Gallowglass / Retinue of Inquisitor Gallowglass / Kardan the Lost
Sniping on the water[]
Well in the last view days it seems I honed my sharpshooter-skills a bit. Not that there were any real targets to be found - fast moving objects like those in the templum - but it feels like I improved anyway. So far for the good news, now sports ... as we arrived at that emperorforsaken town we came in with two team-members heavy wounded. It´s a strange band of fighters I was chosen to purge the enemy of mankind at the fringe of the galaxy we call our home. Home - what a strange word. Where is that? Voidborn - born on a vessel in the vast nothing between the stars I guess for me it´s everywhere and no place at all. I drifted from one world to another. Constant traveling, first to ship foreign goods, now I ship my own piece of trade but always for the greater good of mankind and the Emperor.
Whats that ruckus about? Oh, trice damned chaos, my backpack´s open. Who picked my pack? ...
Warp Stories[]
The thief shot and my knife back in place we tried to get some sleep when that bloody sister tried some warp-trick to fix her broken leg. Never told us about her ability. So no wonder at all, she nearly get shot by the desert-man but not before he mumbled something about daemons a little bit too loud. Of course that ruse some of the sentries - bad for them. It doesn´t sit well with me to kill some brave men doing their duty. The warp always brings trouble of some sort. My advice: never mess with it.
After that it took us a two day walk along the wall to get to the places where foul occult things were told to took place. Bones talked us through guards and managed to get us a infantryman as local guide. Well done. First positive occurrence since landfall.
At the scene I discovered some scratches at the door frame overlooked by an earlier investigation. Warp-sister took in the scent or as she put it the absence of it - namely the warp. The building had only one floor and as I later discovered a hidden cellar. The rooms were a bloody mess. Something ate the living alive but had no table-manners at all. Dessert-man and metal-boy were not able to enter at all. As i told you before, after a while i found the hidden door in the floor. By this time Sirhan had overcome his horror and soon I will find mine. It should take years before I could fight it back. But first things first. I crept down the wooden ladder and found a storage filled with crates holding tradeables. A strange scent was in the air so desert-man and I searched the small room some more to discover four packages made of some local leaf. By the look of it we assumed cocoons. Cautious I opened one with my knife. Sirhan aimed his shotgun all the time at the disgusting thing.
As I cut deeper it popped open. The last thing I saw was the head of a dead child than it exploded under a well aimed shot of guarding Sirhan. Gory fuselage sprayed over me and in my mouth. As I was told later I started to scream and ran out of the house only to lay in the streets for a few minutes - an eternity for me - heaving and trying to get some air into my burning lungs. I guess I will hate cocoonlike things the rest of my life.
We burned the cellar with a phosphor grenade to make sure nothing will survive in that hellhole. Taking shelter in a nearby tavern we took watches over the night.
Internal Affairs[]
Night went by without further incident. No one tried to make eye contact and I preferred it that way. We walked back to the building and found it guarded but there was no subtlety in it as we ordered yesterday. First I thought Sirhan would shoot them right away. But he tamed his temper and made him self very clear as what he wanted the guards to do. I tried to made myself scarce to watch the surrounding and went round the building scouting.
Meanwhile Sister Mary tried to locate the abnormalities in the warp she identified yesterday. As I told we believed them to lead us straight to our query. But as she told me later the bubbles bubbled her psykerbrain and we changed bodies. Yes, we changed bodies! The hell I care you believe me! It is the worst you can possibly imagine. So I was were Warp-Sisters body was and she was were I staggered, namely at far side of the building I observed. What I did? I bruised my hand destroying a window reflecting myself and went to find that crazy bitch wearing my body.
She babbled about bubbles and some other shit. I would have shot her point blank if it was not my body I would shoot at. I was stopped by sounds of fighting around the corner. It was very hard for me to blank out my hatred but in the end we changed weapons and ran after the fight. Well, it was over the moment we arrived. Desert-Man and Metal-Guy had made a prisoner as had Lady Silver-Tongue. As we directed both to a backyard for interrogation all the fun of changing bodies started again. But now I was back in my own again. It was the happiest moment since planetfall. Curse that world of water and mud!
I believe the moment Warp-Sister and I changed bodies, Sirhan got hit by some invisible club. Since that moment he started to behave uncoordinated. But more on that later.
Our prisoners turned out to be spies of Knights Of What Ever - I can not remember their name. So we were brought to those knights headquarter in Olrankan. An interesting turn of fate I can assure you. First we met the commander in charge of the knights Sir Engert in that war shaken town and by that we met his puppeteer, a lady calling herself Lady Calahir Of the White Tower. The Lady was a psyker, a powerful in fact. She tried to lure us in whatever schema she was up to. Sweet words were exchanged to my discomfort and it was clear to me we would never get what we wanted: full cooperation. So I decided it was time to make us public. It worked for now. we got more information about the incidents we were here to investigate.
We interrogated them separated. Sir Engert was or played a willing servant of the Emperor while Lady Calahir was eloquent enough to give us no hint of her secret agenda as we believe she was following. Cut the interrogation short we found out that there was a library in existence holding many answers to our question. Second we were enlightened that our lady was a well known guest on both sides of the blustering war and the good knights were an institution with a global scope of activity. Third and most perturbing Lady Calahir knows much more about the Imperium Of Men than a medieval world would normally allow her to. Fourth and last we got a name and some obscure description of the things that murder so scrupulously on Acreage.
