40K/Inquisitor RPG. The Line of Damnation.

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2005-01-05 02:04am

"A force of the Sisters of Battle would be most welcome," Paratis mused. He had an unusual amount of elite strike forces at his disposal. Two stormtrooper battalions, Ristani's Emperor's Sword, which apparently was being expanded into a batallion of likeminded fanatics, and now possibly a formation of Adeptus Sororitus. He tugged at his beard as he mulled over the possibilities.

The addition of Adeptes Astartes would be most welcome, of course. He'd only seen them in action once, over thirty years before as a young company commander. He'd watched a squad of Ultramarines storm an ork position against at least ten times their number, and it had left a deep and abiding respect for the Emperor's ultimate warriors within him.

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2005-01-05 02:11am

"The Sororitas have been most eager to assist us, and not just the militant orders. The confescated assets and Adraxis's status as a hive world means that sofisticated and expensive equipment is easily available. The Adeptus Mechanicus have also agreed to supply us with a reinforced regiment of Skitarri and some additional pieces of material." Best not to talk about those too openly.

"As seizing every available form of transport means we can only move a fraction of our force, we will be taking the best. Since Cyrus Gamma is so close, we can actually bring in reinforcements in a reasonable amount of time once we establish a bridgehead of somekind."

Gix stopped for a moment. "General, I understand that having so many inquisitors overseeing your work may make things difficult. It behooves all of us to try and make this endeavour run smoothly. We are all servants of the Divine Emperor and we should seek to complement each other's talents and responsibilities, not clash against them."

Typhonis 1 · Post by **Typhonis 1** » 2005-01-05 02:21am

"Jolan ....You speak with the Mother superior and see what forces you can secure. General I shall forward to your staff the inforation we have on the planets defenses. It saddens me to say it but since we have heard nothing from the Astartes do not include there forces in your plans . "

"I am going to have to meet with the Commodore to see what naval forces are available . We have a tight schedule to work on ..and not much to work with and a fortress to assault.Do your best people,the citizens fighting enemy forces are counting on us."

Nathan gave them all a little bow and walked into the Commodores office.

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2005-01-05 02:30am

Gix addressed Nathan's reply. "I have already spoken with the Mother Superior. The Hospitlar Orders will be present in considerable numbers, which is good considering the casualties that are going to occur. As for the Astartes, we still have no reply. They may already be commited to other operations in the subsector or they may arrive when it becomes clear to them the magnitude of the problem at Cyrus Gamma. While the problem is urgent, we must remember that it has yet to be a full month since we learned of the difficulties there. Time works against us on Cyrus Gamma, but it brings the possibility of Astartes reinforcements closer. Not," he said with a smirk, "that I am suggesting that we delay."

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2005-01-05 02:43am

"Inquisitor Gix, give me an army and an objective, and I will go with the Emperor by my side to achieve it. I've found that it's best that a military man doesn't bother about too much with concerns about the things above his station," Paratis said with a smile. Rynthis' eyes widened slightly.

Oh god, Paratis, not again with the bluntness.

Prius looked at Gix. "He'll do, Lord Inquisitor," He turned back to Paratis. "My former staff will transfer to your command, General. There shouldn't be any difficulties, but if there are..." his eyes narrowed, the augmetic gleaming in the dim light. "Let me know and it will be straightened out immediately."

Typhonis 1 · Post by **Typhonis 1** » 2005-01-05 02:51am

"Well we need to know what we have to work with first and a plan of action"

Nathan turned to look at Gix."We can rush in like fools and be cut down in a multi layer ambush complete with tarantulas,mole mortars and and mines on top of dug in cultists. or we can be sneaky #$##^!#% and gut them before they know they are being hit... But time is the concern so well we may have to do a bit of both...."

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2005-01-05 02:55am

"I think the Lord General and I understand each other, colonel-commissar. Your talents, as always, are appreciated."

Gix turned towards Paratis. "I can't guarrantee you that there won't be any politics, but if they are any it will be inquisitional politics and not military superiors worried about you showing them up or gunning for their jobs. We need results and we need them badly. You will enjoy extraordinary lattitude in order to get them. If you need something, Inquisitor Talstrem, the commodore, or myself can assist you. If you need bones broken, the colonel-commissar is quite good at it."

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2005-01-05 03:06am

Prius was not a particularly emotive individually, but for him he practically beamed at what he took to be a compliment of the highest order.

Paratis nods. "Inquisitor, I truly believe that what you're seeking here is victory. With all due respect, that's not always the case among... certain members of the military establishment. Winning battles and winning wars is my business, and I've never pretended to be good at anything else. I've was thoroughly schooled on the fact that the Imperial Guardsman's job is to bring death to the enemies of the Emperor and win wars. Now, I'd think it's a good idea if we took this meeting somewhere where we had some maps and dataslates to work with. Not to mention some caff."

