Strange Aeons: A 40k Xeno Governor Quest
- Thread starter Leon12431
- Start date
The Froggy Ninja
The Blade Will Never Die
That's also adding 400DC of stewardship to chip away at. I could possibly be convinced to go for the Titan hanger for Golden Order rep.
Robinton
Probably petting Schrödinger's cat
- Location
- Scientifically proving a miracle
[ ] Plan Gearing Up
Because I like the idea of having a super-alloy-forge orbiting a black hole. Also because I understand the optimization and logic in this plan better than any of the others.
Edit: Rules clarification makes this plan significantly worse (though still theoretically fascinating).
BTW, I'm working on a pair of Omakes. At least one should boost the Void Forest option.
@Leon12431, do you have a bunch of GM notes on the Void Forest, or is this "I haven't decided yet - make it an interesting challenge, and don't ask for anything too unrealistic or problematic, and I'll call it good"?
Because I like the idea of having a super-alloy-forge orbiting a black hole. Also because I understand the optimization and logic in this plan better than any of the others.
Edit: Rules clarification makes this plan significantly worse (though still theoretically fascinating).
BTW, I'm working on a pair of Omakes. At least one should boost the Void Forest option.
@Leon12431, do you have a bunch of GM notes on the Void Forest, or is this "I haven't decided yet - make it an interesting challenge, and don't ask for anything too unrealistic or problematic, and I'll call it good"?
Last edited:
- Location
- USA
All I know is that it's a species of trees growing in space around a black hole. Assume that the trees have gravity manipulation and grow off of radiation. other than that it's pretty open to be omaked.
Nicholas Brooks
Redeemer and Destroyer
- Location
- United States
...Why tho? That other plan still has is improving the Private Army, only less so and at the cost of an actual Action
Edit: Also, remember that Akiona has increased range and effect on critical FAILS too. So let's not use her for anything where the fallout would be catastrophic
Last edited:
The Froggy Ninja
The Blade Will Never Die
Why what to whom?
Nicholas Brooks
Redeemer and Destroyer
- Location
- United States
If you like the idea we could always do it later. If you want more explanation for my plan, it's really quite simple: war readiness go brrrr. We'd be amping up the PDF, the system defenses, and the private army for good reason. On top of that we'd contact Cadia and the Pathfinders for whatever extra military aid we can get. The Calculation Heart and the Heart Forge I think need no additional explanation, they're just plain really useful. Everything aside from that is odds and ends.
To Hunter. I typed that on mobile and the formatting got fucked
On a scale of 1-10, how well are we now to get invaded?
- Location
- USA
Right now you are fairly low on the Fortress World level of defense vs invasions. Your predecessor was an useful idiot for a group of worlds that have hated Shogi for millennia, and sold off much of the more mobile infrastructure to them over the course of his rule along with just being a mix of malicious incompetent when it came to managing Shogi's wealth.
In short you have no real orbital defenses besides the unknown anti laser defenses that Shogi has naturally, a pretty dinky orbital defense system, and one shipyard that has guns.
Your personal fleet is similarly in the pits, as the above more static defenses and your income is also a fraction of what Shogi usually had.
About the only thing that remains is the average skill of your ground forces and thats more due to Harkar being a Cadian that worked miracles with a shoestring budget from Stiriam.
The Froggy Ninja
The Blade Will Never Die
My plan is "Chaos Readiness Goes Brrr" which mathematically requires setting up the black hole alloy generation this turn, while the general fortifications don't. Ideally we would have gotten the full chamber this turn, but I'm willing to delay it slightly for action economy reasons. And I'm also contacting Cadia, though I'm planning to wait on Pathfinders until the Ultramarines get here.
Hell, I was originally going to go for fortifications as the military action as well, but we really need the Alloys this turn and we can't build it without Assaulting the Forest.
Why is the previous Governor so incompetent/maliciously incompetent?
- Location
- USA
Because he was a normal human. Normal humans suck by and large and Imperial Nobles tend to suck more than other normal humans. In short, he was basically a billionaire that surrounded himself with yes men, and the other worlds that had an axe to grind with Shogi, realized that. They then spent several decades buttering him up until he bought into their stories and started doing whatever they said.
In short human nature, mixed with too much wealth and power, combined with Imperial noble culture and you get this.
Any way we can prevent anything close to this from ever happening?
Nicholas Brooks
Redeemer and Destroyer
- Location
- United States
Does it? Because when you add on the relative quickness with which we can set up the conventional defenses, it leaves room for a lot more in the way of other projects which can more than even the odds. I'd still like to make Meta Shields btw, just with a different aim. That is to say, make one so we can wake up the Omega Minus Minus Blank we have in Shogi, who iirc is supposed to have an aura stronger than any we've ever seen before. Combine that with how Meta Shields let you control your own metaphysical output and they could probably solo half the fleet by pointing their finger at the sky and saying "bang" if we make a second one for them.
More importantly, your plan hinges on being able to get everything working by turn 11, whilst if it is cut off only partway through by unforseen conditions we will not see much in the form of returns for it. Fortifications, if started now and focused on as I did, would not only complete within 4 turns if not faster, it would also take up fewer of Atraxas' personal actions. Not to mention it'd be suspicious as hell for us to leave our planet and go to this random black hole to set up a completely novel piece of technology that no one has ever heard about before right when we know we are going to be invaded
- Location
- USA
Unless Atraxas is evicted you basically stop it by being immortal. Atraxas is never going to lose sight of the long term and is rather patronizing towards humans he doesnt know well. By and large his view of general humans is around "pet" level, he considers his advisors to be more "lower/equal peers" in their respective fields. It works due to him never really interacting with the common folk, so the apparent opinion of humanity is shifted upwards heavily.
