Snippet #2757985

Going ahead was the most amazing thing he'd had to do in the last month. Guarding the mayor gave fighting Papa Nurgle a run for its money. While repeatedly wishing for someone to bring him a blowtorch to sear his sinuses eventually got his wish. Hurt like hell He'd never leave his appointed post but he was very happy to oblige when Snowbund told him to run down here if she was asked for early. However getting past security took forever. While able to relinquish his animated heavy shotgun which the law enforcement officer was overjoyed to handle. The heavy armor was another matter.

They had him try to remove the Imperium's heavy combat armor but got as far as the gloves and helmet then couldn't get much further. Once he knew they'd left his possession they started to erode. One part of the armor finished growing back by the time they got all three off as the pile of remnants evaporated into ectoplasm. After clearing that the Imperial Guard was indeed actually contracted to secure the mayor they just gave him some patches with his actual security contractor. Small plastic panels wrapped to cover the emblems from bad photo ops and sending him on his way.

He'd found out later the Imperium had a word for what the Xeno overbeing Myrkul's Vein made of him. Perpetual. Perpetual suffering more like. He burnt out his sinuses with propane but it only lasted a few dozen minutes. So he knew his carbonized sinuses started to grow back when he could smell her getting closer. The constant immolated sinuses was giving him a headache he just stuffed a set of industrial nose plugs in and took position near where Snowbund would sit.

He could hear the Jinhai servitors nearby. A hulking overbeing he could see overlaid in his mind's eye just rising from beyond the horizon. Both obeyed the proclamation that weapons
were not to be in public spaces today so thinking of themselves as the emperor's weapons not a people had a bit of a selective understanding. Xenos through and through after being able to hear them thinking. That odd fluted noise his head could hear from their omnipresent chatter. Even hiding in infrastructure spaces between the walls they had no boredom. Nothing in them fed the warp just patient waiting. He was pretty sure a busted wing of this building shifted last week because they hefted the whole damn broken foundation up and fused it back together on straight.

Solemn in focus Otto followed then sat near Snowbund just putting up with her usual effervescence. Curious at the noise in his head he bent down to eye a heater grate as the judge entered the room. A swirl-eye of the Jinhai stared back at him alongside one of the pale white robes the oddly chipper architect minted some months ago. Whole missing city departments started replying to email and form again stuffing mail bags of repaired but nearly obliterated work onto the next parts of the process.

Then the things promptly started interviews and replaced themselves if they couldn't get the humans back to work after the catastrophe. Servitors triaging damaged parts of the city until they could find the humans that belonged there. Until then obediently following every rule in discovered company manuals to the letter. Bureaucratic creatures to the last faint floating thread they explicitly asked to be replaced when interrogated. Higher ups did eventually notice after all. Nobody told them to stop yet, so they didn't.

Except for today, anyhow, he smirked in bemusement while standing back up for court proceedings. Obediently sat down at the call he wondered if some manager was trying to figure out why several dozen office workers just 'vanished into the walls' in this specific set of city blocks the last day or two. Poorly worded marching orders for removing all 'weapons' from the court environment.

All their oddly regular signatures doing office processing in this or that cubicle. Working with the Xeno worm they fed him donuts a whole lot. Servitors got them but couldn't eat them. At some small business mail room he saw one poor sod that survived the rest of his department and concerned about all the white robes making inane small talk around water coolers. Then paying attention with intense focus to the surviving humankind in fair if mercenary operational meetings devoid of office politics. They held an iron line of governmental secrecy until they found some humankind to replace themselves to a minimum service level. Homeless citizens just happy to be on the payroll again.

It was the hospital raising the most flags. Servitors kept delivering the injured by elevator for months after the volcano. Which wouldn't be odd if the vast majority weren't registered as dead. Empty departments kept making outwardly reasonable if terse identical replies, 'License issued for specified conditions. Triage and release civilians from emergency stasis facility. Thank you for notification.'