Space Marine Applicant Quest #6

>>357278

You kneel, letting the sonorous prayers of Chaplain Kegrail wash over you. The chant ripples in the still air of the Chapel, resonating amongst the stone pews and against the arched ceilings. Breathing deeply, you think of nothing at all, letting your faith in the Emperor wash through your bones and within the deep spaces of your chest. As the prayer ends, you stand, feeling refreshed. You still do not understand the High Gothic of Kegrail's prayers, but you have learned the rhythms and cadences of the ancient speech.

The gray robes of an Initiate-Brother hang heavily around your massive frame – when you returned from your successful Hunt nearly two years ago, the robes had been loose and ill-fitting. Since then, you've grown by almost two full feet, and put on another two hundred pounds of ceramite and muscle, and now the robes border on being too tight. The geneseed of the Horned Lions have turned you into one of the giants; made you more than mortal. To your left, your comrade Rab stands only a few inches shorter, and to your right, Fraq is shorter than that – his struggles during the implantation process and the Hunt have left him somewhat defensive about his shorter stature. That said, Fraq's temperament has always been too placid to let minor differences bother him. Even in the Underhive, he had tempered Sen and Rab's excitable temperament with careful thought.

You silently file out of the Chapel with your Initiate-Brothers, passing knots of Horned Lions in dark red robes. In the two years since the three of you had completed your Hunts, your training had continued at its rigorous pace, but the nightmare intensity that Scout Sergeant Karlat had pushed on you three before the Hunt had lessened somewhat. By completing the Hunt, you proved your physical worthiness to the Chapter, or so you had learned. The last portion of your Initiate training was mental, tactical, strategic. It was not enough to be the Emperor's blunt instrument, Karlat had repeated to you – He expects an economy of action and thought as well. The Emperor is best served when the enemies of Man are eradicated as swiftly and efficiently as possible, because there are always more waiting for your attention.

>cont

>>357288

ou had kept up with your physical training, of course, but now a substantial portion of your days was spent learning the tactics and means by which a squad of Space Marines could attain victory on and off the battlefield. You studied the Codex Astartes into the late hours of the night, and spent your mornings in weapons and squad drills with your fellow Initiates. Fraq, Rab, and yourself now often joined together with two slightly older Initiate-Brothers of the Horned Lions, together forming a kind of Initiate squad. One was named Larke, who despite his near-silence, would burst into action at the drop of a hat. You had learned to respect his skills as a melee combatant, although he tended to fall into traps easily on the battlefield. The other was named Ultai, and much like Apothecary Fatho or Fraq, had very dark skin. Ultai was a natural commander – his orders were always confident, and to your frustration, usually correct as well. He considered himself squad leader of your group of Initiate-Brothers, and you had to swallow your pride as he ordered you around the training environments. Still, you have learned a large amount from his guidance, his smug demeanor notwithstanding.

>Finial has been training hard in a variety of squad combat situations, roll me a 2d10, best of three for his WS and BS increases
>Finial has also gained some basic Astartes skills from his training: Common Lore (War), Drive Vehicle, Ciphers (Horned Lions Basic Ciphers), Concealment, Tactics (Recon and Stealth), Tracking. These have been added to his character sheet.

Rolled 1, 5 = 6 (2d10)

>>357290

Rolled 6, 6 = 12 (2d10)

rolling

Rolled 9, 4 = 13 (2d10)

>>357290
one more

>>357299

Looks like 9 and 6 to me, WS is now 43, BS is now 46.

And of course, as your training increased in complexity, so too did your implantation process continue unabated. A Catalepsean Node was implanted in the base of your skull, and you could now stay awake for days, if you so wanted. A Preomnor was installed in your abdomen, so that any ingested poisons could be safely neutralized. An Omophagea, a bizarre organ that let you reclaim memories from the creatures you have slain. Fatho had warned you against using this new power too frequently – darkly, he had warned you of "whole Space Marine Chapters who abuse this gift of the Emperor in foul rituals of consumption." You had to agree with his judgment – eating something as vile as a xeno was not something that appealed to you.

