Petrosjko wrote:His natural eye was unfocused, staring blankly at the wall. He nodded his assent to Varian's points.
"If you wish," he said in his groggy style. "I can arrest the entire staff of the sanitarium and gather the answers you require. And the Sword was constituted partly in response to a lack of Stormtrooper assets, so of course your making use of them would pose no problems."
Although he didn't know it, it was the respect for inquisitors that he'd ground into them that had kept Nathan from being riddled with hellgun shots a short while before.
It burned into his halfway coherent mind that Varian had paid him quite a compliment indeed, saying that he was one of the few he could trust. The trust of an inquisitor was something to be valued, an honor of high note.
"Since I have no staff, I would consider it an honor to join you and your men for this mission." Varian said.
"It might be a tad extreme to arrest them all now, certainly a mistake in the pharmacopia is possible. Not that I won't arrest them if there is, any attempt to harm an Inquisitor is a grave matter. No I simply wish for you to keep you eyes and ears open for the time being. If it was deliberate you stand a good chance of knowing about."
Varian shrugged. "If you have any questions or need my assistance feel free to come to me. Do you have any questions at present?"
"The men will be inspired by your presence, inquisitor," he said. "I understand that we are closing in on Cyrus Gamma. Has the final timetable been established for the invasion?"
The boarding action, the intrigue and drama of an apparent assassination attempt on Nathan, but the whole purpose of this trip was still the liberation of the hive world.
Or its destruction, if no other option was available.
Celeste checked the losses, The Burning spear would need more troops trained after this campaign. Still there were more forces she could call in on board the crone.
The scariest folk song lyrics are "My Boy Grew up to be just like me" from cats in the cradle by Harry Chapin
Petrosjko wrote:"The men will be inspired by your presence, inquisitor," he said. "I understand that we are closing in on Cyrus Gamma. Has the final timetable been established for the invasion?"
The boarding action, the intrigue and drama of an apparent assassination attempt on Nathan, but the whole purpose of this trip was still the liberation of the hive world.
Or its destruction, if no other option was available.
"If there is a final timetable I haven't seen it. But I have to confess I am not half the military man you are, my knowledge of such is limited. If you wish to know I can make inquiries. It's the least I can do."
Varian was feeling rather frank. His gamble with Prius seemed to be paying off. Despite incidents like the unfortunate captain this man seemed to have a good deal of promise and more importantly initiative, intelligence, and will.
"That will be okay," he said. "I've laid around enough... time I paid a visit to General Carnis and resumed oversight of the operation."
He paused.
"Events... interrupted our previous discussion," he said carefully. Memories flashed through his mind. Terminators on the hanger deck, blood and death. "But I have considered your previous mention of... the possibility that I could join His Most Holy Inquisition in a more formal capacity. Assuming I survive the invasion, I would be honored to so serve."
"I am very glad to hear that. You're a very good man Prius, I'm sure you'll do quite well."
Varian smiled. This man was a great find. He had no doubt at all about Prius's ability to make Inquistor.
"You are aware that you will be tested there and given a more... comprehensive education. But I have no doubt you can make it should you set to it with as much dedication as you have shown here."
"I strive to excel," he said quietly. "For a man who excels in duty and devotion gives glory to the God-Emperor, vindicating the superiority of the human over all others in the universe." he concluded with the quote of the great Ecclesiarch Tanthil Rosen.
The compliments made him uncomfortable, for they threatened to kindle pride, another of the paths to heresy.
But the possibility of joining the Inquisition and defending humanity against the darkest threats among the mutant, the alien, and the archenemy... it was a dream, and it warmed him immensely.
Pater drummed his fingers on the desk. "So you're saying it was an adverse reaction to medication..."
The chief medicae nodded. "Yes, inquisitor. It would seem that inquisitor Talstrem has an undocumented allergy to one of the sedatives we administered."
"One that caused him to go psychotic and begin shooting a plasma pistol off in the sanitarium. Precisely what was a plasma pistol doing at his bedside, anyway?" Pater asked, his tone mixing condescension and feigned light curiosity in equal parts.
The medicae shifted uncomfortably to his other foot. "No one is certain where he got it from. Weapons are taken from patients as a matter of course."
"Logical enough," Pater said. "It just seems to be a rather large coincidence, that the reaction inspired was one of paranoia, and that a weapon just happened to be nearby. It strains the credulity a bit, wouldn't you think?"
"I have no explanation."
Pater rose to his feet. "That is not the sort of answer that satisfies the Inquisition. I guarantee you that an answer will be found, and if you are hiding anything, it will come back to haunt you. I will give you the chance now to come clean."
The medicae gulped audibly. "I swear upon the Emperor that I have answered your questions to the best of my ability."
Pater studied a pict on the wall. "For your sake, medicae, that had best be true. Many guilty men have sworn their innocence in the name of the Emperor, and have suffered for their blasphemy accordingly."
Severa looked up. "Hi. It looks you made it through."
Gix smiled. "Yes, no small thanks to you." He squeezed her hand. "The medicae said that you should make an almost total recovery."
