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Made in us
Krazed Killa Kan






State of Jefferson

Dignity VII Campaign:

The Galaxerium on Terra is vast. Its capacious dome spans nearly half a continent. Great gilded clockworks grind out the movement of stars and systems. The cavernous creaking cacophony never ceases its clamoring movements. Servitors follow techpriests who have never gazed upon the stars with their own eyes. They live and die only to study this synchronous dance through ancient gears and bejeweled movements. For generations their knowledge has been passed down from their forebearers. Deep into the crust of the planet itself, this three dimensional astrolabe grinds through the spin of the entire galaxy. Hundreds of thousand servo skulls buzz around the gears, disks, pins and orbs representing all known worlds in the galaxy. Countless Terran bureaucrats live and die only to see a single star system, represented by colored hemispheres on a gilded disk, travel but a meter in their lifetime. So slow moving are the gears of this system that an army of techpriests are required to interpret the "Rites of Celestial Movement" and calculate, using cogitators the size of land raiders, to constantly check and re-tooth the billions of gears in this mechanical maze. Then when all the Rites have been chanted, the Incense of the Etherium burnt, may the Astropathic choir bring the psychic chorus to the timbre commanded by the Emperor of Man from his glimmering carcophageal throne to command His great armadas into combat. And so it revolved. Thousands of golden disks representing millions of worlds and therefore billions of imperial subjects revolved in the clockwork cavern that required a grav-rail system and 2 days of travel to see the Galaxy at a glance.

Generations lived, died, and toiled as the millions of gears and bejeweled axels revolved uncaring above their heads. Below, a million Terrans were dedicated, unknowingly to its maintenance. A sprawling hive of humanity coursed below the creaking, gear filled hemisphere above.

Also mapped out is the cancerous chaotic maelstrom that swallowed imperial worlds. Once the black velvet drape that weighed thousands of tons was distracted by a fraction of a millimeter, the system was lost, for it represents the 10,000 year old warpstorm - a maelstrom of madness and daemonic will unleashing fury upon the realms of man. Whole systems could be consumed, only to reappear elsewhere hundreds or thousands of years later elsewhere in the clockwork or never re-emerge at all. Also mapped. were the encroaching xenos: from the infantile but technologially superior race of the T'au to the great pestilence of the intrastellar locusts known as the Tyranids. The worlds of man too were menaced by the greenskin Waaghs springing ever anew from what were thought to be sterilized systems. Even worlds thought long since weaved into the fabric of the Empire shook with the fury of the Necrontyr disturbed from eternal slumber by the clamoring of the ephemeral race of humanity now taken to the stars. Lastly were the diverse Aeldari plying the Galaxy, whose overarching strategic aims remained a mystery. They appeared and disappeared at will seemingly at random until their aims become apparent, often too late. As if these threats were not enough to mankind's survival the vast emptiness of space itself was an even greater enemy. The void of darkness and the remoteness of the scattered worlds made them easily able to descend into anarchy, rebellion, idolatry or heresy.

The gears and the disks never failed in their positions according to the priests on whose incantations helped lay in the course for the strike cruisers of the Adeptus Astartes, and the fantastic flotillas of the Imperial Navy Task Forces... almost never.

A young tech priest named Aaron found a broken, weathered golden disk in the sewers of the sprawl beneath the continent spanning astrolabe. Inscribed on it in high gothic were the calligraphic runes "Dignity". The disk was bent and six orbs representing six planets orbited its central star. Yet the disk was bent, scratched and broken from its fall from the clockwork above. For years Aaron searched the archived hololith scrolls looking for records of the Dignity system. A "trifle" found amidst the detritus of youth plagued him into his middle years. It was as if Dignity had never existed. No records had he ever found. Elder techpriests punished him for working on this, citing the infallibility of The Emperor as a reason why the great mechanism could not fail and was perfect. It only required the incantations of maintenance laid out in the techbibles which he should be studying rather than trifling with a fallen disk that had the taint of chaos.

"Why had it fallen? Or had it even fallen at all?" He mused. "Was he mad? Had his faith been shaken and now he lay in the grips of Chaos?" His logic guided him elsewhere, but now was not a time for logic. "Did the rituals fail Dignity or was it something else?"

Buried deep in the orbiting equitorial library of Terra, Aaron found the first clue of the mystery of the Dignity system. Six of the six planets on the disk were uninhabitable by man, beast or mechinism. The cryptic hololith described a seventh world not shown on the gilded disk. It was the site of an ancient thriving imperial world. It told of countless found xenos wonders that could be turned to serve the godemperor of mankind. It described in gripping detail, great pyramidal foundries of a long dead race of dynastic pharaohs who ruled the system. The dynastic rulers, long since extinct were referred as the Connectihoteps who drove out an ancient race of Eldar. This race was led in a titanic struggle by the powerful craftworld farseer Kalib in an attempt to reclaim the world, yet they were vanquished and disappeared in an Aeldari diaspora. The world became once again became a forgotten tomb.

