The Eleventh Primarch (30K Quest)

[Oshha]

[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.

 

[Oshha]

[X] He remains at Excalibur to continue dealing with the vatborn crisis.

While Mugshredda may present a grave threat to the Federation, the crisis at home has the potential to be equally disastrous for the Federation. In the end, you decide to convince High Command and parliament to keep you at Excalibur. It will be easier to drive back the gains of the greenskins then it would be to reunite a Federation divided by internal violence, which is to say that you consider the fallout of one crisis easier to fix than the other.

Then in a frustrating yet relieving turn of events, the resolution to the vatborn dilemma was oddly anti-climax. As the matter dragged on, more of the general public became aware of the issue and unlike those already involved, these individuals were effectively neutral as they supported neither the opposition nor the vatborn.

As a military man and not a politician, you aren't exactly sure where the opposition went wrong, but you assume it was when they took the righteousness of their position as self-evident. The support of the less politically involved members of the public for granted and that was their undoing.

Whatever inherent support that opposition had was squandered when they focused on their efforts to outlaw the vatborn. Meanwhile the vatborn themselves appealed to the public in a basic way, calling upon emotions and simple logic. After all, how could the vatborn be vatborn if they weren't allowed to be vatborn? What right did the government have to alter the biology of the vatborn against their will? How was preventing the creation of new vatborn not effective genocide of the vatborn? What was wrong with doing things the way they had always been done?

Even you had to admit that the reasoning was simplistic and could be taken apart in a debate, but the general public weren't scholars and philosophers. The basic emotional appeals of the vatborn resonated with them more than the well-thought out, but involved arguments of the opposition. It wasn't fair and arguably wasn't right, but life isn't fair and your side didn't lose so you aren't complaining.

In hindsight, the vatborn didn't need you to champion their cause. Of course, you still did that and while parliament and the vatborn were arguing things out, you went to an unexpected source of potential support. When the vatborn threatened revolt in response to parliament deciding to ignore their protests and force the issue, they hadn't stood alone. Not only had you sided with them, but the many junior officers and enlisted who had been mentored by vatborn senior officers and enlisted had chosen to support those they respected and looked up to over a distant parliament.

And most prominent amongst their number were the aliens of the Federal Navy. Weaving the various species of the Federation into a functional and strong Federal Navy was arguably your greatest achievement and thanks to that, the nonhumans of the Federal Navy primarily looked to you and your supporters. In this case, that meant backing the vatborn against forceful attempts to shut them down.

You took a step back and decided to look into that untapped well of support. It didn't take long to find out that the majority of aliens in the Federation was unhappy about how the vatborn dilemma had been developing. They saw it as Federation attempting to impose humanocentric views on a minority like themselves and even if they had held no particular support for the vatborn themselves, many Federal aliens were concerned about the precedent that it would set.

Even the Mechanicus was concerned about how the vatborn were being treated, wondering if their unorthodox traditions would be next in the firing lines of parliament.

So before the opposition had the chance to rally or even attempt a comeback, you went for the killing blow. Unleashing your coalition of aliens upon the opposition and leveraging your own status as a respected and influential figure, you pushed through a bill to protect the current status quo and effectively getting the vatborn treated as alien species or at least a sub-species of humanity.

Was it completely ethical? No. Did it prevent a civil war or uprising? Yes. Was anybody being hurt by it? Some might argue yes, but you disagree with them. The vatborn are the vatborn. They aren't being treated like regular humans, but they aren't regular humans and they are happy with their lot in life. Or if they aren't, they have the ability to leave and start a new life if they wish.

In any case, the vatborn dilemma had been resolved one way or another and your newest priority was Mugshredda and his Waaagh. To your surprise and relief, your old nemesis wasn't faring as well as you had feared he would.

Things aren't going in the Federation's favour, but neither is the Federal military helpless without you leading the way. The initial advance of the greenskins was blunted and while Mugshredda ultimately broke through the defensive lines, only sub-sectors have fallen so far. Even then, the Waaagh has begun to stall as Federation holds if with heavy losses.

