Of Lords and their Legions (A Necron Overlord Quest)
- Thread starter Lonkas
- Start date
- Location
- yorkshire
no we dont
VE12
Would you kindly?
- Location
- Deep down bellow the sea
They'd probably ask their local farseers to come up with a solution for us, which would then end up needlessly complicated and result in a cluster fuck for everyone involved.
Just don't poke the Eldar, it's not worth the trouble
Well maybe we are gonna be lucky and never meet any Eldar, the galaxy is a big place and the Eldar have small numbers, hell the same can be said about SM and Dark Eldar, our main foes are likey gonna be orks and as we have peace with the empire they wont be a problem for a while
Oh shit! The boys are back in town! Necron supremacy!
- Location
- New York
Not as a whole. Some (like the one Farsear who engineered the Orks and Imperium welcome party) would go out of their way to kill us, while others are desperate for any sort of help (like the Craftworld thats near the Eye of Terror or the one thats in front of a Tyranid Hive Fleet). I'm sure we can reach an amiciable agreement, provided we act when all the cards are in our favor and we aren't juggling plates with the Imperium.
As long we can get some Eldar to get a amiciable agreement, it just means we dont have to fight those Eldar later on and keep our Realm even more safe, and if they want to buy for some work, well that would be even better
- Location
- New York
Well by amicable, I mean their complete submission. Because just as some Eldar Craftworlds have a hardon for Necron extermination, so to does some Necron Dynasties hold the extinction of the Eldar as a priority. So unless we want to piss of said Necron Faction within the courts, we need to be seen as the superior party in any "relationship" we develop with the Eldar.
A point in regards to the Eldar is that the old ones genetically engineered the Eldar to fight the Necrontyr. To the point that there are still significant portions of the Eldar who remember their hatred of the Necrons more than they remember where their homeworld is/was.
This implies that their need to fight their ancient masters killers may be more than the rational reason of the Necrons being a very dangerous enemy that seeks their extinction. And considering the length of the great sleep many lords have posited that it may be a biological or (given the nature of their masters) psionic compulsion more akin to the drive to mate or eat than anything more objective.
That being said, the Eldar are self aware creatures who can think for themselves. But their hatred burns extremely brightly for a race that hasnt fought you since dinosaurs walked the earth.
This implies that their need to fight their ancient masters killers may be more than the rational reason of the Necrons being a very dangerous enemy that seeks their extinction. And considering the length of the great sleep many lords have posited that it may be a biological or (given the nature of their masters) psionic compulsion more akin to the drive to mate or eat than anything more objective.
That being said, the Eldar are self aware creatures who can think for themselves. But their hatred burns extremely brightly for a race that hasnt fought you since dinosaurs walked the earth.
- Location
- New York
More like diplomatic vassalage. Especially for the one near the Eye of Terror. We can offer to strap a Inertia Drive and basically save their Craftworld from being Slaaneshed, in return for vassalage.
Would be a wery hard sell, but maybe it could be done if we gave some very good benefits and dont fight any other Eldar
Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
There's three pieces to the puzzle of "Eldar and Necrons having diplomacy" that's maybe getting underplayed or forgotten: The Triarch Praetorians, The Farseers, and That Moron Eldrad.
We got our current batch of non-human vassals entirely because a Praetorian did a drive-by uplifting. Anybody who kept complaining had to play a careful game of "we have kinda told the Silent King to go fuck his shiny metal ass, let's not have that reach his audio receptors". With the Praetorians in our corner, however ambiguously, our squabbling factions have an immovable object they have to work around. By contrast, these are the Eldar. When the Necrontyr came to take what basic comforts the Old Ones denied them with green energy and soul-shattering might, the Eldar were the foremost among the psychic opposition. They also very regularly hunt down sleeping Tombworlds and destroy them. Eldar submitting to our vassalage under even the most desperate, humiliating terms would lead to members of our court engaging in speech that'd get them booted off of SV faster than light. Our domination of the necron underlings must be so powerful, so absolute, as to extinguish the immediate backstabbing.
But Azurath and Thule have a point. If there's one thing the Eldar are known for that they don't want anyone else in the galaxy learning, its their true rulers the Farseers being more stubborn than Grox. Why? Because they play with the Strands of Fate. Everything is a Shockwave-esque leveraging of resources, cost input for results gained. The Autarchs answer to them. The Exarchs answer to them. And the vast-yet-dwindling numbers of the poster child psychic race still fear them. The reason every Eldar thinks they live only to carry out the grand Chaos-Killing-Suicide of their race is because the Farseers have all agreed that's the best outcome. Everybody dies, but if everybody dies in this specific, intricate web of paths, then Chaos is vanquished forever. The fact they would no longer have to commit observation and war material to Necron battlefields, those under our control at least, is a calculus made more palatable to those who only see ones and zeroes than great martial glories.
