[X] Plan Reliable Ship
-[X] Warp Protection/Reliability x2
-[X] Toughness x2
-[X] Firepower x2
-[X] Agility
-[X] Boarding & Attack Craft
[X] Professional. The super soldiers of the Federation are purely professional in nature, operating as just another branch of the Federal military.
[X] Familial. The super soldiers of the Federation considered themselves to be kin thanks to their shared augmentations and the origin of them.
[X] Unity. Drake proves himself not against a foe in battle, but by uniting and organising the various species and cultures of the expanding Federation and turning the Federal Navy into the epitome of strength through diversity.
"The damn Ork is back," reports Belinda as she strides into your office.
"Mugshredda?" you inquire even if you are fairly certain of the answer.
"Who else?" answers your wife, "He has a Waaagh too though it is unlike any I've ever seen or heard about."
That is bad news without a doubt. A Waaagh alone would be troublesome, but Mugshredda at the head makes it even worse. It has been years, decades even since you last saw your old nemesis, but out of everything you have encountered over the years, the Greenskin has been your biggest pain the arse.
You are looking at a major threat to the Federation, perhaps the first since the fall of Chronus so many decades ago. Warp, Mugshredda and his followers might even pose an existential threat to the Federation. It wouldn't be the first time with that greenskin.
"Given who we are talking about, I'm not surprised," you say, "Now, what are the details?"
"In simple terms, they're organised," replies Bel, "Like properly organised to the point that the Orks are acting more akin to our military than the usual disorganised unity that a Waaagh usually produces. They are still orks, but they are acting almost civilised."
"I'm getting that this didn't appear overnight," you comment.
"While analysis is still ongoing, initial estimates place it as something that our old pal has had in the works for some time," says Bel, "I wouldn't be surprised if we weren't supposed to find out about this yet given we were the ones who found them rather than the other way around. In any case, word has been kept secret for now, but that's a temporary measure. The sheer distance between the border and the capital means word will leak and the sheer size of the Waaagh means that the public will find out one way or another."
"I supposed that I ought to get to High Command and start preparing for an interstellar war," you tell your wife, "Hopefully enough people still remember what an existential threat looks like. It has been a while since we had one of those."
"Speaking of High Command, how have things been going on your end?" inquires Bel and you let out an explosive sigh.
"It's been a warp-damn mess and not one that even I can just talk my way out of," you inform her, "The vatborn aren't considering giving an inch of course and too many moral crusaders in parliament and the general populace making compromise from that angle impossible."
Over the decades, the vatborn have gone from an unpleasant, but necessary and integral part of the Federal Navy to being a superfluous measure of great moral outrage and controversy. Even if the Federation isn't outright forcing the vatborn to join the military, it strongly incentivises it and effectively trains them from birth for the job. Even if a handful of vatborn did choose a civilian life over military service, it was still too close to breeding soldiers from infancy for war.
So the Federation being what it is, lawmakers and activists attempted to put an end to the vatborn, citing as a barbaric measure that was no longer necessary and perhaps it had never been necessary. Their attempts to shut down the flow of new vatborn swiftly floundered as they ran into unyielding resistance from the existing vatborn, who saw their well-intended efforts as an attempt to destroy their culture.
The vatborn were and still are quite happy with their existence, holding zero complaints about their births or upbringings, viewing both as a fundamental part of who they are as a people. To them, the attempt to stop the flow of new vatborn wasn't a correction of a great injustice, but the genocide of their unique culture that had existing for many generations.
So it was a warp-damn mess. The more extreme moral crusaders argued that the vatborn had been brainwashed, that they had been so victimised that they didn't know what had been done to them was wrong and not normal. More moderate members of the opposition had tried to compromise by suggesting just reducing the number of new vatborn or changing their curriculum so the upbringing of the vatborn wasn't so military focused. Some even suggested the vatborn should pass on their culture via adoption and live births.
The vatborn promptly rejected them all, even viewing the compromises as attempts to boil the frog as making some concessions now would just lead to more demands down the line. Demands that wouldn't stop until their overall goal of there being no more vatborn was fulfilled.
