40K Dark Heresy: The Recondite War

[Block]

"Thank you, I'd put out the lho stick, some witchunters see sin in everything and the others will be following behind. If you see anyone wearing that symbol, you run." With that Scar moved off towards the indicated fence, vaulted it on the fly and dropped to one knee on the other side, searching for tracks.

[Zablorg]

Crom walked over beside Merc and attempted to help him with the vox beads.

[Lancer]

"Obstinate little beasts..." He looked up at Crom, accepting his offer of assistance, and gave him a set of instructions for how to help before turning his attention back to the stubborn microbeads. He also began chanting one of the more militant litanies of the Machine Cult to channel his growing ire as he tried again.

"Machina magnus, sanctus metallum, potestas Omnissiah, Omnissiah vult..."

[NecronLord]

The three vox beads all obligingly obeyed the will of the machine-god, re-tuned, and reset to appropriate encyrption. The worker on the gantry stubbed out his 'lho stick in a special airtight container, preserving what was left for later. There didn't seem to be any tracks immediately visible on the other side of the fence.

[Block]

With a sigh Scar scanned the surrounding rooftops and headed back over the fence. Continually checking the surrounding area he slowly made his way back to the helipad.

[NecronLord]

Scar at last found some evidence of the sniper, on the far side of the fence, as he walked past it, tyre marks scuffed a rough dirt track that worked its way down the more mellow angled side of the hill toward Spergen; these passed a little way beyond the fuelling station’s gates, which were closed. It was hard to tell whether they were recent; perhaps they were old tracks...

[The Yosemite Bear]

Eli began to try and catch up with the others, he didn't trust his fellow scum nearly as far as he could throw him, without the aide of an airlock.

[Balrog]

As Darien and Mithras made their way to the local precinct house, he kept a wary on their surroundings. The crowds kept their distance from the armed and uniformed duo, but the next shot at them could come from any of the open windows or seemingly deserted alleys they passed. He kept his lasgun secured across his shoulder but ready to draw in a moment.

Seeking to break the monotony, he spoke first as he continued scanning. "So, how long you been in the Arbites?"

[Jaevric]

Darien admits, wryly, "Not terribly long, I'm afraid. I was only on assignment for a couple of years after graduation; barely long enough according to my commander to get me properly trained. I'd assisted on a few cases and kicked some doors down but nothing major--at least, nothing that I know of. Present circumstances suggest I was doing something right, either that or my commander was told she had to provide a warm body and she figured I was most expendable. If I'm ever back on-planet maybe I'll ask her. How long have you been with the Guard?"

[Balrog]

"Oh, I've lost count," Mithras replied, a barely-heard sigh escaping from his mouth. "I do remember getting this right out of boot," he pointed to the Aquilia tattoo above his left eye, "and saw some light action afterwards, but mostly they've had me pushing paperwork ever since. Only thing that really broke the monotony was visiting the firing range."

He looked down the street they were walking along, noticing what he hoped was the building they were looking for. "I think we're getting close."

[Jaevric]

Darien says, grinning, "Well, at least your pushing paper days look to be over. Though I suppose we'll have to file some sort of reports when this is all finished. I'm leaning in favor of 'found the witches, shot the bad guys, had a drink, went to bed' myself."

Looking down the street, he shrugs his shoulders, and finishes "I'm glad you know where we're going, I haven't the faintest."

[Block]

Noting the tracks Scar shook his head. "Took to damned long. We will meet again heretic, and you will burn, you have my word on that. No one escapes me forever," the Feral worlder swore, his voice starting low and building to a primal scream that he punctuated with a crosshair marking sliced onto his forearm. Continuing to take in his surroundings, he walked back towards where the group was assembled and his assignment as a bodyguard for the psyker.

[NecronLord]

It wasn’t terribly hard to locate the enforcers; in common with most imperial law buildings, they had got themselves a prominent location near the Spergen main street, and their office was the only building there that didn’t have the banners of various traders and cartels hanging outside, bedecked with colourful, exuberant ribbons. The enforcer’s outpost, on the other hand, was a high, solid block of plascrete, without windows, and a flat, crenulated roof. Outside it, several market stalls were set up under red awnings, selling snacks and what seemed to be books.

The doors stood open, and an enforcer with a combat shotgun glowered at anyone who came too near, but gave Darien a salute (he was after all, a real Arbitrator) and waved the pair in, to where a slightly more senior enforcer sat behind a desk, behind a transparent pane of armour-glass. “What do you need?” she asked, looking up from the book, which, to her credit, was a text about Saint Drusus as opposed to any of the more suspect ‘literature’ available outside, she’d been reading.

Meanwhile, Scar passed back the way he’d come without incident, no sign of the fuel depot’s workers this time.

[Jaevric]

Darien returns the salute as he enters, then introduces himself and Mithras to the senior enforcer -- no point in lying, he figures -- before getting down to business in the bluntly professional manner favored by the Arbites.

"We were just attacked by several men near the helipads, and wanted to report the incident as well as try to get more information about our attackers. They knew where we were going to land -- it was a planned ambush, not an opportunistic attack -- so I want to keep the local law enforcement out of the loop as much as possible."

[NecronLord]

"Regulator Krine," she said, by way of introduction. As Darien explained the situation, the Regulator nodded, "Understood. I can tell you how they probably did that; a couple of months ago, we busted a drug ring, peddaling bliss, spook, and other unsavory powdered heresies, to the local nobles' sons. The thing was, they seemed to be one step ahead of us for weeks, until we figured it out. There's an old PDF auspex tower," she looked upward, "up on the other side of the valley. It's all boarded up, but we raided it, and found some heritek had set the thing up to feed data to the smugglers. We excecuted everyone involved in that ring, but we didn't get the heritek himself.

