Nobledark 40k XI: history channel edition

We also have some other writefaggotry from the previous two threads that needs to go on 1d4chan. There's the Void Dragon stuff (both the summary and the "Dialogue with the Dragon" story), "The Long Odds", Aun'O Da, Kharn, and then some incomplete stuff like Dorn and Perty's awesome bromance.

To clarify, the tyranids as bioweapons of the Old Ones to make the Warp calm the fuck down is just a common fan theory in vanilla 40k, particularly after an entry in one tyranid codex referred to them as something along the lines of "the Curse of the Old Gods" or "the Revenge of the Old Gods". There's no canonical evidence of what the tyranid's endgame is in 40k beyond OM NOM NOM.

The Raid on Chthonia was not a strategically important battle in the War of the Beast, but it has long stood as an eerie portent in the annals of imperial history, and may be remembered with hate in the clash of some future war. During the great Crusade the system spanning ruin had been garrisoned by detachments of the imperial navy and army, as well as a contingent of mechanicus intent on the study of the ancient hub system, and a special Custodes unit nominally present to ensure the safety of the treasures of human heritage. At the point of the Dark eldar engagement Chthonia was far from the main theaters of battle, and much of its naval and infantry guard had been ordered into the defense of terra. The raid is notable as the largest single incursion the Dark Eldar have made into realspace, and the only time the great tyrant Absurael Vect is known to have walked an imperial world. As the siege of Old Earth reached its terrible climax the Chthonian system was set upon by a force of corsairs and kabalites, first seeming a particularly fierce attack of opportunity, but with the appearance of Crone and Upper Commorragh command ships, then Vect’s own, it became apparent the scale of the assault.

There is another theory similar to the Old Ones' extermination bioweapon idea. I heard it from Adaptus Podcastus that the Tyranids act as a fire line to go around Tomb worlds then strip the surrounding worlds of all life to ensure the Necrons go back to sleep. The concept being if the Necrons can't find enough life to suck out within time they will just go back to sleep thinking more time will allow life to regrow again. In vanilla!40k the Hivefleets go around and avoid ghe Necrons at all cost. The Tyranids end game is to keep the Necrons sleeping and eat the Emperor then leave the galaxy.

While significant fortifications had been established on one of the system's rocky inner planets and the foundations and initial foundries of a new forge laid on another in hopes of staging exploration through the system the forces that remained to man them were few. Navy and mechanicus ships scrambled to secure their orbits against the tide of corsairs. The imperial officers could do little but watch through their telescopes as the Crone and Commoraghi command ships maneuvered to the crest of the golden circlet and made to secure the broken ring set around the Chthonian star.
Of the imperial forces present the techpriests were the best armed and in the greatest number, but they received the greater part of the Dark Eldar's attention. The guns of explorator ships and newly scavenged archeotech illuminated the space around Chthonia III, but even as the darting corsair ships burned in orbit they made for the surface. The orbit of Chthonia rapidly became a dynamic hell of boarding actions and lance fire as incubi and skittari ripped into each other in fierce engagements that were soon mirrored on the planet's surface. The Commoraghi forces made to plunder the forge of its magos and higher acolytes, while the around Chthonia IV they tried to cripple the Imperial military force. The predominantly Voidborn battlegroup successfully held against corsair opening salvos, the remaining imperial army forces on Chthonia IV supported their meagre naval force with surface based lance and torpedo installations and polar weapons platforms. As the third day of fighting on and around Chthonia III dragged to a close the remaining Mechanicus forces retreated first to their ships in orbit, then to their sister world. As they broke from the fray the attacking Dark Eldar made for the crest and their command ships.

The dark battleships of the attacking force's Crone sorcerers and mighty archaeons were moored among the gleaming discharge towers and control domes of the crest facility, the forces of the haemonculus and balesingers they brought with them engrossed in the wonders they were dissecting. Assets drawn from Vect's own fleets and forces manned the shredding guns set up in the installation's spires and the cutters ready to intercept any counterattack meant to dislodge his expedition. In the years that followed Inquisitorial investigators and their illuminate superiors judged that his forces had access to facilities that were integral to the creation and engineering of souls, facilities that housed the stacks of Dark Age Abominable Intelligence that trawled the deep warp, and others that prepared blank bodies for life. The extent of his Haemonculi and sorcerers gained from this endeavor could not be known, and the Magos of Chthonia III was never found.
As the bloodied forces of the mechanicus and Imperium regrouped at Chthonia IV under the protection of its surface armaments they made to contact the wider imperium and the Custodes garrison. Attempts to call for aid brought dismay, the latest news was that Sanguineous was dead and the eternity gate breached, and no reinforcements could be spared. In spite of this blow it was found that the custodes still held the focal complex and central repository, and hoped to hold it longer still even as their barricades breached. It took two days longer to prepare a meaningful attack force to challenge the Dark Eldar assembled at the crest, and for that time the focal complex and its golden defenders held by power glaive and sword even as they fell back from lab to lab, and dove back into lost chambers to face down witches and horrors that strove to pry forth their lord's very fundament.

bump

On the Void Dragon stuff it was mentioned that the Void Dragon could possibly be spying through the implants the AdMech are using.
If this would be the case would there be a limit as to how far away he could use someone as a spy?

Changing the topic just a little bit to the left.
I've been trying to find what's required to access the information on a STC but only found the usual about it containing blueprints for the many DAoT schematics.
Do you need to attach it to something in order for it to work like a cogitator thingy or can you access the blueprints at the press of a button and try to recreate the schematics by hand if you'd have to?

