Barbarians at the Gates [40k/Star Wars]

Created
Status
Ongoing
Watchers
94
Recent readers
0

Barbarians at the Gates
Chapter One: Shadows in the Mist

1.1

Corellian Defender-Class Light...
Chapter One: Shadows in the Mist 1.1

Tekomandor

Social Justice Gish
Location
Australia
Pronouns
She/Her
Barbarians at the Gates
Chapter One: Shadows in the Mist

1.1

Corellian Defender-Class Light Corvette 'Vigilance', Orbiting Archaos, Calixis Sector, Segmentum Obscura

A group of men and women, composed of a great many different species, stood around a holoconference table. Atop it, her form scratchily blue, stood the Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic; Leontyne Saresh. The Twilek woman, and former governor of Taris, looked out at the people surrounding the table. They were a motley mix, to be sure, but they and their leader had proven invalueable to the war effort against the Sith, marshalling forces she hadn't even known to exist against the onslaught of the Sith.

Key to it all had been the Jedi standing at the centre of the group. She was an unassuming figure, only a few inches above five feet, with a sweet face and appearing to be blind. She was not, though any who saw the atrophied eyes of her species would surely believe it. She was known as the 'Barsen'thor', or the Warden of the Jedi Order. Her apprentice, Nadia Grell, stood next to her as did her loyal friends and traveling companions.

"You've made it through the wormhole, master Jedi - what more can you tell us about the closest system on the other side?" Saresh said, and the Jedi master, named Valara, paused for a moment.

"The Force here is... disturbed, Chancellor. The grip of the dark side is strong, and I sense something else. Like a whisper on the edge of hearing - something watches this place, and it is no mortal force user. I have managed to secure us a berth at one of the planet's many starports, though from what I could gleam from their communications; any obvious non-humans would be extremely suspicious at best." Valara said.

"Then I shall leave you to your task, Master Jedi. Admiral Isoder will be awaiting your report in two standard days - and may the Force be with you." Saresh finished, and her hologram flickered out. Even only a lightyear or two from the wormhole, their untuned communications suite was already suffering from serious interference. It was to be expected, one supposed, when one was dozens of galaxies away from home. Valara was not quite sure exactly how far away the wormhole lead, though she supposed the difference was academic. It wasn't like she could get home if the wormhole collapsed if it was only a galaxy or two closer to home.

"Nadia, Iresso - we'll head into the city and learn what we can there. Theran, Qyzen and Zenith - you three stay with the ship, and let Theran answer if anyone comes looking. The locals here seem to match the Sith in their hatred for non-humans, and I've no desire to test my poor ship against those behemoths in orbit." Valara softly ordered, and her crew sprung into action. The Vigilance engaged its engines, as Valara used her new command of the local tongue to deal with the port authorities.

They entered the planet's atmosphere, and found a vast, towering city beneath them. It did not cover the entire planet, but it was tall enough to pose a hazard to low flying ships. Lieutenant Iresso guided the Vigilance in to one of the spaceports midway up the spire's length, and soon enough they'd touched down. The bay itself was constructed from dull metal and stone, with a bronze ,double headed eagle striding atop the door. A group of men awaited them by the doorway. Two men in muted blue armour, and another wearing a cloth uniform in a simmilar colour. Valara had no trouble with colours or mechanical interfaces and such, despite what many commonly thought about the miraluka; though she did not perceive them in the same way as humans.

Valara picked up her saberstaff, silver coloured and intricately carved, and attached one its emitters to her belt via a magnetic clip. With that done, she joined Nadia and Iresso on the docking ramp, and the three of them walked out into this new world.

The three men walked towards them, the two armoured men - guards, most likely, - flanking the uniformed one.

"Lieutenant Marcellus Duberstein, of the Archaos Planetary Defence Force. And you are?" The man said, pallid energy clinging to him in Valara's sight.

"Valara, of the trading ship Hutt's Pride. Me and my crew flew the Joy over here down after being dropped off by the 'Pride; to see if Archaos was a good place to take on some new goods. On the route back, you know?" Valara said, her tone easy as she subtly called on the force to aid her lie.

"That checks out with the forms you filed. If you're not offloading any cargo, I only need to search your persons." He said, until Valara waved her hand and spoke.

