NationStates Jolt Archive

It was one of the four mighty pillars which upheld Travellia. The battleplate was not a ship often seen, but, when it was, it struck awe into the hearts of those who saw it. Now, it was in high orbit, around Tharaminis VII. A gas giant. The reason for this was really quite simple. Although the majority of the ship's combat systems ran on matter-annihilation plants, many amenities and the like were fueled by fusion plants. The battleplate would launch a large series of "nets", and catch massive amounts of fusionable material from the gas giant.

Simple enough. Of course, what the Incandescence had not counted on, was the arrival of Khaberi Missanian.

Her tiny ship docked with the Incandescence - technically, she was still the commanding officer. This technicality was to make for some immense difficulties in the battle to come..

A battleplate was not a mere warship. Most warships, in the older days of the Realm, were precisely that. Warships. While a functioning community of men and women were aboard, they were all trained professionals, all capable of operating most parts of the ship in times of trouble. When ships measured in hundreds of metres, the navigator could fix weapons, the captain had some engineering training.

A battleplate was more akin to a small nation. Only the very core of the 'plate was living space, but, at ridiculously full complement, a battleplate could carry close to twenty-five million crewmen. Of course, this required clearing out a lot of unused cargo-bays, but the point remained. These things were big. Khaberi estimated that, if she removed some of the less useful systems - the large amounts of empty space in some quarters, for instance, she could fit perhaps forty times as many. It would come at a cost, but a battleplate was more than capable of housing a nation in itself.

Which, of course, was precisely what the Incandescence was to become. At present, some eighty thousand Loriieans were aboard the ship. Most of them were loyal to the Republic. For now. She stepped off the ship, quietly eying down the Travellian guards sent to escort her. To the brig, presumably. The AI did not trust her.

Before anything could happen, though, she spoke. "Incandescence, AI 4516-JX28, code darkest of obligations, your ship, communication, and 'net functions are revoked. Sub all functions to Loriiean operators."

The Realm soldiers holding her were confused, now. She smiled.

"Do be a dear, and get the door for me, won't you?"

The first men grabbed his gun with a look of anger on his face. He had figured out what had happened. She had shut the onboard AI, Incandescence, down, and, with it, the vast neural networks that encompassed the Realm no longer reached this ship.

Before he could get it out, however, he was lying dead, in a bloody mess on the floor. The curved blade she had been keeping behind her had apparently gone unnoticed, or at least disregarded. Most swords would be incapable of cutting through Realm body-armour. This one, however, was different.

The second man collapsed as well, and Khaberi smiled. She gestured, and ten men filed obediently out from the ship behind her. "Now. We will reach the control room. There, we will cut off Section 7-B from the remainder of the ship. Eighteen thousand of the fifty thousand Travellians reside there, and control the armoury, as well. For now, nobody knows what has happened. However, the lack of information from a battleplate will certainly attract the Realm's attention. Since we're at an outlying world, we'll have perhaps eighteen hours to pull this coup off. I have an AI prepared to upload to the battleplate, although we'll need to grow a proper one before we can make the Incandescence combat-worthy. Ahial, you take four men, and move to the gravitics secondary control centre. There, you'll activate ship grid defenses, and try and get them to activate against Travellians. I will be starting this insurrection."

The man on the floor gurgled. She grinned. "Leave him there, by the way."

"Ma'am, they can-"

"Regenerate. Oh, yes."

Her smile became vapid, and her sword tore through his neck.

The AI was down. That was the overriding concern of everyone aboard. Suddenly, the neural networks which interlinked every single individual aboard - at least those from Travellia, were no longer there. Whilst Travellians were fearsome warriors when linked, they milled around aimlessly when not. Geneered to have sub-par IQ, and great capacity for violence, they were not designed to be without neural links.

As it was, Khaberi's next statement would give them cause for action. Entering the control room easily enough - for many still thought of her as their commanding officer, she and her five moved towards the shipwide transmitter. Mostly Loriieans in here. Good.

