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With the Crusade fleet beset on all fronts by hostile Xenos, traitor astartes, and even, perhaps, by foes from within, demand for Echison VII's mushroom-based nutri-soup had never been so high. The verdant garden world had increased production levels beyond any seen before in order to feed the many hungry mouths the fleet brought with them. With the planet's governance focused on maintaining favourable relations with the vast array of powerful militaries in the vicinity, other procedures were bound to be neglected - without even beginning to mention the baseline inefficiency of the Administratum. As it happened, the normally stringent scanning of inbound cargo vessels for life-forms which could threaten the harvest (typically bacteria which posed a danger to the native fungi) was one of those procedures...

The First Officer of the Crescent Dawn watched impatiently as the port's servitors unloaded the last few crates from the ship's hold. The Dawn was a moderately-sized vessel shipping prefabricated structures to house Echison VII's growing populance. It had been a long trip, and he had been lumbered with what was usually the captain's job whilst the rest of the crew unwound at one of the dock's many establishments of dubious repute. As much as he prized himself on his restraint, silently judging the crewmen who plastered pin-ups on every surface of their cabins, he had to admit that he was feeling unusually... pent up. Had he not been so distracted with his own frustrations, he might have wondered whether the captain had been feeling similarly. Him handing away responsibility for signing off the cargo transfer was unusual, but in hiding his aggravation at being forced to stay on the ship, he completely missed his superior's hungry glances at the servitors which, at some point in the past, had been women.

As the last of the servitors, bent double under the weight of huge crates, trudged down the cargo ramp, he tapped his dataslate, verifying the cargo's transfer. Tossing it aside, he pulled on his jacket and strode away from the ship. He felt almost as though a weight was lifted from his shoulders - something about this trip had been slightly... off. Nothing he could place his finger on, but he'd been in the business long enough to know that it wasn't just him that felt unsettled. First the ship's feline, Smith, disappearing, then the bizarre sores him and several other crew kept waking up to find on the backs of their necks. He rubbed the spot, still aching, as he turned the landing bay lights down with a swift tap on the exit terminal. That reminded him - he still needed to get to the bottom of that business with the best cuts of meat vanishing... But his mind swiftly turned back to more... pressing needs, and without a look back, he strode off towards the flickering lights and drifting noise of the hab-city's many watering holes.

Two unblinking orange eyes watched the First Officer go from deep within the Crescent Dawn's hold. They remained completely motionless - easily mistaken for some terminal's status lights - whilst the few remaining servitors shifted the last of the crates from the darkened bay, the vast hangar doors whirring closed behind them. Had any of the crew been still aboard, as procedure called for, and not out fulfilling their basest needs, they may have heard the clinking of claws on metal, or seen something scuttling across the hangar in the darkness, or noticed the strange markings on the porthole to the sewers. If it had been able to feel anything remotely recognisable as human emotion, the creature might have been pleased - its hosts had ferried it to what it could sense was a hub of humanity on this planet. And now they were off doing the most important job of all - fathering its Brood...

 jhe90 wrote:

Spoiler:

You brought a gene stealer to my fungus planet :-(

I have a large death korps, part catchan, part marine base there. from fungis back water to well forttified planet. Main space port is fort knox now, miles of mines, wire and defences ring the port.

Hives well garrisoned and i had it all gpoing so well lol. Sim city 40 k edition lol
I've been running mushroom shipments and drowning the fausteens in flavourless glorious fungi!

We only just got rid of the eldar....

Fungus planet be fun indeed....

Benlisted wrote:

 jhe90 wrote:

Spoiler:

You brought a gene stealer to my fungus planet :-(

I have a large death korps, part catchan, part marine base there. from fungis back water to well forttified planet. Main space port is fort knox now, miles of mines, wire and defences ring the port.

Hives well garrisoned and i had it all gpoing so well lol. Sim city 40 k edition lol
I've been running mushroom shipments and drowning the fausteens in flavourless glorious fungi!

We only just got rid of the eldar....

Fungus planet be fun indeed....

Spoiler:

Haha I would apologise, but Nids gonna Nid...

Apparently I landed in some reasonably large hab-city, looks like it was lucky I didn't end up in the main one!

