SPOILER WARNING

We are now starting to play through the Frozen Reaches Campaign.

If you are aiming to play this setting and want it to be a surprise best stop reading now.

I'll let you know when we're done

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Chapter 21 – A Trip into the Heart of… Blueness

Calling a quick conference, Thelonious and his command crew held a discussion about the best way to get to the co-ordinates, with Thelonious’s idea of a freefall parachute entry, from orbit, being met with a degree of incredulity from the rest of the conference before they settled on the eminently more sensible suggestion of flying down in a shuttle. The journey down was quite easy… the Orks were mostly ground based and the co-ordinates were far away from the main battles on Damaris. However, as soon as they started to pass the 5km threshold that they had been warned again, Isendark found that even his skills were not enough to keep the shuttle flying due to the turbulence and disruption and the best he could hope for was a controlled crash! The shuttle smashed through the upper tree canopy and skidded along the ground, miraculously avoiding ending its journey crushed against a tree… the command crew emerged into the primordial forest, shaken but alive.

The going was tough for even this hardened group of explorers, roots seemed to always be in the wrong place to trip everyone up, the foliage was extremely dense in places and, in general, they just got a vibe that it was wrong for them to be in this part of the forest. That being said, they did have items of their own to make their journey at least tolerable… from the Power Swords of Thelonious and Isendark, slicing through even the thickest branches with ease, to the unrelenting fury of Bazak, uprooting and destroying entire trees with his Thunder Hammer, to the Telekinesis of Mistress Valentina, lightly pushing things out of the way… they made their way through the forest. After a long trudge the group found their way to a clearing, and they immediately knew that this was something different, when they saw a massive arch, made of a white material that was obviously alien in origin… in the white material were dark red stones of indeterminate type… the whole place reeked of Xenos.

This became even clearer when the Explorers started looking around further… they realised they were standing near a temple like structure that obviously belonged to the Eldar but, before they could start exploring further, a rustling noise signalled the approach of the Xenos themselves. Before they arrived, Thelonious was thinking to himself that Governor Kalpak (or General Remi, he had not decided on that yet) owed him a favour… and what better, and more innocuous, request than to ask for this continent… after all, no-one was living on it and probably wouldn’t be for some time. His thoughts brought back into the present, Thelonious made sure to nod his greeting to Captain Opwith, who was looking his usual annoyed self, before a couple of power armoured Eldar came into the clearing, escorting a hooded Eldar Mystic. The Eldar Captain started doing a circuit of the temple, making sure that the interlopers had not done anything to profane the holy ground, and he did it whilst carrying a plant.

You see, Thelonious had taken to growing a Hellebore in the arboretum of the Hope in the Void because he knew that was the name of the Eldar ship. Captain Opwith didn’t seem to know what to make of the gift, which pleased Thelonious no end but, after that, he got down to business and made a greeting to the Eldar Farseer.

Farseer: “Lord High Captain, Thelonious T Deepstalker. When we last met, I mentioned to you that you had a destiny that was both Grand and Terrible at the same time. Little did I know just how Grand, and how Terrible, it has the potential to be! My name is Beljalannor and I am here to give you grave warning.”

Thelonious was somewhat stunned by this revelation… plus, the fact that the Farseer had used his full title and name, something he was sure that Captain Opwith would never do. Thelonious’s attention was also taken up, somewhat, by Mistress Valentina, who was trying her hardest to wind up Captain Opwith with her lack of respect for anything remotely Eldar… Thelonious thought it was like watching a comedy about two mismatched people being forced to work together. He shook his head slightly in Sari’s direction before refocussing on what the Farseer was saying.

Farseer: “A long time ago, as you humans would measure time, I had a vision regarding an Ork invasion of a human held plant. As I could not see anything related to my people, I did not pay it as much attention as I should have. No too long ago, a few of your human months, I had exactly the same vision.”

For those amongst the command crew of the Hope in the Void who had knowledge of the Eldar, and in particular what they had heard about their Farseers’, it was vanishingly rare for them to have a vision that is exactly the same as one previous… something about how they interpret things being unique each time. For those who understood the impact of this, they paid even more attention to the Farseer’s words.

Farseer: “Because of this, I utilised all my high level of skill to see as much as I could about this particular vision, to try and find out why it had plagued me again. What I found was staggering. Should the Orks be victorious on this, otherwise no account, human world, it will set into progress a chain of events that will lead to the Destruction of my Craftworld and, indeed, this entire sector of the galaxy.”

That statement was enough to make even Mistress Valentina take notice of what the Eldar were saying and the Farseer continued speaking into the silence that had come crashing down like a net.

Farseer: “However, should this human world manage to repel the Ork invasion then the links and chains towards that probability are slightly less likely to come to fruition which is all we have to hold onto at this time. This is why we have come, and why we have help to offer.”

Beljalannor pulled an item from a pocket on his robe, a blue, wafer thin crystal that sparkled in the sunlight that managed to pierce the roof of the forest canopy and handed it to Thelonious, informing him that it had been engineered to work with their primitive technology and that it held the co-ordinates of the Blue Giant “Skadi” and where it would be in 60 hours. Thelonious calculated that this would give them about a day to search around the planet to find where the Ork Warboss was and end this war… it was not the best they could hope for but it was better than what they had. The Farseer explained that the Warboss had spread most of his fleet throughout the system and had thus left himself vulnerable to a decapitating strike and, once the Warboss was down, the rest of the Greenskins would turn on each other in a fight for supremacy that would allow Damaris to recover and push the Orks off their world.

Farseer: “One final thing, Thelonious T Deepstalker. You will only, truly, know that the Ork Warboss is dead when you see the light fade from its red eyes as you hold up its severed head. Without that, you will never know whether the Ork is dead and whether he will come back to plague Damaris. This I have foreseen.”

With that final pronouncement, the Farseer started to remove himself from the clearing but was engaged in negotiations by Thelonious for an Eldar Runecaster, to allow his ship to make its way through the Warp in a more efficient manner. The Farseer took this interruption in his stride and informed the Rogue Trader that he had the word of Beljalannor that, if the Sector was saved then he could have what he desired, but not until then. Thelonious took this for a win and started thinking about how saving a sector would look in the eyes of the Imperium and other Rogue Traders… pretty **** good was his conclusion. Other than a very frosty goodbye with Captain Opwith, there was nothing else to focus on and both sides went their separate ways. Isendark found that the turbulence and interference was much less when you were trying to leave the area around the Eldar temple than trying to get in and the return journey was smooth and uneventful.

One of the first things that Thelonious decided to do when he arrived back on his ship was to contact Magos Shard and bargain for a powerful vox caster. If he was going to find Skadi then he wanted to leave something behind so that it was possible to find it again… Thelonious knew that others had seen Skadi before, but no-one had ever returned from those voyages and he did not intend for that to happen to his ship and crew. The Magos was impressed by his thinking and ambition and agreed to provide one to his ship. Then, afire with new purpose after the grinding campaign to date, the command crew entered the command bunker and informed the council of their plans of attack. Blitz, and his cruiser, was to stay back and defend the orbit of Damaris whilst Lady Orleans, Sylvia Locke and Thelonious would lead the attack against the Ork Warboss.

Whilst there were questions about how Thelonious had managed to get his hands on the co-ordinates of Skadi, the overriding emotions were hope and vengeance, with both Orleans and Locke hurrying from the chamber to get their ships ready as soon as they could… everyone knew they were on the clock. Soon the Hope in the Void , the Aegis , the Starweaver and the captured Onslaught were on course for the co-ordinates and, after a couple of days of travel at best speed, not torturing the engines but definitely pushing them to their limits, they found themselves at the edge of the Damaris system, seeing the massive and unpredictable asteroid fields that they would have to traverse… it was a daunting sight. However, the Hope in the Void had been in worst places and soon Guncutters were released to find a way through the shifting rocks, signalling the small fleet through in the safest way they could.

Isendark was in his element here, feeling almost at one with the ship, threading the galaxy’s largest needle through some of the smallest gaps it was possible for them to fit through. At multiple instances it seemed as if the Hope in the Void would slam into numerous asteroids only for Isendark’s flight plan to become obvious to the rest of the bridge crew as the ship sailed past unharmed. The Starweaver , being much smaller than the Hope and the Aegis was able to follow in the wake of the bigger ships and thus avoided anything that their shields could not handle. The helmsman of the Aegis appeared to have a bad day at the office as numerous small asteroids and meteors struck against it… the cruisers void shields were able to deflect most of this damage but the armour of the Aegis was more pitted than it had been when they finally found their way through the Asteroid field.

What they saw was, in the words of Mistress Valentina, enough to make Astromancers cry. The “bubble” that seemed to surround Skadi was actively pushing away the Asteroids in the field surrounding it, no wonder the Asteroid field was always so unpredictable, not only was it affected by gravity but by this unknown force. Skadi, however, was worth the effort, a shining cobalt blue gas giant surrounded by a necklace of hundreds of moons; truly it was a sight for the ages. However, Thelonious and his fleet could not luxuriate in this sight for long, they realised that it was going to take them some time to search all the moons around Skadi, and they had less time than they would have wished to find the Ork Warboss and put an end to his schemes, and finally end the war on Damaris. The ships separated, to better scan the area, leaving the Onslaught hidden at the edge of the asteroid field… they did not want the Ork’s to even think about betraying them.

To make sure that this did not happen, Bazak ceded control over the Onslaught to his three Boyz and Gromit, the Grot, who gained a little bit of respectability by riding around on Mawz, the Squig. Bazak had a special mission for them and did not want anyone to mess it up… secretly, the plasma drives on the Onslaught were set with as many explosives as they could be… it was a suicide mission that only a few would know about. When Mistress Valentina asked Bazak whether he was bothered by the deaths of his followers, she was told that Bazak would get some more, no matter what happened, and “dis was FUN!” Meanwhile, the rest of the fleet was moving through the moons, scanning as much as they could but, perhaps unsurprisingly, it was the Hope in the Void that made the breakthrough, even without using their Ultimo Array they had fearsome passive scanners.

As the Hope in the Void entered a higher orbit around Skadi, they hit the jackpot. Yorke, who was supervising the scanning effort, started seeing numerous objects on the augur arrays and, after filtering out the ghosts and the moons, she seemed to have something. Isendark drifted the ship through space, keeping the Hope in the Void as hidden as it could be until they came to the area that Yorke had identified… it was a moon and everyone was a little disappointed until certain things became clear to them and Thelonious pointed out “that is no moon!” What they had found was the Rok production facility and, after observing it for a little while, they saw its tractor beam in operation and they counted at least a dozen half-finished Roks… the Warboss was not playing around anymore, this was the final invasion effort and it needed to be stopped.

Sending out short communications that would be lost in the general chatter, the Hope in the Void signalled its allies to come to this spot, including the Onslaught, for the battle that would define the fate of Damaris. However, whilst they were continuing to scan, hidden just behind one of the other moons, a few things caught their eye. One was an absolutely massive Ork Kroozer, silently drifting in the void far above Skadi… it was not recognisable as the previous Kroozer they had faced (although they soon spotted that, still not fully repaired) and it was even larger… this had to be the Warboss’s Kroozer and, by the large Weirdboy tower that protruded from it, it most certainly was. This was not a surprise, they had known to find the Warboss here… what was a surprise was when the Kroozer moved slightly and they saw on their screen a more angular, blocky ship, carved with symbols that made everyone on the bridge, sans Mistress Valentina, avert their eyes, almost at the same moment. The forces of Chaos were here!

After taking a slightly closer look, their mental fortitude enough to not imperil their very soul, both Isendark and Commander Rolaine conferred briefly before informing Thelonious that the symbols, and how they had been laid out, spoke that this ship belonged to a pack of Chaos Reavers that served an infamous Pirate Lord called Karad Vall. Vall was well known for his depredations, but also for his power… many crusades had been launched after him, and all of them had failed… the fact that he was interested in Damaris did not seem to bode well for the fate of the planet. It was at this point that both the Aegis and the Starweaver arrived and, after being informed of the circumstances that they had found a plan was quickly concocted. The Hope in the Void would go straight for the Warboss’s Kroozer from one flank whilst the Aegis would take the other flank and go after the recently repaired Kroozer. Whilst this was happening, the Onslaught would go straight for the Rok production facility, shadowed by the Starweaver , on a suicide boarding run.

It was the Aegis that led the attack, the Imperial Cruiser, under the command of one of the best tacticians of the age, Lord Captain Sylvia Locke, as they smashed forward into the teeth of the Ork ships, angling her guns to fire on the nearest Onslaught. Their Macrocannon Broadside, aimed and loaded by some of the best in the business, tore through the Void Shields and armour of their target, leaving them open for a scything blow from their Lance weaponry… any other ship would have been destroyed but the Ork ship managed to keep going, although their combat potential was greatly diminished. With the Aegis went the Starweaver , itself only a mere frigate, but outfitted for war, flitting around the underside and overside of the Aegis , sending volley after volley into any ship that tried to outflank her, waiting for the Onslaught to begin its attack run, but not wanting to be left out of the “fun” before then.

The Hope in the Void was soon attacking from the other direction, once again running into the Ork Onslaughts that were screening the Kill Kroozers, of which they were doing a very good job. However, they could not prevent the team of Yorke and Rolaine from locking onto the Kill Kroozer and firing “through the gap” against the behemoth. The fire was as accurate as could be expected, given the range, and then even more so, so that even though the attack was against the prow armoured front of the Kill Kroozer, it still managed to batter down their Void Shields and cause some damage… it was one of the best shots that Rolaine had ever attempted. Lt Haines, who had been scanning the augurs, started shouting out the specific weaponry and what made up the Kill Kroozer, especially making note of the incredible Air Pump system the Kroozer appeared to have… now the crew knew what they were fighting in intimate detail.

Meanwhile, Thelonious was paying more attention to the nearby Onslaught, launching his patented blend of Fighters and Bombers to bring them a gift from humanity. The Bombers flew behind their Fighter screen, dodging the turret fire from the Onslaught and planted a bomb directly down their sensor array… until that was repaired the Onslaught was not likely to be hitting anything, even at very close range. The bombs also did their usual damage to the rear of the Onslaught… it was a double whammy and pretty much took the Onslaught out of their threat envelope. Mistress Valentina was looking at the scans from Lt Haines and was concerned about the amount of damage that the Kill Kroozer could put out… however, she had a plan for that and took her mental enhancing level of White Void as she started meditating. Her preparation proved to be invaluable as the Kill Kroozer, jolted out of its seeming dormancy, charged directly at them.

The Kroozer was followed by the Chaos Reaver ship and they both closed on the Hope in the Void Gunz and Macrocannons blazing. The shooting from the Ork ship was unusually good, the Warboss putting the fear into the gunners, and it seemed like the Hope was in for some pain. This is when Mistress Valentina opened her eyes from her meditation, reaching out with her mind towards the massive ordinance that was coming their way. It did not take much… no massive slaps of mental power sending the shells flying off into the void, this was a little more precise than that, just amending the flight trajectory enough that they missed slamming into the ship and, fortified by White Void, she did not even break into a sweat. The rest of the crew was once again dumbfounded at her power and decided (again) never to annoy her in the morning… it just wasn’t worth the potential pain!

Her intervention proved to be critical when the Reaver opened up on them, had she not deflected so much of the Ork’s fire away from them, then the Lance would have cut through their hull as if it was not there but, instead, it ended up splashing against their Void Shields. Whilst this was going on, the Onslaught, now flanked by the Starweaver was launching into an attack run, the Ork Kaptin pressing the big red button as hard as he could and rocketing forward towards the Rok Production Facility… it was not there yet, but it soon would be. The Starweaver broke off slightly to face an Onslaught that had guessed what their plan was, her Macrobatteries playing merry hell with the Onslaughts thrusters and trapping it within a dance of death that was only going to have one victor. The Aegis turned its attention towards a more worthy foe, the Kill Kroozer that the Hope in the Void had faced before and battered down its shields, denting the vast amounts of armour on the ship and then missing with their Lance shot, the Kroozer proving more nimble than the targeting array’s thought.

Isendark, knowing what a pass the ship had received by having Mistress Valentina on board was determined not to need that to happen again (and to show off his awesome piloting skills), started throwing the ship into manoeuvres that a Frigate would have been jealous of, nevermind a huge Cruiser. The hull of the ship cried out in pain at such treatment but, more importantly, it held together under the enormous stresses that were being placed upon it. Even with the crazy moves that were being pulled, Yorke was able to feed Rolaine accurate firing solutions that made her shooting even more incredibly effective than it would have been and, with the Kroozer having closed to within short range, the pain was coming. The single Macrocannon broadside often seemed to be a mere extension of her usual skills with a pistol and so it proved here again, holing one of the Gunz and smashing pieces off the side of the Kroozer but, it was a hardy beast and it was still very much in the fight.

The more important thing, from the crews thinking anyway, was that they had taken down the Void Shields and thus left the Kroozer open for a Hit and Run, led by Bazak. Before, this had always proven to be devastating for the ship being attacked but, for the first time, Bazak faced a foe who was as dangerous as he was, a favoured lieutenant of the Warboss and, although Bazak was able to cause some damage to the ship, it was miniscule compared to the ship itself. Thelonious wasted no time in ordering a couple of squadrons, each, of Fighter and Bombers to attack the Kill Kroozer and his caution in regards to the makeup of the attack proved to be well founded as the first fighter squadron lost over half its strength to the deadly fire from the Kroozer’s turrets but the Bombers were able to release their payload before turning and running back to the Hope in the Void . Their bombs did moderate damage but, nothing compared to what the Kroozer had left.

The Onslaught, mindful of Bazak’s orders and seeing an opening, powered all its engines to the max, hit the big red button and went hurtling towards the Rok facility. Just as it was about to impact, a green beam flew out of the facility and stopped the Onslaught in its tracks, holding it motionless in the void, although scans indicated that the Onslaught had lots none of its momentum and it was only the green beam stopping it from smashing into the facility with incredible force. The Chaos Reaver, seeing this, and seeing the chunks being torn out of the Kill Kroozer, decided to make its way to the outside of the combat but, with its Keel mounted weapons, it could fire even as it was making a tactical flanking manoeuvre (read, retreat). However, the moves that Isendark had put together were confounding enough that both the Reaver and the Kill Kroozer could find nothing with their shots, they may as well have been shooting into the Void in anger for all the harm they did.

The other Kroozer and the Aegis were starting to wale seven bells out of each other, both circling and both firing with everything they had, causing grievous damage on each other… it appeared, to all intents and purposes, to be a slugging match where both fighters were tethered together… one would rise and one would fall. It was the Aegis that emerged, battered and bloodied, in one piece, her Lance battery cutting the Kill Kroozer in half as the final blow in their battle, before turning her attention towards the Rok Production facility. The Hope in the Void took heart from their allies victories in their battles and redoubled their attempts to take down the Warboss, although the Warboss also redoubled its attempts to bring down these ‘umies’ who had invaded his sanctum. Isendark continued to throw the Hope around space in an attempt to avoid damage, his attempts getting more and more random until it was only himself who could keep up.

Sylvia Locke hailed Thelonious and pointed out that her sensors were picking up far too much activity coming from just behind the Rok facility and to be wary of what might be coming from that direction. Both were surprised when an Eldar vessel appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, with tattered Solar Sails and a very ghostly complexion. Natasha scoured her memory for anything to do with a ship such as this, cross referencing numerous texts together until she came up with the answer, all in a fraction of a second… her face went pale and she whispered “ The Whisper of Aeneris ” just as all the servitors on the bridge spasmed, the lights went out, and then everything went back to “normal.” The Whisper swung too and started blowing the crap out of the Rok facility, leading to a sigh of relief across the bridge crew of the Hope in the Void .

The evasive manoeuvres that Isendark was throwing the Hope into proved to be too much even for the vaunted Yorke and Rolaine combo and the Macrocannon shells went wide of the mark, the targeting computer and natural skill being unable to make up for the lack of a stable firing platform. Similarly, the Bombers and Fighters were launched at such an odd angle compared to their usual graceful exit that they were unable to gather themselves for an attack run on the Kroozer and ended up returning to the hangar, the flyboys looking somewhat foolish. It seemed to be down to Mistress Valentina to actually do something before the Kill Kroozer fired back at them and she did not disappoint. She had learnt how to pull fire out of the warp and, mind fortified with White Void, tore open a rift in warp/time space in the middle of the Kroozer and spread fire into half of the ship which happened to include the Kroozer’s void shields! However, apart from the fires on the ship, this did not come to much because Bazak’s teleportarium hit and run was beaten back before the Ork could do any damage.

It was just as well Bazak could teleport back because, as soon as the Ork arrived it was obvious to the crew that the Kill Kroozer had launched its own Hit and Run attack, the Ork pilots dodging heavy turret fire to land enough troops against various parts of the ship to break through. Bazak took control of the effort to repel the Ork raiders but, once again, he was against someone who was his equal in ferocity and, potentially, his better in kunnin’. The Orks managed to slip past some of the patrols and plant explosives through the ship, which detonated as they exited, with the Ork Commander giving Bazak a smarmy (as smarmy as Orks can be anyway) grin as he exited, inviting Bazak to try again. For the first time since they came into the Koronus expanse, the Hope in the Void faced the peril of fire… in both their Void Shield array and Macrocannon batteries… two of the most important parts of the ship. The crew looked at each other with grim determination as they carried on the fight.

Two Onslaught raiders had the gall to get between the Aegis and its primary target, the Rok facility. The Aegis did a daring manoeuvre, for which Sylvia Locke had become known, and flew directly between them, the Macrocannon Broadsides of the Aegis making short work of the weaker Onslaughts… in a scene that could have come from a vic-pict, the Aegis moved between the Onslaughts and then seemed to be buoyed forward by them both exploding behind her. Sylvia Locke would mention that she had been inspired by the work of some obscure British Admiral in the prehistory of Terra for the manoeuvre, but could not really remember his name. Meanwhile, back on the Hope the crew was trying, and failing, to put out the fires that would be crippling in their ability to fight the Kroozer if they could not be brought under control… once again it was Mistress Valentina who stepped up to the plate.

Shoving yet more White Void up her nose, she could feel the highs that she was getting and felt herself being drawn to be this way all the time, it was a creeping, dangerous feeling and she clamped down on it, hard, with her incredible willpower… she would not be a puppet to the White Void, it would be a puppet for her! Thus fortified, she reached out and, with her affinity for fire, managed to locate the source of the fires and slowly starve them of oxygen, pushing them away from the vital components until they winked out of existence… although the effort of doing this caused her to stagger back into her choir before almost passing out. She had done her duty though; the Hope in the Void was back in the fight! Yorke and Rolaine, more used to the crazy moves being performed by the Hope under the care of Isendark, managed to correct for the movement enough to allow the Macrobatteries to land a stinging hit to the Port side of the Kill Kroozer.

Thelonious had martialled his bombers again and sent them, once more, into the teeth of the Kill Kroozer, following closely behind the Macrobatteries, so much so that it was as though they were using the technique of an artillery rolling barrage, but in space. The Bombers caused untold destruction to the Port side of the Kill Kroozer, but the hardened Ork ship was still a going concern, something it would prove to the Hope in the Void . The Gunz on the Kroozer, whilst baffled by the umie ships movements, put enough metal in the air to take down the Void Shields and it was then that the Weirdboy tower started pulsing ominously. As the pulsing reached a crescendo, a green wave of psychic fire coruscated down the Hope in the Void , ripping hull plating to pieces and sending crewmen out into the dark of space… it left a massive tear in the starboard side and made everyone glad that they could not do that more often!

The Hope in the Void and the Kill Kroozer continued to circle each other, both wounded predators, wondering which one of them would become the prey… the Kill Kroozer looked more damaged than the Hope , but the crew did not know whether that was just what their hope was seeing. The Rok facility, now under fire from a few directions, suffered a power failure at a critical moment and the Onslaught, now freed from the momentum cancelling beam, smashed into the Rok facility at full force, driving deep into its heart, before being stopped by the sheer mass of the thing. Yorke looked across to Thelonious, a thin smile coming across her lips as she sent the code towards the Onslaught… both of them waited for the signal to reach the explosives in the Onslaught engine room with baited breath…

SPOILER WARNING

We are now playing through the Frozen Reaches Campaign.

If you are aiming to play this setting and want it to be a surprise best stop reading now.

I'll let you know when we're done

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Chapter 22 – We interrupt this regularly scheduled Programme…

The moment when the signal reached the Onslaught was as obvious as it was spectacular. The Onslaught had already done a large amount of damage to the Rok facility due to the speed it had been travelling when the impact happened, but that was nothing compared to the explosion that was caused when its Plasma Drives were detonated. There was enough of an atmosphere on the converted moon, partly caused by the Gas Giant but mostly caused by Orkish engineering, that the Plasma explosion set fire to this atmosphere and the explosion spread out in a corona of fire. This fire washed over the Aegis and The Whisper of Aeneris and, when it cleared, the Aegis was unharmed but the Whisper was gone… maybe it had been consumed in the explosion, but very few people on board the Hope in the Void were naïve enough to believe such a thing.

The Aegis and the Starweaver , with the Onslaught and Rok facility destroyed, started going after the few remaining Ork ships that were presently scattering from the force and power of the attack, leaving the Hope in the Void to deal with the Warboss, as per Thelonious’s instructions. Isendark continued to throw the ship around in a series of manoeuvres that could be considered as being balletic, even if they were being used for a ship that was over 5km in length. Realising that the Kill Kroozer was actually quite damaged, from their scans, Commander Rolaine and the Lord High Captain combined their Macrocannon barrage with another bombing run, with the results being spectacular. A few of the fighter escort were taken down by the turrets on the Kroozer but the bombers made it through unscathed and explosions blossomed across the hull of the Ork ship… and power started going out, air being vented into space and, in essence, the Kroozer was dead in space.

Further scans of the vessel, however, noted a little amount of power still active on the Bridge of the Kill Kroozer, and Thelonious knew that the Warboss awaited him. He had spoken with his crew, in no uncertain terms, about the fact that he would take the Warboss on in 1 on 1 combat, which would be videoed by Yorkes servo skull and which would then further the legend of Thelonious T Deepstalker. Gathering his command crew together in the Teleportarium, Thelonious allowed Bazak to slightly reconfigure the Teleportarium, given that they had no idea about where they were teleporting to, and Bazak did have some instinctive knowledge about how Ork ships were laid out. After everyone checked that they had the weapons and armour they needed, the command was given and they translated from a relatively stable and sterile environment into utter chaos.

The smell of death hit them first, although it was not something they were unused to, as they teleported into the corner of the bridge, and took in what was left of the crew… Grots ran around, some of them on fire, but the Warboss was sat on his throne, a twisted metal monstrosity, could have described both the Warboss and the throne… the crew had never seen a more imposing Ork.

(We interrupt our regularly scheduled programmes to bring you a video from the Deepstalker Dynasty, showing the momentous duel that ended the war for Damaris. Viewers of a more sensitive disposition should report to your local government facility for “reprocessing.”)

[Thelonious T Deepstalker appears by techno-magic, having used the holy Teleportarium to cross the void of space and bring the battle to the Orks. The camera catches his smiling visage just as the light from the Teleportarium fades… it gives the impression of a halo surrounding the head of this mighty Hero of the Imperium.]

Thelonious: “Warboss Snotgritz! I am Thelonious T Deepstalker of the House Deepstalker, Grand Marshall of Damaris, Grand Strategist of the Battle of Cog and I am here representing the God Emperor of Mankind. YOU SHALL GO NO FURTHER!”

[The camera then pans around, although keeping out of the reach of the mighty Ork, as Snotgritz pulls himself up to his huge height, towering above the Rogue Trader. The camera picks out all the details, from the massive Bionik eye to the snarling visage, to the spittle launched into the air by the Orks jaw forming Low Gothic words. Before the Ork can speak, Thelonious interrupts.]

Thelonious: “I challenge you to 1 on 1 combat, a duel to see who truly wins this war… or, in the words of your vile race… WAAAAGGGGHHHH!”

Snotgritz: “Stoopid ‘Umie! I’ll smoosh ya pasty body, fix me bloody ship and den win dis WARRRRR!”

[The camera switches back to Thelonious and pans out slightly, giving a wide angled (and non-shaky cam) view of the duel, as Thelonious steps forward, adopting a defensive stance, pulls his ancestral Power Sword and reaches out with his free hand, making a “come hither” gesture towards the Ork, a smirk crossing his face. In the background you can hear the sounds of fighting, the fizz of an Inferno Pistol, the clunk of a Frag Grenade being fired, the explosion and various Bolt Rounds as the rest of the Orks charge the command crew… the camera remains on Thelonious throughout.]

[The camera then cuts to focus on the Warboss’s charge, the large strides causing the metal sheeting laid across the floor to vibrate, the strength of the vibrations causing the camera to shudder slightly before the auto-stabilisers kick in. As the Warboss reaches Thelonious, two Choppa’s held high above his head, Thelonious’s Power Sword becomes wreathed in blue light as it activates. Thelonious dextrously steps to the side, his Power Sword coming up and around to deflect the first blow from the Warboss, which thudded into the metal flooring but he could not prevent the second attack from smashing through his defences, cutting through his armour and into his side. Thelonious goes down onto one knee, leaning on the Power Sword, before pulling himself to his feet, hatred in his eyes.]

Thelonious: “If that is the best you have, Beast, then I am afraid there will only be one victor today… the light of the God Emperor!”

Snotgritz: “Poony ‘Umie! Youze God-Empror iz nuffin kompard to de Ork WAAAAGGGGHHH!”

[Thelonious then looks to feint one way, then the next, confusing the Ork with his speed but realises that the Ork cares nothing for such gains, so brings his Power Sword above his head and then brings it down onto the Warboss’s mighty chest, causing a massive spray of green blood to gush forth. After the blood stops gushing, however, the wound does not look damaging enough to cause such a rush of blood but, as Imperial citizens are told… the Camera never Lies. Thelonious then quickly moves his Power Sword up to block a retaliatory strike from the Warboss, managing to hold onto and block the strike despite the vast strength differential between the two, and manages to duck down and avoid the other Choppa, although it was a wild strike from the Warboss, who was getting more and more enraged.]

Thelonious: “Ha, villain! If you can’t hit me, you can’t hurt me… I am protected by the God-Emperor of Mankind… as if he would let me lose to you. Even my warriors are better than yours!”

[in the background, and off-screen, the sound of explosions, death and mayhem can be heard, as well as a soft, horrific, smacking sound as a massive weapon of some kind smashes into green flesh, spraying their innards all over the back of the shot. Some of the shots appear to have gone wild because a couple of Bolter Rounds seem to hit the Warboss, and, although they seem to mostly bounce off its tough hide, it adds a further complication to the duel. Thelonious continues to move around the Ork, using his superior speed and tactical sense to leave the Warboss seemingly swinging at random, although it turns out there is method for the seeming madness. Thelonious’s Power Sword cut into the hide of the Ork, although not by much but the attack had left him open to one of the Choppa’s swinging round in a vicious circle. Just as the blade was about to impact on Thelonious, he suddenly glowed with an intense white light that momentarily blinded the camera… when the camera came into focus, Thelonious is standing them, miraculously unharmed.]

Thelonious: “Praise be to the God-Emperor, may he continue to protect me against the vile Xenos as I seek an end to the war scarring the beautiful planet of Damaris. The Emperor Protects!”

[The display of light made the Warboss take a step back slightly and the light seemed to have burned the Warboss, although some seasoned military observers might comment that it looked like a burn from a Hellgun rather than a miraculous source of Emperor given fire. The Warboss even seemed to be stunned by this holy fire, trying to move against what seemed like invisible bonds, his face a grimace of pain. The camera fuzzes out slightly as Mistress Valentina comes into the shot, holding her hands outstretched towards the Warboss and, when it comes back into focus, Mistress Valentina is nowhere to be seen… it seems more like a camera glitch than anything else. Thelonious is taking there, Power Sword ready, when he is floored by yet another stray Bolt Shell, hitting him square in the back and knocking him to the floor... you can see Thelonious teeter on the edge of consciousness for a few seconds, before a snarl escapes his lips and his eyes refocus.]

Thelonious: “You cowardly creature… how dare some of your underlings intrude on a sacred 1 on 1 duel. I had hear that Orks were dismissive of things that we, humanity, hold as our Ideals, but I had not known you were this bad.”

[The Warboss continued to have trouble moving, so enraptured he was by Thelonious’s status as an envoy of the God-Emperor… the power that flowed through Thelonious at that moment was enough that, even when the Ork started to move forwards, a simple look from Thelonious stopped it. Further random fire appeared to hit the Warboss, from various different directions, as the sounds of combat outside of the duel continued, albeit at a lesser pace. The camera pans down to Thelonious, who is still laid flat on his back, as he pulls his patented Ripper Pistol from its holster and fires a few discs into the chest of the Warboss, whilst pulling himself to his feet and regathering his Power Sword. The camera starts moving in closer to the fight, now that the Warboss appeared to be stunned by the Emperor’s Grace, there was less chance that the Servo Skull would be targeted by the Warboss and Thelonious wanted to capture his triumph.]

Thelonious: “Your time ends, creature! It will be my pleasure, as the representative of the God-Emperor that I am, to utterly destroy you and end your menace!”

[As Thelonious states this, the Warboss seems to break through whatever paralysis it was suffering from and Thelonious moves quickly, his wounds paining him but his faith in the God-Emperor absolute, holstering his Ripper Pistol, grabbing his Power Sword in two hands and swinging a vicious strike around and at the neck of the Warboss. The power of the strike is such that, as the sword starts cutting into the neck of the greenskin, the camera cuts out and, when the power is restored a few seconds later, the Warboss is no longer… in fact, the Warboss is no longer anything other than a pile of giblets on the ground, that makes it look like Thelonious went into a rage, cutting and slicing the Warboss until nothing is left. He stands proudly as the rest of his command crew (including Bazak with a suspiciously bloody Thunder Hammer) joins him. Swelling music breaks in as Thelonious strikes a victorious pose.]

Thelonious: “I dedicate this victory to my own skill, by the grace of the God Emperor… he guided my hand as he guides all of us. Know that Damaris is now safe… so state I, Thelonious T Deepstalker.”

(And now we rejoin our regularly scheduled programs.)

Thelonious was furious with Bazak for “stealing his kill” and, had he not heard the Eldar Farseer when it said that the only way they would be able to confirm the death of Snotgritz was to look into its eyes from its severed head… and where the hell was the head!?! Bazak, rather sheepishly for an Ork, pointed at a random smear on the ground… that was all that was left of the Warbosses head. Yorke assured the Captain that she could edit the footage they had collected into a glorious duel and no-one would be any the wiser about the assistance he had received from the rest of the command crew. Thelonious grunted but was able to take his, rather petty, revenge soon after, when Bazak found himself the owner of a brand new Grot, that had decided that Bazak was now “de Boss.” Thelonious waited until the Grot was perched on Bazak’s shoulder and then, with pinpoint accuracy, hit the Grot with his Ripper Pistol, knocking it off and onto the ground. The Grot raised itself to its feet, unsteadily, looked at Bazak and said “Boss, iz don’t feel too go…” before the Toxins from the Ripper Pistol finished it off and it fell down on the ground, face first, completely and utterly dead. That seemed to restore some of Thelonious’s good humour.

With the Warboss dead, and the Kill Kroozer in ruins, the command crew made a quick reconnoitre of the bridge, as well as a more detailed look at the surrounding areas. They did not find too much… this was nothing other than a Warship, unlike a lot of Freebooter ships, but they did find some interesting notes that spoke about a human colony with no humans on it, and that is where the Orks encountered the agents of chaos and, for some reason, diverted their path to come to Damaris. Bazak managed to download some information from the Kroozers navigation Komputers that showed that the place they were talking about was a planet called Chorda’s Folly… something that potentially bore investigation… Bazak also managed to get his hands on a Rokkit Launcher, which made him grin his toofy grin. After setting charges to make sure that this ship would never come back to haunt them, and that even if they had not seen Snotgritz’s eyes fade, it was very unlikely that he could come back from being smashed into paste, as well as blown up, the command crew teleported back to the Hope in the Void .

With the current, dangerous, situation now in the past, Yorke, with her web of informants in the lower decks of the ship, was able to pick up something that sounded like mutinous rumblings… the crew were not happy with how many of their fellows had been killed in the last combat and how much damage the ship had taken. Thelonious took to the shipboard Vox network to explain that the loss of life, whilst regrettable, was necessary to further the will of the God-Emperor and that anyone who defied his divine will was on a one way ticket out of the airlock… the rumblings from the lower decks subsided after that, but no-one was left in any doubt that they needed to get back to Damaris, if only to let the crew let off some steam. The Hope in the Void was joined by the Starweaver and the Aegis on their trip back… the Aegis had also suffered some serious damage in the combat and so the going was relatively slow, neither Thelonious or Locke was too keen to push their ships in their current state.

As the fleet entered the range of the Bulwarks sensors, they were hailed by Commander Reynolds, who demanded to know who they were. He was slightly on edge because they had reports of Ork ships, and Orks on the planet, fighting each other, seemingly in a battle for supremacy, which the fleet had seen on their way back to Damaris. After confirming their identities, the Bulwark welcomed them back with all the gratitude that Damaris could give, after such a hard-fought and brutal war… with the Orks mostly dealt with, there were only a few things that remained for Thelonious and his command crew to decide. The most pressing of these was who was going to be the ruler of Damaris, Governor Kalpak or General Remi… one avowedly Imperial and the other avowedly supporting independence from the Imperium, now and in the future. Before the war, the choice would have been clear cut but, during the war, Kalpak had shown a strength of purpose that was surprising, even for him… Thelonious was somewhat conflicted.

He met with the Governor, in private, to discuss this potential crisis and was surprised to find that Kalpak, rather than doubting his own ability as he had last time, was in a confident mood… his ability to deal with a crisis had given him a great deal of self-confidence… after all, if you can keep your head in an Ork war, then dealing with the nobility suddenly becomes less scary. He also looked a lot more “vital” in that he had lost some of the scars of being a heavy obscura user (in fact, he had given up because he had no time for it during the war) and just appeared to be, in general, a better man. Thelonious had always leaned towards Kalpak, he would not have shown him the letter from Remi otherwise, but this performance and self-confidence convinced him that Kalpak would be a wise® and strong(er) leader for Damaris in the future. Kalpak left the decision as to what to do with General Remi in the hands of Thelonious… partly because he respected the man, and partly for political expedience… he did not want to get his hands dirty.

Thelonious convened a meeting of his command crew, back on the Hope in the Void to avoid any potential spying, to discuss what they were to do about the General Remi situation. Thelonious posited that, by the law, what he was trying to do was treason to the proper authorities and he should be arrested and then executed. However, the Highland Levy had proven itself to be a major asset in the defence of Damaris and a lot of that was down to the skill and foresight of General Remi… he was a bonafide hero to the people of Damaris, and to see a hero cast down so low could terrible things. On the other hand, they couldn’t just leave him on Damaris because, undoubtedly, he would try again and then the Explorers would not have any hold on him at all, given that he was expecting their help in putting him in the Governors Palace. A theory of putting him on Svard, or any other planet that the Deepstalker Dynasty ended up claiming, floundered when it was pointed out that, if they decided to not support the General, that he would never be trustworthy to anyone in the Dynasty.

The, eventually adopted, suggestion came from Mistress Valentina. She pointed out that the General had to die… that much was obvious but that it could not be an execution or accident… the first would be too obvious and the second would be too coincidental. She had a detailed plan ready, involving her powers in a similar way to how she used them against the Ork Warboss but also allowing them to paint General Remi as a martyr and hero of the war of Damaris, taken down in his prime at the moment of his triumph. The sheer cold-bloodedness of the plan, and the dispassionate way that Mistress Valentina put it forward was somewhat shocking to the command crew, although they couldn’t decide what was scarier… that she had this all planned out or that she had just come up with this directly on the spot. After a few questions from the rest of the command crew, it was decided, Remi was going to be killed.

The plan was elegant in its simplicity. Whilst the Orks still on the planet of Damaris were fighting against each other, this was the perfect time to strike against them to drive them back into the Forests where they could then be hunted down at the Levy’s leisure. And then, what better way to show the citizens of Damaris that the Ork menace had finally been ended, decisively, than by General Remi, accompanied by the Grand Marshall and all other Heroes of the war, taking down the last warband. Remi was all for this, somewhat blinded in his arrogance and greed for the Governorship of Damaris, and feeling that, with the letter, he had Thelonious by the short and curly’s… he was about to be proven dead wrong. However, something like that took a while to get together so, leaving that in the hands of Remi’s staff officers, the command crew started taking stock of what they had after the War.

With everything counted, and with the results of their investments into Damaris, the Deepstalker House found that it had substantially improved their position, compared to before the war. The investments had been a risk… had Damaris been lost then it would have all gone down the drain, but it had not, and they now had large stakes in some of the larger businesses that made up Damaris, as well as a Governor who owed them a favour… not a bad place to be in. Soon after, the Aegis could not stay too much longer and so was first in the queue to be repaired before setting off for the Maw and her “conversation” with the Admiralty. Locke had a realistic view of the situation and said that she could accept any punishment because she knew that she had done the right thing… Damaris was a potential jewel in the expanse and had to be protected. The Aegis left the system the next day and Thelonious was surprised to find that he respected Locke even more than he thought he did.

Jeremiah Blitz was the next to leave, having taken his payment from Lady Orleans and a little richer from some minor investments in Damaris although, as he did, he cast a longing glance at Natasha Yorke… the one that got away. Blitz did say, as he was leaving, that if either of them needed his help, and if the price was right, that he would definitely consider it favourably… it had been fun, but he needed to head off on some errand or other, without going into too many details. In Lady Orleans, on the other hand, Thelonious realised that he had a friend, as well as a business partner, with the potential to be much more. He appreciated her company, her intelligence and her way of looking at things… although her anti-Administratum viewpoint scared the ever loving hell out of him. Still, with Kalpak more than just a patsy, and Imperial sympathies strong on Damaris due to the Aegis , Thelonious knew that it would take a long time, if ever, before Damaris started thinking like that again.

Orleans was happy to offer her help in the future, if she was in the general area. She acknowledged that Damaris had been defended expertly and that none of her investments had been destroyed or overtly damaged. She was very impressed with Thelonious and also viewed him as a friend… something very rare amongst Rogue Traders. She would be staying around Damaris for a little while, helping it get back on its feet but said that she hoped to see the Hope in the Void again in the future. Thelonious was also pleased to understand, after talking to Yorke, that some of the crew he had put aside for infiltration on other ships had been successful, at least on the Starweaver and the Ordained Destiny anyway… it never hurt to have potential sources of information spread around the Expanse. After the goodbyes and the Profit, the staff officers in the Highland Levy had decided upon a plan to take out a large Orkish warband that was still threatening some of the nearby Water Towers… it was strong enough to be dangerous, but not strong enough to defeat the Levy. The plan was set.

And so it was that General Remi found himself, Bolt Pistol in hand, looking down on the Greenskin Boss in charge of this warband, his hand raised, his finger on the trigger, about to blow the Orks head clean off when, for some reason, he seemed to hesitate. In such instances, a second of hesitation is too much and the Ork Boss surged to its feet and buried its cleaver deeply into the Generals face, killing him with one sudden, shocking blow. That this was witnessed by some of the troops who were the most loyal to Remi meant that the fury with which they took their revenge on the Orks was breathtaking, and swept them from the field. The fact that Mistress Valentina was about 30 meters away from the General at the time when this happened, and appeared to be concentrating hard on something, was not noticed or remarked upon. And so General Remi died, one of the last casualties of the Damaris War, a hero to the end and one of Damaris’s favourite sons.

Seez Boss? youz can edit da footage!

Hi all,

We have now finished the Frozen Reaches campaign.

