Spire of House Santiago, Upper Levels.
The years of your life before you were raised as an Astartes, back when you were a juve in one of the city sized prison complexes of Terra, are but a scant decade in comparison to your centuries of life but you retain enough memories of them to know that your younger self would have killed without hesitation to be here. A richly decorated courtyard full of fuit trees , a hundred times the size of the barren cell you slept at, with banners, paintings and furniture of which the less expensive could have secured you passage outside the complex and a comfortable life. Fare and refreshments are so abundant and tasteful that in comparison to what you could scavenge there is a miracle made matter. Nobles, Guildmasters and representatives of Planetary Governors and Imperial institutions eat, drink, politic and make merry around you, while the most important people in your birthplace were gang leaders, barely less hungry and sick than you were.
Millennia later, the Veteran Astartes you´ve become wishes for nothing more than to leave this place and handle one of the myriad of issues you have to tend to.
Part of it is due to your biology as a Space Marine of the VIIIth Legion. As a matter of protocol you aren't wearing your helmet, so the multiple bright spotlights that illuminate the courtyard feel as if your eyeballs have been set ablaze, requiring a constant if slight effort to keep your expression relaxed and your eyes open. As for the food it isn´t so delectable when your taste buds can discern that the cook didn't wash his hands after relieving himself and that to feel full sated would require to empty every dish present and then some.
Those same problems had also been present, if in a lesser manner, in the feast you attended in Braicam, five years ago. The main difference is that despite the reputation of Feudal and Feral worlders as dimwits and imbeciles, they have a well developed instinct of when not to annoy something that could kill you in an instant. The nobles and other important personages present are arrogant and self-important to cloud this instinct, and the majority of it insists on pestering you with sycophantic praise and selfish petition. Most of them relent when your Honor Guard, whose mood is more foul and less hidden, glare at them and block their approach to you, but some are just incapable of accepting a negative answer. A particular egregious example had a portly agricultural Guildmaster trying to walk past your companions, only for Thrax to hoist him in the air like a misbehaving child before tossing him into the fountain at the center of the courtyard, the water doing nothing to muffle the sound of broken bones as he landed. The fact that there is only a round of excited gossip instead of panic or outrage tells you that the man isn´t dead or that if he is no one cares about him.
As you hear another set of footsteps approach you from behind, you turn around preparing yourself for another self-important supplicant, only to see that it is Palatine Rióna, having replaced her power armor for a set of formal, if worn, robes. You nod to Lepidus and Martellus, and they let her approach you before pushing away some minor noble who had tried to follow her.
"It is good to see you, Chapter Master!" She greets you with her characteristic enthusiasm. "Are you enjoying yourself?"
"Not much, I´m afraid." You tell her as you both move to a more secluded corner of the courtyard, your Honor Guard forming a barrier around you.
"Oh, it saddens me to hear that." Her ever present cheer actually dims slightly as she says that, the both of you having stopped at the shade of some tree with yellow, ovoid fruits. "I do understand that unfortunately. I have found most of the assistants to be… profoundly lacking in fervor, despite their loud proclamations of the contrary." She actually turns her head to look at someone. You follow her gaze until you lay eyes on Cardinal Mendoza and some of his subordinates, who upon noticing that Riona is staring at them move away hastily for your line of sight.
"I thought that you would be far more incensed about it." You comment, only for her to look back at you.
"Why should I?" She asks you, genuinely confused. "Their faith is for now a shallow thing, a candle more useful for decorating than to bring illumination." Her smile widens, becoming an ear to ear grin that toggles at the scar tissue of her cheek, prompting the corners of her mouth to start bleeding. "But they´ll be tested in time, in a manner so stringent, relentless and painful that the candle shall ignite in the raging pyre that it should have always been. It has happened before." She's looking at you without truly seeing you, her gaze lost somewhere else. A glimmer of something intense, broken and disquieting, flashes in her eyes for a brief instant, before she blinks and refocuses her attention on you. She fishes a handkerchief then, pressing it against her bleeding cheek. "Anyhow, it surprises me to see that only you and your bodyguards are present from your chapter, seeing that plenty of your brothers have survived the campaign, unlike my sisters. Has something happened to them?"
