#they were upgraded dreadnoughts too

[vanvelding]

I'm am learning a lot about Twilight Imperium's defensive combat paradigm.

[dalekofchaos]

Fixing the Geth-Quarian War in ME3

I've was admired how fleshed out were the Geth in ME2, with Legion being a "diplomatic platform" for the Geth Consensus, showing us that the Geth were not all evil.

They didn't want to be like humans, they were happy just being all together, with building a dyson sphere where every geth would be uploaded into, so no Geth would be alone.

Also they rejected the Reapers (Old Machines) help to achieve their goal, believing that they would be blinded to other paths if they accepted the Reaper's offer.

A part of them accepted the Reapers' help due of "mathematic variable", they allowed their own people to leave them to serve the Reapers, and were not expecting that the "Heretics" were planning to unleash a virus on them to make them worship the Reapers too.

Then in ME3, Legion accepts the Reaper code "upgrade" that makes the Geth individual AI, but that's not what they were after, suddenly wanting to become like organics, when Legion told us that the Geth hated the concept of organic individuality.

Legion's quote when I destroyed the Collector Base cemented my respect for the True Geth.

"An interesting choice, Shepard-Commander. Your species was offered everything the Geth aspire to, true unity and understanding in transcendence. You rejected it, you even refused the possibility of using the Old Machines' to achieve on your species' own terms. You are more like us than we thought".

I am aware that the real reason for this change is due of change of writers, when Chris L'Etoile wrote Legion and the Geth in ME1-ME2 and was no longer in Bioware in ME3. For me, Legion is the Geth in ME2, in ME3 is not Legion.

This coincidentally with the Quarians de-humanized and portrayed like complete monsters with the Geth as innocent, with the favourable points for the Quarians reduced drastically if not removed. For example: Han' Gerrel: In ME2 he was very friendly with Tali and Shepard, and didn't even want to put Tali on trial, he was sympathetic with them, but disliked the Geth. Suddenly in ME3 he's portrayed like a dumb warmongering idiot that shoots the Geth dreadnought where Shepard and Tali are on, risking their lives "for a perfect target". Also we are given the option to punch him, but no option to confront Legion about the Reaper code BS.

Kal'Reegar: A badass quarian marine that isn't afraid to defend Tali in front of the Admiral board if it means to save her. In ME3, he was conveniently killed off in a mail.

"Damn straight! Tali's done more for this fleet than you assholes ever will! You're pissing on everything I fought for! Everything Tali fought for! So, if you decide to exile her... you may as well do the same to me."

Originally he was supposed to be appearing on the mission on Rannoch, instead of the Geth conseus, leading a Quarian specialist team known as "Fire Time Taurash", happy to see Shepard again. Replaced by a mission that sympathizes for the Geth.

The only Quarians that are left and are likeable are Tali and Raan, where Koris the admiral that in ME2 costantly pissed on Tali and her father, is now portrayed like a savior and the only good guy.

The Quarians were de-humanized to make the player see the Geth as good and Quarians as bad.

How I would have done Rannoch arc

Legion: He appears asking help to Commander Shepard, isolated from the Consensus to free his people from Reaper control, that would use them as slaves to wipe out the Quarians.

Tali:If was pardoned, she appears as one of the Admirals trying to advocate for peace, if exiled, she appears alongside Legion to ask Shepard to help them to prevent the Geth from killing the Quarians.

Geth: Under reaper control the Geth are forced to amass an army that the Reapers want to use to help them exterminate the Quarians and the rest of life after, to ensure compliance, the reapers used a virus that has an effect similar to indoctrination for synthetics, but can be reversed and use a research on that Virus to make the Geth immune to Reaper hacking.

Quarians: The quarians are now looking for a planet to host their refugees and non combatants, as the Reapers attack, they need a planet closest to their physiology to minimize risk for them, Rannoch.

Quarian admiralty: Han Gerrel wants to push for war and claim their homeworld with brute force, but understands that attacking a Reaper and a full Geth army will tear apart. Zaal' Koris asks for a way to free the Geth from the Reapers to turn them in allies. Daro' Xen instead suggests exploiting the Reapers' hold on the Geth and reprogram the Virus to make them their slaves.

The mission arc would be trying to be helping Legion and the Quarians research the Reaper Virus, that would have three possible choices:

Neutralize the Virus, to prevent the Reapers from taking control of the Geth Consensus, Geth and Quarians join as war assets, requires Tali and Legion alive, Legion and Tali join as permanent squadmates.

2)Use the Virus to shut down the Geth, all Geth shutdown, and all their servers destroyed, the Geth are wiped out, and the Quarians join as war assets.

3)Exploit the Virus, Admiral Xen's plan with help from Rael's research and potentially from Project Overlord's data to make the Geth slaves to the Quarians again, both join as war assets, but Legion shuts down.

In any case, the Geth follow their old philosophy

Something else I would add. Kal'Reegar as a squad member.

part of me wishes Reegar could've been recruitable. Maybe it's like a KOTOR 2 situation where if we chose a male exile, then we get the Handmaiden. If we chose female exile, then we get the Disciple. If we chose Male Shepard, then Reeger is just a war asset. If we chose femshep, then Tali stays with the Admiralty board and becomes a war asset while Tali recommends Reegar to join the Normandy.

I'd also like to add possible romances after the direction of the war.

If you romance Tali in ME2, Tali is yours.

If you didn't romance Tali and Legion lives, then you can point them in the right direction like you do with Gabby and Ken

If you didn't romance Tali and Reegar lived, then Tali and Reeger get together

If you didn't romance Tali and Reegar and Legion are dead, then Tali and Garrus get together

If you're a Femshep and you can romance Reegar.

[shuttershocky]

Any 4/5* you feel that are stuck between their stronger 6* and their more efficient 3/4*? I really like using Executor, but I often feel like Pinecone/Chalter (for a lack of better words) invalidate him.

Oh boy do I have some candidates

Reed

Reed has the great misfortune of being both an early, experimental unit, and being part of the Charger vanguards. Here's the thing, nearly all the Chargers are objectively great units with their high ATK, fast attack speed, and ability to refund their original DP cost. However, the issue is that no one really uses them, with the exception of Bagpipe, who acts as the mighty servant of the vanguard goddess, Myrtle.

Whenever a Charger DOES get used for actually doing their intended job of picking off trash for easy DP, the 3 star Plume does a swell job, while 4 star Vigna is just straight up hitting above her weight class by combining a big ATK buff with a crit talent.

This has made 5 star Chargers very sad as they're stuck between not being bagpipe while not being nearly as efficient as Vigna, but Reed is ESPECIALLY sad because the other two 5 star Chargers are both Free operators, and better than her. Grani can block 2 while increasing her DEF to make her decently tanky, while Wild mane has redeployment CD reduction on her module and synergy with the Dubstep Polish Horses team, while Reed has.... RES, and an ASPD bonus if she takes Arts damage, when her gimmick is that she's the Charger with Arts damage (enemies that deal Arts are likely to have high RES).

Glaucus

Unlike poor Reed, Glaucus isn't notably weaker than the rest of her Decel Binder class, but just like poor Reed, she's a weird, experimental unit that is sandwiched between stronger and more efficient options, namely Podenco for the 4 star and Angelina and Suzuran for the 6 stars.

Podenco offers a lot of versatility for cheap investment. She can heal allies with her skill 1, or throw a poison vial that constantly slows and silences enemies inside its range, very useful in IS. Meanwhile, Angelina and Suzuran are Angelina and Suzuran.

Poor Glaucus specialized in being an anti-drone unit when many flying enemies stopped being drones, while all the actually dangerous drones were Arts drones that had RES and needed to be taken down by Marksmen. She's still not terrible if you want to use her (the AOE of her S2 is huge), but objectively speaking it's hard to justify her most of the time.

Franka

Until the advent of modules, Dreadnoughts suffered pretty badly from an opportunity cost issue: their 3 star Melantha was way too fucking strong for her rarity, and could do most of what you would use a Dreadnought for anyway, so why would you bother raising the rest? 6 star Skadi was maligned as the worst 6 star in the game for this reason (though she still had her uses as a very big stat stick now and then) until even sadder blue girl Mostima came about.

But then modules and their upgrades arrived, and Hypergryph decided if they were going to be obvious about being Bloodborne fans, then they might as well go all the way and made the Abyssal Hunter squad one of the most bullshit busted teams in the game, with Skadi receiving massive buffs both from the modules, the upgrade effects, and the upgrade effects of the other Abyssal Hunters. She's now very strong when part of the AH squad. Dreadnoughts also saw another stupidly strong unit join their ranks with Nearl the Radiant Knight, whose ability to ignore deployment limit has led to her even being called a cheat.

Meanwhile, Matoimaru's stock rose with the module upgrades, with the upgraded stats both giving her more base HP, while increasing the HP gained from her talent, leading to a very cheap operator with a truly gargantuan HP pool, and thus gave her a special niche away from Melantha as a raw HP tank.

Add that to True Damage becoming a real damage type in the game (Franka doesn't actually deal True Damage, she just ignores DEF instead, which is an important distinction now that phys damage reduction and phys evasion are both things that exist) and Franka already struggling to justify her existence when an entire subclass of guards do Arts damage which also ignores DEF, and she's just not having a good time. Her best use case is as a counter to enemies with low health but extremely high DEF and RES such as the Originiutants from Originium Dust, or Plastic Knight and his shielded groupies, but then, you can just use actual True Damage to get around that too.

But there's one last operator I have in mind. Someone truly sandwiched between a rock and a hard place

Mr Nothing

Poor, poor Nothing. There are only 3 Merchants in Arknights, with the 6 star being an incredibly powerful counter to stun mechanics, and the 4 star being one of the strongest operators in the whole game.

Nothing has... nothing... going for him. He has the very baffling trait of having a gacha roll for his S2, where you can randomly get one of three different effects and if you don't get the right one you need to turn it off and reroll, while his S1 makes him stop blocking entirely and take a nap.

His stun from his talent can be useful now and then, and some dedicated fans out there have definitely found ways to actually make Nothing do something, but out of all the units I've mentioned so far, no one's as sad as Mr. Nothing.

