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"Yeah? Well, I've seen things these people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire in the shadow of the Warp. I watched Titanforge lances glitter in the dark in low Golgothan orbit. All those moments...and they mean nothing more to them...than tears in the rain. Time to go."
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Nov 26, 2015 08:56
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Tomn posted:"Yeah? Well, I've seen things these people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire in the shadow of the Warp. I watched Titanforge lances glitter in the dark in low Golgothan orbit. All those moments...and they mean nothing more to them...than tears in the rain. Time to go." 
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Nov 26, 2015 08:58
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Ask her if she saw more as the captain of a ship than in that 1km plot of land she called home. There's something to be said for calling space home. #voidpride Ask her more about her time. Ask her about the staff that all the dag ol' Minds and Ominous Foreshadowing brings up!!
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Nov 26, 2015 09:12
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Day 26 Current: 41,561 Total Goal: 43,333 Memories “What was it like growing up there?” She smiled nostalgically. “Crowded. Very crowded. Never alone, always with a friend or group.” “Were your parents much involved?” “I never knew them. Just remember growing up in the megacities.” She paused. “Probably where I got good at 3D spatial, too. Knowing my way around, what plank connected to what rampway. Growing up in a hive can be good for knowing where you are.” “What was Unification like?” “Scary. Nathan loving Dume went mad, more than he was. Massive propaganda campaigns, trying to rally people as the last hold-out against tyranny. Purges of spies and traitors. His research labs were nightmares, trying to find some trick or gimmick, some secret weapon that would stop the Thunder Warriors. He got very good at chemical weapons, even flooding cities with loyalty drugs.” “How did you avoid that?” She shrugged. “I knew where to hide. Different drugs might be released through vents or the air, and I would switch to the other. Or I would go deep, where air was stagnant. Would give me a migraine for days. Some people went down there, didn’t wake up afterwards. I was lucky in a lot of ways.” You considered researching these loyalty drugs, but didn’t mention it to her. It would only make her unhappy. “Did you like going into space?” “Of course. I mean, I loved the city I grew up in, but seeing stars, planets… that was something completely different. We couldn’t see the stars growing up.” She glanced at the sky. “Not that you can now, either, but you know what I mean. Going into orbit was the first time I saw them, even considered the idea. All those points of light, everyone of them visitable… It was a nice moment.”
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Nov 26, 2015 09:35
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Try the reward idea before we try the loyalty drugs idea.
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Nov 26, 2015 09:38
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Day 26 Current: 41,860 Total Goal: 43,333 Childhood “How did the Eldar find you?” “They had their Contact teams, you remember. After Unification, they decided they saw some future that had me in it in a way they liked. They showed me space, the Craftworlds… I couldn’t say yes fast enough.” “There were Craftworlds in the Solar System?” “Mmhmm. Probably only carried a few dozen million Eldar in total. No one bothered them - who wants to fight the Eldar? And they could be good luck, sometimes. Their Contact team might choose someone, help them through a stage of their life. And then they would come back, with new knowledge, new training.” “Eldar just walked around on Terra, in the space stations?” “For the most part. I don’t know about Mars. But yeah, they might have been strange, and strangers, but not enemies. I don’t know why or when they left.” “Something to ask Galahad I suppose.” “Hm?” You gestured. “Eldar I used to know. Probably related to you somehow.” Her face went thoughtful. “Hm. I never thought to look for the Eldar when I woke up.” “They are immortal, though.” “Yeah, just… been overwhelmed, I think. Your Imperium is a very strange place.” You sighed. “So people keep telling me. So when did you make the Staff? Why does everyone think it so important?” Ching Shih shrugged. “I don’t know. I made it on a Craftworld when I was younger, it never seemed to stand out in any particular way. Certainly there were others that were more impressive, more well designed.” “And the idea that it influences fate?” “I don’t know about that. Sees fate, maybe. Might explain why Contact acted how they did. But actually manipulating it, I’m less sure about.” “Our Family’s history is rather statistically unlikely, don’t you think?” She shrugged again. “Sufficiently large bell curve?”
