The Empty Crusade (Horus Heresy)
- Thread starter Planetary Tennis
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[X][Pattern] Rotation
[X][Power] Hope
[X][Power] Hope
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[X][Power] Hope
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Imperial Heartlands 2
Garviel Loken rolled his shoulders as he looked over the terrain with his scout rifle, the current captain was speaking with the planetary administrator about the disappearance of Abaddon who had been left as the contact with this world. Technically the world wasn't large enough to warrant such a posting but being at the nexus of several empyreal routes meant that it had a large population of different species and despite the words of the Lords back on Terra the Xenos didn't come without problems. Often it wasn't their fault rather the issues of people in general and the numbers ment bad eggs were pulled in with the rest. For some reason a xeno killer was worse than the dozen humans ones running around.
Alternatively some of the Xenos viewed the Imperium as too human focused because human populations made up a plurality of the Imperial subjects. Which all lead back to the planetary administrator who had been assigned the ambitious Abaddon when the Marine was cycled out as being a Chapter Master for one of the strike groups to help maintain security inside the Imperium. The Astarte had been against the move but the Imperial Legion had begun operating that way and its what moved him from Guiliman's honor guard to the strike master position to begin with. Hopefully his absence from his post was not a dereliction of duty but something else. Perhaps a foul conspiracy of the machinations of other forces.
Garviel would have to wait and see as the captain finished speaking with the administrator and used a subtle hand single to mark the all clear. So he shifted moving from his nest and going to meet up with the rest of the strike group. "Abaddon, had gone to investigate what the administration thought was a rogue Astare in Hive 6, the locals call it Aqua Secundum." That made Garviel raise an eyebrow behind his helmet, the captain was young and it was his first posting as a captain, though he knew enough to have excelled at lesser leadership positions. A rogue Astares though was a rare idea, enough they were still unwilling to think of this as Abaddon going rogue.
They moved to the thunder hawk and took a quick flight in the rattling metal cage to Aqua Secundum to find the trail of this rogue Astares and Abaddon. The tales and sightings lead the strike group deep into the bowels of the underhive. While the hive itself was new the old city it had been built over already had a large collection of undesirable criminal elements. Those that the local arbiters couldn't weed out were pushed here beyond the sight of the working population, and the leadership. The heavy power armor and weapons of the golden armored warriors made it so no one dared to attack them until they came upon the building where the locals spoke of the Astares being at. As the Captain kicked in the heavy metal door a line snapped and in the half second before the melta grenade set above the door went off he hit it with his blade of office the power sword pushing away and damaging the bomb causing it to detonate at the corner of the building throwing the group down and causing the Captain to curse. Garviel moved bringing the whole street into sight as he pulled his scout rifle off his back the long barreled bolter snapping up waiting for the owner of the trap to show themselves.
He did with twin power blades, one an older mark of short sword the blue feeled crackling with the signature high power low stability of Unification era power weapons. The other blade was more shocking, the black metal and blue field undeniably a glave. This man was no Custodies though his golden armor plane the red plume from an helm with no face plate. As the scarred and beared man lowered the bolter on the end of the stolen glave a new figure appeared beside him his face clean as Abaddon who looked over the Astares. The figure glanced at the man who shook his head.
[][Slaughter] Abaddon
The lost Astares came out of the Underhive speaking of a powerful individual that had killed the team that saved him. No one found the thunder warrior responsible. Abaddon missed the sacred and crippled Garviel a mistake he would regret. Even if this helped him risd in standing in the Legion.
[][Slaughter] Garviel
The rest of the team died that day but Garviel came back wounded but alive with a tale of long dead warriors and a brother's betrayal. No one sent, found either of the figures. Many questioned Garviel and his story, his position and an up and coming Legionary was ended that day.
[][Slaughter] Thunder
People speak of a hundred warrior leaving the planet, but by the time soldiers find the battleground no path remains only the bodies of many Astares, though Abaddon and Garviel was not found that day.
The Coven of Sages, the Council of Sorcery, the Order of Scribes. The first three cults they had found referred to what the Sigillite said was one being with these names. The League of Wizards, the Guild of Mages, the Congress of Magic. Three later names for the same figure. The Assembly of the Arcane, the Panel of the Mystic. Two more cults and two more names. While the other powers has made their own small moves the one that the Sigillite called Blue was active all over the imperium working in destitute areas with petty sorcerers that said that their magic and the magic of their gods would aid them. In contrast to what the Sigillite said the Heralds' teams keep discovering that each of the cults worshiping three to four figures of power that collectively represent what Blue is supposed to according to archivists.
