While the reassurances and precautions being taken by Smiles and Boss were, while appreciated, not going to lower his guard at all. If anything, he would be more on edge and guard than before. Sure, the servo skull was watching above and there was quite a few dangerous folks within the group, but it wouldn't hurt for him to be on guard. Might be able to catch the trouble well before it caught up to them, which would certainly be helpful, to put it mildly. Smiles went about opening the door, and before Stukov could put a boot to the door and clear the entryway, a hand on his shoulder signalled him to hold back, Boss heading in first instead. Not his preferred idea of entering the factory, considering how uncertain it was that there would be friendlies, hostiles, or even occupying the building at all. Keeping his silence, and out of sight of the worker as the two went back and forth, he resisted an urge to laugh. Inspectors, really? But it seemed to work, and once the worker moved on, Stukov walked in, rifle cradled in his arms.

"Inspector, really Boss? If we are not the best armed inspection crew I have laid eyes upon, I could hardly say. Which way do you..." Stukov stopped talking, a rather painful pressure slamming into his head which brought a pained scowl to his face. He couldn't explain it, but it felt like it came from deep within the factory complex, and he turned towards that corridor, autogun half raised in the direction of the oncoming pressure wave. What he was unaware of was that most of the others would be unaware of the sudden wave of pressure and he began walking, almost forgetting to say anything to the others if it wasn't for the fact he nearly ran into Sis in the process, having to shift his course or bounce off the power armored woman. "Call me crazy, I got a bad feeling about this place. Reminds me too much of the last Cruiser I served on, so with all due respect Boss, I am taking point. Your life outweighs mine in worth. Can't have gangers ambushing you again."

Call it the grim math of war, but an Inquisitor of experience and standing would far trump even one of his retinue members, and certainly if that member was just a senior armsman. The ganger comment was almost an afterthought, he had almost forgot about that little piece of the cover story that Boss had thrown in the man's face. Stukov couldn't explain where the path was taking them, but it sounded like they were heading for the source of the machinery noise, and he kept his autogun half raised, bayonet still affixed and ready for a sudden attack in melee. He was moving like one would have expected to see someone in a void ship, ready to grab onto the surroundings in an instance when the hull shattered, exposing void to crew and boarder alike. The pressure wave almost seemed like it had made him somewhat forget the fact he was indeed planetside, old habits brought back to life that he had shaken before landing. A rather curious shift, to be certain.

"Inspector, really Boss? If we are not the best armed inspection crew I have laid eyes upon, I could hardly say."

"I do not think he truly believed the story either, but who truly needs an inspector badge when you got big guns instead?" Adrianne commented in response to Stukov, watching as the workman walked away.

Indeed, she found it unlikely that the person truly believed Zhevon's lie. Then again, even if he might not have believed him, she doubted a simple workman would ever really try to stop an armed crowd from entering the workplace. It seemed very unlikely that a shoddy place like that factory provided its workers with wages and bonuses sufficient enough to encourage them to risk their lives in its defense!

There was a strange aura about the place, one that was reminiscent to the one she had felt back at the gallery.

As they walked, Adrianne would close her eyes for a moment; opening her mind up the influence of the warp that hung over the place. It hit her like a wave of sensual wave of warmth, immediately causing a sudden spike in her heart rate the moment it hit her. Opening her eyes almost as soon as she had shut them, she would look out on the rest of the group.

"It's here."

"The corruption of chaos is present in this place." Adrianne would suddenly say to the rest of the group.
"I can feel it emanating from below our feet. And it is strong, like in gallery that we visited previously."

“I hid the Valkyrie relatively close to our position inside of one of the large shipping hangers that are used to hold cargo and transport ships. They do not operate at this hour so the chances of it being discovered there are extremely low. It is also close enough to us that if we have to vacate the area quickly, we can be on board our ship and airborne in minutes.” Aviza spoke as she walked alongside the Psyker with her heavily modified bolter ready to fire at a moment’s notice.“From personal experience, I would like to recommend that we send in the Servo-Skull first before entering a potentially hostile area. The Servo-Skull could locate hostiles and important areas for us without putting our lives at immediate danger. Not doing so is as if we are asking for an ambush to happen Adrianne. This is something to think about next time, I feel if we do not handle the situation upon this planet delicately and carefully enough then we might end up kicking a hornet’s nest.” Down the hallway from where they stood was a lone warehouse worker, he froze in place and stared at the inquisitor who now tried to convince him that they were all Imperial inspectors. Whether he was convinced or not, the warehouse worker quickly left, informing all of them that he had to use the restroom.

“We are going to just let him go then? I highly doubt he is heading to the restroom. Adrianne, maybe you should send your Servo-Skull after him to see where he is really headed? He could be heading to inform his master of our presence and then the shit is really going to hit the fan.” Taking a couple deep, long breaths Aviza calmed her nerves only moments before it felt as if she had been hit by a wall of pressure. That all now to familiar uncomfortable feeling ran through her body once more, the same feeling she had felt when she set foot in the hallway back at the art museum. Quickly looking all around her she made sure there were not statues around them, there were none thankfully. “I am not the only one that feels that, right?” asked Aviza as she tightened her grip on her weapon. Adriannes reply brought a small level of comfort to her. She was glad that she was not the only one, but new questions and concerns arose. “This feels quite a bit stronger than the hallway inside of the museum Adrianne.” Said Aviza just moments before Stukov almost ran into her, which would have been an awkward mess for the two of them. Placing a hand on his left shoulder she looked him in the eyes through her helmet and squeezed lightly. “Keep it together Stukov, there is a chance that this sensation may only get worse the further we go into the warehouse and I do not want you passing out.”

"He could be heading to inform his master of our presence and then the shit is really going to hit the fan.”

Adrianne glanced over at sister Aviza walking next to her, staring at her for a moment before nodding.

"I will do that." She commented, before diverting her gaze away from them and spoke quietly into her helmet. A small image of the factory appeared in the corner of her vision, a factory that was coming closer and closer, until soon M4R1-A would hover through one of the open windows high up in the roof of the factory.

A 'STALKER MODE ENGAGED' message in bright yellow letters flickered across the servo-skull's display, before M4R1-A floated silently down along one of the large support columns of the factory until it reached the main floor, where it floated in the direction that the workman had disappeared. All the while, the M4R1-A would cling to the walls and upper corners of any corridor, sticking to the shadow while dimming the red lights emanating from its empty skull sockets.

"I almost hope he lied to us about going to the restroom now... " Adrianne would mutter to Aviza as she switched her attention between the small video feed from M4R1-A in her lower corner visor, and to the path ahead; lest she would risk accidentally walking into a wall or stumbling on a cable!

"Inspector, really Boss? If we are not the best armed inspection crew I have laid eyes upon, I could hardly say. Which way do you..." Stukov stopped midsentence, he aimed raised his rifle into the ready position, "Call me crazy, I got a bad feeling about this place. Reminds me too much of the last Cruiser I served on, so with all due respect Boss, I am taking point. Your life outweighs mine in worth. Can't have gangers ambushing you again."
Zhevon stared at Stukov, he was uncomfortable with the thought that his life was worth more than others. Nevertheless, he let Stukov lead, taking them close to the sounds of the heavier machinery. While the first floor had a considerable amount of machines, it was mostly assembly and packing. Being not very loud. Smaller factories like this typically had their heavy duty equipment and machinery underground, doing most of the work, then finishing up the product on the first floor, where it could be easily packaged and shipped out. Adrianne then confirmed the presence of Chaos, underneath them. Presumably in the basement. Zhevon thought this odd, that Stukov could pick the sense up before Adrianne, who was a trained Psyker. With the team on high alert, he spoke up, "Looks like we're heading into the basement area. Stukov, lead on."

As M4R1-A watched the worker, it saw that he went into the restroom. It then investigated the break room, where the rest of the workers were. The well lit room had several screens for playing entertainment programs, vending machines, chairs and tables. Most of the workers were either playing cards or watching some sort of sports.

The basement seemed normal, like another level of the factory. Albeit with heavier machines, refrigerated sections, dials and conveyor belts. However a trapdoor would be seen in the corner of the basement. Leading down further into some sort of underground base with stone chiseled walls, where eviler things dwelled.

Stukov only stopped moving long enough to shrug off the power armored gauntlet of Sis, as he glanced at her as she spoke to him about the sensation only getting stronger and spoke in a somber tone, far different than his usual tone of voice, more reminiscent of before he joined the retinue. "The concern is noted. I've done this before, have some faith. Isn't that your whole thing, anyways? Keep up and keep quiet, machinery should make it easier for you this time." With that he resumed moving forward, each corner he paused and swept the junction that it created, looking for trouble. Nothing, nothing the whole time as they descended into the basement. The pressure increased, but there was something else that only he would have noticed, him and perhaps one other if they weren't nearly as guarded. It was something, there was something innately wrong down here, the feeling strongest from the trap door as it drew his gaze, and he walked over to it after sweeping the machinery area as they walked, kneeling by the hatch and finding it unlocked, muttering loud enough to be heard over the machinery. "Unlocked, either confident no one would come back here, its in use, or they are expecting company. I'm assuming the latter two. Spot me, opening the hatch."