But the Farseers are not above the great ego of their race. It's why Eldrad's entire 9th-plus story took place. We can shower them with gifts, prostrate before the Seer Council, send billions of our Warriors to die in the place of a single Guardian, but the Farseers may still act like racist pricks. Eldrad, by contrast, is the old lunatic. The guy who thinks throwing his lot in with the second-biggest jackass in the Warp is the Eldar's key to survival and Ynnead's birth. Hell, that plan basically worked except for a split-second failure via Space Marine Plot Armor. If Eldrad thinks we're serious about defeating Chaos at any cost, and that is the only thing he cares about, he'll move the galaxy to make our part in his grand plan work.
TL;DR: The Court factions would only stop rebelling if a Praetoroian ruled in our favor. And the Praetorian might not. The Farseers are the most likley part of Eldar culture to agree with us, but they do have a repeated pattern of being mulish. Eldrad's the renegade who'll shake our hand if we commit to supporting him, but his madcap plans are by no means shared with his peers even on Ulthuan.
Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
The War In Heaven was a war of genocide against all life and all souls. Such things are not done dispassionately or with empathy. Rather, it is an all too real and familiar bigotry and hate, magnified and given arms by which to accomplish its wildest nightmares through the means of metaphor and morality lesson.
Obstacles must be overcome, but they can be.
Well at least we have to happy with Sirano and Human vassalage, and they can give us a lot of manpower in do time while we turn most of our warriors into Black Immortals
Once we do the whole of Discover the secrets of the black immortals can we upgrade them even more with Quantum Shielding and just overall upgrades to its there body and weapons?
Once we do the whole of Discover the secrets of the black immortals can we upgrade them even more with Quantum Shielding and just overall upgrades to its there body and weapons?
Quantum shielding and stuff like that is far too large, expensive, and complicated to be placed on a single warrior's frame. As to what unlocking the secrets of the black immortals unlocks, eventually completing those will allow you to create your own. However, even at their height the triarchs still fielded numerous warrior legions. So presumably the process of creation must be quite fiendishly complex if even they could not mass produce them.
Finally, in terms of what a Sirano looks like, This would be a particularly buff primitive female warrior of theirs. Most are a bit more sinuous and they have basically no physical dimorphism save that females (which are significantly less common than men) have crests. In terms of their aesthetic. The Sirane have quite an arabian/ persian feel to them. Lots of silks and jewelry among their nobility and their technology has a kind of elegance to it similar to the Eldar. The Sirano of course ape the Necron aesthetic and their pyramids have quite a gloomy atmosphere. This is broken up significantly by an abudance of gold, pho - sandstone, and jewels that adorn their halls
View: https://imgur.com/zSVXPiP
Last edited:
- Location
- Pee Pee Poo Poo
Would be cool if we incorporated the Sirano sense of style too, way better than the dull stuff right now.
The battle above Sirane
"....No, I don't believe you. You bluff... scholar lord. You have not had the time to set up your spies and tricks. I think I see through your ghosts and empty threats to the bluster beneath! I'll enjoy smashing this small project of yours, this rabble that you would call a fleet. And perhaps in the burning rubble of those you claimed to protect, you shall learn a touch of humility". - Prince Rhamtep of the Nilankh to Jornakh of the Yulenoth
Excerpt from stanza 17 "The first battle over Sirane" within the Yulenoth annals of war - A required text for those undertaking training in the Dailoth Royal military academy.
You finally break the silence you had held for the entire negotiation, condescension dripping from your voice like venom from a viper. "That's it? You threaten him with mystique and supposition and have nothing but a mirage to fulfill your boasts, perhaps I was too hasty in granting you the privilege of command"
Jornakh pauses amid the sudden muted quiet of the Siranovasa's command deck, dozens of Sirane and not a few of your lords proper watching to see if the Lord of the Yulenoth and his son would fall to conflict before the battle had even begun. Instead of responding, however, your son turns to one of his signal officers and in the clipped battle tongue of the Sirane, orders a live feed of what can be gleaned from the approaching fleet to be displayed. Finally, he turns back to you. "We will see then father if my methods bear fruit."
