A Chat with an Angel

## Prelude

(Though the Shiva Marines Chapter Master begrudgingly agreed to speak to you peacefully, the other one went berserk almost immediatly and managed to break out of his restraints almost bashing her head in had it not been for the quick reflexes of the claws ).

Shiva Marine roll : 3d100=158. Bare Success. Chapter Master agrees to at least hear you out but wants to speak with you personally.

Other SM roll : 3d100=67. Failure. Chapter Master is furious and attacks almost immediately before being put down.

Lavriysa survival roll: 3d100=154. Bare Success. Lavryisa survives or half of her does anyway.

## Part 1

The meeting with the Bazak'at ends amicably and you depart not back to Atlantis but to the infamous prison moon Kabr where you will be conducting less friendly diplomacy with an Angel of Death.

You arrive on the moon and the atmosphere is appropriately foreboding and grim as you enter the vast prison complex; your arrival being kept a secret from all but the director of the prisoner as to prevent news of your presscence from encouraging the prisoners from trying something stupid.

After you and Lavryisa go through the necessary security checks and biometrics analysis you are finally allowed within the facility proper as you make your way through the long interconnected maze-like corridors of the prison, designed in such a way to be deliberately confusing to the human mind and decreasing chances of escape, escorted by the silent pariah guards.

You finally arrive at your destination at the cell holding the Shivan chapter master; he will remain inside while you communicate through a well-secured vox channel. As you eye the heavily restrained marine, his face seemingly placid but his eyes betraying rage and anger you wonder what your approach should be. Lavryisa advises you to be cautious when you ask her for help on the matter, warning that Anrnaldys has not taken the events leading to his imprisonment well and is prone to mood swings at times, sometimes a strategy that has worked on him before will backfire the next time when he isn't totally unresponsive to any attempts at communication. She has not been able to glean much about what his own opinions about the dominion or of you personally are like.

With this in mind, you decide to be :

Choose 1 (48 hours)

* Diplomatic: Anrnaldys' loyalty to the imperium must be faltering if he is willing to actually listen to what you have to say. You could try to appeal to his better nature (after all his chapter is descended from Vulkan) and convince him that you are not chaos worshippers and wish not to harm his people and are willing to cooperate with them or leave them be at least (provided they promise the same.). ??? bonus for ??? and chance of ???
* Confrontational: Then again he was perfectly willing to butcher your people without mercy and the only reason he is even talking to you is that he was utterly defeated and if there is one thing space marines understand its strength. In this approach, while you will make it clear you are no follower of chaos and are amiable to talks, you will make equally clear that you will not tolerate any threat to the dominion and that his freedom and the fate of Shiva depends entirely on his cooperation. ??? bonus for ??? and chance of ???
* Write-in

## Part 2

[X] Enlighten: Show him crimes of Emperor, Empire and real history of Mankind. Follow with bit of diplomatic (appeal to better nature) and bit of confrontational (present your strength). Overall present yourself as best/one of best option/s the Mankind has for survival and prosperity while trying to gain cooperation of Shiva Marines (try to convince them of wait and see approach with perhaps highly controlled and monitored ambassador). Make it clear thou, that if they attempt do something, there will be no third chance. Offer them a chance to be once again useful in protecting mankind under our direction. Point out the impossibility of chaos corruption on world with 2 Omega- blanks and show them survivors from Empires horrors (Ansasians, Iblisians and slaves) who now have an actually life worth living. So they can keep fighting real chaos if they join us. Offer info download with further proofs to volunteers.

You think long and hard about how to go about with this and ultimately decide to appeal to his desire to safeguard humanity from the horrors of the galaxy and show him that this is your goal as well.

You begin by introducing yourself to which he is completely unresponsive, ignoring this you continue on by saying that you know he has been told many things about yourself and the dominion at large showing you as traitors to the ruinous powers and enemies of humans but nothing can be further from the truth; your ultimate primary goal is to bring about a golden age for humanity, an age where it safe from the deprivations of chaos and hostile Xenos, an age of science and technology like the glorious days before the Age of Strife.

You diplomatically add that while the imperium had done its best to safeguard mankind, it and the emperor are no longer around and mankind is now scattered and broken across the galaxy, even in this sector already there are chaos and xenos empires that would gladly eradicate all trace of human life they could get to or worse. But the dominion is still standing and is currently the only human power in the sector that isn't beholden to the ruinous powers and thus you explain if he wishes to safeguard Shiva and its inhabitants in the long term you are his best and only option.

Still no response.

Roll : 3d100=109. Result : ????

Roll : 3d100=121. Result : ????

You say that you do not seek to conquer or forcefully assimilate Shiva and are content to leave it be so long as his chapter promises to do the same for the dominion, adding that an offer for an alliance is always on the table.

However, you make it clear that should he and his people choose to become an enemy to the dominion's you will not hesitate to crush them, and considering that two full-blown crusades failed to even hinder the Helios dominion, you doubt the forces of a single Feudal world and ragtag space marine chapter will fare any better.

There was no verbal response but you note that through his eyes that he is listening with interest.

Roll : 3d100=151. Result : ????

You conclude by saying that he has every right to doubt what you just said but invite him to see for himself what the dominion is truly like and the lives it has improved if he so wishes and tell him that he can access their memories directly as well if he wants further proof of their sincerity, adding that the fact he probably noticed the extensive presence of pariahs here means he faces little risk of chaos corruption.

You finish there giving him time to process it all though you believe he already has, in his eyes, you can see doubt as his will wavers and for a second it seems that he might have accepted your offer but that hope is quickly dashed as a steely look of determination overtakes his face and at long last Anrnaldys speaks back to you.

"I have heard enough traitor." He says in a voice that is like cold steel.

"I believe that you are not a servant of the vile daemons of the emperyan but that only makes you a far worse traitor for your treachery is not driven by unwilling corruption like so many innocents but your own pride and arrogance. Off your own volition, you have led untold billions stray from the light of God emperor and made them fight His servants for your self-righteous delusions. You gleefully pollute the holy human genome and form with your vile techno-sorcery and genetic devices casting all your people's humanity and turning them into soulless abominations. You allow mutants, xenos and witches to exist, placing them as equals to true-pure humans and tolerate other unspeakable heresies. Your existence is an insult to all the righteous ideals of the emperor and his imperium and an insult to the countless true humans who die every day to safeguard mankind from the horrors you willingly partake in. I shall never be part of your abomination of an empire and I will join the emperor now confident that each and every human on Shiva will fight you to their last breath"

Final Anrnaldys speech check Roll: 3d100=31. Failure

Final result: 109+121+151+31=412. Failure, You have failed to convince Anrnaldys and he still sees you as his mortal enemies.

With that speech and before you can reply he immediately starts wildly thrashing as he attempts to escape, in the process triggering his cell's security measures as his semisolid straps begin to harden further and waves of intensifying electricity surge in an attempt to subdue him which only serves to make him angerier and stronger as his left hand unexpectedly breaks free but that only triggers the kill switch as his feeding tubes pump him full of a neurotoxin cocktail powerful enough to kill a space marine and he dies before he can free the rest of his body.

You sigh in disappointment and look to see Lavyrisa shocked at what happened, not that you can blame her after seeing all her all hard work amount to nothing in the end, though you didn't really expect it to work from the start. It seems that Shiva will have to be dealt with through force of arms ; a pity but you can't afford to have a hostile power no matter how small near your core territories.