The Eleventh Primarch (30K Quest)

[Oshha]

It is a story that has been told many times before. A golden demigod united the cradle of Humanity under his reign, his twenty sons being snatched from him by the benefactors that he betrayed, building twenty legions of geneforged warriors to conquer the stars and reclaim his sons.

Each of those sons would land on a different world, shaped and natured by their newfound homeworld. Each one would grow up different until their creator showed up and gave them one of his legions. A command and duty that they would accept, eagerly or reluctantly, willingly or unwilling.

You are the eleventh of those sons and you will be the last of your kin to be found by genesire. You have a score shy of two centuries before the golden demigod shows up to reclaim you. Almost two hundred years to be shaped by your unintended home and forged your path in life before a new is thrust upon you.

For all the might and influence of the golden demigod, there are other powers at play. The ancient and broken Eldar whose remnants are still a worthy threat. The barbaric Orks who threaten to consume the galaxy in a green tide. The Four and their fellow denizens in the Warp plotting the downfall of Humanity and the galaxy from within. And many other countless threats and hopes across the galaxy, both external and internal.

Where does the Eleventh Primarch end up?
[] Democratic Republic. You crash landed on a world ruled by a republic led by representative democracy with rights and liberties for its people. A decently industrialised and populated world that hasn't been ruined enough to lose its natural environments, this is about as good a place to live in these dark and troubled times.
[] Corporate Oligarchy. You crashed land on a world ruled by a corporate oligarchy with a veneer of benevolence. Ruled by corporate overlords and divided into de facto caste systems, you can get anything you want provided you can afford it.
[] Military Dictatorship. You crashed land on a world ruled by a military dictatorship beset by offworld enemies. Ruled by High Command, there is a strong martial culture and while everyone has basic rights, you can only rise through service to the state.

What makes the Eleventh Primarch special?
[] Determination. You have inherited an unyielding will. You will not give up and you will not break.
[] Intelligence. You have inherited a vast intellect. You are a genius without peer and unmatched when it comes to figuring out solutions.
[] Charisma. You have inherited immense charisma. You are able to sway others with ease and forge deep friendships and loyalties.

No plan voting for this vote.

***​

So I'm trying my hand at a 30K Primarch quest, going for the old standby of playing as one of the lost Primarchs. I'm going with the Eleventh because he was the last to be found and I have parts of this story already set in stone. I'm not going to railroad you or anything, but certain things, both canon events and parts of the protagonist's story, will be unavoidable.

Anyway, I've a plan for this quest and it is intended to cover three parts before it ends. The first part is the Pre-Discovery era where you are playing as the Eleventh Primarch as he does his own thing prior to being found by the Emperor.

The second part is the Great Crusade era where you are found by the Emperor and you either willingly join the Great Crusade or are conscripted into it. You'll get your own legion and you'll do your part for the Imperium.

The third part is the Rebellion era, where the Great Crusade comes to a close and the cracks in the Imperium that it previously papered over come to the fore. It might be the Horus Heresy or it might be something else. Maybe the Emperor begins to purge the undesirable Primarchs and their legions. Maybe he finds out about the Red Thirst and orders the deaths of Sanguinius and the Blood Angels. Who knows?

Regardless of what happens in the future, assuming we get that far, the choice is now what sort of homeworld you land on and which particular trait of the Eleventh Primarch is their greatest.

Please point out any spelling or grammar mistakes that you spot. Please quote them in the thread and explain what you think is wrong so I know what you are referring to.

 

[Oshha]

[X] Democratic Republic. You crash landed on a world ruled by a republic led by representative democracy with rights and liberties for its people. A decently industrialised and populated world that hasn't been ruined enough to lose its natural environments, this is about as good a place to live in these dark and troubled times.
[X] Charisma. You have inherited immense charisma. You are able to sway others with ease and forge deep friendships and loyalties.

The Federation of Bladus is a small light in a very large galaxy of darkness. Centred on the world of Excalibur in the Bladus system, the Federation is a genuine democracy, a rarity in a galaxy full of tyrants and feudal lords. Parliament acts as the legislative body while the First Minister rules as the executive. All of them are elected to their offices by the citizens of the Federation and held accountable to those same citizens.

A well-off world with a temperate climate, whose environment hasn't been ruined by excessive industrialisation like many worlds out there. A place where people still have civil rights and liberty, where they have both safety and freedom and both justice and rule of law can be found.

It isn't a perfect place to live and the Federation of Bladus is no utopia, having its fair share of flaws, mainly petty corruption and abuse. Yet it stands out as a shining beacon in a galaxy that has plunged into chaos and oppression.

So when the Eleventh Primarch was found, he was treated fairly by the Federation of Bladus. When he arrived in the Bladus system, his capsule never made it to the planet. Not at first. Instead his capsule came out in the void of space on a direct course for the inhabited world of Excalibur and so it was promptly intercepted by a warship of the Federal Navy.

While they didn't know what they were expecting as such is the nature of the warp, the crew of the warship weren't expecting to find a baby in the capsule. A healthy, perfectly formed baby with no sign of mutation or other legacies of its time in the warp. Whilst the crew had mixed reactions, they ultimately did their duty and delivered the child to Excalibur, so the civilian government could deal with the babe.

After the child was determined to have nothing concerning with his health or body, he was put up for adoption like any other parentless baby with the Federation of Bladus. It was here the Eleventh Primarch would gain his family, when a rising star in the Federal Navy decided to adopt a child so she and her wife could start a family.

Use plan voting.

What advantages does the Federation of Bladus have? (Pick one for free)
[] First Line Fleet. The Federation of Bladus has a legacy fleet from the ancient Confederation, made up of state of the art warships and led by a Gloriana-class Battleship.
[] First Line Shipyards. An old set of Confederation shipyards that the Federation has carefully kept intact and functional over the millennia. Capable of building state of the art warships, including the famed Gloriana-class Battleship.
[] First Line Army. A legacy from the ancient Confederation, the Federation retains an army equipped with state of the art equipment from the good old days.
[] Multiple Inhabited Worlds. In addition to Excalibur, the Bladus system and the Federation that rules it have additional colonised worlds. (Can be taken up to three times - mark with an x2 or x3 if taken multiple times)
[] Advanced Technology. The Federation of Bladus has been fortunate enough to retain advanced technologies from the Golden Age, both fully intact STCs and the expertise to use them. (Three sub-option picks each time it is taken - mark with an x2, x3 or x4 if taken multiple times)
-[] Artificial Intelligence. Whilst the infamous Men of Iron are the most well-known example of manmade AI, the Federation of Bladus has retained knowledge of how to make them.
-[] Combat Vehicles. The Federation of Bladus has managed to retain knowledge on how to make old Confederation vehicles like the Predator tank or the Rhino APC.
-[] Cybernetics. From replacements for limbs lost to enhancing the body with pure additions, cybernetics had flourished under the Confederation and the Federation of Bladus has kept much of that knowledge.
-[] Genetic Engineering. From the widely known Navigators to geneforged soldiers, genetic engineering had progressed greatly under the Confederation and the Federation of Bladus still has some of that progress.
-[] Medical Science. Medical science advanced greatly under the Confederation even if its heights weren't available for all. The Federation of Bladus has retained most of that medical knowledge for its own use.
-[] Plasma Weapons. Plasma weapons progressed greatly in the time of the Confederation and the Federation of Bladus inherited knowledge of its most advanced plasma weaponry.
-[] Power Armour. Power armour was the norm for elite units during the time of the Confederation and the Federation of Bladus has inherited knowledge for its own use.
-[] Superheavy Tanks. The Confederation made many different superheavy tanks during its time and the Federation of Bladus has inherited that knowledge.
-[] Teleportation. Teleportation is a short-ranged, but relatively safe method of warp travel. Having been developed under the Confederation, the Federation of Bladus has retains its knowledge in this field.
-[] Terraforming. While there are many habitable planets in the galaxy, they aren't always conveniently located. To get around this, Humanity learnt to make worlds fit for human habitation and the Federation of Bladus still knows how.
-[] Warp Knowledge. The warp has had a constant presence in human society since Humanity went interstellar. Between studies during the time of the Confederation and surviving the warp storms, the Federation of Bladus has amassed quite a bit of knowledge.
-[] Warships. Since going interstellar, Humanity has built many different warships for waging war across the stars. The Federation of Bladus has retained knowledge on how to make the finest warships produced by the Confederation.

What drawbacks does the Federation of Bladus face? (Pick up to three, gain one additional advantage for each drawback chosen)
-[] Greenskin Neighbours. Orks have always been a blight on Humanity and Bladus has the misfortune to be close by to an Ork-controlled star system. The Greenskins regularly send raids against the Bladus system and even launch the occasional invasion.
-[] Greenskin Infestation. Worse than having Orks in a neighbouring system is having Orks in your own system. Excalibur has the misfortune to have a local Ork populace, one that continues to cause trouble for the Federation despite their best attempts to exterminate the infestation.
-[] Eldar Corsairs. Once rulers of their own interstellar empire, the Dominion was destroyed alongside the Confederation. Now some of the scattered survivors have decided to regularly prey upon the Bladus system for reasons only known to themselves.
-[] Warp Rift. While the warp storms have abated for now, they left behind an unpleasant league for the Federation of Bladus. There is a warp rift on Excalibur, opened during the days of the warp storms and remained as it was even once the storms themselves had dissipated and it causes trouble from time to time.
-[] Imperialist Neighbours. The Federation of Bladus isn't the only human polity around and there is another within a few light years. Unfortunately, they are far more tyrannical than the Federation and hold ambitions of an interstellar empire. They look upon Excalibur as a both future rival and a potential conquest.

***​

Okay, this update was meant to cover the Federation of Bladus and the childhood of the Eleventh Primarch, but I decided to split up into two. This is mainly because the vote was getting big and I came to the conclusion that I would be better off establishing the polity first before doing the childhood.

Anyway, I was going to just let you pick a few options from the advantage list, but then I decided I didn't want to make the Federation of Bladus into basically an OP OC so I toned it down. Now you get a single freebie and have to pay for the rest in downsides. They will be downsides. Don't expect the advantages to just cancel out the drawbacks chosen to acquire them.

Please point out any spelling or grammar mistakes that you spot. Please quote them in the thread and explain what you think is wrong so I know what you are referring to.

 

[Oshha]

[X] Plan The Mechanicus Hate Them
-[X] First Line Shipyards.
-[X] Advanced Technology. x3
--[X] Artificial Intelligence.
--[X] Combat Vehicles.
--[X] Cybernetics.
--[X] Genetic Engineering.
--[X] Medical Science.
--[X] Power Armour.
--[X] Terraforming.
--[X] Warp Knowledge.
--[X] Warships.
-[X] Greenskin Neighbours.
-[X] Warp Rift.
-[X] Imperialist Neighbours.

"By all accounts, there is nothing wrong with him," says the doctor to Ulyssa and Irene Artorius as the married couple wait to hear the news about their newly adopted son, "If anything, it is the opposite. He appears to be completely healthy, more than healthy in fact."

"Is that a problem?" asks Ulyssa, "We all know where he came from."

"His arrival from the warp is concerning, but I cannot detect any signs of warp contamination," replies the doctor, "Obvious or subtle and while I know that perfect health can be a sign of the Tempter's taint, but in this case, I have reason to believe that the perfect health has another origin. Still, it is possible to call upon a biomancer to make sure there is nothing wrong."

