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7 yrs ago
Current Sorry for my lack of posts lately. I've just... been struggling to get the energy to write something up. I'm trying some new meds through so hopefully that will change soon.
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Pentious?


"This... is a dream, isn't it?" Rik softly asked his companion.

According to his senses, he was seated at a table in a technologically blessed kitchen/dinning room that possessed a window that looked over of a captivately beautiful city; Technological in all aspects, but also aesthetically pleasing and functional in a manner that required a degree of engineering and planning that few mortal minds were able to comprehend the logistics of. Rik could, and that knowledge made what he was witnessing all the more beautiful to his gaze.

"It is." Came the reply. It was a strange voice. In a world of modified voices boxes and vox channels, it still maintained that edge of artificial nature, but it also possessed an underlining humanity and emotion that even if the most advanced technology struggled with. He couldn't quite tell if it was a singular, non-gendered voice or if it was numerous voices speaking in unison... but it spoke again as it answered in a playful tone "But just because this is a dream, doesn't mean we can't enjoy the beauty of it."

Turning to look at his companion, Rik would never have been able to describe what he saw to anyone else. Not in a manner that they would truly be able to understand or mentally comprehend. He could try... and he would be able to pen countless books on the subject in a variety of styles and poises that would be considered masterworks of art and likely inspire countless artists both living and currently unborn for who knows how many generations...

But it would never do the original source the justice that it deserved. And it felt wrong to try and force it into shape with crude words.

"Who are you?"

"This is your dream. Who or what do you think I am?" was the rebuttal.

Rik was quiet for a moment, thinking about his answer before offering "I believe... that you are what I would picture the Omnissiah would look like if it was physically an entity."

There was a mirthful chuckle and a small clap as the figure answered "That is most likely the case. However, you are not having this conversation with yourself because you want someone able to discuss things on your actual intellectual level."

Rik opted not to acknowledge the statement, instead asking "And what reason is so grand that my sub-conscious mind feels the need to reach out and speak with me so bluntly like this?"

"You know what I'm trying to draw your attention to... at least on some level. You've seen the data and a part of you recognizes what it means, but your conscious mind hasn't quite processed it yet." There was a movement from the imagined Omnissiah, and suddenly several screens seemed to manifest in mid air, each one possessing data related to seemingly unconnected fields.

Overlooking the stream of data, Rik recognized them all as belonging to various reports and sensory data. On the surface, all of it was isolated and disconnected from each other; Individually they had been processed and factored into commands and plans, but now that it was all laid out in front of him all at once, Rik's deeper inspection started to draw... connections.

Without thinking about it, other screens processing historical data manifested as Rik recalled the reports about sensory information prior to the arrival of Waaagh Kracker'Laker's invasion Roks. There was a correspondence between the two events, but the differences were great as well. Pulling up further memories of Mechanicum data about warp transitions and jumps, Rik felt several emotions try to be felt all at once that were held back filters and emotional vaults. Despite the self control of both himself and his enhancements, a very human shiver went down his spine.

Something big was currently traveling into the system via the warp and it was in the process of forcing open a gateway into reality. The sensor data, when viewed in the light that something was trying to transition into real space, suggested that whatever it was seemed to be doing so in a manner akin to a warp jump capable ship but the rest of what it was telling him was... utter madness.

For starters, the sheer size of the warp exit being created was utterly insane; Compared to the list of known human and orkish ships on record, this thing dwarfed them by so much would have been ridiculous to consider a ship of such size existing under any other circumstance.

Compared to the data of what a controlled warp exit should have been like from human vessels and the information of what orkish ships leaving the warp were like, this gateway to the warp was going to be a chaotic, unstable hazardous mess of a thing that was a danger to whatever was leaving the warp and everything around it. He only had a rough idea of where it was going to appear and truthfully it seemed more like random chance then anything else that it wasn't going to manifest closer to Pentious then it already was...

...........................................................................

With a start, Rik awoke.

He was thankful that GC-118 seemed to have already awoken in order to attend to her duties, meaning his sudden start hadn't disturbed her. However, while some of the details of the dream were already starting to haze in the manner that dreams fade like fog in sunlight, he remembered enough to know that he needed to double check the historical data before he needed to plan a presentation.

Something was coming and they needed to be ready for it.

Pentious


There was work that needed to be done. Even with the orkish infestation of Pentious having been declared officially over and the urge to celebrate that fact was understandably rampant, the disappointing reality was that on a world that was recently so torn by constant warfare for over a century there was simply too much important work that needed to be done for the continued sustained life of its surviving population for something as minor as a public celebration for a conflict that was older then most of the planets occupants coming to a victorious end.

