Sanguinus, TheFolkEnt, Akatosh117, and Kyle Shultz, thank you for giving me a share of your own efforts. The next cliffhanger is for you, and no, that is not a curse!
“I’ll be right there Quaani. Where are you now?”
“The navigator spire with Headmaster Sop.”
“I’ll be twenty minutes. Can you hold on until then?”
“Yeah, I’m not dying, exactly.”
“Alright. Aldrich out.” I hang up. “Mr Cygnus. Coordinate with Aru...
2023-03-03 16:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostOzark, SirDeP, Pavel Chvotka, Mathew, paradigmblue, Conradt Moore, and James Seven, thank you acknowledging my efforts have value.
After finishing my discussion with Aileen I return to my primary shipyard, a hollowed out asteroid Omnisiah’s Erudition dragged into orbit, and meet with each major fabricator to answer their questions and aid their studies. Lower ranked members receive calls on their datapads, or through their implants, fielded b...
2023-02-27 16:01:05 +0000 UTC View PostThis chapter is for Hunter Joseph, Geraldo, caleb boggs Drop673, and didi19555. Thank you for donating your hard earned cash towards my creative endeavours. I wouldn't be able to do this without you.
“You mean my vestments and how I assigned myself as a chaplain?”
“Yes.”
“I’m still undergoing my tech-adept courses, so I haven’t had to drop anything that would make me stand out. I will be a crew member on a void ship, listening to the...
2023-02-24 16:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostThis chapter is for Blake Weltner, tester, James Feazell, LUCE, flitter, and John. Thank you so much for funding me. It really cuts down on the procrastination!
Today is an extra chapter as thanks for reaching fifty Patreons.
I examine the bolt pistol. It’s a Hesh Pattern M38 Mark II, a bolt pistol with a drum magazine and a high rate of fire that’s challenging enough to maintain only tech-priests bother with it. I’m rather glad of its malfu...
2023-02-22 16:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostThis chapter is for Purplehaze, Falk Hüser, Dylan S, Gavin Wilder, and Noon Martini. Thank you for your support. Without your encouragement, this story would not exisit.
Lounging in the captain’s quarters on the Omnissiah’s Erudition, I blast towards the industrial facilities around the hot gas giant, a journey of approximately nine hours at one gravity per second per second.
The Distant Sun remains above Marwolv, ever ready to strike the ta...
2023-02-20 16:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostI twirl the device. Eire, Brigid, and Quanni stare at it.
Quaani scoffs. “Really, all that fuss over a Emperor damned crow bar?”
Handing the crowbar to Quaani, I try and fail to keep a straight face, “It’s a hacking tool.”
“I can see that,” says Quaani, weighing the metal in his hand, “Feels like adamantite. You could hack a lot of things with this.”
“Yep! It opens all sorts of things, crates, doors, electronic locks, man holes.”
...
2023-02-17 16:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostThis chapter is for Eric ricciardi, Rocking-Redman, Nerosol, Clayton Carson, and Aaron. Thank you for helping me share my work.
“We are recording, Headmaster. Please proceed,” says Róisín.
“This is Headmaster Aileen Nan Sop of the Marwolv psy-errants initiating the after action review for Operation Sea Mither. With me today is Magos Explorator, Lord Captain of the Distant Sun, and Commander of this fleet, Aldrich Issengrund.
“Also in atten...
2023-02-13 16:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostThe External Modules selection is full of useful items. There are two tiers to it, one of which is linked to the Warp and Weft module. The first tier is laden with STCs for essential items, like survival gear for different environments, medical supplies, and handheld tools.
They’re all horrifyingly expensive and pricing starts at one hundred thousand kills, even the blankets. The high end items like a volkite pistol or advanced multitools are greyed out. They don’t...
2023-02-10 16:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostNo matter how much I want to take prisoners, I need to see to myself first and there’s no way I can drag two of them and a dog through a company of bloodletters. Bloodletters are lesser demons of Khorne with red skin, elongated skulls, curling horns, and clawed feet who swing two-handed, burning, undulating blades.
The sword design, called flamberge or flammenschwert, is associated with useless, showy swords and they look just as ridiculous as one would think with a hilt of four, inwa...
2023-02-06 16:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostThis Chapter is for Dylan K, Siera Scarlet, John Kilborn, Timothy Skipper, and Ulia22. Thank you for donating your time and money to Herald of the Stars.