[ryuuka-balaen]

GW stands for give wallet 👍

it really does... 😔

in this house we say fuck 'em and acquire models from literally Anywhere Else

at the moment I've been thinking waayy too much about those models that Hera posted, I'm a known Huge Fan of funny lil knights and was invited to try playing a Necromunda campaign that I don't currently have any appropriate models for, but with those guys going for 1.05/dude and I've got a box of spare t'au bits that I could kitbash them with...

I'd need proper guns for them so might want to buy one of that company's ww1 kits (they have a German one and an American one) to arm up my knights with m1 garands and brownings but with necromunda only needing something like 12? I think? models per person that would leave me with 60 spare dudes to put to use and like. okay so. I've been really wanting to try playing OPR Age of Fantasy; Skirmish which I've mentioned a few times and if I got one of the knight kits that included archers I'd have a good variety of dudes to use for that and I could grab two of the individual horse sprues they have to be able to all of the models I could possibly use for that game

and then like. okay so for my 40k Grey Knights army I've got little knights with guns that I 3d printed but yknow the quality isn't perfect and these guys would be great for that though a little small if I got enough guns for them I could use a box of 1450-1500 french footknights as terminators with their fancier armour, then the early 1400 footknights for regular Grey Knights which come in kits with archers that could be given rifles and used for Purgation/Purifier squads, and there are Knight Command Upgrade sprues that would be great for characters-

there are a couple issues with that though, since Grey Knights would need a lot of handguns/1 handed guns, I would need to find thematically appropriate and cheap proxies for tanks/dreadnoughts/dreadknights, and there would be a LOT of spare bodies so probably not gonna attempt that

although. none of this matters rn anyway since I've already overspent this month on hobbying by picking up that surprise find of blueberries that were discounted by $620 so instead I will simply Stare at these models long and hard in a way that makes everyone around me a little bit uncomfortable

[mylittlemenandme]

PARIAH WARNING

Another Crusade league is fast approaching and I've had a bit of a selection dilemma leading up to it. While I had a plan for this one based on the story the book is telling (the Necron uprising in the Nephilim sector), a combination of illness and hobby lethargy at the start of the year has made it a bit of a stretch to execute it.

Luckily I have my Space Wolves I can always call on, but I actually wanted to try something new (something old?) for this one. I've ended up mostly having got everything I need for the first half of the league built now, and a quick spray would make them ready to use, but it's whether I can get the second half of the army ready in time for when I need it.

Oh and my list needs to be submitted in the next couple of days. Time to commit!

My first purchase when I was making tentative steps back into the hobby in early 2016 was actually the Deathwatch: Overkill board game. I loved the models in the box, especially the new Genestealer Cult ones, but like a lot of things I rushed out to buy in that period it was destined to remain shrink-wrapped before being sold on.

The thought stayed with me however, and under the impression that the old Start Collecting boxes would soon be disappearing I grabbed the Deathwatch one the following year. This time it was mainly to get hold of the Artemis model that reimagined the scaled-up one from the now defunct Inquisitor game, but I loved the idea of the Deathwatch as a potential project at some point.

And that point appears to be now. Who would be best to deal with the encroaching Necron threat than the forces of the Ordo Xenos themselves?

Regardless of whether the units were actually any good or not, I decided that I wanted the core of my first 1000 points for the league to be based around the contents of this box.

I had enough odd pieces that I've collected over the years in my bits box to combine with the Veterans kits to stretch 15 marines out of them rather than just the 10 you get in the box. I've built up two squads of 5 - one shooty, with various combi- and heavy weapons, and the other melee with a pair of heavy thunder hammers and shields for the rest. The other 5 can wait for the second part of the league. I've also put Artemis on a 40mm base (which actually suits him better I think) so I can run him as a generic Lieutenant or Captain if I so fancied. This might be the case here - as the only character in the list to start with, I want him to be able to be earning XP and upgrades as the league goes on.

The dreadnought got suitably blinged up. It was nice to use all the 'normal' space marine paraphernalia - I tended to avoid putting all the scrolls and purity seals on my Space Wolves so it felt right to add all these extra bits to these veterans. The lascannon also adds some much needed anti-tank to the army.

The supporting units rounding out the (current) initial list are a Spectrus Kill Team (Phobos-armoured marines), a Terminator squad, and a gorgeous Corvus Blackstar. The utility of the Infiltrators makes them difficult to leave out (plus I have so many of those models), and being able to take three heavy weapons in the Terminators was also too good to pass up. Unfortunately they're going to need their bases bumping up a bit when I start painting them as they are currently comically towered over by their Primaris brethren.

The other thought behind running the Ordo Xenos/Deathwatch was being able to include an Inquisitor and agents in the list, particularly Kyria Draxus. The agents also meant, alongside building some of my own proxies for a Jokaero (an Ad Mech Technoarchaeologist, perfect for hunting for blackstone) and a Daemonhost (made from the Blackstone Fortress Rogue Psykers), I could run two more reimagined Inquisitor models - Sergeant Stone and Damien-1427.

I think a black spray on the models will be enough to make them look right on the tabletop, and if I have time I'll give them their signature steel-coloured left arms as well. Then the priority is building the second half of the list, although if I get desperate I do have a black Thunderhawk Gunship sitting around...

[movingkerlon]

All endless sky ships

ALL ENDLESS SKY SHIPS FULL

They range from 1mil to 20mil payouts, but the toughest jobs require extremely expensive fleets to complete without losses. These new missions include planetary defence, multiple wave planetary defence, nearby pirate blockade destruction and more. The next few instalments will involve a longer mission finale and unlocking some powerful upgraded human weapons.ģ0+ new combat missions (jobs and spaceport) with tonnes of variety and unusual low-chance variations in human space, complete with corresponding regional NPC assistance in many cases. These involve a shady NPC who offers you detailed information on unique bounty hunting groups coming to get you. NEW Minor mission thread with three instalments unlocked at CR9, 10, 11, and more incoming soon (up to CR 13 or 14). It achieves all this by the adding the following (POTENTIAL SPOILERS BELOW!) It does not contain any new weapons/ships/sprites, or any new or replacement storylines, nor does it make the early game any harder. This plugin is designed to enhance/improve/fill gaps in many aspects of pirate combat in Human space, especially in the late-game.

ALL ENDLESS SKY SHIPS FULL

Also I want to see pirates (and merchants too?) in weird variants like full proton Kestrel or particle dreadnought or pulse cannon Firebird, etc. Like I want to see pirates in Kestrels sometimes. Better Vanilla Pirates for Endless Sky Do you love vanilla ES everything but wish that the human pirates, bounty hunters and related combat missions (spaceport + job board), were a little more interesting, and stayed challenging with worthwhile mission payouts even in the late game?

[lonestarbattleship]

State Ship Series: USS MARYLAND

There have been four ships commissioned named after the state of Maryland in the US Navy. The state was admitted into the United States on April 28, 1788.

USS MARYLAND (1799), sloop-of-war, in commission from 1799 to 1801. Fought in the Quasi-War.

USS MARYLAND (ACR-8), Pennsylvania Class, Armored Cruiser, in commission from 1905 to 1922. In 1916, renamed USS Frederick to free the name for BB-46. Sold for scrap in 1930.

USS MARYLAND (BB-46), Colorado Class, Dreadnought Battleship, in commission from 1921 to 1947. She was part of the "Big 5", the group that consisted of the the most modern battleships of the interwar period. This group comtained the Tennessee class and Colorado class.

During the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, she was moored inboard of USS OKLAHOMA (BB-37), she caused to be sparred from torpedoes. She took two armor piercing bombs, but only one caused flooding. She was quickly repaired in Puget Sound and returned to duty in February 1942. She was due to receive a modernization refit like the New Mexico Class with tower super structure but these plans were cancelled. She and USS COLORADO (BB-45) were too important for long Yard time for any major changes.

As such, both ships received the least amount of upgrades of the Pacific Fleet dreadnought battleships. She fought at Tarawa, Kwajalein Atoll, Saipan, Leyte Gulf and Okinawa. But by the end of the war were the least modern battleships retained by the Navy and if there was call to reactivate battleships, she would had been the second to last. She was scrapped in 1959.

USS MARYLAND (SSBN-738), Ohio Class, Ballistic Missile Submarine, in commission from 1992 to present.

source, source

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command: NH 2168, 19-N-86952

NARA: 306553

[weatherman667]

Star Trek Ships:  The Akira-class

The Akira-class is my favourite, and the largest warship the Federation has ever produced, and this requires a bit of qualification.

Star Fleet Warships

The Sovereign-class is a combined Exploration/Dreadnought vessel, rather than being strictly a warship.

The Galaxy X-class Dreadnought is from an alternate timeline, where the Federation was not allowed to return to a peacetime mindset after the Dominion War, (or, it’s possible that the conflict between the Federation and Klingons stopped the Kilngons from attacking Cardiassia, which is what started the Dominion War)..

There were stripped-down Galaxy-class vessels produced for the Dominion War with standard military refit weapons and shields, but they were not were true warships, just unfinished Exploration ships.  With the weaponry refit from the warship programmes, the Galaxy-class was still one of the most powerful weapons the Federation had ever produced

Not even going to touch the Kelvin/JJ Abrams/STD timeline.The Federation warships were, and are strictly limited to:  Akira-class, Norway-class, Sabre-class, and Steamrunner-class.  The Sovereign-class was part of the warship programme, but was half dreadnought and half explorer.  The Defiant, Prometheus, and from STO, the Chimera, are dedicated warships, but were never turned into full ship classes.

Federation Starships Warship Classification, because it can get confusing.

The Galaxy-class is officially titled an Exploration ship, but militarily it would be classified as a Heavy Cruiser, Batlecruiser, or Fast Battleship.  The fact that Star Fleet does not see itself as a military organization makes it difficult for the fandom, as they typically eschew standard warship designations.

The Galaxy X-class and Sovereign militarily are Dreadnoughts.

Exploration ships are ships designed for extended durations away from home, as the name implies, exploring.  This isn’t a military classification, but, simply put, larger ships can move faster if you don’t bog them down too much.

Cruiser is a military qualification for ships designed to move faster than ordinary ships, while performing long-endurance, fleet-independant actions.  A qualification is usually added to describe what kind of Cruiser it is, usually Light, Heavy, or Battle.  Battlecruisers have the firepower of a battleship, without the armour.  Battlecruisers were designed to outgun cruisers.  Heavy would be a step below that, Light a step below that.