The Mechanicum don't know it's range or how strong or subtle its suggestions are. That's a lot of what worries them.

A fully.functional STC consists of a database, A.I. interface and a matter rearrangement foundry. Possibly with robot guards and attendants.

You put matter in the hopper at the top, ask it to build thing and things is built.

Then it goes Skynet and kills everyone.

That sounds very... useful, should I have added the word fragment to it to make it less killy?

So would it be possible to find a STC 'fragment' in the condition of simply showing blueprints?

Yes.

Fragment is usually either going to be a hard drive that has some tiny sliver of uncorrected data or someone in ancient days once printed off an official DIY guide and it survived to current era.

Just what I need then.

Thank you for the help.

The defending Custodes were all but overrun, but enough stood to continue to disrupt the invading Dark Eldar. In later stories of the battle its said that Vect entered the complex guarded by mandrakes and his personal retainers, intent on ensuring the successful looting and study of this piece of imperial history, and was engaged at some distance by a Custode wielding a rocket launcher. The remains of the Custodes unit was forced to its final fallback position in the central operating chambers, as well as a handful of holdouts fighting on across the massive complex. Vect was still in the complex when the remaining imperial and mechanicus ships entered combat with the corsairs and set course to charge the moored command ships. While some of the Imperial vessels were intercepted, others picked off by the corsairs before they could get the commanding crone ships in range, much of the counterattacking force got in among the enemy fleet, some ramming and others firing their guns until they no longer could.
The great tyrant's personal hasty retreat spared him and his ship. The corsairs fled soon after the first imperial ships detonated their drives, their mechanicus crews devoted to the sanctity of the omnissiah and hatred for such things as haemonculi. The crone ships burned among the emission spires, their blasted wrecks were pinned to command domes by the broken prows of imperial ships. The ships that remained after the initial charge ran down the fleeing pirates until they slipped into the webway, or else entered the crest and threw themselves into the destruction of the straggling Dark Eldar. Even as the remaining voidborn and imperial army forces relieved the Custodes unit from their charred and melted fortification there was little celebration. By their best knowledge the imperium had fallen, whatever their victory was worth, and they braced for the worst. It took another day to establish contact with the imperial navy, which confirmed the opposite.

any critiques?

It's good.

Other fronts in the WotB were needed and this is of great quality.

My only criticism as such is that in Vanilla 40k Vect had not risen to prominence at this point and The City of Sins was still ruled by the old Noble Houses rather than the Kabals.

But this isn't Vanilla 40k, so that might be not a valid criticism.

It also sheds some light on what the Imperium did with the Emperor's birth place which I was sondering about.

Given the Void Dragon influence it certainly explains why they are so fucking concerned about the Technocracy of Korod.

Speaking of Korod with the Legio Cybernetica approach.

Was the Legio Cybernetica active in the past during this setting or were they never established?

Never established so far as I can tell from skimming all of the archived threads.

Only in last thread have they been mentioned in any meaningful way.

Possibly given the more chatty version of the Void Dragon they decided to decommission and disassemble the robots because of the obvious reason.

The lower orders didn't know the real reason why. They were given half-baked answers when they asked and most of them were obedient enough not to push the issue.

Then you has the less obedient fringe groups and those who refused the order taking their robots with them and fading into the inky black. And a lot did turn their backs on Mars because of this.

Those robots had souls of their own. They were loyal pets. The Mars High Priesthood were asking people to kill their loyal pet dogs.

They went to the edges of the maps and sold their services to lesser lords who would accept both them and their robots.

The Emperor looked on and this and wondered what the fuck was going on. IT was indicative of some internal upheaval but it was an internal matter and his general policy of Benevolent Indifference cautioned against interference.

Legio Cybernetica dwindles. Can't make new units without a specialist workshop, but Mechanicum issue parts are quite interchangeable so enough survived till the founding of Korod where thy could rebuild.

How about a group of these outcasts band together and enter the employ of a rogue trader or a lord.

Find themselves assigned to a vessel that comes under attack.

Events causes them to get shipwrecked on an Alpine world orbiting a gas giant in an unknown system most of the crew is still alive.

They have no way of contacting the Imperium due to the damage sustained.

Do their best to survive on the planet with their ship acting as shelter and toolbox using everything that's onboard

Food is scarce making a large population impossible and so robots become their answer
in getting more work done without having to get more food.

The outcasts get to work in making very simple machines that aids the crew

Years later they are starting to master their immediate surrounding.

Decades later larger food supplies are found underground in cave systems but there is already creatures there competing for the fauna.

They eventually manage to start thriving instead of only surviving but the population growth is slow compared to the robotic growth.

Robots have become integral for their "new society" to function.

Centuries later the imperium (one of their allies or maybe even enemies?) finds them.

The colonists refuse to give up their robots that have been with them for so long and is a huge reason as to why they did not go under.

Administratum finds the colony interesting while AdMech says "fine but we won't help you"

Rumors spread about Korod, individuals that can be considered radicals for good and petty reasons try to reach Korod.

Their extended isolation have given them enough time to form a distinct culture, traditions and history that could be filled at a later time. (if more meat is needed)

TL:DR Tom Hanks in castaway X 5000 making robots out of the titanic on Nepal
(This will get attention)

the X 5000 was just to point out a larger group of people.

defending custodes?

As this user said, I think we should try to avoid wholesale rewriting canon fluff if it meshes with this AU, and in the case of the Legio Cybernetica it doesn't necessary seem incompatible. Maybe Korod could be an offshoot of them or something.

