Bright_Ops

WH40k: New Frontiers and Promised Lands - A Rogue Trader Adventure

Rupert O'Donald

Name: Rupert O'Donald

Age: Mid to late twenties (Is actually 28)

Gender: Male

Race: Human

Appearance: Standing at 6'4 with board shoulders and a body that has been shaped by hard work and labor, Rupert might not be the biggest or more intimidating person that the world has ever seen but he has been able to thrive none the less. His skin is white but years of being exposed to the various heat sources that the ship has to offer has burnt in a rather strange looking tan on his face where his safety equipment doesn't cover, the full extent of which is reveled when he removes his goggles or breathing mask.

His hair is a dark orange, but time on patrol around the ship often means that he needs to keep it short for professional reasons due to how much grim and filth tends to coat it before the end of his shift. His eyes are a dark blue.

Equipment/outfit wise, Rupert is almost always seen wearing the outfit of his office as High Janitor:

A pair of tinted safety goggles to protect the eyes from sudden bright flashes.
Breathing mask with an oxygen tank in the event of encountering a hazard on the ship in which having a personal air supply is required.
The standard chem treated and resistant yellow janitor jumpsuit.
A pair of yellow, firm grip and anti-slip galoshes (steel plated to help protect the feet).
Carapace breastplate
Lasgun/laspistol (depending on what section of the ship one is patrolling for size reasons)
Hand held flamer.
Melee weapon of choice (In Rupert's case, he favors a chainsword).

Personality:
Born into the Janitorial Union, Rupert understands the value of hard and often unappreciated work that needs to be done for the benefit of all. Having lived his entire life aboard a void vessel and often traveling through the parts of it that most voidsmen either don't know or don't care about, he is well aware of the dangers that can arise from neglect and is highly vigilant in the face of threats raging from basic maintenance to the variety of nasty critters and beasts that often try to infest and make their homes in the dark places of space craft.

Rupert will come down hard on the lazy and the incompetent, viewing both as worse then sin: Laziness and Incompetence not only risk the lives of the one committing them, but endanger the lives of everyone around them and the safety of their home in general. Rarely do the powers that be deem fit to provide the resources to reclaim parts of the ship lost to the void of space or other such hazards if the area isn't deemed important and allowing a piece of their home to be lost without just cause is inexcusable.

That being said, Rupert isn't above hearing people out when they have suggestions to improve a method in place. If it is discovered that steps in a maintenance cycle are unnecessary or only need to be done every so often rather then every time, he will happily streamline the process... but Emperor help the fool who tries to do this without alerting him first.

History:
Rupert was born into the Janitorial Union to a recently widowed mother; His father had been cleaning up a mess in the Medbay when the ventilation pumps failed and flooded the air with toxic fumes. Everyone who had been in the Medbay when it happened were incapacitated within seconds to die a horrible death, but some quick response time managed to see the area sealed off until repairs could be made and the area made safe again. The failure was discovered to have been caused by neglect due to an argument that was going on between the current team of tech priest Explorators and the Janitors over duties of care and who was in charge of maintaining what.

While he was raised without a father, when Rupert turned five he joined the cleaning staff in their duties of making sure that the ship remained at an acceptable level of cleanliness. The work was long, hard and at times dangerous due to the many hazards present in a void traveling capable ship. Most of the other crew members didn't care about the work you did and complained if something was missed. But it was work that needed to be done, so he did it without much more then some small grumbling every now and then.

When he reached his teens Rupert volunteered for Janitor training. Most children of the Union attempt the training at some point of another, through most in turn will end up dropping out of the program for a variety of reasons. Rupert's determination and vigilance paid off in the end through, completing the brutal training and becoming a full Janitor by the age of twenty. For eight years O'Donald prowled the ship to ensure that it remained in safe, operational condition and remained as free of invaders and pests as possible.

A few months prior to the ship being turned over to its new Captain in the form of Rogue Trader Drake, the prior High Janitor passed away and a new one had to be decided upon. As was tradition, the Janitors began by asking if any Janitors felt like they were not prepared for the responsibilities of the job of High Janitor and wished to decline being a contender. Round two involves the remaining Janitors being judged by their peers for any faults or flaws that would make them ill suited for the role. After the vetting process, the final round is to have all remaining Janitors that are still contenders for the role of High Janitor will draw lots, with the winner becoming the new High Janitor.

Rupert, after narrowly managing to defend his contention to become the High Janitor from the allegation that his father's death due to the fighting of the Janitors and the Tech Priests might make him hostile towards the servants of the machine cult, won the draw and ascended to High Janitor. Currently, he doesn't know what to really think of his new boss, but he intends to do his people and ship proud.

Skills:

Cleaner: Ever since he was five, Rupert has worked hard to keep the ship that is his home as clean as possible. While this does mean that he's qualified as a normal cleaner, these same skills are also useful for making... other types of messes disappear without leaving much in the way of evidence behind.
Maintenance Expert: While the tech priests might have a greater understanding of technology in general, when it comes to his home ship Rupert understands her systems and what makes her run better then any dozen robed cyborgs you could shake a metal rod at.
Ship Defense Expert: When it comes to repelling boarders, warp daemons or just pests in general, having such a good understanding and knowledge of ones home turf makes the job so much easier. The fact that he has spent at least eight years doing these very things gives him good experience as well.
Head of Security: While Rupert would happily punch out anyone who tried to label him as such, the role of High Janitor includes most, if not all, duties and responsibilities of the Head of Security for the ship... and to a lesser extent, the Captain/Rogue Trader Drake.
Ship Diplomat: In general, the every day members of the crew and their representatives would be more likely to talk to one of their own rather then some noble from Terra or his orkish pet... but the fact that Rupert understands the various nations on board the ship and thus who he needs to talk to helps get things done a lot smoother.

Equipment:

A pair of tinted safety goggles to protect the eyes from sudden bright flashes.
Breathing mask with an oxygen tank in the event of encountering a hazard on the ship in which having a personal air supply is required.
The standard chem treated and resistant yellow janitor jumpsuit.
A pair of yellow, firm grip and anti-slip galoshes (steel plated to help protect the feet).
Carapace breastplate
Lasgun/laspistol (depending on what section of the ship one is patrolling for size reasons)
Hand held flamer.
Chainsword of Office.

Miscellaneous:
Like almost all ships in the Imperium that have had a crew survive long enough for several generations to be born, national identities and tribes within the ship itself tends to form. Like all nations, as years go by they start to develop their own culture and history as events shape them. The Janitorial Union was formed shortly after an event recorded in ship history as 'The Betrayal', though exactly when this event happened is unclear. The head of the ship's armed forces at the time had gathered together loyalists to his cause and launched a mutiny in an attempt to seize captaincy, the resulting civil war gutting the ruling body of the ship as well as bleeding security dry. The head of security died and his mutiny failed, but without a unified enforcement force or strong leadership the crew had to fend for itself.

The Janitorial Union was originally made up of the ship's cleaning and maintenance staff, banding together and claiming a independent existence from the other nations that were forming at the time. While other nations fought over territory, the Janitorial Union instead decided on a more... nomadic existence since their duties required them to travel all over the ship. They still claimed key areas that were important to their roles of maintaining and keeping the ship in good condition while also raiding the various ship armories in order to not only defend their few tribal strongholds but also to take over the duty of purging the ship of unwanted... pests that would have normally fallen into the hands of the ships security forces.

Masterful diplomacy with the other ship nations ensured a peaceful existence and arrangements that would not only benefit them, but also the Janitorial Union as well. The cleaning staff and janitors were free to travel the whole ship in order to perform their duties without interference from whomever owned the area while also securing trade goods for their services, as well as serving as official messagers across national lines. Janitorial strongholds also became neutral ground for other factions to meet and discuss matters without having to worry about betrayal or assassination.

