40K/Inquisitor RPG. The Line of Damnation.

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » 2004-12-27 06:46am

Pater blasted one of the Hounds with Telikinetic energy and thwapped another with his Staff. Mork used his Machine Gun as an impromptu club. The Storm Troopers started to fall back.

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2004-12-27 06:48am

As if sensing their prime target, the four surviving hounds lunged for Pater...

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » 2004-12-27 06:56am

Pater blasted one Hound into another and ducked below the third, right into a withering hail of Hellgun fire from the Stormtroopers. He turned to face the fourth, too slow, too slow...

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2004-12-27 07:04am

Too slow to avoid the attacking hound altogether, but fast enough to dodge the swipe that would have easily separated his head from his shoulders. Instead, the full mass of the daemonhound piled into him, smashing him to the ground. It hovered over him, blazing eyes betraying an infernal intelligence and an eternal lust for blood. Its saliva scorched his skin as it leaned in to tear his throat out...

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » 2004-12-27 07:09am

The Hound was bodily lifted off him and thrown out a window. Gork looked pleased with himself. Pater scrambled to his feet and faced the remaining 2 Hounds, who had sorted themselves out. He fired a blast of TK.

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2004-12-27 07:11am

One hound was lifted bodily and blasted into a wall, falling with a sickening thump. As it came down, a stormtrooper put paid to it with a close-range hellgun shot to the head.

The other seemed more... resistant, and opened its mouth to howl. The terrible wailing howl pierced the ears and minds of those around it, as more than one stormtrooper fell to his knees, blood pouring from ears and nose.

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » 2004-12-27 07:17am

Mork, seemingly unaffected, blasted it full of lead.

The distraction had allowed the Cultists to advance, and the Stormtroopers started to fall back. Wait for it, wait for it... BOOOOM. The Tube Charges detonated.

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2004-12-27 07:24am

And a ghastly silence fell upon the scene, disturbed only by the moaning of the wounded and the distant rattle of weapons fire.

----------------------
"The Huntsman are making excellent progress, commissar."

Prius sipped his caff, studying the latest reports. The Guard were knifing through heretical formations with practiced ease, identifying their centers of gravity and striking at them. It was almost too easy, especially given the complications of recent events.

"Word from the inquisitors?"

"All have confirmed contact and engagements."

"Good. See to it they get every scrap of support they request. First priority."

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

It started at Kaledar Hive. The cultists in the hab to hab battle suddenly began rising to their feet. Those not cut down by weapons fire immediately began drawing their blades across their own throats, calling out oaths to the dark gods as they committed suicide en masse, leaving no survivors behind them.

Soon reports began filtering in as enemy group after enemy group replicated this strange behavior, until the insurrection melted away as suddenly as a snowfall in the desert...

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » 2004-12-27 07:29am

Pater raised his eyebrow. Odd, but not unprecidented. "Keep on guard, men. This could be just another blasphemous ritual; Summoning a Daemon, perhaps."

GeneralTacticus · Post by **GeneralTacticus** » 2004-12-27 07:34am

Vardervin Hive

Another corridor down, two to go... why oh why did I have to pick today to go and chase down some rumours hear? Couldn't they have waited until after we stamped this place flat? Oh well, no changing the past, I suppose... The n hundredth cultists Adivan had killed today fell backwards, his face atomised by Adivan's plasma pistol, and the Inquisitor pressed on with an energy blade held out before him. A few paces behind, Mekhatan's massive assault cannon howled death into the throngs of cultists presing forward in their wake, easily drowning out the sounds of shotguns and lasguns borne by the handful of loyalists who remained with Adivan, and almost matching the screams of the Khornates as they were torn apart. Ahead, the enemy were thinner than behind; Adivan's fighting retreat had cut them off from the main attack, and their numbers, though still formidable, were rapidly dwindling. Most were continuing to hurl themselves into the Imperial guns, unaware of the second battle going on behind them; a few realised what was happening and turned to defend their rear.

Not enough. Not nearly enough. Adivan's energy blade was a pale yellow blur in the air as he advanced, dismembered and screaming cultists falling on every side. With a bit more luck, and the Emperor's blessing, we may actually make it. Adivan opened a vox channel to the enarest Imperial defenders; soon, they'd be close enough for an extraction missionb rto be feasible, and as dramatic as it would be for Adivan and his dwindling band to fight their way through the entire cultist offensive and into the Imperial lines, a little assistance would be greatly appreciated. He spoke.

