with a small child that was staring at some floating letter-cubes which were stacking and re-stacking themselves.
"Promising children..." Said The Scientist "Brilliant telekinetic powers. Ah, here we are..."

---
The Scientist led Norma into an observation gallery. Below them was a plain room with two doors opposite each other. As she watched, the doors opened and two identical human males (or a close approximation) walked in from the opposite sides. They were large enough in build to be Astartes marines.

The Scientist turned to her "Which of these two identical clones do you think will win in a fair fight?"
"Um, I don't know much about fighting. It would have to be purely a guess without further information." She replied.
"Yes, but you have access to all the information you require, if only you knew how to access it." He looked at her expectantly.
"I don't know what you mean." She said sternly.
Without warning and as quick as a flash, The Scientist grabbed her and held a long thin blade to her neck. "This knife, that I am holding to your throat, is covered with a poison that will attack your nervous system causing intense, agonising, pain that will likely last for 30 or more hours before death. All that is needed is the slightest of cuts and only a few nanograms of poison to enter your blood stream. Tell me who will win the fight and you will come to no harm... Three..."
Held in the grip of fear once again, Norma could do nothing but utter a single word; "left"
The Scientist withdrew the knife and then knocked on the glass in front of them with the pommel. The men instantly leapt at each other and fought with their bare hands until one lay dead, his head twisted backwards. Norma had been forced to watch the whole, horrifying spectacle. The Scientist turned to her "So, Norma. Which one won?"

---
Still in shock, Norma noticed that it was the man that had entered from the left. But that had only been a guess, hadn't it? She didn't like to guess, but had had to say something out of fear. "Th-The left one." She managed.
"Indeed it was... And that was no guess you made. You knew that would happen, I just had to give you a little... push, Ha Ha." Said The Scientist.
"W-what?" Said Norma weakly, still staring at the men.
"You refuse to give answers that are only guesswork, it's in your very nature. The only way you could give an answer to any question is... if you could calculate, as it were, the answer." The Scientist looked at the knife in his hand, turned to the window, opened it and gently threw it down to the victor below. The man caught the knife by the blade and immediately keeled over backwards and started writhing in pain. The Scientist led Norma away from the window and continued to explain.
"The key, my dear Norma, to your method of travel, is in you... Prescience... Yes, you can see the future, and I have something that means I don't have to hold a knife to your throat every time. Come..."

---
Norma allowed herself to be led into a dimly lit room that appeared to have wooden panels on the walls and a bar for serving drinks in one corner, a large Ork weapon was resting on the bar surrounded by many multi-coloured drinks. The rest of the room was filled with tables and comfy chairs. She was glad of the chance to sit down and The Scientist sat opposite her.

"Here..." He said pulling a small tin from one of his pockets "...is a compound I found on a distant planet. Long lost to history, it was a barren place that had become a fertile land for a while before returning to barren sand, being almost entirely cleansed by fire... of a sort." He put the tin down on the table, unopened. She could detect a faint cinnamon odour.

"On this planet, huge creatures existed that led a linked existence with this compound. I found the last surviving few of these creatures and... a small amount of this... shall we say, spice." He opened the tin. It was full of a reddish-brown powder. The faint smell, now hit her nostrils like a hammer. Norma recoiled slightly.

"It is entirely safe, generally. I have managed to synthesise it in large quantities, no small feat in itself. It will extend the life of those that use it, with the side-effect that you will be addicted to it for all that life, and acquire a slight discolouration to the eyes." He waved his hand dismissively.

"I don't use it myself, no need to, but I have had some success with certain... candidates. They refer to themselves as... what was it... ah, Free Men. This is because of the best thing about this compound, it will expand your mind and allow you to tap in to your prescience. With a high enough exposure you will be able to navigate the folding of space, as you call it." He pushed the tin slightly towards her. Norma licked her lips, her eyes were locked on the tin. Her head was spinning, the room seemed lighter than it had been when they had entered and The Scientist's voice, clearer somehow. At the back of her mind she had a thought, a feeling, a vision, of floating in a tank of orange gas while the universe folded around her.

"With your designs, your gift, your mind, and... what... I've got... Heh... We can make this happen..." Exclaimed The Scientist excitedly. "Your engines allow for travel outside of our membrane, bend it over and take a short-cut through the bulk to pop to wherever we like. All without having to bother with the warp and their 'brane. This can actually happen and you know that the Imperium wouldn't have let you even try anyway, they are too scared of new things. Try some, and start your journey... our journey, Norma Cenva."

