40K/Inquisitor RPG. The Line of Damnation.

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2005-01-06 02:45pm

Jolan turned towards Severa. "How did Varian get on board without us knowing?"

"He awed a couple of people with his rosette. In defiance of standing orders, they obeyed him and kept their mouth shut. They've already been sent to the penal legions."

"Throne," Jolan swore. "It's like bailing a boat with seeve. The Black Legion slides in pretty as can be with the proper codes and heightened security measures that are implemented with Inquisitional authority get ignored. Any good news?"

"Beside your new general?" Jolan turned an looked at her.

"New travels fast when you're monitoring everything. And everybody's happy that whack job Ristani wasn't picked for it. He leads a mean charge but-"

"I know," said Gix. "I didn't promote him. Talstrem's already second guessing the tentative plan. We need to hit system and find out the details before we start arguing over details we don't even know yet."

"Agreed. Are we taking the Sword of Glory?"

"Yes, Commodore Novdalorin will command the task force from the Sword. We'll be on the Divine Retribution."

"Good," said Severa. "Shanan's crew really know their stuff. The Sword is brand new and the crew doesn't have that edge that comes with having taken your ship into battle."

"Glad to hear you approve."

"Oh, and Jolan?"

"The armour arrived."

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2005-01-06 09:56pm

Varian had seen the constrenation his arrival sparked. That worried him a little; he was an Inquistor and had every right to attend to the matter.

As the meeting broke up. He caught wind of the men that had help him were being sent to penal legions,that would never do. He simply sent to the men i charge, so far as he knew, and arranged for those of the men that were capable to serve as his retinue. It didn't do to see men punished for obeying the Inquisition, even if it had taken a bit of judicious application of The Will.

"Oh, and" Colonel, "Tell the officers I'd like for them to make time to see them so that I might better understand their plans."

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2005-01-06 11:40pm

"Jolan?"

"Yes?" The inquisitor turned to face Severa. The tall blonde looked a little . . . concerned.

"Inquisitor Varian took those men from the penal legions?"

Gix ran his fingers through his short black hair. Why in the Emperor's name did Varian want men who disobeyed inquisitional orders regarding security in the aftermath of a Black Legion sneak attack?

"Forget about it. He has his reasons. Either he thinks the axe got dropped on those men unfairly or he has his own use for them. It's his business who he has on his staff. But check his method of entry again."

"Why?"

"Because if he got in despite them doing their jobs and not because they fucked up, then there is still a hole. We've had enough suprise attacks to last us the next ten years. We don't need the PsyKing mark II or some more Traitor Legionnaires paying us a visit."

"Oh and Severa?"

"Yes Jolan."

"Give him some space. Inquisitors don't like getting spied on."

"You don't seem to mind."

"That's because when you do it, it's called back up. I have no idea who this Varian is. I don't need to start off by stepping on his toes."

"Even if I'm doing the stepping?" she said arching her eyebrow.

Gix through up his hands. "I can't win."

"That's why you hired me, inquisitor. And I'll give the good inquisitor his space."

"Thank you," he smiled.

"I'll see if I can find a way for you to express your gratitude."

Typhonis 1 · Post by **Typhonis 1** » 2005-01-07 01:00am

Nathan nosdded" All I thought was he was keeping an eye on me for you so that you knew where I was. If he disobeyed an order of yours then yes punish him as you see fit.Discipline is the glue that holds us together."

Nathan carefully packed his tarot away.Once more he gave Prius his full attention . "Now then is your unit ready for the assault ?"

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2005-01-07 02:35am

Prius stood rigidly at attention. "Inquisitor Talstrem, when you took me into your service, you instructed me to... advise you in the event that you differed from modern protocols. It is... against the training of the modern Guardsman to disregard the machine spirit of a war machine."

Despite the Lord Inquisitor's display with the archaeotech, Prius still had trouble himself coming to terms with the notion that unsanctified machines could be... acceptable.

But the Lord Inquisitor had his reasons, of course, and it was not Prius Ristani's place to question such things.

"And doing so is likely to cause consternation. As to the man in question, however, it is not the place of a Guardsman or most certainly the Emperor's Sword to... inform..." his lip curled with disdain. "Upon a member in good standing of His Most Holy Inquisition. Such behavior is a short step from the Sins of Nonconformity and Independent Thought, which as you of course know cannot be tolerated in His Imperial Guard."

Having explained the matter in a good orthodox fashion, Prius dismissed it from his mind.

