Secrets of Cenaroun [40K Freeform]

[Ms.Malbolge]

Aviva and Calk find refuge inside the drop ship though they are met with the corpse of Shaw. Mutilated beyond the point of identification the only things you can see that tell you it is indeed Shaw is the remnants of his beard and the explosive collar around his neck. Calk seizes the opportunity and digs through his possessions, retrieving the guardsman's laspistol and rifle. Calk is still bleeding and Aviva begins to stuff strips of cloth salvaged from her own clothing. Aviva is handed back her gun which she had given to the priest a moment before and he takes his own salvaged laspistol and fires wildly through the drop ship's door, hoping to catch one of the biker's or at the very least provide cover fire for the others.

Cynthia grabs Xuan and yells her orders to the feral guardsman only to find Xuan's gaze wide eyed and staring. It seems that one of the heavy stubber rounds that had so narrowly missed Cynthia had torn through Xuan's helmet. Blood oozed out of the wild man's mouth and nose but he still clutches his lasrifle in his hands as if it alone would save him. Apparently if Cynthia wants to 'plug' the man on the heavy stubber she is going to have to do it herself.

Lirius attempts to find the perfect shot against the man on the stubber but the gun shields on it are far less crude than those on the trikes, perhaps salvage from some long abandoned PDF emplacement. Either way Lirius finds it too difficult to get a shot off against the stubber and turns his gun towards the trikes heading towards him. They are close and Lirius finds it child's play (since they are currently trying to avoid Calk's las fire) to line up a shot and squeeze it off. The heavy bullet from his hunting rifle tears through the crude shields on the trikes which now that they're closer appear to look only defensible against pistol fire. The trike, which was coming toward suddenly begins to roll end over end toward the assassin even as Lirius feels a sharp pain in his right thigh, a grazing bullet wound writ clear upon his flesh. Now the assassin has to chose whether to run out into the gunfire to dodge the trike rolling toward him or to hide behind his cover and pray for the best.

The trikes are now within the easy range of most pistols. They open fire with autopistols, sending a hail of bullets on top of the fire of the heavy stubber. Four are headed toward Cynthia who is alone with only the dead Xuan as company and two are headed towards Lirius', perhaps attempting to silence his mighty rifle. Calk and Aviva have no enemies heading towards them for the enemy left the center clear due to the stubber fire. The blood storm seems to be clearing fast, the violet lightning having faded completely and the torrents of blood having faded into a light drizzle.

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Trikes now 25m from Lirius and Cynthia, about 28 from Calk and Aviva. They're opening with light pistol fire and there appears to be four on Cynthia's side, two on Lirius'.

Lirius can dodge the trike but it would put him in the open, if he ducks back behind the ship the trike will most likely crash on it's corner and may explode, engulfing the assassin in flames.

[Illiterate Scribe]

Aviva continues to fuss over Calk in an attempt to stop the bleeding, making the odd encouraging noise as he comes close to blowing out the charge pack on his laspistol with his wild fusillades.

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By the way, would Aviva know how long the blood rain is going on for, via pyniscience, or something? I'm itching to get back into the fight ...

[RandomLunatic]

Cynthia scowls and wrests the lasgun from the ex-Guardsman's death grip. If you want something done right... There were times for ammo conservation, and then you had times like this. She sets the gun to AUTO, peeks out and sprays the incoming trikes with a flurry of sapphire darts.

[Illiterate Scribe]

Twitching and tasting the air with long, frond-like antennae, Aviva looks up sharply. She could feel a change coming in the air, a front of Immaterial low pressure moving in a rimwardly direction, blowing away those clouds of blood and resulting in a beautifully aetherically lit day.

Keeping one hand pressing the now blood-soaked cloth into the open wound, she slowly rises, her hand stretched out, feeling the breeze - as it grows more strongly.

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Lol, weather puns. Anyway, invocation, hopefully so I can perils of the warp into a daemonhost next turn.

