Technoarcana of the Ordo Malagra

The Ordo Malagra sometimes known as the Prefecture Magisterium is a tool Omnissian doctrine those who join this Ordo are the most rigidly dogmatic of the Machine Cult and dedicate themselves to being it’s most dangerous enforcers - sometimes referred to in slang as Tech-Assassins or Tech-Inquisitors these sinister Magi are skilled at eliminating bionically enhanced and mechanical opponents as well as infiltrating their systems and turning them on eachother.

Martian Device - Poena Gladii

The exact form of the melee weapons used by the Ordo Malagra can vary, some prefer swords while others prefer short staves - each to their own talents the Malagra carry these sinister weapons as badges of office distinct from the Omissian Axes favoured by most of the machine cult. These physreps must be no longer than 42” in length and are explicitly intended to be one-handed weapons;

• You may call Rend with this weapon in melee as default.
• When striking an unaware target from behind who is not aware of your presence you may call I am a Knife in the Dark! Haywire - this ability cannot be used again until you have Recuperated.

You may also push the Poena Gladii to do the following;

• After 5s studying your opponent you may call either Haywire or Weaken against them in melee - you may do this up to three times. This ability cannot be used again until you have Recuperated.

Rite Interfectorem

As the primary hunter-killer specialists of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Malagra are trained to sniff out the spoor of their preferred targets with advanced sensorium bionics;

• Once you have positively identified a Heretek, Tech-Priest, Skitarii or Pattern of Servitor or Automata up against, when you Recuperate you can prepare to face it, adapting your tactics, changing ou rounds in your weapons, and priming the array of technology that the Ordo Malagra relies on. This preparation only helps and affects the machine you have prepared to face you need to recuperate and recalibrate if you want to face a different target.
• You may expend a Esoterica to call Haywire up to 3 times against members of your targeted category.
• You may expend a Esoterica to call Weaken up to 3 times against members of your targeted category.

You may push to;

• Spend 15s not moving and aiming at a member of your targeted category, if you lose sight of them before you finish your count you must restart again, if you reach the end of your count you may expend a Esoterica to call Sunder. The call Sunder may only be used once, regardless of how many sources of it you have, before you have to Recuperate.

Rites Incursus

As data infiltration and retrieval specialists, the Malagra are skilled at both interrogating and overriding the impulses of machine-brains both bionic and fully automated in order to gather information and turn their foes weapons against them using data-spikes to deliver overriding code to their targets;

• After striking with a melee blow instruct a machine mind to Command Override Ignore Me
• Spend 10s of focus to shut down an enemy Vox transmitter either via Command Override Vox Shutdown! or by relaying from a distance via a ref.

You may also push to do the following;

• After striking with a melee blow you may use Command Override to compel a machine or bionically enhanced individual to do whatever you want.

Rites Delictum

While data-infiltrators rely heavily on the use of brute force invasion of cogitators and machine spirits while in close range of their targets via the use of brutal carnivor-programs and data-djin. There are times where the attack must be done from a distance where these attack vectors are not available as they usually require, if not physical interface, then transmitting in the near volume of the target. The Rites Delictum require the data-infiltrator to project their mind into a network in order to defeat protective countermeasures - but they are not without risk, in such a state they are physically disabled and aggressive counter attacks can be damaging to their minds as well as their bodies.

When a character with this rite encounters a protected system that they cannot easily overcome with their other rites then they must attempt this rite to enter it. They will encounter two data-hazards that they need to overcome.

Firewalls are protective layers surrounding a protected system. Every system has a number of these guarding them. If a character wishes to overcome a firewall they must pass a power test with a 75% chance of failure - for each successful test they bypass a single firewall. Up to three characters with this rite may work together, but are considered a single entity - they may redraw this power test;

• If they Overclock their MIU’s - until the end of the next combat all data-infiltrators involved cannot use Bionic Traits or the Weapon of Old Night while their systems are cooling - this can be done once per infiltration regardless of how many are involved.

• For Each Additional Data-Infiltrator (above 1) contributing to the infiltration

• If an Ordo Logi Tech-Priest passes a Power Test (25% Chance of Success) to use their Data-Djinn - this can be done once per infiltration regardless of how many are involved - if they fail this test they suffer their Feedback Curse.

• If an Ordo Malagra Tech-Priest passes a Power Test (25% Chance of Success) to use their Rites Incursus - this can be done once per infiltration regardless of how many are involved - if they fail this test they suffer their Feedback Curse.

• If an Info-Executioner passes a Power Test (25% Chance of Success) to Disregard the Safety Protocols - this can be done once per infiltration regardless of how many are involved.

In theory a data-infiltration team can infinitely attempt to break down the firewalls protecting a system, but such systems often have more active countermeasures in order to protect them in the form of Lockouts and Glacies-type Data-Countermeasures;

Lockouts are triggered whenever enough power tests are failed for a system to realise it is under attack, they force the shut-down of that system which can sometimes a goal in and of itself for data-infiltrators. There are two forms of Lockout, the first is immediate upon reaching a certain number of failures, the second is timed where the data-infiltrators need to defeat any remaining firewalls before the clock hits 0 - this is not an actual timer, the length of a clock is variable and advances each time a power test is taken.

Glacies programs are triggered after a certain number of Power Failures - a form of aggressive counter-attack data-djin these cause a Haywire effect on the ‘lead’ data-infiltrator (the one who made the power draw that triggered this) - they cannot take part in the invasion for the next two power draws as they are knocked out.

• However, dangerous and sometimes deadly Black Programs exists, representing more advanced data-djinn or even malevolent entities in digital form, these can do anything from Command Override, to leaving their target Shaken to corrupting the mind and soul, to simply burning out one of the attackers MIU’s with a Sunder effect.

Feedback-Curses

Whenever you fail a power check select one of the following effects;

• The next time you use a Rite it fails and your internal firewalls that isolate your primary systems from the deadly machine-curse codes stored in your dataspikes fail, and your mind is flooded with scrap code - you may not make active use of your traits - though still benefit from passive effects such as increased willpower/endurance or effects representing armour or innate toughness that do not require you to make calls or roleplay actions to benefit from - you may still make melee attacks in self defence, but these must be uncalled. This can be cleared with the Rite of Becalming otherwise it lasts 30s.

• The next time you connect with the Poena Gladii, call no damage and instead suffer the Haywire effect - you cannot use the Poena Gladii until you have spent time repairing it while Recuperating.

If you fail a power test two or more times it is expected you will have two different effects active - additional effect should affect you on subsequent pushes rather than all at once - if you fail a power test MORE than three times then the length one or more effects increases by 10s for each failure you may spread these or take them all on one.