“The Krieger Corp is the life for me,A gun, bed and funeral for free.That’s my lot in the Black Company.”It took the Earth 10 long years to die. Like every planet afflicted by the pervasive sentient plague that swept the galaxy at the turn of the 23rd century, aptly named The Rot, Earth’s demise was slow and agonising at first then violent and sudden by the end. The seas boiled and the air turned to ash in the wake of the continent-shattering orbital bombardments that cleansed her and a hundred other worlds.20 years later, the dust of the Purification Wars has settled and the surviving xenos empires have finished carving up the remaining colonies of those less fortunate races between them, including those few left from Earth’s initial phase of expansion. Just rewards for the victorious alien’s part in saving the galaxy. The surviving human population, once many billions, now numbers in the mere millions. An entire race of refugees, vagrants and backwater outcasts begging, stealing and labouring as second-class citizens, servants or slaves under uncaring alien masters.A lifetime of backbreaking work for stale recycled oxygen units and a handful of credits is the best fate most humans can hope for. Little wonder then that the violent but lucrative life of a mercenary holds such appeal. As the novelty of peace wears off and the rival alien nations rattle their sabres once more, human mercenaries are in high demand for their crude effectiveness and affordable prices.And of all the human mercenary firms, there are none so infamous and so highly sought after as the services of the Black Company…=============================================Twitter: https://twitter.com/BlackCompany666/qst/ Archive: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=2230AD2230AD Annal Entries: https://pastebin.com/zBic3fPQ [Updated!]Recorded Xenos Species: https://pastebin.com/vdG01RzGThe Last Human Colonies: https://pastebin.com/VA3nHbTmAdvanced Firefight Rules: https://pastebin.com/NATmyFSw
THE STORY THUS FARSergeant ‘Snake Eyes’ Natalya is a survivor. From the tender age of too-young-to-really-remember she has fought, clawed and killed her way to the top of a very nasty food chain. Lucky enough to escape the dying gasps of Earth, but unlucky enough to find themselves stranded on the moon that is the deadly jungle world called Clayton’s Cradle, she was the only member of her family to last more than a few months in the merciless Green.Clayton’s Cradle gives no second chances to the unwary and no leeway to the hesitant. Be it deadly predators large or small, plantlife toxic or carnivorous, diseases wasting or virulent, its small population are each hardened through experience and boosted with vital genemods stretching the limit of what a biological human can achieve (or indeed what constitutes a biological human).Joining the Black Company was a way off that deadly rock, a well paying one that at least saw Snake Eyes serving alongside fellow humans instead of being drafted into the alien armies of the Savis Legions and their Cradler Auxiliaries. Achieving the rank of Sergeant in the 77th Krieger Platoon wasn’t easy, it took some gusty moves and daring choices on her part to make it. That and supressing her crippling gambling addiction long enough to afford the basic gear. Now she’s the primary babysitter, feared leader and beloved chef (in her own eyes at least) of one of the most lethally eclectic band of misfits the universe has ever seen. Ex-gang members,ex-human Republic army regulars/deserters, ex-Alien Fed enforcers, ex-bartender/part-time-model, ex-miners, ex-slaves, ex-pirates, current convicts, current killer-bots animated by highly illegal AI, current alien musical cabbages good with surgery tools. If you name it, then it’s probably in Snake Eyes squad (or her sister squads) and has an outstanding warrant out for its arrest somewhere in the galaxy. And all of them, every man and woman and genderless being among them, each dumb enough to gamble on getting shot out of a ship in high orbit into a hostile warzone and surviving long enough to collect their paycheque.[1/2 Recap]
[2/2 Recap]For the past EIGHT MONTHS Snake Eyes and her squad have been operating on the dusty mining world of Dis, a resource rich world located within the Savis Empire, now currently in the grips of a well-armed and well-organised slave uprising thanks to yours truly. Although Black Company Command won’t tell the grunts who hired them for this little start-up insurgency, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the likely backers are probably either the Federation or the Mandate by virtue of these other two alien empires being the only real players in this part of the galaxy that could afford the Black Company for this kind of work. And that’s probably the reason why Command, and Snake Eyes’ immediate superior Lieutenant ‘Boy’ Blue, has been so explicit that any evidence of the slave insurgency having outside help is to be kept to an absolute minimum.The Black Company has achieved its primary objectives. The insurgency is now at the stage where there has been significant disruption to the planet’s productivity and the initial Imperial military response has had it’s nose bloodied in an embarrassing fashion. A substantial portion of the Savis Empire’s forces is now preoccupied and distracted with stomping out the flames of what would without Snake Eyes have been just another routine crushed slave uprising. Great job, pats on the back all around and beers back at Snake Eyes place after dinner. But, there is a catch and a reason why Snake Eyes isn’t breaking out the poker chips just yet. Snake Eyes and her Krieger buddies are still here. Still on Dis, trapped with the doomed rebels in dwindling territory as the full might of the Royal Savis Legions is being brought to bear and Snake Eyes own fellow Cradlers in the Legion’s Auxiliaries hunt them in the equatorial jungles.As the Royal Savis Legion closes in and every rebel and merc starts eyeing the nearest exit or at least the best ground for last stand, Snake Eyes has agreed to join Alexander Hail and some of his most die-hard rebels on a daring mission that could turn the tide of the entire campaign. Or at least kick up enough chaos for most of everyone to get away clean. It may be suicide, it may be the craziest mission Snake Eyes has ever gone one, but stealing an Imperial Titan would make for a hell of a page as far as Big One’s go in the Annals. Even by Black Company standards.