Norma reached forward to the tin...

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/07/29 22:45:40


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The army- ~2295 points (built).

* -=]_,=-eague Spruemeister General. * A (sprue) Hut tutorial *
Dsteingass - Dr. H..You are a role model for Internet Morality! // inmygravenimage - Dr H is a model to us all
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Made in gb
Mastering Non-Metallic Metal







Having just bought some Dark Eldar, I've expanded their fluff.

*Scientific Notes on the Dark Eldar added to the OP.

Also for the Dark Eldar:
The kabal's raiding party streamed out of the webway portal a short distance from the target city. Theirs' was a small kabal, and they had been pushed from the sector that they had raided for many years. It had been a while since they had had a good supply of souls and slaves and they were taking more and more risks to get them. Then they had discovered this planetary system; 3 habited planets and their associated moons, all full of people, little in the way of defensive measures, and far from aid in a relatively quiet sector of the galaxy. This could be the break they needed.

K'orashk watched as the first of the sleek crafts, bedecked with blades and spikes, reached the city and destroyed the meagre defences before they could retaliate. The city was now theirs to plunder. They would round up the population, harvest some souls immediately with the help of a Haemonculus, and then take the rest as slaves, minus those that had been promised to the Haemonculus in payment for joining them.

Everything worked out perfectly, the people behaved like the cattle they were and the soul harvesting was begun with the Haemonculus plying his trade with the utmost professionalism. K'orashk was already beginning to feel better than he had for months and it was clear that the rest of the raiding party were also feeling the benefit of the fresh souls. There was an atmosphere developing that K'orashk couldn't put his finger on, but didn't feel right. Maybe it was just that they had been starved of souls for so long, but K'orashk was experiencing sensations that were almost approaching that which he remembered from the better days in his past.

K'orashk felt himself smiling, and could see many of the others were also. He noticed that some of the raiders had laid down and were sleeping. This was not right, he knew it, but K'orashk felt like sleeping was a good idea, it was the right thing to do, and he slumped to the ground. He saw the Haemonculus stumbling about, before his vision became too blurred to focus on his surroundings. K'orashk laid his head down on his arm and closed his eyes, a smile still on his face.

K'orashk awoke in a strange metal room. He could see nothing but 3 plain metal walls and found that he was strapped to an upright surface, also metal, and just slightly wider than his shoulders. The room smelt unfamiliar and sterile and he could hear no noises. After a short while, K'orashk discerned the sound of footsteps approaching and then heard a door open into the room. "Drugs" a voice said behind him. "Carefully selected, dosed, targeted and delivered." the voice continued. A man walked around to stand in front of K'orashk and smiled "That should answer the important question you have. The people of that planet had been infused with a cocktail of drugs that would neither affect them nor be metabolised by them. I just had to wait for someone like you to come along". K'orashk went to shout abuse and demand to be released, but found that he could not talk, could not make a noise. The man looked at him "Ah yes, a side effect of the drugs. That will wear off in a day or so." The man studied K'orashk and mumbled to himself for a while. K'orashk struggled against his restraints, "I see you are eager to get going. Let's see if your motor skills have remained unaffected" the man said and reached behind the metal plate that K'orashk was strapped to.

As soon as the straps released him, K'orashk sprung into a fighting stance and attacked the man. He aimed to plunge his fingers into the man's throat... and missed, the man was standing behind him and yet did not appear to have moved. K'orashk spun and struck out with his foot... again, he missed. The man did move out of the way, but it was such a subtle move K'orashk only just missed. He attacked again and again, using all his skills, moving as fast as his trained body could go. Every time, the man seemed to be one step ahead. He could not move as fast as K'orashk, but his timing was perfect and his movements always put him out of harms way. K'orashk continued to twirl and twist, attempting to land a blow with any part of his body. It would have only taken a handful of attacks to end a fight with one of his peers, and yet this simple human had remained untouched for hundreds.

