[M] A Wash of Black IC (S)

[SandQueen]

Part 1: Goodbyes

Inquisition

Theme Music

Brenner hooked his comm link around his ear and clicked it on. The device chirpped softly as a small blue light illuminated the peak of his jaw bone. He donned his rough-warn hat and no sooner had he stepped out his room, hunting rifle slung over his shoulder, that a voice came over his the link.

"You know this is *really* stupid, right?" McKenzie pleaded "I mean this is like something I'd expect to see from Franklin."

"Well we're doing this in his memory." Brenner grunted.

"Even so do you know how much shit this could stir up? And not just with Sidonis either..."

"I know. Is my team ready?"

"I... yes. They're at the bay but one of the Neophytes is giving them a hard time."

"Make him leave."

"I can't, he wants orders from Captain Samsara himself."

"Well you can't fault him for dedication." Brenner said as he whipped around a corner. "I'll deal with it."

"Walt I really...."

"Does my team have their comm codes?" He asked, abruptly interrupting her.

"Yes, I couldn't brief them though. What did you expect in an hour's time?"

"You were always good under pressure." He said in an amused tone. He passed through a set of reinforced double hatches and into the dim light of a hangar bay. Most of the illumination came from a dozen alcoves ringing the walls, each festooned with monitors and information feeds. At the center of the bay though was his team... the eight most capable people McKenzie could come up with on short notice. But the fact that they were here at all meant that their files had at least been flagged for something notable. Maybe a talent or exceptional ability. Or maybe just because they had recently done something worthwhile.

From the entrance Brenner could already see that he was late and things were going poorly. A lone neophyte from the Sons of Plutarch stood before the group defensively. His ferrocrete grey robes fading out into a deep umber in the gloom. Captain Katherine was already starting to antagonize the man and the Priestess Orla seemed to be flirting with the hilts of her blades. Brenner walked closer. He rested a hand on the shoulder of the Astropath Ella and gently moved her to one side. "What's the problem here?" he asked, his voice like the report of the rifle hanging off his shoulder.

The Neophyte raised both hands in a warning. He was six and a half feet tall and didn't look like he had ever shaved. A perfect example of Astartes Growth Hormones at work. "Your people can't be here, Agent. Not without permission from Captain Samsara."

Walther met the young man's eyes. "You're what? Fourteen? Fifteen?"

"What?" the Neophyte asked.

Brenner didn't wait for an answer. In a blur he lunged forward and planted his gnarled fist into the pit of the boy's torso. A high pitched wheeze escaped his hips as he doubled over and fell to his knees. His back began to convulse and in a few seconds he quickly purged the contents of his stomach across the deck. "That's your Jejunum. Its got a bunch of nerves around it that help regulate your digestion. Try not to get hit there again." The boy gurgled something in response as Brenner turned to others. He slapped the side of a Jet black drop pod and said "Get in, we're leaving."

Walter stepped away and tapped his link. "McKenzie did you confirm the landing site?"

"Yes. It's clear but I wouldn't recommend hanging around for long."

"Well I expected that much. Not good to show up for a hunt and cover yourself in grox blood." Walter replied.

"I'll pretend I know what that means." McKenzie said nervously. "Be careful..." she said softly "I know what this means to you."

Brenner didn't reply as he embarked into the Drop Pod. A shape appeared in the doorway of the hanger as the launching protocols initiated. The hatch began to gradually close as Brenner glanced up. His weather beaten eyes tried to focus against the glare of light from the hall. A woman... armored. A clean voice called out "Dad?"

"Eileen?" Brenner mouthed as he instinctually jerked against the restraints. But there was no time. The hatch slid into place and sealed shut with a heavy clank. A moment later the turbine howled and the entire unit was being flung towards the surface of Teleostei. The scream of the engine filled the hull and the sound of armored plates rapidly heating resounded as well. The pod streaked down into the atmosphere leaving a vapor trail thirty feet wide in its wake.

A cloud ripped in two and its payload instantly flashed into steam as the drop pod hurdled closer and closer to the floating city. A thunderclap rose above the din and a moment later the lights and systems inside flickered in and out.