As time wore on, the roles of the cleaning staff and the Janitors began to change. While the cleaning staff maintained its role of cleaning the ship and minor repairs, the Janitors themselves morphed into a militant organization of pathfinders who roamed the ship in search of threats as mundane as neglected ship maintenance to active threats such as invaders and monsters roaming in the dark places of the ship that needed to be driven out. While the various ship nations maintained their own fighting forces, due to the Janitors ability to go anywhere in the ship freely to engage whatever threat was discovered to the ship they quickly rose to be considered an noble, elite fighting force that started to draw recruits from the fighting forces of other ship nations.

The position of High Janitor came about shortly after the ship returned to Imperial space and a new command was installed. While the title is more or less Head of Security in everything but name, the High Janitor also bares the responsibility of being the spokesmen of the ship's nation states and the (often times) foreign command of the ship so as to prevent... incidents from arising due to misunderstandings.

Only once in the history of the ship have the Janitorial Union gone to war with another ship state: When Cargonia attempted to expand its power and influence over the complete starboard side of the ship, it attacked all nations in its path... including one of the Janitorial Strongholds. The resulting war lasted to years, but in the end Cargonia was broken and remade into a more... humble nation by the coalition. While Cargonia paid dearly for its warmongering, the Janitorial Union ensured that the peace forced upon it was bearable, earning them no small amount of gratitude from the defeated ship nation.

Warhammer Horus Heresy Reimagining

Discord Server link that won't expire.

WH40k: New Frontiers and Promised Lands - A Rogue Trader Adventure

Rupert O'Donald

Name: Rupert O'Donald

Age: Mid to late twenties (Is actually 28)

Gender: Male

Race: Human

Appearance: Standing at 6'4 with board shoulders and a body that has been shaped by hard work and labor, Rupert might not be the biggest or more intimidating person that the world has ever seen but he has been able to thrive none the less. His skin is white but years of being exposed to the various heat sources that the ship has to offer has burnt in a rather strange looking tan on his face where his safety equipment doesn't cover, the full extent of which is reveled when he removes his goggles or breathing mask.

His hair is a dark orange, but time on patrol around the ship often means that he needs to keep it short for professional reasons due to how much grim and filth tends to coat it before the end of his shift. His eyes are a dark blue.

Equipment/outfit wise, Rupert is almost always seen wearing the outfit of his office as High Janitor:

A pair of tinted safety goggles to protect the eyes from sudden bright flashes.
Breathing mask with an oxygen tank in the event of encountering a hazard on the ship in which having a personal air supply is required.
The standard chem treated and resistant yellow janitor jumpsuit.
A pair of yellow, firm grip and anti-slip galoshes (steel plated to help protect the feet).
Carapace breastplate
Lasgun/laspistol (depending on what section of the ship one is patrolling for size reasons)
Hand held flamer.
Melee weapon of choice (In Rupert's case, he favors a chainsword).

Personality:
Born into the Janitorial Union, Rupert understands the value of hard and often unappreciated work that needs to be done for the benefit of all. Having lived his entire life aboard a void vessel and often traveling through the parts of it that most voidsmen either don't know or don't care about, he is well aware of the dangers that can arise from neglect and is highly vigilant in the face of threats raging from basic maintenance to the variety of nasty critters and beasts that often try to infest and make their homes in the dark places of space craft.

Rupert will come down hard on the lazy and the incompetent, viewing both as worse then sin: Laziness and Incompetence not only risk the lives of the one committing them, but endanger the lives of everyone around them and the safety of their home in general. Rarely do the powers that be deem fit to provide the resources to reclaim parts of the ship lost to the void of space or other such hazards if the area isn't deemed important and allowing a piece of their home to be lost without just cause is inexcusable.

That being said, Rupert isn't above hearing people out when they have suggestions to improve a method in place. If it is discovered that steps in a maintenance cycle are unnecessary or only need to be done every so often rather then every time, he will happily streamline the process... but Emperor help the fool who tries to do this without alerting him first.

History:
Rupert was born into the Janitorial Union to a recently widowed mother; His father had been cleaning up a mess in the Medbay when the ventilation pumps failed and flooded the air with toxic fumes. Everyone who had been in the Medbay when it happened were incapacitated within seconds to die a horrible death, but some quick response time managed to see the area sealed off until repairs could be made and the area made safe again. The failure was discovered to have been caused by neglect due to an argument that was going on between the current team of tech priest Explorators and the Janitors over duties of care and who was in charge of maintaining what.

While he was raised without a father, when Rupert turned five he joined the cleaning staff in their duties of making sure that the ship remained at an acceptable level of cleanliness. The work was long, hard and at times dangerous due to the many hazards present in a void traveling capable ship. Most of the other crew members didn't care about the work you did and complained if something was missed. But it was work that needed to be done, so he did it without much more then some small grumbling every now and then.

When he reached his teens Rupert volunteered for Janitor training. Most children of the Union attempt the training at some point of another, through most in turn will end up dropping out of the program for a variety of reasons. Rupert's determination and vigilance paid off in the end through, completing the brutal training and becoming a full Janitor by the age of twenty. For eight years O'Donald prowled the ship to ensure that it remained in safe, operational condition and remained as free of invaders and pests as possible.

A few months prior to the ship being turned over to its new Captain in the form of Rogue Trader Drake, the prior High Janitor passed away and a new one had to be decided upon. As was tradition, the Janitors began by asking if any Janitors felt like they were not prepared for the responsibilities of the job of High Janitor and wished to decline being a contender. Round two involves the remaining Janitors being judged by their peers for any faults or flaws that would make them ill suited for the role. After the vetting process, the final round is to have all remaining Janitors that are still contenders for the role of High Janitor will draw lots, with the winner becoming the new High Janitor.

Rupert, after narrowly managing to defend his contention to become the High Janitor from the allegation that his father's death due to the fighting of the Janitors and the Tech Priests might make him hostile towards the servants of the machine cult, won the draw and ascended to High Janitor. Currently, he doesn't know what to really think of his new boss, but he intends to do his people and ship proud.

Skills:

Cleaner: Ever since he was five, Rupert has worked hard to keep the ship that is his home as clean as possible. While this does mean that he's qualified as a normal cleaner, these same skills are also useful for making... other types of messes disappear without leaving much in the way of evidence behind.
Maintenance Expert: While the tech priests might have a greater understanding of technology in general, when it comes to his home ship Rupert understands her systems and what makes her run better then any dozen robed cyborgs you could shake a metal rod at.
Ship Defense Expert: When it comes to repelling boarders, warp daemons or just pests in general, having such a good understanding and knowledge of ones home turf makes the job so much easier. The fact that he has spent at least eight years doing these very things gives him good experience as well.
Head of Security: While Rupert would happily punch out anyone who tried to label him as such, the role of High Janitor includes most, if not all, duties and responsibilities of the Head of Security for the ship... and to a lesser extent, the Captain/Rogue Trader Drake.
Ship Diplomat: In general, the every day members of the crew and their representatives would be more likely to talk to one of their own rather then some noble from Terra or his orkish pet... but the fact that Rupert understands the various nations on board the ship and thus who he needs to talk to helps get things done a lot smoother.

Equipment:

A pair of tinted safety goggles to protect the eyes from sudden bright flashes.
Breathing mask with an oxygen tank in the event of encountering a hazard on the ship in which having a personal air supply is required.
The standard chem treated and resistant yellow janitor jumpsuit.
A pair of yellow, firm grip and anti-slip galoshes (steel plated to help protect the feet).
Carapace breastplate
Lasgun/laspistol (depending on what section of the ship one is patrolling for size reasons)
Hand held flamer.
Chainsword of Office.