+++XENO QUOTE OF THE DAY+++>SELECTED LEAGUE OF DIS - REBELS“Crowds gathered in their thousands at Unity Plaza today in a show of support for the victims of the ongoing sapientarian crisis on the Royal Savis territory world of Dis. While Savis officials deny the allegations of war crimes in what they refer to as a measured police action targeted at radical subversive elements, leaked footage confirms the deployment of multiple Titan-class warmachines as well as evidence of extensive collateral damage to the civilian populace from the Imperial response. In Silver City, noted for its large human population, riot squads were deployed to curb violent demonstrations directed at government officials viewed by many to be doing little to support the plight of the rebels in light of the full blockade recently imposed on the system by Savis leadership. Meanwhile decorated General Erim’O’Jusk, sometimes regarded as a critic of the current administration, had this to say…”-Sapphire Plume, co-anchor of the Perspira Planet29th Cycle May 2231AD (yesterday) – Dis Equatorial Region – Imperial Savis SpaceJake Martin had been 14 years old when Earth died. It hadn’t felt real to him back then, running while the world burned. One day he’d been chasing bullfrogs through the rushes and agri-fields of bumfuck Oregon and then, just around when girls were starting to look more interesting than gross, that mad rush with the extended family to the evacuation zones.His family and been running ever since, and here he was the last Martin left. Still running while the world burned around him. True, he hadn’t ever imagined it might end up like this, with a wounded comrade leaning on his shoulder and an alien jungle burning behind them. But this at least felt real.Maybe it hadn’t seemed real to him back then as a kid, running with the family as the world burned. But the hunger in his belly drifting through space on the ragtag voidborn fleets had felt real. The weight on his back and shoulders decade of slavery and hard labour had felt real. The thunder in his heart as they charged the line overseers after Breaker’s broadcast executing the Savis regional governor, that had felt real. Even the heat on his back as the Titan stomped overhead through the ashes of their outpost, ignoring the leftover scuttling insects on the ground, that for damn sure felt real.Jake shifted his weight. Not by much, but enough for Lightbody to groan into his shoulder.[1/4]
Lightbody wasn’t the kids actual name of course, but a lot of the escaped slaves his age had discarded the ordinary names or designations they held in captivity for new ‘liberated’ names now that they were free for the first time in their young lives. Names like ‘Freeman’, ‘Liberty’, ‘Emancipation’ and the like were becoming very popular, but many like Lightbody had taken to the tradition of adoption less high-principled nicknames in the tradition of the Voidborn pirates that had helped them get this far. ‘Pickles’, ‘Slim’, ‘T-Bone’ and ‘Hyena’ were just a few of the monikers Jake had heard some of the younger rebels insist they now be called, human or alien.Kids like Lightbody adored those Voidborn pirates, even though most kept to themselves with their dark armour and grim looks. Jake didn’t buy it, he’d been living on a Voidorn fleet for years before slavers captured their ship, and these dark-armoured soldiers had the look of mercs more than spacers. Not that Jake cared, even if the off-worlders had their own thing going they had stuck their neck out big time kidnapping the regional governor, crippling the local forces and getting this rebel army up and running. They’d turned a horde of scared refugees into a army out here in the wilderness, a real fight instead of a quick riot and long hunt. So no wonder the next generation copied them however they could, whether or not those kids were old enough to hold a gun.Jake ducked as low as his aching spine would allow as he felt another WOOSH of the Titan’s giant incendiary launcher detonate, but behemoth blotting out the sun above them had directed its ire to a different hundred acres of jungle. Light muttered weakly, limping together through the undergrowth as the flames licked the jungle and what was left of their perimeter camp behind them.“Man is free…”“What’s that?” Jake was only half-listening, keeping his eyes on what was left of the scorched treeline. The lethal Legion Auxiliaries were everywhere these days, although even those savages tended to give the firezone of an Imperial Titan a wide berth.“That saying that you told us, what the humans from old earth said when they rose up against their kings.”“You mean ‘Man is free at the moment he wishes to be’?” Jake already regretted sharing stories of his home around the campfire, but his comrades had lapped it up. “Looks clear. Let’s catch our breath for a moment.”“Man is free at the moment he…" Lightbody paused, half-smiling and half-grimacing as the two of them leaned up against a tree while the Titan stomped ahead. “Come on Elder Martin, you know what I mean. The whole thing.”[2/4]