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Nov 26, 2015 09:43
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LowellDND posted:She shrugged again. “Sufficiently large bell curve?” Tzeentch would trip over himself laughing if he got everyone to kill each other over an object that doesn't actually do anything other than be associated with the one family that ended up doing crazy poo poo.
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Nov 26, 2015 09:58
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wiegieman posted:Tzeentch would trip over himself laughing if he got everyone to kill each other over an object that doesn't actually do anything other than be associated with the one family that ended up doing crazy poo poo. 
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Nov 26, 2015 09:59
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Day 26 Current: 42,168 Total Goal: 43,333 Lie in wait The Imperium is spread widely, but thin. This is an aphorism that is well known, but often not actually considered. In general, the density of human population might be expected to be thickest at Terra and the surrounding areas, thinning out the further away one went. That might have been true in the beginning, in the first ten thousand years, but much had changed since then. One, many systems were burned out of their resources - everything stripped, leaving a dying star and a handful of dust. As such, the surrounding area around Sol was more like a threadbare blanket, with unexpected holes. In the tens of thousands of years since, there had been multiple galactic scale wars, in addition to the lower level simmering hatred that was life in the Imperium. Vast sectors had been colonized, destroyed, rehabilitated, stripped, replaced... Sirius B is a white dwarf star, eight light years from Sol. It has no planets, and the small scraps of gas and rock that had been there had been removed countless thousands of years ago, as Humanity’s terraformers expanded into the void. It had been two thousand years since a ship had even been to the system - why would anyone need to? There was nothing there to support life, hiding, or gains in wealth. It was just another dying star. Eight light years from Sol, every Chaos ship and warband from the Maelstrom had gathered where no one had thought to look.
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Nov 26, 2015 11:03
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Day 26 Current: 42,411 Total Goal: 43,333 Lie in wait II “They are still there.” The Chaos Space Marine’s voice was a rumble. Anna smiled. “Have I lead you wrong so far? You’ve seen the battle fleets pass us already. Sol has stripped half its fleets.” “The other half can still wipe me out.” “They won’t. They are going to Golgotha, like everyone else.” Blackheart grunted. “They are taking their time about it. Why split their forces like that?” “You know as well as I; logistics. They launched everyone they could at first, but still need to recommission and rearm the rest. When they pass, we will strike Terra.” “We can’t wait a decade. There is nothing here for life to exist. Even in six months, the ships will begin eating each other.” In some cases, literally. “It won’t be six months. Everything is moved into place, the dancers simply need to finish the song.”
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Nov 26, 2015 11:10
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I'd like to vote to Tell Ching about the Months of Shame- how although they may be viewed as 'half feral heart eaters' they still faced the wrath of the Imperiums most powerful organisation(s) for the sake of common men they'd fought beside
alpaca diseases fucked around with this message at 11:44 on Nov 26, 2015 |
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Nov 26, 2015 11:31
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Day 26 Current: 42,561 Total Goal: 43,333 The thirteenth scorching “Ma’am.” De Vadallio glanced over. “Yes, lieutenant?” “You’ll want to see this. We just fired the latest wave of virus bombs.” “Naturally.” “And we are still reading life signs.” “Interesting. Show me.” Great telescopes shifted on one of the destroyers, transmitting information. On the surface, Orks were still moving, dressed in ramshackle blue suits of metal. Others were digging themselves out of the ground in holes they had made, where they immediately found Tyranids who were doing the same. The ground was suddenly erupting in combat as if the virus bombs had never happened, and millions of Tyranids were coming down from low orbit where they had awaited out the storms. “Should we switch to conventional weapons Ma’am?” “Mm? No.” She waved it off. “They are doing a fine enough job on their own, and neither species has any idea what to do with an STC. Save the torpedoes for the Traitor Fleets.” “Aye Ma’am.” Orders were passed through the fleets, torpedo bays closed. “Go ahead and order the fleets to the outer system, let the xeno kill each other for a while longer. How many you think we got?” “The cogitators believe we have killed twenty to fifty solar masses thus far.” It was true. The ashes and gases of trillions of dead had spread dust tens of thousands of kilometers away from the surface, turning it in a core of a burgeoning gas giant. “A good show for humanity. How many you think they’ve killed?” “Of each other? Some tens of thousands of solar masses.” It was also true. The inner solar system had become a Dyson swarm of the dead, nearly thick enough to leap from one body to another without ever needing to float on your own. Indeed, it was becoming difficult to see the binary star at all. “How many left?” Her tone was humorous. That was the joke of it. The answer was ‘about one million solar masses’, although the Imperium lacked any machines to count that many xeno. Their space hulks and hive ships had simply become islands to be fought over, while the moons and planets themselves were being slowly broken apart by billions of burrowing creatures. Between the fleets, lattice work hundreds of kilometers long were forming, built of comet ore and organic materials. Billions, trillions of xenos fought on them, their bodies forming the skeletons of longer and greater bridges, architecture of a strange and inhuman design. Loel fucked around with this message at 10:36 on Nov 29, 2015 |
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Nov 26, 2015 11:59
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Man, I would NOT want to be responsible for figuring out how to maneuver a fleet in a battle so large that said fleets have their own loving gravity.