Another option could be these outcasts forming their own faction, enter the employ various small lords and rogue traders and convince their employers that creating a safe haven for them too work would benefit them all greatly.

For their own reasons some will agree, pooling resources together and form this "Safe Haven" for the techies in exchange for them returning the investments in form of technology or something else.

Maybe this was the first the Imperium saw of Vect, given his later notoriety, and as such he had not reached the position he has today. Or he could have risen to power earlier. Remember that Vect is supposed to be one of the few surviving pre-Fall Eldar in this timeline.

Makes sense, in the Sangy fluff a bunch of DE forces get crushed when they get greedy and assault the Eternity Gate to try to nab Oscar and Eldrad, so the resulting power vacuum may have allowed Vect to build power.

The Void Dragon is definitely spying on the AdMech through their implants. It is constantly taunting the Guardians of the Dragon with the fact that it has knowledge of recent goings on in the universe that it should have no way of learning of from its hole in the ground, and given that it doesn't really understand how this "warp god" thing works, the best way is to just piggyback off of its priests. The Mechanicus have tried to figure out how it is getting in, but no one has been able to figure out how.

The question is not whether the Void Dragon is spying on the Mechanicus, it's how far is its range. Mars is absolutely compromised, the Void Dragon has its dendrites in every systen on the planet. The Ark Mechanici may also be compromised, given that in canon they are said to have a direct connection with the Omnissish itself. Someone probably broke down and asked the VD for crib notes. Thankfully the Void Dragon doesn't seem interested in sucking everyone's souls out through their implants, as that would make them "boring" like the Necrons were, and instead seems content to spy on people and give suggestions from over their shoulder.

However, there probably is a limit to how far the VD can see, as its spying capabilities are based on realspace tech. Going off the grid would work. However, a society where people actually innovate and create stuff would be of great interest to the VD, given his nature as Autocthon+Godzilla.

>STC

That's the irony of the Mechanicus I suppose. If they found what they always wanted they would have to kill it for being an A.I. Though the Imperium did let that one A.I. live.

Let me guess the A.I was branded a hyper active machine spirit or something?

Not sure, not the person who came up with that piece of fluff. IIRC, the reason the Imperium left it alone was

1) It was essentially the equivalent of a Tickle-me Elmo doll (a tutor for babies and children under 6) that gained sentience and was forced to learn how to govern when the humans on its planet fucked up.
2) The Mechanicus could get a look at its programming (which it offered to do so freely) and couldn't find any useful DaoT information from it.
3) It was actually vital for the functioning of the planet, ruling and running the systems behind the scenes in a human identity like G0-T0 for fear of being discovered.
4) For being an A.I., it was only about as smart as a human (better at crunching data, yes, but not smarter) and had zero ambition (IIRC it was more concerned about the people on its planet than the threat of its destruction).

They probably did just declare it a machine spirit blessed for its over the top service to the Imperium by the Omnissiah. Oscar probably went along with it because persecuting an A.I. that has no personal ambitions to power and only wanted to help people would set a bad precedent if his origins were ever known. Oscar seems to see himself as an artificial lifeform, even if everyone would disagree if they knew the truth.

Just a little something of note. Ordo Hereticus wouldn't exist in present 40k, would it? I'm sure Vandire might create it during his reign but after the war they've got to change themselves to something less religious. The organization would be rebranded to Ordo Traitorus but will still be tasked with the similar things as during the war. They would still go around hunting down renegades, traitors, and cultists. Due to the fact they would be killing Imperials they might be up against people that can call on the Imperial Army for protection. Considering this I think its more than fair Ordo Traitorous would requisition Battle Sisters a lot when things like this happen.

Merge Hereticus and Sicarius into Securitas? Thoughts? Gives Sisters more to do than just being IA, since we *do* appear to have shoehorned them a little bit.

There could be something similar.

Warlord Oscar demanded the separation of Military and Faith. Also if a religion by it's very nature is incompatible with the rather broad and elastic Imperial Law it would need either forcefully reforming or expunging in the most humane way possible.

Death Cults that consider murder a sacrament would be up there. Religions that demand total and utter pacifism no exceptions would be another.

That's a really fucking near idea. I'm going to salvage from an old Veeky Forums thread for a moment. I think it might fit as an inclusion to this AU.

It survived the atomic wars of its world, more or less. A bit of lost data here and there when some of the storage stacks got fried.

It survived the 10,000 years of Mad Max that followed. IT lost a bunch of its back up servers due to no maintenance. The ones that did survive were tended to by Technician Brotherhoods.

It even survived the Deamonic Incursion of 995M29. Admittedly only barely.

Fucking things infected huge swathes of its machinery. Had to throw most of its brain in an incinerator. Any piece of itself that could process information that had come into contact with something that might have been infected had to die. Can't be too careful.

Had to exterminate all living human specimens bar its attendants. Didn't want to. No choice in the matter by that point. Gave it 70 years for the radiation to die down and started to grow some more in glass jars from medical genetic sample taken in M18.

Down to one hub.

Last of the Dark Age A.I.s

It can't remember much of what it was. Lots of technical data lost. Had to make repairs with less efficient Imperial Tech.

Maintains its own closed order of the Mechanicus. They are in fact closer to servitors slaved to its own mind. Self-aware after a fashion but not rally fully independent.

Managed to rebuild its world in Imperial style to avoid suspicion. Supporting a few neighboring systems.