Miscellaneous:
Like almost all ships in the Imperium that have had a crew survive long enough for several generations to be born, national identities and tribes within the ship itself tends to form. Like all nations, as years go by they start to develop their own culture and history as events shape them. The Janitorial Union was formed shortly after an event recorded in ship history as 'The Betrayal', though exactly when this event happened is unclear. The head of the ship's armed forces at the time had gathered together loyalists to his cause and launched a mutiny in an attempt to seize captaincy, the resulting civil war gutting the ruling body of the ship as well as bleeding security dry. The head of security died and his mutiny failed, but without a unified enforcement force or strong leadership the crew had to fend for itself.

The Janitorial Union was originally made up of the ship's cleaning and maintenance staff, banding together and claiming a independent existence from the other nations that were forming at the time. While other nations fought over territory, the Janitorial Union instead decided on a more... nomadic existence since their duties required them to travel all over the ship. They still claimed key areas that were important to their roles of maintaining and keeping the ship in good condition while also raiding the various ship armories in order to not only defend their few tribal strongholds but also to take over the duty of purging the ship of unwanted... pests that would have normally fallen into the hands of the ships security forces.

Masterful diplomacy with the other ship nations ensured a peaceful existence and arrangements that would not only benefit them, but also the Janitorial Union as well. The cleaning staff and janitors were free to travel the whole ship in order to perform their duties without interference from whomever owned the area while also securing trade goods for their services, as well as serving as official messagers across national lines. Janitorial strongholds also became neutral ground for other factions to meet and discuss matters without having to worry about betrayal or assassination.

As time wore on, the roles of the cleaning staff and the Janitors began to change. While the cleaning staff maintained its role of cleaning the ship and minor repairs, the Janitors themselves morphed into a militant organization of pathfinders who roamed the ship in search of threats as mundane as neglected ship maintenance to active threats such as invaders and monsters roaming in the dark places of the ship that needed to be driven out. While the various ship nations maintained their own fighting forces, due to the Janitors ability to go anywhere in the ship freely to engage whatever threat was discovered to the ship they quickly rose to be considered an noble, elite fighting force that started to draw recruits from the fighting forces of other ship nations.

The position of High Janitor came about shortly after the ship returned to Imperial space and a new command was installed. While the title is more or less Head of Security in everything but name, the High Janitor also bares the responsibility of being the spokesmen of the ship's nation states and the (often times) foreign command of the ship so as to prevent... incidents from arising due to misunderstandings.

Only once in the history of the ship have the Janitorial Union gone to war with another ship state: When Cargonia attempted to expand its power and influence over the complete starboard side of the ship, it attacked all nations in its path... including one of the Janitorial Strongholds. The resulting war lasted to years, but in the end Cargonia was broken and remade into a more... humble nation by the coalition. While Cargonia paid dearly for its warmongering, the Janitorial Union ensured that the peace forced upon it was bearable, earning them no small amount of gratitude from the defeated ship nation.

Strangely, I didn't get a message until you booped me just then for some reason.

Warhammer Horus Heresy Reimagining

@Idol Theory Are you talking about a space human legion whom is abhuman in nature due to a interesting tibit of the gene seed, or are you meaning an abhuman regiment in the Imperial Army? because in the case of the latter the Night Watch would happily have you tag along.

@mattmanganon I didn't mean for the CS to be so long. It just... once I started writing I kept going because I was passionate about the subject material.

Warhammer Horus Heresy Reimagining

@mattmanganon

Both Primarch and Legion are done. Want me to repost them or are you happy to go back where I originally posted them and look them over there?

Warhammer Horus Heresy Reimagining

I believe a straw poll would be required.

Warhammer Horus Heresy Reimagining

Almost done with creating Micholi himself! Then I have to start on the Legion.

@mattmanganon

Hmm... It's a good question. Personally I could go either way, but I suspect people would be more inclined towards Heresy.

...Maybe we should have a poll set up? Heresy, Imperial Schism or both?

Warhammer Horus Heresy Reimagining

Done.

Primarch

Micholi Vakarian

Appearance:
Micholi was once a rather handsome young man. His eyes a piecing grey, his hair a soft black and his features sharp and striking. Despite being a giant of a man possessing super human levels of strength, the way he moved with precision and care was actually reassuring and comforting to those around him.

War takes its toll however and for Micholi that toll came in the form of a toxin covered eldar blade; During a fight against a trio of skilled Eldar warriors, one of them managed to get a slash in against the right side of his face. The wound itself was jagged and cruel to begin with, the toxins on the blade quickly began to eat away at flesh and muscle. Between the toxin being designed to incapacitate via horrific pain rather than kill and the powerful healing factor all Primarchs possess the damaged was limited to the superficial, but it left a horrible scar of damaged flesh and tissue along the right side of Micholi's face.

The tattoo on Micholi's face are markings from the culture of his adoptive mother. Each colonized turian planet as their own series of markings that they tattoo on their face as a sign of where they come from and as a connection to the planet they are born on. While turians typically use face paint because their biology doesn't really allow them to ink pictures into their flesh, Micholi made his markings a part of him because he was proud of his adoptive mother and her culture and promised to never deny it.

Psyker Status:
Beta Level, favoring Divination... even if he wasn't aware he was doing it at the time. His ability to get a 'fairly good idea' of what his enemies were planning and going to do combined with his presence having something of an 'inspiring effect' on his followers helped them win battles that due to the nature of their enemy they wouldn't have otherwise seen coming or survived.

Life and Times:
To understand Micholi and the challenges he had to overcome, one must first understand the foe that he was up against.

Before the fall of Long Night and the Age of Strife, the Kirk system was settled in the Dark Age of Technology. Consisting of four habitable worlds and some asteroid belts, the star system and the cosmic bodies within said system earned their names shortly after the colony ship arrived. Navigator Kirk had fallen asleep while he was on duty and almost resulted in the colony’s premature destruction because the ship almost crashed headfirst into the planet they wished to settle. As a spiteful joke, the colonists started naming the planets around them after virtues that Kirk didn’t have and the names kind of stuck.

Of the four planets, only three of them were colonized.

Kirk's Vigilance (the original world the settlers almost crashed into and system capital) was a continental world that became a minor trade hub for humanity in the dark age of technology, mostly dealing with illegal goods due to not being along any major trade routes and having very lax cargo inspections when it came to 'trusted traders' (It was felt that the more money a trader paid towards one of many charities local to the system that the customs agents championed, the more trustworthy they were and thus the less inspections needed to be taken).

Kirk's Generosity was a prime Agri-World and it was the second to be colonized. It was even provided with a Questoris Knight Paladin named Light's Shield to protect it, the Paladin being piloted by the highly respected Goldragon family over the years.

Kirk's Integrity was the third world to be settled. A giant, barren wasteland of a planet with a barely breathable atmosphere and a complete and utter lack of life, the planet itself was found to be insanely wealthy with minerals and ores. A mining colony was quickly established, but as time went on the actual colonists and miners were replaced by convicts and criminals as the planet turned into a penal planet. Didn't need much in the way of a garrison due to the fact that the world didn't grow any food or have any animals on it, meaning that the population could be kept largely under control by the fact that food had to be shipped in.

The fourth world, Kirk's Curiosity, was never settled. It was a habitable world with a breathable atmosphere, but apart from space it didn’t really offer anything that would make colonizing the planet worth the expense. Granted it wasn’t barren of resources since there were some deposits of ore that could be mined, the flora and fauna weren’t overly dangerous and crops could be grown from the soil, but compared to the other planets in the system it was just a colder, worse version of Vigilance.

Over time numerous plans to take advantage of the planet for some purpose or another were suggested, but few of them ever really went beyond the theory stage… and those that did tended to fall when the exact figures of expected returns came up. So for almost all the time that humans were in the Kirk system, the planet only ever saw the occasional squatter in the form of a noble or criminal (sometimes the same person) hiding out or creating a hidden stockpile on a planet with no one else on it.