Thaddeus rolled his neck letting harden bones pop before he moved into the edge of the chapel of the Synod of the Beyond. Technically they were an allowed religion but they were giving flags that the Heralds knew ment the taint of corruption. So with a power blade in hand and a flammer in the other Thaddeus listened to the preaching about rebirth and growth, change through upheaval of the current order. He has to shake his head those that listened an believed where fools twice over. One for not seeing how good they had it not understanding that their labor aiding the war effort was far better than death and slavery that plagued these worlds before the empire came. Secondly for believing that they could do anything to dislodge the empire now that he reached his world. That any rebellion would be unnoticed.
"Perhaps they speak in metaphor instead of treason, grandchild of Anathema." Thaddeus swung around his flammer's pilot light on at the silky voice. He sneered at the young woman in pale blue robes with the feather of a colorful bird in her hair. She smiled back, pinching the pilot light and extinguishing it.
"Speak to me of metaphor when they speak clearly in their plots." She hummed, shaking her hand from side to side in a local hand gesture Thaddeus didn't know the meaning to.
"No, but I do come with an offer of peave. Could we talk over a child's game of cards?" She smiled and he reached forward to grab her face and she vanished her eyes sparkling with swirling blue and purple for a moment before she appeared out of his hand reach his gauntlet left covered in a strange ectoplasm.
"You insult me as you offer peace, deceiver. You are the enemy." He clicked moving to fire his flamer only to find the fuel tank missing she threw it at him with a lazy chuck and he easily parried it to the side in case it was tampered with.
"Why? Why am I the enemy? I am not just a citizen of this empire looking to improve it." He growled, charging forward blade ready to stand the witch. Thaddeus let his own mind sink beyond reality combat meditation taking hold so he could use his powers.
"You speak of improvement yet I see you gathering the tools of demolition." He spoke with understanding and zeal. He knew the creed and the warnings of these false gods.
"Hyperbole and metaphors my friend." She moved power in the warp readying herself to teleport but he latched on his power weaker than hers but he needed only to lance out into the center cracking and breaking her spell. Blue eyes went wide as she failed to vanish and the blade slices into her a last minute dodge of the human body only enough to spare her heart but the wound would be mortal regardless.
"My blade is no metaphor, witch and I doubt the machinations of your god is one either." She laughed harshly coughing blood onto her robes.
"Our lords of no god, only knowledge itself, and those curators of it in worlds beyond our own reality." As she spoke it became clear despite the lung burning on his power field. "Speak to the Sigillite about an alliance from the Coven to your Empire. Perhaps you will see you have been misled in their nature." Thaddeus pulled his blade cutting her in half causing the woman's head to fall back laughing softly despite her lungs breaking apart to blood and dust. He loaded a new tank into his flamer and burnt the body to ash before turning it on the church.
[][Alliance] No Quarter
The works of Chaos can not be allowed and so are stopped with no consideration.
[][Alliance] Lure
Chaos is powerful, for all its corruption it has knowledge. While the Sigillite would never allow it, some of the Heralds bait the Coven to learn mysteries of the universe.
[][Alliance] Alliance
The Coven claims their god is dead. While the Sigillite wouldn't allow it, a small group of the Heralds have begun working with the coven to grow in power and crush the other cults.
[][Alliance] Sigillite
The Sigillite would dismiss any offer brought by courier. So part of the Heralds bring him unknowingly into a meeting with agents of the Coven.
Alternatively some of the Xenos viewed the Imperium as too human focused because human populations made up a plurality of the Imperial subjects. Which all lead back to the planetary administrator who had been assigned the ambitious Abaddon when the Marine was cycled out as being a Chapter Master for one of the strike groups to help maintain security inside the Imperium. The Astarte had been against the move but the Imperial Legion had begun operating that way and its what moved him from Guiliman's honor guard to the strike master position to begin with. Hopefully his absence from his post was not a dereliction of duty but something else. Perhaps a foul conspiracy of the machinations of other forces.