Stukov feel into old terms, referring to the trapdoor as a hatch, pulling it open with his left hand while aiming the autogun with his right hand, aided by the sling attached to the autogun, almost putting a round down the ladderwell on general principle. Nothing, it was dingy but lit. And he could have sworn he heard talking, feint, as he promptly slid down the ladder, feet hooked on the sides of the ladder and using his off hand to guide himself down, landing and dropping to a knee, aiming his rifle down the corridor. The light seemed more intense down here than he had originally wagered, and he was sure there was others down here now. Nevermind he didn't ask if the others knew what he was hearing or not, he voxed up as he took off at a quick, silent pace, unaware that the farther he progressed, the more choppy his communications got. "Move fast, there are others down here. They are not getting away this time..." Unaware that no one else had come down so quickly, he turned the corner at the end of the hallway, a T-intersection forming as he took a left. However, even if someone was not even half a dozen steps behind him, anyone glancing around the corner would find him vanished, an oppressive fog restricting view in either direction for very far and apparently having consumed him completely.

Stukov was moving fast, the voices getting stronger although he could not yet make out what they were saying somehow despite the strength as he ran the gloomy, foggy hallway, rapidly sweeping for any signs of trouble as he ran. The fog almost obscured a large looking, wooden door etched with unholy sigils that seemed to throb, and the voices grew into a chant behind the door. Kneeling, he pressed a finger to the built in vox of his rebreather mask, unaware that the fog would disrupt most of the words he sent back to the group. "Found a door, obvious witchcraft. Ritual going on inside, cannot wait for reinforcement. Catch up when able, respond." Watching through the keyhole, Stukov could see a stomach churning ritual being undergone, some unholy Slaaneshi rites from the symbols and words being said. That would not do, not at all, and priming a flashbang grenade, he put a solid boot to the door handle, slamming the door wide open and sending the grenade in, a blinding flash emitting from the room before Stukov opened fire on the ritual, unaware of the fact that the sounds of machinery and further dark whisperings from that ritual room were false, and beyond the cultists it had been dead silent.

The rest of the retinue, regardless of their location, would hear the feint sound of a grenade, and a disorienting, louder chatter of an autogun on full auto. That would certainly have been Stukov, but his current location was still hazy at best. It would take some effort to track down where he was, coupled with what little garbled communications made it back to the retinue. However, the air grew heavier and Adrianne would notice the air seemed thinner, as if the walls between the real world and the warp had grown thin in this place. The closer they got to the sound of weapons fire, before it cut off abruptly, the thinner that feeling would get. The farther away, the more stable the surroundings and air would feel. Most doors they might stumble across would be locked or lead to blank walls, occasionally they would instead be storerooms or empty housing areas, either abandoned in a hurry or had not seen use in some time, in a nonsensical mixing between the two.

As the group walked through the factory, an audible groan could suddenly be heard from Adrianne through her helmet as M4R1-A succeeded in following the worker to the restroom, as well as record all the sounds of flatulence and discharging that was natural from a human being!

"Ow, aww... no, no-no-no! Turn off feedback! Turn off!" Adrianne promptly spoke into her helmet, quickly shutting off any feedback from her servo-skull as she instead focused solely on following the group! Refusing to look anyone else in the eye, she simply resumed an adamant stance as she followed them without speech.

As they finally arrived at the hatch however, Adrianne let Stukov lead on.

She could feel wave of foul energies emanate from the hatch as Stukov opened it, but paid it little mind. It was after all to be expected. She had sensed the presence before. The fact that it was getting both stronger and more raw could only be an indication of the fact that they were getting closer to the source, whatever it might have been!

As Stukov had reached the bottom and disappeared, Adrianne would step towards the hatch.

It was a steep drop, with a ladder built into the wall. It was hardly a very accessible point, being little more than a small hole, and she doubted that this was some part of the official building.

"Move fast, there are others down here. They are not getting away this time..."

"Patience, Stukov. We are a team, remember? ... ." Adrianne would speak through comms with her usual calm and disaffected tone, noticing the heightened sense of urgency in Stukov's voice.

Rather than taking the ladder, Adrianne would simply move one foot in front of the other, placing her boot over the wide-open hatch, and take another step; allowing herself to fall freely down towards the bottom of the corridor. Yet before she would reach the floor, she'd summon a slight kinetic spell, reducing her speed. This caused her to touch down on the main concrete floor of the corridor with a light bump in a kneeling position, before easily raising herself to a standing position.

The air around her in the corridor was foggy, the industrial lamps lighting the corridor barely able to penetrate the thick carpet. Scanning the corridor, Adrianne would see no sign of the armsman anymore. He was gone.

"Stukov, do you copy?" Adrianne spoke into her comm, but got no response.

Instead, she waited, only to suddenly hear a loud boom in the distance, immediately followed by the sound of autogun fire somewhere further down inside the basement complex!

"Stukov!"

Adrianne yelled, yet no response.

"Sister, get down here! Stukov has run off!" Adrianne would then call out through her mask and up to Aviza standing above the hatch, urging her to come down.
"Hurry!"

“What seems to be the problem Adrianne?” asked Aviza after hearing the groan that came from the distraught Psycher. The question was quickly answered when Aviza remembered that the Psychers Servo-Skull M4R1-A had been ordered to follow the warehouse worker who said he was heading to the restroom. Holding back a laugh at the Psychers misfortune, Aviza quickly responded by saying “I guess he was telling the truth about having to go to the restroom, for better or worse.” The Sister of Battle fell silent for the moment and followed with the rest of the squad, keeping a close eye on her surroundings. They passed multiple areas where an ambush could have been waiting for them, but it seemed whatever truly was here was more interested in keeping itself hidden than confronting the group. Once they arrived at the basement, Aviza could not immediately notice anything out of place.

After exploring the area though, Stukov managed to find a trapdoor. “Wait for the rest of us Stukov, I have enhanced optics on my helmet that will allow me to see through the dark or anything else that may prove an obstacle.” Unfortunately, Stukov made his way down the latter while informing someone to spot him. Letting out a sigh, Aviza kneeled down by the hatch and peered down into the darkness below. “Stukov, status update, what is going on down there and what do you see?” The response came but was filled with static from something interfering with coms. The words Witchcraft and Reinforcement were heard but little past that. Still kneeling by the hatch, Aviza waited with an awkward silence as Adrianne tried to remain in contact with Stukov. Adrainne then yelled into her com for the Sister of Battle to join her inside of the tunnel. “I’ll be there very soon.” Turning on her enhanced optics, she jumped down through the hatch and landed below with a thunk, kicking up a heavy amount of dirt, dust and whatever else had been lying dormant in the area. “Shall I take lead or would you like to?”

“Shall I take lead or would you like to?”

Behind her helmet, Adrianne raised an eyebrow as she stared back at Aviza.

"You are the one with the big gun and all the power armor - you lead!" Adrianne was quick to reply to the sister's question, as she grabbed Aviza's shoulderpiece and turned the sister around before pushing her down the corridor towards Stukov's last known location!

It did not incur to her as particularly selfish to use the Sister of Battle as a literal human shield. In fact, it was the epitome of good teamwork! After all, it was only natural for the tankiest member of the group to take point!

"Move. Move!" She yelled, giving Aviza a 'shove-of-motivation' whenever the battle sister may have hesitated as the two of them quickly traveled down through the corridor as they followed the sounds of gunfire. The limited visibility, tight space and Adrianne's own impatience inevitably lead to Aviza bumping against the narrow walls or the two of them occasionally crashing into corners together before rushing onwards.

Yet finally, they saw the shape of Stukov armed with his autogun, standing and firing into an open metal door.

"Stukov, what's going on?!" Sounded Adrianne's voice as she invariably shoved Aviza in front of her and into the doorway, all the while the Psyker's attention was focused on the armsman.

Stukov didn't hear the rest of the retinue over the perceived din of weapons fire, instead moving into the room and ducking a cultist weapon, jamming the bayonet into the offending heretics gut before twisting and slashing out, disembowling the cultist with one smooth, practiced motion before drawing his sidearm and putting a round through his skull, firing rounds at the lead Cultist as he fled through a back curtain from his autogun as it clicked empty, narrowly missing the cloaked heretic. The silence finally fell as he reloaded, the empty magazine hitting the ground with an empty, echoing in the sudden silence as it finally hit him that it was dead silent, and he glanced back seeing both Smiles and Sis in the doorway, turning back towards the curtain, talking with an old authoritative voice, clearly falling into his old ways of leading a charge instead of stringing along after others. "Welcome to the party ladies. Cultists are a certainty, and considering the silence and state of that ritual, daemons are here or on the way. The leader, at least one of them, is running, try and keep up."

About that point a Daemonette came twirling out from behind the curtain, making almost no sound as she came out of the corridor that was behind the curtain, and the same direction that the cultist leader had fled. Most Imperial Servants typically panicked when faced with daemons, for most institutes did not face the threat, active or not, of daemons on a daily basis. Armsman were one such institute within the Imperium of Man that faced such beings and were expected to succeed. Well, against mortal followers of Chaos and all who threatened the Imperial Navy, technically, but daemons fell into that group. And Stukov had faced his fair share of daemons in the past, and with a grim expression he ducked the clab like appendage on her leading left hand, parrying the thin bone blade extending from her right wrist with his bayonet and shoulder checking the daemonette sideways into one of the heavy machines, creating distance and barking out orders, autogun only lifted in time to catch the rebounding daemonette as she tried to gut the senior Armsman. "Scratch that, daemons are here. Keeping up is all the more important, since...BASTARD!"