The murders took place every hundred years. It all starts by a hail of meteors. Those were harbingers of bad omen and disaster. As legend has it uprisings and war more intensely than in other times start. Then the ritual murdering takes place two or three weeks after the meteors hit planet. History will have it nine sacrifices will take place. After that its over. Until now the knights under the guidance of a Lady Of The White Tower contain the disaster in a way economy and everyday life could go on after some time.
The enemy of men in case is a species called the Lithe by the knights. They were described as some worm-like xenos with highly developed obfuscation devises. When in plain view they disguise in monk-like hooded robes. The devises enable them to prey on those poor individuals we found in the basement yesterday. By the way it was not the first site of entombment we were told. As a matter of fact the xenos-breed not only murder in ritual ways. It seems that they also take away the bodies of the dead killed in the many battles. It seems they stage the battles and riots on a planet wide scale to harvest the fallen for whatever dark purpose.
All that information was gathered in a few hours of interrogation of Lady Calahir and Sir Engert. As stated before many questions remained unanswered and we had to dig much deeper to find the truth.
Now a few words to my colleges. As time went by Sirhan was singleminded on one goal: kill the Lady. Remember that I said he must have got hit? Warp-Sis heard about the library. Since that moment she was confident in finding all the answers there. And Metal-Guy was with Sand-Man. Silver-Tongue was silent all the time for reasons she would not share with us. To my disappointment not one second it seemed it crossed their mind to cross-interrogate our victims. I am by far not the smooth-talker of that band of troublemakers we represent but the total lack of insight in a moment so crucial as that is the most annoying thing I will remember Emperor willing I survive this mission.
Wrath of the Emperor[]
As was our wish Sir Engert brought us to the library. Escorted by knights of the order we entered a tunnel of old roughly drilled into stone and earth far below the fortifications of Olrankan. The sounds of battle were lost to us. Approximately thirty minutes later a strange sound reverberated in the close quarters we walk along. As we were told it is the emanating holiness of the sacred place and therefore the Emperor himself we were about to enter.
I will spare you the details of every so-called wonder we were about to discover. In short it was a poorly maintained commando station back from the times the great Drusus liberated this part of the galaxy. As technology rotted away the locals tried to fix it with devotion but unbelievable ignorance. They called the place "Mandol Temple". The fading imperial painting on the walls of the entrance told once "Commando I". About that we were sure. Nowadays only "mando I" was readable which the locals translated to "Mandol".
As we discovered the functioning but dangerously unmaintained reactor, we were told a story a mixture of unbelievable ignorance and selfless devotion alike. The locals thought the radioactivity leaking through the cracks of rusty radiation-locks and long out of service devices the unwavering light of the emperor. They worshiped the dangerous parts of their temple only by the old ones who were thought to have gone long over the zenith of their lifetime. In the end they were taken by the light and by that called forth to The Emperor himself.
We found the real documentation center of "Commando I" now used as a training facility. But Tonus Ferreus could feel a slumbering part of the former machine-spirit inside ancient instruments. That gave us hope to find something else in here. Something like imperial maps, maybe even weapons. What we found was so much more we hoped for.
As we entered the conference room of the order, we recognized the battle-stations command-facility. As with all the other rooms and gangways it was decorated with devotional sign, brocade and paintings of local hierarchs all of which were ignorantly nailed to, painted over or fixed in some other way to devices designed to fight the enemies of the Imperium. Tonus and I rushed forward to search for navigational instruments and instruments of communications. We were rewarded in a way we never dared to dream of. The Omnissiahs was present in his tools and his servants ready to collaborate. An ancient spirit of technology was waiting to be called to service by Tonus.
When I snapped out of my excitement, reality hit hard. I could not believe how ignorant you have to be to ignore the obvious. What I am talking about? I talk about Lady Calahir and the way the rest of the retinue treated her. The stubborn son of sand, my assassin-colleague as well as that bloody warp sis were determined the Lady was a treat to whom ever. I believed, based on the findings of Tanisha Bones, she could have killed us hours before namely in the tunnel we all came her.
So I decided to take my chances. I took Lady Calahir on a walk on the gangway running around the command-facility. I frankly told her about the mood of my colleagues I was very confident she knew about. I admitted to her that I gave a damn thing about it. To fulfill my contract I was willing to ask her to cooperate with me in that special case as I thought the rest of the group will do the same if - and only if - I could win their trust in that matter. To tell the truth, I told her I do not believe her disguise.
She was desperate or calculating enough - my confidence is in the later - to cooperate with me under one condition. She reveals her true self and I guarantee for her wellbeing. As long as the truth is on both sides I told her I was willing to make the vow. As we honored our pact she revealed her true appearance. She was an Eldar, a sword-mistress by the way, who stranded centuries ago on Acreage. In the ages great Drusus made his military appearance in this part of the galaxy the Eldar fought side by side against the Slaught or Slith as the locals called them. But her ship crashed on Acreage. The late Lady of the White Tower took her in and healed her. To honor this act of selflessness Lady Calahir took the oath to liberated the planet from the abominations of the Slaught.
