My God, Corves found some of the most important worlds form the DOTA, the bureaucratic worlds. They are Maximum-Extremums in priority and must be defended at all costs, the Administratum must learn all of their techniques so they are not lost.
Is it the very first time when we have "Numbers" mod?
Can it help with our runes?
Is that trap been prepared for us, Magnus, or both? It's not "ask to QM", just a thought.
Though I'll not be upset if you'll give an answer.
And actual question: What about Magnus, and Otto with our bois? Are someone trapped inside with Sanguinius?
1. No, it's rare but you do get it sometimes.
2. It cannot
3. Well it's not an actual trap. It was a result of very bad luck for Sanguinius. He's isolated alone along with the Blood Angels. Magnus and Otto are free from it.
If you think about it though, other than the Dark Angels, the Wardens know how to fight while outmanned and outgunned.
Though I think that makes perfect sense, since if they have to deal with Chaos, Emps is basically saying "go take care of it" and Kesar doesn't even ask if there will be reinforcements. Because he is the reinforcements when it comes that.
[X] Conduct a series of raids to whittle them down before finishing them off
-[X] Use any available Librarians to warn of reinforcements and prevent ambushes
-[X] Attempt to capture an enemy vessel to acquire information
Reality tore open above the world designated as Target Alpha One. Then another hole in reality was torn, then a third above the system designated as Target Alpha Two. Then a fourth, then a fifth above Target Alpha Three. A hundred separate fleets of 5 ships each entered the Mitu's inner worlds and began to destroy whatever they could.
Each of these packs was given a data packet written by Otto on a few strategies they could use as well as a location to go to and when to return. Relying primarily on the skill of the Astartes, the Admiral created the plans for the raids and let the pieces of his plans fall into place.
Across the three systems, the Wardens had been tasked with taking, Admiral Fritzkin watched as the Mitu lost ship after ship. There was no pattern they could find, no indication of what the Imperium was targeting, and so they suffered. They lost a defensive station after a pack of destroyers went unmolested for too long. They lost a group of escorts when two packs of Strike Cruisers descended upon them. For the Mitu, it was hell.
Otto kept an eye on the war unfolding in front of him. Reports came in constantly as he took in as many as he could. His attention, however, was limited. Relying on the filtered reports that were relayed to him wasn't ideal. Partially due to the delays introduced and partially due to the details that were naturally left out. However, it was necessary in order for him to keep up with the current situation.
It was for this reason that it took him several minutes before realizing the state of a certain Mitu ship. Astartes boarding teams were crawling through it and were in the process of destroying the reactor, a task that had rarely been possible thus far. This combined with the state of space around that fleet element gave the Wardens a chance to capture a Mitu ship, a chance he would take.
"Order Fleet element 58 to capture that vessel." Otto took a moment to watch as his order was relayed without pause, any hesitation from the Astartes having faded away years ago. He would never get used to it.
The Astartes in charge of the Vigilance's sensor readings looked up from their console. "Should I pipe the feed from the boarding teams?"
Otto thought about it for a moment. The raids were about to enter a brief lull according to his plans, and it would help with future attempts. "Do so."
Several videos appeared in front of his eyes. Pict recorders from the Astartes painted a gruesome sight, one that disturbed him even now.
The walls seemed to be coated in a thin layer of transparent flesh. He watched as a Xeno with strange proportions fired a weapon at the Astartes. A sickly pale green beam came out of the metallic contraption, and vents appeared as it cycled once more, revealing strips of flesh underneath. The Wardens dove to the side as the beam struck the walls around them, turning the transparent flesh into a screaming pile of ashes. A full magazine was emptied into it by one of the Wardens, causing the screams to stop while his battle brother drove a chainsword through the Xeno skull.
Seeing such a weapon, there was just one question to ask. "What have the Detection Runes revealed?"
The response was swift and instant. "Warptech is in use and the immaterium is present in reality in parts. Purity Runes have no effect."
For a moment, Otto wondered what Lord Captain Oriacarius would do in this situation. As he mused on the myriad of contingencies he would have likely put into place, he watched as the Astartes breached what seemed to be a storage room where a squadron of Xenos remained. It was strange to see how many limbs they had. Some had two arms, others four. Some were dark green, others dark red. It felt like he was seeing several different Xeno strains instead of a single species.
The Wardens progressed through the ship, reaching another door. This one was different from the rest. Instead of the thin transparent flesh coating, this coating was opaque. As breaching charges were placed, the Warden performing the task lept back before it could be properly armed. The reason for which became apparent when the charge began to sink into the flesh, disappearing within seconds.
Unwilling to touch the door, the Astartes onboard the ship brought forth another demolition charge, this time arming it well in advance. This time when the door began to swallow it, it detonated, leaving a hole through which the Wardens charged through.
