Our chat on Callie-quisitor, and me flipping through the books the Assassins are in, for DH2, for fun, made me think of a little something. So, when the Imperium REALLY needs someone to die, someone really dangerous to their way of (wasting) life, they might send in an Assassinorum Operative, or, maybe, even an Execution Force (one of each Temple). Now, if I ignore the amount of times even these most well-trained Operatives fail hilariously (a name is great armor, if Mont'ka is any indicator, and yes, I know it is more likely GW will move the story along than to actually kill a named character, who actually has a model in their line; the one casulaty they DID confirm in Mont'ka really DID shock me), how do they get to Point Kill, from where I assume is Holy Terra, in the first place? If this was any other setting, I might assume they had a really small craft, maybe even a torpedo tub-like vessel, automated, and programmed with the coordinates of a planet, in question, and it would slip in quietly, depositing the Operative. If it was NOT a Callidus, maybe quick in, Kill Time!!!, quick out, and fly away, while Callie would need to hide it somewhere, sort of like Batman can hide a jet, do her business, and saunter off, in the confusion, but the works have done a good job of showing they don't always succeed, and that would leave another asset out there, while some of them might not be the most there, mentally, to pilot a craft. Eventually, they'd also have to be able to get back to Holy Terra, to heal, re-equip, debrief, and get their next assignment.
Then, we come back to this IS 40k, and they don't always HAVE small craft, that can warp travel, and no automation requires a crew, a Navigator, and more. Even if I ignore that most material puts the various Assassin Temples on Terra, and say they can be somewhat better spaced out, how do you get a Temple Operative to their location? How do they let you know they are done, so something can come pick them back up? None are psykers, so no Astrotelepathy, the only long-range communications most of 40 depends on, but there aren't that many of them, so they need to get back, report, and head out, again. Karrad Vall is even said to have an Eversor in a cryo-tube, wherever HE found one, still asleep. He might be the worst option. I could see a Callidus, or a Vindicare, getting back to a drop site, however they got there, and reported for a pick-up, while the Culexus...I'm not sure if they are all there, or a bit spacey, but Deadpool, the Kool-Aid Killer? Eversors, at least to me, often seem maniacal, crazed, and drugged up to their eyeballs, even if I do take 1d4chan as almost purely satirical (fun to read, though
). Even if they do succeed, and kill everything that saw them, in a way that didn't result in the Terminus Gland getting them martyr points, is s/he really to be expected to calm down enough to shamble to an extraction point, and wait for pickup? A pickup team they won't just ace, on sight? Professional? Yes, but I'm still not sure. I might be able to see one get dropped ala Astartes' favorite deployment method, if the fit is already blessing the shan, or maybe even crazy-pilot a Thunderhawk, if they are outgunned, otherwise (hilarity would ensue), but I can't see how they get prodded back into their cryo-tanks, and loaded back up, to be sent home, and by whom? Is it Inquisitors, with brave men, and really stealthy ships (Inquisitors USUALLY don't have)?
Blah, blah, blah. How does the Imperium get their Assassins around, keep tabs, to a degree, on their progress, and pick them back up, potentially in what is still a deteriorating warzone, in order to make their purported numbers, and possible failures, still have them be capable of their job? Thanks, and have a good one!