(AN: Hi — rq some questions from the previous chapter as to why, from Nazareth's perspective, the obviously mechanicus ship was going east to the Shadowlands; however, from Tyrion's and the small council's perspective, it was landing in the Dothraki Sea. An answer as to why is simple... The people in this world are quite dumb; their technology is very backward. So, from the small council's perspective, the lander was landing in the Dothraki Sea, similar to the comet. However, given the distance and the now-apparent curvature of the new 'Saturn-sized' planet, the results were disruptive. Furthermore, due to where Nazareth is, he obviously should be able to see where the landing ship was to land, as he was: A) closer and B) more knowledgeable about the world from seeing and watching the TV show and fanfics such as this one.)
It has been four weeks since the falling star disappeared from the night sky without any other appearance since. Nazareth still remembered the general direction in which the ship had disappeared, too, and he believed that, given time, he would come in contact with whatever or whoever was aboard that vessel.
In the meantime, however, since the killing of Rakharo and the near killing of Jorah, Nazareth decided that night not to kill Jorah, siding that if he did, then the future he could remember from the plot would become irrelevant, and even with his new body, Nazareth didn't feel like facing wizards and warlocks without at least having Jorah pushed to face them first. Luckily for Nazareth, Jorah had fully forgotten the night he was knocked unconscious, and when they returned to Khaleesi's outpost, Jorah presented as if he had not remembered a single thing throughout the whole day.
When questions arose over Nazareth's new gigantic sword and the disappearance of Rakharo, Nazareth, on the spot, told the 'savages' and Dany that Rakharo had tried to murder him and Jorah, causing the gash at the back of Mormont's neck and the blood evidently trickling from Nazareth's wounds (the slight cut near the throat and the back of the spleen). After answering that question, he didn't care or think to elaborate on how he got his sword. Daenerys, sensing that Nazareth didn't either care or want to explain how he attained the weird sword of gold, silver, and obviously Valyrian steel, did not push the point and began working along with the women of the Dothraki to treat the wounds on both.
After that night, the constant trudging through the near-endless Dothraki wastes continued.
Date - 299 AC -
Location - In the tent of the Khaleesi in front of Astapor -
After a total of five weeks of travel, the Khaleesi and Nazareth finally arrived in front of the gates at Astapor. Sitting all around was Jorah, the remainder of the bloodriders; Aggo and Jhogo were positioned to their Khaleesi's left and right, whilst Jorah and Nazareth stood in front of her, and her now significantly grown dragons — Drogon, Viserion, and Rhaegol — prowled and fought over pieces of horse given to them to feast upon.
Jorah and Daenerys fought over what to do; as their argument raged on, Dany turned towards Nazareth, aiming to include Nazareth in the upcoming deal for the Unsullied.
"Nazareth, what is your opinion on what I should do in the pursuit of the Unsullied?"
Nazareth, receiving Dany's words, began to think to himself. A quiet "hmm" escaped Nazareth's lips as his eyes peered into Daenerys'. Dany, still uncomfortable with Nazareth's obsidian-red eyes making contact with hers, quickly turned and diverted contact.
"I believe you should 'trade' one of your dragons, evidently Drogon, as he is the easiest to control."
As the final word exited Nazareth's mouth, Jorah and the bloodriders took up arms at what Nazareth suggested. Their shouts at this being an unfair and unjust trade were tiny compared to the aspect of trading a living, fire-breathing dragon for a few thousand men.
Daenerys, however, began to mull over Nazareth's words towards her and the prospect of losing a dragon for all Unsullied within the city. Jorah, seeing Daenerys' face, had evidently become even more frustrated at the outrageous thinking that a legendary beast could be given to a slaver, no doubt.
Nazareth, having finally become annoyed enough from the insults being thrown at him, simply stated with his still-gravelly voice, "Just because you 'traded' the dragon doesn't mean the slaver can first keep his life and the dragon."
As if a bomb had gone off, all present became silent at the proposition Nazareth had just expanded upon; the action of trading a dragon and having that same dragon kill the slaver whilst Daenerys controlled the Unsullied became like a light appearing above each of their heads at the odious actions and the possible reaction from the other major slavers, traders, and nobles from surrounding cities in Slaver's Bay.
As the Khaleesi's tent began to finally quiet at this remark, Dany motioned for all except Nazareth to leave. The bloodriders, having received this order, immediately left with Jorah not far behind; however, he still mulled over the fact of leaving Nazareth alone with Dany.
As Jorah Mormont finally left the tent, Daenerys looked at Nazareth and began to speak of what would happen after the supposed trade was to work and how Daenerys should command the Unsullied to free the slaves of Astapor. Nazareth watched Daenerys talk about possible reasons as to how this trade could fall through or how the Unsullied, seeing their master killed, would take arms against her people.