"Almost?" she laughed harshly.
"You did get stabbed. Nothing heals up quite as well as it was before it was damaged. You know that."
"Maybe I should go the Hethor route. More metal less flesh."
"I kind of like your flesh."
"I've been hearing that we won. How was the fighting?"
"Easier here than on the Sword of Glory. They got hit by boarding torpedoes and Thunderhawks. It was pretty bad."
"Anyone we know buy it?"
"No, although the injured list is kind of long. Most of them are up and walking. Malingerer," he joked.
"When I'm feeling better I'll make you pay for that," Severa said with a smile.
"I'm going to gone for a while," Gix said. "Commander's conference and planning."
"Watch your back Jolan. That business with Pater . . ."
"I'll been fine. I'll have Hethor to watch my back. And now that he's killed traitor legionaires, what could possibly stop him?"
Last edited by Imperial Overlord on 2005-01-20 01:56am, edited 2 times in total.
The Excellent Prismatic Spray. For when you absolutely, positively must kill a motherfucker. Accept no substitutions. Contact a magician of the later Aeons for details. Some conditions may apply.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Carnis said as he circled in front of the holographic display representing Cyrus Gamma. "Let me begin by saying that it comes as a pleasant surprise to see that some elements of our plan have indeed survived contact with the enemy."
He nodded to Rynthis, who tapped a button the control for the projector. The holographic image responded by highlighting force concentrations for both sides, red for the archenemy, blue for the loyalists.
"As you can see, there are still considerable pockets of resistance to the forces of the archenemy present on Cyrus Gamma. We are surveying our options with regards to landing zones, and have isolated our best prospects. The original plan of making an assault landing is still in effect. However, the nature of the situation on the ground allows us the prospect of making a landing near a concentration of friendly forces, which will allow us to disrupt and possibly destroy a respectable number of enemy formations while linking up with the loyalists in the process."
Three hive cities in particular glowed in bright gold, indicating the prospective drop zones.
"I now open the floor for comments and suggestions."
"We were considering a decapitation strike," says Jolan Gix. The inquisitor is once more dressed in his long coat and armoured body glove. "Based upon what we know, is the assassination of the enemy leadership still a possibility?"
The Excellent Prismatic Spray. For when you absolutely, positively must kill a motherfucker. Accept no substitutions. Contact a magician of the later Aeons for details. Some conditions may apply.
Nathan awoke slowly his head trobbing and an acidic taste in his mouth.He checked a chrono by the table and stared.That couldn`t be right...there was no way that he had lost a week . His hand went to his head as he tried to think of what had happened.
'Last thing I remeber.....ok they lifted the bastards corpse off of me.....saw a sister with two heads...wait that was the concussion ...after that.........'
He swore softly under his breath as he slowly got out of the bed.He need answers and clothes for that matter. He slowly looked around the small room.' A bunk, stand and a small refesher behind a door...... not my quarters.....Sanitarium??? yeah must be and a chair....hmmm someone has been in here'
He found the cord and touched the button on the end and waited.A sister entered.
"May I help you sire?"
"Yes I need clothes and some food and toiletries.....also I need answeres ..."
"I`ll get you what I can sire but...you must remain here ,the doctor has ordered it"
Nathan nodded ."Very well"
Brotherhood of the Bear Monkey Clonemaster , Anti Care Bears League,
Bureaucrat and BOFH of the HAB,
Skunk Works director of the Mecha Maniacs,
Black Mage,
Carnis paused briefly. If there was any other way...
"Yes, it is still possible, and still advisable. As the situation is currently disposed, in my professional estimation it could take as long as ten to fifteen years to properly root out the heretics in the conventional fashion. That the situation here is in some ways better than we had anticipated does not change the requirement for a lightning campaign. These three landing zones have been selected precisely for their concentrations of enemy forces."
He stood and indicated them, with Rynthis taking the cue to zoom in. "These are the greatest concentrations of force on planet. When we land and ravage their formations at one of these zones, the projected enemy response will be to gather their force and attempt to crush our landing force. Going by our original mobile force projection, we can delay and harry them long enough to coalesce their forces into a target worthy of such a strike. The updated operations plan calls for this strike to occur within ten days of planetfall for our forces."
With his fingers, he traced lines between the projected landing zones, indicating their relatively close proximity.
"Once these enemy forces have been reduced to combat ineffectiveness, we can utilize our supply of reinforcements from Adraxis to conduct a planetary purge of archenemy forces, supplementing local formations and providing them with fire support that they cannot provide for themselves."
He looked at Prius. "Combined with the proposed citizen uprising and Ecclesiarchal purge, this planet could possibly be cleansed to a degree of usability for supplying off-planet forces in a year or less."
At a current projected loss rate of easily twenty billion lives or more, he didn't say. The sickening part was that the numbers were almost always optimistic underprojections.
Zallis had almost gotten used to using a blade with the wrong arm, his las pistol accuracy was still down, still he missed having two good arms, he could carry a plasma, a grenade launcher, or even a melta gun with two arms, to use the wrong arm would be stupid, a waste of ammo.