The ship cut silently through the void as it approached it's chosen target, an Iron Warriors Slave Vessel. The time and place for the ambush had also been chosen carefully, to ensure that those Iron Warriors on the ground could see the destruction of the vessel and know of it's fate. Explosives had already been placed onboard the vessel on it's critical systems by carefully chosen teams of Pathfinders who had snuck their way onto the ship before it had taken off from dock. The Captain of the Eldar Ship allowed herself a smile, ever since the brief engagement with the humans she had been itching for a chance to prove her worth to Farseer Lilliana, and this was her chance. The mon'keigh would never know what hit them. With a single curt command the explosives on board the ship detonated, killing the ship's primary engines, shields, and bridge, leaving it easy prey for the boarding parties who had immediately been launched following the detonations. It was almost too easy to outwit these humans, the captain mused to herself as the Iron Warriors ship began to list in space, the humans had gone far too long without a real foe, and they were paying now for their complacency.

*The Boarding Party*
Howling Banshee Exarch Korheelia led her squad of Banshees through the ship. They had been informed that this ship was carrying Eldar captives to be tortured by the Chaos Lord known as Archarus. Even the mere thought of his name caused a convulsion of hatred to go through the Exarch as she and her squad cut their way through the masses of poorly prepared cultist and the occasional Iron Warrior who ran to interecept them. Then they came upon it, the slave holding area. Korheelia nudged the door open with the blade of her Executioner and the Banshees cautiously advanced into the area, each warrior wary of a potential trap, but they encountered none, and then they heard a noise. Korheelia instantly whirled around towards where the noise had come from and raised her shuriken pistol, then she saw the source of the noise and instantly lowered her pistol. It had come from one of the captives who were strung up along the wall, one of them had raised his head and let out a soft moan at the Banshee's entrance. Korheelia instantly recognized him as one of her kin, and the rune tattooed onto his arm identified him as hailing from her Craftworld. The Exarch felt her anger rise as she catalogued the many and varied tortures that had been inflicted upon him. It was obvious that the only reason the male had not yet perished was out of sheer stubbornness. The Exarch approached him slowly and heard him mutter something. "What did you say?" she asked softly as she crouched in front of him. This time the male spoke just loud enough to be heard, "I said end us..." the male cut off the last part of the statement with a harsh cough and spit up some blood "none of us will make it for much longer on our own, and death would be a mercy compared to what HE has planned for us." The Exarch reluctantly admitted to herself the validity of his statement. All of the other captives were in a similar sorry state, and it became painfully obvious that none of them would survive the trip back to the Eldar Vessel. So Korheelia slowly raised her shuriken pistol, and one by one she and her sisters gave the captives a merciful death, and without a word the Aspect Warriors turned around and returned to their boarding vessel, cutting down the few remaining Iron Warriors that opposed them. The vile humans would pay for this atrocity, Korheelia swore it!

*The Ship*
Word came from the launch bay that the Banshees had returned empty handed, the captives had all been too far gone to be saved, and so the Aspect Warriors had given them the mercy of death. The captain felt her anger slowly rise as she digested the information. Then with a single curt order her Vessel immediately fired once more onto the Iron Warrior vessel, condemning it and the remaining crew to a slow painful death as the ship burned up in the atmosphere on it's way down. It was the first strike against the Iron Warriors, and the Captain vowed that it would not be the last. She had a lot of ghosts to avenge.

 2BlackJack1 wrote:

Spoiler:

Well, you've got your wish. Archarus will be sending out troops soon, and we can do some battles.

Also, Kharne, I think the planet is up for grabs, you'd just need to roll right first, and conquer it. Then we'd have to hope our Eldar friend doesn't manage to kill it.

And I have a dumb question: the top right marked area of the map is the Deep, right? Or is there something I'm missing?

 Kharne the Befriender wrote:

 2BlackJack1 wrote:

Spoiler:

Well, you've got your wish. Archarus will be sending out troops soon, and we can do some battles.

Also, Kharne, I think the planet is up for grabs, you'd just need to roll right first, and conquer it. Then we'd have to hope our Eldar friend doesn't manage to kill it.

And I have a dumb question: the top right marked area of the map is the Deep, right? Or is there something I'm missing?