Although even his advisors are considered weird by him most of the time, and he just doesn't care enough about them to bother trying to change their minds. He has always been very much "my way or the highway" type boss to them, he will listen, but he trusts his own abilities beyond pretty much any human by a mile.
Unless he gets given a comprehensive overview that explains in incredible detail how doing X is a benefit he is basically immune from even the risk of mundane corruption. His existence as a Scholar mandates such to a high degree, a Forge Scholar is basically hardwired to abide by their responsibilities above all else.
The Froggy Ninja
The Blade Will Never Die
Yes. Because Chaos can casually drive our entire army mad if we don't set up a defensive line. And I'm 100% in favor of doing the fortifications. Just not on a turn when we absofuckinglutely need to assault the void forest.
That's not really true. The total DC for four meta shields is slightly less than the fortifications, and we'll have a better relevant stat and at least one supercomputer boosting those rolls. If we build a second Calculation Heart, we can complete all four shields in two turns, if we dedicate our free Learning action and regular Personals to it, even before getting into wound actions. And four shields is assuming peak output and no other draw on Alloys. We'll probably end up going with fewer.
- Location
- USA
That is actually wrong, the DC for the fortifications is 1300. The DC for 4 Meta Shields is 2000 in total.
The Froggy Ninja
The Blade Will Never Die
For some reason I thought it was ~2002. Not sure why, but the rest of my point still stands.
The Corps Fortuna 1: The Golem Gambit
Robinton
Probably petting Schrödinger's cat
- Location
- Scientifically proving a miracle
The Corps Fortuna 1: The Golem Gambit
"Governor Atraxas summons the 13th PDF of Shogi," said the unassuming message.
One of the newest recruits, Damien Peterson, hopefully commented, "This is good news, right? He's one of the most reasonable governors around, and with his innovations he might have better gear for us?"
"We're the Corps Fortuna, son," commented old-timer Percival "Percy" Elbee. "When everything goes to pieces, we get sent in. And when we get sent in, everything goes to pieces."
The 13th regiment of Shogi's PDF - derisively nicknamed the "Corps Fortuna" - were probably the unluckiest army within a hundred light-years. Everything that could go wrong would: supplies would go missing, gear broke down, Dark Eldar drug stashes mysteriously materialized in their barracks - all in a typical year's mishaps. Honestly, it was a wonder they hadn't all been executed - or gone mad - or died (goodness knows it had been close enough times). Yet, somehow, they usually came back. Not all of them, of course - but some. Added onto this - and made worse by their repeated survival - they were typically sent into the worst fights and the weirdest missions.
So when they heard that the new governor had summoned them, they automatically - and entirely correctly, for all that they'd probably never prove it - assumed that something strange was up. Perhaps the governor was secretly a really bad/good Xenos infiltrator (yes). Perhaps the message was a fake from a group that wanted to get them into trouble (no). Perhaps the governor wanted to turn them all into cyborgs (not exactly). Perhaps… you get the picture.
Their mission, as the weirdly-reasonable pseudo-arachnid laid out, was to reconnoiter a lunar mine (in a decent-sized moon, one of three orbiting a larger barren planet), and hopefully reclaim it. They had footage of a bunch of weird, seemingly-aimless, metallic golems tunnel out of the ground. They had plans of the mine as it was supposed to be. And that was the extent of their intel. So far so good.
However, to their considerable (though well-hidden) dismay, they had brand-new melta rifles for everyone, of a make far superior to their old gear. Officers got equally brand-new grav guns. Further, they had a top-of-the-line ship to ferry them and provide fire support. Yet further, they had instructions that their lives were more important than taking the base, though intel was important (as it would save lives down the line).
The rifles: Half the men expected them to break at the worst moment. The other half weren't so optimistic: If they were getting brand-new rifles, their enemy was going to be brutal. The ship compounded the matter. And being told to survive just proved that they would be stranded without resources on the mine, and total annihilation of the nearly-unkillable enemies their only possible route to survival and escape.
(A few new recruits scoffed, but it had happened! Twice!)
When they were then told that multiple additional ships would be on standby to rescue them if worst came to worst, Percy's stoic composure cracked visibly, and he prayed to the God-Emperor for salvation. (That evening, he told again the probably-mythical tale of "How the desert fortress survived assault by undead sea-cucumbers," and prayed in his head that this mission wouldn't be the one that finally lived up to its sheer insane absurdity.)
One week later, still praying fervently to the God-Emperor, they boarded the ship and headed to the lunar mine.
—
—
While they had the time, flying to the moon, they memorized the layout of the partially-dug moon-mine. They discussed prior missions: how they'd gone wrong, and how they'd gone right. They made sure that everyone know how to survive in space-gear. They double-checked everything. They theorized about what might await them. And, when they got bored of that last one, they started a card-game. Then, too slow and too soon, the flight was over and the fight awaited.
Since they were allowed to be cautious, this mission, and had actual sensors, they made sure to milk them for all they were worth. They scanned the moon repeatedly - almost seven-hundred golems on the surface - worse than the last reports from intel, but far better than expected. The tallest seen was about six meters tall, though the second tallest was just over five meters, which suggested their intel hadn't just been made up on the spot by some idiot. There were a massive number of them milling around the site of the mine, and a few stragglers elsewhere.
