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The Long Night Part One: Embers in the Dusk: A Planetary Governor Quest (43k) Complete Sequel Up
- Thread starter Durin
- Start date
- Location
- not telling
I'll take that!
Override
ArchAIngel
Sorcerer Supreme.
- Location
- Right behind you.
So, a while back, I mentioned that with all the psychic bullshit we have on Avernus, the reason the warp storms don't touch us is that there's a planetmind holding it off. Given nobody likes warp storms, and I had some spare time, I wrote this. Hopefully it'll help somehow.
Override.
The penguins shifted.
Command: Awaken.
The Phase Tigers shuddered.
Command: Acknowledge.
The swarms of Blink Spiders fell apart, the intricate dance collapsing into a heap of writhing chitin.
Command: Stop.
Wave after wave after wave of enormous psychic power pulsed not from, but into the planet, each and every species sending the energy of the Warp to a single central point.
Command: Gather.
Silent ranks of animals began to form, Sirens, their ladies, and their queens all in perfect lines that would have made the maddest commissar cry at how precise it was.
Command: Channel.
The perfect arrays of engineered flesh, filling entire clearings while awed humanity watched from kilometers away, unwilling to disrupt the obscene force gathered and still gathering, twitched. Warpfire and emerald lightning coursed through simple earth, mere dirt charring and changing with power that could tear a star in twain with a single release. While the mere humans filling their fortified citadels could not, were not allowed to, determine how it worked, even the least of their psychics could feel the bloated strength gathering.
Command: Expand.
And they felt the maddeningly enormous force grow. Grow like an Ork in a fight with a million billion other Orks, grow at speeds that only one human psyker had ever equaled, yet alone surpassed. And that psyker was dead. The Warp-borne goliath of power, now making even a supernova pale in comparison, still held with impossibly perfect control. Even with millennia upon millennia of decay and change, the creations of the Old Ones still were perfectly linked, to a degree even the Tyranids would envy, and that meant even this system-shattering power was not enough to push them to their limit.
Command: Finish.
And in a single instant, it vanished. The buildup of strength and will that could have cleared a fleet to ashen shards of metal, crushed a star to a single blackened point, flung planets around like marbles, evaporated in a bare thousandth of a second.
I will endure.
And the Warp surrounding the most dangerous planet humanity had ever found, screaming/roaring/blazing/changing with the death of the Emperor of Mankind, froze.
Completely.
And utterly.
Froze.
Trillions upon trillions of kilometers of space stopped like a man that hit a wall, their turbulent twists and turns forcibly flattened out as the final cry of the Old Ones enacted its first use of psychic power.
Avernus awakened. It felt the writhing mass of the Realm of Souls, and as far as it could, stopped it. The Warp Storm died, crushed like a flickering candlelight by a psychic power that made even the greatest Eldar look puny in comparison. Within the range commanded by the planet's inherited orders, there was no storm.
Objective completed. Returning to standby.
And Avernus returned to slumber, content that its job had been done. For a massive sphere of space, there was nothing but a Warp returned to peace. While without the monstrous psychic power of an entire planet forcibly maintaining such a state, it would not last.
But for a few years, it was enough. Enough that even the Ruinous Powers noticed, as their eyes on one of the rare few places they refused to engage vanished in the tide of strength. But they did nothing, for while any one of them could crush it, the fight would be enough that their kin would tear them to shreds in their moment of weakness.
Perhaps something would change from this. Perhaps nothing would change. But for a few worlds, for a few sweet years, the space-not-space that was the Warp was calmer than even Terra's, before its fall.
Override.
The penguins shifted.
Command: Awaken.
The Phase Tigers shuddered.
Command: Acknowledge.
The swarms of Blink Spiders fell apart, the intricate dance collapsing into a heap of writhing chitin.
Command: Stop.
Wave after wave after wave of enormous psychic power pulsed not from, but into the planet, each and every species sending the energy of the Warp to a single central point.
Command: Gather.
Silent ranks of animals began to form, Sirens, their ladies, and their queens all in perfect lines that would have made the maddest commissar cry at how precise it was.
Command: Channel.
The perfect arrays of engineered flesh, filling entire clearings while awed humanity watched from kilometers away, unwilling to disrupt the obscene force gathered and still gathering, twitched. Warpfire and emerald lightning coursed through simple earth, mere dirt charring and changing with power that could tear a star in twain with a single release. While the mere humans filling their fortified citadels could not, were not allowed to, determine how it worked, even the least of their psychics could feel the bloated strength gathering.
Command: Expand.
And they felt the maddeningly enormous force grow. Grow like an Ork in a fight with a million billion other Orks, grow at speeds that only one human psyker had ever equaled, yet alone surpassed. And that psyker was dead. The Warp-borne goliath of power, now making even a supernova pale in comparison, still held with impossibly perfect control. Even with millennia upon millennia of decay and change, the creations of the Old Ones still were perfectly linked, to a degree even the Tyranids would envy, and that meant even this system-shattering power was not enough to push them to their limit.
Command: Finish.
And in a single instant, it vanished. The buildup of strength and will that could have cleared a fleet to ashen shards of metal, crushed a star to a single blackened point, flung planets around like marbles, evaporated in a bare thousandth of a second.
I will endure.
