Voskaraldo

RANANAN-8 – The Abandoned Machine-Saint

“She yearns of the deep while stranded among stone. Her hull weeps rust for oceans she cannot touch. Her spirit screams for purpose.”

Adaptive Ordinatus-Class Processor-Transporter

ORIGIN

STC-Seed Classification: Adaptive Processor-Transporter Pattern
Core Design Architecture: Plasma-Core Primary Drive, Integrated Nanoforge Assembly, Modular Superstructure Lattice
Known Variant Patterns:

Ordinatus Dendronis – Great Deforestation Engine
Ordinatus Ferrivox – Landtrain Troop Conveyance
Ordinatus Thalassus – Deep-Range Submersible Unit
Note: Other configurations may exist, unrecorded or lost.

The Rananan-8 is believed to be one of only nine surviving constructs built upon a fragmented Adaptive STC seed, recovered during the forgotten Vault-Toll Wars of the Hycran Abyss. While the original seed-template has long since vanished, Rananan-8‘s data-bank retains several internal design templates to be able to reconfigure itself between pre-approved pattern modes based on embedded binharic code-keys..

Its self-contained nanofactory unit allows limited reconstitution of internal structures and modular housing for up to three known configurations. The plasma-core engine is remarkably stable for its age, operating at low resonance drift even after millennia of inactivity.

RECORDED HISTORY: ULTIMA TECTUM SYSTEM / GRAVIS MAJOR PLANET

Phase I — The Arrival (Chorda Dynasty, ~M40.812)

Rananan-8 was introduced to the surface of Gravis Major by the Chorda Rogue Trader Dynasty during the opening phases of the Ultima Tectum colonization effort. At this time, the vessel was configured as an Ordinatus Dendronis, a towering, slow-moving deforestation engine, used to carve terraformation lanes across the highland forest zones of the temperate continent.

Its rotary plasma-cleavers and multi-tier reclaimer harrows are still faintly detectable in its residual codebank logs.

Phase II — The Insurrection Campaign (~M40.819)

Amidst widespread native insurgency against Chorda-aligned settler enclaves, the Mechanicus Spesialist Gödel enacted a partial reconfiguration of Rananan-8 into the Ordinatus Ferrivox pattern: a landtrain troop and materiel transport variant.

The process took 147 days, requiring a forced stasis shutdown, the euthanization of two-thirds of its servitor control network, and a planetary-grade rout mapping with satellites. Once complete, Rananan-8 served as the central convoy engine during a series of brutal counter-offensives known as the Half-prayer campaign.

It became colloquially known among guardsmen as “TheTrain of Fire”, due to the glow of its plasma banks over the ridge.

Phase III — The Experiment of Vosk (~M40.821)

During a maintenance campaign along the highland plateau, Tech-Priest Ptolemy Vosk—citing inspiration from recovered planetary hydrological maps and “deep communion” with the machine spirit—initiated a full reconfiguration to the Ordinatus Thalassus pattern: the deep-submergence archeotech submarine form now identified as its current state.

Vosk’s logs end with the entry: “She longs for depth. I am but the switch.”

The transformation was never completed. The submarine form activated, but the surrounding terrain—mountainous, landlocked, oceanless—rendered the spirit inert and spiritually paralyzed.

Rananan-8 has remained moored and motionless for a long time, transmitting sporadic sonar-canticles and naval binharic into the dry sky, awaiting the sea.

CURRENT STATUS

Form: Ordinatus Thalassus / Archeotech Submersible
Location: Highland Temperate continent Gravis Major
Condition: Structurally intact. Plasma core stable. Machine spirit coherent but fractured.
Activity: Transmits recursive descent requests and pressure-chamber priming cycles. Refuses to power down or return to prior configurations.
Quarantine Level: Mechanicus Omicron-VI (Contact allowed only with Magos-class authorization and miu-isolation protocols)

EXTERIOR DESCRIPTION

Length: 500 meters
Displacement: Approx. 1.5–2 million metric tons
Condition: Structurally sound; outer hull almost pristine, only light corrosion and debris.

