One Is A Hunter. The Other Is A Kleptomaniac (Hunter WIP)

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The first batch of WIPs for this month's project are here!  Let's begin with the Tech Priest, members of the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Imperium's tech support.  The Ad Mech are an interesting group in 40K, paradoxically the smartest and dumbest Imperial subfaction.  See, there was a point in the 40K timeline where humans had made really advanced technology, but then their version of Skynet/Terminator Judgement Day happened and everything went to hell (Age of Strife).  The human colony on Mars became an irradiated wasteland overflowing with mutants and rogue AI.  So the surviving humans scrambled to recover scattered technology and save the planet.  In time, this turned into a full blown religion where the Martians believe knowledge is holy and the Omnissiah or Machine God is the sum of all knowledge.  Through their doctrine, the Cult Mechanicus was born and its members (Tech-Priests) believe it is their holy duty to find all human technology lost during the Age of Strife.  

During the Great Crusade, the Emperor forged an alliance with the Mechanicus where they supplied the Imperium with technology and maintained their machines.  In return, the Mechanicus got reliable space travel and full autonomy over their own empire.  The Treaty of Olympus cemented this alliance and the Imperium's symbol changed to the double headed Aquila to represent this union.  

While the Ad Mech have a monopoly over super advanced technology, their ability to innovate has stagnated and a lot of technical procedures have turned into 'rituals'.  So every time a Tech Priest repairs a tank, there's going to be a lot of chanting, blessings and holy oils to appease the tank's advanced systems or 'Machine Spirit'.  Their dumpster diving or 'Quest for Knowledge' has also caused a lot of catastrophes, such as disturbing Necron tomb worlds or starting entire wars with Space Marine chapters (the Soul Drinkers fiasco comes to mind).  So yeah, smartest and dumbest.  

One of Tech Priest's more interesting beliefs is that the symbiosis of man and machine brings them closer to the Omnissiah or human ideal, which is why so many of them look like giant bug monstrosities.  But like most of the Imperium, the Ad Mech has a diverse cast of members and some could almost pass for a regular human.  

Next up is Machiko Noguchi, a character from the AvP comics, and the first human predator.  She was an administrator on a colony subjected to a devastating assault by a group of Yautja (Predators) and the Xenomorphs they had unleashed on the planet. The incident led to the destruction of the colony and the death of several of its inhabitants.  Machiko survived the incident, in the process earning the respect of the Yautja known as "Broken Tusk", to the point where she was Blooded by him and went on to join his clan. I do like the concept of a human being badass enough to become a predator.  Someone who can run with galactic space hunters has to be pretty athletic so I've upped her muscle tone. 

I'm still working on Kaleb Daark as there is basically no concept art for the character - just very old and tiny comic strips.  Will show more when his character design is more fleshed out.  Stay tuned!