DIY Fluff - 1st draft

[The Rose Princes]

I write stories, not reports, so it may flow differently than you are normally used to.

 

Our story begins out in Ultima Segmentum on the planet Ilse-Krohn, the only inhabitable planet in the system known as Ilse, solar southwest of the Ghoul Stars. The planet is over six time the circumference of Holy Terra with single revolutions equal to 11 days and has over 2 dozen barren rock moons. At it's peak Ilse-Krohn held trillions of the Emperor's lost people, having long forgotten their roots and became self sufficient these past millennia. Originally a mining world, the planet had to do all it's mining underground due to the rapidly growing plant life on the surface. The only plant life on Ilse-Krohn is a flowered shrubbery which runs untamed outside the hive cities; it even exists on the ocean floor between continents, existing as one single plant spanning the entirety of the planet. The plant is know only as The Rose. No force has quelled the growth of this plant thus far, it has be burned, uprooted, suffocated, irradiated and chemically poisoned, but the microscopic seeds that continually fall from the stems are ever present and start the growing process all over again, and in most cases adapting to the poisons. The Rose can literally be watched growing, extending up to .25 meters in approximately 10 hours.

 

The internal social structure of Ilse-Krohn consists of an ancient family which has ruled over the planet for all of their know history. Being rich and petty, the ruling family began to war with each other across the planet for absolute control. The splinter families had total domination over their individual continents, each being ruled buy a single figure with their loyal extended family as the only free people. Long range warfare had begun over the seas and oceans which separated the lands, and as centuries of war continued, foot soldiers were replaced with high tech automated troops and self flying warplanes. The people of Ilse-Krohn went from peasants to serfs to finally slaves, mining the planet for materials to keep the ever fighting mechanical army active, as well as their own robot slave drivers. Large single hives were constructed on each continent to keep all mining and manufacturing in one place, while protecting the ruling class from attacks from the other families.

 

Circa M33, a Crusade to reclaim Ilse-Krohn arrived in the system bringing the Emperor's way back to them. Each figurehead, convinced that the other ruling families were behind the otherworldly invasion, waged war on the Imperial Guard fleet. Being a planet at civil war for thousands of years, the Imperial Guard was not prepared for the advanced combat that the waring families of Ilse-Krohn waged.

 

 

Back in Segmentum Solar, following the lose of a chapter who apparently was lost in the Warp (but that's another story), the chapter of the STAR PRINCES was created as part of the eleventh founding to fill the vacant role in the Crusade to Ultima Segmentum and discover more of the Emperor's lost planets and people. The initial creation of the chapter numbered over 400 marines, large for an initial run, but looked upon as a blessing from the Emperor as all possible candidates accepted the geneseed.

 

After their creation and training, the Star Princes were sent out to the planet Ilse-Krohn in a system west of what would be know later as the Ghoul Stars. Astropaths had led the initial Imperial Guard fleet to the location decades ago, but no response has been made by the fleet in over two generations. The Star Princes fleet, headed by the ship Omeiensis, made way to Ilse-Krohn; the same trip that the preceding chapter was making before they were lost in the Warp.

 

Upon entering the Ilse system, the large amounts of wreckage from Imperial ships were apparent, as well as non-Imperial ships, and the remnants of what seemed to be an asteroid belt swirling around the planet's multiple outer Moons. As they entered high orbit passing the wreckage, they learned that the asteroid belt was actually the remnants of one of Ilse-Krohn's moons, as another moon which they were heading toward exploded.

 

City size pieces of the former heavenly body flew through the ships, destroying everything they touched. Escape pods and life boats were launched from the few ships which were not instantly pulverized, but even fewer of those arrived at their original destination of Ilse-Krohn; many simply broke down in space, letting occupants freeze or starve to death. In total, less than a hundred marines made it planet side, while even less of the Imperial Guard support regiments survived reentry.

 

Escape pods were scattered across the vast planet, with no knowledge of who survived. The majority of the surviving marines only had what equipment they were carrying on them at the time of the abandon ship; anything outside of Bolters became a scarce commodity. With only whatever equipment that could be salvaged, the Star Princes began doing the job that they were sent to do in the Emperor's name: take back this planet. Using guerrilla warfare tactics with their small numbers, the Star Princes began waging war on the planet. Whichever of the eight continents the Star Princes landed on, the situation was the same: horribly outnumbered by thousands of automated soldiers and constantly being hunted. What was also the same were the tactics of the Space Marines: Take out the ruling families of Ilse-Krohn.