Suddenly the sound of twisting metal could be heard. Impact after impact as something metallic sheared and shattered around the pod. Gradually the impacts slowed until finally they stopped. With a concussive impact the hatches blew out and the engine slowly calmed itself into a dormant state once more.

Walter stepped out and surveyed the area. At some point this had been a hab block. It had been evacuated but not too long ago. The pod seemed to be residing in someone's living room or at least that's what the immolated couch and crumpled couch would suggest. He glanced up when he felt the drumming of rain on the brim of his hat. Far above he could see the bruised sky and leading up to it was a ragged hole to size and shape of the drop pod that extended up through sixty stories. Wires sent sparks arcing across the wound and gas lines smoldered softly as the other Agents began to disembark.

Brenner pulled his Knarloc hide greatcoat close and in a resigned tone said "Clean dispersal. Alley, Jansen, Skip I need a perimeter for this floor in five. I want Solaren and Orla to stick with Anton and Delas."



TASK FORCE CARBON

Theme Music

Lieutenant Kepler looked intently at a display on the wall of the Valkyrie. She could already hear the thunderstorm raging outside but according to the panel the temperature was dropping as well. Wonderful. The scarlet lights filling the hull cast harsh shadows over her Command Staff. She made a mental note to not let Roebuck play with the sound system ever again.

She cleared her throat and pulled a few strands of her whispy hair back, tucking them behind her fitted cap with a practiced hand. "We're moving to Objective Rho." She said clearly. "According to intel it's an apartment building. The local PDF forces have moved up to the eightieth floor and have established a buffer zone, most of the non-combative residents have been secured but they need help with the twenty remaining levels. The insurgents have sealed the lift systems and blocked the stairs as well. They're using some sort of recoilless launchers to keep the PDF forces at bay as well. The platoon will move through on a single sweep and then breach; squads two and three will be fast-roping through the north wall, first and fourth will be coming in from the south which leaves us to secure the roof. When the fireteams breach the insurgents will only have one way to go and that's up but if they can redeploy their launchers then our birds wont last very long. Roebuck will be covering our deployment and I want Mainwaring and Sonder to take point. Jenkins you're with me." She turned her attention directly to Roebuck and said "And once we're all down I want you behind us, don't just stay in the bird and play with the Heavy Bolter."

"We're five minutes out, if you have questions you'd better ask them."

EMERALD

Theme Music

Emerald looked passively out the window as his retinue prepared to leave. A streak of blazing white lacerated the discolored clouds and for a moment illuminated the individual droplets of the of the torrential downpour. Shortly after the thunderbolt a column of orange flame came down the heavens and hammered into one of the larger hab complexes. Emerald cocked an eyebrow as the masterfully crafted photosensors built into his eyes quivered slightly.

"Problem, sir?" Juno asked in a tone that was closer to the reverb of a poorly wired instrument than an actual voice.

"No... not yet." Emerald replied smoothly. He produced a brushed aluminum case from a breast pocket and from it produced another copper-filtered lho stick. He turned back to the window and a thin coil of smoke slid over one of his ears and twisted up in a lazy spiral. "Are we ready to go?"

"Six hundred seconds." Juno replied. "Erm... Ten minutes, sir."

"Good, make sure everyone's ready then torch the place. We won't be coming back."

[Damonique]

(-Jansen Savs:Unofficial Inquisitorial Agent Detachment: Blackship Hanger Bay-Landing Zone-)

Jansen knew what Brenner was planning, and he didn't like it. He didn't like it one bit. Drop pods defined the term 'Blunt Instrument' concerning spacecraft. It was a disgrace to have someone with his experience forced to leave Bliss behind and load himself into the uncomfortably small vehicle, his Autoshotgun and its large ammo pouch gathered around him in the seat obviously designed for rank-and-file inquisitorial stormtrooper, and not 6'7" Glavian pilots with particularly broad builds encumbered by a Carbon-fiber reinforced duster.