Garviel would have to wait and see as the captain finished speaking with the administrator and used a subtle hand single to mark the all clear. So he shifted moving from his nest and going to meet up with the rest of the strike group. "Abaddon, had gone to investigate what the administration thought was a rogue Astare in Hive 6, the locals call it Aqua Secundum." That made Garviel raise an eyebrow behind his helmet, the captain was young and it was his first posting as a captain, though he knew enough to have excelled at lesser leadership positions. A rogue Astares though was a rare idea, enough they were still unwilling to think of this as Abaddon going rogue.
They moved to the thunder hawk and took a quick flight in the rattling metal cage to Aqua Secundum to find the trail of this rogue Astares and Abaddon. The tales and sightings lead the strike group deep into the bowels of the underhive. While the hive itself was new the old city it had been built over already had a large collection of undesirable criminal elements. Those that the local arbiters couldn't weed out were pushed here beyond the sight of the working population, and the leadership. The heavy power armor and weapons of the golden armored warriors made it so no one dared to attack them until they came upon the building where the locals spoke of the Astares being at. As the Captain kicked in the heavy metal door a line snapped and in the half second before the melta grenade set above the door went off he hit it with his blade of office the power sword pushing away and damaging the bomb causing it to detonate at the corner of the building throwing the group down and causing the Captain to curse. Garviel moved bringing the whole street into sight as he pulled his scout rifle off his back the long barreled bolter snapping up waiting for the owner of the trap to show themselves.
He did with twin power blades, one an older mark of short sword the blue feeled crackling with the signature high power low stability of Unification era power weapons. The other blade was more shocking, the black metal and blue field undeniably a glave. This man was no Custodies though his golden armor plane the red plume from an helm with no face plate. As the scarred and beared man lowered the bolter on the end of the stolen glave a new figure appeared beside him his face clean as Abaddon who looked over the Astares. The figure glanced at the man who shook his head.
[][Slaughter] Abaddon
The lost Astares came out of the Underhive speaking of a powerful individual that had killed the team that saved him. No one found the thunder warrior responsible. Abaddon missed the sacred and crippled Garviel a mistake he would regret. Even if this helped him risd in standing in the Legion.
[][Slaughter] Garviel
The rest of the team died that day but Garviel came back wounded but alive with a tale of long dead warriors and a brother's betrayal. No one sent, found either of the figures. Many questioned Garviel and his story, his position and an up and coming Legionary was ended that day.
[][Slaughter] Thunder
People speak of a hundred warrior leaving the planet, but by the time soldiers find the battleground no path remains only the bodies of many Astares, though Abaddon and Garviel was not found that day.
The Coven of Sages, the Council of Sorcery, the Order of Scribes. The first three cults they had found referred to what the Sigillite said was one being with these names. The League of Wizards, the Guild of Mages, the Congress of Magic. Three later names for the same figure. The Assembly of the Arcane, the Panel of the Mystic. Two more cults and two more names. While the other powers has made their own small moves the one that the Sigillite called Blue was active all over the imperium working in destitute areas with petty sorcerers that said that their magic and the magic of their gods would aid them. In contrast to what the Sigillite said the Heralds' teams keep discovering that each of the cults worshiping three to four figures of power that collectively represent what Blue is supposed to according to archivists.
Thaddeus rolled his neck letting harden bones pop before he moved into the edge of the chapel of the Synod of the Beyond. Technically they were an allowed religion but they were giving flags that the Heralds knew ment the taint of corruption. So with a power blade in hand and a flammer in the other Thaddeus listened to the preaching about rebirth and growth, change through upheaval of the current order. He has to shake his head those that listened an believed where fools twice over. One for not seeing how good they had it not understanding that their labor aiding the war effort was far better than death and slavery that plagued these worlds before the empire came. Secondly for believing that they could do anything to dislodge the empire now that he reached his world. That any rebellion would be unnoticed.
"Perhaps they speak in metaphor instead of treason, grandchild of Anathema." Thaddeus swung around his flammer's pilot light on at the silky voice. He sneered at the young woman in pale blue robes with the feather of a colorful bird in her hair. She smiled back, pinching the pilot light and extinguishing it.
"Speak to me of metaphor when they speak clearly in their plots." She hummed, shaking her hand from side to side in a local hand gesture Thaddeus didn't know the meaning to.