With some trepidation, and ordering one of the other backup vessels to carefully scan the mine's surface, they pulled into position over the moon's horizon from the mine, and carefully pulled up almost to it. Then one of their best snipers - a grizzled vet who only answered to "Longshot" - took a potshot with a Melta from the highest range they all thought the short-range gun would support, against one of the few golems visible from this angle.
The golem died. Melted a hole in its torso, and crumbled, slowly bouncing to a halt on the lunar surface that it had been standing on.
The crew blinked. Did that actually go… right?
They checked with the observation ship. No change detected, in the golems.
Well… OK… Alright. The sniper took a few more shots, and they carefully cleared every golem out of sight of the mine. Plus they took a scan, carefully analyzing for, say, signs that the golems were about to get back up again.
Everything was… fine. Normal. Nothing was going wrong.
(The rookies started wondering if their mentors weren't a bit too paranoid. The mentors were freaking out, because the other shoe was going to be the size and weight of the whole bloody moon at this point. (Not quite.))
They picked up a golem corpse - with rope; they didn't want to give something underground the chance to snatch a crewmember - and stuck it in a careful isolation chamber with plenty of sensors running and a Mechanicus Adept who had volunteered to come along in charge of scanning it. Nothing went wrong.
They flew above the mine. Still, everything was going fine.
They had every sniper in the force work together with a bunch of Meltas and even a few Grav-guns to clear the Mine-face of the moon of Golems. The worst thing to happen was a toss-up between one Melta breaking down, and the six-meter golem taking three shots to kill.
Half-a-dozen more golems tunneled up from the ground, and a dozen-odd emerged from the mine entrance. All easily dispatched.
('Where was the trap?' the veterans' instincts screamed. 'Oh, we need to enter the mine now. At least we know what it is. But we're going to have to walk into it-' (Yes.))
They lowered a veteran to the surface of the moon, with the full team of snipers ready on angles to interrupt any attack. Nothing. They installed tremor sensors. Nothing.
…For about five minutes. The tremor-sensors blared a warning twelve seconds before six golems burst through the moon surface and simultaneously attacked the veteran.
Said veteran promptly jumped straight up, nearly escaping the moon's gravity well. And, even so, he lost half of a foot to his comrades' panicked retaliatory fire.
He was simultaneously pitied - for the wound and having to sit around and do nothing - and lauded - for bravery, great kill-to-damage ratio, and getting to sit around and do nothing - by his comrades, as he was told to report to the medbay until fully healed or further notice.
(Because this ship had a medbay. Did someone spike the governor's drink? Was that why this ship had actual features? (No.))
The "lure and snipe" method proved to work somewhat-reliably to dispatch another few hundred golems - slowly - until it, too, stopped getting results. Another thirty-six golems had left the mine entrance and, likewise, gotten sniped.
"Well, lads - and lasses," said Percy, "Once more into the breach. May the God-Emperor have mercy on us, and claim our souls if we die! And, live or die, let's make sure our enemies remember us!"
That quick motivational speech got the usual subdued cheer, and they prepared to enter the mines.
Every floor, ceiling, and wall was a potential trap. Even ones already cleared could have a golem burst forth without warning. So nothing was safe.
But the Corps Fortuna had not been idle while observing the golems, and they were almost certain that their top speed was below that of a sprinting soldier. Further, they were cumbersome and slow to change directions. So dodging them was, in theory, fully possible.
Indeed, several of the "lures" had been steadily practicing these tricks, refining them, and (hopefully) ensuring that most of the Corps would thus survive to see tomorrow.
They didn't have enough Seismic sensors to - as they would have preferred - blanked the whole mine, though they did have enough to set up some much-needed safe-zones and rest-areas.
The first team were able to run deep into the mine and set up in a large room that was noted on the plans. Once they'd blown through fifty-odd golems to get there, and another dozen-odd to clear the place, seismic sensors made the large open space relatively safe. The room was mostly intact, though the walls and floor (and even ceiling) had several holes where various golems had burst out from the rock.
About half-a-dozen attacks occurred in that room before the golems seemed to give up. (Or the local supply was depleted?)
Once the room was relatively safe, the next team (after taking a quick break) ran through to the next large room, and the process started over.
Eventually, after over a month of time and effort, they managed to largely clear the human-dug mine almost entirely. (They had even drug the golem corpses outside, since apparently they were somewhat valuable. And just in case they would resurrect or something.) But the many many holes in the walls (and floors and ceilings), plus the very rare golem emerging from one, proved that the threat wasn't gone.
So, eventually, they picked one of the largest and straightest holes (where a 6-meter golem had presumably emerged), and started carefully venturing into it.
Some of their best people went into that team. And after about an hour of careful progress, they suddenly lost contact, and at the same moment, every dead golem corpse that hadn't been completely disassembled reanimated…
—
The delvers walked through a fairly open tunnel. It twisted and turned here and there, but mostly inclined downwards. Occasional smaller side-passages branched off, presumably from other golems. They met four such golems on their way in.
"Not six. That's good," muttered Percy, checking his grenades. "At least it's not chaos, probably."
Ten minutes later, the tunnel walls changed texture, and the team carefully peeked around each new corner. The first bend showed only more tunnel, but the second revealed a much larger room.
They checked comms - dead. Rats.
They looked back, and heard the rumbling of what must be hundreds of golems. Ah, there was the shoe.
They put a tremor-sensor on the ground - tunneling golems galore. They barely leapt into the cavern in time to avoid being grabbed.
And before them was the biggest golem any of them had seen yet. Nearly fifteen feet tall, it took one look at them and charged, hurtling boulders as it went.
