Not_Interesting
The Munchkin of Megastructures
- Location
- In your walls(the walls between realities)
- Pronouns
- He/Him
They are cooked. Ordinati are being deployed.
Titanicus Mercenarius (Battletech x 30k Crossover)
- Thread starter Kadaeux
- Start date
- Crossover
well that knight parade is horrifying. They were bad enough when in groups of three. a regiment 10 wide and deep as hell would have even made the ones during the grand crusade look small.
Also thats alot of brainwashed pilots probably used due to certain requirements for the thrones.
Also thats alot of brainwashed pilots probably used due to certain requirements for the thrones.
If there are any prisoners taken, they're probably gonna be end up as Servitors at worst, if not out right vaporized at best.
Chapter 27; The Breaking
Kadaeux
Delta Imperator
- Location
- Vortice between realities
Chapter 27;
The Breaking
Ten by ten they came. Marching onto the massive highway emerging from beneath the mountain that bore the Martian Mechanicum. Autocannon Fire and LRMs fell down on their ranks as they emerged from beneath the protective shield over their mountain homes and were deflected by energy shields. Then they were returning fire. Volkite chieroviles opened fire as automatic battle cannons loosed their own payloads into the battlefield. They continued to emerge until almost six regiments worth of mechs had taken to the field.
Taller but far more slender machines charged out into the battlefield bearing actual shields on one arm as a complex lance crackled with energy. Capellan forces, crushed and demoralised by the action of the Ordinatus Minor, reduced to holding a strip of highway... broke. Battlemechs stumbling into retreats as they opened fire over and over again to the point of risking shutting down. Tanks that surged away from the battle turrets aimed backwards as panicked crew fired in wild abandon.
And then a shadow fell across the Battlefield. Coming in fast and low across Mars the Speaker for the Omnissiah glowed as its void shields ignited the atmosphere it passed through on its fast trajectory. It took only sixty seconds to pass beyond them. It took its lances far less than that to target the massive field of landed Dropships and turn it into a molten wasteland as hundreds of megatons of energy sleeted down upon their location. Deprived of any chances to escape the rout turned into something far worse. Cornered Capellan forces turned back upon their attackers like a wave. Mechs focussing their attacks on individual Knights discovered that the smaller machines were significantly less protected than their larger cousins and several Knights fell before the onslaught.
Cornered like rats the Capellans found a new resevoir of courage as they did their best to make their attackers bleed.
Their best wasn't good enough.
Chainblades contested with power fists and shock lances as the Knights came close enough to engage in close battle as Avenger bolt cannons and volkite weapons cleared infantry and light vehicles from the field. And for every four or five mechs destroyed one of the Knights found itself concentrated on enough to overcome its ion shielding and collapsed into the red sands of Mars.
But the butchery began to slow as one by one units, broken by seeing entire platoons and companies wiped out began to lose the taste for battle and began to try and surrender. Throwing down their weapons and dropping to their knees. The last resistance broken once the Speaker for the Omnissiah completed its orbital injection and having already unleashed one orbital strike to eliminate their only method for escaping...
Teleported the Legio Astorum into the rear lines.
Those who surrendered were marched into the Red Mountain.
They never emerged.
---
Inner Sphere: 3035
The Andurien Succession had been resolved in a way that had spiralled far beyond the Primus' expectations, the rash actions by House Liao in responding to the effective assassination of Maximillian Liao had turned into a disaster of astronomical proportion, a significant amount of a Great Houses power expended leaving what they had too thinly spread to defend themselves. The Federated Commonwealth fell upon the Capellan Confederation from one side while the Magistry of Canopus and Taurian Concordat moved in from the others. Over two years Romano Liao was forced to withdraw ever greater force back to just the core systems of the Confederation, the independence of the St. Ives Compact guaranteed by all three major combatants.
By the time House Liao had retained enough strength in its core worlds to prevent any further incursions by the powers the Capellan Confederation had been reduced to a mere seven systems. Talks between the Taurians, Magistry and Federated Suns had proceeded apace as they fought to get ComStar to authorise the hiring of the Legio Astorum to put them to bed once and for all, but ComStar remained steadfast in its declaration that it would not authorise the complete destruction of the Great House that had stood since the days of the Star League.
---
Mars: 3035
Katrina Steiner was in the Terra system once more, being checked up upon by the Martian Mechanicum, and the station which had been underway during her first visit had come along so much further than she could have ever expected, and the population was growing rapidly, far too rapidly. The Magos who she was visiting was pre-occupied as she spoke. "Magos, if I may, what is the population of Mars now?"
His head clicked several times as something happened deep within the hood. "With the use of Vitae Wombs the population of Olympus Mons is approximately three hundred million." Came the answer as he studied her platelets under a microscope. "The surgeries to remove your cancer have proven successful, we continue to find no trace of cancer cells or platelet contribution to the growth of tumors. I am confident in stating that you are without cancer."
She smiled broadly, "My thanks. You cannot understand how much of a relief that is."
"I'm sure." The Magos said, and his mechanical tone concealed whether he was being sarcastic or not, she decided to avoid testing the theory. Instead she looked out of the windows facing down towards the red planet. The sight of an orbital elevator reaching up to connect the two was something that had never been done, and the station was growing wider, vast spars extending far from the original construct. She imagined that one day they might connect on the other side of the planet.
"If I may, you have already greatly changed the political landscape of the Inner Sphere. What is your next move?" She queried.
"Mars victor in aeternum"
The Breaking
Ten by ten they came. Marching onto the massive highway emerging from beneath the mountain that bore the Martian Mechanicum. Autocannon Fire and LRMs fell down on their ranks as they emerged from beneath the protective shield over their mountain homes and were deflected by energy shields. Then they were returning fire. Volkite chieroviles opened fire as automatic battle cannons loosed their own payloads into the battlefield. They continued to emerge until almost six regiments worth of mechs had taken to the field.
Taller but far more slender machines charged out into the battlefield bearing actual shields on one arm as a complex lance crackled with energy. Capellan forces, crushed and demoralised by the action of the Ordinatus Minor, reduced to holding a strip of highway... broke. Battlemechs stumbling into retreats as they opened fire over and over again to the point of risking shutting down. Tanks that surged away from the battle turrets aimed backwards as panicked crew fired in wild abandon.
And then a shadow fell across the Battlefield. Coming in fast and low across Mars the Speaker for the Omnissiah glowed as its void shields ignited the atmosphere it passed through on its fast trajectory. It took only sixty seconds to pass beyond them. It took its lances far less than that to target the massive field of landed Dropships and turn it into a molten wasteland as hundreds of megatons of energy sleeted down upon their location. Deprived of any chances to escape the rout turned into something far worse. Cornered Capellan forces turned back upon their attackers like a wave. Mechs focussing their attacks on individual Knights discovered that the smaller machines were significantly less protected than their larger cousins and several Knights fell before the onslaught.
Cornered like rats the Capellans found a new resevoir of courage as they did their best to make their attackers bleed.
Their best wasn't good enough.
Chainblades contested with power fists and shock lances as the Knights came close enough to engage in close battle as Avenger bolt cannons and volkite weapons cleared infantry and light vehicles from the field. And for every four or five mechs destroyed one of the Knights found itself concentrated on enough to overcome its ion shielding and collapsed into the red sands of Mars.
But the butchery began to slow as one by one units, broken by seeing entire platoons and companies wiped out began to lose the taste for battle and began to try and surrender. Throwing down their weapons and dropping to their knees. The last resistance broken once the Speaker for the Omnissiah completed its orbital injection and having already unleashed one orbital strike to eliminate their only method for escaping...
Teleported the Legio Astorum into the rear lines.
Those who surrendered were marched into the Red Mountain.
They never emerged.