That explicative was a by product of being grazed by the daemonette's claw, as he barely kept up a defensive pace against the daemon, the close fight giving no room for ranged support from the others. Considering the echoing, haunting laughs and increased volume of unintelligible, base whispers, the warp was leaking into this basement readily now. Several more daemonettes leaped out after Smiles and Sis, seeing them both as far graver threats than the lone, outclassed Armsman that was being backed out of sight behind a piece of heavy machinery. However, several moments after being pushed out of sight a keening howl of a daemon slain was heard and the rapidly fading body of the daemonette hurtled into sight, and Stukov moved past in a blur, brilliant sapphire energy burning in his eyes as he tore out of sight, leaving barely a word behind as he ran after the cultist, moving inhumanly fast and completely unaware of it. He was also unaware of the fact that daemons were actively being drawn to this weak point in reality now, and it was only a matter of time before the basement inadvertently became a permanent gate to the Warp, a daemon gate to pour pure evil into the world. "Stay alive and catch up, sever the connection and the Daemons will fade."

A few seconds after Aviza leapt down into the hole, Zhevon followed. A second thump was heard as he leapt down as well, taking the fastest route down. They decided that Aviza would take point after Stukov, who had run off and left the group behind. Adrianne was rushing Aviza along, with Zhevon following closely behind, occasionally taking a glance behind them. Once they reached the area, Stukov was in pitched battle against a Daemon.
Several more then appeared, approaching Adrianne and Aviza. Zhevon moved in to intercept them, but saw the body of a daemonette flying towards him. He ducked, nearly dodging it, not wanting to waste the movement, he slashed at the ankle of the daemonette he was going for, connecting and forcing it to fall over. He saw Stukov dashing towards the Cultist leader, with a glow to his eyes, and moving far faster than any unaugmented human could. "What the?" He asked nobody in particular, "Follow him, make sure he doesn't hurt himself." He said to Adrianne and Avize, "I'll hold the Daemons here." He forwards to the cluster of Daemonettes and kept them busy with a series of dodges and parries, feinting weakness. Once Aviza and Adrianne had left to follow Stukov and the Cultist Leader, he drew them into the ritual room. Zhevon, mid dodges, glanced around and took stock of the room and his opponents. Five Daemonettes, one with an injured leg, and several noticeable totems of some sort in the room. By now the walls between the materium and immaterium were undoubtedly weak in that particular room.

"Stukov!"

Adrianne shouted once more after the armsman as he ran off at an astonishing speed, even for a trained arsman! Yet before he disappeared behind the corner, Adrianne would notice the mysterious, blue glint in the armsman's eyes, far from being any of his natural features. It was in that moment Adrianne felt another psychic presence, unlike that of any of the enroaching daemons, and it emanated from none other than Stukov!

"That can't be right... !"

"Understood. Good luck, Inquisitor!" Adrianne acknowledged Zhevon's command, before the Psyker would drag Aviza with her as the two pursued Stukov!
They raced through the corridor with all haste, passing through numerous other rooms in their chase which looked rather similar to the first ritual chamber. It seemed like they were in some kind of larger, underground cult complex. The naked concrete floors were covered with luscious and colorful carpets, as were the concrete walls and pillars adorned with paintings and drapery. Luxurious furniture were frequently placed alongside the walls, and scrolls, texts and daemonic drawings could be seen painted into the very walls or on parchment hanging from the roof.

Yet as they entered the third chamber, Adrianne managed to get a glimpse of Stukov's back disappearing out of the room in a sprint! But between her and the exit stood two daemonettes. They had been watching Stukov disappear as well, but the moment Adrianne's metal boot hit the concrete floor of the chamber, they would immediately turn around and look back at her, both of them grinning wickedly as they studied the psyker. Without a word, they readied themselves and begun to leap towards her!

Wearing black silken scraps or loincloths, their bodies were smooth and curvacious, with the exception of a black exoskeleton right claw instead of arm on the closest one! They moved at an astonishing speed, combining both grace and mobility despite almost standing over seven feet tall! Black and white hair flowed from their heads in a wave as they moved, and their eyes shone with yellow or purple light as they centered on Adrianne and Aviza!

With the daemons blocking the way, Adrianne would stop; hold her staff horizontally in front of her before grabbing it on each end.

"Bad idea, sisters!" Adrianne muttered behind her skeletal helmet as the claw-armed daemonette came closer! She'd gently pull the staff apart with a click, revealing a metallic interior glinting with a pink light between the upper shaft and lower base of the staff.

Then, as the daemonette raised her claw to strike, Adrianne's right hand holding the upper shaft of the staff would move outwards in a lightning fast motion, drawing a long, curved power sword out of the base of the staff which seemingly had functioned as a scabbard for the weapon! Within a split second, the curved power sword, crackling with purple energy would have traveled past the daemonette's waist as it had been propelled by Adrianne's own power, effectively slicing the daemon in half from top to bottom in an instant!

The parts of the daemonette flew past Adrianne to land next to Aviza, consisting of a severed torso and legs.

Bringing her power sword up into a guard position, Adrianne wasted no time after having felled the first daemonette in the surprise attack before turning her attention towards the second one, which had paused its attack. The daemonette looked at her with a look of surprise on its pale face, its deep yellow eyes shifting from the decapitated parts of the other daemonette and back at the psyker, before a wicked smile formed on the daemonette's face!

This daemonette, unlike the first one, had no apparent weapon mutations or eldritch limbs. Her body had a very human appearance, as human as a daemon could really look. But in her hands she held a long twinbladed weapon, made out of a razor sharp, gleaming silver metal with chaotic runes inscribed alongside the blades!

Adrianne said nothing, she simply stared intently at the daemonette from behind her mask.

The daemonette stepped to the side, careful to avoid entering Aviza's line of fire as it used the Psyker herself to obstruct the sister's aim. Adrianne would take a step forward with her boot, holding her power sword at the ready with both hands; while the pale haired daemonette would take a step back, lowering her posture as she glided a pair of fingers across the lower blade of her weapon.

Then, without a second of hesitation, the two foes launched themselves at each other!

Adrianne tilted her power sword to the side, before bringing it down in a cutting motion towards her foe. The daemonette responded by meeting the strike with her twinblade, before immediately bringing the other blade of her weapon in an upwards cutting motion against Adrianne's left side! The psyker swiftly stepped back while pulling her body away from the blade as it passed mere inches over her mask! Readying her power sword again, she held it out to her side before attacking in a sweeping motion. The daemonette moved her twinblade to parry the blow, but the moment before their two weapons would make contact, Adrianne would suddenly vanish out of thin air right in front of her!

The daemonette's eyes widened at the strange occurance, before Adrianne would appear the next moment right behind her, the psyker already swinging her weapon!

The daemonette barely noticed her before the power sword cut across her lower back, leaving a black, singing wound across her back! The daemon would let out a scream of pain, immediately spinning around to strike at Adrianne with her twinblade. Adrianne would be there to meet the strike, parrying it with her sword, yet while the weapons were connected, the daemonette would spin around yet again; this time bringing her foot out in a wide kick! Unable to release her blade in time, Adrianne would be hit by the shin of the daemonette's foot at the side of her helmet, knocking the Psyker sideways and sending her rolling to the ground.

As Adrianne hit the ground, the daemonette would immediately follow, raising her twinblade in a stabbing motion!

But as she launched it down towards her fallen foe, Adrianne would disappear into thin air yet again; the bottom of the daemonic twinblade simply hitting the hard concrete on which the Psyker had lain a split second ago!

With yellow eyes rapidly scanning her surroundings and ears twitching, the Daemonette would suddenly throw herself to the side as a loud gunshot could be heard from behind her! A 44. Caliber bullet flew past the daemonette, grazing her right shoulder before exploding into one of the concrete pillars of the chamber, throwing dust and minor pebbles everywhere!

Standing ten feet behind the daemonette in a kneeling posture would be Adrianne, the psyker holding her power sword at her side while aiming towards her with Scylla, her handgun!

Without hesitation, Adrianne fired off another powerful shot with her handgun, but the daemonette would already have leapt to the side, jumping up against a wall before kicking off and launching herself towards the psyker. Letting go of her gun, which seemed to glide mystically back into its holster on its own, Adrianne grasped around the handle of her power sword with both hands while sidestepping! As the daemonette was almost upon her, she would swing her sword to the side, parrying the incoming twinblade of the daemonette as the daemon flew past her and landed gracefully on the ground in a crouching posture four feet away, its yellow eyes still fixed on Adrianne and the smile on its purple lips now bigger than ever before!

Standing on her feet, Adrianne would ready her power sword once more as she focused on the daemonette.

But approaching the chamber, she could hear footsteps. Appearing out of a draped doorway would be two more daemonettes! Barely affording them a quick glance, Adrianne would speak into her coms.

"Deal with the reinforcements, Aviza! I'll finish this one!" Adrianne spoke through her helmet, directing her message at Aviza. She knew the Sisters of Battle were formidable warriors, but so too were daemons formidable foes as well! Hopefully she would be able to finish them off before they could be overrun!

“You have a good point, I will take lead but you need to stop pushing me around, there is no need for that. This is not how we should be treating the situation, I can handle myself.” Aviza felt as if she was being used as a human shield or battering ram for any hostiles in the area. After being pushed down the lavishly decorated hallway they finely found Stukov. “I am not sure this is my type of party.” Said Avzia as she quickly moved up alongside the Armsman and helped cut down some of the cultists. Bright flashes of light illuminated the dimly lit room as bolter and autogun fire erupted from their weapons. There was a pause in gunfire as both of them reloaded, dropping the old expended clip onto the ground and replacing it with a fresh one. From amidst the chaos, daemonette’s appeared and immediately attacked the retinue with inhuman speed and ferocity. Using her left hand, Aviza switched from her bolter to her automatic incendiary round shotgun and waited for the right time to unload her weapon upon one of the hostiles. Out the corner of her left eye, she saw one of the daemonette’s pounce at her and immediately thrash about when she was in range to attack the sister of battle. The claws scrapped the outside of Aviza’s armor leaving marks that would have to be looked over later. Shoving the shotgun into the daemonette’s chest, the sister of battle opened fire with loud cracks that echoed the area. Its body burst into white flames while it squealed in agony, attempting to retreat but only disintegrating as it burned to death in a brilliant show of pyrotechnics.

