- Location
- California
They are too busy with an amazing new invention that's sweeping their nation! Fidget Spinners.
The Mallus Compliance (Space Marines in Warhammer Fantasy - Chapter Master/Empire Building)
- Thread starter FractiousDay
- Start date
- Fantasy
- Location
- yorkshire
god damn it
Nothing that could be done, I suppose.
Though I do wonder whether we are using a system where high rolls are good or low rolls are good.
Though I do wonder whether we are using a system where high rolls are good or low rolls are good.
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- Location
- yorkshire
i hate the fact we are now fighting the lizards may lead to things chaos would like
Just like when the Imperium fought the Interex.
- Location
- yorkshire
yep this i going to suck
- Location
- United Kingdom
I would push back against this sort of attitude. Yes there were things you couldn't necessarily control, but there were also definitely things you could. What is X action containing? What are the likely effects of X action? What actions may other actors take based on X action? Are the consequences of X action and the responses of other parties acceptable? Are there efficiencies to combining X and Y actions, or would this be bad? These are the questions you should be asking yourselves. Even if you as the players didn't know the Lizardmen were about, you could have known that flying about in large aircraft would be noticeable to various parties, indeed far more noticeable than a few squads of scouts sneaking about. Many of the events here are perfectly forseeable, and I don't plan to spoonfeed you the information, you do have to consider it. At least one person did:
And yes, just because you're not scrying them it doesn't mean they're not scrying you, or that other warp things aren't going on, as you'll see in the next chapter.
This is why I encourage discussion. Two people voted for the first plan when it had literally no reasoning and there wasn't even an alternate option. To note some specific points, you've got 300 space marines and 100,000 reasonably trained serfs. To me, fortifying wouldn't be a particularly important thing to do given it's unlikely anything short of Settra waking up and attacking or something is going to be able to get through. If it does, shoot him with a lascannon etc. Similarly, in this first year the Admech have been at their most vulnerable. Nothing bad is going to happen because you didn't help them but a drowning man is more grateful for help than one who's just struggling a bit. Again, someone noticed this:
So in future, please talk about stuff. Don't just go with the first plan that comes along. I specifically requested that people make draft plans, discuss, then vote. If you don't do that sort of thing you're going to have a worse time as players.
Oh, huh, hadn't explained that. Basically they're for whoever is making them, or generally. So for example we might have 100 Ork Attack, which would represent a very good attack by orcs, but you might have a more general 'battle roll' for how well generally the battle went.
- Location
- United Kingdom
I mean in the case of the scouts in the drop pods, there was nothing we could have done. We sent people to find them right away; they died by the time we arrived.
Oh. Wait. We checked the crash site, not the drop pods. Never mind. I am a fool. Did we find any bodies?
Oh. Wait. We checked the crash site, not the drop pods. Never mind. I am a fool. Did we find any bodies?
- Location
- United Kingdom
Yea you could probably have found a few of them if you'd gone out straight away, and especially if you'd taken the scout jungle option, or if you'd done a write in option to have the librarians scry for the scouts too.
16 characters
Sick and tired of being Sick and Tired
- Location
- Alta California
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I too am not sure if I want us to fully succeed in a ''compliance'' and think it would be better to be able to go off the grid, but a force as large and diverse as ours will surely leave a paper trail. Even if it takes the imperium 800 years to follow up I don't think we can shake their grasp when they already know about us so well.
If it takes them long enough perhaps a successfully functioning independent and most importantly powerful system could be created through.... and given the lions proclivity for independant thought and exposure to the most dysfunctional and least...uh human species preserving parts of the imperium it could happen in the long term.
We are not the Space Wolves though even if something like that becomes a long-term goal we couldn't afford to do or approach doing so publically. It would need to more subtle. It's not something that can happen yet.
The best we can do I think is try our darndest to keep our worst elements under control.
In short I don't disagree with your aims but I think we might see the imperium again and must be cautious.
I'm still not against integration but the high likely hood that there's a crew still alive up there(which I find far more dubious than with the ground crashes) left me more than a little conflicted. if we could provide aide not doing so would well i'm not completey sure but perhaps I am having a failure of imagination in that I can think of no scenario.
I still see no reason to put dealing with our uknown problems above our known ones, we don't even have a settlement yet, sending off rescue parties into the jungle I fear could just loose us moremanpower.
I agreee with you on serfs and think we should do our best to keep them safe,organized and working.
Sorry for the long response time I have been feeling sick and honestly had been torn on heading to the E.R last night when my worst symptoms(trouble breathing) started to abate.
- Location
- United Kingdom
My dude if you're ill don't be concerned about a random quest
- Location
- Canada
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I'd suggest a vote moratorium for this, Fractious. It seems to be the most effective way of encouraging discussion and discouraging bandwagoning.
- Location
- United Kingdom
Yea people have suggested it but I've generally tried to avoid it.
Turn 1 Results
- Location
- United Kingdom
Turn 1 Results
The first year on this unknown world went quickly. The first priorities, Amra decided, were to assess the situation properly. The Techmarines and Librarians were set to surveys, the Scouts to aerial reconnaissance, while the Chapter Master coordinated other affairs.
The results were less good than Amra hoped, but better than he'd feared.
