Bright_Ops

From Ashes We Rise : The Imperium Is Born

The First Council of the 8th Legion Training Arena

The legion being built up around the geneseed of the 8th Primarch had a couple of internal issues that needed to be addressed at the start.

Of the eight hundred and sixty six members of the legion that had undergone the transformation into this new breed of super solder in the name of the Lord of Thunder, five hundred and eighty of them had originally been of ganger stock from the hives of Merica with the remaining two hundred eighty six being from nomad tribes that existed outside of those hives in one form or another. While the transformation had involved a high degree of indoctrination and hypnotherapy to create more refined solders for the Lord of Lightning, a fair degree of ego that had once inspired the former gangers and nomads to take positions of leadership or command remained.

It was quickly discovered by the Legion and soon after the bureaucrats connected to it that simply assigning these newly minted super solders ranks wasn't going to work: Those who were simply given ranks of command had a deep seated feeling of not earning it and thus, not having the respect of those under them while those who didn't get the rank they wanted felt snubbed over. Training exercises quickly broke down as infighting would pop up on all levels of the 8th, preventing them from achieving the cohesion they needed to be a fighting force.

This wasn't caused solely by issues with rank. Values and beliefs (not religious beliefs, of course) from their prior lives bled over into the new legionaries and this created... conflict. The lack of a recognized command structure among their own people deepened the issue since there was no arbitrator to settle the matter on issues that weren't matters of Imperial Law. Battle in arms they may have been, but if something didn't change things were going to get ugly.

It was unclear who originally made the suggestion, but the idea itself quickly picked up momentum as it started to spread. It resonated with a concept that both ganger and nomad had accepted as apart of their lives before their transformation and felt right even now: The Strong, the Cunning and the Brave rose to power... and those with all three kept it.

So with an understanding among themselves, the members of the Legion gathered in their training arena and some messages were sent to their support staff in order to bring them up to speed on what was about to happen. Rather then attempt to stop them, several representatives of the bureaucratic process instead came to witness and record events as they transpired, believing that this might bring an end to the issues that had plagued the new born legion.

The first stage of their trials for leadership was a simple question: Did you want to be in a command role?

Not everyone desired the responsibilities and weight that came with leadership and command and simply asking if they wanted it was a strong first step in thinning the herd.

The second stage might have surprised many. Of the candidates who had stepped forward, they were all divided into groups of six (with one group of four) in order to play a board game. The game itself was ancient, having been developed at some point before the Age of Strife and its original name lost, but in the modern era it was simply called 'Imperium'; A strategy game of some complexity, as one played as one of many factions that played differently, all with a mission of galactic conquest after the collapse of an all-powerful empire leaves a void for others to fill. It was a game that put as much emphasis on building an economy and diplomacy as it did warfare.

The first round lasted a grand total of eight hours, with the winners of each game carrying on to the second round of playing a new faction against the other winners of the first round... with one exception. The winner of the game of four caused for there to be one player extra. The solution was simple: The contenders of the second round would draw lots and the two 'winners' would fight it out in a bare knuckle brawl and the winner would stay on to play.

Balias Rasporian knocked out Konrad Amutiel after a brief but somewhat one sided exchange before the second round truly started, Balias simply overwhelming Konrad and leaving him laying on the floor in defeat afterwards.

The longest of the games of the second round lasted thirteen hours, with Balias being one of those eliminated.

Repeating the process of the winners moving on to face the victors of the other games, another 'odd one out' caused another round of lots to be drawn. This time, Catiel Ulstrecht would face off against Qvoro Muckstead on the field of honor. Unlike the first fight which was dominated by Balias from the start in an overwhelming show of strength and skill, the brawl between Catiel and Qvoro was much closer in abilities. In the end Catiel managed to prove that they had just that little bit more grit and determination as Qvoro fell to the ground and couldn't rise again before he was deemed to have lost, through afterwards Catiel helped his opponent back to his feet and escorted him over to get medical treatment in a show of respect.

The third and final round, unsurprisingly, played out the longest as the final game took eighteen hours to come to a close. Catiel came in a close second against the victor of his game, Gallianus Vaarars, but Gallianus was just able to earn enough victory points to achieve victory one turn before Catiel could.

This left two contenders standing at the end. Gallianus Vaarars and Pho Scraphurst. Their cunning had been tested against the best that their legion had to offer... but there could only be one person at the top of the legion and strength could only be truly tested one way.

