+++Rolls+++
1. Journey = 77 [Success]
2. Vargerod = 25 [Success]
+++

The year is 367.M41 and you are in the Vargerod Sytem in Subsector Ionium of Sector Deus, on the very edge of the Imperium of Man. You have been summoned to this desolate edge of space in response to plea for help by the abhuman inhabitants of Vargerod - infamous squats, once a part of Mankind, but nowadays nothing much more than a rabble of space refugees, more tolerated, than protected, by the Imperium at large. Nonetheless, as a Space Marine Chapter Master, you view it as your duty to protect even these wretches. And it seems, Emperor led you here for a reason. Servitor disrupts your thoughts:
>Milord, we have successfully translated into the system. Warning! Concentration of unidentified ships detected near Vargerod from lunar reflection readings. We are currently in the solar shade from Vargerod, giving us around 8 hours of stealth until we are noticed unless we try to shadow it, altough there exists a significant probability of them detecting our entry into the system if they are properly equipped. Bless the Emperor!

Orders:
a) Try to approach maintaining secrecy for as long as possible, it will take a few days to approach Vargerod this way
b) Full speed ahead, we must confront enemy fleet
c) Try to position in order to identify the fleet, but do not approach it yet
d) Rush in order to position your fleet between Vargerod and edge of the system in order to cut off their retreat path

You can roll d100 for your Fleet Master Copernicon to have a look at the readings.

>>4262224
Most important decision of our chapter:
>>4262195
>>4262201
>>4262210
>>4262217

Rolled 13 (1d100)

>>4262224
>You can roll d100 for your Fleet Master Copernicon to have a look at the readings.
Probably smart to take a minute to do this before we run in.

>>4262224
>c) Try to position in order to identify the fleet, but do not approach it yet

>>4262234
Copernicon looks through the readings and you notice how from curious his face turns to concerned and then...
>Blast it! I should have guessed it... Chapter Master, it seems we are in for a fight. While these are reflectory readings and I cannot say for sure, but we are facing a tightly packed, but strong battle group and to me they seem to be of Imperial design. As Battlegroup IDA is currently in Sygma-477, this means only one thing - on the other side of this sun, we are facing the fleet of the Styrian Triarchy, possibly their main one. They have at least one capital ship and an array of smaller vessels. If we would take them one, it won't be an easy fight for us. I advise summoning Imperial Navy.

>>4262244
Only if we can't look at the readings first.
Making an uninformed decision is for dumbdumbs.

>>4262230
Grey Guard: 1
Tombguard: 1
Greg Guard: 1

Please someone break the tie.

>>4262264
>I advise summoning Imperial Navy.
Do that.

Are they attacking the squats?

>>4262264
>I advise summoning Imperial Navy.
Definitely. Since the triarchy fleet is mostly escorts we should try and spread out in a moderately broad formation until they arrive.

>>4262280
>>4262264
>Since the triarchy fleet is mostly escorts
Doesn't that mean we have the range-advantage?

>>4262264
>array of smaller vessesl

How many, roughly? 10? 50?

>>4262280
>>4262273
Please note that if they have astropathically-trained individuals or warp-arrays, this will break your cover. Please confirm if you are summoning the Navy and then roll d100.
>>4262282
If these are just escorts, then for sure.
>>4262284
Unclear until you establish a position to get better readings. They are on the other side of the system, behind a planet. However this will mean that they will most likely notice you too.

>>4262289
We have a task force patrolling the Mortis border
https://chapterquest.fandom.com/wiki/Current_Chapter_Deployments
Pax Sepulchrum.

Are they nearby?

Also how long would it take Hunter Tertius to pop to an adjacent system and send a message to Sygma-477 from there?

>>4262293
>Hunter Tertius
Or Warchild probably better.

>>4262293
>>4262298
Please roll d100 to try to determine their current position.

Travel to adjacent system should take less than a week, possibly a day if warp winds are favourable. There is a small chance, that exit from the system might be noticed (15%).

Rolled 6 (1d100)

>>4262314
>Please roll d100 to try to determine their current position.

Rolled 78 (1d100)

>>4262314
>Rollan

>>4262321
Emperor be praised! Strike Cruiser Morbid is mere days away and could join the battle within d3 days when summoned.

>>4262327
For what? Can't take this roll, please always state what you are rolling for.

Rolled 3 (1d3)

>>4262328
>join the battle within d3 days when summoned
Prepare a message to summon them with. We can send it when being detected is no longer a problem.

Rolled 1 (1d3)

>>4262328
>Strike Cruiser Morbid is mere days away and could join the battle within d3 days when summoned.

Rolled 37 (1d100)

Rolling for Styrian fleet.

>>4262314
Yes, send Warchild to neighbouring system to message the Navy on Sygma-477.

>>4262337
Please roll d100.
>>4262331
>>4262333
It will take 2 days (2 turns, if in combat) for Morbid to arrive.

Rolled 94 (1d100)

>>4262339
>Please roll d100.
Another one please and thank you.

Rolled 63 (1d100)

>>4262339
>Please roll d100.

>>4262340
This is not what I asked for.

File: 1342480244806.jpg (13 KB, 300x208)

13 KB JPG

>>4262340
As Warchild fires up the warp-drive and disappears into the void, an alarm bell starts ringing on the bridge. Copernicon turns to you:
>The jump has been detected, their readings just turned dynamic, the group is splitting apart. We are sufficiently far from them, so they can't reach us quickly. Do we remain hidden and bid our time, allowing them to break up into smaller groups in order to find us, or do we move out into the open and try to force a pitched battle?

>>4262349
How many days will their maneuvering take?

>>4262349
monitor whether they are searching or running?

if searching go for a capital ship once the escorts are sufficently far away

if running try to kill them while running. They might be unaware of the strength we have. this was just a single frigate they detected.

can they discover who its from? I.e. mercenary? iom etc?

>>4262349
Move away from the jump position but slowly, slow enough the engines aren't detected.

If they split apart then we can ambush them group-by-group as they near us, and/or buy enough time for the navy to arrive.
It's critical that we don't let too many of them engage us in a single phase. That's when ships start inflicting real damage, when they have enough weight of fire at once to strip away shields and more.

>>4262349
>>4262354
I agree with Hi

File: 1341677697684.jpg (285 KB, 1000x1000)

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>>4262352
Unclear, depends on the information they have and their luck. Even if they have only a few escorts, you won't be able to hide for more than a week, even if Copernicon pulls his best.

>>4262354
>>4262360
Without clear readings, you cannot discern such information. Remember, you are still hiding. You only now that they are moving now. No, warp drives are not distinct enough to tell apart Imperial from mercenary ship. While a true Navigator would be able to tell them apart, your intel indicates that Styrian ships do not use Imperial Navigators.

>>4262355
So maintain stealth and try to ambush them piecemeal, if they are approaching? Please roll d100 for Copernicon.

Rolled 60 (1d100)

>>4262364
>Please roll d100 for Copernicon.

File: frigate.jpg (789 KB, 1457x1024)

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>>4262373
>>4262334
It has been a while since Chapter faced a serious challenge in space. Fleet Master Copernicon takes command of Aspera Dominus and starts sending out commands to all the battle stations and escort squadrons. There will soon be blood freezing in space, he feels it. But for the time being, evasive maneuvers are what Chapter Master ordered, so it shall be so.

For a good day your force drifts silently in the darkness of one of the outer planets, when you pick up a reading, mere 2 million miles away, emerging from behind one of the moons - a lithe shape of a modified Imperial design, commonly known as the Neveron-Class Frigate. It is not a nice ship, in Copernicon's opinion, at least from what he read about it. A cheap knock-off of the Imperial Sword-class Frigates, an adaptation for a less developed, but more heretical industry, to be churned out in greater numbers for the upcoming war. They know that we are coming and they are afraid. One can see it even in the design of their ships. Let us see how their craftsmanship serves their heresy...

>Third and fourth sections, lance fire, at will. Praise the Emperor with your guns!

There is a dull buzz and trembling as Aspera's reactors charge up for the first time in years to fire in anger. On the other hand, when the shots are fired, there is no sound on the bridge. One can only see flashes of light behind the illuminators for a moment and the change in scanner displays, which track deathly spikes of brightness racing into the darkness.

++Roll d6++
1. Direct hit
2. Direct hit
3. Glancing hit
4. Miss
5. Evasion, counter-fire
6. Other ships fire

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>4262389
>++Roll d6++
Let's see if void combat is as bad as maneuvering when I do it.

>>4262399
It is.

>>4262389
Test

File: chase.jpg (152 KB, 583x700)

152 KB JPG

Rolled 5 + 1 (1d6 + 1)

>>4262399
Lance fire roars past the dark shape of the Styrian ship, as it rolls to the side, while unloading a volley of torpedoes, not at the Aspera itself, but at the escorts surround it, which were packed quite tightly to reduce their footprint during the stealth run.

+Counter-fire d6+
1. Miss
2. Hit - Memoria - Gladius-class Frigate
3. Miss
4. Hit - Venator Tertius - Hunter-class Destroyer
5. Miss
6. Critical Hit - Shadow - Gladius-class Frigate

Does Styrian ace get greedy?
1. Yes
2. No

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>4262412
Rollan agreed for Ace.

>>4262412
Is that a 6 or a 5 for the first and a 1 for the second roll?

>>4262412
>>4262416
He misses, but he is greedy! And he fires again, although so does Copernicon!

You can reroll this roll:
>>4262399

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>4262423
+Second volley+

+Counter-fire d6+
1. Miss
2. Hit - Memoria - Gladius-class Frigate
3. Miss
4. Hit - Venator Tertius - Hunter-class Destroyer
5. Miss
6. Critical Hit - Shadow - Gladius-class Frigate

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>4262389
>>4262412
Let's burn this HERETIC

File: Ship assault.jpg (1.08 MB, 1600x780)

1.08 MB JPG

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>4262423
Unleash Hell!

>>4262429
>Rolled 3 (1d6)
That's a glancing hit. Can we board him?

File: arrival.jpg (155 KB, 1024x768)

155 KB JPG

>>4262430
Greed is not a great trait to have. While the stripped-down frigate is maneuverable enough to avoid most of the punishment from Aspera Dominus, a glancing hit not only collapses its shields, but also scorches off most of the portside flank, opening whole corridors to open space and sending the ship spinning.

>>4262429
Moments later, concentrated fire from the rest of your fleet pulverises it, turning frigate into a flying field of scrap metal and heretical ambition.

+++

Meanwhile, Venator Secundus engages another one of the Neveron-class Frigates on the other side of the planet and reports successful hit, they are in pursuit.

One of the fleet officers turns to Copernicon:
>Captain, they have scanned us. We are lit.

Copernicon smiles.
>So it begins... Break stealth run, battle formation, we are engaging them on all fronts.

>>4262441
>they are in pursuit
We should keep the fleet together.

Call in the nearby patrol group, call in the navy, call Warchild back.

Wedge formation, Aspera Dominus front and centre, strike cruiser behind and offset. Gladius squadron alpha sticks to Aspera's six. Gladius squadron beta sticks to the strike cruisers' six. Hunter squadron holds in reserve ready to make torpedo run?

We've ended our silent running, it would seem, and the enemy has been using augurs to probe for us?

Do we have a count on the number of active augurs that were searching for us and their rough positioning?

>>4262468
Ave Brother! Long time since I've seen you!

