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Cpt Lotara Sarrin
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Important Notice
If it wasnt obvious already: Yes. All the surrounding pages take a lot of inspiration from the canonical Warhammer 40K : Horus Heresy character Captain Lotara Sarrin, Shipmistress of the XII Legion flagship, Conqueror.
It would be dishonourable not to give a shoutout to the original character and thus I must also state that the canonical character does of course not belong to me yadayadayada copyright games workshop yadayadayadayada.
But can you really blame me for it? She is the most badass human female alive during the Horus Heresy. She deserves this attention. That having been said... -
Another Notice
... Eventhough I will take the time to highlight the original character a little (and maybe even stat her to the best of my abilities),
I will NOT RP as her.
Hell... Since I can't even define her within a standard Rogue Trader or Void Mistress class.
So I won't use her on the tabletop either.
Her class Shipmistress takes the advances form the Rogue Trader and Void Master careers and ups them all by 50xp
Characeristic Advances for WS-BS-S-T-A are taken from Void Master while I-P-W-F are taken from Rogue Trader (all +50xp) -
Dataslate 0: Info
- Name: Sarrin
- Gender: Female
- Played by: RoxIroneye
- Age: 30
- Departmento: Adeptus Munitorum
- Office: Armada Imperialis
- Fleet: 203rd Expeditionary Fleet
- Assigned Legiones Astartes: XII - World Eaters
- Battleship Class: Gloriana / Battle Barge
- Battleship Name: Conqueror (formerly: Adamant Resolve)
- Rank: Captain / Shipmistress
- Full name: Lotara Sarrin
- ♠♠♠♠♠♠: ♠♠♠♠♠♠
- Dark Heresy Class and Rank: Rogue Trader/Void Master [8]
- "Imperial" "Divination": FIRE THE URSUS CLAWS!
- Quirk: Clacks her tongue inside her mouth when irritated.
- Personality: Choleric (Active, takes charge, yet easy to anger.)
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♠ROGUE TRADER ORIGINS♠:
- Birthplace: Noble Born
- Birthright: Savant
- Lure of the Void: Duty Bound (Humanity)
- Trials and Travails: High Vendetta
- Motivation: Pride (Archeotech Laspistol)
- Starting Ship Points: 70
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Dataslate 1: Basics
++BACKGROUND++
+Birthplace Traits+
Noble Born
Characteristic Modifiers –5 Willpower ^ +5 Fellowship Starting Skills Literacy (Int) ^ Speak Language (High Gothic) (Int) ^ Speak Language (Low Gothic) (Int) Etiquette +10 Interaction Test with high authority or formal situations Legacy of Wealth +1 to the group’s starting Profit Factor Supremely Connected Peer (Nobility) ^ Peer (Administratum) Vendetta Rogue Traders from the Ultramar region Starting Wounds 5+(Toughness Bonus*2) (9) Fate Points 4 +Birthright Traits+
Savant
Talent Peer (Academic) +3 Fellowship –3 Toughness +Lure of the Void+
Duty Bound (Duty to Humanity)
+3 Intelligence -1 to the group’s starting Profit Factor +Trials and Travails+
High Vendetta
Blood Will Have Blood Talent: Die Hard ^ Skill: Inquiry Brook No Insult Prone to rage if threattened. Willpower Test negates +Motivation+
Pride
Heirloom Item Archeotech Laspistol (Best Craftsmanship) ++CAREER PATH++
+Rogue Trader & Void Master+
Rogue Trader
Starting Skills Command (Fel) ^ Commerce (Fel) ^ Charm (Fel) ^ Common Lore (Imperium) (Int) ^ Evaluate (Int) ^ Literacy (Int) ^ Scholastic Lore (Astromancy) (Int) ^ Speak Language (High Gothic) (Int) ^ Speak Language (Low Gothic) (Int) Starting Talents Air of Authority ^ Pistol Weapon Training (Universal) ^ Melee Weapon Training (Universal) Starting Gear (-) Best-Craftsmanship Laspistol ^ common-Craftsmanship power sword ^ Micro-bead ^ void suit ^ set of fine clothing ^ xeno-pelt cloak ^ best-Craftsmanship enforcer light carapace Void Master
Starting Skills Common Lore (Imperial Navy) (Int) ^ Common Lore (War) (Int) ^ Forbidden Lore (Xenos) (Int) ^ Navigation (Stellar) (Int) ^ Pilot (Space Craft) (Ag) ^ Pilot (Flyers) (Ag) ^ (-) Scholastic Lore (Astromancy) (Int) ^ (-) Speak Language (Low Gothic) (Int) Starting Talents (-) Pistol Weapon Training (Universal) ^ (-) Melee Weapon Training (Universal) ^ Nerves of Steel Starting Gear (-) common-Craftsmanship power sword ^ common-Craftsmanship bolt pistol ^ (-) Guard flak armour ^ (-) Micro-bead ^ (-) void suit ^ blessed ship token ^ re-breather ^ Imperial Navy uniform ^ 2 bottles of amasec ^ pict-recorder ^ vox-caster ++CHARACTERISTICS++
Values
Weapon Skill (WS) 30 Ballistic Skill (BS)+ 45 Strength (S) 30 (3) Toughness (T) 27 (2) Agility (Ag) 40 (+4) Intelligence (Int) 33 (3) Perception (Per) 30 (3) Willpower (WP) 40 (4) Fellowship (Fel)++ 58 (5) Total Wounds+++ 12 Total XP 34.562 Movement
Half Action 4 Full Action 8 Charge 12 Run 24 Variable Stats
