[M] Warhammer 40K: The Prophet In Silver - recruitment and OOC

[Azazeal849]

Rated M for violence and distressing themes.
Potential strong language and drug references.

LINK TO IC

Spoiler: Prologue 

Anyone can apply logic abstractly. Ask if it is right to let one man die when it is the only way to save ten, and any logical person will tell you that yes, it is. But what do they say when that one man is standing right in front of them? What do they do when they hear his children plead for their father's life? What if this one man is someone they know - a friend, a brother, a lover? Suddenly the arithmetic doesn't look so simple.

Interrogator Alia Machairi dropped her quill back into its ink pot, and sat back in her chair to read what she had written. The vellum paper was illuminated by a pair of fluted lumoglobe lamps, standing either side of the desk that took up nearly a third of her cabin on the HDMS True Bane. The rest was taken up by a small shrine to the Emperor, a carefully made-up single bed, and a small but expensive wardrobe made of Spartax hardwood. Sitting on the desk alongside dataslates, vellum papers and a long-barreled melta pistol, a trio of candles seasoned the air with the scent of vanilla. The candles guttered slightly in the draft caused by the True Bane's air scrubbers.

A trill from the door buzzer made the interrogator look up from her work. Instead of using the control wand sitting in the desk drawer, Machairi got up and thumbed the manual unlocking rune to meet the visitor face to face. The mag-locks disengaged with a click, and the door pistoned open to reveal a petite woman with dark hair cut short around her face.

"McKenzie." interrogator Machairi smiled, "Keeping busy?"

"I'm always busy." McKenzie von Rousch quipped, smoothing the front of her red dress jacket. "But yes, lord Sidonis getting promoted to the upper echelons of the Ordo Calixis has hardly reduced the number of ops I need to organise."

Physically, lord Sidonis' chief logistician and his up-and-coming interrogator were complete opposites. The one was short and slender, while the other topped six feet even in flat-soled boots. McKenzie was delicate and boyish, while Machairi had shrewd dark eyes and a blade of a nose under long brown hair, which she habitually twisted into an elegant plait. In personality however, they were more alike. Even if McKenzie wasn't front line investigator material, Machairi admired her unflinching ability to get things done - and without the brute-force whip cracking that her fellow interrogator Schafer seemed to favour, as well.

"What can I help you with?" Machairi stood back and motioned for McKenzie to enter, but the other woman politely shook her head.

"I'm not stopping, thanks. I just thought you'd want to know that Sidonis will probably be contacting you shortly."

"What about?" Machairi asked carefully.

"He has a mission for you, and he's letting you pick the team."

Machairi raised an arched eyebrow. "What kind of mission? I've still not finished looking through the Baraspine case."

"Schafer's missed a report, which as I'm sure you know isn't like him. Sidonis thinks he might have run into some sort of trouble."

Machairi's face was studiously neutral. "Is he still out on that frontier world?"

"Hercynia, yes. The last we heard was that he and hs agents were leaving the Enclave to gather evidence from one of the more war-torn cities. But since then, nothing."

"Well, a war-zone isn't the best place for astropaths. Or maybe he's gone undercover?"

"Maybe," McKenzie admitted. "But Sidonis wants it checked out."

Machairi chewed the inside of her cheek thoughtfully. "Alright, give me a couple of hours to read up on the situation and I'll put together a team."

"Do you know who you'll be taking?"

The interrogator smiled. "I've got a few ideas."

"Let me know if you need any support with requisitioning anything."

"I will." Machairi nodded. "Thanks."

As McKenzie turned to leave, the smile dropped off Machairi's face like a mask. Great. she thought acidly. Save my hated rival. It was no secret among Sidonis' staff that she and Schafer got on like a house on fire - that was to say, with screaming, property damage, and people running for their lives. Machairi wondered for a moment if lord Sidonis himself was oblivious to the fact, or if this was one of his less-than-subtle manipulations to try and foster some common ground between them. She shook her head, and looked down again at the unfinished vellum paper on her desk, reading what she had written.

What if this one man is someone they know - a friend, a brother, a lover? Suddenly the arithmetic doesn't look so simple.

She picked up her quill, and added a final sentence before gathering the melta pistol from her desk and heading for the door.

