Holy Cow
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It is the 41st Millennium. For more than a hundred centuries The Emperor has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Earth. He is the Master of Mankind by the will of the gods, and master of a million worlds by the might of his inexhaustible armies. He is a rotting carcass writhing invisibly with power from the Dark Age of Technology. He is the Carrion Lord of the Imperium for whom a thousand souls are sacrificed every day, so that he may never truly die.
Yet even in his deathless state, the Emperor continues his eternal vigilance. Mighty battlefleets cross the daemon-infested miasma of the Warp, the only route between distant stars, their way lit by the Astronomican, the psychic manifestation of the Emperor's will. Vast armies give battle in his name on uncounted worlds. Greatest amongst his soldiers are the Adeptus Astartes, the Space Marines, bio-engineered super-warriors. Their comrades in arms are legion: the Imperial Guard and countless planetary defence forces, the ever vigilant Inquisition and the tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus to name only a few. But for all their multitudes, they are barely enough to hold off the ever-present threat from aliens, heretics, mutants - and worse.
To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live in the cruelest and most bloody regime imaginable. These are the tales of those times. Forget the power of technology and science, for so much has been forgotten, never to be re-learned. Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for in the grim darkness of the far future there is only war. There is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter of thirsting gods.
CHARACTER SHEET (DECEASED)Profile
Name: Cassius Schaefer
Age: 37 years, solar.
Rank: Captain
Commander of the 10th Mechanized Infantry Company, 31st Expeditionary Regiment of the Armageddon Steel Legion
Earned his captain’s stripes in the second war for Armageddon
Demoted to private of the medicae corps after the Calixis Incident (Classified)
Reinstated as Captain during the Campaign of Gloria Macharia
Characteristics of note:
Exceptional hand-to-hand combatant
Able Field Medicae
Able strategist
Extremely conditioned physique
Left arm has been replaced with an augmetic
Exceptional Willpower
Equipment:
Officer-issue laspistol and lasgun
Carapace breastplace
Flak Greatcoat and helmet, respirator attached
Old Eviscerator (no pattern markings)
Traits:
WITCHESBANE
Only the most gifted of psykers or the most terrible of daemons would be able to pierce the barrier you’ve erected around your mind. Your faith is unfailing and after what you’ve been through, seeing through the lies of the lesser servants of the Great Enemy has become a trivial thing. You can resist all but the most powerful witchcraft.
Current moral tendency:
Zealous Hatred
Corruption points:
7
Fatepoints:
1
Name: Cassius Schaefer
Age: 37 years, solar.
Rank: Captain
Commander of the 10th Mechanized Infantry Company, 31st Expeditionary Regiment of the Armageddon Steel Legion
Earned his captain’s stripes in the second war for Armageddon
Demoted to private of the medicae corps after the Calixis Incident (Classified)
Reinstated as Captain during the Campaign of Gloria Macharia
Characteristics of note:
Exceptional hand-to-hand combatant
Able Field Medicae
Able strategist
Extremely conditioned physique
Left arm has been replaced with an augmetic
Exceptional Willpower
Equipment:
Officer-issue laspistol and lasgun
Carapace breastplace
Flak Greatcoat and helmet, respirator attached
Old Eviscerator (no pattern markings)
Traits:
WITCHESBANE
Only the most gifted of psykers or the most terrible of daemons would be able to pierce the barrier you’ve erected around your mind. Your faith is unfailing and after what you’ve been through, seeing through the lies of the lesser servants of the Great Enemy has become a trivial thing. You can resist all but the most powerful witchcraft.
Current moral tendency:
Zealous Hatred
Corruption points:
7
Fatepoints:
1
Prologue- INTRODUCTION
- MEET THE COMMISSAR
- In which shit blows up
- Choose your next words with exceptional care
- The Commissariat, irony and you
- Paddling up shit creek
- Welcome to crazytown
- Everything burns
- In the chambers of power
- Glory for the first man to die!
