40K/Inquisitor RPG. The Line of Damnation.

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2004-12-17 03:45am

The trooper's armour was good enough to stop fragment and low powered stubber rounds. Bolt rounds were something else. His abdomen exploded, drenching the floor in gore as he died agonizingly. The troopers came foreward, swinging.

--------------------------------------------

Gix put his hand on Nathan's shoulder. "We are still human, but an Inquisitor must place his duty to mankind above all. We must be prepared to kill the innocent, the pure, the helpless babe if necessity demands. We are the ones who must be prepared to make terrible choices. And she may not be corrupt. We shall see."

Severa is uncomfortable and looks away. Hethor looks on without a care. The first woman he lay with was a scrawny campfollower. The only sex he hasn't paid for was in the desperate excitement of the after shock of battle. Tender emotions have been burned out of him.

Typhonis 1 · Post by **Typhonis 1** » 2004-12-17 03:47am

Nathan chuckles wryly "Duty is heavier than a mountain"

"But our humanity is also our saving grace and whom we serve....we must remeber that WE are human..... for once we forget that...we become nothing better than what we fight"

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2004-12-17 03:50am

Synnove lashed out with the agonizer whip from her pocket, the lash extending from the handle toward the nearest target as her finger flicked the magazine eject for the bolter in her other hand. It was hand to hand until she got enough time to jam in a fresh clip.

Uschi furiously worked the action of the bolter to unjam it when there was a loud call from the entrance. "GAMBLERS ON THE DECK!"

As both women dropped flat to the floor, a lethal hail of metal slivers filled the bar at waist level, the shuriken catapults streaming death into anyone still standing.

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2004-12-17 03:54am

Prius shrugged. "Human, certainly. Destined to rule the stars until the end of time, under the benevolent eye of the God-Emperor, who will lead us to crush all who oppose us in a storm of steel and blood." He speaks this without a trace of irony. "But at the same time we must strive to overcome the weaknesses of human mind so as to better ourselves in the service of the Emperor, especially we chosen few who serve him as his guardians and agents."

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » 2004-12-17 04:01am

Pater, completely oblivious to all the excitement, was busy tinkering with his Psycannon. He needed something that wouldn't impede his movement...

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2004-12-17 04:02am

The agonizer connected to the trooper's helmet. He felt down, convulsing. Then the catapults fired from behind. Armour parted under the deadly hail as the metal discs tore through flesh. In moments the troopers were down, scythed down like summer wheat.

-----------------------------------------------
And so the decision for an examination was made. Gix took the commodore to the fortress's temple and bared the chapel. Inside the sealed doors his examination proceeded.

Hours passed before Gix walked back from the Ecclesiarchal temple towards the others. "Good news. She showed no discomfort when handling the sacred relics and her warp presence gave no sign of demonic taint. The rites of exorcism had no effect. I can't tell you if she's a saint or a late blooming psyker, but she does not appear in any way contaminated by the Ruinous Powers."

Typhonis 1 · Post by **Typhonis 1** » 2004-12-17 04:07am

Nathan noded" Good to hear Gix...Good to hear ..... by the way....what is a saint?"

Nathan wondered why many oif the people there looked at him as if he had grwon another head.

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2004-12-17 04:11am

After a moment, the fire stopped. Then armsman Corrini called out. "Gamblers?"

Uschi looked at the precise lines stitched across the bar by the catapults and shook her head. Synnove lifted her head, checking the bodies. "Gamblers, all clear!" she called. It was the old crew call, used in countless hairy situations from traps like this one to simple bar brawls, all the Wager's faithful Gamblers would close in on the trouble and back each other up. Corrini and three other armsmen stepped into the bar, one covering the door as the other two fanned out, examining the bodies.

"Corrini. Nice of you to disgrace us with your presence," Synnove said.

Corrini shrugged. "Thought about letting you handle the rest of them, but I figured we might be on a tight schedule here."

Uschi finally cleared the jam and lowered her pistol, shocked at the speed with which the whole thing had taken place. She took a breath, lighting a smoke, then strode forward. "Make sure of the place, then we clear out. Good job, people." She looked them in the eye as she passed, nodding to each.