"Captain Varmit!"
Zallis turned to see one of the convicts from charlie, addressing him
"Weza modified this here shotgun to be used one handed."
flipping the loading ledver and cocking it, he fired the shot canister cutting the target in half.
The scariest folk song lyrics are "My Boy Grew up to be just like me" from cats in the cradle by Harry Chapin
Zallis wondered again about the conviction of the Charlie Co.
They had originally been sentanced to penal legions for the crime of making "Dangerous Modifications" by the tech priests. They were almost like the orks in a strange way, the scary part was that aside from tanks that moved much faster, "Fuzzy Dice", and a few other things they seemed like "normal humans" what ever that was.
The scariest folk song lyrics are "My Boy Grew up to be just like me" from cats in the cradle by Harry Chapin
Gix cleared his throat. "I was speaking of assassination, Lord General. We have access to the talents of the Officio as well as other resources. Is there any indication of the whereabouts of the cult leader and his bodyguard?"
Last edited by Imperial Overlord on 2005-01-20 03:23am, edited 1 time in total.
The Excellent Prismatic Spray. For when you absolutely, positively must kill a motherfucker. Accept no substitutions. Contact a magician of the later Aeons for details. Some conditions may apply.
"Signals intelligence is busy assessing and sorting out the leadership among the heretics."
While Carnis maintained a neutral expression, Rynthis' carefully hidden smirk showed what he thought of the prowess of SigInt.
"Preliminary results would indicate that the central leader of this uprising has taken up residence in the PG's palace, which is logical enough. It has its own defense and security networks, although they obviously were not adequate in securing the presence of the previous occupant. So yes, targeted assassinations are still very much a part of our plan. We have also developed another wrinkle... commissar Ristani." he turned toward Prius.
"General," Prius replied.
"Given your well-known talent for inspiring faith and zealotry among the men, I would propose that you and your Sword unit be inserted among the local resistance, for the purpose of further inspiring the general uprising, and properly leading them when they rise."
Prius nodded slowly, considering the ramfications of the mission.
"The fleet has shielded drop pods that can be used for covert insertion," added Gix. "The are of the highest technology that the Imperium produces," or perhaps higher, but this wasn't the group of people with which to have that discussion. "And we have forces suited for this mission. Do we have any information about who their leader is and if the any of the Black Legion are present?"
The Excellent Prismatic Spray. For when you absolutely, positively must kill a motherfucker. Accept no substitutions. Contact a magician of the later Aeons for details. Some conditions may apply.
"Yes on both counts," Carnis said, gesturing to Rynthis. A tap of the button brought up a new image. A twisted, mutated creature flanked by a pair of Black Legion space marines appeared.
Whatever it was, it towered over the Legionaires by a good meter, although a great deal of that height was in the mutant's elongated neck. The mutant walked in front of ranks of armed humans, bearing defiled weapons of the Imperium, who stood at attention.
His skin was a pale blue, and his impossibly jointed legs carried him in a strange, birdlike gait. Red-painted talons sprung from his fingers, and oversized fangs protruded from his mouth.
Carnis bared his teeth involuntarily at the image.
"Propaganda broadcasts by the enemy name this beast as 'Tendao the Merciless', along with a whole host of sub-titles. He has declared himself lord of Cyrus Gamma, and he makes daily propaganda broadcasts urging loyal citizens to abandon their faith in the Emperor..."
He visibly composed himself, uncurling his fists, before getting back to his professional manner.
"His bodyguards are the most conclusive evidence we have thus far of the presence of Traitor Marines among the heretical forces on planet. However, at present we have no indications of their size, organization, or placement. They represent the greatest jeopardy to our plans thus far, and eliminating them will be among our largest priorities if they are present in any sort of numbers."
Gix paced around the table, studying the image intensely. "He must be potent indeed to command Black Legion bodyguards. The name is not familiar, but may be in the Inquisitional archives."
"Hmmm. As for numbers of the Black Legion there could be as many as a eight full companies, although half that number is more likely. Aside from the damage they can do on a personal level, they will serve to reinforce the enemy's courage. Agonizing death from a gut wound would be a desirable fate compared to what the Black Legion will wreck on those whose courage fails them. "
"Possibly an additional side benefit to assassinating this heretic will be the tarnishing of their image among the enemy and a desire to regain it by a reckless attack. Of course, succeeding got much harder. While I have high regard for both of our assassins, they are inclinded to fairly direct surprise assault measures. Against superior numbers of the Black Legion and whatever else forms the bodyguard of this Tendao, their chances of success are less than ideal."
The Excellent Prismatic Spray. For when you absolutely, positively must kill a motherfucker. Accept no substitutions. Contact a magician of the later Aeons for details. Some conditions may apply.
"Which is why our operations plans include the assassination of various lower echelon commanders," Carnis pointed out. "Given that a fifty percent success rate is often considered to be a good percentage in terms of successful assassinations, we cannot afford to put our eggs in a single basket. The cultist formations are led by influential heretics, and they are not a professional body of troops. A series of strikes against their leadership should serve to disorient and enrage them, as per our original concept."