_______________________________________________________________

Chapter 23 – Footfall Foretellings Feel Faint

The Deepstalker House spent another few weeks on Damaris, helping to smooth the change from a War economy to a more Civilian, consumption based, economy. They were there to see the start of construction of a memorial to General Remi, which would be flanked by all the other heroes of Damaris in the current war… it promised to be a very impressive undertaking that would take many years to complete. Thelonious decided that the dynasty had enough roots here that it would be a good idea to station some members permanently and so he went about buying them a good office in the government district and hiring on some of the best people, including those recommended by Kalpak who, as promised, had taken on the reins of government with zeal. Before they finally said their goodbye (for now) to Damaris, Thelonious met with Bishop Arrint, who had sounded quite urgent when he had asked for one. It seemed that the Bishop had a very clear vision from St Drusus, the holy relic that the Bishop had been guarding was to be passed over the Thelonious, and the Bishop was not one to argue with divine intervention.

Thelonious was slightly bemused by this offer but took it anyway, who knows what use having a Holy Relic of St Drusus on board could end up being and he was quick to hand it off to Constantine to use in his sermons. The effect on the crew was slow to build, but the command crew noticed a distinct fervour among most of the crew at the presence of the Relic and they seemed a lot hardier in thought… they knew that they protected something that the Emperor favoured. With that final piece of business tended to, the Navigator came to the Lord High Captain with a few proposals of which routes to take… given that the journey from Damaris to Footfall was a very long one, and they could short circuit it by going via the planet and system of Grace… with time being relatively important, Thelonious agreed. The Hope in the Void moved to the usual staging area, after one final goodbye, and translated into the warp. As usual, the ship was very much at home in the warp and glided along with very few issues, guided by the competent hand of their Navigators.

Natasha Yorke was busy trying to find anything out about Grace… as a new family in the Koronus Expanse, they lacked the generational and built up knowledge of a lot of the other Rogue Traders… even Hadrak Fel probably knew more about the Expanse than they did… but all she could find was that it was a pleasure world created by Aspyce Chorda, a well-known Rogue Trader. When the Hope in the Void translated back into realspace, accompanied by cheers from some of the crew, one of the first things that puzzled Thelonious was the lack of ships in Orbit… if this was a popular pleasure world, he would have expected there to be more orbital traffic. With thoughts of profit from offering passengers a trip dancing before his eyes, he ordered a thorough scan of the planet although even surface scans could pick up the massive storms that worked their way across the surface of Grace. One thing their scans did pick up were distress signals coming from the surface, albeit they seemed to be mostly automated, which made the crew suspicious.

Further scans, weather permitting, detected some life signs on the planet below, although they seemed to be very spread out and not concentrated like Thelonious was expecting and his mood was made a little worse when he asked about the Teleportarium and was informed that they Tech Priests could not vouch for its accuracy given the interference caused by the storm. With further scans revealing large, shielded structures, and the inability for the Teleportarium to penetrate them (without massive macrocannon bombardment anyway), the mood amongst the crew shifted from potential profit to “let’s continue on our way” and, after a lengthy discussion amongst the command crew, they decided that this was a place to come back to once they had learnt more about it. With that, the Hope in the Void moved towards the nearest stable warp lane and headed towards Footfall, seamlessly entering the roiling madness once again.

Once again the Hope in the Void avoided most of the troubles that often plagues ships travelling through the warp… her Gellar Fields were strong and, other than the usual outbreak of madness, which is easily contained, the trip was a success. During the trip, however, Mistress Valentina received an astropathic communique from an organisation that she had not served for a very long time… she could sense the cipher from the Inquisition upon the message she had received. Curious, and slightly afraid, she worked at translating the cipher into something that she could understand, and was not best pleased about what she found… the Inquisition, and in particular, the Inquisitor who she had served with, were asking for her help to investigate the Deepstalker dynasty! Mistress Valentina’s first action, loyal to the House as she was, was to inform the Lord High Captain of this news… and that they had heard about the Deepstalker Dynasty dealing with the filthy Xenos known as the Eldar.

Thelonious was less than pleased that word had got back to the Inquisition… that was trouble he would rather not have looming over his shoulder, especially given that he had a few ideas for trade with the Eldar that the Inquisition would probably not look to favourably upon. However, they did agree that Mistress Valentina would go and meet with the Inquisition after all, who knows what profitable endeavours they might be able to spin out of a meeting with the Inquisition. With that piece of troubling news dealt with, the crew of the Hope settled in for the relative boredom of a long Warp Voyage, normally not the case but definitely so on the Hope in the Void , especially when travelling along a relatively “stable” warp lane, rather than forging ahead through the unknown… but it was better to be safe than to be dead. When the ship translated out of the Warp, the first thing that the command crew noticed was the sheer amount of traffic in this piece of space and they wondered what it would take to get Svard even close to this amount… because it would give them a LOT of money.

It took a while to filter out a lot of the Intersystem defence craft as well as some other detritus before they could get a real view of what was going on in the Feribundus system but, once they did, their curiosity was piqued by what they saw. There seemed to be, for some reason, a large amount of Rogue Traders, or at least their flagships, in the vicinity with Yorke rattling off names of ships and their history almost too fast for anyone to make sense of it… although a few names caught their interest. The Aegis was here, as was the Ordained Destiny and, just when they were about to turn off the active scans they spotted something that made the command crew hiss… the flagship of the Fel dynasty, the Fel Hand , owned by Hadrak Fel, their sworn enemy and the entire reason why both of their houses were no longer prosperous. Keeping their hatred under control was difficult, especially for Commander Rolaine, who had fought Fel in single combat, but they knew that any hostile actions would be looked upon unfavourably, which would hand the advantage to Fel. They decided to go and check in with the Aegis .

The, somewhat surprised, face of Sylvia Locke appeared on the Hololithic screens on the Bridge of the Hope in the Void , with two warring emotions playing across her features… she was somewhat glad to see them safe after what they had been through on Damaris but she was still wary because… Rogue Trader. After the usual greetings, in which Locke commented on the fact that she had not expected to see them this soon, the conversation turned to the Warp Routes they had used to get here and, when Thelonious realised that the Aegis had travelled the same route as them, he decided to enhance his intelligence of Grace. He was somewhat horrified to learn that the people on Grace were cannibals due to a lack of food being delivered there, caused by a terrible Warp Storm… he was not exactly horrified by the whole cannibal thing but more because some of his plans for Profit had just evaporated. Still, the command crew were glad they had not lingered around Grace.

In a more private conversation, taking place in the command crews “ready room,” Locke confided in them that she had been allowed to keep her ship but that any thoughts she might have had towards future promotions were now doomed… the Admiralty were furious with her for disobeying her orders and putting a ship of the Imperial Navy at risk. However, they also could not argue with her results, the planet had been saved, so she had been, in effect, banished into the Koronus Expanse on extended manoeuvres whilst they decided the best use for herself and her ship. The command crew, who had seen Locke’s bravery and tactical acumen first hand, were glad that she might be around in the Koronus Expanse when they needed help. Locke did, however, warn Thelonious that she had heard about the Deepstalker’s relationship with the Fel dynasty and that she would not put up with any disruption to the calm in the void around Footfall… which put the kibosh on one of Thelonious’s plans to get back at Fel.

With that greeting out of the way, and Jeremiah Blitz being unavailable at that moment in time, the Hope in the Void was guided to a docking station and was informed that the usual greeting for a Rogue Trader would not be available due to the large number of them already on the station. This did not bother Thelonious too much, he wanted to have a look around in one of his incognito disguises. Bazak, on the other hand, learned that Orks were tolerated on Footfall and that there were other Freebooters here, probably looking for a berth on a ship like he had been once, and so he set off to find them, with Isendark coming along to make sure he didn’t get into too much trouble (because that worked so well last time!) When the rest of the crew decided to leave the confines of the ship, after setting the rota for crew shore leave of course, they were approached by a rather doddery and old looking man… this immediately put them on their guard, although that could have still been reactions learned in the battle of Damaris kicking in.

When the doddery old man informed them that he was there on behalf of the Kasabillica Mission, Thelonious swore under his breath… when the Deepstalker House had been at its nadir they had taken on a loan from the Kasabillica Mission to keep their ship functioning and he knew that they would want repayment for some of that Debt. After exchanging greetings, Thelonious dickered with the man until they agreed on a place to meet and a time, the next evening… Thelonious pointing out that they had just completed a long Warp Journey and asked for some time to decompress before meeting with the man’s superior. With that handled rather smoothly, Thelonious decided to do some information gathering of his own… there must be a reason why so many Rogue Traders were coming to Footfall at this exact time and he aimed to find out. Getting the information would have been difficult for most people but Thelonious was a gregarious individual who liked to party and who was in the habit of spreading petty cash around… it garnered him a lot of friends in the lower reaches of Footfall.

According to the gossip around Footfall, and Thelonious was careful to corroborate as much as he could, either with separate groups or with Yorke who was back on the ship, the Seven Witches were due to make a Foretelling in the near future. After some frantic research they determined that this is very much an event that does not happen that often but, when it does, it is always something incredible. The last time they did a Foretelling, anyone who followed their advice was never heard from again but, there were rumours in the pages of history that the reason the Winterscale house became such a dominant force in the Expanse was due to a foretelling from the Seven Witches… it appeared that their pronouncements could either mean the doom or the making of those who heard it… Thelonious wanted in! He had Yorke put out some feelers with her agents on Footfall to figure out how they could get an invite to the auction that would decide who would get access to the Foretelling… which he had learned was about the “Dread Pearl.”

Thelonious made his way around the various “islands” that made up Footfall and found his way to an annex of the main Imperial Navy headquarters. The suspicious looks he was given by the guards and clerks vanished when he gave his name… it turned out they did, in fact, have a data package for him, and from an Admiral no less! Thelonious left the annex, humming softly, it seemed as though Admiral Keel had actually come through the Warp safely and had stuck to his side of the bargain. Thelonious made his way back to the Hope in the Void and into a conference with his Chief Navigator, where they pored over the data that the Hand of Redemption , and its Navigators, had captured. It seemed that the Warp Route they had discovered, which went straight through the area of space known as the “Cauldron” was actually a relatively stable route, except when the stellar phenomena was acting up… but it had the possibility to cut the time from Footfall to Svard, and back again, to about 2 and half months… suddenly, trade between Footfall and Svard was looking more likely.

Thelonious made sure to send the medals he had from Svard to the annex, to get it forwarded to the Hand of Redemption so that they would remember the battle for that system and the thanks of the Deepstalker Dynasty. One of the main reasons that Thelonious had come to Footfall was to seek out an old Magos who could potentially do some incredibly complex surgery and also because the Adeptus Mechanicus facility in the Feribundus system was known, Expanse Wide, as having some of the best technology this side of Scintilla… and Thelonious was very much a fan of augments. He managed to get through the door of yet another annex on Footfall by informing them of their fellows on Svard and proceeded to inquire about the Magos. Thelonious was informed that the Magos was located in one of the more abandoned areas of Footfall, and that it had not been abandoned until the Magos had moved into the area, which told Thelonious all he needed to know about how the Magos was likely to react to him.

The command crew gathered upon Thelonious’s return to the ship to share what they had learned which, honestly, was not much. Eventually, after much discussion, it was decided to contact Jeremiah Blitz… he was known to them, was not actively working against them and was obviously on Footfall for the Foretelling, even if that had not been what he came here for originally. After agreeing to a meeting in a relatively private area of Footfall (but still one with good sight lines), Thelonious made his way to the meeting point, with just Commander Rolaine and Marcia Cross as his bodyguards. Thelonious was straight to the point with Blitz, he had seen that was probably the best way to deal with him and asked him straight out if he was here for the Foretelling. Blitz took the question in his stride and nodded expansively, a glimmer of interest flicking behind his eyes as the dance that is every negotiation between Rogue Traders began. In the end it boiled down to the fact that Blitz could get Thelonious, and his command crew, access to the auction, but for a future favour.

Thelonious weighed up the potential cost of a favour to Jeremiah Blitz compared to what might happen at the Foretelling, and the fact that the auction was the next day, at midday, before telling Blitz that he would receive his answer in the morning…

Chapter 24 – Gone Fishing

The command crew gathered in their usual place aboard the Hope in the Void , called there after Thelonious’s meeting with Jeremiah Blitz… he wanted to ask their impression of his decision to go after a way to access the Auction and this led to quite a forthright discussion between the command crew over the merits of this decision. If they managed to actually get an invitation to the auction there were only a few unique things that the Deepstalker Dynasty could offer for the location and invitation to the Foretelling… one of which was the location of the Blue Planet, Skadi, whilst another idea was the co-ordinates (and ownership) of the Eldar Ruin on Damaris, both of which they would like to hold onto. Whilst this was ongoing, Thelonious had tasked Yorke to see if she could find another way into the Auction because, whilst owing a favour to Blitz was better than owing a favour to Hadrek Fel, for example, owing an official favour to another Rogue Trader was not something that Thelonious wanted hanging over him if he could avoid it.

Yorke had been spreading the dynasty’s money around since they came into the Koronus Expanse, recruiting a network of informants on all the planets and moons and stations that they had passed by and this approach started to pay dividends on Footfall. She heard, through various sources, that the “Liege of Footfall,” (mostly an honorary title, without much power) was holding a soiree in one of the finer areas of Footfall and that it was rumoured that one of the prizes was an invitation to the auction… Thelonious was definitely a social animal and so Yorke procured an invitation. Knowing that the other “nobles” in Footfall would be bringing their own retinues, the command crew got dressed up in their finery, medals from the Battle of Cog proudly on display, and turned up to the party… Thelonious turned out to be the only Rogue Trader to be there… everyone else having procured their invitations elsewhere. They were wondering how they were supposed to win a ticket to the auction, when their eyesight was drawn to the far end of the room and to a selection of food dishes that were as horrific as they were dangerous.

Even Thelonious, who had grown up with all the benefits of a scion of a Rogue Trader dynasty, had not heard of some of these dishes and that was saying something. From the Winterscale Creeper, which smelled absolutely foul, to the Live Throat Crabs (energetic), to something that was branded as Deep Warp Eel but which looked incredibly dubious. The command crew fell about themselves to try and beat their colleagues in terms of what they could eat and, even though they did not have to eat all the dishes, they seemed to take a perverse pleasure in starting from the easiest and working their way up to the Deep Warp Eel… and **** the consequences! Mistress Valentina was the first to step up to the challenge and she managed to eat everything up to, but not including, the Deep Warp Eel before she had to be teleported back to the Hope in the Void , complaining of internal bleeding and having vomited profusely for a prolonged period of time… the Medical staff were aghast at her condition, but were able to stabilise it.

Yorke was the next to step up to the (literal) plate but, rather than work her way up, she just went straight for the Jerazol Brain-Fluke… a decision that she regretted as visions swam in front of her eyes and she went in a catatonic state for a few moments before coming back to reality. Learning nothing from this she picked up a Deep Warp Eel, without even looking at it, and shoved it down her gullet… as the carcass started digesting in her stomach she felt a power working its way through her body and, try as she might, she was unable to fight it. The feeling spread from her stomach, through the muscles in her arms and legs, seeming to tone and increase them as it passed through… her hand was clenched around one of the sturdy glasses that had been provided and, as the feeling progressed, her hand crushed the glass with ease. She looked at her hand, bleeding from the shattered glass and resolved to figure out what this meant later.

Not to be outdone by his crew, Thelonious decided to plunge right in with the Warp Eel and, to the astonishment of most people watching, appeared to come through it unscathed, even managing to keep the look of distaste off his face, to the applause of all in the room. Isendark also managed to emerge unscathed although he was not shy about showing how absolutely disgusting this dish was and, by the time the Ork just started wolfing down the remains of the feast, the Deepstalker Dynasty had an invitation to the Auction… with only one casualty, who would recover soon. The rest of the party was a bit of a blur for the command crew but they found themselves, at midday the next day, standing outside the Obsidian Emporium, an area of Footfall known for its less than stellar reputation amongst the “honest” folk of Footfall. Inside the auction hall was a vast amount of technological detritus which, after a little observation, Yorke realised was actually the seating for the auction and the Deepstalker House took their place, as did all the other Rogue Traders and power players on Footfall, Blitz offering a knowing nod to Thelonious as he entered.

As the hubbub from numerous conversations in numerous groups seemed to be coming to a head there was a clap of thunder and, rising up from the impressive lectern at the front of the room was something that was announced as the Intercessor. More machine than man, gleaming metal showing beneath a rather tattered cloak, the Intercessor was the one who was going to make the decision as to whether the offering was suitable enough for an invitation to the Foretelling… he was the man/thing they had to impress. After a few hours of rather desultory bids being placed, and thus the crowd in the auction thinning somewhat as they were all rejected and then ejected from the building, the serious bids started coming in. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Rogue Traders had some of the more interesting and esoteric bids, backed up by their incredible wealth and reputation and, one by one, their bids were accepted by the Intercessor, although some of the other offerings which were rejected at this stage did make the command crew prick up their ears.

The crew had decided what they were willing to offer, and in what order and so Yorke stood up, waiting for the Intercessor to nod in her direction before offering up “a swarm of genetically modified, xenos tainted, bees… known for their hallucinogenic properties.” The room quietened as the Intercessor weighed up this offer, before it was rejected. Then it was Bazak’s turn to stand up, with the offer of the coordinates and ownership of an Eldar Temple… the Intercessor seemed to weigh the offer for a long time before finally rejecting it, but Thelonious could tell that they were getting close. He did not want to offer the location of Skadi, as he had ideas for how he could utilise that information but he did have one further thing to offer and Mistress Valentina had informed him that, as a last ditch effort, she did have something she could offer, although she had not gone into detail. Jonas Constantine stood up and offered the “only crop of Ghostfire Pollen to be harvested outside Iocanthos”… which did create a buzz in the room and, after a little bit of time, this was accepted.

As the command crew exited the Emporium, to join the over successful bidders, including the hated Hadrek Fel, Yorke took advantage of this gathering, including some of the failed bidders, to offer to buy 1,000 Sabre-Wolf Pelts… after a hard bargaining session and some impressive promises from the Deepstalker Dynasty, the deal was struck… Yorke had ideas to edge every piece of clothing that the command crew owned with this fur… a way of marking out their Dynasty even further. The rest of the command crew were invited back into the Emporium and informed that the Foretelling would be in a couple of days, at midnight, in a very dilapidated area of Footfall… this gave the command crew of the Hope in the Void time to finish off some personal business before they would be invited into the presence of the Seven Witches of Footfall.

Mistress Valentina went to meet with someone from her past, taking Commander Rolaine along with her due to their shared history (and for help if she needed it). Everyone else piled into the Leman Russ that had been gifted to the Deepstalker Dynasty by General Remi (before his untimely demise) and, under the talented and experienced guidance of Isendark, made their way to the abandoned area of Footfall where the talented but “shy” Magos was known to make his lair. As they approached the area (having, miraculously, not killed anyone on the way here despite being in a huge tank) they saw warnings, written in many different languages and dialects, even the Orkish Runic script, that promised a dire and awful death for anyone who was found trespassing in the Magos’s domain. The command crew had not gotten to where they were by following orders like that, however, so they carried on, blissfully unaware that their movements were being tracked. Yorke was looking at the ground scanners on the Leman Russ intensely, trying to find any and all mines that could be in their way.

In the end, it was some preternatural instinct of Isendark that stopped them going up in flames… he got a flash of insight that he was about to hit a mine and, with reactions honed on vehicles much more unwieldly than this one, pulled the Tank about just as they were about to hit it. Bazak, utilising the mounted Heavy Bolters sent streams of high explosive bolts into the ground in a wide arc, the explosions setting off even larger explosions as the mines ignited. Yorke was able to use this, and the time, to augment the scanners, giving them a much better idea of where the mines were and this, combined with Isendark’s skill, was enough to get them through the outer defences. It was Isendark who, once again, came to their rescue… he had been varying the speed they had been travelling after finding their way passed the mines and he put on a sudden burst of speed just as rockets were fired out of the darkness, passing in front and behind where the tank had been a few moments ago.

They continued to move through the dark streets, dilapidated buildings on either side of them when, rising from behind one of the newer looking buildings was a hovering, spin bladed machine, with two massive Plasma Cannons underneath each wing… the tank was set into a flurry of activity, the main gun was quickly moved to aim at this technological monster and they braced themselves for the worst. Before either side could fire a shot in anger, a loud mechanical voice came from the hovering machine, inviting them into a meeting, given that they had gotten this far, but telling them to get out of the tank and come along on foot. As they, gingerly, moved from the tank, a large selection of different servitors came from the shadows and escorted them around the entire area, making sure they had no real idea where they were when one of the dilapidated shacks turned out to have an incredibly high tech elevator hiding within it… which they took down into the depths of this island of Footfall.

As they descended deeper and deeper into the Magos’s facility they realised that the Adeptus Mechanicus had no idea of just how advanced the equipment the Magos had and wondered whether they would be allowed to leave here alive after seeing it. As they stepped out of the elevator, they could see a massive shadow being cast and, following it back to the source they saw an absolute technological wonder/monstrosity. In the centre of a massive technological body, hundreds of mechadendrites waving in all areas of the room, stood the Magos without a name, multitasking to a degree unheard of by the command crew present… the degree of awe felt was quite intense. A few mechadendrites, wielding devices of techno-arcane power, swept over the command crew and, after a minute of checking the returns, the Magos was able to identify the same warp spoor and link between Yorke, Constantine and Thelonious, leaving them very curious as to what exactly the Magos had that could tell him that.

Realising that any attempt at subterfuge would probably be detected by the Magos’s vast array of sensors, Thelonious decided to be completely truthful with the Magos, stating that he was here for a surgery that most thought was impossible… that of boosting the muscle memory and general agility of a human to Eldar levels, or at least somewhere close. The Magos was impressed by both his truthfulness and his ambition… which just went to show that he had either not encountered many Rogue Traders, or had encountered far too many! However, the Magos was in need of a favour for this to happen… he wanted a live Eldar Farseer and a live Rak’Gol… both things that were incredibly difficult and, in the case of the Rak’Gol, had never happened before… but that was the price of his work. After blinking a few times at the sheer audacity and scale of the offer, Thelonious managed to bargain him up to a single installation of each member of the command crew for this favour, before accepting the mission.

With that concluded, the Magos wished them well, before going back to his work and leaving the command crew who were there, to leave. The mood on the way back was quite jovial… even with the difficulty they would face in this Magos’s mission, they had managed to speak to him and were not dead… based on what they had heard about this Magos, this was an achievement. Meanwhile, Valentina, with Rolaine in tow, was meeting her contact of the Imperial Inquisition, a meeting that passed off perfectly. The contact led them through the mazes and warrens of that part of Footfall until he just turned and walked directly through a plascrete wall, before sticking his head out and gesturing them to come through the holographic camouflage. As they moved inside, making sure not to be observed, they entered a pristine, sterile and white room with a figure seated in the middle of the room, on a single chair. This was Inquisitor Stavros, a hero of the Crusade that both Seri and Rolaine had partaken in and also the original Inquisitor that had taken Seri from her home to Holy Terra itself… but they could tell he was not in the mood for old war stories.

The line of questioning that he took was immediate and direct… he knew that Thelonious had contact with the Eldar and also questioned them about the Yu’vath, which they did a perfect job of acting as if they didn’t have a single idea what he was talking about. The Inquisitor was obviously fishing for something to hold against Thelonious and interrogated, gently, two of his senior crew to try and find that smoking gun… but he would not get it here. However, the knowledge that he had could only have come from someone who had been in the Svard system… but, given that both Admiral Keel and his brother, the Envoy, had probably been debriefed by many levels of the Imperial organisations, so it was not obvious if they had a spy on board. It was obvious to both of them that the eye of the Inquisition was on the Deepstalker House and, given their somewhat reduced circumstances, this was not something that they would hide from the Rogue Trader… it was something they would have to deal with.

Upon hearing this during a secure meeting aboard the Hope in the Void , Yorke seemed to go a little pale, which was noticed by the rest of the command crew. Yorke, it seemed, had been selling information to the Psykers and rebel forces on the same world as the Crusade that Seri and Rolaine had served on… the fact that the same Inquisitor who had controlled that campaign was now in the Koronus Expanse did not exactly give Yorke peace of mind. Still, Mistress Valentina and Rolaine had managed to stall the Inquisitor enough that they had a window of opportunity, especially if they were planning on leaving Footfall soon enough… but then, they still had a meeting with the Kasabillica to prepare for. The entire command crew turned up for the meeting with one of the heads of the Mission, a show of respect for both the criminal element but, more importantly, a show of respect for the amount of money they loaned the Deepstalker House at their lowest ebb. After being divested of their weaponry, which for Rolaine took an extremely long time, they were shown into a tastefully, and expensively, decorated room.

Here they were left “alone,” although none of the command crew was dumb enough to think that they were not being watched, especially so close to the centre of power of this part of the Kasabillica… so they spent their time observing their surroundings, taking in the trappings of power that were the same, albeit slightly different, than the trappings they were used to. After being left waiting for over 30 minutes, a subtle way of showing who had the power in this situation, they were shown into a large office, with someone who introduced himself as Vladaym Tocara, head of their “loan department” and their current contact until such time as the current circumstances had been resolved… however that ended up being. Tocara cut right to the heart of the matter… the very profitable Cold Trade from the Egarian Dominion was being interdicted by the Fleet of a Rogue Trader by the name of House Berenson, who had been employed by the Ecclesiarchy to stop this trade in Xenos artefacts… and he was proving much, much too good at this job… they wanted him to die.

The Kasabillica had already been in contact with the heir of the house, who had a much more liberal view of what a Rogue Trader’s warrant should do, and so all they needed was a change in leadership for the previous status quo to be abolished. Thelonious, and House Deepstalker, was a relative unknown quantity in the Expanse and so could, possibly, gain access to the Rogue Trader and create his untimely demise… this would also halve the amount of debt that the Kasabillica Mission held over House Deepstalker, making it much easier for them to pay off the remaining amount. Thelonious also managed to get a freezing of their, rather prohibitive, interest rate until such time as they completed the mission, or two years, whichever came first. The main issue that stood in their way was that the flagship of the Berenson House was a Battlecruiser, the Hand of Might , an old and storied ship with a long lineage, and one that was much more powerful than the Hope in the Void … but that was their issue now.

Chapter 25 – The Curse of the Potentially Black Pearl

After a couple of days of intense activity, where the Hope in the Void was able to take delivery of a couple of cages outfitted with archeotech stasis fields (for trapping an Eldar Farseer and a Rak’Gol), the command crew gathered at the appointed place, black data disk ready for inspection to allow them access to the Foretelling. They could see the retinues of all the other Rogue Traders who had been successful in the auction, including Hadrek Fel, who was giving them the very same looks of hatred that they were giving him, before the doors opened and two, very heavyset, Ogryns stepped out… a show of muscle by the Seven Witches. Thelonious expected that there would be a lot more hidden security… something this combustible would not just be overseen by two guards after all… in fact, he had Dante, his pet assassin, scoping out the entrances and exits to this place, hoping to gather more information about Fel’s retinue.

The inside was incredibly dark… so dark that even the command crews photo visors could not penetrate it and, with Mistress Valentina bleeding from the nose and complaining of a headache, everyone knew that heavy psychic interference was going on here. A murmur started in the back of their minds… it was almost as if they could hear, but they knew that there was no sound in their immediate vicinity; and then the darkness lifted around a large table in the centre of the room… the sight that greeted the command crew was not a nice one. There were seven childlike shapes around the table, each connected by a large tube going into a gaping wound into the back of their heads and, whilst their shape was childlike, their frames and faces were of incredibly old crones… Thelonious bit back a cry of disgust, maintaining his noble poise as he had been taught to.

Jonas and Natasha were not able to keep a sense of dignity at these disgusting creatures and Bazak had to restrain both of them from trying to exit the chamber, until they calmed down enough… although the Ork did find it odd about just how strong Yorke was struggling, even giving the Ork a run for its money. All of this was put into perspective a moment later when everyone began to hear a voice in their mind, a voice that seemed to be made up of seven distinct voices, all blended into one… a voice that was both soothing and irritating at the same time.

“Welcome… all heard the call but you were the only ones deemed worthy enough to attend this place, to hear our latest Foretelling… to try and grasp the Dread Pearl… you will have what you came for!” With that, a massive psychic blanket covered the room and everyone felt an intrusion into their mind… but Thelonious had esoteric training and managed to redirect the intrusion elsewhere.

Everyone else in the room fell to the floor, lowered slowly by the psychic powers that were infecting their minds, leaving Thelonious standing, alone, with a room full of Rogue Traders who were now helpless. Thelonious pulled out his Ripper Pistol and started to make his way across the room to where Hadrek Fel, his hated rival, was now comatose but had only gone a few steps before a few red dots appeared on his chest… he looked around and, not being able to see these hidden snipers, put away his pistol, threw up his hands and then crossed his arms and began to wait impatiently. The rest of the command crew were in the midst of a psychic storm, their minds crashing against the walls of the empyrean, moving faster than they could withstand… they felt their minds breaking under the toll of it all… before, suddenly, they stopped. They could see nothing except the storm all around them but, for some reason, they were safe and sound, catching their breath and awaiting the next phase.

The warp storm, slowly but inexorably, moved apart and something came into view… a great, incredibly black gem, humungous and hanging in the depths of space and everyone reached out to touch it but… as soon as they got near the storm came rushing back in, battering them and testing the strength of their sanity. Suddenly, they were back in their bodies, pulling themselves up from the floor to be met by a rather irate Rogue Trader who was, half-jokingly, demanding a refund! However, everyone else had seen the same vision and, as their minds calmed down, the crew realised it was a set of co-ordinates that they could not unscramble but, they knew that the Navigator could… it was time to go! The command crew, despite their haste, moved confidently, getting to a wide open area, outside, and teleported back onto the ship… they had this advantage where no-one else did.

Quickly calling the Navigator from his chambers and explaining the situation, everyone other than Thelonious sat down as the Navigator carried out a ritual of Astro-Navigation, trying to pluck the co-ordinates from the minds of the command crew, an incredibly difficult task, somewhat helped by the number of people he could call upon. After a period of time that seemed to stretch out interminably for all involved, but which was actually less than an hour, the Navigator had the co-ordinates and everyone hurried to the bridge to start the next phase of this adventure… their scans telling them that other Rogue Trader vessels were starting to undock from Footfall as well. The Hope in the Void moved to the edge of the Feribundus system and smoothly translated into the Warp, their destination somewhere in the Heathen Stars according to the Navigator and his Warp Charts… a trip that should take around 2 months based on original estimates.

The ship floated serenely through the Warp for around half of this time, the crew taken up with their normal duties, shutters down to avoid Warp Shock and the Hope in the Void , in general, was as a pleasant a place to be in the Warp as it was possible to get… until the Navigator, safely ensconced in his place, broke the serenity. The Navigator informed Thelonious, and by extension the rest of the crew, that they appeared to be being shadowed by another ship in the Warp but that he was unable to define where they were… he recommended that they take a look using some of the ships sensors to see if anything was nearby. Thelonious made the decision to keep going in the Warp, it was a race after all, whilst Yorke used all the passive augurs to the best of her ability… and her best was most certainly good enough, although what she saw on the augurs she couldn’t quite believe. There appeared to be a ship less than 1 kilometre on their Port side… how it had got so close and how it had evaded detection was unknown.

Almost as soon as Yorke spread the word of this detection, Lt Haines looked up with a confused look on his face. Thelonious spotted this look and, before Lt Haines could continue, ordered his communications officer to put the hail through, on the viewing screen. The first thing that everyone noticed was that no-one appeared on the other screen, which was odd… but this sense of confusion was soon replaced by something akin to horror for three members of the command crew, Thelonious, Natasha and Jonas. The view screen started shifting around to different rooms on the other ship and Natasha let out a rather pungent word when she realised that she was seeing the very room that her, and her Eldar Guardian, had hunkered down in for much of her stay on this particular ship… and where she had seen the Eldar killed. The next view was of the hallways that Jonas had been harried down on his short stay of the ship… but this paled compared to what was shown next.

A large room came onto the screen, a cargo hold of some kind, which showed a large contingent of men and women, all wearing the Deepstalker uniform and all in various stages of death. Some of them had been ripped apart, others had self-inflicted wounds, some appeared to be victims of friendly fire, others were in the middle of exploding… it was a view of complete and utter carnage. Yorke had decided that this was NOT GOOD and was currently in her quarters, putting on her armour and loading up with every weapon she could grab easily, before re-joining on the bridge, cursing under her breath and, in general, reacting the way a super paranoid person would. As Yorke returned, and as the conversation on the bridge was getting to the “just what do we do about this bloody ship” part, the mechanically changed voice of the Navigator rang out, informing everyone that there appeared to be a Warp Storm approaching and he could not shift course to avoid it.

Thelonious had retired to his ready room with Jonas and Natasha, two people who shared his experience of the ghost ship that was on their Port side. Both of them recommended the complete and utter destruction of the ship, whatever it took, which went with Thelonious’s mind as well, although he dearly wished there was a way to make money out of this incident… but he also valued his very soul. Further discussions were rendered moot when suddenly, impossibly, the Warp Storm was upon them… the Navigator crying out in pain at the intrusion of psychic energy and Mistress Valentina crying out before slipping into blissful unconsciousness, the ship being flung around like a child’s toy, even Isendark’s legendary flying ability rendered helpless by the force of the storm. This seemed like a bad situation, but survivable until the call came that everyone on the bridge dreaded… the Gellar Field had failed!

The command crew knew that the entire ship could be lost if they did not get out, the call was put into Navigator Secundus to get to the bridge with all haste as reports of Warp Instability, chittering in the walls and other psychic phenomena started being reported all over the ship… truly these were dire straits for the Hope in the Void … and then it got worse. The command crew began to get a sense of impending winter on the bridge, a sense that frost was growing on all command consoles… the servitors were going crazy in their pits and the rest of the crew on the bridge were slumping over their stations… but when the command crew touched anything, it remained warm to the touch. They realised that their eyes and perceptions were frosting over and shook their heads hard, trying to reduce the sense of lethargy that was overcoming them. Yorke shook it off first and made her decision, she was going to run to the chapel and collect the Relic of St Drusus, as well as her chainsword, which should be enough to see off whatever Daemonic force was on the Hope .

Almost as soon as she had left, those left conscious on the bridge heard a faint voice in their mind, growing stronger by the second.

“Thelonious… do stay; Natasha… it’s been so long; Jonas… still following your Corpse God?”

As these words reverberated through everyone’s mind the veil of frost on their vision lifted and they could see it had been transferred onto every single surface on the bridge, everyone suddenly felt incredibly cold. In the middle of the bridge, just in front of the view screen, some of the frost started coalescing together, slowly moving as if of its own accord, with Bazak taking up position nearby, Thunder Hammer gripped tightly in his hands, a grin spreading on its face. To Jonas and Thelonious this presence felt familiar, although what was appearing did not match Thelonious’s memories (and nightmares) of the event on the ghost ship, but he knew that meant nothing… all he knew was that he had been found again!

The ice started forming the shape of a childlike figure… somewhat similar to the body shape of the Seven Witches of Footfall, although infinitely creepier… and Bazak heard it’s curiosity at finding an Ork in the service of Thelonious… the Daemon never knew he had it in him!

Thelonious: “Get off my ship Daemon, you are not welcome here!”

Daemon: “Oh, Thelonious, is that any way to greet an old friend?”

Jonas: “You are not, nor will you ever be, anyone’s friend Daemon, you are a perversion of the natural order and the Emperor will not stand idly by!”

Daemon: “But Thelonious, I was there when you sacrificed all your guards to my tender mercies, all to escape with your hide intact… it was very much an appreciated sacrifice… I had so much fun that day!”

The Daemon’s form was shifting as it spoke, from a young child to a wizened crone to an exploding corpse to other forms before settling back on the form of a child… it was almost as if it did not know what it wanted to be. The entire command crew found this oddly fascinating and quite disturbing that they found it so… they could feel the tendrils of desire pulling them towards this Daemon and they fought back against this insidious being.

Daemon: “Oh Thelonious, it has taken me so long to find you… you changed ships of me… did you not love me?”

Thelonious: “I was actually looking for you, or more importantly your ship… I had some other way of meeting in mind though… under slightly different circumstances.”

The Daemon let loose with a laugh that both aroused and disgusted everyone on the bridge, Bazak excluded, who had enough of this tete-a-tete and swung his Thunder Hammer with all his might… only to be flabbergasted when it went through the incorporeal body of the Daemon. The Daemon looked at the Ork and, with the power of its mind, lifted it up and flung it against the far wall of the Bridge, holding it stationary there.

Daemon: “How rude. However, it does bring me to my point of being here… you three escaped me once, it will not happen again… and your friends will also feed me as well, many years of torment await you all, my friends!”

At the Daemons pronouncement, the spell that seemed to be weaving around the command crew was broken… weapons came up, war cries were shouted and the battle for their very souls began!

The Daemon moved like quicksilver, seeming to appear everywhere at once, but also never seeming to move at all… the only time the command crew could get a bead on where it was, was when it had to slow down to attack someone in close combat… otherwise, they were just firing and hoping. Rolaine was the first to feel its power, suddenly confronted by the icy child and then lifted up and thrown to the side of the bridge, by an arm that turned into tentacles, landing with a crunch, her aim completely ruined. At the same time that the Daemon was attacking Rolaine, the Ork suddenly found itself dropped on the floor, indicating that the Daemon could only really concentrate on one thing at a time and the rest of the command crew had not been idle during the Daemon’s attack on Rolaine.

Both Isendark and Thelonious had pulled out their Bolt Pistols and were trying, without success, to draw an aim on the Daemon when Jonas Constantine, Missionary of the Adeptus Ministorum, his faith in the God-Emperor complete, started intoning a litany of rejection whilst looking directly at the Daemon. Miraculously, it seemed to work as the Daemon seemingly smashed up against an invisible barrier and, despite hammering against it and snarling in horrific tones, it could not get through, this gave Isendark and Thelonious their chance. Both Bolt Pistols spoke in unison, their highly reactive shells flying through the air to explode against the skin of the ice child… Thelonious’s shot snapped the head of the Daemon back slightly, but overall, and dishearteningly, their shots appeared to do very little damage. It was Jonas who answered their silent pleas, his Flamer dousing the Warp spawn in promethium, melting some of her protective ice but also jamming.

Rolaine, who was shaken but mostly unhurt, leapt to her feet as she heard the Missionary cursing his Flamer, reaching into her many holsters and pulling out two Inferno Pistols. These had been specially modified to give them extra range and she was able to use this to good effect, the blast of superheated magma was very effective in causing pain to the Daemon, although Rolaine was not used to anything shrugging it off as efficiently as the Daemon was doing. Bazak was now free of the telekinetic force that had been holding it, so he pulled a Heavy Bolter off his broad back and, with his heaving muscles, brought it around, pressed his finger to the trigger and held it there. Orks are legendary for their inability to hit the broad side of a barn with any weapons and Bazak was no different… his first volley missing everyone and everything!

It was at that time that Yorke entered the bridge, carrying the Relic of St Drusus, her Chainsword from a bygone era and her Eldar Fusion Gun. It was the latter that she used, quickly drawing and aiming down the sights of the Eldar device, before letting a blast go at the less insubstantial Daemon, hideously burning it. Her shooting was joined by Rolaine, Isendark and Thelonious, each moving closer to the action whilst firing their weapons, the Bolt Shells and Melta blasts combining well in driving the Daemon back. Jonas was moving slowly towards the Daemon, forcing her back with the power of his faith in the God-Emperor whilst unjamming his Flamer, finally freeing the faulty promethium tank and replacing it with another… after all, a Missionary always keeps a spare for burning heretics! Isendark and Thelonious were careful not to leave the protective “bubble” that seemed to have been placed around Jonas… but not everything the Daemon could do was physical.

Everyone on the bridge who was conscious could hear the psychic scream echoing in their head, each echo getting louder and louder until it was a cacophony of noise that eclipsed even the sound of the combat going on. The command crew was able to eject these screams from their mind but Rolaine and Jonas were left more drained than they appeared by the effort… it was not something they wanted to repeat again. Unable to get at the hated Priest, the Daemon turned its attention the Natasha, who suddenly found the Daemon next to her, tentacles picking her up and throwing her through the air… but Yorke had a trick up her sleeve. As she hurtled through the air she managed to activate the grav options of her Eldar Voidsuit, her wings spreading out behind her like a bird of prey as she skidded to a stop, undamaged and undaunted… the scream from the Daemon was now one of frustration.

Bazak was joined by his Grot (Gromit III) who was firing an Autopistol on Full Auto… both of them were putting a lot of bolts and bullets in the air but none of them were hitting anything… if Thelonious could have facepalmed at their display he would have. Thelonious had, through the Rogue Trader tongue, informed his command crew that he wanted to use the Relic on the Daemon so Yorke, with wings still extended, swooped past the Daemon, reaching for the Relic… unfortunately, her aim was off slightly but she still managed to knock the Relic a few meters closer to Thelonious. The Daemon saw this move and, no fool, knew there was something deadly to it in the stasis field, it leaped upon Yorke in mid-air and pulled her to the floor, pinning her down there and started to rain powerful blows… Yorke was able to dodge the first few, each leaving a dent in the floor, but knew she could not last long.

Help came in the form of Jonas, taking a chance and firing his flamer at the Daemon again, whilst continuing to advance towards it, pushing it back… the Daemon dodged the Promethium but was off balance when the “bubble” hit her, pushing her back even further allowing Yorke to climb to her feet unsteadily, having rolled aside to avoid being burnt. Isendark, taking Yorke’s action as an inspiration activated his own personal jetpack (he kept a form of flight around him at all times… bad times in his past convinced him it was a good idea) and also flew towards the Relic, managing to move it even closer to Thelonious, who took his chance. He quickly moved up to the Relic and input the code to open the shutters, stopping before entering the last one, finger poised, as he started firing insults at the Daemon… a relatively transparent ploy, but the Daemon’s attention was elsewhere.

Bazak had managed to sort its aim out slightly and was drawing a bead on the Daemon when it let loose with another psychically active scream, sending the Ork’s thoughts into a scramble and making the Heavy Bolter miss again (at least that is what Bazak told himself). His Grot, however, could not take the psychic strain and its head exploded… oh well, another one gone, another one to get. This scream was much more powerful than the previous one and Rolaine found herself slightly stunned by the force of the scream, shaking her head powerfully to get rid of the lingering echo’s… knowing that she could not sustain another one of those without serious damage. Almost unseen (which is a good thing in this case) in the tumult was Navigator Secundus finding his way onto the bridge and moving towards the Navigation station. Yorke put down her Fusion Gun and drew her Chainsword, convinced that the Daemon was going to attack her next.

However, the Daemon was taken in by Thelonious’s insults and, seeing that Thelonious was outside the protective barrier that reached out from Jonas was quick to move in that direction. Thelonious was ready however, although only just, as he entered the last part of the code… the shutters opened, the green light flowed forth into the Bridge, illuminating everything in its strange glow. The Daemon was moving too fast to stop… Thelonious held his breath… only to have it knocked out of him as the Daemon passes easily through the green light and land a strong hit onto his midsection… although his armour held off most of the blow. Jonas, once again having faith in the God-Emperor to guide his holy flame, fired another jet of flame at the Daemon… Thelonious dodging to the side slightly and the Daemon, once again unable to avoid the hungering flames… screamed in annoyance at these interruptions.

Both Isendark and Rolaine had carried on firing at the Daemon but now Isendark’s Bolt Pistol was empty… rather than waste time in reloading the weapon, he reached behind him and unsheathed his power sword. Meanwhile, Jonas was also deciding the make this much more personal, drawing his chainsword, turning it on and then chanting a litany to the Emperor to cast out the Daemon from his presence. Bazak, realising that there was no chance of the Heavy Bolter being any use, dropped it to the floor and drew his Thunder Hammer, then realised just how far away he was from the combat, pushing off the wall and moving into a dead run, an Orkish warcry spilling from his lips. Navigator Secundus entered the codes to the Navigation station and entered, once again ignored by most of the combatants. Thelonious had realised that he would not be able to get away from the Daemon so dropped his Bolt Pistol and drew his shimmering, shining Eldar Mirrorswords, dropping into a trained crouch.

