40K Dark Heresy: The Recondite War

[Balrog]

Mithras angled his lasgun to get a clean shot on the more dangerous of the two, the chainsword-weilding thug, aiming for a clean center-mass hit. He continued to cover the entrance as the rest of the team entered the building to engage their foe.

[NecronLord]

Three neat impacts perforated the heretics, one in the first heretic’s leg, and another in his chest, dropped him lifeless to the floor, his chainsword dropping. The third shot grazed the man behind, puncturing his upper arm. As this heretek reeled, Mercurius’ lascarbine shots narrowly missed his chest, but Mithras’ shot¹ found him, a hissing-roar sounding as a slice of his other arm evaporated. Blinded, with both arms wounded heavily, the Heretek did the only thing that occurred to his mind; he dropped everything he was holding, screamed, and fell over. He was still alive, mind, given the pitiful mewling noises he made...

[¹Assuming, as the other fellow is dead, Mithras shot the one still standing. New initiative…]

[Lancer]

Mercurius stepped in quickly, taking both the laspistol and mono-edged knife from the survivor. Once the small weapons were secured, he placed a low-yield explosive collar around the unconcious heretics' neck.

[Block]

Whistling, Scar moved towards his fallen opponents, and stooped to grab the fallen chainsword, clicking the activator and switching it off. Grabbing the sheath off the dead man, he let his comrades cover the room, and strapped it to his back. "See if you can get anything from the one on the ground crying. Mithras, you ready to finish the sweep?" With that Scar stood and looked for exits to the room.

[White Haven]

Ajax trails the mobile feat of carnage into the building, hanging back out of understandable caution (he is wounded, after all) and also because his player couldn't get a post in edgewise because work is a bas...er, sorry, reality just got pliable for a moment. Anyway, he steps in with his sword drawn, looking about the interior as his eyes adjust to the different lighting. He closes his eyes, having seen that the room is currently devoid of threats, and stretches out his mind, trying to sense if there are any further heretics about, and if so, where they might be. (Psi check, at work so I can't check the rules, but I seem to recall that being an option.)

[NecronLord]

The immediate action over, the room was essentially what one would expect, along the two long walls, were plastic-covered stations for up to five operators to analyse data on whickering screens, with no chairs at any of them, along the short wall, away from the tower, was a small shrine dedicated to the machine god, similarly shrouded in plastic; the other wall had a stairway leading to a cramped loft area, which they soon found to be free of resistance, containing a sitting area, a skylight in its low, sloping roof, an area for preparing recaf and other comestibles, and a toilet, both clear of any resistance. Underneath the stairs, was a power area, where a sizeable combustion generator lurked, along with the casing for an isotropic rod, though that valuable object had long since been removed. Ajax could probably have told them there was nothing around, too. Unless of course, that thing was in the auspex tower, but as that tower was active, that would be quite dangerous.

[Combat over, as you can guess...]

[Block]

Noting nothing of value in his quick sweep of the room, Scar grabbed his knife and carved a series of runes into his arm, deep enough that they would leave permanent marks. He didn't even wince as he did this having grown so used to the ritual over his long and very blood career.
Turning to the techpriest he gestured to the stations and said in a low growl, "Mercurius, see if you can get anything from these machines." Tapping his commbead he said, "Regulator, it's clear, have your men keep watch outside, let us know if anything approaches at all."

With that he leaned back against the wall, pulled his newfound weapon from it's sheath and began to inspect it.

[White Haven]

Refocusing his eyes as his mind narrows back to fit his skull, Ajax pipes up, "Nobody else...er....ah.....around. Yeah." He blinks a few times, owlishly, as the view of the room in his inner eyes slowly merges with the real-world appearance of the small complex in his mind. "Ah. But you knew that." he says to no one in particular as the fact that the rest of the team is busy looting and ransacking and so forth by now. He sheaths his unbloodied sword and steps sideways away from the door in case any of the local enforcers trail in.

[NecronLord]

The chainsword was of surprisingly good make, perhaps an heirloom fallen into the hands of a reprobate, either by a simple fall from grace, or by thieving. A golden aquila decorated each side, along with the inscription Fides on one side, and Vertus on the other in blue lapis, both markings inset into the blade and sealed with a thin layer of crystal, to aid in cleaning the weapon. Meanwhile, the heretek upon the floor was moaning, protesting that finally he could see again, though not in as many words...

[Jaevric]

Darien glowers at the ceiling for a moment, expression annoyed, then goes to check the corpses for similar tattoos to the ambushers as well as any useful papers or other potential sources of information.

[NecronLord]

As Darien knew, there was not much left of the guard in the bunker, but the one here has no brand mark, however, the squirming heretek had a data slate in his pocket, fortunately his fall hadn't damaged it, though it was locked with a pass-code.

[Block]

With a slight grin Scar resheathed his new treasure, he knew it was valuable, although how to find out exactly how valuable would require a trip to an armorer or perhaps the local munitorium. In the meantime he'd stick to what he knew. "Well, he's awake, lets see what we can beat out of him." With that he grabbed the heretic by his shirt and pulled him to his feet. "I'd suggest you start telling us everything you know about what you were doing here or I let the psyker poke around in your brain."

[NecronLord]

The Heretek opened his eyes fully, and looked around; it wasn't Ajax that seemed to scare him, as when his eyes alighted on Mercurius, he squealed in terror, struggled, and tried to compose himself, "So long as you let me go free..."

[Block]

"You seem to think this is a negotiation. Either you tell me what you know, or he rips it from your brain, and after he's done with that I disembowel you and see how long it takes to kill you. IF you share what you know, you'll go to jail, and probably get out at some point. Those are your choices."

