40K Dark Heresy: The Danse Macabre

[Academia Nut]

"Considering the fact that we set in on fire, we're still battered from the last fight, the heretics outnumber us a good four to one, and the only guy who can lead us back to a semi-safe place to rest and heal is unwilling to stick around, I would think you are the one who is lacking in brain tissue," Quintos says while trying to catch up with Camillia and Diver.

He very nearly added on something about Varnius being a warp addled psyker, but it seemed imprudent mention where Diver might hear. Best keep the fact that they had psykers in their group known to as few people as possible.

[Imperial Overlord]

"Morons," Varnius muttered. "Morons who fear gangers more than failing the fucking Inquisition." He hustled away from the kill site. He needed a good spot to hide that would allow him to watch and see who came and where they went. He would prefer to have more muscle backing him up, but that wasn't looking like an option. They were pissing away their real lead in order to crawl into a hole with a bunch of gangers.

Maybe they only press ganged the dumb blunts on the nice world. That might explain their total cluelessness. In the mean time, he would continue hunting for the right spot to set up.

[Raj Ahten]

Well, no one is getting shot. So far anyway.

With most of the team heading out, Lazarus went over to talk with Varnius. He could still catch up with the team as a rear guard right now anyway, if he wanted to.

"You staying? What's your plan; you going for an intel operation, stay hidden see who turns up? If that's the case, we need to find a place which has some escape routs."

Lazarus looked around some himself, looking for hiding holes. To his way of thinking the place where Diver had sniped from was a pretty good spot.

Fuck it. Well, seeing as no one has ordered me to leave, only suggested it, I'm staying. Greis should have put someone in command of this fiasco. Those gangers got ot pay, no other fucking way thats going to happen unless we do something about it right now.

[Imperial Overlord]

Finally. Thank the Emperor that someone else had some brains. "Good idea," Varnius replied.

[Academia Nut]

Racing along with the others, Quintos sends a comm transmission, "For those of you staying behind, considering that we probably have shoot on sight orders against us back at the base, how exactly do you plan on finding us after your recon? And if things go sour, how exactly do you plan on getting back-up? If you die or get captured, how exactly are we going to get any useful information on our enemies?"

[Imperial Overlord]

"Stop worrying about the enemy killing you," said Varnius. "Worry how you're going to explain your actions to the Inquisition." He had spent his adolescence digging in mines, ninety percent of what he owned going to the baron and the rest going to prevent his family from starving. Finding his way around underground was a skill he had literally paid for in blood.

[Raj Ahten]

Racing along with the others, Quintos sends a comm transmission, "For those of you staying behind, considering that we probably have shoot on sight orders against us back at the base, how exactly do you plan on finding us after your recon? And if things go sour, how exactly do you plan on getting back-up? If you die or get captured, how exactly are we going to get any useful information on our enemies?"

"Well, as I said earlier all you gotta do is leave some pre-arranged marks at turns offs in the tunnels and those can be followed by us. I doubt they'd be noticed, as the gangers won't know what to look for. And if that shit don't work we can meet back at the train station in week, 5 days, whatever. As far as backup, we don't got none, thats normal and we ain't had any since this shit started. It's recon, if we get spotted we bolt, we don't stick around to fight it out with these assholes. And as far as getting shot goes, we could die at any damn moment down here. It's a battlefield."

That about fuckin' covers it.

As Lazarus spoke, he checked on the exits from Diver's sniper/observation position.

These tunnels are probably our best bet. The gangers didn't notice us up here earlier, and if it comes to a firefight they can't swarm us with numbers up here. They gotta come at is in nice tight little groups.

[Academia Nut]

"And if the enemy kills me how will I do my duty? My duty is to kill them, or failing that it is to tell my superiors what I know of their activity. If I die with these things undone, what will I tell the Emperor when I stand before Him? That I was too proud to know when to regroup, too stupid to know that I cannot win today but I can tomorrow? No, I ask you these questions because we need to know if you are to act the scout. We cannot win in an open battle today, so we must prepare for tomorrow. So tell me, how are you going to gather information on these heretics and get it back to those who can do useful things with it? Tell me how you will do these things, or admit you don't know what you are doing and are likely going to waste a life that belongs not to you but to the Emperor. Tell me what you will do if the enemy has more witches, witches capable of sniffing you out no matter how well you hide. Tell me what you will do if the enemy never shows, the fires we have started alerting them to the fact that something is amiss. Tell me how you will get back to us in this hive without a guide. Tell me these things," Quintos demands over the comm.

