[X] Plan Psyker Minister
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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.
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Telepathy. Drake focuses on his psyker training, learning how to read and manipulate minds.
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Governance. Drake focuses on his classes at school, learning about how the government works and how to run a nation.
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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.
