From Nothing, Everything [Warhammer 40K]
- Thread starter Stonemason
- Start date
- Mature Sci-Fi
- Location
- India
[X] Psyker
You can "see" a multicolored, chaotic haze overlapping your normal sight. You don't understand it well yet, aside from that it allows you to identify Chaos cultists in your vicinity and other Psykers. You're often sleep-deprived, because these visions don't stop even with your eyes closed.
[X] Zaharu, Frontier World
A barren rock of deserts and piled up garbage. Home to scavengers and junkers.
You can "see" a multicolored, chaotic haze overlapping your normal sight. You don't understand it well yet, aside from that it allows you to identify Chaos cultists in your vicinity and other Psykers. You're often sleep-deprived, because these visions don't stop even with your eyes closed.
[X] Zaharu, Frontier World
A barren rock of deserts and piled up garbage. Home to scavengers and junkers.
- Location
- France
[X] Psyker
You can "see" a multicolored, chaotic haze overlapping your normal sight. You don't understand it well yet, aside from that it allows you to identify Chaos cultists in your vicinity and other Psykers. You're often sleep-deprived, because these visions don't stop even with your eyes closed.
[X] Zaharu, Frontier World
A barren rock of deserts and piled up garbage. Home to scavengers and junkers.
You can "see" a multicolored, chaotic haze overlapping your normal sight. You don't understand it well yet, aside from that it allows you to identify Chaos cultists in your vicinity and other Psykers. You're often sleep-deprived, because these visions don't stop even with your eyes closed.
[X] Zaharu, Frontier World
A barren rock of deserts and piled up garbage. Home to scavengers and junkers.
2. Fort Merry, Zaharu
You're woken up early in the morning by the hoarse roar of cargo ship engines. That was your cue to get out of here. You put on your tattered jacket and pants, stuffed Bellagold (carefully) into a pocket that you've laced with some extra cotton, and marched out into the blazing sun of Zaharu.
You were at Fort Merry, or rather, the backside of it. The massive and cylindrical, nocturally-active boilers that towered beside you provided an invaluable aura of warmth to endure the frozen nights.
"Markus?" you suddenly hear someone say, turning to find a masked figure with a gun barrel peeking down out of their tunic.
...This guy knew you?
"Yeah, it's me." you cautiously admit. "If you want me to leave, I'm already leaving."
"Haha. I'm August, remember me from The Pit my trigg?" he laughed. It was refreshing to hear Pit slang again.
"Oh fuck my trigg." you replied, and offered a fist, which he fistbumped. He was another Pit orphan, just like you. "Lucky me to find someone from there, out here. Look at you now, all geared up. You a guard now?"
"Yeah, man. I've come a long way from being a little shitlet Pitlet. Just earning my thrones now, keeping this place safe." he told you.
"And uh, I know that you like to snoop around, like when you snooped around Octavian's Scholatorium, but…" he added "...don't be giving me any trouble now, OK?"
"Oh, for sure. Don't worry my trigg. I got you." you answer.
He nods. "'Preciated."
"So uh, what opportunities have we got in Merry?" you ask him. "I, uh. I want to get off the streets. Have a better life, you know?"
"...You uh, you good with guns?" he asked.
"Nah." you chortle.
"Yeah, a scrawny noodle like you probably couldn't even lift one. Hm. Trigg, I think you should check out the places inside Merry if you want to nail a job."
You nod. "Thanks trigg, I'll give it a look."
"And if ya want to like, get cleaned up, let me know. The wife might get pissed but, I can sneak you in my place if you need it." he told you, and then pointed behind himself with a thumb. "I've got to be going now too. I'm on patrol. Take care now, OK trigg? I'm off my shift at midday, if you want to catch me, I'll be at The Buzz. Great bar."