The fight between Pho and Gallianus would be recorded in history as a good one, but it was clear from the get go that Pho was the better fighter. Gallianus for his part didn't go down quietly or quickly, briefly reversing the flow of battle with a surprise burst of speed and after Pho recovered from the surprise managed to hold his ground for a time... but in the end Gallianus ended up unable to stand and Pho Scraphurst became Legion Master Pho Scraphurst.

With the Legion Master established, a chain of command was established. Gallianus would become the second in command of the 8th, with Catiel, Qvoro and the other players in the third round being the primary candidates for the higher command ranks, selected via the merits and aptitudes of each individual. As ranks were filled and the third round players ran dry, the pool of second round players would be drawn upon by merit to fill ranks and roles as best suited their skills and abilities. If someone eligible believed that they would be better in the role then the selected person and could prove that they did have the skills required, a bare knuckled brawl would be issued and the victor granted the position.

Once the second round ran out, the first round players would be pulled from to fill whatever ranked positions remained.

Once it was all over, one of the admin representatives asked the newly promoted Legion Master why the legion had opted for... well, this method of deciding instead of opting for a method like fighting until only one remained standing. Legion Master Scraphurst considered the question for a moment before answering "While we might have disagreed on who deserved to be in charge... and there will still be matters to sort out in the days to come, every man here is here because in their heart..." he paused for a split second before correcting "...hearts possessed the bravery to face horror and terrible odds to survive day to day. While yes fighting is a big part of that, at the end of the day running an army is much like running a gang; It requires vision, logistical knowledge and the ability to be diplomatic as much as the ability to wage war."

The Secret Lives Of Schoolteachers - A Magical Girl Mix-up RP

@geminironin

It happens. I hope you feel better soon.

The Secret Lives Of Schoolteachers - A Magical Girl Mix-up RP

For his own part, Andrew was... quiet.

All this was a lot to take in after all. Either some of their students were truly destined for greatness if they ever left detention again, or there really was some hidden shadow war between the fey and the 'forces of darkness' that seemed to be called 'The Shroud'... or at least 'Lux' called it that.

However, the fact that one of the students might be in serious danger caused him to resist the urge to see if he could find a glass jar. Maybe later.

Stocktaking his resources, he had a knife on his person; It was one that he had crafted himself and it was surprising how many situations popped up in a day where being able to use a sharp object was handy. It wasn't really designed for combat, but in a pinch it would still serve as a weapon... but he didn't want to resort to that unless he had to. Instead, as Yui, Izumi, Sakura, Emiko,Shinobu and surprisingly Amber more or less signed themselves up to a magical girl career Andrew instead walked over to a little used cabinet on the wall.

Once upon a time, fire axes were kept in a glass case with a 'In case of emergency, break glass' sign. Such things had largely disappeared from the public domain; Too many people were getting cut by broken glass. Instead, the more modern versions tended to have fire hatchets in a case that could be opened alongside the fire extinguisher. Said hatchet was now in Andrew's hand as he turned around to look at his fellow teachers and the fairy. "I likely don't qualify for the whole 'magical girl' thing... but Lux was it?" He asked, more out of politeness then anything "...Show me where we're going and we'll take care of this. Just be aware that when there isn't a student in danger, we're all going to sit down and have a productive chat about what kind of benefits and payment plan these wonderful ladies are going to get for risking their lives to fight your war."

The shock of the discovery that a popular sub category of anime was less 'power fantasy' and more 'based on real events' was still clearly on Andrew's face, but in his eyes was a steely determination; He had a hatchet, a willingness to use it and a student to possibly rescue from otherworldly horrors that would drive a man insane.

The Secret Lives Of Schoolteachers - A Magical Girl Mix-up RP

For his part, Andrew Brown slowly looked down at the can of coke in his hand with a slightly... thoughtful look on his face at the sight of what appeared to be some kind of fairy creature at the window.

He had never been much of a morning person, but once you got into the routine of something it was somewhat easier to be up and ready in the morning. That being said, it still required the presence of caffeine in order to get a proper start to the day and personally he disliked the taste of the coffee that the school generally provided. He could have followed the example of Shinobu and stopped somewhere on the way to work to pick something up, but that would require getting up earlier then he generally wanted to be. So instead he had a can of coke and despite the fact that he didn't really enjoy the taste of it, it helped get his brain in working order.

And it needed to be in working order, because this week the first years of his class were going to be working on knives. Blood being spilled was a certainty, but the difference between someone accidentally nicking themselves because they weren't used to handling sharp objects and more serious injuries depended on if the students were screwing around.

