Black Crusade 2033 - IC

[Rizhail]

Black Crusade 2033

ACT I: HELL ON EARTH


http://dl.dropbox.com/u/42953937/Black%20Crusade%202033/152732-metro.jpg

"So, thats the dead city," grunted Bourbon. "Welcome home, Artyom."


1

The star known as Aegis slowly rose over the horizon, pale and pathetic, barely visible behind the neverending clouds. Despite the fact that the horrors of the night had only just receded, the morning appeared startlingly normal. The ruins nearest Refuge's exit to the surface had suffered less damage during the apocalypse, the walls of the temporary PDF garrison and the taller buildings of the neighboring districts blunting the blast of warp flame enough that the area was only left ruined and not unrecognizable.

What appeared at first to be snow drifted down from the sky, only being recognizable as ash once it scattered on your clothes or caked on your goggles and armor. The poor light from Aegis left the area drenched in darkness, as though dawn was still a half hour away. Elsewise, the area was calm, the only sounds being that of your own gas masks and respirators and the slight wheezing of a Legionaire's well-worn armor.

Your party has spent a few days preparing for this trip, hoping to find something worth scavenging in the vast ruins around Refuge. Charon met the four mortals at the exit from the metro, his presence both disturbing and comforting; simply having the Astartes around would make the scavenging process safer and smoother. As conditions on the surface have only been (relatively) safe in the last three weeks, your band is one of the first to attempt a full salvage expedition. Another group left during the last half hour of night and several more small parties will likely make short trips in your wake, though if word from the makeshift taverns of Refuge is to be believed your own group is pulling in the most bets (though they seem split between 'will bring back the best haul' and 'will be brutally murdered by their pet marine').

The ruin around you is the old market, where the lower and middle classes spent all of the money they'd saved during the winter in order to enjoy the short, comfortable summers. For Alex, Merope, and Rakdo, the area is a reminder of what has been lost. For Charon, it is remembered as little more than a boring hunting ground, with most of the mutants living farther east and the more adventurous humans living further west.

Most of the smaller shops were ruined beyond use during the Exterminatus or have been looted in the intervening years, but some likely remain touched. A medical complex was located a few kilometers to the northeast, near the edge of the district, but whether or not it has any valuables is unknown; Charon had only visited it once over the years, and the marine had been more interested in hunting the mutants and daemons living in the ruin than in any medicine meant for lesser beings.

Numerous small workshops also existed in the area, where journeyman techpriests would produce simpler tools and machinery to both meet the requirements of the contracts between the Veyda dynasty and the Mechanicus and to make a little spending money on the side. Such places would likely have been partly underground and thus may have survived the apocalypse and subsequent years of looting and neglect. None of the workshop locations are known to your group, though Gregor would have little trouble in attempting to track a few down, having known other techpriests who had worked in them.

The wind died off as morning marched on. Approximately eight hours of day remained, such as it was, before the night and its attendant horrors returned.

OOC (everyone):

What's the travel plans, folks? On the rather primitive map (https://www.dropbox.com/s/g4fqi3u1im3dur8/city%20map.png)I posted before, your party is in the southeast, in the middle of the markets. The map was a draft from my first time running this game on the tabletop, and is a little off (I'm working on a nicer inkscape drawing at the moment; I'll post it once it's done). The one change that will apply at the moment: switch the 'bars/brothels/etc' section and the 'lower class markets/repair garages/etc' sections.


OOC (LCP):

A short reminder: all of the things I told you about in PM are unknown to the others. I'm leaving it up to you to decide what sort of things Charon is willing to let the others in on, and when he would do so.

[LCP]

Charon stood motionless in the shadow of one of the ruined buildings, watching their surroundings. His stride was longer than the unaugmented whelps he was shepherding, and for him most of the time spent with them was spent standing still. Keeping watch.

Cycling his helmet's autosenses to test their function, he saw the four as blood-red blobs of heat, the yellow spots of their hearts squirming rhythmically in their chests. They needed this more than he did - supplies, food, water, the lifeblood of their little rat-warren below. What Charon needed, he took from others when he pleased. Hoarding was a fear response. The Astartes knew no fear.

And yet, as far as he could tell, these four were not afraid of him. Perhaps that was the reason he had agreed to escort them - curiosity, the appreciation of a novel experience in this monotonous waste. His pride certainly wouldn't admit any of the other explanations. Besides, it would be no good if some beast of the wastes claimed their lives. Charon had failed to kill the female once. He intended to set that right in time, and no-one else would steal her death from him.

He let them go about their business, standing as a silent sentry until they caught up, then moving on to the next vantage-point. If they wanted his advice, they could ask. He would be disappointed if they did, however. He wanted to see what else these strange creatures could do.

[LeSwordfish]

The woman was the first to reach the Astartes. She gave him a nod-any other emoting was impossible behind the mask and visor - and looked around at her surroundings. She was glad the wind had died down, and adjusted her long coat to hang more loosely, before cinching the carbine on its carrying strap into a slightly more comfortable position.

"We all still moving? Eight hours to nightfall." Merope reported into the microbead. "Anyone got any comments on target?"

[Destro_Yersul]

"North, I think." The Engineseer, Gregor, peered at the softly glowing green screen of a battered auspex. The former techpriest was hunched over, his massive servo-arm rising up over his shoulders like a snake. His voice was attenuated, but it was always attenuated - the metal respirator fixed over where his lower jaw used to be saw to that. Tapping the auspex, he shook his head. It had been too long since he had come up here, but the layout of the city seemed fresh in his mind. The real struggle would be matching what he remembered with what existed now.

The Marine unnerved him, somewhat. The Engineseer was certain that Charon, if he chose to, could fairly easily kill them all. The solid bulk of his combat servitor, the pilot light of its flamer glowing softly, did little to ease the Engineseer's mind. For whatever reason, though, the Traitor Marine was nominally on their side, and for that Gregor was glad. He was not along as a combatant, despite the hybrid lasgun-crossbow abomination he carried. Gregor was a thinker, and he was here to solve problems.

"The noble houses, they're uninhabited, yes? Should pick them clean, before anyone else gets to it."

[Thanatos 51-50]

Rakdo grimaced as the charcoal taste danced over his tongue. That wasn't very nice of it, he had been nothing but polite, using the filter for its intended purpose, and it repaid him by tasting terrible.
The fighter compulsively cheked the seal on his mask again, slapping his palm up against the repirator and trying to take a deep breath, only to be met with dead air and the mask's eyepieces crumpling in front of him.

Yes, the seal was good.

Rakdo idly tweaked the mask's water intake tube with his lips, pulling it into his mouth before releasing it, enjoying the simple, repetitive motion and the simple, repetitive sensation it came with.

By Slaanesh, he wanted to kill something.

"North is good." he concurred with the Heretek over the comms network. "Rich folk means juvvie treatments and they were using it for Guard housing before the bombs, so there might be some decent guns there.
Also, the PDF barrack is on the way. Can you imagine how great it would be if we returned with a fleet of IFvs? We could crush the Blood Tide and take all their resources."

The prospect of riding into glorious battle against those dim-witted savages protected by a thick Rhino hide and feeling the recoil of the bolter turrets shuddering through his arms, their report joining the wonderful sounds of panic in the air was too much. Rakdo's mouth watered at the prospect. His fingers hungered for the trigger.
"Yes. North."

OOC:
For simplicity's sake, I'm assuming that Radko's mask (http://www.specwargear.com/images/gasmask-MCU2P-1.jpg) is an MCU-2/P (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MCU-2/P_Protective_Mask), simply because it's the one I'm, personally, experianced with. I'm aware it's due to be replaced by the M50 soon, but I doubt there's too many blister agents out there for corroding facepieces.

[Thragka]

Recently

They'd been turning up in ones and twos over the past weeks - survivors, mostly from the surface, fleeing a nameless terror and carrying the seeds of panic with them into Refuge. The rumours had had to be contained, and quickly - Lupa would not take kindly to the mass hysteria that could tear her fief apart if unchecked. As the influx of terrified new Refugees swelled, Nicolai wasn't the only one to suspect that their nebulous foe was somehow doing this on purpose: that the fear itself was a weapon, designed to crack Refuge's defences open the better to wade into the station and tear it apart.

Somerthing had to be done - that much, at least, was clear. But this was not the sort of battle the Lieutenant was used to. Guerrilla warfare was one thing; the ex-PDF officer had experience with that, but it was a wholly different ballgame when the enemy had no obvious goals or civilian support or even a home ground that Refuge could assault. And not even a name for their nemesis, until it was coaxed out of one of the more lucid survivors: Charon.

Gradually, the small clique of Refugees that (more or less because they abilities and the inclination) coordinated the station's defence drew up a better picture of the monster that had begun hunting them. An Astartes - a formidable, almost insurmountable foe. The Lieutenant had almost been resigned to the fact that they could never gain the initiative over this angel of death until Merope Rynn had put together a plan. It was daring, and almost unbelievable - but Nicolai had come to appreciate that there was little the apostate couldn't do when she put her mind to it. So wheels were put in motion, and the trap was sprung.


~

Seeing the marine in the daylight, even the ineffectual half-light of this first morning, Alexander was struck with a deep sense of insignificance. This was an enemy that they could never have beat in a conventional battle. He, Nicolai, was a warrior, and a stout one at that - but the minor god standing there in that dark power armour was part of an entirely different dimension of warfare. Nicolai wasn't scared - not just yet, anyway - but he was in awe.

The comms chatter broke into his reverie. "North's good," he agreed. "So is hitting the PDF barracks. Might still know my way around, depending on what state it's in."

[LeSwordfish]

Merope frowned. "The noble houses might be a good idea, but in case you haven't noticed the trinket market has somewhat collapsed recently. I'd suggest the PDF. There might be things there of real value, and we have personal knowledge the others won't have."

[Destro_Yersul]

"mm." Gregor hummed, sliding his auspex into a fold of his dull red robes, the same he had once worn as a techpriest. "PDF equipment tends to be mass produced, stamped out from the forges in clumps. No finesse to the things they get issued. Meaning no offence to Alex, of course." Black eyes fixed on the lieutenant. Gregor wasn't sure what to think of most of his compatriots, just yet.

In truth, Gregor wasn't sure what to think of most people. "Nobles would have had more expensive, and thus better equipment," he finished.

[Thragka]

"None taken," muttered the lieutenant. "Nothin' wrong with mass-produced, long as it all works. Right now quality's a second'ry concern to quantity. And covering familiar ground's better than heading straight into the unknown."

[Thanatos 51-50]

"PDF is on the way." Rakdo reminded the tech-priest. "The intent is to stop by there and see what salvage we can grab before hitting the Noble Quarter."
Just how thick was gears-for-brains, anyway?

Without a further word, Rakdo drew up the hood of his cloak and proceded to stalk through the dead city.

[LeSwordfish]

Merope watched Radko stalk past and shrugged placidly. "If we're agreed. Nicolai, hang back and snipe. Gavrilovich, keep your eyes open. We've drilled for this."

She turned to the hulking marine and flicked her mask's voice-box to "broadcast". "Astartes? You know what to do."

[Rizhail]

The band spent a solid half hour following the Night Lord's lead through rubble strewn streets and half-collapsed alleyways. The occasional windworn corpse or half-melted car were the only odd sights, the mutants and daemons having all been hunted out by Charon or keeping their heads down during the daylight hours.

Eventually the marine comes to a halt at the end of narrow road leading into a massive open square, the partly ruined walls of the PDF base visible a kilometer away. Before the apocalypse, the open area had been a park, used by civilians during the summer months and winter training for the PDF during the rest of the year.

The non-marines:

As you near Charon, you each hear a person shouting. From the way the marine peaks around the corner, you're fairly sure the shouter is not far down the right side of the building. At the moment, you're on a road covered in rubble, with ruined (but still somewhat accessible) buildings on either side.

((OOC: You may each make awareness rolls if you'd like to try and discern anything else about the area, the shouter, or anything else that comes to mind. If there are any other rolls you'd like to make, feel free to let me know what you're rolling for and why.))


Charon:

As you wait at the end of the alleyway for the mortals to catch up, you hear a human shout "Hey, this one looks fresh!" from around the corner. Just barely peaking around it, you spot a lean, pale man sporting shoddy flak armor and armed with what appears to be a jerry-rigged chainblade as he points down the road in your direction. Focusing, you notice he's pointing at a corpse laying on the sidewalk not ten meters from you.

Another voice calls back, "Of course it looks fresh! All of 'em have! Now stop yelling, grab the bloody thing, and get back here!"

As the man jogs over, you notice a symbol of Khorne on his neck.

You also notice that, from the placement of the corpse, the fool is likely walking into a trap. Furies have often dumped bodies near buildings and then hidden on the rooftops, dropping down onto the unwary and flying off with them. Though you don't see the daemon, you're pretty sure at least one is around.

While you're certain the poor bastard is likely to get eaten, you also remember that the furies are known to start swarming if one of them actually manages to catch something...

((OOC: You may make awareness rolls if you'd like, or any other roll you think might be useful in this situation. Also feel free to ask if you'd like more details or if you need anything clarified.))

[LCP]

The traitor marine held his position, his armoured bulk held flat against the wall. Whatever he had seen, he was watching it in silence. Slowly lowering his bolter and letting it engage with the mag-locked holster at his belt, his free hand reached instead for his combat knife.

Rizhail

Charon watched the degenerates approach, turning over his choices in his head. While to a certain extent nothing would please him more at this moment than to see how his charges coped with a shrieking flock of daemons, he had to think beyond the short term. Injuries and ammunition expenditure might force them to turn back, and that would be no good at all. The humans would probably want to scavenge resources from the bodies of these wretches as well, and that would not be possible if they were borne away into the air.

Of course, if the Refuge was sending out foraging parties, it stood to reason that the Blood Tide would as well. The Refuge had sent the best it had to offer, and so Charon watched and waited, looking to see if any more of the Khorne-worshippers would reveal themselves. With ten metres between himself and the corpse, he didn't doubt that he could strike before any waiting daemons.

OOC: Charon will rush from cover as soon as the lead scavenger reaches the corpse - rolling initiative/going for a surprise round if I can.

[Destro_Yersul]

Gregor shuffled awkwardly behind the others, mechadenrites twitching. The servitor cycled through combat subroutines on his order, but it had nothing to shoot at yet. Whatever was behind the corner, Gregor didn't want to be the one to go look.

[LeSwordfish]

Merope squinted after the sound. "What was that?"

She checked her carbine and made a calming gesture to the wolfhound that was following her. "Not smart to be shouting out here. Move up on them, carefully."

[roll0] vs 31 Awareness.

[Thragka]

Nicolai moved up to the corner, pulling his magnoculars from his pack. "See anything?" he muttered - ostensibly to Charon, but avoiding actually addressing the Astartes directly.

He scanned the open space of the park, trying to plot a route towards the barracks that wouldn't leave the team totally devoid of cover.

Awareness, primarily to find a safe-looking route across the park, but also to hear the shouting a bit better.

[roll0]

[Rizhail]

As the rest of the band approaches Charon's position, the shouting becomes clearer to all.

"What's wrong with yelling? We haven't seen a damned thing all morning save corpses! You afraid of attracting something fun, ya coward?" shouts a voice from close by.

"I'd rather not get killed collecting scraps for the vats. Now shut up and get to work!" a second voice shouts back. The second person is somewhat muffled (beyond the obvious muffling of a breathing filter), indicating the speaker is likely just inside a building or around a different corner.

Gregor:

The others stop near the corner, either peaking around it or catching a glimpse through the ruined windows and building front. However, there isn't much to be seen from your spot in the back.

You begin to get a minor headache, and sounds and colors begin to stand out more; all the precursor to the spirits talking to you. However, the voices you begin to hear are distant and indistinct, the only word you hear clearly is a muffled '...hunger...'


Rakdo, Merope, Charon:

Either by peering around the corner or by peaking through the shattered windows and front of the building, you can each see the first speaker. He is pale, armed with what appears to be a home-made chainsword and armored in flak, a symbol of Khorne visible on his neck as he shouts over his shoulder at the second speaker, who is currently not in sight. He seems completely oblivious to your group's presence, his own shouting having effectively covered any sound you all made while approaching the corner of the building.

The man strides confidently toward a corpse laying on the sidewalk. As he comes within two meters of it, Charon tenses up, ready to spring.


LCP, you get a surprise round as you were readying for this. I'll roll initiative for everyone after you set up your first action.



Nicolai:

As the others focus on peeking around the corner, you focus your magnoculars on the old park. It takes you only a moment to pick out a good path, as you notice a shallow trench surrounded by debris that zig-zags across the square; whether it was the beginnings of an actual trench or the result of an exploding water line or the like, you cannot say.

As you sweep the area again to see if you missed anything, you catch a glimpse of something moving in a building down the right-hand road, near whoever is shouting. Focusing in, you notice two grey heads sticking out of the ruined windows of the building. They look almost like the gargoyles you had seen on the mausoleums near the cathedral, but those had never had the gall to move; the two you see are definitely alive and moving around. One is three stories above the ground, just barely visible inside the window, its gaze locked on shouting man on the street below.

The second gargoyle-creature is two floors above the first, peaking out through a hole in the wall. It also watches the street for a moment, before its head darts sideways and catches sight of your group. It locks its gaze on you, its glowing yellow eyes growing wide before the things bares its fangs in anger.

[LeSwordfish]

"Anyone got eyes on the other guy?" Merope muttered into the vox. The wolfhound growled, and she rubbed the scruff of its neck to silence it. "We should wait until we can take them both out."

Even so, she flicked her carbine to "On", and checked the charge on her gladius. Both ready.

OOC
To justify the Combat Formation bonus. (Which means y'all can have a baseline Init of 6, plus your own bonuses.)

[Thanatos 51-50]

Rakdo slid out from behind the ruined cover, as silent as death.
His palms itched to grip the hilts of his blades, hungering to grab at them and charge.
But no. Now was not the time for this, now was the time for silence. Anticipation.

Rakdo's mouth watered wthin the confines of his gas mask, hands kept the bitter ends of the camoline together, so as to not fly apart and reveal him before he could strike.
The one talking about "fun". He'd be the first one.
Quick and clean, and then glorious noise! Chaos! Power! The bestial roar of chain biting through flesh and bone!
Yes.

He just needed to move into striking distance first, and get an angle on the other so he could plan his route to the kill.
"Not yet," he whispered. "Soon."

[Rizhail]

Rakdo:

As you move out into the street to get a good angle on the khornate man, you catch a glimpse of movement in your peripheral vision. Glancing up at a building just across the street from the shouting man, you notice a grey, bestial head barely poking out of a third story window, its gaze focused on the man as he approaches the corpse on the ground. A second grey head, similar to the first, pokes out from a hole in the wall on the fifth floor. It also tracks the man for a moment, before snapping over and glaring at the corner of the building your band is hiding behind.

Both heads have the appearance of gargoyles, like those on the mausoleum near the cathedral.

[Thanatos 51-50]

"I think," Rakdo whispered over the comm network, "Our friends are about to be taken care of for us. Check the skies. We're being flanked." it would be impossible to not hear the slavering tones of anticipation edging his voice.

[Thragka]

"I have eyes on two mutants, up to the right," said Nicolai, unslinging his long las. "And one of them's making faces at us." He hunkered down, raising the barrel of the gun towards the highest of the pair of ugly faces.

"Invisible man, you found the second unlucky bugger? 'Cos I've a feeling this is going to get messy."

[LCP]

The pale man with the branded neck walked closer to the bait. With a snap like a spark on a dry day, the field around Charon's power claw engaged.

Rising from cover, the Night Lord crashed into his prey.

OOC: Charge.

[roll0] vs. WS 54 + 30 (surprise) + 30 (Berserk Charge) = 114
[roll1] damage, pen 9 - whoops, should have rollv'd that.

My maths for the damage roll is that I have an effective SB of 6 (S41 base +20 for power armour), which gets doubled to 12 by the power fist; I then add 4 for Unnatural Strength. Let me know if I've got that wrong.

[roll2] (thanks Merope!)

[Destro_Yersul]

Casting about for the mutants that Alex had mentioned, Gregor fingered his lasgun and shuffled closer to the corner. Too far away for the servitor to hit, if they were on a roof. Then there was that muttering...

"Hunger," the techpriest mumbled to himself. "They're hungry. Hungry for what?"

[LeSwordfish]

Merope cast around for the mutants up high. "Where? Can I get eyes on them from here?"

As Charon shattered the first khornate, Merope began swinging her carbine up into the aimed position, trying to draw a bead on something, anything. She snapped off a hasty shot, but as far as she could tell it had missed.

[Thanatos 51-50]

"If I point, they'll see me." Rakdo reasoned, standing stock-still.
If he could be seen under his camoline, he would be frowning quite plainly.

That Marine stole his kill.

[roll0]
Also, requesting an Awareness Check to find the Second Voice, assuming, of course, it wasn't just the guy we killed having a split personality.
Roll behind the spoiler:
[roll1]

[Rizhail]

The poor bastard never even stood a chance. The marine's charge was so rapid and violent that the Khorne worshipper only had a moment to look up and fail to comprehend what was happening before his shredded corpse thudded into the sidewalk in several chunks.