"Yeah, got it. Thank you so much man. See you around."
|
| More of a small city now than just a fort, Fort Merry is the bustling central hub for the local cartel of allied settlements (including The Pit). Ships constantly come and go from its multiple shipyards, bringing goods (or garbage) vultured from the nearby Worlds. It's home to several inns, brothels, restaurants and ship-oriented services. Main Activity: Spaceport and protection/mercenary services. Reputation: You have no meaningful reputation in Fort Merry. Aside from August, nobody here seems to know or care about you. Leader: Helireas Terro. A very elderly but charismatic renegade Space Marine who is famous for loving money. |
|
| The Pit is town built in a massive hole in the Zaharu rock of unknown origin, primarily used to store goods, especially spare parts. You were born and abandoned here. You don't know anything about your parents, aside from that your mother was likely a prostitute. You have learnt most of what you know by eavesdropping on Octavian's lessons for his acolytes, hosted in the lowest parts of the Pit. Main Activity: Storage. Creation, repair and maintenance of technological goods. Reputation: - While you're not actively hunted down, you have a poor standing with Octavian for being found sneaking around their institutions too often, and might be casually killed off by his men for being a known nuisance. - You have a good standing with the sparse groups of orphans and homeless people that inhabit the darker corners of this place. Leader: Octavian. Brilliant tech-priest who is weighed down by their compulsive obsession with categorization, sorting and order. Reclusive and stern, although he is showing efforts to be more sociable by making public appearances more often. |
[ ] Try to sneak onto a cargo ship and hitch a ride off this planet.
[ ] Seek out the gangs of this place, and use your connections with the Pit to attempt to make good relationships with them.
[ ] Go to one of the shipyards in Merry, and offer yourself to become an apprentice. Prove your worth with your knowledge of maths and sciences.
[ ] Go to the Pit, and try to convince Octavian to take you in. You already know a lot from their lessons, and he's always on the look for smart people to instruct in his ways, right?
[ ] Write-in
Astra Myst
Do you want a wish?
- Location
- Milky Way Galaxy
- Pronouns
- Femhon/Boymoder
[X] Go to the Pit, and try to convince Octavian to take you in. You already know a lot from their lessons, and he's always on the look for smart people to instruct in his ways, right?
- Location
- California
[X] Go to one of the shipyards in Merry, and offer yourself to become an apprentice. Prove your worth with your knowledge of maths and sciences.
Sir LagsAlot
Yandere Dice Magnet
- Location
- In the fridge
Who the hell knows where we'd end up with this option if we even survive the trip, and don't get enslaved as a serf for the ship where we'll be promptly worked to death.
A good a start as any we'd be able to move up the ranks, and make some good money here hopefully allowing us to eventually get into a position of power where we can buy the real big money stuff like a small trading ship or something. It's probably the second or third most dangerous option though but that comes with probably being the fastest route we have to wealth and power.
This would be good money, and if I know my shipyards right we should be able to climb pretty high up in the end even if we're never able to open up our own shipyard company. This is probably the safest option we have but it's probably the second slowest as well, and who knows if we'll ever make enough money here to begin expanding into other areas.
Knowing, tech-priests we'd spend at least a few years working for him before being inducted into the machine cult if we manage to survive that long, and even when we're inducted it'll be years if not decades more before we become a tech-priest ourselves at which point we'll need to politically jocky our way up the ranks of this planet, and eventually off it if we ever want to get anywhere. Probably the third least dangerous option but most likely the slowest.
[X] Seek out the gangs of this place, and use your connections with the Pit to attempt to make good relationships with them.
I had a plan and the governor of the place seems pretty open to it so I'll stick with it.
Last edited:
- Location
- va
[X] Go to one of the shipyards in Merry, and offer yourself to become an apprentice. Prove your worth with your knowledge of maths and sciences.
- Location
- yorkshire
[X] Go to one of the shipyards in Merry, and offer yourself to become an apprentice. Prove your worth with your knowledge of maths and sciences
- Pronouns
- He
[X] Go to the Pit, and try to convince Octavian to take you in. You already know a lot from their lessons, and he's always on the look for smart people to instruct in his ways, right?
[X] Go to the Pit, and try to convince Octavian to take you in. You already know a lot from their lessons, and he's always on the look for smart people to instruct in his ways, right?