The Age of Strife was relatively kind to the Kirk system; It had been out of the way enough that AI units were expensive and rare, meaning that when the Men of Iron turned on their masters there weren't really enough of them in system to pose the extermination threat they did elsewhere. When psykers started to develop, the black market of Vigilance responded by capturing as many of them as possible and shipping them off elsewhere (either whole or in pieces) in the name of profit. The warp storms that made travel impossible however brought an end to the system being able to trade outwards, so instead they focused their attentions inwards to survive.

When the warp storms finally faded, the Kirk system was tentatively ruled by an Oligarchy of ‘noble’ houses made up of the descendants of important political figures and important business leaders whom had survived the turmoil over the years. However, while the fading of the warp storms brought with it opportunities, it also brought in a danger that hadn't been a factor until then; Shortly after the storms had faded, the Kabal of the Moon Blades arrived and started their opening probing operations.

Where the other noble houses of the Kirk System saw (rightfully) a threat to themselves and humanity that needed to be fought and cast back into the void from once they had come, House Cruciatu’s current head, Victor Cruciatu, saw an opportunity and a possible ally to finally swing the balance of power in a way that his forebears had only ever dreamed of. While publicly Victor and his House decried the horrors that had been wrought by the xeno’s invaders in their typical opening terror attacks to inspire as much fear into the local population as possible, privately Victor reached out to the archon leading the raiders in order to work out… an arrangement of sorts.

In exchange for not attacking the holdings of House Cruciatu, Victor was more then happy to sell out the other noble houses by revealing locations, details about their plans and defenses and in the case of his family’s ancient enemies House Goldragon, send his own agents to eliminate as many of them as possible. Accepting the relatable desire to see ones enemies cast down in ruin and seeing the value of having insider information to help limit the inherent risks that came with raiding for slaves, the Kabal was more than happy to accept this deal as was, call it a very good day for them and make plans to come back in a century or so to either do it again or (if no one was willing to play ball) loot everything of value with bonus point if they nailed it down before they dragged it kicking and screaming away.

When Victor offered a second part to the deal, the Kabal was honestly surprised by the sheer ambition of the human they were talking to… and intrigued.

Victor didn’t want the other noble houses weakened; He wanted them completely removed and House Cruciatu ascendant as the one and only rightful ruler of the Kirk system. He also had plans to extend an empire outside of the system… and in exchange for the Kabal assisting in his rise to power, as well as making themselves available as allies and trade partners going forward, he was prepared to offer them a bulk hurler worth of slaves alongside enough food and water to reasonably last the captives till they got back to the Dark City itself. Every. Single. Year.

The slaughter of the noble houses of the Kirk system that followed was swift, brutal and absolute, with all members of the families and their servants either disappearing without a trace or being found in such a way that those who encountered it were deeply scarred for the rest of their lives… with the notable exception of House Goldragon, who had some of their members actually turn up dead due to more mundane things like poison.

With all their rivals eliminated, House Cruciatu naturally rose to become the sole power in the Kirk system with Victor as its head. Also, quite naturally, there was a great deal of uproar as quite a few people made the leap in logic that the one noble house that was completely unharmed by the actions of the xenos invaders might have made some sort of arrangement to make such a thing happen. A fast majority of these people were rounded up and divided between getting on a bulk hurler, being shipped to Integrity or being the first people to be sent to colonize the newly renamed Reserve.

Formally Kirk's Curiosity, Reserve would serve an important purpose in the Cruciatu Empire. As the Empire expanded beyond the Kirk system and started conquering or raiding planets (they preferred to set up one outpost in a system and leave less fortunate inhabited worlds they came across alone so that their populations could grow between harvests), after sorting the captured slaves into a number of groups to be sent elsewhere or sold, those left over would be given some supplies, some equipment and sent to Reserve to colonize it. They would be promised to be left alone for a few years to get settled before they started to tax them.

After waiting a few years for a settlement to be established and for the slaves there to start doing things like having families... they would be raided by Cruciatu slavers. Strictly speaking, they would be raided by slavers/solders who had undergone their training (both by human and dark eldar mercenaries hired for the task from the kabal) but hadn't yet gone out on a proper raid yet. Sending them to raid a settlement on Reserve was a means of letting them get that live combat experience under ideal circumstances: They had air superiority, knew where the targets were, a rough idea of how many to expect and held a massive tech advantage with the added benefit that if something went wrong, medical attention was nearby and easy to withdraw to.

While the captives taken in these raids to be offered up as part of the tribute to the Kabal, the point was made to allow some of the population flee into the wilds. Since there wasn't really any dangerous wildlife on Reserve or threats outside of the raids (or the occasional hunt purchased by a noble from Vigilance or Dark Eldar coming to visit who wanted the thrill of hunting their own slaves), the population on the planet was slowly but surely increasing over time... ensuring that if the slaver fleets weren't going to arrive in time around the time of tribute to the Kabal, there was a reserve of slaves on hand to be offered up to be sent to the dark city.

Reserve itself was covered in the ruins of many settlements. Dozens of different construction styles, cultures and species having been placed on the planet... with their constructors only rarely coming to try and salvage something when they had to risk coming out of the wilds, terrified being the next to disappear in the raids. Humans of many different worlds and lifestyles, stable strains of mutants and abhumans created by the age of strife and even xenos whom had only recently been able to spread their own wings in what had once been the promise of a new age as the warp storms faded away... all huddled in fear together in what shelters they could find because to be alone was to disappear without anyone knowing or caring.

This is the world that Micholi's pod landed on.

Most of the somewhat skittish population of Reserve nearby didn't go to investigate the impact, fearful that it was either a trap by the Cruciatu to lure them out into the open or if it wasn't that they would soon be investigating what it was and didn't want to be caught in the open when they turned up.

Only two went to have a look. The first as a turian woman by the name of Popivia Vakarian. A woman whom had recently entered middle age for her people, she had lost her husband in the opening raid of their settlement on Reserve and had only recently watched her only child choke to death in her arms due to an illness that if they had access to even the most basic of her people's medical equipment would have been easily survivable. She didn't care if she was taken or died anymore and going to check what the impact was seemed like a good way to do either.

The second was a reptilian beastman (more of a teenage boy, but he had seen more then enough in his short life to be a man) from a desert world named Taamir. While he would have been more then happy to let whatever had impacted with the ground be left undiscovered, Popivia was apart of his herd now and when she insisted on going he couldn't in good conscience let her go out there alone... so he had gone with to help watch her back.

They didn't know what to make of the pod or it's contents at first; While the Cruciatu were learning a lot in the way of sadism and terror from their eldar masters, they could tell that the pod was not Cruciatu technology and they strongly doubted that it was one of the Eldar's devices. The fact that the pod contained what appeared to be a perfectly happy and healthy human baby boy only furthered deepened the puzzle, but quickly deducing that it probably wasn't some kind of trap or ploy from the slavers they grabbed the child and got the hell out of there before they were discovered.

Popivia adopted the small human child as her own, naming him Micholi after a mythic figure of Turian legends... but she didn't raise the child alone; Young Micholi's childhood was spent being raised by the odd assortment of people and races of his adopted mother's 'herd' as Taamir liked to call them. Most of the group was made up of humans with no two of them having originally come from the same world, but there was also a small number of mutants and abhumans as well. Popivia had been the only turian left after the tragic death of her son, but she dedicated herself fully to the task of raising her new adoptive child as well as she could under the circumstances that they had found themselves in.

