TAG = @Rithy We have finished our collaboration post, thanks for waiting and also sorry for how long it took us.

"I understand this is most likely an awkward situation for you already but it is bound to get worse as the night goes on." Aviza gaze traveled down towards the ground where the two were standing. "If I were you, I would loose the high heels or you are going to end up on the floor face first." The thought was amusing to Aviza but would draw unwanted attention to them. The fact that Adrainne had never danced was not much of a surprise, and the fact that Aviza had most likely had the same effect on the rest of the group. "I doubt you ever expected a Sister of Battle to offer you to a dance, even more so in a hostile setting." As the two of them walked over to the dance floor, Aviza noticed there were more peolpe upon it than had originally appeared.

"From the looks of it, most of the cult showed up for this event, I much rather have just bomed the building and saved all of us the trouble, but I am not the one giving the orders here, at least for tonight." The thought of being around so many hostiles with almost nothing to defend herself with caused a feeling of discomfort, even with Adrainne standing next to her. Now turning to face the Psycher, a sly smirk crossed her face. "The dance is easy, the one I am going to teach you at least, I rather avoid anything that actually goes along with the song, you could say it is quite intimate." The Sister of battle looked down at her own feet and positioned them correctly upon the floor, "Just follow my lead, it's easy to follow, if you become lost, let me know and I can help lead you." (Andromedai)

"Awkward? Don't be silly. A dance is a perfectly normal.... thing!" Adrianne mentioned as she followed Aviza, only pausing at the end of her sentence to think.
"I don't actually have anything against the sisterhood itself - only the bigotry of certain members. You on the other hand... you're okay!"

Adrianne would respond, giving Aviza a playful smile as she patted the woman on her cheek.

"Unlike your boss, you do lack a case of 'stick up the butt'. I like that about you being so unorthodox! And NO WAY!"

The psyker merely chuckled as she turned away from Aviza to throw a glance down at her shoes, and then back up again at the sister.

"They are part of the outfit, you can't just 'lose them'! I could hardly be going around barefooted now, could I?"

When Aviza mentioned for her to follow the woman's lead for the dance, Adrianne nodded enthusiastically, staying close to Aviza, with only a moment of doubt flashing over her face as she tried to mimic the sister's step.

"Don't worry, I won't fall. My powers won't allow it!" She said, but more to reassure herself rather than Aviza!

[TAG]

"I forgot about the fact that you can levitate, but I am unsure if it can help you with dancing, I could be incredibly wrong though, which wouldn’t surprise me, I am not one to spend time hanging out with Psychers, no offense of course." Aviza glanced down at the floor once more and watched Adrainne with her footing, saying something along the lines of "Left foot needs to move back a bit more, just follow me, alright?" and the such when a mistake was made. For the most part, Adrainne was learning very quickly. The two would move with the rythm of the music, and the world around them seemed to vanish, overtaken by the music and ambiance of the party. "So I have to admit Adrainne, that Stukov greatly over stepped his grounds with Andromedai. He needs to watch what he says around her, it would be a shame if he ended up missing in the middle of the night of something of that nature. Andromedai wont take any disrespect and if he slips up again, well...." Aviza paused and spun lightly inplace before returning to Adrianne.

"Let's just say that his implants could be taken back, to start." Aviza paused once more but stopped Adrainne as the song slowed down, the beat almost coming to a hault. "I need to speak to him and I may have to be slightly agressive, he needs to know he is playing with all types of fire that will not only effect him but all of us as well. Do not think less of me Adrainne, I am actually quite fond of you,and rahter not end up on your bad side." The music came to a hault then stopped as a couple dancers left the floor to make room for more. "Feeling up for another or should we start this show?" asked Aviza, looking around the room. It felt as if something important was about to happen from how a couple people had left the dance floor and were now in the main entry way of the house looking up the stairs as if someone or something was about to appear. (Andromedai)

"That's Stukov in a nutshell - no fear for danger that one." Adrianne chuckled, adding a small smile as she thought back to Stukov.
"For all we know, he could have a positive effect on the canoness. Who knows, maybe she might learn some patience or anger management!"

Adrianne continued with the talk as they danced, yet most of the things she said came as a result of a mental autopilot as she was deeply focused on trying to stand up straight - let alone trying to dance!

And those heels weren't doing much to help!

It was with a subtle aid that she secretly used some simple tricks with regards to her telekinetic powers to keep her on track, preventing her from tumbling over or support her ankes over the heels.

By the time the music stopped, Adrianne looked at Aviza, then around at the room.

"Well, I personally wouldn't mind a second one, I think I was learning, but... do we even have time for one?"

Adrianne asked, noticing how the attention of the people in the room seemed to be moving towards a certain point of interest.

The night hadn't been anywhere near as awkward for her as what Stukov or Aviza might have feared, but the idea of being the only ones watching with no music and everybody trying to listen to some coming speech or something, that... that would be awkward!

[TAG]

"So you do not mind if I I get a little rough with Stukov? he needs to be tought a lesson, as I said before. It's going to happen with or without your permisison but I rahter not upset you, so an awsner would be appretiated." Aviza had her arms wrapped around the Psycher unknowingly until someone could be heard walking down the stairs from the second floor, followed by a loud applause. "I think we are about to meet our hosts." said Aviza in a soft to to Adrianne, "speaking of which, where is Stukov and Zhevon? we need to find them." Aviza grabbed onto Adrainne and started to walk across the dance floor before Vastok and Zara appeared around the corner, their faces with what seemed a permanent smile. "Goodevening two both of you, my wife and I hope that you and your friend here are enjoying the celebration?" asked Vastok in a heavy accented voice.