However, it was not Thelonious who acted first… Yorke was quicker, charging into the back of the Daemon, her whirring chainsword sending Daemon flesh spurting into the air, her much stronger blows (since the Warp Eel) helping to overcome the Daemon’s inbuilt toughness. The Daemon was still incredibly quick though, striking at both Yorke and Thelonious at the same time, although Thelonious was able to get his Mirrorswords up to parry that attack, before twisting and turning, driving his weapons into the chest of the Daemon, but then having to retract them quickly, lest he lose them to the Daemon’s frenzied movements. Keeping his eyes on the Daemon and continuing his litany, Jonas took the starter light of the Flamer and placed it against the skin of his arm… as the skin started to burn, Jonas felt a cleaning righteousness wash over him and his facial features took on the cast of a crazy person… the sound of the whirring Chainsword was now all the sound he could hear.

Rolaine and Isendark were not to be denied… Rolaine managed to pick out the Daemon in the roiling melee with expert skill and Isendark also charging into the melee, his Power Sword cutting a furrow into the floor, the Daemon too quick for him this time whilst Bazak continued his “charge” from across the other side of the Bridge. Yorke continued to push her Chainsword into the back of the Daemon, hitting bone and continuing onwards… the Daemon was now looking quite hurt, cracks starting to appear in the icy shell surrounding it. Isendark was able to get a strike in with his Power Sword but it was a deflected blow that did not appear to do much damage. The Daemon was getting desperate now, this was not going as it had envisioned, as it let loose yet another psychic scream. Both Rolaine and Jonas took the brunt of the scream, the flesh seeming to be peeled off the skull of Commander Rolaine, letting out a scream of agony as she fell backwards, to all purposes appearing completely and utterly dead.

Jonas felt the same thing happening to him, and the rest of the command crew could see him being pulled into the arms of the Emperor before a burst of white light emanated from Jonas and he walked out of the light, completely unscathed, and buried his chainsword into the shoulder of the Daemon. The Daemon went into a complete frenzy, lashing out in all directions again and again and again… but these were not aimed attacks and Thelonious was protected by his mastery of the Mirror Swords whilst Isendark was protected by his Conversion Field, deflecting the strikes aimed at him… and this frenzy gave Thelonious his chance. Shouting “THIS IS FOR ROLAINE!” he swung his two swords out wide, bringing them together into the sides of the Daemon… coruscating energy flew up the Daemon’s body, cracking the icy exterior completely… revealing it’s “true” form.

This form was so hideous, so completely and utterly wrong to the vision of someone in realspace, that the heart went out of most of the stalwart defenders of the Hope in the Void … Bazak stumbled to a stop, his charge finished, before turning around and fleeing. He was joined by Isendark and Natasha… after what had happened to Rolaine and seeing that THING, their morale had broken and even Thelonious’s commanding voice was not enough to make them turn around. Thelonious and Jonas, two warriors of the God-Emperor, trusted confidants and friends, one of them still blazing with white light from the Emperor’s fury running through him, did not run away, they stood, side by side and attacked in tandem. The Daemon retained the presence of mind to dodge the chainsword swipe by Jonas but this left her vulnerable to the Feint of Thelonious, sending one Mirrorsword straight at the Daemon, making it move directly into the path of the other Mirrorsword.

Thelonious had put all his might into this slice and it cut completely through the Daemon, sending its top half spinning in the air and Thelonious thought his work was done… just before the Daemon coalesced together in front of him again, the jagged wound still there, but the Daemon in one piece.

“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!” the Daemon screamed into Thelonious’s face, the sweet yet awful smell making him gag… and then Thelonious understood, Navigator Secundus had just made an emergency exit from the Warp and the Daemon, with no purchase on real space without a body, was feeling its essence draining away. The Daemon had one further trick to play, however, grabbing Thelonious as it faded away… Thelonious tried wriggling out of its grasp but was unable to, Jonas grabbed him and tried to pull him back from the brink, but he was not strong enough… everyone else had just stopped running and watched, horror struck, as the Daemon vanished, taking Thelonious with it.

It was at this moment that Mistress Valentina awoke, as if she had felt a great disturbance in the warp, and she quickly took in the situation and together with Jonas and Navigator Secundus (Primus was still injured) they began a psychic call to Thelonious, Seri putting aside her intense dislike for Navigators (freaks she thought) for the sake of the Lord High Captain. After a few minutes, minutes that appeared to stretch for entire lifetimes to the command crew of the Hope in the Void , and with Jonas’s prayers to the God-Emperor being repeated by everyone still standing on the bridge, a small portal seemed to open up on the ceiling and Thelonious flew out of it, landing headfirst onto the metal floor of the bridge. Anyone who looked upon him gasped at first, he had aged at least 10 years in those last few minutes but he was back, and he looked relatively unharmed and, after some quick scans, was cleared by the Medical staff (and Mistress Valentina, scanning him for Warp Taint).

As the ship calmed down, it took a few hours to get the Hope in the Void back into working shape, a lot of the crew had to be medicated until they calmed down… not being ready for a translation from the warp always creates havoc in the lower ship crew. The command crew, on the other hand, were not unscathed, with quite a few of them jumping at shadows for the time being, although it was unlikely to be permanent, for which Thelonious was thankful. Rolaine was still alive as well, the damage did not seem to be as critical as it had looked when the Daemon seemed to finish her, although she was recovering from the grievous wounds it had caused anyway… the Navigator and Mistress Valentina recovered from their Psychic shock as well… it could have been MUCH worse. The Navigator Primus revealed that he had no idea where they were in terms of warp lanes, although Isendark and Yorke, working together, were able to figure out that they were somewhere in the Accursed Demesne, based on the position of the stars.

With that done the command crew set about scanning the local stellar area. The scans revealed a couple of incredibly interesting tidbits about this area of space… there was a planet that held an oxygen content about the same as Holy Terra had in its pre-history and, orbiting the planet was a massive Goliath class Factory Transport ship, emblazoned with the symbol of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Thelonious gave the order to close with the ship and to scan the planet more intensely… he was determined to make the best of this clusterf*ck.

Chapter 26 – New Opportunities… New Horrors

One of the first things that the command crew noticed was that this was a very strange system… the world that they were circling was the only planetary body in the system, which seemed remarkably clear of the usual detritus you would find in a solar system. The sun was of a slightly deeper red than they might have been expecting, indicating that the star was of a slightly older vintage compared to some of the others they had seen before but, other than the three moons surrounding this world, that was it… apart from the Adeptus Mechanicus ship in orbit, of course. The first thing that Yorke decided to check for were any radio waves or other forms of communication coming off the ship and the planet but, despite a very thorough scan of the surrounding areas, nothing could be sensed. The Adeptus Mechanicus ship seemed to be running on emergency power… the plasma engines were still active, but everything seemed to be in a sort of “sleep” mode, with only the Void Shields still being engaged.

Further scans of the ship indicated a few points of interest to the command crew of the Hope in the Void … this ship seemed to have a lot of potential power, with additional Plasma reserves and a very efficient cooling system, as well as a Laboratorium, a Munitorium and an area at the centre of the ship which seemed to be completely separate. Thelonious was interested in this but, as the scans came back in, he realised that this ship had its own Spacedock Piers… something that could, with the additional power reserves, make this a gem of a ship for refuelling purposes… but first he had to see whether there was anyone left alive on the ship. The Hope in the Void sent over as many methods of communication as it could… Low Gothic, High Gothic, Binary, Machine Code… everything but hand signals were used to inform the ship that they were here and would be coming across… but there was no response to any of their hails.

As Marcia Cross gathered the Svardian PDF, Household Guard and Stormtrooper detachment together… Thelonious was not taking any chances in terms of what he might find… Bazak approached the Lord High Captain with an idea. After an interestingly worded conversation, Thelonious agreed to put aside part of one of the arboretums under Bazak’s command and to inform the rest of the crew that, should they see small green things running around, they were not to kill them… Bazak was satisfied by this and kicked Gromit (IV) into action. The command crew gathered in the hangars, boarded the assault boats with the rest of the potential strike force and set off towards the Adeptus Mechanicus vessel, with a Fighter escort. As the Assault Boats moved closer, they started getting tracked by the Turrets that festooned the Adeptus Mechanicus vessel which made for a slight clenching of some characters… but that is all the Turrets did. As they neared the ship the main hangar doors opened for them automatically.

After a short debate on whether to accept this “invitation” or continue with their plan of blasting their way in, the Assault Boats turned and landed in the open hangar. The assault force quickly piled out of the Boats, covering the entrances and exits in a quick and timely fashion, primed and ready to stop any attack from harming the command crew… but no attack came. As the command crew exited their Assault Boat they could see that this hangar was quite an advanced one… they had some artificial gravity still working, keeping the Assault Boats floating in the air and Thelonious gave the order that nothing was to be harmed on this ship without a threat being faced. This caused a certain amount of muted grumbling… they were an Assault force, not a babysitting crew, but discipline was soon back to where it should be as they held their positions until given the order to move out.

Yorke and Isendark, inquisitive people as they were, moved over to the nearest data terminal and were happy to discover that this one was not locked and encrypted… which allowed them to see that the last shuttle to leave this bay was 200 standard years ago. Before that they had very regular maintenance logs and reports, indicating that something happened 200 years ago that led to the shuttle leaving and, based on the reports, the shuttle would have been able to carry a lot of equipment and people down to the planet below. Bazak, never one for stealth, stepped out into the open and shouted, as loud as he could “Yoohoo… any won home?!?” which reverberated around the large hangar but did not cause anything else to happen. Taking that as his cue, Thelonious opened the main door to the hangar and started walking down the corridors, with the rest of the command crew, and assault teams, hurrying to catch up.

The air in this ship was slightly harsh and stale; obviously it had been circulating for a long time with no refreshment. As the door opened, emergency lighting appeared on the floor of the corridors but, other than the low hum that was always present on a ship like this, everything else was silent… a state that made Thelonious, always a paranoid man, even more jumpy. Given that the data terminal had not given them any schematics on the ship, Jonas came up with the idea to scan the wiring in the walls with their Auspexes, hoping to find a major concentration of wiring and cables that they could follow to important areas, like the Bridge. A good idea on a normal ship but this ship was strange in that everything seemed to be decentralised… the wiring and cables had been spread out in an almost even way, almost as if this vessel did not want people to be able to follow something like that… it was somewhat concerning to the command crew… what were they hiding?

Bazak took the lead, picking a random direction that was vaguely towards the centre of the ship and stomped along whilst the rest of the command crew stayed a few steps behind, with Rolaine utilising the cover in the corridors to stay out of sight as best she could (not very!). After a few wrong turns, and discovering that this ship seemed to have a lot of dead ends, and after a few hours in which they saw no sign of anything alive or even machine based, they came to a rather fancy looking door inscribed with a massive Biohazard symbol. Upon further, cautious, inspection they realised that the door had been designed in such a way that it would take Melta cutters a very long time to get through to it, it had been treated to make it as resistant to as many ways of forcing entry as it could… it even had some hexagramic warding inscribed on it… this was a serious barrier.

Yorke approached the door and knocked politely, realising that the door was also incredibly thick based on the reverberations, which was then proven as Bazak decided to use the Thunder Hammer (unpowered, but still) to do the knocking for him… this did about the same level of damage as Yorke’s fists had… that is to say, none. Yorke and Bazak changed their attention to the datapad to the side of the door, finding that it was a full alphanumeric keypad… although that did not appear to have been used that they could tell… they found a data port and assumed that the Magi and other members of the Mechanicus probably just plugged themselves into the data port and entered the code that way… which is what they attempted to do. Yorke plugged her dataslate into the port and started a hacking program, only to find that the security on this pad was a great deal more than she was expecting… she managed to disconnect his dataslate before it was completely corrupted.

Yorke managed to jump backwards, just in time, to avoid a small puff of gas that came from the data port. As the gas came into contact with the stale air circulating round the ship it bonded and spontaneously turned into a liquid, which fell to the floor… Yorke was slightly horrified to find that the liquid was causing the floor to burn and was incredibly glad that she had moved out of the way. Undeterred by this, Bazak was the next to try, utilising the natural Ork way of trying to hack in… just trying and hoping for the best, sometimes it even works! This time it didn’t work and Bazak was not fast enough to avoid the puff of gas and had to pull itself out of its armour as the caustic and virulent acid dissolved the entire breastplate, only just getting out in time before it came into contact with green flesh. With that, the command crew decided that it might be best to look for the Bridge before trying to hack into this place again.

Splitting up their Assault force into groups of around 20, Thelonious ordered a wide ranging sweep by his forces… he wanted to find the Bridge as well as everything else there was to find, but he also wanted his troops to remain as safe as possible, which is why regular contact was ordered between groups. After another few hours of searching (this was a BIG ship) the bridge was located and was sealed off until the command crew were on site. Once opened they saw a strange sight… an almost non-mechanical being, obviously dead, sitting in the command throne with the only mechanical piece being a cortex implant… it did not look like the Captain of an Adeptus Mechanicus vessel. After poking and prodding at the corpse to make sure it really was dead, which it was, Jonas took the corpse from the chair, laid it out and performed the Emperors Blessing upon it, hoping to speed its way to his side. The rest of the command crew was more interested in the cortex implant… which was quickly removed.

With his experience of commanding a vessel, Thelonious realised there was probably more to the throne than met the eye, especially when he spotted a ring with the Adeptus Mechanicus cog symbol on a finger of the corpse. After relieving the corpse of this, Thelonious started to search around the throne and soon found a suspiciously similar indentation on the throne. Thelonious sat in the correct position and inserted the ring into the indentation, smiling to himself as a screen ejected out of the bottom of the throne and came to rest on his lap, immediately turning on and asking, via green accented text, for his commands. Thelonious was quick to access the system logs, realising that is where they might be able to figure out what had happened here, and realised that the Adeptus Mechanicus liked documenting everything , which meant that it took Thelonious the better part of an hour, even with his implants, to read enough to make sense of what happened.

It appeared that this ship was also caught in a Warp Storm and found itself orbiting this planet and, finding a world with relatively numerous human life, they started abducting and performing experiments on the humans of this planet. Thelonious kept coming across references to “Project Z” but each time he queried this, it was rejected as classified… at a Vermillion level. Thelonious blinked as he saw that, he had only thought of Vermillion level as a story told to frighten the children of powerful people… but now he saw that it was real. The humans of the planet appeared to be immune to whatever “Project Z” was and the logs talked about mutating the Project until they were no longer immune. The logs seemed to indicate a long period of gradual successes that came to a crashing end when the containment was breached and the system logs end there. However, Thelonious did discover the code to the containment area which, unbeknownst to him, Yorke read over his shoulder.

With the knowledge that something happened here, and that something or someone had escape in a shuttle down to the planet below, Thelonious ordered his Aeronautica wings to prepare and to scout out the planet below, to stay relatively high to avoid being seen as he only wanted the lay of the land, not a detailed scouting report… that could come later. The discussion turned towards what to do with planet below, with Jonas keen to see if the human population (if it existed) was following a version of the Imperial Creed that would be acceptable to him or whether he would have to shepherd them towards the God-Emperor, either way he was prepared to accept that task. However, this discussion was somewhat side-tracked when Thelonious discovered, in a more detailed reading of the logs he had access to, that this ship had been making Warp Jumps, and lengthy ones at that, without a Navigator… unfortunately, they were locked out of most of the critical systems at the moment, but it definitely bore investigating.

With the schematics for the ship at hand, the command crew split up to investigate the various areas of the ship… with Thelonious staying put on the bridge going through the logs, Isendark and Rolaine making their way down to the Munitorium, Seri, Jonas and Bazak making their way down to the Laboratories and Yorke disappearing on her own errand. The Laboratories, after a little investigation, were realised to be a staging area where the humans from the planet below were implanted with various levels of technology before they were sent into the containment area although, for what design, they could not tell. It was at this point that an alarm showed up on the logs that Thelonious was perusing, stating that the containment area had been breached, that the code had been entered in. Thelonious was quick to get on the comm and ask Yorke what they hell she thought she was doing. Upon hearing that “I have taken precautions Captain,” Thelonious was quick to send a message to the rest of the command crew, telling them to get there as quickly as they could.

As Yorke entered the containment area in her fully sealed void suit, after detailing some troops to wait outside, just in case, the section started coming to life… lights coming online after many years of inactivity, the separate life support system starting to circulate air around the area again, it gave the impression of something waking up. The first thing that Yorke noticed were the hundreds of data terminals that were along one of the walls, which she started to move towards, until she noticed everything else… blood, viscera, body parts, all preserved by the “miracle” of space, but now starting to degrade again. Most of the body parts appeared to have been removed with surgical precision, although Yorke did notice that none of the body parts included heads or torso’s, it was always arms, legs, hands, fingers… but nothing to do with the “core workings” of a human. Trying to put this rather disturbing sight out of her mind, she final moved over to the data ports, only to find that they were encrypted with an algorithm that proved beyond her abilities to decode.

Somewhat stymied by this, Yorke moved down the length of the containment area, which was a large part of the centre of the ship, taking in all the various medical rooms with various horrifying implements, until she came to an odd sight at the far end… a completely isolated unit, with its own air supply and power supply… and it had been done on purpose. It was at this point that Rolaine and Bazak turned up to the containment area, Rolaine watching as Yorke tried to hack the door that led into the room, which had a fully embalmed body laid out on a hospital bed, although with an active, now, data terminal that Yorke was desperate to get to. However, once again, her hacking skills did not prove up to the task and, after three failed attempts, the data pad informed Yorke that it was now locked until an override was entered. Yorke was getting incredibly frustrated, her lust for knowledge coming to the fore.

The idea that Yorke came up with was to melt out the lock of the isolated unit so she could get inside but Rolaine was not having any of that, pointing her Inferno Pistols at Yorke and indicating that she was prepared to use them… Rolaine took up position in front of the door and kept her wary eyes on Bazak and Yorke. Being informed of all this information made Thelonious curious about what information could be held in the Cortex implant they had fished out of the corpse on the bridge and, with a little hesitation, connected his own implant to this one. Thelonious was thrust into the nightmare that had been this person’s life, feeling each limb being slowly chopped off as he writhed around in pain, feeling completely helpless as the machine laden Mechanicus experimented on him. The oddest sensation, however, was when his limbs started regenerating until they were as strong as they had been before, the sensation was literally indescribable using any words that Thelonious knew… and it was only his jaded nature and strong will that kept the mental scarring to a minimum.

It was obvious that “Project Z” had more to it than anyone could have imagined… but all that data was locked behind various firewalls and algorithms and locked doors… and who knew how dangerous “Project Z” could be to them… it seemed to have scoured the ship clean. With a lack of alternatives, Thelonious ordered Rolaine to “show the rest of the crew out of the containment chamber” with herself being the last to leave and, although it took a bit of corralling, it seems that Inferno Pistols are very useful when it comes to threats! The containment chamber was closed, although the code remained the same (because they couldn’t figure out how to change it!) and the command crew met up to discuss their next actions. The decision was made to get back aboard the Hope in the Void given that there didn’t appear to be anymore danger on this ship and to look at what their “flyby” of the planet below had found.

The planet appeared to be mostly comprised of one massive continent which sprawled from the equatorial region to the more temperate regions towards the north of the continent… however there was a much smaller continent across the sea that had a similar makeup to the massive continent. The reports also pointed out that the rest of it was comprised of oceans and/or seas which, given the three moons orbiting around the planet, were incredibly dangerous and seemed to be plagued with all sorts of hideous and extreme weather, the three different gravity pulls causing havoc with the weather patterns on the planet. There did appear to be population centres and there was a fishing industry, populated by sailing ships, but it appeared that most of the population was spread over the continent in various enclaves… the exception being an area to the northwest of the continent that appeared to be completely cut off by mountain ranges.

Based on these reports, and comparing them with the system logs on the other ship, it appeared that the planet was still at a Feudal stage of development which led Mistress Valentina to ask, quite openly, what the end game for the Deepstalker House was. Thelonious decided that the best way to figure out what this planet could offer was to go down and try to blend in with the inhabitants, at least until they had an idea of what they could hope to gain here, and of the local power structures… of course, this meant leaving a lot of their equipment and armour on the ship.. but it was a risk worth taking. The plan was to land a shuttle, at night, in the middle of a field near to a relatively isolated farmhouse and then “interrogate” the inhabitants… although what form that interrogation would take was open to interpretation… the plan was set and everyone started getting ready.

And so it was, that night, the command crew descended in a shuttle, wearing some finely cut clothes (not that they had any others really) with cloaks concealing the more advanced weaponry, which means that all they really showed were their unpowered Power Weapons and things like that… that just looked like incredibly well made weapons, but nothing too openly high technology. They also brought Bazak, with the intention of either keeping him out of sight, or saying that he is the groups Jester, and don’t you like his colouring!? After securing the shuttle, and leaving some camouflaged guards to keep an eye on the vessel, the crew made the journey towards the nearest farmhouse they could see… realising just how dark it was on this planet, most of them having grown used to the light that comes with modern technology… it was definitely unsettling. After a journey of a couple of miles, which took much longer than they were used to, they found themselves at the farmhouse.

It was Thelonious who made the approach, with Rolaine standing off to his side, Mistress Valentina a little further back, with Isendark and Jonas completing the “threesome” behind him… Yorke went off towards the Barn to have a bit of a nose about and Bazak stayed by the road, out of sight. Thelonious could see that someone was inside, by the small lick of flame that moved around, and he could see it stop when he rapped on the door. A voice came out, in relatively clear Low Gothic, although with an accent that Thelonious could not place, but sounded vaguely… dumb.

Unknown: “Who’s out there at this time of Night?”

Thelonious: “I’m a traveller who appears to have lost his way.”

Unknown: “Where’d you travel from?”

Thelonious: “A place… that is a long way away from here. I don’t even know where I am!”

Obviously something in the way that Thelonious phrased it caused him to come across as relatively friendly and non-threatening because there was a little movement and then the door opened a slight bit; Thelonious could see a wizened face in the light cast by a solitary candle.

Unknown: “What’re you doing here then, oh lost traveller?”

Thelonious: “Looking to find out where we are, and where the nearest town is… if you would be so kind, good Sir, we have come from very far away.”

Unknown: “Who’re these people with you? You some kind of fancy pants noble?”

Thelonious: “Well, Sir, if introductions are in order then I am Mordecai; (pointing at Seri) this is my simple minded, blind cousin; (pointing at Rolaine) this is my bodyguard; (pointing at Jonas) this is my spiritual advisor; (pointing to Isendark) this is my… valet, yes, valet; (looking around for Yorke) and where has my wife got to!?”

Unknown: (looking askance at Thelonious) “Well, my names Gerald, my wife’s Martha and the kids are none of your concern. You may as well come in, you don’t seem like bad sorts… although having a woman as a bodyguard? How does that work?”

Thelonious: “Well, I find it normally catches them by surprise… and surprise is often fatal when it comes to bodyguards.”

Gerald showed them into his kitchen, having trouble with the word Mordecai, and they all took a seat whilst they were served water from the well outside… it wasn’t bad water by any means but it was very much different to the purified or treated water they were used to drinking… but needs must when someone is being hospitable to you. Thelonious was adept at steering conversations towards where he wanted them to go and soon he was finding out all sorts of interesting information about this place. The local town was called Brownstone, named after the stone that made up the majority of the richer buildings; it was ruled by a Prince Dukov who was a harsh but fair lord who very much appreciated the rule of law and despised bandits… something that Gerald was very much in support of.

Jonas was relieved to learn that the principle religion in these parts worshipped the “Great Fire Giant in the Sky” and, though Gerald was no priest, he was able to explain the tenets of the faith well enough that Jonas could see the parallels with the Orthodox beliefs espoused by the Ecclesiarchy. He also learnt there were multiple branches of the same faith but Gerald could not really go into too much detail on them, he was not a learned man after all. They also learnt that bandits, despite the Princes hatred, did exist and that they had been haunting the area recently, they had even taken some of Gerald’s livestock, to which Thelonious was appropriately sympathetic. Disaster almost struck when Gerald, who had taken a very pitying approach to Mistress Valentina (who was a blind, simple cousin after all) reached across and patted her on the knee whilst saying “there, there my dear…” Thelonious was quick to intervene after seeing the cast of Seri’s features.

They also learnt that psykers (or witches as they were called here) were always killed where they were found, in whatever way could be easiest to arrange, although it was known that some managed to get influential patrons and thus flourished… Prince Dukov was said to have his own personal witch after all. With Gerald getting slightly agitated and Martha looking like she wanted to go to sleep, Thelonious agreed that they would sleep in the barn and would be sure to give the farmer some recompense for his help… they were shown to the barn, made themselves comfortable and waited for Bazak to come in. Bazak had been busy, you see… he had been rolling around the nearest field, creating random Orkish script in the grain and had carved “Bazak waz ere” into the road outside… the Ork had lots of fun! They gave Bazak the upper level of the barn, to keep the Ork out of sight and then settled in for a long night in a level of comfort that they were not really that accustomed to.

Chapter 27 – Getting (part of) the Lay of the Land

The peaceful night was rent with the screams of the Farmer, his wife and their children. Thelonious and Rolaine were awake in seconds, with Rolaine leaping to her feet and drawing her Inferno Pistols to seek out the threat and one of the first things they noticed was that Mistress Valentina was missing. Both Thelonious and Rolaine were quick to secure the perimeter of the barn and it was then that Thelonious saw Mistress Valentina sauntering back towards the barn, her face twisted slightly in a smirk and the direction she was moving in made it obvious where she had just been. The rest of the group, minus Bazak (who did not care) and Constantine (who slept through the ensuing commotion) stumbled out of the barn, wiping sleep from their eyes in time to see a light spring up in the farmhouse and start to slowly move around. Thelonious was quick to shout out a question asking Gerald whether he was okay and what had occurred, whilst throwing a look at Mistress Valentina.

After a little time, Gerald poked his head out of one of the shutters and informed the group that everyone in the farmhouse had felt the same feeling of dread and anger in their minds, the same shrieking and that Martha was currently in with the children, trying to calm them. Gerald himself had a rather harrowed look on his face as he closed the shutters, muttering to himself about seeing them later in the morning. After a quick scout around, to check the perimeter, the only thing that the group noticed was that there were very few stars visible in the sky which, given how clear the night was, indicated that something like a warp storm was interfering with their vision… and made it even more obvious why sea travel was so dangerous on this world… they had nothing to navigate by. The group retired for the rest of the night in the uncomfortable surroundings of the barn with nothing else happening to disturb their rest until they were awoken by the cock crowing at the coming of the dawn.

Gerald was in the middle of cutting some wood when Bazak emerged from the barn, letting forth a huge roar that was the Orks version of a yawn. Gerald froze, his axe falling from his nerveless fingers, his eyes widening as some horrific monster emerged from his barn and it was only quick thinking from Thelonious that stopped Gerald bolting back into his farmhouse. After explaining that, where they are from, they like to keep monstrous pets and deploying the (in)famous Deepstalker charm, as well as promising it was not dangerous except when provoked, Gerald regained some of his composure, obviously thinking that he had been a fool to let these dangerous psychopaths stay on his land! Bazak, wanting to show how “harmless” (and helpful) he was, took out his Thunder Hammer and moved over to the nearest tree, before striking the tree with a mighty blow. Poor Gerald could only watch, open mouthed, as the vibrations caused by Bazaks’ strike blew the poor tree into smithereens.

As small chunks of tree, now no better than kindling, rained down amongst them, bouncing off their clothes and skin, luckily causing no damage whilst Gerald was bumped out of his paralysis by anger, stomping over to one of the pieces and shouting “What the bloody hell is this? I could have got loads of lumber out of that tree… now all I have is kindling. Just, stay away from my stuff you blasted freak!” After a relatively strained breakfast, a hearty stew with some recently made bread, the group said their farewells to Gerald and Martha and set off towards the nearest city, known as Brownstone. They had been warned, as they left, about the Bandits that had been striking the routes between Brownstone and the nearby villages and farmsteads and this gave a few people in the command crew an idea… and also a way to blow off some steam and enjoy themselves… plus, they needed people with more idea of the lay of the land.

Bazak, disguised by a heavy travelling cloak (and also by having to stand upright) took the lead as the rest of the group meandered along the “road” to Brownstone, with everyone, apart from Mistress Valentina, taking this time to enjoy stretching their legs on an alien world… although after an entire day of trudging along the same road, everyone’s patience was nearing its end. Those who had an interest in some of the Imperium’s pre-history, and some of the current feudal worlds, began to gain an understanding about how much effect distance has on being able to project your power when you do not have access to the combustion engine (at the very least). Another issue that reared its head was, as darkness fell, the group realised they did not really have any camping supplies with them and, although the nights were relatively mild, they were unprepared for camping on this world. However… the Hope in the Void had a teleportarium.

So it was decided. When they were on the open road, they would walk and travel as the natives but, when darkness fell, they would teleport back to the ship to sleep in the comfort that they were accustomed to, as well as to bathe and other forms of luxury that were denied them… they had invented Glamping, Rogue Trader style. Whilst there were on the ship, Thelonious gave the order for the crew to start fully exploring the Adeptus Mechanicus vessel that was in orbit, although they were not to go anywhere near the containment area and were to be very careful about accessing the ships systems, whilst also tasking his Aeronautica to do a detailed flyby of the smaller continent and also the area hemmed in by mountains. Thelonious wanted to know as much as he could about both the ship and the world without giving away his presence… he then retired, feeling quite footsore even with his quality boots.

After teleporting back down to the planet at dawn, the command crew moved further towards Brownstone, not seeing any other signs of human life on this, obviously rarely travelled, route. Towards the middle of the day they noticed that the terrain was starting to get more on the hilly side of things, with the landscape starting to become less a flat plain and much more a system of shallow ravines, which made the more military minded members of the command crew viewed this as a perfect ambush site. It was the unnaturally attuned senses of Mistress Valentina that caught the bandits movements and she was able, using the Deepstalker house cant, to give everyone accurate positions of where the Bandits would be striking from, and that they were surrounded… not that anyone was particular worried by this development. The command crew started spreading out, slightly, clicking the safety off their weapons whilst Bazak continued on his merry way.

Thus warned, the command crew were not surprised when the leader of the Bandits appeared just as they entered the steepest part of the ravine, standing on the hillside and calling on them to surrender their goods and valuables, given that they were outnumbered more than 2 to 1. Thelonious look at the Bandit leader, then looked around to his command crew and then gave the order… “Leave the Leader alive, do what you want with the rest!” What followed was the worst day in the Bandit’s lives (those that lived) as they encountered a level of firepower and sheer ferocity that they were unable to, could not even, comprehend. Bolt Pistols roared, Inferno Pistols hissed, Power fields hummed and the damage was horrendous. Heads exploded, limbs were melted and some of the most unlucky Bandits found themselves in close combat with Bazak who was relishing their “blows” as they bounced off his toughened skin.

A crunching overhead blow from his Big Choppa bisected the first unfortunate Bandit, with Bazak’s follow up blow, whipping it round in a circle and horizontally bisecting the second Bandit, sending his Torso flying through the air. This was too much for the last Bandit close to Bazak, who soiled his trousers and turned tail to run, only for Bazak to take advantage of this and slice the Bandits’ back to ribbons, leaving Bazak, hardly even breathing hard, covered in the blood and viscera of his opponents, grinning as he looked around for more fighting! The bandits were finally able to react only to find out, in horror, that their weapons were ineffective against the armour that the command crew were wearing… swords and arrows bouncing off Guard Flak and Mesh armour and leaving them unharmed. Constantine tried to get the Bandits to surrender, but his message of peace was lost in the greater maelstrom of melting and exploding bodies.

With a shrug, sometimes the unfaithful had to be purged after all, Constantine raised his Hand Flamer and, muttering a prayer to the God-Emperor, unleashed the promethium against the Bandit Leader. Constantine could see the look of surprise on the Bandit’s face before he was consumed by the promethium and his screams were a sharp counterpoint to the battle going on around him, although the Bandit Leader did manage to drop to the floor and, somehow, put the flames out… leaving him somewhat badly burnt but still alive. This concentration appeared to come at a cost though, as a crossbow bolt was angling its way towards Constantine’s neck, only to be rejected by the power of Constantine’s rosarius, making a lot of the Bandits (those who were still alive anyway) gasp a short prayer to the Fire Giant in the sky. The Bandits were falling faster than they could comprehend and in brutal ways that they could not even imagine… it was a massacre.

This made the Bandits very much appreciative when Thelonious offered them the chance to surrender and they quickly dropped their weapons and, in the Leaders’ case, rose unsteadily to his feet and then dropped his crossbows, drew his sword, strode over to Thelonious and offered his weapon from a kneeling position. As Thelonious was about the take the sword, having accepted the surrender, Yorke noticed something strange about the metal… the pattern of the blade was something based on designs from antiquity but the material that the sword was made of was not something that Yorke recognised. Upon further inspection it appeared that the Leaders armour was made of the same material… Yorke took the sword for further study whilst the rest of the command crew were dealing with the 4 (including the leader) remaining Bandits, who now had a stream of questions flowing from their lips.

The Bandits were also quite traumatised by the events of the last minute or so… they had seen their friends literally melted (one had been left as a charred skeleton on the hillside), exploded and completely bisected as well as divine intervention to avoid a blow and, last but not least, an explosion of holy fire against their leader… they were staggered. After the command crew managed to calm down the Bandits, which did take quite a long time, they started questioning the Bandit Leader, who gave his name as Johnathon, and who seemed very grateful to be alive, especially when the group revealed that one of their number was an “emissary of the Fire Giant” which made John start shaking even more. However, the fact that Constantine was expertly seeing to the wounds of the Bandits made them somewhat less fearful that they were going to be executed in various horrific ways and they even told the command crew that this was only half of the Bandits that John led… soon everyone was on the way to the Bandit’s camp, with Thelonious dangling the carrot of “employment” (and not death) before them.

After a relatively tense beginning, which was soothed by both Thelonious and Johnathon, the Bandits fell into line… being offered food for themselves and their families and the fact that the command crew had overpowering firepower on their side definitely helped… there were some hard feelings about the deaths of their friends that continued to simmer under the surface but, for now, the Bandits were now employed by House Deepstalker. This simmering anger was almost entirely quashed when the Missionary led a prayer to the Fire Giant in the sky, utilising his “real” name as the God-Emperor of Mankind and, at the height of the prayer, food, uniforms and weaponry was teleported down into the middle of the camp… this display of “absolute divine power” won the Bandits over easily. After the Bandits got changed into their, well fitting, uniforms in the Deepstalker colours and hoisted their weaponry they had the look of a (relatively ill trained) Household Guard for a travelling noble… the perfect cover.

As they travelled the next day (after vanishing and appearing again to the Bandits using the Teleportarium) Thelonious talked to Johnathon, pumping him for information about the local area and Brownstone. Thelonious learned that the Orthodoxy of the Church of the Fire Giant were not fond of anyone with any disabilities or anyone that looked different, which was an issue with Mistress Valentina and Bazak… Mistress Valentina could be explained away by their “wealth” but Bazak was going to have to be careful. They decided that they would use the heavy cloak but also put what looked like a heavy load on his back, to explain his stooped posture and his bulk… the Ork was obviously going to be the “beast of burden” of the group. Everyone else could pass muster, although Johnathon also pointed out that women warriors were very rare in these parts, although he was sure that they could hold their own.

During the approach to the “city” of Brownstone, the command crew continued to find out as much as they could about this planet, the people and the local political situation. Given that people travelling vast distances appeared to be rare (given that sea travel was extremely dangerous and foolhardy) they knew that they were only going to find out more when they talked to people of import… but any information was better than none. They learnt that one of the main legends that formed part of the Church of the Fire Giant was that they had been left, marooned, on this planet as a punishment committed by their ancestors and that only through subservience and worship to the Fire Giant would his chosen herald come back and take them to the Promised Land. Moving more towards the local politics, they obviously knew that the Lord of this area of land was Prince Dukov but they learnt that the nearest competing domain was headed by someone who called herself the Witch Queen… Mistress Valentina became very interested in visiting this area all of a sudden.

As the group, now “guarded” by the former Bandits who were keeping a skirmish line around them, breached the tree line they could see the city of Brownstone. The forests had been cleared to provide easy sight lines from the walls, there was a dry moat full of sharpened steaks (some even appeared to have been improved as they had been shod with dark metal. There was no drawbridge though, the entrance to each of the gates was across a cobbled road atop a mound of earth, so it looked like the moat was more to funnel any attackers against the gates than for any sense of overall defence. The city itself was a three levelled city, with a wall surrounding each level and then the Keep at the top of the city, all created from the Brown Stone that gave the city its name… it looked a sturdy and relatively safe place to stay in, if extremely low-tech.

As befits the central city of a domain, there was a lot of foot traffic, mostly people coming to sell their wares in the various markets, but also pilgrims here to visit the Church of the Fire Giant as well as people travelling to visit relatives. Given that they were playing the part of a noble family, and given that they had their own “household guard” the command crew decided that they would push their way through to the gates and announce their presence to the guardsmen. The relatively angry cries were quickly quietened when they saw what force the command crew could muster and they quickly found their way at the gates, with quite a lot of grumbling behind them. Constantine stepped out in front of the rest of the group and spoke with clarity and passion. “Harken, everyone, to Lord Deepstalker; who has travelled from afar to visit the grand city of Brownstone! Stand aside for he is high in the favour of the Fire Giant!”

The Captain of the Brownstone guard, who had been fetched by his underlings during Constantine’s presentation hurried to the front. "My apologies Lord Deepstalker, yours is not a name that we are familiar with so please forgive our lack of preparation for your arrival. What brings you to Brownstone?” After a few more pleasantries were exchanged, Thelonious was allowed into the city, with the Captain informing him that the best place for people of his station to stay in the city was on the third level and was called the “The Bedevilled Pillow.” As the group entered the city the first thing that hit them was the smell, a combination of sewage, human waste and other, more exotic smells wafting over the lower part of the city. They hurried through… the “mass” of humanity that was here was nothing compared to what each of them had dealt with in various Hive Worlds and so they quickly found their way to the Bedevilled Pillow. The command crew looked at each other and then entered through the ornate door.

Chapter 28 – Showing Off (whilst still backing it up)

The first thing the command crew noticed was that the Bedevilled Pillow was a very high class establishment… the fact that they were able to utilise quite a lot of space for an entrance hall, literally a place to meet people, showed just how much money had been poured into this place… usually space was not “wasted” like this. They were greeted by a pair of incredibly attractive and attentive women who were very well versed at keeping their distaste from their features, although Thelonious’s keen eyes noticed that they really didn’t think much of the command crew at the moment, and he knew exactly how to change that. Yorke approached the reception desk, carrying a regal pose, and laid a coin bag that was heavy with gold and silver on the desk, letting a few of the contents spill out and then smiling when the receptionist tested the coins, by biting them, at the look of surprise on her face.

Pretty much as soon as that happened, the two ladies became much more friendly towards the command crew, even Bazak, as they obviously had the money to back up their desire to stay at the Bedevilled Pillow. The crew had realised, after speaking with Johnathon, that most of the barter on this planet appeared to be done by weight, especially with coinage… which meant their vast treasure hordes on the Hope in the Void suddenly became very important indeed... it also made them extremely wealthy… which was a state they were very much used to. The money they had provided gave them access to, for a single night, four of the best rooms in the establishment and a bell was rung to summon servants to take them to their room and to take hold of their luggage… what little they had. After the command crew were ensorcelled within their rooms (Thelonious and Yorke, Bazak and Rolaine, Isendark and Constantine with Mistress Valentina taking the lone room), the crew decided to do some exploring.

Bazak, who had spent a lot of time with humans now, had heard much about the pleasures of the flesh… humans seemed to get very animated when talking about it and, whilst his desires did not flow that way, he wanted to see what the fuss was all about. Bazak stomped to the front desk and asked, quite loudly, where the best whores were to be found and that he wanted two, a man and a woman, sent to his room… the impressively professional staff member that Bazak spoke to informed “him” that they would be sent to his room, post-haste. Thus it was somewhat of a surprise to Rolaine when two rather attractive, nubile, young people entered the room in the company of Bazak, who proceeded to sit on the bed, point at the floor and throw money at them. Rolaine was intrigued by this turn of events and had to keep herself from laughing out loud when Bazak, after about 10 minutes of watching, got bored and left the room. Knowing that she needed to keep the Ork out of trouble, Rolaine quickly followed, whilst shouting at the whores to keep going until the money ran out.

Thelonious had taken charge of his “guard” and had negotiated that ten of them should be allowed to stay in the servants annex, whilst sending the rest to another place in the city to stay in. Yorke and Isendark had gone to one of the wrestling pits they had in the Bedevilled Pillow, a way to let off some steam and, in Yorke’s case, a way to surprise a lot of the men there with her enhanced strength, a surprise that caused a lot of pain in one particular merchants case, after he tried to cop a feel. Constantine, as was his want, had found his way to the chapel in the Bedevilled Pillow, a relatively Spartan place that was a far cry from the gilded iconography that he was used to in the worship of the God-Emperor, but which he had gathered was the preferred form of worship of the Fire Giant. He spent his time in contemplation and prayer, offering himself as guidance for this world towards the worship of the one true God… unsurprisingly in a place such as this, he was not disturbed.

Bazak, with Rolaine following a little distance behind, had decided that he wanted to sample the ales of Brownstone so made its way down to the middle concourse of the city and then swerved quickly into the nearest tavern. As an Ork is about the farthest thing from subtle, the crash that Bazak made when it entered was enough to make just about every head turn its way but, being an Ork, Bazak just ignored their very hostile looks and marched up to the bar. The barkeep looked at Bazak, a look of disgust on his face, “we don’t serve f*cking freaks in this bar… take your carcass and exit before things get very bad for you.” Bazak reached into his squighide and pulled out a shiny gold coin and slammed it down on the bar… the Barkeep did a double take, reached down, picked up the heavy coin and then shook his head at the men who were gathering up clubs and other implements, before turning back to Bazak and saying, reluctantly, “that’s good enough for a few beers… take a seat but no trouble now!”

Rolaine, who by now had entered the tavern, managed to steer Bazak to one of the quieter corners of the tavern, which quickly became even quieter, as they took their seats and started drinking… well, Bazak started drinking whilst Rolaine sipped at her ale whilst keeping an eye on the rest of the tavern… why did she volunteer to look after the Ork?

Meanwhile, back at the Bedevilled Pillow, Thelonious was answering the door to a rather nervous looking page boy, who informed the Lord High Captain that there was someone at the front desk asking about “the new Noble” who had entered Brownstone earlier. Intrigued, and confident in both his combat skill and persuasive ability (more the latter than the former!), Thelonious allowed himself to be led to the front desk. He saw a man dressed in brown and red, finely attired, and correctly reasoned that this was one of Prince Dukov’s men… and he was impressed that the Prince had found out about his entrance into the city so soon… obviously he had a good intelligence operation.

The Princes’ man extended an invitation to Thelonious and his entourage, along with a time and letter to show to the keeps’ guards which would get them in to see the Chamberlain, who would then give them the information they needed. Thelonious graciously accepted and then realised that he now had some time to kill and, when he realised that most of his command crew were out “enjoying” the city, Mistress Valentina and Thelonious decided to head out for a little bit of exploration as well. Constantine had, by this time, found his way to the main Church of the Fire Giant in Brownstone, a lovely brownstone structure that towered above most of the surrounding buildings, itself in the centre of a large square with well-tended gardens surrounding it. In the corners of the square were pyres, which Jonas suspected would be used to both celebrations and executions… maybe even both at the same time. With his noble bearing and determined look, Jonas easily made his way into the congregation and sat down on one of the church’s pews, watching and listening.

The church continued the Spartan theme he had noticed, with everything at ground level being relatively drab (although well made) and only when looking above did he see the stained glass windows and gilded iconography that he expected to see… obviously for a being called “the Fire Giant in the Sky” they had taken this to heart in how they viewed their worship of this divine being. The actual sermons were of interest to Constantine who was carefully analysing the words for any hint of corruption but, to his relief (and slight disappointment) he could not spot anything obviously heretical, although some passages did tickle his mind slightly and he resolved to study them in more depth at a later date. Thelonious had tried to mingle in with the “common folk” to try and gain some intelligence about the state of Brownstone but as even his “worst” clothes were tailored to a perfection that the peasants on this world could only dream of most gave him a wide berth. Add that to his general demeanour of royalty and he ended up quite disappointed.

