The Esper War

>>375870
>[X] Rifle Training

>>375877
second

>>375877
>>375884

[1] Rifle Training
[3] Hand-to-Hand
[5] Pathfinding
[2] Theology
[4] Command

You excelled at rifle training. This was no surprise. Target shooting and hunting were easily the most popular pastimes on your homestead. With an eye like yours, you're told you could've been a sniper, if your pathfinding weren't so godawful as to prevent you from being at all reliable outside a unit. As it is, you ended up on the squad's gun team. To the best of your understanding, your job is one part guarding the flanks of the gunner and two parts serving as pack mule for his extra ammo.

Morale (choose one)

[ ] Enthusiastic
[ ] Compliant
[ ] Unliked
[ ] Reluctant

>>375915
>[ ] Compliant

>>375915
>[X] Unliked

>>375920
>>375924

Since it seems no one is around to resolve this dispute, each of you roll a d20. Highest roll wins.

Rolled 9 (1d20)

>>375951

>>375951
is it too late to act as a tiebraker?
>unliked

I'll join in.
Unliked.

>>376015
>>376000

Unliked appears to be our winner.

You've been marked down as having caused "minor morale problems." Your squad does not so much dislike you as just use you as the scapegoat for fucking everything. Especially the gun team, who you're almost always assigned to the same post with, but even the rifle team is happy to deflect blame onto you when possible. When the lieutenant dropped by and singled your section out for sloppy quarters, everyone quickly agreed that it was your fault, but you know damn well that your bunk wasn't any worse off than anyone else's. The sergeant still made you do the lion's share of the work getting it back into shape. You're still mostly convinced that the lieutenant just picked a section at random to show everyone not to fuck with him.

Not everyone's an asshole on the section, though. Harkin from the rifle team doesn't give you any shit, and he took the bullet the sergeant had aimed at you when a grenade went missing from the section inventory. You don't know if he was actually the one who lost it, but you know that Tomms had said he'd given it to you last, and the sergeant was happy to roll with that explanation before Harkin stepped forward.

Theological (choose one)

[ ] Zealot
[ ] Flock
[ ] Layman
[ ] Unorthodox

Zealot. We're the religious nutjob who always gets blamed by everyone else.

>>376040

By right of the godforsaken hour, this anon gets to unilaterally make our penultimate chargen decision.

You don't just know the gist of the Holy Sagas, you know most of the relevant passages by heart. Especially the bits about the wrath of the heavens and which circle of Hell traitors are damned to. You tried to enlist the day war was declared, but your parents wouldn't give their permission and you were still a few months shy of emancipation. The day after your birthday, you went into the enlistment office and signed up. Things have been...less dedicated than you might have hoped. In particular, they don't separate the volunteers from the draftees. You haven't yet found proof that Tomms is a heretic, but you're already half-convinced that the reason he hates your devout nature is because he harbors treachery in his heart. Most of the rest are just faithless buffoons, but you've resolved to do your part for the gods above no matter how inept your companions in the fight are.

Bennett is the worst. He's not just apathetic. Lots of people just don't worry about their immortal souls at all, shortsighted and concerned only with the material world that is so easy to see and touch. You've contented yourself that one day you'll be vindicated. Bennett is a whole other story, though. He worships an almost entirely different set of gods. The chaplain has assured you that this is not heresy, and explained that so long as Thanadeus sits enthroned above them all, the details are not worth shedding blood over. He says that Bennett is a dedicated soldier of the faith, a volunteer to fight the heretics, and that you should embrace him as your brother in this fight. This mostly has you wondering whether or not the *chaplain* can be trusted. What gods does he worship? He never seems to mention anyone other than Thanadeus. You don't want to risk offending him if he really is a shepherd of the faithful, though, so you haven't asked, but gods it's been eating at you for a while now.

The tedium of life on the Minerva I hasn't helped. It's nothing but drills and inspections and guard duty and you can't stand half your section. You've just recently dropped out of the ether and onto the world, but other than a weird feeling in your gut on entry, nothing's changed so far.

You know from the little video they played while you were on your way that Battle Fleet Eidolon has been assigned to Augmata, one of the conflict worlds where the rebel esper Xaos has been pummeling local loyalist militaries for a while now. His sky fortress Tiamat has made him basically invincible in battle, which is why Eidolon is being deployed, since one of the capital ships of the fleet, the Marduk, is equipped with a compact buster cannon that can be used to disable the engines of the Tiamat in one shot, sending it crashing to the ground. After that, the legions are to help retake Augmata acre by acre. You can't wait to stop waiting and start killing traitors.