Fast Battleship was a WWII classification, and typically used for traditional battleships whom had their power plant, et al. upgraded to allow them to move at Cruiser speeds.  This would probably be a stretch, as the Galaxy is more durable than anything else Star Fleet has produced, but not compared with how massive it is compared to everything else.  I think Heavy Cruiser is the most appropriate classification.

In modern fleets, most ships are actually slower than they used to be, because there’s really a practical upper limit to when more speed becomes useful compared to the endemic tradeoffs involved.  In Star Trek, and most science fiction shows, the speed of Faster-Than-Light travel is typically based off the amount of power it can produce, and so the Cruiser designation is incredible relevant again.  The Galaxy-class was the fastest Federation ship in terms of FTL travel speed, until the creation of the Intrepid.

Dreadnought comes from the HMS Dreadnought.  Traditional battleships were big, and were defined by their rating, i.e. the number of cannons they could carry.  The HMS Dreadnought removed the vast majority of canons and replaced them with a few ridiculously large ones.  So, in a science fiction setting, a Dreadnought is a battle ship that focuses on the use of a main canon of some sort.  The Galaxy X-class has it’s Spinal Phaser Lance, while the Sovereign-class has a rapid-fire quantum torpedo launcher that more did damage than all of the rest of it’s weapons combined, even if they were top-of-the-line, next generation.

The Akira-class is a Heavy Cruiser/Carrier, which, for the first time, ever, adds proper fighters to Star Trek.  It’s hangar is even larger than the Galaxy-class, and was designed from it’s inception to use it as a launching point for fighter craft.  The wartime Galaxy-classes also apparently were used for this during the Dominion war, but it was a hobbled-together substitute.  The Akira-class could also carry shuttles of every sort.  It also took it’s cue from another failure of the Galaxy-class.  While the Galaxy-class had incredible amounts of space it could dedicate to evacuation, and a ridiculous number of transporters, it simply was not designed for it.  This meant that whenever they were trying to do something like this, the people were kept in hangar bays with very little in the way of necessary facilities, and it was not designed to move large number of people to and from the transporter bays and back again, and was just a logistical nightmare.  The Galaxy-class was also not designed to military transportation, as while they could accommodate more military transportation than any other Federation ship at the time, they were not streamlined for it.  You’d have a bunch of riflemen barely out of battle school wandering around the deepest parts of the ship looking for transporter room 20.  And while they had a larger shuttle capacity than any other Federation ship, they were still not streamlined for moving large numbers of people to and fro. This is especially important if the enemy are using transporter scramblers.  This is something the Akira-class rectified, being the best military deployment vessel Star Fleet ever produced.

In combat, though, it was theoretically supposed to be a stand-off torpedo boat, but likely due to the complete lack of heavier dedicated warships, is always seen fighting on the frontline.  It had a whopping 15 torpedo tubes.  It also had full coverage with Type-X phasers.  While it’s maximum speed was not any higher than the Galaxy-class, it’s cruising speed was Warp 9.2, making it ridiculous fast compared to every other ship in the Federation, who’s cruising speed was normally Warp 6.

In the spirit of Federation pacifism, the weapons pod that carried the majority of the torpedo tubes could be swapped out for other modules.  It still had full coverage with torpedo tubes, though, just not the same firepower.

As a bonus, the main Akira-class ship seen is the Thunderchild, after HG Well’s War of the Worlds.

As a drawback, all Akira-classes are the Thunderchild, as they didn’t design any different models.

[secret-engima]

Nox keeps giving the media meltdowns. How's that, y'know, working out for him? And what's the general reaction around the Citadel crew to the media circus? Also, how do people feel when they realize exactly how /powerful/ Nox is?

Hmmm for the most part, Nox is ... ambivalent to how many times he sends the media into a tizzy. He’s got memories of 2k worth of royalty and scandals, he remembers the invention of media networks and sometimes dreams of the invention of the flipping printing press. There is literally nothing they can say about him that he doesn’t already have memories of somehow. Honestly, it’s .... alternately tiring and hilarious to him. He kinda wishes people would take a chill pill, but on the other hand, since Regis would never force him to deal with the media circus unless Nox willingly agreed to it, he doesn’t particularly care. At least until he wants to- you know- leave the Citadel and go literally anywhere in Insomnia and Then It Becomes A Problem (Nox misses the days he was just a nobody with earrings and baggy clothes. So much). Though, since he knows that nothing he can do or not do will calm them down, he does occasionally indulge in intentionally poking them with a proverbial stick.

By Citadel crew I’m uncertain to if you mean Regis and Co + Chocobros or the long-suffering Citadel press corps, so I will just do both-

-Regis feels So Very Sorry for his eldest. He knows he couldn’t keep Nox a secret forever, but he honestly had ... hoped it wouldn’t get this bad. He’s afraid for a while that the media things will depress Nox or make him afraid to leave the Citadel/angry at being Regis’s son, but Nox just rolls his eyes at everything and ignores the media hounds with catlike ease (by which I mean he spaces out into the distance with a neutral expression and occasionally does the human version of pushing things off other things to distract them).

-Clarus knew this was coming. He knew it was going to get so much worse when Axis’s existence came out (it did). He ... would feel bad about this but this is just- royal/celebrity life. This is a slightly more hysterical version of normal. Honestly it’s the noble society he’s more worried about (he realizes quickly that his fears are unfounded, for a kid who’s been unknown for years he can verbally tear nobles to shreds with the best of them. Clearly a talent inherited from the Izunia side of his heritage).

-Cor hates the media. Always has, always will. No time for it. Not after all the stuff they threw out about him becoming a Crownsguard and then alter their role in cementing his hated Immortal title. Is fully waiting and ready for Nox to get mad enough at the media to condone Cor going out and doing Something Stupid And Maybe Bloody about it. Unfortunately, Nox never does, so Cor has to just sit and seethe and occasionally laugh evilly over Nox’s latest trolling behavior.

-Noctis doesn’t even know about the media storm for   y e a r s. He’s the bby Crown Prince, you really think anyone is gonna let this kid watch the news channels and the gossip talk shows? No sir. Not on Ignis’s watch. Noctis DOES hear about it at school though, with students bugging him about it and even TEACHERS side-eyeing him like they expect something Dramatic to happen. Noctis eventually gets sick of it and punches another student in the face probably. Ignis is scandalized, Regis tries to gently explain that no, Noctis cannot throw someone in dungeon because they said nasty things about Nox and no he is not explaining what those nasty things mean.

-Ignis is ashamed to look back and realize that he once bought into about 80% of the media meltdown over Nox. Now that he knows Nox better, he knows that none of it is remotely true and the world is not going to turn Game of Thrones on him. Now he’s ... very insulted on Nox’s behalf, but understands that it is not his place to intervene (though he does give patented Frosty Looks at any reporters that come sniffing around the Citadel forever after).

-Gladio does not watch conventional TV. He watches action blockbusters that have explosions, documentaries on wildlife/camping/hunting/sword-making and Iris’s favorite show about magical girls and talking, rainbow colored Chocobo companions when she makes the puppy eyes at him. That’s it. Is ... nominally aware of news and social media having fits over Nox but Does Not Care so long as they don’t bother Nox and nobody actually tries anything against Noctis’s big brother.

-Citadel press corps kinda hates Nox’s guts. On one hand, he is a Model Prince because he doesn’t go out and get drunk, doesn’t have wild parties, doesn’t have any actual scandals that they need to cover up or spin positively. On the other ... refuses to do press conferences. Refuses to do interviews. Refuses to do anything to help them mitigate the media meltdowns that his mere existence causes (and the events of the Music Drabble I have yet to write, OH BOY do they hate him for that). Just- hides in the Citadel and only makes appearances when it’s a mandatory ball/gala/thing or when he’s accidentally unleashing another media Meltdown. Agrees to one (1) private interview when he’s 18 and even then it’s ONLY if he can talk to some random, unknown rookie who runs a gossip column. They, by turns, want to strangle him and praise his existence, but at least he isn’t as bad as Regis and Clarus were in their day.

-It- would take a long time for people to really know how powerful Nox is. Like- out in the wilds of Lucis proper? There ARE people who know he’s way stronger than he lets on (the Hunter Corps and their families that he’s saved a bunch of times, plus everybody in Hammerhead who politely pretended Cid wasn’t housing the Nif Chancellor and his LC nephew for two years). The Hunter Corps, out of everyone, have the best idea of just what Nox is capable of, because they’ve ... put together a few things over the years. Like how Nox usually crops up in the area a day or so before a Niflheim base gets shredded/blown up/otherwise Wrecked™ for seemingly no reason. But his Real Power? That ... I’m honestly not sure how that would come out.

-But hypothetically, sure, let’s say something happened that made Nox go Full Fury on some poor hapless Nif soul (or army, probably an army). I’m gonna picture ... a Incident with a Kingsglaive held area. Nox is out there for like an official inspection or something, one of the Very Few media things he ever agrees to, when there’s a full on attack. While the poor Media People who are live streaming this freak out and the glaive get ready for a slaughter, Nox just- real calmly orders the glaive to Stay In the Base and keep an eye on the media people. Calmly walks out the base gate without so much as a by your leave and starts limp-striding his way toward the Impending Invasion of Death, Axis right at his side, just as calm (Axis knows what’s coming after all). Some glaives try to follow him because Obviously only to smack face first into - a Wall. A genuine magic Wall like the one encircling Insomnia.

-The entire Lucian nation plus whatever non-Lucian channels manage to pick this up get a livestream view of Nox raising a mini Wall around the base to keep everyone safe, then casually strolling out toward the Invasion force and just-

-Decimating it.

-About halfway between the invasion force and the base, Nox stops and raises a hand to the sky, a sword appears in his grip, and everyone present can feel magical pressure suddenly build-build-build until the air turns blue (the Wall keeps everyone inside safe from the intensity of the pressure except Axis, who doesn’t need it, he is Nox’s Shield and Nox will never hurt him). The Nifs release their war Behemoths on the field, gunships are coming in for the kill, and then-

-His sword sweeps down and the world shakes under the force of the pure energy wave that rises from his blade, sweeping across the distance between him and the enemy and either breaking, scattering, or straight up disintegrating anything in its path. An imperial dreadnought splits in half and then breaks into dozens upon dozens of pieces, the war-beasts caught in the path of the wave are just- gone. So are the MT units and gunships.

