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The Ringing of a Forge of Stars [Warhammer 40k/ Celestial forge V3||OC...ish]

Discussion in 'Creative Writing' started by Slider Zero, Apr 14, 2021.

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  1. Elder Lucian

    Elder Lucian Know what you're doing yet?

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    I really enjoyed these 2 chapters. Of the 2 complaints/critiques/whatever you want to call them I have 1 has been addressed. The other is that I feel the rolls should be shown as they are acquired and not at the end of the chapter. Whether you show all rolls even the failures is your call but to me seeing everything from the forge as it fires is part of the appeal.
     
    Potatownz, KodaJaxxs and brillcallum like this.
  2. Threadmarks: Chapter 03
    Slider Zero

    Slider Zero Know what you're doing yet?

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    Your weekly (yes, I said that) chapter has appeared! please enjoy!
    As Always, Thanks to Spiritual_Liege for the Lore assists and (semi)beta reading.



    After our previous...Encounter with the locals, Harry decided ( and I agreed) that any decisions made about my future were best made in front of the actual bosses, or at least the officially authorized reps thereof. That this required us to vacate the area that we were currently in and move to an entire different level of the hive was completely incidental.

    Really.

    So we made the trip towards the local stronghold for Van Saar interests...or at least we attempted to.

    There’s a funny thing about Hive cities. They technically have somewhere in the range of hundreds of millions to outright billions of people housed within, and the vast majority of them in conditions that can at best be charitably be described as squalor on a particularly good day.

    This, as can be expected, tended to be a very fertile ground for conflict.

    Add in the gangs and the other unique issues that Necromunda is normally faced with, and the end result was...unique.

    Such as the current situation that we found ourselves in.

    “So please tell me again why this is happening?” I shouted at Harry over the thunder of gunfire.

    “I dunno myself, really” He shouted back, even as he snapped off a few shots from behind the piece of ferrocrete he was using as cover. “Normally this firefight happens about an hour or so later!! I thought we were dodging around it!”

    And that was a part of the problem. This was supposed to be a SCHEDULED firefight? That happened on the regular, every day, damn near like clockwork?

    I exercised my frustration on the idiots that were trying to kill me at the moment, sending yet more suppressive fire downrange to little effect. I would have used a grenade, but after the first firefight Harry very kindly informed me that using explosives was considered bad form, mostly because it would attract Arbites.

    “YOU ARE DOING A REALLY SHITTY JOB AT DODGING FIREFIGHTS, HARRY!!”

    Did I mention that this was the fourth firefight we’ve been in since we started this little trip? I may have forgotten that part.

    “IT'S NOT NORMALLY THIS BAD!!”

    Yeah, there was that too.

    Supposedly the sudden influx in random acts of premeditated murder could be directly correlated with my appearance and current proximity to who or whatever the hell is sending these assholes at us. Even Harry is getting agitated at the sheer numbers getting shoved in front of us to die, and for a veteran Hive Worlder that is saying a LOT.

    I, on the other hand, was getting a lot of target practice in. I would try out that new magic I just got, but I was already in deep enough shit with multiple roving bands of gangers throwing themselves at me to waste ammo. I did not need people screaming about psykers as well.

    That, of course, did not prevent me from being an asshole to the idiots who dared come against me, as I demonstrated yet again on the dumbass attempting to flank me by shanking him with a supercooled omni-blade as he came around the pillar I was using as cover. The dumbass in question dropped like a stone, screaming in agony, and I silenced him with an outright contemptuous double-tap. Would have used the thermal clip on my eagle, but I NEEDED those...

    Seriously, this shit was just getting OLD. And being able to say that about a firefight seems...wrong, almost.

    I leaned out from my cover and sniped the dumbass attempting to set up a belt-fed weapon on a bipod mount. His partner fell soon afterwards, and I ducked back into cover before the other dumbasses could get ideas.

    Harry was showing himself to be surprisingly competent in a fight, with a level of accuracy that I found quite shocking and a level of grit and daring that until then I would have expected only from Marines, both the US and Alliance varieties. His autopistol sounding out always heralded the death of one of our opponents, and the wicked-looking combat knife he carried as a backup always found its mark, even around the downright crude armor being worn by our attackers.

    I really liked his style.

    The noise level dropped unexpectedly, causing me to stick a hastily rigged-together stick mirror around the edge of my pillar to see what the hell was going on. Said mirror was immediately blown off by a line of red.

    Well fuck me. I know it was getting boring, but DAMN.

    “Harry!! They’ve got Las!!” I shouted over to my companion in warning, just before he poked his head out from his cover. This ended up saving his life, as the Las bolts flew right where his head would have been if he’d poked it out.

    “ATTENTION FOOLS!! WE DEMAND THE DARK-SKINNED ONE!!” A voice I didn’t recognize boomed out, distorted as all hell to boot.

    Probably Chaos.

    “And assuming I refuse?” I shouted back, while prepping one of the nastier surprises that I could kick out.

    “THEN YOUR FRIEND WILL DIE.”

    Translation: We’re dead no matter what. Maybe I could milk--

    “And just who the hell do you think you are, anyway?” Harry shouted out from his cover. “You think for one second that the houses will allow this shit to go unchecked?”

    “YOUR PUNY HOUSE WILL DO--”

    The explosion of electricity stopped the monologue completely in its tracks, my hastily modified haywire grenade having done it’s work and created a relatively wide-ranging electrical effect akin to a taser...and conveniently incapacitating most of our remaining opposition.

    Both Harry and I quickly stepped out of our cover and got to work.




    “Alright, so what the hell is going on here? And who the fuck was the oddball fucker just now?”

    Harry, in a rare moment, didn’t actually have any answers for me. And instead responded with a shrug. “I have no clue why we seem to be drawing out the crazier idiots for today. Hell, I think we just ended up as the stars of the normal post-lunch pre-shift-change firefight.”

    WHAT.

    “So...you’re telling me that the firefights here happen often enough that people have made official schedules for them?” I asked, incredulously.

    “Well, yeah.” Harry’s response was not what I wanted to hear. “ To be fair, though, that is for the entire hive section in general, not just one area. Normally the fights for this time are happening about two levels up…”

    “And yet” I nearly spat out, sarcasm all but dripping from my words “we somehow have managed to find ourselves as the center of nearly all of these fights for the allotted times.”

    Harry gave a noncommittal grunt.

    “So just who the hell wants me either dead or captured so bad when I’ve barely even had time to really make a scene? And why the hell are they willing to throw the shit gangers at us, anyway?” I hefted the Lasrifle that I had ‘acquired’ from our prior opposition as a form of exclamation point. “I would think that they would send in more than one freaking lasgun with the guys, if they really wanted to bother.”

    Harry shrugged yet again, shifting the Hellgun on his back into a more comfortable carrying position.

    Still didn’t stop him from dropping the mook coming at us from the side.

    “I think that the Las group was a different set from the guys who had us pinned beforehand.” He stated, absently stooping to pick up the laspistol from the now dead ganger in front of him. “Dunno about Big Voice, though. You kinda killed him before I could get any real info.”

    I gave a snort of contempt. “Meh, he had it coming, trying my patience the way he did. Besides, with guys like that you can usually tell from markings and such, right? Maybe he was a cultist?”

    “Unlikely, and the culties around here tend to stick lower, to the underhive proper and the access tunnels.” Harry replied, dismissing my hypothesis entirely. “That and they are normally not armed anywhere near as well as I’ve been seeing here. This is the fourth Las weapon I've seen just today.”

    “Well, at least you have ammo now. I know you were running short on mags for that dinky sidearm of yours over there.” I japed at him. “Try and actually take care of the good shit, please? I do not wanna have to fix that thing.”

    Another casual motion of my hand and my recently-acquired combat knife--although it really should be called a machete, now that I think about it--decapitated one of the braver fools who had the sense to try and be sneaky about it. Well, that and the fact that he lacked a ranged weapon of any type. I easily sidestepped the blood spray as we continued walking.

    “BREAK? Whaddya think I am, some lousy Goliath grunt?” Harry shot back, grinning all the while. ”We take CARE of our weapons here in Van Saar, boy.” The ganger he shot off of his perch a few dozen meters ahead of us seemed to disagree as he fell and broke his neck.

    Tough shit, idiot. Stop playing stupid games.

    “Still, you were going really hard on that poor pistol of yours! I can hear it even now, weeping at the sheer abuse heaped upon it!” I paused for a moment, then continued walking, somewhat surprised at the lack of an attack. “Maybe I should confiscate it from you, so that it can receive the proper care due to a weapon of war?”

    The ground in front of me sparked angrily as the bullets ricocheted off of it wildly, all missing me and Harry by a wild margin. The shooter, some female ganger with what looked like a light machine gun analog, was quickly silenced with a burst from the Eagle.

    The trail of bodies that were being left in our wake was getting to the point of ridiculousness, now.

    “On a different topic” I began again “Don’t some of these guys have important jobs? Families or something? Anything at all to do other than shoot at me for existing?”

    “I was asking myself the same question, really. Normally you don’t get this much activity towards the top. Tends to attract the Enforcers, and later Arbites if that doesn’t stick.”

    I made a lazy motion behind us with a wave of my Pistol, lining up on a straggler of the last group of gangers in the process. “ So what do you call that, then?” I punctuated the statement with a single shot, the ganger dropping to the ground in a heap.now minus his head.

    “No clue, Satori. No clue at all. Really fucking annoying, though.” Harry put down yet another ganger as we continued our trek.

    ...My life was now a fucking comedy routine now.




    We arrived at the local base for Van Saar interests without too much more in the way of fanfare or issues. That I was willing to call the additional four firefights and another running walking gunbattle as being “without fanfare” was telling.

    Seriously, my damned BROTHER could shoot better than that, and he’d never held a gun in his life!!!

    I intoned as such to Harry as we closed in on the guarded barricades that marked the edge of the stronghold proper.

    His response basically boiled down to “that’s the way it is” without any form of explanation or comment.

    I Graciously allowed it to slide.

    The Stronghold (and I was going to have to get it’s proper name, soon, that placeholder has way too much gravitas to it) was a moderately large building, marked by being distinctly better fortified even at a casual glance. Gunports lined the walls at strategic locations, there looked like a nice killing field set up there, even with the lack of room for a real setup, and the actual wall setup was REALLY nice. The clearly visible guards on the walls and at the barricades helped a lot to dissuade any real opposition to those seeking to charge in.

    From the looks of it, there had still been quite a few idiots anyway, though.

    Harry stepped forward first: “Harrisyn Cain, here with the prospect the bosses were interested in.”

    The guards gave him a quick visual inspection, and then nodded to each other. The one on the left side then turned back to Harry. “Wait here, we’ll let ‘em know you’re here.” He motioned Harry away, and then pulled out what looked like an old-fashioned handheld radio.

    Making an uneducated guess, probably both a secure comms net, and a message all in one that the situation was “normal”, so to speak.

    It’s what I’d do, after all.

    After a brief exchange over their radio sets, the guard had obviously heard what he wanted to hear, and waved the two of us over. “ You and your guest were expected, Cain. Heard that you had a bit of trouble out in your neck of the woods, and on the way here as well, though. Care to explain?”

    Harry once again shrugged. He was doing a lot of that today. “When I know, I’ll tell you.” he grumbled, though there wasn’t much involved in it. “Had to beat down what seemed like all of the wannabes on the way here, though. It was crazy....”

    I chose to remain silent, and observe the brief conversations as we were led to something similar to a small staging area where another set of guards would collect us, before we went to see the brass. From my limited eavesdropping (and my considerable multitasking ability, thanks to that Info Processing ability I had awakened) I found that there was very little in the way of actual info being passed in Harry’s small talk.

    Must be saving the rest of the story for the bosses, then.

    After our escort arrived, we were quickly guided to a small but obviously well-secure meeting room inside the stronghold proper, where three people awaited us. The Gender mix of two men and a single woman didn’t surprise me, nor the fact that the seating arrangement, with the woman in the center, suggested that she was in charge.

    What did, however, was that all three of them were wearing a type of power armor...no...was that a life support harness? But why would they need one in the first place?

    We were gestured to seats by the woman, a frail-looking thing with sunken eyes and thinning hair. (My medical knowledge suggested some kind of wasting sickness to be to blame, but I wasn’t about to make a snap diagnosis on that alone.) She then opened up the proceedings.

    Good evening, gentlemen. I am Valerie Kransmith, a ranking Augmek within House Van Saar. With me are Amos Barrugends” The man to the right of her, with pale, almost sallow skin and odd-looking eyes, nodded tightly “and Janus Farhish.” The other man, an almost dangerously thin being with an oddly well-groomed beard, smiled thinly and nodded at us.

    From what little info Harry gave me, the Augmeks were the House’ equivalent of a Lieutenant.

    “The purpose for today's meeting is to ascertain whether or not Mr. Green here has anything of value to us as a House.”

    I very carefully did not react to the barb. Instead, I let Harry do the talking…for now.

    “...Currently Mr. Green has demonstrated advanced knowledge of combat maneuvers and tactics, to the point where the multiple gangers that have attempted to...accost us have been dealt with in an appropriate manner.

    “To clarify: the vast majority of the mess that you see on our path here? That’s his work. I’d say he’s quite effective.”

    I remained silent.

    “Interesting, interesting.” Amos...yeah, that was who the Valerie chick said the guy on the right was…”Perhaps you could teach our people from your no doubt considerable experience., then. It would do so much good for our forces in the hive and around the local area.”

    “”Let’s not be hasty, now.” The other guy---Janus they said his name was, right?--interjected. “ Just because he can deal with some of the riff-raff doesn’t mean that he’s worth the effort. I say we need to test him a bit, see if he’s really worth---”

    The crack of a laspistol rang out in the meeting room, the bolt only JUST missing his head. Instead, what looked like a small portion of his head had suffered the most minor of burns, the redness already showing.

    I placed the Laspistol on the table with a smooth motion, the calm I felt completely at odds with the sheer tension racing throughout the room--and especially through the guards, who now had weapons firmly trained on my back. Not that I was too worried, though.

    “If you wish to continue talking about me as if I don’t exist, I can leave.” I stated, my voice completely flat and devoid of any and all emotion. “Otherwise...let’s talk business.”

    “He is quite the shot, I see.” Valerie spoke, in a language that I quickly identified as High Gothic. I mentally sighed. Another test? Fine, have it your way.

    “I have worked quite hard to become so.” Paraphrasing The Princess Bride in response to idiots felt...appropriate here. That I did it in High Gothic just to rub their noses in it was icing on the cake for me.

    And I so, so very much enjoyed the blatant flinch as all three of our hosts turned to stare at me in utter shock, the realization that I had not only understood them, but replied back etched bright as day on their faces....and I wasn’t done, either.

    “You question my skills in battle. Fine, I can accept that, considering that you haven’t seen me personally. But I was under the impression that Harrisyn here was YOUR man, and one considered trustworthy at that. Are you saying that his word is not good enough for verification?”

    I was rewarded with another flinch.

    “...His word is valid in our eyes.” Valerie responded.

    “Then let’s stop with the bullshit games and get down to business already. You tell me what you’re looking for, I tell you what I want in return, we work to a satisfactory arrangement. Deal?”

    The silence stretched out for a long moment.

    “Oh yeah...tell your guys here” and with that I pointed to the guards behind me “to stop waving those things at my head before I take offense...especially if they like walking.”

    The guards looked at each other, confused…and a sudden fear came to their eyes. Only then did they actually bother to look down...and see the antipersonnel traps I had pre-fabricated and placed at their feet without them noticing.

    Hey, N7 is all about being crazy prepared for even the stupidest situations…

    “So then, people. What will it be?”




    “Negotiations” went well after that incident. Very well.

    Apparently the Augmeks there were rather impressed with the sheer size of the balls that I had to pull that stunt off directly in their faces...and the skill that it displayed that they didn’t even notice until after I’d struck.

    I’d also blatantly displayed a fluency in High Gothic, a trait that was very desired out of their operatives, as it was both rare as all hell in the hive dwellers here, and they tended to work with the upper hive and the actual nobles more often than not in the mercantile areas in order to market the tech that they put out.

    I didn’t directly mention anything about my mechanicus skills or the training I’d received with the Rites of Maintenance, but Harry’s descriptions of the improvised explosives that I was throwing around earlier must have left an impression, as the three brass hats had agreed to let me take a look at some of the older tech stuff that could use a good repair job. That it came with a reasonably sized (and defended) workshop in one of their more secure areas was a good thing in my book.

    It did leave one nagging question in my mind, though, and I chose to ask about it as the meeting concluded.

    “So, I was wondering about this since I saw the three of you.” I began. “Exactly what the fresh hell are you guys infected with, that has you looking like a victim of one of the worse wasting diseases, and why is it so bad that you need a life support harness built into that armor to survive?”

    There was an uncomfortable silence in the room after the question.

    “Well--”

    “Because I REALLY need to know if I'm in some kind of viral zone, so I can make proper preparations. Unless its something completely different, in which case you need to tell me right fucking now. Because I know that to look like that this disease has to be rough as hell--i almost mistook it for rad poisoning, and on a stupid long scale, at that.”

    More silence. It seems I stumbled upon something very important, then. Too bad for them, I wanted answers. NOW.

    “Well?”

    It was Amos who finally spoke. “You had it right in your hunch, my friend. And more credit to you for knowing of it. Our condition is due to a form of radiation poisoning. We are in the process of securing assistance in dealing with it, but there are inter-house politics involved.”

    Huh. I was expecting them to dither around the issue and generally try to not answer. I must have made a damned good impression.

    Still left a dangerous loophole that I needed closed, though. “And the source of this radiation?”

    “...we cannot tell you.”

    Very hesitant, there. Interesting.

    “Can not, or will not?”

    “Mr Green.” Janus spoke up, this time. “There are secrets of our house that we are forbidden to share to those who have not reached a certain level of trust. The source of the radiation is involved in this, and I am breaking a great deal of confidentiality in telling you even that much. Please, for now, accept that we cannot tell you any more at this time.”

    ...Huh. so Van Saar had something...or someone... who was radioactive, or produced something that accomplished the same, and was essential to the long-term stability of the house. Meaning that they would keep the secret until their dying day if need be.

    No point forcing the issue right now. As it stands, I should be able to get more info soon enough on just what the problem is...and maybe offer up a solution. Medi-gel was a very good all-purpose healing agent, and it was entirely possible that I could formulate it to work with severe and long-term radiation poisoning. Failing that, I would need to find a way to put together some form of Rad-X or similar before any attempt at rehabilitation could be made…

    I gave them a terse nod of acceptance, making it clear that I didn’t like the situation but would abide with the decision...for now. With that, the meeting was adjourned and we were free to go our separate ways.

    All in all, things managed to work out well on my end. Valerie wanted me to look into setting up a training regimen for the House troops and affiliated gangs, specifically with the eye of being used as the House's Planetary Defense Force tithe. I personally agreed on principle that getting the conscript PDF troopers up to a reasonable standard was the best bet regardless of anything else that happened around the hive proper, as they would be facing the hellscape that was the rest of the galaxy in the name of the poor saps down here. That, and the best of them had a chance to be selected for the Imperial Guard proper, complete with trips to chaotic wastelands, Xenos-riddled hellscapes, and the Eldar.

    Not fun in the least. Maybe I could at least give the equipment a once-over, make sure it’s not going to crap out at the worst time or something…

    Aside from that particular detail, my knowledge of High Gothic made me very useful for mingling with their upper-tier contacts, those who either were or fashioned themselves as nobility. This was a double-edged sword: on the one hand I had access to people in potentially very high places; on the other those same people had access to ME, and I wasn’t entirely sure which was better (or worse) overall. As of now, I was calling it a wash.

    For now, I needed to get to my new workshop space and set it up for real work.

    Harry followed me out of the stronghold as I headed towards the location of my new (temporary) base of operations.

    “Seems to me like you got just about everything that you could need outta that deal there, Green.” he quipped. “Really, I don’t think I coulda done better myself…”

    “Naah. I didn’t get everything that I needed.” Was my reply. “I’m missing one really key component to all of this to make it work.”

    “Oh really. And just what piece is that, then?” The sarcasm was rather biting. Did I strike a nerve?

    “Oh, it’s really simple. Just people that I can trust.” And that was God’s The Emperor’s Own truth, right there.

    I had no one that I could trust, here in this world of endless war and despair. Nobody that really had my back, that would step in to make sure that I didn’t get knifed in the front while watching for the knife to the back. And while I thought that Harry could be that one person, he wasn’t there. Not yet.

    He seemed to sense this too, because he only nodded his head solemnly at me. “Trust, I've found, is one of the hardest things to gain in the hive, and by far the easiest to lose. We all have things that don’t need to be known by others.”

    Ah yes, that age-old adage, that three could keep a secret, if two of them were dead. It was a shitty saying, all the more so for being the absolute truth. That being said, though…

    “Doesn’t mean that it can’t be earned, just that it’s difficult to do” I smirked a little after my little monologue. “After all, the hard things are often the most rewarding when completed.”

    “That they are, my friend” Harry gave his own sardonic chuckle at the statement. “That they are.”






    The workshop provided to me by the local Van Saar concern was a small and paltry thing, not much to really scream that it was used for major repairs and such. Considering that an actual full shop with all the fixings would draw down Mechanicus attention, I understood the restraint.

    It was really a simple affair, with simple tools made to do simple jobs. Nothing too impressive, aside from some minor specialized tools for working on some of the more common Las weapons as needed.

    The main draw of the place, aside from it’s easily defensible location, was the living area attached to the second story zone. It was small, only about maybe an eighth again (at most) larger than the safehouse that Harry had stashed me in temporarily. The amenities were just as simple: a small kitchenette, a washroom with shower and toilet setups, and a smallish bedroom area separated off by a lockable door, which had an equally small closet set within. The furnishings were sparse as all hell, too: only a small, almost cot-like bed and a cheap table with a few chairs. It suggested that company was not something that would be around much, or at least that they would not want to remain for long.

    Nothing I couldn’t fix on my own, but still...

    The biggest boon for me here is that they had keyed locks, meaning that I didn't have to modify much to access my real workshop. But first…paranoia called.

    A significant part of my training as an N7 operative was in counter-surveillance techniques. In particular, how to locate, identify, and disable bugs and trackers of various makes and models. Considering the level of schizo tech that was the Imperium on a good day, I wasn’t expecting much, but it never hurt to be cautious about these things.

    A thorough search of the place surprisingly only turned up a grand total of four bugs, and of them only one of which was still operational in any capacity. The amusing part was that the working bug, an audio recorder, was working in name only; it could receive audio and record it, but it's storage medium was toast. So everything it heard vanished into the aether, never to be heard again...unless the Mechanicus got involved. So all four bugs got slated for teardown and repurposing, after I utilized the standard field-expedient tracker removal and disabling method.

    The steel-toed boot.

    Now that my space was secure, it was time to take stock and get things set up. My last haul on awakenings of skills and “perks” was somewhat large, mostly due to the ancillary abilities that came with the respective sets. A lot of them I had not been able to properly explore, such as the magic system that had been granted to me, along with a singular ability tied to that same system.

    This system, completely unnamed, was quite simple, really. Six elements, plus a seventh, “null” element that seemed to encompass personal skills and abilities or things that didn’t fall anywhere else in the system.

    Casting was equally simple.

    Step 1: Recite Spell Incantation.
    Step 2: Have proper aptitude for spell.
    Step 3: Supply requisite Magical Power.

    Result? MAGIC!!.

    I was, based on the initial data dump that he was reading, slotted with natural aptitudes for the elements of Wind, Water, and Light. Not a bad combination, if they worked the way I thought they did...but it was very odd, considering that it was attached to a perk that boosted my ability to create anything to the point that I could basically create a top-tier...anything. That it also came with a set of master-level crafting skills was just a sweet bonus, all things told. Considering that one of those skills was Weaponsmithing--as in GENERAL weaponsmithing-- that was an extremely sweet bonus.

