The Lost Primarch Quest
- Thread starter Daemon Hunter
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Darker than Black (Must Read)
Darker than Black
Garakras sought to change that perception. For too long had the Incubi been either shock troopers or bodyguards. And while there was nothing wrong with such duties, he believed that the Incubi could do far better. The supposed founder of the Incubi, Lord Arhra, was a Phoenix Lord. An extension of Khaine's wraith and will. But was it enough to act as hired blades in the dark? Was there not more that could be done?
Could he and others not become lords of their own? A mercenary life was free, yes, and life was cheap...but to obtain power required ambition. Garakras was undoubtedly ambitious; however, that drive wasn't enough to get what you wanted in the newly christened Ashen City. And if he were honest with him, holding sway over a bombed-out or blighted ruin was not that appealing these days.
For if nothing else, Garakras pride forbade him from wanting anything less than the respect and power he deserved for honing his skills and talents. He was untested and inexperienced with the rigors of leading his Incubi; this was true. Nevertheless, that thirst for more and the drive to become something greater would serve him well. If nothing else, he would ensure that someday his legacy would extend far beyond just being a small-time Hierarch of slight renown.
Pride was Garakras's greatest sin and strength in that same vein.
He had learned from his former master that it was better to pride one's skill in any aspect, especially a useful one as the art of murder, but also in conducting business and building alliances. No one likes a "humble" or "modest" killer. Be kind and courteous to both employers and victims, but always be the best. Besides, Garakras was a grandmaster of the Klaive. Not a master, but a grandmaster. Anyone that forgot that would come to regret it.
That skill ultimately allowed him to slay his master, as was Garakras's right as his pupil. A few competitors arose to test their Klavies against Garakras, but they too fell in glorious combat. After that, his ascension to Hierarch was unchallenged. Sadly, this was when he was actually put to the test. Yes, he now controlled over 10,000 Incubi, a few million slaves, and a sizeable war chest, but it wasn't nearly enough, even in the contested ruins of Commorragh. Additionally, dozens of older Incubi Shrines fought for the uncountable number of factions and groups inside the Ashen City.
Suffice it to say, there was too much heat inside Commorragh, especially for a shrine with no name. Garakras honored the last wish of his master, "Cast aside the name of our shrine, let it be born anew, or perish in the blood-tides, Garakras. Either way, you shall gain everlasting glory or defeat, and my name shall be secured." His master was an arrogant bastard, but Garakras also saw the wisdom in this idea.
And so it came to pass, and the shrine of his master would be erased in due time. Forgotten by most and remembered only as words uttered in fear or disdain upon the lips of patrons and foes alike.
Ultimately, the decision to leave Commorragh was an easy one. Garakras sold the obsolete domain of his master to gain additional funds and decided to look for fortunes elsewhere. He bought ships, vehicles, transports, and enough weapons to keep his forces well-stocked. Around the second year of this endeavor, Garakras was invited by none other than Vect to his palace. He wanted to hire Garakras and his Incubi, not for himself, but for Pythis Apohex and his Kabal of the Serpent. Rarely had anyone within the Ashen City seen or met with Pythis within the last decade. He had effectively gone silent. Most assumed that he had died or gone off on some little hunt for riches or slaves like many others had done.
Vect knew otherwise. More importantly, Vect explained that he and Pythis worked on a crucial joint endeavor in the Halo Stars. Pythis needed more soldiers capable of aiding his human slave armies. The Archon practically handed out entire worlds and hundreds of millions of slaves to anyone Druhkari who served alongside him. How Pythis achieved accumulated such wealth and power confused Garakras. Why had no one heard about this either? Vect was intentionally suppressing information, he explained.
"My payment is not only for your services but also for your silence. I trust you will not break such a vow." As if he had to ask. The Incubi never betrayed their clients' trust, not unless that trust was broken by the client first. Even so, Garakras felt uneasy about this job. Vect was paying them nearly five times what the Hierarch got from selling their domain. This, on top of the additional rewards from Pythis, made him think there was another angle to this.
To his surprise, Vect was honest with Garakras...to a certain extent. "I need someone who can keep an eye on Pythis and ensure he doesn't ruin all these years of hard work. I have plenty of investments in this enterprise. So I would be indebted to you if this stays between us." Vect wasn't asking him to spy on Pythis, but rather just be ready if anything "happened" that required Garakras intervention.
If that was what was to be done, then so be it. The Archons continued to play games, even as their entire species tried to lift themselves from the ashes caused by the Bloody Laughter. If nothing else, Garakras and his followers could leave this accursed city and gain fortune elsewhere. Was it that surprising then when he took Vect's offer? The future of Garakras now lay in the mysterious and dangerous corner of the galaxy that was the Halo Stars. He expected it to be a perilous endeavor. It was only until he arrived that Garakras realized what he had gotten into.
---
To his embarrassment, Garakras should've known better than to trust Pythis Apohex. The problem, of course, was that the Archon was the type of Druhkari that knew how to beguile and manipulate you. Even though Vect had warned Garakras, the Incubus figured Pythis was more hot-air than anything. Their first meeting and the subsequent revelation made Garakras reevaluate just how dangerous Pythis was now.
Pythis met with Garakras and his 10,000 Incubi on a world called Lokelorian, an industrial world of the Black Suns Empire. It was home to almost nine billion slaves, thousands of free Druhkari, millions of slave soldiers, and a resource-rich solar system full of untapped resources. A mighty treasure that any Kabal would kill or steal for if given the opportunity.
Garakras assumed that he was to guard this world. Instead, to his shock, Pythis declared that it was to be his fiefdom. All its resources, slaves, and power were his to control so long as Garakras swore eternal allegiance to the Black Sun Empire. He should've known better than agreeing, but how could he say no? This wouldn't just give Garakras a base to start a new shrine; it was a bloody kingdom.
He could've spent centuries just trying to gain control of one moon with enough industry and resources to make it worthwhile. It was just too good a deal to pass up in the end. Garakras agreed and pledged him and his forces to the Black Suns Empire. Pythis seemed just as happy over this development and instantly sent the Incubi to begin their governance of Lokelorian. When Garakras arrived, he saw something odd about this world, specifically its people.
For starters, these Ilmaea Druhkari seemed dour and jaded. In the first few days of the Incubi's arrival, they laughed bitterly whenever an Incubus asked what awaited them in the Halo Stars. It was as if these bastards were quietly laughing at some joke. Of course, the Incubi would soon learn the truth, albeit from the slaves rather than the masters.
When most Druhkari thought of slave soldiers, they thought of malnourished and under-equipped slaves that had been given a gun or sword. This mentality was slowly changing, especially among the so-called Mon'keigh Kings. Because really, what Druhkari would allow their slaves to be professionally armed soldiers? That was a recipe for disaster. Garakras assumed that those Archons just hired mercenaries and called them slaves behind the merc's back.
But these Ilmaea Atani? They were a different sort of breed. Most of them were young, while their commanders and officers were older. That was the first indicator that something was different about them. All of them were male humans, which was an odd decision from a military standpoint. Then again, if you wanted to produce more slaves sending women to whatever frontlines their Empire faced was just a bad idea. Even so, Garakras was almost...impressed with what he saw of these Atani.
They had good weapons and equipment, for one. Everything from Imperial small-arms to Druhkari heavy weapons. Some were designed and built from within the Empire in these "Gardens," as one Atani commander would explain. None of the Atani footsoldiers looked malnourished or sickly, but Garakras saw that many looked to be slightly brutalized. Each had a brand of a black sun on their foreheads and plenty of scars across their bodies. They were disciplined and well-trained as well. But more than all of that was the look in their eyes. Garakras saw that they were zealots in their own right. Utterly devoured to their masters and the expansion and defense of the Black Suns Empire.
And the more Garakras spoke with them and their commanders, the more he realized that something was seriously wrong here. They showed no hesitation at the prospect of fighting. Eerily enough, they were excited at the prospect of working alongside warriors of the Druhkari. And when some remarked that they were even eager to spar against his Incubi, Garakras knew now that he might have made a mistake in taking this job.
He directly confronted the Atani commanders and a few of the local Druhkari leaders and pointedly asked them what exactly was the purpose of the Atani and the Black Suns Empire? The humans looked confused while his fellow Druhkari started laughing. It took Garakras so much control to not gut those bastards right then, and they were ultimately saved when a "colonel" of the Atani, a human Ganro Alamin, approached the Hierarch.
"Lord Hierarch!" He stood at attention, "The creation of the Black Suns Empire and the Ilmaea Atani was to continue the ancient battle against the hated foe of the Old Ones, that being the Ygnir! The Ygnir and its minions have begun a war of destruction across the galaxy, starting from the Halo Stars. The Ygnir, the one known as the Outsider, has been engaged by the Atani on numerous occasions already and-"
Garakras was already walking out of his new office and sending orders for his fastest ship to be ready when he arrived. He would need to talk to Pythis about this job in more detail than when they first met.
---
Pythis Apohex didn't so much laugh at Garakras as he did give him a look of "you should've known better than to trust me." It took Garakras nearly a week to schedule this meeting, and by the time he arrived, it seemed that Pythis was prepared ahead of time for it. To say the Hierarch was furious was an understatement. Garakras feared no foe, but that didn't mean the Incubus would participate in suicidal battles. That a Ygnir had resurfaced after eons should've heralded the end of everything in the galaxy.
However, that wasn't the case, as Pythis carefully explained. Yes, the Outsider had returned...but it was more an animal than anything. It somehow lost most of its higher functions or simply had gone completely insane. The matter was that it was acting on what could be called "animalistic instinct," albeit with enough self-awareness to unleash its destructive powers to defend itself. Nevertheless, the Black Suns Empire had worked tirelessly to find a means to kill, incapacitate or contain it.
Garakras thought the whole idea was nonsense. Not even the Aeldari Empire at its height could've hoped to contain the Outsider without suffering grievous casualties in the process. Pythis partly agreed with that assessment. The Black Suns had suffered horrific losses, but most of them were Atani. That was the beauty of their situation, as it meant far fewer losses for their people.
Additionally, the Atani had taken to this war with a zealous fervor. Garakras hated that Pythis successfully created some sort of "crusade" against the Outsider via his Atani. If the Black Suns defeated the Outsider, somehow, that would mean the Halo Stars were free for the taking by the Druhkari. It was certainly tempting to imagine having a place at the table when it came time to carve it all out. But it might as well have been them trying to get all the souls back from Slaanesh; if anything, that might be easier.
To his credit, Pythis waited until after making his pitch to bring up the contract issue and that Garakras swore eternal allegiance to the Black Suns. However, the Hierarch did have the right to nullify the contract if he saw fit and believed the mission was impossible to accomplish. It was his right. Unfortunately, it would also break trust among this client. No one would hire him after, especially after Vect announced that Garakras and his kin were unworthy. Furthermore, Pythis and Vect had already paid for their services. And if the Outsider was defeated and the Halo Stars tamed, the future Shrine for Garakras kin would become one of the richest and mightiest in the entire galaxy.
Pythis called this a "carrot and stick" approach, an old human adage he liked. Garakras had been given the "carrot," but Pythis was ready to bring out the stick. The tone in his final approach was straightforward, "Work with me." As if the Hierarch had any choice in the matter. If he stayed, he and his skin were likely dead. If he left, then they would die slowly.
The meeting ended, and Garakras agreed to keep to the contract. But he warned Pythis that if he intentionally sent his skin into a battle that would result in all their deaths, he would make a powerful enemy. Yet rather than be angered or dismissive, the Archon only glared at Garakras as he spoke.
"If it comes down to it, we shall be on the battlefield and ready to die for the sake of this Empire. And if nothing else, the galaxy. Death is a constant out here. You best accept that now and not look for excuses or try to blame me if anything goes wrong. We most all work together out here, which will require sacrifices." Garakras snorted at the platitude before leaving.
Pythis was acting like they were in this together. Yet when it came time, the Druhkari would simply start to kill each other for power and wealth again. It was simply their nature, and nothing would change that. Not even the apocalypse that was the return of the Ygnir. Even so, Garakras had a job to do. This might be a suicide mission, but at least he was already paid for it.
---
To his great surprise, Garakras and his kin were not deployed against the Outsider for the first two years since arrival. At first, this confused him, but the Hierarch soon learned that the Black Suns Empire wasn't at war with just the Outsider. There was a myriad of other threats, such as the Stryxis, Kranna, Turanics, and the Antmen. Then there were the stranger ones. The Lugals and Terminus were a peculiar pair of foes but not the strongest in the Halo Stars. At least, that was the official line from the Council of Patriarchs and Pythis.
Oh yes, the politics of the Black Suns Empire was both fascinating and frustrating in one go. Garakras already dealt with "court intrigue" on Lokelorian, which he soon learned ate up quite a bit of his time. The arrival of 10,000 Incubi among the already tens of thousands of Ilmaea Druhkari caused a bit of a stir. There were also strict rules and guidelines that everyone had to follow. A few of his more decadent followers complained to the Hierarch that it felt like they were now living in a military camp.
For starters, torture was heavily controlled. It was also illegal to touch an Atani or their wives and family unless you got permission from the local lords or Garakras, and Garakras had no genuine desire for torture in the sense of doing it for no reason. Garakras enjoyed the agony of defeated enemies bleeding on the ground before him since he preferred to "work" for his fun. An Incubus was a creature that needed to drink the blood of their fallen foes and savor their victory. Torturing some hapless human wasn't nearly as enjoyable.
A few of his followers disagreed, and they made the mistake of targeting the family of an Atani. A family also owned by a minor lord who had taken significant steps to ensure that the family would produce good soldiers for him. It was something else to watch as it turned into a massive problem for Garakras and resulted in him needing to send the accused Incubi off to join one of the Atani battle groups in exile. Surprisingly enough, the Atani did not seek retributions or compensation for this act but instead implored Garakras that every woman and child was vital for the war effort.
He honestly just didn't want this to become a problem. When Garakras asked a few of the Ilmaea Druhkari if there had been slave revolts within the Black Suns Empire, a few remarked that they weren't called revolts but coups against the ruling Druhkari lord. To the Atani, they were satisfied with another Dark Eldar ruling over them, so long as they actually did their job. Besides, it wasn't like there were plenty of minor lords that would love to become the master of an entire world.
The more he looked into this situation, the more convinced Garakras was that he was in his head. The fact that he had to pay taxes was wild enough. And that was just the start of his problems. Garakras was expected to increase the number of Atani his world produced, increase the industrial output, and keep the Druhkari in line, happy, and productive. There were also requests from the Council of Patriarchs and orders from the "Great Lords" of the Empire. A rather queer dichotomy when you take a closer look at it.
Knowing that the Atani, the very slaves that effectively made up the bulk of the Empire, had their own separate branches of government; from executive and judicial offices to controlling most of the military and industry, they still felt the need to petition even minor lords for aid. Garakras wasn't stupid. He assumed that most of the Patriarchs were keeping up some obedient appearance. Still, they weren't making any demands on the Hierarch.
No, that was all in the purview of the Great Lords.
Unfortunately, neither Pythis nor Garakras court explained that his solar system was part of a greater fiefdom known as the Quenya Domain. This domain was controlled by a Kabalite Archon, Lady Draxxis Asheron. A trueborn Druhkari and a rather dangerous one based on what Garakras learned. Worse yet, she had a knack for actually managing the Quenya Domain. This meant she could swing her authority around, and every minor lord had to obey. Naturally, Garakras expected to meet with her and pay tribute.
Garakras refused. He sent a representative over to her court, but the Hierarch would not answer her summons like a hound being called by a master. Truthfully, he was starting to get tired of this skullduggery and politicking. He was a fighter, after all. Garakras recognized that it gave him an advantage in more than one in this Empire. While Garakras might not be a great administrator and lord, he proved himself after helping repeal a few Stryxis and Kranna raids on a few border systems of the domain. This was probably what kept Lady Asheron from causing further issues. Ultimately, the Black Suns Empire was a military nation, first and foremost. Winning battles gave you an edge.
But the ultimate test still awaited Garakras. The Outsider was still out there, roaming across the Halo Stars. A few scout fleets kept track of it, but predictions of where it would strike next were impossible to determine. Psychic divination produced only inconclusive results, at best. One just couldn't use the warp to try and fight this thing. It wasn't idle, either. There were already a few reported xenocides. Even though the Halo Stars were a dangerous and cursed place, the Outsider was like a galactic disaster and apex predator in one. Destroying and killing everything in its path. Yet the Black Suns thought they could do anything to stop it?
Every time Garakras thought he left the insanity and politics of Commoragh, this place somehow went above and beyond in subverting expectations.
---
The time had finally come. It had been almost four years since Garakras had started his governance of Lokelorian. He had made the mistake of getting comfortable, especially after a few more victories. Unfortunately, an extraordinary trial awaited him now. The Outsider had been spotted near th Quenya Domain, and while its trajectory hadn't put the domain in its path, Lady Asheron called for a "mobilization" of all Atani and Druhkari forces. Naturally, that included Garakras's realm.
Garakras answered the call for battle, even if he harbored doubts. Over 10,000 Incubi, 22 billion Atani, and his entire fleet. All of his power and resources would be used for this. He came back alive with considerable fame, or he would die, and Lokelorian would be traded to the next bastard that Pythis swindled. He tried to look on the bright side. This would be the battle that made his shrine.
Unlike the humans, Aeldari could mobilize an entire military expedition; a third of the time, it would take the Imperials. This meant only a few weeks to successfully organize what would have taken months. Garakras wasn't surprised to see that Lady Asheron would lead the expedition. How else would she get all the glory if she didn't show up? She brought almost 250 billion Atani and 100,000 Druhkari warriors and six fleets. Garakras was put on a war council, but it was ultimately nothing more than centralization of power for Draxxis. They were all just along for the ride.
Unfortunately, Garakras and the others had to listen to her orders to the letter. This was a problem. Garakras had been hired by Pythis and Vect, not this harlot that covered herself in the trappings of a supposed queen. It didn't matter if she was a "great lord" or part of her domain. His contract stated that he had free reign to conduct his own military operations as he saw fit. Thus Garakras was one of the few who took issue with many of her orders, not privately. The first two weeks of planning saw him arguing with Draxxis among the rest of the war council.
Perhaps this wasn't the wisest decision on Garakras's part because he soon got saddled with the honor of leading the vanguard force against the Outsider. A stupid and preventable mistake, but Garakras had his pride as an Incubus and professional. At least if he was to die, it would be with his stubborn pride intact. Although he should've remembered just much hubris played in the downfall of the Druhkari.
Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
---
The way Lady Asheron explained it, the whole purpose of this mobilization was twofold; attempt to push the Outsider away from the Quenya Domain and steal as many resources from the world Outsider was attacking. A strange but otherwise normal enterprise for the Druhkari. Until she explained the nature of the world, their forces were about to hit. If it wasn't just the Ygnir that was an issue, it would be the natives.
A race calling itself the Omnix was the target of both the Outsider and the Black Suns. Information on them was spotty, as they were only discovered no less than a year ago by Atani scouts. The Black Suns had a limited "diplomatic" corps designed for first-contact situations. It was a sad reflection of how violent and dangerous it was to be in the Halo Stars; it was every sapient for themselves in most instances.
And this Omnix Hegemony was no different. An arthropod species They were isolationist, at least that was the general "feel" from Atani observation stations. However, no one was too eager to get closer to their world of Omos due to the thousands of Titans with anti-orbital capabilities. It seemed that the Omnix excelled in multiple fields of science, not limited to energy weapons, combat machinery, and targeting systems. Most would've found the idea of attacking, invading, and trying to hold their world next to impossible unless you were prepared for a long-term siege.
Garakras didn't necessarily hate the challenge, but there wasn't much wisdom to attack this world in the literal shadow of the Outsider. Sadly, Lady Asheron saw this as an opportunity. They would, of course, put up an effort to stop the Outsider. But the real purpose of their mission was to gather material, slaves, and whatever technology they could hand off to their Atani. So, it was a raid masquerading as "defense" against the Ygnir. Not that the Atani knew any better.
However, knowing that his Incubi would be at the front of this operation made Garakras wonder if he'd have better luck challenging Lady Asheron to a dual. He decided otherwise and opted to survive and win glories in the coming battles. He would assuredly get the opportunity to do so. At the very least, Lady Asheron knew to use Garakras and his Incubi as shock troopers. They'd receive the glory of being first on the ground.
Even Garakras had to give the bitch some credit. Being the first to strike on a virgin world was a rare treat for most Druhkari.
In most other instances, the anti-orbital Titans would've been a significant problem, well, a problem for the Imperium or Orks. But the Druhkari didn't need to announce their presence or sit around to get shot at. Furthermore, the Omnix were focused on trying to handle the Outsider, who had already made landfall on their easternmost continent. It was almost too easy for Garakras and his kin to enter the atmosphere of Omos and hit seventeen command and control centers at once. Though they didn't get the honor of hitting the capital of Omos, the Incubi succeeded in crippling the Omnix's ability to launch any sort of coordinated response against the Atani and the Outsider.
A war of attrition that should've lasted six months turned into a chaotic struggle for survival in only three weeks. Another glorious victory showcasing the skill and prowess of the Druhkari dance of death. Nevertheless, this did not mean the Druhkari or Atani did not suffer casualties. Garakras and the war council miscalculated just how fast the Omnix could recover even with their command structure in tatters. Their capital was still intact, and thus most of their "cooperative council" was still giving orders.
Then there was the issue of directly fighting the Omnix. They were a slow and cumbersome species, but their military capabilities rivaled a Mechanicum cohort and Titan Legion. Everything from heavy armor, multi-spectrum tracking, and weapons that could pierce the armor of any Druhkari vehicle made it dangerous to fight the Omnix on equal footing. Garakras lost almost 2,000 Incubi in such confrontations, while tens of thousands of Druhkari suffered similar fates. The Omnix were, understandably, in the fight for their very existence. A rather bother if nothing. In a normal situation, the Druhkari would've thrown the Atani at them...but the Atani was trying to keep the Outsider preoccupied.
If Garakras had to determine what made the campaign on Omos so brutal for the Black Suns, it ultimately came down to the decision-making of Lady Asheron, who seemed to hyper-focus on looting and securing resources. It was clear to anyone that Omos was a lost cause anyway. Already 59% of the planet had been destroyed by the Outsider, while another 18% had been brutalized by a three-front war. The situation began to look so dire for the Omnix that multiple groups of their military pledged fealty to the Atani, for at least they were trying to stop the Outsider.
Lady Asheron focused on breaking through the capital of Omos, which had been turned into a massive fortress city by the Omnix. Garakras knew a meatgrinder when he saw it. Especially as almost 100 Titans were defending it and billions of Omnix soldiers. Worse yet, a supposed "Geofront" was located underneath the capital, some artificial dome that could've withstood orbital bombardment for years. Lady Asheron, however, was adamant about taking the seat of government. Citing that it held the schematics for the anti-orbital Titans used by the Omnix. A worthy prize, especially as it would give their Atani soldiers a nice boon in the long run. Muses knew that defending a world in the Halo Stars was crucial for one's survival.
That didn't change the dire situation, especially once it became clear that the Outsider was also heading towards the capital. The Atani had lost billions trying to direct it for almost a month. The remaining slave soldiers were being redirected to help with the "evacuation" of Omnix VIP and resources for the masters. Garakras was highly impressed with how the Atani fought and obeyed orders, even after spending weeks fighting against the Ygnir. While he still wasn't a total believer in this Black Suns Empire, he understood how it was able to survive for so long.
These Atani were responsible for giving the Druhkari the necessary edge to carve out an empire in these blighted stars. Garakras almost found himself sympathetic to their plight. A valuable pet that was being treated miserably by its master. He would point out that, such as the price the Mon'keigh paid to live under Druhkari rule and luxuriously.
Ironically enough, Garakras and his kin would now likely die alongside the Atani. A potentially miserable ending, and all because of some would-be queen. His sympathy was almost turning into empathy now...
And then something strange happened. As Garakras kin began the assault against the Omnix capital, his Atani liaison, Colonel Alamin, reported that they were getting a signal from the mountains about 100 kilometers away. The strangest thing? It was an Atani signature, but not one from their own forces. Instead, it was broadcasting a coded frequency used by the Patriarchs of all things and requesting aid directly from Garakras.
As if this whole situation couldn't get any stranger already.
---
Garakras had long since learned that the Atani had a long leash attached to them. Even the most "liberal" of Archons would never allow their slaves to keep and maintain arms, let alone govern themselves. That was already too ludicrous for most Druhkari. Most would've lost their minds if they learned that the Atani kept their research facilities, industrial complexes, and intelligence apparatuses. All of them were watched over by their masters, of course. However, a Druhkari had better things to do than monitor or direct these things. Thus the Atani were left to their own devices, for the most part.
When one looked at this from a holistic view, one would ultimately see that all the decision-making in all these aspects came back to the Patriarchs. A strange system, and one that remained somewhat devoid of details. Only the highest echelons of Black Suns society knew the specifics; even then, it was relatively sparse. An intentional design by Pythis, no doubt. Of course, no one knew the true identity of the Supreme Patriarch either.
Then again, why would most Druhkari care? To them, the patriarchs were just puppet slaves putting on airs and titles that were only given to them by their masters. A show for the rank and file Atani, to make them give appreciation towards their generous and magnanimous lords. They never considered if there was possibly another reason. Another issue of Garakras people; underestimating the help. After all, why such secrecy? Especially if it was allowed by Pythis and Vect?
Once again, the Archons were playing games with their supposed underlings. If it wasn't them, then these vainglorious lordlings like Draxxis. That did beg the question, where did the Patriarchs fall into all this? That was Garakras thought as he and his remaining forces flew towards the provided coordinates. Colonel Alamin remarked that he had effectively gone off the command grid or AWOL. A stupid phrase, but still appropriate. Not that anyone would notice. It was abject chaos. The Black Suns, Omnix, and the Outsider were battling each other within a rapidly shrinking warzone.
His Incubi and remaining Atani were fighting for their lives. Most of the remaining war council was either dead, dying, or trying to get whatever scraps in the capital city, and all the while, Lady Asheron attempted to breach into the Geofront. Garakras knew now that the Druhkari were being rendered ineffective, but the Atani fought onward, even as they died by the billions.
Going "AWOL" didn't seem all that bad when faced with the prospect of dying in a losing battle.
When Garakras and his forces approached the coordinates, he expected to maybe see either an impromptu base camp or perhaps a downed ship. Instead, they found a fortress built into a rather large mountain. How this wasn't picked up by scans or even visuals was a mystery. Garakras was more surprised at the lack of enemy fire or interceptors on approach, which didn't make any sense. This facility was clearly built by the natives. Had an advance scout team taken it? That couldn't be right as there were no signs of battle, either recently or before.
His force was greeted by Atani coded hails, and Garakras could now detect thousands of Atani preparing what looked to be defenses outside. Once landed, another group of the slave soldiers approached and requested that he follow them. Their Patriarch would answer any questions once they met. Deciding to get this farce out of the way, Garakras and his honor guard followed. Now that he was actually on the inner parameter of this fortress, he could see these Atani most certainly did not come with the initial expedition. They all held the emblem of the Randir, the Wandering Men. One of the few independent forces used by the Atani, or so the rumors went. One more "unfathomable" creation that would've shocked most Druhkari.
Now that he looked at these Randir, he saw that they were all older and missing the Black Sun's tattoo across their face. The Hierarch understood now. These weren't Atani, not in the usual sense. All the humans around him were soldiers before becoming part of the Empire. No doubt hailing from across the galaxy. Too old and jaded to become fully convinced of the "mission" that drove the younger Atani but unable to find a better existence elsewhere.
What a miserable life. A slow death. All in the vain attempt to reclaim whatever honor or glory they might once have had.
No matter. These Randir took Garakras further inside the fortress. Now he could make out the corpses of Omnix defenders and scientists alongside thousands of Randir and Atani. How strange. No signs of battle outside, but all signs pointed toward there being one inside? had the humans already been inside the fortress before a fight broke out? Another mystery that would hopefully be answered soon. It didn't take Garakras too long to also notice the amount of power being generated along with the number of Hereteks and specialists wandering around. Something was afoot here, and it wasn't just some evacuation preparation.
It took the better part of ten minutes before they arrived at a heavily guarded entrance. As soon as the doors opened, a wave of sound and energy filled the air. A hive of activity found only in the very center of any facility. The Hierarch saw that he was now entering the command center for this entire fortress. Hundreds of humans were packed into the room full of xeno, Druhkari, and human cogitators and data banks. A veritable nest of wires, cables, and ad hoc terminals was arranged almost haphazardly, yet everything seemed to be in working order.
Above the command center was a massive set of Pict-Feeds and View Screens. All of which focused on the battle taking place in the Omnix capital. The main screen concentrated on the Outsider. There was also a countdown on display.
PROJECT REMIEL DEPLOYMENT: T-Minus 00:09:63
His Randir escorts brought him to what appeared to be a command pulpit, and standing in the middle of it was a strange assortment of figures. The first group was rather mundane; a trio of human Hereteks working in tandem at a trio of cogitator consoles. Strangely enough, all women. Next were the five heavily armed Sslyth giving Garakras and his honor guard a steely glare. But standing in the middle of the pulpit and gazing up at the screens was an older-looking male human. If Garakras had to guess, this was the Patriarch.
"Sir!" One of the Randir spoke up, their voice distorted by a vox-scrambler, "Lord Garakras has arrived as requested!"
The Patriarch turned to look upon his guest. He looked old, but then again, what was age to a Druhkari? Besides, humans did not age gracefully. At the very least, this one had a bit of a wizened visage. Garakras knew a few Druhkari that might have even been a bit smitten. Older look Aeldari were in such short supply these days, and some women enjoyed the "older" look of males. The Patriarch certainly looked the part. Greying hair, wrinkled bronze kin, brown eyes that shined with what generously be called wisdom, and with the look of frowning distaste...well, humans were certainly accomplished at looking like they ate something sour or bitter when they wanted to.
"Lord Garakras," The Patriarch spoke with a practiced tone of collected apathy. Every word was strategically said, and no action was wasted. Ah, good traits for an Archon. "I am happy to see that you answered my summons." Again, nothing in the man's tone indicated, "I am Edgar Gehirn of the council of Patriarchs." His hand reached out to shake the Druhkari.
Garakras didn't move to shake it, opting to instead glare at the human, "Why have you called me away from the battle."
Unperturbed, Edgar lowered his hand, "I simply wished to speak to you before we ran out of time. We've been monitoring your activities and most of the expedition from inside this research facility." He gestured towards the screens, "Our hosts were gracious enough to allow access to their communication and surveillance networks after a bit of prompting."
"The Omnix allowed you access into this facility?" Garakras thought a little more, "You were here long before our forces arrived."
Edgar looked only mildly amused, "You were given the cover story, just like everyone else. The Black Suns have been in contact with the Omnix for years now. We have...had a deal with their government before the outbreak of hostilities. This facility, with personnel and aid from the Hegemony, was to aid us in our research and development of a specific project."
At that moment, a female voice spoke out from one of the communication arrays, "This is Damocles; I am three minutes away from the firing location! Target Omega remains within the estimated blast zone!" The three Hereteks started chanting or screaming (Garakras didn't care to describe it otherwise) in their Muse-forsaken binary chatter at the announcement.