Of those who had been alive before the Orks had come to Pentious, Rik only knew of one. Arch-Explorator Gifonadis Friedeg had been among the crew of the Expedition Fleet that landed on and colonized Pentious... and unlike his peers, Arch-Explorator Friedeg was seated right next to him.

Truthfully, Rik's feelings on the Arch-Explorator were somewhat mixed. There was a degree of reverence due to the fact that Arch-Explorator Friedeg was an elder who was truly deserving of the title; His age and experience seemed to give him a somewhat different aura then those promoted to leadership roles during the war with the Orks... a commanding presence that rested on him naturally in a manner that even Metasurgeon Uixien didn't quite match.

Not that he would ever suggest such a thing to his adopted mother, of course.

However, there seemed to be a deep sense of loss and loneliness from the Arch-Explorator that Rik felt he could only barely pick up on. The older man was suppressing such emotions heavily because it was something that he clearly didn't want to effect his work or be known to others, but also something that he couldn't quite bring himself to stop feeling on some level if the fact that Rik could detect it in his remaining body language was any indication.

Rik didn't wish to trespass upon such private concerns because he suspected that Arch-Explorator Friedeg was isolating and suppressing those feelings out of professionalism and clearly didn't intend for him to notice them... but Rik did make a mental note to see if he could organize to spend some time with the Arch-Explorator once the current meeting had drawn to a close. Some thoughts were allowed to consider ideas and projects for them to discuss and talk about as an excuse for such a future meeting, even as Rik focused on the data flowing for the current one.

The title of Myrmidax had been bestowed upon him a mere two days ago. Normally a title of such prestige and power would have been connected with a grandiose and elaborate ceremony, but the Myrmidon sub-cult had always been somewhat more pragmatic and practical then the other branches of the machine cult: The single handed, successful assault on Forge Delta was considered more then enough for the Myrmidons of Pentious to acknowledge Rik Uixien as the leader of their order, performing what was honestly a fairly humble ceremony to make the promotion official and ensure that the rest of Pentious knew about it.

This promotion entitled Rik to be a member of the Council of Pentious and thus a member of his homeworld's governing body. The fact that this made him the youngest person to ever ascend to the Council wasn't as impressive as it might have sounded through; The former youngest member had only been eight years older. Accelerated growth and maturity were things that were done during the war for Pentious in order to replace painful losses across the board. The methods weren't as advanced as the ones used in his body, but they still had gotten the job done.

As the newly founded Council of Pentious finished processing and discussing the logistics, progress and issues with meeting the power requirements of getting all of Pentious' forges online and operational, there was the slightest lull before the Speaker of the Chamber prompted "Myrmidax Uixien, there was a motion you wished to propose?"

Myrmidax stood, sending the data connected to his presentation to the devices of his fellow council members before he began his presentation. This was going to be a long one... but one that needed to be addressed. Both for security reasons and to help address some of the supply concerns in regards to materials that they couldn't get or produce on Pentious.

They needed to create a shipyard and once more sail the void of space.
Is he still alive?
Pentious


Efforts to purge the orkish infection of Pentious were going at a relatively smooth and timely pace. Or at least as smooth and timely as any effort to expunge the greenskins from a world in which they had managed to dig their fungi roots into could statistically go. The orks were naturally trying to fight back, but with the forges and their resources torn from their vile grip, the remaining brutes had suffered something of a degradation in regards to weapons and technology... which to orks, were largely the same thing.

This wasn't an overnight development and a fighting force less experienced with fighting orks could have easily missed the signs. First the more alien and exotic weapons that the orks could field started to disappear as they were being lost as their wielders were killed and destroyed, but not replaced. They were a rarity to begin with of course, but the lack of solders and wreckage torn apart from the inside out by an insane, teleported squig was largely considered an overall boon to morale.

Then the more advanced pieces of the orkish arsenal started to vanish from the field of battle. Battle Wagons had become a rarity after the death of Warboss Kracker'Lacker and the reclamation of the forges saw the only Orkish tribes who could build and maintain them disappear off the planet, their mechanical abominations torn apart and melted down to be purified of the xenos taint. The 'Killa Kan' also started to disappear from the field, alongside the variety of tanks that were both looted by the greenskins at some point or built by the brutes from scratch; Considering just how destroyed something needed to be before the orks couldn't rebuild it in some fashion as a war machine, even the raising paragon of Rik couldn't figure out what some of the captured ork armor had originally been.

Orkish 'Shootas' (because calling them either a gun or a firearm hurt the soul) remained a common sight on the battlefield, but due to the policy of assassinating high target orks such as the Mek Boys, an increasing number of greenskins were resorting to more primitive weapons to arm themselves. Most were melee in nature, through slings were not a strange sight... and after a number of injuries and deaths caused by the discover of just how effective and dangerous orks were when it came to lobbing rocks at something, became a factor calculated into battle plans.