---
Inner Sphere: 3035
The Andurien Succession had been resolved in a way that had spiralled far beyond the Primus' expectations, the rash actions by House Liao in responding to the effective assassination of Maximillian Liao had turned into a disaster of astronomical proportion, a significant amount of a Great Houses power expended leaving what they had too thinly spread to defend themselves. The Federated Commonwealth fell upon the Capellan Confederation from one side while the Magistry of Canopus and Taurian Concordat moved in from the others. Over two years Romano Liao was forced to withdraw ever greater force back to just the core systems of the Confederation, the independence of the St. Ives Compact guaranteed by all three major combatants.
By the time House Liao had retained enough strength in its core worlds to prevent any further incursions by the powers the Capellan Confederation had been reduced to a mere seven systems. Talks between the Taurians, Magistry and Federated Suns had proceeded apace as they fought to get ComStar to authorise the hiring of the Legio Astorum to put them to bed once and for all, but ComStar remained steadfast in its declaration that it would not authorise the complete destruction of the Great House that had stood since the days of the Star League.
---
Mars: 3035
Katrina Steiner was in the Terra system once more, being checked up upon by the Martian Mechanicum, and the station which had been underway during her first visit had come along so much further than she could have ever expected, and the population was growing rapidly, far too rapidly. The Magos who she was visiting was pre-occupied as she spoke. "Magos, if I may, what is the population of Mars now?"
His head clicked several times as something happened deep within the hood. "With the use of Vitae Wombs the population of Olympus Mons is approximately three hundred million." Came the answer as he studied her platelets under a microscope. "The surgeries to remove your cancer have proven successful, we continue to find no trace of cancer cells or platelet contribution to the growth of tumors. I am confident in stating that you are without cancer."
She smiled broadly, "My thanks. You cannot understand how much of a relief that is."
"I'm sure." The Magos said, and his mechanical tone concealed whether he was being sarcastic or not, she decided to avoid testing the theory. Instead she looked out of the windows facing down towards the red planet. The sight of an orbital elevator reaching up to connect the two was something that had never been done, and the station was growing wider, vast spars extending far from the original construct. She imagined that one day they might connect on the other side of the planet.
"If I may, you have already greatly changed the political landscape of the Inner Sphere. What is your next move?" She queried.
"Mars victor in aeternum"
Just like the Dark Eldar, surrendering to the Imperium is ill-advised.
Crescent Glaive
Knight Of The Blood Moon
- Location
- The Blood Moon Keep, Planet Noxum IV
I'd rather surrender to the Imperium than Dark Eldar... With the Imperium it's a roll of the dice what your fate is, but with the Dark Eldar you're utterly fucked no matter what. At least a penal legion has a tiny possibility of survival if i'm lucky enough to land in one... Or i become a "specialist" for some inquisitor if i'm exceedingly fortunate
Kadaeux
Delta Imperator
- Location
- Vortice between realities
There are some lovely new Capella Pattern Servitors for sale. $9'999 C-Bills. They can perform all sorts of domestic duties, and with a slight modification to your dwellings sewage management can be used for producing the nutrient paste to maintain Servitor function!
Chapter 28; The Altered Sphere
Kadaeux
Delta Imperator
- Location
- Vortice between realities
Chapter 28;
The Altered Sphere
3045
Jaime Wolf wondered to himself, once more if he should have given up on his pride and orders and prepared for another run to the Pentagon worlds to warn the Clans of what waited for them in the dark now. In the decade since the collapse of the Capellan Confederation the Legio Astorum had formed a sometimes active part of the political landscape of the galaxy, being hired only to come in and find all resistance melting away from them, unwilling to face them. But that had not failed to prevent the Martian Mechanicum from gaining increasing power and influence of its own. He knew that soon the Clans would invade the Inner Sphere and...
And what? The Clans had WarShips, but now the Great Houses were investing heavily in trying to built new WarShips of their own in an attempt to have at least some capacity to resist the Martian Mechanicum, the problem with that was that the Mechanicum was not restricting itself to the one vessel they had. They had spent two years building massive slipways into their station as its arc increased on its planned course to surround the red planet as they mined and processed vast amounts of materiels. Several Invader class vessels had been modified into pseudo-WarShips and Jaime had seen the telescope data showing several hulls had been laid in the slipways they had built. Three hulls over a kilometre and a half in length, and two hulls around four kilometres. They were progressing with a disturbing speed.
In fact, according to his reports, some people were claiming that the smaller vessels were effectively completed and were simply undergoing integration trials to ensure full function before their maiden voyages and space trials. The larger two weren't more than a couple months behind them.
"How can they work this quickly?" Jaime wondered aloud as Natasha came into the room, she saw what he was doing and shrugged.
"Probably because word has it that Mars has gone from a population of about a million to a population of nearly a billion in just over ten years, and while their... 'tithes' from their contracts certainly account for perhaps half that number. I 'friend' of mine got a ComStar adept drunk, and he said that ComStar is terrified. They were hoping to have some kind of subject with extreme power, but he claims that the Martian Mechanicum is leveraging their technological advantage to whittle down ComStar's influence over them."
Jaime barked a laugh. That sounded about right.
And the worst part is, it did sound right. He knew that the Federated Commonwealth had all of their thinktanks working overdrive on any shred of technology that had been seen or observed in battle in an attempt to retroengineer them by observation. And so far not a single workable theory had come from it.
"What do our people have to say about their own work studying the Legio Astorum?" He asked, that was part of Natasha's wheelhouse. And he saw her frown.
"First of all is their missile technology, that is by itself nothing special, though the size of the missiles does give them proportionately larger warheads. We have decided that its not worth pursuing that line of investigation." Jaime raised his eyebrow and Natasha ignored it, if his people said that it wasn't anything special on its own, either it wasn't, or it was and his people didn't know how. "Their laser technology is, quite frankly, far beyond us. We could build a laser weapon of that scale, at least I believe we could, but no mobile vehicle could power them. And they don't spread heat as easily as our own lasers, they just punch through armour directly. From there, ... from there our assessments are effectively useless."
Jaime frowned and Natasha sighed. "Their ballistic weapons aren't particularly unusual except for their scale, we might be able to replicate it but they weigh too much for Mechs to justifiably carry. The 'Vulcan Mega-Bolters' are at least sixty tons each and the heaviest gun we can theoretically put on a mech is twenty tons. The plasma weapons may as well be magic bullshit guns. By our theories we could maybe, maybe make a plasma weapon like an improved mech flamer, I'm no scientist, but our people are saying that their plasma weapons are almost effectively throwing stellar matter as weapons fire. As for the rest, seriously don't ask. Not me, not them."
"What did they say about the others." He pushed and Natasha sighed.
"Fine." Natasha snarled annoyed. "Here it is, roughly word for word. 'We lack the scientific knowledge. Materials sciences. Theoretical Sciences and even understanding of physics to explain how these weapons work. I could tell you they work by gravitational compression forced through a space anus, or a glowing faerie waves her wand in the barrel and I have no idea which one would be closer to the truth.'" She quoted before sighing, "We don't even have the primer material to understand, our people said given a few thousand years, we might begin to have the theories behind them, but right now the only chance we would ever have of understanding it is to actually get examples of it to disassemble."
A man came in, white as a sheet. "Colonel Wolf?" He said, and the formality in it made his hackles rise.
"Speak." He said without fanfare.
"The Legio Astorum has just launched all four of the smaller ships in its docks. They have named them the Guardians of Mars. The Phobos. Deimos. Olympus and Tharsis." He said... and swallowed. "And in honour of the support that ComStar has provided them, the Deimos will be stationed in orbit over Terra to provide an additional layer of security for the homeworld."
Natasha and Jaime looked at one another, Jaime nodded and the man turned and left still white faced.
"Layer of security my ass." Natasha stated with a soldiers clarity. "The Martian Mechanicum is putting guns in orbit over Terra to compel them."
Jaime frowned, agreeing with her. "We have spent time trying to prepare the inner sphere for the invasion to come without them knowing that is what we are doing. But now..."
She hesitated, frowned back at him. "You don't mean."