They dodged, frantically. Except Longshot, who had been given a grav-gun, just for this mission. And while he stayed still too long and it cost him his legs, that gun hit the massive golem's neck three times before Longshot blacked out.
The massive golem bellowed, hundreds of hands erupted from the cavern floor, and the rest of the team started to dodge even more frantically, while sending what shots they could spare towards their colossal foe's body.
Percy ignored most of the fight and just ran around the cavern, yelling (screaming) as he went. The noise seemed to provoke the golem, which charged after him specifically. He avoided it by the slightly suicidal exploit of running between its legs and hoping to dodge both - which did work, and it slammed into the wall of the cavern. Percy then, immediately, had to drop to the floor lest his own friends' wild shots kill him, and rapidly crawl out of the line of fire (having to do some very tiring dodging to avoid the smaller golems) as the giant golem turned around, and charged all those shooting at it.
But that gave Percy several free shots at the back of its neck. Melta rounds didn't do much, but the neck was already damaged. One hit. Two hits. One, two misses. A third hit-
And Damien Peterson grabbed Longshot's grav-gun and landed the last hit against the golem's neck. It snapped. The titanic creature stumbled backwards, and fell with a crash that nearly brought the roof down.
All the other golems turned and fled.
Half-dead, Percy staggered to his feet and started tending to Longshot. First priority was ensuring he kept most of his blood inside; second was his air-supply; third was everything else. Then getting everyone out. Who knew how long the golems would stay cowed.
Across the whole mission, they had taken only fifteen casualties - an absurdly low number, largely due to their systematic paranoia. A mission back into the caverns revealed that there were more golems, though none anywhere near as powerful as the gigantic one.
At some point, despite the mine being merely mostly-cleared, the Corps Fortuna were recalled for a brief bit of shore leave, to be followed by another mission. Medical care was as good as anywhere on Shogi - and better than it had been under the prior governor. ("Governor's good for something, at least," Percy (very) quietly whispered.)
As for the governor, Atraxas and one of his assistants happily pored over their reports and examined the thoroughly-disassembled golem bodies. The last they saw of their strange Governor Atraxas, was a look of interest in his eyes at some of the ores, made from that strange metal…
…Well, the last they saw of him that time, anyway.
—
(There is a non-canonical sidestory available here, that documents "what if my original idea had fit the quest" aka "what if the final boss had been even more EPIC!" and also assumes this sidestory had been able to 100% clear the Mine instead of merely making future clearing easier.)
(This canonical story will continue in The Corps Fortuna 2: The Void Forest.)
"Governor Atraxas summons the 13th PDF of Shogi," said the unassuming message.
One of the newest recruits, Damien Peterson, hopefully commented, "This is good news, right? He's one of the most reasonable governors around, and with his innovations he might have better gear for us?"
"We're the Corps Fortuna, son," commented old-timer Percival "Percy" Elbee. "When everything goes to pieces, we get sent in. And when we get sent in, everything goes to pieces."
The 13th regiment of Shogi's PDF - derisively nicknamed the "Corps Fortuna" - were probably the unluckiest army within a hundred light-years. Everything that could go wrong would: supplies would go missing, gear broke down, Dark Eldar drug stashes mysteriously materialized in their barracks - all in a typical year's mishaps. Honestly, it was a wonder they hadn't all been executed - or gone mad - or died (goodness knows it had been close enough times). Yet, somehow, they usually came back. Not all of them, of course - but some. Added onto this - and made worse by their repeated survival - they were typically sent into the worst fights and the weirdest missions.
So when they heard that the new governor had summoned them, they automatically - and entirely correctly, for all that they'd probably never prove it - assumed that something strange was up. Perhaps the governor was secretly a really bad/good Xenos infiltrator (yes). Perhaps the message was a fake from a group that wanted to get them into trouble (no). Perhaps the governor wanted to turn them all into cyborgs (not exactly). Perhaps… you get the picture.
Their mission, as the weirdly-reasonable pseudo-arachnid laid out, was to reconnoiter a lunar mine (in a decent-sized moon, one of three orbiting a larger barren planet), and hopefully reclaim it. They had footage of a bunch of weird, seemingly-aimless, metallic golems tunnel out of the ground. They had plans of the mine as it was supposed to be. And that was the extent of their intel. So far so good.
However, to their considerable (though well-hidden) dismay, they had brand-new melta rifles for everyone, of a make far superior to their old gear. Officers got equally brand-new grav guns. Further, they had a top-of-the-line ship to ferry them and provide fire support. Yet further, they had instructions that their lives were more important than taking the base, though intel was important (as it would save lives down the line).
The rifles: Half the men expected them to break at the worst moment. The other half weren't so optimistic: If they were getting brand-new rifles, their enemy was going to be brutal. The ship compounded the matter. And being told to survive just proved that they would be stranded without resources on the mine, and total annihilation of the nearly-unkillable enemies their only possible route to survival and escape.
(A few new recruits scoffed, but it had happened! Twice!)
When they were then told that multiple additional ships would be on standby to rescue them if worst came to worst, Percy's stoic composure cracked visibly, and he prayed to the God-Emperor for salvation. (That evening, he told again the probably-mythical tale of "How the desert fortress survived assault by undead sea-cucumbers," and prayed in his head that this mission wouldn't be the one that finally lived up to its sheer insane absurdity.)
One week later, still praying fervently to the God-Emperor, they boarded the ship and headed to the lunar mine.