Critical Damage - Fatigue - Insanity Points 0 (Insanity) Degree of Madness - Disorders - Corruption Points 0 (Corrupt.) Degree of Corrupt. - Malignancies - Spent XP 34.550 XP -
Dataslate 2: Skills&Talents
++SKILLS++
+General+
Acrobatics (Ag) - Awareness (Per) +20 Barter (Fel) +20 Blather (Fel) - Carouse (T) Basic Charm (Fel) +20 Chem-Use (Int) - Climb (S) Basic Command (Fel) +20 Commerce (Fel) +20 Concealment (Ag) Basic Contortionist (Ag) Basic Deceive (Fel) Basic Demolition (Int) - Disguise (Fel) Basic Dodge (Ag) +20 Evaluate (-) +20 Gamble (Int) Basic Inquiry (Fel) Trained Interrogation (WP) - Intimidate (S) +20 Invocation (WP) - Lip Reading (Per) - Literacy (Int) Trained Logic (Int) Basic Medicae (Int) - Psyniscience (Per) - Scrutiny (Per) +20 Search (Per) Basic Security (Ag) - Shadowing (Ag) - Silent Move (Ag) Basic Sleight of Hand (Ag) - Survival (Int) - Swim (S) Basic Tech-Use (Int) +10 Tracking (Int) - Ciphers (Int)
Rogue Trader Trained Underworld Trained Common Lore (Int)
Imperium +20 War +20 Imperial Navy +20 Imperial Guard +10 Rogue Traders +20 Drive (Ag)
- Forbidden Lore (Int)
Xenos +10 Pirates Trained Adeptus Astartes +20 Navigation (Int)
Stellar +20 Performer (Fel)
- Pilot (Ag)
Space Craft +20 Flyers Trained Scholasic Lore (Int)
Astromancy +20 Imperial Warrants +20 Heraldry Trained Legend +20 Judgement +10 Tactica Imperialis +20 Secret Tongue (Int)
Nagrakali (XII Legion) ♦ Rogue Trader Trained Military Trained Underdeck Trained Speak Language (Int)
High Gothic Trained Low Gothic Trained Trader’s Cant Trained Trade (Int)
Voidfarer +20 Wrangling (Int)
- ++TALENTS++
Peer (Nobility) +10 on Fel Tests (interacting) Peer (Administratum) ^ Peer (Academic) ^ Peer (XII Legion) ^ Die Hard Reroll Blood Loss result. Air of Authority 1d10+Fel allies obey. Pistol Weapon Training UNIVERSAL Melee Weapon Training UNIVERSAL Nerves of Steel Reroll Pinning tests. -=- -=- Renowned Warrant +10 on Fel Tests (interacting) Sound Constitution (3 total) Extra Wound Iron Discipline Minions immune to pinning/fear Jaded No Insanity from normal horror Quick Draw Ready as a Free Action. Dark Soul Half penalty Malignancy Tests Foresight Contemplate -> +10 next Test. Resistance (Fear) +10 Resistance Test Rapid Reload Half reload time Rapid Reaction Agility test negates surprise Into the Jaws of Hell +5 Morale during boarding Peer: Imperial Navy +10 on Fel Tests (interacting) Hip Shooting Full move + single shot Light Sleeper Always count as awake. Master & Commander half action: crew +10 combat. Blind Fighting Half vision obscure penalty Marksman No Long/Extended Range penalty Orthoproxy +20 Will against interrogation Master Orator Fel skill affect x10 targets Crack Shot Crit damage (range) +2 damage Good Reputation: Imp. Navy +20 on Fel Tests (interacting) Void Tactician +10 BS for starship gunnery Armour of Contempt Adjust incoming Corruption -1 Fearless Immune to Fear and Pinning Step Aside Extra Dodge Ambidextrous Both hands work equally well. Last Man Standing +1 AP for cover from ranged. Resistance: Psychic Powers +10 Resistance Test Deadeye Shot Called shots on -10 Mighty Shot +2 damage on all ranged attack Lightning Reflexes Initiative on Agility bonus x2 -
Dataslate 3: Gear
+++WEAPONS+++
++MELEE WEAPONS++
+Power Sword (common)+
Class Melee (Power) Range - Damage 1d10+5 Type E Pen 5 Special Power Field Special Balanced Weight 3 kg ++RANGED WEAPONS++
+Archeotech Laspistol (Best)+
Class Pistol (Las) Range 90m RoF S/3/- Damage 1d10+3 Type E Pen 2 Clip 70 Rld Full Special Accurate Special Reliable Weight 4 kg +++ARMOUR+++
+Best Enforcer Light Carapace+
Head 5 Body 5 Arms 5 Legs 5 Weight 15 +++ITEMS+++
++CLOTHING++
Fine Clothing - Xeno Pelt Cloak - Void Suit - Re-Breather - Imperial Navy Uniform - ++COMMUNICATION++
Micro-bead - Vox-caster - ++OTHER++
Bottle of Amasec (x2) - Ship Token - Pict Recorder - A set of playing cards - -
Dataslate 4: ADVANCEMENTS
RANK 1 (5k-6.999){2.2}
{S} Awareness 150 {S} Chiphers : Rogue Trader 150 {S} Dodge 150 Secret Tongue (Rogue Trader) 150 Speak Language (Trader’s Cant) 150 {T} Renowned Warrant 250 {S} Trade (Voidfarer) 150 {S} Scrutiny 150 {T} Sound Constitution (x2) 300 {C} Balistic Skill Simple 150 {C} Fellowship Simple 150 {C} Fellowship Intermediate 300 RANK 2 (7k-9.999){4}
{S} Barter 250 {S} Charm +10 250 {S} Command +10 250 {S} Intimidate 250 Sch. Lore (Imperial Warrants) 250 {T} Iron Discipline 250 {T} Jaded 250 {T} Quick Draw 250 {T} Sound Constitution 250 {S} Dodge +10 250 For. Lore (Pirates) 250 {S} Pilot:Space Craft +10 250 {S} Scrutiny +10 250 Secret Tongue (Military) 250 Secret Tongue (Underdeck) 250 {S} Tech-Use 250 RANK 3 (10k-12.999){3.25}
{S} Charm +20 250 {S} Command +20 250 Sch. Lore (Heraldry) 250 Sch. Lore (Legend) 250 {S} Security 250 {T} Dark Soul 250 {T} Foresight 250 {T} Resistance (Fear) 250 {S} Awareness +10 250 Com. Lore (Imperial Guard) 250 Navigation (Stellar) +10 250 Pilot (Space Craft) +20 250 {T} Rapid Reload 250 RANK 4 (13k-16.999){3.1}