And right now he seemed to be able to hear and see a freaking fey creature that had flown in through the window. He considered the possiblity of being drugged, but since some of his fellow teachers had also noticed and seemed to be interacting with the strange sight (with the exception of Amber) it seemed like he wasn't the only one seeing or hearing things. "Could be some students pulling a prank." He offered as a devil's advocate of sorts. "Through if it is, I'm sure they'll do well in drama."

The fact that the message this 'fey' was saying seemed to be warning that someone was in danger was what stopped Andrew from dismissing it completely. Even if it was a prank... "What kind of trouble?"

From Ashes We Rise: The Galaxy At Large

Pentious

Forge-Beta

Nature abhorred a vacuum. Orks merely saw it as an opportunity.

With the Kneekapperz's effectively destroyed as a tribe, with its leadership beheaded and its power base shattered and taken by the local humans, a power vacuum had been created in the orkish political landscape. While Forge-Beta had been a weaker position of power and production for greenskin kind due largely to the fact that parts of its self-destruct rituals had been triggered in earnest while an utterly brutal defense beforehand and during said rituals had spent most of its stockpiles and likewise damaged more of it in the process while other forges had by comparison been taken with relatively little issue, it had still been a position of power.

One that was, by Greenskin standards, now up for grabs. The fact that the humans had been the ones to take it and were intent on keeping it was more of a bonus in their violence loving, reptile eyes.

This was to be expected of course. Part of the calculations and plans for retaking Forge-Beta was holding it from those greenskins seeking to claim it for themselves. They had covered their bases in that regard because any campaign in which calculations of the possibilities weren't hammered down to the final 1 or 0 was one that was taking a high degree of unacceptable risk. They had been prepared for anything.

...So in true orkish fashion, they broke reality.

..................................

Examining the dead post battle was a sadly necessary tradition of humanity from well before they had originally left their homeworld. Normally it was to allow for recognition of the dead so that a life that was cut short for one reason or another could be officially declared deceased and the proper records kept, messages sent home to survivors, ect. Sometimes through, it was to work out just what exactly had killed them, in the hopes that the knowledge would help save others.

As Rik walked along the site of the now ended battle he felt the rage, horror and disgust that his body was producing at the brutal, unnatural things he was seeing. He isolated them, implants assisting with the process because right then and there they were merely a hindrance in performing the task in front of him... but once it was done he intended to allow himself to experience the sensations in full. Failing to experience them at all would have been inhuman after all.

Some of the dead had been killed in more... conventional manners. Blunt trauma, bullet wounds, blades... typical injuries and causes of death where orks were concerned. Their deaths were unfortunate and those skitarii would be missed, but they weren't the reason for this autopsy in the field.

Even from a distance, he could feel the warmth radiating from the still molten, still glowing corpses of the fallen. Even as he observed them, listening to the occasional pop or burst of some piece of cybernetic that had somehow survived being turned to slag finally surrendered to the heat, his mind was processing the combat footage. Those viewpoints that didn't reveal the information he needed were put aside until he had a collection of several feeds, showing an interesting pair of orks.

The first was designated as a 'Weird Boy'. Such creatures had been encountered by the humans of Pentious before, through they were rare. Their abilities were... poorly understood, with the how and why so far being unknown. Their rarity and habit of not dying in one piece (be it via their own unstable power or the effort needed to kill them) made dissection attempts few and far between.

What he did know was that the vid feeds showed the greenskin shooting some kind of lightning from its glowing eyes that 'chained' between several Skitarii. Despite the fact that the standard implants and kit of the Skitarii included means to ground themselves from electrical discharges, armor being non-conductive and had plenty of systems in place to prevent overheating, within seconds all those struck started to be cooked alive as all the metal in their bodies heated up to the point of melting... and remained in that state over an hour later. The screaming stopped after forty five minutes.

The second persona of interest was clearly a Mek Boy... and thus one was wielding something that was completely new to the war on Pentious as far as records Rik had access to could tell.

From the vid feeds, the Mek Boy had some kind of cage on its side filled with the smaller 'gretchen' subspecies and a strange, closed tube like 'weapon' under its other arm. It would take the time to fish out a clearly unwilling and unhappy Gretchen and shove it into a slot on the side of the tube before pointing it towards a target and pulling a trigger. Vid feeds tended to get... glitchy whenever the trigger was pulled, unable to properly record whatever exactly was happening. The aftermath, however...

Watching a gretchen be morphed with someone like what records revealed to be a technological teleport gone horribly wrong was terrible enough, but it seemed that whatever process the ork was using to teleport its 'ammo' also drove them completely insane as their cowardly nature was completely abandoned as they started to recklessly attack whomever they were now fused with or inside of, intent on digging themselves out.