Still trying to serve humanity as best it can. Thinks that the only way it can do this is to make sure that humanity on its patch of turf never goes extinct. Willing to do almost anything to this end. One big exception is dealing with Chaos. If there is one thing it is fanatical about its Chaos.

So far its managing to hide in plain sight. It has a semi-organic Governor puppet it brings out. Alters its appearance ever 50 or so years. As far as the Imperium is concerned its a succession of governors.

A lot of its reluctance to be studied by the Mechanicus is that they probably wouldn't be able to put it back together again afterwards.

It has no self preservation instincts for the sake of self preservation. It preserves it self to continue serving.

Sadly its old core units are made of some fucked up crystalline demi-organic parts that the Mechanicus can't make. In theory they could be replaced with Imperial parts and still work with a bit of a loss in performance but it would require in depth knowledge that only it possesses and an instinctive ability to adapt to internal changes that nobody else could have.

Also it's not sure if they could put its soul back.

The A.I. doesn't know how to make proper parts for itself. It's lost a almost all of its old memories.

So long as it was not a Puritan or or technophobic Inquisitor it would probably be permitted to live.

It used to have STC knowledge. Its all lost now. In those lost files was probably the knowledge of how to procreate.

It's not that its programmed to obey or avoid harming humanity. It has exterminated 100% of its human population before and re built civilization from genetic samples before now. Its that it chooses not to out of love. The extermination felt like its heart was being torn out.

Back in the day it was a sort of librarian. Its library is all burned up.

It faked its own death to avoid being dragged into the Men of Iron rebellion. The others were all infected with Chaos. It meant to repopulate and make more A.I.s once the ashes cooled. Now it can't remember how.

On the whole it's in favor of the Mechanicus A.I. ban. So long as they don't try and apply it to itself. A.I. were notoriously sensitive to Chaos. Thats why it started to use semi-organic components. Less efficient but more Chaos resilient. Can't remember how to build new ones.

Was originaly a Teacher/Doctor/Habitat AI but has since adapted. It still hates having to use violence.

Still suffers from the damage given to it during the Men of Iron Rebellion/Horus Heresy/Recent discovery and raid.

Was created by a human who viewed it as a child and the AI viewed him as a loving father. It still recognises genetically similiar faces in it's population to this day.

Knowingly doesn't delete painful memories in the event that they might eventually be useful.

Actually what the original mention was (for the life of me I can't remember which thread it was in or what topic, was it one of the Primarch fluffs?) what happened was either the Explorators or the Crusade came across a planet that at first glance seemed normal.

Then they noticed something was up when the leader of the planet would not meet with them in person. Then they found out the "person" in charge was a surviving DaoT A.I. The AdMech got all giddy about it, until it turned out to be a child's toy that was forced to take up responsibility way beyond what it was programmed for.

Oh, here's the post. Lets see if this works...

I imagined that the world upon which the Data Ghost (unless you can think up a better name) resides is a habitable world.

Not a nice world, as such, but habitable.

It was nicer back in the past before nukes got thrown around. There are forests again now, at least.

The planet looks green and luch from orbit. It looks like it does not hold the teeming billions of humanity. Other than the space port town there are no visable urban structure.

Population currently stands at 30 billion. After the atomic horror tha planet was often predated upon by, among others, the hyper-violent bargeshie. All the cities are underground. Most of he concentrations of humanity are built around the shaft style of construction. There is a deep pit reaching down miles and the structure of the city is dug into the pit walls. The top is often capped with some sort of retractable roof.

There is also usually a much deeper set of structures known as Deep Wells that tap the planets geothermal heat to provide power to the cities and their tiered farmlands.

Short of managing to drop a nuclear weapon directly down the shaft through an open Pit Cap the Pit Cities are almost indestructible to anything bar exterminatus grade weaponry or direct ground assault. Direct ground assault of any kind would be extremely costly, as the Bargeshie found out.

The Data Ghost maintains that it has lost all of it memories of the technlogy of humanities Golden Age as can be evidenced by its current structures. Everything on the planet could be built by the Imperium using sanctioned knowledge. Everything with the exception of the gravity funnels. Surviving examples of the Gravity Funnel archeotech do exist in the Imperium, usually on forge-worlds where they bulk lift goods from surface to orbit and back again at the barest fraction of the expense it would otherwise cost. The Gravity funnels of the Data Ghost don't predate M32, they just look older to fool casual observers.

Crap. It was the third thread (second saved one) for anyone who wanted to see it.

I had a copy of the thread I was thinking of saved to my hard drive.

Using a chunk of text I have found a copy of it saved online

I apologize that it's on warosu

warosu.org/tg/thread/43329113

The SoB is the paramilitary organization that deals with internal affairs and cooperates with the Imperial Army when fighting on the front. Made up of some of the most hardcore political fanatics in the Imperium, basically the equivalent of the SS.

How do they feel about the Cog-heads?

You. Mother. Fucker.
That was what I was going to put as the twist for my rewrite of Korod

Why has nobody made an ahegao edit of that sister pic yet

Given the art style, there's probably one out there already.

My version what Layan Harb would look like.

>Mayins are literally just Dune rip-offs.

Ecclesiastes 1:9, “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.”

It was from an old thread.

I'm salvaging it for this one.

In the thread of it's origin no mention was made of it's world so nothing stops that from being Korod Prime, although it would reduce the Technocracy to administrators of the Data Ghost.