"As to the status of the Emperor's Sword, they are always ready for whatever task needs doing. By your command," he said formally, saluting.

Typhonis 1 · Post by **Typhonis 1** » 2005-01-07 03:21am

Nathan shook his head "I did no such thing all I did was tell the two men to drain the fuel from the machine and refil it with new fuel , also to clean the filters on the engines so good air could get in. I looked at it in this manner the machine spiirit having been alseep in storagfe for a while was awoken and given foul tasting fuel and dirty air to run on ...she was incensed.. the machine expected to get the best o she could give the best . Those two obviously hadn`t done that or weren`t told too so she was right to be angry with them."

" Honor thy gear and it will not fail you. There master hadn`t shown them how to honor a machine that had been sleeping .I merely showed them how"

"My words were . Siphon the fuel out, clean the filters. Put fresh new purified fuel into her and she should run as she is able.The bad fuel and air are angering her in the wrong way"

Nathan smiled at Prius"I may not believe in a machine spirit as you do but I will not belittle that belief.I try to conform and was helping two men out who appeared to need it. I figure what happened is some REMF failed to drain the fuel from them fully and wel;l.... because of condensation water was mixed in with the fuel on board...."

Nathan returned the salute "Mind if I inspect them sometime? I wish to see the men that serve under your command"

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2005-01-07 03:37am

Hethor watched the guardsmen file through the bay towards the transport. Most of them had been set up to the Ramilies and then from there to the ships docked with immense station. He had seen more operations of this kind than he cared to remember.

He wasn't here looking for spies or sabateurs. He was here to watch the men. How the soldiers dealt with the hurry up and wait, and how their officers and noncoms dealt with them. That would tell him alot.

So was seeing their gear first hand. Files and tables of organization were bureaucrat work, although Severa could squeeze them until they bled something useful. And there was no denying that auspex's had there place.

But the trained observer had a place of his own. Their was no substitute to actually seeing the gear and verifying the equipment and quality. Hethor kept his own notes. Not much, nothing fancy. Enough to jog his memory and give Gix what he needed. That was a sergeant's job, to make sure his superiors had what they needed to win. And Hethor D'eckor always won.

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2005-01-07 03:38am

"Inquisitor, the men are trained in the basic invocations and praises of the Machine God when working on machinery, though of course the more complex incantations are reserved for the members of the Mechanicus. It is just... not common in this time to perform work without giving proper praise and regard to the Machine God, you see."

He nodded. "And if it would suit your schedule, I can assemble the Sword for an inspection this afternoon, prior to embarkation."

Typhonis 1 · Post by **Typhonis 1** » 2005-01-07 03:44am

"My fault then I`m not used to the Machine God worship only that machines have spirits... and yes this afternoon will be fine. I leave those details up to you ."

Nathan sighed" My problem is they have no rituals or whatnot to allow one such as myself to acclimate to this time period though ,Emperor knows ,I do try."

"Oh well thats a concern for later ...right now I have to concentrate on how best to throw a monkey wrench into the Emperors enemies works"

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2005-01-07 03:45am

A casually dressed man in utility overalls was also watching the troops file past. He seemed to be somewhat oblivious to the proceedings, but Hethor could tell that he was also carefully observing the behaviors of the troops.

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2005-01-07 03:47am

Hethor casually checked the pictures in his data slate of the new general and his staff against the man in coveralls.

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2005-01-07 03:54am

As Hethor scoped him, Rynthis casually chatted up a couple of sergeants who were waiting for their squads' turns to embark, passing them each a smoke and shooting the breeze.

Snippits of the conversation could be made out over the general clamor, apparently relating to training exercises on one of Adraxis small northern continents, a nasty little wasteland of polluted deserts, overgrown jungles, and several other varieties of unpleasant terrain.

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2005-01-07 03:56am

Prius nodded. "During our transit perhaps I could instruct you on some of the basic rituals. I have them memorized."

What a surprise.

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2005-01-07 03:58am

The huge veteran strode over to the colonel. Hethor smiled at the tabac trick. He always carried a pack for the same reasons. "Hey buddy, know anything about where we're headed?"