>>376083

Fucking Hell, this thing just will not post. Trying it again.

>What is your last name?

>>376096
Reynolds

>>376096
Aurelius

>>376096
Morrison.

>>376103
Voting for this, it seems to fit in with the already mentioned names.

>>376115
>>376103

Aurelius it is.

When the alarm bells ring, you bolt for your weapon and then to fall in with the rest of the platoon. Officers and NCOs bark orders, but you all know the drill anyway. It's battle stations, and for your platoon that means prepare to repel borders. You jog in columns through the corridors barely wide enough for two soldiers to stand abreast, until things open up at the loading bay, a wide, empty space with a heavy blast door at one end. Stored at the side are the shields, which you and your platoon unpack onto the bay, setting up MG nests and flank positions for the rifle teams.

You can hear the battle outside, over the alarms. Cannons fire, shells detonate, and you can hear the chatter of gunfire, so there must be fighters in the air. Occasionally the ship rocks with a blast and the lights flicker. What if the ship goes down? You know that little frigates like the Minerva I can be torn right in half by a single salvo from the bigger cannons. The Tiamat's buster cannon could take out the entire Minerva Group in one go. What would that be like? Just a flash of light and then it's over? How much would it hurt?

Roll a pool of 2d6. 4-6 is a hit.

Rolled 5, 2 = 7 (2d6)

>>376140
Ok then

Rolled 2, 5 = 7 (2d6)

>>376140

Rolled 6, 1 = 7 (2d6)

>>376140

>>376147
>>376148

Clearly you were intended to get one hit on this.

You manage to suck down your fear. The gods have a plan for you, and if that plan really is just to go down with the wreckage of this ship, then so be it. Besides, deep down, you can't imagine that this is all that you're meant for. Surely you were born into such a pivotal moment in history for a reason. The gods knew they would need every faithful soldier to stand against this darkness, and that's why you and all the others were sent here and now. That's what the preacher back home always said. The chaplain, too, which made you more comfortable with him.

You can hear gunfire right outside. The platoon on the deck outside are fighting with boarders. Sparks fly through the blast door. The enemy are cutting through. The door explodes inwards, shrapnel spits into the room, and the entire platoon opens fire. Enemy troops fall over. A missile screams through the doorway and rips one of the MG nests apart, drawing swears from Bennett, manning the gun next to you. You and him both try to pick out the missile team before they can reload.

"Penber, Nickels, move up! Grayson, cover!" the lieutenant shouts.

Penber is your sergeant. "Covering fire!" he shouts, not that Bennett isn't already unloading his gun towards the breach. The rifle team advances and your guns fall silent as they near the breach. Harkin sticks his head out to check, then waves for the rest of the team to follow.

You leave the safety of the loading bay out onto the deck, taking cover behind the torn up bits of metal where some small explosive hit, whether a fighter missile or a corvette cannon, you can't tell. The platoon defending out here is in tatters, their corpses littering the deck while their remnants exchange fire with the enemy defending a disabled gunship at the far end of the deck.

Through the carnage of the air battle, the smoking shells of cannonfire of the airships and the screaming missiles of the fighters and frigates, you can see more gunships approaching, but there's no telling whether they're headed for your ship specifically. If they are, they'll have an easy time landing so long as the enemy controls the far end of the deck.

>Toss a grenade their way. You have to clear them out fast.
>Keep the pressure up with your rifle. Save your grenades in case you need them later.
>Your job is to protect Bennett's flanks. His flanks are just fine, so you're keeping your head down and conserving ammo.

>Your job is to protect Bennett's flanks. His flanks are just fine, so you're keeping your head down and conserving ammo.

>>376161
>>Your job is to protect Bennett's flanks. His flanks are just fine, so you're keeping your head down and conserving ammo.

>>376165
>>376172

You keep your head down and let Bennett and the rifle team do their respective jobs of hammering the enemy with lots of bullets and getting in close to finish them off with grenades and bayonets.

Roll 6d6.

Rolled 3, 2, 3, 2, 5, 1 = 16 (6d6)

>>376209

Rolled 2, 4, 4, 2, 5, 2 = 19 (6d6)

>>376209

>>376210

What rotten luck.