An Occulobe and a Lyman's Ear were installed – and your sight and hearing have been improved drastically. You had initially thought that your senses would simply improve, but the truth is more complicated. Your ability to pick out targets and filter out ambient noises had become very powerful – you found yourself able to pick out whispers between Battle-Brothers even in the din of the Feast Hall. You understand now why the Horned Lions were so soft-spoken – it was simply unnecessary to speak loudly to be understood.

And during all this process, you and your Initiate-Brothers were hypnoindoctrinated every night – visions of righteous war and the destruction of xenos filled your dreams, and you woke each morning with a growing sense of confidence in your service. It was more than belief – it was like every cell of your new form was inscribed with a glowing truth, and that truth was this: YOU ARE THE EMPEROR'S FINEST.

As you file out of the Chapel with your Initiate-Brothers, you see that Ultai and Larke waiting ahead, just a little further down the hall. Impatiently, you stand and wait for him to make his announcement – you're annoyed to see that he waits several extra beats before speaking, no doubt to irritate you.

>>357307

Ultai speaks confidently, saying, "Initiate-Brothers – I have a message from Karlat. Tonight, instead of evening drills, we will meet the Sergeant in the hanger. We have our first assignment. If we succeed, we will be one step closer to becoming full brothers. We have each been tested to our limits individually, but I have full faith that we shall triumph as a squad."

You ponder Ultai's words before speaking yourself.

>What is our assignment?
>What equipment will we receive?
>Will Karlat be joining us?
>write-in

>>357315
>What sort of world will we be deployed on?
>What is our assignment?

>>357315
>What sort of world will we be deployed on?
>What is our assignment?

>>357326

"Where will we be deployed, Ultai? What is our assignment?" you ask quickly.

"We will be deployed to Litore, Initiate-Brothers, to join with the Lions on campaign there. As you know, Litore is an inner world on the Carcerum system. Pacification of Litore is a critical goal for Sector Command." At once, the Initiates seem to silently exult with joy - even Fraq sports a wide grin.

"As you know, the initial invasion of Litore was a success in 895.M41, and since that time, the Horned Lions have been assisted with the fortification and development of Litore Prime, the fortress-city." Ulta pauses a moment, catching his breath. It seems that he's not immune to the excitement of the situation either. "As for our specific mission targets, we will be briefed upon arrived to Litore."

>Any other questions for Ultai?

>>357349
What's the primary terrain of the planet, any notable flora or fauna? What sort of things are occurring that require pacification?

>>357349
What sort of enviroment will we be fighting in and what sort of enemy we are expected to face?

>>357349
Also should probably ask if there's already astartes deployed there.

>>357350

"What's the primary terrain? What should we be aware of?

"Excellent questions, Initiate-Brother Finial," Ultai begins drily. "Litore is almost entirely grasslands in the temperate zone, and Sector Command wants to convert Litore into an Agriworld - but this can't happen while almost a billion Orks are roaming wild across the surface. As I mentioned previously, the initial invasion has been a success, although the sheer number of hostile xenos has made pacification of the plains a daunting process. The Orks themselves are mostly feral, and at this point, seem more concerned with killing each other than the Imperials. As I'm sure you remember from the Codex Astartes, when faced with the Orks, it is necessary to first eliminate leadership. No doubt our particular mission will contribute to this goal somehow."

>any other questions?

>>357375
What other forces have there been deployed on the world? Is it just PDF?

>>357386

"Imperial Guard and PDF forces are mostly bunkered within Litore Prime, the fortress-city although several secondary outposts have been linked together into a defensive network. Limited raids on Ork forces are performed to keep the xenos disorganized, but no serious push to cleanse the grasslands has yet begun.

As for the Horned Lions forces, roughly 200 Battle-Brothers and the Chapter's leadership are present - they have been performing ambushes and lightning raids on deeper Ork targets to ensure the xenos continue to war against themselves while the Imperial Guard prepares for a major offensive."

You drink in all this information with relish - it seems like your first true taste of combat is coming sooner than you thought!

>timeskip to landing on Litore? the flight itself will only be a few days, since Litore is in the same system.

>>357399
Timeskip

>>357399
Timeskip with a paragraph of description of the journey.

>>357399
Any other major planets? major settlements on planet? Any sign of any other threat on planet since Orks are used as a distraction by just about all our other foes?

