41K RPG : Into the Eye

[Pcm979]

Anghel shook his head. "Events are still transpiring, I'm afraid. We've got our hands full with the Will at the moment."

"We're ready, Sir." Njal looked at the Inquisitor. "Trajectory plotted."

"A full spread?" Pater inquired from inside a compact medichamber extruded from the chair. It was a stopgap, but he couldn't put his guard down yet.

"As you ordered, my Lord."

"Fire."

Boarding torpedoes slammed into the Will, rocking the ship off course. Booster engines on the torpedoes fired, carrying it clear of the other ships. A minute later, it went. It was an oddly subdued affair, most of the flammable oxygen long since leaked from the vessel. There was no sound in space, nothing to carry the roar of gigantic reactors exploding with the force of suns.

Coincidentally, it also took any proof of Jolan's Witchery with it.

[SirNitram]

"Well." Malkamar reflected as he finally spoke. "This seems to be something of a bad habit of mine. I find interesting things to examine, take apart, understand, then they blow up. I'm rather pleased that one wasn't my fault." The Techmarine offered as the uplifting and inspiring thought of the day. This practice of the Duskguard hadn't been ground out of him yet, though occasionally, like now, it was rather stretched to the breaking point.

"I'm quite comfortable, actually. This is the longest I've gone in decades since people have shot at me. Or stabbed me. Or called me disparaging terms for 'human'. So... I think maybe some hot tea. Yes. And I'll be fine for a nice long time. And maybe a bed in a few days."

[Cynical Cat]

Jolan watched the Eternal Will burn. Only a few precious items had been salvaged from the ship. "It seems to be the will of the universe that my enemies destroy any place that has ever been my home," he whispered. "I guess it is fortunate for the Imperium that I have yet to call a planet my home. But still, I am victorious. And I still stand."

[Typhonis]

Nathan sighed heavily. "So far so good....could be worse. Could have stll been on the ship and it on a collision course for one of the local forts...."

[The Necrontyr Messenger]

Vidor Aeris watched the ship burn on the same screen, "You know, that's technically your ally's fault," he said, "It really wasn't that badly damaged... A few months laid up and it'd have been flying again just fine..."

[Josh]

Prius stalked through Vidor's ship. The amplification system was completely shut down now, and with the safetly interlocks destroyed, it would be madness to start it up again.

An armsman appeared in front of him and received a boltgun round to the face. It would seem that somebody forgot to inform the former Commissar that a cease-fire of sorts was in place.

[Cynical Cat]

Jolan considered replying. He was well aware of Pater Novum's tendency towards excess. The question was whether Pater had deliberately destroyed his ship out of malice or out of the same bloody handed over eagerness that he had been forced to curb at Adraxis.

He decided on silence. No point on arming that fool Vidor with information he could do more damage with.

[Pcm979]

Anghel attended to the little group while Pater recovered. The little medical computer did its best; He would be functional for a few more days without rest, if that ended up a necessity. He attempted to open communications with the remaining ships.

[Josh]

Stretching out, he followed the trace of Jolan's mind, carrying his cargo of maimed Eldar.

[Cynical Cat]

Jolan's telepathic abilities were weak, but they had grown in the last fifty years. He sent a message back. *Prius. I'm free. Everything is stable. Pater's excesses have destroyed my ship, but Nathan is safe.*

Somethings never changed, it appeared. One could always rely on Prius Ristani to leap into action.

[The Necrontyr Messenger]

Vidor snorted derisively at one of his lieutenants, "If you want to, you may send instructions to your compatriots, and assess the damage to your cohorts, witch," he said, glancing over a baroque power-armoured shoulder at Gix.

[Josh]

He paused, still sensing Vidor's presence. Oh well, he wouldn't die... just yet.

He triggered his vox. "Inquisitor Ristani to Inquisitor Vidor. I have collected the xenos agent that infiltrated your vessel. Where shall we meet?"

[Cynical Cat]

"Thank you, xenos patsy." Gix was in no mood to be civil. Control, fool he hissed at himself in the corners of his mind. Control. He felt a shudder of relief when the vox reports came back and all of his people were okay.

Ships and servitors can be replaced, weapons reforged. This was not the first time he had lost a home and it may not be the last. He lived, his people live, they could all fight again one day. A setback, not a catastrophe.

[The Necrontyr Messenger]

"Just punch in aleph two seven in any lift, and you should arrive," Vidor said. It was of course, command compartment, floor two seven. He didn't turn his head to regard Gix at all after the... accurate comment, glad again of the helmet.

[Josh]

He entered the lift, face-shield still sealed and field still active. He wasn't particularly inclined to be trusting at this point. He entered the command and rode the lift along to rendevous with the fool Vidor and Jolan.

[Cynical Cat]

"Prius," Jolan smiled. "It's good to see you. It seems that some things stay the same. You still are still charging into battle and Pater's first reaction is still to hit things with a heavy hammer. I am grateful that you came. And almost as happy to see your prize."

[The Necrontyr Messenger]

Vidor spared the sack of mangled limbs being carried by the cyborg a glance, "Chiurgeon, attend to that..." he snapped.

[Josh]

He shrugged at Jolan. The man was an important resource, and he wouldn't trust anyone else with the extraction. Well, other than his Deathwatch, but they couldn't have come without initiating a general battle.

He tossed the eldar witch to the floor at Vidor's feet. "You invited me to join in an inquiry?" he asked the man politely.

[The Necrontyr Messenger]

"I would apologise for making you waste your journey, but that journey has evidently been in the Emperor's purpouse... And it's not wise to damage goods unnecesserily. I presume you will want this made to talk?"

