Holy Terra and Church Units

We are children of the Diaspora, seeds spreading the Pancreator's truths hither and yon across this bleak cosmos; and so it is fortunate that we may still gaze longingly, across the night skies of a thousand worlds, toward the stellar madonna that nursed our species to adulthood. She may still be seen, though she too has ebbed in the manner of her celestial sisters: yellow Sol, beacon blazing all the more gloriously in her faintness.

I can still remember the exercise that every seminary student had to undergo beneath the watchful eye and ready cane of the chartophylax. I remember myself as a lad, reciting those hoary names: Mercury, Venus, Urth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto. And though I was born amid the fields of Ravenna, separated from my race's cradle by unfathomable gulfs, those simple names permeate me with simultaneous longing and serenity.

Or rather, I should amend, one name among them. The other eight planets are little known to me, save as words to be recited: orphan waifs of memory. Urth, though: third planet from the sun, that superficially undistinguished sphere on whose primordial seas, eons past, the Pancreator chose to smile...

Ye who peruse this humble work, ye are a scion of that third planet, no matter what star shines upon ye now; and so I challenge thee, can ye read of the mother-sphere without shedding a single nostalgic tear? Do the ancient names, Afric, Roma, Nova York, Pontus Pacifica, the Amazon, fail to tug your thoughts ever so faintly, across unimaginable gulfs of time and distance, toward that lone and flickering star?

Take heart: For though we have been weaned and grown and matured, and finally left the ancestral nest, as all children do when they have entered adulthood, do not imagine that we have abandoned Terra to the abyss. No, the Church has sanctified her as Holy Terra, and if Byzantium Secundus is the regal queen of secular power, then Holy Terra is the aged but honored matriarch overseeing the disposition of our souls.

There are, of course, those who interpret much too literally the Church's reverence for the natal soil. These "geomancers", byblows of an Eskatonic garbling of Book 23 of the Omega Gospels, would uphold the planet itself as some sort of sentient dominion, even going so far as to pay it worship and invoke its blessing in magical formulae. This is clearly false: Do not the Omega Gospels speak of the Pancreator's "single and supernal godhead" and warn against false idols?

Nonetheless, no planet, not Pyre or wondrous Pentateuch, does the Church hold in such reverence, and so Terra has been given over to Holy Church, the better that those who love her might preserve her beauty forever. And this task her curators have accomplished admirably: Terra has been transformed into the idyllic garden sphere of her youth. Her continents are lush with flowering shrubs and aromatic pines, her monuments have been restored and weathered against the elements, and no planet is as radiant with cathedrals praising the Pancreator's bounty.

This is not to infer has Terra been left entirely destitute, a revered but purposeless astronomical obelisk, in our quest for the heavens. On the contrary, over two billion faithful still walk close to the Pancreator's timeless blessing. Terra is a garden, yea, but a living garden, one complete with industrious and contented denizens happily going about their works, treading the very soil, sowing the very fields, plying the very streams that their ancestors trod, sowed and plied in the dim eras of time's beginning.

And so naturally, as with any garden, the Church must faithfully prune the grounds, encouraging the Pancreator's flowers to bloom while uprooting the weeds and poison toadstools, and in so doing suffer nothing to spread beyond its preordained bounds. Just as a dutiful son would never enter his mother's house with mud soiling his boots, so the Church must safeguard lest prodigal children bear to Terra some alien sin, some occult taint from the far reaches of outer space. Thus, the Church sternly but wisely forbids all Urthlings but the holiest from returning to Terra, save through the vicarious auspices of winecups and melancholy songs.

Certain agitators, ignorant of the Church's wisdom, decry this regulatory policy prohibiting homecoming. Their anger is understandable, but ultimately foolish and misdirected. They must realize that the Church's sapience on this matter exceeds their shortsighted needs. They must accept that humanity, as children of the Diaspora, needs must pay their penance in the void before returning triumphant to Terra, not as dutiful children, but as conquering spouses. Yea, only when all is cleansed, when the race is reunited under one banner, when the Symbiots and the Vau and the Ukar and the Krakens and all the other servants of the hells have been purged in celestial flame, only then may humanity return as one brotherly congregation and repopulate the seat of origin, and lift their voices to the immaculate heavens in exaltation of the Pancreator's work.

