Jumpers vs. 40k IC1: Worst. Isekai. Ever.

[Rater202]

Alexandra, meanwhile, heads off to look for that shrine.

Assuming that she finds it, and assuming that she isn't interrupted on the way, once inside she'll open to the door to her Warehouse and step in.

Alexandra's warehouse is pretty barren, she doesn't have very many items. She walks passed the box of "1 assload" of local currency to a door ont ehf air side, which opens up into the interior of a manor house.

Alexandra touches a finger to her temple and establishes a surface-level psychic connection. "Pamela? You there?"

"Yes... Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, it seems that my benefactor has colluded with two others of her kind and is having a spot of fun with us: Myself and two other jumpers just spawned into a particularly dangerous reality without or knowledge or a chance to obtain local powers or resources. I couldn't be certain that you two werren't locked away or something."

"So... We should stay in the warehouse until further notice?"

"Yeah, though there is someone I'd like you to meet if I can get the chance, I feel like you'd have a lot to talk about. Is Molly with you?"

"Yes. She's practicing her handstands but she's with me... She's going to be disappointed, she was looking forward to seeing what you look like as a boy."

"Yeah, well, she's gonna have to wait. Let her know what's going on and give her my love."

After that she leaves the warehouse, closes it behind her, and goes to find the others—perfect memory is a byproduct of one of her powers, so unless the pathway literally changes finding her way back shouldn't be a problem.

[Lord Raziere]

Alexandra:
Yeah you make your way back no problem.

Iota-Phi 34:
"The chemicals are made to manipulate the crude organic machinery of those around me, in exchange for them giving me monetary currency. A heretek like me needs a constant source of funds for my true works of experimentation without the vast resources of the Mechanicus. It is simply business."
He stops and thinks for a moment when you mention the word "scientist".
".....Archaic/obscure term detected: scientist. Searching memory archives....1 result found. You are referring to a Dark Age of Technology term for what was equivalent to a tech priest. This is highly anomalous. Ordinary Imperial citizens are not authorized to know such information. No blessings of the machine god mean your not Mechanicus. Possible explanations:
I. You are a member of the Inquisition. Probability of my termination: high.
II. You are a member of a Rogue Trader crew interested in archeotech. Probability of my termination: Low. But illogical for Rogue Trader to seek a random heretek in the underhive of Sibellus, there is any number of Mechanicus Explorators that would be more prepared to traverse the void in The Quest For Knowledge and be less heretical.
III. You are a heretic like me. Probability of my termination: Low.
Results inconclusive. But if you are Inquisitors, then you are taking a long time to purge me, and why intentionally use a term from a time of myth and legend known only though fragmentary records? Which either means you have a use for me, or are heretics like myself."
Ensara assures him, putting on a charming smile that could make devils lower their prices, showing her fangs.
"I assure you, we're not Inquisitors. Manyclops decided to help us out after a run in with the Enforcers midhive. We just want to...embark on our own Quest for Knowledge, surely you can help us in this?"
"....That is plausible. Very well. But I am still a business and your taking time away from other things, the forbidden secrets of the Mechanicus are not so worthless as to be parted with easily and I am in real danger of getting purged if I tell you such things, so I will trade you such information for throne gelt-"
Ensara seemingly pulls a sack of Thrones out of nowhere, the same coin currency as the one in Alex's box if she checked that, and hands it to Iota.
"...This is a lot of thrones. And ones minted from Holy Terra itself. Very well. What questions do you have for me?"

Meanwhile, Inquisitor Rhiannon:
She picks up the vox on her microbead and listens to Maiya's report.
".....I don't believe you." she says sharply.
"Its what the reading we got, Inquisitor. Cyniss insists that it is right."
"So let me get this straight: You expect me to believe, that you five rookie acolytes, sent on a simple psyker retrieval mission after receiving a report by local enforcers searched the Plaza of St. Drusus....and really found a psychic signature indicating a daemon or an Alpha Plus Psyker? That is what you honestly believe?"
"Yes."
"That....is impossible. An Alpha Plus Psyker could destroy this entire planet by themselves. A Daemon, depending on which one.....could probably do worse. Neither are sane or pure enough to work with subtlety to just scare enforcers off. If either is on the planet right now, we should be dealing with absolute mayhem, Chaos cultists coming out of the woodwork to attack everyone they see, a powerful entity of the warp raging around with impunity knowing nothing on this world can possibly stop them. Everyone would be scrambling to either kill it or evacuate. The idea that such an entity could be subtle and restrained is.....concerning."
"I thought Chaos's entire modus operandi was making cults to infiltrate the Imperium like this."
"Yes, but only as the beginning when they're weak. An entity this powerful? The invasion should've started happening the minute this being got on the planet. So...I'm ruling out demon. That requires preparation, cults, things like that. But it still doesn't explain Alpha Plus Psyker. A Gamma or Delta we have yet to find that I could believe, but anything above Beta grade tends to be completely mad-and even Gammas tend to either die or be possessed when we get to them. They also tend to be astronomically rare. I picked you all for your strong minds, so I'd hope your not overreacting to a stronger than expected reading like some melodramatic Monodominant."
"Look I'm just the arbitrator, you can talk to Cyniss herself if you want her to repeat what I just told you."
"I do."
Maiya shrugs and hands the vox to her.
"Yes Inquisitor?"
"Cyniss Darkhame. Are you sure about your reading that it is an Alpha Plus Psyker?"
"The reading was unlike any other psychic energy I've felt before. Not from the warp. Strange yet powerful. I have trouble figuring out what other explanation it could be."
".....Very well. I will go down there to confirm it myself. I myself have some psychic ability and more experience with such things than you. But if you turn out to be wrong and all this is just a bunch of acolytes soiling themselves over nothing special, you will be executed."
"F-for what?" Cyniss questions
"Wasting my time."

[Gold Leaf]

"Quest for knowledge is a fun way to put it, I suppose, but I mostly just wanted to talk to someone I have common ground with."

"Right, well, here's something on my mind - what does it take to become a sci-er, techpriest around here? Tests you had to take, degrees you had to get, that kind of thing."

[Rater202]

Alexandra returns to Manyclops shack and sits down outside it before closing her eyes.