 

Salvage became the norm, taking parts of the escape shuttles they found, as well as parts and weapons from the robotic soldiers they continually fought. The bolter became ranged weapon, hand to hand weapon, crutch, and surgical tool. A common tool became the weapons the human sized robots wield, a form of plasma sheathed scourge whip. A common battery, usually ripped from the innards of a robot, would power the lash for long use in close combat, which were most effective in downing the larger robots in close combat.

 

After 12 years, the northern continent's ruling family was the first to fall, overthrown by a squad of 7 marines let by Tactical Squad Sargent Tatjana. Upon discovering the underground mines full of billions of slaves, they planned their next move as they brought the love of the Emperor back into the hearts of these former slaves. Three years later, the island continent ruling family fell to Brother Sargent Reine and his two remaining Devestator squad battle brothers. After that, the smallest continent was won in a final last ditch solo effort by Assault Marine Brother Sanders.

 

Thirty years after they crashed on the planet, the Star Princes had taken all of the hive cities except for the largest continent's The marines now only numbered in the 20's, and with a few surviving Imperial Guard numbering only in the dozens, but many of the slaves who had been freed were now fighting alongside their saviors, and they numbered in the thousands. With refortified weapons and supplies, a true battle would now be fought against the last of the ruling family.

 

It took only 1 year to conquer the largest hive and finally end the blood line of the ruling class family. The Star Princes only now numbered 16. As the battle ended, it was a dying Brother-Captain Erinnerung, who had taken point for the assault into the throne room, laid among the shrubbery and said to Apothecary D'arcet before the end was administered.

[Commissar Molotov]

Well, firstly I have to applaud the effort. The reason that IA articles are generally encouraged is simply because they present an overview of chapters in a reasonable way, with things neatly and clearly compartmentalised, so that feedback can be given. It's not intended to constrain originality - rather, it's meant to be a stepping-stone to further work.

 

The idea behind Ilse-Krohn is pretty cool. 'The Rose' reminds me rather of the background to Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. You don't seem to detail what exactly these people did whilst they were 'lost', though. Most planets in the Imperium are dependent on each other - a hive world provides machinery, but requires agri-worlds to feed the excessively huge populations, for example. But whilst they were lost, were they still mining? If so, what for? They presumably had nowhere to ship the stone, and no use for it. It's a silly nit-pick, but I'm curious. Alternatively, if the Ilse-Krohnians have space capability, you could set up some sort of thriving economy between the world and its' satellites.

 

I really like the idea of the few marines assassinating the leaders of the families in a hard-fought vendetta. It does strike me that D'arcet's search would be futile - after so long without being stored, the progenoids would have degraded to a useless level. Like any other biological organ, they rot and decay. They only survive if they're stored properly. Not that D'arcet needs them. With the appropriate technology, a chapter could be spawned from one progenoid gland. The Crimson Fists, reduced to 128 marines after their bloodiest crusade, built themselves back up to chapter size. I can understand searching and scavenging for power armour and bolters, but not biological material.

 

Now, the automated robots contravene all Imperial rulings - they're apocryphal technology, controlled by abominable intelligence, and the Imperium would do what it could to destroy it. You've got a really cool idea with the planet out of Imperial contact taking a different route to technology, but the Imperium would destroy them - and I'm not sure they'd sanction the use of the 'thorn lashes' unless they were approved STC constructs. I don't mean to destroy your idea, but I think it might need a slight modification of some kind.

 

Brilliant idea, though, and I look forward to hearing more from this chapter.

[utilityzero]

I also had the urge to go play a little something by Sid when I read this.

 

One thing that I'm unclear on, what is their assigned mission exactly? Discovering worlds that were missed in the Ultima Segmentum? I would expect a chapter with that sort of mission to be more towards the rim than the core and while it's probably not a big deal a chapter of marines doesn't really sit around and wait for Terra to tell them what to do. They are pretty much their own masters.

[Severus6]

This is interesting,...I specifically like the idea that Chapter inspires and uses a revolt to take the planet both out of a sense duty and a desire for vengeance. I agree with the above mentioned statement, that unlees you were able to harvest the geneseed quickly then it would be unusable. As for the robots and some of the other asundry equipment I think you could use but you would have to tone it down. The robots I think could pass if it was a simple non-AI construct. Possibly convert this part of the background and equate it too the AM Knight psuedo-Titans. Just a thought, hope it helps.

