Warlantern 40,000
Mr Zoat
Dedicated ragequitter
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Inasmuch as it matters
I wonder how the tau dating system works?
The diplomat has skin a little more towards the blue end of the blue-grey spectrum. Tau… I was sort of expecting standard rubber forehead aliens, but the slightly larger eyes, lack of nose and the Y shaped facial cleft stretching from a point parallel with the bottom of her eye orbits up to a third of the way up her forehead… Her face is too… Off. Not creepy, exactly, but clearly something different.
But she's not a tau Brood Brother, and I'll take what I can get.
She's wearing a green skullcap with a glossy black thread decorating the rim, and what I assume to be a civilian spacesuit coloured a slightly brighter green loosely covers the rest of her body. Actually, I think it's designed to look a bit like a robe without impeding her motion too much. Two braids hang down from the back of her head. And she's… Is she baring her teeth? Is that something tau do? The fingers of the soldiers on either side of us are tightening around their grips slightly… What am I doing wrong?
"Hello." Still baring her teeth, the diplomat performs a shallow bow. "I am Por'La Lar'shi Tsua'm Raard."
I dismiss my construct armour. "Pleased to meet you, Miss Tsua'm. I'm… Hm. Gue'vesa'Saal Earth-" And this would be a good deal easier if I could say my own name. Just glad I was in a breathable atmosphere when I found out that I couldn't. "-Orange Lantern." I hesitantly extend my right arm. "I'm not sure how familiar you are with human body language…"
She starts to mirror my gesture, mildly hesitant as she carefully watches my hand. When our palms come together she doesn't make any attempt to grip it. I remember from reading Fire Warrior that tau reflexes are significantly slower than those of humans. I hadn't really thought about what that I2 would mean in terms of how they actually interacted with their environment. Should I..?
"N-nearly. Like this." I gently curl my fingers around her hand and shake it slightly. "It was originally a martial greeting which showed each party that the other wasn't carrying a weapon in their favoured hand."
"Oh." She looks up at me, still baring her teeth.
"Of course, since the ring is an empathic weapon and doesn't require any physical action at all it's a little misleading." I withdraw my hand. "Is there some-" I point at my mouth with my right hand. "-reason you're.. doing that?"
She closes her mouth slightly. "Smiling? Is that not a friendly human expression?"
"You weren't getting it quite right. I'll.. show you later." I gesture towards the marines with my right thumb. Ring shows… Two infected. "Am I doing something that's putting them on edge?"
She bows her head slightly. "We are… Not used to powerful human psykers being so polite. Your… Aura is a little… Strange."
"Hm?" I look down at my right hand. Right, the clearly visible orange glow. "Oh, no. I'm not a psyker. Honestly, I'm… Probably about as much of a psyker as you are. Since I predate human warp travel…" Though the shamen who created the Emperor did as well. Were their abilities purely sorcerous..? Don't know. "This shield is a product of this-" I hold up my left hand. "-ring. I don't think that it draws power from the warp. Because if it did I'd be-" I jazz hands. "-'hearing the voices' right now."
"I see. What does the force field do?"
I float slightly off the deck. "It's mostly for environmental protection. It protects me from external attack, lets me fly and deals with.. breathing and waste production."
"That is a remarkable device. Will you permit us to study it?"
I nod. "Anything non-destructive, but… It does a lot more than that, and I'll be happy to give your senior staff a-" Her nasal slit trembles slightly. "-full briefing, but… Your ship is full of holes and.. I've been awake for rather a long time. Perhaps now isn't the best-."
"Ah. Yes. Of course. I'm am sorry, but it will be some time before the.. senior staff can spare the time…"
"I quite understand. The needs of the ship come ahead of personal curiosity or pride."
"Just so. I can-" She presses a button on her spacesuit, and a small hologram appears in the air between us. "-assign quarters to you, if you wish to rest. I am afraid that we do not have anything designed with human aesthetics in mind, but please accept it until we can return to port."