Between Nicolai's report and where he was pointing his gun, the rest of the band was able to spot the two beast-like heads sticking out of the building, one three stories up and the other five stories up. Both were grey and bestial, with vicious looking fangs and short horns. The lower one was halfway through throwing itself out the window, having caught itself at the last second when the marine appeared. It hissed in annoyance at the astartes, apparently still oblivious to the rest of the team.

The other beast was aware of the team and was disappearing back into the building when Merope and Gregor became aware of it.

From the ruined front of the next building down the street came a shouted, "Ivan!? What was that noise!?"

[Thanatos 51-50]

Rakdo crept foward under his shadowy cloak, still slightly perterbed that the Marine had taken his quarry out. But then, there was always the other, and the gargoyle that looked like it was about to swoop forward.
Half-move forward, as far as possibe without breaking Stealth. Aother half-move to ready an attack action if a target enters killing range

[Thragka]

"Not as smart as your friend," muttered Nicolai as he switched his aim to the creature that was precariously overexposed. "Last mistake you'll ever make." He squeezed the Long Las's trigger, sending a beam of light towards the mutant.

BS 47 + Half-aim 10 + Accurate 10 + Standard attack 10 = 77

[roll0]
[roll1] (Pen 1)

The red cylinder went wide, and Nicolai swore softly.

[LCP]

The smouldering remains of Ivan dripping from his claw, Charon straightened up to his full height. He heard the report of Nicolai's weapon, and raised his head to see the man's bestial target in the ruins above. Making eye contact with the thing, he spread his hands wide in a gesture of challenge.

"Leave the daemon be," he called back to Nicolai, the speaker-grille of his helmet lending his voice a metallic ring. "You will attract others."

Eyes still on the predator high above, he stomped forwards. Stooping down, he picked up the shattered head of the scavenger.

"Ivan is dead," he called out towards the building from which the voice had issued. Sheathing his knife, he passed the head into his unencumbered hand and threw it in a lazy arc towards the window he judged most likely to be the source of the lurker's voice. "Show yourself and I will spare you his fate."

OOC: Can we get the distance between our position/s and the building this guy is in? How many entrances are there?

In terms of combat actions, Charon is
swapping out his knife for the head (Quick Draw might make this a free action but I don't know if the head is still attached to anything - if it needs removing then I hope a half action would be appropriate to snip it off with the power claw?)
lobbing the head through the window (assuming it's close enough that I can): [roll0]

[Destro_Yersul]

"Might be more of them. Don't think that's a mutant..." Gregor had heard the spirits, speaking to him. He had to know how many of them there were. Holding fire for now, the Engineseer opened his other senses. He'd developed these over time, after the spirits had started speaking to him. After the Exterminatus, when his eyes had turned black. The Engineseer had often wondered about that. The Omnissiah's blessings were restricted to the metal and circuits of true flesh - who had sent him the eyes that let him see the Omnissiah's machine spirits? The Emperor, perhaps?

Or something else?

OOC:
Gregor's perception is 37 - he's trying to actively look for Daemons nearby using psyniscience. Roll be in yon spoiler: [roll0]

[Rizhail]

Rakdo slid forward silently, unseen under his cloak. His new vantage point didn't quite give him a clear look at the remaining human, but he could see some movement and hear murmuring inside the building where said human hid. The beast he was hoping to take a swipe at decided not to finish its pounce, the sight of the space marine and the twin lasbolts flashing past its face deterring it from attacking. Still hissing and spitting, it also pulled back into its roost and disappeared from sight.

As the beasts withdrew into their hiding places, Gregor was able to sense a burning hatred from them. The sheer rage of the beasts, tinged by fear, overwhelmed his supernatural senses for a moment, rendering him unable to determine if anymore such creatures were nearby.

A few moments after Ivan's severed head flew through the window, the second man stepped out of the building. He was a giant, standing only half a meter shy of Charon's armored height. A massive brand of Khorne stood out on his bare chest; he apparently didn't fear attack, as the man wore only a harness, fatigues, and boots, lacking any form of armor. A brass relief in the shape of a snarling daemon's mouth covered his respirator, and red-lit preysense goggles covered his eyes.

He held Ivan's head in one hand, looking down at it for a moment before tossing it away. "A pity," he said calmly, his voice quieter and higher pitched than one would expect from someone of his stature, "stupid as he could be, Ivan was a loyal minion." He flexed his wrist, a pair of massive blades springing forward from a mount on his right forearm. Something that looked like a large, homemade weapon was strapped to his back.

"I am Pietr of the Blood Tide, and I know of your kind, Night Lord," he called, still calm in the face of the Astartes' intimidating form. He calmly revealed a small device held in his left hand, which he tossed onto the sidewalk between himself and Charon; it appeared to be a civilian communications device. "My brothers know where I am, and that a fight is to be had here. They will hear all that transpires. If you wish to question me, then do so. If you wish to fight, I would be honored by the opportunity to take your skull for Lord Arganon."

[LCP]

The traitor marine's helmeted head turned as the muscled giant emerged from the shadows. Here was an enemy who was not afraid.

"Let your brothers come," replied Charon. "I will be waiting for them."

With a roar of ignition, the ancient jump pack on Charon's back fired. Rising in a soaring parabola through the air, the Night Lord cut the power and descended like a diving falcon on his prey.

OOC: aw yiss

Charon charges, using his jump pack.

[roll0] (no parrying! horns! :smallbiggrin:)
[roll1]+16
Potential bonus damage from Raptor: [roll2], [roll3]

EDIT: 45 damage. Pen 9.

If he dodges this, the street is getting a new crater :smallbiggrin:

[Thanatos 51-50]

Good, Charon. Keep him nice and distra --

Rakdo slowly crept closer to this "Pietr", already savouring the ecstasy of the kill, when a weathered, midnight blue brushed past the stealthy murderer, artificial wind of its passing turning up the discarded stones and tugging at the bitter edges of the Renegade's cloak.

Stole my kill again. We're going to have some pointed words.

He has Preysense! Do you want another Concealment check? Will it even matter?

[Destro_Yersul]

The sense of the spirits, out here in the open, was too much. Gregor blinked to clear the spots dancing across his vision. He'd have to be more careful in teh future. He hadn't been prepared for... well, for Up Here. Nothing was like he remembered it, but eight years in the tunnels was a long time.

Moving forward to get a look around the corner, the techpriest hugged the wall. He wasn't about to go just walking into the open, Charon or no Charon.

[Thragka]

Nicolai observed the butchery with a blank expression, slowly slinging the lasweapon back across his shoulder. Thank all the hells and heavens that we trapped this ... thing. He couldn't decide on an appropriate term; "monster" and "god" seemed equally befitting. He could end us all at his whim.

Enough of that line of thinking, though. Right now, Charon was on their side - not that Nicolai was going to take his allegiance for granted, oh no, but as long as he seemed more concerned with killing Blood Tide, then he wasn't an immediate threat.

"If we've already attracted others, may as well finish the job. I don't like leaving those daemons alive, now they've seen us." Still hugging the buildings to the right, the lieutenant went looking for an entrance to the building the beasts had been watching from, and got his tunnel-gun ready for some closer action.

In terms of combat time - spend one ready action and Quick Draw to put the long las away and draw the combiflamerpneumoshotgun, and half move towards the gargoyles' building.

[LeSwordfish]

Merope raised an eyebrow as Charon pulverised the Khornate.

That is why I didn't make Radko duel him.

"Don't break the comm!" she ordered. "Keep that working!"

Even as she spoke she was retargeting her carbine. Marine or no marine, you didn't let up on your enemies.

Rinse and repeat, aim and carbine shot. Presuming range and size and such end up at +0

[roll0] vs BS 40+10 single shot +10 HA aim +10 Accurate.
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]
[roll4]
[roll5]

Merope

Merope you had better pass a test soon

[Rizhail]

Despite the fact that he was obviously ready for the marine's attack, and was even preemptively diving out of the way, it didn't stop Charon from landing on Pietr's leg and ripping it off. If it weren't for the follow-up power claw strike that disemboweled him, the shock and arterial bleeding would have done him in shortly thereafter.

The force of the impact tossed the comm device into the air, launching it back toward the rest of the party. It clattered to the ground, apparently intact; Imperial technology was known for being durable, afterall.

The front entrance of the Furies' building was blocked by rubble; it appeared that the second floor had fallen down into the first floor. A large hole was visible down an alley on the near side of the building, though whether more debris lay beyond it wasn't immediately clear.

[LCP]

Flicking globs of burnt viscera from the claws of his glove, Charon straightened back up. Pietr had not proved a challenge after all.

Rolling the eviscerated corpse over with a nudge of his boot, he inspected the weapon on its back and the blades on its arm. One of the humans might want those.

There was plenty to say, but it could wait until the Khorne-worshipper's comms device had been switched off before he said it. Turning away from Pietr's corpse, he walked back towards the others.

[LeSwordfish]

Are we still on combat time?

Keeping her carbine raised, Merope stalked into the street and picked up the Comm. "I hope you heard that." she said calmly into it.

She checked the comm over, idly wondering if she could re-route the reciever to her own bead. Did it even receive? She beckoned Gregor over- technology was not her specialty.

[Thragka]

Nicolai cautiously advanced on the hole in the wall of the Furies' building. He waved to Rakdo - or where he thought Rakdo was - and jerked a thumb questioningly at the makeshift entrance. He cocked his head, trying to silently ask whether the other still fancied a fight.

[Thanatos 51-50]

Rakdo seethed with anger at Charon's slaughter of his prey. He was hunger, mouth wet for the kill.

Then he saw the Lieutenant Moving in on the Gargoyles.
Yes, that would be a good fight. A Good kill.

Rakdo clicked his commbead once in acknowledgement, and ghosted his way to the Furies' building.
This'll be a slaughter.

[LCP]

The turbines of his jump pack still cycling down, Charon turned his head in the direction of Nicolai as the lieutenant headed for the Furies' nest. Leaving the comms-device to Gregor and Merope to figure out, he strode over to where the man stood with no regard for stealth. His shadow fell over the man.

"The daemons up there are nothing more than beasts," he said, "but the cries of one will attract others. How long do you want to be lingering here, while the dead man's friends come looking for us?"

OOC: I think Gregor is waiting on a result from his knowledge check?

[Destro_Yersul]

Gregor shuffled over, taking the comm device carefully in one hand and turning it over. Flicking it off, in case anyone was still listening, he raised it level with his eyes and examining it carefully. "Civilian model," he said sadly. "But perhaps useful. Networks are down, so it only functions as a vox-caster. Very short range. With a little work though, yes, this could be useful. Hm. Would you like to know where everyone else who has one of these is hiding?"

Without waiting for an answer, Gregor sat down on the rubble and hunched over the device, mechadendrites twitching as they extended towards it. These were simple models, he had experience with them. Perhaps he could modify it so that it didn't ping everyone in range when he did this...

[LeSwordfish]

Merope smiled like a wolf. "Gregor, you know the answer to that." she gently admonished.

"And Charon's right." She added into her own bead. "Unless you're sure you can take them down silently, let them go."

[Rizhail]

Rakdo and Nicolai peered through the hole into the ruined building as Gregor worked his magic on the comm device. It was pitch black inside the ruin, the weak light only providing vision a few meters into the building. From what little the pair could see, the interior of the building was partially intact, with two hallways in good enough condition to enter.

Back in the street, Gregor's efforts were swiftly rewarded: the comm device beeped once, and then a map appeared on its small screen. Four dots appeared, marking the locations of other active communicators within 2km. Two were off to the south, one a kilometer away and the other at the edge of the device's range. One blip appeared out in middle of the park, and the last appeared to be in the PDF base.

After fifteen seconds, the device beeped again, and the positions of the four blips changed.

All four were converging on the party's current location.

[Destro_Yersul]

"Hmm." Gregor narrowed his eyes at the device. What he'd done had worked, but his modifications to the programming may have been unsuccessful. Of course, it was possible that the others had heard Pietr...

"There are four other such devices in range. Devices not in range cannot have heard us, and can be safely discounted. They are coming this way, but will not be here for a few minutes. We have time. I can shut off this device, which should prevent them from using it to trace us as we have traced them, or we can prepare an ambush." As he said this, the techpriest's eyes went from Charon to Rakdo. He was fairly certain he knew what their choice would be.

"Leave the furies. They are cowardly, for daemons. Charon will have scared them away. There are more mortal enemies coming, and we should be prepared or gone before they arrive."

[LCP]

"The daemons left this body here as bait," said Charon, returning to Gregor and Merope. He gestured with the tip of his combat knife to the corpse that Ivan had died investigating, before finally returning the weapon to its sheath. "Leave the communicator here, and it will draw these some of these pursuers into their trap. We will be gone by then."

The Chaos Marine's voice took on a deep, dark, threatening tone.

"Dealing with the others."

[Thragka]

Alexander flashed a disappointed look at Rakdo. "Fine," he acquiesced. "Don't much like leaving those things skulking around, but so be it."

Returning to the others, he took a look at the device's display, noting the indicated positions. Putting his magnoculars back to his face, he scanned the park once more for any sign of motion.

"Seems to be a trench running across the park. Could be defensible."

Awareness again, vs 41 +/- any modifiers.
[roll0]

[LeSwordfish]

Merope looked up from the screen and sighed. "Hostiles, moving in. Four groups. Two from the south, a kilo or so apart. One from the pdf base, one in the park."

She thought for a moment. "Astartes, Alex. Maybe Gregor too. Try and take the group coming from the pdf base. They might be a large group, but that can't be helped. If we need to fall back, the pdf base is our primary position. Nicolai knows it, it's as well-stocked as anywhere. Hopefully the fact that there's no contact there means that there are no people, too. Myself and Radko will head for the trench in the park. Secondary fallback position. Also the most likely place for the group in the park. We leave the comm here. Hopefully that will draw the groups from the south. Seem good?"

[Thanatos 51-50]

"Isn't the trench a bit obvious?" Rakdo asked, quietly. "If you want to volunteer yourself as baiting the enemy into the trench, that's fine with me, but I could take up position where they're likely to come through and cut them down when they pass."

[LCP]

"Keep the machine-man," rumbled Charon, unslinging his bolter from his hip. "He will only slow us down."

The Night Lord was already stalking away into the ruins of the city. Alexei would have to hurry if he wanted to keep up.

[Thragka]

Surprised, Nicolai spent a flustered moment just looking at Charon's massive jump pack recede. "Guess I'd better be going then. Primary fallback, the barracks. Let us know if you clear the trench." With that, he was scrambling in the Traitor Marine's wake.

[Destro_Yersul]

If Gregor had heard Charon's comment, he made no indication of it. The techpriest was heading up towards Pietr's body, intent on rummaging the corpse for useful gubbins. It was, in his mind, established fact that everyone on the surface was carrying useful gubbins in some form. His servitor trailed slowly along behind him, scanning the area for danger as it went.

[Rizhail]

Charon and Nicolai:

Sticking to the buildings along the side of the park, the pair was able to move toward the PDF base with a bit of cover between them and anyone moving across the park.

As the pair passed the halfway point of the park, a relatively large group of people became visible near the base wall's, moving toward the same roadway that the marine and guardsman were traveling on. The distance and low light meant it was unlikely the group had seen the pair in the distance, but the group was talking and shouting loud enough that they had drawn attention to their position and made it easier for the pair to spot them. The exact nature of the traveling group (number, armament, etc) wasn't discernable in the gloom.

Of the group moving through the park, there was no sign.


Gregor, Rakdo, Merope:


Gregor's looting:
Gregor's opinion on the preponderance of gubbins on dead surface raiders was proven correct: in addition to Pietr's respirator and preysense goggles, he had an old stub revolver and a handful of rounds in a hidden holster at the small of his back, the odd blade weapon on his wrist, and an odd device strapped to his back. Surprisingly, none of them had suffered anything more than superficial damage in their owner's horrendous demise, thanks to Charon's strike taking out Pietr's legs and not his torso.

The odd blades were functional, if crude, made from steel and appearing to have a razor edge. The forearm housing was apparently spring loaded; a small handle on the back could be used to draw the blades into the housing, where they locked in place, and a ring attached to the middle finger activated the mechanism that released the blades. A small plate on the front of the housing kept the user's hand from flexing back up into the blades when they were out. All in all, it was a surprisingly complex design for such a simple concept.

As for the device on Pietr's back, it quickly became the object of Gregor's attentions. Consisting of a lasgun stock connected to four metal rails, it at first appeared to be some sort of hodge-podge weapon, until it's mechanism became apparent: the weapon was a electromagnetic mass driver of some sort. Two rails were perpindicular to each, one above the other, with a gap of only a centimeter between them. The other two rails, also perpindicular, ran alongside the gap between the first two rails, with a space of about 3 cm between each side rail and the middle rails. A heavy steel disk was nestled between the rails, slotted into grooves in the side rails. As far as Gregor could tell, it was a one-shot railgun firing a razor edged disk.

The weapon had all the hallmarks of being made in the tunnels, but the type of firing mechanism had long been considered to be on the edge of tech-heresy. And thanks to Charon's ministrations, Pietr was unable to answer the question of how a Blood Tide zealot had gotten hold of such a weapon.


As Gregor finished his looting, the comm device beeped for approximately the 6th time. The closest group from the south was not quite a half kilometer out; they were apparently either quite slow, or possibly wary of whatever had killed Ivan and Pietr.

Getting Gregor's attention, the trio headed for the park. In the gloom, the receding forms of Charon and Nicolai could be seen down the road along the southern side of the park. Carefully moving into the park, the trio was able to find the trench that Nicolai had mentioned with only a few minutes of searching. It appeared to have been caused by water pipes running from the base exploding spectacularly, likely during the Exterminatus.

In the gloom, the Blood Tide group traveling through the park would be hard to spot, but at least the trench and dead trees offered cover...

((Awareness checks, if you please. Note that you did loot NVGs off Pietr, if either Merope or Gregor would like to use them (since Rakdo already has a pair).))

[Rizhail]

Charon:

Using his helmet's autosenses and zoom, Charon was able to get a much better view of the incoming Blood Tide group. There appeared to be approximately two dozen people, half of whom looked like they were being either herded or dragged along. Two massive men walked at the front of the group; both appeared to be mutants. The first appeared somewhat normal, until he looked sideways and it became apparent that his eyes were on stalks. The other appeared to have some sort of lower body mutation, as though his legs had been replaced by those of some sort of beast. Both carried massive firearms of some sort, and the beast-legged mutant appeared to have something large and block on his back.

Several of the human members of the group appeared to be carrying firearms, though most seemed to be following the standard Blood Tide mindset of preferring melee combat.

[LCP]

Charon & Nicolai

"Twenty of them," said Charon to Nicolai, keeping his voice low. "Half look like slaves. They may run, given the chance."

He looked down at Nicolai. Under the scowling grille of his Legion helmet, it was impossible to tell if the Night Lord was smiling.

"Show me what you can do, little man."

In the next moment, the power-armoured figure had vanished silently into the shadows.

OOC: Charon is going to try to use the cover of the ruins on our right(?) to flank the Blood Tide group, while staying hidden. In the meantime he's leaving Nicolai to fend for himself/draw their attention/prove himself worthy/all of the above :smallbiggrin:

[roll0] - I AM THE NIGHT

Any chance of a rough map? Distances would be handy to know.

[Destro_Yersul]

Gregor, Rakdo, Merope
Gregor nodded, pleased with the spoils. Figuring out how they worked, salvaging them, turning them into something better... that would have to wait. The goggles would work fine as they were. Gregor lifted them to his eyes, looking through them. THey might obscure the spirits. He couldn't have that. Instead, the techpriest handed them off to Merope, bundling the weaponry up in a scrap bit of cloth. He needed to find a sack or something to put his equipment and things in. Perhaps the PDF base would have one.

The servitor trailing along behind him, Gregor headed into the trench with the others. With enemies closing in, he kept one hand on the comm unit, watching the blinking lights, and the other on his gun. Against unarmoured foes like the Blood Tide seemed to be, the crossbow would be deadly effective.

Awareness! [roll0] - wouldn't be a pass even if Gregor had that skill trained. He's bad at noticing things.

[LeSwordfish]

Gregor, Radko, Merope
Merope took the goggles with a nod and lifted her gas-hood briefly to slip them on.

"Standard plan." She said. "Gregor and I, lure them within Radko's striking range. Like before the astartes. Eyes open."

She slipped into the best cover she could find, slowly advancing on the last known position of the contact.

Awareness [roll0] vs 31

[Thanatos 51-50]

Rakdo, Merope, and Gregor

The dancer stalked out into the ruined park, towards the Blood Tide, hungry for battle.
There would be no Astartes to steal his kills now.

[Rizhail]

Gregor, Rakdo, Merope:

Cover wasn't hard to find, though apparently that applied to the Blood Tide as well. Even with the comm device continuing to track the enemy group, they were hard for Merope and Gregor to spot. Thankfully, it appeared that Gregor's tracking modification hadn't been picked up by the Tide; the little dot representing the party's foes never wavered from its path through the park, despite Gregor carrying the device with him.