 

Severus6

[The Rose Princes]

My friend said that Hard Sci-Fi fans love more detail, and I guess he was right. I figured i was just putting in the important stuff. But, since you want to know more... i have it:

 

The combat robots I envisioned were not really AI, but kind of groups of remote control units. The slaver ones.... I'll just change those to just slavers, nonrobotic; i think i just liked the idea of slaves mining for the metal to build more slave master robots.

 

Ilse-Krohn is the only inhabitable planet in the system, and they are entirely self sufficent... kind of how current Earth is, and while they have space flight, they have not achieved interstellar travel yet, so originally the ore was staying on planet. I was using the food supply for that many slaves as your standard Cyberpunk/post-apocalypic artificially created soil byproduct, as well as The Rose being edible, but definatly not tasty, hence the slaves would probably have to eat that too.

 

The Rose is based on a plant in the Southern United States called Kudzu, and it does actually grow that fast!! My Biology major friend had this idea about geneticly splicing Kudzu with a stem vegetable like asparagas for an endless food supply (she's kind of a going for her Masters degree in Mad Scientist). The idea of an out of control edible plant that spanned the globe kind of "grew" in my mind.

 

During the "Lost" period, i figured that the few left were trying to do what little they could to have the planet run like a normal imprial planet would. Now while the space marines would not be expert Civil Engineers and Political Scientists, they know the basics, which is all the people need; there's also some IG left, and they have a better grasp of humanity than marines do. What I was really going for was taking the harsh, horrific, and ill treated lifestyle of the Imperium of Man, and have a planet whose people were so bad off, that Imperial control was a step up from what they had.

 

As for the location of Ilse-Krohn, I once read a story where The Black Templars were exploring the Ghoul Stars right before they were called to participate in the Third Armageddon, which took place in M41... so I figured by M34 that part of space was not totally fleshed out yet. By now, they probably kept going and are farther into unexplored space.... maybe more Solar North.

 

I figured the Princes role was backing up Imperial Guard Crusades that were having trouble taking the lost planet. Since they don't know who was having trouble until the IG sent a request for assistance back, then Terra sent them out to finish the Crusade. Not sure if that's how they work, but it sounded good to me.

 

D'arcet's quest... I don't read many SM stories, so my normal assaumption was that since Space Marines were all but invulnerable, then their organs probably are too. The main part for this was for the use of the Trait "Purity Above All" as I love the idea of Apothecaries: Field Medics that are on the front line! No M*A*S*H unit here. Maybe I could have them continually collecting the Progenoids since landing on the planet, knowing that things were already bleak. Are the organs that hard to store safely?

 

About the Thorn Lashes comment... what the STC?

 

 

Thank you for the imput, and please... give more. It can only get better.

[Severus6]

"Maybe I could have them continually collecting the Progenoids since landing on the planet, knowing that things were already bleak." Quote from The Rose Princes

 

I think that this would be your best bet when writing your Chapter background. The geneseed would continuously need to be frozen but if you were able to do that then it wouldnt be an issue. Maybe this takes the place of your Standard Bearers or this becomes a sacred duty/position within the Chapter. Granted Apothocaries would generally do that but now you are in crisis mode. You have to maximize the survivability of the precious geneseed and minimize the danger to your Apothocaries. Mmaybe its just me but this scenario you have created just screams to me "Purity Above All".

 

Severus6

[The Rose Princes]

Would it be possible to have the glands be harvested immediatly, and then once the fighting is done, to have the Apothecaries begin implanting them in the valid former slaves, or is that beyond the Apothecaries abilites/training?

[Commissar Molotov]

It's said that with the appropriate storage, a progenoid gland can last almost indefinately. So yes, it's possible that the Apothecaries (assuming they were trained appropriately) could attempt implantation upon the former slaves. However they'd need the equipment to culture the organs from a progenoid gland. It depends what laboratory/medical facilities they could capture from the slavers.

[Severus6]

Ther are a lot of variables introduced when creating a new Marine. Molotov covers most but there are plenty of others; time, proper candidate for the implantation, if something goes wrong,...too many things to worry about if you are fighting a prolonged war with very little equipment. Short answer is, its not a plug and play system.

 

Severus6