Spoiler:

Thats the tyranihybrids, and if you want, I'll spare some Doom Scythe cohorts for your slave ships. I'm also trying to get you slaves but its not east being in the middle of a hive fleet, but don't worry, I'll get them

 War Kitten wrote:

 Kharne the Befriender wrote:

 2BlackJack1 wrote:

Spoiler:

Well, you've got your wish. Archarus will be sending out troops soon, and we can do some battles.

Also, Kharne, I think the planet is up for grabs, you'd just need to roll right first, and conquer it. Then we'd have to hope our Eldar friend doesn't manage to kill it.

And I have a dumb question: the top right marked area of the map is the Deep, right? Or is there something I'm missing?

Spoiler:

Thats the tyranihybrids, and if you want, I'll spare some Doom Scythe cohorts for your slave ships. I'm also trying to get you slaves but its not east being in the middle of a hive fleet, but don't worry, I'll get them

Spoiler:

Leave his slave ships alone, I'm trying to blow them up and I don't appreciate your interference

 Kharne the Befriender wrote:

 War Kitten wrote:

 Kharne the Befriender wrote:

 2BlackJack1 wrote:

Spoiler:

Well, you've got your wish. Archarus will be sending out troops soon, and we can do some battles.

Also, Kharne, I think the planet is up for grabs, you'd just need to roll right first, and conquer it. Then we'd have to hope our Eldar friend doesn't manage to kill it.

And I have a dumb question: the top right marked area of the map is the Deep, right? Or is there something I'm missing?

Spoiler:

Thats the tyranihybrids, and if you want, I'll spare some Doom Scythe cohorts for your slave ships. I'm also trying to get you slaves but its not east being in the middle of a hive fleet, but don't worry, I'll get them

Spoiler:

Leave his slave ships alone, I'm trying to blow them up and I don't appreciate your interference

Spoiler:

Says the Eldar . Just wait... the finally has yet to make an appearance.

Annala wrapped up her sermon on "Strength in the God-Emperor" and dismissed her flock. A few asked some minor questions and clarifications before they left and Annala happily answered them, grateful that they were actually listening to her. When they left, she slouched against her podium and sighed. She had been straining for the past week to make sure every active Auxillia made it into at least one sermon and that really put a toll on her. She closed her eyes and slowly drifted off.

* * *

Annala awoke in her room. Her chronometer said it was late into the night but she lit a candle out of habit anyway. She was surprised to find Sylus sitting at the foot of her bed when the candle was lit. He turned when he noticed the light.

"I put you in your room. I figured sleeping in your sanctuary wouldn't help your health..." he trailed off, pulling back the hood of his robe.

"Well.. um.. Thank you, Lord Astartes..." she replied, sitting up and yawning, "I thought I was a burden to you."

Sylus looked away for a moment, "You are... but saying 'you are a burden to great to bear' is words of Fyragh. I have missed your quiet companionship."

"Did the noble Lord Astartes just admit he made a mistake?"

"Painfully... yes..."

The pair stared at each other in silence for a few minutes. Annala broke the protracted silence and put a finger on Sylus' chest.

"Do you feel anything inside you, Sylus? Do you feel happiness or sadness?" the priestess inquired.

"I feel anger... I do not remember being joyful at any point"

"Can I teach you how to feel?"

"You may try... I cannot guarantee I will understand," Sylus sighed, looking to the floor for some revelation about why he was having a psychological conversation.

"Your obligation to protect me is not out of spite, for starters," Annala said, her words catching Sylus off guard. He opened his mouth to retort, but Annala's finger told him to be quiet. "I remind you of someone you lost, someone who you couldn't protect. You won't let that happen again. You protected me from the wrath of Judge Fyragh. You pulled me first from the wreckage of your Thunderhawk, knowing full well that only one person could be saved. You challenged a Riptide Battlesuit from almost one hundred meters away, wading into heavy fire. Then you came back to make sure I would live to see another day..."

Another silence creeped in. This one permeated for nearly an hour before Sylus opened up. He was clearly distraught by what Annala had said, but denied none of it.

