Stolen geneseed

[markham82]

Hello brothers (and sisters)

 

I'm slowly working on my DIY chapters fluff and have gotten to the point of the chapter geneseed and got stuck.

 

The problem is that my chapter has been wrongly declared excomicate traitorus (or whatever) by a chaos tainted inquisitor and greedy tech magos. This means they should have no way of getting new geneseed. However the chapter had in the past found out about a planet where geneseed are stored when they were part of the security force for a delivery of geneseed ( I'm considering adding this knowledge as part of the reason the mechanicus wants us dead). The chapter then stole another shipment of geneseed.

 

Now my chapter has the geneseed and the shipping manifest so they know which geneseed are for which chapter, however they don't know how to active the geneseed since every chapter has its own methods( or at least the methods of their founding chapter). Luckily my chapter hails from the Ultramarines so we can use most of the geneseed, but what to do with the other geneseed like those from the imperial fists, white scars, Iron hands and Salamanders which could be used if we knew how. The geneseed are too valuable to "discard". Obviously the Space Wolves and Blood Angels geneseed are too unstable (I'm thinking we send it back to them).

 

What do you think is the way to go or is it tough luck. 

[*Furyou Miko]

Sell it off to Chaos warbands for mucho goodies.

[Bryan Blaire]

When you say they stole a shipment of gene-seed, do you mean they stole a shipment of tithes being sent to the Mechanicum by various Chapters? If so, why are so many of them mixed in a single shipment? Did you envision the various tithes being assembled at a single location, then forwarded to the Mechanicum en masse? If so, why? Wouldn't each Chapter instead task their own ships to transfer the gene-seed directly to the Mechanicum?

 

Also, why does your Chapter have the knowledge that each gene line activates their own gene-seed differently? Do they have Apothecaries that have some how observed the rites and rituals of varying gene lines? Those things seem like they would be considered closely guarded secrets and rites, IMO, and not widely known concepts. Also, the Blood Angels and Space Wolves do hide their flaws. I personally doubt that many outside the Inquisition and Mechanicum actually know the extent and methods that their flaws take.

 

My final question is why do they have no way to get new gene-seed? Do they no longer have the Chapter's stores from their Chapter-keep or Chapter flagship? The Marines from the Chapter still have viable gene-seed growing within each of them (two sets of glands, so actually the Chapter can double the Marines for each Marine death/full extraction), so they'd at least be able to get that stuff. Also, if they are particularly squirrely, they will have small caches of gene-seed set throughout their garrison worlds (like the Dark Angels seem to do), so they'd have some of those to go and pick up as well.

[Lucio]

This is where our good old friend Fabius Bile comes in, offers to not only take the excess geneseeds off your hands but also provides womb tanks and implantation gear to help accelerate the proccess.

 

Of course, later down the line you "owe" him a favour but hey, no big deal right?

[Chaeron]

Have been plenty of stories involving corrupt Apothecaries - it's definitely doable!

[markham82]

Sorry guys my have chapter Not gone over to the dark side. I should have been more clear. The chapter is loyal to the emperor and humanity, not the corrupt system. We were branded renegade because we have something a chaos tainted inquisitor and his tech magos co-conspirator wants. Because of this we are very careful not to allow anything that could point to treason( mutation, working with enemies of the Emperium etc.)  

 

It wasn't a tithe ship, it was one carrying new geneseed to chapters( that does happen, I read it somewhere).

 

On how we know about the different activations for the geneseed, that's a good point. Perhaps we started using the geneseed as normal and found out that most of the geneseed didn't work properly? After further investigation the apothecary's would probably have found differences in the geneseed. 

 

The double glands would have been great if the chapter hadn't been decimated to 36 marines. Also I have it so my chapter was a fleet bound chapter and all but one strike cruiser was lost on the forge world were the chapter fell.

 

I could change it so that we did save most of the geneseed, the main reason I want the extra geneseed is so that my chapter have a way to regain it strength and continue the fight. 

[Bryan Blaire]

I'm assuming you mean devastated down to 36 Marines, because if they had been decimated down to 36 Marines, it means they would have only had 40 Marines to begin with (10% loss of 40 Marines = 36 Marines). Wouldn't have been much of a fighting force at that point already anyway.

 

On the ship carrying new gene-seed... Sure, it happens, but it isn't near as common as tithes, and it still doesn't answer the question "Why would so many different gene-lines be on a single delivery ship?" I doubt that the Mechanicum is so limited as to needing to use only a single delivery ship, and even then, why wouldn't the Marine Chapters have tasked their own vessels to pick up something so precious as gene-seed. I know that my Chapter Master wouldn't have agreed to a drop off, but instead arranged a pick up from the world housing the gene-seed tithes that the Stoneburners had given the Mechanicum previously. Gene-seed is too valuable to send it around willy-nilly on a circuit, and both the Mechanicum and Marines know this.

