Thy Fearful Symmetry - Dark Heresy (IC)

[Destro_Yersul]

The Fighty-Types

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Tychon held up a hand for silence, trying to make out what the voices were saying through the noise of the machinery around them. He started moving slowly closer, alert for danger. With any luck at all, he'd be able to tell who it was before they saw or heard him.

[Rizhail]

The Sneaky-Shooty-Stabby Crew

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Nova kept pace with Tychon, also doing her best to remain quiet while creeping toward the voices. She quietly sheathed her swords and drew her katars, ready to ambush whoever was ahead if need be.

[LCP]

Tychon, Nova & Red

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The voices were growing louder and more distinct. Ears practically twitching, Nova heard the words coming nearer.

"...just get out of here, boss. There's too many of 'em..."
It was a coarse, lower-class voice, thick with raw vocal edges of an underhiver. The voice that replied was immediately recognisable.
"M said we were going to get it for him, so we're going to get it for him. You got that, gloom-bait?" There was a pause. "What's the matter? You afraid of a few skags in doggie masks?"

Stubbs.

[Etcetera]

Dogmatic and Dogmaticker

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Jericus nodded his assent to Tauron's plan, making his way cautiously down the corridor.

[Thanatos 51-50]

[Team Guns]

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Red thumbed off his lamp-pack and immediately tried to find a likely-looking cranny to melt into.

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UntrainedConcealment - (1d100)[59]

[Destro_Yersul]

The Three Stooges

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Stubbs. Well, that made things interesting. It was possible this wouldn't be a total write-off after all. Millie obviously still meant to capture the creature, but Tychon seriously doubted her odds of that. Unfortunately, he also doubted the odds that she'd simply come along quietly.

The Skaggs in doggie masks, that'd be the beast house. Inching around a pipe, Tychon tried to get a good look at how many people were with Stubbs. If it was a small enough number, they could probably win this.

[Rizhail]

The Murder Trio

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Nova smirked at the sound of Stubbs' voice, pleased that she might get to deal with the little hiver after all. It wasn't anything personal, merely her sense of professional pride being offended at the drugged up harpy's antics throughout the evening.

Nova followed Tychon's lead, hanging back just a step to avoid giving the trio away while the gunslinger peaked around the corner.

[LCP]

Tychon, Nova & Red

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”We weren’t...” said one of the other voices – but Stubbs’ hushed him almost immediately with an urgent hiss. She had seen something, or heard something – perhaps the click of Red’s lamp-pack.

“Up ahead,” Nova heard her say, in an urgent whisper. The assassin was fairly sure she had an idea where the voices were coming from – on their left, where the great pillars of machinery protruded from the station wall like flying buttresses, there was space enough to hide Milicent Stubbs and as many friends as she felt inclined to bring. It was solid cover, and the gangers didn’t seem to be emerging.

“OI!” came the woman’s shout, ringing out so sudden and loud that it filled the cavernous hall with echoes. “Show yourselves!”

---

1

Jericus & Tauron

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Picking their way carefully down the gloomy corridor, Jericus led the way through a drifting swathe of vapour, wiping beads of condensation from his face as they emerged on the other side. Beyond the end of the passageway, he could see a vast machine-room opening out.

There was movement up ahead – the others. Tauron caught a pale flash of Nova’s face, the assassin creeping into cover behind some bulky piece of pipework. Then, echoing between the metal walls, a voice called out.

“OI! Show yourselves!”

It was the voice of Milicent Stubbs.

OOC: You may now feel free to break out of spoilers if you want to communicate your position to the others.

[Rizhail]

Team Not-Priests

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Nova made a hand gesture at her comrades, motioning them back from where Stubbs and her friends were. "Let them come to us," she whispered as quietly as she could.

[Destro_Yersul]

Team Sneaky

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Tychon nodded, picking a shadow to sink into. He'd hoped to surprise them, but there was no doing that now, and he still didn't know how many of them there were. Let Stubbs come looking herself, or send one of her goons.

