Oversee the work. This is much too important to be left in the hands of mon-kieh... unsupervised, at least.
You watch your thralls toil in the dirt, as their kind is wont to do. The World Spirit doesn't seem to mind the intrusion this time, even helping in ways far too subtle for the normal human to notice. The light gets brighter and brighter as you approach - also unknown to your minions. You and the lesser officers commanded by you insure that nobody misplaces the valuable rubble you're moving out of the hole or blow themselves up with the primitive mon-keih mining equipment. The promised two months go by in the blink of an eye for the immortal Eldar, with no major incidents to break the monotony.
You assemble with the others for the more delicate final breaching operation, the last stretch being done only with lasers to keep the World Spirit from getting scratched and taking its revenge on all of mankind and taking you out with them. If something does come up, you'll be ready!
Marco resumes his Tactica Imperialis lessons while checking in on the digs at times.
Over the months you notice that you are growing muscle mass, despite not drastically changing your routine. The peaches you purchased probably produced the promised payoff. You expect the same results for your retinue.
Once again the students attempt to impress the visiting VIP, flaunting their skills, honor, intelligence, or whatever other virtue they can demonstrate in an attempt to attract your eye. These blatant attempts grow rarer and rarer as the first month comes to a close, with the students eventually getting used to your presence. Is this what the Emperor feels like, watching people fight hoping to earn a place by his side? Over time you begin to get a feeling for the tactics the school uses. You are able to guess what formations the students will use, how they will react to enemy movement, and which side will come out on top with enough accuracy to bet on it. One of the more interesting part of your day is guessing if they'll use the tactics taught in the lectures during the practical portion - last time you where here both sides attempted to employ the new lessons. Now they've learned that the enemy is expecting the new lessons so they'll instead try to counter what was taught in the new lessons. Then when they enemy got used to them countering the new lessons they did the unexpected and went in with the new lessons again. Deception is warfare, so it seems, and intel is ever valuable.
You take some time to visit the excavation sights, with no issue reported.
You also take some time to deliver the teacup to the Genetor, while the DNA is still fresh. She thanks you and takes the cup while you bring the Eldar's raptor in to the operating room for your reward. She bursts into the room, voice filled with as much emotion as its modifications can allow.
"Lord Trader, are you entirely certain that you have the sample from the correct subject? The life seed you brought me matches closely with the local human population. This is not accusatory. I am concerned about the implications if this is indeed not a mistake. Unless the Trader secretly has ancestors from this world such a close match is unlikely. If he is truly a modified human and this is his signature that would imply...every human on this planet has been modified by the same xeno technology. I had not considered this possibility. The entire non-human ecosystem has been molded by their hands, but I had assumed that these modifications had ceased upon human conquest of the world."
Her voice soon returns to normal, with her body language calm.
"Xenos modifying...or even creating humans. What that would mean for the future of this planet, for the future of humanity? I must confirm these results. Please bring Icewhite to me. Preferably alive. This may be difficult, so I will secure an appropriate reward in return for this task. I assure you this is for the good of the Imperium. Omnissiah preserve us."
After setting up a new mission, she proceeds to perform surgery on the raptor. The Dino comes out some hours later, looking subtly different. There is a new intelligence in its eyes. It seems to be listening in on your conversation, watching your body language. Which is a little unsettling as it still has the aura of a massive predator.
"I have upgraded the flesh of this creature as requested. The extra brain tissue I have added will have an effect similar to a cognitor of steel. It will now be able to follow more complex commands and act more independently, both of which should serve your purpose greatly. Please recall what we have discussed about Icewhite."
I'm happy to not have to worry significantly while we work. If there's no trouble then there's no trouble. Might as well spend the time researching the other two sites we're going to be doing missions at.