Something off appeared within Nazareth's mind, as Daenerys in front of him shouldn't be this aware of military order and knowledge, let alone give solid advice and possible scenarios where the trade could collapse. Nazareth remembered Dany's reaction when they first entered Astapor the previous day and how she reacted to the slaves, but also a major action or appearance of a certain someone didn't appear, nor did the assassination against Daenerys, for which Nazareth had prepared.
Date 798.M30 -
Location - The Second Continent of Noyolea in an area designated by the natives as the 'Shadowlands'
A metal structure was being hastily constructed as servitors and servo-skulls moved with robotic precision as metal beams of ceramic and steel were being welded.
The area obviously designated as a landing zone showed three large Pegasus-class assault transporters being constantly offloaded as small knight frames, and what could be seen as warhound titans marched off the Pegasus's ramps onto the mix of desert and muddy planet. Trails of Skorpius Duneriders and Skitari legions marched and dragged munitions and construction equipment off the transport ships.
Watching all of this occur was a mix of red-robed figures with metal tendrils spiraling off their bodies. At the center of this obvious command center stood an abomination of flesh and steel, covered with a red-and-blue mixed cloak from head to tail, with a cog and a half-face sword piercing the cog and skull.
From behind this abomination came a servitor with visible enhancements to its weaponry capability and another abomination of steel and flesh, however evidently smaller in size. As ones and zeros ran across the projected screens, it became more apparent to the largest abomination that something was messing with its commands, causing delays of up to a minute. These pauses in commands had already caused the destruction of multiple sacred machines and the loss of invaluable Mechanicus researchers.
The abomination spoke with hard resolve and steel through a vox connected to its throat, "As designated by the Omnissiah, this unit Archer#45 commands a recalibration of all machine spirits and cogitator modules to find why such delays are occurring."
At the end of this transmission, thousands of pings began to appear surrounding the construction site and landing area as scouts and automated turrets surrounding the perimeter previously set up as deterrence against foreign attempts at causing disruptions in the construction of the initial base of the Mechanicus on the planet flared. At the sudden appearance of these pings, the automated turrets swirled to life as a line of bullets was sent into the desert. The scouts, however, seeing this, looked around to find no traces of foreign invasion.
Archer, watching the sudden appearance of the pings and the turrets firing into apparent nothingness, began to output smoke as throughout the whole Mechanicus, dropsight CPU usage from the simplest of sensors to the most impressive warhound titans began to stumble and halt in all movements.
Before any chance of rebooting their systems could occur, the Auspexes began to ring with, this time, hundreds of thousands of pings surrounding the base and enclosing the frozen Mechanicus base. Thankfully, however, Archer, with his greater knowledge and operating system, was able to reboot faster than his colleagues as his optical nerves and connection to the command center flared; Archer placed greater immediate importance on the reactivation of the autoturrets and combat servitors, which had been quietly powered down in the corner of one of the Pegasus transporters.
Archer watched with horror as his prayers began faster, and holy oils and candles burned with greater fervor as the pings surrounding the base breached the last location of the scouts sent to inspect the land surrounding the outpost. As Archer began the rebooting of the autoturrets, one of the warhounds previously towing with cables larger than an average man was picked up by what seemed to be a beta-class lifeform of at least a hundred meters in length. The beast's clawed talons dug into the armor of the warhound before. With a powerful thrust of its wings, the warhound, with the corresponding cargo, was pulled into the air with powerful gusts; all that was left was the rapidly disappearing wind where the warhound had previously stood.
This scene happened directly in front of the command center asewll as in front of Archer. Archer watched with horror as the rebooting of anti-air and the autoturrets surrounding the perimeter kept failing, even through his rapid prayers to the Omnissiah for help.
Archer watched helplessly as the pings from Auspexes showed the distance from the perimeter of autoturrets was less than 20 meters. With a single firmer prayer to the Omnissiah, Archer helplessly turned to the power lever of the whole base and, with quick succession, pulled and pushed the lever; the lights within the base flickered at the lack of power as systems keen to working from the central power generators disappeared before showing a new screen with the rebooting of the defense systems.
Archer's prayer had been answered, as the servitors previously idling in power mode swirled to life and spits of turret fire and automated defenses whirled to life. Within seconds, the Auspexes showed the devastating might of the Mechanicus's automated defenses as, within seconds of reactivation, missiles shot towards the sky and hundreds of pings disappeared.
The previously deactivated warhounds, now active, roared in anger at the apparent disrespect all 25 had received from the force entry to their systems to halt all inputs from their princeps. Titans' roars were all that could be heard as plasma, bullets, and volkite shots rang into the horde of enemies. Even apocalypse missiles were launched from a warhound titan as the missiles flew over the horde and finally hit the ground. The corresponding blinding light from the nuclear reaction caused the Auspexes to flicker and the ground to shake with anger as the automatic defenses repeatedly swirled into life.
Archer's prayer was finally answered, and for this Archer shouted out from his vox on his throat on an open channel that whoever had caused this blasphemy against his work in the name of the Omnissiah shall receive godly and inhuman punishments.