Micholi grow incredibly quickly, going from a baby barely a few days old to being taller and stronger then Taamir within a span of two years. There were enough humans hanging around to point out that this wasn't normal in the slightest but... well, he could pull his own weight now without them having to babysit him so there wasn't a whole lot to complain about. Micholi adopted to the harshness of their situation incredibly well, between the daily struggle to gather enough food and water, secure shelter and remain hidden from the odd Cruciatu raiding party (or worse, the odd eldar). Occasionally they found new herds or just lone people whom joined their own band of misfits... sometimes someone just disappeared while they were out and as much as they hoped they had just gotten lost and would find a new herd to help, deep in their hearts they mourned the loss of another family member that had been taken.

At night, after they had set up camp, Micholi listened to the stories of his people. Tales of worlds and cultures that he knew existed because the living proof was literally right there in front of him, telling the story to him. Explaining their history and sharing their myths and legends... and mourning for their homes and the families that they had been stolen from, even if they never said it out loud... and as he dedicated all of these stories to memory so that if another member of his family was to disappear a part of them would live on, Micholi learned many virtues... but one of the few he knew at his core that would be able to survive on Reserve for long was hate.

He hated the Cruciatu for the things they had done, the lives they had ruined and the dark pleasure they took in committing their crimes solely because there was no one around strong enough or willing to stop them. He hated the Eldar, because as bad as the Cruciatu were they were merely students of their Eldar masters that they aspired to be like in every way they could. Worst of all, he hated the fact that there was nothing he could do to bring their reign to an end; He could literally gaze up and see the heart of their darkness itself up in the night sky, but he had no means to strike at it. Not in a way that would cause them any meaningful harm, let alone remove their blight from the universe.

For many months he pondered on the problem, coming up with hundreds, possibly thousands of different plans and strategies of how to destroy the Cruciatu empire and stop it from causing anymore harm... none of which would work. It was a dark day when he finally conceded to himself that even if he united all of Reserve under his banner, they would never be able to overcome all the advantages that the Cruciatu empire had... the biggest one which was the fact that they didn't live on Reserve and there was no way for him and his people to actually reach them on the battlefields that would matter. Without the ability to strike at the worlds were they were getting their resources from, any losses they took would be replaced in time.

The cold, hard fact of the matter was that this was not a war that Micholi could win...

But...

One night, when he was on guard duty and was gazing at the sky in deep thought... maybe he didn't have to win. Maybe the path to victory was not in victory at all... but merely the act of not losing. For the rest of the night Micholi followed this new line of thought; This new objective on which to stage a campaign and for the first time in his life he finally developed a plan that wasn't assured to fail. The odds of a successful outcome were slim at best, there would be no glory or honor to earned and chances were that all that would happen was they would all die with their actions forgotten and their names unmourned... but a slim hope was better then none at all and the chance to cause the slavers to bleed lit a fire that warmed him to his core, even on such a chilly night.

Before he tried to convince the rest of his herd, there was one woman he needed to speak to first. He waited until morning for his mother Popivia to wake up before he took her aside to speak with her in private. He told her of the plans he had, of what it would take to make them happen and his exceptions of how things would go. He told her everything, sparing no detail and making it clear he had thought the whole thing through, including all the ways that it could go wrong and acknowledging that there were things he didn't know and couldn't factor in.

She listened. Occasionally she would ask a question or have a line of inquiry because either she needed help understanding something or she wanted to make sure that she hadn't noticed something her son might have missed. His answers satisfied her. When he was finished, Popivia hugged her adopted son tightly, told him just how proud she was of him and not only gave him her blessing, but swore to do everything she could to help.

With the full support of the one person in existence that Micholi would have heeded if she had told him this was a bad idea, he moved with full confidence to speak with the rest of his herd. It took a few hours, but Micholi remembered fondly the exact moment when he saw the fear in their eyes lit up with hatred as the fear they had lived with for so long caught flame and served as fuel instead of a burden.

They sort out other groups, each one easier to convince then the last as Micholi refined his ability to speak to crowds and individuals alike. Soon he was singling out the more passionate and well spoken of his followers and grouping them together so that they could go forth and spread the message in his stead for he could not be everywhere at once and they needed every one they could get who was sick of cowering in holes and burned out ruins waiting to die or worse, be taken.

Even as the message was sent out, it would take months of work to set up the groundwork, but many hands made light work and none worked harder then Micholi himself. Equipment from the ruined settlements was looted and repurposed, actual weapons being rare but mining equipment being common enough that some small scale operations were able to get underway in secret. They mined what iron they could, created underground bunkers and hidden tunnels, started gathering stockpiles of supplies and created basic but solid metal weapons, some more exotic then others. Micholi was a quick study of how to use these weapons to the surprise of many since some of them weren't designed with humans in mind, but in the end he elected to go with a large, two handed hammer that was designed to take advantage of his larger size, strength and reach.

Micholi didn't know how he decided upon the first ambush site; He had been looking at a hand drawn map of the parts of the world they were aware of and he found himself gazing at an almost random spot before pointing at it and saying with confidence that surprised even himself 'There'. After the fact he came up with reasonable sounding excuses as to why a team of slavers would show up at that location, but to his mother he softly admitted that the moment he saw the map he just knew with absolutely certainty that the slavers would be there... and he didn't quite know why.

His gut feeling proved well justified however. A Cruciatu ship landed in the ambush site and teams of rookie slavers were unloaded before the ship took off again, the solders left on the ground taking time to check their gear and organize. They weren't expecting to be ambushed and thus they hadn't bothered to patrol the perimeter, gloating to each other about all the slaves they were going to capture from the group that was hiding out near the nearby river.

They would not get there.

The ambush wasn't perfect, but the element of total surprise at being on the receiving end of an ambush, the lack of experience of the slavers themselves and the fury of having to live in constant fear for years being unleashed carried the day. Most of the slavers were killed in the swift and brutal melee that followed, but some were taken alive. All the bodies were removed from the site and their trail was covered as much as they could in order to hide exactly what had happened... as well as the fact that they had taken prisoners and looted all of the equipment. Mainly, their weapons and com units.

The war on Reserve would carry on like this for over a decade. A ship would be sent to the planet with Micholi have a surprisingly accurate gut feeling of not just when this was happening, but where it was going to land. If it was somewhere on the planet where their insurgency hadn't quite reached yet there was little they could do, but if it was landing was somewhere they could reach the nearest cell would be contacted over their increasingly growing radio network and an ambush would be prepared. If he could get there in time, Micholi would join the ambush himself.

Most were successful, through a number didn't end as smoothly as the original did. People Micholi had trained with, spent years alongside would get injured, crippled or die. It was the nature of war that people would be maimed or killed and Micholi had known that going into it but... when he had a moment, he would take the time to reflect on what he remembered of them and if he didn't know them personally he would find those that did. Even if it was just what their name was.

Few ambushes ever truly failed. If an ambush was getting messy or appearing to go poorly they had trained to fall back and disengage to either bait them into following into another ambush or regrouping to strike again later when the opportunity presented itself because throwing lives away was not an option. However, slaver teams that had eldar mercenaries connected to them to assist in their training tended to make things go horribly wrong very quickly if Micholi wasn't there.

Despite the few tragic defeats, within the decade Micholi had managed to unite if not all the slaves on Reserve, then at least the vast majority of them... and if he or his people couldn't find them he wished them the best of luck. The range in which they could intercept the raids had increased as well, covering almost the entire planet save for the tops of its few mountains and in the middle of the large water bodies. Punching the numbers, Micholi figured that out of all the ships the Cruciatu had sent since he started his campaign, if one factored in those ships that had landed in areas where they hadn't been able to get a force in to ambush in time back during the early years, seventy eight percent of them had left Reserve empty of both slaves and slavers.