Once again, her casualness in matters she should be more grim about surprises you. None of the Sisters that had accompanied her in honoring her Order's debt to you would return. "They are just busy with other matters." Yefimovich was recovering from the strain of holding the Patriarch still, Gallienus and Secutor are seeing to their own companies, Karark Zel is focused in repairing their recovered Land Raider and Myrok Kuthil had disappeared the moment he had suggested he attend not that it surprised you. "Speaking of your sisters, will there be any problem with the Canoness, seeing that all your forces have perished honoring their debts to us?"
The Palatine finds your question amusing, as she literally laughs at your question. "Oh it's not like she expected them to return, it's why she send us in particular." Admits Ríona when her mirth fades. "She'll only be disappointed that I have not died alongside them." She mentions this lightly, which you find more worrisome than the admittance that her superior has sent her to this campaign to die. She leans to the side to look past you. "But it seems you have someone more important than me reclaiming your attention. May the God-Emperor bless me by giving me the chance to fight alongside you again."
"I share the sentiment, Palatine." With that she departs, giving you one last smile, before grabbing one of the fruits in the tree and taking a bite out of it.
As she spits the mouthful in disgust, the Lord sector approaches you, accompanied by his two children, a boy and a girl younger than the aspirants that you recruit for the chapter.
"Excuse me for the interruption, but my children are raring for a chance to meet you." The children prove those words true when they rush towards Thrax with enthusiasm.
"You're so big!" shouts the older one, mouth gaping in awe.
"I wanna be that tall!" Says the other. Your other Honor Guards, including stern Julius, start chuckling as Thrax, a marine you've seen tear people apart with his bare hands, is overwhelmed as the two children start to ask him plenty of excited questions. After a minute or so, Lepidus takes pity on his fellow Honor Guard and moves towards the kids.
"Give Thrax some breathing room little ones, he needs plenty of it with his size. You can ask me all the questions you want." You and the Lord Sector both watch as the kids immediately shift focus to the other marine, who handles the relentless barrage of questions much better. Thrax, relieved to be out of the spotlight, immediately glowers at the other chuckling members, who just smirk at him.
"Thank you for entertaining them, Chapter Master, I´m afraid that the siege of the palace was…hard on them." Tell you Lord Cartagena eventually. "Still, while I would love to keep our conversation light, I´m afraid we must speak of more serious matters."
"I suppose you want us to have this conversation in a more private setting?" You inquire to which he assents. "Lead the way then."
You depart the courtyard discreetly to go to a nearby side room. Before you enter you give a sharp nod to Alesios, who quickly organizes your Honor Guard so that they cover all approaches to the room. Inside there are a few couches, and Lord Cartagena seats in one of them with exhaustion. You notice then that he doesn't have neither a goblet nor a bottle in his hand. He guesses what you're thinking because he opens his hand with a tired grin.
"It's funny, I've been playing the drunkard for decades and the one time I wish to drink myself into a stupor, I cannot afford to do so."
"Why wouldn't you? This is a victory party and most of the assistants are clearly intoxicated." You point out.
He moves his hand through his hair and unties the ponytail he wears it at, letting his brown hair, now dotted with one or two grey hairs, fall onto his shoulders. "Well, with all the confusion and sudden deaths amidst the planet's nobility, I find myself with a golden opportunity to restore my authority, with the help of houses allied to me, as the most important houses that oppose my rule have found themselves in disarray. Of course, for that to happen my allies have to see me as something more than a fool drunkard. The attempt at killing me that you foiled is a wonderful excuse for my complete change in attitude, but I cannot be seen "having a relapse", if I want the deception to stick."
Something in what he says strikes you as off. "Except for House Silvestre, no important noble houses were targeted by Genestealers."
He places his feet on the table between the couches and gives you a satisfied grin. "They weren't." He confirms. "But my agents were able to fake it convincingly."