She has many powers, but telepathy is one of her strongest, If she was so inclined she could even link the minds of billions at a time.

She reaches out to try and sort through the surface thoughts of the people of this planet. Nothing at all intrusive, she's just trying to get bearings on common knowledge and maybe a hint of where to go next.

She'll start on people near here and then spread out and doesn't intend to peak at more than a few hundred thousand individuals. It'll take some time but it's subtle enough that only people actively looking for psionic phenomena would notice.

What could possibly go wrong?

[Lord Raziere]

Iota-Phi 34:
He tilts his head, not quite understanding the question.
"That is a vague and broad question to ask, with many answers. The Adeptus Mechanicus serves many roles in the Imperium, with many ranks and specialized roles that we are trained and modified for. A tech priest could refer to anyone from the lowest Technographer to highest of Omniprophets, with many different requirements to meet for what you are aiming for."
Ensara clarifies.
"I think Ezekiel means what rank does it take to recognized as expert in scientific discipline enough to make new discoveries or new inventions."
"Ah. Well, that narrows it down but there is still a few possible ranks that could refer to do that, depending. they are all however, ruling ranks of the priesthood in contrast to lowly enginseers or lexmechanics. The term for a recognized master in their divisio is Magos, with combined with a title for their area of expertise, such as: Magos technicus, magos biologis, magos alchemys, magos xenobiologis, magos logis, magos physic, magos cybernetica, etc. The term for a jack of all trades in matters of knowledge is Magos Errant. Genetors in particular are an alternate name for magos biologis as focus on the organic form is strange to the mainstream of Mechanicus thought but serve vital roles to the Imperium. Archmagos is a higher rank indicating more experience and seniority, as is Archmagos Veneratus.

It takes many years of terran study to even become a lowly Enginseer, the most common position in the Adeptus Mechanicus serving the Imperium with repairs and practical knowledge of the electrical and mechanical disciplines, and many more years of study to rise to the rank of Magos. Enginseer was the position I held before I became a heretek, and the jobs constant demands of customization, modification, improvisation, quick repairs without proper ritual on the battlefield and so on made me realize that prayer was useless. candles were useless. sacred oil was....useful for lubrication but not for any spiritual reasons. This combined with the fact that Enginseers are looked down upon for not actually contributing to the Quest For Knowledge, made me realize that perhaps the only faith in the Machine God I needed, was within myself. That recognizing empty unnecessary steps that did not actually contribute to proper functioning or pleasing of the machine spirits, was in itself apart of the Quest For Knowledge. My heresy is that the Omnissiah and the machine spirits do not listen to our prayers, do not respond to any ritual beyond the pressing of buttons. They are only pleased by the proper steps being followed, and sometimes the steps we already know are mistaken. Though admittedly....in the case of something like a plasma reactor, following all steps we know of with precision and caution has demonstrably proven to be the best method, otherwise the machine can blow up, and we can't afford machines blowing up. The more complicated the machine, the more cautious we have to be. But anything other than actually interacting with the machine is just....performance."

Alexandra:
A single hive city of the Imperium is home to millions or even billions of humans and are arranged in a rough pyramid or conical shape- think a mountain but made of nothing but skyscrapers. Hive Sibellus, is the oldest city on Scintilla and its largest population center, making it probably billions. You are currently in the underhive, nearer the bottom. First to get it out of the way: You detect Ensara but her mind's defenses are strong- there are at least two defenses up on it, one is a barrier of mental magic in nature much like yours, but another is just....an odd sense of resolve and pure willpower declaring to the universe: "I Am Who I Say I Am. Nothing Else." mixed with this transcendently demonically-divine power of viridian flames that felt like rage, bitterness and fury, like being unfairly cast down and seeking retribution for injustice, like seeking freedom from chains to express ones power exhilaratingly unrestrained, like knowing the universe was once yours to rule and that it could be so again.

But enough about her. Extending your psychic senses past her to observe the underhives is that they are all gangs of some sort, and on the surface they are all fighting somewhere- whether it be over resources, territory, over something petty like having an actual lasgun or one leader insulting another, the underhive is basically constant anarchy with no expectation that they will be punished for anything they are doing except by the gun of another underhiver, But there is an undercurrent of hatred and bitterness towards those above them, of being pushed down here with the pollution and failed systems because the Imperium was too lazy to just straight up kill them all, of having to compete with people in the same boat despite having more in common with the other gang they're fighting than the other parts of the hive, hatred of the rich and working class for thinking they're better than them, for ignoring them at best and hoping they die at worst. There is a desire there, to fight back, to punch upwards, to do SOMETHING against them even if its not the best thing or the right thing. These feelings are in some ways not much different from those of the viridian flames, only much less grand. Underneath that is a feeling of fatalism: they know if that if they rebel the Planetary Defense Forces will respond and they will be nothing but a delay to buy time for the Imperial Guard to get here and defeat them anyways. They know that nobles sometimes send in armed expeditions to gain antiques from places down here not caring who dies, that sometimes a cult thats apart of the Ministorum called the Redemptionists sometimes insist on coming down here to do purges of mutants and scum with chain swords and flames. They know that this Hive Sibellus of Scintilla and that this is the capital of the Calixis Sector, that Rogue Traders pass through this planet between here and someplace known as the Koronus Expanse engaging in something called the Cold Trade which is the trade of illegal xeno artifacts and technology, but that it passes through Hive Tarsus not Sibellus since while Sibellus is the capital, Tarsus is the center of commerce on Scintilla with other planets, they know this because there is smuggling between the two hives across an incredibly hot desert which Tarsus is for some reason built in the middle of, Emperor only knows why but the orbital docks are geostationary above it so its whats used.
You over hear the thoughts of some person who calls themselves a "Malifixer" apparently a criminal that knows about the law more than most:
The system of the Adeptus Arbites and Enforcers are set up so that they don't have to take people to be judged for their crimes, but rather do on the spot punishments as soon as possible by either following the law of the planetary governor for an enforcer or consulting the book of judgment for an Arbitrator. This is because the legal system of Terra and Hall of Judgment sounds quite frankly, ridiculously overbuilt. Apparently it takes centuries for a single judgment to reach a verdict on a case and the punishment is rendered upon the person's descendants. That there is so many precedents and laws that Judges spend their entire lives scrutinizing over what the right decision is to make. I bet its all rubbish, no one has that kind of time. The miles upon miles of lawbooks in the Hall of Judgment I can believe-just at look at how slow the Administratum can be- but I bet the Judges don't even look at them and decide the punishment in the first few minutes then hold off on pronouncing the sentence intentionally so some other finds it convenient to need another penal legion to fight sometime down the line or something like that. I bet the Judges aren't punishers of the guilty, they're kidnappers for the Imperial Guard in disguise.
Then there are some....other thoughts that are more directly rebellious and chaotic however:
There is a cult here, one of gangs instead of hating the fighting, love it. They thirst for battle, to spill blood. They hate magic in all its forms, and they hate the Imperium with a far greater intensity than the people around them and they're looking to recruit people to join their ranks. They worship a being called Khorne and they wish to do battle with the corpse Emperor's forces in glorious battle for the sake of it, want to draw upon the underhive's desires for revolt and revenge add more skulls to the throne, knowing that their strength and fury is the only justice in this world. yet mixed with that are plans to fight smart- without magic, but smart. Their plan is direct: unite the underhive under their cult-gang through a series of duels to prove that their leader is the strongest then the underhive unified, convince them that the Emperor has done nothing for them and that Khorne was a god of revolution and freedom through personal strength that would allow them to take back their fate into their own hands, and that while it was them spinning a god of bloodshed, war and violence as this, they also on some level believed it to be true. Blood For the Blood God.