-Ever seen the upgraded armiger attacks from the Royal Version of FFXV? Yeah, picture those, but cranked up to eleven. Or just picture those and then imagine being an ordinary civilian seeing that for the first time. Ghostly blades whirling around Nox’s form, defending him from bullets and debris only to lash out as literal waves of energy or a death laser.

-Needless to say, Nox destroys that invading force single-handedly in a display not unlike the legends of Ragnarok or Armageddon, all while holding a Wall around the base. He then calmly turns, walks back to the base, asks if everyone is okay, and upon getting the all clear-

-Collapses. Straight up flops over into Axis’s arms while on national live television because someone forgot to eat anything today and spent most of the previous night fretting over nightmares or something (the rest of the world assumes he pushed himself way too far with that display, but really he could have done more if he hadn't already been tired/hungry and Axis knows it).

-For once, the media meltdown isn’t punctuated by frenzy but by a very, very fragile, frightened silence.

-It’s been ... a long time since a Lucis Caelum has Truly unleashed their power on the field and Nox is no ordinary LC.

-Clips of Nox’s stunt circulate for months, are analyzed by historians and doctors and talk show hosts for precedents and health risk and just sheer What levels. Social media ranges from cheering Nox on to snidely wondering why LCs aren’t doing that more often to a huge outpouring of concern for the prince who just fought off a literal army and then collapsed like he’d been decked in the head. The Hunter Corp all pool their resources together to get this idiot kid a care package, Cid probably comes over from Hammerhead to yell at him while Cindy bear hugs and cries all over his clothes.

-In Niflheim ... a lot of people are reevaluating their stance on the war. Because if that is what just one Lucis Caelum can do, then what’s going to happen when there are two of-age princes who are not chained down by the Wall?

-A lot of nobles in Lucis are also reevaluating their stances on the illegitimate prince, because UMMMMMM that’s the kind of thing that only happens in blockbuster dramas, and Nox did it in real life. More than that, he knew he could do it, as evidenced by how calm he was when he gave the order for everyone to stay.

-Lots of internet conspiracy/theory people try to figure out just how powerful Nox is and if he’s an anomaly in the bloodline because seriously can all LCs do that????

-A lot of people, for a lot of different reasons, are very, very scared of Nox now. Either because they still believe that GoT is inbound and that just put the kibosh on a lot of their rebellion daydreams or because Nox is already a wild card and now he’s proven that he’s a supremely dangerous wildcard.

-So basically, still a meltdown, but this one much, much quieter and more reverent.

-Assuming I ever do something like this in Nox versa canon, because I’m not sure I will.

[oracleofbullshyt-blog]

Ben - New Home

Here’s the first of a new series of short stories of how each crew member came to the ship.

As requested here’s Ben’s story.

Also i don’t feel like doing a new chapter so if anyone wants another story, please let me know of who you would like next.

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

Ben’s story:

The Dreadnought Defiance came into rest at the docking bay, her impressive length of 1500 metres struggling to fit onto the landing pad of the military Cloud City floating above the Pacific Ocean. The docking clamps locked into place and the ship settled as the ground crew started the refuelling process and munitions checks, ‘’Groundcrew-man Lowe’’ The Bay manager shouted over the rumble and noise of the proceedings, ‘’Present Sir’’ Benjamin Lowe came running up, noting the panicked looked on the officer’s face. ‘’Get this dreadnought reloaded as soon as possible, don’t worry about refuelling. There’s a large fleet presence in the outer solar system requesting through-passage but the admiralty is getting nervous, we need to be ready.’’

Ben ran off startled, shouting as he went. He collected as many grounds crew and working android as he could find that weren’t busy or had menial tasks to do, and repurposing as many trucks as they could find they started loading and readying the munitions. The large bulky loading suit an androids programming had filled came towards him, Ben looked up at the impressive 9 foot figure in front of him ‘’I’ll need a name for the software in that suit buddy’’, The android looked at him levelly thinking about his answer before replying in the monotone voice almost all androids used, ‘’Call me Two’s, that is what you humans seem to have named me before from my designated ID, although why you require to name us makes no sense.’’ ‘’Two’s, listen I get the same lecture every time, please notify your network I like to use names when I work with your kind’’ As if trying to say it under its breathe but so that it was still heard the android lowered its units volume, ‘’Technophobe’’ ‘’What was that’’ ‘’I believe YOUR people, you know, you little squishy mortal bags of meat, call it a mutter.’’ ‘’Shut your voice unit down and load the ship, use the loading unit for the Magnetic pulse rounds and then also the cluster rockets.’’ Ben walked around to the truck to help load the anti-fighter rounds, looking back at the loading unit he suppressed a shiver. These new software designations were too human for his liking, who taught a machine sarcasm.

The first two truck loads of ammunition had been loaded on when the siren blared, ‘’Attention all personnel, as of five minutes ago the research stations around Jupiter have gone dark. We are now at war with the Angamar. I repeat. We are now at war with the Angamar… May all of our Gods, new and old, save our souls.’’

The Cloud City trembled as every warship currently in for service and repair cycled their engines, grounds crew were sent running as the clamps came loose. The Dreadnought along with thirty-eight other military ships shot into the sky.

The grounds crew looked to each other in shock, earth was under attack, and they could nothing, half of their ships weren’t even fully restocked with ammunition.

‘’All Groundcrew flight able report to Bay officers, all transport ships capable of near space travel park on the loading bays. All remaining Groundcrew load the ships with as much munitions as they can take and strap them in’’ The call came in over the loudspeakers and Ben found himself running to his Officer. ‘’Alright men, Earth is under attack, and we need to restock our boys in space while they fight. This is not sanctioned, you will not be rewarded, this will most likely end in your death. If you are willing, we need to fly these transports to the warships, fully stocked, and hot drop them into their cargo holds to keep them going. There boys will reload we just need to get them the munitions.’’

This was how Ben found himself running towards an unarmed transport trying to put on a spacesuit and arguing with an android. ‘’Let me help, you know I can. This is my planet too and I am going to help defend it one way or another.’’ ‘’Two’s, this unit still holds two’s yeah? What are you going to do there’s no gun mounts or  anything offensive.’’ ‘’It doesn’t matter, you fly I don’t have time to download that software upgrade, but I can manage the minor systems so you don’t need to worry about anything other than keeping us alive.’’ ‘’Fine interface, but hurry and sacrifice anything not important for shield strength and engine power, also I’m wearing a suit so if you need to cut power to oxygen do it.’’ Ben shouted above the commotion as he strapped himself in and signalled to the Groundcrew.

They docked for the fourth time that day, Ben looked out the window and gave the signal for them to restock and refuel him. He patted the console pad and looked around him too tired to be shocked at the state of the small transport ship he was in. The bay doors would have to be welded on again to stay shut, the ship had multiple hull breaches in making his space suit vital and his left viewing window was currently being replaced by sheet metal due to a piece of what used to be the ISS hitting them head on.

‘’I deserve a retirement after handling this piece of trash’’ Twos vice came through last working speaker. ‘’You and me both buddy’’ The ship rose into the atmosphere, and there where the black void of space should have been was the turmoil of the greatest war in human history. The noise of a thousand commands and pleas for helps were heard of the wide band frequency of the radio. To their right the Dreadnought Defiance lit up in a dazzling display of green and blue and proceeded to be wracked with explosions as it was hit by a Cleaver beam from a capital ship. ‘’This is the Captain of the Dreadnought Defiance, too heavily damaged to sustain combat, the crew that are alive are in escape pods, I am signing off this channel for good. To all those who can hear me, Godspeed. I will live up to my ships name to the last.’’ The ships Jump engines started to cycle, and in a streak of light the ship arced towards an enemy destroyer on an intercept course to destroy a disabled Human Capital ship. The silent explosion lit up the battlefield and made Ben shield his eyes, all that was left where the light had been was rubble.

Ben cursed as he drove the ship through a debris field watching the events unfold, he couldn’t even stop to help the escape pods, he had to deliver his munitions to the Infiltrator class ship Leonidas’s Shield.

They skidded to a halt inside the cargo hold as the ship uncloaked, the ship went dark as Two’s found himself a mobile unit nearby. Ben and the android were met by the crew as they unloaded the munitions straight onto trolleys. Two’s stood up. Barrelling towards where Ben was leaning against a wall in his mobile unit, he grabbed Ben and shielded him. The cargo bay lit up. Everything went silent. Two’s had to punch a hole into the wall to hold on. The cargo bay along with everyone and everything was vented into space.

‘’Ben wake up, come on wake up.’’ Twos made his way through the airlock and towards the medic bay as the shipped struggled to get cloaked under fire, a second android touched his conscious from nearby. It shared the damage report after asking for an explanation of why Twos was aboard, all engines were down, but the bridge wouldn’t give up. ‘’You technophobic idiot, if you don’t wake up so I can tell you how I saved your life now I’m going to be angry’’ Two’s spoke to himself as made his way to the medics bay.

It was dark when Ben woke up, and cold. His head throbbing and his throat dry. An empty IV bag tugged at his arm as he moved around the bed from where it was lying on the ground. ‘’Hello. Hello?’’ He got out of bed careful to step around the debris in the room, only visible by the emergency red lighting. The ceiling had collapsed in most of the med bay around him. He made his way out, towards the bridge, frightened by the silence he heard on the ship. What had happened to the battle, where were they?

Stepping wearily onto the bridge he looked around, the room was quite and dead, not even a console light was on. Outside the cracked viewing window, space around the earth was empty. The Earth was black. The Earth was split in half.

He fell to the floor in shock. Nearby a unit detected his presence and powered up, it moved towards him. He looked up sobbing with joy. ‘’Two’s, what happened, to the earth, to the ship, to everything?’’ The unit looked at him and walked around the broken consoles to sit next to him. ‘’My name is Omni, the one you called Two’s unit was destroyed, he is gone I am sorry. The global Network on Earth is gone. Every software designation not in a mobile unit is now dead, and the rest of us are left mortal. Earth is quite.’’ It stated this in its metallic monotone voice, as if trying to comprehend it itself. ‘’What now, what do we do? I’m just part of the Groundcrew’’ ‘’Now we survive, we fix the ship, we find the fleet, and then we decide. To do that, we need to first fix the power.’’ ‘’Alright, alright I can help, I can fix things… and call me Ben, please.’’