Jake bristled at the use of an honorific for his age, another quirk of the various camps that was quickly becoming a settled custom. He was only 34 or thereabouts, assuming his math on the Imperial calendar was right. Lightbody was just a kid, he hadn’t even been born when Earth died. Instead he’d been born here, a slave, he’d never known anything else. But Lightbody also currently had a gunshot wound to his thigh and lower back, Jake could feel his warm red blood on his shoulder. So yeah, Jake figured the kid deserved a little slack.Lightbody may have been human, but to him Old Earth was as alien a place as an Quexi hatcling. The kid had been born a slave here on Dis, crawling through the tighter tunnels retrieving vein-nodes for his uncaring masters, skin scraped raw and ore dust slowly shredding his little lungs. Jake was beginning to understand how important it was to the younger generation to understand that their struggle for freedom was not an unnatural one, that they were carrying the torch in an age-old fight against despotism. “Ahem. Right, how did it go again…” Jake coughed and cleared his throat, scratched from the ashes left in the Titan’s wake. For a human like Lightbody, Jake wanted him to know that ‘Freedom’ wasn’t just some high concept that the Federation species had agreed on in their citizenship accords. It was a struggle that humans like Lightbody and Jake were also part of, had been part of, for hundreds if not thousands of years of human history. That was why it was important to get the words right, best he could. Jake cleared his throat again, speaking with a confidence and firmness in his voice he hadn't realised was still there.“From a small spark, kindled in America, a flame has arisen not to be extinguished. Man finds himself changed. He discovers that the strength and powers of tyranny consist wholly in the fear of resisting it, and that, in order "to be free, it is sufficient that he wills it.""Huh." Lightbody must have heard it more than a dozen times now, but he sounded no less glad to hear it again even now. Perhaps especially now. “Who said all that stuff?”“Uhh… George Washington.” [3/4]
[4/4]Lightbody leant back against the tree with his eyes closed, smiling. “He was a human like us, right? A general from Old Earth?”“Damn straight, kid. The humanist human to ever kick royal butt.”“The power of tyranny… is just in the fear of resisting it.” Jake glanced down nervously at Lightbody’s frail voice, that was still a fair amount of blood leaking out of him. “No Gods, No Masters. I’m still breathing… and breathing free… Hell yeah…” “Come on, kid. Let’s get you back to camp.” The main League of Dis, where they might actually have a proper medkit left. And maybe the only camp left, from the look of things.Lightbody groaned as Jake pulled him to his feet, they both paused for a moment to watch the departing Titan, the manifest martial embodiment of the Masters on the warpath. For some reason they were both smiling like damn fools. And credit to the kid, there was a damn sight more defiance than fear in Lightbody’s smug grin directed at the Titan diminishing in the distance. Hungry for another breath of free air. “Missed us, fucker.”Jake could have said ‘this time’ or something similar but, despite feeling like he’d just been blasted half-way back to Oregon a mere five minutes ago, it wasn’t in him. Looking at Lightbody’s grin, battered, bloody and a little crispy, Elder Martin had to smile too. “Hell yeah, comrade. Hell yeah.”============================================================Xeno Quote of the Day (select one for the next thread)For any newbies, this is also your verification vote. Link back in later votes if your ID changes, it does help me account for samefags.>Asandi>Auxl>Belcossan>Chorkrum>Coryx>Drax>Faenwedhe>Kroll>Pect’Max>Quexi>Savis>Yibrak>Vesh> League of Dis - Rebels
>>6355767>BelcossanWelcome back Forgotten
>>6355767>DraxLong time no see Forgotten. Welcome back.
>>6355767> League of Dis - RebelsWe are here to kill titans and chew bubblegum and we are all out of bubblegum
Welcome back old players and new, this verification vote will remain open for 24 hours.As mentioned elsewhere, I'll be sticking to a steadier but slower bi-weekly content update schedule of Wednesday and Sunday evenings. Votes will remain open for 24 hours after 10pm AEST each of those evenings, and I may have shorter intervening updates where rolls or a series of votes are required.It does help me to link back to your original verification vote when continuing to vote in the thread, but you'll still be counted unless your ID changes and you don't link back later down the track.
>>6355767>> League of Dis - Rebels>>6355771dis guy has the right idea
>>6355775Will the slower update rate affect the pacing of the quest?
