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The assassin simply watched as this paper-pushing Adept verbally sparred with Praetus. To the Arbitor's credit, he seemed of the 'less paper, more killing' mind set, which was good. Shaking his head, Lor only spoke up once, as the Adept asked about specimens for examination.
"Sorry, you'll have to take that up with the Decontamination Comissars ... but there's some good stuff down in the torpedo tubes, still. Ask Lt Solarii ... she LOVES volunteers."
After Praetus excuses the group, Lor is out the door a hearbeat later, and will ghost to his room as quickly as possible ... barring the others wanting to talk.
__________________ 4-day weekend with no wi-fi. Posting will be via cellphone - sporadic and short. Back on Tuesday!
DM: "Why do you have so many characters?"
Me: "Because I never embraced the strategic value of running away."
Lorenzo knew fine that everyone present had to fill in one of the forms, and was disheartened at the lack of cooperation from this cell. Those poor bastards would end up getting themselves executed to to not following procedure, or, even worse, due to illiteracy.
He shook his head at Lor's lack of thoroughness, all the while taking additional notes with an autoquill into a small notepad.
Interestingly, after the Acolytes turn on their heels and stomp out, he leaves the office too, after turning off the lights and ensuring his books are in place. He quietly leaves the room, shutting it and locking it behind himself.
He follows the others, notepad in hand, running through various scenarios is mind about how to trap potential infiltrators.
Ration consumption was good... Ammunition expenditure? Medical screening? Psychic activity?
Preatus breaks off from the group of acolytes heading for Lt Solarii's office. Hopefully she has something she could use some help with... he thinks, not noticing the runner dressed in black coming from another corridor "Arbitor Praetus I have a message for you!" the runner exclaims. The former arbitrator emits a long suffering sigh and turns to the runner. He takes the encrypted datapad being thrust in his face and places his right hand on the view screen. **Identity Confirmed** it flashes, before displaying orders for him to attend the war council concerning the acolyte's recent activities in the lower decks. Pressing the clear button, he hands the datapad back to the still waiting runner as smoke begins to drift out of the edges of the now useless datapad. "Thanks a ton buddy." he says sarcastically as he changes direction towards the council chambers, the runner now serving to escort him to the chambers.
Chief Lexographer Adept Lorenzo Bianco
A servo skull floats up to the Adept as he begins to follow the acolytes down the hall. **ATTENTION You are to report to Master Holt's chambers in one hour and await his pleasure. Please confirm** it says, waiting for a response.
As Praetus heads upwards towards the sacred vaults of the library he is stopped 3 times by security checkpoints. Grim faced Enforcers searching him with brisque efficiency as they scan him throroughly and use his hand print to confirm his identity.
This high in the spire is unknown territory to the Arbite, normally only bridge and clerical crew are permitted this high into the spire. Soon, and now disarmed by the last set of Enforcers, he is escorted through the multiple vaults of the library. A doublet of mute adepts shadowing him with hard stares lest his unworthy hands damage or stain a book.
Motioning towards a set of double doors that are pulled open by fluttering cherubium he can see a large wooden table strewn with scrolls. The Master of WHsipers and imposing Confessor sat at the table...
Markus remains silent in the presence of the Adept, knowing full well that his underhive manners do little to endear him to the administrative classes. When the debriefing ends with no questions are specifically directed at him, he breathes a sigh of relief and returns to his quarters.
As the disparate acolytes scatter and wander around the bowels of the vast many kilometre long floating city they are surprised when a strident alarm sounds. "All crew report to ready stations for medical inspections. Failure to comply will result in immediate termination".
With such an unambigious message the results are instantaneous as the crew decks boil and bubble like a swarm of ants as thousands of dregs, gunners, loaders and junior enginseers begin to assemble at their designated rally points...
The announcement sounds just as the weary sergeant reaches her quarters. With a muffled expletive she reluctantly turns back the way she came and heads to the ready station. Give me the strength to carry my duty through, and smite those who seek to thwart me, Lilitas offers in silent prayer. By the Throne, can't they at least let me scrape off the blood? I suppose that's another upside to this posting. No inspections.