That is why most men will never be inquisitors.

Hi everybody! This RP is a sequel to Warhammer 40K: The Replicants, but new players and characters are welcome as well as returning ones. Knowledge of the previous story is not mandatory; old characters will likely bring the new ones up to speed in-universe in the first few posts.

RULES

You all know the standard RPA rules so I won't repeat them here. There are however a couple of my own that I'd like to add:

• Please write all IC posts in third person past tense. That is, "John stood up", never "John stands up" or "I stood up".
• Please don't use quote boxes in the IC. If you're reproducing another player's text to help put your own post in context, please indicate the copied text with a different colour.
• If possible, please leave a message in the OOC thread if you are going to be away for a while. Similarly, if you run out of time or inspiration and want to quit (which is fine), please have the courtesy to let us know that you're leaving so that other players aren't left waiting around for you.

RP BACKGROUND

It has been four months since the incident on Venatora, and although an inquisition frigate remains on station in the area, no further Necron activity has been reported in the system. Reconstruction efforts on Venatora continue, hampered by the loss of the competent and well-liked governor Faroven, but that is not the concern of the ordo xenos. While the vast staff of lord inquisitor Immanuel Sidonis continues its work across the Ixaniad and Calixis sectors, one of the inquisitor's senior acolytes - interrogator Javid Schafer - has uncovered anomalies in the tithe records of the nearby Hercynia system. With the most prominent ordo hereticus operatives in the subsector tied up, Schafer petitioned lord Sidonis to let him lead an investigation. He has been on Hercynia for the last two months, but has not reported in for some time.

Spoiler: Interrogator Javid Schafer 

Age: 41 Terran standard, 76 by the calendar of his homeworld of Spartax (which earns him the nickname "old man" behind his back)
Rank: Interrogator
Profile: Javid is a dynamic and task-focused man, and he aims to inspire these traits in his subordinates. Although sometimes impatient and blunt to the point of rudeness, he has a deserved reputation as a man who gets things done. He supervised the team of greenhorn agents who somehow managed to avert the xenos attack on Venatora, earning said agents a favourable recommendation from him to lord Sidonis before he embarked on his next mission to Hercynia. Hercynia, however, is currently classified as a warzone, and so he took a squad of more experienced agents with him for the mission.

With no explained reason for the break in communication, lord Sidonis fears that Schafer may have run into difficulty, and has tasked one of his other interrogators, Alia Machairi, with assembling a relief team. It doesn't matter to Sidonis that Machairi and Schafer are rather fierce rivals; when one manages a staff of thousands and is responsible for the fate of billions, it is easy to forget such nuances. And Sidonis has always been a man to consider individual agents mostly in terms of their skillsets rather than how well they will mesh as a group.

Spoiler: Interrogator Alia Machairi 

Age: 37 Terran standard
Rank: Interrogator
Profile: A competent investigator, Alia is a woman who values diplomacy both towards outsiders and within her own team. She invests personal time in agents that impress her, and so generally has a good working relationship with them. She is however first and foremost an interrogator of the inquisition, and so it can be difficult to tell if she genuinely cares for her subordinates, or simply sees the value of appearing that she does. Like Schafer she has a dominant personality, and so that the two of them would clash was almost inevitable. Still, she can hardly refuse an order from Sidonis to assist her rival interrogator. To help her locate and rescue Schafer, she has chosen a mixture of her agents and some of Schafer's own former henchmen to accompany her to Hercynia.

Your characters are inquisition agents assigned to the relief team. All characters not previously featured in Replicants will be members of Machairi's staff. They will have worked with her for some time and have a good rapport with her. Machairi selects her personal henchmen from the larger pool of Lord Sidonis' retinue, and said retinue is big and varied enough to contain almost any kind of agent or sanctioned psyker you can imagine (however, as Sidonis is a staunch puritan, he does not employ xenos and his staff contains relatively few abhumans). Sidonis also maintains a contingent of stormtroopers known as Task Force Carbon, which occasionally lends individual soldiers to investigative operations as security and the like. You may submit more than one character if desired.

Spoiler: Suggested character profile 

As always, this is a guideline rather than something to be rigidly adhered to.