As we came around in full circle on the gangway I called everyone to the center of the command-room and told them a shorter and as I felt appropriate version of Lady Calahirs story not before I stealthily readied my sidearm. During the next few minutes of noise that were made by my colleagues my new ally drew a hasty scratch of a Slaught.
Just for my record, and mine only, I have to admit, I was surprised how emotional some of us could get if they feel out of control of the situation. Unprofessional at best, untrustworthy at least, dangerous at the worst but useful information leaked through cracks of mental defense.
Well, as I thought in the end it all went according to my plan. In the absence of evidence or proof and Lady Calahiers gesture of good-will - she dropped her disguise - we came to layout a masterplan. Tonus found something very very useful: a planetary defense-canon.
To take a short-cut, our metal-head found not only that delicate tool of destruction but also a high-frequency vox-caster and an imperial armory. As we shifted through the layout of old "Commando I" we located a landing cavity nowadays used as the great library of Templum Mandol. Sirhan and I went for the armory. I like Sandys determination but sometimes I think he should use some neuro-enhancing drugs on a regular bias. The armory was in worse condition and as every numb-ass can imagine by firebombing it, it would not get any better. To credit his undertaking he thought the spores of the fungi poisonous. What ever number of weapons were lost, we could evacuate three standard-issue lasguns and six ammopacks. Everything else was either burned or ... burned. Purge the fungi no matter what!
In a save deposit box obviously resitant to firebombing we found a holy relict. We found the Holy Boltpistol of great Drusus fully functional, loaded and two spare clips. For I am the best shooter I was very honored as the group decided to hand it to me.
A strange feeling took hold of me. A spark of a legacy old as the weapon itself sprang to live. I felt the responsibility to take up the holy crusade great Drusus undertook once and purge the contradictions of the Imperium from Acreage. A honor I would use as a shield to defend The Emperor.
The masterplan was to make contact with our ship and its astropath. The ships Modar could precisly locate time and coordinates of the meteorites. The astropaths task was to pinpoint the absence of the warp which is typical for our enemy. Moreover we ordered the ships shuttle to our assistance in case Tonus Ferreus was unable to hit the hostile spacecraft. We would need the lander to relay us to whatever location the enemy would make planetfall. Through Sir Engert Lady Calahier ordered the Knights to search Olrancan with all manpower the Ordo could muster.
It all went as planed. The meteors hit atmo in the very same night. We watched them on a display on command station and were able to decipher the flares made by the meteors and the one that would betrayed the ship of the Slaught. A millisecond later we got the coordinates the night went blindingly bright. A beam of energy cut through the silence. The sound of burning oxygen and the last breath of a machine-spirit made us squeeze. But the ship was hit with deadly force. As soon as we confirmed the lethal hit we borded our own vessel. I am proud to say that I saved the first part of the night by navigating us safely back to Olrancan. But that was all I could do. The involuntarily shortcut down the robe exiting the vessel left me near dead in the healing hands of Lady Calahir and brought me an opportunity that changed my life forever.
Rebirth[]
I woke and it woke with me or shall I say it woke and took me along? What ever the truth it is set in durasteel and alloy. A wonder of the Omnissiahs and a casket for the living dead. I will live forever preserved in technology cradled in the wisdom of the god of technology. And in that I am reduced to what I could have never became over the last years of training. A soulless back of flesh I was and now the flesh is gone I am. It made me weep for no training can remove so clinically and determined the weakness of flesh one reveals in as the Brotherhood of Mars. I am stripped to the naked core to be reborn as some time-ignoring god-made beast of holy knowledge. I am a saint of the Omnissiahs, an apostle of technology. The wrath of the Machine-God. The manifestation of an unforgiving old bustard messing around even with The Emperor himself.
First I was trained to be some cold-hearted unscrupulous hitter on behalf of whoever was willing to pay the Templum. Now I am some heartless calculating casket with a brain to understand those who will rot away eventually for in flesh is only weakness and in weakness is only decay. There are only a few strings to hold my fragile mind in strains of sanity. The first is that I can remember. It is nothing but bolstering. It pains so hard it vanquish the abyss of binary chatter that I am teased to let me fall in. The second is a thing I sought lost weeks ago on a planet called Acreage. A part of the legacy of great Drusus himself, his Holy Boltpistol. I have a third arm permanently holding the sacred item. In some twisted way that new limb is sensible to my minds command as it were one of my old ones. The arm is concealed in my back so the holy item is my secret and my guiding light in the wars to wage for The Omnissiahs in the name of The Emperor of Mankind.
Oh, how I can imagine His loneliness on his Golden Throne. I prey to him to lend me His strength and His clear vision to do his bidding.
And then there is Tonus Ferreus. He who made me live through the darkness to be resurrected as the wrath of the Machine-God. He was with me in the first moments of consciousness. I calculate it as a matter of fact, that he kept me focused enough to fight for my sanity.
As to now I am on my way to the Offico Assassinorum training facility. I will be transfered to Templum Eversor for flesh is not what I am made of any longer.
Mechanization[]
Consciousness crackled back bit by bit. First face I recognized was that of Tonus Ferreus. Well I wonder what the trice damed chaos brought him here. The Templum is not one to trifle with. As I saw the carefully crafted band around his left arm I knew that not only the Cult of the Omnissiah gained a new member lately. Maybe I will discuss this later.