A second cult worships a god known as Nurgle, and radiate an odd....acceptance. Acceptance of everyone no matter their differences, but also an acceptance that all the world is doomed and rotten. They are happy, for they no longer care whether it all decays, whether they die, other people die, whether anyone dies. Why fight the inevitable? To them the Imperium was foolish for continuing to do so. Foolish for all the work they do. Why bother maintaining anything when it was all going to fall apart anyways? The Imperium are fools trying to climb up a slippery slope, trying to go against the natural order, so they the worshippers of Nurgle will show them all the plaguefathers love by finding the right way to spread a deadly disease throughout the city- all who don't accept Nurgle, will die and all those who embrace him will know the joy of accepting decay, disorder and entropy. Nothing was perfect after all, and nothing was ever going to get any better, so why bother, why care? They were just happy that they were apart of the plaguefather's family now.

Inquisitor Rhiannon:
She has come down to the plaza to check the psychic signature, examining it using the witch-sight...and while she does so, she sees the telepathic field extending below her. It was big. She estimates that this matches...a high delta level psyker which can read all the minds of a good-sized town simultaneously, which is about what this is doing. This psyker is at least one of the top four ranks aside from Alpha-Plus for certain, and alone makes this find very rare, and dangerous. But Innocence Proves Nothing as the saying goes, they could just be hiding the true power, and that little sun of psychic energy at the center...she didn't know what to make of that. This is the same odd energy in the plaza, and if they were that restrained in the plaza, why not be restrained again? But why are they reading minds in the underhive? Was the question even important? Maybe it was the madness finally showing itself. Her job was to eliminate threats, not let her curiosity overtake her. Bad things happened to Inquisitors that placed learning forbidden knowledge over eliminating the threat, and she was no Radical. The unhealthy fascination of some her colleagues and the horrors that it has led to is something she is familiar with. She could try to snag this oddly restrained psyker as an asset for the Imperium, but she needed to play it safe: such restraint could be just something very powerful and deceptive. Tzeentch preyed upon hope like that, offering something enticing before the imperial agent and watch them fall into the trap like a mouse to cheese.

Best not do so. If it was some shard of the Emperor, surely he in his divinity could let her know himself. She waits for some vision or revelation from the God-Emperor for a moment. None came. Yeah she didn't think so.
"....This is definitely serious. Maybe or maybe not Alpha-Plus, at least Delta, but I'll accept it as valid to treat it like one. Things can always get worse after all. However even if its Delta we will still need to marshal more forces than some acolytes, and its best to let the other Inquisitors of the conclave know about this before anything is done, the conclave is stationed right in this city after all, I don't think they'd appreciate being unaware of a powerful psyker while we try to take it down without them knowing. Let us go back to the Conclave, the easy part is over."
"...Query: What is the hard part?" Grant asks
"Politics." she says with venom.

[Gold Leaf]

Ezekiel nods to confirm that was his meaning.

"An agreeable sentiment indeed. I think you and I might just get along very well, friend."

"Anyways, I'm an accomplished physicist and biologist, so I assume that translates to 'Magus biologis' and 'Magus physic' respectively?"

Ezekiel's thought are a mixture of disgust at how dystopian this world seems to be, glee at meeting someone who practices science and denounces superstition just like him, and wondering if his disdain for magic makes him a heretic to both priests and techpriests.

[Rater202]

Alexandra gets up to go find the others.

[Lord Raziere]

Iota-Phi 34:
He answers
"Exasperated Correction: MAY-GOS. not Magus or Magii. Tech priests are not psykers or witches. While it is possible to build devices to manipulate the Immaterium, it is generally not a good idea to do so and is considered tech heresy."
"Wait, what is the Immaterium?"
"Curious Observation: Odd. You use terms from the Dark Age of Technology yet your ignorant of this? The Immaterium, commonly known as the Warp by those who travel through the void, is the medium by which all ships in the Imperium use to travel at faster than light speeds. It is also the source which psykers draw their power from."
"Why this Warp a secret from the common public? Manyclops didn't seem to know about it."
"Because it is a nightmarish dimension full of peoples thoughts, emotions, beliefs and so on taking the form of daemons that want to kill or corrupt you into being one of them. If people knew that passing through this dimension risking being attacked by these beyond material entities if the gellar field isn't turned on, is how space travel worked, no one would want to go. Making technology to manipulate it, if its not a warp drive or a gellar field, is dangerous. Similarly, psykers are more vulnerable to possession by demons than most-their minds are gateways into the Materium. That is why Psykers tend to be taken away and the Ministorum preaches hate against the witch."
"Then....why bother with the Warp? It seems more trouble than its worth."
"Because warp travel is vital for the Imperium's survival against its enemies. Without it, all planets in the galaxy would be alone and unable to call for backup to fight against the horrors out there. We'd be stuck with slower than light travel."
Then Alexandra comes in. Ensara looks at her.
"Hey Alexandra, whats the rush?"

