The Liber Cluster

[Conn Eremon]

I intend to have the 2nd post updated with the Colvin subsector's section showing the general gist of how the war to get it all back under control goes, as part of the planetary descriptions, and that is where I'll put the kraken. It will likely be Monday.

 

If anybody wishes to elaborate upon it, such as the Aetheric Swords, feel free.

[Tiberius Cato]

The Eagles will abide by their nature and spread themselves thinner just for the sake of glory and yelling "For the Emprah!" One void kraken will fill it's belly with a fine meal of Eagles. Assuming of course they even come in contact with it.

[Olis]

Sender: +WITHHELD+
Transmission Location: The Bunker, Rictus IV
Astropath Relay: Kalen Firenze, Grade Secondus
Recipient: +CLASSIFIED+
Destination: Enclave Spire, Libera Mundi
Astropath Receiver: Julan Greaves, Grade primus
 
++Message Begins++
 
Greetings Gregor,
 
I have uncovered news of a disturbing nature - a significant naval force is heading to the Regahl Strip. According to my source, the objective is to pick over the dead world of Moribus that once belonged to the defunct Astartes Liber Chapter - the Raven Brotherhood. As of the last survey on record, the world is a ruin, as is the Fortress Monastery. With the passage of many centuries, most of the salvageable material should be useless, however this task force - presumed to be the astartes renegades known as the Untaken - is making best speed for that very planet.
 
We have deduced that the fleet is a grave threat to any Battlefleet Liber task force it may encounter short of the full fleet, such is the size and nature of it. I am advised that no less than twelve capital class vessels and twenty smaller craft make up this armada and so I ask, rather than waste resources by informing the Navy and thus instigating a potentially costly battle in the heavens, that you keep this information close. At least until I have divined an appropriate course of action.
 
As I write more operatives are being sent into the field to gather more information.
 
 
Until we speak again,
 
Black Friar.
 
++Message Ends++
 

The Untaken

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Much has changed in the two millennia since the Untaken were last seen in the Liber proper. Rumour and hearsay tell of them raiding and seizing shipping, or scouring sites of battle for vessels that can be salvaged. What the Liber Administratum does not know is that the Untaken had fled for pastures new after the Eighteen Worlds Crusade. 
 
Operating from a rogue world in the Deep known as Hammerlin, they often ventured into the Imperium proper for resources and materiel. With great care, they avoided the main warp routes and the known systems harbouring strong Imperial ties. Instead they skirted these regions, rarely daring to confront Imperial forces, and sought out worlds they could take from. Hammerlin itself has a stable orbit around a dim red dwarf, lying far into the Deep. As a base of operations it has been turned from a backwater slum into a centre of supply for the renegades, with manufacturing facilities and an orbital dock. Standard gear for an Untaken is the bolter and chainsword, with Imperial marks of special and heavy weapons few and far between. The esoteric and the exotic - heretek crafted weaponry - make up the shortfall in non-standard gear. Manufacturing is based on Imperial methods, wherever industry is capable of making astartes grade gear. This includes copies of Mk6 and Mk7 battle plate. Under close examination these local marks of Imperial gear are inferior to their official counterparts but for the most part operate closely enough to the norm that any differences are missed on the battlefield. Variants are common and it is not unusual for an Untaken to heavily modify or upgrade his gear with battlefield loot or specially crafted alterations. 
 
The Untaken also hold sway over nine other worlds in the Deep, commonly referred to as the Dominion or Domain [of the Untaken]. Only recently have they decided to return to their old pastures in the Liber Cluster, feeling that their time in the greater Imperium is over now that they are hunted by several agencies there.
 
As with any group of renegades they are excluded from all usual Imperial contact. The Techmarines of the Untaken have suffered because of this - since they have been disbarred from the Adeptus Mechanicus and exiled from Mars and any other Forge World they instead rely upon passed down knowledge from their predecessors. As such the Untaken have lost much of the necessary knowledge to build or maintain even mildly complex mechanisms - the rarity of plasma weapons is perhaps the greatest outward sign of this. Rogue Tech-priests are often welcomed, echoing the Sereiki Lions of old, bringing with them knowledge that the Untaken otherwise do not have. However, there is one thing these Techmarines do differently to their Imperial counterparts - they improvise. Rites are often ignored and simply getting down to the meat of the matter and fixing a machine becomes a mundane task rather than a holy duty. Modifying machinery relies on practicality rather than consulting machine spirits. As such, although repairs tend to occur more quickly than in the Imperium, mishaps resulting from angered or frustrated machine spirits are much more common.
 