The nature of the war changed just a little under 10 years, 6 months after the ambushes started. The Cruciatu stopped sending rookies needing some live experience at raiding; Instead, they sent in one of their proper raiding fleets. Micholi's campaign was baring fruit. Denying Reserve from the Cruciatu Empire so that they couldn't use it as a training ground for those recruits finishing their basic training, alongside killing as many of said recruits as possible had the benefit of hopefully reducing the quality of the new generation of slavers being built up, but the real goal had been to force the Cruciatu to dedicate resources away from more important fronts to try and retake a world of admitting little value to them at the heart of their empire because pride and a desire not to seem politically weak would not allow a slave uprising to undermine their authority.

Where the first stage of the war had taken a decade, the second only lasted two years. The doctrine of Micholi's forces was clear on how to fight this war: Never give them a clear target. Bleed whatever forces they send down with hit and run attacks, ambushes and misdirection, don't present them with a target they can get a bombing run or an orbital bombardment off on without having to hit a sizeable chunk of their own men in the process and above all else, don't die or let them take you alive. Every day you stay alive and free to take pot shots at them is another day they're stuck here with nothing to show for it but a raising body count and a drain on resources.

For his part, Micholi did co-ordinate the efforts of his forces where he could but he had spent the decade beforehand training his forces to be flexible and decentralized to take full advantage of the kind of war they were going to be fighting as well as to preventing a single assassination spelling doom. Instead, Micholi's vital contribution to the cause was by being the only real hard counter that his forces had to the eldar contingents of the subjection force.

The Eldar had been encountered during the decade of ambushes prior, but they tended to be in very small numbers, serving as instructors towards mostly human forces. While experience had proven time and time again that the Eldar could be killed, their advanced technology, supernaturally fast speed and reflexes as well as (having learned from the captives they had taken) incredibly long lives of experience in combat and taking slaves, fighting the Eldar was still a daunting mountain of a task. Micholi was the only one who had been able to fight and kill Eldar consistently, with his presence serving to bluster those with him to fight on the level required to do so.

Combating the Eldar parts of the Cruciatu forces proved vital to the war effort, since not only were they unbelievably good at ambushing the ambushers but they also had a gift for sniffing out their hidden tunnels, storehouses and bunkers which the human elements of the Cruciatu simply couldn't match. There was one silver lining, but Micholi and his followers were never quite sure what the root cause of it was: For every squad of Eldar raiders who were eliminated, their overall presence diminished. Their numbers weren't being replaced. It was unclear if this was because there weren't that many Eldar to begin with, or if the fact that there was something that was able to kill them in droves was making the other Eldar reluctant to commit themselves to this campaign, but each Eldar death made the night that little bit safer.

Then, one day... the fighting stopped. The raider fleet in orbit disappeared and the Cruciatu stopped sending forces to Reserve altogether. Micholi and his forces would remain vigilant for months after the disappearance, paranoid that it was some sort of ploy to let their guard down or that it was merely a lull before the storm kicked off even worse then before.

No Cruciatu ship ever came back... but another ship did. One that wasn't of Cruciatu or Eldar design. At first they were suspicious of the new ship, but when Micholi gazed up at it for the first time the gut feeling that had served him so well over the years served him again. He broadcasted a message on an open channel and within the hour a shuttle landed on Reserve's soil, baring the Emperor of Mankind.

The meeting between Micholi and the Emperor was awkward at first, partly because Micholi figured pretty damn quickly that if things turned hostile that it wouldn't end well for himself or his followers, but the presence of mutants, abhumans and xenos among his followers clearly put the bodyguards whom had come with the Emperor on edge even if the man himself kept a diplomatic face up. Still, the two of them retreated into a nearby bunker prepared for such a meeting in order to talk in private.

They discussed many things together, the topics starting about things such as the war on Reserve, what the Cruciatu empire had used it for, the nature of the alliance between the Cruciatu and the Eldar (The Emperor informed his son that while the two forces had fought against him until this point, now that his own forces had pushed them back to the Kirk system the Eldar had seemingly abandoned their allies to their fate), what Micholi had hoped to achieve and the make up of the forces under his command.

This last subject resulted in a bit of a argument between the two, with the Emperor using personal experience and data from prior engagements of the Great Crusade why the presence of Xenos and mutants was problematic, while Micholi argued in favor of the residents of Reserve, as well as their counterparts on the other planets in the Kirk system and beyond. It wasn't a heated argument since both parties could at least see where the other was coming from (the Eldar proved a good common ground for the two as evidence that some xenos species were monsters that couldn't be allowed to exist) and a compromise was reached.

Since the xenos, abhumans and mutants that Micholi had united alongside his human forces seemed perfectly stable and were willing to fall under human leadership, the Emperor made the decision to give them something of a trial run, not only to see if they could continue to work alongside humans but also to test Micholi and make sure that he would be up to the task of leading his legion in the Crusade itself.

The arrangement was that the worlds of the various xenos, abhumans and mutants would not be invaded, with the xenos citizens on Reserve would undergo questioning about their cultures and peoples, with the Emperor sending his own agents (both overt and subtle) to visit the worlds their races lived on in order to inspect them and vet them for suitability into being brought into the Imperium as if they were a human world. In the case of the abhumans and mutants, those present on Reserve would undergo some medical tests in order to inspect just how stable their genetics and strains were, as well as undergo questioning about their cultures and people so that their worlds could be judged as all abhuman populations were.

Micholi himself would shadow his biological father for the rest of the campaign against the Cruciatu, but at his own request he asked not to be in a command position. He didn't have an idea of the capabilities of the Space Marine legions his father commanded or the equipment that they had access to so he reasonably admitted that he wouldn't be able to lead them effectively. Finding the request reasonable and logical the Emperor agreed, Micholi serving the role of bodyguard for this campaign so that he could learn to be a commander of a legion in his own right.

The liberation of Kirk's Generosity was a somewhat swift but bloody affair, but for the most surprising of reasons. When Imperial forces landed, the various slave race and native human population rose up in revolt against the forces of House Cruciatu; It might have been a lifetime since House Goldragon had been eliminated, but their people hadn't forgotten them. They remembered what fair and just leadership was and knew in their hearts that there was something dark and rotten at the core of House Cruciatu, but hadn't really been able to do anything about it... until now.

A far number of Cruciatu officers in charge of their forces on Kirk's Generosity that weren't directly engaging one force or the other had a choice about which enemy to engage... and many of them decided to go after the rebelling slaves and civilians. For one thing they were less armed, armored and skilled then the invading space marines by a fair margin, but many of the officers had already come to the conclusion that the war was more or less over at this point and that all they could do now was take what petty vengeance they could on those weaker then them.

A shift imperial victory, but a lot of the civilians and slaves were slaughtered by the doomed Cruciatu slavers as well as vast stretches of land that had been destroyed and poisoned.

Imperial forces didn't even need to land on Kirk's Integrity. Once the food shipments were cut off the garrison was slain to the last and those prisoners and slaves on the mining world awaited liberation, reprisal or starvation.

The last stand of Kirk's Vigilance was a brutal affair; House Cruciatu and the Cruciatu Empire was doomed and their invaders were not inclined to accept peace terms or surrender from those who had willing submitted to be the vassals of an eldar kabal at the cost of countless human lives. The Cruciatu employed ever dark trick, every piece of eldar technology they were able to barter from their now absent 'allies' and every vile and inhumane ploy they could think of in an attempt to starve off their demise, but in the end it was in vain. Kirk's Vigilance was almost completely purged of its entire population.

Almost...

A number of the slaves on Kirk's Vigilance had been so broken by their masters that they had fought with a zealous zeal to defend their owners that it would have been respectable if it wasn't so inherently tragic. Others were forced to fight or at as meat shields less out of loyalty to their masters and more because explosive collars and other such devices are a thing. Others were just plain and simply unlucky. But there were survivors!