Khotan spoke first, the veteran flexing a power fist he was wearing, newly scratched from his work tearing his way into the bowels of the ship, "The Serenkai is the best off, but then that's not surprising for a Battle Barge. We lost a third of the Thunderhawks and all the drop pods but otherwise damage is fairly light. I was worried about the ventral spire where it hit the ground but the armour did alright and there's less damage than I was afraid of. The rest though didn't fare so well… Kai'manah and Sagos are probably the worst hit, but I'm more worried about the former, almost everything is damaged in some way and I'm not sure we'll be able to salvage much. We can rebuild some of it given time but it's the more exotic elements that may not be salvageable… All the ships have sustained damage, especially to some surge I can't track down in the power conduits, but this has damaged the Teleportarium of the Kai'manah as well as the Panopticon Solar. Every ship's taken damage to the engines and Engineerium and lower decks, and most to the cargo bays and deployment functions, but as they're all resting on their bellies I can't get at a lot of the lower elements to check damage further."
"Do you mean we can't access the cargo bays?" Amra asked.
Khotan grimaces, "The Serenkai's forward hangar is fine, that gives us at least some vehicle support, but the rest of them no, at most we have a few Thunderhawks and a couple of transporters, and some of the lighter vehicles. That is unless you want me to start cutting holes large enough to drive tanks through in the ship!"
"What are your ideas then?"
"In theory we might be able to teleport some material from the cargo bay out, over a short distance, say outside the ship, wouldn't be too dangerous. Perhaps better than shooting our own ship."
"The ships can't be repaired sufficiently to simply take off?"
Khotan shakes his head, "Certainly not. All the engines have similar damage, whatever threw us out the Warp most likely, and unless we can find an Empyrotek I don't know how to repair the Warp-Drives."
"Sub-light flight?"
"The Plasma Drives are Jovian pattern, they're reliable but I'd have to cannibalise some of the other ships perhaps. Oh, on the bright side though, the Omnissiah blessed us with a fortunate position in some respects, I'm fairly sure I can get the armament working again which would give us an immense advantage in firepower whenever we're near the ships."
Indeed, Amra thought, the ships were dotted with a massive amount of firepower and even crashed were as good as fortresses. "What sort of range?"
"Perhaps sixty kilometres for the macrocannons, maybe ten times that if the Bombardment Cannons aren't too damaged."
The Chapter Master filed that away for later. "And for us?" Amra asked the Chief Librarian.
"I have completed my survey also." Hath-Horeb answers, "And it's much the same. We lost seventy of so, the serfs came off worse. I suggest amalgamating the 1st and 2nd Companies but you're the Chapter Master. Most of our equipment survived, and the facilities to manufacture more, but as Khotan said it's stuck at the bottom of the ships. If we cleared everything out we have munitions for seven years of standard operations, half that for more intense fighting."
"I'll consider rationing. We detected no signals or vox-transmissions from this planet, it may be a feral world." Amra replied, considering it.
The three officers talked a while more before the Chapter Master proceeded with his duties, travelling up to the communications suite to check on the progress of the efforts to contact the fleet.
Corax, Master of Rites and Captain of the 6th Company stood amidst several tech-adepts and menials, his calm voice a welcome relief.
The Marine's position was not that of a diplomat, indeed it was rather far from it, but he was the most appropriate person for the job at the moment and the captain made his report quickly. The Vox-casters had been damaged during descent and they found themselves unable to contact many of the ships assumed to still be in orbit. The Astropaths were next then and Corax had already assembled a Choir of them, the works of which Amra oversaw.
What was concerning though was Hath-Horeb's presence and that of a number of his acolytes, hidden under a psychic field, only the constant transceivers in their armour giving them away to other marines, but quite invisible to mundane senses.
Amra trusted his officers, but he loosed his sword in its sheath all the same.
And right he was to do it, the Relic Blade flew free as soon as the Astropath Primaris started to shake, rising into the air unsupported before Amra's sword cut him down. Bolters sounded, a wave of force swept out from Hath-Horeb's staff and in a moment the Choir were dead, their mouths continuing to move even as their blood flowed onto the deckplates.
The Chapter Master turned on the Librarians to demand an explanation but found Hath-Horeb with his finger held up.
A minute passed like that, tension clear in the room, then the finger was lowered.
Hath-Horeb sighed beneath his psychic hood, the glow in his eyes weak and tired. "We were fast enough to prevent any significant connection with the Empyrean, that is good, but I was worried this would happen."
"And what exactly did happen?" Amra asked, anger fading.
"The same thing that happened to the Navigator you killed. I rode their minds as they stretched out into the Warp. There's something about this planet, the Immaterium is at the same time both closer and further away, as if it's a lighthouse in a dark sea. The beacon illuminates and protects, yet at the same time it only demonstrates the power of the gloom. Astropaths are the weakest of the psykers trained by the Adeptus Terra, their minds couldn't begin to understand what they saw."
"And what of you?"
Hath-Horeb's eyes meet yours, "I caught a glimpse, nothing more, I tore myself away before it could catch me. It was as if I stood on the boundary of the Eye of Terror, tethered to the Cadia Gate yet floating within the Eye itself. I saw a great portal, light reaching out of the Warp like tongues of fire, winds of many colours swirling down around me."
Devastators were called, the room cleansed in holy promethium, the fire damage the substance caused less dangerous than the threat of corruption.
