Disclaimer: All Warhammer 40,000 concepts are property of Games Workshop. No challenge is intended.

9: Sunset

Colonel Narvariel was on the front lines when the first figures trudged out of the corridor. The Strike Magus and a hulking red astartes clutching a battered warhammer.

A few steps behind them came a pair of necrons carrying a stretcher, on which was bound a pale figure in House Grelm robes. More necrons filed out onto the road, carrying more survivors.

High above, the sides of the Astronomican rumbled and slid apart for the first time in centuries.

Slowly, carefully, the beacon opened like a flower.

Afterword

Thanks to Brett Tamahori, without whose sage consultation the future history would be immeasurably poorer.

Obviously this story is not the normal 40K story. That's entirely the point. The more you know about 40K, the stranger this story should seem.

I call this version of the setting '60K'. (Incidentally I had to start calling the whole setting the K-verse to distinguish the two versions.) It may not be exactly the 601st century, as the exact count is only of interest to certain arcane historians, but it's close.

In 60K the 40K attitude of intolerance and ruthless factionalism has been replaced by one of inclusiveness and tolerance. Nobody knows when this began or who introduced the concept; some ancient civilizations from the dark age before the Commonwealth call it 'Saint Tau's Blessing' but nobody knows who Tau was.

As a result of open societies and actual galactic trade, technology has marched ahead. So has human evolution. Standard equipment in 60K would be impossible even in the Dark Age of Technology before the mythic First Imperium. It is based on psi-amp technology, refining and focusing the user's mental energies through strict protocols. Psi-amp technology is lightweight and adaptable; heavy armour has been outdated by complex field arrays and flexible robe armour built from smart nanomaterials.

I've tried to bring more science fiction to the space fantasy of the K-verse, and as a result the finale turned out to be a fight against a black hole. Aside from the fact that it's created by psychic pressure from the Immaterium and hangs in the middle of the air, the black hole is as scientifically accurate as possible. Black holes do not magically increase gravity, despite what Vitus thinks. They do, theoretically, evaporate through a process called Hawking radiation, and the smaller they are, the faster this occurs. Mass-energy conversion really is astonishingly energetic. This is probably the most realistic scene in the whole story. I carefully distributed the supporting science through the narrative so the action didn't come screaming to a halt while I gave a lecture on quantum thermodynamics and Einstein's famous equation.

It would be rank dishonesty to claim that 60K and this story took no influence from elsewhere. The primary inspiration is, of course, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and sequels. I realised this had to be the case when I saw the first episode of Nanoha A's in which brutal warhammer combat takes the stage. "How can Warhammer top this?" I asked myself. And in truth it couldn't. This seemed like a shame, so when I took on the task of advancing the K-verse timeline Nanoha influenced a lot of the implementations of new technology.

And then I had to put the cast of Nanoha into the K-verse.

In this story I have changed names, genders, and physical descriptions while attempting to keep both the K-verse and Nanoha in mind. However, this is not a crossover project so 40K always took precedent. For example, some readers may be disappointed that Vitus is not a tiny girl with a large hammer. The best way to echo the character's backstory themes was to make her into a former Chaos Marine, so she had to become an astartes and by extension male. I do not imagine the character is otherwise much different.

And, of course, I believe that the K-verse should be full of burly men shouting, "Ho, brother," which explains why everybody else got 63ed as well.

I renamed a number of Nanoha things to better fit the K-verse. For example, "Divine Buster" became "Divine Blaster: Release", because what's a buster, and why are we shouting out attack names anyway? (Hopefully the story makes it clear that they're safety mechanisms required for tactical weaponry.) "Starlight Breaker" retains its title and most of its tactical properties as a finisher.

Both "Divine" and "Starlight" are perfect epithets for the psyker techniques in question. The Commonwealth is protected by the divine Starchild who labours on the holy world of Mars, perpetually consumed in the task of holding the Necron collective inert. (This was the eventual source of the Gift Soldiers, and the end of the long and terrible Dark Age that began after the fall of the First Imperium. 50K was not a pleasant time to be a human.) The Starchild taught the Commonwealth how to create new gods to stand in his place; the twenty-one current Star Gods are part of that program. The Star Gods aid the Commonwealth with their psyker schools, assisting in the evolution of human genetics and culture. As a Commonwealth Magus, Gigaron has trained in one such school and now helps spread the wisdom of the Star Gods. "Starlight Breaker" is not just a fancy name, but an invocation of the wrath of real and active divinities.

Although it's not hugely apparent, there is also some influence from Neon Genesis Evangelion in the design of the cruise titan vessels. These are not the lumbering terrestrial hulks of 40K, but sleek, athletic star vessels crammed full of psi-amp technology and very definitely self-aware. Cruise titans are the absolute upper limit; most titans are smaller, short-ranged ships that can use their limbs for rapid aim and manoeuvre in freefall. Larger warships take a more traditional shape, although they too will be self-aware. The Eldar Navigator Houses do not field cruise titans of their own, believing them to be a tactically flawed design, so Captain Khron may be indulging a personal penchant by volunteering to captain one for the Commonwealth.

Fortunately, there is no cause for the apocalyptic angst that normally accompanies an Eva.

In general, I've assumed that the rules of the K-verse are still in effect, but that says nothing about the style or attitudes of cultures within that setting. This is deliberately missing the point, of course. 60K is a deliberate antithesis to the grim darkness of 40K. Hopefully it grants you a new perspective on the original.

60K is sleek, futuristic, vast, and optimistic. However, it is still a galaxy of brutal warfare, and the future is not as bright as it may seem. The canny reader will pick up on several very foolish and idealistic attitudes that could easily bring grief to both the Commonwealth and the Chaos Imperium. And this story was deliberately limited in scope, focusing mainly on the Commonwealth, Chaos and the major species of galactic culture. You didn't need to know about the Voice of War, and nobody yet knows of the star-devouring shadow approaching the Milky Way...