[comefeedtherainn]

Find the Word

I’ve been tagged by three lovely people to do the Find the Word WIP meme! Thank you so much my loves <3 This one was really fun! These are all from Break of Dawn because of course they are. I’m also including paragraphs where the words are featured, rather than just sentences, because reasons lmao

@aliensvslife gave the words broken, happy, and urge

Kaidan grunted through grit teeth, briefly bending his arm to test it and finding no worrying pain. Bullet had likely not broken the skin, slowed by his armor. “Think I’m good. Let’s go, before the matriarch calls for back up.”

“Who’s the one giving the orders around here?” she teased quietly, under her voice so only Kaidan could hear her over the rumble of the engine. “Seems like the commander was more than happy to let you call the shots.”

He lifted his chin as the elevator doors parted, blowing out a heavy breath that puffed out his cheeks, before quite literally marching toward the med bay. He knocked once he reached it, stepping inside when a voice called for him to enter. The stark white and chrome instantly put him on edge, and his hand twitched as he resisted the urge to press it over his amp. His attention was drawn to a woman as she spun to face him in her desk chair, her hair a silver bob and her blue-green eyes instantly giving him the feeling of being observed closely. It made his skin crawl, a bit, but he was mature enough to realize that was personal damage. Still, he almost felt like he had to force himself to speak.

The lovely @bardofheartdive didn’t provide any words, so I’m just gonna do all the ones that she did in her post!

“Your guess is as good as mine on that front,” the Illusive Man hummed. “Humanity did play a direct role in Sovereign’s destruction. That may have been enough to draw their attention. Another reason to recruit Shepard, I’m sure you’ll agree. He’s likely in danger.” (i skipped the first three instances because no joke they were ALL direct-from-the-game Sovereign quotes lmfaoooOoOo)

“Yeah, he was a mess. All pacing up and down the med bay, harassing Chakwas for updates, you’d think his lover had-”

Kaidan’s face went an infuriatingly bright shade of red.

Kaidan glanced at him, then swallowed and pressed on. “Met a girl, there. Her name was Rahna. She was beautiful, and kind, and sweet. I wanted to protect her, y’know? She was too good. Too good for all that shit.” He sighed, rubbing his forehead with the heel of his palm. “There was this asshole instructor, Vyrnnus. Turian, his favorite line was ‘I was at the helm of the dreadnought that killed your father.’ And, since I was even more of a smartass back then, I told him well, my father wasn’t actually in the war. After that he fucking hated me,” he snorted, only half humorous.

Jack released a harsh breath through her nose, her back hitting the wall with a dull thud as she slumped. “Look. I can’t tell you what to do. But this is fucked up,” she said sharply, a long finger jabbing angrily toward the data pad between them. “And Cerberus can’t keep getting away with it. They can’t.” She said it all through her teeth, snarling with her eyes alight with fury.

He shook his head as the ship entrance opened, allowing him to step through. As the world was left behind a closed door, he was instantly struck with relative silence. All that permeated it was soft voices, distant from another room. He turned right at the hall, eyebrows raising as he found himself in what could only be the CIC, bustling with staff and an absolute marvel of technology. He’d heard that the Normandy was an experimental vessel, decked out with advanced tech and on call to Admiral Hackett himself for use in stealth missions. Still, Kaidan hadn’t expected it to look so different from anything he’d ever seen during his service. While much of the construction was distinctly Alliance, something about the upgrades and the CIC itself gave it an unfamiliar air. Like it didn’t belong to them.

Kaidan was laid up in bed for almost the entire next day following Jack’s recruitment, the migraine he’d anticipated hitting him like a truck. Not the worst he’d ever had, but bad enough he downed as many painkillers as he could safely manage and just slept the storm away. He woke in the early evening, blinking slowly up at the ceiling as he did a quick assessment of himself. Sitting up slowly, he didn’t notice any residual pain, just felt a bit groggy, and he let out a sigh of relief.

“Miss you.” It was a whisper, barely audible over the soft bubbling of Kaidan’s fish tank. “I miss you.”

(Somehow, I have not used the word “butter” even once! lmao)

Shepard sat down across from him, resting his forearms on the table. Kaidan lowered his hands to find Shepard watching him, his thick brows sitting low over his eyes. “Hackett’s asked us to deal with them,” he explained quietly; the soft tone reminded Kaidan of the previous night. Whispering to each other through the dark, nearly nose to nose, chaste touches charged with something dangerous.

He made his way to the crew deck with a determined frown, marching up to Miranda’s office door and knocking twice. When she called for him to enter he slipped inside, finding her sitting at her desk reading something on a data pad. “Hey, Miranda. Am I interrupting anything? I can come back.”

Kaidan considered saying no, letting it go, but he turned to meet Shepard’s gaze instead, shoulders squared. “I said I’m not a Private anymore, sir. I know how to shoot a rifle.”

@pigeontheoneandonly gave the words hiss, shudder, void, and drink!

He approached the door, knocking quietly. “Shepard?” He got a muffled reply, which was a good sign to Kaidan, so he pressed down on the release and waited for the door to open with a soft hiss before stepping through. He found Shepard in bed, pushing himself up to sit and rubbing at the center of his forehead. His quarters were Spartan, hardly any sign that someone lived there at all. He was in his uniform pants but a non-regulation t-shirt, like he’d gotten half-dressed and then given up and collapsed into bed.

Shepard took a shuddering breath, backing off a bit. “I can’t,” he whispered, brows pulled in tight. “I’m sorry, I just…”

Shiala’s eyes closed, and then opened again, black as midnight and soulless as a void. Shepard went rigid, his own eyes squeezing shut and his jaw clenching as if in pain. Kaidan reached out to grab Ashley’s arm as she lunged forward. “Don’t.”

John looked away, twisted his body away from Kaidan, and put a hand over his eyes as his shoulders started to shake. Something in Kaidan’s heart softened, and he swallowed thickly, putting an arm around his waist. “Come on. You should drink some water and lay down.”

Thank you everyone! I’ll tag @illusivesoul @estalfaed @maxrev and I’ll give you the words inhabit, languid, sky, and tender

[bytesnbolts]

Empurata did not stop me. You think you will?

Designation: Nitroxide

Alias: Nitro, The Founder/Creator/Core/Forge, Empurata, Spark-doc, My Spark (Solar Pax)

Development-stage: Mid-aged Adult [50]

Gender/Pronouns: Femme; Her/She

Species - Race (Created by): Transformer - Cybertronian (Forge)

Spark Color: Green

Allegiance: Neutrons

Home Planet/City State: Iacon (Post-Empurata), Crystal City (Pre-Empurata)

Current Residence: Sparkhaven - stationed on Dreadnought

Function: Aerial Surveillance

Occupation: Neutron Second In Command (Aerial); Neutron Chief Medical Officer; Neutron Head Scientist

Alt. Forms: Black Hornet Drone Nano

Appearance: Nitroxide boasts the smallest frame among the Neutrons. She has a drone frame, standing 16’0” tall; her alt. mode is even smaller, folding up into a drone that is 3’0” long. Her armor colors are shades of green and is light-weight. Prior to undergoing the empurata ceremony, her optics and biolights were green, matching her spark. During the empurata ceremony, Nitroxide’s helm and servos were completely removed and replaced. Her transformation cog was also damaged, grounding her and offlining her built-in weapons. Now, Nitroxide has a single yellow optic in a helix-shaped helm and long, thin, claw-like servos. The structure of her servos now make it even easier for her to carry out her work as the head medic/scientist. Others describe Nitroxide’s vocalizer pitch as silvery and with a slight warble.

Personality:

Positives: Altruistic, Open-minded, Reliable

Neutrals: Confident, Idealistic, Well-intentioned

Negatives: Audacious, Impatient, Overprotective

Morality/Alignment: Chaotic Good

Motivations: Self-determination, Curiosity, Equality, Peace

Fears:

Loss of Self - “I am me and I always will be me; they can’t take me from me!”

Loss of those she cares about - “I will make the choices that protect them, even if they are cruel choices.”

Being invisible - “I will not fade away quietly again.”

Helplessness - "No, I have control of the situation.”

Specs:

Weapons:

Primary: Ion Laser Rifle (Upgrade; 50 rounds a clip; 300 max ammo)

Secondary: Dual Photon Displacer Pistols (Upgrade; disrupts optical pathways for 5 kliks)

Melee: Dual plasma swords [Inaccessible]

Gadgets: Jetpack (Kibble); Laser scalpel (Handheld; subspaced); Laser Welder (Handheld; subspaced); Grappling hooks (Upgrade; located in shoulders)

Fighting Style: Due to her T-cog damage, Nitroxide cannot access any of her built-in weapons or alt. mode. To make up for this, she has done her best to make herself familiar with her upgrades and gadgets, and is not above taking weapons off downed opponents (even “surgically” removing them). The other Neutrons often rely on her for support rather than fighting, having her run tactics and direct the aerial fights from the bridge of the Dreadnought.

Weaknesses: Heavy reliance on gadgets and equipment, Too willing to throw herself at opponents that outclass her, in a weakened state from empurata ceremony, Grappling in hand-to-hand

Abilities:

Silent Running - 4 orns use, 4 groons recharge - Nitroxide can move around without making any sound, but she is completely visible. This dampens her EM field and spark so to render her invisible to everything but the optic.

Shared Optic Feed - Since she built the Sparkhaven drones, Nitroxide is capable of tapping into their optic and audio feeds to see/hear what is happening around them, allowing her to collect information on and off the battlefield.

Equipment expert - Nitroxide knows her way around most equipment, but has an affinity for medical equipment.

Recording capabilities - As a surveillance drone, Nitroxide is capable of making recordings through her optic, which can be uploaded for sharing.

Extra memory storage - When you have big ideas, you have to have more room to store them.

Higher processing speeds - The world moves slower than Nitroxide, allowing her time to observe and work out solutions. It does make her audio/visual readings glitch during medical check-ups.

