Breaking In Louise (ZnT Discussion)

Let's take something from 40K that is rather... plainer.

Part #2
Part #3

Untitled

"Did you see that?! The corporal! The corporal and that-"
"Shut-up and keep firing!"
"But-"
"But nothing! If you don't start concentrating on your targets I wi-AUGH!"
"Sarge! SHIT!"

------

Even after all the times in the past, the explosion still took Louise by surprise. Blast caused her to stagger and a lungful of dust sent her into a momentary coughing fit. Inside disappointment tore at her... she had failed, again! Why did the Founder curse her like this? Already she could hear her classmates, who had wisely backed away, begin to jeer.

"As expected Ze-" Montmorency's quip died on her lips as a... creature skittered out of the dust cloud. The thing put Louise in mind of a cross between an insect and Kirche's salamander, with the size of the latter, but with an exceedingly large amount of teeth and razor sharp claws.

The creature seemed to be a bit confused, staggering here and there for a moment. It gave a hard shake of its head and took a good look at the assembled students, malevolent slits taking them in before it gave an aggressive screech and reared back, obviously about to strike.

CRACK!

A thin red-yellow beam of light blasted into the side of the creature and blew a large hole in the horror. The thing shrieked and collapsed, twitching a bit before ceasing to movement. All assembled eyes turned to a man standing in the dead center of the explosion, identifiable from the scorched grass.

Clad in some kind of unidentifiable plate armor painted a sort of brokenly dull green, the man lowered the weapon that put them in mind of a musket and glanced around. His face, surprisingly young (Louise thought he was maybe four years older) if it weren't for the small scar on his cheek and the look of experience in his eyes, squinted in confusion...

"What the-Where the warp am I?"

Somehow, Louise managed to find her voice first. "W-who are you?"

The man looked right at her with a frown, reaching up and taking off the bowlish helmet to reveal a buzz-cut of black hair. "Corporal Rigan Saito, 332nd Cadian Regiment of the Imperial Guard. Now, who are you?"

Nah, what I think would be really interesting would be an Imperial Psyker. The contrast between the Imperium's dogmatic hatred of psykers and the Halkeginian exaltation of mages should be entertaining.....

~I~

Step. Breathe. Step

The trees of the night time forest blurred by, but he paid them no heed. Nothing mattered, only escape. His breath issued short, labored puffs of carbon dioxide, as he sprinted blindly ahead.

Step. Breathe. Step

Jonas no longer remembered how long he'd been running. Every step sent a jolt of electric pain coursing up his spine. But he couldn't stop, No, he could never stop. Not with the Black Ship hanging in orbit like a demented bird of prey.

He stole a glance at the starry night sky, cast against the hellish eldritch light of the Ocularis Terriblis was a single black splotch. He stifled a laugh as he considered the appropriateness of the image the Black Ship presented

It was indeed a void, a gaping maw of nothingness, a metaphorical zero, so to speak, in the tumultuous and nightmarish galaxy of the 41st Millennium. Even through the vessel's arcane null fields, he swore he could he hear echoing screams of abject despair and desperate pleas for deliverance that would never come.

As always, carnage and madness, would be their reward, whether it be betrayal from behind, nightmarish aliens from the infinite void between the stars above, and the hellish monsters of the immaterium from beyond. There was no end to the suffering, no end to the war.

"Witch spotted in sector IV-alpha-secundus, strike teams move in". A Provost barked into his helmet comm as an Enforcer squad smashed through the underbrush in full carapace armor.

The Arbites had spotted him, he had to shake them off quickly. Before the Witch Bane arrived. He shuddered involuntarily at the thought of those shadowy killers. Suddenly, the night suddenly seemed so much darker and colder.

He decide that he could use some warmth. Gouts of swirling purple flame burst forth from his palms and lit up the brush and plant detritus around the Arbites. The fire prevented them from moving from their little patch of forest, yet not a single Arbite was killed.

Why would he kill? That would only prove his pursuers right: That Psykers were an aberration, an irredeemable threat to humanity. But more importantly it separated him from the shadowy daemons that scratched and slavered at the blurry edges of his consciousness.

Jonas sped away into the brush and burst into a pleasant meadow of tall wild grass, where he collapsed in exhaustion.

The sudden roar of jet engines flattened the wild grass of the meadow, as a Thunderhawk gunship streaked down from the night sky, spewing dirt and detritus into his face. Jonas struggled to his feet, his heart pounding out of his chest. He raised his hands to his face, trying fruitlessly to summon his power.