"What is this other cause?" demands Ulyssa.

[Stay calm dear,] Irene mentally projects to her wife via telepathy as she gives Ulyssa's hand a friendly squeeze, [The man is just doing his job.]

"His body and genetic structure shows a multitude of signs of genetic engineering," answers the doctor, "Far beyond both our own knowledge of genetic modification and what is ethically allowed under the law. Put simply, someone turned this child into a budding super soldier and if they had done it here on Excalibur, they would be looking at a couple of decades in prison."

"But nothing untoward?" asks Irene as Ulyssa leans against her wife.

"Nothing harmful beyond enhancing him to the point he arguably doesn't count as being human anymore," answers the doctor, "Ah, I'm not actually sure because until now, the situation has been purely theoretical. No one has been enhanced to this degree before so any debate on how far is too far to still be considered human has guesswork and conjecture."

"I see," says Irene as the woman tries to think about how to handle this revelation.

It wouldn't be appropriate or right to give up the babe, but at the same time, this is far beyond what she was expecting. A psyker like herself or a mutant she could handle, but a genetically engineered super soldier? That is beyond her expectations.

"We also have indications that the child may be a psyker," says the doctor, "He is too young for us to test so we don't know for certain, but he has the genetics for it."

"At least that is something we can deal with," says Ulyssa as she gives Irene a grin and Irene smiles in response.

***​

Drake Artorius would have an unusual childhood despite the best attempts by his parents and the Federation of Bladus to accommodate him. While they attempted to treat him fairly and like any other child, the truth of the matter is that the young Drake was not like any other child. He matured twice as fast as an ordinary child and it was judged he would reach adulthood before the age of ten.

Furthermore his genetic engineering went beyond mere physical prowess as not only did he have a body beyond human limits, but Drake Artorius had a superhuman mind to go with his superhuman body. Not only did he excel beyond his age group in physical activities, but he was a quick learner in the classroom, only needing to be taught something once or twice to grasp an understanding of it.

As Drake grew up, his talents and interests would display themselves. Drake had a natural talent for interacting with others, it was too easy for him. Whilst he was talented at charming others and swaying them to his point of view, Drake quickly grew disinterested in social affairs. Whether it was convincing them openly or tricking them, it was too easy for the superhuman lad and so he had little desire for it.

Instead the Artorius boy found other parts of his education more interesting. While a kid of his age wouldn't normally be given combat training so young, Drake was growing fast enough that with his superhuman body, the Federal authorities decided to make an exception for him. While he was still too young to dominate the training sessions, Drake was still capable of completing them and he enjoyed the challenge. He liked shooting targets with a gun, he took pleasure in the thrusts and parries of swordsmanship.

That wasn't the only martial interest of Drake Artorius as while he didn't receive any formal training in naval matters, one of his mothers was a captain in the Federal Navy and she was happy to tell her son about her work. Listening intently to his mother's tales, Drake slowly, but surely picked up how naval life worked and as he grew older, his interest in those stories expanded into self-study. On his own initiative, the young boy would look up more details on the art of void warfare and gain an ametaur education on the subject.

This interest in naval warfare would expand into a desire to learn about logistics, which in turn would result in learning about the economics that supported the logistics. The self-study in economics would in turn lead to Drake learning about the government structure of the Federation and other alternative forms of government. All before he began to be taught about such things in his classes.

Drake Artorius would also express an interest in technology. Originating as a desire to know more about the guns he fired in his combat training or the warships commanded by his mother, Drake developed a casual, but steady interest in learning about how different technologies and machines worked.

The final major interest of the young Primarch would be the one that he would enjoy most passionately. As predicted by the medical experts who periodically reviewed his health, Drake Artorius would begin to display psyker abilities as he grew older. Nothing too major at first, but it was clear that Drake had very high potential.

For his part, Drake was delighted by his psyker abilities and deeply enjoyed his initial lessons that his other mother gave him. For while it was difficult and dangerous to safely use one's psyker powers, that just made the young boy happy. He craved a challenge and his psyker training was not something he could do with casual ease. He had to learn and for the first time in his life, Drake Artorius truly struggled and in that struggle, in that challenge, he found happiness.

During his training, Drake would meet something else. Another child, but older and female. Inferior to him in every way except psyker ability. While Drake was the second most powerful psyker, rated as potential Level 9 or even a Level 10, the older Jenivere had already displayed Level 11 psyker talent, the first in over two centuries.

Drawn to the superhuman boy that she was hearing so much about, Jenivere sought out Drake Artorius, hoping to find someone who could keep up with her. And in the young Drake, she both found and didn't find that as while her psyker ability outstripped her fellow child, Jenivere found herself outdone by Drake in every other area.

For his part, Drake was delighted to finally meet another child who could beat him at something. He might surpass Jenivere at everything else, but Drake was happy to find someone who could beat him as his favourite activity, deepening the challenge and struggle that he enjoyed so much. The two psyker children would form a lasting bond, one that would stay with the Eleventh Primarch.

Use plan voting.

What does Drake Artorius focus on in his childhood? (Pick three)
[] Personal Combat. Drake focuses on his firearm and melee training, learning how to shoot a gun with unerring precision and how to take apart an opponent with a blade.
[] Naval Combat. Drake engages in self-study on the art of naval combat, learning how warships are commanded and how to win or lose a naval engagement.
[] Telepathy. Drake focuses on his psyker training, learning how to read and manipulate minds.
[] Divination. Drake focuses on his psyker training, learning how to peer into the future and uncover answers.
[] Governance. Drake focuses on his classes at school, learning about how the government works and how to run a nation.
[] Engineering. Drake focuses on his volunteer work, learning how machinery works and how to make improvements upon standard equipment.

Who does Jenivere become to Drake Artorius?
[] His sister. Jenivere is Drake's adopted sister and their love is familial in nature.
[] His friend. Jenivere is Drake's best friend and their love is platonic in nature.
[] His girlfriend. Jenivere is Drake's girlfriend and their love is romantic in nature.

***​

Third update as we cover Drake Artorius' childhood and you get to make some choices on it. We also get to meet Drake's first companion, Jenivere, who is an Alpha level psyker to use Imperial terminology.

For those wondering, I rolled on Discord for Drake's interests and disinterests along with the psyker ability of himself, his second mother and his first companion. I got the interesting result of Drake being disinterested in the things he found the easiest and being interested in the things he found the hardest. And that narrative practically wrote itself.

Anyway, plan voting for this vote and the next update will have scenes from the viewpoint of Eleventh Primarch for the first time.

Please point out any spelling or grammar mistakes that you spot. Please quote them in the thread and explain what you think is wrong so I know what you are referring to.

 

[Oshha]

[X] Plan Psyker Minister
-[X] Naval Combat. Drake engages in self-study on the art of naval combat, learning how warships are commanded and how to win or lose a naval engagement.
-[X] Telepathy. Drake focuses on his psyker training, learning how to read and manipulate minds.
-[X] Governance. Drake focuses on his classes at school, learning about how the government works and how to run a nation.
-[X] His girlfriend. Jenivere is Drake's girlfriend and their love is romantic in nature.

"How are you doing, Jen?" you ask as you sit down next to your girlfriend on the bench.

"As always, school sucks," answers Jenivere as the redhead girl leans against you, "I have to stay with Alyssa all the time as usual and you know how I hate being around the little bitch. I wish my powers would work around her so I could reshape her into a slug. That would teach her."

"It isn't Alyssa's fault and you know it," you reply with a resigned shake of your head, "You know she is a negative eight psyker the same way that you are a level twelve psyker and I'm a level nine psyker. She cannot help her abilities any more than you can. Less even since unlike you and I, her abilities are just passive rather than something she can control and use."

"Doesn't make her any less painful to be around," grumbles Jenivere.

"Alyssa is a nice enough person once you look past her aura," you say and Jenivere glares up at you.

"If Miss Null is so nice, why do you spend some time around her?" growls Jenivere and you wince at the thought of doing that as while Alyssa has a nice enough personality, the Null is literally painful to be around for psykers like Jen or yourself.

"I wish that I could get a special education course like you," says Jenivere as you don't answer her question, "I don't get why I have to go to school and spend it around Miss Negative Eight while your own personal sets of lessons all on your own."

"Because beyond your powers, you are perfectly normal so not only does a regular education suit you, but the social skills are important for a psyker of your level," you answer dryly, having already had this discussion before, "Meanwhile I have been genemodded to the Warp and back so treating me like a regular kid is nonstarter. I mean just look at me, Jen, I've been alive for ten years, but I've already reached adulthood, I'm taking university level courses and I'm superhuman physically. I can outclass an adult in power armour. I'm not a normal person so I don't get treated like one."

"And I'm not-" starts Jenivere, only to be cut off as I throw an arm around her and her a partial hug.

"Jen, you might be the most powerful psyker around, but I'm a three metre tall supersoldier," I tell her, "Your body is still that of a regular human."

"I can change that you know," replies Jenivere with a grin as you let her push your arm back and you feel a burst of warp energy.

As Jen calls upon the power of the Ether, her body shifts and bulges as your girlfriend uses biomancy to enhance her body. It isn't pretty either as the human body isn't meant to move and change like that for the process is not a smooth transition. Nonetheless, you are curious about how Jen is going to turn out.

Then it all goes wrong in an instant as her control slips for a moment as she pushes her limits. The warp energy escapes her grasp on it, releasing into the materium and you can only hope things turn out okay as you are helpless to do anything but watch.

You fear that Jen will be plucked into the warp or possessed by warpspawn. Yet those fears don't come to pass as Jen is merely flung several metres into the air, facing just a fatal fall instead of losing her soul. With superhuman speed, you move to catch her and snatch your girlfriend out of the air before she can hit the ground from a deadly height.

"Do not push your limits like that again," you inform her and Jen has the decency to look abashed as you hold her in your arms, "You know it is dangerous."

"Yeah, I know," replies Jen quietly, uncharacteristically subdued, "That was my first time."

"Your first time?" you inquire, not quite sure what she is referring to, but having an inkling of what it is.

"Losing control of my powers," answers Jen as she snuggles up in your arms, "I knew it was a risk intellectually, but I never actually had it happen to me before."

"The reminder of your own mortality getting to you?" you inquire and you get a shaky nod, "Well, I already got mine a couple years back. Not that I lost control, but Mother did and I got to see the consequences without experiencing them myself."

"What happened?" asks Jen as she looks up at you.

"Mother was using her powers whilst she was tired and Mum was planetside for the weekend," you tell her, "Next thing I know Mother was demanding to know why she is suddenly in a different spot while Mum was suddenly stumbling. I asked Mother what she was talking about so she looked down and freaked out. She was demanding to know what Mum did and Mum is apologising about messing up."

"Did they switch bodies or something?" inquires Jen.

"Technically I think their souls got put into each other's bodies if you want to get technical about it, but yeah," you reply, "Mother lost control and they basically spent a minute as each other. Mother sat down with me afterward and explained what happened and just how much worse it could have been."

"That doesn't sound so bad," mutters Jen.