The grand finale of the 'Weird Boy' loudly declaring that "'e could dos t'at too!' before looking towards a Skitarii and...

Well, the vid feeds didn't reveal exactly what happened. Much like the strange ork gun, all the feeds suffered glitches at the time... with those actively seeing what happened having their data corrupted and those moments lost to history. The aftermath could be seen with the naked eye through...

A popped balloon filled with blood and meat as the cybernetics tailored to be installed inside of a full grown human critically failed to co-exist with the squig that the meat part of the man had somehow been converted into.

The orks had withdrawn after that point. Tactically it had been a probing raid rather then a dedicated attempt at pushing for the Forge. But as Rik gazed upon the carnage and felt goosebumps form on his skin that had nothing to do with temperature, he allowed himself a moment of questioning how mankind was meant to overcome such inhuman madness as this... before he turned his thoughts towards answering that question.

The Secret Lives Of Schoolteachers - A Magical Girl Mix-up RP

Andrew Brown

The Mundane

Name:
Brown, Andrew

Age:
33

Regular Appearance:

Mr Brown

Subject:
Metalworking

Personality:
Andrew Brown is a practical man with something of a perfectionist streak. He is considered one of the more strict and no nonsense teachers at Ayame High, through he generally makes it very clear to his students at the start of each class why this is the case; The tools and methods employed when working with metal can be very dangerous and cause a great deal of lasting harm if you mess around or do something stupid with them. He is also regarded as a good teacher in that he will actively take the time to make sure that each student knows what they are doing and why... provided that they have an earnest desire to learn or improve themselves. He will try to inspire his students, but if it is clear that someone doesn't want to learn he isn't going to lose any sleep over them.

Outside of the classroom, Andrew is something of a lonely person. Despite living and working in Japan for a few years, he is still considered something of an outsider and it makes forming relationships difficult. Those that make the effort to reach out and get to know him will find a loyal friend that will always try and make time for them, regardless of what is happening... through he is prone to forgetting to talk to people and may need some helpful reminders.

Privately, Andrew is a massive nerd. He has a number of collections in his house, many of which he still needs to put together, decorate or paint. He'll get to it... sooner or later.

Bio:
Originally born in Australia, Andrew grew up there as the youngest child with three older sisters. It was a loving household and while Andrew might not have gotten everything he might have desired, he grew up in a stable environment; Something that he would come to appreciate much later in life when he started to see what happened when that wasn't the case in regards to friends and people he knew.

For a long time, Andrew drifted through life. He didn't really know what he wanted to do with himself and thus didn't really know what direction to push himself into. By chance he stumbled into blacksmithing due to a interest in cosplay. A friend of his at the time had been spending a great deal of their spare time working on a cosplay outfit over a matter of months, but found themselves hitting a bit of a dead end due to not having the time, resources or desire to learn how to work metal for some decorative details and the prices to get such things commissioned was rather high.

Having nothing better to do and unemployed at the time, Andrew offered to help out and took a course on metalworking. He found himself enjoying it so much that once he had helped his friend out, he started something of a by commission business out of helping out with cosplays and the like. In time he started getting commissions for fantasy blades or weapons for collectors. He was even a contestant on the reality TV show 'Forged in Flame' and even made it to the final round, but his weapon was a bit heavier then that of the other guy and it was a close enough call that the judges needed to dig deep to decide a winner.

The decision to go into teaching, let alone do it in Japan, were kind of connected. His showing on Forged in Flame had given him a bit of renown in his field, but he was nowhere near well known enough to make a living purely off of his commission based occupation. He needed another job... and teaching was something that he could do, through it would take a few years of study in order be qualified as one. Once he was qualified and started looking for work as a teacher, by chance one of the jobs he came across was for Ayame High in Japan...

Having always wanted to go to Japan and seeing this as a chance to kill several birds with one stone since it was to teach metalworking to teenagers, Andrew applied and was accepted.

Other:
Rumor has it among the student body that Mr Brown is romantically involved/interested with one of the other teachers at the school. Exactly whom that may be is up for debate; It isn't strange for students to discuss possible 'ships' that they think would be adorable or work out, often with their own biases of favorite teacher.

The Magical

Other
Andrew Brown is in an interesting position magic wise. Due to Lux's inexperience and panic in her first ever crisis, she hadn't noticed that there had been a male teacher in the room with the others. As a man, he couldn't become a magical girl or gain magical abilities... however, he had been awakened to the magical world all the same.