—
—
While they had the time, flying to the moon, they memorized the layout of the partially-dug moon-mine. They discussed prior missions: how they'd gone wrong, and how they'd gone right. They made sure that everyone know how to survive in space-gear. They double-checked everything. They theorized about what might await them. And, when they got bored of that last one, they started a card-game. Then, too slow and too soon, the flight was over and the fight awaited.
Since they were allowed to be cautious, this mission, and had actual sensors, they made sure to milk them for all they were worth. They scanned the moon repeatedly - almost seven-hundred golems on the surface - worse than the last reports from intel, but far better than expected. The tallest seen was about six meters tall, though the second tallest was just over five meters, which suggested their intel hadn't just been made up on the spot by some idiot. There were a massive number of them milling around the site of the mine, and a few stragglers elsewhere.
With some trepidation, and ordering one of the other backup vessels to carefully scan the mine's surface, they pulled into position over the moon's horizon from the mine, and carefully pulled up almost to it. Then one of their best snipers - a grizzled vet who only answered to "Longshot" - took a potshot with a Melta from the highest range they all thought the short-range gun would support, against one of the few golems visible from this angle.
The golem died. Melted a hole in its torso, and crumbled, slowly bouncing to a halt on the lunar surface that it had been standing on.
The crew blinked. Did that actually go… right?
They checked with the observation ship. No change detected, in the golems.
Well… OK… Alright. The sniper took a few more shots, and they carefully cleared every golem out of sight of the mine. Plus they took a scan, carefully analyzing for, say, signs that the golems were about to get back up again.
Everything was… fine. Normal. Nothing was going wrong.
(The rookies started wondering if their mentors weren't a bit too paranoid. The mentors were freaking out, because the other shoe was going to be the size and weight of the whole bloody moon at this point. (Not quite.))
They picked up a golem corpse - with rope; they didn't want to give something underground the chance to snatch a crewmember - and stuck it in a careful isolation chamber with plenty of sensors running and a Mechanicus Adept who had volunteered to come along in charge of scanning it. Nothing went wrong.
They flew above the mine. Still, everything was going fine.
They had every sniper in the force work together with a bunch of Meltas and even a few Grav-guns to clear the Mine-face of the moon of Golems. The worst thing to happen was a toss-up between one Melta breaking down, and the six-meter golem taking three shots to kill.
Half-a-dozen more golems tunneled up from the ground, and a dozen-odd emerged from the mine entrance. All easily dispatched.
('Where was the trap?' the veterans' instincts screamed. 'Oh, we need to enter the mine now. At least we know what it is. But we're going to have to walk into it-' (Yes.))
They lowered a veteran to the surface of the moon, with the full team of snipers ready on angles to interrupt any attack. Nothing. They installed tremor sensors. Nothing.
…For about five minutes. The tremor-sensors blared a warning twelve seconds before six golems burst through the moon surface and simultaneously attacked the veteran.
Said veteran promptly jumped straight up, nearly escaping the moon's gravity well. And, even so, he lost half of a foot to his comrades' panicked retaliatory fire.
He was simultaneously pitied - for the wound and having to sit around and do nothing - and lauded - for bravery, great kill-to-damage ratio, and getting to sit around and do nothing - by his comrades, as he was told to report to the medbay until fully healed or further notice.
(Because this ship had a medbay. Did someone spike the governor's drink? Was that why this ship had actual features? (No.))
The "lure and snipe" method proved to work somewhat-reliably to dispatch another few hundred golems - slowly - until it, too, stopped getting results. Another thirty-six golems had left the mine entrance and, likewise, gotten sniped.
"Well, lads - and lasses," said Percy, "Once more into the breach. May the God-Emperor have mercy on us, and claim our souls if we die! And, live or die, let's make sure our enemies remember us!"
That quick motivational speech got the usual subdued cheer, and they prepared to enter the mines.
Every floor, ceiling, and wall was a potential trap. Even ones already cleared could have a golem burst forth without warning. So nothing was safe.
But the Corps Fortuna had not been idle while observing the golems, and they were almost certain that their top speed was below that of a sprinting soldier. Further, they were cumbersome and slow to change directions. So dodging them was, in theory, fully possible.
Indeed, several of the "lures" had been steadily practicing these tricks, refining them, and (hopefully) ensuring that most of the Corps would thus survive to see tomorrow.
They didn't have enough Seismic sensors to - as they would have preferred - blanked the whole mine, though they did have enough to set up some much-needed safe-zones and rest-areas.
The first team were able to run deep into the mine and set up in a large room that was noted on the plans. Once they'd blown through fifty-odd golems to get there, and another dozen-odd to clear the place, seismic sensors made the large open space relatively safe. The room was mostly intact, though the walls and floor (and even ceiling) had several holes where various golems had burst out from the rock.
About half-a-dozen attacks occurred in that room before the golems seemed to give up. (Or the local supply was depleted?)
Once the room was relatively safe, the next team (after taking a quick break) ran through to the next large room, and the process started over.
Eventually, after over a month of time and effort, they managed to largely clear the human-dug mine almost entirely. (They had even drug the golem corpses outside, since apparently they were somewhat valuable. And just in case they would resurrect or something.) But the many many holes in the walls (and floors and ceilings), plus the very rare golem emerging from one, proved that the threat wasn't gone.
So, eventually, they picked one of the largest and straightest holes (where a 6-meter golem had presumably emerged), and started carefully venturing into it.
Some of their best people went into that team. And after about an hour of careful progress, they suddenly lost contact, and at the same moment, every dead golem corpse that hadn't been completely disassembled reanimated…
—
The delvers walked through a fairly open tunnel. It twisted and turned here and there, but mostly inclined downwards. Occasional smaller side-passages branched off, presumably from other golems. They met four such golems on their way in.