File: Battlegroup.jpg (365 KB, 1600x900)

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Then, as new readings come into view, Copernicon's smile fades and he picks up vox caster to the Chapter Master.
>I think we are about to engage their flagship. No, I mean /the flagship/. The main flagship of the Styrian Triarchy is here. Decapitator is on the battlefield.

+Partial Readings+
+Flagship: Mars-class Battlecruiser Decapitator [Formerly: Pride of Deus]
+Unidentified Loxomod-class Heavy Cruiser
+Unidentified Cruiser, unclear classification
+Unidentified Dauntless-class Light Cruiser
+Unidentified Dauntless-class Light Cruiser
+Dauntless-class Light Cruiser Blind Devotion [Formerly: Fist of Faith]
+Squadron Arpha [4 Neveron-class Frigates]
+Squadron Bheta [4 Neveron-class Frigates]
+Squadron Ghamma [3 Neveron-class Frigates]
+Squadron Threta [4 Sarrakis-class Frigates]
+Squadron Kaqqa [4 Sarrakis-class Frigates]
+Unidentified Fleet Element+
+Unidentified Fleet Element+
+Unidentified Fleet Element+
+Unidentified Fleet Element+


===Session Over===
You have the chance to end Styria as a space power with one strike, ending the Crusade with victory before it even begins, right here and now, as what you see before yourselves is the core of their fleet, which is caught off-guard. On the other hand, you are currently heavily outgunned and reinforcements will take time to arrive. If engaged, expect losses to be heavy. Next session will be GMed by Luigi under BFG rules to resolve the rest of this encounter.

>>4262468
Ave, Machine Spirit! Now you do, see below!

>>4262477
Still need to find out what happened with Argos after he came home.

File: Battle barge.webm (2.93 MB, 853x480)

2.93 MB WEBM

Just posting this as a reminder to myself.

Tartarus plan:

- Infiltrated forces secure an entry point where we won't be scanned or anything
- Divine Dividend infiltrates marine force into Tartarus where they lay low
- Wait for Silencius' arrival. Punisher Squad and local agents on the lookout.
- Activate infiltrated marine force. Main force will pacify local renegades. Special force (revenants?) apprehends Silencius.
- Fleet arrives in-system at the same time for additional intimidation

>>4262271
TombGuard

=UPDATE=
At present the void battle is scheduled for ~6pm GMT tomorrow (Sunday 24th May).

However this is not certain. Rescheduling to next weekend may be required.

File: Exemplum.png (1.39 MB, 1332x1746)

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This is a banner.
You'll notice that it's blurry as shit, the hands are just 2 tentacles (which might be intended, it's a DA banner after all), the colours are weird, the sword is literally just 4 disjointed squares, the robed figure looks a bit wimpy, the wings are more of a suggestion than actually drawn and you can count the pixels, which gets much worse once you actually zoom in to look at it properly.
The reason for that is that it is now over 18 times bigger than it is actually supposed to be, as it was only used as a rather small texture for a banner in Dawn of War a long time ago. That tiny texture is next to it.

So obviously you can't use that as a banner, because it's pixelated as shit, poor on details (not as a failure of the artist, it was just never meant to be that big), and once you size those things up many things look dumb because they had to be exaggerated to be noticed in the small format or any potential details wouldn't be recognizable anyway.

File: Exemplum.png (2.89 MB, 1332x1746)

2.89 MB PNG

>>4272046 (You)
One solution to that is to sharpen it, which will lose you even more details, but that's fine, since you can always add your own (with a lot of time wasted figuring out how to actually do it).
Now before you sharpen it, you should probably change the colours to what you like and add in any foreign assets you want to put in there, so they don't look out of place later, like skulls, badges, scythes, ravens etc. I didn't do that here in the example, but that's fine, because I chose this one since it's the one I added the least assets to and mostly changed via redrawing stuff and adding things with a brush (actually it's mostly because this turned into the second company and I like going by numbers).
If you do sharpen it, it looks like this. Which looks like shit as well, but now you can use the lines you gained to brush over them and use the picture as a rough guideline while making changes to lines, making stuff bigger, redrawing sections and generally keeping everything relatively coherent.
Last time I did an art dump I counted the hours, I ended up somewhere above 80 I think.

This time I can't really do that because this shit literally took me months and ever since I moved in with my gf a few weeks ago (for the duration of the coronavirus lockdown since I don't have to be in my university), I spent about 6-10 hours every day working on this. Before than I worked on it too of course, just much less rigorously.
Nowadays, after all those lessons I learned during it, I could probably do it much faster, but I had no idea what I was doing at first, it's not like there are any good tutorials for redrawing 40k thumbnail banners after making them 18 times larger, so I had to figure a lot of stuff out, mostly via trial and error, google and weird experiments. That's also why the quality of these things increased so much throughout (don't get your hopes up, the second company was a fairly late one).
So yeah, it took a very long time, no idea how long.

File: Centuria II.png (3.25 MB, 1152x1728)

3.25 MB PNG

>>4272073
This is what it turned into.
As I said, structurally, this is probably the banner I changed the least in from all of the companies, since the entire image was already filled and I wanted to see how much I could change with the brush and other drawing tools alone. In other banners I just used the back-ground, changed so much by adding other stuff that it doesn't really look like the original anymore, but I think here you can recognize the roots of the banner I started with easily.
As you can see I changed the colours, used the brush to go over it and change stuff and then resharpened it.
Throughout that I completely redrew the sword, changed the wings, added little details here and there, partially redrew the skulls below to add more alien looking faces and completely redrew the two tentacle looking things into actual hands, gave the robed figure some actual muscles and broad shoulders and changed the way the robe looks to make it look like it's not a skeletal wisp but actually a buff guy. In the end I also adjusted the colour temperature of the entire picture to make it seem colder, since the second company is that of the Ice Wraiths and I tried to represent the character of every company in their banner. That is also why the sword and wings are ice-blue. The Ice Wraiths are not very open about their practices, so I had to be relatively subtle about representing their cult in the banner.
You can guess which took me the longest time of all of that. The hands actually took me 2-3 hours alone.
The problem with that was that I'm no artist and I had nothing to go off, hands are also really difficult, particularly in complicated positions like this and I didn't just want to do boring hands. Since we're RG successors and notoriously pale, I of course made them pale. I also made them cool (as in cold) looking and fucked around with them for hours until I finally managed to draw an effect that looks like the bones are showing beneath the skin (which, unless you specifically look for it, is only really visible if you zoom in, I admit).

Of all the stuff I did those hands are among my favourites, maybe even the favourite thing I put into those banners. Partially because they were a lot of work and partially because the longer you look at them up close the cooler they seem. The colour temperature thing is also a really nifty trick, though I learned about it way too late. This was one of my last banners and I only used it on one other banner (in a different way there).

This is the second company's banner.

File: Centuria III.png (3.17 MB, 1152x1728)

3.17 MB PNG

>>4272109
I recommend you open these in tabs by the way, they're all relatively large pictures (I like the sword too, I think it turned out really neat, the icy blade and glowing red gem in the handguard make a really nice contrast).


This is the third company's banner.

The third company has a pretty weird history in our chapter. They went semi-traitor and our former third company are currently on a penitent crusade to cleanse themselves of their sins, so I thought whether they return remorseful to the light of the emperor or turn towards other gods, we should represent their history in their banner. Either as a reminder for them what the price of their folly was, or as a reminder for the newly founded third company what they'll have to avenge if they ever meet their predecessors.
The burning planet at the bottom is of course Inaria, the planet they shed the blood of their brothers on, the scythes represent our chapter, crossed in front of Inaria (and all other worlds in our sector) to protect it from traitors. The wings represent our ancestors and heritage and the skull represents the eventual fate of every traitor. The skull was actually on the banner already, though all of the teeth were sharpened and quite demonic. I had to draw my own teeth to replace them, something I got quite good at because I spent an entire day figuring out how the fuck to do it for our 8th company.
I like the little nicks of use on the scythes. The font is the same one I used on every company banner, an old German one. I think it fits the gothic theme quite nicely and after the first two where I still figured out how to do it I ended up doing them all the same way. Write it out in bold, adjust the letters, bend them with the cage transform tool to go alone the curve of the scroll and then retrace both sides of the letters in 2 different colours from the picture before sharpening to make them look better. Calligraphy is fun.
I thought about leaving third company out first, but the GoR aren't quitters. And I thought the concept was pretty cool.

File: Centuria IV.png (3.28 MB, 1152x1728)

3.28 MB PNG

>>4272142
This is the banner of the fourth company.

Our fourth has a very dependable record. They've been with us since the founding, spent a lot of time defending the Tombstone and Mormark and absolutely destroyed the waaagh! and any orks remaining afterwards on Barivia during operation tidebreaker. They even stayed there for 10 entire years afterwards to cleanse it, train the Barivian PDF and protect it while it recovered.
The golden aquila represents that long-standing loyalty together with the stylized iron halo in white behind the skull and scythes. The scythes of course once again represent our chapter and the alien skull implies the obvious in regards to our intentions when it comes to xeno invaders. I wanted to make the swirly background dark green first, to represent the forests of Barivia and the orks they cleansed in them, but green just isn't really our colour so I stuck to grey and just kept the pattern to represent those 10 years.
In general I tried to use thick lines and make the scythes, the iron halo and even the golden IV at the bottom look sturdy, because the fourth may not be as good at jumping around like lunatics as the seventh company is, but they are very reliable and when they get a job, they get it done properly. Dreidor's strict standards probably help with that a lot.

File: Centuria V.png (2.59 MB, 1152x1728)

2.59 MB PNG

>>4272200
This is the banner of the fifth company.

I think it looks pretty rad, it was also a shitton of work to put in all the details and redraw the flames though.
In a Dungeons and Dragons group, the fifth would probably be the face of our party. They gained the pacifiers trait due to their tactful handling of the riots on Templos, which kept the entire affair surprisingly bloodless, suffered during the betrayal at Varda and showed on San Larion that despite losing half their men there they're not just good at dealing with civilian populations, but also at cleansing alien infestations with fire and flame if they have to.
I wanted to represent the company how civilians might view them, which of course means as angels of death. So I made the arms of the robed angel a lot more muscular (and gave him actual hands, though I made this one before the second company so they lack the skills I picked up there) and surrounded him with fire and falling swords in the background. The coolest thing for me in the picture is actually the little detail in the two scythes. I tried to recreate the notches of the big one in the small one. I experimented with lighter wings, but I think the dark colour works well. I just wish I would've fiddled around with colour temperature back then already because I'd like to see how it would have ended up if I would've made the entire colour-scheme a bit warmer before sharpening the pic.

File: Centuria VI.png (2.15 MB, 1153x1728)

2.15 MB PNG

>>4272241
This is the banner of the sixth company.

It was the second one I've drawn and I think it's quite easy to notice that in the quality. Though just today I finished something that might make up for it.

Our sixth company probably has one of the most glorious histories of our chapter and I wanted to represent that. They took the greatest losses during the betrayal at Varda, hence the golden skull, but also heaped incredible losses upon the enemy and slaughtered countless of them until the Chapter Master arrived to save them, which is of course what the laurel wreathe is for.

File: Macedon_Banner.png (2.47 MB, 1152x1728)

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>>4272264
What I didn't touch on for the sixth are their reputation for ork killing, which (even among our chapter that is rather adept at the task in general) is unmatched and the fact that they personally trained the Vardan PDF to keep them safer in the future.