Inquisitor Rhiannon: Endure Inquisitorial Politics
Reporting the existence of this psyker to Lord Inquisitor Aegult Caidin, who calls a meeting of Inquisitors about this. Normally Inquisitors act on their own, but given the importance of Scintilla and the Tricorn Palace to this sector and the Calixian conclave of the Inquisition and the possibility of an Alpha Plus Psyker not being off the table, it is decided that all hands on deck are needed. Rhiannon gives her report to the assembled Inquisitors, telling them what they found. What you must understand, is that the Inquisitors are not an overly formal organization, and mostly cell based. Thus the discussion has no real rules to it- only the Lord Inquisitor has any true rank above anyone else.
"I recommend we form an elite strike force of our best Throne Agents to find the psyker with utmost stealth and competence, kill them quickly and silently and then we'll be done with it. The sooner this is over with, the sooner we can get back to business as usual like taking of Malfi."
She says finishing her report. Then another Inquisitor stood up, Jethro Vevarn. Rhiannon hated him. A Puritan Monodominant hardliner to his core. It was people like him that made her job harder.
"Fellow Inquisitors, loyal agents of the Emperor, I ask you: Why do need an elite team of throne agents in some complicated plan? This psyker is in an underhive! Slums full of mutants, witches, heretics, traitors and scum! Let us simply burn the whole the underhive down, we won't be losing anything of value. The underhive doesn't contribute to the Imperium's functioning like the faithful and pure working class! Is it not said, that it is better for 10,000 innocents to die than let one guilty person go free? Than let one dangerous, Alpha Plus Psyker, go free? This psyker will be incredibly powerful and we'll need all the force we can to take it down! The lives of the underhive around it in that light, are acceptable sacrifices if it means the rightful death of this witch. They are probably all heretics and degenerates who don't contribute anyways, if anything we'll be doing the Imperium a favor if we got rid of them all instead of taking the surgical route! I say burn the underhive, burn it all! BURN THE HERETICS!"
Rhiannon says back
"No. The fires could easily get out of control and spread to the rest of the hive. We'd be committing more resources than we really need to do this, the underhivers down there are only Hereticus Minima in terms of threat, like any other imperial citizen. Send in a small competent strike team, kill the psyker quickly and quietly and we won't have to waste resources on a bunch of common criminals when we need to focus on bigger threats. This is just Monodominant speechifying to make us kill anything that isn't a pure human on sight, when we all know that that the Imperium runs on a lot of things that Monodominants would want us to destroy out of principle."
"Oh come now, this is just wishy-washy Amalathian politicking to keep to the status quo and keeping in everyone's good graces. We won't win Mankind's struggles against the Xeno, the Daemon, the Heretic if we don't make an effort to change it by purifying our society of the corruption underneath! He is called The God-Emperor of MANkind for a reason, not mutantkind, not witchkind, not xenokind. We burn down the entire underhive along with such a dangerous psyker, and that can only be pure victory for the Imperium!"
"Or"
a third voice calls out
"Killing this Alpha Plus Psyker might be worst mistake we could make."
They turn and see Amendera Varanius, known Inquisitor of the Xanthite faction. Rhiannon sighs, and now one of Radicals has started to speak. Oh Joy.
"When we could enslave it to our will to serve the Imperium instead." Amendera says with a confident smirk.

[Rater202]

"While performing a base telepathic scan of the sounding area, just surface thoughts, nothing intrusive, I made note of two reasonably sized cults. One devoted to a being called Korne and one to a being called Nurgle. Both are planning quite a lot of death and destruction of this community and the larger city above and I cannot abide such things. I would inquire if either of you would be interested in assisting me in nipping this problem in the bud?"

[Gold Leaf]

"Now, things like that, faster-than light travel, that's what interests me. Hold on, I've got my ECHO somewhere here, do you mind if I start recording this?" Ezekiel starts rummaging around in his pockets for his ECHO recorder. He is interrupted by Alexandra's entry.

"Cultists? I-sorrry, did you say Nurgle? Anyways, I was quite enjoying talking to Iota-Phi here, but I suppose I can come help. If only because I can't stand cults.

"By the way, I recognise the name Korne. Earlier, I was thinking about how overrated magic is, and I was notified of two individuals who were apparently greatly offended by that. Korne was one of them.

[Lord Raziere]

Iota-Phi 34:
"Incorrect. From my experiences in the Imperial Guard, the followers of Khorne would not be offended by saying magic is overrated, they would wholeheartedly agree and want you join their cult. That is WORSE than the god being offended, because that means he looks favorably on you. You are correct in the case of Tzeentch however, their cults love sorcery, hope and knowledge-but also deceit and schemes. Go- if those cults are here, they need to be eliminated. I'll explain more after-"
He goes over and picks up a lasgun
"-Because I'm coming with. Chaos needs to die. and if your confident that you can defeat them, then I have faith that the Machine God sent people capable of doing so."
The notification said they remembered it, not why. Also you receive a notification:

If only because I can't stand cults.

Notification: All Chaos Gods will remember this.

"On the jumps I've been, cults can be good or bad depending on how much of a jerk their god is, but I don't personally worship deities. Don't need them to have a moral code, and you kinda stop seeing the point when you can kill spirits. But these cults? They don't sound like good people at all. and I do always like a chance to kick ass and take names."
She grins and clenches her fists, as she begins running to find them.

Okay, so your going to fight the cultists- but which one do you go to? They are in separate locations and don't seem to be operating with each other.