A very favourable situation for you to enter and an excellent trial by fire for the Jenivere.

Alas, Mugshredda was unhappy that his favourite foe hadn't come out to face him and so the warboss took measures to draw you out.

***​

"He did what?" you exclaim, looking between the younger twins as the three of you plus sit at a cafe.

While you had been curious then the twins requested you attend the meeting as a policewoman, you had thought that you had figured out what Alpharius and Omegon were up when you arrived at the cafe to find the two of them and Connor disguised as college students and a nurse respectively, all of them using biomancy to take on the appearance of young women. After all, a brotherly meeting wouldn't be out of place before you return to the frontlines and turning that into a sisterly meeting would be something that your other siblings would find amusing. Your wives have had too much of an influence on their sense of humour.

"He claims to have our brother," says Alpharius.

"Your brother to be precise, but any brother of yours is a brother of ours," finishes Omegon.

"He can't have David or William and you three are all here," you say as you process this information, "He has found another like us, hasn't he?"

"He claims to have an Angry One in his custody," reports Omegon.

"The claim is unverified by official sources," continues Alpharius.

"But this is him and my visions conclude that he does one of our kin by blood," concludes Connor.

"Something to deal with once I get out there," you reply, putting that information to one side for now, "Thank you for the warning. Now, how have the three of you been faring?"

"Being a doctor is rewarding," says Connor, "Being able to help people in need is smoothing to the soul and helps with my meditation. I just wish some people weren't so stupid. There are so many that could avoid harming themselves or others if they just stopped to think about what they are doing."

"That's just the nature of life," you comment, "There are always the reckless and the foolish out there."

"We find the existence of such to be useful in our line of work." says Alpharius.

"Provided that they aren't our colleagues," adds Omegon.

"I see the two of you are taking to being spooks well," you say, "How is FMI treating you?"

"It is interesting work," says Omegon.

"For now at least," says Alpharius.

"There is only so much to be done in our line of work when there is no active enemy or hostile neighbours."

"Fortunately we encounter enough new civilisations that we don't run out of analysis to compile."

"And with the orks invading and doing so in a way that breaks patterns, we have a lot of engaging workload at the moment."

"And last, but not least, the Necrons and Eldar make for interesting nuts to crack."

"We would like to request that we accompany you aboard your flagship."

"Going to the frontlines and seeing this new form of greenskin threat in person would be very helpful to our work."

"And we would like to meet this potential brother of ours in person."

"I have no objections," you tell them, "Just make sure to sort out the official paperwork on your end. I don't want to find out that you have gone missing from your jobs."

"Of course," answer the twins as one.

***​

The super-battleship Jenivere is the greatest vessel to ever serve in the Federal Navy, exceeding even the mighty power of the Gloriana-class Battleship. A trio of nova-cannons mounted in the prow give enough firepower to rip apart a cruiser in a single volley on their own. Heavy batteries of lances and plasma-macros give impressive firepower all around even if the aft is lacking. Relatively speaking that is as even the aft of the Jenivere has firepower equal to the broadside of a battleship.

And the Jenivere has enough toughness to match her firepower and is comparable to a star fortress in her defensive capability. A Gloriana might be a small fleet-killer, but the Jenivere is a large fleet-killer capable of fighting multiple battleships at once.

Just because your flagship can both dish and take a pounding doesn't mean she is slow and lumbering. Anyone expecting the Jenivere to be as unwieldy as her size suggests will certainly have a surprise when your flagship can dance like a cruiser. Unfortunately, you couldn't get the mobility of an escort or even a light cruiser without making compromises elsewhere.

Furthermore, the Jenivere has substantial hangars and troop bays as your flagship. A significant portion of the Federal Marines are stationed aboard the super-battleship and the warship is capable of carrying enough ground troops to conquer a planet. Between the vast squadrons of attack craft and the extensive point defence networks across the hull, no boarders or bombers will be getting close to the Jenivere unless something has gone horribly wrong.