[LCP]

Tychon, Nova & Red

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"Rhodes, you slimy sump-wipe! Is that you?" yelled Stubbs, still keeping to the obscuring cover of the machines. "You've got until the count of three!"

There was some urgent whispering. Nova made out one sentence, Millie's whispered voice suddenly thrumming with anger.

"What do you mean you didn't bring the frakking grenades?"

---

1

Jericus & Tauron

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Stubbs' voice rang out again from up ahead.

"Rhodes, you slimy sump-wipe, is that you? You've got until the count of three!"

[Rizhail]

Nova and the Gunmen

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The assassin smirked as she caught the hiver's angry whispering. She motioned to her comrades to remain where they were. Almost as an afterthought, she turned to Red and whispered, "Ready your grenade launcher."

[Thragka]

Tome Thumpers

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The God-Emperor delivers, thought Tauron with relief as he caught sight of the others. His happiness was drowned out in Stubbs' reverberating shriek. Not that arrogant shrew again. And to think I was almost enjoying her attitude earlier.

The cleric set to reloading his autopistol as quickly as possible. Tychon didn't seem eager to give away their position, so Drake wouldn't needlessly throw away the element of surprise. He brushed his fingers off the floor, looking for something small to throw at Nova and alert her of the priests' presence.

[Thanatos 51-50]

We Three Murderers

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Red slid a frag round into the yawning maw of Abbey's launcher, shouldering the rifle, and training the business end on Millicent Stubbs. "Nobody but me gets to kill Octavian." he muttered under his breath, vocalizing his thoughts.
Or, the one thought that wasn't still hovering around the Lictor. It was like a bad spectre of Sibellus. All happening again. Phrenz... limb from limb. Their quarry, dead, under their watch.
All his fault, and now it was happening again.

They were going to fail. And then Red was going to lose everybody on this Emperor-forsaken den of inequity. And he'd have to answer for it all when he went before the Golden Throne.

The least he could do was kill Rhodes first.

[LCP]

Tauron & Jericus

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Feeling in the gritty, metallic dust of the deck, Tauron closed his fingers around a discarded bolt. At least, he hoped it was discarded. From the state of the bulkhead plates, it could easily be some essential part of the station's infrastructure.

Gauging its weight in his hand, he winged it in Nova's direction. It clinked from a pipe a few feet from her left, just where he'd aimed.

---

1

Everyone

"Alright, last chance!" came Stubbs' voice from behind the towering machines. "One."

Something clinked against a pipe beside Nova. Frowning, she looked round to see a small, grubby bolt rolling to a halt against the deck.

Looking over her shoulder, she saw two figures huddled against the wall of the corridor, just in front of one of the steaming vents fifteen metres or so back. Jericus and Tauron.

"Two..."

OOC:

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Bear in mind that you do not have sightlines to Millie and her gang, you just have a rough direction/distance on the origin of her voice - and vice versa. If you want to kick things off, it'll be Initiative time.

Will mock up a quick map and post it OOC.

[Destro_Yersul]

Tychon, wordlessly, pointed at Red's grenade launcher, then at the source of Stubbs' voice, then held up three fingers. Then he darted for the concealing bulk of a large storage tank across the way from them, near a door, in the hopes of getting a better angle to return fire.

[Rizhail]

Nova beckoned Tauron and Jericus over to her position before moving forward. Letting Tychon and Red work out how to get a shot at Stubbs and her crew, Nova went with a different approach.

Moving as carefully as possible, she attempted to slip between the boilers and other obstructions, heading in the direction of Millie's shouting in hopes of popping out close enough to charge them. Charging through a crossfire like the one that had erupted in the auction hall was not something she wanted to attempt.

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Nova will attempt to squeeze between the various obstructions as quietly as possible. If she spots Stubbs and crew, she'll keep cover between her and them until the shooting starts.

[Thragka]

Pistol still in hand, Tauron scuttled forwards in a hunch, closing with Tychon and Red as quietly as he could.

[Thanatos 51-50]

Red poked around the corner after Tychon, attempting to gain a clearer line of sight, and let rested his finger on the Launcher's trigger, ready to et the grenade bloop out of the tube and cause some serious damage...