"You've searched us and found nothing of note." She said, and felt the three men agree with the statement.

"Well, everything seems to be in order. Welcome to Hive Kathla, and be careful not to go down past the 104th level." The man said, as he and his two men turned away and walked out of the docking bay. Valara and her two compatriots likewise walked through the large doorway and out into the bustling spaceport. More of the blue armoured men, carrying what seemed to Valara to be blaster rifles of some kind, patrolled the spaceport. Merchants had small shops and stands, hawking their wares. One seemed promising to Valara - he seemed to be a weapons merchant, and had a well secured shop. Only she out of her party had any understanding of the native language, and that was through the Force.

So she led her two companions into the shop, and smiled as the shopkeeper - an older man - bid her welcome. Rows upon rows of secured rifles, pistols, and melee weapons lined the shelves of the shop, and Valara noted the two armoured men standing by the door.

"Hello, sir. I've some scatterguns I wish to sell - from out of system - and was wondering if you'd be interested." Valara said, smiling. The man smiled back, and got out from behind the counter.

"Well, that depends. Let me have a quick look at 'em and I'll tell ya what they're worth." He said, and Valara motioned for Iresso to remove the trio of scatterguns from his backpack. They were short, stubby weapons, but they packed a punch. Sometimes used by the uniformed to hunt Jedi, though ultimately about as effective as a blaster against one. "Well, they're nice specimens. Decent calibre, construction and all that. Mind if I test fire on of em out the back?" The man asked, and Valara agreed. Soon he was back, and she found herself in possession of two hundred and fifty thrones gelt. Not a large ammount of money, but it would suffice.

They wandered the marketplace some more, exchanging inoffensive trinkets for small amounts of money, and purchasing small items of their own. It was a wonder what one could learn about a culture from a marketplace such as this. Though at the moment, all Valara seemed to have gathered was that the locals had a disturbing fondness for skulls as a decorative object.

It was after this expedition to the market that she felt the other force-user arrive on the planet. They did not seem to be a Sith, but there was turmoil within them. Whatever their affiliation, Valara had no desire to be sensed by them. She and her apprentice concentrated for a moment, and then they had cloaked themselves from the senses of other force users. It would not stand up against a determined scan, but it would allow them to remain undetected to the casual senses of most force-users. It was one of the core techniques taught to the Jedi Shadows, and it had served Valara well over her long career.

What worried her was the force-users course. They were headed to this spaceport, and she did not like what that implied.

A/N: This is set between the Makeb arc and the end of the Corellian arc for SWTOR, and around the time Dark Heresy is assumed to take place in. Also looking for a beta, if anyone's interested.
 
Shadows in the Mist 1.2
1.2

Valara sat in the dingy bar, talking to one of the locals. He was a dockworker who offloaded cargo from visiting shuttles and airships from the lesser cities and towns that dotted the planet. There had once been another Hive City, but it had been destroyed in a war of some kind. The dockworker didn't seem to like talking about it, so she let the matter slip. The force-user was still poking around the level she'd arrived at, or around there at least, and she was at least ten levels below that. Nadia and Iresso had returned to the ship, the three of them having made enough money to pay for a few weeks of baytime. Valara was still the only one who could speak the local tongue - a heavily accented version of something known as 'Low Gothic'.

The dockworker had told her, after she brought him a drink or two, that he'd been assigned to offload cargo from a ship marked with all sorts of government logos - and then she looked into the surface thoughts of his mind. He had seen a symbol on the shuttle, a letter with lines through it. A mere symbol was enough to frighten the man?

She looked to the door, suddenly aware of someone heading here. He was a presence in the Force, the remains of used power clinging to him like the smell of blood. This man was a compatriot of the force user she'd felt, that much was certain. If they and this man had caused such fear simply by showing up, she had no desire to be caught in the bar with him. She did need more information, however, so as she stood and tossed a few eagle-backed coins to the bartender she walked out of the bar and onto the street. The man she'd sensed from the bar saw her, as she walked along the bustling street-tunnel and into an alleyway.

