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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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Brothers

06/11/2009 in Warhammer 40K

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BROTHERS
The tale of One Platoon, Charlie Company, First Battalion, Median IV

Prologue: In the Field
A blast of heat brushed by William Palmer’s cheek, as he took a quick look around the tree he hid behind. He brought his head back quickly, quick enough to see the shot that almost grazed his face impact on a tree not four yards away, sending splinters flying.

He checked the ammunition on his autorifle. Less than half in the clip, but he had fresh clips in his pack. He pressed his back to the tree, his heart pounding so loud he swore he could hear it in his ears. Then he jumped out from behind the tree, swinging his autorifle down to his hip.

He squeezed the trigger so hard he thought he might break it, and swung the rifle in a wide arc so that it sprayed bullets. A few aliens fell to the spray of bullets. Others were saved by their large shoulder pads, and returned fire.

William dropped down in the grass, rolling toward another tree. There he ran into someone. Looking up, his pulse quickening, he was relieved to see Robert Oliver, a fellow Guardsman.

Robert grabbed his webbing and yanked him behind the tree he was using for cover. It was wide, like all the other trees in the area. William scrambled to a kneeling position. He looked around.

Men were running, firing at aliens, taking return fire. Screams of pain came as some men were hit and killed by pulses of energy. Cries of anguish came from other men, men who had seen their best friend cut down by merciless fire. Others cursed the Emperor for not giving them the protection they needed.

This was what hell was truly like, William thought.

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by Sholto

Matroyshka

13/09/2009 in Warhammer 40K

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“I’m here to shoot someone.”

Siffering’s next question froze on his lips as his drink-soaked mind processed that last and unexpected response. He frantically hunted through his memory for anything bad he had done, and then quickly shifted to anything bad he had done that other people knew about, in order to narrow the field.

“What? What? Who?”

The oddly-uniformed man still didn’t look at him, his eyes hunting here and there amongst the press of troopers. He spoke in an almost off-hand fashion, as if enjoying a private joke. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen him. Please excuse me, trooper.”

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Navy Eagles

23/07/2009 in Warhammer 40K

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Isely felt like he had been punched in the stomach as he yanked back on the stick, wrenching the Kestrel’s nose up. The small fighter shot up through the clouds, half rolled, and then followed through the loop to resume the attack. The targets loomed up in front of him: a vic of unescorted Marauder bombers.
‘Are you still with me, Hurricane Two?’ Isely asked, looking frantically over his right shoulder.
‘Affirm, Hurricane Leader, left and a little low.’
‘Follow me in.’
Isely throttled back slightly and smiled as his targeting computer hummed, signifying a lock. His sights turned red, and he thumbed the fire button. Blue laser bolts streaked out, hissing through the air, and raking the right wing of the lead Marauder. Its number three engine burst into flames, the explosion flashing back to number four engine and then ripping the wing off.
The large craft fell sluggishly earthwards. Isely pulled a max rate turn to the right to avoid the return fire which came criss-crossing back towards him from the two surviving bombers.
‘Leader: Hurricane Two. Bandits, seven o’clock high, strength five.’
Isely cursed. It had started so well, and now they were outnumbered by more than two to one. He knew he could take them, but his instructors would mark him down for being reckless – again.
‘Ok Hurricane Two, form on my wing, we’re out of here.’
Isely saw Tanati’s craft nudge up behind his right wing. The formation of two Kestrel training jets dived through the clouds and back towards Imperial Naval Air Station Somerset.

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The Mutant Child

12/07/2009 in Warhammer Fantasy

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+++

THE MUTANT CHILD
Book One of The Price of Hope,
To be followed by The Vengeful Father

+++

Chapter One

+++

Poc had gone quiet again–that wasn’t good. It never was.  Somehow, he always knew when trouble was coming.

“Poc?”  asked Ghuto.  “Is something bothering you?”

The little boy looked up at him.  “It’s too quiet…”

The dry, dusty road stretched out ahead, coiling like a fat, lazy serpent.  On either side, the fading leaves of the summer-baked trees rustled quietly.

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Steel and Ashes

21/05/2009 in Warhammer 40K

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The Shadow Gallery is renowned across a dozen systems as a work of art. It acts as the council chambers of this world, the seat of power for its Hive-lords and magi, the room where men and women make the decisions that rule the lives of millions in this hive alone. A large amphitheatre of marble and steel, decorated in an old Terran style of scrollwork and fluted columns, it is roofed by a great psyk-reactive crystal dome that resembled shadow-haunted diamond. The acoustics are reputed to be perfect and it is said on a silent day in these vaunted chambers you can hear the shadows dance and flicker from one facet of the crystal to another.

I shattered that silence quite nicely by kicking the doors off their hinges.

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Black Out

17/05/2009 in Original

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$100 Contest Entry by Rufus Sparkfire

———

I walked outside and stood there, in the rain and the wind, staring at nothing. Now that the heat was gone, everything felt different. I was cold and tired, as though I’d woken up from a long and wearying dream. I had rough stubble on my face and tears in my eyes. I realised that I had no idea what I was going to do now, now that everything was over, now that I was past everything I’d ever planned for.

It was a sad feeling, but not bitter exactly. It felt like I’d dug my way out of my own grave to find there was still a long walk before safety. It felt like there was a struggle ahead, and while it might be painful it would never be desperate. It felt like life.

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The Reaper’s Toll

27/10/2008 in Warhammer 40K

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Sector: Varseeni

System: Anturii

Vessel ID: Annihilator, Gothic Class

Task Force: Delta-921

For the glory and future of the Imperium of Man

There before him was the beauty of the universe. A veil of dust and planetary debris spread across the heavens, pinpricked with the glowing light of the stars within it. An entire rainbow of colours lay before his gaze and for a moment he was lost in it. All of this wonder had been the reason he had joined the Imperial naval academy – to explore the glories of a universe beyond his cold and frigid homeworld.

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by Nemesys

Martyrdom!

17/10/2008 in Warhammer 40K

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Darius looked about him in wonder as he was escorted down the corridor. All his life up to this point had been spent in the darkness of the world of Mira, but now the Emperor had chosen him. Chosen him for a place amongst the Black Templars.

Darius knew that thirty generations ago the Templars had saved his world and built the Chapter Keep there, but never in his life had he set foot inside. Great, high walls, decorated with banners and trophies from a hundred Crusades. Stained-glass windows depicting Sigismund, the spiritual father of all Templars, or Rogal Dorn, the Primarch whose genes had created them, or even of the Emperor himself.

Always the images were of victory, of battle-scarred warriors in black and white winning through against impossible odds.

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by NoPoet

The Last Day

10/10/2008 in Warhammer 40K

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AUTHOR’S NOTE: Some of the following may not be considered canon, but you read it here first…

He’d always known this moment would come. Yet with the poisoned blend of defiance and ignorance common to every human, he had neglected to do anything about it, and now he was too late. Death is something no man would choose to face without a reason. It always seems so far away. It seems impossible, inconceivable, then one day it puts a knife in your gut and you fall to the floor while everything you built dries up and blows away, just more sand in a desert.

He always feared that what he had built would collapse. There was no satisfaction from knowing that he was right, that the time had finally come.

The last day.

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