[continued from my army list thread]
http://www.ageofstrife.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=1086#1086

Tech Priest Machinos left the hive world Magdra Prime centuries ago on a Quest for Knowledge. he traveled throughout the Imperium (and beyond) looking for STC systems and other ancient artifacts, until he was defeated by an Inquisitor on a little known dead-world that had been left lifeless and ruined in the wake of a Chaos fleet thousands of years earlier. since then it had been cut off by warp storms and ignored by the Imperium, until news emerged that the storms had abated. Explorator Warbands rushed to the planet to learn its secrets, only to find a barren desert which yielded no discoveries. Machinos arrived after the initial explorers, in time to see them leave the planet cursing their wasted journeys, but his faith in the guiding hand of the Machine God lead him to stay.

as his small craft touched down on the planet the previously still air whipped up great sandstorms and the massive dunes started to shift. once the storms died down the ships sensors picked up a massive power signature emanating from a building that had been buried in sand until that day. Machinos and his small retinue left immediately to investigate the planet's solitary intact building and its mysterious power source, but unfortunately they were not alone: another late arrival had been watching them. the Tech Priest Master reached the one end of the ancient fortress as the Inquisitor and his elite warband reached the other.

despite its thick stone walls, both parties concluded this building should have been destroyed when the Chaos fleet bombarded the planet from orbit, and both claimed it in the name of their deity. neither the Inquisitor Lord or the Tech Priest would back down, so they declared war.

it was only when the approached the opposite, open doorways, and tried to exchange bursts of fire across the the courtyard did the fortress reveal its secret: a powerful, arcane force field protected the building, and their bullets could not pass through the open courtyard to the other side! Machinos saw this as Divine protection from the Machine God and, with nothing to fear, strode through the field - he passed harmlessly into the courtyard and was quickly followed by his Retinue. The Inquisitor saw this and sent his Eversor Assassin to reclaim the fortress in the name of the Emperor. Machinos fought hard but he and his retinue were explorers, not warriors, and were no match for the drug-fueled, bio-engineered killing machine that charged their position.

his Retinue slaughtered, his shattered remains were left for dead as the Inquisitor returned to his own ship to fetch a Tech Priest engineer of his own to investigate this fearful, ancient device. however, one tiny spark remained within Machinos' mechanical parts, and this triggered his life support system. running off emergency power, back-up systems and bio-resuscitation began. Machinos awoke, bleeding heavily and leaking oil and other fluids from his mechanical limbs, but he sensed the great power of the force field generator nearby - almost as if it was calling out to him. driven by a thirst for revenge he dragged his wrecked body to the ancient device, reached up with a partially severed mechandrite and, as if by instinct, interfaced with the arcane machine.

it was through near death that Machinos' existence changed forever. the massive energies and ancient spirit of the machine flooded Machinos' systems: fuses blew, batteries popped, circuits were overloaded, but at the same time he felt his strength return. the surging power continued and Machinos passed out.

whilst his body was unconscious his mind communed with the Spirit of the Machine. time unraveled like rewinding pict-file as he witnessed the memories of the machine: first the battle he had just lost, then the re-awakening of the device when he landed on the planet. then blackness. nothing for thousands of years as the machine lay dormant. out of the blackness chaos and carnage exploded and he learnt of the planet's fate. Khorne Berzerkers, hundreds of them, forcing their way into the fortress - which he somehow now knew as "The Sanctuary" - hacking and slashing the defenders, desecrating the walls with unholy icons drawn in fresh blood. the ancient device was spared due to its protective energies - any that tried to touch it were struck by its awesome power and flung through the air.

back a few months, less than a blink in the machine's recollections, and he began to understand fully what happened here: when the Chaos bombardment began the planet was razed - everything outside the walls of the Sanctuary was wiped off the face of the world. thousands of years flew by and and Machinos saw primitive human colonists find the machine and discover its protective properties. they worshiped it and built their homes within its effect. further and further back it went, into even Darker times...

but the machine didn't just know its own history. it knew of its kin, hidden on other worlds. weapons, defenses, computing devices, barely comprehensible, darkly secret things. the device also showed Machinos the true path - it is only by becoming one with the Machine can one truly embody the Spirit of the Machine. Machinos awoke once more, his body coursing with electrical energy, his damaged implants had repaired themselves, and although his weak flesh was wasted, he had never felt stronger! connecting all his newly restored mechandrites to the machine he welcomed it spirit into him - absorbing all of its ancient energy.

by the time the Inquisitor returned to the Sanctuary, both Machinos and the force field were gone, and the ancient machine was cold and lifeless, its circuits overloaded and its power drained. in his rage at being outdone, the Inquisitor ordered that the fortress be destroyed, and left to try and track down the fleeing Tech Priest.