Singed but not dripping with the psykers' blood anymore, Amra returned to his Strategium. Serfs scurried about setting the room to rights and making what small repairs they could.
Soon reports and transmission start to come in from the scouts assigned to reconnaissance, and steadily the holographic display before you grows in detail.
Directly around the crash site there's a fairly open plain, decent vegetation but hardly verdant. Convoys of beasts wander the land grazing, skirting a wide desert to the north. To your west are two gulfs, around them a number of cities which appear human-inhabited. A Thunderhawk flies along the coast, the initial-pict casts reaching the Chapter Master in real time. More cities are evident, then the Thunderhawk curves around to the north, skirting over a mountain range. Here there are more concerning sites as more than one tribe of humanoid creatures becomes apparent, abhumans or mutants perhaps.
Amra turns away, looking at the casts from another craft, with a click tuning himself into the crew's vox-comms.
"Sergeant, there's some sort of creature following us." the voice of a Scout sounds.
A deep bass replies, "Bank left, I want a cast of it."
"Ugly thing isn't it."
"All Xenos are, boy."
Amra watches as the cast is transmitted back to the Strategium. It shows a curious thing, a winged serpent, mouth open, screeching at the Thunderhawk.
The craft fly on though, over mountains and into the jungle. Amra watches, but then a priority transmission comes through, "Chapter Master." a voice rings, "This is Rho IV, quad-6.8, have identified significant presence of Xenotech."
"Relay." was Amra's cold reply.
And in the Strategium's display appears an enormous floating black pyramid. The thing sparked with an eldritch light, held by some unseen force above the desert and a small city below it. It did not seem touched by the sun, indeed it was wreathed in a shadow of its own making and even looking at the display Amra felt a cold grow over him.
"Get closer."
"Our Astropath advises against it, Chapter Master." the sergeant aboard the Thunderhawk replied, "Suspected Warp influence."
"Very well. All scans, then return for decontamination and examination." Amra agreed, already setting the necessary steps in motion for anyone suspected to have come into contact with alien psytek.
Could the black pyramid have been the device or force that had pulled the fleet out of the Warp? Might it have been what had driven the other Astropaths and Navigators to madness?
Amra frowned, then turned away. He would have to order a stop to all psyker activity before they worked out what was going on.
Weeks passed and the Scouts reported the discovery of the Mordant, the cruiser which had exploded in flight during the descent and crashed further to the south. It was a small matter to gather the squads of veterans of the 1st Company and several accompanying squads of Scouts and head out toward the wreckage, and Amra led them himself.
The light cruiser lay in the belly of a low valley, its fall having carved a long rut in the earth, with evidence of fierce fires having burnt long after the ship fell. Everywhere there's bits of wreckage, struts of steel and adamantine, ceramite armour plates and other debris.
But there was also evidence of others having been here before the Astartes, tracks of many creatures. Amra's mind turned to steel, his face grave as he looked up at the crash site…
Xenos.
There were hundreds of little monsters crawling over the wreck of the Mordant.
Despite his rage he was a warrior of centuries experience and his mind whirled. There were two sorts of Xenos, both reptilian in form, standing upright, their tails erect and well balanced. They bore a variety of weapons such as clubs, spears and other crude devices, and seemed to be divided into two groups, castes perhaps? The first were hulking brutes, two metres tall with armour of bones over their scales, while the second were smaller, perhaps half the size but with a variety of ornaments including feathers and beads. The second group were larger, working at the doors of the Mordant while some others seemed to be trying to hitch bits of wreckage onto large horned beasts of burden and drag them away from the crash.
Vularakh, Master of Scouts, came up beside Amra. "We can circle around, trap them against the ship."
"No. Let them see us." the Chapter Master replied. "We need a clear victory."
"As you say." and the Captain retreated, calling the Scouts forward.
Amra knew with disciplined Bolter fire it would be easy to eliminate even the larger beasts, but there were 11 Scouts who'd escaped the wreckage of the Mordant and generally the morale of the Chapter was low. This was a good test.
He sent a closed message to Vularakh, "Blood." he said simply, "After it's done make sure none escape."
"That is not your enemy." Amra proclaimed, pointing toward the Xenos now assembling between the Space Marines and the fallen ship. "They do not exist."
The veterans of the 1st had heard this speech before, and stood slightly straighter, surrounding the kneeling neophytes. They were young, some no older than twelve, yet even now all possessed the second heart of the Astartes, the Maintainer. Where their first heart beat ever faster as Amra spoke, the second beat slow and steady.
"There is no enemy." Amra continued, reciting from the words of their progenitor, the Unyielding One, Rogal Dorn. "The foe on the battlefield is merely the manifestation of that which we must overcome. He is doubt, and fear, and despair. Every battle is fought within. Conquer the battlefield that lies inside you, and the enemy disappears like the illusion he is."
The reptilians were approaching, forming into two distinct groups, the smaller sort flanking the larger ones.
"Remember the Rites of Battle, remember your oaths. I proclaim this day a Test of Blood, set aside your Bolters."
On and on the xenos came, yet still the neophytes kneeled, joining their voices with that of Amra's, "To the Darkness I bring Light. To the Ignorant I bring Faith. These are my gifts, but to the enemy, I bring only death."