His eyes glowed a dark purple while his wifes glowed a vibrant red. With a polite bow, Aviza introduced herself and her companion to the leaders of the cult before trying to excuse herself to join the rest of her friends who she said were near by. "My apologies Sir and madam but I must take my leave now, my fellow friends are nearby and I would like to rejoin them if that would be arlight?" Zara chuckled to herself, it was hard to see at first but at the fron of her head hidden by black strands of hair were two sharp horns, that represented where she really came from. The two cultist leaders standing in front of Adrainne and Aviza seemed to be formed for the purpose of perfection in each of their sexes. Vastok was a tall, well built, well polished man who had a look of ruggedness about it all the same time. He stood at 6 feet fsix inches wearing a black and red peatty coat of great design, crafted by very fine materials.

His black hair was cut back and smoothed out to give him a propper look over all else. "Dinner is not ready yet, so I have a request for you, if you would be so kind to amuse your host." There was a pause in all the world around her as Aviza waited for Vastok to ask her the question. "Would you do me the honor of this dance?" he asked. The song from before once more was being played, but Aviza knew this would not be like the slow dance Adrainne and herself had shared, this would be more of a chlange, and the way she reacted would be very important. "I would be honored to, my lord." Vastok took Avizas hand and led her to the dance floor and stood their with her, looking into her eyes, or even into her soul. "I have heard a lot about your work Miss Morgenstern, I have to say I am impressed."

Aviza nodded her head in thanks, "You are to kind my lord, I have heard bits of informaiton about you and your past and current acts also impress me, I have to admit if someone said I wold be here, the lucky girl to dance with you, I would have called them a liar." Vastok laughed softly, "Well you are quite lucky that my wife allowed me, she is extremely picky and the last thing you would want to do is upset her. I fear she would turn the mansion inside of then set it on fire with a snap of her fingers. I do not belive you have heard of Zara, she is very important to me, not like the normal fodder you find these days with the warp." Aviza lsitened closely,"I don't want to spoil anything for you and the rest of the guests but she is quite powerful in the pyromancy and telekinesis arts. Ah, I am sorry, I must be boring you with this talk Solares." Shakeing her head back and forth a couple times, Aviza disagreed, "No not at all, I enjoy hearing these things, it sounds like you two are the best match, made for both this universe and the warp."

Vastok nodded his head, "That is very kind of you to say Solares." the music stopped and the two came to a hault gracefully upon the dance floor, Aviza had not even noticed but they had danced very well together and the occupants were now applauding them both. "I have enjoy our time together Miss Morgenstern, if you would like, we should speak to
eachother a little bit later after dinner, I have something to show you." Aviza smiled and nodded her head before thanking Vastok, the smell of food coming from the dinning room was easy to pick up, and the dinner bell rang following only a couple of seconds after the two departed. Walking to Adrainne, Aviza leaned up to her and whsipered, "remind me to take a scolding hot shower when we get back to the safe house, I feel violated." (Andromedai)

Goodevening two both of you, my wife and I hope that you and your friend here are enjoying the celebration?"

"Oh, absolutely, it's wonderful here!" Adrianne would reply with enthusiasm as Vastok and Zara would suddenly approach and greet them.

Zara was quite the opposite of Vastok. Whereas Vastok may have been a large and well built man, Zara was a rather short and almost frail looking woman, standing not much higher than five feet, and with a rather thin body. Her hair was bright red, looking colored, and formed into two blazing horns that matched her dress. Her dress was deep, bright red with flaming symbols embellished across the fine surface.

As Vastok would leave with Aviza, Adrianne would move to give Aviza a small 'good luck, you can do it' gesture with her hand in the form of a circle!

"He so loves trying out any new, promising candidates." Zara would suddenly mention behind Adrianne as the woman watched Vastok leave with Aviza, speaking as if it was almost an afterthought to her.
"Yet he always returns to me in the end. I guess few really have my fire."

Zara smirked, continuing to stare past Adrianne with a smirk now on her lips.

"You're a pyromaniac?" Adrianne would suddenly ask, turning to look around and raising an eyebrow. Zara would snap back at Adrianne, looking almost offended for a moment, until she noticed the look of utter confusion on Adrianne's face, at which moment Zara's smile would return and she would let out a hearty chuckle.

"Oh no, girl. I did not mean it like that. Not literally." Zara chuckled as her attention was now turned to Adrianne.
"Well, I do like a good pyrotechnic show, but that's another matter entirely."

Adrianne simply smiled in return, as if trying to figure out what to say. As a waiter was passing by with a plate of glasses filled with champagna, Adrianne would reach out and snap one of them from the plate and bring it to her lips, still not losing eye contact with Zara for the whole act!

"When I was younger, one of my friends set fire to a storehouse. Turned out it was full of some chemical. The ensuing explosion was crazy. I've never seen a sea of flame featuring so many different colors an... MMmmm, this drink is really good!"

Zara continued to look at Adrianne, her arms folded and her weight focused on one foot as she simply smiled passively.