"I see everything appears to be in working order..." The man said while ducking a backhand chop "...you can stop now and sit down." He said. K'orashk stopped immediately and slumped to the floor, in spite of himself. "First stage programming. You'll do anything I say." The man smiled again. "More to do before you can be used though, and don't worry about not connecting, I know everything that you do and more besides, I can read you like a book." The man explained as if he were talking to a child. "But anyway..." He said waving an arm "...I've been having a chat with your Haemonculus... Interesting chap. Knows almost everything there is to know about torture. I'm now educating him in something he didn't know about; Poetry. I left him listening to a selection of poems by Grunthos the Flatulent. I'm sure it will be very... educational, for him. Had to put him in a form of stasis so that he would survive. Ha Ha. Must be off, you had a great deal of equipment I want to study."
The Scientist left K'orashk in silence, sitting on the floor of a metal room.


Mastodon: @DrH@warhammer.social
The army- ~2295 points (built).

* -=]_,=-eague Spruemeister General. * A (sprue) Hut tutorial *
Dsteingass - Dr. H..You are a role model for Internet Morality! // inmygravenimage - Dr H is a model to us all
Theophony - Sprue for the spruemeister, plastic for his plastic throne! // Shasolenzabi - Toilets, more complex than folks take time to think about!  
   
Made in gb
Mastering Non-Metallic Metal







Having now picked up the Necron battleforce, I've written some fluff to match.

Trazyn walked into the chamber, followed by the poor soul that he was controlling with mind-shackle scarabs, and then Trazyn's personal lychguard who fanned out and secured the dark, cold, room. Getting this far had been easy. The directions he had received anonymously, had been accurate and the planetary defences were so disorganised and had so many holes, it had been a mere formality to swipe them to one side and take control of the planet. With such a rare artefact as was stored here, the defences were unforgivable. The flower could have been lost to an attack from the most shambolic bunch of orks you could imagine. Trazyn was really doing the universe a favour in liberating this rare treasure from these pitiful people.

Now was the hard part though. The box that contained the flower was almost as legendary as the flower itself, but for a different reason. The box that housed, and has to house The Flower of Meikokaji (also known as the Flower of Carnage), is exceptionally dangerous if handled incorrectly. Stories of what happens to those foolish enough to attempt to open the box without proper consideration to the rituals required, were few, varied, and very graphic.

Trazyn and his lychguard searched the room methodically, passing over various trinkets and heirlooms, all sealed in their own glass cases, all worthless compared to Trazyn's own collection. Then he saw it, surrounded by a red rope barrier, in it's own glass case (that he noticed had been reinforced by metal strips at the corners), was The Box of Frogs. Made from a dark wood and large enough for an average human to squeeze into, the box was covered with carvings of small amphibians of all shapes and sizes. The carvings were in exquisite detail and if stared at for long enough, the eye would be fooled and the creatures would appear to move, or was it that they would move and you would be tricked into thinking that they didn't.

At his order, Trazyn's guard removed the rope barrier and carefully cut away the glass. The smell of wood filled the chamber as the seal was broken, together with another smell that he couldn't place, it was only subtle but would have left many people with a sense of warning. His curiosity got the better of him and Trazyn commanded the man, who until this morning had guarded this room, to open the box. The man stepped forward and, at first, attempted to lift the lid. Nothing happened. The man started to feel around the edge of the lid for a place to prise it open, or a lock, or some other way to open it. After a short while the frustrated scrabbling became a gentle stroking. The man kneeled down and leant against the box, caressing the carvings with his hands.

Trazyn looked on confused. This kind of reaction had not been written about when describing the box. It had always been fear, anger, blood and horrible deaths, none of this... sensual stuff. The man seemed to be completely "in love" with the box and was now not responding to Trazyn's commands. The man was almost trying to caress every inch of the box with every inch of himself, and then Trazyn saw it. There was a subtle glow, that started around the carvings and then spread to cover the man's features. It would be easy to miss if they weren't in such a dark room, but the glow continued to spread. The man's shoulders were now shaking and Trazyn noticed that he was crying, tears streaming down his face. Trazyn took a step backwards to distance himself from the glow.