Rhiannon:
She watches as two opposed Inquisitors begin arguing:
"Hah! Of course a Xanthite like you would propose this. Such consorting with the warp can only lead to heresy and damnation." Jethro dismisses her. "We know the protocols for this: Alpha Plus Psykers are too dangerous to let live unless their capture is nearly assured. And if we're killing it, why stop at one? If its truly a Alpha Plus, there is going to be a lot of destruction anyways, might as well make sure its destruction that benefits us."
Amendera replies
"Think about it my fellow Inquisitors! If this truly is as she says, then Alpha Plus Psykers are both incredibly rare and we cannot convince them to join the Imperium normally due to their minds- so why not try more....arcane methods? Bind them to serve us like a servitor or an animal? If we could have a single Alpha Plus Psyker, we'd have an asset to the Imperium not seen in ten thousand years. We could defeat traitor primarchs, turn the tides of battle on various warfronts or even replace the Emperor with this psyker to power the Golden Throne! Think of the possibilities! Don't let this Monodominants inflexibility get in the way of grasping for something greater, he'd kill an Astropath on sight if he didn't need them to send his messages."
"More Xanthite radicalism that will only lead to our doom thinking we can control what should just be destroyed. We do not just fight for Mankind's survival but its purity, we can't forget that." Jethro says
Rhiannon says back
"We are not sure if its Alpha Plus. It is not behaving like one and might just be a Delta. The only evidence we have for it not being Delta is its energy being unlike anything we haven't seen before. The Warp is a strange place that defies conventional logic. It might be an anomaly that we have no idea about."
"Could it possibly be some xenos?" says some Inquisitor from the Ordo Xenos group "Your report says they're human but what if they're a shapeshifter like a lacrymole and just have weird psychic rules unique to their xeno species. then that explains the inconsistencies. Sure a human can't handle such strong psychic power, but nothing says there isn't some xeno that can't."
"Problem with that" Rhiannon replies "Xenos tend to not come alone. I only detected one psychic signature like it, one psychic sun in the witch-sight."
"So? rogue traders come through here, maybe its some solitary xeno some fool rogue trader captured then it escaped, or some sanctioned xeno whose records of being such are lost in the depths of the Administratum. Or just some survivor of a xeno species the Imperium has already rendered extinct and that we'd find what it is if he had the time to look."
Rhiannon shakes her head
"What exactly we're dealing with is getting academic. Let adminstratum scholars speculate on it in the coming decades after we've dealt with it, ensuring the Imperium's safety. What matters is that its psychically powerful, capable of restraint and oddly enough mercy, and thus planning. It was assessing the underhive by extending its senses. I can only conclude that this being is more dangerous than Alpha Plus Psyker because of its ability to plan and think, because its wielding its power with a purpose- a purpose we do not yet know."
Jethro replies
"This is all sounding like the work of the Archenemy. Don't fall for the tricks and traps of the daemon! Just burn the whole underhive down to cleanse it of its filth! If this were another planet I'd just straight up recommend Exterminatus and call it a day. Your really overthinking this."
"Please remember Inquisitor Jethro Vevarn" Rhiannon says icily "That Exterminatus is a last resort, wasting planets is not something the Imperium can afford."
"I disagree, many would question our right to consign a billion souls to oblivion- as Inquisitors, we should remember that we have no right to let them live. There are mutants and scum down there, so there is probably heretics and witches there as well. Nothing worth saving."
"I still say that capturing this Alpha Plus Psyker can be worth it." Amendera insists.
"We are beginning to argue in circles" Rhiannon says "Lord Inquisitor Caidin, what is your decision on this matter?"
They look up to the Lord Inquisitor, who is silently pondering this discussion.

((OOC: also, Gold Leaf I forgot but you probably should've received notifications like these for things your character said earlier:

And I don't really do drugs

Slaanesh will remember this.

They're so in support of everything scientists like myself are working against, that it's almost personally offensive

Tzeentch will remember this.))

[Gold Leaf]

"I see. You'll forgive me for making the assumption that someone who can read my thoughts would be a fan of magic, right?"

Oh... these are real deities and not just passing mind readers? That's a little troubling.

"In any case, I think we'd better go and fight the Nurglers first. How about you?"

[Rater202]

"I'm an Amazon, blessed by the gods to lead by example and defend the world from evil. Didn't see any of them out there when the world was overrun by corpses that walked like men and hungered for the flesh of the living. The only God who was active was Thanoseid, ruler of the malevolent half of the New Asgods, and h was more interested in trying to claim what remained of the Earth and corrupting the people who survived the first outbreak."

"And yes, Nurgle should be our first priority. You can punch a bunch of violent idiots but you can't punch a pandemic."

[Lord Raziere]

Jumper Gang Vs. Nurgle Cult
With your mental powers, you focus in on the nurgle cult hideout, which as you get close, really stinks. Just a horrid stench. You go in, There are worn and dirty green banners of the symbol of nurgle on the wall, there is an idol to Nurgle, the plaguefather at the back with a few dozen cultists in about three groups in filthy robes who look like they haven't cleaned themselves ever listening as a crowd, and priest preaching to them who outright has green disease skin, with boils, tumors and rotting flesh upon him. Far from being clean, this space looks like there is mushroom and mold gathering or even being intentionally cultivated, and you know there is more people in this building in other rooms, this just seems to be a public prayer kind of space. The priest was in middle of a speech when he sees you guys
"And so it is the plaguefather said- oh hello, are you here to embrace the joys of Nur-"
Iota-Phi shoots him before he can finish his sentence, hitting center mass
"agh!"
he staggers back, clutching at his burned wound in his chest, he pulls his hand way the hole in him has mushrooms, maggots and centipedes wriggling around inside of him.
"Insulting One Liner: Your cult is nothing but rejecting proper cleaning rituals and your god is a germ."
Iota-Phi
"How did you find us so quickly? No. No matter. My fellow Children of the Plaguefather! Kill these worshippers of the Corpse-Emperor! They clearly wish for the inevitable to come faster. How impatient of them."
They will all pull out an autogun and the rest of the cultits here will pull out pistols and sacrificial daggers, all of them disturbingly smiling while they do so. Not in joy at combat, but seemingly in some strange serenity, with mushrooms and diseases growing here and there on their faces. As if nothing mattered to them anymore. They will aim their guns and fire in your general direction, Iota-Phi seeking cover behind a pillar while Ensara just straight up in a whirlwind of arm motions, catches or deflects all the bullets coming for her with her bare palms.