[Warpfire]

Lirius watches the trike tumble towards him, and after a split second of deliberation comes to a decision. Slinging his rifle over his shoulder, he dashes out of his cover. Twisting and dodging to make himself as difficult a target as possible, he sprints for where Cynthia is taking cover and as he nears takes a leap and a dive for cover.

[king.com]

Calk Wadous

At the very least, one of the trikes was down. He knew it was a long shot but that stubbler could be the end of the dashing assasin. Reaching out, he hoped he could persaude the gunner to stop firing, just for a few moments.

[Ms.Malbolge]

The trike tumbles ever closer side over side, spewing crude shards of metal like shrapnel as it does so. Lirius swallows and darts out from his cover, keeping his head down even as he begins to twist and writhe as best as he is able while running. The heavy stubber begins to turn toward the assassin and he suddenly finds himself running into the stubber fire. Just as Lirius is about kiss his stealthy *ss goodbye the stubber suddenly stops. However Lirius' luck isn't all good for the trike crashes into the side of the ship with jarring force, the pressurized fuel in it's tank igniting, exploding outwards in an impressive display of smoke and flame. The trike is torn apart and much of the crude vehicle becomes shrapnel, some of which slams into Lirius' back with all the force of a bullet. The assassin stumbles, but manages to save himself from crashing face first into the ground.

Gritting his teeth he continues on and as Lirius passes the side door of the ship he spots the priest and the psyker. Aviva stands, one hand presses firmly on the shoulder of the priest whose shoulder seems torn to shreds, left arm hanging limp at his side. She stands staring off, free hand held forward as if testing something. You notice also that the priest's head is rolled back, eyes focused in concentration even as he trembles from some great effort.

Passing that Lirius spots his goal and sees Cynthia drop out from behind her cover with one of the Guardsman's lasguns. Great shafts of ruby light spear forth from the muzzle of the weapon, lancing out to strike at the dangerously close trikes bearing down on her. Through a hail of pistol fire the Scum takes aim and fires, displaying either great courage or stupidity in this endeavor. The trike's crude shields are suddenly aglow from the heat of the las fire and the one in the forefront takes the most hits. It veers sharply to race into the small opening in the cave wall, the same opening Cynthia was hiding in a moment before. Lirius watches the trike explode violently and there is now plenty of light from the various burning debris too see from.

He ducks under Cynthia's lasfire and takes up position behind her... He knows the two trikes will make their way towards him now that he has moved, but perhaps they will be distracted by the two still in the ship.

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Three trikes within 20 meters of Cynthia, you think they're going to start circling you soon as they are veering off to your left, though two are most likely following Lirius. Stubber is stalled for the next round due to the great effort of Calk. Aviva succeeds her invocation. Cynthia has a hard time telling if she hit the gunner on the stubber but she can see the gun shield glowing in a few places due to the lasfire.

Also I did this all from Lirius' perspective since he was going to pass everyone anyway and I wanted to give this post a twist for some reason. I might do a post like this every once in a while for flavor.

[Illiterate Scribe]

Just as Aviva is about to set her energies towards healing her colleague, she stops, seeing the trikes bearing down on Lirius and Cynthia. Her head, nerves, and entire body hurt so much from the last time, but this couldn't go on - she saw each of them stumble, wounded, from the hits of the gang. Turning and fixing a point that even in her befuddled state she knew the beasts would pass through on their swinging arc, she releases a fragment of her focused conscious mind into that area, letting it sublime into the air like boiling arsenic, and releasing a diffused pulse of chaotic, swirling, raw energy to embrace the attacking bandits.

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Essentially, trying for a 'wall of fire' type effect that tries to a) be in the path of the trikes, and, if it can fulfil, b) while doing this, putting it in between our Lirius/Cynthia team and the trikes. However, not being a pyrokine, but rather a theosophamist, she's not using fire, but instead just generally nasty warp energy.

[king.com]

Calk Wadous

Watching the trikes push on towards those who might actually have a chance to bring them down. The one advantage he had managed to gain was to stop that stubbler from ripping them to pieces. He doubted he could hold it for long but he was going to make the most of it.