"But it could have been and Mum had trouble looking at Mother for a week," you continue, "Mum knew what she was getting into when she hooked up with Mother so divorce wasn't on the table, but Mother had to make it up to Mum. And it was an example of someone unexpectedly losing control of their warp powers that stuck with me. Especially since I didn't realise just what had gone wrong. Anyway, it looks like the authorities are here to deal with your little outburst."

"Seriously?" groans Jen.

"Yep," you say as you glance at the team of armed officers making their way to two of you, "Definitely the Psyker Affairs Department. Don't worry, I'll handle the talking."

***​

As what little of a childhood you have goes by, you focus on specific parts of your studies. While many things interest you, naval combat is the one that you prioritise learning about. The navy is your Mum's family tradition and you have no intention of breaking from that, hoping to one day follow in Mum's footsteps and join the Federal Navy yourself.

You doubt that they'll turn you down even if more than a few in the military might think that a genetically engineered supersoldier like yourself would be better off in the Federal Marines or the Federal Army. In the end, it doesn't matter. You are a citizen of the Federation of Bladus and if you want to join the navy, they can't make you join another branch of the military so long as you meet the naval requirements.

Well, not unless there are some emergency laws put into place. And given how badly off the Federal Navy is right now, you wouldn't be surprised if those laws are put into place in your lifetime. Even if you don't know how long you'll live.

Mum has tried to hide it from you, but you are no fool and you can tell from reviewing historical records that the Federal Navy is currently in a bad spot. Down to a single battleship and a trio of cruisers with a squadron of escorts for each capital ship, the Federal Navy could be in worse straits, but it is a far cry from some of its historical glory.

It isn't like the Federation of Bladus can't fix the problem. Excalibur has those Confederation shipyards in orbit and you know that the Federation retains the old Confederate warship designs. The real issue is that parliament won't authorise the funds to get some more warships built.

And that utterly stupid and moronic decision got you looking into just how the government works, learning about the government structures of the Federation. Both how it is set up and why it is set up that way.

Then there are your psyker lessons with Mother and Jenivere. Mother is a specialist in telepathy while Jen and you both have a talent for that discipline and she has a strong enough will that the difference in power is mostly minimised. You enjoy the training, both the challenge it provides you and learning under Mother though Jen's eagerness to get to the point where is capable of puppeteering Mother is unnerving. You get why she wants that because it is one of the heights of telepathy and a lack of willing test subjects means that Mother is your primary target in training, but it is still really weird.

And creepy. At least Mother took it for what Jenivere really meant, but Warp damn it, Jen just doesn't get how creepy she comes to regular people at times. She might be the most powerful psyker on the planet, but your girlfriend has her blindspots and you might not always be there to bail her out of trouble.

***​

You don't know whether to call it fortune or misfortune that you were visiting Mum on her ship when the Ork fleet arrived in-system, but in hindsight, it was certainly to the benefit of the Federation.

You were aboard the FNS Pendragon, an Apocalypse-class Battleship, as Mum got command of the Federal Navy's last remaining battleship after her previous captain got shuffled down to headquarters. Normally you wouldn't be allowed to visit, but you are anything but normal and quite persuasive besides.

"Ma'am, we have multiple contacts coming out of warp on our sensor arrays," reports one of the bridge crew.

"Who are they?" demands Mum as she switches from explaining some things to you to being the captain of the FNS Pendragon.

"We don't know-Orks!" says the watchstander, "Captain! We are identifying some of the new contacts as probable Ork vessels. We won't know for certain until they get closer, but AI analysis indicates that there is an eighty to ninety percent chance of it being an Ork fleet."

"Captain Artorius!" shouts another watchstander, "We are getting a ping from one of the contacts. It's claiming to be the Camelot."

"Did we receive a message or…?" inquires Mum.

"Just an identification ping getting a response back, Ma'am," replies the watchstander.

As the conversation goes on, you call up what you know about the FNS Camelot. The Emperor-class Battleship used to be the Federal Navy's other battleship, but the Camelot was captured a few years back during an ork raid that inflicted severe losses on the Federal Navy. You vaguely remember hearing about it at the time as you would have been three or four when the battle took place.

In anycase, it is borderline impossible for the Camelot to be back here for friendly purposes. Given that it was captured by the Orks and it looks like it has arrived as part of a massive Ork fleet, there is only one plausible option for why the Camelot has returned to the Bladus system.

"All ships to battle stations," orders Mum, "We have an Ork fleet inbound."

As Mum goes about her job and the crew rushes about to carry out their duties, you slink off, using a bit of telepathy to keep anybody from noticing you as you leave to find the marines. You might be skilled at naval warfare, but you aren't a trained professional and you have no place amongst the crew. Meanwhile you are a supersoldier and while there might not be any power armour that fits you, you don't exactly need it and you can heft a lascannon as easily as someone can heft a lasgun. Given that the Orks have a preference for boarding and close combat, you have no doubt that the Pendragon's defenders could use someone like you in their ranks.

It doesn't take much effort to convince the contingent of Federal Marines aboard the Pendragon to let you join their ranks. They know just how deadly Orks can be up close and just how willing the greenskins are to get up close. As you predicted, they don't have any power armour for someone of your stature, but you find yourself chugging a spare lascannon with ease.

And until the Orks get close enough to board, you are left watching the battle.

It goes well initially as the Pendragon and Percival fire overlapping nova cannons against a cluster of unknown contacts, causing four of them to explode as those unidentified contacts turn out to be an escort squadron.

A second volley of nova cannon fires proves to be even more effective than the first, taking out a full seven of the Ork escorts. Meanwhile the spread of torpedoes from the Lancelot and Galahad prove far less effective, taking out only a single Ork ship between them as the other torpedoes either miss or are shot out of the void by point defence turrets.

A dozen Ork escorts are already destroyed as they enter plasma-macro range and only one of those was to torpedoes, the rest dying to nova cannons. You'll remember that.

As the two fleets close, long-ranged broadsides are unleashed. Unfortunately, the distance is still big enough that only one more Ork escort is blown to pieces while one of the Federal Navy's Sword-class Frigates is taken out by the Camelot, the battleship now having been revealed to have been orkified by its thieves.

As the warships continue to close with each other, more firepower is brought to bear and with greater accuracy. Three more Ork escorts are lost alongside a pair of Sword frigates, but an Ork kill kroozer is left as a drifting hulk and a second takes meaningful damage. A victory that is soured by the fact that the Lancelot's void shields are brought down and her hull is damaged. That and a second volley of torpedoes completely whiffs as all of the torpedoes either miss their mark or get taken out by turrets.

The battle closes to boarding range even as more broadsides and other guns continue to fire. The Galahd is damaged by Ork guns and another pair of Swords go down, but the Pendragon tears apart a kill kroozer and a second is finished off by the Lancelot and Galahad working together whilst four more Ork escorts are taken out, severely depleting their remaining supply of those. And a third kill kroozer is crippled as both the Pendragon and the Percival managed to line up their nova cannons at the rearmost Ork warship, hitting it hard enough that if its void shields hadn't still been up, the kill kroozer would have been outright destroyed.

And it is at that point that the tides of the battle turn as the Ork fleet finally gets into a position to commerce boarding operations. The Camelot comes up alongside the Pendragon while the surviving kill kroozers converge on the cruisers of the Federal Navy.

With Orks swarming aboard the Pendragon, you don't have time to continue watching the battle as the time for action has come. You go with your assigned group of marines as the Orks rampage through the Apocalypse-class Battleship. As the greenskin warriors fall upon you, you hold your ground as you blast the biggest ones with your lascannon whilst the marines around you kill the smaller ones before they can close.

Then Warboss Mugshredda himself, a towering slab of bulging green muscle who stands as tall as you do, shows up with his retinue, who are smaller than their boss, but still larger than the regular Ork.

"Hey big 'umie, I hear yer been stomp'n' ma Boyz," calls the warboss as he points his set of giant metal claws at you, "I iz Warboss Mugshredda an' iz time for me ta kill yer."

"You are welcome to try Ork!" you shout back as you fire the lascannon at him and he laughs as you blast away a member of his retinue

"I see yer got some fight 'n yer 'umie," roars the warboss with amusement rather than anger, "Tie ta see how well ya die. Waaagh!"

He rushes at you and you open fire again. Mugshredda ducks out of the way as he unloads into you, letting you strike one of the large Orks behind him while his rounds bruise and cut your body.

You try to move back as the warboss rips apart a marine who has the misfortune to be between yourself and Mugshredda. The poor man doesn't stand a chance as those iron claws take him apart.

You attempt to fire again, but your lascannon doesn't finish recharging before Mugshredda is upon you. He smacks your weapon aside and laughs as those nasty oversized claws of his tear into your side, rending the flesh apart.

The warboss continues to laugh as he tosses you aside, sending you flying into the bulkhead. You fall to the ground with a grunt as your side burns with pain and bleeding away from the lethal damage done. Except you decide it isn't that lethal as you let fury and defiance rise inside you. As the remaining Orks begin to slaughter their way through the surviving marines that were with you, you get to your feet.

"Mugshredda!" You roar as you run at the warboss, slapping an Ork that is in your way back down the corridor of the Pendragon, "I'm not done with you, Ork!"

"Wot 'da," starts Mugshredda as he turns to face you, "'umie, ya're supposed ta be dead!"

"I am not so easily slain!" you shout back as you reach him.

Before he can bring those claws to bear upon you again, you grab the two cables hanging out of it, one with each hand, and pull hard, yanking them out.

"Ma klaw!" shouts Mugshredda as he glares at you while his metal claws go limp, but you don't give him the chance to react.

Instead you punch him in the face as hard as you can and while his face doesn't cave in like it would with a human, the Ork warboss does go stumbling backwards.

"Die Ork!" you roar as you kick his knee and you feel something break as your foot stings with fleeting pain.

As Mugshredda howls with pain, you punch him in the face again. And then when he doesn't go down, you do so for a third time and this time, his skull gives way, yielding before your furious fist.

There is silence as both sides of the fighting have paused in shock as you beat the Ork warboss to death with your bare hands after he inflicted what should have been a killing blow on you. You don't give the greenskins the chance to recover as you punch the closest Ork in the face and roll to the side. You grab your lascannon and fire it as you come back up, blasting another of Mugshredda's retinue. At that, the Ork morale breaks as they begin to flee back the way they came.

"Come on!" you shout at the dumbstruck marines that survived, about half of those who originally stood with you, "Let's drive these Orks back to where they came from. For the Federation!"

After that, things are a blur as you leap a vicious and determined counterattack against the Ork boarders. The death of their warboss has left things shaky for the Ork raiders as their junior leadership begins to fight itself and you, the slayer of Mugshredda and a superhuman killing machine, leading a fierce counterattack breaks morale for the greenskins. Their assault comes to a halt and soon the Orks are fleeing back into the Camelot and you don't stop at the edge of the Pendragon.

The Orks are on the backfoot and you have no intention of giving them the chance to recover. You lead an impromptu attack on the Camelot, seeking to recapture the Emperor-class Battleship for the Federal Navy. While it should have been a hard fight at best and impossible at the worst, the Orks are just unprepared for you.

A good portion of the Orks aboard the battleship had died in the assault on the Pendragon and those that remained collapsed into infighting upon hearing about the death of Mugshredda. Instead of facing a united front, you just smash aside each group of resistance one by one. By the end of it, both the Pendragon and the Camelot are free of Orks and you have a chance to catch up on how the rest of the battle has gone.

