A school for the cursed: A Psyker Quest. Warhammer 40k quest.

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[x] Shadow Militarum
- [x] The Alkata Cartel
- We are ready to offer joint activities in the fight against small criminal groups, mutants and psykers. From our side, there will be telekinetic support in combat situations, as well as healing of those participating in the battle through biomancy. In addition, we will provide healing of the crippled through biomancy. From your side, help my fighters gain experience in combat under your protection, and we will also receive psykers captured in these raids.
 
[x] Shadow Militarum
- [x] The Alkata Cartel
- We are ready to offer joint activities in the fight against small criminal groups, mutants and psykers. From our side, there will be telekinetic support in combat situations, as well as healing of those participating in the battle through biomancy. In addition, we will provide healing of the crippled through biomancy. From your side, help my fighters gain experience in combat under your protection, and we will also receive psykers captured in these raids.

I still believe that Brotherhood is very important to us. Lasgun weaponry, which is standard for equipping the Imperial Guard and thus readily accessible to us, has one fairly specific and obvious drawback that's immediately apparent: shotguns. Laser shotguns (almost) don't exist.

Secondly, underbarrel grenade launchers. Our forces will likely be heavy assault troops capable of closing the distance with the enemy, which will require significant firepower from us. It's unlikely that we'll be able to secure enough plasma pistols for all our personnel (though I'd love to see pyrokinetics using plasma from overheated weapons to amplify their flames). We need a way to sharply increase firepower during assaults.

Large, heavy fighters with enhanced bodies can wield VERY large Arbites-grade shotguns. Meanwhile, the Imperium has an EXTREMELY loose attitude toward smoothbore weaponry, operating on the principle of "if there's enough space, you can load anything into it." No joke—from radioactive flechettes and toxic rounds to actual krak-grenade-shells and dragon's breath rounds.

Given that a Psyker-Primaris is formally equivalent to a junior officer rank, they - and by extension, us - will likely be operating in vehicles on the battlefield. Transportation and storage of ammunition won't be as significant a drawback as it is for regular infantry.

However, right now, we don't have anything to offer Brotherhood directly.
 
The Lord Prefect offered us funds to see our project through. The practical of this is we can access funds by spending influence with the Lord Prefect, so not unlimited, but certainly not meager. I personally think that trying to go with the "Shadow Militarum" plan is putting the cart ahead of the horse, since putting our psykers into a combat situation without any of the physical conditioning and combat capabilities they'd need to perform well would be bad. It's also a bit lengthy, which the write-in discourages, per Mayto's guideline.
 
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Hunter531 said:
Issue with the Cartel is that they're providing combat experience, not trainers. Said combat experience will almost certainly be coming from protecting criminal organizations, and nasty ones at that.
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There is no reason whatsoever we ever have to do criminal services for them, or even any services at all.

The assloads of money we can pay for trainers and the social prestige of offering services to the Scholastica Psykana is enough.

Plus, doing this now both saves us an action next turn and synergizes well with the "teach them to fight dirty" action.

That being said, I like a modded version someone did that addresses some of your concerns.

[X] The Alkata Cartel
-[X] Hire professional instructors offering above-board currency.
 
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[X] Brotherhood of Kel:
-[X] Procuring custom weapons for our Psychic Shock Troops, in exchange we are willing to make an exclusive contract with them for arming our Wyrdvanes.

The brotherhood is explicitly missing buyers, a long term contract with the Shcolam would basically be a boon towards earning real legitimacy.

We can still go to the Mechanicus or Squats for armor and implants. And I think the Scholam will want to keep the more magical armaments like force staffs in house.
 
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[X] Brotherhood of Kel:
-[X] Procuring custom weapons for our Psychic Shock Troops, in exchange we are willing to make an exclusive contract with them for arming our Wyrdvanes.
 
CanYouMeme said:
Plus, doing this now both saves us an action next turn and synergizes well with the "teach them to fight dirty" action.
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It doesn't so much synergize with teaching them to fight dirty as replace said action entirely. Both options end with our psykers learning from street thugs. That's good for close quarters work, but I'm not exactly enthusiastic about sending our psykers into CQC. Not with how squishy humans are in 40k. It will probably be useful eventually, but I definitely think arming our troops with better weapons than the usual Guard drek takes priority.

Edit: Moreover, even when we do need to get assistance with CQC training, I'd rather have them learn from veteran Enforcers, given how working with an individual or faction seems to improve relations with them.
 
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Psyker Inductee: Hibrus New
  • Sidestory
    • Since the exploration option was not chosen I've written this.

    Subject Name: Hibrus
    Age: 16 Terran Years per testing.
    Sex: Female

    Birth World:
    Odium **Sapphire Keep Sanitation Clan**

    Appearance:
    Short and pale as are most on Odium who are not descended from recently visiting voidship crews are, the subject displays the effects of light malnutrition, (Note: Food storage facilities suffering minor breakdowns in the depths of the Keep leading to minor spoilage, estimated time for repairs - 4 standard Terran years), and is missing most teeth on their right side along with their right cheek at time of intake, additionally eye teeth on both sides have been removed in keeping with sanitation clan tradition. At time of intake subjects hair is short, pale, and shows signs of having been burn to it's current length. Subject's wrists, upper back, and torso outlining the rib cage is covered in their tattoos of their clans' holy text, a mix of incinerator maintenance directions and ministorum scripture.

