Fanfic Idea - Warhammer 40,000: Unforeseen Consequences

Games and stories.
Post Reply
User avatar
Malchus
Posts: 1257
Joined: Wed May 21, 2008 7:05 am
Location: In a chibi-land, eating the brains of H. P. Wuvcwaft.
Contact:

Fanfic Idea - Warhammer 40,000: Unforeseen Consequences

Post by Malchus »

Okay, the following pic was an insomnia-fueled joke:

Image

But it made a plot bunny bite me.

-----------------------

Setting: Black Mesa (Forge World)

Plot: The forge world Black Mesa is home to a secretive Adeptus Mechanicus sect known as the Lambda Sector, which revolves around the maintenance and study of the ruins of a Standard Template Constructor complex from the Dark Age of Technology built into the craggy ground of the planet. The STC complex was badly savaged during the Age of Strife, but the ruggedness of its construction and the stable, seismically dead world of Black Mesa helped preserve enough of it for lucrative study. Several Standard Template Constructs also survived, but most of these were in the form of simple hand tools that have survived in working order. These tools are used both as objects of study and as holy relics used in the Lambda Sect's veneration rituals.

The most jealously guarded prize in the complex, however, is an advanced piece of orange-grey-and-black carapace cobbled together from the remains of several such carapace suits scattered all over the planet. Such was the damage they sustained during the Age of Strife that only one such suit was pieced together in working order (although there are rumours of at least two more). This suit is the centrepiece of Lambda Sect's worship rituals.

In an unusual practice for the Adeptus Mechanicus, one of the number of menials about to be inducted as tech-priests is chosen to have no enhancements at all—not mechanical or biological. This unenhanced tech-priest to be is given the honour of donning the Sacred Carapace during Lambda Sect rituals. It is believed that an unaltered candidate is chose to express the oldest form of machine communing with man, although the myth-lost origins may have been a little more practical—heavily modified tech-priests and their extensions and mechadendrites just would not fit into the Carapace. This is a highly coveted position, especially since such a prized piece of technology actually has a machine spirit that whispers gently to the wearer while he or she has it on. Although the whispers are not understood since they are spoken in a long-dead tongue from the Dark Age of Technology, it is still considered a great blessing by the Omnissiah to have one of their number regularly commune with such an ancient and holy machine spirit.

"Welcome to the H-E-V Mark 4 protective system. For use in hazardous environment conditions. High-impact reactive armour activated. Atmospheric contaminant sensors activated. Vital sign monitoring activated. Automatic medical systems engaged. Weapon selection system activated. Munition level monitoring activated. Communications interface online. Have a very safe day."


The Chosen for the Carapace is selected from several cogitators running the names of possible candidates at random until one name emerges from all the cogitators in unison. This is believed to be the purest expression of the Omnissiah's intent, and it can take a good long while. Some candidates have been chosen centuries after their unaltered predecessor passed away. The latest Chosen, one Gordonius Freeman, has caused quite as stir due to the small gap—less than two decades—between his Choosing and the Choosing of his predecessor, Wallacite Breen. This has caused some whispers about Breen having become less worthy to the Omnissiah somehow, but few would dare say such things in the open about one of the Chosen. Still, Breen harbours resentment towards Freeman because of this.

Lastly, Black Mesa's ancient STC complex also harbours the fragments of an ancient portal system that would make Warp travel far, far safer. The extremely incomplete nature of the STC plans for this portal systems have made any serious attempt at heir recreation highly forbidden, especially given their Warp-related nature. However, recent movements within in the Mechanicus, as well as secret backing from a radical Inquisitor with a strange speech pattern, have loosened these restrictions. By the time of the next major Lambda Sect ritual, coinciding with the arrival of said Inquisitor, they are ready . . .
Image
I admire the man, he has a high tolerance for insanity (and inanity - which he generously contributed!). ~Shroom, on my wierdness tolerance.
User avatar
Booted Vulture
Posts: 965
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 9:33 pm

Re: Fanfic Idea - Warhammer 40,000: Unforeseen Consequences

Post by Booted Vulture »

:D :D :D

I know very little about WH40K or Half life. But this still seems awesome to me.

Does that seem right to you?
Ah Brother! It's been too long!
User avatar
Malchus
Posts: 1257
Joined: Wed May 21, 2008 7:05 am
Location: In a chibi-land, eating the brains of H. P. Wuvcwaft.
Contact:

Re: Fanfic Idea - Warhammer 40,000: Unforeseen Consequences

Post by Malchus »

Booted Vulture wrote::D :D :D

I know very little about WH40K or Half life. But this still seems awesome to me.