Je'hara was drawn, ancient blade keen, burning with a bright fire as its disruptor field powered on.
"I am wrath. I am steel. I am the mercy of angels."
One scarred Xenos veteran singled Amra out. The Chapter Master thought the Xenos proud, no doubt secure in it's rage and hatred for Mankind.
It was wrong.
The battle was swift and Amra posted Vularakh to secure the site and bury the dead. In time the Celestial Lions would take the fight to the Xenos but now was a time for reflection, a time to honour the dead.
The Chapter Master supervised the burial of the dead, and over the course of a year he read the names of the dead. It was a custom of the Lions shared with some of of the other Successors of Dorn, notably the Executioners, and each week Amra gathered the Serfs before him, steadily making his way through the 72,000 names of those who'd died in the crash. Just over 200 names for each day, over a thousand in each week. And each week the Chapter-serfs would dance the traditional dances of their homeworld, the now long lost Elysium IX, the planet and the Chapter's rights to it sold to finance their retreat from the Imperium.
Morale soared during these nights, the people gloried under the two moons' light, and even the baleful radiance of the lesser green moon on it's strange trajectory could not dismay them.
Amra sat, happy after the victory against the Xenos, even more so by recent news that the Peregrin and Cardinal of Nuvia, two of the Chapter's missing ships, had been discovered, mostly unharmed in a stable orbit above the planet. Aboard them was the remnants of the 6th Company and the entirety of the 8th, their fast attack force.
The Chapter Master sat on a throne of ivory taken from great tusked beasts that inhabited the plains around the crash site. Petitioners came to him seeking counsel or benediction. Several women had become pregnant in the past year and it was a popular belief in the Elysium System that the Adeptus Astartes were demi-gods, not merely the transhuman warriors they truly were, and thus many of the Chapter-serfs sought a blessing from their master.
Amra was glad to give it, laying a hand on the belly of one woman, on the head of a man, a wound of someone else.
But in the eye of one parishioner he saw something else.
A green light was reflected within them, the light of the twin moons, waxing large in the sky above the festival.
Then the woman lunged!
Amra leapt to the side from his position, half standing, the woman sailed past, impaling herself on one of the tusks of the throne.
And before his eyes she began to change.
Fur grew from her dark skin, she writhed and contorted, her legs elongating, her flesh bubbling as if under a flamer as she lay, pinned to the great dais. A clawed appendage grew from her face, sprouting out of her eye socket as fangs lengthened in her mouth.
Even as the Chapter Master drew his sword he stared into the woman's untouched eye. Amra started into its humanity, and even as the mutant turned to him he heard her speak.
"The Emperor Protects."
She reached out, her suicide incomplete, yet her faith undimmed, even as the relic blade cleaved her head from her body.
Amra turned, sword ready to fight a legion of mutants, and a legion he found.
The festival of joy had turned to one of horror. Everywhere there were men and women, even children, changing and turning into nightmares. Some had extra appendages, some had changed colours, many had taken on qualities of beasts, more had fallen together in great fleshy piles which twitched and quivered, voices screaming from many mouths.
One foul creature staggered forward toward the Chapter Master, and from it's debased mouth issued a prayer, "The Emperor Protects."
Amra's sword came down.
And another stepped forward, three arms outstretched in surrender and request, "The Emperor Protects."
The Chapter Master, gene-forged warrior of ten thousand years crafting did not cry as he slew them. The Occulobe, the Eye of Vengeance, an organ implanted in him centuries ago, did not allow the tears to obscure his vision during battle, yet he cried out as he brought his sword down again and again, each strike ending a life of courage.
A dozen voices rose up from one of the flesh-spawnings, "I tread the path of Righteousness." the voices cried as one, "Though it be paved with broken glass, I will walk it barefoot; though it cross rivers of fire, I will pass over them; though it wanders wide!" the remainder of the crowd took up the chant of the hymnal, "The light of the Emperor guides my step! I shall not fear, I shall not-"
The creature died, the disruptor field of Je'hara rending it apart.
In the morning they burned the dead, and in the records of the Celestial Lions it was noted that not a single mutant was seen, no enemies, only the deaths of 10,000 faithful servants of the Emperor to an unknown enemy.
"Let the sky welcome your spirits, for therein dwells the Emperor and his saints." Amra pronounced over the mass graves, "Let the plains welcome your bodies, that we might rise anew."
Far away from the bloody nights of the Southlands, in the freezing depths of Naggoaroth, screams of ecstasy and agony echoed through the pinnacle of Ghrond. The Sorceresses of the Dark Covenant work their magics, looking into the veil of ever-shifting Chaos to perceive the skein of the future.
Below legions battle outside the gates, daemons, monsters and worshippers of a thousand cults drawn by the heady broth of sorcery and excess that flowed form the citadel's walls. Within though a single figure stands atop the tallest tower, the blood of elf-maids working in strange shapes around her.
She is beautiful, undoubtedly the most beautiful woman in the world, but she is evil. She is Morathi, First of the Hag Queens, bride to Aenarion the Defender and mother to the future ruler of the world.
The enchantress looks into the Unformed. She looks into the skies.
A fire burns there, a celestial fire, the Dragon with Two Tails, an omen of things to come.