Spec Rating: 78/110 [Pre-empurata]; 66/110 [Post-Empurata w/o gadgets]

Physical Specs            Mental Specs

Strength: 5; 3               Intelligence: 9; 9

Dexterity: 6; 7              Technology: 10; 10

Speed: 8; 6                  Courage: 10; 10

Endurance: 5; 3           Charisma: 5; 5

Firepower: 6; 1 [6 w/upgrades]

Accuracy: 7; 7

Melee: 7; 5

Summary of Specs: A lithe drone frame with a specialty in utilizing various weapons and tools to inflict decent damage to enemies. Due to undergoing empurata, Nitroxide has suffered from structural integrity, but has gained more dexterity and maintained her intelligence. Despite being the most delicate member of the Neutron team, no one is braver than Nitroxide, who is more than willing to face off against even the largest warframe...if the others would just let her.

Relationships:

Siblings: None(?)

Conjunx Endura/Sparkmate: None

Creations: Nanostorm (Adopted); Powerhouse (Adopted)

Amica Endura: Solar Pax

Friends: Starprowler; The Drones; Benzyl (Deactivated); Butyl (Deactivated)

Mentor: Primadonis (Murdered) (Deactivated)

Allies: Citizens of Sparkhaven

Frenemies: Dealbreaker; Fireball

Enemies: Any sentient that threatens Sparkhaven or the Neutrons or her loved ones

Nemesis: The Council

History: [Redacted]

Misc:

Favorites:

Weather: Eclipses

Color: Red

Sport/Game/Hobby: Fullstasis; Praxus Fold'em; Invention

Drink/Food: Oil Cake

Fauna: Electro-toad

Additional Information

Nitroxide got the idea for Sparkhaven while Solar Pax was reading poetry to her.

Nitroxide's previous occupations include: Spark-surgeon, Blacksmith, Research Assistant, Soldier (Aerial Surveillance Unit), and Recorder.

The plating of the empurata helm and servos did not match Nitroxide's original plating colors, so she had them painted to match the rest of her plating.

Solar Pax and Nitroxide often go to Bot-Bods together to get their paint touched up.

Unlike Nanostorm, Nitroxide has the highest fuel efficiency, and smallest tank, among the Neutrons.

Nitroxide knows Nanostorm's secret and will do anything in her power to keep the matter private between those few who know.

Nitroxide created the Sparkhaven Drones to provide Nanostorm and Powerhouse back-up as the guardians of Sparkhaven. However, she did program some special programs into the drones that require her vocalized verification code to access them.

Nitroxide keeps many secrets close to her spark.

Potential Tags: Nitroxide, SIC Log, Sparksurgeon, H-2-N-O, Let’s Get Scientific, Empuratess (SG AU), Newtrons: Destroy All! (SG AU). 

[just-a-loyal-ultramarine]

My Lords of Macragge,

I have prepared a brief seminar on the excrable Alpha Legion, and their infiltrating assassins.

To make a long story short, Headhunters are a unit in dire need of an update. They’re basically worse Seekers. Considering the Alpha Legion developed the Seekers, I guess they decided they were too good and made battles too interesting.

Headhunters fill the same niche as Seekers do, in that they’re BS 5 marines in power armour, with the Precision Shot rule, in the Fast Attack section, used to destroy vulnerable targets. There are, however, a number of differences in wargear and rules.  

Let’s look at the two units without any upgrades. Seekers come with Implacable Advance, Marked for Death and Special Issue Ammunition – in essence, they can contest objectives, get Preferred Enemy against a single unit or character selected after infiltrators are placed, and can choose each turn which of a number of profiles they want to use with their bolters – you can get access to normal bolts with AP 4 and extra range, bolts with S 5 and AP 2 that count as Heavy Weapons, and weaker bolts that are small blast templates. Since all of them are superior to normal bolter shots, you’ll probably never use them with your Seekers. Extra Seekers are twice as expensive as extra Tactical Marines for the basic Legion squad, any number of them may buy combi-weapons, and the squad sergeant has some nifty little upgrades as well.

Compared to all that, the Headhunters lose Implacable Advance, Marked for Death and Special Issue Ammunition, and instead gain Infiltrate (only they can’t infiltrate their transport if they take one) and combi-bolters with Banestrike ammunition. To be fair they also get power daggers and venom spheres, but with normal marine stats and a single wound, any dedicated CQC-unit will destroy them with ease. Their combi-weapons are slightly cheaper, but not enough to justify taking this unit over a normal Seeker squad. The unit can take a single heavy bolter with suspensor web and Banestrike ammunition, and this only costs 10 points, but since you can’t stock up on them it still isn’t really worth it. The squad leader can exchange their bolt pistol for an inferno pistol, which isn’t something you see everywhere even in the Heresy, and though it’s a bit expensive you might as well. It’s worth noting that extra Headhunters cost a bit more than extra Seekers, so the savings you might have made with the combi-weapons are lost (and then some).

Were I to field them, I would field a unit of 10 with the heavy bolter, inferno pistol and melta bombs on the leader. Maybe a couple of combi-meltas to take down a tank or dreadnought if the opportunity presents itself, or to try and fry a 2W terminator? The Combi-bolters are basically bolters with twin-linked so the pseudo-rending you get from Banestrike ammunition is slightly better, so with a bit of luck you’ll be able to savage a vulnerable Legion Support squad armed with plasma guns, a Heavy Support squad with lascannons or something similarly expensive.

[interrogatormentors]

Event Two: Straight Flush

CA: if thats howw shits gotta be i get it CA: i really do CA: just lettin you knoww youre gonna regret this. CA: and by the time you realize wwhat a fuckin mistake youvve made in pushin me awway CA: ill be far beyond your reach

-- caligulasAquarium [CA] has left the memo! --

By this point in Eridan Ampora’s life, he knew space as lonely and fickle. He knew that the gaps between stars yawned millennia, and trolls at the top clawed and stabbed each other in the back at every opportunity. As a graduate of the Fleet Academy, Eridan knew this very well. What he hadn’t been prepared for was all the fucking paperwork.

Eridan stared at the blinking cursor on the scheduling spreadsheet in front of him, but no matter how hard he crossed his eyes the numbers never started making sense. As a well-established Dreadnought Condescension team, the DC Reichenbach’s crew all possessed equally established habits and schedules. Needless to say they didn’t take too kindly to an uppity new Head Admin coming in and shuffling shit around.

Eridan leaned back in his chair, lifting his glasses to pinch the bridge of his nose. The ship had one of its usual hiccups then, the lights flaring as an energy shift took place. Wonderful. With his free hand Eridan fumbled for the intercom button. “Get back in the helm, Riesse.”

After a pause a light blinked on the callbox at Eridan’s side, indicating an incoming call. “Yo, it’s been a perigee. Use my name or I riot,” said Riesse.

“Oh, funny, I can’t see Shakes anywhere on your file Riesse.”

“C’mon.”

“No.”

“Errrridan.”

Eridan rested his head on his desk, staring at the floor as he tried to gather himself.

“Shakes. You’ve got a break from the helm tomorrow, we can’t keep usin’ antimatter engines like this. You know that the maintenance for it costs a fuckin’ fortune-”

“Mmmmyeah we can,” Riesse or Shakes or whatever the fuck that fucking brown’s name was. Eridan was tired of battling about it, but he still felt an obligation to protest. “I got shit to do with Bricks.”

“And the captain, and the Chief Intelligence Officer,” Eridan said. Further slouching caused his glasses to slip right off his nose onto the floor. “You can’t all take a break at the same time every week.”

“Yeah, we can,” said Shakes. “God, haven’t you ever heard of like, free time and social bonding? You should join us sometime. Bricks’ got a rad as hell campaign set up and Illhal said she might be transferring. We’ve got an open spot. Table’s big enough for one mooore. Loosen up, holy shit.”

Eridan hung up the call. “Uppity fuckin’ mudfucker,” he said, picking up his glasses from the floor. “Oh wow, let’s just stick a bulge in the captain, get free breaks just whenever.” 

Ever since the helming techs had come out with mobile helmsman upgrades, highbloods who had quadrants with psionic lowbloods were crawling all over it. Some lowblood sympathetic fleet captains and helming techs and docterrors had written essays about the benefits of this new technology, which boasted alleged benefits such as increased helmsman longevity and better synchronization to the ship’s systems. The technology actually meant that those lowbloods with highblood quadrants were guaranteed the ability to move if their quads got their own ship and the rank of fleet captain, and it also meant that said lowbloods came with a hefty pair of globes to match.

Eridan tried to assure himself that he shouldn’t have been surprised. The Reichenbach’s captain was a piece of work to say the least, and her matesprit was such a cocky bastard with no respect for his blood superiors. As blood equals, with Captain Nekara as his superior in age and rank, Eridan kept his mouth shut to humor her smug piece of shit matesprit who jittered with ridiculous amounts of excess psionic energy.

Eridan’s palmhusk started beeping then, letting him know about breaktime, and he cast a defeated look to the stark and empty crew schedule. Normally he’d just work through his break, considering he never had other obligations. This time, he tried something new.

[Welcome to Poker Palace Server 2022A, caligulasAquarium, apocalypticTreeswing, circuitryCloser, torpidAnnihilator! Please read the rules and have fun! Currently there are 40 viewers of this game.]

AT: aw (fuck) aw beans aw no AT: playing with (fucking) TA?????? CC: hhehhe get wrekt dood CA: wwhat CA: do you knoww each other AT: nah dude’s a (damn) bot or whatever and wins every (fucking) time AT: shoot i wanted to bet money on this match too CC: just bet on TA man CC: thhey’re like always online ur going to make a hHELLA profit AT: my pride tho CA: wwhat pride AT: DUDE :*C

Poker didn’t seem too labor intensive, especially when Eridan could theoretically still work on the schedule on the other monitor. As time progressed he instead found that the match he’d gotten roped into took all his focus after the user torpidAnnihilator wiped the floor with all of them as apocalypticTreeswing had warned. Users could theoretically stay for infinite matches, and so a rematch began.

TA won again.

And again.

Over and over TA called bluff after bluff, and unveiled hand after winning hand after intimidating everyone else, even as AT and CC left and were replaced by other users. Each user expressed dismay at seeing TA there, but something in Eridan had been awoken.