"We wanted to level the place, but the PDF intervened, said it would be going beyond our remit to put the facility out of use permanantly. They said they'd station guards, but the local platoon haven't got around to doing that, as far as I can see.

"Chances are, the bastards had a good twenty minutes warning before you arrived." she looked at Darien, "And as far as my understanding of the law goes, if you want to blow the place up, there's nothing the lieutenant can do about it but whine. If you need any extra manpower, by the way, we can be ready in fifteen minutes. There's hardly enough of us to keep order around here, but that doesn't mean we take our duty lightly."

[Jaevric]

Grunting at the explanation, Darien glances over at Mithras then says, "I don't see any reason to keep that auspex station intact, Regulator, and if it would make your job easier that's a bonus. I'm not terribly familiar with explosives, myself, though I suppose we're not concerned with being subtle about this. If this PDF lieutenant wants to file a complaint he can do so, then explain to his superiors how a bunch of heretics and criminals got access to a facility that he was supposed to be monitoring."

"Now, did those coats or that circle-and-lightning symbol I described mean anything to you? Shutting down that station sounds like a good start, but I'd like to find out who organized the attack and express my displeasure personally."

[NecronLord]

"Coats?" she said, "probably just the fashion in use at the minute, I wouldn't read to much into it, unless they had either seal-ribbons on them, or steel aquilae, in which case, they'd be offworlders or PDF officers respectively. I don't know about that symbol. Sounds heretical, given how it was concealed..."

[Jaevric]

Darien starts to say something, then pauses a moment, his eyes widening ever-so-slightly as he thinks of something.

"Regulator Kline, you mentioned that auspex facility had been set up to feed data to someone. I assume you had a member of the Mechanicus examine the system to try to determine if there was a way to track whoever was accessing that data?"

[NecronLord]

"It's possible, if you've expertise. The mechanicus inititate we got to do it had some difficulty last time. But we made a good number of arrests from it..." she said thoughtfully, suddenly realising that time was probably of the essence, "do you need transport? We've a couple of utility vehicles you could borrow if you want to get there quick. Have you any backup?"

[Jaevric]

"We have a team on planet, one of whom is a Techpriest and several of whom are skilled shooters. We would need transport though -- we've an aircraft but it requires a landing field. Someone who knows the way would not go amiss either, only one of us has spent much time on this planet and even then not in this area."

Turning to Mithras, he asks "Can you get Mercurius on the commbead and see if he thinks it would be worthwhile for him to try to backtrack the signal? I'd intended not to involve him because I didn't want an argument about blowing the station up if it comes to that, but this may be too good an opportunity to pass up."

[Balrog]

Mithras nodded and chuckled as the plan began to take form. Buncha nose-wiping PDF pups getting in way over their heads about to get what's coming to them. He activated his comm-bead, hoping the others were close enough to here. "This is Mithras, we're at the location and have found a lead. Meet us there."

No sense in broadcasting their intentions over open air when the enemy could be listening it. The others would just have to make their way to the precinct building.

[NecronLord]

There were eight enforcers in all, it was, as the guide said, a drastically under-policed town, though at least they had transports. Regulator Krine barked instructions, and had two lightly armoured ground cars, each capable of holding five persons, prepared in the garage at the back; each one had a driver’s seat, roll bars, and a heavy stubber mounted on the top of those, as well as a vox-amplifier arrangement from the commander’s position on the left hand side of the front.

Each was a miniature half-track arrangement, with its engine at the back, and the front, heavily armoured to balance its weight out, despite this, the vehicles were open topped, and the chairs low, the two at the front looked over a low armour-glass screen, and the higher three at the back were covered from behind and the sides by a sloping armour plate designed to deflect gunfire.

[White Haven]

Grumbling under his breath, Ajax rousts himself from the bed he'd claimed on the luxury airlinercopter and fastens on his all-important belt, sweeping his coat up off the rack on his way out. If one's available (somewhat lost track of them), he grabs one of the spare retuned commbeads and fits it in place, responding in an irascible tone, "If I get shot again before this one's had time to get healed up, I'm making sure to bleed all over you, Mithras. On my way."

[The Yosemite Bear]

Well, hopefully we can get a chance to do something interesting, besides there's no longer two of you anymore.

[NecronLord]

Meanwhile, in the back room of her station Regulator Krine, was briefing her small command. “The intelligence is limited, right now. An arbitrator and a guardsman, apparently they’re with a Witch Hunter, wanted to operate in Spergen, and some of the filthy idiot scum who fester here no matter how many we hang, made trouble and got shot for their efforts, as they rightly deserved,” her small group seemed at ease, professional, familiar, relaxed but not lax, “The important bit, is that it seems to be the work of our friends back up in Gerden’s Tower. I’ve told Mirren to head over and keep an eye on the place, to ensure that the heretics don’t get away. The rest of you, as soon as our pious friends get assembled, are going to head up with the Witch Hunters and me, kick the door in, search the place, and then we’re going to knock the damn place flat.”

[Feel free to post turning up, cadging a lho-stick off the enforcers, or borrowing a shotgun, or whatever you feel appropriate. As soon as everyone's ready, she'll put as many people in the vehicles (including all PCs) as she can, and tear-ass up that hill.]