Things have been a mixed bag. The battle has been won but only because the Orks effectively broke upon hearing about your slaying of Mugshredda. Until then they were winning with both the Lancelot and Galahad being overrun by Orks. Both cruisers survived as the Orks withdrew when the warboss died, but the warships have taken severe damage and the majority of their cews are dead.

The Percival was destroyed when its plasma drives overloaded, completely destroying the cruiser and everyone aboard. The only saving grace is that the resulting explosion also took out the kill kroozer that was boarding it for a mutual kill between the two warships.

The battle between the escorts went much better as with relatively equal numbers, the Sword frigates slaughtered their Ork counterparts. Half a dozen Ork escorts were destroyed in exchange for a couple from the Federal Navy. Only a couple survived and those two were destroyed when the Orks made their flight. The surviving kill kroozers made their warp jumps, but their escorts weren't so lucky.

Which left the tattered remnants of the Federal Navy to pick up the pieces. Half of the Sword-class Frigates had been lost in the fighting and the Percival was completely gone with no chance for salvage. The Camelot had been reclaimed, but she and the other three capital ships in the Federal Navy were crippled with most of their crews dead. In the case of the Camelot, she didn't even have a proper crew, just a hastily put together skeleton crew from the Pendragon.

This battle has been a mess, the Navy is in shambles and the Federation of Bladus needs to do something about it if it is to survive.

***​

At just under eleven years old, you find yourself both a war hero and the captain of a battleship in the Federal Navy. Not bad even if you had a ton of unfair advantages.

In the aftermath of the failed Ork attack, you were yourself catapulted into fame and authority. With the Federal Navy having suffered extensive losses including over half of their combat personnel, they were happy to have you sign up, especially given your role in repelling the Orks. Neither Mum or Mother were happy with it or you for doing it, but they weren't in a position to stop you either and it was easy enough to convince High Command to give you captainship of the FNS Camelot.

The Emperor-class Battleship was only part of the Federal Navy again thanks to you even if it would be months before it was in functional shape again. Sure, a bunch of other officers were being passed over in favour of you, perhaps even unfairly, but you were the acting captain of the Camelot and you had little difficulty making that position permanent. It wasn't like you weren't qualified for the world and both the Lancelot and the Galahad needed new captains.

So as the captain of the FNS Camelot, the hero of the battle and saviour of the Federation, you stand before the parliament to sway them on the behalf of the Federal Navy. Because the navy needs more funding and you cannot afford to let parliament get complacent just because victory was won this time.

No plan voting.

What does Drake convince parliament to do?
[] Fund the construction of a Gloriana-class Battleship.
[] Fund the construction of several Promethean-class Cruisers.
[] Fund the construction of many Tiamat-class Destroyers.
[] Fund the construction of a few Promethean-class Cruisers and several Tiamat-class Destroyers.

Where does Drake focus his self-improvement?
[] Personal Combat
[] Naval Combat
[] Telepathy
[] Divination.
[] Governance.
[] Engineering

***​

Well, this time was longer than I usually do things. I blame the big battle. That took up a lot of words. Anyway, we get introduced to Jenivere while Drake has his first battle and joins the navy. Anyway, the Perils of the Warp were Psy-Blast for what Jenivere experienced whilst what happened between Drake's parents was Vice Versa.

For the same battle, I rolled it out on Discord. Basically, the nova cannons rolled high whilst the torpedoes rolled low so while it isn't fair or a reasoned analysis, this battle has had a formative experience on Drake and he is a convert to the Cult of the Nova Cannon. Beyond that, the Feds did while until the Orks got within boarding range and then kicked arse.

Fortunately, the Feds had a Primarch up their sleeves and Drake beat the arse of the warboss in a fight was far from pre-determined. He wouldn't have died, but Drake could have lost that battle with Mudshredda and gotten a permanent reminder. As things were, he kicked butt and now he has signed up with the navy and gotten his own battleship.

As for the vote, it is a simple one and it is unconnected enough that I am not going to complicate it by turning it into a plan vote.

Please point out any spelling or grammar mistakes that you spot. Please quote them in the thread and explain what you think is wrong so I know what you are referring to.

 

[Oshha]

[X] Fund the construction of a few Promethean-class Cruisers and several Tiamat-class Destroyers.
[X] Naval Combat

"You're a reckless fool," says Mum as we have a private meeting aboard the FNS Pendragon.

"Is that mother to son or admiral to captain?" you inquire because as part of the reorganisation of the Federal Navy, Mum got promoted to admiral and put in charge of what remained of the fleet.

"It should be mother to son because you shouldn't be in the navy let alone a captain," replies Mum, "You're twelve, Drake. Twelve!"

"We both know that I am not normal and never was," you reply, "You know that I am more than capable for the job."

"You have a book education of the job," retorts Mum, "You don't know the ins and outs of the job because you didn't rise through the ranks. You just showed up and sweet talked your way into the job."

"I killed Mugshredda and led the counterboarding of the Camelot," you counter, "I proved myself a leader."

"That's not the-God damn it, Drake," says Mum as she slumps back in her seat, "I've just started taking rejuvenat, I don't need you stressing me out like this. No offence, Drake, but once you're older, I'm going to talk Irene into adopting a nice normal kid."

"None taken," you reply, "I wouldn't mind a little sister or brother."

"Glad to hear it," says Mum before sighing, "How is the Camelot doing?"

"We're still undoing all of the damage done by the Orks," you answer promptly and without hesitation, "The structure is intact, but they did a number on the systems, especially the weapons, in an attempt to Orkified them. We have the prow and dorsal batteries back online, but the broadsides are still disabled, not all of the turrets have been restored and we have yet to receive our bomber complement."

"Good to see that the old girl is coming along nicely," says Mum, "Speaking of girls, how is Jenivere doing with your absence?"

"She is looking into starting college in the next academic year," you answer as you recall your last conversation with your girlfriend a couple days ago, "Courses like biology to help with her psyker powers. Getting the scientific knowledge to make more precise and effective use of her abilities rather than trying to brute force it with raw power."

"Probably for the best," comments Mum, "Psykers are especially dangerous when they don't know what they are doing."

"Didn't you marry one?" you point out.

"Irene knows what she is doing," replies Mum, "The same cannot be said of Jenivere, at least not right now. Frankly, the girl is only getting away with as much as she has because no one has been permanently hurt and the government is hesitant to antagonise a psyker of her power. And in the case of her sister, claiming that nobody got permanently hurt is stretching things."

"Ellen made a full recovery," you protest, feeling the need to defend your girlfriend.

"She lost two or three years out of it," retorts Mum, "And while that might not be a big deal when you are an adult, it might even be desirable, but when you are still in school that is a big deal. Especially since, you know, she had to go through puberty again."

"That was literally her first time using her powers and she hasn't had any slip ups since then," you point out.

"Debatable," starts Mum when she stops all of a sudden, "Damn it, a Dominion Fleet just warped in. Looks like a big one too."

"Damn it," you say because that is some very bad news.

The Chronus Dominion is the biggest threat to the Federation of Bladus apart from the Orks of the Rachi system. Located in the neighbouring system of Chronus, a mere four lightyears away, the Dominion is close enough that a warp jump can be made safely provided there are no warp storms around. That would be ideal for some interstellar trading except the Chronus Dominion is an expansion autocracy ruled by an aristocracy that harbours imperialist ambitions.

Instead of a trade partner, the Federation has a rival for dominance of the sub-sector. Well, a second rival as the Orks in the Rachi system are a threat to both the Federation of Bladus and the Chronus Dominion. If the Chronus Dominion has sent a fleet here, they must be seeking to capitalise on the weakened state that Mugshredda left you in.

"I've got to get back to the Camelot," you tell Mum.

"Go!" she orders you and the two of you walk to the door together before she heads to the bridge of the Pendragon while you go for the closest hangar bay to catch a shuttle.

By the time the Dominion fleet has been identified, you are back aboard the FNS Camelot and ready for battle. Half the weapons may still be offline, the crew is mostly green and half of the squadrons are missing, but the Camelot is still a battleship of the Federal Navy. If the enemy wants victory this day, you'll make them bleed for it.

The systems for you to electronically connect to the Camelot's haven't been fixed yet, but you don't really need them. Which is part of why they haven't been repaired as you are smart enough to work around lacking the standard implants and if you're honest, you aren't entirely sure that they would work on you. Not without some degree of customisation anyway and nobody has had time for that, not when the shipwrights were still repairing the damage done by the Orks.

Instead you'll have to settle for doing things the very old fashioned way, relying upon reading your positions and directing your subordinates via vocal and typed commands.

As you settle into your command chair, you watch the unfolding battle without having any say in it. The initial actions are taking place while the distance is still too far for the Camelot to get involved with nova cannon exchanges taking place whilst the four Tiamat-class Destroyer in service zoom out to get some early data on the Dominion fleet.

And they do an excellent job of scouting, saying split up as they get just close enough to get some decent scans on the invading fleet, getting accurate sensor pings on each one.

It turns out that the Chronus Dominion has sent quite the substantial fleet against the Federation. The invaders have two battleships of their own, an Emperor and Apocalypse to match what the Federal Navy can muster. Meanwhile they have five cruisers and sixteen frigates, an even split between the more modern Sword-class and the older Havoc-class.

Compared to what the Federal Navy can currently muster, you don't fancy your chances. The Federal warships are undoubtedly built with superior technology, but your crews are still too fresh and neither the new build up or the repair work from Mugshredda's attack are finished yet. The Camelot is still damaged and you hope the technological edge is enough to make up for that. The escorts are in a similar situation as between four Tiamats and nine Swords, the Dominion fleet has the quantity advantage even if the Federal Navy has the quality advantage.

Unfortunately the circumstances around the cruisers are just bad. The Lancelot has received minimal repair work with other warships being given priority while her crew has been transferred to other ships and all three Prometheans are still under construction. The Galahad has been rebuilt with her torpedoes replaced with a nova cannon to make up for the one lost with the Pervical, but given that the Tiamats are reporting two of the enemy cruisers are sprouting nova cannons, that just mean you have two to the invaders' three.

If only this attack had happened in a year or two. The Camelot would be fully repaired, work would have begun on the Lancelot, the last two Tiamat-class Destroyers would have entered service and at least one of the Promethean-class Cruisers would be completed and crewed. Of course, that is why the Chronus Dominion has chosen to strike now and you don't need divination to know that the Dominion hopes to strike at least a major blow against the Federation whilst it is still in recovery mode from the latest Ork attack.

Hopefully the Dominion's plans won't come to fruition and the opening moves of the fight are positive in that regard. The Dominion warships end up only damaging a single Tiamat-class Destroyer with a couple of glancing nova cannon shots whilst the Pendragon and Galahad successfully get overlapping shots on an enemy Sword-class Frigate squadron, destroying all three enemy warships. And then there are those torpedoes from the three Dominion cruisers lacking nova cannons.

"Launch all squadrons to intercept those torpedoes," you order, "I don't want any of them reaching the fleet."

The next set of volleys see similar results to the first with another pair of Dominion Swords getting taken out whilst the damaged Tiamat-class Destroyer is finished off, getting hit hard enough that an undamaged Tiamat would have been destroyed outright. Meanwhile all of the Dominion torpedoes are destroyed with the Camelot's fighters returning home to refuel and rearm, hopefully in time to intercept whatever new ordinance the Dommies throw at them. Alas you don't have time to focus on that as the distances have closed enough for plasma-marcos and long-ranged lances fire to be exchanged.