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2005-01-07 04:05am

Coiled up as if ready to strike the muscular beastman went over various dataslates, despite having centuries of service, he was still "just a xeno/beast and thus had the duty of dealing with the administratum, while everyone else ignorec such unpleasant details. sure a commisar could demote anyone to a penal battalion, to lead the first charge, but someone actually had to file the paper work to do that. Still it would suprise the warmbloods, just how knowledgeable his gothic was, not just that mock cockney 'othik he used around others, to play the part of the dumb beast. Besides like the ratling secretaries, if they were truely dumb they wouldn't have survived that long. Sometimes he wondered if they even read the dataslates he forwarded over to them, they defihatly weren't aware that he was the scource and the handler of the daily grind.

Ok, a sword transfer to penal battallions, he had enough problems with out an extra spy in Xenos, hmm, purhaps Charlie, yeah those galactic fringe, inbreds could handle prias' spy well enough, hope they don't rape him like they did the last one...

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2005-01-07 04:06am

Rynthis Marselo was not in the habit of looking up to people, but Hethor topped him by a good ten centimeters, at least. He smiled in a friendly way, shaking his head. "I know 'bout as much as anybody..." he glanced and seeing no rank insignia on Hethor's outfit, made an educated guess. "Sarge. Smoke?" he held out the pack.

Offworlder, he mentally processed. Probably Guard, or possibly one of the various spooky types that were floating around. He wondered just how many of the espionage types would spend their time chasing each other in circles around this operation. It was the sort of comedy of errors the intel types usually engaged in, before getting together to write their highly creative and utterly ficticious reports.

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2005-01-07 04:08am

"No thanks," he replied. "Hard enough running and carrying your gear without hacking your lungs up."

"So what do you think of our boys? You are here to eye the meat aren't you? Might as well compare notes."

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2005-01-07 04:11am

Spook for sure.

"Don't rightly know what you're talking about," he said offhandedly. "Just catching a break between shifts."

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2005-01-07 04:16am

"Right. Sure. And I'm PDF. You're here to get an idea of what we have to work with. Ditto."

Hethor stopped for a moment. "You think I might be one of Ristani's nancy boys?" He snickered. "Fuck that. Fuck it long and hard. He's probably reaming one of his 'Sword' pansies about having a non-regulation toothbrush. "

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2005-01-07 04:25am

"No, you look like somebody who's able to sit down without punching a hole in the chair," Rynthis said. "However, past that I don't have a frakking clue who you are. My mother, may she live another ninety-six years, told me at a very young age not to trust strangers."

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2005-01-07 04:29am

"So, I hear that we got a new replacement for our administrum officer, not that it's a liked position, come to think of it, most people would rather spend an hour in an agonizer rack, then spend time dealing with the administratum."

"what happened to the old one?"

"oh Carter, she got lucky, yup, got gutted by a bolter from one of those plauge bastards."

"eww The rot and a gut shot, nasty way to go."

"yeah, but at least her days of answering to auditors is over...."

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2005-01-07 04:31am

"Smart. But your boss has Gix's word that you can operate without that usual groxshit and Gix's word is good. But I can't say I blame you for not buying that. Throne, when I first met him I thought he was a green louie and that's pretty much what he was. But one to the good kind."

"Just thought you might have noticed somethen I'd missed. The stakes are pretty fuckin high. You mustered out, as what, a colonel? You ever had a field command?"

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2005-01-07 04:37am

That was pretty damned privileged information. He studied Hethor for a long moment, before shrugging.

"Platoon, company, battalion, took over a regiment or two in spot duty in my time. What am I seeing here? These kids mean well, but they aren't Guard. They caught some action with the recent troubles, but they aren't anywhere near up to spec. Our spec, that is."

He looked past the troops, a firm set to his jaw. "And we both know that a good chunk of them will die in the learning."

Typhonis 1 · Post by **Typhonis 1** » 2005-01-07 04:42am

Nathan checked his image in the mirror. He wore a modified guard unirform .His Auquilla and service tabs displayed on it. He knew it was only for show but....well it was for the benefit for the men.

He picked the one piece of non stanbdard gear up and slid it on his head,grinning. There were no regs for how an Iquisitor was to dress and the headgear would get attentionn ....

He turned and headed out.Time to review the Swords and see if they could do the job that was needed.

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2005-01-07 04:48am

The Swords, one hundred and seventeen strong at present, were turned out in uniform for his review. By order, regardless of where he recruited them from they wore they simple battledress of the Imperial Guard, though the resemblance ended there. They had gotten a heavy scoop of the new equipment, and all manner of weapons and toys were in their kit.

Prius waited in his commissarial uniform, calling them to attention as Nathan arrived. One hundred and seventeen bootheels clacked together in sync.