"No, but I do come with an offer of peave. Could we talk over a child's game of cards?" She smiled and he reached forward to grab her face and she vanished her eyes sparkling with swirling blue and purple for a moment before she appeared out of his hand reach his gauntlet left covered in a strange ectoplasm.
"You insult me as you offer peace, deceiver. You are the enemy." He clicked moving to fire his flamer only to find the fuel tank missing she threw it at him with a lazy chuck and he easily parried it to the side in case it was tampered with.
"Why? Why am I the enemy? I am not just a citizen of this empire looking to improve it." He growled, charging forward blade ready to stand the witch. Thaddeus let his own mind sink beyond reality combat meditation taking hold so he could use his powers.
"You speak of improvement yet I see you gathering the tools of demolition." He spoke with understanding and zeal. He knew the creed and the warnings of these false gods.
"Hyperbole and metaphors my friend." She moved power in the warp readying herself to teleport but he latched on his power weaker than hers but he needed only to lance out into the center cracking and breaking her spell. Blue eyes went wide as she failed to vanish and the blade slices into her a last minute dodge of the human body only enough to spare her heart but the wound would be mortal regardless.
"My blade is no metaphor, witch and I doubt the machinations of your god is one either." She laughed harshly coughing blood onto her robes.
"Our lords of no god, only knowledge itself, and those curators of it in worlds beyond our own reality." As she spoke it became clear despite the lung burning on his power field. "Speak to the Sigillite about an alliance from the Coven to your Empire. Perhaps you will see you have been misled in their nature." Thaddeus pulled his blade cutting her in half causing the woman's head to fall back laughing softly despite her lungs breaking apart to blood and dust. He loaded a new tank into his flamer and burnt the body to ash before turning it on the church.
[][Alliance] No Quarter
The works of Chaos can not be allowed and so are stopped with no consideration.
[][Alliance] Lure
Chaos is powerful, for all its corruption it has knowledge. While the Sigillite would never allow it, some of the Heralds bait the Coven to learn mysteries of the universe.
[][Alliance] Alliance
The Coven claims their god is dead. While the Sigillite wouldn't allow it, a small group of the Heralds have begun working with the coven to grow in power and crush the other cults.
[][Alliance] Sigillite
The Sigillite would dismiss any offer brought by courier. So part of the Heralds bring him unknowingly into a meeting with agents of the Coven.
Tabascoheath
Unkempt, Evil-eyed Charlatan, and Pseudo-Mystic
- Location
- Your Nearest Orbital Habitat
So a Thunder warrior runs rampant through a hive and we have the choice of how it goes, 1: the thunder warrior is missing but both Abaddon and Garviel live, if crippled. 2: both the Thunder warrior and Abaddon are missing but Garviel isn't crippled. and 3: where all three go unfound.
and then there's the problem of the coven, do we allow them an alliance or not.
I figure keeping our best man Garviel running is a good option, and I feel like keeping the coven at arms length is a pretty sound plan.
[x] [Slaughter] Garviel
[x] [Alliance] Lure
and then there's the problem of the coven, do we allow them an alliance or not.
I figure keeping our best man Garviel running is a good option, and I feel like keeping the coven at arms length is a pretty sound plan.
[x] [Slaughter] Garviel
[x] [Alliance] Lure
Yep, basically twitter logic
[X][Alliance] No Quarter
The works of Chaos can not be allowed and so are stopped with no consideration.
Even with Chaos Gods dead, daemonic corruption is still a thing so we can not let chaos cults spreading
[X][Slaughter] Garviel
The rest of the team died that day but Garviel came back wounded but alive with a tale of long dead warriors and a brother's betrayal. No one sent, found either of the figures. Many questioned Garviel and his story, his position and an up and coming Legionary was ended that day.
Better this than being crippled or dead
- Location
- Canada
[X][Slaughter] Garviel
[X][Alliance] Lure
Both of these have excellent story potential in my eyes
[X][Alliance] Lure
Both of these have excellent story potential in my eyes
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X][Slaughter] Abaddon
Garviel being crippled sucks, but i think him loosing the legion respect is a lot worse. Dude was very insightful. Canon Horus choose him to point flaws in his plans for a reason. His position in the legion sounds more valuable to me than his combat skills.
[X][Alliance] No Quarter
Not giving Chaos one inch.
