Warhammer 40,000 NES IC Thread

[Fulton]

Flashpoint 4: On Wings of Fire​

The first warnings came with the warp anomalies and warp storms of the last nine years. The next warning came with the rising rates of insanity and suicide of pyskers both Eldar and Mon’Keigh (human). The third came from the hysterical, garbled ravings of a handful of warlocks touched by the frenzied storms.

Brothers fight
Bringing death
Sun goes down
Land sinks into the sea
Stars fall from heaven
Fire heats the sky.
Sword time axe time.
Wind time wolf time
Until world walk to her end. ​

The storms culminated in the rejection of a massive ship from the warp. Originally home to over six hundred million Eldar, the Craftworld of Novaloc was a shiny beacon for the Eldar of the galactic east. Their disappearance was a great loss to the twilight race.

But the great convulsions brought about to the warp and the webway in the aftermath of the 13th Black Crusade have brought about strange results. While the Imperium was slowly ground to dust on world after world around the Cadian gate, the heroic sacrifices of Ulthwe craftworld and her allies have triumphed over the dark gods. Portions of the webway not used in millennia are safe, crone worlds are cleansed, and many of the fallen Eldar have been put to rest.

Out of the Eye of Terror fell Altansar, home of Maugan Ra, a craftworld thought long lost to chaos. They were shadow of their former selves. Depleted, war-obsessed, and twisted in mind, body, and perhaps even soul. But their aid to Ulthwe and the Imperium helped to halt the Black Crusade, free the Webway, and throw the Dark Eldar back to Comorragh.

Now, only a few years later, another ghost returns. The ripples in the warp have finally arrived on the Eastern fringe and Novaloc has broken free of the Warp. It is a hollow shell of what it used to be. Barely a third of its population remains and those that survive bear the scars of centuries of endless war. Pursued by a chaos battlefleet pledging their allegiance to the blood god, Novaloc is on its last legs. Without aid, it will not survive until the end of M42.016.

The depleted host of Novaloc skirmishing with advance elements of the Red Fleet.​

Doing their best to head Uarthe’s message, they have turned their craftworld slightly towards their zone of control, but they have lost much of their ability to maneuver. Uarthe surely has intentions towards Novaloc, though whether they can trust their lost brothers remains to be seen. The Iydith League may yet heed the call of their brethren as well, if only to prevent the Red Fleet from carrying on into the Iydith colonies.

The Imperium can only be threatened by the arrival of the Red Fleet, as Chaos must be happy to see it. While none would like to see Chaos prevail, the balance of power will be greatly disrupted by having two Eldar craftworlds in the same sub-sector.

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Players have 72 hours from the posting of this flash point to send in orders.

All players are welcome to submit orders related to Novaloc and the Red Fleet for this flashpoint. If you wish to ignore it, then send no orders.

 

[labrat13]

An expanded history of the T.T.C.

If one were to casually observe the Traix system, they'd notice that there's not an awful lot that a star spanning empire would be interested in in terms of real estate. The first planet is close enough to the star that the intense heat has blasted its surfaces into obsidian. This -could- in theory be mined for ceramics if any materials usable by the empire could survive the temperature and radiation for long enough. But this has been written off as a possibility for the foreseeable future. The second and third planets, not without their charms, are more a loose collection of asteroids then anything, their wildly irregular orbits having caused them to collide a few millennia prior to the great crusade. And the fourth planet is a Gas Giant.

The imperium would have written off all of these if it were not for three moons in orbit around that same said giant. Each moon is on the same orbital plane, traveling at the same speed in the same direction. There is no asteroid belt, no rings, nothing else around the moon that would cause these three to suddenly change their orbit. The first moon is actually more a gigantic factory and refinery. There is very little stone on the outward side of the moon that remains uncovered in some way by plascrete or plasteel. The underside, riddled with docks, remains otherwise largely uninhabited. The second two moons are both largely identical. Like the first, their habitation seems to be largely centered on the outward sides of the moons. The inward sides, also with docking ports, are curiously attached to the planet itself by long thin strands of glistening metal, pulled taught. It is these strands that have caused the Adeptus Mechanicus so much headaches, and have made the Departmento Munitorum turn Triax into a fueling hub for the entire sector upon their discovery.