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Nov 26, 2015 12:04
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LowellDND posted:Great telescopes shifted on one of the destroyers, transmitting information. On the surface, Orks were still moving, dressed in ramshackle blue suits of metal. Others were digging themselves out of the ground in holes they had made, where they immediately found Tyranids who were doing the same. The ground was suddenly erupting in combat as if the virus bombs had never happened, and millions of Tyranids were coming down from low orbit where they had awaited out the storms. LowellDND posted:“Mm? No.” She waved it off. “They are doing a fine enough job on their own, and neither species has no idea what to do with an STC. Save the torpedoes for the Traitor Fleets.” LowellDND posted:On the surface, Orks were still moving, dressed in ramshackle blue suits of metal. Others were digging themselves out of the ground in holes they had made, where they immediately found Tyranids who were doing the same. LowellDND posted:They are doing a fine enough job on their own, and neither species has no idea what to do with an STC. LowellDND posted:On the surface, Orks were still moving, dressed in ramshackle blue suits of metal. LowellDND posted:no idea what to do with an STC.
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Nov 26, 2015 18:51
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Wonder what an STC pops out if it hears "Oi, gimme the flashest, killiest bits ya got."
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Nov 26, 2015 19:19
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Now I want a novella about a Flash Git getting ahold of an STC. It would be so fun.
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Nov 26, 2015 19:54
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"Weapon provided to specifications" "Nah! Nope. Iznt dakka 'nuff" "Provided weapon removes quark-gluon cohesion of all enemy targets within .03 AU of muzzle. Energy released is within given parameters "Shoota" and "Dakka" with a 99.6% correlation to given parameter "WIF LOSSA BEAMY BITS WHAT MAKE GITS INTO GLOWY GOO". "Oi, but itz not Blue! And it's not got what kinda spiky bits the weird 'umies got. Add that talky-dakka-box" "Reprocessing..."
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Nov 26, 2015 20:03
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The Mechanicus has actually encountered a fully functioning non-Warp corrupted STC before. However, it was completely unresponsive, so they believed it to be broken. The reason for this is, about 15,000 years ago an Ork came upon it. It made many fine weapons and vehicles for the Ork when asked, and the Ork realized the machine must be very smart, and so it asked one of the great philosophical conundrums of Ork culture. It asked, "How much Dakka is enuff?". The STC ended up devoting all processing power to answering this question. The Ork left and got all its stuff stolen by some pissed off Nobz. The STC is still calculating to this day. All other requests are in the pending buffer.
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Nov 26, 2015 20:07
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"LET THERE BE DAKKA!" And then the big-bang happens.