Their Librarians, known as Wyrds amongst the Untaken, scrutinise their men constantly for taint. To pledge loyalty to a dead king in a dead empire is one thing but to truck with foul powers, powers that can eat the life and soul from every Untaken that exists, is untenable. The Untaken are raiders, privateers and rebels against a dead God. The nightmare realm and it's nightmare Gods are as unpalatable to them as they would be for an Imperial. Still, there are some who succumb. If a Wyrd does not get them, then a captain would. Relied upon to enforce discipline, for lack of Chaplains to fulfil the same roll, a captain and his chosen enforcers have the authority to put down any who turn. 
 
Of all the specialists available to astartes, Apothecaries have changed the least in the Untaken. They go about their general duties, maintaining gene-seed and tending to the wounded and dead. Despite stealing gene-seed from fallen enemies, Apothecaries of the Untaken act as honour demands of them - they will treat those they can and administer last rites to those they cannot. 
 
 

The Fall of the Raven Brotherhood

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The Raven Brotherhood, one of the original Chapters of the Liber Cluster standing alongside the likes of the Knives of Guilliman, the Chevaliers and the Hell Tigers, had an undetected failure in the hypno-indoctrination methods, leading to the chapter going rogue. Over time the number of Chaplains fell while the acceptance rates of otherwise unlikely candidates went up. Soon the brotherhood only recruited the strong in body, but not the strong in mind. 
 
Matters came to a head when the remaining Chaplains sought an audience with the presiding Chapter Master - Sarvakkus. They were all slain in the ensuing battle but cost Sarvakkus his trusted honour guard. With over a hundred of the Chapter still answering to the Emperor above all, Sarvakkus purged those veterans that still remained loyal to the Throne. Wily and experienced, these elder brethren fought long and hard using their many years of battlefield craft to account for Sarvakkus' lackeys. The price in manpower Sarvakkus could live with. The distress call he could not. 

 
Long after the Brotherhood had dealt with the dissidents in their ranks, a new threat appeared. The first to respond to the veterans' mayday were the Hell Tigers, no longer considering themselves brothers to what now called itself the Untaken. Gleefully they razed Moribus to the ground, Fortress Monastery and native structures alike. For as long as the Hell Tigers recounted, up until they themselves disappeared in the Silence, they never mentioned how many of the brotherhood they let slip through their fingers - more than half of the remaining chapter escaped to fight another day. 
 
 

After Moribus

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Since the destruction of Moribus until their employ under the Sereiki Lions, the Untaken roved across the Liber taking as they wished and slaying those who opposed them. They relished ambushing Liber space marines, using their tried and true tactics of overwhelming firepower and small kill-teams to partition and destroy their enemies piecemeal. In the Silence, few opposed them. Even the Hell Tigers disappeared for a time, leaving the Untaken open to reave and pillage soft targets as they wished.  
 
With the rise of the Pride, this changed as the Untaken saw ample opportunity to be a part of a growing empire, to have better arms and armour. The drive to act as pirates diminished and instead the desire to be rulers overtook them. The first [and last] mission in this new empire was to safe guard Zavatista for the Lions. Against xenos and minor warbands, Zavatista remained unmolested. Against the crusade force sent by the Imperium during the reconquest of the Liber Cluster, the Untaken would suffer an embarrassing defeat, despite assertions that the refinery-world would hold.
 
Cast from Zavatista by crusade forces, the Untaken retreated deeper into Lion territory. Of the crucial battles left in the campaign, they participated in fewer than their employers wished for. Victory for the Imperium lay on the horizon, the Eighteen Worlds all but theirs. The Untaken, at a fraction of their former strength and doomed should they linger further, abandoned the Sereiki Lions and fled for the Deep.
 