She hit a key. A man looked at her, quizzically.

"Fellow Loriieans. We have been betrayed. Our world was reduced to ashes. No Republican sought to defend it. Our people reduced to this ship. None have sought to revive us. We have been forbidden our revenge, by those who gave us cause for revenge. The Dratherians are now considered our allies."

She spat.

"Therefore, in the name of Loriiea, I am taking command of this ship. This battleplate will be ours. To those of us who understand me - clear off this ship! Sweep away the dregs that prevent us from having what is rightfully ours! To those who do not, you will be annihilated, along with the rest."

At the last word, the chaos began.

At first, Loriieans did not seek to fight. Few of them, at least. Travellians, however, had been misled, as Khaberi had planned. While unsupported by AI, they were still fearsome warriors. For now. There was a second AI - one that would be uploaded into the system. Not Republican of make, but powerful enough to seize the systems of the battleplate, and then obey her order.

As the Travellians attacked, the Loriieans had no choice but to fight back. A man looked at her - a Loriiean, and spoke. "What have you done, you vile bitch? Why? Why would you-"

Faster than the eye could see, she blurred into action. Fingers tore through sweet throat-flesh, and the man's last words bubbled through his blood.

"Nothing. I have done nothing that the Gods have not commanded me to do."

Laughter trickled through hallways, around doors, seeping into the ears of those who still could hear. Mad laughter. The battle for the ship had not been a battle, per se. It had been a slaughter. Imagine, if you will, the best-armed soldier in existence. Weapons capable of melting through megatonnes of solid steel, armour that could deflect blasts a hundred times greater than the former.

Now rip out his eyes. He cannot see. What is he now? He is blind, incapable of aiming. Incapable of fighting, truly. This was the situation of the Travellian soldiers aboard the ship. The finest fighting force the sector had known for some time reverted to animalistic attacks, brilliant tactical minds replaced by raw cunning and initiative, against an enemy who had every sensor on the ship on their side.

The Loriieans never even needed the gravitics. Khaberi stood on the bridge, looking at the situation on a thousand monitors, smily grimly. Automated turrets and armoured units had been enough - once the Loriieans had been attacked, they had fought back. Less than ten thousand of them had died. Seventy thousand, or so, remained. More than enough to repopulate.

The ship's new AI - Slave, she called it. Such a fitting name. If they saw it, the Travellians would be horrified. She didn't like AI. They irritated her. This one, however, suited her just fine. It had been lobotomised - more than once.

"Slave. Situation."

"Mistress, there is a single Realm scout frigate approaching our location. They are requesting information. What are your orders?"

"Remove it."

The frigate approached, and, as it did so, gravities surpassing that of a thousand suns coalesced upon it. Its structure unable to contain the attack, or even detect more than a microsecond before it happened, the tiny ship collapsed.

"Now. Return us to Chronosia."

"Mistress, we have not yet finished refueling. Fusionable supplies are at-"

"My, my. I thought we neutered you, Slave. We have sufficient antimatter, and we can resupply fusionables at my whim. There are gas giants enough in the territory that is ours. Now, lay a smokescreen, and remove us from the area. If the Aristedes decides to hunt us down - we have seventy thousand barely-trained crew, and an AI too stupid to obey my orders."

The computer whirred. Eighteen point two million antimatter mines slipped out of the battleplate, covering their trail rather well. By the time any ship cleaned them up, their jump would be untraceable. Or, at least, so she hoped.

The ship quivered, and ceased to exist in that portion of the universe.

Within a few hours, it reappeared - precisely where Khaberi's first ship had entered the Chronosian Imperium. This time, however, she was to make a more.. impressive entrance.

(OOC: Okay, Chron. Chaos-readied battleplate. This, I think, is where you need to make a response. Or summat.)

