Magos Azrael Kane and the Nar-Ghosts:
Prowess:1
Cunning:5
Interaction:2
Warcraft:2
Subterfuge:3
Psychics:0
Faith:0
Tech:5
Magos Kane is, by his own estimation, a genius. That estimation is not unfounded, he is however a genius with a something of a knack for making trouble with the Mechanicus hierarchy. He never had quite the reverence for the Omnissiah and Machine Spirits that his superiors would have liked and was always a bit too inclined to tamper with things he wasn't supposed to and skirt the edges of what was permitted. He is also not above scheming, deception and blackmail, which is fortunate as on more than one occasion he was able to extricate himself from a tricky situation by producing something that his erstwhile prosecutor, or his prosecutor's superior, would rather keep quiet (or at least making them believe he had such information).
That, however, was before Cadia.
Cadia was one crisis after another. Azrael had been part of an explorator expedition that was redirected when Abbaddon's second assault burst forth (the explorators tended to be of a more liberal bent, and thus more to Azrael's liking). Not entirely equipped for it Azrael and the other members of the expedition were tasked with maintaining the vehicles and equipment of one of the Imperial battlegroups. Unprepared for such a posting, and with the constantly shifting tides rendering any concept of a front line, and a safe distance from it, meaningless, that had been struggle enough. Fully a third of the explorator forces were dead within a month of their arrival on Cadia. Nonetheless Azrael built up a rapport with some of the Guards that he had most contact with, mostly men and women from a world called Janos, far from the Eye, that had reasonably cordial relations with the local Mechanicus.
Then came the disastrous Operation Blackpoint centred in the outskirts of the ruined fortress city of Kasr Nargost. Azrael would never know if it was because of some egregious strategic error or a result superior enemy intelligence, but either way the operation was an utter failure. Azrael was cut-off from the rest of the battlegroup along with several platoons of the Janosian 27th Rifles. With communications completely scrambled there was no way of knowing where the rest of the battlegroup was, or how much of it was left. The only thing that was clear was that leaving the relative shelter of the city was suicide. As such the small force made its way deeper into the city hoping that they would be able to link back up with Imperial forces soon. At the time they had no idea how solid the victory of the Chaos forces had been and were unaware that they were now deep inside enemy held territory.
After a week had passed it became clear that there was no help in sight from the Imperium and their supplies were running low. Azrael was working as fast as he could to patch up weapons, equipment, and people too after the death of the group's senior medic, up to a point the human body is just another machine, and it appeared that Azrael knew at least as much about it as the other field medics, plus he was less squeamish, though he was told that his bedside manner could use a little work (particularly that the sight of him wandering around with his mechadendrites covered in blood was rather terrifying). Their luck picked up a day later when they came across a cache of old enemy supplies. A few members of the group were reticent to make use of them because of their origins, and others were sceptical how much use they would be anyway given their condition. Azrael however saw potential. For the next couple of hours he was a whirl of activity, systematically dismantling the contents of the supply dump and using it to replace parts from the group's existing weapons and equipment, in some cases the result was almost as good as the original. The Guards had already had a lot of respect for Azrael but the work he accomplished with the old supply dump raised him even further in their esteem.
They were still only a small force, but they were now a lot better equipped and with more Chaos forces moving into the area Lieutenant Gerrad, the ranking officer in the group, suggested they move to guerrilla tactics scavenging what they could from the enemy and using it against them. Azrael was entirely behind the plan, and it turned out that his cunning and tendencies for scheming and deception were well suited to the task. He made plans for a wide range of fiendish traps and subtle tricks and within a month the group had gone from being trapped, poorly equipped, and on the point of despair, to causing considerable difficulty for the Chaos forces in the area, if anything better equipped than they had been before Operation Blackpoint, and in good spirits. They were constantly on the move, but nonetheless Azrael had time to work with the Chaos technology and adapt both it and their existing Imperial equipment to mesh better. In some ways Azrael thought that he had finally found his element, the guardsmen appreciated his work and there was certainly immediate gratification in seeing new devices in action. After the unfortunate death of Lieutenant Gerrad while raiding a Chaos vehicle depot (Azrael had made them pay dearly for that) Azrael became the unofficial leader of the group.
Almost 6 months after the failure of Operation Blackpoint the lines shifted back towards Kasr Nargost once more and Azrael's band made contact with a group of Imperial scouts. The contact did not go particularly well. The scouts initially mistook them for a Chaos warband, not perhaps entirely surprising given their appearance by this point. Aside from the provenance of most of their equipment, looking like Chaos forces helped them to blend in, plant their traps, and then fade away. In any case shots were fired on both sides, and though Azrael was able to stop things getting too out of hand and speak to the scouts they had been distinctly nervous and twitchy during the encounter, leading Azrael to fear the worst, and sure enough soon afterwards word filtered through to them that the whole group had been declared tainted and were now enemies of the Imperium.
Furious that they had been cast out by those they had been fighting for all this time the Azrael and his band struck out on their own. Now they raided both sides for whatever they could get, switching ever more to booby traps, remote detonated devices, sabotage and dirty tricks, keeping themselves out of harm’s way as much as possible. As there was no reason to stay there anymore they also moved away from the battles encroaching on Kasr Nargost.
Such was largely the lot of the Nar-ghosts (a joking suggestion by one of the group that caught on) for the several years. Gradually in their independence they found that they had more in common with (at least some of) the Chaos forces than they did with the Imperials. The Chaos forces were far from the unified army that they had been led to believe and some of the warbands were not much different from themselves, indeed they came across several groups that had very similar stories to their own. They still have little time for true devotees of Chaos, but more and more they attacked only Imperial forces rather than Chaos ones, and began to develop relationships with some other rebel warbands. It helped that Azrael's technical expertise was always in demand.