The tall man just gave an amused chuckle when Brenner Laid out the neophyte, who's complaints were beginning to truly interrupt Jansen's persistent grumbling.

"I don't see why we couldn't just switch Bliss to no-signal out, keep the emblems covered, project a camofield, and let me bring us down to the surface. I didn't get a reputation as the finest blockade runner working outside of Imperial law for a good seven years for nothing, you know?" The pilot snarked, knowing that his opinion had already been overruled by the others, who for some reason seemed to think that was more dangerous than riding an inert, hollowed-out hunk of metal down to the surface.

Jansen pulled his straps tight and placed one of his hands, adorned with the elegant silver studs at the fingertips and palm, and an intricate filigree of ultrathin wiring trailing just under the skin, to the pods readout and allowing the bio-circuitry to create a direct link with the pods systems, it's crude processes meshing with his thought processes, intricately more complicated by comparison. The pod was in top condition, there was plenty that could go wrong but nothing had a reasonable chance to, they were good to go. At Brenner's order, Jansen flipped a switch and the pod rocketed downward, streaking towards the surface.

Jansen had almost forgot to unplug himself from the pods systems as they began to heat up in-atmosphere, and a rippling undertone of pain streaked through his nervous system as the outer layers of the pod were, by design, sheared away from it by the G-Forces inflicted upon it. The Glavian yanked his palm away from the circuit board and rode out the rest of the ride with his teeth locked, still imagining the pain he had almost subjected himself to if he hadn't broke his uplink to the simple landing craft.

The pod crashed down, hard, Jansen winced for a moment before taking his role and emerging from the pod, Autoshotgun at the ready, loaded with a twenty-round magazine of 10-Gauge Buckshot. He perceived Alley doing the same on the other side of the pod, sweeping the area, searching for signs of movement.

"Clear on this side. Alley?" Jansen confirmed and then questioned, once he was assured that there weren't any immediate dangers on his side of the rubble-strewn improvised landing zone.

[kardar233]

Inquisition

Alley breathed a sigh of relief as Walter walked into the drop pod bay. "Good to see you, Walt." She grinned in spite of herself as he decked the obstinate Neophyte and moved over to strap herself in to the ominously black drop pod. As they spiraled down through Teleostei's atmosphere, she commented through gritted teeth. "Next time, can I just orbit-drop without this can? Much more comfortable."

When their crashing descent came to a halt, Alley was the first out of the conveyance; her armour having taken a fair part of the beating for her. As she moved out towards the entrance that Jansen hadn't covered, she keyed her comm. "Skip, Alley. Hop a floor up and find a vantage point, will you? We got the ground entrances."

Suiting action to words, she moved through the ruin of what used to be an apartment towards her designated entrance. She had taken the time to stock up on recon drones while on the True Bane, and she released one through the door and ordered it to give her a full scan. Sixth, seventh, eighth and more senses opened up as she processed the data it gave her, and it was only a corner of her mind that acknowledged Jansen's question. Immersed in the stream of data, she pulled her attention away long enough to reply. "Open here, Janny." The drone finished its scan and set up routines while Alicia set her comm-bead on the team's channel. "Alley here. Walt, would you mind telling us what's the deal here? I thought the ISTs were already on the ground here; is there something that came up that they can't handle?"

Task Force Carbon

Kylara sat in silence as she absorbed Kepler's briefing. Her hands were busy, buffing Taegan's glossy shine with a polish-stained vizzy-cloth.

When Yvonne finished her speech and asked for questions, Ky waited a moment for others to ask first before she spoke up. An irreverent smile on her face, she looked up at her CO. "El-Tee, will you just reassure me that you don't intend to go haring off with Jenkins like what happened on Camonna V? Good." She extracted a lho from her webbing and lit it off Gene's smoldering cigar. "By the way, why do you never let me fly the Valkyrie anymore?" she inquired innocently. "It's kinda hurting my feelings." She adopted a very sad face to go along with this.