"Got it, skipper," Synnove said. The armsmen drew their sidearms and gave each corpse a coup-de-grace, two shots to the head, before they made for the door.

"Ampul, incendiary," Synnove ordered. The armsman passed her a grenade, and she jerked her head for everyone else to exit. Taking one last look at Mekel's body, her beautiful features pulled up in a snarl. "Enjoy this, you asshole," she said as she popped the pin and tossed it on his corpse.

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2004-12-17 04:14am

"A development during your long absence," said Gix, realizing just how far from his time this man had been born. "Since the Divine Emperor has been confined to the Golden Throne, his soul wanders the warp no longer constrained the his flesh. It is believed by many, first formally proclaimed by the great Ecclesiarch Sebastian Thor, that the Emperor empowers certain men and women to act as champions in the material realm. The commodore may be one of these saints." Gix stands uncomfortably for a moment and then decides to speak.

"I know you probably wish to spend time now with the commodore, but when you have a moment I wish to speak with you in private."

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2004-12-17 04:15am

Prius was limping, obviously still getting used to his augmetics. They had implored him to return for further tuning, and he would attend to that shortly. The leg tended to drag on him, not swinging in a proper natural arc, and the arm had a tendency to overact, going further than he commanded it. All the same, it was functional, and so was he. He listened impassively to the discussion, hardly surprised at Nathan's continuing ignorance of the modern world.

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2004-12-17 04:19am

As the Gamblers pulled out and began to manage the problem of escaping from the 53rd level of the spyre, another drama was occuring inside the room. The refractor field has stopped the bolter shells and the impact had merely stunned him. Mekel had just recovered consciousness when the grenade went off, covering him in a promethium derived jelly. He screamed and continued screaming as the fire consumed his flesh and with it his life.

Typhonis 1 · Post by **Typhonis 1** » 2004-12-17 04:23am

Nathan nods "Certainly. I have no trouble with it and the Commodore does have her duties to return to I`ll visit you thnen"

Much later Nathan looks at Gix "OK what is up?I`m ready to be checked out as well....Don`t want to tke a chance one of those damn things managed to ...corrupt me when I tried frying the brins of a few traitor legionaires earlier"

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2004-12-17 04:31am

A hasty retreat through a couple of alleys had led them to a main courseway, which they gratefully entered for the cover of numbers.

"Casual, casual," Synnove muttered. "Walk in the park. Not a care in the world."

Next to her, Corrini nodded. "Got it. Shuttle's prepped and engines hot. What went down?"

"Fat bastard tried to sell us out. Details can wait until we're on the ride home."

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2004-12-17 04:32am

"I doubt you can be corrupted by just launching a mind blast. Beside the bowls you helped me arrange before the ceremony were blessed and you showed no discomfort. No, I don't think you're tainted."

Gix sat down. "Chou's death has been weighing on my mind. He would still be alive if he had never crossed my path. Chou . . . .he . . .didn't believe. In the divinity of the Emperor. He though it was just a scam. He thought most things were a scam. And now he's dead, before I could change his mind. His soul is swimming in the warp. And he did not honour the Emperor. But he was willing to fight and risk death to make the Imperium a better place. You knew the Emperor, didn't you? You met him at least. Chou died in his service. He will for give his apostacy, won't he?" There is a pleading look in Jolan Gix's eyes. He has lead a man into death, he can live with that. But damnation? Please not into damnation.

Typhonis 1 · Post by **Typhonis 1** » 2004-12-17 04:35am

"Chou served the Imperium like the Emperor did. He may not have beloieved but the Emperor believed in him no doubt ..We may not know what HE has oplkaned but we are all a part of it ...each one of us is a tool making his masterpiece and when one is worn out through use...it is remade so it can be used again"

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2004-12-17 04:40am

"Thank you," said Gix. "I guess I needed to hear that. Kyra always said I was a little too soft and I killed so many people in her service that I didn't really believe it. But I guess she was right, as she usually is. But it won't stop me from doing what must be done. Thank you Nathan."