{S} Commerce +10 250 Com Lore (Imperium) +10 250 Com Lore (Rogue Traders) +10 250 Com. Lore (Rogue Traders) (m) 250 {T} Rapid Reaction 250 {T} Into the Jaws of Hell 550 {S} Dodge +20 250 Sch. Lore (Judgement 250 {T} Peer: Imperial Navy 250 {T} Hip Shooting 550 RANK 5 (17k-20.999){4.3}
{S} Awareness +20 250 {S} Barter +10 250 Ciphers (Underworld) 250 {S} Commerce +20 250 Com. Lore (Imperium) +20 250 Com. Lore (Rogue Traders) +20 250 {S} Evaluate +10 250 {T} Light Sleeper 250 {T} Master & Commander 550 Com. Lore (Imperial Navy) +10 250 Com. Lore (War) +10 250 Sch. Lore (Astromancy) +10 250 Sch. Lore (Tactica Imperialis) 250 {T} Blind Fighting 250 {T} Marksman 250 {T} Orthoproxy 250 RANK 6 (21k-24.999){4.85}
{S} Barter +20 250 Forb. Lore (Xenos) +10 250 {S} Evaluate +20 250 {S} Intimidate +10 250 Sch. Lore (Imp. Warrants) +10 250 {T} Master Orator 550 ♦Forb. Lore: Adeptus Astartes 400 Com. Lore (Imperial Navy) +20 250 Comm. Lore (War) +20 250 {S} Scrutiny +20 250 {S} Trade (Voidfarer) +10 250 {T} Crack Shot 550 Good Reputation: Imp. Navy 550 {T} Void Tactician 550 RANK 7 (25k-29.999){4.55}
Sch. Lore (Imp. Warrants) +20 250 Sch. Lore (Legend) +10 250 {T} Armour of Contempt 250 {T} Fearless 550 {T} Step Aside 550 ♦Forb. Lore: Ad. Astartes +10 400 Com. Lore (Imperial Guard) +10 250 Intimidate +20 250 Navigation (Stellar) +20 250 Sch. Lore (Astromancy) +20 250 Sch. Lore (Tactica Imp.) +10 250 Trade (Voidfarer) +20 250 {T} Ambidextrous 250 {T} Last Man Standing 550 RANK 8 (30k-34.999){3.3}=34.55
Sch. Lore (Legend) +20 250 {T} Resistance: Psychic Powers 250 {T} Deadeye Shot 550 {T} Mighty Shot 550 {T} Lightning Reflexes 550 ♦Forb. Lore: Ad. Astartes +20 400 Sch. Lore (Judgement) +10 250 Sch. Lore (Tactica Imp.) +20 250 {S} Tech-Use +10 250 -
Quotes and Excerpts
As stated above, all following text in this section of the page belong to GW and their respective authors (proper sourcing will be provided with every bit).
Betrayer, Aaron Dembski-Bowden. P.56
'Lotara,' he voxed.
Her image pulsed into being, just her head and shoulders, in a crackling, distorted hololithic window to the right of his targeting array. As usual, her long hair was bound back in a ponytail to keep it from her face. Her features were in profile, with the imagifier attached to the side of her command throne.
'Khârn?' Her voice was a buzz, all quality savaged by the temperamental vox. It made a mess of her usal measured, spire-born eloquence. 'Are you smiling?'
'Give me the orbitals, flag-captain.'
'As you wish, not that there's anything to see. What are you doing down there, anyway? The city is drowning in dust. Even by your sloppy standards, this is a mess.'
Betrayer, Aaron Dembski-Bowden. P.60-65
The primarch was off-ship, fighting on the world below. She was free to minimise casualties as best she could, rather than send the fleet into yet another cruel assault purely to inflict maximum damage and deploy boarding pods, regardless of the cost in men and materiel. This degree of tactical subtlety was a rare treat. Harder, though. She was used to fighting dirty, like the Legion she served.
She'd not lied to Khârn - the surface war was a mess of unholy proportions. Lotara kept sparing glances to the pict-feeds showing the city drowning in its own dust.
She'd been at the briefings weeks ago, when Angron had demanded to make plantefall on Armatura and break it from within. No surprise there. What had come as a surprise was the moment Lord Lorgar Aurelian of the Word Bearers nodded in agreement with the Eater of Worlds. The last year had seen them cut across the Imperium, reaving through the worlds in their way, despite Lorgar's protests to make full speed for Ultramar. Now they'd finally in Ultramar's heart, all restraint seemed cast to the solar wind.
She spared another glance at the pict-feeds. This time the city's images held her gaze. Lotara frowned.
'Intensify sectors eight and fifteen' she ordered one of the servitors slaved to the orbital-scrye console.
'Compliance.'
She sucked a slow breath in through her teeh as she started at the resolving images. 'They're bringing down buildings in quick succession,' she said. 'Look. Look at these barracks crumbling in neat order. That's not from a battle. Those buildings have to be rigged with charges. The Ultramarines are killing their own city to bury our Legion in the rubble.'
Ivar Tobin, her first officer, nodded to her assessment. 'So it seems, captain.'
'Get me Angron,' she said to him. 'Now.'
'Aye, ma'am.' He left her side to make her request a reality. Getting hold of the primarch while he was embattled would take no shortage of patience and resolve.