Since then Machinos has continued his Quest, but guided by the Machine Spirit inside him he has had unparalleled success, uncovering artifacts that had laid hidden for Millennia, and restoring them to their former glory. over time he has replaced more and more of his flesh with steel. he retains but a few vital organs, buried deep within his metal frame, and wears his face loosely over a robotic skull, as if to mock those who rely on weak fleshy bodies to survive. he still courses with electrical energy, and has learnt to channel it though a mighty axe of his own design, as well as launch brutal arcs at opponents or shield himself from incoming attacks. he knows no fear and is truly convinced of his Divine status.

Machinos has now returned to his homeworld of Magdra Prime, to raise an army to fight alongside him. he travels between hives gathering more and more supporters: fellow Tech Priests, Servitor slaves, Electro Priests and enraged Zealots - he has become a force truly to be reckoned with.

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so, what do you think?

cheers for reading

~ Tim

Hmm, I don't get why the Inquisitor and Machinos would be enemies. It's normal for the AM to be called in when anything like this pops up. Maybe flesh out that part a bit: did Machinos circumvent an Inquisition blockade; was the planet deemed tainted and so prohibited (yet the Explorator teams were allowed, seems strange).

Have you read Dark Adeptus from Black Library? It's the second book in the Grey Knights series, you might well get inspiration from that storyline to flesh yours out. Here's the blurb from BL:

One hundred years ago, the forge world of Chaeroneia disappeared amidst rumours of corruption and civil war. Now it has returned and the once teeming factory planet is now a silent sentinel floating through space. Is it an empty tomb or a foul nest of Chaos? That is the question facing Captain Alaric of the Grey Knights. The elite daemon hunters are charged with a new mission; to investigate Chaeroneia, determine the presence of any daemonic influence and terminate with extreme prejudice. However, nothing can prepare even the Grey Knights for what they find on the planet’s surface. One hundred years of isolation has corrupted the engineer-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus beyond all imaginings, and their monstrous, possessed machines prowl the surface like predators. In order to complete their mission, the Grey Knights must rely on their faith, and trust a ghost lurking in the machine!

However, I seem to remember that it's not one hundred years, it was one thousand (might well have been the time displacement effect of the warp though - 100 years in realspace, 1000 in the warp).

Thats pretty good not your average story but i Like it very much good work. I asssume you are making a army based on this fluff.


(from Spack: I fixed your post, looks like I'd left the forum set to allow anonymous posting, fixed that now too )

Anonymous wrote:Thats pretty good not your average story but i Like it very much good work. I asssume you are making a army based on this fluff.

yeah - follow the link at the top of the thred

cheers mate

~ Tim

Spack wrote:Hmm, I don't get why the Inquisitor and Machinos would be enemies. It's normal for the AM to be called in when anything like this pops up. Maybe flesh out that part a bit: did Machinos circumvent an Inquisition blockade; was the planet deemed tainted and so prohibited (yet the Explorator teams were allowed, seems strange).

the Inquisitor and Machinos were rivals in our Inquisitor campaign (simply because one of us wanted to use an Inquisitor and i wanted to use a Tech Priest ).

the AdMech are known to be secretive, jealously guarding any scrap of knowledge or artifact. they dont really recognise the authority of the Inquisition, and Machinos is a bit of a rebel even within the AdMech - he's on his own Quest, and he wont let anyone get in his way. When the Inquisitor (Sirrom, il probably call him, as a bit of an in-joke) confronts him at the Sanctuary and tries to claim it instead Machinos is outraged (he was rather full of himself even before he communed with the ancient machine).

and as for why the Inquisition was tailing Machinos in the first place... im not sure whether or not to leave that open-ended and mysterious (just like the storms and the machine starting up when Machinos touched down on the planet, when other Tech Priests had already been there and found nothing, or why it seemed to call out to him when he was injured). maybe they knew there was something special about him? maybe the Emperor's Tarot had given an Inquisitor a glimpse of the future, and of how powerful he would become? maybe Sirrom was just jealous of the fact the Machinos had beaten him to to other relic-sites in the past?

Spack wrote:Have you read Dark Adeptus from Black Library? It's the second book in the Grey Knights series, you might well get inspiration from that storyline to flesh yours out. Here's the blurb from BL:

no, i hadnt read (although i suppose il have to now ive read the blurb lol) - do you need to have read the 1st GK book to get the story?

i stopped buying the GW novels after the 2 Blood Angel ones - not because i didnt like them (i loved them) but because it was getting too expensive along with my comics every month.
before long things will be back to normal though, so il be catching up on what ive missed.

cheers mate

~ Tim
p.s. this wasnt really intended as a work of fiction in its own right, just an explaination of the ideas behind the army list - the sort of thing i take for granted when thinking about the army. i wrote it all yesterday, too...