The system was discovered by a rogue trader shortly after the great crusade in much the same shape it is now. After some investigation, the trader discovered that the two smaller moons were bleeding off resources from the gas Giant. The strands were actually pumping raw materials from the various layers, the automated machinery packing them up into shipping crates and leaving them in a now very full shipping warehouse. So full in fact that a number of the containers had been jettisoned off the stations and began to orbit on their own. Further investigation showed that these containers were intended for the refinery on the larger moon. Of the station's creators, there was no sign.

Of further interest was the primary contents of the containers. Apparently, within the center of Triax IV there lies an outer core of nearly pure Deuterium. Inside that was a liquid core of Adamantine. Along with a plethora of outer lairs with their own compositions and impurities, Triax IV became a veritable storehouse of just about every material the Imperium used in large quantities. It was a gas station and shopping center to the empire of the stars.

So over the Millennia the moons became the homes to many a servant to the empire. Great houses sprang up from refining and shipping guilds. Factories sprang up and roared into life, and along with them more guilds and houses were formed. At the hight of its power it had become a one stop military bazar. Weapons, fuel, vehicles, you didn't need to go far if you wanted to kick start a crusade.

But then the age of Apostasy came, and with it came blockades. There was no large scale invasion as the locals proved to be well armed, well motivated, and well trained. The resulting blockade did the work for them, the food shortages and resulting riots managing in a few months what an invading army would have failed to do in a century. Tyrex going to the warp caught the system at its low point. Every chairman between then and the present being more deluded and debauched then the last. Finally, the workers had had enough and open revolt ensued. It was swift, it was brutal, and the latest in a long line of administrative failures found himself hung up by his entrails on the flag mast of his palace.

The great houses, having also had enough of economic failure after economic failure, were quick to throw in their support to the new regime. The imperial guard response to the revolt arrived to find that not only was the system claiming to remain loyal to the empire, but shipping transports were already in orbit and filled with the system's back taxes from the past 5 centuries. After the fateful communiques between the imperial guard commanders and this new chairman, not only had the Triax system remained in imperial hands without firing a shot, but the Triax Trade consortium was born.

 

[Fulton]

Flashpoint 4: Stars Fall From Heaven​

M42.016259-M42.016648

The forces supporting Novaloc, or at least, opposed to chaos, were quick in planning, but slow in mobilizing. The first of the enemies arrayed against the Red Fleet to arrive was a pair of ships from the Coalition of Worlds, which had been stranded near Uarthe after emerging from the warp themselves.

The Coalition was unsure of what reaction they would receive from their returned brothers, but they obeyed their orders and successfully shadowed the chaos fleet until others forces arrived.

The TTC was next to act. Putting their full industrial might into shipbuilding, the Dictator Class Cruiser, Vengeance Unrelenting was built as quickly as the TTC’s shipyards could work. Finished barely in time to make the battle, the Vengeance Unrelenting steamed all ahead full, escorted by the full TTC battle group.

Finally, the Eldar of Uarthe, as if waiting for the most auspicious moment, finally slipped free their moorings and set off on the hunt.

The Red Fleet, oblivious to the approach of their enemies, forged ahead, laying waste to the beleaguered Craftworld. The first elements of invasion force were already forcing their way into the corridor and shrines of the craftworld as the warfleet of Uarthe appeared…

The Red Fleet was caught unawares by the first volleys. The Uarthean ships had caught the Khornate admiral in the flank. The Red Fleet turned to fight the foe, unwilling to give up their prize.

The Uarthean fleet, locked in combat with the Red Fleet​

The Eldar had greater numbers, but the Red Fleet was commanded by a veteran of a hundred battles. For every thrust made against him, he was knew the counter-maneuver. Time and again, the Eldar were turned aside by the Red Fleet.

The Eldar did not press their attacks with full vigour, for their knew that even against the veteran Admiral, they could not lose. It would only be a matter of time before the Red Fleet was ground away to nothing. Besides, the warlocks of Uarthe had contacted those of Novaloc. The Craftworld had stopped. Ships emerged from the darkness, and the detachments from Novaloc and the Coalition of Worlds fell upon he Chaos flanks.

In that one swift maneuver, the Red Fleet broke.

