41K RPG : Into the Eye

[The Necrontyr Messenger]

"No saint - as there's only one alive, I assume you mean Novadlorian - has called any crusade that has been heard of here. I think you're lying.

"Now I shall punish you, by opening fire on the forward section of your ship - I'm sure there's something you value there, given my orders - unless you tell me the complete truth."

[Pcm979]

Pater's flotilla coasted out of the sun's corona, five Strike Cruisers reinforcing the Dominor. The centrepiece of the flotilla was an ancient Apocalypse-class Battleship, predating the Imperium by centuries. Their weapons were readied.

[The Necrontyr Messenger]

“Lower the shield.â€Â

[Cynical Cat]

"Very well," said Gix. "The crusade is real, but clandestine. That's why only Astartes are involved. Seven chapters Vidor. It's something so dangerous no one less than they could attempt it and succeed." Truth, part of it at least.

[The Necrontyr Messenger]

"Now I sense you are being truthful, what is the objective of this crusade?"

[Cynical Cat]

"Destruction of the Tyranid Hive Fleets. Vidor, no one outside of our retinue knew that the attacker on Ophelia was an eldar. I should have caught on to it sooner."

[Josh]

Magnetic clamps activated in his boots as mechanical shields slid into place over his remaining flesh, enclosing his face in a metallic mask.

Bold, Vidol. Bold and foolish.

The robe suddenly ignited away from his body, leaving an exposed mechanical monstrosity before the armsmen. Four grenades launched from cavities on his back, two smoke, two frag, as he lifted his arms and raked fire from the built-in boltguns in each arm across the armsmen.

A refractor field shimmered to life, and across his armor several discrete points began to glow. Any psyker in the area would sense a massive buildup of power beginning to accumulate.

He charged forward, a tonne of metal death, plowing into the armsmen.

[The Necrontyr Messenger]

Vidor was a fanatic.

He was however not a moron... "And they are all accounted for?"

[The Necrontyr Messenger]

The eldar chuckled to herself, watching the mon-keigh abberation destroy its panicked and startled kin... Well, there was no need to let him know that he was being played. Let him slaughter them, then she would have to deal more drastically with him...

[Pcm979]

Pater twitched as Prius sprung into action.

"My booster. Now!" He commanded, sinking into a special chair layered with Psi-boosters and leaving his corporeal body. In an instant, his mind flashed to the scene of the battle. He saw the Eldar, and the Eldar noticed him.

[Cynical Cat]

"Nice try. You've become a patsy of a xenos assassin." He wove a telekinetic shield around himself and gathered his full might.

[Josh]

The power-up continued, bathing him in light.

There was nothing particularly rapid or subtle about the process, but with every moment, his power grew. With every motion he killed, a dazzling, shining dervish of death. With bolt-shot, grenade and fist, he cleared the bay, and then suddenly his consciousness burst free of his physical flesh, lashing out against the blast door. The metal dished in slightly, glowing a bright, cherry red.

A psyk-howl traveled throughout the ship.

"Inquisitor Vidor, what is the meaning of this?"

Another blow slammed into the blast door as his physical body slid into a defensive posture, automated systems tracking. An armsmen thrashed about nearby, only to be raked with boltgun fire.

[The Necrontyr Messenger]

Arquellia dismissed the prescence from her consideration after only a moment. While the gulfs of space could be traversed by seer, actually doing harm at such a distance was a feat beyond any but the slaan, as far as she knew.

----

Vidor snarled and turned, as he received Prius' message, the degree of his mistake already apparent. He bashed the brig's door open, denting the heavy metal. His conclusion was a simple one, "Find Arinna Eregic!" He barked furiously at the squad waiting outside, and through to his agents across the ship, "And let the witch out - hell, give him a gun."

[Josh]

Another blow against the door as his power continued to accumulate. Around his physical corpus, bodies swirled as if tossed about by a tornado, flesh searing, cloth igniting.

His senses tasted the subtle trace, the touch of the xenos witch, as the door exploded outward finally, molten metal blasting down the corridor, then reversing as decompression sucked it back outward.

He snapped back into his body, rising smoothly to full height, and strode forward.

"I come for you, xenos witch," his mind snarled out.

[SirNitram]

The Inquisitor, sadly, was not a moron. Therefore, once the TechMarine was found in the ship, he was almost immediately ushered into custody, as quickly as is possible when dealing with a colossus in Artificer armour with multiple limbs, all ending in various methods of horrific death.

While they had, eventually, convinced and coerced the exile to power down, safety, and disconnect his weapons, they were having less success in even the basics of interrogation and investigation. Each question merely provoked recitation.

"They shall be my finest warriors, these men who give themselves to me.
Like clay I shall mould them and in the furnace of war I shall forge them.
They will be of iron will and steely muscle.
In great armour shall I clad them and with the mightiest guns shall they be armed.
They will be untouched by plague or disease, no sickness will blight them.
They will have tactics, strategies and machines such that no foe will best them in battle.
They are my bulwark against the Terror.
They are the Defenders of Humanity.
They are my Space Marines . . . and they shall know no fear."

So far, violence in response wasn't engendering much of a change, save perhaps the fervor of the constant repetition.