Rakdo had better luck picking up on the enemy group, as he was in position to see a massive shape leap in to the air only 50 meters or so from his position. In his preysense goggles, the shape appeared to be a hulking humanoid with massive wings, carrying what appeared to be some sort of massive cudgel. Tracing it's flight path back to the ground, he picked up the heat signatures of a small group of people. Peering at the blob of infrared shapes, he made out approximately one and a half dozen people, some of whom appeared to be either dragged or pushed along.

Rough map!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/42953937/Black%20Crusade%202033/rakdo%20map.png

OOC NOTE: You're not yet on combat time. Once you all decide to act, you'll get a surprise round (assuming you aren't spotted). Also, the area is very hilly, and cover isn't hard to come by (especially in the trench).

And this should be the only MSPaint battle map. Barring unexpected time devouring events this weekend, I'll pull an LCP and start working with Inkscape to make some nice maps for both battle and exploration. This is just to give a rough idea of how things are situated.

[Thanatos 51-50]

Team Trench Warfare
"There's something in the air. Wings. Mutant probably. Big ol' club." Rakdo whispered into his commbead, moving to lay as low as possible. "Some of the walkers don't exactly look willing. If we can free them, we can use the chaos to our advantage."

Wait for it...

[LeSwordfish]

Gregor, Radko, Merope
"Numbers estimate? Are they heading for the trench?" Merope hissed, scanning the sky.

[Thanatos 51-50]

Team Trench Warfare
You're harshing my buzz, Woman.
"Eighteen-ish, not counting the flier. Fifty meters out from me, heading this way, so yes. Incidentally, flyer is also fifty out. I'm the nose of a triangle between them. Aim for the ones draging the unwilling first, I say."

[Thragka]

Charon & Nicolai

"Well, let's see if we can give them that chance," Alexander said to himself. He moved for cover in the wreckage, also hanging close to the buildings on the right - that way, if the group tried to hug the ruins for cover, they'd be all the closer to the Marine.

Leaning the long las on a convenient piece of rubble, Alexander simply waited until he had a relatively unobscured shot at one of the larger figures to the front of the approaching entourage.

Sorry for the delay, guys. No ballsy on-the-spot plan from me this time - let's just see if we can put the Lieutenant's guns to some actual use. When he's moved to cover, Nicolai will spend a full action aiming and then take a shot at one of the big guys as soon as he can after that.

Not sure if you want rolls, Rizhail, so I'll do some that you're free to disregard.

[roll0] (Per bonus 4 from Combat Sense +2)

[roll1] BS 47 + full aim 20 + accurate 10 + standard attack 10 - any penalties for cover. Don't think range penalties apply thanks to Marksman and the Long Las having range 300 m; if I'm wrong on this, Nicolai will wait until they get within range.

[roll2] (Pen 1)

Possible extra damage dice from Accurate:
[roll3]
[roll4]
[roll5]
[roll6] Nope!

Away from book right now, hoping I haven't got any of the BC rules wrong.

[Destro_Yersul]

Trench Warfare
"Yes. The ones dragging the unwilling first. The big one, with wings, is it possible that it's another Astartes?" Gregor dearly hoped it wasn't, but he couldn't see to tell, himself. If it was, they might be better off avoiding this group entirely. At least his modification hadn't been spotted. If they kept moving, the group might go right past them and never know.

[LeSwordfish]

Trenches
"Can you get behind them? You attack from behind, we take them from the front, aim for the jailers."

[Rizhail]

Charon and Nicolai:

As the enemy group trudged down the road, it became clear in Nic and Charon's sights that the two pointmen were heavily mutated. One had eye stalks and odd, white glowing eyes, his left arm ending in a massive weapon of unknown type. The only noticeable feature of the weapon was the red glow given off by the muzzle.

The other point man was some sort of centauroid creature; from the waist up he was a giant of a man, but below the waist was some sort of quadrepedal beast. His lower half gleamed with brassy scales in the low-light, a massive block of something metallic visible resting above his rear legs. He also held a massive ranged weapon of some sort.

The small group of people behind them included a mixture of typical Blood Tide fighters, cowering wretches who appeared to be slaves, and, in a seeming first for the Tide, several gun men watching over the slaves.

When the centauroid mutant came within range, Nicolai plugged him square in the center of the chest, causing the mutant to bellow in surprise and pain. The shot signalled Charon to attack, and the marine's frag grenade lazily sailed into the midst of the pack, detonating amidst the slaves, gunners, and berserkers. When the smoke and dust cleared, all of the normal humans appeared to be either down or in a state of panic.

Despite a solid shot to the chest, the centauroid was still on his feet and searching for a target. The eyestalk mutant seemed to still be blinking rapidly to clear his vision following the explosion, as though he wasn't sure what had just happened.

((OOC: Positions: Nicolai is 150 meters away from the pointmen. Charon is level with them (i.e. he is also 150m from Nic), and is about 15m back from the road, inside the ruined front room of an office building.

First round actions, go!))

[Thanatos 51-50]

Team Trench Warfare
"Easily, provided we want to let them close distance first. Their noise should cover mine, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to weave between their ranks and remain unseen."

[LCP]

Charon & Nicolai

Charon watched as the smoke cleared, autosenses tracking across the maimed and reeling Blood Tide serfs to evaluate what combat capability they had left. The assessment was clear: strike hard, strike now.

With a throaty roar, the jump pack activated. Soaring out of the rubble and the ruins, Charon descended like a metallic thunderbolt on his prey.

OOC: Using my jump pack to give me the Flyer (12) trait for this turn, I charge Eyestalks. A gun with a spooky red glow sounds like it might be a gun that can crack power armour.

[roll0] (+30 for Berserk Charge)
[roll1]+16 damage
Potential bonus damage from Raptor: [roll2], [roll3]

That is looking like 43 damage! Let's hope he doesn't dodge.

At the end of his turn, Charon uses Quick Draw to ready his combat knife in his left hand.

[Thragka]

Charon & Nicolai
"Murderous bastard," Nicolai swore at the pandemonium Charon's grenade set off. He took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and snapped off another shot at the centauroid.

Half-aim, shoot. 87 to hit again, as the short range bonus counteracts the reduced aim bonus.

[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]

16 damage, Pen 1, to the right (fore?)leg.

[Rizhail]

Charon and Nicolai:

Nicolai immediately followed up his shot on the mutant, his next lasblast pinging the mutant's foreleg. The brassy scales seemed to deflect some of the shot, as the mutant's wound didn't appear as bad as it would have been on a similarly-sized human.

The centauroid squinted in the direction of the shot, but apparently couldn't spot Nic amongst the ruins. He held his odd weapon in both hands and began to look around the area that Charon was hiding in, trying to spot who threw the grenade. When the space marine flew out of the darkness a moment later, a meter long chunk of red-hot metal shot from the mutant's gun, a loud bang echoing behind it. The mutant's own yell of "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!" followed a moment later.

Charon's instincts caused him to shift a bit in mid-air, the mutant's snapshot whizzing by a little low and to the marine's left. The centauroid's shot warned his compatriot, whose stalks snapped around and widened at the Night Lord's arrival. The mutant's reflexes proved better than Pietr's, and he was able to rather nimbly avoid Charon's strike. The mutant shoved his gun-arm forward, forcing the marine back, before the mutant steadied his weapon with his other arm in preparation for the shot.

Out in the park, a bellow returned the centauroid's call.

"SOULS FOR THE SOUL EATER!"

OOC:

Charon is 1m from Eyestalks, 3m from Legs. Distance from Nicolai is unchanged.

Thrag, you'll now get the penalty for shooting into a melee.



Team Trench Warfare:

As the trio deliberated their plan for engaging the enemy group, a small explosion echoed in the distance. The whine and roar of Charon's jumppack was barely audible, followed by a distant yell of "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!"

The flying mutant seemed to halt itself, working its wings furiously to hover in mid-air, before winging in the direction of Charon and Nicolai with a shouted, "SOULS FOR THE SOUL EATER!". The group on the ground seemed less certain, staying put for the moment.

((OOC: Said flying mutant hasn't gone far yet. Feel free to continue planning a course of action, and it can go into effect as soon as you'd all like. Consider the flyer to be right over the trench, if you all decide to go for combat immediately.))

[LCP]

Charon

Smoke and dust billowing around him as the jump pack shut off, Charon circled forwards towards the eye-stalked mutant. Denying the creature the space for its shot, he brought his power claw hammering forwards.

OOC: Half move so that I am in contact with Stalks, 4m from Legs. Standard Attack.

[roll0]
[roll1]+16, Pen Lots

[Destro_Yersul]

Trench Warfare
Holding his gun closely, Gregor watched the mutant soaring overhead. Charon, he was sure, could take care of the big one. With it gone, taking care of all the smaller ones would be easier. "Wait for the big one to leave. It can fly, it's probably faster. Then kill the others. Take all their equipment."

[LeSwordfish]

Merope's voice flickered across Gregor's vox-bead. "You've stirred the nest. Something big and winged is heading your way, some big mutant. The Astartes might enjoy the challenge."

Trench team
"Do as you think best." Merope said to Radko. "Slaughter in confined spaces is your specialty. We're right behind you."

Her feet shifted slightly in the mud and she twisted them for better grip. The wolfhound was lying flat behind her, it's ears pricked. She'd trained it not to growl in this sort of situation.

Concealment roll. [roll0] vs 20. I think there's a bonus for remaining still, but I'm four hundred miles AFB at the moment, so I can't look it up.

[Thragka]

"Roger," Alexander replied curtly.

Charon & Nicolai
He twisted his head to look back at the park and try to catch sight of something matching Merope's description. He didn't want to give his position away by firing a shot if the thing were above or behind him.

Nicolai doesn't want to be easily seen by this thing if it passes overhead so he'll spend however long it takes to find cover that'll obscure him from above. Then, if he's got a half action left, he'll half-aim at either (a) the big thing if it's passed him (and thus won't be likely to see where the shot comes from), or (b) Legs, if it hasn't.

[Rizhail]

Team Trench Warfare:

While the flying mutant winged off toward Charon and Nicolai, the group on the ground continued their trek southward, angling slightly toward the trench. As they moved closer, the makeup of the group became more apparent.

Half the group were slaves, clothed in just enough rags and looted clothing to not freeze to death, with cheaply made filters covering their noses and mouths; half were being dragged around with their eyes closed, lacking any sort of goggles to protect their eyes from the cold and poisonous air.

The remaining humans were all Blood Tide soldiers. Most were typical Khornate trash, carrying a variety of bladed weapons and a distinct lack of armor. The remaining four carried ranged weapons; three carried 'Bastard' guns, cheaply made and unreliable autoguns that were ubiquitous in the tunnels. The last Tide carried what appeared to be a beaten-up, looted PDF rocket-propelled grenade launcher. All four of the shooters had nasty looking bayonets mounted on their weapons, as one would expect of the Blood Tide.

One of the typical Tide members pointed toward the trench a ways south of Merope and the others' positions, saying, "Get the slaves in the trench, and herd them along it to keep the Furies from spotting them." The three gunmen began herding the slaves along faster, pushing them toward the trench. "The rest of us will take the launcher and meet up with Rourke to deal with the Night Lord. Keep the trash alive; we'll need them to carry the Astartes' gear back to the Ravager."

((OOC: The flier is well on his way across the park; the rest of the group is now near the trench, about 20m south of Merope/Gregor's position. If Rakdo would like to move up and attack them as they go by, feel free to roll initiative and start the surprise round, Than. If not, let me know what you all plan to do.))



Charon and Nicolai:

Nicolai dove deeper into the ruin he was in, taking cover under the partially damage second floor of the office building he was hiding in. He could make out a silhouette against the clouds over the park, barely visible in the low-light. It was moving toward them rather quickly, but left him enough time to line up another shot on the centauroid mutant.

Said mutant was focused more on his comrade and the Night Lord, racking a mechanism on his weapon to reload it before snapping off another shot at the marine. His haste worked against him, the weapon misfiring and sending its red-hot payload off to Charon's right. The Astartes' attack was far more effective, gouging and burning one of the eyetalked mutant's legs and leaving the creature unable to do more than stumble away.

Flailing wildly in pain, the mutant was able to force the marine away again, but was only able to limp a short distance in its attempts to get away from the marine and out of its comrade's line of fire.

((OOC: Eyestalks is now 2m farther away from Charon. Other positions are the same. Eyes now has a 3 point crit wound against its leg, leaving it unable to run or charge and moving only half its normal rate until it recieves medical attention. Or, ya know, gets horribly murdered by Charon.))

[Thanatos 51-50]

Team Trench Warfare
Rocket Launcher. Move to him. Murder

Rakdo moved up under the shadow of his camoline, making a beeline for the nearest foe dragging slaves, and then suddenly appeared in a flurry of roaring chainblades, both of them whipping and piercing the Ruins with their throaty howl.

Rakdo never felt more alive.

Posting from my phone at work, so sloppy rolls, without plusses and targets, because I haven't memorized those, yet.
Right. Home now. Time to Math:
[roll0]
With the +30 for the Sneak Attack, that's a baseline Hit, and, since it's a Sneak Attack, there's no Dodging!
[roll1]
9+9 = 18 PEN 5
[roll2]
Easy Hit!
[roll3]
7+7 = 14 PEN 2
[roll4]
I think we've decided that Merope gives everybody a + 7 ? 9+7=16
[roll5]
No Zealous Hatred for Rakdo this round! Sadface!

[Thragka]

Charon & Nicolai
Feeling quite comfortable hidden snugly away in the ruins, Lieutenant Nicolai calmly sent yet another lasbeam towards the centauroid - but his angle was slightly off, and the bolt missed. One foot tapped idly in the dust as he eyed up the approaching shadow, trying to work out its trajectory.

First half action: shoot Legs. To Hit against 87 again:
[roll0] Bah humbug.
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]

Then half aim at: (1) the oncoming shadow if it passes his position relative to Charon and the Blood Tide crew, or if it looks like it's heading for Alex; or (2) Legs, if 1 doesn't apply and Legs is still up; or (3) Eyestalks if 1 doesn't apply and Legs is dead.

[LeSwordfish]

Trench Crew
For Tzeentch.

Merope didn't need to shout her war-cries. Instead she simply leaned out of the earthen cover she was standing in, and placed a shot into the first man holding a chain she could see.


Half action aim, half action carbine shot.

[roll0] vs BS 40+10 single shot +10 HA aim +10 Accurate +10 range, size.
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]
[roll4]
[roll5]

[Destro_Yersul]

Trench Team
With Rakdo taking care of the rocket launcher, Gregor picked his shot carefully. Not at the one Merope had shot, but at whichever the closest one she hadn't shot was. The flamethrower on the servitor would be too indiscriminate to use with them packed tight like that with the prisoners. If they decided to charge him, though, it would be a nice surprise for them.

So, initiative, then half aim and fire with the toxic crossbow.
[roll0] I think is right?
[roll1] to hit - with the bonus for aiming, that hits for sure
[roll2] - low damage is low. Might still do something, if it does, Toxic applies.
Toughness? [roll3]
Toxic Damage: [roll4]

[Rizhail]

Charon and Nicolai:

Nicolai's followup shot was off, but he didn't let it phase him; taking a breath to calm his nerves, he lined up another shot. The incoming flyer was still a ways away, so the centauroid mutant was still his primary target.

Said mutant once again racked the mechanism on its gun, letting loose another shot at Charon. The red-hot metal rod punched into the marine's back, but between the poor angle of the shot and the combined effects of Charon's armor and rib plates, it did little more than irritate the Night Lord when the round stopped in his backside.

The wounded eyestalk mutant lucked out and tripped backward a step as the marine struck again, the power claw passing only milimeters away from burning the mutant's wounded leg with its power field. This time, however, the mutant's rapid flailing failed to force Charon back, the marine easily knocking away the clumsy strikes in order to stay on top of his target.

((OOC: No wounds taken by anyone during this round. No one moved, either. Nicolai has a half action Aim thus far on Legs.))


Team Trench Warfare:

Rakdo's initial strike took the entire group, slave and soldier alike, by surprise. His first victim was a sword wielding maniac that stood between Rakdo and the RPG wielder; the poor bastard died before he had even been aware he was under attack, the crude power field of Rakdo's axe setting the man's clothes ablaze.

Merope's first shot went wide, the enemy group moving unpredictably as they reacted to Rakdo's attack. A bolt from Gregor quickly found a target, however, and Merope swung her sights over and fired again, finishing off the heretek's target.

The Tides' reactions were initially disorganized, the Khornate cultists apparently not expecting a surprise attack from thin air. The slaves were simply frozen in place, unsure what was happening and apparently unwilling to try and flee just yet.

((OOC: One gunner and one melee guy down. Rakdo is within half move range of the RPG guy, and melee range of several melee enemies and another gunman. I already took Merope's first non-surprise round into account above, so I just need actions from Gregor and Rakdo for round two.))

[Thanatos 51-50]

Trench Warfare
Rakdo slid past his fallen foe, howling in delight as he felt his father's debased chainsword tear through flesh and bone alike, leaving the area awash in blood, and made a beeline straight for the man carrying the RPG.
"You have the big gun. That means you're in charge. You die first."
Half-Move and then Standard Dual-Wielding Attack Murder, since I don't have Swift Attack, yet.
[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]
[roll4]
[roll5]
[roll6]
[roll7]

MISS ALL THE ATTACKS!

[Destro_Yersul]

Trench Warfare
That, then, had accounted for one of the men with guns. That was good, less to shoot at him. The servitor remained hidden and on standby while Gregor switched to using the lasgun his crossbow was attached to. The crossbow would take too long to reload, given the circumstances. Instead, the techpriest opened up on semi-automatic, hoping the wider spray of shots would hit something.

Gregor's BS is terrible, so I don't expect this to do much, especially with the way BC nerfed semi-auto. Gregor's shooting at another gunner.

[roll0]
[roll1]

[Rizhail]

Team Trench Warfare:

The Tide finally seemed to get their act together as Rakdo swung at the RPG carrier; the wretch was only saved by Rakdo stumbling a bit over one of the slaves' chains. The remaining two gunmen lined up shots on the maniac as their blade wielding brethren charged Rakdo, before one gunner took a pair of lasbolts to the chest and began screaming in pain, dropping his weapon in the process.

The remaining Tide attempted to gang up on the attacker in their midst, but Rakdo proved a wiley and well-protected opponent; one Tide's blade fell in ruins after it encountered Rak's axe, and the other two failed to inflict a single wound as their blades rebounded from his carapace. One even grunted in pain as one of the armor's spikes gashed his arm.

The RPG carrier backpedaled, using his allies as cover as he attempted to put distance between himself and Rakdo, but he only made it a few steps before the slaves caught their wits and attempted to bail, nearly running the man over. The slaves were too disorganized to properly break free, but their attempt took the attention of the remaining blade-wielding Tide.


Charon and Nicolai:

Nicolai's shot was perfectly lined up. He had an excellent bead on the mutant's center of mass, ready to pull a lasbolt into the bastard's spine.

And then the mutant sidestepped at the last moment, either lucky or still aware of the sniper up in the ruins. The centauroid then changed tactics slightly: rather than reloading and firing at the marine, the mutant reloaded and steadied his aim for a moment, to make sure his next shot actually hit.

Unfortunately for him, his eyestalked comrade was unable to continue avoiding Charon's claw. Although said mutant was able to spot the marine's feint, his wounds kept him from backpedaling anymore and the Night Lord took the mutant's gun-arm off at the shoulder.

The odd weapon went from glowing red to glowing bright white in an instant, exploding with raw warp energy and stored ammunition. Thin streams of molten copper flew out in all directions, splashing Charon, the centauroid, and the nearby building faces with burning metal.

One stream splashed across Charon's leg, sizzling on the ceramite plate. The heat from the cooling metal burned the marine somewhat, but he shrugged it off; what would have burned the leg off a normal human being proved to be nothing more than minor burns and a new leg ornament to the Night Lord.

The centauroid mutant bellowed as molten copper splashed across his lower torso and front legs, ruining his aim and deepening the wounds left by Nicolai over the course of the fight. The mutant was still up, but he certainly wasn't in the best condition anymore.


[roll0] pen 6

Unless I've failed at basic math, that should be 3 wounds on Charon (13 base, -8 T mod, -2 from armor after the pen 6)

[LCP]

Charon & Nicolai

Throwing up his left arm to cover the faceplate of his helmet, Charon felt the burning heat wash over him as the weapon exploded. Raising his eyes, he shook droplets of cooling metal from his scorched armour, the proud heraldry of the Eighth Legion stripped of a little more of its paint. The smell of burning sealant-rubber filled the inside of his suit, but he blocked it out - not losing a moment's time, he turned and lunged towards the centaur. One down, one to go.

OOC: I was tempted to pick up the big lug I've just killed and throw him at the other one, but it'd be far less effective than just punching the guy.