[Imperial Overlord]

"I don't need a fucking guide," said Varnius. "Things may go wrong and we may have to shoot our way out as we retreat. I'll take that chance. Every scout takes that chance. Go run away and hide with the gangers that will use you and then betray you at the first opportunity. I'll do my duty."

[Academia Nut]

"So be it, but I will remind you that when I was getting shot up by a heavy stubber you were the one hiding away from the fury of battle, so you will understand my doubts of your ability to actually fight your way out of a wet paper bag," Quintos snarls over the comm.

Dishonourable little coward, using his abilities to hide from the bullets when they were flying and then daring to question the faith of those sporting the bullet holes afterwards.

[Imperial Overlord]

Varnius didn't bother replying over the vox. "What do you call a man who insults you by saying you're good at hiding when you're dealing with a stealth situation?" he said softly. "A moron. Let's get situated."

[Raj Ahten]

Lazarus tried to keep his cool as hot words were excnaged over the comms.

"Look I'm going to assume that if we can't make contact, we'll meet up at the rail station in 5 days at mid-day. Can I get some confirmation on what the marks at the turnoffs will be in the tunnels?"

Varnius better be right about being able to navigate down here if we gotta get out on our own. He didn't have to fucking call Quintos a coward though.

Lazarus might talk to him about that later. But he didn't want to antagonize an angry Pysker. Bad things might happen. Besides, they had bussiness to attend to at the moment.

[Imperial Overlord]

"Don't waste your time," said Varnius. "They aren't going to leave marks. I'll give you a run down of how to get back up top in case something happens to me after we get set up."

[Raj Ahten]

"Don't waste your time," said Varnius. "They aren't going to leave marks. I'll give you a run down of how to get back up top in case something happens to me after we get set up."

That may be, But I gotta hope I got at least one friend up there.

Lazarus just grunted and said,
"Where that scum Diver was set up seemed like a damn good position, with escape routes, a good vantage, everything. We might as well get situated."

Seeing as they were right near that position already, Lazarus got started by sitting down several feet back from the hole Diver had shot from where he could look out, but hopefully not be seen.

"We'll probably want to keep a watch on the tunnels too, as well as out this damn hole."

[Imperial Overlord]

"Yes," said Varnius. He began composing his mind to give the route back to the surface to his companion. Walking through the near dark in the mine tunnels and the sense of direction that that gave was hard to explain to others.

[Vehrec]

Serghar scrubbed his hand over his stubble as he fell in beside Quintos. "Well, I don't like this one bit. Do one thing or the other, but splitting up like this is dangerous. I want to go back there and watch those two's back. For Frak's sake, I can tell where they are coming from on this. But now I'm worrying about those 'other things' Diver mentioned down here." He fumbled around, but found his box of Lho-sticks empty. "Frak it. If they get killed down here, and I'm somehwere else, it'll eat at me for months. I'm not a bad enough man for this work. Care too damn much about damn fools."

[Academia Nut]

Nodding, Quintos says, "I agree. The reason I stepped up for leadership at first, the reason I'm always the one pushing for certain things, is because I don't want to fail. Death and failure do not go hand in hand, just as survival and success are not inseperable, but they certainly are bed mates. Our biggest strengths right now are numbers and secrecy, which just goes to show how precarious a position we are in. I badly want to punish those heretics, but look at us. Look at wounds we have sustained. Maybe if we were fresh and in a fortified position we could take those scum, but we are tired and injured and we cannot fight indefinitely. We need to withdraw at this time. I do not feel it is wise to split our group in this situation though. The enemy has numbers and knowledge of the terrain, and I do not feel many of us are stealthy enough to make the risks outweigh the benefits."

Snorting, Quintos then says, "And even if we do know the identity of the heretic leader, what will we do with it? We have destroyed this base, so we do not know where he will go unless we tail him, which seems, to not put too fine a point on it, a bad idea. If we get pictures of him, so what? If he is a member of a gang I am sure he is not unknown already, and saying 'Hey, there's a heretic here!' seems a waste of time. We do not know who is compromised, and we currently have no way of contacting the Captain. This is not a lead, it is a trap. Besides, how would a hive gang leader get all of... that... equipment? Mark my words, he is as us, a catspaw for something else. Striking at the hand will not cease the plotting of the head. We need to follow the money, follow the ammunition, we need find who is behind this and cut off the head so that the twitching of the body after may be dealt with. Biting at the hand in front of us will only bring a temporary withdrawal, at best."

