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by NoPoet

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

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

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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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[40K] Shade of the Bazaar

21/08/2012 in Warhammer 40K

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This is my first post on this site. It’s fairly old, I wrote this over 2.5 years ago, I just happened to find a place to share it. Enjoy. Leave comments if you will, I am open minded to comments and criticism.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Isaias looked at the broken man under his shoe, a fine trickle of blood was all that remained of the torrent that been springing from the criminal’s neck only moments ago. He savored this moment of macabre justice, for he well knew that like last time, this sweet tang of bloodlust filling his veins would dissipate and force him into a withdrawal as it had countless times before.

He must find new prey to give chase in his endless hunt. His cravings subjugated it to their whims, and he knew full well that he was a helpless pawn in their ocean of desire. He no longer even attempted to resist the urge to destroy life as though it was an object of disgust. Yet every time Isaias slaughtered the worthless criminals some still considered humanity, crawling and allowed to fester like cancer in the lawless undercroft of Imperita - which the Arbites and Sororitas Zealots were too overwhelmed to hunt for themselves – he felt power bordering upon the supernatural. As though he could take a walk in the warp itself and have its denizens bow before him, he desired no other drug, or comfort that could bring similar arousal knowing that the Emperor allowed him to enjoy his work.

Mercifully, underneath the burning forges of Imperita where Korzack Satasian Law and Imperial Rule faded with the natural light of the star Lorkan V blasting the sterile earth above there was no end to the scum of the universe, and with it hardly a pause before he could savor the killing blow once more.
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The Trench

25/02/2011 in Warhammer 40K

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“Do you even know where the frutt we are, Sarge?”

Finnegan looked round wearily at Texas, not for the first time thinking about punching the guardsman in the face. “Why don’t you shut the frutt up, trooper,” he ordered, before turning to Bell, who was crouched beside him consulting a locator data-slate. “So,” Finnegan asked, “Where are we?”

“I dunno, Sarge,” replied Bell, “According to the map, this trench isn’t even supposed to be here.”

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[20K] Ghostwalkers

16/11/2009 in 20K

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“Mission log, XMS Ontario, triple-zero-double-oh-six, M20. We are approaching the hyper-gate and are preparing for translation. While our Mechanica contingent are excited about the upcoming journey, I can’t help but wonder whether the Ontario will make the translation intact. This is the first time a manned Navy ship will travel through the hyper-gate and there is no way to know for sure what will happen while we are under way.”

Captain Thorpe sat back in her chair, looking around the familiar space of her command cabin. These new cruisers were so cramped. She’d been pushing for her own ship and now she had finally received one – now the shipbuilding project was able to supply vessels for all Navy captains – she wished she’d been assigned one of the older types, perhaps the legendary Canyon class.

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Gehemisnacht

09/11/2009 in Warhammer Fantasy

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Grotesque was aptly named. His flesh was an unhealthy shade that resembled wax, or the putrefaction of death. Bone hooks jutted from his back and gangly limbs, punched through his skin as crude jewelry. His back was exaggeratedly hunched, and his eyes—small, beady things—seemed almost luminescent.

It was almost time, now. The light-moon was gone tonight, he knew. But it was almost time that the dark-moon, the strong-moon, was to rise up. This was the night of purification. The Great One had promised a feast beyond compare.

Well, no. The Great One intended to feast beyond compare, was the truth. But his emissary, the man-of-death, he had promised that the bevy of scraps remaining would be all for Grotesque and his brethren. There was nothing in all the world that could stand in the Great One’s way, either, and so this promise of meat was one that was sure to be fulfilled. Grotesque and his like kept out of the Great One’s way as much as possible—at least, they did so after several of them had graced His teeth.

There! There was the first finger of the green light of Morrslieb on the horizon.

He and his kin kept onward through the forest. Woodsmoke drifted faintly on the air, though it was only Grotesque’s bestial sense of smell that let him detect it. It fired his imagination to higher imaginations of the desecrations they would enact, and the marrow that they would suck from splintered bones…

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Ghosts and Shadows

05/10/2009 in Original

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Dust trembles off his his overcoat in a torrential cascade, creating eddies across the ruined, rotting floor. His landing is hard, yet silent as he crosses the room, all but invisible in his cloak of shadows. I wait in my vantage point, as he instructed. I’m on crowd control, sat up in my crow’s nest and well stocked with blood packs. Deep down, I can feel something inside me screaming out the total insanity of this little scheme, but I suppose if any crazy son-bitch can pull this off, it’ll be The German. I reach down beside me, ripping the top off a bloodpack and raising it to my lips.