Name: Self explanatory.
Age: Ditto.
Position / rank: What their job is on Machairi's / lord Sidonis' staff.
Appearance: Pictures and / or descriptions are acceptable. I also strongly encourage you to describe the character in one of your early IC posts, as this will help establish the character in the other players' minds.
Personality: A few points is fine. This is mostly something for you (or me if your character becomes inactive and I need to NPC them a bit) to refer back to and help you stay in character while writing.
Weapons: If carried.
Other: Equipment, armour, psyker powers etc.
Background: Doesn't have to be extensive. However, anything covered here should probably get at least a passing mention IC.

TEAM ROSTER

• Interrogator Alia Machairi
• Bodyguard Tomas Prinzel (Dakkagor)
• Regulator Glabrio Hybrida (Jarms48)
• Swordsman Aleksandr Esw Sadyr (Mr A Grimm)
• Infiltrator Abdur Salah (Cfavano)
• Psyker Malpais Malzel (Atrum Daemon)
• Confessor Solvan Balannor (Thrannix)
• Medicus Sebastian Thor (Ixajin)
• Field agent Vincent Nyl
• Field agent Marcus Black
• Field agent Kally Sonder (Dakkagor)
• Verispex agent Kelly Black
• Psyker Lia (Kardar233)
• Attached stormtrooper Julianus Remus, TFC (Jarms48)
• Sister Sapphira of the Sororitas Hospitaller (PaintSerf)
• Attached Ad Mech assassin Vizkop (Atrum Daemon)

LOCAL ALLIES

• AAT Major Martin Crenshaw
• Sanctioned psyker Gavin Jenkins

RECRUITMENT IS CURRENTLY CLOSED. However, if you leave a message in this thread I will notify you as soon as a space becomes available. The following players are currently on the waiting list:

• Imperial1917
• SergeantLeartes

[Epostle]

My likey

[dakkagor]

"Its not that I don't believe in the Emperor. I just don't think he believes in me."

Name: Kally Sonder

Age: 33

Occupation: Psyker countermeasure/ frontline investigator

Personality: Kally is emotionally battered. Tortured, imprisoned, and having escaped near certain death more times than even she would care to admit, the fallout of the Pembroke incident still casts a long shadow over the soul of Kally. However, in more recent months, and after the Venatora incident, she seems to be more outgoing and stable. The nightmares have receded somewhat and the memories have lost some of their edge as she has buried herself in work, though she is still prone to bouts of depression and withdrawal when not working. She still harbours a deep distrust of the Inquisition, but trusts Marc, Vincent and Kelly with her life. Where they go, she goes, and she would kill and die for them without a second thought.

Appearance: Kally is still an athletic 5ft 6 inches with a hivers palour, with dark brown eyes. Her old dyed hair is almost gone, with only the tips a vibrant metallic red while the rest of her hair is a pale sandy colour, and she wears it long in a pony tail. She has a scar running round her left eye too her cheek from a glancing sword blow, and a few more on her body that aren't readily visible. The deepest scars are undoubtedly in her mind, however.

Powers: Kally as a psychic blank is immune to all psychic powers aimed directly at her. For example, a psyker could not telekinetically crush her, but he could telekinetically throw a crate at her. With access to Inquisitorial training techniques and a device known as an amplification harness, she can focus her ability into a will draining effect that can paralyse psykers in fear and send normal men running scared. The harness also replaces her collar, allowing her to use it to reflexively dampen her powers in pleasant company. Since her experiences in Hive Makita (and possibly because of her experiences in Hive Makita) her psychic blank abilities have strengthened considerably. While not as dangerous as a Culexus Assassin with an animus speculum, she is still regarded by most psykers in Sidonis employ as less a soulless abomination, more a walking anti psyker apocalypse.

Equipment:

+ Scourge Pattern Boltgun: a heavily modified Boltgun with a 3 clip fire selector, scope, and integral retractable bayonet. Its generally loaded with stalker sniper rounds (low velocity penetrators designed for quiet firing) hellfire rounds and psycannon rounds. A heavy, nasty, maintenance intensive brute of a weapon, the only reason Kally carries it is its raw stopping power, excellent accuracy over long distances and formidable profile: few people want to mess with someone carrying one of these.