Does that seem right to you?
Yeah, it does. I've read fanfics--good ones, too--about stuff I only have a passing knowledge of.
Image
I admire the man, he has a high tolerance for insanity (and inanity - which he generously contributed!). ~Shroom, on my wierdness tolerance.
User avatar
Lelouch vi Britannia
Posts: 52
Joined: Fri May 18, 2012 10:27 am
Location: Ashford Academy

Re: Fanfic Idea - Warhammer 40,000: Unforeseen Consequences

Post by Lelouch vi Britannia »

I have only a passing knowledge of Warhammer 40k, and while I played the hell out of the first Half-Life back in the day, I have yet to play the second game. Still interested in seeing where you'll be going with this, though.

In any case, I have quite a few questions. Are the fauna of Xen going to be rationalized away as Warp daemons, or will there be something more to them? If you're familiar with Opposing Force, where would Race X fit into the grand scheme of things? What would make a good Combine analogue in the context of 40k? Also, considering that there are actual in-universe links between Portal and Half-Life, can Aperture Science be worked in?
I ship Eino Ilmari Juutilainen x Lydia V. Litvyak.

Image

"YOU JERK! YOU WOULDN'T KNOW SEXY IF IT BIT YOU!" - Erica Hartmann, Strike Witches
User avatar
Malchus
Posts: 1257
Joined: Wed May 21, 2008 7:05 am
Location: In a chibi-land, eating the brains of H. P. Wuvcwaft.
Contact:

Re: Fanfic Idea - Warhammer 40,000: Unforeseen Consequences

Post by Malchus »

Lelouch vi Britannia wrote:I have only a passing knowledge of Warhammer 40k, and while I played the hell out of the first Half-Life back in the day, I have yet to play the second game. Still interested in seeing where you'll be going with this, though.

In any case, I have quite a few questions. Are the fauna of Xen going to be rationalized away as Warp daemons, or will there be something more to them? If you're familiar with Opposing Force, where would Race X fit into the grand scheme of things? What would make a good Combine analogue in the context of 40k? Also, considering that there are actual in-universe links between Portal and Half-Life, can Aperture Science be worked in?
Xen and its fauna will be the result of the experiment inadvertently crossing into the Warp realm of Nurgle, the Chaos god of despair, disease, and decay--and weird mutated life much more than the other Chaos gods. I think it works out pretty well given the attributes of Xenlife.

The regular and fast headcrabs I can pretty much keep as is given that what they do is vanilla for Nurgle. Poison headcrabs I'll be turning to plague headcrabs. Instead of a venomous bite, the bite instead turns the target into a Nurgle plague zombie. The host the plague headcrab attaches to actually grows new headcrabs on its body and toss them at targets (like the HL2 poison zombies toss poison headcrabs hitching a ride). Other Xen creatures and Race X will be modified or replaced with preexisting 40K counterparts as needed. The Xen alien grunt and the Race X shock trooper, for example, can be largely replaced with Nuglite Plague Marines.

I am planning to incorporate Blue Shift and Opposing Force in the form of Skitarii (the Adpetus Mechanicus's own armed force) and an Inquistional stormtrooper regiment known as the 7th Yusemcee Heavy Engagement Combat Unit respectively.

I'm not really going to incorporate much from HL2 other than some creatures and characters, though, so there'll be no Combine analog, and Breen's motives here will differ accordingly. And I wanted to include the Portal games, but other than some references to a mysterious "aperture science" practiced during the Dark Age of Technology, I could find no real way to incorporate them into the story that didn't seem forced.
Image
I admire the man, he has a high tolerance for insanity (and inanity - which he generously contributed!). ~Shroom, on my wierdness tolerance.
User avatar
Siege
Site Admin
Posts: 2563
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 7:03 pm
Location: The Netherlands

Re: Fanfic Idea - Warhammer 40,000: Unforeseen Consequences

Post by Siege »

Dude, tell me you will include Father Grigori in your plannings.
"Nick Fury. Old-school cold warrior. The original black ops hardcase. Long before I stepped off a C-130 at Da Nang, Fury and his team had set fire to half of Asia." - Frank Castle

For, now De Ruyter's topsails
Off naked Chatham show,
We dare not meet him with our fleet -
And this the Dutchmen know!
User avatar
Malchus
Posts: 1257
Joined: Wed May 21, 2008 7:05 am
Location: In a chibi-land, eating the brains of H. P. Wuvcwaft.
Contact:

Re: Fanfic Idea - Warhammer 40,000: Unforeseen Consequences

Post by Malchus »

Siege wrote:Dude, tell me you will include Father Grigori in your plannings.
Badass and gloriously insane priest with a gun? In Warhemmer 40K?

Natch. ;)
Image
I admire the man, he has a high tolerance for insanity (and inanity - which he generously contributed!). ~Shroom, on my wierdness tolerance.
Post Reply