In the ruins of House Cruciatu's final baston, the Emperor of Mankind decleared victory over the Cruciatu Empire and named Micholi lord of the Kirk system. While he would be going to Terra in order to receive a proper education in order to fulfill his role as a Primarch in the Crusade, the system would be his to do with as he wished within the bounds of Imperial Law. Micholi accepted the honor and before he left the system with the Emperor he made two public announcements system wide.

The first was as much a guideline for the temporary regent government the Emperor was putting in place to help rebuild the system after they departed for Terra as an announcement for his own people. "No more slavery. There will be no more slaves in the Kirk System."

The second was a promise. "For those who wish to stay here, I will welcome you as a citizen and all the rights that come with it. But for those of you who were taken your homes and wish to return there... please be patient. I give you my word that I will do what I can to find where your worlds are and to get you back there, but we need time to rebuild. Time to sort through the information banks where the slavers recorded what worlds they visited. Time to figure out where you originally came from and what state it is in now. So please... give us that time and be patient."

After setting up his mother as apart of the newly established House Vakarian and promising to return soon, Micholi 'Slaver bane' Vakarian departed for Terra alongside the Emperor.

Ideology:
Micholi is both rather flexible and ridged in his thinking. Give him an objective and he will see it done. Give him bonus and side objectives to go with the original and he will go to great lengths to achieve them as well. When it comes time to figure out the how to achieve these objectives, Micholi will explore all valid paths and plans until he can find one that achieves as many (if not all) objectives possible with the best long term results. He is also humble enough to acknowledge when he is not the right person for the job to get the best results or achieve the desired objectives, but if there is no time to get such a person then he will do what he can.

Micholi is both ponderous and meticulous, taking his time to understand as much of the situation as possible before taking action. He is not immune to impulse, since he had long learned to trust his gut feelings when he receives insight into opportunities that have not yet presented themselves (a manifestation of his psyker abilities into divination). He is slow to anger or emotional turmoil, but in return when something does get to him it hits him hard.

The realities of war dictate that people will die. Micholi is aware of this cold, harsh fact and regardless of his personal feelings on the matter he accepted it long ago... despite this, he still cares deeply about the lives he is responsible for. Not just for the Space Marines of his legion, but also those of Imperial Army elements and even civilians he is tasked with overseeing and protecting. He'll even extend the courtesy to the lives of enemy combatants and civilians if they have redeemable qualities but they are at war for political reasons.

When Micholi has to fight a war, how that war is fought and the tactics used will depend almost completely on whom he is fighting. If he is fighting an enemy that he deems would be a wonderful assist to the Imperium but they are fighting because they have rejected all diplomatic options, he will learn what virtues the people he is fighting value and plan a clean, honorable war while respecting those virtues and what those people value. No atrocities or mindless slaughters that could breed resentment and be a rallying cry for rebellion down the track. Ideally, in victory the Imperium will have earned a grudging respect at worst from the foe and that respect can be the foundation of loyalty.

If only portions of the enemy have redeemable qualities while others are foul and corrupt in nature, then the plan will instead focus on safe guarding those good elements while purging the filth in the same way one prunes weeds from healthy plants. In the event that there is no redeeming quality whatsoever, then the foe is to be destroyed utterly. The very foundations of their existence will be broken apart so that the roots themselves can be pulled out and burned to ash so that when fresh soil and new life is put where they once stood, there will be no trace of the old to risk corrupting the new.

Having been raised by a mixture of humans, abhumans, mutants and xenos Micholi unsurprisingly actually has a very positive opinion on alien kind and will advocate in their favor. Even if it is currently only in the trial stages, he hopes that he can convince the Emperor to relax regulations against xenos across the Imperium. That said, he is neither naive or a fool; He is well aware of the fact that there are xenos out in the universe that either cannot or should not exist alongside others, the Cruciatu Empire being a key example of the latter. For the good of not just humanity, but all living things, these creatures must be hunted down and destroyed.

Surprisingly he has very little opinion on psykers. As far as Micholi knows he's never encountered one and he is unaware of the fact that he has psyker abilities himself. Truth be told, he's only recently discovered that they are a thing. From what stories he has heard, his views on them are that they are useful, but need to be employed and used carefully. One shouldn't mess with powers one doesn't understand recklessly.

Wargear:
Unity: A two handed thunder hammer, Unity was a collaboration project between tech priests of the Cult Machanicus that were deemed heretical for both their desire to work with xeno technology and their willingness to work with xenos to do it and a team of Turian scientists and engineers.

Desiring to offer a present worthy of the master of the Kirk system for the anniversary of the destruction of the Cruciatu Empire, his adoptive mother Popivia challenged the brightest minds of the Kirk system to create a weapon he could wield to not only serve him as a weapon of war, but also as a symbol of the strength of unity between the races he had led out of slavery.

While a number of different weapons were created by different groups (which would be offered to worthy captains of the Legion in their own right), Unity was forged by a team of tech priests lead by Magos Argol and a team of Turian scientists and engineers lead by Jupius Romulnion whom had originally started working together in order to try and make sense of some of the data and information of the databanks of the Cruciatu Empire in their research into Eldar technology.

They were unable to make any insights or progress with understanding Eldar technology, by working closely with the tech priests the Turians had a moment of inspiration with their own. Eezo's ability to generate power by releasing dark energy had been figured out by the Turian people very early on, as well as it's ability to create a field that could alter weight by either increasing or decreasing it depending on if a positive or negative charge went through it.

In a conversation about some of the Eldar blades that the Cruciatu had been trying to understand the technology of, the topic of human power weapons came up. Unsurprisingly, the idea of infusing human power weapons with Eezo was raised, the idea being to make it so that while the weapon was in a passive mode the weapon would be made lighter and thus easier to carry, but at the moment of impact the weight would be increased dramatically to had more weight and thus force behind the blow.

The idea was discussed and deemed to have a lot of merit, but would require a redesign of almost all power weapons to make work due to the fact that in order to benefit from being a power weapon, it needed to be on and the field active before someone started swinging it... which would increase the weight of the weapon far to early and make it practically worthless for combat.

But there was a power weapon that this could work for perfectly. The energy field of the thunder hammer only turned on when it made contact with a target, releasing all its stored up energy at the moment of impact and creating the sound that earned it it's name. Incorporating Eezo into the thunder hammer design wasn't even that hard, since all it really took was adding a second power source to the hammer who's sole purpose was to channel the right energy at the right time... and since part of the upgrade was literally to decrease its weight to make it easier to carry and wield, making the thunder hammer a bit bigger to fit the extra components wasn't that big of a deal.

The resulting creation was the Thunder Hammer named Unity. Unity itself is almost a third the size bigger then a stock standard pattern thunder hammer, since the shaft had to be made longer and thicker so it could be properly wielded by the Primarch it was intended for, as well as the head being larger and thicker in order to account for (and protect) the two power sources within it. While one created the energy field which gave the hammer its destructive power, the second would channel a negative charge through eezo implanted in the head and shaft of the weapon to make it deceptively light and thus easy to carry and wield for fast strikes. The moment the energy field triggers, the second energy source triggers as well for the split second of impact to channel a positive charge in the head of the hammer, reversing the weight effect and increasing it dramatically to increase the force behind the impact.

The result is a weapon that can be wielded with the grace and speed of a decently made steel longsword with an impact force rival to that of a Basilisk artillery shell landing directly on the target location.

The head of the hammer is engraved to show the twin headed eagle of the Imperium of Man on the top and longer sides of the hammer, while the smaller 'ends' are engraved with the symbols of the Cult Mechanicus and Turian Hierarchy respectively.

Other:
The Eldar Kabal of the Moon Blades is a Dark Eldar kabal. As far as Micholi and those of the Kirk system know, they are the only species of Eldar in existence and are currently unaware of the differences between the Dark Eldar, the Exodite Eldar and the Craftworld Eldar.

Legion

The Night Watch

Legion Number:
II

Legion Strength:
Around 50,000 space marines.