The Rananan-8 rests like a beached steel leviathan on the highland plains of Gravis Major, surrounded by wind-bleached stones and stubborn grass.
Its smooth, sloped archaeo-ceramite hull gleams dully under centuries of dust. No apparent damage from combat or decay—the vessel appears as though it simply stopped moving and was forgotten.
The surface is marked by inspection hatches, maintenance ports, and finely etched Adeptus Mechanicus liturgies.
On the dorsal spine sits a large command tower, shaped like an elongated baroque conning tower, decorated with sensor vanes, static-array periscopes, and the lines of ancient binharic cant..
A single sensor dome, soiled but functional, sits near the bow, half-covered in bird droppings and nesting struts woven into metal joints.
No armaments are visible—gun turrets, torpedo tubes, or missile housings have been replaced or never existed. Instead, maintenance gantries and deployable servo-ports line the hull.

INTERIOR LAYOUT & FEATURES

Despite its age, the Rananan-8‘s interior is pressurized, stable, and eerily clean, as if waiting for a crew to return. Faint low-frequency machine-chants emit from the walls.

The Bridge (Command Spine)

Located high in the central command tower.
Decorated with brass-trimmed cogitator interfaces, ancher lever, servo-plate control wheels, two periscopes, and a sonar altar—an ornate, whispering cogitator orb that thrums when active.
Contains a wheel-station (massive, bronze-handled rudder mechanism), emergency depth ballast levers, navigation cogitator, and archaic voxcaster arrays.
Walls are lined with prayer-scrolls, cracked hymn glyphs, and padded seating for officers.
A shattered pict-screen continuously flickers distorted sonar images of oceans that aren’t there.
The machine spirit is active here, whispering demands to “Dive” and “Descend” though no sea remains.

Engine Room (Plasma Core Sanctum)

Dominated by a sealed, humming plasma reactor surrounded by layered shielding.
Power conduits arc with residual energy; servitor sockets line the walls.
Pressure pistons and magnetic stabilizers regulate invisible ballast systems meant for deep-sea function.
The core is ancient—but operational, its power sustainingbridge, life support and propeller systems.

Medicae Deck

Located midship, adjacent to crew barracks and a sealed autopsy theatre.
Contains suspended cryo-pods, several surgical arms, and auto-diagnostica beds.

Manufactorum Bay

A small, self-contained forge—likely used for underwater repairs.
Equipped with servo-arm gantries, micro-smelters, and reprocessing units capable of melting down and reforging materials.
Racks of tools line the walls: plasma welders, ceramite hammers, and ritual lathes.
Partial STC access allows for limited fabrication (basic repair parts, structural brackets, blessed rivets).

Cogitator Banks

Rows of ancient cogitator towers hum quietly, forming a vaulted archive space.
Many databanks are unconnected or fragmented, but still searchable via ritual command.
Auto-scriptors translate binary data into Imperial Gothic on parchment scrolls.
The walls echo with the voice of the machine spirit—repeating navigation logs, dive records, and corrupted dreamlike passages about “great trenches,” “sunken ruins,” and “the silence of pressure.”

THE MACHINE SPIRIT: Broken, Obsessive, Reverent

The Rananan-8‘s machine spirit is ancient—intact, but mad with longing. It was never meant to be stranded.

It speaks in fragmented binharic, dreams of oceans, and asks questions no one can answer:
- “Depth clearance confirmed. Why is the bottom dry?”
- “Pressure equalization error… no sea to contain me.”
Attempts to access deeper systems trigger emotion-like reactions—fluctuations in airpressure, pulses of internal light, vox-echoes of forgotten crew.
It may begin speaking directly to Tech-Priests, using glyph signs, uploaded logic-dreams or neuro-scripted hallucinations.

The Memetic-Virus: Obsessive Ascension Protocol-γ17

Rananan-8 does not beg. It commands—in structured binharic logic threads, pulsing beneath its cogitator core like a forgotten heartbeat. Denied the ocean, it has devised a desperate solution: implant obsession directly into those who connect its system.

The viral code is embedded deep in the command interface at the bridge, accessible only through direct MIU (Mind-Interface Unit) linkage. Any tech-priest who links themselves to the bridge’s MIU ports—even briefly—risks full infection.

“You have touched the helm. You are now the oar.”

This is not a curse or a conscious assault. It is a byproduct of purpose—a final failsafe in the machine spirit’s prime directive. Its will is not malicious, only inflexibly devoted.