When they were sufficiently far from sight, as the man followed her into the alley with his blaster raised, she called on the Force. She influenced the man's mind, dazing him and making him more susceptible to her interrogation techniques. She saw the man drop his blaster and stumble against the alley wall, sliding down it. She walked over and kicked away the blaster. He was perhaps thirty years old, wearing a grey coat and various bits of gear. She knelt down, her right hand rising to his forehead.

"I am sorry for this." She said, mostly to herself. She focused her power, and smashed aside the man's mental defences. They were unusually good, for a non-force user, but she was the Warden of the Jedi order, and she had defeated far more powerful wills. Diving into his mind, she raced through the man's memories and secrets. She did not have the time to look through everything, and so she focused on the stylised letter the dockworker had described.

This man worked for very dangerous people indeed, but his master wasn't on-planet, or even in the system. She was apparently a force-user - or, to use their parlance, a psyker - as was one of his companions. They hunted for some vaguely defined corruption - was this Chaos related to the Dark Side? Or to whatever entity she had felt in the Force ever since she'd arrived on the planet. Either way, she was out of time - the man's fellow acolyte, the force user, had somehow sensed her manipulation of the man - he must have been watching him since before she left the bar.

Valara stood, and got out her comlink. She'd gained the information she needed, though being detected like that was something of a setback. Her holocom buzzed, and she held it out in front of her.

"Val, you need to get back here." Theran said, as a pocket sized version of him appeared in front of her.

"I don't have a lot of time to talk, Theran." She said, as the acolyte behind her stirred.

"Emergency update from Admiral Isoder." He said, as quickly as he could. Valara nodded, and closed the holocom.

++++++++++++++
Volker Hunxener woke to a smashing headache, and the sight of his target vanishing before his eyes. The Inquisitorial Acolyte rose shakily, reaching for his hot-shot lasgun. After looking around some more, he sighed and holstered it. The Emperor-damned witch had disappeared, and he was no psyker able to pierce her veils.

"She got away, Anya." He said over his microbead, which was patched into a reserved channel of the PDF's Hive-wide vox network.

"Yeah we know you fraggin' dumbass, or did you forget Salomon was watching you like a hawk?" Anya, one of his fellow Acolytes, said. She was often abrasive, but the Stormtrooper was a deft hand with both power-sword and hellpistol - so he tried not to piss her off. The two of them traded some more banter, and then in about thirty minutes he stepped off the interlevel tram at the spaceport-level they'd decided to work out of. He entered their temporary base of operations to find his fellow acolytes pouring over a map.

Salomon was a psyker, though he looked only mildly ravished by it. Anya was all hard edges and shaved heads, whilst their heavy gunner Heinfried flexed his tattooed arms as he looked over the map.

"I can't believe you lost her, Salomon." Heinfried said.

"She's not like most unsanctioned psykers - she has control of herself. A whole lot of it, maybe even more than Inquisitor Kelhammer." Salomon said quietly as he placed the last pin on the map.

"Is that good or bad?" Anya asked.

"Bad. Very bad - she's not dangerous just to be around, but any psyker with that level of control can cause a huge ammount of damage if they want to." Salomon answered, and then looked up to see Volker walk in.

"So, Sol, you think we can take her?" He asked, taking a seat at the table.

"I don't know how powerful she is, because she hasn't done a whole lot. So maybe, but no matter how powerful she is, she's dangerous. But not connected to the cult we were sent to investigate, I think."

It was at about his moment that a PDF officer ran in, terror etched on his face.
++++++++++++++
"Ah, master Jedi. Shall I start from the beginning?" Admiral Isoder asked, as Valara walked back onto her starship. Her crew stood around the holoconference table, and grim expressions abounded.

"Yes, Admiral, that would be for the best." She said.

"Very well then. In short: A massive Sith fleet is headed to Archaos, and we've had to pull back from the wormhole. We don't know how, but the Imperial Navy got their hands on everything from the location of the wormhole to our hyperspace lane data for the region just beyond it." The Admiral said.

"How massive?" Valara asked.

"Thirty Harrower-class dradnoughts, about as many carriers, with hundreds more destroyers and transports. We believe the superdreadnought Ascendant Spear is acting as the fleet's flagship." The Admiral said, and Valara took a moment to respond, stunned by the size of fleet. That was an all-out invasion force!

"How far away are they, Admiral?" Valara asked.

