Volume 2 - Chapter 91 - Voidrunes
| PROF: Lt. Korven. Looks tired. Probably gives this lecture 500 times a year. OPENS WITH: "What is a Psyker, fundamentally?" Says everyone gives a different answer. Says the right answer doesn't matter for our purposes. What matters is what they do and how to survive being near one. (great opener; I, too, would love to survive one day.) Basics:
First major event for every Psyker. Triggered involuntarily when Resolve + Perception hit a threshold. Happens when the brain detects the Gate for the first time. HE SAYS IT'S VERY, VERY DANGEROUS. Most Psykers either close the Gate in time or get blown apart by their own first Power. (Bit fucking late to tell us, isn't it?) Awakening = ultra-charged version of their first combo. Whatever happens inside only becomes real if they fail to close the Gate (??? what the fuck does that even mean?) → Is that what happened with her during the Assessment? Yes, obviously you dumbass Inheritances: Listed 12. Polarity pairs—opposing ones cancel at equal energy, cannibalize at uneven. So which one is she again Paths (a handful covered):
Inheritance + One General Power + One Path Power early access. Run on Focus until Psychic Attribute unlocks. Baseline 4.00+ Resolve. → That's why she has so much Resolve! Korven says most are nothing special, just at risk of Focus Overdraw. The lucky ones hit hard early and level off by T1 Prime. → Sure. Tell that to the fucking freaks she keeps murdering in the hundreds… FIGHTING WITH PSYKERS:
A: “Something like an anti-Psyker. Extremely rare individuals. Emanate a really uncanny aura, even just standing next to them. You almost certainly never encounter one.” Expecting at least two or three of these in the next Assessments, then. Korven called me up. Asked me to describe Alpha Squad's encounter ratio with Psykers. Our stats are apparently outrageous. I kept it brief—the Assessment thing, the Runepriest in the corridor—only described that one vaguely, pretended that it had been the Battlefield Ace from the Assessment, but figured it was good intel for the others—didn’t mention the Runepriest. Korven thanked me. Half the room stared at me when I sat back down. Whatever. FIGHTING AGAINST PSYKERS: #1 RULE — RESOLVE.Resolve Resolve Resolve. Resolve = Soul-toughness. Above a threshold = passive sphere of protection. 4–5 Resolve = 10–50x harder to affect than 2–3 (what the fuck, that's huge). Trained Psykers can SHAPE it to cover others. → IS THAT WHAT SHE WAS DOING WITH THE RUNEPRIEST? Has to be. #2 RULE — Have a Psyker on your team. (Check.) High-Resolve Psyker buffers everyone nearby. → Another reason to keep her alive at all times… and stocked with Focus Boosters? #3 RULE — NULL SERUM. T1 stim. Temporary Resolve booster. Tanks Stamina/Focus recovery and Ability clarity. Only deployed when Psyker engagement is unavoidable. Usually only Aces/Elite Squads carry it. → Alpha Squad should be getting some, right??? Considering our actual encounter rate vs. what the lecture says is "average"? We should have crates of the damn stuff! Should I ask Corvus → Ask Corvus about this! Closing comment from Korven:"Most of you will go your entire careers without engaging a Psyker. Statistically, the only one you will ever stand next to is the one assigned to your own Faction. Please plan accordingly." → Yeah no offense Lieutenant but I think Alpha Squad is gonna engage with more Psykers in our first six months than most companies see in five years… Just something in my gut telling me. Don't write that down — [Shortened Excerpt from, "Notes taken during initial Psychic 101 Lecture," Desmond Reimart, PFC 943]
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