Editing Quest:The Long Night:Volume Two:The Rise (section)

=Facing the galaxy=

For a while the matters continue as before. Tranth is working on Astartes Armour incorporating the Helheim discoveries (the results are a suit just below [[Terminator Armour]] in strength and capable of carrying two modules at once), Lin is helping the Marine commander, Gaius Julius (who has some heavy curse ever since some fight with a powerful daemon), the Trust is preparing for war the best it can, while also looking to open negotiations with Dragon's Nest at the first opportunity. Gerald and Tamia, however, have started a very important joint project.

They're raising a toddler girl denounced by her parents. The first Alpha level Psyker born upon Avernus.

Yes, that's right. The quest, due to taking place later than 40k, does allow for stable human Alphas. The problem is, no matter how much you try, they still have one chance out of three to fail their trials. You intend to try as hard as possible.

As a sidenote, regular Psykers now come in such numbers that the Psyker cities won't fit them for much longer. It's time to start building separate city quarters for them.

Going back to politics, there are two imminent attacks predicted by Ridcully, one by Valinor and one by Garkill. Plus, there are the matters of external politics. In these, it is agreed to be friendly but cautious toward the saner polities, and to deal with the immediate enemies when there is an opportunity in a manner that doesn't draw too much attention for success.

With Valinor, the probing forces are fooled, and a major attack of over three thousand ships is launched at Jotunheim. About one enemy ship in forty manages to get away. Thankfully, most of the human polities nowadays have Escort-heavy navies.

Garkill arrives at Avernus a year later. It's obvious right away that he'll be a far bigger problem. For one thing, he now has nine thousand Escorts, five thousand Roks, and over six hundred Capitals. For another, he has six Hulks now, with his own having grown to nearly '''fifty''' kilometres. Still, the fleets in the system wipe out about half that force by the time they reach Avernus. A couple thousand more before the landing starts. Problem is, according to Rids, the bastard had prepared a surprise.

A few million [[Weirdboy]]z are onboard. Should the reinforcement fleet come out of the Warp too close, they'll draw it right into Ork crossfire. You warn them to emerge further away, which means two weeks of delay.

The Orks start their landing. While you do manage to take out over a million aircraft, they don't seem to care. Within a day, eleven Hive-sized Ork fortresses stand upon Avernus. Doesn't that sound great?

During the week it takes them to reach your cities, your forces whittle away about a billion Orks, including by drawing wildlife toward them. A drop in the bucket, and mostly regular Boyz at that. In the newly settled region, one of the Warbosses kills a local crocodile Alpha you've been intending to hunt. As expected, he looted another piece of Black Crystal Jewelry, this time a breastplate.

As his armies start approaching your cities, Garkill lands near the force attacking the city of Salem with two thousand [[Gargant]]s (fifty Great Gargants and two Megas included), his elites, and a million Weirdboyz, whom he intends to use to bring down the walls. More Roks land, including right in your cities.

In Salem, you manage to prevent the Roks from landing in the city itself. Weirdboyz however, successfully perform a ritual to bring down the walls. Except for the fact that all the Psykers you've sent there are at work. Half the Weirdboyz find themselves with their heads missing, and while the outer defences are gone, the city's still alive and shooting. Plus, you launch five thousand [[Deathstrike Missile]]s to thin the enemies out further.

Garkill launches a general assault, but the Asgardian Knights and your Superheavies (including Fellswords; a [[Fellblade]] variant with Neutron Lasers) prove to be too much for the Gargants. Meanwhile, only the Hulks and some Roks remain of the Ork fleet, and the reinforcements aren't far by now. Garkill teleports his remaining Weirdboyz down, but before they can pull off another attack, you launch the rest of your Deathstrikes, their flames augmented by Psykers once they explode. No more Weirdboyz, most of the Roks gone, more enemy ships inbound... looks bad for Garkill. Once again, he decides to return to his Hulk and retreat.

Then, Ridcully tells you he decided that since he didn't manage to Krump the planet, he will see that no one else does, either. Garkill intends to Exterminatus Avernus.

