IC: DH The Purity of Sacrifice

[Bennosuke]

Luis races down the tunnel chasing after the ganger. He passes the stumbled man with the face tattoos, roaring and swinging his axe. It looks like the fleeing ganger is out of reach, till suddenly the man's legs go rigid as he is suddenly stricken by Marcella's psyker powers. A man with a tangled mane of black hair and dark skin, the ganger shrieks in sudden pain as he tumbles to the ground. Luis' boots thunder down the tunnel till he catches up with to the writhing ganger, planting his axe with a crack into the back of the man's head.

Back at the scene of the skirmish, Xerros wades forward, las carbine wailing as it spits beam after beam into the remaining ganger as he struggles to his feet. The first bolt of energy takes the man in the leg, the next in the chest. He goes over backwards as his body ignites, bursting into an inferno of red flames.

[dojango]

Luis pulls his axe out of the body, wipes it on the rags and returns to the others. "I trust yer friends can make the bodies disappear," he says to Sola. "Don't want anyone to know these men died in front of their lair."

[Bennosuke]

As Luis is walking back to the group, he witnesses Sola standing over the downed body of one of the gangers, revolver screaming as it unloads round after round into the boy's now ruined skull. Her eyes light over and over with fire from each shot's discharge, and hatred plays in a rictus across her face.

Once every round is spent, she looks up at Luis and still snarling says, "What are we, your maids?" The questions stands for a moment. The rage remains like a mask on her face for several long seconds, before she looks down and spits on the dead body. After this her countenance softens, and she looks back to Luis. "Sorry," she says softly, "sure... I'll make sure we take care of it." After a moment's pause she says, "Actually, if you help me bring the bodies back into the tunnel, we can seal it off and it will be much easier to keep things hidden."

[BananaPhone]

Marcella


"There is logic in his words," Marcella says when it looks at the corpses.

"We shall dispose of the bodies and gather the assets for departure, yes?"

[Bennosuke]

With the help of the others, Sola pulls back the slab of metal that was concealing the passage entrance, and the group begin the bloody work of dragging the stinking ganger corpses into the darkness.

But when Marcella bends down to lift Georgy under the arms, his eyes open and he sputters and coughs. The ganger's skin is very pale, and his chest is covered in a clotting mess of blood and gore. He wheezes as he looks up at the psyker, eyes pleading. "What's going on," he asks with confusion, gaze almost roving about.

Sola catching sight this begins marching towards the two. She pulls her revolver, but fortunately never had the time to reload the weapon, and instead barks an order at Marcella, "Kill him. Kill him now!" The familiar fury has returned to the woman's face, and she looks down at the dying boy with mixed disgust and hatred.

[BananaPhone]

Marcella


Seeing Sola's dilemma, Marcella reached to her holster, withdrew her laspistol and spun it about on her finger in order to present the handle for the ganger to take.

[Bennosuke]

Sola takes the weapon from Marcella and places the muzzle against the dying ganger's temple. She pushes so hard that the metal actually forms a small divot in Georgy's flesh.

"Get back," Sola says to the psyker. Once Marcella is out of the way, Sola pulls the trigger. Georgy's scream is drowned out by the whine of the las pistol. The air is quickly polluted with the stench of burning flesh and hair and bone. Georgy's body twitches horribly for several seconds as his skull erupts into a small bonfire, forcing Sola to step back. Finally his arms and legs stop flailing, and with fire still in her eyes, Sola spits on this corpse as well. "Let's get the rest into the tunnel and get the hell out of here," she says flatly.

... Eventually the work of piling the corpses up and concealing them within the walls of the underhive is completed. "Let's get you to your train," Sola says flatly and with an air of confident finality. She leads the acolytes back through winding tunnels to the mouth of the hexagon shaped train station, standing at the lip of the tunnel's exit. "Thank you," she says to the acolytes, "be careful, and do everything you can to destroy those weapons."

[Wyndeward]

Sola takes the weapon from Marcella and places the muzzle against the dying ganger's temple. She pushes so hard that the metal actually forms a small divot in Georgy's flesh.

"Get back," Sola says to the psyker. Once Marcella is out of the way, Sola pulls the trigger. Georgy's scream is drowned out by the whine of the las pistol. The air is quickly polluted with the stench of burning flesh and hair and bone. Georgy's body twitches horribly for several seconds as his skull erupts into a small bonfire, forcing Sola to step back. Finally his arms and legs stop flailing, and with fire still in her eyes, Sola spits on this corpse as well. "Let's get the rest into the tunnel and get the hell out of here," she says flatly.

... Eventually the work of piling the corpses up and concealing them within the walls of the underhive is completed. "Let's get you to your train," Sola says flatly and with an air of confident finality. She leads the acolytes back through winding tunnels to the mouth of the hexagon shaped train station, standing at the lip of the tunnel's exit. "Thank you," she says to the acolytes, "be careful, and do everything you can to destroy those weapons."