With all the energy he could muster, he hefted the spare lasrifle and rested it against the wall. Bursting as many shots as he could at the two trikes crossing towards Cynthia while still trying to keep his hold on the stubbler gunner

[RandomLunatic]

Cynthia fires one last quick burst at the incoming trikes, then ducks back behind the dropship, tugging on Lirius's sleeve to bring him along. With the bulk of the wrecked dropship between her and the enemy's guns, she dashes about a half dozen meters from the ship and flops on the ground, quickly becoming all but indistinguishable from gore-smeared cavern floor-at least, from the perspective of someobody peering through a narrow slit cut in the armor plate of a pseeding trike.

[Warpfire]

Lirius, realizing that Cynthia probably had a good idea, runs after her and follows suit taking a prone position next to her. He draws his hunting rifle once more.

[RandomLunatic]

Spread out, or we'll both get nailed by the same burst. Cynthia whispers urgently.

[Ms.Malbolge]

Aviva focuses on the ground before the trikes, attempting with her mighty will to unleash the immaterium upon the poor hapless scavengers. A foul wind seems to fill the cavern and the smell of sulfur fills all of your noses with it's stench. Then you hear it, like the cry of dying Grox as if heard from a great distance. The air seems to shudder violently, as if the whole cave is filled with silent thunder. You see it then, a great ball of nothing slowly fading into existence and to even look at it is to risk your sanity.

Suddenly a great implosion is felt and each of you feel it's tug upon your mind before the great ball of nothing erupts into the crimson and violet tendrils of the Warp, ever turning in on themselves. The ground below the warp energies is ripped up in great chunks before being consumed utterly by the chaos and when the trikes see this they do all in their power to avoid a similar fate. The first trike slows but not enough and soon, with a deafening scream, the rider and the trike are sucked into the chaos and you can hear great tearing sounds as the trike is ripped to shreds just as you hear the feminine screams of it's rider. The second trike tries to slow but it too fails, however it's rider has more time than the lead and so he jumps from his seat, rolling along the caverns floor as the trike is sucked into the rending chaos. The third trike slows and begins to turn as the second rider jumps up from the ground and jumps behind the third trike's rider and they both rush back towards the transport vehicle.

The warp energies persist for only a moment before they disappear but the cost of that moment is evident to those who can see Aviva. Her skin has taken on an even more tepid pallor and she trembles violently even as blood oozes from her nose and mouth.

Calk tries to maintain his hold upon the gunner upon the transport vehicle even as he brings his las rifle to bear. He hears the trikes a moment before they pass and he is ready, squeezing the trigger as the rush by. Though they be as metal blurs their closeness to Calk makes them easier targets. The las fire rips into the first trike, tearing great burning rents into the vehicle and rider and Calk can't help but take some small measure of satisfaction at the screams of his enemies. The trike simply slows and the second rider never passes but soon Calk realizes why. It appears as if it too has turned to flee towards the distance vehicle as well. The downside to Calk's actions is that he has lost his mental grasp upon the stubber's gunner and with his knowledge of his broken link it can only be a matter of time before it opens fire again.

Cynthia opens fire with her lasrifle and it's ruby light lances through the dying warp anomaly and into the back of the rider who had jumped behind the last trike. You hear a scream as the las fire hits home and watch with delight as the rider falls from it's seat, twisted form crashing violently upon the ground. The trike's driver looks back but doesn't stop to try to help the fallen ganger, leaving him to your devices, clearly so since you can tell the ganger still lives.

The heavy stubber doesn't open fire again, but instead the transport slowly turns around, the stubber swinging to ever keep it's barrel pointed at you. With most of the trikes haven fallen victim to you it would seem they have chosen to cut their loses and run instead of continuing what is quickly becoming a suicidal battle.

Cynthia and Lirius probably still find it prudent to continue their actions and drop prone some ways behind the drop ship just in case the maneuver is a ruse but as the trikes gain speed and transport slowly lurches forward it seems to be a legitimate retreat.