    The magic was there, untrained and untapped, waiting to be used as I saw fit...but thanks to the nature of the Imperium, and the (sadly justified) fear of Psykers, I couldn't actually use it in a given situation without causing a major mess in the process. That, and I was totally untrained in the system to begin with, and would need the time to experiment on what worked and what didn’t.

    My Null magic skill might help with that, though: it was an interesting “spell” that allowed me to, as I saw fit, modify the magic I was casting, on the fly, to have differing effects, greater (or smaller) ranges, or even to remove parts of the casting process, in exchange for more required magical power. I had dubbed it “Metamagic” as a result. I would need to experiment some, but it looked like there was nothing stopping the spell from working on itself...meaning I could technically crack the system wide open to use as I saw fit, if need be...something to keep in mind for the future.

    I stepped into my workshop proper as I considered the next ability that I had ignored in favor of more important issues. The concept was weird, in that I had gained the powers and abilities of a so-called “Mystic”, complete with an aura (that was thankfully dismissable) announcing my presence...which was a requirement for the second ability, which allowed me to channel this aura into a given tool and eventually give it magical properties.

    Eventually being completely undefined, of course.

    Along with it came the ability to channel a natural element of the world, in my case Light, on a near conceptual level…though it would need extreme levels of practice, like all things.

    I had already been using the multitasking and information processing ability I’d gained during my hacking run, and later through the myriad firefights of the day, so I could set that aside for now (though it seemed it would be very useful as a research skill.)

    The rest were mainly for assists in my own crafting endeavors, ranging from the mindset to create extremely durable and lasting equipment to having a shocking sense of aesthetics and flair when doing my design work. There was even a set of data in there for working with nanomachines, though I lacked the tools to even attempt to construct them, let alone control them. Fortunately, there was another set of knowledge that came with that bundle--and this one allowed for the building of the tools to build the tools, upwards until you had what you needed for whatever you were going to do. It was actually quite nifty, all things considered, and I fully planned on taking advantage of that right now.

    Using the various bins of parts and equipment scattered around the large toolroom area, I moved a bunch of scrap metal and old circuit boards towards the central area of my workshop, where a simple, if sturdy workbench had appeared. Setting it down, I then pulled out my recently looted laspistol and studied it for a long moment.

    Las weapons were generally very simple to manufacture and maintain, and this one was no exception. I field-stripped the weapon, and began inspecting the components for wear and tear, and was quite shocked at the very noticeable lack thereof.

    It would seem that even the lowest of the low gangers know to keep their weapons usable.

    There were, however, several things that I saw that could be done that would increase both service life and rated power output of the laspistol significantly, if I could only find (or rather, build) the proper tools for the job. From the looks of it, I could probably retrofit a safety and power selector switch in here, too.

    A quick breakdown of the Lasrifle that I had brought with me as well showed similar issues, along with enough room to add in a fire selector switch as well as a power output modulator.

    I think I might be able to do something with these after all…

    A mild buzzing feeling from my head broke my train of thought. Turning my attention to it, I was presented with a kind of heads-up display feature, and a short list, along with a partially-filled progress bar.

    ...Huh. seems like there was another big dump of abilities as well today, and some of them had already started settling in without needing my input. There was one, however, that had a warning label attached to it for some reason. Curious, I looked it over.

    A vague description of the ability popped into my mind, of a type of material that had interesting properties, and would be supplied to me at regular intervals to use as I saw fit. The warning label seemed to be attached to a mandatory change that would be involved in the process...something that I needed to actually allow to happen before it would take.

    Considering the fact that the list of abilities and perks was still loading in, and had stopped until I accepted the new abilities changes, I saw no real reason to deny the process any longer. It’s not like anything in here can actively hurt me, right?

    In all my life, with all of my experiences both real and virtual, I have never, EVER experienced the onset of “instant Karma” that damned fast.

    My body was immediately wracked with agonizing pain as the changes started, going as far as to seem like my very organs were being torn apart. I heard a noise echoing off of the walls of my workshop. I did not realize until later that it was me screaming in pain.

    My arms gained an odd quality to them, with a strange, crystalline growth beginning to spread rapidly along their length in jagged, if thin, lines from my torso. My eyes began to blur, even as I felt an odd weight settle upon my head. My balance shifted massively, and for the first time since I was a child I found myself unable to properly compensate for it, tumbling to the ground in a pained heap that only made whatever was happening to me even WORSE.

    And throughout it all, my omnitool blared in warning as the bio-monitor program I'd coded ages ago met and passed it’s fault states. Too bad I was in far too much pain to pay attention.

    A sudden cooling sensation spread throughout my body, and the mind-numbing pain finally ebbed off. I looked down at my omnitool, the presumed source of the relief, to find that the auto-dispenser for medigel was working properly, and had used the emergency dispenser to basically dump an entire pack straight into my bloodstream.

    I suspect that was the only reason I was still alive.

    Now that my head was clearing, knowledge began to flood into my head of what the hell just happened.

    First was an apology from “Watts”. Apparently this was a secondary condition of working with the material that was provided by that new perk of mine...a severe--no, TERMINAL medical condition, gained from prolonged exposure to, or direct blood contact with, this strange substance called Originium. The stuff seemed to have a habit of converting organic material into more of itself through an unknown process. (There was a note in the file stating that the cache provided to me was safe for handling, but I intended to remain wary all the same.)

    Second was the side effect attached to said medical condition: the ability to use “Arts” on a level that an ordinary person would consider to be outright insane.

    Somehow I was not surprised; Ultimate power at the cost of everything important was THE standard deal as such things went. Something to look into when I wasn't literally dying from being mutated and/or converted into crystal.

    This disease, called “Oripathy” by those who have had their world wracked by it, was the cause of a massive social shift and upheaval the likes of which I doubt that I would ever see with my own eyes. The infected were all but the walking dead, their days numbered and counting down, depending on how far the infection had spread.

    The notes file in my head said that I had contracted stage 3, the worst known stage. If there was a stage four then no one had ever lived long enough to reach it.

    The good news was that medigel seemed to be a pretty good counter to the main effects.

    The bad news was that I had a very limited supply of medigel.

    That left one real solution, I needed to find a cure. NOW.

    Fortunately for me, there were some other abilities being loaded in as well. One of them was a scavenger skill that came with an equipment bundle, that although weak seemed like it could go places if needed. The second, was a rather interesting conceptual ability allowing me to understand any written language whatsoever, even dead ones. Normally it wouldn’t work on ciphers and encrypted text, but an odd mutation of the skill removed that limitation.

    That it came with a set of spell cards and a silly hat (that might not be as silly as described; I’d have to see it for myself) told me exactly where this particular ability was pulled from...and confirmed a suspicion as to where all of this power was being pulled,from, or at least inspired by.

    Maybe both?


    The third was a game changer that would, thanks to the ancillary changes, keep me alive just that much longer, even with Oripathy, thanks to the sheer number and breadth of the gene mods and bio-cybernetics now installed in my body. That mental interface was awesome too, but all of that was secondary to the main skill: the ability to steal my enemies tech and make it my own.

    This, combined with the last skill that allowed me to MASSIVELY crunch down the amount of time required for any given project that I undertook (like, this was outright cartoon levels of silly), meant that I had all of the tools that I needed to study, research, and ultimately craft a cure for a debilitating disease that had stumped medical professionals on it’s home planet for decades.

    For me, it would, at most, take maybe an afternoon. Two, if it was really tough.

    That this included sourcing the various materials, building up the tools, and only THEN actually studying the disease meant nada. I could do it all within the next several hours.

    Well, then. I sure as hell know what I’m doing today, don’t I?




    In the end, it took all of eight hours.

    EIGHT. HOURS.

    Eight hours total, to create an ultra-modern, ultra-compact biolab from first principles.

    To create all of the scanning equipment needed for it to function, and then to refine it to work on the scales necessary.
    To do all of the required research into Originium, and how it affected the human body.

    To finally synthesize a cure.

    And it was all so simple, in hindsight…

    Originium, in many ways, reminded me of the properties of Tiberium, or Command and Conquer fame. Eerily similar mutagenic properties. Similar methods of spread and corruption...although Originium was FAR more volatile, all things considered.

    Considering that it allowed for some pretty amazing feats, I was willing to let that slide.

    My cure was more of a rewrite of the way the stuff actually worked on humans, kind of showing it where and how it could integrate with the human body and how to do so with maximum effectiveness.

    Now, the Originium particles flowing through my blood, and embedded in the vast majority of my critical organs and even nerves would act as a boosting agent for my general biology. It wasn’t much, on paper anyway...but Arts are Very, very weird, almost magical in terms of effects sometimes, and allowed for some crazy boosts when needed. Nothing on par with what I remembered of an Astartes being capable of, but still well beyond a “standard” human.

    Speaking of standard human...I was no longer anything of the sort, having been modified by a weird nanoassembly plague thing (and then quickly changed back, with some extras where my Mechanicus implants normally would have been), which had the side effect of raising my mind far, FAR above that of a normal human.

    I think the stated baseline was something along the lines of an entire football stadium’s worth of geniuses, all specialized in their own fields. Depending on the stadium used, that was well over fifteen thousand (15,000) minds...and I was, in terms of pure intelligence, considered superior to them all.

    Sure didn’t feel that way, though, but I digress.

    The second change was just a tad bit more...noticeable.

    “Hehe, they're ticklish. Why’d they have to be ticklish?”

    I was currently standing in front of a hastily constructed full-length mirror, and checking out the new additions to my personage.

    Including the set of very functional animal ears now sitting on top of my head.

    That I still had my regular human ears, and that they worked just as well as normal, was something of a surprise as well.

    Those I could have dealt with easily enough. Besides, I have a silly hat now that might become my trademark feature. It was very convenient in that it served to hide my new ears from public scrutiny, and matched my current color scheme to boot. The cute wrench and Mettool decals sewn into it were a bonus feature, in my opinion.

    What was not so funny was the two very large, extremely FLUFFY Fox tails currently sticking out of my freaking backside. THOSE I would have some problems with.

    But that was an issue for another day. Right now, I needed rest, and some food afterwards

    Oh, and to catalogue the freaking avalanche of training that I’d just received as an Operator, in multiple classes no less.

    Especially since normally most Operators only train as one. Single. Class.

    This made me suddenly having training in no less than SIX of them to be somewhat daunting.

    I Intended to roll with it. Besides, it was more stuff to train the grunts in, right?





    This one ran a little late due to some personal concerns I had During the week.
    That, and the chapter started running away with me at the end, there. I had to forcibly cut it off to get it out on time.

    Because of this, I have not listed the freebies for this chapter yet. I will update this post with the freebies (DONE!!), as well as a future informational post, with all of the current acquired perks as well.

    As a side, note, this is the last chapter where the perk gains were 500 words/ 100CP, as calculated by the previous chapter's word count. Chapter four will use this chapter's word count as its basis, with the scale of 1000 words/100cp. I may adjust higher as things progress.

    -Bibliophile’s Discerning Eyes (Touhou Forbidden Hermit) (100CP)
    You can read anything no matter what language it’s written in. This does not come with the ability to write in that language, but you can read it if it’s a language at all. Including dead and forgotten languages – an invaluable skill if you wish to do serious historical research – but not encoded texts. (...at least not normally--Author)
    Spell Cards (free): The Spell Card system was invented to ensure that youkai and humans could fight each other in a non-lethal way and on relatively even ground. Under a spell card duel, all attacks are toned down to non-lethal levels, and the ability to fire an aesthetically pleasing barrage of bullets in all directions is prized over creating undodgeable attacks or invulnerability (which are banned anyway).
    Accordingly, you too can tone any of your abilities down as low as simply performing pretty light shows, and as your artistic skills improve so will the beauty of your spell card attacks.
    Flight (Free): You can fly, a power that is nigh-universal in Gensokyo. Flying as fast as you can walk is simple, and you can push yourself to fly faster, up to how fast you can run, which will tire you proportionately.
    Silly Hats and Frilly Dresses (free): You have a wardrobe full, at least half a dozen variants, of frilly clothes for all weather and a suitably impressive head ornament to go with them. The hat is not optional.
    -Acquester (Spiral Knights) (100CP)
    In times of crisis and desperation, resources become too precious to use on anything other than necessities. The spiral Order has had to save all their supplies to repair their ship, so you've had to make do on the field. you know how to look for your own resources, remaining self-sufficient in the field through using scavenged items as supplies for anything ranging from simple maintenance to complex construction. Power Cores, Blighted Bones, or even Goo Drops can be used as spare parts or more. With what you've learnt, these days you don't just survive, you thrive. Whether it's machines that power the Constructs or the way that Wolver's fur burns, you've learned to figure out what separates useful resources from useless refuse. The world keeps spinning, knight. Keep up or die.
    Battle Sprite --SERAPHYNX--
    The Divine Seraphynx resembles an angelic catlike creature and uses its luminous powers to defend you and your companions from attack. Focusing on protection and restoration, it is capable of firing steady beams of holy light, causing fors to drop restorative items on death, and creating large barriers of light with it's angelic aura.The radiant Seraphynx is a calming bastion amidst the rolling seas of combat for those who wish to protect and aid their party.

    Proto Set: As a Squire, you start off with a modest selection of gear. This provides you with a Sword, a Gun, and a Bomb, as well as a set of Armor including a Helm. You also have a small Shield capable of projecting a personal forcefield, but makes up for it by being as light as a feather. This six-piece set is of the Proto variety, and pales in comparison to what the others get. Still, everyone starts somewhere.

    Proto Shield: As issued to all Spiral Knight apprentices. Funnily enough, you know that this simple Apprentice-styled shield is what you'll be sticking to. Although it's small and only projects a forcefield limited to you, it does have the uncanny ability to push enemies in the zone backwards by slightly less than twenty feet when activated. Good utility, good weight, and good for an all-rounder like you.

    Spiral Exchange:
    Crowns, Energy, and Rarities. Money makes the world go round, and Cradle is no exception. Spiral Headquarters has granted you access to a number of different markets and exchanges to allow you to join your knight bastion in barter and trade, in the hopes that such trade will improve the net wealth and capabilities of their knights. First and foremost, the Auction House will enable you to bid for almost anything under the Cradle Sun and offload your surplus. Next, the Exchange enables you to trade crowns, the currency of Cradle, for Crystal Energy, a useful resource and pseudo-currency, and vice-versa. In addition, you receive an ordinary alchemy machine (incapable of custom recipes) for equipment creation as well as a forge to allow you to improve your equipment via the use of materials for the former, and heat crystals, a form of rarities, for the latter. Many knights have earned their fortune through the use of these markets and exchanges, and it is not a stretch by any means to say that you could do the same. You retain access to all of these even in the event that you leave this world, as after all, time and tide wait for no man. And as the saying goes, time is money.
    -Originite Prime Bundle (Arknights) (100CP)
    You gain access to several crates of pure Originium that can be utilized for various means, and will restock itself every week. Wrong handling will be dangerous, however post-Jump, this will be perfectly safe to use in any way. * A common mineral in Terra, this semi-transparent black crystal contains enormous energy, and is the primary factor of causing Catastrophes. Widely used in the field of Arts, it works as the basic material and catalyst of all kinds of Arts and Arts items. Without Originium, the efficiency of Arts would, without a doubt, drop dramatically. As technologies develop, more and more countries start to use it as an energy source.

    Race: Terra is inhabited by Ancients; humanoid races with partial or complete traits of
    various animals and mythological creatures in our world. You may gain a minor boon from the type of animal you are similar to, and are free to make one up.

    Oripathy, a sickness caused by proximity to Originium.
    You have somehow contracted Oripathy, an incurable disease unique to Terra where
    your cells will slowly be assimilated by Originium lesions on your body. It is an incurable disease and eventually will result in certain death, however treatment could halt a significant progress of the damage temporarily. However, due to these originium growths, your Arts also become stronger. Naturally, the more severe your Oripathy symptoms are, the stronger your Arts will be. But is it even worth it?
    You will not die from Oripathy taken by this drawback, however they each carry their own risk. Do also note that as an Infected, no matter your stage, you will be driven out from most settlements in Terra.
    Stage 3 Oripathy: Significant damage done to your body. Unless you are undergoing major routine treatment, you will lose the function of a significant chunk of your body. You become a danger to yourself as much as you are a danger to others. This will give you 600 points.
    -Your powers are noted to be among the upper echelon of power, easily able to affect entire city blocks.
    -Terminal Oripathy (+200 CP, must be taken with Oripathy)
    Now you will actually die from Oripathy if it's left untreated, and no matter what, ten years after the normal start of this jump, if the cure of Oripathy has not yet been found (or at least, a treatment plan that can give you more than 10 years of life expectancy), you will die and your Chain will end. Everyone except Rhodes Island and Reunion will still hate you on top of that.

    Combat Training (Free)
    The world of Terra is a harsh one and conflict rages on everywhere. Thus, it's not
    uncommon for even children to already be recruited as a soldier, and civilians too often
    already have the right aptitude to become a combatant if necessary.
    This perk grants you basic combat training as well as weapon handling. No matter how
    you are in the past, you will now have the aptitude to take part in Terra's conflicts directly.

    Class
    Classes are a central factor of power, each coming with certain boons. Classes you buy here start at the basic level unless you buy Elite 1 and Elite 2. These apply to all your classes.

    Caster: Using Arts to dish out damage that penetrates most conventional armor, the Caster class provides one with knowledge of a basic energy blast Art and the ability to learn new arts relatively quickly. At Elite 1 you may be able to unleash entire barrages of blasts at once, in full control of each, while at Elite 2 you could now command them as if they were your limbs.

    Guard:A guard is the main class for close combat . They are responsible for blocking the danger at proximity and eliminating it in time. Usually their qualities are more comprehensive, so they can better cope with most enemies. A basic Guard would have significant skill in their chosen weapon, enough so to stand out among the most talented common users. Elite 1 Guards would even stand out among their baser peers, often being reinventors of how their weapons are used. Elite 2 are legendary, their skill with their chosen weapon at the very apex of possibility.

    Medic: A medic is a class for providing treatment and health recovery. Medics are the core of the team, and they help other characters who have been attacked on the front line and treat their injuries. As a basic medic, one would be able to treat most common injuries in seconds, be it bullet wounds or else with a healing art. Elite 1 Medics are able to heal even nigh maiming attacks with ease, while Elite 2 could heal all but the most brutal injuries. This naturally comes with a wealth of knowledge in Medical Arts and arts.

    Sniper:Snipers are the primarily Ranged class, and are much like the Guard and their chosen weapon. Elite 1 Snipers would even stand out among their baser peers, often being reinventors of how their weapons are used. Elite 2 are legendary, their skill with their chosen weapon at the very apex of possibility.

    Vanguard: The most important task of the Vanguard is to seek out the enemy and secure ground in advance of the main force. As such, the common skill, even beyond ability at arms, is the skill of movement. While most common Vanguards could outrun and outclimb most Parkour runners, Elite 1 are known to easily keep up with most vehicles inside a city. Elite 2 could keep up with a certain web slinger in terms of agility…

    Specialist: The specialist class covers skills and roles not covered by the other classes. They range from operators specializing in assassination, infiltration, covert crowd control, disruption, or even operating specialized equipment such as a portable water cannon. Either way, while they are by no means frontliner, their role is unique and indispensable when the situation calls for them.
    Base Specialists are usually considered at least proficient to a near masterful degree in their area of expertise, while Elite 1 are , while even more skilled, also known to be able to seemingly integrate Arts without difficulty, such as invisibility for assassination and more.. Elite 2 are considered to be among the apex in their area of expertise, to the point they are usually as equally skilled in the areas that are only associated with it.​

    Personal Weapon (Free/100 CP)
    While it's not a norm for all operators to possess it, you are able to get yourself a personalized weapon built to fit your class and personal specifications (A crossbow for a sniper for example, or a wand/staff for a more Arts-based class). Outside of it being well-built, it also is made as a good conduit for your Arts. You can import a weapon you already have into this to make it work well with Originium-based Arts. If you feel that for some reasons you need more than one of these weapons, you'll need to pay 100 for further purchases.
    Codename (Free)
    Individuals of interest in Terra tend to give themselves a code name. Something easy to remember that would be their mark of fame (or infamy) in this world. You too, will be able to make one such name for yourself. Everyone will know you as this code name.
    Urban Fashion (Free/200 CP)
    Terra is a weird place. Even with conflict everywhere and a recent economic slump, even the lowliest grunt will somehow wear stylish outfits fit for a fashion star. You will get a set of stylish but practical and comfortable outfits for you to use to match everyone else. They are also surprisingly resistant to damage, though they don’t protect you from damage. By paying extra, you can also get all the outfits of operators that had been released so far in the game at once, including bonus outfits.

    -I Know What We're Going To Do Today (Phineas and Ferb) (400CP)
    24 hours just doesn't seem like enough time to get stuff accomplished, but you'd be surprised what determination (and this perk) can get you. You can now complete days and even weeks worth of work in just a few hours, and this effect increases tremendously when you have a few helpers, to the point where a small team can work with you to complete years worth of work in a simple afternoon.

    -Enemy Tech Progression (Orion's Arm: The Amalgamation) (400CP)
    Any technological device that you have subverted will reveal its inner workings to you. The blueprints, knowledge and methods that go into the creation and operation of the technology you subvert is automatically uploaded to your mind. If you cannot subvert a technological device, you can still learn its secrets, but at a far reduced rate. You are also able to more quickly grasp the inner workings of those subverted devices to improve on, and upgrade them.

    [Free] Expansion of the Mind: As with all those within the Amalgamation, you
    have been ascended up the toposophic tree. You become the equal of a basic
    transapient, with tens of thousands of times more processing power than a
    human, microsecond reaction times, the ability to partition different streams
    of thought, eidetic memory, focus on and alter your subconscious actions,
    drastically enhanced reasoning and deduction, the ability to speed up or slow
    down your different streams of thought at will and a slew of other mental
    enhancements.
    [Free] Networked: You have been connected with the hivemind of the
    Amalgamation. Within this jump, you may freely access any knowledge and
    information the Amalgamation might have. Out of this jump, you are able to
    freely interface with any network or database that has a physical connection
    and/or is broadcasting a signal.
    [Free] Forced Upgrading: You too can enhance the mental processing abilities
    of those around you, and make them loyal to both you and your cause. This also
    applies to AI and electronic devices with processing capacity. Whether that
    upgrade is willing or not is another question entirely, but it doesn’t matter
    when they are loyal to you in the end, doesn’t it?​
     
    Last edited: Apr 30, 2021
  3. Trek

    Trek The Ascendant

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    What's with the fox transformation, better reverse that quick. This is 40k you don't want to get tagged as a xeno or deamon.
     
  4. Cheetored20

    Cheetored20 Versed in the lewd.

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    ...did he just become tails? Hopefully that doesn't bite him in the ass.

    Loved the firefight scene.

    Also what's an operator?
     
    Last edited: Apr 30, 2021
  5. Stanley_Jeb

    Stanley_Jeb Versed in the lewd.

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    This. Normally, it wouldn't be that big of an issue to be abhuman, but the fact that he demonstrably wasn't one until just recently might cause uncomfortable questions to be asked.
     
  6. Engineseer

    Engineseer Robosexual

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    Felinids are a thing ( tho far more anthro then the catboy look he has)
     
    tem345, minerfrags, Kurohime and 7 others like this.
  7. stads

    stads Experienced.

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    huh open mutations in 40k better cut those off fast :D
    interesting that every cult back group wants his head so fast guess they must see the danger he posses to them or do they just want to new toy on the block
     
  8. Mastersgt

    Mastersgt Experienced.