[LCP]

As Tychon sprinted across the alley of machines, a yellow blur broke from the other side of the intervening columns, sprinting for the opposite side of the spherical hydrogen tank Tychon had chosen for cover. Red thought he recognised the lurid colours of Millie’s jacket through the shadows, but the woman was fast – before he could draw a bead on her, she had dived into the cover of the great pipes that fed into the storage vessel’s side.

Two of her underhive followers were spreading out in her wake, hugging cover a little closer to their point of origin as they prepped their bulky autoguns. They had clearly seen Tychon’s mad dash, but Red was fairly confident they had not seen him – nestling in to the cover of his own little corner, he began to pick his target, careful not to let the red dot of his laser sight give him away.

Nova, meanwhile, was slithering through the struts and conduits that chained the great pillar-pipes to the walls, moving swiftly and silently between the long slabs of metal. She heard the pounding of feet, the sound of coarse shouts, but saw nothing, sheltered from sight by the forest of steel and aluminium around her...

[Destro_Yersul]

Hidden behind the obscuring storage tank, Tychon readied his pistol. Edging forwards, he drew a bead on the nearest ganger. Red was covering him: let Millie try and come this way, if she thought to get the jump on him. Taking careful aim, the gunslinger pulled the trigger.

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shooting at the wounded ganger on the map. I'm not sure about distance, so if it matters, Tychon's Carnodon has a 35m range. I wanted to end up in a position with line of sight to them, when I did my dash, but if that's not allowed my first half action will be spent moving up so I can shoot instead of aiming.

(1d100)[47] to hit
(1d10+6)[12] - damage

that's a hit. Eat AP2 bullet, wounded ganger.

[Thragka]

Tauron peered between the criss-crossing layers of steel as Jericus and he caught up with the others. Red and Tychon were taking up positions in the expectation of a firefight. Drake spent a moment looking down at the autopistol in his hand, weighing it against his palm. For he moment, he regretted having left the hunting rifle on the shuttle, but then reprimanded himself - it was not given to him to see the future, and the cell's preparations for the auction seemed to have paid off. And this little thing did help drive off the Xenos, with the Emperor's blessing, he thought. Of course, Lot 11 still ought to be captured ... but that would have to wait.

The weight of the chainsword was comforting against his back, although the wounds from his penance aboard the shuttle still smarted a little; a reminder that his service was not complete, and he could ill afford the comfort to hang back safely. Turning, he stepped back past Jericus to follow Nova around the pillar, looking to get a better angle on Milicent Stubbs or her cohort.

OOC:

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Moving to where Nova is now, on the assumption that she'll be moving on. Trying to get a bit closer to a target.

[Rizhail]

Finding herself confronted with a wall, Nova took a right and continued through the machinery toward the gunshots and shouting that marked the start of a firefight. When she reached the edge of cover, she held back for a moment to get a better view and plot her next move.

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Spending the whole turn heading south on the map, stopping just shy of leaving cover.

[Thanatos 51-50]

Red raked his laser sight across Millie for a fraction of a moment, deciding mid-aim to save her for last. She was, after all, at least nominally in charge, which meant she knew more.
Instead, Red swung the red dot over to the unwounded ganger - he was hiding behind cover, yes, but Red had recently insured the ability to cope with indirect fire situations.
The guardsmen steadied the rifle as he moved his trigger finger forward ever-so-slightly to the launcher's release, and sent the loaded frag sailing through the air, aimed to impact right next to where the Unhurt ganger was cowering.

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Aim + Fire
BS 51 +10 Aim + 10 RDS = 71
BS71 - (1d100)[58]
scatter - (1d10)[9]
distance - (1d10)[3]
Damage - (2d10)[9][3](12)

[LCP]

Tychon’s shot snapped across the dusty space, striking a scintillating shower of sparks from the solid bulkhead walls behind which his target sheltered. The crash of the impact made the ganger jump. Moments later, Red’s frag grenade came sailing lazily past his face, bouncing with a tinny rattle from the far wall and landing no more than a metre from the second of Millie’s henchmen.

