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by NoPoet

[20K] Legacy of the Future

07/04/2013 in 20K

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++ EARTHWATCH TOP SECRET ++

Author: Albert Lamm
Location: ++ Location denied ++
Transmission Time: 023987/M21
Received: Saturn, Relay point 5

Sir,

I reluctantly bring another unsettling report from an Earth expedition. The DMS Barclay, a decommissioned Canyon-class cruiser currently owned by the Pan-Pacific Treaty organisation and renamed the Horizon, has sent a report back to Earth regarding an abandoned planet which seems to have been an outpost of the Chinasian Alliance.

The report was intercepted by one of our intelligence operatives working for Solar Command. The Treaty seems to be aware of our existence but we do not currently know if they’ve made the connection between Detachment 44 and Earthwatch – they simply refer to us within the following report as “secret intelligence”. It is a matter of concern that our organisation’s existence is known and we clearly have some work to do, given that our ranks might have been compromised by Pan-Pacific.

Clarification follows:

1. The Pan-Pacific Treaty is formed from a coalition of businesses and nation-states who have expressed resistance to assimilation by the Empire. The Treaty views itself as a collective working towards a greater whole, a whole which benefits only the members of the Treaty. The Treaty was only formally declared six weeks ago, although many of its members have been working together for about two years. So far, the Treaty has been conducting their own research and exploration using a small fleet of ships they have recently purchased – a fleet which contains at least two decommissioned vessels of the Terran Navy.

2. We do not currently know the extent of the Treaty’s manpower, military strength or influence.

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by NoPoet

[20K] Revised 20K Timeline (updated April 2013)

17/03/2013 in 20K, Imp Lit News

1 vote, 5.00 avg. rating (95% score)

20K is the unofficial Warhammer 40,000 prequel series which I have been working on for a number of years. The following is a rough timeline including every 20K story that I am writing or plan to write. I have tried to remove as many spoilers as possible. Note that the timeline is subject to change and is undergoing constant revision.

This is “phase one” of 20K, a desperate time of derring-do. Phase 2, if I ever get that far, has a more mature and more adventurous tone with less of the grimness and grittiness of some of the earlier stories. Look for the crossovers and in-jokes as they appear. Fans of 40K as well as fans of general science fiction should find lots to be happy about.

Please ignore any repetitions or minor mistakes, this is the beta version and I already have the events right in my mind.

20K PHASE 1

40K’s mysterious and exciting history finally comes to life in tales of terror and adventure. Join the brave human pioneers of the Terran Empire as they begin their expansion into a galaxy where anything is possible.

KEY:
FRL = Fearless series
EW = Earthwatch series
SOL = Solstice series
Stories which do not have a series designation are independent stories (in TV parlance they would be “bottle shows”)

NOTE: Significant information is (deliberately) missing from the following timeline! Dates and events are subject to change.

===

20K Date Timeline

M21

975.M21 – Starships of the Alneran Republic, a hostile alien species whose territory lies within Solar Segment, encounter a mysterious alien being and take him prisoner. The strange hostage escapes when a Terran Navy ship attacks the Alnerans; the being will later turn up in Terran space, where his strange behaviour confounds his human rescuers. (“The Man Without A Past”)-

978.M21 – XMS Southern Cross encounters R’Shan, a member of an unidentified alien species who has been conducting unknown warp experiments within Terran space. (“The Man From Nowhere”)

978.M21 – The Fireblade prototype fighter begins its initial tests, intended to replace the Saxon class fighter. (“Flight of the Fireblade”)

985.M21 – The Centaur class light cruiser is commissioned, intended as a gradual replacement for the legendary Canyon class.

985.M21 – The Terran Empire discovers the first known Warp Gate within Solar Segment.

986.M21 – XMS Ontario and XMS Lexington are sent to investigate the Warp Gate. During the mission, a previously unknown problem with the Ontario’s Gellar Shield hurls the ship into a time-travelling, galaxy-spanning adventure, during which humanity makes first contact with followers of the daemon god Nurgle. (“Ghostwalkers”)

986.M21 – An expedition team of the Pan-Pacific Treaty, a coalition of coporations and nation-states who wish to remain independent of the Terran Empire, discovers a world belonging to the long-vanished Chinasian Bloc. The world has long been abandoned, but the expedition discovers disturbing evidence that the colonists had been conducting genetic experiments influenced by men who claimed to have travelled from the distant future – a time of terrible civil war. (“Legacy of the Future”)

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by NoPoet

[40K] Marneus Calgar’s Barmy Army: A Christmas Calgar (2012 Xmas Special)

09/12/2012 in Warhammer 40K

3 votes, 5.00 avg. rating (97% score)

“Confound this fething thing,” grumbled the Master of Ultramar as he struggled to retain his dignity. “I shall have to get that bodge-jobber of a Tech Priest to look it it. For the wages I am paying him, I should prefer him to be looking at my armchair rather than Necron porn. MILO! Come hence and clean up this mess forthwith.”