Well, Macedon's boys are pretty great. And Macedon himself, one of our greatest strategists and always cool, calm and collected, is pretty great too. His leadership is also one of the major reasons why his company got the reputation it has. So I thought he deserves something special and made him a personal banner.
I'd explain what it represents, but I think you can tell. Fuck xeno invaders.
Notably, this is the second one where I messed around with colour temperatures (this time not on the entire picture, but just on the blade, I think it makes for a great cold steel effect). Before I changed it, the blade looked a lot more like the handguard. It's a bit of a shame I only figured out that neat little trick in the last picture though. The chopped off heads at the bottom are pretty nice of course, but I also like how it picks up the checkered background from the Sixth Company banner again.
>but why is the text in low gothic
Aliens can rarely read high gothic, even some of the bigger/smarter orks can actually read Low Gothic though. Gotta let them know your intentions.

File: Centuria VII.png (2.61 MB, 1152x1728)

2.61 MB PNG

>>4272290
In case you guys were wondering why I was a bit less active during the last sessions (even though some of them heavily involved my boy), it was mostly because I was working on this stuff during them.

This is the Seventh Company's banner.

Kay's boys like to fly. They like to jump. And they go really wild in battle. Their role is a simple, but not an easy one. So I tried to represent their need for speed and mastery of the sky's due to the jump-pack focus of Kay with the wings in the background, the bird of prey (in this case a crow, not a raven, due to the beak) and of course the winged thunderbolt.

File: Centuria VIII.png (1.25 MB, 1153x1730)

1.25 MB PNG

>>4272309
This is the Eighth Company's banner.

This is how it all started. And as always, Hull gets the worst deal because by doing his stuff first, it never looks as good as the rest because I hadn't picked up any of the skills I picked up later.
The 8th and 6th banners are also much less colourful then the rest because back then I wanted to go for a more muted look. But I still like it. I seriously considered redoing the whole thing, but I spent an entire week on it and learned so much in the process that I just couldn't get myself to do it. Back then I had nothing to work with, because the Eighth hadn't actually done anything yet and was brand new. Nowadays it's already been active during the cleansing of Triot and they gained their first trait.
This banner is probably the most important one because it started the entire journey of the last months. It's been a bit over half a year since I started working on the banners and I would do a lot of things differently nowadays, but I'm glad this gave me the motivation to start (and even more glad that it's finally over lel).

File: Centuria IX.png (1.82 MB, 1152x1728)

1.82 MB PNG

>>4272322
This is the Ninth Company's banner.

There is not much to say here, we don't have a ninth company yet, but I did this as a favour to Luigi. He's been a great help throughout all of this, not in regards to the technical side, he's as incompetent as I am when it comes to digital art, but having somebody I could bounce my ideas off of was invaluable and despite the need to press him for negative feedback sometimes he was very useful when it came to refining my ideas.
I originally wanted to go with a different design, but Luigi liked this one the most of the 3 possibilities we talked about and he had helped me so much that I wanted to do it for him.

That bird you see at the top may or may not be our friendly AI falcon mascot.

File: Centuria X.png (2.44 MB, 1152x1728)

2.44 MB PNG

>>4272331
This is the tenth companies banner.

Our scouts have often been useful, but they're not quite space marines yet. I wanted to honour them anyway, because under Geron's guiding hand they've been very useful during Operation Ghostblade. But since they're not quite full brothers yet, I couldn't really give them the golden Aquila. Hence they had to make do with a bronze one. And a simple skull with grey wings for our agile young brothers.

File: LibrariusBanner.png (2.55 MB, 1152x1728)

2.55 MB PNG

>>4272336
Now I've gone through all companies except the first one (because they already have a banner).
Maybe I should have stopped there, but I always thought our Libarius deserves a bit more recognition since they've been the linchpin that kept our chapter from imploding or many of our brothers from dying quite often in the past, so I spent a lot of time making this.

In case you wonder why there's a horned skull, I didn't put it there to prepare us for future heresies, that's just the general symbol of the librarius for all space marines.

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>>4272345
Here is actually the last one and obviously the cause for my question last thread.
Now that we've decided to institutionalize the Tombguard, I thought they deserve a banner of their own Sorry Yman, I couldn't find a way to represent Greg on the banner.

I thought the idea is cool.

>>4272345
By the way, Luigi suggested Daemonocaust for the writing in that picture, which I kinda liked, but hi thought that sounds too daemony :(

>>4272345
Domitor maleficorum =Tamer/conqueror of evil (stuff)

Unfortunately we will not be able to run the space battle today.

Next Session still scheduled for tomorrow around ~7pm GMT. However this is not yet confirmed.

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>>4273766
>Next Session still scheduled for tomorrow around ~7pm GMT
>GMT

A special side-mission session of Chapter Master Quest will be commencing within the hour.

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== SESSION RESUMING ==

= Side Mission. Whispers in the Void. =

The Strike Cruiser Pax Sepulchrum has been patrolling the tumultuous stars of Subsector Tyranus for almost four years now, circumnavigating the terrible warp storm known as The Grave and keeping the Imperial worlds that surround it as secure as possible.

Aboard the Pax Sepulchrum the Second Company of the Ghosts of Retribution have grown restless. Now and again they have the pleasure of deploying to battle, to massacre some foolish chaos reavers or purge one of the many Imperial chartists around the Grave that succumb to the powers of the warp in this tumultuous region of space. Necessary work perhaps, but far beneath the capabilities of a battle company of the Adeptus Astartes.

The clock turns to 367.M41, looking to be another uneventful year in the void as the marines continue their stoic vigil. But as Pax Sepulchrum passes the space lanes of Tortuga an astropathic message from Attero - relayed via Malta - reaches her.

It seems the Sisters of the Order of Bloody Tears have picked up on rumours and reports from Imperial chartists of a new debris field in the Mergidos system, a waypoint system of little importance. But the signs of recent battle warrant a proper investigation.

In his wisdom, Captain Harmantos has sent a portion of his Company on the Kentauros, a Gladius-class Frigate and escort of the Pax Sepulchrum, to assist the Sisters in their investigation.

This is how Chaplain Heorod and Lexicanum Eudoras have come to the Mergidos System, in joint command of twenty of their Astartes brethren and the Kentauros. The Frigate breaks into realspace on the edges of the system, where they are quickly hailed by a Sword-class Frigate waiting in the Outer Reaches.

>“This is Palatine Serpentina of the Order of Bloody Tears, aboard the Silent Piety. Identify yourself or face the wrath of the God-Emperor.”

Concurrently the ship’s auspex officers inform Heorod and Eudoras of a large debris field within the system - near the planet Mergidos itself - still sparking with energy signatures and vox ghosts.

>How do you respond?

>>4275471
>>How do you respond?
>Hail, I am chaplain Heorod of the Ghosts of Retribution second company. We were sent to investigate the signs of a recent battle.

>>4275471

"This is Chaplain Heorod of the Ghosts of Retribution's Second Company, aboard the Kentauros. We received word from Attero and have come to lend our support to your task force."

>>4275488
>>4275506

The response is sharp and to-the-point.

"At last. We've been waiting for you. As I'm sure your augurs can detect there are signs of recent battle in this system. We're here to investigate and determine if any threat still remains."

It's immediately apparent that Serpentina plans to remain in charge, and Kentauros follows Silent Piety as the two Frigates' plasma engines blaze and send your starships through the void.

As your ship approach the massive debris field your augurs and visual magnifiers reveal enormous chunks of sundered starship drifting in the void high above the surface of the volcanic planet of Mergidos. The remnants of a brutal battle, two sides quickly become apparent with some of the debris coloured a simple metallic silver & black whilst other pieces are a smooth bright tan colour - albeit marred by charred black and impact scars.

>roll d100 for analysing the silver & black debris
>roll d100 for analysing the bright tan debris

Rolled 61 (1d100)

>>4275517
>>roll d100 for analysing the silver & black debris

Rolled 89 (1d100)

>>4275517

Silver & Black

Praise the Omnissiah

>>4275530
There is no god here today, MS.
Only me :(

Rolled 89 (1d100)

>>4275539

fine.

lets try the tan bastards

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>>4275530
>Rolled 89 (1d100)
>>4275549
>Rolled 89 (1d100)

>>4275530
>>4275539
You were meant to roll 89 no matter what.

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>>4275566
It is CMQ after all.

>>4275524
>>4275549
The mortal officers aboard the Kentauros analyse and piece together the various chunks of debris and wreckage strewn about, poring over their holographic models for a frustratingly long time as they liaise with officers on the Silent Piety doing the same thing.

Eudoras and Heorod almost consider starting some sparring practice before the mortals return with their findings.

"Milords, we have determined that the silver & black debris is definitely from starships of Imperial pattern. The other debris-..we believe to be of xenos origin." They explain.

Serpentina is soon on the vox, having just received the same conclusions. "There's no record of any Navy vessels going missing around this region of space."

As your ships circle the debris field, the enormous lava-coated planet of Mergidos looms up in your bridge's viewing windows bathing you in an orange flow. "Milords," one of the augur operators reports, "We're picking up an intermittent single-tone signal from the surface. A distress beacon perhaps? The thick smog of the planet renders detailed scanning of the area impossible."

"Astartes." Serpentina hails you once more. "My sisters and I intend to investigate the signal." She states.

>Join the Sororitas
>Do something else?

>>4275577
>>Join the Sororitas
Join them.
>>Do something else?
Send some guys out in a thunderhawk to get closer to the debris and give it the ol lookaroo.
Scanners are gay anyway, big E gave us eyes for a reason.

>>4275577
>"Astartes." Serpentina hails you once more. "My sisters and I intend to investigate the signal." She states.

Milady, in this fog we should not seperate from to support each other should this be neccessary

-take debris onboard for further analysis (age, origin (if imperial maybe it can be deduced if ship was build nearby or somewhere else, our mechanicum allies might know more than us))

>>4275577

What sort of transport do we have available for orbital operations?

Rolled 76 (1d100)

>>4275590
>>4275598
>>4275600
"As you wish Astartes."

Your force - Heorod, Eudoras, and two full Tactical Squads - load up into a Thunderhawk and surge forth from the Kentauros, the Frigate's small lighter bay only able to accommodate one of the powerful craft.

The Sororitas are descending in a guncutter emblazoned in their Order's colours, and your pilots fall into formation as you descend into the thick, black atmosphere with a series of violent shudders. Finally you make it through the thick smog of volcanic debris and the thunderhawk is bathed in an orange glow from the volcanic surface below, as your Brother-Pilot reels off data. "Non-toxic atmosphere. Average temperature forty six degrees."

Your two craft sweep over a vast expanse of hardened volcanic rock, the jagged black plains flanked by lava floes and bubbling lakes. "Three o'clock. Debris." The Sororitas pilot crackles over the vox, her voice guiding your eyes towards an enormous long shape that sticks out from the rocky surface like an unnatural mountain. Perhaps two kilometres long, the buckled, angular shape has landed clumsily upon the planet's surface and left enormous fissures glowing with orange lava around its broken form.

The signal however is originating from almost thirty kilometres ahead, across the enormous volcanic plain from what looks like a small dormant protrusion in the skyline.

>roll d100 for your Thunderhawk scanning
I am rolling for the Sororitas' efforts

>>4275598
>>4275590
Your mortal comrades aboard the Kentauros dispatch some lighters to investigate the debris more closely. They promise additional information but it will take some time to conduct a full analysis.