[Pcm979]

Pater stared at the Eldar across the Warp. Should he...? No. Only as a last resort, because it would kill him. Or worse. Far worse.

Instead, he piggybacked on Prius' mind, lending his ethereal senses to the man-machine's own.

Control room. She has the automated defenses. Pater snapped into Prius' psyche. Combat servitors, next junction.

[The Necrontyr Messenger]

Combat servitors were sadly, no match for Prius... The eldar witch, less sadly, was more of a problem. She directed her power against the more distant assailant, preparing to run, filling her body with warp-drawn energy, growing stronger herself with each passing second - but not strong enough... Not yet.

[Pcm979]

Pater's power was severely curbed, but present nonetheless. He formed his psyche into a shield around Prius'. He could at least buy the other Inquisitor time when he met the Eldar's warp trickery.

[Josh]

Grav clamps released as he launched himself forward, boltguns cycling over to kraken rounds as he moved. Precise shots snapped out, lancing into the the braincases of the servitors. Return fire sizzled away from his conversion field. On another plain, his hypercharged mind lashed out with an attack at the Eldar, fully expecting the initial blow to be deflected.

Power continued to build, the area around him uninhabitable by anything human, the interplay of warp-energies would shred asunder anything that came near.

There was, however, an unforseen complication. For all his rigid will and the training of the Schola Psykana, the power being unleashed by the amplifier circuits was straining his ability to control it.

Moreover, the safety interlock had failed, and rather than containing the warp energy coursing through him, it was creating a chain reaction...

He lashed out again, almost as much to bleed off the energies that threatened to run rampant beyond his control as to make an attack.

[The Necrontyr Messenger]

From within the concealing, crude robe, Arquellia drew a witchblade - an eldar force sword, flickering with power. She fed it into the crystalline blade, and flicked it up at the ceiling, deftly cutting a hole through the deck. Leaping past the section of deck that fell, she jumped, rolled, and decapitated a crewman chained to his machinery, part of the winching system for the bay.

A nudge to a control opened the locked door - intended to keep the slave crew in - and she dove through, slamming the heel of her hand onto the controls, resulting in the door - not thick enough to stop the monstrosity chasing her - closing once more.

Arquellia haired off down the corridor, intent only on escape...

The first formidable assault from Prius was deflected, the second caused a momentary shudder, as she jerked aside, smashing herself, face first into a wall as her ability to control enhanced speed failed... Dusting herself off, she continued, knowing that the mon-keigh monster was somewhere directly below her now...

[Typhonis]

Nathan ccould feel the energies gathering and worked even faster. A thought hit him and he sent a telepathic message to the eldar.

Whats wrong Eldar? Can't do the job yourself so need to goad us mon-keigh into doing it for you? Sounds like something your cousins would do not a member of a craftworld.Then again you do act alot like one of them

He looked at the shockled visage of Lydia. "If your enemy is of short temper ,taunt them. War happens on all levels madame interrogator. "

[Josh]

Channeling his power upward into a molten wave, the bulkhead near Arquellia virtually disintegrated.

He launched himself upward, leaping to the next level. He had to capture the Eldar, he had to get this under control before it killed them all.

Pater, Jolan, he called, his mind beseeching. He was going to need help in stabilizing the monstrosity he had inadvertantly released.

[Pcm979]

Pater hissed as the incredible power hit him. Prius was going to form a Warp Rift at this rate.

I shall attend to it. He whispered into Prius' mind, absorbing as much of the energy as he could, funnelling it back into the Warp. Simultaniously he bent his mind to nursing the safety interlocks back into place.

[The Necrontyr Messenger]

The Eldar turned, "So, you've found me then, iron-warrior," she raised her blade in a salute... or what seemed like one for a moment -

Until the lower hand on her grip dropped to depress a jewel like button on the mesh-armour of her forearm. The battleship shuddered as explosives planted against its engines detonated, setting off secondary explosions. At the same moment, a transmission was sent to the gun-decks.

It was simple. It directed the serfs to disable the Eternal Will's engines. The warlock had been unaware of her fool's directive to move the inhabitants to the front section of the ship, but she had made certain that if she were to die, then her death would, using this mechanism, ensure the opening of a conflagration between the mon-keigh.

----

Around Lydia, Nathan and the other 'prisoners' the Eternal Will shuddered, groaning as sections of its propulsion were melted and buckled, rear compartments opening to space, a flood of radiation being released into the rest of the ship...

----

The Warlock smiled, bringing the blade forwards, reinforcing her mental defences, "Attack, then, commissar..."

[Josh]

Some semblance of control was temporarily restored as Pater bled off the from the overwhelming energies flooding through him. He felt the explosion ripple through the vessel and quickly divined the Eldar's intent- they loved misdirection, to set nominal allies at war among themselves.

As she'd very nearly done.

A broadwave mindcast rippled through the fleet, astropaths screaming as the power of it beat down on their minds. ALL VESSELS STAND DOWN BY ORDER OF HIS MOST HOLY INQUISITION.

The massive expenditure of warp energy began to ebb finally, capricious in its nature as his senses reverted to focus upon the Eldar. He lifted his arms, Adraxian-pattern energy blades springing to life from each wrist.

"Surrender now," he growled. "And your death will be merciful when it comes."