“How many hostiles do we currently have?” asked Aviza in a calm voice as she watched Adrianne fight with one of the other daemonette’s in close combat. “I counted five at start but we have two more coming up behind us now.” Taking a knee, Aviza pushed a small switch downward on the side of her bolter before holding down the trigger and watching the incendiary rounds fly down the hallway like firey rain, setting everything and everyone on the other side of the weapon ablaze with a white and blue flame that burned with an intense heat. Round after round flew out of the weapon as the barrel started to glow red hot from the excessive use of her incendiary rounds. Once it stopped firing, smoke poured from the end of the weapon, the end of the hallway was still ablaze but nothing moved or showed signs of there being any life. “Reinforcements have been dealt with for the moment, hold for a moment.” Pulling a grenade from her belt, she pulled the pin and counted down to herself before tossing it inside of the room to her left and closing the doors, holding them shut with both of her hands. After a couple of seconds she could hear scratching at the door then an incredibly loud explosion that shook the ground around them. A couple more seconds would pass before Aviza would open the doors to the room to reveal a grotesque mess of burning debris from both cultists and daemons. “The room already had an open flame, all I had to do was toss in a gas grenade and shut the doors.” For the first time in a long time, Aviza smiled from under her helmet, she also did enjoy a nice barbecue.

Stukov was not consciously aware of how the others were progressing, blitzing through the corridors and reaching a foyer guarded by quite a few mutated Cultists and daemonettes. Skidding to a halt, he snapped his rifle up as the world continued to move in slow motion, almost painfully slow as he placed the sights of his autogun on the first cultist's head, willing the weapon to cycle faster in hopes that it would. Whether it did work or not, it seemed to catch up with him, cycling at his pace as the rounds flew through the air, crackling with sapphire, eldritch energy from being accelerated beyond their natural speed. The daemonettes were moving at normal speed but the cultists were scythed down in short order, and an empty clip hit the deckplates as the first daemonette reached him, and he ducked its whipped appendage, slamming the bayonet into its stomach and tearing upwards, roaring in defiance of what was in his mind a lost battle, since he had not registered it wasn't just adrenaline kicking in, coupled with a flat denial of becoming something he could not fathom. The roar scattered the remaining few daemonettes, a raw psychic scream injuring the Armsman's vocal cords and leaving him barely able to whisper, unaware of the twin lines of blood running down his face from his eyes as the blue flames finally extinguished.

Stukov was hurting, overextended and injured from both previous experiences and what transpired in the basement, but there was work to be done. A singular purpose, a clarity of mind, in that regard, the cultist leader was to be slain, and this den of evil sealed and cleared. And he would see it done, regardless of whether the rest of the retinue and the Inquisitor would catch up or not. He was certain heretical sorcery bound his throat, limiting his speech, but he did not need to speak to do his job. Moving up to the door, he coughed hard, wheezing at the end of the coughing fit, wiping the blood off on his coat before putting a boot to the door and throwing a concussion grenade in, waiting for the detonation and shockwave before moving in, coat billowing as he brought the rifle up, sweeping the room and aiming it towards the cultist leader. He paused, waiting for that one last trick that Chaos ever so loved to pull out of their sleeves, scanning his surroundings to ensure that he wasn't missing something he could readily detect. He said nothing, or he couldn't be heard, but he would fire within a few moments if nothing prevented that from occurring.

The cultist leader had fled into the room in escape of the armsman's relentless onslaught, closing the door behind him and grabbing an autopistol from a wooden casket by one of the pillars before training it on the door as he awaited Stukov's entry.

Yet it would not be Stukov who would enter the room first, but a concussion grenade thrown in by the guardsman. The cultist leader barely had time to raise his eyebrows in a surprised expression before his entire world turned screaming white, and he stumbled backwards into the ground; ripping the exquisite fabric of his colorful robes in the process and losing his autopistol.

His sight was blurred, and a loud, flat tone filled his head; drowning out all surrounding noise and sound.

Fumbling around, he could see the faint shape of a man soon entering the room. Slowly but surely, his sight would become more clear, revealing the person to be Stukov, eyes scanning and with the barrel of his gun trailed on him.

"Wait! Wait!" The Cult Leader exclaimed, raising his hand as he staggered backwards while simultaneously trying to get back on his feet, causing him to step on the bottom of his robes and stumble back into the drapery lining the wall. His pupils widened as fear gripped the middle aged man's face, with sweat trickling down his blonde brows.

"T-this must be a mistake!" He stammered.
"You have no idea who you are dealing with! Stop this madness, and I can still save you!"

The man desperately tried to bargain as he pressed his back against the wall, as if he was trying to somehow pass through the solid concrete to escape the approaching Stukov.

His terrified eyes were fixed on Stukov, the cultist frozen in place by fear and making himself an easy target.

"No..."

Yet as Stukov raised his autogun to fire, and his finger lined the trigger; he was unable to squeeze it. Though in his mind he wanted the man dead, it was almost as if the muscles of his body were now revolting against him, preventing him from firing his weapon. If he tried to move, he suddenly found himself frozen in place, as if some invisible strings were holding him!

The cultist leader, who had formerly been staring Stukov, suddenly looked past Stukov at something behind him, something that made the previously terrified man suddenly smile with a wicked glee.

"Astrid!" He uttered, suddenly emerging from his spot to step forward.

A metallic clank could be heard behind Stukov as the metal bottom of a staff hit the floor. Behind Stukov was a woman clad in purple and gold robes. Her face was hidden behind a golden mask, flanked by streams of blond and gold hair running out from her heavy hood. In her right hand she held a solid silver spear, inscribed with various runes.

It was the same woman from M4R1-A's recording of the gallery!

"Saleein 'ithari lia" The woman suddenly uttered, raising her left hand and weaving it, causing a magical circle puffing with pink smoke to suddenly appear behind her.

*

Some chambers further away, Adrianne was locked in fierce battle with the twinblade wielding daemonette!

As the daemonette brought her weapon in a tall sweeping strike against Adrianne, the psyker would extend her palm towards the incoming weapon! Suddenly, the daemonette would be stopped mid-swing, as if some invisible force had just taken hold of her weapon and locked it in place! The daemonette tried to tear her weapon loose, but it wouldn't move an inch from where it was trapped in statis mid-air.

Yet while her weapon might be stuck, Adrianne's was still moving.

The daemonette's eyes widened as she saw Adrianne bring her curved power sword out in a low, sweeping strike towards the daemonette's waist! Yet before the blade could catch her, the daemonette would embark on a feat of agility as she jumped up from the ground, still holding onto her twinblade hanging horizontally in the air, dodging the incoming strike from Adrianne as the blade passed under her! Yet it didn't stop there. As the daemonette still hung to her twinblade, she allowed herself to flip around in the air, coming down on the other side of her twinblade as Adrianne passed under her, slamming the bottom of her feet into the psyker's shoulderplates and sending Adrianne slamming face-first into the concrete floor!

Stunning the psyker seemed to break whatever sorcery that was keeping her weapon locked in place, allowing the daemonette to once again swing it freely around.

"An admirable attempt, but it won't work on me." The daemonette remarked snarkily as she swung her twinblade around and prepared to launch it down against Adrianne, the daemonette standing on top of the psyker.

Yet as she had barely managed to raise her weapon, Adrianne would flip her sword around, and slam the bottom of its staff handle down into the ground! As the focusing crystal touched the concrete floor, it suddenly generated a tremendous shockwave that expanded out from the center of it, catching and knocking back everything around Adrianne, including the daemonette who was thrown back and slammed forcefully into a pillar with a heavy thud!

"Die!"

Adrianne screamed under her helmet, purple lights glowing through her pitch black visors as she threw herself back onto her feet, grasping her sword with both hands as she turned to face the daemonette now stunned against the pillar!

The daemonette coughed before looking up, seeing the incoming psyker who brought her weapon out in a broad sweep! Imbuing her strike with further kinetic energy, Adrianne would then unleash the strike against her foe lined up against the pillar; the blade moving as fast as a bullet!

Yet just before the blade would connect, the daemonette would suddenly disappear in a purple fire, leaving only ash and sot in her wake just as Adrianne's furious strike cut into the concrete pillar, cutting it in two in an instant!

The upper and lower portion of the concrete pillar would remain, attached to the floor and roof as they were, but there would be a narrow, open midriff between them smoking and glowing after the power sword had cut just through it.

Realizing that she could no longer see her opponent anymore, Adrianne spun her head around, looking in every direction for her elusive foe. Yet the closest thing she could find of the daemonette would be the black ash stains that decorated the side of the pillar. Staring at the spot, and the ruined pillar for a moment, Adrianne would finally step to the side, heading back towards Aviza.

“The room already had an open flame, all I had to do was toss in a gas grenade and shut the doors.”

Adrianne would pause, looking mainly at Aviza, but affording a quick glance towards the open door.

"I hope you made sure to check there weren't any captives or hostages among them before throwing it." Adrianne would comment, looking back at the sister of battle.
"We need to catch up with Stukov. You take point!"