During their walk Mistress Valentina took the opportunity to enquire how long the Rogue Trader planned to keep up the charade of them being natives of this backwater world. It turned out she was beginning to tire of the whole situation. However Thelonious insisted that the deception was still to their advantage and they would continue at least until after they had met the Prince tomorrow.

The last of the command crew to turn up back at the Bedevilled Pillow was Bazak and Rolaine who encountered a little bit of trouble as they tried to leave their drinking establishment… which had not been helped by Bazak’s insistence of trying to talk people into a drinking contest… which just made them more and more annoyed that the “freak” was talking to them. As Bazak left the tavern he was set upon by 5 burly fellows, who used their clubs, axes and swords to deadly effect… is the sentence that would have been written had Bazak not been an Ork and wearing Squighide armour so, whilst one lucky blow did manage to wound him slightly, the rest just bounced off the Orks hide. Meanwhile, Bazak was laying about with heavy fists, leaving most of the assailants bruised and bloody, but alive… to which Rolaine, who had been watching whilst shaking her head, stepped forward and told them to go home before one of them died. They left with their tails between their legs, shaking their fists in Bazak’s general direction and threatening him with dire consequences the next time they met.

The next morning, after a nice, hearty, breakfast, the command crew gathered in Thelonious’s room to talk about how they were going to approach the meeting with Prince Dukov, after getting dressed in the finest clothing they had with them, of course. After arriving slightly earlier than on the invitation, Prince Dukov had a reputation for respecting punctuality, the command crew was divested of their weaponry and shown through to the Chamberlain… although, those who had brought Pistols were allowed to keep their “trinkets” because the guards searching them had no frame of reference to say they were weapons. The Chamberlain, who introduced himself as Aaron of Brownstone, and who apologised to Thelonious for taking his “family heirlooms” (the Eldar Mirrorswords), but the Prince had suffered a few attacks in recent months and so it was now standard procedure, especially when meeting an “unknown.” The Chamberlain laid down some ground rules… always call him Prince Dukov, always be respectful towards his advisors and bow in a certain way when introduced to him.

The Chamberlain took great pains to show the command crew the exact way to bow, although he cringed noticeably when Bazak attempted it, but he eventually passed them ready to see the Prince. Yorke got her slight revenge on the Chamberlain by giving him a scroll with all of Thelonious’s titles on them, informing the Chamberlain that this was how he was to be introduced… although the Chamberlain mostly took this in his stride and did an excellent job of reading it all out, in a clear voice, for the few minutes it took. Thelonious then entered the Grand Hall, performed his bow perfectly, stood to the side and then announced his command crew. “Lady Natasha Deepstalker, accompanied by Military Strategist Myrin Rolaine. Mistress Seri Valentina accompanied by Master Isendark Trodegeu and, finally, Confessor Jonas Constantine and my Pet Monster, Bazak.” Each of the members of the command crew performed the bow correctly, except Isendark (who got his hands mixed up) and Bazak (who stood there and farted)… the Chamberlain looked apoplectic at this.

With the invitations out of the way, Prince Dukov moved down to join the command crew at the table, introducing his own advisors as he did so. “Vernon Taylor, Master of Coin; Princess Beatrice, my lovely wife and this, (indicating the other woman at his side) is my Court Mystic.” None of the command crew could fail to see that she had not been given a name although it was only the keen eyes of Natasha Yorke that spotted the Court Mystic whispering something into the Princes ear… keen eyes that also spotted the words “Mistress Valentina” shaped by her mouth. The Prince cut an impressive figure, tall and broad shouldered with a closely cut hairstyle… but whilst his physical presence was impressive, there shined a light behind his eyes, one that spoke of impressive mental fortitude… Thelonious had to admit he had not expected to find such a person on this world.

Dukov: “Thelonious… I can call you Thelonious can’t I? I asked you here because I always like meeting new arrivals in my city but also because, and this is the strange thing, I do not know of any noble house called Deepstalker, and I am a very well informed man. I would normally think you a fraud but anyone who has the coin to stay at the Bedevilled Pillow is at least a rich fraud… or had other means of backing up his claim.”

Thelonious: “Well, I came here seeking opportunities. We are from very far away, although I have to commend your knowledge of our movements in the city, you are as well informed as I had been led to believe. I am a seeker of knowledge, as I sense about you as well and I hoped that we could come to a mutually beneficial arrangement?”

Dukov: “A seeker of knowledge? Knowledge is dangerous in the wrong hands and I can’t help but notice that your Confessor wears a cut of clothing that does not relate to accepted Church doctrine at this moment in time… what do you say to that?”

Thelonious: “Well, I am from the wondrous City of Lights, Scintilla… it is a legendary place although, from the looks on your faces, you have not heard of it… the clothing that my confessor wears is very much in the orthodoxy on Scintilla, which is why it looks so different to you.”

Dukov: “That would explain why you also keep a cripple with you… although, my Court Mystic informs me that she is ‘blessed’ with powers, powers that can be very useful to men such as ourselves.”

Seri: “I would appreciate, Prince Dukov, if you stopped calling me a cripple... whilst I have lost the use of my eyes as part of the price to be paid, I can still see and sense completely normally.”

Dukov: “Well, Mistress Valentina, I would very much appreciate if you would stop trying to probe the mind of my Court Mystic… she was very perturbed by your greeting and it is not something that is done in polite society.”

Thelonious was quick to step in to apologise for Mistress Valentina’s behaviour (whilst sending her a look asking what the hell she was doing) which defused some of the tension at the table. As they were eating a rather fine feast of meats, everyone around the table was eyeing each other up, with Yorke and the Master of Coin looking at each other with mutual respect… it was obvious to each other that they had found someone of a very similar profession. The conversation moved back to the reason for the Deepstalker house to be in Brownstone, with Yorke telling them about some mechanical ruins that they were looking for and wondered if anyone had seen anything… the completely blank faces of everyone around the table was an indication of that answer. Prince Dukov was quite skilled at getting information out of the members of the command crew although he did not learn much more than the command crew wanted him to know… all in all, it was quite a productive lunch with another hint of tension being Constantine’s refusal to mention the Fire Giant without also mentioning the God-Emperor (or the Ecclesiarchial repose as he also put it.)

The Court Mystic was quite enamoured of Mistress Valentina, whilst also being scared of her. It was obvious that Mistress Valentina had been trained to control her powers and the Court Mystic was curious as to where she had received this training (the answer of “far away,” did not exactly improve matters). Thelonious was learning the history of Brownstone from Prince Dukov, including the fact that his father had been a weak man who let the noble houses of Brownstone run amok and it was only after his father died that he, Prince Dukov, was able to implement the rule of law once more. One of the main things that Thelonious was learning about Prince Dukov is that he seemed to be a man who believed in what he preached, the passion he had in his voice when he spoke about stability and the rule of law, and how it should be evenly applied, was quite clear and marked this man out as something out of the ordinary.

The conversation moved back towards the Deepstalker house and the scarcity of information about them and it was at this time that Yorke decided to remove the Teleportarium homing beacon and place it on the table, hovering her hand over it. After a little discussion about whether Dukov REALLY wanted to know the history of the Deepstalker house, and informing them that the guards were not to freak out when they were shown it… and after an order from Dukov they were happy that would not happen. Dukov was curious to see what would happen, but even his wildest imagination could not have prepared him for the feeling as he was teleported from his throne room into a relatively sterile, white room with sounds he had never heard of coming from everywhere. Thelonious smiled to himself as his Stormtroopers, armed with Lasguns and Guard Flak, along with a detachment of the Svardian PDF moved quickly into the room to cover Prince Dukov’s guards… whilst Dukov and his Master of Coin were outwardly calm and collected, both Princess Beatrice (who fainted) and the Court Mystic (who could sense the psychic palpitations of the Gellar Field) were not.

Thelonious quickly gave the order for the Princess to be taken to the Medicae bays, whilst informing Prince Dukov that they could definitely look after her better than anyone on this Planet, whilst also extending his greetings to the Hope in the Void and his personal invitation to a “tour of the facilities.” For a moment it seemed that the fear that warred with Prince Dukov’s curiosity would win out but, swallowing audibly, the Prince signalled his affirmative to the tour and was a very detail focussed and calm presence throughout the tour. Thelonious knew that what the Prince was seeing was staggering to him, the sheer scale of the armed forces that the Deepstalker House to bring to bear, the immense level of manoeuvre they had access to and that was not even mentioning the technological edge. Thelonious knew that Prince Dukov was a man of ambition and was pleased to see him thinking as a general rather than as a scared peasant, it boded well for any future alliance… after all, Thelonious would need someone to act in his stead on the planet.

It was the moment when they ended up in the observation bay that made Prince Dukov and his Master of Coin stop completely, mid-sentence… as they saw their world from a vantage point that very few people on their planet had ever seen… and those had probably been experimented on soon afterwards anyway. When Thelonious had some aerial photos brought up became it was obvious to Prince Dukov that Thelonious had only been humouring him by visiting Brownstone… had he wished to, he could have invaded and taken the city with very few losses (for the Deepstalker House) and that he was the true power here… it rankled somewhat, but Dukov was nothing if not a rational man. Thelonious made it clear that he was after the resources of the planet and that he did not really mind who ruled the planet as long as he was given his due when it was requested… although the relatively backward nature of the world meant that the resources could not be collected as fast as Thelonious might have wanted.

Thelonious had to leave the meeting, handing over to Yorke, to look over a report that Marcia Cross had given him… their fighters had finished their reconnoitre of the planets moons and, whilst on two they had found nothing, a keen eyed pilot had noticed metallic blast doors bored into the earth of the third… it definitely warranted investigation. However, just like the Adeptus Mechanicus ship, the moon was not going anywhere soon, whereas the events on the planet were something that he could manipulate to his own ends… he gave the order for his Svardian PDF troopers to arm themselves and get ready for a teleportation surgical strike on his command and, leaving them getting ready for that, he went back into the meeting. Yorke had managed to find out the name of the black metal (Elerium) and was negotiating for how much of it could be taken out of the mines that were currently held by Prince Dukov, a number that was far too small for the Deepstalker house to bother with… for now.

Constantine, on the other hand, was taking advantage of the fear and wonder of the guards, and of Dukov himself, to press for the correct version of Imperial Ecclesiarchial Orthodoxy, the worship of the God-Emperor as his own being, rather than as a proxy of the Fire Giant. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he gained a 100% conversion rate because what they were seeing could not be attributed to anything other than what the priest was saying. Dukov did inform Constantine that the Church of the Fire Giant would put up quite a fight to stop their power base from being eroded but that he saw them now as the sinners they were and promised that he would put forward the word of the God-Emperor as if it was his own. Constantine knew that you either had to subvert or destroy most organised religions on unexplored worlds to move them towards the light of the God-Emperor, and he felt that this was moving more towards the Destroy aspect… he smiled.

With most of the negotiations concluded, everyone teleported back down onto the planet, back into Prince Dukov’s throne room and then the command crew left the way they had entered, giving no-one any idea about the potentially world shaking events that had taken place. They went back to the Bedevilled Pillow (after collecting their weapons) and sat down to talk about what their next move should be… but one thing that was obvious in the meeting, the time for hiding was coming to a close and very quickly at that. Soon, this planet would feel the full force of an Imperial Cruiser and the armed forces of the Deepstalker House… that was a promise.

Chapter 29 – Ladies and Gentlemen, Introducing the new Owner of the Planet…

After teleporting back down with Prince Dukov, and walking out like nothing untoward had even happened inside the Keep, the command crew made their way back to the Bedevilled Pillow and decided upon what to do next. The fact that the Court Mystic had, from what Mistress Valentina could tell, very little corruption despite being an unsanctioned and untrained psyker was quite unbelievable however, Mistress Valentina was adamant that she was correct. This led them to their next target… the Witch Queen… if anyone on this planet would have been corrupted by their powers it would be the person who was well known for using her psychic techniques (or witchcraft) so much that she had forged a nation out of them. Mistress Valentina, who had become rather tired of the “softly softly” approach to investigating this planet, argued vehemently for a more visible representation of the Deepstalker House and was pleased to learn that the Lord High Captain was thinking along similar lines.

However, that was for tomorrow, Thelonious asked that the rest of his command crew sample the local delicacies to see if there was anything else that could be profitable on this planet… although, apart from a few spices that were different to anything they had encountered before, they found that this planet was “depressingly Imperial.” The next morning dawned and found the command crew of the Hope in the Void in quite good spirits… this was going to be FUN. They gathered in one of their more spacious shuttles, along with a small contingent of Household Guard to provide the trappings of power… and they made sure that the Svardian PDF regiment was waiting in the Teleportarium should things become a little bit more than they could handle. With everything in hand, Isendark took the controls of the shuttle and steered them down towards the Witch Queen’s city, taking special care to approach the city with the light of the rising sun behind them.

As the city had already been scouted from the air, Isendark was aware of the best place to land the shuttle… and it also happened to be the best place to land anyway as it was on a plateaux that held the large Church of the Fire Giant that seemed to be in every major city, it was a perfect place to shatter what everyone on this planet though as “normal.” As Isendark brought them down for a deftly executed landing, they could see the inhabitants streaming out of the church for their usual early morning celebrations and exaltations of the Fire Giant and thus could see the complete and utter bafflement and surprise on their faces as something far beyond their experience settled down in front of them. Squirts of water vapour steamed out of the entrance as Constantine got on the loud speaker to announce them. “Bow down to the Lord High Captain, Thelonious T Deepstalker. The emissary from the Fire Giant, the God-Emperor of Mankind, has arrived!”

This sound out of nowhere, and the divine marvel they were witnessing, coupled with Constantine’s impressive oratory, actually made a lot of the crowd turn away from the Priest of the Fire Giant and begin making obeisance towards the shuttle, much to the Priests evident anger. Thelonious took this moment to step out, flanked by Rolaine and Yorke, with Mistress Valentina between them, forming the head of an arrow, with the shaft occupied by Isendark, Bazak and then Constantine coming out last, holding the Standard of the Deepstalker House, emblazoned with emblems of the God-Emperor of Mankind… all in all, it was an impressive showing. Still, anger can be a good counterweight for awe and the Priest of the Fire Giant pushed through the kneeling and bowing multitudes to come to stand in front of the Lord High Captain, shouting out hellfire and damnation on those who interrupt this most holy celebration. Thelonious, using his close combat expertise, reached out to shake the hand of the Priest, who unwisely took it, and then the Priest suddenly found himself on his knees, his hand twisted in a painful grip… Thelonious looked down at him, “That’s Better!”

Seeing their “leader” taken down so handily (most of the crowd assumed the Priest had kneeled voluntarily), a man and a woman slowly got to their feet and approached Thelonious, making themselves look as non-threatening as possible, but moving with an assurance that spoke of their noble heritage. “Oh great and noble emissary of the Fire Giant (and then at the look from Constantine), newly and truly named as the God-Emperor of Mankind, we are but simpletons compared to your grace, may we show you around this city?” Thelonious asked who was in charge of this city and, when he received confirmation of it being the Witch Queen, demanded to be taken to her presence. As Thelonious, his command crew and the house guard moved through the city, after locking up and securing the shuttle of course, word of what had occurred on the plateaux spread through the city like a virus, crowds thronging the streets to get a glance of these mysterious people who had so humbled the Priesthood and whose garb marked them as outsiders… oh, and who could fly!

Their progress was easy until they reached the main gate that lead to the Witch Queen’s castle, which they found closed, barred and guarded by a contingent of men, backed up by a contingent of crossbowmen on the walls of the castle. Thelonious, leading a large crowd as well as his command crew, stepped out in front of them, watching as the crossbows levelled at him and a distinctly nervous Guard Captain stepped out to greet him. “By order of the Witch Queen, you are to halt and retire back from whence you came.” Thelonious countered that with an order of his own, ordering them to open the gate or feel the full force of the God-Emperor and, when the Captain repeated his own order, reached into his belt, pulled out his Bolt Pistol and shot the Captain. The bolt flew precise and true, striking the Captain in the body and sending him sprawling backwards, his spine exploding out of his back. Into the profound silence that came from this action, Thelonious roared at the remaining guards to “OPEN THE **** GATE!”

After a moment’s hesitation, a moment where every guard’s vision turned to the corpse of the former Guard Captain, the gates creaked open and the crossbows were turned aside, and the Guard Sergeant (who had just been rapidly promoted) started leading Thelonious inside. The Sergeant was making an obvious calculation on who to side with… the Witch Queen was well known for capricious violence, but Thelonious had just shown what happened to those who disobeyed his orders… and eventually the Sergeant decided on Thelonious. The command crew, household guard, and the pair of nobles were escorted inside and taken to the entrance to the grand hall, which housed the Witch Queen. Wanting to make sure that everyone in the courtyard saw the folly of opposing him, Thelonious reached down, grabbed a crossbow, passed it to the Guard Sergeant (now Captain) and ordered him to shoot him, directly in the chest. After a moment’s hesitation, the crossbow fired and the bolt flew directly into Thelonious’s Carapace armour, being deflected away (as expected) and finding a seam in the armour to slam into his arm (not as expected).

However, the overall effect was as Thelonious desired… anyone else would have been felled by that shot and it reinforced the whole “invincible servant of the God-Emperor” that Thelonious was going for… the doors to the Grand Hall were opened and the command crew moved in. The only person in attendance was the Witch Queen, resplendent in a gown of the mysterious black metal, her head crowned by the very same material, wielding a sceptre of obvious artisanship… Thelonious strode forward “Your Majesty, thank you for seeing us at such short notice.” The Witch Queen came to her feet and demanded to know who had impugned on her solitude, to which Yorke took out the scroll of titles and deeds and began reading from them, starting to detail Thelonious’s every title and deed. She continued to read from the scroll as the Witch Queen demanded she shut up and, when Yorke did not comply, she was hit by a few stunning balls of force that materialised above the Witch Queen and smashed into Yorke, ripping the scroll from her hands.

Yorke was quick to get to her feet, the Eldar Fusion gun coming into her hands and firing a blast of superheated, molten, air at the Witch Queen but the blast was slightly off and, whilst the top half of the Queen’s chair was melted into slag, the Queen herself was unharmed. Thelonious quickly stopped the rest of the command crew from firing (for now) and commanded the Queen to stop but, when she showed no sign of such and, after a warning from Mistress Valentina that psychic power was being pulled from the aether again, he gave the order to stop her. Isendark was the first to react to this command, sliding his sniper rifle off his back and sighting down the advanced optics, calculating the shot and then depressing the trigger whilst exhaling… the shot flew out of the rifle and into the lower right leg of the Witch Queen. The audible crack was heard throughout the chamber as the bone snapped and the Witch Queen let out a cry of pain, only managing to stay on her feet by force of will… she shouted out a surrender, which Thelonious granted.

She stumbled back to sit on throne, teeth held in a grimace of pain as she started to feel the pain even more, but she managed to use this pain as a defence to push aside the mental probings of Mistress Valentina, who was rather surprised to find her mental efforts blocked by this “primitive.” Her surprised was even more complete when she found that she had funnelled too much into the power and the power surged upwards and threatened to overwhelm her… she only managed to throw her bolter cane away before all her belongings and clothing was obliterated, leaving her smoking and naked on the floor. The energy also flew out of her and attacked her companions, although not to any detriment to anyone but herself… Constantine was quick to her side, sliding a cloak over her and tending to her injuries. After checking the Mistress Valentina was mostly fine, Thelonious moved over to the Witch Queen, standing over her throne in his Carapace, the morning sun shining through the window to frame his handsome face like a legend from the lorebooks.

The question on the Witch Queen’s face was obvious, she wanted to know who they were and what they wanted… and Thelonious was all too eager to spell out his intentions. “All of it. I want it all. I am from beyond the sky, beyond the stars… you may rule your local lands if you swear fealty to me, but everything that you currently have is now mine!” The look of confusion across the Witch Queens face was replaced by a sort of understanding when the two nobles entered the chamber and corroborated the fact that they had come from the sky… “you are, you are one from the legends? The legends are true?” The household guard were quick to clear the room, leaving just the nobles and the Witch Queen with the command crew. Thelonious realised that the Witch Queen had no other advisors, and his respect for her went up another notch, she continued talking as Yorke took out the tele receiver and pressed it just as she was finishing her sentence, “I have never felt anything like…….. this.” The room faded from view and the familiar (to most) surroundings of the Teleportarium became apparent.

The Witch Queen began to shake at first, but soon got this under control, partly due to the pain she was causing herself and her reaction was similar to Prince Dukov, severe control on the outside but obvious turmoil on the inside… although it appeared that she had believed some of the legends anyway. She was enraptured with the observation deck, seeing the world laid out like some kind of patchwork was unbelievable to a woman who desired knowledge above most things (not power, obviously, she already had that) and her questions were quick and insightful, before she requested to rest to heal her broken leg. Thelonious had her whisked to the Med-Bay for his surgeons and doctors to heal her wounds, although Mistress Valentina tagged along… when someone is dozy from medicine, what better time to read their mind and judge whether they are corrupted than when their mind was otherwise occupied. Before she left, the Queen indicated to Thelonious that she had some sheet metal, printed with ancient wording that told some of the story of this world.

With the Witch Queen (who also went by the name of Lascene) on enough pain meds to severely curtail her willpower, Mistress Valentina got to work, trying to infiltrate the mind of her subject but, to her surprise and anger, the Witch Queen was able to bat back the mental tendrils, even with her mind wandering she was able to mount enough of a defence to shroud her thoughts. Mistress Valentina was NOT happy, insisting to the Lord High Captain that the Witch Queen should be jettisoned into spaced as she could not be trusted… although Thelonious realised that part of this was a rather petty desire to be the best around, and being thwarted was not making her happy at all. However, he overruled his Astropath for the foreseeable future… he thought that the Witch Queen would make quite a good vassal, although he was also careful around Psykers and would have wanted to know more about her. With the Witch Queen healing nicely after some surgery, Thelonious and the command crew spent more time with her, learning more about the history of the planet.

The Witch Queen was a collector of older lore… whilst she worshipped the Fire Giant, she was very curious about things that the Fire Giant did not explain and, in fact, had documents that showed that religion had only turned up around 3,000 years ago… something she mostly kept to herself for obvious reasons. Once back on the planet she showed them her vault, made entirely of the strange black metal, and led them inside, letting them rummage through her priceless collectables, including the tablets of metal which told an incomplete story, but it seemed that an Imperial Guard regiment had been dismissed due to treachery and had been banished to this world as a punishment, with all their technology taken away from them and left to die. They had not died, however, but all this was almost 10,000 years ago from the dates on the metal, which indicated it was soon after the Great Crusade that this happened… Thelonious realised that he had some interesting history in his hands, the sort that various people would pay dearly for.

After leaving the Witch Queen to maintain her territories, the next few weeks were filled with similar scenes, as Thelonious and his command crew flew down into city after city, meeting the rulers and “convincing” them, with a mixture of violence and diplomacy that they were better serving the Deepstalker Dynasty than… dying. The only real opposition they faced was from the Church of the Fire Giant… religion has always been able to pull people in a certain direction and the only time they had to call down the Svardian PDF was in a nation where the Church was in full power, a Theocracy of the Fire Giant. The slaughter was wholesale, lasguns killing people by the score, their armour deflecting most of the attacks and the understanding of Tactics from Commander Rolaine and Mistress Valentina, married to the inspiring presence of Thelonious proved more than enough to depopulate most of the city before the Church was sufficiently cowed. In fact, the upper hierarchy of the Church suffered quite severe losses through the Deepstalker campaign… perhaps unsurprisingly.

This allowed Constantine to start to rebuild the hierarchy of the Church, now in prayer to the God-Emperor of Mankind, with the middle and lower order clerics, those who had less indoctrination into the ways of the Fire Giant and it was a job that he relished… it was what he had wanted to do (and fight Daemons) ever since he left as a missionary. He also started to investigate the weirdness that was all the Psykers that they had met, that they could tell, had shown no sign of corruption and, indeed, there appeared to be no problem with Daemons of possession, it was an interesting conundrum that Thelonious also wanted to investigate. However, after the swift conquest of the continents major centres of population, and the decimation of the Church, there was only low level opposition to the Deepstalker rule (in most cases, because the previous leadership had been kept in place, many people didn’t even notice the difference.)

However, Thelonious was also intrigued by the other metal tablets they had found… the story was pretty much the same but there was one passage that really piqued his interest… “and then the Metal Men took the Metal Men to the Moon.” His mind afire with possibilities, Thelonious and his command crew turned their attention to the metallic blast doors the fighters had found on the 2 ^nd moon… it could contain a prize unequalled in the history of the Deepstalker Dynasty, one that would cement his place amongst the Legends of the Expanse. The Metal Blast Doors on the moon were somewhat pitted by small marks that were probably caused by debris from the moon, such are the hazards in a zero gravity environment but, otherwise they looked undamaged and looks like they could definitely have stood the test of time. The command crew, minus Mistress Valentina who was still sulking on the shuttle that brought there here after the Captain had once again elected not to dispose of the Witch Queen, gathered before it and started looking for a way inside.

Both Bazak and Yorke got to work trying to get the door open, a task made more difficult by their (in Bazak’s case) bulky void suits (Yorke wearing a graceful Eldar Jumpsuit) but, after a little investigation, they realised that both consoles had to have the correct code entered at the same time. After figuring out a way to bypass the consoles they both entered the “correct code” and, with a hiss of escaping air, the Blast Doors opened. The command crew, minus Mistress Valentina, stepped through the Blast Door, which closed behind them… all their instruments told them that the air was safe to breathe and that the pressure and gravity in this place was consistent with the planet below. The interior was all metal, with a carved staircase leading down into the core of the moon (or so it looked) and the metal was messing up their auspex and, the deeper they went, the less reliable their radio contact with Mistress Valentina became. Yorke spotted something approaching on the auspex and held up her hand for the command crew to halt.

The “thing” shuffled closer to them and, at first glance, it appeared to be a servitor moving down the corridor… the command crew was wary but not too concerned… it was only when Rolaine saw the plasma gun attached to one of its arms that she realised the trouble they were in. However, before she could shout a warning, the walls beside them dropped down and ejected a group of Murder Servitors into their midst, before the walls came back up, trapping the command crew in close quarters with vicious murder machines. The drills bits, power blades, mono claws and general prodigious strength gave the murder servitors a massive advantage in close quarters but, what made the chaos complete was when Yorke tried to fire an Inferno Grenade into the midst of the Servitors, only to miss and have the grenade bounce off the wall, and land directly at her feet, before going off. Most of the command crew were able to dive to the side and avoid the blast, but Thelonious and Constantine were engulfed and, when the explosion cleared, they were both on fire!

Rolaine was one of the first to react, her inferno pistols melting massive chunks off one of the servitors but, to her dismay, not bringing it down entirely… it still moved close enough to take a swing, although Rolaine was able to dodge out of the way. Everyone else was taking blows from the murder machines, Constantine saying a prayer of thanks to the God-Emperor as his Rosarius deflected a hit that probably would have killed him and the rest of the command crew dodging wildly or being smashed against the walls. Most of the crew had switched out to close combat weapons and the musty air was filled with the hum of Power Weapons and the roar of Chain Swords as the crew desperately tried to find a hole in the incredibly dense construction of the murder servitors, with most strikes bouncing off. Thelonious, who had been taken by complete surprise and who was very slow to react, as well as being on fire, faced down one of the murder servitors, almost bringing his Mirrorswords up to parry… but almost was not good enough.

The pain was intense as the Power Blade dug into his shoulder, lifting him up and ramming Thelonious into the wall, with the massive drill arm swinging round, driving passed Thelonious’s weak defence and smashing into his face… it was the last thing he remembered before the darkness took him. Rolaine, who had managed to finish off her assailant, saw the Captain thrown to the ground, to all intents and purposes looking dead, and cried out in anger, driving the servitor away from the body with another intense blast of her inferno pistols. Flamers were licking at some of the servitors after a blast from Jonas and blades sparked off the armour and construction of the murder servitors, as the combat entered an even more desperate fury… even Bazak was taking horrific blows from the servitors, although his Ork Constitution was able to shrug it off a little better than the humans. Isendark, seeing that Jonas was still on fire, and seemed to be rolling around on the floor trying to put it out, ran over, risking his own life, to smother the Missionary and managed to put the fire out… both of them got back to their feet as the murder servitors came on again.

Chapter 30 – This little Metal Man went to the Market…

The “death” of the Lord High Captain had a revitalising effect on Yorke and Constantine, both horrified to see their trusted friend taken out by these soulless machines and they went at their foes with abandon. Yorke altered the angle of her slice and managed to find a seam in the servitor facing her, the chainsword ripping into the slightly more vulnerable part and dealing grievous harm, before pulling out her Inferno Pistol and finishing the machine off, the superheated blast finding the same area the chainsword had, melting the machine from the inside. Constantine had reacted with complete and utter fury, he leapt onto the murder servitor and flailed away with his own chainsword, sparks flying as cuts appeared on the metal beast… Constantine was almost completely ignoring his own safety, relying on his holy Rosarius to protect him. Yorke and Constantine’s fury showed the rest of the command crew the way, Bazak’s Thunder Hammer started finding its mark, Isendark’s Power Sword started carving and, above it all, Rolaine’s Inferno Pistols continued wreaking their trademark destruction.

The command crew did not come out of it unscathed, ribs were broken, skin was lacerated, sternums were smashed and much more, not to mention the “sacrifice” of Thelonious but, eventually, Rolaine stood over the corpse of the last murder servitor, watching the metal of the monstrosity slowly melt under the power of her Inferno Pistols. Constantine stood over another, smashing it over and over and over with his chainsword, slicing it into little pieces of machinery as his Frenzy peaked and then began the slow climb back up to sanity. Rolaine, completely unharmed and showing her mastery of the combat arts, moved over to Thelonious, preparing to collect his body for burial was shocked, and incredibly pleased, when the Lord High Captain coughed and let loose a moan of pain as Rolaine moved him. Quickly, Rolaine and Constantine (who ran over to join her) started patching up the Lord High Captain, working efficiently to bring Thelonious back to consciousness. The first words that crossed his lips when he came to were “Did we win?”

After some first aid to those wounded in the fight, Mistress Valentina re-joined the command crew with a contingent of guards, prompting some relatively hostile looks from Thelonious and Rolaine which were mitigated somewhat by her volunteering to be in the Vanguard… after a quick conference about whether to continue going deeper into the facility. Making their way slowly through the single, circular, passageway the command crew were much more cautious than before which meant that, when the next wall sliced downwards next to them, they were ready! However, this one happened to be empty, leading to speculation that another group of murder servitors were supposed to be there… and what had happened to them? Still, not having to fight again was something that all the command crew were grateful for. They followed the corridor for an indeterminate amount of time until they came to a door and this door was an oddity in a facility like this… it had a handle rather than some kind of computer lock… a standard door (albeit one made of metal) was one of the strangest things they had seen.

After scanning the door with all the technological and biological ways they had with them (auspex, eyes, nose… everything but touching) and after Bazak “nudged” it with his Thunder Hammer, Bazak gave his Grot a kick and ordered it to open the door. Laughing like the little gremlin it was, Gromit VI jumped onto the door handle and pulled it down, whilst the rest of the command crew waited for the inevitable explosion or acid bath or virulent poison attack… but none of these happened and the door just opened. The first thing they noticed, when their photo-visors became accustomed to the change in lighting, was what appeared to be the entirely metal parts of a large Tech Priest, plugged into a large cogitator with a picture on the wall that seemed to show what this Tech Priest had looked like when he was alive and still had human parts. The fact that this picture was hanging on the wall was slightly confusing to Yorke… Tech Priests tended not to be that vain about their appearance and, suspecting something was up, she removed the picture from the wall.

There was an immediate grinding sound as a circular hole opened up in the middle of the floor and the command crew could see a ladder, although they could not see the bottom. Yorke snapped a couple of glow-rods and dropped them down to the bottom, estimating that this ladder was 60 metres long. Bazak immediately sent Gromit down there, the little Grot scampering down the ladder whilst whimpering like a lunatic, getting to the bottom with nothing untoward happening to it. Thelonious was at the top, giving orders to his household guard to take the Priest back and to also take the remnants of the murder servitors back to the shuttle as well. Gromit opened the door and stepped inside, going out of sight of the command crew and leading to most of the rest of the crew hurtling down the ladder as quick as they could, wondering what trouble the Grot would get them into, unsupervised. As they rushed into the room they all stopped, struck dumb by the awe-inspiring sight before them… 500 Men of Metal, standing in perfect unison, perfectly sculpted and flawlessly designed.

The command crew started investigating the cavern they found themselves in, with Bazak lifting one of the Metal Men off the ground, grunting loudly with the effort and seeing that, on the back, had been stencilled into the metal, the number 497. After more investigation they found that there was not one single seal mark that they could find on these Metal Men, the craftsmanship was absolutely without peer and the crew started salivating, thinking about just how much they were going to be worth. It was Thelonious that spotted the cogitator console and loaded it up, getting a simple command prompt which asked which Construct they wanted to activate… Thelonious typed in 497 with a giggle, and then watched as it lifted itself from the floor where Bazak had left it and straightened into its usual pose. As Thelonious activated number 497, Mistress Valentina was hit by a feeling of malevolence that staggered her slightly, the entire room seemed to be bathed in it, although it was not something she had noticed before, but it seemed to extend to the limits of her senses, all around them.

The sound that 497 made as it came to life was like a fusion engine starting up, but it stayed completely still, barking out that “Unit 497 has been activated.” Jonas was quick to ask who it served, to which it responded, in the same tone “the God-Emperor of Mankind” which was both the right answer, but also the expected answer… the command crew was still suspicious of these creatures. More questions were asked, and answered, with each answer both putting the crew more at ease and making their suspicions greater… there was a long held truism in the Deepstalker House that something that looks too good to be true almost always was… although that had not been the case with Bazak and his treasure map… maybe this was the same thing? Thelonious put on his most commanding voice, figuring that the tone was more important than the order and told Unit 497 to list its weapon compliment, which the Unit was “happy” to do. It appeared the Metal Man came loaded for bear, with Plasma, Melta and Chain weaponry, not to mention armour as hard as they come.

More questions came at Unit 497, including where it had been constructed and, when it answered “Mars” Yorke was able to recall something she had read a long time ago. She thought that these might be part of the mythical “Iron Men” that had been created in the Dark Age of Technology and, although the legend she had read gave some slight indication that something may have gone wrong, she couldn’t quite bring it to mind. Still, she told the Captain of her knowledge and slight concerns but, by that time, Thelonious had done a quick calculation in his head, using his knowledge of Commerce and Nobility and realised just what a haul he potentially had here! He deactivated Unit 497 using the console and copied the code onto one of his Dataslates, intending on having his Tech Priests study it later… but he was going to be taking these on board the Hope in the Void … there was too much Profit to be had. The rest of the command crew had slightly more concerns about this course of action, but all of their concerns were based on legends, or conjecture… none of them had any proof that these things were anything other than the Motherload.

It was Yorke that activated the teleporter beacon, wondering whether the teleportarium would be able to reach this far into the moon… and then the command crew found themselves, with 493 Metal Men, standing in familiar surroundings. Thelonious was quick to give orders for people to take the Metal Men down to one of the Cargo Bays, whilst also sending people to pick up the shuttle and the remaining 7 Metal Men… the Cargo Bay quickly became some sort of Adeptus Mechanicus shrine, they were dashed with Sacred Machine Oil and the morale of the Tech Priests soared with such holy relics of the Omnissiah on board. Apart from this, life on the Hope in the Void went back into its usual rhythm, although a lot of the command crew had to take a slight sabbatical to the Medicae bay to recover from the Murder Servitor inspired beating they had suffered. Bazak vanished into his quarters for a few weeks and came out with an incredibly modified Heavy Bolter, with a huge ammunition clip, even more barrels and a faster firing mechanism… it looked horrific.

During this “recovery time,” the computers on the Mechanicus ship were finally breached and the command crew devoured the information that was to be found, from unknown and unexplored worlds, and they were also able to get better co-ordinates and knowledge of the warp lanes… after looking at this information, Navigator Primus indicated it would only take 1 week for them to have a way through the Warp Storm. Given all they had accomplished, and found, on this world (that they had still not named), the only thing that Thelonious really wanted to look into now was where the shuttle had gone from the Mechanicus ship… and the other continent was his prime suspect for that… a place that was inaccessible to the natives of the planet looked like a good bet. The command crew had also been making flying visits to all the cities under their control, with Constantine continuing to tighten the grip of the God-Emperor on this planet, re-educating all remaining priests and educating all the new ones. All the rulers of the cities had also publically converted, which helped the process immensely.

Isendark, with Thelonious’s blessing, was taking both shuttles and Aeronautica flights over the other continent, seeing if he could see or sense anything. From the air, going as slow as he could, the continent appeared to be a lush place with jungles, forests and grassland as far as they eye could see, with a Mountainous spine that separated it in two. However, the quick eyes of Isendark were able to spot something very strange… his sensors were not bringing back any returns either but, there was something about it that didn’t sit right with Isendark and, because he could fly with his eyes shut, he spent a lot of time looking at the sensor returns. He could not be 100% sure but, at one point, he was sure that there had been a flicker on the sensors, he had seen something which had, in an instant, been erased from the screen… something down there had a VERY sophisticated jamming signal… this was the proof that Thelonious had been looking for… they were definitely going to take a look before they headed off.

Before that jaunt, though, Thelonious turned up, unexpectedly, on the doorstep of Gerald… the farmer who they had stayed with on their first night on the planet. Gerald was, obviously, a little surprised and worried to see him back, but his worry was quickly replaced by delight when Thelonious loaded him down with gold and silver and black metal. Thelonious left Gerald with even more of a lasting impression when he stepped back to the road, Gerald watching him go, and then teleported back to the ship. Thelonious may have believed in repaying his debts but he was still a showman at heart.

Given the jamming was obviously coming from the continent, there was a serious discussion aboard the Hope in the Void about launching a Macrocannon bombardment at the continent as a way of seeing “who was there.” Thelonious was quick to point out that, if anyone launched a Macrocannon bombardment against anywhere he had made his home, he probably wouldn’t be too fond of responding in a positive fashion. Thus ended that conversation. The decision was made to fly down in the shuttle and land, at first, on the edge of the continent (one of the beaches) just to see what was there, further decisions would be made later.

The trip down was uneventful, although the continents location and geography meant that large storm fronts were always moving from the ocean and brushing against the mountains, thus making any flying potentially perilous in the general vicinity, but it was when they landed that the largest change overtook them. As they passed below the treeline there was a slight shimmer and the world changed… large areas were deforested in random large squares with certain areas that had not been harvested looking rather sick, as if the groundwater that they were drawing from was not the best. The fact that these areas of deforestation had been completely leeched of all nutrients gave the largest impression yet that the Mechanicus was active in this area. Now that they knew, the command crew, under the piloting of Isendark, lifted above the treeline and made their way to the mountain range in the centre of the continent, easing the shuttle through the increasing turbulence. Isendark also had to put his very quick reactions into action because, as they approached the mountain range, a missile burst from the concealment of the illusion technology.

Isendark quickly pulled to the left and managed to dodge the missile, putting the shuttle into a series of evasive manoeuvres, whilst revelling in the freedom that this gave him compared to the lumbering spacecraft, managing to dodge a second shot, which came from another direction. This allowed Thelonious and Yorke to quickly calculate the location of the RADAR facility that would be guiding these attacks… they landed a few miles (and a few thousand feet below) away from the location. The prospect of more walking was received rather coldly by Mistress Valentina but the command crew set out through the ruined jungles and forests towards the Mountains, climbing all the time… the weather being very wet and then snowy and cold just made her mood “improve” even more. Through the bad weather, however, they could see the imposing structure of a RADAR facility and Thelonious realised they could use this to access their communication network… but other than the storm, there was very little actual cover.

Thelonious gathered together his stealthiest vanguard; Rolaine, Yorke and himself and led them up the mountain. The storm concealed the sound of their movements and they managed to make their way quite close to the facility, until there was no further cover to be had… potentially this had been done on purpose. They could see concrete pillboxes surrounding the facility, pointing out of each compass direction with heavy weapons bristling from them. It was about this time that Thelonious, as he was congratulating himself and his vanguard for their stealth, realised that his laiss ez-faire style of management could occasionally use a more specific set of orders. He looked back in the beginnings of despair as the rest of his command crew came marching up the mountain with no sense of stealth at all. Constantine was loudly singing prayers to the God-Emperor whilst using his flamer to clear the snow, Mistress Valentina was coarsely complaining about having to walk in this weather, Bazak was an Ork and, dear lord, was Isendark using a Jetpack!?!

The only thing that Thelonious could hope for was that they wouldn’t be heard but, almost as soon as the thought crossed his mind, the guns in the pillbox started to chatter and Thelonious realised that they had a Heavy Bolter and a Heavy Plasma Gun up there… this mission, which had started so well, was about to go to hell in a handbasket!

Chapter 31 – This little Metal Man stayed at Home…

The first burst of fire from the Heavy Bolter stitched across the chest of Mistress Valentina, sending her hurtling to the ground, the breath blasted from her lungs and large wounds peppering her torso… she was alive, but in a lot of pain. Bazak managed to dodge out of the way of a blast of Heavy Plasma, even the Ork knew it was not tough enough to withstand a shot from that and, as soon as the hole in the ground cooled, both Isendark and Constantine took cover in the newly formed foxhole… any cover was better than being out in the open. The only good thing about this was that it took the attention away from Thelonious and his Vanguard, with both Yorke and Rolaine managing to move a little closer to the pillbox, Yorke utilising her Chamoline cloak to the best of her ability. Bazak continued to stand out in the open, his modified Heavy Bolter sending a massive hail of bolts towards the pillbox, causing the occupants to have to keep their head down… the sound and fury (although not the accuracy) was something to behold.

Isendark pulled out his Sniper Rifle and managed to get a bead onto his target, even through the adverse weather, and snapped off a couple of shots… he couldn’t see any particular damage due to the distance, but he felt sure that his shots had hurt. The fight continued in this vein for a while, Rolaine and Yorke getting closer and closer, Bazak firing a massive load of shells to little effect, Constantine dragging Mistress Valentina back away from the fighting to tend to her wounds and Isendark continuing to snap off shots with his Rifle. This parity fell to pieces when Rolaine accidently fell over on the snow and, upon getting up, was filled full of holes from the Heavy Bolter… even Rolaine’s legendary agility was unable to dodge the fire coming her way… but her True Grit, her ability to soak up large levels of punishment saved her, although her chest armour was completely destroyed. Rolaine was also a tactician of some renown and knew her situation was perilous, so she turned and ran down the mountain, slipping and sliding into cover.

That was the last straw for Thelonious, who had been spending his time trying to hack into the communications between their assailants, to try and actually talk to them and to negotiate a truce… after all, Thelonious had not wanted this to turn into a shootout. He stepped out into the open, taking his life into his own hands, held his hands out in a gesture of friendship and, in a loud voice, down the hacked communications line, asked for both sides to STOP FIRING! Another sniper shot from Isendark, and the answering fire from the Pillbox seemed to bury this idea right away but there was something in how Thelonious said it, his legendary charisma and authority coming across to those on both sides and, slowly, the firing sputtered out. Thelonious slowly approached the pillbox, standing out in the open and under the guns of both the Bolter and Plasma, whilst Yorke made her was stealthily around to the back of the pillbox… she was Thelonious’s insurance… if things went wrong, then Yorke was to pound their rear with Inferno grenades.

When Thelonious was close to the pillbox, he halted upon demand and took a closer look at the assailants, not that surprised to see that they looked close to the Skitarii he had seen before, although they seemed somewhat less modified than usual. After convincing them of his non-hostile intentions and after mentioning that he came from beyond this world, he was given an invitation to wait at the Radar station whilst a flyer was sent to pick him, and his command crew (sans Bazak), up. The Skitarii were very surprised when Yorke stood up to reveal herself but, other than that near shooting incident, the rest of the command crew was able to join Thelonious in the Radar station. Another strange thing that the command crew noticed, upon entering the Radar station, was that the people in charge of maintaining it didn’t appear to have any Mechanicus Implants which, even for the newest inductees into the cult, was very strange indeed. Mistress Valentina continued her foul mood, rebuking the Skitarii for shooting at them… telling them to shoot at the Xenos first, then any potential heretics!