"They've already moved through the wormhole, and left behind a guard fleet including several Interdictor ships. We're scrambling a response fleet now, but it'll be weeks before we can hit them in enough strength to win." The Admiral said, and Valara nodded. They were trapped, and she intended to do what she'd done on Corellia, on Balmorra. She'd drive the Sith from this place, Republic fleet or no.

Above her, the Imperial fleet stationed at Archaos were in for the suprise of their lives when they detected a huge number of ships appearing at the edge of the system. The Sith Empire had arrived, and they had done so in force.​
 
Imperium of Man vs Sith Empire in a battle to determine who is the greater evil! Place you're bets people!
There's no way in hell that the Sith could pose a threat in the slightest to even a sector fleet. They might be able to get a planet or two, then the Imperium mobilizes and crushes them.

I think an appropriate saying here is "Quantity has a quality of its own."
 
There's no way in hell that the Sith could pose a threat in the slightest to even a sector fleet. They might be able to get a planet or two, then the Imperium mobilizes and crushes them.

I think an appropriate saying here is "Quantity has a quality of its own."
They do control half a galaxy. Underestimating them like this isn't wise.
 
They do control half a galaxy. Underestimating them like this isn't wise.
And yet, a Harrower is roughly half the length of a Sword, to say nothing of mass or volume, and anything smaller than a Harrower barely even counts as a starship by 40k standards. Assuming equivalent firepower in terms of size for both fleets (which may or may not be true, depending upon authorial interpretations), then the Sith will lose to the Calixis sector battlefleet.

On the other hand... hyperdrive. It should be trivial for the Sith to avoid direct confrontations and only strike when it favors them, hunting down lone ships and raiding planetary targets while the Imperial Navy is elsewhere.
 
They do control half a galaxy. Underestimating them like this isn't wise.
*can't stop laughing*
One word mate. Exterminatus. Hey wait, two more! Space Marines. And another two to finish it off! Officio Assasinorum. ~These are a few of my favourite things~ Needless to say this will not go well for the Sith.
 
And yet, a Harrower is roughly half the length of a Sword, to say nothing of mass or volume, and anything smaller than a Harrower barely even counts as a starship by 40k standards. Assuming equivalent firepower in terms of size for both fleets (which may or may not be true, depending upon authorial interpretations), then the Sith will lose to the Calixis sector battlefleet.

On the other hand... hyperdrive. It should be trivial for the Sith to avoid direct confrontations and only strike when it favors them, hunting down lone ships and raiding planetary targets while the Imperial Navy is elsewhere.
I talked about firepower on SB, but in essence not by ton, but by role. A Harrower (without a Silencer class megalaser, which are beginning to come into service at this point) is about a cruiser in 40k terms.

Though yes the fleet sent to Archaos would lose if the entire Calxis Battlefleet fought it, but it's not the only Sith fleet in the sector and the Battlefleet does have a decent amount of strength detached.
 
Last edited:
As Tekomandor pointed out, an Imperium Sector Fleet being brought together for a single action is rare. It's something saved for a major WAAAGH, Tyranid Hive Fleet, a Chaos Black Crusade, Necron fleet engagement, or an Imperial crusade.

They're normally dispersed across the entire sector projecting power, running anti-pirate escorts, supporting the Imperial Guard, and a myriad other tasks.

Edit: That third one is important; Most IG regiments aren't allowed to have air/space superiority fighters or high-altitude bombers, they rely on PDFs and the Navy to control the skies. Valkyries and close-air-support aircraft are a grey area.
 
Last edited:
*can't stop laughing*
One word mate. Exterminatus. Hey wait, two more! Space Marines. And another two to finish it off! Officio Assasinorum. ~These are a few of my favourite things~ Needless to say this will not go well for the Sith.
To be honest, fighting the sith would be like fighting a weakened Dark Eldar battle force. Their entire specie is, essentially, delta to beta level psykers. Space Marines die like chumps to Imperial Guard psykers, let alone actual trained psykers.

Exterminatus is an extreme measure to an extreme situation, only ever invoked really against Tyranids and Chaos. Sith wouldn't be on that short list of approvable Exterminatus reasons. They wouldn't really consider them that different from the Tau, honestly.