Before either you or the Warlord can phrase any order, however, the Greenskins are vaporised.

Dozens of orbital stations pop out around Avernus, armed with weapons that make Eldar tech look primitive. Within fifteen minutes, barely any wreckage remains of Garkill and his Hulks. And the stations are gone without a trace.

Congratulations! This is no mere Deathworld you live upon. Welcome to Crucible, an Anti-Chaos research lab of the [[Old Ones (Warhammer)|Old Ones]]!

==Aftermath==

Of course, there are still billions of Orks upon the planet, but now that their leader is gone, they aren't a real threat. The cleanup is going to take a while though, especially since the Trust starts a campaign against the now leaderless Ork realm.

In even better news, with all the commanding, Rotbart now has a new trait. A Paragon level one, which means, for this quest, Game Breaker ability. In his case, if you translate it to tabletop terms, it means he doesn't need to set any of his tabletop pieces until the enemy has finished placing theirs.

Saint Lin, meanwhile, tells you that the Abomination is probably aware of his existence. Since, between the Chaos God's work and a thousand years having passed, every other Living Saint in the galaxy is dead, that means killing Lin might become a personal matter for Star Daddy.

Over the next four years, the Trust takes over three Ork Worlds. On Avernus, you mostly blockade and assault the Ork strongholds. A few of those are gone already, with you having lost a cruiser during the bombardment. You have finally looted that breastplate.

Jane, meanwhile, almost gets killed. An attempt is made to kill and replace her, but she gets a warning from Ridcully, and, after a brutal battle, manages to destroy the threat.

Want a translation to Warhammer 40k lore?

Jane dueled the [[Changeling]]. While it wore her form. And she won. And destroyed it permanently.

Of course, that can't remain unrewarded. Jane gets ''two'' Paragon traits. One allows her to kill Daemons permanently and cut through Warp effects. The other lets her cut down anything smaller than an Imperator with one strike if she's lucky.

In grim news, however, the number of Major Psykers seems to be lower than expected. Some alternate source seems to be recruiting them, and Ridcully believes there is a threat in that bigger than Garkill was.

As always, he's right. That cruiser shot down during the cleanup? Wasn't an accident. A group of Tzeentchian Psykers were working out methods to teleport onboard shielded ships. They intended to bombard the planet in order to provoke it into destroying the human colony. By the time you find them, it is too late for your fleet commander. And Saint Lin has to spend about ten years checking for corruption throughout the Navy.

In more bad news, the damage from rogue Psykers is very limited lately... because Tzeentch seems to be stealing them through Warp Rifts. By now, he has taken two Betas and an Alpha.

However, having spied on the god's plans, now it's Rids who has two Paragons. Now he can spy as far as he wants, even on gods. And he has more rerolls, both in combat and when warning you about danger.

Ophelia, the Alpha, passes her exams. The score is rather outstanding, which shouldn't be a surprise, considering how much effort was made (both in-story and outside). Of course, her skill is still far from that of her adoptive parents (for whom she constantly tries to play matchmaker).

On the other hand, you lose General Schwarz. Don't worry, he was merely promoted, due to the commander of the Trust's military retiring.

Jane finally completes the training of the Super-Elites. Out of the thousand babies, only eighty-seven have completed their training (although some of the surviving washouts are still good enough for regular elite forces or Inquisition agents). Jane believes that once she sets a proper training facility, the pass rates should be about double. Each guy is given a Super-Exitus as their main weapon. These things turn out to be really hard to make once Tranth manages to reverse-engineer them, so much you need to commission them from Svartalfheim.

Tranth manages to upgrade the rest of the Power Armours for Astartes use. Congratulations! The [[Scout Squad|Scout Marines]] can fly now!

Ridcully doesn't predict a lot of attacks in the near future, but claims that he can feel dark stirrings of some galaxy-wide event coming. After a bit more divining... seems like [[Gork]] and [[Mork]] are about to become active. Now that sounds '''bad'''.

According to him, there are still thirty to fifty years. To start with, a High Council meeting is scheduled.