Unfortunately there is little information to be gained about Chaos outposts or Xeno battleships in the pious land of Rook's Crown. There are plenty of mentions of missing ships and late shipments, but in the Dark Imperium it is impossible to tell who or what is causing these disappearances. From what you can tell nobody hear of a Chaos outpost being nearby, which likely indicates that the
Headless Aquila was once an Imperial outpost that has since fallen to the Archenemy after the fall of Cadia. As for the potential stations the only two that are well known to the citizens of this world are
Footfall and
Port Wander. You can't find anyone who has been to either in many years, it is certainly possible that your mission will take place in one of these once famous stopping points.
Spend the month scoping out Compsognathus farms, then stuff one into a gunny sack at the last minute.
We'll be space miles away before anyone notices!
The greatest Dino ranchers have the greatest dino defenses. Mostly to keep predatory dinosaurs out, rather than to prevent wrangling fortunately enough. First line of defense is a massive fence of flackgrass, towering over even the sauropods kept within. Second line of defense is dino placement. Large and powerful dinos are placed on the outskirts of the ranch to deter predators and act as an early warning system if any arrive, while the more vulnerable dinos are kept in separate, smaller fences and cages near the center. So your target is deep in the heart of the facility.
But time is on your side. The imposing predatory dinosaurs are all locked away, you need only infiltrate when the people of the house are away! You meticulously hide in the bushes learning the daily routine of several potential marks. They go to religious ceremonies on a daily bases, with a strict timetable of when they leave and when they return. This is your chance. When you get the word that the dig is about to be over, you rush into the ranch with your gunny sack. The Compsognathus pen is locked only with a latch, and is easily opened. You grab the most impressive looking while the whole group "squaks" up a storm at your intrusion. You run away with the squirming sack before anyone returns home to protect their valuable merchandise.
Compsognathus get!
************************************
You all stand at the bottom of a deep, deep hole. A red laser carefully cuts out the last block of sandstone revealing a natural cavern filled with lightly glowing statues. Hundreds, each so lifelike you could easily believe that they where flesh turned to stone by some dark magic. All are either of Eldar or scenes from nature such as dinos, trees, rivers filled with crystal fish, "rain" drops of crystal suspended in the air, crystal stars, and more. They do not mix together as one, each is a separate work of art brought haphazardly to the cavern rather than being a massive single exhibit. The statues are placed respectfully, but in a rush. Some are tilting up against a wall or have fallen over onto another statue giving the whole room the aura of a storage room or perhaps the back room of a museum.
Suddenly one of the statues starts to move. Fortunately it is just the Eldar Liaison - who had shown up with the rest of the group, snuck into the room while everyone is preoccupied gawking at the statues, and proceeded to stand perfectly still in a pose in the corner as if he was one of them. In all honesty he was the least realistic looking statue in the room.
"Very good, very good!" He claps, the sound echoing through the cavern. "Nice and easy, wasn't it? A great start to our partnership! You will be paid as promised, but the first installment of the payment will be in the form of stories. Listen carefully, you'll like the payoff. It is in gelt."
He sits at the foot of a crystal tree, urging the retinue to sit around and listen.
"I've gathered some more information, from my kind and yours. Three new missions in the form of three tragedies. You'll be the ones to give them a happy ending, I hope. Of course the other two missions are still around should you prefer them to the new offerings.
The first is the shortest, though perhaps no less tragic. An Eldar ship was in pitch combat above the Death World known to your kind as Merilia. Though victorious it was damaged in the fight and crash landed into the planet's surface. The crew survived, but found themselves stranded on a death world. One by one the planet claimed the crew, until there was not one left alive. The planet took the ship as a trophy, filling it with hostile lifeforms that keep it to this day. Fortunately this has also protected the cargo from the hands of man. You will find the crystals within, so long as the beasts that guard them do not think they would have made a tasty snack. Unfortunately we only have the logs of the ship's crew begging for rescue, and we do not know its exact location. Ah, I see that look in your eye Lord-Captain! I suppose you could recover a component or two from this long-dead ship, but to bring it to the sky once again would require someone familiar with Eldar machinery even if you where to replace the components with their Imperial counterparts.