"Such as this Project Remiel, I take it." Garakras asked, even knowing the answer, "The Council and the Supreme Patriarch decided to work with an alien government for experimental weapon design." A relatively old-hat trick for most Druhkari. Although usually, the intention is to cause chaos by giving Mon'keigh something that tends to explode or turn into something horrible. "That still doesn't explain why you called for my assistance."
Edgar sighed at the Hierarch's lack of patience. He turned to one of the Hereteks, "Maya, please display section Damocles on one of the screens." Scarcely a second later, an image of what appeared to be an Omnix Titan appeared on the main pict-display. Garakras wasn't the technical sort of Druhkari, but he instantly noticed that this Damocles looked a hybrid of Imperium and Omnix tech, resulting in an ugly, blocky, and intimidating machine. However, what stuck out was the size of the cannon that the chassis seemed to be built around.
"What you are looking at is the vehicle for Project Remiel, otherwise known as the positron wave cannon. A weapon that we shall soon test against the Outsider within the next...seven and a half minutes." Edgar looked gravely at Garakras, "When Damocles fires its weapon, the entire surface of the capital city, along with everything and everyone within 100 kilometers, will be destroyed."
"What?" Garakras looked back at Edgar, "Most of the expedition is there."
Edgar nodded, "About 80% of the remaining Atani, most of the Druhkari, and Draxxis and her war council. They will all die, most likely." It didn't bother him that billions of humans were about to die. Oddly enough, neither he nor Garakras didn't even bother thinking about the Omnix, "When the dust settles, I expect your cooperation in getting everything and everyone related to this operation off-world and quietly."
"There are more than 4,000 of my kin in or around that city," Garakras loomed over Edgar threateningly, "And you are going to kill them." The Sslyth started hissing at the close proximity to their client, but then Edgar held up a hand to stop them.
The human seemed almost annoyed at the Hierarch's response, "Don't be so obtuse, Garakras. Your forces were dying so Draxxis could fill her coffers with loot and slaves, and they would die in the long run. There is no conventional hope in defeating the Outsider here."
"Oh yes, and I suppose that Damocles will be the winning weapon for the entire war?"
Edgar didn't rise to the point, "Hardly. There is only a 0.000007% chance of this even wounding the Outsider. However, the Council, the Supreme Patriarch, and Lord Pythis and Vect believe this field of science could be part of a hypothetical system that will dissuade the Ygnir from further attacks. We are here to partially test this theory while still getting live-fire and field testing data for future use." That was interesting; both Archons were aware of this? This would explain why Edgar didn't seem to fear reprisal from killing this many Druhkari.
"You think this machine can...dissuade the Outsider? What does that even mean."
Looking back over at the timer, he briefly sighed before explaining, "Imagine that we are feral worlders whose hunting party has just been attacked by a powerful beast. We have suffered numerous losses while trying to stab and pierce the animal's hide with stone spears and axes. It doesn't care nor fear such attacks. However, it reacts to the presence of fire. It doesn't necessarily fear it, but it is still wary of it. Ultimately, it decides that it has had its fill of meat, and not wishing to test its luck against the fire, it leaves the survivors alone until next time."
Garakras felt like laughing, "You think you have the equivalent of fire against the Ygnir? What a joke. The best hope for the galaxy is trying to make it think there is some threatening environmental hazard, so it goes away." The Old Ones threw weapons that could tear apart time and space. Meanwhile, they were just trying to use the galactic metaphorical equivalent of "fire" as a means to stop just one Ygnir.
Edgar kept staring, "It is not ideal, but it is possible."
"This is Damocles!" Again, the voice rang out in the command room, "I am in the position, Edgar!" Garakras briefly noticed the human sighing at the mention of his name, "Firing solutions are being calculated by the Triplets, but I am also running a few permutations on my end. I should be ready in the next two minutes!"
Making another question gesture with his hands towards the Hereteks, Edgar continued his appeal to Garakras, "You must understand, the war for this world is over. We once again lost. The Ygnir will soon turn its attention towards the star, which will be our escape window. However, my group is also looking to retrieve as many Omnix as possible."
"Most of them are dead." Garakras didn't see the point. They were all going to die if Garakras did stop this crazy plan. "Where else will you find any worthwhile ones?"
Edgar snapped his fingers, and a second later, another display showed what looked to be a map and schematic of the Geofront, "As I mentioned earlier, the entire surface of the capital city will be destroyed. The Geofront will survive, however. That is unless Draxxis breaches it and basically kills everyone inside. There are elements in the surviving Hegemony that will wish to flip over the Black Suns once they realize their entire species is doomed otherwise."
The more Garakras heard this insane plan, the more he realized just how deep this was starting to go, "You want to kill both our people as well save the same bastards that we have decimated and fought us for weeks now? Just so you can access whatever is left for your research."
"Sacrifices have to be made." Edgar responded bluntly, "Yet I am offering you not only survival but the chance to gain significant allies. The Council and Supreme Patriarch will remember any help given. Besides, this Empire will need more men like you, Garakras."
"Am I supposed to feel honored by that statement?" Garakras hated all this cloak and dagger nonsense, especially coming from humans of all people, "I am a mercenary by trade, but as an Incubus, I care not if you think me worthy of some sort of 'honorable' ally among your council."
Edgar sighed again, "That aside, you are one of the few ambitious enough but also aware that your people cannot sustain this lifestyle of raiding and pillaging to your heart's desire." He stared at the Hierarch, "Because I know what type of man you are, Garakras. Aeldari or human, it doesn't matter. You crave power, but nothing so limited as slaves or riches. You want to crush your enemies, absolutely and viciously." The inflection in his voice never changed, but there was a hint of excitement in the tone.
Garakras didn't rise to the bait, "Think whatever you want. I'm still debating running you through with my Klaive." Damn the consequences. He was tired of being a puppet for someone else in these blasted stars.
"Then let me assuage your worries." Edgar seemed a bit preoccupied now, especially as the timer was at two minutes, "As I said before, you'd gain significant allies within the empire. This, along with the leverage gained from a successful test firing of Remiel, would allow you to gain several boons of your choosing." That sounded a lot better to Garakras. He would need considerable resources to rebuild his Atani. Additionally, more fame could go a long way to replenish his Incubi ranks.
As he gazed up at the pict-screen, he saw the Outsider destroying everything in its path. He wondered how many of his Incubi sent into that nightmare were alive at this point? The Omnix Titans, those that weren't burning husks, were now destroying anything in their path. So even if Garakras had time to call for an evacuation, it would take too long, and there would be far too many casualties. The human was giving him a decent opportunity to get an even payout than whatever scraps were left over by Lady Asheron.
"Well," Edgar interrupted his train of thought, "Do we have an understanding?"
The Patriarch's hand reached out once more. Humans and their handshakes. Still, there weren't many other options aside from fighting his way out of this fortress or taking the deal. If he was going to profit off this, he might as well do with someone with more sway within among the Black Suns.
"Yes," Garakra's armored hand reached out and tightly clasped Edgar, who, to his credit, did not wince or show discomfort, "We do."
---
Watching the event play out on some screen wasn't the same as watching it in person. Although, perhaps that was for the best after what Garakras witnessed. As that ugly machine called Damocles rumbled into position and the countdown to firing soon approached, there was a noticeable tension in the air. The blasted thing might have exploded, or perhaps Outsider would decide to go after it. Indeed, no Druhkari force would appear out of nowhere to attack. All that mattered now was that it hit.
Garakras barely understood the amount of technical spiel uttered around the command center. Something about magnetic flux density, charged electrons, and toroidal accelerators. What he did understand was that everything seemed to be working as expected. A minute passed in relative silence before Garakras saw the massive cannon being charged up, and then it firing. There was no sound after. Both on the screen and from inside the command center. Everyone waited for the, hopefully, successful culimantion of their work and sacrifice.
Above the capital city, as the last bastion of the Omnix burned and the Black Suns Empire fought and died against a god...a single drone monitored the desperate situation. Only three seconds later, a beam of white, burning light, three kilometers long and wide, struck the Ygnir. What followed wasn't so much an explosion but a release of cosmic energies that seemed to briefly change the laws of physics for a split second.
Then, there was a massive explosion, followed by a vast wave of interference that knocked out the drone and anything else within 120 kilometers. Edgar ordered one of their high-altitude craft to monitor the situation. He also remarked how they were still getting signals from the Geofront. It looked part of his gambit had paid off, but Garakras was much more interested in if anything happened to Outsider.
To everyone's shock...something had happened to it. For the first time in recorded history, perhaps not since the War in Heaven, someone lived to see the Ygnir use one of their defensive capabilities. The Outsider had surrounded itself with what appeared to be a cocoon of energy and matter. "Fascinating," Garakras could hear a bit of awe in his voice, "It created a shell of opposite energy to reflect the positrons and in only a few nanoseconds."
But what would send the entire command center into a celebratory frenzy was when the Outsider paused in its destruction. They waited and watched. And one nerve-wracking hour later...the Ygnir slowly drifted upward into space. Garakras had to admit, the Outsider left the battle like a beast dragging away a carcass after filling its belly with warm meat.
The Battle for Omos was over. The Black Suns Empire had "won" an insignificant battle against the Outsider. So while everyone cheered, Edgar looked only mildly happy at the situation before remarking to Garakras, "A hollow victory, but a victory nonetheless. I need to handle the post-clean-up. We shall be in touch." He said nothing else after that and returned to coordinating efforts among his people.
Garakras decided he had more important things to worry about and promptly ordered his forces to begin search and rescue operations. What usually would be a rather amusing joke among his people was a painful task. Only a few hours after the Ygnir's exodus, Garakras learned that the entire expedition was in shambles. Lady Asheron and most of the war council were dead. The Atani suffered horrendous casualties (but that wasn't anything new), and thousands of his Incubi had died. Tens of thousands of Druhkari died as well. Probably only a few million Omnix left as well. Omos would soon die as well.
What sort of victory was this, and for who?
Regardless, the next two weeks moved at a frenzied pace. The Outsider would soon devour the star's soul, plunging this world and the entire solar system into a cold and hellish darkness. Well, that was after the orbits of these worlds started to become unsustainable and chaotic. There had been a few cases of some moons getting launched into space. Regardless, a giant ball of iron in place of a star would soon become the center of this former solar system.
Edgar coordinated efforts, and Garakras hated admitting he was helpful in this regard. He got everything he needed, including what remained of the Omnix military and civilian leadership. A few million Omnix survived and were "escorted" into the Atani ships. It wasn't like there was plenty of room after all. Garakras had assumed control over the remaining Black Sun military elements and quietly aided Edgar in the meanwhile.
When it was all said and done, the Black Suns Empire left without much issue from the Ygnir. A rather sad ending to a campaign that claimed so many lives. But was that not just normal in the Halo Stars? Garakras had arrived with 10,000 Incubi, and now he was leaving with barely a third of that. His Atani was down to 10% strength. Multiple minor lords of the Quenya Domain were utterly destroyed, let alone the death of Lady Asheron would send waves across the Domain.
And yet, through all of this...morale was high. The Atani had suffered so much, but knowing that they helped push the Ygnir back was a confidence boost, and the surviving Druhkari at least tried to look on the bright side of things...there were now plenty of empty estates and positions for the taking. If nothing else, the Ilmaea Druhkari were all opportunists at heart now.
Upon re-entering Black Suns' space, Edgar and his forces asked to be dropped off at the nearest world. He thanked Garakras and told him he made many influential friends with his assistance. All of this destruction and backstabbing was caused by the Council, Vect, and Pythis. It was all so tiring. That Garakras only stumbled upon this windfall and could've easily been another body to add to the pile made him recognize that just because he was the council's friend today didn't mean they'd stab him in the back tomorrow.
In the end, the Druhkari took parts of Commoragh with them into this hellscape that was the Halo Stars. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Well, at least Garakras profited off it in the end. So, that was a victory in his mind. A few changes took place a few months after his return to Lokelorian. First, he was elevated to a "Great Lord" of the Quenya Domain. Although leadership of the Quenya Domain fell to another lord, Garakras wondered if he was next in line for it. Aside from that, he would receive 500 billion new colonists, Atani, and thousands of Druhkari settlers. Additionally, more and more industries were propped up in his system, including the foundation for a "Garden" and Forge Moon.
But above all, the Black Suns would recognize him and his kin as the first officially recognized Incubi Shrine within the Empire. He simply needed to give it a name now. Such a thing escaped his attention all these years, yet it seemed so insignificant to him now. He had arrived a relatively minor and broke Druhkari, and now he was a great lord and with his own shrine...but it wasn't because of his skill in the blade or anything else. Garakras's kin sacrificed much to get him this far. The life of an Incubi is dangerous, bound by contract and professionalism. Yet here, among these horrific stars and in the shadow of an ancient foe, he would see his Shrine become something better.
His death was assured within the Halo Stars. Nevertheless, the pride of his kin would never fade away among these hateful stars. They would carve their legacy among them. Such was the first commandment of the Shrine of Hateful Stars.
---
@Daemon Hunter Okay, done with this omake.
"We know what we are, but know not what we may be." - William Shakespeare, Hamlet.
"Dying for a good cause sounds good in your head. It still doesn't negate the terror." - Unknown Atani, circa War of the Shattered Suns.
"Ambition should be the drive of every Druhkari now. Whether out of the need to prosper or simply survive." - Archon Pythis Apohex.
---
There was something beautiful when Garakras killed someone in battle. Maybe he was giving himself too much credit, but the Incubus believed it was possible to be a professional artist in such a capacity. Was it so wrong to consider themselves a paragon of such an artform? Far be it to let the Harlequins, Slaaneshi, and other groups assume that they were masters when the Incubi existed, unsung as they were these days."Dying for a good cause sounds good in your head. It still doesn't negate the terror." - Unknown Atani, circa War of the Shattered Suns.
"Ambition should be the drive of every Druhkari now. Whether out of the need to prosper or simply survive." - Archon Pythis Apohex.
---
Garakras sought to change that perception. For too long had the Incubi been either shock troopers or bodyguards. And while there was nothing wrong with such duties, he believed that the Incubi could do far better. The supposed founder of the Incubi, Lord Arhra, was a Phoenix Lord. An extension of Khaine's wraith and will. But was it enough to act as hired blades in the dark? Was there not more that could be done?
Could he and others not become lords of their own? A mercenary life was free, yes, and life was cheap...but to obtain power required ambition. Garakras was undoubtedly ambitious; however, that drive wasn't enough to get what you wanted in the newly christened Ashen City. And if he were honest with him, holding sway over a bombed-out or blighted ruin was not that appealing these days.
For if nothing else, Garakras pride forbade him from wanting anything less than the respect and power he deserved for honing his skills and talents. He was untested and inexperienced with the rigors of leading his Incubi; this was true. Nevertheless, that thirst for more and the drive to become something greater would serve him well. If nothing else, he would ensure that someday his legacy would extend far beyond just being a small-time Hierarch of slight renown.
Pride was Garakras's greatest sin and strength in that same vein.
He had learned from his former master that it was better to pride one's skill in any aspect, especially a useful one as the art of murder, but also in conducting business and building alliances. No one likes a "humble" or "modest" killer. Be kind and courteous to both employers and victims, but always be the best. Besides, Garakras was a grandmaster of the Klaive. Not a master, but a grandmaster. Anyone that forgot that would come to regret it.
That skill ultimately allowed him to slay his master, as was Garakras's right as his pupil. A few competitors arose to test their Klavies against Garakras, but they too fell in glorious combat. After that, his ascension to Hierarch was unchallenged. Sadly, this was when he was actually put to the test. Yes, he now controlled over 10,000 Incubi, a few million slaves, and a sizeable war chest, but it wasn't nearly enough, even in the contested ruins of Commorragh. Additionally, dozens of older Incubi Shrines fought for the uncountable number of factions and groups inside the Ashen City.
Suffice it to say, there was too much heat inside Commorragh, especially for a shrine with no name. Garakras honored the last wish of his master, "Cast aside the name of our shrine, let it be born anew, or perish in the blood-tides, Garakras. Either way, you shall gain everlasting glory or defeat, and my name shall be secured." His master was an arrogant bastard, but Garakras also saw the wisdom in this idea.
And so it came to pass, and the shrine of his master would be erased in due time. Forgotten by most and remembered only as words uttered in fear or disdain upon the lips of patrons and foes alike.
Ultimately, the decision to leave Commorragh was an easy one. Garakras sold the obsolete domain of his master to gain additional funds and decided to look for fortunes elsewhere. He bought ships, vehicles, transports, and enough weapons to keep his forces well-stocked. Around the second year of this endeavor, Garakras was invited by none other than Vect to his palace. He wanted to hire Garakras and his Incubi, not for himself, but for Pythis Apohex and his Kabal of the Serpent. Rarely had anyone within the Ashen City seen or met with Pythis within the last decade. He had effectively gone silent. Most assumed that he had died or gone off on some little hunt for riches or slaves like many others had done.
Vect knew otherwise. More importantly, Vect explained that he and Pythis worked on a crucial joint endeavor in the Halo Stars. Pythis needed more soldiers capable of aiding his human slave armies. The Archon practically handed out entire worlds and hundreds of millions of slaves to anyone Druhkari who served alongside him. How Pythis achieved accumulated such wealth and power confused Garakras. Why had no one heard about this either? Vect was intentionally suppressing information, he explained.
"My payment is not only for your services but also for your silence. I trust you will not break such a vow." As if he had to ask. The Incubi never betrayed their clients' trust, not unless that trust was broken by the client first. Even so, Garakras felt uneasy about this job. Vect was paying them nearly five times what the Hierarch got from selling their domain. This, on top of the additional rewards from Pythis, made him think there was another angle to this.
To his surprise, Vect was honest with Garakras...to a certain extent. "I need someone who can keep an eye on Pythis and ensure he doesn't ruin all these years of hard work. I have plenty of investments in this enterprise. So I would be indebted to you if this stays between us." Vect wasn't asking him to spy on Pythis, but rather just be ready if anything "happened" that required Garakras intervention.
If that was what was to be done, then so be it. The Archons continued to play games, even as their entire species tried to lift themselves from the ashes caused by the Bloody Laughter. If nothing else, Garakras and his followers could leave this accursed city and gain fortune elsewhere. Was it that surprising then when he took Vect's offer? The future of Garakras now lay in the mysterious and dangerous corner of the galaxy that was the Halo Stars. He expected it to be a perilous endeavor. It was only until he arrived that Garakras realized what he had gotten into.
---
To his embarrassment, Garakras should've known better than to trust Pythis Apohex. The problem, of course, was that the Archon was the type of Druhkari that knew how to beguile and manipulate you. Even though Vect had warned Garakras, the Incubus figured Pythis was more hot-air than anything. Their first meeting and the subsequent revelation made Garakras reevaluate just how dangerous Pythis was now.
Pythis met with Garakras and his 10,000 Incubi on a world called Lokelorian, an industrial world of the Black Suns Empire. It was home to almost nine billion slaves, thousands of free Druhkari, millions of slave soldiers, and a resource-rich solar system full of untapped resources. A mighty treasure that any Kabal would kill or steal for if given the opportunity.
Garakras assumed that he was to guard this world. Instead, to his shock, Pythis declared that it was to be his fiefdom. All its resources, slaves, and power were his to control so long as Garakras swore eternal allegiance to the Black Sun Empire. He should've known better than agreeing, but how could he say no? This wouldn't just give Garakras a base to start a new shrine; it was a bloody kingdom.
He could've spent centuries just trying to gain control of one moon with enough industry and resources to make it worthwhile. It was just too good a deal to pass up in the end. Garakras agreed and pledged him and his forces to the Black Suns Empire. Pythis seemed just as happy over this development and instantly sent the Incubi to begin their governance of Lokelorian. When Garakras arrived, he saw something odd about this world, specifically its people.
For starters, these Ilmaea Druhkari seemed dour and jaded. In the first few days of the Incubi's arrival, they laughed bitterly whenever an Incubus asked what awaited them in the Halo Stars. It was as if these bastards were quietly laughing at some joke. Of course, the Incubi would soon learn the truth, albeit from the slaves rather than the masters.
When most Druhkari thought of slave soldiers, they thought of malnourished and under-equipped slaves that had been given a gun or sword. This mentality was slowly changing, especially among the so-called Mon'keigh Kings. Because really, what Druhkari would allow their slaves to be professionally armed soldiers? That was a recipe for disaster. Garakras assumed that those Archons just hired mercenaries and called them slaves behind the merc's back.
But these Ilmaea Atani? They were a different sort of breed. Most of them were young, while their commanders and officers were older. That was the first indicator that something was different about them. All of them were male humans, which was an odd decision from a military standpoint. Then again, if you wanted to produce more slaves sending women to whatever frontlines their Empire faced was just a bad idea. Even so, Garakras was almost...impressed with what he saw of these Atani.
They had good weapons and equipment, for one. Everything from Imperial small-arms to Druhkari heavy weapons. Some were designed and built from within the Empire in these "Gardens," as one Atani commander would explain. None of the Atani footsoldiers looked malnourished or sickly, but Garakras saw that many looked to be slightly brutalized. Each had a brand of a black sun on their foreheads and plenty of scars across their bodies. They were disciplined and well-trained as well. But more than all of that was the look in their eyes. Garakras saw that they were zealots in their own right. Utterly devoured to their masters and the expansion and defense of the Black Suns Empire.
And the more Garakras spoke with them and their commanders, the more he realized that something was seriously wrong here. They showed no hesitation at the prospect of fighting. Eerily enough, they were excited at the prospect of working alongside warriors of the Druhkari. And when some remarked that they were even eager to spar against his Incubi, Garakras knew now that he might have made a mistake in taking this job.
He directly confronted the Atani commanders and a few of the local Druhkari leaders and pointedly asked them what exactly was the purpose of the Atani and the Black Suns Empire? The humans looked confused while his fellow Druhkari started laughing. It took Garakras so much control to not gut those bastards right then, and they were ultimately saved when a "colonel" of the Atani, a human Ganro Alamin, approached the Hierarch.
"Lord Hierarch!" He stood at attention, "The creation of the Black Suns Empire and the Ilmaea Atani was to continue the ancient battle against the hated foe of the Old Ones, that being the Ygnir! The Ygnir and its minions have begun a war of destruction across the galaxy, starting from the Halo Stars. The Ygnir, the one known as the Outsider, has been engaged by the Atani on numerous occasions already and-"
Garakras was already walking out of his new office and sending orders for his fastest ship to be ready when he arrived. He would need to talk to Pythis about this job in more detail than when they first met.
---
Pythis Apohex didn't so much laugh at Garakras as he did give him a look of "you should've known better than to trust me." It took Garakras nearly a week to schedule this meeting, and by the time he arrived, it seemed that Pythis was prepared ahead of time for it. To say the Hierarch was furious was an understatement. Garakras feared no foe, but that didn't mean the Incubus would participate in suicidal battles. That a Ygnir had resurfaced after eons should've heralded the end of everything in the galaxy.
However, that wasn't the case, as Pythis carefully explained. Yes, the Outsider had returned...but it was more an animal than anything. It somehow lost most of its higher functions or simply had gone completely insane. The matter was that it was acting on what could be called "animalistic instinct," albeit with enough self-awareness to unleash its destructive powers to defend itself. Nevertheless, the Black Suns Empire had worked tirelessly to find a means to kill, incapacitate or contain it.
Garakras thought the whole idea was nonsense. Not even the Aeldari Empire at its height could've hoped to contain the Outsider without suffering grievous casualties in the process. Pythis partly agreed with that assessment. The Black Suns had suffered horrific losses, but most of them were Atani. That was the beauty of their situation, as it meant far fewer losses for their people.
Additionally, the Atani had taken to this war with a zealous fervor. Garakras hated that Pythis successfully created some sort of "crusade" against the Outsider via his Atani. If the Black Suns defeated the Outsider, somehow, that would mean the Halo Stars were free for the taking by the Druhkari. It was certainly tempting to imagine having a place at the table when it came time to carve it all out. But it might as well have been them trying to get all the souls back from Slaanesh; if anything, that might be easier.
To his credit, Pythis waited until after making his pitch to bring up the contract issue and that Garakras swore eternal allegiance to the Black Suns. However, the Hierarch did have the right to nullify the contract if he saw fit and believed the mission was impossible to accomplish. It was his right. Unfortunately, it would also break trust among this client. No one would hire him after, especially after Vect announced that Garakras and his kin were unworthy. Furthermore, Pythis and Vect had already paid for their services. And if the Outsider was defeated and the Halo Stars tamed, the future Shrine for Garakras kin would become one of the richest and mightiest in the entire galaxy.
Pythis called this a "carrot and stick" approach, an old human adage he liked. Garakras had been given the "carrot," but Pythis was ready to bring out the stick. The tone in his final approach was straightforward, "Work with me." As if the Hierarch had any choice in the matter. If he stayed, he and his skin were likely dead. If he left, then they would die slowly.
The meeting ended, and Garakras agreed to keep to the contract. But he warned Pythis that if he intentionally sent his skin into a battle that would result in all their deaths, he would make a powerful enemy. Yet rather than be angered or dismissive, the Archon only glared at Garakras as he spoke.
"If it comes down to it, we shall be on the battlefield and ready to die for the sake of this Empire. And if nothing else, the galaxy. Death is a constant out here. You best accept that now and not look for excuses or try to blame me if anything goes wrong. We most all work together out here, which will require sacrifices." Garakras snorted at the platitude before leaving.
Pythis was acting like they were in this together. Yet when it came time, the Druhkari would simply start to kill each other for power and wealth again. It was simply their nature, and nothing would change that. Not even the apocalypse that was the return of the Ygnir. Even so, Garakras had a job to do. This might be a suicide mission, but at least he was already paid for it.
---
To his great surprise, Garakras and his kin were not deployed against the Outsider for the first two years since arrival. At first, this confused him, but the Hierarch soon learned that the Black Suns Empire wasn't at war with just the Outsider. There was a myriad of other threats, such as the Stryxis, Kranna, Turanics, and the Antmen. Then there were the stranger ones. The Lugals and Terminus were a peculiar pair of foes but not the strongest in the Halo Stars. At least, that was the official line from the Council of Patriarchs and Pythis.
Oh yes, the politics of the Black Suns Empire was both fascinating and frustrating in one go. Garakras already dealt with "court intrigue" on Lokelorian, which he soon learned ate up quite a bit of his time. The arrival of 10,000 Incubi among the already tens of thousands of Ilmaea Druhkari caused a bit of a stir. There were also strict rules and guidelines that everyone had to follow. A few of his more decadent followers complained to the Hierarch that it felt like they were now living in a military camp.
For starters, torture was heavily controlled. It was also illegal to touch an Atani or their wives and family unless you got permission from the local lords or Garakras, and Garakras had no genuine desire for torture in the sense of doing it for no reason. Garakras enjoyed the agony of defeated enemies bleeding on the ground before him since he preferred to "work" for his fun. An Incubus was a creature that needed to drink the blood of their fallen foes and savor their victory. Torturing some hapless human wasn't nearly as enjoyable.
A few of his followers disagreed, and they made the mistake of targeting the family of an Atani. A family also owned by a minor lord who had taken significant steps to ensure that the family would produce good soldiers for him. It was something else to watch as it turned into a massive problem for Garakras and resulted in him needing to send the accused Incubi off to join one of the Atani battle groups in exile. Surprisingly enough, the Atani did not seek retributions or compensation for this act but instead implored Garakras that every woman and child was vital for the war effort.
He honestly just didn't want this to become a problem. When Garakras asked a few of the Ilmaea Druhkari if there had been slave revolts within the Black Suns Empire, a few remarked that they weren't called revolts but coups against the ruling Druhkari lord. To the Atani, they were satisfied with another Dark Eldar ruling over them, so long as they actually did their job. Besides, it wasn't like there were plenty of minor lords that would love to become the master of an entire world.
The more he looked into this situation, the more convinced Garakras was that he was in his head. The fact that he had to pay taxes was wild enough. And that was just the start of his problems. Garakras was expected to increase the number of Atani his world produced, increase the industrial output, and keep the Druhkari in line, happy, and productive. There were also requests from the Council of Patriarchs and orders from the "Great Lords" of the Empire. A rather queer dichotomy when you take a closer look at it.
Knowing that the Atani, the very slaves that effectively made up the bulk of the Empire, had their own separate branches of government; from executive and judicial offices to controlling most of the military and industry, they still felt the need to petition even minor lords for aid. Garakras wasn't stupid. He assumed that most of the Patriarchs were keeping up some obedient appearance. Still, they weren't making any demands on the Hierarch.
No, that was all in the purview of the Great Lords.
Unfortunately, neither Pythis nor Garakras court explained that his solar system was part of a greater fiefdom known as the Quenya Domain. This domain was controlled by a Kabalite Archon, Lady Draxxis Asheron. A trueborn Druhkari and a rather dangerous one based on what Garakras learned. Worse yet, she had a knack for actually managing the Quenya Domain. This meant she could swing her authority around, and every minor lord had to obey. Naturally, Garakras expected to meet with her and pay tribute.
Garakras refused. He sent a representative over to her court, but the Hierarch would not answer her summons like a hound being called by a master. Truthfully, he was starting to get tired of this skullduggery and politicking. He was a fighter, after all. Garakras recognized that it gave him an advantage in more than one in this Empire. While Garakras might not be a great administrator and lord, he proved himself after helping repeal a few Stryxis and Kranna raids on a few border systems of the domain. This was probably what kept Lady Asheron from causing further issues. Ultimately, the Black Suns Empire was a military nation, first and foremost. Winning battles gave you an edge.
But the ultimate test still awaited Garakras. The Outsider was still out there, roaming across the Halo Stars. A few scout fleets kept track of it, but predictions of where it would strike next were impossible to determine. Psychic divination produced only inconclusive results, at best. One just couldn't use the warp to try and fight this thing. It wasn't idle, either. There were already a few reported xenocides. Even though the Halo Stars were a dangerous and cursed place, the Outsider was like a galactic disaster and apex predator in one. Destroying and killing everything in its path. Yet the Black Suns thought they could do anything to stop it?
Every time Garakras thought he left the insanity and politics of Commoragh, this place somehow went above and beyond in subverting expectations.
---
The time had finally come. It had been almost four years since Garakras had started his governance of Lokelorian. He had made the mistake of getting comfortable, especially after a few more victories. Unfortunately, an extraordinary trial awaited him now. The Outsider had been spotted near th Quenya Domain, and while its trajectory hadn't put the domain in its path, Lady Asheron called for a "mobilization" of all Atani and Druhkari forces. Naturally, that included Garakras's realm.
Garakras answered the call for battle, even if he harbored doubts. Over 10,000 Incubi, 22 billion Atani, and his entire fleet. All of his power and resources would be used for this. He came back alive with considerable fame, or he would die, and Lokelorian would be traded to the next bastard that Pythis swindled. He tried to look on the bright side. This would be the battle that made his shrine.
Unlike the humans, Aeldari could mobilize an entire military expedition; a third of the time, it would take the Imperials. This meant only a few weeks to successfully organize what would have taken months. Garakras wasn't surprised to see that Lady Asheron would lead the expedition. How else would she get all the glory if she didn't show up? She brought almost 250 billion Atani and 100,000 Druhkari warriors and six fleets. Garakras was put on a war council, but it was ultimately nothing more than centralization of power for Draxxis. They were all just along for the ride.