There is a microsecond where you frown at his admission, but you school your expression before the Lord Sector notices it. While you find it distasteful that he has used the grave threat to the planet to shore up his own position, him being more influential ultimately benefits your Chapter. You choose then to move the conversation along instead of dwelling on that point. "If you have managed to make your rule undisputed here, why do you desire to drink yourself into a stupor Blas?
He signs. "Because while here I will soon be uncontested, the influence of Lezo in the Sector is gravely damaged thanks to the devastation that this insurrection has brought. The material damages in the planet due to the fighting will be ruinously expensive, in the Middle Levels and the area surrounding my palace especially, let alone in the palace themselves. But worse of all is the population issue." He takes his feet off the table and leans forward, elbows on his legs and hands crossed under his chin. "Billions of citizens are confirmed dead, and those are billions of hands that won't fuel the planet industry or provide crews for the Imperial Navy. Worse still, thanks to the information that both the Inquisitor and your…psyker have provided me, we might need to cull more of them to ensure that his issue with the mutants is permanently settled. Which would be catastrophic for both our industry and the Navy. It could even give the noble houses of Gadir enough justifications to successfully push for the Navy headquarters to move to their homeworld. They've always resented when the headquarters were established here after the Heresy in recognition of my ancestor's deeds."
"You could always bring populations from other planets." You suggest.
"That's a proposal I've considered." Tells you Cartagena. "The main issue with that is the dissatisfaction that could generate, both in the planets I take those people from at me making problems for their worlds, and here from the relocated workers. Specially since my Arbites have been wiped out to a man and my PDF regiments are depleted." He looks at you in the eye then. "What would you advise me to do Severus?"
"It is not my place to tell you how to rule your Sector." You reply.
"It isn't." Agrees Cartagena. "But I've been thinking about this for a long time without reaching a satisfactory decision. I could use a second opinion."
What do you advise the Lord Sector to do regarding the population issue.
-[] Less extensive purges to prevent genestealer taint. (Lessens damage to Lezo population and production, Risks cult resurging in the future)
-[] Give him assistance in the purges. (Lessens damage to Lezo population and production, guarantees cult elimination, forces you to commit at least 3 squads to this action next turn.)
-[] Extensive purges, don't relocate population. (Full damage to Lezo population and production, guarantees cult elimination, worsens Navy Feuding Admiral modifier.)
-[] Extensive purges, relocate populations from other worlds. (Nullifies damage to Lezo population and production, guarantees cult elimination, may cause rebellions both in Lezo and other worlds.)
-[] Extensive purges, relocate populations from other worlds. Lend him assistance in keeping order.
(Nullifies damage to Lezo population and production, guarantees cult elimination, may cause rebellions in other worlds, forces you to commit at least half a company to this action next turn.)
-Write-In (Write-in your own suggestion. IMPORTANT: Suggestions can be subjected to veto and will be given their own set of pros and cons by the QM in case they're approved.)
Your opinion given, you ask in turn something that concerns you regarding the future. "Speaking of screening for possible Genestealer contagion, have we screened all the forces that will be leaving this world soon? The Navy Armsmen, the Imperial Guard regiments…?"
Blas Cartagena relaxes at your question. "That is fortunately much easier to deal with. Lord Admiral Adherbal is being remarkably thorough in enforcing the screening, both amidst the Armsmen planetside and even crews taken from the planet in the last five decades. Palatine Ríona has already been cleared. Mitsuhide, her retinue and her surviving stormtroopers have presented to me the medicae reports declaring them cleared before leaving the system." He frowns momentarily when mentioning her. "I'm afraid she no longer thinks that I'm under her thumb, so Inquisitor Harker must search for another way to hinder that woman. At least she has finally left, good riddance in truth. Returning to what we were talking about, all the Imperial Guard regiments present are undergoing screening, although I'm afraid that hasn't endeared me either with their commanding officers nor with Lord General Tavisolta. He was quite insistent that he wanted those regiments leaving as soon as possible, and I'm afraid that the parade already strained his patience, but well, we are celebrating the deliverance of the sector's capital from xeno ruin. I could hardly have only your marines and the PDF parading can't I?"