(Trikes still in close range but wont be for long. You're still in the heavy stubber's range as well. Aviva pretty much owned that little psystorm. Consider it the behind the scenes dice rolling equivalent of rolling a natural 20 )

(This would have been up yesterday but the forums asploded, so it's a day late. )

[Illiterate Scribe]

Grinning like a maniac, Aviva turns to Calk, giving him a significant look. Yeah, about that derision ...

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Natural 1, natural 20. I'm liking it.

[RandomLunatic]

Cynthia waits for a bit, but when it becomes abundantly clear the retreat is for real, she gets up and strolls over to where Xuan leans agaisnt the dropship's hull, and relieves him of his holster and Laspistol. She sets the Lasgun back to single-shot mode and waits a bit more for the gang to clear off. Then she leans back around the side of the transport. What's it gonna be, punk?

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I never knew it was possible to upgrade to a Lasgun/pistol.

[king.com]

Calk Wadous

Looking back at Aviva, giving back a 'we were this crose from dying in the most horrible way, ya know?' kind of look. Though to be honest, Calk was more busy giving encouragement to the scavengers with his flashlight lasrifle

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OOC: sorry for lateness, forums hate me thiiiiis much |------------------------|

[Warpfire]

Lirius, also after waiting for a time, stands up and looks around. Despite believing the attackers were actually retreating, he keeps his rifle handy. It always paid to be prepared. He takes a moment to look around, then heads over to Cynthia.

"Looks like we've already suffered two casualties. And we've barely even landed," he shakes his head.

[Illiterate Scribe]

Aviva is sitting, legs dangling from the side of the dropship, idly watching the retreating attackers. She hoped that she hadn't been out of line with them.

Overhearing Lirius' comment, she scribbles a few words on the slate, and holds them up, turning the brightness up a few notches to gain their attention.

We did

just weather an anti-aircraft battery

and a large number of

vehicles.

We are lucky to be alive.

[Ms.Malbolge]

The vehicles pick up speed and soon they disappear into the darkness of the caves. You are granted a brief reprieve in which you have time to see to the wounded among you as well as see if the dead triker's had anything of value on them. However, before you can get too comfortable a sound is heard coming from Cynthia's pack. The faint crackle of static followed by the synthed voice of the pilot. ++First comm.. lay depl..ed. We ca... n..w commu..ate.++ From the sound of it the pilot hasn't had a chance to fix his vox unit and the sound of the chatter is easily grating on your nerves but without a tech priest he will be stuck like that for some time. He continues to speak however. ++Ke.. timar..mile..dow..tunnel..milita..aware..y..presen ..cau..n..par..m..nt.. Skul..pro..s..searchin..are..hiv...forc..headi..yo ..r..way.. Mov..it!++

(The Swag)

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Axe @ 3
Knife @ 5
Autopistol @ 3
Autopistol Rounds @ 31
Shotgun
Shotgun Shells @ 12
Ganger Leathers @ 2
Guard Flak Armor @ 2
Explosive Collar
Corpse starch rations @ 14
120 thrones
Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer.

(This obviously includes the stuff from your two dead comrades.)

[Illiterate Scribe]

Aviva takes little part in the scavenging, rather wishing to fuss about Calk's shoulder wound, all the while skittering across the slate's glassteel surface with spare fingertips, recording the pilots message and playing a rousing game of fill-in-the-blanks.

First comms relay deployed
we can now communicate
Kerr Septimar mile down
tunnel military aware of
your presence caution
paramount skull probes
searching are hiver forces
heading your way move it

Looking up from the slate, she shrugs, and carries on bandaging the wound with some cloth from the hivers.

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Calling dibs on simultaneously quad-wielding three autopistols and an axe.

[Ms.Malbolge]

The ganger felled by Cynthia lays on the ground near where Aviva's warp storm ripped into the materium a scant moment ago. The ganger still lives but wound, partially cauterized by the head of the las blast, still oozes copious amounts of blood which pools thickly around the man. You are all careful to relieve the ganger of his knife and autopistol but it doesn't look as if the man, wearing naught but tattered clothes and a crude metal helmet, will make it long without first aid.