When the flyer arrived, the command crew boarded… the equipment looked a little rusty, as if a lot of repairs had been undertaken to keep the flyer in the sky… it did not inspire confidence, especially with the storm battering the mountain, but what other choice did they have? The journey was quite uncomfortable but, eventually, the flyer landed on a strip that had been carved out of the mountainside, although it did not appear to be as well guarded as the command crew would have expected… in fact, very little about this Mechanicus outpost made any sense. The journey, using an elevator, to the Magos’s inner sanctum was also quite jittery and juddery, it was with a sense of relief that they stepped out but, again, the amount of tech, even on the Magos, was relatively reduced compared to their expectations. It turned out that the “Magos” had been a junior member of the Adeptus Mechanicus vessel when the experiment had gotten out of control and had been the only member to be able to escape with the shuttle.

He had then made repeated trips back (until the fuel ran out) to scavenge what he could, which he had used, quite ingeniously (although probably against official Mechanicus doctrine) to create what the command crew saw before them… the Skitarii, the Mountain Base, the Illusion generator and more. However, the technology had mostly run out eventually, which explained the rather beaten look most of it had, and this planet did not have the technological base to replace what was needed. The Magos had spent the last 100 or so years just surviving, keeping some of the machines running with the force of his willpower, whilst examining the planet… he was lucky enough that the Black Metal, Elerium, could be used as a substitute for a lot of the materials he had used before, but even that only gets you so far. The Magos was, above all, tired of his life on this planet, and Thelonious struck a deal with him to get him off planet, thinking that Svard was probably the perfect place for a man of his skills. It also gave Thelonious the Magos’s mining operation, not that it was the object of the negotiations, not at all!

Yorke also negotiated access to the Magos’s computers and, once everything was in its place on the Hope in the Void , both Yorke and Thelonious spent a lot of time in the Magos’s quarters, looking through the hundreds of thousands of notes and records the Magos had created in his time on the planet. They had plenty of time because Mistress Valentina and Rolaine had to recuperate due to the critical damage they had suffered on the planet, which gave Isendark time to fly down and pick up the rest of the Magos’s belongings, and to keep an eye on the mining operation… which, given the fact that the only way off the Continent was by air (given the seas were impassable), meant they had to carry on to have any hope of escape. A few executions to maintain control were needed, but were carried out with extreme prejudice and quickly restored order. Back on the main continent Constantine consolidated his control over the church, now the church of the God-Emperor, following his orthodox leanings, with a continent spanning visit before choosing the Cathedral in Brownstone to be the centre of the faith, installing his Aquila Magnificus in the spire.

Further good news was coming when Navigator Secundus informed Thelonious that they had figured out the best way to escape from the warp-storm surrounding this system and were ready to try it on his command. With the Adeptus Mechanicus ship now fully under their control, and staffed with some of the crew of the Hope in the Void , Navigator Tertius was promoted to the Navigator of the Goliath class and everyone started getting ready to travel. However, the in-depth reading of the Magos’s notes by Thelonious and Yorke threw those plans into disarray and caused a postponement of them, such was the potential severity of their findings. The Magos, in his time on the planet, had lots of time to pontificate about lots of different things on this planet, which the crew decided was to be called Elerius, after the name of the Black Metal, and it was one of those pontifications that caught their attention. The Magos had information, gathered from the people that he had captured for his work, that the Psykers on this planet had rarely, if ever, succumbed to the Perils of the Warp.

The Magos’s theory, which was as well researched and put together as they had seen, was that something was protecting the planet from Daemonic influence, that the Warp Storm was sending the usual issues that Psykers have but that they were being diverted to something outside the planet. Given that the only thing that existed outside the planet, and had done since its “founding,” was the Metal Men they had discovered on the moon was not exactly what they wanted to read about… because it potentially meant that the source of unimaginable wealth could be their doom. Also, it meant that if they did remove the Metal Men from the system, then all the Daemons would have access to completely untrained Psykers, not used to holding their power in… it could cause the extinction of the planet, especially given that the technological level would not give them any chance at all. What followed was a delay to their plans of leaving as they took a random selection of Metal Man one at a time to a specially made Dome on one of the other Moons, where they scanned, questioned and psychicly probed them to try and figure out whether they were tainted.

All their work returned nothing more than they knew… that there was an aura of malevolence around them but, given they had been designed as the perfect killing machines (quite successfully it turned out), this made perfect sense. The responses to questions that they asked were perfectly answered, although they did seem a little eager to exterminate Bazak (given that he was Xenos) but Thelonious could not blame them for that… he had felt a similar way on occasion. Eventually, after pained deliberation between the command crew, the decision was made to take 100 of the Metal Men with them, and leave 400 on the moon. Yorke made sure to enhance the security on both of the entrances to the Metal Man sanctum… not that they thought that anyone else would find this place, but it always paid to be careful. The mood amongst the crew was raised as they took on their final supplies and started to move towards the edge of the system… it had been a few months in the same location and a sense of cabin fever had set in. The Mechanicus ship came with them, being towed as well as being pushed along by their own power.

As always, the Hope in the Void slipped into the warp as if it belonged there but, this time, it was followed by the Adeptus Mechanicus ship but Navigator Tertius seemed to be doing a fine job and everything was going fine. Of course, then they hit the Warp Storm, but the information from both sets of databanks and the Navigators time at plotting this course meant that they skirted the edge of the Warp Storm and, whilst they were thrown about, it was a lot better than last time… plus, no Daemon ship! The decision had been made to make their way back to Footfall, they had quite a lot of equipment waiting for them (based on the orders they had placed before they left) and they wanted to put the Goliath ship to work between Svard and Damaris… it was the last part of the puzzle to getting Svard fully back in the game. They also needed to harvest the Ghostfire pollen to pay off the Seven Witches of Footfall, so Svard was going to be their main target post-Footfall.

All these thoughts of the future, however, disappeared from Thelonious’s head when he received a frantic sounding message from Cargo Bay 4… “Lord High Captain, you haven’t told ALL the Metal Men to activate, have you?”

Chapter 32 – This little Metal Man summoned a Daemon (wait!)

The message was cut off abruptly with a scream… Thelonious was quick to act. He strode, purposefully, from the Bridge calling out orders to his command crew. Rolaine, Yorke, Mistress Valentina and Constantine were called to his side whilst Isendark and Bazak were sent off to get the Leman Russ Tank ready, and into the Teleportarium. As his command crew were scrambling to keep up with his long strides he got on his secret line to Marcia Cross and ordered her, with the Stormtroopers, to lay charges across their Plasma Engines… he was a confident man but he also believed in being prepared… he did not want to go down in history as someone who brought Daemon Infested things back to the Imperium! Rolaine decided to order the Svardian PDF to set up a perimeter around the Cargo Bay, but not to enter until ordered… the command crew were going to sort this out personally. As they arrived, they could see that the main door to the Cargo Hold was closed, and that the viewing ports were smeared with what was obviously blood.

Attempts to raise the cameras in the Cargo Bay proved futile; whatever was happening in there was causing enough interference to short them out… which was not a good sign! Mistress Valentina reached out with her mind but, as her senses passed beyond the door, her head jerked back as if she had been struck… she reached up and held her head as visions of War and Death danced before her inner eyes… this was an even worse sign! Thelonious gritted his teeth, and his command crew readied their weapons, as Thelonious pressed the button to release the door… the door opened and everyone’s eyes were assaulted by the profane sight they saw before them.

In the middle of the cargo bay, arranged in the shape of a profane pentagram, were the Metal Men, all on their knees with a tether of energy emerging out of them and entering what was a rather large pool of warp energy that was surging over their heads. In between the lines of Metal Men were hundreds of corpses, both of Tech Priests and regular crew, all splayed out and draining of blood.

On the walls were painted symbols of the most horrific nature, just looking at them made a sense of rage and anger swell up within each of the command crew… Thelonious and Constantine recognised the symbol, that of the Skull God, the Blood God… KHORNE!!! Fighting through the Nausea that threatened to overwhelm him, Thelonious managed to press the button to close the door again… immediately the feeling disappeared, although it lingered in their psyches and probably would never go away. The command crew immediately fell to strategizing, quickly, about what to do. Whilst Yorke, Rolaine and Thelonious were talking tactics, Mistress Valentina took Constantine aside and laid out a plan that was incredibly dangerous yet Constantine admired Mistress Valentina’s nature for even suggesting it… you never know the nature of a person until their back is against the wall. They both approached Thelonious, took him aside and told him of their plan… Thelonious was gobsmacked and also very against it at first but, he couldn’t see any other way to do what they said needed to be done… he nodded his head, sadly.

The door opened, the command crew entered, Thelonious, Rolaine and Yorke covering Mistress Valentina and Constantine as they ran directly at the forming portal. Mistress Valentina outpaced Jonas and, with a display of agility, put one foot on the shoulders of a Metal Man and launched herself into the air… and directly into the portal. As she felt the corrupting energies coruscating over her skin, she unleashed the full force of her power, reaching deep inside her mind to pull for as much Warp Energy as she could. Just before the power overwhelmed her, and she lost consciousness, Mistress Valentina saw that her surge had cut the cords or energy from the Metal Men… and she smiled. The rest of the command crew present did not see this; all they saw was Mistress Valentina leap into the swirling vortex, then an explosion, and then Mistress Valentina flying across the room to crash into some crates, completely unconscious and, in all probability, dead. Constantine could not let his anguish overwhelm him as he took the path already travelled and leapt into the Vortex himself, prayers to the God-Emperor on his lips and absolute faith in his destiny girding his soul.

Constantine felt a similar feeling to Mistress Valentina, the energy making him feel sick but, and he couldn’t tell how he knew this, it seemed like the energy was less intense. Constantine started forcing the energy away from him, his faith blooming out of him in a white, intense light but then he realised something… and stopped resisting. The bloody, red, horrific energy dived into his body… through his eyes, mouth, ears, any orifice was fair game and, in the blink of an eye, Constantine was floating there, blood red light shining out from him. Just as the rest of the command crew thought that something had gone terribly wrong a little spark of light bloomed in Constantine’s heart and, just as the light will always chase away the darkness, the power of the God-Emperor will always chase away the powers of Chaos. Slowly, at first, but gaining in speed and momentum, the light purged Constantine of the corruption, energy billowing off him into every corner of the cargo bay. As the energy came together, things started emerging, but they were not together, and there were not too many of them.

The light encompassed the entire cargo bay for the briefest instant, before quickly snapping back into Constantine as he slowly descended, his body still burning with intense light and immense power. The surge of power had also brought Mistress Valentina out of her unconsciousness, and the command crew started seeing the shapes moving in the corner of the cargo bay… what emerged was like something out of their nightmares. Tall, broad, completely blood red and holding a gigantic swords that sang out for their blood, holding the leashes of a huge, hulking hound, spiked collars around both of their necks… there were 8 pairs in the cargo bay, but the command crew knew that it could have been so much worse. Finally faced with something they could fight (and have a hope of killing), the command crew sprang into action. They spread out a little to receive the inevitable charge, Thelonious pulling out his Mirrorswords, Constantine started running back towards the group (and his weapons) which Yorke threw towards him and Rolaine trying to melt anything that came within range.

However, the Daemon’s were surprised when a Leman Russ appeared, with Isendark throwing it into gear and trying to drive it near the middle of the room but ending up stalling it, the Demolisher Cannon on the turret rotating slightly and the gun speaking in a huge roar. The huge round almost destroyed the floor where it exploded and took two Bloodletters (for that is what they were) and two Flesh Hounds (ditto) with it, their warp spawned forms with it… the command crew was suddenly confident they could deal with this. That confidence took a dent when the Bloodletters suddenly disappeared and teleported next to each member of the command crew (who were not in the tank), whilst the Flesh Hounds let loose a howl that spoke of the pain they would inflict and started closing as well. Constantine continued to run, surprising the Bloodletter that had teleported next to him, sliding along the floor, picking up his chainsword, turning and coming to his feet, chainsword roaring… the light shining out of him having mostly dissipated, but his felt the God-Emperor very closely at that moment.

Rolaine was able to use her Inferno Pistols to good effect, sending a Bloodletter back to the Warp, flesh melting off it from the intense heat. The psychic scream that came from this death proved too much for Yorke, who was completely and utterly overcome with terror and she turned tail and ran, dropping her weapons to allow her to move even faster. The rest of the combats evolved into savage melee’s, with swords striking swords, striking flesh, striking air as they were dodged, Inferno Pistols dissolving attackers… Mistress Valentina took a grievous wound from a Bloodletter and, screaming, managed to push her power to the limit and overcome the foul creatures resistance to Powers, holding out her hand and halting the Bloodletter in its path, straining against the strength of the beast. Bazak, not being bothered to reload the Demolisher, raised himself out of the turret and, pulling his modified Heavy Bolter up and over, sprayed some of the advancing Flesh Hounds with bullets, to which they emerged completely unharmed… all Bazak managed to do was to draw their attention towards the tank.

Thelonious and a Bloodletter continued to trade blows, as many missing as landing as their furious attacks against each other was bettered by their opponents defence. Constantine drilled his chainsword into a passing Flesh Hound, cutting into its spine and sending it back into the warp that spawned it but the attack left him open and he spiralled into unconsciousness, his leg broken and his life blood spewing out all over the floor of the cargo bay. Rolaine, knowing that she needed to thin the herd somewhat, started picking out individual targets with her Inferno Pistols, accurate shooting and the sheer power of the weapons driving them back into the Warp. Mistress Valentina was keeping the Bloodletter at bay with the power of her mind, just; Isendark was reloading the Demolisher cannon and Bazak had switched to his Thunder Hammer and was swatting Flesh Hounds off the tank one after the other. Yorke had run into the underside of the ship, into the bowels of the Hope in the Void and was hopelessly lost… although she was being treated somewhat like a deity by the denizens of the undership.

The fortunes in the combat were slowly swinging towards the command crew… Rolaine’s Inferno Pistols could not be denied, Bazak was swatting down Flesh Hounds, Thelonious was holding his own and protecting the downed body of Constantine, even getting in a few attacks of his own, and Mistress Valentina was still holding the Bloodletter at bay, whilst shooting inferno rounds into it from close range. Isendark finished reloading the Demolisher and noticed that the Bloodletter was far enough away to be a target… he sighted down at the target and fired… but then realised that he had missed when Mistress Valentina went flying, launched by the explosion into the air and then down with a crunch… although, the blast still managed to destroy the Bloodletter. It was about this time that Isendark, being the only one not engaged in close combat, noticed that, when a denizen of the Warp died, a few Metal Men turned into dust. The final shot of the combat was an incredibly accurate shot from Rolaine, turning the Bloodletter facing Thelonious into a puddle… the command crew looked at each other, and at their fallen comrades, and went to work.

Thelonious was quick to call for medical aid for Constantine, and he was soon on his way to the Medicae room to be patched up, the grace of the God Emperor having kept him alive somehow. Mistress Valentina, miraculously, was also not a teeming tub of jelly; she had taken a massive hit from a Demolisher but was unconscious, not dead. The command crew, minus Constantine and Yorke, gathered around the remains of the Metal Men, with Seri realising that it still held a psychic essence and Thelonious realising that the dust was fine enough to be inhaled… a plan started worming its way through his mind… not one he particular wanted, but thems the breaks. The cargo bay would have to be purged, obviously, and Thelonious wasted no time in ordering flamer crews in to burn off the symbols on the wall and everywhere else but, before that, he took the dust and turned it into liquid form, it was easier to keep in that regard and liquid form offered so many more avenues.

Thelonious contacted Marcia Cross to get the Stormtroopers to remove the explosives around the Plasma Engines, that part of the crisis had past and, whilst Cargo Bay 4 was scourged and life on the ship got back to a degree of normality. The Hope in the Void took another week to fully clear the Warp Storm and great was the sigh of relief that spread through the ship when they arrived through it “safe.” But there was no rest for the crew, the course to Zayth was plotted and in Mistress Valentinas absence, as she was recovering, the rest of the Astropathic Chior sent out a signal to their base on Footfall, issuing instructions for everything that had been purchased in their absence to be put on a Chartist ship and to meet them in Zayth. Zayth was merely the nearest charted system, that would allow them to get back to Footfall, or that surrounding area, which was their ultimate destination. Isendark and Bazak were intent on their own personal projects, with Isendark trying to make the Lord High Captain’s Las Gauntlet into a fully automatic weapon, and Bazak’s plan to create stinkbombz came to fruition, it just made the arboretum that had been gifted even more of a no go area for the rest of the crew.

A few weeks of Warp time later, the Hope in the Void was orbiting Zayth and, after waiting a little longer, the crew were admiring all their new equipment that had been brought to them. The Chartist Captain also had news of the search for the Dread Pearl… numerous stories had surfaced about most of the Rogue Traders being defeated in their search but that Hadrek Fel and Lady Sun-Lee had managed to break an Eldar Blockade to gain access to the Dread Pearl… although which one of them had triumphed was a matter of speculation. Thelonious had also been monitoring the communications of the moving Hives of Zayth and his position on selling the Khornate Dust was moving from “Never!” through “Well, it is a War World” into “Hmmm, will they notice the difference?” It pained him to keep the secret of the source of the drug from Constantine, a man he trusted above all others, but he knew that the Missionary would not understand… better to call it a drug that Yorke had synthesised… something that was definitely plausible!

The Hope in the Void broadcasted, on all open frequencies, about their new “Wonder Drug” and how it could easily turn the balance of the wars on Zayth… the House of Deepstalker did not have any favourites on the world and would like to invite people to a special auction, detailing the specific location of the auction. Thelonious assigned Yorke to be the main negotiator with the Zaythians, but the entire command crew (minus the Missionary) were in place to greet the 25 different shuttles, from 25 different Hives, that came to the auction. First came a demonstration, with a Battle Royale of “champions” from each of the Hives, and one random crewman they had picked from the brigg aboard the Hope … it was he that they injected with the “Wonder Drug.” The results were far above their highest expectations, the man went into a murderous frenzy and seemed impervious to pain, ripping into the other champions with abandon, even losing half his leg hardly slowed him down. Eventually, covered in blood, he stood victorious… just before he fell over and his body started blistering… but Rolaine was quick enough with the Inferno Pistols to prevent suspicion.

Thelonious’s choice to give Yorke leadership of the auction was a masterstroke. Rather than do an open auction, Yorke spoke to each representative separately and, using her incredible charm and knowledge of Bartering managed to get each representative to agree to a certain amount for a certain price. The thing that none of the representatives realised, and which Thelonious only realised towards the end, was that they had agreed to a certain amount of the drug… but each had agreed to get the same amount, which meant that none of them had really gained an advantage over the others… they had been completely outmanoeuvred. And, even more so, they all left the meeting thinking great things of the Deepstalker House… it is one thing to sell someone on a con, it is quite another to make people thankful for it… but that is what Yorke had achieved. The amount of money, materials and equipment that they managed to barter for the “Wonder Drug” was a hefty amount and left Thelonious a much richer man. He knew that he kept Yorke around for a reason!

Chapter 33 – Decisions, Decisions, Decisions (and Rubber Suits)

After the conquest of Elerius, the escape from the Warp Storms, the “exorcism” of the Metal Men and the Profit of Zayth, the command crew of the Hope in the Void decided to take stock of their current situation before deciding what to do next. After laying out all their options, they realised that they really did have a LOT of things on the go at this time.

1. They had a new ship, which they still had to name, and still had to decide how to utilise.

2. Given they had a new ship, they needed to make more deals for Astropaths and Navigators with the various power brokers of the Calixis Sector.

3. They had news of the Dread Pearl and, though they realised they would be late to the party, they thought they might be able to swoop in at the last moment.

4. They were hunting for a Farseer and Rak’Gol for the Magos on Footfall.

5. They had a contract from the Beast House (Damaris section) to procure a specimen of Killian’s Bane from Burnscour.

6. The Kasabillica Mission wanted them to deal with the Blockade of the Egrarian Dominion to allow the profitable Cold Trade to ramp up.

7. They knew that the Inquisition was looking into their business, although they did not know what inroads they had made.

8. They had unfinished business on Svard, which included building it up to the level it had been before the Yuvath infestation. This included getting the Ghostfire Pollen that they had promised the Seven Witches of Footfall.

9. A potential foray into the Undred’Undred Teef to utilise some of the Teef they gained during the war for Damaris.

During this discussion, Mistress Valentina retired to the Astropathic Choir Chambers to send a message to Jeremiah Blitz, as Thelonious wanted to know details of the Eldar Blockade before he decided whether or not to send them a message… the message was sent and powerfully, but the response never came… whether due to a lack of response, or a lack of power on the other end, Mistress Valentina could not figure out why. After a spirited debate by most members of the crew, it was decided to head to Jezerol and then decide what and where they wanted to do and go. Jezerol occupied an interesting position, very close to Footfall and other systems of Winterscales Realm, but also the place with the safest warp lanes to the Heathen Stars… so, even though Jezerol was a dead world, it actually hosted quite a lot of warp traffic and thus was a good place to gain more information about the status of the Koronus Expanse.

After a relatively trouble free Warp Jump to Jezerol, Hope in the Void tended not to encounter any external issues on its Warp Travels, Thelonious hit upon the idea of utilising the Space Docks that made up part of the Goliath Factory ship, it would allow him to sell fuel at a slightly discounted price but, more importantly, it would mean the chance to gather information… his and Yorke’s favourite thing. Whilst they did not learn a motherload of information in the few days that they spent in the Jezerol system, they did pick up some interesting tidbits from the chartis Captains in orbit; Chaos Reaver ships had been sighted at the edge of the Ferribundus system and the Patrol ship that was sent to investigate was not seen again, so Footfall was on a higher alert status than usual. This, when combined with the large amount of Rogue Traders who were in the area for the Foretelling, meant that Footfall was in a state of extreme flux. Thelonious also found that Aspyce Chorda was heading out to the Unbeholden Reachers, which mean that his plan to get information to her in regards to her mining colony, and to use that to create a business plan with her, were somewhat put on hold.

During this time, it was decided that at trip to Burnscour was in order… mostly because it was only a day or so away in the Warp so the crew were not losing much time at all. Isendark had been preparing for this trip for a long time, they had a hold full of Vulcanised Rubber to put on their weapons, their armour and anything else that could be needed, including the Beast Cages that had been procured for this very trip. Burnscour was a Death World, with emphasis on the DEATH part… there were some Death Worlds in the Imperium that bred hardy regiments of Imperial Guard or were Adeptus Astartes recruiting worlds… this was not one of them, Burnscour was so against human life that even the hardiest of structures vanished in days, the atmosphere was pure poison and the rain was incredibly acidic. Also, based on the stories, everything that had evolved to live on this world was deadly, from plants that made you hallucinate, to paralysing venom that promised a painful death, to even the insects being aggressive death machines.

As Thelonious looked over the information on this world he glanced at Isendark with a raised eyebrow that asked the question of what was so valuable on this planet that could kill them all? When Isendark handed him the contract that had been signed with the Beast House, however, that answered that question and in stunning style… the risk was very much worth it, even if they wanted something alive rather than dead! It was quickly decided that they would send a Grox, in a cage, with recording equipment attached, to see what would happen on the lovely planet of Burnscour… after all, you can read about the dangers but until you experience them in some way, you can be blind to them… and Thelonious doubted that the information he had was encyclopaedic. So, a cage, the equipment and a, soon to be, very unhappy Grox were placed in the Teleportarium and sent down to the surface, although the Tech Priests had to work hard to place it correctly through the atmospheric interference from the massive storms raging across the planet.

The Grox had a rebreather attached over its nose and mouth and Thelonious had also placed a piece of Elerium in the cage, he wanted to see if this metal lasted longer than the metal in the cages, it did not seem very reactive to a lot of stimuli, so he was hoping it might prove to be the case on Burnscour. What transpired next did nothing to fill the hearts and minds of the command crew with confidence for their hunt. The Grox had only just appeared when flickers of movement could be spotted near its legs… these flickers of movement became more agitated and, as the pict recorded zoomed in slightly, they could see it was a mass of small beetles, which then proceeded to start biting chunks out of the Grox’s flesh. This was mostly an annoyance to the Grox at first, they were tough creatures but, as the rain started to eat away at its hide as well, the movements of the Grox began to get more and more panicked.

Then, suddenly, there was a flicker of movement from somewhere to the side and, when the pict recorder refocussed, the Grox was without a head, spurts of bloody fountaining from the stump of its neck… the assailant was nowhere to be seen. The camera lasted the longest, coated in rubber as it was, and it saw the cage dissolve, the Grox’s carcass dissolve and, eventually, the Elerium dissolve as well… all this took about 15 minutes to happen. Given this, the decision was made to bombard the planet with their Macrocannon Broadside, to hopefully kill most of the denizens of an area… it was a fools hope to get complete extermination, but any was better than none. It was also hoped that Killian’s Bane, whatever that was, would be attracted to the new kills the attack would create… but that was just meaningless theorising. The bombardment went ahead but, because the planet was not easy to scan due to the interference, it was hard to see how much damage they had caused, especially to a planet that was mostly covered in jungles and swamps.

After girding themselves and getting ready, the decision was made to fly down in a Shuttle, which they knew they would lose, so that they could be teleported back, rather than having to survive until the Teleporatrium had recharged which, based on what happened to the Grox, seemed like it would be a lot harder than it sounded! Before he left, Isendark gifted his Conversion Field to Thelonious, only for this mission but still… it proved to be a fortuitous decision. The shuttle ride down was one of the more butt-clenching that the command crew (sans Jonas who could not see anything in his calling for a reason to travel down to this benighted planet) had experienced… the shuttle they had chosen was one of the worst because they knew they would not get it back, and it was only the superlative skill of Isendark that allowed them to make a controlled landing in one of the less marshy areas, and even then the ground shifted worryingly under the shuttles weight.

Bazak, ever the one to rush in, quickly opened the shuttle door and the command crew were met with a wall of noise… the wind was howling, the storm was intense, the rain came down in sheets it was, probably, the most miserable place you could be in the entire Expanse. Beetles started wandering up and down their bodies but they could not pierce the rubber and its taste was obviously not something they liked because the periods between bites was exceptionally long compared to what they had seen happen to the Grox’s flesh. Thus fortified (they were not going to be eaten alive by beetles, yay!,) the command crew set out to find Killian’s Bane, picking a random direction as there did not appear to be any commanding landscapes that they could use to get their bearings, it truly was a march into the unknown. Sinkholes, Mudpits, Quicksand… all of these and more were what faced the command crew and they had to be eternally vigilant, as well as listening to Mistress Valentina’s complaints.

After around 20 minutes on the planet, which felt like an eternity to those slogging through, both Bazak and Rolaine felt a slight tingle in their martial instinct, the kind that doesn’t tell you anything specific, but makes you stop and look around for danger. They tried to signal the others, surreptitiously, but were unable to make them stop their tromping and complaining so, when a huge snake thing reared out of a large pool of water to the side of them, they were caught unawares. The creature raised itself up to a massive height above them and then dove downwards, at an incredibly fast speed, opened its huge jaws and swallowed the Lord High Captain completely and utterly whole. The rest of the command crew surged into action, bullets and bolts bouncing off the carapace of the Snake creature as they tried to save their Captain. However, given that they needed to take this creature alive (despite not knowing if it was, indeed, Killian’s Bane) it meant that Rolaine could not use her Inferno Pistols, they were just too deadly.

It was Mistress Valentina who came up with the solution, using the power of her mind to reach inside the beast and, with a quick yank, pulling out some of its minor organs (or what she thought of as its minor organs)… the shock of this damage was too much for the creature and it slumped to the floor, although it was still alive and thus the Captain was still in danger. Rolaine and Yorke were quick to yank the jaws of the creature open, a prodigious task but one that they managed, which allowed Bazak to charge into the inside of the creature, on the lookout for Thelonious. Mistress Valentina, having stunned the creature, started layering her mind over the muscles of the beast, getting ready for when it came round to try and restrain it… hopefully the Captain would be found and rescued before that. Thelonious found himself completely and utterly helpless, arms and legs stationary as the muscles of the creature crushed down on him.

The Captain was stuck in a nightmare, helpless and slowly being crushed and digested by the beast, he felt a huge rumbling coming his way and said a prayer to the God-Emperor… which was answered in spectacular fashion as the conversion field flared up and protected him… Isendark wasn’t always an idiot it seemed! The second rumbling, however, was not deflected and Thelonious felt his ribs being crushed, losing his ability to draw breath… the end was near and he knew it, even when the third rumbling was deflected he felt his heart sink as the conversion field cut out, complete and utter power loss… this was it, this was the end. Those two flashes of light, however had given Bazak enough of a frame of reference to find the Lord High Captain and he started bashing away with his Thunder Hammer, managing to free Thelonious as well as smash a hole through the things skin, stepping out with the Captain slung over one shoulder and a massive grin alighting on his green face.

With the Lord High Captain safe, and the creature still stunned, Yorke teleported everyone and everything into the Teleportarium, where they quickly wheeled out the creature, now being held down by Mistress Valentina’s mental power, and inserted it into one of their prepared Beast Cages, Mistress Valentina not letting go until the cage was in one of the cargo bays. Thelonious was taken to the Medicae bay, where a lot of the command crew had been spending their time recently, to the Expert care of the doctors. Jonas also came down to pray for his friends health and that actually seemed to have an impressive effect, accelerating the natural healing of the Captain beyond what the Medicae could explain. Now that she had the time, Yorke was able to positively identify this beast as Killian’s Bane… they had what they came for! Rolaine, in command whilst the Captain was recuperating, gave the order to head back to Footfall… they did not need to go to Damaris itself to complete this transaction, they would hand it off to the Beast House on Footfall and take their payment there.

As the Hope in the Void translated back into the Ferribundus system, Thelonious was back on the bridge and giving the order NOT to send anything to the Beast House through the Vox… the Lord High Captain was well aware of the Inquisitions interest in his house and did not want to give them anymore reason to look into it. He would go aboard Footfall and make the appointment in person, which should also impress the Beast House as to how serious his pitch was. Hope in the Void docked at Footfall and the crew congratulated themselves on ticking one item off their checklist… just eight more to go…

Chapter 34 – What are you prepared to give up?

One of the first things that Thelonious ordered once they were fully docked at Footfall was that half of the Elerium metal, that they had in their holds, was to be sent to the Adeptus Mechanicus base as a gift. He wanted to keep on their good side, especially after turning up in system with a ship that bore their mark, as well as bearing the mark of the Deepstalker house. Also, if anyone could decipher the best way to utilise the metal, which would then give it a use outside of blades and thus lead to an upswing in demand, which the house could profit from, it was the Adeptus Mechanicus. Almost as soon as the ship docked, a bonded messenger was sent to the Beast House, holding pictures and pict-videos of Killian’s Bane, as well as a copy of the contract that had been signed by Isendark on Damaris. Whilst that was being dealt with, waiting for the Beast House’s reply, Thelonious decided that they would throw a party in one of the grandest pavilions in Footfall… after all, they had just come back from a very profitable and successful endeavour… it may not have been what they were after at first, but a Rogue Trader takes what they can!

In expectation of the Footfall “nobility” who would be turning up, Thelonious had some of the Elerium worked into jewellery, he really thought that this might start a new trend, especially given that all the members of the command crew were wearing trinkets forged from the metal. As preparations for the party were going full pelt, the response came back from the Beast House… they were VERY interested in the specimen that the Deepstalker House had found and were sending two of their more senior members to take collection, and to negotiate the final payment for Killian’s Bane. The two could not be more different… one who looked like a bruiser; heavyset, scarred with a cruel cast to his features and then one who did not speak and who just took notes using an auto-quill… and who seemed to be a copious note-taker. Given that there was a contract involved, negotiations were relatively brief, although Thelonious and Yorke did manage to wrangle a slight bit more profit out of the situation by offering the services of their Teleportarium to transport the Beast… it was so large that it would not go unnoticed otherwise, even on Footfall.

Thelonious also reached out to the Kasabillica Mission, partly to let them know that he had not forgotten them, and also to find out as much information about House Berenson, and their backers, as possible… the Hope in the Void was a very good ship, but going against the firepower of a Grand Cruiser (as well as backing frigates etc), was suicide. He also utilised Constantine’s contacts with the Ecclesiarchy and was despondent to realise that House Berenson was backed by the second most senior Cardinal in the Calixis Sector, and one who held onto a lot of popular and lower church hierarchy support… he was a firebrand of the old order… one who truly believed. There had been a few assassination attempts against the Cardinal, but none of them had been successful… whether the attempts had come from other Cardinals or the Kasabillica Mission was unclear… both sides appeared to want to get rid of this annoying voice for their own different reasons. Thelonious had a lot to ponder, he had hoped to cut off the support for House Berenson at the source, but that was looking more difficult the more he learned.

The party passed off as a success, without much incident… palms were pressed, chit-chat was had and Bazak didn’t play too much of a fool… all in all about as much as can be expected. With that out of the way, the command crew turned their attention to the payment that was due to the Seven Witches, the first (and only) Ghostfire Pollen harvest from the Koronus Expanse… they needed men and equipment and they didn’t really want to use their own… it was then that Yorke pointed out that there was a prison planet not too far away and, well, if everyone was going to die harvesting this wealth, then why not make it be people who were bound to die anyway? After renaming the Adeptus Mechanic ship ( Light of Elerius ) and installing a couple of components onto the Hope in the Void , they set off to the Prison World of Maleziel. After a relatively brief and uneventful Warp Journey, the Hope in the Void translated back into realspace, only for the threat alarms to go haywire with all the heavy ordinance scanning them.

Thelonious ordered all weapons on the Hope to be powered down and sent his greetings to the Governor of the world, introducing himself and asking for a meeting regarding procuring some “workers” from the general populace. For the Governor, this was a good opportunity to get rid of some of the worst troublemakers on the planet below, as well as some high level prisoners that he had to give a lot more respect than he wanted to… the negotiations were over quickly, with Thelonious offering his troops to help round up the “workers.” Over the course of the next couple of days, with the help of the Teleportarium, the workers were found and placed into a couple of cargo bays, with a pretty serious level of manpower keeping them in line. Thelonious, himself, addressed them, telling them that the work was going to be harsh and dangerous but, for whomever lived through it, they would be set free to work for them… whereas the best of those who survived would be set free on a new colony, to find whatever future they could.

The Svardian PDF and Household Guard formed the backbone of the guards and they had an iron discipline about enforcing order… the first few people to try and escape the cargo bay faced brutal executions that brooked no alternate way of viewing it… if you tried to escape, you WILL die. After that, and with Thelonious’s speech echoing in their head, dissent and violence was kept at a minimal level… the command crew was satisfied with that. With the equipment, and the manpower, collected, the Hope in the Void set sail for the Svard system… it had been some time since they had visited the place of their first success and, with the Light of Elerius , they knew that they could set up trade between Svard and Damaris, one of the last things to making Svard a growing colony again… it was an auspicious journey for the Deepstalker house. However, as both ships exited from the warp to re-orient themselves, their scanners immediately picked up a “caravan” of 5 ships, all of which seemed to be tied together and meandering along, not aiming for anything in particular, although they quickly changed their course upon the appearance of the Hope and Light .

A quick scan by Yorke indicated that these ships belonged to the nomadic Styrix race of Xenos, known to be liars, cheats and scavengers, these aliens were almost perfect for Rogue Traders as they usually collected all sorts of things that they classed as junk, but which others would find useful. However, there were some cautionary tales about what the Styrix had required for these “gifts” but, nothing ventured, nothing gained! As all the ships arrived closer to each other, Lt. Haines indicated that there was an incoming vox cast from the Styrix ship and, upon answering it, Thelonious immediately cringed at the high pitched, mournful sound that came from the Styrix, it was almost as if they were trying to annoy him intentionally! After the preliminaries were out of the way, and after being called “Honoured Biped” far too many times, it was agreed that the command crew would travel over to look through the Styrix Merchant Bazars, although Thelonious did agree that their bombers would be performing “manoeuvres” in the general vicinity, with the implicit threat involved in that.

After being greeted on the Styrix ship, informed of the rules and regulations (pretty much boiled down to, don’t attack any of the merchants), the command crew was ready to start browsing through the absolutely massive stack of crap that the Styrix had throughout their ships. As they were leaving, however, Yorke heard a startled intake of breath and, as she turned towards the Styrix, it was pointing at her and started to shout “It bears the mark of the hated enemy! KILL IT!” The three vat slaves that was the Styrix’s escort/guard raised their weapons and spat out bullets in Yorke’s general direction… luckily, their shooting was awful and she came through it unscathed. Thelonious stepped forward and, in a loud and commanding voice, ordered them to stop and explain why they were shooting at one of their “Honoured Biped Guests?” With barely controlled rage, the Styrix spat out that Yorke was carrying a Fusion Gun, one of the weapons of the hated Eldar and thus should be exterminated… Thelonious reached a compromise where Yorke left the weapon on the shuttle which was acceptable to the Merchant Master.

With that potential flashpoint dealt with, the command crew went about sorting through piles of crap, looking for something amazing, with abandon… acting like children in a sweet store as they danced between the ships, almost skipping with pleasure at the thought of a wonderful find. They spent the next half day (Terran time) sorting through and picking out the one item that they wanted… and some of them managed to find some very impressive items… once they had selected what they wanted, the Styrix informed them of their cost.

Mistress Valentina

Requested – An incredibly well made “Baleful Eye”

Cost – 3 Hours in Meditation, with an open mind, with the Styrix witches

Final Answer – Rejected… quite vehemently!

Commander Rolaine

Requested – An incredibly well made suit of Pressure Carapace

Cost – 10 Years (bartered down to 8 years) of her life, to be removed

Final Answer – Rejected… but only just

Bazak the Ork

Requested – Synthetic/Augmented Muscle Grafts

Cost – As many Ork spores that could be collected by the Styrix during the procedure

Final Answer – Accepted… enthusiastically (lots of head nodding)

Master Pilot Isendark

Requested – A Power Board

Cost – A download of his brain and skillset into a Styrix database

Final Answer – Accepted… with a smile

Seneschal Yorke

Requested – A well-made Conversion Field

Cost – Burning the Eldar Fusion gun, in front of the Styrix Master Merchant

Final Answer – Accepted… through gritted teeth

Rogue Trader Thelonious T Deepstalker

Requested – A well-made Displacer Field

Cost – The co-ordinates of a planet that is not in the Styrix’s planetary archives

Final Answer – Accepted… Svard was given

It could even be said that Yorke actually got her revenge on the Styrix for causing her to burn something precious to her because, as she was burning it with an inferno grenade, she took of her cloak, to reveal her Eldar Void Armour in all its glory, and then stood there watching the Styrix glower at her whilst the fusion gun burned. After every, agreed upon, transaction was finished, and after Bazak had recovered (rather quickly) from the Muscle Grafts, both House Deepstalker and the Styrix said their goodbyes and continued on their separate ways, this random meeting having been rather fruitful for both sides. After all, what could possibly go wrong between giving a Xenos race access to Ork spores and the memory imprint of a Master Pilot? Both the Hope in the Void and the Light of Elerius continued their Warp Journey towards Svard… once again, the Hope’s ability to glide, mostly unmolested, through the Warp came into play and they jumped into the Svard system, broadcasting widely that Deepstalker House had returned… this was one area where they did not want to hide who they were!

Over the course of the next few weeks, the command crew got reacquainted with the Svard system… Cog installed the Zaythian Macrocannon Broadside on the Hope in the Void whilst they continued to traverse the system in the Light of Elerius . They were pleased to see that intra-system trade was approaching its pre-war levels and that Cog was producing equipment at a much higher rate, it really did seem that the only thing they needed was inter-system trade to start back up… and the Light of Elerius was going to be perfect for that. The command crew also dropped off the Magos, from Elerius, into Svard… his background in fauna and flora would prove very useful on an Iceworld… Svard had managed to get some of the hydroponic gardens back up and running, but the Magos could probably extract more efficiency from them. Thelonious spent his time getting updates from the Crystal Council, Rolaine spent her time looking over the armed forces of Svard, Yorke spoke a lot with Ygritte, Isendark tried to train most of the crew in the use of jetpacks (to various degrees of success) and Mistress Valentina started “onboarding” one of the new Astropaths who would be stationed here.

The main thought crossing most of the command crew’s minds was what they needed to do on the Seedworld, as soon as Cog completed their installation that was where they were going…

Chapter 35 – And on that farm there was a……

During the journey to Cog, the command crew had decided that it was a good idea for them to fly down and talk to the Magos themselves, to prime him for the harvest… maybe he could give them suggestions about how to stave off the inhabitants of the Seedworld to reduce casualties? Isendark took the helm of the shuttle, although the journey down was very similar to the last time they had landed here… there is only so many ways that heat rising can affect your journey, but he still handled it with the easy competence of the truly skilled. One of the first things that the command crew noticed was that the landscape had become much more jungle filled; gone were the massive prairies as far as they eye could see, they were now broken up much more by forests and jungles… the Seedworld was going through another evolutionary stage. They also realised, when they started journeying through the forests, that this was a good thing as the vast swarms of insects that had attacked them last time had become more fractured due to the trees… whilst there were more of them, they were not as much of a threat as they had been before.

In fact, the entire world just seemed to be teeming with life… the lakes were full of fish (and were also a clear blue) and the sounds that reverberated around them as they travelled through the jungles and forests were very disparate. In fact, some of the noises, despite being very different indeed, appeared to be coming from the same location, and seemed to be above them… and the command crew realised that there was a lot of activity going on in the jungle canopy, above their very heads. It was Mistress Valentina who took the proactive approach, reaching for her connection to the warp and bringing it forth as an exhalation of energy, directly into the trees. There was a grunt of pain as something fell out of the trees, something that had six, chitinous covered, limbs and three heads… although it had hardly dropped to the floor before Bazak, utilising his augmented Heavy Bolter, had turned it into paste. As the command crew looked at the remnants of the creature, they could see that each part of it had been different… from a head and feet of a monkey, a head and feet of a beetle and the head and feet of an amorphous blob type thing.

After that, whilst there was a mournful wail coming from above them, the sounds did reduce in intensity, helped by the occasional burst fire from the command crew, keeping whatever that creature was, honest. Their equipment, and themselves actually, could also sense that the electromagnetic interference that they had homed in on last time, was now at a much wider, although weaker, distance… in fact, it did seem to be very much everywhere as if it were being spread by the biological lifeforms… this was disturbing! The command crew continued on their journey, being careful to keep FAR away from the bunny like creatures that had so spoiled their trip last time and, eventually, they found themselves to a vaguely familiar cave. As they approached, light emerged from the dark confines of the cave, obviously the Magos had sensed them somehow, and they could hear his mechanical voice greeting them, and inviting them into the cave. The Magos looked similar to how they remembered him, although the chitinous growth on the side of his head was definitely new!

After an opening monologue that instructed the command crew as to how verdant the planet was getting, which the command crew did admit (whilst harbouring MASSIVE doubts), the conversation turned towards the deal that the Deepstalker House had made with the Magos last time… he was to be provided with Animals, Fish and Humans (although the Lord High Captain was still unsure about the last one). Thelonious inquired as to how the deliveries were to be made, given the general harshness of the world and the likelihood that a lot of the animals would be eaten by the ravenous flora and fauna but the Magos just smiled and enigmatically told him to just leave them where they land, he would pick them up himself. This was quite concerning to Thelonious, but the discussion quickly moved onto the harvesting of the ghostfire pollen, with the command crew quizzing the Magos on the optimum number of people and time that would be needed to harvest it affectively… eventually, they realised that they were probably going to be waiting for about 8 weeks until everything was harvested.