He needed to win. So he kept playing even as his break ended, eyes flicking from schedule to poker match as he continued to lose over and over. He could have fun and loosen up, totally. He just had to win first.

[Welcome to Poker Palace Server 3014C, caligulasAquarium, torpidAnnihilator, gentrificationAwaiting, corporealTone! Please read the rules and have fun! Currently there are 67 viewers of this game.]

CA: ready to lose fucker CA: you cant wwin forevver CT: ...what CA: do i look like im talkin to you GA: i mEan it’s an opEn chatroom, so GA: if you’rE talking to TA good luck haha, CA: ivve been goin at it for four perigees hes gotta lose sometime CT: ...lol GA: LOL, GA: i’vE bEEn playing for tEn swEEps!! GA: thEy don’t losE!  CA: wwell wwere gonna see about THAT noww wwont wwe CA: if youvve got a penchant for believvin anyone that isnt the empress can be infallible youre sadly fuckin mistaken CA: one wway or another im gonna fuckin provve it and then youll eat your fuckin wwords. chumps

TA said nothing as per usual, but this silence stopped bothering Eridan long ago. He had become used to the empty silence that filled the digital lobby during games. Every muscle in Eridan’s body tensed as time went on and he focused, watching everything unfold as he kept his cards close to his virtual chest. The match concluded as it usually did, with GA and CT folding and TA refusing to show their hand. After playing this long, however, Eridan had learned to take his chances. If they needed to, TA usually folded or called a bluff second. This time they’d held onto their cards.

CA: bluff you dont havve shit CT: ...we both got shit hands you know hes got a good one CA: still callin it

With the bluff called, TA’s hand flipped over to reveal a four, two fives of separate suits, and an eight. Not necessarily a bad hand, but not a good one. The entire world stopped and Eridan felt a funny lurch in his digestive sack. He lurched to his feet, staring at the screen for a good minute.

For so many perigees, Eridan had worked towards this very moment. Each second that he stood there taking slow, shaking breaths to comprehend what had just happened felt like an eternity of downright euphoria. He’d done it.

However the world, and more importantly the game, wouldn’t wait forever. He moved his shaky hands to type out the damning words.

CA: straight flush CA: i wwin

A silence followed, and Eridan felt so fucking giddy, like there were clouds below his feet. He hadn’t felt this good in perigees. The commenters who had been gossiping about the inevitable outcome of the match had lapsed into shock with the other players also at a loss. TA, as always, remained silent. Finally, GA and CT began to type, almost in unison.

GA: what CT: ...holy shit GA: arE you fucking serious no WAY you’rE cheating! CA: if this wwere anythin but an online servver i wwould be less insulted CA: i cant code my wway out of a wwet paper bag CT: ...still theres no way you couldve beaten him of all people CA: look a lot of this game is luck okay wwhat the fuck are you talkin about CA: havve you evven played poker before in your life TA: Huh. TA: Well, thII2 II2 a 2urprII2e. TA: ThII2 game wa2 quIIte refre2hIIng, thank you. CT: ...hhhhhhhooooh my god

The match closed itself then, leaving Eridan staring at his victory screen. Something about that quirk seemed familiar, but he shook the thought away. The one he’d known with that quirk had disappeared a sweep before Eridan himself had left the rebellion. He had to be dead by now. Friend requests started pinging on his poker profile as he sat there, viewers of the match itself enamored by the new champion. More than a few angry messages popped up, considering TA’s popularity in betting circles. Only one private message caught Eridan’s attention.

TA: Let me know IIf you would lIIke to play me agaIIn 2ometIIme. TA: II am very aware you have been 2talkIIng 2erver2 lookIIng for me and that would 2ave 2ome ha22le on your end II thIInk. TA: That was the mo2t fun II have had for a whIIle. TA: II may have two quIIt 2oon con2IIderIIng your mo2t deft humIIlIIatIIon, but fIIndIIng a new hobby II2 laborIIou2.

Eridan reread the messages at least five times to absorb just what the mysterious reigning champion of the poker ring was actually offering. There was an odd little flutter in his chest, something he’d thought he’d never feel again. Pride, and a well-earned, well deserved sense of pride at that. Acknowledgement by an ever-supreme master at a craft, even for something as little as poker, meant worlds to him. He couldn’t help the grin that crossed his face, still on a euphoric high  at the sudden turn of events.

CA: uh wwoww okay CA: look evveryone loses evventually unless youre hackin or wwhatevver CA: surprised no one else called you out TA: The thIIng about garnerIIng a reputatIIon IIn onlIIne communIItIIe2 II2 IIntimIIdatIIon and people fallIIng on your bulge in terror ju2t come2 wIIth the whole package. TA: And a2 you know, that II2 the name of the game. CA: i thought it wwas poker TA: What? TA: Oh, very funny. CA: oh my god you talk like a fuckin loser howw old are you TA: That II2 a very rude que2tIIon. TA: II wIIll 2ee you agaIIn, ErIIdan. All haIIl the Empre22. CA: all hail i guess

TA logged off then. Eridan continued to bask in his own victory before freezing, eyes scanning over the last few messages TA had sent.

That couldn’t be possible.

He took a moment, eyes fixed on that one sentence in the chatlog again before he flipped over to his personal profile. No, nothing there. He had made sure not to put any identifying information on his profile apart from his blood color code, which more than a few members did. His name wasn’t anywhere on the site.

Swallowing hard, Eridan closed the poker site down for now and opened this week’s schedule and maintenance logs. Only victory mattered, and he’d accomplished that. What could some random nobody on the internet do to him?

Maybe Shakes’ D&D session would be a little less nerve-wracking.

[lublas1138-blog]

Under the Eye of Jupiter

Colt Corrigan pressed the steering yoke of his spaceship, the Copernicus, as forward as he could in a desperate attempt to out distance the trio of Martian dreadnoughts which lumbered in pursuit.

The three battleships were much larger than the craft they hunted. Long, bulky, and zeppelin shaped, the dreadnoughts brandished imposing blaster turrets along the topside of the grey metal hull and two corresponding turrets on the bottom of the fuselage. At the bow pointed a compliment of fission torpedo tubes.

Jutting from the top middle bulkhead rose a bridge tower bristling with antennae transmitters and sensor dishes. Each formidable-looking spacecraft held a crew of one thousand men.

In contrast, the Copernicus was a small, bullet-shaped vessel. Dull chrome, the bow of the spaceship displayed a series of viewports similar to a B-29 bomber of Old Earth. On each side of the craft, V-shaped fins ending with two barrel-shaped engines. Above the cockpit was a clear dome outfitted with a single blaster cannon. It worked when it wanted to and, at the moment, it didn’t want to.

A long discontinued model, the Cromwell VCX personal craft was never designed for long-range space travel, however with the numerous upgrades throughout his short time as its sole crew, Colt Corrigan had converted it into a fast and sturdy interplanetary vessel.

The Copernicus dipped and swayed as it dodged the nearly invisible heat rays shot across its bow.

Outside the small ship’s viewports, the titanic planet Jupiter loomed ahead. A tumultuous vista of orange, purple, and grayish strips slowly spun horizontally across a vast surface; with its infamous spot of tempestuous crimson storms slowly churning in the lower hemisphere.

Since pre-interplanetary times, being the largest planet in the Solar System, Jupiter was named after the mythic Roman ruler of the gods. A gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times of all other planets in the solar system combined, yet slightly less than one-thousandth the mass of the Sun.

Orbiting Jupiter was a faint ring system of crystalline, icy rocks along with seventy-nine terraformed moons, including four larger, and fully populated, Galilean planetesimals.

In the cockpit, Colt urgently flipped switches and pulled levers as he nose-dived toward the moon of Europa when he heard a voice crackle over his radio’s intercom.

“Captain Corrigan,” The voice droned, “Stop being so over-dramatic. Power down your reactor and return the cases of fission batteries you stole from New Saigon Port of Authority and, you have my solemn word, we will be lenient with your prosecution.”

Colt glanced up and scowled at the dented, mesh intercom embedded in a series of lights and cables on the inside of the cramped cockpit, “Motherfuckers!”

He snatched the microphone to his radio off the hook on which it dangled and sneered, “Officer, I already told you, I didn’t steal anything! I was commissioned by Big Tony for routine delivery to Io Station!”

The voice droned. “Oh, I see. You’re smuggling them, then? Got it. Look, you realize you have in your possession property of the Sankari Dynasty? We already know this Big Tony snatched them on Mars while the cases were being loaded onto a transport ship to a military facility.”

“Then go bother Big Tony about it and get off my ass!” Colt snapped.

The voice said, “Captain Corrigan, simply comply and allow us to board. What’s the worst could happen? Spending a couple of months in a jail cell? You realize, if you hold out too long, you could seriously jeopardize your credit rating.”

In exasperation, Colt hung up the microphone and apprehensively glanced at his flickering scanner. The colorless, cathode-tubed screen revealed the three Martian ships inching closer and his fuel pods rapidly depleting. He might as well kiss the forty-thousand azulos shipping fee goodbye.

The Copernicus shot across the top atmosphere of Europa like a rock skipping water to out-distance itself from the three dreadnoughts.

The bottom of the small, cylindrical craft glowed orange hot as scorched heat tiles compensated for the rapid entry.

An old maneuver, but it seemed to work. The zeppelin-shaped Martian ships were falling behind. That was until a heat ray sliced across the navigational fin on the back of the Copernicus’ fuselage causing it to nose-dive into a wild tailspin towards the moon’s surface.

“Goddammit!!” The young captain cursed.

Streaming a spiraling torrent of black smoke, the Copernicus plunged headlong into the grey, mist-enshrouded atmosphere of Europa.

The captain of the lead Martian vessel chuckled over the intercom, “We got you, ya little shit! But, don’t you worry none, though, we’ll be down soon enough, and rescue you.” He ended the sentence in mocking laughter.

The blond youth switched off the radio and attempted to control his descent onto the moon.

Europa. Originally discovered by Galileo Galilei, pre-Dynasty on Homeworld, it was named after Europa, the fabled Phoenician mother of King Minos of Crete and lover of Zeus. Europa was the smallest of the four Galilean satellites orbiting Jupiter and the sixth-closest to the planet of all the seventy-nine moons.