It was then the reality of Milo’s death hit him.

“Bollocks, now I must employ another wretch to do the cleaning,” Calgar mused. “Servitors! Fetch me a new Tanith!”

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by RedPen1089

Banners Held High I – Recruit

05/12/2012 in Warhammer 40K

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BANNERS HELD HIGH I – RECRUIT

A Warhammer 40,000 story by RedPen1089

Over the smoke and the screams, atop even the mighty canyon pillars of the hive city’s incomprehensible heights, he could make out the banners.

The hab-lighting had been cut out or shot out.  From his crawlspace, under the largest single-iron lumin-pole, the dim figures clustering at the artery’s mouth was legion.  Beyond number.  Thousands upon thousands of figures, pressed together in a line two dozen men wide, and easily just as deep.  The Evernight of Mordian’s habitable half gave the milling figures presence.  Even at two kilometres, the roared commands and boot-thumps reached his frayed, dirty ears.

He couldn’t tell what time it was.  None of the decaying city-slum quarters had chronometers.  The buildings he sheltered beside weren’t full of the twinkle and glow of the Upper Echelons- they were dark, rust-ensnared shells of industries long dead, long decayed.  Faint cogs adorned the kilometre-high black-grey superstructures; the leavings of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

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by Connor McKane

[40K] FORGED IN FAITH: A story of the Imperial Hammers

05/12/2012 in Warhammer 40K

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“Arkus Prime was once a shining beacon of hope, in the dark endless void of space. It was a shrine world, and every inch was sacred and devoted to ‘Him on Earth.’ It was once one of the most sacred places one might ever make a pilgrimage to, apart from Holy Terra herself. As brightly as it once had shined,  it was now as equally desecrated. Blighted and fouled, Arkus Prime is now a charnel house. The world’s population down to the last man, woman and child, lay slaughtered in the defiled temples and chapels throughout the single continent of ArkusPrime…sacrificed in an orgy of death and blood in the name of Khorne.”
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by Pixo

Grabba Hatemoof

06/10/2012 in Warhammer 40K

1 vote, 4.00 avg. rating (85% score)

Grabba Hatemoof

::::

“The Orks are the pinnacle of creation. For them, the great struggle is won. They have evolved a society which knows no stress or angst. Who are we to judge them? We Eldar who have failed, or the Humans, on the road to ruin in their turn? And why? Because we sought answers to questions that an Ork wouldn’t even bother to ask! We see a culture that is strong and despise it as crude.”
- From Culture vs. Kultur: Thoughts on Orkish Society by Uthan the Perverse, a controversial Eldar Philosopher

::::

Private First Grade Orton Redpath was asleep when the alarm siren sounded. He startled and sat up. The siren wailed and yellow hazard lights flared. The barrack-sergeant hustled into the dormitory, wearing only his boots, hat, Guard issue underpants. He started yelling at the top of his ample voice. “This is not a drill! Move it! Move it!”

Redpath was not worried. The bunk-sarge always yelled the same thing. Also, they ran quick-reaction training every ten-days, so this was not unexpected. By now, he knew where he had to go, and how long it would take him. He yawned and swung his legs out of the bed. The others in the barracks did the same, while they moved quickly, no one rushed.

Why would they? Durram was nothing. About as common a world as you find in the Imperium.
He yawned again and pulled on his boots and loosely tied them, then trotted over to the row of tall lockers. He turned the handle and pulled out his trousers and shirt. He took hold of his lasgun, and grabbed his flak vest. It was heavy, and smelled funny, like old cheese. After a moment, he returned the body armor to the locker. He did not want to put it on, only to wear its twenty-two kilos of weight for a mere twenty minutes. He’d rather have his ear-chewed off by the sergeant.

He blew out his cheeks, slung his lasgun over his shoulder and trotted to the door.

The moment he stepped outside he knew everything was wrong. The night sky. It was on fire.

The sergeant had not been kidding. This was no drill.

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by jorawar1

[40K] Deal with the Daemon

11/09/2012 in Warhammer 40K

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Deal With the Daemon

A Warhammer 40,000 story by Maugan Ra

PROLOGUE

Warp light bloomed and the daemonic assessors of the Black Tontine stepped forth even as the sorcerer lay dying. They came because my actions have violated the Tontine, and their very presence drove needles into our minds. Shrine gates rattled and the Aquila wept molten tears.
- The journals of Inquisitor Lord Felroth Gelt

Samuel Krista staggered down the hallway, his steps unsteady and his mind clouded by the drink. Up until mere moments ago he had been fast asleep, but then had come the knocking. Loud and insistent, it had echoed throughout his tiny hab with enough volume to jolt his addled mind into wakefulness. He didn’t know who it was, but by the Emperor, they were going to receive such a beating for waking him like this!