"Target the closest cruiser with a nova cannon," you order as the plasma-marco cannons of the Camelot get ready to open fire.

As both battleships and the Tiamats open fire, the Dominion fleet takes a pounding. Unerringly accurate targeting from the Pendragon sees a Dominion cruiser reduced to a hulk while your own Camelot gives another enemy cruiser pounding and while you don't finish it off, you do ravage the prow and disable its nova cannon. The surviving trio of Tiamat-class Destroyers seem similar success as they harass a third Dominion cruiser at the rear, knocking out its primary engines.

Unfortunately, that is where the battle stops going entirely in the Federal Navy's favour. The nova cannons on the Pendragon and Galahad are unable to get a clear shot, but the Dommie Apocalypse-class Battleship is able to smash a Federal Sword with a direct hit from its nova cannon and knock out the void shields on two others. Meanwhile the closer range broadsides sees the Dominion fleet finally being able to bring its superior numbers to bear as the invaders pound away at the fleet, including your own ship.

A glance at the wider battle shows that the Galahad has lost her shields and is suffering hull damage, but you have little time for that yourself. The Camelot is taking an even worse beating and it is a miracle that the old lady is still fit for battle. The Camelot is down to less than a quarter of her full armament and half of her launch bays have been smashed. At least you launched the fighter squadrons again so if they die, they will do so fighting rather than being killed when their hangars are torn apart by enemy lances or macros.

And it turns out to be a good thing that you launch your squadrons as your fighters swiftly intercept the assault boats launched by the Dommie Emperor-class. Between your pilots and the defensive turrets, it looks like all of the enemy assault boats will be shot down before they can reach the Pendragon, but you don't have time to follow that. The Camelot has her boarders of her own to worry about and given the current state of the ship, you'll be doing more good fighting them off than commanding from the bridge.

Running through the halls to the closest armoury, you decide to grab an assault cannon rather than a lascannon this time around. While the Orks can be pretty tough, the soldiers of the Chronus Dominion are less so as they are just fellow humans and unlike the Federal Marines, they lack power armour and have to rely upon lesser armour. Lesser armour that an assault cannon can rip through like it is nothing.

And of course you have some power armour of your own this time around. While none of the regular sizes fit you, it was trivial to get a custom-built set as a battleship captain. Or at least it felt trivial given how quickly you got things sorted.

As the boarding action gets underway, it doesn't take you long to find and engage the enemy. With a couple squads at your back, you make your way to the closest major firefight where a mixed defence of marines and crew are attempting to hold back a mass assault by the Dommies.

"The Federation!" you cry as you open fire into the Dominion lines, the marines with you echoing your battle cry

The boarders are unprepared for you. A hulking giant who is carrying a heavy weapon with ease and contrary to stereotype, you are not slow or lacking in agility. You dance across the battlefield, moving faster than any human has the right to and laying down firepower with inhuman reaction times. The enemy dies in droves before you and that causes morale to break, something that makes the situation even worse for the Dommies because they no longer have the advantage of cover as they flee back the way they came.

The rest of the battle goes similarly as you systematically route out the closest spots of enemy resistances, pausing only to pick a new weapon when your assault cannon runs out of ammo. The Dominion forces have no counter for you, the human death machine that is ripping apart their forces, and with you picking apart their assault force, the marines aboard the Camelot are able to overwhelm the Dominion assault. As the surviving boarders flee back to their assault pods, you take a moment to pull up an overview of the battle on the closest functional terminal.

To be blunt, the battle isn't going well. The Galahad didn't fare nearly as well as the Camelot against her own set of boarders with the Federal cruiser having fallen to Dominion hands. As for the rest of the fighting, the Dominion has lost a couple more escorts, but the Federal Navy has lost twice that. The Pendragon is moving to reclaim the Galahad with her marine complement and the enemy Apocalypse-class Battleship has been identified as the enemy flagship.

The Dommies aren't Orks, they won't fall apart if you take out their leadership. Yet they are human and if you take out their admiral, their morale and hopefully competence will suffer. There is always the chance that they have an idiot in charge and their second in command will be more capable, but this attack has been competent enough that you doubt that is the case here.

After making your way to the closest teleportarium, you and your impromptu Federal Marine strike force are forced to wait for the Dominion flagship's voids to be brought down. Whilst not an easy task even with the full armament of a battleship, your saving grace here is that the enemy battleship's shields are already low, having not quite been brought down yet. With the close range making for accurate targeting by the Camelot's few remaining members, it isn't long before you are hurtling across the warp, hoping that you land successfully without any mishaps.

And you do, at least personally. A few marines with you don't, failing to reform properly or materialising in the bulkheads or decking. But you have enough surviving to form a decent boarding party and the defenders are already depleted from their own boarding actions. Armed with a mere lasgun, you still prove effective as you tear through the Dominion crew and soldiers along with whatever hastily put up defences they have.

The upside to the Chronus Dominion using the same ship designs as the Federation of Bladus is that you know where you are going. You battle your way through halls and rooms, inflicting more casualties than you take, but slowly taking losses. By the time you have reached the battleship's command centre, your boarding party is down to half of its original size.

You use our meltaguns and remaining melta bombs to breach the blast doors, where you find our toughest fight yet. It turns out that the enemy flagship has a squad or so of elite troops and for some reason, the enemy admiral has kept them as his personal bodyguard rather than send them to stop you. Equipped with power armour of their own and armed with plasma weapons, these Dominion soldiers are more than a match for your marines.

But not for you. Shrugging a bolt of plasma to the shoulder with nothing more than determination and a wince of pain, you charge forth, switching from using your lasgun as a gun to using it as an improvised club. You swing it into the closest enemy soldier, obliterating half of your lasgun to cave in their helmet with the sheer force behind your attack.

Tossing your broken weapon aside, you ignore the battle to kill as many of the enemy as you can before your comrades are finished off. Drawing a power knife that is more of a short sword if it was wielded by someone of a more normal stature, you rush the next closest enemy elite, stabbing them in the chest before they can finish bringing their plasma rifle to bear upon you.

Your third foe is a regular member of the bridge crew, one who apparently has enough courage to attack the most dangerous opponent. Not that it does him much good when you pulverise his unprotected chest with a single punch. Your fourth target is another plasma-trotting power armoured elite and unlike the previous two, this one is able to get off a shot.

The plasma strikes your helmet, blowing half of it away and burning your face. More than enough to kill a regular human, but you are far from ordinary as you toss the melted remains of your now useless helmet aside. You rip the plasma gun away from the Dominion soldier with one hand and then grab them by the neck with your other hand. You squeeze as hard as you can before tossing the corpse aside as you look for your next victim.

You spot the enemy admiral, decked out in an excessively ostentatious uniform that easily goes deep into the realm of gaudy. Unfortunately, some of what he is packing has some functional purpose as a shot from one of your marines reveals that the Dominion admiral is protected by either a conversion field or a less reliable refractor field.

Surging forwards, you stab at the enemy leader with your power knife. Your attack goes strong only to be paused by an invisible field. Pausing for only a moment, you switch to a different strategy by punching him in the gut. Your fist is held for a punch before hitting the Dommie admiral in the gut. Not with enough force to kill him after you were slowed down, but it is enough to break the field and you stab them again. Then you stab a couple more times to make sure that the admiral is down.

As the admiral's corpse drops to the ground, you look around for your next target only to see the battle is effectively over. The enemy elite troops are down and the last of the bridge crew are being put down with none of them surrendering. With a brief respite and knowledge of the controls of a Apocalypse-class Battleship, you take a moment to see how the battle is faring and you barely avoid wincing.
The Camelot is a crippled warship, but both she and the Pendragon are still in the fight. The Galahad hasn't been reclaimed and reinforcement from the Dominion warships have seen the marines from the Pendragon thrown back. A Tiamat has been boarded and captured whilst the enemy nova cannons, torpedoes and bombers have all targeted the shipyards.

The ancient shipyards dating back to the time of the Confederation remain intact, but they aren't untouched. Both nova cannon shots dealt damage to the structure and while the torpedoes were all shot down, enough bombers made it through to inflict further damage. Not enough to cripple or destroy the shipyards, but enough that it will slow down the rebuilding and expansion of the Federal Navy. Another victory for the Chronus Dominion this day.

At least you have a victory of your own by taking out the Dominion admiral. Unfortunately your triumph is not without cost as of the original forty marines who came with you, only four remain. Thankfully, your mission has concluded successfully so you can return to the Camelot with your meagre survivors.

"This is Captain Artorius," you call your own ship using the Dominion flagship's communication, "We have eliminated the enemy admiral and require teleportation back to the Camelot."

"Yes sir," comes the reply and you wait.

You wait for a few more seconds as nothing continues to happen before deciding to make another call.

"Camelot?" you say inquiringly.

"Sorry sir, but the enemy's void shields are still online," reports the person on the other end, "We can't get you out until they are down and we don't have the firepower left to do that. Things are bad out here."

"Understood, just teleport us out as soon as the shields go down," you tell them before turning to your handful of surviving marines, "Alright, this ship's shields are still up and we can't get back until they go down. So here is the plan, we are going to take out the generator. If we do, the shields go down and we get teleported out and the enemy flagship is crippled. The odds may not look good, but we've taken down the enemy leader and his elites. The remaining resistance will be lesser and our actions will protect our homes and families."

You know that you aren't being entirely truthful if by what you haven't said more than what you have said. The odds of anyone surviving this plan are slim and the only real chance of success is hoping that the Federal Navy brings down the void shields so the Camelot can teleport you back. But even a false hope is still hope and the remaining marines look optimistic as they turn to you.

The endeavour goes as badly as you suspected it would. You lose a marine to the first fight, get through a second without further casualties only to lose another two in the third engagement. Your last marine dies taking a shot meant for you and you don't know if her sacrifice meant something or not because you suspect that the shot that killed her wouldn't have proven lethal to you.

And then everything goes wrong as the Dominion fleet jumps to the warp. Apparently having done enough damage to satisfy them, the Dommies have decided to quit while they are ahead. You don't know what is going on out there, but your psyker senses are enough to tell you that the ship you are on is charging up its warp drive. You do your best to reach the generator in time, to take it out so the warp jump is stalled and you can be teleported out, but it is an impossible task, even for you.

The enemy battleship jumps to warp with you still aboard, leaving you to deal with that very unpleasant turn of events.

What does Drake do?
[] Fight on. Continue to fight the Chronus Dominion. You don't know if you are capable of overwhelming the entire crew on your own, but you aren't going down without a fight. Though continuing the battle while in the warp runs the risk of things going every wrong.
[] Lay low. Even you cannot fight the entire crew, not in your current state and not in the warp, where things have the potential to go very wrong. An Apocalypse-class Battleship with a depleted crew is a very big place and you are a psyker, find somewhere or some way to lay low until an opportunity presents itself.

***​

Sorry about how long this update took. I got busy in RL for a few days where I did no writing and then this update turned out to be longer than I was expecting. I'm used to doing between a thousand and two thousand works for quests or going up to three thousand for stories. Doing four thousand words? Throwing my expectations of how long updates will take to get done out of whack.