"What, no skulls? What was your interior decorator t-." Huh. "Do tau have sarcasm?" She looks blank. I'll explain later. "As long as there's a mattress, it will be fine. But first, would it be possible for me to speak with your senior medical officer? I realise that most diseases can't cross the species barrier, but I'd hate to make my hosts ill because I was carrying something you weren't adapted to."
"As.. I said, the senior-" She dismisses the hologram. "-staff are likely to be occupied. We have many wounded, and the senior medical officer will be busy overseeing their repair."
I raise my left hand, generating a cut away of a tau body. "This ring has some quite remarkable medical functions as well. As long as the injuries are relatively simple, I should be able to aid their work quite considerably." I dismiss the construct and raise my-. No, there's no point doing that. She clearly doesn't understand human body language well enough.
"That.. would be his decision. But I see the value in making the request." She looks over to the fire caste warrior in charge of the detail. "Shas'Ui, would you please escort us to the primary medical station?"
I don't hear a response, but four members of the squad break away and march back down the corridor away from the airlock. Miss Tsua'm turns away from me to follow them, and I in turn follow her. And try to politely ignore the fact that the majority of the squad is now behind me, including one suborned by the tyranids. On the other hand, slightly fewer of them can shoot me at any one time now, and there isn't much advantage in shooting me further inside the ship.
And there isn't much advantage in me walking the length of one of these huge Warhammer Forty Thousand ships. Ring, interior map.
Map available.
Hr. Interior's… Okay. With a full interior scan the damaged areas are obvious. Multiple bulkhead doors are down around damaged sections and… The areas between where the boarding torpedoes hit and everywhere important. Doesn't appear to have completely saved the primary drive, but I'm not seeing any living orks. What else looks off? Hm, that's a lot of power and communication relays that don't go anyw-.
"They destroyed your bridge."
The orks totally destroyed their bridge. From the outside, it was so gone that I didn't notice that there was anything missing. I suppose that's what critical hits look like when it's real people. It also explains why I haven't spoken to any senior officers: they're a bit busy being dead. The senior air caste member at least, and probably the senior spirit caste member. And a dead Aun results in impeded inter-caste cooperation and a collapse of morale... And with medical too busy dealing with the wounded, any amount of opportunity for the Cult to spread. Can Brood Brothers spread the taint sexually, or do they need a purestrain?
Her facial cleft twitches again. "That.. is.. true. But once the engines are repaired, we can return to a friendly port."
"Then -and I do apologise- we need to move faster."
I envelop us both in orange light and transition us through the ship, the corridors now open to allow personnel and equipment to move efficiently reach damaged sections. We reappear by the room I tagged as 'primary medical', surrounded by a triage area of heavily injured tau. The more fortunate amongst the heavily injured are on antigravity beds, floating so as not to stress their injuries. The less fortunate are on the floor with whatever bandages they were brought in with keeping them from bleeding to death. The lightly injured are either keeping out of the way or assisting the medical technicians and their drones.
And while air and earth caste tau make up most of the injured, a small number are members of a reptilian species I don't immediately recognise. Well, the Tau Empire being a multispecies polity is why I'm here, I'll take that as a good sign. The one closest to me opens its right eye as I walk past and I give it a friendly wave before it passes out.
Ring, acquire biological data.
Compliance.
"What did-? Did you teleport?"
"Technically, no. Which one of these is in charge?"
A squad of fire caste soldiers have noticed us, but since Miss Tsua'm is clearly with me they're at least not opening fire right away. Right. My ship, my crew, my ticket to relative safety.
"Ah-? There." She points to a chunky earth caste tau in the middle of a small cluster of other medics. "Fio'Vre-"
Orange light blasts outward, veins and arteries reknitting, muscle regrowing and organs repairing, shrapnel evaporating and infections being scourged from existence. Yes YES!
Guh! Stop! Stop. Stop.
"-Lar… Shi…"
Miss Tsua'm trails off as all eyes turn to me, aside from those checking their bodies for the now vanished wounds.