It takes nearly 2 hours of preparations, speeches, and orders before Jornakh motions again to the display where the Nilankh fleet has formed into three lines, each headed by a dirge and with the largest ships of the fleet at the rear. "See father, while I had hoped to force a more dramatic change in his disposition, at least I have spread some doubt in Rhamteps mind. He should be charging forth with his scythes. Allowing them to bear the brunt of our forces. But these are the lords he feels are most loyal, those he could trust with his greatest vessels. He has the least doubts as to their loyalty and so needs them to watch those of a more dubious disposition. Lest I have successfully placed my hooks into one of his lesser lords."
You look at the way that Visrons spawn has arranged his forces, and with some measure of reluctance realize that Jornakh is likely right. Rhamtep is no fool… at least in the matters of war, and the way he has arranged his forces is certainly not optimum, if he believed he could trust his subordinates. You look at your son again and try to think back to the battle reports you had read of his prior campaigns. Where no lord had ever written of Jornakhs apparently known tendency for duplicity or espionage
"How is it that I never heard that this is the manner in which you wage war"
Your son pauses for a moment before slowly turning toward you. "Because I wished that it be so" is all he says, holding your gaze and daring you to reprimand him. For a second time, the bridge is near silent as the assembled notables wonder at how you will take this. Stunned, however, at the depth of either his hold over your subordinate lords or his skills at secrecy, you have no answer. Thus after the moment stretches into seeming infinity, Jornakhs massive frame loosens slightly and he turns back to his command. "Deploy the fireships, let Rhamtep know that to march against the Sirane is to march into the doors of oblivion"
---------------------------------------------
Fusion Drives burn white-hot as the ramshackle armada of the Sirane merchant marine plunge into the heart of the Nilankh fleet. Precise Fire from the Necron ships downing dozens before they manage to make their way to their pre-designated target. Some prescient shiplord must have realized their purpose, however, for a like, a school of fish scattering as a shark lunges into it, Individual dirges and light cruisers suddenly begin diving out of the way of the oncoming armada. Finally, Rhamtep himself discerns Jornakhs intent and directs the whole to take a more organized withdrawal. The Order comes near too late though, as near simultaneously dozens of Sirane ships reach their optimum distance and detonate the antimatter stored within their holds. Vast spheres of fire erupting from their atomized hulls as the night sky is filled with the fire of a score of short-lived stars. Venting their fury against the hulls of the evading Nilankh escorts. Too little too late for the most far forward vessel which succumbs to the great detonation. While the rest find their armor scorched and sensors blinded by the unexpected burst of hard radiation that streams in their direction. Covering the advance of the Yulenoth ships now diving into the fray.
The Yulenoth vessels descend upon the scattered Nilankh and fire broadsides at extremely close range into the exposed flanks of the reeling vessels. Soon, a Khartouch's power core lights the void as its plating is stripped bare by gause lances and entire batteries melt under the concentrated onslaught of tesla lightning. However, in their haste to close with the enemy. The Yulenoth ships had leaped ahead of their slower Sirane and Sirano supporting elements. Whose fusion drives strain to cross the distance in hours that their Necron masters effortlessly crossed in minutes. Thus, while they were initially able to reap a terrible toll against their enemies, the Yulenoth vanguard gradually finds their quickly recovering foe falling upon them in greater and greater numbers. Too deep within the Nilankh's line of battle to easily retreat, Jornakh is forced to order a fighting withdrawal under heavy fire as his losses begin to mount faster than his opponent.
As his battered forces withdraw behind the Sirane fleet, Jornakh orders a course set back to the Siranovasa, placing his recovering Yulenoth forces on the flank and baiting Rhamtep to follow his route and assail his center, unguarded by sturdier Necron ships.
A bait that Rhamtep seems willing to bite. As he sends a detachment into the Sirane battle line while his other forces continue to recover. A decision he swiftly comes to regret as he realizes that your Yulenoth ships are sending targeting data to the Sirane vessels. Expecting easy prey, the Nilankh forces attempting to snipe at long range instead find waves of plasma torpedoes and lance attacks directed unerringly towards them. Rhamtep continues to drive his shiplords on though, perhaps hoping that the Sirane would break under the assault of his superior forces. As even with their targeting augmented, for every Necron vessel that falls, nearly five of the Siranes own are brought down in turn, but that was a ratio that would ultimately be in their favour. And after a few attempts of Rhamteps to flank the main body of Jornakhs force are inconclusively repulsed in turn by your own Necron vessels. The Nilankh lord pulls back his mauled forces Into his whole to recover, as the bulk of the Siranovasa, the proud and ancient citadel of the Sirane grows larger and larger with every minute.
