"The Imperium of Man comes to Gensokyo" Discussion thread.

Behold, unbeliever!

As we speak I am attempting to view the source of this knowledge.

... The thought did not even occur to me, Sullen, I believe you are possessed of Slaneesh to seek the gutter where it does not exist, as a result of which your mind is cluttered with filth. Consult your local Excruciator for your penance and treatment, then proceed with the tale.

^^ Episode Three is still a unicorn as far as pretty much everyone is concerned, isn't it.

^^^ Go ahead.

^ Dude, note the big yellow (CANON CONFLICT) tag.

edited 21st Oct '11 2:19:27 PM by l3wt

Yes, but note that the Crusade begins after the Warp becomes navigable again, ie once Slannesh is finally created/birthed/spawned.

Well, they get down to the surface, root out and route all the rebels there after some frantic urban warfare, and once things settle down they manage to locate both the planetary governor and the acting head of the local tech-priests (acting, because the actual head of the local tech-priests was killed during the fighting). Jonson has his forces begin to settle in for the long haul, predicting that they have at best three weeks before Horus sends another fleet to try and retake the system—and this time, they won't just be fighting renegade Imperial Army regiments, they'll be contending with Traitor Space Marines.

This proves difficult, however, for the local Titan legion has been deployed to somewhere else halfway across the galaxy and the loyalist guard regiment suffered heavy casualties before the Dark Angels arrived; this forces the defenders to reinforce these severely-depleted squads and formations with units of Skitarii, who are just as coldly methodical and inhuman as their tech-priest overseers. Jonson also feels that something isn't right, for he knows that fifty years ago Horus commissioned a number of really frakkin' big siege guns from the foundries of Diamat, yet never came back to claim them; and when he asks the tech-priests for a listing of their inventories, Magos Archoi—the acting head of the local Mechanicus—is reluctant to comply.

^^ You mean the paragraph also noted as conflicting, which links to exactly the same sources? One of which`were published in the late eighties?

^ Oh, dear. That's some potential traitor techies right there, then.

edited 21st Oct '11 2:43:20 PM by l3wt

Still, it makes sense that the Fall came before the Age of Strife, for reasons previously mentioned. Besies, it's probably only off by a millenium or so, 1/42 isn't too bad.

^^ Chekhov's Really, Really Huge Guns?

Kinda. Chaplain—excuse me, Brother-Redemptor Nemiel leads a squad of Dark Angels into the foundries a few weeks later, suspicious that even though the Titan legion has departed their manufactora are apparently still in use. After sneaking in, they quickly learn that his suspicions were well-founded; the siege-guns are there, and the tech-priests are putting the finishing touches on them...by bathing them in the blood of fallen troops and loyal tech-priests.

For Magos Archoi, as it transpires, is a member of the Dark Mechanicum and in league with Horus; he killed his loyalist superior and had been brokering a deal for the siege-guns when the Dark Angels first arrived in-system. Soon after Nemiel makes this discovery, the Skitarii turn on their Guardsmen and Space Marine allies to inflict horrendous casualties! At the same time, a small Horusian fleet enters the system, and when Jonson's fleet goes to fire on them, the loyalist crews learn—far too late—that they have been betrayed, as the torpedoes worked on by the heretical tech-priests promptly blow up in their firing chambers!

edited 21st Oct '11 2:47:16 PM by SullenFrog

Well, that twist was visible about sixteen hundred thousand miles away.

So that's where the other heretic got the idea!

The guy who wrote the confrontation between Horus and Emperor apparently believes commas and exclamation marks are expensive.

"No man can master Chaos. You have deluded yourself. You are the servant not the master."

"Feel the true nature of my power and then tell me I am deluded."

"You are deluded."

edited 21st Oct '11 3:12:22 PM by Chabal2

... What is this lukewarm, stupid Heresy?

Okay, technically the narration adds "in the voice of an angry god", but that doesn't do much to improve.

And it's Realms of Chaos The Lost and the Damned, in which the Emprah gets his ass kicked until the 11th-Hour Superpower.

Predictable, perhaps, but it made things interesting at least; thanks to Archoi's betrayal, most of the Guardsmen have been slaughtered and only sixty Dark Angels survived out of two whole companies. And then, as one might expect, the Sons of Horus arrive and everything goes straight to hell.

Why, another shocking twist!

... Ho-lee shit Bloodthirsters looked stupid as hell back then. This one's head is the size of its torso. It looks like that Disney Big Bad Wolf out for Halloween.

Well no, that bit wasn't even attempting to pass it off as a twist; everyone knew it was coming. What is a twist was how they managed to survive and beat back the traitors; you see, it turns out that Archoi and his men had been modifying the siege-guns—which are Baneblade-sized, if not bigger—so that they could be operated by a single person via a mind-impulse unit, much like a Princeps with his Titan.

So, they removed the only dreadnought in the strike force (coincidentally, named Brother Titus) and strap him into the machine, then have him shell the spaceport that the heretics were using to offload their troops. And that was how the battle was won; with a single shot that nuked a huge swath of the city.

Dayum, son.

Talk about one shot, one thirty thousand kills.

"Possession is nine-tenths of the lore". GW, have you no shame?

So, the Horusian fleet buggered off and the Dark Angels managed to restore a semblance of order—no easy feat, considering that the remaining Guardsmen had been slaughtered to a man by the Sons of Horus, including the planetary governor. A short while later, relief arrives in the form of an Astartes fleet headed for Isstvan; and as the legion resupplies at Diamat, its primarch and Lion El'Jonson hold a private conversation wherein he reveals that he had already known about the siege-guns since long before the start of the Heresy and that Horus would need these guns were he to ever assault Terra as he would never be able to take the Imperial Palace without them. They then shake hands, with the primarch promising Jonson support in nominating him to the position of Warmaster once Horus' little rebellion has been dealt with; satisfied, Jonson then turns the guns over to the primarch, but only after making him promise that they will be put to good use.

And who was this primarch, you may ask?

Promises? Precognition? Plotting political power?

Why, that can only be one superman: Angron Magnus.

Does his name begin with "A" and end with "lpharius"? Otherwise, I've got nothing.

Neither; it was Perturabo.

Also, I should have specified that it was Jonson who had already known about the siege-guns.

edited 21st Oct '11 4:00:01 PM by SullenFrog

Well that came out of nowhere.

Yes, you should have (though given that the new arrival could only be evil, I'd still have gone with One-Eye).

edited 21st Oct '11 4:01:48 PM by Chabal2

...Ohhhh Hell.

Well, based on how things went in A Thousand Sons (which I am presently rereading, in order to make sure I'm keeping a certain dreadnought from another game in-character), I'd say Magnus and his boys are still on the Planet of Sorcerers at this point, wallowing in misery.

But either way, this development is not only very bad news but it also makes the plotline itself feel kinda pointless.

edited 21st Oct '11 4:09:12 PM by SullenFrog

... It's 40K, Chaos always wins in some way or other.

"An animal of South Africa, which in its domesticated state resembles a horse, a buffalo and a stag. In its wild condition it is something like a thunderbolt, an earthquake and a cyclone."

Now I want one.