Lotara turned her attention back to the void war unfolding above Armatura. She called up a quad-screened pict-feed, hazed by distance, of one of the new Word Bearers king-ships. The thing was monstrous in its beauty, big enough to make her breath catch if she looked at it for too long. The human mind processed detail in stops and stars; it was only when a lesser cruiser's silhouette crossed the Blessed Lady's battlements that the king-ship's size became apparent, and each time it did, Lotara felt her stomach lurch. The thing looked too big to be real.
Orbital wars were their own beasts, with their own methods and moments of madness. A war above a world tended to play out in much closer quarters than many stately, oddly-placid void engagements. Fighting it out in high orbit meant getting in your foe's face and that suited Lotara just fine. She was used to it. The World Eaters liked to board their enemies' ships and that almost always meant coming in close, no matter where the Conqueror fought.
'Why is that weapon platform not dead yet?' she asked, eyebrow raised. 'Chase the Venerator Vorena, if you please. Pursue it into the fiftieth grid, with full broadsides on that platform as we pass.'
At only twenty-three, third officer Feyd Hallerthan was the youngest of the strategium's command crew. 'That will bring us dangerously close to the three cruisers holding off the Lex, captain,' he said.
She clicked her tongue - a habit of hers when she was on the verge of losing her temper. Feyd was wrong, because she could see the oncoming press of another Word Bearers cruiser and its frigate squadron would force the three Ultramarines cruisers to pull up and regroup for another attack run, unless they had a sudden hunger to be rammed or crippled by close-quarters rupture fire. Their sound tactical retreat would open up all the room she required. It took her all of half a second to discern this from the flickering dance of ship name-runes clustering and twisting on her tactical display.
She knew he had other ideas, and that they'd be acceptable enough. But Lotara knew her game better than anyone else.
'Look to the grid beneath the Lex, and thr Word Bearers vessel rising up in support. That's why you're wrong. The Ultramarines will pull up and away, before regrouping for a second run at the Lex.'
'I see it, ma'am. But if the-'
'As far as I'm concerned,'she interrupted with a smile. 'it's not my job to explain why my order overrules your idead. You should perceive the reasons yourself. Now do as I say, lieutenant.'
Leftenant, she pronounced it, ever the spire-born.
He flinched, and the several tactical alternatives he'd'been about to suggest shrivelled on his tongue. 'Aye, ma'am.'
Ivar Tobin - greying, stern, progessional to his core - returned to her throne's side. 'The primarch has answered you vox-hails, ma'am.'
'Well, then. This is a day of many wonders.'
Lotara leaned back as the ship juddered around her, momentum dampers straining against the tight turn. A couple of tapped keys on her armrest activated her personal hololith generator. Angron's image stood before her trhone, towering tall, distorted and pale but undeniably the primarch. His axes dripped colourless blood, but the hololithic droplets ghosted away into nothing as soon as they hit the deck.
'What do you want, captain?' Pain-tics flawed one side of his face, leaving the other slackened in a dull snarl. She knew better than to ask if he was in pain. Angron was always in pain.
'The casualty reports from the surface attack are looking rather unpleasant. What's going on down there?'
'The Evocati.' Angron's image distorted to the point of failure, then streamed back into grain existence. 'And they have a Titan Legio as well. Sorry if we're not pacifying the world as quickly as you like, Lotara.'
'Don't be childish, my lord.'
'I am no one's lord, and I grow bored of telling you that. You're always very brave with me when I'm several thousand kilometers away, captain.'
'I know, sire.' She steepled her fingers, briefly distracted by the ship shaking around her again. The frigrates passing their stern were targetting the Conqueror's engine decks, to little effect.
'How's my ship?' Angron asked, spitting blood onto the rocky ground.
'My ship is fine,'she replied. 'How many Evocati are on the surface?'
The colossal figure grunted, lifting an axe in what might have been a god's shrug. 'A lot. All of them. I don't know.' He was looking away now, starting to scan the wrecked city over his shoulder. She didn't have long, he'd be lost to the Nails soon.
'The junctions in the capital, where the primary avenues meet; it looks like the Unltramarines have the buildings rigged to detonate. Be careful as you advance into the city, sire.'
'You worry too much, captain.'
She clicked her tongue again. 'Does it not seem perfectly reasonable, sire, that a war-world would be prepared for every eventuality when it comes to an invasion? At least consider advancing with the Word Bearers and sending scouts ahead to confirm what I'm seeing.'
'My brother's precious Bearers of the Word are hissing their insipid prayers as they march slowly down the streets. The war will be over before their bolters sing even once.'
She swallowed her temper as best she could. 'Do you at least want me to target the Titan Legio's foundries from up here?'
'I want you to leave me alone, captain.' Angron turned back to face her, his left eye twitching tightly closed in response to the spasms tugging at the corner of his lips. His unwilling smile bared one side of his implanted iron teeth. 'Shoot whatever you wish, but cease whining to me about it.'
Distance did nothing to steal any of the primarch's blunt, savage grandeur. He was a ruined, towering thing of pain-spasms and sutured flesh. Lotara had only ever seen two primarchs, but despite the legend that each was cast int the Emperor's image, Lorgar and Angron couldn't have looked less alike. The former had a face that belonged on antique coins, and a voice that made her think of warm honey. The latter was an angel's statue, descecrated by a hundred blades and left in the rain. Angron was ripped skin and roared oaths over a core of thick blood vessels and muscle meat.
Whatever aesthetic intention there'd been in his creation was long lost; time and war had seen to that. Had fate not intervened, perhaps Angron would have grown to be as beautiful as his brothers Lorgar, Sanguinius, or even Fulgrim - but fate was never a silent ally to anyone.
The primarch's distorted hololithic wavered as the sip took another barrage against its void shields.
'How's the void battle?' Angron asked. She knew he didn't want details, and knew his fragile, mutilated mind wouldn't hold onto them even if he tried. Grey blood was already trickling down his white chin.