Rolled 49 (1d100)

>>4275646
>>roll d100 for your Thunderhawk scanning

Rolled 7 (1d10)

>>4275655
Your Brother-Pilot sends a series of long-range multi-spectral images directly to Heorod & Eudoras' helmets. What they see is what looks like a rudimentary fortification built around a small jagged protrusion in the volcanic plain, from which the signal is emanating. It's hard to tell specifics thanks to the extensive infrared interference, but it looks large enough to house perhaps a few hundred at most.

"A fallen Frigate to the west, Astartes." Serpentina speaks over the vox, the Sororitas apparently oblivious to the fortification ahead.

>Recon the fortification from the air
>Attack the fortification from the air
>Land and approach on foot
>Something else

In addition to any of the above, what do you tell the Sisters?

>>4275683
>>Land and approach on foot
Also
>In addition to any of the above, what do you tell the Sisters?
Careful, Sister. There are fortifications with possible anti-air capabilities ahead. Let us set down and approach on foot to remain unseen for a while longer.

>>4275683
>
>Something else
we dont even know who its from, so i say fly a big circle to gathermore data

>In addition to any of the above, what do you tell the Sisters?
send sisters data of our scan

>>4275686
>>4275690
"Received and understood." Serpentina replies, the Sororitas guncutter falling in behind yours.

>>4275690
>>4275686
You have learned as much as you can whilst remaining outside of visual range.
You could conduct an overhead recon outside of expected weapons range, but there is a high chance you would be spotted.

Do you want to take this chance in order to learn more?

>>4275683

>fallen frigate to the west

Is there enough to roughly ID the ship's class or perhaps enough prow is intact to get a specific ID? Or does it look like an uncontrolled crash?

Is the Chapter currently rocking Raven Guard Tactics for sweet, sweet stealth bonuses?

>>4275696
>Do you want to take this chance in order to learn more?
I'd say no, because let's be honest:
We'll go in either way and if we won't the sisters will.

>>4275701
Judging by the vessel's angular and cuboid shape, it seems to match the description of a Falchion-class Frigate.

Your Brother-Pilot describes the frigate's touchdown generously as an 'emergency landing'. It's heavily damaged but still in one piece.

>Is the Chapter currently rocking Raven Guard Tactics for sweet, sweet stealth bonuses?
Correct.

>>4275706
>Judging by the vessel's angular and cuboid shape, it seems to match the description of a Falchion-class Frigate.
were we intelligent enough to bring data of falchion class ships in the area?
can we make out some markings who it belonged to?
Are there ork-style improvements on the thing?

>>4275706
and before i forget, do we hab dropable servoskulls or smth similar?

>>4275696
>>4275706

I believe we should deploy our Astartes to infiltrate on foot.

The sororitas can act as a reserve, with our Thunderhawk acting as a distraction/gunship if they need to deploy to support us under fire.

Ideally, we will identify a good insertion point, knock out any AAA threat and secure the LZ for the Sororitas, if necessary.

>>4275731
Sounds good.

Rolled 39 (1d100)

>>4275703
Serpentina agrees with your decision, and your craft deploy landing gear and skim low to the surface, remaining shielded by the uneven volcanic surface until you're within just a kilometre of the fortification.

The Thunderhawk ramp eases open and hot volcanic air rushes into your craft, the marines filing out and assembling on the rough, jagged volcanic rock. Palatine Serpentina and thirty Sisters of Battle emerge from their own craft, the armoured sisters all donning helmets as Serpentina strides over to Eudoras and Heorod.

"Astartes," she speaks firmly, looking up at the superhumans without pause, "usually my Sisters and I will approach the fortification in a wide formation and identify targets of importance before eliminating them with concentrated fire." she explains, before waiting for any retort.

>>4275716
The frigate's surface has been stripped and charred by heat and weapons fire. However it could have been under the control of any number of Chartists, independant captains, chaos reavers, or other parties.
However, you can confirm that there it has no (obvious) orky enhancements.

>>4275720
The high ambient temperature and debris in the air would make any servoskull highly unreliable. Your own armour scopes can now get a better look at the fortification however.

You see that the walls are composed of piled rocks and sheets of light tan debris, and you can pick out small figures adorned in armour of the same colour moving across them.


>>4275731
Confirm you are all happy with this plan now?

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>>4275745
>Confirm you are all happy with this plan now?

>>4275745
we dont even know if these are hostile

>>4275745
>"Astartes," she speaks firmly, looking up at the superhumans without pause, "usually my Sisters and I will approach the fortification in a wide formation and identify targets of importance before eliminating them with concentrated fire." she explains, before waiting for any retort.

we have the thunderhawk
if they are hostile, we redeploy to the other side, and try to push them out, to positions manned by your sisters while the hawk provides firepower

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Rolled 92 (1d100)

>>4275757
"Perhaps," Serpentina replies, "In which case they should be easier to pacify."

>>4275753
>>4275731
Serpentina is unhappy with being a reserve force but the Sororitas grudgingly accept your plan.
"Do not get yourself killed before we can join battle." The Palatine adds as her sisters move back into their guncutter.

>roll d100 for concealment
>roll d100 for recon

I am rolling for the fortifications' awareness.

Rolled 11 (1d100)

>>4275785
>>roll d100 for recon

Rolled 37 (1d100)

>>4275785

Rolling for concealment

>>4275785
>>4275788
>>4275789
The spirit of Corax seems to be alive and well in your brothers.
Like grey wraiths the Ghosts of Retribution move across the jagged black stone of Mergidos, crouching through fissures and keeping to the shadows of jagged outcrops as the task force spreads out to recon as much of the fortification as possible.

By the time the rudimentary circular encampment is within a hundred metres your astartes are taking up positions behind small ridges and crevices, examining the target through their scopes and visors.

Eudoras and Heorod are themselves watching from the tip of a high outcrop, as reports come in from marines around the walls. The wall - maybe three metres high - is patrolled by maybe fifty bipedal xenos clad in light ran armour, long rectangular weapons slung across their shoulders. One takes their helmet off to take a drink from a clear flask, revealing dark blue skin and an inhuman face.
"Xenos." Chaplain Heorod spits hatefully. Before falling silent as a pair of blocky bipedal walkers - each perhaps twice the height of a man - leap up onto the wall and take a brief patrol - strange tubular weapons on their gauntlets.

Within the walls are a series of rudimentary structures formed from chunks of debris and large sheets of canvas, between which more of the aliens move - most of these ones clad in smooth white & ran voidsuits rather than armour. In total your men count at least a hundred of the aliens in the open, with the possibility of many more within the structures, and half a dozen of the compact walkers.

Most importantly however are three large emplaced guns that look like they've been salvaged from destroyed vehicles, and affixed to cobbled-together mechanical gimbals that point towards the sky. The weapons are stubby, with large square barrels, and each one covers a third of the encampment's perimeter.

>State your actions

>>4275825
attack the walkers first, they look the most dangerous, then take out the weapons pointing in the air.
afterwards withdraw and bombard them with the thunderhawk

>>4275825
>Most importantly however are three large emplaced guns that look like they've been salvaged from destroyed vehicles, and affixed to cobbled-together mechanical gimbals that point towards the sky.
Damn I'm good.

>>4275834
If we can sneak into throwing range we could nade the AA and then immediately focus the walkers before the grenades explode. If we communicate beforehand with out allies we can even get them to come in at the same time or shortly after.

>>4275825
>>4275834
>>4275841
before we kill all, i want one or two alive for questioning
(if they dont understand our language, we hab libby nearby)

Rolled 72 (1d100)

>>4275834
>>4275841
>>4275857
With the encampment fully investigated your force regroups around Eudoras and Heorod.
One Brother aims his missile launcher at the walkers on the wall and five brothers move towards the encampment on their front, shuffling carefully towards the base as they prepare their frag grenades.

The rest of your force spreads out across the outcrop, aiming their bolters.

>roll d100 for surprise (Utterly oblivious guards. Target 70)
>roll d100 for damage

I am rolling for their immediate response.

Rolled 75 (1d100)

>>4275883
>>roll d100 for damage

Rolled 41 (1d100)

>>4275883
>>roll d100 for surprise (Utterly oblivious guards. Target 70)

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>>4275825
I am Skargan and I approve of this message.

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>>4275893
>soon

>>4275890
>>4275889
Your force moves into position without raising a single suspicion amongst the aliens, the foolish xenos leaning on their rifles and failing their guard duties in a way that would earn corporal punishment within the Imperium.
Your advance team hurls their grenades, the metal orbs arcing clear across the walls and bouncing towards the gun emplacement - unfortunately landing inaccurately as a handful of nearby xenos wander towards the fallen grenades curiously.

The xenos are torn apart in a shred of blood and fire as the grenades detonate, blowing the emplaced gun crooked on its mountings but not destroying it properly. Simultaneously the walltop is illuminated in the pops of bolt explosions as your team opens fire, a krak missile slamming into one of the walkers and splitting it open like an egg before it topples off the wall.
At least a dozen of the wall guards pop like ripe fruit as bolts pierce their armour and reduce them to tangled scraps of blue flesh across the debris-wall. A line of heavy bolts from one of your heavy weapons operators stitches up the surface of the wall itself, tearing apart chunks of metal and rock and collapsing a section wide enough to walk through beneath the remaining walker. It tumbles down even as thrusters on its back attempt to keep it righted, only for the continued fusilade of heavy bolts to crack open its surface before a cloud of red gore splatters from its rent front.

Unfortunately the other walkers within the encampment resist the bolts that ping and burst against their surface, and the aliens within begin sounding alarms and panicking wholesale as they run around. Dozens more armed aliens run out of the structures with their weapons, maybe another fifty, as they head straight for the walls, but even several seconds after your opening barrage the aliens are still struggling to determine where they are under attack from. Their esoteric weapons snap in all directions, their blue muzzle flashes erupting across the wall and tearing small chunks from volcanic rock outcrops all around their fortification.

Whilst it's only a matter of time before they locate your force properly, you have a brief window of opportunity.

>state your actions

>>4275911
A second wave of grenades from the marines who didn't sneak up as close, now that not being detected is less of an issue together with focussed fire on another walker while we quickly retreat before they realize what the hell is going on.

If we can take out the AA we can return with superior firepower, if we can't we'll have to think of something else.

Alternatively, if the sisters stood ready we could go for the kill right now.

Rolled 17 (1d100)

>>4275924
You order your men to attack without thought of concealment, and focus fire on the AA gun and walkers within line of sight. Meanwhile all seventeen marines on the outcrop yank the pins from their grenades.

>roll 1d100 for grenades
>roll 1d100 for other attacks

>>4275911

Focus our heavy weapons on the AAA turrets due to their makeshift nature.

Have the thunderhawk make an attack run along the wall, focusing the battle cannon on any remaining AAA and suppression of enemy infantry for the rest of the weapons. If the AAA is knocked out, battle cannon the walkers.

Once the AAA is knocked out, Thunderhawk battlecannons a breach into the wall before covering the Sororitas guncutter.

Both aircraft suppress enemy infantry and focus heavier weapons on additional emplacements/walkers as our ground forces link up, Astartes operating in fire teams and pushing the enemy's flanks if they attempt to form a defensive line.