You hear the grenades detonate and then a few brief spurts of gunfire. A stray bullet slams into the pauldron of your armor, sticking out just past the torn up bit of deck you'd been taking cover behind. You wince with pain and look over to check the wound. The pauldron is definitely cracked, but you don't see any blood seeping out. Your arm can still move alright. It's a little sore, but doesn't feel broken.

"It's all clear," the corporal from Nickels' section says. You don't know his name. You stick your head out from behind your meager cover. The deck might be clear, but there's plenty of bullets flying through the airspace.

"I got one," Bennett says, "at least one of 'em, I'm sure of it. I saw him go down. I got my first traitor."

>Celebrate with him. In this, at least, his heart is in the right place.
>Remain silent. You still suspect this man might be a heretic.

>>376217
>>Remain silent. You still suspect this man might be a heretic.

>>376217
>Remain silent. You still suspect this man might be a heretic.

>>376229
Well i'm going to bed guys. Keep this thread alive if you can, please.

>>376217
>>Remain silent. You still suspect this man might be a heretic.

>>376219
>>376229
>>376265

"I thought we were supposed to have a safe entry?" Tomms asks from the other side of Bennett.

"Looks like Xaos has other plans, trooper," Sergeant Penber says. The ship is rocked by cannon fire on the far end, and the four of you struggle to keep your footing for a few seconds before the Minerva recovers its balance.

"Hey, where's our allies? There was supposed to be a local fleet here, wasn't there? Did we lose 'em already?" Bennett asks.

"Oh, shit. Shit!" Tomms says.

"What're you bitching about, trooper?" the sergeant asks.

"Look," he points between a pair of enemy corvettes to some sillhouettes in the distance, "is that Tiamat? It's gigantic!" You can see the flying mountain he's pointing to. It's not alone, either. They've got more capital ships escorting that behemoth than you have ships in your entire fleet, corvettes included. It's fortunate they're so far outside of engagement range. "Where's the Marduk?" Tomms asks, looking around, "fuck, where's the Marduk?!"

"Shut up and stay alert, soldier," the sergeant says.

Tomms swallows and says "yes, sir," half bitter and half scared.

The enemy doesn't attempt another boarding action on your end of the ship. The corvettes pull away, one of them listing downwards to crash land onto the sands below. The bridge of the Minerva blocks your view to the aft of the ship, so all you can see is all the little Minerva and Inanna frigates and corvettes arrayed nearby. Your capital ships are nowhere to be seen, and the enemy corvettes you'd left behind are regrouping with a new force sent by that fleet surrounding the Tiamat, and now they're coming for you. Tiamat's getting closer, too.

The enemy corvettes let out a salvo of cannon shot, and the ship rocks underneath your body again. You and the entire gun team have gone prone while fighters and dropships approach, but they give your frigate and its heavy AA guns a wide berth, strafing towards the smaller corvettes instead.

Four gunships fly towards your corvette, the AA sends one of them down in flames to the side and blasts the wing off of another, but the damaged gunship manages to land on the deck along with the other two, miniguns blasting across the deck towards you while disgorging the traitor legionaries onto the deck. They sprint a short distance from the ship and go to ground. It's hard to tell which ones have gone prone and which have been shot and fallen forward. You hope it's mostly the latter.

>Open fire and make liberal use of your grenades.
>Open fire, but conserve grenades.
>Focus on staying alive. Draw as little attention to yourself as possible.

>>376304
>>Open fire, but conserve grenades.

>>376304
>>Open fire, but conserve grenades.

>>376327
>>376359

Roll 5d6.

Rolled 2, 6, 5, 1, 2 = 16 (5d6)

>>376487

Rolled 2, 4, 5, 3, 2 = 16 (5d6)

>>376487

Rolled 2, 6, 5, 4, 5 = 22 (5d6)

>>376487
Esper War, Eidolon Battle Fleet, Holy Sagas? Magic WW1 with flying ships and religion?

Rolled 2, 1, 1, 4, 4 = 12 (5d6)

>>376487
I'm back.

>>377029

You and the rest of the deck open fire, the air erupts with deafening noise. The enemy takes cover behind their landed ships, which spray out bullets that tear straight through the deck and sweep towards you. You push yourself back out of the way of the scythe of bullets, and empty your magazine at the gunner. Not until it's empty and you're fumbling with your pouches for another do you look over your shoulder to see the state of your team. The sergeant and Penber look fine, but Tomms is laying stock still on the deck, eyes wide open. You can't tell if he's dead or just in shock.

