Editing Nobledark Imperium Notes (section)

== Jokaero ==

The Jokaero are, in many ways, a lot like the Hrud. Not hostile, but at the same time not Imperial citizens because you can't can't get a solid agreement out of them. Hrud because they are flighty, Jokaero because the Imperium can’t get beyond basic communication with them (i.e., what you see modern humans doing with dolphins and great apes). They theoretically should be smart enough to understand some basic communication but don't act like it, to this end the AdBio have never been able to determine if they are animals or sapient people taking the piss.

Jokaero have been known to perform technical expertise in exchange for fruit, but it’s not as if a transaction or agreement was made. They just turn up and do things. Most people see Jokaero as essentially non-sentient animals that are genetically hardwired to make tools. People still don't try to use Jokaero despite being near-sapient test subjects outside Imperial law because multilasers.

Most Imperial citizens know of the Jokaero via a kids’ cartoon featuring a big friendly cuddly Jokaero as a recurring side character. He makes strange and unpredictable devices that generate shenanigans. People encountering them for real drop the cuddly and change friendly to non-hostile. They are big though.

Inqusitor Coteaz has a reputation of being the “Jokaero whisperer”. He knows full well that the Jokaero aren’t sapient in the way that other species like humans and kinebrach are, so in order to get them to do what you want you have to put things in their terms. Treat them like great apes that know how to make guns. You don't get the Jokaero to stay where you want them with cages or build what you want with threats. You get them to do what you want via positive reinforcement (as in, gives best treats in exchange for making stuff).

Coteaz' actual retinue also has a large number of kinebrach, who tend to bring their own raygun gothic style weapons. They get kind of pissed if you compare them to the Jokaero (they were *hired* for one, they'd say, or point out that if you were to call Coteaz' research "a barrel full of monkeys" you'd have to include humans in that count).

Coteaz himself isn’t even sure if the Jokaero are truly non-sapient or just pulling the entire galaxy's leg.

Their movements and migrations seem to him to be far too directed and deliberate to be purely instinct and fruit driven.

There seems to be something that has a vague ability to direct them down certain paths to where they need to be but hasn't enough direct control to dictate what they do when they get there.

Out of all the places in the Galaxy there are richer sources of food and more safety than in Guard regiments being deployed. But a disproportionate number of them end up there, right where they can upgrade shit in strange and unpredictable ways.

His own retinue is a prime example of this. There are far safer places to be and indeed they often leave him after a short time, but others always turn up.

And on rare occasions they have deliberately fought. There is nothing more oddly terrifying that watching a Jokaero fashion bizarre war gear out of scrap and then shredding Necrons and Chaos Eldar with hand held reality violations. It's the surreal terror of watching something harmless become horrifying. Coteaz has only seen this happen two or three times, Jokaero typically run at the first hint of danger. He has only seen it at all because of his extensive contact with them.

The rest of the Inquisition think that Coteaz has gone mildly eccentric with his talk of directed Jokaero behaviors because it contradicts thousands of years of what everyone else has seen. Sometimes Coteaz thinks maybe they are right, maybe he is just seeing shapes in the clouds. But then he sees one of the Jokaero out of the corner of his eye, not hunched over but standing proud, tow big black eyes like bottomless pits and something else looking back at him. He turns to look properly and the Jokaero slumps back into it's usual behavior and the thing behind those eyes flickers away and he can almost believe he imagined it. Almost.

If the Jokaero are sentient, it's not out of the question that they too made their own god, like the Orks, Hrud, and Eldar. Possibly some sort of scrap god or something similar.