-----------------------------------------------

The path back to the shuttle was uneventful. Perhaps in retrospect the plan of grabbing the Rogue Trader in a sound proof room had a few points of exploitable weakness, especially when deadly warriors armed comparitively quiet shurken catapults are added to the equation.

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2004-12-17 04:46am

Second day on the job and we have to blow away an old and regular customer. This is not a good omen, Uschi thought.

She couldn't just leave the situation lay. While they'd handled their end of it well enough... the Inquisition needed to know what was going on with this place. But it had to be done in such a way as to not tie her people into it, lest an overly inquisitive Inquisitor look into the rather profligate usage of xenos weaponry.

Rosanthor seemed like a good bet. He'd go for the heretics and not examine the particulars too closely. All the subtle grace of a grox in a china shop, that one. She'd send him a message.

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2004-12-17 05:06am

While others tended to affairs of conscience and the heart, Prius busied himself with military affairs, resuming his briefly interrupted takeover and consolidation of the local Guard and Naval forces. It was during this time that he noticed something rather odd.

Judge Xerxes was nowhere to be found.

And the Arbites had damn little to say about it.

He paged Nathan. This could be a serious matter.

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » 2004-12-17 05:13am

Pater was monitering all channels for unseful info using technically heretical equipment, so he caught both the Arbites' discovery of the scene and the anonymous message to Inquisitor Rosanthor. It didn't take a maths wizz to work out what 2 + 2 equalled in this case, so he and Sgt. Slate paid a little visit to the Traders.

GeneralTacticus · Post by **GeneralTacticus** » 2004-12-17 05:14am

When Uschi arrived back aboard the Fool's Wager, she was waved over by a puzzled member of the bridge crew, who handed her a transcript of a brief message from the station. It read:

"Captain Uschi, please get in touch with me as soon as you can, and bring an inventory list. I may want to buy some of it. Don't worry if it's contraband; I won't hand you over to the Arbites unless you're hauling something daemonic. Thank you in advance, and may the Emperor watch over the soul of Captain Engelier.

- Inquisitor Raul Adivan, Ordo Hereticus."

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2004-12-17 05:16am

Uschi and the honor guard greeted the latest inquisitor to step onto the Wager.

Engelier would no doubt comment on how poor our choice of company has gotten lately.

"Good afternoon, inquisitor. We're preparing to exit the system soon, so you'll understand if we're a bit pressed for time."

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » 2004-12-17 05:18am

"Understood. I don't intend to hold you up, I just want information about your little shootout earlier today."

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2004-12-17 05:23am

Damn it all to hell. No good deed goes unpunished. If he was just Arbites or PDF, she'd try to bluff her way out of this. But with an inquisitor... no.

"We were were meeting with our client to make a delivery of archeotech... as we are licensed to do by virtue of our charter... and he decided that he would rather have the cargo and the payment. We disagreed with him. Fervently."

Busted. Busted all to hell and gone. This could get ugly. If they ended up killing an inquisitor... or two... they would have to take it far out beyond the edge of the Imperium to duck the retribution. It was doable, if one didn't mind eking out a living among pirate colonies and xenos.

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2004-12-17 05:24am

"Jolan?"

"Yes?"

"I picked up something being relayed to Inquisitor Talstrem. "

"From whom?"

"Commissar-Colonel Prius Ristani. He's using station coms." It didn't need to be said that Severa was hooked into those.

"Are you spying on everyone?" he joked.

"Yes," she answered. "It's my job. "

Jolan smiled. "And you're very good at it."

"That's not all. There is an unusual level of activity in the last hour. None of it directed at us."

"Hmm." Gix rubbed his scar. "Bait, divide and conquer, sewing mistrust, or pure coincidence? Any guesses?"

"The worst possible combination of the first three."

"You might be right," he replied. "Do I tell you often enough that you are a treasure?"

"No," she replied, not entirely jokingly.

"You are," he said. And then he was out the door and lost in the long dark corridors of the station.

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » 2004-12-17 05:25am

"Hmm. Your anonymous report- very well worded too, might I add- Mentioned Chaotic Cults. Otherwise you wouldn't have sent it to an Inquisitor, yes?"