Tonus was eager to see me again, guess he sees me as his new toy. Fine with me as far as I can play my own game and I will see to that. So we spent some time in the Templums Workshop. As we left, my chassis was more then 15 pounds heavier and our purses more than 1200 throne gelt lighter. But I´m confident my next opponent will be surprised if he can spot me at all.
We met our troupes at the "Path Of Holiness". The cyborg in Tonus wake made quite an appearance and more surprised whispers as it stated to be the late Kardan. But in the end they all welcomed me back and it was business all the same. New to me was a priest introducing himself as Kilian Athanasius Kerensky. There was an obvious tension between Holy and Sands as the later laid out the meager details of our next assignment given to him by Sagisville himself.
All the news Sandman could tell us was the targets name and his last considered but not confirmed position - the hive-world Scintilla. Four days short of our journey we tried to get a better fix on our target. After all we have to extract him discretely before a heretic group could do the same. It seems that informations floating to us through some vary narrow pipes because we got practically no informations at all. Only thing beside the targets name was a hair of her. Something Warp-Sis used to focus her troubled mind to find the owner in question. But no results so far. A four-day search through the Cogitators by Metal-Head brought us no further knowledge.
We landed on one of the many Spaceports Scintilla hosts. In comparison to my last mission this is like the cradle of civilization itself. The spaceports vast anthems were filled with thousands of individuals, thin clouds blocked the view searching the roof. Warp-Sis tried one of her spooks but too many souls blurred her vision she told us. We decided to find some accommodations on Scintilla and domiciliated at "Eternal Star Accommodations" near administrative district. As fees were payed and rooms moved into we gathered reviewing options.
As discussion got on I became more and more astonished both about lag of informations and power-struggles within participants. If you ask me we lost precious time by that. Holy and Sands are uneasy about the decision made by our leaders. Not to send us here with so little information - my believe is, that there is more data to find if you only know how dig in sand if you know what I mean - but the way how it was delivered to us. Namely through Sirhan and not as it should be through Kilian as he was voted for leadership in my absence. A problematic decision if you ask me, because as I see it, Father Kerensky has a hard enough time to keep his sheeps in line. He should be our religious backbone, not some earthly leader.
Who our leader should be I´m uncertain of. Sirhan is a good and capable soldier and battle-proofed but he displays not enough power to make strategic decisions unopposed. We tried Tonus as well I was told, but he is to green to handle some strong-willed individuals like Karensky or Sirhan. Well, and that´s it. Bones is not interested in neither she wants to be overridden to hard. That gives her the creeps as I remember our first mission. Sister Mary is a useful tool to all of us as I´m sure I am, but no leader at all so far. Me? No. To much trouble. As I said before, there is a power-struggle loose in our group and as long as that is not settled in one or another way I will sit and wait.
Not that there is much time, in fact. There is too small an amount to wait. My training needs all the concentration I could muster. So I watch and learn and exercise and watch and learn and exercise a little more. I will be the righteous blade the Omnissiah forges in the name of Him - my beloved Emperor.
Secrets and Suspicions[]
- Trust is a rare gift. Don´t waste it on nobody.
Silver-Tongue arrived by a vessel of her own. She told us Helena withdrew her from our party to make her our rear-guard in case we were followed to Scintilla. As a matter of fact we were followed by some unidentified ship. Later it became clear it was manned with one of Inquisitor Lady Olianthe Rathbone retinue-members as it became clear Silver-Tongue wasn´t on her own too. Her pilot was Lithia, a member of Sisters of the Needle.
Father Kilian came up with a strategic plan we all got comfortable with. Splitting us in three parties, team Alpha was Holy himself and Sand-Man - later referred as Aladdin not only he chose his new identity named after some desert folks but of secrets he kept from us until it was clear we were cornered in every possible way - , team Beta were Warp-Sis, Silver-Tongue and Fish-Boy, team Gamma was Metal-Guy and me.
Team Alpha was assigned to bring forward information through the Magistratum while team Beta acquired false identities through some locale contacts and find a secret hideout where could leave coded messages for each other. Metal-boy got a letter and a call from captain Lucius Crest we choose to heed. The good captain was upset because there was suddenly some gene-locked door on his vessel he didn´t know about and thought it was crafted by Tonus. Well, it wasn´t. And so we started to check the vessels innards in all possible ways. What we found made us less happy than cared to be. Someone messed heavily with the boats systems both hardware and software. We found a beacon transmitting permanently to some unknown receiver, communication was relayed through a device which was hardwired to the vessels power-source and stored in the newly found room. Same device appeared to be source of that new signal. Metal-Boy opened the room via a service-funnel by cutting a hatch in the rooms ceiling. It was painstakingly work but paid of. Through the newly cut hatch we retrieved a high quality synth-skin imitating Helena, made pictures of device and interior and made planetfall early the next day.
Meanwhile team Alpha set gears in motion at the Magistratum and scrolled through papers and cogitae in search of our target. Team Beta made the proper arrangements for forged identities and was - as understood later - all the way spied upon by the very same agent that followed our vessel to Scintilla.