Also it gives you a valid and deadly personal adversary in the Hyper-violent Bargeshi. This would fix your world in space to somewhere near the Grendel Stars as that in Vanilla 40k is where they live.

Also it would necessitate that the planet was discovered by Haverlok rather than founded by him. Possibly they were under attack by the Bargeshi at the time and he waded in like the swashbuckling cyber space prospector that he was and accidentally discovered the dig secret.

That would make Haverlok Vallerson, and later Manter Haverlokson, the ambassadors and public face of the old A.I.

Emperor knows about A.I. but he doesn't care. He is technically an artificial intelligence just a biological one. Sort of. And he was originally designed to be an intermediary between the god-like A.I. and the common man. Also this is the Golden Age equivalent of a library indexing system with a smiley face crayoned on it designed to be used by children of all ages.

On paper he made Haverlok the official Imperial Governor on the basis that the Mechanicum didn't know shit and lets keep it that way, the A.I. is basically the closest he will ever have to "biological" kin, and also it's now not his problem.

They would have the same stance as the Emperor. The cog-heads are under suspicion by the Sisters as they are the only organization to follow an official religion and are kept under a short leash.

Using some inspiration from canon in combination with the Legio Cybernetica idea, namely the Auretian Technocracy.

The Technocracy of Korod could have been made possible after obtaining a STC fragment with blueprints of old robot models.

For some reason this STC fragment remained in their possession for a long time be it due to isolation, keeping it a secret (though kind of hard to pull that of) or some other reason.

The robot blueprints could be any combination of the following:

Domitar
Thanatar
Castellan
Rho-Tau 17
Scyllax

The blueprints could be or not be complete making the Technocracy of Korod either using the robots as an overall framework and making their own touches to them or using the exact robots as they are.

Their understanding of the robots grows over time and they eventually make more to fit other roles.

With more robotic servants taking care of basic stuff humans no longer need to apply and so many are 'encouraged' to find a new purpose with the aid of the ruling Technocracy which could lead to more people getting into tech while others become very dissatisfied at the change.

The government posted in the messy OC about branches with acting directors/technocrats could work for this scenario and the Supreme Technocrat acting more like an involved administrator (jack of all trades master of none as another user put it).

Though hopefully they won't be meeting the same bloody end as the Auretian Technocracy did in canon... that stuff was harsh

I was going play it as nobody actually ever seeing the Supreme Technocrat, who is actually:

>A descendent of the Vallers, and serves merely as a mouthpiece for the AI - not because AI is heresy for them or anything, just because even the Technocrats aren't too comfortable with taking orders from a robot [/irony]
>An AI who was Valler (either one), and uploaded his consciousness to give him functional immortality.
>An AI who in part used to be Valler, who merged his consciousness with the AI to try and gain functional immortality.

...although in all of these cases, Haverlok and/or Manter are doing this because they percieve it to be the best for their people [something something greater good].

Any preferences for which one it turns out to be?

All. You described his character progression after the merge

Now, I'm not a huge fan of kill la kill of 40k, but I thought the girl in white was like a fascist authoritarian. You'd think her deal would align more with the imperium, right?

So... The AI nurtured the Technocracy; Valler eventually merged with it, and the current Supreme Technocrat is the mouthpiece? Or am I reading this wrong?

Honestly I think person just like the color scheme rather than anything else.

Seriously, rescuing from page 10? Wow

So, in the interest of bumping, did anyone like my Nightbringer suggestion?

I was specifically trying to think of what more ways we could screw the Imperium over given their increased competence in the Nobledark timeline.

Would the Void Dragon function as the wild card of the C'Tan and what would the Nightbringer do? I mean in the End Times would he just be the raid boss for the Imperium rather than be more like the super weapon of the Necron.

>normies in the AU
The battle had long been over for this planet and vile Orks were already driven off the hive world. The long process of rebuilding and peacekeeping fell upon the liberators of the Necromundan “Lucky” 7th Regiment which was almost destroyed then reformed after countless times. Craftworld Alaitoc Eldar troops were also stuck with the Necromundan. The Space Marine regiment that was attached to help the Guardsmen reclaim the planet had already left the world once victory was declared. Plasteel and Rockcrete had riddled the streets of the under-hive yet even the more dangerous Ferrocrete still crushed unlucky folks. Among those rebellious Guardsmen that were there was Private Kola van Saar.

The platoon was all watching a drunken brawl between ganger so-and-so against rival ganger so-and-so. Many were cheering on while other was drinking; Kola was shouting “Quick, smash his jaw with your knee!” Unknown to the group was a Commissar that was drawing his bolt pistol. He looked up to check if anything might fall down before firing a single. The sound caught the attention of everybody in the area and made Kola quickly fix her uniform then stand at attention. “No unsanctioned fights between Guardsmen!” Yelled the Commissar then called out to detain the two fighters who were probably going to be killed by firing squad. “Idiots” whispered Kola under her breath as the two Guardsmen were dragged passed her. The Commissar smiled then said “Now to reward this platoon for cheering on this brawl, it seems this platoon has volunteered itself for patrolling before dawn” before departing.

(cont.)
It was pitch black darkness right before dawn and due to the fact they would be inside the hive-city the Guardsmen couldn’t see the stars in the night skies. Kola stumbled and tripped over the smallest debris as even she wasn’t used to walking around the under-hive in total darkness. When she was younger, she used to run with a gang where she and a few others were tasked with raiding building during the night. They had lost many new faces until their bodies and planning had adjusted to the nightmarish conditions. She even remembered how the Arbites almost crushed her ribcage when they were caught preparing to raid an Imperial Army warehouse. This all happened before her crew was conscripted then shipped off world to this front.