Unfortunately, Garakras and the others had to listen to her orders to the letter. This was a problem. Garakras had been hired by Pythis and Vect, not this harlot that covered herself in the trappings of a supposed queen. It didn't matter if she was a "great lord" or part of her domain. His contract stated that he had free reign to conduct his own military operations as he saw fit. Thus Garakras was one of the few who took issue with many of her orders, not privately. The first two weeks of planning saw him arguing with Draxxis among the rest of the war council.
Perhaps this wasn't the wisest decision on Garakras's part because he soon got saddled with the honor of leading the vanguard force against the Outsider. A stupid and preventable mistake, but Garakras had his pride as an Incubus and professional. At least if he was to die, it would be with his stubborn pride intact. Although he should've remembered just much hubris played in the downfall of the Druhkari.
Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
---
The way Lady Asheron explained it, the whole purpose of this mobilization was twofold; attempt to push the Outsider away from the Quenya Domain and steal as many resources from the world Outsider was attacking. A strange but otherwise normal enterprise for the Druhkari. Until she explained the nature of the world, their forces were about to hit. If it wasn't just the Ygnir that was an issue, it would be the natives.
A race calling itself the Omnix was the target of both the Outsider and the Black Suns. Information on them was spotty, as they were only discovered no less than a year ago by Atani scouts. The Black Suns had a limited "diplomatic" corps designed for first-contact situations. It was a sad reflection of how violent and dangerous it was to be in the Halo Stars; it was every sapient for themselves in most instances.
And this Omnix Hegemony was no different. An arthropod species They were isolationist, at least that was the general "feel" from Atani observation stations. However, no one was too eager to get closer to their world of Omos due to the thousands of Titans with anti-orbital capabilities. It seemed that the Omnix excelled in multiple fields of science, not limited to energy weapons, combat machinery, and targeting systems. Most would've found the idea of attacking, invading, and trying to hold their world next to impossible unless you were prepared for a long-term siege.
Garakras didn't necessarily hate the challenge, but there wasn't much wisdom to attack this world in the literal shadow of the Outsider. Sadly, Lady Asheron saw this as an opportunity. They would, of course, put up an effort to stop the Outsider. But the real purpose of their mission was to gather material, slaves, and whatever technology they could hand off to their Atani. So, it was a raid masquerading as "defense" against the Ygnir. Not that the Atani knew any better.
However, knowing that his Incubi would be at the front of this operation made Garakras wonder if he'd have better luck challenging Lady Asheron to a dual. He decided otherwise and opted to survive and win glories in the coming battles. He would assuredly get the opportunity to do so. At the very least, Lady Asheron knew to use Garakras and his Incubi as shock troopers. They'd receive the glory of being first on the ground.
Even Garakras had to give the bitch some credit. Being the first to strike on a virgin world was a rare treat for most Druhkari.
In most other instances, the anti-orbital Titans would've been a significant problem, well, a problem for the Imperium or Orks. But the Druhkari didn't need to announce their presence or sit around to get shot at. Furthermore, the Omnix were focused on trying to handle the Outsider, who had already made landfall on their easternmost continent. It was almost too easy for Garakras and his kin to enter the atmosphere of Omos and hit seventeen command and control centers at once. Though they didn't get the honor of hitting the capital of Omos, the Incubi succeeded in crippling the Omnix's ability to launch any sort of coordinated response against the Atani and the Outsider.
A war of attrition that should've lasted six months turned into a chaotic struggle for survival in only three weeks. Another glorious victory showcasing the skill and prowess of the Druhkari dance of death. Nevertheless, this did not mean the Druhkari or Atani did not suffer casualties. Garakras and the war council miscalculated just how fast the Omnix could recover even with their command structure in tatters. Their capital was still intact, and thus most of their "cooperative council" was still giving orders.
Then there was the issue of directly fighting the Omnix. They were a slow and cumbersome species, but their military capabilities rivaled a Mechanicum cohort and Titan Legion. Everything from heavy armor, multi-spectrum tracking, and weapons that could pierce the armor of any Druhkari vehicle made it dangerous to fight the Omnix on equal footing. Garakras lost almost 2,000 Incubi in such confrontations, while tens of thousands of Druhkari suffered similar fates. The Omnix were, understandably, in the fight for their very existence. A rather bother if nothing. In a normal situation, the Druhkari would've thrown the Atani at them...but the Atani was trying to keep the Outsider preoccupied.
If Garakras had to determine what made the campaign on Omos so brutal for the Black Suns, it ultimately came down to the decision-making of Lady Asheron, who seemed to hyper-focus on looting and securing resources. It was clear to anyone that Omos was a lost cause anyway. Already 59% of the planet had been destroyed by the Outsider, while another 18% had been brutalized by a three-front war. The situation began to look so dire for the Omnix that multiple groups of their military pledged fealty to the Atani, for at least they were trying to stop the Outsider.
Lady Asheron focused on breaking through the capital of Omos, which had been turned into a massive fortress city by the Omnix. Garakras knew a meatgrinder when he saw it. Especially as almost 100 Titans were defending it and billions of Omnix soldiers. Worse yet, a supposed "Geofront" was located underneath the capital, some artificial dome that could've withstood orbital bombardment for years. Lady Asheron, however, was adamant about taking the seat of government. Citing that it held the schematics for the anti-orbital Titans used by the Omnix. A worthy prize, especially as it would give their Atani soldiers a nice boon in the long run. Muses knew that defending a world in the Halo Stars was crucial for one's survival.
That didn't change the dire situation, especially once it became clear that the Outsider was also heading towards the capital. The Atani had lost billions trying to direct it for almost a month. The remaining slave soldiers were being redirected to help with the "evacuation" of Omnix VIP and resources for the masters. Garakras was highly impressed with how the Atani fought and obeyed orders, even after spending weeks fighting against the Ygnir. While he still wasn't a total believer in this Black Suns Empire, he understood how it was able to survive for so long.
These Atani were responsible for giving the Druhkari the necessary edge to carve out an empire in these blighted stars. Garakras almost found himself sympathetic to their plight. A valuable pet that was being treated miserably by its master. He would point out that, such as the price the Mon'keigh paid to live under Druhkari rule and luxuriously.
Ironically enough, Garakras and his kin would now likely die alongside the Atani. A potentially miserable ending, and all because of some would-be queen. His sympathy was almost turning into empathy now...
And then something strange happened. As Garakras kin began the assault against the Omnix capital, his Atani liaison, Colonel Alamin, reported that they were getting a signal from the mountains about 100 kilometers away. The strangest thing? It was an Atani signature, but not one from their own forces. Instead, it was broadcasting a coded frequency used by the Patriarchs of all things and requesting aid directly from Garakras.
As if this whole situation couldn't get any stranger already.
---
Garakras had long since learned that the Atani had a long leash attached to them. Even the most "liberal" of Archons would never allow their slaves to keep and maintain arms, let alone govern themselves. That was already too ludicrous for most Druhkari. Most would've lost their minds if they learned that the Atani kept their research facilities, industrial complexes, and intelligence apparatuses. All of them were watched over by their masters, of course. However, a Druhkari had better things to do than monitor or direct these things. Thus the Atani were left to their own devices, for the most part.
When one looked at this from a holistic view, one would ultimately see that all the decision-making in all these aspects came back to the Patriarchs. A strange system, and one that remained somewhat devoid of details. Only the highest echelons of Black Suns society knew the specifics; even then, it was relatively sparse. An intentional design by Pythis, no doubt. Of course, no one knew the true identity of the Supreme Patriarch either.
Then again, why would most Druhkari care? To them, the patriarchs were just puppet slaves putting on airs and titles that were only given to them by their masters. A show for the rank and file Atani, to make them give appreciation towards their generous and magnanimous lords. They never considered if there was possibly another reason. Another issue of Garakras people; underestimating the help. After all, why such secrecy? Especially if it was allowed by Pythis and Vect?
Once again, the Archons were playing games with their supposed underlings. If it wasn't them, then these vainglorious lordlings like Draxxis. That did beg the question, where did the Patriarchs fall into all this? That was Garakras thought as he and his remaining forces flew towards the provided coordinates. Colonel Alamin remarked that he had effectively gone off the command grid or AWOL. A stupid phrase, but still appropriate. Not that anyone would notice. It was abject chaos. The Black Suns, Omnix, and the Outsider were battling each other within a rapidly shrinking warzone.
His Incubi and remaining Atani were fighting for their lives. Most of the remaining war council was either dead, dying, or trying to get whatever scraps in the capital city, and all the while, Lady Asheron attempted to breach into the Geofront. Garakras knew now that the Druhkari were being rendered ineffective, but the Atani fought onward, even as they died by the billions.
Going "AWOL" didn't seem all that bad when faced with the prospect of dying in a losing battle.
When Garakras and his forces approached the coordinates, he expected to maybe see either an impromptu base camp or perhaps a downed ship. Instead, they found a fortress built into a rather large mountain. How this wasn't picked up by scans or even visuals was a mystery. Garakras was more surprised at the lack of enemy fire or interceptors on approach, which didn't make any sense. This facility was clearly built by the natives. Had an advance scout team taken it? That couldn't be right as there were no signs of battle, either recently or before.
His force was greeted by Atani coded hails, and Garakras could now detect thousands of Atani preparing what looked to be defenses outside. Once landed, another group of the slave soldiers approached and requested that he follow them. Their Patriarch would answer any questions once they met. Deciding to get this farce out of the way, Garakras and his honor guard followed. Now that he was actually on the inner parameter of this fortress, he could see these Atani most certainly did not come with the initial expedition. They all held the emblem of the Randir, the Wandering Men. One of the few independent forces used by the Atani, or so the rumors went. One more "unfathomable" creation that would've shocked most Druhkari.
Now that he looked at these Randir, he saw that they were all older and missing the Black Sun's tattoo across their face. The Hierarch understood now. These weren't Atani, not in the usual sense. All the humans around him were soldiers before becoming part of the Empire. No doubt hailing from across the galaxy. Too old and jaded to become fully convinced of the "mission" that drove the younger Atani but unable to find a better existence elsewhere.
What a miserable life. A slow death. All in the vain attempt to reclaim whatever honor or glory they might once have had.
No matter. These Randir took Garakras further inside the fortress. Now he could make out the corpses of Omnix defenders and scientists alongside thousands of Randir and Atani. How strange. No signs of battle outside, but all signs pointed toward there being one inside? had the humans already been inside the fortress before a fight broke out? Another mystery that would hopefully be answered soon. It didn't take Garakras too long to also notice the amount of power being generated along with the number of Hereteks and specialists wandering around. Something was afoot here, and it wasn't just some evacuation preparation.
It took the better part of ten minutes before they arrived at a heavily guarded entrance. As soon as the doors opened, a wave of sound and energy filled the air. A hive of activity found only in the very center of any facility. The Hierarch saw that he was now entering the command center for this entire fortress. Hundreds of humans were packed into the room full of xeno, Druhkari, and human cogitators and data banks. A veritable nest of wires, cables, and ad hoc terminals was arranged almost haphazardly, yet everything seemed to be in working order.
Above the command center was a massive set of Pict-Feeds and View Screens. All of which focused on the battle taking place in the Omnix capital. The main screen concentrated on the Outsider. There was also a countdown on display.
PROJECT REMIEL DEPLOYMENT: T-Minus 00:09:63
His Randir escorts brought him to what appeared to be a command pulpit, and standing in the middle of it was a strange assortment of figures. The first group was rather mundane; a trio of human Hereteks working in tandem at a trio of cogitator consoles. Strangely enough, all women. Next were the five heavily armed Sslyth giving Garakras and his honor guard a steely glare. But standing in the middle of the pulpit and gazing up at the screens was an older-looking male human. If Garakras had to guess, this was the Patriarch.
"Sir!" One of the Randir spoke up, their voice distorted by a vox-scrambler, "Lord Garakras has arrived as requested!"
The Patriarch turned to look upon his guest. He looked old, but then again, what was age to a Druhkari? Besides, humans did not age gracefully. At the very least, this one had a bit of a wizened visage. Garakras knew a few Druhkari that might have even been a bit smitten. Older look Aeldari were in such short supply these days, and some women enjoyed the "older" look of males. The Patriarch certainly looked the part. Greying hair, wrinkled bronze kin, brown eyes that shined with what generously be called wisdom, and with the look of frowning distaste...well, humans were certainly accomplished at looking like they ate something sour or bitter when they wanted to.
"Lord Garakras," The Patriarch spoke with a practiced tone of collected apathy. Every word was strategically said, and no action was wasted. Ah, good traits for an Archon. "I am happy to see that you answered my summons." Again, nothing in the man's tone indicated, "I am Edgar Gehirn of the council of Patriarchs." His hand reached out to shake the Druhkari.
Garakras didn't move to shake it, opting to instead glare at the human, "Why have you called me away from the battle."
Unperturbed, Edgar lowered his hand, "I simply wished to speak to you before we ran out of time. We've been monitoring your activities and most of the expedition from inside this research facility." He gestured towards the screens, "Our hosts were gracious enough to allow access to their communication and surveillance networks after a bit of prompting."
"The Omnix allowed you access into this facility?" Garakras thought a little more, "You were here long before our forces arrived."
Edgar looked only mildly amused, "You were given the cover story, just like everyone else. The Black Suns have been in contact with the Omnix for years now. We have...had a deal with their government before the outbreak of hostilities. This facility, with personnel and aid from the Hegemony, was to aid us in our research and development of a specific project."
At that moment, a female voice spoke out from one of the communication arrays, "This is Damocles; I am three minutes away from the firing location! Target Omega remains within the estimated blast zone!" The three Hereteks started chanting or screaming (Garakras didn't care to describe it otherwise) in their Muse-forsaken binary chatter at the announcement.
"Such as this Project Remiel, I take it." Garakras asked, even knowing the answer, "The Council and the Supreme Patriarch decided to work with an alien government for experimental weapon design." A relatively old-hat trick for most Druhkari. Although usually, the intention is to cause chaos by giving Mon'keigh something that tends to explode or turn into something horrible. "That still doesn't explain why you called for my assistance."
Edgar sighed at the Hierarch's lack of patience. He turned to one of the Hereteks, "Maya, please display section Damocles on one of the screens." Scarcely a second later, an image of what appeared to be an Omnix Titan appeared on the main pict-display. Garakras wasn't the technical sort of Druhkari, but he instantly noticed that this Damocles looked a hybrid of Imperium and Omnix tech, resulting in an ugly, blocky, and intimidating machine. However, what stuck out was the size of the cannon that the chassis seemed to be built around.
"What you are looking at is the vehicle for Project Remiel, otherwise known as the positron wave cannon. A weapon that we shall soon test against the Outsider within the next...seven and a half minutes." Edgar looked gravely at Garakras, "When Damocles fires its weapon, the entire surface of the capital city, along with everything and everyone within 100 kilometers, will be destroyed."
"What?" Garakras looked back at Edgar, "Most of the expedition is there."
Edgar nodded, "About 80% of the remaining Atani, most of the Druhkari, and Draxxis and her war council. They will all die, most likely." It didn't bother him that billions of humans were about to die. Oddly enough, neither he nor Garakras didn't even bother thinking about the Omnix, "When the dust settles, I expect your cooperation in getting everything and everyone related to this operation off-world and quietly."
"There are more than 4,000 of my kin in or around that city," Garakras loomed over Edgar threateningly, "And you are going to kill them." The Sslyth started hissing at the close proximity to their client, but then Edgar held up a hand to stop them.
The human seemed almost annoyed at the Hierarch's response, "Don't be so obtuse, Garakras. Your forces were dying so Draxxis could fill her coffers with loot and slaves, and they would die in the long run. There is no conventional hope in defeating the Outsider here."
"Oh yes, and I suppose that Damocles will be the winning weapon for the entire war?"
Edgar didn't rise to the point, "Hardly. There is only a 0.000007% chance of this even wounding the Outsider. However, the Council, the Supreme Patriarch, and Lord Pythis and Vect believe this field of science could be part of a hypothetical system that will dissuade the Ygnir from further attacks. We are here to partially test this theory while still getting live-fire and field testing data for future use." That was interesting; both Archons were aware of this? This would explain why Edgar didn't seem to fear reprisal from killing this many Druhkari.
"You think this machine can...dissuade the Outsider? What does that even mean."
Looking back over at the timer, he briefly sighed before explaining, "Imagine that we are feral worlders whose hunting party has just been attacked by a powerful beast. We have suffered numerous losses while trying to stab and pierce the animal's hide with stone spears and axes. It doesn't care nor fear such attacks. However, it reacts to the presence of fire. It doesn't necessarily fear it, but it is still wary of it. Ultimately, it decides that it has had its fill of meat, and not wishing to test its luck against the fire, it leaves the survivors alone until next time."
Garakras felt like laughing, "You think you have the equivalent of fire against the Ygnir? What a joke. The best hope for the galaxy is trying to make it think there is some threatening environmental hazard, so it goes away." The Old Ones threw weapons that could tear apart time and space. Meanwhile, they were just trying to use the galactic metaphorical equivalent of "fire" as a means to stop just one Ygnir.
Edgar kept staring, "It is not ideal, but it is possible."
"This is Damocles!" Again, the voice rang out in the command room, "I am in the position, Edgar!" Garakras briefly noticed the human sighing at the mention of his name, "Firing solutions are being calculated by the Triplets, but I am also running a few permutations on my end. I should be ready in the next two minutes!"
Making another question gesture with his hands towards the Hereteks, Edgar continued his appeal to Garakras, "You must understand, the war for this world is over. We once again lost. The Ygnir will soon turn its attention towards the star, which will be our escape window. However, my group is also looking to retrieve as many Omnix as possible."
"Most of them are dead." Garakras didn't see the point. They were all going to die if Garakras did stop this crazy plan. "Where else will you find any worthwhile ones?"
Edgar snapped his fingers, and a second later, another display showed what looked to be a map and schematic of the Geofront, "As I mentioned earlier, the entire surface of the capital city will be destroyed. The Geofront will survive, however. That is unless Draxxis breaches it and basically kills everyone inside. There are elements in the surviving Hegemony that will wish to flip over the Black Suns once they realize their entire species is doomed otherwise."
The more Garakras heard this insane plan, the more he realized just how deep this was starting to go, "You want to kill both our people as well save the same bastards that we have decimated and fought us for weeks now? Just so you can access whatever is left for your research."
"Sacrifices have to be made." Edgar responded bluntly, "Yet I am offering you not only survival but the chance to gain significant allies. The Council and Supreme Patriarch will remember any help given. Besides, this Empire will need more men like you, Garakras."
"Am I supposed to feel honored by that statement?" Garakras hated all this cloak and dagger nonsense, especially coming from humans of all people, "I am a mercenary by trade, but as an Incubus, I care not if you think me worthy of some sort of 'honorable' ally among your council."
Edgar sighed again, "That aside, you are one of the few ambitious enough but also aware that your people cannot sustain this lifestyle of raiding and pillaging to your heart's desire." He stared at the Hierarch, "Because I know what type of man you are, Garakras. Aeldari or human, it doesn't matter. You crave power, but nothing so limited as slaves or riches. You want to crush your enemies, absolutely and viciously." The inflection in his voice never changed, but there was a hint of excitement in the tone.
Garakras didn't rise to the bait, "Think whatever you want. I'm still debating running you through with my Klaive." Damn the consequences. He was tired of being a puppet for someone else in these blasted stars.
"Then let me assuage your worries." Edgar seemed a bit preoccupied now, especially as the timer was at two minutes, "As I said before, you'd gain significant allies within the empire. This, along with the leverage gained from a successful test firing of Remiel, would allow you to gain several boons of your choosing." That sounded a lot better to Garakras. He would need considerable resources to rebuild his Atani. Additionally, more fame could go a long way to replenish his Incubi ranks.
As he gazed up at the pict-screen, he saw the Outsider destroying everything in its path. He wondered how many of his Incubi sent into that nightmare were alive at this point? The Omnix Titans, those that weren't burning husks, were now destroying anything in their path. So even if Garakras had time to call for an evacuation, it would take too long, and there would be far too many casualties. The human was giving him a decent opportunity to get an even payout than whatever scraps were left over by Lady Asheron.
"Well," Edgar interrupted his train of thought, "Do we have an understanding?"
The Patriarch's hand reached out once more. Humans and their handshakes. Still, there weren't many other options aside from fighting his way out of this fortress or taking the deal. If he was going to profit off this, he might as well do with someone with more sway within among the Black Suns.
"Yes," Garakra's armored hand reached out and tightly clasped Edgar, who, to his credit, did not wince or show discomfort, "We do."
---
Watching the event play out on some screen wasn't the same as watching it in person. Although, perhaps that was for the best after what Garakras witnessed. As that ugly machine called Damocles rumbled into position and the countdown to firing soon approached, there was a noticeable tension in the air. The blasted thing might have exploded, or perhaps Outsider would decide to go after it. Indeed, no Druhkari force would appear out of nowhere to attack. All that mattered now was that it hit.
Garakras barely understood the amount of technical spiel uttered around the command center. Something about magnetic flux density, charged electrons, and toroidal accelerators. What he did understand was that everything seemed to be working as expected. A minute passed in relative silence before Garakras saw the massive cannon being charged up, and then it firing. There was no sound after. Both on the screen and from inside the command center. Everyone waited for the, hopefully, successful culimantion of their work and sacrifice.
Above the capital city, as the last bastion of the Omnix burned and the Black Suns Empire fought and died against a god...a single drone monitored the desperate situation. Only three seconds later, a beam of white, burning light, three kilometers long and wide, struck the Ygnir. What followed wasn't so much an explosion but a release of cosmic energies that seemed to briefly change the laws of physics for a split second.
Then, there was a massive explosion, followed by a vast wave of interference that knocked out the drone and anything else within 120 kilometers. Edgar ordered one of their high-altitude craft to monitor the situation. He also remarked how they were still getting signals from the Geofront. It looked part of his gambit had paid off, but Garakras was much more interested in if anything happened to Outsider.
To everyone's shock...something had happened to it. For the first time in recorded history, perhaps not since the War in Heaven, someone lived to see the Ygnir use one of their defensive capabilities. The Outsider had surrounded itself with what appeared to be a cocoon of energy and matter. "Fascinating," Garakras could hear a bit of awe in his voice, "It created a shell of opposite energy to reflect the positrons and in only a few nanoseconds."
But what would send the entire command center into a celebratory frenzy was when the Outsider paused in its destruction. They waited and watched. And one nerve-wracking hour later...the Ygnir slowly drifted upward into space. Garakras had to admit, the Outsider left the battle like a beast dragging away a carcass after filling its belly with warm meat.
The Battle for Omos was over. The Black Suns Empire had "won" an insignificant battle against the Outsider. So while everyone cheered, Edgar looked only mildly happy at the situation before remarking to Garakras, "A hollow victory, but a victory nonetheless. I need to handle the post-clean-up. We shall be in touch." He said nothing else after that and returned to coordinating efforts among his people.
Garakras decided he had more important things to worry about and promptly ordered his forces to begin search and rescue operations. What usually would be a rather amusing joke among his people was a painful task. Only a few hours after the Ygnir's exodus, Garakras learned that the entire expedition was in shambles. Lady Asheron and most of the war council were dead. The Atani suffered horrendous casualties (but that wasn't anything new), and thousands of his Incubi had died. Tens of thousands of Druhkari died as well. Probably only a few million Omnix left as well. Omos would soon die as well.
What sort of victory was this, and for who?
Regardless, the next two weeks moved at a frenzied pace. The Outsider would soon devour the star's soul, plunging this world and the entire solar system into a cold and hellish darkness. Well, that was after the orbits of these worlds started to become unsustainable and chaotic. There had been a few cases of some moons getting launched into space. Regardless, a giant ball of iron in place of a star would soon become the center of this former solar system.
Edgar coordinated efforts, and Garakras hated admitting he was helpful in this regard. He got everything he needed, including what remained of the Omnix military and civilian leadership. A few million Omnix survived and were "escorted" into the Atani ships. It wasn't like there was plenty of room after all. Garakras had assumed control over the remaining Black Sun military elements and quietly aided Edgar in the meanwhile.
When it was all said and done, the Black Suns Empire left without much issue from the Ygnir. A rather sad ending to a campaign that claimed so many lives. But was that not just normal in the Halo Stars? Garakras had arrived with 10,000 Incubi, and now he was leaving with barely a third of that. His Atani was down to 10% strength. Multiple minor lords of the Quenya Domain were utterly destroyed, let alone the death of Lady Asheron would send waves across the Domain.
And yet, through all of this...morale was high. The Atani had suffered so much, but knowing that they helped push the Ygnir back was a confidence boost, and the surviving Druhkari at least tried to look on the bright side of things...there were now plenty of empty estates and positions for the taking. If nothing else, the Ilmaea Druhkari were all opportunists at heart now.
Upon re-entering Black Suns' space, Edgar and his forces asked to be dropped off at the nearest world. He thanked Garakras and told him he made many influential friends with his assistance. All of this destruction and backstabbing was caused by the Council, Vect, and Pythis. It was all so tiring. That Garakras only stumbled upon this windfall and could've easily been another body to add to the pile made him recognize that just because he was the council's friend today didn't mean they'd stab him in the back tomorrow.
In the end, the Druhkari took parts of Commoragh with them into this hellscape that was the Halo Stars. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Well, at least Garakras profited off it in the end. So, that was a victory in his mind. A few changes took place a few months after his return to Lokelorian. First, he was elevated to a "Great Lord" of the Quenya Domain. Although leadership of the Quenya Domain fell to another lord, Garakras wondered if he was next in line for it. Aside from that, he would receive 500 billion new colonists, Atani, and thousands of Druhkari settlers. Additionally, more and more industries were propped up in his system, including the foundation for a "Garden" and Forge Moon.
But above all, the Black Suns would recognize him and his kin as the first officially recognized Incubi Shrine within the Empire. He simply needed to give it a name now. Such a thing escaped his attention all these years, yet it seemed so insignificant to him now. He had arrived a relatively minor and broke Druhkari, and now he was a great lord and with his own shrine...but it wasn't because of his skill in the blade or anything else. Garakras's kin sacrificed much to get him this far. The life of an Incubi is dangerous, bound by contract and professionalism. Yet here, among these horrific stars and in the shadow of an ancient foe, he would see his Shrine become something better.
His death was assured within the Halo Stars. Nevertheless, the pride of his kin would never fade away among these hateful stars. They would carve their legacy among them. Such was the first commandment of the Shrine of Hateful Stars.
---
@Daemon Hunter Okay, done with this omake.
- Location
- Elsewhere
Alright, so as there was recently a roll session regarding Tumultus (link here for the past update), I have decided it's a good idea to say what happened. And so, here's the summary:
Prior to Guilliman's arrival, Thiel is having to deal with the rapidly evolving situation on Tumultus. For this, a number of things occur, the first being him having to face off against a number of different groups, including the ghosts, Tzeentchians, and Dark Eldar, while getting an alliance with independent human groups. However, there winds up being just 500 Ultramarines due to this, even if they bleed the Dark Eldar very much, and managed to take out the Tzeentchians after they won enough to trigger an infighting cascade.
Meanwhile the Enslavers and Golden Lancers mutually kill each other, while the Harlequins get taken out by the psyker vampires, and the weapons dealer tries to jack up prices which ends in their death. The recently arrived Treachery's Orbit is current involved in a major civil war which only escalated, leading to just a fifth remaining.
Then in the warp, there's a massive battle between Warden ghosts and the forces of Nurgle, and it turns out respawning Wardens is beyond broken, which allows for a sort of warp citadel to be formed.
Then things heat up, as several new groups arrive, the first being factions of the BTW, with a Khronate warband that is a part of the larger Warmasters group, as well as a Mad Dok Warboss. Moreover, the Betwxt, a xenos race that is both materium and immaterium in equal measures shows up, along with a group of slaves from Dralik, a psyker hunter group of religious zealots, and a group of nuclear snipers.
When Guilliman himself arrives, the Treachery's Orbit has been unified by a hero, who managed to cause a cascading failure of the hulk that was holding the Webway portal open leading to a significant loss of personnel for the Dark Eldar. Moreover, there's a botched assassination attempt against the psyker vampires as while Thiel hired the nuclear snipers, the psyker hunter zealots hit as well, leading to the zealots dying and large losses among the nuclear snipers. Then Guilliman arrives with 150k Asartes, 30 billion guardsmen and Solar Auxilia, Arthron, and Ptolemy.
Along with him comes a xenos arkship with a billion soldiers that are the last of their kind and thoroughly jaded from starvation rationing and a Man of Stone that has long since gone insane and holds a Titan Legion.
Guilliman basically smashes aside several groups due to him having the largest force as well as being unengaged. This lets him seize one of the four pillars needed to open a gateway to the core of Tumultus, which is a good light at the end of the tunnel for him. The nuclear snipers meanwhile almost die, and decide to try an emergency warp jump out of desperation. Tumultus simply applauds Guilliman, deciding not to rig things against him. Below are the sides present at this time, with their proportional strength to what they started with.
Side 1: Guilliman (150k Astartes, 30 billion soldiers)
Side 2: Ghosts of War (82%)
Side 3: Nurgle Daemons in the Warp (80%)
Side 4: Maelstrom Souls within the Warp (100%)
Side 5: 50km diameter space hulk where everyone hates each other. Treachery's Orbit (50%)
Side 6: All psyker group that kills people to live longer (93%)
Side 7: Pre-Kesar Iron Warriors (350 Astartes, allied with Guilliman)
Side 8: Favored Bloodthirster Cohort of the Warmasters (1 Favored, 4 Regular) (70%)
Side 9: Warlord Mad Dok Daemon-Fuzah (120%)
Side 10 : Betwixt (50%)
Side 11: Dralik (2 billion slave soldiers). (138%)
Side 12 : Nuclear snipers. (10%)
Side 13: Arkship (55%)
Side 14: Insane MOI Titan. (100%)
It is at this point Eldrad looks into where Guilliman vanished to, and Tumultus reflects a portion of one of his traits, leading to him slamming that connection shut, and the Eldar sending an elite task force led by Yvraine and holds a Shard of Khaine before beginning to prep a larger just in case force.
It's at this point, Arthron feels the planet trying to talk to him, as if someone miles away is shouting at him, but understandably, he does not try to get closer as that's a very dangerous idea. Moreover, the Nuckalvee shows up in the warp due to rumors of Great Unclean Ones turning traitor, and begins to turn the tables in the favor of the Nurgle forces quite a bit.
On the planet itself, Guilliman takes the second of the four pillars, where he has to fight a number of different groups. Notably, the pillars are decorated with the description of a series of fights in the War in Heaven, namely Khaine vs the Nightbringer, which Tumultus itself is dearly in love with. The psyker vampires hit the slaves from Dralik, killing a lot of them, while the nuclear snipers die attempting an emergency warp jump which fails miserably.
Tumultus then proceeds to make a deal with the psyker vampires, and uses one to transmit a series of announcements across the planet, where it basically congratulates Guilliman, saying that the carnage he's brought has been an incredible change to the prior war that was occurring. They then proceed to essentially gush about war and battle, and how Khaine really was one of the greatest beings in the galaxy, and how only the Nightbringer ever rivaled it, only ranking in second because it lost.