The plans themselves were crafted and put into practice on the field with machine like efficiency and brutality. At this stage, emotion had to be tempered least the tunnel vision of hatred and rage allowed something to escape in the moment. But it was on the scale of the operation were the flames of righteous fury would be allowed to fuel the furnace. Every Ork. Every Gretchen. Every single misbegotten wretched creature that was apart of the orkoid fungi family tree in some fashion was hunted down, put to death and had their bodies destroyed with radiation and flame.

Once the physical creatures were gone, radiation and flame was turned on the planet of Pentious itself. Sector by sector, the planet was scourged of every last trace of the ork fungi or their wretched spores until a burned and slightly irradiated Pentious was purified of the xenos taint. It would be many years before terraforming attempts could be restarted as they had been before the orks arrived, but the delay was considered acceptable in the face of being free of future greenskin outbreaks.

When the final sector of Pentious was undergoing purification, every man, woman and child on the planet was allowed to listen in on the vox-call as completion of the operation was confirmed.

There was a silence that covered the whole planet afterwards. As if everyone believed, for just a moment, that they were sharing a collective dream. That the slightest noise or sudden movement would cause them all to wake up to the reality of yet another day fighting the long war... or worse, awaken to the nightmare that Warboss Kracker'Lacker was still alive and about to lead the final siege of Forge Alpha and that all they had seen and witnessed was just their mind torturing them with a beautiful but impossible what if.

When the dream didn't end and the reality dawned on them... the roar of jubilation echoed all the louder due to the silence that came before it.

Pentious was free of Orkish kind. Pentious was purely a human world, their world once more.

Their home was free. Their home was at peace. They were at peace.

That would change as all things did. But for this moment in their embattled lives, the people of Pentious didn't care what loomed in the future, for the present had given them a gift many never dared to consider possible for decades.

They had a future.
If it's open, I would love to join.

I will admit, of the various major gods, I feel like Ares and Hephaestus might be the two who remained the most... awake? Aware? Industry and War were always rather closely tied to humanity after all.

I'm still debating characters but... Prometheus would be interesting.



Going to be honest: Raiden killed Konrad back in 1945. It wasn't anything personal against Konrad himself so much as Raiden needed to directly intervene due to the occultist site in question being too great a danger not to. The best way I could word what was happening at that site is 'Imagine a tribal human smacking an unexploded but armed thermonuclear warhead with a piece of flint repeatedly because they found that it made great fire starting sparks'. The kind of thing that Shang Tsung and Quan Chi would trick someone else into doing because being in the same realm as it is a terrible idea.


EDIT: I'm kind of interested in learning more about the world in general before I sit down and write a history.
@Queen Arya

Should be.
Bob


Since Bob had voiced his concerns to Robin, the gentle giant focused on his cooking. Scrambled eggs didn’t take that long to cook after all… through the sheer bulk of what he was working with, it would still take a little while. Looking over his shoulder as he looked at his team leader and team mates, he tilted his head slightly as he asked “Somethin’ ma’ic afoot, Robin?”
Pandor


In a one bathroom one conjoined kitchen/general purpose room in one of the more run down parts of Jump City, Pandor reread the email one of his burner alias accounts had received while laying on a single bed with a cheap laptop. It wasn't his favorite place to hunker down for a while by any stretch of the imagination, but on occasion it was good to physically have someone staying in the place so it didn't have 'safe house' vibes about it. Miss Angela Gabby, original name Mr Andrew Grimes, was a hard core career driven woman who tended to be in and out of Jump City enough for her profession that it was generally better to have a small, shitty apartment rather then fight for a hotel room every time she was in the city for a while... through thinking about it, Pandor needed to double check what job he actually gave their alter ego.

But that had all simply been a distraction from the email he had received.

He hadn't responded yet because he was considering his options. By all rights, he digitally should appear to have opened the email somewhere in Germany... but whomever had sent the email had been talented enough (or at least had access to enough resources to find someone talented enough) to uncover one of his burners. He could simply not respond and disappear: It wouldn't be the first time, plus he had the benefit of being able to trickle feed sales of bitcoin to get the money he had originally taken from Lex Corp over a period of time to set himself up somewhere new as someone completely new.

However, as he shifted around and moved some red cloth out of his line of sight... a part of him was curious. A dangerous thing to be sure but... if things started to get hairy, slipping away and disappearing was second nature to him. Plus he was going to have to burn the laptop just for opening that email anyway.

Email From: $_$
Re: Subject: Burglar

Welcome to Corporate America, the holy ground on which tens of thousands of human life and untold suffering is offered on the alter to the divine Economy on a day to day basis. I can confess to a degree of curiosity to see what you have to offer. Not promising anything, but I'll hear you out. Where and when?
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