Unfortunately for various reasons we never finished the campaign, so I'll never know how my narrative would have concluded, however I thought I would share what I had written mainly as a keep sake for myself but also as a possible inspiration for anyone else who is taking part in a narrative campaign.
Anyway here it is. I hope you enjoy it.
THE CRUSADE OF FIRE
EPISODE 1
THE RACE TO THE CORVUS SUBSECTOR
Since the orders went out from Holy Terra for Imperial
Forces to reclaim the Corvus Subsector the race was on to be the first to the
system. Intelligence suggested several
Xeno factions rapidly approaching the area and even the Inquisition had sent
out warnings of unusual Chaos activity near the region. Since the warp storm had past it was
imperative that the Imperium got to the sector first and established a strong
foothold.
Chapter Master Dante of the Blood Angels chapter had heard
the call and ordered Librarian Lucious Herrick to lead a small strike force to
the sector to join up with their fellow Space Marine brothers as part of t the
Crusade of Fire being organised to reclaim the region in the name of The
Emperor. This would be a testing time
for the Lucius as this would be his first command and the stakes were
high. Some of the chapters more
experienced commanders had questioned the decision to send such an
inexperienced person on such an important mission but as the decision had come
from Chapter Master Dante himself few openly challenged it.
Now on board the defender class cruiser The Heisenberg, and
on route to the Corvus Subsector Lucious had time to plan his strategy. He knew
it wouldn’t be long before they will make their rendezvous with their fellow
brothers and he must be ready. Any doubt
that this commander had in his abilities much be put aside as now was the time
to prove himself.
THE SEED OF DOUBT
Unbeknown to Lucious Herrick, Captain Karlaen of the first
company had a watchful eye onboard the Heisenberg in the form of Brother
Sergeant Angelus. Shortly before leaving
Baal the Captain had asked the Sergeant, who’s terminator squad had been
selected as part of Strike Force Prometheus to report back to him on the
preparations of the campaign. Karlaen
was one of the few commanders who had openly spoken out about the decision to
have Lucius lead the Strike Force and since his success during the Shield of
Baal campaign Karlaen had earned the reputation for discipline and strategy, so
his concerns about Lucious carried weight.
This had worried Chapter Master Dante so in an effort to
appease his Captain he asked him to secretly shadow Lucious Herricks task force
and be on a constant state of readiness to intervene and take command of the
campaign should the need arise. Dante knew that this decision could anger
Lucious should he ever find out, but he hoped that Karlaen’s concerns would be
misplaced...
"Persephone Jordan was a well respected member of House Lionstar. Being the daughter of Governor Sigmund Jordan
she was in a privileged position to become one of the only female Nobles on her
home planet of Oa. Despite her
privileged position it was her reputation on the field of battle that had
earned her the respect she had among her fellow Nobles. She had piloted her Paladin Knight, The
Lantern in many successful missions against numerous Xeno threats defending her
people over and over again which had earned her the command of Oa’s defence
force in recent years when it had come
under frequent attack from the Necrons, who seemed determined to invade the
planet . So it came as a big shock when
Persephone announced shortly after the final battle on of Oa that she would be
leaving to become a Freeblade Knight. As
soon as the dust had settled she quickly departed Oa and was last reported to
be heading towards the Blood Angels home world of Baal. Whichever motivation spurred Persephone to
leave Oa is known only to her and only time will reveal the part she has yet to
play in the Crusade of Fire..."
THE JOURNEY INTO
UNCERTAINTY
As the Heisenburg made its way to the Corvus subsector Task
Force Prometheus’s Commander, Librarian Lucious Herrick sat alone in his
chambers. His thoughts focused on what
awaited him in the sector and flowed through his head as he meditated in a
psyonic state that let the warp wash over him. As the crusade had been assembled at such a
rapid pace there hadn’t been time to send out scout ships to reconnaissance the
area before they left. The system was
mostly a mystery to him but Lucious had become aware that as they drew closer
to it a force was calling out to him.
This force was primeval, powerful and tantalising in nature and Lucious
earned to seek out its presence.
His meditation was suddenly interrupted as he sensed the
presence of his trusted friend, Brother Emerick approaching his chambers door.
Lucious brought himself out of his trance and awaited his friend’s arrival, which
would be in only a matter of seconds. The
chamber door hissed open and Emerick entered the room with a look of concern
upon his face. “Welcome my brother” said Lucious. “What brings you to my chambers at this hour?”
Emerick hesitated as if to assess the mood of his friend and commander. “I... I come with worrying news brother”
Emerick said. “One of the Comms Officers
detected an encoded data broadcast hidden among our last progress report to
Baal.
The broadcast has been encrypted
using a high level Imperial code”.
Lucious didn’t look concerned.
This troubled Emerick as this wasn’t the reaction he had expected. “I am aware of the broadcast my brother.”
Lucious said. “It came from Sergeant Angelus. He’s been sending reports of our progress to
Captain Karlaen of the First Company.
Captain Karlaen fears that I am too inexperienced to be leading this
mission and feels that a more senior commander should have been selected”
Lucious continued “But it is of no concern to me. I will prove myself to him and earn his
respect”. “How could you possibly know
this?” asked Emerick. “It is of no
matter” snapped Lucious. “Allow Sergeant
Angelus to continue to send his transmissions undetected.” “As you wish” said Emerick. “But I must say
that this is most... troubling. It is
not the place of a Sergeant to be spying on his Commander”. “You have my answer” said Lucious “Think no more
of Angelus’ actions. Leave him to
me.” Emerick nodded and was about to leave
when he remembered something else he needed to say to his commander. “There was one more thing... the Nobel we
have on board. She wishes to speak to
you”...