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Nov 26, 2015 20:11
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paragon1 posted:The Mechanicus has actually encountered a fully functioning non-Warp corrupted STC before. However, it was completely unresponsive, so they believed it to be broken. The reason for this is, about 15,000 years ago an Ork came upon it. It made many fine weapons and vehicles for the Ork when asked, and the Ork realized the machine must be very smart, and so it asked one of the great philosophical conundrums of Ork culture. It asked, "How much Dakka is enuff?". The STC ended up devoting all processing power to answering this question. The Ork left and got all its stuff stolen by some pissed off Nobz. The STC is still calculating to this day. All other requests are in the pending buffer. That's an awful RTOS then, maybe the STC deserves to be lost.
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Nov 26, 2015 22:31
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paragon1 posted:The Mechanicus has actually encountered a fully functioning non-Warp corrupted STC before. However, it was completely unresponsive, so they believed it to be broken. The reason for this is, about 15,000 years ago an Ork came upon it. It made many fine weapons and vehicles for the Ork when asked, and the Ork realized the machine must be very smart, and so it asked one of the great philosophical conundrums of Ork culture. It asked, "How much Dakka is enuff?". The STC ended up devoting all processing power to answering this question. The Ork left and got all its stuff stolen by some pissed off Nobz. The STC is still calculating to this day. All other requests are in the pending buffer. In some distant future age, someone will stumble across the STC standing alongside the killiest, shootiest, flashest and most absolute rock 'ard piece of dakka anywhere, with a charming little note taped to it saying "Share and Enjoy."
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Nov 27, 2015 04:24
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Tomn posted:In some distant future age, someone will stumble across the STC standing alongside the killiest, shootiest, flashest and most absolute rock 'ard piece of dakka anywhere, with a charming little note taped to it saying "Share and Enjoy." "Oh, doesn't it come in green?"
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Nov 27, 2015 04:46
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Day 26 Current: 42,968 Total Goal: 45,000 See this Rosette I carry? “Savages and killers?” “Yes.” Her tone was firm. “You must have heard the rumors. Eat meat raw, gobble flesh and drink blood. More feral than their namesakes.” You smiled. Ching Shih’s expression suddenly went wary. “Uh oh. Why do I feel like I’m going to be staring into the Warp again?” “Nothing so fun, I’m afraid. By my powers as Inquisitor, I name you Acolyte, and welcome you into our folds.” “Wait, what? No. I’m not part of your thought police.” “Nope, too late. Said the words. Even waved a bit.” You did so. “It’s official.” “Don’t you have oversight or something?” Her tone was frantic. “You know the answer to that. Anyway, this is for your protection.” “How you figure?” “Well, think about your life in the last few years. Is there anything - any of it - that you think be allowed to be public information?” “No, of course not.” “Working for a traitor Primarch before the Heresy, accusing Ultramarines of heresy, being a half-xeno, having sympathies for same, affiliating with xeno, ignoring the Imperial Creed, and consorting with Abominable Intelligences. How am I doing so far?” She didn’t meet your eyes. “That’s a lot of it.” “Yeah. Now, guess what would happen when someone found out you did know those things?” “Tortured and killed?” “Almost certainly. Now you can say “I am Acolyte Ching Shih, in the service of Inquisitor Ohone. It will keep you alive.” “It will?” “Well, a bit longer. Acolytes don’t live long. Limosa has gone through bunches.” “That’s not encouraging.” “Anyway, now you are eligible for some Secret Histories.” “You classify entire histories?” “Wait till you hear the story. So, we have a chapter of Space Marines. Grey Knights. They work for the Inqusition.” “Never heard of them.” “Yup. Secret. In fact, any witnesses of their existence tend to get killed.” “Yeesh. So what are they used for?” “Daemonhunting.” “Probably not many witnesses to begin with.” “Just so. So, we had a major daemon incursion on a hive world. One of the big ones.” “Wait, you can’t mean…” “I do indeed! The Grey Knights ended the infestation, but decided the witnesses need to be removed. To prevent any other later incursions.” “Goddamnit Ohone, are there any happy endings in your world?” Her tone lacked heat. “Just wait. So, guess who was on the scene?” “Presumably Space Wolves. Did they help massacre hives?” “Nope!” She looked startled. “So where do they fit in the story?” “They went to war with the Grey Knights to protect the hives.” “Isn’t that … unusual?” “Very. Parts of the Inquisition even wanted to declare them traitors, ordered their home world laid seige. Brought a lot of Inquisitorial fleets to get it rolling.” “Did that end it?” “In a manner of speaking. The Space Wolves killed a whole hell of a lot of Grey Knights and Inquisitorial troops. So much so that the Inquisition called it a loss, and let the hives live. Those are your Space Wolves. Willing to fight the Inquisition itself if it means the right thing.” Her voice was wondering. “Maybe there is some hope in this universe after all.” A pause. “Ohone…” “Mm?” “I can’t help noticing we were the bad guys in that story.” Loel fucked around with this message at 10:41 on Nov 29, 2015 |
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Nov 27, 2015 16:08
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"Does this look like a world with a lot of good guys? The closest we've got is the ones you were chiding as violent savages, and even they only get away with it because they're an army of literal superhumans." Then maybe remind her that there are people like Athena and Hera around now, so there might be some hope of fixing it.
