Prelude: Cadian Dawn (IC)

[LordPsycho]

Painful seconds pass as the Astartes in front of you scans your Inquisitorial rosette. With all that has happened these past years...you do not think they you've been officially declared rogue...but you cannot know for sure.

What Maegon did, was for the benefit of Mankind and of the Imperium.
For the legendary Phoenix to reborn from his ashes, first he must burn.
Such philosophy is not uncommon among the radical factions of the Ordos.

However, in the presence of Gray Knights, Maegon is careful not to issue such thoughts, not even the slightest fraction of such thoughts.

The Grey Knight in front of you - whose designation is Decimus according to the charcoal filigree on his gorget - beacons for you to fall in beside him. His gun is no longer pointing at your face, but the softly echoing footsteps that follow you indicates the presence of a second adversary at your back.

"That will be for the Justicar decide." And that's all he has to say about that.

He sets a cruel pace for one as old and frail as you, but the march is mercifully short.

Three more Grey Knights await. One of them clearly an officer. Justicar Junius.

As far as you can tell this is a temporary base of sorts; they've gathered about them materials and supplies that Astartes might need to operate for prolonged periods of time.

Junius. "If the Tarot led you to us Inquisitor; to what purpose?" You can feel the collective psychic presence of the Knights - they've come out of their Aegis shells and joined forces, probing and picking at you. Trying to see what kind of man might one day decide to climb all the way up to find their hidden base. You can only hope they find no trace of your...

If he was not a fully trained Inquisitor, Maegon would sh*t his pants and power armour as well.

Instead, he remains calm and concentrate.

He seems intentionally just a little worried, like an agent of his rank should be, surrounded by four suspicious powerful Astartes psykers.

His mental locks keep his shameful secrets in an inviolable part of his mind. If the locks were broken, his whole mind would be erased, Maegon wuold fall into madness and die the next moment. Such is the power of his hypno-indoctrination, intended to protect the forbidden knowledge of the Inquisitors against their adversaries.

Moreover, without Maegon being aware, Kairos the Oracle strengthened these locks, while taking care not to leave any single trace of his influence.

The Grey Knights can read the mark of the dreadful fights that Maegon led against heretics, xenos and daemons. His soul could not emerge unscathed, but such is the common fate of the Inquisitors, who sacrifice themselves to protect Mankind.

@Azrael: You snipers have spotted a trio of Space Marine scouts moving into the open to secure their fallen brother. They are terribly exposed, but thus far the darkness and the general chaos have protected them. You can get a pict feed from their sniper scopes if you like - allowing you to identify them as belonging to a chapter called the 'Relictors'. I doubt Azrael would know anything about them, their excommunication included.

Azrael's comm bead buzzes as Lukas contacts him, "Looks like we have three Marine scouts moving in to retrieve the Marine whose jump pack failed earlier."

"Patch me in to the feed from your scope Lukas."

Lukas does so, allowing Azrael to see the scouts moving towards the ship.  From the markings they are from a chapter called the Relictors, but Azrael doesn't recognise it, not one of the more well known chapters.  Although no one has spotted them yet there is no cover between them and the fallen Marine and they are terribly exposed.  Although it is impossible to know their intentions for certain it is a reasonable guess that the Marines, like Azrael, see the ship as a potential way off-world and have used the chaos of the attack from the ruins to stage their own assault on the ship.  The cramped confines of a ships corridors are the ideal environment for a Space Marine, their small numbers are not a weakness in such close quarters allowing them to make the most of their armoured might.  As such they stand a good chance of clearing out a good fraction of the defending crew.  They will never be able to hold it however, certainly not for long enough to repair it, and from the state of their equipment they don't have the technical skills to do so anyway.  As such they would need allies after this battle...

Caporal Usher hears whispers mentioning the name of the Relictors begin to spread among the Nar-Ghosts. He informs Nemus, and in return the Interrogator informs him of their nature.

Excommunicate Traitoris

Usher goes search for Derryck or Azrael to transmit the message.

Junius. "If the Tarot led you to us Inquisitor; to what purpose?"

At this precise moment, Maegon's micro-bead sizzles when he receives a message from Nemus on their secured frequency.

"To bring you my help and get your help, by the Emperor's Will. A battle is raging outside Kasr hemshin, near a ship belonging to the abhorred Children of Fulgrim. I just learn that the Relictors are also implied."

[Dragon Lord]

Lukas quietly passes the order to his snipers; despite the excellent honey-pot setup there will be no killing of the scouts. Quite the contrary, the order from above is to keep them alive.