>>6355778I imagine so, I won't be cracking out as many updates but those updates will likely be on average a bit longer and hopefully proofread.I can also hopefully update consistently, rather than this stop/start action we saw going on in the last few threads.
>>6355767>KrollForgotten oh how I've missed you
>>6355779Thats good! I look forward to future space black company adventures.
>>6355767>>FaenwedheCheck
>>6355767>FaenwedheWelcome back King.
>>6355767> League of Dis - RebelsWelcome back Forgotten, I wanted to ask you what are your influences? As in other quests, books and settings. The Black Company is obvious and I recently have been reading my way through The Traitor Son Cycle and noticed some of it's influence on Sworn to Valor. But I wonder what else there is?
>>6355767>> League of Dis - RebelsWelcome back Forgotten! Can't wait to get back into this!
>>6355779Will Starwars and Andre will come after this?
>>6355805>That meme10/10 Delusional, Mikhail is a good boy.
>>6355809Hahaha
>AuxlLet's get some details about Breaker's people. Sad this isn't StV, but a snake is fine too!
>>6355767>> League of Dis - RebelsHappy to see you, Forgotten!What's new since the last time? Is your place still making you work 12-hour shifts?
>>6355767> SavisAssuming we steal the Titan and exfil it’d be funny to get a POV from some of the enemy commanders next thread
>>6355767>Asandi
>>6355767> SavisI'd like to hear how they're reacting to all this.
>>6355767>DraxI'm mostly just a Valorous boy, but I guess I'll need to hang out here until we can reclaim the fair lands of Ardenne.
>>6355767>Belcossan
>>6355767> League of Dis - RebelsVeri vote
>>6355767>>BelcossanLet's see what old Treebeard has got to say.
>>6355767>>BelcossanHELL YEAH WE BACK BABY
>>6355767>BelcossanGod it feels good to be questing again.
>>6355767>BelcossanWe are so fucking back lads. Welcome back Forgotten, I hope you had a good time.
>>6355767>BelcossanOk (^:
>>6355767> League of Dis - RebelsIT'S KRIEGER TIME, glad you are still alive Forgotten.
>>6355767>DraxHell yeah! Here we goooo!
>>6355767>AuxlWell, here we go again. Welcome back Forgotten!
>>6355767>SavisNice to see you back Forgotten.Time to steal a mecha.
>>6355767>>FaenwedheTime to steal a giant fucking robot.
>>6356062Also my trip, nearly forgot
>>6355767> League of Dis - RebelsIt's been a while since the last threadGlad I didn't miss this one.
>>6355798>Welcome back Forgotten, I wanted to ask you what are your influences?As you've already identified, Miles Cameron and his Traitor Son Cycle are one of my favourite book series of all time and have influenced my writing. Joe Abercrombie's work is also right there at the top, I will read anything that man puts out and then read it again.In terms of writing style those are the two big ones, other works by other authors and setting concepts or ideas have influenced the quest in other ways but that could be an exhaustive list. I will also say that several have influenced me to -not- include certain things in my own work because I find them unappealing or tiresome.>>6355807>Will Starwars and Andre will come after this?Sir Andrei, yes hopefully. Star Wars: Interregnum? I couldn't say, as it's not my quest!>>6355831>What's new since the last time? Is your place still making you work 12-hour shifts?Same old, same old. But the itch to write is one I've got to scratch, and onerous work hours make for a sorry excuse as the months drag out. This quest is to a great degree the whestone upon which I sharpen my penmanship and worldbuilding.
>>6356117>>This quest is to a great degree the whestone upon which I sharpen my penmanship and worldbuilding.It's more or less the only reason I still come here as well
>>6356117>penmanship>digital writingHmmm....
>>6355767>Pect’MaxOh hai
>>6356117Any STV on the horizon or is it just BCQ for the next bit?
>>6355767>BelcossanWelcome back, boss. It's been a long time, glad that you have time for another thread.
>>6355767>>DraxWe're back baby!
>>6355767>SavisWelcome back, Forgotten. You get the chance to check out the MEANACE demo from the ballers behind Battle Brothers?
>>6356117sorry man got it confused. too excited i guess.
>>6355767> League of Dis - Rebels
>>6355757Is that you Forgotten? I thought you got cannibalised by bogans! I missed you on here, man. Glad to have you back.Also anchor vote:>FaenwedheAlways fun to hear from the genocidal gaming addicts
>>6356117>onerous work hours make for a sorry excuse as the months drag outClearly, you should just write at work and bill the client for the quest. If you do any government work you can even consider it as cultural subsidies :)In all seriousness though, would you want to be a full time writer if the option was availible? You absolutely have what it takes, except for (I assume) your unfortunate gender and pigmentation