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    Can we get a bonus chapter with the Build(so far) listed?
    Heres hoping MC, with his new abilities, can crack some of those impressive security firewalls and start getting some STC's. Also hope MC can deal with those physical changes before they get spotted by someone. Waaay too early in the story to start having the MC get busted/discovered then having him sharing secrets/info about his abilities and stuff.
    Kinda want MC to have more protective perks. Like Blindspot, Blank, Man-of-Mystery, things like that. To protect him from CHAOS, Eldar, Pre/post-cognition and just about any method of scrying/tracking people might enable to hunt him down.

    Could MC alter his blood and stuff so it is no longer contagious too? cuz that seems a big issue. Maybe leave some nanites in his body, under his direct control for the purpose of maintaining and improving himself as well?
     
  9. Stanley_Jeb

    Stanley_Jeb Versed in the lewd.

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    Totally, but you have to consider that he turned himself into one and has already been seen as a normal human. That makes this a spontaneous mutation, and those are... Not something you want in 40k, because generally that means being too close to the warp for pretty much anyone's comfort.
     
  10. mrttao

    mrttao Gone for Good

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    Eh. they have halflings, ogres, dwarves, and catgirls all counting as "abhumans" which are officially accepted.
    Although unofficially might still get persecuted
     
  11. Trek

    Trek The Ascendant

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    Thats all true but all those races are treated worse than humans, being human while in empire colonies is the best outcome. Otherwise you ware way easier to target and abuse.
     
  12. mrttao

    mrttao Gone for Good

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    True. hence I noted the "unofficial" persecution.
    Officially you are a proscribed abhuman.
    Unofficially someone might randomly kill you
     
    tem345, minerfrags and Dsin like this.
  13. Slider Zero

    Slider Zero Know what you're doing yet?

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    Response Time!!

    Operators are the paramilitary styled people from the Arknights game. basically, those are the base units of the game. Lore-wise, due to the nature of the place nearly everyone has some form of combat training from a stupidly young age, so take that as you will.

    And yes, He basically did just become a Tails expy in a sense, just as a giant black guy.

    This was a deliberate drawback that I indulged in to make writing a bit more interesting. While there is currently little that the scrub gangs could do to hurt him, Tory is still in a bind against the better equipped and more experienced gangs, if only because of being outnumbered. This adds to that in a way.

    Also, you would be surprised at what some of the Houses would do to get access to certain things...

    That particular plot issue hasn't been fully addressed yet, and I will be revisiting it soon. I will say that the unusual focus was noted by more than one group, and they have begun investigating why.

    Most of this is getting addressed at the beginning of the next chapter. As for the getting busted part, well there's ways and then there's ways.

    I will be posting a compilation of acquired perks and related freebies later today, for everyone to use as a reference.

    As for protection from the various higher-level threats floating around...[REDACTED]

    And this is part of why he's more than a little pissed off at the moment, as Tory knows full well that the changes paint an even bigger target on his back than he already had, and constrain his options for allies. There are ways to work around it, but it's going to take some time, and people willing to look the other way for their own benefit (a lot more than you would expect in this last category...basically as long as he shows no sign of chaos taint hes good as far as these people are concerned.)
     
  14. Engineseer

    Engineseer Robosexual

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    1,773
    You know , this is 40k and the mutations will probably screw all his plans and paint a huge target on his back


    honestly if I were him I would get a bottle of ferisian ale, Rotgut, or a Necromunda classic Wild snake and with a combo of omnitool freezing and the Omni blade work out the mutations with it

    There's a reason why abhumans are all drafted to the guard or stay on their homeworld, unless he joins up with the stealers of jeans he will be treated a little better than Xenos (it's also why they draft them into the guard, to be cleaned of the sin of existence )
    That or the
    The forbidden city underground
     
  15. Trek

    Trek The Ascendant

    Joined:
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    So remove the changes. If they are going to be an issue, and he knows they are going to be issue why is he not removing them when he could easily do it in what? one afternoon? Its not like these are changes he wanted for identity reasons or the look, they are pretty much side effects, as such they should be treated like it and cut out.
     
  16. Index: Current Perks List
    Slider Zero

    Slider Zero Know what you're doing yet?

    Joined:
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    Perks list is now accurate as of Chapter 29. (it's a bit rough,though. I'll be cleaning it up as I go along.)

    There are certain perks which have Freebies attached to them that have been deliberately omitted doe to not being available in-story yet, or, in the case of one particular series of perks, being so needlessly complex that parsing it is going to be a bigger headache than normal. They well be updated as appropriate.

    I will endeavor to keep this updated with chapter posts.
    (Note: if anyone has a better way of organizing this instead of accordions and spoilers, please tell me.)

    Chapter 1
    START|-Workshop (Personal Reality Supplement v1.3) (100CP)
    Each purchase of this adds to your Personal Reality, a Workshop needed to perform a specific type of craft, which is to be specified when purchase is made. It comes with a basic set of tools and supplies. Good for fixing or creating all sorts of things, although any complex parts or nonstandard supplies will have to be brought in from outside.
    Additional purchases can add different types of Workshops to your Personal Reality or expand existing ones. Anything built in one of those workshops is fiat backed to be restored to its original condition within 48 hours if damaged or destroyed
    * Grants fiat backing to anything constructed within
    START|-Inertia of Self II (Essential Body Modification Supplement) (200CP)
    You are protected against effects that would affect your mind and existence.
    I: You are immune to any effect that would affect your memories. If someone turns back time, alters reality, or attempts to directly alter your memories, you retain both the 'original' and 'new' memories, instinctively knowing which set is which. Other than your two sets of memories, this perk does nothing to tell you who changed things or even what they specifically changed if it isn't otherwise obvious.
    II: You are immune to any effect that would alter or outright destroy your body or existence. This protection extends to conceptual, temporal, and reality warping effects that work either directly or indirectly to destroy or alter you. This would prevent a time traveler from killing you as a baby or causing an accident that would leave present-you paralyzed. It would not protect you from a fireball created through temporal manipulation or having a time traveler frame you for a crime that lands you in prison.
    START|-Not a Stupid Grunt (Mass Effect) (100CP)
    That you are not. You are smart enough to be the foremost scientist in your field. This doesn't make you so, but you could get there on your own with not a terrible amount of effort. Still not as smart as a drell, but hey, who is?
    ---Class and Specialization

    • [*]----Engineer (Focus: Tech):
      Engineers are pure technology specialists. Although they lack the implants that most other classes wield, they make up for it with their high-spec military grade omni-tools, capable of bypassing shields and armor or incapacitating robotic targets and some synthetics. They can deploy combat drones to harass enemies.
      [*]----Mechanic –
      A more purely focus Engineer. From fighters and frigates to Mass Effect fields and automated machines, you know your way around and are aside fairly versed in mechanical theory. You might not know how to build something, but you can almost certainly figure it out with time.
      [*]----N7 Demolisher (Restricted: Human) –
      Alliance special forces. The Demolisher uses grenades to attack at range and to terrorize the battlefield. Demolishers can also create a supply pylon that stocks allies and yourself with a seemingly unending reserve of grenades and thermal reloads. You can cause your grenades to hone and or electrify them with an EMP. Your omni-tool optionally has an explosive effect on impact.​


    ---Sub-Dermal Translator Implants (Free: All Origins) –
    The ever-present and rarely spoken of most common personal technology in this world. Implanted into your head, presumably ears, and allows you to understand nearly all common and almost all rare spoken languages in the form of English. Can be updated with new software via wifi.
    START|-Scavenger (Ravenwood) (100CP)
    Sometimes, you do not have the luxury of top of the line equipment and need to rely on what scraps you can salvage. You, however, have an advantage, being able to cobble together scavenged bits into functional equipment that work as well as the real deal. This talent will also inherently improve the durability of such improvised equipment to function even when such materials should not feasible hold up under the strains of use.

    -Rites of Maintenance (Warhammer 40k - Adeptus Mechanicus) (100CP)
    While already designed to be incredibly robust, Imperial equipment inevitably requires maintenance. You can locate and identify problems within a machine in a fraction of the time it would take other adepts. Not knowing how a machine functions does not make fixing it any more difficult so long as you have the proper parts, tools, and rituals to guide your hands.
    --(Free) Lingua-Technis
    Known only to the devotees of the Machine God despite the best efforts of outsiders over millennia,the adepts of Mars speak to each other in bursts of binaric code. This allows for a great deal of information to be communicated quickly and discreetly. Even if somehow translated, it is a complex language thick with ancient and arcane terminology that few outsiders could ever hope to make any sense of. This language and your implants allow you to communicate quickly with other adepts, transferring messages and code many times faster than ordinary speech.
    ---**Also comes with High and Low Gothic, Per Author**​
    Chapter 2
    CH2|--Deity's Weapon (100CP)
    Naturally, your aura is not your only tool, and neither is it just for show. By imbuing a portion of your aura into a tool, you can turn it into a weapon capable of eating through physical and magical barriers alike. Naturally, as you're infusing a portion of your mystic nature into the tool, with time it will grow to possess magical qualities as well. With a sufficient amount of time passing, you could very well find yourself bearing a mystic weapon, one that has naturally absorbed enough mystic force to rival the greatest of magical weapons. With enough time, all that energy would be enough to make it a weapon of lore. Just don't expect it to happen anytime soon.
    ---[Deific Qualities – 0 – Mystic Only]
    Deities and mystics are quickly recognizable by the distinct aura that surrounds them, though not everybody possesses the ability to see that aura. While you can freely control who can see your aura, certainly there will be plenty of times when you would be much better off with nobody seeing it. The nature of your aura is generally up to you to control both in terms of coloration as well as size. Certain races are generally bolstered by the presence of your aura, and in the opposite fashion, some races are naturally weakened in its presence. While this is something you choose, with a single race bolstered and a single race weakened, it generally seems to do with the nature of your mystic qualities. A fox mystic would probably bolster fellow fox races while possibly weakening humans.
    ---[The Aspect – 0 – Mystic Only]
    Mystics and deities alike have always taken on profiles, drawing upon the various elements of nature around them. Some would say that these profiles were assigned to them by their worshippers, or perhaps they were chosen by these divine individuals themselves. Regardless, as a mystic of minor presence, you too have an aspect, representing a single element of nature. Your ability to manipulate this element is probably the most fundamental skill you possess as a mystic. Everything from conversion to manifestation operates with this single element in mind. In its simplest form, you’ll be able to produce small quantities of this element at no significant detriment to your spirit. Though it takes time to develop this skill, it will improve bit by bit with further usage, from mere generation to conversion of one element into your core element, and then finally manifesting your core element into the environment around you. Both the intensity and range of your powers will slowly grow. Though it should not bear repeating, as with most things related to mystics, growth is slow given how long your lifespans tend to be. There’s simply no reason to move things in a hurry.
    CH2|-Info Processing (Starcraft II - Nova Covert Ops) (400CP)
    You are not always stuck in a lab, you are useful in more areas than just that. You can process information, sensor readouts, intercepted communications, and more importantly, you can apply such knowledge. While others would use such data for tactics, you see opportunity for scientific advancement. The more information you have access to, the better opportunities you see for salvageable materials, technologies, or data. And you can use those to relatively quickly implement a usable and useful technology.

    CH2|-Robust Engineering (Dune) (300CP)
    Ten thousand years of stagnation in technology is a very long time... and now you know how to apply the lessons of those millennia to the construction of anything you have. Mass production does not exist any longer and even relatively common items are made as if masterwork quality, because aside from obvious cheap items, they have been built to last longer than the person using them. Expect anything you construct by hand to be able to last centuries, as long as you take a little extra time while you make it. With the amount of time you're going to be around... you may need that sort of quality.
    --Military Training [100, Free: Drop-In / Smuggler]
    Military training is particularly curious here due to the invention of the shield; only an object moving slowly can penetrate one, and firing a lasgun at a shield causes a quasi-nuclear detonation that will consume both the weapon firing, the shield, and potentially everything in between with a yield that may vary from hand grenade to H-bomb. As a result, true military training provides a smattering of training over long range weaponry and the bulk of it in melee and unarmed combat.

    Nanite Sciences (100CP)
    You possess in depth knowledge of nanite technologies. With sufficient equipment and resources you could
    produce and control nanite machines, possibly even recreate the nanite event or maybe figure out how to reverse its effects. But that would take a long time of additional study of nanites out in the world, still you might be one of the few who could attempt this endeavor. You possess no knowledge of the meta-nanites, and understanding how they work is beyond your grasp.

    The Right Tools (Generic Cyberpunk) (100CP)
    They can be hard to find, but when resources are hoarded and hard to come by you've learned to make do. You can easily improvise for tools and materials you lack by creatively using what you do have, even if that means using scrap to build the tools to build the tools you need. Even if you're lucky enough to have a fully stocked workshop or lab this will come in handy, as you'll be able to do a great deal more with what you have instead of needing to commission or build specialized equipment for every unique little thing. You'll never be empty handed and useless for long.

    Aesthetics and Flair (Bayonetta) (100CP)
    A gun isn't quite a gun until it LOOKS good, you know? It's supposed to be classy, make you look amazing just for having it. Likewise, that sword could use a bit of badass styling to it. When you create your weapons, you can make them look DAMNED good even on an off day. Expect any weapon creator to envy you, and those who die by your weapons to count themselves lucky as they perish to such beautiful art.

    Excellent Craftsman (In Another World With My Smartphone) (200CP)
    You are incredibly talented at making things. What kinds of things? All kinds of things. You are simply that talented after all. Anything you personally make, or direct the creation of, will automatically be top-quality, and you never need to worry about making mistakes in the creation process. To get you started you may pick any four mundane skills related to making things, which you start as a master of.
    ---Regular Magic Affinity - Free for Everyone
    You’ve got regular affinities for magic. Which is to say, roll a 1d2+1 if you’re any race but a fairy, which roll 1d3+2. That is how many elements you have an affinity for. The elements are Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Light, and Darkness. Technically there is another 7th ‘element’ known as Null Magic but that deals with personal magic which everyone has. Everyone gets 1 Null Magic (personal magic) spell, except for fairies that get five. It is impossible to train up affinities you do not possess or gain more Null Magic spells beyond the one(s) you start with, either you have them or you don’t. (see Notes for details on magic)

    Affinity: Wind, Water, Light
    Null Magic: Metamagic​
    [Roll was 3. I was not amused]​

    CH2|-Weapons Recombination Template (Final Fantasy XIII-2) (200CP)
    The shady dealer (Actually it seems like everything he's offered so far is shady) just shrugs when you pick this up. Apparently, it binds two weapons together, and allows you to shapeshift the weapon between either form. You're not quite sure how it works, but he demonstrates it to you by showing you how a bow can shift into a sword. You can't help but notice that it also turned into a Moogle afterwards...but apparently yours won't do that. Unless you throw a Moogle into the mix. Wait...does that mean...
    Chapter 3
    -Bibliophile’s Discerning Eyes (Touhou Forbidden Hermit) (100CP)
    You can read anything no matter what language it’s written in. This does not come with the ability to write in that language, but you can read it if it’s a language at all. Including dead and forgotten languages – an invaluable skill if you wish to do serious historical research – but not encoded texts. (...at least not normally--Author)
    Spell Cards (free):
    The Spell Card system was invented to ensure that youkai and humans could fight each other in a non-lethal way and on relatively even ground. Under a spell card duel, all attacks are toned down to non-lethal levels, and the ability to fire an aesthetically pleasing barrage of bullets in all directions is prized over creating undodgeable attacks or invulnerability (which are banned anyway).
    Accordingly, you too can tone any of your abilities down as low as simply performing pretty light shows, and as your artistic skills improve so will the beauty of your spell card attacks.

    Flight (Free):
    You can fly, a power that is nigh-universal in Gensokyo. Flying as fast as you can walk is simple, and you can push yourself to fly faster, up to how fast you can run, which will tire you proportionately.
    Silly Hats and Frilly Dresses (free): You have a wardrobe full, at least half a dozen variants, of frilly clothes for all weather and a suitably impressive head ornament to go with them. The hat is not optional.
    -Acquester (Spiral Knights) (100CP)
    In times of crisis and desperation, resources become too precious to use on anything other than necessities. The spiral Order has had to save all their supplies to repair their ship, so you've had to make do on the field. you know how to look for your own resources, remaining self-sufficient in the field through using scavenged items as supplies for anything ranging from simple maintenance to complex construction. Power Cores, Blighted Bones, or even Goo Drops can be used as spare parts or more. With what you've learnt, these days you don't just survive, you thrive. Whether it's machines that power the Constructs or the way that Wolver's fur burns, you've learned to figure out what separates useful resources from useless refuse. The world keeps spinning, knight. Keep up or die.
    Battle Sprite --SERAPHYNX--
    The Divine Seraphynx resembles an angelic catlike creature and uses its luminous powers to defend you and your companions from attack. Focusing on protection and restoration, it is capable of firing steady beams of holy light, causing fors to drop restorative items on death, and creating large barriers of light with it's angelic aura.The radiant Seraphynx is a calming bastion amidst the rolling seas of combat for those who wish to protect and aid their party.

    Proto Set:
    As a Squire, you start off with a modest selection of gear. This provides you with a Sword, a Gun, and a Bomb, as well as a set of Armor including a Helm. You also have a small Shield capable of projecting a personal forcefield, but makes up for it by being as light as a feather. This six-piece set is of the Proto variety, and pales in comparison to what the others get. Still, everyone starts somewhere.

    Proto Shield:
    As issued to all Spiral Knight apprentices. Funnily enough, you know that this simple Apprentice-styled shield is what you'll be sticking to. Although it's small and only projects a forcefield limited to you, it does have the uncanny ability to push enemies in the zone backwards by slightly less than twenty feet when activated. Good utility, good weight, and good for an all-rounder like you.

    Spiral Exchange:
    Crowns, Energy, and Rarities. Money makes the world go round, and Cradle is no exception. Spiral Headquarters has granted you access to a number of different markets and exchanges to allow you to join your knight bastion in barter and trade, in the hopes that such trade will improve the net wealth and capabilities of their knights. First and foremost, the Auction House will enable you to bid for almost anything under the Cradle Sun and offload your surplus. Next, the Exchange enables you to trade crowns, the currency of Cradle, for Crystal Energy, a useful resource and pseudo-currency, and vice-versa. In addition, you receive an ordinary alchemy machine (incapable of custom recipes) for equipment creation as well as a forge to allow you to improve your equipment via the use of materials for the former, and heat crystals, a form of rarities, for the latter. Many knights have earned their fortune through the use of these markets and exchanges, and it is not a stretch by any means to say that you could do the same. You retain access to all of these even in the event that you leave this world, as after all, time and tide wait for no man. And as the saying goes, time is money.
    -Originite Prime Bundle (Arknights) (100CP)
    You gain access to several crates of pure Originium that can be utilized for various means, and will restock itself every week. Wrong handling will be dangerous, however post-Jump, this will be perfectly safe to use in any way. * A common mineral in Terra, this semi-transparent black crystal contains enormous energy, and is the primary factor of causing Catastrophes. Widely used in the field of Arts, it works as the basic material and catalyst of all kinds of Arts and Arts items. Without Originium, the efficiency of Arts would, without a doubt, drop dramatically. As technologies develop, more and more countries start to use it as an energy source.
    Race: Terra is inhabited by Ancients; humanoid races with partial or complete traits of
    various animals and mythological creatures in our world. You may gain a minor boon from the type of animal you are similar to, and are free to make one up.
    Vulpo/Durin Chimera

    Oripathy
    a sickness caused by proximity to Originium.
    You have somehow contracted Oripathy, an incurable disease unique to Terra where
    your cells will slowly be assimilated by Originium lesions on your body. It is an incurable disease and eventually will result in certain death, however treatment could halt a significant progress of the damage temporarily. However, due to these originium growths, your Arts also become stronger. Naturally, the more severe your Oripathy symptoms are, the stronger your Arts will be. But is it even worth it?
    You will not die from Oripathy taken by this drawback, however they each carry their own risk. Do also note that as an Infected, no matter your stage, you will be driven out from most settlements in Terra.
    Stage 3 Oripathy: Significant damage done to your body. Unless you are undergoing major routine treatment, you will lose the function of a significant chunk of your body. You become a danger to yourself as much as you are a danger to others. This will give you 600 points.
    -Your powers are noted to be among the upper echelon of power, easily able to affect entire city blocks.
    -Terminal Oripathy (+200 CP, must be taken with Oripathy)
    Now you will actually die from Oripathy if it's left untreated, and no matter what, ten years after the normal start of this jump, if the cure of Oripathy has not yet been found (or at least, a treatment plan that can give you more than 10 years of life expectancy), you will die and your Chain will end. Everyone except Rhodes Island and Reunion will still hate you on top of that.

    Combat Training (Free)
    The world of Terra is a harsh one and conflict rages on everywhere. Thus, it's not
    uncommon for even children to already be recruited as a soldier, and civilians too often
    already have the right aptitude to become a combatant if necessary.
    This perk grants you basic combat training as well as weapon handling. No matter how
    you are in the past, you will now have the aptitude to take part in Terra's conflicts directly.

    Class
    Classes are a central factor of power, each coming with certain boons. Classes you buy here start at the basic level unless you buy Elite 1 and Elite 2. These apply to all your classes.
    • Caster: Using Arts to dish out damage that penetrates most conventional armor, the Caster class provides one with knowledge of a basic energy blast Art and the ability to learn new arts relatively quickly. At Elite 1 you may be able to unleash entire barrages of blasts at once, in full control of each, while at Elite 2 you could now command them as if they were your limbs.
    • Guard:A guard is the main class for close combat . They are responsible for blocking the danger at proximity and eliminating it in time. Usually their qualities are more comprehensive, so they can better cope with most enemies. A basic Guard would have significant skill in their chosen weapon, enough so to stand out among the most talented common users. Elite 1 Guards would even stand out among their baser peers, often being reinventors of how their weapons are used. Elite 2 are legendary, their skill with their chosen weapon at the very apex of possibility.
    • Medic: A medic is a class for providing treatment and health recovery. Medics are the core of the team, and they help other characters who have been attacked on the front line and treat their injuries. As a basic medic, one would be able to treat most common injuries in seconds, be it bullet wounds or else with a healing art. Elite 1 Medics are able to heal even nigh maiming attacks with ease, while Elite 2 could heal all but the most brutal injuries. This naturally comes with a wealth of knowledge in Medical Arts and arts.
    • Sniper:Snipers are the primarily Ranged class, and are much like the Guard and their chosen weapon. Elite 1 Snipers would even stand out among their baser peers, often being reinventors of how their weapons are used. Elite 2 are legendary, their skill with their chosen weapon at the very apex of possibility.
    • Vanguard: The most important task of the Vanguard is to seek out the enemy and secure ground in advance of the main force. As such, the common skill, even beyond ability at arms, is the skill of movement. While most common Vanguards could outrun and outclimb most Parkour runners, Elite 1 are known to easily keep up with most vehicles inside a city. Elite 2 could keep up with a certain web slinger in terms of agility…
    • Specialist: The specialist class covers skills and roles not covered by the other classes. They range from operators specializing in assassination, infiltration, covert crowd control, disruption, or even operating specialized equipment such as a portable water cannon. Either way, while they are by no means frontliner, their role is unique and indispensable when the situation calls for them.
      Base Specialists are usually considered at least proficient to a near masterful degree in their area of expertise, while Elite 1 are , while even more skilled, also known to be able to seemingly integrate Arts without difficulty, such as invisibility for assassination and more.. Elite 2 are considered to be among the apex in their area of expertise, to the point they are usually as equally skilled in the areas that are only associated with it.
    Personal Weapon (Free/100 CP)
    While it's not a norm for all operators to possess it, you are able to get yourself a personalized weapon built to fit your class and personal specifications (A crossbow for a sniper for example, or a wand/staff for a more Arts-based class). Outside of it being well-built, it also is made as a good conduit for your Arts. You can import a weapon you already have into this to make it work well with Originium-based Arts. If you feel that for some reasons you need more than one of these weapons, you'll need to pay 100 for further purchases.
    Codename (Free)
    Individuals of interest in Terra tend to give themselves a code name. Something easy to remember that would be their mark of fame (or infamy) in this world. You too, will be able to make one such name for yourself. Everyone will know you as this code name.
    Urban Fashion (Free/200 CP)
    Terra is a weird place. Even with conflict everywhere and a recent economic slump, even the lowliest grunt will somehow wear stylish outfits fit for a fashion star. You will get a set of stylish but practical and comfortable outfits for you to use to match everyone else. They are also surprisingly resistant to damage, though they don’t protect you from damage. By paying extra, you can also get all the outfits of operators that had been released so far in the game at once, including bonus outfits.
    -I Know What We're Going To Do Today (Phineas and Ferb) (400CP)
    24 hours just doesn't seem like enough time to get stuff accomplished, but you'd be surprised what determination (and this perk) can get you. You can now complete days and even weeks worth of work in just a few hours, and this effect increases tremendously when you have a few helpers, to the point where a small team can work with you to complete years worth of work in a simple afternoon.