Another nosebleed.
'We're still here,' she said.
'Good. Stay that way.'As he turned his back on her, the image flickered once more and finally died.
'This isn't good,' she mused aloud. 'This isn't good at all.'
'Ma'am?' asked Tobin.
'Khârn's right about the primarch.' She turned her throne back to face the void war. 'He's getting worse.'
Betrayer, Aaron Dembski-Bowden. P.131-133
Ivar Tobin stood with his arms crossed over his unformed chest, watching the oculus. 'They're game, ma'am. I'll give them that.'
Lotara didn't disagree. She gestured to her weaponmaster and his two dozen servitors and menials.
'Open fire.'
'Firing, captain.'
The Conqueror shook again. An initial volley spread radiance across the Truth's shields. A second punctured them, discharging power into the nothingness of space, no different to fluid bursting from a blister.
The cutting began, at a cost in countless lives, as the flagship's lances knifed through the unprotected battlements and spinal architecture. Fire breathed from the wounds, becoming mist in the dark, then becoming nothing at all.
'They're still closing,'Tobin noted. 'Looks like ramming speed.'
Lotara wasn't so certain. The Truth would be dead before it got the chance to collide, leaving her with other suspicions.
'Fire at will,' she ordered.
More than one lance beam went wide. The Truth was a heavy cruiser, but her captain and crew demanded the best from her. Lotara watches with an admiring smile as the vessel banked and rolled as fast as its bulk would allow. It drifted aside from the Conqueror's long-range calculated spite, closing the distance in a steady dive.
'Ah,' said Lotara.
'Ma'am?'
She didn't reply. She waited. She waited until her lances had clawed and cut and cleaved through the Truth's hull. She waited until the Ultramarines cruiser was a crumbling, flaming wreck on dying engines, struggling to hold itself together. Inertia kept bringing it closer.
'Here it comes,' she said. 'Any moment now.'
Kejic called from his station. 'Incoming hail from the Praetorian Truth.'
'Perfect timing.' She gestured her acceptance, a queen enthroned on black iron and brass. The voice that strained over the bridge speakers was human and wounded, and punctuated by the sounds of its ship detonating in the background.
'For the Emperor,' it said. 'Courage and honour!'
The link died. Lotara steepled her fingers beneath her chin, still watching the Truth's death throes. She knew exactly what she was looking for, and she nodded to herself wheen she saw it. Airbursts along the Truth's edges, but not the release of broadside weapons batteries. Oh, no. This was a Legiones Astartes vessel, after all.
'Western battlement turrets, form a contiguous firing solution. Interception spread.'
A servitor at the gunnery consoles blurted its lifeless response. 'Compliance.'
'Commander Tobin?' she asked.
'Captain?'
'Lock the ship down. Get Delvarus of the Triarii up here at once.'
It took him a couple of seconds to realise she was right. 'Aye, ma'am.'
As he moved away to give the necessary orders, she tapped a quick code into her throne's armrests and leaned back to get comfortable. The shipwide vox gave a three-tone alarm, preceding every captain's address.
'This is Captain Lotara Sarrin,' she addressed the tens of thousands of slaves, menials, officers and soldiers. 'All hands to your stations. Prepare to repel boarders.'
As a cautionary measure, surely pointless, she drew her sidearm and checked the power cell. Immaculate and charged, as always. On the oculus, the defensive turrets were spitting incendiary fire into the space between the vessels, but shooting down boarding pods was always an excerside in luck as much as skill.
'Captain?' Tobin called. Lotara wasn't sure she liked the note of unease in his voice. Nothing ever made Ivar Tobin uneasy. 'Captain?'
She holstered her laspistol. 'Commander.'
'Delvarus of the Triarii has been reported as making unauthorised planetfall.'
She sat straight at that. 'Pardon me?' she said, with a politeness and calm she most definetely didn't feel.
'Delvarus and the Triarii aren't on board ma'am. From the reports, they made planetfall with the Legion and apparently "neglected" to inform command.'
Lotara took a breath. Could this Legion do nothing right?
'We're being boarded by what may well be an entire company of Ultramarines,' she pointed out, still with the same alien calm.
'I know, ma'am.'
The Triarii: five full companies of the World Eaters' finest shipboard warriors,, excelling in void warfare and boarding actions far beyond traditional Legion training. Five hundred of Angron's best, led by the Legion's undisputed pit champion, all of whom were vowed and bound to defend the flagship. It was their duty. Their honour-bound duty.
'This bloody Legion,' she said.
Betrayer, Aaron Dembski-Bowden. P.149-150
His first thought was that his targeting array was malfunctioning.
'My targeting array is malfunctioning,' he said. Except he said nothing, because nothing came out. Data, in jagged Nagrakali, rained down his red-glassed vision display. He read it, processed it, and because it made sense, he waited patiently.
While he waited, he watched the two humans before him. One of the was Lotara Sarrin. He liked Lotara. The Blood Hand marked her uniform, and it was a fine sight. He'd been there to see Khârn make the mark himself, after all the void-murder Sarrin had committed that fine day.
The other human was robed in red, hooded by an overhanging cowl, and possessed five rotating eye lenses instead of a face. In fairness it could have been any number of tech-priests, but that didn't matter, as he liked none of them. He had an eiditic memory, as did all legionaries, so it wasn't that he forgot the priests' names. He just never bothered learning them.
He was cold, now that he was awake. A penetrating heavy rain kind of cold that sank into the pores and softened the bones. Not that it mattered. It wasn't like it could kill him. It wasn't like he could even shiver. No room for that in his coffin.
When he concentrated, shutting out the outside world, he could almost feel himself. The real himself: a naked, hobbled, foetal-curled corpse compacted into an adamantium shell. It might just be his imagination, though. Difficult to say for certain.