As for the wars themselves, in the warp the forces of Nurgle begin to push heavily thanks to Nuck, winding up with a 5 to 1 force advantage due to the building disparity. In the void, the MoS Titan Legion ends the arkship, and uses it for spare parts. However, the Treachery's Orbit has a group lead an extreme risk mission which tricks the MoS into believing that it is a part of the MoS fleet, resulting in it being repaired as well. Meanwhile Guilliman takes moderate losses due to equipment shortages as well as several difficult clashes. He does however still take the third pillar.
Side 1: Guilliman (135k Astartes, 27 billion soldiers)
Side 2: Ghosts of War (Withdrawn to the warp)
Side 3: Nurgle Daemons in the Warp (150%)
Side 4: Maelstrom Souls within the Warp (30%)
Side 5: 50km diameter space hulk where everyone hates each other. Treachery's Orbit (75%)
Side 6: All psyker group that kills people to live longer (100%)
Side 7: Pre-Kesar Iron Warriors (35%)
Side 8: Favored Bloodthirster Cohort of the Warmasters (1 Favored, 4 Regular) (85%)
Side 9: Warlord Mad Dok Daemon-Fuzah (80%)
Side 10: Dralik (400 million slave soldiers). (30%)
Side 11: Arkship (dead)
Side 12: Insane MOI Titan. (90%)
At this point, three new factions show up:
Side 11: An AI fleet adviser currently locked away in simulations within simulations due to a successful hacking attempt by hostile AI, the adviser is severly degraded as a result, which the galaxy should be thankful for due to the number of fights it has been witness to. Weilding a fleet of a mere three ships and a few million robots, it is far, far more dangerous than anyon may think thanks to its focus on stealth units as well as capability for long term planning. Surprisingly, the AI does speak quite a bit to its enemies, continuously complimenting them, and expressing a desire to wargame with them in the future.
Side 12: A xenos race whose entire existence is an anti-memetic, trying to recall their existence can often times be difficult. While small in number, this passive psychic ability makes them exceedingly dangerous, as only those of extreme will or blanks are immune. The aliens themselves are extremely hostile to those that do not remember their actions, but very friendly with those that can.
Side 13: An old, aging sniper unit that fought in a war that lasted centuries within the Halo Stars. Displaced by the arrival of a new human empire, this group of a hundred xenos are a nightmare to face, capable of assassinating even the most difficult of targets. Primarily focused on causing immense chaos, the group is incredibly xenophobic, often times throwing away purely beneficial relationships just to cause conflict.
Following this, Guilliman losses over 40k Astartes due to having to fight through the Bloodthirster Chorot as well a the Warlord to take the fourth pillar, it is a grueling fight, and Arthron nearly dies due to at one point getting in a momentary fight with a Bloodthirster, that doesn't go well for him, but he lives and was mostly uninjured. In the warp though, Tumultus succeeded in reflecting a part of Nuckalvee, which lead to the Exalted running rather than taking chances. However, despite the major loss in morale, the Exalted did manage to push enough that only the final defensive lines were still holding for Tumultus.
The anti-meme xenos meanwhile are rather friendly with Guilliman as he's able to remember they exist. They wind up occupying the wargames AI in conversation, as it enjoys the talk with a fellow opponent in this free for all. It's at this point Yvraine and the Eldar show up, bringing a Shard of Khaine as a beatstick just in case, which results in some fascinating things.
It's at this point Tumultus has what's basically a religious experience due to the arrival of an Avatar of Khaine, and when Guilliman activates the pillars and enters the core of Tumultus, he's met with essentially a massive shrine to Khaine, along with an Avatar of Tumultus at the other end. That avatar looks like the Nightbringer, but isn't, rather it's a mixture of people Tumultus reflected that it fused together and layered with an illusion to make it look like it. However, there's a great many details that it remembers from the fights it witnessed between Khaine and the Nightbringer, which allows for a great religious experience for the Exarchs present.
The Shard of Khaine mentions this is a familiar experience, and Tumultus essentially monologues that it wishes to recreate its most cherished memory, and describes its love for what Khaine did in the past. And while the duel begins, Guilliman and Thiel work to destroy the core itself. And this is one of the two things that ensures Tumultus dies.
The second is that it wishes to reenact a historical event. And at the end of that event, the Nightbringer died. And so to does it, portions of its being empowering the Shard of Khaine slightly.
As for the rest of the situation, the Orks and Khornates kill each other off. While the two AI do the same, although the wargames AI does have to be finished off. The Treachery's Orbit meanwhile leaves, and basically tells Guilliman it won't raid Imperial locations because "I'm not stupid enough to mess with you, I'll save that for people that can't fight back."
As for the anti-meme xenos, they've been given protectorate status, and if the Administratum doesn't show up to collect the tithe, they can just ignore it. And thus the story of Tumultus ends.
Prior to Guilliman's arrival, Thiel is having to deal with the rapidly evolving situation on Tumultus. For this, a number of things occur, the first being him having to face off against a number of different groups, including the ghosts, Tzeentchians, and Dark Eldar, while getting an alliance with independent human groups. However, there winds up being just 500 Ultramarines due to this, even if they bleed the Dark Eldar very much, and managed to take out the Tzeentchians after they won enough to trigger an infighting cascade.
Meanwhile the Enslavers and Golden Lancers mutually kill each other, while the Harlequins get taken out by the psyker vampires, and the weapons dealer tries to jack up prices which ends in their death. The recently arrived Treachery's Orbit is current involved in a major civil war which only escalated, leading to just a fifth remaining.
Then in the warp, there's a massive battle between Warden ghosts and the forces of Nurgle, and it turns out respawning Wardens is beyond broken, which allows for a sort of warp citadel to be formed.
Then things heat up, as several new groups arrive, the first being factions of the BTW, with a Khronate warband that is a part of the larger Warmasters group, as well as a Mad Dok Warboss. Moreover, the Betwxt, a xenos race that is both materium and immaterium in equal measures shows up, along with a group of slaves from Dralik, a psyker hunter group of religious zealots, and a group of nuclear snipers.
When Guilliman himself arrives, the Treachery's Orbit has been unified by a hero, who managed to cause a cascading failure of the hulk that was holding the Webway portal open leading to a significant loss of personnel for the Dark Eldar. Moreover, there's a botched assassination attempt against the psyker vampires as while Thiel hired the nuclear snipers, the psyker hunter zealots hit as well, leading to the zealots dying and large losses among the nuclear snipers. Then Guilliman arrives with 150k Asartes, 30 billion guardsmen and Solar Auxilia, Arthron, and Ptolemy.
Along with him comes a xenos arkship with a billion soldiers that are the last of their kind and thoroughly jaded from starvation rationing and a Man of Stone that has long since gone insane and holds a Titan Legion.
Guilliman basically smashes aside several groups due to him having the largest force as well as being unengaged. This lets him seize one of the four pillars needed to open a gateway to the core of Tumultus, which is a good light at the end of the tunnel for him. The nuclear snipers meanwhile almost die, and decide to try an emergency warp jump out of desperation. Tumultus simply applauds Guilliman, deciding not to rig things against him. Below are the sides present at this time, with their proportional strength to what they started with.
Side 1: Guilliman (150k Astartes, 30 billion soldiers)
Side 2: Ghosts of War (82%)
Side 3: Nurgle Daemons in the Warp (80%)
Side 4: Maelstrom Souls within the Warp (100%)
Side 5: 50km diameter space hulk where everyone hates each other. Treachery's Orbit (50%)
Side 6: All psyker group that kills people to live longer (93%)
Side 7: Pre-Kesar Iron Warriors (350 Astartes, allied with Guilliman)
Side 8: Favored Bloodthirster Cohort of the Warmasters (1 Favored, 4 Regular) (70%)
Side 9: Warlord Mad Dok Daemon-Fuzah (120%)
Side 10 : Betwixt (50%)
Side 11: Dralik (2 billion slave soldiers). (138%)
Side 12 : Nuclear snipers. (10%)
Side 13: Arkship (55%)
Side 14: Insane MOI Titan. (100%)
It is at this point Eldrad looks into where Guilliman vanished to, and Tumultus reflects a portion of one of his traits, leading to him slamming that connection shut, and the Eldar sending an elite task force led by Yvraine and holds a Shard of Khaine before beginning to prep a larger just in case force.
It's at this point, Arthron feels the planet trying to talk to him, as if someone miles away is shouting at him, but understandably, he does not try to get closer as that's a very dangerous idea. Moreover, the Nuckalvee shows up in the warp due to rumors of Great Unclean Ones turning traitor, and begins to turn the tables in the favor of the Nurgle forces quite a bit.
On the planet itself, Guilliman takes the second of the four pillars, where he has to fight a number of different groups. Notably, the pillars are decorated with the description of a series of fights in the War in Heaven, namely Khaine vs the Nightbringer, which Tumultus itself is dearly in love with. The psyker vampires hit the slaves from Dralik, killing a lot of them, while the nuclear snipers die attempting an emergency warp jump which fails miserably.
Tumultus then proceeds to make a deal with the psyker vampires, and uses one to transmit a series of announcements across the planet, where it basically congratulates Guilliman, saying that the carnage he's brought has been an incredible change to the prior war that was occurring. They then proceed to essentially gush about war and battle, and how Khaine really was one of the greatest beings in the galaxy, and how only the Nightbringer ever rivaled it, only ranking in second because it lost.
As for the wars themselves, in the warp the forces of Nurgle begin to push heavily thanks to Nuck, winding up with a 5 to 1 force advantage due to the building disparity. In the void, the MoS Titan Legion ends the arkship, and uses it for spare parts. However, the Treachery's Orbit has a group lead an extreme risk mission which tricks the MoS into believing that it is a part of the MoS fleet, resulting in it being repaired as well. Meanwhile Guilliman takes moderate losses due to equipment shortages as well as several difficult clashes. He does however still take the third pillar.
Side 1: Guilliman (135k Astartes, 27 billion soldiers)
Side 2: Ghosts of War (Withdrawn to the warp)
Side 3: Nurgle Daemons in the Warp (150%)
Side 4: Maelstrom Souls within the Warp (30%)
Side 5: 50km diameter space hulk where everyone hates each other. Treachery's Orbit (75%)
Side 6: All psyker group that kills people to live longer (100%)
Side 7: Pre-Kesar Iron Warriors (35%)
Side 8: Favored Bloodthirster Cohort of the Warmasters (1 Favored, 4 Regular) (85%)
Side 9: Warlord Mad Dok Daemon-Fuzah (80%)
Side 10: Dralik (400 million slave soldiers). (30%)
Side 11: Arkship (dead)
Side 12: Insane MOI Titan. (90%)
At this point, three new factions show up:
Side 11: An AI fleet adviser currently locked away in simulations within simulations due to a successful hacking attempt by hostile AI, the adviser is severly degraded as a result, which the galaxy should be thankful for due to the number of fights it has been witness to. Weilding a fleet of a mere three ships and a few million robots, it is far, far more dangerous than anyon may think thanks to its focus on stealth units as well as capability for long term planning. Surprisingly, the AI does speak quite a bit to its enemies, continuously complimenting them, and expressing a desire to wargame with them in the future.
Side 12: A xenos race whose entire existence is an anti-memetic, trying to recall their existence can often times be difficult. While small in number, this passive psychic ability makes them exceedingly dangerous, as only those of extreme will or blanks are immune. The aliens themselves are extremely hostile to those that do not remember their actions, but very friendly with those that can.
Side 13: An old, aging sniper unit that fought in a war that lasted centuries within the Halo Stars. Displaced by the arrival of a new human empire, this group of a hundred xenos are a nightmare to face, capable of assassinating even the most difficult of targets. Primarily focused on causing immense chaos, the group is incredibly xenophobic, often times throwing away purely beneficial relationships just to cause conflict.
Following this, Guilliman losses over 40k Astartes due to having to fight through the Bloodthirster Chorot as well a the Warlord to take the fourth pillar, it is a grueling fight, and Arthron nearly dies due to at one point getting in a momentary fight with a Bloodthirster, that doesn't go well for him, but he lives and was mostly uninjured. In the warp though, Tumultus succeeded in reflecting a part of Nuckalvee, which lead to the Exalted running rather than taking chances. However, despite the major loss in morale, the Exalted did manage to push enough that only the final defensive lines were still holding for Tumultus.
The anti-meme xenos meanwhile are rather friendly with Guilliman as he's able to remember they exist. They wind up occupying the wargames AI in conversation, as it enjoys the talk with a fellow opponent in this free for all. It's at this point Yvraine and the Eldar show up, bringing a Shard of Khaine as a beatstick just in case, which results in some fascinating things.
It's at this point Tumultus has what's basically a religious experience due to the arrival of an Avatar of Khaine, and when Guilliman activates the pillars and enters the core of Tumultus, he's met with essentially a massive shrine to Khaine, along with an Avatar of Tumultus at the other end. That avatar looks like the Nightbringer, but isn't, rather it's a mixture of people Tumultus reflected that it fused together and layered with an illusion to make it look like it. However, there's a great many details that it remembers from the fights it witnessed between Khaine and the Nightbringer, which allows for a great religious experience for the Exarchs present.
The Shard of Khaine mentions this is a familiar experience, and Tumultus essentially monologues that it wishes to recreate its most cherished memory, and describes its love for what Khaine did in the past. And while the duel begins, Guilliman and Thiel work to destroy the core itself. And this is one of the two things that ensures Tumultus dies.
The second is that it wishes to reenact a historical event. And at the end of that event, the Nightbringer died. And so to does it, portions of its being empowering the Shard of Khaine slightly.
As for the rest of the situation, the Orks and Khornates kill each other off. While the two AI do the same, although the wargames AI does have to be finished off. The Treachery's Orbit meanwhile leaves, and basically tells Guilliman it won't raid Imperial locations because "I'm not stupid enough to mess with you, I'll save that for people that can't fight back."
As for the anti-meme xenos, they've been given protectorate status, and if the Administratum doesn't show up to collect the tithe, they can just ignore it. And thus the story of Tumultus ends.
and if you stick around for the end credits of the Dorlinian Dawn of War...one might see a certain room with a certain shrine start to glow...if ever so slightly...aka hook for Dawn of War 2: The Folly of the Nucklavee
- Location
- USA
...
Wow.
That's a hell of a thing.
Wow.
That's a hell of a thing.
- Pronouns
- Male
So do we now have a base in the warp, where Warden souls gather once they die?
@Daemon Hunter is it a permanent? That would be fucking metal.
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ArchAIngel
Sorcerer Supreme.
- Location
- Right behind you.
Sounds like a great scrap!
Orks must've LOVED that fight overall, especially with giant piles of Daemons for Daemon-Fuzah to work with. So many people to fight!
Orks must've LOVED that fight overall, especially with giant piles of Daemons for Daemon-Fuzah to work with. So many people to fight!
TinyGladiator
Just another SVer
- Location
- I move alot.
I can answer this!
First of all, JAMalam has already put a the traits that were earned by the Ultramarine heroes.
For Aeonid Thiel (to clarify, the +40 is what he gives for the allied command bonus as his normal command bonus is a +80):
For Arthron the Beta Psyker Gladiator:
This is fucking insane, just so everyone is aware. Like, this is top-tier shit. Thiel alone is a game-changer for the Ultramarines, and is now currently gonna be considered to join Vulkan for his forced crusade into the non-Warpy Maelstrom region due to his sheer skill in logistics and command.
But that's not all! Here's what was shared on the Discord server.
Guilliman got: "[this] trait is being able to take a -10 in exchange for cutting army cost by 50%, or a -20 for 75%, -30 for 90%. Only applies to things he commands.
He does this retroactively"
And the Ultramarines as a whole got a new Legion wide trait: "That being -10% casualties, -10% upkeep (additive to Guilliman's thing), -10% allied losses"
Sidenote, due to the phenomenal Eldar assistance the Ultramarines and Eldar bond has been deepened. And the Eldar, through clever usage of spirit stones to steal away some of Tumultus's ghosts, managed to take a few Eldar souls in the area along with a variety of other xenos ghosts. Including the anti-memetic and the half-warp ones.
Also, uh, more news. There was a fully intact War in Heaven fortress, with ancient Eldar and Necron tech making up its defences, and it was recovered. It has a narrative effect to it, where whoever has the stronger 'Hero' strength will win no matter what. If an enemy has greater hero power, they flat-out win. If not, they flat-out lose.
Last thing to add here, but what Guilliman learnt here is enough to make an entire side-series to his planned Codex Astartes that would take a full century to fully write down. What Thiel learnt would require multiple centuries to write down for said side-series.
Edit: Also, might as well chose this omake reward I got while I'm here. Forgot to post that before.
I pick the third option, Slight reduction in the DC for Konrad to break +150 to duels, as that seems real neato!
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- Location
- USA
That seems like a pretty big deal.
So do the meme aliens provide any buffs to the imperium since I'm pretty sure they would be good as a black ops group since
1. To he imperium is mainly human but is turning more cosmopolitan slowly so most enemies won't expect a species like this to be working with the imperium
2. Their abilities makes them hard to remember and only a few individuals can remember them. Combine this with some stealth training and stealth tech and their basically invisible
1. To he imperium is mainly human but is turning more cosmopolitan slowly so most enemies won't expect a species like this to be working with the imperium
2. Their abilities makes them hard to remember and only a few individuals can remember them. Combine this with some stealth training and stealth tech and their basically invisible
Good God, that was all decided after a course several months in the making from some rolls that you made to spice things up on discord.
@Daemon, I never ever, want you to do such an insane and incredibly AWESOME THING again!
For the angels sake, WE COULDVE FOUGHT A NIGHTBRINGER, A AVATAR OF KHAINE, OR BOTH!I can see also several ways it could have gotten even more insane thanks to the addition to our legion and just the problems we cause and solve at times. And honestly, for the most part, it happened all offscreen!!!
Oh well, still glad that that nonsense is done and over with, and hey, maybe the sequel will be able to get us involved somehow someway. Again, Daemon, thank for all of this wonderful fun and good bowl of laughs, I truly hope the next time we really get to be part of the crazy stuff again sometime! Also, do the Ultramarines know (and therefore, would the Wardens be able to find out?) about this?
Ultramarine Captain: "The glimpses I saw fight between the plague Warp Xenos and the ghosts of those of your brothers who died in the Maelstrom were maddening. If I didn't know better, I'd say I seen some of the same Astartes reappearing even after being slain by them. Multiple times. I shudder to imagine what your dead kin must have experienced. The only comfort I have is that I'd seen the warp xenos frequently flee from them."
Warden marine: "....Wait, they got to continue killing daemons even after dying in the maelstrom? And the daemons that arrived were trapped with them until they could be true killed? Lucky."
UM: "Lucky? They were trapped with those daemons too. Along with the rest of us. Until the damn planet was killed."
EW: "......."
UM: "No. I think I know what you're thinking. Stop. No."
Elsewhere
Roboute: "Kesar. No. Bad Kesar. Stop planning to recreate the world to serve as a Daemon trap."
Kesar: "I wasn't planning it. I was trying to figure out the necessary step needed to start planning it."
Roboute:"No. Bad. Don't make me get Horus or Perturabo."
Kesar: "...but..."
In the immaterium, at the center of The Blood and Thunder War, the clash between Khorne and Gork (or Mork?) and Mork (or Gork?) slowed as they began to recognize that a potential third front -what had been potentially the greatest front- in the war to begin all wars had vanished. A long (and rather strange) competitive investigation/brawl had ensured, before coming to the horrifying conclusion that the greatest world in the materium was entirely gone. The Blood God was outraged(or...err...more outraged than usual). Gork and Mork (or Mork and Gork?) felt cheated out of a bigger WAAAAGH! - the current fighting by Orkz so much less than the greenskins (and thus their gods) expected that Mork (or was it Gork?) did not even take the open opportunity to punch the slackjawed Gork (or was it Mork?) in the mouth. After a moment and an eternity, the brutally cunning one spoke:
"OI HAZ AN OIDEA. WOT IF WE'ZE MAKE OUR OWN TUMULTUS. BUT BIGGA. WE'ZE CAN PULL EVEN MORE GITZ IN FOR AN EVEN BIGGA FREE-FOR-ALL SCRAP. ESPECIALLY THOSE WEEDIER GREEN GITZ. AND WE'Z BRING BACK EVERYONE DAT DIES TO FOIGHT SOME MORE!"
"NO YAH GIT, WE NEEDZ TA SMASH TOGETHA A PLACE WHERE ALL THA FOIGHAN AND WINNING HAPPENS. AND MAKE IT SO DAT FOIGHTAN GITZ FROM EVERYWHERE ARE PULLED INTA DA FOIGHT SO EVERY GROUP FIGHTS EVERY OTHA GROUP. LIKE THOSE SMELLY WEIRD-FINGS. AND EVERYONE TRICKED INTA COMING IZ ALL TRAPPED THERE SO THEY NEEDZ TA KEEP FOIGHTAN. IT'D BE A WURLD LIKE TUMULTUS."
Khorne thought for a moment (or engaged in some angry equivalent to a thinking). To say it spoke up in response would be to engage in metaphors: storms made of anger do not technically, speak. But the warp is a realm of metaphors, and so such speech can easily be regarded as figuratively true.
A literal translation might seem something like: "̲̘̦̝̜͉̱͋̎͂T̞̩ͪ͌̈ͤ̄̾H̰ͮ̇ͥ̊͊͆A̺̭͓̼̻̮̚T͖͆͆̓̈ ̱̗̞̠̓̎̒͌͒Ï͎̣̘͓̠̻̮ͩ̏̋̈ͧ͛D̙͍̤̣̞̞͕́E̤̙̼̭ͤ̑͒͐Ā̭͔͎͚̜͐ ̭͑̋̉̄M̦̞̲̝ͦͯ͋̄A̱̔͒͂ͤ͂͛K̭̫͉̪̫̣͋̄ͅE̪͕͊̈́̍̈͑͑S̪̥͍ͫ̏ͧ̀ ̰̞̖̪̳̮̲̌M̯͗ͨ̐̇Y̞̺̬̙̝̐ ͓ͪͩ̚A͂͂ͫ̐ͤ̚̚N̩͖̟̱͛̇Ġ̜̲͇͎ͯ̇͒ͧͦͩĒ̫̜ͅR͓̮̹͚̹̜̐ͪͥͭ̎̂ ͍̭ͣḄ̬̘͔̦̆͂̏̀E̐͐̑͂T͕͖T̗̮̼̆̾E̙̳̬̎ͣ͐̑ͦR̞̱̫͆̎̌̇̓.̩͔͊́ͥ̆̎͑̎ ̼̯̝̔͐ͦT̟ͅH͍̬ͮͬ̉E̺̻̻̘̩̣ͯ̂ͧ̄ͧͧ ̹̖̠͉̻̤ͩͣ͑͋́Ā͍̲̝̥̫̾̓L͎̝͖̏ͣ̀ͣ̑T͕͊̊̂̾͆̾̚Ȇ̪͓͗R͖̂͐ͪṈ̭̝̯̤A̘̫̗͍̬̲̫ͭ̍̓͂̏̂̒T͍̺̽ͅÍ̲̪͖͙̇ͦ͆V͕̗̝̻͎̳ͅE̼͙̯ͧ ̱͙ͮ̆͐̊͐̅M̜A̠̻̩͕̬̗̺Ḱ͎̜̓E̘ͧ̒̈́̏S̹̖͊ͅͅ ̬͖̯͛ͭ͋ͯM̬͔̣̝̳̟̳Y̩͙͕͗̑̓ͨ͛ ̯̐A̠͚̹̳̮͐ͥ̃N̹͓G̥̯͙̑͛̏E̮̖͊͛ͤ̇ͯR̜̺̼ͮ͗̚ ̯̝̱̠͖̩̫̎ͫ̓̃ͨ̚W̟̭͓̦͒̐ͮ͐Ò̙̪̞̩ͯR̝̫͖ͥ̊̌ͭ̾͑͗S̼͍̲͖͔̮͋͒Ȅ͔̝͉͎̱̬̮ͭ.͌̋̋̓"̯̗̬̣͉̱͛͂̔ͪ Or more figuratively, it could be interpreted as "I LIKE THAT IDEA."
The Ruinous Powers are not necessarily cohesive localized single-minded beings -after all, where they begin and their daemons end can be easily regarded as a semantic distinction - and so while a piece of Khorne may have expressed that opinion in the Blood and Thunder War, it is not nonsense to suggest that other parts may have expressed this opinion simultaneously to other warp entities elsewhere. A part of the maelstrom of Despair metaphorically turned to the most nearby part of the maelstrom of Anger (the former was finally pulling out what remained of a previously trapped tendril of power from the location the latter was gathering towards) and responded in what could be figuratively interpreted as "NO. BAD KHORNE. DON'T DO THAT."
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An interesting bit involving Arthron, but he requested to Roboute to go and directly meet and hopefully train under a few Primarchs. One of the few things that Arthron picked up from fighting alongside Roboute was that it is exhausting to keep up with Primarchs. And since he knew that Guilliman isn't even the combat-spec'd Primarch, he wants to see if he can train alongside a few and their Legions.
The working idea is that he will head to about four right now for specific reasons.
Kesar for Anti-Daemon and Combat training, Fulgrim for further "theatrics" considering that Arthron is partly a performer, Magnus for overall psyker training, and Mortarian for toughness training.
And yes, if Roboute asked Morty he'd be okay with training Arthron.
The working idea is that he will head to about four right now for specific reasons.
Kesar for Anti-Daemon and Combat training, Fulgrim for further "theatrics" considering that Arthron is partly a performer, Magnus for overall psyker training, and Mortarian for toughness training.
And yes, if Roboute asked Morty he'd be okay with training Arthron.
- Location
- Elsewhere
It is not permanent sadly, when Tumultus died that gathering was destroyed as well letting the souls go where they do normally.
That they most definitely did, they were rather excited by all the shenanigans that went on
At the moment they do, if integrated into the Imperium's spy networks though it'll make them a fair bit better. The main issue with that is the aliens are fairly decent folk overall.
Good God, that was all decided after a course several months in the making from some rolls that you made to spice things up on discord.
@Daemon, I never ever, want you to do such an insane and incredibly AWESOME THING again!
I can see also several ways it could have gotten even more insane thanks to the addition to our legion and just the problems we cause and solve at times. And honestly, for the most part, it happened all offscreen!!!
I can confirm it would certainly have been interesting if you had gone. Albeit it would have been quite a bit harder for Kesar namely due to his traits being easier for Tumultus to reflect/copy than Guilliman's.
Nicholas Brooks
Redeemer and Destroyer
- Location
- United States
Kesar momentarily becomes Orky and goes "That makes it even more fun!"
Roboute's power over the important but still mundane aspects of war saved his ass, the irony of it all.
Year 36 Part 8 War and Decisions
- Location
- Elsewhere
GM Note: Special thanks to @argenten, @TinyGladiator, and @Ruirk for writing portions of this update.
Promising a favor to Konrad for assistance, Kesar sent out the request to his brother, before making the journey to Fortress Westplatte. When he arrived, a small fleet of Night Lords joined his sons, outnumbering his force two to one, even if the Vigilance made that difference less prominent. Opening up a vox channel, the Second Anathema welcomed his brother, "hello Konrad, it's been a few years."
The channel opened fully, letting Kesar see his brother lounging on his throne, the shadows accentuating the Night Haunter to the point that the XIth Primarch wondered if Fulgrim had provided lighting advice. Konrad himself looked similar to before, but with greater confidence in his look. There was almost a feeling as if something was dangerous that Kesar felt, but it was swiftly quashed by his will. "It has," Konrad spoke softly, "how many Astartes did you bring?"
"Ten thousand and my flagship brother," Kesar replied swiftly, "and … there's an experiment I wanted to try."
"What would that be?" Konrad inquired, leaning forward with mild interest.
"Mass teleportation, with how daemons have begun running from me," and wasn't that an irritating aspect, he'd much prefer if they just stood still and died, "the warp should be safe enough to allow for it, with some modifications."
"I had seen glimpses to that effect but had waited to meet you to confirm. So you have become their Night Haunter then Brother? Their reason to fear." Konrad's voice was both musing and mirthful, although if a mortal were to see his visage now they would find themselves more concerned with keeping their bowels.
To Kesar though, Konrad was simply, and justifiably, happy at the idea of being able to make daemons feel fear. "Indeed, although I find it irksome when I am trying to kill them. Perturabo still won't let me hear the end of the fact that their planets will run away from me. Not my fault they can consume each other in order to flee..." Kesar did not do something so undignified as a pout, but he did visually express his dissatisfaction.
Konrad simply stared for a moment before a sepulcher laugh came through the link, "Yes, I imagine that conducting a campaign can be a trifle irritating when even the enemy battlefield can dessert itself. But as amusing as this aside is, how shall it affect our battle?" Kesar brought up the schematics of the massive planetary fortress.
"It is my hope that we can utilize a combination of my ability to ensure secure teleportation for our troops and our respective legions' style of combat to devastate the enemy into submission through a rapid campaign, overwhelming them wi-"
Kesar stopped as his brother's gaze seemed to shift, becoming focused on some distant thing, his power of precognition overwhelming all else for a moment, until the Night Haunter's eyes returned to focus on his younger sib, "With our combined strength, only to induce many of them into setting off their charges and leaving the fortress you wish to take in a series of far lesser forts instead." Kesar gave a thoughtful hum as he looked at the schematics.
"That is what you See then brother?"
"Yes, if we are to have a chance of taking it intact, we must let their fear ripen by degrees, let it drive them to folly."
Kesar nodded, "Then I defer to you."
Konrad narrowed his eyes for a moment, analyzing Kesar's offer. There was none of the political concession that Roboute would hint at requiring, none of the ill-tempered impatience of Leman's, not even the patronizing good meaning of Horus or Fulgrim.
All Konrad could see was sincere trust and deferment in the 11th primarch's expression, that if Konrad knew how to win the battle, it should be him in command.
'True Humility. Keep that trait close brother, not even I can claim it's possession in entirety.' but now was not the time of musing, the Night Haunter was needed.
"Very well, aside from the capture of the fortress, what other intentions did you come here with?" Konrad was curious what else Kesar intended for the location.
"I would hopefully capture as many willing to be integrated into the Imperium after submission. Their dedication is admirable and turned to the Imperium's use could make this a true Bastion of the region. But I also recognize that their fanaticism will mean that many will die to fulfill their oaths regardless of our tactics...I simply hope to minimize that number."
Konrad's blades tapped along with with his fingers, "Very well, although those that will submit and succumb to fear once might well do so again. It would be wise to ensure that their spines are stiffened with more..reliable forces for a time." Kesar shrugged.
"True, but I intend to increase the number of Imperial Army soldiers recruited in my region, it should not be difficult to ensure that loyal forces can be sent here. I apologize for not bringing more troops but-" Konrad raised a hand to interrupt Kesar's apology, "No, your legion is not yet recovered from his ritual and you are doing more for our mortal allies than all but a few of our brothers. I will require a favor of course but you have done no ill Kesar. They have been burdened with far too much in His name. As have we all."
Konrad whispered that last part, not wishing to push Kesar on the matter of Him yet. And Kesar, understandably, did not push him on this.