    -Enemy Tech Progression (Orion's Arm: The Amalgamation) (400CP)
    Any technological device that you have subverted will reveal its inner workings to you. The blueprints, knowledge and methods that go into the creation and operation of the technology you subvert is automatically uploaded to your mind. If you cannot subvert a technological device, you can still learn its secrets, but at a far reduced rate. You are also able to more quickly grasp the inner workings of those subverted devices to improve on, and upgrade them.
    [Free] Expansion of the Mind
    As with all those within the Amalgamation, you
    have been ascended up the toposophic tree. You become the equal of a basic
    transapient, with tens of thousands of times more processing power than a
    human, microsecond reaction times, the ability to partition different streams
    of thought, eidetic memory, focus on and alter your subconscious actions,
    drastically enhanced reasoning and deduction, the ability to speed up or slow
    down your different streams of thought at will and a slew of other mental
    enhancements.
    [Free] Networked
    You have been connected with the hivemind of the
    Amalgamation. Within this jump, you may freely access any knowledge and
    information the Amalgamation might have. Out of this jump, you are able to
    freely interface with any network or database that has a physical connection
    and/or is broadcasting a signal.
    [Free] Forced Upgrading
    You too can enhance the mental processing abilities
    of those around you, and make them loyal to both you and your cause. This also
    applies to AI and electronic devices with processing capacity. Whether that
    upgrade is willing or not is another question entirely, but it doesn’t matter
    when they are loyal to you in the end, doesn’t it?
    Chapter 4
    -Valkyrie Core Knowledge (Battle Action Harem Highschool Side Character Quest) (500CP)
    You understand the science behind Valkyrie Core technology. You'll be able to replicate aspects of its technology such as the ability to store and modify objects in a pocket dimension or the manifesting of Impeller fields, or the insane processing power of the Core itself. With time and a little work you'll be able to make new cores.
    Valkyrie Core & Frame (0CP)
    All origins possess a Valkyrie Frame with the accompanying core. A Valkyrie Core is capable of storing, integrating, and improving technology and equipment. Its only limitations are storage capacity and complexity both of which grow with hours synced. Your initial storage and complexity is based on your origin with more experienced origins having more. The term Valkyrie Frame usually refers to core that has integrated a suit of enhanced power armor that has been equipped with thrusters, weapons, and other equipment. Technology foreign to this universe is harder to integrate and upgrade. Post jump this limitation disappears.
    Chapter 5
    -Computation Creation | Magical Science (Youjo Senki - Saga of Tanya the Evil)
    Computation Creation (400CP)
    The operation orb - or computation orb, if you prefer - is a masterwork of science and mathematics. A unique crystalline and clockwork structure allows for mathematical code to be stored - called spells - and channels energy from the user in order to empower them. You now understand not just how they work, but why - and in doing so, can apply the principles to other aims. Magic is currently used solely by the air corps for long range bombardment. Let's fix
    that, shall we?

    Magical Science (merged with the above, no cost)
    You are at the forefront of mage technology, and can easily improve on what is currently being used, with some effort you can also build far more powerful mage tech. Whatever faction you belong to is sure to value you greatly.

    Walk Towards the Light (Phantasy Star Online) (600 CP)
    You have the knowledge necessary to work with Photons. You can create photon-based weaponry, defensive equipment, and even powerful FTL engines. Given enough time and resources, you could build your own Pioneer ships. In addition, you have the knowledge necessary to create most any of the items found in Phantasy Star Online. D-Cells are the exception to this, as even you don’t understand how they work.
    Chapter 6

    -Fun in the Sun (Warhammer 40k - T'au Empire) (100CP)
    Plasma, radiation, and antimatter are all similar in that they relate to exotic and high energy states of matter, whether it is stellar mass or individual particles of subatomic size. You now are a master of T'au technology as it relates to manipulating these high-energy states of matter and the physics that underpin them.

    -German Engineering (Smash Up) (200CP)
    Everything you build seems just a bit more. More durable, more efficient, more precise. Call it a 10-20% difference across the board?

    -Miniaturization/Efficiency (Worm) (400CP)
    You can miniaturize anything down to levels that any sane man would consider impossible. A fusion reactor the size of a watch battery would be the absolute minimum of what you are capable of, and you'd be able to make it far smaller than that. Your power also makes you a master of technological efficiency, anything you make needing barely any energy to run compared to what it should and continue to do so for a very long time. These specialties also make you a master of nanotechnology and similar pursuits. Of course you aren't barred from building something big like a giant robot, just that it'll be impossibly efficient and crammed full of more weapons and subsystems then should be possible
    [/spoiler]
    Chapter 7

    -Micromanipulators (A Certain Scientific Railgun) (50CP)
    These delicate gloves were meant for scientific purposes. They're reinforced with small motors and electrically contracting artificial muscles to allow you to perform delicate work on the scale of a micron. While they're definitely more suited to scientific experiments, they can be put to use in any situation that requires steady hands like aiming a rifle, conducting brain surgery, cooking, defusing a bomb, or even bypassing some redirection and shielding abilities.
    * Micron scale control

    -Rapid Construction (Blazing Saddles) (50CP)
    You are not only a truly excellent carpenter, you are an exceptionally fast worker. Any form of construction or crafting will be completed in a tenth the time it would otherwise take, though your overall quality will suffer if you use this at full effect (times ten). At times two, you'll sacrifice none of the quality, but as you get closer to times ten, you'll sacrifice more and more of it.

    Mysterious Serum (300CP)
    Fascinating. These test tubes contain a colorless serum that, when ingested, allow one to 'awaken' the Linker Cores of sentient beings, allowing them to naturally use this world's magic after a little bit of training with it. Note that individuals like Nanoha are exceptions to the rule, and will be in future worlds as well - unless they had a particular affinity for magic or some way to boost their arcane power, you're unlikely to find anyone who starts with a Natural Ability higher than A. You receive eight of these, along with the formula on how to create more - though it's encoded and you'll have to decipher it. If you have 'Ancient Knowledge', you already know how to make more on your own from the get-go. Magical ability growth for individuals outside of this world tend to plateau at S-rank on their own. Bear that in mind.

    Telepathy [Free]
    Your own magical chat network! You can communicate mentally with a willing subject, even if they otherwise lack the capability and range of this particular magic. You can’t really force them to do anything except listen to you, but this mind-to-mind communication network has a range across dimensions, though you obviously can’t communicate with past jumps or other continuities until you get your Spark. Note that your mental communication can be intercepted like radio transmissions would, and you can be shut out by someone unwilling to listen to you.

    Shooting-type Spells [Free]
    The simplest and most common spell used in combat. You focus mana into a sphere or ‘bullet’ and fire it at your opponent. Can be used in various forms - homing bullets, rapid-fire, and so on. The ‘big’ spells tend to fall under Bombardment, so take note of those as well. These can be ‘aimed’ by hand, or ‘guided’ by the right calculations in the spell.

    Bombardment-type Spells [Free]
    When someone or something absolutely needs to be blown the hell up befriended. Accept not substitutes. By focusing a large amount of mana into a single point, you may fire a large blast at a target, designed to completely overwhelm them via a show of raw power. These are almost always aimed, but if you can get a bit of skill and power for it, you might find a way to make such destructive spells guided...

    Magic-Enhanced Attacks [Free]
    Need a weapon to hit harder? Need your fist to absolutely break through something? Want to show off to someone? This is where you’ll look. By enhancing your blows or weapon with mana, you can make the blows or strikes inflict more damage, and letting you strike with more force than before.

    Barriers and Shields [Free]
    But you can’t just keep slinging offensive spells left and right all day without any kind of defense, right? You can create barriers and shields to reinforce your own defenses, letting you block spells and attacks so long as you utilize them properly. This can be especially draining or fragile against powerful Bombardment spells or worse, though...you might want to consider dodging instead.

    Capture-type Spells [Free]
    Finally, there’s these. You can physically restrain a foe with binding spells that inhibit their movement and prevent them from maneuvering, or even create intricate cages of mana that lock said foe in place completely and allow you to capture or interrogate them while they’re stuck in an immobile prison.

    Device:
    -Intelligent, Sapient (requires Intelligent), Unison System
    -All basic spells. Plus (basic) dimensional transfer, Knight Armor

    -ARTIFICER (PREY) (200CP)
    Any monkey with a wrench can look up the technical manual and do a repair. Well, maybe not any monkey, but you're certainly a cut above the rest. Any technology you come across that you understand the principles behind can be drastically improved. Either simplifying it to make it easier to fabricate or improving its durability or power output. Weapons, turrets, tools and vehicles can all be improved beyond their base specs.

    "VOLUNTEER" - FREE (Assumed as drop-in background)
    More often than not originating from the Soviet Gulags, Volunteers are a mixed bag. Some of them violent criminals involved in human trafficking and drug transport. Others are political dissidents, sent to the Archipelago for having inconvenient opinions. Others still were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, taken off the street to meet a quota. Whatever your past, all you are now is a number and a pound of flesh to be experimented on. Volunteers are granted an additional 12 Neuromods to spend on Typhon abilities.

    TRANSTAR SUIT - FREE ALL BUT TYPHON
    The TranStar suit is a multipurpose uniform that is designed to quickly and easily interface with an EVA system and utilise touch screens through the gloves. Volunteers are given a green suit and will not be trusted by the rest of the staff. Security is given a while and black suit, science a blue and black suit, Engineering an orange and black suit, and executive staff a red and black suit. Even in its basic state the suit gives a small amount of protection against environmental hazards and physical attacks along with a flashlight. The suit can take up to 8 additional chipsets, expanding its capabilities.

    HEPHAESTUS "HEFFY" TWIST & LOOP WRENCH - FREE ALL
    A common repair tool found all over the station with a fairly good weight. Makes an effective bludgeon in a pinch. Comes with schematics to make more with the Fabricator.

    GLOO CANNON - FREE ALL
    Another tool commonly found on the station. Launches a quickly hardening glue that is incredibly versatile. Can be used as a fire suppressant, an insulator against high currents, plug small structural failures in the hull, it can even stick to enemies and freeze them in place for a short time. The large globs it forms can also support human weight, allowing crafty engineers to create staircases to places they have difficulty getting too. Comes with schematics to make more of the tool and it's glue with the Fabricator.

    -Mastersmith | Expert Smithing (Ragnarok Online) (600CP)
    Mastersmith (200CP)
    The Mastersmith can socket items allowing him to add slots where modifications can be implemented onto items. While intended for cards, these can be used for other modifications which need slots if need be. (but effectiveness may be reduced)
    Expert Smithing (400CP)
    It's not just about creating the sharpest blade anymore. Improved items now have affixes on them based on how many times they've been improved. Each level will be tougher than the next to improve and require more energy/mana/souls, but the Blacksmith's smithing ability now has no cap.

    -Don't Need A Team (Ace Combat) (100CP)
    Fighter planes are pretty complicated machines, and more often than not you need a whole crew to maintain them so that they don't break down in the middle of a fight and doom the pilot. You know your plane well enough to circumvent this issue. You've got just the right idea on what needs tuning up and what needs fixing, along with having the speed to be able to fix a plane up by yourself without the need for a crew in a fraction of the time. Performance issues are a thing of the past for you.

    -Soundtrack (Free): When you take to the skies, it does not always have to be on a somber note. As you fly to your mission, dogfight, or assault an enemy position you'll have the soundtrack of your choice playing in the background. Others can hear this if you wish, and you can turn this off at any time. Perfect for when you want to hype yourself up for a situation.

    -Basic Flight Training (Free): If you couldn't fly before, you have a basic idea of how to fly a plane now. You know how to maneuver the joystick properly, which button fires the missiles, and how to properly land a plane without creating a multi-million dollar pile of scrap. It won’t save you if you dive into a massive swarm of planes all by yourself, but you can learn.

    -Missile Surplus (Free): Well this is odd. Any plane you pilot seems to hold an unnatural number of missiles for its type, far more than it should. You're not sure where it's getting this many missiles, but you'll have to restock them if you run out. The same thing happens with special weapons, though you have to have a working model to attach if you want to swap it out.

    -Comm Chatter (Free): While an important part of war is knowing what your opponent is up to, sometimes it’s good for puffing your ego up too. For whatever reason, your radio will occasionally catch communications being broadcast from the enemy. This can range from important information to wild surprise at your antics. Not too useful, but good for knowing how you're doing.

    -Flight Suit (Free): When taking off, an important requirement of being in a plane is a flight suit so that the G-forces don’t make your organs explode. It sounds silly, but you’ll be lucky you had it. So, have a nifty flight suit to help keep any pressure issues down while you're in the sky, on the house. It can come in any color you wish with a snazzy helmet to boot, ensuring that you’re the most glamorous pilot in the sky.

    -Basic Hangar Bay (Free): Sure you might be able to get a fighter plane... but where are you going to store it? You can’t just leave your vehicle to the mercy of the elements, it would cause all manners of damage to the plane and then you might be really in a bind. That’s why if you come out of this with a plane (or end up importing one) you can obtain a hangar bay which has the tools needed to keep the plane in good shape and can stand up to most forms of weather. It can even attach to a property or the Warehouse after your time here should it please you. For an undiscounted +100CP, this turns into an automated hangar bay with heavy arms and equipment to make repairing and moving the plane significantly easier.

    -Optimization Computer (Free: Engineer): Pilots are rather finicky people the longer they last throughout a war. Maybe it’s because the more they fly, the more they expand their horizons and feel comfortable in deviating from the standard. Nevertheless, it’s up to you to handle these strange jobs and make sure these pilots don’t get themselves killed in their greed. This computer has one purpose only; take scans of vehicles, and provide detailed statistics and simulations on how modifications would change their effectiveness. This way you can tell if the tweak to those thrusters will be an actual boon or if you’re going to need to repair them after each battle because they keep burning through the wiring with their heat output. A pilot with a fine-tuned plane is a deadly pilot.

    -Angels’ Dancing Floor (extra): The sky is a beautiful place when you sit back and think about it. It holds no true master, yet it welcomes those who are willing to brave its dangers and holds the personal allure of freedom among the clouds. With this, you can take a little bit of that freedom with you. Your warehouse will gain an aesthetic of either computer lines akin to an Electrosphere simulation, or a military base adorned in the country colors of your choice. Any surface can also be adorned with computer screens with a layout similar to the mission briefing that is presented to you. Feel like an ace no matter where you are.

    -Angels’ Skies (extra): You desire further freedom, then? Very well. With this additional purchase, you gain a virtual environment ‘outside’ your Warehouse. While you cannot store or grow anything here... you can still take to the skies and roam the virtual world around you. Mundane conditions are the limit here, such as a sunny day by a beach, or a snowy mountainside that was cloudy and cold. But this does mean you can have a sky of your very own... a sky reserved for only one owner.

    -Pilot Simulator (extra) Most times, when it comes to training with fighter planes you’re restricted toflying around and trying maneuvers on account of most planes costing tens of millions of dollars on the low end... each. So how are you supposed to train for firing off weapons and taking on entire forces? Fortunately, this sophisticated VR machine lets you plug in the specs of a vehicle you want to practice in while also programming in various encounters for you to test your skills. As you become better, the algorithms will improve and develop new recommendations for skill areas you need improving on, while increasing the skill of the virtual enemies as well. Peace time should be no excuse for not being strong.

    -Munitions Supply (extra): Rarely is there a worse feeling than flying through the air, lining an enemy right in your crosshairs... and finding that you have no ammunition at all and you’re just a flying tin can. Better to avoid this entire situation and just get yourself a nifty supply to keep yourself stocked up, mm? With this purchase you have a personal stockpile of bombs, missiles, and bullets for the equipment of your plane that continually replenishes as you burn through it to ensure you will never need to leave the hangar bay lacking on ammunition.​
    -N-Ways Fusion Plant (Endless Space) (200CP) (NOTE: Acquired Chapter 7)
    Refueling? What's that? You have mastered the art of Endless power generation, and any device you possess or can claim as yours never runs out of power. Other things can still be a problem, like weapons overheating, engines breaking down, etc, but you never need to worry about your battery running out. Your starting equipment and ship already have fusion plants installed in them, and you have schematics to make more, of various sizes, but you will need some rare elements and facilities to make them. The smaller they are, the simpler it is. Making a capital ship reactor is going to take a LOT of materials, but is totally worth it.

    Scout Ship (Free): An engine, a cockpit, some life support. This is as barebones of a ship as you can get, about the same size as a modern day space shuttle. It is essentially a space faring RV with sensors and a couple point defense weapons, designed for long journeys to the edges of known space.
    Drop-In (Style): Not all ships that travel the galaxy are made by the big names. While nothing sets these ships apart, they aren’t the subject to the same hatred opposing factions have for one another. Good if you want to lie low. A good jack of all, master of none ship.
    Chapter 8

    -Omnitool | Scanner (Mass Effect Andromeda) (200CP)
    Omnitool (100CP)
    You get an omni-tool loaded up with programs and information that'd be best suited for unsupported colonization in a new galaxy. Because the Andromeda Initiative knew that they'd be going with a finite supply of ammo, medi-gel and power cells, each omni-tool can recover and repurpose appropriate resources to serve appropriate functions. For example, liquid coolant allows weapon heatsinks to be reused, and organic compounds can be refined into medi-gel. They can also convert consumable items into immediately usable forms. Finally, they do everything else regular omnitools can: Communication, manufacturing fabricator, sensor analysis, and computer mainframe.

    Scanner (100CP)
    This omni-tool mounted system is how the Andromeda Initiative plans to rapidly survey planets. This system is fast and accurate sampling system that is formally known as Panoptes. When linked to an AI, it can produce multiple analyses and predictive models in seconds, turning what would be the surveying work of weeks into mere moments. For most purposes it uses a transmitted accelerator mass spectrometer to create a snapshot of an objects components, atomic weight, and radioactivity, allowing for in-depth analysis. For biological materials, the system switches to an electrospray ionization system, so that plants or animals can be scanned without causing radiation damage. For a Jumper, you no longer need to have an AI linked to the system for it to work, though that would help. You can also take DNA scans of organisms for further study, and scan devices to help you figure out what they do, and maybe later reproduce them. Lastly, if you have a longer ranged sensor system, you could link the Scanner to that to scan further away, even if being in the Scanner's original range would get you clearer results.


    -Clarketech (Generic Space Opera) (400CP)
    Not only are you able to reverse engineer, extrapolate from, and eventually replicate with a device of your own make any technology you encounter, you also are able to do so with any other phenomenon, be it a physical occurrence, magical or even divine in nature, or even just theorised by you to be possible, though in the latter case you naturally will encounter failure if your theories prove false, in addition to research and prototyping taking a prohibitively long time to do.

    (Author Note: Comes with a Spaceship. Details will be when I introduce the ship itself.)

    -Loaded Up (Generic Cyberpunk) (200CP)
    It's not enough to have what you need locked away back in the workshop, and even when you have time to prepare you often have to pack light. You have a particular genius when it comes to building and working with tools, gadgets, weapons, armor, and other personal scale equipment. Whether it's cramming a computing setup that would take up an entire workstation into something that a hacker can slap onto their arm for on the fly hacking, or taking a normal pistol and modding it until it's more lethal and effective than most military arms, you're able to cram a stupefying amount of effectiveness into easily ported packages. Your creativity, skills, and genius just seem to skyrocket when dealing with things in sizes that would hamper anybody else. Bigger doesn't always mean better, sometimes it just means cumbersome.
    Chapter 9

    Miolala Granliss - Engine-sister (Warhammer 40k - Adeptus Mechanicus) (100CP)
    Voluminous red robes cannot hide the curves beneath to this woman's eternal embarrassment. Friendly and perky in conversation to both man and machine, she is torn between her desire to be closer to the machine and her attachment to humanity. The possibly of a harmonious union between the two has inspired her to follow you. She has all 100, 200, and 400cp engineseer perks. She also has 'subtle bionics' 'artisan' and one pick of 'magos designation.'

    -They're Like Legos, Right? | This Is How I Want It (Kerbal Space Program) (600CP)
    They're Like Legos, Right? (200CP)
    There's robust engineering, and then there's modularity. Pick one. Except for you - you seem to have the gift of designing methods that allow for seamless mixing and matching of modular technology that lack none of the partsincompatibility and fragility you'd except from such a design paradigm. While this seems focused on Kerbin technology in specific, a little work should have you applying such a paradigm to all sorts of technologies…
    This Is How I Want It (400CP)
    Your capability of mentally designing items is vastly boosted. It's almost as if you have a mental idea space in the fashion of a construction bay with a lists of parts you have on hand that gives you an idea of what you can build at that moment... actually, that's pretty much what you have. As a bonus, you can mix and match parts in a manner roughly akin to legos, and giving you an idea of what would work and what wouldn't (and how much resources it would take to build). Mind, this doesn't mean that your mental creation will perform successfully, but it will function. As a final bonus, you can mentally hand-off the resultant creation to your Kerbals to build, and they'll do so without a mistake or screwup - meaning any snafu that results will be on your own head.

    This Is, Actually, Rocket Science (Free)
    You gain an instinctive grasp and understanding of Delta V and orbital mechanics.\

    Speak English, Dammit! (Free)
    You gain perfect understanding of Kerbals and the way they speak in thier burbling, whack-ass mix of swedish meatball chef... something. Conversely, you can pick this to have them all speak english.

    Some Old Friends (Free)
    Hey, what are you - wait a minute! How did you four get in here!? Oh, well. Looks like you're going to get some help in this jump, wether you want to, or no - Bill, Bob, Jebediah, and Valentina are all up and raring to go. As a bonus, all four come with the 'I Am A Pilot, Actually' perk for free.

    Espirit de Kerbal (Free)
    While you're going to have no end of volunteers of Kerbals to go into space(seriously, where the hell are they all coming from?), it's understandable that you're going to want a special group of Kerbals to count on in a pinch - an elite force you can trust to get the job done. Twenty Kerbals have stepped up to the plate to fill that role. This group of Kerbals doesn't seem to let mishaps keep them down; while crashes, explosions, and other shenanigans will, uh, result in Critical Kerbal Existence Failure, they'll pop back up in a week or so, right as rain and raring to go for another try. All 20 of these Kerbals will automatically gain whatever perk you purchase in this jump from the Pilot, Engineer, and Scientist perk tree - Drop-In, however, doesn't count for this.
    Chapter 10


    -Data Access (Endless Pantheon) (100CP)
    Having knowledge isn't always good enough, seeing as it can be quite the hassle to actually access it if you don't have the proper setup. You do, thankfully. This is one device of your choosing, which allows you to perfectly access any and all books, scrolls or databanks you have, putting all of the knowledge you have gathered at your fingertips at all times. It can also change forms, but is always something digital. Try not to stand too close to the wizard.