All three teams gathered and puzzled over their investigative results. And indeed there was much to crack a head about. I will only log results here not the exact way secrets traveled to us. So the news was: As we all knew Gallowglass vanished some nine month early and was replaced by an actor puppeteered by Interrogator Sagisville. All the same Gallowglass´ retinue is managed by Interrogator Sagisville and Interrogator Quintilla Drusa to run his errants and search for him at the same time. Helena is desperately trying to keep political and social interaction alive. So far so bad. Now the fun starts. Inquisitor Lady Olianthe Rathbone suspects treachery and is determined to proof so. This is where the encounters getting personal for Alladin and consequently for me namely the hit on Aladdins vessel crossing the Immaterium back from Acreage and me in this very room some hours later. While his encounter was all the way lethal mine was informative on the better part. But on this later because I would hate to spoil the moment the shit hit the fan for whoever will read this. You remember why I call Sand-Man Aladdin from now on? Well here is why. He told us he had more knowledge about our mission than he omitted until now. Our beloved Inquisitor Gallowglass has a twin-brother, our very target. We have to retrieve him because Inquisitor Rathbone made an invitation to Gallowglass alas the current actor leaders of our retinue could not refuse. Gallowglass is expected to a banquet in the Tricorn. And as we all know the Tricorn is heavily guarded by all means. So we need at least some impersonator gene-coded to him. So I guess I was right about two things. There is no such thing as an heretic group and Aladdin told us shit about the mission from the very start on. He tried to make up an elaborate lie from the beginning because he wasn´t sure whom to trust. But to fake priority by telling us about an heretic group hunting our target is fucking stupid. Why? Because it took us most of the time to figure out that our party should not believe in a heretic group (see discussion).
Second item of discussion was the newly found synth-skin. It is tailored by highest standards, self-healing and feels very alive to probing hands. Why and who stored it inside the very room barred by a gene-coded lock coded to the touch of the synth-skin itself alas Helena? Where did the maker get the genes of Helena? To that last question there are two possible answers. First possibility: it was made by someone inside the retinue, namely Gen-Doc Medora Cavilla or some of her stuff. Second possibility: the genes were stolen from lab by an intruder or given to someone outside the retinue by a mole. Well, we have to check on that. So far we didn´t came to any conclusion on that item.
I told you that the gene-code is that of Helena. But it wasn´t the easy to find out. No, let me rephrase this, we decided to do it the hard way. It was only found out when Tonus went to the Houses of the Brotherhood of Mars in his search of the runes we photographed on the device in the hidden compartment on Faraway III. I don´t how he did it but his search-patterns must have been flagged as radiant red. Because short after he was made a trip to the vessel in company with a high-priest and her retinue. Well, so we found out that the device was a warp-bomb and thereby heretical technology. So Tonus is in investigative discussion by the high-priest inside the brotherhoods houses. Let´s put some inquisitorial magnetics to the Metal-Heads lair to extract him and by that repair my damaged leg. Oh, that damage ... Right, you want to know how it came to be?. I will tell you.
As Metal-Boy and I came back with news from Faraway III we decided to test the gene-lock one by one to make sure it wasn´t coded to one of us. That was before Tonus went to the brotherhood. I stayed behind in our hideout to wait until everyone had made it to the spaceport to test the lock. Some time after everybody left the intruder came to our room. I stood guard completely concealed by my cameleolin and unmoved. The intruder to be didn´t see me neither was she visible but to the most praying eyes. As we tackled each other she cut my leg. I tried to get some space between us when she announced she wasn´t meant to fight Gallowglass retinue. Well, I have to say, it was an uneasy truce but I was willing to listen. She unveiled herself and stated to be an agent of Inquisitor Lady Olianthe Rathbone by showing her insignia. The treacherous lady offered everyone who is willing to switch to her side safe conduct in the next four days because thereafter she would be able to proof Gallowglass as an conspirator and a heretic. She could be found at the Tricorn. Further more assassin told me she would appreciate to be informed about the killer of her sister. To that and all other so-called invitations I said nothing. I questioned her about the device but she was oblivious about that and vanished by telling me I am a well trained fighter. Treacherous bitch - both of them.
As a matter of fact I was incapacitated to some point at this time because my leg went stiff and no Metal-Boy around to service it. [Note: Tell him to tell you how to repair it or get somebody who can instead ...] So I called for a meeting within the breached room I chose to stay because Warp-Sis stormed the room short after my visitor left and told me so then felt asleep. As I remember she said something about a scent she smelled earlier on and had traced it here. Emperor knows where she hit her head that hard. It was then that it was decided to visit the Palace of the Ecclesiarchy to went after a lead Silver-Tongue found in the papers yesterday - an official prayer-note. This time we were lucky. We found a hint it was possible to follow and only one other person had looked into it described by the clerk as a firmly build fair haired young man. Our next stop will be Gunmetal City. But before that Metal-Boy has to be relieved of his inquisitive fellows and my leg has to be repaired.
Invisible Hunter[]
Most of the ride through the wastelands my systems were on standby. But ones in Gunmetal City alertness was the key to success. Metal-Boy brought a tome he called maps for that Emperor-forsaken place. Most of the time it was useless until Fish-Boy got the itch and was able to decipher it. Well, until that moment we tried to make sense out of the maze of roads our selfs. After a hour of not knowing where to we finally ask some local punk. As I suspected he misled us and tried to rob us with his band of mishaps. Wrong target as he was not able to confirm because blown out brains do not think straight anymore.