My armour yells at me in lingua-technis, throwing up a countdown until its systems overheat right in the middle of my vision, though it somehow manages to arrange the red tide of numbers without blocking my view of an incoming headbutt as it propels itself upright.
The machine-spirit’s delicately pla...
2023-02-03 16:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostThis chapter is for Riley Dow, Archaicx1, Marlo, and Njordt. I couldn't have written this chapter without your support. Cheers!
I stare at the demon and a mechadendrite passes me a familiar plasteel pipe. I’ve killed over fifty minor demons with this scavengers’ weapon and it oozes menace, as if each demon I’ve bashed and consumed for power left its final scream behind.
Balphomael, or whatever it’s pretending to be, stiffens then frowns as I twi...
2023-01-30 16:01:51 +0000 UTC View PostHitting the smelter isn’t quite as bad as it sounds. They’re stuck, not getting alloyed. However, one third of their forces are non-operational, and it’s the heavy infantry who are confined.
The boring machinery on the torpedo has seized from the rapidly cooling metals of the smelter, entombing the guardsmen.
The torpedoes are set to self-destruct after thirty minutes. It’s deliberately designed so you can’t disarm it in that length of time and everyone is, understandabl...
2023-01-27 16:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostThis chapter is for Unwritten Honour, GenericKane, W01F, and Steffen Thorup.
Thank you for your unwavering generosity.
I’ve always held the philosophy that if your opponent can spot you and you don’t outrange them, you’re doing something wrong. Unfortunately, that isn’t always possible and option two is to stick your vulnerable assets in the most difficult to reach spot then fortify like crazy with as many redundancies as you ca...
2023-01-23 16:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostWhen you and your armour weigh four hundred and fifty kilos, a terminal velocity of seven hundred and ninety seven kilometres per hour is two hundred and twenty one metres away.
I’m much higher than that.
Falling feet first is going to pulp me, but the speed of my fall is the only thing keeping me safe from the smart munitions.
I make my choice.
With a couple calculations, I reorient myself, lock my armour, and go for a ferrocrete pulverising belly flop at a reduced ...
2023-01-20 16:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostI was delighted to exceed twenty-five patreons this month. I can only offer my thanks and extra chapters, so why not both?
Thank you to all my Rogue Traders, Senschals, and Voidsmen for your continual support at donations.
Thorfinn, eventually, forgives me for drugging him, I think. He does stop going on about it, which is good enough. Recruitment picks up and, after six months, marking the beginning of my third year on Marwolv, my first two dozen...
2023-01-18 16:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostThis chapter is for C C, Dopamine Coma, and Denis Van Wanrooji. Thank you tossing a throne to your writer.
On the medicae deck, Thorfinn and I sit in a clean, white, consultation room and stare at the words on the dataslate lying on the table between us.
++This organism’s genetic sequence is the property of Wild Hunt EugenicsTM.++
“Aldrich. What does that even mean?”
“Technically? Absolutely nothing. Wild Hunt EugenicsTM no longer ex...
2023-01-16 16:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostThis chapter is for Claudiu, Technobread, and Regan. Thank you for your vital donations.
Negotiations push meander back and forth until lunch, during which I have an auto-quill scribe an agreement, then we barter minutiae until teatime. After a much needed break, Headmaster Aileen Nan Sop and I sign the agreement.
During the negotiations, Thorfinn writes copious notes, keeping track of each side and pointing out anything that might conflict with the Gael Democracy...
2023-01-13 16:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Forty-Five
We pull up outside of a tall iron fence. Behind it, a series of round towers with conical roofs are connected with stone bridges over gardens and large halls. The structure is lit with everburning flames likely powered by the minds of the residents and directed by the large scale runework scribed upon the walls.
“Thanks for letting me win,” says Thorfinn.
I detach my helmet off and smirk, “Noticed that did you?”
“How could I not? You were c...
2023-01-09 16:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostThis chapter is for Brandon, Lino, and Alpenmann. Thank you for lifting up my dreams.
I’m only going to get one chance at surveying the city; I swim within one hundred metres of the domes and travel around its circumference once. The domes’ surfaces are uneven, plated with a mix of repurposed voidship hull and new, custom material. It’s armoured and my passive scans barely register the dome shell as eight metres thick.
Having experienced the resil...
2023-01-06 16:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostThis chapter is for XM590, Calab Jaffray, Aleyte, and williwil. Your sponsorship fuels my creative typing. Cheers!
“Good morning, everyone,” I say.
“Good morning, Magos,” say my twelve students, slightly out of sync.
