40K/Inquisitor RPG. The Line of Damnation.

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2004-12-23 11:25pm

Naval security troopers waited at the airlock. The brandished hellguns, shotcannons, and autoguns as well as flamers and grenade launchers. It was best to have overwhelming firepower when dealing with these scum.

"Open it," said Gix. An officer keyed in a command. The airlock opened with a hiss, revealing the docking corridor. The oppossing door hissed open and the xenos began to march out.

The first through weren't xenos. They were scarred, branded, and tattooed men with dead eyes and cold hearts. There was little to tell them apart from other veterans of the guard. Their ordinariness was almost anticlimatic.

And then came the xenos. Two kroot and an androgyneous eldar wearing the destinctive mesh armour and conical helmet. If you looked for it, you could see the aquila on their gear, although they did adopt the same colour scheme as the rest of the regiment. The long rifles and shuriken catapult weren't standard though.

More humans followed, sloppily lining up into squads. Gix waited as the sergeants ordered the motlely group into some kind of approximation of parade ground presentation. Jolan addressed them.

"I am Inquisitor Jolan Gix. I have the usual powers of life and death over your lives. I won't bore you with repeating the details or attempting to intimidate you. You will be deployed to the surface to hunt and engage a particular enemy. Succeed. That is all."

Gix turned toward the leader of the security detachment. "Get these scum to the surface."

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2004-12-23 11:48pm

"Legio... Xenos?" Prius said dubiously to the orderly. It would be too much to ask that this was some sort of special operations unit created specifically for the purpose of dealing with foul aliens.

No, given the tone of what was happening in this system, he doubted it highly.

"Yes, colonel-commissar. The details are here for your review."

Prius accepted the dataslate, wondering just what they were going to be dealing with now. A hard knot of suspicion was forming in his stomach- tolerance of xenos presence in the system, recurrent chaotic activity, and the presence of traitor marines on the station after it had been swept... it was too much to be a coincidence.

Typhonis 1 · Post by **Typhonis 1** » 2004-12-23 11:52pm

Nathan walked over and nodded as he read his copy "Good the humans can redeem themselves in sevice to the Emperor.The Xenos well......meat shield it is"

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2004-12-24 12:01am

"Inquisitor, there are no such things as coincidences. Look at the heretical activity we've experienced here. Look at the sudden 'manifestation' of traitor marines on the station after we had thoroughly swept it. I believe that we are seeing the fruits of xenos-heretic collaberation. They have done so in the past. And now we're going to introduce still more xenos into the equation? Mark my words, I do not believe this will end well."

Typhonis 1 · Post by **Typhonis 1** » 2004-12-24 12:09am

"True or the ruinois powers seek to hide themselves among the xenos. It is easy to hide the marks of chaos disguised as one and they can use them as a scape goat so when the trouble erupts they can slink away,adopting a new guise as we hunt down there patsies"

"I think we should see what fruit exists at the top of this tree Prius,that is why we shall investigate the govenor. "

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2004-12-24 12:12am

He nods. "Following that notion, I used exclusively our stationside arbites units and imported Guard units rather than groundside PDF or arbites. We do have some idea of the capacities of our own. Do you wish for me to accompany you to the governor's estate, or oversee the search?"

Typhonis 1 · Post by **Typhonis 1** » 2004-12-24 12:17am

"We both will deal with the hunt for now, give them a nice show.Then when the time comes we will move as ghosts and those who have betrayed there station and duty shall be quite surprised when we do hit them"

Nathan checked his armor.

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2004-12-24 12:22am

He nodded, moving to collect his armor. Yesterday after the fight he'd found a large crater in his last set of armor... apparently he'd been shot in the fight and didn't even notice it, though he could feel the bruise on his chest now. The armorer had said that the armor would require extensive repair work and provided him with a another suit, which he pulled on.

It took some getting used to, armor. Commissars typically went about armored with little more than their greatcoats and their faith, and it almost felt like... shirking of faith to wear such. But given the scale of threats they were facing, it was his duty to survive as long as possible in order to inflict the maximum amount of damage on the foe. He had finally managed to acquire a new plasma pistol, which he slid into its holster on his hip. Taking helmet in hand, he nodded to Nathan. "Ready."

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2004-12-24 12:39am

A vanguard of Legio Xenos troopers preceeded Gix out of the lander. "That way," Jolan said, pointing at the crater. The troopers obeyed, faces carefully expressionless when he addressed them. No one wanted to cross an inquisitor.

The troopers carefully descended into the blast pit. Now that the warp had time to calm, it might be easier to read any traces of what happened to the PsyKing. In this matter he was not prepared to leave any stone unturned.

Jolan followed his reluctant troops. They nervously took positions around the pit as the inquisitor once again scanned the warp for any traces of his opponent.

Typhonis 1 · Post by **Typhonis 1** » 2004-12-24 01:16am

Nathan steped carefully down and over o Gix "So when was this penal unit started?"

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2004-12-24 01:19am

"No idea. As long as they are useful, I don't care. Can you make any sense of these traces. It's like tangled fishing line."

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2004-12-24 01:24am

Prius eyed the Legio troops, and felt almost a strange kinship for the humans among them. The blank eyes, the tense restraint, it was almost as if meeting brothers.

Excepting the fact that they were failures, fuckups, and obvious expendables to have been assigned to such a unit in the first place.

The first treasonous acts he saw from them would be their last, if he had to oversee the deaths of the entire legio in the process.