Closing, writing.
3. Dante's Shipyard
You meander through the crowds of people that filled the dusty entrances of the outermost palisade of Fort Merry, finding several vendors throughout, eager to exchange their questionable food and goods for thrones and Terros.
Ships rose and fell into various spots ahead of you - the shipyards had to be there, you figured. Curious, you headed over to one of these ports, but you quickly got uncomfortable looks and leers from the people around you. While most of the people here didn't look particularly presentable, being clad in modest cloths and tunics, at least their clothing weren't practically rags like yours.
"Get lost, hobo!" you heard one of the port staff call out to you. Whatever. You decided to try your luck elsewhere.
Finding a particularly shiny sheet of metal at the front of a junker shop, you used it as a mirror to give yourself a look.
Yeah. There you were, with your dirty, baked skin, sun-bleached mass of hair and dark eyes. You could really use a shave too.
After rummaging through dumpsters for some breakfast and lunch and getting yourself shaved with your shank, you gave yourself another look in a window.
Yeah. There you were. Looking better.
After looking for the place for what seemed like hours, you finally found The Buzz, and August stuffing his armor and tunic into a bag, leaving the large man in just a tank top and shorts. You also noticed that his head was covered in bandages, with a half-mask and an eyepatch.
"Yo, August. What's with the…" you started off, and gestured to your face. "You alright, trigg?"
"Markus!" he cheered. "Ah, don't worry man. Just got a bit fucked, it's how the job goes. Cool mask, right? It's keeping my jaw in place. The wife found it for me. Looks fierce, right? Looks like I could just bite someone's face off with it, guhahah!"
"Yeah, it's really cool. I hope you get better soon, trigg"
"Thanks, man." and he pulled out a small canister, and downed a pair of pills from it.
"So, trigg." he then stated. "We're gonna get you all pretty like a fucking princess. You're going to be smelling like lotus and roses once we're done with you. Come, we're going to my place."
You got to August's house, a modest apartment built into the side of a cliff, which was filled with small dolls and animals made from folded tin.
"The wife makes them, precious things." he mentioned, before he stuffed you into the shower and got in with you. August scrubbed your crusty back with a brush, just like back when you were orphans, and helped you get clean with what little water he could spare to use.
"Now put these on, and get out, quick, before the wife's back. Tell me later how it goes." he snapped once you were done, and tossed you one of his black tank tops and beige shorts. They were too big for you, but at least you could use a belt to hold your pants up. And best of all, they didn't smell. They were clean.
"Got it. Thanks August, really!" you exclaimed, as you headed out the door.
"Cheers, my trigg! Fuck'em good out there!"
You started looking for shipyards, using the ships like before to easily localize them, which allowed you to soon get to a nearby one.
Loud music could be heard from within its main, half-coliseum shaped building, competing with the screech and whirs of machinery. Modest-sized ships came and went from a huge fenced stretch of flat rock behind the building.
You stood there, at the main door of the place, seeing a collection of spare parts hanging on the wall, and a man with tinted glasses and a mohawk behind a desk, rolling up a cigarette. On the other side, you could see people working on ship pieces, presumably making repairs.
"Oy. You be needing anything there, bud?" he barked with a grin, as he put the cancer stick into his lips.
"A job." you admitted, adjusting your glasses. "Got... any positions open?"
"A job?" he snickered. "Well, unless you can turn yourself into a servitor, we're kinda overstaffed as it is."
"I might be able to turn myself into a servitor, if you have the instructions for it." you counter. "Maybe."
"Really?" he blinked for a few moments, then grinned. "You a... one of Octavian's dudes or something?"
"No, but I know how to read. I know quite a lot of maths too." you inform him. "Sciences as well."
He cocked his head to the side. "Interesting. What's your name?"
"Markus."
"Name's Dante. You see Markus, we've been expanding lately. Zaharu is really booming, you see. And a person like you could come in handy. Helireas making his taxes more stupid by the second, plus, our techie could use an assistant. Isn't that right, dear?"