...

" ... and I promise I won't push this time."

*

Back in the room with Stukov and the cultist leader, the circle summoned by Astrid would suddenly burst into flame as a pale haired daemonette suddenly staggered out of it. It was the same daemon that Adrianne had fought earlier, holding her twinblade lazily in her hand as the daemonette shook her head as the creature tried to regain her bearings.

The daemon's battered entrance would afford her a contemptuous look from the psyker named Astrid.

"Playtime's over, Saleen. We need to escort Maltheus out of here." Astrid would remark as she looked at the daemonette, who soon gazed back in return.

"Normally I hate your impromptu summons, mistress... " The daemonette referred to as 'Saleen' would reply, glaring back at Astrid before grinning wickedly.
"But this time the timing of your interference was excellent."

Behind her mask, Astrid raised an eyebrow as she looked at the daemonette.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Silence, we do not have time to waste!" The Cult Leader, apparently named Maltheus by Astrid, had suddenly regained an authoritative role. Surrounded by friendlies, the man was no longer quaking with fear. In fact, he looked at Stukov with a wicked, vindictive grin. Footsteps could soon be heard, as entering from one of the side entrances would be two heavily armed guards, clad in pitch black carapace armor, gas masks and wielding autoguns.

"Sir, are you alright?" One of the guards asked. The cultist leader merely looked at him, before turning to Stukov, still frozen in place.

"Guards, execute this man!" Maltheus spoke, his finger pointing at Stukov. The guards looked at Maltheus for a moment, before one of them raised his autogun, training it at the armsman.

"Don't be fools!" Suddenly sounded a familiar voice, as the daemonette named Saleen suddenly stepped forward towards Stukov, intentionally placing her larger body between the guards and Stukov.
"Why would you ever waste someone with such a precious gift?"

"Saleen!" Astrid snapped angrily behind her mask.

Maltheus glanced at her, before turning to Saleen. Raising a hand, he nodded at the daemonette.

"Is there a reason for this sudden sense of compassion, Saleein?" Maltheus asked, looking stoically at the daemon as she turned her back on him and stood in front of Stukov.

The daemonette towered over Stukov, the man barely at chest height with her, yet she stared down at him through her yellow eyes with a wicked, almost childish smile on her purple lips. Raising a hand up in front of her, she'd playfully brush Stukov's autogun aside as she looked at her.

"This one is no mere flesh toy. I can see untapped potential in him." Saleen spoke as she moved her hand up next to the armsman, gently placing it on top of Stukov's face and gently caressing his cheek.

"The warp flows through him, yet his mind clearly unused to the sensation. Like a castle with its doors left unbarred. I think... I think... " The smile on the daemonette's face grew only bigger. The way her unblinking eyes looked into Stukov's own was almost as if she was not looking at his eyes, but directly through at something lying underneath.
" ... that this one may have just recently awoken from his slumber."

Tilting her head a little to the side, the daemonette would stare down at Stukov.

"Don't be afraid. I won't hurt you. You have a name, don't you?" The daemonette looked at Stukov, her head inching closer to his.
"Tell me your name."

Stukov went to fire the autogun and put this madness to an end, and yet as much as his mind and soul wanted, his body rebelled and remained frozen, shuddering subtly as he fought to force the finger of his trigger hand down enough to discharge the weapon, but no matter how close he got it wasn't enough. A grimace spread on his face as he forced his head far enough to see, in his perephrial vision, the one behind him that was apparently causing this. Gold mask, the bitch from the servo skull recording. So the two events were linked after all, couldn't call him surprised in that regard. The cloud of smoke revealing a daemonette certainly didn't help matters at all as he strained against the invisible bindings on him, the unseen chains tormenting him and preventing him from acting against his target so close in front of him, the strain would be noticed by Astrid as abnormal, since it suggested a sheer determination to never give in or buckle. The perfect kind of man that Chaos loved to break, when they could, but he would not submit lightly regardless of whatever they attempted to do. He could feel the strain was not doing him any favors, but that wasn't going to stop him until his body physically could not operate any further. Straining still, he watched the cultist leader order his men to execute him, and before the Daemonette stepped in, those near him would hear his muttered defiance. "Bold talk for a traitor that will be changing his robes later."

Both obvious and subtle insinuations aside, when the Daemonette stepped in, Stukov only increased his straining against the unseen bindings. The warp spawned abomination loomed well over him, the damned creature's hand smearing the blood that had been running down one side of his face and interrupting the otherwise symmetrical lines of blood loss down his face. It defended the interference, claiming something that the Armsman refused to believe. He was no psyker, whatever damned lies the thing was spinning was none of his concern. A Daemon would always lie, just to get its way, and if that meant whatever liking it had taken was satiated, he had seen better men than himself break and crumble under their ministrations. He would not be going anywhere with this lot, and even as the daemon had pushed the autogun aside like chaff before a scythe, the tension and fight to raise the weapon at the cult leader was palpable, even obvious to those observing. The warp spawn asked for a name, moving ever closer, and he made a desperate ploy, tension loosening in a false surrender.

"My name...."

His left arm dropped back, following the way the unseen chains had been pulling, falling to his side as he was apparently pulled upright, autogun's sling tugging the thing at an awkward angle, bayonet pointed towards the ceiling as it slipped off his shoulder, barely not falling out of his grasp but no obvious threat.

"...is Senior Armsman Alexei Stukov and I will not..."

Within a split second his eyes went from their natural hues to the burning, sapphire blue that was fueled by sheer hatred and spite for the Warp spawned abomination and those that would consort willingly with such beings, and with the damn creature so close there was no avoiding his move, unaware of the unchecked powers surging forward, amplifying his actions and speed by magnitude, all a subconscious survival instinct to catch this Astrid off guard and as the autogun fell down, an echoing, keening howl backed fueled by the pain, suffering, and spite that welled up for the Warp and its agents, amplifying his latent powers. Coupled with the thin boundaries to the warp, the action could be comparable to a Banshee's Wail, with far more force and the closest to be affected would be the warp spawned freak and her handler, the renegade Psyker.

"SUBMIT"

It was not a finished phrase as the word blasted outwards with warp power and Stukov wrenched with all his might, breaking the bindings enough for his hand to blur towards the autogun as the two grenades next to his left hand fell to the deck, his last flashbang and concussion grenade, both missing their pins as he yanked the bayonet blade off the autogun that now fell in slow motion, arm whipping not at the Daemonette but past her, launching the blade hurtling towards the cult leader Maltheus in the desperate last hope to at least cripple the heretic bastard. He could feel his vocal cords, damaged as they were, be torn asunder by the foreign forces, completely crippling any means of even whispering and coughing out what little he had already, and he kicked off towards the far wall. If things went well, the concussive force would slam him into the wall with enough force to kill him so he could not be taken alive. Second best, it bought the others time to hone in on the sudden noise and violence breaking out. At worse, he could try to force them to kill him by not submitting, he still had his pistol yet as the autogun tumbled out of reach.

The concussive force would throw him into the far wall with considerable force, cracking the carapace plate he wore and forcing him to wretch up splatters of blood onto the ground as he slid to the ground in a sitting position, amplifying the previous impacts with even more blunt trauma. He was alive, vision unharmed due to the shades he wore, the ones he had picked up before making landfall from the Inquisitor's armory. Reaching into his coat, he dragged the Naval Pistol out of it's holster, struggling as he lifted it and aimed at anything that so much as twitched and would fire, whether it was in defiance of the Daemon or the Psyker, or making a few last spiteful strikes against the cultists and their leader Maltheus. He had made his last ploy, for whatever good it would be, and now it was in the Emperor's hands to either accept him, or deliver him from Evil.

“Did you have fun fighting that Daemonette Adrainne?” Aviza said sarcastically as she checked over the reaming grenades upon her belt. Starting out with four, the sister now had three remaining and would have to start using them sparingly. Glancing over at Adrainne, Aviza narrowed her eyes ever so slightly as she peered into the Psychers. "Of course I checked the room before throwing a grenade into it. Do you really think they would have a group of hostages kept here? Even if there were, It's called collateral damage, something people try to avoid but sometimes happens regardless."

From above her head she head something metallic click into place before the buildings sprinkler system turned on, raining water down upon them. "That was to be expected." thought Aviza to herself as the cloth parts of her armor became soaked. It was then that she realized that the cloth wearers of the group were going to be quite uncomfortable, “Sorry about the sprinklers Adrianne, but there was no other choice.”

In truth, Aviza found it quite amusing but kept that to herself. "Just a moment before we head out." asked Aviza while looking over her heavily modified bolter to ensure there was no major damage from the long spree of incendiary rounds she had fired. After the weapon and been thoroughly checked over and readjusted, Aviza quickly took the lead for the group.

"I would appreciate it if you would not push me around anymore, it may cause an accident or mistake to occur. I do not want to trip and open fire on Stukov or another friendly, or shoot something explosive." The lights in the hallway flickered on and off from all the chaos they had caused, the once lavishly decorated hallway now had permanent damage that could only be fixed by replacing those areas. "You cut that concrete pillar in half Adrainne, I haven’t seen that kind of power in a long time. Just glad that I was not on the other side of it.

"My power armor can help me do such things but I don't leave burning or molten debris in my wake, most of the time at least." The smile under Aviza's helmet quickly faded when she heard the excruciatingly high-pitched wail that echoed through the warehouse. "What in the name of the warp was that?" Raising her right hand, Aviza slid to a stop at a T-junction before raiding her right hand and motioning for everyone to stop.