He nodded and she froze. "When the Clans Mobilise, we cannot afford a light touch. They have finished four WarShips in under ten years, and two more much larger ones cannot be far behind..." He hesitated. "Natasha. Prepare a ship, I know we scuttled most of our vessels and the information on how to get back to the Pentagon worlds, but we were not complete fools, bring a ship out of the hidden reserve. Our fastest. I need to get back, we cannot afford for the Clans to come lightly."
She looked at him in horror. "You mean to bring the Clans. All of them."
He nodded. "All of them. A threat from the outer dark has lain hands on the Terra system and all but conquered it. If we do not bring our full power to bear, I fear we may be defeated entirely. And then the Inner Sphere will suffer an even worse fate than Crusader clan aggression."
The Altered Sphere
3045
Jaime Wolf wondered to himself, once more if he should have given up on his pride and orders and prepared for another run to the Pentagon worlds to warn the Clans of what waited for them in the dark now. In the decade since the collapse of the Capellan Confederation the Legio Astorum had formed a sometimes active part of the political landscape of the galaxy, being hired only to come in and find all resistance melting away from them, unwilling to face them. But that had not failed to prevent the Martian Mechanicum from gaining increasing power and influence of its own. He knew that soon the Clans would invade the Inner Sphere and...
And what? The Clans had WarShips, but now the Great Houses were investing heavily in trying to built new WarShips of their own in an attempt to have at least some capacity to resist the Martian Mechanicum, the problem with that was that the Mechanicum was not restricting itself to the one vessel they had. They had spent two years building massive slipways into their station as its arc increased on its planned course to surround the red planet as they mined and processed vast amounts of materiels. Several Invader class vessels had been modified into pseudo-WarShips and Jaime had seen the telescope data showing several hulls had been laid in the slipways they had built. Three hulls over a kilometre and a half in length, and two hulls around four kilometres. They were progressing with a disturbing speed.
In fact, according to his reports, some people were claiming that the smaller vessels were effectively completed and were simply undergoing integration trials to ensure full function before their maiden voyages and space trials. The larger two weren't more than a couple months behind them.
"How can they work this quickly?" Jaime wondered aloud as Natasha came into the room, she saw what he was doing and shrugged.
"Probably because word has it that Mars has gone from a population of about a million to a population of nearly a billion in just over ten years, and while their... 'tithes' from their contracts certainly account for perhaps half that number. I 'friend' of mine got a ComStar adept drunk, and he said that ComStar is terrified. They were hoping to have some kind of subject with extreme power, but he claims that the Martian Mechanicum is leveraging their technological advantage to whittle down ComStar's influence over them."
Jaime barked a laugh. That sounded about right.
And the worst part is, it did sound right. He knew that the Federated Commonwealth had all of their thinktanks working overdrive on any shred of technology that had been seen or observed in battle in an attempt to retroengineer them by observation. And so far not a single workable theory had come from it.
"What do our people have to say about their own work studying the Legio Astorum?" He asked, that was part of Natasha's wheelhouse. And he saw her frown.
"First of all is their missile technology, that is by itself nothing special, though the size of the missiles does give them proportionately larger warheads. We have decided that its not worth pursuing that line of investigation." Jaime raised his eyebrow and Natasha ignored it, if his people said that it wasn't anything special on its own, either it wasn't, or it was and his people didn't know how. "Their laser technology is, quite frankly, far beyond us. We could build a laser weapon of that scale, at least I believe we could, but no mobile vehicle could power them. And they don't spread heat as easily as our own lasers, they just punch through armour directly. From there, ... from there our assessments are effectively useless."
Jaime frowned and Natasha sighed. "Their ballistic weapons aren't particularly unusual except for their scale, we might be able to replicate it but they weigh too much for Mechs to justifiably carry. The 'Vulcan Mega-Bolters' are at least sixty tons each and the heaviest gun we can theoretically put on a mech is twenty tons. The plasma weapons may as well be magic bullshit guns. By our theories we could maybe, maybe make a plasma weapon like an improved mech flamer, I'm no scientist, but our people are saying that their plasma weapons are almost effectively throwing stellar matter as weapons fire. As for the rest, seriously don't ask. Not me, not them."
"What did they say about the others." He pushed and Natasha sighed.
"Fine." Natasha snarled annoyed. "Here it is, roughly word for word. 'We lack the scientific knowledge. Materials sciences. Theoretical Sciences and even understanding of physics to explain how these weapons work. I could tell you they work by gravitational compression forced through a space anus, or a glowing faerie waves her wand in the barrel and I have no idea which one would be closer to the truth.'" She quoted before sighing, "We don't even have the primer material to understand, our people said given a few thousand years, we might begin to have the theories behind them, but right now the only chance we would ever have of understanding it is to actually get examples of it to disassemble."
A man came in, white as a sheet. "Colonel Wolf?" He said, and the formality in it made his hackles rise.
"Speak." He said without fanfare.
"The Legio Astorum has just launched all four of the smaller ships in its docks. They have named them the Guardians of Mars. The Phobos. Deimos. Olympus and Tharsis." He said... and swallowed. "And in honour of the support that ComStar has provided them, the Deimos will be stationed in orbit over Terra to provide an additional layer of security for the homeworld."
Natasha and Jaime looked at one another, Jaime nodded and the man turned and left still white faced.
"Layer of security my ass." Natasha stated with a soldiers clarity. "The Martian Mechanicum is putting guns in orbit over Terra to compel them."
Jaime frowned, agreeing with her. "We have spent time trying to prepare the inner sphere for the invasion to come without them knowing that is what we are doing. But now..."
She hesitated, frowned back at him. "You don't mean."
He nodded and she froze. "When the Clans Mobilise, we cannot afford a light touch. They have finished four WarShips in under ten years, and two more much larger ones cannot be far behind..." He hesitated. "Natasha. Prepare a ship, I know we scuttled most of our vessels and the information on how to get back to the Pentagon worlds, but we were not complete fools, bring a ship out of the hidden reserve. Our fastest. I need to get back, we cannot afford for the Clans to come lightly."
She looked at him in horror. "You mean to bring the Clans. All of them."
He nodded. "All of them. A threat from the outer dark has lain hands on the Terra system and all but conquered it. If we do not bring our full power to bear, I fear we may be defeated entirely. And then the Inner Sphere will suffer an even worse fate than Crusader clan aggression."
Yeah that's right Brin the space technology barbarians tl wage total war. Give the admech an actual problem tk point at.
Most forget the admech probably dint care about earth except to not fall back under its sway like in the 40k verse. Theh would oddly enough probably hand it tk the spheriods as a neutral meeting spot along as the have a decent say.
Most forget the admech probably dint care about earth except to not fall back under its sway like in the 40k verse. Theh would oddly enough probably hand it tk the spheriods as a neutral meeting spot along as the have a decent say.
Kadaeux
Delta Imperator
- Location
- Vortice between realities
*Fortunately* it is the 30k mechanicum, which while still very much not great for people, they aren't entirely opposed to working with others either. It's nowhee near as bad as 40ks Mechanicus. (Especially since for the sake of sanity and interesting writing, these are on the 'progressive' side of the Mechanicum, not the obsessed with religious doctrine against progress.
I have been trying to decide (with myself) as to whether to actually make this literally early 40k time (So M3) and to later introduce a Xenos, elevate it as the beginning of the DAoT or not.
Not_Interesting
The Munchkin of Megastructures
- Location
- In your walls(the walls between realities)
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Well, they can´t. AdMech can just pick as much as they can and scuttle what they can´t, fuck off far beyond the range of IS ships using the Warp and rebuild. The Imperium and its factions work on a wholly different timescale, a few centuries are nothing to the AdMech...also the Homeworlds are in danger. They could rip the navigational data from the clanner ships, pop over via Warp and just Glass their homeworlds.