The Secret Lives Of Schoolteachers - A Magical Girl Mix-up RP

Andrew Brown

The Mundane

Name:
Brown, Andrew

Age:
33

Regular Appearance:

Mr Brown

Subject:
Metalworking

Personality:
Andrew Brown is a practical man with something of a perfectionist streak. He is considered one of the more strict and no nonsense teachers at Ayame High, through he generally makes it very clear to his students at the start of each class why this is the case; The tools and methods employed when working with metal can be very dangerous and cause a great deal of lasting harm if you mess around or do something stupid with them. He is also regarded as a good teacher in that he will actively take the time to make sure that each student knows what they are doing and why... provided that they have an earnest desire to learn or improve themselves. He will try to inspire his students, but if it is clear that someone doesn't want to learn he isn't going to lose any sleep over them.

Outside of the classroom, Andrew is something of a lonely person. Despite living and working in Japan for a few years, he is still considered something of an outsider and it makes forming relationships difficult. Those that make the effort to reach out and get to know him will find a loyal friend that will always try and make time for them, regardless of what is happening... through he is prone to forgetting to talk to people and may need some helpful reminders.

Privately, Andrew is a massive nerd. He has a number of collections in his house, many of which he still needs to put together, decorate or paint. He'll get to it... sooner or later.

Bio:
Originally born in Australia, Andrew grew up there as the youngest child with three older sisters. It was a loving household and while Andrew might not have gotten everything he might have desired, he grew up in a stable environment; Something that he would come to appreciate much later in life when he started to see what happened when that wasn't the case in regards to friends and people he knew.

For a long time, Andrew drifted through life. He didn't really know what he wanted to do with himself and thus didn't really know what direction to push himself into. By chance he stumbled into blacksmithing due to a interest in cosplay. A friend of his at the time had been spending a great deal of their spare time working on a cosplay outfit over a matter of months, but found themselves hitting a bit of a dead end due to not having the time, resources or desire to learn how to work metal for some decorative details and the prices to get such things commissioned was rather high.

Having nothing better to do and unemployed at the time, Andrew offered to help out and took a course on metalworking. He found himself enjoying it so much that once he had helped his friend out, he started something of a by commission business out of helping out with cosplays and the like. In time he started getting commissions for fantasy blades or weapons for collectors. He was even a contestant on the reality TV show 'Forged in Flame' and even made it to the final round, but his weapon was a bit heavier then that of the other guy and it was a close enough call that the judges needed to dig deep to decide a winner.

The decision to go into teaching, let alone do it in Japan, were kind of connected. His showing on Forged in Flame had given him a bit of renown in his field, but he was nowhere near well known enough to make a living purely off of his commission based occupation. He needed another job... and teaching was something that he could do, through it would take a few years of study in order be qualified as one. Once he was qualified and started looking for work as a teacher, by chance one of the jobs he came across was for Ayame High in Japan...

Having always wanted to go to Japan and seeing this as a chance to kill several birds with one stone since it was to teach metalworking to teenagers, Andrew applied and was accepted.

Other:
Rumor has it among the student body that Mr Brown is romantically involved/interested with one of the other teachers at the school. Exactly whom that may be is up for debate; It isn't strange for students to discuss possible 'ships' that they think would be adorable or work out, often with their own biases of favorite teacher.

The Magical

Other
Andrew Brown is in an interesting position magic wise. Due to Lux's inexperience and panic in her first ever crisis, she hadn't noticed that there had been a male teacher in the room with the others. As a man, he couldn't become a magical girl or gain magical abilities... however, he had been awakened to the magical world all the same.

Tell me what you think.

Edit: For the record, the image is AI generated. I couldn't find an existing picture for my purposes.

The Secret Lives Of Schoolteachers - A Magical Girl Mix-up RP

@LuckyBlackCat
Thanks! I’ll get a sheet underway. We shall fight evil with truth, justice, this sword I made and hope!

The Secret Lives Of Schoolteachers - A Magical Girl Mix-up RP

@LuckyBlackCat

Understood. But does Japan not have woodworking/metal working kind of classes? Sort of an introduction to those things if someone wants to go into a craftsmen trade.

The Secret Lives Of Schoolteachers - A Magical Girl Mix-up RP

This is going to sound strange, but I’m interested in the idea of the gym or metal work teacher being male and there being… well, a misunderstanding from Lux that resulted in them getting caught up in things.

I just find the idea of someone in the group who has been awakened to the magical side of things but isn’t magical themselves… but is still willing to pick up something heavy and slam it into the face of a wrath because A) the kids need protecting/ saving and B) being able to punch a mental health problem in the face is surprising healthy.