The question is asked with rhetorical amusement, but the only thing you can muster in response is a quizzical look. "Us, in a parade? Why?"
Cartagena's humor is replaced by his own confusion. "Well, you've been instrumental in our victory, and it was by your hands and that of your men that both the creature that attempted to assassinate me and the one in control of the mutants were slain. How couldn't we?" He then derives his own conclusion about your puzzlement, judging by his next words. "I understand that you wish to depart as soon as possible and that is a waste of your skills, but it would be an immeasurable morale boost to the populace to see you present, and it would honor them greatly."
Part of what he says it's true, it would be a waste of your time and talents, but that's not what leaves you so confused. What you're struggling to believe is the fact that someone would rejoice in your presence, let alone feel honored by it. When you were in the VIIIth legion, your arrival was never accompanied by such warm feelings. You arrived on planets either shrouded in the blissful ignorance of their inhabitants or preceded by your dreadful reputation, and when you left them the only reactions were the everlasting terror that you inspired, the horror at what you had done, and the empty, shuddering relief that you would finally cease to plague them.
Then again, you aren't a Captain of the VIIIth Legion anymore, and your men aren't its 63rd company. They are the Mist Shrikes, and you are their Chapter Master. It's still disconcerting to be regarded as a figure of awe as well as a figure of fear, but it is merely another detail in which the 41st Millenium you have found yourself in is different from your own time.
And yet, you will have to be used to it.
"Fine." You eventually reply to an increasingly awkward Cartagena after a minute of silence. "Could you bring up to speed regarding the preparations Blas?"
LEZOAN CAMPAIGN: COMPLETED.
Total Results of the Campaign:
-Genestealer Cult of the Four-Armed Emperor in Lezo Slain.
-44 Marine Slain, 82 Progenoid recovered
-Honor Guards Numa Servilius and Publio Garum Slain. Tomb-Captain Sertorius lost
-1 Stormbird Damaged, 1 Castaferrum-Pattern Dreadnought frame Destroyed
-1 Gravely Damaged Land-Raider recovered
-New Notable, Battle-Brother Mikhail.
-Relic Generation Roll (DC 60): 92
–New Relic gained: 1 Power sword becomes Relic Power Sword, Fate Denied
—Fate Denied: Chapter Champion Claudius Spatha foresaw in a vision the demise of his Chapter Master and sworn charge. Thanks to the sacrifice of a brother and his own swordsmanship this fate did not come to pass, unwillingly and unknowingly rebuking the beliefs of his own gene-sire. Effects: +1 Weapon Skill when wielded by a character with the Prophet Trait. Gives -1 Weapon Skill to Farseers and Tzeenchian Champions and Demons
-Due to taking the Sabotage Enemy supplies action every turn, and succeeding every time. 10th Company gains Trait "Saboteurs".
-Relationship with Lord Sector Blas Cartagena improves to Honored. Gain 1 Honorbound Favor with Lord Sector Blas Cartagena
-Relationship with Inquisitor Ayano Mitsuhide worsens to Bad.
-New Contact gained: Palatine Riona (Good+)
-New Contact gained: General Felix Mörner (Good-)
-New Contact gained: Colonel Loise (Neutral+)
-New Contact gained: Colonel Lewis Fletcher (Neutral)
-New Contact gained: Colonel Jósefina Szumska (Neutral-)
-New Contact gained: Adept Beltrán Trastámara de Olivares (Suspect-)
-New Contact gained: Cardinal Julian Mendoza Guzman de Los Rios (Good-)
-New Contact gained: Navigator Representative Cornelia Maeror (Suspect+)
Q.M Notes: And. It. Is. DONE!
3 months later, the first campaign of the quest is finished! Thank you all for being here and for all the support you have given me, I hope you have enjoyed reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it.
As always, if you see any spelling mistakes this update feel free to point them out. Ditto if you have any feedback regarding the campaign mechanics or anything else.
Informational has been updated, and now we just have the Turn 7 Action Results left before we dive into Turn 8.
Have a nice day (or night) people!
It's nice to see kids still being kids, even in the grim darkness of the future.