Bennett puts down a relentless stream of fire into the gunships, sending them behind cover while the section's rifle team runs up the side of the deck, shoots the pilot through his windshield, and then toss grenades at the enemies hiding behind the ship from the flank. The enemies spill out from behind the ship to avoid the rifle team, into clear view of you and the rest of the gun team.

"Fire on the next, keep the pressure up!" the sergeant shouts, pointing towards another of the gunships that's landed on the deck. They have Nickels' rifle team pinned and prone with their minigun and are picking them off, while your own rifle team is getting ready to move through the gunship they just cleared onto the next. You have no idea what happened to Nickels' gun team, but they aren't protecting their rifles.

A cannon shell rips the ship apart about fifty feet behind you. A direct hit on the main AA turret on the fore of the ship, its detonation briefly knocking the wind out of you. Your ears ring. The sergeant's yelling something but it's hard to make out what it is.

Roll 2d6.

Rolled 5, 1 = 6 (2d6)

>>378932

Rolled 4, 6 = 10 (2d6)

>>378932

>>379091

You're a steady fellow, Aurelius. You are unfazed by the turret's destruction, and while you can't really hear what the sergeant's saying, he's pointing towards enemies. He probably doesn't want you to open up a dialogue about your shared humanity. You let loose on them while your rifle team and another - some blokes from another platoon, you're not sure who exactly - converge on the position.

It turns out you are not the only army with rifle teams, however. The enemy rifles are hiding past the railing of the deck, where it slopes down into what you assume is some kind of aero-dynamic curvy shape rather than just dropping off like a naval ship would. They pull themselves up from the slope and charge towards you, guns blazing, grabbing for grenades.

>Now is the time to use your grenades.
>Continue conserving grenades while returning fire.
>You've been flanked, and the cover on this deck is atrocious. Run back to the safety of the loading bay and regroup.

>>379234
>Now is the time to use your grenades

>>379253

Roll 7d6 for it.

Rolled 4, 5, 5, 1, 5, 4, 6 = 30 (7d6)

>>379437

>>379462

You grab one of your grenades, pull the pin, and toss it towards the enemy rifle team. One of them tosses a grenade towards you, and you flail a leg towards it to kick it out of the way. Your grenade detonates, catching the entire team in its blast, and theirs goes off to the side. One of the enemies standing right next to your grenade had one of his own in his hand. It goes flying, severed hand still gripping it tight, and slides off the edge of the deck to go off on the side of the ship. Two of the rifle team have been reduced to gristle, a third is struggling to hold his guts in, and the fourth is trying to drag himself away from the fight despite his mangled legs. You blanch and look away and remind yourself that they were traitors who had it coming.

There's more explosions nearby. Fighters are coming in close to the ship to release missiles, targeting the smaller AA guns now, trying to completely defang your frigate. They come by in flights of three or four, and not one goes by without at least a single fighter getting downed, but the ship is running out of guns fast. The two heavy teams from the two platoons here on the deck aim their missiles skywards and try to hit the fighters on their approach. The fighters have little difficulty dodging out of the way of missiles intended for much less agile ground targets, but at least it forces them to bank away. Timed exactly right, it can prevent them from releasing their missiles and force them to make another run.

On the deck, there's only one enemy section left, from the crash landed gunship. They've lost their minigun in the crash, so they're keeping your troops at bay with just their rifles and grenades. Their wreck is well-positioned to make flanking difficult, though.

Your rifle team is waiting, taking cover behind one of the cleared gunships, while Nickels' rifle team gets into position for an attack from both sides. Bennett is hammering the enemy to keep them suppressed, and after a while he pulls the magazine out of his gun and puts a hand towards you for a new one. You supply it. You might not like the bastard, but giving him ammo is your job.

Bright lights shine behind the fighting, in the direction of Tiamat, which has drawn closer during the fight. You can see trails of smoke from the flashes leading back towards the enemy main fleet. "Those're targeting flares," Tomms says, "they're trying to line up a shot!"

"Looks like they're out of range," Bennett says, glancing up briefly from his gun.

"Or they just undershot," Tomms says.

"Private Tomms, I swear to every god, if you do not shut up I am going to gut you with this bayonet right here," the sergeant says, shaking the bayonet on his rifle for emphasis.

"Yes, sir," Tomms says.

More trails of smoke stream out from the Tiamat, and this time cross overhead to detonate their flares behind the ship.