Arl takes a moment to top off his rifle's magazine then helps police the area, then picks up the crate containing the xenos weapon, falling in with his comrades.

[dojango]

Luis watches calmly as she dispatches the wounded ganger. He had done just that a few days ago, after all. He takes the body of the man he had killed in a carryhold and tosses it in the rubble. "The underhive is a dangerous place," he mutters as they cover up the bodies. As Sola leads them back towards the train, he takes a moment to say to her, "I reckon Clan Tora and Boss Ezruth ain't gonna have much truck with the credit guild for while. Might be weakened by all this. Ya ken?"

[BananaPhone]

Marcella


Marcella peered at the containers within which were supposedly dangerous, alien weapons. As the others spoke, Marcella stared intently at that box, her mind trying to detect any residual mote of their former owners that may still linger.

Just enough to confirm their presence, nothing more.

ooc:

Spoiler

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Psyniscience roll for the weapons: (1d100)[15] vs TN 60

[Bennosuke]

Standing unnoticed at the lip of the tunnel, the acolytes can see where a familiar cadre of enforcers lackadaisically stand guard of the train station. Sola stays just slightly farther back, making sure to stay out of sight. She nods in agreement to Luis' statement. "You or your colleagues in the Guild will likely not be welcome down here again for some time," she states flatly, her eyes darting with slight anxiety towards the train guards.

As she speaks, Marcella opens herself up to the immaterium, using her powers to study the two boxes carried by her colleagues. After a moment of studied attunement, Marcella's senses are assaulted by terror that no human mind should ever be exposed to. Twisted skeletal faces gibber and laugh, their voices pounding in Marcella's head. Her nose begins to bleed as it is filled with the stench of rotten meat and human excrement. Marcella's feels the strange and distant memories of the expanse of stars; doomed and destined to fall under the grasp of gods who would delight in nothing more than the downfall of The Empire and it's rotting savior.

These weapons are somehow seeded with the power of Chaos, which has been impossibly twisted into their very construction.

Spoiler: OOC: For Marcella

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Great roll, but now Marcella needs to roll Fear 2 (WP-10). If she fails, Marcell is also likely to cry out or do something that may expose the group.

[BananaPhone]

Marcella


The Psyker grits her teeth and winces her eyes as a sliver of the Warp pries against her powerful brain. The unspeakable and intangible horror of the warp Gods crawled within her skull, their malign touch prying about the mental defences of her psyche in search of even the smallest means within which to enter her soul and forever taint her with the lurid contamination of their presence.

But she resisted.

Through a combination of sheer mental fortitude and will in the golden path of the God-Emperor of Mankind, Marcella physically pulled her head away from the boxes as if withdrawing herself from an assortment of sticky tendrils.

"Gah!" she exhaled, the mental battle she had just fought unseen to her compatriots but its residual affect registered in the fearful exhaustion on her face and the drop of blood oozing down from her left nostril.

Panting heavily, swallowing, looking as if she had just run a mile, the Psyker opened her green eyes and looked about as if to confirm she was still among the living materium. Her chest heaving and her breathing slowly getting back to normal, Marcella reached up and dipped the gloved tip of her right index finger against the humour above her lip and withdrew the token to witness a symbol of her astral battle.

Pursing her lips, swallowing and reaching into her pocket to withdraw a hankerchief with which to clean herself, Marcella settled and composed herself, her breathing returning to normal and her image cleaning up.

"That's them," is all she said with a gesture to the crates.

[dojango]

Luis shuffles over to Marcella and pulls out a piece of cloth from his pocket. It looks like it's been used to clean his pistol (which it has) and is encrusted with dirt and grime. As he leans over to offer it to her to wipe her nose with, he whispers, "Ya still got that token the bossman gave us? I reckon we should have it handy to deal with any... official problems..."

[BananaPhone]

Marcella

Marcella gently handed waved away Luis' offer with a gesture of her own cleaner piece of cloth.

To his words she nodded, reaching into a pocket with her right hand to produce the desired token that should terminate any suspicion from the guards they would doubtless encounter on their way to the surface.

[Bennosuke]

Sola is left watching from the mouth of the tunnel as the acolytes march across the hex, their uniform boots crunching on soot and rubble and splashing in small puddles of freezing toxic runoff. The group of enforcers stiffen at attention as the robed acolytes approach.

The senior officer, an unfamiliar man whose grizzled face peers out from his bullet shaped Flak helmet, steps forward to greet the group of assumed Credit Guilders. Shotgun slung over his shoulder, he asks for the group's badges.

After quickly scanning each acolyte's identification, he eyes the two crates with curiosity. "What you got there," he says, pointing with an armored hand. Though he does not seem to recognize or be too concerned about the boxes, he looks at them with a greedy curiosity.