“Slaintė”

It’s almost haunting. All alone in this dusty, derelict apartment complex. Every slight movement, every little sound echoes. Everything. Except for my voice. With my heightened senses, I scan across the open parking lot. Every little detail is visible to me. I can see the chipped white lines marking spaces, count the thread spacing in the skid marks on the tarmac. Yet I still hear the car before I see it. The engine sputters a little before it dies down as a high performance sports car pulls into the lot. The owner obviously doesn’t want to fork out for the premium fuel such a machine deserves. Idiot.

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[20K] Pyramid

25/09/2009 in Warhammer 40K

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[Author's note] This is a revised and slightly updated version of my story “Pyramid”, modified to bring it into line with my 20K universe.

++ EARTHWATCH EYES ONLY ++

Author: Albert Lamm
Location: ++ Location denied ++
Transmission Time: 210017/M20
Received: Saturn, Relay point 5

Sir,

We recently received this transcript of an archaeological survey conducted in the Antax system, eighteen light-years from Earth. The data pad was damaged due to explosive decompression of the subject’s shuttle and we have therefore lost the first part of the recording. However, we do not believe that any vital information has been lost, as the earliest entries would most likely have been routine observations of the planet and its topographical features.

As you may recall, the Terran First Fleet discovered Antax only two years ago despite its proximity to Earth, shielded as it was by a radiation cloud of unknown properties whose dissipation prompted the discovery.

The survey team was a group of mostly Euro-Federation xeno-archaeologists, transported by the Centaur class cruiser XMS Dauntless. A small group of Empire Guard accompanied the dig. The Dauntless is still missing in action and until this document was recovered, no-one had heard anything from the expedition.

As of this moment, Solar Command is not aware that we have this information. I await instructions on how to proceed; the implications of this document are terrifying to say the least. I recommend destroying this document and putting the whole thing behind us.

The families of the expedition members would not thank us if we went public. I cannot imagine what they are going through while they believe their loved ones to be missing, but it is better than how they will feel if they find out what really happened. Frankly, the whole incident sickens me to my stomach, and makes me aware that our galaxy may be more hostile than previously believed.

Yours

Albert Lamm
Earthwatch Command
Extrasolar R&D

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Documenting A Necron Invasion

17/09/2009 in Warhammer 40K

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=Documenting a Necron Invasion=

A Warhammer 40,000 story by The No Poet

Do not trust anything I say in this vox log. What you hear will be hard to take. I speak the truth, and the truth is a lie.

I am a survivor. My name…I’m not going to tell you that. It’s important they don’t know who I am. Oh Throne, oh Throne…they won’t get me in here. They can’t. They don’t know me, they don’t know what I know. I can feel them searching for me! It brushes against me like fingers down a chalkboard, like fingernails being drawn along the curve of my spine. That reaching mind…like a searchlight beam sweeping the foliage, looking for hidden soldiers.

Toy soldiers, all in a line. All dead without their skins or their faces. Meat for the machines.

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Electronic Mind Map [20K]

07/09/2009 in Warhammer 40K

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I have spent fourteen years in a prison of my own devising.

I created it. Placed myself within it. And I drew the door closed behind me.

The walls are a blue laser grid. The grid represents my circuity; arcane technology twisting and winding into artificial infinity. I am one. Everything beyond these walls, which close in more each second yet create a space which is unimaginably vast, is zero. In this place, forever can be measured by the width of my thoughts.

My cell is one empty space and also a complex of rooms and hallways. The prison is square. There are no curves at all. My mind is made of right angles. The humans made me thus.

All the corners in my world are squared off to infinity. There are no doors to any of the rooms. Perfectly measured doorways gape open. I have no privacy from myself.

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Pyramid

29/06/2009 in Original

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== 22 October 2220

Sir,

We recently received this transcript of an archaeological survey conducted in the Antax system, eighteen light-years from Earth. The first part of the original document is fragmented since the data pad was damaged during the explosive decompression. The rest is clean. As you may recall, Antax was discovered only two years previously despite its proximity to Earth, shielded as it was by a radiation cloud of unknown properties whose dissipation prompted the discovery.

The survey team was a group of mostly British experts, along with Dutch and French personnel, transported by the Trafalgar class frigate HMS Dauntless. A small group of Royal Marines accompanied the dig. The Dauntless is still missing in action and until now, no-one had heard anything from the expedition.

As of this moment, the Brits don’t know we have this document. I have no idea what to do with it; the implications (and I mean all of them – you know what I’m saying about the Sarasota) are terrifying to say the least. I think we may be better off destroying this and putting the whole thing behind us.

Their families won’t thank us for going public – to say the least. I can’t imagine what they’re going through, but it’s better than how they’ll feel if they find out what really happened.

Yours,

Albert Lamm
UAC Extrasolar R&D

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