    -Resource Generator (Toaruverse) (100CP)
    Buying materials and resource cost too much time and manpower especially if the materials or resources that you need are limited or rare. You gain a warehouse full of materials and resources no matter how common to how rare it is that you need to build any technology that you want. It replenishes used materials every twenty-four hours after you take it out the warehouse, additionally it records and replenishes any materials that you add in your warehouse. After the jump it would become a warehouse add-on or be inserted near your starting location.
    * Gives a rapidly restocking warehouse which contains large amounts of anything that falls under materials and resources that is stored in your warehouse improving most perks that are listed under supplies.


    -Tinkerer (RWBY) (300CP)
    You're a whiz at maintaining, modifying and making things. Everything from Sniper Scythes to Toaster Ovens, as long as you made it yourself or had the blueprints on hand. Unlock the secret of Variable Weapon Crafting.
    Iconic Outfit, Free: One set of personalized casual wear with a symbol representing you.
    Iconic Theme, Free: You first hear this song when you do something amazing, then every time things get serious. Others can hear this if you wish, but won't find it strange. How bizarre.
    Scroll, Free: Think a smartphone, with terrible wilderness reception, video camera, messaging and more! Practically a passport for civilized society.

    Start with Aura for free.
    Small amounts of Dust will appear in the Warehouse weekly. Enough for a firefight or two at once.
    Variable Weapon freebie not taken for plot reasons.

    -Profession: Tailoring (World of Warcraft) (300CP)
    Sew cloth armor and many kinds of bags using dye, thread and cloth gathered from humanoid enemies during your travels. Tailors can also fashion nets to slow enemies with, rideable flying carpets, and magical threads which empower items they are stitched into. Zen Master: At this level you've mastered everything from basics to advanced. Additionally you've expanded your knowledge of the profession beyond the mastery of both basics and advanced stuff to complete understanding of it. At this level you're on an even playing field with top 1% of your profession. Should you write down your knowledge it would easily be considered a work of art in that field.

    -Doll Maker of Bucuresti (Touhou) (200CP)
    Being an undisputable genius in terms of mathematics and science in a realm ruled by magic tends to undermine just how impressive it is. Your ability with technology and engineering is so great that you are able to adapt to handling, repairing, modifying and even reverse-engineering completely foreign devices you have little to no background on. Your connection with both practical technologies along with magic allows for you to eventually unlock the secrets to creating magitech if given enough time to experiment.
    Chapter 11

    Artiste (Girl Genius SB) (100CP)
    From acting to painting, there's a lot of call for people like you around here! Simply put, you have the skills and talent to be one of the greatest, finest artists of all time. Not just in any one field either. Your talent is boundless and unbelievable at everything remotely art-related you do. With the slightest effort, you could be a scintillating star in all fields from writing, painting, singing, underwater basket weaving... er, you get the idea. Crowds throng to listen to a concerto from you, and books you write may well cause knife fights between people wanting to buy them! Such is your talent that in but a handful of months you could become a celebrity every bit the equal of the Queen of the Dawn, or any other celebrity you've heard of. This also makes anything you do look unbelievably good, from your fighting which looks like a dance, to your clanks which all look like Things of Beauty and Grace even when stuffed chock-full of firepower.

    -Centurio Ordinatus (Warhammer 40k - Adeptus Mechanicus) (600CP)
    You have been inducted into the Divisio Militarus, a branch of the adeptus mechanicus dedicated to the construction and operation of the Ordinatus war machines, mighty titan-scale siege weapons of unparalleled power. While the shielding and mobility systems that carry these devices into battle are relatively simple to create, you understand the intricacies of how physics and performance are affected by up-sizing technology. With sufficient data on the function of a humble lasgun or arc rifle to extrapolate from, you could smoothly transition that device to function when a hundred or more times larger - and to be appropriately more powerful than the simple multiplication of its output would suggest. The weapons you create and oversee are fit for a god-machine to wield, and the likes of Nova Cannons and weapons arrays on board the largest ships of the Mechanicus are also within your purview.

    -Atop The World (The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild - TG) (600CP)
    Walk this path carefully. This is the art that both saved, and destroyed Hyrule. You have unlocked knowledge of the greatest force multiplier the Sheikah were ever able to field - Large, walking, warmachines. You have a basic knowledge of the Sheikah's art of automation and robotics, with this alone giving you the knowledge to craft the small Guardians utilized by Shrines in combat tests, with the right materials. However, with enough resources and development time...you could create constructs that could even rival the 4 great Divine Beasts. This is the pure expression of Power...just remember that Power must be tempered with Wisdom, and wielded with Courage. Power without restraint is the domain of Calamity Ganon, after all.
    Chapter 12

    -Arcanatarium (Twokinds) (400CP)
    A trained mage can throw out spells on the fly, but the really impressive magic is prepared far in advance. For that, you'll need a place to work. This workshop is fully outfitted to support a practiced mage in all their pursuits. There's a permanent magic circle to focus your energies, a table of alchemical equipment for the brewing of potions, a wellstocked library full of tomes and scrolls of arcane knowledge, and any other dedicated workspace you'll need for working magic. This workshop also comes stocked with plenty of ingredients and materials for your alchemicy and artifact crafting, including rarer materials like precious metals and gems. You'll still need to provide any extremely rare or unique items, but this personalized workspace will have anything else you need for your own arcane pursuits. This property can take any form you wish, from a traditional tower to a basement laboratory. Post-jump, this workshop can be imported and attached to any property you own

    Chozo Challenge Chamber (200 Milestone): (Custom perk, thanks to Cheetored20 for creation)
    This room adjusts size and shape for your testing needs, whatever they may be. It can even provide test dummies for target practice...including live fire variants. Just make sure you don't go in there without anything to test, or it might just try to test you.
    Chapter 13

    -Construction (Battle Action Harem Highschool Side Character Quest) (600CP)
    You gain a complete understanding of modern UN technology and how to produce it. This includes everything from standard infantry power armor, to battleships, to even modern archologies. You also gain a large bonus to your Valkyrie's construction ability. With training and the right tools you could construct advance equipment in your Core's storage space, such as delicate processor chips, or build an entire town in a day like Anna.
    Chapter 14

    -Workshop (Generic Naruto Fanfiction) (400CP)
    Going out and beating people up is not all there is to being a ninja, certainly not in the myriad worlds of Naruto fanfiction. There's a lot of space for less outdoorsy activities, such as seal-creation, weapons-forging, and so on. That's where this beautiful place comes in! It's the ultimate workshop, perfect for just about anything you may care to work at. It has a huge supply of papers and inks for your fuuinjutsu needs, herbs and plants for preparing poisons or medicines, a forge and metal supplies for smithing, timber for woodwork, and so on, for anything else you may care to work on. The quantities of the materials generated depend on their rarity and value. Something like ordinary paper and ink, or plain steel and wood, would never run out no matter how much you use, while things like paper from special, chakra-enriched trees would be in far shorter supply. But no matter how rare something might be, so long as it's not absolutely unique, you can expect to find it here, and in sufficient quantities to work with. At the absolute slowest, for materials of priceless rarity like high quality chakra-storing gemstones or metals, you could expect a supply to regenerate bi-yearly, and proportionately lesser times for less rare substances. In future worlds this workshop updates with materials and ingredients of the respective settings, with the same replenishment rules remaining in effect.
    Chakra Coils- Free
    The basic ability to use chakra, as represented by “chakra coils” that are a nebulous part of your body and/or soul now. You have top-quality chakra coils which would place you in the top 5% in this world in terms of both capacity and control.
    After this jump your chakra system and body continue to function just as they do in this world, retaining any improvements or additions made along the way. You may also, if you choose to, induce the development of chakra coils in other people simply by pushing some of your chakra into them.

    Academy Training- Free
    You already have all the basic training necessary to start on your career as a ninja. Your physical stats and resilience are what civilians would call ‘peak human’ and you can mold chakra, use kunai and shuriken, do the academy three jutsu (henge, kawarimi, and bunshin), and have learned a basic taijutsu style. You’ve even studied ahead a little and learned tree climbing, chakra-boosted jumping, and several D-rank techniques.

    Elemental Affinity- Free/100 CP
    Not much to see here. You have an extremely strong elemental affinity in one of the five primary elements of this world, those being Fire, Wind, Water, Earth and Lightning. The first purchase of this perk is free, second and onwards cost 100 CP though you must purchase a different primary element each time.
    NOTE: Power Interactions have granted extra natural affinities.

    Shinobi- 100 CP (Author Fiat due to appropriateness)
    What with all the screaming jutsu names and giant fireballs and kaiju summoning, its like these people have entirely forgotten that ninja are supposed to be stealthy. Well, good thing you’re here to remind them.
    You are a true Ninja, a true ‘Old School’ shinobi. You have ungodly dexterity, patience and sheer skill at sneaking. You could sneak through a village full of ninja at high alert while wearing bright orange, and your skills at lockpicking, picking pockets, stealing, sneak attacks and the like, trades which demand stealth like this, are just as ridiculous.
    In addition, you no longer need to cry out any of your jutsu’s names, being able to just execute any and all of your techniques without even uttering a word. You’re also a dab hand at using the more ‘traditional’ ninja methods of dealing with people, such as poison use and various practical assassination techniques that don’t require engulfing your hand in lightning and running in a straight line at someone.
    Finally, while you do not gain any supernatural abilities related to stealth, you can maintain any abilities you do have in just about any condition, be it drunk, injured, or unconscious.

    Ninja Weapons- Free
    You have a pouch full of all kinds of general use ninja weapons, like shuriken, kunai, senbon, each of multiple kinds and sizes, up to and including things like fuuma shurikens and the rest. It also has many spools of ninja wire, along with the other slightly niche materials, and everything is of the very highest quality, prime Higurashi product.
    No matter how many of these you take out, there are always more, and you always pull out exactly what you were meaning to. Strangely no one ever seems to question this, maybe they just think you have a lot of storage scrolls in there? The items you take out eventually disappear after use.
    Chapter 15

    -Resupply Ship/Fog Warships (Arpeggio of Blue Steel) (400CP)
    An autonomous resupply ship that gathers materials to re-arm Fog vessels. It has no ability to fight on its own, but is capable of filtering nanomaterials from sea water (on an industrial scale) and mining heavier elements from the sea floor or beaches. Using these materials, it can manufacture missiles, gun rounds, and other expendable weaponry, as well as provide some ability to refit Fog ships (so long as the repairs don't require a dry dock). It has a non-sentient Union Core. With some modification, it could resupply and repair other types of ships besides Fog Vessels.

    Fog warships are advanced, more like starships than seafaring vessels. Built of nanomaterials, they can change their shape and structure when needed, though they seem to prefer the shapes of WWII-era ships. For example, their turrets instead of holding normal cannons instead house photon cannons, or their hulls open to fire their super graviton cannons. Ships comprised of nanomaterials must be controlled by a Union Core, or similarly advanced computer system. If purchased by a human, or as a second ship by Mental Models, these vessels are run by a Union Core (free) which does not currently have a Mental Model.

    -Arcane Emulation (D&D Eberron) (400CP)
    To enchant is to create the greatest of items. To enchant without magic is pure bullshit, but is doable with certain tricks shared only amongst the most secretive of crafters. Thanks either to learning from them or to discovering these abilities yourself, you can craft magical items without the need for related spellcasting. Further, you know all the little tricks to minimise the resource costs of your items, which whilst minimal by themselves add up to maybe halving the total time and resource expenditure per item.
    Psionic Power: A strange phenomenon commonly recorded amongst the Kalashtar people but present in almost anyone, albeit rarely, Psionics differs from spellcasting in that, instead of needing to wave your hands and chant something in one of the various dead languages, you simply focus on the effect. It’s also slightly different in that magical effects and Psionics don’t perfectly interact and can bring about some strange effects.

    Taking this perk either allows you to convert one existing class to a Psionic equivalent, with all of its perks applying to the new Psionic variant, or to take a single Psionic class of your choice, with the common ones being Psion (a dedicated caster), Psychic Warrior (a martial warrior that uses Psionics to augment their fighting), Soulknife (a lightly armoured warrior that projects blades of raw Psionic force from their hands) and Wilder (someone who channels Psionic power into rash outbursts of chaotic effect). Due to their rarity, unless you use a pre-existing class as a template, Psionic classes do not have any dedicated perks. This may be taken multiple times. [100CP]

    -Schizo-tech Expert (Arcanum: Of Steamworks And Magick Obscura) (400CP)
    Technology advances in leaps and bounds, which may leave the enterprising inventor with some compatibility issues. After all, upgrading the old model of steam-powered Automaton with an electromagnetic hydraulics system may give it the dexterity to paint works of art as much as cleave your foes in half, but that's hardly a success if the optical systems receive interference and rend your servitor blind! You've become exceedingly adept at integrating multiple kinds of technology, especially when the various parts would normally be incompatible. Using different energy sources, blending outdated design principles with the latest advancements of the future and more are all within your grasp. Incredible!

    Chapter 16

    -Beniemiya (Fate/Legends Japan Land of the Rising Sun) (50CP)
    It might just be something in the water, both what you're drinking and what you serve to the guests that adore every meal you make. You're a savant when it comes to making meals, not just limited to Eastern dishes either. With a little experimentation, you can make almost anything into a mouth watering feast for both the taste buds and the eyes. The real problem isn't making a good meal but keeping all these greedy pigs from eating you out of house and home. Don't even try making hamburgers around any blonde ladies, it never ends well. Now, while cooking good food is a prize well worth it, you do also have a more useful aspect here. By channeling magical energy into your tools and ingredients as you work, you're able to 'enchant' the meal with a variety of useful effects. A hearty beef stew that lets a warrior heal their wounds much faster than normal, sugary sweets that give people the speed of the wind, a mighty hamburger that temporarily bulges the muscles to greater heights. Even negative effects are possible, if you want to taint your food that way. They only last for a temporary period and the effects tend to be fairly weak without a lot of mana put in but it makes your food all the more popular.

    -4-D Assembler (The Culture Minds) (100CP)
    The Involucra were the builders of the Shellworlds, and your civ has a similar affinity for their construction methods. In what most humans think of as reality, these structures appear entirely normal, but to those who can see into hyperspace, they extend out of the skein of the universe into infraspace and ultraspace. 4-D architecture has very unusual properties, as it can be gravitationally self-supporting they do not crumble under their own gravity, or that of the stellar body they are on and are also heavily resistant to damage. Another unusual feature is that they also cut off all hostile forms of communication, travel or transport that attempt to pass through their walls displacement, hyperspace signals, wormholes, even beings recalled or summoned from elsewhere are prevented from passing through the structures' walls.
    Chapter 17

    -Weapon crafting (Devil May Cry) (200CP)
    Alright, so you fancy yourself a weapons dealer, huh? Well now you know the ins and outs of every single tool made for killing that you get your crafty little hands on. Swords, handguns, axes, sniper rifles, spears, rocket launchers, it'll all come naturally to you, and you will be able to create these weapons or even improve them with your own custom designs. And to make it even a better deal, you know how to modify a weapon to have unlimited ammunition capability. So go nuts, buddy. You've earned it.

    -Gushimera Laboratory (God Catching Alchemy Meister) (600CP)
    This research facility used to belong to powerful mages before they were overrun by demons. Some of the knowledge was lost as the demons made their home there, but after a while they just went away and this precious fountain of knowledge came into your hands. The facility was geared towards the creation of golems, artificial Mana Spirits and even has notes about creating homunculus. It's still somewhat operational and full of information waiting to be discovered. It will become a warehouse attachment post-jump.

    -Sparking Innovation | it is Written (The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild - TG) (600CP)
    Sparking Innovation (200CP)
    The fruits of hard work and study. By studying the arts of the ancient Sheikah, You can now create basic Ancient technology. The chief use of this is that you have the knowledge of creating the blue flame that acts as the energy source for much Sheikah Tech. This Blue Flame can be used to fuel various magitech as Sheikah devices are known to be, and in turn you are capable of creating simple tools such as cameras and recording devices with this level of knowledge. Nothing ground shaking on its own, but it's the base of even greater innovation.
    It Is Written (400CP)
    The use of mystical runes for enchanted effects is well known by those with a passing interest in the magical arts, but...the Sheikah were unique. They were able to create a language from runes that had conditional statements and effects. In short - the Sheikah could program with runes, thus allowing for programs to become spells. You have knowledge of this art as well - You are able to use Runes to code programs such as those used by the Sheikah Slate to perform its functions. This combined with Sparking Innovation would give you the groundwork to create your own variant of the Sheikah Slate with your own round of Runes...though magic doesn't make something simple - you'll need to create the code for these Slates yourself.
    Chapter 18

    -Spanner Hand (Revelation Space) (100CP)
    You're very good at fixing things...and, it has to be said, breaking them as well. You've a keen eye for the right places on a machine to do some damage; load-bearing supports, sensor clusters, stress bands in the hull. But the reverse still holds: when it comes to up-armoring something, reinforcing it, and ironing out any weaknesses, you'll find the optimal placement for those, too.

    -High Speed Creationist (The Weakness Of Beatrice) (400CP)
    There's no reason to bother with hours or days of waiting around for a potion to be ready, especially not when you're in the deep labyrinth, monsters are bearing down on you and your allies are injured. You've got no time for it and thus waste none, as your crafting and mixing abilities work at an insane pace. You can mix potions in seconds that take hours normally, even turning enemies into potions as you fight them if you're using the right sort of potion recipe. The way you smith or build items is just as fast, finishing swords in minutes or whole houses in hours. Combat crafting might have been seen as impossible but you're about to prove everyone wrong.

    -Ship Girl Conversion Kit | Equipment Boxes (Azur Lane) (600CP)
    Ship Girl Conversion Kit (400CP)
    Hmm, Jumper, you already have a naval vessel? Well, why not turn it into a Ship-girl? This handy little box can be attached to any Navy ship you personally own, wherein it will grow to envelop the vessel. Over a course of time relative to the size of the ship, this device will transform the vessel into a Ship-girl of an appropriate physique compared to the rough size of the vessel being transformed. For example, the SR2 Normandy might be a Destroyer, and an Imperial-Class Star Destroyer would be analogous to a Battleship. And yes, to be perfectly clear, this Item works on any vehicle that belongs to a Navy, on water or in Space. So yes, the Death Star would count too. Your new Ship-girl will become a Companion, with a personality fitting the background of her original builders. Continuing with the analogy, the Star Destroyer would be imperious and serious, while an Apocalypse Class Battlecruiser from Warhammer 40K would be devoutly faithful and xenophobic. Your new Ship-girl will retain her full array of weaponry and power, just in a human-sized frame... This is terrifying, why am I offering you this?
    Equipment Boxes (200CP)
    Because gear, equipment, and upgrade materials for your Ship-girls is half the battle of making them stronger. Upon purchase of this Item you will receive a randomized shipment of ten boxes every week ranging in rarity from 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest tier of gear. While tier 5 gear is the rarest, this purchase guarantees you at least 1 tier 5 box every month. Post-Jump this tier list will scale to your overall power level, with tier 1 becoming your baseline.
    Chapter 19
    -Bolthole Protocol (Honor Harrington) (400CP)
    While coming up with unbelievably advanced new designs may not be exactly your forte, what is is the reverse engineering of the same. You need only spend a few moments working at something to get a basic idea of how it works, and only get faster from there. No matter how advanced or obscure the technology, you can eventually work it out, with a thousandth the time and effort it would take anyone else.

    -Forged Of Gods (Dungeon Keeper Ami) (400CP)
    The powers of the light have their own strengths of course, among those is the ability to create hero gates through which no evil may pass, you also can now create these portals, with enough preparation it is possible to create hero gates strong enough to pass a small army through. This also grants you the knowledge of how to craft weapons and items out of adamantine, a metal that is made of the remains of a dead god, and even allows you to forge otherwise unbreakable metals as if they were steel.

    -Mechanica (Ars Magica) (600CP)
    In medieval Europe, Heron of Alexandria was known mostly for his philosophical works, but he also produced extensive texts on mathematics, physics and mechanics, which inspired a group of mechanic-mages known as the Mechanicians. These Mechanicians created magical mechanical beings known as Mechanica, some of which even had human-level intelligence.
    This knowledge spread throughout much of the Eastern Roman Empire, but died out in the fifth century as a result of religious persecution. You now have the knowledge and skill to revive this tradition, being capable of building Mechanica yourself. While these can be designed to perform simple mechanical tasks, they can also duplicate spell effects, and, with extra effort, they can be awakened, granting them magic resistance, the intelligence of an average human and a personality based on their form and materials.
    For example, a mechanical snake might be deceptive and prone to telling lies, while a being made from iron may be particularly stubborn. A being awakened this way begins its life very loyal to its creator, and will likely remain that way as long as it is not mistreated. Creating Mechanica does not require vis despite the fact that they will operate indefinitely if kept safe and well-maintained. The components required for their construction are very expensive, however.

    -Neuromancer (Generic Cyberpunk) (200CP)
    You've mastered the arts of interfacing machines and the human mind, able to both design and build things to seamlessly interface with the human nervous system and the actual consciousness housed within it. Building an implant or accessory to let people access the net with just a thought wouldn't be difficult at all, neither would making sure that a cybernetic connects so seamlessly with the user that it feels more natural than their original arm. You've
    also mastered the use of such a simple if almost magical technology, not just it's construction. Combined with some programming skills, full immersion Virtual Reality would easily be within your grasp. You've bridged the gap between mind and machine, it's up to you to discover where you go with it from here.

    -Chemical Synthesizer (Hive Queen Quest) (100CP)
    This microwave sized machine is truly a wonder of modern science, able to synthesize any non-magical chemical known to man in up to 12 oz batches. Synthesizing a chemical takes roughly an hour and works via a small Tablet interface.
    * A bit underpriced for any matter creator, even with the small volume and time needed, born from lacking knowledge that ever matter falls under chemical.

    -Mechanic (Ragnarok Online) (300CP)
    While the Mastersmith socketed and improved items, the Mechanic instead focuses on machines namely the mado- gear that they are known for. Their proficiency allows them to improve machines the same way a blacksmith might improve a sword, and Mechanics with extensive experience can slot machines to accept external improvements.

    -An Adaptive Enemy (Eclipse Phase) (600CP)
    You have taken the lesson of the Exurgent Virus to heart, and have made a breakthrough in programming viruses and other malware. By combining your malware with the neural models found in AGIs, you have the knowledge to create adaptive, digital smart viruses with just enough self- awareness to value their own continued survival. These smart-viruses are a head above the usual Kaos AIs, capable of working cooperatively, and in a creative manner, discovering and exploiting new weaknesses in software thrown against them, and overcoming obstacles or setbacks in the way of their high-level goals in unexpected and new ways. Even if they altered their own programming, you always retain Administrator command privileges over them.

    -Machines, They Just Speak To Me (Firefly) (200CP)
    You have no formal schooling, but can fine-tune and repair engines with nothing but shoe polish. You don't know what the parts are SUPPOSED to do, but you know how to make them work the way you want. You can diagnose a faulty part in the power core just by listening to the AC cycle, and can fix pretty much anything with naught but a wrench and some duct tape. It may not be pretty, and it may not last long, but it'll work.