Azrael can sense that Lukas is not entirely happy with his orders, he does like bringing down 'big game' as he tends to refer to Space Marines in such situations.  Azrael can't blame him either, they have completely clear shots and could easily take out all three Scouts and finish off the injured Marine.  That would not, however, deal with the 9 Marines that went into the ship, and while they could happily terminate the Scouts without the other Marines knowing who did it that would only give them the leverage of marginally decreasing the Marines numbers, rather than actively placing them in the Nar-Ghosts' debt.

Usher goes search for Derryck or Azrael to transmit the message.

Usher finds Azrael just as he is setting up a narrow-beam communications link with which to try and contact the Scouts.

[DM B]

The Justicar gives you a short nod. "Perhaps. We are on the hunt for Relictors. Perhaps your presence here is meant to lead us back to onto their trail..."

His voice trails off as a fifth Grey Knight - is there no end of them? - steps into view. Despite the thin air and biting cold he goes without a helmet, instead relying on a re-breather mask to supply his triple lungs with oxygenated air. Could he have lost it in battle? Or does he go without on purpose?

Junius: "Master Aquilus..."

Aquilus, using a mental sending even you can pick up: "Site Gamma has gone live. Class II warp incursion in progress. Get your men ready; we jump for Spire 12, level 697, north quadrant in fifteen seconds." Addressing you directly. "Inquisitor: If the Tarot guided you once, let it do it twice."

You watch as the Knights move as one, deftly checking themselves and each other as they hurtle towards the edge of a hive-side balcony. Aquilus is second last to go, followed by a heavy-weapons operator you hadn't spotted before - he must have been on-station on the balcony. Six Knights all told. Soon they are just little specks falling quickly down and away...

...with a start you realize what their target it. The site of the sorcerous incident your felt earlier in the neighboring spire.

[DM B]

@Nouri: The space marine screams at you. "Your feeble powers are no match for a grandson of Fulgrim!" And he is right, try as you might your soul's might patters like rain upon his plated from. All you can do is flee.

Desperately you reach out to Luliana. She hears you plight and comes to your aid; quickly sacrificing one of the thralls she kickstarts and impromptu ritual. Fueled in no small part by your own angst and anguish the doors of the warp rips open; time and space becomes one, as does soul and body. One moment you are incorporeal on the bridge, the next you are reunited with your body deep in the enginarium. You are hurting and bleeding from multiple sympathetic injuries.

Half your host is here as well; your three steadfast helpers, nine thralls and seventeen other followers. Around you the enginarium and the voice of the warp core...and a squad of space marines. There is much confusion.


Seconds later six Grey Knights come in hard in Spire 12. Their jump units fire at the last possible instant - enough to cushion the fall, but not long enough for the enemy to react. Six seconds later the remaining thralls and cultists have been hacked to bloody bits by the fearsome force weapons wielded by the knights. Not a single shot is fired.

"Master: Anomaly contained, but the warp focus has escaped us..."

[Stonecrown Coster/MB (Rune)]

With those words, Nouri's third eye opens wide and his mark once subtly hidden blazes brightly within the Immaterium.  As the Immaterium responds to his summons, power manifest around him pulling him towards the darkness below and engulfing the Renegade ripping at his armor and body.  Nouri's soul is flung into the Enginarium pulling with it his body, and tugging upon Gaius begging to bring him along body and soul as well.

Gaius curses as the onslaught from Nouri brings him to his knees. "Hannah, shield yourself!". He detaches her from his conscience with some difficulty, as the girl is so frightened she desperately clings on to whatever support she can find. What kind of sorcerer is this? The panic; the pain. It reminds him of memories best left alone. With that thought the voices that only Gaius can hear starts to scream again. Or is it...singing? The distraction is too much, and his shield falters briefly. The world spins before his eyes as he is powerless to resist Nouris grasp, and he feels his body physically pulled in several directions at once. The pain is nearly unbearable, yet all he hears is the rythimcal screams inside his head.

Then everything is dark. Several people are yelling around him, yet Gaius can only focus on one person. Though his psychic presence has muted somewhat, he can still feel the chaos emanating from Nouri. No, feel is not correct. With him so close, he can nearly taste the chaos. Instinctively he shields himself again, noticing that the voices inside his head also went quiet as his body physically manifested itself in this place, wherever it is.

He stands up, slowly. "Are you alive, sorcerer?". Looking up he takes in the situation around him: Space Marines, brandishing their guns as their very lives depended on it. "Oh, but their lives DO depend on it" someone whispers in the back of his mind. Another group of people runs towards him and Nouri. Someone grabs him and roughly holds him in place. He allows it for the time being, watching as they carry Nouri to the side of the room. He senses their psychic abilities, and keeps his presence small. No point adding more fuel to the fire. He quietly starts to emanate a sense of tranquility, hoping to calm everybody.

Then it hits him. With all the people in the room, a larger presence still hides there. He breathes the word between clenched teeth: "Daemon!"