The Magos also gave his word that he would do what he could do to stop as many attacks from the wildlife as possible, after all he had inserted something into the genetic code of the insects to make them less likely to swarm, so he would see what would happen. As soon as the Magos received the payment of animals and fish, the harvesting of the ghostfire pollen could proceed, with the command crew anticipating a 60% casualty rate amongst those doing the harvesting… a very acceptable loss percentage in the minds of the Deepstalker crew. As soon as they made it back to their ship, the collection of the animal and fish life commenced and, soon, a fleet of shuttles were ready to deliver the cargo. Isendark had already taken the flight corps through the expected conditions they would face so everyone was ready… Thelonious gave the order and, within the next day or so, all the livestock the Magos asked for was delivered.

The pilots came back with disturbing tales of how the Magos had “taken delivery” with vines erupting from the floor and dragging the livestock down into the earth… Thelonious was very concerned with this as it showed just how much control the Magos was getting of the world… it made him a much more serious threat. Still, they had a harvest to organise… the hierarchy amongst the prisoners had become quite well defined and so the command crew utilised this to dole out jobs and protection for the prisoners before transporting them down to the surface, a task that took some time given the number of prisoners, even jammed into the shuttles as they were. It took about the same to bring down the equipment and weaponry for them but, eventually, the harvest started, with two large groups going in opposite directions around the Seedworld and reporting back to a central location, which then reported back to the command crew… it was a simple, but elegant, solution.

Casualty reports were a regular occurrence during the harvest, people would wander off alone and never return, some would be devoured by swarms of bugs, others would be ambushed in the jungles and forests and some idiots, despite being told NOT TO KICK THE BUNNIES… would try and kick the bunnies and then find out why that warning had been issued. About a month into the process, with casualty rates holding steady at around 40%, below projections, the command crew started receiving reports of larger lifeforms being spotted by some of the harvesting teams, as well as larger creatures being spotted in the lakes… and even that the lakes had started expanding, growing at a much faster rate than should have been possible. All these reports indicated that the Magos was gaining more and more control over the biosphere, something that worried the command crew quite a lot, but until the harvest was finished it was something they would have to deal with. Around week 7, however, with casualties holding steady at around 50%, they received reports of even larger creatures, and casualties started to spike.

Some of those casualties seemed very much like the Magos taking humans for his experiments… with people, always women, being dragged under the earth by vines that erupted without any warning… at least it meant that the command crew did not have to deliver any new slaves for him to experiment on, the Magos was taking them now. Eventually the harvest was completed… casualty rates stood at a, quite steep, 74% but the task had been accomplished… it was now time to finalise things with the Magos (which Thelonious was at pains to point out, did NOT mean shooting him… yet) so that their contract was done, any new deals would have to be negotiated later. During the time of the harvest, Mistress Valentina had been taking the crew through a Mental training regime to allow them to send their words and basic thoughts to each other… she would be the broadcast link for all of them, but it would mean they could communicate with each other silently… Trader Tongue was good, but it was obvious that they were talking to each other and with the likely intelligence of Magos it was possible he could have cracked their code by now.

On their journey to see the Magos, on foot again, they encountered an obstacle that had not been there last time… one of the lakes had managed to turn itself into a sea, it stretched from side to side and as far as their eyes could see… there was much grumbling before a solution was reached. Thelonious, Rolaine and Mistress Valentina would congregate on the Eldar Grav Platform they had, which would be pulled along by Isendark on his Power Board, with Yorke and Bazak tethered to the Platform and utilising their Void Suit/Rocket Pack to stay aloft… it wasn’t a very elegant solution, but it was what they had. After a, rather uncomfortable, journey, the command crew found themselves about three quarters of the way across the sea, they could see the shore on the other side when, suddenly, Isendark dragged them sideways and upwards, to which they were about to complain as they almost fell off, when something dark and large launched itself out of the waters below them.

Other than Isendark, who was somewhat occupied with dodging, the only one with fast enough reactions was Rolaine… of course, that meant that the shark-like creature was soon turned into a melted type of goo by her Inferno Pistols that smacked into the surface of the water, completely and utterly dead. One thing the command crew noticed on their journey across the water was that there seemed to be a feeling of night coming over them… as if the biosphere was evolving once again to a more regular world… by everything they could see, this Seedworld was evolving faster and faster, guided by the mind of the Magos that had spawned it… and infected with Tyranid genes… horrifying! All of the command crew were thinking about how this had to end, the Magos was becoming too much of a threat to be allowed to survive… but first they had to finish the contract, they were people of their word after all (sometimes). The Magos, once again, turned on the lights in his cave on their approach and, what they saw and heard, appalled them.

The Magos was still connected to both the Genestealer and the planet itself but was now surrounded by a bevy of women, who all seemed to be in the latter stages of pregnancy and they could hear the sounds of another woman (or women) giving birth further back in the cave… only the Emperor knew what monstrosities were being birthed as they stood there? However, discipline held as they followed their Captains’ orders and the negotiations were finished to a satisfactory note to both sides… although there were all glad of the psychic link that Mistress Valentina had set up between them, even though it seemed to be less effective the closer they were to the Magos and his “pet.” With everything concluded, the command crew made their way back to the Hope in the Void where a rather intense debate was held… the debate was not about whether to kill the Magos and his abomination family, but “how”, as he was obviously a threat to the Svard system.

After inquiring as to whether they could gain enough thrust to send the Seedworld into the sun (far too much power needed) to how long it would take to crack the Seedworld with their Macrocannon Broadsides (far too long based on the evolutionary progress) they realised that they would probably have to do it themselves. They did talk about informing the Inquisition of this place, which would hopefully mean they would virus bomb or cyclonic torpedo the place, completely destroying it… and the fact that they were talking about involving the Inquisition indicated, more than anything else, just how serious the command crew were taking this situation. They talked about sending in aeronautica bombers to blow the cave to hell and gone, but they realised that might not get the job done and would lead to the Magos realising their intent… everything was pointing to them having to go back down and deal with the Heretek. This time, however, they were going to take the risk of flying all the way in the shuttle, deadly creatures be damned, time was of the essence now!

So, after collecting their gear (and coming armed for Xenos-bear) the command crew took a white knuckle ride through the biosphere of the Seedworld, Isendark navigating the exhaust port, then dodging around some of the larger creatures who tried to ensnare them… eventually landing a few hundred metres from the Magos’ location. As they approached the cave, keeping their weapons hidden or in a casual position, the lights came on again and the command crew could see children running around, being chased by their mothers, with laughter and cheerfulness filling the air… but these children were not normal, they had blue and purple protrusions coming out of the back of their heads… these were abominations. The Magos, whose head was becoming more and more encased in the purple and blue chitin appeared to be smiling as he looked upon his progeny and, more scary for the command crew, the Genestealer was out of its containment field! (although it was still in the tank) The Magos complimented Isendark on his preternatural flying skill as the command crew moved into position, again not looking threatening but keeping their weapons within easy reach.

After a limited conversation, Thelonious gave Rolaine the agreed upon hand gesture where she was to melt the Magos with her Inferno Pistols… however, the Magos had sophisticated machines at his beck and call, as well as instincts not his own, and he realised what was going to happen, so they failed to catch him by surprise. The Genestealer, in a display of agility and strength that appalled the command crew, seemed to simply flex slightly and destroyed the containment tank… it was free! The mothers started gathering their children into a more defensive position, gathering them together and starting to move them towards the back of the cave… but their positioning made them an irresistible target for Yorke. She took a quick check of the distance and then launched a Rad grenade directly into the middle of them… the results were devastating, the flash burned the hair off their bodies, and the intense radiation sloughed their skin from their flesh… they died screaming. Both the Magos and the Genestealer let out a scream that was full of anguish, pain and anger.

The Magos responded by firing his own Inferno Pistols at Yorke, but his anger was overwhelming his aim and only one shot came anywhere near the Seneschal, who neatly dodged out of the way. Rolaine was quick to respond, but the Magos’ Power Field proved equal to the task, flaring up to tell the command crew that this would not be an easy fight! Bazak joined the fray, spraying bolts all over the cave and Mistress Valentina reached into the power of the Warp, trying to pull the organs out of the Genestealer but, something about this place caused something to go wrong and Mistress Valentina felt her own organs tearing and, although she managed to stop the power before it killed herself, it very much hurt! Into all this chaos stepped Thelonious. T. Deepstalker, reaching down and pulling out his Mirrorswords; he looked at the Magos, pointed his sword at him and spoke.

“I am Thelonious. T. Deepstalker and, in the name of the God-Emperor of Mankind, I will see your Xeno-Heresy dead at my hand. All these deaths are on your head… and you will pay!”

Chapter 36 – The start of something new, or the end of something old?

The Genestealers display of speed and agility was as horrifying to the command crew as it was dangerous, in the blink of an eye it was up to full speed and barrelling down on Yorke, scythed talons ripping at her face and body. Yorke could barely react to the attack and had to go by instinct, feeling one of the talons just miss the top of her head as she ducked and her conversion field deflecting another with a massive flash of light. The remaining mothers of the murdered “children” had gone berserk and were jumping onto Thelonious, Rolaine and Mistress Valentina, trying to drag them down to the ground and gouge their eyes out… Thelonious found himself fending one off until her bottom half entirely disappeared. Thelonious looked to his left and saw a similar puddle of ooze at the feet of Rolaine and raised one of his swords in salute to his Arch Militant’s effectiveness. Thelonious waded into the fight with the Genestealer and, with his cortex implant calculating moves almost too quick for his muscles to follow, was able to cut a furrow into the back of the Xenos, although the response from the creature cut through his armour and deeply into his chest.

Isendark and the Magos were fighting their own, private, duel at that moment, Isendark’s shots being deflected by the Magos’ forcefield and the Magos’ own shots being dodged or deflected by Isendarks… it was a bit of a stalemate. Mistress Valentina, who had managed to avoid being dragged down by the last remaining mother, pulled out her stub automatic, selected Bleeder Rounds and, with very little emotion, kneecapped her assailant. As the mother looked up at her, pain implicit in her eyes, Mistress Valentina just stepped up to the woman, placed her stub automatic against the woman’s head and ended her agony… just like that. The Genestealer was a blur of motion, scything talons spinning through impossible angles to attack both Yorke and Thelonious who were working well together, splitting the aliens attacks between them whilst trying to find an opening… Yorke by this time had put aside her distaste for her Relic Chainsword and was swinging it with abandon, trying to deflect and cut back at the Genestealer. Once again Thelonious took advantage of the Genestealers split attention, stepping in close to ram his sword through its chest, only being stopped from causing major damage by it deflecting off the chitinous skeleton.

Isendark and Rolaine were focussed on the Magos, but their efforts were being frustrated by the powerfield surrounding the Heretek, it seemed to deflect every single one of their attacks but then Isendark put a shot directly into the powerfields generator, completely by accident, and it shorted out… a smile appeared on Rolaine’s face, the smile of a predator. The Magos knew how vulnerable it was to the Commander, however, and Rolaine was engulfed by agony as the heat from the Magos’s Inferno Pistols overwhelmed her but Rolaine was made of tougher stuff and what would have killed many a person only left her stunned on the floor, falling over as if poleaxed. Bazak laughed his usual Orkish laugh and charged into the Magos, laying about him with the Thunder Hammer, and his own augmented strength, but not causing the damage that he would have wanted, only to find the Inferno Pistols aiming his way. Yet Orkish Toughness is hard to overcome and he was left standing after taking three shots to the body. Yorke and Thelonious, their early successes a bit of a false dawn, were finding it hard to hit the Genestealer with anything other than glancing blows.

This led Thelonious to thrust his sword forward, more out of hope than expectation, but even he was surprised when the Genestealer avoided it, coming right up to the Lord High Captain and shredding through his armour and skin with a whirlwind of blows. The last thought that went through Thelonious’s mind as the darkness claimed him was that his Styrix Refractor Field had failed him each time he had been hit and that he was going to make those bloody Xenos pay the next time he saw them… and then his body flew away and the Genestealer turned its attention entirely to Yorke.

Yorke’s conversion field, on the other hand, was in brilliant working order, turning aside slash after rending slash… and, after she saw the Lord High Captain felled by the vile Xenos, her chainsword slashed through the defences of the Genestealer and the tearing teeth tore off one of the Genestealers limbs, but still the creature came on. Rolaine had recovered from her mild disorientation and leapt to her feet, scorching the Magos repeatedly with her Inferno Pistols, quickly swapping out to new ones when the old ones were exhausted… she set it up perfectly for Bazak to end the Magos.

Bazak wound up its arm, attempting a mighty uppercut against the Magos with the Thunder Hammer but was still not used to its higher levels of strength and misjudged, letting go of the shaft of the Thunder Hammer and sending it up and up to be buried, halfway, into the roof of the Cave… Bazak looked at Rolaine and smiled a cheesy grin. The Ork was then stung by the Magos’ fire but that just gave Rolaine, who was rolling her eyes at what she just witnessed, time to aim up the perfect shot and disintegrated the top half of the Magos, completely and utterly destroying him. This allowed her to turn her attention to the Genestealer, the Arch Militant was in her element in a combat like this and it was just as well, the Genestealer had finally found a way through Yorke’s conversion field and had caused such a wound that Yorke had dropped her chainsword to the floor but, with a display of agility that even Rolaine approved of, Yorke had turned with the blow, reaching with her other hand, drawing her Inferno Pistol and shot the Genestealer square in the head. The smell of burning filled the cave, but the Genestealer was still moving!

Knowing that the end was near, and with all of them, sans Isendark, having suffered a large amount of damage, the command crew tried to finish off the Genestealer. Mistress Valentina tried to reach into the warp to cause its death, but the alien mind of the Tyranids fought off her attempt. Isendark tried to fire a bullet right between the things shoulder blades but could not anticipate the movement of the creature. Bazak was not interested in the Genestealer, the Ork was firing its heavy bolter into the roof of the cave, trying to retrieve its Thunder Hammer. Yorke missed with her Inferno Pistol, leaving herself open to a counter attack but, before the Genestealer could take advantage of it, it disappeared in a white hot supernova… Yorke looked to the side, her face red from the heat, and saw Rolaine standing there, sighting down her two Inferno Pistols, a wry expression on her face and her eyebrow raised as if to say “do I have to do EVERYTHING around here?”

With the death of the Genestealer a, sort of, quiet fell over the cave, or it would have but Bazak was still shooting his Heavy Bolter into the roof of the cave, trying to loosen its hold on his Thunder Hammer. However, through the cacophony of the bolter fire, the rest of the command crew (sans Thelonious) could hear an insistent, high pitched, beeping coming from underneath where the Magos used to stand. Closer inspection revealed that it was an auto destruct mechanism which sent almost all the command crew running from the cave, with Yorke lifting the Captain on her shoulders before setting off. The only one still in the cave was Bazak (and his ever present Grot, Gromit VII…or was it VIII by now), who managed to free his Thunder Hammer but lacked the ability to catch it, watching as it bounced off the floor of the cave and rebounded further in. Bazak retrieved his Thunder Hammer and was about halfway out of the cave when the Magos detonated. To the rest of the command crew, the sound was like the end of the world, the top of the cave blew clean off and a massive cloud of dust and heat came from the entrance, as did a flying Bazak, completely unconscious from the force of the detonation, flying some 50 meters and forming a small crater where he landed.

The remaining members of the command crew gathered up the Ork and, along with the unconscious form of Thelonious, strapped them in as they made haste to get the shuttle in the air so they could get the hell off the Seedworld. As Isendark flew them, at pace, back towards the exhaust port/opening they could see that the death of the Magos had flung the world into chaos, everything was reverting back to its natural behaviour, and that meant that the insects were forming together into huge swarms again, large enough to be dangerous. But it was not the swarms that proved to be the most dangerous thing on the planet as Isendark had to pull the shuttle into a serious of impressive manoeuvres to dodge between the legs of a giant, 6 legged, creature that was lumbering around the Seedworld. However, he could not avoid the tongue that lashed out, and uncoiled to a, barely believable, length and snared the shuttle, starting to pull it back down towards the creature and, despite Isendarks’ preternatural skills, even he could not free them from the grip.

Immediately, Rolaine, Yorke and Mistress Valentina had the back of the shuttle open, holding onto various implements in the hold and firing repeatedly at the tongue holding them… the Inferno Pistols and Bleeder rounds did their work and the creature let out a roar of pain, the tongue unravelling and the shuttle bursting forward. With the shuttles internal navigation system showing that they were nearing the exhaust port Isendarks’ piloting skills were not enough for them to avoid flying directly through a massive swarm of insects… the viewscreen on the shuttle exploded inwards and the inside of the shuttle was transformed into a swirling mass of bugs and chaos. The fact that all the members of the command crew had fully functioning, void capable, armour was what saved them, the bugs initial attack was blunted, although the distraction almost caused Isendark to crash the shuttle, only regaining control at the last second. Mistress Valentina tried to gather her powers and push most of the bugs away but the nature of the swarm, and the sheer number of them, made that less effective than she hoped.

Things were looking dire for the crew as the bugs started eating through their armour, which is what made Yorke decide on a “screw this” approach and, picking up a flamer from one of the shuttle’s compartments, sprayed flame indiscriminately around the shuttle. This did what she intended, which was to clear the bugs from the inside of the shuttle, but also set Mistress Valentina on fire… her screams echoed through the inside as the flames tried to claim her… luckily, Rolaine was on hand to push her down to the floor and put out the flames, before too much damage had been done. As the shuttle neared the exhaust port, Yorke finally got in contact with the Hope in the Void and, after Isendark set the shuttle on a collision course, the command crew teleported back to the ship, thanking the God-Emperor that the teleportarium doesn’t also transfer momentum! Given that the command crew usually teleports in damaged, the medical teams were on standby to take everyone but Isendark to the infirmary, everyone else had suffered nasty wounds during the fight. Yorke was still able to order the Macrocannon Broadsides to close off the exhaust port with a barrage before she let the sweet embrace of drugs enhanced oblivion take her.

The command crew, minus Isendark, was laid up for a couple of weeks, all told, which gave them time to call in a couple of system ships, who were ordered to maintain a perimeter around the Seedworld and let nothing off it, or onto it. With the danger of the Seedworld (mostly) fixed, the Hope in the Void headed for Cog… Thelonious wanted to know whether they had anything that could destroy the Seedworld as well as pick up with the two members of the Adeptus Mechanicus who had been studying Yu’vath artefacts, especially the head of the Emperor statue that he had bequeathed them, at what seemed like so long ago. Thelonious’s first question was answered in a disappointing fashion; it is really only the Inquisition and the Adeptus Astartes which hold the power and tools to destroy a planet, and Thelonious was not really keen to invite either of them into the Svard system. Thelonious also found that that his two “favourite” members of the Mechanicus had been busy, they had been collecting shards and samples from around the entire system whilst continuing to scan the objects Thelonious had given to them.

Thelonious was slightly concerned as the Tech Priests spoke to him about the occasional voices that they could hear from the head of the statue but, every single non-invasive test they had done; scans, heat, cold etc, had produced nothing other than the fact that the head was made of stone. Similarly, the scans they had done on the crystal they had found indicated that it didn’t actually exist, nothing they could use could see inside it… they were very grateful for all that had been given to them… but they returned the head to Thelonious. This was not exactly what he had planned so he had it taken to one of the cargo holds and turned into rubble, then had the rubble melted into slag, and then launched the slag towards the centre of the Gas Giant around which Svard circled… after all, you can’t be too careful when dealing with warp-tainted xenos artefacts. With the Svardian delegation loaded onto the Light of Elerius , the command crew decided that taking a trip to Damaris was in their best interests… they had to get back to Footfall eventually to drop off the ghostfire pollen, but they had an Astropath to drop off, as well as other ideas.

Before that, however, the command crew decided to take a “team building” trip into the Svardian wilderness, taking guides and trainers to teach them how to navigate in terrain such as this… Thelonious had identified as a massive weakness in the command crew that they often didn’t know where they were going! During this time, there was more focus on Isendarks’ jetpack training, with Rolaine showing great aptitude and even Bazak improving, but the rest of the crew who were trying it… not so good. After the command crew returned, rather bruised and tired, from their endeavours on Svard, it was time to go to Damaris… both the Hope in the Void and the Light of Elerius travelled to the edge of the system and translated into the warp, travelling the warp route they had discovered on their previous journey. Due to the nature of the warp in this area, the currents from Svard to Damaris tend to be very favourable to ships (but not those going the other way) and so it was that they translated back into the Damaris system a mere 10 days after leaving Svard, cutting their estimated journey time to less than a quarter of time than it should be.

Almost as soon as they had arrived in the Damaris system (and after using their Ultimo array to make sure everyone knew who it was), Thelonious was pleased to be hailed by Lady Elizabeth Orleans who, it turned out, had only just translated into Damaris herself. After the usual (between these two) banter back and forth, banter that made some on the command crew think that they might have to start planning for a wedding, and after an invitation to dinner from Lady Orleans, they both flew to the Bulwark, together. The command crew of the Hope in the Void had fond feelings towards Damaris… Bazak walked among the humans as their Champion, Mistress Valentina visited the Golden Terrier to see how they were getting on, Isendark visited the arena to view some of the less popular events and Thelonious spent his time meeting various dignitaries, Governor Kalpak included. Damaris was recovering well from the Ork onslaught… the fact that no areas of the city had truly fallen to the Xenos had helped with that and the command crew felt proud of what they had accomplished here.

During his dinner with Lady Orleans the conversation moved towards the “Search for the Dread Pearl” and about how it was Hadrek Fel, the Deepstalker’s nemesis, who had found the fabled planet but Thelonious had his own spin on the story… after all, they had found their own world that had the potential to enrich the house, so he claimed THAT as the Dread Pearl. Lady Orleans was happy to inform Thelonious that Hadrek Fel had claimed an Eldar Maiden World for his own, with perfect specimens of human kind, and that he had been visiting world after world showcasing this, garnering himself lots of attention in the process. It so happened that Fel’s next stop was going to be Damaris and that he was due in the next few days… Lady Orleans was at pains to point out that she didn’t want anything (ANYTHING) interrupting the trade of Damaris and that they should be civil with each other, at the very least. Thelonious, after the end of his lovely dinner, went to his command crew with this news and asked for their opinion as to what they should do.

The command crew was pretty unanimous about what they wanted… kill the bastard and hulk his ship… Lady Orleans would forgive them after all… however they did also mention that they followed the Lord High Captain for a reason and thus it was his overall decision, leaving Thelonious a lot to ponder. He knew that he wanted to, at the very least, annoy Fel but he didn’t know whether he wanted to destroy him in the space around Damaris… it was a little too public. However, the command crew used their relations with Commader Orran Reynolds to make sure that the usual translation areas in Damaris were clear of military and civilian vessels, leaving the Hope in the Void as their greeting committee. As their aethyric scanners picked up a growing warp signature the command crew looked to Thelonious, awaiting his decision for whether they were to greet Fel with words, or with guns… and as the Fel Hand appeared in front of them, along with two escorts, Thelonious stood and gave his command…

Chapter 37 – Strange Dreams and Momentous Idiots

Lt Haines hailed the Fel Hand , a Dauntless Class Light Cruiser that was brimming with weaponry and looked decidedly mean, and Thelonious found himself face to face (through the vast expanse of space anyway) with his hated Rival… Hadrek Fel.

Thelonious: “Greetings, this is the Grand Marshal of Damaris. I have been detailed to escort you to the Bulwark above Damaris, so follow me. Do not activate weapon systems or it will be seen as an act of aggression and punished… severely.”

Hadrek: “Since when are you the Grand Marshal of Damaris? Since when is House Deepstalker anything other than a minor house with no prospects?”

Thelonious signalled Yorke, who instantly gained a target lock on one of the Raider class vessels accompanying the Fel Hand . Fel’s face hardened slightly as this news was fed to him and he looked at Thelonious with a slightly quizzical expression, whilst maintaining his relatively calm demeanour.

Hadrek: “Why does one of my ships have a target lock Deepstalker? Surely you can see that you are outmatched and outgunned?”

Thelonious: “It would do well for you to act with a greater degree of decorum, Fel. You have spoken to Lady Orleans, you know why I am Grand Marshal of this system and the position demands respect!”

Hadrek: “The only thing that demands respect is someone’s current actions and I come here in triumph… I found the Dread Pearl and plundered if of its secrets and wealth… what can you say to that, Deepstalker?”

Thelonious: “Interesting you should mention that, as we found our own Dread Pearl. We found a planet, looted it of its riches and had to fight Daemons to get out… am I right in thinking that you only had to fight Eldar? How Passé.”

Fel looked like he was struggling to hold onto the civil façade that both he and Thelonious had been keeping up between them but both of them had been informed of Lady Orleans displeasure should anything happen in the Damaris system, and both of them wanted to court her as an ally so, eventually, the standoff was broken and both ships started heading into the system.

The raider class vessels made sure to keep between the Hope in the Void and the Fel Hand , partly due to caution but also as a defensive measure… given the journey from the outskirts to the planet can take around a day, there was a palpable sense of tension throughout the command crew and their vessel, which only increased during the rare conversations between ships. Whilst both Captains were civil to each other, they could not stop themselves from throwing in concealed insults at each other which, given the touchy nature of both of them, could have ignited the simmering tension between them but, to both command crews relief, nothing of the sort happened.

The Fel Hand waited for the Hope in the Void to start to dock on one side of the Bulwark before manoeuvring around to the completely opposite side, with the Raiders taking up berths near their parent ship. Through their respective information networks, both Thelonious and Yorke were able to keep tabs on Fel as he did the usual Rogue Trader entry, getting meetings with all the movers and shakers on Damaris, as well as paying his respects to the memorial for General Remi, although definitely NOT paying his respects to the statues of the “Heroes of Damaris.”

The invitation from Lady Orleans was quick to arrive after this, and it stated that Thelonious could bring two members of his command crew, which led to a lively debate about what kind of statement the Deepstalker House wanted to make to the Fel House… and what kind of insult they could get away with. One thing Thelonious wanted was that, whomever was not picked, would be stationed nearby… whilst he was confident that they could deal with anything Fel threw at them, it did not hurt to be careful.

Eventually it was decided that Bazak and Yorke would be Thelonious’s guests, partly because Bazak was definitely not who Fel (or Lady Orleans) would expect (and he was the planets duelling champion as well) and because Bazak would take a lot of the attention, which would allow Yorke’s skills in intelligence gathering to shine. Plus, it would be funny! Having been to the establishment before, Thelonious had warned Bazak and Yorke that they would be divested of their weapons and not to argue and so the rather cowed staff were relieved to be able to take the Champion of Damaris’s weapon without it causing a scene… although Lady Orleans face when she saw Bazak striding towards the table was worth giving up their weapons. As Fel arrived, Mistress Valentina could feel the power of his pet psyker from her position outside the restaurant, the lack of any subtlety to the power reminded Seri why she hated any psyker who was not an Astropath… they were just too gauche in how they used their abilities!

Fel had also brought his spymaster with him, a gentleman that he introduced, along with Lady Ash, as they took their seats opposite Thelonious, Bazak and Yorke, with Lady Orleans and two bodyguards separating them. Fel seemingly couldn’t take his eyes of Bazak for the longest time, his expression one of deepest hostility and Thelonious knew that he had made a masterstroke in inviting the Ork plus, again, funny! The starters passed in relatively strained silence, although the food was delicious, neither side really wanted to be here but Lady Orleans’ influence on Damaris was pervasive, and it was obvious that she wanted something from both of them. She began by flattering them with stories of their recent adventures and how they were both starting to become powers in the Expanse, as well as in their own right and that she wished to harness that in a combined endeavour. Lady Orleans had reliable information of a council of Eldar on a remote planet, she wanted to break into the system and kidnap their leaders, before ransoming them back… she wanted the firepower of the Hope in the Void and the Fel Hand to hold off the Eldar until this could be accomplished.

Given Thelonious’s other desires, that of capturing an Eldar Farseer for the Magos on Footfall, this seemed to be quite the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone so he indicated to Yorke that they would accept this opportunity. However, after a discussion with his spymaster, Hadrek Fel indicated his refusal of those terms… he thought the idea had merit but that he could not bring himself to work with the Deepstalker House, he was convinced they would turn upon him at the ideal time, a thought that had crossed Thelonious’s mind. After giving his apologies to Lady Orleans, and nodding slightly at the members of the Deepstalker house, Fel turned on his heels and left the restaurant, bringing to an end Lady Orleans idea. Thelonious did speak to her about the merits of the idea though, and promised to look into recruiting another Rogue Trader who they could actually trust, although that wouldn’t be Jeremiah Blitz… he didn’t have the temperament for this sort of work. Thelonious and his command crew took advantage of the wonderful food, and wonderful company, at the restaurant and left with friendships enhanced and a potential for profit in front of them.

With their main reason for visiting Damaris, which was checking up on their interests as well as revealing the existence of Svard to the Local Merchants… this was incredibly well received by the conglomerates on Damaris. The command crew took a detour to further investigate the Eldar Temple they had found the last time they were on the planet but, to Yorke’s dismay there was nothing further to find… the gate (if that was what it was) would never work again based on their knowledge of Eldar technology, what little they knew.

Thelonious did some investigation into the former champion of Damaris (whose corpse they still had in cold storage on the ship) and was disappointed to find very little else about him… the story was relatively well known about his origins and there wasn’t anything else that Thelonious could access. All in all, their visit to Damaris did not have anything of world shattering import happen, it was just escort duty for the Light of Elerius , which they would complete by taking it to Footfall, and then their paths would diverge.

A few months of travel later, both the Light of Elerius and the Hope in the Void translated into the Feribundus system, with the Light going to spread the news and introduce the Koronus Expanse to Svard, especially now the Styrix knew of the system, it would do well to have more ships visiting for their own safety. They were greeted, relatively warmly, by Lord Captain Locke, aboard the Aegis as they got closer to Footfall and the command crew was glad to converse with her, there was a lot of mutual respect between them, even if both Thelonious and Sylvia had wildly differing methods. As the Hope in the Void was docking with Footfall, the crew received an interesting communication from deep within their ship… something had been found that required the Lord High Captain’s personal attention. The command crew made their way down and through the bowels of the ship to see what had been found… what appeared to be a ships core cogitator, towering above them and filling the sub bay that they found it in.

The command crew got to work, with the help of the crew, in scanning the core cogitator with all the means at their disposal but, after a few hours of fruitless work, they couldn’t penetrate the shell of the core cogitator. It was Yorke that made a breakthrough first, she came across a name scribed on it, “ Gaunts Triumph ” and, after thinking about the name for a few minutes, realised that it was the name of an Imperial Battleship that had been lost near the Rifts of Hetacon quite a long time ago. This just seemed to be getting even more curious, which led to Thelonious requesting the Mistress Valentina scan the cogitator with her psyker powers because, anything that had been near the Rifts of Hetacon was not something to be trusted without using everything they could to scan it. At first the scan by Mistress Valentina didn’t seem to reveal anything but Seri wasn’t your average Astropath (if there was such a thing) and so she delved much deeper and in much more detail, focussing on areas based on her intuition and experience.

She quickly pulled her hand back when she realised what she had found, not enough to prevent the burst of chaos energy flowing through her and back into the cogitator and she warned everyone to stand back as it started glowing… everyone who looked at it felt sick just looking at it, as the colour slowly changed from pink to green to blue to red and then into a black and purple combination… this was not good news! Everyone quickly vacated the area and it was placed under quarantine as it did not appear to be moving from the core cogitator, but the idea of plugging it into their own ship was revealed to be the folly it was. Some investigation was undertaken to see just how this had arrived on their ship and, after an exhaustive search of the Ultimo Array’s logs, it was realised that the Styrix had teleported the cogitator aboard during their negotiations… although why they had wanted rid of it (other than it being tainted) was unknown… Thelonious had quite a few things to “discuss” with them the next time he met that race. In the meantime, Constanine undertook the task of containing whatever taint was within the cogitator and, hopefully, sending it back to ‘sleep’ until a more permanent solution could be found.

With that problem “solved,” Thelonious made sure to send the Ghostfire Pollen to the factorums dealing with the Seven Witches, another thing checked off their (ever decreasing) list and otherwise collected everything they had ordered before, including a Zaythian Warblade for Isendark, along with rumours of some kind of outbreak on that war world… although, what the outbreak was, no-one knew. The command crew was not exactly planning on staying on Footfall for too much longer, they had things to do and things to capture after all. It was Yorke that received the message that there was a very pompous and demanding person at the foot of their docking port, insisting to see the Captain of the ship in the name of the Inquisition so, with a shake of her head, she strode out to meet this person. Yorke was immediately unimpressed to be called “woman” by the stranger and her mood did not exactly improve the more he spoke. He was Garvin Delearth, a member of the Imperial Inquisition as it was extremely important that he and his team get to Scintilla, post haste!

He was also only prepared to show his accreditation to the Captain of the vessel not some menial servant or lackey… Yorke managed to keep her cool, just, and promised that she would go and talk to the Captain, whilst telling some of the guards to take Garvin into one of the guest meeting rooms. Slightly wary of assassins, Thelonious detailed Rolaine to pretend to be the Deepstalker and went back into the room, as well as Yorke, and Rolaine took the lead with the negotiations. Garvin continued to be loud and obnoxious to both Yorke and Thelonious, whilst being relatively respectful to the “Captain” and setting down what he required of them.

Thelonious: “The Captain requires you to show us some proof of your claim before we will deal with you.”

Garvin: “Who is this? Why do you let your lackeys speak for you Captain?”

Rolaine: “He is a trusted member of my staff, you will answer him.”

With great reluctance, Garvin pulled out his Inquisitorial Rosette and brandished it at them, wielding it the way you would a bludgeon, waving it in all their faces for everyone to see… understated is not a word that he seemed to be associated with.

Garvin: “I am the leader of a band of Acolytes, reporting to Inquisitor Staven Arcutus…”

Thelonious: “YOU’RE NOT EVEN AN INQUISITOR?!?”

Garvin immediately backhanded Thelonious across the face, looking at Rolaine and informing the “Captain” that she should keep her lackeys under more control, that they should know better than to interrupt a member of the Inquisition… Yorke had actually fallen off her chair laughing at this incident.

Rolaine nodded to Thelonious and said “How do you want to proceed, Lord High Captain?” which made the Interrogator stop dead in his tracks as Thelonious threw off his cloak to reveal the markings of THE Rogue Trader of the Deepstalker House.

This seemed to take the wind out of Garvin’s sales as Thelonious informed the Interrogator that, on this side of the Maw, he was the one who was God-Emperor ordained to bring the light of humanity to others and that, if he struck him again, it would be the last thing he did. Thelonious then brought himself a bit more under control and asked Garvin why he needed to get through the Maw so urgently. It appears that the Interrogators team had been hunting an Eldar group known as the Crow Spirits and had recovered some artefacts from them that needed to be studied by the proper authorities.

The command crew, who had all joined the Captain (apart from Bazak) questioned the Interrogator, figuring out that this was his first field command in 8 years as an Interrogator, which explained a lot! Yorke, after a bit of investigation by her spies, learned that Garvin had been approaching everyone… every Chartist Captain, Rogue Trader and Imperial Navy Ship in the vicinity and they had all turned him down, probably due to his “manner.” Thelonious agreed to transport him, and his team, and his artefacts, after seeing how pathetic this man actually was, but told Garvin that his team would be under guard all the time and would not be allowed out of their rooms unescorted. With very little other options, and the command crew knew this, Garvin accepted and promised they would be compensated by his Inquisitor (although everyone knew he had no real authority to promise anything). After he, and his team, were safely stowed away on board with the artefacts, the command crew continued to oversee the new supplies that were coming on board… everything seemed to be calming down after that little bit of excitement.

That night everyone, except Bazak, had a very similar dream where someone from their past (Father for Thelonious, Inquisitor for Rolaine, God-Emperor for Seri etc) asked them for help before fading into a blue ethereal figure and then faded completely away… it made everyone have a restless night’s sleep and meant that most of them were grumpy at breakfast. After breakfast, the command crew went to oversee the last preparations before they went through the Maw… it was a journey that had been a long time coming… the Deepstalker House was going to return to the Calixis sector after their self-imposed exile. It was during this downtime that Natasha Yorke, who was moving through the maintenance area, looking for someone to look at her Servo-Skull for upgrades, had to dodge to the side as a corpse came slamming down from somewhere above her. She could see that the worker had been killed in a very efficient manner and her senses went into overdrive, she started walking along until she found another corpse, and quickly realised they had intruders.

Getting in contact with the rest of the command crew, she asked that they make their way to the Teleportarium… she was going to track the intruders and then teleport them there, where the command crew could make short work of them. She soon found a group of people, wearing long cloaks that covered their entire form, moving through the maintenance area and something about their movements just seemed… off. Using her ability to shadow people, Yorke managed to keep them within a line of sight and watched as they brutally and silently killed another worker, which caused Yorke to gasp at the speed of their movements, which allowed them to hear her… almost in unison the cloaks came off and up came Shuriken Catapults pointing directly at her. She immediately put her hands up, having recognised the intruders as Eldar, and spoke to them in their own tongue, a move that they were not expecting at all, even if her accent was completely and utter atrocious. Whilst they were on the back foot, metaphorically speaking, Yorke rammed home the advantage, asking them if Farseer Beljalanor had sent them.

If the Eldar could have been put back anymore on their heels, Yorke did not see how, she could hear them communicating in a low murmur before one of the Eldar stepped forward and introduced herself as Babd Ra, of the Crow Spirits, although the number of troops that were congregating in the general area might have had something to do with that… the Eldar had lost the element of surprise and knew they were outnumbered and outgunned. Yorke invited them to put their weapons down, although they could keep them, and come and meet the Lord High Captain where they could discuss this like friends, or at least, not like enemies. The command crew greeted the Eldar in one of the Arboretums and Thelonious was not best pleased, he had specific things about people taking out things he held dear, and the crew of the Hope in the Void were definitely useful to him. The Eldar started out in their usual way, demanding that which is theirs be handed over to them… Thelonious countered that he had quite good relations with their race and they should have just asked, again, not what they were expecting.

Babd Ra claimed that the command crew had a stone in their possession that belonged to the Eldar and, when Thelonious asked them why they thought they had anything of theirs the answer quickly came back…

“Because you were on Damaris.”

SPOILER WARNING

We are now starting to play through the Fallen Suns Campaign.

If you are aiming to play this setting and want it to be a surprise best stop reading now.

I'll let you know when we're done

Chapter 38 – The Beginning of a Legend?

After a short negotiation, Thelonious offered to take Babd Ra around the Hope in the Void to see if she could sense, or otherwise find, the artefact that she was looking for… after all, Thelonious was always courteous to those he could get something from. What he was, also, was someone who wanted payback for the death of thirty of his crew and so, when Babd Ra, Yorke and himself had left the Arboretum, a command went out in Deepstalker Cant for a squad of Stormtroopers to be teleported in and the rest of the Eldar to be killed. So, as Thelonious was showing Babd Ra around the ship, where she was failing to find what she thought they had, the rest of the Eldar were being taken by surprise and slaughtered… with the rest of the command crew taking their armour and weapons, and gathering the blue stones up into a pouch. To say that she was FURIOUS when they came back to the Arboretum would be one of the understatements of the Koronus Expanse but she was, more than anything, a pragmatist and was able, just, to control her anger.

Thelonious stated that he would make sure that the bodies were returned to the Eldar as she replied that she still needed to get to the Serpents Cradle, and that she would rather go there herself but that didn’t seem to be an option with the mon-keigh’s at present. She tried to dissuade the command crew from going to the Serpents Cradle, saying that they were meddling in an Eldar matter that would not be appreciated… but Thelonious just smiled at her. Given they were going to the same place, Thelonious gave Babd Ra an ultimatum… either she agreed to go into Stasis for the journey, in which case he would allow her to keep the spirit stones of her people or… well, there wasn’t really an “or,” both of them were smart enough to know that “or” would result in her death. As this “negotiation” was being concluded, Mistress Valentina started to sense a familiar, yet different, singing in her head… not wanting to listen to an Eldar psychic call again, she drew her Stub Automatic and fired a shot at the back of Babd Ra.

Everything seemed to happen at once; the Eldar dodged to one side, the bullet passing between Thelonious and Babd Ra, Rolaine then dived at Mistress Valentina and grabbed her wrists, pushing them up towards the roof of the Arboretum. This did not stop Mistress Valentina from screaming, slightly incoherently, at the Eldar, shouting for them to stop their stupid singing! Thelonious had stepped between the two of them and shot a querying eye towards Babd Ra who closed her eyes and then looked at Mistress Valentina with a degree of respect as well as contempt “your Astropath is indeed well attuned to the song of the Warp. I can feel a psychic presence aboard this ship, one of the Eldar!” A wave of psychic force then, for those who could sense it, passed through the ship; Mistress Valentina started receiving reports from her choir, a few members had passed out at the power of the psychic wave. Bazak had been looking at this confrontation for a little while and decided that he should end it… so the Ork threw a stinkbomb into the middle of the group.

The attack was non-lethal, although those who didn’t manage to hold their breath did not think so as they were retching, rolling around on the floor and vomiting all over themselves… including the Eldar. The singing in Mistress Valentina’s head, which was strong enough to break through the severe nausea she was feeling, had stabilised, which was a blessed relief as she slowly, and unsteadily, got to her feet. Bazak, striding through the carnage, had placed cuffs on the Eldar… which seemed to be the entire point of the plan and the Ork grinned at the rest of the command crew, grins which were, most certainly, not returned. Babd Ra spoke, she could feel the psychic call somewhere on the ship… but it was Thelonious who denied permission for her to come with them… he was sure that he knew where the call was coming from, so he directed the command crew to the main Temple-Shrine to the God Emperor, ordering out Constantine’s acolytes and having the place locked down with guards.

Mistress Valentina confirmed that the call was coming from the stasis field that contained the relic of St Drusus, something that Constantine was not prepared to accept without proof… it had been part of his religious ceremony for quite a while now and the thought that it could be something from the vile Xenos was not a nice thought. The command crew was somewhat split on what to do with it… Mistress Valentina wanted to destroy it, Constantine wanted to preserve the human relic, Thelonious and Yorke wanted to open it, although they did not know how and the rest of the command crew watched from the sidelines. Thelonious, although he did not like doing it, pulled rank over the rest of the crew and approached the relic, shaking his head slightly as a 15 digit code was somehow imparted into his mind, as if it was the most important thing in the world. He stepped up to the stasis field and entered the code and the room was filled with the sound of powering down machinery.

The stasis field opened slightly, green light shining forth before the box opened fully, peeling apart like a flower in bloom as the light faded, leaving a pale green stone in the middle of the, now deactivated, stasis field. The stone was still connected by a few wires to the machinery inside the relic box and was covered in the runic script of the Eldar, something that made Constantine shake his head in disappointment and change his stance to that mandated by Mistress Valentina… destroy the obvious fake! As soon as the stasis field had dropped entirely, however, the singing sound in Mistress Valentina’s head stopped, and her mood improved immeasurably. Thelonious was looking at the Eldar Runestone, trying to figure out a way to remove it safely… but that was far too slow and so he just reached in and pulled, ripping the stone out of the stasis field, but rendering the field inoperative in the process… it turns out that treating an ancient and hallowed piece of technology as a child’s chew toy has some consequences.

However, as soon as his hand touched the Eldar stone, he felt a voice inside his head asking him if he was open for communication… the spirit identified itself as Farseer Anaris, of the craftworld Lu’Nassad. Thelonious asked his command crew to open their minds to allow the Farseer to communicate with them all, but Mistress Valentina only agreed to read Thelonious’s thoughts via a Mind Link, something that Constantine also allowed to happen… neither of them wanted the foul Xenos in their minds… by proxy was much preferable. As the crew opened their minds to the Farseer, his melodic voice filled their thoughts.

“Welcome, fated ones. I am Farseer Anaris of the Craftworld Lu’Nassad. This was once a beautiful place, full of art and wonder, and one that managed to escape the Fall of my people. However, in escaping, it fell into the hands of those you call Chaos and now returns to the Koronus Expanse to finish its deadly work.”

“The strands of fate are clear to me that, although there are many outcomes in the future, if you are not part of the solution to this blighted world, then the entire Koronus Expanse is doomed.”