Anyway, the Chronus Dominion has made their debut on screen and while it hasn't been a total success for them, they have achieved their minimum goals and kept casualties within acceptable margins. Meanwhile the Federation of Bladus took another unwanted pounding and Drake is trapped on an enemy warship.

Please point out any spelling or grammar mistakes that you spot. Please quote them in the thread and explain what you think is wrong so I know what you are referring to.

 

[Xepheria]

move along

I already accepted that fighters are able to shoot down Torpedoes. What I complained about is that if that is the case, why doesn't the ship have a combat patrol of fighters waiting fr such missiles, the minute the fight starts? Why does it only launch them after the missiles are already underway? Every conceit staying the same, I don't see how that wouldn't be more efficient.

Click to shrink...

The questmaster has asked for this topic to stop.

It's going to stop here, or I'll start tossing people from the thread.

 

[Oshha]

[X] Lay low. Even you cannot fight the entire crew, not in your current state and not in the warp, where things have the potential to go very wrong. An Apocalypse-class Battleship with a depleted crew is a very big place and you are a psyker, find somewhere or some way to lay low until an opportunity presents itself.

You are alone, injured and in the warp heading away from friendly territory to enemy space. If you could defeat the entire crew of the enemy flagship, then what? You wouldn't be in any shape to take on the rest of the Chronus Dominion and it wouldn't get you any closer to returning to Bladus.

No, you need to lay low and avoid attention. Perhaps even try to blend into the crowd if you can though given your stature, that is something of a nonstarter. Or is it?

Your speciality is telepathy like your mother when it comes to psyker abilities, but Jenivere's is biomancy and you've seen her use her abilities plenty of times before. In particular, you're seen her make use of shape flesh on many occasions with varying levels of success. You have some basic grounding in biomancy and if you try to copy Jen's technique, well, it is worth a shot.

You draw upon the power of the warp and turn it upon yourself. You wince as your body is painfully reshaped and compressed into a foreign form, but you keep your focus if just barely and grit your teeth instead of crying out in pain. Your plan works, but just barely as you cling to your grip on the power of the warp. It almost slips through your grasp yet in the end, you succeed. Or rather you don't fail as your success is fair from complete as you feel wrong, your old body forcefully jammed into an ill-fitting body. It isn't pain, but every part of your body feels uncomfortable and a low level of discomfort passively clings to you.

As you push off your now oversized power armour, you realise that your mistakes have gone further than you initially realised if in the sense of things going too right. As you push a lock of red hair out of the way to look down at the two mounds upon your chest, you realise that you have too much of a good job at copying your girlfriend.

Jen will almost certainly find your current situation to be cool or amusing if not both, but right now, you are more concerned about staying alive than the fact you've taken on the physical appearance of Jenivere. Ignoring the rather feminine grunt of effort as you climb out of your undersuit that is far too big for you despite its clinging nature, you look for some fresh clothing amongst the slain crew members.

Thankfully you find some intact clothing between the various corpses. Some ill-fitting legs, a shirt that is a little too loose and a pair of boots that are uncomfortable tight on your feet. And all in time for a squad of Dominion soldiers to show up.

"What happened here?" demands their apparent leader as they look around, seeing you, a lot of dead crew, a dead Federal Marine and your now empty armour.

"They killed a bunch of us, we killed one of them and then the last one, the big one, exploded all magic-like," you answer quickly, trying to sound earnest and honest, but your new voice is throwing you off, "I was the only survivor."

"Well, you survived," says the leader.

"We don't have to die fighting that monster," mutters one of the others and their leader snaps their head around to glare in the direction of the speaker.

"Shut your foodhole!" shouts the leader, "We're proud soldiers of the Chronus Dominion. We don't lose and we fear no one."

"Didn't we just flee the battle?" asks someone else.

"I said, shut up!" shouts the leader as he tears around to glare at the second speaker.

"Can I go?" you inquire, "I'm not comfortable listening to all of this dissent."

"Now look at what you worthless gits have done?" roars the leader, "You've-gak!"

The squad leader doesn't get to finish speaking as one of them blasts him with their lasguns. The man staggers backwards and begins to raise his own weapon, but a couple more shots finish him off. You don't see what happens next because by that point, you have already slunk away, using her telepathy to nudge the squad of Dominion soldiers from noticing you leaving.

Hurriedly walking away, you decide that Dominion Navy is not the bastion of professionalism and competence that the Federal Navy is. You weren't sure what you were expecting, but that little display just then is a clear sign of lower standards. You know that it isn't just because you've been kept away from the wrong parts of the Federal Navy because you've met and spoken with enough members of the Federal Navy to know that murdering a superior like that would be unthinkable. You aren't going to proclaim it would never happen, but you wouldn't have an entire squad of soldiers just stand by as one of their own murdered another.

***​

As you settle into the life of being a sailor in the Dominion Navy, you quickly learn a fair bit about the primary rival to the Federation of Bladus. You knew that your imperialist neighbour was a neo-feudal state and had enough of a military to rival the Federation, but you are getting your first exposure to the details of that.

And the biggest thing that stands out to you is that the Chronus Dominion treats its navy like crap. While the Dominion considers its navy to be vital for its ambitions of ruling an interstellar empire, actually serving in the navy is deemed to be highly undesirable with those that do being looked down upon rather than respected. Even for the nobility that act as officers, the navy is a dumping ground to get rid of unwanted members of the family.

Which leads to another difference between the Federation of Bladus and the Chronus Dominion, the existence of noble houses in the latter. You had learnt that it is more than just elected positions being inherited, you hadn't truly grasped what that meant until now. The majority of the officer corps in the Dominion Navy and the only reason it isn't fully made up of nobles is that there aren't enough to go around.

By the warp, these nobles are a bunch of asshats. They aren't universally bad, but after a few days of blending in with the crew of the DNS Regalas, you have found the nobility to be arrogant, self-absorbed and far more concerned with trotting about like peacocks than being competent at their jobs.

So far you've been able to avoid their attention, but you have no doubt that sooner or later you are going to end up throttling one of these puffed up morons. No wonder the Chronus Dominion is less technologically advanced if this is the calibre of leadership that they have. Speaking of which, you have swiftly come to the conclusion that despite using the same designs as the Federal Navy, it is painfully obvious that the Dominion Navy only won due to superior numbers.

Just take the DNS Regalas and compare it to the FNS Pendragon. Both are Apocalypse-class Battleships, but where the Pendragon is worthy of the Confederation, the Regalas is not. Slower engines, inferior sensors, weaker shields with slower recharge and a lack of automated systems impairs various things such as the maximum range of marco weaponry and the accuracy of them. Not to mention that the Regalas has a significantly higher crew count as the Chronus Dominion has stuffed more bodies into the ship to compensate for a lack of automated systems, which in turn leads to more compromises to the warship to accommodate the much larger crew.

It is an accursed mess and more than once you've been tripped up by the alterations that the Dominion has made to the poor warship. How its machine spirit must howl at the degraded state that the Chronus Dominion has left it in.

As for yourself, you've been spending your time pretending to be part of the crew. Keeping your disguised form is fairly trivial if extremely discomfiting though you don't dare make a second attempt at a disguise given how the first attempt almost failed. Fortunately, things have been too bad as you have enough knowledge of the ship that you were determined to be one of the non-noble officers aboard the ship.

It isn't a high position of command, but it is one and in the Dominion Navy, that is the difference between sharing a room with half a dozen ladies or sharing a cramped room with a hundred or so men and women. Given the poor discipline of the Dominion Navy, you are thankful that you don't find yourself in the latter as while you don't worry for your own fate, you are certain that something would happen where your morals would force you to break your cover and intervene.

You also find things different and you aren't sure if it is because the Chronus Dominion is just a terrible place or because you aren't used to being treated like a normal human. You get given clothing from a set of standardised sizes that don't quite fit properly, but that might just be because in Jen's form, you are small enough that you can use standard sizes. Even back on Excalibur, you wouldn't have everything custom fitted to you if you weren't large enough that no ordinary clothing fitted you.

There is also the treatment you receive and while you are definitely treated definitely, it is hard to tell where the attitude towards an apparently normal human ends and where the attitudes of the Chronus Dominion in particular begin. If, no, once you get back to the Federation, you'll have to try going incognito at home to see how you get treated when you appear to be a regular person rather than giant supersoldier.

Speaking of getting home, you are starting to get an idea of what that'll take and it is looking like you'll need to either wait for the next attack on the Bladus system and hitch a ride aboard one of the warships involved. That or try to get planetside and launch some kind of revolution. The Chronus Dominion must have some unrest amongst the lower classes if the navy is anything to go by and you could probably tap into that.

Alternatively, the Dominion Navy is a hotbed of unhappiness thanks to the Chronus Dominion treating the sailors like crap and pushing all of their undesirables in it. On the one hand, they have warships and a lot of firepower in their corner, but on the other, it is an unprofessional mess and a lot of dirtbags have ended up in the Dominion Navy.

Whatever you do, you better decide on it soon. Whilst they attacked Bladus, the Chronus Dominion conquered the Alanus and Solas systems, giving them control over half of the sub-sector. While Alanus and Solas aren't worth much with the former having regressed to a pre-industrial state and the latter losing spaceflight and most of its more advanced technology, it is another couple of systems for the Chronus Dominion to exploit. With the Federation of Bladus and the Orks of Rachi both in a state of temporary weakness, the Chronus Dominion has a rare opportunity to realise its ambitions of holding an interstellar empire and knocking out both of its immediate neighbours.

And you have no doubt that the Federation will take priority before the Orks. Not only is the Federation in a weaker state than the Orks, but given time, the Federation will outpace the Dominion. Not to mention that a human world with advanced technologies is a greater boon to the Chronus Dominion than an Ork-infested world that'll take at least a decade to fully purge.

What does Drake Artorius do?
[] Sneak Back. Drake will attempt to hitch a ride back when the Chronus Dominion next attacks the Federation of Bladus.
[] Planetary Revolution. Drake will attempt to get planetside and to stir up unrest against the nobility.
[] Naval Revolt. Drake will attempt to ferment a revolt by the Dominion Navy against the Chronus Dominion.

***​

Sorry about how long this update took. I was busy in RL and then I started to get mission creep for lack of better word as I started to turn Drake's undercover adventures into a multi-part arc. Since that would take too long and rapidly slow down the pace of the quest, I have cut that and we got straight to the next big thing. Hopefully we will soon get out of Drake's childhood and into the main turns I have planned.

Also this sub-arch will unlock some new training options for Drake in the future as the result of him having his horizons broadened.

Please point out any spelling or grammar mistakes that you spot. Please quote them in the thread and explain what you think is wrong so I know what you are referring to.

 

[Oshha]

[X] Naval Revolt. Drake will attempt to ferment a revolt by the Dominion Navy against the Chronus Dominion.

In the end, you go for trying to co opt the Dominion Navy. You don't have the time or knowledge to aim for a full takeover, but there is enough discontent that you can work with that. It should be enough and if you are being honest, you only really care about getting a ride back home. Sure, it would be desirable to hurt the Chronus Dominion, especially after how they hurt the Federal Navy, but you'll settle for making it back to the Bladus system.

You spent the next couple of months aboard the DNS Regalas building up support amongst her crew and the crews of other warships. Unfortunately, the Regalas is no longer the flagship of the Dominion Navy with that role going to its sole Emperor-class Battleship.

