Sailor Maccabeus Quintus

In the stern of the Federated starship transporting a group of Star Warrior Senshi to a war-torn world in the eastern frontier of the Milky Way, one of the Senshi kneels in front of a makeshift shrine she placed in the back of her quarters. Consisting of a brass idol of a beneficent being wielding a golden sword, surmounted with a silver eagle, and lit by two small candles, the veteran Senshi makes the sign of the eagle across her chest and begins to pray.

"Divine Master of Mankind," she begins, "hear my prayer. Lord Emperor, please listen to my plea, for I beseech you, grant me the strength to fight against this new foe my sisters and I face. They are not believers like me, but they still respect You. So I say for them as well, let us vanquish the foe that brings great suffering upon the people of the world we are about to save. Let me be like the great Drusus, he whom You sought to make a saint. Let me be a shining light in the darkness, an icon of strength of all."

"In all things do I take the example of Saint Drusus, whom You saw fit to return from death to continue service in Your name. I endure hardships, as Drusus did. I will show no mercy, as Drusus did. I will drive back the darkness beyond Your realm, as Drusus did. Please, God-Emperor, answer my prayer with strength and virtue. I, Verida Sinowyn of the Star Warriors and former Guardsman of the 2293rd Maccabian Janissary Regiment, thank You and send You my prayer to be fulfilled. Ave Imperator. In His Name."

Her prayer is complete, and just in time, for someone knocks at the door of her quarters. Rising, she says, "Enter."
The door slides open, revealing another Senshi clad in fuku of ocean and aqua blue and lined with gold. She too is a veteran Senshi, if the slung naginata spear and sheathed falx blade at her side are any indication. Her long mane of brown hair is tied up in a ponytail, like the other's auburn hair, and in her blue eyes one can see the years of experience she possesses. The Senshi nods in greeting to her superior.

"Lady Eurybia." she says to which the other replies, "Lady Maccabeus. Are you ready?"
"I am.......Diana." the Lady Maccabeus answers, calling her superior by her first name. "I stand ready to smite the Emperor's foes."
"So I see." Diana replies, seeing the altar of the Emperor and then asking, "You believe he'll give us his blessing, Verida?"
A smile crosses Verida's battle-worn yet lovely face, for it is a smile of faith and trust. "Yes, I do. The Emperor looks down upon us with favor, Diana. We will succeed with this mission and cast the foe out of Prosperity."

"So we will, Verida." Diana agrees, turning to leave. "Let's go. The rest are waiting in the shuttlebay." Verida acknowledges, taking up her old service-issue weapon and preparing to fight as a Star Warrior Senshi........and as a faithful servant of the Master of Mankind.

-Sailor Maccabeus Quintus, Soldier of Faith and Loyalty, member of the Order of the Star Warriors, the Lady Maccabeus.


In an adjacent galaxy, there lies the Imperium of Man, a pan-galactic theocratic empire with humanity as its dominant species. It consists of many different worlds and cultures, and it is where the Star Warriors receive a large number of their recruits. It is also a place where they receive a diverse number, for the female recruits of the Imperium can hail from life-threatening death worlds to feudal-like planets and from civilized worlds to immense city-planets. From this widely diverse area of the adjacent galaxy comes one of the Sailor Warriors' most devoted and faithful of Senshi, a fervent believer of her Imperium's religion and its figurehead, the Emperor of Mankind.

To understand this particular Sailor Senshi of the Star Warriors, you must first know a little bit about her planet's history and traditions, where religion and militarism go hand-in-hand. Maccabeus Quintus is an arid and bitterly cold world with a harsh, bright sun, that is prone to terrible famines and droughts which leave their mark even on its strongest inhabitants. Yet Maccabeus Quintus is a blessed world, blessed not because of the resources it possesses (which are few), or because of the climate (which is harsh), but because of the faith that grows there in abundance. Maccabeus Quintus is a shrineworld of the Imperial Church, the resting place where the great Lord General Militant Drusus, the second commander of the Imperium's Angevin Crusade, fell and was raised up as an Imperial saint by the glory of the Emperor.

The chronicles of the crusade tell that Lord General Militant Drusus had pushed further and further into the then-unknown Calixis Sector, hoping to carve out a stable domain in what had been a fraught and bitter decade of war, when a sudden and vicious resurgence of hostilities in the region at his rear caused his advance to shudder and to halt. The order to mass and regroup was given. The planet chosen for this gathering was an uncolonized world in the obscure and unoccupied Maccabeus System, and as Drusus' forces gathered, the general himself prayed for guidance, knowing that a wrong choice could result jeopardize the fate of the whole crusade. Infamy then struck, and employing unholy methods, his enemies discovered Drusus' location and unleashed a deadly and unnatural assassin against him. Drusus fell, but even as the killing blow was struck did the power of the Emperor rent the assassin apart and spare the great man. After ten days and nights in shadow did Drusus return, and the power of the Emperor was within him. In the years that followed, Drusus knew not defeat, and one after the other did his enemies fall until the Calixis Sector was born. So it was that on dry Maccabeus Quintus, the Emperor raised Drusus up, and the life of a man ended while the life of a saint began. In the centuries following the crusade, Drusus was declared an Imperial saint for his miraculous return and subsequent triumph, and the site of his miracle, Maccabeus Quintus, became a shrineworld of the Imperial Church. To this day, Maccabeus Quintus is a site of pilgrimage for the faithful across the Calixis Sector, its harsh and unforgiving landscape walked by countless pilgrims every year, many of whom spend the remainder of their lives there, giving themselves to the devotion of the God-Emperor of Mankind.