[NecronLord]

With a leery glance at the mechanicus-member, he seemed to think the prospect of jail was a rather good one, "I was hired to bring this place online, a few weeks back, by some young nobles down in the town. There's some details of the information-feeds they wanted to set up, on the data slate. The pass-code for that is five-six-chi-seven-rho..."

[Block]

"Did you recognize any of them? Did they have any visible tattoos? Let any names slip? How did they pay you? Who were the men with you, and when are the others coming back?"

[Lancer]

Whistling, Scar moved towards his fallen opponents, and stooped to grab the fallen chainsword, clicking the activator and switching it off. Grabbing the sheath off the dead man, he let his comrades cover the room, and strapped it to his back. "See if you can get anything from the one on the ground crying. Mithras, you ready to finish the sweep?" With that Scar stood and looked for exits to the room.

Mercurius nodded, pulling out his newfound mono-edged knife to cut away the heavy plastic sheeting that covered the Mechanicus shrine. After a quick inspection to determine what manner of interface ports it used, he mentally recited a quick litany to focus on his electrografts. In response, slender mechadendrites that were usually coiled around his upper arms snaked out into interface ports to rouse the machine spirit of the shrine from its slumber. Once the shrine awakened, he disengaged the mechadendrites and channeled his focus onto specialized electoos, allowing him to remain interfaced with the shrine by means of its wireless data net without sacrificing mobility. A small aura of static built up around him, a consequence of his relative inexperience and the resulting inefficiency of his technique, and the plastic-covered operator stations hummed to life.

As their machine spirits added their own voices to the local data net, Mercurius guided them into a single harmonious chorus and began querying their memory banks for any relevant scrap of information, focusing on any activity immediately prior to the ambush at the heliport, and working his way backwards through the logs. Their screens flickered in response far faster than any PDF operator could ever hope to manage, but the efficient and compact crystalline stacks of cranial circuitry which nestled within his skull and augmented his mind allowed him to process their replies through the data net far more efficiently than he would have been able to read through vision alone.

The squealing of the Heretek shifted his attention away from the data-net, and he paused his queries, focusing his mind from the world of the machine-spirits back to that of flesh and blood. "You should stop that damned screeching. As you may have noticed, there is now a low-yield explosive collar placed firmly around your neck. With little more than a thought, I could command its machine spirit to carry out its holy duty. If I deem that you are not sufficiently cooperative, heretek, I will remove your head from your shoulders and see that it is reanimated as a slave to a holy machine spirit so that I might rip through your mind just as easily as you would scavenge through these machines. You will, of course, be both fully aware and totally powerless to do anything for as long as your flesh can withstand. If you do cooperate, then I may decide merely to have your mind erased, so that your body may attone for the many sins against the Deus Machinus that you have committed."

[Balrog]

Mithras had finished the sweep with Scar, though to his (only slight) disappointment there were no more enemies left. "This was a little too easy," he said to no one in particular, then activated his comm-bead. "Regulator, we've secured the building. Have your team set up a perimeter and watch for any approaching vehicles, there could be reinforcements arriving soon."

While Scar dealt with the prisoner, he walked over to where the tech-priest stood praying before his shrine, the mysterious Mechanicus symbols flying across the screens totally befuddling to the Guardsman. "Well, what does it say?"

[Lancer]

Mercurius turned his head to Mithras, but his attention was clearly focused elsewhere. "Just logs in standard Low Gothic script. I was communing with the machine spirits to see if they had any useful information, but I was interrupted..." He shot a glare that might have pierced Astartes ceramite plate at the heretek "...before I could look deeply into the matter. Do not be too concerned about not being currently able to read the display consoles; they are simply moving too fast for your vision to process. Remember, these data-stations were made so that even PDF troopers would be able to operate them. Once I find and index any relevant logs, you will have no trouble accessing and reading them."

[NecronLord]

Mercurius had to briefly endure a caution that the shrine had been deconsecrated, and that its spirit may function erratically. After that, he was able to find records showing that the tower had been operational for a few weeks; an alert had been sent when it detected an incoming craft from the witch-keep; the records also showed that the tower had been occupied almost continuously by the heretek, with several other men going back and forth. In the long run, it showed, since its reactivation, only one other vehicle coming from the direction of the witch-keep, a small boat, that had not since left.

“Kadros Kinge, he was there, but he didn’t do the talking. A man named… what was it, Salus, hired me. No tattoos, no sir. These were classy gents. The men here? Moa and Günter, I hired them to deal with any trouble… And I don’t think anyone’s coming here…” the heretic said, his words coming in a panicked rush, he looked at the tech-priest, “Err, yes Sir, cooperating, sir…”

To Mithras, meanwhile, the local help simply sent a straightforward acknowledgement.

[Block]

"So then heretic, how are you forwarding the information to these noblemen?"

[NecronLord]

"There's a las-line from here, to the town's communications. I think you can get the physical address out of the data slate or the cogitators... Seven... something..." he stammered.

[Lancer]

Triumphantly, Mercurius declared "The Omnissiah provides to those who seek his wisdom." He indexed the logs, then copied them to his dataslate before interrupting. "Darien, Mithras, you two may want to take a look at these logs."

[Jaevric]

"Oh? Let's see them," Darien says, walking up to Mercurius and peering at the dataslate.

[NecronLord]

The dataslate soon provided, as well as the details of current and recent traffic around the town that its owner had deemed pertinent, an address. Seven procession-avenue was the destination; and a map showed a location on one of Spergen's main roads, built up with guildhalls, markets, bawdy houses and taverns.