Finally, after nearly a day of battle and with the Sirane citadel growing in the distance, Rhamtep decides to commit to the fight. The bulk of his forces form into two columns that dive into the center of the Sirane formation. Laying waste as they move in amongst the comparatively fragile vessels, whose remote targeting is far less effective now that their enemy is aware of it. Jornakh moves quickly though and brings the Yulenoth ships on the wings into the fray, as the battle lines and columns disintegrate into a loose melee of darting squadrons and great battleships. The 'Eternities End', your own flagship, locks broadsides with Rhamteps "Wraithbane", as doom scythes duel with Sirane dart fighters. All while the fleets finally drift into range of the Siranovasa's long-range titanic mag cannons and torpedo bays. Which pour fire onto any ship left too exposed to the primitive but supercapital grade weaponry.
Despite Siranovas's firepower, however, the battle still hangs in the balance. The Nilankh hide from the Siranovasas weaponry by keeping near suicidally close to your own vessels. While The recent shields added to your fleets designs, suited to fighting other races' crude, inaccurate weapons, swiftly collapse under focussed and accurate tesla fire. Rhamteps own vessels seem nearly unnaturally resilient as befits his reputation as a master of reanimation techniques. You watch the second instance when your vessels cripple one of his ships, beyond the point where any standard Necron vessel would fail, only for it to eventually drag itself back into the fight After that Jornakh begins ordering the complete destruction of enemy vessels, wasting precious time and resources that should be spent on other fully capable vessels.
Ultimately though as the battle falls into the shadow of the Siranovasa, it seems to be going your way. Rhamteps fleet has suffered significant casualties. And while your own suffered if anything slightly worse, you merely have to make this fight too costly for him to continue. While you can fight to near utter depletion. A risk that he cannot make should he wish the return journey to go smoothly
As the battle continues, the Siranovasa from which Jornakh commands pours fire onto the enemy ships. Volleys of magnetic rounds the size of small vehicles roar through the void, fired at a small percentage of the speed of light. Primitive weapons by the standards of the Necrons but the battlestation is large enough that it had given Imperial battle fleets pause for centuries. And as Jornakh drags Rhamteps fleet into close range with the vast space station. Its terrible arsenal begins to have an effect on even Necron vessels, even despite their attempts to evade. A volley of capital grade railguns beat down a dirge and rends open the flank of Rhamteps remaining scythe, while streams of anti-fighter munitions seem to fill the void with lead and plasma.
Rhamtep, seeing that the battle could well be decided by how long the station remains active, decides to lead a strike on the station itself. Directing a wing of battered escorts and light cruisers into a direct strike on the Siranovasas heaviest batteries, he detonates them in a cataclysmic explosion. Finally, at this moment, at the apex of the battle, the great Battlestations age shows in perhaps the worst possible way for the Yulenoth. As ancient power connections suddenly severed fail to shut off completely, and bulkheads imperceptibly weakened by the march of centuries give way to slightly less force than they should have. Secondary explosions race along the interior of the station as damage control teams try and fail to contain the rapidly expanding sphere of destruction.
Jornakh barely has time to order teleportation off the doomed station for you and himself before the bridge is consumed in the expanding fireball. Then as you watch from the relative safety of the "Eternities End" the string of detonations reaches the central ammunition storage and the main power core at the center of the station. The Resulting detonation rivaling that of the fire ships now nearly two days ago.
Jornakhs fleet which had been drawn up alongside the Siranovasa takes the brunt of the detonation as nearly half of the remaining Sirane vessels are atomized by the expanding fireball. Silence comes to the battlefield for a moment as both sides attempt to take stock of what had just occurred. Only The Bane still actively works against its foes as it sings a song of discord and strife into the minds of the few sentients aboard the other prince's ships.
At this point, the heart begins to drop out of Jornakhs defense, as the Sirane, their fleet gutted by the detonation and their spirits crushed by the same, lose much of the fervor which had driven them in this fight. While Rhamtep, a master of organizing his vessels to take full advantage of their self-repairing nature, is able to keep up a pace of combat that your own can simply not equal. Here, a heavily damaged Sirane squadron is set upon by a Nilankh light cruiser and no reinforcements are close enough to render aid. There, a lone Yulenoth dirge is ambushed by two of Rhamteps and falls under a hail of gause fire. Eventually, as he closes in around you even the bane begins taking damage. Scattered attack runs tearing off one of the cephalapodic constructions principle tentacles, causing the entire edifice to cease its song in order to protect its delicate innards.