Garviel being crippled sucks, but i think him loosing the legion respect is a lot worse. Dude was very insightful. Canon Horus choose him to point flaws in his plans for a reason. His position in the legion sounds more valuable to me than his combat skills.
[X][Alliance] No Quarter
Not giving Chaos one inch.
[X][Slaughter] Garviel
[X][Alliance] No Quarter
[X][Alliance] No Quarter
[X][Slaughter] Abaddon
[X][Alliance] No Quarter
[X][Alliance] No Quarter
Tabascoheath
Unkempt, Evil-eyed Charlatan, and Pseudo-Mystic
- Location
- Your Nearest Orbital Habitat
a thunder warrior went rogue and started killing people in a hive, then Abby went missing looking for him, so they send in Garviel with a team to find both of them, the out comes are who walks away from the ensuing three way fight. I think.
Tabascoheath
Unkempt, Evil-eyed Charlatan, and Pseudo-Mystic
- Location
- Your Nearest Orbital Habitat
I think its a three way because in the Garviel option he talks about "a brothers betrayal" so I guess Abby is up to something weird in the absence of his dad. The thunder warrior is having a psychotic breakdown because super cancer, and Garviel is the last man standing in the search team. Not good for any parties involved.
Vote closed
Ok I think I have to ask is this quest dead?
Imperial Heartlands 3
Abaddon stood before a council of the other ranking marines for the Imperial Legion. "The investigation concludes that your report is largely accurate." The leader of the council was an elder the venerable dreadnought speaking in a calm mechanical monotone. For Abaddon he expected this results his duplicity had all be acted on both carefully and before his actions came to a head. What lies he had left them had the benefit of being the truth. He regretted the necessary decision, the sacrifice and the working with the Thunder Warrior. Though Abaddon doubted the knight of terra was truly anything of note in the grand scheme he was a useful ally for Abaddon.
His hand touched a talisman of an eagle with one eye replaced by a five pointed sigil. He had been awoken to a truth, a power to great to ignore as it slumbered within the heart of the Empire. He had sacrificed his brothers because he had needed to act in the dark, he had broken his duty and left it to search a path of his own design and desire. The act of a selfish fool to most of the Astares, if his brothers had found him down there near an shrine of the sleeping god he was sure agents of the Sigillite would find him. If they had access to the records he had needed those moments to destroy they would brand him a traitor more than his volkite being turned on his brother had given him the title.
It was clear what the rot at the heart of the empire was, it was a lack of direction, a lack of faith and purpose. The Emperor had the greatest of his warriors as bureaucrats. He would send soldiers of war into missions of stealth, and master scouts to man heavy weapons. The legion perhaps could fill any roll but it did so poorly. Abaddon had come to learn in that secluded shrine that the imperium as a whole reflected the state of the Imperial Legion. Tainted by indirect, ticked into a false idea of completing any task leaving it unprepared for true foes that could match it in scale or power.
Equality was the symbol of this decay, the emperor had been far to permissive with his allowances for those off the path to be allowed in the hearts of man's domain. The sleeping and the unborn had a simple creed, do not allow enemies within thy walls. And we're surely the xenos not as much of an enemy now that the empire lords over them as they were when they stabbed their blades into the struggling human civilizations in the dark age. What right of mercy does time give them, how should noble mankind allow the work of xenos that will surely turn on them in the first time of struggle, when the blade at their throats is turned to another.
Abaddon had a mission he was an Astares the bulwark of humanity. It was his duty to see them safe no matter the costs. How much threat would one allow because it had not yet manifested. As the council dismissed him to get to their other works Abaddon headed back to his quarters in the Legions hive on Terra, soon he would be back in the field and he would find those who he can work with to save mankind.
Garviel moved slowly through the streets of the underhive, the massive thunder warrior was surely gone, but so too was most of the Astare's strength. He had been hit into a wall after a bolter shot to his chest. The building had collapsed around him and he had been suspended in that state for some time as the battle had finished and all traces of it were cleared the bodies, arms, and armor gone. Garviel needed to get to the hive proper, to tell the world of this treachery.