The structure looked pristine despite its age and the reluctance of its occupants to truly set foot outside for any reason. A marvel of engineering of skill and material almost entirely lost to mankind's current era of understanding.
Fortress Westplatte was a citadel that would have been difficult for even Perturabo or Dorn to easily breach. A fully-manned and defended castle reinforced by weaponry able to push back invaders with ease, supported by fully-functional archaeotech and a populace fully willing to kill themselves if it meant stopping the enemy from taking their sacred home.
Its void shields shimmered so thickly as to bring day into night. Its towers bristled with cannons of all types ready to match against battleships. Its walls would survive even if the continent they were on cracked and burnt.
To try directly taking this stronghold with the forces available, even with two Primarchs working in conjunction, would have been a foolish prospect and leave nothing but corpses and ash on both sides.
But all outside protection aside from the shield now meant nothing to the Daemonsbane and the Lord of the Nostramo.
It began with a bombardment that would have shattered any other fortress, as the Vigilance fired its main weapons directly at the world below, along with an entire fleet. In response, ancient weapons batteries spooled up, turning towards the sky before bolts of plasma a hundred times hotter than anything the Imperium could make flew through the sky, breaking the shields of dozens of ships, and forcing them to withdraw further. But the ships of the Imperium still added to their firepower even as they reversed thrusters, cycling through ship after ship, orienting them so that when one vessel's shields fell, another vessel saw its shield recharge.
And on the ground, two demigods ran forwards into the maws of Fortress Westplatte. Making full use of teleportation, Kesar arrived closer, before driving Epitaph into the shield, as it screamed in response, somehow still holding.
But then came the Night Haunter, Mercy and Forgiveness seemingly grabbing a portion of the shield and pulling. When combined with the firepower of a fleet and thirty thousand Astartes, the shield flickered for just a few seconds. Enough time for the Night Lords to create the closest thing to hell they could.
Astartes shot forward into the outer battle lines, not seeking to kill, but merely to make their presence known. Wardens teleported around the fortress, arriving to kill a squad then leaving immediately. And Konrad, Konrad simply seemed to vanish, and even Astartes began to feel a tingling sense of dread as if a monster was watching them. Kesar himself frowned, but he was one of the few unaffected, even if he felt he should be. But that was for a late time, for now, he had a task to do. "Wardens, form up into a wedge, pick your shots and advance slowly."
Without hesitating, the Astartes around him did so, those at the tip wielding shields, while those further back began to rain down accurate Volkite shots against the defenders, who slowly began to make more and more mistakes as Night Lord saboteurs began to act in more and more earnest.
Throughout the fortress, the defenders found their brothers and sisters in arms strung up, tortured, beaten, and barely alive, each victim begging for death. The nerves of the defenders began to grow rattled, but so far only isolated groups had fallen victim to the demonic invaders. The last stand protocols didn't need to be activated, right?
Konrad sighed, before ripping out the explosives from an explosive device, feeling the faint prickle of radiation in his eyes as he did. Tossing it away, he looked over his work, before deciding that this was a good place to escalate further.
The Wardens themselves advanced slowly in the front, as the slowly building panic among the defenders turned their responses from crisp and professional to crude and haggard. Even as some Wardens were wounded, more and more of the defenders fell. And within the fortress itself, Wardens began to accelerate their teleportation actions, as companies began to hit minor targets designated by the Night Lords.
A growing sense of panic began to spread among Fortress Westplatte's command staff, as comm channels began to be filled with screams and nightmarish taunts. More and more defenders were found barely alive, begging for death, and some were found entirely catatonic with no visible marks. Konrad took this in, and began to ramp up his attacks, showing himself as unstoppable before torturing soldiers in front of their comrades, and then turning towards them, stopping just when he saw the light vanish from their eyes.
It was cruel, it was calculated, and it worked.
Bit by bit, the fortress' defense crumbled. One by one the atomics were disarmed. Room by room, the defenders were cleared. Step by step the Wardens advanced. And minute by minute, Astartes killed.
What was once a fight turned into a disorganized scramble as the defenders fought their instincts to curl up into a ball and cry. To their credit, most managed it, but those that did still had to contend with trembling arms and elevated heart rates.
The void shield generators were taken, then the outer defenses, then the command center, where Konrad left several of the officers in states of catatonia. Now it was just a mop-up operation, where Astartes and Imperial Army soldiers swept through the fortress, clearing every room and every vent of those once proud defenders of Fortress Westplatte.
Once the fortress was declared secure, the two Primarchs walked through it, marveling at the construction, and at what little they could recognize. "Do you think the Imperial Palace will match the defenses present?" Kesar asked in idle curiosity.
"Barely," replied the other Primarch. "Dorn is good, and he has decades of time to work, if anyone can match the Dark Age, it is him." The Night Haunter paused before adding to the statement, "and Perturabo of course."
"They both are excellent architects," Kesar agreed before a thought struck him. "Hmm, I should ask him to take a look at the designs for defenses Perturabo made for my homeworld, he might have some good ideas to add."
Konrad's eyes flickered over at the Second Anathema, analyzing him carefully. "Be careful with that. Both of them take pride in their work. Maybe too much."
"You give them too little credit," Kesar said, only a little doubtful of the statement. "Dorn himself mentioned he wishes to discuss the drop fortresses with Perturabo."
The Night Haunter blinked slowly, digesting the statement he hadn't expected. "They may have matured, but it is still too early for that."
"If you say so," the Daemonsbane said doubtfully. Deciding to change the subject, Kesar instead asked something that he was curious about. "What favor would you like for this brother?"
"Make the Terran Sun Guard your post compliance force," Konrad responded, immediately confusing Kesar.
"And those would be … ?" He trailed off, seeking more information.
The Night Haunter sighed at that, clearly having hoped they were more famous than they were. "A military unit meant to assist conquered worlds with their transition. Converting hostile populaces to those happy to join the Imperium, or at least tolerant of it."
"Why me?" Kesar asked, "I have similar programs already, albeit not to that extent."
Konrad seemed to hum to himself, deciding which argument to take. "You owe me a favor," he said bluntly, "and this will serve as proof of their abilities."
"Brother," Kesar started, hesitating at what he was about to say, "if none of the other Primarchs are willing to pay for this, are you sure it's a worthwhile use of our time?"
"Fulgrim has expressed interest, even given some ideas. If he accepts it, Ferrus probably will. Your word would go far with others, and I'm already supporting them. If you accept, you'd be just the spark needed to allow them to spread." Konrad explained, listing some of what he wished to see in the future.
"And Perturabo wishes to use the Black Brigades, who are far more established," Kesar responded. "Even if I may not think they are useful in every situation, they are still a tested, proven force."
"The problem with the Imperium Kesar is that it only knows one way to act," the Night Haunter began, gesturing to stains of blood and brain matter splattered on the walls, "with violence and demands." He turned towards Kesar, his eyes narrowing, "the Sun Guard won't lead to more productivity in your domain, what they will do is save lives, and make your domain a better place."
"You're making me choose here," the Daemonsbane said. "I agree with what you and Vulkan envision for the Imperium, I support it even."
"But not now."
"The Imperium lacks funds," Kesar said sympathetically. "I can pay for it, but it will delay all my projects by two, maybe three years."
"And in exchange, you save billions of lives," Konrad argued truthfully.
This conversation was a cruel one to have, and Kesar himself very much did not like it. "Brother, you know as well as I do those billions of lives are a drop in the ocean of blood the Imperium has spilled." He sighed, lamenting his next statement, regardless of how truthful it was, "the Imperial Army is an emotional creature Konrad, it won't be happy with this."
"The Imperial Army already is unhappy," Konrad replied, "it's only a matter of time before parts begin to turn on us."
"Is that - ?"
"A vision, and intuition," Konrad said, preempting Kesar's query. "The average guardsmen is growing more and more disillusioned with what they do, the Desolation was the surest sign of that."
"I know better than to doubt what you see, but will this really help prevent such... an event?" Kesar said, surprised. "This sounds like it would accelerate it."
"It won't stop it, but it will mitigate it, on all sides. Give them the idea that things will be better, and they will latch onto it." Konrad responded, explaining his view on the matter.
The Second Anathema thought about it, it wasn't an unaffordable cost, two years of his domain's income was painful, but could be dealt with. Rather it was if it was worthwhile that was the issue, something Kesar himself was unconvinced of. Then there was another matter to consider. "Would your Sun Guard tolerate working under my command knowing that I make ready use of Black Brigades? Konrad, I rather not send you back the Sun Guard thinking that they wasted their time or had to play nice with a group like the Black Brigades. Even if I keep them separate, it's hard to stop certain interactions."
"They will tolerate them," Konrad stated coldly, "they will consider the Black Brigades to be cruel and monstrous, not to mention wastes of resources, but they will not refuse to work with them. Even if it would be a waste of their time to attempt to do so."
"They would never be deployed to the same world," Kesar said, understanding their doctrines were mutually exclusive, "but there will be times they share the same transport, and times they share the same R&R rest point."
"The better half of the Sun Guard will keep them in line." The Night Haunter donned a cruel smile, "however, I can't say the same if the Brigaders seek to harm the Nightingales."
[] Agree - Locks in Terran Sun Guard implementation next turn (Cost: 100 Tech, 1000 Materials, 100 Population). The Terran Sun Guard is a regiment skilled at post-compliance operations, and while they may not squeeze out production, they are skilled at reducing conflict and making planets happier at joining, or at least more accepting.
[] Have a trial period - Recruit a regiment of Terran Sun Guard and see how they operate. While they will only be able to handle a single world and might get unlucky with the choice of world, it will show how they operate and whether or not there is a place for them among Kesar's domain.
[] Decline - The Terran Sun Guard may save lives, but it's just not worth it. It's a cold pragmatic thing to say, but the lives of a few billion civilians aren't worth the cost investment that is needed. Ask Konrad for something else as payment for the favor.
[] Write-in
"What factions do we have to deal with?" Maticus asked an Imperial Army general that had been observing the war for weeks now.
"There are three factions of note Lord Captain. First are those subordinates of former general Illyses Lea, a known psyker, and listed as having a severe psychotic break and accused of, and I quote "letting their powers control him" by the other factions." The general explained carefully, listing the factions in order of importance. "Then we have the loyalists to the former dictator, they're fragmented with their leadership decapitated, and they're better thought of as a mixture of factions. And lastly, we have the general staff, who launched a coup after the former king refused to remove General Lea from his position, and have since broken into numerous factions."
"Two questions," Maticus began, "how credible is the psykers insanity?"
"They're a psyker." The general said bluntly, "it's not confirmed, but psykers and psychotic breaks do not end well."
Maticus frowned, it was truthful, but Oriacarius had hammered the idea of false information into his head for decades now. "Second question, which groups can we ally with?"
The general winced at that, "technically any." Maticus raised an eyebrow even as the general explained his response. "You can find hourly ceasefires and temporary alliances everywhere. We once observed an alliance last 52 seconds before dissolving into a firefight."
"In summation, it is a tangled mess that not even the Alpha legion would enjoy unraveling...delightful," Maticus grumbled, with Doomslayer grunting in commiseration.
"If I may Lord Captain?" The general asked, waiting until Maticus gestured for him to continue before he spoke, "I would recommend treating everyone here as hostile until they are proven otherwise."
The third captain sighed, "this is going to be an awful landing," he complained. "I'm going to have to try and take into account multiple different armies at once."
Doom Slayer growled, tapping Eviscerator and shaking his head.
Maticus blinked at that, "overwhelming force is also a good option."
Compared to invading a daemonworld, invading Ralan was almost tame in comparison. There were no daemons materializing a foot away, no sudden shifts in spacetime, and his foes died in a single blow. A bolter shot, a punch, a kick, it was enough to take down anyone he had faced so far. It was a pleasant thought, even if Maticus didn't enjoy his task all that much. Taking a look at the tactical map, the third captain was pleased. Doom Slayer had once again pushed forward ahead of his brothers, securing several of the AA guns, allowing for further bombing runs by the Imperial Army. Meanwhile, General Lea was being hounded by two Culexus, and while they may not have been able to kill him, they were able to keep him from properly commanding his forces, allowing Maticus organizational superiority. Even if he did have an inkling of doubt as to the state of affairs on Ralan.
"Lord Maticus, if I may." Maticus turned to the leader of the Shades of the Warden sent with him, a swarthy skinned man with his face half painted white, "Based on the information provided, I would posit that if the psyker in question did have a mental break, it was not at the behest of anything not of this realm."
Maticus was still hesitant about the Shades, if only because of how fervent they could be, but in cases like this, he couldn't deny their history did come in handy. "The Broken one and Ashani when they went mad did a great deal more damage as well as showing a good deal more...inconsistency in their behavior. This Lea shows too many consistent patterns and presence of mind to make me think that they are truly insane."
The third captain couldn't help but agree, "I agree, there's a reason I haven't teleported to him myself." Explaining why he did what he did tended to help his brothers relax, and so he did so here. "I expect this is simple stereotyping, a psyker lost control of themselves, and people took that to mean the worst case."
"What would you suggest then Lord Maticus?" The Shade asked, clearly curious.
The Astartes unsheathed the Sword of the Lost, "I continue to do what I was doing, force them into negotiations."
By now, the other factions understood that the Wardens were the strongest force around, and the one that could beat all the others on its own, even while trying to get negotiations of surrender set up. It was as Maticus planned, as the minor factions surrendered in exchange for assurances. The Royalists, those loyal to the old dictator, were more stubborn, as were the General Staff. But General Lea saw the way things were turning and made his decision.
Illyses Lea would say this was not a good day. Having to drive between hideouts while being chased by Culexus tended to make one stressed. Having to do that while on the losing side of a war only made that worse. Sighing, he reflexively reached for his powers, letting a tiny ball of fire trace between his fingers, bringing warmth to his cold hands. He'd been putting off this decision for quite some time, but in the end, there was only one way this could end. "Stop the car, send the following terms to the Eternal Wardens. No capital punishment of soldiers or civilians for participation in the conflict, no looting of our held territory. Other than that, it's acceptable."
The driver of the car hesitated, along with the radio operator. "General - "
"Do it," he snarled, "there's no point to prolonging this anymore."
The driver looked at the radio operator, before both uttered a quiet, "yes General."
General Lea opened the car door, stretching as he stepped out. Then he took a step away from the vehicle and unholstered his gun with his left hand before letting it drop to the floor with a clatter. Taking a moment to retrieve a flare gun, he loaded a flare he thought he would never use and fired it into the air. Pure white light radiated from it, as the general's soldiers stared in shock, for the white flare denoted that they were to surrender. "Well assassins," General Lea said with faux confidence, "I really hope your superior officer is reasonable, as I do not want to die."
The surrender of General Lea's forces spelled the death knell for the rest of Ralan. Without the largest front to worry about, Maticus was able to redeploy assets to other fronts, including himself and the two Culexus. Not to mention the wealth of information General Lea provided.
With it, the third captain was able to paint a picture of what occurred, namely the fact that Ralan's government was a pressure cooker, waiting to explode. And when the old king died, and General Lea had a psychotic break over the death of their old friend, a coup was launched by the rest of the general staff, followed shortly after by a counter-coup from an alliance of Lea's subordinates and the Royalists. And that was followed by several of the groups within the groups splintering and beginning to fight each other in an effort to gain control of Ralan.
In any case, the rest of the war was over within two months, as Maticus began to transition control of local forces back to General Lea, along with vetted personnel to ensure the world remained loyal to the Imperium. While Illyses himself was barred from office, as he was a psyker, one of his subordinates was chosen to be the next governor of the world, something the general was more than happy with. With that, Ralan was brought into the Imperium, and Maticus' work was done.
"Are you going to do something about that?" An Astartes asked Abdul, pointing toward the Lord General that was previously commanding the compliance of Kivan was screaming at several generals after the most recent failed assault. Considering he had yet to notice the arrival of the Wardens, Abdul had an idea as to why it had yet to succeed.
Nonetheless, it was far more entertaining to wait until the mortal actually noticed them. "Not yet, I think he'll notice us in ten minutes."
The Astartes looked at him in clear disapproval, but Abdul was the one in charge, and so the Warden simply accepted this. "Very well."
Abdul was in fact wrong, it took twelve minutes for the Lord General to notice the Astartes, at which point, the Librarian stood to his full height (with just a little biomancy to make him taller) and spoke up casually. "That was an enlightening demonstration as to how this compliance is going." Walking forward he leaned over the rapidly paling Lord General before clapping his hands, "well, thankfully we won't have to deal with that anymore, we should be done here in a month."
The Lord General worked their jaw, before taking a breath. "With all due respect Lord Astartes, we've been here two years, unless you've got Titans, we'll be here for years."
Behind Abdul, a Warden groaned as Abdul snapped his fingers. "Well, lucky for you … behold!" Spinning in place, the Librarian gestured as a Titan dropship emerged from the cloud layer, "we have Titans!"
An hour later, and after Abdul had finished going over the reports, he handed his current battle plan over to one of his brothers. "It's a creative plan, but it would mean crippling Kivan's hives."
"The other option is letting a few hundred million guardsmen die clearing out the walking hives," Abdul pointed out, "not to mention tripping those hive titans with our titans just feels appropriate, it's thematic. The Remembrancers agree," he said gesturing towards one such individual who was clearly startled at the attention of the Astartes. "And, well, the First Captain did say he wants better relations with the Imperial Army."
The Astartes Abdul was talking to nodded in agreement. "It's a good plan in that case, is it safe to say you'll be - "
"I'm boarding the capital of course," the Librarian said with a smirk, "it's too fitting not to."
The Warden stared, somehow conveying an utterly flat expression through their helmet. "...you just want a cool picture don't you?"
Abdul notably did not tense up, instead, he jumped up and crossed his arms in denial. "No! That's not the only reason."
Somehow, this did not seem to convince the Warden otherwise.
Standing on the shoulder of an Imperator gave one a sense of power. The Grasp of Fire walked towards the capital, void shields flaring as macrocannon and lance fire rained down upon it. "With respect Lord Astartes, kindly stay inside the damn Titan."
Abdul blinked, not bothering to actually follow the instructions, but mentally changing his opinion on what Princeps were like. "Come now Princeps, this fall won't kill me, I'm hardly in any danger."
The Grasp of Fire turned its head as it raised a hand to fire its main weapons, dispersing a group of missiles launched at it. "Don't blame me if you fall then," said Princeps Lexan Messel as he began to make the Titan sway in alternating patterns, both making it a harder target, and making it harder for Abdul and the other Astartes to keep their feet steady.
"Sixty seconds," Abdul commented over the vox as the Imperator began to fire its plasma annihilator into the hive's legs, blasting apart joint after joint as the hive began to list. "Is everyone prepared?" As the Grasp of Fire turned to destroy another one of the legs, the Wardens sounded off affirmatives. Then the Titan turned on the third leg, forcing the hive to fall dozens of meters before crashing onto the ground, throwing up a massive cloud of dirt and dust. "NOW!" Abdul shouted as he shot forwards in a bolt of lightning, other biomancers following him a mere moment later.
Across the planet, similar boarding actions occurred, albeit with nonpsychic forces, and slower boardings in general. Actually clearing the hives after the Titans had knocked them over was both an easy and difficult task, as contrary to what Abdul had thought, most of the populace had survived thanks to anti-gravity countermeasures. However, the primary and secondary defenses had fallen, forcing Kivan's PDF to meet Astartes in the open.
Needless to say, this did not go well. Especially against biomancers who were more than willing to make people's hearts stop.
It did in fact take just two weeks for Kivan to be conquered, after which Abdul ensured the Remembrancers had the pictures they wanted for some propaganda piece of theirs and then departed.
"These are the reports?" Oriacarius asked with clear distaste in his voice. "The only thing mentioned is victories, not the defeats."
Lord General Lasmin, a man with deep bags under his eyes drank what Oriacarius noted was a drink made of almost pure sugar and caffeine before responding in the tone of a man who hadn't slept in a week, "they're scared you're going to kill them." The man took a deep sip, and Oriacarius could literally hear the man's heartbeat speed up. "There's a reason why I didn't want that damned Eversor involved."
The First Captain looked behind him to Raz, nonverbally asking if this was the truth. With a brief burst of concentration, one of the members of the Triquetra subtly nodded, causing Oriacarius to sigh. "Raz, start quarantining information from the guardsmen and get some of our brothers to make a timeline of this compliance. There's something far more sinister at play here."
"There's … " yawning widely, the Lord General finished his drink as Oriacarius looked on concerned. "There's no need for that, it's better to keep at least the generals in the loop."
"I'll think about it," the First Captain said tersely. "For now, I need to start talking with the locals."
The Lord General snorted, as he poured yet another cup of the mixture. "The only way you'll get anything out of them is in an interrogation chamber." The mortal, who was surely immune to some poisons, took another sip, and Oriacarius exchanged a worried glance with Raz. "We've got some suspected guerillas that have been worked over in holding, I'd suggest trying your luck with them first."
Oriacarius acknowledged the recommendation with a nod, before leaving the room. As he did, he looked over at one of his brothers. "Have a watch over him, ensure he doesn't overdose on whatever that was. Test it while you're at it."
The Astartes nodded as Raz telepathically messaged Oriacarius, "Lord Captain, what's the plan?"
At that, Oriacarius held up a hand, gesturing for him to hold his question. "All groups sound off."
"Nasin reporting in," came the voice of the Thousand Son. "I've got a watch over two snipers setting up to take shots on the Wardens guarding the barracks."
"Savinath reporting in," came the voice of the third Chief Librarian, along with the sounds of gunfire. "Currently engaged with a hostile squad, no threat present."
"Take one alive," Oriacarius ordered as the other teams sounded off as well. Overall, the First Captain was certain that either the entire civilian populace had been wronged by the Imperium, or there were traitors within the Imperial Army's ranks. "Raz, start sweeping through the guardsmen generals for mental influences or infiltrators." The member of the Triquetra nodded as Oriacarius debated on what to do, before deciding to visit the interrogation chambers.
It wasn't the best of setups, but the Astartes didn't expect much. Outside the room was a guardsman with a lasgun, who started when he saw the First Captain. "Stay here," ordered the First Captain as he moved to enter the room.
"Lord Astartes," the man gulped as he stepped in front of Oriacarius, "I, uh, I can't let you in without orders."
Wordlessly, the Warden grabbed the lasgun from the guardsman, examining it before flipping the safety on and handing it back to the man. "I have the Lord General's permission."
"I'll … I'll have to verify that, please wait a minute," the guardsman said as they took out a vox comm. "Sir, the uh, the Astartes wish to see the prisoners, he says the Lord General allowed it."
There was a notable pause before Oriacarius overheard the answer, "he did no such thing, inform him of such."
The guardsman paled, looked at the vox comm, then Oriacarius, then at his lasgun, then back to Oriacarius. The First Captain tilted his head, "who did you contact?"
"Major Venasi of the 223rd Garrison Regiment." The guardsman notably swallowed. "Sir, with, … with all due respect … I can't stop you from doing this, but there's a procedure."
"When I open this door, what will I find?" Oriacarius asked, looming over the guardsman.
"I don't know sir, I just guard the door." The guardsman said nervously, "some lady, late 20s I think, picked up from some ambush site."
"I suspect it's more complicated than that, step aside guardsmen," Oriacarius ordered, somewhat impressed that the man didn't do so.
"Sir, I... I cannot. I have been commanded-"
"Soldier, I know you have your orders, but know this. You will not be able to bar me from entering without a reason I can accept. Provide one or turn aside your gaze." As much as the First Captain would be able to throw the guardsmen aside, he would rather not be forced to employ physical force.
"I … I'm just a grunt sir," the guardsman said, "I'm supposed to follow orders."
It was at times like this that Oriacarius wished the Legions and Imperial Army had a codified joint chain of command. Placing a hand on the guardsman's shoulder, the First Captain leaned over the man. "As the First Captain of the Eternal Wardens, I am ordering you to step aside. Do not, and I will move you."
"Yes sir," the guardsman said defeated, taking a step out of the way of the Astartes' path. "Just … tell the Major you made me move."
"I will soldier, you didn't have a choice in this matter," Oriacarius said as he forced open the lock with a single hand, as the guardsman notably winced at the sound.
"I thought you had a key … " the guardsman muttered as the First Captain stepped inside the room, smelling iron in the air.
Closing the door behind him, Oriacarius momentarily gave an order. "Nasin, get a company of Astartes to me." He was sure he could fight his way out of anything a major might try, but it was always good to be careful. Now, the First Captain was focused on the semi-conscious prisoner, who was not in a good shape, mumbling something over and over again through blood-stained teeth.
Stepping closer, Oriacarius tried to speak soothingly. "Miss, I'm not with the Imperial Army, I'm here to help." He didn't think it would do anything, but unexpectedly, there seemed to be an improvement in the state of the prisoner at his words.
"Corporal Didela … 223rd Garrison Regiment … serial number two … peter …" her eyes rolled up as unconsciousness claimed her once more.
"Nasin, change of orders, bring three companies, a biomancer, and Raz, now."
"Yes sir, we're three minutes out." Came the response as Oriacarius threw open the door.
"Soldier, you're now a serf of the Wardens, provide medical assistance to the guardsman inside." The man in question had several emotions cross their face in an instant as he thankfully complied, running into the room while shouting questions.
"She's a guardsman? And can you promote people like that?"
"Yes," Oriacarius said as he walked over to a neighboring interrogation chamber, wrenching the door open before closing it. He wasn't going to describe what was in there beyond a corpse. "And yes." He walked over to a third chamber, wrenching it open to find a corpse within. "Now get to work."
"Yes sir," came the response, along with the sound of the guardsman opening up a medical kit.
As he did so, Oriacarius took the time to go to the other chambers, finding them either filled with corpses or stains of bodily fluids. Returning to the original chamber, he made sure the first aid was appropriate before the first Stormbird arrived.
From it, a Warden Sergeant stepped out. "Brother-Captain, we saw a tank platoon headed this way."
The First Captain grinned, "maybe they'll give us some answers."
The tank platoon did not in fact have answers, after a few Astartes landed on top of them, asking what they were doing, the platoon swiftly surrendered, simply explaining they were given orders to neutralize the prisoners due to a scheduled breakout. But at least Oriacarius knew where to get his answers. "Lord General, I want Major Venasi in front of me, how do I do that?"
Haggardly, Lord General Lasmin downed yet another cup of what Oriacarius had learned was a mixture of no less than a dozen stimulants. "Comms are spotty, but I'll send him an order, shouldn't take him more than a day or two to respond."
"Unacceptable," Oriacarius said. "Where is he now, I'll go to him instead."
The Lord General didn't seem too fazed by the demand, even if it clearly annoyed him as he went through the various reports. "Somewhere in Lemania, it's a mining town which supports a few gem mines."
"There are ten thousand people in this town," Oriacarius stated.
"Yes?"
"How are they supporting a hundred gem mines?" The First Captain bluntly asked.
The Lord General blinked, "well, they've been paying the tithe, so they do somehow."
"Just … just stay here," Oriacarius said utterly disappointed, looking over the various reports, there was no way some of these productivity values were right, if so, they were matching production rates of a forge world. Stepping out of the command center, the First Captain gave his orders. "Give the order, I want all tithe payments suspended and past payments reviewed, start detaining guardsmen if they cause problems."
In the safety of an Astartes base, Oriacarius waited outside the medical wing before Rikard walked out. "I bring good news!" The Chief Apothecary said with barely muted glee, "she's stable and recovering, should be awake in an hour or so."
"Will she be stable enough to talk?" Oriacarius asked, taking a sip of cocoa as he did, notably from a backup mug after Rikard had taken his normal one to use himself.
Rikard waggled his hand in response, "not for long, she's got lacerations all over her body, with a few cutting her stomach wall."
"Well, at least that's treatable," Oriacarius sighed, leaning against the backrest of his seat. "I wish I just had to deal with guerillas on this, mundane corruption is irritating."
"At least you've got contingencies for it." Rikard teased, to which Oriacarius furrowed his brow, annoyed at the truth of the statement.
"Point." Rikard giggled at that, draping a hand over the First Captain's shoulders as he gestured towards him.
"So what's the plan? Or do I need to know it?"
Oriacarius shook his head, "I need you to continue caring for the corporal, I've already got our brothers doing what needs to be done," a message appeared on his dataslate, and the First Captain smirked, "and the major that caused all these problems has just been captured."
When the First Captain got to the interrogation chambers, he glanced over at Raz who he had asked to try and pick out Major Venasi's surface thoughts. "What have you found?"
The Chief Librarian responded rather quickly, "he's willing to talk to you specifically, he seems to think you'll agree with what he's doing."
"What?" Oriacarius asked flatly.
"I don't think he's realized how much damage he's doing to the people here," Raz said. "You might be able to show him otherwise."
"Just what I wanted," Oriacarius muttered, "well, at least getting info out of him will be easy."
Major Venasi was a middle-aged man and a career soldier. Clearly fit, with a low-quality cybernetic eye, the major held back a snarl as Oriacarius entered the room. "My name's Oriacarius, First Captain of the Wardens," he stated calmly. Sitting in the chair across from the major, Oriacarius sought to open a dialogue, "do you mind introducing yourself for the records?"
"Major Slanick Venasi, 223rd Garrison Regiment," he said with abating irritation, "Lord Captain, I'm doing this for the Imperium, everything here is done to support it in these struggling days."
"I'm trying to understand Major," Oriacarius repressed some of the irritation he felt, instead, seeking to draw the man into a conversation. "My first impression involved you ordering the interrogation and torture of loyal guardsmen." He sighed, stating how he saw the situation directly. "Well, I struggle to understand how any of what I am seeing is benefiting the Imperium. Your orders barricading me, this entire conflict and the focus on these mines."
"They weren't loyal," the Slanick stated, "that corporal was helping the locals get around the additional tithes." The Major tapped the table, somewhat unsure, "...as for the orders barricading you … that was shortsighted of me, something I ordered out of panic."
"Generally just work doesn't trigger panicked responses if uncovered," the First Captain explained. "And what are these additional tithes?"
"Tironia cost the Imperium greatly," the Major snarled, "we lost billions taking this place, and those are billions the Imperial Army can't afford to replace." He spread his hands out and smiled, "I just made sure that Tironia paid for every drop of Imperial blood it spilled."
"How much are these tithes?" Oriacarius inquired, even as he hid his thoughts on how short-sighted this was.
"95 … 98%, somewhere in that range." The major waved it away, as if it was unimportant, "we've managed to pay for ten regiments with it, another twenty years and Tironia will have paid its debt."
"With tithes that high, there won't be a planet to extort in twenty years," Oriacarius said angrily, "all you've done is ignite rebellion."
"We're getting an Eversor in a few weeks," the Major said, dismissing the point, "the rebels are a problem, but they have no weapons capable of harming Astartes. You can clear them in a month or two."
"No, a month or two from now there'd just be new rebels." Desperate people did desperate things, and starving to death drove people to the brink, just look at the Desolation. "Did you learn nothing from the Desolation?!" Oriacarius slammed his fist on the table, denting it and making the major jump back.
"Of course I did, we're not letting a PDF form out of Tironians, we're using loyal Imperial citizens for that."
"The Tironians are Imperial citizens!" Oriacarius explained in a growl.
"Not until they pay their debt, not until they pay for every cent they cost the Imperium!" The major yelled. "If every one of them rebels, then so be it, we can always use more servitors!"