The comet burned with possibility, it burned with chance and change. But it also seemed to be falling onto the planet. Morathi wondered at that, meteors weren't unknown, but this one seemed like it would land relatively close by. With a thought she summoned a daemon and dispatched orders.
Battle damage to fleet and Chapter assessed, see threadmark. Most heavy equipment inaccessible. Some destroyed equipment salvageable. Warp travel unlikely in future.
Aerial reconnaissance of the Southlands conducted. Refer to Southlands map in reference threadmark. Detailed pictorial information regarding various cities along the coast and some ruins in the jungle. No inhabited cities in the southern jungles, human inhabited cities along the coast. Crash site is the Plain of Tuskers.
Warp anomalies identified, orders give for a moratorium on unsanctioned psykery while the Chief Librarian examines the situation.
Danger of Morrslieb recognised, decreased defences and work during night due to curfews. 10,000 serfs dead.
Mordant crash site secured, victory won over native reptile Xenos species.
Peregrin and Cardinal of Nuvia discovered in stable orbit, status of other ships unknown.
The first year on this unknown world went quickly. The first priorities, Amra decided, were to assess the situation properly. The Techmarines and Librarians were set to surveys, the Scouts to aerial reconnaissance, while the Chapter Master coordinated other affairs.
The results were less good than Amra hoped, but better than he'd feared.
Khotan spoke first, the veteran flexing a power fist he was wearing, newly scratched from his work tearing his way into the bowels of the ship, "The Serenkai is the best off, but then that's not surprising for a Battle Barge. We lost a third of the Thunderhawks and all the drop pods but otherwise damage is fairly light. I was worried about the ventral spire where it hit the ground but the armour did alright and there's less damage than I was afraid of. The rest though didn't fare so well… Kai'manah and Sagos are probably the worst hit, but I'm more worried about the former, almost everything is damaged in some way and I'm not sure we'll be able to salvage much. We can rebuild some of it given time but it's the more exotic elements that may not be salvageable… All the ships have sustained damage, especially to some surge I can't track down in the power conduits, but this has damaged the Teleportarium of the Kai'manah as well as the Panopticon Solar. Every ship's taken damage to the engines and Engineerium and lower decks, and most to the cargo bays and deployment functions, but as they're all resting on their bellies I can't get at a lot of the lower elements to check damage further."
"Do you mean we can't access the cargo bays?" Amra asked.
Khotan grimaces, "The Serenkai's forward hangar is fine, that gives us at least some vehicle support, but the rest of them no, at most we have a few Thunderhawks and a couple of transporters, and some of the lighter vehicles. That is unless you want me to start cutting holes large enough to drive tanks through in the ship!"
"What are your ideas then?"
"In theory we might be able to teleport some material from the cargo bay out, over a short distance, say outside the ship, wouldn't be too dangerous. Perhaps better than shooting our own ship."
"The ships can't be repaired sufficiently to simply take off?"
Khotan shakes his head, "Certainly not. All the engines have similar damage, whatever threw us out the Warp most likely, and unless we can find an Empyrotek I don't know how to repair the Warp-Drives."
"Sub-light flight?"
"The Plasma Drives are Jovian pattern, they're reliable but I'd have to cannibalise some of the other ships perhaps. Oh, on the bright side though, the Omnissiah blessed us with a fortunate position in some respects, I'm fairly sure I can get the armament working again which would give us an immense advantage in firepower whenever we're near the ships."
Indeed, Amra thought, the ships were dotted with a massive amount of firepower and even crashed were as good as fortresses. "What sort of range?"
"Perhaps sixty kilometres for the macrocannons, maybe ten times that if the Bombardment Cannons aren't too damaged."
The Chapter Master filed that away for later. "And for us?" Amra asked the Chief Librarian.
"I have completed my survey also." Hath-Horeb answers, "And it's much the same. We lost seventy of so, the serfs came off worse. I suggest amalgamating the 1st and 2nd Companies but you're the Chapter Master. Most of our equipment survived, and the facilities to manufacture more, but as Khotan said it's stuck at the bottom of the ships. If we cleared everything out we have munitions for seven years of standard operations, half that for more intense fighting."
"I'll consider rationing. We detected no signals or vox-transmissions from this planet, it may be a feral world." Amra replied, considering it.
The three officers talked a while more before the Chapter Master proceeded with his duties, travelling up to the communications suite to check on the progress of the efforts to contact the fleet.
Corax, Master of Rites and Captain of the 6th Company stood amidst several tech-adepts and menials, his calm voice a welcome relief.
The Marine's position was not that of a diplomat, indeed it was rather far from it, but he was the most appropriate person for the job at the moment and the captain made his report quickly. The Vox-casters had been damaged during descent and they found themselves unable to contact many of the ships assumed to still be in orbit. The Astropaths were next then and Corax had already assembled a Choir of them, the works of which Amra oversaw.
What was concerning though was Hath-Horeb's presence and that of a number of his acolytes, hidden under a psychic field, only the constant transceivers in their armour giving them away to other marines, but quite invisible to mundane senses.
Amra trusted his officers, but he loosed his sword in its sheath all the same.
And right he was to do it, the Relic Blade flew free as soon as the Astropath Primaris started to shake, rising into the air unsupported before Amra's sword cut him down. Bolters sounded, a wave of force swept out from Hath-Horeb's staff and in a moment the Choir were dead, their mouths continuing to move even as their blood flowed onto the deckplates.
