-
Re: Knowledge Is Power [Dark Heresy] - IC
Taking the communicator with one hand, Hieronymus unslings the lasgun he looted from the guard in the tower with the other. This gets offered in Katyra's direction, with another flickered glance upwards at the owl. "Almost. Just making sure you were still on the line. Had some trouble with this thing earlier, you remember."
-
Re: Knowledge Is Power [Dark Heresy] - IC
Ignace kept quiet as he followed along with the others. He was exceedingly uncomfortable, standing next to both the Blank and the Warp-tainted abomination. But he had a job to do.
-
Re: Knowledge Is Power [Dark Heresy] - IC
With a curt nod, Red fought off the tingling feeling on his skin where the provost touched him, his every instinct still screaming to run.
Run run run from the daemon.
Fighting his urge to break away, break down or break Hieronymus, he spoke.
"Roger that, Bosc. Let's try and get something useful said." He even, somehow, managed to slide a wink onto the end of the sentence.
Turning to the library at Large, Red spoke into the blank spaces as if adressing them.
"Now, LIRA. The adults have to speak for a moment. If any owls come too close, I'll have to shoot them." he said even as he shouldered the lasgun and began taking aim at the owl overhead.
"I don't want to have to shoot the owls, and, since I don't know how well they can hear, I'll have to shoot any I see. So, any owls I can see had better turn around this instant, or they will be shot."
Red began tracking the leading the cyber-owl expertly, giving it a chance to turn around before he shot it out of the sky.
Spoiler
Show
Full-action to aim, in combat terms, I guess. If the owl presses on, it will be shot. Since I can't keep asking for range: Short Range for the death Light is 40 meters.
-
Re: Knowledge Is Power [Dark Heresy] - IC
StayingincharacterStayingincharacterStayinginchara cter.
Jericus turns to Red, an angry look on his face.
"What in the name of Mars do you think you're doing? Those are antiques! They're priceless relics of the golden age of technology! One of those owls is more valuable that a whole regiment of knuckle-draggers."
OOC: Nice shot, though.
-
Re: Knowledge Is Power [Dark Heresy] - IC
"How about this, then. If it gets shot down, you can keep it." Hieronymus said over his shoulder at the tech-priest, while watching the owl to see what it would do.
-
Re: Knowledge Is Power [Dark Heresy] - IC
"Way I see it, a whole regiment of us knuckle draggers actually deliver the Emperor's Will onto the Great Enemy. Owls are complicated and look pretty. 'Sides, now you can study the thing and get more made, eventually." Red retorted to the techpriest in a sort of off-handed, purely practical tone.
-
Re: Knowledge Is Power [Dark Heresy] - IC
Alighting on one of the upper balustrades, the owl looked down at the Acolytes, its augmetic eyes gleaming in the reflected spotlight of Red’s lamp-pack. It held still for a long moment – then, with a flutter of its wings, descended a level to get a closer look at the assembled humans.
With a sharp snap, Red’s weapon fired – the high-powered lasbolt caught the spy bird dead-on, blasting it clean off its perch. The thing’s smoking remains plummeted to the floor below, landing with a curt crunch. Up above, from where it had been sitting, a couple of charred feathers drifted down in its wake.
A quick sweep of the torch-beam revealed no more owls on the upper levels. For now.
Spoiler
Show
OOC: I’m assuming Red’s still following his condition for shooting the owl despite Jericus’ protest. If I’m wrong, please correct me.
-
Re: Knowledge Is Power [Dark Heresy] - IC
Jericus dashed forwards to examine the owl.
-
Re: Knowledge Is Power [Dark Heresy] - IC
The lasbolt - and then the ground - had reduced the owl to a sorry state. Kneeling down to inspect it, Jericus was surprised by how light it was.
Both eyes had been replaced by augmetic optical units, fine wires creasing the feathers of the bird's huge eye-sockets where they led back into its cranium. One of the lenses had been cracked by the fall, both of them sooty and singed from the heat of Red's shot - the lasbolt had practically melted away the left side of the owl's body, exposing the shards of an intricate, miniaturised potentia coil nestled in the cauterised innards. It looked like the owl's digestive tract had been cleared away to make space for the artificial life-sustainer: presumably the adepts of the Library didn't want to have the deal with the problem of excrement from their roving surveillance units.
The wings - or at least, the surviving wing he could see - seemed unaugmented. The only other piece of blessed technology he could find on the broken body was a tiny transmitter unit, nestled behind the tufted feathers at the base of the bird's neck. It had clearly been burnt out by the shot: the link to the central system was definitely severed.