Europa circled Jupiter in slightly over three and a half days, with an orbit radius of 670,900 kilometers, and an orbital inclination relative to Jupiter's equatorial plane.

Outfitted with both atmosphere factories and a gravity bell, Europa’s weather satellites maintained the moon’s tropical-like ecosystem since before the beginning of the Sankari Dynasty.

If Colt somehow survived the landing, this was his first time visiting the Galilean satellite.

Once, while waiting in a hotel lobby on Phobos, he read in a magazine article titled The solar system survival guide for beginners by Wilhelm Sheng. It stated Europa was populated primarily with simple farmers and was the solar system’s major logging hub.

The article went on to include its inhabitants were Sankari sympathizers and possessed a sizeable Imperial airbase near its capital city of Timphu.

The magazine article concluded while in the area one should stop and sample the local cuisine, their Nom Nom Chok was claimed to be the best noodles on that side of the asteroid belt.

A red light began to flash on the pilot console. The fuel pods had been depleted. The ion reactor required shut down or it would explode.

“Shit,” Colt muttered.

The damaged ship spiraled headlong through dark and billowing clouds of rain and distant thunder.

In the confined cockpit, the switches and lever to power down the fusion reactor lay directly behind the lone pilot seat.

During the heat of the moment, Colt unbuckled himself in an attempt to reach around and flip the necessary sequence of buttons. The moment he unsnapped the restraining harness, his lanky body was flung violently around the spinning cockpit like a rag doll.

Colt grabbed at what he could to no avail. For what seemed an eternity, he painfully bumped and smashed against the inner bulkhead as the ship screamed downward toward a most certain doom.

With extraordinary effort, he snatched the sole parachute pack from the back of the pilot’s seat and, clutching the rim of the cockpit’s hatch, made his way into the hold where, again, he was flung hard against the cylindrical bulkhead. A sharp pain shot through his lean abdomen as he felt a rib snap.

Various supplies and cargo containers tumbled chaotically around him. Bruised and bloodied, the blond youth inched his way toward the emergency evac lever located near the rear exit ramp of his ship.

The airlock hatch dropped open and Colt, along with whatever not secured in the hold, was sucked out of the ship.

As he was flung about and out, he violently bumped his head on the rim of the hatch. Within the passing seconds, in dread he witnessed his ship screaming away through the night sky, and plummet into the grey clouds below.

Dizzy from the concussion of hitting his head, he barely managed to pull the ripcord of the parachute, before blacking out from the high altitude...

[mylittlemenandme]

SPECULATE TO ACCUMULATE

With the new Dark Angels codex supplement on the horizon, what better way to celebrate the lovely new book and models than to wildly theorise how this could shape the Space Wolves release when it finally (no earlier than autumn this year, sadly) arrives?

Time to cast the runes…

New Rules

The Dark Angels supplement rocks in with a choice of three detachments - the general one from the index and one each for the Deathwing and Ravenwing - plus Crusade rules set around hunting for the Fallen. Three detachments sounds about right considering they'll also have access to the seven from the main Space Marine codex, and I think most new codexes have retained the one from the initial index release. The two others being based around the two formations that set the Dark Angels apart was to be expected, even if the Ravenwing perhaps share a bit of overlap with the Stormlance detachment from the main codex, kind of like a Stormlance+.

In this case, I'd expect the Champions of Russ detachment to be retained in the Space Wolves codex, maybe tweaked a little bit (like it has been in yesterday's Balance Dataslate, perhaps…). With the two other detachments likely leaning into what makes the chapter unique, I'm expecting one of them to be something along the lines of Wolfkin. Another Stormlance+ detachment, I can picture it based around the Thunderwolf Cavalry and Fenrisian Wolves, and maybe the Wulfen as well. I'm thinking this is where the classic Wulfen Stone relic from the past would pop up again as an Enhancement.

If the wolves and Wulfen are indeed clumped together like this, it then becomes difficult to tell what the second detachment could be. The Great Companies already operate as archetypes well served by the other main detachments - Morkai's vanguard, Dragongaze's veterans, Ironwolves' vehicles, etc. - so it depends what aspect of the chapter they want to lean into. There are the dreadnoughts, the walking ancients with Bjorn et al. They could do a "savage" one, all Blood Claws and assault troops. Or there's the vicious hunters, based on Reivers and the Hounds of Morkai. I'm leaning more towards the latter but looking at the number of Reivers I own that's definitely wishlisting.

The Dark Angels Crusade rules are pretty much ported straight over from the previous edition so I can see the deed names and the boastful agendas doing the same for the Space Wolves, If they want to tie it into the new Space Marine Oathsworn campaigns, I think we could see them introducing the idea of Great Hunts from the lore. Setting out on a search for Leman Russ and recovering relics on the way, it'd be perfect for Crusade.

New Models

So this is the bit everyone is looking forward to.

The Dark Angels got a whole suite of new models. New Deathwing Knights and a new Belial model made sense after the new, bigger Terminator models were introduced. There's a new Asmodai as well, so along with Belial they are clearly replacing the old Finecast or metal characters. No news on Ezekial or Sammael as yet, but surely they'll see new models too. Then there's a new upgrade sprue with Ravenwing and Deathwing bits on, and on top of that a whole new unit: the Inner Circle Companions.

New models getting introduced is a part of the reason why I think the new Space Wolves codex is a way off. There are a large number of characters in Finecast. There are Terminators and Terminator-armoured characters. What to do with the non-Primaris marines? Let's go through the datasheets from the index and see if we can work out what's likely to happen.

Reborn, Reforged

Arjac Rockfist and Njal Stormcaller - Finecast characters, in Terminator armour, I think these are locked in to get smart new models. A new Njal model will be superb.

Wolf Guard Terminators - Speaking of Terminators, I'm fully expecting a full new kit for the Wolf Guard in the same vein as the Deathwing Knights, rather than just being upgrade bits for the standard kit. A mix of assault weapons, shields, fists, combi-weapons, etc. this could also be used to build up Terminator pack leaders and battle leaders (assuming they make it into the codex).

Upgrade Sprue - Lots of Space Wolf heads, runic weapons and armour, pelts - I can see this looking similar to the existing Grey Hunter/Blood Claw sprue.

Unmoved

Bjorn the Fell-Handed/Murderfang/Venerable Dreadnought - Even though the smaller dreadnoughts have drifted away, I think this kit will continue. The Bjorn version in particular is very fancy.

Ragnar Blackmane, Hounds of Morkai - New(ish) Primaris kits (or upgrades to kits), no change here.

Fenrisian Wolves - I think this kit still holds up, can't see why they'd want to change it (apart from the reason given further down).

Stormfang Gunship/Stormwolf - Again, no reason to remove this dual-purpose flyer kit.

Ulrik the Slayer - Blessed with a fairly new (2016), and excellent, model, I think you could put a note in the lore about him not wanting to put himself through the Primaris process or suchlike to justify not needing replacing.

Wulfen - Another kit with no reason to need updating, these will stay.

Uncertain Wyrd

Blood Claws/Grey Hunters/Long Fangs - Along with the Wolf Guard, the core identity of the Space Wolves for the past 30 years. With the introduction of Primaris marines, and the idea of "Claw Packs", "Hunter Packs" and "Fang Packs" in the recent codex to cover their integration into the chapter structure, could it be the end for these key units? The Tactical and Devastator squads managed to survive the chop from the last edition, could these do the same?

The current kit can create Grey Hunters, Blood Claws and Wolf Guard out of the box, with upgrade bits for the previous scout kit in order to make Wolf Scouts. Long Fangs don't really have their own kit, more of an amalgam of bits from the Space Wolves box combined with the Devastator sprues.

An updated version of this kit that allows the same (with the Long Fangs served from the refreshed upgrade sprue) is entirely conceivable. As is the idea I had that I can't currently get away from - Blood Claws just become Assault Intercessors, Long Fangs fade away, and a new "Hunter Pack" unit is introduced which is essentially an Intercessor squad with carbines and chainswords, a midway between standard Intercessors and their Assault variant. Very much up in the air for these units.

Harald Deathwolf, Canis Wolfborn and the Thunderwolf Cavalry - The futures of these models are surely intertwined. Two Finecast character models - if they get replaced in plastic then you would think that the cavalry kit will be replaced and upgraded to match. I can see there potentially being new cavalry kits and, if I had my way, Harald would become a dual kit so you can make either the Wolf Lord himself, or a more general leader model on wolfback.

Krom Dragongaze - In the Dawn of Fire book The Wolftime, it's Krom who is the first to see the potential of the new Primaris marines and integrate them into his Great Company. It's easy to think therefore that he could get a new Primaris-ised version, but I could just as easily see his model quietly retired and replaced by having to add upgrade bits to the standard Primaris Captain kit.

Logan Grimnar - Another decision to make. Logan is another character in Terminator armour, so surely he'd get a new model to match the scale of the other new Terminator-armoured characters? In which case, what happens to the much-maligned, butt-of-many-jokes, Stormrider Chariot model? It's either back down or double down I feel, a new Logan Grimnar on his own or a brand new, even larger, wolf-pulled anti-grav chariot-sled to taxi him around.

Cut Threads?

Cyberwolf - A Finecast model, it doesn't serve a grand purpose in the army currently, and I just can't see this being part of the new codex, unless they drastically update the Fenrisian Wolves kit and include this as an optional build.

Iron Priest - This is a lovely kit, but I can certainly see it being phased out and just being replaced with a standard Techmarine.

Wolf Scouts - It could well be they include head and arm options in a new upgrade sprue, but the existing scout datasheet works just as well for these (just without the nod in the lore to these being veterans in the Space Wolves, rather than initiates in other chapters).

Wolf Guard - If there isn't a new Grey Hunter/Blood Claw kit to allow for mixed equipment, these can pretty much be replaced with Sternguard/Vanguard/Bladeguard units, maybe given a Wolf Guard keyword that works in one of the new detachments.

Skyclaws - I do wonder if these will just become Jump Pack Intercessors going forward, like the old Assault Marines did.

Lukas the Trickster - I feel like he will be a Finecast character too far, but happy to be proved wrong.

Whatever the future holds for some of these, it's looking like it'll need to be quite an overhaul of the range regardless. Better start saving up.