It was now that the TTC trap was sprung. Even making full speed towards the battle, the Vengeance Unrelenting and her escorts had failed to arrive in time. However, the skilled captain of the Vengeance Unrelenting, Captain Garolus, had a gift for improvisation.

The trap could still be sprung, but not in the way his superiors had expected.

The Vengeance Unrelenting, cut it’s engines and deployed mines and bombers. The escorts, running silent between the mines and escort, lay in ambush.

A fake distress call was sent into the warp, masked by the weakest encryption possible. The engines were modified to leak enough energy to mask the escorts, and to support the idea that the ship was foundering.

The battered survivors of the red Fleet charged straight into the trap. Eager to escape the Eldar, but just as fearful of the wrath of Khorne should they return as failures, their commanders broke the encryption and failed to take the time to properly scan the area.

Stuck in unequal combat, the Red Fleet stood little chance. The TTC was able to destroy an escort and cruiser, both of which had already suffered extensive damage. They allowed no more than a single escort and a rag-tag group of transports limp to the relative safety of Maron’s World.

The Trade Consortium’s Captain Garolus​

The Red Fleet is no more. It has been reduced from the second largest fleet in the sub-sector, to being tied with Oblivion Bliss for the smallest. Novaloc is saved. Though now the difficult task of determining whether new arrivals are to be trusted. But for now, an uneasy peace reigns over the Uarthean Fleet, Novaloc, and the equally mysterious warp-returned escorts from the Coalition of Worlds.

The Allies
Type – Number involved – number lost – number remaining
Cruiser “Unrelenting Vengeance” [TTC]: 1-0-1 (light damage, 40 eco repair)
Escorts [TTC]: 2-0-2 (light damage, 40 eco repair)
Escorts [CoW]: 1-0-1 (moderately damaged, 40 eco repair)
Battleships [Uarthe]: 4-0-4 (light damage, 80 repair)
Cruisers [Uarthe]: 2-0-2 (light damage, 60 repair)
Escorts [Uarthe]: 6-.5-5.5 (light damage, 80 repair)
Cruisers [Nova]: 1-0-1 (crippled)
Escorts [Nova]: 1-.5-.5 (heavily damaged)
Novaloc: 1800-200-1600 economy

The Red Fleet
Type – Number involved – number lost – number remaining
Corrupted Battleship: 1-1-0
Corrupted Cruisers: 2-2-0
Corrupted Escorts: 2-1.5-.5 (moderately damaged)
Corrupted Transports: 4-3-1
Assorted Chaos Divisions: 16-13-3


Diplomacy

To: The Trade Consortium
From: The Imperial Lens Network

We thank you for the information. We look forward to future co-operation.

To: Vernith
From: The Imperial Lens Network

We wish to renew the trade agreement made in the last cycle.

To: Anyone
From: The Imperial Lens Network

We wish to import more resources, preferably from an Imperial source.

To: Uarthe, the Coalition of Worlds, the other humans who fled before identification
From: Novaloc

No words can express our gratitude for your assistance.




***SECRET***

The information is known only to Uarthe and the Heirs of Guilliman.

The state of Novaloc is a pitiable one. Though the craftworld disappeared millennia ago, into the same storm that protected the Tau, the people of the craftworld have no idea how long they have been gone.

Different portions of the craftworld have dated their disappearance anywhere between 50 and 500 years ago. Some sections of the ship show centuries old battle scars and are decaying and completely devoid of life. Timepieces from these sections show the proper passage of time.

This has wrecked havoc with the populous. In some regions, fight is said to still be raging. Units thought to have been lost reemerge from lost sections of the ship, still following orders that were issued decades ago. Families have been severed and re-connected every time a surge of warp energy washes over the world, or every time they move from block to block within it.

Many Eldar minds have collapsed. Only the hardiest warlocks have survived and much of the adult population is dead. Only the strongest have survived and a great many have been traumatized by the endless war and the mental assaults of the warp.

The Eldar’s bodies are in bad shape too. They are gaunt and yellowed, some twisted and many mutated. Even the most pure are… just not quite right. They still hold on to their Eldar culture and religion, holding fast to whatever shred of identity and sanity they have left. They wish to rebuild, but many are unsure that they can.