 

In the Deep end

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Taking the world of Hammerlin for themselves, far from warp routes and far from any conventional means of Imperial contact, the Untaken went about rebuilding. Back to their old habits they went; raiding, pillaging and seizing. Over the millennia these methods allowed the Untaken to survive and thrive. With no consideration of the codex, the Untaken grew beyond the normal limits, expanding their sphere of control over other rogue worlds in the Deep. The bastions planted on each of the nine Untaken worlds served as Fortress Monasteries in their own right.
 
Spread amongst the fleet and the dominion, five thousand Untaken ready themselves for a return to the Liber Cluster. They judge themselves to have the numbers and the ships to make another bid for power.
 
 
 
Comments and critique are welcome.

[deathspectersgt7]

5k are they true Astartes or just a portion of them true. 

[Olis]

5k are they true Astartes or just a portion of them true. 

 

Physically speaking, yes they are 'true' astartes but they lack the mental conditioning and high grade gear regular astartes have. They might get overconfident where a normal space marine would not. They might run away or act cowardly where a normal space marine would not. They might not be able to readily counter devastators or armoured columns outside of strange and wonderful (read: deadly but unreliable) weaponry.

[deathspectersgt7]

Still a tough nut to crack.

[Olis]

Indeed. The numbers are intended to be one of the biggest surprises. They might only be ersatz space marines but you'd rather not get into a pitched battle with inferior numbers and a bad battle plan. :P

[deathspectersgt7]

I've been thinking Virus bombs lately.

[Ace Debonair]

I intend to have the 2nd post updated with the Colvin subsector's section showing the general gist of how the war to get it all back under control goes, as part of the planetary descriptions, and that is where I'll put the kraken. It will likely be Monday.

 

If anybody wishes to elaborate upon it, such as the Aetheric Swords, feel free.

 

On the one hand, the Aetheric Swords are the only Chapter I've ever come up with that isn't directly influenced in one way or another by Monster Hunter.

On the other hand, suits of power armour primarily carved out of Void Kraken bones and decorated with celtic-style designs is a mental image I simply cannot dismiss from my mind.

 

 

Hmm. Maybe another Chapter should be the one to strike the killing blow, but the Aetheric Swords will be all to happy to send a company in support.

My vote for taking centre stage would go to the Iron Ravagers - if ever a foe needed the inexorable, cold, implacable might of the machine to conquer, it's a void kraken! 

[Olis]

I've been thinking Virus bombs lately.

 

Have you now? Anything specific in mind or just a passing obsession? :P

[Conn Eremon]

Okay, I have reviewed the EWC as it has thus far been posted. If there is something wrong with what follows, please speak up. It's always possible I missed something. Please link me to the post if I did, as I'm trying to collect it all together.

 

Incomplete campaigns:

Venet - 1/2 Heralds of Letum

Thravis - Black Falcons

Baluarte - Eagles of Glory and Scarlet Sentinels

Sranav - Dizzyeye

Evin Prime - Lords Inviolate and Sons of Calderon

Unnamed - Eagles of Glory and Aetheric Swords

 

 

 

The Conflagrators, Blackjaw Kindred, Iron Ravagers, and Angels Exultant have finished their campaigns and can be assigned to another one.

 

I have seen no activity from the Black Judges and Blades of the Lion, and so they too can be assigned.

 

1/2 the Heralds are open, and the All-Seers might be once they finish their home world defence (or not, it doesn't need to be elaborated upon).

 

The Doomsayers and Sons of Calderon are gone.

 

I would like to hear from those ready to be assigned. If they are up for another EWC campaign, I'll hand out an assignment. It does not need to just be the original contributors of the Chapters. If anyone has an interest in writing up something for the EWC with those Chapters, speak up. I have ideas for those six that can include a dozen or more people.

 

For those that are not yet finished, the assignment is to finish. If anybody wants help, speak up. I can include your campaign with those waiting for assignment. I will be with Evin Prime. :sweat:

[deathspectersgt7]

I have the All-Seers part done. But wanted to virus bomb the planet.

[Wade Garrett]

I'll take the Black Judges on a spin in the 18 Worlds if no one has any objections.

 

Oh, and de Kin also a stanning ready, Brudder Cormac!

[Conn Eremon]

I had intended to implement some randomness to the equation, but I'm down with requests.