Lor frowned at the alert notice, wondering what additional medical inspections would be required beyond the 6 hrs of decon they went through earlier. Sighing, he rolled from his bunk and trudged to the door.
I hate inspections ... how many times do we have to put our arses on the line for the Emperor until they finally start trusting us?
With his las pistol and knife securely tucked away, Lor proceeded out of his room towards his station. Nobody said they had to be unarmed - and after events with the aliens, Lor wasn't about to walk around without a little surprise for anyone wanting to make trouble.
__________________ 4-day weekend with no wi-fi. Posting will be via cellphone - sporadic and short. Back on Tuesday!
DM: "Why do you have so many characters?"
Me: "Because I never embraced the strategic value of running away."
As the Master of Whispers whirls and hurries off, the former Arbitrator sighs and turns to the newest acolyte. "Right, well lets get moving, no sense angering Master Holt further than the situation already has. As they make their way to the acolyte's designated gathering point, he activates his microbead and speaks in the acolyte's secret tongue.
Spoiler
"If you've started to remove your combat kit, suit back up prior to reporting in."
He then looks over his shoulder at the adept following behind and speaks in low gothic "I suggest you learn our code phrases when you get a chance, be easier than having to translate everything for you."
Lor stood in line when he felt the soft vibration of his microbead. Pulling it out, he placed it in his ear and listened. In the special code the acolytes had developed, he heard Praetus speaking. ""If you've started to remove your combat kit, suit back up prior to reporting in."
"Son of a bi..." Muttering curse words under his breath, Lor stepped out of line and headed back to his room. He put his armor on, placed his rags on over that and grabbed his weapons before returning to the station.
Dressed in stitched, dirty clothing, most folks gave him wide berth. Of course, the long hunting rifle might have had something to do with it, too ...
__________________ 4-day weekend with no wi-fi. Posting will be via cellphone - sporadic and short. Back on Tuesday!
DM: "Why do you have so many characters?"
Me: "Because I never embraced the strategic value of running away."
The words of Praetus and the pass codes that he subsequently gives you are enough to get you past all the patrols and checkpoints as you head to a fire control command centre near the bow. Thr room bubbles with activity as storm troopers and combat troops all marked with the a red arm band of passed medicals
Lt. Solarii looks up as you and the other acolytes dribble in."They meant you?" she says in a mixture of horror and depression. "The enforcer nearest to Praetus hiding a smile behind the face plate of the riot helmet "We were told to expect soe elite troops Praetus"...
Lorenzo looks out of place... until he removes his robe, revealing a sort of high-tech light armour, covered with gadgets, with a long flak coat over it. He takes off his spectacles, and fixes a light carapace helmet onto his head, several green and red LEDs lighting up around the eye regions.
The lexographer then pulls out a large pistol from an under arm holster with one hand, whilst slipping his pen and notepad into a hidden pocket with the other.
He chambers the gun, inspecting it carefully, then salutes the lieutenant professionally.
"Lexographer Bianco, ma'am. I've been assigned to this unit. The details, I believe, are classified, but I've been given the clearance pass code 'Maxwell Jingo' as an identifier."
Praetus sighs and rolls his eyes at the formality of the adept. "You'll have to excuse him Lt. He's new. So, do you have anything for us yet, or do you just want us to stand at the ready?" he asks.
Lor found a quiet corner to lean in, where he could keep an eye on things. He smiled to himself at the Lt's response ... some things didn't change, apparently.
He watched the newbie make a show of checking his weapons and equipment, snorting under his breath. Yeah, yeah, we all see you're not just a paper-pushing 'crat ... you're a paper-pushing 'crat with a gun.
Great.
Leaning there, he waited quietly for the team to assemble ... and for the Lt to subsequently send them off to their doom. Just another day in service to the Emperor!
__________________ 4-day weekend with no wi-fi. Posting will be via cellphone - sporadic and short. Back on Tuesday!
DM: "Why do you have so many characters?"