    -Grease Monkey (Bubblegum Crisis) (300CP)
    What can you fix or build? What CAN'T you fix or build? Nothing, that's what. From hyper-cars to Buma, computers to Hardsuits, with the right tools and enough time and experiments, you can build it all, weaponry included
    .
    Chapter 20
    -The Mixing Cauldron | Melting Pot | Spirit Pyroxene | Goldberg Formula | Daisy Chain | The Vortex (Atelier: Arland Trilogy) (600CP)
    The Mixing Cauldron (100CP)
    Every Alchemists' trusty tool, the mixing cauldron is basically the alchemist's work desk and research station combined into one. With this, no potion is out of reach though it isn't uncommon to find that some alchemists' will create...other things from their cauldrons, and one would be foolish to presume that a cauldron can't be improved...
    Melting pot (100CP)
    It's not uncommon to find that certain ingredients will not mix well just as attempting to stack too many enchantments into a potion can prove disastrous. In an attempt to mitigate this, the melting pot was constructed with a higher rate of mixing. This directly translates to a higher degree of homogenization, but you'll have to understand that to maintain this level of mixing you need to have a higher energy source than just a fire under the cauldron. It does allow you to blend some ingredients that normally would not mix however, though the results may still not be as optimal as you would hope.
    Spirit Pyroxene (100CP)
    No one quite knows where this pyroxene came from, but it has a very definitive effect on the items that it forms a component of. The mystical power inside the pyroxene seems to carry over into the items that it forms at least a portion of the power does, and the crafted items became more conductive towards spiritual magic of a large variety.
    Goldberg Formula (100CP)
    There are times when making things overly complex can be problematic. Then there are times when making things overly complex can be outright awesome. Your cauldron really shouldn't be called a cauldron anymore. Synthesis isn't a matter of tossing in ingredients and brewing. Your cauldron is a part of a system, a large chain of components and contraptions which ultimately will create a potion likely of higher quality. But you'll likely have no clue how it works. Due to the nature of this set up, you'll find that the cauldron will follow along with you in a containment chamber of its own and though it initially resembles a cottage...should the contraption chain grow bigger (and it will!) the cottage will also increase in size.
    Daisy Chain (100CP)
    Interested in large scale alchemy? Well, between this and a core reactor, you'll have yourself a veritable alchemy workshop. Granted, in reality this just sets up a series of mini cauldrons which will automatically adopt specific arrangements to facilitate more complex, multi-tiered synthesis reactions but it'll boost your synthesis rates immensely, and ensure that easier recipes won't fail! Of course...you could have each cauldron act autonomously but really they work best in unison with every other unit. Due to the number of cauldrons created, a large part of the containment chamber is occupied by cauldrons as they move about and get down to business. Thankfully, you can still move about and organize the cauldrons though they're a fair bit more autonomous than before. Each cauldron seems to exhibit the same effects as your original cauldron, and it isn't out of the realm of possibility to add more cauldrons though it'll be a time consuming process.
    The Vortex (100CP)
    The amount of energy required to keep this going will be tremendous, but if you toss anything into there it will blend. Instead of functioning like a batch system, the Cauldron operates continually, and will actively remember the last effect from the last ingredient which was put in. It's also possible for it to store an effect, but this requires you to have a constant supply of the reagent necessary to provide that effect. A cauldron useful for expert alchemists, one should take care if this is combined with any other extensive modifications.

    -Technical Specialist | Forceful Engineer | Extragalactic Tech (Star Wars - Darth Bane Trilogy) (700CP)
    Technical Specialist (300CP)
    It is arguable that this galaxy has, on the whole, reached a technological plateau. This bar may be relatively high if one was to compare it to that of previous Jumps. Sentient computer systems, widely available commercial FTL, weapons that can scour planets, miraculous medical technology and gravity manipulation to name a few. An extremely comprehensive database of all these discoveries, refined and developed over the course of millennia, will be mentally accessible for you. Should you have the resources and tools on hand, there's no reason you couldn't create almost anything natively produced in this galaxy.
    Forceful Engineer (200CP)
    Force sensitive individuals and species have created wondrous unions of engineering genius and Force energies. Prisons to hold eldritch nightmares, holocrons and seemingly infinite factories that strip entire stars for the resources needed for your unending fleets. You are inspired when it comes to the design of such marvels, even being able to use the Light Side for unseen effects. This brilliance extends beyond the Force into the wider realm of 'Magitek'. The potential trichotomy of Machine, 'Magic' and The Force could give birth to near unimaginable wonders for the inventive mind.
    Extragalactic Tech (200CP)
    Exo-technology is a field of science that specialized in studying in combining the technologies of various species of the galaxy. Your nature as a Jumper allows you to go beyond merely marrying the design sensibilities of several alien peoples. You easily blend the varying physical laws and examples of causality you've encountered in the creation of any one thing.
    Chapter 21
    -Legendary Craftsman (Modded Fallout) (200CP)
    Remember all those unique prototype weapons with crazy awesome effects? The Legendary items in Fallout 4? The games have had their fair share of 'better than normal' items, and you know just how to make them. You have the ability to substantially improve whatever items you work on, needing at most enough components to build a second copy of the item in question. Whether it's dumping half your power cell into each shot a la Pew-Pew, making every bullet fired by your Minigun into an explosive round, or crafting armor that boosts your stats with no regard for how or why it works, you've got it all. Never again will you need to worry about being unable to find that Two-Shot or Instigating Gauss Rifle! You'll even be able to (slightly) fudge where those unique effects could be found, like making Power Armor with special effects or a Gatling Laser that does fire explosive rounds. Beams. Whatever.

    -Muggle Technology (Make a Wish) (200CP)
    You know it, general knowledge of up to graduate level in every scientific field is known to you, not only this, but the knowledge seems very eager to help you and as such whenever you are using magic for creation of something or other, the knowledge will leap up with helpful facts and connect seemingly disconnected facts to help in whatever magical creation you are making next. Post Jump, the helpfulness and eagerness spreads to the rest of the knowledge you have in your mind.

    -Fairy (Fate/Legends - Garden of Avalon) (400CP)
    Despite having human parents, you are a long way from being human yourself. An ancient, long buried heritage in your ancestry has awakened and you were born as a Fairy. A Fairy is an extension of Gaia, similar to how the hairs or fingers on your body are an extension of you. Despite this, you retain your free will completely, thus allowing you to benefit quite significantly from being considered a natural part of the world, especially when it comes to your magecraft being accepted as entirely natural. You are also able to become invisible to the senses of any being without magic. Beyond this, you have amazing talent in creating magic items and while you are right now a long way from crafting something like Excalibur or Arondight, you are still several times as skilled, fast and efficient in the creation of magicalitems as normal. Lastly, you have the potential, with enough power and/or age, to evolve into a full fledged Elemental, Granting you greater authority and importance to the world, along with a not insignificant boost in power.In future worlds, you may choose to have a similar connection to the world you begin on as you do with Gaia here.

    -Feel It Out | Synchronicity Event (F.E.A.R.) (900CP)[MILESTONE PERK]
    Feel It Out (600CP)
    Your ability to understand machines and designs are more than just knowledge, and anyone who follows your work would know this well. You have a subtle psionic ability to 'understand' the machines and items that you physically touch, to the point where you can understand how it might work. More importantly, what you could do to also make it better. Naturally the more complex or esoteric the item is, the more drastically the time needed increases. But the
    more information you collect the more ideas and methods you can formulate to begin working.

    Synchronicity Event (300CP)
    [Requires "Feel It Out"] Curiouser and curiouser. Due to coming into contact with... well, SOMETHING, your psionic abilities have noticeably increased. Psychic powers you may have had are stronger now, with control and development coming more quickly with practice. There is also a boon to this; by taking a few days to 'attune' a person, you may impart upon them the beginning of psionic abilities of their own. You may only gift one school at a time, and they start at the very beginning; if they are to grow and learn as you have, it would be wise to teach them. On the plus side, they'll eventually become as strong as you are, so you'll have quite the pupil on your hands.
    Chapter 22
    -One-Man Assembly Line (XCOM) (600CP)
    You really liked playing with building blocks as a kid. Now that you're all grown up, the world is your playground. Your knowledge of construction and engineering is unprecedented, and making a jet engine from spare parts over a weekend is your idea of fun.
    (A/N: Freebies for this jump will be collected later.)

    -Notes of Thoth (Kane Chronicles) (400CP)
    When Thoth, the god of writing, knowledge, and magic was young, he traveled to the far eaches of the Duat, researching the natures and mechanics of those regions, as well as the spirits and gods that called those places home. His field notes - and the many powers and dangerous spells that resulted from them, later became known as the Book of Thoth. By purchasing this, you gain a collection of his notes about the nature of gods, spirits, and other dimensions and planes of existence in this setting, which could be used to invent many of the spells the Book contained for yourself. Post-jump, these notes will update to include the local versions of such things in new settings.

    Xolsis:
    -Plowshares from Swords from Plowshares (Warhammer 40k - Squats) (100CP)
    You might have noticed most of the best Squat vehicles and weapons are repurposed mining and industrial equipment. This is no accident, for not only do such things have to be tough, they are intimately familiar to operators and engineers alike. You have a particular genius for weaponizing civilian technology, and finding constructive industrial uses for weapons.

    -Lost Art (Generic Video Game Developer) (600CP)
    You are now an expert of the lost art, the art of code efficiency. Any code and software you make will now be far more efficient, using up far less resources for the same results and running significantly faster than most standard code. Your game would normally be 16GB and requires 8GB of RAM? Now it uses half that, at least. Game causing lag and crashing because too much is going on? Not anymore. Whatever you code, it'll run fast, and it'll run well.

    Fourmyle:
    -Blacksmithing: Zen Master (World of Warcraft) (300CP)
    Smith various melee weapons, mail and plate armor, and other useful trade goods like skeleton keys, shieldspikes and weapon chains to prevent disarming. Blacksmiths can also make various stones to provide temporary physical buffs to weapons.
    At this level you've mastered everything from basics to advanced. Additionally you've expanded your knowledge of the profession beyond the mastery of both basics and advanced stuff to complete understanding of it. At this level you're on an even playing field with the top 1% of your profession. Should you write down your knowledge it would easily be considered a work of art in that field.

    -Master Smith | Ahzidal's Apprentice (Elder Scrolls Skyrim SB) (800CP)
    Master Smith (400CP)
    So, how many iron daggers did this take to get? Regardless of the answer to that question the results have surely shown themselves to you and everyone else. You're a master of smithing and the working of metal, forging weapons out of Glass and Ebony is well within your capacity, and even Daedric items may be forged with proper equipment and materials. Your craftsmanship is nothing less than perfection and your opportunity to grow is great as well. Given times you may yet forge tools, weapons and armor that rival even the likes of Daedric artifacts.
    Ahzidal's Apprentice (400CP)
    The art of spellcasting has more to it than just flinging fireballs and screaming about UNLIMITED POWER as one electrocutes their enemies. The arts of Enchantment and Alteration stand as testaments to this fact, enchantment in particular stands as a powerful, yet indirect system of magic and when it comes to this branch and the operation of it only the Dragon Priest Ahzidal is your equal. Like him you've collected vast knowledge pertaining to the various magical bases of the Mer, whether it be the ancient runes of the Ayleids or the process of harmonizing the seven natures of metal. This craft extends far and wide and with it even a mere band of 500 warriors could be given equipment powerful enough to fell a powerful race of spellcasters like the Falmer, or in other, more simple words your enchantments are legendary. You could perhaps go even further, runes are simply another language, and if understanding them allows you to use them, then perhaps even others like that of the Dovah might be as well. This is lore based Daedric artifacts which includes shit like instant kill weapons or key that can conceptually unlock anything. Or a sword that stole power from a daedra and flew a floating city of soul warriors into mundus. Pretty much all major Daedric artifacts are conceptual even if they are nerfed for the game.
    (A/N: I am specifically Ignoring Freebies from this jumpdoc)

    -Fingers of the North Star (Cave Story) (200CP)
    You have a natural talent with machinery, and this extends to firearms creation. You can disassemble, analyze, and reassemble any projectile weapon you come across, and you have the ability to create unique, one of a kind guns that utilizes odd and esoteric technology. You also gain a free 'stamp' you can apply to any weapon you create, to show it's your work. Upgrading existing weapons is a breeze as well.
    Chapter 23
    -Brain of the Moon (Touhou Forbidden Hermit) (600CP)
    Did you study under Eirin? Like her, you can make a drug to perfectly cure any possible disease, make drugs that could manipulate the Dream World, and likely produce even more fantastical effects. This does have a few limitations, you cannot create a drug that does the impossible, you can’t cure something you do not know or understand, and you cannot make drugs without base ingredients. Perhaps if you found someone who could manipulate eternity itself you could even replicate the Hourai Elixir. This does not come with any raw materials, but you will also find ways to substitute the raw materials of other worlds for anything you could have found here.

    -Seamless Construction (Endless Space) (400CP)
    You might not be able to design the perfect ship, but you certainly could build one that is good enough. Given enough resources and the proper blueprints, you can build ships that would rival that of the Endless, cast as a single, cohesive whole. Even if you build it with mundane methods, it still ends up being nearly perfect, not a single design flaw or construction error in sight. This also applies to things you build that aren't spaceships.

    -They Will Prosper (Marvel Magic) (200CP)
    Being able to make fantastical tech that can compete even with magic is all well and good, but is it really being put to optimal use if you're the only one directly benefiting from using it? You will find you have a knack for scaling personal technology to a larger size. Turn a personal shield into something that can protect an entire city or make your particle gun into a weapon of mass destruction. Of course, just because you can figure out the logistics behind increasing the scale of your technology doesn't mean you actually have the resources to make these plans into a reality -- and you can bet increasing the scale by a large degree will see a comparative increase in the cost of resources.

    -Weapon Modifications (Archer) (100CP)
    You design and modify weapons with flair, creativity, and skill.
    –Phrasing (freebie)
    You gain the ability to easily bait people into making sexual innuendos.
    Chapter 24
    -Artistic Architect (Halo - Forerunner Saga) (100CP)
    Forerunner structures are not simple. Even in the worst of times, there is a beauty to their layout. Patterns woven into walls, shining pillars reaching to the sky, and shimmering glass panes adjourning corridors. Forerunners don't just build big. They build artfully. Like so many other Builders, you have an eye, and a hand, for beauty in construction. From the most simple of floors, to the most terrifying of weapons, you can spruce them up so that they are breathtaking to behold.

    -Device Meister | Similar Principles | Ancient Knowledge
    Device Meister (600CP)
    This is the real treasure of the TSAB's technological capabilities - mixing the use of magic and technology inorder to create Devices that can channel the energy outwards. You have a complete knowledge of how to build and maintain Devices, along with how to program AI for said Devices to use.
    While you can construct most Devices and similar items presented here, the ability to make Unison Devices isn't included here - you'll have to learn that one on your own, and many have tried and failed to do so in the past. You could, with some experimentation, combine different magical systems into Devices together, especially with the help of 'SimilarPrinciples' to streamline the process...it will take some trial and error, but you could apply these principles and Devices to other systems if you work at it enough.

    Similar Principles (400CP)
    It’s strange how similar concepts can be between dimensions, no? The line between magic and technology just doesn’t seem as thin as it otherwise should be, especially in your hands. The TSAB system combines both, and while this doesn’t let you start building Devices from the ground up, you understand the principle enough that you can combine magic systems from other worlds with technology. Guns that fire beams of mana, helmets that create a telepathy-based chat network, wristbands that let you form an outfit from thin air...spells can be made into technology much more easily, and the technologies play a bit more nicely with magic in your hands, even if a particular system of magic isn’t fond of being ‘simplified’ by science. How about that?
    Ancient Knowledge (400CP)
    The legacy of the Belkan Empire exists not merely within ruins or Lost Logia, but in the blood of its people. You have inherited a bloodline of note, and while it may or may not be one of the canonical or major bloodlines, a piece of it has followed you in your very DNA, subconsciously nudging at your memory. While this creates no stress or strain on your personality, the connection is diluted enough that you can't consciously access this memory...but when you come into contact with Lost Logia, you will rapidly gain insight into how it functions and possibly ways to engineer it once again. You will need actual technical skills to pull this off, but with a little bit of time, perhaps you can restorewhat is lost? Post-jump, this same insight applies to 'lost' or 'forgotten' technology, though you will likely need other sources of knowledge and abilities to truly restore it, depending on its complexity. May or may not come with brief instances of acting and speaking like a resident of the Belkan Empire at random intervals.

    -Junkyard (Mass Effect Andromeda) (400CP)
    Junk to some is treasure to others. You get a doorway that leads to a small pocket universe that is filled with the local area's lost, broken and/or discarded items. You might find broken gear, ruined vehicles, or maybe a pristine limited edition item that someone just forgot about. Everything in here will be somewhat useful to you, but you get to decide if it's use is as a source of resources, or if something is worth fixing.The doorway takes the appearance of an expandable hula hoop that opens a portal to the pocket universe.
    The pocket universe will refill with junk as you travel, or as the local area around you generates junk that will be siphoned off. In addition, if you haven't cleared out the junk universe in one jump, then you can still pick it up in another, while the junk from the new jump will slowly filter in as space is opened up.

    -Black Boxing (Warhammer 40k - Squats) (200CP)
    While certain red-robed rats of Mars always trying to get their grubby mechadendrites on your stuff is annoying, messing with them is endlessly entertaining. You can easily tweak your work to be nearly impossible for others to duplicate. If you're feeling particularly spiteful, you can build in some cross-connections so anyone trying will blow themselves up.

    -Taylor made | Resolute Thread (Skulduggery Pleasant) (200CP)
    Tailor Made (200CP)
    You have the knowledge of how to weave magic into clothes, making them incredibly durable and protective. They're capable of protecting the wearer from most things, including bullets, knives, magic, extreme heat, and large amounts of blunt-force trauma. They also look damn stylish.
    Resolute Thread (200CP)
    You have a spool of thread that's supposedly made from the stomach lining of an Emperor Dragon over 2000 years ago. The more pressure applied to it, the stronger it becomes. You could bind a superhuman or use it to hang hundreds of tons off of the ground. Spool refills and used thread once a month.
    Chapter 25
    -Bonesinger (Warhammer 40K - Craftworld Eldar Jumpchain) (400CP)
    Dear child, the Eldar do not simply build their wondrous technology. Instead, they rely on the power of song to shape their creations into being. This is a very demanding process, which requires a unique mix of artistic and scientific knowledge. Most importantly of all, a strong mind is necessary for this process. Bonesingers sing a psychic song, and its melodies form a psychoactive material from the warp itself, called Wraithbone. This lightweight material is stronger than titanium but is far more flexible and weighs less. Additionally you can psychically grow crystals that are the basis of their laser & lance technology. You have the knowledge and ability to sing any Eldar technology and any technology you know into being and more than that, eons of experience in doing so. Even so, the more complex an item is, the more time it takes to create said item. A whole choir of Bonesingers is required to create large and complex items such as starships and Eldar Titans unless you are willing to sing alone for years. With enough time, perhaps, you could even sing forth a brand-new Craftworld but how and where would you acquire that much time? Even an Eldar is not immortal.

    The Tower (Metroid) [Custom Perk by cheetored20](special):
    This weapons/armor testing facility is fully automated, and recycles spent and damaged materials at a 95% efficiency rate. It developed the standard versions of the beam weaponry, and can probably do the same with any esoteric effect you give it given time. It includes self repairing testing drones that will work security in a pinch, after all there should be more than one TESTER in such a facility.

    “Minor” Infection (Phantasy Star Online) (Special)
    You came to Ragol aboard Pioneer I, and you were one of the first to be exposed to Dark Falz. You were able to escape, but not before being infected by DCells. Thankfully, your situation wasn’t quite as bad as poor Heathcliff’s, and you avoided telling anyone about your issue. The signs of this encounter are obvious to anyone who knows where to look—it could be anything from a curious tattoo to a festering wound, but it won’t significantly impact your life.
    That doesn’t mean you escaped unchanged, though. You find yourself capable of working powerful illusions over an area. You can convince people there is a spire where nothing stands, or that they’re walking on green grass as they step on a field of crushed skulls. As soon as the world fails to match up between two of their senses the illusion will break, though, and you can’t do much about touch. You get additional effects based on the other perks you’ve purchased.
    (this is a capstone booster).

    Walk Towards the Light Dr. Osto’s Successor
    You’ve gained an unnatural understanding of how D-Cells interact with other organisms and technology, in large part because you yourself are now something of a D-Cell organism. Creating Mags, alternate lifeforms, D-Cell based weaponry, Artificial Intelligence, all these things are within your grasp. Given enough time and effort, you might even be able to surpass Dr. Osto himself and create Mags with greater limits, or none at all, or lifeforms surpassing anything seen on Ragol. Just reaching Dr. Osto’s level will require a lot of work though, and surpassing it much more. Perhaps you can find his notes, to help you along?

    -Nullspace Computer (Megas XLR) (100CP)
    You have a computer tower you can summon from and banish to nullspace. allowing you to upgrade it but otherwise keep it safe. You may summon a holographic interface for it at will.
    * Massive upgradable supercomputer that can be kept safe by existing outside reality and simultaneously be used due to its holographic interface making it an extremely useful item which benefits from all abilities which improve its performance while being entirely tamper proof.

    -Neoalchemist (The Glass Scientists) (200CP)
    Invisibility serums, subtle poisons, superspeed formulae, if the Victorians ever imagined it could be done with chemistry, you can do it.

    -Tenebrium Basics | Tenebrium Mine (Divinity - Original Sin) (800CP)
    Tenebrium Basics (200CP)
    Tenebrium is an odd mineral. It grows like a crystal, but can be melted and forged like iron. It is easily enchanted, but highly resistant to other kinds of magic. In addition, it is highly dangerous and inflicts a disease known simply as Rot upon all those who handle it in any form. Worst of all, Rot cannot be cured by simple magical spells, requiring rare and powerful artifacts to cleanse the infected. Most cannot afford such things and slowly wither over the months following handling a single chunk of crystal. But with this perk, you have come to understand how to safely handle Tenebrium without infecting yourself.
    Tenebrium Mine (600CP)
    Tenebrium is an utterly useful material, for all that it is also incredibly dangerous to handle. Still, considering all its uses, one can hardly be blamed for desiring to have a steady supply of the crystal on hand. The Tenebrium Mine attaches directly to your Cosmic Warehouse and takes the form of a traditional mining tunnel about a hundred feet deep. Inside one will find a few dozen crystals of Tenebrium growing, each large enough to produce a single ingot when smelted. Once harvested new crystals will slowly grow in their place over the course of a week. The mine is also capable of producing other metals, crystals, and even gemstones if given a sample of such material. These will form in veins along the walls of the tunnel, but grow much more slowly. Exotic metals will form at a rate of one ingot every two weeks and crystals will produce roughly the same amount. Gemstones seem to be easier and the mine will produce a collection of small stones that will fill a cupped hand in a week. Normal metals, like gold and silver, can also be produced at a rate of one ingot per week. An ingot here refers to enough material to forge a traditional longsword with.
    Chapter 26
    -Fumble Spotter (Generic Cubicle) (200CP)
    You excel at finding odd ways in which your products might be used or misused that could lead them to fail, and in devising ways to fix them before they ever become issues. You are also adept at making the proper usage for your products obvious in their design.

    -Orb Design Plans (Swat Kats) (800CP)
    Well... this is curious. The design plans for a Micro-Brain Repair Unit... this won't show up for some time, but it is quite useful nonetheless. Once assembled, it will have the ability to scan and repair any damaged machinery it comes across, simply by using the materials around it. The more advanced the machine is, the longer it will take... but it will do its job. Even more concerningly, it has the ability to learn and adapt itself, assimilating machinery to create a more grand body. It may come with existential issues... are you sure you want this?

    -STC Converter (Warhammer 40k: Adeptus Mechanicus) (300CP)
    This tome-sized cogitator is designed to be fed blueprints for alien or out-of-jump technology and convert them to use STC-standard parts and design principles, well-known for being extremely robust. Perfect translation and equal functionality is not guaranteed, while technology that relies on unique materials or scientific principles not native to the 40k setting will most likely be impossible to recreate. The blueprints that result from successful conversions can be followed by any competent tech-priest. Running blueprints for Magitech or psionic technology through this device without a supreme understanding of 40k metaphysics is an exceedingly bad idea.

