Editing Quest:The Long Night:Volume One:Life in the Storm (section)

=Second Chaos Invasion=

Sure enough, they hit Midgard. Your fleet holds quite well against them, but not enough to prevent a landing. Once planetside, It's your regular war. That is, until the Chaos Lord decides it's time to start a major summoning ritual. Any asset that can be spared is thrown to disrupt the ritual sites, while Xavier infiltrates the Hive City of Barovik to take on the invasion leader himself. Alongside him come a platoon of The Governor's Own (Rotbart's bodyguard; elites trained and equipped to be a match for Astartes), some regular Avernite forces and a number of Battle Psykers. They make it to the leader, where the Avernite forces engage the Chaos Lord's escorts, Xavier takes on the Angel of Betrayal himself, and Mittens phases away with some grenades to disrupt the local section of the ritual. The battle goes heavy but well, then Xavier takes a moment to survey the battle...

The Angel of Betrayal slits his throat.

That's bad. Quite an unpleasant wound. Xavier is forced on the defensive for a whole three minutes until he can patch up the carotid. Meanwhile, Mittens sets off the bombs (the ritual is weakened but still going) and heads back to help his friend. He gets heavily wounded, but the two manage to get an advantage over the Chaos Lord, while the rest of the forces get to the ritual chamber and finish off the Chaos Sorcerers.

The Chaos Lord decides it's time to bugger out, and teleports away to his flagship. Xavier does manage to get one final attack in though.

The Angel of Betrayal arrives on the bridge sans his head.

There is still a lot of fighting to be done, traitor hives to be taken, some local mutants to clean up, but victory is no longer in doubt. Still, once all is done and accounted for, the total Trust military casualties stand at about fifty million.

One thing that saddens you, is that Henry lost his wife while you were away. A giant Worm attack as they were inspecting the construction of intercity subways.

It takes a lot to help him deal with the grief, but with Saint Lin's help you manage after a couple of years. You also decide to finally get settled down yourself. There are two candidates; an extremely beautiful (and completely non-monogamous) lady from Vanaheim named Freia, and an Asgardian noblewoman named Sif. You ultimately choose the Navy lady. Takes a few years, but she does manage to let her bed-hopping past go.

In the meantime, another shifting of the Warp Storm means Jotunheim is cut off, along with all the forces you sent there. Since they were just about done anyway, the planet should be fine once back.

==Constructor results==

Finally, after ten years of effort, Tranth manages to finish with the STC library. The findings...

To start with, there are plenty of minor STCs. In Quest terms, they translate to increases in production, income, medicine, and morale. Also, there were things like better factory automation, better underground mining/constructing vehicle, a regular construction robot, reflective armour for aircraft, some cogitators, Mass Conveyors, Flamers (Hail the Holy Fire!), armoured transport the size of ten Baneblades, hard-to-fake biometric dog tags, better aircraft IFF, thrusters for orbital defences, a repulsorlift train, a medical pod, a constructor Knight variant (think IndustrialMech from [[BattleTech]])...

Second, you found a few more variants of the Impaler, like a pistol and heavy pistol (the latter is for Power Armour only), an Assault Cannon, a Gatling, a Heavy Gatling (suitable in size for a [[Leman Russ Battle Tank|Leman]] variant) and a Sniper Rifle.

Next, speaking of Power Armours, you find those as well. Variants for stealth, for Jetpack raids, for pilots, for heavy fighting ([[Centurion_Squad|Centurion]] level of protection), for regular fighting... Each has an advanced variant with swappable modules. For things like additional shielding, longer combat, camo, etc. Of course, a couple armours are still missing, and some designs are damaged and need to be completed, but you can just imagine what all that would have been worth to the Imperium. You also find a HUD for regular troops. Actually quite simple to make; you start giving it to all your troops, militia included, even before Tranth finishes.

Then, you find the design for makeshift fortresses. Basically, bring in the parts, bring a platoon of grunts, give them an hour, and you have a fifty-meter by fifty-meter fortress. Can be built side by side and hammered together for a fortification as big as you want. Even better, the fortresses come in different variants. Some are simple, like barracks, fuel depots, or hospitals. Another has Ion Shields, yet another a comm and ECM module. Finally, a few have armaments which are very valuable on their own. Notably, a much cheaper [[Superheavy Laser Weapons#Turbo-Laser Destructor|Turbo-Laser Destructor]] and a double range and fire rate [[Imperial Ordnance#Earthshaker Cannon|Earthshaker]]. Later, you also find one with a [[Baneblade]]-sized [[Vanquisher Cannon]] variant.

Also, you find designs for a facility producing knowledge implantation chairs. Devices which can, in short order, feed a person with a variety of skills... in theory. Unfortunately, for now, the only skill program you found is for basic piloting.

Next, there is a mobile exploration facility. Think a [[StarCraft]] style flying building with the size and armament of an [[Imperial Escort]]. Of course exploring Avernus would require something like that.

A Cruiser-sized [[Imperial Navy Escort#Defence Monitor|Defence Monitor]] variant. The design is badly damaged and takes a while to complete.

And, as a final note, miraculously, you find nice-tasting MRE recipes.