"That swill? Oh, my poor, poor girl. I am ashamed we even have to serve you that, but it was my dear Vastok's decision. You and I really should come together sometime. I think there is a lot I could teach you when it comes to the finer points of drinks."

The woman smiled, seeming almost amused by Adrianne.

"You know, I really should tell you about the time that... " Adrianne was about to speak, but before she could get much farther, Aviza and Vastok would already be returning from their dance.

Vastok looked rather pleased with it all, which was in stark contrast to that of Aviza.

"Uhh, I guess I have to go. She can get rather angry if I'm late!" Adrianne would bid a quick goodbye to Zara, before moving to follow after her.

"remind me to take a scolding hot shower when we get back to the safe house, I feel violated."

"Awh, come on. He wasn't THAT bad looking." Adrianne would whisper back with a slight chuckle, leaning in as well.
"Well, maybe the accent was... what was up with that?"

*

While Adrianna and Aviza were leaving the dance however, something else was moving in one of the dark, abandoned lounges above the main hall, overlooking it all through some narrow windows on the side.

The lounge would be quiet, the windows isolating it well from the commotion happening below.

Yet the sounds of two heavily armored metal boots walking across the carpet could be heard as the shadowy figure of a power armored woman came into view, slowly striding over towards the windows.

It was Lucia, the escaped Euphorian from the factory raid.

She was wearing the same uniform as before, consisting of a more curvacious power armor painted mat black, engraved with a gold trimming that adorned the surface and sides of the armor with swirling symbols and lines. Beneath the armor, visible mostly around the joints such as her stomach and hips, she was wearing a skin tight bodyglove as dark as the armor itself. And hanging from the front of her waist and her shoulderplates would be strands of purple, ornamental silk cloth, painted with silvery symbols.

Unlike Zara, Lucia was no small woman. Standing at almost seven feet tall, a number she easily reached with the addition of her power armor, she sported a strong and busty build, with broad shoulders and even broader hips.

Her facial expression would be impossible to gleam through her narrow power armor helmet, though her visors glowed with a haunting purple light as she gazed through the windows of the lounge.

She was staring down towards the ballroom floor. For a moment she simply scanned the conversation and subsequent dance between Adrianna and Aviza and Vastok and Zara. It did not seem to interest her, as she quickly continued to scan the remainder of the hall.

However, the moment her eyes fell on a familiar naval officer in the room, she would stop scanning.

From her shadowy window elevated high above the ballroom, she was staring directly down at Stukov who hadn't seemed to notice her as of yet. Lucia had almost immediately recognized the man's face from before. Although he looked slightly different in shade, he was still a perfect match with the memories that Lucia had of the crazed, unstable psyker who had been running rampant through the lair of her last charge.

Without saying a word, she simply reached up towards the side of her helmet while staring down at Stukov, activating her compad...

Stukov did not like how this place felt. It wasn't just his gut instinct this time, which was a blaring alarm for all it was warning him this place was trouble, rather, something about this place just felt wrong, on a base level that he was unaware of before. Damn powers creating more problems, apparently. Good to know this place was another den of evil, in a more insidious and underhanded manner granted, but he had it pegged for it to some degree or another. But as the two women wandered off to dance, the psyker armsman glanced over at Boss as he answered how they were going to proceed with things. Pair off, be inconspicuous, and see about what they could dig up and trade information over dinner with the two women folk. Rather odd that Sis had hauled off Smiles to dance. Granted, she probably was rather irritated with him right now over his reaction to the Cannoness. That would be a point of contention, since his rather limited understanding and dealings with the Adeptus Sororitas had left him with a bad taste in his mouth. For all intents and purposes, as far as Stukov understood, the bunch should not even exist. Violation of some Decree Passive or another if not for some old Saint arguing that they were 'Women' under arms and exempt. Load of bullshit, far as the Armsman was concerned.

Their gender wasn't Stukov's issue with the Sisters of Battle, rather, it was how they acted. Pious zealots that spent more time praying and stomping about being generally irritating and holier than thou then actually being useful. His worst trip with a ship was when transporting a detachment of Sisters to some warfront or another. Guard regiments would typically, when not drilling, at least have auxilaries assigned to help with security and other jobs that made their added burden on ship resources less taxing. Not the Bolter Bitches, though, they just sat around praying, cleaning their gear, and getting pissy if someone so much as anywhere within their sight without their holy, expressed permission. Even if that was some poor sods assigned security route to ensure no stowaways or hidden threats that, unfortunately for the poor junior armsman that Stukov had assigned to the task, took him through the area delegated to the Sisters. No, Stukov had no love for the Sisters in general, nor the Ecclesiarchy. He firmly believed in the Emperor, and that was that. No rituals, no fancy customs or haughty outlook, and he did not need some damn priest or Sister going nuts over him not knowing the third passage to some holy text or another that a local cathedral to the Emperor demanded all faithful to know.

No, Stukov had issue with the Sisters, and now he was in a position he could actually do something about it. And by the Emperor, he would not let them get away with being so damn superior towards other faithful servants of the Emperor. Power armor, flamers, and bolters didn't make them any better at serving the Emperor than a regiment of Armsman boarding chaos vessels to prevent the ground forces from getting bombed into oblivion. But he digressed as he brought his thoughts, running thousands of miles a second, back into focus as Boss asked about the force saber on his hip. "Not really, Smiles was not kind enough to fill me in on technical details. Only that I would get used to it in time. Apparently resonates with my...condition and acts like a power weapon, far as I understand beyond that from general knowledge. I wouldn't sweat the details Boss, I've used everything from a Dark Eldar splinter rifle to Imperial crew served weapons, and various things in between. I can figure out a strange fucking sword if needed." What Stukov did not realize was that he was still talking to Boss through the vox, and not speaking out loud, so while he looked around, his mouth was not moving nor was any words coming out of it.