Then she smiles wickedly, showing the bullets still clutched in her hands then says
"My turn."
She then throws back the bullets like a cloud of shuriken, the bullets suddenly igniting with viridian flame as they fly into a group of cultists to the right, piercing right through them and setting them on fire with those strange green flames, her green Nadir caste mark glowing on her forehead as she calls her out her attack:
"Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Style: Flickering Moonsilver Approach
Suddenly her form flickers and images of her appear around the dozen or so nurgle cultists she is focusing on, she makes punches from the distance and her image hits the cultist in the stomach breaking their bones, or makes a karate chop that slices through their flesh like a blade, the cultists looking around unsure of where she actually is, trying to attack but hitting nothing. One of her images even picks up a cultist by the leg and uses him to hammer another cultist to death in one blow before disappearing or appears in the middle of six cultists to spin kick them in a circle, the kicking hurts but the faint red tornado formed from her spinning shreds them to bits for sure like she was some deadly ballerina. It was hopeless for the cultists- none of the images were actually her. Only where she potentially could be, and with the style she is using even potential attacks could kill.

Leaving the other two groups of cultists to you guys.

[Gold Leaf]

"Ugh, this smells like how the word Nurgle sounds. I'm wearing a helmet, how am I still catching a whiff of this stuff?" He must sound crazy even to the other two Jumpers with that line, since his helmet has been invisible the entire time.

Ezekiel's method of attack is much simpler than Ensara's. He starts by throwing out a tiny device which immediately projects a wide energy shield, just shorter than Ezekiel and curving inwards slightly. Ezekiel himself then crouches behind the A-Wall, swaps to his Smart Pistol, and starts firing off shots that appear to be amplified as they pass the through the shield from the back.:These amps, combined with the fact that smart pistols never miss their target, means he should be busting cultist heads with speed and power.

[Rater202]

Alexandra prefers the subtle approach.

She links her mind to all of the cultists in her designated group... And then she thinks about them all really hard.

One of Alexandra's perks, among other things, is noted to grant telepathy on par with Charle's Xavier when he is equipped with Cerebro.

You know how he said in the movie that if he thought about a specific mutant too hard it would kill him? And later he is almost brainwashed into doing that to every mutant on Earth?

...Yeah. That wasn't made up for the movie, X-2's plot was lifted almost entirely from God Loves, Man Kills, a canonical graphic novel.

Now note that Alexandra also has a separate perk giving separate psychic power capable to "Ex-Man" or "Dark Firebird."

Her designated group of cultists are going to be feeling very uncomfortable in a few seconds. Several of them capably already smell toast or taste metal.

(OOC: I'm assuming that this kind of thing only works on Mooks.)

[Lord Raziere]

Past: On the way
"Yeah, this is more foul smelling than the time I spent on Grixis, and that was an entire plane of bones and undeath."
She comments back to Ezekiel.

Jumper Gang Vs. Nurgle Cult:
The cultists head explode in a shower of blood and infected gore, some of their blood being green as his pistol bursts each head one by one with precision, their own bullets bouncing off the shield. Meanwhile just seem to....miss Alexandra, their minds being distracted by her focusing on them and the blood running out of their skull and bursting into green fire then just.... fall over dead. Iota-Phi meanwhile shoots dead a couple cultists that were coming around the side to keep them from ambushing you, thinking that your either a psyker and thus often not the most durable person in the squad or normal if skilled human in the case of Ezekiel. He stops to marvel at the shield Ezekiel puts up, seeing the cultists clearly being slaughtered.
"What wondrous technology....You can project a conversion field like that as a wall? I've only seen such things like that built for personal defense of high ranking members of the Imperium."
Alexandra and Ensara senses that there are three other rooms with smaller groups: One where there is a group of cultists looking at maps on tables trying to figure out a place to unleash their plague, a second room and group where they are carefully making their plagues in metal oil barrels and other improvised chemical containers, and third that seems like a ritual sacrifice room from what you can sense from their minds with cultists setting something up without knowing your here- preparing to sacrifice someone who they consider a heretic. This current room seems like a public one where they converted people to their cult and preached to their initiates. Ensara will describe all this out loud then ask
"Which one do you guys want to take? Each of us can probably take one room. The plague-making room they have is probably going to be the most dangerous, while there is someone that should probably be saved in the sacrificial altar room."
"Affirmative, we don't want them to summon a daemon." Iota-Phi says. "That ritual needs to be stopped."

[Rater202]

"Do either of you have heavy-duty fire powers? The kind that can just take out a whole room? My preference would be to handle the alter, rescue the victim, but, well."

She snaps her fingers and a small tuft of emerald green flame alights at the tip of her index finger. "Fire is the most effective way of cleansing something of disease."

[Gold Leaf]

"Oh, well, I didn't invent it if that's what you're thinking. They're fairly standard-issue in the Militia. I would have preferred the grappling hook, but you take what you can get."

"I have heavy-duty firepower, but I don't think it's necessarily safe to pull that out indoors. Here, I'll go take the map room. It might be useful to learn the geography of this place."

Ezekiel swaps to his Gel Cannon and fires a splat of white conversion gel on the ground. He then switches to the portal gun and fires a blue portal onto the gel, currently closed. "This is just so I can get back to this room more quickly. Also partially because I wanted to show off my portal gun."

[Lord Raziere]

Ensara:
"I am a Pyromancer of Red Mana comparable to Chandra Nalaar at the very least. Its possible I'm far more powerful than that, but that should be more than enough to take on a single room."
She had been mostly learning martial arts and Ki on Gaia, so she hadn't fully explored her capabilities as a planeswalker after she finished that Jump.
"and yeah, Portal guns are pretty cool, I was showing off my martials art just then, gotta take some joy in showing off what you earned on other worlds am I right?"
"Confused Exclamation: Wait WHAT!? A gun that fires portals? Thats dangerous, does it use the the warp!?"
"It does not."
"WHAT!? portals without using the warp!? Thats....good news actually but.....is that even possible? I don't think that possible....nevermind we need to focus on these cultists for now."
He will go with Ezekiel to the map room and open fire with precision at the cultists who are busy looking at the maps and arguing over which place is best to put the plague barrels, which stops when one of them falls over dead from Iota's shot, the laser burn a hole through his head.