“I was the last survivor to leave my former home and I wandered, aimlessly, until I died. My stone spent millennia on a barren world until it was found by unscrupulous humans who placed me in stasis, painted Imperial symbols on the outside of the casket and then sold me to the early colonists of Damaris.”

“I subtly manipulated the Bishop to allow me to leave the planet with this ship as I had seen, as have others of my kind, that something disastrous was coming and you have great things in your future, if you can survive this. I sensed the return of the Craftworld not long ago and tried to reach out to each of you, but the stasis field sapped my strength and I was only able to invade your dreams in a way that your primitive minds could not comprehend.”

“You may have heard rumours, of seen signs, of entire worlds being wiped out with nary a sign of what caused it, this is the work of the Craftworld… it now spreads madness and death anywhere it travels, anywhere in its wake is doomed. You are required to stop it closing the Maw, which would condemn the entire sector to a 10,000 year reign of Chaos!”

It was at this point that Thelonious interrupted, asking the Farseer of the ship, Whisper of Anaris was actually his, to which he received an affirmative… Thelonious told the Farseer that the ship had already helped them out once before which the Farseer, wryly, noted that he was aware of that!

“What my people are planning, in the Serpents Cradle, will fail without your involvement… they have called a meeting that has not been called for a long time, you need to be present at the meeting to put across my viewpoint. Without your involvement, their plans will fail… you are called to a higher duty, members of the Hope in the Void … how will you respond?”

After a discussion between the command crew about what to do… Thelonious wanted to become a Legend and thought this was most certainly the way to do with, Yorke wanted to be close to the Eldar for “medical” reasons, Bazak didn’t care, Mistress Valentina and Constantine were against working with the Eldar but pro saving the Expanse and Rolaine and Isendark were mostly neutral. Farseer Anaris pleaded with them to make going to the Serpents Cradle their number one priority and, after a debate, it was decided that they would first fly to the Adeptus Mechanicus compound that circled Feribundus and then onto the Serpents Cradle, although they were also thinking about how they were going to manage to not be blown out of the sky by the Eldar when they appeared! Yorke offered to look after the Spirit Stone but Thelonious knew how much of an Eldarphile Yorke was and decided to keep it with him for now… to which the rest of the crew let out a sigh of relief… Yorke + Eldar never seemed to end well.

As the Hope in the Void moved towards the Adeptus Mechanicus facility Yorke, who was manning the augur arrays as usual, saw something appear on their scans and start rapidly moving towards them, something that had been on silent running and had not been spotted before! Just as Yorke was going to inform the crew, Lt Haines piped up that they were receiving a hail. Thelonious looked at his Seneschal with a “do better next time” expression and then sighed, turned his chair towards the main holotank and signalled for the channel to be opened. The Eldar who appeared introduced himself as Istaurmen Garadhun, with Yorke informing the Lord High Captain that Istaurmen was a title, and not the Eldar’s name, with it indicating that he was a high level Diplomat.

Garadhun: “We have detected a psychic signal coming from your ship that we have aligned to that of an Eldar Farseer. What do you have to say in response to that?”

Thelonious: “We do indeed have an Eldar Farseer on board this ship, he is here of his own volition, however.”

Garadhun: “Of course… and the name of this Farseer?”

Thelonious: “Farseer Anaris.”

Now, Thelonious had a lot of experience dealing with the Eldar… some among the crew might even say too much, and he knew that they had very good poker faces… so the fact that the Istaurmen had a look of shock pass over his features, however briefly, keyed Thelonious in to just how high the Crow Spirits held this Farseer in their regard. When Garadhun spoke next, it had a greater degree of respect for Thelonious than had otherwise been present before. The conversation quickly turned towards Babd Ra and her cohort, to which Thelonious informed the Istaurmen that Babd Ra was fine, and unhurt, but unfortunately the same could not be said about the rest of the cohort… but the bodies and spirit stones were safe and sound and would be returned once they reached the Serpents Cradle… which almost made Garadhun choke when he mentioned that name.

Thelonious: “Yes, the Serpents Cradle, we were just on our way there, would you like to tag along with us?”

Garadhun: “Well, if you insist on coming to something that is Eldar Business, even with Farseer Anaris, then you will follow us.”

Just before the video link cut off, the command crew could see the Istaurmen turn to the side and slowly shake his head, as if in bewilderment before Isendark took the Hope in the Void through a series of manoeuvres to line it up behind the Eldar Ship, which they were informed was called the Fates Call . Both ships slipped seamlessly into the Warp, the Eldar ship deciding not to use the Webway since they needed to guide the Hope in the Void to the Serpents Cradle, although they did use a route that was unfamiliar with the Navigators on the ship, yet more prizes for the Navigator House. After around a month in transit, both ships dropped out of the Warp and into realspace, with Yorke immediately noting that this system was very strange, perfect orbits of all the planets between a Binary Star layout should not be possible but, more urgently, there were right in the middle of an Asteroid Field, which even their Ultimo Array had trouble penetrating. They could see a lot of debris from Imperial Vessels in the field but, strangely, the ships themselves were missing.

Isendark did his usual quality flying, making the much less manoeuvrable Hope in the Void look like a sparkling ballerina as he matched the Fates Call ’s movements exactly. As they moved through the asteroid field, Yorke was able to narrow down the search band on the augurs and pick out some interesting things… there appeared to be another two cruisers in the vicinity as well as numerous frigate style ships, which brought home to the command crew how much faith they were putting in Farseer Anaris… because if that faith proved misplaced, they were not getting out alive! They also spotted their destination, a Haven Class Eldar Spire, which could hold a vast number of the Xenos and which had a strange kind of beauty to it, although Mistress Valentina and Constantine remained blind to that. Isendark pulled the Hope into a docking position and the station sent across the docking pod and, with that, the command crew became part of the meeting, to which they were informed that they should bring EXACTLY 17 people to the meeting.

So, before the meeting, the command crew held a gathering to decide just who would be joining them… and it was then that Thelonious shared his plan. You see, Thelonious still had not forgiven the Crow Spirits for murdering 30 of his crew, he took umbrage to that sort of thing, and saw this as a perfect chance to annoy the crap out of the Eldar, whilst still holding Farseer Anaris over their heads so they couldn’t do anything about it. The first thing was to have both Bazak and his Grot as members of the 17 and, after talking to the Farseer about Eldar protocols, it was decided they would sit at the table as well (a position of great importance). Secondly, given they were only able to take melee weapons in with them for protection, it was decided that everyone other than the Captain (who was taking his Eldar Mirrorswords) would take the knife-like weapons from Babd Ra’s cohort and wear them proudly, in easy view of all the other Crow Spirits. The rest of the crew went along with this plan whole heartedly and, after a quick jaunt to bring Babd Ra with them (who was extremely confused by where they were) the 17 from the Hope in the Void, consisting of the command crew, a giggling grot and house guards, entered the Eldar Station.

This was the first time any in the command crew had been on an Eldar Station and the differences with a human station was particular jarring. Firstly, there was a smell, a slightly sickly sweet mix; secondly the sheer quiet… there was neither the roar of plasma engines nor the sound of prayers to the God-Emperor, although that was soon taken up by Constantine and, in short order, the human members of the Hope were singling lustily. As they approached some double doors at the end of the corridor, a couple of Eldar Guardians moved to open them but before they could do that, Mistress Valentina sent a psychic push ahead of them, opening the doors with a massive bang to announce the crew of the Hope in the Void . As they entered the room, they could see two separate groups of Eldar waiting for their arrival; one group in the colours of the Crow Spirits and the other in the colours of Craftworld Kaelor. Thelonious was pleased to see that the head of the Craftworld delegation was Farseer Beljalanor and Thelonious greeted him with a respectful tilt of the head.

The Eldar next to Beljalanor returned the tilt of the head with a scowl and Thelonious chuckled slightly to himself at the sight of Captain Opwith having to be civil to humans, once again. The Crow Spirits delegation was unknown to them, although they did slightly know Babd Ra, who was quick to head over to be with her people… and the looks of hatred on their faces as they saw who, and what, the command crew had brought with them, it was a sight to behold. Thelonious was quick to pick up on the clothing that both sides were wearing… that of the Crow Spirits looked a lot newer than those of Craftworld Kaelor, but Kaelor seemed to be much more at ease with their formal outfits… Thelonious opined, to himself, that the Crow Spirits would be at a disadvantage in such a rarefied atmosphere. The command crew took their seats in the prearranged way and then the business of diplomacy started… or it would have, had the Crow Spirits got the memo… their Farseer, who introduced himself, gruffly, as Caelle, immediately asked what the mon-keighs were even doing there.

Before anyone could answer, the last set of double doors slammed open and in came/danced/snuck a group of the strangest Eldar the command crew had ever seen… each of them seemed to be garishly dressed, there was tittering and gibbering from them and they moved in ways that only made sense to them… they were introduced as the Harlequins. Beljalanor took that as a good sign and answered Caelle directly, informing everyone in the room that, according to his prophecies, these humans would be needed to combat Lu’Nassad… to which Caelle answer back, deadly serious, that no humans would be needed to combat THEIR homeworld… a sentence that made the eyebrows of most of the command crew reach for their foreheads. Thelonious gave a heartfelt apology to them, whilst he had never lost his homeworld, his Dynasty had almost fallen and, well, it was the same thing to him! The mood in the room was not the best and it didn’t get much better, with Caelle sniping at the humans every chance he got and Beljalanor trying to get them all to agree.

The turning point came when Thelonious, in an off-hand manner, mentioned Farseer Anaris (time to put their nuclear option on the table) and the reaction in the Crow Spirit’s ranks was amazing, there was muted murmuring and, once again, the command crew saw the façade of the Eldar fall away… especially when Thelonious took out the Spirit Stone and laid it on the table. After being given permission to approach, Farseer Caelle moved over and placed his hand on the Spirit Stone and, over the few minutes of silent conversation, his face moved from the typically superior cast of the Eldar to one of a kicked puppy… Farseer Caelle went back to his chair and then informed the gathering that he had been convinced of the necessity of the humans, even if he, personally, did not like it. Both the Farseers, Caelle and Beljalanor, then combined their powers to allow Farseer Anaris to speak to all present in the room and he explain, quite eloquently, the stakes of the return of Lu’Nassad but, just as he was starting his soaring oratory, the doors behind the Eldar groups slammed open.

The Eldar, especially those from Craftworld Kaelor, looked disturbed at this breach of protocol but as they removed themselves, the command crew could hear “the Whisper of Anaris has returned” and then, to the chagrin of the Eldar, the Whisper moved to dock with the Hope in the Void . Both Eldar groups excused themselves from the meeting, leading the command crew and the Harlequins in the meeting room, although the command crew soon made quick time back to their ship… they wanted to see the Whisper of Anaris for themselves. As the command crew gathered in the airlock there was a sense of anticipation, being the first people to set foot on a legendary ghost vessel, it was something to be marvelled at. The smell of the ship was the same, there was the same lack of prayer and noise that the Eldar Station had… the one area where there was a difference was in the fact that the Whisper was crewed entirely by ghosts… which Yorke pointed out was quite different, and when Mistress Valentina saw these psychic echo’s she just shook her head, turned around, and went back onto the Hope .

After a rather strange tour, with Anaris communing with the ship and, to all intents and purposes, feeling like he had come home, he asked the command crew for information to help him find Lu’Nassad, pointing out that the second core cogitator they had on board had an “essence” that reminded him of Lu’Nassad… intrigued, the command crew had it brought across and installed on the Whisper . As the lights dimmed and then cycled through the same colours they had seen before, they wondered if they had made a horrific mistake but, just as their thoughts were turning to “how do we escape and blow this ship up” Farseer Anaris commented that he had cleansed it of the corruption and was now searching for the Craftworld. As they were waiting, the proximity alarms went off and, soon enough, the command crew was joined by 5 Harlequins, 7 Crow Spirits and 6 Dire Avengers from Craftworld Kaelor… leading this group, nominally, was Babd Ra, who looked exceedingly happy to be working with them again… if they could have read her emotions through her mask anyway…

After learning they were there to be commanded by the Deepstalker Dynasty, to which Thelonious said one word “Good!” Thelonious started asking Farseer Anaris about the plan for the Craftworld. When he learned that, by interfacing with the Craftworld, the entire ghost crew of the Whisper would be sent to their final rest, Thelonious, quite rightly, started asking about how he and his crew were going to get off. The answer of “you will find a way, there are many shuttles on the Craftworld” was not exactly satisfactory but, before he could protest, Farseer Anaris stated that he had found where Lu’Nassad was going… Footfall and the Maw! After hearing that they would be taking the Webway, because the Farseer could only protect a certain number of people, Thelonious ordered Marcia Cross to take command of the Hope in the Void and take it back to Footfall by “usual” means… no way in hell was Thelonious going to leave his ship here, in hostile Eldar territory, especially after his command crews’ display at the meeting.

This was a voyage unlike any the command crew had encountered or experienced… for one, there were no shutters that came down over the windows to protect from the Warp, as the Webway utilised different means to travel than human ships. The silence from the crew was quite unnerving and the lack of incense and prayer from large numbers of people was quite disturbing for everyone… so much so that Mistress Valentina and Constantine spent most of the journey locked in a room, smelling the familiar fragrance of incense, praying together and, in general, blocking out the entire journey with their mental fortitude. Two advantages the journey in the Webway did have, however, was that there was no risk of a Gellar field failing, and the distance between the Serpents Cradle and Footfall was eaten up faster than the command crew would have thought possible, barring the vagaries of Warp Travel anyway. As the Whisper of Anaris exited the Webway at the edge of the Feribundus system, the long range augurs picked out some unsettling information.

Footfall was being blockaded by a fleet of Chaos Reavers, totalling 1 Battlecruiser, 3 Cruisers, 3 Heavy Raiders and 6 Raider class vessels, although they seemed to be holding their position in the middle of the system. The situation on the long range augurs showed the Footfall was in an absolute frenzy of activity, ships moving off to the Maw, even ships that were not warp capable were being sent towards there, anything to get away from what appeared to be their impending doom. More detailed scans identified the Chaos Reavers as being under the command of Karad Vall, an infamous Pirate Lord of the expanse and the Battlecruiser was his flagship, Optimous Nemesis , a ship that is rarely seen across the expanse, at least by those who survive. The chaos around Footfall was not all encompassing, however… the scans picked up 1 Cruiser and 3 Light Cruisers in a defensive position, shielding Footfall, and the command crew was heartened to see that one of them was the Aegis . Freedoms Price, The Fel Hand and Annihilator made up the rest of the command protecting Footfall… but they were seriously outnumbered.

The first thing that the command crew realised was that they had to get in contact with the defenders of Footfall but they could not send a message from the Whisper of Anaris because they were currently hidden, and they wanted to keep it that way. Babd Ra, overhearing the discussion, chimed in that, with the help of the Farseer, she could take a small group along a webway portal into Footfall itself, although they would have to be blindfolded and deafened so as not to reveal the location to non-Eldar. Mistress Valentina objected to having a psi-inhibitor put on her, so she was not going to be making the journey but Yorke, Thelonious and Rolaine eventually acceded to the Eldar’s requirements. After finding their way to Footfall, the trio made their way directly to the Deepstalker compound, where they were happy to see that most of the staff were still on duty, and set up a secure, Adeptus Mechanicus encrypted, call with Sylvia Locke. To say that she was confused to receive the message was an understatement, but her relief shone through as well.

Sylvia Locke quickly conferenced in the rest of the “defenders” of Footfall; Naj Armardi gave a nod of respect, Krawkin Feckward was his usual dismissive self and Hadrek Fel looked like someone had force fed him curdled milk, but they were all listening to Sylvia Locke and thus listening to Thelonious. Thelonious took a deep breath and started with “This is going to sound very strange, but this is what is happening…”

SPOILER WARNING

We are now starting to play through the Fallen Suns Campaign.

If you are aiming to play this setting and want it to be a surprise best stop reading now.

I'll let you know when we're done

Chapter 39 – Along came a (Warp) Spider

“Exalted Lord-Captains;

I am glad to see you all here today, defending against the vile taint of Chaos. I see you all and recognise your worth.

Lord-Captain Locke; you have served with distinction, not only on Damaris but also during the second siege of Vaxanide and you held the line during the Battle of the Twin Planets.

Lord-Captain Armardi; You have fought numerous Xenos threats throughout the Expanse and have eradicated at least three, enabling the Manifest Destiny of the Imperium to become more of a reality.

Lord-Captain Feckward; You are an irrepressible agent of Trade in all its forms, with an unmatched mastery of the manifold uses of a Warrant of Trade.

Lord-Captain Fel; You are a cunning and tenacious combatant and recently found the Eldar Maiden World known as the ‘Dread Pearl’ which you then plundered for its riches.

Before I share the dire news that I bare, I have a proposition for all of you… actually, more a statement. For the duration of the battle and a year and a day thereafter, I shall treat the Feribundus system as Neutral Ground amongst you all. I will not use violence against you, or your crew, except in self-defence and I will not use underhand tactics in trade negotiations or dealings with you. I will do this regardless of whether you agree to my proposition or not… as we are all here, united in one purpose… to defend Footfall from the vile predations of Chaos. I propose that you all, sans Lord-Captain Locke, sign up to the same proposition. What do you say?”

The expressions on the various Lord-Captains’ faces spoke volumes about where their thoughts were… Locke and Armardi both had looks of respect upon their features, Feckward looked like he thought Thelonious was a massive cretin and, perhaps most worryingly, Fel looked very thoughtful indeed. During the ensuing conversation, the command crew realised that Feckward was not exactly here of his own free will, something had happened between him and Sylvia Locke… the expectations was that he would try and scarper as soon as he could get away with it. Locke and Armardi were both keen proponents of the Imperium and were thus reliable, which left Hadrek Fel… who indicated his agreement with Thelonious’s idea, but that did nothing to dissuade the sense of unease at the ease of his agreement. All of them wanted to hear of the dire news that Thelonious had to impart and the Chaos Fleet would give Thelonious’s words even more weight than they would have had before… it was time to let them in on the truth.

His pronouncement of a Chaos planetoid, which was travelling through the Warp on the way to the Feribundus system, with the intention of closing the Maw was met with disbelief by Feckward and Fel, calm consideration by Armardi and acceptance by Locke, although she was also thinking about why these things only seemed to happen around Thelonious! Thelonious shared with them the fact that the planetoid brings madness and death to all around it, cleansing planets completely of life… in this, he was, surprisingly, supported by Krawkin Feckward who reported similar findings across planets where he had gone to pick up “cargo,” with most people seeming to have killed each other for no reason. Thelonious, interspaced with comments from Yorke, described how they had fought off an insertion of Eldar onto their vessel, which had led them to a meeting with the Vile Xenos, but where they had found common cause in stopping the Chaos Planetoid, which had then led them back to Footfall and now to this conference.

Thelonious informed the gathered Lord-Captains that his command crew had access to the Whisper of Anaris and that they planned to interface the ship with the Chaos Planetoid which would, somehow, allow the threat to be averted… the command crew did not obfuscate on purpose, they didn’t really have any idea how it would work. The command crew did make clear that they did not expect the Lord-Captains to sacrifice their ships, they were hopeful that they would be able to get through by evasion, rather than by brute force, and given the Chaos Fleet had not actually attacked anything, but instead was just maintaining the blockade, so there did not seem to be any massive danger, at the moment, to the Lord-Captains. Just as everyone was digesting what they had been told, in the background of each of the holo-personas sensor alarms started blaring. Lord-Captain Locke sent the sensor readings to the command crew and they could clearly see a large sensor mark had entered the Feribundus system and the Chaos Fleet had immediately begun to move towards it.

Isendark, who had plotted many a journey through the void, was able to figure out that the Chaos Planetoid was on course to slingshot around the star to gain enough speed to access Footfall, whilst the majority of the Chaos Fleet was moving to interdiction positions, to prevent anyone else accessing the Planetoid. The Optimus Nemesis , on the other hand, was on a direct course with the Chaos Planetoid, what the command crew knew was the Craftworld of Lu’Nassad… suddenly things had become a lot more real! Isendark also relayed that the Craftworld would be in position around the star in 25 hours, and, following that trajectory, would be around Footfall in 52 hours, they had just over 2 days to stop the Craftworld before it laid waste to the system because, even if they could stop it before it closed the Maw, the loss of Footfall and the Adeptus Mechanicus facility would be a hammer blow to the region… indeed, the entire Expanse! Thelonious suspended the conference with the Lord-Captains and took the mood of his command crew, how were they going to get to the Craftworld?

Thelonious, himself, asked the question to Farseer Anaris, regarding whether they would be able to use the Webway to access the Craftworld, to which the Farseer responded that Thelonious was very good at thinking like an Eldar… which Thelonious reluctantly decided to take as a compliment. The Farseer explained that the Craftworld had been ripped from the Webway but that tendrils of it would be accessible, if they could reattach one of those tendrils to the Webway, then they could access it… but there was the danger that the corruption of Lu’Nassad could spread to the Whisper of Anaris but Thelonious was willing to take that chance. It was when the Farseer started talking about how he would need a psyker of sufficient power to blend his mind with, to ensure the stability of the connection, that Mistress Valentina sighed loudly and looked askance at the Captain. Further work needed to be done to interface the Gaunts Triumph cogitator with the Webway portal in the Whisper of Anaris and the ship would have to fly close to one of the tendrils as well… there were so many things that could go wrong, but Thelonious and the command crew thought it worth the risk, to avoid the Chaos Fleet.

With that, Thelonious informed the other Lord-Captains of his plan, asked them to keep their positions and prevent the Chaos Fleet from getting close to the refugees, but otherwise to take no offensive actions. The command crew, those that were on Footfalll, were then taken back through the Webway by Badb Ra and found themselves back on the Whisper of Anaris , where the real work needed to be done. Bazak, Yorke and Isendark worked closely together to decouple the ships cogitator and then reattach it to the Webway Portal… both humans happy to go along with the Orks, sometimes bizarre, orders as they had no idea what they were doing, but that seemed to be Bazak’s strength. With the connections in place, Mistress Valentina and Farseer Anaris combined their psychic powers and reached out into the Ether, looking for tendrils from the Craftworld… Seri was the one responsible for keeping their connection to the Whisper whilst the Farseer was searching for the tendrils and, despite her personal disgust at having to link with the Farseer, Mistress Valentina did a superlative job.

After they figured out which tendril they were aiming for, it became a combination of Isendark and Mistress Valentina, as the tendrils kept moving and thus the Whisper needed to be course-corrected many times over the course of the voyage but, due to the skills of the crew, eventually the ship was in the correct area and the Webway gate suddenly came alive. This had taken the command crew 15 hours to get into the right place and they were aware that time was running out for the Adeptus Mechanicus orbiting Feribundus. As the Webway gate came alive everyone could sense the corruption on the other side… the colour of the gate, normally a brilliant blue, was a seething purple and red monstrosity instead but, due to the good work of the command crew, the corruption was kept in the Webway, rather than infecting the Whisper of Anaris . The Farseer spoke to everyone about to enter the Webway, informing them that he could only protect people in a 25 metre bubble around the stone, to which the Lord High Captain took control of the stone and placed himself in the middle of the group.

With the Farseer acquiescing to Thelonious being in overall command, the Eldar fell into step with the command crew… other than the Harlequins, who were into doing their own thing anyway. The Dire Avengers went at the front, their rapid firing weapons ready to shred anything that came at them. Babd Ra and her guardians went at the rear, with the command crew and crew from the Hope in the Void in the middle, Constantine on one side and his acolyte on the other, singing the prayers to the God-Emperor in this time of need. This very mismatched group then made their way through the Webway gate, the sheer physical representation of the corruption almost overwhelmed them but, as they felt themselves falling, the Spirit Stone of Farseer Anaris glowed an intense blue and they were surrounding in his soothing aura, although they could sense the corruption outside the shpere, ready and waiting to take them into the Webway, never to return. As they looked around, everything was casting a shadow, even though there was no visible source of light… the road, made of tarnished yellow bricks, hardly went 10 metres without turning, and until they met that turn, they could see nothing.

They continued onwards, guided by Farseer Anaris as to which turns to make, with the oppressive nature of the Webway continuing to weigh down on them. As they were passing through a quite intense turn, one of the members of their crew, in the front, and one of the Eldar guardians, in the back, made the mistake of stepping outside the bubble… they turned to look back, their face took on a quizzical expression and then they vanished in a burst of green fire… the rest of the group closed together more. They did not realise that this is what the Craftworld wanted them to do until 4 corrupted Eldar, identified by the other Xenos as Warp Spiders, teleported into their midst and started laying down fire with their horrific Deathspinners. The battle was over quite quickly but, in that time, the Warp Spiders had managed to whittle down the crew of the Hope in the Void to the command crew, their assassin and Constantine’s Acolyte, as well as taking down some Guardians, Dire Avengers and one Harlequin.

It was during this combat that Thelonious had a dread realisation… he had a Displacer Field which would move him a varying distance, at a random angle… AND HE WAS THE ONE WITH THE FARSEER STONE! Not only could the Displacer field send him off the Webway path, which was certain to kill him, but he could take the stone with him, which would doom the entire expedition… with a heavy heart, he turned it off during the combat. Commander Rolaine showed her worth again, using Tau Pulse Pistols when they were at range, and numerous Inferno Pistol shots when they were closer, melting the armour of the Aspect Warriors. Bazak opened up with his Autocannon and shredded one to pieces and the rest of the group did their best to kill the remaining Warp Spiders, although they inflicted a serious wound on the Ork before they were killed. Shocked by the suddenness of the attack, the group mourned their dead for a few minutes before leaving them where they fell, with the Eldar taking the spirit stones of their brothers to later inter them in the Infinity Circuit.

The group continued on the winding pathways of the Webway, the combat and the general oppressive nature of the journey continuing to weigh down upon them, the seeping taint of Chaos trying to worm their way into their very souls… but they were buoyed by the rousing symphonies coming from the throat of Constantine. The journey continued until they came to a path that split 4 separate ways in front of them… the Farseer requested some time to figure out which path to take as he sensed this was a critical juncture. Both Thelonious and Mistress Valentina immediately began arranging for a rear guard and for everyone to be on notice for an attack, an area with many paths converging into one was the place you would expect to encounter enemy forces, especially in a place like the Webway. This caution proved to be well-founded when, a few minutes later, horrific Daemons appeared both ahead and behind them, a total of 10 Daemons who, to most of the members of the command crew, seemed to be very attractive, disturbingly so.

The command crew girded their loins to face this threat but it was too much for Commander Rolaine, who started looking for a way out… seeing that there was an equal number of foes on each side convinced her to stay and fight, but at much reduced effectiveness and she was still looking to run… this went unnoticed by the rest of the command crew. The rest of the command crew and the Eldar started laying down fire as the Daemonettes (for it was they) started advancing into charge range and they managed to take down two, which meant Commander Rolaine started looking at those areas as avenues of escape, but then the Daemonettes were amongst them. Serrated claws slashed against armour, against parrying blades as the combat became a whirling melee… one whose outcome was still uncertain…

SPOILER WARNING

We are now starting to play through the Fallen Suns Campaign.

If you are aiming to play this setting and want it to be a surprise best stop reading now.

I'll let you know when we're done

Chapter 40 – The Corruption of Lu’Nassad

Isendark and Thelonious found themselves back to back, Daemonette claws coming at them, trying to strike their lifeforce from their bodies… Isendark dodged his head out of the way but was frustrated as the Daemonette dodged in return. Thelonious felt Isendark move his head and, parrying the Daemonette’s attack with one Mirrorsword, slightly turned his body, pointed his Digi-Melta at the things head and melted the side of its face all the way down, sending it screaming back into the Warp. Constantine was in his element… Daemons of the Warp were something he always enjoyed destroying, he was doing the Emperor’s holy work to the utmost and he parried the attack coming in, swung his Witch Lance around the claw of the Daemonette and stabbed it in the side, sending toxins and fire burning into the abomination. He held the Daemonette away from his body with the tip still imbedded in its side and watched, with pleasure, as it faded away back to the Warp, the instability of Daemons proving to be its undoing.

Whereas Constantine, Isendark and Thelonious were using finesse to deal with the spawn of Chaos that were assaulting them, Bazak was just letting them hit him. The Ork was tough, and well armoured, enough to withstand their attacks and it let him get closer to them, grabbing one of them in a massive fist and holding them steady until his other hand brought round the Thunder Hammer to connect with their face… the results are what you would expect. Mistress Valentina reached within herself to hold back the Daemonette attacking her, it suddenly found itself unable to move and, as Seri exerted her will on the creature, it slowly moved closer and closer to the edge of the Webway path, before coalescing back with the Warp that had spawned it. Rolaine was in a state of panic, there was a Daemonette in her face and she just wanted to get out of here but, in the depths of her panic, she saw the Lord Captain about to be struck from behind and, gathering hold of her courage, managed to barge the Captain aside and parry the blow.

With more and more Daemonettes falling, the remainder launched into a frenzy, trying to take some of the command crew down with them. However, the command crew, apart from Rolaine, were seasoned at battle and held their ground before slowly overwhelming the Daemonettes… Mirrorswords, Witch Lances, Zaythan Warblades, Thunder Hammers and more rained down on the Daemonettes, crushing, slicing and destroying their hold on reality. The final Daemonette launched itself at Rolaine but, as Rolaine started to run, and potentially move outside the protected area, Mistress Valentina caught Rolaine using her mind powers and held her steady. Rolaine was considering her end approaching, as the Daemonette that was flying through the air towards her had its spine pulverised by a flying Thunder Hammer… as it landed on the ground, mewling, Thelonious lopped its head of with his swords.

As they were about to leave, a stinkbomb that the Grot had pulled from Bazaks selection, fell at its feet, setting off the horrifying odour and stomach clenching sense of disgust in those present, Bazak excluded. Suddenly, talking down Rolaine was not high on Thelonious’s list of priorities whilst those who managed to suffer through the stench were trying to grab the Grot… Yorke aiming a kick at its head, catching it a glancing blow and sending it stumbling out of the safe zone… the look of disbelief on its face as it vanished in green fire was definitely a picture. As the command crew pulled themselves back together after the fight, and checking on their Eldar companions, Farseer Anaris opined that he had found the way and directed them down the third-most branch, the party continuing to be weary of further attacks by the denizens of the corrupted Webway. After more time passed they found themselves in an area of the Webway that seemed to be much more solid, solid being the only word they could find that described something that was most certainly not… and they suddenly found themselves somewhere else.

The command crew found themselves in a place of what would, in better times, been called stark beauty but, in current times, was a horrible, corrupted shell of its former self. The reaction of the Eldar was particularly telling… Babd Ra was struggling to hold up the usual Eldar mask, so intense were her feelings at being on her peoples former homeworld; the Eldar from Craftworld Kaelor were aghast at such corruption on something that felt so similar, but yet so different and the Harlequins were alert, looking for the more intense signs of corruption so that they could root it out. Farseer Anaris informed the command crew that he knew where, in general, the Infinity circuit was, he could not plot a route there because the corruption of the Craftworld was so great, it was up to the command crew, with the help of the Eldar, to find a path to this vital area. They realised that they would have to find a way into the “under-tunnels” to find a way into the Infinity Circuit and so Thelonious led them off in the search, not really having any idea where he was going, but making the hard decisions anyway.

Through some clear Wraithbone, the star Feribundus was growing steadily larger, giving the command crew a reason to hustle more than usual… the Adeptus Mechanicus facility was a place that Thelonious wanted to save if possible and he drove his crew on with single minded purpose. Unfortunately, this didn’t leave much room for stealth, not that the crew was that stealthy to begin with as they preferred a more ostentatious entrance normally so, even though the Eldar were stealth personified, it meant nothing. As the command crew was moving, quickly, through what appeared to be a former Bonesinger garden, the wraithbone now blackened and husk like, they were spotted by some corrupted Wraithguard, who had been busy communing with the corrupted wraithbone. The command crew immediately found themselves outclassed… apart from Isendark, the main damage dealing weapons that the command crew utilised were close ranged weapons and the Wraithguard had no reason or desire to close when their weapons reached much further. The command crew laid down a heavy curtain of fire… from Tau Pulse Pistols to Sniper Rifles to an Orkish Heavy Bolter but it barely dented the bodies of the Wraithguard.

It was when the Wraithguard returned fire that the command crew realised that they had to get out of there as quickly as possible… they were like fish in a barrel because they had to stay close to the spirit stone of Farseer Anaris which limited their manoeuvrability, and the Wraithcannons that the Eldar constructs wielded had a deadly secret… they could teleport the things that they hit! The first volley from the Wraithguard either missed or was dodged but, as the command crew started their strategic flanking manoeuvre (retreat) the second volley landed amongst them. As people hit the deck and dodged violently, one hit Bazak square in the middle of his chest… before anyone could react, the Ork had been teleported right to the edge of the Farseers’ protection and the force of the movement, as well as the Orks’ ungainly nature, led it to stumble out into the howling corruption of the Craftworld. Only the Orks legendary toughness saved it from being obliterated and even then it was howling as it stumbled back into the protective field… its mind, however, was not so lucky and the usual crazy look in the Ork’s eye was intensified tenfold.

Having had this dramatic example of what happens when you step outside the protective field, the command crew picked up the pace until they had left the Wraithguard far behind but, driven on by Thelonious, they continued their reckless pace through Lu’Nassad. This, following on from the near death experience, was taxing even the Orks constitution and it seemed somewhat diminished to the rest of the command crew… still dangerous, obviously, but not what it once was. The command crew found themselves passing by a huge weapons platform, which incorporated some of the Pulsar Lances that were so ubiquitous on Eldar ships and Yorke reasoned that they might have maintenance tunnels which could lead to the undercity… it was definitely a better idea than wandering around aimlessly. However, upon closer inspection, it was just to allow maintenance on the Pulsar Lances, nothing more than that but, their heightened position did allow them to hear something much more interesting, the sound of chanting from quite a long way away, but it was steadily getting closer to their position. The command crew, who were much better at concealment than moving stealthily, found their way into potential ambush positions and waited.

What they found themselves looking at, when the chanting got closer, was a scouting party of Chaos Reavers who were taking their commands from a figure that looked like a Sorcerer of some kind and, to their dismay, one of the legendary beings known as the Astartes who had obviously fallen to the dark powers. The command crew had heard rumours and read forbidden texts that spoke about these beings, those who had turned against the Emperors light, but this was the first time they had seen one in person… it told them that the forces of Chaos were serious about taking Lu’Nassad for themselves. However, the fact that the party was accompanied by a large group of slaves, who were bound and gagged, was slightly confusing, until the Sorcerer grabbed one of them and slaughtered it where it stood. Mistress Valentina was able to sense a burst of power around the Sorcerer and her finely tuned aetheric senses could see, just barely, a sort of barrier surrounding the entire group… she reasoned, correctly, that the Sorcerer was performing a similar function as Farseer Anaris and informed the command crew of this. Isendark, Yorke and Rolaine aimed their weapons at the Sorcerer and, on Thelonious’s command, fired.

The Chaos Reavers did have some warning that their doom was approaching when, for no reason, Bazak started laughing loudly, but all they had time to do was point before an Inferno Grenade landed at the feet of the Sorcerer and Astartes, followed by a Sniper Round punching through the stomach of the Sorcerer, before his head was evaporated by Rolaine’s Inferno Pistol. Immediately, Mistress Valentina sensed the protective barrier falling and the effect on the Reavers was immediate. The slaves and the normal reavers were immediately consumed by the corruption of the Craftworld whereas the Astartes had time to bring his immense Bolter to bear but, before the Marine could fire, he was torn apart before their very eyes. Whilst the death of the slaves was regrettable, the main feeling amongst the command crew was elation; they had figured out a dangerous weakness in their challengers for control of the Craftworld and they were going to take full advantage of it… but finding the Infinity Circuit was still their number one priority. Hustling through the Eldar Craftworld, the command crew stumbled upon something that might define their legacy.

The building they reached as they were randomly searching made the Eldar in the group gasp in awe and, as Yorke surveyed the front of the building and the runic script that made up the Eldar written language, she joined them… this building was one in which Eldar Titans were stored. After Yorke had analysed the massive doors, along with Isendark and Bazak, she informed the Captain that it would take them 30 minutes to break through here but, if they failed, they would have to start again… time was of the essence but the sheer potential of what they might find swayed Thelonious and the three started their work. They only started, however, because Mistress Valentina had suggested, the Melta Bombs they had brought with them could melt a hole in the wall… a much faster way of entering that was met with wails of disapproval from the Eldar, but the command crew was unmoved. The argument that they were here to save the Eldar Craftworld and so could do what they want mostly left the Eldar unmoved but, with the Farseer still supporting them, albeit a little more strained, they fell into line. Rolaine set the charges in short order and the resulting blast created a sizable hole in the ornate door large enough for all of them to enter through.

Their relationship with the Eldar was strained even more when, after entering the giant cathedral like building the command crew hit the motherload… whilst there was not a Titan in sight, there were many, many, runic scriptures spelling out how to make them and how to keep them prepared… the sheer level of wealth this could gain the Deepstalker House was immense. Thelonious and Yorke immediately went to levels of looting that could only be described as “completely mental” and the entire place was ransacked for as much material as could be carried. Constantine, although enjoying the annoyance of the Eldar, was searching for any access to the undercity and, trusting in the Emperor’s guidance, he managed to find exactly that and, whilst the command crew spent a little bit more time looting priceless Eldar artefacts, they eventually all descended into the undercity. The undercity was as large, if not larger, than the city they had been traipsing through and it took the command crew another 3 hours (in which the Craftworld got closer and closer to Feribundus) until they reached an area where Farseer Anaris was able to direct them again but, knowing they were close to their goal gave them new purpose.

It was whilst following the Farseer’s directions that Rolaine got a feeling that something wasn’t quite right. She halted the party and started looking around, which meant that the command crew was able to react when a hail of fire came from a building down the street and, as they raced for cover, they could see a couple of Astartes on a lower level and many Reavers on the roof. What they couldn’t see, even though they knew they had to be there, was a Chaos Sorcerer. Isendark was the first to reach a position of cover, pulling out and sighting his Sniper Rifle before picking off some of the Reavers on the roof, every single shot finding its target in the head of a Reaver and dropping them off the top of the roof. Yorke joined in the punishment against the, relatively unprotected, Reavers, firing off a Rad and Frag grenade onto the edge of the roof, watching with distorted pleasure as their skin either fell of, or was ripped apart by a storm of incoming projectiles… these scum of Chaos would pay for what they had done.

Both Constantine and Mistress Valentina, who both preferred the fighting to be at close range, made their way across the debris strewn streets, making their way closer to the Marines and Reavers, keeping their eyes out for the Sorcerer, being covered by a grinding mass of fire coming from Bazak’s direction… his Heavy Bolter making the Reavers keep their heads down, at the least. However, they then had to scramble out of the way as one of the Marines fired, and the Plasma Cannon send a huge ball of superheated death their way but, thanks to their quick reactions, the only thing it did was create another crater in the streets… and they could both feel the heat emanating from it. With Thelonious and Rolaine keeping up the fire on the Chaos Marines, whilst advancing to keep Constantine and Mistress Valentina within the range of the Farseer’s protective field, the range kept shrinking as the Reavers kept dying… soon it was only the Marines who were still standing, firing their Plasma Cannon and Legion Bolter in their direction… due to the grace of the Emperor, the command crew was unharmed.

At this closer range the command crew was much more devastating but, through all the damage, the Astartes managed to dodge, move behind cover and otherwise rely on their armour to provide protection, with only one lucky shot from Thelonious finding a gap in their armour. It was actually a mistake from Yorke that proved to be the decisive blow, with a frag grenade missing completely and exploding through the window on the second level of the building the Marines were under, catching the hidden Chaos Sorcerer in the blast. The blast did not kill the Sorcerer, but it made her take a more active role in the fight, which then allowed Isendark to drill a bullet through her forehead, taking her down and ending the Marine as well. The command crew took stock of their situation and, after a bit of healing from Constantine and Thelonious, they carried on towards the Infinity Circuit, with Farseer Anaris reporting even stronger feelings and connections on the path they were going. As Yorke was leading the way around the final building, she spotted what was laid in their path and quickly stopped the rest of the command crew.

For what she saw was a large Chaos Warband, with at least 4 Marines, 15 Reavers and a few Sorcerers blocking the route into the Infinity Circuit. The powers of Chaos had made it there before them and were now in their way. However, they had not noticed them and so the command crew, and surviving Eldar, began to plan their attack…

SPOILER WARNING

We are now starting to play through the Fallen Suns Campaign.

If you are aiming to play this setting and want it to be a surprise best stop reading now.

I'll let you know when we're done

Chapter 41 – The Faceless Lord Cometh

The main thing that concerned Thelonious and Rolaine was that, in this situation, they would love to set up a flanking manoeuvre and hit the fortified position from at least two sides but, as with anything on this Craftworld, they were limited by the Farseer’s aura… they had seen what happened if you stepped outside it after all. One thing they did notice was that the Sorcerers did not seem to have any slaves with them, and this was confirmed when one of the Marines dragged a Reavers back to a Sorcerer who got to work ritually sacrificing the corrupted individual. Mistress Valentina and Isendark raised the prospect of just waiting them out until all the Reavers were used up but it was pointed out that they were obviously waiting for someone and they did not have a surfeit of time in any case. The Eldar had already taken up positions behind one of the large columns in front of them, right at the edge of the Farseer’s range, as they were the only ones who had any semblance of stealth, whilst the command crew came up with a plan of attack.

The cover that they had provided them with enough protection, but the wraithbone was also corrupted and thus more brittle than it would normally be… the protection could easily be taken away, or bypassed, by the Marines heavy weapons… the Multi-Melta was a particular concern until Mistress Valentina volunteered to deal with that, without giving any more details other than an enigmatic smile. The main plan was the same as their last encounter with Chaos, take out the Sorcerers and the rest of the group would die quickly. The Eldar would focus their fire on the Reavers whilst the command crew tried to take out the Sorcerers and keep the Marines busy until the corruption of the Craftworld consumed them. With this relatively simple plan in mind, the Deepstalker crew took their positions, signalled the Eldar and, as one, turned the corner and sprayed death at the forces of Chaos that were blocking their path to the Infinity circuit.

However, just as the command crew had learned from their previous encounters with the Chaos Reavers, so had the Chaos Reavers learnt from them. As the bullets, pulse rounds, mass reactive bolt shells and more flew over the second set of barricades, behind which Chaos Reavers crouched, the command crew could see a distinct slowdown of their fire and, in some cases, the bullets and grenades bounced off entirely. Those that did get through the sorcerous barrier caused noticeably less damage than they usually would and not one of the Chaos Sorcerer’s was taken down. The only one who managed to carry out her action as planned was Mistress Valentina, and even that took copious amounts of White Void and pushing her power beyond her usual safe limits. Her mental power smashed into the Multi-Melta marine and, in a brutal and one-sided battle, overwhelmed the Chaos Marines senses, rendering him blind and deaf, and thus useless. The Marine roared in anger and surprise, informing everyone that he was being attacked by a Psyker… a turn of phrase that made Mistress Valentina even more peeved.

With the main source of danger out of the fight (although it also took Mistress Valentina out of the fight as she had to sustain the power on the Marine), the command crew could focus on their original plan, with the slight proviso that the forces of Chaos had been more prepared for them than they had expected. Thelonious was shouting out orders, detailing shooters with high penetration weapons to keep firing at the Chaos Sorcerers whilst the rest of the group were tasked to thin out the Chaos Reavers. Whilst the individual weapons were not that dangerous, anything in larger numbers could overcome that deficiency. The Eldar added their weight of fire and the Chaos Reavers started falling; shredded by splinters, skin sloughed from their bones by radiation, bullets piercing limbs and heads, blown apart by mass reactive shells… the Chaos Reavers were being completely and utterly eviscerated. However, with the protection of the Barrier and their own foul, polluted armour, the Chaos Marines were quick to respond (sans the Multi-Melta wielding one) and Bolt Shells started chewing up their cover, whizzing over their head. The sheer power of the shooting made even one as jaded as Thelonious cower.

