BACKGROUND: Significant Incident Report, Corporation Navy 171 Long Range Patrol Fleet, Centax Outsystem

Below is a piece of background "fluff" to get started, as an introduction to one of the factions in our games: the Blue Tornados Space Marine chapter. (How that fits into Mantic's Warpath will be explained later!)

GCPS CENTRAL COMMAND USENET

HISTORICAL ARCHIVE: D89-H335 ACTUAL

QUERY: BLUE TORNADOS

****SEARCH TERM FLAGGED. NOTE THAT THIS ARCHIVAL QUERY HAS BEEN LOGGED AND RECORDED****

****RESTRICTED ACCESS****

****ENTER AUTHORIZATION CODE****

CODE: *****************************

****AUTHORIZATION VERIFIED****

FOUND: 5 RECORDS

LIST BELOW, FORMAT: NUMERATOR; DATESTAMP; TIMESTAMP; RECORD CODE; CLASSIFICATION; TITLE

1; CE40925.06; 071731Z; FLTTRX; OMEGA-2; SIGNIFICANT INCIDENT REPORT CENTAX OUTSYSTEM

2; ****NOT AUTHORIZED****

3; ****NOT AUTHORIZED****

4; CE40978.11; 300012Z; SIGINT; OMEGA-2; ENEMY TRANSMISSION INTERCEPT FRAGMENT CENTAX II

5; ****FILE NOT FOUND; ERROR 404****

SELECT RECORD: 1

RECORD TYPE: FLEET TRANSMISSION

RECORD CLASSIFICATION: OMEGA-2 -- COUNCIL OF SEVEN AND HIGH COMMAND EYES ONLY

****AUTHORIZATION SUPPLIED INSUFFICIENT TO ACCESS REQUESTED FILE. PLEASE ENTER ENHANCED AUTHORIZATION CODE****

CODE: ********************************************************

****AUTHORIZATION VERIFIED****

****TWO-FACTOR AUTHORIZATION IN EFFECT FOR REQUESTED RECORD. PLEASE PROVIDE BIOMETRIC IDENTIFIER AT SCAN POINT TO YOUR RIGHT****

****BIOMETRIC AUTHORIZATION CONFIRMED****

RECORD RETRIEVAL REPORT

FORMAT: TEXT ONLY, DISPLAY ONLY

RECORD TEXT FOLLOWS

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SIGNIFICANT INCIDENT REPORT -- ABBREVIATED

TANGO 1 ****EDIT: OMEGA-2****

DT: 071731Z CE40925.06

LOC: CENTAX OUTSYSTEM

FM: COMD CORPNAV 171 LRP FLT

AT APPROXIMATELY 071506Z DEEPSPACE RESEARCH STATION ALEPH-3, LOCATED AT EDGE OF INTERSTELLAR SPACE NEAR CENTAX SYSTEM, ABRUPTLY STOPPED TRANSMITTING.

171 LONG RANGE PATROL FLEET SHIPS’ SENSORS PICKED UP AN UNKNOWN AND IMMEASURABLY POWERFUL DISTORTION WHICH DID NOT ORIGINATE IN REALSPACE. DISTORTION ACCOMPANIED BY PSIONIC WAVE WHICH ADVERSELY AFFECTED SEVERAL HUNDRED CREWMEN IN THE FLEET, REQUIRING PSYCHIATRIC TREATMENT.

COMMANDER ORDERED FRIGATE SQUADRON 6A, THEN LOCATED 35 AU FROM DSRS ALEPH-3, TO PERFORM A TACTICAL JUMP INTO THE NEIGHBORHOOD, MAINTAINING OPEN CHANNELS THROUGHOUT THE OPERATION.

CHANNELS REMAINED OPEN FOR APPROXIMATELY 47 SECONDS FOLLOWING THE JUMP, WHEN TRANSMISSION WAS ABRUPTLY HALTED. ATTEMPTS TO HAIL SQUADRON 6A HAVE BEEN UNSUCCESSFUL.

DURING THE 47-SECOND TRANSMISSION, SEVERAL OBSERVATIONS WERE MADE BY 171 LRPF COMMAND. STATION ALEPH-3 APPEARS TO HAVE VANISHED. A MASSIVE AND APPARENTLY UNSTABLE RIFT INTO ANOTHER DIMENSION APPEARS TO HAVE FORMED. MATTER AND ENERGY ARE BEING EXPELLED OUT OF THE RIFT AND INTO OUR SPACE.

FLEET TACTICAL OFFICER DETECTED WHAT APPEARED TO BE SEVERAL SPACECRAFT OF UNKNOWN DESIGN AND CONFIGURATION. ONE OF THE CRAFT WAS VERY LARGE, POSSIBLY COMPARABLE TO A CORPORATION EXCALIBUR-CLASS SUPERDREADNOUGHT IN MASS. A SUDDEN ENERGY SURGE ALONG WITH WHAT MAY HAVE BEEN HIGH-VELOCITY PROJECTILES WERE OBSERVED BY SQUADRON 6A’S TACTICAL SENSORS IMMEDIATELY PRIOR TO LOSS OF TRANSMISSION.

MAGNIFICATION OF VISUAL SENSORY DATA FROM TRANSMISSION INDICATES UNKNOWN VESSELS UNIFORMLY PAINTED IN COBALT COLOR WITH WHITE LINES AND SCARLET MARKINGS. THE LARGEST VESSEL BORE AN APPARENT HERALDIC IDENTIFICATION SYMBOL, CONSISTING OF YELLOW DIAMOND WITH A BLACK FUNNEL CLOUD-SHAPED SYMBOL IN ITS CENTRE. FLEET INTELLIGENCE OFFICER’S SEARCH OF CORPORATION TACTICAL DATABASE RETURNED NO MATCHES FOR THESE MARKINGS.

COMMANDER 171 LRPF INTENDS TO CONDUCT A TACTICAL JUMP INTO THE AREA WITH THE MAIN BODY OF THE FLEET AND DESTROY THE UNKNOWN VESSELS. TACTICAL JUMP IS PLANNED FOR 071740Z. CONTACT REPORT TO FOLLOW.

FOR THE GREATER PROSPERITY OF THE SPHERE. COMD 171 LRPF SENDS.

END TRANSMISSION

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RECORD TEXT ENDS

ABOUT THIS BLOG

Welcome to Starships & Strongholds!

I'm a dad with two young sons (one who's not old enough to play yet), and I've interests in sci-fi and modelling. I've also been looking for things to do with my kids for "daddy time."

So, not too long ago, I went down to the local Games Workshop store (I'd always loved looking at the models) and bought their starter set for Warhammer 40,000. I soon found out, though, about the incredible cost of GW's version of the hobby; soon after I bought the set, the 6th edition rules came out and GW began updating all the codexes in a more expensive hardback format. And, the prices of the models were rising. I figured I'd made a mistake…

…until I started looking around the Interwebs and found out that there are actually alternatives to 40K out there! Mantic's Warpath was a brand-new entry to the hobby, and as a brand-new gamer, I found their rules much easier to understand and the game much faster to play than 40K. Junior (as I shall call my older son) has played about a dozen games on the table with me--first half or so of 40K, and the rest of Warpath. We both greatly prefer the latter.

Soon I found Spartan's Firestorm Armada and, intrigued by the possibility of putting together narrative campaigns, picked up some ships and a rulebook.

This blog is intended to be a chronicle of the wars fought in our household, and of any background "fluff," painting and modelling reports, and house(hold) rules and campaigns we come up with.

Thanks for dropping by!

-- Wargamer Dad