The eldar was dragged away by a mangled leg.

[Josh]

His augmetic eye irised down to a pinpoint. "Inquisitor Novum was the one to engage the creature on Ophelia Seven before. He will be able to determine if it is the same one. If so, we will have a great many questions to ask of it, indeed."

He cocked his head to the side, studying Vidor. "I take it you are satisfied now with the innocence of our colleague with regards to your prior suspicions?"

[The Necrontyr Messenger]

"Yes," Vidor said, foolishly, "and, I... apologise for the inconvinience my folly has caused. If I am able to make restitution in some way, you need only ask."

[Josh]

"Our sacred charge does not appear to have been compromised," he said, his eye pivoting in its socket to regard Jolan, irising slightly wider. "Anything further would be business between yourself and Inquisitor Gix."

The Emperor gave us a fool in order to deliver the witch to us, it would seem.

[Cynical Cat]

"The damage has been done," said Gix. "The Imperium has lost a useful vessel and nothing will change that. Let's try to salvage what we can from this mess. The Eldar witch wants me or someone close to me dead for some reason and has the skill to manipulate an inquisitor to do her bidding. This interrogation is going to be difficult. She is going to produce an interesting mix of truth, half-truth, and cunning lies in order to try and continue her mission."

[Cynical Cat]

"Gard?" Jolan Gix asked.

"Just a moment inquisitor," the scientist replied checking over his equipment. "Yes, the room is secure." Jolan relaxed back into his chair. The rest of his retinue was scattered around the confrence room. Everyone but Iriza was tense. Very tense.

"How much did we salvage?" the Inquisitor asked.

"Not much. We managed to get the crew off, but w had just enough time to bag the best loot," said Hethor. "Got your weapons and the desk stuff. Figure Talstram will want the copy of his pic. Didn't have time for your armour."

"So our resources are meager," said Gix. "Libraries, workshops, arsenals, labs, everything. We are dependent on others for transportation and equipment. Well, at least the core is solid. Continue."

"Talstram survived," said Lydia. "But he travelled in another torpedo. We got seperated."

"At this point I would like to commend Gard for his long and dilegent work on the gravely ill Nathan Talstram. It is unfortunate that we had to conceal his survival, but necessary. Is this clear?" The table nodded. "Good."

"Inquisitor," said Danell Keys, "I must raise another point."

"Whether or not the destruction of the ship was a deliberate move by Pater Novum."

"Indeed," the assassin replied. "At this point, he didn't know that you had survived. His action could have been chosen to superficially resemble a rescue attempt while destroying your vessel and possibly killing some of us. Now you will be forced to travel among strangers with limited resources. He may not have spent the last fifty years in work that was likely to engender contacts with the Officio, but that doesn't mean he has no ties. It would be easy to slip an assassin, especially one of the Callidus Shrine, on board any other vessel. By your own statements, he was withdrawn and cautious when you last met. And he has reason to dislike you."

"Possible," said Gix. "The other possibility is that Pater was an impulsive and heavy handed junior inquisitor. When he decided to do something, nothing short of another inquisitor in the way would stop him. If he decided to launch boarding torpedoes, I doubt any officer on his ship would voice an objection."

Selanon Kay dropped his jaw. "Are you saying that that imbecile was too stupid to listen to his bridge crew and killed my ship out of incompetence?"

"Pater Novum has a great affinity with high technology and boundless enthusiasm. When I knew him fifty years ago. I'm sure he thinks that knowing the performance of a void shield generator down to the last thule of capacity gives him unique qualifications. I'm sure that it has also escaped his consideration that there are Adeptus Mechanicus with similar qualifications and they don't get to sit in the high throne."

"Inquisitor," said Selanon Kay, "you have my word, if you do anything so asinine, I'll stop you cold."

"Good. That's what you get paid to do."

"Inquisitor," said Iriza, "I got a response on the message. She's here."

Jolan smiled warmly. "Excellent."

[Pcm979]

The medical equipment hissed away from the chair and Pater emerged. "Njal, report." He said simply, running a diagnostic. Better.

"Teleporting from such great range drained our energy reserves utterly, Sir. Void shields and weapons are down on all ships in the Flotilla." The ship's captain said promptly. If one positive thing could be said about the Inquisitor, it was that he didn't shoot the messenger.

"Then we must avoid a situation where they will be necessary." Pater replied.

"Indeed, my Lord. It appears we rescued the Eternal Will's entire crew, and they are all alive with minimal injuries. We also salvaged a certain amount of Inquisitor Gix's personal effects."

"The crew has been treated well, and the effects untouched?" Pater pressed.

"As you instructed, my Lord."

"Good. It is poor restitution for the destruction of his ship, but it will have to serve." Pater said, scraping the hair back on his head with his mechanical hand.

Njal coughed. "On the subject of the Will's destruction, sir... New data indicates that the ship was not in as much danger of going critical as Inquisitor Talstrem indicated. In fact," He paused, wincing, "Our boarding torpedoes may have hastened or indeed instigated the ship's destruction."

Pater was quiet for a long time. "Njal." He said at last. "Why was I not informed of this at the time?"

Oh, this was bad. This was the closest Novum got to anger. "Our instruments were disabled due to the strain long-range teleportation put on our system, sir." The Captain explained. "What little information we had seemed to corroborate Inquisitor Talstrem's assesment of the situation."

More silence. This was very, very bad. "Very well." Pater said at last. His voice was so devoid of emotion he sounded almost like a Servitor. "Inform me when you reestablish communication with the other fleet." He stood and left the bridge, leaving the Captain feeling like he'd just had a session with an Excruciator, despite the fact that nothing had been said or done.