[BananaPhone]

Marcella


"Stock imparted unto us by a client," Marcella said, bending the truth enough as to not be a lie.

"And we need to report in and secure it with our superiors. May we pass, please?"

[Bennosuke]

Marcella's statement seems to pique the man's interest. His lips pull back into something like a grin, revealing a maw of yellow teeth and a small black gap where a pair of lower incisors had been knocked out. "Very intriguing," he says with a chuckle, placing an unwanted hand on Marcella's shoulder, "any chance you'd uh, let me take a peak?" Fortunately the man's shaded visor was blocking his eyes, as Marcella was certain he had tried to give her a lurid wink.

[dojango]

Luis shakes his dirty gold cloak dramatically and puts his arm around the officer's shoulder. In his other hand he has a few thrones, which he holds out to shake the officer's hand. "Ya do good work, keepin' the upperhive safe from..." he indicates the tunnels leading away. "The credit guild does good and profitable work down here. We're goin' home after a big score, and we're willin' to share the wealth... but our boss is impatient and wants his **** ASAP, so we can't stick around, ya ken?"

[BananaPhone]

Marcella


It took all of Marcella's considerable willpower to not scrunch her face up at the guards advancements. Or reach into his nervous system with her mind and leave him flat on his ass.

"That would be violating Guilder-Client confidentiality," she explained flatly, before Luis made his move.

[Bennosuke]

The lead enforcer looks suddenly shocked by Luis sudden action. He shakes the man's hand almost passively, eyes going from the feral worlder to Marcella then back again.

(OOC: Dojango, wanna give me some sort of social roll at +20 to go along with this?)

[Wyndeward]

Arl shifted his weight ever so slightly as he slipped his hands under his cloak, gripping the stub pistol lightly, that it might be ready if things went sour.

[dojango]

"We've had a good day and had a successful deal. And we want to reward you an' yer men for keepin' the upper hive safe. The Guild likes yer work, after all."

Spoiler

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Rolled in the OOC thread, passed with an 18.

[Bennosuke]

The head Enforcer grins again, showing his cracked and missing teeth. He turns his head furtively towards his colleagues, before shifting his position in an attempt to obscure their view, while sticking out a hand to eagerly accept his bribe.

[dojango]

Luis finishes palming the coins into the man's hand and gives him a thumbs up gesture of approval. Once done he waves at the other guard and grabs his pack with the heavy crate and starts heading for the train.

[Bennosuke]

The man closes his fist around the handful of thrones. He grins and says, "Emperor bless you," before quickly spiriting the coins into a small sack on his belt. "Safe trip home," he says to Luis, before nodding to the other acolytes in more general address. He steps aside to usher the acolytes onto the train, ignoring the dirty look from the other enforcers.

(OOC@Dojango: How much money are you giving out?)

[BananaPhone]

Marcella

Marcella gave a cold smile. Sticking close to the crate, the psyker followed the group onto the train.

"Sooner we're topside, the better," she said once the doors had closed.

[Bennosuke]

(OOC: Okay, just going to keep things moving. Happy to time warp if anyone has anything else they want me to do. Otherwise, see below)

To the relief of the acolytes, the rail car eventually takes off before any gangers from either Sabay or Tora can cause trouble. The ride is not interrupted by the sudden appearance of any cloaked spy, and the acolytes escape the underhive without event. When the train opens, the acolytes find themselves back in the warmth, light and clean air of Hive Hapheastein's mid-level. The boarding station is decorated with large stone statues, depicting the anointing of Saint Drusus. A few enforcers and the odd proll mill about the station. Beyond this, towering stone structures gilded and painted in bright yellows and blues and eggshell greet the vision, and a teaming mass of thousands of toiling workers flows and shifts, filling the streets. Skyward reaching monolithic spires of the wealthy elite extend above the factories, churches and habs to disappear into the sickly cloudscape above. Though the midhive lacks the luxuries and safety of anything a noble would be comfortable with, this stands in stark contrast to the damp, freezing and toxic tunnels of the underhive, and though the acolytes' second trip had been less than a day, it is nearly a culture shock to return.

The trip back to the hideout is unimpeded, and when they return, the acolytes are greeted by a vox message notifying them that the shadowy Inquisitor Zarkov's Interrogator will be arriving in two days time to check on the progress of the acolytes and assist with the investigation.

Spoiler: OOC

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We are going to end the "scene" here. Each acolyte gains 600 xp. Please let me know how you wish to spend it in the OOC thread. Also, with a few days of "downtime", please let me know if there is anything you want to accomplish, such as requisitioning new gear or some off screen investigation. I will give everyone a day or two to reply, then will start the next scene with the arrival of Interrogator Ezekiel.