Then timeskip

>>357399
Timeskip, but roll for warp travel to see if we get anything fun on the journey.

>>357438
>>357440
>>357443
>combining these

>>357452

>we're actually traveling within the same solar system, so warp travel is not really justified.

The trip itself goes faster than you think - you, along with the other Initiates, travel aboard one of the Horned Lions Chapter ships, although it is not the Chapter Battlebarge, the Bellerophon. It's one of the smaller vessels in the Chapter's service, merely a freighter, called the Miraculous Strike. You spend these time reviewing the information of the Carcerum system on a data-slate, to better understand why the Chapter itself is on Litore.

There are five worlds in the Carcerum system. The first world is called Mirballae, and it's tiny - but that's really all you can learn. The world itself was placed under quarantine decades ago, and there was once a human presence on the world, but all of the information is almost a hundred years out of date. Why the world is quarantined, you have no idea.

The second world is called Ulcus, and once you read the file, you see why it was named after a boil. The world itself is a massive ocean planet, but the temperature is near boiling. The world ocean is constantly simmering just below boiling temperatures, and as a result, massive storms are constantly raging across the surface of the water. It's completely inhospitable to human life or any kind of permanent structure. However, there are 26 moons whirling endless above the Ulcean Sea, and these moons are in constant chaotic flux. Orks, heretical cults, pirates, Eldar, and worse are constantly waging miniature wars and raids amongst the 26 worlds - also known as Ulcus's Tears. It is an insanely dangerous place and all Imperial attempts at pacification have failed utterly. You find that rather than attempt to quell the incessant warfare of Ulcus, a huge Imperial blockade has been developed over the decades surrounding Ulcus - ships, minefields, defensive lasers and more have been assembled piecemeal to prevent the utter chaos of Ulcus's Tears spilling out into the Carcerum system.

>cont

>>357495

Litore, the third world from the Sun, used to be entirely populated with Orks - for thousands of years, it was deemed simply too costly to reclaim for the Imperium. However, in the past few centuries, Carcerum has grown to become a true subsector capital in its own right, and Carcerum Hive officials have been pushing to reclaim Litore and use its fertile grasslands to feed the Hive. To that end, a large invasion is currently underway to reclaim the world from the Orks. The Orks themselves are not particularly well-equipped, but it will take decades or perhaps even centuries to fully purge the world of Xenos presence.

The fourth world is called Galacus, and you read with interest that on this tiny world, a fedual human civilization has been waging world wars upon each other endlessly. Imperial attentions have been elsewhere, and so Imperial forces have typically not intervened in the past. However, with the Badab War happening so close-by, an administrative error led to thousands of nuclear weapons and missile silos to be installed on Galacus. Already, several Galacan nations have deciphered the missile codes and now appear to engaging in unrelenting nuclear warfare against each other. Tens of millions of Galacans have died, but Imperial forces are content to let this battle run its course.

Finally, the fifth world is Carcerum - a large desert world, it's notable only for housing the Carcerum Hive and the Shadowed Lair, Fortress-Monastery of the Horned Lions.

>any other questions about the system, guys?

>>357525
Did the person who fucked up so substantially on Galacus get his just punishment for wasting the Emperor's subjects, resources and time? Any major space stations or naval yards? Any battles or entities of note(besides our chapter) in our subsector or nearby?

File: 1394999011819.jpg (82KB, 634x720px) Image search: [Google]

82KB, 634x720px

>>357278
does thsi chapter not have the skin color changing organ or is it just broke? perhaps we simply do not have it yet and the chaplain simply has a higher radiation in his area than most

>>357539

Galacus never truly had an Imperial Governor, and there have been so many other problems in the Coxitae Subsector that Sector Command simply doesn't care about a tiny dirtball world like Galacus. It wasn't making regular tithes to Sector Command to begin with, and it would take years of intervention and Imperial colonizing to make Galacus productive again.

>>357542

Fatho actually spends a significant amount of time on the surface of Carcerum, so that's why his skin is darker.

As for Fraq and Ultai, neither one of them has the Melanchromic Organ yet, just like you, so their coloration is natural.

