The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen(And others)

she glances his way before stepping through

*she finds herself in a large, as in a titan could walk through, hallway. It seems to stretch as far as the eye can see. All over the floor, walls, and ceiling, the same runes and lines can be seen as the ones amo usually uses. Along its length, there are periodical alcoves, again, large enough to house titans, most of them filled with some sort of WIP project or other*
Amo: *stepping through behind her* Welcome, to my workshop. Not many have set foot here before...

"hmm. open, very open. is this where some of my brood will stay?"

Amo: yeah. Dont worry though. There are sealable bulkhead between each of these alcoves. And honestly, it is not a garrison duty, per say. This place is practically infinite. Of course, not all of it looks like this, but still, it is. I know, I made it so. Once you get to the edge of what already is, more is created so you dont run out of space. Neat, eh? Well, anyway, there are a lot of alarms built in. The job will basically be, that when an alarm is sounded, a force is dispatched to the segment involved. It is quite impossible to keep it all under constant surveillance, although you are certainly free to try. Ill teach you later how to travel around here. Normal rules do not exactly apply all the time....

"tervigons. limited affect. good sentries. useful for slowing hostile advance"
she taps an armored finger to her lip

Amo: Well, as you see fit, as long as they do not interfere with the projects here. I keep the more sensitive ones under lockdown, but generally it is unadvisable to jump around on highly volatile materials or some such.

"they patrol halls of hive ships. even as the rest of brood sleeps. only disturbing when intrusion is found. they won't interfere"
she says this almost adamantly. is that a tinge of pride on her face?

Amo: good. It probably wouldnt hurt to have an intervention force ready to pop in when and where needed as well though. Collateral damage is undesirable, but ensuring the overall security is of higher priority in most cases here. Eh, while we are at it, might as well show you how to do that... *points at a doorway large enough for a leman russ to pass through.... although it is only that: a runed frame, with a walled-in doorway*....you use those. Well, most of the time.

"... there's more to it?"

Amo: oh, yes, of course there is. Watch and learn, as they say.
*he touches the frame, then it lights up, and the metal plating inside the fram quickly rises up, only to reveal a hallways seemingly identical in structure. Amo walks through without a hitch. Assuming that she is perceptive enough, she notices that she can now hear footsteps one alcove down the line*

without further words she watches for the source of the noise, peeking back to Amo to keep track of him

*she can see amo waving at him from the next segment over... both through the doorway, and with direct observation.*
Amo: *looking back through the door* Neat, eh? Distance does not matter either, you just have to know where you want to go. It really pays to know this place like the back of your hand.... or other appendage.... See the advantage the defenders would have over any intruder?

"noted. tactical adaptation required"

Amo: *walking back and closing the gate* Can also be done with the blast doors between the segments. *points at big blast door that could seal off part of the hallway* But that takes actual effort. Still, proved kind of useful when i had to move an entire titan through one time... would have been a nightmare moving it along normally...

"volatility?"
it may take a second, but he can probably deduce she means 'how often is this place breached'

Amo: .......whaaaa..... oh, how volatile is the area? as in, how often do incursions happen? Very rarely, actually. Even then, it is usually accidental, not a planned action. However, I intend to set plans in motion, which will draw much ire from powerful forces, and guarding this place will become necessary... Think you are up for the task...?

"certainly. always more to draw upon"

Amo: good. Lets move on, shall we?
*he opens the door to another segment and walks through(dare I say) followed by queeny. On the other side, they are in an alcove with various things, all seemingly freshly done. Among them are 4 more of the previous disks*
Amo: *picking the set up and tying them together with a piece of string...ish thing...* Made more of them so I dont have to keep setting them to different aspects until you get the hang of it. They are pre-set now, but can be retuned later at will. Questions so far?

she takes them by the string and sort of dangles them over her face
"more material. excellent"
she hangs it over her shoulder and one of her hair tendrils raise up and coil over the string. her hand lets go and the tendril slinks behind her back with the string with disks

Amo: Yeah, thats the idea. Moving swiftly on...
*opens the gate to another spot. This time it is a large room with some kind of runed-lined circle in the middle. The walls are lined with racks and racks of ingots, made from the same material that the trinkets Amo makes seem to be.*
Amo: I guess you could call this the forge... of sorts... This is... my equivalent of the spawning pool, i guess... Some modifications to the circle, and I can either mass produce the desired raw material, or replicate some already existing, and not overly complicated piece i already have on hand. Remember those digger trinkets I gave you? If I took one, and made the appropriate changes here, I could make thousands of them rather quickly....