Down the hallway to her right were three heavily armored and very well armed cultists wearing power armor. "I would turn your head away from those three." said Aviza into her com as she pulled a photon flash flare from her belt, this was a non-lethal device made for incapacitating. "I will toss the grenade at them, wait until it goes off then use your warp powers to finish them off, sound good?"

*

“Did you have fun fighting that Daemonette Adrainne?”

Behind her helmet, Adrianne raised a single eyebrow as she gave Aviza a soft glare. She had hoped the sister of battle hadn't noticed the elusive daemonette get away, but it seemed as if it had been a vain hope in the end.

"I had her... " Adrianne muttered grumpily, but to add further misery on her day, the sprinkler system of the basemenet suddenly activated and rained down on them, soaking them in an instant. The psyker said nothing, merely letting out a quiet groan!

"Just my day!"

At the mention of the pillar, Adrianne would glance behind her and back over at the pillar. As the water rained down from the sprinklers and down alongside the concrete, it immediately vaporized upon touching the glowing hot concrete around the midriff where Adrianne's power sword had passed.

"All you need is simply the right attitude... " Adrianne would mutter as the psyker extended an arm out, causing the lower half of her staff to suddenly levitate from where it laid on the ground and shoot back into her outstretched arm.
"The warp can provide me with far more power than the mechanics of your armor. Especially if I really want to see whoever's on the other end dead."

Yet the sudden wail would soon demand their attention, as they both turned in its direction.

"Stukov!"

Adrianne uttered, before both Aviza and Adrianne rushed down the narrow corridor towards the source of the mystical wail. But before they could get far, they would soon run into three heavily armored women clad in matt-black, purple trimmed power armor and adorned with fleshy pink loincloths and tabards, as well as long, ornamental purple ponytails appearing on the back of their helmets and running down their backs. Two of them were carrying bolter weapons, one of them having a modified melta gun mounted underneath, while the third carried a stylized galvanic rifle glistening with crackling power.

They three of them were rushing down the hallway towards the source of the wail as well, but the middle one would suddenly stop up, turning her helmet around as she gazed towards Aviza and Adrianne through her pink visors.

"Enemies, to the left, my sisters!"

She yelled out, and within the blink of an eye, the three power armored women had all stopped and turned around to face them. Adrianne barely managed to grab the back of Aviza's collar in time to drag her behind the nearest corner just before the three women opened fire, showering the entire corridor with heavy, explosive bolter rounds that ripped the concrete apart as easily as butter and sending dust and debris flying everywhere! One of them fired her galvanic rifle, sending off a crackling blast that flew past Adrianne and Aviza's cover to hit the wall behind them where the shot dispersed, scorching the wall as it sent tendrils of pure energy crackling in every direction!

"Just throw that grenade before they get the same idea!" Adrianne would shout back at Aviza, as the psyker's voice was almost drowned out by the hail of boltfire that had consumed the corridor!

*

Back in the chamber with Stukov, the piercing wail emitted by Stukov sent everyone in the room reeling back. Astrid stumbled to the ground, grabbing the side of her hood, whilst her daemonette, Saleen, was stunned, stepping back from Stukov!

"Aaargh!" Maltheus groaned, grabbing his ears as he almost fell to his knees, deafened by the wail. He was so disoriented that he didn't even realize what was going on until Stukov's bayonet dagger came flying right into his lower abdoman, causing the man to let out a shriek of pain as he stumbled back into the ground.

In the room, the two men least affected would be the guards, their shaded visors and protective earcups sparing them the worst of the effects!

One of them rushed over as he saw Maltheus fall, grabbing the man and pulling his left arm over his shoulder as he hoisted the man up.

"Sir, are you alright?!" The guard asked, and Maltheus yelled back.

"Aaargh! Get me out of here!"

As the first guard lifted the wounded Maltheus up and began to help him towards the side entrance, the second guard would step forward; raising his autogun and aiming it at Stukov sitting against the wall on the other side of the room!

*

Lining up the shot with her heavily modified bolter, Aviza let the crosshair of her scope rest directly where she knew the weakest part of the power armor was on one of the Euphorians. Wounding them then using the photon flash flare after they were wounded would increase its effectiveness by a large amount. “I have never seen this desighn on power armor before.” Said Aviza into her com only seconds before the three Euphorians turned their attention onto the group.

One of them who had to be the squad leader yelled for the squad to open fire upon Aviza and Adrianne. Thankfully before anyone could be hit by the hail of incoming fire, Adrainne pulled Aviza back from the corner of the wall and into cover just as a round flew past them and hit the wall behind them. The way the round hit the wall and dissipated leaving a large scorch mark upon it meant someone in the hostile squad was using a nonconventional energy weapon of immense power.

"Thanks..." said Aviza, she then went prone upon the ground and moved to the corner wall once more. Moving forward ever so slightly, Aviza pulled the pin on the side of the flare and tossed it as hard as she could against the angled wall in front of her. It bounced off the wall and flew towards the three before detonating in midair.

There was an incredibly loud bang as a blinding white flash of light filled the hallway. The light was so intense that it actually dulled the coloring on everything it touched including the armor of the three Euphorians who were now on the ground, grasping and their faces, trying to make sense of what had just happened. “For your information, that was the first time I have used one of these inside of a building.” Aviza slowly moved around the corner with her weapon drawn upon the three and motioned for the rest of the squad to follow her.

*

As Aviza threw her photon flare around the corner, the entire hallway would suddenly light up as if the emperor himself had entered it, rendering everything completely white for the blink of an eye before the lighting returned to normal.

“For your information, that was the first time I have used one of these inside of a building.”

"I can understand why." Adrianne would reply. Despite having been behind a wall and looking the other way through her shaded visors, she had still noticed the illumination in all its bright glory!

"I'll take care of them!"

"Keep.. the fire up!" One of the Euphorians coughed as she got up from her kneeling position, her sight still blurred from the photon flare. Raising her bolter towards the corner around which Adrianne and Aviza were hiding, she prepared to fire. But before she could press the trigger, she would see Adrianne leap out from behind her cover.

"Take her out!" The second euphorian yelled while she herself primed her galvanic rifle for a second shot.

The first euphorian then squeezed the trigger of her bolter, firing off a heavy bolter round down the narrow corridor and towards Adrianne. Yet before the bolter round could reach its intended target, Adrianne would vanish into thin air; the round passing through the area where she had stood just a moment before to hit the wall explode further down in the end of the corridor!

"Lost visual, target teleported!" The euphorian shouted out, her bolter still trained on the corner where Aviza was hiding.

"Preparing grenad,- arrkhh!" The third euphorian in the back of the squad yelled as she reached towards her belt to grab a black metal cylindrical glass container glowing with purple energy. Yet as soon as she had managed to grab it, she would let out a scream of pain as a the tip of a power sword just burned its way out through her chest, singing flesh and metal alike!

Behind her stood Adrianne, holding the power sword now lodged through the euphorian.

"Target six'o clock!" Shouted the second euphorian, as the immediately turned around to aim their weapons at Adrianne currently hiding behind their impaled sister. Raising her foot and placing her boot against the back of the impaled euphorian, Adrianne would kick her forward, pulling her power sword out of her and sending her flying into the second euphorian wielding the galvanic rifle!

The first euphorian, now with a clear line of sight, immediately fired off a bolter round at Adrianne. Yet the round would explode mid air, blocked by a mystical yellow energy field right before it could reach the psyker!

The euphorian did not hesitate to fire a second time, but yet again the refractor field shielding Adrianne would stop the bolter round mid air!

Before the euphorian could fire any more, Adrianne would already have brought her power sword in an upwards stride towards the euphorian, slicing her bolter gun in two and causing the front half to fall to the ground with a heavy crash. Striking at her again, Adrianne would this time bring her power sword down in a sideway strike against the euphorian before she could get away, the crackling power sword cutting easily down across her chest, burning away any metal, flesh or bone that may come in its way!

As the euphorian fell dead to the floor, Adrianne had already turned around to face her next target as the second euphorian pushed away her third sister lying on top of her, grabbing her galvanic rifle as she attempted to bring it to a firing position against the psyker. But before she could squeeze the trigger, Adrianne would slam her arm forward, generating an invisible shockwave that hit the euphorian square in the chest and sent her flying through the hallway, hitting the ground and sliding next to Aviza, rifle still in hand.

"Corridor clear." Adrianne would report, shouting back down the hallway to where Aviza was still in cover.

*

"Try to leave one for me next time, it's no fun if you get to kill all the targets." said Aviza as she stood over the still living and breathing Euphorian that was laying upon the floor next to her. "What about this one? she is unarmed and Incapable of fighting." Using the butt of her Bolter, Aviza brought it up into the and and then brought it back down upon the womans head with a "We will be seeing eachother again very soon." Once she had been knocked out cold, Aviza bent down on one knee and restrained her.

Speaking into her com, Aviza said "Zhevon, we have a prisoner here, when you are done playing paddy-cake with the daemonettes come and move her somewhere safe so we can interrogate her later, maybe an old safe house or something of the sort." After checking the bindings once more, Aviza stepped over the dead Euphorians and stood along side the Psycher. "My turn, we will breach the door and take down any hostiles we see, I have two more grenades left, one is a smoke grenade and the other would...blow up the whole warehouse so lets not use that one tonight."