The students sit on plasteel chairs in a circle, their datapads on their laps. Candles and incense burn in a small, recessed shrine on the left wall and mechanicus chants play in the background at a barely audible volume.
<... 2023-01-02 16:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostHappy new year to all my readers. Having chapter forty-two be the one for new year is a total, but fun coincidence. Aldrich may not know the meaning of life, but how about the value?
In my son’s games, models could save their plastic asses from the casualty pile stacked at the edge of the table by rolling six sided dice (D6). The lower the number, the greater the chance of them surviving, so a ‘two plus’ armour save is awesome and the sort of thing you...
2023-01-01 16:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostThis chapter is for Noziaa, killerclown, and Ecko83. Aldrich thanks you for your beneficent aid.
I don’t answer the call and send a burst of data instead, containing the footage of the Tau abducting civilians, then setting kroot hounds on any that they couldn’t stuff into the devilfish.
After completing two more passes, I destroy the other three hammerheads and ground the devilfish with precise strikes to the front bar of the vehicles. Attempting cr...
2022-12-30 16:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostThis Chapter is for LukeElda and Travis Dean. Thank you for aiding my endeavours.
A mechadendrite returns the hip flask to a small compartment on my servo harness. I re-engage my multiple thought streams and start going through the backlog of issues at maximum pace. With all ten at full speed, the world around me slows to a crawl, as if each breath takes me several minutes.
Within a handful of seconds, I’ve sorted everything and I let the world return...
2022-12-26 16:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostHappy Christmas to all my readers.
The thunderhawk docks with the Distant Sun and I leap from the craft. Quaani is waiting for me, two adamantine tower shields resting against his lanky form and three companies of servitors at his back.
“Welcome back, Aldrich. Aruna has informed me of the situation.”
Quanni passes me a shield. If it wasn’t for my power armour and implants there’s no way I could lift this thing. I think Quanni was ...
2022-12-25 16:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostThis chapter is for Iugulator. Aruna praises your dedication to the machine.
I pick up another thirty servitors from the hangar, as well as my favourite servo skull, Brian, and depart the Distant Sun. The thunderhawk circles Marwolv a couple of times as I slip into the atmosphere and descend to the enclave.
During the journey I message Quaani, updating him on the mutants and enclave. He doesn’t reply and I don’t expect him to while he’s s...
2022-12-23 16:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostThis chapter is for DogmaPiece. Thank you for helping me.
Warp travel does unpleasant things to the human body. For most men and women, they develop purple eyes and have an unsettling aura about them, one that makes them unwelcome planetside and many live and die aboard their ship for generations.
Some, however, gather small deformities. Poor diets, poisoned water, and constant exposure to the immaterium’s mutagenic properties all compound into a chop...
2022-12-19 16:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostThanks to promotional efforts by Royal Road readers, Rogue Traders are getting a third chapter this week.
I consider my exchange with the prime minister and how to approach negotiations. He has been concise and the balance of power is so far in my favour, there is little need to dance around my requirements. Maintaining brevity should aid negotiations.
“I would like permission to restore the mechanicus enclave in the northern mountains of this contine...
2022-12-16 16:05:01 +0000 UTC View PostThis chapter is for Lukas Kukta and Andy. Thank you for your generous contribution.
I struggle and fail to hide my shock. My throat tightens and my hands shake. I swallow.
“Nothing bad has happened, truly? No violent cults covered in symbols that drive you mad? No whispers in the dark promising grand powers and eternal life? No twisted creatures stalking the streets and dragging people from their homes?”
“If that’s what the Imperium is lik...
2022-12-16 16:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostThis chapter is for J Garcia Briceño and Jacob Carter. Thank you for your support.
I hand Thorfinn two beads and some ear defenders, “Put this one in your ear, clip that to your breastplate, and put these over your head. The vehicle can get quite loud, these will let us talk to each other and protect your ears.”
Quaani heads to the other chimera, surrounded by servitors.
I take off my helmet and demonstrate with my own set of vox beads and ea...
2022-12-12 16:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostThis chapter is for Meylixia. Thank you for signing up!
I send the thunderhawk out to get detailed scans of Erudition’s Howl’s hull, looking for a good spot to attach massive cables to its hull.
Mr Cygnus appears in my vision and manipulates my screens, showing sections of the hull, highlighted in blue.
“We can’t attach cables there, Mr Cygnus.”
The machine-spirit honks, teleports on top of the screen, then taps the highli...
2022-12-09 16:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post