[dojango]

After stowing the contraband in the bottom of a closet at their safe house, Luis feels a lot better. More sure of himself, more sure of his skills. The underhive was vastly different than the frozen tundra he grew up in, but the same principles still apply. He spends some time finishing up his report for Havenshot... a drawing of a few Clan Raptor gangers standing around some boxes with spooky lines coming off of them, a drawing of the acolytes fighting the gangers, a drawing of a man handing a comically oversized bag of cash to a fat soldier, and finally a picture of some tech-priests throwing some crates in a fire.

The next day he spends hanging around Station Tollares, not just to relax but also to visit with a few information brokers who operate out of the alleys there. He starts asking around, maybe buying a few drinks, looking for someone who knows anything about this "Lord Durchess". Whether he's a true lord, where he lives, what his public sources of wealth and habits are, that sort of thing. If asking politely doesn't work, well, he's also figured out the best way to loom over someone, get in their personal space, to maybe encourage them to reconsider their decisions...

Spoiler

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(1d100)[82] v. 29 Inquiry, (1d100)[61] v. 44 Intimidate

Spoiler: Report

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Using the crude color sticks that some of the children in the habs use, he has illustrated some of the high points of the investigtion; a man shooting a bow at some mutated creatures, a man in red drinking a beer, a blond woman with lighting bolts shooting out from her heads and hands, another man shooting a rifle at a ganger, a man in red holding a severed hand, a drawing of boss half face angrily scowling, the acolytes pointing weapons at a smug-looking young woman, a drawing of a few Clan Raptor gangers standing around some boxes with spooky lines coming off of them, a drawing of the acolytes fighting the gangers, a drawing of a man handing a comically oversized bag of cash to a fat soldier, and finally a picture of some tech-priests throwing some crates in a fire.

[Bennosuke]

Spoiler: Luis at Station Tollares

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Luis spent the better part of the day navigating the labyrinthine rows of stalls and shops set up within Station Tollares. This had become an old haunt for the Feral Worlder, though he still found himself uncomfortable with the closed in spaces and vast crowds of people that pushed through the arterial-like network. Luis tried his usual spots; Fatima's Drink Hole, The Spice Stalls, and the dark cesspits the locals lovingly called "Johnny's Alley". The habbers were a guarded sort, mostly trying to go about their business, though most could not afford to ignore or agitate a Credit Guilder.

The information Luis gained from roaming around Station Tollares was fairly general, mostly things that the most uneducated of local would know. House Durchess was one of the smaller noble houses of Hive Hapheastein, with Lord Richardio Durchess being the head of the house. Unlike some of the larger houses, Durchess was not involved in mining or refining promethium, but instead invested in a number of merchant ships and Rogue Traders involved both in exporting the Hive's promethium, and in bringing necessary goods such as water back to the planet in exchange.

Interlude

The next day the Acolytes returned to Forge Enclave Omnicron-5038 with the weapons they had obtained from the underhive. The towering castle of pipes and wire and machinery stood in stark contrast to the surrounding more squat and less ornate buildings. Chimneys climbed to the darkened sky of the midhive, belching toxic gas clouds, and large pipes spidered out from the enclave to dive deep under the concrete ground.

Again the acolytes were greeted at the door by a number of lesser tech priests and eventually led back to the offices of Magos Petrovskii, high up in one of the largest towers of the forge enclave. However, this time the the acolytes did not meet Petrovskii in the middle of his works, but were instead ushered into a massive room lit only by dripping candles and the faint glow of a number of computer screens suspended from mechanical ceiling mounted limbs.

Magos Petrovskii sat at the center of the room in a massive throne-like chair, his cowl lifted over his emotionless mechanical face, with hundreds of cables running from various machines and monitors to jack into the web of sockets and joiners running up and down his sleeveless emaciated arms. The room smelled heavily of lubricant and some exotic incense, which filled the room with a dark haze. The Magos appeared deep in thought, not even acknowledging the acolytes as they are led into the room by a pair of silent ape-like servitors, each carrying an oversized chain sword that had been fused into one of their severed wrists. Even as the acolytes walk into the room, the Magos does not budge.

[dojango]

Luis doffs his selkie-skin cap and twists it in his hands. He says, "Yer Magosness, we have come through storm and seas to warm ourselves by yer fire. I bring salt and meat as a gift of thanks." He holds out a small bag of salt and a few strips of meat that he'd bought from one of the vendors at the station. He was always amazed at the great wealth of things these decadent hive worlders had laid out in front of them. "But, uh, we come to you to ask for your help. A powerful and high-placed man asked us to go recover some... heretical things... that the underhivers were gonna try and use in their wars. Recover them... and destroy them... and track down the people tryin' to sell the stuff in the first place. We've got the stuff and we wanna destroy it... might we trouble ya and yer clan to throw the stuff in the hottest incinerator ya got? For the good of the Storm-Father? I mean Emperor?"