But it was the fighting, maybe the adrenaline, that made Fish-Boy understand the tome. So we understood and were told later on suburb and underhive were hostile territory to anything worth a few Throwngeld. As a matter of fact the two hour detour damaged our car to some extend - Sandman was not able to ride the skimmer around corners without kissing the walls.
Through his new found insight Fish-Boy guided us to a gas station. More a stronghold than anything else but we found what we were looking for and Silver-Tongue got us an local guide for some expenses.
But before we were off to the party in a place called Redhouse we visited the site the mysterious message was originally posted. By donating some money to the holy shrine the priest was very forthcoming with information. So we saw who accessed the message. As we guessed it was our unknown and much talked about fiend and two new faces. One of them was a powerful build woman with guttural tongue. By her tattoos she was some kind of gang member and gun for hire. Her hair was the color of fierce orange, her muscular body wrapped in some expensive body-armor. The other some hooded figure. No face was visible.
On the ride back to the gas-station a heated discussion rose as it got clear that not all information was made public by members of our cabal. I was surprised that Prayer-Boy was the hot-headed talker. Not because of his impulsive words but by the fact he was the one in first place - maybe misled by Sandman - that withhold information from us at the start of our mission. [Note: He told us why he did it but personally I give a crap about apologies because it clearly proofs he has no trust in some or all of us. That made him suspicious in first place.]
Our guide knew where to and so we found the Redhouse without any further incident except that the vicinity around it was a formidable war zone itself. Assessing the situation Sandy dropped me on a nearby roof with exquisite view on the scene. I voxed the situation to my team mates and began to count our opponents. Heavy duty ordinance was mimicked by some unknown mercenary band. Heavy gliders, tripod-mounted bolters and the orange-headed woman in question we saw earlier on vid-screen. Second to the fighting were the local security guards. They desperately fought to stand their ground against the intruders. And then there were a few PDFs. So I guessed their would be a massive force of them some time later.
Warp-Sis found one of our main-targets in a nearby house. So all went for the location and I was alone on watch and shoot-out. Well it was not a shoot-out as you would guess but it was a tens situation anyway. It was my lucky day as a sharp-shooter. At the end of the day I scored 10 more hits to my list. I took out the heavy bolter weapon team and 8 more mercenaries.
View from roof was magnificent. The Redhouse was burning from within. There was heavy fighting on the compound and around the building. 5 mercs tried to rig their way inside the building by a side door. Skimmers fought in the air and heavy weapons fire skirted the fogged sky above the building. Whoever staged this fight had formidable resources.
Thick smoke obscured the better part of the roof. Through the drifting curtain of fat brown smoke a camouflaged flier was visible to the trained and watchful eye. But the interesting part was a camouflaged sniper with a gun that spat plasma on a person emerging from one of the roofs hatches. The unknown sniper had a carapace armor of very fine quality. It looked like a mix of some alien skin and ultra-heavy combat-gear of some kind. It reminded me of combat armor of a tech-priest I saw ones but much slender and flexible. It lacked all the blatant boldness and of cause the instruments. I envied my opponent for his armor and gun. He fired one shot on his newly emerged aggressor. All that was to see was a strong blue light emanating from the barrel and the next moment his opponents armor was a smoldering piece of crap where the blue energy had hit. As I looked closer the person he had hit was the one who had posted the mysterious message here in Gunmetal City and back in Hive Sibellus - Pearl.
Time was running out if I was to recover our target. So I took aim at the camouflaged sniper. I hit him trice but with no visible effect. His armor was bloody impressive. The third hit made him flee to his flier. My forth and last shot hit him in the back of his head. That made him fly through the open hatch of his skimmer landing spread-eagle on the floor. And again I was wondering whom we were up against. I was pretty sure it was a one-man vehicle. But as soon as the body landed inside it took off. Not to early as I have to say because PDF was coming in hot. Four chimers fully loaded with battle primed arbitrars. Time to leaf but not before rescuing our lady on the roof.
As I was told later the rest of us had some interesting times themselves. They brought some self-sentient manlike machine with them. Sandman made an very risky but professional approach on the burning roof of the Redhouse. We were able to retrieve our target and off again seconds before arbitrars were to emerge from the various hatches.
We managed to get to the next roof with the skimmer. There was Sandys next and last accident. Luckily the Emperor had other plans for us than crashing in some crippled skimmer five stories down into concrete. So we survived took wounded Pearl and the detached machine with us and made our way out of the vicinity of the ill-omened Redhouse. Some time later Warp-Sis found the comatose womans car and we drove to her hideout.
Hide and Seek[]
Pearls place was an unremarkable but comfortable thirty square meter loft in the backwaters of one of the more decent districts of Gunmetal City. The door was secured through an magnetic lock and an mechanical triggered bolt pistole. We overcame the obstacle by Warp-Sis talents, one that Metal-Boy and I came to get used to in an ambivalent way. A mixture of hatred for it was obviously an affront to the Omnisiah and in the same way an unbelievable useful tool to our goals. It opened countless opportunities for us as it closed them for our enemies.
While Warp-Sis and Silver-Tongue worked on Pearls regeneration process everybody else checked the rooms, walls and floors for security breaches. Stationed next to the entrance in the shadows I was tasked to secure the small parking-lot in front of our hide-out. I happened to be not the best scout after all. Something I have to talk about with the servants of my beloved Omnisiah and my masters at the Templum. Some serious enhancements are required to replace the weakness of the flesh.