Charge attack!
[roll0]
[roll1] + 16, Pen 9

What's the status of the slaves and so on that got hit by the grenade? Are they all dead/dying, or are some trying to get away? That was a surprisingly effective damage roll earlier... I'd forgotten that Blast weapons rolled once for damage and applied it to everyone in the blast zone.

[Destro_Yersul]

Trench Team
This was going south rather rapidly. It was a shame, Gregor thought, that Rakdo hadn't been able to obliterate the RPG wielding maniac like he had the first one. The techpriest took aim this time, realising that now every lasbolt counted, and snapped off a shot at the RPG wielder.

[roll0] aim and single shot
[roll1]

not sure if he wants to keep his dodge or not, so you can roll that if necessary.

[Thanatos 51-50]

Trenchfoot
Surrounded? Perfect! Rakdo whirled about rapidly, with intent to confuse and daze any poor Blood Tide foolish enough to take aim and pull the trigger whilst he made a pair of carefully-placed attacks on the foes surrounding him.
Aim and Dual-wield attack, focusing on Unhurt Still Armed Guy. If he's disabled by the axe attack, sword attack will go to Hurt Still Armed Guy.
[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]
[roll4]
[roll5]
[roll6]
[roll7]

[Thragka]

Charon & Nicolai

Okay. Just about time for one more shot ... The marine was causing havoc; Nicolai half hoped that a well-placed lasbolt would finish the centauroid off a little more discreetly.

I can't find Charon's initiative, but as Alex is at 16 I'm pretty sure I'm acting before Charon charges Legs. So I'll take one last half-aim/shoot.

[roll0]
[roll1] Pen 1
[roll2]
[roll3]

Damn, forgot to roll Legs's Dodge.

[LeSwordfish]

Team Trench
Merope kept up her steady, careful rain of fire, snapping another shot at the rocketeer. She didn't particularly want to hit the slaves, but she didn't care that much.

Rinse, repeat.

Half action aim, Half action single Carbine shot
[roll0] vs BS 40+10 single shot +10 HA aim +10 Accurate +10 range. If there's a chance of hitting a slave, Merope will take a Called Shot, in which case reduce all the values by 20
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]
[roll4]
[roll5]

[Rizhail]

Team Trench Warfare:

Rakdo's whirling strikes caught the blade-wielding Tide off-guard, bringing one man to his knees in pain as the chain-axe ripped and burned through his leg. The Khornate scum struck back, attempting to bring down the psycho in their midst; most of them failed to connect with the agile Rakdo, but one was able to slip his blade past the armor on Rak's thigh. The agile swordsman felt a burning pain in his leg, but knew the wound wasn't enough to bring him down, yet.

With his shot obscured, the remaining gunman turned his attention to the slaves. He shot the closest slave who looked ready to bolt before pointing his Bastard gun at the rest, shouting "Stay down or you all die!"

Gregor was able to graze the RPG carrier's torso, but Merope's own shot went wide. Deciding that the shooters in the trench were now his biggest threat, the man shouldered his launcher and let loose. The shot was low impacting the ground about three meters short of Gregor and Merope's position, blasting a large crater and leaving the pair unharmed but exposed.

With one of their own shot and the gunner training his weapon on them, the slave settled down for the time being.


Spike damage against the one guy who hit: [roll0]

Unless I messed up my math, Rakdo takes 4 wounds (12 raw, 5 armor soak, 3 toughness soak).



Charon and Nic:

Legs jumped aside again, messing up Nic's shot and causing it to go wide.

Glancing over at his fallen comrade, the centauroid mutant grunted and dropped his weapon at his side, the heavy *clank* echoing in the still air. "You win, marine," he said, his voice somewhat lighter and quieter than one would expect for such a large mutant. His accent marked him as an off-worlder, likely from the invading fleet. "Take my skull or my service, as it pleases the Lord of Skulls."

The near silence of the morning was broken by an explosion out in the park. The occasional groan from the dead and dying amongst the pack that Charon had grenaded also occasionally broke the stillness.


You can either take a different action or continue with Charon's original action, LCP.

[LCP]

Charon & Nicolai

Reaching forwards, Charon gripped the centaur by the throat. The digits of his power claw smoked and crackled where their disruption field made contact with the mutant's metallic skin.

He wanted to kill this thing. In the days before, he would have killed it without a second thought. It reminded him of the armada, of the invasion, of the committee of fools and cowards who had dragged him into this backwater hell. He wanted to shed its blood.

Sometimes, however, revenge required the long view.

Turning his head, he called over his shoulder to Nicolai.

"What do you say, lieutenant?" his voice rang out over the ruined street. "Do we accept his surrender?"

[Destro_Yersul]

Team Trench
Gregor jumped slightly when the rocket hit, finding his position suddenly exposed and not liking the thought at all. Glancing left and right, the techpriest shuffled sideways, raising the lasgun again to take aim at the rocket man. He'd need to reload the launcher before he could use it again, and that gave them time. The servitor went with him, its programming telling it to protect its master. Without any order from Gregor, it wasn't about to charge in on its own.

[Thanatos 51-50]

Trenchfoot
Rakdo whirled in place, chainblades roaring against Bastion's sky, and the axe's crude power field cracking like thunder, crashing against the roar.
His leg screamed in pain, and the blades didn't abate their song, crashing down upon the guilty party who had struck home.
"That was exquisite!" he yelled over the din of battle.
"Allow me to repay the favour!"

[LeSwordfish]

Team trench
Merope bellied through the mud to another position of cover. There was no time to aim, so she snapped off a hasty shot at the back of the group as she did so.

Half action single Carbine shot
[roll0] vs BS 40+10 single shot +10 Accurate +10 range, size.
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]

Finally, a hit. Shame it's probably dodged.

[Thragka]

Charon and Nicolai

"Isn't that the question," muttered Nicolai, mostly to himself. He called out louder as he slung the long las and began picking his way out of the ruins towards Charon. "You hold him there for a moment, Astartes. Kill him if he looks at you funny."

He observed the slaves with distaste - doing his best to keep his expression frozen in aloof disinterest, but unable to prevent all of his disgust and anger at the wretchedness Charon had effected upon them from showing.

Sighing, he turned back to the mutant and the marine.

"If you'd bested us, and we'd fallen on your mercy," he asked the mutant, "what would you have done to us?"

[Rizhail]

Team Trench Warfare:

Rakdo's vengeance was swift and painful. The Tide who had the gall to strike him was barely able to raise his sword to bat aside Rak's axe, the weapon's power field ruining the sword as it met, and the man was completely off his footing to avoid the follow-up chainsword strike. The blade shredded into the Tide's midsection, nearly gutting him and leaving him reeling in pain.

The remaining two Tide failed to harm Rakdo; only one landed a strike, and the maniac's armor turned aside that knife strike without issue.

Merope's lasbolt took the gunner in the leg, causing him to shout in pain. Enraged, he turned and lined up his sights on Merope's position before squeezing the trigger, the Bastard gun chattering as handful of rounds were thrown downrange. Merope was unlucky enough to be peeking around the edge of her cover, and one of the rounds grazed her temple, leaving a painful and bloody wound. The rest of the burst scattered around her, autogun rounds kicking up puffs of dirt all around her as she pulled herself back behind cover.

As the gunner looked to line up another shot and his RPG wielding comrade loaded another rocket into the tube, three of the slaves leapt up and dogpiled the gunner. The RPG carrier had only a moment to stare in disbelief before three more dove on him and bore him to the ground; the remaining slaves remained where they were, either wounded or lacking eyewear to see with.


Last two things: Damage Knife guy took from hitting Rak, and his attempt to parry said damage:

[roll0]
[roll1]



Charon and Nic:

"He," the mutant croaked around Charon's grip, gesturing toward the marine, "would die. Ravager's orders."

Gesturing to Nic, he gurgled out, "You would be tested. Succeed, and would join us. Fail, and would join them," he finished with a gesture toward the fallen slaves.

[LCP]

Charon & Nicolai

Charon minutely tightened his grip, lifting the mutant a couple of inches higher.

"The Ravager sends you hunt his cousins?" he said. "Where is the bravery his god is so fond of?"

[Thanatos 51-50]

Trench Warfare
Rakdo continued his furious assault splitting his attention between his two standing enemies.
Aim and Attack: Power ChainAxe against a sword-wielding enemy, I doubt it matters, though.
[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]
[roll4]
[roll5]
[roll6]
[roll7]

[Destro_Yersul]

Trench Warfare
Safely behind cover once again, Gregor watched with disbelief as the slaves piled in on the Tide. With them getting stuck in, there were no longer any targets for him to shoot at. He sort of doubted the slaves' ability to actually kill the two they'd tackled, though, looking over at Merope questioningly.

Then he pulled himself up carefully over the lip of the trench, shuffling forwards. The servo arm on his back twitched in anticipation. The mechanical limb was more than powerful enough to shatter bones, and Gregor wanted to be good and sure their enemies were dead.

[LeSwordfish]

Trenches
Damn slaves, ruining her aim.

Merope briefly considered shooting anyway, but they might as well extract the prisoners alive, if they could. Instead, she coughed and raised her voice: she hadn't had to use her tone of command in a while.

"Get down." She ordered, putting all the force of the words into it that she could. Beside her, the cattle-dog dropped to the ground instinctively, as she fired a snap shot at the rocketeer.

OOC
Half Action command test: [roll0]

Half action single shot at the rocketeer. Half action aim, Half action single Carbine shot
[roll1] vs BS 40+10 single shot +10 range +10 Accurate -20 Lets-try-not-to-kill-the-heretek-shall-we (Presuming Merope acts after Gregor)
[roll2]
[roll3]
[roll4]

[Rizhail]

Team Trench Warfare:

Continuing his whirling assault, Rakdo bissected the one remaining swordsman with his blades, leaving himself with only a single foe. The remaining fighter struck at Rakdo with his knife, but once again failed to harm the maniac as the blade bounced off Rak's armored hide.

The authority and urgency in Merope's command was undeniable, and the slaves threw themselves off their victims and took cover as though expecting an explosion or flame attack to come their way. The gunner took the opportunity to jump to his feet and retrieve his gun, only to realize he was outnumbered even worse than before the slaves tackled him. His face was unreadable under his respirator, but he didn't seem to show any sign of surrendering.

The RPG carrier didn't even get a chance to get to his feet. As he rolled onto his stomach to try and stand up, dodging Merope's shot in the process, the hydraulically-driven servo arm of Gregor slammed into his lower torso. The poor bastard gurgled in his gasmask before laying still.


Charon and Nic:

The mutant pushed up with his hind legs, giving himself barely enough support to breath. "Don't hunt you," he managed to squeak out. "Only kill you if found. Leave marine hunting to Ravager and guard."

Thrag, you alright now, or is RL still kicking in hard?

[LCP]

Charon & Nicolai

"His guard?" rasped Charon. "Who are his guard?"

[Rizhail]

Charon and Nic:

"Reaper is his second; no other Astartes. Rest are like me, but stronger," the mutant gurgles out.

Charon:

The only Reaper Charon knows of is one of the three World Eaters from the invasion force, a marine known alternately as Klein or the Soul Reaper. An oddball for one of Angron's children, he rarely frothed and raged but was instead deadly calm, carrying a power scythe looted from a Death Guard champion. He was the quiet, somewhat calmer counter to Arganon the Ravager's furious yet charismatic presence.

[LCP]

Charon & Nicolai

You could hear the sneer on Charon's metallic voice.

"That's not saying much."

He let go his grip.

"How many Astartes skulls have they taken, then, this 'guard'?"

[Thanatos 51-50]

Trench Warfare
"You're aware you don't stand a chance, right?" Rakdo grinned at his lone remaining foe, twisting his chain-axe menacingly. "You should just drop that knife and kiss my boot, begging me to spare you."
Suddenly, the madman's mismatched blades sprung out from his side, arcing in towards his opponent's knife.
"No. Wait. Better idea."

DISARM ACTION! Yay for Disarms!
[roll0]
[roll1]
Remember: Rakdo has Adroit Weapon Skill! +1 DoS!

I... I think Rakdo just got out-Weapon Skill'd. This... this is awkward.

[LeSwordfish]

MGR
"You got him, Gregor?" Merope asked, panning her carbine across and spitting out las fire at the final rifleman before he could draw a bead on the slaves.

[Thragka]

Charon and Nicolai

Alexei was happy to let Charon interrogate the centauroid. He was curious about what he heard - the Blood Tide hunting down Astartes was useful intel - but with Charon obviously knowing more about that sort of thing, he let the big guy do most of the talking.

When Charon finished, or just let the Lieutenant get a word in, he had a couple of questions of his own to ask the mutant.

Questions:

"Where were you taking these slaves?"
"How do you 'test' those you capture?"
"How far from their base is the Blood Tide patrolling? How frequently?"

[Destro_Yersul]

Trench Heads
"That," Said Gregor, peering at the dead body, then turning towards the gunner, "is certainly one way of putting it." Raising his own lasgun, he shuffled back and forth, aiming the weapon carefully at the remaining gunner.

"You should surrender," he told the Tide. "There's four of us, here, and only one of you. You'll lose if you fight, and I won't kill you. I'll disarm you, and turn you into a servitor. Yes. I need more servitors. Maybe you should fight."

Gregor doesn't have intimidate trained, but he's going to try and use it anyways! [roll0]

opposed WP: [roll1]

Intimidate is a full action, so he can't actually aim, too. That's for flavour.

Gregor isn't a scary man.

[Rizhail]

Team Trench Warfare:

Rakdo's attempt to disarm the knife-wielding Tide went far worse than expected; rather than deftly removing the blade from his foe's grasp, Rak instead left himself open to a strike to the leg as the Khorne worshipper feinted and stabbed. Thankfully, the carapace plating continued to do its job of protecting Rak from his own overconfidence.

Merope's shot singed the remaining gunman's leg, causing him to yelp. Looking back and forth between the maniac who had murdered his comrades, the heretek who had appeared from nowhere and crushed a man, and the shots coming from the trench, the gunman came to a decision.

"Best of luck with that!" he called to his comrade before sprinting off into the night at the sort of speed one expects from a terrified man. The knife wielder shouted angrily, "Get back here you coward!"


Knife wielder stays put and fails to be useful; gunman puts 36m between himself and you three.






Charon and Nicolai:

The mutant rubbed his neck with one hand, resting back on his haunches a bit now that he was able to breathe freely again.

"Each member of the guard had to kill an Astartes to gain the rank, and several of them have taken down multiple marines. Between the dozen guard, the Reaper, and the Ravager? A score or so since the apocalypse."

Looking over at Nicolai, the mutant patiently listened to the man's questions, thinking each over before answering.

"The slaves were to be used as beasts of burden, and to check for traps or ambushes."

"The test is simple; any man who captured is offered a choice: servitude, or to be thrown in a pit of mutants armed with naught but a sword or axe. Those who choose the former are failures, too cowardly to try and earn their freedom and honor. Those who die have some honor, their blood and skulls at least worthy for sacrifice to Khorne. The ones who step from the pit, scarred and bloodied but victorious, are welcomed into the Blood Tide as our brothers."

"Underground, we patrol as we wish. Any man who wishes to spill blood will gather others and go raiding in the tunnels, for the Ravager has forbade his minions from killing each other inside our own territory. On the surface, we do not patrol. Anyone sent here has a mission; they must either complete it, or be killed as a failure upon their return."

((OOC: Feel free to ask any more questions as you wish; the next bit is really just to make sure things are moving along in case the others move to rejoin you two))

After a minute or two of interrogation, the mutant turned toward the park and pointed up into the sky; the flying creature was now much closer.

"Rourke is not likely to surrender. Khorne has blessed him with strength and great will. He may prove a match for you, Night Lord. Best of luck."


Flying dude is now about 100 meters away, and appears to be around 20-30 meters above the ground. He is now close enough for both of you to make out that he is a large mutant with massive, leathery wings. He appears to be carrying some sort of mace or cudgel; Charon can even make out a brand in the shape of the mark of Khorne across the mutant's chest.

His initiative: [roll0]

Again, feel free to post a few more questions each if desired, along with whatever you plan to do for ol' Flappy as he comes charging in.

[Thanatos 51-50]

In the Trenches, the mighty trenches...
"He gets to live to spread tales of our glory. You get to tell me everything - and then I will make your death exquisite."
Another Disarm attempt:
[roll0]
[roll1]

Also: 36m? Wow, Running Guy is FAST

[LCP]

Charon & Nicolai


"Rourke is not likely to surrender. Khorne has blessed him with strength and great will. He may prove a match for you, Night Lord. Best of luck."

"A match for me?" asked Charon. "In your position, I'd be more worried whether he was a match for you."

With a significant nod to the mutant's crossbow, Charon turned away and unlocked the bolter from his side. Taking careful aim, he watched as the winged beast drew closer - then pulled the trigger.

OOC: Alright, so - with Initiative 11, Charon goes before Rourke. I'll burn one turn taking a Full Action Aim, then make a single shot.

[roll0] vs. target 61 (BS41 + 20 for aim)
[roll1], [roll2] (Tearing)

[LeSwordfish]

Merope etc
Merope rose slightly and tucked her carbine into her shoulder, aiming at the fleeing gunman carefully, tracking her shots like Alexei had taught her.

Half action aim, Half action single Carbine shot
[roll0] vs BS 40+10 single shot +10 HA aim +10 Accurate-20 running?
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]
[roll4]
[roll5]

[Destro_Yersul]

Trenches
Gregor watched the fleeing gunman, lowering his weapon. Let him go. By the time he found anyone to tell about them, they would be gone, and the tale would only inflate their reputation. Turning, he instead charged at the man still fighting Rakdo. He would not, however, be trying to kill this one. Instead, the servo arm opened, clamping down on the combatant's right shoulder and sqeezing uncomfortably.

"Cease resistance. If you attempt to escape, I will crush your arm and my compatriot will slaughter you."

Gregor attempts to grapple the knife-wielding lunatic.

So, I need a couple of rolls here.
[roll0] - to hit. Hey! Even with Gregor's poor WS, that is a hit.
[roll1] - evasion, if he gets it. Rakdo goes before Gregor, but I don't think he needed to dodge vs. disarm. Pretty sure he failed

[Rizhail]

Charon and Nic:

As the winged mutant swooped in, Charon's shot casually blasted into the flyer's torso. The bolt went off with a loud *boom*, stopping the mutant dead in its flight and sending it tumbling to the ground, impacting with a loud, resounding *crunch*.

The mutant didn't look like he'd be getting up any time soon, if ever.

The centauroid raised a brow as Rourke hit the ground. "Strange. The Reaper was sure that all of the Astartes on the surface had depleted their ammunition years ago."


EDITS:
Thrag, you've still got your two turns of actions, plus next turn. Feel free to throw them all in at once. Try to get them in soon.

Flying mutant is now on the ground 50m from you two. Flying mutie is splortched, thanks to rules clarification from LCP. Charon's murder count just keeps going up. :smallbiggrin:




Team Trench Warfare:

Rakdo's attempts at disarming his foe failed yet again. This time, however, his knife wielding opponent wasn't able to strike back as the pincer of Gregor's servo-arm settled around the Tide's torso. As the pincer closed, the Tide tried to slip out of its grasp, failing as it caught on his sword-belt.

Merope's shot put yet another painful wound on the last Tide gunman, causing him to stumble for a moment before he started moving again. His pace was much slower now, though.

[Thragka]

Charon & Nicolai

As the flying mutant took over Charon's attention, Nicolai was quick to raise his bolt pistol and align it with the centauroid's head.

"Don't go thinking of any clever ways out of this situation, now," the Lieutenant said calmly. "I've still got some questions. What was your mission here, then, if you only get sent topside with orders?"

Alexander let the mutant respond, the pistol not wavering. When it was done speaking, he nodded. Then he shrugged.

"Actually, I only had the one question."

He curled his finger around the trigger.

Quick draw the bolt pistol. Spend however long you deem appropriate in combat time asking the question and listening to the answer. Assuming that this is not longer than a full action, Nicolai then half-aims and takes a called shot to Legs' head.

BS 47 +10 single shot +10 half-aim +30 point blank range -10 called shot (thanks to Deadeye Shot) = 87

[roll0]
[roll1] + 5X, Pen 4 - I got 8 nine degrees of success counting Adroit, so I'll boost the roll of 6 to a 9, making a total of 14.

If the talking takes longer than a full action I may not have anything left at this point, but if I do, the priority for his remaining action is to switch back to the Long Las if Legs is incapacitated, and draw his chainsword in his left hand if Legs is still capacitated and likely quite irate.

[Destro_Yersul]

Trenches
Gregor kept his hold on the man, trying not to let him get away without closing the servo-arm's mechanical claw too tightly. "Cease resistance!" He ordered again, keeping the Tide facing away from him and towards Rakdo.

"Disable this one, Rakdo."

[LeSwordfish]

Trenches
Merope sighted again, muttering curses. "See if you can take him alive, I don't think I can stop this one."

Half action aim, Half action single Carbine shot
nth verse, same as the first...
[roll0] vs BS 40+10 single shot +10 HA aim +10 Accurate
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]
[roll4]
[roll5]

The bugger probably dodged but that was a nice shot.