Because their patron saint was a military commander, the people of Maccabeus Quintus maintain a significant military tradition. Following after their patron Drusus, discipline and endurance are regarded as the greatest of virtues, and to protect or fight for the Imperium is considered the highest form of worship. With the sheer number of pilgrims arriving on-world each year, a considerable population of the devout exists on Maccabeus Quintus, which in turn provides an ample and diverse supply of potential candidates to the Maccabian militias, the finest of which are chosen to join the vaunted ranks of the Imperial Guard's elite Maccabian Janissaries. To date, none have refused this honor, for all are driven by faith and the spirit of pilgrimage, and to become a Janissary is to embark upon a pilgrimage of a different sort, carrying the Emperor's wrath to dark and distant places.

Thus was Verida Sinowyn born on Maccabeus Quintus, a fifth-generation Maccabian whose family made the long pilgrimage to this holy planet. She grew up in the faith of the local religion, revering the Emperor and Drusus as His chosen saint. Yet she also lived a life of hardship and compassion, believing that the Emperor only helped those who helped themselves and who harbored moral compassion in their hearts. Like every other native Maccabian on the planet, she aspired to join the elite Maccabian Janissaries and fight for the Emperor, and that's what she did, joining its ranks at the age of twenty-three. For sixty-six years she served well in the 2293rd Maccabian Janissaries Regiment, being its chief communications officer as well as an able soldier. Her status as a veteran soldier and numerous experiences in battle and hardship drew the attention of the Star Warriors when they came to her planet to find a new recruit. Verida was their chosen candidate, being already discharged from the Janissaries and serving as a simple preacher. She cast that aside and began her journey into the path of the Sailor Senshi, keeping her faith all the while.

Now, Verida is known throughout the Star Warriors as the ever-devout Sailor Maccabeus Quintus, one of the Star Warriors' most dependable Senshi. Loyal to her Senshi kin, she is the same capable soldier as always, but also a compassionate and faithful being when not on the battlefield. Her devotion to the Emperor has not dimmed at all, for she remains a devoted follower of the Imperial faith. She continues her role as communications officer and messenger within the Star Warriors, having maintained her old Guard wargear and modifying it for use in the Star Warriors. She is indeed one of the able and dependable of the Star Warriors.



Weapons and Items

Standard-issue lasgun- all of Verida's Senshi equipment is her old Imperial Guard-issue wargear. Her old lasgun is still her primary firearm, well-used and lethal. Verida herself is a capable marksman.

Short blade- a short sword for use in close combat. It is not magical in any sense.

The Holy Voice- her primary Attack Item takes the form of a standard-issue Imperial Guard vox-caster, which is a device equivalent to our radio. Vox-casters are Imperial radio communications transceivers that can be as small as a helmet-mounted link and as large as a massive bank of dedicated communications equipment. These pieces of communications technology can receive and transmit on multiple radio frequencies at once, making them ideal for coordinating the actions of multiple units at the same time. Verida's role in the 2293rd was that of chief vox officer, marking her as a communications specialist. She still serves this duty in the Star Warriors, the Holy Voice able to send and receive transmissions even up to planetary orbit. It is also fitted with magical crystals that allow her amplify any sound the vox-caster makes tenfold, making it a potently destructive weapon in its own right.

Silver aquila- the silver eagle pinned to her chest is her Transformation Item. It is unique in that for every single item of all Imperium-based Star Warriors, only one phrase needs to be said: Imperator Aegis. The Shield of the Emperor. Once that is uttered, her transformation begins and she will begin to smite the Emperor's foes anew.



Known attacks

The Emperor's Command- using her vox-caster and the innate faith she has in the Emperor, Verida can amplify her voice to remarkable levels and any who hear her claim that she speaks with the backing of a higher authority, perhaps her patron god. Whatever the origin, all foes who hear go mad for strange reason and become completely incapacitated and unable to fight on.

Saint Drusus' Blessing- an attack that is most effective upon those of a military profession, Verida can, through simple touch of a golden-sheened hand, imbue any soldier with the military prowess and genius of Saint Drusus himself for a short time. Even she is affected by this attack, Verida becoming an innate military genius and mightier warrior for a short time, unmatched by any save the best soldiers.


Duties

As a still-devout Maccabian, Verida has placed herself in numerous Star Warrior missions that involved military intervention and campaign. This has given her a reputation of being a highly dependable, active soldier in addition to being a Star Warrior Senshi. Her many actions include:

.Participating in the 13th Black Crusade, fighting against Chaos legions.
.Fighting in the Third War for Armageddon against the Orks of warlord Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka.
.Fighting against rebel separatists in France, when the country was suffering a second civil war.
.Participating in the defense of Ultramar, one of her Imperium's most productive sectors, against a Hrud incursion.
.Personally defending the royalty of a planet in the southern Milky Way as terrorists tried to capture them for ransom.
.Defending the entire western rim of the Milky Way Galaxy, with three hundred of her Star Warrior sisters, against a major Necron invasion. She moved from planet to planet in those six years of fighting.



Another 40k/Sailor Moon crossover, a Sailor Senshi who's also a devout soldier and follower of the Imperial Creed. The Emperor protects. Enjoy.