Favoured Legion Tactics:
As a space marine legion, the Night Watch can adept to just about any battlefield situation or employ whatever tactics that are required in the name of victory for the Imperium. However, the Legion values their lives, the lives of their allies and those of civilians in general and thus the tactics they prefer to use will either be designed to safe guard as many lives as possible... or at the very least avoid throwing them away or taking them recklessly.

The Night Watch favor gurella warfare, prefering the freedom to pick and choose what battles to engage in and when while denying their foes the chance to do the same. Denying the enemy a clear target to strike at also has its benefits since it makes setting up ambushes and feints much easier while forcing their enemy to have to spread their forces out to either try and find the Night Watch or to try and defend against them everywhere they can.

The Night Watch are at their strongest when fighting at either long range or at close quarters combat and it isn't strange for them to combine the two when engaging in battle.

The sniper teams of the legion are well respected and honored by their brothers, not just for their ability to provide life saving support in the field but also for their power to change the outcome of battles and wars with a minimum loss of life. The legion's inclincation towards close combat is surprising to some, but the decision is purely tactical on their part; While there are plenty of enemies in the universe who are as fast or faster then a marine, have equal or better reflexes then one, can match or overcome them in pure strength or even be better equipped, only a few are all of them at once. Close quarters combat is where a Marine has an overwhelming advantage against all by a handful of foes.

The role that Imperial Army forces play in the Night Watch's battle plans is that of mid range support; They generally serve as a means to pin down and force enemies into cover so that the Night Watch can close into melee range or provide covering fire when they are pulling out. However, they can also serve as bait to lure enemies into ambushes and traps (Granted, the Space Marines are willing to serve this role as well, but sometimes normal troops can bait the enemy out better).

Legion Leadership:
The Night Watch have a fairly clear command structure inspired somewhat by how the (admittingly lightly regulated) Imperial Army is organized.

10 Marines make a squad and is led by a Sergent.
10 squads make a company and is lead by a Captain.
10 companies make a brigade and is lead by a Colonel.
10 brigades make a division and is lead by a General.

Currently, there are only five divisions of Night Watch legionaries in existance. Each unit of men is commanded by an officer of suitable experience and rank who reports to the officer above them.

What makes the Night Watch somewhat different from most of the Imperial Army is that they are trained to operate in a decentralized manner due to the nature of warfare they like to employ. Each part of the chain has the freedom to plan and make tactical decisions based on their rank:

A general decides a system needs to be taken and assigns a brigade to take it.
The colonel desides on the plan to take the system and assigns his companies with their objectives.
The captain devises the plans to take the objectives, as well as adding sub objectives as required and giving them to his squads.
The sergent decides how their squad can best acheive their objectives and is free to respond to the changing nature of war and the battlefield as required.

Something that the Night Watch does that they keep underwraps however is the fact that there are always two officers in each unit. Two sergents per squad, two Captains per company, ect. Before operations begin, one will be classified as the active captain and the other as the passive one; During operations, the active captain has full command with the passive one being considered a sub-ordinant. In the event that the active officer is killed, wounded or is unable to lead, the passive officer can step in immeditaly and is 'promoted' on the spot.

The reason for this is if an officer is wounded or killed in the line of duty, there is someone with the exact same training and experience with that level of command to take over near instantly. Combined with the practice of having all ranks from grunt to general not having any outward signs of rank on their armor to prevent enemy forces from singling out leadership via sight alone, it creates the illusion to outsiders that the legion is so in sync that it doesn't need leaders to direct it.

Notable Legion Members:
Captain 'Cheese Maker' Jackrum: Captain of the sixth company, forth brigade, forth division. Captain Jackrum is one of the greatest sharpshooters that the Night Watch has ever produced. He is not a man who leads from the front, instead preferring to set himself up in a position that overlooks the field of operation so as to better guide the squads under his command, but also to provide overwatch and sniper support to them directly as required.

The nickname 'Cheese Maker' is a reference to the man's patience when it comes to lining up a shot on a target. During a subjugation of a world rallied behind their religious leaders, Jackrum set himself up in a location overlooking where said leadership was going to gather for a ceremony a month before the ceremony so as to avoid the risk of being spotted moving into position by increased security closer to the day. He did not leave his position for the entire month to avoid detection... and when the time came he executed the head of the religion and the entire council below him on the hierarchy within a matter of seconds.

Colonal Wojtyla: One of the oldest marines to serve in the Night Watch (second only to the Generals themselves), Colonal Wojtyla of the fifth bridage, third division has been apart of the Great Crusade since the Imperium of Man only consisted of the parts of Terra under the command of the Emperor himself. He is also the first of the Night Watch to be encased within the confines of a Dreadnaunt.

Despite being classified as an assault tank, Colonal Wojtyla is still an effective commander who has planned and executed campaigns with his bridage with much less in the way of casulties then was originally predicted. Rumor has it that the Colonal is sloted for promotion once the second legion expands enough to have a sixth division and there is some evidence to support this.

General Nelinho: General Nelinho of the first Division is (with the expection of Primarch Micholi himself) the oldest member of the Night Watch legion. He was the first marine to be inducted into the second on Terra by the Emperor himself and has been a fixture within the Legion ever since. When the Imperium of Man and Mars were united by the Treaty of Mars, Nelinho was one of those whom volinteered to learn the secrets of the machine and spent a fair bit of the Sol campaign to take the outer systems on Mars itself, training to become one of the first tech marines.

Nelinho maintained his relationship with the Tech Priests of Mars long after his training on Mars was finished, the Mechanicus and the first division of the Night Watch working rather closely with each other over the course of the Crusade and maintaining a positive, healthy relationship with each other... a fact that has caused a great deal of strain between the first division and their Primarch.

Primarch Micholi's connections to xenos, his willingness to use their technology, the fact that he habours and shelters heretics of the Cult Mechanicus willing to research and work with alien technology and (worst of all) actively encourges the fusion of human and alien technology has resulted in a very poor relationship between the Primarch of the second legion and the tech priests of Mars. Despite his loyalty to the Night Watch, General Nelinho has made it publically clear that he intends for no xenos technology taint his division and cemented his alliance with the Cult Mechanicus.

Micholi's offering to Nelinho of the knight Light's Shield so that it could be properly repaired and a new pilot found so it could serve once again did go a ways to easing tensions between the two so that they can work together, but the two have come to an understanding that due to their conflicting beliefs that there are just some campaigns where the two of them shouldn't work together to avoid... problems.

Inspirations:
The Night Watch are inspired by freedom fighters, gurella warriors and insergents who fight for just causes with as much morality as their enemy will allow them to use.

Assigned Armies:
The kind of armies assigned to the Night Watch depend largely on the division in question. The second to fifth divisions make use of the regiments raised on the worlds they brought into the Imperium, but are also assigned armies from the Kirk system and other worlds under the second legions protection. This means that not only do they have human solders following them, but they'll also have regiments of xeno and abhuman troops as well.

The first division does not work alongside the armies that its fellow divisions do, instead marching alongside skitarii and forge world regiments provided to them by the Mechanicus.
Other: Anything i have forgotten.

WH40k: New Frontiers and Promised Lands - A Rogue Trader Adventure

I plan to give this one my all as well, just make sure to link us to the thread when it comes up!

Speaking of Warhammer 40k threads, I wanted to share this one just in case people found it interesting. Honestly feel like it needs more love and attention.

roleplayerguild.com/topics/179613-war…

Warhammer Horus Heresy Reimagining

Okay... I have a character set up, but while writing their story I've gotten to a point where what happens next is going to be very dependent on who exactly shows up to find my Primarch. It's one of those meetings that is going to have to be played out in order to see how it goes down at any rate, but if it's the Emperor or another Primarch is going to be very important.