Emerald

Arcolin was belly-down on the roof of the building Emerald had been using as a head-quarters when the lance of light struck. It looked for all the world like orbital bombardment, but it stirred memories of five years ago, when the Sons of Plutarch used the same drop pods to hammer into Makita Hive. He scoped in to the ruins of the apartment building and scanned over the new arrivals. Using his free left hand to cue his vox-bead, he radioed to Juno. "Got Brenner, one of his crew from last time round and eight, count 'em eight new bodies here. Too early to start shooting?"

[Culsandar]

"And once we're all down I want you behind us, don't just stay in the bird and play with the Heavy Bolter."

"Ye'd be so lucky, Lieutenant,"Eugene replied, holding his cigar steady for Kylara. His deep molasses voice reminded anyone who'd forgotten that he wasn't from around here. He drew back on the cigar, the red ash illuminating his nose and cheeks in the dim compartment. Both were covered in scars and paint.

He slowly took in the group, finishing the loop with Jenkins. Eugene stared at him for several long hard seconds, long enough to make a grown man wiggle in his seat. Then he leaned towards Jenkins with a smirk.

"Why are you 'ere, boy?" he said loudly, more to the group than Jenkins himself. "Ye get lost on the way to college?" And then Eugene laughed.

***

Kruck sat perched on the dining room table of the penthouse. His tail disallowed him from sitting on most normal furniture. He had been quietly staring at Lilitha for the past hour and a half. She had seen him looking several times but Kruck didn't turn away or try to hide it. She had grown accustomed to such looks from meat-sacks, having men, and occasionally women, salivate over her during and after her performances. But Kruck's stare had a different intention, one she did not recognize. Kruck was wondering how well her developed muscles would taste.

Kruck acknowledged Juno's command with a hiss and prepared his belongings, stuffing them down into a rather foul-smelling bag. He got down off the table with a hop and approached Emerald without making a sound.

"Kruck isssss getting hungry Green-Emerald-Man," his nose wafting back towards Lilitha. "Kruck would like to feed..."

((This gray background really limits your color options lol))

[Azazeal849]

INQUISITION

It was just coming up to the half-way point of Shift 3 - the night shift by the timekeeping of the Emperor’s palace on Holy Terra, which all Imperial spacecraft used. Two figures, a man and a woman, threaded their way through the army of adepts going to and fro through the corridors of Lord Sidonis’ blackship, heading for one of the starboard aft crew berths. The man wore a black double-breasted suit over a white shirt, the woman a cream verispex lab coat. Though the man was slightly older, they were very similar in the face and had the same dark hair. They talked together in their native dialect of hive spire 13, a brand of Solomon low gothic that had become something of a dead language after spire 13 had been bombed into ash along with the rest of Makita hive during the Pembroke incident.

“Nothing complex about it.” the woman was saying, “Wasnae even subtle. Bolter round to the head.”

The man sucked in a breath through his teeth. “No many folks’ just calmly shoot an inquisitor like that. The astropath saw it you said?”

The woman nodded. “Aye.”

“What’s her name again?” the man queried as they approached a steel door with a circular window.

“Seren. Ella Seren.”

The man peered through the window into the small room beyond. A young woman in a green astropath’s robe sat at a table, poring over what looked like a deck of cards spread across the desk in front of her.

“She looks tired.” he commented.

“Apparently she’s been taking séances and things all the way here, trying to find out who the people were who took over the station and iced inquisitor Suffolk. Anyway, I’ll see you at dinner - I think Vincent’s cooking.”

“As long as he doesnae put grinweed in the stew this time. See you Kelly.”

“See you Marc.”

As his sister headed off down the corridor, the man called Marc put his hand on the door handle and pushed it open with a squeal of hinges.

“Astropath Seren?” he asked, switching to a more universal dialect of Gothic as he sat down opposite the young woman. His tone was polite, professional. “I’m Marcus Black, and I’ll be your new handler while you’re on the True Bane.”