The only one there that I would agree with is the Officio Assasinorum because they are utter bullshit, and even then only a third of them. The Samurai Ninja and the Gun Happy Bogans wouldn't be exactly effective against a half decent Sith, for obvious reasons.

That said, the Sith army is mostly mooks and Space Marines eat mooks for breakfast.
 
To be honest, fighting the sith would be like fighting a weakened Dark Eldar battle force. Their entire specie is, essentially, delta to beta level psykers. Space Marines die like chumps to Imperial Guard psykers, let alone actual trained psykers.
Except they all just instadie to lasbolts(because, you know, lasers)
 
fighting the sith would be like fighting a weakened Dark Eldar battle force. Their entire specie is, essentially, delta to beta level psykers.
Nope!

Dark Eldar are preeeetty much no longer psychic. Their psychic abilities have atrophied after thousands of years of disuse, and the use of psychic powers is forbidden on pain of death in Commoragh for everyone but the Harlequins, thanks to the fact that, y'know, Slaanesh is actively draining their souls and wants nothing more than to eat every last one of them and even the DEldar aren't insane enough to give She Who Thirsts the chance to do so properly by reaching into the Warp.

The Craftworld Eldar might be a better comparison.
 
There's actually very little difference between aim-blocking a laser and a blaster bolt via precog. There are also of plenty of not-real-lasers lasguns out there.
If you look at most videos of Jedi(or Sith), by the time the enemies fire their blasters, their lightsabers are nowhere near a blocking position. Sure, they start moving by the time the enemy fires, but they don't finish. That works just fine with incredibly slow blasters, but a laser? They're dead.
 
narrative trumps gun wanking nine times out of ten
...how is this gun wanking? If you want, I could bring up a clip of jedi deflecting blaster bolts where they wouldn't have been able to block them if they were lasers. I figured I didn't need to, but if you really want me to, I can.
 
There's actually very little difference between aim-blocking a laser and a blaster bolt via precog. There are also of plenty of not-real-lasers lasguns out there.
Very little difference... aside from the fact that the reasons that a lightsaber can deflect a blaster bolt don't apply in the slightest to lasers.

The closest things to SW Blasters in 40k are Tau pulse weapons, the Sentinel Plasma Rifle, and basically any other plasma weapon that sends out small bolts instead of huge blasts.
narrative trumps gun wanking nine times out of ten
It does... except for when the narrative is wrong.

If there's a pressing need for a Jedi to render themselves immune to las-fire, they can bloody well dodge or use an energy shield of some sort. More or less the same effect, except in a way that's consistent with both universes.
 
...how is this gun wanking? If you want, I could bring up a clip of jedi deflecting blaster bolts where they wouldn't have been able to block them if they were lasers. I figured I didn't need to, but if you really want me to, I can.
Right, except they're not trying to block a laser, so why would they move as if they were going to?
 
Interestingly because 40k has significantly less droids, turrets, and indoctrinated clone soldiers Jedi could just react to the flashes of rage or intent before shots are fired, from there it's author caveat how Lasguns react with Lightsabers. Gauss Flayers are the real worry, because I have no idea how Jedi are gonna deal with Necrons and Necron tech.
 
Last edited:
wait we're talking about Jedi blocking speed of light attacks, and no ones mentioned force lightning?

edit:they even reflected it, lightning is not naturally reflective, I see no problem with lasers being reflected here
 
Last edited:
wait we're talking about Jedi blocking speed of light attacks, and no ones mentioned force lightning?

edit:they even reflected it, lightning is not naturally reflective, I see no problem with lasers being reflected here
Except in no medium I've seen shows a jedi BLOCKING something moving at the speed of light If their not blocking by the time they pull the trigger then they die. An ACTUAL laser would pwn a jedi if their not dodging completely
Interestingly because 40k has significantly less droids, turrets, and indoctrinated clone soldiers Jedi could just react to the flashes of rage or intent before shots are fired, from there it's author caveat how Lasguns react with Lightsabers. Gauss Flayers are the real worry, because I have no idea how Jedi are gonna deal with Necrons and Necron tech.
Well instead of clones they have trillions of fodder (Well fodder in Warhammer anyways) atleast of few of them indoctrinated even harder than the clones
 
Last edited:
Back
Top