He looked around, and stared fearfully at the dozen or so obsidian armored forms surrounding him, each bearing a intricately carved skull adorned "I" on their chestplates. Each one had carved skull totems draped over their armored bulk, amplifying their soulless magic suppressing abilities.

"Untouchables" he gasped. It was all over now the Witch Bane was here.

The ramp of the Thunderhawk slammed open with a wet thud as it impacted the grass and dirt. Jonas caught a brief glimpse of a cloaked suit of power armor before a bright green oval of sorcerous power swallowed him whole.

~I~

I know I'm not a very good writer, and that this style doesn't really mesh with the tone of ZNT but I felt I had to get this out there.

I take it you just downloaded the third movie too? :-D

I was just thinking about her summoning the Delphine too, except I thought it may be cooler if it was without Rygart. That would probably end up needing a lot more information about the Delphine's past than the original source has disclosed however. So far they have hinted it was a last-ditch effort intended for some specific purpose. What that purpose was, and even whether it failed or succeeded has not been revealed yet.



She summons it decrepit, dust covered and simply slumped like a puppet with broken strings.

How long would it take before they realized it was actually supposed to be a vehicle?
How would Louise react to summoning what was basically a tomb?

Also, queue bad ass moment after they decipher the inscription, then she uses it to take out the Lexington.

The last two snippet posts are good, but I still feel like I would go with something a bit out of the norm so to say of the 40K verse.

But I still do like both, don't deny that. A Imperial Guardsmen will be a interesting approach to Badass normal, while a Psyker is anything but.

If I didn't use Chao's for extreme bending and breaking, I would probably use a Eldar Farseer.

A Farseer would be interesting if you could convince her to hold still and not kill everybody around her when she finds out what the runes are for.

Thats the challenge my dear Artemis, thats the challenge. We would need a fairly tame Farseer, or a extremely intelligent one. Even then, I expect varying degree's of whatever approach "Foaming at the mouth OMG I'mma going to fu*king butcher the whole lot of you, shred your souls and send them screaming into the warp" for Eldar. I don't think being handed the equivalent of slave titles and bindings is going to roll well with anyone, and is one of the more subtly darker aspects of the series.

Then we have the fact that, wait a moment, fair skin, pointed ears, strange magic and abnormally tough and dangerous warrior? Did I mention the pointed ears?

I give you 4-to-1 that a random Student is going to scream "Elf!" and Colbert is going to go full "I'mma set this sh*t on fire" mode.

Colbert will be wary, but he won't go into "BURN IT WITH FIRE!" mode unless one of his students get injured, or worse.

I personally would pick a Sister of Silence. Especially if mages were affected by Blanks the same as psykers are.

Alright, good point. Also have to take into consideration that the Farseer in question might or might not be in full-battle dress, and will not quite be seen as a Elf till later in private with Louise. I can still see Colbert being wary though, and the only thing that will likely let Louise get close enough and get the pact over with is that the Summoning might disable the Farseer for that few short moments it needs to happen.

Also, bit curious if you have thoughts on the last bit about possible Chao's FoZ near the end of the last page if you got the moment Robo.

well, you could play it as the runes being just that strong that they make the summoned one a slave to every one of Louise's commands, even if they aren't aware of it.

Like in the Border of Zero thread, where the runes are trying to implant thoughts on Maribel, being reduced to screaming OBEY OBEY OBEY when Maribel finally discovers they are messing with her head and she destroys their influence using Gap Hax powers.

I like the Guardsman idea.

Glad you guys find it interesting. I'll have to post some more snippets when I can be bothered.

Hmm, you mean the post where you listed the various options?

Obviously, it's a Just As Planned scenario by Tzeentch. Yeah yeah, injokes aside, a work of Chaos showing showing up is obviously due in large part to the actions of Chaos. Why? The FoZ mages show NONE of the assorted signs associated with Psyker's.

Working on the premise that FoZ is set in the 40K-verse, it's in the interests of Chaos to deny the Imperium such a MAJOR resource, a resource which could infact bolster the Imperium to a point where it would no longer need to fear the dangers of the Warp as it currently does. How? The FoZ Mages are either immune to Chaos Corruption, or they're filtering Warp Energies before any such corruption could take place.

Humanity gaining hold of that ability is more or less an "I win" scenario for Humans in the 40K-verse, and since it's genetic, it can be worked into humanity as a whole. That is bad for Chaos. That might also be bad for the Eldar.