>>357555

>I'll answer any more questions as we continue

After days of study, you're relieved to here that Litore is approaching. You have imagined that space travel would be exciting, but you realize now that the vast majority of it seems to be waiting. You and your comrades have spent several days cooped up in glorified steel boxes, without even any windows to examine the view. Before too long, you feel the Miraculous Strike settle on Litore.

Stepping forward onto the rockcrete landing pad, you can't help but take a deep breath, tasting the air of an alien world. You can smell factories, exhaust, smoke and fire - you can also smell a distinct fungal aroma. Some half-memory from hypnoindoctrination all but screams out that this fungal smell is Orkish. The landing pad itself is within Litore Prime, the fortress-city, and before you, it seems that an entire army is on the move. Transport ships are constantly landing and shooting off into sky, and whole regiments of Imperial Guardsmen stream past whole, only waist-high. You can't help but chuckle at the awe in their eyes as they pass you - they can hardly know that only a few years ago, you were a thin boy of 10 years.

Before too long, a Horned Lions servitor appears from the crowds and calls for your attention - Ultai in turn calls the Initiates into formation, and you all march off together, giants clad in gray robes.

>cont

>>357594

Where the Undercity was all broken and rusted edges, and sparking wires, the Fortress-City bristles with guns - it seems that every railing has a Guardsman manning sentry guns. In the distance, you can hear thousands more guns sputtering on or off, no doubt firing rounds at Orks testing the boundaries of the citadel. Strange men in red robes and respirators dart through the crowds, extra metallic appendages waving impatiently - you realize that these men must be agents of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

After almost an hour of marching, you finally reach a squat building on the interior ring of the Fortress-City - stepping inside, you're relieved to see the darker reds of Horned Lions robes. You hadn't realized it, but you felt a tad overwhelmed by the crowds - you had gotten too accustomed to the quiet solitude of the Shadowed Lair.

Inside, the five of you are waved from room to room silently, until finally you are given permission to sit on a series of stone benches in a quiet meeting room. Even as soon as you sit, a Horned Lion strides into the room, his cloak marking him a Sergeant.

"Rise, Initiate-Brothers," the Sergeant barks out. "I am Scout Sergeant Olitarius, and I will not coddle you like Karlat has." You dare a brief glance at your comrades and see four unblinking stone faces - you adopt the same neutral expression. To your dismay, Olitarius seems to notice your attention waver, and he immediately approaches, whispering menacingly.

"What are you here to do, Initiate-Brother?" It's not a rhetorical question - he's clearly waiting for a response.

>what do you say? Speak carefully, /qst/

>>357594
wait we have not been issued our carapace armor yet?... wait 40k and logic

>>357616
To fight as the Emperor's sword and shield however you order me too.

>>357619
we're scouts.

File: armor.gif (969KB, 420x717px) Image search: [Google]

969KB, 420x717px

>>357616
to learn and to purge the enemies of man

>>357626
wrong carapace not the organ the armor

>>357632
Likely after this sergeant is an asshole to us

>>357644
40k is very sink or swim I forget that some times

>>357626
>>357629

"To learn from you and purge the enemies of Man. To be the Emperor's Sword and Shield as you direct me, Brother-Sergeant."

Roll me a 1d100 to see how he takes it

>>357616
To serve the Emperor in his battle to cleanse the universe of heresy, to raise the Empire to its greatest glory, to destroy Kek and the minions of chaos at every corner! Not deal with the egos of minor commanders mere dust in the universe like yourself! Your orders, sir!

Rolled 26 (1d100)

>>357648

Rolled 63 (1d100)

>>357648

Rolled 89 (1d100)

>>357648
glory to the emperor and the lion

>>357652

>you scrape by with 1 degree of success, whew

Olitarius blinks a little with your prompt answer, but your response seems to satisfy him. He glares at you for a moment longer and then addresses the group.

"You will ALL serve as the Emperor's sword today, not just you, Brother-Initiate. I will not waste words on you, and you will not waste an opportunity to see the Emperor's will done."

Olitarius snaps his fingers, and a flurry of servitors appear, carrying carapace armor and various types of weaponry. Quickly, you remove your robes and see that your comrades are doing the same - as the carapace armor is being locked over your frame, you hear Olitarius describing the mission objectives.