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Some of this is speculation and headcanon
One thing to note is that innovation is probably near impossible for the Imperium of Man because of Chaos interference, such as Tzeetch having a domain in change (which innovation falls under but also they have to be exceedingly careful with each new development as to not accidentally invoke a dark god (Chaos sacred numbers really mess with stuff, imagine having a new ship design and the moment its bult a horde of Khorne demons comes out because one room on the eighth deck has eight walls). Innovation does happen but REALLY slowly and with great apprehension. Many of the religious doctrine against progress is ment to prevent stuff like demon incursions
One thing to note is that innovation is probably near impossible for the Imperium of Man because of Chaos interference, such as Tzeetch having a domain in change (which innovation falls under but also they have to be exceedingly careful with each new development as to not accidentally invoke a dark god (Chaos sacred numbers really mess with stuff, imagine having a new ship design and the moment its bult a horde of Khorne demons comes out because one room on the eighth deck has eight walls). Innovation does happen but REALLY slowly and with great apprehension. Many of the religious doctrine against progress is ment to prevent stuff like demon incursions
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There's another aspect to consider, old designs have been made with sacred rites for millennia. That weight offers a degree of protection from possession and corruption. A new design that is both more advanced and easier to corrupt posses legitimate danger. It's safer to iterate on proven designs and adapt them to current threats, than to create something new.
While some might make fun of the mechanicum for rewarding the acquisition of an STC for combat knives with governorship of a planet, the more likely option is that those STCs are truly that valuable. An STC that allows for combat knives, bayonets, and other short shabby bits to be created with more protection against chaos and in greater numbers? With how many the imperium makes every day, if anything they underpaid them.
Chapter 29; Olympus Titanicus
Kadaeux
Delta Imperator
- Location
- Vortice between realities
Chapter 29;
Olympus Titanicus
Julian Tiepolo felt the anger boiling within him as he and his retinue sped from the Spaceport towards the great mountain. And yet, he shivered, it didn't resemble a mountain much anymore. Over sixy percent of it was clad in armour and studded with defensive emplacements. Observatories and towers climbed from it seemingly at random and even his anger couldn't stop him from admiring the sheer industry of those he had granted title to Mars. And that, unfortunately, was also the crux of the problem. Across the Inner Sphere populations were largely stagnant, slow growing, industry took a long time to produce, a tank factory might churn out a platoon of tanks annually. The Martian Mechanicum were working miracles upon miracles and he didn't understand how. And now they had put a ship in orbit over Terra without his leave or permission.
The vast gates opened and his convoy passed within and he could do little but stare at the passageway as they travelled deep within the mountain and then he grunted, as did everyone else present.
They were suddenly in a full gravity. "What the hell?" He remarked, frowning towards the drivers compartment. The man in the drivers seat looked ill. And Julian stood and moved to where he could see. And his jaw fell open. This was the first time he'd ever visited Olympus Mons, and what he saw filled him with fear.
Lakes of molten metal were moving through causeways, splitting up before being diverted to forges. He could see thousands of people moving to and fro as maglev trains moved vast quantities of materiel above them between massive forges. One of those maglevs, with nearly a hundred flatbed carriages was transporting several hundred chassis to be taken to another forge for completion work. Entire convoys of trucks transported parts from another forge heading for destinations unknown and they passed two gantries sized for Titans with the skeletal cores of a pair of Machines stood suspended by a blistering forest of cranes.
And then they were flanked by a pair of other vehicles. Their crew compartments were open to the atmosphere and a pair of Skitarii occupied each. They turned weapons to face his own vehicle as scanning beams ripped out from the antigrav powered vehicles before with a sharp bass horn the two craft peeled away and in front of them lights began to come to life in sequence guiding them in towards the structure at the centre of the massive undermountain space. It reached up so high that it was now in contact with the roof of the cavern and beginning to widen out from that point. The Fabricator Generals palace.
Servitors moved in large numbers as a hatchway opened with the blazing hazard lights active. Their vehicle slowed as they came into the garage within and they were guided, towards an unoccupied section of the ferrocrete flooring. Julian stepepd from within his transport, his retinue emerging from the vehicle behind him, as well as several other vehicles.
They milled about for a moment as his security people gathered around him. A voice came from the gantry above as it began to lower on rattling chains. "Honoured Primus Tiepolo, if we wished you dead it would have happened long ago, please allow your security people to relax."
His head of security, a Captain of the ComGuard in Nighthawk powered armour stepped forwards. "Relax, and let you catch us by surprise." He barked, holding his weapon levelled at the Techpriest.
That was the wrong move. A dozen laserlights filled the chamber and the Captain froze. The sight of gunboxes emerging from the walls and roof freezing him as targeting beams singled out each of his major organs to receive fire from multiple units. The Adept lifted his hand and the lasers snapped off, weapons recessing into their housings once more. "Please Primus, if you will follow me, the Fabricator General has consented to an audience with you."
He didn't even dignify the words with a direct answer, instead simply following.
They moved quickly, struggling to keep up with the clicking legs of the walking platform the adept was mounted on. And yet, there was little to discern one turn from another, no markings they could read to identify doors or corridors. Nothing but the Adept, and a blinking series of lights flowing along the floor to give them a sense of direction. And so Julian, angered as he was, decided to query about it. "Why is there so little information, no labels, no directions, warnings or more?"
The Adept didn't stop, "Little information? The halls vibrate with it Primu... ah of course, you are not noospherically enhanced." Was the only answer as the Adept continued, it took a while before he continued again after processing the information. "The information you speak of is provided differently. We provide it via wireless transmission to members of the Cult Mechanicus. If you do not belong here, you will find no guides or warnings."
The question done. All remained silent until they emerged into a significant chamber where the Fabricator General was moving around a massive machine. Julian's skin pricked as he moved into the chamber, hoarfrost covered the walls and various modules were attached around the machine that looked like strange gothic sarcophagi.
The Fabricator General did not turn to face him, a tentacle over his shoulder turned to face him instead. "Primus, it is an honour to host you here on Mars. I understand you requested an audience. How may I be of assistance."
"You have deployed a vessel in orbit over Terra." He said allowing his rage to touch his voice.
"You're welcome, though really there was no need to come all this way to express your gratitude at our enhancement of the birthworlds defences. It was the least we could do." Came the answer, seemingly entirely unaware of the tone in Julians voice.
"We asked for no such thing. You think we are unaware of the implications of putting a vessel in orbit of Terra that can engage in orbital bombardment that we cannot prevent, the threat you have issued against us." He snapped.
"What threat?" The Fabricator General answered. Julian hesitated, anger flushing his face.
"The threat of orbital artillery capable of reducing any defences we have to rubble. How long before you threaten us if we do not comply with your draconian demands?"
"We have made no demands. We have only provided extra security to Terra." The Fabricator General turned and Julian's breath caught. The man, ... he was significantly larger, less human than he had been when he had first met the man. "I would not wish some nefarious actors to try and hold the world hostage."
"We have no need for your extra security. I want you to withdraw the vesse..." He was interrupted.
"Request denied. I truly cannot allow Terra to go undefended." Julian felt his face darkening in rage. "ComStar has made few friends, and countless enemies. Oh yes. We must thank you by the way."
The Fabricator Generals words derailed his train of thought. "For what?" He hissed.
"We have spent eight years studying the HPG facility here on Mars." And Julian's face went white with terror. "The class A HPGs stationed here on Mars were an excellent opportunity to study them, falsifying downtime of one of the facilities while we took over and extracted knowledge from its operators was an interesting exercise."
Julian did remember that, one of the Class A facilities had suffered a malfunction and been offline for nearly a week while the Adept in charge of running that facility had gotten the replacement parts installed. "You invaded one of our facilities?"
"Don't be silly. We responded to a stress incident, somehow a soporific weapon had been deployed incapacitating the staff of the facility, such a tragedy. I believe it may have been Capellan insurgents." The answer came as the Fabricator General turned back to his work.
"Our business here is not concluded." He said plainly, allowing his anger to turn his statement into a roared demand.