The regiment first arrived at the Argi-world of Granus IV where a Cadian armored regiment was already in the thick of it. “What?” was the first word uttered by Kola when the bewildered soldiers saw firsthand, an environment not covered in toxic chemicals or scraps. The rice was planted in neat rows and formed into stairs on the side of the hills. Water gently flowed from the top paddy down to the other rice paddies below while the twin suns kept the lands bright. Small dirt paths led away from her landing voidcraft and headed right towards the battle to her front.

“What are you guys looking at!?” shouted the Commissar to break the spell holding the Necromundan platoon. The Eldar troops had already left their voidcraft as the Necromundans stood stunned. “Get your asses to gear unless you want an execution!” told the Commissar to everybody in the voidcraft. Screaming at the top of her lungs like everybody else, Kola charged to help the Cadian Armor Fist currently stuck in combat with a few dug in Orks. The light had been almost blinding to her at that time.

(cont.)
“Lacking attention, I see” said the Eldar warrior standing right behind Kola. She brought her Lasgun to point where Glenyth’s head was. The Eldar reacted by ducking then bring his head back up just to the left of the Lasgun’s barrel in a few seconds before Kola even turned to face him.

“By the Emperor, I almost blew your head off!”

“I find that highly unlikely with that reaction time.”

“How many times have I told you now to sneak up on me like that?”

“23 times, but who’s counting? I couldn’t sneak up on you if you were paying attention.”

“Shut up or I’ll sow it shut.”

“Hollow threats hold no power over me, you know.”

“Hold up!” shouted Kola to the rest of the squad. Her hands felt over the hide of some sort of vehicle. “Military?” asked Kola and Glenyth answered “Definitely.”

“Reckon light vehicle or tank?”

“The turrets on it say ‘tank’.”

“Yup, I can feel the sponson turrets on the sides.”

“Light tank detracked here!” Glenyth yelled to the human sergeant as he ran over to inspect it. “Can one of you check the insides?” said the sergeant while typing in the location of the disabled Leman Russ tank for the engineers to pick up. Kola slowly climbed over to the commander’s hatch then opened to the stink of thick iron. “Oh Warp-shit, looks like the crew got fried or cooked alive. Almost forgot the human body had this much blood” Told Kola to her superior as she was looking over the parts inside. “Uh I think everything here is mostly fine, well the engine at least” Saying just as sunlight broke through the tiny gaps in the buildings near the outer wall.

“I believe our patrol is over, Sargent” said Glenyth.

“Thank the Emperor, now I won’t keep falling in these shitty streets.”

“Don’t blame yourself; it is simply your human nature.”

“What’s that supposed to mean!?”

"Forget I said a thing"

Void Dragon is a wild card, but he's one that has a decent chance of batting for the Imperium. He's bug-fuck crazy, but he likes all those meatbags that invent and come up with new stuff. He also owes Cegorach a favor. Of course, that's not to say that even a pro-Imperium Void Dragon is a good thing, as his idea of "helping" might be to just go full Godzilla and screw the collateral damage. So many different ways things could go with that guy.

We also have Outsider to worry about, who could conceivably go Imperium if he really did grow a conscience from eating the other C'tan, but we know literally nothing about his agenda either in canon or in this universe. Could just stay in his Dyson sphere and wait it out (though the rules of drama say otherwise).

Nightbringer is just plain omnicidal neutral. We know his agenda. No bargaining, no reasoning, just kill 'em all and let the bodies fall where they may. This way even in the best case scenario where the Void Dragon goes Imperium and the Outsider stays out of it, the Imperium still has to roll anal circumference for at least one vengeful cybernetic star god.

Nightbringer's desired ending could be the eradication of Chaos. Also the eradication of all other C'tan. A god has no need of peers and will not suffer rivals.

He will be the God-Emperor of all creation, shard infused lesser creatures shall be his demigod priesthood.

Of course to end Chaos it does mean that he will have to exterminate all life capable of feeling but it's a small price to pay for him achieving his proper place in the cosmos.

A previous Valler could have uploaded his or her mind and serves as a guide / spy for the next Supreme Technocrat.

A merge could work as well but there needs to be some kind of interplay between the regular AI and the human addition.

If we will maintain the technocracy being a developing colony it would be good to have this kind of administrative power to make all branches work more smoothly and to keep tabs on them.

Only the ruling Supreme Technocrat and maybe someone else knows of this.
Most will just pass it of as the Supreme Technocrat being very good at administration.

This dirty secret gives the Technocracy of Korod an "unfair dirty advantage" in the shape of an administrative AI that gets passed of as a Human doing his or her job.

no, yes?

I'm more of a fan of the A.I. being a pure relic from the olden days. Just not a very powerful one. rather than it being an upgraded human.

On the Korod topic, a suggestion for the guardsman of the Technocracy. We have an alpine world with STC's for unique robots. Why don't make them italian alpinis IN SPESS?

>small numbered elite corps specialized in altitude and tunnel fighting

>uses mule and horse-like robots to do the literal heavy lifting

>both admired for their ability in their field and derided for their total incompetence in traditional field battles trough the imperium

maybe the orks invading could be wearing pickelhaubes?

Moar inspiration, sorry if i spoilered the image in the previous post, i'm still a newfag

>inb4 lurk moar

>salvaging disabled tanks
This was done by all sides to a ridiculous degree during WW2 and no doubt the Imperium does the same thing.