Looking over the surroundings, Stukov felt a sense of dread boring into him. Something was wrong, paying him too much mind, and he had this feeling things were not going to go according to plan. He didn't know what, how, or why, and even if he had spotted Lucia above in her black armor, he would not have recognized either. A large portion of the last raid was a blur, and cutting through their ranks in his haste to reach the leading heretic meant he would not readily recognize the armor of their kind. But he did subvox, as he was calling voxing others without speaking, again, speaking of his concern. "Boss, I'm not convinced this is going to go well. Too little we know, too much they most likely do. I have a bad feeling about all this."

"Not really, Smiles was not kind enough to fill me in on technical details. Only that I would get used to it in time. Apparently resonates with my...condition and acts like a power weapon, far as I understand beyond that from general knowledge. I wouldn't sweat the details Boss, I've used everything from a Dark Eldar splinter rifle to Imperial crew served weapons, and various things in between. I can figure out a strange fucking sword if needed." Stukov explained in the vox,

Zhevon rubbed his chin. Skill was a major part of the sword, especially with a weapon like the saber. He had dueled Astartes with the sword, most of them were self taught to a degree, or taught by a mentor who was self taught. They all used their overwhelming strength to defeat their opponents. Suitable for the weapons they used, massive chainswords, normally two handed swords, hammers, power fists. While he didn't doubt Stukovs intuition with weapons, if Stukov faced a swordsman of skill there was no doubt in Zhevons mind that Stukov would lose in a fair fight. Luckily most fights are rarely fair.

Zhevon spoke up, "Very well. Keep in mind that handing a sword is not like handling a gun. The Saber in specific is a blade most well used with speed and finesse." He explained, "I could show you a few tricks sometime." After a moment, Stukov voiced some concerns. Zhevon scanned the room and spotted no immediate threats, but he still took the advise. Sort of. "...We're just normal party goers, having a good time Stukov. Keep an eye out though." He whispered, looking in the other direction when the dinner bell rang. As people began to move towards the dining hall, Zhevon said something about not being hungry and needing to 'use' the restroom, telling Stukov to go and meet up with the others.



Meanwhile, the dining hall was massive, more than enough to accommodate all of the guests. The room was lit by dozens of candles, and the walls lined with tens of paintings of various things. Some portraits, some landscapes. The room was filled with the smells of succulent meats, spices and even foreign foods. The menu was filled with items, some familiar and simple, like a grox steak, others were unfamiliar and alien. Drinks ranged from simple water to exotic wines and juices. The deserts, from small chocolates to exquisite cakes.

As the two of them walked to the dining room, Aviza talked quietly to Adrainne so no one else would hear what she was saying. “I have traveled all over this galaxy Adrainne and have never heard an accent like his. I am thinking it could be from some sort of daemonic influence like his wife? It would help explain a lot of what is going on around us. Now, Vastok told me something out on the floor during our dance that seemed to happen without me even noticing. He said that his wife means more to him than life itself, that he was surprised that she had allowed him to dance with me, and that she could turn the house inside out and set it on fire with a snap of her fingers. Turning inside out while on fire is not on the list of things I would ever like to happen to me so let us try and keep unnoticed. Once we are in the dining room, we should find a secluded area to sit and talk without being pestered.” Aviza now fell silent as they entered the grand dining room that had been exquisitely decorated, a feeling of magnificence filled the room once they set foot inside of it. Around sixteen large wooden tables had been set up, each covered in a beautiful white silk cloths. Upon them were gold and silver eating utensils with elaborately decorated ceramic plates. A candle sat in the middle of each table and gave off a purple flame of unimaginable heat.

Aviza took a moment to admire the dining room before lightly grabbing Adrainnes left shoulder and motioning towards an empty table. Vastok and Zara seemed to appear out of thin air behind Aviza and Arainne before inviting them to their special table. “My wife and I would like to extend an invitation for you two to join us at our table, only very important guests we value greatly get to join us at this table, so will you do us the honor?” Aviza felt her heart sink before looking over to Adrainne with a smile then back to Vastok who stood next to his wife who smirked at them as if she knew what they were thinking. “We would be honored to join both of you, thank you very much for the invitation.” Vastok with Zara by his side showed Adrainne and Aviza where to sit, it was a much better looking table than the rest and had a different menu from the others. Even the chairs were different, made to be more comfortable and to match the table. “Thank you both once more.” said Aviza before taking a seat and patting the chair next to her, waiting for Adrainne to take a seat as well. The menu in front of had a massive assortment of foods, some that she had never heard of and some that she could only afford on a blue moon.