The Fabricator General turned and rose up to his full height. He dwarfed Julian. "Oh of course, you are very much correct. Our business is not concluded at all." The mechanical footsteps as the Fabricator General grew closer had a terrifying sonorous quality to it, like a church bell ringing out the dead. "We have provided significant security, and brought low enemies of Terra, for a fair price from our hiring agents of course, but ComStar has I feel not fairly recompensed us for the expenditure of resources and effort involved, including in your own Rejuvenat."
Julian stepped back several long strides as the Fabricator General closed. "And what exactly do you deem fair."
"We require a tithe of two hundred million. Our requirements for personnel are increasing exponentially. In exchange for our beneficent protection, we ask a paltry tithe of souls to join the people of Mars." The words struck at Julian like an Atlas punching him in the dick, maybe worse.
"You want more of your cyber zombies!" He snarled.
"No. Don't be absurd. Servitors are predominantly made from cloned tissue. We require skilled labour and hands." The Fabricator General said before turning back towards his machine. "There is something out in the dark Primus. We must be prepared."
"And if we refuse." He said plainly.
The Fabricator General turned back for a moment. "If." He said plainly, all the emphasis in the world on that one word. A sound blurted from somewhere on him and the Adept that guided them up stepped up.
"Sir. Your audience is at an end." He stated plainly.
"If we refuse." He snarled at the Adept.
The Adept shook his head. "If." He said with the same significance the Fabricator General.
Olympus Titanicus
Julian Tiepolo felt the anger boiling within him as he and his retinue sped from the Spaceport towards the great mountain. And yet, he shivered, it didn't resemble a mountain much anymore. Over sixy percent of it was clad in armour and studded with defensive emplacements. Observatories and towers climbed from it seemingly at random and even his anger couldn't stop him from admiring the sheer industry of those he had granted title to Mars. And that, unfortunately, was also the crux of the problem. Across the Inner Sphere populations were largely stagnant, slow growing, industry took a long time to produce, a tank factory might churn out a platoon of tanks annually. The Martian Mechanicum were working miracles upon miracles and he didn't understand how. And now they had put a ship in orbit over Terra without his leave or permission.
The vast gates opened and his convoy passed within and he could do little but stare at the passageway as they travelled deep within the mountain and then he grunted, as did everyone else present.
They were suddenly in a full gravity. "What the hell?" He remarked, frowning towards the drivers compartment. The man in the drivers seat looked ill. And Julian stood and moved to where he could see. And his jaw fell open. This was the first time he'd ever visited Olympus Mons, and what he saw filled him with fear.
Lakes of molten metal were moving through causeways, splitting up before being diverted to forges. He could see thousands of people moving to and fro as maglev trains moved vast quantities of materiel above them between massive forges. One of those maglevs, with nearly a hundred flatbed carriages was transporting several hundred chassis to be taken to another forge for completion work. Entire convoys of trucks transported parts from another forge heading for destinations unknown and they passed two gantries sized for Titans with the skeletal cores of a pair of Machines stood suspended by a blistering forest of cranes.
And then they were flanked by a pair of other vehicles. Their crew compartments were open to the atmosphere and a pair of Skitarii occupied each. They turned weapons to face his own vehicle as scanning beams ripped out from the antigrav powered vehicles before with a sharp bass horn the two craft peeled away and in front of them lights began to come to life in sequence guiding them in towards the structure at the centre of the massive undermountain space. It reached up so high that it was now in contact with the roof of the cavern and beginning to widen out from that point. The Fabricator Generals palace.
Servitors moved in large numbers as a hatchway opened with the blazing hazard lights active. Their vehicle slowed as they came into the garage within and they were guided, towards an unoccupied section of the ferrocrete flooring. Julian stepepd from within his transport, his retinue emerging from the vehicle behind him, as well as several other vehicles.
They milled about for a moment as his security people gathered around him. A voice came from the gantry above as it began to lower on rattling chains. "Honoured Primus Tiepolo, if we wished you dead it would have happened long ago, please allow your security people to relax."
His head of security, a Captain of the ComGuard in Nighthawk powered armour stepped forwards. "Relax, and let you catch us by surprise." He barked, holding his weapon levelled at the Techpriest.
That was the wrong move. A dozen laserlights filled the chamber and the Captain froze. The sight of gunboxes emerging from the walls and roof freezing him as targeting beams singled out each of his major organs to receive fire from multiple units. The Adept lifted his hand and the lasers snapped off, weapons recessing into their housings once more. "Please Primus, if you will follow me, the Fabricator General has consented to an audience with you."
He didn't even dignify the words with a direct answer, instead simply following.
They moved quickly, struggling to keep up with the clicking legs of the walking platform the adept was mounted on. And yet, there was little to discern one turn from another, no markings they could read to identify doors or corridors. Nothing but the Adept, and a blinking series of lights flowing along the floor to give them a sense of direction. And so Julian, angered as he was, decided to query about it. "Why is there so little information, no labels, no directions, warnings or more?"
The Adept didn't stop, "Little information? The halls vibrate with it Primu... ah of course, you are not noospherically enhanced." Was the only answer as the Adept continued, it took a while before he continued again after processing the information. "The information you speak of is provided differently. We provide it via wireless transmission to members of the Cult Mechanicus. If you do not belong here, you will find no guides or warnings."
The question done. All remained silent until they emerged into a significant chamber where the Fabricator General was moving around a massive machine. Julian's skin pricked as he moved into the chamber, hoarfrost covered the walls and various modules were attached around the machine that looked like strange gothic sarcophagi.
The Fabricator General did not turn to face him, a tentacle over his shoulder turned to face him instead. "Primus, it is an honour to host you here on Mars. I understand you requested an audience. How may I be of assistance."
"You have deployed a vessel in orbit over Terra." He said allowing his rage to touch his voice.
"You're welcome, though really there was no need to come all this way to express your gratitude at our enhancement of the birthworlds defences. It was the least we could do." Came the answer, seemingly entirely unaware of the tone in Julians voice.
"We asked for no such thing. You think we are unaware of the implications of putting a vessel in orbit of Terra that can engage in orbital bombardment that we cannot prevent, the threat you have issued against us." He snapped.
"What threat?" The Fabricator General answered. Julian hesitated, anger flushing his face.
"The threat of orbital artillery capable of reducing any defences we have to rubble. How long before you threaten us if we do not comply with your draconian demands?"
"We have made no demands. We have only provided extra security to Terra." The Fabricator General turned and Julian's breath caught. The man, ... he was significantly larger, less human than he had been when he had first met the man. "I would not wish some nefarious actors to try and hold the world hostage."
"We have no need for your extra security. I want you to withdraw the vesse..." He was interrupted.
"Request denied. I truly cannot allow Terra to go undefended." Julian felt his face darkening in rage. "ComStar has made few friends, and countless enemies. Oh yes. We must thank you by the way."
The Fabricator Generals words derailed his train of thought. "For what?" He hissed.
"We have spent eight years studying the HPG facility here on Mars." And Julian's face went white with terror. "The class A HPGs stationed here on Mars were an excellent opportunity to study them, falsifying downtime of one of the facilities while we took over and extracted knowledge from its operators was an interesting exercise."
Julian did remember that, one of the Class A facilities had suffered a malfunction and been offline for nearly a week while the Adept in charge of running that facility had gotten the replacement parts installed. "You invaded one of our facilities?"
"Don't be silly. We responded to a stress incident, somehow a soporific weapon had been deployed incapacitating the staff of the facility, such a tragedy. I believe it may have been Capellan insurgents." The answer came as the Fabricator General turned back to his work.
"Our business here is not concluded." He said plainly, allowing his anger to turn his statement into a roared demand.