[Rizhail]

Charon and Nic:

The mutant eyed up the bolt pistol for a moment before replying. "Our mission was to scout out the old PDF garrison and the Guard fort, to find the truth to the rumors of monsters inhabiting those ruins and ascertain the amount of useful salvage in the area."

The mutant seemed to expect that the pair would have more use for him, or was otherwise occupied with the crashing death of Rourke; Nic's shot took him by surprise.

The mutant's head turned into a red mist in half a second as the bolt round blasted into his skull. His body collapsed to the ground, the massive metal block on his back falling sideways and slamming to the ground. One of its sides, apparently a door, flew open and spilled out what appeard to be automobile batteries, wires tearing as they spilled out.

[LCP]

Charon & Nicolai

Charon looked back at the centaur as he fell, and nodded to Nicolai. Returning his bolter to his side with a clank of metal, he strode out towards where Rourke's body had fallen.

[Thragka]

Charon & Nicolai

The Lieutenant did his best to treat the Astartes to a cool glare as his only response to the nod.

"Lot of collateral damage here," he called back accusatively as he looked across what had been the slaving party, hoping - although not really expecting - that there might be at least a couple alive and not too horrifically injured.

[Rizhail]

Charon and Nic:

The corpse of the mutant known as Rourke was still twitching somewhat when Charon came upon it. The mutant was in surprisingly good condition when the marine stooped to inspect him; only upon rolling him over did the cause of death become clear.

Apparently, landing sucking-chest-wound first on a chunk of rock and frozen earth can be quite lethal.

Rourke had a massive brand in the shape of Khorne's mark on his chest, but unlike the others Charon had seen, this mark was lined with what appeared to be molten bronze; the metal was cooling after the mutant's death. His wings were massive, leathery, and blood red, though they were also now ragged from his rapid descent and impact. A large cudgel was still clutched in his hand. It had a device built into it that gave it the appearance of a shock or power weapon.

As Charon checked over the dead mutant, Nicolai did the same for the slaves and Blood Tide who had taken the brunt of the grenade blast. None of them moved, and most were dead. However, three people on the far side of the group from the blast point appeared to be breathing at least. Two were slaves, while one was a member of the Tide who appeared to be carrying a firearm rather than the typical melee weapon. All three of them were unconcious, and Nicolai was uncertain what sort of internal injuries they might have.

[LCP]

Charon & Nicolai

Picking up the maul, Charon did his best to activate it. A shock weapon might be prised from the fingers of any low-born loyalist enforcer; a power weapon was a different story.

Daemonic wings and a chest full of molten metal. Whatever rat's warren the Blood Tide were skulking in these days, Rourke must have been a well-known face. Looking back towards the road, Charon sized up the surrounding terrain.

OOC: Is there anywhere near the site of the battle suitable for a prominent display of Rourke's body? A sturdy lamp-post or a building whose upper levels can still be accessed on foot?

If so, Charon will search the bodies for anything he can use to do that - improvised nails/spikes, anything that will serve for rope.

[Thragka]

Charon & Nicolai

To be on the safe side, Alexander picked his way through the crowd of the dead and dying, stripping them of their weapons. He collected the firearm from the surrounding Tider, but simply moved the rest of the mêlée weapons out of reach of any that might suddenly come to.

That done, he turned back to Charon.

"We oughtta keep movin- hey, what're you up to?"

[Destro_Yersul]

Trenches
Gregor kept his hold on the opponent with his servo arm, but the heavy augmetic limb was more likely to crush his opponent than it was to disable him. Gregor instead tried to wrap his arms around the Tide's neck and choke him. This was not going to be easy.

[Rizhail]

Charon and Nic:

A light whine filled the air as the marine depressed the cudgel's 'on' stud. When he touched it to the mutant's corpse, an arc of electricity and a shockwave caused Rourke's body to flail about and the mace to jump in Charon's grip. The weapon appeared to be modified from a combination of shock weapon parts and an old power mace; its effect was similar to an underpowered Thunder Hammer. While it wouldn't be able to punch through armor as it seemed to lack a proper power field, it certainly packed a punch.

Looking around for supplies, Charon's eye fell upon the meter-long spikes that had spilled from the dead centauroid's weapon. Each appeared to be both sturdy and sharp, and there were at least half a dozen laying on the ground where the weapon had been dropped. The office building next to the ruins Charon had attacked from appeared to be mostly intact up to the third floor, providing a perfect place to display his victim.

The pack of dead Blood Tide were mostly armed as one would expect: swords, knives, axes, and the like. One of them bore a spring-loaded claw on his wrist, like Pietr had before Charon disemboweled him. Three of them, however, carried the ubiquitous 'Bastard' guns that had become common in recent years. Manufactured in the Armory from salvaged autoguns and industrial machine parts, the weapons were unreliable but cheap. It wasn't odd that anyone on this side of the tunnels would have them, but it was strange for the Tide to be carrying any. In the tunnels, they were only ever armed with pistols, the occasional sawed-off shotgun, and melee weapons.

Two of the Bastards were in working order, and Nic was able to pick up three additional clips of ammunition that were both undamaged by the explosion and appeared clean enough to be useful.

As Nic spoke to Charon, one of the surviving slaves stirred. He slowly rolled over onto his side, looking around as best he could. The man was obviously dazed and in pain, his goggles askew and his clothing torn from the fall and catching the edge of the blast.

Looking up at Nic, one bleary eye visible in his off-kilter goggles, the slave croaked out a "Who are you?" through his respirator.



The Trenches

The running Tide was dodging and weaving as best he could, and was able to shake Merope's aim; her lasbolt went wide and hit the shriveled remains of a tree. One of the slaves, apparently tired of keeping her head down, picked up a Bastard gun from one of the downed gunners and took a shot herself, but her aim was way off.

Despite having him in a rather helpless position, Gregor and Rakdo were unable to fully subdue he Tide in Gregor's mechanical grip. Gregor discovered that choking out someone who was struggling wasn't as easy as he'd thought, and Rakdo found himself wondering how easy it would be to track down the Tek who'd given him his strength augmentation; it was apparently nonfunctional.

The Tide, however, was having similarly poor luck in getting out of the servo arm's grasp. Upon failing yet again to slip out from between the hydraulically powered jaws, he seemed to calm down slightly.

"Who the hell are you people?" he snarled, glaring at Rakdo in particular.

[LCP]

Charon & Nicolai

Using his power claw to lift Rourke's body up off the ground, Charon carted him back toward the scene of the battle.


"We oughtta keep movin- hey, what're you up to?"

"Making an example," said Charon. Dropping the body for a moment, he held out the mace in his other hand towards Nicolai. "Take this."

With his left hand free, he gathered up six of the centaur's crossbow bolts. Lifting Rourke's corpse back up off the ground, he headed inside the ruins at the side of the road.

OOC: Charon will crucify Rourke's body against the uppermost wall of the building, facing out over the bodies below. One spike for each limb. If I need any rolls feel free to roll them for me.

[LeSwordfish]

Merope
"One last try." Merope muttered, and snapped off a final shot.

[roll0] vs BS 40+10 single shot +10 HA aim +10 accurate
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]
[roll4]
[roll5]

[Destro_Yersul]

Trenches
"He is your worst nightmare," Gregor explained. "Or close enough as to make no difference. I am but a servant of the true Omnissiah. You made the mistake of getting in our way."

Still holding on to the man, for fear of what he migth try if he could get loose, all Gregor could do was talk. He expected Rakdo or Merope might have something better to add, but Merope seemed too occupied with shooting at the runner to talk much right now.

[Thanatos 51-50]

Trenches
"I am the Claws that Catch in the Metro." Rakdo responded with a feral grin. "I've killed countless of your Tide-kin in the halls beneath Bastion, and I've sent many of you back to your master, to tell tales of my glory. You lot probably killed most of them before they got word out, but surely you've noticed raiding parties didn't come back."
The murderer paused for a moment to let his boast sink in.
"You're going to tell us what you and yours were doing up here and what the slaves were for. And then, if you're good, you get to choose how we'll kill you. My friends aren't such fans of leaving survivors and, let's face it -- one of you is already running away pretty quickly.
Start by talking about the flying thing."

[Rizhail]

Trench Folks:

The running Tide was apparently the luckiest bastard alive (or as much as one can be living in post-apocalyptia) as he managed to evade another of Merope's shots. His victorious cackling as he crested the hill was barely audible back at the trench.

And then the slave who had armed herself carefully lined up a shot and blew out the runner's kneecap at forty meters. As the runner faceplanted the frozen turf, his cackle turning to a scream of pain, the slave turned back to the trench and waved to Merope. Whether she was ignoring Rak and Gregor due to their current activities or because they were intimidating, no one could say.

"So, uh, who the hell are you people?" she called out, her accent marking her out as a local even through the muffling of her gas mask.

Meanwhile, the Tide in Gregor's grasp chuckled as he watched his comrade get shot in his peripheral vision. "Serves the coward right."

Then he outright laughed at Rakdo's boasts. "Congratulations, metro rat, you've regularly killed the idiots we send out into the tunnels because they're too dumb to keep their bloodlust in check and too weak to send out to the burbs to hunt mutants and warpspawn.

As for the big flying bastard? That's Rourke. He's on his way to joining the Ravager's guard, as soon as he beats that Night Lord to death. Massive mutie, marked by the Blood God himself for glory."

Craning his head, the Tide was looking at the silhouette of the flying mutant as Rourke began to descend upon where Rak and the others assumed Charon was.

"Just you wait, once he's done with that marine he'll come back this way an--" he began, before being cut off by a dull *boom* in the distance.

The sound was the report of a bolter. The dim silhouette of Rourke was momentarily illuminated by a small explosion, before the mutant fell about thirty meters to the ground with a thud just loud enough to be heard from the trenches.

Even with how big the mutant was, everyone who witnessed his descent were pretty sure the combined bolt and *thud* were fatal.

Somewhat dumbfounded, the Tide was speechless for a moment.

"...So, like I said, there's a Space Marine over there. Real nasty sort; supposedly his legion likes skinning people alive and wearing the hides as trophies. Crazy frakkers. He might decide to come this way, what with the RPG going off and Rourke coming from over here. Maybe we should take this interrogation somewhere else?" The man was slowly becoming more terrified, his adrenaline and bloodlust fueled bravery failing rather quickly.

[Thanatos 51-50]

Trenches
"Oh, That's what Charon has been up to, has it? He should have let me know. I'll call him right on over, if you'd like...
Or you can answer my questions."

[Destro_Yersul]

Trenches
"Indeed. Should he choose to come this way, I will have to congratulate him on his excellent shot." Gregor's black eyes glittered amusement. "The Night Lord's name is Charon, he is with us. Now. What were the slaves for?"

Gregor left talking to the slaves in question to Merope. He himself wasn't much for words. His servitor was lumbering slowly over, having found a way t climb the trench wall. Augmetic eyes staring straight ahead, it closed to within a few meters of the Tide Gregor was holding onto and stopped, staring at him.

[Rizhail]

Charon and Nic:

With only a few minutes and a bit of effort, the mutant called Rourke was staked to the office front. The massive mutant was clearly visible for a good distance even in the dim light of Bastion's unnatural sunlight.

The distant sounds of gunfire had stopped while Charon was crucifying his foe. No more Blood Tide had entered line of sight.


The Trenches:

The Tide just blinked for a moment, apparently trying to comprehend what Rak and Gregor had just said. He eventually seemed to come to some understanding of his predicament.

"So, when we're done with the questions, do you mind just putting a round beteen my eyes and dumping my corpse out here? I think that's the best I can really hope for right now.

The slaves are mostly here to help carry loot and check for traps and ambushes. A few of them are folks we nabbed on our way to the surface, or once we'd already gotten up here. Anything else you want to know?"

[LeSwordfish]

Trenches
"Alright." Merope began, addressing the slaves, waving her carbine vaguely for emphasis. "Everybody stay down in the trench. Drop your weapons, hands behind heads. Just because we saved you, doesn't mean we trust you."

[roll0] Command

"Nicolai." She muttered into the comm-bead. "Sitrep? We've taken a prisoner and collected ourselves some collateral."

[Destro_Yersul]

Trenches
"The reason you came to the surface. Where you were going. Really, the longer you talk, the longer you get to live. I was not lying when I said I needed more servitors." Gregor was considering leaving this one alive, but he felt like it would be a loose end. Rakdo might like having survivors to tell tales of his exploits, but Gregor had survived by avoiding conflict where possible. Hacking off the Tide sounded to him like an excellent way to attract more of them.

[LCP]

Charon & Nicolai

Returning to ground level, Charon did not look back at his handiwork. Approaching Nicolai, he stopped and looked down at the man on the ground.

"Still planning on taking prisoners, lieutenant?" he asked. It was difficult to tell through the distortion of the helmet grille whether his words were meant in mockery.

[Thragka]

"Took down three Blood Tide, including a big flying bastard," replied Nicolai across the comms. "Advancing to the barracks. Nature of your prisoner?"

Charon and Nicolai

Clicking the commbead off, Alexei did not look up at Charon, his gaze remaining fixed on the stirring slave.

"Ain't you ever heard of a field execution? Interrogated him. Wasn't planning on dragging him around afterwards to stab us in the back at the first chance he got."

Nicolai hunkered down by the slave. "Name's Nicolai. Lieutenant Nicolai, formerly of the Planetary Defence Forces, and citizen of Refuge. What's your name and home station, son?"

[LeSwordfish]

"Singing like a bird, so i'd have to say some kind of avian. Blood tide. We've also got a bunch of prisoners, slaves by the look of them. We'll sort it out and head to the barracks to meet you. Update us when you get there."

[Thragka]

"Aye ... sort it out." There was a pause. "Your call what t'do with the Tide. But I'd recommend against getting into the slaving business. Just don't let any of 'em get the jump on you."

[Rizhail]

Charon and Nic:

"Vasily," the slave croaked out. "Was from the High Town station; s'called Cursed now."

As he spoke, the slave slowly pushed himself up onto his hands and knees before settling back onto his haunches. He straightened his goggles and respirator and looked around a bit. When his eyes fell onto Charon, Vasily was so startled he nearly fell on his back again, just catching himself before he hit the ground.

"What the hell is that!?"


The Trenches:

The slaves complied with Merope's orders with little hesitation; whether it was her tone, the implied threat of the carbine, or both, was not immediately clear. The armed slave gently set down her looted autogun and joined the others as they moved into the trench and complied with Merope's command.

For his part, the captured Tide remained cooperative. "We're on the surface because the Ravager wants us to scout out the old PDF fort and the Guard garrison. Rumor has it that they're infested with something worse than the usual tunnel trash or daemons, and we wanted to know for sure before we start large scale looting. The Reaper wanted us to do some early scavenging of anything really useful, heavy weapons or machinery especially. We had just entered the front gate of the fort when Pietr made his open call, so we didn't have a chance to really scope the place out for threats or loot."

[LeSwordfish]

Nominally-good cop
"How many are still at the garrison? Is that where you got them from?" Merope gestured at the slaves, choosing for now to ignore them in favour of a robust interrogation. "What sort of "worse"?"

[Thragka]

Charon and Nicolai

"No need to be alarmed, Vasily," said the lieutenant, offering a hand to help the man stand. "Charon's on our side. Well ... my side. Up to you whose side you're on."

[Rizhail]

Interrogations HOOOO! (aka Team Trench)

"Ain't a damned soul at the garrison now, not that I know of. Most of the slaves came up with us; folks we've taken from the other stations during raids, or caught while they were out in the tunnels. A few of them we caught on the way up here; those are the ones we didn't have proper gear for.

As for worse, well... you know how nights on the surface tend to be full of daemons? And the tunnels keep spewing out all sorts of odd mutants or monsters? Supposedly, whatever lives in the old guard and PDF holds scares them. A few of our surface scouts have said they've seen Furies and other flies avoid going over those places, and one of 'em swears a damned Bloodletter chased a mutie to the fort's gates, then turned and left rather than keep chasing it. None of us rightly know what could do that, but we were supposed to find out or die trying."


Charon and Nic:

Vasily looked Charon over for a minute before carefully taking Nic's hand. He took a moment to steady himself once he was on his feet. "I'm on whatever side ain't trying to kill me or use me for monster bait, honestly."

[Destro_Yersul]

Trenches
"Die trying seems more likely. I suppose it could be another Astartes, but I don't suppose a Bloodletter would be afraid of that. How interesting. I would like to find out what's in there, or at least carry off anything valuable before it can find us...." Gregor paused, and would have dropped the Tide if he had been using his own hands to hold on. The servo arm was not so absentminded.

"Well, how would you like the chance to find out after all?" The techpriest asked after a moment of deliberation. "I feel this is a good plan."

[Thragka]

Charon and Nicolai

"Well, we won't be doing that to you. But we've got our own objectives here, and there's not much room for an observer. So I suggest you make yourself scarce, Vasily. Let me take a moment to advertise the opportunity to start a new life in Refuge. Y'oughtn't have any trouble getting in if you mention my name. That is, unless the prospect of going back to Cursed is greatly appealin' to you."

[Thanatos 51-50]

Trenches:
"If it bleeds, I can kill it. I want to kill it." Rakdo mused allowed, twisting his axe menacingly. "I'm not sure about using this one as a scout-meat-shield, though. He's got courage, but not the skill to last long enough to give us any useful intel.
I say we let me slaughter him now."

[Rizhail]

Charon and Nic:

"I've no reason to return to that hell hole. Refuge is to be found somewhere southwest of here, right? And would you mind if I help myself to one of those autos and some ammo? The surface is damned dangerous enough as is, without adding being unarmed into the mix."

Vasily was already eyeing up the road that lead back toward the edge of the square. He still appeared a bit unsteady on his feet, but he looked healthy enough to at least have a fighting chance of making it to the tunnel to Refuge.

[LCP]

Charon & Nicolai

Charon held silence during Nicolai's offer. He didn't understand the benefit for Nicolai's masters in taking in whatever waifs and strays came their way, but from what he had gathered so far that seemed to be their strategy.

When the slave started eyeing up his escape route, however, the marine reached out and rested his power glove lightly on Vasily's shoulder. The weapon's articulated talons reached halfway around the man's lean ribcage.

"How did they take you captive, Vasily?" he asked. "Why were they bringing you this way?"

[LeSwordfish]

Trenches
"Oh how could we deny our newest friend here the chance to sate his curiosities?" Merope said, laughing. "If you can restrain him, Gregor, bring him."

She turned back to the slaves. "Alright! Listen up. I'm not the one with any power here, but it looks to me like you just became honorary citizens of Refuge. Grab anything you've got, start heading out that way. Follow the dog: he knows where to go. When you get there, hold weapons above your heads, tell them Merope sent you. Or not. You'll get shot, but it's your choice. Do anything the door guards say. Hurt the dog and I gut you myself."

"Except you. The shooter. With me, if you please. Bring the gun."

As the slaves moved to obey her commands Merope leaned down to the cattle-dog and scratched it between the ears.

"Take them back to refuge. Keep them out of trouble."

OOC
Slaves command test: [roll0] vs 58
Dog command test: [roll1] vs 58

[Rizhail]

Charon and Nic:

Vasily froze for moment when Charon placed his claw on the young man's shoulder, though he recovered quickly enough.

"My kin and I were caught on our way out of Cursed," he said, his voice a little shaky. "Ran into a Tide patrol coming back from the eastern burbs, the old hab blocks that grew up outside the city. Dunno why they were out there, but there were a lot of them in that group; quite a few of those mutant bastards, too," Vasily continued, gesturing with his head toward the crucified form of Rourke; he didn't seem to want to raise his arm with Charon's claw on his torso.

"They wouldn't tell us what we were for up here, but I picked up a little bit from their banter; I think we were supposed to help carry any loot they found in the old fort. Sounded like they were also going to use us for bait, too, to try and lure out whatever's supposed to be living in there. The grunts were actually kind of scared of going in there, while the mutants were boasting about trophies and glory."


Trench Folks:

The captive Tide looked between his three interrogators, apparently unhappy with where this conversation was headed. He tried once again to wiggle his way out of the mechanical limb holding him, failing for the third time.

The Tide sighed. "Well, damn," he said, once again seeming to accept his unfortunate fate.

The slaves took a minute to thoroughly loot the dead Tide, grabbing spare filters or articles of clothing for themselves and putting goggles and proper breathing equipment on the few who lacked them. They proceeded to follow the dog as it stalked off, wary of travelling the surface but apparently eager to be away from their former captors.

The shooter took a moment to retrieve her looted autogun and pick through the pockets of two of the dead shooters for more ammo before returning to Merope's side.

"I'm Maya Pelevin, ma'am. I'm actually from Refuge, though it's been a long time since I was there. Who are you people, if you don't mind me asking?" Her confusion at all that was happening was apparent in her tone, even through her mask.

[LCP]

Charon & Nicolai

"And did you hear who gave them their orders? How many other groups they were communicating with?"

He removed his claw from Vassily's shoulder and crouched down in front of him so that their faces were level. A wisp of vapour exhaled from his helmet grille.

"Where those other groups were?"