Then there was a change, the room appeared to get darker, the glow became brighter and there was a low, thrumming noise that appeared to be emanating from the box. The man's wails of anguish turned to laughter. He continued to caress the box and appeared to have finally taken notice that he was not alone in the room. He started to act possessive of the box and shot Trazyn looks of evil and mistrust. Then Trazyn noticed the small wooden frog standing on the man's shoulder. It just sat there and, while still obviously made of wood, it appeared to be alive. Another amphibian appeared, hopping onto the man's head and looked at Trazyn. As he watched, more and more of the carved creatures came to life and settled on the man. As one, they then began to bite the man, tearing chunks of flesh away, blood splattered the ground surrounding the box. Within a few minutes the man had been totally consumed by the creatures, bones, scarabs and all. The creatures then returned to the surface of the box and became carvings once more.

The Flower, that was contained within this box, could do far more deadly things. To look at it, the Flower of Meikokaji was a highly detailed representation of a fairly mundane flower, made of a transparent glass, with just a tiny hint of green to it. It's apparent frailty is in sharp contrast to the effect it has on people. If left outside the box, on any planet, the population would slowly turn to violence and would eventually tear their own planet to the ground, attacking anything from rocks and trees to any strangers or machinery and buildings. Only after many years, would the people under it's influence attack each other, leaving the planet a desolate wasteland. It is said that only a fragment of the glass is required for this effect. Left in it's box, as it had here, there is no effect, even if you manage to open the lid safely. The ritual to open the box would take many hours to complete, and Trazyn intended to follow it to the letter to get his first glimpse of The Flower, and then he would remove both the box and it's contents to his collection on Solemnace.

After just over 7 hours, the ritual was nearly complete and all that was left to do was a drop of blood into the mouth of the central amphibian of the lid. Trazyn bent down and rubbed his hand on the blood-soaked floor. Standing up he held his hand over the creature and a drop of blood fell from his finger into the wide open mouth. There was a pause where nothing happened as the drop of blood ran down the length of the creature's tongue into the depths of it's throat. Trazyn took a step back and waited. Just as he was going to consult his notes again, the creature blinked and it's mouth closed. After another pause there was a click and the lid popped open a fraction. One of Trazyn's lychguard reached down and opened the box. After it was apparent that nothing was going to happen, Trazyn leant over and looked into the box.

It was empty. Empty except for the stand designed to hold the flower and a small data crystal with a piece of paper stuck to it. On the paper was written his name, "Trazyn!", with an extremely large exclamation mark. Who would be stupid enough, while knowing enough to open the box, to remove the Flower and leave the box, and why did they know that he would be the one to open the box in order the find what must be a message. Trazyn took the data crystal and ordered the box taken to his ship ready for departure, and to keep the box open for when they find the Flower.

Trazyn had to wait until he returned to the planet Solemnace to access the data, as the crystal was in an ancient format and the only reader he had that could work was in his archives. It took a while to set up the old equipment and get it to work with the newer display equipment he had available and link it to his database to download the data and convert it to a new format. After two hours it was ready and he inserted the data crystal. He then had to wait for the data to be extracted and downloaded, the older equipment working sluggishly compared to what he was used to. Eventually, a video message began to play:
A man appeared on screen, he was standing in the chamber with the box behind him. He looked at the camera and said "Greetings Trazyn. I am The Scientist. If you are watching this, you will have received the tip-off I sent about The Flower, I hope that your arrival on this planet was smooth after I've handicapped their defences... and you will have found something with which to play this message on. Ha Ha. I have something for you..."

The Scientist steps off screen for a moment and returns with The Flower held lightly in his fingertips. "This Flower, to be exact. It's very nice and I'm sure you still want to get hold of it." While gesticulating with the delicate and deadly artefact, he continued "I want to trade this for a few little things that I'm sure you won't miss. The first of these, a copy of your entire database, will be on it's way to me by now. You see, making you use that particular data equipment, means that your usual defence against AI intruders has been completely bypassed." He smiled. Trazyn reached for the connecting cables "It's too late to pull the plug..." The Scientist interrupted "...The program is already on your system. But worry not, you won't loose anything you have there, it's just copying and transmitting it to me. Now, the other thing I want... is a selection of your more standard Necron equipment, nothing fancy, just some troops and other fighting constructs. Not a lot, one or two of each will do. I'll give you an hour or so, to get them ready and then I'll pop in, drop off this lovely flower and take my things in return. See you soon. Ha Ha." The message ends. Trazyn does not move and continues to stare at the screen in a mix of astonishment and anger.