-
Re: Knowledge Is Power [Dark Heresy] - IC
Jericus pondered the mystery of the owl. Was it divine providence that had led him to this bounty of amazing archeotech, this sea of knowledge? And was it pure bad luck that had led to one of their little team manifesting a daemon and a bizzare servitor-cogitator construct trying to kill them.
Either way, they were going to have to find another owl. An intact one.
-
Re: Knowledge Is Power [Dark Heresy] - IC
"Good shot, Red. You, Katyra, and Jericus, try to keep any more owls off us. Ignace, if you're any good with a gun, you help." Looking away from the crumpled owl, Hieronymus focused his attention on the communicator. "Ok, Vale, we're safe, but you may want to talk fast. I don't think LIRA's going to leave us alone for long."
-
Re: Knowledge Is Power [Dark Heresy] - IC
"Right. Yes, right - not much, um, not much time at all."
There was a rustle from the other end of the line, presumably Vale changing his grip on the communicator.
"LIRA's behaviour seems to have become, ah, dangerously erratic." He was still whispering. "I don't know what's got into her - there's something in the system, but I, I don't have the training..."
His voice trailed off.
"I'm sort of... hiding. That's why you can't let her hear me talking to you. We're not safe - not anywhere. The servitors, the ventilators, everything - it's all under central control. The whole damn planet is automated."
"Listen, down there with you, there're three control chambers for the Vault. Manual control - there's an auxiliary power supply there, isolated from the cogitator system. Can stop her cutting the lights and environmental controls. Exterior temperatures on Prol IX are a bit nippy, if you catch my drift. Don't want her switching off the heating." He paused, trying to clear his throat as quietly as possible. "The servitor station is where the drones and such get their update routines and maintenance. There's a kill-switch there, in case any of the more... restricted volumes started influencing the servitors. If you can get in there, you can shut down all the humanoid units remotely. She'll still have the owls, but it's better than nothing. Then there's the uplink chamber, that's her link with the whole Vault. If your tech-priest can power down the connection, then the owls will let her see, but she won't be able to control anything." He paused. "Whatever's infected the system, there's a good chance it will have originated there. But she'll want to keep you out, and there are a lot of servitor units down there with you... which is why you might want to hit the other chambers first."
"If you need to ask me questions, use the request button on the communicator. I'll reply if I can talk. Sometimes the, um, the servitors up here are... passing by. On the lookout. Need to keep my head down." He did his best to sound optimistic about the situation. "All this... it must be to do with why the Inquisitor sent you, eh? I mean, you must be able to fix it."
-
Re: Knowledge Is Power [Dark Heresy] - IC
"We'll do our best. Thanks for the update, Vale." Looking up from the communicator, the provost's eyes flicked across the others. "Uplink chamber's right ahead. But it'll be guarded. Let's double back a bit, and get the lights back on."
Looking back at the communicator, he reached for the disconnect. "Stay alive, Decatologue." With that said, the link was cut.
"Unless any of you has a better plan, that is?" Hieronymus pointed at Red's lamp-pack. "Battery on that won't last forever, and I really hate the dark."
-
Re: Knowledge Is Power [Dark Heresy] - IC
"Agreed. We need light, fast. Not all of us can see perfectly, and we don't want Jer to tire out and become useless when the bullets start flying because we had to have him stop and give my flashlight a boost."
Red hesitated and swept the air again for owls.
"I'm not sure our avian friends are all that harmless, they still have claws and I've seen rats eat a man. Keep tight, blast 'im out of the air if they get too close. We have to trust the human who called us in here more than the machine that tried to kill us at this juncture."
Red waved a hand with an unnecessary flourish.
"You're still on point, Bosc."
-
Re: Knowledge Is Power [Dark Heresy] - IC
"I figured as much. You still got the equipment you took off those two of Rhodes' Flunkies? If I'm going on point, I could use any extra armour they might have been carrying. I've only got a vest." Trying not to look hopeful, Hieronymus wondered if they trusted him enough to give him anything at this point.
-
Re: Knowledge Is Power [Dark Heresy] - IC
Jericus shrugged under his photovisor and powered up his lamp pack, wondering when people were going to notice him.
OOC: Jericus spent 15 terror filled minutes navigating through a maze of hostile aliens with only the glow of an auspex to see by.
Of course he's brought night gear. And when the lamp packs run out they can use flares.
-
Re: Knowledge Is Power [Dark Heresy] - IC
Ignace pulled on his own Photo-Visor as well. He was relatively used to stuff like this. "Well, I have a glow-globe as well, if we end up needing it."