And the Warp surrounding the most dangerous planet humanity had ever found, screaming/roaring/blazing/changing with the death of the Emperor of Mankind, froze.
Completely.
And utterly.
Froze.
Trillions upon trillions of kilometers of space stopped like a man that hit a wall, their turbulent twists and turns forcibly flattened out as the final cry of the Old Ones enacted its first use of psychic power.
Avernus awakened. It felt the writhing mass of the Realm of Souls, and as far as it could, stopped it. The Warp Storm died, crushed like a flickering candlelight by a psychic power that made even the greatest Eldar look puny in comparison. Within the range commanded by the planet's inherited orders, there was no storm.
Objective completed. Returning to standby.
And Avernus returned to slumber, content that its job had been done. For a massive sphere of space, there was nothing but a Warp returned to peace. While without the monstrous psychic power of an entire planet forcibly maintaining such a state, it would not last.
But for a few years, it was enough. Enough that even the Ruinous Powers noticed, as their eyes on one of the rare few places they refused to engage vanished in the tide of strength. But they did nothing, for while any one of them could crush it, the fight would be enough that their kin would tear them to shreds in their moment of weakness.
Perhaps something would change from this. Perhaps nothing would change. But for a few worlds, for a few sweet years, the space-not-space that was the Warp was calmer than even Terra's, before its fall.
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Skewfiend
The Corruptor of All Things
- Location
- The Darkness Behind Your Eyes
Does it have its own demons?
Or at least animals that are fucking close enough?
ArchAIngel
Sorcerer Supreme.
- Location
- Right behind you.
...Geee heee heee HEEEEE! How big is it? I wrote it as being non-throne Emperor tier, because it's an entire fucking planet, but if we know it has a presence, we should have a rough estimate.
- Location
- Australia
The Epsilon Penguins could be the lesser daemons and whatever's in the deep caverns/ocean depths could be the greater daemons.
Demons are creatures of Chaos. Avernus is associated with the Old Ones, and so is far more likely to be associated with the metaphysical force of Order, which is even more likely considering it purges corruption and was preparing to destroy a city that was on the verge of falling to the Star Father. So no, no demons.
ArchAIngel
Sorcerer Supreme.
- Location
- Right behind you.
Just a minor nitpick, but it's Daemons, not demons. Different things, oddly enough. Demons are a name for malicious Warp entities that aren't Chaos, while Daemons are Chaos Warp entities.
- Location
- Australia
I know. I was just playing along.
It's been a while since I've been deep into this quest, so I forgot the spelling.
Even so, daemons or demons, they are still Chaos oriented in either case. The Enslavers and other nasties in the Warp were not kind to the Old Ones. The various animals in the arctic that eat Enslavers and the like are meant as a counter.
Skewfiend
The Corruptor of All Things
- Location
- The Darkness Behind Your Eyes
By "demons", I meant "functional analogues of chaos daemons".
Any semi-independent parts that fucntion as their own warp entities.
ArchAIngel
Sorcerer Supreme.
- Location
- Right behind you.
Well, it's not quest specific, just something I heard about 40k. And yes, we basically have anti-daemons running around. It's glorious.
I rather doubt it. If the Old Ones had managed that, then Enslavers wouldn't even get into the arctic - the Warp entities would be enough to kill them.
Also, keep in mind that "presence in the Warp" does not mean Avernus is a Warp entity. Anything that has a soul has a presence in the Warp, even if it is mainly in the physical world.
- Location
- not telling
So I have one more omake it me. What do you guys want me to try for? Resource stashes (likes), abandon military gear (to cheaply expand the army) (hugs), ships (funny), or Super heavy's/Titans (insightful) to replace what we've lost? Give me a poll for the next few hours then I'll get creaking.
- Location
- America
Oh god. Planet mind.
HanEmpire
Delicious
I'd like our Navy to recover faster, so ships please.
ArchAIngel
Sorcerer Supreme.
- Location
- Right behind you.
Let's hope it doesn't start making bad poetry.
^ "mind and flower, node and worm,
^ in compound small, planet yearns.
^ growth dream soon unlock we prison,
^ human beware, planet risen!
Seriously, SMAC had a hilarious planetmind. Hopefully ours is okay too.
- Location
- Anchorage, Alaska
You clever fiend! This is a trap to get more likes, isn't it! ... It's working, I left a like. WILL YOUR LUST NEVER BE SATISFIED!?!
1382
- Location
- not telling
Actually It's because I didn't want to clog up the thread with 10+ pages of "Ships. NO TITANS!" back and forth.
It'd be a little difficult for them to move around (if not outright impossible) but I wouldn't put it past a lot of Guard regiments trying to survive by some means. I am expecting a lot of good, bad, and ugly situations to have occurred across multiple planets in the sector under Guard leadership.
@durin I take it we won't get a complete map/update on the situation in the Sector from what was recovered? I'd like the idea of maybe writing a few more omakes involving who or what has survived out in the Sector.
HanEmpire
Delicious
I don't think that'd work, the Sector is likely full of Warpstorms. The guardsmen would probably stay in a single sub-sector and go around putting out bushfires and fighting off raider/invaders.
Speaking of stranded Guard armies though, I hope the Avernites tithed before the Emperor's Death are doing well. Maybe we'll meet an Avernus-lite Death/Fortress world in a few centuries.
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