Roll 2d6.

>Fire on the final enemy section.
>Don't waste ammo. Let the big gun and the rifle teams do their work.

>>379630
>Fire on the final enemy section.
What's our ammo status?

Rolled 6, 3 = 9 (2d6)

>>379630

>>379657

You fire a few controlled bursts at the enemy every now and again, usually whenever you see movement. It's not too difficult to keep a cool head when they're just hiding behind their gunship. You fire off a few bullets now and again to keep them there and wait for the rifle teams to get in position and finish with them.

What's actually scaring you, besides all the chaos going on around you and the though that some platoon sniper on another ship might lop off your head, is the Tiamat. Those targeting flares went behind you, and now a new set is detonating amongst the Minerva and Inanna Groups (you still can't see any capital ships). You're within range of that thing's buster cannon. One shot and this entire engagement would go down in flames. Still, you take comfort from knowing that if they do fire their gun, you will at least have forced them to take down their own corvettes with you. That cannon's not a precision weapon.

Fighters are flying closer to the deck, now, strafing at you and the rest of your platoon. The rifle teams have moved in to finish off that last enemy section, and the sergeant is up and running towards their emptied gunships even while the rifle teams fight for the last one. "Get inside," he shouts, "get cover from those fighters!" Where the Hell are *your* fighters anyway? Did all the big ships just abandon you here, the Ziz and the Eidolon and the Marduk?

Roll 2d6 twice. So mechanically that's going to come out to 4d6, but the first two and the second two are separate rolls.

>>379655

You haven't been keeping track. You'll worry about that once you're in shelter.

Rolled 5, 3 = 8 (2d6)

>>379771

>>379821

And the second set?

Rolled 6, 4 = 10 (2d6)

>>379846
figured you might want to wait for another player

Rolled 2, 4 = 6 (2d6)

>>379771
Here's roll 1.

Rolled 4, 4 = 8 (2d6)

and here's roll 2.

>>379821
>>379851

You and the rest of the gun team run for cover as the fighters come by for another strafing run. The sound of metal ripping apart metal is joined with the screams of a gun team from the other platoon, but you and your team make it into the cover of the gunship unscathed. The gunship's not going to stand up to much punishment, but hopefully the fighters can't see you in here and won't attack.

From in here, your view of what's going on is limited to looking through the cracks in the shell where bullets and shrapnel have gashed open the hull of the gunship. The noise confirms that yes, there is still a war on.

After a few minutes of hiding underneath the gunship, the sergeant orders you all out to sprint from this one to the next, and then shouts across to the last gunship to Corporal Danver to get over here and get the section in one piece again. When the Corporal comes over, all he's got with him is Vult.

"Where are Harkin and Morris?" the sergeant asks.

"Harkin's leg is busted, sir, he's in no condition to be hoofing it anywhere, except maybe a medic. Morris, uh..." Corporal Danver was just a regular recruit with the rest of you in training. He's not anymore used to this than the rest of you.

"What's wrong with Harkin's leg?" the sergeant asks.

"Grenade shrapnel ripped straight through, just under the knee. We got the blood stopped alright, I think there's still something stuck in there, but I'm no surgeon, sir," Corporal Danver says.

"We need to get that boy back to the loading bay to a medic," Sergeant Penbar says.

>Volunteer for the job
>Remain silent

>>379963
>>Volunteer for the job

Our faith will protect us.

>>379975

"I'll get him there, sir," you say.

"Then get moving, trooper," the sergeant says, and you make a quick sprint from your gunship to where what's left of Nickels' section is hiding out with Harkin. Sergeant Nickels himself is not among them.

"Let's get you to the medic," you say to Harkin, putting an arm around his shoulder and helping him to stand on his good leg.

Roll 4d6.

Rolled 1, 6, 5, 4 = 16 (4d6)

>>380067

>>380072

You and Harkin start limping across the deck. To your left, you can see the other three Minerva ships getting chewed up by bombers. Above and to the right, you can see the Inanna I moving in to provide some AA cover. The middle Minerva vessel is covered in flames, and then a combined salvo from the other two Minerva corvettes sends it down to the sand. Was the middle Minerva captured by the enemy? Or have the other two been overrun? If they have fallen to the enemy, nobody seems to have notified their bombers.