[Destro_Yersul]

Trenches
"The pursuit of knowledge is a worthy endeavor," Gregor told their captured Tide friend. "Perhaps if you do well, and survive, and don't turn on us, and forget about your connection to the Tide, I will not have to turn you into a servitor."

Straightening up somewhat, the techpriest released his servo-arm's grip on the Tide. "I will not, however, carry you the whole way. If you feel like trying to escape, I am sure Rakdo will be happy to chase you down."

[Thanatos 51-50]

Trenches
"Please try to escape. It'll give me the excuse."

[LeSwordfish]

Trenches
"Very well. Maya- or would you prefer Pelevin?- my name is Merope. And i'm always searching for good aim with a rifle. You experienced with a gun?"

Merope waited for Pelevin's response, not really listening, and nodded. "Good. Listen, Maya, we'd like to know everything you can tell us about th blood tide. Start from the beginning. When were you taken prisoner?"

[Rizhail]

Charon and Nic:

Charon going face to face with Vasily caused the young man to shake a bit. "I...uh..." he stammered out before getting control of himself. "I, um, I don't know who gave them their orders. Grabbing slaves from the pits was the last thing they did before heading out. They split the slaves into two groups when we hit the surface, and it looked like the Tide split into four. The other slave group that was checking out the old Guard post was led by that winged bastard you killed, and had a mob of Tide grunts with 'em, like we did."

Vasily stopped for a moment, shaking his head a little to clear it. "The two other groups that split off were smaller. One had half a dozen normal Tide, though they were a little better armed; looked better fed, too. The other was four mutants led by a normal looking guy. I've seen him before, lean and quiet, and damned terrifying. Carries an odd mace, and even that flying mutie gave him space. They split off as soon as we left the tunnels, somewhere over there," he said while pointing toward the south. "I caught a few snippets when they talked over the vox. It sounded like they were checking for mutant nests to clear out. After these Tide caught that transmission with the roaring noise and one of their guys getting killed, they dropped everything to head to that corner of the park," he continued, this time pointing to the intersection near where Charon killed Pietr. "I think all of them might be heading that way."



Trenches:

The Tide looked between Gregor and Rak after he was free, apparently weighing his options before sighing again. "I hate you both so much. I only hope that whatever lives in there decides to kill you two first, just so I can die with a smile," he said calmly, not making any more to escape.

---

"Maya is fine, ma'am. I was part of the PDF before the war; part of Refuge's guard afteward." She was quiet for a moment after Merope's followup question, apparently deep in thought. "It was...oh, 6 months or so ago? It's hard to keep track of time in the pits. I was part of an escort for a trade mission out of Refuge, looking to exchange supplies with one of the hereteks for power and weapons. Not long after we reached the tek's workshop, a large Tide raid hit the place. The tek's servitors and turrets didn't deter them; an armored giant with a scythe cut them all down as his friends rushed us. They captured most of us; myself, three of the other guards, the traders and laborers, and the heretek."

[LeSwordfish]

Trenches
"Was the Heretek in that group that was with you?" Merope asked thoughtfully.

[LCP]

Charon & Nicolai

"The transmission," said Charon. "it came from the group of six?"

[Destro_Yersul]

Trenches
"You will be in front. Statistically..." Gregor shrugged. "I would think the idea of getting to fight something with your brain intact would appeal to you more than becoming a servitor."

Turning to Merope, and the slaves, the Heretek shuffled forwards. "We should go to link up with the others," he said. "We can talk while we move, and I see no reason to stay here."

[Rizhail]

Charon and Nic:

"I don't know. The Tide carrying the comm wasn't close enough for me to make out who had been speaking on the other end, and I don't know any of their names. They were joking about someone named Pietr getting killed, if that helps."


Trenches:

"No; the tek is back in the tunnels. The Tide have got him working on keeping their gear running and occasionally have him make weapons. A few of us from the pits have pulled duty as his assistants over the last few months."

OOC:

Do you all plan to head to where Charon and Nic are, meet up with them on the way to the fort, or go with the original plan of meeting up at the fort itself?

[LCP]

Charon & Nicolai

"It does not," said Charon. Without another word to their captive, he straightened back up, looking out over the park.

"At least two other squads still at large," he said to Nicolai. "Be on your guard."

Leaving Vassily to the lieutenant's mercies, he headed out across the wasted parkland in search of the others. He kept a wary eye on his surroundings as he did.

[LeSwordfish]

Merope
"Let's head to the pre-arranged meeting point. Anything else, tell us on the way."

[Rizhail]

Charon and Nic:

As the marine and Nicolai headed off toward the PDF garrison, Vasilly strayed a bit behind. He pilfered a few items from the downed Tide and slaves, grabbing an extra coat and filters before heading after the pair. He seemed unsure if he was free to go yet, deciding about halfway through the park that the pair wouldn't care if he left. The young man headed out on a ciruitous path, aiming for the buildings north of where Charon killed Pietr. His head had apparently cleared enough for him to consider going far around the place the other Tide would be heading toward.


The Trenches:

Both of the team's newest additions were quiet on the trek to the PDF garrison. Maya stayed by Merope's side, keeping an eye out while occasionally checking over her newly acquired weapon. The Tide prisoner merely seemed bored, as though wondering why death was taking its sweet time.


1

Rakdo, Gregor, and Merope made it to the garrison first. From their position near the gates, Charon's massive form was easy to spot as he trudged over the hill nearest the garrison. Nicolai was close behind him, las in hand as he swept the area before him. A few shiny spots became visible on Charon's armor as the pair descended the hill, appearing to be melted brass as they dimly reflected the morning light. There was plenty of blood on his armor as well.

The three who had gotten there first had apparently been busy along the way. Rakdo and Gregor were escorting what appeared to be a Blood Tide prisoner, the man fidgeting somewhat when Charon came into view. A woman armed with a bastard gun was standing beside Merope, her tattered clothing marking her as a freed slave. Her gun was raised in the Night Lord's general direction, though she was apparently either smart enough or scared enough not to fire.

When Charon didn't immediately descend upon Rak and Gergor and slaughter them, the Tide sighed and slumped a bit. "So that wasn't a bluff; you really are friends with a damned Legionaire. And here I was hoping he'd just kill us all and make it easy on me."

1

The PDF garrison was in considerably good shape. While spots along the walls were damaged or appeared to have run like water at some point, the interior of the garrison looked to have survived the Exterminatus relatively intact. The gate looking out over the park was halfway open, providing a clear view of part of the garrison. Nicolai recognised one of the barracks buildings near the gate, apparently mostly intact; the armory farther in wasn't so lucky, looking for all the world like it had taken a hit from an artillery strike.

The roads and paths that were visible from the gate appeared mostly clear, save for the occasional mound of rubble and a few broken down vehicles that littered the square near the armory.

Gregor only:

As Charon and Nic made their way down the hill, Gregor felt an odd tingle in his supernatural senses. When he blinked a moment later, he found himself standing in darkness, not a single thing visible around him. The air was filled with the cloying stench of rot and the sound of light wheezing from all around. It took only a moment to realize the wheezing sound was eminating from dozens of sources; the tek could just barely sense the presence of numerous beings resting all around him.

When he blinked again, he was back outside the gates with his comrades behind and the Tide prisoner ahead. As far as Gregor could tell, the vision had lasted less than a heartbeat.


Nicolai only:

The garrison had been setup with the barracks nearest the park. The armoury had been dead center in the garrison, in easy reach of anyone coming from the barracks for wall duty but far enough back to provide a defensive position in case the walls were breached. The PDF had been armed with locally made autoguns, as las weapons had had some issues with Aegis' winter weather. Heavier weapons, namely various forms of launchers and flamers, were also kept in stock. They had all likely been brought out to fight off the invasion, but if any weapons were to be looted today, Nicolai expected them to fall into those categories.

The motor pool had been on the southside of the garrison, out of sight of the park gates; the PDF had been stocked with a few old chimeras and a number of a lighter model of APC made locally, referred to as Coyotes. Lightly armored and unarmed, the Coyotes' could easily be switched from wheeled to tracked to deal with the weather; all of the broken down vehicles in sight were Coyotes, equipped with tracks to handle the winter weather that had kicked in at the end of the invasion.

[LCP]

"'Friends' is stretching a definition," said Charon, closing with the main group. Looking over his shoulder towards the garrison, he glanced back at Merope.

"The survivors we interrogated indicated there were at least three other squads out hunting. One large, two small." He looked down at the wise-cracking captive. "How many did you neutralise?"

[Thanatos 51-50]

"Only a dozen, not counting... what was the mutant's name? Rourke?" Rakdo uttered from an outcropping of rubble.
"That menas a large and a small group are left, it seems. Why didn't I think of that? I swear, the other two are keeping this one alive just to tease me."
The maniac, however, visibly brightened up as he went on. "Dead Man Walking here did, however, say there was something big and mysterious and nasty inside. That should provide a small spot o' sport."

[Destro_Yersul]

"Possibly several somethings," Gregor remarked, shaking his head. "Touch of the rot is strong here, but that should have kept it mostly free of looters."

Idly, the techpriest wondered if he would be able to get any of the vehicles running again. It might not help in the tunnels, but a method of fast transit over the surface would be extremely helpful.

[LeSwordfish]

"What's the layout like?" Merope asked Nicolai thoughtfully. "Where could we expect to find the good equipment?"

[Rizhail]

Nico took a moment to collect his thoughts as he looked over the nearest buildings and wrecked vehicles. "The barracks are against the inner walls here; a lot of us weren't able to take anything with us during the evacuation to the tunnels, so there should be lots of personal items if they haven't been looted yet. That," he continued, pointing at the wrecked building some ways into the garrison, "was the armory. Might still be some ammo or arms in the ruin, but most of the weapons were obviously in use at the time the garrison was evacuated, so there won't be much. The motor pool is along the southern wall; we'll have to pass the barracks to get there. I've no idea what condition it's in."

[Rizhail]

Pushing their prisoner ahead of them, the group made their way through the partly open gate and into the PDF garrison proper. The garrison was deathly quiet, the only sounds being their own steps and the sounds of their respirators and gas masks echoing off the barracks.

The barracks building was nearly two stories tall, matching the height of the garrison wall that served as the barracks' back wall. The barracks extended a solid 100 meters or so down the garrison wall, with a few entrances spaced along its front and a number of small windows, likely meant to double as fire points in case of attack. The building was in surprisingly good shape, its only blemishes being las scars from the invasion and a small amount of wear from the weather.

OOC:

1) How do you all intend to enter the buildings?

2) Toss out any rolls related to your characters actions as you take them (awareness to check through the windows or listen at the doors, psyniscience to pick up on any weirdness, etc)

[LCP]

Charon scanned his surroundings, idly flexing the thumb of his power claw.

"Enjoy your scavenging," he said to Merope, not looking down. "I will find a point to stand watch."

Mindful of his fuel reserves, he searched their surroundings for a high perch that looked like it could be accessed on foot.

OOC: Awareness: [roll0]

[Thragka]

"Guess we're hitting the barracks first, so," said Nicolai. He carried the tunnel-gun nonchalantly, weighing the barrel in his left hand as he gripped it with his right. "Almost fancy doing this the old-fashioned way." He headed for the nearest doorway, briefly looking through the aperture before stepping inside and beginning to slowly walk the length of the barracks.

Nicolai's feeling slightly nostalgic for such hallmarks of pre-apocalyptic society as front doors, so that's how he'll enter. As I said, he briefly checks that there's nobody obviously visible inside, and then he wants to check for signs of recent habitation, so I'll give you a couple of awareness rolls for that, off Per 41.

[roll0]
[roll1]

[Destro_Yersul]

Gregor followed along behind Nicolai, twitching his servo arm at every shadow in sight. He'd been a little unnerved since they got here, and it wasn't helped as he kept running over the things the Tide had said. The Tide, Gregor was making sure went along with them, and he was going to make sure that any doors being entered would be entered first by the cultist. His servitor he brought along with him. The whole time, the techpriest kept his eyes open, watching for any signs of the Omnissiah's spirits.

Gregor is doing psyniscience, to notice anything odd before they go into the building. [roll0] against 37 perception

[Thanatos 51-50]

Rakdo's palms itched at the promise of slaughter to be had inside, but he knew that discretion was the better part of murder.
The killer wrapped his cloak tightly around him, fading himself into thin air and vanishing, electing to ghost behind his compatriots and give them a wide berth.

If the Astartes wanted to miss out on the fun and just climb somehwere, well, that was his loss.

[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]

[LeSwordfish]

"Stay close to me" Merope ordered her charge. "Don't shoot anything I don't shoot. Watch our backs, tell me if you see anything."

That said, she turned to follow Nicolai into the building- carbine in one hand, gladius humming gently in the other.

Awareness [roll0]

[Rizhail]

Charon:

As the mortals started their sweep of the barracks, Charon's eyes swept the compound for a high perch. Unfortunately, the entire compound was built at two stories or less and with a focus on normal human proportions; the few stairs or other normal ways up onto the buildings that the marine spotted were too small for Charon's bulk. Two less conventional paths looked promising: the barracks windows were just close enough together to provide handholds to climb up onto the barracks building, and the ruins of the armory appeared climbable. Both would provide reasonable perches, with the armory roof likely to provide the best view of the inside of the compound while the barracks building would allow Charon to look out past the walls and over part of the garrison.


Inside the Barracks:

The door required a bit of effort to open due to dust buildup on its rails, though Nicolai was able to open it up a few centimeters with a heave. Peaking through, it was clear the room was empty. Putting his back into it, he was able to force the door all the way into its alcove, leaving the path open.

The barracks was surprisingly quiet as the group filed in, the faint squeals of loose floor plating being absorbed by the thick, insulated walls. The inside of the building was an absolute mess of tangled bunks and broken lockers, with a large pile of lockers and bunk piping acting as an impromptu barricade against the door at the other end of this barracks section. Ash and dust covered everything in a thick blanket, apparently allowed in through two broken windows. The room the group was in covered approximately a fifth the length of the actual barracks building.

The dust made it clear that nothing had been through here in a very long time.

Nicolai:

From his time in the PDF, Nicolai was familiar with this building's layout. There were two of these larger dorm rooms, this one for unmarried enlisted men while the one on the opposite side of the building was for unmarried enlisted women. The entrance that was poorly barricaded across the room would lead to the men's showers/head, then on to the small shared chow hall. The barracks was set up such that there would be power, water, and supplies in case the winter storms trapped the soldiers inside, with up to a weeks worth of food and water (though whether any of that had been used up during the invasion, Nicolai didn't know).

There was also a maintenance/escape tunnel in the maintenance room behind the chow hall, meant to allow supplies to be brought in or soldiers out in case of particularly long storms and for maintenance of the garrison's utilities. Nicolai had never had the poor fortune to have to go into the tunnel, but he knew from some of his comrades that the tunnels were dark and cramped. Considering there had been no maintenance on them in nearly a decade, there was no telling what condition they might be in.


Gregor:

Not long after entering the building, Gregor blinked and found himself in the pitch black space again. This time the wheezing was muffled, as though a thin wall was between himself and whatever existed out in the dark. When he blinked again, he found himself back in the barracks.

[LeSwordfish]

Inside
Merope pointed to the barricaded door at the end of the room. "Is that an interior door?" she asked Nicolai in an undertone. "Because, if so... why barricade it?"

[LCP]

Charon

With the knowledge of Blood Tide elements still at large, Charon preferred to have a view of what was approaching the compound as well as what was inside it. If the others encountered whatever horror resided here, they would just have to scream louder.

Taking a handhold on a ruined windowsill, he began to climb the wall of the barracks block.

OOC: Athletics check, if necessary: [roll0]

[Destro_Yersul]

Inside
"The things, I don't think there are here. In this building. If they are, perhaps they are hiding?" Gregor looked around, as though expecting snarling daemons to burst from the walls at any moment. The gloom of the place, the dust and ash, did not bother him. Such was the way of things on the surface. The techpriest moved to investigate the barricade, to see if there were any marks to show whether it was intended to keep something out, or something in.

[Thragka]

Inside

Nicolai pointed at the barricade. "That leads to the head and the mess. This was a men's dorm; there's a women's too." He paused as he considered the implications. "Huh. This complex's meant to be self-sufficient for 'bout a week, but there's an access tunnel over in maintenance. So ... the perimeter was compromised, and they fell back here? Not sure. I'll check out the tunnel." the Lieutenant began tearing down the barricade to make good on his words.

[LeSwordfish]

Interiors
Merope turned to check the entrance they'd come in from for any sign of a barricade, even one disturbed by their entry.

[Rizhail]

Charon:

The climb was swift, the whine of Charon's armor disturbing the silence as he hauled his bulk up the side of the barracks. Once on top, he found that the view of the park was even better than expected; anyone attempting to travel through the area would be immediately visible.

As if on cue, Charon noticed movement in the distance. Engaging the zoom and preysense features of his autosenses allowed the marine to pick out approximately six figures in the distance. They appeared to be stopped near Rourke's crucified form.


Inside the Barracks:

The entire group jumped at the sound of an impact against the outer wall, Maya nearly opening fire at one of the windows. It became clear a moment later that it was only Charon as one of the marine's boots was visible through said window; apparently the Night Lord had decided to climb to the top of the barracks.

Gregor's examination of the barricade was cut short by Nicolai tearing it apart, but he was able to spot a few marks of dried blood indicating something had tried to cross it from the far side while bleeding. As he took a step back to give Nicolai room to work, the floor seemed to slip a bit under him and caused the heretek to stumble. Looking down, he noticed that he'd stepped on a handful of spent autogun casings that had been hidden in the dust and ash.

Merope's own investigation proved fruitful: while there weren't any signs of a barricade on the door the group had entered, the locking mechanism appeared to have been ripped out from the inside. A large bloodstain was soaked into the concrete next to the door, and she could make out a number of spent casings amongst the ash between the bloodstain and the sidewall.

Nicolai was able to clear the barricade quickly, as it had apparently been thrown together in haste and wasn't particularly sturdy. Both the showers and the head were empty and in better condition than the dorm, lacking the ash and dust and with far less damage to their interiors. However, both had numerous bullet holes in the walls, unlike the dorm.

The chow hall was an absolute mess. Tables and dinnerware were scattered everywhere, mixed with spent shell casings and the twisted remains of a number of autoguns. Bullet holes were scattered over the walls and floor, and black spots along the walls, ceiling, and floor marked where blood had long ago soaked into the concrete.

The maintenance tunnel entrance was located in the supply area at the back of the chow hall. The entrance was open and unobstructed, the area around it clear of debris. Peeking down into it, Nicolai was unsurprised to note that none of the lights in the tunnel were on; the ladder in the tunnel entrance led down into darkness.

[LCP]

Charon

Trying to minimise his outline against whatever cover was available, Charon kept watching the distant group.

OOC: [roll0]

[Thanatos 51-50]

Inside
Rakdo stood silently under his cloak and watched his compatriots get to work, occasionally amusing himself by staring at their prisoner from under his hood and willing the poor bugger to run off, jsut so he could cut him down.
This waiting was getting intolerable.

He pressed his ear to the frame near the barricaded door, listening for anything on the other side that might bear investigation -- or slaughter. mostly the slaughter thing.
[roll0]

[Thragka]

Inside

"Yup. This was a battleground." Nicolai shook his head sadly. His thoughts were with the men he'd known in the PDF. He'd long consigned them to the many ranks of the dead, but they'd been good men all, and coming back here destroyed what little hope he'd had of finding some of them still alive.

He sucked in air through his teeth and with one foot tested the ladder. "Anyone got a light to cover me as I go down here?"

[Destro_Yersul]

Inside
"I do not, though there might be something up here. We should search the lighted areas of the barracks first. Leave the dark and the things in the dark for last."

[LeSwordfish]

Inside
"This whole planet is "in the dark"", Merope commented drily, but began looking around the barracks for a light, or for anything helpful anyway.

[Thragka]

Inside

Nicolai shrugged. "Fine, we'll leave the tunnel 'til later. I don't much fancy leaving it open behind us as we go rooting around, though." He looked for a desk or something similarly-sized just to sling in front of the tunnel, if it couldn't be closed off by itself. Then he turned to Gregor, and gave a half-hearted shrug that seemed to say "Lead on".

[Destro_Yersul]

Inside
Gregor nodded, picking a direction at random and shuffling off that way. The barracks would need to be thoroughly explored, as far as he was concerned, so it didn't much matter where they started.

Back into the forest of spoilers. Whee.

have a roll for searching the barracks, if you need it: [roll0] Gregor is making a special effort to look for something like a lamp pack or flighter, that could be used to provide a light source of some variety. If that fails, he'll see what he can scrounge up to put towards making a torch, and light it off the pilot light on the servitor's flamer.

[Rizhail]

Charon:

The rooftop provided precious little cover for the space marine as he attempted to remain unseen. However, the low light conditions and sheer distance meant the group was unlikely to spot him; they certainly didn't seem to be coming any closer at the moment.

Something else had spotted them, though. Charon noticed a few figures moving across the rooftops near Rourke's resting place; the winged silhouettes pegged them as Furies.