The Fabricator General turned and rose up to his full height. He dwarfed Julian. "Oh of course, you are very much correct. Our business is not concluded at all." The mechanical footsteps as the Fabricator General grew closer had a terrifying sonorous quality to it, like a church bell ringing out the dead. "We have provided significant security, and brought low enemies of Terra, for a fair price from our hiring agents of course, but ComStar has I feel not fairly recompensed us for the expenditure of resources and effort involved, including in your own Rejuvenat."
Julian stepped back several long strides as the Fabricator General closed. "And what exactly do you deem fair."
"We require a tithe of two hundred million. Our requirements for personnel are increasing exponentially. In exchange for our beneficent protection, we ask a paltry tithe of souls to join the people of Mars." The words struck at Julian like an Atlas punching him in the dick, maybe worse.
"You want more of your cyber zombies!" He snarled.
"No. Don't be absurd. Servitors are predominantly made from cloned tissue. We require skilled labour and hands." The Fabricator General said before turning back towards his machine. "There is something out in the dark Primus. We must be prepared."
"And if we refuse." He said plainly.
The Fabricator General turned back for a moment. "If." He said plainly, all the emphasis in the world on that one word. A sound blurted from somewhere on him and the Adept that guided them up stepped up.
"Sir. Your audience is at an end." He stated plainly.
"If we refuse." He snarled at the Adept.
The Adept shook his head. "If." He said with the same significance the Fabricator General.
- Location
- North America
Damn that's crazy. Who would've thought those gifts came with strings attached
Sakuya's Butler
A refined Butler to a knife wielding Mistress.
- Location
- ↓, ↘, → + Punch
Tiepolo, you idiot. They have a warship larger than the wreckage of the old Star League O'neill Station (aka mini Island III type) and have visibly shown that they have armaments that start at gigatons and escalate rapidly up to 'Yes' levels of firepower.
If the Fabricator General were to pull a Borg and really creepily state 'RESISTANCE IS FUTILE' to your face? You are at that stage already if attempting to face them openly or if trying to pull a shadow war.
If the Fabricator General were to pull a Borg and really creepily state 'RESISTANCE IS FUTILE' to your face? You are at that stage already if attempting to face them openly or if trying to pull a shadow war.
well im getting vibes of preheresey admech here combined with some religiousness from the late 40K.. most forget that servitors in the early days were predominatly clones from huge clone banks on mars, or people that quite frankly were usually the worst of the worst and deem irredeemable. It was only once those same clone banks were lost or broke that the admech started to use tithes for servitors.
Also the early servitors didnt usually rote away within a few decades. As they were given genemods to lengthen their usage time.
Also the early servitors didnt usually rote away within a few decades. As they were given genemods to lengthen their usage time.
Chapter 30; Mars Ascendant
New
Kadaeux
Delta Imperator
- Location
- Vortice between realities
Chapter 30;
Mars Ascendant
Dominic Cain stood in the strategium of the Speaker for the Omnissiah. The hololith showed the state of Mars and, for all the force they were projecting, their position was not as strong as they might have preferred. As Mar's population was growing they were now being forced to redirect labour to the exploitation of the terraforming the world had undergone. They were faced with the oldest problem of a rapidly growing population.
Nutrition. The Fabricator General could march as many foreign dignitaries as he liked past the tank foundries, allow them glimpses of the Knight Forges... or even just view of the growing Ring of Iron. They were hollow threats, people who were taken in tithes were taking time to run through hypnodoctrination. And those grown in the Iron Womb were largely unskilled labour. They had a critical shortage of advanced technical skills, and precious few that could be trusted to be trained in them. The two Dauntless class light cruisers were to be launched with only a third of the optimum command crews, and significantly more automation than they might have otherwise employed.
It was the same with their armed forces. They had managed to isolate enough people for a Knight House, but the idea that they could crew every tank with trustworthy people was a fantasy. In another two decades perhaps they could afford to visit more than a handful of theatres at a time. But the grand work of the Fabricator General was almost ready. Cloned psykers bound in caskets around the great engine. That was what he had come to witness the activation of from the Strategium. The attempt to rebuild an Astronomicon powerful enough to serve them around the Inner Sphere and maybe some degree beyond.
But an Adept approached him, wearing a new uniform. One that the Captain had decided to adopt six months ago. Many of the old trappings of faith were dying, the Speaker for the Omnissiah had always been occupied more by rational soils. "Lord Princeps Cain. The Captain has requested your presence." That made him frown, the Captain should have been here in the Strategium. He turned and left the Strategium and followed the young officer to... the Navigator's sanctum.
"Lord Princeps." The Captain remarked and handed him a slate. He turned his eyes down and studied the glowing emerald writing as it scrolled quickly. "Your assessment?"
Dominic frowned, turning his gaze on the Captain. "If I may Captain, Navigator Primus, is there a reason why you have been tracking and investigating the actions of another mercenary group? The Clan Wolf did not strike me as particularly interesting when we encountered them."
And the two looked at one another. "Intuition Lord Princeps." This came from the Navigator. That alone was a subject of interest. "I requested more information on the group from ComStar early on and they sent me everything they had. I then began my own monitoring. As you are aware, we have seized control of Mar's HPG stations so I began my own monitoring."
Dominic examined the file with a greater degree of interest. "The Wolfs Dragoons appeared without any prior history, with enough materiel to start a brand new major Mercenary company. After four years in service to the Davions, they disappeared for ten months, and on their return had replenished their stocks and materiel. They disappeared once more in 3019, again for nearly a whole year. Well, they have just disappeared once more." The Navigator picked up another dataslate and consulted the data before handing it to the Lord Princeps.
He turned his attention to it and frowned. "With JumpShips their range is limited, but not that limited. Either they have an industrial facility within the Inner Sphere. Or their suppliers are a considerable distance beyond it."
"Very well. I accept that this is a matter of some interest. But is it of any use?"
The Captain and Navigator looked at one another at first. "At this stage Lord Princeps? No."
"Then I believe we are due in the Strategium Captain?" Dominic turned and headed for the door, the Captain following closely.
And yet, surprisingly the Captain was not finished with his conversation. "Lord Princeps, I have gone further than Navigator Dufresne, the Wolfs Dragoons arrived with mechs believed to be all but extinct, equipment that hadn't been seen since the Star League, strange tactics and unusually skilled warriors." The exchange was quick, the Captain switching to binaric once they had left the sanctum. "According to other information, when the Star League was dissolved from within, their greatest commander, a man named Kerensky, took the significant majority of the Star Leage military with him beyond the Inner Sphere."
At that Dominic stopped and turned. "You are proposing that these are descendants of that exodus?"
"I am." The Captain said plainly.
"Do any of the Wolfs Dragoons remain in reach?" Dominic asked.
"Unknown. If there are, they have gone underground to await whatever their leaders are doing." He answered.
"Thank you Captain. I will take your words to the Fabricator General. Until a further decision has been made, I would recommend you commence a significant maintenance cycle of the ship." Dominic turned back for the Strategium.
"What do you plan on doing Lord Princeps?" The Captain asked.
Dominic hesitated. "The same thing I do every day Lord Captain. Preparing for war."
Mars Ascendant
Dominic Cain stood in the strategium of the Speaker for the Omnissiah. The hololith showed the state of Mars and, for all the force they were projecting, their position was not as strong as they might have preferred. As Mar's population was growing they were now being forced to redirect labour to the exploitation of the terraforming the world had undergone. They were faced with the oldest problem of a rapidly growing population.
Nutrition. The Fabricator General could march as many foreign dignitaries as he liked past the tank foundries, allow them glimpses of the Knight Forges... or even just view of the growing Ring of Iron. They were hollow threats, people who were taken in tithes were taking time to run through hypnodoctrination. And those grown in the Iron Womb were largely unskilled labour. They had a critical shortage of advanced technical skills, and precious few that could be trusted to be trained in them. The two Dauntless class light cruisers were to be launched with only a third of the optimum command crews, and significantly more automation than they might have otherwise employed.