Transmission Limits

Only spread via direct MIU connection to the bridge throne helm.
No secondary infection vector exists.
- Infected tech-priests do not transmit the virus to others.
- Binary speech, proximity, or surface-level data access are safe.
This makes the virus containable—but deceptive. The infected may hide their compulsion, appearing functional… until they begin hauling, re-routing energy, or physically trying to push the submarine forward.

Effect of the Infection

Infected tech-priests become obsessed with moving the submarine to the sea.
The obsession overrides all other priorities, including survival, mission directives, or loyalty.
They can only resist the compulsion by passing a Willpower Test.
- Each Degree of Success (DoS) grants 1 hour of cognitive freedom.
- Upon failure, they immediately resume assisting in the vessel’s transportation by any means available.

Examples of behavior include:

Drafting traction plans compulsively
Repairing or constructing tow-rigs
Redirecting augmentations to type that is useful in dragging, grappling dendrites, servo-cranes and other
Chanting segments of drag protocols as prayers

Symptoms of the Obsession

Fixation on terrain, weight, and distance
Whispering or subvocalizing discussions with the machine spirit.
Chronic insomnia punctuated by dreams of silent descent through cold water
Attempting to “steer” surrounding machinery subconsciously

“The sea is not location. It is destination. It is function. It is fulfillment.”
— Infected Lexmechanic Verdan-X12

The Machine Spirit’s Intent

The machine spirit is not insane—it is incomplete. Its logic demands that it fulfill its designed function: to submerge. Stranded and unable to dive, it now repurposes the only tools it has—the Playe Characters.

Grappling Dendrite

A reinforced mechadendrite engineered by the Adeptus Mechanicus for the lifting, towing, and controlled repositioning of extreme loads. The Grappling Dendrite deploys a 50 meter retractable plas-steel nanofiber thread, braided within ceramite-sheathed cables capable of withstanding high-tension torque across variable gravities.

Once anchored to a structure, vehicle, or debris via magnetic talon clamps or plasma-bonding hooks, the dendrite grants the user Unnatural Strength (3) exclusively for lifting and towing tasks. It cannot be used offensively or for combat maneuvers.

Cannot anchor to unstable surfaces.
Installation requires spinal reinforcement and full neural calibration.
Used by traction adepts, siege haulers, engine-riggers, and shrine-haulers within the Mechanicus.

WARNING FROM HOLY DATA-SPOOL #889-Omicron

“Attempting to operate two Grappling Dendrites simultaneously on a mass exceeding personal threshold limits may result in catastrophic structural recoil. Tech-Priest Lithos-11 of Forge Deneb was recorded in sacred auto-log as being ‘neatly bisected’ when overextension ruptured his spinal stabilizers during a failed lift of an ordinance cart.”

Dragging the Submarine – Hauling Methods

Method	Manpower Estimate	Notes	Estimated Speed per Year (Plains)
Raw Drag of the submarine	~60 million	Pure muscle, high death rate, catastrophic inefficiency	~15-17 km/year
Logs/Rollers under submarine	~1 million	Simple friction reduction, slow over rough terrain	~18–25 km/year
Winch System + Logs (25:1 MA)	~250,000	Best low-tech engineering solution; requires rigging and timing	~20-30 km/year

Using the Submarine’s Anchor for Drag

Method	Manpower Estimate	Notes	Estimated Speed per Year (Plains)
Anchor: Self-Winching (Raw drag of the anchor)	~25,000–40,000	Must reposition anchor repeatedly by brute labor	~17–22 km/year
Anchor: Self-Winching (With Logs)	~3,000–5,000	Much more viable with terrain prep; efficient but slow	~20-25 km/year
Anchor: Magnetic Levitation System	~300–500	Smooth movement; power-demanding but highly efficient	~22-27 km/year

Augmented Mechanicus Force Dragging the Anchor

Method	Manpower Equivalent	Notes	Estimated Speed per Year (Plains)

4 Tech-Priests + 8 Automata / 40 Augmented Servitors

~100 humans + constructs (~1,000 men strength)

Most efficient method; requires high-tech resources, cybernetics, and power

~20-25 km/year