"the hive. nears maximum expansion. population restricted by request. could hold more comfortably"

Amo: Yes, i am aware of that. We will get to discussing that matter soon enough. Patience. However, in advance, i will say this: I will not allow boundless expansion. If nothing else, consider this: Assume that you manage to eat every single thing in this galaxy. Now not only have you ruined everything that could have been achieved here, you killed off the existing and future essence you could have used. But that is not all. You know this nice little place with practically infinite room and biomass? Yeah, you just killed that too... Without abundant life in the galaxy, the warp would become desolate and you would become just another hive fleet roaming the intergalactic wastes in search of more food... Is that really desirable?

he can tell he's getting a blank stare from her, her head tilts ever so slightly too

Amo: .....*sigh* If you eat everything, you are the only thing left. if you are the only thing left, you have nothing to eat or get essence from. Is that good?

and that's when something starts breaking in her
"we... move... on...? many alien concepts. we always move from galaxy to galaxy, ensure we are strongest. that we can survive. new challenges to prove might"
of course a norn queen having a crisis is quite the thought isn't it?

Amo: that, certainly is an option... but honestly... It seems useless to me... You say you want to achieve perfection. Perfect what? Warriors? If so, it is not possible. war always changes. How many new bioforms had to be developed since you arrived to this galaxy? and that, despite the overwhelming might you have... There will always be new adaptation needed, and those new ones, create new flaws that can later be exploited. I bet the current main bioforms proved perfect against the last opponents you faced? And yet here you are, faced with underwhelming enemies, that somehow still slow down these supposedly near-perfect warriors, despite their utter lack of preparedness...
If you consider that, the path you speak of, is an endless cycle that can never reach its desired goal...

"perfect survivors... perfect conquerors..."
she groans to herself and no one's questioning what happens to the synapse effect when the queen herself is having a crisis and there's no hive mind to step in

Amo: hardly possible.... especially here... If i would toss you unprotected into the warp, even the nigh-perfect survivor would die in an instant... Perfect conquerors? Khorne would munch you up for breakfast. The orkish gods, Gork and Mork, would squash him if they ever stopped bashing each other. On the grand scale of things, you are just s speck of dust, like me or the humans the tyranids love to eat so much... But that can, perhaps, be changed...

she groans for a bit longer before ubrubtly stopping. then after a second the infiltrator looks up at him almost like a dog

Amo: you see, what you seek, perfect conquerors, perfect survivors... In this galaxy, there exist beings who have those within them: the chaos gods Nurgle god of decay, and Khorne god of war. Should they be toppled, those specific aspects would be up for grabs... should a capable young Norn Queen be the one to claim them, there is every chance of her becoming something akin to a Goddess of Conquest and Survival, not to mention a huge power boost. And since I have little to no interest in either of those, I have every reason to help you achieve that, should you help me achieve what I want: to topple Tzeentch, and become the God of Knowledge and Sorcery... Of course, both of those become entirely meaningless if the whole galaxy is eaten: the warp, from which these powers are gained, is a reflection of the materium, the galaxy. If it dies, this opportunity is lost...

after he's finished talking he'd probably notice that he's not feeling any presence at all from the infiltrator who's slowly standing straighter and straighter until she lashes out at him

the queen at the hive shakes her head as she tries to regain her composure

(Synapse Broken, Feral Tyranid Organism)

The member 'Faelwen' has done the following action : Challange Fate

---

'd20' : 20

*unexpectedly effective as that strike was, it plunges straight into his chest, coming out the other side. after the initial surprise, he chants with blood dripping from his mouth, and fires his gun at the infiltrator form, rendering it unable to move any limbs*
Amo: *after doing quick patch-me-up on himself*Well, that is quite unexpected... ...better check on big you....
*he hefts her on his shoulder, and opens a portal into the hive, bloodstain still on him, and his coat now ripped... again...*

the queen herself rubs her head with one of her four hands before turning to him, watching him walk up to her
"mental strain exceeded norm. lost focus. will fix infiltrator to prevent feral behavior"

Amo: *plonks the body down for her to deal with. she might notice the wound going through his torso, and out his back* Again, that will be a negligible problem soon. Little need to bother. More importantly, how much of what we discussed, got through to you?

"something of grand scale"

Amo: *sigh* ....now i have to say it all again, dont i?

"was the infiltrator conscience?"

Amo: yeah.

"hmm"
after a brief pause
"memories usable. repetition unnecessary"

Amo: what a relief... kind of hard to talk with a fist sized hole in your lungs.... opinion on the subject matter?

a moment of silence as she plays the memory for herself
"is this reasoning for the shadow suppression?"

Amo: what? no, not really... that is for practical purposes. I meant the one about not eating the whole galaxy?

"it... is a confusing concept"

Amo: good. If you said you understood it completely already, you would be wrong. But more importantly, is the reasoning good enough for your taste?

her main body huffs
"unclear. prefer objective"

Amo: well then, ill give you one if you insist: Help me reach my goal, and with the resources and knowledge at my command once I do, i can help you reach yours.

she sits there quiet for a moment
"acknowledged. shall I modify infiltrator further?"

Amo: Not unless you feel the need to. Its your body. If you feel like it could use an upgrade, and it still remains usable for its function, go nuts.

"it's function was never in doubt. unexpected circumstance revealed weakness to mend. unfortunately requires rebirthing to modify"

Amo: Eh, i guess its not exactly the best idea to do that binding thing if it needs to be redone so often...