Seeing this, Jornakh begins leading a breakout in order to escape the encirclement. Your remaining ships forming a cordon around the Bane as you escape the system. Leaving Sirane and all its inhabitants to Rhamtep to do with as he pleases.
It is nearly a month before Sovenkh arrives on the scene with the majority of your remaining fleet. However, he finds that the Nilankh fleet has already withdrawn from the system. While the planet itself is in uproar. Thankfully, with his fleet heavily depleted, Rhamtep had not been able to do too much damage to the Sirane's homeworld. But scars will mar its greatest cities for decades to come and once the nearly hundred million dead are counted, nearly 4 million are still left unaccounted for. Taken into the shadowed heart of the Nilankh empire.
Meanwhile, you yourself have suffered a heavy blow. Not only has a significant amount of your fleet fallen, along with almost the entirety of both your vassal's active forces. But the blind faith that the Sirano held in you has been gravely marred. While your promise of protection to the Sirane themselves is bitter comfort to those who had been "safe" under imperial vassalage for centuries only to fall to your kin within only a few short years of your own governorship. At least your reputation has not been tarnished in the eyes of the court. To lose to a fellow dynasty is no great shame, though it bites bitterly at both your own, and Jornakhs pride just the same.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fleet losses
Sirane
- Siranovasa
- Near total fleet losses
- 100 million civilian dead (4 million taken by the Nilankh)
Sirano
- Near total fleet losses
Yulenoth
1 scythe
1 light cruiser
3 escorts
The bane - moderate damage (will require a cryptek action next turn to repair)
Nilankh losses
1 scythe
5 light cruisers
7 escorts
Trait uncovered for Jornakh
- Warrior of words - While certainly an accomplished general in his own right. Jornakh has over time utilised his proficiency in both diplomacy and the darker arts of spycraft to win many battle that would seem unwinnable from a purely military standpoint. Planting false plans and turncoats in his opponants forces to cause confusion and desertion. While rarely has such attempts been truly successful. Jornakh utilises the reputation he has garnered to convince his opponants that his hand is much better than it seems. Causing them to second guess themselves and their own actions. Inadvertently assisting Jornakh as much as any of his agents ever could.
- When Jornakh is the ranking commander on the field, he will roll a "battle" against the enemies diplomacy with his own. For each degree of success he achieves, he gains a +10 to his rolls throughout the remainder of the battle.
Not my best writing, but glad to have finally gotten this one out. Next chapter will be about your negotiations to discuss a "special status" for the Yulenoth
Excerpt from stanza 17 "The first battle over Sirane" within the Yulenoth annals of war - A required text for those undertaking training in the Dailoth Royal military academy.
You finally break the silence you had held for the entire negotiation, condescension dripping from your voice like venom from a viper. "That's it? You threaten him with mystique and supposition and have nothing but a mirage to fulfill your boasts, perhaps I was too hasty in granting you the privilege of command"
Jornakh pauses amid the sudden muted quiet of the Siranovasa's command deck, dozens of Sirane and not a few of your lords proper watching to see if the Lord of the Yulenoth and his son would fall to conflict before the battle had even begun. Instead of responding, however, your son turns to one of his signal officers and in the clipped battle tongue of the Sirane, orders a live feed of what can be gleaned from the approaching fleet to be displayed. Finally, he turns back to you. "We will see then father if my methods bear fruit."
Jornakh = 86 + 60 (3 X 20) = 146
Rhamtep = 78 +24 (3 X 8) = 108
= 1 degree of success
Jornakh acquires +10 bonus to his rolls for the remainder of the battle
Rhamtep = 78 +24 (3 X 8) = 108
= 1 degree of success
Jornakh acquires +10 bonus to his rolls for the remainder of the battle
It takes nearly 2 hours of preparations, speeches, and orders before Jornakh motions again to the display where the Nilankh fleet has formed into three lines, each headed by a dirge and with the largest ships of the fleet at the rear. "See father, while I had hoped to force a more dramatic change in his disposition, at least I have spread some doubt in Rhamteps mind. He should be charging forth with his scythes. Allowing them to bear the brunt of our forces. But these are the lords he feels are most loyal, those he could trust with his greatest vessels. He has the least doubts as to their loyalty and so needs them to watch those of a more dubious disposition. Lest I have successfully placed my hooks into one of his lesser lords."