And so the choice is laid before the minds of the group. Attempt to save one of your would be murders in the hopes the young man has something useful to contribute or to let the young ganger die a slow, painful death as he no doubt deserves.

[king.com]

Calk Wadous

Reholstering his recovered stubbler, and slinging his newly found shotgun (along with as much ammunition as could be found). He moved to the rest of the group.

"Leave or take him (indicating the wounded prisoner), either way i would advise we move away as quickly as possible".

[Illiterate Scribe]

Wafting over, via a now purloined Imperial Primer, Aviva addresses the surviving ganger by means of her tablet, making sure she has his attention.

Care to explain

yourself?

[RandomLunatic]

Forget him. Let's go before we get pinned down by somebody who doesn't give up so easy. Now.

[Ms.Malbolge]

The group takes a moment to gather what spoils they can in the eerie silence of the cave, lit only by the foggy light coming from the ruptured cave side some five hundred yards down tunnel. The comm link has been silent since the pilot called in only moments ago but the need for speed and caution on your part was clearly pointed out thanks to Aviva's filling in the blanks of the pilot's damaged vox unit.

Calk grabs Xuan's shotgun and the accompanying ammunition and begins to load the old weapon. A rudimentary shotgun with only two barrels that have to be reloaded manually it is clearly not the best gun in a drawn out fire fight. But in the close quarters of the underhives that are to no doubt come it will no doubt make a fine close quarter's weapon. Calk says his piece, voicing the need for haste and makes ready for the mile trek down tunnel.

Aviva grabs hold of Xuan's primer, leave it to a psyker to grab only a book and not the weapons that lay scattered about the field. After a moment, however, she turns her gaze back down towards her former companion and strips him of his rations and armor, still bloody and vomit drenched though none the less serviceable despite the filth. Once finished she turns her data slate towards the wounded ganger who bleeds to death nearby and she attempts to communicate. The man's eyes flutter and open but they are blood shot and already begin to film over and after a moment of holding her data slate over the man's face Aviva might come to the conclusion that in his condition it is pointless to try and talk to the man.

Cynthia takes a moment to recover most of Lirius' gear from his still steaming corpse, taking his compact laspistol and tucking it into her belt even as she straps the massive hunting rifle over her shoulder. She digs around the assassin's body glove until she finds his stash of stimm and tucks it away, no doubt cursing after another brief inspection tells her that while he had the drugs he didn't have an injector but that problem could be easily fixed when they reached Kerr Septimar. Once her newly acquired weapons and drugs are safely tucked away she heads into the drop ship and begins to unceremoniously strip Grendal of his armor and once the blood and vomit stained armor is in her hands she merrily jumps out of the ship to stand near the other Acolytes before barking out her opinion to simply leave the dying ganger where he lies and move out before they get pinned down by something more determined than some moderately equipped scavengers.

Once the remaining three are ready to go a snapping sound is heard from the drop ship behind them followed by a loud crash and an even louder curse. The cursing voice is distinctly masculine and whoever it is you can hear them stomp down the ceiling of the ship before you see the figure standing in the opening of the ship's side hatch.The figure appears to be a young human standing a couple of inches above six feet with a well built frame. He stands adorned in the regalia of the Imperial Guard, complete with flak armor and las weapons. The man's face is covered in blood originating from a vicious swollen gash on the man's forehead that has stopped bleeding. He, like all of you, is covered in blood and the rank contents of Xuan's stomach and maybe it is because of this that he has a rather annoyed expression written upon his blood stained face.

(*waves her hand* Jalek was in the drop ship the whole time! *waves her hand again for good measure*)

[Illiterate Scribe]

Aviva pulls out her mercy blade, regards its finely honed edge for a long moment, and advances on the ganger, cradling his head on her lap, with a sorrowful, almost piéta-like fondness.

Sorry.

The pain should go away soon.

She drives the knife into the base of his skull.