[Lurk Skywalker]

The Locum Lector's mind is howling with alarm at the apparition of what his powers clearly identify as warped psykers, or worse. Remembering the lessons of the Venerable Attestor, the Relictors' Arch Librarian, he allows the fear, the hatred, the repulsion and something else, tasting oddly like envy, to run in and out his mind such as rivlets of cold water would stream on stones. After a moment of what a mere human would have termed panick, and a Space Marine, hesitation, he reasserts his barriers and renews the contact lost for a moment with the Orb, whose presence he can now feel, like an external, wild and viscous heart, which would send waves of a sickening sensation of unlimited power through his body.

This, the Locum Lector summarises for his Lector in a few laconic words, after having activated the encoded communicator with a tongue that cannot shed an enduring taste of salt and... blood:

"Infested ones have entered the perimeter, Sir."

The Lector, shield strongly clutching at his arm and weapon in hand, does not move from his forward position, facing the warp core which greeted him. His Astartes can only wonder whether their commander has heard or his aware of the commotion in the enginarium.

Ingrained obedience leads the Astartes to silently aim their projectile weapons, for some, and hand-to-hand ones for others, at what seems to be branded servants of the visibly agonising sorcerer. A nearby follower of the sorcerer who visibly wandered too close to the Relictors' group has one arm severed by the screaming chainsword of an Astartes before being kicked aside like a broken and dying puppet.

An efficient psyker could probably sense that the Marines' hardened mental training allows them to perceive a certain manipulation of emotions and perceptions in the area resulting effectively in raising the Marines' aggressivity and awareness. The Lector Locum remains an active, even if probably somewhat bordering on overload, mental presence, whilst the Lector should remain shrouded in mental silence. 

The Astartes remain as if transfixed, arms unwavering, aim taken in a semi-circle promising death adn suffering to intruders. Semi-circle having as Lextor Severus thrusting from its centre.

[Ohlaak (Alan)]

Then it hits him. With all the people in the room, a larger presence still hides there. He breathes the word between clenched teeth: "Daemon!"

Nouri breathes heavily, gasping for air and wildly disoriented for a moment. He defensive wounds all over his hands and his face has a few minor slashes.  He sees Luliana and the others and quickly regains his senses. He slowly stands before registering the presence of the Space Marines, Gaius and the Neverborn.

"Well met, Gaius, though I wish it were under better circumstance.  Fulgrim's child is on the command deck, and I dare say, he is mighty...though...perhaps not as might as you, Neverborn..." He eyes them for a briefest moment, before turning his eyes towards the Warp-Drive. 

[DM B]

The voice: "Daemon? Neverborn? Such foolish things to say. I am no daemon - and I have been born and died more times that all of you together even will experience. The only daemon on board this ship is the child of Fulgrim."

[Stonecrown Coster/MB (Rune)]

Closing his eyes, Gaius takes a deep breath, reinforcing his defenses. As he opens his eyes again, he studies the people around him with senses amplified by his psychic abilities. He takes particular notice of Nouri and the unknown Space Marines, searching their auras and minds for clues as to what they are doing here.

"The mere presence of Grey Knights aboard this ship suggests you are lying, Daemon". He looks towards the Warp-drive, searching for signs of physical demonic manefestations. "But be that as it may, I must point out, Nouri, that while this child of Fulgrim seemed quite eager to kill you, this entity has yet to cause us any harm. And closer to the point, the only acts of violence within the enginarium have been carried out by Space Marines". He looks at the dead thrall.

"Perhaps it would be prudent to evalute all threats present".

He gathers his strenght as he turns to the Space Marines. "Perhaps you should state your business here, unless you intend to start hacking all of us to pieces?".

[Lurk Skywalker]

The Lector Locum had looked for some time at the new comer who has been addressing the Astartes. He answers him curtly, visibly ignoring the question leveled at his Lector:

"Identify yourself and the means of your entry here."

[DM B]

As a side note: There seems to be quite a few more of the stocky little mutants that you first noticed; there must be hundred of pairs of eyes warily eying you. They appear neither hostile nor heavily armed.

[Stonecrown Coster/MB (Rune)]

"Neither I nor the rest of the occupants in this room are much concerned with my presence here at this time, nor with my arrival. I imagine we  are all much more concerned with whether you and your fellow dogs" - he nods towards the wolves painted on the marine's armor - "are a threat to us or not. That, and the potential loss of limbs and lives, that's bound to cause some worry too".