You look at the way that Visrons spawn has arranged his forces, and with some measure of reluctance realize that Jornakh is likely right. Rhamtep is no fool… at least in the matters of war, and the way he has arranged his forces is certainly not optimum, if he believed he could trust his subordinates. You look at your son again and try to think back to the battle reports you had read of his prior campaigns. Where no lord had ever written of Jornakhs apparently known tendency for duplicity or espionage
"How is it that I never heard that this is the manner in which you wage war"
Your son pauses for a moment before slowly turning toward you. "Because I wished that it be so" is all he says, holding your gaze and daring you to reprimand him. For a second time, the bridge is near silent as the assembled notables wonder at how you will take this. Stunned, however, at the depth of either his hold over your subordinate lords or his skills at secrecy, you have no answer. Thus after the moment stretches into seeming infinity, Jornakhs massive frame loosens slightly and he turns back to his command. "Deploy the fireships, let Rhamtep know that to march against the Sirane is to march into the doors of oblivion"
---------------------------------------------
Fireships DC 50 / 70 / 90
41 + 16 (intrigue) + 10(warrior of words) = 65
+1 degree of success in the first round of combat
41 + 16 (intrigue) + 10(warrior of words) = 65
+1 degree of success in the first round of combat
Fusion Drives burn white-hot as the ramshackle armada of the Sirane merchant marine plunge into the heart of the Nilankh fleet. Precise Fire from the Necron ships downing dozens before they manage to make their way to their pre-designated target. Some prescient shiplord must have realized their purpose, however, for a like, a school of fish scattering as a shark lunges into it, Individual dirges and light cruisers suddenly begin diving out of the way of the oncoming armada. Finally, Rhamtep himself discerns Jornakhs intent and directs the whole to take a more organized withdrawal. The Order comes near too late though, as near simultaneously dozens of Sirane ships reach their optimum distance and detonate the antimatter stored within their holds. Vast spheres of fire erupting from their atomized hulls as the night sky is filled with the fire of a score of short-lived stars. Venting their fury against the hulls of the evading Nilankh escorts. Too little too late for the most far forward vessel which succumbs to the great detonation. While the rest find their armor scorched and sensors blinded by the unexpected burst of hard radiation that streams in their direction. Covering the advance of the Yulenoth ships now diving into the fray.
Jornakh 30 + 54 + 10 (warrior of words) = 94
Rhamtep 72 + 63 + 5 (master of reanimation) = 140
= 2 - 1 (fireships) = 1 degree of failure
Rhamtep 72 + 63 + 5 (master of reanimation) = 140
= 2 - 1 (fireships) = 1 degree of failure
The Yulenoth vessels descend upon the scattered Nilankh and fire broadsides at extremely close range into the exposed flanks of the reeling vessels. Soon, a Khartouch's power core lights the void as its plating is stripped bare by gause lances and entire batteries melt under the concentrated onslaught of tesla lightning. However, in their haste to close with the enemy. The Yulenoth ships had leaped ahead of their slower Sirane and Sirano supporting elements. Whose fusion drives strain to cross the distance in hours that their Necron masters effortlessly crossed in minutes. Thus, while they were initially able to reap a terrible toll against their enemies, the Yulenoth vanguard gradually finds their quickly recovering foe falling upon them in greater and greater numbers. Too deep within the Nilankh's line of battle to easily retreat, Jornakh is forced to order a fighting withdrawal under heavy fire as his losses begin to mount faster than his opponent.
As his battered forces withdraw behind the Sirane fleet, Jornakh orders a course set back to the Siranovasa, placing his recovering Yulenoth forces on the flank and baiting Rhamtep to follow his route and assail his center, unguarded by sturdier Necron ships.
Jornakh (86 + 54 + 10 Warrior of words) = 150)
Rhamtep 34 + 63 + 10 (master of reanimation) = 102
2 degrees of success
Rhamtep 34 + 63 + 10 (master of reanimation) = 102
2 degrees of success
A bait that Rhamtep seems willing to bite. As he sends a detachment into the Sirane battle line while his other forces continue to recover. A decision he swiftly comes to regret as he realizes that your Yulenoth ships are sending targeting data to the Sirane vessels. Expecting easy prey, the Nilankh forces attempting to snipe at long range instead find waves of plasma torpedoes and lance attacks directed unerringly towards them. Rhamtep continues to drive his shiplords on though, perhaps hoping that the Sirane would break under the assault of his superior forces. As even with their targeting augmented, for every Necron vessel that falls, nearly five of the Siranes own are brought down in turn, but that was a ratio that would ultimately be in their favour. And after a few attempts of Rhamteps to flank the main body of Jornakhs force are inconclusively repulsed in turn by your own Necron vessels. The Nilankh lord pulls back his mauled forces Into his whole to recover, as the bulk of the Siranovasa, the proud and ancient citadel of the Sirane grows larger and larger with every minute.