Nonetheless, your reach spreads far and low. You feel a bit uncomfortable using Jen's face for this as you aren't sure how it will impact your girlfriend's reputation down the line, but 'Artoria' has fledgling contacts in the Dominion Navy that Drake Artorius lacks. Not to mention that 'Artoria' fits in and has clothing that fits her, another two things that don't apply to your regular self.

You use your two months to prepare your rebellion against the Chronus Dominion, which is how long it takes for the worst of the battle damage to be repaired by the Dominion Navy. There is still plenty more work that needs doing, but none of it is anything major. It is also the minimum amount of time for the Dominion Navy to get back in shape for another assault on the Bladus system.

You highly doubt that they will go back so soon, but the risk is there and you don't want to worry your friends and family back home by spending too long in the Chronus system. Two months is long enough to set enough groundwork for a successful rebellion and once those months are up, you pull the trigger on the revolt.

***​

The rebellion is a mess and your followers are far from an optimal situation at the start. Fortunately, your opponents are in an even worse position and they have no idea of what is about to happen.

The initial basal is messy, very messy. A few warships outright declare for you, a couple of cruisers and a trio of escorts while another two cruisers and five escorts remain loyal to the Chronus Dominion. Unfortunately, the Galahad and the Lancer can be counted be counted amongst the latter, the cruiser and destroyer captured by the Dominion Navy during the last attack on the Bladus system.

While not unexpected given how closely the leadership of the Dominion was keeping their paws on those prizes, it bodes ill for you. You would really like those warships on your side and not just because of your desire to reclaim the warships that rightfully belong to the Federal Navy. Thanks to the successful retention of Confederate technology, the Federation builds its warships to a higher standard with superior technology. The Galahad could handily solo any other cruiser in the system whilst the Lancer can take on any three Dominion escorts and easily win.

On all of the other warships, there is fighting amongst the crew. Even aboard the Regalas there is fighting amongst the crew as they are forced to pick between your hopes and promises and loyalty to a state that distains and belittles them. Still, the captain of the Regalas, one Admiral Upperton, can be counted amongst your followers and with foreknowledge of your plans, she was able to ensure her command centre on this day would comprise solely of your supporters.

As such, you are able to begin giving out orders while the loyalist leadership is still struggling to get their wits about them as they are caught completely off-guard. You have your supporters target the enemy escorts as those targets are relatively easily destroyed and it ensures you are able to inflict some manner of blow against the Dominion Navy.

While other warships are dealing with infighting amongst their crews, the warships declared to you take out the majority of the initial loyalist escorts are wiped out with only the captured Tiamat surviving due to being too distant to engage. The Lancer has pulled back , but as warships begin to declare for one side or the other, you are able to pick apart another Sword and two Havoc, blowing them apart moments after their surviving crews transmit their loyalty to the Chronus Dominion.

And that is for the enemy frigates as the reminder side with you, broadcasting their support for your revolt. As expected, the your supporters aboard the Regalas emerged triumphant and the same occurs on another cruiser, but that is it. Loyalists win their battles on the other two battleships and technically a cruiser also declares for the loyalists, but her crew has been gutted to the point that the combat effectiveness of the warship is dubious. The last cruiser sides with neither loyalists or rebels, its crew having been wiped out during the fighting that took place aboard it.

You have a battleship, a trio of cruisers and nine frigates on your side while the enemy only has a pair of battleships and an equal number of cruisers. Normally that would be enough, but Dominion Navy has all of their planetary defences online and you haven't had time to even begin subverting any of those. You don't have the firepower to take on both the defences and the loyalist fleet so you begin your withdrawal to a distance where you can warp jump to the Bladus system.

Both the Emperor-class Battleship and the defensive stations are launching their squadrons even as the Dominion loyalists attempt to form up a battleline. Your defensive turrets to their best, but enough get through to pound two of your cruisers with plasma bombs and anti-shipping missiles, leaving both warships crippled.

More barrages and long-ranged firepower is exchanged as your warships make their escape. You lose a pair of Havoc-class Frigates, but you make the more than acceptable exchange of destroying an enemy cruiser. Your forces get far enough to begin charging their warp engines, but the enemy isn't far behind. The loyalists receive the brunt of the damage with both of their remaining cruisers taking meaningful amounts of hull damage, but their boarding actions proved to be more in their favour.

You don't see what happens as the Regalas enters the warp before the action is over, but teleport attacks, boarding pods and assault boats strike both of your crippled cruisers. The reports you are receiving from both warships paint the defence as going poorly and while you don't see them fail, judging from how their warp drives are suddenly shut down mid-charge, you doubt that either cruiser is getting away.

And with that the battle is over as you reach the relative safety of the warp. A major blow to the Chronus Dominion and its navy, crippling even depending how you look at it. They still have the forces to remain a threat, but the interstellar ambitions have been put to rest for now, straggled in the crib.

They still have a couple of battleships, five cruisers and a Tiamat-class Destroyer not to mention whatever forces they have stationed in the Alanus and Solas systems. And their losses were primarily escorts, the warship that is easiest to replace. Still, you got away with a battleship, a cruiser and seven frigates and cost them another cruiser in the process. It will take them time for them to make good on their losses and that is time that the Federation of Bladus can make use of to deal with their losses and expand the Federal Navy into something worthwhile.

Now you just have to explain some things to your followers. Like who you really are and what you actually look like.

***​

You arrived back at the Bladus system safely along with most of your fleet. As predicted, neither of the crippled and boarded cruisers made it out of the Chronus system, but for a while you feared you had lost a Sword as well only for it to show up a couple days later than expected.

You receive the welcome of a war hero, returning home from behind enemy lines with at least a third of the enemy fleet at your side. A battleship, a cruiser and several escorts is that the Federal Navy urgently needs right now. Down to a couple battleships and half a dozen escorts, the last two Tiamat-class Destroyers were expected to finish construction within the year, but that was it for the foreseeable future.

The Lancelot has been put into mothball as the damage to the shipyards means there won't be any opportunity to repair in the near future. The construction of all three Promethean-class Cruisers has been similarly delayed with their total construction time expected to take twice as long now. Any additional new builds have been delayed until the shipyards are fully repaired, which is expected to take a decade.

So those warships you brought home with you? Very much needed by the Federation of Bladus and the civilian government has been more than happy to approve the promises you made to your rebels if it means getting that vital boost to their military power. All of which leads to your growing legend and, to the displeasure of Mum, has Parliament looking to you for recommendations.

No plan voting.

What does Drake recommend to Parliament?
[] Focus on Rebuilding. The Orks and Chronus Dominion have both been hurt in recent years, but so has the Federation of Bladus. Taking sometime to rebuild is the best option as the Federation can outpace its rivals.
[] Focus on the Orks. The Orks of the Rachi system should only be partially recovered from Mugshredda's invasion. Striking at them before they can build up again should be the Federation's priority.
[] Focus on the Dominion. The Chronus Dominion is both at its strongest and weakest in recent years. Attempting to knock them out before they can get entrenched should be the priority of the Federation.

Which area does Drake focus on improving?
[] Personal Combat.
[] Naval Combat.
[] Telepathy.
[] Divination.
[] Governance.
[] Engineering.
[] Biomancy.
[] Diplomacy.
[] Intrigue.

***​

No dialogue in this update. I tried to include it, but I couldn't get it right so I decided to just cut it and I ended up getting more progress done in an hour than I did in the previous couple of days.

Anyway, Drake has made it back home with a decent amount of the Dominion Fleet. You get to influence what threat the Federation prioritises next whilst choosing Drake's next level up so to say. Also this little adventure got you a level-up in Biomancy. You had the option to get some other boosts, but you rolled terribly and the roll to get a free point in Biomancy barely passed.

Please point out any spelling or grammar mistakes that you spot. Please quote them in the thread and explain what you think is wrong so I know what you are referring to.

 

[Oshha]

[X] Focus on the Dominion. The Chronus Dominion is both at its strongest and weakest in recent years. Attempting to knock them out before they can get entrenched should be the priority of the Federation.
[X] Naval Combat.

"I can't believe you spent two months in my body," says Jen as your girlfriend tries to hold back giggles as you finish your tale of your absence.

"I needed a disguise to fit in and I barely got the shape flesh successful the first time," you reply, "It wasn't my first choice, but it was workable and I didn't want to risk failure with a second attempt."

"I'm just surprised that you are so okay with this," says Jen as she leans against you, "Most men would be more concerned about their masculinity."

"Jen, I think we established long ago that I am not most men," you tell her in a dry tone, "Besides, dignity and pride weren't my priority at the time. Getting back home and keeping anyone from finding out the truth about me were what I was focused on. A bit of embarrassment and discomfort were more than acceptable prices for those things."

"You don't need to justify yourself to me, big guy," replies Jen, "I won't deny that my first usage of shape flesh was to give myself a bigger bust."

"No, your first usage of shape flesh was to lower the physical age of your sister down to your own so she would play with you," you retort, rolling your eyes at Jen as your girlfriend has swelled her chest as she spoke, "Jen, I can assure you that interest in shapeshifting is purely practical and utilitarian."

"Then you won't mind experimenting for me?" asks Jen as she looks up at you eagerly.

"Experimenting?" you ask inquiringly and a little warily as sometimes Jen needs to be reigned in before things go too far, especially when it comes to the Warp and her psyker abilities.

"You as a girl," explains Jen, "I want to see what girl Drake looks like and we could have a girl's night out or something. And you could model for me. Mirrors are nice and all, but I bet it would be better to make someone else look like me and have them model for me. Ellen refuses to do that for me. Scaredy cat is too afraid that she'll be stuck with my body permanently."

"Last time you gave her a physical overhaul, you did permanently change her," you point out, "You're lucky she didn't get traumatised by it all."

"Getting a couple of years younger is considered a good thing by most people," mutters Jen, but you can tell her heart isn't in it, "A free rejuvenat treatment."

"Rejuvenat treatments don't start until one is an adult," you say and Jen sighs.

"Yeah, but it is old news and I've already made it up to her several times over now," grumbles Jen, "I-ugh!"

You feel the same thing as her, a skull-splitting screech, a thundering roar rolling over the local region of the warp. As her knees give out and she clutches her head in pain, you grab your girlfriend before she can fall to the ground, shrugging off the pain that you are personally feeling. You doubt any psyker on the planet missed it though few will have the strength to feel it as vividly as Jen and you have.

As Jen looks up and meets your eyes, you can see that she recognised this for what it is as much as you do. Unfortunately, it seems your date must be prematurely ended because there has been a daemonic incursion somewhere on the planet, most likely a major one.

***​

"It is the warp rift," says Mum over vox as you take a shuttle to the FNS Camelot, "Legions of the Violent are pouring out of it. Over twenty thousand Bloodletters, over a dozen Heralds and multiple Bloodthirsters, it is going to be a massacre."

"Do we know what they are doing?" you inquire.

"They are just forming up," answers Mum and she sounds frustrated, "They would be easy pickings except we aren't in a position to take advantage of that. I am getting the fleet into position to provide orbital fire support while Marshall Kassandra Maia is getting the Federal Army to the fortification lines."