+ Reinforced Military body glove. Kallys old dependable flak has been ditched in favour of a composite mil-spec suit generally issued to Storm troopers and similar specialists travelling light. The rubberised mesh weave is good for keeping out light arms and impacts, and is reinforced with light carapace plates over the chest, abdomen, shins, thighs, and upper and lower arms. A folded hood can be deployed for additional protection, but Kally generally doesn’t bother. The main benefit with this suit is that with the plates stripped out, the suit becomes light enough to be worn under appropriate civilian clothes. Generally, Kally stomps around with this suit and an overcoat.

+ Redeemer pattern Chain sword: this short, wide bladed weapon is very handy in tight spaces and well earned its unofficial moniker of 'ripper'.

+Two paired ‘steel burner’ laspistols, two cadian short combat knives.

+At Vince's insistence, three frag grenades and three krak grenades.

+Underhive survival kit
Consisting of flugs, photovisor contacts, grapnel and carbon-line, grip gloves, glow sticks, rad patch and a few doses of stimms, detox, Kalma and common antivenoms.


Background
++SEALED UNDER INQUISITORIAL REMIT++
What everyone knows about Kally Sonder is the following: The woman is cursed, either to good luck or bad, and she is tough as hell. Rumours fly that she was saved from the ruins of Makita Hive, and that she nearly killed several interrogators upon being revived for questioning. From that point on, rumors say, her hostility and blank nature made her the most difficult of witnesses following the Pembroke incident and one of the last people to be judged in relation to it. While she eventually escaped the Inquisitions dungeons, and survived the almost complete snafu on Venatora, she still spends most of her time on the True Bane alone or training intensely.

Kally Sonder after a typical brawl

[Azazeal849]

Accepted naturally, Mr Dakkagor.

[kardar233]

Good to see this going!

Link for Alia's picture is broken for me.

Lia will be returning once I can be bothered to write.

[Azazeal849]

Link for Alia's picture is broken for me.

Unhelpful IMDB pic is unhelpful. Here is what the picture was supposed to be:

https://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV...640_SY720_.jpg

[kardar233]

That link doesn't work either; I get a "Referral Denied".

[Azazeal849]

I have found an alternative version of the image for the first post.

[Anastasia]

Hello there! It looks like you're off to a fantastic start. Here are some helpful links to get you started!

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Roleplaying Games Directory – New Roleplay? Add it to our Directory!

Staff Sigs – Get your RP featured in our Staff Signatures.

Roleplay of the Week – Think your RP could have what it takes to become Role Play of the Week? Enter here!

Roleplay of the Week Banner Shop – Get a banner made for your RP to further your quest for RP of the Week.

The RPA Tribune – Why not let all of RPA read about your RP in the RPA Tribune!

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As always if you have any questions, feel free to let us know!

[dakkagor]

my second character:

The Soldier Scholar

“I demand to talk to the head of your teams security!”
“On matters security, I answer to the Holy God Emperor. Its my job to make sure you don't see him before your time.”

Name: Tomas Prinzel

Age: 43

Position / rank: Armsman and Bodyguard to Interrogator Malachai

Appearance: Tomas has dark brown eyes and a mop of black hair just beginning to grey at the temples, with a strong nose that has been broken more than once and a strong angular jaw. Even clean shaven his face is darkened with stubble, and he maintains a short black beard.
During the fighting on Casteria, his right eye was ripped out with a chunk of his face by a genestealer cultist. While the face healed, his eye has been replaced with a functional augmetic that is rugged, but not elegant and obviously artificial.

Personality: Tomas is a surprisingly affable soldier, with a mordant wit and love of good cigars, good amsec and fine reading material. Tested in the fires of war, he has emerged with a strong faith in the Emperor and the Inquisition, and is loyal to his team to the point of death. Possessed of a keen mind, he spends much of his off time in scholary pursuits, and enjoys discussing Imperial philosphy and doctrine, Ecclesiarchical dogma and Imperial History. In those narrow fields he fancies himself a bit of an expert, but he can come off as boorish.