LordMalekTheRedKnight wrote:

Spack wrote:Have you read Dark Adeptus from Black Library? It's the second book in the Grey Knights series, you might well get inspiration from that storyline to flesh yours out. Here's the blurb from BL:

no, i hadnt read (although i suppose il have to now ive read the blurb lol) - do you need to have read the 1st GK book to get the story?

There are a few references to the first book, but only a very few. Just bits about Alaric and what he did. You could easily read the second book on it's own without missing anything.

i stopped buying the GW novels after the 2 Blood Angel ones - not because i didnt like them (i loved them) but because it was getting too expensive along with my comics every month.
before long things will be back to normal though, so il be catching up on what ive missed.

I don't have the BA books, from what I've heard they're a mess and the author admitted he new very little about the fluff. I've got a large collection of BL books now, and it keeps growing - I work for book retailer so I get good prices

I can wangle extra discount (although obviously not as good as I get myself) on the books for everyone else too - check out the stickied thread at the top of the Black Library forum

Spack wrote:There are a few references to the first book, but only a very few. Just bits about Alaric and what he did. You could easily read the second book on it's own without missing anything.

cool - im not that interested in GKs but the Dark Adeptus do intrigue me.

Spack wrote:I don't have the BA books, from what I've heard they're a mess and the author admitted he new very little about the fluff. I've got a large collection of BL books now, and it keeps growing - I work for book retailer so I get good prices

oh i really loved the BA ones - couldnt wait for the 2nd one to come out.
the Eisenhorn ones were great too, but my all time faves are the Jaq Draco/ Inqusition Wars books. now they just rock

Spack wrote:I can wangle extra discount (although obviously not as good as I get myself) on the books for everyone else too - check out the stickied thread at the top of the Black Library forum

i think il have to check that out... cheers mate!

~ Tim

LordMalekTheRedKnight wrote:oh i really loved the BA ones - couldnt wait for the 2nd one to come out.

Didn't you get annoyed by all the glaring errors? From what I've heard, more Death Company die in one of the books in a single battle than the BA have ever had in fluff.

the Eisenhorn ones were great too, but my all time faves are the Jaq Draco/ Inqusition Wars books. now they just rock

Agreed. I read the Draco books when they first came out (got first editions of each book, and Chaos Child signed by Ian Watson). I only recently read the Eisenhorn books as I picked up the omnibus edition, but I've also read the Ravenor books too - if you liked Eisenhorn, read Ravenor (2 books atm, 3rd book due early next year).

Have you read the first two Horus Heresy books yet? Damn good reading. And I'd suggest the Gaunt's Ghost series too, very good. Double Eagle is also a good read, again a Dan Abnett book.

I'm just starting Rogue Star, new book about a rogue trader, only on the first chapter so far so very little has happened.

Spack wrote:Didn't you get annoyed by all the glaring errors? From what I've heard, more Death Company die in one of the books in a single battle than the BA have ever had in fluff.

i just let myself get caught up in the story nd enjoyed the ride (and boy what a ride). besides, there were reasons for the extra Death Co., IIRC...

the only thing that was really glaring was a comment on board the SM ship: they were praying/chanting/cheering/whatever, and it said there were "a thousand voices" (or something similar). there are only 1000 BA in total, so that seemed odd... although it could be rationalised to include priests/serfs/etc - maybe every marine has 10 servants/choirboys etc on average. the artwork always has plenty of hangers-on in the bakground that never appear on the tabletop, so it didnt bother me too much once i thought about it.

Spack wrote:Agreed. I read the Draco books when they first came out (got first editions of each book, and Chaos Child signed by Ian Watson).

*jealous*

Spack wrote:I only recently read the Eisenhorn books as I picked up the omnibus edition, but I've also read the Ravenor books too - if you liked Eisenhorn, read Ravenor (2 books atm, 3rd book due early next year).

Have you read the first two Horus Heresy books yet? Damn good reading. And I'd suggest the Gaunt's Ghost series too, very good. Double Eagle is also a good read, again a Dan Abnett book.

are you sure you dont work in the BlackLibrary Sales Dept.?
yes, ive read most ofthe GG books, havent finished the set yet (i was reading them too quickly and it was getting expensive lol). il get a few more when i can.

cheers again

~ Tim