For a second, a blurry image of what looked to be a warp core was seen. Otto could see the adamantium as well as a red fluid he thought was blood orbiting around it in a spiral pattern. He got to see a Xeno with four arms and four legs make some sort of sound as they pressed a button on a console in front of them.
Then the feeds shifted to a sensor reading of the escort ship in the 58th Fleet Element, and he got to see a glowing red eyesore in space consume the Mitu ship and melt all that were onboard it into a red slurry that shrank then winked out of existence.
Hundreds of Astartes onboard that ship lost their lives in that moment as the Escort began to report that third of their ship was now simply gone along with everyone that was in the section at the time.
He wasn't sure if they were simply dead or unlucky enough to have been dragged into the warp. Otto felt guilty for ordering the Astartes to try and capture the ship before he tried to ignore the feeling. It had been a risk, but one that could have paid off well. Capturing a ship would have been very useful, and he would use what he had learned here to capture one as he finished off the Mitu.
With the raids having crippled the Mitu defenses, all that was left to plan the next push. The next battle would crush them, with the full might of the Wardens engaging the Xenos in battle. Just as Otto began to think of who would command the assault on the two worlds he wasn't present at, a messenger came into the meeting room.
It must have been urgent for an interruption during the planning session, and the serf wasted no time in speaking. "Lord Primarch Magnus has dealt with Target Alpha Two and Target Alpha Three."
For a moment, the room was silent as they processed what it meant. Then Otto slowly reached over to the battle plan that they had been creating till this point and pressed the button to create a new one. Admiral Fritzkin never expected this to happen. The Thousand Sons were supposed to take an additional five months to pacify their targets. Instead, they had enough time to conquer their worlds, travel to the Warden targets, and destroy them well inside of the time frame asked of them.
It was humbling in a way for him. He knew that Primarchs were beyond him, but even now he struggled to understand how far beyond him they were. Yet, he still had a job to finish, and one last world to end.
The Vigilance was the first ship to enter the system containing Target Alpha One. And so it was the first ship to weather the incoming weapons fire. Dozens of sickly beams of warp energy sapped her void shields as her guns thundered in the void. Macrocannons that had remained silent for months roared in fury as the ammunition stockpiles began to shrink by barely perceptible amounts. The Vigilance could fire her guns for days if needed, but she would not need to, for the Wardens had a fleet behind her.
With the guns of the Vigilance, the skill of Admiral Fritzkin, and the strength of the Adeptus Astartes, the Imperium fought the Mitu in a close-ranged gunnery duel. Ships lost their shields and pulled back, torpedoes fired and were intercepted, bombers dived upon enemy ships and were met by fighters, Astartes boarding teams were met by Mitu warptech. There was no pattern to the battle, just a thousand different fights with two factions in the area.
But in this sea of madness, there was order. Astartes squads worked in tandem to assault key components, ships maneuvered to keep their brethren alive when their shields fell, and Otto Fritzkin saw a chance.
It was a single point in the Mitu formation where the Admiral saw the possibility of an opening. At this part of the formation, several ships were present with torpedoes, but more importantly, the Vigilance was facing it.
Titanic engines emitted columns of flame as the Gloriana shuddered at the acceleration. The ship vibrated in anticipation as sensor readings grew crisper as the machine spirit grew more active by the second. Across the ship, technicians smiled as their tasks felt easier than normal as if an unseen hand was guiding them. Tech-priests chanted, their sacred rites and oils only empowering the machine spirit further.
Gloriana Battleships were a source of inspiration to allies and a terror to enemies. Their broadsides could annihilate fleets, and their armored prows could rip battleships in two without pause. It is for this reason that they are given an appropriate amount of devotion by the Mechanicum, but what came next made the tech-priests in the fleet feel as if they had been inadequate.
The Vigilance's guns fired far faster than ever expected, the sheer speed surprising the serfs in charge of reloading the guns. Before, the ships firing rate was limited by how fast the ship could physically fire, but now it was limited by how fast the machine spirit could be given ammunition.
The section of the Xeno fleet targeted simply ceased to exist. The first set of shells broke the void shields on escorts, the second disabled those escorts, and the third destroyed them. Then the Cruisers were targeted, and then there were no more ships for the Vigilance to fire upon.
A wall of torpedoes fired upon the ships at the edges of that hole in the Mitu formation, widening it further for several wolf packs of escorts to sprint through it. With the Warden fleet now attacking from the rear, the Mitu formation began to crumble. More and more holes began to appear as ships began to wither and die, often literally in some cases judging by the debris found after the battle. The Xenos were all but dead, but Admiral Fritzkin wanted more.
He wanted a ship, and he would have one. A single pack of Mitu ships was chosen and corralled before all but one was destroyed. Then the Vigilance turned its attention towards the ship and flew towards it.
Easily weathering the Mitu Cruisers' weapons the Vigilance closed the distance before a single macrocannon barked, and the enemy shields shattered.
