Wearing:
Warrior's Skin
Radiation Suit
Consort's Ring
Armed with:
Heart of Edges
Citizen Energy Sword
Assault Radiation Blaster
Nightsister Energy Bow Pistol
Current Persona: The Collaboration (See Bio)
Objective: BYOO (Secure Ancient Nuclear Facility)
Earlier, aboard The
Colossus Of Shadows
The Battalion strode through the mobile space city with all the authority her position as Consort of House Io's Matriarch enabled.
It had an at times dreary, gothic aesthetic running throughout the whole of the ship. But The Amalgam and most of the Cultists had always felt right at home, for Xiphos had, as with many of the interiors of her ship, based it on what she saw in the interiors of Brain Demon temples, though she had disguised it enough with an overt military aesthetic to disguise this.
As she strode it's vast artificial streets the organic citizens and Droids giving her a wide birth, leading to housing, military depots, businesses of many, many varieties, she saw a large holographic projector in a small city square light up with an image of her in her usual all white Catsuit, sitting in a large seat with her legs crossed and her arms relaxed comfortably on its rests.
"Greetings, my fellow Citizens. This is The Battalion speaking. In the months since establishing ourselves at You-Know-Where, we have begun to at last put out a system of governance and finally begun nailing down some of the finer points of interacting with and living together. As you all know, I am a member of The Cult of The Brain Demon. And as you are all certainly aware, The Cult of The Brain Demon is a Dark Side Cabal of
vicious murderers who take
extreme joy in what they do. But I am hear to reassure you, here and now, that House Io is
not a Dark Side Government. If it were, we'd be no better than the Maw. But it doesn't change the fact that the Cult is a cabal of vicious killers. But it's never personal. We do what we do because our religion and faith in the Unholy Spirit demands it. But that doesn't mean we can't be friends!" The Battalion in the Projection said with a smile.
"Our Cult believes Dark Side governments are...
impractical...for lack of a better term." The Battalion continued. "In truth, it doesn't honestly matter if there is a Sith Empire or not. Oh,
sure it
vastly simplifies things. For a while, anyway. But as we have all seen, they always collapse in the end. Always. And however we might feel about the failures of democracy, one can't deny they last a lot longer than empires. If they're strong, that is..."
The Battalion stopped by a small vendor controlled exclusively by the House itself, selling the latest in their self developed Weaponry.
"Laertia Io shares the vision of the Cult's Grandmaster, The Amalgam. We have opted for a middle ground!" The Battalion in the projection said excitedly. "Now, per our binding agreement, The Cult are allies and Citizens of the House. That means to strike at you is the death penalty. I am happy to say that there are many Brain Demon Cultists who are more than happy to abide by such a verdict, and are thus safe to be in an enclosed space with while within knifing range, even when there are only House younglings about. Eat with them! Drink with them! Play volleyball with them if it suits you! But we all know there are always going to be rule breakers. Mostly, you have nothing to fear from us. Mostly."
(Cutaway of the Xenomorph attacking Burke)
"And to those of you thinking about breaking the rules, The Amalgam will kill and absorb you." The Battalion in the projection warned. "To the rest of our fine citizens, when it comes to interacting with us, be polite. Be respectful. Treat them like a family member. But keep that holy water handy. Also, so there are no more of those terrible scandals such as that which rocked the Engineering section a week ago, allow me to reiterate three basic rules to ensure that extra bit of safety for House Citizens interacting with other House Citizens who heed the call of The Unholy Spirit. Rule One: Do not give any pens to a Brain Demon Cultist. Do not give any pencils to a Brain Demon Cultist. No scissors or paperclips. If one of us offers you something, refuse it (A Nice Chianti:1000 XP) in a timely and polite manner unless you have acquired magical protection against curses. For questions about the curses you should be most concerned about, please consult our text, made available on the House Io Secure Net 'The Infamous 21 Curses', written by Darth Phyre. "
"Rule Two, when interacting with Brain Demon Cultists outside of a combat scenario, make certain not to accept any invitation to meet alone, and always tell at least twelve other people what you're going to do and where you are going with the Brain Demon Cultist if you end up having to break this rule."
The Battalion told the human Vendor where to deliver what she selected and where she would like it delivered. The Vendor complied as he would be compensated indirectly.
"Rule Three: If you ignore the first two rules, you do so at your own risk." The Battalion in the projection stated flatly. "If whatever you reason you need to slay one of us try to lure us into consecrated ground, and feel free to use Disruptors, both standard and sonic based. Don't worry! In the Cult of The Brain Demon, Turn About is
always considered Fair Play. Speaking of which, that reminds me, we are having a sale on magnetic Disruptors. So those of you with a License, run you ass down to your local Military Vendor and get yours before they're gone. We recommend them for the extreme pain they inflict while killing. That's all for now. Be well, Citizens!"