Typhonis 1 · Post by **Typhonis 1** » 2005-01-05 03:22am

" Yeah starting to feel like it did before Frellis Prime.... course there were Astartes .... "

Nathans mood darkened considerably , to Jolan and Prius`s view.

"Could They have been turning that far back?? #$%^^$@#@ "He said to himself out loud

"Like I said before Colonel... its ollllllld High Gothic... very old"

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2005-01-05 03:23am

"By all means Lord General. If you will follow me, one of my associates took the liberty of securing a conference room recently. I am sure that the quality of the caff is at least acceptable."

Gix lead them down several corridors to a large room guarded by naval security stormtroopers. The door opened for Gix and the others. The room itself was spacious, with a large table that possessed holographic technology and stacked crystal matrix controls. Servo skulls hung in the corner, monitoring for unauthorized presence and sniffing for poisons or explosives. Severa's work, as usual, was top notch.

Gix sat down stiffly, careful not to aggrevate his injury. He repeated his silent wish that the set of power armour he ordered would arrive before they left. "General you must win. As we are not military men, there is no risk of you embarassing your superior by outperforming him. Your only priority is victory. That is the Inquisition's goal and we will do whatever we can to remove any obstacles to that we encounter."

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2005-01-05 03:36am

Paratis offered Gix a small smile as Rynthis quickly poured him a cup of caff and placed it before him, then began circling the table to serve everyone else.

"Inquisitor Gix, you have no idea how long I've been waiting to hear that sort of bluntness. As I was explaining to your commodore Novidalorian, we simply don't have the manpower for a protracted campaign on a hive world like Cyrus Gamma. I've been there before, lectured at their academy and got a look around the place. It's as brutal an environment as I've seen. Normally, there's two ways to crack a nut like that, two ways available to us lowly Guardsmen. One is a massive campaign with dozens of regiments, protracted warfare that can stretch out for decades as we crush them a strongpoint at a time, jabbing and counterpunching. The other is a campaign for which we have the resources, where we establish a beachhead and encourage, arm, and train local resistance. Preferably with Imperial Guard units doing the training. Again, on a world in this sort of shape, that can take decades. According to the good commodore, with the state the sub-sector is in, we don't have the time either way. What we need is quick, brutal, and overwhelming. So we're going to have to make it up as we go along, and it will be very, very ugly."

Typhonis 1 · Post by **Typhonis 1** » 2005-01-05 03:40am

" A meat grinder and we need to be careful....... pity we cant drop a few rocks but it needs to be taken relatively intact so it can meet some of its Tithe requirements."

"What assets are in system that we can use? And what doi we face on the naval front?"

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2005-01-05 03:48am

Jolan smiled, although the pain made it a little force. "Good. That was my evaluation of the campaign as well. And why I had the good commodore recommend someone good enough and flexible enough to do it."

"As for enemy naval forces, we don't know. But many of the hive cities do have space defences and the system itself possesses or possessed a space station. The enemy either controls or destroyed a signifigant amount of these resources. Furthermore, they deployed signifigant naval strength at Zelnar Prime. Considering the known interest of the Black Legion in this subsector and the necessity of deploying a strong naval force to protect it, we can assume that at least a small battle group will be present."

"At the minimum I recommend we deploy the Divine Retribution and the Emperor class battleship, along with additional cruisers and escorts. The wounded ships and the Ramilies are more than enough to secure Adraxis in our absence."

Typhonis 1 · Post by **Typhonis 1** » 2005-01-05 03:51am

"We may also expect some elements of the Death Guard to show up...... those were some of HIS troops we ran into at Zelnar Prime , not marines but enough to make me think That ruinous power may be involved"

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2005-01-05 03:56am

"Don't be so hasty," Gix replied. "The Black Legion calls none of the Ruinous Powers its sole master. The vessel was a renegade cruiser, navy not traitor legionaire. While the Death Guard may show up, the Black Legion has committed at least one Strike Cruiser to this campaign. Those traitors will ally and use followers of all the Great Powers. I suspect that they are the ultimate masterminds behind this operation. Remember the 13th Gothic Crusade. Servants of every chaos power yoked to the will of Abbadon. They may be after another prize like the Blackstone Fortresses."

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2005-01-05 03:57am

"Inquisitor Talstrem," Paratus said politely. "We probably will have to inflict a good deal of infrastructural damage on the planet in order to secure it. Likewise, civilian casualties will be tremendous. In fact, if we could localize a large portion of the enemy forces and then drop a rock on them, that would go a long way toward securing the world and putting what pieces of it we can back on the board for restoring the sub-sector."

Emperor forgive me for what I'm about to suggest.

"And the best way to create the necessary concentration of enemy forces is to give them something concentrate against."

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2005-01-05 03:58am

"Apalling, Lord General, but effective. And there is no way we can fight this campaign without killing billions. We will not shirk from what must be done. Continue."