OOC: Bump. I gotta catch you online sometime, Chron, so I can linky you to this.

OOC: Shump. You do want a Chaos-dedicated battleplate, don't you, old son?

OOC: Apologies, I've got my final year thesis due in in two days, so my NS time is severely limited...I will return soon, more powerful than you can possibly imagine!

Shbump, Chron-o-tron!

Heh heh heh.

Subversive, clandestine bump.

Heh heh.

A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-AWESOME BUMP-BUMp-BUmp-Bump-bump

Cause Chrono is awesome.

"The cloning tanks, milady, are prepared."

"Excellent. This battleplate must eventually hold a nation. I will see Loriiea reborn within it."

"And, Khaberi.."

"Yes, old friend?"

She was talking to a once Pro-Consul of Loriiea, once administrator of their entire nation. In his mind, he had spent much time steeling his nerve, attempting to confront her about the strange happenings aboard this ship. The sacrifices. The skulls, arranged in.. pyramids, caked with dried blood. No attempt to clean them up, but, instead, mysterious robed cultists coming to pray and mutter at them.

Why they were in Chronosia. What she was doing to them. So many questions. In a moment of courage, he found the will to ask her about this. He looked into her eyes-

They had once been blue, blue as the sea, and conveyed only tranquility. Now, while they were still blue, the colour was corrupted with glimmers of red and black, tiny black flecks tracing their way across her eyes on occasion.

He whimpered, and ran out of the bridge.

Khaberi laughed. "It is so simple, now. Why were we never told of the glories that awaited us? My friends, we have heard the Chronosians called liar by many, yet the only defense they offer is fact, instead of empty words, they offer the benediction of their Gods."

The bridge was hallowed, now, a shrine to Khorne, in Khaberi's mind, greatest among the Four Gods. For it was from the bridge the greatest of slaughters would be directed. In other areas of the ship, pleasure-domes had been converted into temples of Slaanesh, the genetic engineering labs brought to the service of Nurgle. And, the jump drive that was once the ship's heart was to be torn out, and replaced with astropaths, psykers, those capable of navigating the Warp. Those dedicated to Tzeentch.

She did not love the other three Gods. They were useful, true, and they warranted her genuflection, but little more. Tzeentch would bring a change in the fortunes of the Imperium, perhaps, perhaps Slaanesh would tempt them from their warring so that they could be brought down. Nurgle, even, could curse them with plagues as so to weaken them.

Yet it was Khorne who would aid her in her revenge. On the bridge, few who did not serve Khorne were allowed, though not all Loriieans knew it yet. Many were converted in the night, and the new clones were to be educated in the ways of Chaos, and given no chance to be tempted from the true ways.

Should I bow?

The question was a pertinent one. Now, she had a battleplate. A fortune of industrial and geneering power, with military might sufficient to reduce planets to rubble. Was it truly necessary to bow to the Chronosians, despite their favour with the Gods?

It would depend on who was sent to gain their submission.

The universe rent itself asunder in a burst of fire and fury, as the Incendiary Logic tore into real-space, dwarfed by the might of the immense Battleplate. Gabriel had deemed it wiser to leave his flagship at home and to arrive in a lesser vessel, though no less efficient. She was an old warship, a Battlecruiser forged in the fires of Hydran, sent forth to spread the word of the Gods to every corner of space. In his interactions with these Loriieans he felt as though he had performed well, bringing such a power to the revelation of the Gods. The Dratherians had acted rashly, they had embraced the beauty of Khornate thunder. How fitting then that those they had so wronged be armed in turn, their eyes opened to the power the Warp offered, and the possibilities that would follow.

"Magnificent, is it not?" Gabriel breathed, examining the form and function of the immense weapon. "A weapon that holds a nation, a ship-state that harkens towards the future. It will see the galaxy burn, it will see our enemies laid low. A wonderous thing. A cosmos changing thing."