Bending down on one knee, she placed an explosive upon the door then moved away from it, motioning for Adrainne to do the same. "Three...two...one..." The door would explode into extremely small flaming fragments that flew outward and past the two of them. Aviza had picked up the Galvanic Rifle and had it in her hands, the heavily modded bolter was swung around her shoulder via a strap for easy to reach and use accessibility. The sister of battle motioned with her right hand for Adrainne to enter the room at the at the exact same time she did. Raising the weapon, she prepared herself for whatever hostiles were in the room.

*

Stukov would see a flash in the corner of his vision as one of the heavy metal doors to the room would be blown off its hinges in a terrifying explosion, tumbling away from the doorway and falling onto the floor with a heavy crash! Emerging from the dust gathering over the fallen door would be Adrianne and Aviza, both charging into the room!

The guard who had his weapon trained on Stukov would spin around at the sound of the explosion, but as Stukov fired his naval pistol, the shot would glance off the pitch black carapace armor of the guard! Noticing that he was being shot at, the guard spun back around, raising his weapon to finish the armsman off!

"Stukov!" Adrianne called out, the psyker raising her hand to summon a kinetic push to shove the guard aiming at Stukov away.

But before she could summon her powers, a loud crackle could be heard as a series of white, blue electric tendrils shot through the room and hit Adrianne, sending the psyker flying to the side and crashing into a wall, her armor clanking against the concrete before she slumped down onto the ground!

The source of the electrical attack would be Astrid, the psyker now back at her feet and extending her left hand towards Adrianne.

"Thought it would be that easy, daisy?" She'd ask behind her mask, grabbing her spear with both hands.

*

The Galvanic Rifle was already charged and aimed at the heavily armored guard, a bright blue light that emitted from the weapons main chamber gave off red bolts of electricity every couple of seconds. The weapon discharged with a bright flash of blue light, its energy round hitting the guard square in the chest. Once it made contact on the guard, he immediately started to shake as if he was being electrocuted before exploding into a mess of glowing grotesque debris that soared across the room. Glancing to her left, Aviza quickly placed the Galvanic rifle onto the back of her armor and grabbed onto her heavily modified bolter, making easy work of the other guard as the explosive rounds tore through him and detonated.

*

As the upper half of the guard's torso was blown to smitherines by the explosve bolter round, Maltheus, covered in the man's blood, would fall to the ground, letting out a painful moan as the bayonet dagger twisted in his wound.

But before Aviza could fire off another round, she could see a shadow approaching in the corner of her vision. Before she could react, Saleen's foot suddenly came flying right into the side of her helmet, knocking the sister of battle aside as the daemon had leaped at her from the shadows with a flying kick.

"Why not make this a little more personal?" The daemonette would grin down at Aviza as she gracefully landed next to her, holding around her twinblade.

Before Aviza could get back onto her feet, Saleen would spin around with her twinblade, sending the lower blade right into Aviza's helmet with great force! A deep cut appeared as the helmet got dented inwards by the daemonic blade, her visors cracking as she was thrown back!

Following after the sister of battle as she slid across the floor, the daemonette would walk at a brisk pace, swinging her twinblade around her as she smiled down on Aviza.

"Get on your feet, hun. Don't make this too easy!"

Meanwhile, in the other side of the doorway, Adrianne would be sitting back up, finally noticing Astrid who stood in the center of the room, palm raised towards her.

Gritting her teeth and tightening her grip around her powerblade, the psyker would get back up on her feet. Holding her blade outwards to the side, she'd jump over the rubble and towards the elevated center platform of the room.

The moment the psyker stepped down onto the platform however, she'd suddenly vanish right in front of the masked Astrid!

Astrid merely looked at the spot Adrianne had been, raising her spear up from the ground before suddenly spinning around, parrying Adrianne's blow just as the psyker reappeared behind her in an instant! As soon as she had blocked the blow, Astrid shifted her spear around, striking with the lower end behind Adrianne's knee and sweeping her feet out from under her!

Adrianne lost her balance, but before she could fall to the ground, Astrid had already swung her spear around in an impressive display of speed and precision, hitting Adrianne in the back of her chestplate with a powerful blow and sending her flying off the platform and landing on the floor with a heavy crash and a painful groan!

"Owwwh!"

*

"When I am through with you, the whole warp will bare witness to what happens to those who are impure.” Rolling to the right, Aviza used her power armor to help her back up onto her feet in one swift motion. Blood ran down from part of her face as she grabbed onto her custom made chainsword. After a taunting motion, she brought the weapon up and readied herself for a tough fight.

Saleen charged with inhuman speed at Aviza who was preparing to use Saleens speed against her. Once she was within range, Aviza used her last grenade and tossed it onto the ground in front of her before pushing herself to the side with all of her might so that the effect of the grenade upon her would be minimal. The grenade exploded and released a stasis field, catching Saleen right where Aviza wanted her to be. This gave Aviza a small amount of time to have an advantage over Saleen.

Quickly taking off her helmet, she tossed it to the side of the room then activated the electrical current within her specially modified chainsword. Small electrical bolts shot from the chainsword as the stasis field died out, dropping Saleen to the ground with a thud. With a swift movement, Aviza brought her chainsword down upon Sleena who managed to roll partway out of the attack, only the end of the weapon hitting her but causing the electrical current to travel through her body and cause excruciating pain that would cripple anyone else.

Saleen quickly struck back by kicking Aviza in the right knee with force, causing Aviza to stumble backwards. Lunging once more, Saleen knocked Aviza onto her back and was now ontop of the sister of battle. Bringing her weapon up above her head and then down with great force, Aviza used her helmet to stop the blade that was now more than half way through her helmet. Sparks shot out from the helmet as the daemonesses sword cut through more and more of the helmet with every second.

Out of options, Aviza used her free hand and punched Saleen in the face with all of her might that still remained in her body that grew weak from her injuries. Saleen pulled back in pain while grabbing onto her face before Aviza shoved the barrel of the Galvanic rifle against her chest. With incredible speed, Saleena knocked the rifle out of Avizas hand. It flew across the room and landed on the floor before sliding over to Stukov, only a couple feet away from him.

Saleen hit the sister of battle with her left fist so hard that it pushed Aviza back once more. In the same situation as before Saleen grinned from ear to ear as she brought the blade up above her head and readied to bring it down upon the sister of battles head. “I’ll be sure to make this as painful and slow as I can, left or right eye?" Aviza used both of her hands to stop the blade as it was thrusted downward towards her. With the sound of scraping metal, the blade slowly made its way past the sister of battles hands, inching closer and closer to her face.

Stukov glared callously at the black armored goon raising an autogun at him, intending to finish off the battered and wounded Armsman. To his credit, he had his sidearm trained on the man in return, even though it would take a good, well placed shot to punch through the abnormally thick carapace the goons appeared to be wearing. At least he gave Maltheus a damn good injury to worry about, might slow them down long enough for the rest of the retinue to catch up and put him out of his misery. As soon as the door blew off its hinges inwards, however, a battered, knowing grin was on the armsman's face. He knew what that was as Smiles and Sis stormed in, Sis holding some Cogboy rifle while Smiles was all her usual grand psyker power house. Some might have even called it a shit eating grin, because every single heretic in this room was about to get right proper destroyed. The one turning his autogun towards the two entering the room forced the downed Armsman to act, firing off several rounds that glanced off the black Carapace they were wearing, which promptly got his attention again before getting torn to shreds by bolter fire.

The cogboy rifle seemed to be frying the other thug before the man detonated, sending bits of carapace and blood all over the place. Well, shit, he needed one of those rifles, Stukov couldn't help but think as he started forcing himself into motion. Still fighting to be done, Astrid and her pet daemon, as well as dealing with Maltheus. Spotting the daemon before Sis did, he tried to get out a warning to her but little more than a gargled choking noise came out, as well as forcing him to spit blood onto the deck. Great, he couldn't speak, that was going to make things difficult. But the daemonette was besting the Sororitas sister, sending the cogboy rifle clattering right to his feet as it began sparking and glowing like it had right before Sis fired it before. "Not how I wanted to get one, but it will suffice." Stukov thought as he grabbed the thing, hauling it up to his shoulder and taking a dead aim on the Daemon. No fancy one liners, no bold quips, just a quiet trigger squeeze and the harsh noise of the weapon discharging, sending a round hurtling dead center of the daemonette. "How about no eye, you daemonic, warp spawned abomination..."

The rifle was discharged and that left Astrid, and Maltheus. The hostile psyker had gone and engaged Smiles and was giving her a rough time, and giving his newfound weapon a quick look over, he cycled the weapon's bolt and watched it charge back up. It wasn't a fast firing weapon, then, and he drew his sidearm, taking careful aim at the hostile psyker as she stood facing Smiles and opened fire, emptying the magazine her direction. Other than the mask, she hadn't appeared to be wearing heavy armor and the rounds he kept loaded in his Naval Pistol were devastating on flesh and light armor. Even then, it was all an effort to get the attention of the hostile psyker off Smiles as he stood up fully, rifle in one hand and the Naval pistol in the other, empty magazine dropping as he slung the rifle, reloading the sidearm while the cogboy rifle recharged. He was keeping half an eye out for Maltheus trying to run, because if he did, he would be gunned down. That man had his bayonet, and he would be reclaiming it before this was said and done.

With Saleen's attention focused solely on the Sister of Battle, she did not notice the burst of crackling energy fired from the galvanic rifle that Stukov had raised at her!

The energy charge hit the demon in her lower back, causing her eyes to suddenly white open before the whole daemonette burst into purple flames, a frantic "NO!" sceam emitted from her! Soon there was nothing left where Saleen had once stood other than a black, singed spot on the ground and the distinct smell of sulfur in the air!
Yet the electric current would travel through the daemonic twinblade, and right into Aviza's hands, stunning the sister of battle as a surge of electricity washed through her!