Me: "Because I never embraced the strategic value of running away."
The new guy smiles, not having heard anything, but he knows fine what is going on. He's not an idiot; apparently he had to prove himself some sort of tough guy. He smiles politely.
"It has been quite some time since this old dear has been fired, I must say. Can't say I'm looking forward to it, to be honest. I'd much prefer to locate our targets, then expose their lair to hard vacuum. Violence isn't exactly my strong suit, and I assume that should be painfully obvious.
Then again, thanks for not pointing that out. That would be almost as bad as myself mocking someone for being illiterate, for instance.
I'll do my best not to get in the way, and perhaps I shall get lucky and get a kill to my name..."
He pauses, then decides to put in a slight dig about collateral damage,
"...A hostile kill."
Last edited by bluntpencil : 01-06-2012 at 02:37 PM.
Markus emerges from his nest armed and armoured. He slides from the ventilation shaft into his "quarters", where he spends a few quick minutes making the space looked more lived in. That completed and his caches protected he makes his way to his duty station.
Seeing the fight brewing between the adept and assassin and how this must look, he steps in. ""Alright, shut your mouth. The reason you need that gun is because the filth of the universe likes to shoot back. We get in a fire fight, worry more about keeping your head down. As for exposing the xenos to vacuum, you do realize putting giant holes in the ship you're riding in is typically a bad idea right? Leave them to the deathwatch, our job is to stay here and wait for order from the Lt. right now. If you have a problem with that, why don't you talk to Master Holt? I'm sure he could find something else for you to do." Preatus snaps Like use you as bait he thinks to himself.
Lilitas, standing at disciplined attention with her newly-acquired Las-carbine at the ready, lets out a dismissive snort at the adept's proclamation. Dismissal turns to annoyance when he decides to pass comment on her fire discipline. The line about illiteracy does him no great favours either - she damn well passed those classes back at the schola. She wasn't doing too badly as a copyist either, before she realised that being a Sororitas involved far too much prayer and contemplation, and not enough butchering the enemies of man.
She turns her head to the corner Lor found to lurk in. "Anyone going to object too strongly when the paper-shuffler gets caught by a grenade? Anyone at all?" she asks in the cipher they devised earlier. "It'll be accidental, I swear".
Lt. Solarii eyes the adept with a hostile glare. "Ah, your are the throne damned adept I have to thank for the triplcate collateral damage and death assement forms that have arrived...".
Before she continues one of the other enforcers nods and mutters someting to her and she calms slightly. "Right, you are here to assist Master Holt in anything he needs to do. Now stand in the corner and don't get in the way of the chain of command here."
Even as she berates the acolytes an auspex crackles on the table...
"Lord Holt, 3 men down. 8 refused scanning....heading down causeway 122b-6alpha. Request instructions".
"Look at it this way, he can fill out all of our paperwork for us, or the enemy will waste rounds shooting at him instead of us. We can also threaten prisoners with having to stay in the same room as him." Praetus replies in the same code. Hearing the announcement Praetus quickly dons his helmet and ensures that the charge pack is properly seated in his new laspistol.
Lor smiled at the adept's response, realizing he had probably been a little too demonstrative in his disapproval. Before Praetus broke up the exchange, he leaned forward to the man and whispered, "Don't worry about it - I'm actually pretty good at violence. How about this - you read the bad guys their rights and I'll shoot them while they're listening."
Praetus stopped any further discussion with a reprimand and glare, to which Lor grinned even further. Settling back into the corner, he chuckled at the interchange between Lilitas and Praetus. As Praetus put on his helmet, he grabbed his gear and shrugged on his pack.
"Well, we were all the new guy once, but I can't say I'll have much sympathy right now. Just watch it ... wouldn't surprise me if he was recording this all so he can decrypt later." He smiled at Bianco, and nodded towards the Lt.
"Grab your gear ... sounds like they're playing our song."
__________________ 4-day weekend with no wi-fi. Posting will be via cellphone - sporadic and short. Back on Tuesday!
DM: "Why do you have so many characters?"