"I had a sister before becoming an Astartes. She must have barely been 12 years in Terran Standard time... Before the New Order was truly invested in Kattifrakk II, slave trade was rampant planet wide. Poor families would sometimes sell their children to slavers just so they could make in through the drought season. My parents sold me and my sister into slavery. I revolted the first chance I got. A careless slaver had left his keys laying out and I swiped them, raiding his small amount of weapons and arming the other slaves with me. Our revolt was poorly executed, however. Most of us died fighting ourselves over a dispute who should lead the group and the slavers made sure the survivors had no chance of dying quickly... We were dumped in the wastelands with no supplies. The older slaves did not make it more than an hour in the beating sun. The youngest died of thirst shortly after. My sister and I had found shade but without food, we wouldn't live a week. We would take turns going out into the sun for half an hour to search for some brush or small insect to eat... About mid-noon, my sister went out... she never came back. I went out when the sun had set and all I found of her was a mangled, shriveled up corpse. All the promises I made to her saying I would always protect her... gone in a day..."

Sylus shed a single tear and turned away, pulling his hood back up, "We are done talking about this Annala."

"Yes, I won't ask again Lord Astartes" Annala replied in a shy tone. She crawled over to him and laid her head in his lap. "Sylus?"

"Yes, Annala?"

"I love you..."

"I..."

Annala waited patiently for him to finish. He cleared his throat and looked down at her. She could see the pain in his eyes and put her hand in his.

"I know what you want to say, Sylus. You don't have to say it." she said, closing her eyes. Sylus moved her head off of him and she felt him shift on the bed. Two arms wrapped around her and pulled her close. And for the first time since she was on Gallor Prime, Annala felt at peace.

 War Kitten wrote:

 Kharne the Befriender wrote:

 War Kitten wrote:

 Kharne the Befriender wrote:

 2BlackJack1 wrote:

Spoiler:

Well, you've got your wish. Archarus will be sending out troops soon, and we can do some battles.

Also, Kharne, I think the planet is up for grabs, you'd just need to roll right first, and conquer it. Then we'd have to hope our Eldar friend doesn't manage to kill it.

And I have a dumb question: the top right marked area of the map is the Deep, right? Or is there something I'm missing?

Spoiler:

Thats the tyranihybrids, and if you want, I'll spare some Doom Scythe cohorts for your slave ships. I'm also trying to get you slaves but its not east being in the middle of a hive fleet, but don't worry, I'll get them

Spoiler:

Leave his slave ships alone, I'm trying to blow them up and I don't appreciate your interference

Spoiler:

Says the Eldar . Just wait... the finally has yet to make an appearance.

Spoiler:

Yes says the Eldar. I'm trying to blow up his slave ships and cut off his supplies, and I will not permit interference from the robots. Go mess with Jhe and his Templars or something like that.

Battle brother nezkeim of the dark angels 4th company crunched through the ruined base. It seemed another force of tau xenos scum had made planetfall to aid some unknown mission. He crushed a blue and grey tau helmet underfoot as he made his way to the next objective. The fighting had been fierce as the tau had employed many of their xenos auxiliaries in the fight and there were many dark angels casualties. Nezkeim was enraged at the fact that so many of his battle brothers were dead for so little loss, as the tau had shrunk back into the ruins. He was relieved to know that there would be retributions.

Big Mek Nox, the ork known as the Warp Rider, rode through the wasteland a hundred miles south of Fort Lion Heart, or as it is now known to the orks “Da Kastle”. Following in his wake of sand an honork guard of ten of meanest nobs from da Ladz of Anorky, with them was Da Doof riding atop a battle wagon playing his eavy metal tunes. Finnaly the riders came to the crater. A massive basin and at its center the ancient crashed imperial ship. Da Doof smiled as Nox got a good look at the massive ship “Da omiez used to call it da The Wraith of Normandy. It’ll make a fine kruza." Nox had a skeptic look stuck on his face “Its crashed Doof, it won’t be easy to get up and running.” The shaman laughed “You dobut yourself, don’t you remember your Nox Da Warprida, Supreme Warboss of Wuldgrund, Da best Big Mek in Charddon.” Nox grinned “I’m gonna need bitz, lotz and lotz of bitz.”