"This is Inquisitor Raul Adivan, calling from behind the cultists lines in Sector 47B. All Imperial forces in the area, prepare to launch a counter-offensive in my direction as soon as I give the order. The enemy in this area are currently cut off from reinforcements, and thus are vulnerable. Adivan out."

A few curt acknowledgements and several minutes of extremely bloody fighting later, Adivan was close enough to the lines for the counteratttack to begin, and azbout time, too. He was down to three men covering his back, plus Mekhatan, and he'd already had to meddle with the alien's assault cannon on four separate occasions to prevent a jam. If he went down, or the cannon jammed, Adivan was more or less finished. With rising apprehension, he gave the order.

Roughly thirty seconds later, down to one extensively wounded PDF trooper and Mekhatan, Adivan broke through the last of the cultists and reached the safety of the Imperial forces. To his great surprise, he was greeted by the black-clad and now apparently half-mechanical form of Captain Fortis, who grinned, gave the Inquisitor a thumbs-up, and waved his Stormtroopers forward to relieve Mekhatan and his almost-empty assault cannon. It finally ran dry as they fell back to the lines of corpse-strewn barricades that currently marked the Imperial lines in this area. Adivan barked a brief command to Mekhatan to remain here and aid in the defence, then gestured for Fortis to come with him. When they were far enough away from the barricades for the sound of las-fire to be merely extremely loud as opposed to absolutely deafening, Adivan turned to Fortis and spoke.

"So, what brings you down here? The Medicae said you wouldn't be out of bed for another week, at least."

The Guard officer just shrugged.

"Well, being an Inquisitor's friend has it's benefits, you know? I hear Colonel-Commissar Ristani has been making full use of them; why not me? The new augmetics are a bit uncomfortable, but they serve, and that's what counts.

"As for being down here - well, you did call for help when the uprisings started - we couldn't just airlift you out, so we did the enxt best thing, and airlifted ourselves in. Got ourselves down to the barricades just in time - I don't think we even stopped moving, just charged straight through them and into the cultists. Boy were they surprised to see someone charging back at them."

Adivan smiled.

"Well, your assistance is certainly appreciated, although probably not by those cultists. Where's the local command centre?"

Fortis nodded down the corridor, and they set off, arriving a few minutes later... just in time to hear of the mass cultist suicide.

Oh, shit...

Adivan kept his face composed, but he had a very, very bad feeling about this. There must have been millions of cultists out there fighting... what could a daemon or skilled sorceror do with so much life-force? He didn't want to imagine. He looked over at the vox crews.

"Get the word out to everyone: stay alerrt, and report any furhter activity immediately. Destroy as many bodies as possible; flamers, meltas,even las-fire if they have the ammunition, just do it fast."

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2004-12-27 07:34am

"We've won, commissar," the PDF officer enthused.

"Tell me something, colonel. How often does the enemy conveniently oblige by committing suicide?" Prius said irritably.

"I... don't know."

"He doesn't. Unless he has some darker design in mind. Pass word. All PDF forces to reorganize, assume defensive positions, and await further orders."

Turning to a naval liaison, he continued. "Inform the inquisitors that transportation will be made available. We need to determine what is happening here."

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » 2004-12-27 07:38am

"Purify the area, now. Flamers, Meltabombs, anything. Quickly."
He voxxed his ship. "Prep for takeoff now. I think it's about to escalate."

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2004-12-27 07:40am

Prius received word of the Inquisitors destroying the corpses and likewise ordered detachments of the Guard and PDF into the task, setting them about destroying massive amounts of bodies. But by sheer volume of corspes it would take a great deal of time...

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » 2004-12-27 07:45am

Pater examined the Auspex readings; No life signs in the entire fragging stack. He better destroy the whole place to be sure.

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2004-12-27 07:47am

The astropathic choir began singing loudly, page after page of material issuing from their gnarled fingers as they transcribed a blizzard of reports. Prius was awaiting response from the inquisitors when the first reports began to reach him.
-------------------
"Mass uprising reported on Vargiel."