And so I adjure those who dissent: Turn thy tongues from ill speech, but go amid the heavens, and rest ye not until your humble star, your verdant planet of genesis is universally acknowledged as supreme in the Pancreator's esteem, until the Vau, the Ukar, the warlocks themselves come one and all to pay tribute amid the nurturing soil of Holy Terra.


Church Forces (it is rumored that the Church has the capability of contructing most of these units)

Acolyte (Acolyte)

Unit Summary: Acolytes are Inquisitors or Monks in training. They must serve for years at a Church before they are ready to become an Inquisitor or Monk.

Estimated Technologies:

(575) Assassin (-6) +
(1750) Holy Warriors (-2)

Inquisitor (Inquisitor)

Unit Summary: Inquisitors travel the vastness of the galaxy searching for labs researching technologies proscribed by the Church. Their exactment of the Church's punishment is said to be swift.

Estimated Technologies:

(575) Assassin (-6) +
(1375) Jump Torpedo Bomber +
(1100) Hostile Environment Mastery (-7) +
(1800) Symbiot Psychology (-9)

Monk (Monk)

Unit Summary: Monks are the right hand of the devout Brothers Battle. They are rumored to have exceptional psi attack capabilities.

Estimated Technologies:

(575) Assassin (-6) +
(1375) Jump Torpedo Bomber +
(1100) Hostile Environment Mastery (-7) +
(1800) Symbiot Psychology (-9)

Psy Heavy Tank Killer (Psywolf)

Unit Summary: These Direwolf Fusion Tanks are commanded by skilled psychics.

Estimated Technologies:

(775) Direwolf Fusion Tank (-1) +
(2050) Vau Psychology (-6)

Psy Mega Tank (Psy-Mastiff)

Unit Summary: These Mega Tanks are controlled by those who have been shown to be very prolific in the psychic arts.

Estimated Technologies:

(1425) Mastiff Shock Tank (-2) +
(2050) Vau Psychology (-6)

Psy Hover Tank (Psy-Kestral), Psy Hover Tank Killer (Psy-Eagle), Psy Hover Anti-Air Gun (Psy-Peregrine)

Unit Summary: These Hover Tanks are manned by psy-capable Acolytes.

Estimated Technologies:

(550) Hover Tank (-3) +
(1425) Mastiff Shock Tank (-2) +
(2050) Vau Psychology (-6)

Psy Laser Fighter (Psy-Pegasus)

Unit Summary: These Laser Fighters are flown by pilots with Psychic-Attack capabilities.

Estimated Technologies:

(300) Atmospheric Fighters +
(1750) Fusion Rifles (-2) +
(2050) Vau Psychology (-6) +
(2150) Powered Ceramsteel Armor (-2)

Psy Killer Gunship (Godfly)

Unit Summary: Psy-Attack capable pilots fly these advanced Gunships.

Estimated Technologies

(825) Killer Gunship (-4) +
(2050) Vau Psychology (-6)

Holy Warrior (Crusader)

Unit Summary: These Space Torpedo Bombers are devout followers of Brother Battle. They charge into battle focusing their psychic energies on the destruction of enemies of the Church.

Estimated Technologies:

(1375) Jump Torpedo Bomber +
(950) Cyber-Robotics (-6) +
(2150) Powered Ceramsteel Armor (-2)

Psy-Fusion Assault Lander (Godsend)

Unit Summary: To assist in the deployment of Inquisitors to bring decadent Houses in line, the Church has modified the Assault Lander equipping it with powerful fusion cannons and enhancing its shielding. It is also crewed by powerful psychics.

Estimated Technologies:

(1375) Jump Torpedo Bomber +
(650) Assault Lander +
(2150) Powered Ceramsteel Armor (-2) +

Holy Terra Flagship

Divine Lander (Cherubicon)

Unit Summary: The Divine Lander is a combination Cybermorph Assault Lander and Psy-Fusion Assault Lander. It represents the might of the Church and has 4 Cargo Slots to carry Inquisitors and Monks to the final destination.

Estimated Technologies:

(1375) Jump Torpedo Bomber +
(650) Assault Lander +
(5650) Cyberpilot (-1) +
(6050) Polymorphonic Carbon (-4)