You can see a pair of enemy fighters coming in for an attack run. "Brace yourself," you say to Harkin and drop to the deck. The bullets thud through the floor around you and you can't stop thinking about how much having white-hot lead rip your body in half would hurt. When the sound dies down, you don't need any further motivation to pick yourself and Harkin up and get moving towards the safety of the loading bay again.

The medic is waiting for you just inside, next to the rifle team that's still guarding the breach. "Is he gonna be alright?" you ask him as he unwraps the jacket they'd tied around Harkin's leg to stem the bleeding.

"Looks like it's just the flesh got torn up," the medic says, preparing a shot of painkillers, "we'll get rid of the shrapnel and he'll be fine."

The medic's hands are steady, even when the ship rocks with another solid hit from one of the enemy corvettes. At some point, your friendly fighters remember that you exist and come in to help clear the enemy from the skies. With the air battle resumed, the rest of your section returns from their cover at the downed airships. You watch from inside the loading bay through a pair of binoculars, you're not sure whose, that gets passed around the platoon. Eventually the Eidolon appears, and its massive guns begin rapidly pulping the enemy corvettes, which break off and retreat to regroup with a half-dozen light cruisers that have gone ahead of the Tiamat fleet to engage. As the enemy corvettes retreat, however, your own frigate turns tail, and now all you can see through the breaches in the loading bay door are the Eidolon, the Ziz, and the Marduk.

Gunships from the Marduk fly out to deposit some marine engineers on the ship with huge crates. Some of them they open up and use the contents to replace a few of the smaller AA guns, others are carried into the bowels of the ship for reasons you're not sure of.

There's intermittent cannonfire for hours, though. At one point you hear the sucking vacuum of a massive fireball in the distance. Probably a ship's fuel reserves just detonated. You hope it was one of theirs.

Several hours later, you're all dismissed back to your quarters a few decks below.

>Talk with Harkin. How's he doing?
>Talk with Corporal Danver. Does he have any idea what just happened?
>Get wasted with Vult. You don't know how, but he always has spare booze. You need the relief.

>>380183
>>Talk with Harkin. How's he doing?

Why not make a friend? maybe spread a lil religious fervor?

Just fine with waiting til another time if you want see if a few more players will join in.

>>380183
drink with vult
>deus vult

>>380183
>>Talk with Harkin. How's he doing?
He's alive because we prayed for him and the Gods showed him favour. Convert him... in a friendly manner.

also: why does 4chan always crap out at my 11 o'clock?

>>380195
>>380370

Roll 4d6 to convert Harkin.

And for the love of God, 4chan, actually post this time.

Rolled 5, 2, 1, 4 = 12 (4d6)

>>380446

Rolled 3, 4, 2, 5 = 14 (4d6)

is some maintenance going on or something?

Rolled 2, 6, 4, 2 = 14 (4d6)

>>380446
CONVERT! FOR THE GODS!

>>380449
>>380453
>>380495
and that's why aurelius could not become a priest

>>380449

You pay a visit to Harkin in the ship's infirmary. "Hey. You holding together?" you ask as you approach his bed. It's far from the only occupied bed.

"Yeah, doc says it wasn't that bad. Should be on my feet again in a week or two," Harkin says, "if my luck doesn't get the whole ship blown up before then, anyway."

"If Thanadeus wanted us dead so easily, we would've been chewed up by that fighter. Clearly we've both got at least one part left to play," you say, and slide a pair of cigarettes out from your pocket. "Doc say anything about these?"

"Nah, it's my leg that's hit, not my lungs," Harkin says, and takes the cig you've offered. "Thanks." You nod. "You really think Thanadeus has time for guys like us? I dunno about you, but I'm no hero."

The Holy Sagas mainly concern themselves with the heroes, mostly Sidhe, and Thanadeus certainly pays special attention to them. But the books are deep and contain much that isn't common knowledge. And you've read them cover-to-cover more times since enlisting than in your entire life, despite your general attitude of piety. Partly it's because the specter of death hung closer now than it had before. Mostly it's the unrelenting boredom, though. You'd trade any finger but the trigger for a night at the movies. "Thanadeus is the All-Ruler, who appointed all the gods below him to oversee his domain. You know the drill," you say. You don't want to veer too hard into outright preaching, here, you're trying to give him a healthy shot of faith, not accuse him of apostasy. "Gargandul watches over the soldiers, and Alra over the wounded, and they kept us safe from a strafing run that could've made us mincemeat. There has to be some reason. I don't think it's just so we can get blown up a few hours later." You give his cigarette a light and then turn your attention to your own.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Harkin says, taking a drag, "I just hope whatever our part is, it doesn't involve getting maimed."