Rolled 14 (1d100)

>>4275945
>>roll 1d100 for grenades

>>4275947
If you all agree with this, please roll an additional d100 for the thunderhawk attack run in addition to the rolls prompted here:
>>4275945

Rolled 89 (1d100)

>>4275945
>>roll 1d100 for other attacks

Rolled 79 (1d100)

>>4275953
>If you all agree with this, please roll an additional d100 for the thunderhawk attack run in addition to the rolls prompted here:

>>4275956
>Rolled 89 (1d100)
>>4275530
>Rolled 89 (1d100)
>>4275549
>Rolled 89 (1d100)

Okay we rolled the same number 3 times.
Is that bad or good?

>>4275966

>same number 3 times

It is usually just a sign that 4chan dice are shit.

Rolled 73, 52 = 125 (2d100)

>>4275950
>>4275956
>>4275966
The salvo of grenades soar clear over the wall, bouncing amongst the structures and tents and around the feet of panicking aliens. The resulting explosions sending shrapnel tearing through the encampment. Dozens of the voidsuit-clad aliens are killed and wounded as shrapnel tears them apart, and the damaged AA gun is smashed to pieces - its gimbal collapsing as another alien is crushed beneath the falling gun.

Bolts shells tear across the walls in pursuit of the agile walkers, the blocky suits leaping around with frustrating agility. But just as the aliens seem to be arranging themselves the roar of your approaching thunderhawk gives them pause.

A tremendous impact against the wall from the thunderhawk's battle cannon sends debris and pieces of alien soaring into the air, destroying another of the walkers as heavy bolter fire stitches through the encampment indiscriminately and tears apart a few more aliens and structures. A large gap in the wall maybe ten metres wide has been made and Serpentina's guncutter is on rapid approach.

>rolling for alien return fire

>>4275988
The aliens have a bead on your strike force now, and the volcanic rock blows into chunks of fine powder as the xenos' distinctive weapons crack with blue muzzle flashes.

"Argh-!" One of the marines is struck in the arm, the alien projectile tearing his hand right off and sending him spinning to the ground before his nearest brother drags him back into cover.

"Those things are powerful." Eudoras remarks as the walkers fire rapid pulses of bright blue plasma that peppers and sears the earth, re-melting the volcanic rock into glass. For now the aliens are still struggling to marshal their forces around the collapsed section of wall, but they know where you are. Your advance team of five marines has carried on moving forwards and are now up against the wall itself, where the aliens above can't hit them.

Meanwhile you can see the aliens desperately trying to redirect their remaining two AA guns towards this section of the wall.

"We're incoming!" Serpentina yells over the vox, as you hear the Sororitas' guncutter approaching from behind.

>state your actions

>>4276009
can one of our marines capture one of their dudes?

>>4276015
Your marines are currently operating under the principle of eliminating any threats before attempting to capture any of the aliens.

Do you want to risk the marines' own safety in an attempt to capture any of the aliens more specifically?

>>4276009
>>state your actions
Try to give cover fire while exposing as little of ourselves as possible to get their infantry to tuck their heads in so our female allies can remove their last walker.>>4276019
>Do you want to risk the marines' own safety in an attempt to capture any of the aliens more specifically?
Not right now, no. This fight is far from over, we're not even in the fortress and there are plenty of aliens inside.

>>4276009

Suppress or destroy the AAA with our heavy weapons.

Bring the Thunderhawk in perpendicular to our breach for another attack run, focus the walkers.

If any AAA emplacements remain as the SoBs make their landing, ensure that their guncutter focuses suppresive fire on them.

Once the enemy's walkers are destroyed and their attention is split, charge to support the SoBs

>>4276023
sounds fine

Rolled 59, 19 = 78 (2d100)

>>4276021
>>4276023
Please roll
>1d100 for marine fire
>1d100 for Thunderhawk suppression
>1d100 for Sororitas insertion

I am rolling for alien ground fire and AA fire.

Rolled 47 (1d100)

>>4276043
>>1d100 for marine fire

Rolled 89 (1d100)

>>4276043
>>1d100 for Sororitas insertion

Rolled 24 (1d100)

>>4276043

Rolling Thunder(hawk)

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>>4276045
>Rolled 89 (1d100)
>>4275956
>Rolled 89 (1d100)
>>4275530
>Rolled 89 (1d100)
>>4275549
>Rolled 89 (1d100)

...guys?

>>4276043
>19 for AA that was just described as turning to cover the breach in the wall

RIP first marines through.

>>4276045
>>4276052

Yep, dice are shit.

>>4276054
>>4276052
Sacred Khorne number is 8.
Sacred Tzeentch number is 9.
What happens when the two who hate each other are called upon so often together?

>>4276043
>>4276044
>>4276045
>>4276047

Your marines exchange fire with the growing number of aliens on the wall, alien gunfire peppering the rocks. A missile arcs into the wall and blows apart a handful of the alien infantry, hails of bolts putting paid to half a dozen more. Their return fire increases dramatically in intensity as they take to the walls and a blazing burst of plasma fire from one of the walkers wounds another of your marines, burning his leg to ash.

Then your thunderhawk roars in, guns blazing as a battle cannon shell slams into a buttress and destroys one of the walkers leaving two remaining, whilst a salvo of its missiles obliterate another of the AA guns and the aliens desperately trying to turn it around.

Things look promising as Serpentina's guncutter approaches low overhead, alien infantry fire bouncing off the large craft's armoured hull as it prepares to touch down at the breach. The guncutters' heavy bolters blaze towards the remaining AA position, but the desperate aliens seem to show no regard for their own safety as they force the gun into position. "Down down down!" You hear Serpentina yell over the vox before a blazing salvo of heavy plasma bolts tear through the guncutter's wing, destroying one of its engines in a harsh explosion.
Hovering as it is, the total loss of lift from one side sends the guncutter into a sharp spin that slams it straight into the ground on its side, dust and debris hurled into the air from the disastrous insertion.
"Damn it." Hereod seethes as the debris cloud coats the aliens' walltops and their aimed fire ceases briefly, and you hear a harsh yell over the vox.
"For the Emperor!" Serpentina yells, and through the debris you see the infrared signature of maybe a dozen Sororitas spilling out of the front of the crashed guncutter and into the breach in the wall, firing in all directions.

>State your actions

>>4276087
Reinforce the sisters, keep the heavy weapons on the walkers, try to ease their way into cover through overwhelming firepower.

>>4276093

Seconding.

Thunderhawk to make another run. Destroy the last AAA position before it can be turned on our ground forces.

Rolled 25, 11, 5 = 41 (3d100)

>>4276093
>>4276102
Roll
>1d100 for marines
>1d100 for thunderhawk

Despite the crash landing of the Sororitas you've generally put the aliens on the back foot through casualties inflicted, with most of their big guns destroyed. The defenders are heavily shaken and several of the operators of the final AA position were killed by the guncutter's heavy bolters.
Your marines charge into battle as the heavy weapons operators stand tall and proud on the outcrop to unleash the full force of their weapons. No matter what this will be the aliens' reckoning.

Rolling for their ground forces and AA respectively (first 2d100) and Serpentina & her Sisters (third d100)

>>4276112
>>4276102
>>4276093
Please also roll an additional 2d100 for Heorod and Eudoras respectively.

Rolled 50 (1d100)

>>4276117
>Heorod

>>4276119
Sometimes it's okay to be average.

Rolled 21 (1d100)

>>4276117
Rollan Eudoras.

Rolled 31 (1d100)

>>4276112

Aces high! Thunderhawk is go!

>>4276129
Good man.

Rolled 10 (1d100)

>>4276117
>Eudoras

Rolled 83 (1d100)

>>4276112
Rollan maroons.

>>4276140
Ahem, I meant marines of course.

>>4276141
This was a marine loot roll, right?

Bedtime, night guys.

>>4276119
>>4276129
>>4276131
>>4276140
>>4276141
Your marines clear the gap between the outcrop and the wall within a few seconds, but that doesn't stop the aliens' lethally accurate fire cutting down two of your number and Heorod's rosarius field flares as plasma bounces off the protective halo.

The thunderhawk loses its front nose wing to incoming fire from the AA gun, knocking it off course, but it manages to strafe the remaining AA crew and limp away, shaky in the air but still flying.

As the marines move around the wreckage of the guncutter and through the breach in the wall, they find the Sororitas waylaid on all sides by bursts of plasma and pulse fire as the aliens desperately attempt to put down the fanatical women. But despite their best efforts Serpentina and her Sisters are fighting with a ferocity your marines have never before seen from mortals.
"Suffer not the Alien!" Serpentina bellows as she thrusts her power sword through the chest of one of the walkers, holding on as it tumbles back and shredding several more aliens with her bolter. The rest of the Sisters quickly take cover around structures and fallen walkers, blazing away with bolters, flamers and meltaguns.

It quickly becomes apparent that the aliens fight poorly in such close quarters, and your marines join battle in earnest, fighting side-by-side with the Sisters of Battle as you sweep aside the remainder of the alien defenders with a brutal ferocity.

Lexicanum Eudoras is waylaid by one of the walkers, the agile mechanical suit leaping into him and knocking him onto his back - but as the alien monstrosity raises its plasma gun Eudoras feels the warp surge through him, and the Librarian raises his hand. The alien battlesuit's gun is forced aside, before its limbs buckle and twist inward under the powers of his telekinesis. With a bellow of rage Eudoras closes his hand into a fist and the alien walker collapses inward with a sickening crush, scrunched into a ball of twisted metal as blood drips from it like juice squeezed from an orange.

Heorod meanwhile makes a beeline for the last remaining walker, barging into the heretical technology before it can finish off a wounded Sister at its feet. Ever mindful and measured, the Chaplain smashes the walker's 'head' to pieces with his Crozius before a Brother melts its legs with his meltagun, immobilising the machine.

The alien infantry fare even worse. Their gunfire - which had been deadly accurate at range - now blazes uselessly as they attempt to retreat and shoot at the same time. Their sluggish reactions see them cut down wholesale by bolter fire and chainsword.

cont.

The Imperial force sweeps and clears the encampment in a whirlwind of fire and blood, the Sisters gleefully illuminating groups of blue xenos with their flamers as they huddle in their structures. But Heorod - as a Chaplain - is able to assuage Serpentina's bloodlust before they kill every last one. "Hrmph-...as you wish." she grunts, as your force consolidates and sweeps every corner of the encampment that now runs with rivers of alien blood.

After securing the area, Eudoras and Heorod regroup with Serpentina - who removes her helmet and takes a deep breath.
"The crash was rough. Three of my Sisters were killed and four badly wounded. But once we had engaged the filth in battle we suffered only two more badly wounded." You can see the seven wounded sisters being tended to, the dead still locked within the guncutter wreckage.

Of your own forces two marines are dead, one's chest blown open by plasma fire and another killed by pulsefire through the head. One is also missing his lower leg but is in the process of having an emergency prosthetic screwed into his broken stump.

Meanwhile you also have prisoners. One is still locked inside the disabled walker, whilst another twenty of them - meek types clad in voidsuits - are huddled together under the watch of itchy trigger fingers. You also finally get a chance to examine the source of the signal. The central structure of the camp is a tubular pod-like craft, constructed of smooth tan metal, that seems to have crashed into the rock and lodged here.

==Session over for today. We'll continue this tomorrow==

Please state your actions ready for tomorrow.