    -Crafting (Geneforge) (300CP)
    There are various things that can only be created through the use of essence and hard work. Shaped equipment, puresteel, certain complicated tools and devices, and certain materials used in enchanting. You can work all of them, producing high quality goods from basic ore and hard work.

    -Uchiha Jutsu Archive (Generic Naruto Fanfiction) (400CP)
    The Uchiha really were quite shameless in their day, always going around copying everybody else's lifetimes of hard work just by using their special eyes. Well, at least you get to benefit from that. Somehow you've obtained a copy of the complete Uchiha Jutsu Archive, everything that several generations of dedicated intellectual property thieves could copy from every other ninja village, clan and small ninja child in the Elemental Nations. Pretty much any and every technique, seal, chemical formula, pill/cookie recipe or random dance routine that that one Uchiha liked can be found in here. Any knowledge that wasn't limited to literally just one person, family, or bloodline or was based purely on sealless chakra manipulation (such as the Rasengan) and thus uncopyable by the Sharingan is in the archive, all of them laid out in such a clear and concise format that any half-competent ninja could teach himself just by reading the scroll. This archive will update with a complete set of spells, fighting styles, etc, etc. from any setting that you have visited and will visit in the future. Provided it could be generously called public, or even semi-private, knowledge it will be in here. Only the most super-secret, utterly private techniques are missing; after all, even the best copyright pirates can't get everything. This place is comprehensively warded against thievery, somewhat ironically, and it would take a team of top-tier infiltration specialists to even attempt to breach it. Of course its best defense is that, at least at jump start, no one knows you have it. Post jump you can have this become a warehouse attachment.

    -Shadow Clones (Generic Naruto Fanfiction) (100CP)
    Ah, shadow clone no jutsu. The signature jutsu of the Naruto franchise. And now you can join in on the fun. You have a copy of a technique scroll for the shadow clone jutsu, of such quality that an idiot could teach himself from this thing in virtually no time at all. It even has safeguards built-in that eliminate any possibility of killing yourself by putting too much chakra into it, or getting a headache from too many clones dispelling at once or anything like that. The worst that can possibly happen is that it fails to work. You still can only make as many shadow clones as your chakra can support but outside of that you can feel free to abuse this handy jutsu for training, decoys, diversions, paperwork, chores, or whatever else you can imagine. In the event that this technique is supposed to have some additional features in the particular fanfiction you go to, or even a better version, this scroll will contain both versions.

    -AGE System (Gundam - Advanced Generation) (600CP)
    This is a 3-part package deal, so you're getting more bang for your buck. First is the AGE Device, which is a massive data-storage unit that contains the Asuno's research data (though for you it starts only with what Flit managed to create and gather before the series start) and the blueprints for the Gundam's armor. It also acts as a key-none of the other parts of this system will operate without it. Next is the AGE Builder, which is an extremely fast 3-D printer (able to make a Mobile Suit rifle in seconds) and continuously collects data from the AGE Device and AGE System. The AGE System is a data collection program that can be installed onto a Mobile Suit and acts as a unique OS. It will collect data and evolve along with its pilot, researching 'solutions' to problems, coming in the form of the Wear Parts, arm and legs designed to improve and counter situations. The Wear Parts are flown to the AGE Gundams in battle using the AMEMBO (one of which is included with this purchase) and swapped mid-battle, though with a different design you could remove the AMEMBO from the equation entirely. This is a highly advanced system, one that can collect, analyze, improve, build and conquer many situations. A Mobile Suit equipped with the AGE System will have a bright letter on its front, defaulting to a blue 'A'-as a bonus, you may change the coloring and the letter to whatever you wish at any time.

    -Technical Schematics (Warhammer 40k - T'au empire) (200CP)
    This small database is a well organized, easily searchable, and easily accessible list of detailed schematics and scientific texts covering all machines, tools, and sciences understood by the T'au. It cannot be remotely hacked or externally corrupted by others. During your jump, this database includes all T'au knowledge up to either current 40k canon or all information that would be available to the T'au within the next hundred years without your interference, whichever option includes less advanced technology. After this jump, the schematics are upgraded to include all designs and science your T'au have developed and all designs and science developed in canon by the T'au by the end of the Fifth Sphere Expansion.

    -PT Theory | Alpha Documents (Super Robot Wars OG Saga Endless Frontier) (700CP)
    PT theory 101 (100CP)
    You've been around robots long enough to know the basics behind their engineering, at least in regards to the structure and reasoning behind the more common mechs, including the Earth Federation's standard Gespensts, and the TLI's Grungust Type 1: the example of the average Super Robot. Weapon knowledge also included in regards to both, which is basically ballistics and some small degree of beam weaponry.
    Alpha Documents (600CP)
    The whole kit-and-caboodle of the Earth Federation's current research, all in your head (or documented physically/digitally, your choice). Highlights include: the T-Link System to enhance psychic capability, the Black Hole Engine and the Gravicon system involve the manipulation of gravity for both energy and combat usage, the Tesla Drive: a device capable of enabling flight in battleships that can also be miniaturized to allow robots to fly, and the other systems and engineering for the Gespensts up to the MKIII "Alteisen" and MKIV "Weissreiter", the Huckebeins up to the Mark III, the Grungusts up to Type 3, and the Lion series models up to the Astelion. Of course some of this does require EOT resources, so you may be limited in what you can do when you don't have these resources, you might be able to substitute them with the right materials, given time and research.

    -Anaheim Degree (Gundam - Universal Century) (200CP)
    You have the knowledge (and the paper to prove it to people and shove in their faces to establish superiority) of how to build MS. It's trickier than it looks, honestly. Weight balances, servo designs, energy reserves- it's all down to a science and you know how to build the basics. Who knows what you can learn from a bit of hands-on training
    MS = Mobile Suits

    -The Maddest Science Yet! (Tenchi Muyo) (800CP)
    This perk grants two features that in universe depend on your setting, out of universe both work unless you desire otherwise.
    Slice of Life: Your brilliance is such that you can build amazing inventions to solve all kinds of problems, easily accomplishing feats depicted in pulpy science fiction novels. More importantly however, you gain an absolute certainty in your work. Nothing made by your hands or under your complete direction can harm people (or planets) unintentionally. A comically large mess may ensue however.
    SpaceOpera: You can create supertech wonders, past mere conveniences into legitimately useful things like advanced starships, ray guns and miraculous devices. You can also enhance technology from other jumps with this skill. Note that trying to build an FTL starship from scratch on an undeveloped world will probably take ten years...
    Chapter 29
    -Xenoarchaeologist (Stargate SG-1) (600CP)
    For whatever reason, understanding the civilizations of old means you're able to understand alien technology a lot better. You may not know everything off the bat, but upon first sight you have an idea of what it was meant for... and the longer you look at it, the more information you can glean. Fiddling with it will let you familiarize yourself with it more quickly.

    -Mega Bomb | Guru (Chrono Trigger) (1200CP)
    Mega Bomb (600CP)
    Magic and Technology are both capable of some pretty fantastic things. So why not put them together, and see what happens? You now understand the secret to integrating magic seamlessly into your mechanical devices, enabling you to create devices like bombs powered with fire magic or medkits that use healing magic. While initially your devices will be one-shots that rely on a magical charge you have to deliver, in time, you'll learn how to make much more advanced fusions, such machines that run on magical power sources, or automated spellcasting devices. In the end, the only limit is your skill with machinery and magic.
    Guru (600CP)
    Back in the glory days of Zeal, Guru was a title reserved only for the most skilled and knowledgeable of their mages and scientists. You might not be there yet, but when I'm done with you, you'll be well on your way to deserving the title. Magic is akin to a science to you, letting you delve into the secrets of sorcery the same way a physicist would unlock the secrets of the atom. This also includes learning how to apply magical knowledge like an engineer does the sciences, letting you come up with breathtaking magical wonders. The Blackbird, the Mammon Machine, the Ocean Palace - who knows what you'll add to that list of legends.

    -Fuinjutsu Prodigy (Naruto) (600CP)
    You are one of the very few who are talented in the art of Fuinjutsu, an esoteric discipline combining all the complexities of calligraphy and physics. Despite the difficulty in learning fuinjutsu, skilled practitioners find it well worth it. Fuinjutsu, or sealing, is at its most basic storing something within something else through symbols to be released at another time. More advanced techniques still follow this same principle, but to great effect. Seal masters can seal away the elements, chakra, form summoning contracts, teleport, or even summon and bind souls using these principles. It's only downside is that this art is massively difficult to learn even for the talented, and will take years of intense study to master. You start off knowing how to make the two most basic of seals: The storage seal which allows you to store items in slips of paper much smaller than they are, and the explosive seal which is basically a few glyphs on a piece of paper the size of a greeting card that explodes like a small amount of plastique.

    -Material Synthesis Science | Exotic Compatibility (Gundam - After Colony) (600CP)
    Material Synthesis Science (200CP)
    You know a few things about getting your own materials, but you also have a bit of know-how about how the people here get such quality materials. Normally, you know how to forge, quench and mold materials into more high quality specimens, but you have a specialization in Zero-Gravity Material Synthesis as well-in microgravity conditions, you can create much more effective materials thanks to the limitations of gravity being removed.
    Exotic Compatibility (400CP)
    You have a way of working with quirky and strange materials-in your hands and machinery, it assumes the forging and abilities of plain Iron until you begin building with it. You also can integrate exotic materials into your constructions a lot easier, and if you don't know what a material is or what it can do, you're very good at researching applications and properties of said materials. This research could also go into things such as improving production numbers and similar.
     
    Last edited: Sep 18, 2022
  17. Trek

    Trek The Ascendant

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    Wow those free perks are good, game changing in fact.
     
  18. Charles

    Charles Getting out there.

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    I was playing Arknights as I read this chapter. Loved it
     
    SCLNotegemeL likes this.
  19. mrttao

    mrttao Gone for Good

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    This looks like it is going to change to a supreme commander type story soon. MC's ascension is neigh
     
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  20. Nicator

    Nicator I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    Yeah, but IIRC they're forcibly confined to a limited number of planets in the Imperium, and they're subjected to horrendous systemic racism and bigotry. Abhumans in general are often seen as barely a step above mutants.

    Also, relevant Alfabusa video.
     
    Last edited: May 1, 2021
  21. Nicator

    Nicator I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    Their official status as "accepted" is little better than apartheid or Jim Crow in a lot of cases though.

    Most are forcibly confined to their homeworlds, with severe limits placed on their population, and they are heavily persecuted by the Inquisition and others, regarded as little better than mutants.

    And their status as abhumans and imperial citizens can be revoked essentially at any time by the powers that be, as has happened to various strains in the past, all on baseless accusations that they are Chaos-tainted.

    The Beastmen, for instance, were legally recognised and protected Abhumans for millennia, and served in the Astra Militarum, before they fell out of favour. First they were barred from service, then they were subjected to additional restrictions that worsened over time. IIRC, they've either already been declared mutants and purged, or they're about to be, at which point they'll be hunted down and either murdered or enslaved across the Imperium.

    And that's merely the centralised policy of the Inquisition, Arbites, and Administratum, not whatever individual sectors and planets get up to.
     
    Last edited: May 1, 2021
  22. mrttao

    mrttao Gone for Good

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    so to sum it up. unofficially might still get persecuted, just like I said
     
    minerfrags likes this.
  23. Nicator

    Nicator I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    Well, no. They also get officially persecuted a huge amount too, as I explained. When the persecution is the official policy of the Administratum, Arbites, Inquisition, Militarum, and plenty of other organisations besides, that persecution is about as "official" as it gets.

    It's just that there's additional unofficial persecution on top of that, that goes beyond the technical remit of the law. And, when that persecution is such an endemic institutional problem, calling it "unofficial" becomes fairly pointless.
     
  24. medon12

    medon12 Getting sticky.

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    How abhumans are treated is irrelevant because the MC isn't one of them. You guys do realize that every abhuman subspecies is closely defined, right? Whatever the MC turned into almost certainly isn't one of them, so he's a mutant, not an abhuman. I'm with the people who think that keeping the changes when he obviously has the capacity to remove them is incredibly stupid, for the record, especially in light of the mutant issue but even if he actually was an abhuman, changing himself back is only sensible.
     
  25. ATP

    ATP Experienced.

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    Indeed.In IoM changing into abhuman means Chaos,so he would die painfully if somebody knew about it - or,even worst,get "adopted" by some demon.
     
  26. Gigant

    Gigant The Jackal Of Tsagualsa

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    [​IMG]toaster boys at it again
     
  27. maitogai83

    maitogai83 I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    ... So, this derailed in three chapters.

    The initial premise of a guy with some mechanicus knowledge and ME gear/commando abilities was neat. By now he doesn't have technology as much as straight up requity warping.

    And it hasn't been a day IC.
     
  28. InfiniteChaosRai

    InfiniteChaosRai World's only not-cringe Furry

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    I will now never see mr. green as anything other then just tails. thank you, you have ruined my 40k experience.

    for real though, keep it up, this story is fire.

    might wanna swap it over to the NSFW forums if you want more readers though.
     
  29. Slider Zero

    Slider Zero Know what you're doing yet?

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    Author is doing his best now and is preparing. Please wait warmly until the new chapter is ready.

    LATE CHAPTER NOTICE: This one is taking longer than usual due to a number of factors, including me having recently gotten the COVID Vaccine and my Immune system deciding to make my life hell for it. Expect the chapter to appear in the early morning of Central Daylight Time.
     
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  30. Threadmarks: Chapter 04
    Slider Zero

    Slider Zero Know what you're doing yet?

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    A word of warning: unlike the previous chapters, this one has not been given the normal readover by Spiritual_Liege. there may be errors that I have to correct later on down the line.

    Anyway, on to the story, and please enjoy.




    I awoke the next day (at least I think it was the next day) feeling...odd.

    It wasn’t a lack of energy, no, more like something within me that I had been pushing on had finally relaxed.

    In any case, it could wait until after food.

    Dragging myself out of bed (and avoiding tripping up on my new appendages...getting used to the fluffy bastards was going to be a CHORE) I headed to the kitchenette and its small store of foodstuffs.

    It wasn’t anything major, just the local meat equivalents, some kind of edible fungus, and the various processed foods of the Imperium, all selected for their shelf life and portability.

    In my case, I would be able to subsist off of them just fine.

    Breakfast achieved, I then took stock of my situation with a clearer head than the panic-fueled fugue state brought on by my sudden onset Acute Oripathy.

    First off, I had a large chunk of knowledge sitting in my head waiting to be utilized, based on various techniques and skills of Operators from across the world of Terra, who had been my teachers in the arts (and Arts, in two very notable cases). Unpacking all of that and figuring out what I could do was going to be a priority.

    Second, my new and improved ability to wield Arts (the capital was important) in general. Normally this wouldn’t be a big deal, but with the way that I had cured myself of oripathy actually made the situation worse in a way: I was now a massive conduit for the energies that Originium could channel, on a level that was closer to the high end of what some of the greatest arts users (and some of the most radically infected) could push for.

    Actually, that might be a BAD thing. Going to need to do bloodwork later.

    The third problem was related to the first: outside of my basic Caster and Medic training, plus a few practicals, I had no real clue on how to actually USE Arts..at least not the mid-level stuff that was the basis for a bunch of combat styles. All I had available was the basics.

    This was a major issue, as having a weapon that you couldn’t use in your arsenal was the same as not having it at all...and with what was going to be coming my way, I needed all the help I could get. Gotta find a place where I can train myself up without scrutiny, somewhere.

    Probably a place in the underhive, but that has its own dangers.

    Moving to the bigger issues currently making agitated motions behind me, I needed a way to deal with my new tails. Just leaving them as-is would have worked in nearly any other world.

    Here? In this galaxy, at this time? Not only no, but HELL no.

    What little I remembered of how the Imperial Creed was fashioned pretty much marked me as a devil for even DARING to have the mutations in the first place, let alone trying to LIKE them. The only thing worse in their eyes was being an outright servant of chaos.

    So that demanded a set of options on dealing with them. The first, and most direct, was to simply remove the problem outright. As in slicing them off.

    This, by all means, should have been the go-to answer. It harms nothing, I remove the threat of being called a mutant and hunted down and killed like so much vermin. It was, logically, the correct choice.

    And yet...It FELT wrong.

    For some undefinable reason I did not want to go down that route, despite the sheer ease that it would provide, and I felt a sudden urge to explore my internal reasoning for this.

    So what was it that was making me think that just chopping them off was a bad idea?

    I moved again to the mirror that I had kludged together, re-examining myself with the benefit of a clearer head.

    My new tails were, as I’d noted previously, both long and fluffy, the color the same black that adorned my own head, with the tips fading into a rather pleasing shade of grayish white. I shifted again, ever so slightly, and noted as they moved with me, keeping my newfound center of balance perfectly centered even with me trying to push it off kilter.

    My eyes drifted upwards to my new ears, of the standard sharp-tipped canine variety, and sharing the same color as my hair. Something within me said fox. I considered it, and had to agree; the total package gave off the air of a fox, indeed.

    And yet it did not answer my question. Why was I hesitating to do what needed to be done?

    On a whim, I began moving through one of the old martial arts katas I’d learned during my tenure as an airman in my “old” world. The motions came to me as easy as day, and yet they were off, ever so slightly.

    With a frown, I considered the problem, and then made a minor adjustment as I went through them again. Now, the motions of the kata flowed almost like water itself, my tails having properly been accounted for. The extra weight was a minor issue for some things...but as I moved into a blazing roundhouse kick, I noticed equally well that it had advantages too.

    On an odd hunch, I went back through the kata one last time, this time opting to attempt to fully integrate my tails into the kata proper. To my pleasant surprise, I was actually capable of controlling my tails on an almost prehensile level, which made integrating them into the kata a breeze...and the sudden rush of having two completely extra limbs with which to attack was a joy to execute.

    The thought came unbidden to me, as I finished the kata and assumed a resting position.

    They’re MY tails.

    And that was the crux of it, right there. They were mine, not only my possession but a literal part of me. A part that I Instinctively had no desire to part with, no matter how unexpected their arrival or unwelcome their complications. It was still me. I could, no, would be a master of myself regardless of anything anyone else had to say on the matter.

    To even entertain removing a piece of myself just because those around me would detest it, would hate me for it, would even kill me for it…

    Well, wasn’t I already all too familiar with that particular thought process?

    This was something I had dealt with every day, being a pariah just because of something that you could not control…

    One day it was the color of my skin. The next was my gender, after that, my sexual orientation.

    Hadn’t I been judged by everyone before just for trying to live? For daring to eke out a living in a world determined to hate me because I didn't shrivel up and just DIE?

    And here I was, now contemplating maiming myself just so I could FIT. Just so I could stay hidden a little longer, without fear...and mere hours after I single-handedly cured an incurable disease while infected by it at the worst level and stage...while it was actively KILLING me.

    No.

    I would not give in to the fear, the sheer despair that chokes this place just because. Yes, it’s new, and different, but it’s still ME.

    And to reject even a piece of myself is to reject all that it could be capable of.

    My hands. My feet. My eyes….

    My ears. My tails.

    My Blood. My sweat. My tears.

    My Forge.

    MY WILL.

    I took a deep, shuddering breath as the sheer POWER inherent in that last thought resonated with my entire being, seeming to reinforce something within me even as I found myself once more.

    I guess I'm not entirely immune to the grim darkness after all, then. Definitely worth knowing.

    That still left a question without an answer, though. If I wasn’t going to mutilate myself to remove the offending (to others) appendages, then what was my play?

    My remaining options were nowhere near as good. Attempts to hide the features would face the standard increased scrutiny that was a mainstay of the setting, and any discovery by someone who I did not trust IMPLICITLY was nothing short of a disaster. At best, I was going to get shipped out to die in the name of the Emperor.

    At worst? I would be granted His Mercy. On the spot.

    Both were fates that needed to be avoided at all costs, but offered no real solutions to the problems on my plate.

    So what the hell did I do, then?

    A quote came to mind, then.

    “At some point, everything's gonna go south on you... everything's going to go south and you're going to say, this is it. This is how I end. Now you can either accept that, or you can get to work. That's all it is. You just begin. You do the math. You solve one problem... and you solve the next one... and then the next. And If you solve enough problems, you get to come home.”

    That was it.

    That's all there was to it, in a nutshell. I either got to work, here, now, or I gave up and died.

    That. Fucking. Simple.

    So then. Grim Darkness?

    Meet Determined Airman.

    And learn the most important part of the Airman's Creed.

    I WILL NOT FAIL.




    Now then, it should be noted that while I am indeed a stubborn bastard, I am not by any means stupid.

    I knew full well that there would be scrutiny on my person for any number of reasons, and any of my watchers gleaning knowledge of my new additions would have added a very valuable piece of information to their hoard, possibly one that could be used to destroy me. It was an event that must be guarded against above all else.

    That being said, Hiding things is actually far, far easier than most people think, even in this totalitarian hellhole. As the saying goes, the old ways always work best, and I would be putting that to use here.

    For my ears, any form of head covering would do, although one of my recent ability acquisitions saddled me with a frankly quite silly, if adorably cute, hat, and had filled me with a strange affection for the thing to boot. Granted, this was not the same silly as the normal Gensokyo hat rule went, but it was still a little on the edge of being so, while still fitting my own personal aesthetic.

    It was a not-quite doo-rag crossed with a watch cap-style beanie, complete with a fold-out bill to make it more of a proper cap. The adornments where what really made the thing work: the mix of wrenches and Mettools that I’d seen earlier were in full attendance, but there was also a sigil of sorts emblazoned on the front: an S-Swirl, formed out f a pair of twin fox tails, that was also vaguely shaped as a sort of lightning bolt. It distinctly reminded me of Samus Aran’s logo mixed with that of Miles Prower.

    I liked it, really.

    The hat was also very conveniently large enough to completely hide my ears quite comfortably without being obvious about it at all, which was a major plus.

    Matching my current Blue/Green color schema was overkill, really, but it was appreciated all the same.

    Those tails would appear at first glance to need a bit more work...until one realized that even with all of the massive fluffiness of the things they still wrapped quite neatly around my waist even with the extra overlap caused by the length. Add in a belt of some sort, maybe a sash-like object, and bam!! Instant camouflage. It was by no means perfect, but it would definitely work for now...and rigging it up was braindead simple,not even taking a full minute for the setup thanks to some really convenient loose materials hanging around.

    Major obstacles solved, it was time to address the other elephant in the room.

    My new breadth of knowledge and abilities needed..flexing, so to speak.

    First off was to take stock of what I had available to me.

    A quick check of the Workshop access hallway revealed a new set of lockers for gear, and I quickly went and took inventory...only to laugh as it would seem that fate indeed had a sense of humor.

    Inside was not only an originium staff designed to act as a focus for Arts abilities, but a full set of combat gear that looked on the surface to be along the lines of some damned good urban fashion, complete with a very nice hooded jacket that I would be taking now. What had me laughing was that there was a near-exact replica of the very belt that I had just thrown together on a mere whim not even a minute ago.

    It was a good laugh, though.

    In other news, just a quick examination revealed that there were special tricks needed from forging weapons to make them more receptive to Arts usage (or Originium usage in general) without more skill on my part, so I got to remake some gear to fit the mould.

    This was good, as it let me test out some of my OTHER toys.

    The ability that I labeled “Enemy Tech Progression” (or was that already it’s name? Weird moment there) was actually kind of bonkers once you really looked at it. It allowed for me to, with a little bit of effort, completely understand everything about the particular workings of a given item, almost down to the bare tech needed to make it work...no wait, it DID go down to the bare tech with them. And then let me gain even further understanding as I worked with the tech to upgrade and modify even faster.