"Who else is involved in this … monstrosity?" Oriacarius threw his hand up in disgust. "These people aren't your enemies anymore, killing them serves no purpose."
"They killed two billion guardsmen, what purpose did that serve?" The Major pointed out. "They killed my men, letting some of them die is justice, the fact we let them serve in penal legions is a disgrace and insult to the Imperial Army."
"And your solution is to starve civilians?" The First Captain asked.
"My solution is to make them literally pay for those two billion lives. My solution is to take the tithes of Tironia and raise two billion new guardsmen from it." The Major explained with a smile, "this way Tironia can be something more than another bit of dirt that got away with killing billions of guardsmen and profiting from the Imperium's uplifts."
"Allow me to be clear," Oriacarius said in a deceptively calm tone. "Your so-called solution has destroyed any loyalty Tironia may have held to the Imperium and has turned it into a world that will need garrisoning for generations. You have destroyed any productivity in an effort for short-sighted looting. This will not stand, and you will be forcibly thrown out of the Imperial Army. The only reason you won't be executed is if you give up the names of your conspirators."
"You … you can't be serious," the Major exclaimed in shock. "Everything I've done has been for the Imperial Army! Just because you're too soft to make the right decisions, you're going to discharge me?"
"Who are your fellow conspirators?" Oriacarius repeated.
"No, no, I'm not letting you make this mistake." The Major crossed their arms and snarled. "Just leave it alone, the Imperial Army will handle this even without Astartes."
Oriacarius stood up, realizing he wasn't going to get anything useful out of talking further. "I am going to correct your foolish decisions. And you will sit here and think about what you've done."
The first step to fixing this mess was to actually get some of the resistance groups to agree to negotiations. Which Oriacarius did have a plan for, namely Corporal Didela. She was apparently involved with some of the groups, and even if it might be difficult to get a meeting with someone higher ranked, just a foothold would be worthwhile.
Even then, that would only be the first step in fixing this mess. He'd already asked Baldur for a recommendation for a mortal negotiator to conduct longer-term discussions, but he'd yet to hear of whatever it was he was doing. He highly doubted Baldur's current work was as simple as he made out.
As it was, the First Captain waited at the corporal's side, while Rikard carefully monitored her vitals. "Looks like she's waking up."
The corporal's return to consciousness wasn't a pretty thing, involving an attempt to grab Rikard, which he entirely ignored. A coughing fit seemed to take her, to which Rikard grabbed a cup of water next to the bed, forcing it into her hands which she drank greedily. "Corporal," Oriacarius began, "I want to apologize for the Imperial Army's treatment of you, if you no longer wish to serve, I understand."
She didn't respond, continuing to drink until the cup was drained, at which point Rikard pulled out Oriacarius' mug, this time filled with cocoa. "Drink this slowly, your body is minorly undernourished and I don't want to take chances with overfeeding." Oriacarius could see the steam rising from it, and was certain she'd have to drink it slowly or risk burning herself.
"You couldn't have used your own mug for this?" Oriacarius couldn't help but ask.
Rikard smirked, "but this is more fun Ori," the Chief Apothecary's levity seemed to help the corporal relax somewhat, so the First Captain wasn't going to complain about this … for now.
"Did you … mean that?" The corporal finally asked in a soft voice. "That my conscription period would end?"
"I can make it happen," Oriacarius said, "I just need to get in contact with the resistances on Tironia, what the Imperial Army did here was awful."
"It's the major," Didela explained, "he's convinced some of the generals to starve the Tironians." She hunched up on herself, momentarily shivering as her heart rate rose as she remembered something about the major.
"He can't reach you here," Oriacarius said, "he's been taken into custody, awaiting execution."
"Good," it seemed to work as she breathed a sigh of relief. "It's the least he deserves." Hands clenched around the cup she was holding.
"He ruined billions of lives for foolish reasons," the First Captain stated bluntly. "Everyone involved in this monstrosity will be punished, you have my word." Taking a moment to walk over to a cocoa dispenser, the Warden poured himself a cup into one of his many backup mugs, which caused Rikard to pout. "But I need to help Tironia, and to do that, I need to talk to them."
"They already know I was captured," she said morosely, "they'd have cut ties and moved."
"No," Oriacarius said, "they'd trap those locations instead."
The corporal looked at him, unsure. "How would you know that?"
"It's what I would do."
"I'm not happy with this plan," Savinath, one of the members of the Triquetra commented. "We should send in a serf instead, it'd be less threatening."
"Your First Captain is careful," Nasin responded. "He fears a serf would be ambushed, and so sent us, the most suited to surviving such an ambush."
"Still, I prefer fighting from an ambush, rather than fighting an ambush." Savinath responded back, "hopefully our size differentiates us from the Imperial Army."
"Maybe," the Thousand Son said with a complicated expression on his face. "I do wish Raz was joining us, his telepathy would be useful."
"Too useful," the Warden sighed, "the last thing these people want is someone that can dig through minds talking to them."
"His telepathy is a bit different than that," Nasin said, remembering that enjoyable conversation, "he looks at the subconscious rather than the conscious, more like the White Scars than anything else."
"Not that they would know the difference, it took him some time to understand it himself," Savinath rightfully pointed out. "Do you think that's enough time for them to know we want to talk?"
"It should be … " Nasin frowned under his helmet, "let me try something." He raised his hand to his helmet, only for the Wardens hand's to clamp onto his own.
"We're in hostile territory," Savinath said worried, "not even we are immune to bullets to the head."
"I'm not being reckless, it's a calculated gamble," Nasin said as he tried to extract his hands. "They're hesitating because they're not sure they can handle us if we're hostile."
"And exposing yourself to a sniper helps? They may just decide to shoot you!" Savinath exclaimed.
"Come on cousin, trust me on this," Nasin pleaded. "They're not going to show up otherwise."
The member of the Triquetra didn't speak for several dozen seconds, churning through thoughts and emotions during the entire period. Then he let go, "fine."
Nasin removed his helmet, at which point two laser sights appeared on his head, and from the building nearby, a door burst open, and a heavily armed individual with an anti-tank rocket stepped out. "You better have a damn good reason for coming here."
"I have come, on behalf of someone who now understands your plight, to end this war in your favor. Can you point that away?" Nasin proclaimed as Savinath let him talk.
The resistance fighter tilted their head, the scarf somewhat blocking their features. "Come with me, without your armor."
It wasn't an unreasonable ask, although there was one bit of awkwardness. "I hope you have a coat then, I don't want to be walking around with just a body glove."
Savinath and Nasin were sure the resistance fighter clearly did not want to see that, which wasn't that surprising. They did sound male after all. "We have some raincoats, it'll do."
"Wonderful," Nasin muttered, with a bit of amusement. "Lead the way then."
The members of the Triquetra were ushered into the bank of a grain transport that had been modified to act as a heavy weapons delivery vehicle. Reinforced to handle their weight, the vehicle was filled with other rebels and proceeded to take random turns for over five hours. Throughout it, Nasin and Savinath kept a careful ear on where they were headed, eventually being able to figure out that they had been taken to a bread-making factory of all things.
When they arrived, they stepped out, only to be greeted by over two hundred soldiers with anti-tank weapons spread across the multiple gantries. Savinath frowned under his helmet at that, it would be almost impossible to teleport away if he had to avoid being hit by the sheer number of weapons present. At his side, Nasin seemed to agree.
"So, which prisoner was important?" At the top of the factory, approximately 4 floors up, and somewhat shielded by a support beam, a man that seemed to be in their late sixties called down to them in a raspy voice. "Didn't think you lot would have someone important in that gang you call an army."
"They have prisoners, of course they have prisoners and your first captain wasn't told." Nasin's gene connection with Magnus shone as brightly as the sarcasm that positively dripped as the Librarian looked around at their 'hosts.'
"The degree of importance in the Imperial Army on this planet is very much in flux, so I do not blame you for being uncertain as to the value of your prisoners. And while our original intention here was not that of a prisoner exchange, I can assure you that I will forward any possible requests you might have for one to our commander."Savinath said a bit louder than needed, to cover up his ally's dry tone.
"We're here because corrupt elements of the Imperial Army caused … this mess." Nasin interjected, creating a joint front with the Warden. "The First Captain of the Wardens, one of the most influential men in the Imperium wishes to resolve this."
"And who might he be? Another army boy with a grudge" The old man asked, bitterness as strong as Nasin's sarcasm all too plain.
"Our commander is First Captain Oricarius of the Eleventh Space Marine Legion, the Eternal Wardens, of which I am a member."
"And yer pal? The one only now figuring out opsec ain't worth a damn?"
"I am Nasin, of the Thousand Sons Space Marine Legion, aiding the Eternal Wardens."
"Wonderful," the old man muttered in a heavily irritated voice. "I start making progress and I get two of the fucking Legions to show up."
"For once, you might be glad Astartes showed up," Nasin quipped, which brought forth a glare from Savinath.
"First Captain Oriacarius is rather … displeased over what the Imperial Army did here." Savinath explained, "he wishes for an end to all of this."
"Is this a joke?" The man said angrily, "you come here, bomb our homes, starve our people, and now you want peace?" Nasin's eyes flickered over to some of the soldiers, this was getting dangerous. The old man seemed to understand the situation as well, looking around the building at the other rebels present. "The last time the Imperium asked for peace, I agreed, and look where that got me!"
"The Imperium did this yes, at the behest of a Major with an axe to grind, we are already in the midst of dealing with said Major and those that were convinced by him to doom your world to slow annihilation." Savinath was blunt, the situation demanded it.
"And we ask that you be a part of their trials. Make no mistake, the Eternal Wardens and those forces seconded to us are here to ensure that the war on this planet ends as effectively and finally as possible. These men are guilty of not only corruption, but incompetence, mass murder, shortsighted greed and viciousness and a hundred other crimes. Their guilt is assured and their sentence already set."
The old man spat to the side, unmoved but not angered further. "Then why bother reaching out to us, why ask us to be a part of a kangaroo court?"
"Because you will need your pound of flesh if there is ever a hope of peace and reconciliation, for there to be a chance of something remaining on Tironia in the generations to come...But we realize that the well here has been truly tainted in regards to your relations with the greater Imperium of Man. This is the closest we can provide in terms of closure in regards to the fools that brought us here."
"I'm not agreeing to peace," the old man snapped. "Not without demands."
Savinath glanced at Nasin, not entirely liking the tone, but understanding why the man was hesitant. "What are your demands?" Nasin asked.
"Every bit of wealth that was stolen from us, we want back, with interest." The old man began to speak, listing his first then second demand. "Every dead Tironian's family gets your Imperial Army's pension," a trickier demand to deal with, but not unacceptable. "Tironia gets its own PDF, funded by the Imperium to Imperial Army standards." Savinath winced at that, the Imperial Army wouldn't be happy with having to spend money in perpetuity. "Fourth, there will never be an Imperial Guardsmen that steps on this world, without exception." An agreeable one at the very least. "Fifth, I want a written apology from the Imperium, specifically from whoever was in charge of this."
"The first, second, and fourth demands will certainly be accepted," Nasin began. "The third and fifth … are more difficult for us to say."
"The third is non-negotiable," the old man stated bluntly, "the only reason I haven't demanded Solar Auxilia levels of funding is that too much of Tironia's military core was killed during your bombardments. And I don't trust your Imperial Army to not come back when your back is turned."
Savinath bristled at the insinuation that the Wardens couldn't keep the Imperial Army under control, but held his tongue. "And the fifth demand?"
"If whoever was in charge refuses, get your First Captain to publicly call them out." The old man said, "I want it known that this was not acceptable."
"I think he'll do that anyway," Nasin said with a slight chuckle, "he is not happy with what happened. Lord Primarch Dorlin takes pride in his domain. And there's nothing to take pride in with what the major did on Tironia."
"The third demand … " Savinath began, hesitating for a moment, "I think we can agree to. We'll just have to figure out who pays for it."
[] The Wardens - It's incredibly cheap to do so, and avoids angering the Imperial Army. Although it would mean that no one learns a lesson from this.
[] The Imperial Army - While the cost is certainly cheap, the Imperial Army has in recent years become very focused on reducing expenses. Inflicting even a minor cost that lasts in perpetuity would anger them greatly.
[] Lord General Lasmin - While he may not have been directly involved in the corruption, he failed to prevent it due to his extremely lax approach to discipline. Forcing his estate to pay for it would be controversial, to say the least, and would lead to significant consequences for both better and worse.
[] The Generals Present - One of the main causes of this were the generals that turned a blind eye. A fair more direct cause than Lord General Lasmin, they may have less wealth, and that may lead to problems in a few decades, but then renegotiations can occur. The consequences would also be far less drastic than if Lasmin was forced to pay.
[] No one - Looking at the situation practically, Tironia no longer has anything of value to the Imperium. If we accede to their demands, it will take centuries for anything of worth to come from this planet. With how hostile the population is, and their lack of anti-orbital weaponry, a few cruisers bombarding their planet for a few months would entirely resolve the situation.
[] Write-in
Above the homeworld of the Amalgams, lay a fleet of Imperial Army ships that were blockading the world. Currently, the Lord General of the compliance was in deep discussions with a Vanus assassin on targets to hit, as well as how to work best with the Wardens arriving.
Shortly afterward, the situation changed significantly, when the Cherished Son arrived in the system, along with its attending escorts of Imperial Fist ships and a ship carrying an entire Knight House. Plans were redrawn as the vessels began the journey towards the inner system, before the fleet split apart, with only the Cherished Son staying in system, and the rest departing. On board the Gloriana, Captain Solarus was the one to give the order. "Rikard, I have a wonderful idea, have everyone else go help the Imperial Army, I won't need them for this world."
"Can I get a recording?" Rikard responded with a grin through the vox video, "I'm certain it will be a fantastic sight."
Solarus nodded, a wide smile on his own lips, "of course, I'm more than happy to show off, and this will be a wonderful sight."
Being one of a handful of Astartes in the system was a strange thing to the Mad Bomber, not that he'd ever say it out loud. Being surrounded not Astartes, but humans were stranger still. And having a literal parade prepared for him was certainly not what he was expecting, not that he'd complain.
"Present arms!" Came a shout from a general, as two rows of Solar Auxilia snapped to attention, turning from facing the Stormbird, to facing each other. Compared to Astartes it might seem acceptable for neophytes, but for the Imperial Army, Solarus could admit that it was an impressive display.
Walking forwards, the Mad Bomber looked at the men and women on each side of him, before glancing at the Lord General at the end of the red carpet. As he approached, she knelt and spoke in a respectful voice. "Lord Astartes, my thanks for answering the Imperial Army's request for assistance."
"I never say no to an invitation to blow things up!" Solarus said with a smirk, utterly shattering any sense of formality.
The Lord General stared at Solarus, as if looking at an alien being. Then she looked at the Astartes behind the Captain, who looked far too used to this. "I … see. Would you like me to begin preparations for orbital bombardment Lord Astartes?"
"Nope," Solarus said, before motioning the officer to stand, which she did. "I have a better idea." He followed up, a dark smile crossing his face which caused the Lord General to blanch.
"Very well Lord Astartes, what are your orders?" Solarus always was happy when guardsmen didn't debate his decisions, it made things so much faster.
"Blockade them, and send me physiology reports," the Astartes ordered.
"At once Lord Astartes, I'll send someone over immediately," the Lord General nodded, hesitating as if debating if she should share her name or not. Solarus, however, didn't really care either way.
The Captain then proceeded to begin work on his planned device, a bomb that would take him months to make, and months more to test and debug, but it would allow for this world to be taken with minimal infrastructure damage. As it was, his first few days would be spent just designing this gamma bomb, but as he began, someone knocked on the door to his room. "Brother, the messenger is here with the reports."
"Let them in," he said, focusing more on the bomb design than on the door. He heard the door open, and someone step in. Then he didn't hear anything more, simply the ambient sounds of the Cherished Son, and his own breathing. There was no shuffling of feet, no audible footsteps, not even audible breathing, something which impressed him. "You're not Imperial Army, are you?" He turned, one hand palming a combat knife just in case.
In front of him stood a short, thin androgynous figure with a face that was so bland it had to be artificial. On their hand was an advanced cogitator, and on their shoulder, he saw a servo skull peek out before hiding behind the person's back. "You can call me Phish, an information gathering specialist deployed to this world." They didn't speak, instead tapping away at their forearm-mounted cogitator, letting it speak in a mildly feminine voice.
"What's different about the Amalgams?" The Mad Bomber asked, mildly concerned. He might have to scrap his plans, and he was really looking forward to them.
"Nothing of note." Phish's words brought him calm, even as they continued. "The Xenos display genetics which may be useful for research, as well as airships useful for certain technological subsets, neither of which is a priority. I have obtained a variety of information that may be useful, including population densities, and live environmental conditions."
Now that might be useful if he wanted to replace it with a multitude of smaller bombs. Yes, that would work, arranged in a grid-like structure, it'd mean that he wouldn't have to deal with the planet's mass. "Yes! I can use those." Turning back towards his design, he tapped away, changing dozens of minor features in mere moments. Realizing he was a tad rude, Solarus glanced back over his shoulder. "Are you also looking to gather information on my current project? If so, then I'm happy to say that it's going as expected thus far. Make sure you record it when it actually goes off. Get a good angle on the explosion and light-show."
"It was not a part of my mission," Phish said through their forearm computer, "but I expect it would be valuable information for the Sigillite."
That made Solarus pause, "you work for the Sigillite?"
Phish didn't move, even as the servo skull peaked over their other shoulder, its eyes gazing into him, analyzing his body language. "You could say that."
"The Lord General, whatever her name was, do I need to worry about her?" While he did want to ask questions, Solarus had talked with Baldur before, specifically on the topic of the Sigillite. If the man wanted Solarus to know something, he'd tell him. Otherwise, it was best not to ask questions.
The servo skull vanished back behind Phish, and they seemed to laugh, no sound actually coming from their throat. "Not unless you count flattery as dangerous," they began, "she wishes to be free of some of the politicking that occurs, and so was aiming for a position attached to your Legion."
Solarus groaned at that, "and of course, she didn't just ask." He did not want to be the person making these decisions, he was just someone that enjoyed making bombs. "If she wants that, get her to apply like everyone else."
Phish nodded, before typing their last words for their meeting, "a shame, but not unexpected. Do let me know when you are planning to deploy this device, I'll shut down their communications for a minute beforehand."
For the Amalgams, it seemed like a normal day. Sure they were under a blockade, but space had yet to be truly exploited. Around the planet, billions of human-alien hybrids were going about their day as normal, simply passing the time until tomorrow came.
At a certain point in the day, the Internet cut out. A seemingly irritating occurrence for those in various neighborhoods, if it lasted more than ten minutes, maybe people would have realized what it was that was coming.
As it was, the day simply continued for a few minutes, Amalgam men, women, and children driving through the streets, working at their jobs, living in their homes.
Waiting for a tomorrow that would never come.
The bombs Solarus had made were dropped nearly simultaneously, with just 4 minutes between the first and last bomb. A few Amalgams may have seen a flash of blue light before they died from lethal doses of gamma radiation, but the vast majority would never know what happened.
They simply died, their bodies keeling over where they stood.
Imagine if you will, a seemingly normal city, but the only noise you hear is the hum of combustion engines, on cars crashed into buildings.
There is no noise anywhere in the woods.
There is no noise in the mountains.
The only noise that exists are the noises of machines, for everything else has died.
And above a dead world, there was an exclamation of glee. "It worked!" Solarus cheered, before turning around, his hands wide open as he stared at the Lord General. "Now, it's up to you, I'm headed back my brothers."
And so, Solarus, the Mad Bomber, leaves behind a dead world, along with an excellent set of infrastructure for the Imperium's colonists.
*Solarus gains Tomorrow Will Never Come - Gains escalating bonuses if the enemy has lower tech. These bonuses increase infrastructure preservation drastically and increase civilian casualties drastically*
Gathered Votes
[] Agree - Locks in Terran Sun Guard implementation next turn (Cost: 100 Tech, 1000 Materials, 100 Population). The Terran Sun Guard is a regiment skilled at post-compliance operations, and while they may not squeeze out production, they are skilled at reducing conflict and making planets happier at joining, or at least more accepting.
[] Have a trial period - Recruit a regiment of Terran Sun Guard and see how they operate. While they will only be able to handle a single world and might get unlucky with the choice of world, it will show how they operate and whether or not there is a place for them among Kesar's domain.
[] Decline - The Terran Sun Guard may save lives, but it's just not worth it. It's a cold pragmatic thing to say, but the lives of a few billion civilians aren't worth the cost investment that is needed. Ask Konrad for something else as payment for the favor.
[] Write-in
[] The Wardens - It's incredible cheap to do so, and avoids angering the Imperial Army. Although it would mean that no one learns a lesson from this.
[] The Imperial Army - While the cost is certaily cheap, the Imperial Army has in recent years become very focused on reducing expenses. Inflicting even a minor cost that lasts in perpetuity would anger them greatly.
[] Lord General Lasmin - While he may not have been directly involved in the corruption, he failed to prevent due to his extremely lax approach to discipline. Forcing his estate to pay for it would be controversial to say the least, and would lead to significant consequences for both better and worse.
[] The Generals Present - One of the main causes of this were the generals that turned a blind eye. A fair more direct cause than Lord General Lasmin, they may have less wealth, and that may lead to problems in a few decades, but then renegotiations can occur. The consequences would also be far less drastic than if Lasmin was forced to pay.
[] No one - Looking at the situation practically, Tironia no longer has anything of value to the Imperium. If we accede to their demands, it will take centuries for anything of worth to come from this planet. With how hostile the population is, and their lack of anti-orbital weaponry, a few cruisers bombarding their planet for a few months would entirely resolve the situation.
[] Write-in
As always, 12 hour moratorium.
[X] Plan Brotherly Bonding
-[X] Fortress Westplatte - A Dark Age fortress that spans more than 100 thousand square kilometers, this fortress is manned by an unidentified number of soldiers that are descended from the original keepers. With a rich oral history, the soldiers present have created a mythos around the fort, along with the idea that the day an outsider steps into the fort and lives is the day the universe begins to die. As such, the Imperial Army deemed diplomacy to be impossible and highly recommends Astartes assets are deployed. Threat Level: Maxima Extremis
--[X]: Kesar, Konrad + 20k Night Lords, Vigilance, 10k EW, Gabriel
-[X] Ralan - A hive world of approximately 250 billion people, if it was discovered merely a few years ago, it would have been a valuable jewel. Instead, one of the main commanders, a minor psychic of notable skill, had a psychotic break, which in turn spiraled into a full-scale civil war. Several minor factions have agreed to join the Imperium if they were allowed to rule in peace, although most of the major factions have outright spat in the faces of Imperial diplomats, with one group notably responding by cutting off the tongues of the diplomats. The largest issue visible is the psyker commander, primarily due to a notable lack of information around them. Threat Level: Maxima Extremis
--[X]: Maticus, Doom Slayer, Shades, Beltran, 15k EW
-[X] Kivan - A world with walking hives, the Imperial Army attempted to bring the world into compliance after the diplomats were fired on. Initial invasion attempts did successfully land, but due to the walking hives, the local Lord General determined that any attempt to storm them would only lead to the deaths of the majority of their 8 billion soldiers. Instead, they have requested support, which was approved by a Lord General Militant. Threat Level: Medium
--[X]: Titan Legion, Abdul, 5k EW
-[X] Tironia - A world that was conquered by the Imperial Army, it has been unable to be held properly. Initial reports notably lack the reason for the invasion, but the reports of the war indicate the defenders did have many well-designed defenses that required orbital bombardment to clear. Guardsmen then followed these bombardments by seizing the rubble, and garrison forces were deployed. However, large-scale guerilla movements have since emerged, and many of the officers deployed have been killed. Compounding the issue is the formation of large danger zones, where the Imperial Army is unable to properly enforce governance, likely leading to future conflicts down the line if left unattended. Currently, the Imperial Army does suspect they have several internal moles, although the local Lord General has notably refused to call in the Black Brigades. Threat Level: Hard
--{X]: 15k Imperial Fists, Oricarius, The Triumvirate.
-[X] The Amalgams - This request for assistance was far more complicated than it should be. With numerous approvals, disapprovals, and reapprovals for requesting Astartes report, it is clear that there is a considerable degree of political infighting occurring among the Imperial Army here. The world itself consists of a former research colony, with hybrid human-xenos creations populating the area. Notably hostile, they were unwilling to engage in negotiations and the Imperial Army has been unable to achieve victory due to several natural advantages and superior information warfare capabilities of the locals. Moreover, the presence of airships has been a minor issue, although orbital superiority will likely turn any such conflict into a simple victory for Astartes. Threat Level: Medium
--[X]: The Cherished Son, the Knight House, Solarus, Rikard, 10k Imperial Fists.
-[X] 38 Minor Conflicts - Ranging from a minor pirate fleet of three vessels to a world that has only recently developed automatic weapons, these conflicts are not something generally thought of to be worthwhile for Astartes to be sent on. However, the Imperial Army is overstretched, and helping with their workload is for the best. Even if it is unnecessary. Threat Level: Easy (2.5 per 2 worlds)
--[X]: 40k EW, Night Watch, Hektor.
-[X] Fortress Westplatte - A Dark Age fortress that spans more than 100 thousand square kilometers, this fortress is manned by an unidentified number of soldiers that are descended from the original keepers. With a rich oral history, the soldiers present have created a mythos around the fort, along with the idea that the day an outsider steps into the fort and lives is the day the universe begins to die. As such, the Imperial Army deemed diplomacy to be impossible and highly recommends Astartes assets are deployed. Threat Level: Maxima Extremis
--[X]: Kesar, Konrad + 20k Night Lords, Vigilance, 10k EW, Gabriel
-[X] Ralan - A hive world of approximately 250 billion people, if it was discovered merely a few years ago, it would have been a valuable jewel. Instead, one of the main commanders, a minor psychic of notable skill, had a psychotic break, which in turn spiraled into a full-scale civil war. Several minor factions have agreed to join the Imperium if they were allowed to rule in peace, although most of the major factions have outright spat in the faces of Imperial diplomats, with one group notably responding by cutting off the tongues of the diplomats. The largest issue visible is the psyker commander, primarily due to a notable lack of information around them. Threat Level: Maxima Extremis
--[X]: Maticus, Doom Slayer, Shades, Beltran, 15k EW
-[X] Kivan - A world with walking hives, the Imperial Army attempted to bring the world into compliance after the diplomats were fired on. Initial invasion attempts did successfully land, but due to the walking hives, the local Lord General determined that any attempt to storm them would only lead to the deaths of the majority of their 8 billion soldiers. Instead, they have requested support, which was approved by a Lord General Militant. Threat Level: Medium
--[X]: Titan Legion, Abdul, 5k EW
-[X] Tironia - A world that was conquered by the Imperial Army, it has been unable to be held properly. Initial reports notably lack the reason for the invasion, but the reports of the war indicate the defenders did have many well-designed defenses that required orbital bombardment to clear. Guardsmen then followed these bombardments by seizing the rubble, and garrison forces were deployed. However, large-scale guerilla movements have since emerged, and many of the officers deployed have been killed. Compounding the issue is the formation of large danger zones, where the Imperial Army is unable to properly enforce governance, likely leading to future conflicts down the line if left unattended. Currently, the Imperial Army does suspect they have several internal moles, although the local Lord General has notably refused to call in the Black Brigades. Threat Level: Hard
--{X]: 15k Imperial Fists, Oricarius, The Triumvirate.
-[X] The Amalgams - This request for assistance was far more complicated than it should be. With numerous approvals, disapprovals, and reapprovals for requesting Astartes report, it is clear that there is a considerable degree of political infighting occurring among the Imperial Army here. The world itself consists of a former research colony, with hybrid human-xenos creations populating the area. Notably hostile, they were unwilling to engage in negotiations and the Imperial Army has been unable to achieve victory due to several natural advantages and superior information warfare capabilities of the locals. Moreover, the presence of airships has been a minor issue, although orbital superiority will likely turn any such conflict into a simple victory for Astartes. Threat Level: Medium
--[X]: The Cherished Son, the Knight House, Solarus, Rikard, 10k Imperial Fists.
-[X] 38 Minor Conflicts - Ranging from a minor pirate fleet of three vessels to a world that has only recently developed automatic weapons, these conflicts are not something generally thought of to be worthwhile for Astartes to be sent on. However, the Imperial Army is overstretched, and helping with their workload is for the best. Even if it is unnecessary. Threat Level: Easy (2.5 per 2 worlds)
--[X]: 40k EW, Night Watch, Hektor.
Promising a favor to Konrad for assistance, Kesar sent out the request to his brother, before making the journey to Fortress Westplatte. When he arrived, a small fleet of Night Lords joined his sons, outnumbering his force two to one, even if the Vigilance made that difference less prominent. Opening up a vox channel, the Second Anathema welcomed his brother, "hello Konrad, it's been a few years."
The channel opened fully, letting Kesar see his brother lounging on his throne, the shadows accentuating the Night Haunter to the point that the XIth Primarch wondered if Fulgrim had provided lighting advice. Konrad himself looked similar to before, but with greater confidence in his look. There was almost a feeling as if something was dangerous that Kesar felt, but it was swiftly quashed by his will. "It has," Konrad spoke softly, "how many Astartes did you bring?"
"Ten thousand and my flagship brother," Kesar replied swiftly, "and … there's an experiment I wanted to try."
"What would that be?" Konrad inquired, leaning forward with mild interest.
"Mass teleportation, with how daemons have begun running from me," and wasn't that an irritating aspect, he'd much prefer if they just stood still and died, "the warp should be safe enough to allow for it, with some modifications."
"I had seen glimpses to that effect but had waited to meet you to confirm. So you have become their Night Haunter then Brother? Their reason to fear." Konrad's voice was both musing and mirthful, although if a mortal were to see his visage now they would find themselves more concerned with keeping their bowels.
To Kesar though, Konrad was simply, and justifiably, happy at the idea of being able to make daemons feel fear. "Indeed, although I find it irksome when I am trying to kill them. Perturabo still won't let me hear the end of the fact that their planets will run away from me. Not my fault they can consume each other in order to flee..." Kesar did not do something so undignified as a pout, but he did visually express his dissatisfaction.
Konrad simply stared for a moment before a sepulcher laugh came through the link, "Yes, I imagine that conducting a campaign can be a trifle irritating when even the enemy battlefield can dessert itself. But as amusing as this aside is, how shall it affect our battle?" Kesar brought up the schematics of the massive planetary fortress.
"It is my hope that we can utilize a combination of my ability to ensure secure teleportation for our troops and our respective legions' style of combat to devastate the enemy into submission through a rapid campaign, overwhelming them wi-"
Kesar stopped as his brother's gaze seemed to shift, becoming focused on some distant thing, his power of precognition overwhelming all else for a moment, until the Night Haunter's eyes returned to focus on his younger sib, "With our combined strength, only to induce many of them into setting off their charges and leaving the fortress you wish to take in a series of far lesser forts instead." Kesar gave a thoughtful hum as he looked at the schematics.
"That is what you See then brother?"
"Yes, if we are to have a chance of taking it intact, we must let their fear ripen by degrees, let it drive them to folly."