Typhonis 1 · Post by **Typhonis 1** » 2004-12-24 01:33am

Nathan turned to an Arbites Seargeant.

"Seargeant when we are done here this aarea is to be levelled .I want to structures here no buildings ,NOTHING that will invite habitation .....this area will be dangerous for years to come ..and not wholly on a physical level either"

Nathan then used a high gothic term Gix didn`t understand as he looked around." I am barely picking up ...6 no 7 traces ,how about you?"

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2004-12-24 01:37am

"Eight," replied Gix. "But tangled. Two I think are LEGION and the PsyKing. As for the others, that's not so easy."

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2004-12-24 01:38am

Prius fingered the hexagrammatic ward he wore around his neck as he crouched under an upthrust spar.

Where are you, diabolist? I'm coming to kill you, in the name of the Emperor. There is nowhere you can run from Imperial justice...

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2004-12-24 01:39am

The sergeant nodded. "As you command, inquisitor."

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2004-12-24 01:42am

Prius looked at the pair, eyes narrowing. "Eight traces? Eight individual psykers here, including LEGION and the PsyKing?"

That would be an ominous sign, if true. How deep did the PsyKing's schemes run, if he could summon such reinforcements on the fly?

How many psykers did he have, as well? With the astropaths on the ship and those down here... he shook his head. Eight or a hundred bodies in the path, they would kill him.

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2004-12-24 01:54am

"It's a mess. Chances are that several of the traces were just latents who had the bad luck to be caught in the blast. It does make verifying the event exceedingly difficult."

GeneralTacticus · Post by **GeneralTacticus** » 2004-12-24 02:00am

"So... you're Inquisitor Raul Adivan, are you? Can't say I've ever met you before."

Adivan felt his patience with the diminutive merchant sitting on the other side of the opulent table growing thin.

"You've seen my rosette. I've given you the verification codes. Mekhatan says it's me. What more do you need?"

The merchant laughed.

"Nothing, nothing. I'm sure you're who you say you are. I just find this rather amusing... I've spent a decade in your service, sworn to render whatever help is needed to you and your other agents, and yet I've never laid eyes on you before. It seems... strange."

Adivan shrugged.

"We are all sworn to the service of the God-Emperor, sworn to die in His Holy Name if need be, and to obey and assist His agents, yet none of us have ever seen him beefore, and none of us ever will, until we die. Is this truly so different?"

The merchant seemed to ponder that for a few moments, then waved the topic away.

"No, I suppose not. It doesn't matter anyway. What do you require?"

"The one thing you can provide that my rosette cannot. Information. I want you to use every means at your disposal to gather information on those Chaos cults that remain in the system, but whatever you do, don't let yourself be found out, and don't let them know we're onto them. All information you gather is to be conveyed in person or by courier, to me or any of the people on this list."

He passed over a dataslate, and the merchant's eyes travelled down it. It was rather short, consisting of Captain Fortis, Mekhatan, and Inquisitors Gix, Pater, and Talstrem, plus their retinues. Notably absent from the list was Inquisitor Lord Vonrilyenta.

"And," Adivan continued, "if you send a courier, it had better be someone trustworthy - someone you trust with the fate of everyone on this planet, and potentially everyone in the Imperium."

The merchant's face lost some colour at the last statement.

"Y-yes, Inquisitor. Your orders will be followed faithfully, you have my word."

Adivan nodded, and rose.

"Good. Do not fail me. Worlds may rest on this. May the Emperor watch over you and grant you success."

With that, he strode from the merchant's palatial apartments, and headed for the elevators with Mekhatan just behind him. He needed to return to the blast area and assist the investigation as fast as possible.

(OOC: Post edited, as I'd completely forgotten that Adivan was helping with the search for the PsyKing earlier)

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2004-12-24 02:01am

Nathan nodded. "We need to make a circuit of the immediate blast radius. I'll start at the north end. Is Adivan otherwise occupied? We could use his assistance."

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2004-12-24 02:05am

"I haven't spoken to him directly. I did send a message regarding my findings on the mutiny aboard those ships and my intensions to return to the surface." Gix shrugged. "He will pursue this matter in the manner he sees fit."

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2004-12-24 02:08am

Nathan nodded, then began moving to the other end of the crater. His mind probed the unholy miasma of the warp as he walked, poking, prodding, seeking to understand the interwoven nature of the strands.

Prius got up to follow him, covering his back.

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2004-12-24 02:16am

Jolan tapped his force rod against his palm. The greater lines, the ones that represented the PsyKing and LEGION ended in a tangle that represented their confrontation. Lesser lines branched from it, scattered into the warp. Strong souls going to the warp as their bodies perished. Nothing to indicate that one wasn't the PsyKing.

"Hmmm." These lines all originated in the same place. As did this faint trail. But unlike the others it wasn't being cast adrift into the Sea of Chaos, but leaving a wake through it. Gix increased his pace. If this was the PsyKing, he wasn't going to lose him.

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2004-12-24 02:20am

In the distance, there was the sound of weapons fire. Across the vox channels a report crackled.

"Lt. Thaler, second platoon Huntsmen. We've got a crowd making a push here. Engaging in suppressive measures."

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2004-12-24 02:27am

"Fan out," Gix told the squad nearest to him. "Supress any rioters." If this trace was good, he wasn't going to lose it because some fools decided to defy Imperial authority.