73 minutes later there is a knock at Trazyn's door. He looks up, confused. He had not summoned anyone and nobody in his command knocks on any door, they are programmed to open upon the approach of a Necron. There is another knock, as if to dispel the thought that he might have imagined it. He opens it remotely and is greeted by the sight of the man from the video. Trazyn stands up, grabbing his Empathic Obliterator. "How did you get in here, where are my guards, you better..." He stopped when he saw what the man was holding; a bunch of flowers, all identical to The Flower of Meikokaji. The light in the room glittered off the collection of glass, in a beautiful and yet somehow menacing way.

"So nice to meet you, Trazyn, in the... well... metal, as if were. Ha Ha. Your guards have just popped off for a bit. I have The Flower here, and I transported the agreed upon material up to my craft. But, first..." He walked closer to Trazyn. "...I wonder if you would be so kind as to give me a guided tour of your collection. I promise not to touch anything. Ha Ha." He smiled.
"And what is to stop me from killing you where you stand?" Said Trazyn.
"Ah, well, a couple of things. One, you don't know which of these is the real flower. There are two ways to tell which is the correct flower. You could leave each one on a separate planet and wait until the effect becomes obvious, which I calculate to be approximately 14 terran months. The other method, I won't tell you just yet." He winked. "And the other reason you won't kill me is the explosive device I hold in the same hand. This will explode if I release my grip. This will contaminate you and your planet here with the glass dust of The Flower... and you don't want that." Trazyn relented, he would play this man's game for now.

After walking amongst his collection, stopping occasionally to discuss various pieces, Trazyn had been struck by this man's intellect and knowledge. The Scientist had even given Trazyn information about many incomplete pieces in the collection, without asking for anything in return. It was proving to be more than worth the time it was taking. Finally they came to gaze upon The Box of Frogs. "A fascinating construction, is it not?" Said The Scientist. "The wood that was used for this box can be used to make all manner of items that can perform duties... and any entities made from the wood can be trained as you would any animal. These amphibians are magically linked to the actual box, otherwise I would have kept one as a pet. Would be a fantastic talking point: 'Have you seen my wooden, killer frog?', hilarious. Ha Ha." Trazyn looked at the man quizzically.

The Scientist turned to Trazyn "Right, well the other way to tell these flowers apart, as I'm sure you're dying to know... is that I've designed these other flowers so that only the real flower will stay on the stand in the box, all the others will fall off. Try it..." The Scientist pulls a flower from the bunch and hands it to Trazyn. Trazyn looks as The Scientist for a moment and then bends over and places the flower onto the stand. It falls off almost instantly and he tries again, but however he positions it, it will not stay on the stand.
"See..." Said The Scientist "...won't stay, and the same is true for all of these, but one... This one." He hands an identical flower to Trazyn and then bends over and retrieves the fallen one from the box. "Try it" insisted The Scientist.

Trazyn bends over once more and places the flower on the stand, it stays there and Trazyn notices a small glint of light from The Flower as he stands up again.
"And with business concluded, I thank you for an enjoyable tour and I'll let myself out." Said The Scientist and turned to walk out the room.

"I don't think so" Said Trazyn and pulls a tesseract labyrinth from the folds of his cloak. He activates it just as The Scientist turns, trapping him inside. "See if you can trick your way out of that with your exploding bouquet, Ha." Trazyn returns to his room, placing the small cube on his desk, he sits down and starts to study the wealth of information that this man had given him. He turns to a communication hub and gives orders for a search to find the craft that The Scientist had arrived on, as he turns back to his research he is suddenly aware of a presence in front of his desk. Trazyn looks up and into the face of The Scientist.

"That wasn't very nice." Said The Scientist "I was nothing but fair to you, I'm almost hurt. But it was an interesting puzzle nonetheless. So I will let you off... for now." He turns and leaves the room. Trazyn looks on in shock. No being had ever managed to escape a tesseract labyrinth, never mind in such a short time. To navigate a labyrinth that uses dimensions that you cannot see, to escape the pitfalls and to dismiss it as a simple "puzzle", required more than just a superior intellect, and the man had escaped still carrying the bunch of glass flowers he had been trapped with... He could not be a mere human. As The Scientist leaves the room, and the door closes behind him, Trazyn looks down and notices that the tesseract labyrinth has gone. He stands up to run to the door when there is a loud explosion in the corridor outside, muffled by the thick door, it still shakes many items in the room. The door opens as Trazyn approaches to reveal the damaged corridor peppered with shards of glass, but no blood. Cameras in the corridor recorded the man disappearing a fraction of a second before the explosion. Trazyn started to think that he was the one that had just had a lucky escape. A being that could escape a tesseract labyrinth and then vanish from a corridor that is shielded against teleportation, could probably cause untold destruction. Trazyn never noticed that The Flower of Meikokaji was missing about an inch from it's stem.