"Not six. That's good," muttered Percy, checking his grenades. "At least it's not chaos, probably."
Ten minutes later, the tunnel walls changed texture, and the team carefully peeked around each new corner. The first bend showed only more tunnel, but the second revealed a much larger room.
They checked comms - dead. Rats.
They looked back, and heard the rumbling of what must be hundreds of golems. Ah, there was the shoe.
They put a tremor-sensor on the ground - tunneling golems galore. They barely leapt into the cavern in time to avoid being grabbed.
And before them was the biggest golem any of them had seen yet. Nearly fifteen feet tall, it took one look at them and charged, hurtling boulders as it went.
They dodged, frantically. Except Longshot, who had been given a grav-gun, just for this mission. And while he stayed still too long and it cost him his legs, that gun hit the massive golem's neck three times before Longshot blacked out.
The massive golem bellowed, hundreds of hands erupted from the cavern floor, and the rest of the team started to dodge even more frantically, while sending what shots they could spare towards their colossal foe's body.
Percy ignored most of the fight and just ran around the cavern, yelling (screaming) as he went. The noise seemed to provoke the golem, which charged after him specifically. He avoided it by the slightly suicidal exploit of running between its legs and hoping to dodge both - which did work, and it slammed into the wall of the cavern. Percy then, immediately, had to drop to the floor lest his own friends' wild shots kill him, and rapidly crawl out of the line of fire (having to do some very tiring dodging to avoid the smaller golems) as the giant golem turned around, and charged all those shooting at it.
But that gave Percy several free shots at the back of its neck. Melta rounds didn't do much, but the neck was already damaged. One hit. Two hits. One, two misses. A third hit-
And Damien Peterson grabbed Longshot's grav-gun and landed the last hit against the golem's neck. It snapped. The titanic creature stumbled backwards, and fell with a crash that nearly brought the roof down.
All the other golems turned and fled.
Half-dead, Percy staggered to his feet and started tending to Longshot. First priority was ensuring he kept most of his blood inside; second was his air-supply; third was everything else. Then getting everyone out. Who knew how long the golems would stay cowed.
Across the whole mission, they had taken only fifteen casualties - an absurdly low number, largely due to their systematic paranoia. A mission back into the caverns revealed that there were more golems, though none anywhere near as powerful as the gigantic one.
At some point, despite the mine being merely mostly-cleared, the Corps Fortuna were recalled for a brief bit of shore leave, to be followed by another mission. Medical care was as good as anywhere on Shogi - and better than it had been under the prior governor. ("Governor's good for something, at least," Percy (very) quietly whispered.)
As for the governor, Atraxas and one of his assistants happily pored over their reports and examined the thoroughly-disassembled golem bodies. The last they saw of their strange Governor Atraxas, was a look of interest in his eyes at some of the ores, made from that strange metal…
…Well, the last they saw of him that time, anyway.
—
(There is a non-canonical sidestory available here, that documents "what if my original idea had fit the quest" aka "what if the final boss had been even more EPIC!" and also assumes this sidestory had been able to 100% clear the Mine instead of merely making future clearing easier.)
(This canonical story will continue in The Corps Fortuna 2: The Void Forest.)
Last edited:
The Corps Fortuna 1: The Golem Gambit, The Slaaneshi Timeline (Non canon)
Robinton
Probably petting Schrödinger's cat
- Location
- Scientifically proving a miracle
The Corps Fortuna 1: The Golem Gambit - What If: the final boss had been even more epic, climactic, and dramatic
(Also omakes had been able to do a bit more, and I was allowed some minor liberties with the star-system)
So, eventually, they picked one of the largest and straightest holes (where a 6-meter golem had presumably emerged), and started carefully venturing into it.
Some of their best people went into that team. And after about an hour of careful progress, they suddenly lost contact, every dead golem corpse that hadn't been completely disassembled reanimated, and all the rest of the (frantically reacting) Corps Fortuna were subtly assaulted by a mental attack…
—
The delvers walked through a fairly open tunnel. It twisted and turned here and there, but mostly bored steady spirals down towards the core of the moon. Occasional smaller side-passages branched off, presumably from other golems. They met six such golems on their way in.
"Six. Oh, great," muttered Percy, checking his grenades. "We've been seeing that number, haven't we? Six hundred odd golems on the surface. Typically six to an ambush. Multiples of six from the mine entrance. I do not like the sound of this. At least there are ten of us."
Six minutes later, the tunnel walls changed texture, and the team carefully peeked around each new corner. Six turns later - "Yeah, Perce, you were right; six it is," young-but-lightning-fast Officer Talbot commented - they emerged into a vast cavern.
They checked comms - dead. Rats.
They looked back, and heard the rumbling of what must be hundreds of golems. Ah, there was the shoe.
They put a tremor-sensor on the ground - tunnels galore. They barely leapt into the cavern in time to avoid being grabbed.
Leaping into the cavern felt like leaping into a dream. Beautiful (but sinister) and intricate (but cruelly sharp) crystal formations dotted the place. There were no finished golems, only partly-formed ones slowly coalescing towards perfection (completion).
"Ah, some playthings," came the loveliest (cruelest) voice Percival Elbee had ever heard (except that one time his tea had gotten spiked by Dark Eldar drugs - oh blast), "How about you start by killing each other until only six are left. Then I can decide on our next fun game!"