Even you had to acknowledge that the opposition had a point. The existence of the vatborn should have been against federal law except an exception had been made over a century ago. Yet at the same time, the vatborn did exist and they had their own unique culture even if it was born of unpleasant circumstances. What did one do when something immoral was a fundamental basis of one's culture? Do you destroy that culture to correct the injustice?
In theory, the answer should be yes, but in practice, well, the vatborn have always been loyal and steadfast, willing to lay down their lives for the Federation. They had choices on paper and their upbringing wasn't cruel or abusive, just focused on a singular outcome. It wasn't right, but you struggled to call it evil though you were hardly unbiased in the matter.
Things had recently come to a head as the opposition to the vatborn had tried to push things through parliament with popular support, to which the vatborn had threatened revolt if the Federation attempted to just shut them down. While the vatborn were now a minority of a minority, their threat was no bluff. They all served in the military and while they no longer made up most of it these days, the Federal Navy was built around a core of battle-hardened vatborn veterans. Not to mention that every serving vatborn had volunteered for super-soldier procedure before High Command began to limit who received the process.
While a minority threatening violence to override the will of the majority is very much against the ideals of the Federation and those sworn to defend it, it could be equally argued that this is an attempt by the majority to impose tyranny on a minority. Thankfully, the crisis didn't progress beyond talk as letting a few key individuals know that you wouldn't necessarily side against the vatborn was enough to kill the bill in parliament.
Nevertheless, things have been tense enough that you have been forced to remain at Excalibur instead of returning to the ever expanding frontier. Especially since you are the biggest and most influential proponent of the vatborn cause. After all, you are vatborn yourself and you've fought alongside these men and women for the majority of your life. Not to mention that they are practically family between your shared experience and how much of their flesh and blood is now shared with you.
The natborn might view being a Federal Marine as just a job, but for you and your fellow vatborn? It is more than just a calling, you are kin, joined by both shared genetics and shared service to the Federation. And that familial bond was enough for you to commit a bit of treason on their behalf. Just a little bit.
The
Jenivere might be the flagship of the Federal Navy on paper, but the truth is that the super-battleship is your design and your flagship. You know every inch of it and its crew and marine complement are made up of people loyal to you so you can get away with a fair bit aboard the namesake of your original wife.
In this case, you merely repurposed a few cargo areas and barracks to serve as secret and highly illegal vatborn creation and growth areas. A secret contingency to ensure the continued production of new vatborn should the rest of the Federation go ahead with shutting down the official production. Even you would suffer consequences should your actions be found out, but between the loyal crew and the sheer size of the
Jenivere, you are confident that no one will uncover your treachery any time soon. Not when the
Jenivere is your personal fiefdom for all intents and purposes.
And speaking of the
Jenivere, you may need to return to your flagship and leave Excalibur behind. If Mugshredda is back and leading a Waaagh, staying at the capital may not be something you can afford to do. Yet at the same time, you might very well be needed in the Bladus system to prevent the tensions regarding the future of the vatborn from coming to a head. You barely avert the outbreak of rebellion once, you dread to think what would happen if you were hundreds of light years away should a second one threaten to break out.
The choice may be up to high command and parliament in theory, but you would be a liar if you deny that you could sway one way or another with ease.
What does Drake do?
[] He goes to the frontier to deal with Mugshredda and his Waaagh.
[] He remains at Excalibur to continue dealing with the vatborn crisis.
[] He stays out of it to let parliament decide where to send him.
***
I was planning for this update to be longer, but the vatborn issue kept causing me problems because I didn't want to end up writing akin to Hermione and SPEW in Harry Potter. Anyway, I decide to split the update and make it a vote to decide which crisis Drake decides to personally deal with even if it means pushing back the update where you meet the Imperium.
Beyond that, Drake is siding with the vatborn for a few reasons. First is that he sympathises with them because he is technically vatborn himself. Second is that he has spent most of his life with them fighting and dying alongside him. Third is not only is Drake a genetic donor to the vatborn, but pretty much all of them sign up to become super-soldiers, which means they have even more flesh and blood in common with Drake.
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.