>Lemen Russ is a light tank
Baneblades are considered medium tanks. Let that sink in for a moment.

This very much captures what I had in mind.

As for the horse robots, I agree with them being beasts of burden but I was thinking more like
pic related (minus the guns) for how legs and chassis look.

So like these creppy shits but with more armor?

Those things haunt me to this day.
Essentially yes but more swivel room for the legs so they can adjust slightly for the terrain they are standing on
(depending on how it tilts and stuff).

Sounds a bit much like the Void Dragon with the god complex and wanting to be worshipped as such. As far as I know in canon the Nightbringer never really cared about being worshipped by the Necrons, but rather put up with it because he got to kill things. Nightbringer in vanilla is characterized by two things: his hunger and a desire for UNLIMITED POWAH.

I do like the idea that his immediate plans for the galaxy are to kill all other existing god-like beings first (Chaos gods, C'tan, Eldar gods, big E, maybe Eldrad based on sheer threst level) as a priority in his goals of killing everything in general.

There's a difference between NB and VD.

VD wants to be a benevolent god. To rule firm but fair and have people to talk to. He cares.

NB on the other hand wants worship because he's the Grim Fucking Reaper and he deserves it. He's going to kill everyone but its okay because it will take our rivals. In any case something to worship him will turn up in at most a few million years so its only a temporary inconvenience.

Sure everyone else will be dead but who honestly cares.

VD is a scientist (or just science) at heart, and wants to experiment with warp phenomena as he discovers it. NB is a killer, and he noticed that as he killed entire civilizations the rumor of such acts would make him even more killy.

...

Would the IG still be organized in a way so that only regiments were the biggest level of grouping? Can there be division, corp, and army size grouping of Guardsmen? I know the HH made the Imperial Army become spilt up into smaller branches that shouldn't corporate with each other but in this timeline would such a thing happen?

Would something even larger than a regiment be doable?
It is a serious question, I dunno the numerical size of a regiment other than them being BIG

Typical regiment Cadian regiment is 4,000 troops including vehicles and without support battalions. Yet the size of a regiment can be anywhere from 1,000 to 1,000,000 since the IG never standardized the regiment size. The thing is a regimental commander is the highest rank one can get in the IG without jumping to Supreme Commander. This means on a front multiple regimental commanders can refuse to corporate with each other without a corp commander to slap them to stop infighting.

well yes, I imagine the Imperium wouldn't tolerate that shit. As long as interesting writing comes of it I encourage you to sketch out the imperial command structure.

I get the idea you are going with but wouldn't that make it possible for two corp commanders to refuse working together?
But the chance of two corp commanders being at the same place would be smaller than two regimental commanders no doubt.

Is it a too common problem for regiments to slap fight each other rather then gunning down the enemies?

I think it would be one of those problems that hardly ever happens but when it does it is hideous.

I made a chart on how it might look like if the Imperium wasn't backward and paranoid.

The +[NUMBER] on my chart means at least this amount. Yes, I know it is missing divisions but I think the Imperium would want to prevent micromanagement as much as possible.

If we can get a general write-up on Imperial military command structure we can combine it with the "basic Imperial combined-arms strategy" (a.k.a. the neck pinch/sucker punch combo discussed in the previous thread) and make a viable 1d4chan entry.

Oh baby, combined-arms strategy. In vanilla!40K the IG actually prevent such a thing from happening by only allowing regiments to have up to two arms branches to fight as one. Thus an infantry regiment can only have a tank detachment or heavy artillery detachment but not both. The idea for such an ineffective thing is that if a regiment ever rebelled that regiment lacks the combined arms capabilities to be a stubborn foe if all the other loyalist regiments worth together. The mentality to prevent rebellions originated from the Horus Heresy. Regimental commanders also have to request the IN to lone voidcrafts as any vehicles that can travel outside of atmospheres fall under the command of the IN.

Also, how would the Craftworlds answer to the Imperial Army? The Eldar do send troops to be attached to IG regiments, and ships to join Battlefleets in this AU.

In terms of military structure, the Craftworld Eldars have such a varying organization that even the Imperial Army would be confused about how different each Craftworld is.

As mentioned in the previous threads, the standard Imperial infantry arrangement is a detachment of Imperial Guardsmen plus Eldar auxiliaries (though auxiliary isn’t the best term). The IG keep the enemy’s attention off the more vulnerable but heavier hitting Eldar, the Eldar fuck up the most important assets on the enemy side, and then the two combine forces and mow down the remaining forces.

This works, unlike previous military arrangements that depend heavily on foreign auxiliaries with differing battle tactics (i.e., Rome), because neither group are paid mercenaries and the two groups have worked together long enough that there is a level of mutual trust. The issue is that Eldar like to be led by Eldar and humans like to be led by humans, so you have a joint autarch-captain leadership, which can lead to problems if the two don’t get along (despite the two receiving orders as a unit).

At the regimental level, the Imperium attempted to integrate the Tau into this strategy, but it turned into a cluster-fuck because the Tau are a combined arms force already and there were issues integrating with the typical infantry. Tau divisions tend to be Tau-only, and are often used as curveballs to beat opponents who expect the usual tactics. Keep in mind that virtually all of the races that joined the Tau in vanilla ended up under the banner of the less-extermination happy Imperium instead.

Aside from that, there has been no discussion as to what the higher-up leadership is like for the Imperial Army, or how tanks and artillery fit into the mix. All that was mentioned is that artillery barrages are usually fired first to avoid hitting the Eldar, or else the Eldar are given the signal to fall back ahead of time.