Little did Aaron know that greater daemonic forces were at work and not only did they cause the disk to fall from Galaxolabe but also were plotting to return the Dignity system back into the maelstrom from whence it emerged only recently.

=-=-=-=-=-Artists Rendition of the Defeat of the Farseer, Kalib:

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This message was edited 4 times. Last update was at 2017/09/12 17:01:47


 
   
Made in us
Krazed Killa Kan






State of Jefferson

THE PATROL:

Dignity VII appeared as a tiny black disc in a backdrop of beige orange and pink swirling clouds that formed a diminutive arm of the ten thousand year old galactic hurricane from which it bobbed to the surface as uninteresting as flotsam washed onto a beach. But, just as a scavenging gull would circle a brightly colored piece of debris coughed up by high tide, so too did an Air Caste Officer of the Shas’ta Sept. He stared into the holographic monitor of a passing Tau Merchantman-Class ship. His head tilted slightly as he compared this to a memorized map of this parsec. He rechecked his memory to existing holo-charts. The planetary system had never been noted before by the Tau. His race always looked for targets of opportunity and ways of expanding their galactic maps and spheres of influence. He alerted the commanding Ethereal Gro’va who was deep in meditation in his cabin. The Ethereal’s pupils narrowed, focused and moved right as the Air Caste Officer’s hologram stood, in miniature, before him. Digesting the report of a heretofore uncharted planetary system, the Ethereal gave orders to the helm to divert from the current trajectory and lay in a course for the seventh, planet. A rocky orb that appeared habitable and possibly inhabited. The ship was to deliver heavy ordinance teams to the raging battles in the Damocles Gulf, but they were ahead of schedule. They could spare several days of exploration, especially if it could expand the Shas’ta Sept’s influence. The giant merchantman’s engines lit with decisive fury. They would stay in the shadow of the sixth planet to not alert any inhabitants to their presence… or plans.

For generations a single oligarchical family oversaw the governance of Dignity VII. For 10,000 years the system had been lost to the Greater Imperium and cut off from the Emperor’s guidance. Although cut of from His light, the memory remained in the House of Montagne. For 499 generations the House of Montagne fought the horrors of the Warp, successfully. They fought isolation. They fought heresy. They extinguished the greenskin plague. They endured unimaginable torment, yet they did endure. Through enlightened leadership, ruthless efficiency, and merciless persecution of heretics they unlike any world before them endured an entire passage through the Warp. For 499 generations the skies of Dignity VII were never dark. Only swirling brilliant storms of psionic lightening lit the landscape much as an inextinguishable strobe. For ten thousand years, countless millions of men gazed on their horizons that was silhouetted only by the horror beyond them. Through long hallowed ceremony, the new Lord Protector and Governor Montagne of Dignity VII was alerted by the Captain of his House Guard, Hanelt, “My Lord, the Storm has… has… lifted.” The young Governor cast an unbelieving eye at his Captain, rose and crossed the dim chamber to a window shuttered by steel. Pressing a button the wall, the shutters rolled up. The horizon in the far distance was dimly lit by a calm sky. Gone were the orange-brown clouds and the streaking psionic plasma. The sky was nearly black lit only by distant suns of which he had only heard stories – once thought myths. “Ready a patrol.” He ordered cooly.


FORCES:
Lord Protector Montagne of Dignity VII
- Astra Militarum TAC Combined Arms list
Ethereal Gro'va of Shas'ta Sept
- Tau Spearhead Detachment with max Railsides

SCENARIO:
Narrative Section: Patrol

VICTORY CONDITIONS:
Kill Points

AFTER ACTION REPORT:
The deployent is pretty unusual. It is in two "L-shaped" areas on opposite diagonals. Also, to represent colliding patrols being drawn into battle you only get to start with 3 units on the board and one had to be troops. Unfortunately, I (tau) had none so I dropped a crisis suit team mid board and kept a broadside team and an ethereal in the backfield. The "Brain" and Lord Protector of Dignity started with lots of troops on the board but LOS blocking limited his fields of fire with everything but his Basalisk (now destroyed in this photo). His Bulgryn were able to come in, in my backfield and lay waste to my inital back line, slaughtering not only two broadside units, but also my Commander and Ethereal. We went until turn 4 calling it a draw. We called it due to time and inebriation.

OUTCOME:
- Draw
- AstraMilitarum MVP (Bullgryns awarded + 3" Movement)
- Tau MVP (A Unit of 2 Broadsides awarded Re-roll 1s in Overwatch)
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This message was edited 13 times. Last update was at 2017/09/12 18:08:42


 
   
 
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