Equipment:
Triplex Phall Pattern Lasgun
+with bayonet
+with hotshot power packs
+with mono sight

Hecutor 5-9 autopistol
+with silencer

Mono Bastard Sword (Casteria Patern)

Combat shield (reinforced)

Three Frag Grenades

Three Krak Grenades

Other:
High Capacity Data slate, equipped with data jacks and various device readers.

A surprisingly large collection of texts on board the True Bane, including a variety of books by Gideon Ravenor and other Imperial luminaries.

Flak armour, styled as a medieval buff coat, with mesh reinforcement and solid carapace pauldrons, bracers and greaves.

Background:

Tomas was born on Casteria III, a feudal world that orbited a pale yellow star on the edge of the Ixianad sector. A well governed world by Imperial standards, Tomas parents where merchants by trade and travelled the world extensively. The third son of the family, when he showed an aptitude for maths and reading at a young age, his parents hoped he would join one of the Adepta and bring honour to their family through service to the Emperor as he stood to inherit little from his family.
However, when he was 16 his family visited the capital of Casteria III, where the grand muster of the Imperial Guard was taking place. Tanks from a nearby forgeworld painted in Casterias royal colours rolled down the streets of the city of Hyrix, with thousands of loyal Casteria Guardsmen, bound for the starport. From that day forward, he wanted to be in the Imperial guard, and a year later he joined the Casteria Royal Infantry, hoping to make the grade for the Imperial Guard during the next grand muster.
Tomas was quickly singled out for officer training, as he was of sufficient social class and possessed of some intelligence. He served faithfully in the Royal Infantry for three years before the Imperium required another regiment of Casterian Infantry. He was an obvious candidate for the newly formed regiment, and was assigned as a sergeant to an Armoured Fist unit, a prestigious posting for a merchants son. He bid his mother and father good bye, and as is the tradition in Casteria, swore an oath on his and his families honour to his monarch, Good King Edvund the XXI, that he would uphold the honour and reputation of Casteria in the wider Imperium.

The regiment, the 256th Casterian Infantry, was then shipped to the Margin Crusade, and five years of hell fighting chaos renegades under the light of the warp anomalies and distant alien stars. During this time Tomas served with distinction and honour, leading his unit through thick and thin before being promoted to the rank of Lieutenant when his platoon leader was killed by a rampaging Defiler. After the bitter campaign that saw the regiments strength reduced to less than 50%, the regiment was cycled out and combined with the 255th Casterian Infantry, which had similarly been ripped to bits, and was unceremoniously shipped back to the Calixis sector to join the sectors war reserves.

Here his fortunes would take a change for the bizarre. Interrogator Alia Machairi was assigned to investigate a cult that had taken root amongst the various guilds of his home world of Casteria. While they where assigned to a tour on a minor world, rooting out mutant subversives, Alia approached the regiments commanders and requested a squad of Guardsmen, lead by an officer 'of distinction and letters, not some common lout'. The regiments commanders immediately assigned Tomas, and a squad of his men.

On arrival on Casteria, it was obvious the situation had changed. A full scale civil revolt was in full swing, the King was dead, and his royal family was in hiding. Interrogator Machairi immediately set to work and with the help and expertise of the local soldiers, quickly revealed that a genestealer cult had suborned several guilds and noble families. Summoning aid from the Deathwatch, the team retreated to Castle Hyrix and summoned reinforcements, while rallying the local noble court.

It was now that the cultists struck. Having tunnelled into the Castle dungeons, genestealer hybrids, and a few deadly purestrains, struck the court in an attempt to kill the Interrogator and her allies. The fighting was nightmarish and bloody, and Tomas was the only survivor from his squad, but through their sacrifice Interrogator Machairi survived to meet the Deathwatch reinforcements. With Machairis hard won intelligence, the Deathwatch where quickly able to purge the Genestealer infestation and free Casteria from the grip of civil war.

Tomas, for his service to the Inquisition, was offered the chance to stay on his homeworld. Indeed the royal family promised him a significant position as General of the Royal Infantry if he should chose to stay, along with noble titles and gifts of land. Staying only long enough to transfer that gift to his surviving family, he left with Interrogator Machairi, slowly becoming one of her chief agents and her primary bodyguard. While some rumours aboard the Truebane paint the pair as lovers, the truth is simply that Tomas has deep and abiding respect for the Interrogator, and is totally loyal to her.