Inside the Barracks:

The search for a light source was short: several lamp packs were in the storage room that contained the maintenance tunnel. All of their batteries were low or dead, however. As Imperial issue emergency lights, each had a crank or similar device to recharge them by hand if need be, allowing the group to charge up a few lamp packs as they explored the barracks. The lights likely wouldn't stay lit very long on near-dead batteries and a hand cranked charge, but they would be better than nothing.

Gregor's random searching led the group to the women's side of the barracks building. It was in much the same condition as the men's side, though the barricade at the door appeared to have been better built before its demise; whatever had pushed past it had outright destroyed the barricade rather than crawling over.

As Gregor searched for other light sources or parts to make a torch, it became apparent that there was not a single scrap of cloth in the barracks. Similarly, there weren't any remains save for the bloodstains. The only remaining signs that anyone had been there at all were the spent autogun casings and bloodmarks on the walls.

[Destro_Yersul]

Inside
"Hrm." Gregor stopped his searching after exhausting possible locations to find cloth, settling back with one of the emergency lamp packs they had found and turning it over in his hands. "Nothing organic except the bloodstains. To be expected. Furies would have likely eaten anything else, or it would have rotted away."

Pausing in thought, the techpriest channeled a little of his stored energy into the lamp pack. The batteries could not be recharged to full effectiveness the normal way, but the Omnissiah provided ways for His subjects to cheat a little. The lamp pack was His device, and would surely respond. When that was done, and the rest of the barracks had been searched, Gregor returned to the maintenance tunnel.

"The Tide goes first."

[Thanatos 51-50]

[Inside]
"Fine, but I'll be right behind him." Rakdo acquiesced, stepping aside to let the tide enter the tunnel, giving the poor sod a feral grin.

[Thragka]

Inside

Hanging back to hold up the rear, Nicolai gestured to Merope to go ahead of him.

"What's the story with this Tider, anyway?" he muttered to her as he fell into step behind.

[LeSwordfish]

Merope
"She made a nice shot, and more warm bodies in a fight is useful." Merope muttered. "Besides. People like to think you trust them. I hired you on much the same basis." She glanced at the arbite's expression. "Only joking." She would have joshed his shoulder if it hadn't been combat zone discipline.

She peered around in the darkness, wondering if she should try and use one of the lamps. "Any estimates on what we can find down there?"

[Rizhail]

Charon:

The group in the distance started moving, cutting over into the park before heading toward the garrison under whatever cover they could find. Whatever else could be said for them, this group was at least more subtle than the last two.

Charon could not quite tell if the group had seen him yet, but felt confident in his stealth thus far.


Inside the Barracks:

"Joy..." the Tide muttered as he was marched through the barracks toward the maintenance tunnel, still resigned to his fate. Gregor's lamp pack was shining brightly after the tek's ministrations, providing the captured Tide with enough light to see into the tunnel.

He gingerly made his way down the ladder into the tunnel. The ladder space was only just wide enough for Gregor and more than large enough for any other non-Astartes member of the party. The ladder ended about five meters down in what appeared to be a large maintenance space; the area was full of debris.

"I can see the actual tunnel here," the Tide called back, trying to keep his voice as low as possible. "It gets black as the void damned fast past the lamplight. You'll need to drop a pack down here if you want to know what's further down."

The Tide kneeled down, looking through the debris he'd landed in. "Weird, this is all food and soap and what not. Looks like your PDF buddies dumped it all down here to try and block things off or somethin'."

[Destro_Yersul]

Tunnel Rats
When the Tide was not immediately set upon and disembowelled, Gregor started down the ladder after him. His curiosity was starting to get the better of his paranoia, and he wanted to keep a firm grip on his own lamp pack.

It was, after all, his now.

"No need to drop a lamp pack," Gregor told the tide, straightening up at the bottom and shining the light over the debris on the floor. His servitor was not about to negotiate any ladders, and stayed topside. "I, and I believe the others, will be coming as well. After all, if you die and there is nobody around to observe it, it is a wasted experiment."

[LCP]

Charon

Charon watched the new group approach, one eye on the trail of Furies shadowing them. He tried to get a fix on the daemons' numbers, to evaluate how likely they were to attack their prey.

[roll0]

[Thragka]

Tunnel Snakes

Nicolai didn't exactly laugh, but there was a suggestion of humour in the way he exhaled through his nose. "That goes both ways, Ms Rynn. But I'll leave the question of who's superior to who here be f'r now."

The Lieutenant shrugged at the news of rations in the pit. The troops had obviously been in a panic - who could blame them, really? - and there were bound to be more interesting revelations than last-minute logistical re-distributions of supplies as they investigated further.

"Right, I'll go next - 'less you eagerly want to get down there ahead of me, Mr Gavrilovich?" Either before or after Rakdo, Nicolai descended the ladder into the tunnel.

[Thanatos 51-50]

Tunnels

Rakdo had already disappeared down the tunnel before Nicolai finished speaking, and was ankle-deep in the debris, rooting through it alongside the Tide.
Soap.
Glorious Soap.

Hopefully it was the hard, pumicey, abrasive kind.
Soap. It's all sort of useful.

The murderer pocketed a few bars, and shoved even more into the bag he had brought in order to transport loot.
Soap.

[Rizhail]

Charon:

The men Charon had spotted continued their approach. They stopped at the edge of the park, each taking the time to check their surroundings before approaching the garrison gates. From their weapons and attire it was obvious these men were also of the Blood Tide. Most carried chain weapons in one form or another, save for two. The one on point carried what appeared to be a speargun; the other carried an odd maul. The weapon glowed brightly in Charon's preysight; switching over to lowlight made it obvious that the weapon was glowing red from heat, as if the head were molten. The head of the maul was also covered in blackened spikes. The maul's bearer appeared to be the leader of the Tide group.

Charon's attempts to track the Furies proved fruitless; the daemons were keeping to cover too well to be counted. His best estimate was somewhere between three and six Furies. One of the Tide caught sight of one of the daemons out of the corner of his eye and signaled to the others. At a nod from the leader, the speargunner took aim at one of the Furies.

From Charon's experience, he knew the outcome of the shot would depend on its effect and the number of Furies. Outnumbered Furies would run if attacked, and even a larger group would back off if one of their own was taken down in a single shot. A wound or miss against a group of a half dozen or more, however, would likely induce a frenzy.


Inside:

The maintenance tunnel entrance was just big enough for the entire group to fit without bumping into each other. The Tide and Gregor stepped forward into the actual tunnel, the heretek crouching just a tad to fit properly. The tunnel was longer than the lamp pack could illuminate, darkness dominating the tunnel after another twenty meters. Thanking the Omnissiah for his fully charged (and thus much brighter) lamp pack, the heretek examined the tunnel in detail. There were four visible branches in the visible portion of the tunnel, two on each side. The farther one on the right seemed like it was in the right position to lead to (or at least near) the armory, while where the others went wasn't so clear.

While he examined the tunnels, Gregor seemed to freeze for a moment.

Gregor only:

Gregor once again found himself in the void when he blinked. The barrier was gone this time, however. After a moment, a small light appeared in the darkness. It begin as a slit before slowly blossoming into a small circle, its color ever-changing, as though it were a hole into the Warp itself. The light seemed to move a bit, as though attached to something. The movement reminded Gregor of a feline, slowly opening one eye to see what had so rudely interrupted its slumber.

Eight more circles lit up in an odd pattern around the first, all of them seeming to be part of the same being. Whatever they were attached to appeared to be looking around the void, though it seemed to be blind to Gregor for now. The wheezing sound of sleeping beings continued to emanate from the darkness.

Blinking again, Gregor found himself back in the tunnels.

While the heretek, Tide, and any other curious party members were examining the tunnel, Rakdo was stuffing his pockets with toiletries. From the way everything was scattered, he came to the conclusion that someone had simply dumped the shelves in the above storage area onto the tunnel's hatch; all of the debris seemed to be a side effect of blocking off the tunnel. While the soaps and other supplies were all standard PDF fair (cheap and mass produced), they were still in good shape and would do just fine for Rak's purposes.

Rak only:
As he brushed a torn carton of foodstuff out of the way to get at more soap, Rak noticed something: the wafers spilling out of the carton still appeared fresh. They showed signs of nibbling by vermin, and were perhaps a bit stale, but otherwise appeared as though they had only been open a day or so at best.

[Thragka]

Tunnels

Nicolai indicated the rightmost tunnel. "Reckon we oughter check that one first - although after the state of the rest of this place, I'm not holding out much hope that the armoury'll be in good nick."

[Thanatos 51-50]

Tunnels
"Someone is here." Rakdo said, snatching up the packet and slipping a crisp into his mouth, testing the flavour on his tongue. "Less than a day ago. They're either dead or stillaround, butthere is definately another party."

[LeSwordfish]

Tunnels
"Human?" Merope asked mildly. "Or, at least as human as any of us?"

She bent and threw a packet of crisps and several bars of soap to Maya. "Your first payment, Maya. Spoils of a long-finished war. Keep watching our backs, please. Speak if you see anything."

She turned to the group. "I also vote armory. If there's anything left there, I don't want the tide to have it. They might have more lamp-packs, too."

She let her suspicions about what could be down here lie for the moment.

[Destro_Yersul]

Tunnels
"I agree," Gregor said, shifting back and forth as he stared into the darkness. But for a generator, a gift from the Omnissiah to chase away the darkness. His lamp pack would have to do for now. "The tunnels are not safe here. There are things in the dark, but they do not see us yet. We must be cautious. Always cautious, yes."

Shuffling a few steps forwards, trying to point the light everywhere at once, Gregor inched towards the armoury tunnel.

[Thragka]

Tunnels

"What kind of 'things' would those be, Mr Athodyd?" asked Nicolai as he followed the techpriest down the tunnel. He shot Merope a dry glance. It said: Not Impressed.

[Rizhail]

Inside group:

Maya greedily shoved the supplies Merope had tossed her into the few pockets and pouches that she had; the captured Tide only took a small ration pack off the ground. He opened it and pulled out what appeared to be some sort of jerky; shrugging, he lifted his mask and took a bite. "Eh, not bad. Better than corpse starch for sure."

With the group's decision being to head toward the armory, the Tide once again assumed the point position. The trek through the tunnel was as short as one would expect, given how close the barracks and armory buildings were.

The group came upon a heavily damaged door leading into the armory's basement; where the barracks had only a small storage area and a ladder leading up into the building proper, the armory's lower room appeared to have similar dimensions to the aboveground portion of the building.

The Tide looked through a particularly large gash in the door, getting a good view of the room before turning back to the group. "You'll want to see this," he said, looking mostly at Nicolai. He was quiet when he spoke.

Peeking into the armory basement was like looking into a slaughterhouse. Through the rents in the door, the group could make out scattered remains of an unknown number of people mixed amongst the various storage shelves and scattered gun parts. Shafts of dim light were visible as well, emanating from holes in the ceiling, but the room was mostly clear of the ash buildup that had been seen in the barracks.

What most stood out about the room was its sole living occupant. Nestled onto a pile of remains was a beast that looked like someone had tried, and failed, to properly combine a wolf, a reptile, and a humanoid. The beast was only somewhat larger than a human being and was curled up in the fetal position, its hide a mixture of patchy fur and pebbly scales. The creature's breath misted out from its elongated snout on occasion, as though it were sleeping.

[LCP]

Charon

Charon weighed his options. Tipping his hand at this point would leave him exposed on the top of the building, and bolt shells were precious. Better to take his chances that the mortals below would only anger the daemons than waste munitions in trying to entice the cowardly creatures into an attack.

Bolt shells were precious, and so was fuel. In addition to which, he had some charges he was supposed to be warning. Moving stealthily to the edge of the roof, he began to descend on the side of the barracks that put the bulk of the building between him and the approaching intruders.

As he clambered down, he listened closely for the sound of screams.

OOC: Athletics: [roll0]

[Destro_Yersul]

Tunnel Rats
Hearing 'you'll want to see this' was something that immediately piqued Gregor's interest. Shuffling past the others, the techpriest stooped to have a look through the door, trusting Rakdo and the rest of them to keep watch on their Tide captive.

"Most curious," Gregor said, stepping aside to let the others have a look. "Undoubtedly there are more of those in the tunnels, perhaps looking for us."

[Thragka]

Inside

Slowly, Nicolai pointed his tunnel gun in the direction of the sleeping creature.

"So," he whispered, "we gonna waste it, or ... ?"

[Thanatos 51-50]

[Indoors]
"Oh, are we? Please tell me I can kill it."

[Thragka]

Inside
Nicolai shrugged.

"Be my guest."

[LeSwordfish]

Going Underground
Merope nodded. "If you think you can take it."

She peered through the window again, trying to see if there were any other routes into the armoury, or any places where others might be hiding. "You call the shots here. Need one of us in the room for backup, or want us watching the door?"

[Rizhail]

Charon:

A loud *bang* echoed over the wall as Charon nimbly descended the building. An inhuman screech followed; moments later, several more such screeches quickly echoed out nearby. To the marine's ears, it sounded as if a Fury feeding frenzy were about to start.

The door to the barracks had been forced open by Charon's mortal charges; with his jumppack it would be a tight fit, though the interior looked decidedly more open. The interior of the barracks was full of dust, with a clear trail indicating where the others had passed through it. A pile of twisted metal at the other end of the room indicated some sort of barricade, with disturbed dust around it indicating the mortals had wrenched it aside to continue further into the building.

[LCP]

Charon

Backing into the narrow confines of the barracks did not appeal to Charon. The others would have to listen for themselves; he had more important things to do than to bring them the warning.

Circling around the back of the building, he returned along the far wall, coming as close as he could to the gate while keeping the barracks between him and the enemy position. As he did, he listened for the sound of the daemons attacking.

OOC: Stealth: [roll0]
Awareness: [roll1]

How close does this take me to their position?

[Thanatos 51-50]

Indoors
"Just point at it with your little noisemakers."
With that, Rakdo slipped inside, approaching the beast oh, so quietly. As quietly as possible, savouring the moment of attack, palms itching to grab the chainweapons and get to glorious, messy work.

<<Warning, WALL O' DICE contained herein. Do not let it escape
>>
[roll0]
[roll1]
Successful Stealth Means Full-Aimed Surprise Dual-Wield Attack, which adds, something like +50 to the attack roll, right?
Anyway, here are the rolls, without the surprise and full-aim modifiers.

[roll2]
[roll3]
[roll4]
[roll5]
[roll6]
[roll7]
[roll8]
[roll9]

Oh, and Inititave! Am I benefiting from Merope?
[roll10]
+6 if not, +8 if so, IIRC.

[LeSwordfish]

Inside
Merope had been taught some general tactics by the more martially-minded in the group, and as Radko slipped through the door she -"stacked up", was it called?- against it and readied her carbine.

Initiative [roll0]

If Merope has "surprise" too, she'll ready her carbine and Delay an action: this action will be to shoot any other animal that appears, as soon as it appears. (Feel free to roll this for me if you don't want to wait for me to roll it.) Otherwise she'll use it before her next turn.

[Destro_Yersul]

Inside
Gregor shuffled nervously back and forth, clutching his gun two-handed. His lamp pack had been shut off and stowed away to preserve its battery, and he was checking the crossbow attachment on the lascarbine to ensure it was ready to fire. He had the feeling like they were going to need it.

[roll0] I think, for initiative? I always forget the bonus.

[Thragka]

Inside

Nicolai took a couple of steps back from the doorway, figuring it was crowded enough already. The tunnel-gun lounged in his arms, vaguely directed at the beast - or rather, at Merope and Gregor, but he was sure they could get out of the way if necessary. After all, he was only likely to need it if the other three failed to contain the beast in the room.

[roll0]

[Rizhail]

Inside:

Contorting to fit himself through the large rent in the door, Rakdo carefully made his way across the room toward the mutant beast. Stepping over some unfortunate bastard's torso, the maniac lifted his blades over his head and brought them down, the chains shrieking to life. The mutant was quick to react to the sound, but this meant that the blows meant to split its torso into multiple pieces instead ripped into the beast's front limbs.

Both of the limbs separated from the beast's torso in sprays of a foul black fluid, the mutant only getting out a pained whimper before convulsing. The small pile of human remains the beast was nesting in smoked wherever the mutant's blood landed, creating a stench so foul and potent that Rak felt nauseous through his gasmask. The stench hit the rest of the team a moment later.

The Tide could be heard chuckling behind the others. "Do you think you killed it hard enough?" Beside him, Maya appeared to simply be trying to hold in the rations she'd downed in the barracks.

Gregor only:

Gregor heard an odd sound, like a howl in the distance. It quickly rose in volume until it was earsplitting, and the heretek once again found himself in the void. The howling died off with a gurgle as the multi-eyed being in the darkness focused on Gregor. Dozens more aethyric eyes opened up in the darkness and the entire room seemed to be moving as other beings awoke.

When Gregor snapped back to himself a moment later, he heard...


A loud *bang* echoed down the tunnels. Not long after, the distant sound of screeching became audible through the holes in the ceiling; something on the surface was angry and loud about it.


Charon:

Charon found himself a mere 10m from the gate, his back against the barracks wall as he listened for Furies. They were more than happy to abide as numerous screeches filled the air.

The marine was also able to hear human voices shouting nearby as the Tide tried to coordinate over the Furies unholy noise. He was also able to pick up the sound of boots pounding on pavement as the half-dozen Tide sprinted through the open gate. The speargunner was slightly bloodied and reloading his weapon, his efforts leaving him at the rear of the pack. One of the daemons took advantage and swooped down on him, knocking the man off his feet and preparing to attack.

As it raised its clawed hand to strike, the beast suddenly stopped. It jerked its head back and forth rapidly, as though trying to track a noise. The Tide took the opportunity to spear it in the head, the daemon screeching once more as its form dissolved back into the warp.

The other Furies began to fly upward, circling in the air above the garrison. They screeched and howled at the men on the ground, but refused to come closer than three or four stories above the ground.

The leader of the Tide gestured with his mace toward the armory. "Get under cover and prepare for defense. It looks like we'll be completing the others' missions for them," the man bellowed over the daemons' noise. While his men were moving quickly and nervously, he seemed quite calm, his movements fluid and sure.

As the leader turned, he caught sight of Charon's armored form.

OOC:

You get one free surprise round. There are half a dozen Tide now nearby, all within 10-15m of Charon.

[LCP]

Charon

Synapses firing at lightning speed, Charon assessed the threats present. The speargun was imposing, but it was a crude weapon; his armour had shielded him from worse. The leader was the one holding this band of renegades together.

With a roar of burning fuel, he ignited his jump-pack, soaring in an unstoppable parabola down towards the leader. Activating his power claw in mid-air, he brought the crackling talons crashing down.

OOC: ahahahaa surprise round

Charon makes a jump pack assisted charge against the leader. +30 for surprise, +30 for charging with Berserk Charge = 114% chance to hit :smallbiggrin:

[roll0]
[roll1]+16, Pen 9
Extra damage dice for Raptor (1 per 2 DoS on to-hit roll, to a maximum of 2):
[roll2]
[roll3]

40 points of damage :smallbiggrin:

[Thanatos 51-50]

Team Murder
"No, I think I could have killed it harder." Rakdo growled through his gas-mask, disengaging the chains on the blades and commencing wiping the ichor away on the conveniently-placed corpses.

Then came the crash-bang through the tunnels. And the shrieking from above.
"Sounds like that was just a warm-up anyway." he said through a wide, child-like smile, carfeully sliding the chainsblades into place and darting down the hallways on murderous wings.

[Destro_Yersul]

Inside
"Indeed, that is not the most excessive act of violence I have seen Rakdo commit." Gregor told the tide, unfocusing a moment later and listening to something none of the others could hear.

"I think," he said a moment later, "That we have attracted its attention. Charon is still outside? We should rejoin him, before it finds us."

Gun held at the ready, Gregor looked around the corpse-filled armoury. Not for the first time, the techpriest was thankful for his implant systems. Carefully, he searched for signs of movement in the piles of discarded flesh.

Awareness check? [roll0] Gregor doesn't have Awareness trained, but he does have Perception 37. I think that's still a fail, though.

[LeSwordfish]

Merope
"Agreed." Merope began. "We need to put whatever that is down, and hard."

She looked slightly wistfully around the armoury. "There might be something in here that could help with that, though."

[roll0] awareness vs 31

[Thragka]

Inside

"'Less you see something immediately, today's order of business is shoot first, loot later. 'Cos I honestly think we can handle whatever it is with what we've already got on us."

With that, the Lieutenant high-tailed back towards the surface and the source of the sounds.

[Rizhail]

Charon:

As the Night Lord's jump pack roared the Tide leader merely smiled. He remained calm and simply waited as Charon's claw descended toward him, raising one arm almost lazily - and stopped the marine's descent with one hand.

The Tide's entire arm shimmered, the skin seeming to turn to molten brass as the man nonchalantly caught the tip of Charon's power claw in his hand. All of the force of Charon's charge simply dissipated, as though he had thrown himself fist-first against the hull of a warship. Robbed of his momentum, the Night Lord hit the ground feet first and face-to-face with the Blood Tide leader.