"The planetary government of Marshinton has declared independence and PDF forces are currently engaging the Guard."

"Reports of a daemonic infestation on Felian."
-------------------
He reached for the vox, opening the direct line to the inquisitors. "This is Ristani. Requesting all inquisitors rendevous at the command center. We have a larger situation developing."

GeneralTacticus · Post by **GeneralTacticus** » 2004-12-27 07:51am

"Shit."

Adivan turned to Fortis.

"I take it you have transport somewhere in this area?"

The Stormtrooper Captain nodded.

"Yes, we have a shuttle on a nearby landing pad."

"Good. Get your men together and into it as fast they can. We need to get into orbit ASAP."

"On it."

With that, Fortis opened a vox channel to his men, and lumbered out of the room to oversee the withdrawal. After a brief vox call to Mekhatan, ordering him to the shuttle, Adivan set off for it himself.

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » 2004-12-27 07:53am

Pater burned into the Command Centre and jumped out of his ship before the heat-proof gravel had cooled down. "Colonel-Commissar. What's the situation?"

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2004-12-27 07:54am

Prius turned toward Pater, a grave expression on his face. "We have reports coming in of full-fledge uprisings or mutinies on six worlds in the subsector, and disturbances varying from riots to terrorist activity on a dozen others." He held out a dataslate. "And that's just what's come in so far."

GeneralTacticus · Post by **GeneralTacticus** » 2004-12-27 08:03am

Adivan arrived a few seconds after Pater, glanced at the dataslate, and made a sour face.

"Where do these people come from? No, don't answer that, I know the answer altogether too well. I think we need to call for reinforcements. This is far beyond our ability to contain alone. And I think we should also speak with Inquisitor Lord Vonrilyenta, and make sure that the archaeotech is somewhere safe. We most certainly don't want it on the ground - we may have to abandon or destroy this planet entirely, and if so, we want it somewhere where it won't get hit."

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » 2004-12-27 08:06am

Pater bit his lip. "I agree. Even if we had sufficient forces to counter these uprisings some of these planets are months away. We need a bloody battlefleet."

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2004-12-27 08:10am

Prius listened intently. This was so far beyond his pay grade it boggled the mind. It had been an awesome enough responsibility to play junior Warmaster and handle the military affairs of a single world. Now they were staring at a sub-sector-wide disaster.

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » 2004-12-27 08:18am

Gyllia felt her jaw for the 1000th time in the past week. It felt so strange having a face again, after all these years.

Being detailed to a damaged space station was both a Techpriests' greatest dream and nightmare; A dream because the average Techpriest would normally have to be at least 200 before getting her hands on tech this old, a nightmare because of the responsibility they had towards the Machine Spirit. She was having a nightmare right now, recalibrating the tertiary heat sinks. The system had been horribly maintained to the point where there was vermin living in the Cogitators. A travesty.

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » 2004-12-27 09:02am

Pater stared at the galactic map in the Fort's conference room, his glass of water untouched. "This is very, very bad. We're being cut off from the Archaeon Trade Spine; Look." He pointed.

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2004-12-27 09:10am

Prius studied the map, then tapped a couple of commands, adding a listing of military garrisons and reinforcements.

"Drawing troops from here... here... and here... to supplement on-planet forces... that is what I wager the Warmaster will do. And in so doing, we'll be left with, well, what we have at hand. At best perhaps some naval support will be available, but we remain very thin on the ground especially in reliable Guard formations. Guard casualties were fairly minimal in the most recent fighting, leaving us two regiments to field, and the integration of the surviving Boreans into a reaction force under the command of stormtroopers continues apace... it will give us the equivalent of a somewhat short regiment of diluted quality of additional troops."

He looked at Pater. "Did you ever manage to contact the Astartes?"

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » 2004-12-27 09:19am

He grimaced. "I sent a request, but there's been no reply yet. They'll have to take notice now, though; Let alone the threat to the Archaeotech, this threatens to damage the Damocles Crusade. I don't need to say what that could do to Sectorial security." He glanced at the Holomap again. "We can't win a War of Attrition of this magnitude; We might have to cut our losses and declare withdraw entirely; Declare Exterminatus. The Archaeotech is worth more than the entire subsector."