“I’m coming, curse you!” He roared, spittle flying past yellowed and broken teeth, pausing to snatch up a heavy metal club from its rack by the door. He was an Overseer, damn it all, and you didn’t treat an overseer with such disrespect!

With a feral snarl, Krista wrenched open the door, raised the club above his head, and stopped dead. A cold weight settled in his stomach, and slowly he lowered his weapon, letting it drop to the ground with a clatter. Beads of a sweat formed on his brow, even though the air flowing in through the open door was achingly cold.

There were three of them, taller than any man he had ever met and clad in long black robes like morbid Administratum functionaries. All three of them stood a few paces from his door, their hands hidden inside the folds of their robes and their heads bowed. Licking his lips, Krista took a step backwards, thinking desperately of the window at the other end of the corridor. He could make it, he was sure, if he started running right now…

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by jorawar1

[40K] Service in His Shadow

31/08/2012 in Warhammer 40K

2 votes, 5.00 avg. rating (97% score)

Jorawar1′s comment: This gentlemen and ladies is the best fan fiction available on the web. which in my humble opinion is better than the original.

Cain & Abel: Service In His Shadow

A Warhammer 40,000 epic by Mike Stormm

-Ariel Abel

“Like any newly-commissioned young commissar I faced my first assignment with an eagerness mixed with trepidation. I was, after all, the visible embodiment of the will of the Emperor Himself; and I could scarce suppress the tiny voice which bade me wonder if, when tested, I would truly prove worthy of the trust bestowed upon me. When the test came at last, in the blood and glory of the battlefield, I had my answer; and my life changed forever.”

-Ciaphas Cain, ‘To Serve the Emperor: A Commissar’s Life’

ONE

I must admit, at first, that the thought of scripting my own memoirs had not crossed my mind until I casually glanced through the pages of the autobiography belonging to my long-time colleague, and Hero of the Imperium, Commissar Cain. These days, it seems as though every guardsman, commissar, and officer who manages to reach retirement with enough of their brain still functioning to string a few coherent sentences together invariably throws together a story and calls it their memoir or autobiography. I never really thought my military exploits were enough of a story to be worthy of telling. Mostly, I think I simply feared they would be overlooked. However, looking back on nearly a century of gallivanting around the galaxy stomping on the heads of heretics, xenos, and unholy terrors alike, I realized there is probably some sort of lesson that could be learned from it all. Somewhere in all the bloody warfare, profanity-inducing horror, closes brushes with the hand of death, and near-blasphemous deeds that made up the clusterfrak that was my career, there is something that can be passed onto the next generation of men and women that somehow make it all seem worthwhile. Damned if I can figure out what it is though.

Maybe those guys at the medicae temple really can do wonders and breathe life back into the dead.

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by Drakdylon

[40K] Writer’s Workshop – Untitled Guard Story

30/08/2012 in Warhammer 40K, Writer's Workshop

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NoPoet’s comment: This was Drakdylon’s entry to the Feb/March Writer’s Workshop, “It’s Cold Outside”, where the theme was that it had to be COLD – preferably a winter setting. Other than that it was up to the author. Let’s hope Drak returns to edit this excellent piece, which is currently unfinished.

—

Untitled Guard Story by Drakdylon

Cadet Commissar Titus Hadrian kept his cap pressed firmly against his head with his left hand, and with his right he gripped the casing of a valuable data-slate. He wasn’t exactly sure what kind of information the slate might contain, but he guessed it was important from its level of encryption.

Holding his hat tight to his scalp to keep it from being blown away by the buffeting winds so common on this world, he strode down the alleyways marked out by the tents which reared on either side. When there was a full-blown blizzard up, the whitish tents disappeared and the camp was rendered almost invisible by virtue of the ubiquitous arctic camo that decorated everything the eye could see.

Hadrian hated it here. He had been raised and trained on a hive-world, a place where the temperature never dropped below a balmy fifty-five unless the planetary governor wanted it to. It was an unnatural feeling, being thrust onto a world swathed in ice. Especially on one’s first field assignment.

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by Firewing2

[40K] Illumination

25/08/2012 in Warhammer 40K

3 votes, 5.00 avg. rating (97% score)

Illumination
A Justus Crix Story
By Peter Thornton

As always, I shivered at the sight of Inquisitor Globus Varaak. His bloated form scarcely contained by the black body glove that covered what remains of his human form, his left arm and both his legs replaced by crude mechanical constructs hardwired into his spine as part of the life support carriage that supported him. Tubes stretched from the hissing machines at his back to his pock marked face. He spoke through a vox castor wired into the ruin of scar tissue that remained of his throat. He was a broken and twisted shell of a man.

He was also one of the most powerful men in the Calixis sector.
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