Kesar nodded, "Then I defer to you."
Konrad narrowed his eyes for a moment, analyzing Kesar's offer. There was none of the political concession that Roboute would hint at requiring, none of the ill-tempered impatience of Leman's, not even the patronizing good meaning of Horus or Fulgrim.
All Konrad could see was sincere trust and deferment in the 11th primarch's expression, that if Konrad knew how to win the battle, it should be him in command.
'True Humility. Keep that trait close brother, not even I can claim it's possession in entirety.' but now was not the time of musing, the Night Haunter was needed.
"Very well, aside from the capture of the fortress, what other intentions did you come here with?" Konrad was curious what else Kesar intended for the location.
"I would hopefully capture as many willing to be integrated into the Imperium after submission. Their dedication is admirable and turned to the Imperium's use could make this a true Bastion of the region. But I also recognize that their fanaticism will mean that many will die to fulfill their oaths regardless of our tactics...I simply hope to minimize that number."
Konrad's blades tapped along with with his fingers, "Very well, although those that will submit and succumb to fear once might well do so again. It would be wise to ensure that their spines are stiffened with more..reliable forces for a time." Kesar shrugged.
"True, but I intend to increase the number of Imperial Army soldiers recruited in my region, it should not be difficult to ensure that loyal forces can be sent here. I apologize for not bringing more troops but-" Konrad raised a hand to interrupt Kesar's apology, "No, your legion is not yet recovered from his ritual and you are doing more for our mortal allies than all but a few of our brothers. I will require a favor of course but you have done no ill Kesar. They have been burdened with far too much in His name. As have we all."
Konrad whispered that last part, not wishing to push Kesar on the matter of Him yet. And Kesar, understandably, did not push him on this.
The structure looked pristine despite its age and the reluctance of its occupants to truly set foot outside for any reason. A marvel of engineering of skill and material almost entirely lost to mankind's current era of understanding.
Fortress Westplatte was a citadel that would have been difficult for even Perturabo or Dorn to easily breach. A fully-manned and defended castle reinforced by weaponry able to push back invaders with ease, supported by fully-functional archaeotech and a populace fully willing to kill themselves if it meant stopping the enemy from taking their sacred home.
Its void shields shimmered so thickly as to bring day into night. Its towers bristled with cannons of all types ready to match against battleships. Its walls would survive even if the continent they were on cracked and burnt.
To try directly taking this stronghold with the forces available, even with two Primarchs working in conjunction, would have been a foolish prospect and leave nothing but corpses and ash on both sides.
But all outside protection aside from the shield now meant nothing to the Daemonsbane and the Lord of the Nostramo.
It began with a bombardment that would have shattered any other fortress, as the Vigilance fired its main weapons directly at the world below, along with an entire fleet. In response, ancient weapons batteries spooled up, turning towards the sky before bolts of plasma a hundred times hotter than anything the Imperium could make flew through the sky, breaking the shields of dozens of ships, and forcing them to withdraw further. But the ships of the Imperium still added to their firepower even as they reversed thrusters, cycling through ship after ship, orienting them so that when one vessel's shields fell, another vessel saw its shield recharge.
And on the ground, two demigods ran forwards into the maws of Fortress Westplatte. Making full use of teleportation, Kesar arrived closer, before driving Epitaph into the shield, as it screamed in response, somehow still holding.
But then came the Night Haunter, Mercy and Forgiveness seemingly grabbing a portion of the shield and pulling. When combined with the firepower of a fleet and thirty thousand Astartes, the shield flickered for just a few seconds. Enough time for the Night Lords to create the closest thing to hell they could.
Astartes shot forward into the outer battle lines, not seeking to kill, but merely to make their presence known. Wardens teleported around the fortress, arriving to kill a squad then leaving immediately. And Konrad, Konrad simply seemed to vanish, and even Astartes began to feel a tingling sense of dread as if a monster was watching them. Kesar himself frowned, but he was one of the few unaffected, even if he felt he should be. But that was for a late time, for now, he had a task to do. "Wardens, form up into a wedge, pick your shots and advance slowly."
Without hesitating, the Astartes around him did so, those at the tip wielding shields, while those further back began to rain down accurate Volkite shots against the defenders, who slowly began to make more and more mistakes as Night Lord saboteurs began to act in more and more earnest.
Throughout the fortress, the defenders found their brothers and sisters in arms strung up, tortured, beaten, and barely alive, each victim begging for death. The nerves of the defenders began to grow rattled, but so far only isolated groups had fallen victim to the demonic invaders. The last stand protocols didn't need to be activated, right?
Konrad sighed, before ripping out the explosives from an explosive device, feeling the faint prickle of radiation in his eyes as he did. Tossing it away, he looked over his work, before deciding that this was a good place to escalate further.
The Wardens themselves advanced slowly in the front, as the slowly building panic among the defenders turned their responses from crisp and professional to crude and haggard. Even as some Wardens were wounded, more and more of the defenders fell. And within the fortress itself, Wardens began to accelerate their teleportation actions, as companies began to hit minor targets designated by the Night Lords.
A growing sense of panic began to spread among Fortress Westplatte's command staff, as comm channels began to be filled with screams and nightmarish taunts. More and more defenders were found barely alive, begging for death, and some were found entirely catatonic with no visible marks. Konrad took this in, and began to ramp up his attacks, showing himself as unstoppable before torturing soldiers in front of their comrades, and then turning towards them, stopping just when he saw the light vanish from their eyes.
It was cruel, it was calculated, and it worked.
Bit by bit, the fortress' defense crumbled. One by one the atomics were disarmed. Room by room, the defenders were cleared. Step by step the Wardens advanced. And minute by minute, Astartes killed.
What was once a fight turned into a disorganized scramble as the defenders fought their instincts to curl up into a ball and cry. To their credit, most managed it, but those that did still had to contend with trembling arms and elevated heart rates.
The void shield generators were taken, then the outer defenses, then the command center, where Konrad left several of the officers in states of catatonia. Now it was just a mop-up operation, where Astartes and Imperial Army soldiers swept through the fortress, clearing every room and every vent of those once proud defenders of Fortress Westplatte.
Once the fortress was declared secure, the two Primarchs walked through it, marveling at the construction, and at what little they could recognize. "Do you think the Imperial Palace will match the defenses present?" Kesar asked in idle curiosity.
"Barely," replied the other Primarch. "Dorn is good, and he has decades of time to work, if anyone can match the Dark Age, it is him." The Night Haunter paused before adding to the statement, "and Perturabo of course."
"They both are excellent architects," Kesar agreed before a thought struck him. "Hmm, I should ask him to take a look at the designs for defenses Perturabo made for my homeworld, he might have some good ideas to add."
Konrad's eyes flickered over at the Second Anathema, analyzing him carefully. "Be careful with that. Both of them take pride in their work. Maybe too much."
"You give them too little credit," Kesar said, only a little doubtful of the statement. "Dorn himself mentioned he wishes to discuss the drop fortresses with Perturabo."
The Night Haunter blinked slowly, digesting the statement he hadn't expected. "They may have matured, but it is still too early for that."
"If you say so," the Daemonsbane said doubtfully. Deciding to change the subject, Kesar instead asked something that he was curious about. "What favor would you like for this brother?"
"Make the Terran Sun Guard your post compliance force," Konrad responded, immediately confusing Kesar.
"And those would be … ?" He trailed off, seeking more information.
The Night Haunter sighed at that, clearly having hoped they were more famous than they were. "A military unit meant to assist conquered worlds with their transition. Converting hostile populaces to those happy to join the Imperium, or at least tolerant of it."
"Why me?" Kesar asked, "I have similar programs already, albeit not to that extent."
Konrad seemed to hum to himself, deciding which argument to take. "You owe me a favor," he said bluntly, "and this will serve as proof of their abilities."
"Brother," Kesar started, hesitating at what he was about to say, "if none of the other Primarchs are willing to pay for this, are you sure it's a worthwhile use of our time?"
"Fulgrim has expressed interest, even given some ideas. If he accepts it, Ferrus probably will. Your word would go far with others, and I'm already supporting them. If you accept, you'd be just the spark needed to allow them to spread." Konrad explained, listing some of what he wished to see in the future.
"And Perturabo wishes to use the Black Brigades, who are far more established," Kesar responded. "Even if I may not think they are useful in every situation, they are still a tested, proven force."
"The problem with the Imperium Kesar is that it only knows one way to act," the Night Haunter began, gesturing to stains of blood and brain matter splattered on the walls, "with violence and demands." He turned towards Kesar, his eyes narrowing, "the Sun Guard won't lead to more productivity in your domain, what they will do is save lives, and make your domain a better place."
"You're making me choose here," the Daemonsbane said. "I agree with what you and Vulkan envision for the Imperium, I support it even."
"But not now."
"The Imperium lacks funds," Kesar said sympathetically. "I can pay for it, but it will delay all my projects by two, maybe three years."
"And in exchange, you save billions of lives," Konrad argued truthfully.
This conversation was a cruel one to have, and Kesar himself very much did not like it. "Brother, you know as well as I do those billions of lives are a drop in the ocean of blood the Imperium has spilled." He sighed, lamenting his next statement, regardless of how truthful it was, "the Imperial Army is an emotional creature Konrad, it won't be happy with this."
"The Imperial Army already is unhappy," Konrad replied, "it's only a matter of time before parts begin to turn on us."
"Is that - ?"
"A vision, and intuition," Konrad said, preempting Kesar's query. "The average guardsmen is growing more and more disillusioned with what they do, the Desolation was the surest sign of that."
"I know better than to doubt what you see, but will this really help prevent such... an event?" Kesar said, surprised. "This sounds like it would accelerate it."
"It won't stop it, but it will mitigate it, on all sides. Give them the idea that things will be better, and they will latch onto it." Konrad responded, explaining his view on the matter.
The Second Anathema thought about it, it wasn't an unaffordable cost, two years of his domain's income was painful, but could be dealt with. Rather it was if it was worthwhile that was the issue, something Kesar himself was unconvinced of. Then there was another matter to consider. "Would your Sun Guard tolerate working under my command knowing that I make ready use of Black Brigades? Konrad, I rather not send you back the Sun Guard thinking that they wasted their time or had to play nice with a group like the Black Brigades. Even if I keep them separate, it's hard to stop certain interactions."
"They will tolerate them," Konrad stated coldly, "they will consider the Black Brigades to be cruel and monstrous, not to mention wastes of resources, but they will not refuse to work with them. Even if it would be a waste of their time to attempt to do so."
"They would never be deployed to the same world," Kesar said, understanding their doctrines were mutually exclusive, "but there will be times they share the same transport, and times they share the same R&R rest point."
"The better half of the Sun Guard will keep them in line." The Night Haunter donned a cruel smile, "however, I can't say the same if the Brigaders seek to harm the Nightingales."
[] Agree - Locks in Terran Sun Guard implementation next turn (Cost: 100 Tech, 1000 Materials, 100 Population). The Terran Sun Guard is a regiment skilled at post-compliance operations, and while they may not squeeze out production, they are skilled at reducing conflict and making planets happier at joining, or at least more accepting.
[] Have a trial period - Recruit a regiment of Terran Sun Guard and see how they operate. While they will only be able to handle a single world and might get unlucky with the choice of world, it will show how they operate and whether or not there is a place for them among Kesar's domain.
[] Decline - The Terran Sun Guard may save lives, but it's just not worth it. It's a cold pragmatic thing to say, but the lives of a few billion civilians aren't worth the cost investment that is needed. Ask Konrad for something else as payment for the favor.
[] Write-in
"What factions do we have to deal with?" Maticus asked an Imperial Army general that had been observing the war for weeks now.
"There are three factions of note Lord Captain. First are those subordinates of former general Illyses Lea, a known psyker, and listed as having a severe psychotic break and accused of, and I quote "letting their powers control him" by the other factions." The general explained carefully, listing the factions in order of importance. "Then we have the loyalists to the former dictator, they're fragmented with their leadership decapitated, and they're better thought of as a mixture of factions. And lastly, we have the general staff, who launched a coup after the former king refused to remove General Lea from his position, and have since broken into numerous factions."
"Two questions," Maticus began, "how credible is the psykers insanity?"
"They're a psyker." The general said bluntly, "it's not confirmed, but psykers and psychotic breaks do not end well."
Maticus frowned, it was truthful, but Oriacarius had hammered the idea of false information into his head for decades now. "Second question, which groups can we ally with?"
The general winced at that, "technically any." Maticus raised an eyebrow even as the general explained his response. "You can find hourly ceasefires and temporary alliances everywhere. We once observed an alliance last 52 seconds before dissolving into a firefight."
"In summation, it is a tangled mess that not even the Alpha legion would enjoy unraveling...delightful," Maticus grumbled, with Doomslayer grunting in commiseration.
"If I may Lord Captain?" The general asked, waiting until Maticus gestured for him to continue before he spoke, "I would recommend treating everyone here as hostile until they are proven otherwise."
The third captain sighed, "this is going to be an awful landing," he complained. "I'm going to have to try and take into account multiple different armies at once."
Doom Slayer growled, tapping Eviscerator and shaking his head.
Maticus blinked at that, "overwhelming force is also a good option."
Compared to invading a daemonworld, invading Ralan was almost tame in comparison. There were no daemons materializing a foot away, no sudden shifts in spacetime, and his foes died in a single blow. A bolter shot, a punch, a kick, it was enough to take down anyone he had faced so far. It was a pleasant thought, even if Maticus didn't enjoy his task all that much. Taking a look at the tactical map, the third captain was pleased. Doom Slayer had once again pushed forward ahead of his brothers, securing several of the AA guns, allowing for further bombing runs by the Imperial Army. Meanwhile, General Lea was being hounded by two Culexus, and while they may not have been able to kill him, they were able to keep him from properly commanding his forces, allowing Maticus organizational superiority. Even if he did have an inkling of doubt as to the state of affairs on Ralan.
"Lord Maticus, if I may." Maticus turned to the leader of the Shades of the Warden sent with him, a swarthy skinned man with his face half painted white, "Based on the information provided, I would posit that if the psyker in question did have a mental break, it was not at the behest of anything not of this realm."
Maticus was still hesitant about the Shades, if only because of how fervent they could be, but in cases like this, he couldn't deny their history did come in handy. "The Broken one and Ashani when they went mad did a great deal more damage as well as showing a good deal more...inconsistency in their behavior. This Lea shows too many consistent patterns and presence of mind to make me think that they are truly insane."
The third captain couldn't help but agree, "I agree, there's a reason I haven't teleported to him myself." Explaining why he did what he did tended to help his brothers relax, and so he did so here. "I expect this is simple stereotyping, a psyker lost control of themselves, and people took that to mean the worst case."
"What would you suggest then Lord Maticus?" The Shade asked, clearly curious.
The Astartes unsheathed the Sword of the Lost, "I continue to do what I was doing, force them into negotiations."
By now, the other factions understood that the Wardens were the strongest force around, and the one that could beat all the others on its own, even while trying to get negotiations of surrender set up. It was as Maticus planned, as the minor factions surrendered in exchange for assurances. The Royalists, those loyal to the old dictator, were more stubborn, as were the General Staff. But General Lea saw the way things were turning and made his decision.
Illyses Lea would say this was not a good day. Having to drive between hideouts while being chased by Culexus tended to make one stressed. Having to do that while on the losing side of a war only made that worse. Sighing, he reflexively reached for his powers, letting a tiny ball of fire trace between his fingers, bringing warmth to his cold hands. He'd been putting off this decision for quite some time, but in the end, there was only one way this could end. "Stop the car, send the following terms to the Eternal Wardens. No capital punishment of soldiers or civilians for participation in the conflict, no looting of our held territory. Other than that, it's acceptable."
The driver of the car hesitated, along with the radio operator. "General - "
"Do it," he snarled, "there's no point to prolonging this anymore."
The driver looked at the radio operator, before both uttered a quiet, "yes General."
General Lea opened the car door, stretching as he stepped out. Then he took a step away from the vehicle and unholstered his gun with his left hand before letting it drop to the floor with a clatter. Taking a moment to retrieve a flare gun, he loaded a flare he thought he would never use and fired it into the air. Pure white light radiated from it, as the general's soldiers stared in shock, for the white flare denoted that they were to surrender. "Well assassins," General Lea said with faux confidence, "I really hope your superior officer is reasonable, as I do not want to die."
The surrender of General Lea's forces spelled the death knell for the rest of Ralan. Without the largest front to worry about, Maticus was able to redeploy assets to other fronts, including himself and the two Culexus. Not to mention the wealth of information General Lea provided.
With it, the third captain was able to paint a picture of what occurred, namely the fact that Ralan's government was a pressure cooker, waiting to explode. And when the old king died, and General Lea had a psychotic break over the death of their old friend, a coup was launched by the rest of the general staff, followed shortly after by a counter-coup from an alliance of Lea's subordinates and the Royalists. And that was followed by several of the groups within the groups splintering and beginning to fight each other in an effort to gain control of Ralan.
In any case, the rest of the war was over within two months, as Maticus began to transition control of local forces back to General Lea, along with vetted personnel to ensure the world remained loyal to the Imperium. While Illyses himself was barred from office, as he was a psyker, one of his subordinates was chosen to be the next governor of the world, something the general was more than happy with. With that, Ralan was brought into the Imperium, and Maticus' work was done.
"Are you going to do something about that?" An Astartes asked Abdul, pointing toward the Lord General that was previously commanding the compliance of Kivan was screaming at several generals after the most recent failed assault. Considering he had yet to notice the arrival of the Wardens, Abdul had an idea as to why it had yet to succeed.
Nonetheless, it was far more entertaining to wait until the mortal actually noticed them. "Not yet, I think he'll notice us in ten minutes."
The Astartes looked at him in clear disapproval, but Abdul was the one in charge, and so the Warden simply accepted this. "Very well."
Abdul was in fact wrong, it took twelve minutes for the Lord General to notice the Astartes, at which point, the Librarian stood to his full height (with just a little biomancy to make him taller) and spoke up casually. "That was an enlightening demonstration as to how this compliance is going." Walking forward he leaned over the rapidly paling Lord General before clapping his hands, "well, thankfully we won't have to deal with that anymore, we should be done here in a month."
The Lord General worked their jaw, before taking a breath. "With all due respect Lord Astartes, we've been here two years, unless you've got Titans, we'll be here for years."
Behind Abdul, a Warden groaned as Abdul snapped his fingers. "Well, lucky for you … behold!" Spinning in place, the Librarian gestured as a Titan dropship emerged from the cloud layer, "we have Titans!"
An hour later, and after Abdul had finished going over the reports, he handed his current battle plan over to one of his brothers. "It's a creative plan, but it would mean crippling Kivan's hives."
"The other option is letting a few hundred million guardsmen die clearing out the walking hives," Abdul pointed out, "not to mention tripping those hive titans with our titans just feels appropriate, it's thematic. The Remembrancers agree," he said gesturing towards one such individual who was clearly startled at the attention of the Astartes. "And, well, the First Captain did say he wants better relations with the Imperial Army."
The Astartes Abdul was talking to nodded in agreement. "It's a good plan in that case, is it safe to say you'll be - "
"I'm boarding the capital of course," the Librarian said with a smirk, "it's too fitting not to."
The Warden stared, somehow conveying an utterly flat expression through their helmet. "...you just want a cool picture don't you?"
Abdul notably did not tense up, instead, he jumped up and crossed his arms in denial. "No! That's not the only reason."
Somehow, this did not seem to convince the Warden otherwise.
Standing on the shoulder of an Imperator gave one a sense of power. The Grasp of Fire walked towards the capital, void shields flaring as macrocannon and lance fire rained down upon it. "With respect Lord Astartes, kindly stay inside the damn Titan."
Abdul blinked, not bothering to actually follow the instructions, but mentally changing his opinion on what Princeps were like. "Come now Princeps, this fall won't kill me, I'm hardly in any danger."
The Grasp of Fire turned its head as it raised a hand to fire its main weapons, dispersing a group of missiles launched at it. "Don't blame me if you fall then," said Princeps Lexan Messel as he began to make the Titan sway in alternating patterns, both making it a harder target, and making it harder for Abdul and the other Astartes to keep their feet steady.
"Sixty seconds," Abdul commented over the vox as the Imperator began to fire its plasma annihilator into the hive's legs, blasting apart joint after joint as the hive began to list. "Is everyone prepared?" As the Grasp of Fire turned to destroy another one of the legs, the Wardens sounded off affirmatives. Then the Titan turned on the third leg, forcing the hive to fall dozens of meters before crashing onto the ground, throwing up a massive cloud of dirt and dust. "NOW!" Abdul shouted as he shot forwards in a bolt of lightning, other biomancers following him a mere moment later.
Across the planet, similar boarding actions occurred, albeit with nonpsychic forces, and slower boardings in general. Actually clearing the hives after the Titans had knocked them over was both an easy and difficult task, as contrary to what Abdul had thought, most of the populace had survived thanks to anti-gravity countermeasures. However, the primary and secondary defenses had fallen, forcing Kivan's PDF to meet Astartes in the open.
Needless to say, this did not go well. Especially against biomancers who were more than willing to make people's hearts stop.
It did in fact take just two weeks for Kivan to be conquered, after which Abdul ensured the Remembrancers had the pictures they wanted for some propaganda piece of theirs and then departed.
"These are the reports?" Oriacarius asked with clear distaste in his voice. "The only thing mentioned is victories, not the defeats."
Lord General Lasmin, a man with deep bags under his eyes drank what Oriacarius noted was a drink made of almost pure sugar and caffeine before responding in the tone of a man who hadn't slept in a week, "they're scared you're going to kill them." The man took a deep sip, and Oriacarius could literally hear the man's heartbeat speed up. "There's a reason why I didn't want that damned Eversor involved."
The First Captain looked behind him to Raz, nonverbally asking if this was the truth. With a brief burst of concentration, one of the members of the Triquetra subtly nodded, causing Oriacarius to sigh. "Raz, start quarantining information from the guardsmen and get some of our brothers to make a timeline of this compliance. There's something far more sinister at play here."
"There's … " yawning widely, the Lord General finished his drink as Oriacarius looked on concerned. "There's no need for that, it's better to keep at least the generals in the loop."
"I'll think about it," the First Captain said tersely. "For now, I need to start talking with the locals."
The Lord General snorted, as he poured yet another cup of the mixture. "The only way you'll get anything out of them is in an interrogation chamber." The mortal, who was surely immune to some poisons, took another sip, and Oriacarius exchanged a worried glance with Raz. "We've got some suspected guerillas that have been worked over in holding, I'd suggest trying your luck with them first."
Oriacarius acknowledged the recommendation with a nod, before leaving the room. As he did, he looked over at one of his brothers. "Have a watch over him, ensure he doesn't overdose on whatever that was. Test it while you're at it."
The Astartes nodded as Raz telepathically messaged Oriacarius, "Lord Captain, what's the plan?"
At that, Oriacarius held up a hand, gesturing for him to hold his question. "All groups sound off."
"Nasin reporting in," came the voice of the Thousand Son. "I've got a watch over two snipers setting up to take shots on the Wardens guarding the barracks."
"Savinath reporting in," came the voice of the third Chief Librarian, along with the sounds of gunfire. "Currently engaged with a hostile squad, no threat present."
"Take one alive," Oriacarius ordered as the other teams sounded off as well. Overall, the First Captain was certain that either the entire civilian populace had been wronged by the Imperium, or there were traitors within the Imperial Army's ranks. "Raz, start sweeping through the guardsmen generals for mental influences or infiltrators." The member of the Triquetra nodded as Oriacarius debated on what to do, before deciding to visit the interrogation chambers.
It wasn't the best of setups, but the Astartes didn't expect much. Outside the room was a guardsman with a lasgun, who started when he saw the First Captain. "Stay here," ordered the First Captain as he moved to enter the room.
"Lord Astartes," the man gulped as he stepped in front of Oriacarius, "I, uh, I can't let you in without orders."
Wordlessly, the Warden grabbed the lasgun from the guardsman, examining it before flipping the safety on and handing it back to the man. "I have the Lord General's permission."
"I'll … I'll have to verify that, please wait a minute," the guardsman said as they took out a vox comm. "Sir, the uh, the Astartes wish to see the prisoners, he says the Lord General allowed it."
There was a notable pause before Oriacarius overheard the answer, "he did no such thing, inform him of such."
The guardsman paled, looked at the vox comm, then Oriacarius, then at his lasgun, then back to Oriacarius. The First Captain tilted his head, "who did you contact?"
"Major Venasi of the 223rd Garrison Regiment." The guardsman notably swallowed. "Sir, with, … with all due respect … I can't stop you from doing this, but there's a procedure."
"When I open this door, what will I find?" Oriacarius asked, looming over the guardsman.
"I don't know sir, I just guard the door." The guardsman said nervously, "some lady, late 20s I think, picked up from some ambush site."
"I suspect it's more complicated than that, step aside guardsmen," Oriacarius ordered, somewhat impressed that the man didn't do so.
"Sir, I... I cannot. I have been commanded-"
"Soldier, I know you have your orders, but know this. You will not be able to bar me from entering without a reason I can accept. Provide one or turn aside your gaze." As much as the First Captain would be able to throw the guardsmen aside, he would rather not be forced to employ physical force.
"I … I'm just a grunt sir," the guardsman said, "I'm supposed to follow orders."
It was at times like this that Oriacarius wished the Legions and Imperial Army had a codified joint chain of command. Placing a hand on the guardsman's shoulder, the First Captain leaned over the man. "As the First Captain of the Eternal Wardens, I am ordering you to step aside. Do not, and I will move you."
"Yes sir," the guardsman said defeated, taking a step out of the way of the Astartes' path. "Just … tell the Major you made me move."
"I will soldier, you didn't have a choice in this matter," Oriacarius said as he forced open the lock with a single hand, as the guardsman notably winced at the sound.
"I thought you had a key … " the guardsman muttered as the First Captain stepped inside the room, smelling iron in the air.
Closing the door behind him, Oriacarius momentarily gave an order. "Nasin, get a company of Astartes to me." He was sure he could fight his way out of anything a major might try, but it was always good to be careful. Now, the First Captain was focused on the semi-conscious prisoner, who was not in a good shape, mumbling something over and over again through blood-stained teeth.
Stepping closer, Oriacarius tried to speak soothingly. "Miss, I'm not with the Imperial Army, I'm here to help." He didn't think it would do anything, but unexpectedly, there seemed to be an improvement in the state of the prisoner at his words.
"Corporal Didela … 223rd Garrison Regiment … serial number two … peter …" her eyes rolled up as unconsciousness claimed her once more.
"Nasin, change of orders, bring three companies, a biomancer, and Raz, now."
"Yes sir, we're three minutes out." Came the response as Oriacarius threw open the door.
"Soldier, you're now a serf of the Wardens, provide medical assistance to the guardsman inside." The man in question had several emotions cross their face in an instant as he thankfully complied, running into the room while shouting questions.
"She's a guardsman? And can you promote people like that?"
"Yes," Oriacarius said as he walked over to a neighboring interrogation chamber, wrenching the door open before closing it. He wasn't going to describe what was in there beyond a corpse. "And yes." He walked over to a third chamber, wrenching it open to find a corpse within. "Now get to work."
"Yes sir," came the response, along with the sound of the guardsman opening up a medical kit.
As he did so, Oriacarius took the time to go to the other chambers, finding them either filled with corpses or stains of bodily fluids. Returning to the original chamber, he made sure the first aid was appropriate before the first Stormbird arrived.
From it, a Warden Sergeant stepped out. "Brother-Captain, we saw a tank platoon headed this way."
The First Captain grinned, "maybe they'll give us some answers."
The tank platoon did not in fact have answers, after a few Astartes landed on top of them, asking what they were doing, the platoon swiftly surrendered, simply explaining they were given orders to neutralize the prisoners due to a scheduled breakout. But at least Oriacarius knew where to get his answers. "Lord General, I want Major Venasi in front of me, how do I do that?"
Haggardly, Lord General Lasmin downed yet another cup of what Oriacarius had learned was a mixture of no less than a dozen stimulants. "Comms are spotty, but I'll send him an order, shouldn't take him more than a day or two to respond."
"Unacceptable," Oriacarius said. "Where is he now, I'll go to him instead."
The Lord General didn't seem too fazed by the demand, even if it clearly annoyed him as he went through the various reports. "Somewhere in Lemania, it's a mining town which supports a few gem mines."
"There are ten thousand people in this town," Oriacarius stated.
"Yes?"
"How are they supporting a hundred gem mines?" The First Captain bluntly asked.
The Lord General blinked, "well, they've been paying the tithe, so they do somehow."
"Just … just stay here," Oriacarius said utterly disappointed, looking over the various reports, there was no way some of these productivity values were right, if so, they were matching production rates of a forge world. Stepping out of the command center, the First Captain gave his orders. "Give the order, I want all tithe payments suspended and past payments reviewed, start detaining guardsmen if they cause problems."
In the safety of an Astartes base, Oriacarius waited outside the medical wing before Rikard walked out. "I bring good news!" The Chief Apothecary said with barely muted glee, "she's stable and recovering, should be awake in an hour or so."
"Will she be stable enough to talk?" Oriacarius asked, taking a sip of cocoa as he did, notably from a backup mug after Rikard had taken his normal one to use himself.
Rikard waggled his hand in response, "not for long, she's got lacerations all over her body, with a few cutting her stomach wall."
"Well, at least that's treatable," Oriacarius sighed, leaning against the backrest of his seat. "I wish I just had to deal with guerillas on this, mundane corruption is irritating."
"At least you've got contingencies for it." Rikard teased, to which Oriacarius furrowed his brow, annoyed at the truth of the statement.
"Point." Rikard giggled at that, draping a hand over the First Captain's shoulders as he gestured towards him.
"So what's the plan? Or do I need to know it?"
Oriacarius shook his head, "I need you to continue caring for the corporal, I've already got our brothers doing what needs to be done," a message appeared on his dataslate, and the First Captain smirked, "and the major that caused all these problems has just been captured."
When the First Captain got to the interrogation chambers, he glanced over at Raz who he had asked to try and pick out Major Venasi's surface thoughts. "What have you found?"
The Chief Librarian responded rather quickly, "he's willing to talk to you specifically, he seems to think you'll agree with what he's doing."
"What?" Oriacarius asked flatly.
"I don't think he's realized how much damage he's doing to the people here," Raz said. "You might be able to show him otherwise."
"Just what I wanted," Oriacarius muttered, "well, at least getting info out of him will be easy."
Major Venasi was a middle-aged man and a career soldier. Clearly fit, with a low-quality cybernetic eye, the major held back a snarl as Oriacarius entered the room. "My name's Oriacarius, First Captain of the Wardens," he stated calmly. Sitting in the chair across from the major, Oriacarius sought to open a dialogue, "do you mind introducing yourself for the records?"
"Major Slanick Venasi, 223rd Garrison Regiment," he said with abating irritation, "Lord Captain, I'm doing this for the Imperium, everything here is done to support it in these struggling days."
"I'm trying to understand Major," Oriacarius repressed some of the irritation he felt, instead, seeking to draw the man into a conversation. "My first impression involved you ordering the interrogation and torture of loyal guardsmen." He sighed, stating how he saw the situation directly. "Well, I struggle to understand how any of what I am seeing is benefiting the Imperium. Your orders barricading me, this entire conflict and the focus on these mines."