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Nov 27, 2015 16:14
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"Well if by 'we' you mean 'that particular Inquisitors space-fief in this feudal organisation that is the Inquisition', then yes Otherwise no(t necessarily)" alpaca diseases fucked around with this message at 16:33 on Nov 27, 2015 |
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Nov 27, 2015 16:30
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I don't think the Space Wolves were the good guys in that story.
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Nov 27, 2015 16:39
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You HAVE noticed all the skulls on our caps, haven't you?
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Nov 27, 2015 16:42
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Waci posted:"Does this look like a world with a lot of good guys? The closest we've got is the ones you were chiding as violent savages, and even they only get away with it because they're an army of literal superhumans." Yeah. Reinforce the fact that there aren't many "good guys" left, only survivors. It's all part of the reason we're risking everything on this gamble.
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Nov 27, 2015 16:47
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Tomn posted:You HAVE noticed all the skulls on our caps, haven't you? The skulls wouldn't be bad if our enemies had banners of... a rat's anus.  (This joke assumes you've seen the skit 'hans are we the baddies'. If you ahvent, go see it  )
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Nov 27, 2015 16:49
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It's a rat's anus with a skull. I think we're still winning. Sit down with CS, Athena, and Hera (separately). Since they hate our world so much, ask them how it could be made more like theirs and what benefits that would provide. We've got AI goddesses and someone who walked Terra the same time as the Emperor. Let's see where they want the world to go. Ego Trip fucked around with this message at 21:50 on Nov 27, 2015 |
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Nov 27, 2015 21:47
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LowellDND posted:The skulls wouldn't be bad if our enemies had banners of... a rat's anus. But skulls are good! They keep the bits that let us think and have personalities and memories and other poo poo that makes us human safe, and if yours breaks badly you're pretty hosed. Skulls are protective, they're not evil!
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Nov 27, 2015 22:02
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I must say that I'm tickled that my jokey party that consists solely of myself is still more popular than Team Dynasty, which has zero people in it. We are, like, the WORST rogue trader.
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Nov 28, 2015 01:20
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Volmarias posted:I must say that I'm tickled that my jokey party that consists solely of myself is still more popular than Team Dynasty, which has zero people in it. Our dynasty is Ohone, who will one day be succeeded by Ohone 2.0.
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Nov 28, 2015 01:33
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Oasx posted:I don't think the Space Wolves were the good guys in that story. Nope. They let a bunch of demon cultists live. There will be consequences to this! 
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Nov 28, 2015 05:14
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Volmarias posted:I must say that I'm tickled that my jokey party that consists solely of myself is still more popular than Team Dynasty, which has zero people in it. We really only wanted the position so that a) we could fly a cool ship wherever and b)no one else could use it against us. Money is a means to an end and we can't buy our way to our ends anymore.