The Battalion ignored the stares of WTF she got from her citizens, both Droid and Organic as she left the vendor and headed for the Adminstrative section. She had discovered something important on Mataou.
House Io searched actively for any and all technological advantages over their opponents. Whether a piece of technology was House developed or not was irrelevant. The point was, it had to be theirs.
The secret she had discovered was that there was an ancient nuclear reactor facility on the desert world, it's full purpose unknown...it was located in the deep desert, surrounded by a canyon cut deep in the earth. Xiphos had designated it essential the facility be secured, not just to prevent it from falling into enemy hands, but so they alone could reap the full reward of whatever equipment was recovered inside...
So sensitive was the mission that no less than the Matriarch
herself was going to personally secure its contents, along with a full team of Model 3 Nuetralizers. Anything intact was to be seized as state property. The rest was to be abandoned.
The Battalion reached the section where her very large shared quarters with Xiphos was. She patiently waited for all the security systems to clear her before heading inside, where she soon found all the Weaponry she had ordered waiting for her. As she had realized where she was going was somewhere her normal skill set might not have much weight. So she allowed ons of the many Witches living inside her, a ranged combat specialist known as The Collaboration to take hold, her form bulging melting and warping into that of a woman with very tan skin and an even more muscular build with dark, slicked back hair.
The Collaboration opened her eyes and then glanced down at her new rifle and smiled.
"I haven't put holes in anybody in ages!" she hissed in delight, hefting the Large Rifle.
Just then she shivered in delight feeling Xiphos enter and went to speak to her, putting down her rifle.
"Why my little Icicle!" The Collaboration hissed as Xiphos came into view, stopping when she saw Xiphos with a sour look.
"Why the long face?"
"Our latest scans indicate excavation efforts are underway at the Reactor Facility."
The Collaboration blinked. "Eternal Empire?"
"No... Underworld, I'm betting. But listen, Annabelle...this Nuclear facility...I've been pouring over it's structural peculiarities, and I am starting to think it was a test bed site for experimental Atomic Technology. Our spies watching the area indicate components to at least four different types of Reactor have already been transferred out."
"Are we too late?"
"It's starting to look like it..." Xiphos replied grimly, slinking over to her personal terminal,
"But they are still there, and there are photos of them bringing injured out. If worse comes to worse, you are to destroy this facility if if cannot be seized from the enemy." Xiphos explained, bringing up drone photos.
"Any risk of it going critical?"
"This facility is incredibly old. Scans of the radioactive decay there indicate it may be more than three Millennia old. If there is still Radiation danger there, it's minimal, otherwise the whole area would be polluted. Everyone would have picked it up."
"Is it so important we take this facility if possible? The prudent measure may be just to simply bury it in the canyon. Turbolaser the site from orbit. (It's the only way to be sure: 1700 XP) Besides, we have vastly more efficient power generation methods than what
Atomic Fission can bring us." The Collaboration pointed out.
"True. But such reactors are also really cheap and easy ways to obtain fissionable material that can be used for... emergencies..."
"Such as?" The Collaboration asked in both her and The Battalion's voice.
"Such as for when the Maw comes to Tython like all our intelligence is saying."
"You want to nuke The Maw?"
"Yeah."
The Collaboration seized her lover by the shoulders.
"That's the hottest thing I've ever heard you say. I've never nuked anything before...I'm honestly amazed I didn't think about it sooner..." The Collaboration admitted. "Are you sure I can't have you
right this second?!"
"Sorry. But the Reactor is still Priority One..." Xiphos answered, though she slid a finger against the bottom of The Collaboration's chin.
"The
things I am going to do to you when I get back from work..." The Collaboration boasted before winking at Xiphos, who smiled back slightly., Before grabbing her weapons and departing for the hangars.
Present...
The Collaboration hadn't been sure what she had expected when she had arrived here with a twenty five strong crew of Model 3 units.
She had expected to a firefight with others. Epic shooting. But there were corpses everywhere, covered in burns..."
"Consort, I'm picking up high levels of Radiation here..." One of The Model 3's said.
The Collaboration, in a radiation suit walked ahead through a dusty, now bloody canyon. She felt a terrible evil from within the facility, which was a basic tower of concrete, now windows, with two broken cooling stacks.
The Collaboration, being The Collaboration,
loved a challenge.
"This..." she joked to her small army of step children. "..is where the fun begins..."
The Collaboration then took off at a spring for the entrance, the Nuetralizers following...