His vision shook, making the runes blue for a moment. Sound arrived with a blast, bathing him in the boise of a workshop at war. The crackle-sizzle of sparks and soldering. Thythmic clang of forge hammers. The binaric burbles of robed half-men.
'My targeting array is malfunctioning,' he said. His voice was a mechanical rockslide.
'It shall be attended to,' the priest replied. He replied in binaric cant - a keening spill of ones and zeroes, but it was trnslated into Nagrakali and Low Gothic by the visor display.
'Captain Sarrin,' he said. He'd never been gifted at discerning human physical cues. Her eyes were narrowed. Her heartbeat was elevated. Her mouth was set in a thin, firm line that paled her lips. 'You are either angry or worried.'
'Both,' she replied. 'Lhorke, I need you to defend the ship.'
... (Outtake from page 184} ...
He ignored the cheers from the surviving bridge crew as he started his leaning, limping run. The bridge itself shook beneath his tread, ceiling spotlights shattering to rain glass shards on his etched armour plating. Lotara's cheer was harder to ignore - he heard her swearing in gutter Nagrakali: 'Get these dog-screwing whoresons off my ship!'
Betrayer, Aaron Dembski-Bowden. P.201-205
...
Audun Lyrac cleared his throat. 'Whether she walks again or not depends on salvageability.'
Keeda went pale. Toth grunted something obscene. Lotara rounded on the new lord of the Legio Audax, but her words were drowned out by the howling engines of an incoming Stormcrow gunship. Its forward-swept wings cast a vulture's shadow on the deck.
'...my ship,' Lotara finished over the quieting engines. 'Is that clear?'
'Uh, perfectly, ma'am.' Audun drummed his thick fingers on his uniformed belly. He'd heard maybe one word in ten, but it didn't pay to push the flag-captain's temper.
Lotara looked pointedly at the two Titan crew members. 'I want complete copies of your reports. If I don't get them, I'll know why.'
Toth nodded, and Keeda smiled. 'Aye, ma'am.'
'Good. Now go to the apothecarion and get Toth patched up.' She stepped back, making way for them. Just as she turned to begin the long journey back to the bridge, she noticed just who was leaving the Stormcrow. The warrior's crested helm marked him out above his brethren, but she'd have known him purely from the bronze versions of the XII Legion symbol on both of his shoulder guards.
She watched him as he descended the gang-ramp into the hanger, his walk assured, his grace undeniable, his arrogance unbounded. He spoke to his companions, ignoring the human serfs and hangar crew going about their business around him.
Very calmly, Lotara Sarrin drew her laspistol, took aim, and shot a Wolrd Eaters captain in the face.
His head snapped back from the las-beam's impact, and she had a momentary flush of pleasure at scoring a truly wicked shot, before the World Eaters circled their captain and raised their bolters, iming across the crowded hangar deck.
There was, very distinctly, just long enough for Lotara to think they won't shoot, before they shot. She saw the flare of muzzle flashes as their guns kicked in their fists. Time didn't slow down as she'd been led to beleive by the war-sagas. She barely had time to blink before the bolts detonated in the air not six metres from her face, spraying her with burning, stinging shrapnel.
Serfs and thralls were scattering with the same haste as cockroaches fleeing a sudden light. She stood dumbstruck from one of the first times in her life, unsure why she was still alive, yet more annoyed they'd dared to shoot her aboard her own ship.
Another World Eater moved to stand by her side, his hand raised to ward off further attack from the captain's bodyguards. He spoke a single word, soft and low.
'Enough.'
The others weren't listening and the captain wasn't dead. He came to his feet, storming towards her at the head of nine of his brothers. A meteor hammer rattled loose on its chain, hanging from his right fist.
'You pulling little whore,' he snarled down at her. 'How dare you?' He pulled the weapon back, activating its spiked head, meaning to wipe her from the face of the deck. Lotara spat at his boots, but the World Eater at her side took another step forwards, preventing the two of them from coming to blows.
'I said enough.' He kept his hand raised, warning them back. 'Stand down, Delvarus.'
The Triarii captain turned his grim-faced helm towards the Codicier, eye lenses gleaming. 'You have no authority over me, Esca. The bitch shot me. Get out of my way.'
'That,' Esca replied patiently, 'will not be happening. Move away.'
The other Triarii pulled steel, as another three World Eaters came to stand by Lotara. She looked up at them, each of them a full head and a half taller than her. All three wore Destroyers black.
'Problem, captain?' said the sergeant, in a voice laced by vox-corruption.
Delvarus pointed at the mortal woman in the middle of the towering pack of legionaries. 'She-'
'I wasn't asking you, Captain Delvarus. I was asking Captain Sarrin.' He looked down at her, his empty grenade bandloier clanking against his chestplate.
'Nothing I can't handle, Skane. But you're welcome to stay anyway.'
More Triarii were arriving to swell the ranks of those around Delvarus. The captain's cloak was ruined from the surface war, but he imperiously cast its ragged remnants over one shoulder.
'This doesn't concern either of you,' he said. 'Sergeant, Codicier, you're dismissed.'
They ignored him. Lotara spat on his boots again. 'You abandoned the ship, Delvarus. That's dereliction of duty. Every life we lost in that boaring action is blood on your hands.'
He laughed down at her. 'You were boarded? When I left the ship, the fight was a foregone conclusion. How did you manage to get boarded, Lotara?'
She smiled, the sweetest knife of a smile. 'Would you prefer I took this to the primarch?'
'Aye, perhaps I would. You think he'll even care? He barely knows who he is, any more. Dereliction of duty may be a grave threat to an Ultramarine, but we're a little more grounded in the realities of war. Now get out of my face, girl. I'll let this insult pass once. Try it again, and I'll give your skull to my artificers as a pot for night soil.'
More legionaries gathered on both sides. 'This looks entertaining,' said Kargos, moving next to Skane. 'Have we missed something?'