Days later in the warp tear. The ork slave ship touched down on the surface of XV-Faren-09. The crude space craft was designed only for the purpose of hauling as many motley slaves as possible from one end of space to the other, speed was its only weapon. Dragg the ork who became the unofficial liaison between WAAAGH! Warprida and Archarus’s band of renegades walked out the ramp prodding the sentient cattle forward with his shock baton. “Keep it moving ya gitz I ain’t got all day.” Archarus examined the latest batch of slaves, a fine mix of Eldar and humans, the champion of khorne spoke “I must ask ork where do you get these humans and Eldar from.” The ork laughed “A little planet called none of yer zoggin business.” The mob of orks laughed Archarus was less amused. “So tell me ork why is it you need these supplies, you lot are usually after weaponry not ship components.” The Ork grinned “Big Mek Nox Warprida is building da biggest, fastest, most killyest ship dere ever was, so we need deez bitz fer dat.” Archarus was puzzled “Warp-rider, I thought you served an ork named Gadnuk.” The Blood axe shrugged “I do, but Gadnuk iz Da warp-Ridas right hand, so he serves him.” Archarus spoke “Why do you refer to him as the Warp Rider?”

The ork grinned as he told the story. “Legend has it Nox was once a nobody mek, fixen wheelz fer cheap. But then one day Mork himself opened up the sky and tore from the heavens a tiny piece of da warp for Nox. Dat Tiny piece of da warp became his legendary set of Wheelz Da Doomblitza. Now that we’ve got all dem stupid knife ears and omiez under control on our home world we are going to go out and teach da galaxy what fear looks like.” Archarus spoke spoke “Return to your Warp-Rider and inform him I am still in the market for slaves.” Dragg spat “You, ain’t da boss of me, but I’ll tell him anyhow.” Archarus contained his blood rage for the second time, that particular ork struck several of his nerves, but his usefulness was undeniable, he was the chaos lord’s best source of slaves.

The ork boarded his vessel and Archarus spoke to the iron hand nearest to him, “Put a tracker on their ship, I’d like to know exactly where this warp-rider is.”

Several weeks later.

Big Mek Nox Warp Rida began the mega scale project of unearthing the giant vessel. The damage was far worse than Nox imagined, it spent the better part of the last millennia under the surface of wuldgrund. A band of Eldar and Human holdouts had made this place their home, along with a brewd of massive rodent like creatures. But finally the ship could be worked on.

Fixing a ship that has been crashed for well over five-hundred years is not an easy feat. Literally thousands of problems were present and those were the ones that were deemed critical by the orks standards. A full page of all the ships problem would stretch a mile long. But eventually Nox along with the rest of his army of meks decided they were ready to attempt to get their looted Emperor Class battleship off the ground.

Nox sat at the bridge with his crew of five lesser meks. Nox spoke “Engage primary thrusters for lift off.” The ork tapped at his console and spoke “Aye boss thrusters fully prime, ready fer lift per yer command.” Nox gave a toothy grin as he spoke “Engage!” The massive structure slowly began to free itself from the ground. The thousands of rocket pods they attached roared as they ascended to the sky. Day turned to night for nox as his ship broke through the planet’s atmosphere. All was well untill the ship began to shake much harder then before “Boss we are losing thrust!” Nox shouted to the ship "come on ya kan hold yerself together." The shaking became mind rattling then a few moments later the ship went still.

Nox expected to be falling back to the planet’s surface, but sure enough they didn’t. The Warp Rida called out to one of the meks “Status report.” The ork spoke “Well good news is we are in space, but da Bad news is we lost all movement capabilities, so we are stuck in wuldgrund’s orbit.” Nox breathed a sigh of relief, the repairs may not have gone as well as he desired, but he was in space now, and that is a step in the right direction. The orks only means of going to and from the surface relied on the presence of Da Doof, or another weird boy, as they relied on their abilities to preform Da jump to and from the ship. Nox sat and pondered how to continue. They were going to need even more bitz, perhaps their warp friend could be of service, dem ladz of iron knew lotz about building ships.

 War Kitten wrote:

Spoiler:

Oooh, Chazz's ship is stuck in orbit? Prime target for an Eldar Raid!

 Tactical_Spam wrote:

 War Kitten wrote:

Spoiler:

Oooh, Chazz's ship is stuck in orbit? Prime target for an Eldar Raid!

Spoiler:

Do your Eldar have a deathwish?

 War Kitten wrote:

 Tactical_Spam wrote:

 War Kitten wrote:

Spoiler:

Oooh, Chazz's ship is stuck in orbit? Prime target for an Eldar Raid!

Spoiler:

Do your Eldar have a deathwish?