- Character generation
- The Inquisition requires naught but your mindless obedience
- Ground Zero
- Corruption of the flesh
- A moment of weakness spawns a lifetime of Heresy
- Betrayal!
- The rotten core
- Suffer not the Witch.
- The keenest blade is Righteous Hatred
- Redemption
- Odds and ends
- Forlorn Hope
- Battle is joined
- Dark days are here
Act II: The Officer- The Guardsman's lot
- The Munitorum and you: What the Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer doesn't want you to know.
- BLACK HOLDS REVISITED
- The Drunkard's Walk
- There and Back Again
- Crossroads
- The Traitor's Hand
- Darksider
- An end to things
- Bloodied and Bowed
Act III: Only War
+++IMPERIAL DATA ENTRY M41.874---PACIFICATION OF DEATH WORLD DESIGNATED 31-12+++
++++ASSIGNED TO 31st EXPEDITIONARY FLEET OF THE IMPERIAL GUARD+++
++
ARKED CONFIDENTIAL---INQUISITOR’S EYES ONLY+++
ARKED CONFIDENTIAL---INQUISITOR’S EYES ONLY+++ +++THE EMPEROR PROTECTS+++
The toxic rain hasn’t let up for months. Enviro-suits have stopped working; respirators clogged up, the protective wards of the Mechanicum corroded and the vac-seals burned through. All you can do is bundle up in your heavy flak uniform to protect yourself from the decay that’s touched everything else in this blasted world. You’re fairly sure your lungs are halfway gone by now, and the bits of your flesh that aren’t covered in sores have taken on a grey pallor. You look half-dead; you feel deader than that. It’s been a while since you’ve left the trenches and the shelter the makeshift bunkers offer, but rations are running out and it’ll be a matter of days until a sortie’s needed to replenish the company’s stocks. The situation became quite chaotic after the quartermaster took a las shot through the skull. Friendly fire, since there’s been no other kind lately. He had a hidden stash of quality gear, you heard the privates say. Well, better quality gear than the shit Munitorum’s supplied the company at any rate. Given the situation, whoever took the loot will probably die before they get a chance to use it.
You light a lho-stick and take a deep drag; puffing hard and inhaling through the nose, burning your nostrils and hopefully your sense of smell. There’s a soaked private outside the bunker putting to the flame another batch of casualties. You take another drag from the lho-stick. Somebody passes you a hip flask. Weren’t you all out of liquor? Seems not. You take a swig and pass it on after a fit of coughing. You start mentally assessing the situation: The company’s down to a quarter strength and only a tenth of that is due to enemy action. Soldiers have been dying to disease and chemical fumes, not combat. Hell, nobody’s even seen any combat in weeks. Most likely the enemy’s doing the same as you, wasting away under this warp-spawned weather
You make your way back to the barracks from the rec bunker, wondering if someone’s pissed on your sleeping mat again. The small chest with your possessions and the token you’ve taken from the campaign at 31-10 is intact, and the mat seems dry. You sit down wearily and start cleaning your lasgun. It’s not long before someone comes to snap you out of it, saying the Colonel wants a word. You nod to the messenger, sigh, and reassemble your lasgun as slowly as possible. He motions for you to get up and follow him.
However, Before you meet the colonel, there are some things you ought to make sure. Just so you know you have your wits about you. This campaign’s taking its toll, after all.
Was it you that killed the quartermaster and stole his belongings?
Yes/No
What is the token you have from your previous campaign at 31-10?
a) An eldar shuriken pistol with no ammo
b) A broken servoskull that belonged to a Heretek
c) The skull of an especially ferocious Ork Nob
d) The broken hilt of an Astartes Chainsword that belonged to the Traitor Legions
e) A smooth, black sphere of presumably xenos origin.
And finally, why would the Colonel want to have a word with a:
1) Conscript 2) Enlisted Man 3) Officer
to me.