Percy had dived behind a stalagmite (not natural - the rock around was mined out) before he consciously processed the suggestion (enchantment). It was well he did - a trail of grav-shots from Talbot destroyed the space he had just vacated and blew the stalagmite to smithereens - it gave Percy only visual cover, but that was enough.
Percy risked a peek back, and let a few rapid shots fly at his rivals (mind-controlled allies), before retreating deeper into the cursed cavern, eyes peeled.
Ten seconds later, he emerged in a clearing in the cavern. (This must have been the original cavern, before it was mined within to build the golems…) He saw his love, his joy, his only desire and goal in life, a transcendentally beautiful (evil) being, perfection (malice) incarnate.
He bowed, falling on his face before the creature. As it spoke words of endless wisdom (gloated, evilly and extensively), the creature gently stroked the prettiest (darkest) harp Percy had ever seen, a thing with layer upon layer of True (false) Runes upon it. Around were heaps of other treasures, but that harp was obviously a centerpiece, kept and displayed with great pride.
Longshot - missing an arm - flew in over several stalagmites. His head hit the ground and he passed out.
"Ah, yes, just finish this one off," said the minor Daemon who had reflexively looked, "and I will reward you beyond your wil-"
And that was the point where Percy, having drawn and pointed his Melta gun at the obviously evil harp and everything around it. He barely got off a single burst before curling up in soul-deep agony… but then the agony stopped.
Because the Slaaneshi Daemon had lost its anchor to the Materium. The harp was melted, thoroughly. And the Materium does not like uninvited guests.
A screech and a phrase of five curses that nearly melted the flesh off of Percy's bones, and the Daemon vanished. ('I'd have actually died or something if it spoke the sixth curse, wouldn't I?')
Half-dead, Percy staggered to his feet and started tending to Longshot. First priority was ensuring he kept most of his blood inside; second was his air-supply; third was everything else.
Of their party, three were already dead. Talbot, poor guy, kept shooting at his allies, with no trace of sanity in his features. But his aim was poor, his skill gone, and they shot him before he could shoot any more of them.
All remaining golems had fallen apart at the Daemon's banishing, and they managed to get Longshot back to the ship alive, and alive he remained. Though blasted cranky at having to learn to aim with his off hand (his right hand, actually - he had lost his dominant left hand and arm).
Their allies outside had taken only fifteen casualties - an absurdly low number, largely due to paranoia. Further delvers found a number of traps in that cavern, and eventually proved that it had been the private cache of a Dark Eldar pirate, one who had probably died eons ago at this point.
More than half of the Dark Eldar's stash had already been destroyed, or needed to be destroyed later (due to anchoring the ritual, Chaos corruption, or not being "treasure" to any but a DEldar). About half of what was left wasn't terribly useful or sought-after. But even the dregs would fetch a pretty price, and finance the expedition several times over.
Governor Atraxas and one of his assistants insisted on being the first to check their company and, after the governor shone a few odd devices at the worst-afflicted among them, declared "They will recover." The Inquisitor who checked them thereafter bemusedly pronounced, "Well, the governor was correct. You are all free enough of taint to be spared. Enjoy your long life, and praise the Emperor."
(That directive, Percy had no issue whatsoever fulfilling.)
The last they saw of Governor Atraxas, was a look of interest in his eyes at certain bars of strange metal…
…Well, the last they saw of him that time, anyway.
(Also omakes had been able to do a bit more, and I was allowed some minor liberties with the star-system)
So, eventually, they picked one of the largest and straightest holes (where a 6-meter golem had presumably emerged), and started carefully venturing into it.
Some of their best people went into that team. And after about an hour of careful progress, they suddenly lost contact, every dead golem corpse that hadn't been completely disassembled reanimated, and all the rest of the (frantically reacting) Corps Fortuna were subtly assaulted by a mental attack…
—
The delvers walked through a fairly open tunnel. It twisted and turned here and there, but mostly bored steady spirals down towards the core of the moon. Occasional smaller side-passages branched off, presumably from other golems. They met six such golems on their way in.
"Six. Oh, great," muttered Percy, checking his grenades. "We've been seeing that number, haven't we? Six hundred odd golems on the surface. Typically six to an ambush. Multiples of six from the mine entrance. I do not like the sound of this. At least there are ten of us."
Six minutes later, the tunnel walls changed texture, and the team carefully peeked around each new corner. Six turns later - "Yeah, Perce, you were right; six it is," young-but-lightning-fast Officer Talbot commented - they emerged into a vast cavern.
They checked comms - dead. Rats.
They looked back, and heard the rumbling of what must be hundreds of golems. Ah, there was the shoe.
They put a tremor-sensor on the ground - tunnels galore. They barely leapt into the cavern in time to avoid being grabbed.
Leaping into the cavern felt like leaping into a dream. Beautiful (but sinister) and intricate (but cruelly sharp) crystal formations dotted the place. There were no finished golems, only partly-formed ones slowly coalescing towards perfection (completion).
"Ah, some playthings," came the loveliest (cruelest) voice Percival Elbee had ever heard (except that one time his tea had gotten spiked by Dark Eldar drugs - oh blast), "How about you start by killing each other until only six are left. Then I can decide on our next fun game!"
Percy had dived behind a stalagmite (not natural - the rock around was mined out) before he consciously processed the suggestion (enchantment). It was well he did - a trail of grav-shots from Talbot destroyed the space he had just vacated and blew the stalagmite to smithereens - it gave Percy only visual cover, but that was enough.
Percy risked a peek back, and let a few rapid shots fly at his rivals (mind-controlled allies), before retreating deeper into the cursed cavern, eyes peeled.
