Subverting Mechanius Personnel - fluff question

[bluntblade]

So, had an idea for a battle in an alt-heresy in which a telepathic Primarch messes with the mind of thralls and servitors by convincing them that they've received canted instructions to do this or that. Now, is this believable in the first instance, and what restrictions should be imposed on it?

 

Thinking:

- Skitarii should be exempt, as they're relatively independent

- Automata might have minds too artificial for our Primarch to influence to any real extent. Although I do recall a Thousand Son controlling a maniple of them.

- Magos, obviously, are exempt

[Sawtooth]

I'd say with the existence of the Technomancy psychic powers this is in the realm of possibility. The Emperor psychically sensed and repaired a flaw in a Knight's leg, so someone like Magnus might well be able to mind-hack servitors and the like.

[Tyriks]

And there have been instances of magi using psykers to power machinery and machinery effecting psykers so I think there can definitely be interaction between the warp and machinery!  And with Skitarii they aren't all that independent.  The codex is explicit that they have their minds overridden in combat and they consider it a blessing from the Omnissiah, so I think they'd be easy targets.

[Marshal Rohr]

You don't have have to be psychic to do this. It's the definition of remote hacking. We do it with drones and missile systems all the time. Any legionary with the ability to wirelessly access the network thralls and servo-automata operate on could alter their programming. Something cool but not really a psychic ability would be the ability to corrupt the data by messing with the energy source transmitting the data through the machine/biological interface that makes servitors capable of deciphering the data.

[Xisor]

It's a big part in a certain fight sequence in Matt Farrer's (and also, full disclosure: my favourite) novel, Legacy.

 

Best depiction of two tech-priests having a tiff yet.

 

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But suffice to say: both bio & techno hacking are quite appropriate. Hell, if this Primarch is as good as you might imagine, even Techpriest and folks might not be able to resist.

 

But why stop there? Why not hack the suits of power armour directly. A different sort of Rubric...

[Battybattybats]

One of the Black Library calendar images of an upcoming novel shows an iron hands marine fighting Skitarii which may imply something similar in a coming novel.

[bluntblade]

My point is that Alexandros is limited to messing with minds in particular. He hasn't got the link that the TSons use, and I don't want to make the battle a walk-over (Simison has had him take over an Imperator, but that was exhausting for him and he had to focus solely on wrestling with the machine spirit and crew).

 

How likely is it that a priest, say, would recognise that the "orders" aren't registering in his cogitator parts?

[bluntblade]

So here's my progress on the piece itself. Criticism on the writing is welcome, but I mostly want to be sure that I've got the internal logic of the feat right:

 

+++++

 

Every child of Mars understood that human speech - the flapping of wet billows of meat, passed over chords that could strain and bits of enamel that could break, was fundamentally flawed. Voices could be lost or mangled by defects of physiology.

 

But beyond that, it was inefficient; leeching off the body's pulmonary system for communication hindered the individual. For an example one only had to look to the unaugmented catching their breath after exertion, or to hear them incoherently call out in the midst of battle.

 

When Mars had risen, red again after its verdant surface died in the fires of Old Night, the noosphere had marked one of the most profound victories over biological sentiment. Respiration and verbal communication were partitioned, and sacred binary rendered all other modes of expression irrelevant. Faces, for example, no longer had to convey emotions and higher concerns like durability could be prioritised.

 

Better yet, canted binary was received and transmitted at speeds that the unaugmented would mistake for instantaneous. Where their ancestors would waste entire minutes in greetings, Magos of the Cult Mechanicus could conduct entire conversations in the same time - in parallel.

 

Binary was free of posturing and inflection. Clarity was inherent. Binary was the language of truth.

 

So when Skitarii Protector Ru-Hau 92 learned that he had received canted instructions to destroy the Thallax squad to his left, he did not question them. He turned and opened fire with the volkite culverin and melta gun that comprised his ranged arsenal. Most of the thralls went down immediately, and the rest were destroyed by fire from their Magma City counterparts. Orders to desist and renew the attack on the loyalists were rescinded seconds after they were issued as a Conqueror robot unloaded its plasma cannon onto its neighbours. The chain reaction ripped a sizeable hole in the formation, and reorganisation was thwarted by Halcyon Wardens sharpshooters and Devastators. Ru-Hau 93 was denied redemption by an assault cannon round which bored into his neck before detonating, pitching him to the dirt in terminal spasms. The Magma City forces advanced unimpeded, now free to bring a squad of ___ tanks forward and scatter a pack of Warhound Titans.

 

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Commander RTY-3423 had passed the Crux Mechanicus within her very skull - now largely an adamantine case, the original bone having become metaphorical. Her brain, bleached of sentiment, was overwhelmingly supplanted by cogitators. Blessedly free of primitive emotion, she did not feel anger or alarm when it became apparent that something was causing troops and machines under her command to turn their weapons against their own allies. It was nothing detectable, and appeared unable to subvert those who had accepted sufficiently extensive improvements to their own minds.

 

This was correct. At several points the mind behind this had found a target whose brain was simply too augmented to subject them to its unusual methods of control. But then there were solutions for that. In this instance, a group of Vorax with las and rotor cannons, stationed just a dozen or so metres behind and to the left of the Commander, served admirably.

 

Niklaas' companies and Commander ___'s brigades mopped up the remnants with little difficulty. Behind a dune, beneath his helm and the shields of his guards, Alexandros grinned wickedly.