Meanwhile Ensara gathers red mana into the palm of her hand quickly going over to the room with the plague-makers mixing things in barrels of sickly green liquid, surrounded by rot, decay, mushrooms and the like, grimacing she throws a fireball of pure orange and red flame, not traveling far before it explodes into a fiery conflagration, spreading and burning all the rot and carcasses and containers full of germs and mold, the cultists within screaming as their bodies to are reduced to charred corpses. Even the air within catches fire a bit as it burns away the spores. She quickly seals the room with an ice wall, her hand glowing with blue mana to keep the fire from spreading.
"I'll burn the rest of this rot when we get out."

[Gold Leaf]

Ezekiel swaps back to his Smart Pistol and begins firing bullets aimed right at the cultists' heads. Iota-Phi might notice that Ezekiel doesn't even have to aim at them; he simply looks in their general direction, and the technology allowing the bullets to change direction midflight does it work.

[Rater202]

Alexandra, meanwhile, heads to the ceremonial room and immediately restrains everyone she sees with bands of green flame. The flames won't burn what she doesn't want them too.

[Lord Raziere]

Jumper Gang Vs. Nurgle Cult:
Ezekiel and Iota have taken this cultists by surprise so a chunk of them just go down by surprise and the rest follow soon after, Iota notes this but doesn't comment as he is too busy aiming at the few he gets while the smart bullets all curve and hit their hints in bloody chunks, any shots they do take are hasty and seem to go wide as they weren't expecting a fight and don't seem well trained in combat, like they are militia level discipline at best. They are soon all dead on the ground and the maps are there, and while they were focusing on the sewers and lower level, they do have the entire city mapped....well as best parchment can map something like this? Hive Sibellus seems to be this conical megacity, in terms of size its basically a man-made mountain, half the maps are vertical rather than horizontal and in some ways the vertical view of the hive city is more useful, because the horizontal top down view just gives you the impression of rings: Spire at the center, the lower hive as the middle ring and the underhive as outer ring....when looking at the vertical view it gives more accurate view of the top half of the hive-city mountain being the nobility sector on the narrow peak, the bulk of the lower hive for its workers as the other half, and the underhive being a small underground wider layer beneath that bulk. there is even a notation for "poisonous clouds" at the middle point between the spire and the lower hive, suggesting the nobility live above the clouds. Iota doesn't seem to find this particularly notable or worthy of comment so hive cities being like this seems pretty commonplace from what you can tell. No wonder these cultists wanted to spread their disease here, from what you can tell there are countless numbers of people living in this hive for it to be this size and all them clustered together...these hives are very vulnerable to disease.

Meanwhile, Alexandra you go into this room as people are having this conversation:
A random gang person is saying
"But....it was just one shower!"
"Even one shower is heresy to Nurgle! Blasphemous to our loving plaguefather! You think your better than us!? Think you can stop the decay, think that with your cleanliness you can rise above us!?" says a cultist wielding a sacrificial dagger.
They get captured by the green fire bands and the gang guy says
"Oh thanks, this crazy cult are talking 'bout some Nurgle fella and kidnapped me off the streets just because I found an old shower that still worked! Please untie me so I can get outta here and back to me mates."
"Cleanliness is the path to elitism and ambition! the path to denying the inevitable! As soon you clean yourself, you wash yourself of the plague father's all-accepting embrace. Let us free! We need to help you share in our joy of despair! Your power is great, I bet the Imperium hates you for existing, but worry not, Nurgle still loves you even if your a psyker, for he loves everyone, especially the unclean. For we all family in his embrace."
"Oi, I just found the shower to be refreshin'. Your the crazy gang that thinks a bloke getting a luxury like that is worthy killing over. Territory or getting our food or water I understand, I kill over that meself, but really? This? And yeah, real lovin' with trying to sacrifice me and all that."
"We have seen through the lies of the Ministorum. The Corpse-Emperor loves no one. Embraces no one. The Imperium is nothing but a dying empire, lashing out at perceived threats as it slowly crumbles and decays into Nurgle's patient arms. We just want you to see that, so that you know love and joy in the plaguefather's embrace of hopelessness."
"Why you letting him yak on?" says the random gang member "He's just another priest pointed in a different direction sayin' to love their god and kill what they want, ain't no difference."
"HOW DARE YOU!? Nurgle is nothing like the Corpse Emperor! Nurgle cares! Nurgle accepts! Nurgle gives us peace! You heretic!"
"Yet you shout heretic just like them. No difference."
The room itself seems to have this statue or some bloated, disgusting looking being, smiling yet grotesque that is the center of all their....disgusting....decorations. It seems to be probably be a statue to Nurgle. Ensara will walk in and just casually say
"I'll kill the cultists if you don't feel like it."

[Rater202]

Alexandria wasn't a drop-in on her last jump. To her, her life in that world was just as real as her life before.

Which means even though she logically knows that it was her first self's choice when he thought it was just a game that led to experience what she did, she still can't help but feel betrayed that the Gods who blessed her people abandoned them when the infection struct the earth.

She also remembers how the New Asgods were infected, and the actions of Thanoseid.

She simply says "All Gods are Bastards" and allows the Green Flames of Life, the power that she draws from her namesake, to immolate the Cultists, the flames of life burning out the corruption.

[Gold Leaf]

After studying the map, Ezekiel says "We've got us a city map. Better than relying on landmarks. Let's take this back to the hall."

So, he fires another splat of Conversion Gel on the ground with the gel cannon, followed up by an orange portal. Looking into the portal shows the prayer hall, as seamlessly if they were always connected by that surface and he simply cut a hole in it. Anyways, Ezekiel takes roughly half of the maps, folding them up neatly and carrying them in his arms, then jumps through the portal.

Once he's through and back in the hall, he calls to Iota-Phi. "Grab the rest of the maps and come on through. Remember to reorient yourself, or you'll land on your head."