For a brief second the Lector feels something against his mental walls, like the pinprick of a needle. He cannot tell if someone penetrated them or not. The voice of Gaius is suddenly inside his head: Lector Lexander Severus - of the Relictors, no less. I am Gaius. See, introductions can be done without threats. Especially when your fellow soldiers can be read like an open book. Now, I do not know if you fully appreciate the situation at hand, but let me assure you that this creature hiding within the warp-drive, is not something to be taken lightly. Nor are the space marines currently hunting the sorcerer bleeding next to us - his name is Nouri by the way. Why don't we skip the pleasantries and decide whether you and your men pose a threat or not, before this situation gets more out of hand than it already is?. The voice disappears, but Gaius continues to stare at the Lector for several seconds.

He then looks around the room, turning to face the mutants. "It is crowded in here, isn't it? I greet you, friends. Do not be alarmed. Though I cannot vouch for the butchers over there, I do not believe anyone else means you any harm". As he talks, he continues to emanate tranquil emotions throughout the room.

[DM B]

One of the squat mutants - this one has a bushy white beard, streaked with oil and incense - steps up to the railing of an overhead walkway and addresses you, not meekly, but quite firmly.

"Greetings to you too. As long as you do not try to harm the Honoured Ancestors all will be well."

By 'Honoured Ancestors' he seems to mean the daemon-infested warp core.

[Ohlaak (Alan)]

Nouri nods in agreement with Gaius.

"And I suppose you should be quick about it, the Child of Fulgrim is readying to mount a counter-attack," he says. Nouri turns to regard Kiltren and Ben.  "You should prepare them for the coming battle. We'll need cover..." he says and they quickly move to begin setting up throughout the Enginarium, still giving wide-berth to the Space Marines.

He eyes Luliana who nods at him and gathers a few of the thralls.

"Let me know if you are able to find them, Luliana.  We will not leave our brethren."

Nouri gives the Lector Locum his full attention. Before Luliana comes back and says to him. "Master, they are gone...Grey Knights..." Nouri's eyes narrow before he looks again to the Lector.

[Dragon Lord]

Usher finds Azrael just as he is setting up a narrow-beam communications link with which to try and contact the Scouts.

"Is this really urgent, I am rather in the middle of something?"

"I felt I should tell you that the Relictors are excommunicate traitoris"

Azrael turned to regard Usher with a somewhat quizzical and bemused expression.  When he repaired Usher's vox unit he installed a small relay such that, provided he was within a reasonable distance, he would hear any communications between Usher and the Inquisitor's forces in the Hive.  As such he actually already knew why Usher was here, but he wasn't going to let Usher know that.

"I fail to see what that has to do with anything"

"They are traitors and heretics and knowingly aiding a traitor is to become one," responded Usher, a little taken aback.

Azrael's expression turned to amused and he raised an eyebrow, "Really Usher I would not have expected you to be so naive.  Who exactly on this planet do you think has not been branded a traitor or a heretic by someone?  I strongly suspect that though he may not admit it you, your Inquisitor is probably regarded as such by some people.  I also doubt very much that he had anything to do with you coming to me did he?"

"No, the Inquisitor did not ask me to see you, but how dare you suggest that he is a traitor!"

"I did not suggest that Inquisitor Maegon is a traitor, I suggested that some people most likely consider him to be, I am not among them.  These Relictors are most likely in the same situation, I have little time for the lackeys of Chaos, but these Marines do not look like Chaos-worshippers to me.  And even if they were, in the present situation we can't be too picky about temporary allies," Azrael looked somewhat pointedly at Usher as he said the word 'temporary', "Feel free to talk to the Inquisitor about it later, but I feel that he will agree with me."

Usher looked slightly distraught, but acquiesced and turned and walked away.

Azrael watched Usher go for a second and then quietly contacted Derryck.

"Derryck, I'm sure you have been watching our guests anyway, but I want you to keep an especially close eye on them, and be prepared to neutralise them if necessary.  Preferably non-lethally as they may still be of use, but not if it would place any of ours in danger."

"Aye Magos," Derryck confirmed.

Azrael turned back to the communications link and made some adjustments, the Scouts were now almost at the fallen marine by the ship.  They had got further than he would like, but at least they would be stationary temporarily.  He narrowed the beam further and set the power such that it would reach the Scouts, but not much further, and then switched to a broad band signal over all channels.

"Lukas, let me know if you see any indications that they've received my message," he said before activating the link.

"Relictor Scouts, this is Magos Azrael Kane.  We are providing you with sniper cover while you extract your brother.  We can also provide medical assistance to treat him once you clear the ship.  If you hear me, respond on channel 486.5 with standard encryption pattern bravo-tango-one."

"Anything Lukas?"

"One of them raised his hand to his ear and looked around, looks like he heard you.  They'll know we can take them out easy as pie if they don't play ball," Lukas replied, it was obvious he was grinning slightly.

"Indeed, don't raise any attention, but if any hostile comes within a reasonable range take them out within sight of the Scouts just to make sure they get the message."