After going through all the food on the menu, she came to the page for drinks and found that they had the rarest, most expensive, and most valued drink in the the area or maybe even the galaxy. The drink only had a strange unintelligible symbol on its side for identification and that was it, though this simple bottle of alcohol held the same value or price as the power armor Aviza had hidden away nearby. “Do you actually have this drink ready to be served?” asked Aviza with a raised eyebrow, pointing at the symbol on the menu. Vastok nodded his head while Zara watched her reaction with a small smile. “Would it be alright if Elleynah and myself have a glass? If it is not too much to ask, I know all too well what this beverage is, the last time I had it was when I started military training.” Vastok snapped his fingers at a waiter who quickly walked over and nodded his at what Zara had pointed at on the menu before quickly walking off. “Thank you, I am almost in a state of shock that you two have this.” Aviza paused and set her hands in her lap, as Vastok started to talk to everyone at the table.

“This man has no idea how much I hate him, wish he would shut up and let us order our food.” thought Aviza to herself as she looked around at the other six people at the table. Zara though, was looking right at her with an amused smile across her face. Aviza noticed this and glanced down at the table when a glass of water was placed in front of her. Lifting the glass to her lips, she took a small sip of its contents. “Why is she looking at me like that? makes me quite uncomfortable.” Thought Aviza to herself as the sly smile on Zara’s face only grew a bit more. “Oh shit, does she know telepathy as well?” thought Aviza to herself only a moment before Zara laughed a bit to herself, showing her razor sharp teeth in a full smile. “Yep, wonderful people we have here, great party with fantastic food and decorations, so very nice of them to invite us to dinner.” Aviza followed that thought by letting her mind go blank. Leaning over to Adrainne, she whispered so no one else could hear her talking and said “Zara know’s telepathy, watch yourself or we are going to have two grand psychers turning us into mulch for their deamons.”

Aviza opened her menu and quickly started to take note on what kind of food she would like, trying to keep her mind focused on that alone. Suddenly, the waiter came over and Vastok ordered for both Adrainne and Aviza, commenting on it by saying “Do no worry my ladies, I picked these foods out myself and I know which ones you will like to most.” There was a pause before Aviza replied. “My apologies and I do not wish to cross any lines but how would you know what we like when we have never met?” Vastok smiled and glanced over at his wife. “She helps me with that.” Aviza was about to open her mouth but Vastok spoke once more, “Do not worry, it is nothing malicious, just a little trick to make your visit more convenient and comfortable.” There was once again a long pause before Aviza responded, “Well I thank you for that, I guess you make a strong point.” The waiter returned with two glasses of the beverage Aviza had ordered and placed one down in front of Adrainne and Aviza before walking off once more. The contents of the glass glowed a soft blue, just as Aviza had remembered it, there was no smell but after taking a sip of its contents it proved to be the real thing, and just as good as she had remembered it.

The room now had live music coming from a very talented group of musicians, and a moment later the food arrived at everyone’s table. “Ah, took them long enough.” Said Vastok before standing up at the end of the table and tapped the side of his glass with a fork, causing a ring to sound through the dining room. “Don’t worry, you will all be able to eat in just a moment but first I have a couple things to say. I would like to thank all of you for your dedication, your sacrifices, everything you have done to bring all of us to this point. Tonight is a celebration, a celebration towards the ultimate victory we are aiming for. With every day that passes we grow in strength, in power, and in size while right under our enemies. They work alongside us, fight with us, and die along us while having no idea what they are helping move forward. Stay strong and diligent my friends, for soon our master will arrive to greet us in person and bring her wonders to be shared with the entire world.” There was a massive applause before everyone turned back to their food, enjoying what they had ordered. “Well spoken my lord.” said Aviza before taking a bite of her food then setting the fork on the side of her plate. “Well Solares and Elleynah… how is your dinner?” Aviza responded quickly, feeling slightly at unease as if being watched. “Who? Oh the food is fantastic, but I need to run to the restroom for a moment.” Aviza stood up only to grab onto Adrainnes left arm and lightly tug on it. “Elleynah, would you join me for a moment, I need some fresh air as well.”

Music Playing: https://youtu.be/bmELSgXpNRk

“Zara know’s telepathy, watch yourself or we are going to have two grand psychers turning us into mulch for their deamons.”

"Why should I be worried?" Adrianne turned to look back at Aviza with a cheerful smile.
"Her abilities makes me feel so much more safer that there are no imperial spies amidst our ranks. We don't need that filth running around here. The night is ours!"

Adrianne simply chuckled, not seeming the least bit worried compared to Aviza. To hear from Aviza that Zara was in fact a telepath was no surprise for Adrianne.

She did not worry much about Zara's telepathic abilities. Adrianne was an experienced psyker herself, and had spent her life shielding her mind from the influence of daemons and chaos. Some would say half a psyker's entire existence revolved around turning their minds into impenetrable fortresses of mental fortitude, lest they slip and be forever lost.

Glancing over at Zara with a smile, Adrianne suspected that Zara already knew that she herself was a psyker. While a telepath might not be able to pierce her mind without any great exertion, a telepath could nonetheless notice the mental barrier around her that was so common with psykers.

"I don't think we three are the only psykers in this party. Knowing cults, as much as one fourth of the other guests in this room might have psychic abilities."

She knew that much about cults. Having psychic powers was often seen as a gift within chaos cults, and members with such powers typically rose up the ranks with greater ease than their mundane peers, seen as having a greater connection to the warp; and by extension, their deities of worship.

“Elleynah, would you join me for a moment, I need some fresh air as well.”

"What, already?" Adrianne asked with a frown as she looked up at Aviza, already in the process of examining a purple alien steak of some kind.
"I haven't even taken the first bite! ... oh well, fine. But let's make it quick. I'm hungry!"