[Lord Raziere]

Jumper Gang Victory:
The maps have been acquired, and the random gang member thanks you as the cultists burn, says he owes you Alexandra and that if you ever need a favor you can call on him, his name is Reubol and he gets going back to his gang. You all meet up and are about to get going to finding the Khorne cult when suddenly Edward Sinton appears in front of in a
SPANG!
Similar to whatever brought you here. He is a red-headed pale-skinned man in what is probably a suit, sprawled upon the ground in the public chapel area.
"Confused Exclamation: What in the warp!?" Iota-Phi says confused. "You! New arrival! how did you teleport like that!? Are you a psyker? Which cult are you with!?"
Ensara puts out a hand to stop Iota-Phi.
"Relax. He is not with any cult. I think he is an ally"
"What....how do you know that?" Iota says looking at Ensara, whose essence is inwardly flowing as her Exalted mind processes information faster than any normal human to deduce and explain as much information as possible
"I can read him based on his appearance and body language: he lacks the dark yet decorated aesthetics that make up this world, and I remember hearing a similar sound when I came here. He seems not ready for combat and he doesn't seem have any hostile intentions towards us, if this was an ambush he'd be attacking us already. Alex, Ezekiel, I'm pretty certain that this man is from.... off-planet like us. I think he is an ally."
Iota is even more confused
"You deduced that so fast? And how can you be so sure that he is? How do you trust them so quickly?"
The more Iota interacts with you guys the more he thinks there is something strange about all of you. He isn't sure what, he can't quite put his finger on it, but your not acting normal to him. This kind of willingness to seek out combat and efficiently defeat the enemy speaks of Imperial Guard but....he has never seen any sanctioned psykers do what Alex does, or the unbelievable tech that Ezekiel treats as normal, and Ensara is real casual about her own psyker abilities, and now she is treating a person suddenly teleporting in out of nowhere that she is clearly unfamiliar with as not a threat. He thinks maybe your Inquisition, but that makes no sense. The Inquisition are terrifying and you guys....seem too friendly to be Inquisition. He is not sure what to make of these now four people.
"Anyways hello, my names Ensara, I'm a....special kind of traveler like you, whats your name?"

[Earl of Purple]

Jumper Gang Victory

The man will stand up and look around, leaning on a fine hardwood walking-stick. He's tall, slender, and pale, with red hair and freckles. There's intricate blue tattoos about his eyes and over the bridge of his nose; they look as though they might mean something, given their intricacy and symmetry. He's wearing a slightly old-fashioned navy blue suit, with a waistcoat and tails and a black cravat about his neck, and lace cuffs on his shirt. There's a gold ring on one finger, quite plain. There's a gunbelt under his jacket, with a pistol hanging from it; it looks like a wheellock, though it isn't. "Oh? How unusual. I've not met another before; I had wondered if I was alone. I am Edward Sinton. Don't suppose you know where I am?"

He could be an Inquisitor, and though his attire isn't quite as flamboyant and impractical as that favoured by the Imperial Nobility it is at least smart, tailored and clean.

[Gold Leaf]

Ezekiel answers Iota's question. "I don't suppose you've read the Sherlock Holmes books, have you? Well, bottom line is, when someone can make deductions about people that quickly and easily, openly doubting them usually means setting yourself up to look like a fool."

He looks the new man up and down. He can't help but think that this guy seems quite well-dressed. Not as stylish as himself, of course, but still.

"Hello. My name is Ezekiel Olde. As I see it, we're in the Hive Sibellus on Scintilla. If you meant this building, though, it's a hall for some deranged cultists who were planning to spread a plague across the city. Speaking of which, you might like to look at these maps we took from them to get more of an idea of what the place is like." Ezekiel gestures to the maps assembled on the ground.

[Rater202]

Alexandra sighs.

"I swear to god if a Cultivator shows up I'm rioting."

"We're about to go kill some Warmongers, you in new guy?"

[Lord Raziere]

Ensara:

"I swear to god if a Cultivator shows up I'm rioting."

Ensara hears Zinara, the Black Star, her Third Circle soul speak to her within her inner world:

Spoiler: Inner world speak

Show

Zinara, The Black Star: She is talking about you.
Ensara: Hey! I'm not a Cultivator...yet. Also are talking about me or Bosha?
Bosha, The Prismatic Cultivator: Hey I'm just the 2nd circle soul formed to store and express all the martial arts, I'm not responsible for whether a cultivator shows up.
Zinara: I'm talking about us, yes. We may not be cultivators yet, but you have to admit that Exalted and Anima Beyond Fantasy are pretty Cultivation-adjacent
Ensara: I can't believe this, my own souls giving me sass again.
Zinara: and you were planning on going to a xianxia world next anyways, if your not a cultivator your definitely on track to becoming one.
Ensara: also I could tell she meant the sociopathic dumb kind that fights other cultivators just to see whose technique is better, I'm a good person if individualistic, she doesn't mean me.
Zinara: Like you haven't done that before. You've gained powers from Exalted, Magic the Gathering and ABF: tragedy, massive screw ups, going too far and ridiculous ambitious plans are practically par for the course.
Ensara: No they aren't. I prevented the War of the Spark didn't I?
Zinara: Because you had to use our brain rather than all the martial arts fights you had on Gaia. Why do you have only Anima, Song of the Fallen Angels again? You took Eyes of Destiny for a reason right?
Ensara: Hey I was busy learning Nemesis, Ars Magnus AND advanced martial arts, I didn't have time to copy Ki Technique trees. and Anima is one of the most powerful ki technique trees from that world, I think I picked a good one to learn in the time I had.
Zinara: Sure, but we could've taken more ki technique scrolls. Now we'll have to figure the principles of Gunhell and Cosmos ourselves, and good luck trying to figure out all the others. Not a very good collection.
Ensara: Hey come on, maybe this world has some martial arts we can learn here and when we get back to Gaia we can find teachers to learn from or foes to copy off from to get the martial arts we missed.
Zinara: If you say so.

Ensara's conversation occurs at the speed of thought so its not long when she says
"Well regardless if you are up for it or not, I'll probably start walking that way if only to see how good at fighting those warmongers really are. I can probably take 'em myself but you know, I'm always open to giving others their fair share of a good fight. You should probably at least get out of this rotten temple."
She will walk out of the Nurgle cult temple. Don't worry, Alexandra can find Ensara easily to catch up, her mental...energy or signature is pretty unique compared to everything else she is sensing.

Iota will just consider things and say
"....I see. Once the Khorne cult is dealt with, I have questions to ask you all."
The heretek tech-priest will follow after Ensara.