Obviously it needs to be stopped before it can occur then.


If the FoZ setting is set OUTSIDE of the 40K-verse, then this is the work of Chaos to gain foothold into this new universe. Either Chaos can expand the Warp somehow, or they can convert the FoZ's equivilant of the Emperium into something hospitable for Chaos.

Either way, knowing what Chaos is doing explains their motivations. Their motivations set up the changes in the plot that occurs.

Just make him less of an perv that Saito was/is and a healthy dose of Badass Normal, and I'll eat it up.

Cadians are rarely within our modern interpretation of Badass Normal.

They fit the trope about as well as can be for 40k though.

I wonder if he'll talk to his lasrifle's machine spirit?

Well, that's a given. Cadia may be a fortress world but its rather forward thinking (compared to the rest of the Imperium), so under-18 relation is still a no-no for him. As compensation: Siesta gets an age-up. I actually tossed about a Commissar!Saito variation, but here I have settled on Cadian!Saito.

I also found it astonishingly easy to modify the background story to fit FoZ within 40K. A hint, I rolled back Brimir's crusade(?) by an extra-4,000 years and the Founder had some... inspiration.

Short answer: yes. Also, great thing about a lasgun is he can leave the power cells out in the open all day on a sunny day and they'll recharge. There is, of course, problems with someone getting curious and taking them but that is... solvable.

Okay, I want more now.

If you do this, I will sacrifice a taco to your immense awesomeness.

Sorry. It's one in the morning and I gotta get up for a social club tomorrow. And I have a section of a paper due next week, so there will quite a delay.

Also, I haven't read the novel properly, which is a bit of a stumbling block.

I can wait, and I need to catch up on the light novels as well, hehe.

What if Louise summoned Colbert... Stephen Colbert...

What if Louise summons Scout Trooper Mkvenner from Gaunt's Ghosts?
or Commissar Cain, HERO OF IMPERIUM!

Louise: "What's Wardes doing?"
Silk: "Trying to fly."
Louise: "He's a Wind mage, that should come easily to him."
Silk: "Without this?" (twirls Wardes' wand)
Louise: (blink) "He can do that?"
Silk: (looks over the side of the ship) "Hmm... does bouncing count?"

See, I'd still prefer a story that drops a bridge on Professor Jean Colbert and has his unknown half-brother STEPHEN T COLBERT replace him.

"Pentagon of the Five Elemental Powers, heed my summoning, and bring forth my familiar!"

*explosion noises!*

It took awhile for the smoke to wear off, but as soon as it did, the sounds of hacking and coughing were heard from the center of the blast.

Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere smiled.

Familiar summoning spell, successful.

"...damn Gate Generator, sending me off to the middle of nowhere..." the voice said.

Just then, the smoke cleared, revealing a young man.

"And who might YOU be?" he asked, giving the strange girl an appraising glance.

The girl responded with gibberish he could barely understand - the more she repeated herself, though, the more he could put together a makeshift lexicon of this new way of speech - her gesturing also had a hand in it.

And then it just turned awkward when she leaned in and gave him a kiss.

"Crap, a kid just kissed me," he told himself, not noticing the runes being engraved onto his hands at first, but as soon as he did, he found that his trusted sword - the Doom Bringer - was gone.

"Oh, hell no! Where'd my sword go? Must've gotten lost in the gate, of all my rotten luck..."

"Amazing," the pinkette said. "I can understand you now! The Familiar Contract spell works!"

"Excuse me? Familiar?" the man replied, aghast.

"That's right! I, Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere, have summoned you here to be my familiar!" the girl declared.

She found that her new familiar wore a dark gray bodysuit accented with a few black joint protectors of an unknown material and an orange muffler. His face looked a bit more normal, with pale yellow eyes and pale green hair on a rather fair complexion; and a gray headband at that.

"Really?" he asked.

She nodded. "By the contract of the Five Elemental Powers, your master asks for your name!"

"...it's 'Mistress'."

"What?"

"'Mistress' is the feminine form of 'master'. You're not a guy, are you?"

"OF COURSE NOT!"

"Geez, take it easy," he said, "flying off the handle too easily ain't cool. Anyway..."

He took a deep breath.

"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, monsters of all ages, shapes and sizes... introducing the awesomest, coolest, most badass fighter you have ever held your eyes on! The Grim Reaper's penpal!"

Louise had to gape at her new familiar's posturing.

"...The Ultimate Macho Man!"

He doesn't look too macho to me.

"THE NAME'S ZED, BABY!"