>>4276230

Land the Thunderhawk and evacuate the wounded to orbit. Hard lock the armor of the Sororitas wounded before moving them, and be sure to remind our brothers to treat the dead with respect.

Ferry down additional armsmen to help police up captives, recover the dead and secure examples of xenos weapons.

Ensure that Serpentia has any wounds tended to. Then ask if she wishes to split the xenos prisoners, or if she would prefer to make our chapter carry the scum back for processing.

Also ask if she wishes to claim any xenos artifacts as spoils, or if she prefers we secure examples for intelligence studies.

See if any of the prisoners seem to understand Gothic or High Gothic. I'd like to shut off that beacon they have going, and having one of them just turn it off would likely be the best option to preserve the item for study. As a bonus, it would probably help us remove the walker pilot intact if one of them did speak Gothic.

I assume the walker pilot is the best source of intelligence from the prisoner pool.

>>4276230
Ask them if the Emperor looks like a bitch.

>>4276515
Nah.

>>4276878
Then why are they trying to fuck him like one?

Rolled 90 (1d100)

>>4276291
Your brothers force their way into the crashed guncutter and help the Sororitas extract the remains of their dead Sisters.

Soon enough a shuttle from the Silent Piety is landing to retrieve the wounded Sisters, and a unit of armsmen in voidsuits train their shotguns on the huddled captives - some sobbing in alien tongue as they mutter heretical prayers to their heathen gods.

Your brothers collect up a fair amount of the xenos technology, including their infantry weapons and one of the heavy guns along with a host of electronics found within the structures.
Eudoras knows this equipment could be very valuable on the black market, maybe up to 50 wealth's worth. But Palatine Serpentina eyes your growing pile of alien loot quietly but suspiciously, leading you to believe that any such sale would draw considerable suspicion from the Inquisition thanks to Serpentina's eventual report.

The Palatine spits onto the volcanic ground when you ask if she wants to claim any of the xenotech for her own Order. "Such filth belongs in the lava." she remarks, making her opinion known but abundantly aware that she has no real authority over you here.

>Sell the xenotech (+50w, +2d8% heresy)
>Store the xenotech for now
>Other???

The alien prisoners look terrified as you approach them, the blue creatures huddled on their knees with the felled yet sealed walker on the floor before them. At least a few of them seem to have a rudimentary understanding of High Gothic.

>What do you say

>>4277512

>Store the xenotech for now
>Other: Ask Serpentia if she would like a copy of our Chapter's tactical assessment of the xenos weaponry after strategic study. (This is standard shit the Imperium does.)

>What do you say?

"Who leads, speaks for you?"

>>4277528
Serpentina pulls a distasteful face at your suggestion. "Bolts and fire kill them. That's all the tactical assessment the faithful need." The abrasive Sororitas remarks before wiping congealed blood from her brow and drinking deep from a flask.

The voidsuit-clad aliens share looks as you tower over them and speak, before a few of them muster the courage to point towards the fallen battlesuit. "Shas-....Shas'Ui Coran is most highest rank warrior remaining." One with a weathered face and long white hairbraid speaks in broken High Gothic. "I am Fio'Ui Rishar. Most highest rank technical."

>>4277553
>How do you respond.

>>4277553
>The voidsuit-clad aliens share looks as you tower over them and speak, before a few of them muster the courage to point towards the fallen battlesuit. "Shas-....Shas'Ui Coran is most highest rank warrior remaining." One with a weathered face and long white hairbraid speaks in broken High Gothic. "I am Fio'Ui Rishar. Most highest rank technical."

>Why did you invade our realm, alien? This is imperial territory. Is this a declaration of war?

>>4277584
Fio'Ui Rishar looks confused for a moment. "War? Invade? We come here to explore. Your kin attacked us." He points towards the fallen Frigate on the distant horizon. "And we all crash here."

"Imperial Chartists would likely have reported xenos ships before engaging." Serpentina notes. "Could be pirates."

>How do you respond

>>4277553

"Rishar. You are prisoners of the Imperium of Mankind. Obey and your... technicals continue to live. Understand?"

Assuming they understand:

"Is one of you an apothecary/doctor/medic" (go through words as needed)

"How do I remove Coran from this machine? Alive."

"Shut down the beacon/signal."

"Do you have rations/food/medicine?" (Secure any they have to assist their transfer and study)


>>4277584
We should probably ask military questions of the warrior, not a technician.

For Coran:

"What species are you?"

>>4277610
>We should probably ask military questions of the warrior, not a technician.
Just gotta make sure we intimidate him and let him know the stakes.
>>4277609
>"War? Invade? We come here to explore. Your kin attacked us."
My kin calls a million worlds home and among my kin it is customary to ask for permission before you enter the homes of others.
Are you going to try to "explore" all of those worlds without permission?

>>4277609

"Could be worse, in this region."

Once we extract the warrior, ask if they encountered any survivors from the Frigate.

>>4277610
Rishar nods tentatively before listening carefully to your words. He points out one of his comrades as a 'healer', and indicates a small storage tent piled with some kind of boxed ration packs and other basic supplies.

However when it comes to Coran, Rishar shakes his head. "The battlesuit will only open from inside. Only Coran can." At first he hesitates to shut off the beacon, before your raised boltguns make the point of the futility of a beacon if they're all dead anyway. Rishar clambers into the fallen pod and pulls a large jury-rigged cable out of one of its panels, and the thunderhawk pilot reports that the signal has died.

>What species are you?
"T'au." Rishar replies impassively.

>>4277619
"The light of the Greater Good must be carried wherever it can go." Rishar responds. Clearly these aliens have a firm belief in something, and are less terrified than equivalent humans would be in the same situation.

>How do you respond.

>>4277630
>We need to speak to somebody with authority, that seems to be Coran. He's either hiding from his responsibilities or knocked out, either way, get some of your technicians to set up communication with him to see what is going on.

Also tell them to cut off the weapons from his machine.

>>4277630

>Greater good

"Faith is a powerful thing."

>Only Coran can

"Can he hear us? He may not survive if we cut him out."

Rolled 89, 50 = 139 (2d100)

>>4277652
>>4277641
As you detach the battlesuit's weapons, Shas'Ui Coran sees fit to speak through the suit's crackling speaker,
"Kill me where I lay, savages. I will not share the fate of those you took."

>How do you respond.

>>4277660
>I will not share the fate of those you took."

>So when they return to their families and tell your leaders that it was a mistake to invade foreign territory, are they supposed to tell them that you took the coward's way out and shirked from your duty as well?
>Maybe they'll have to die instead, in case you were lying and actually here as spies or with other dishonourable intentions. I do not know that yet, but what I do know is that, considering your Gothic is better than that of your technician, you probably have an a lot higher chance to get them back home.

>>4277660

Look at Rishar. "Certainly a warrior."

"Fio'Ui Rishar would likely prefer that you live and help them lead the others.But if that is what you wish, exit your suit and I will give you a warrior's death, standing. Any compelled may witness it, if there are no objections."

>>4277686
>>4277671
Coran is resistant at first. "I shall not be subjected to your cruelties." the alien protests. But when you threaten the others there's a loud clunk as the battlesuit unlocks and the front panel groans open under a staining servo.

Emerging from the battlesuit's broken insides is one of the diminutive blue aliens, standing up straight and staring up at the marines without fear. It examines your fellow marines, frowning. "Your kin from the starship showed no such generosity. Make it quick."

>How do you respond

>>4277705
>"Your kin from the starship showed no such generosity. Make it quick."
If we would've wanted you dead we could have nuked you from orbit.

Now tell me, why are you here, what was your intention in coming here and what did the other humans do to you?
How did they and their ship look like and do you have any information that could identify them? The Emperor prefers his realm pirate-free, so should it turn out that you were ambushed by pirates we might avenge your fallen kinsmen before you get the chance to.

Rolled 38 (1d100)

>>4277716
Coran is visibly confused, struggling to understand some of your terms.


"We came here to observe the great orb." She points skywards, towards the crackling empyrean energies of The Grave that glow in the sky like a second sun.

"They are like you, gue'la. Large warriors. They defile and make mockeries of those they capture or slay. Savage actions of a savage race!" Anger flares within the alien warrior.

*rolling secret*

>How do you respond / state your actions

>>4277740
>"We came here to observe the great orb." She points skywards, towards the crackling empyrean energies of The Grave that glow in the sky like a second sun.
That "great orb" is a portal to the warp. A plane next to ours filled with worse nightmares than you can imagine.
What do you know of that orb and the monsters that inhabit the place it leads to?
>"They are like you, gue'la. Large warriors. They defile and make mockeries of those they capture or slay. Savage actions of a savage race!" Anger flares within the alien warrior.

Like me? No, and I'd advise you not to repeat those words among others like me with less equanimous minds. Those you speak of sold their souls to dark beings for fleeting power. They are corrupted and will be purged, eventually. In many ways they are further from a human than you will ever be.

File: HuLL_Smooth_During_Tau_In(...).gif (1.74 MB, 245x194)

1.74 MB GIF

>>4277740
>>4277757
>She

>>4277757
The alien is very confused by your words. "Warp? Souls?" It replies. "You speak of superstitions-.." It's clear these subjects are far beyond this species' understanding.

"So we explore the Frigate?" Serpentina remarks. "They might already know we are here." Eudoras adds.

>State your actions

>>4277766
>The alien is very confused by your words. "Warp? Souls?" It replies. "You speak of superstitions-.." It's clear these subjects are far beyond this species' understanding.
More than that, I'm afraid. When your friend in the walker was compressed by our Librarian that was not done with a weapon, but with his mind. Your race will find out about the great enemy in time, you personally might do so sooner, considering what you were sent to investigate.
>"So we explore the Frigate?" Serpentina remarks.
We do.
>"They might already know we are here." Eudoras adds.
One more reason to ask our prisoner where they've last seen the chaos scum.

>>4277740

"Traitors attacked and defiled your forces upon this world?"

Ensure we have tactical marines on overwatch.


>>4277766
"A planetbound frigate upon this world is of no value to the Imperium. If there is even the slightest chance the vessel is of traitorous origins, we should pound it and the surrounding terrain to ruin from orbit and allow the world's flames to purge anything present." (assuming there are traitors on this world)

>>4277773

>talking about psyker powers in front of an enemy and SoBs

Let's just not, please.

>>4277779
The SoBs saw it happening, they're aware that Space Marines have Psykers sanctioned by big E/the Primarchs themselves and this enemy is an ignorant blueberry.

Rolled 49 (1d100)

>>4277773
>>4277775
>>4277779
"Eight rotations past." You struggle to come to a mutual term to measure distance before the alien comes up with something. "Approximately four lengths of the downed ship in that direction towards it."
The ship itself is around two kilometres long and around thirty kilometres away from the encamptment.

>Roll 1d100
>Then state your actions.

Rolled 73 (1d100)

>>4277788
>"Eight rotations past."
Some smart fellow in our retinue surely knows how long a day is on this hellhole.

also
>What happened last time you saw those large warriors?

>>Roll 1d100
Rollin

>>4277796
Eight rotations on Mergidos translates to around seven Terran days.
"They killed fourteen of our number immediately. Shas'Vre held them off for the rest of us to retreat." The alien explains.

"Eight kilometres isn't far for heretics." Serpentina grunts, looking restless. "My Sisters and I will be moving out in search of the heretics."

>state your actions

>>4277788

Recover our dead and prepare to extract under fire.