"I'm not your 'dear', dickhead." a deep yet femenine voice echoed from the repair area, as a tentacle with a camera on the end leaned out from behind a turbine.
"Anyways. You game?" Dante inquired to you.
"...Sure." you nodded.
"Good. I'd like to have you around for a day or two to see how well you do and how you mesh with the rest of the people here. See how you fit, you know?"
"I, uh, I haven't done taxes and accounting before." you let him know. "I was wondering if I could be taught it."
"Oh. You haven't? But you know your numbers, right?" he asked.
"Yeah. Very well, in fact."
"Hey. Let's give it a shot then." he grinned.
--------
"So, I'm Markus." you tell the slender, beak-faced priestess, that was doing something on a cogitator embedded into the wall, using an array of tentacle-like wires to press buttons on a panel as she observed the large monochrome screen above.
"Hello." she huffed. "I presume you're not familiar with the ways of the Omnissiah, am I correct? Do you even know what this is?"
She gestured to the screen that showed a large table with numbers and names in it.
"A spreadsheet?" you guessed.
"Fantastic. He can read." she tittered, then pointed to the cogitator's keyboard. "Can you write the number one-hundred and forty-eight, hm?"
You nodded, and by pressing the buttons on it clearly labeled with numbers, you typed it in.
"What's forty-five times twenty-seven?" she spat immediately after, seeking to challenge you further. It took you a moment to think, and you had to use your fingers to hold some numbers that didn't fit into your head, but you soon came with a reply.
"One thousand… two hundred… and ten? No - fifteen. One, two, one, five. Should I type it in?"
She stared at you for a few seconds. "No. How do you know this stuff, kid?"
Kid? You were well past that kind of age. "I've studied it on my own." you affirm.
"No, really - who taught you? Octavian? Septimus?"
You shrugged and grinned. "I just know this stuff."
"Straight regression? Algeebrah? Binary?" she insisted. "Do they ring a bell?"
"Of course." and you started to explain them to her.
--------
You spend the rest of the day being caught by Crow how to use the various programs in the Cogitator, such as how to send things to the autopress to print documents, how to write and save files, and so on.
"Dante, I think we've got our Cogitator drone." the priestess boasted proudly, once the head of the shipyard arrived in the afternoon. "Our productivity will go up by relying more on the Machine, no more hand-written garbage, no more horrid paperwork and filing."
She then rose a sharp, metallic finger "The future of this business is in binary, Dante!"
"Sounds promising" he replied, chipper.
"Doing well, Markus?" the man then asked you, putting a hand on your shoulder.
"Yeah. Crow has been explaining everything, and I think I've got the hang of it." you replied.
"Good, good. Let's talk about the pay, then." he told you in a quieter, more intimate voice, as he dragged a chair next to you. "Three thrones a day sounds good with you? Paid weekly."
That was enough for three generous lunches at most taverns. Your eyes lit up with hope, you could almost smell the delicious food that awaited you.
"Three and fifty Terros." you haggled. A hundred Terros were worth about one throne. At least, that was what Helireas Terro was trying to ensure.
"Three and fifty Terros." Dante confirmed, and offered a handshake. You took his hand, and shook.
"Deal." you grinned.
You have some free time now in the evening, up until the next morning when you have to return to your Cogitator drone work. How do you spend it?
You can choose two:
[ ] Go to August's place and hang out, tell him the good news.
[ ] Mingle with the other workers of Dante's shipyard.
[ ] Get to know Crow better.
[ ] Negotiate with Dante to get paid at the end of each day, rather than weekly.
[ ] Try to chat with some of the foreigners and personnel from the cargo ships.
[ ] Get some extra sleep.
[ ] Write-in
Ships rose and fell into various spots ahead of you - the shipyards had to be there, you figured. Curious, you headed over to one of these ports, but you quickly got uncomfortable looks and leers from the people around you. While most of the people here didn't look particularly presentable, being clad in modest cloths and tunics, at least their clothing weren't practically rags like yours.