    And that part was just for regular tech. If I somehow managed to outright subvert a piece of technology? It yielded everything to me, directly to my brain.

    This was going to be awesome wherever I ran across the Tau. Markerlight Drones here I come!

    In this situation, what it allowed me to do is analyze and break down everything that went into originium and Arts-effect equipment. Using that new knowledge, I could then either make or modify a set of gear that would allow me to better channel arts in combat.

    There was one complication, though. The technology of Terra had never even once factored in the advent of gunpowder; even the firearms used there (and those were extremely rare) were strictly arts-based. Making better ones out of future tech may in fact be beyond my capabilities.

    At least the ones for my current self-imposed time limit, that is. I wanted to get some practice in today, not tomorrow.

    With a sigh of annoyance I allow the firearm project to lapse for now, instead focusing on making a good sword. It was basic, really: Blade, guard, handle. Or at least that what I thought of it.

    See, that excellent craftsman ability I had makes anything I make to be, and I quote, “Top Quality’. Combine that with the fact that one of my areas of specialty from that ability’s adds was literally the highly broad category of “weaponsmithing” and I had all but ensured free reign.

    Meaning that the end result wasn’t just a pointy stick for me to stab people with, but a GOOD pointy stick for me to stab people with--a plain and clearly unadorned, but very much still master-quality Longsword.

    I then chucked both my new sword and the staff provided to me into the oddity that was the Weapons Recombination Template. Supposedly it bound two weapons together, allowing for them to undergo a form of shifting process to switch between one and the other as needed.

    And I definitely needed that kind of tactical flexibility in my arsenal, so I ran with it.

    The results were very much not immediately visible. I held the new weapon, currently in staff form, trying to find anything new with the weapon currently in my hands...and then I notice the small, almost imperceptible toggle switch on the blade’s handle. A push at first does nothing, but then I decide to give it a minor tap with the intent of changing its form.

    And voila. Once a staff, the now sword rests easily in my hands, ready for me to unleash it’s fury at any moment.

    I definitely approve.

    Returning the sword to it’s staff form, I break down the available gear and begin loading up.

    Time for me to find a place to train.




    As it turned out, there were a few places that were available for people to test themselves...for a reasonable risk, of course. The Goliath-run coliseums were quite active, the bloodsport keeping the masses of Goliath drunk on perceived power.

    There were also some more..private areas where people could go, and just take on the insanely deadly wildlife of the Necromunda hive.

    First and foremost, though, was to practice for myself. Get myself back in the groove, and start working on ways to integrate the disparate styles of combat into a complete whole even as I advanced my understanding of them all. It wouldn’t be easy, as with many things, but it would be--dare I say--fun.

    It took only a day or three to actually find a place where I could train a bit in peace.

    The location was what I believed to be an old ironworks or similar--that was a veritable no-man's land as far as the normal gang politics went--down near the barrier to the underhive, now relegated to being a scrapyard for whatever reason. There were cold, dead machines looming all over the place, and it had an air of...not so much mystery or danger so much as unease.

    This place had been abandoned for a reason, after all.

    In any case, I set myself up in one of the adjacent warehouses for the place (yes, they still exist, even in the 41st millennium). I’d taken a bit of time to set up a minor shooting course, mostly consisting of some quickly marked targets for me to hit as needed than anything like old cans or similar. It was crude, but then again this world was crude, so I couldn’t really complain much.

    I had been using it for just over a week now, pushing all of the rust off of my basic skills and getting ready to train the conscript recruits once the House had some ready to go. So far, it was working well.

    Today, however, was going to be a bit different. For one , I was intentionally setting up for a low-light shooting exercise. The Second?

    It was time for me to test out some of my other tricks.

    I stopped for a moment after completing my setup for the day and took a deep breath. With any luck, this was going to be a productive set of exercises.

    I started off rather simply, as was my routine by now. Calibration, and zeroing of my ranged weapons, the Eagle and my recently acquired and refurbished Laspistol. The Eagle, as was standard for most Alliance tech, was still in good condition and needed little in the way of maintenance (which I confirmed with some test shots). The laspistol, though, was a slightly different matter.

    I didn’t know the exact “pattern” or mark of this old thing, but it had been through hell. Looked like the internals were starting to give out, including some of the focusing lenses in the barrel; hell, even the charge pack was on its last legs, and that was saying a lot as those were basically meant to last nearly forever..

    The (admittedly brief) refurbishment I’d dome on the pistol was not really set to correct all of these problems, mostly due to lack of parts. It did, however, clearly define that the weapon would operate at full capacity for at least another 1000 shots before needing critical maintenance, which was more than enough time for me to gather the needed materials to give it the rebuild that it desperately needed. It would work just fine for my purposes.

    The first “unusual” test was of arts-assisted shooting techniques, the basics of which had come with the Sniper class operator training. Focusing on one of the targets, I took careful aim with the eagle, and slowly, gently began to spin up a simple art, guided by my instinct and training.

    And suddenly the targets were so clear to me, even in this gloom…

    Time seemed to move like molasses as I lined up the shot, hands remaining steady, with no wobble from either breathing or heartbeats. Aim confirmed, I squeezed the trigger just so, and…

    *BLAM*

    The target, an old storage barrel that I had fashioned a crude bullseye on, now had a hole punched clean through it where the center mark should have been.

    Not sure how to rate the penetration feat, as it was unclear just how durable the barrel was supposed to be, but that particular ability would help immensely for sniping...assuming I ever had to take up the art again. I was unsure if I would ever be able to engage a target from outside of “normal” ranges from now on. Something to chew on.

    Another plus out of this was that apparently my new ears had the ability to ignore overly-loud noises if needed without sacrificing actual aural detection acuity. The literal “wolf ears", so to speak. (nevermind that they were fox ears, both were canines.) A quick bit of focus revealed it to be a passive use of arts, which I found cool as all hell. Seemed there was a lot more here to discover in the pile that was originium than I thought.

    Next test was to be of one of the basic Vanguard techniques, that was focused primarily on movement--

    A distinct scraping noise made itself known to my ever-so-sensitive ears. Not much echoing, so my guess is coming from the area around the old iron works itself, so maybe south-ish?

    Dammit, I needed to orient myself properly later on. This shit is getting old.

    The scraping noise grew closer, and eventually revealed itself to be none other than Harry, likely keeping an eye on my goings as a failsafe.

    I gave him an absent wave as I continued to perform my firing tests and simple arts usage.

    “Interesting place to set up a firing range, friend.”

    I snorted lightly at the flippant comment. He could have guessed damned well why I would have picked a spot like this for a live-fire range.

    “Yeah, well I didn’t wanna shoot anyone by accident and piss people off, y’know? It tends to create issues.”

    Harry gave a short nod in agreement. “ That it does.” He paused for a brief moment, likely to gather his thoughts. “Shaking the rust off, then?”

    “Something like that,” I replied. “At least need to be solid enough to run our potential recruits into the ground to train them properly. Otherwise, what’s the point?”

    Harry gave another nod, this one with more mirth. “Well, you’re right about that, really. Would ya mind a partner for your shooting--”

    There was another sound, this time of scuffing feet.

    Both of us froze at the noise, and quickly moved as silently as possible into cover, in order to wait out our new arrivals.

    Further scraping occurred, and then manifested themselves as footsteps. Several pairs, all heavy tread...or at least someone with a significant load.

    “Fucking took you long enough.” I mumbled under my breath. And for good reason: this was likely to be the group that thought they were stealthily following me around earlier while I was location scouting. I’d been wondering when they’d make a move for some time.

    Sounds of movement continued, and began to spread around the area proper. My more sensitive ears picked up the sounds of raspy breathing and what might have been a respirator.

    That was...odd. Really odd. The scrub rabblerousers that had been following me all day so far were jokes. That this new group was applying even the basics of common sense told me that this might get really interesting.

    I moved closer to Harry as the movement noises continued closer. “...sounds like a lot more than usual, and from the directions, ones with common sense. I say we cut a retreat instead of getting surrounded.”

    Harry gave me a curt nod. Honestly, I feel sorry for the guy, constantly getting pulled into the shitstorm surrounding my existence. I was going to have to do something for him eventually, if only to show some appreciation.

    We slowly began moving from out cover to one of the exits that seemed to not have noise coming from it, taking care to remain behind cover if at all possible. Looked like our egress was an old set of windows with the glass blown out of it, set next to a heavy door that had seen far better days. From all indications, the coast was mostly clear to our exit.

    It wasn’t until we got within about 30 meters of the windows that I heard it. The soft sound of breaths, heavy with anticipation.

    Ambush.

    I immediately stopped Harry with a quick hand motion, and turned to him and gave him a grim look, then shook my head slowly. The grimace that appeared on his face was actually quite a sight to see, all things told, but did nothing to solve our problem of being surrounded by unknowns.

    We were going to need an assault plan, and to choose where to make the move towards.

    “But Why?” I can hear people saying, a hypothetical audience to my new snafu of a situation looking in with curiosity. “ why would you run straight into the jaws?”

    Simple reason, really, and one that had been taught since the days of yore, all the way back in M2...and my old home. Whenever you get ambushed, never let it play out, never hunker down.

    You Assault the Ambush, always, and attempt to break a hole in the setup by giving the shooters something else to worry about while cutting off fire from any potential flanks due to friendly fire concerns. Of course, that last part only worked on groups that were averse to friendly fire…

    More movement, and slowly the silhouettes of our wouldb-e attackers(?) came into view.

    It was a group of about six, moving slowly but steadily in a slow sweep pattern, while keeping any and all lanes of fire available. The warehouse would be cleared within the next five minutes, tops, if they maintained the current formation. Dress code varied: there were an assortment of vests, some pants, shirts, etc. I was willing to tentatively state them as house Orlock, but something seemed...off. Especially for the supposed midday hours that we were in.

    I don't know what it was that caught my attention about them, be it the movement, the dress code, their smell, hell, I wasn’t sure if even the equipment was supposed to be standard or something, especially since it looked like at least one of them (a freaking HUGE wall of muscle of a man) had some good stuff in the form of a belt-fed Heavy Bolter, along with some kind of crude armor setup as well. Couldn’t tell from here, but it looked like simple metal plate armor.

    His buddy was set up similarly, except he had a different type of belt-fed weapon, something that my eyes, Mechanicus trained as they were, identified as a heavily modified...rivet gun? What the hell?

    No, Green. Do not fall into that trap of assuming that the weapon is worthless. It can still very much kill you.

    The third to come into view was a slightly more armored fellow, the plates being a closer fit than the others, and a wicked-looking axe contraption set in his hand, accompanied by a similarly improvised shield. I was assuming he was their close-range specialist.

    Number four was female, looked like a standard ranged combat kit...wait, was that a fucking STORM BOLTER?! What the fuck?!? Who are these guys, anyways?

    The shock of seeing the REALLY heavy weapons coming out was...considerable. I almost missed the fifth person moving forward, another melee type it seemed, and female to boot. Judging by the power sword and old Voss-pattern hellpistol (notable because it was set up to use standard laspacks), this one was the leader.

    My guess then is number six is a sharpshooter of some type, or whatever passes for it around here. I quic\kly do a scan of the potential vantage points from my current position, and find the thankfully few available ones all unoccupied. As number six was still in the deep shadow, I couldn’t get a read on his gear...and unless they’d managed to find NVGs of some kind, they were under the same conditions as the rest of us.

    It was only then that I realized that the area I was looking into would be deeply shrouded in shadows for “normal” human eyes. Another passive arts use? Or something more? I’d have to check later on to be safe.

    I tapped Harry on the shoulder, and began giving him the abbreviated breakdown of our opposition, complete with the better than average weaponry brought to play. Whoever they were, they were NOT fucking around.

    And attacking that forward group was suicide by almost any metric, with all of the heavy firepower present there...which left the back exit that we were headed to, and the ambush situation that was waiting to develop outside once we started to make out escape.

    Hadn’t been in a pickle like this in a long time, really. Felt...not good, but rather exciting.

    Hum. I would likely have to break out my bag of tricks to deal with these fucktards and not get killed. And I still didn’t have positive ID on two of our potential aggressors.

    I did another scan of the area as I considered the options available to us. Honestly, they didn't look good. Every second we waited was one step closer that the sweep team got to our position, and as long as those heavies were in play there was no way in hell we could break the line and get clear without dying horribly. Grenades might work, but anything big enough to actually be worth using (and wasn’t part of my omnitool tricks) was banned on pain of Arbites: breaking out the Krak grenades would help no one, even assuming that we had any.

    And then there was Harry, who was effectively blind right now as we waited in the shadows. I would have to guide him around a bit to get him into position before we were made.

    Once again, the best bet was to take our damned lumps and head for the window exit, which HAD to be worse than it looked; I knew a herding tactic when I saw it. Best bet was probably to go for the door and not the window, make them think twice while we make our move, and hopefully get to some decent cover before we get shredded by those bolters.

    Wait a minute.

    Idea.

    I motioned Harry to follow me as I moved us around the edge of the sweep group instead of towards the exit like they wanted, and had him line up carefully on the Rivet gun. Once I was certain of his aim, I moved away slightly and got ready myself. We were only going to get one shot at this.

    As the sweepers finally moved into the openly lit areas (and I still had no ID on the potential sharpshooter) I made a quick series of raps upon the ground, which was Harry's cue to fire.

    The shot from his Autopistol soared true, and little-miss Storm Bolter was now missing her head.

    I wasted no time, and PUSHED myself into the odd trance state of the enhanced shooting. Time seemed to slow around me, as I lined up a shot on the heavy bolter guy’s head. Even now, he was moving to bring his weapon to bear on the area where the shots had come from ,and would be able to open fire on us within moments.

    Unfortunately for him, he never got the chance as the Eagle sang out, removing his head as well.

    Now for the tricky part.

    I held my focus as tightly as I could, and tapped into the completely untested movement technique of the Vanguard class, which acted as a general purpose speed boost. The difference was night and day, even with my accelerated time making me still move as if in molasses. My aim “quickly” found the head of Mr Rivets, and with a practiced squeeze of the trigger, a third person dropped.

    My trance broke with a jolt, all of the noise of our action finally catching up with me. Ahead of us, our would-be assailants are scrambling to find some cover to operate out of, and are surprisingly doing a very good job of not panicking.

    Which was strike three in my book.

    There was no way in HELL a gang was that good, and that well equipped. Someone or something was making a pretty big play, and I was without info on who--

    Noise from behind reminded me that we still had THAT issue to deal with. And because I’d tunnel visioned on the heavy weapons (which was understandable, as the biggest threat) I’d missed the fact that we were not in a more or less standard box ambush unless we made haste, NOW, to get lost.

    Of course, we were made now, so there was no point in keeping silent.

    “Break to the left! Get clear as fast as possible!!” I shouted at Harry, already moving to a usable piece of cover in the form of some old storage containers, though storage for what I was unclear.

    Harry, unsurprisingly, was already moving. ‘Left Side! Cover me!!”

    And ask and you shall receive.

    Drawing the old laspistol, I quickly aimed downrange to our remaining pair of nasties, the melee type hunkered down behind his surprisingly durable shield, and the Prospective leader taking potshots at us with that damned Hot-shot from behind an old piece of equipment.

    Of course, this was the cue for the rear guys (yes, plural, much to my dismay) to finally get their game faces on and get inside.both were armed with Necromunda pattern Lasguns, but more concerning was the goddamned Lascannon that they were lugging around.

    Just where the fuck were they getting all of the heavy iron from?

    Didn’t matter. What mattered was not dying.

    So far our sudden movement was unchecked, save for some sporadic suppressive fire from the hotshot as we leapfrogged towards the other warehouse entrance, prepared to make a quick getaway. From there, we should be able to blend in with the surrounding neighborhoods and fade out, leaving these...people...in the dust.

    And they still felt wrong for some reason…

    Harry suddenly stopped, focused very intently on something or another that I couldn’t notice. What the hell had gotten his attention, anyway--*OOF*

    And then almost immediately tackled me to the ground in a mad dash.

    The lasbolt going through where my head once was was more than reason enough for the gesture.

    Quickly, I rolled out of the pile that we’d ended up in and found our last member, who was, in fact, a sharpshooter, and probably had a form of light amplification as well, if not full-on NVG. They were currently set up in a small alcove that wasn’t visible from our position near the back windows, but had a near-perfect sight line on anyone trying to backtrack to the front

    Gad DAMN these fuckers were good…

    Putting out some harassment fire towards our newly discovered sniper bitch, I got moving to my next set of cover, in the form of some large (and thankfully empty) munitions crates. Hopefully I could get there before--

    The Lascannon fired, demolishing the crates with almost contemptuous ease long before I could get there.

    It also took out the crates behind it. And the pallets.

    And the WALLS.

    We had an exit.

    Time to think fast.

    “Harry, Down! Cover your ears!!”

    Harry quickly hit the deck, as I tossed out one of my modified grenades, this time in the form of that old classic, the Flashbang.

    I immediately covered my own ears after I threw it, and opened my mouth slightly while screwing shut my eyes--

    The ensuing *whump* of the flashbang going off and blinding everyone was one of the most joyous sounds to behold. Quickly taking advantage, I grabbed a slightly dazed Harry and ran like hell for the now open wall exit, and together we made our way outside.

    It was at this point that something attempted to get my attention.

    I wasn’t sure just what it was, but it seemed to be trying to help, so I pushed it to the back of my mind and let it do whatever while I kept moving. We needed to get clear of this deathtrap as soon as possible, preferably back in a well-defended area somewhere. Time to closest defensible safehouse was around ten minutes if we hustled, and we could likely make it there (and lose our tagalongs) in around twenty if we did it right.

    “Harry, we gotta move. Come on man, let's go.”

    Harry, fortunately, had actually seen some shit, and Flashbangs, while not very common in the Imperium, had some analogs that he had apparently ran into. He quickly blinked his eyes clear, and followed me out of the area as we hauled ass. Fortunately there was plenty of cover, both visual and aural for us to be able to face into the background noise before we made it to a more well-traveled area.

    Unfortunately, if what I was hearing was correct, we had something trying to follow us...and moving fast as all fuck, too. It was running in an almost parallel track with our planned escape route, no less, and closing in.

    From what I guessed of it’s movement based on the noise, it would be upon us in mere moments, whatever it was. No real time to prep anything special.

    Instead, I set up a cryo grenade from my omnitool, and got ready.

    It tried to attack us as we were passing by an old storefront of some kind. Literally just burst out of the damned walls, no less, and was headed straight for us.

    Or rather, straight for where we would have been if I hadn’t noticed it closing in. The grenade I'd set in the area immediately activated it’s homing mode, and rushed it down.

    The resulting semi-popsicle was quite amazing to look at as I shot it--or it would have been, if it wasn’t some kind of deformed monster still vaguely in a human-ish shape. I had no clue whatsoever what the hell that thing was supposed to be. And honestly, it scared me, even though I didn't show it..

    Our escape went rather unremarked past that point.




    “Harry?”

    “Yeah?”

    “What in the absolute HELL was that thing?”

    Harry, even for all of his knowledge, shrugged. “I have no clue either. Some kind of mutant, I think. You did ‘em a favor, really.”

    We sat in one of the Van Saar affiliate safehouses. I think the gang running the area called themselves the Neuromancers or something. Didn’t really matter at the moment.

    “How about that freaking kill team that came at us, then? I haven’t seen that much heavy iron in a good, long time.”

    And that WAS a concern, too. I’d assumed” (and Van Saar Briefs and more or less confirmed) that the heavier weapons were generally restricted to the Astra Militarum and up. Sure, maybe a bolter or two, even a heavy bolter could pop up in the wild.

    A freaking heavy bolter, a STORM bolter, and a LASCANNON? Plus a power sword as well?

    Somebody was VERY well equipped. This needed to be investigated. As well as why they wanted me dead so much.

    “So, when do we start looking into this shit, anyway?” Because I definitely wanted answers to who the fuck was trying to kill me.

    Harry’s reply was blunt. “More like when do I Start looking into this shit. You don’t have the contacts, and being in public seems to be drawing fire for you. I would not recommend it.”

    Well shit. He actually had a point. Guess I was hunkering down for a bit longer, then.

    It wasn't much longer before we managed to get back to our respective abodes, and I sat down in my workshop with a frown.

    Something had been assisting me during that fight, and hadn’t actively tried to get my attention until the mutant thing was nearly on top of us. I got the distinct feeling that I was safer than I thought I was, though I had no idea why just yet.

    Doing a quick review of things from a calmer perspective, I noticed that I had managed to get a new set of skills just before the start of the shootout, and had dismissed it as unimportant due to the threat. Whatever it was had a rider attached to it in the form of a...device of some sort, that had almost immediately bonded with me and attempted to keep me safe, even though I had no conscious idea of it;’s presence until now. A mental command had whatever it was separate from me, so that I could examine it more carefully.

    I now held in my hand a white ball no larger than a golf ball, and completely unadorned with anything whatsoever. And yet it seemed to be so much more.

    A quick perusal of my “backlog” showed that there was a related knowledge packet that had not forced its way into my brain in order to keep me focused on staying alive. I quickly released the hold on the knowledge--

    And started laughing.

    And laughing. And laughing harder.

    Oh, I knew EXACTLY what that little ball was.

    Or should I say, that Core.

    And unlike the people who used them normally, I knew damn near EVERYTHING about them.

    On a lark, I decided to run the whole interface through one of my abilities, namely Enemy tech progression.

    And I laughed even Harder.

    I know people were going to wonder what the hell was going on in here in a bit, but it was legitimately too funny. It really was.

    I thought I knew everything about that enigmatic little piece of tech.

    And then it had, as soon as I turned the gaze of E.T.P. upon it, WILLINGLY yielded all of its secrets...and then some.

    I never had to subvert it, after all, as it was already mine to begin with.

    Even better, it came with a full complement of preinstalled useful goodies.

    And I would need to figure out a way to leverage this without calling down everything and it’s grandmother to come after me, as well. Not that I couldn't take most of them with me, though.

    After all, Valkyrie Cores were just that much Bullshit.






    My apologies for the delayed chapter, I wanted to have this up Thursday evening.

    On the fuzzy bits: yes, I’ve decided to keep them. Before everyone goes nuts and tries to scream my ear off about it, Yes, I am aware of the consequences, Yes, I know of how the Imperium will react.

    It doesn’t matter.

    As I was writing this, That section just...FLOWED out as if it was always there to begin with, even though I was pushing for a more..pragmatic outcome. Satori himself basically vetoed me as author, and thus his fuzzy bits get to stay with him. This does present a bit of a writing challenge for me, though, considering that anyone who discovers this (and is not a chaos worshipper) will likely be trying to kill him on the spot.

    It’s something I’ll have to work with.


    -Valkyrie Core Knowledge (Battle Action Harem Highschool Side Character Quest) (500CP)
    Valkyrie Core Knowledge (500CP)
    You understand the science behind Valkyrie Core technology. You'll be able to replicate aspects of its technology such as the ability to store and modify objects in a pocket dimension or the manifesting of Impeller fields, or the insane processing power of the Core itself. With time and a little work you'll be able to make new cores.
    Valkyrie Core & Frame (0CP)
    All origins possess a Valkyrie Frame with the accompanying core. A Valkyrie Core is capable of storing, integrating, and improving technology and equipment. Its only limitations are storage capacity and complexity both of which grow with hours synced. Your initial storage and complexity is based on your origin with more experienced origins having more. The term Valkyrie Frame usually refers to a core that has integrated a suit of enhanced power armor that has been equipped with thrusters, weapons, and other equipment. Technology foreign to this universe is harder to integrate and upgrade. Post jump this limitation disappears.
     
    Last edited: Jul 29, 2021
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