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2005-01-05 04:14am

"First, we have to hurt them. We have to disorient them. We have to remove any semblence of rationality from their conduct of military affairs."

He took a drink of caff, his hands steady. But for the perceptive eye of a trained inquisitor, it was obviously an act of will. This was not a man who, if his plans came to fruition, would ever likely experience another night of untroubled sleep.

No such qualms disturbed the good commissar Ristani, of course, who leaned closer, intent on hearing the method by which they could thoroughly smash their foes, no matter what the cost.

"Warmaking is different among the heretics," Paratin said, his voice dropping as he obviously began quoting material. "Because they have not the Emperor as their center and their foundation, they turn to false idols, weak minds deluded with vanities of grandeur."

"Warmaster Danzith," Prius supplied the origin of the quote helpfully. Paratis nodded at him.

"Lacking as they do our organization, our eternal adherence to doctrine," Paratin could not help but note the irony of quoting the famous Warmaster on matters of doctrine while pulling a plan completely out of his ass. "They are forced into a state of excessive reliance on dominant personalities for leadership," He stopped quoting and resumed speaking with his own words. "Gentlemen, what we have here is an army short on feet on the ground and long on special operations striking capacity. I will use this capacity to strike at their leadership, threatening and ideally removing some of them, so much so that they become utterly incapable of coherent logic in their exercise of this war. At which point we will provide them with a sufficient mass of troops upon which to vent their rage. Then we will annihilate the entire area."

He put the cup down calmly, displaying a supreme act of will on his part.

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2005-01-05 04:18am

"My Lord General," Gix said gently, "those lives are already lost. A long campaign or letting this world fall would all cost far more. We are cheapening the butcher's bill by paying it all at once instead of on an installment plan with interest."

Typhonis 1 · Post by **Typhonis 1** » 2005-01-05 04:29am

Nathan keeps quiet listning to the others plan.A covert way to the planets surface would be nice and he may have had one but... he didnt know of any web portals to it and knew of no one whom could tell him .

Shoul he tell them? Say it was something the Harklequin had left much like the vortex bomb..... it could help.......

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2005-01-05 04:32am

Paratis nodded. "I wouldn't propose it if I did not feel it had to be done, or if I felt there was any other way to accomplish the task within the required parameters. In the academy it was said that the Inquisition was the Imperium's equivalent of a chirurgeon's scalpel, whose task it was to cut away infections. There is of course no way to cut away infected tissue without cutting away good tissue..."

He paused, staring at the back of his knobby, scarred hand, laid flat on the table.

"And this discussion frankly makes me quite satisfied with the place that I have had in the defense of the Imperium, because I am an Emperor-fearing man as all here are, who knows his limitations. And I frankly doubt that I could have endured a career that routinely places the weight of such decisions upon a man."

He looked up, meeting Gix and Talstrem's eyes in turn. "Now, if you authorize me to take this course of action, we are best served by not dwelling on it, but rather to sort out the operational details of how we will get it done."

Typhonis 1 · Post by **Typhonis 1** » 2005-01-05 04:36am

"We must take care gentlemen.......I will say this ....in 1476577M32 I witnessed a 10k asteroid nickle iron in compiostion Strike a planet being contested by Imperial and Ork forces............the resultant crater was 200km across ...most of the planet was deluged in a firestorm that only pales next to an Exterminatus firestorm. Land masses acted like water around the impact point. It was estimated that the planet could be recovered in 500+ years."

" Angron of the World Eaters chapter was the one to order the strike. Now then the Generals plan is sound BUT it overlooks the biggest problem we face."

The holoscreen shows an asteroid" This weapon is not suited for acurate fire the many nooks and crannies catch air , it is unbalanced and some are more fragile than others. to pull this off we would need a way to drop a 200 tp 400 meter rock onto a pinpoint location...that means we may need some special tech"

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2005-01-05 04:37am

"Agreed," said Gix. "Whatever you need General."

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2005-01-05 04:46am

Paratis, caught in mid sip, coughs his coffee all over the table at Nathan's revelations of his antiquity. Rynthis moves in quickly, holding his shoulder and slapping his back while simultaneously goggling at Nathan.

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2005-01-05 05:17pm

Prius artfully yanked his dataslate out of the path of Paratis' coffee-spew.

"Inquisitor Talstrem, in the intervening time since your... detainment in the warp... the Navy has acquired a good deal of practice with the usage of orbital masses as weapons. While the precision is still not entirely pinpoint, I do believe that it could be impacted well close enough to achieve the desired effect."

Paratis accepted a napkin from Rynthis. "Excuse me," he says, wiping his mouth. "Do you mean to say you were present for the Heresy?" he asked Nathan directly.

Prius restrained a sigh. Now the meeting would be sidetracked while Nathan's strange history was covered.

Just wait until the general hears the rumors about Lena...