"Lucious Herrick is a young and gifted Librarian whose powers have yet
to be fully explored. Even before he was
recruited to the Libarius it was clear that he had a natural talent in
mastering the powers of the warp. Being
from Baal it was a foregone conclusion that Lucious would one day end up among
the ranks of his brothers in the Blood Angels chapter. When he returned from his training he was
keen to prove himself in battle.
Although he joined a few campaigns Lucious has yet to see any large-scale
action. Now that he has been handed this
important mission he is keen to prove his worth."
THE CRUSDADE
UNITES
The Corvus sector was now only a few weeks away and Fleet
Command had sent final confirmation of the allied forces that would rendezvous
with the Heisenberg to form the Crusade of Fire. Two fellow Space Marine chapters had answered
the call, The Imperial Fists and the Space Wolves along with a detachment of Astra
Militarum, Lucious was glad of these allies.
The Imperial Fists had a fierce and well earned reputation as masters of
siege warfare whilst the Space Wolves were like a legion of Death Company,
fierce and feral in close combat. The Astra
Militaurm, although not as physically strong as an Astrates would add much
needed firepower to the force. If any Xenos,
or the traitor legions of Chaos dared to interfere with their claim of this
sector they would be met with a strong and unforgiving response.
SABOTAGE ABOARD THE
HEISENBERG
A sudden alarm awoke Brother Emerick in his quarters. He reached for the comm panel on his wall and
patched in a line to the bridge. “This
is Emerick report” there was a pause then one of the bridge crew replied, with panic
in her voice. “This is Ensign Ro, Sir...
the ship has come under some form of cyber-attack. We’ve managed to isolate the central core just
in time but some of the ships systems have been seriously affected.” “Which systems?” asked Emerick. “Waste Recyc, Missile targeting, Long rang
sensors and Drop Pod control.” Emerick paused before he replied “Does the
Commander know?” “Yes sir he’s on the
bridge now. We’re trying to purge the
systems so that we can regain control.”
This news wasn’t good. A cyber-attack
onboard an Imperial ship was vertically unheard of. Either they had a saboteur on board or it was
a Xeno attack. It had been reported that
both the Necrons, Dark Mechanicum and Tau had attempted to use cyber-attacks on
their enemies before, but so far scans hadn’t detected any of these treats on
the system. What was worrying was the loss of the Drop pods, as this could be
problematic for the campaign., Emerick needed to know more about the current
situation. “What exactly is wrong with
the Pods?” he asked. Instantly there was
a response, “It’s the boarding system sir.
As you know when the pods aren’t in use they are stored in a sealed
position to prevent damage and unauthorised access. When the cyber-attack hit it wiped the locking
commands clean from the system, which means all of the pods are sealed shut! We’ve got an engineering team looking at the
situation now Sir but it’s not looking good.
The manual overrides aren’t responding and we can’t cut into the pods
without damaging them.” “What about the Stormravens? Tell me that we at least
have them.” “Yes sir, fortunately we
were able to isolate the virus before it hit the flight deck control systems.
Emerick briefly considered contacting the rest of the allied
fleet to see if he could secure some pods until theirs were back online, but
his pride knew that this would be a sign of weakness among his fellow Astrates,
so he quickly dropped that though. All
he could do was hope that the Drop pod situation would be fixed soon, as in 10 hours’
time they would be making their first strike on the Corvus System!
EPISODE 2
THE DAWN OF WAR
THE INVASION BEGINS
The Crusade of Fire has entered the Corvus subsector, but as
they completed their journey they came to realise that they were not the first
to arrive. Corvus had attracted people
to it’s systems like a moth to a flame.
Initial scans had revealed multiple xeno and traitor threats in the
system, some of which seem to be forming into warbands. Orks, Tau, Eldar and Necrons working
together, and that’s not to mention the Chaos and traitor forces. As the various commanders of the Imperial Fleet
met to discuss their strategies Kill Teams were sent to secure vital locations
that would pave the way for future assaults.
The Xeno coalitions had already sent landing parties of
their own to secure key planets within the system. In order to establish a strong foothold on
which to launch their attacks the Imperium needed to deal with these threats in
one swift, sharp blow.
The war of Corvus had begun...
THE BROTHERS OF BAAL
STRIKE!
The Blood Angels got lucky, and Captain Karlaen knew
it. The engineering teams had worked
non-stop to get the drop pods working and minutes before they emerged from the
warp they had cleared the xeno virus from the ships systems and got the
controls back online. Although the cause
of the cyber attack was still unknown Karlaen had not been impressed with
Herricks handling of the situation and had made his presence known to him. He decided to take control of the Strike
Force, as he would not allow the actions of the inexperienced Librarian to
cause this crusade to fail before it even started.
Karlaen quickly deployed attack forces to secure the space
port on Corvus Prime as well as other key locations. This had brought them unwanted attention from
the enemy coalitions. Although he had been relieved of command of the Strike
Force Chief Librarian Herrick was given command of one of the smaller attack
forces that would be sent to secure a territory on one of Corvus’ moons. As he boarded his Stormraven he knew all too
well that his ability to command this attack force would be judged. Only success would be acceptable as to fail
now would be unthinkable.
The territory they were heading for was being controlled by
a traitor legion of Imperial Guard. How
he hated them for turning their backs on the Emperor. He would show no mercy to these traitors and
he had instructed everyone in his force to do the same. As the Stormraven broke atmosphere he braced
himself ready to deploy as soon as they hit the ground. War was finally upon them and this would be a
glorious battle!
And that's it. that as far as we got in the campaign so the story was never finished. Would the forces of the imperium have won? would we have found out what was so special about the Corvus Sub Sector? So many questions and no ansewers (Much like a Stephen Moffatt script for Sherlock)
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