 

The Apothecaries figuring out the differences in gene-seed assumes that they understand enough about gene-seed to know the differences. Some people would agree with this, I am not one of those people. You can go a huge way in implantation, using equipment, etc., while having no real knowledge on the biomagical workings of the gene-seed itself, or the fact that while the equipment you are using says "Marine gene-seed working great", you don't know that the same equipment will say that for any gene-line seed put into it. After all, if the equipment and Apothecaries actually knew anything about the magic of gene-seed, there never could have been a "mix-up" like the Carmine Blades - a Blood Angels Successor with BA gene-seed that operated for at least a few centuries as recorded officially Ultramarine successors - if the equipment could tell you gene-lines apart, their Apothecaries could have instantly gone "Nope, we're BA, not UM." - that this didn't happen tells us a lot about the current state of affairs in records and gene-tech-wise in the 41M.

 

Edit: Please don't take any of this as me trying to trash your ideas, I think they are quite good, it just seems like there are still some questions to answer to fully flesh out your idea skeleton. Once you do this, I think you will have a good handle on your DIY Chapter's operations.

[markham82]

No problem Bryan, this is why I'm asking. I knew the ingredients for the cake didn't taste quite right, and there's always difference of opinion.

 

I remembered where I read about the geneseed shipments, its Storm of Iron. Because the location of the storage planet is so secret the mechanicus does the deliveries (it wouldn't be a secret if it was a one stop shop for the Astartes) and use different routes and use different  "institutions" to provide security for small sections of the route. That's also why they use one ship to carry different geneseed, more ships means a greater chance of discovery. We were used once at the beginning stage of a delivery and found out about the cargo.

 

Some chapters seem to have greater knowledge of geneseed than others. Didn't the Soul Drinkers get outed by one of the Blood Angel successors as not having Imperial Fist geneseed and then of course the most recent thing with the Carmine Blades tell me that it is possible to at least tell the difference.

 

Of course there was a shipping manifest, so we know which geneseed was going where.

 

More thinking is required.

[dusara217]

You should probably:

a.) make it so that your people are raiding a Mechanicum world with Gene-seed tithes that was recently attacked by Orks and thus is severely impaired until Mechancium reinforcements can arrive. Make the world the same world as where your Chapter previously delivered Gene-seed and this will make a lot more sense than "We found a ship and were like 'yippee, we found some genes, and look, more genes! *squeal* and that's a paper saying where even MORE genes are!".

b.) Your Chapter is definitely going to want to get a different ship as their ship would likely be recognized by the Mechanicum. Most likely, after the raid, they could board a Mechanicum ship and take that OR they could take an alien ship, Imperial Navy Frigate, etc. that they encounter later on.

 

Also, to 99% of Apothecaries, Gene-seed is magic and they don't usually study it willy-nilly, so it seems highly unlikely that your Apothecaries would understand the Gene-seed unless they had been previously tasked by the Mechanicum or Administratum to study it.

[Banelord]

As far as I remember the only real reason for the Machanicus would ship geanseed is to create a new chapter or if a chapter was so devastated they were unable to maintain their own geanseed stocks to rebuild the chapter. It’s the Apothecary’s job to maintain the geanseed levels and to monitor it for mutation, so yes they do have some skill in bio-engineering. However, they don’t see it as magic but more sacred, it was created by the Emperor and it’s a direct link to their Primarch, which is why they don’t really mess with it and why they would be reluctant to use other chapters.

 

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Apothecary

[Sugarlessllama]

This is a good question. I suppose if the Doom Reapers were not interested in keeping the gene seed, they could try and get it back to the chapters in question. Perhaps through a Rogue Trader? They often have their own agenda, and can move things around in a way that circumvents the inquisition. Maybe that could be a route they could use?

Also, it might depend on where they are on the galactic map.

For example, my chapter, the Guardian Consuls are trying to hide the mutations in their gene seed (they are of the Cursed 23rd Founding, and it manifests as the Astartes eventually go blind), and so they booked it out to the Ghoul Stars in order to avoid inquisitorial eyes. But this does mean that they now have limited access to re-supply.

Maybe if the Doom Reapers have gone to frontier in order to avoid being purged, they might be able to just hand over the gene seed to other successor chapters that just haven't got the memo yet?

There is precedence in the lore of chapters working with excommunicated, loyalist chapters. The Knights of Blood participated in the Defense of Baal even though they had been declared rogue. The Blood Angels knew they were participating, but did not make any aggressive moves towards them.

Perhaps they found allies within other chapters that have been falsely accused of heresy (Doom Legion, and the Vorpal Swords both come to mind)?

Check out the Abyssal Crusade on lexicanum. That might give you some ideas about how other chapters survived wrongly being declared traitor.