In the end we were compromised by one of the mechanical dogs that were not entirely destroyed at the Redhouse. We managed to stop a Transport large enough to carry us and our lugged away but not before Warp-Sis caused a major blackout in the near vicinity causing every mechanical or electrical device to fail. In those view seconds skimmers drop dead from air, cars stop abruptly and everything that was connected to some energy source collapsed in one or the other way. The collateral damage must have been enormous but we managed to destroy our enemies and got off.
In the panic that followed Silver-Tongue flipped away her wristband, a gift from Helena as we were told later. But as with all things from anyone of the Templa Assassinorum the wristband was a deadly weapon. Before she could remove it it injected a lethal poison in her arm. The beacon was gone with it but the poison stayed and spread. At least I have to hack of her left arm with the power-sword she owned. It cauterized the severe wound but the arm was lost. May the Emperor forgive me for what I have done.
We happened to stop by a hospital under the protectorate of The enlighted Brotherhood of St. Origines. We were warmly welcomed partly by the inquisitorial insignia I´m sure of. While Silver-Tongue was immediately taken to the apothecarius chamber Metal-Boy drove the car and the mechanical body a few blocks away and tried to shut it down completely. It took us the better part of the day. In the evening we reunited with our troops and brought back the car to where we rented it.
The next morning all of us took off to a place that we thought was more secure than the hospital. We happened to end up at a cloister of the Order of the Jananites. They are a strange bunch of people. They took an oath of absolute silence. We figured out they have to have a nonverbal communication because they clearly interacted in some way or the other. It was Warp-Sis who found out that silence was just in the means of verbal communication. Many if not all of the brothers were conscious or subconscious psychic active and some hallways resonated with that much screaming she was literally taking aback.
Travel Precautions[]
- Collecting information
- Getting weaponry
- Sabotage
- Long run for prison
At high orbit[]
- Cutting a deal
- Submission of the machine
- Cleansing of the station
Planetfall[]
At last we made it. Every possible precaution was taken. Sandman and I piloted one of three imperial gliders from station to surface. I would have done it in a more gentle way but we made good time. Sandys excuse was he wasn´t sure the defense system was taken care of as Metalhead told us. I pointed out whatever the case we would never be faster than light. Four of us laughed and two decided to get blue in the face - by the heavy gs caused by not so descent piloting.
Never the less we made a save landing on landing-site 10. Warp-Sis was able to pinpoint our package. It was eerie to look at her while she performed her trick. Imagine the claustrophobic innards of an imperial lander getting freezing cold and illuminated by two green dots behind a visor of an environmental suite. I suppose I do not have to mention the thin layer of ice coating the interior. I am not sure I ever get used to it.
Landing-site 10 was wide open to prying eyes. And at least two of those were prying. So I decided, that Fishboy and I get out of the glider while Sandman would cycle the lander slowly above the ground to make cover for us by dispersing enough dust to cover the sprint across the open to surrounding barracks.
Crossing the distance was no problem at all. No bullets came our way and as soon as we made cover, the glider took off to hover somewhere along our way through the dessert waiting for us signaling to follow. Three fatiguing hours of walk through sunbaked dunes of silvery sands later we reached the place Warp-Sis visioned for us. By the time night was closing in. As hateful as this rock was it did not lack of unnatural beauty. Whatever caused the phenomenon it made the horizon burn in all different colors. Sand performed an eerie dance in front to it driven by nightly winds. It formed shapes much to fast and elusive to the watchful eye.
Our destination was an Ork-camp surrounded by an natural wall of sand five meter high. We signaled the lander to get as near as one hour of walking distance and to wait for futher instructions. For security reasons we made Warp-Sis, Bones and the war-priest walk the rest of the way by foot to catch up with us. Meanwhile Fishboy and I observed the encampment and made tactical assessments.
We had to sneak as close as fifty meters to get our optical gear to work. Too much metallic dust and radiation made it impossible to use any of it at a distance greater than that. Seven watch-towers intervened with a strong makeshift wall of all kinds of things surrounded the place. As Warp-Sis mentioned before our package was near the fence dangling from some crude grill above a dark mass that radiated heat. Around it were bodies of various species hanging down in the same way. Some of them mutilated. It looks like all of them were meat slowly roasted and rationed for later. The compound was empty and silent but for a few small bands of tiny green creatures. Those wandered around aimlessly between seven tents. At the rear of the camp a paddock was visible. Contained were two legged creatures looking like over-sized walking berries screeching at each other.
As soon as the other three were around Azrael and I took aim at the guards manning the watchtowers. Death came silent and swift for them. Short after Mary, Tanisha and the war-priest were at the fence cutting their way through with Tanishas power-sword. Azrael couldn´t resist his instincts and went for their position to help. He told me he wanted to go for the boss but I will not mention that in any report later on. I stood my place and took out the guard on the tower to our left - sure as sure.
Tanisha and Mary took down the heavily wounded body of Gallowglass' brother while Azrael and the war-priest weaseled their way to the tent of the chieftain. They were really good at what they were doing. I have to give them credit for their superb stealth. All the way down I watched the camp for any signs of alert. Those small green creatures took erratic ways around the camp without purpose as it seemed to me.