The young astropath had very white skin, and hair that was almost as pale. She would have almost passed for albino if it wasn’t for her hazel eyes. Those eyes had followed Marc as he crossed the room, but the pupils didn’t dilate or focus on him as he sat down in front of her. He had heard about the astropaths’ mixed blessing of psychic sight at the cost of their physical eyes, but it was still strange and slightly disconcerting to see this blind sight in action.

The astropath brushed her fringe across her forehead with a pale hand. “It’s an honour to meet you, Mr Black.”

Marc recognised the clipped speech of someone who had grown up on Holy Terra, underlaid with the accent of a homeworld he did not know.

“Marcus is fine.” he replied. “Actually, forget that, call me Marc.”

The astropath smiled slightly. “In that case, I’m Ella. And thank the Emperor, my last handler was a Stormtrooper who barely spoke two words to me.”

Marc laughed at that. “Sorry to hear that. Okay, Ella, I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions about what happened on station Epsilon 27.”

Ella brushed her hair across her forehead again. It seemed to be a subconscious tic when she was uncomfortable. “I’m afraid I can’t tell you much more than you already know. Warp currents and all sorts of things can affect the Tarot, and on the way here I’m afraid the Emperor didn’t see fit to share that much with me.”

She glanced down at the cards laid out in front of her. Each was a small oblong with a plasticrystal wafer set into its face, and the wafers were glowing softly, each one showing some sort of picture or symbol. Most seemed to display varying numbers of abstract symbols such as stars or swords.

“Speaking of which, not to be rude, but I don’t think we’ll have time for a proper interview.”

Marc frowned, “Why not?”

By way of response, Ella pointed out a card whose glowing face showed four silver Aquila symbols on a blue background. “The four of Adeptio’s my card, and the one next to it is the Crusader, which means a new mission or assignment for me.”

She shifted her hand and flipped over a face-down card, revealing a red wafer with two halos on it. “And the two of Monasteria means it’s going to happen now, or soon.”

“I see.” Marc said, although he really did not. Such arcane sciences were beyond his area of expertise, and again he found himself wondering what had made Sidonis choose him over everybody else to look after the astropath, amiable enough though she was.

They were interrupted by a small head topped with slightly dishevelled black hair poking round the door behind them. Ella looked up, and as she did so the faces of her cards faded back to clear crystal, the pictures running together and dissolving. Marc followed her gaze.

“McKenzie?” he said in surprise. Lord Sidonis’ petite administrator normally worked on Shift 1, so it was unusual to see her up and about the ship at this hour.

“Agent Black.” McKenzie von Rousch replied, looking very tired, “Walt needs you and the astropath in bay 12, right now.”

Marc turned back to Ella, who merely shrugged.

“See?” she said.

***

Marc, now dressed in his full combat gear, stepped down from the drop pod after Alley, who he knew from their previous mission, and a tall Glavian, who he did not.

“Stay behind me.” he told Ella, his voice rasping slightly through the vox caster of his sealed helmet with its matte-black visor. He checked the autogun that was still mag-clamped to his back, and looked around the familiar skyline of Taleostei’s only city, trying simultaneously to get his bearings and to locate the skyscraper where Dr Taymor’s office was.

He looked back at the drop-pod when Ella did not follow him. The astropath was leaning against the frame of the craft, her other hand rubbing the side of her forehead. She wore a deeply troubled expression.

“Ella?”

“I think someone’s watching us.” the astropath murmured.

Marc turned to Walter. He did not understand much about how psykers and their powers worked and nor did he completely trust them, but after his previous mission on Taleostei - which had involved two lethal sniper ambushes - he was not willing to take chances. He glanced around the surrounding buildings, but there were dozens of rooftops and hundreds of windows where an observer might be hiding.

“Walt.” he said to the team leader. “Ella reckons that someone’s watching us, and I assume she means someone unfriendly.”