Mastodon: @DrH@warhammer.social
The army- ~2295 points (built).

* -=]_,=-eague Spruemeister General. * A (sprue) Hut tutorial *
Dsteingass - Dr. H..You are a role model for Internet Morality! // inmygravenimage - Dr H is a model to us all
Theophony - Sprue for the spruemeister, plastic for his plastic throne! // Shasolenzabi - Toilets, more complex than folks take time to think about!  
   
Made in gb
Mastering Non-Metallic Metal







This is a little piece of fluff I wrote to go with a Mechanic I built, mostly from leftover pieces, and will aim to use as a Techmarine.

He liked to think about the time he had spent in the vats, each one bigger than the last as he out-grew them. He missed the warmth most of all, especially now as he walked across the cold landscape towards the bunker. That's not to say he doesn't enjoy his life now, he is grateful towards his master for not only giving him this life, but for allowing him to pursue his dream. Once he had left the vats, he had shown a preference for mechanics and the way machines worked. Within a year of leaving the vats, he had made a mechanism that could walk by itself. It then took him another 3 days to make a machine that would obey instructions and not wander off of it's own accord.

As he approached the doorway of the bunker he had been instructed to open, he remembered the time he discovered that there was more "everything" outside the room he had been in for his early years: He had disassembled the door mechanism for parts and removed the door to use the metal and had then seen the corridor stretching away from him. It wasn't that the door had been locked, materials came in and his creations left. He had never questioned what was out there, all he needed was in the room or was brought to him. But now curiosity got the better of him, so he had created a machine with wheels and used it to explore this "new" world. That was when he had first met his master, his creator... The Scientist. He had been shown what he could achieve and what he had been "born" to do. He had worked happily for a long time after that meeting, building and repairing the various machines that were brought to him as plans or wrecks. Then one day, he had asked for one of his workshop assistants to pass him a new circular saw blade... The ork had thrown the blade "to" him and it had cut him in half at the waist. Unperturbed, and once stabilised, he had built his new legs... and they had been a significant improvement on his original legs.

Over time, he had added more and more to his mobile platform; useful tools etc... and now, here he was, striding over the battlefield, to open a door. The bunker held important equipment, so he was told, and that a gentler approach was required to open the door as the interior was not to be damaged in the process. He reached the door and studied the various locks. Two of the locks were simple, mechanical locks and these were easily opened with his electronic screwdriver device. Another, electrical, keypad lock was opened using his living-metal tentacle with the probe attachment. The magnetic lock required some drilling and finally being cut away with his welder. The door still did not move and he determined that there were two bolts on the inside of the door, these were cut through with his circular saw attachment. Finally, a gentle pull with his claw and the door opened.

As soon as the door was open, a small group of men attacked him, wielding crude weapons. The first man received a punch from the piston powered claw, this sent the man flying backwards with a caved-in chest. The second man was silenced with a rivet to the forehead, the hiss of it's mechanism always brought a smile to the Mechanic's face. The third swung his club, but this was caught by a tentacle and the man's arm was snipped off neatly, at the elbow, by another tentacle before the man was swept aside. The last man had stopped and was staring, wide-eyed, at the bloody slaughter in front of him, he had a damp patch in the front of his trousers. He was dismembered in the process of questioning and careful probing, but for the Mechanic, biology never held the same level of interest as machines did. The mechanic then reported that the bunker was open. He was eager to see what new toys he would have to play with inside.

Mastodon: @DrH@warhammer.social
The army- ~2295 points (built).

* -=]_,=-eague Spruemeister General. * A (sprue) Hut tutorial *
Dsteingass - Dr. H..You are a role model for Internet Morality! // inmygravenimage - Dr H is a model to us all
Theophony - Sprue for the spruemeister, plastic for his plastic throne! // Shasolenzabi - Toilets, more complex than folks take time to think about!  
   
 
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