"Aye." The voice came from Ecanus, most trusted of the Primarch, his First Chaplain, Master of the Faith, Bearer of the Word of Chaos. "She performed well to bring it down with what little she possessed. Truly the Gods favor this one."

"Then let us meet her. Let us congratulate our sister on her victory; and the victories to come."

Hail to thee, Khaberi. I see that you were successful in your endeavor. Doubtlessly the Gods blessed you in your undertaking. Might I be permitted aboard your wonderous vessel, that we might turn our thoughts towards the future? That we might...Seal our compact, and ensure the renewal of your most direly wronged people?

Aurelius returned to the bridge, fire in his eyes. The fire of righteousness, no doubt.

"Khaberi, the Chronosians are hailing us! Asking us to.. seal a compact."

"Oh, I know. I instigated it."

"You-"

"Yes?", she asked sweetly. But this time, the fear did not overwhelm him.

"You are betraying us all. To Chaos, no less! Why? Revenge is a fine thing, but I will not hold with corruption!"

"Oh. Aurelius. Did I forget to mention that you have no choice in the matter? I was rather hoping you could be converted. The Slaaneshi pleasure-domes are luxuriant, and for your support, you could spend days in them. Weeks, if you wanted."

He spat. "I was not bribed before the fall of our people. I will not be bribed afterwards."

Khaberi clicked her fingers. "Pity. When the most honorable fall, they become the finest. At least, that is what I am taught."

She laughed, and two guards grabbed Aurelius. "Take him away. Before he is killed, take extensive samplings of his DNA. We will be making new clones from his mold. They will enjoy the pleasure-domes. They will have no choice in the matter."

Aurelius glared at her. "And I am to die? Like all those left who know what is right?"

"Oh, don't be so ridiculous, old friend. Slaanesh is not the lord of pleasure. He is the lord of excess. I am sure the few acolytes I have will be truly grateful to see just how far they can push you into madness, before they let you die."

He shivered, and she smiled, and then corrected herself.

"If they let you die."

With that, he was dragged off the bridge. Khaberi ran her fingers along the pommel of her sword. She would see whether Gabriel was worthy of her devotion.

Of course, my lord. Come aboard at your first convenience.

A thunderhawk gunship crossed the void, bringing forth that lord of dark knowledge, he praised as Master of the Faith on countless worlds, the voices of millions raised in praise, begging for his blessing and his sermon. The ancient litanies of hate and subjugation glimmered on his intricately carved armor, each one aglow with the divine fire of the Warp. He was Gabriel De Drakan, beloved of the Undivided Chaos. He smiled lightly, closing his eyes as the vessel seared across space towards the great Battleplate. The Incandescence, a fitting title for a chariot of the enlightened, ablaze with divine knowledge and fury.

Squatting on it's hydraulic legs, the Thunderhawk settled within the landing bay, armored warriors of the Astartes stepping out in perfect time and order, forming an honor guard as their Lord moved among them, his Crozius clasped in one great hand. It was far greater than those of his Dark Apostles, more ornate, aglow with power and whispering madness.

"So, shall we begin?" He let his voice rise, echoing about the landing bay as he glanced from face to face. "Are you willing to stand by us as battle-brothers? To pledge yourselves to vengeance and the furtherance of the grand and singular destiny?"

Khaberi felt herself diminished. They had met, yet never like this. She had known power, but little enough that it seemed inconsequential in light of what she faced now. She shivered.

Yet the voice emboldened her.

Why not take him? Slay him, let his puissance magnify your own. You could claim his power as your RIGHT. Why serve, when you could rule?

She grasped the hilt of her sword more firmly. The runes etched on there flared with power, in response to the crozius, as if it, too, felt the tension. Drawing her sword, she spoke.

"I am of, course, so pledged. Yet only strength may command strength. There is, then, one last thing I must know."

With that, she lunged, sword-in-hand, whispers of madness tracing their way through her thoughts.