Adrianne said somewhat begrudgingly as she got up from her chair and moved to follow Aviza.

Why Aviza was more uncomfortable was not much of a mystery. Adrianne suspected that next to herself, Aviza might appear like an open book to any advanced telepath. To think about what kind of knowledge any psyker at the party could potentially excavate from Aviza was worrisome to say the least!

As they had walked a little further away, Adrianne would lean in to talk.

"So... what kind of trip do you want to take?"

Zhevon wandered the halls of the mansion rather aimlessly, endless hallways of paintings, locked doors leading to who knows where, the occasional table. It was all mostly unremarkable, which was a disappointment to the undercover Inquisitor, he had hoped to stumble on some sort of museum of Chaos artifacts, or something similar. Usually his aimless wandering had him stumble on a something, but this time he appeared to have no luck in the matter. Now convinced he was lost, he looked at a painting to make himself seem like he was busy, when in actuality he was trying to remember the steps he took to get to that point in the mansion.

Then he heard a pair of heavy boots closing in where he was standing. He muttered a curse and held his ground.
"Sir?"
Zhevon slowly turned to look at the voice, it was two guards. Well armored, and wielding lasguns. Likely low-ranking soldiers patrolling the halls. "Guards." Zhevon acknowledged, he turned back to the painting.
"Uh... Sir, the dinner is that way."
"I know. I'm not particularly hungry, and this painting is just... Captivating."
"Excuse me?" One of the Guards asked, more curious than anything. The other looked at his partner, then at the painting.
By now Zhevon was actually examining the painting rather than just blankly staring at it. He saw a burning village in the background, a bay full of sunken ships, and in front, hills covered in dead yellow grass. Piles of cattle skeletons and dead cattle laid strewn on the hills. He spotted animated skeletons scattered across the landscape. A large group of them swarming a small church of a long dead religion, others pulling out caskets from the ground, the dead rising from the earth. In the bottom corner, a small number of skeletons beating war drums, and hoisting an obelisk with a column of armed skeletons marching from the mouth of a dark cave nearby. Just above it, the boney undead were executing the living, by sword, hanging, burning at the stake. To the left, pitched battle between peasants, hopelessly armed with pitchforks and staves against a second column of skeletons, all armed with spears. The peasants were losing. Upon closer inspection he noticed that the painting was flowing, as if it were a real event captured in a painting.
"This painting shows the futility of fighting death..." Zhevon began. He spoke for an impressive length of time, mostly making all of this up right on the spot, but the Guards seemed to understand it well enough.

“I would take a trip with you anywhere Adrainne, you just name the place and time and I would be read to go before you knew what was happening. That is not why I dragged you out here though, we need to locate Zhevon and Stukov before something happens to either of them. They wandered off like lost children, each going their separate ways in the mansion.” With a pause, she narrowed her eyes slightly then grabbed onto Adrainne, “Ok we have a change of plans and you may not like what I am about to say. I am going to head back into the dining room and have Vastok follow me to somewhere private upstairs by telling him I have something important to tell him and such. You need to do the same thing but with Zara, she has taken a liking to you and honestly I can’t blame her for that at all. Anyway, you need to direct her, lure her up to a private area and then incapacitate her with your weapon or warp powers, alright? Once Vastok is down and out I will contact you on my com and equip my armor. If someone finds out what has happened then the shit is going to hit the fan like none other so be ready to defend yourself if it comes to that. Let me know if you have any trouble with her, I hear that type of daemon can be…alluring and such.” Aviza’s right eye twitched slightly at the thought before calming down. “I wish you luck my friend, and you will hear from me again soon.” Without another word, Aviza vanished around the corner.

Now walking over to the table they had been sitting at earlier, Vastok and Zara looked up at her and smiled. “Excuse me Vastok, I really need to talk to you in private I may or may not have something….to show you.” Zara waved her husband away and Vastok nodded his head, standing up next to Aviza and following her. This drew many eyes upon Aviza which she did not want, but Vastok was quick to break any curiosity. “This weapon you say you have, is it an energy weapon or a standardized force weapon?” he asked, Aviza was quick to pick up on what he was doing and responded. “Oh, it is a force weapon but has enough power to blow up this house with one shot.” Vastok laughed slightly, “How delightful, I look forward to seeing these blueprints you have for me.” The two of them made up things as they walked out of the dining room and up the stairs. Aviza knocked on a door and opened it slowly to find it empty. “Please follow me my Lord.” As soon as Aviza shut the door, Vastok walked over to a large couch and sat down on it. “So, did you lure me away from my wife to shoot me in the head? Or perhaps take me hostage? I must admit for a Sister of Battle you do know how to dance very well. I was hoping you could of joined us and had a nice, calming dinner but it seems there were other things on your mind.” Vastok laughed, “I must say I like this feisty side of you quite a bit. Why not join us? Think of the power and wealth you could have as a close friend of mine, just give up your sisterhood and…” Vastok did not finish his sentence. Aviza fired her silenced weapon at him and incapacitated the man instantly.