'She shot me,' Delvarus said.
Kargos snorted, sounding suspiciously like a snigger. There was a similar bark of vox-chuckling from Skane's augmentic throat.
'Well I'm sure you deserved it,' the Apothecary said.
'You aren't funny, Kargos.'
Kargos was still grinning, iron teeth on show. 'Maybe not, but you are. Getting shot on your own hangar deck? I ownly wish we still had remembrancers around to record that in your archives of personal heroism.'
Delvarus gave a snort of derision and turned away. 'I'm done with this idiocy.'
'Stand your ground, soldier.'
The Triarii captain halted, and turned with a feline and somehow amused slowness, to regard the woman who'd addressed him.
'What is it, Lotara?'
'You will address me as Captain Sarrin. And you are confined to your arming chamber until I say otherwise. Discipline exists even if you consider yourself above it, Delvarus.'
'Enough, girl. You're still alive. The ship's still in one piece.'
She stepped from the protection of Skane, Esca and Kargos, until she was right before the Triarii, staring up at him with narrowed eyes. Her head reached his chestplate. Barely.
'We lost over two thousand crew to the Thirteenth Legion's bolters, you stupid whoreson. The Ultramines knew where to board us, and where to strike. Two thousand men and women dead because you wanted to chase glory down there in the dust. Not slave-deck dregs and war fodder, Delvarus. Trained, vital crew from the command and primary enginarium decks. We sustained enough internal damage over several systems that the Conqueror won't function fully until she's been drydocked for a monkth or more. Am I making myself clear, you arrogant swine? You have your orders. Now get out of my sight.'
For a moment, it looked as though he'd refuse. In the end, Delvarus inclined his head in a nod, saluted her with a fist over his heart, and led his men away.
'I'm going back to the bridge,' she told Esca. 'Thank you for doing... whatever it was you did. With the bolt shells, I mean.'
The Librarian bowed, his ravaged and restitched face in its usual hideous calm. 'Hunt well, captain.'
She looked around the battle-damaged crowd of World Eaters around her, with their weapons in their hands. How many people had died with a scene just like this as the last thing they ever saw?
'Thank you, all of you.' They each nodded, only dispersing once she walked away.
One one of the gantries overlooking the hangar deck, a figre three times the height of a legionary stood in contemplative silece, still the way only statues and corpses can be, for he was a little of both. He watched and learned, and in knowing, he began to plan.
Perhaps sensing something, the Codicier Esca turned and looked up at the secondary loading platform, where Lhorke stood alone. He raised a hand in greeting to the former Legion Master.
Lhorke returned it, raising his iron fist.
Betrayer, Aaron Dembski-Bowden. P.218-221
Khârn picked his way through the mess of the Conqueror's bridge. The bodies had been cleared and the stains scrubbed away, but he could still smell their burst flesh, their spilled blood and refuse-stink of their emptied guts. Death lingered aboard a ship, despite the best efforts of any air-filtration vents. Cables dangled and sparked from the ceiling. Entire banks of screens and consoles were smoing lumps of metal. Las-burns and bullet-holes riddled the floor and walls, punctuated by the deeper craters of bolter fire. These were rarer, for the Ultramarines had been spoiled for choice when it came to targets.
Lotara was in her throne, above the madness, and Khârn had never seen her so angry. There was something almost predatory in the way she projected her temper as a cold seethe. She didn't need to say anything. She didn't even need to scowl. Her mood was apparent from the ice in her eyes and the way she sat back in her throne, staring, staring, staring.
Khârn halted in his careful tracks when he saw Lhorke standing vigil behind her throne. He ascended the stairs, paying respects to the Dreadnought before the captain.
'Legion Master,' he said, and felt the strangest compulsion to kneel. Too long spent with the Word Bearers, he told himself. 'You walk.'
'The captain woke me.'
'I heard about Delvarus and the Triarii.' He glanced to Lotara, who was watching him. 'Things have changed since you last walked among us, sir.'
The Contemptor gave a resonant clunk-clunk of servos locking tight. It sounded like an expression of distaste, though Khârn wasn't sure how.
'So I see. You've been busy, Khârn.'
This wasn't the wasn't the warm-hearted reunion of brother-officers that Khârn had expected. He looked to Lotara.
'Angron is on his way. He asks you to be ready to bombard the planet in twelve hours.'
She leaned forwards in her throne, eyes wide. 'Is that a joke? After all this, you want me to do what I should have done at the very start?'
He didn't feel like going into the metaphysical details of pain resonance and the spiritual reflection of emotional torment. It wasn't that he didn't understand it; it was that he wasn't sure he beleived any of it.
'Lorgar's orders.' He was too weary to even smile. 'The world bleeds, and all remaining life has gone to ground. He wants to burn them for the sin of cowardice.' And to squeeze out the last trickles of sufffering, he thought.
'Khârn...' She looked at him, helpless fury in her eyes. 'What are we doing here? What kind of war is this?'
He didn't have an answer for her. Nothing tangible, at least.
'The new kind,' he said.
She wasn't placated. 'A mad kind. Everything was gone wrong since Isstvan III. Since we sided with Horus.'
Khârn looked between the captain and the Contemptor, but said nothing.
The bridge's port-side doors didn't grind open on heavy tracks any more, they'd been removed from the wall and taken away for repair. Angron entered with a dusty-looking tech-priest behind him. The robed adept had his hands clasped together in his sleeves as he trailed after the primarch, almost cringing away from the World Eater's muscled bulk.
Khârn,' Angron growled across the debris-strewn chamber. 'This red-robe has been hunting for you.'
The primarch left the bowing priest at the violated doors and made his way through the mess that his bridge had become. He gave a short, throaty bark of a laugh at the devastation.
'How did this happen?'
Lotara rose from her throne, looking down at Angron from the raised central dais. 'Delvarus and the Triarii made unauthorised planetfall to join the surface attack. We were boarded in their abscence.'