"Orks have been massing in the Northern Plains for weeks now, but the idiot Imperial Guard haven't yet done anything about it. They will sit on their hands until the xenos gather enough strength to run them down and demolish Litore Prime, so it falls to us as competent strategists to protect these weaklings for the time being. We don't know for sure what the Orks are planning, just yet, or what kinds of armaments they have. The five of you will be airlifted to the general vicinity of the Ork horde - by foot, you will avoid Ork patrols, and make your way to Ork encampment. Once there, you will determine the relative strength of the Ork horde, eliminate targets of opportunity, and foment chaos in their ranks. Once you had succeeded, you will leave the general area and summon an exfiltration Thunderhawk."

>cont

>>357705

"You will be armed with Astartes-caliber needle rifles, and frag grenades, although you will learn that frags will attract more attention than you desire. You may also bring your combat knives." You carefully attach your custom warknife to the maglock on the carapace armor's waist. Olitarius eyes your blade, obviously surprised at the workmanship. Then again, you imagine that Karlat does not typically fashion knives out of the fangs of Allisan lions - Olitarius probably hasn't heard how you and the Carcerum gangers found yourself applicants.

Olitarius ceases speaking and looks at the five of you expectantly, waiting for questions.

>any questions?

>>357724
Any ideas on who the leader is? Any notable terrain? Any flora or fauna that could either help or hinder our cover? Any advice you have for us?

>>357724

"Any ideas on who the leader is? Any notable terrain? Any flora or fauna that could either help or hinder our cover? Any advice you have for us?"

Olitarius narrows his eyes. "Initiate-Brother, I will repeat this information for you one time only. We have no intelligence on enemy leadership. The grasslands themselves can hide a careful Marine, if he's quiet. My advice to you is this: a silent approach and an equally silent getaway is the only way you might survive. Enemy forces are simply too numerous to fight your way out."

With that, you find a needle rifle placed in your arms and Olitarius exits the room. A few seconds pass before another servitor enters, this time beckoning you to another smaller landing pad. Silently, you enter the Thunderhawk, and in only a few minutes, you're stepping off the transport ship onto the long grass of the Northern Plains.

The grass itself is very tall - in some places, even over your head. An Initiate could very well hide in the cover of the long grass, but so could a clever Ork - extreme caution will be needed to prevent detection.

Ultai notices you examining your surrounding and speaks softly. "Listen closely, Initiates. Olitarius is right - we have only once chance at success, and that depends on a silent approach. We'll stay low in the grass and approach the ridge from the northwest - from there, we can determine the next course of the action.

>any suggestions for Ultai? He has apparently taken squad command.

>>357788
Take care of how the winds blows, lest they or their beasts smell us. Look out for scouts and sentries. We need to set up signals and such to communicate now, we can't count on our foes not hearing us speak. We'll need someone to act as a spotter to help the others avoid patrols too.

>>357809

You know, it seems like we're down to only one player here.

I might postpone the rest of tonight's run and try again tomorrow for more players.

>>357822
Might be no one can think of anything else to add.

>>357824
That's why I'm not saying anything

>>357822
I was merely agreeing with what others have said.... and indicating silence...I realize now how dumb that is if am just a void it seems like am not here

>>357856
Are you drunk or are you a non native English speaker?

File: 1391201732785.jpg (154KB, 512x512px) Image search: [Google]

154KB, 512x512px

>>357856
also it seems we did lose a player but k43 5p8 and myself remain

>>357866
neither. I just type weird sorry

>>357822

Alright, we're postponing until tomorrow night, maybe we'll have more luck then.

>>357955
Thanks for running some bossman

>>357788
>any suggestions for Ultai? He has apparently taken squad command.
We could ask the Imperial Guardsmen directly on the reports on their vehicular losses to estimate roughly what we'd be up against.

Dark Angels and their successors generally don't coordinate with the guardsmen much, so it might have been overlooked.
If Orks manage to shoot down an aircraft, it's pretty much guaranteed they have some dedicated AA, because Ork small arms fire is barely a threat against infantry as it is.
If they've lost a chimaera, sentinel or other armoured unit, even if it's just light armor, we know they've got anti-armor in one way or another.

Also, for every unrecovered vehicle, it's safe to assume orks have might have looted it and gotten it up and running.