The Chapter Master turned on the Librarians to demand an explanation but found Hath-Horeb with his finger held up.
A minute passed like that, tension clear in the room, then the finger was lowered.
Hath-Horeb sighed beneath his psychic hood, the glow in his eyes weak and tired. "We were fast enough to prevent any significant connection with the Empyrean, that is good, but I was worried this would happen."
"And what exactly did happen?" Amra asked, anger fading.
"The same thing that happened to the Navigator you killed. I rode their minds as they stretched out into the Warp. There's something about this planet, the Immaterium is at the same time both closer and further away, as if it's a lighthouse in a dark sea. The beacon illuminates and protects, yet at the same time it only demonstrates the power of the gloom. Astropaths are the weakest of the psykers trained by the Adeptus Terra, their minds couldn't begin to understand what they saw."
"And what of you?"
Hath-Horeb's eyes meet yours, "I caught a glimpse, nothing more, I tore myself away before it could catch me. It was as if I stood on the boundary of the Eye of Terror, tethered to the Cadia Gate yet floating within the Eye itself. I saw a great portal, light reaching out of the Warp like tongues of fire, winds of many colours swirling down around me."
Devastators were called, the room cleansed in holy promethium, the fire damage the substance caused less dangerous than the threat of corruption.
Singed but not dripping with the psykers' blood anymore, Amra returned to his Strategium. Serfs scurried about setting the room to rights and making what small repairs they could.
Soon reports and transmission start to come in from the scouts assigned to reconnaissance, and steadily the holographic display before you grows in detail.
Directly around the crash site there's a fairly open plain, decent vegetation but hardly verdant. Convoys of beasts wander the land grazing, skirting a wide desert to the north. To your west are two gulfs, around them a number of cities which appear human-inhabited. A Thunderhawk flies along the coast, the initial-pict casts reaching the Chapter Master in real time. More cities are evident, then the Thunderhawk curves around to the north, skirting over a mountain range. Here there are more concerning sites as more than one tribe of humanoid creatures becomes apparent, abhumans or mutants perhaps.
Amra turns away, looking at the casts from another craft, with a click tuning himself into the crew's vox-comms.
"Sergeant, there's some sort of creature following us." the voice of a Scout sounds.
A deep bass replies, "Bank left, I want a cast of it."
"Ugly thing isn't it."
"All Xenos are, boy."
Amra watches as the cast is transmitted back to the Strategium. It shows a curious thing, a winged serpent, mouth open, screeching at the Thunderhawk.
The craft fly on though, over mountains and into the jungle. Amra watches, but then a priority transmission comes through, "Chapter Master." a voice rings, "This is Rho IV, quad-6.8, have identified significant presence of Xenotech."
"Relay." was Amra's cold reply.
And in the Strategium's display appears an enormous floating black pyramid. The thing sparked with an eldritch light, held by some unseen force above the desert and a small city below it. It did not seem touched by the sun, indeed it was wreathed in a shadow of its own making and even looking at the display Amra felt a cold grow over him.
"Get closer."
"Our Astropath advises against it, Chapter Master." the sergeant aboard the Thunderhawk replied, "Suspected Warp influence."
"Very well. All scans, then return for decontamination and examination." Amra agreed, already setting the necessary steps in motion for anyone suspected to have come into contact with alien psytek.
Could the black pyramid have been the device or force that had pulled the fleet out of the Warp? Might it have been what had driven the other Astropaths and Navigators to madness?
Amra frowned, then turned away. He would have to order a stop to all psyker activity before they worked out what was going on.
Weeks passed and the Scouts reported the discovery of the Mordant, the cruiser which had exploded in flight during the descent and crashed further to the south. It was a small matter to gather the squads of veterans of the 1st Company and several accompanying squads of Scouts and head out toward the wreckage, and Amra led them himself.
The light cruiser lay in the belly of a low valley, its fall having carved a long rut in the earth, with evidence of fierce fires having burnt long after the ship fell. Everywhere there's bits of wreckage, struts of steel and adamantine, ceramite armour plates and other debris.
But there was also evidence of others having been here before the Astartes, tracks of many creatures. Amra's mind turned to steel, his face grave as he looked up at the crash site…
Xenos.
There were hundreds of little monsters crawling over the wreck of the Mordant.
Despite his rage he was a warrior of centuries experience and his mind whirled. There were two sorts of Xenos, both reptilian in form, standing upright, their tails erect and well balanced. They bore a variety of weapons such as clubs, spears and other crude devices, and seemed to be divided into two groups, castes perhaps? The first were hulking brutes, two metres tall with armour of bones over their scales, while the second were smaller, perhaps half the size but with a variety of ornaments including feathers and beads. The second group were larger, working at the doors of the Mordant while some others seemed to be trying to hitch bits of wreckage onto large horned beasts of burden and drag them away from the crash.
Vularakh, Master of Scouts, came up beside Amra. "We can circle around, trap them against the ship."
"No. Let them see us." the Chapter Master replied. "We need a clear victory."
"As you say." and the Captain retreated, calling the Scouts forward.