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Nov 28, 2015 05:28
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Slice of Life: Jonn Knox, statistical outlier The instructor that knit his ruined hand summoned him to her office in admin. Idly, Knox wondered if this was another training exercise/assassination attempt. He leaned into the near edge of reality, tried to push further. "Normally" - what a weird word to apply to what life has become - normally he's a few seconds ahead, and has gotten to the point where that's where his conscious pretty much always resides. Further out things get... Uncomfortable. Hazy, way less reliable. Also, prone to nightmarish impossibility. His new normal is, in so many words, a rock skipping forward on the surface of the Warp. No matter how expertly thrown a skipped rock eventually sinks. No thanks. So, he presses forward, sees him in an empty office and ... nothing. Empty? No, that's wrong. There's a null space behind the desk, so benign that his mind's eye automatically filled in the blank. So, some glamour forcing a blind spot. Someone(?) removing the ripple of their sentience from the water. Nothing foreboding there. The day after almost getting pasted by that huge bastard, he discreetly fashioned a garrote out of wire from a lasrifle maintenance kit and a bit of twisted cloth, slipped it down the outer seam of his pant leg . It'd chew up his hands but would hold. Probably. Still, the weight of his collar was a constant reminder to make a forbidden improvised weapon in a sea of telepaths count. He saw one pop early on. Tiny charge but it sure worked as advertised. So, pat downs at a couple checkpoints and he's outside her door. The office is about as spartan as the bunkhouse. Workstation, a sheaf of papers a data slate. And the instructor at her desk. Strong features, hard eyes, unremarkable pale skin that hinted at a privileged existence, or one on a remarkably baseline planet. That's Terra for you. "Expecting, what, a candlelit cauldron of mind-altering, borderline heretical substances? That's your realm, seer, not mine." He smiled despite himself. It's nice to... talk, even as he tried to probe what's coming next. Plus, well. She's attractive for a planet-born. "I don't know if I qualify. I couldn't sense that you were a part of" helpless gesture "the then I was walking into. It's hard to put to words." She beamed in personal celebration - great teeth - and then blushed and cleared her throat. Right. Telepath. "I wasn't sure that would work. I can block another telepath - so, you can't see what I'm going to do?" "No. Well, not really. It's easier to experience the near, uh, now when other people are involved. Candles in a dim room. Psykers doubly so, we're torches. But here it's like there's an omission and my mind makes the narrative work. You can still make sense out of a misspelled word in a paragraph. I experience that I'm here talking to someone. It can't be an empty room." Pause. "If you were watching me in secret I probably wouldn't know. That's... Disconcerting." "Getting used to knowing what's coming?" Almost playful? He remembers dying multiple times in rapid succession a week ago. "Yes." "Well, that's good. You're getting something then." She gestures at the data pad on her desk. "I... We have no idea what to do with you, you realize that right?" "I would not have guessed that, no. The handlers sure act like everything is going as planned when they dumped me in with that loving Ogryn last week. What did you feed that thing?" "Onslaught." Cleared her throat again. "We take telepaths, almost all children, fresh from the Throne. We don't do what you do. So, we improvised. Normally someone with future-sight get scooped up by the Inquisition on the spot. I suppose recent events have disrupted the status quo." They sat in silence for a moment, each reliving the sensation of the Astronomican replacing their minds with GOLGOTHA!!! for one horrible eternity. "Still. All academies got pinged by someone with the =][= this morning for a short list of our best. I have a feeling 'adult male precog, reads and writes high gothic, athletic, extensive small arms, zero grav and squad-based combat training' will not go unnoticed. Particularly, again, when everyone else on our list is a telepathic adolescent." "Athletic?" She snorted and picked up the data slate, reviewed an imaginary list. "I think you could outrun almost all of the literal children that comprise your peers, yes." "Still. It's nice to be noticed." She stood and walked past him to the open door. "I just thought you should be aware. My understanding is that this isn't the Inquisition in a monolithic sense. All the Ordos apparently usually have 'recruiters' in place, they'll politic over the immediately useful or noteworthy psykers. I couldn't tell you what comes next." "Well, thanks. And, uh, thanks for the hand." Not awkward at all. "Yep. Good luck." Face neutral, posture unaggressive, back through the checkpoints. Were... was that flirting? An intrusion pushed from across the building to his mind: Nope. A handler, warily: "Stop smiling and keep walking, psyker." bio | discovery | black ship 1 | black ship 2 | to terra | SANCTIONING | training 1 | training 2 | training 3 | limosa | eduard | coward poor life choice fucked around with this message at 05:52 on Feb 1, 2016 |
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Nov 28, 2015 07:22
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Tomn posted:You HAVE noticed all the skulls on our caps, haven't you?