 

DSS7, looking at it again I do see that the All-Seers pulled back and just bombed the world into submission, before leaving.

 

But the Doomsayers take off out if the Cluster and it says the All-Seers go to defend their home world from Orks.

 

So they are done, but neither seem available for future EWC campaigns. If either of you would like to contribute EWC further, I can put you on something other than your own Chapters (I intended to do that with some people anyways). Or, DSS7, you can deal with your home world situation, then introduce the All-Seers back in time for the finale.

[Astus]

The Aetheric Swords and the Heralds of Letum achieved their target on Venet (at a high cost), but there's probably still large numbers of Sereiki Lions troops in-system.

 

The Heralds will want to avenge the 4th Brotherhood, and inflict some serious damage on the Lions. This can tie in with my plans for the Heralds by splitting them into at least two groups, since the majority of the chapter is available. One group will go Venet, and one other ( possibly a few other groups) will rampage across Lions territory.

[TDF]

I can write something up and I'm happy for it to be randomised.

[Captain Nameless]

I should have something written up by tonight.

[Olis]

I'm content to be placed randomly. If you want anything more or something hammered out, I'm game.

[Conn Eremon]

Okay, so the Heralds have two paths to take, and could therefore be split between authors if we have enough who volunteer. The Aetheric Swords are cleared to fight alongside the Eagles, but I believe the Eagles and Sentinels need theirs finished as well. I edited my post up above to reflect what I am hearing.

 

With six of you ready, I have enough to provide at least two or three assignments. I'll think on it while I do laundry and drink Starbucks (What? I'm a Californian).

[Nomus Sardauk]

Yeah, sorry for the writing delay recently everyone, my Muse can be a fickle   with a short attention span somedays, though I'll try and finish this next segment ASAP.

[incinerator950]

Stop playing bioshock and start writing then.

[Ace Debonair]

The Aetheric Swords and the Heralds of Letum achieved their target on Venet (at a high cost), but there's probably still large numbers of Sereiki Lions troops in-system.

 

The Heralds will want to avenge the 4th Brotherhood, and inflict some serious damage on the Lions. This can tie in with my plans for the Heralds by splitting them into at least two groups, since the majority of the chapter is available. One group will go Venet, and one other ( possibly a few other groups) will rampage across Lions territory.

 

Venet's sort of a grey area where ownership's concerned right now.

We got the target we were sent after, but with only one of our marines escaping the wholesale slaughter, the planet itself could very easily fall solidly under the Sereiki Lions' dominion once more.

 

This could mean getting into a doozy of a fight if the Lions throw a lot of their forces your way - in any case, I can't wait to see the Heralds really go to work.

 

When I next get the free time I'll hammer out a rough draft of the Aetheric Swords / Eagles of Glory's next mission.

[Vesper]

I have some stuff in the pipes, but I'm under serious pressure because of my work, lately. I hope I'll try to find some time.

[Conn Eremon]

 

The Aetheric Swords and the Heralds of Letum achieved their target on Venet (at a high cost), but there's probably still large numbers of Sereiki Lions troops in-system.

 

The Heralds will want to avenge the 4th Brotherhood, and inflict some serious damage on the Lions. This can tie in with my plans for the Heralds by splitting them into at least two groups, since the majority of the chapter is available. One group will go Venet, and one other ( possibly a few other groups) will rampage across Lions territory.

Venet's sort of a grey area where ownership's concerned right now.

We got the target we were sent after, but with only one of our marines escaping the wholesale slaughter, the planet itself could very easily fall solidly under the Sereiki Lions' dominion once more.

 

This could mean getting into a doozy of a fight if the Lions throw a lot of their forces your way - in any case, I can't wait to see the Heralds really go to work.

 

When I next get the free time I'll hammer out a rough draft of the Aetheric Swords / Eagles of Glory's next mission.

Maybe we can call the objective claimed and the primary threat neutralized, and consider it a mop-up world for when the Lions are driven out.

 

Oh, and I never answered you before: Yes, the Veneti regiments I wrote of in the Colvin series was take from this world of Venet. I figured this tale you are spinning would lead to a regiment world future.

[incinerator950]

Contest the planet, that way by the time one of us gets there you're still in progress of fighting the Lions.