[Atrum Daemon]

Inquisition

The Astartes Neophyte was an annoyance that Delaz found particularly simple to just ignore by filtering the child’s complaints out of the incoming audio. He busied himself with a combination of silent prayer and flitting his gaze from face to face, letting his noosphere interface bring up necessary data on the team members that he could. When his prayer was finished, he took stock of the weapons he had chosen to carry on the mission. The Vanaheim-pattern shotgun had served him well over the course of many years, as had his preference for the weapon’s potent slug round ammunition. The plasma pistol had been a gift of sorts when he joined the ranks of the Auxilia and was the weapon in the Secutor’s arsenal that had seen the least amount of use. Breacher, the revolver custom built to fire rounds normally meant for a rifle, had always been a solid back-up weapon. It’s ability to punch through metal had saved his life twice and earned it the name.

His metal fingers brushed over the head of the axe he carried when Walter Brenner punched the Neophyte into submission. He stopped filtering speech audio at that point and wordlessly boarded the drop-pod. He sat and secured the straps in continued silence, not seeing the need to speak yet. His eyes focused on the Glavian pilot, Jansen, at the sound of the man’s complaints. While the Myrmidon understood the pilot’s complaints, he also understood that the speed offered by an orbital drop-pod was safer than using something like a gun-cutter.

He dimmed his visual reception and silently intoned a pre-battle prayer, asking the Omnissiah to guide his actions along the righteous path. The prayer ended just as the drop pod made it’s screeching crash of a landing. He stood as the doors thudded open and he stepped down the newly made ramp, his assault shotgun held in his left hand. He became fully alert, watching and listening for any sound or motion that was not caused by the team or the rain pattering on the hood of the robe that covered his head.

[Higurashi]

Emerald

Lilitha narrowed her eyes at Kruck as he got off the table. She didn't like the Greenie. It was a look of loathing that she let pass her face as he watched her. Under most normal cicumstances, she would kill him on sight. However, Mr.Emerald had chosen to employ the Greenie, and she had to respect his wishes. That didn't even affect the look of disgust that crossed her expression when the Greenie asked to feed. It was repulsive, unholy. What creature would eat another sentient's flesh. The Greenie turned his repulsive face towards her again as he spoke.

Lilitha briskly walked away at an angle, not quite turnbing her back. Going into her room, she packed her few belongings. Most of it was simply stuff she had been assigned. Various stealth peices, body gloves, and other peices and bits hung around the room, laying on chairs and in piles. However, it was somehow all organized, everything in its own place. Slinging a pack over her shoulder, she exited the room and went after Juno and Mr. Emerald.

[PaintSerf]

Task Force Carbon

Gavin screwed his eyes shut and winced while listening to the briefing to the Lieutenant’s mission briefing, his headache throbbing slowly behind his eyes. The confines of the passenger bay offered a kaleidoscope sounds; each and every different and unique sound singing out in a choir of discord, all for the benefit of Gavin Jenkins. He was convinced that the Valkyrie didn’t like him very much, especially given the way the speaker system was bleating out the current song on Roebuck’s playlist. Gavin grunted slightly and massaged the scar tissue on his scalp as the musician hit another high note.

"El-Tee, will you just reassure me that you don't intend to go haring off with Jenkins like what happened on Camonna V? Good."

Gavin groaned and cracked his left eye open to look across the compartment at the ASL, a tone of weary familiarity coloring his voice. “Oh, thank you, for bringing that up - again. Camonna V is just really what I wanted to remember, right now, at this exact moment.” Gavin glanced over at the Lieutenant briefly as he stopped massaging his scalp and sat up. Unable to think of anything to say, Gavin coughed slightly and awkwardly looked away, his knees suddenly becoming remarkably interesting.

“By the way, why do you never let me fly the Valkyrie anymore? It's kinda hurting my feelings."

Hearing Kylara’s question, Gavin pivoted his head up and looked over his glasses and fixed her with a deadpan look that read: “Seriously? You have to even ask why?”

“I could feel the Valkyrie wimpering in my mind.” Gavin paused as he shuddered with that recollection, “The last time you were behind the controls, piloting the vehicle, back on Ventriss. No, no thank you. Not at all.”

With another shake of his head Gavin looked away from Kylara, and reached for his helmet – only to notice the imposing Catachan; a red lit devil shrouded in smoke, staring him down with a smirk. Gavin slowly leaned as far back as he could, as if trying to get away from a vicious predator without provoking it to attack, unconsciously raising a hand to grab for the whistle around his neck.