The second story has more of a plot. I call it '
The Orphans'. Once upon a time there was a Frontier World on the outskirts of the Imperium. Unlike those who inhabit
this planet, they are more concerned about making a profit than protecting their souls and often deal in the cold trade with several Xeno nations. One day families from across the world had discovered a strange gift on their front porches. A small baby wrapped in gold thread, with a beautiful jewel in the newborn's hands. Now this baby was obviously not human, but what it was few could guess. Some decided to rob the child and leave it for dead, but others took the children in and raised them as their own. Each had their own reasons, some had assumed the child was a mutant from a well-off family who would lead them to riches, others simply acting on parental or altruistic impulses, others simply wanted a new farm hand to help till the soil. Years went by, as they do, and the surviving children began to grow.
As you can expect, these children where in reality Eldar! How so many Eldar newborns ended up on this world I can't even guess. Now Eldar are very, very powerful by nature. But we must learn to limit ourselves, for She Who Thirst lusts after our soul...and everything else in reality, as is his prerogative. These children where raised by humans as humans. This meant they had all grown to be very powerful psykers by childhood. These families, happy or sad, could not last long under this pressure. Some left to protect their families from themselves or the mobs formed by their neighbors. Some killed their host family intentionally or not. Some where kicked out, abandoned, killed, or simply outlasted their family. And these Eldar raised as humans found each other, forming an outlaw gang known as 'The Orphans'.
'The Orphans' where hunted relentlessly, fighting to survive every day. Each had massive bounties on their heads. They quickly learned to fight, their Eldar powers giving them an edge over the humans hounding them across their world. Those who relied on their powers fell when their powers failed or betrayed them, those who relied on their quick hands eventually found a human who was just a little quicker or a lot luckier. Over some centuries time the entire gang was hunted to extinction. But our story doesn't end there. It is said that their souls live on in their weapons. These weapons are said to have strange powers, but an intelligence that determines who is allowed to access these powers. Something like 'this weapon only works if won in a fair duel with its previous owner'. To be honest this story is told only by humans, and it has many holes compared to those told by my kind...but I would like you to collect these weapons for me. I think they'll work.
Last but not least we have '
Elf Shot'. One day a powerful Corsair Captain, on a whim, decided to visit a primitive Feudal World comprised mostly of oceans traversed on wooden ships. He stole a warship from a local king and led his men in some sea-based piracy, more as a game than anything else. A game he fell in love with, sailing the sea became his favorite hobby so much that he forsook the stars to sail the blue waves full time. His men didn't share his appreciation for the salty air and complained often of how they wished to return to the sky, but the captain would not hear their words. Tempers flared every day until the tipping point when his men attempted mutiny against him. As I said the captain was very powerful and at home among the waves, after a vicious fight spanning months he had defeated his entire crew, so the story goes. As you can tell the stories I get from humans tend to be a bit more exaggerated than those of my people. He replaced his fallen subordinates with human pirates but felt something was missing. He no longer felt joy from sailing or the thrill of looting ships. He realized too late that it was his comrades that had made his life fun and fulfilling. In deep sadness for what he had done, he created a special powder from local ingredients. This powder greatly increased the power of the human muskets so that they could easily pierce his armor, albeit for the tradeoff that they have no small chance of exploding in the user's hands. He leaked this to the humans of the world, knowing that they would use it to defeat him. As 'bird shot' is to hunt birds it was called 'Elf shot' for its target. In a way he was right in a way he was wrong, a normal cannon ball had burst through his flag ship hitting his powder stores. A huge explosion tore his mighty ship in half. The human pirates escaped urging the captain to join, but he went down with his ship, clutching a treasure chest filled with his comrade's gems to the end. The people of this world still use the powder and tell tales about its origin, but they lack the technology to search the seabed for the pirate's lost treasure themselves.
And those are your new options! As for these statues, a Corsair will visit your ship to claim them once we are in a more suitable location. Do be gentle with them, it is a sin to harm something that is beautiful."
Author
Topic: Rogue Trader: Laughing Gold (IC) (Read 40531 times)