The grenade went off with a roar of smoke and flame, shards of shrapnel pinging from pipework and support struts. The ganger stumbled from the black cloud with his jacket smouldering, limping from a half-cauterised gash across his shin. From the sound of the obscene hive argot that was spilling over his lips, he wasn’t happy about it.

There was a sudden, explosive burst of motion, and Millie was on the move again, racing around the bulging belly of the storage tank sheltering her and Tychon. The curve of the steel behemoth kept Urbanus blind to her charge until the last moment. Turning to face almost as fast as Stubbs came barrelling in, he darted left, catching her momentum on his shoulder and letting her buzzing chain-knife rip up through empty air.

Seeing his attacker pinned in melee, the ganger Tychon had been shooting at broke from combat, strafing sideways to take a wildly inaccurate shot at Red. Even that level of precision was too much for the man who had been caught in the blast of the grenade, who simply levelled his autogun at hip-height and sprayed the alley with a continuous stream of bullets. Advancing through the cover of the supports closer to his position, Nova ducked back as solid slugs began to ricochet from the girders around her, filling the great machine-hall with their metallic echoes.

A little way behind her, Tauron paused at the sound of the bullets. For a moment, he thought he saw something move in the shadows of the gantries up ahead – then he saw it clear, a third ganger rising from the shadows. The man was holding a bulky, unfamiliar weapon, its barrel terminating in some kind of flared nozzle. It fired with a wet thud, propelling an expanding ball of a viscous, milky blue fluid in the priest’s direction. Ducking, Tauron watched it sail over his head like a wobbling water balloon. It burst against a pillar behind him, splattering the rusted steel with filaments of the thick, fast-drying stuff...

[Thragka]

"Webbing," Tauron said to Jericus non-chalantly. "We should stay close. If one of us is snared, the other can attempt to free him," he added flatly - the tone implied he didn't expect to be questioned. Were the gangers trying to capture them, or was it just a tool for slowing them down? Either way, Tauron did not intend to go down without a fight. Indicating the next set of struts to the tech-priest with a nod of his head, the cleric began to cross the open passage between the pipe and the next bulk of machinery.

OOC:

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Full move directly right, since we can't run through the cover. That should just about put Tauron into the next set of cover, and also within Short Range of the ganger with the webber.

[Thanatos 51-50]

Red ducked back behind his solid wall of cover, listening to the leadbellies whistle dis-harmoniously past him. Self-preservation instinct overrode his usual courage under fire as he assesed the situation. Too much lead in the air to snap off a clean shot at Millie, especially with Tychon in close-quarters combat. Good thing the man favoured pistols, anyway, shouldn't be too hard to put her down with one of those giant hand-cannons...
Then again, there was another threat to his party's saftey, and it had made the unfortunate tactical error of shooting directly at him.
The Death Light nosed around the corner and snapped off a lasbolt to correct the ganger's folly.

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Pinning - (1d100)[73]
COLOSSAL FAILURE!

This really... keeps me from using another Half Action to AIM at the guy I'm going to shoot, because abandoning cover? Not the play I was thinking of.

[Rizhail]

Ducking down as slugs pinged the debris around her, Nova took a moment to sheath her daggers and draw her swords again. "Anyone free to kill the frakker with the autogun? If he keeps this up, I won't be able to make Stubbs live up to her name," she called into her microbead, not even attempting to keep her sheer frustration out of her voice.

[Etcetera]

Jericus nonchalantly followed Tauron's lead.

[Destro_Yersul]

"Little busy," Tychon said, bunching his free hand into a fist and aiming a hard jab at Millie's jaw. It was only a feint, though. Fisticuffs were not Tychon's strong suit, and he had no intention of duking it out with someone who brought a chain-knife to the fistfight. Instead, Executioner was going to do his talking. Jamming the barrel of the weapon up under Millie's chin, he pulled the trigger.

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[roll]1d10+8[roll] +2 more if that puts her into crits.