Feed targeting data on the frigate to our ships in orbit. Set a beacon of our own if needed.

Get an Astropathic sitrep out.

Get our prisoners to our ship.

get the most intact walker examples loaded up for study.

Ghosts are the last ones out.

Then blow everything from here to the frigate to hell from orbit.

>>4277809
>8 kilometres
>8 rotations
Ah, Khornates. Better than the alternatives I suppose.

>"Eight kilometres isn't far for heretics." Serpentina grunts, looking restless. "My Sisters and I will be moving out in search of the heretics."
My brothers and I will fight with you, but first we have to get these xenos away from here or we'll have to split our forces. So getting this place into a defendable shape until we can get reinforced might be necessary.

>>4277817
I don't think the Sisters are gonna go for a plan that won't end with us killing traitors.
If you'd rather leave them alive here we could try to convince her though.

>>4277821
>plan that won't end up with us killing traitors

I'm literally saying we bombard the volcanic world from here to the frigate from orbit, which should very well cause either death by macrocannon or death by lava.

>>4277821
I support this plan

>>4277826
If you think you can convince her that's enough go ahead mang.

>>4277821
>Stay put

>>4277817
>Nuke the site from orbit it's the only way to be sure

These are quite radically different plans.
Please note that you have limited craft that can handle this atmosphere and a limited number of armsmen with the appropriate equipment for this environment. Even the Sororitas are starting to show heat-fatigue despite their power armour's insulation.

However, according to your Pilots the Frigate could be salvageable with some moderate repairs.

Please come to a consensus, vote for a plan and link to this post.

>>4277836

It takes insane amounts of effort to salvage ships from any world that isn't extremely low gravity. A frigate wouldn't be worth the Imperium's time.

Strategically, our Marines and Sororitas are far more valuable unless there is a known item of great value on that ship.

I'm voting to nuke it all from orbit.

>>4277836
>However, according to your Pilots the Frigate could be salvageable with some moderate repairs.
>Please come to a consensus, vote for a plan and link to this post.

Ask Karen, I mean, Coran, whether she wants to take revenge for her fallen brothers and sisters. Offer her a transport off the planet if she agrees to help (and tell her we'll blast her and everything else away from orbit if she doesn't, should she try to start arguing), then get to the frigate and claim it in the name of the Emperor (represented by us, the GoR).

>>4277845
>It takes insane amounts of effort to salvage ships from any world that isn't extremely low gravity. A frigate wouldn't be worth the Imperium's time.
I trust the judgement of our pilots on the planet. Moderate seems acceptable.

>>4277850
>Offer her a transport off the planet if she agrees to help
Before anybody asks, yes, she will remain our "guest" after being transported off the planet. I doubt she'll want to brave the void without a ship around her.

>>4277845
Would there be parts on it worth grabbing? If it's a heretical ship it could have old parts that are worth something.

>>4277850
>>4277854

Probably better to just ship her up to be our 'honored guest' than to get her killed. We've got plenty of dead warrior xenos to dissect. A living one is far more valuable.


>>4277862
Only traitor cap ships tend to carry valuable old tech. The escorts like this one tend to be newer designs.

>>4277862
>Would there be parts on it worth grabbing? If it's a heretical ship it could have old parts that are worth something.
We could get the entire ship.

>>4277865
>Probably better to just ship her up to be our 'honored guest' than to get her killed.
It's a threat. A tactic of negotiation if you will. I doubt it'll even be necessary, she kinda knows she's fucked without us.

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>4277845
>>4277850
Rolling d2

1 = Stay put
2 = Evac and bombard

>>4277883
damn it, third guy.

You can still vote and undo a rolloff either way.

File: HuLL_Dealing_With_Crushin(...).gif (7.42 MB, 700x379)

7.42 MB GIF

>>4277883
Goodbye sweet frigate, femininity, the source of all weakness, took you.

>>4277888
If you mean me then I believe that the smartest course of action would be to pull the mortals off planet for now while we do some light recon to make sure that the frigate isn't too heavily defended and then once they are ready for action again we go in.

>>4277883
That is if you good sir would permit it.

>>4277890

Its not even a good frigate class.

>>4277901

you know what? I'll back that instead.

>>4277902
>>4277906
Our fleet's kinda shitty so it's not like we can be picky right now. Plus, retrofits are cheaper than brand new ones.

Rolled 90, 92, 31 = 213 (3d100)

>>4277883
You assemble your forces and haul the prisoners to their feet.
"As you wish Astartes." Serpentina replies as you inform her of your intention to bombard the site from orbit.

Outside the encampment your Thunderhawk and a fresh guncutter are waiting in the lee of a large ridge, the wounded & dead already ferried back up to orbit whilst you were interrogating the aliens.

Heorod and Serpentina lead the way towards your exfiltration craft, with Eudoras watching over the prisoners at the rear.

As you near the craft an uneasy feeling gnaws at Heorod's chest, the eery silence of the vast volcanic expanse permeated only by the whirr of servos as the crafts' doors open. Serpentina seems to feel the same thing, and you both pause a few metres short of the craft and exchange a glance before the silence is broken by a cacophony of blazing gunfire erupting from the nearest ridgeline.

*I am rolling for enemy attacks*

Please roll:
>1d100 for Eudoras & Prisoners
>1d100 for Heorod & Marines
>1d100 for Serpentina & Sororitas

And state any further actions.

Rolled 63 (1d100)

>>4277920
Rollan Eudoras and prisoners.

Rolled 69 (1d100)

>>4277920
rolling for Herod and marines

Rolled 71 (1d100)

>>4277920
Remember when Lyk said we should get this place defendable while Luigi did secret rolls?
Lyk remembers.

>1d100 for Heorod & Marines

Rolled 52 (1d100)

>>4277927
>>4277926
Nice save, thirdguy.
lel
>1d100 for Serpentina & Sororitas

Rolled 61 (1d100)

>>4277920

also rolling to battlecannon the idiots attempting to ambush us near a thunderhawk and guncutter.

>>4277931
>>4277930
>>4277927
>>4277926
>>4277924
>>4277920
By the way, now that we're killing them anyway is there still any need to nuke everything from orbit?
Might as well claim the loot once we're done killing people.

>>4277952

Only if they are Nurgle.

>>4277953
Agreed. Fuck Nurgle ships.

>>4277959
or if it has tentacles, bleeding walls or herpes

>>4277924
>>4277926
>>4277930
A fusillade of boltfire rains down upon your small column, kicking up chunks of sharp volcanic rock.
One of Serpentina's Sisters is struck by a heavy bolt centre mass, blowing the Sororitas in two before the stitch of rapid fire bolts sweeps across and badly mauls another of the Sisters, chewing her power armour apart. Another Sister is felled as a carefully aimed bolt takes off her head, and three more are knocked to the ground wounded from the opening fusillade. "Return Fire!" Serpentina bellows, a couple of bolts scraping her pauldron.

Your marines fare better, one brother falling as bolts shatter his chest whilst another is sent flying by a well-placed grenade - injured or dead you cannot tell. Eudoras proves his talents once more however, as he raises his staff and hurls aside a pair of incoming grenades with his powers, before he and the prisoners retreat back into the wall breach and into cover - a couple of the aliens killed by wayward bolts a they desperately try to flee.

All things considered the ambush could have been much worse - thanks largely to the enemies mostly wayward and overeager shooting. Heorod raises his Crozius as he and Serpentina rally their troops to return fire as the guncutter and thunderhawk blaze their engines, but it seems the enemy has no interest in a protracted battle.

"DEATH TO THE CORPSE-WORSHIPPERS!"

Seven Chaos Astartes - their twisted armour daubed as black as the rock beneath your feet - are already charging towards your column, their power armour crunching rock as the superhumans sprint with alarming speed. "Defence!" Serpentina yells, the Sororitas hurrying to close ranks in the precious few seconds at your disposal.

You have the chaos astartes outnumbered, but all seven of them swing aloft enormous chainaxes and blades with the look of psychopaths that know how to use them.

What do you do?

>Close Formation! - Less time to shoot, but more prepared to defend in melee
>Open Fire! - More time to shoot, but less able to resist should they reach melee
>Charge! - Assault the Chaos Astartes directly. This would shield your allies and given your numbers has a good chance to destroy the Chaos marines, but is likely to result in severe losses.
>Run for the Encampment/Thunderhawk! - Chance to avoid combat entirely. Potentially severe losses if caught from behind.

Place your votes.

>>4277962
>Open Fire! - More time to shoot, but less able to resist should they reach melee

>>4277962
>>Open Fire! - More time to shoot, but less able to resist should they reach melee
Bolts from close range with the idiots running right at us, we should be able to take most of them out if we don't go full retard.

>>4277968
https://client02.chat.mibbit.com/?channel=%23RisingSons&server=irc.Rizon.net

Click the link to get into the Questchat if you feel like it, no sign up required.

>>4277962

>Close Formation!

Heorod counter-charges to intercept the nearest one going toward the Sororitas.

Because fuck you, buddy. We have a power weapon.

Rolled 31, 31, 19, 6 = 87 (4d100)

>>4277968
>>4277970
>>4277978
>Open Fire - 2
>Close Formation - 1

"Open Fire!" Heorod bellows to his brothers, as he himself grips his Crozius Arcanum and makes a beeline for a Chaos Marine heading straight towards Serpentina.

Please roll:
>1d100 for firing
>1d100 for melee defence
>1d100 for Heorod

I am rolling for Chaos Marines (first two), Sororitas, and Serpentina in that order.

>>4277978
Sure why not

Rolled 46 (1d100)

>>4277993
Rolling for firing

Rolled 34 (1d100)

>>4277993

welp, Sororitas just mopped the floor.

Time to look bad!

Heorod, go!

Rolled 31 (1d100)

>>4277993
>>1d100 for melee defence

>>4277993
>>4278018

>3 31s

fucking 4chan dice

>>4277993
>>4278005
>>4278006
>>4278018
The Chaos Astartes had positioned themselves with exceptional skill, but it seems that in their desperation to secure transport off-world they have acted too rashly.

"AAARGH!" The closest chaos astartes roars as he raises his axe, and your scattered marines drop to one knee and open fire. The sheer volume of bolt fire blasting against his chest slows the chaos astartes until a bolt finds his neck joint and blows a huge chunk from the heretic's upper chest.
Firing immediately has given your heavy bolter wielding brother enough time to brace his weapon, and his gun blazes and sends heavy bolts straight into the chaos astartes that's almost upon him. "Suffer not the heretic!" Your brother bellows as his close range heavy bolts tearing the chaos astartes to pieces a fraction of a second before the chain axe slams into your brother's shoulder, felling him wounded but alive as the splattered chunks of his foe fall apart.
The final chaos astartes heading for your own brothers loses his left arm to bolt fire before barging into the nearest of your brothers, slamming him to the ground before the chaos astartes swings his blade downwards into your brother's chest, tearing out his vital organs.
The raving berzerker swings his blade again with all the superhuman speed he can muster, severing the leg of another marine before lodging his axe in a third's midriff. Finally - bereft of support - the berzerker is put to his knees by bolts and Sergeant Maxim decapitates the traitor with his chainsword.