"The faithful will be rewarded tenfold in the next life for our tribulations in this one. But yeah, not getting maimed would be nice," you say.

>>380514
may i ask where that lore is from?

>>380502
Yeah, his people skills need some improvements.
>>380514
We'll keep working on him, can't run away with that leg :).

>>380523
would like to know that too. original setting or is there source material available?

Rumors filter in over the next week as to what exactly happened in that fight. No one can even agree on whether or not you won or lost the battle. The fight was an attempt to hit the Tiamat as soon as we arrived and catch them off-guard, but it failed and we had to run. The Tiamat tried to ambush the fleet immediately upon arrival and you've won your first victory by escaping the trap. The enemy lost more ships. The enemy lost fewer ships. The enemy lost more ships but a smaller portion of their total ships. People argue about how this or that interpretation can or can't be possible because of details of ether materialization, mana cores, scriers, and all kinds of other extremely advanced arcana that you don't begin to understand and which you're pretty sure the gossipers don't either.

It's all basically agreed that the targeting flares were an attempt at intimidation. Rumor is that it worked on the Minerva III and they tried to flee without orders, so the Minerva II and IV shot it down. If that's true, they deserved what they got. If it weren't for traitors like that, you'd be back home eating popcorn at an adventure flick right now, or reading Tales of Strange Science, or whatever. The Inanna IV also went down. Rumors conflict as to why. Some say they got damaged and fell behind while fleeing the Tiamat, so they turned around and confronted the entire Tiamat fleet by themselves and got ripped to pieces. Others say they turned traitor, too. A couple of people are saying that it's the Inanna IV, with their impulsive, bestial crew, that turned tail, and the Minerva III are the ones who made the heroic last stand. A nice thought, but you saw the Minerva III get destroyed by her sister ships.

They also say the Tiamat didn't fire its buster cannon because Xaos was afraid of destroying his own ships, which seems like a much more reasonable rumor to you than Xaos not firing the buster cannon because he was afraid of the Marduk. While you fully believe that filthy traitor would gladly sacrifice his own troops - not to mention innocent bystanders - for personal gain, that doesn't mean he's an idiot who'll sacrifice ships when it's not to his advantage. And how would the Marduk scare Xaos into not shooting, anyway? Wouldn't the Marduk be less scary with a smaller escort? No one ever seems to put any thought into where exactly these rumors come from, either. How would *anyone* in this fleet have any idea why Xaos made the decisions he did? It's probably just rumor, but you make a mental note that Vicken from what's left of Sergeant Nickels' (now Corporal Trent's) section seems to be the source of these rumors, so maybe he's in contact with the traitors somehow? You keep your suspicions to yourself, since it *is* pretty thin grounds for any accusation as serious as treachery, but you decide to keep an eye on him regardless.

After the week is up, you arrive at a coastal city called Concord, and spend the next week unloading the second and third legions from the damaged corvettes. The capital ships leave the day after you arrive, which leaves to a bit of rumor-mongering about who exactly is in charge, since the Minerva Group and the Inanna Group answer to separate commodores, and only the rear admiral has the authority to command both of them. Mostly the reason this is a point of discussion is because the Inanna Group's commodore is a beastman like the rest of them, and the idea of being commanded by a beastman is extremely unsettling for a lot of troopers.

Doctrinally speaking, beastman worship of Thanadeus pre-dates human worship and they have more heroes in the sagas than humans do, so if lineage counts for anything, their pedigree is so much the stronger. On the other hand, beastmen are violent, disorganized butchers who've never had the favor of any god but Gargandul and Thanadeus, and a commendation by Thanadeus is more symbolic of incredible accomplishment than any kind of all-around virtue. Good on those specific heroes for being extremely courageous and stalwart, but there's still never been a beastman who was immortalized by the divine will of the god of healing or justice or industry or any of the rest.

>You argue in favor of the beastmen. They are faithful servants of the gods, and you can hardly complain about bloody-mindedness in a war zone.
>You argue against the beastmen. They're savages!
>You keep your opinions to yourself.

>>380523
>>380529

Original setting, although the 3rd Minerva Legion was designed so that if you act like a 40k Guardsman, you will generally behave in a setting-appropriate manner. That's not the only appropriate option, but if you take that route, it'll work. Helps get people some firm ground to act from while you're still figuring out the setting.