After fifteen minutes two of those small creatures came dangerously near the tent Azrael was in. I signaled them to leave as fast and silent as possible. Mary and Tanisha had cut down the body from under the grill and tried to bring it back out through the small hole they came in were they met the other two. I wondered if they would make it before I have to shoot those two crazy little green things but they did. As soon as Fishboy was by my side, we took them out. Two clean shots impossible to hear or see silenced them forever.
We made good time back to our rendezvous point. After fifteen minutes of hard walk vox went alive. Auspex went crazy on the fligher. Some indistinguishable large mass was approaching right the way down on us. One minute later hot blue backwash bathed us in hard light as the glider swooped in on us. Five minutes later we all were on board. Not one minute to early as he encampment went alive the second the sound of our shuttle resonated form shadowy dunes. Sand was caked to solid rock and alarms shrieked when Sandman hit the trusters hard. Neither orks nor indistinguishable large mass could reach us in time. We made an unchallenged ark of light and exhaust in the dark sky aiming straight for orbit.
Rendezvous in high Anchor[]
- Submission of a mining station
- Meeting with Sagisville
Within the Fortress of Purity[]
Tonus Ferreus and I bid fare well and left the Path of Holiness making good time to the Fortress of Purity. As soon as we arrived the Purity Protocol locked down the whole complex.
The fortress itself is a very old station orbiting a death-world called Gallowglass. As we learned later through investigation the mighty station is nearly nine centuries old.
We were greeted by Quintilla Drusa concerned about the whereabouts of Sagisville and news of his last mission. We cut it short and told her that we saw Sagisville but that we had no news or orders from him.
On the station we went straight to work. We set up a sealed laboratory in the mighty vaults of the Fabrica Mechanicum. First we made some repairs and enhancements to our bodies. Tonus repaired his right eye. Then he added some weapon-placements to my carcass and modified my internal communication systems so I could link to the Noo-Sphere without hardwiring. From now on I am a large step closer to the Omnissiah.
I can speak his language and can communicate wherever possible with the speed of thought. It opens my mind to a vast and holy network. At first I was confused about the infinite possibilities and the knowledge that I was deprived of up to now. Later I wished to live there, to bathe in the enlightenment and wisdom, in the infinite knowledge of the Noo-Sphere. The speed of light is a lame analogy to the celerity of collecting knowledge in there. Distance is a word banned from your vocabulary when going noo. So is time. The instance you wish to be somewhere, your thought and sights are there assuming you know where to look for things.
The second modification, one that enables me to influence the mundane world as I learned it back at the times at the templum, are to exquisite autoguns hidden in my forearms. The only thing that belies there whereabouts are slightly larger forearms. As soon as I bend my wrist ninety degrees upwards relative to my forearms, the weapon system goes live. My vision changes. All color fades for the sake of clarity and sharpness and two red dots light up where the muzzles of my weapons point. And again the speed of thought enables and disables the system.
I am proud to be more and more machine than human being. Every time a modification is made I take a step close to Him. Every time I take a step closer to Him I can see and feel the wisdom in His machinations and pity the incompleteness of the flesh - end of prayer.
But back to the mission we were sent for.
First we searched and found the human body of Helena in her sanctuary as I was told by Tanisha Bones earlier. We put the body in a stasis-field box and brought it back to our lab. There we took some samples and ran DNA Tests on the body tissue and the synthskin - they matched.
Secondly we disassembled the mechanical body which we brought with us, with the help of one of the fabricas servitors. The body was of the highest quality we have ever seen. The powercore could muster enough energy to run the fortress for a few days. We think it would power the body for a few centuries at least. So we took the head, disconnected visual and sensory IO and brought it online in a sandbox Tonus constructed earlier. As it went live it told us a that it is Helena, for her real body was ruined during a mission three years ago. She uses a synthskin to look human. On her missions she took on many forms through different synthskins. That ability made her an invaluable asset for the retinue. She could change unnoticed and was able to be many persons at once.
We interrogated her about the warp-bomb we discovered on the Faraway III, and that she tried to attack us in the "Red House Conflict". She told us that at the given time the whole retinue was under scrutiny. It was the best way to sent us to the Emperors grace. There would be no traces of us left in case of emergency, and she just grabbed anything that looked like it could do the job from the Chapel of Whispers. She left the synthskin because she had to pose as someone else. Her mission was to administer a contact on Scintilla, an intimate contact to Gallowglass, a man called Sir Wohlon (?) with far reaching contacts to the underworld.
And that was when she came across the traces of our mission on Scintilla. She was very interested and investigated the situation. She tried to hide her traces by posing as someone else but did not succeed - as was obvious. The band of mercenaries that attacked the Red House were under her influence when we arrived but initially were not meant to attack, just to stand by and engage in case of emergency. As it turned out they were too trigger-happy.
Not really satisfied, we questioned her about her and her dogs' brawl with us. She told us that she did not intend to engage. She underestimated us and we gave her no room for clarification. On that I could agree but decided not to tell her. It would have looked like we were as trigger happy as the mercs. She told us she had no information on the mysterious attacker on the roof.
To check this information we turned her off and researched Information to find out Helena's true story. What we found in the archives was this:
To be continued ...
[Privy to User:BelniFore and Tonus Ferreus]
[Privy to User:BelniFore and Tonus Ferreus]