It was Constantine who rallied them, breaking cover to stand against the darkness, exhorting his colleagues and friends (sans the Ork) to not give into fear, that the Emperor protects and his will be done. Whilst it may have been a trick of the light on the corrupted Craftworld, the command crew were sure that they could see a light emanating from Constantine, a light that banished their fear and gave them hope that they could endure and, more, triumph. The Chaos Sorcerers had moved into cover after the first assault but even this could not fully protect them from the fury that was coming their way. One of them was clipped by a Hellgun blast, which spun them out of cover where their body was riddled with Bolt shells and an Autocannon shell that blew their head off… the command crew had taken down one Chaos Sorcerer, there were only two left. The horrific attrition of the Chaos Reavers continued, with every single one who was outside the Barrier falling to the weight of fire directed at them, although one of the Dire Avengers and one of the Harlequins had fallen to the fire coming back at them.

The battle became a high stakes game of Cat and Mouse, the command crew firing off potshots, trying to take out the Chaos Sorcerers, their shots being stymied somewhat by the Barrier whilst moving to a new series of cover as their old one was destroyed by mass reactive bolt shells. The severity of the situation was further aggravated by their need to stick close together, which limited their freedom of movement but, due to clever use of cover and tactics, the command crew was able to perform adequately. There was much grabbing and pulling to make sure that some of the more militant members of the command crew (Rolaine and Isendark mainly) actually moved with them, but otherwise the plan worked well… especially when Rolaine planted a barrage of energy from her Tau Pulse Pistols into the leg of the second Chaos Sorcerer, severing it with the ease of a hot knife through butter and, suddenly, there was only one Chaos Sorcerer standing (or hiding, in this case). After the Heavy Bolter destroyed some more of their cover, Bazak found itself in the firing line of three Marines with Bolters.

As each, accurately placed, mass reactive shell, thudded into the Ork, shredding through his armour and only being slightly deflected by the Ork-made refractor field, it came down to a battle between the Orks legendary toughness and the power and explosive force of the Legion Bolters… the Bolters won. The rest of the command crew watched, with varying stages of horror, as the Ork was blown backwards by one shell, twisted round by another and completely poleaxed by a third… the explosion almost taking off its arm, such was the power of the weapon… Yorke and Isendark were quick to the body, finding the Ork still alive (somehow) and pulled it back into cover… Thelonious was once again reminded of the sheer, bloody-minded, toughness that Xenos possessed. He directed the fire against the final Chaos Sorcerer, starting to take apart the cover that it was cowering behind… with Hellgun blasts, Shuriken slices and Bolt explosions causing the cover to degrade quickly, with some of the shots penetrating the cover entirely to hit the Sorcerer… however, the Sorcerer still lived which meant the Chaos Marines were still a meaningful threat.

The Marines showcased this by hosing down the command crews new cover, Bolt Shells exploding through the ruined building that they were firing from, shards of wraithbone flying through the air with potentially lethal intent. With their last main form of cover disintegrating around them, Thelonious made the courageous, and potentially foolhardy, decision to stand where they are… there was only one Chaos Sorcerer left and if they could take out this threat, then that would be the battle won… but if they could not, then he was putting the command crew in the sights of a group of Chaos Marines, whose bolters had already cut down the toughest amongst them. His decision was immediately vindicated as Yorke, sighting down her Shuriken Catapult, stuck the Chaos Sorcerer full of splinters… although she did not manage to kill the Sorcerer, but the last vestiges of cover did disappear. Rolaine, sighting down her two Tau Pistols, fired two shots simultaneously at the head of the Chaos Sorcerer… time seemed to slow down as the energy pulses zoomed through the air and, although she was too far away to see, she could imagine the look of surprise on the face of the Chaos Sorcerer, just before its head disintegrated.

The command crew let out a cheer as Mistress Valentina shouted out that the Barrier and the Protective sphere was down… but the Chaos Marines were able to get off one final flurry before they succumbed to the corruption of the Craftworld but, due to the coruscating energies flowing through their bodies, all the shots went wide. Slowly, cautiously, the command crew made their way to the gates of the Infinity Circuit, taking great care to check for any potential ambushes… and eventually finding their way in front of the Gate. The great, amazingly inlaid, gates that protected the Infinity Circuits barred their path, but the Harlequins, Badb Ra and Farseer Anaris were able to pool their talents to open the doorway and the command crew found themselves in an area of a Craftworld that few, if any, humans had seen before them. The unfortunate truth, however, was that this was not a usual Craftworld and what should have been a spiritual and glorious experience was instead one filled with horror as the full might of the ghosts corrupting the Infinity Circuit assaulted the command crew as they entered.

Most of the humans were able to fight off the assault, or at least was not that affected, but Yorke took it especially hard… her empathy and desire towards the Eldar left her less protected than her colleagues and friends and her mind was seared by the psychic echos, but she was still able to function, albeit in a reduced fashion. Farseer Anaris, now so close to his goal, informed the command crew, and their Eldar escorts, about where he should be inserted into the Infinity Circuit, also informing them that his initial scouring would take 2 hours. Thelonious, well aware that such a delay would doom the entire Adeptus Mechanicus facility orbiting Feribundus, was quick to ask whether there was anything that could be done to speed up the process. At that point, Babd Ra and the two remaining Dire Avengers stepped forward, offering to bond their own spirit stones with the Infinity Circuit to help Farseer Anaris, even though it would mean their deaths. After a solemn, but quick, ceremony, this is exactly what happened and the command crew agreed, with the Harlequins, that they would take up defensive positions outside.

After about one quarter of the next hour, based on what their, admittedly unreliable, chrono’s were reporting, the command crew were in their defensive positions, awaiting whatever Chaos assault would be coming… especially given that they knew that the forces of Chaos were aware of their position… it was inevitable. What they weren’t expecting was what they saw. A man materialised out of nowhere… Thelonious was the first to see him… a foppish, Imperial noble with an aristocratic bearing, wielding a Rapier and Main Gauche, sauntering up whilst spouting Imperial Philosophy… this was also who Constantine saw, although he was approaching him, rather than Thelonious. Bazak saw a huge, misshapen Hive Ganger, all lab created muscle, wielding a giant club the size of an Ork… the Ganger looked at Bazak, spittle dripping down its extended chins and, with a roar, charged into combat. Meanwhile Yorke was surprised when a Traitor Legionnaire appeared out of nowhere, a Legion Bolter pointing in her direction… the Armour was ancient, with no particular markings except a purple symbol of Chaos Undivided on the shoulder.

Isendark and Rolaine were surprised, separately, when a Scout Marine, with the symbol of the Inquisition on the shoulder of the lithe Power Armour, appeared before them, a pair of Plasma Pistols pointing at them as strange lights played their way across the Power Armour. The final person to see an approaching figure was Mistress Valentina, who saw a horrifically mutated human crossing the distance between them, fluid sacs pulsing and blistering all over the carcass she saw before her… and she could sense the sheer amount of power that flowed off this despicable creature… everyone knew that Karrad Vall, the Chaos Lord of Iniquity, had come.

Each member of the command crew found themselves engaged at the same time in single combat… Vall was very complimentary to Thelonious and Constantine (separately of course) as they both parried his first attack. Vall start spouting random philosophical quotes at both of them, using Imperial Nobles for Thelonious and Cardinals for Constantine, twisting their words around.

Bazak and the Gargantuan Hive Ganger traded blows, one for one, Thunder Hammer against Giant Club, although even Bazak noticed something strange about the club; when he was hit by it, the Ork found itself on fire and felt a draining sensation, the club hungered for his very life-force but Bazak shrugged it off. Yorke, Rolaine and Isendark found themselves facing off with a very skilled Marksman, sending pinpoint accurate shots in their direction that they barely dodged/deflected. They then found that he had the same protections as they did when their return shots met the same fate. This was not going to be an easy fight.

Mistress Valentina faced down the horrifically mutated, and powerful, psyker and she could feel his tendrils reaching into her mind, trying to control her actions… with a Scream she forced him out and for the first time she saw a slight look of concern cross the mutated face.

Each member of the command crew was finding themselves assailed, at the same time, by a different enemy with a skillset that matched them closely, all purporting to be Karrad Vall. Thelonious and Mistress Valentina had risked a look around amidst the attacks against them and they could see other members of the command crew moving and fighting… but it looked like they were reacting against nothing. Thelonious continued to trade parries, and wicked barbed banter with Karrad Vall whilst Constantine fought more against his poisoned words, invoking the glory of the God-Emperor of Mankind in his defence. Mistress Valentina kept pushing aside the tendrils moving through her mind, she could tell that Karrad Vall was getting frustrated with his inability to do whatever he was planning. Isendark, Yorke and Rolaine found themselves diving into different cover, action after action to avoid the pinpoint blasts from Karrad Vall, whilst also trying to hit the Chaos Lord himself whilst Bazak continued to trade dangerously huge blows. Thelonious sliced his mirrorswords across Karrad Vall, who blocked with ease, but Thelonious twisted his blades, sending his adversary’s weapon skidding across the floor… Karrad Vall smiled in a hungering manner; “how delightful!”

SPOILER WARNING

We are now starting to play through the Fallen Suns Campaign.

If you are aiming to play this setting and want it to be a surprise best stop reading now.

I'll let you know when we're done

Chapter 42 – Escape from Lu’Nassad

Showing off the duelling skills of an Imperial Noble, Karrad Vall quickly moved his Main Gauche to his favoured hand and returned the favour to Thelonious, with one of his mirrorswords being taken from his hands… now the duel was more evenly poised. Thelonious realised that the usual tactics they would take to beat a single individual (pile on and beat them to death) would not work against this most unusual of foes, but he wondered whether a slight change in tactic might yield some benefits. Whilst continuing to parry and riposte with Karrad Vall, he informed his command crew that they might want to think about shooting into the gap where they could theorise where Karrad Vall might be, just to see if the other members of the House could, potentially, affect the one on one fights they found themselves in. Isendark was the one who took up this challenge, sending a bullet directly into the space where he realised Karrad Vall would be, in the fight against Bazak. Bazak was quite surprised when a bullet flew past his face but he could see it become insubstantial as it continued, obviously that plan was not going to work.

To an outside observer, the fight looked like a bunch of people having a schizophrenic breakdown; talking to people who are not there, dodging and weaving to avoid nothing and, most scarily, firing their weapons seemingly at random. However, the keen eyed observer would notice that some of the shots, fired at random, did not travel all the way to their intended destination, as if they had hit something that no-one else could see. In the middle of the swirling combat stood Constantine, his faith in the Emperor bellowing out of him, an awe inspiring figure of hope (for the command crew) and despair (for the forces of Chaos). Karrad Vall recoiled slightly before launching into another attack routine, but he had been thrown off his stride by this display of Faith and Constantine was able to roll around his attack and stab him in the shoulder with his Witch Lance. The Toxins started to flow through Vall’s system and he was also set on fire! Whilst he recoiled once more, Constantine took advantage to stab him through the stomach, doing a grievous amount of damage, along with more Toxins… it seemed like Constantine was going to carry the fight by himself!

However, something was about to swing the fight back in Karrad Vall’s direction, Mistress Valentina had focussed her mind on Vall and was starting to crush the life out of him, seeing the look of pain that crossed his features and started feeling confident about her ability to resist as she had done so twice already. However, Karrad Vall was the Faceless Lord, in the highest standing with the Chaos Gods and his next attempt was driven by as much power as he could take from them. Mistress Valentina reeled backwards, her Soul Binding flaring up around her mind to try and counter this mental invasion, putting all her skills and power into resisting… but it was not enough. Mistress Valentina found herself locked in an endless nightmare as her body and mind went limp, her powers now Karrad Vall’s to command. Rolaine also found the Faceless Lord changing tactics, after numerous attempts to shoot her, Rolaine found Vall teleporting next to her, the foul smell of the warp following him, and could only just dodge aside as a Lightning Claw pierced her leg, only just preventing it from being ripped off entirely.

Thelonious, without his Mirrorswords and thus a sitting duck against Vall’s master swordsman, utilised some of the tricks he had saved for precisely these moments, extending his second ring finger and spurting a jet of flame into Vall’s face from the Digi-Flamer he wore, forcing his enemy to dodge aside. Using this distraction, he reached for his Mirrorswords but was grateful for the Conversion field protecting him as Vall’s Main Gauche snuck out and would have inflicted a nasty wound, but it prevented Thelonious from achieving his goals. Both Yorke and Isendark found themselves dodging the wrong way into Plasma bursts, Yorke being saved by her own Conversion field but Isendark taking a nasty wound to the Arm, almost making him drop his weapon. Constantine, once again, found himself disarmed by the deft bladework of Karrad Vall but, despite the threat, Constantine dived upon his weapon, dodging the counter-thrust by Vall and continued in the roll, coming back to his knees and stabbing Vall repeatedly, throwing all his anger and zeal into the attacks. The ugly, hulking hive ganger that Bazak found himself facing was trying to use all its strength to push him to the ground, but the Ork’s corded muscles were equal to the task and pushed him back off.

As the Ganger looked on with a slightly confused countenance, Bazak reached into his Belt of Many Random Things and unstoppered all four Stinkbombs that he had left on his person. As the smell wafted around Karrad Vall the Faceless Lord, Master of the Pirates of Iniquity and Favoured of Chaos fell to the ground as if he had been poleaxed, choking and vomiting all over the floor… Bazak grinned. Rolaine found herself dodging more and more as Vall pressured her in close combat, the proximity making her usually accurate shots go wide but, eventually, the inevitable happened and Rolaine could dodge no longer, the Lightning Claws stabbing her in the leg and then through the stomach, lifting her up in the air. Despite Rolaine’s legendary toughness and ability to soak up pain and damage, this was too much for her, and she felt her consciousness fading as Vall dumped her to the floor with a roar of triumph. The puppet that was Mistress Valentina, unknown to her allies at that time, focussed her will upon Yorke, who had been annoying the Faceless Lord. The mental powers of Seri were almost too much for Yorke, who felt the life being crushed from her, but it thankfully only lasted a few seconds and she was able to defend herself against Vall’s next attack.

Both Thelonious and Yorke were relying on their Conversion fields more than was healthy, with Thelonious thankful that whatever beastly weapon Vall was wielding was currently still on the floor, and Yorke reeling backwards as Plasma blast after Plasma blast struck her protective field. Yorke was cycling through her weapons, trying to find one that would hurt Karrad Vall, the Inferno grenade being all but useless as Vall taunted her. Isendark, who had been informed about Vall’s lightning claws by Rolaine, before she went worryingly silent, had taken out his horrific combination of chain and power weapon that was a Zaythian Warblade. However, even being ready for the Faceless Lord did not stop him from taking a vicious wound along the stomach, claw marks that would leave a scar for many months of treatment, taken off balance by this blow, Isendark’s repose went wide. Constantine had felt the whispers of a psychic attack from Mistress Valentina and charged her instead, knowing that the time that he had feared had come… she had gone rogue, mad with power, and needed to be put down. However, he had to dodge an attack from Vall, which put him off balance enough that he missed.

Vall looked out through Mistress Valentina’s dead eyes upon her friend and comrade, pulling powers out of the warp and trying to crush Constantine’s organs from within his body… but the Priest was no slouch in mental contests and he managed to push away the powers with a grunt. Bazak, meanwhile, was confronted by a helpless opponent and the Ork took full advantage! Crushing blow after crushing blow from his Thunder Hammer thudded into the body of Karrad Vall, who could do nothing to resist, still completely under the effects of the Skinkbombs. Vall was getting frustrated at not being able to damage Yorke (himself that is) and so pulled out a nasty looking Weapon that glowed with evil purpose and charged at Yorke, who flung herself to the side desperately, watching it carve out a huge chunk of the floor where she once stood. Mistress Valentina, or the shell of her, was not to be denied this time, worming her way inside Constantine’s thoughts, she played on his fear of the Captain turning to Chaos, or being possessed by a Daemon, compelling Constantine to see this and then suggesting that he should put the Captain down for his own good.

Karrad Vall was beginning to recover from the Skinkbombs, pulling himself to his hands and knees, still undergoing serious punishment from Bazak who, somehow, could sense that the Faceless Lord was beginning to weaken. Vall, understanding his potential vulnerability for the first time in the fight, called his Daemon Weapon back to his hands and struck at Thelonious, although one attack only just missed because of the aura surrounding Thelonious from his friend and ally Constantine. However, Thelonious found himself having to dodge and weave around the Witch Lance as Constantine attacked him… he told his friend and colleague to stand down and was heartened to see the scales drop from his eyes, and then saw him turn around and stab at thin air. What looked like thin air to Thelonious was actually the stomach of Karrad Vall and the Witch Lance did its horrific work, setting the Faceless Lord on fire, sending Toxins deep into his body and causing a wound so horrific and grievous that even the Faceless Lord could not survive it.

Strangely, as Constantine was seeing his own attack finish off the Faceless Lord, so every other member of the command crew, who was still in control of their own body, was seeing the same thing. Thelonious dodged a blow from Vall, reached down and picked up his Mirrorswords and, with a flick of the wrist, bisected the Chaos Lord from the groin upwards. Isendark swung his Warblade with all the power he could manage, smashing aside the parry from Vall and sending his head spinning up in the air, sliced from his body. Yorke launched an attack with her blessed chainsword but it was destroyed by the Daemon Weapon that Vall used to parry… however, one of the blessed and sanctified chain bits span off and entered Vall’s eye socket, causing him to drop dead. The final person to see their work finished was Bazak, with Vall still struggling up on his hands and knees, looking up at the Ork with a sneer on his face, only to have his face crushed by the Thunder Hammer of Bazak, exulting in his victory… the Faceless Lord was dead!

One thing that everyone saw, was Vall’s Daemon Weapon go flying from his grasp as he finally breathed his last, his body crumpling to the floor and, suddenly, everyone could only see one Karrad Vall, which meant they saw the portal open above his body and tentacle flow out, wrap itself around the body and draw it back into the warp with a cackle. Constantine was quick to move himself to be before Mistress Valentina, his Witch Lance poised at her throat… he knew what a vital part Psykers played in the Imperium, but he didn’t know if the death of Karrad Vall had cleansed Seri from whatever compulsion she was under and Constantine did not take those kinds of chances. Some quick negotiating by Seri and the command of the Lord High Captain were required to get Constantine to take the Witch Lance away from her throat and he kept sending distrustful glances her way for the next few minutes… but that was on crisis averted. Thelonious was also very distrustful about the Daemon Weapon (although at this point it was just assumed), but also did not want to leave it lying around.

That being said, any weapon that is wielded by a Chaos Lord is not something that should just be picked up, at least without study. As Thelonious and Yorke were taking a look at the weapon (without touching) it burst into blue flame and they could hear a cackling just on the edge of their perception, this was certainly not something they wanted to touch! Whilst the debate on what to do (and mostly, how to destroy) the Daemon Weapon was ongoing, the rest of the command crew, including Rolaine who had miraculously defied death, went about patching each other up and, in general, repairing their defensive position… they were not expecting another attack now that the Faceless Lord was dead, but they weren’t going to take any chances. Before they could decide what to do with the weapon, a rumble, emanating from within the doors of the Infinity Circuit, spread out as if from the epicentre of an earthquake and, soon after, the Harlequins exited to stand with the command crew. A voice in their heads informed them that the Craftworld had been cleansed enough to move around without fear of corruption… news that was almost greeted with cheers by the command crew!

The Farseer also informed them that he had not gained full control and that he expected more quakes to happen as he extended his reach throughout the Craftworld, and thus they needed to find their own way off, and quickly, because whilst the structural integrity of the entire Craftworld was not at stake, the falling buildings could crush them. The Harlequins were going to stay in the Craftworld for now, they could always exit to the Webway once that had been fixed, but given Farseer Anaris planned on taking Craftworld Kaelor a long way away, the command crew did not want to stay. This put the focus back on the Daemon Weapon, when they realised that Isendark had brought his Power Board with him. Mistress Valentina was quick to use her Telekinetic powers to lift the Daemon Weapon, although she found it hard going and when it was placed on the Power Board, the gravimetric motors were strained to almost breaking point, almost as if the Daemon Weapon wished to be carried by mortal hands rather than mechanical ones. However, after securing the Weapon to the Power Board, they were able to move without touching it.

With this “sorted,” the command crew started looking for a way to get to the surface. Due to the damage caused by the repeating quakes, which destroyed some avenues and opened up others, it took them 11 back breaking, mind engulfing hours to escape to the surface… the mood amongst the command crew was not the best after such an epic amount of time. As they exited the tunnels onto the surface, they immediately came across a group of Chaos Reavers, led by some Chaos Marines… both sides looked at each other… and then the Reavers and Marines fled… their Lord had vanished to go and claim the Infinity Circuit… now Karrad Vall was nowhere to be seen and the group who had been protecting the Circuit was right in front of them… they did the maths! As they looked around they could see that the damage on the surface was even greater than in the tunnels. Great spires had collapsed, there were giant holes in the wraithbone and each of the quakes, which were coming faster, destroyed more of the Craftworld. The decision was made… they would search for a shuttle to get them off the planet as soon as possible.

Yorke’s knowledge of Eldar Culture indicated that the best place to find a shuttle that would fit them all was in one of the remaining spires so they made quick progress to get there, only to find that the automated systems were not working. Isendark was quick to put forward the idea of using his jetpack to fly up and find a shuttle, given he was the main pilot, and Thelonious accepted this idea, although he told Yorke to follow behind… her knowledge of the Eldar language was sure to come in handy. And so it was that Isendark found a shuttle on the 65 ^th Floor of the spire, after some deft flying to get around obstructions, and started to try and make it work but, unable to read Eldar, Isendark was unable to make it operate. Yorke was making her own stately progress up the spire, utilising the boosters in her Eldar Void Armour to gracefully (albeit slowly) move up to join Isendark where, between the both of them, they were able to get the shuttle working. Yorke marvelled at the engineering that could mean a shuttle that had not been used in Millennia would start up, just like that.

After bringing the shuttle down to the rest of the command crew, who had to dodge some falling debris caused by that very shuttle, they all hustled aboard. Isendark took up the piloting with Bazak and Yorke looking after the engines and other tech and the rest of the crew just laying their heads down onto the rather uncomfortable seats and getting some rest where they could. Everyone in the command crew, even Bazak, were exhausted. Isendark took the shuttle into the sky and set his sights on getting out of the orbit of the Craftworld, on the opposite side to the one which was currently being taken up by the Optimus Nemesis . However, as Isendark became more attuned to the controls of the shuttle, he realised that it was flying a lot worse than it should do, feeling like a lot more weight was on board. Isendark began to struggle to keep the shuttle in the air, something that was noticed by the rest of the command crew, although he could not articulate what was causing the issue, because he didn’t know. As Isendark pulled the shuttle up even higher the unthinkable happened… the engines cut out!

Bazak and Yorke sprang into action, trying to figure out what had caused this, as Thelonious started querying just what Isendark had done, putting his keen mind to work trying to figure out the reason for the engine failure, and in a much faster way than most would be able to, thanks to his Cortex Implant. Based on the readout of his Auspex, which he had tuned to electrical frequencies, there appeared to be some kind of shadow on the machine spirit of this shuttle, corrupted though it was by being Eldar… he could see there was something else occupying the space. Mistress Valentina had jumped to the same conclusion and was trying to lift the Daemon Weapon off the ground but the stress of the moment meant she could not focus her powers correctly and the attempt failed… everyone was getting very desperate indeed. Yorke broke off from helping Bazak and jumped to the back of the shuttle, opening up the back of the shuttle, causing a massive thrust of air to blow in… everyone was now focussed on getting rid of the Daemon Weapon before they crashed!

Isendark was pulling up against the controls, trying to right the shuttle as the chaos in the back reached a crescendo. Constantine was raising his voice to a prayer to the Emperor, joined by Mistress Valentina as she managed to push her power to raise the Daemon Weapon by just a fraction. Bazak was frantically hammering on the control panels to try and sort the engine out whilst Yorke was holding on desperately to avoid being sucked out the back of the shuttle. Rolaine, finally springing into action after surveying the back of the shuttle, jumped to her feet, pulled out a pair of Bolt Pistols and fired at the Daemon Weapon. The bolts, expertly placed, impacted against the Daemon Weapon, on after the other, sending it spinning towards the shuttle exit… only for the Weapon to come down point first and bury itself in the floor of the shuttle, mere feet from the exit. Yorke, who was closest to the Weapon now, crawled slowly across the floor as Isendark cried out for everyone to brace for impact, the ground coming up at him incredibly fast as the entire world went white!

The entire command crew cried out in shock as they bumped to the floor of the Teleportarium, the whiteness of the last second teleport fading from behind their eyes… the voice of Marcia Cross coming through the speakers “I guess we arrived just in time, Lord High Captain?” The command crew took a few seconds to still their beating hearts before another crisis commanded their attention… the Optimus Nemesis was still in orbit of Craftworld Kaelor and the Hope in the Void was now their primary target… proximity alarms and red alerts started blaring through the ship as the command crew made their way to their stations. The only thought to their daring escape was to order no-one to touch the deamon blade that was now standing proud in the centre of their blessed archeo tech.

Thelonious sat down in his command chair, a sigh of relief at surviving that hellacious Craftworld and then started directing his ship, calling for Isendark to pull them around so that they could either attack the Battlecruiser bearing down on them, or to try and escape from this general area. However, as fast as the Hope in the Void came up to combat readiness, the Optimus Nemesis was faster and got within range to bring its mighty armament to bear.

Massive macrocannon shells fired from the banks of guns along the sides of the Battlecruiser and shredded away the void shields of the Hope in the Void . Further hab-block sized shells smashed against the body of the Hope but their armour was enough to stop most of it, although one massive shell did smash through the Auto-Temple enough to depressurise that entire area… luckily, the life sustainer of the Hope was an old, advanced model which was able to save most of the crew in the section. The command crew were about to breathe a sigh of relief when the lance batteries on the Optimus Nemesis opened up and carved through their hull in two separate areas, sending crewmen out into space… all in all, the attack had been devastating and the decision that Thelonious would have to make (whether to stay or to leave) would depend on what his command crew could do to redress the balance. Yorke and Rolaine combined, as they had done many times before, to fire the guns for the Hope in the Void … many shells hit the armour of the Battlecruiser but the angles were all wrong and most of the force of the shots were directed away from the ship.

Constantine was in charge of the Triage area of the ship, which was being overwhelmed by the casualties caused by the attack but, with his calm demeanour and motivational speeches he was able to make order out of the chaos and get as many of the crew back in position as was possible. Thelonious took it upon himself to spread disinformation to the crew about just how bad the attack had been, after all, keeping the crews morale up was an important part of being the Lord High Captain, especially in a battle such as this. Mistress Valentina who, because of her choir had one of the most important parts of the battle… she managed to raise enough telekinetic barriers around the ship, and maintain them, that the Optimus Nemesis would have to be extremely lucky to be able to deliver such a blow again. Bazak was making his was to the Teleportarium to lead a boarding party, if the Hope in the Void could get close enough, whilst the bombers and fighters were being made ready. All these things, and more, were weighing on Thelonious’s mind as he turned to the speaker system and gave his order…

SPOILER WARNING

We are now starting to play through the Fallen Suns Campaign.

If you are aiming to play this setting and want it to be a surprise best stop reading now

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This is the last chapter of the Fallen Suns Campaign

Chapter 43 – The Legend of the Expanse?

Thelonious’s order was to turn and prepare to fight. He looked around the bridge at his command crew, knowing that this order may have doomed them all, but all he could see was support for this course of action. He was heartened at the closeness that he felt towards them all, even Bazak, even if he realised that a lot of them just wanted to f*** up the ship that had caused them so much harm in such a little amount of time! Both ships were undefeated in combat and had either growing or impressive reputations… if the Hope in the Void could take down the Optimus Nemesis then it would be a story for the ages… or they could fall like so many ships before them; the stakes could not be higher.

After their first round of manoeuvres, the Hope in the Void and the Optimus Nemesis found themselves facing away from each other, although they were broadside on. The Deathstrike Missile batteries on the Chaos ship slammed against the Kinetic Barriers that Mistress Valentina had raised, with Lances following but slamming against even more Barriers. Because the Hope in the Void was mostly short ranged focussed, just like the command crew, the order was given to come about to a new heading to close the distance, although a miscommunication meant the Bazak tortured the engines too much and they ended up going too far away from the Chaos ship, although they were still within range. The tried and tested combination of Rolaine and Yorke poured on the fire with their own Macrobatteries and they sensors could pick up the explosions erupting along the side of the Optimus Nemesis as each volley smashed against the hull. During all this destruction, Constantine was leading a repair team to the Temple-Shrine but the damage was too intense for his undermanned crew to deal with, to his chagrin.

Noting that the Hope in the Void was trying to shrink the distance between them, the Optimus Nemesis extended the range, knowing that its weapons outranged that of the Imperial vessel, as the reports of fighting that included the ship tended to indicate as well. One of the disadvantages of the range, however, was that it was much harder to aim the weapons and everything went wide. Thelonious gave the order to stop increasing speed, they wanted to turn inside the Chaos ship, not outside, it to close the distance. They also realised they were out of range of their own guns, and that any bombers they launched would not be able to make it back… with this on their minds, the command crew focussed on finding information about their opponent and Constantine took to the speaker systems to ease the crews mind, informing them that the Emperor was watching them so they should do their best. Isendark was doing his favourite thing, throwing the Hope in the Void into manoeuvres so severe that they strained the hull, but he had been ordered to keep it up by Thelonious, until they could get within range.

Whilst the Optimus Nemesis definitely had the range advantage on the command crew, they were finding their targeting matrices frustrated by the Evasive movements of Isendark, meaning that, for all their firepower, none of it was finding the target. Bazak was leading the repair attempts on the Temple-Shrine, which gave Constantine some rather uncharitable thoughts, but even the Missionary could not argue with the results, by the time the repair crews, shouted at by Bazak, were finished, the Temple-Shrine was in working order. Thelonious was also calculating something in his cortex implant… and gave the order for 2 bomber and 2 fighter squadrons to be launched towards the Optimus Nemesis . He knew that he want sending the crews to be stranded as there would be no way for his ship to pick them up until after the battle was finished but, given the amount of damage they could inflict on their adversary, it was a choice that Thelonious would make every single time. The Optimus Nemesis turned towards the Hope in the Void , Lance batteries flashing through the void, stripping away the defences of the Imperial ship but not penetrating to the ship’s hull.

The command crew, realising they still needed to close the distance, and accurately calculating the trajectory of their adversary decided to slow their momentum, which Isendark carried out with aplomb, bringing the ship to almost a dead stop (in Space terms anyway) whilst the bombers streaked towards the Chaos ship, moving to get in between so they could reach their target in the end. Mistress Valentina, feeling a little safer given the distance, used her powers to increase the ability of the command crew, feeling good at doing something other than creating kinetic barriers. Which meant when the Optimus Nemesis suddenly put on a burst of speed and closed to within range of their weaponry, with the Hope in the Void almost stationary and with no extra void shields, the command crew realised they had made somewhat of a miscalculation. That miscalculation cost the lives of over ten thousand crew and a large amount of their remaining hull integrity as the Deathstrike Batteries took down the void shields and the Lances cut through the hull… and the scary thing was, it could have been much worse… and that was with the Temple-Shrine being on fire!

Isendark immediate swung the Hope around and into a series of movements that would have turned their bones to jelly if it weren’t for the ancient protections installed in the ship. Yorke and Rolaine, with the distance between them halved, combined as they usually did but, the heroic movements from Isendark threw off their aim and they were not able to do much damage at all. The crew were led by Bazak into putting the fires out… who cares about how scary fires are in space when you have an Ork to deal with! Mistress Valentina, not willing to trust just in Isendarks skill, also raised some kinetic barriers, the recent deaths of the crew would be on her conscience until the end of her days. Explosions suddenly burst against the hull of the Optimus Nemesis as the bombers finally reached their target, using the last of their fuel in their attack run, the fighter escort doing their job in taking the casualties that would have removed the bombers as a threat… the Optimus Nemesis most certainly had a lot of turrets.

The fight took on an interesting turn, with Isendark’s piloting skills proving too much for both the Chaos ship and Yorke/Rolaine, with shots from both sides going wide over and over… what Isendark was doing with the Hope in the Void should have been impossible but, in his hands, it turned into merely implausible. One thing this did do, however, was somewhat reset the fight with every single component that had been damaged being repaired and the ships closing inexorably together. When the Chaos ship got within 40,000 miles, that was what the Hope had been waiting for… now they were within range to launch hit and run attacks using their Teleportarium… but even the best plans can fail if the movements of the ship mean that the enemies void shields cannot be taken down. Thelonious read something in their movement and prepared his troops to repel boarders… and just in time as the Optimus Nemesis vomited out a large portion of smaller ships that made their way into various areas on their ship. But Thelonious was not called “the Grand Strategist” for nothing and he met the attacks and repulsed them with little to no damage.

However, the Chaos ship was not done with them yet, their Sorcerers reached into the warp and sent fire against the ship, setting the Gellar Field and Arboretum aflame and giving the command crew something else to occupy their minds. Mistress Valentina, whose affinity with fire even caused the command crew some concerns, definitely occupied her mind with putting out the fires, managing to extinguish one by sheer force of will, with Constantine leading another fire crew and rescuing the Arboretum. Bazak, growing impatient in the Teleportarium, instead commandeered the assault boat squadron, with a couple of bombers for an “escort” to try and board the Chaos ship… the bombers were taken out by the massed turrets but Bazak was able to get onto the Optimus Nemesis . However, the defenders were much more fanatical than any Bazak had come across before and they threw their bodies onto the Stormtroopers to stop them… unusually, Bazak had to retreat back to the Hope in the Void without causing much damage at all.

With the Optimus Nemesis missing with all their weapons and their Sorcerers not able to do what they did before, the command crew of the Hope in the Void decided to roll the dice. Rather than sending the ship into rolls and movements, Isendark just slowed the ship down to keep them within range, giving Rolaine every chance to end it… especially after Yorke gave her the best target lock that she could. The Macrocannons waited for her order to fire, but Rolaine would not be rushed… until, as one, they roared, the huge projectiles flying towards the Optimus Nemesis , overwhelming their void shields and crushing it with their huge firepower. As the crew watched, explosions continued to wrack the Chaos ship until, with a massive explosion, the bridge was destroyed in a gargantuan release of energy, with a similar release of energy coming from their Cargo Holds. The rest of the ship looked to be damaged, although scans indicated the Gellar Field was intact… this fight was over!

As the Optimus Nemesis was going through its death throes (although, to the command crews relief, not actually being destroyed), Thelonious broadcast the triumphant note to everyone who was in the Feribundus system… Karrad Vall was dead and his ship now belonged to the Deepstalker Dynasty. This was a hammer blow to the morale of the Chaos Fleet that was blockading Footfall and Sylvia Locke was quick to use that to her advantage, launching the Aegis as the tip of the spear that split the Pirates asunder. The Pirates had been trying to outdo each other for the favour of the Faceless Lord, and without his unifying (and terrifying) presence, they turned on each other, allowing the outnumbered defenders of Footfall to deal with them in detail and send them fleeing back to Iniquity, a very diminished presence. The Hope in the Void received one last message from Farseer Anaris, saying that he had gained full control over the Craftworld before he vanished into the webway, as did the Whisper of Anaris although, true to his word, Anaris did leave them with the Core Cogitator floating in space, which was eagerly brought aboard… now it had been purged of Chaos influence anyway.

As Thelonious and his command crew piloted the heavily damaged Hope in the Void into Footfall they could all sense that they had done something momentous, something that would put the Deepstalker name on the lips of most people in the Expanse, if not in the Calixis Sector. They realised that they had a limited window with which to act on this and, given the Optimus Nemesis was going to be in drydock for years, if not decades, and the Hope in the Void also needed intensive repairs and re-crewing, they had time to do it. The sheer level of what they had accomplished would protect their house operations in the Expanse for a time… after all, the Imperial Navy and Adeptus Mechanicus held them in extremely high regard. It was time to return to the Calixis Sector, in triumph, to negotiate with the Navis Nobilite and everything else they had been putting off… Sylvia Locke promised to use her own newfound fame, and influence, to ensure that the Hope in the Void would be repaired at Port Wander, she knew how much the Deepstalker House was owed by the Imperium of Man. Thelonious settled back in his throne and gave the order to translate into the Warp… it was time to retake their place in Imperial Society.

We have now finished the Fallen Suns Campaign

Chapter 44 – The Inbetweeners (Part 1)

During the trip to Scintilla, in which the Hope in the Void was dragging the Optimus Nemesis around, partly as a trophy and partly because they intended on visiting the Lathe Worlds for it to be reconditioned, Thelonious held a victory party across the entire ship, with a certain Interrogator and his two colleagues being invited. Whilst they were suspicious of this, having been locked in their (really nice) quarters for the entirety of the last Endeavour, Thelonious was being truthful in that he did intend on holding up his end of the bargain and transporting them to Scintilla… the fact that Mistress Valentina and Isendark spiked their drinks so that Yorke could have a good rummage through the Interrogators room was purely co-incidental. After finding the two, locked, transportation containers, Yorke went to work with her Bypass Spike, easily opening up the lockers where she found… well, actually, she didn’t know what they were, but they were all damaged and they were leaking light that was various shades of green. There was a sceptre made from a translucent metal, two small pyramid items and an item whose geometries did not work with Yorke’s eyes.

The main thing that disturbed Yorke about these items was not the green glow, it was that she had NO idea what they were which, for someone who prided herself on the esoteric knowledge that she had collected over the years, was just not acceptable! Yorke then placed the storage lockers back where they had been, as if no-one had even been in their room whilst the Interrogator and his men were drunk… she did inform Thelonious and Rolaine about what she had found, but they all wanted to talk this through with the rest of the command crew. During a conference to decide their response the suggested range of opinions was quite startling. From brutally killing the members of the Inquisition and stealing their stuff, to handing everything (including the chaos sword Bane which they still carried aboard) over to the Inquisition for them to handle, to something in-between. Eventually, however, the decision was taken to heap praise onto the Interrogator (Garvin Delearth) when they met with his Inquisitor as having someone who owed them in those corridors of power could be incredibly useful… the fact that it was Constantine who presented this idea was a welcome surprise to the rest of the command crew.

Upon arrival to Scintilla, Thelonious was delighted to find that his reputation did actually precede him and he managed to agree a meeting with Garvin’s Inquisitor for a few days hence, sent the Interrogator and his belongings to the Tricorn Palace and then got down to the business of the Deepstalker House. What followed was a whirlwind of meetings with incredibly important people and organisations and also a meeting with his Sister-Wife, which was behind closed doors in a room which was soundproof and visionproof… what they spoke about is not recorded in any archive but Thelonious reported that it was a successful visit. The house of the Navis Noblite that had thrown their weight behind House Deepstalker, even when it looked like it was going to fail, was reaping the rewards of the Hope in the Void ’s travels and what had also been a Navigator House in decline was rapidly ascending to power again. Thelonious managed to wring out another contract with them where they would provide him two Navigators for each ship that he managed to control, which provided him with more peace of mind regarding his plans for expansion.

Whilst he was attending a ball in honour of the Chamberlain of the Imperial Court, Thelonious found himself being given 5 entire, consecutive, minutes in the presence of the Sector Lord, Marius Haxx, and what they spoke about was mostly inconsequential… to the nobility of Scintilla, Thelonious suddenly became a LOT more interesting. Whether the Sector Lord had done this for his own reason, or whether they spoke about anything of import was unknown, which just added to the mystique of the meeting. However, before he left Scintilla, Thelonious made his final stop, to the Tricorn Palace, the headquarters of the Inquisition for the Calixis sector and the place which would make or break their gambit. After flying down with his command crew (sans Bazak who had been spending a lot of time on the ship whilst they were in the Calixis sector), and waiting in an interrogation room for a few hours, the Inquisitor entered. A tall, strong man with visible bionics on his hands and face, Starven Arcutus was everything that his Interrogator was not… controlled, clever and imperious… Thelonious and the Inquisitor shook hands and the rest of the room breathed in a sigh of relief.

Starven then began to, well, be inquisitive about the part they had played in returning his Interrogator to Scintilla and wanted to know, from the entire Command Crew, how they thought things had gone. What followed was a wonder of misdirection and truth-concealment with everything that Garvin had done being spun in a positive light. He had not been naïve; he had been reserved; he had been forthright rather than rude, subtle rather than ineffectual and indirectly wise rather than amazingly stupid! After the command crew had finished their, well-rehearsed, story they could see that the Inquisitor was slightly amazed at their words, as if he couldn’t believe that Garvin Delearth, of all people, could show that kind of leadership, and the command crew wondered if they had over done it slightly. However, after staring at the command crew for a while, without saying anything, he rose and thanked them for their testimony and that he would take it under advisement when considering the future of his Interrogator. The command crew returned to their ship and set off for the Lathe Worlds where they had good intelligence that 6 entire Forges were competing to be the ones to work on the Optimus Nemesis .

During their visit to the Lathe Worlds, Thelonious and his command crew were invited down onto the surface by the various Magi they were doing business with and found themselves staying in relatively comfortable and stylish accommodation that the Lathe Worlds obviously kept for that specific purpose. During the middle of the night/early morning, Thelonious found himself coming awake, a Ripper Pistol in one hand and a Bolt Pistol in the other, seeking out whatever had woken him from his, admittedly light, slumber. As he sat there, eyes scanning and becoming used to the darkness around him, he heard a noise out on his storm-shielded balcony… one that sounded as though it had been made on purpose, as if someone with incredible stealth was letting him know they were there. Putting on his armour, pulling together his gear and weapons and cursing slightly under his breath about “pointy eared pillocks, always waking me up at stupid times of the morning… not everyone can just meditate it away you know!” Thelonious made his way out onto the balcony to find, as he was expecting, one of the members of the Eldar Race known as Harlequins.

Thelonious tilted his head in a quizzical manner before commenting that he had not expected to find the Eldar in this place, of all places, but that he was rapidly getting used to things like this. The Eldar moved over to one of the Plasteel walls and it was then that Thelonious noticed that there was a rocky “decoration” against the Plasteel and, just as the Webway gate was enabled, Thelonious turned to the Harlequin and muttered “you sneaky bas…” with his words being swallowed, as he was himself, by the Webway portal. The Webway in this area of space was remarkably well preserved and even one so Jaded as Thelonious felt a degree of wonder at what this ancient race had accomplished in times gone past… he was seeing the Webway for what it was supposed to be like, not the tainted mess that he had travelled the Lu-Nassad. After an indeterminate amount of time, Thelonious found himself in amongst a group of Harlequins who, as per their agreement, put on a performance of “The Fall of the Eldar” for an epic 7 hours, during which Thelonious’s emotions and fears were made manifest… it was truly amazing.

As the performance finished, Thelonious felt a degree of emptiness, as if he would never again find such a high in his life… although he then realised he had thought that when he was off on his “adventures” as a younger man, so his reasoning may be a little suspect in that regard! During this time period, Constantine, who had also requested something from the Harlequins, had his own visitation and, although he had grave misgivings about the Webway, which he found abhorrent to his Emperor given life, he followed the Harlequins and let them lead him to another area of the Webway, where he found himself, alone, with three of the Eldar race, looking at him expectantly. The main thrust of Constantine’s talk with the Eldar was in relation to Daemons… he may not trust the Eldar at all, he may find them filthy Xenos, but he acknowledged that their knowledge in this area, especially the Harlequins, far outstripped his own. As the conversation turned towards the Slaaneshi Daemon that Constantine, Yorke and Thelonious had encountered a few times before, the Harlequins became more animated and interested… after all, the Eldar race had lost one of their own on that ship.

Constantine learnt much from the Eldar in regards to Daemons but nothing was more important than what they informed him about Daemon names… that if you know the true name of the Daemon you are fighting you can bind, and then banish, the Daemon forever… Constantine now had a new avenue of research to follow. Both Thelonious and Constantine found that time had moved in strange ways in the Webway and their absence had not been noticed… both of them continued about their day with the knowledge they had gained and soon enough the Hope in the Void was on its way again… House Deepstalker had a few more places to visit before they ventured back into the Koronus Expanse.