"Why are you 'ere, boy? Ye get lost on the way to college?"

Gavin winced and turned away when he heard the man make a barking noise; and it wasn’t until a few seconds later that he realized that Roebuck was just laughing – at his expense. Shaking slightly, and not because of the vibrations in the machine, Gavin forced himself to look at the man.

“Well, no, no I did not. But…” Gavin paused, weighting his words for a long beat and a half, “I did avoid getting lost in a time warp, unlike your taste in music, old man.” Gavin felt tempted to kill the music then and there, with his mind, but rationally knew that it would be unacceptable to do so. “Presently, as of this moment, I am here to do the Emperor’s work.”

Taking a deep breath, Gavin looked back towards Kepler expectantly from behind his glasses. “When we are out of the transport, and on the ground… err… roof, would you approve of me to reach out?” To emphasize the point Gavin gestured towards his head with his hand and nodded slightly.

[SandQueen]

"Clear on this side. Alley?" Jansen confirmed and then questioned, once he was assured that there weren't any immediate dangers on his side of the rubble-strewn improvised landing zone.

"If your ship could have gotten us from sub orbit to surface in twelve seconds I might have considered it." Brenner said in a gruff voice. "I imagine we'll need it later though and you might have to patch in via remote. Maybe Steele could help you."

"Alley here. Walt, would you mind telling us what's the deal here? I thought the ISTs were already on the ground here; is there something that came up that they can't handle?"

"Taymor came up." Brenner said flatly. I've seen the evacuation priority list and she's not very high on it. Kadath's assessment people think that since her offices are close to the palace that she'll be out of harms way but considering that this insurgency started with the rumor of there being a cure in my mind that makes her a very viable target. We're still here for a plague after all and if we expect to cure it then we need her."

Marc turned to Walter. He did not understand much about how psykers and their powers worked and nor did he completely trust them, but after his previous mission on Taleostei - which had involved two lethal sniper ambushes - he was not willing to take chances. He glanced around the surrounding buildings, but there were dozens of rooftops and hundreds of windows where an observer might be hiding.

“Walt.” he said to the team leader. “Ella reckons that someone’s watching us, and I assume she means someone unfriendly.”

"I could have told you that." Walter said with a half smile. "We just rode a flaming elevator out of the scale and trashed the upper half of an apartment building. Even in a warzone that doesn't go unnoticed." He slung his rifle down and welded it against his shoulder. "There should be a sky-bridge on the floor above us that goes over to the next building. We've got about twenty five blocks to cover before we get to Taymor's office."

When Yvonne finished her speech and asked for questions, Ky waited a moment for others to ask first before she spoke up. An irreverent smile on her face, she looked up at her CO. "El-Tee, will you just reassure me that you don't intend to go haring off with Jenkins like what happened on Camonna V? Good." She extracted a lho from her webbing and lit it off Gene's smoldering cigar. "By the way, why do you never let me fly the Valkyrie anymore?" she inquired innocently. "It's kinda hurting my feelings." She adopted a very sad face to go along with this.

Yvonne cocked her head to the side and said "I might be more inclined to let you fly if you didn't let your carapace puppies get in the way of the instrument panel. Until then we're going with Hallsey."

Taking a deep breath, Gavin looked back towards Kepler expectantly from behind his glasses. “When we are out of the transport, and on the ground… err… roof, would you approve of me to reach out?” To emphasize the point Gavin gestured towards his head with his hand and nodded slightly.

"Yes." Kepler replied "Try and scan for biologicals as soon as we arrive. We'll also probably need you to override the door locks."

[COLOR="Olive"]

"Kruck isssss getting hungry Green-Emerald-Man," his nose wafting back towards Lilitha. "Kruck would like to feed..."

"No." Emerald replied "Go check the fridge. I know she looks delicious but try to hold off."

"Got Brenner, one of his crew from last time round and eight, count 'em eight new bodies here. Too early to start shooting?"