The warp rift is a known factor and the Federation of Bladus isn't so foolish to just enough something that occasionally spits out daemons from a few stragglers to entire armies like we are facing now. Several lines of fortifications have been built around the warp rift to provide a staggered defence against any daemonic incursions. They should be manned, but this attack is rather sudden and while the defensive lines do have their regular garrisons, it will take time to get the ground forces fully into position.

Time that these daemons are apparently giving us for some reason. You doubt it is to your benefit, but you need to man those fortifications and you don't have the forces in place to preemptively attack the daemons so there is little else you can do.

As both sides get into position for the upcoming battle, you make it to the bridge of a Camelot as she along with the rest of the Federal Navy position themselves to rain fire and death from above upon the daemon forces gathering on the planet. For your part, you have grabbed a side arm from the armoury to go along with your custom force weapon. A massive sword that would be far too bulky for a normal person to wield, but it fits your own massive frame perfectly, allowing you to wield it as easily as a regular person wields a regular blade.

You shouldn't be fighting the daemons personally, but given how you weren't supposed to be personally fighting the Orks or the Dominion, you aren't going to dismiss the possibility out of hand. Ideally you will remain aboard the Camelot and rain death from above down upon the invaders, but no battle plan survives contact with the enemy.

It takes the better part of a day before the enemy makes their move. Seven of the Violent's Blood Legions, each one commanded by a Bloodthirster and made up of eight cohorts consisting of a Herald of the Violent leading eight hundred eighty eight Bloodletters. Thousands of Bloodletters throw themselves at each part of the defensive line and the battle begins.

To your disappointment and frustration, the defenders do not hold. Many begin to flee before the sword-wielding daemons even reach them and upon the melee commencing, the defensive line collapses completely. The fleet attempts to pin the enemy down and slaughter them from the heavens, but without the first defensive line putting up a fight, the daemons aren't slowed down enough for any serious damage to be done to their ranks.

Instead you make your move as you teleport down with a detachment of Federal Marines armed for heavy close combat. Those coming with you wear heavy power armour, normally disdain for its lack of mobility and agility, but for this battle, the superior protection is required as the daemonic blades wielded by the invaders are fully capable of tearing through regular power armour. All are armed with ballistic weapons that fire explosive shells, but their remaining armaments vary from similar yet heavier weapons, drills capable of grinding the enemy to shreds, flamethrowers and meltaguns.

You guide your teleportation down and you slaughter the enemy you find, cutting them down with superior firepower. You take point, engaging any Bloodletters that get too close and cut them down with your blade. It goes smoothly as things can be given the circumstances at hand. At least they do until the Bloodthirster shows up to deal with the only serious bit of resistance his forces are facing.

"A child of the Anathema," hisses the beast as it approaches you, flying down with its leathery wings, "Your skull shall make a worthy addition to the Skull Throne."

You don't bother replying with words, instead blowing a chunk of its face away with your plasma pistol. Rather than dying like it should, the daemon merely charges you with a roar of laughter. Your blades clash and it quickly becomes apparent that you are very much outclassed. Not so outclassed that you instantly die, but the only reason that you stand a chance at all is thanks to your superhuman body, your state of the art armour and your Force sword. The last of those means that you only need to land a single hit upon your foe to slay them as you channel your will into it.

After two minutes of a gruelling duel sees you on the defensive for the entirety of it, you get your lucky blow in. It isn't much of a wound, just a cut across the arm that sinks into the flesh enough to count as a wound. And yet it is all that you need to banish the Bloodthirster as the warp energies you are channelling sever the connection between its warp self and the physical form that it is currently inhabiting.

"NO!" howls the Bloodthirster as it attempts to swing its oversized axe into you, only for you to easily parry the blow as his swing goes limb as life exits its body.

One down, six to go.

***​

The battle continues to go poorly for the Federation of Bladus on the third day of the Incursion. While one Blood Legion is broken, Federal defences continue to fail. More of a fight is put up at the second defensive line, but like the first, it breaks. Orbital support is limited due to fears of friendly fire and killing more defenders than invaders. You take to the field once again, holding off a second Bloodthirster, who proves to be enough of a challenge that you are forced to withdraw from the field.

The fourth day continues to go poorly. The third defensive line is overrun like the previous two, and while orbital support increases the daemonic losses, it barely counts as a silver lining. The only true victory for the Federation on that day is your own actions as you struck down another of the Bloodthirsters, also slaying it with a single stroke once you finally landed a hit with your Force sword.

The fifth day sees the trend of a new defensive line breaking each day continue. The fourth defensive line is swarmed and before orbital fire support can do its job, the Violent hordes are already assaulting the fifth defensive line and leaving the warships in orbital off-target. You continue your own trend of slaying Bloodthirsters, slaying not one, but two that day. Not both at once as even you would have died before that onslaught, but one is slain by your blade in the morning and the other meets its end at your end in the early evening.

The fifth defensive line is lost on the sixth day and the daemons throw up some kind of interference to keep the warships engaging targets on the ground, preventing them from doing anything that day. You continue to be a beacon of hope for the Federal Army as you kill yet another Bloodthirster, leaving only one left.

Despite being exhausted by this point, the Blood Legions or rather Blood Legion continues their assault. They are spilling enough blood to sustain themselves and keep up a steady flow of reinforcements, but it isn't enough compared to the damage that you are dealing to them. And you mean you personally as you have become quite adept at slaying the daemons of Chaos over the last few days.

Normally that would be enough to ensure a victory via attrition, but some forsaken fools in the Federal Army lost their nerve and decided to throw their lot in with the Violent. The seventh day since the Incursion began sees the sixth defensive line fall to a newly summoned Blood Legion, summoned by traitors within the ranks of the defenders. Caught between the remnants of the previous seventh Blood Legions and the newly summoned eighth, the defenders would have been overrun and slaughtered if it wasn't for your intervention. Once again, two Bloodthirsters die to your blade as you slay the last of the old before dealing the newest one.

And yet the Violent has one final trick to play. The leader of the traitors gained enough favour with the Violent to ascend to Daemon Princedom and survived long to cash said favour in. Rallying the surviving Bloodletters, this new Daemon Prince drags out the Incursion for an eighth day before you kill in a duel, striking him down in single combat. Unfortunately, you merely banished the traitor to the Warp and you know that they will still be out there, even if they never return to the Federation.

By the dawn of the ninth day, the last of the Violent's servants are gone, either dead at the hands of the Federal Army or lacking the power to sustain their physical forms. After that, it is a matter of counting the losses and assessing the damage dealt by the Blood Legions.

The results are far from pretty. The land around the rift has become tainted and while the corruption will fade with time, you are looking at decades at the minimum, possibly taking as long as centuries before the taint of this Incursion fades away. Meanwhile the Federal Army and Federal Militia have both been butchered. The latter has suffered over ninety percent losses to the fighting while over half of the former have either died or suffered grievous injuries. Those injuries aren't beyond the Federation's ability to fix, but it is unlikely many of the injured will stay in the army and many of the rest are also considering retirement.

The majority of the defences around the Warp Rift had been destroyed, the Federal Militia has been gutted and between those who died and those who are retiring, the Federal Army is looking at being a shadow of its former self unless something is done about that.

Not to mention that dealing with this incursion and its aftermath means that any plans to strike at the Chronus Dominion have been tabled for now. The Federation of Bladus is in no position to be going on the offensive for the next few years.

No plan voting.

Choose one bonus for Drake Artorius to gain:
[] Upgrade Personal Combat from Level 2 to Level 3.
[] Gain the Trait Daemonslayer.
[] Gain the Trait Little Anathema.

What does the Federation of Bladus do with its military? Pick two.
[] Focus on rebuilding the Federal Army.
[] Focus on repairing the shipyards.
[] Focus on upgrading the equipment of the Federal Army.
[] Focus on rebuilding the defences around the Warp Rift.

***​

Sorry about the long delay. There was the Queen's death (I'm British in case you didn't already know) then I went on holiday to visit family and didn't have time to write before catching the cold (regular common cold not covid), which left me too unwell to write and then this weekend was really busy. Also I've been choosing to watch the ceremonies and such instead of writing. Anyway, we are back.

For the battle, I hoped to make it more impressive, but after all of the delays, I just wanted to get this update out in a timely manner. For those wondering, I did the rolls in Poptart's discord with @BOTcommander rolling for Chaos while I rolled for the Federation. Those rolls had a consistent trend of the daemons overrunning the Federal Army, the Federal Navy having limited effectiveness and then Drake coming in and kicking butt so yeah.

Anyway, Drake kicked a lot of butt so he has levelled up his Personal Combat skill from Level 0 to Level 2 if you hadn't already figured that out from the vote. Also I'll be making a character sheet soon to make it easier to keep track of things.

Please point out any spelling or grammar mistakes that you spot. Please quote them in the thread and explain what you think is wrong so I know what you are referring to.

 

[Oshha]

Drake Artorius

Skills
Governance (Level 4) = Legendary
Diplomacy (Level 5) = Peerless
Intrigue (Level 1) = Good
Personal Combat (Level 4) = Legendary
Ground Combat (Level 2) = Elite
Naval Combat (Level 5) = Peerless
Biomancy (Level 4) = Legendary
Telepathy (Level 2) = Elite
Divination (Level 2) = Elite
Pyromancy (Level 2) = Elite
Telekinesis (Level 2) = Elite
Anathematic (Level 4) = Legendary
Engineering (Level 4) = Legendary

Traits
Son of Excalibur = Drake Artorius is a true believer in the Federation of Bladus and the ideals that it stands for.
Superhuman Charisma = Drake Artorius has inherited great charisma and persuasive ability from his progenitor.
Little Anathema = Drake Artorius has an echo of his progenitor's antithetical nature to the Ruinous Powers. Immunity to Chaos, Minor Bonus to resisting Chaos for those around you.
-Hated By Khorne = The Lord of Blood holds a special dislike for Drake Artorius and he and his servants will actively seek to claim his skull for the skull throne.
-Hated by Slaanesh = The Prince of Pleasure holds a special dislike for Drake Artorius and they and their servants will actively seek to slay him wherever they can.
Necron Knowledge = Drake Artorius made extensive study of the Necrons, the modern day legacy of the ancient Necrontyr. Major Bonus to fighting Necron forces & Minor Bonus to other interactions with Necron factions.
Asuryani Knowledge = Drake Artorius has made complete study of the Craftworld Aeldari, the Asuryani. Major Bonus to fighting Asuryani forces & Major Bonus to other interactions with Asuryani factions.
Drukhari Knowledge = Drake Artorius made some study of the Drukhari, the vile pirates and raiders of Commorragh. Minor Bonus to fighting Drukhari forces & Minor Bonus to other interactions with Drukhari factions.
Aeldari Knowledge = Drake Artorius has made complete study of the minor Aeldari groups such as the Exodites, the Corsairs and the Harlequins. Major Bonus to fighting Aeldari forces & Major Bonus to other interactions with Aeldari factions
Mechanicus Knowledge = Drake Artorius has made extensive study of the Mechanicus and its successor factions. Major Bonus to fighting Mechanicus forces & Minor Bonus to other interactions with Mechanicus factions.

Preferences
Passionate
Divination
Telepathy
Biomancy

Liked
Personal Combat
Naval Combat
Pyromancy
Telekinesis

Interested
Governance
Engineering

Not Interested
Diplomacy
Intrigue

Disliked
Ground Combat

Hated
None