Jornakh 77 + 54 + 10 (warrior of words) = 141
Rhamtep 82 + 66 + 20 (master reanimator) - 5 (The bane) = 163
1 degree of success
Rhamtep 82 + 66 + 20 (master reanimator) - 5 (The bane) = 163
1 degree of success
Finally, after nearly a day of battle and with the Sirane citadel growing in the distance, Rhamtep decides to commit to the fight. The bulk of his forces form into two columns that dive into the center of the Sirane formation. Laying waste as they move in amongst the comparatively fragile vessels, whose remote targeting is far less effective now that their enemy is aware of it. Jornakh moves quickly though and brings the Yulenoth ships on the wings into the fray, as the battle lines and columns disintegrate into a loose melee of darting squadrons and great battleships. The 'Eternities End', your own flagship, locks broadsides with Rhamteps "Wraithbane", as doom scythes duel with Sirane dart fighters. All while the fleets finally drift into range of the Siranovasa's long-range titanic mag cannons and torpedo bays. Which pour fire onto any ship left too exposed to the primitive but supercapital grade weaponry.
Despite Siranovas's firepower, however, the battle still hangs in the balance. The Nilankh hide from the Siranovasas weaponry by keeping near suicidally close to your own vessels. While The recent shields added to your fleets designs, suited to fighting other races' crude, inaccurate weapons, swiftly collapse under focussed and accurate tesla fire. Rhamteps own vessels seem nearly unnaturally resilient as befits his reputation as a master of reanimation techniques. You watch the second instance when your vessels cripple one of his ships, beyond the point where any standard Necron vessel would fail, only for it to eventually drag itself back into the fight After that Jornakh begins ordering the complete destruction of enemy vessels, wasting precious time and resources that should be spent on other fully capable vessels.
Ultimately though as the battle falls into the shadow of the Siranovasa, it seems to be going your way. Rhamteps fleet has suffered significant casualties. And while your own suffered if anything slightly worse, you merely have to make this fight too costly for him to continue. While you can fight to near utter depletion. A risk that he cannot make should he wish the return journey to go smoothly
Jornakh 1 + 54 + 10 (warrior of words) = 65
Rhamtep 28 + 66 + 30 (Master Reanimator) – 10 (The Bane) = 124
4 degrees of failure
Rhamtep 28 + 66 + 30 (Master Reanimator) – 10 (The Bane) = 124
4 degrees of failure
As the battle continues, the Siranovasa from which Jornakh commands pours fire onto the enemy ships. Volleys of magnetic rounds the size of small vehicles roar through the void, fired at a small percentage of the speed of light. Primitive weapons by the standards of the Necrons but the battlestation is large enough that it had given Imperial battle fleets pause for centuries. And as Jornakh drags Rhamteps fleet into close range with the vast space station. Its terrible arsenal begins to have an effect on even Necron vessels, even despite their attempts to evade. A volley of capital grade railguns beat down a dirge and rends open the flank of Rhamteps remaining scythe, while streams of anti-fighter munitions seem to fill the void with lead and plasma.
Rhamtep, seeing that the battle could well be decided by how long the station remains active, decides to lead a strike on the station itself. Directing a wing of battered escorts and light cruisers into a direct strike on the Siranovasas heaviest batteries, he detonates them in a cataclysmic explosion. Finally, at this moment, at the apex of the battle, the great Battlestations age shows in perhaps the worst possible way for the Yulenoth. As ancient power connections suddenly severed fail to shut off completely, and bulkheads imperceptibly weakened by the march of centuries give way to slightly less force than they should have. Secondary explosions race along the interior of the station as damage control teams try and fail to contain the rapidly expanding sphere of destruction.
Jornakh barely has time to order teleportation off the doomed station for you and himself before the bridge is consumed in the expanding fireball. Then as you watch from the relative safety of the "Eternities End" the string of detonations reaches the central ammunition storage and the main power core at the center of the station. The Resulting detonation rivaling that of the fire ships now nearly two days ago.
Jornakhs fleet which had been drawn up alongside the Siranovasa takes the brunt of the detonation as nearly half of the remaining Sirane vessels are atomized by the expanding fireball. Silence comes to the battlefield for a moment as both sides attempt to take stock of what had just occurred. Only The Bane still actively works against its foes as it sings a song of discord and strife into the minds of the few sentients aboard the other prince's ships.