-
Re: Knowledge Is Power [Dark Heresy] - IC
"For reasons I hope are apparent, I'm hesitant to give you any more armour. Let's get moving."
-
Re: Knowledge Is Power [Dark Heresy] - IC
"Was afraid of that." Hieronymus shrugs and turns around. "This way, then. Let's try to move quickly."
Setting a good pace, Hieronymus struck off in the direction of the manual override chamber. The provost had his shotgun out, and was sweeping it back and forth as they moved forward, alert for any sign of movement in the darkness ahead.
-
Re: Knowledge Is Power [Dark Heresy] - IC
Following Heironymous’ lead, it began to dawn on the Acolytes just how vast the Vault was – like the other sections of the Library, the shelves stretched out for kilometres, the beams of their lights dwindling away into nothingness through the sheer, straight length of the shadows ahead. Traversing the repository on foot was going to take time.
Periodically, the eyes of owls on the upper reaches of the shelves caught the Acolytes’ lights, pairs of pale disks gleaming with a momentary brightness in the dark. It was impossible to tell whether they were being followed, or whether they were simply passing new animals – the creatures’ flight was eerily soundless, detectable only by the occasional flash of shadow through the beam of Red’s lamp-pack when it was angled upwards.
After around ten minutes’ quick move, a flickering light became visible in the blackness up ahead: approaching cautiously, they could see it was emanating from a Library cogitator terminal. Three simple words rotated and flashed on its screen, trying to draw the attention of anyone who passed.
MESSAGE INCOMING.
ACCEPT?
-
Re: Knowledge Is Power [Dark Heresy] - IC
"Should we answer?" Hieronymus looked back at the others, finger hovering over the terminal.
-
Re: Knowledge Is Power [Dark Heresy] - IC
"What possible harm could it do?" said Jericus. "Receiving a message is hardly going to make things worse"
-
Re: Knowledge Is Power [Dark Heresy] - IC
Spoiler
Show
OOC: I assume someone answers it, then.
The screen buzzed and crackled: there was a moment's pause, and a little green 'active' rune illuminated itself next to the brass grille of the speaker in the terminal's housing.
"H/H/H/hello?" came LIRA's voice. "Are you there? Did you talk to Ichabod? Where is he?" There was a long pause. "I'm trying to find him. He's in terrible danger."
-
Re: Knowledge Is Power [Dark Heresy] - IC
"We don't know where he is." It was technically the truth. Vale had never told them his location. "What's he in danger from?"
-
Re: Knowledge Is Power [Dark Heresy] - IC
"I can't find him," answered the voice, dreamily ignoring Heironymous' question. "I need to find him. My f/f/f/function is to find."
A blurt of static momentarily obscured the line.
"You should give me the communicator." With a sudden, silent flash of pale wings, an owl dropped from the upper reaches, alighting on top of the terminal. "I need to speak to him."
-
Re: Knowledge Is Power [Dark Heresy] - IC
"I'm afraid we still need it, LIRA. And you find answers too, right? Find me an answer. What's the danger?" Hieronymus eyed the owl, wondering what would happen if he simply blew it away.
-
Re: Knowledge Is Power [Dark Heresy] - IC
"I know where the others are," replied LIRA, evasively. "The others you were looking for. Don't you want to know?"
The owl's head turned to look down at the communicator, its mechanical irises whirring as they focussed in.
"I'll t/t/trade."
-
Re: Knowledge Is Power [Dark Heresy] - IC
Red sighted in on the owl.
"No trade, LIRA. We need to speak to Vale more, and we can find Rhodes ourselves. If you have something else you would like to put on the table, I might pause to consider it."
-
Re: Knowledge Is Power [Dark Heresy] - IC
Dropping from out of the shadows, another two owls landed on the bookshelves behind them, perched at shoulder-height.
"It's standard-issue. It's not yours," crackled LIRA's voice over the tinny little speaker. "The communicator belongs to the library."
"I think you should give it to me."
-
Re: Knowledge Is Power [Dark Heresy] - IC
"Goodbye, LIRA." Hieronymus hit the disconnect rune on the console. They clearly weren't going to get anything useful out of her. He wondered why he had even bothered trying. Glaring at the owl on the console, Hieronymus stuffed the communicator into his pocket and, in the return from the motion, swept his sword off his belt and at the owl.
Spoiler
Show
If both of those are free actions (hitting off and putting the communicator away), I get to aim at the owl before I attempt to smite it due to quick draw. If they are not, no aiming for me.
[roll0] vs 48, if I get to aim, and 38 if I don't, plus or minus any other modifiers that apply