Moving to the door and glancing outside of it, she took note of a guard in power armor walking down the hallway, just as she had seen them do on their earlier patrol. Knocking on the door, she spoke and distracted the guard. “I need some help in here, mind giving me a hand so I can get out of this clothing?” The guard blinked a couple of times and responded, “Of course I can ma’am.” The guard opened the door and walked in, thankfully looking down at the ground as he did, odds are shy of what he had been asked. Quickly, Aviza used the same weapon from before and electrocuted the young soldier inside of the armor, incapacitating him. After removing the armor from the man, she quickly put it on herself and then hid the incapacitated body of the guard along with Vastok. “Three hours and they will wake up.” thought Aviza before hooking up her com inside of the armor. “Ah, it has a motion tracker as well? Lucky me…” a small screen showed movement all over the screen. With a couple adjustments she first located Adrainne and spoke into her com. “Not sure if you can hear this but Vastok somehow knew we were coming for him, Zara most likely knows as well. Watch yourself my friend, I am on my way to you right now. Oh and uh, sorry for taking you away from your dinner, I will make it up to you.”

"Great plan. What could possibly go wrong with that?"

Adrianne thought to herself after separating with Aviza and making her way back towards the dinner table to find her seat near Zara. By the time she approached, she could no longer see Mr. Vastok anywhere. It was no big mystery to assume that Aviza had already gotten him away from the table already.

"Oh, sorry about that. Took a bit longer than I had previously anticipated." Adrianne smiled as she looked towards Zara as she moved towards her seat.
"Have you seen my friend? I thought she was supposed to be back before me."

"Oh, she already was here and took Lord Vastok away." Zara smiled in return while taking a sip from her glass of wine, eyeing Adrianne over the glass before putting it back down onto the table.
"Say, you're not here to do the same with me?"

"What?" Adrianne asked, raising an eyebrow at Zara when she sat down.

"Ask me out to some other room. I'm sure you have something you want to talk about." Zara continued with a confident tone, leaning back in her dinner chair as she looked over at Adrianne expectantly.

" ... "

Adrianne didn't say anything at first, she was merely staring at Zara with a seemingly confused expression. It took a while before the psyker would finally speaking, quickly glancing to either side to make sure none of the other guests were listening before she leaned in towards Zara.

"You're telling me Solares left with Vastok?!" Adrianne then asked Zara in a slightly hushed tone.

Zara didn't say anything at first. Her amused expression grew somewhat suspicious as the woman furrowed her brows at the psyker, a tint of surprise visible in her eyes. Adrianne could feel a slight inkling at the side of her cranium when she did. It was quite obvious that Zara had just tried to probe her mind, but it had not been a serious effort, and Adrianne had been easily able to prevent the intrusion. However, she had allowed one thought to slip her mind; intentionally; and that was a fake sense of surprise.

Neither of them said for a couple of seconds, Zara merely staring at her.

"You didn't know?" Zara finally asked, eyeing Adrianne suspiciously.

"Do you know where they went?!" Adrianne asked, sounding a little bit aggravated as she leaned in closer.

"We have some guest rooms... say, why don't we head up to Vastok's security office? That way, we could listen in to any of their conversation!" Zara smirked, and Adrianne's expression suddenly shifted.

" ... could we really?"

"Of course!"

"And Lord Vastok won't mind at all?"

"He may rule the business outside, but in this house, I make the rules." Zara smirked.

A smile appeared around Adrianne's face, and she moved to rise up from her chair. Zara did the same, leaving the glass behind at the table.

"Let's do it!" Adrianne said, sounding quite excited as she followed after Zara as they left the room.

*

"This is Hound Pit 1 to Euphoria Exarch. Lord Vastok has been incapacitated by subject 'Golden Bride' in living room B217. Subject is also in possession of stolen power armor that she took from one of the houseguards. Over."

A male voice crackled inside of Lucia's helmet while she was still watching Stukov down below, the armsman seemingly not having noticed her yet. Lucia would reach up to the side of her helmet with one hand, triggering her com whilst continuing to watch Stukov.

"This is Euphoria Exarch to Hound Pit 1. Message received. First, I want you to jam all unprotected signals coming to and from the mansion. Second, inform the Captain of the House Guard and have him surround and apprehend subject 'Golden Bride' and retrieve the Lord - quietly. Third, Initiate Protocol 'Safehouse'. Over."

"This is Hound Pit 1. Orders received and understood. Out."

*

On the other end of the call, a middle-aged man wearing some simple blue security fatigues ended the call and placed the small vox device back into its socket.

He was sitting in a darkened control room, a plethora of screens surrounding him in the front with images from almost every room and hallway of the mansion. In one of the grainy video feeds, he could see Aviza putting on her power armor in the room, Vastok and the guard still knocked out.

Making a hand gesture towards one of the two other security officers sitting at terminals on the other end of the room, signaling them to wait for a moment, the man known as 'Hound Pit 1' dialed in a new number on his computer, this time connecting to the house guards, simply saying "Initiate", before dialing again, this time to an outside number.

"This is James Gorgon calling. Have I come to 'The Grey Hawks'? Yes, I'd like to requisition your air wing... "

*

In the meantime, outside of 'Room B217', currently occupied by Aviza and her unconscious friends, six power armored houseguards were approaching the entrance, divided into two groups who each came from their own direction in the hallway.

Most of them were equipped with bolter weapons, yet one of them carried a larger stun gun almost the size of a small cannon in his hands. The two teams each stopped fifteen feet away from the door, taking cover behind the wall columns as they aimed at the door and waited.