Amra knew with disciplined Bolter fire it would be easy to eliminate even the larger beasts, but there were 11 Scouts who'd escaped the wreckage of the Mordant and generally the morale of the Chapter was low. This was a good test.
He sent a closed message to Vularakh, "Blood." he said simply, "After it's done make sure none escape."
"That is not your enemy." Amra proclaimed, pointing toward the Xenos now assembling between the Space Marines and the fallen ship. "They do not exist."
The veterans of the 1st had heard this speech before, and stood slightly straighter, surrounding the kneeling neophytes. They were young, some no older than twelve, yet even now all possessed the second heart of the Astartes, the Maintainer. Where their first heart beat ever faster as Amra spoke, the second beat slow and steady.
"There is no enemy." Amra continued, reciting from the words of their progenitor, the Unyielding One, Rogal Dorn. "The foe on the battlefield is merely the manifestation of that which we must overcome. He is doubt, and fear, and despair. Every battle is fought within. Conquer the battlefield that lies inside you, and the enemy disappears like the illusion he is."
The reptilians were approaching, forming into two distinct groups, the smaller sort flanking the larger ones.
"Remember the Rites of Battle, remember your oaths. I proclaim this day a Test of Blood, set aside your Bolters."
On and on the xenos came, yet still the neophytes kneeled, joining their voices with that of Amra's, "To the Darkness I bring Light. To the Ignorant I bring Faith. These are my gifts, but to the enemy, I bring only death."
Je'hara was drawn, ancient blade keen, burning with a bright fire as its disruptor field powered on.
"I am wrath. I am steel. I am the mercy of angels."
One scarred Xenos veteran singled Amra out. The Chapter Master thought the Xenos proud, no doubt secure in it's rage and hatred for Mankind.
It was wrong.
The battle was swift and Amra posted Vularakh to secure the site and bury the dead. In time the Celestial Lions would take the fight to the Xenos but now was a time for reflection, a time to honour the dead.
The Chapter Master supervised the burial of the dead, and over the course of a year he read the names of the dead. It was a custom of the Lions shared with some of of the other Successors of Dorn, notably the Executioners, and each week Amra gathered the Serfs before him, steadily making his way through the 72,000 names of those who'd died in the crash. Just over 200 names for each day, over a thousand in each week. And each week the Chapter-serfs would dance the traditional dances of their homeworld, the now long lost Elysium IX, the planet and the Chapter's rights to it sold to finance their retreat from the Imperium.
Morale soared during these nights, the people gloried under the two moons' light, and even the baleful radiance of the lesser green moon on it's strange trajectory could not dismay them.
Amra sat, happy after the victory against the Xenos, even more so by recent news that the Peregrin and Cardinal of Nuvia, two of the Chapter's missing ships, had been discovered, mostly unharmed in a stable orbit above the planet. Aboard them was the remnants of the 6th Company and the entirety of the 8th, their fast attack force.
The Chapter Master sat on a throne of ivory taken from great tusked beasts that inhabited the plains around the crash site. Petitioners came to him seeking counsel or benediction. Several women had become pregnant in the past year and it was a popular belief in the Elysium System that the Adeptus Astartes were demi-gods, not merely the transhuman warriors they truly were, and thus many of the Chapter-serfs sought a blessing from their master.
Amra was glad to give it, laying a hand on the belly of one woman, on the head of a man, a wound of someone else.
But in the eye of one parishioner he saw something else.
A green light was reflected within them, the light of the twin moons, waxing large in the sky above the festival.
Then the woman lunged!
Amra leapt to the side from his position, half standing, the woman sailed past, impaling herself on one of the tusks of the throne.
And before his eyes she began to change.
Fur grew from her dark skin, she writhed and contorted, her legs elongating, her flesh bubbling as if under a flamer as she lay, pinned to the great dais. A clawed appendage grew from her face, sprouting out of her eye socket as fangs lengthened in her mouth.
Even as the Chapter Master drew his sword he stared into the woman's untouched eye. Amra started into its humanity, and even as the mutant turned to him he heard her speak.
"The Emperor Protects."
She reached out, her suicide incomplete, yet her faith undimmed, even as the relic blade cleaved her head from her body.
Amra turned, sword ready to fight a legion of mutants, and a legion he found.
The festival of joy had turned to one of horror. Everywhere there were men and women, even children, changing and turning into nightmares. Some had extra appendages, some had changed colours, many had taken on qualities of beasts, more had fallen together in great fleshy piles which twitched and quivered, voices screaming from many mouths.
One foul creature staggered forward toward the Chapter Master, and from it's debased mouth issued a prayer, "The Emperor Protects."
Amra's sword came down.
And another stepped forward, three arms outstretched in surrender and request, "The Emperor Protects."
The Chapter Master, gene-forged warrior of ten thousand years crafting did not cry as he slew them. The Occulobe, the Eye of Vengeance, an organ implanted in him centuries ago, did not allow the tears to obscure his vision during battle, yet he cried out as he brought his sword down again and again, each strike ending a life of courage.
A dozen voices rose up from one of the flesh-spawnings, "I tread the path of Righteousness." the voices cried as one, "Though it be paved with broken glass, I will walk it barefoot; though it cross rivers of fire, I will pass over them; though it wanders wide!" the remainder of the crowd took up the chant of the hymnal, "The light of the Emperor guides my step! I shall not fear, I shall not-"
The creature died, the disruptor field of Je'hara rending it apart.