The odd mace in the Tide's hand flared up, its blackened spikes now surrounded by a crimson flame; the Tide's eyes lit up as well, clear as day through his mask.

"So kind of you to come to us, Night Lord. Let's see how you handle one of Khorne's chosen!"



Roll initiative and post your first non-surprise round of actions.

And to clear up any confusion: the 'ignore damage' thing he has here is a force field effect. For any rolls you make against the leader, feel free to throw in a d% roll to see whether his field kicks in or not.


Team Armoury-Lootin' (gregor,merope):

The Tide and Maya stood aside to let the maniac and Nicolai pass them. Gregor's quick sweep of the room spotted no movement amongst the remains, but did pick up on the gleam of brass casings mixed in amongst some of the ruined shelves and body parts. His best guess was that, with some time spent searching the team would likely be able to scavenge at least a box's worth of ammunition.

Merope's search proved more immediately fruitful; a small leather belt caught her eye amongst the dead. Tugging on it produced a small treasure from amongst the remains: 3 frag grenades, unused and apparently undamaged.

A howling sound came from down the tunnels a moment later; it was hard to tell just how far away the source was due to the echo, but it certainly sounded closer than the earlier crash of metal.


Team Tunnel Rat (rakdo, Nicolai):

The Tide and Maya stood aside to let Rak and Nic pass by, apparently deciding to stick with Merope and the heretek while those two did a quick sweep of the armory.

As the two men hit the junction between the main tunnel and the armory branch, a loud howl echoed through the tunnels. Looking down the tunnel in the direction it came from, the pair noticed several sets of yellow/red dots in the distance, bobbing and weaving in the darkness and apparently moving closer. An odd, chittering growl from nearby then caught their attention; peaking around the corner of one of the other side tunnels, only a few meters from them, was another mutant's head. This one held itself low to the ground, only its head visible around the corner. Where the first had had a wolflike visage, this mutant looked like someone had skinned a human head and replaced the jaw with a crustacean's mouthparts.


Consider combat time to start now. The one visible mutie is about 4m away at the lip of one of the other side tunnels, this one on the opposite side of the original tunnel the team had followed out of the barracks.

[LCP]

Charon

Pulling his combat knife from its sheath, Charon took a step back, straightening up from the crouch in which he had landed.

"Khorne's chosen?" he replied. "I've heard that claim from more dead men than I can remember. But as you wish." He pointed the tip of the knife towards the man's face. "I challenge you."

Barely waiting for a reply, he swung forwards, bringing his claw hammering down.

OOC: Free Action to draw knife (Quick Draw), Free Action chit-chat, Half Action Aim, Standard Attack.

[roll0]

[roll1]
[roll2]+16, Pen 9
[roll3]

ruh roh

[Destro_Yersul]

Armoury-Lootin'
Distracted from his looting of the armoury by the howl from the tunnel, Gregor turned to face the door they had left from. "Perhaps we should leave? There seems to be little of value here. Some ammunition, but not much else. I'd like to have a look at the motor pool, and I'd like to be elsewhere when those things arrive."

[LeSwordfish]

Loot and plunder
"Agreed." Merope replied, holding up the grenades. "But these should come in handy."

She slipped them into her bag and moved off down the corridor, back towards the noise, her charge following behind.

[Thragka]

Team Tunnel Rat

"Gah!" said Nicolai in surprise as the prawn-headed thing drew his attention. He took a moment to line up a shot with the tunnel-gun and snapped off a cloud of ball-bearing fragments at it.

"Fookin' prawns!"

Half-action aim; single called shot to its head. BS 47 + 10 (single shot) -10 (called shot with Deadeye Shot) +10 (short range) +10 (scatter weapon at short range) = 67.

[roll0]
[roll1] Primitive 8, i.e. max possible damage 12

If Rakdo acts before this and gets in the way, Nicolai'll draw his chainsword and close with it too.

[Rizhail]

Charon:

The Tide leader quickly counter-attacked, taking only a moment to set up his attack before striking. The spiked mace moved with startling speed and swept up into Charon's chestplate as the marine failed to bring his knife down to parry. The Night Lord felt a burning pain as one of the spikes successfully pierced the ancient warplate, though he knew by experience that the pain wasn't emanating from anything vital.

The attack was fast enough and strong enough to throw off Charon's own strike, his claw passing through the air near the Tide leader's head.

Pulling back half a step, the Tide grinned. "You are not the first Astartes I've slain, Night Lord, and you will not be the last," he called mockingly as he fell into a defensive stance. The mace flicked out again, the tip grazing Charon's knife-arm as the marine reacted to the strike. Though he held a defensive stance, Charon could tell the man was merely sizing him up; from the way the Tide held himself, Charon guessed he would throw himself back onto the offensive quickly.

The other Tide continued their retreat toward the armory without any command or comment from their leader, though two of the chainsword wielders held up their weapons in salute for a moment when the duel commenced.

OOC:

And of course the one time I have an enemy take an intelligent and cautious action, the penalty means he misses by 1.

Derp.

Charon's next action?



Tunnel-folks:


Nicolai and Rakdo:

Nicolai's quick shot missed as the mutant pulled its head back behind the corner, ball bearings ricocheting from the steel wall. Rakdo barreled the few meters to the mutant's tunnel and whirled into his usual attack pattern.

Rakdo:

The mutant not only had a crustacean face, but was covered in a mixture of chitin and normal hide. It also had two extra pairs of limbs growing from its ribs, each shorter than normal and ending in spine-covered claws. The beast was remarkably agile, able to contort its body out of the way of Rakdo's axe strike, but it wasn't able to avoid the downward stroke of his chainsword; the blade bit deep into its leg.

The creature let loose an odd, chittering bellow before attempting to throw itself at Rakdo...only to fall on its face as the mutant's injured leg collapsed under it. However, its bellow was quickly answered.

From about twenty meters behind it.

In his NVGs Rakdo could make out what looked like a moving wall, the effect he'd come to associate with looking at a lot of living things moving in a narrow space. The shapes he could make out amongst the mob filling the tunnel were unholy and disturbing, and it occurred to Rak that, were he anyone else, the sight might cause him to run screaming in terror. He'd never seen so many unnatural limbs, horrifying facial structures, or misshapen human forms in his life.


Nicolai saw some blood fly as Rakdo struck the creature around the corner, before the maniac backed up a step and the mutant's upper torso came back into view. From the way it bellowed and moved, Rak had apparently struck one of its legs. The thing had a horrible mix of chitin and flesh covering its upper torso, and several extra limbs were struggling to push the creature back to its feet.

Heavy steps from behind heralded the arrival of the others from the armory, as loud, unholy howling from Rak's direction similarly heralded the arrival of the mutant's friends.



Armoury looters:

The jog through the tunnels back to the main line was short. The group came upon Nicolai firing his pneumo-shotgun around a corner before Rakdo sprinted in the same direction, blades whirling. When the group reached the corner, Rakdo was standing at the next junction down the tunnel toward the barracks, the upper torso of another mutant sticking out of the tunnel. The beast had a humanoid form but a cretacean's features, with a disturbing jaw structure and several extraneous, chitinous limbs on its torso. It howled as Rakdo stood over it, his blades apparently dripping the mutant's blood.

Its chittering bellow was answered a moment later by an unholy cacophony of noise echoing up from farther down the mutie's tunnel.


((Everyone is back together after that one-turn-ish split))

The captive Tide sighed at the sounds emanating from Rak's tunnel. "You just had to piss off ALL of them, didn't you?"

[LCP]

Charon

Charon grunted in pain, stepping back with his knife raised to defend.

"The first you have killed?" he demanded. "Or just that toy?"

With a flare of burning fuel, his jump pack roared back into life. Leaping up off the dusty ground, he soared into the air.

OOC: Full Action: Disengage, 12m straight up. I assume this puts me at Low Altitude.

Free Action: switch out knife for bolter

[Rizhail]

Charon:

"It was the slaying of one of the Sons of Midnight that earned me that 'toy'," the Tide leader boasted, as though the name had any weight. Charon only remembered the Sons as a crew of post-Heresy renegades and wastes of space (and precious bolt ammo and spare armor parts).

The Tide apparently thought Charon was attempting to jump up and then land on him, as he kept on his toes and appeared ready to leap to either side.

It was only when the Night Lord switched to his bolter that it seemed to occur to the Tide that a jump pack equipped Astartes could hover. Charon could practically watch the thought enter the Khorne-lover's head as it wiped the grin from his face.

OOC:

Khorne-man spends a half action to take another guarded action (+10 to evasion actions until his next turn) and a half action to start moving toward the armory as he realizes that Charon isn't into that whole 'fair fighting' thing.

[LCP]

Charon

"The Sons of Midnight?" Charon called down at the retreating Blood Tide leader. He laughed over the howl of his jump pack. "And this makes you proud?"

Steadying his grip on his bolter, he took aim. "Let me show you what the sons of Kurze can do."

OOC: Half Action: Aim
Half Action: Semi-Auto Burst

[roll0] (+10 for aiming, +10 for short range, spending an Infamy point to give another +10)

Damage:
[roll1]
[roll2], [roll3] +9

[roll4]
[roll5], [roll6] +9

[roll7]
[roll8], [roll9] +9

All Pen 4

...Damn it. Unless there are more bonuses I'm missing, I missed by 3.

How much ground does Macey have to cover before he can reach the armoury?

[Rizhail]

Charon:

The Tide leader cursed loudly in several Chaos dialects as he began running faster to avoid getting shot. The trio of bolt rounds barely missed him, kicking up concrete shards and gravel around him as they exploded.

The other Blood Tide warriors, realizing what was happening, began running faster for the armory.

OOC:

No other bonuses that I'm aware of, unfortunately.

Chump has about 50m to go to the armory after this turn. He's running now, so Charon would have a -20 BS/+20 WS during your next action.

Khorne-dude is currently 21m from Charon (horizontally speaking).

[LCP]

Charon

Lowering his bolter, Charon watched the mace-wielder run. Auto-sensors in his helmet picked out assault vectors in lines of burning red as he flexed the fingers of his power claw, stooping forwards into a charge.

OOC: 21m? Sounds like charge range to me!

+30 for Berserk Charge, +20 for him Running.

[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]+16, Pen 9

Additional damage dice from Raptor:
[roll3]
[roll4]

Ending the round with a Quick Draw to get the knife out again.

[LeSwordfish]

Tunnel Rats
"Thank you for that detailed tactical threat assessment." Merope snarled, swinging her carbine to cover all the entrances she could see. "Care to elucidate before I gut-shoot you and let your screams draw them out?"

OOC
If we're on Combat time, readying the lascarbine and delaying a half action to shoot anything that appears. Single Shot rolled in spoilers below (I won't read the spoilers so as to not cheat on anything).

Half action single Carbine shot
[roll0] vs BS 40+10 single shot +10 Accurate +() range, size.
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]
[roll4]
[roll5]

[Destro_Yersul]

Tunnels
Gregor was hanging back, gun clutched in his hands, peering into the darkness and trying to make out the mutants beyond. The techpriest was thankful for, if anything, the choke point. The creatures could only come a few at a time, however many of them there were. "Stay and fight, or retreat?"

[Thanatos 51-50]

Down the Rabbit Hole
Rakdo moved into a crouch, ready to spring forward into the tide of monsters as it screamed towards him, and meet them in glorious battle, chains blurring. His teeth would be bared, their feral snarl on display, if not for the gas-mask.
"How is that even a question? Shoot them to little bits, watch how they fall. Watch them reach me, rejoice in the Sensation of Slaughter."
If there is a Receive A Charge action of something in that vein, that's what Rakdo is doing. If not, well... I guess we're going Full Defense.

[Rizhail]

Charon:

The Tide's skin once again flashed into molten brass as Charon descended, the Astartes again stopping dead in his tracks as the power claw failed to penetrate the Blood Tide leader's hide.

The Khorne-lover actually rocked forward under the strike this time, throwing his right leg forward to stop himself for falling. He brought his mace around in a rapid swing, throwing all of his strength behind the strike. One burning spine managed to drag across the Night Lord's chestplate as Charon pulled back from the hit, a burning sensation crawling across his chest as the swing went by.

OOC:

Should be 6 wounds after soak, I do believe.




Tunnel-Crew:

The only thing that truly saved Rakdo was how narrow the tunnel was.

The mutants were only able to effectively come at him two at a time, even those two barely squeezing around each other to strike. The first two mutants in the line didn't even bother trying to slow down, each of them extending their various appendages toward Rakdo as they attempted to simply run him down. The left of the pair was mostly human, save for the scythe-like blades of bone sprouting from its wrists and the nauseating, decaying state of its body. The right of the two looked like some sort of overgrown insect, its upper pairs of limbs ending in vicious claws.

Each proved to be easily motivated by pain, however, as their attempts to grapple Rakdo were only prevented by his chainblades crossing the mutants' path, drawing a little ichor as the two put on the brakes. The momentum of the mob behind them nearly toppled the two in front, and their was much roaring and howling from the tunnel behind them as the two muties sized up their opponent. It was obvious the mutants behind them weren't going to simply sit still, however.

While Rakdo blocked any available shots at the mutants in his tunnel, the party quickly found themselves a different set of targets: numerous glowing eyes in odd numbers and patterns were visible in the darkness on the party's right, from the direction of the tunnel opposite the barracks. Merope, Maya, and Nicolai all let loose down the tunnel, with Merope's careful shot apparently stumbling whatever beast was in the lead. The weight of fire from Maya's auto and the spread from Nicolai's tunnel gun capitalized on this and stopped the mob dead in its tracks, numerous bestial voices crying out in pain.

"I'm all for running, ma'am!" Maya called over the gunfire.

The Tide only seemed amused at the situation, however. "You think if we watch long enough, we can see them rip that fool's head off?"

OOC:

The second mob of mutants is about 30m down the tunnel from the party.

Also: any time a mob is engaged in close combat, the mutants behind the front one or two will be providing bonuses to charge attacks and strength-based checks as they try to push forward. You might be able to resist the knockback from a mutant or two, but understand that trying that against a lot of them is somewhat dangerous.

[LCP]

Charon

Hissing in pain as the evil weapon pierced his armour, Charon spread his arms and lunged forwards. This time he was not trying to bring his power claw to bear - instead, he tried to envelop his enemy in a crushing bear hug.

OOC: Aim, Standard Attack (Grapple!)

Let's spend that second Infamy point to get a +10 to this test. I don't like this guy.

[roll0]

[Rizhail]

Charon:

The look of surprise on his foe's face was priceless as Charon hurled himself at the Tide leader. To the mortal man's credit, he reacted quickly as the Astartes' arms closed around him, bringing his legs up and kicking off Charon's breastplate to get enough leverage to push himself out of the Night Lord's grasp.

Grinning like a mad man, the Tide once again took up a defensive stance, his mace held diagonally across his body and ready to intercept any attacks thrown his way. "How are those chest wounds treating you, Night Lord? The Son of Midnight had already drawn my blood by the time I struck him. If this is the best one of the Sons of Kurze can do, then I'm not impressed!"

[LCP]

Charon

Biting back his rage at the taunt, Charon watched for an opening. He itched to rip the smirking little creature in two, but he still had no idea of the limits of the man's sorcerous protection. Meanwhile, the man had already proven he could penetrate power armour.

"Enough games," he said. His knife clanked against his hip as it touched the mag-lock at his belt, the Night Lord drawing his bolter once again. Jump jets flaring, he leapt back into the air.

OOC: Having only 5 wounds left makes spending my bolt ammunition seem like much less of an extravagance. Disengage! If possible, Charon will take off at a 45o angle, rising 8m vertically while moving 8m towards the armoury along the same line this guy chose to retreat before (so that the hypotenuse he actually travels along is ~12m).

[Destro_Yersul]

Tunnels
Not for the first time, Gregor wished that the servitor had been able to come along with them. Whatever Rakdo said, the techpriest didn't fancy their chances against such numbers. "Grenades," he said to Merope. "Throw one into the mob. It'll cover our escape."

Raising the lasgun, Gregor fired a few shots into the mob in an attempt to dissuade them.

So, shooty times. Not sure if I get any bonuses for there being tons of the blighters. Gregor is firing on semi-auto. [roll0]

[Thanatos 51-50]

[Call of Rakdo 4: Tunnel Warfare]
"Yes! Fire! Las! Grenades! Death! Glory!" the maniac yelled over the din, Scything one chainblade into each mutant unfortunate enough to stand within striking range, before back away slightly to give his team a chance to fire into the mob.Half-action attack, then Disengage 2m back.
Axe to Guy Wot is Slightly Bigger, I guess? Can we call him the one on the left? Let's call him the one on the left.
Rolls:
[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]
[roll4]
[roll5]
[roll6]
[roll7]

[Rizhail]

Charon:

"Again with the coward's method! Fine then. Vez, hit him!" the Tide leader called out to his men as he dropped back into a defensive stance. The speargunner had just reached the armory when his boss called; turning where he stood, he took only a second to aim before firing his weapon.

The spear sailed through the air over Charon's head, the speargunner apparently unable to compensate for shooting a flying target.

"Vez, you're useless."


Rakdo and Friends:

Every member of the crew with a gun in hand was shooting at the second mob of mutants, attempting to keep the pack from closing in. The tactic seemed to be working as the second mob barely made any progress down the tunnel as ball bearings, lasfire, and autogun slugs pounded into the front of the pack.

Rakdo's fight wasn't quite as successful. His axe missed its target as the mutant threw itself at Rak yet again, attempting to grab him and drag him down under its bulk, though its own efforts to get around the axe ultimately foiled its attack. The second mutant faired worse as the chainsword split its chitinous torso, but it didn't go down.

The two mutants redoubled their efforts and pushed forward, forcing Rakdo back a few steps and allowing them to clear the edge of the tunnel. Their fellows pushed up behind them, trying to spill out so they could surround the swordsman in their midst before moving on to his comrades.

[LCP]

Charon

"I thought you were Khorne's chosen, little man," called down Charon. "Did he only teach you to fight with one weapon?"

Taking aim, he let his bolter do the rest of his talking.

Aim, Semi-Auto. On Mr Maceface, who cares about Speargun.

Short Range, Aim = BS 61
[roll0] - FFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUU
[roll1]+9, Pen 4
[roll2]+9, Pen 4
[roll3]+9, Pen 4

[Rizhail]

Charon:

The Tide leader opened his mouth to retort, only to be cut off as he dived to the right to avoid Charon's bolts. Apparently tired of his cat and mouse game with the Astartes, the man turned tail and ran for the armoury as fast he could.

The speargunner calmly reloaded his weapon, while his fellow Khornate scum ducked into the armoury.

[LeSwordfish]

Radco+ko
Merope pulled one of her newfound frag grenades from her belt, and snapped the pin out, holding the spoon down with her thumb. She waited until she had a clear line of sight to the horde, and hurled it down the corridor.

"EASE!"

She turned to Maya. "That means open your mo-" The grenade went off.

Half action draw, half action throw grenade. [roll0] to hit vs 40+10 (range?) possibly +size as well. [roll1] damage, [roll2] scatter direction, [roll3] scatter distance.

[LCP]

Charon

The humans were getting away. Options flashing through his mind, Charon briefly considered throwing a grenade after the speargunner and his friends - but they were nothing. Once the leader was down, they would be easy meat, not worth the waste of munitions.

Munitions he could scarce afford to waste on the leader either. Khorne's chosen knew how to flee, he would give him that; the man made for a hard target. Eyeing the man's retreating back, Charon flexed the fingers of his power claw and stooped once more for the kill.

CHARGE. COME ON!

[roll0]
[roll1] - COME ONNNNNN
[roll2]+16, Pen 9
Raptor damage: [roll3]
[roll4]

Switching to knife, as before

EDIT: Wait, you said before that doubles is bad for him, right?

[Destro_Yersul]

Tunnels
"We should go." Gregor said, as the weight of the mutants became increasingly apparent. If they could get Charon down here, it would be different. Very different. As it was, though, there were too many for even Rakdo to kill. From his position behind the melee, Gregor took a few steps backwards, firing into the press of mutants beyond the others.

Gregor takes a half move towards the closest door to outside, and fires a single shot towards the gang of mutants beyond Merope.

[roll0]
[roll1]

[Rizhail]

Charon:

Charon's efforts to murder the Khornate scum were once again met with failure; whatever effect protected the man kicked in again to stop the Night Lord's claw from tearing the mortal asunder.

But this time, the effect didn't go away. The molten bronze effect remained after Charon's claw was stopped, glowing steadily brighter. The man's eyes burned like coals and his veins became visible as glowing crimson webs under the molten effect on his skin.

He doubled over, screaming. His scream alternated between that of a man in great pain and the roar of a massive beast.

"ARGH! I ... I can FEEL THE WARP OVERTAKING ME!"

The speargunner decided that this was the best time to get out of sight, hightailing it into the armory and leaving the Tide leader alone to face Charon.

You're going to get a free turn or three. I cannot honestly have a mortal man with a normal willpower score acting normally while a Bloodthirster attempts to possess him.