[RIPP_n_WIPE]

Serghar scrubbed his hand over his stubble as he fell in beside Quintos. "Well, I don't like this one bit. Do one thing or the other, but splitting up like this is dangerous. I want to go back there and watch those two's back. For Frak's sake, I can tell where they are coming from on this. But now I'm worrying about those 'other things' Diver mentioned down here." He fumbled around, but found his box of Lho-sticks empty. "Frak it. If they get killed down here, and I'm somehwere else, it'll eat at me for months. I'm not a bad enough man for this work. Care too damn much about damn fools."

"I do apologize but there is no other option Seghar. The heretics must burn."

"Lazarus" Octavius now turned to those he would be fighting with "We need to get everyone situated, and quickly. Likely the 'Balimeks' will expect an ambush and if we can take them from as far away as possible I think we'd do best. I highly suggest sniping posistions, near the tunnels if at all possible. Also if we could all scout the tunnels before hand and not rely on Varnius alone, I think that would possibly be best. No offense Varnius, but not everyone might have the same sub-terranean navigtory skills as you."

[Raj Ahten]

"Lazarus" Octavius now turned to those he would be fighting with "We need to get everyone situated, and quickly. Likely the 'Balimeks' will expect an ambush and if we can take them from as far away as possible I think we'd do best. I highly suggest sniping posistions, near the tunnels if at all possible. Also if we could all scout the tunnels before hand and not rely on Varnius alone, I think that would possibly be best. No offense Varnius, but not everyone might have the same sub-terranean navigtory skills as you."

By the Emporer, this man is a gung ho son of a bitch.

"You do realize there are only three of us right? This is an intel op. We don't have the numbers to ambush and exfiltrate succesfully unles there are only 10 gangers tops. We are going to identify targets for later strikes and maybe, maybe take a prisoner or attack targets of opurtunity if feasable. You gotta leave that take em' all now groxshit out of this, otherwise we likely are all going to die for no good reason."

Lazarus got up from his seat near Diver's sniping hole and looked Octavious in the eye and said softly,

"You don't think I don't want to shoot all those fucks right now? I damn well do. But we gotta be flexible to the siuation at hand."

[Feil]

Cyrine continued heading after Diver with the majority of the party. She noticed that Quintos could use a little more medical attention, but decided to wait until they got somewhere safe before pausing to try to administer it.

[Block]

Tiring of the arguement, Verum motioned to Diver. "Lead on please, friend. The three of them can remain here, but I think the rest of us would prefer to depart. I have no interest in further combat at the moment. I need some rest, and medical attention." Turning his back, the assassin subvocalized, "and it's time we found some way to report."

[Imperial Overlord]

"We sleep in shifts," Varnius said. "One rests, the other two watch. The gangers are small fry, what we want are their cultists allies/masters, those who created that atrocity. They aren't likely to stick around once they know their slaughter pit has been found. They may have connections at multiple hive levels and can probably vanish. We need to keep an eye open for anyone who doesn't seem to be part of the gang when they return. We'll roll up on them when they leave, if possible. Questions, criticisms, or counter proposals?"

[Raj Ahten]

"That's is probably about as good as we can get. Regardless I want pictures of everybody if we can do so. I just hope the bastards we want don't have a large pack of bodyguards."

[SylasGaunt]

Havelock mutered a quick prayer for the group staying behind.. but he was not about to risk failure by getting lost in an unfamiliar hive. They could watch and he would hope they came out of it okay and that the returning group also managed to find out some information of their own. Perhaps he would eat his own words later and that bunch would have more luck and find the piece of information that broke the investigation and let them wrap it up.

In the meantime though he was tired, aching, and had some very pointed questions to ask of their 'hosts' regarding the Balimeks.

[Raj Ahten]

Lazarus settled in for the long haul. He kept his eyes on the tunnels, sitting back a little from a corner so he could use it for cover and hopefully remain out of sight from anyway coming up said tunnels. Someone else could sleep first. No way he could sleep right now anyway. Everything from the pit was too fresh in his mind.

The heretic bastards we are looking for better show up. So far these fucks have been really sloppy. Here's hoping that trend continues and they don't search the tunnels before they bring in their top people. The shit the've done is unforgivable.

Lazarus's customary caution had been thrown to the wind. It had been replaced by pure hatred and a determination to kil the enemy. At least for the moment.