In the morning they burned the dead, and in the records of the Celestial Lions it was noted that not a single mutant was seen, no enemies, only the deaths of 10,000 faithful servants of the Emperor to an unknown enemy.
"Let the sky welcome your spirits, for therein dwells the Emperor and his saints." Amra pronounced over the mass graves, "Let the plains welcome your bodies, that we might rise anew."
Far away from the bloody nights of the Southlands, in the freezing depths of Naggoaroth, screams of ecstasy and agony echoed through the pinnacle of Ghrond. The Sorceresses of the Dark Covenant work their magics, looking into the veil of ever-shifting Chaos to perceive the skein of the future.
Below legions battle outside the gates, daemons, monsters and worshippers of a thousand cults drawn by the heady broth of sorcery and excess that flowed form the citadel's walls. Within though a single figure stands atop the tallest tower, the blood of elf-maids working in strange shapes around her.
She is beautiful, undoubtedly the most beautiful woman in the world, but she is evil. She is Morathi, First of the Hag Queens, bride to Aenarion the Defender and mother to the future ruler of the world.
The enchantress looks into the Unformed. She looks into the skies.
A fire burns there, a celestial fire, the Dragon with Two Tails, an omen of things to come.
The comet burned with possibility, it burned with chance and change. But it also seemed to be falling onto the planet. Morathi wondered at that, meteors weren't unknown, but this one seemed like it would land relatively close by. With a thought she summoned a daemon and dispatched orders.
Battle damage to fleet and Chapter assessed, see threadmark. Most heavy equipment inaccessible. Some destroyed equipment salvageable. Warp travel unlikely in future.
Aerial reconnaissance of the Southlands conducted. Refer to Southlands map in reference threadmark. Detailed pictorial information regarding various cities along the coast and some ruins in the jungle. No inhabited cities in the southern jungles, human inhabited cities along the coast. Crash site is the Plain of Tuskers.
Warp anomalies identified, orders give for a moratorium on unsanctioned psykery while the Chief Librarian examines the situation.
Danger of Morrslieb recognised, decreased defences and work during night due to curfews. 10,000 serfs dead.
Mordant crash site secured, victory won over native reptile Xenos species.
Peregrin and Cardinal of Nuvia discovered in stable orbit, status of other ships unknown.
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well the space marines are not to be messed with and that damn moon hit us pretty hard
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Not the most auspicious of starts.
Was that 10000 dead the *best* case scenario?
Also, seriously wondering if faith in old emps is all that effective against chaos here.
And of course the marines make first contact with the lizardmen by slaughtering them. There goes any hope we had for even neutral contact, long shot as it was.
Gods, EoM was an idiot.
Was that 10000 dead the *best* case scenario?
Also, seriously wondering if faith in old emps is all that effective against chaos here.
And of course the marines make first contact with the lizardmen by slaughtering them. There goes any hope we had for even neutral contact, long shot as it was.
Gods, EoM was an idiot.
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well no use crying over it we got to rebuild
This is the right mentality to have here.
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its the same mentality you must-have when playing Xcom ufo defence on hard mode
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Aye, we treating this as end game UFO Defense? Or more modern Xcom enemy within?
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No, if you'd been scrying or had done something more to investigate the warp stuff around or various other points then you'd have known about it, or suspected enough to not lose so many. Your crit 100 meant that the people retained their minds and didn't go rampaging about like a newly formed beastman horde. I suppose if you'd conquered or gotten the human settlements then they'd probably have told you and you could have prepared accordingly. There's going to be other stuff you'll blunder into due to the outside context problems Mallus presents for the Imperials.
This massively depends on how I decide it does tbh. I'll admit in the first instance that I don't like the 'scientific' approach some fics take toward magic in warhammer and gods etc, and as such I don't really intend to provide WoG on this, however there are several points to note.
1. Willpower and physical resilience help resist chaos
2. Prayers and intercession by friendly gods (which may or may not be artificially created warp entities) protects against chaos
3. In 40k both the Emperor and Chaos give blessings, prophecy and other things
As such, was it that the Emperor helped out here? Was it that the serfs had such high morale that they were able to resist chaos long enough to be destroyed? Was it some other factor?
Don't take this as a guarantee of never talking to lizardmen ever. The Imperium certainly wouldn't try it as a first option, but they have cooperated with xenos in the past. Lizardmen would probably be fairly palatable given they're basically anti-chaos biological robots, especially saurus. Similarly, we know the southlands lizardmen are more feral and under less slann control, so this could have been an independant action. Or frankly, the Slann might just not care about the deaths of 400 lizardmen. It's not a big deal. It might even be part of the Great Plan.
Incidentally, your choice of chapter will dictate some actions automatically. The Lions are known for morality, and as such you'll have to balance me throwing you into potentially dangerous situations to save some humans or whatever with your naturally cautious impulses. This wouldn't be a problem if you'd chosen a chapter not known for that sort of thing, but you did and here we are.
You're treating it as the grim darkness of the 41st millennium in which there is only war and the laughter of the thirsting gods.
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And nobody become mutated? The Emperor protects, indeed.
edit: NVM just saw the rest. The green moon should self-destruct.
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Indeed, very much not so lol