And when the Jenivere arrives at the frontlines, victory is found for the Federation. A multi-pronged counter attack commanded by you sees a total reversal of the greenskin advance. Mugshredda puts up a valiant effort, but you are better than him and with the weight of heavy metal on your side, the Waaagh stalls and breaks.

Unfortunately, the warboss makes his usual escape once it becomes clear that there is no chance of winning left. He even abandons his flagship, the space hulk that he fled Rachi in, to your tender mercies after you cripple and board it. It is there that you find your captured kinsman.

You aren't sure why Mugshredda released him before fleeing. Perhaps the ork wanted to be nice or perhaps he predicted the berserk rampage that your brother would go on. A warrior of immense skill and power, calling him the Angry One was an apt moniker as he attacked all before him, regardless of whether they are greenskins or not.

Your brother tore his way through multiple squads of Federal Marines before you successfully contained him, maiming many of them and even killing a few. You captured him in the end after subduing him in single-combat, but part of you wondered if you had done the right thing. If anyone else had killed multiple of your troops, you wouldn't have spared them and yet you are doing this for this mad berserker simply because he might be your brother.

Twisted form of nepotism or not, what's done is done.

***​

"It's monstrous," declares Bel as you stand with your wives before the stasis pod containing your unconscious brother.

"Him or something done to him?" you inquire.

"That cybernetic hair of his is anything, but that," declares Yas, "It is some sort of twisted archeotech from either the early Age of Strife or before. It amplifies his rage and anger at the expense of his sanity and the ability to feel any other emotion."

"Cruciamen, but a cruder and less refined version of it," says Alpharius as your little brother enters the room, "There are a few mentions of it in the Federal historical records, but the technology isn't used by the Federation for ethical reasons."

"That's an understatement for sure," mutters Bel.

"Can we remove it then?" you inquire, "I presume it was responsible for his rampage across the space hulk."

"According to the records I could find, it appears to have progressed beyond the point that it can be removed," answers Alpharius.

"Not entirely true," says Yas, "He might be beyond saving by conventional medical technology, but between myself, Bel and you, we could probably save him with our biomancy."

"It wouldn't be without complications however," warns Bel, "The thing has literally replaced part of his brain. If we remove it, we will need to regrow his limbic lobe and insular cortex to keep him from dying. And it won't be without consequence."

"We're looking at a change in personality and thinking at the minimum," continues Yas, "Unfortunately, this cruciamen has already done that to him so that ship has already sailed."

"We could let him struggle with his new self," says Bel, "Or we could just do a controlled rewrite. It would effectively mean killing who he was before, but given everything that has been done to him, that might be the kinder.alternative by giving him a fresh start within the Federation.

"He's your brother so we'll let you make the call," concludes Yas as she, Bel and Alpharius all look to you.

What does Drake do?
[] He goes for just removing the cruciamen.
[] He goes for the rewrite and a fresh start.

***​

Okay, I'm not sure if this came up in the thread and nobody asked me about it, but I always intended to resolve the vatborn situation with dice rolls and modifiers. It was just too controversial to put up to a vote. In this case, the opposition rolled a 19 with a bonus while the vatborn got an 80 with a penalty and then Drake came in swinging with a 96 plus his peerless diplomacy.

As for Mugshredda, @BOTcommander rolled poorly for him in the Discord so while his modifiers meant he got some victories, they weren't particularly grand. So when Drake showed up on the frontlines, Mugshredda just got crushed.

I wasn't originally intended to include Angron, but then Drake didn't go to the frontlines so I had to think of something for Mugshredda to do to bait him out. So I figured he could grab Angron since the Emperor hadn't shown up at Nuceria yet.

Also the Emperor might need to wait a bit. He was meant to show up by now, but I've been distracted by other stuff happening in the quest.

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.