[UncleWolf]

Jalek shakes his head, getting rid of the last of the dizziness from the landing. He looked out at the carnage and sighed.

Why do I always miss the fun? he asks sarcastically to no one in particular.

Seeing that Xuan's body had already been looted, he grabs the explosive collar and puts it into a pouch at his side. It could be of use later.

He flips over the body and finds an autopistol. Jalek grabs it and checks the ammo.

Twelve in the clip, one in the chamber. Grabbing the holster, he puts it on and grabs the rest of the ammo.

[RandomLunatic]

Suddenly realizing her situation, Cynthia steps back inside the dropship. Pausing at the doorway to the cockpit, she calls, Don't opne this door unless it's life or death. Or there'll be a death. The warning is punctuated by what sounds like an Autopistol being cocked, followed by a door slam.

Inside the cockpit, Cythina lays the armor of one of the consoles. Then she gracefully slips her left arm out of its sleeve. And, across the cosmos, comes a piercing cry. It is the wail of a million demons, the shriek of a trillion souls of a billion war-ravaged worlds. It is the sound of adolescent males everywhere discovering this is where the narration fades to black...

Presently, Cynthia reappears outside the dropship, looking ready to start a war all by herself. Gee, too bad somebody went and smeared blood all over the windows, huh?

[Ms.Malbolge]

Cynthia finds that since the dropship is upside down that setting the autopistol on the consoles is a bit trickier than one would expect but through sheer ingenuity and the resourcefulness born of a life of hive dwelling she manages to succeed in her task. Stripping off her street clothes she slowly shrugs into the flak armor, manufactured in one size fits all it manages to fit after Cynthia toys with the buckles and straps for a moment, managing to find it suitable though not the most comfortable of things to wear. When she leaves the dropship, now adorned in bloody vomit covered armor, she see's the others as they prepare to disembark down the tunnel toward Kerr Septimar.

After his dramatic entrance Jalek turns his attentions to looting the remaining corpses, picking up what the others haven't claimed which is only an exploding collar and an autopistol with a couple of clips of ammuntion. After the quick scavenging he makes himself ready, having already been briefed upon their mission he looks down tunnel... into the gloom... into the depths of Cenaroun.

Aviva finds that killing the ganger is frighteningly easy. The mercy blade, honed to an edge so extreme that a simpleton might think it mono-molecular it slides effortlessly through the man's neck, tip seen through the opposite side. A long, slow gurgle serves as the man's final words as he didn't even seen to wake and he is long dead by the time Aviva cleans and re sheaths her mercy blade.

Calk begins to trudge down the massive tunnel long before the others do, taking up his newly acquired lasgun as his keen eyes strive to pierce the misty darkness. He never looks back to see if the others are following, perhaps such is because of his great confidence that his fellow acolytes will follow him, a pure man of the cloth.

You gasp in the heavily polluted air that valiantly tries to choke you as you pass the massive hole created by your rather adventurous landing and by then the more astute of you noticed that the tunnel seem to slop ever slightly uphill. It is a long hike, the scant three quarters of a mile, combined with the fact most of you are still coming down from the shock of battle, finds all but the guardsman panting quietly in the near total silence... a silence that does well to match the darkness at this point.

The tunnel is no longer smooth, filth and debris line it's size in great heaps the size of large buildings and the air turns sour with the stale stench of fungus thriving amongst the refuse. It is at this point you hear a great rumbling up ahead. As if a great, burdensome vehicle slowly bears down on you from the darkness. Calk's head seems to look at the garbage at each side when he first hears the rumbling, as if searching for an advantage, any advantage, in the refuse that seems to surround you. You have all heard this sound before and have marked it well upon your memories.

For it is the sound of armor... heading your way.

[king.com]

Calk Wadous

"Is it too late to make a damned request for a cursed missile launcher? yet again the loyal administrators of the Emperor, inadequately provide His servents."

He tried to take cover in any sort of ditch/crack in the walls around him and motions the others to do the same. Perhaps if they are careful they can let it slip by.