"They weren't loyal," the Slanick stated, "that corporal was helping the locals get around the additional tithes." The Major tapped the table, somewhat unsure, "...as for the orders barricading you … that was shortsighted of me, something I ordered out of panic."
"Generally just work doesn't trigger panicked responses if uncovered," the First Captain explained. "And what are these additional tithes?"
"Tironia cost the Imperium greatly," the Major snarled, "we lost billions taking this place, and those are billions the Imperial Army can't afford to replace." He spread his hands out and smiled, "I just made sure that Tironia paid for every drop of Imperial blood it spilled."
"How much are these tithes?" Oriacarius inquired, even as he hid his thoughts on how short-sighted this was.
"95 … 98%, somewhere in that range." The major waved it away, as if it was unimportant, "we've managed to pay for ten regiments with it, another twenty years and Tironia will have paid its debt."
"With tithes that high, there won't be a planet to extort in twenty years," Oriacarius said angrily, "all you've done is ignite rebellion."
"We're getting an Eversor in a few weeks," the Major said, dismissing the point, "the rebels are a problem, but they have no weapons capable of harming Astartes. You can clear them in a month or two."
"No, a month or two from now there'd just be new rebels." Desperate people did desperate things, and starving to death drove people to the brink, just look at the Desolation. "Did you learn nothing from the Desolation?!" Oriacarius slammed his fist on the table, denting it and making the major jump back.
"Of course I did, we're not letting a PDF form out of Tironians, we're using loyal Imperial citizens for that."
"The Tironians are Imperial citizens!" Oriacarius explained in a growl.
"Not until they pay their debt, not until they pay for every cent they cost the Imperium!" The major yelled. "If every one of them rebels, then so be it, we can always use more servitors!"
"Who else is involved in this … monstrosity?" Oriacarius threw his hand up in disgust. "These people aren't your enemies anymore, killing them serves no purpose."
"They killed two billion guardsmen, what purpose did that serve?" The Major pointed out. "They killed my men, letting some of them die is justice, the fact we let them serve in penal legions is a disgrace and insult to the Imperial Army."
"And your solution is to starve civilians?" The First Captain asked.
"My solution is to make them literally pay for those two billion lives. My solution is to take the tithes of Tironia and raise two billion new guardsmen from it." The Major explained with a smile, "this way Tironia can be something more than another bit of dirt that got away with killing billions of guardsmen and profiting from the Imperium's uplifts."
"Allow me to be clear," Oriacarius said in a deceptively calm tone. "Your so-called solution has destroyed any loyalty Tironia may have held to the Imperium and has turned it into a world that will need garrisoning for generations. You have destroyed any productivity in an effort for short-sighted looting. This will not stand, and you will be forcibly thrown out of the Imperial Army. The only reason you won't be executed is if you give up the names of your conspirators."
"You … you can't be serious," the Major exclaimed in shock. "Everything I've done has been for the Imperial Army! Just because you're too soft to make the right decisions, you're going to discharge me?"
"Who are your fellow conspirators?" Oriacarius repeated.
"No, no, I'm not letting you make this mistake." The Major crossed their arms and snarled. "Just leave it alone, the Imperial Army will handle this even without Astartes."
Oriacarius stood up, realizing he wasn't going to get anything useful out of talking further. "I am going to correct your foolish decisions. And you will sit here and think about what you've done."
The first step to fixing this mess was to actually get some of the resistance groups to agree to negotiations. Which Oriacarius did have a plan for, namely Corporal Didela. She was apparently involved with some of the groups, and even if it might be difficult to get a meeting with someone higher ranked, just a foothold would be worthwhile.
Even then, that would only be the first step in fixing this mess. He'd already asked Baldur for a recommendation for a mortal negotiator to conduct longer-term discussions, but he'd yet to hear of whatever it was he was doing. He highly doubted Baldur's current work was as simple as he made out.
As it was, the First Captain waited at the corporal's side, while Rikard carefully monitored her vitals. "Looks like she's waking up."
The corporal's return to consciousness wasn't a pretty thing, involving an attempt to grab Rikard, which he entirely ignored. A coughing fit seemed to take her, to which Rikard grabbed a cup of water next to the bed, forcing it into her hands which she drank greedily. "Corporal," Oriacarius began, "I want to apologize for the Imperial Army's treatment of you, if you no longer wish to serve, I understand."
She didn't respond, continuing to drink until the cup was drained, at which point Rikard pulled out Oriacarius' mug, this time filled with cocoa. "Drink this slowly, your body is minorly undernourished and I don't want to take chances with overfeeding." Oriacarius could see the steam rising from it, and was certain she'd have to drink it slowly or risk burning herself.
"You couldn't have used your own mug for this?" Oriacarius couldn't help but ask.
Rikard smirked, "but this is more fun Ori," the Chief Apothecary's levity seemed to help the corporal relax somewhat, so the First Captain wasn't going to complain about this … for now.
"Did you … mean that?" The corporal finally asked in a soft voice. "That my conscription period would end?"
"I can make it happen," Oriacarius said, "I just need to get in contact with the resistances on Tironia, what the Imperial Army did here was awful."
"It's the major," Didela explained, "he's convinced some of the generals to starve the Tironians." She hunched up on herself, momentarily shivering as her heart rate rose as she remembered something about the major.
"He can't reach you here," Oriacarius said, "he's been taken into custody, awaiting execution."
"Good," it seemed to work as she breathed a sigh of relief. "It's the least he deserves." Hands clenched around the cup she was holding.
"He ruined billions of lives for foolish reasons," the First Captain stated bluntly. "Everyone involved in this monstrosity will be punished, you have my word." Taking a moment to walk over to a cocoa dispenser, the Warden poured himself a cup into one of his many backup mugs, which caused Rikard to pout. "But I need to help Tironia, and to do that, I need to talk to them."
"They already know I was captured," she said morosely, "they'd have cut ties and moved."
"No," Oriacarius said, "they'd trap those locations instead."
The corporal looked at him, unsure. "How would you know that?"
"It's what I would do."
"I'm not happy with this plan," Savinath, one of the members of the Triquetra commented. "We should send in a serf instead, it'd be less threatening."
"Your First Captain is careful," Nasin responded. "He fears a serf would be ambushed, and so sent us, the most suited to surviving such an ambush."
"Still, I prefer fighting from an ambush, rather than fighting an ambush." Savinath responded back, "hopefully our size differentiates us from the Imperial Army."
"Maybe," the Thousand Son said with a complicated expression on his face. "I do wish Raz was joining us, his telepathy would be useful."
"Too useful," the Warden sighed, "the last thing these people want is someone that can dig through minds talking to them."
"His telepathy is a bit different than that," Nasin said, remembering that enjoyable conversation, "he looks at the subconscious rather than the conscious, more like the White Scars than anything else."
"Not that they would know the difference, it took him some time to understand it himself," Savinath rightfully pointed out. "Do you think that's enough time for them to know we want to talk?"
"It should be … " Nasin frowned under his helmet, "let me try something." He raised his hand to his helmet, only for the Wardens hand's to clamp onto his own.
"We're in hostile territory," Savinath said worried, "not even we are immune to bullets to the head."
"I'm not being reckless, it's a calculated gamble," Nasin said as he tried to extract his hands. "They're hesitating because they're not sure they can handle us if we're hostile."
"And exposing yourself to a sniper helps? They may just decide to shoot you!" Savinath exclaimed.
"Come on cousin, trust me on this," Nasin pleaded. "They're not going to show up otherwise."
The member of the Triquetra didn't speak for several dozen seconds, churning through thoughts and emotions during the entire period. Then he let go, "fine."
Nasin removed his helmet, at which point two laser sights appeared on his head, and from the building nearby, a door burst open, and a heavily armed individual with an anti-tank rocket stepped out. "You better have a damn good reason for coming here."
"I have come, on behalf of someone who now understands your plight, to end this war in your favor. Can you point that away?" Nasin proclaimed as Savinath let him talk.
The resistance fighter tilted their head, the scarf somewhat blocking their features. "Come with me, without your armor."
It wasn't an unreasonable ask, although there was one bit of awkwardness. "I hope you have a coat then, I don't want to be walking around with just a body glove."
Savinath and Nasin were sure the resistance fighter clearly did not want to see that, which wasn't that surprising. They did sound male after all. "We have some raincoats, it'll do."
"Wonderful," Nasin muttered, with a bit of amusement. "Lead the way then."
The members of the Triquetra were ushered into the bank of a grain transport that had been modified to act as a heavy weapons delivery vehicle. Reinforced to handle their weight, the vehicle was filled with other rebels and proceeded to take random turns for over five hours. Throughout it, Nasin and Savinath kept a careful ear on where they were headed, eventually being able to figure out that they had been taken to a bread-making factory of all things.
When they arrived, they stepped out, only to be greeted by over two hundred soldiers with anti-tank weapons spread across the multiple gantries. Savinath frowned under his helmet at that, it would be almost impossible to teleport away if he had to avoid being hit by the sheer number of weapons present. At his side, Nasin seemed to agree.
"So, which prisoner was important?" At the top of the factory, approximately 4 floors up, and somewhat shielded by a support beam, a man that seemed to be in their late sixties called down to them in a raspy voice. "Didn't think you lot would have someone important in that gang you call an army."
"They have prisoners, of course they have prisoners and your first captain wasn't told." Nasin's gene connection with Magnus shone as brightly as the sarcasm that positively dripped as the Librarian looked around at their 'hosts.'
"The degree of importance in the Imperial Army on this planet is very much in flux, so I do not blame you for being uncertain as to the value of your prisoners. And while our original intention here was not that of a prisoner exchange, I can assure you that I will forward any possible requests you might have for one to our commander."Savinath said a bit louder than needed, to cover up his ally's dry tone.
"We're here because corrupt elements of the Imperial Army caused … this mess." Nasin interjected, creating a joint front with the Warden. "The First Captain of the Wardens, one of the most influential men in the Imperium wishes to resolve this."
"And who might he be? Another army boy with a grudge" The old man asked, bitterness as strong as Nasin's sarcasm all too plain.
"Our commander is First Captain Oricarius of the Eleventh Space Marine Legion, the Eternal Wardens, of which I am a member."
"And yer pal? The one only now figuring out opsec ain't worth a damn?"
"I am Nasin, of the Thousand Sons Space Marine Legion, aiding the Eternal Wardens."
"Wonderful," the old man muttered in a heavily irritated voice. "I start making progress and I get two of the fucking Legions to show up."
"For once, you might be glad Astartes showed up," Nasin quipped, which brought forth a glare from Savinath.
"First Captain Oriacarius is rather … displeased over what the Imperial Army did here." Savinath explained, "he wishes for an end to all of this."
"Is this a joke?" The man said angrily, "you come here, bomb our homes, starve our people, and now you want peace?" Nasin's eyes flickered over to some of the soldiers, this was getting dangerous. The old man seemed to understand the situation as well, looking around the building at the other rebels present. "The last time the Imperium asked for peace, I agreed, and look where that got me!"
"The Imperium did this yes, at the behest of a Major with an axe to grind, we are already in the midst of dealing with said Major and those that were convinced by him to doom your world to slow annihilation." Savinath was blunt, the situation demanded it.
"And we ask that you be a part of their trials. Make no mistake, the Eternal Wardens and those forces seconded to us are here to ensure that the war on this planet ends as effectively and finally as possible. These men are guilty of not only corruption, but incompetence, mass murder, shortsighted greed and viciousness and a hundred other crimes. Their guilt is assured and their sentence already set."
The old man spat to the side, unmoved but not angered further. "Then why bother reaching out to us, why ask us to be a part of a kangaroo court?"
"Because you will need your pound of flesh if there is ever a hope of peace and reconciliation, for there to be a chance of something remaining on Tironia in the generations to come...But we realize that the well here has been truly tainted in regards to your relations with the greater Imperium of Man. This is the closest we can provide in terms of closure in regards to the fools that brought us here."
"I'm not agreeing to peace," the old man snapped. "Not without demands."
Savinath glanced at Nasin, not entirely liking the tone, but understanding why the man was hesitant. "What are your demands?" Nasin asked.
"Every bit of wealth that was stolen from us, we want back, with interest." The old man began to speak, listing his first then second demand. "Every dead Tironian's family gets your Imperial Army's pension," a trickier demand to deal with, but not unacceptable. "Tironia gets its own PDF, funded by the Imperium to Imperial Army standards." Savinath winced at that, the Imperial Army wouldn't be happy with having to spend money in perpetuity. "Fourth, there will never be an Imperial Guardsmen that steps on this world, without exception." An agreeable one at the very least. "Fifth, I want a written apology from the Imperium, specifically from whoever was in charge of this."
"The first, second, and fourth demands will certainly be accepted," Nasin began. "The third and fifth … are more difficult for us to say."
"The third is non-negotiable," the old man stated bluntly, "the only reason I haven't demanded Solar Auxilia levels of funding is that too much of Tironia's military core was killed during your bombardments. And I don't trust your Imperial Army to not come back when your back is turned."
Savinath bristled at the insinuation that the Wardens couldn't keep the Imperial Army under control, but held his tongue. "And the fifth demand?"
"If whoever was in charge refuses, get your First Captain to publicly call them out." The old man said, "I want it known that this was not acceptable."
"I think he'll do that anyway," Nasin said with a slight chuckle, "he is not happy with what happened. Lord Primarch Dorlin takes pride in his domain. And there's nothing to take pride in with what the major did on Tironia."
"The third demand … " Savinath began, hesitating for a moment, "I think we can agree to. We'll just have to figure out who pays for it."
[] The Wardens - It's incredibly cheap to do so, and avoids angering the Imperial Army. Although it would mean that no one learns a lesson from this.
[] The Imperial Army - While the cost is certainly cheap, the Imperial Army has in recent years become very focused on reducing expenses. Inflicting even a minor cost that lasts in perpetuity would anger them greatly.
[] Lord General Lasmin - While he may not have been directly involved in the corruption, he failed to prevent it due to his extremely lax approach to discipline. Forcing his estate to pay for it would be controversial, to say the least, and would lead to significant consequences for both better and worse.
[] The Generals Present - One of the main causes of this were the generals that turned a blind eye. A fair more direct cause than Lord General Lasmin, they may have less wealth, and that may lead to problems in a few decades, but then renegotiations can occur. The consequences would also be far less drastic than if Lasmin was forced to pay.
[] No one - Looking at the situation practically, Tironia no longer has anything of value to the Imperium. If we accede to their demands, it will take centuries for anything of worth to come from this planet. With how hostile the population is, and their lack of anti-orbital weaponry, a few cruisers bombarding their planet for a few months would entirely resolve the situation.
[] Write-in
Above the homeworld of the Amalgams, lay a fleet of Imperial Army ships that were blockading the world. Currently, the Lord General of the compliance was in deep discussions with a Vanus assassin on targets to hit, as well as how to work best with the Wardens arriving.
Shortly afterward, the situation changed significantly, when the Cherished Son arrived in the system, along with its attending escorts of Imperial Fist ships and a ship carrying an entire Knight House. Plans were redrawn as the vessels began the journey towards the inner system, before the fleet split apart, with only the Cherished Son staying in system, and the rest departing. On board the Gloriana, Captain Solarus was the one to give the order. "Rikard, I have a wonderful idea, have everyone else go help the Imperial Army, I won't need them for this world."
"Can I get a recording?" Rikard responded with a grin through the vox video, "I'm certain it will be a fantastic sight."
Solarus nodded, a wide smile on his own lips, "of course, I'm more than happy to show off, and this will be a wonderful sight."
Being one of a handful of Astartes in the system was a strange thing to the Mad Bomber, not that he'd ever say it out loud. Being surrounded not Astartes, but humans were stranger still. And having a literal parade prepared for him was certainly not what he was expecting, not that he'd complain.
"Present arms!" Came a shout from a general, as two rows of Solar Auxilia snapped to attention, turning from facing the Stormbird, to facing each other. Compared to Astartes it might seem acceptable for neophytes, but for the Imperial Army, Solarus could admit that it was an impressive display.
Walking forwards, the Mad Bomber looked at the men and women on each side of him, before glancing at the Lord General at the end of the red carpet. As he approached, she knelt and spoke in a respectful voice. "Lord Astartes, my thanks for answering the Imperial Army's request for assistance."
"I never say no to an invitation to blow things up!" Solarus said with a smirk, utterly shattering any sense of formality.
The Lord General stared at Solarus, as if looking at an alien being. Then she looked at the Astartes behind the Captain, who looked far too used to this. "I … see. Would you like me to begin preparations for orbital bombardment Lord Astartes?"
"Nope," Solarus said, before motioning the officer to stand, which she did. "I have a better idea." He followed up, a dark smile crossing his face which caused the Lord General to blanch.
"Very well Lord Astartes, what are your orders?" Solarus always was happy when guardsmen didn't debate his decisions, it made things so much faster.
"Blockade them, and send me physiology reports," the Astartes ordered.
"At once Lord Astartes, I'll send someone over immediately," the Lord General nodded, hesitating as if debating if she should share her name or not. Solarus, however, didn't really care either way.
The Captain then proceeded to begin work on his planned device, a bomb that would take him months to make, and months more to test and debug, but it would allow for this world to be taken with minimal infrastructure damage. As it was, his first few days would be spent just designing this gamma bomb, but as he began, someone knocked on the door to his room. "Brother, the messenger is here with the reports."
"Let them in," he said, focusing more on the bomb design than on the door. He heard the door open, and someone step in. Then he didn't hear anything more, simply the ambient sounds of the Cherished Son, and his own breathing. There was no shuffling of feet, no audible footsteps, not even audible breathing, something which impressed him. "You're not Imperial Army, are you?" He turned, one hand palming a combat knife just in case.
In front of him stood a short, thin androgynous figure with a face that was so bland it had to be artificial. On their hand was an advanced cogitator, and on their shoulder, he saw a servo skull peek out before hiding behind the person's back. "You can call me Phish, an information gathering specialist deployed to this world." They didn't speak, instead tapping away at their forearm-mounted cogitator, letting it speak in a mildly feminine voice.
"What's different about the Amalgams?" The Mad Bomber asked, mildly concerned. He might have to scrap his plans, and he was really looking forward to them.
"Nothing of note." Phish's words brought him calm, even as they continued. "The Xenos display genetics which may be useful for research, as well as airships useful for certain technological subsets, neither of which is a priority. I have obtained a variety of information that may be useful, including population densities, and live environmental conditions."
Now that might be useful if he wanted to replace it with a multitude of smaller bombs. Yes, that would work, arranged in a grid-like structure, it'd mean that he wouldn't have to deal with the planet's mass. "Yes! I can use those." Turning back towards his design, he tapped away, changing dozens of minor features in mere moments. Realizing he was a tad rude, Solarus glanced back over his shoulder. "Are you also looking to gather information on my current project? If so, then I'm happy to say that it's going as expected thus far. Make sure you record it when it actually goes off. Get a good angle on the explosion and light-show."
"It was not a part of my mission," Phish said through their forearm computer, "but I expect it would be valuable information for the Sigillite."
That made Solarus pause, "you work for the Sigillite?"
Phish didn't move, even as the servo skull peaked over their other shoulder, its eyes gazing into him, analyzing his body language. "You could say that."
"The Lord General, whatever her name was, do I need to worry about her?" While he did want to ask questions, Solarus had talked with Baldur before, specifically on the topic of the Sigillite. If the man wanted Solarus to know something, he'd tell him. Otherwise, it was best not to ask questions.
The servo skull vanished back behind Phish, and they seemed to laugh, no sound actually coming from their throat. "Not unless you count flattery as dangerous," they began, "she wishes to be free of some of the politicking that occurs, and so was aiming for a position attached to your Legion."
Solarus groaned at that, "and of course, she didn't just ask." He did not want to be the person making these decisions, he was just someone that enjoyed making bombs. "If she wants that, get her to apply like everyone else."
Phish nodded, before typing their last words for their meeting, "a shame, but not unexpected. Do let me know when you are planning to deploy this device, I'll shut down their communications for a minute beforehand."
For the Amalgams, it seemed like a normal day. Sure they were under a blockade, but space had yet to be truly exploited. Around the planet, billions of human-alien hybrids were going about their day as normal, simply passing the time until tomorrow came.
At a certain point in the day, the Internet cut out. A seemingly irritating occurrence for those in various neighborhoods, if it lasted more than ten minutes, maybe people would have realized what it was that was coming.
As it was, the day simply continued for a few minutes, Amalgam men, women, and children driving through the streets, working at their jobs, living in their homes.
Waiting for a tomorrow that would never come.
The bombs Solarus had made were dropped nearly simultaneously, with just 4 minutes between the first and last bomb. A few Amalgams may have seen a flash of blue light before they died from lethal doses of gamma radiation, but the vast majority would never know what happened.
They simply died, their bodies keeling over where they stood.
Imagine if you will, a seemingly normal city, but the only noise you hear is the hum of combustion engines, on cars crashed into buildings.
There is no noise anywhere in the woods.
There is no noise in the mountains.
The only noise that exists are the noises of machines, for everything else has died.
And above a dead world, there was an exclamation of glee. "It worked!" Solarus cheered, before turning around, his hands wide open as he stared at the Lord General. "Now, it's up to you, I'm headed back my brothers."
And so, Solarus, the Mad Bomber, leaves behind a dead world, along with an excellent set of infrastructure for the Imperium's colonists.
*Solarus gains Tomorrow Will Never Come - Gains escalating bonuses if the enemy has lower tech. These bonuses increase infrastructure preservation drastically and increase civilian casualties drastically*
Gathered Votes
[] Agree - Locks in Terran Sun Guard implementation next turn (Cost: 100 Tech, 1000 Materials, 100 Population). The Terran Sun Guard is a regiment skilled at post-compliance operations, and while they may not squeeze out production, they are skilled at reducing conflict and making planets happier at joining, or at least more accepting.
[] Have a trial period - Recruit a regiment of Terran Sun Guard and see how they operate. While they will only be able to handle a single world and might get unlucky with the choice of world, it will show how they operate and whether or not there is a place for them among Kesar's domain.
[] Decline - The Terran Sun Guard may save lives, but it's just not worth it. It's a cold pragmatic thing to say, but the lives of a few billion civilians aren't worth the cost investment that is needed. Ask Konrad for something else as payment for the favor.
[] Write-in
[] The Wardens - It's incredible cheap to do so, and avoids angering the Imperial Army. Although it would mean that no one learns a lesson from this.
[] The Imperial Army - While the cost is certaily cheap, the Imperial Army has in recent years become very focused on reducing expenses. Inflicting even a minor cost that lasts in perpetuity would anger them greatly.
[] Lord General Lasmin - While he may not have been directly involved in the corruption, he failed to prevent due to his extremely lax approach to discipline. Forcing his estate to pay for it would be controversial to say the least, and would lead to significant consequences for both better and worse.
[] The Generals Present - One of the main causes of this were the generals that turned a blind eye. A fair more direct cause than Lord General Lasmin, they may have less wealth, and that may lead to problems in a few decades, but then renegotiations can occur. The consequences would also be far less drastic than if Lasmin was forced to pay.
[] No one - Looking at the situation practically, Tironia no longer has anything of value to the Imperium. If we accede to their demands, it will take centuries for anything of worth to come from this planet. With how hostile the population is, and their lack of anti-orbital weaponry, a few cruisers bombarding their planet for a few months would entirely resolve the situation.
[] Write-in
Kesar and Konrad: 15 98 + 5 (Blitz) + 150 (Kesar) + 150 (Konrad) + 5 (Gabriel) + 20 (Astartes) + 111 (Legion Combat) + 1 (Attacking Defenses) + 20 (Vigilance) + 60 (Orbital Bombardment) + 40 (Deep Strike) = 660
Westplatte: 42 + 200 (Defenses) + 100 (Till the End of the Galaxy) + 50 (Commander) + 50 (Retreat?) + 50 (Atomics) - 50 (Morale) + 100 (AA Grid) = 542
Maticus and Slayer: 87 + 90 (Maticus) + 90 (Doom Slayer) + 5 (Blitz) + 5 (Beltran) + 20 (Astartes) + 111 (Legion Combat) + 5 (Shades) + 80 (Culexus) - 40 (Clusterfuck of a Drop) + 5 (Numbers) = 458
Ralan: 66 + 80 (Commander) + 30 (Numbers) + 40 (Numbers) + 20 (AA Grid) + 40 (Skill) + 20 (Tech Advantage) + 40 (Homeground) + 40 (Enemy Commander) = 376
Abdul: 20 + 20 (Astartes) + 111 (Legion Combat) + 80 (Titan Legion) + 5 (Abdul) + 1 (Defenses) + 5 (Blitz) + 5 (IA Support) = 257
Kivan: 85 + 80 (Walking Hives) + 50 (Numbers) = 215
Oriacarius and co: 43 + 60 (Oriacarius) + 80 (Legion Combat) + 20 (Astartes) + 10 (Triquetra) - 40 (Imperial Army Support) + 20 (Fortifying This Position) + 40 (FIRE EVERYONE!!!) = 233
Tironia: 52 + 60 (Extremely Hostile Locals) + 30 (Skill) + 20 (Commander) + 30 (Homeground) - 20 (Eversor) + 40 (NCO Core) = 192
Solarus: 100 + 65 + 60 (Orbital Superiority) + 30 (Solarus Literally Has Free Reign) + 20 (Crit) = 275
The Amalgams: 2 + 30 (Physical Attributes) + 30 (Airships) = 62
Westplatte: 42 + 200 (Defenses) + 100 (Till the End of the Galaxy) + 50 (Commander) + 50 (Retreat?) + 50 (Atomics) - 50 (Morale) + 100 (AA Grid) = 542
Maticus and Slayer: 87 + 90 (Maticus) + 90 (Doom Slayer) + 5 (Blitz) + 5 (Beltran) + 20 (Astartes) + 111 (Legion Combat) + 5 (Shades) + 80 (Culexus) - 40 (Clusterfuck of a Drop) + 5 (Numbers) = 458
Ralan: 66 + 80 (Commander) + 30 (Numbers) + 40 (Numbers) + 20 (AA Grid) + 40 (Skill) + 20 (Tech Advantage) + 40 (Homeground) + 40 (Enemy Commander) = 376
Abdul: 20 + 20 (Astartes) + 111 (Legion Combat) + 80 (Titan Legion) + 5 (Abdul) + 1 (Defenses) + 5 (Blitz) + 5 (IA Support) = 257
Kivan: 85 + 80 (Walking Hives) + 50 (Numbers) = 215
Oriacarius and co: 43 + 60 (Oriacarius) + 80 (Legion Combat) + 20 (Astartes) + 10 (Triquetra) - 40 (Imperial Army Support) + 20 (Fortifying This Position) + 40 (FIRE EVERYONE!!!) = 233
Tironia: 52 + 60 (Extremely Hostile Locals) + 30 (Skill) + 20 (Commander) + 30 (Homeground) - 20 (Eversor) + 40 (NCO Core) = 192
Solarus: 100 + 65 + 60 (Orbital Superiority) + 30 (Solarus Literally Has Free Reign) + 20 (Crit) = 275
The Amalgams: 2 + 30 (Physical Attributes) + 30 (Airships) = 62
As always, 12 hour moratorium.
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I feel like we fucked up with the Amalgams. No more assigning Solarus to these sorts of jobs.
I'm inclined to agree to the sun guard, if we're going into debt anyway, we may as well do it to buy things that will help. We're back from the crusade, we can start being better.
As for the money for the Tironians, I say we bleed the damned generals. Their boss however needs watching, even if we don't go after him for this I think we need to keep a closer eye on him, remove him from the post or at least get an Alpha legionnaire/sigilite operator on their ass. I don't want to deal with this shit again.
EDIT: I'm not saying he did bad work, Solarus pulled an absolutely epic working and preserved everything we wanted, except maybe the minorly interesting genetics, and lost none of his own troops. Good job best little bomber boi. I think we should have sent someone more investigative. This whole situation stank to me and I'm worried we missed something.
I'm inclined to agree to the sun guard, if we're going into debt anyway, we may as well do it to buy things that will help. We're back from the crusade, we can start being better.
As for the money for the Tironians, I say we bleed the damned generals. Their boss however needs watching, even if we don't go after him for this I think we need to keep a closer eye on him, remove him from the post or at least get an Alpha legionnaire/sigilite operator on their ass. I don't want to deal with this shit again.
EDIT: I'm not saying he did bad work, Solarus pulled an absolutely epic working and preserved everything we wanted, except maybe the minorly interesting genetics, and lost none of his own troops. Good job best little bomber boi. I think we should have sent someone more investigative. This whole situation stank to me and I'm worried we missed something.
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- Location
- Bronx new york
[] Plan actions have consequences
[] Agree - Locks in Terran Sun Guard implementation next turn (Cost: 100 Tech, 1000 Materials, 100 Population). The Terran Sun Guard is a regiment skilled at post-compliance operations, and while they may not squeeze out production, they are skilled at reducing conflict and making planets happier at joining, or at least more accepting.
[] Write In: Both Lord General Lasmin and The Generals Present have both of them pay for it
The vote with the Sun Guard in my mind I see that as an absolute win
My write in is to have both Lasmin and the other generals to pay so their are some lessons they can learn if other people mess up then they also have to pay for their mistakes
Is my write in feasible dameon or is it not possible?
[] Agree - Locks in Terran Sun Guard implementation next turn (Cost: 100 Tech, 1000 Materials, 100 Population). The Terran Sun Guard is a regiment skilled at post-compliance operations, and while they may not squeeze out production, they are skilled at reducing conflict and making planets happier at joining, or at least more accepting.
[] Write In: Both Lord General Lasmin and The Generals Present have both of them pay for it
The vote with the Sun Guard in my mind I see that as an absolute win
My write in is to have both Lasmin and the other generals to pay so their are some lessons they can learn if other people mess up then they also have to pay for their mistakes
Is my write in feasible dameon or is it not possible?
- Location
- Elsewhere
It's feasible, it'd essentially result in something midway between the two.
What about adding an extra to the generals option?
[] The Generals Present - One of the main causes of this were the generals that turned a blind eye. A fair more direct cause than Lord General Lasmin, they may have less wealth, and that may lead to problems in a few decades, but then renegotiations can occur. The consequences would also be far less drastic than if Lasmin was forced to pay.
-[] Ask whichever alpha legionnaire is trying to get into our chocolate stash today to get Lord General Lasmin under closer observation and under quiet investigation for more such instances. Lasmin is separated enough from this that they may only be guilty of being overly trusting. However if this is a pattern then we'll want more evidence when we make our move.
[] The Generals Present - One of the main causes of this were the generals that turned a blind eye. A fair more direct cause than Lord General Lasmin, they may have less wealth, and that may lead to problems in a few decades, but then renegotiations can occur. The consequences would also be far less drastic than if Lasmin was forced to pay.
-[] Ask whichever alpha legionnaire is trying to get into our chocolate stash today to get Lord General Lasmin under closer observation and under quiet investigation for more such instances. Lasmin is separated enough from this that they may only be guilty of being overly trusting. However if this is a pattern then we'll want more evidence when we make our move.
- Location
- Elsewhere
You could do that as well, just keep in mind this would get you involved in this as they'd report to you.