"I would not recommend your current course Astare Loken." Garviel spun at the musical voice his bolter pointed as a finger in clean and elegant armor stood before him. Such a figure was not of this underhive, no the elegance on which they moved closer told him they were not human. Given the slender figure an Eldar? Garviel had not personally encountered the race but he knew of their exodites that lived as protectorates in rare and distant worlds. This one did not look the the wild peoples he heard tale of. "You need not ask who I am Astare Loken, I am Amóem Yresh and yes I am of the Eldar, though I am on a mission far greater than just my kin." The melodic voice was twisting gently coaxing the space marine to listen instead of act.
"I represent a group working against forces of destruction beyond the keen that your petty empire can fight against." Garviel immediately went to retort when she speaks again not letting him. "It is petty in the scale of things I work on Astare Loken. No we have need of the one who betrayed you, he is not our ally but he works towards ends that make the galaxy safer. As for you we have need of agents and we can support you beyond what the empire can. You would be making a difference, saving the galaxy and all within from a fate beyond your imagining."
Garviel had his doubts of these claims and when he went to voice them she speaks again. "Our group has many forms of divination and the nature of future events are clear to us, we are not like your people playing blind in the cosmic dust, we are creators of grand harmonies and works that have shaped the galaxy before. Our goals is the elimination of a group beyond your ability to understand the power of."
Now she stays quiet as Garviel responds.
[][The Eldar] Accept The Deal
Garviel will leave his betrayer so that he may work with this mysterious group to aid the galaxy at large.
[][The Eldar] Alter the Deal
Garviel will accept the deal but demand a chance to confront Abaddon. This will leave him heavily indebted to the group but he will have a measure of revenge even if his benefactors will prevent a killing blow.
[][The Eldar] No Deal
Garviel will manage on his own and hunt down Abaddon seeking to expose him.
[][The Eldar] Foresee This
The Eldar speaks honeyed words. A bolter will quite her. Garviel will fight the Eldar envoy.
The first scribe shared a look with the second as the foretellings shift and the array of the world around them folds and unfolds. "Too many points of failure, but enough eyes to see the growth." The truth did not need to be spoken they both knew it. The Empire was not able to stop seeds of their cults from being planted but they had skilled gardeners pruning the seedlings as they sprouted.
"The gamble failed." The two knew the truth the Changeling nor Kairos first among equals needed tell them, the scribes knew as soon as the truth was true. They had seen a path where the imperium could be turned to their ends, one of many though this one had particular promise. The agent had approached the wrong link, or perhaps the wrong time. The seeings had show the possibilities but the future unfolded and folded again constantly. It was a duty to track the every changing web but not all agents, not all plots could be tracked.
"Nurgilite activity is present near a minor cult in the region, the nurgle cult is farm more entrenched." The truth was clear and the course was already set perhaps that path was always the one that had been plotting. The whispers the relay of deamons soon the cult would be more active. It would be found but it would reveal the best of plague and the trade was worth it. One of the scribes turned an eye to a distant world from the empire to spy one of the golden sons there, the world of knowledge was a sweet trap and the son would fall for it, that was the Truth at least until it wasn't.
"An agent of the Malice is active." The truth was bitter but it was the truth so it was known. The scribes turned to their futures seeking to find a response to another movement of the other powers.
The pitch of the war is screaming towards the final confrontation. But one last clash will shake the Imperium perhaps it will be enough to call into question what has been built or maybe it will quench the embers of resolve into a hardened steel. Yet the nature of that clash and the results are not yet painted.
[][War's End] A Broken Bulwark
The Imperium pushes in to find what remains of the two Legions that had been pushed deep into the Orks. An image of strength broken. The Wheel of Fire Campaign will end with the fight by the Xth and the XVth, a war they will win at a great cost.
[][War's End] A Shattered Lance
The Imperium pushes into the heart of the Orks, the Imperial army is found wanting in this measure. Only the timely arrival of the Legions who had been fighting in the heart of the war for years snatched victory from defeat. What is the measure of a man when demigods set the course of history?
[][War's End] An Idol of Destruction
The war ends in a surprising moment leaving the Legions and the Army unsure of how or why the Orks fall apart. The truth is the coming of a new player. Is the imperium worthy when it needs aid the first time it is truly challenged?
His hand touched a talisman of an eagle with one eye replaced by a five pointed sigil. He had been awoken to a truth, a power to great to ignore as it slumbered within the heart of the Empire. He had sacrificed his brothers because he had needed to act in the dark, he had broken his duty and left it to search a path of his own design and desire. The act of a selfish fool to most of the Astares, if his brothers had found him down there near an shrine of the sleeping god he was sure agents of the Sigillite would find him. If they had access to the records he had needed those moments to destroy they would brand him a traitor more than his volkite being turned on his brother had given him the title.