"Get lost, hobo!" you heard one of the port staff call out to you. Whatever. You decided to try your luck elsewhere.
Finding a particularly shiny sheet of metal at the front of a junker shop, you used it as a mirror to give yourself a look.
Yeah. There you were, with your dirty, baked skin, sun-bleached mass of hair and dark eyes. You could really use a shave too.
--------
After rummaging through dumpsters for some breakfast and lunch and getting yourself shaved with your shank, you gave yourself another look in a window.
Yeah. There you were. Looking better.
After looking for the place for what seemed like hours, you finally found The Buzz, and August stuffing his armor and tunic into a bag, leaving the large man in just a tank top and shorts. You also noticed that his head was covered in bandages, with a half-mask and an eyepatch.
"Yo, August. What's with the…" you started off, and gestured to your face. "You alright, trigg?"
"Markus!" he cheered. "Ah, don't worry man. Just got a bit fucked, it's how the job goes. Cool mask, right? It's keeping my jaw in place. The wife found it for me. Looks fierce, right? Looks like I could just bite someone's face off with it, guhahah!"
"Yeah, it's really cool. I hope you get better soon, trigg"
"Thanks, man." and he pulled out a small canister, and downed a pair of pills from it.
"So, trigg." he then stated. "We're gonna get you all pretty like a fucking princess. You're going to be smelling like lotus and roses once we're done with you. Come, we're going to my place."
--------
You got to August's house, a modest apartment built into the side of a cliff, which was filled with small dolls and animals made from folded tin.
"The wife makes them, precious things." he mentioned, before he stuffed you into the shower and got in with you. August scrubbed your crusty back with a brush, just like back when you were orphans, and helped you get clean with what little water he could spare to use.
"Now put these on, and get out, quick, before the wife's back. Tell me later how it goes." he snapped once you were done, and tossed you one of his black tank tops and beige shorts. They were too big for you, but at least you could use a belt to hold your pants up. And best of all, they didn't smell. They were clean.
"Got it. Thanks August, really!" you exclaimed, as you headed out the door.
"Cheers, my trigg! Fuck'em good out there!"
--------
You started looking for shipyards, using the ships like before to easily localize them, which allowed you to soon get to a nearby one.
Loud music could be heard from within its main, half-coliseum shaped building, competing with the screech and whirs of machinery. Modest-sized ships came and went from a huge fenced stretch of flat rock behind the building.
You stood there, at the main door of the place, seeing a collection of spare parts hanging on the wall, and a man with tinted glasses and a mohawk behind a desk, rolling up a cigarette. On the other side, you could see people working on ship pieces, presumably making repairs.
"Oy. You be needing anything there, bud?" he barked with a grin, as he put the cancer stick into his lips.
"A job." you admitted, adjusting your glasses. "Got... any positions open?"
"A job?" he snickered. "Well, unless you can turn yourself into a servitor, we're kinda overstaffed as it is."
"I might be able to turn myself into a servitor, if you have the instructions for it." you counter. "Maybe."
"Really?" he blinked for a few moments, then grinned. "You a... one of Octavian's dudes or something?"
"No, but I know how to read. I know quite a lot of maths too." you inform him. "Sciences as well."
He cocked his head to the side. "Interesting. What's your name?"
"Markus."
"Name's Dante. You see Markus, we've been expanding lately. Zaharu is really booming, you see. And a person like you could come in handy. Helireas making his taxes more stupid by the second, plus, our techie could use an assistant. Isn't that right, dear?"
"I'm not your 'dear', dickhead." a deep yet femenine voice echoed from the repair area, as a tentacle with a camera on the end leaned out from behind a turbine.
"Anyways. You game?" Dante inquired to you.
"...Sure." you nodded.
"Good. I'd like to have you around for a day or two to see how well you do and how you mesh with the rest of the people here. See how you fit, you know?"
"I, uh, I haven't done taxes and accounting before." you let him know. "I was wondering if I could be taught it."