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Nov 28, 2015 07:39
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put me down for Team Mars, for now I think it suits Ohone's mindset best.
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Nov 28, 2015 16:59
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Day 28 Current: 43,516 Total Goal: 46,666 Hans? Are we the baddies? “Here endeth the lesson. There aren’t any ‘good guys’, there are just degrees of bad. And alliances of bad against worse.” Ching Shih stared at you, and then spoke firmly. “You are wrong.” “I’m sorry?” “You are wrong. Not everyone is evil, and a world that was wouldn’t be worth saving. There are still good things in your Imperium.” “If you are going by the morality of your era before the Heresy, you won’t find much. ‘Survival’ overtakes ‘scruples’ any day of the week.” “You think Space Wolves, Leman Russ is the best you can offer? Follow me.” “Who, then? Guilliman is in a stasis vault, Sanguinius died to save the God-Emperor.” “Not them.” It would have been a nice line to end on as she walked away, but the nature of the beast was that it was hours of pushing through crowds, glaring at pilgrims, catching pickpockets, stopping for water and shade and a brief rest. And, of course, the fact that the destination was an entire Shrine-City somewhat diminished the surprise, but still. One of the more forgettable Primarchs, and interesting that she choose him. Rogal Dorn, of the Imperial Fists. They didn’t stand out as a Chapter - not the stubbornness of the Iron Hands, not the frenzies of the Blood Angels. Instead, they had the feel of … a wiry farmer, seeing an old tree trunk in his field. They didn’t use fancy gimmicks, and they didn’t do it for the press - but at the end of the day, that trunk would be out of that field. They did their job, they did it well, and they did it without glory. Indeed, they had a reputation of siege specialists because they accepted missions without glory. Spreading trenches for a decade didn’t have the glamour of other Chapters, but sometimes it had to be done. They were the only Chapter based on Terra, and it was their works that had held Terra against the Heresy. They did the necessary, thankless jobs, nearly invisible, never complaining. Like their Primarch. They actually held themselves to higher standards of performance than anyone else would, and subjected themselves to a ‘Pain Glove’ when they had felt they had failed in their obligations. Stoic, dutiful, and uncompromising, they were the best parts of the Abrogates without being a death-cult in the process. During the Great Crusade, they earned more honors than any other Legion. However, Rogal Dorn was not named Warmaster, that honor instead going to Horus. Horus was better at ‘people’, which were the seeds of the Heresy later. As in all things through his life, Rogal Dorn did not complain, instead working on the new tasks that were assigned. When the God-Emperor fell, it was Dorn who took his body to the Palace, interred it in the Golden Throne. When Guilliman took control of the ruins, Dorn bent the knee, broke the Legions, began the slow long years of repairs. The Scouring, chasing down the last of the Traitors outside the Eye of Terror nearly destroyed the Iron Fists entirely, as they stubbornly broke down the Eternal Fortress of Pertuabo. Rogal Dorn was reputed to die in the last Black Crusade, an ambush of prodigious power by Traitor Marines. His Space Marines still endured, as did the Shrine-City to him. It was a somber place, performing works unceasingly and without complaint. It taught endurance as much as siege warfare, duty more than glory. Ching Shih raised her eyebrows at you. “One of the good guys.” You glanced at the statue rising above you. “Yeah, okay.” It reminded you of Fabiyan.
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Nov 28, 2015 17:25
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I think the point still stands. They are 1000 among quadrillions. We aren't taking in absolutes, only Sith do that. There are always going to be good people but the percentage of the population is going to be infinitesimal compared to 'survive' or 'bad'. We're trying to make it so the choice doesn't have to be made on an hourly basis.
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Nov 28, 2015 18:05
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