From the Gloriana's hangars, dozens of Stormbirds and Storm Eagles poured out. Dozens of boarding pods preceded them as the Wardens swarmed the vessel. While the Vigilance turned away from the Mitu ship, four Astartes Strike Cruisers positioned themselves around the vessel, ready to supply reinforcements or bombard areas if needed.
Otto directed the boarding teams as they cleared room after room within the ship. Xenos were found and killed time and time again, the different forms of the Mitu blurring together as they died like their brethren.
Then the Wardens came across the same flesh door that barred the last capture attempt from succeeding. This time, however, they knew what to do. Two charges detonated, and the Astartes breached through the doors while a team of Terminators teleported in at the same time. Caught in a crossfire, the Xeno occupants died well before they could perform any foul machinations. And the Astartes glanced with disgust at the orbiting spiral of blood as they wondered which of them would be unlucky enough to garrison this vessel.
With his task completed, Admiral Otto awaited further orders. He had no doubt that Lord Primarch Sanguinius had succeeded, but he wondered what the next phase of the war would entail. Days passed before an astropathic message came through announcing the Angel of Baal's expected victory. There were no orders, but that was understandable considering the troubles that came with astropathic communication. They were likely to arrive within the day.
There were no messages that week, and a day later the Navigator reported some unsettling news. A warp storm had covered the far side of the Mitu Conglomerate, entrapping the Blood Angels with over half of the Xeno armadas. But as a Blood Angel participating in the Legion exchange said, "time will tell if my father is trapped, or if the Xenos simply cannot run from him."
GM Note: The other action is meant to be broad. You can use it for whatever you want besides for socials and research.
Social (Choose 2)
[] Horus
[] Leman
[] Magnus
[] Perturabo
Research (2 Locked)
[X] Gene Seed Partial Mutation Prevention (3/6)
[X] Null Rod Understanding (2/3)
[X] A reminder to the GM that Vortex Mathematics tech is found during your compliances and to add that
Other Action (Pick 1)
[] Create Epsilon Chaplains
[] Take a look at the Imperial Army academies
[] Visit some cultural landmarks
[] Meet with some Imperial Army regiments
[] Look into the Astra Telepathica. There has been some news of major changes recently
[] Work on improving the Witch Hunters within Kesar's domain
[] Look into fortifying Kesar's domain
[] Train a PDF force on (write-in world)
[] Write-in
This is valid. And I can't believe I forgot the Night Watch stuff.
Edit: From Rolz since Mysterio made a good point in that I should have this here as well:
Mysterio: for other actions can you get into details what they mean? some I have an idea what they do others....not so much
DaemonHunter: The first is just improving your Chaplains.
Mysterio: thought so
Mysterio: go on
DaemonHunter: The second is looking to see if you can improve the IA or learn something from it by some miracle.
DaemonHunter: The third is to check out the culture of the Imperium in your domain.
DaemonHunter: The fourth is to meet with the Imperial Army and see what they're like.
DaemonHunter: The fifth is to check out the Astra Telepathica.
DaemonHunter: The sixth is to either increase the expansion rate of the Witch Hunters or to improve them.
DaemonHunter: The seventh is to find ways to increase your domain's defenses.
DaemonHunter: The last is to just improve a planet's defenses.
Mysterio: I think you should mention what you told me to the group so they too have a clear idea what to expect
Mysterio: improving chaplains is good but seeing our culture is a good thing too
Mysterio: don't know if we can improve the IA or learn from them what would the DC be for that?
Mysterio: meeting the IA might be something normal people meet a Primarch good for morale
Mysterio: checking the Astra telepathically would be good (after all I been making omakes to help them so they would be happy to see Kesar)
Mysterio: increasing the expansion rate or skill for witch hunters is always welcomed considering the headache of Chaos
DaemonHunter: Good point. Added to SV.
DaemonHunter: For the IA, I'm going to fiat that.
Mysterio: improving domain defenses is important but I don't know how much we can do to actually improve it
Mysterio: and improving our home planet defenses....unless its putting up tier 3 defenses that Perturabo designed there's very little we can add to it overall
Mysterio: can you place my thoughts/comments for the group to read demon hunter?
We have been interacting with Leman a lot recently and it feels like we haven't talked to Horus in years so although I like Leman, it just makes more sense for Kesar to talk to someone he hasn't talked to in a long time.
he seems to me like a boy who desperately needs a ham hug, a cup of hot coco, and some decent family time....because hell he looks tired as fuck and absolutely done with this shit-hole of a galaxy.
Poor Kesar...
edited: also-
[X] Plan Pet The Dog
we should look into the culture/astra telepathica sooner or later...once the nightwatch have been fully trained.
then we should look into unifying our domains culture as much as possible...not really a thing, but even if the entire domain has 11% unified cultural bonds then that would be FANTASTIC!