Me: "Because I never embraced the strategic value of running away."
Praetus
"Looks like he'll get a chance to prove himself. Besides, we don't have to like one another, just be able to work together." Praetus says, the grille on his helmet giving his words a metalic edge. He briefly pauses to get affirmation from the Lt. upon hearing Master Holt's orders. "If you'll excuse us ma'am."
Solarii scowls at the group as they rush off the muttering of "...undisciplined hive scum..." just audible as you race down the corridors to the sound of strident organ music blaring over the ship's speakers.
5 minutes later you reach the stairs that lead down two levels you can hear a smattering of gunfire and a lithe figure, hunting rifle in hand and tight fitting black body suit and eye goggles spins round to stare at you.. "Return to your quarters, crew scum...."
The Guardswoman skids to a sudden halt, levelling her carbine at the figure as she drops into a firing position with practised ease. Her finger hovers above the trigger, sorely tempted to open fire. It has been a very long day, and Lilitas has already had just about enough of smart-mouthed idiots. Gunning down at least one annoyance would be very cathartic.
But the garb gives doubt, and if there's going to be another friendly fire incident today, she'd rather it be the paper-shuffler. Wasting the Emperor's munitions and all that. "Praetus" she growls, voicing some of her irritation, "please confirm that this is, in fact, one of our runners, and not just some cocky sonuva****h who doesn't know proper FoF procedure". The 'because I'd really like to shoot him' goes unsaid.
A new figure is met along the way. At first he looks like a techpriest, but he leans against the wall in a way that seems unusual for the Cult Mechanicus priesthood. Furthermore, he seems to lack the massive amounts of machine grafts that give the Priests their most distinctive appearance.
I'm here to help. His voice says simply as he joins the group just before they are stopped by the figure with the hunting rifle.
Before they leave, Bianco quickly snaps a salute,
"Feel free to order me to fill them in, ma'am!" he says with a very thin smile.
As they run off, he holds his heavy pistol in one hand, and has his wrist-mounted auspex active on his other. He has it set to the scanning module designed by the Tech Priest for this purge. It pulses with a high-pitched blip as it scans the area, and the individual that appeared before them.
Spoiler
Tech Use roll, TN: 60 (1d100)[50]
Taking an Aim action whilst it is scanning too.
As he scans the crewman, from a safe distance, he switches his pistol to Man-Stopper rounds. He quietly prays that he won't have to shoot this stupid bastard.
Last edited by bluntpencil : 01-06-2012 at 06:33 PM.
The heavily armoured arbitor barely has time to process the sudden addition of a tech-priest to their numbers before skidding to a halt in front of the ship's assassin. "Your master sent us here, same as you. If you don't like it take it up with him. Now, what are we looking at? Praetus asks, scanning the man's arms for a red band like the ones the acolytes are all wearing, hand on his pistol should he need to draw it.
Status:
Spoiler
Wounds: 15/15
Fate Points: 1/1
Shield: 8 AP cover
Mars Pattern Mark IV Command Laspistol clip: 15/15
Spare pistol charge packs: 1/1
Lor blinked as the newcomer attempted to insert himself into the group. "Uh, who the hell are you? And who sent you?" He searched for a red armband, or other forms of identification that would confirm the tech priest's words prior to the group continuing on.
Once they rounded the corner, he stared at the black-clad killer for a moment, before shaking his head. Is that what I look like for stealth ops? Damn, that's queer ...
Keeping his rifle handy, he waited to see how the assassin responded, ready to put a bullet in the man's head if he wasn't on the up and up. Hell, the man should be shot for running around in a black suit in the middle of a lit corridor, but that was more of a professional issue than anything.
Regardless, things seemed likely to turn violent very quickly, and Lor stood ready to dish out his own brand first ...
__________________ 4-day weekend with no wi-fi. Posting will be via cellphone - sporadic and short. Back on Tuesday!
DM: "Why do you have so many characters?"
Me: "Because I never embraced the strategic value of running away."
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Re: Sin of Pride - Dark Heresy