It was clear what the rot at the heart of the empire was, it was a lack of direction, a lack of faith and purpose. The Emperor had the greatest of his warriors as bureaucrats. He would send soldiers of war into missions of stealth, and master scouts to man heavy weapons. The legion perhaps could fill any roll but it did so poorly. Abaddon had come to learn in that secluded shrine that the imperium as a whole reflected the state of the Imperial Legion. Tainted by indirect, ticked into a false idea of completing any task leaving it unprepared for true foes that could match it in scale or power.
Equality was the symbol of this decay, the emperor had been far to permissive with his allowances for those off the path to be allowed in the hearts of man's domain. The sleeping and the unborn had a simple creed, do not allow enemies within thy walls. And we're surely the xenos not as much of an enemy now that the empire lords over them as they were when they stabbed their blades into the struggling human civilizations in the dark age. What right of mercy does time give them, how should noble mankind allow the work of xenos that will surely turn on them in the first time of struggle, when the blade at their throats is turned to another.
Abaddon had a mission he was an Astares the bulwark of humanity. It was his duty to see them safe no matter the costs. How much threat would one allow because it had not yet manifested. As the council dismissed him to get to their other works Abaddon headed back to his quarters in the Legions hive on Terra, soon he would be back in the field and he would find those who he can work with to save mankind.
Garviel moved slowly through the streets of the underhive, the massive thunder warrior was surely gone, but so too was most of the Astare's strength. He had been hit into a wall after a bolter shot to his chest. The building had collapsed around him and he had been suspended in that state for some time as the battle had finished and all traces of it were cleared the bodies, arms, and armor gone. Garviel needed to get to the hive proper, to tell the world of this treachery.
"I would not recommend your current course Astare Loken." Garviel spun at the musical voice his bolter pointed as a finger in clean and elegant armor stood before him. Such a figure was not of this underhive, no the elegance on which they moved closer told him they were not human. Given the slender figure an Eldar? Garviel had not personally encountered the race but he knew of their exodites that lived as protectorates in rare and distant worlds. This one did not look the the wild peoples he heard tale of. "You need not ask who I am Astare Loken, I am Amóem Yresh and yes I am of the Eldar, though I am on a mission far greater than just my kin." The melodic voice was twisting gently coaxing the space marine to listen instead of act.
"I represent a group working against forces of destruction beyond the keen that your petty empire can fight against." Garviel immediately went to retort when she speaks again not letting him. "It is petty in the scale of things I work on Astare Loken. No we have need of the one who betrayed you, he is not our ally but he works towards ends that make the galaxy safer. As for you we have need of agents and we can support you beyond what the empire can. You would be making a difference, saving the galaxy and all within from a fate beyond your imagining."
Garviel had his doubts of these claims and when he went to voice them she speaks again. "Our group has many forms of divination and the nature of future events are clear to us, we are not like your people playing blind in the cosmic dust, we are creators of grand harmonies and works that have shaped the galaxy before. Our goals is the elimination of a group beyond your ability to understand the power of."
Now she stays quiet as Garviel responds.
[][The Eldar] Accept The Deal
Garviel will leave his betrayer so that he may work with this mysterious group to aid the galaxy at large.
[][The Eldar] Alter the Deal
Garviel will accept the deal but demand a chance to confront Abaddon. This will leave him heavily indebted to the group but he will have a measure of revenge even if his benefactors will prevent a killing blow.
[][The Eldar] No Deal
Garviel will manage on his own and hunt down Abaddon seeking to expose him.
[][The Eldar] Foresee This
The Eldar speaks honeyed words. A bolter will quite her. Garviel will fight the Eldar envoy.
The first scribe shared a look with the second as the foretellings shift and the array of the world around them folds and unfolds. "Too many points of failure, but enough eyes to see the growth." The truth did not need to be spoken they both knew it. The Empire was not able to stop seeds of their cults from being planted but they had skilled gardeners pruning the seedlings as they sprouted.