Spoiler:

No, but I think you underestimate the speed of Eldar vessels. I was just going to shoot him a few times. Honest.

Julius stood silently on the bridge of the Battle Barge "Honor" and watched as the crew went about their day-to-day business. It was quite remarkable watching the serfs work, before this Julius hadn't had much contact with the serfs who took care of much of the ship's operation and upkeep, and it was interesting to watch them work. He was jolted out of his line of thought by the shout from the radar pit "we have incoming contact on the radar, looks like they're trying to come through a gap in our lines." The ship instantly went into combat mode, klaxons wailed all along the ship, galvanizing the crew into action. Gunnery crews manned their weapons, defensive turrets were activated, and Julius' brothers stationed themselves at key points along the ship just in case they had to repel boarders. Julius quietly asked "Do we have any numbers for the interlopers?" "Aye sir, it appears to be 3 wings of smaller craft, and they're joined by.... " the officer cut off mid sentence in confusion as he stared at his station trying to identify the last blip. ".... I can't identify the last one, but it appears to be as large as a Battle Barge." This was worrying to Julius, how had something so big slipped past the Imperial Blockade? He shook himself mentally, it didn't matter at this time, all that mattered was the death of the hated foe. "Time till we get into maximum firing range?" Julius asked quietly, "5 minutes my Lord" came the shouted reply from the gunnery pit. "Good," Julius replied, "all weapons at the ready, the xenos will not get past us." The next few minutes passed by quickly as a flurry of messages were passed up and down the ship. Then the moment came, "Maximum Weapons Range has been achieved my Lord" came the shout from the gunnery pit. Julius nodded in acknowledgement of the officer and then said "Main Guns focus on the big one, all other weapons to fire on the smaller crafts." All was quiet for a moment, and then the guns of "Honor" spoke. Battle Barges are some of the most heavily armed ships in the entirety of the Imperial Line of War, and the "Honor" was no exception, and so when she fired upon the xenos, they stood precious little chance. The smaller crafts were annihilated nearly instantly by the massed fire of the Battle Barges' lesser weaponry, leaving just the one Battle Barge sized xeno. Here the Imperials didn't see as much success, the main weapon of "Honor" tore a massive wound in the gargantuan craft, but still it kept coming, and then it fired weapons of it's own as it closed in. A great gout of bio acid was spat from one of the ship's many orifaces, and shields were brought up just in time to negate the attack, but it certainly woke the crew up. Julius was determined to not give it another chance to attack, he would not lose more of his brothers to this menace if he could avoid it. "Fire again" he stated softly, same position as the previous shot." The gunnery officers hesitated for a moment, shaken up by the close call. "Do it now" Julius roared as the xeno ship continued to close on them. This time there was no hesitation, and the main gun of "Honor" spoke for the second, and last, time of the engagement. The round tore through the remnants of the massive ship's chitinous plating, and crashed through many of it's vital organs before finally detonating in it's heart and killing it for good. "Inform Crusade Command of the contact and of our success" Julius ordered softly, and as he began to walk away the crew of the ship let out a great cheer, both celebrating their victory, and thanking Julius for saving their lives. Julius felt a sense of satisfaction as he returned to his cell, he had done it, he had struck back at the alien after the humiliating retreat from Kagrenz, but he couldn't help but feel that this was just the beginning, that there was more to come.

''Wanted to see me, sir?'' asked the Tempestor Secondus.

''Ah! Riley, spot on time, I'll be sending a message to Lord General Zonad very soon, I want you to be there the General answer'' answered Gallus.

**Contacting Crusade High Command**
**Contact established, encryption level: blue**

''Greetings, Lord General, I am Tempestor Prime Gallus, of the 85th Scion Battalion. We've been assigned to your campaign in an effort to eliminate the various threats here. My unit is a reconnaissance one, we will serve you to the end, Lord General.

**Message over**

''Once we get our orders, have the men run drills, Riley'' ordered the Tempestor Prime.

''Anything in particular you want to focus on, sir?'' was Riley answer.

''Until we get extra intel, stick to the basics, have e'm review combat drills, we'll move on to actual reconnaissance exercises once we know what sort of terrain we'll be working in''

''Void drills?''

''No, not sure how safe is space around here, don't want to be attacked while our mens are running drills on the hull''

''Very well sir''