    Preliminary Psychic Aptitude Grading:
    Telepathy: Zeta (10)
    Divination: Kappa (6)
    Telekinesis: Xi (2)
    Pyromancy: Delta (12)
    Biomancy: Lambda (5)

    Bio:
    Interrogation of subject and sanitation clan members of the Sapphire Keep's workforce reveals a standard life. Born to the menials who live below the Keep, Hibrus' line was in charge of maintaining the piping through which flow the fumes and other bi-products of the incinerator's work. Subject was educated in metallurgy as part of the clan's recycling efforts with discarded scrap, basic reading to understand incinerator status readouts, the scripture of the Emperor of Flame (the Ministorum approved Imperial Cult variation practiced below the Keep, sanctified in early M39, up for official review in 500 standard years), and basic combat using a small hammer and shield.

    During a raid by the scribe clans in order to retrieve recently discarded velum, the subject was struck in the face by a round fired from a crude black powder pistol. When subject came to it was not only blood that rushed from her face but flame as she unleashed a pyroclastic roar which cauterized her wounds and incinerated two of the warrior caste of the scribe clan. This, coupled with a simultaneous psychic scream to "Stop", which emerged from the subject, halted the battle as both sides bowed to, what their faiths told them was a holy person. To the scribe clan Hibrus is now a Au'ow, "One who hears, and speaks the words of knowing" while to the sanitation clan she is a Speaker of Flame. The forces of the Keep moved quickly to secure the subject following the awakening, and Hibrus turned herself over to celebration from her clan mates, who had not known an honour so great as this in their lifetime.

    So far subject displays strength in both pyromancy and telepathy, the later of which they are more enthusiastic despite the former being stronger as the lower Keep clan's service to the astropathic station has become entangled with their faith, and very minor divinatory abilities, no ability with telekinesis has thus far been observed, and it is unknown at this time if the very high level of platelets found in their blood are a result of latent biomancy abilities or are the result of human baseline deviation that can be found throughout the galaxy.

    Suggestions Going Forward:
    Beyond normal training for displayed talents, subject's compatibility with the Sanctic arts should be tested due to possible resonance with their clan's belief that psychic abilities are a holy gift from the Emperor.

    Major reconstructive surgery has been scheduled, current suggestion is to used materials extracted from former Keep Servitor Theta-4-8-12-Nu, following damages received in the loading bay. While Lady Astrid has requested those injured in the keep be sent to her and her students first, the subject's nature, and still unclear levels of control, mean it may be safer to have the surgery preformed remotely with servitors instead of biomancy.

    The establishing of a mandatory regular blood drive for the clans in the lower levels of the keep could be used to see if any markers of psychic bloodlines can be found therein and monitored closely for potential future recruits. Additionally, as large numbers of wyrdvanes will soon be living within the keep, blood extracted from the clans could be put to use by the medicae to keep up with the expected increase in injuries and demand for material.
     
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  • Sidestory
    • Hunter531 said:
    It doesn't so much synergize with teaching them to fight dirty as replace said action entirely. Both options end with our psykers learning from street thugs. That's good for close quarters work, but I'm not exactly enthusiastic about sending our psykers into CQC.
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    I agree with your reservations, but they're going into CQC and neither you nor I are allowed to choose otherwise. The vote was to turn them into shock troopers, which means they're at or near the tip of the spear, and even if this was bog standard real world circumstances that would entail a notable bit of melee combat.

    In 40k, melee is going to be a frequent thing for our troopers even with their powers, and it might even be a majority of their combat.

    I don't think it replaces the teach dirty action either - the vote I'm going for is just to hire trainers, we still need to organize and set up a training plan.
     
    Hunter531 said:
    It doesn't so much synergize with teaching them to fight dirty as replace said action entirely. Both options end with our psykers learning from street thugs. That's good for close quarters work, but I'm not exactly enthusiastic about sending our psykers into CQC. Not with how squishy humans are in 40k. It will probably be useful eventually, but I definitely think arming our troops with better weapons than the usual Guard drek takes priority.

    Edit: Moreover, even when we do need to get assistance with CQC training, I'd rather have them learn from veteran Enforcers, given how working with an individual or faction seems to improve relations with them.
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    I don't disagree with you exactly, but our students won't be needing that weaponry from the get go. We're not going to be throwing them into combat on the first turn they're in our care for crying out loud! Let me also emphasize that these trainers aren't just for CQC, though it certainly is helpful, considering how psykers can enhance themselves to outperform anyone on the field. No, the main draw of these kinds of trainers is that they know how to properly condition the body, which is supremely important for any sort of fighter, regardless of where they're on the battlefield. In our case, the situation becomes even more dire, because our cohort is going to be serving frontline duty as psychic shock troopers, which makes it all the more important that they get this sort of training.

    We can't dilly-dally on picking our "favorite" choice when it comes to trainers, we might have the option of getting the enforcers to train or students, but that also means that there is a good chance that our students will be missing out on turns of training that they wouldn't have.
     
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    Mayto said:
    The Cartel is rife with Imperial Guard and PDF veterans, Pit Gangers, and vat-grown hired muscle, trading protection for hard currency. Their services range from skilled bouncers for middle-class drinking establishments, bodyguards for drug-dealers and pimps, and gangs for hire in The Pit.
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    I will point out that the Cartel has a lot of military veterans amongst its membership, so I do think that the Cartel can find us instructors that have combat experience from fighting in actual wars.
     
    Will biological optimization be permanent or we can able to make it permanent?

    Is it possible to replace his mechanical part with organic ones?
     
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