The Sororitas - despite their casualties - respond to Serpentina's command with a practised ease as they close formation into neat ranks. The fourteen that remain on their feet keeping their cool as the superhumans bear down on them. A last-moment volley kills the leading astartes but the other two simply storm through billowing flame and straight into the Sisters' ranks.
However the pious women are prepared and their front rank falls inward, the chaos astartes barging into the middle of the Sororitas' small formation.
"Ahahahaha!" The chaos astartes cackle as they strike, one of them impaling a Sister through the middle on his sword as the others' chainaxe tears into a bolter raised up in defence. But their enthusiasm is incredibly short-lived as the Sisters immediately lay into them from all sides. "Grargh!" They below, chain-bayonets tearing open their knees as their arms are grappled and pinned, the superhuman warriors rendered struggling against the fanatics that cling to them. A Sister Superior obliterates' ones' skull with an execution-style swing of her power mace, whilst the other's neck is opened up by a combat knife, and the Sororitas hurl their defeated foes to the ground in discussed as their blood pours over the black rock.

cont.

>>4278064
"He's mine!" Serpentina growls as she grips her power sword, the Chaos Astartes leader heading straight for her with his power axe swinging aloft. Heorod refuses to let the Palatine's pride be her undoing, his Crozius crackling as he stands alongside Serpentina.

"Death to the False Emperor!" The chaos astartes' crackling axe swings down Heorod's crozius narrowly guarding him from being completely gutted as the experienced heretic. The foolish chaos marine has chosen to focus on the Chaplain, a choice that costs him dear as Serpentina swings upwards and severs the marine's pistol arm as it raises to shoot her from close range. "Raargh!" The chaos Astartes bellows, spinning around to swing at Serpentina with all his superhuman speed.
Heorod could swear that a shimmering halo of light blazes around Serpentina's head as the Sororitas' glittering blade arcs upwards and parries the astartes' axe, power fields crackling as blades meet. Serpentina resists the astartes' superhuman strength and pushes aside his blade, before Heorod slams his Crozius into the chaos marine's flank, and Serpentina neatly decapitates the staggered astartes with a satisfying hum of her blade.

The headless astartes staggers upright for a moment before collapsing to the rock in a heap, and Serpentina grits her teeth. "Heathen scum."

A quick sitrep confirms the immediate threat is gone and your forces take stock.

Three more marines are dead, reducing you to 15 total as well as Heorod and Eudoras. Three are too wounded to fight effectively.

Of the Sisters four more lay dead on the black rock, a few others nursing concussive wounds.
"Thirteen of my Sisters are still on their feet." Serpentina reports. "Seven wounded on and evac'd. Three wounded here. Seven have gone to the Emperor." She sighs.

>State your actions

>>4278100
Now that the most immediate threat seems to be dealt with, ask the blue alien grill if she has seen any more than the marines we just disposed of and then see if we can repair the frigate.

>>4278100

Dust off the Thunderhawk to cover the recovery of our dead and wounded. Lay waste to any hostiles detected, with Heorod and 10 marines vectoring in to pin or finish them off.

Once the Sororitas are aboard, their guncutter trades off with our Thunderhawk and we evac the prisoners/astartes.

File: Thunderhawk RG colours.jpg (87 KB, 2162x840)

87 KB JPG

>>4278118
>>4278124
Your marines secure the area as the dead and wounded are loaded up.

As the prisoners are brought through you ask Coran if this was all the chaos marines they saw, and the alien thinks briefly before answering. "We have not faced more than this." she confirms.

Soon enough your people are all mounted up and a thorough recon of the area confirms that there's nothing left alive down there. "They must have decided to take their chances in order to secure a way off world." Eudoras and Heorod discuss.

"We are returning to the Silent Piety." Serpentina informs you over the vox. "Let me know if you encounter any more hostiles."

Your thunderhawk hovers high above the volcanic surface, orange glowing across the horizon as the frigate rests in the distances. Aboard you have twelve astartes on their feet and ready, along with Heorod and Eudoras.

>State your actions.

Gotta go to bed, don't be pussies about getting that frigate.

>>4278137
>>State your actions.
SECURE
THE
FRIGATE

>>4278137
Let us begin then with the securing best if we take it carefully so we don't run into especially nasty while we are clearing the frigate

>>4278137

Return to our ship. Treat the wounded, reclaim what can be reclaimed from the dead, secure the prisoners for now, and rearm.

Inform Pax Sepulchrum that traitor astartes have been located and brothers have taken their watch upon the Eternal Vigil. We will make a foray to investigate the crashed frigate, and additional forces may be appropriate, as per the judgement of the Commander.

Then we scout the frigate.

>>4278140
>>4278146
>>4278152
Your Thunderhawk soars up into the void, your battered unit returning to the Kentauros where the wounded and prisoners are offloaded. "What on Terra are these things..." The armsmen mutter as the Tau are escorted to cells.

Heorod arranges for the astropathic message to be issued to Pax Sepulchrum, and your marines patch up their damaged armour while the looted alien technology is stacked away in a storage room.

Your twelve healthy marines reload their weapons and joine Eudoras and Heorod in the thunderhawk, the craft soaring back down to the tumultuous planet and through its oppressive black atmospheric clouds. The Falchion-class Frigate looms up in the windows as you approach the voidship, getting a better look at its damage. With a slightly buckled hull and numerous large gashes you'd estimate it's moderately damaged, probably costing around half of what a new hull would cost to make it voidworthy again.

Your thunderhawk circles the crashed voidship for a few minutes before Eudoras' sharp eye picks out a large fissure near the base of the hull, and you zoom down low towards the yawning crack in the enormous four-hundred metre high adamantium side of the frigate. "This place is-....unclean." Eudoras murmurs as the thunderhawk lands in the shadow of the frigate, the crack in the hull ahead of you. Your marines mutter prayers and litanies as you near the adamantium behemoth, at close range its damaged surface starting to reveal enormous sigils and symbols scored into it.

The sight that awaits you at the fissure itself is enough to churn the stomach of a mortal. Stripped, mangled Tau corpses are strewn around the dark opening, suspended from chains with their entrails hanging free, or nailed directly onto the rock faces with metal spikes. Sigils of the Dark Powers are scored into the corpses, their long-dead faces locked in frozen agony. "Not even Xenos deserve this..." a Brother mutters as you push onwards. Extensive auspex sweeps fortunately reveal that the frigate is berefy of life signs and you quickly locate the chaos astartes' small camp, located in a mess hall straight down the corridor from the fissure.

Whilst it quickly becomes apparent that this frigatae was operated by the forces of chaos, with sigils and symbols daubed in dried blood all over the place and rudimentary shrines to the dark powers in crevices and makeshift chapels, this vessel has not been in service to the dark powers long enough to have been intrinsically tainted. All seems rather typical, until you reach the bridge and illuminate the eerie command room with your lights.

"Uhnnn-....All ahead....losing power-..."

cont.

>>4278199
The terrible groans emanate from some malformed mass of flesh, centred around the command throne but stretched and swollen to engulf all the nearest command surfaces. The stubby remains of what were once legs emerge from beneath the command throne, and as Heorod carefully navigates around the mutated, malformed creature his lights illuminate the remains of a human head in the surface of the malformed off-pink flesh. "By the Emperor-.." Eudoras mutters, noting the warp sigils branded into the monster's flesh. "The Captain. Cursed by those he betrayed..."

Despite the complete lack of power on the bridge the creature continues to attempt to operate its controls, spongy tendrils wrapped around panels ' and as the Captain attempts to restart his engines once again a pulse of warp energy emanates from his core down his tendrils, the energy fizzling out as it fails to interact with the long-dead consoles. For now it seems barely conscious of your presence, desperately concerned with its felled ship.

>State your actions

>Try to destroy the warp mutant?
>Wait for Pax Sepulchrum?
>Other?

>>4278200
>Try to destroy the warp mutant?
Put that thing down.

>other
Ask if the sisters happen to have any ecclesiarchy priests willing to help in making sure that no taint can take hold and begin to restore the sanctity of the wrekage.

>>4278199
>>4278200

Contact Serpentia.

"The ship is secured, and the traitors have failed to taint it beyond purification. If you are so inclined, we would appreciate any blessed promethium you can spare to deal with an abomination and the dead."

Obtain blessed promethium, burn the warp mutant in one go. If it is channeling warp energies, we don't want to give it a chance to survive.

>>4278221
>>4278232
Serpentina soon responds. "We will try to make arrangements, Brother."

Meanwhile your Astartes continue to explore the remainder of the ship, examining its critical components and gauging the state of its hull and frame.

>please roll 1d100 for frigate state

Rolled 100 (1d100)

>>4278252

Tech roll?

Sounds like a job for... A damned Tech Marine.

>>4278254
Did I just nat 100 a loot roll?

File: Do not waste your tears.jpg (622 KB, 762x1244)

622 KB JPG

>>4278254
Whilst the Frigate looks beaten up from the outside, with rents and tears in its surface armour, a quick inspection of its most important parts reveals extremely little in the way of damage. Whilst none of your marines are techmarines, they relay their findings to the Chief Enginseer of the Kentauros who shares his opinion. "A patch job and a jump start to her plasma reactor should see her flying again." He reports.

"Finally some good news." Eudoras chuckles, the marine force waiting outside the frigate's cracked hull for the arrival of the Pax Sepulchrum and whatever solution to the mutant Serpentina can provide.

Meanwhile up in orbit Palatine Serpentina herself is overseeing the last rites for her ten fallen Sisters, incense filling the Silent Piety's large chapel as ten bodies lay in state upon stone plinths and each one covered in a large cloth emblazoned with the Order's symbol of a tear weeping blood.

But as one group finds peace, for another the nightmare seems to only be beginning. Shas'Ui Coran muses on what terrible fate this particular group of gue'la may have in mind for them as the Tau sit in their cells.

==SCENARIO OVER==

Thanks for playing everyone. Due to the loot roll we'll wait for Skargan to confirm the final repair cost for the Frigate and his final word on the blessed promethium.

Otherwise, the Chapter has acquired ~50w worth of Tau technology and a dozen captives including a Fire Warrior battlesuit pilot.


We're planning on running the void combat scenario found here: >>4262477
This weekend. Likely Sunday around ~6pm UTC.
Watch here for news.

Rolled 40, 52, 7, 7, 60, 88, 34, 19, 3 = 310 (9d100)

>>4278275
good run weegee.

Getting some thoughts in the thread:

This Fire Warrior seems to be an oddly valuable prisoner. Their force reached this system in a fleet, which suggests that there are additional xenos somewhere nearby. If they are currently located outside of 'Imperial' space, it may be possible to use these captives to negotiate a peace while the Sector turns its focus elsewhere in the coming years.

As such, I suggest we make at least a few attempts at giving these xenos some creature comforts, such as limited access to an area to eat together and probably shower/bathe. Our ship shouldn't have to smell like volcanic shit due to them.

Invite the fire warrior to train with Heorod, and train her ignorant mind with basic information about the Grave and how it is a threat to the materium, which is why we attacked her people.

Offer her this trade: If we can locate her people and it is within our (reasonable) power (In/around Deus), we will return the survivors to them and attempt to negotiate a peace. We will also provide them with basic knowledge of dangerous regions of space and the boundaries of Imperial Space, in good faith to keep the peace.

And when they violate said good faith by invading our space, we can kill them later and be justified! But she doesn't need to know that. We just need to know where to find her people...

ROLLIN FOR STUFF
>1&2 Kerr stuff
>3&4 SECRET SQUIRREL
>5-9 Laaksonen shenanigans