"You're all welcome. Fio'Vre, I really need a moment of your time."
Inasmuch as it matters
I wonder how the tau dating system works?
The diplomat has skin a little more towards the blue end of the blue-grey spectrum. Tau… I was sort of expecting standard rubber forehead aliens, but the slightly larger eyes, lack of nose and the Y shaped facial cleft stretching from a point parallel with the bottom of her eye orbits up to a third of the way up her forehead… Her face is too… Off. Not creepy, exactly, but clearly something different.
But she's not a tau Brood Brother, and I'll take what I can get.
She's wearing a green skullcap with a glossy black thread decorating the rim, and what I assume to be a civilian spacesuit coloured a slightly brighter green loosely covers the rest of her body. Actually, I think it's designed to look a bit like a robe without impeding her motion too much. Two braids hang down from the back of her head. And she's… Is she baring her teeth? Is that something tau do? The fingers of the soldiers on either side of us are tightening around their grips slightly… What am I doing wrong?
"Hello." Still baring her teeth, the diplomat performs a shallow bow. "I am Por'La Lar'shi Tsua'm Raard."
I dismiss my construct armour. "Pleased to meet you, Miss Tsua'm. I'm… Hm. Gue'vesa'Saal Earth-" And this would be a good deal easier if I could say my own name. Just glad I was in a breathable atmosphere when I found out that I couldn't. "-Orange Lantern." I hesitantly extend my right arm. "I'm not sure how familiar you are with human body language…"
She starts to mirror my gesture, mildly hesitant as she carefully watches my hand. When our palms come together she doesn't make any attempt to grip it. I remember from reading Fire Warrior that tau reflexes are significantly slower than those of humans. I hadn't really thought about what that I2 would mean in terms of how they actually interacted with their environment. Should I..?
"N-nearly. Like this." I gently curl my fingers around her hand and shake it slightly. "It was originally a martial greeting which showed each party that the other wasn't carrying a weapon in their favoured hand."
"Oh." She looks up at me, still baring her teeth.
"Of course, since the ring is an empathic weapon and doesn't require any physical action at all it's a little misleading." I withdraw my hand. "Is there some-" I point at my mouth with my right hand. "-reason you're.. doing that?"
She closes her mouth slightly. "Smiling? Is that not a friendly human expression?"
"You weren't getting it quite right. I'll.. show you later." I gesture towards the marines with my right thumb. Ring shows… Two infected. "Am I doing something that's putting them on edge?"
She bows her head slightly. "We are… Not used to powerful human psykers being so polite. Your… Aura is a little… Strange."
"Hm?" I look down at my right hand. Right, the clearly visible orange glow. "Oh, no. I'm not a psyker. Honestly, I'm… Probably about as much of a psyker as you are. Since I predate human warp travel…" Though the shamen who created the Emperor did as well. Were their abilities purely sorcerous..? Don't know. "This shield is a product of this-" I hold up my left hand. "-ring. I don't think that it draws power from the warp. Because if it did I'd be-" I jazz hands. "-'hearing the voices' right now."
"I see. What does the force field do?"
I float slightly off the deck. "It's mostly for environmental protection. It protects me from external attack, lets me fly and deals with.. breathing and waste production."
"That is a remarkable device. Will you permit us to study it?"
I nod. "Anything non-destructive, but… It does a lot more than that, and I'll be happy to give your senior staff a-" Her nasal slit trembles slightly. "-full briefing, but… Your ship is full of holes and.. I've been awake for rather a long time. Perhaps now isn't the best-."
"Ah. Yes. Of course. I'm am sorry, but it will be some time before the.. senior staff can spare the time…"
"I quite understand. The needs of the ship come ahead of personal curiosity or pride."
"Just so. I can-" She presses a button on her spacesuit, and a small hologram appears in the air between us. "-assign quarters to you, if you wish to rest. I am afraid that we do not have anything designed with human aesthetics in mind, but please accept it until we can return to port."