The Council is thankfully properly scared. After some debates, it is agreed that the nearby Ork domains are to be taken over. There is also a somewhat more distant Ork domain of sixty worlds, currently in a civil war. Ridcully is to attempt using his abilities and prolong the war, while Tranth is to try and reverse-engineer the Inquisition's [[Exterminatus#Cyclonic_Torpedoes|Cyclonic Torpedoes]]. Everyone is to be warned, both human and Xeno (you even consider warning Chaos, but decide they tend to learn such things anyway). Dragon's Nest is to be traded some low-level tech. Also, you manage to push through a decision allowing you to trade souls to the Sirens. There are a couple of problems with that, of course; for one thing, you lose a lot of favours and reputation, and for another, even that only allows you to trade Cultist souls. Considering you've beat those down to only a couple hundred cultists popping up per year (and only about a third of those captured alive), it's going to take a while. Thankfully, the Sirens already gave you one sample in exchange for wildlife souls, a Rune to help banish Daemons.

On a more personal note, Jane decides she wants a family. She adopts a cute five year old orphan boy named Jacob. His parents were killed by a crocodile. Jacob killed it with a knife. She seems to be a good mother, although that does include combat training a level above that of the Super-Elites.

You spend the next dozen years largely away from Avernus. Taking over dozens of Ork worlds isn't easy. Syr is in the Navy now, a Cruiser commander. Xavier takes out one of the Ork Overlords, the other is killed in regular battle. By the time you return, Jacob is a Psyker Hunter, while Jane is half way through training the second batch of Super-Elites. Also, it's two centuries since the quest started.

The Dragon's Nest agrees to trade you what technologies you don't have, like Terminator Armour and the biggest Mechanicus Forge-Cathedrals (increased ability to make the more exotic gear components). They also start cracking down on the Orks in their vicinity. Scott is now past the stage where she has little authority, meaning you can, if careful, do some of the more controversial research projects. Most importantly, she pushes a law through allowing regular administration to expand and fortify Forge Cities.

Tranth manages (after ten years of effort) to incorporate the Dark Age tech into the Terminator design. Remember those [[Dawn of War III|complaints about jumping around in a Terminator suit]]? Well, forget it. Our dear half-adamantium sonofabitch genius made a hovering one...

Rids' efforts to meddle with the distant Ork domain work for a while, but then an error allows an alarmingly intelligent Overlord to take over. Fortunately, the Super-Elites turn out to be quite suitable for assassinating such guys. Costs you three of them (out of the six sent), plus four Vortex Grenades, but the realm is fractured once again.

Saint Lin goes on a grand tour through Dragon's Nest, trying to convert them to the New Imperial Truth (missionaries sent earlier have prepared the ground, but it's time for a personal touch). Valinor sends a few assassins, but the security and the bodyguards sent along turn out to be too good for them.

Initially, the tour is planned to last fifteen years, but three years in, Ridcully states it's only ten years until Gork and Mork become active. Lin will continue his tour until then; for the Trust, it's time to withdraw the harassing forces and focus on walling up. You've been fortifying all your cities, the Psykers have been training (including with the Runes, once the Saint declared them safe), Jane had finished the second batch of Super-Elites (two hundred and nine graduates this time), the Helltroopers are being equipped with Power Armour. The former Ork worlds are being colonized; largely by Midgardians, of course. A Council meeting reviews the plans and the situation, but little else can be done for now.

Saint Lin, meanwhile, faces a problem. To be precise, he had it for a while now.

You see, a regular human soul isn't meant for such power as was given to him. Without the Emperor to share the burden... Lin ages faster than should be the case with the Dark Age Juvenat. Once in a while, he gets a power boost to his abilities at the cost of ever faster aging. Now it's the second time.

Ridcully states he intends to watch the Ork Gods becoming active. Risky, but you agree, even giving him the Black Crystal Jewelry for protection. After two years of preparation, it's time to have a look...