Angron walked over to where Lehralla dangled from her cables, bound to the auspex console. With a gentleness none of his brothers would have beleived he possessed, he rested a massive hand on her shoulder.
'You are not hurt?'
The crippled, young woman, surgically implanted onto the table, raked her filthy hair back from her face.
'No, sire,' she replied, utterly undaunted by the demi-god before her.
Angron gave an ugly grin and looked back over the bridge. 'And where is Delvarus now?'
'I confined him to his quarters.'
Clearyl amused, the primarch gave a short bark of laughter. 'I like that.' He started ascending the dais, facing Lhorke. The Contemptor towered above even the Primarch, but nothing - living or dead - could ever make Angron seem small. 'Lhorke of the War Hounds.'
'Angron of the World Eaters.'
'You look good, old warrior. Still in the outdated colours eh?' Angron rapped his knuckles against the Dreadnought's ironform where the collared wolf stood proud. In instinctive reaction to his discomfort at being touched, Lhorke's combi-bolters reloaded with twin metallic rattles.
'Do I owe you thanks for defending my ship?' the primarch asked.
'I did little. Your gratitude should go to the other first Dreadnoughts, and the two thousand and weventy-one souls that lost their lives in repelling the assault.'
Angron lifted a scab-knuckled hand to his temple, feeling the dull return of pain. 'Hnnh. You're still a miserable bastard, Lhorke.'
'I died. A little too late to change now.' The Dreadnought forced its ironform into a grinding bow, this one to Lotara, and made its way down the wide steps. 'I must go. I require maintenance.'
Angron felt the deck shivering beneath the Contemptor's tread. He remembered with a keen rush just how it felt to fight such a creation. The Isstvan campaign had been such an educational experience.
'Captain,' he said. 'In twelve, we'll bomb Armatura into memory. Salth the earth, Lotara.'
She looked at him as she reclined in her throne, booths thumping on one armrest.
'As you wish.'
Betrayer, Aaron Dembski-Bowden. P.333-334
There would be no great war for Nuceria. Nor, much to Lotara's guilty disappointment, would there be any bombardment. She spent the days on the Conqueror's bridge, watching the orbital cartography, seeing the cities burn beneath the tide of the two Legions and their Audax forces. The only had twenty thousand legionaries down there, but when you were dealing with warriors of that calibre, 'only' was a relative statement. Several hundred could take a world in months. Several thousands barely needed a week.
Lhorke had made planetfall with them, leaving Lotara with a curious feeling of isolation. She'd grown used to the former Legion Master remaining by the side of her throne this last month, offering his grinding, veteran observations on everything that took place. She wondered if he'd paid this much heed in the years he'd been lord of the War Hounds, standing by the thrones of her predecessors and rumbling with advice and criticism whether or not it was sought.
She'd tried playing cards with him at one point to pass the time during their month in transit. Lhorke was, she learned, a very sore loser, and his massive gauntlets precluded a card player's finesse. In the end, they'd had to use a servitor to hold his cards. He only played once, and not for more than two minutes.
'This is ludicrous,' he'd stated, and that was that.
When he'd announced he was making planetfall, she'd let her raised eyebrow ask the question for her.
'War calls,' he'd answered.
'And this has nothing to do with you not trusting Angron?'
'War calls,' he'd said again. And that, also, was that.
-
Starship (Cruiser){Conqueror}
Basics
Speed 5 (+1) Manouvrability +10 (-1) Detection +10 (+5) Hull Integrity 70 (+3) Armour 20 (+3 all / +7 front) Turret Rating 2 Space 75 SP 60 Weapon Capacity (Prow) 1 Weapon Capacity (Port) 2 Weapon Capacity (Starboard) 2 Machine Spirit Oddity (7) Wrothful Past Histories (4) Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing Essential Components
♦Mod. Jovian P. Class 4 Drive 73 Gen.* / 10 Space / 3 SP ♦Ancient Life Sustainer 2 / 2 Space / 2 SP ♦Autostabilised Logis-targeter 5 / 0 Space / 2 SP Strelov 2 Warp Engine 12 / 12 space / 0 SP Gellar Field 1 / 0 space / 0 SP Warpsbane Hull 1 / 0 space / 2 SP Multiple Void Shield Array 7 / 2 space / 2 SP Combat Bridge 2 / 2 space / 0 SP Command Bridge 3 / 2 space / 1 SP Armoured Command Bridge 3 / 2 space / 0 SP Ship Master’s Bridge 4 / 3 space / 0 SP Voidsmen Quarters 2 / 4 space / 0 SP ++++++TOTAL++++++ 73|75 42 Power / 39 Space / 10 SP Supplemental Components
Mars P. Macrocannon Broadside 4P/2Spc/1SP/S6 1d10+2/CR 5/R6 (Port 1) Mars P. Macrocannon Broadside 4P/2Spc/1SP/S6 1d10+2/CR 5/R6 (Starboard 1) Mars P. Macrocannon Broadside 4P/2Spc/1SP/S6 1d10+2/CR 5/R6 (Port 2) Mars P. Macrocannon Broadside 4P/2Spc/1SP/S6 1d10+2/CR 5/R6 (Starboard 2) Armoured Prow 0 / 4 space / 2 SP (Prow) Armour Plating (x3) 0 / 2 space / 2 SP Barracks 2 / 4 space / 2 SP Reinforced Interior Bulkheads 0 / 3 space / 2 SP Munitorium 3 / 4 space / 2 SP Trophy Room 1 / 1 space / 1 SP Observation Dome 0 / 1 space / 1 SP Extended Supply Vaults 1 / 4 space / 2 SP Augmented Retro-thrusters 5 / 0 space / 2 SP ++++++TOTAL++++++ 31|36 28 Power / 35 Space / 24 SP