"What, no skulls? What was your interior decorator t-." Huh. "Do tau have sarcasm?" She looks blank. I'll explain later. "As long as there's a mattress, it will be fine. But first, would it be possible for me to speak with your senior medical officer? I realise that most diseases can't cross the species barrier, but I'd hate to make my hosts ill because I was carrying something you weren't adapted to."
"As.. I said, the senior-" She dismisses the hologram. "-staff are likely to be occupied. We have many wounded, and the senior medical officer will be busy overseeing their repair."
I raise my left hand, generating a cut away of a tau body. "This ring has some quite remarkable medical functions as well. As long as the injuries are relatively simple, I should be able to aid their work quite considerably." I dismiss the construct and raise my-. No, there's no point doing that. She clearly doesn't understand human body language well enough.
"That.. would be his decision. But I see the value in making the request." She looks over to the fire caste warrior in charge of the detail. "Shas'Ui, would you please escort us to the primary medical station?"
I don't hear a response, but four members of the squad break away and march back down the corridor away from the airlock. Miss Tsua'm turns away from me to follow them, and I in turn follow her. And try to politely ignore the fact that the majority of the squad is now behind me, including one suborned by the tyranids. On the other hand, slightly fewer of them can shoot me at any one time now, and there isn't much advantage in shooting me further inside the ship.
And there isn't much advantage in me walking the length of one of these huge Warhammer Forty Thousand ships. Ring, interior map.
Map available.
Hr. Interior's… Okay. With a full interior scan the damaged areas are obvious. Multiple bulkhead doors are down around damaged sections and… The areas between where the boarding torpedoes hit and everywhere important. Doesn't appear to have completely saved the primary drive, but I'm not seeing any living orks. What else looks off? Hm, that's a lot of power and communication relays that don't go anyw-.
"They destroyed your bridge."
The orks totally destroyed their bridge. From the outside, it was so gone that I didn't notice that there was anything missing. I suppose that's what critical hits look like when it's real people. It also explains why I haven't spoken to any senior officers: they're a bit busy being dead. The senior air caste member at least, and probably the senior spirit caste member. And a dead Aun results in impeded inter-caste cooperation and a collapse of morale... And with medical too busy dealing with the wounded, any amount of opportunity for the Cult to spread. Can Brood Brothers spread the taint sexually, or do they need a purestrain?
Her facial cleft twitches again. "That.. is.. true. But once the engines are repaired, we can return to a friendly port."
"Then -and I do apologise- we need to move faster."
I envelop us both in orange light and transition us through the ship, the corridors now open to allow personnel and equipment to move efficiently reach damaged sections. We reappear by the room I tagged as 'primary medical', surrounded by a triage area of heavily injured tau. The more fortunate amongst the heavily injured are on antigravity beds, floating so as not to stress their injuries. The less fortunate are on the floor with whatever bandages they were brought in with keeping them from bleeding to death. The lightly injured are either keeping out of the way or assisting the medical technicians and their drones.
And while air and earth caste tau make up most of the injured, a small number are members of a reptilian species I don't immediately recognise. Well, the Tau Empire being a multispecies polity is why I'm here, I'll take that as a good sign. The one closest to me opens its right eye as I walk past and I give it a friendly wave before it passes out.
Ring, acquire biological data.
Compliance.
"What did-? Did you teleport?"
"Technically, no. Which one of these is in charge?"
A squad of fire caste soldiers have noticed us, but since Miss Tsua'm is clearly with me they're at least not opening fire right away. Right. My ship, my crew, my ticket to relative safety.
"Ah-? There." She points to a chunky earth caste tau in the middle of a small cluster of other medics. "Fio'Vre-"
Orange light blasts outward, veins and arteries reknitting, muscle regrowing and organs repairing, shrapnel evaporating and infections being scourged from existence. Yes YES!
Guh! Stop! Stop. Stop.
"-Lar… Shi…"
Miss Tsua'm trails off as all eyes turn to me, aside from those checking their bodies for the now vanished wounds.
"You're all welcome. Fio'Vre, I really need a moment of your time."
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