As Cadia enters its final death throws and the major armies of Chaos have moved on to other battlefields it has become slowly more difficult to scavenge the food they need, and so it is that they find themselves in the ruined spires of Hemshin Hive when a void-ship flies dangerously low over the hive, making the ruins tremble, chased by a trio of fighters. Azrael sees it from the window of what was probably once some faceless Hive administrator’s office. He watches them intently, first one, then another of the fighters is despatched, but not before scoring a hit on the voidship. The final fighter pulls away back in the direction they came from, and the voidship lumbers on, but it is clearly wounded. Voidships are not his speciality but Azrael captured the sequence to his memory buffers and re-plays the scene over and over again. A deep wound, crippling, but not fatal. The ship would be forced to land out in the wastes, but it definitely looked repairable. This might be just the chance they needed to get the off this god(s)forsaken rock...
Gear:
Azrael’s most important physical asset are his Mechanicus enhancements. Most visible are his four mechadendrites, these are primarily intended for detailed work and are not the power lifting variety that some techpriests sport. He has a variety of attachments for these as well as a selection of other tools. Most of his other enhancements are less visible, such as neural jacks for interfacing with cogitators, an improved healing capacity, and eyes that have a broader range of spectral sensitivity. These raise him slightly above the capabilities of an average human, but they would not be considered exceptional amongst the Mechanicus. In some ways this is fortunate as it makes it easier for him to blend in when conducting missions, as his mechadendrites can be coiled up and covered with the shell of a backpack and anything else is easily concealed.
He still has his Mechanicus robes but does not wear them most of the time as they are too conspicuous (they are also rather tattered after so long), preferring instead a set of camouflaged armour he has put together and regularly makes improvements to, it is not quite as effective as carapace armour, but is considerably lighter and easier to move in. He also has a small energy field generator that he took from a dead Imperial Guard officer, this is generally only good for deflecting one shot before it needs recharging, but that is often all that is needed.
In terms of weapons he carries a laspistol that he has tweaked to increase the power of its shots, at the expense of the charge capacity, as well as a mono-edged blade, a selection of grenades and timed explosives, and a small number of simple robotic spiders he constructed that will just attack anyone they are thrown at. His mechadendrites are also useful when it comes to close quarters combat. He also has a plasma pistol that he found and repaired some time ago, but he has never found any ammunition for it and so doesn’t usually carry it when on a mission.
Warband:
Henchmen:
Lukas Therold – the group’s best sniper. Gregarious when with his fellows, but silent and deadly when at work. His ability to get into position without alerting the enemy and take out the target is almost uncanny. Has a heavily customised high-powered lasrifle made by Azrael.
Irena Karovska – a doctor formerly of the Pavlovan 263rd Mechanised. With a similar story to that of the Nar-Ghosts, she joined the band along with a handful of other survivors she had been caring for some time ago. Though Azrael can perform medical duties Irena is significantly better qualified, and at his own admission has a much better bedside manner. Caring towards the members of the group she is ruthless towards their enemies and often comes in useful during interrogations. With Azrael's assistance she has gathered quite a formidable set of medical supplies.
Derryck Samos – previously a sergeant in the Janosian 27th Derryck is as sharp as a knife, in every sense of the word. Derryck is probably the best scout and intelligence gatherer in the group and has infiltrated target groups on several occasions, something Azrael can’t do as easily because of his obvious Mechanicus enhancements. As a result of a mission that, uncharacteristically, ended badly his left arm is partly bionic, though this is well concealed. This is one of the best bionic augmentations that Azrael has constructed and is noticeably stronger than the original, as well as incorporating a hidden blade that Derryck has used to great effect on numerous occasions since.
Servitor A-19216 ‘Sam’ – An industrial servitor the group recovered and that Azrael repaired and adapted for combat purposes, christened ‘Sam’ by the rest of the group. Sam is almost as strong as a Space Marine (and nearly as big too), he isn’t much use in most stealth missions but he can come in very handy when the group is in need of some extra muscle and is rather useful for intimidation.
Bodyguard (9): The best and most experienced soldiers of the Nar-Ghosts, all from the Janosian 27th. They accompany Azrael when required, when working independently they often operate in pairs or threes rather than as a whole unit. Generally quite well equipped with a variety of weapons, including a power blade and a couple of hellguns, as well as a number of handy little devices of Azrael’s devising. Their armour is slightly better than that of the other Nar-Ghosts consisting of interlocking light carapace plates similar to Azrael's own armour, though not quite as strong due to the lack of materials. Over the years many of the Nar-Ghosts have suffered injuries of one sort or another and in some cases a bionic repair or replacement was the most effective course of action. While for the scarcity of resources typically only allows Azrael to make these of a quality just barely approximating the original organic parts whenever the group turns up an appropriate find Azrael will make adjustments as he can. As would be expected in the circumstances those who will be able to make best use of superior parts get them first and so the augmetics of the best soldiers are of higher quality.
Troops (39): All veteran former Imperial Guard, mostly from the Janosian 27th, but also a few from other regiments that have been absorbed into the group over time, such as the Pavlovan 263rd. Not quite as well equipped as the best soldiers, but not poorly either, on average their equipment is a perhaps slightly better than standard Imperial Guard gear in terms of effectiveness, with adjustments to tailor it to the group’s preferred stealth tactics. The group generally eschews heavy weapons as these do not suit their tactics, but they have good stocks of explosives (particularly for remote detonation) and a lot of experience with using them.