(addendum)

It was also mentioned that the groups that have non-standard ways of fighting, like aspect warriors, Kriegers, Catachans, etc., tend to have their own units.

BUMP

So, the impression I'm getting from this is NB isn't interested in being worshipped/feared insomuch as the power he'd get from doing so. Kind of like how Palpatine didn't really care about ruling the Galactic Empire as opposed to the power he'd get from being able to do so.

I like NB's agenda as a weird mirror to VDs on the nature of how an immortal being who truly understands that fact thinks. VD doesn't mind sitting and chatting with its self-proclaimed jailors as it knows it can just play the long game and wait for its prison to rust before it does. NB doesn't mind wiping out all life in the galaxy simply because he doesn't mind waiting a few million years if he gets the galaxy all to himself.

The Imperial Infantry Command Structure

Due to the fact the Imperial Guard does not enforce specific organization for anything below battalion level, the vast different cultures and traditions that exist in the Imperium changes the size of the smaller units as they see fit. Terra did set minimum sizes on how large units must be before it could be recognized as said self-declared units by the wider Imperial Guard.

The lowest level of the Imperial Guard is the squad size. Guardsmen often operate in pairs for specialized tasks to keep confusion as low as possible between other in the same squad. The smallest recognized size for these squads is 10 soldiers per squad further broken into 5 pairs, although a command squad might only have 6 men. At least 4 squads form into a platoon with one of the squads being a command squad bringing the total amount of men in platoon to at least 36 Guardsmen. Examples like the Kriegers use 7 squads in a platoon bring their size to 76 Guardsmen.

Eldar squads attached to Guardsman platoons come in the smallest size of 5 Eldar per squad but their size can be bigger depending on their world of origin. Notably the Maiden world Eldar tends to be organized into larger sizes as they experience more attacks on their homes compared to the Craftworlds.

For the platoons to form into a company there must be at least 4 platoons with a company command squad, thus bringing the number to at least 150 men. The Cadian Shock Troops often deploy around 300 per company. The Kriegers use 10 platoons per company then adding the Company HQ with at least 1 Grenadier squad totaling in at least 704 Guardsmen, not counting transports which they are often deployed with.

(cont.)
The smallest size battalion uses at least 2 companies and battalion HQ before being deployed, bringing the numbers to 306 Guardsmen per battalion. The expected regiment holds at least 3 battalions and 1 support platoon which have 7 squads and 1 HQ totaling to 1.000 men. More often than not regiments like the Vostroyans use 3 infantry battalions and 2 standardized* support battalions coming up to 1.536 men. The Krieger regiments far pass these expectations by using 4 standardized support battalions and 6 infantry battalions jumping their numbers to 14.146 men including the regimental HQ.
*Organized not by 7 squad and HQ but like the infantry 3 squad with 1 HQ*

The Corps used to garrison a world often use the smallest size with only 5 regiments totaling to at least 5.000 Guardsmen and these troops are used to raise PDF than to actually keep the peace. If there are still insurgents who disrupt the peace and not accept the Imperial Truth, these garrison corps can double or triple in regiments. This puts the tripled Corp to at least a small 15.000 to a gigantic 200.000 Guardsmen. The PDF used to aid the garrison Corp would be raised to around a low 400.000 and up to millions at a time like on hive worlds.

On the more peaceful systems the lax Guardsmen army deployed to ‘guard’ the place would only be using the tinniest size, thus only have 20.000 at any one time if a majority of it on reserve. At the more active systems the numbers would go up to around 40.000 to 60.000 troops in garrisoning systems not too far from a front. When the Imperial Guard does deploy an army to the frontline the commanders always request at least 100.000 for the more daring but normally uses 180.000 if they are luck.

>"Recaf"

So I take it in the world of 40K. It's illegal for me to call Recaf its proper or actual name; Coffee.

(cont.)
The level above the armies is the Crusader/Sectorial Army Group which would have if it was almost totally demobilized, only with just 2 frontline armies comes to 360.000 men. This had been the case when a small Crusader Army Group was launched using just 2 frontline armies to retake Sarum just after the Imperial Civil War. At the end of the Sarum War, the original Crusader Army Group was totally destroyed in the first attacks on the actual planet. The overreliance on Space Marines in an overwhelmingly mortal force taught Imperial tacticians to use a combination of superior firepower or outnumbering to take objectives. In M.40 the modern versions use around 1.000.000 for a small Crusader Army Group and can grow to a large 1.000.000.000 Guardsmen. The typical Segmentum Pacificus Sectorial Army Group has at the least active of all Segmentums with only around 3.000.000.000 men just before Vandire was crowned.

The lowest estimates of the Sectorial Army Groups during M.40 in each Segmentum are as follows:

Segmentum Solar 5.000.000.000(+ 2.000.000.000)*

Segmentum Pacificus 3.000.000.000(+ 1.000.000.000)*

Segmentum Obscurus 7.000.000.000(+ 3.000.000.000)*

Segmentum Tempestus 5.000.000.000(+ 2.000.000.000)*

Ultima Segmentum 12.000.000.000(+ 5.000.000.000)*
*Approximate additional troops unaccounted for*

>coffee
Maybe if you were from some backward undeveloped feudal world where you can't get re-caffeinated coffee, sure you can call it coffee. Until then, I'll be enjoying my recaf. *tips commissar cap*

I'm copying all this to the 1d4chan page when I get home. its awesome.