"The gamble failed." The two knew the truth the Changeling nor Kairos first among equals needed tell them, the scribes knew as soon as the truth was true. They had seen a path where the imperium could be turned to their ends, one of many though this one had particular promise. The agent had approached the wrong link, or perhaps the wrong time. The seeings had show the possibilities but the future unfolded and folded again constantly. It was a duty to track the every changing web but not all agents, not all plots could be tracked.
"Nurgilite activity is present near a minor cult in the region, the nurgle cult is farm more entrenched." The truth was clear and the course was already set perhaps that path was always the one that had been plotting. The whispers the relay of deamons soon the cult would be more active. It would be found but it would reveal the best of plague and the trade was worth it. One of the scribes turned an eye to a distant world from the empire to spy one of the golden sons there, the world of knowledge was a sweet trap and the son would fall for it, that was the Truth at least until it wasn't.
"An agent of the Malice is active." The truth was bitter but it was the truth so it was known. The scribes turned to their futures seeking to find a response to another movement of the other powers.
The pitch of the war is screaming towards the final confrontation. But one last clash will shake the Imperium perhaps it will be enough to call into question what has been built or maybe it will quench the embers of resolve into a hardened steel. Yet the nature of that clash and the results are not yet painted.
[][War's End] A Broken Bulwark
The Imperium pushes in to find what remains of the two Legions that had been pushed deep into the Orks. An image of strength broken. The Wheel of Fire Campaign will end with the fight by the Xth and the XVth, a war they will win at a great cost.
[][War's End] A Shattered Lance
The Imperium pushes into the heart of the Orks, the Imperial army is found wanting in this measure. Only the timely arrival of the Legions who had been fighting in the heart of the war for years snatched victory from defeat. What is the measure of a man when demigods set the course of history?
[][War's End] An Idol of Destruction
The war ends in a surprising moment leaving the Legions and the Army unsure of how or why the Orks fall apart. The truth is the coming of a new player. Is the imperium worthy when it needs aid the first time it is truly challenged?
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[X][The Eldar] No Deal
Garviel will manage on his own and hunt down Abaddon seeking to expose him.
[X][War's End] A Shattered Lance
The Imperium pushes into the heart of the Orks, the Imperial army is found wanting in this measure. Only the timely arrival of the Legions who had been fighting in the heart of the war for years snatched victory from defeat. What is the measure of a man when demigods set the course of history?
Garviel will manage on his own and hunt down Abaddon seeking to expose him.
[X][War's End] A Shattered Lance
The Imperium pushes into the heart of the Orks, the Imperial army is found wanting in this measure. Only the timely arrival of the Legions who had been fighting in the heart of the war for years snatched victory from defeat. What is the measure of a man when demigods set the course of history?
[X][The Eldar] No Deal
Garviel will manage on his own and hunt down Abaddon seeking to expose him.
[X][War's End] A Shattered Lance
The Imperium pushes into the heart of the Orks, the Imperial army is found wanting in this measure. Only the timely arrival of the Legions who had been fighting in the heart of the war for years snatched victory from defeat. What is the measure of a man when demigods set the course of history?
Garviel will manage on his own and hunt down Abaddon seeking to expose him.
[X][War's End] A Shattered Lance
The Imperium pushes into the heart of the Orks, the Imperial army is found wanting in this measure. Only the timely arrival of the Legions who had been fighting in the heart of the war for years snatched victory from defeat. What is the measure of a man when demigods set the course of history?
[X][The Eldar] Accept The Deal
Garviel will leave his betrayer so that he may work with this mysterious group to aid the galaxy at large.
[X][War's End] A Shattered Lance
The Imperium pushes into the heart of the Orks, the Imperial army is found wanting in this measure. Only the timely arrival of the Legions who had been fighting in the heart of the war for years snatched victory from defeat. What is the measure of a man when demigods set the course of history?
Honestly fine with changing either option, just posting something to show Tennis that people are still paying attention to this.
Garviel will leave his betrayer so that he may work with this mysterious group to aid the galaxy at large.
[X][War's End] A Shattered Lance
The Imperium pushes into the heart of the Orks, the Imperial army is found wanting in this measure. Only the timely arrival of the Legions who had been fighting in the heart of the war for years snatched victory from defeat. What is the measure of a man when demigods set the course of history?
Honestly fine with changing either option, just posting something to show Tennis that people are still paying attention to this.
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