>>380588
>>You keep your opinions to yourself.

>>380588
>You argue against the beastmen. They're savages!
actually, i'm just some dumbass with a rifle. keep that mouth shut

>>380588
>You argue in favor of the beastmen. They are faithful servants of the gods, and you can hardly complain about bloody-mindedness in a war zone.
We're one of the faithful! Tell the world what's right! There's only One Truth!

>>380600
>>You argue against the beastmen. They're savages!
Changing to this to get out of votelock. Tell people loudly, our voice will be heard, ask the priests too!

>>380588
>You keep your opinions to yourself.

>>380602
This

>>380619
>>380600

I will assume the vote in 380600 was the actually copy/pasted text and not the one implied by the follow-up comment.

You grumble with the others about the beastmen, though never within earshot of the lieutenant, who has made it clear that he doesn't want anyone sowing discord within the ranks. Which is kinda funny, since "discordian" is the fancy word for "beastman."

It doubly grinds your gears to see them out on patrol in the town, where you've been helping the local militia keep the peace. According to the lieutenant, this city is part of its own, smaller civil war with a local duke who's sided with Xaos, and some of the citizens support Xaos over the king. The whole thing where people have dukes and kings while also having televisions and cars is kinda weird, but also not your problem. You're helping to enforce a curfew and breaking things up anytime too many people start to congregate and it looks like it could turn into a riot.

>Be strict. Law says no more than three people in one place. You see four or more, you tell them to break up or face arrest.
>Be lenient. If you see four people in one place, you keep an eye on them and tell them to disperse if they start picking up steam or looking shifty, but they'll probably end up parting ways on their own regardless.
>Be an asshole. Whenever two pairs of two happen to pass by each other on the sidewalk, show up to shove them away and bark orders.

>>380698
>>Be strict. Law says no more than three people in one place. You see four or more, you tell them to break up or face arrest.
We're the King's Law now! Tell them to pray to the True Gods more too! Of course, priests and nuns can congregate how they want, they're holy men and women.

>>380706
second, but no need for hostility towards citizens not being aggressive.

>>380706

>>380706
>>380718
>>381772

You're on patrol with Vult. He seems to treat patrols as a walk through town. Whenever you're paired up with him you have to bring him heels dragging to do any actual law enforcement. As it is today, when you spot two pairs that have met up and started talking. Whenever this happens you hold up and keep an eye on them for a few seconds. Maybe they're just exchanging a quick 'hello.' "What now, Aurelius?" Vult asks.

"Just hold up a minute," you say. Sometimes the people part ways almost immediately. Not this time, though. "Come on," you say. Vult groans and follows you up to the civilians. "Citizens," you say, "the king's law has forbidden congregation in groups of more than three. Be about your business."

The citizens look at you, an older man with what looks like disgust, a woman who looks of about the right age to be his daughter with fear, and the other two hustle away before you can really see their faces. The man and his daughter(?) leave a moment later, taking the opposite direction.

"You didn't give any trouble to those nuns," Vult says, "you got a thing for girls in the black?"

>Tell Vult that the pious deserve the trust of the king, as surely they would not plot against a rule sanctioned by the gods.
>Tell Vult that it's different because the nuns all live in the same building anyway, so it's not like they aren't congregating all the time.

And:

>Tell Vult not to suggest such improper things about women of the faith.
>Do not mention Vult's disrespectful implications.

Why isn't this bumping? Is it just a glitch, or is there some esoteria of bumps that I don't know of? Does a thread stop bumping so many days after its creation? Can the OP not bump threads on this board?

>>386962
>bumping
Is it already 72 hours?

>>386939
maybe a new thread?

>>386939
>>Tell Vult that the pious deserve the trust of the king, as surely they would not plot against a rule sanctioned by the gods.
>Tell Vult not to suggest such improper things about women of the faith.
"The True Faith demands our respect! The righteousness and justice of Priests and Nuns are strong! Their loyalty and passion towards the country and people are without question! And women of the Faith are pure!" (secretly our protagonist wants to be seduced by a pretty nun, of course)

Hope you find the time and energy to continue this quest! I enjoyed it so far!

>>386939
>Tell Vult that the pious deserve the trust of the king, as surely they would not plot against a rule sanctioned by the gods

>Tell Vult not to suggest such improper things about women of the faith
It's been 3 days, if you're still running I'd suggest a new thread after this post

Enjoyed the setting QM, hope you'll continue.