It was the same with their armed forces. They had managed to isolate enough people for a Knight House, but the idea that they could crew every tank with trustworthy people was a fantasy. In another two decades perhaps they could afford to visit more than a handful of theatres at a time. But the grand work of the Fabricator General was almost ready. Cloned psykers bound in caskets around the great engine. That was what he had come to witness the activation of from the Strategium. The attempt to rebuild an Astronomicon powerful enough to serve them around the Inner Sphere and maybe some degree beyond.
But an Adept approached him, wearing a new uniform. One that the Captain had decided to adopt six months ago. Many of the old trappings of faith were dying, the Speaker for the Omnissiah had always been occupied more by rational soils. "Lord Princeps Cain. The Captain has requested your presence." That made him frown, the Captain should have been here in the Strategium. He turned and left the Strategium and followed the young officer to... the Navigator's sanctum.
"Lord Princeps." The Captain remarked and handed him a slate. He turned his eyes down and studied the glowing emerald writing as it scrolled quickly. "Your assessment?"
Dominic frowned, turning his gaze on the Captain. "If I may Captain, Navigator Primus, is there a reason why you have been tracking and investigating the actions of another mercenary group? The Clan Wolf did not strike me as particularly interesting when we encountered them."
And the two looked at one another. "Intuition Lord Princeps." This came from the Navigator. That alone was a subject of interest. "I requested more information on the group from ComStar early on and they sent me everything they had. I then began my own monitoring. As you are aware, we have seized control of Mar's HPG stations so I began my own monitoring."
Dominic examined the file with a greater degree of interest. "The Wolfs Dragoons appeared without any prior history, with enough materiel to start a brand new major Mercenary company. After four years in service to the Davions, they disappeared for ten months, and on their return had replenished their stocks and materiel. They disappeared once more in 3019, again for nearly a whole year. Well, they have just disappeared once more." The Navigator picked up another dataslate and consulted the data before handing it to the Lord Princeps.
He turned his attention to it and frowned. "With JumpShips their range is limited, but not that limited. Either they have an industrial facility within the Inner Sphere. Or their suppliers are a considerable distance beyond it."
"Very well. I accept that this is a matter of some interest. But is it of any use?"
The Captain and Navigator looked at one another at first. "At this stage Lord Princeps? No."
"Then I believe we are due in the Strategium Captain?" Dominic turned and headed for the door, the Captain following closely.
And yet, surprisingly the Captain was not finished with his conversation. "Lord Princeps, I have gone further than Navigator Dufresne, the Wolfs Dragoons arrived with mechs believed to be all but extinct, equipment that hadn't been seen since the Star League, strange tactics and unusually skilled warriors." The exchange was quick, the Captain switching to binaric once they had left the sanctum. "According to other information, when the Star League was dissolved from within, their greatest commander, a man named Kerensky, took the significant majority of the Star Leage military with him beyond the Inner Sphere."
At that Dominic stopped and turned. "You are proposing that these are descendants of that exodus?"
"I am." The Captain said plainly.
"Do any of the Wolfs Dragoons remain in reach?" Dominic asked.
"Unknown. If there are, they have gone underground to await whatever their leaders are doing." He answered.
"Thank you Captain. I will take your words to the Fabricator General. Until a further decision has been made, I would recommend you commence a significant maintenance cycle of the ship." Dominic turned back for the Strategium.
"What do you plan on doing Lord Princeps?" The Captain asked.
Dominic hesitated. "The same thing I do every day Lord Captain. Preparing for war."
"Gee Brain, wot are we gonna do tomorrow night?"
"Same thing we do every night, Pinky. TRY TO TAKE OVER THE INNER SPHERE!"
"Same thing we do every night, Pinky. TRY TO TAKE OVER THE INNER SPHERE!"
Kadaeux
Delta Imperator
- Location
- Vortice between realities
- Location
- yorkshire
Well I knew it was pinky and the brain
Chapter 31; Sparks of Operation Revival
New
Kadaeux
Delta Imperator
- Location
- Vortice between realities
Chapter 31;
Sparks of Operation Revival
3051
Jaime felt a sense of awe and moderate horror at what he had begun. In the midst of preparing for Operation Revival the Wolfs Dragooons command echelon returning to the Pentagon worlds had almost sparked a riot all on its own. The words and footage he returned with silenced all possible objections as the ilKhan commanded a stay of execution of the Operation. They were left facing a darker truth, a true unknown threat had moved in and planted its malign influence in the Terran system. A threat that was commanding tithes of men, materiel and more. A threat that was beyond the Inner Sphere's ability to stop.
House Liao had been reduced to a near memory, their devastation and collapse of the Capellan Confederation forever shaking the politics of the Inner Sphere. The Federated Commonwealth growing stronger, not only without an ancient enemy to plot against them, but no doubt in concern for the rise of a possible enemy within.
Leo Showers was equally concerned. And so the original plans for Operation Revival had been shelved entirely as even the Wardens departed their policies of a protective isolationism. For the first time in many many years the Clans as a whole were united behind the idea of a single common goal. The eradication of the Martian Mechanicus and the Legio Astorum.
And now he beheld the product of his labours. All seventeen surviving clans marshalling all but the most necessary fraction of their power for a single mighty spear to thrust into the heart of the Inner Sphere and begin the great work of trying to extract the cancerous mass from the middle of their heart.
From four Clans planned for Operation Revival, to all seventeen. What could possibly stand before them?
---
Myndo Waterly shuddered as she stood with the Primus and learned of the contact that had been made with the Clans, and how he had dispatched the new Precentor Marshal Anastasius Focht to advance ComStar's interest in the subject. "Primus, you risk a very great deal, our HPG system is no longer secure, with the Mechanicum control of Mar's HPGs we cannot garauntee that they cannot intercept our communiques with the Clans."
"What other options do we have Waterly, we have been successfully castrated in our own system, we saw them devastate a mass invasion by the Capellans, and I doubt our fleet of WarShips would be a match for the Speaker for the Omnissiah, even if we could dispatch the vessel over Terra." The Primus sighed in angered resignation.
"We have the masses of the ComGuard, we have our Warships. If we struck now we..."
"Would all die." He snapped arresting her diatribe before it even began. "What you're about to learn is considered beyond top secret. If you utter so much as a single syllable, I will have you killed." He waited for her to object, but she kept her mouth shut, not being stupid enough to goad the unnaturally young man after his rejuvenat. "When Legio Astorum settled in our system do you recall how they sent vessels here to 'engage in trade'," She nodded in answer, "While here, they deployed some sort of stealthed dropships and deployed weapons of mass destruction on the planets surface. They have been hidden, buried and emplaced, and if we openly betray them, the Earth will be destroyed."
"A few nuclear weapons would hardly do th..." She was interrupted.
"Compared to what they showed me, a nuclear weapon is orders of magnitude less capable than these devices. When I say Earth would be destroyed, I don't mean we might have nuclear winter. I mean the planet itself would be killed."
---
Katrina Steiner found herself in a room with her daughter and son in law. All the major power of the Federated Commonwealth in a single room with the Fabricator General of the Martian Mechanicum. The massive holoprojectors were illuminating the chamber with scenes they didn't understand at first. "We have intercepted significant signal traffic between ComStar and a group calling themselves the Clans a significant distance beyond the edge of the Inner Sphere. These relays have been set up to facilitate the Primus' attempts to circumvent our presence and security. We have worked well in the past, and though we have had an agreement with ComStar not to provide further aid to the Federated Commonwealth, we have honoured basic trade agreements and made our Rejuvenat treatments available to those who had the wealth to afford them." He spoke as a matter of certain fact.
"What does this mean?" Hanse Davion asked.
Katrina picked at the data on the datapad she was examining. "ComStar is in leage with the remnants of what could only be Aleksandr Kerenskies exodus fleet. And they are going to return in a massive invasion in an attempt to remove the shackles the Martian Mechanicum has placed on them."