>>358079
Oh, right, we can't do that since we don't speak high gothic.
Also, that would probably require us to have common lore administratum to even figure out this sort of thing.

>>357955

Damn, I really need to get Twitter so I can get reminders on when you run. Looking forward to tomorrow then.

darn being Australian and time sucking

>>357955

Alright, I'm shooting for 8pm EST if there's still any interest. I'm inclined to give this quest a noble demise and reveal my plans if we've finally run out of steam. So speak now to save the quest if you so desire.

>>360920
speaking now

>>360920
still interested.

>>360920
Speaking

>>360920
Interested.

>>360920

Very Interested

>>360920

Still interested

>>360920
Still interested, this quest just runs after midnight, so participation is often hard.

>>360920

The people have spoken, expect the session to continue at 8pm EST

>>357788
I've got an idea.
Should we kill any orks sneakily, we should try and leave our mark on the corpses so they know they got killed by a right sneaky git.

Like, try to position them standing upright so orks think we are such a sneaky git we can kill a git so hard that the git doesn't even know he should lie down when he dies.

Additionally, if we get chased by orks, we can just run through these dead gits and they think us right brutally kunning.

>>361456
I like it, but only if we paint ourselves green first so they think we're extra kunnin'.

>>361478
I gots a better idea. We need a hat so the orks know we iz important and we iz important because we iz the biggest humie, so it means we get the biggest hat.

>>361478
We should also see if we can't pick up some sunglasses from dead guardsmen as well.

As long as we look important, it goes without saying we can only be killed by someone important.

>>361522
Then they'll knock our teef out and take our hat, cuz we're still a humie. 'E gotta be green and have da hat, so we can be Warboss.

File: 1466104591319.jpg (49KB, 400x500px) Image search: [Google]

49KB, 400x500px

>>361641
Yarrick wasn't green though.
Still, I guess green is one of our chapter colours.

Goddamnit, I have to cancel again.

I have to be honest, it's been a struggle to run this quest on a scheduling basis. I'm thinking it might be better to quit outright rather than string you guys along for another couple weeks and then ghosting on it.

Does anyone want to continue the quest? I'll pastebin you the materials and then you can run it yourself.

>>361729
im finally here im number 3

>>361729
Damn every space marine quest fails.

>>362879
>>361729
Not just space marine but every warhammer 40k quest this makes me sad.

>>361729
Please continue it

>>361729
You've got something good here don't let it die

Fucking time zones man. The interest is here it's just we never arrive right at the beginning.

I miss that Primarch Quest from a while back... and the more recent DE one.

>>362945
He should do it the way they do on /tg/ with twitter so people know when their starting

>>362947
...he has one
https://twitter.com/hornedlionsque1

>>362947
Well, it doesn't really help when the quest runs around 2 AM.

I think that it's fine to run it really slowly and just update it like couple of times a day or something.
/qst/ is slow, so some QM's run like 1 post a day.

Please tell me the quest is dead

>>363622
ISN'T
ISN'T

GODDAMN KEYBOARD, DON"T YOU DARE CAUSE THIS QUEST TO DIE

>>363349

Hmm.

I hadn't considered this. If everyone is cool with it, maybe we could try for one or two updates a day?

>slow update style, y/n?

I'm not ruling out more traditional sessions either, but they're going to be much rarer.

>>364076
I'd be fine with it

>>364076

Fine by me, the only 40K quest I've ever seen last anywhere remotely long was the Hereteck Quest and even that one lost steam at the end. Please let this one survive

>>364076
sounds good to me

>>364076
Sure
>>364096
>Heretek Quest
>Someone else who participated
Man, that was the shit. I was there for almost all of it.

>>364096
There's also Chapter Quest, but that runs almost never.

>>365245

Fuck yeah, that would make you one of the 3 I think that stuck around. That was a fun little romp even if it got a bit excessive towards the end

>>364076
No harm done in that style. It wouldn't work in tg, but it works here.

>>357788
As to suggestions to Ultai, I say we should make ourselves look fancy for the first battle so that it'll be something to remember.

>>364076
I just came across this quest. All I want is to see more of it.

>TFW NO MENTION OF THE ANGRY MARINES STILL

>>381592
We don't talk about them.