"Oh. You haven't? But you know your numbers, right?" he asked.
"Yeah. Very well, in fact."
"Hey. Let's give it a shot then." he grinned.
--------
"So, I'm Markus." you tell the slender, beak-faced priestess, that was doing something on a cogitator embedded into the wall, using an array of tentacle-like wires to press buttons on a panel as she observed the large monochrome screen above.
"Hello." she huffed. "I presume you're not familiar with the ways of the Omnissiah, am I correct? Do you even know what this is?"
She gestured to the screen that showed a large table with numbers and names in it.
"A spreadsheet?" you guessed.
"Fantastic. He can read." she tittered, then pointed to the cogitator's keyboard. "Can you write the number one-hundred and forty-eight, hm?"
You nodded, and by pressing the buttons on it clearly labeled with numbers, you typed it in.
"What's forty-five times twenty-seven?" she spat immediately after, seeking to challenge you further. It took you a moment to think, and you had to use your fingers to hold some numbers that didn't fit into your head, but you soon came with a reply.
"One thousand… two hundred… and ten? No - fifteen. One, two, one, five. Should I type it in?"
She stared at you for a few seconds. "No. How do you know this stuff, kid?"
Kid? You were well past that kind of age. "I've studied it on my own." you affirm.
"No, really - who taught you? Octavian? Septimus?"
You shrugged and grinned. "I just know this stuff."
"Straight regression? Algeebrah? Binary?" she insisted. "Do they ring a bell?"
"Of course." and you started to explain them to her.
--------
You spend the rest of the day being caught by Crow how to use the various programs in the Cogitator, such as how to send things to the autopress to print documents, how to write and save files, and so on.
"Dante, I think we've got our Cogitator drone." the priestess boasted proudly, once the head of the shipyard arrived in the afternoon. "Our productivity will go up by relying more on the Machine, no more hand-written garbage, no more horrid paperwork and filing."
She then rose a sharp, metallic finger "The future of this business is in binary, Dante!"
"Sounds promising" he replied, chipper.
"Doing well, Markus?" the man then asked you, putting a hand on your shoulder.
"Yeah. Crow has been explaining everything, and I think I've got the hang of it." you replied.
"Good, good. Let's talk about the pay, then." he told you in a quieter, more intimate voice, as he dragged a chair next to you. "Three thrones a day sounds good with you? Paid weekly."
That was enough for three generous lunches at most taverns. Your eyes lit up with hope, you could almost smell the delicious food that awaited you.
"Three and fifty Terros." you haggled. A hundred Terros were worth about one throne. At least, that was what Helireas Terro was trying to ensure.
"Three and fifty Terros." Dante confirmed, and offered a handshake. You took his hand, and shook.
"Deal." you grinned.
--------
You have some free time now in the evening, up until the next morning when you have to return to your Cogitator drone work. How do you spend it?
You can choose two:
[ ] Go to August's place and hang out, tell him the good news.
[ ] Mingle with the other workers of Dante's shipyard.
[ ] Get to know Crow better.
[ ] Negotiate with Dante to get paid at the end of each day, rather than weekly.
[ ] Try to chat with some of the foreigners and personnel from the cargo ships.
[ ] Get some extra sleep.
[ ] Write-in
Last edited:
- Location
- California
[X] Go to August's place and hang out, tell him the good news.
[X] Get some extra sleep.
[X] Get some extra sleep.
- Location
- yorkshire
[X] Go to August's place and hang out, tell him the good news.
[X] Mingle with the other workers of Dante's shipyard.
[X] Mingle with the other workers of Dante's shipyard.
Sir LagsAlot
Yandere Dice Magnet
- Location
- In the fridge
[X] Go to August's place and hang out, tell him the good news.
[X] Mingle with the other workers of Dante's shipyard.
[X] Mingle with the other workers of Dante's shipyard.
- Location
- va
[X] Go to August's place and hang out, tell him the good news.
[X] Mingle with the other workers of Dante's shipyard.
[X] Mingle with the other workers of Dante's shipyard.