"Not shackles. Merely insurance to ensure that our agreements with ComStar were followed to the letter. Unfortunately, it seems their fear of losing their power has lead to them making alliances with these Clans. We know for a fact that they have prepared a mass invasion, one that will hit the Draconis Combine, the newfound Rasalhague Republic and the Lyran part of the Federated Commonwealth. Intelligence provided by the Clans indicate that they have and maintain fleets of WarShips, advanced Battlemechs, and a warrior society of some kind."
"If I may Fabricator General. Why are you warning us? Surely you have enough firepower to..." Melissa said before trailing off at the Fabricator Generals words.
"For all that ComStar is bringing this threat to bear on us, it is the entire Inner Sphere that will be paying the price for it. We have thus decided to breach our standard decrees. We request permission to screen some of your most trusted military personnel for the talent. If we find what we are after, in sufficient numbers, we propose raising ten households of Knights for the Federated Commonwealth in exchange for a complete military alliance to defend the Inner Sphere. We will provide modified JumpShips to transport these Knights and their Drop-Keeps."
"If these Clans have WarShips, how do you propose we secure ourselves against them?" Katrina asked.
"The Invaders modified to transport Drop-Keeps will receive an esort of a WarShip we have produced from modified Invader class Chassis, including plasma drives, shielding and armaments. These vessels will be crewed by the Martian Mechanicum and only on loan until you can begin producing your own WarShips." The words were fair, and supportive. But Katrina was no fool.
These Clans were dangerous enough for ComStar to prepare to stab the Mechanicum in the back. "Are these Knightholds, and their technology, to be turned over to us entirely, to do with as we see fit?" The Fabricator General stiffened.
"We would need to provide technical assistance to train your people in their maintenance and operation, and certain materials would require you to purchase replacements from the Mechanicum, you lack the gravity furnaces and matter forges to create the alloys needed to replace some parts." He hesitated, "Otherwise. Yes."
"We accept." Said Hanse Davion immediately. Katrina knew that the NAIS would almost certainly get some machines to study and reverse engineer. They were not going to throw themselves into thrall with ComStar.
Sparks of Operation Revival
3051
Jaime felt a sense of awe and moderate horror at what he had begun. In the midst of preparing for Operation Revival the Wolfs Dragooons command echelon returning to the Pentagon worlds had almost sparked a riot all on its own. The words and footage he returned with silenced all possible objections as the ilKhan commanded a stay of execution of the Operation. They were left facing a darker truth, a true unknown threat had moved in and planted its malign influence in the Terran system. A threat that was commanding tithes of men, materiel and more. A threat that was beyond the Inner Sphere's ability to stop.
House Liao had been reduced to a near memory, their devastation and collapse of the Capellan Confederation forever shaking the politics of the Inner Sphere. The Federated Commonwealth growing stronger, not only without an ancient enemy to plot against them, but no doubt in concern for the rise of a possible enemy within.
Leo Showers was equally concerned. And so the original plans for Operation Revival had been shelved entirely as even the Wardens departed their policies of a protective isolationism. For the first time in many many years the Clans as a whole were united behind the idea of a single common goal. The eradication of the Martian Mechanicus and the Legio Astorum.
And now he beheld the product of his labours. All seventeen surviving clans marshalling all but the most necessary fraction of their power for a single mighty spear to thrust into the heart of the Inner Sphere and begin the great work of trying to extract the cancerous mass from the middle of their heart.
From four Clans planned for Operation Revival, to all seventeen. What could possibly stand before them?
---
Myndo Waterly shuddered as she stood with the Primus and learned of the contact that had been made with the Clans, and how he had dispatched the new Precentor Marshal Anastasius Focht to advance ComStar's interest in the subject. "Primus, you risk a very great deal, our HPG system is no longer secure, with the Mechanicum control of Mar's HPGs we cannot garauntee that they cannot intercept our communiques with the Clans."
"What other options do we have Waterly, we have been successfully castrated in our own system, we saw them devastate a mass invasion by the Capellans, and I doubt our fleet of WarShips would be a match for the Speaker for the Omnissiah, even if we could dispatch the vessel over Terra." The Primus sighed in angered resignation.
"We have the masses of the ComGuard, we have our Warships. If we struck now we..."
"Would all die." He snapped arresting her diatribe before it even began. "What you're about to learn is considered beyond top secret. If you utter so much as a single syllable, I will have you killed." He waited for her to object, but she kept her mouth shut, not being stupid enough to goad the unnaturally young man after his rejuvenat. "When Legio Astorum settled in our system do you recall how they sent vessels here to 'engage in trade'," She nodded in answer, "While here, they deployed some sort of stealthed dropships and deployed weapons of mass destruction on the planets surface. They have been hidden, buried and emplaced, and if we openly betray them, the Earth will be destroyed."
"A few nuclear weapons would hardly do th..." She was interrupted.
"Compared to what they showed me, a nuclear weapon is orders of magnitude less capable than these devices. When I say Earth would be destroyed, I don't mean we might have nuclear winter. I mean the planet itself would be killed."
---
Katrina Steiner found herself in a room with her daughter and son in law. All the major power of the Federated Commonwealth in a single room with the Fabricator General of the Martian Mechanicum. The massive holoprojectors were illuminating the chamber with scenes they didn't understand at first. "We have intercepted significant signal traffic between ComStar and a group calling themselves the Clans a significant distance beyond the edge of the Inner Sphere. These relays have been set up to facilitate the Primus' attempts to circumvent our presence and security. We have worked well in the past, and though we have had an agreement with ComStar not to provide further aid to the Federated Commonwealth, we have honoured basic trade agreements and made our Rejuvenat treatments available to those who had the wealth to afford them." He spoke as a matter of certain fact.
"What does this mean?" Hanse Davion asked.
Katrina picked at the data on the datapad she was examining. "ComStar is in leage with the remnants of what could only be Aleksandr Kerenskies exodus fleet. And they are going to return in a massive invasion in an attempt to remove the shackles the Martian Mechanicum has placed on them."
"Not shackles. Merely insurance to ensure that our agreements with ComStar were followed to the letter. Unfortunately, it seems their fear of losing their power has lead to them making alliances with these Clans. We know for a fact that they have prepared a mass invasion, one that will hit the Draconis Combine, the newfound Rasalhague Republic and the Lyran part of the Federated Commonwealth. Intelligence provided by the Clans indicate that they have and maintain fleets of WarShips, advanced Battlemechs, and a warrior society of some kind."
"If I may Fabricator General. Why are you warning us? Surely you have enough firepower to..." Melissa said before trailing off at the Fabricator Generals words.
"For all that ComStar is bringing this threat to bear on us, it is the entire Inner Sphere that will be paying the price for it. We have thus decided to breach our standard decrees. We request permission to screen some of your most trusted military personnel for the talent. If we find what we are after, in sufficient numbers, we propose raising ten households of Knights for the Federated Commonwealth in exchange for a complete military alliance to defend the Inner Sphere. We will provide modified JumpShips to transport these Knights and their Drop-Keeps."
"If these Clans have WarShips, how do you propose we secure ourselves against them?" Katrina asked.
"The Invaders modified to transport Drop-Keeps will receive an esort of a WarShip we have produced from modified Invader class Chassis, including plasma drives, shielding and armaments. These vessels will be crewed by the Martian Mechanicum and only on loan until you can begin producing your own WarShips." The words were fair, and supportive. But Katrina was no fool.
These Clans were dangerous enough for ComStar to prepare to stab the Mechanicum in the back. "Are these Knightholds, and their technology, to be turned over to us entirely, to do with as we see fit?" The Fabricator General stiffened.
"We would need to provide technical assistance to train your people in their maintenance and operation, and certain materials would require you to purchase replacements from the Mechanicum, you lack the gravity furnaces and matter forges to create the alloys needed to replace some parts." He hesitated, "Otherwise. Yes."
"We accept." Said Hanse Davion immediately. Katrina knew that the NAIS would almost certainly get some machines to study and reverse engineer. They were not going to throw themselves into thrall with ComStar.