Finally, without the daemon holding it, Saleen's daemonic twinblade would fall out of the air, clanking against the concrete ground next to Aviza, the only remnant of the daemonette.

In the meantime, on the other end of the room, Astrid was extending her spear towards Adrianne who laid flat on the ground at the bottom of the platform. Blue lightning would extend from the psyker's wrist and into the silver spear, making it seem like a conduit of some sort as power gathered around the blade at the tip.

"Pathetic... " Astrid would mutter, but before she could discharge the electric blast against her fallen opponent, gunshots would soon be heard as Stukov fired at her with his naval pistol! The first bullet hit Astrid in the side, passing easily through her heavy silk robes and sending blood splattering out on the other side of her abdomen.

With a painful shriek, Astrid spun around, facing Stukov as she clutched her wound with her left hand!

But as the next bullets came flying at her, the result would not be quite the same as the first one. The second bullet hit Astrid in the chest, burrowing into her robes before disappearing without apparently doing anything to psyker, causing no blood, wounds or pain. As was the case with the next two, all of whom disappeared into Astrid's robes but didn't seem to affect the woman one bit. The final bullet would find its way towards the psyker's head, hitting the upper left portion of her forehead.

Yet, rather than blowing her brains out, the portion of her skin that the bullet was heading for would suddenly hardened, gaining a gray, almost metallic hue in expectation of the impact!

When the bullet hit the area, it merely plinked off the psyker's skull, leaving not even a scratch as the psyker's skin returned to its normal bright pink color. Behind her golden mask, Astrid's eyes were now burning and crackling with blue energy, similar to what Stukov himself had experienced earlier.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!"

But before Astrid could ever return the favor to Stukov, Adrianne's war cry could be heard out. Looking around, the psyker was nowhere to be seen... until one looked up, and saw Adrianne appearing from high under the roof and launching herself down towards Astrid!

Astrid immediately brought her spear up to block the incoming power sword as Adrianne fell down upon her. The moment the two weapons met, a deafening boom would be heard within the room, as Adrianne had apparently enhanced her already vicious attack with quite a lot of extra kinetic energy! The ground beneath Astrid's feet would crack as the sheer power of the blow traveled through her body and into the ground from a strike that would have broken the body of any normal human that wasn't enhanced by biomancy!

The cultist would soon counterattack, swinging the bottom of her spear upwards towards Adrianne's head. But she would miss as Adrianne ducked down, and with a fierce cry swung her sword around in a quick strike, cutting across Astrid's upper abdomen!

Astrid's eyes shot up, her iron flesh offering little protection against the power weapon. Yet Adrianne would spin around after her strike, to bring her weapon around in a piercing strike as she plunged it through Astrid's chest, penetrating her body as the purple glowing power sword burnt its way through her body and out on the other side.

"No, this... can't be happening, gaaaah!" Maltheus called out before emitting a pained groan, as he saw Adrianne's blade go through Astrid's torso.

Astrid would look stunned for a moment, gazing down at the blade in confusion as her energy quickly left her body. She would drop her spear, letting it fall to the ground as she stepped back, Adrianne pulling her sword out from her body and holding it in an upright position; ready to strike again.

"No, no-noonoo... " Maltheus rambled, reaching for his pouch despite the pains it gave him.
"I will help you, I... "

Reaching into his pouch, Maltheus brought out a small, wooden black box inscribed with various chaotic runes and golden patterns. Holding it up towards where the two psykers stood, he moved his other hand to open the lid.

"Slaanesh, I offer you this mortal coil; give me your mightiest servant!"

Maltheus called out, opening the lid on the box which put the entire room awash with a bright, purple light emanating from its contents!

Astrid, now on her knees, would notice the haunting light and turn around to see Maltheus with the open box. The psyker would immediately react, raising a hand and shouting at the man.

"Maltheus you fool! What have you, AAAAHH!"

Adrianne, who had been preparing to strike the blow that would cut off Astrid's head, soon jumped aside and off the platform when she noticed the wave of pure warp energies that suddenly surged out from the bottom of the box, and washed over Astrid! As the wild powers crackled around Astrid, the woman would let out a cry, her body soon suspended above the ground by the chaotic powers unleashed upon her!

The sound of bones snapping and tissue tearing could be heard in concert with the psyker's own tortured screams as a gruesome transformation would take place over the platform, Astrid's body growing and convulsing, her limbs pulling themselves into unnatural positions as the entire woman was changed into something... else!

It did not take long for the transformation to finish, and when it did; a wet, sickening thud could be heard as the creature standing in the place of Astrid landed on its feet.

Astrid had been turned into a grotesque abomination of the warp, towering more than 10ft into the air, with thin, stretched limbs giving it its unnatural height. Muscle tissue had burst through it skin in many places, leaving the creature constantly bleeding as blood gushed down across its eldritch body and down onto the ground, some of it even squirting across the room. Its hands had become prolonged, with long, sharp and thin claws growing out of its bloodied fingertips like daggers! A cloak made of living, twisting tentacles grew out from the back of the creatures misshapen head and back, to hang behind her and occasionally trash about with a sickening squelch! What remained of Astrid's robe was little more than scraps tattered around the creature's body. The creatures hideous face, once human, was now twisted and turned into a hideous stoic image, with two big, bulging yellow eyes growing out of its sockets, and where her mouth had once been it was nothing but a solid sheath of bloodied skin.

Standing still for a moment, the creature observed the room around it with its bulging, twitching eyes, before soon noticing the other occupants in it.

The field around the abomination's body crackled with red tendrils of pure power. Its sheer presence could be felt in the head of all the occupants of the room, almost as if someone was scratching against the periphery of their skulls with an ice cold rage, trying to pierce through to their very brains! It was a sickening distraction, and it only seemed to grow stronger whenever the creature looked at them!

Zhevon stepped over the dead body of a Daemonette, examining the room. Sometimes there were totems of some sort, when there weren't active rogue Psykers trying to incite a portal, to ensure that a rift would open. He wouldn't want to leave without making sure. After a second, a rumbling crack echoed throughout the room, and a rift appeared in realspace. Zhevon cursed and a massive figure walked through it, his hands replaced with a lightning claw and power fist. A Chaos Marine, painted in flamboyant purples, pinks and the color of flesh. The stench of flayed flesh and sex secreted from the portal and the Chaos Marine.
"You!" The Chaos Marine growled,
"Me?" Zhevon replied, surprised that the Chaos Marine recognized him,
"You burned my slaves!"
"I uh, am terribly sorry abou-" Zhevon didn't quite remember him, or his slaves. The Chaos Marine charged none the less, swinging with his power claw. Zhevon rolled to the right, avoiding the claw. The Chaos Marine and his claw impacted with the column that was behind him, the bits of stone fell, revealing a strange dark object embedded within it. That was the totem that was opening the portal. Zhevon darted back in as the Chaos Marine backed up, putting himself in between the column and the Marine. The large opponent swung again, Zhevon very nearly dodging it, making his attack hit the column again. With more of the totem revealing, Zhevon now decided to go on the offensive. He swung his sword right, quickly bringing it around full circle, slashing the totem as it traveled. With enough velocity from the swing, he aimed for the Marines chest. Who moved his massive power claw to parry, only for Zhevon to drop his entire body into a crouch, then slashing at the Marines exposed shins. The power sword cut through the armor with some difficulty, the sheer thickness of the marines armor protecting him.

A voice crackled through his comms, "Zhevon, we have a prisoner here, when you are done playing paddy-cake with the daemonettes come and move her somewhere safe so we can interrogate her later, maybe an old safe house or something of the sort.", Sister Aviza informed him.
"Ah yes." He grunted, leaning back to avoid a massive fist, as large as his torso. It crackled with chaos energies, and he felt its power field lick his chestplate. "Paddycake."

The Chaos Marine roared as Zhevon had ruined his perfect armor. While he was inhumanly fast, Zhevon was just as fast. Waiting for an opening, Zhevon dodged the Chaos Marines attacks as the portal behind him fizzled out of reality. Since the totem keeping it open was destroyed. Zhevon saw an opening and slashed again ducking under a swing, slicing at the underside of the upper arm with the tip of his sword, then bringing it around for another slice at his side. With his position now behind the Chaos Marine, Zhevon stabbed at the exposed area behind the left knee to stun the Marine, swinging it through the knee to slash at the bit behind the right knee. With the Chaos Marine on his knees, a final attack was next. Zhevon turned off the energy field around his power sword and gripped the blade with both hands. He brought it over his head like a warhammer, dropping the edge of the crossguard on the top of the Chaos Marines helmet. The crossguard pierced the helmet. Then his head exploded, as if a small thunder hammer had impacted with it. Zhevon then placed his sword in its scabbard, satisfied that his techniques were still sufficient against Chaos Marines. Then he left the room, following the path towards the rest of his team.

Zhevon entered the room when he his minds fortress was assaulted by a new entity, this was nothing new. What was new was the putrid smell. Then he noticed the ten foot tall abomination standing in the room.
"Eugh, it smells worse here than it did over there!" He spoke particularly loudly, "Are we sure we are fighting the forces of Slannesh? I could swear that the animal in front of us is a beast of Nurgle!" He practically yelled hoping to distract it with his taunts, while checking to see if his team was still alive, which they were. He tried not to notice the red warp tendrils and what they could do.