Ten seconds later, he emerged in a clearing in the cavern. (This must have been the original cavern, before it was mined within to build the golems…) He saw his love, his joy, his only desire and goal in life, a transcendentally beautiful (evil) being, perfection (malice) incarnate.
He bowed, falling on his face before the creature. As it spoke words of endless wisdom (gloated, evilly and extensively), the creature gently stroked the prettiest (darkest) harp Percy had ever seen, a thing with layer upon layer of True (false) Runes upon it. Around were heaps of other treasures, but that harp was obviously a centerpiece, kept and displayed with great pride.
Longshot - missing an arm - flew in over several stalagmites. His head hit the ground and he passed out.
"Ah, yes, just finish this one off," said the minor Daemon who had reflexively looked, "and I will reward you beyond your wil-"
And that was the point where Percy, having drawn and pointed his Melta gun at the obviously evil harp and everything around it. He barely got off a single burst before curling up in soul-deep agony… but then the agony stopped.
Because the Slaaneshi Daemon had lost its anchor to the Materium. The harp was melted, thoroughly. And the Materium does not like uninvited guests.
A screech and a phrase of five curses that nearly melted the flesh off of Percy's bones, and the Daemon vanished. ('I'd have actually died or something if it spoke the sixth curse, wouldn't I?')
Half-dead, Percy staggered to his feet and started tending to Longshot. First priority was ensuring he kept most of his blood inside; second was his air-supply; third was everything else.
Of their party, three were already dead. Talbot, poor guy, kept shooting at his allies, with no trace of sanity in his features. But his aim was poor, his skill gone, and they shot him before he could shoot any more of them.
All remaining golems had fallen apart at the Daemon's banishing, and they managed to get Longshot back to the ship alive, and alive he remained. Though blasted cranky at having to learn to aim with his off hand (his right hand, actually - he had lost his dominant left hand and arm).
Their allies outside had taken only fifteen casualties - an absurdly low number, largely due to paranoia. Further delvers found a number of traps in that cavern, and eventually proved that it had been the private cache of a Dark Eldar pirate, one who had probably died eons ago at this point.
More than half of the Dark Eldar's stash had already been destroyed, or needed to be destroyed later (due to anchoring the ritual, Chaos corruption, or not being "treasure" to any but a DEldar). About half of what was left wasn't terribly useful or sought-after. But even the dregs would fetch a pretty price, and finance the expedition several times over.
Governor Atraxas and one of his assistants insisted on being the first to check their company and, after the governor shone a few odd devices at the worst-afflicted among them, declared "They will recover." The Inquisitor who checked them thereafter bemusedly pronounced, "Well, the governor was correct. You are all free enough of taint to be spared. Enjoy your long life, and praise the Emperor."
(That directive, Percy had no issue whatsoever fulfilling.)
The last they saw of Governor Atraxas, was a look of interest in his eyes at certain bars of strange metal…
…Well, the last they saw of him that time, anyway.
Last edited:
Robinton
Probably petting Schrödinger's cat
- Location
- Scientifically proving a miracle
@Leon12431, let me know if you notice anything else that needs tweaked for canonicity of the first Omake.
Also, any chance the non-canonical bit (which is, by itself, barely over a thousand words) could give a minor bonus to Research DAoT Gellar or, that isn't taken, Comprehensive Subterranean and Void Fortification? A minor bonus, not a huge one. I mean, this is storytelling and wargaming, not something that actually occurred...
Also, any chance the non-canonical bit (which is, by itself, barely over a thousand words) could give a minor bonus to Research DAoT Gellar or, that isn't taken, Comprehensive Subterranean and Void Fortification? A minor bonus, not a huge one. I mean, this is storytelling and wargaming, not something that actually occurred...
- Location
- USA
Quality does count for a lot with me for omake value. However, I don't count non canon omakes as less valuable than canon ones by default. Mostly as long as its well written, tells a story of some sort, and is not an obvious bonus fishing attempt I will give a real reward for them.
Choose 1 reward from each of the following lists
Please do not vote in truth just quote/reply or mention me and tell me which reward you want.
1) Gain the Corps Fortuna as a unique unit with a Trait (must be taken on both lists). I will reveal the trait if this is chosen.
2) Reduce the DC of the future Auramite research action by 100
3) Provide a secured basecamp for the Assault, that will provide a trickle of Auramite per turn
1) Gain the Corps Fortuna as a unique unit with a Trait (must be taken on both lists). I will reveal the trait if this is chosen.
2) Reduce a chosen DAoT research option by 1d50+50
3) improve the Loot Roll after the golems are cleared to include the possibility of resulting in DAoT/Aeldari items (Very low chance, 1% for each)
Robinton
Probably petting Schrödinger's cat
- Location
- Scientifically proving a miracle
I may yet regret this... but I'm attached to these guys. I'm going to have to pick 1/1.
(Oh that DAoT option is calling me...)
- Location
- USA
The Corps Fortuna, are strange regiment with a strange history that dates back to the founding of Shogi in the first Black Crusade. Yet the regiment has never truly died to the last, even though chaos follows them and probability fails, they remain loyal to the God Emperor.
Men of Fortune: will always survive any fight that does not result in total destruction of their allies, critical rolls improved, critically fail on rolls of 1-5, critical fails can not result in death/loss of regiment.
Men of Fortune: will always survive any fight that does not result in total destruction of their allies, critical rolls improved, critically fail on rolls of 1-5, critical fails can not result in death/loss of regiment.