Rhamtep command check as the bane gradually loosens the bonds of hierarchy among his forces
53 + 22 = 75: He's getting a bit shaky but is otherwise fine
53 + 22 = 75: He's getting a bit shaky but is otherwise fine
48 + 20 (fighting for their home) - 20 (the great fortress has fallen) = 48 increasingly shaken and beginning to fall apart, but ready for a final effort.
34 + 54 + 10 = 98
34 + 54 + 10 = 98
Jornakh 34 + 54 + 10 [warrior of words] = 98
Rhamtep 68 + 66 + 30 [Master Reanimator] - 20 [The Bane] = 154
= 2 degrees of failure
Rhamtep 68 + 66 + 30 [Master Reanimator] - 20 [The Bane] = 154
= 2 degrees of failure
At this point, the heart begins to drop out of Jornakhs defense, as the Sirane, their fleet gutted by the detonation and their spirits crushed by the same, lose much of the fervor which had driven them in this fight. While Rhamtep, a master of organizing his vessels to take full advantage of their self-repairing nature, is able to keep up a pace of combat that your own can simply not equal. Here, a heavily damaged Sirane squadron is set upon by a Nilankh light cruiser and no reinforcements are close enough to render aid. There, a lone Yulenoth dirge is ambushed by two of Rhamteps and falls under a hail of gause fire. Eventually, as he closes in around you even the bane begins taking damage. Scattered attack runs tearing off one of the cephalapodic constructions principle tentacles, causing the entire edifice to cease its song in order to protect its delicate innards.
Seeing this, Jornakh begins leading a breakout in order to escape the encirclement. Your remaining ships forming a cordon around the Bane as you escape the system. Leaving Sirane and all its inhabitants to Rhamtep to do with as he pleases.
It is nearly a month before Sovenkh arrives on the scene with the majority of your remaining fleet. However, he finds that the Nilankh fleet has already withdrawn from the system. While the planet itself is in uproar. Thankfully, with his fleet heavily depleted, Rhamtep had not been able to do too much damage to the Sirane's homeworld. But scars will mar its greatest cities for decades to come and once the nearly hundred million dead are counted, nearly 4 million are still left unaccounted for. Taken into the shadowed heart of the Nilankh empire.
Meanwhile, you yourself have suffered a heavy blow. Not only has a significant amount of your fleet fallen, along with almost the entirety of both your vassal's active forces. But the blind faith that the Sirano held in you has been gravely marred. While your promise of protection to the Sirane themselves is bitter comfort to those who had been "safe" under imperial vassalage for centuries only to fall to your kin within only a few short years of your own governorship. At least your reputation has not been tarnished in the eyes of the court. To lose to a fellow dynasty is no great shame, though it bites bitterly at both your own, and Jornakhs pride just the same.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fleet losses
Sirane
- Siranovasa
- Near total fleet losses
- 100 million civilian dead (4 million taken by the Nilankh)
Sirano
- Near total fleet losses
Yulenoth
1 scythe
1 light cruiser
3 escorts
The bane - moderate damage (will require a cryptek action next turn to repair)
Nilankh losses
1 scythe
5 light cruisers
7 escorts
Trait uncovered for Jornakh
- Warrior of words - While certainly an accomplished general in his own right. Jornakh has over time utilised his proficiency in both diplomacy and the darker arts of spycraft to win many battle that would seem unwinnable from a purely military standpoint. Planting false plans and turncoats in his opponants forces to cause confusion and desertion. While rarely has such attempts been truly successful. Jornakh utilises the reputation he has garnered to convince his opponants that his hand is much better than it seems. Causing them to second guess themselves and their own actions. Inadvertently assisting Jornakh as much as any of his agents ever could.
- When Jornakh is the ranking commander on the field, he will roll a "battle" against the enemies diplomacy with his own. For each degree of success he achieves, he gains a +10 to his rolls throughout the remainder of the battle.
Not my best writing, but glad to have finally gotten this one out. Next chapter will be about your negotiations to discuss a "special status" for the Yulenoth
Last edited:
- Location
- Poland
In the interest of fairness I would like to point out that Jornakh has rolled lower than Rhamtep in this round. Aside from that it's good to see this back.
- Location
- yorkshire
Well that was bad
Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
... kid's clever. Too damn clever for his own good. A son with a chin on his shoulder is the doom of any empire in Warhammer.
He needs to learn that while the confidence game is a good tool in his kit, war must have a mailed fist.
He needs to learn that while the confidence game is a good tool in his kit, war must have a mailed fist.