==The Green Awakening==

Ridcully finds himself in the Ork Gods' Realm. Two huge Greenskins forever battle there upon a plain, surrounded by mountains. Ridcully isn't alone. Others have come for the show. [[Kairos Fateweaver|Kairos]] is here, so is [[Magnus]]. The latter almost spots Ridcully, but [[Eldrad]] helps him hide. A few less famous Diviners are watching as well.

Suddenly, the two Ork Gods, beings almost as powerful as the Chaos Gods, stop and vanish into thin air. The ground shakes, sending all the diviners flying. The ones surviving watch from the air as the mountains around start shifting.

Crap.

The Ork Gods weren't fighting. They were having a thumb fight.

And now, the true Gork and Mork, more powerful than the Chaos Gods combined, are awake with a loud scream that knocks the diviners back even further.

'''''"oy 'oo iz steal'n our Boyz "'''''

Yes. The Cunning but Brutal Peter and the Brutal but Cunning Pan are really angry that someone's been taking away their Green Lost Boyz and raising them to be civilized, so they've decided it's time to give everyone a proper taste of Neverland.

The Orks have a massive power boost now, and the bigger the WAAAAAGH!, the bigger the bonus. Currently, there are six power levels. You may survive a Level 2 – a few dozen worlds. A Level 3 with a lot of luck. Level 4, starting with a few dozen sectors, is where the bigger players put expansion plans on hold, and the Orks can build Attack Moons (doesn't mean they always do; jumping ahead, none seem to be doing so even a few centuries later). Level 5 is Beast size, except empowered. Maybe the old Eldar could have handled that. Entire War Worlds can be built. Level 6 is Game Over.

==Further discoveries==

Jane is now building a facility for constant production of the Super-Elites, now officially named Last Hunters. Tranth is searching the moon settlements in the system. There used to be a lot of research centers there. Alas, the Men of Iron slagged most of them.

Saint Lin spends two years healing Ridcully from the soul damage suffered. The seer was extremely lucky to suffer no worse. Once healed, he makes contact with Eldrad. They agree to exchange information when needed. That might make you more valuable to the Eldar than you think. You see, the Birth of Ynnead had left the Eldar without a single Farseer (Eldrad is a special, not-quite-mortal case), and the ones they have trained since didn't see as many galaxy-shaking events.

Lin, meanwhile, discovers a new ability; a combination of the knowledge granted by the Emperor and his abilities. He can now study the divine.

Tranth finds a lot of new tech; weapons (experimental ones), Implantation Chair programs, Void Abaci, Cogitators... a lot of it encoded. Most is in the form of Data Jewels; archives intended to withstand AI hacking attempts. The Muspelheim archives contained some of the access codes, but the rest seem inaccessible even with Ridcully's help. One archive, however, seems possible to crack. Not technology.

It has the location of Roskilde; a research and engineering facility a thousand light years away. From the open data, it might have the blueprints for a ship bigger even than the Dreadnoughts.

==The incoming attacks==

According to Ridcully, a large Ork WAAAAGH! is coming, led by an Overlord named Gutcrumpa. That's one thing. Another is, the Abomination is getting serious about Saint Lin. A large Crusade is being assembled at Valinor. They intend to attack while the Trust is busy with the Greenskins. Fortunately, after Ridcully's recent exploits, their plans are an open book for him, so it shouldn't be a problem to hold them off. Not that divining them is so difficult; you can imagine what kind of improvisers the Star Father's servants are.

Jacob vanishes when fighting a rogue Beta. Eight months later, he reappears alongside a young queen of a local insectoid species. According to him, they were stranded together for almost twenty years. In the Caverns.

What are the Caverns? Well, ever heard of the [[Underdark]]? Avernus has one. Insane enough for a daemon to get lost in. Full of threats beyond imagination. Some people do venture there. The threats are to Avernus what Avernus is to a normal world, and the quality of those madmen is likewise. When they get tired of the Caverns, they tend to take a break... as Helguard elites. Still, very few of even the Cavers tend to stray below the shallowest layers. Jacob was stranded much deeper. Deep enough to be touched by a god living there...