Emerald tapped his communicator and replied "If you start shooting I'll personally commission Merle and Kruck to rape you, skin you, and fashion your bones into a footstool for Lilitha.... in any order they want. Now get down here and pack, we need to leave."

He turned towards Juno and said "Can you believe this guy?"

"Well you've never faulted determination before. And isn't that why you hired him?" Juno's unsettling voice vocalized.

"I know I know. I don't like employees getting too absorbed in their work though." He pointed, waving his lho stick carelessly "Not that I need to worry about that with you. You don't even understand time, let alone feelings."

"My perception of things is different than yours." The voice replied. "Just as Kruck interprets your use of delicious much more literally than you implied."

Emerald rolled his eyes and took another drag. "Well speak of the Emperor..." he said coyly as the Acrobat strolled in "You ready to go?"

[kardar233]

Inquisition

"Taymor came up." Brenner said flatly. I've seen the evacuation priority list and she's not very high on it. Kadath's assessment people think that since her offices are close to the palace that she'll be out of harms way but considering that this insurgency started with the rumor of there being a cure in my mind that makes her a very viable target. We're still here for a plague after all and if we expect to cure it then we need her."

"I concur. It'd be a shame to leave her behind now after all the fuss we went through trying to make sure she didn't get shot."

Task Force Carbon

Yvonne cocked her head to the side and said "I might be more inclined to let you fly if you didn't let your carapace puppies get in the way of the instrument panel. Until then we're going with Hallsey."

"I think you're just afraid of tossing your cookies on this nice deck. Anyways, Thee doesn't bother me while I fly, she knows better."

Gavin groaned and cracked his left eye open to look across the compartment at the ASL, a tone of weary familiarity coloring his voice. “Oh, thank you, for bringing that up - again. Camonna V is just really what I wanted to remember, right now, at this exact moment.” Gavin glanced over at the Lieutenant briefly as he stopped massaging his scalp and sat up. Unable to think of anything to say, Gavin coughed slightly and awkwardly looked away, his knees suddenly becoming remarkably interesting.

"Hey, it wasn't all your fault. The El-Tee just sometimes has the urge to run into a horde of rampaging hrud before I get the Vulture online, no big deal."

Hearing Kylara’s question, Gavin pivoted his head up and looked over his glasses and fixed her with a deadpan look that read: “Seriously? You have to even ask why?”

“I could feel the Valkyrie wimpering in my mind.” Gavin paused as he shuddered with that recollection, “The last time you were behind the controls, piloting the vehicle, back on Ventriss. No, no thank you. Not at all.”

Ky adopted a mock-offended expression. "That's lies and slander, that is. That girl was singing to me through those canyon runs. I think that was your weak stomach whimpering; I didn't think you had anything left in there after the third Split-S."

Emerald

Emerald tapped his communicator and replied "If you start shooting I'll personally commission Merle and Kruck to rape you, skin you, and fashion your bones into a footstool for Lilitha.... in any order they want. Now get down here and pack, we need to leave."

Arcolin grinned. Or, to be accurate, he grinned more, his face being in its standard irreverantly smiling format already. "Gee, you really know how to ask a guy to do something, don't you. They got an astropath here too; crying shame."

As he began to stand up away from the emplaced weapon, he felt a tingling at the base of his skull. A sixth sense, what the instructors at the schola had called "the arbitrator's instinct" but what he knew to be the hand of fate at work. He leaned back down to take one more sweep of the Inquisition party. His palms tingled as he swept over two figures; one in urban-camo carapace, the astropath's handler; the other, an impressively armoured figure standing guard. He knew they would have some significance, but it escaped him at the moment.

He pulled himself away from his new rifle, picked the weapon up and made his way downstairs. He didn't have much packing to do, but what he could he did: returning the Exitus rifle to its long shock-foam-insert case, breaking down his machine gun and storing its pieces innocuously in a different case, inverting his cloak of blades and covering it with a simple traveller's robe. He saw last a gleam of red as he shut his final case and prepared to move.