*

Back at Lucia, she would suddenly hear her comm crackle to life once more, this message going out to her whole unit.

"This is Euphoria 2 to Hound Pit. I have lost visuals of Vastok's Wife. Have any of you seen her? Over."

"This is Hound Pit 1. Negative. She is no longer in the dining room. Initiating video sweep of the mansion for subject Zara. Out."

Lucia simply listened to the conversation going on in her comm, letting out a sigh.

"I hate that woman... " Lucia muttered to herself off coms, thinking of Zara. Lord Vastok was a teamplayer, and Lucia knew she could rely on him to share what he was doing with his trusted staff. His lover on the other hand, Zara, had an awful tendency to do whatever she wanted when she wanted, often without informing anyone else.

Needless to say, it did not make security any easier.

"This is Euphoria Exarch to Euphoria Team Alpha." Lucia finally activated her comm after a sigh.
"Locate and watch after Lord Vastok's wife. And please don't lose sight of her. Over."

"This is Euphoria Alpha 1. Orders received and moving to execute. Out."

Lilith crept along the hallway, careful not to let her cloak slip as she made her way to the next support beam within the mansion. The melta charges she'd brought with her were beginning to run low, but she still had more than enough of them to hold the entire building hostage if necessary.

She jumped in surprise as six of the mansion's guards thundered towards her. Hissing she pressed herself up against the wall as tightly as possible, hoping against hope that her cloak stayed undisturbed, and that they weren't responding to her. While the many columns in the hallway were excellent for taking cover behind, they were considerably less excellent when faced with the prospect of five angry people with bolters.

Sighing in relief as they charged past her, she raised an eyebrow as they took up positions right in front of a particular room. Just why they were set up right outside that particular room she was unsure of, but she doubted trying to place melta charges in their midst was the best idea. Nor was she capable of taking on six power armored goons with bolters and a massive taser.

The hallway, for all its elaborate decorative columns and tasteful flora, lacked a whole lot to kill things with. She had plenty of ordnance on her, but not the kind that would be useful for this situation. The hallway was a hallway, no good sniping vantage points...

But there was a turret.

She grinned like a mad devil, sneaking back the way she had come to the Tarantula packing its twin linked heavy bolters, just sitting there at the end of the hallway.

This would do nicely. Very, very, nicely. Snatching one of her tools from the strap on her thigh, she set to work opening up its back panel to interface with the machine's inner workings. The security was honestly laughable. For all the effort they went into making the mansion physically secure, their electronic security was for all intents and purposes - not. It was a miracle this thing even had a machine spirit left after all the amateurish tinkering these imbeciles had aparently done.

In less than five minutes it was her plaything. She sighted it in on the six guards and then, with considerable effort, picked it up. She carried it closer, as close as she dared really, setting it partially behind the cover of a plant before activating a timer and scampering to safety, behind several pillars, as she waited for the mayhem to ensue.

Three... two... one...

The turret opened fire with no warning, a hail of heavy bolts catching three of the house guards unaware in the first few seconds, ripping their armor to shreds as the storm of metal tore into them with unrestrained ferocity. The other team, sheltering behind a pillar, was safe for all of a few seconds before the high explosive shells tore straight through it, rending another apart and starting on the fifth before the sixth, who happened to be the one with the enormous taser, having somehow closed the distance, smashed his weapon into the side of the turret. The impact destroyed both his weapon and the turret, but he didn't seem too fazed - seeing how he simply picked up the bolter from one of his fallen comrades and delivered a few shots into the remnants of the turret.

Lilith blinked, not quite sure if she had really seen what she had just seen. She spared a moment to replay the moment, confirming that yes indeed, it had actually happened.

"Well... damn." She whispered to herself, reaching for the power blade sheathed on her hip. She crept towards the lone survivor, flicking the power switch on the weapon as she neared him. He was speaking into a radio, probably requesting reinforcements. Which meant she needed to be out of here as quickly as possible, but whoever it was they would be reacting to like this was, she wanted to meet them.

She sprinted the last meter, catching the guard completely... off guard, and sinking the weapon up to its hilt in his neck. He wasn't a space marine, or special and any way other than wearing the armor, and she knew all about their weakpoints.

Slicing out, she was satisfied that his spinal cord was completely severed as he crumpled to a lifeless heap, another quick swipe of the weapon taking care of the transmitter relay in the helmet.

She dissipated the power field on the dagger, sticking it back in its sheathe on he belt as she walked up to the door and politely knocked. "The ugly fuckers in the cheap power armor are dead now, and you seem really popular, to have all this attention."

Without warning, the sound of heavy bolter fire erupted from outside of the room. Aviza quickly took cover and laid flat upon the carpeted floor. As the turret outside fired, Aviza took notice to that fact that she was not being fired upon, instead the elite house guards were being cut down by their own security system. It was impossible for Adrainne to help her, and no one else in her squad could have known where she was at that time.The question of what in the name of the warp was actually going on ran through her head before the turrest fell silent. It wasnt over though, because the sound of a struggle ending with a grotesque snapping sound followed shortly after. Quickly movng to the door, she checked her motion tracker for any movement, there was only one entity remaining in the hallway. Grabbing onto her silenced pistol, she moved to a corner of the room and took aim, waiting for whoever was outside to open the door. Instead of someone barging into the room, there was a polite knock upon it, followed by a female voice declaring that all the hostiles had been taken down. "Walk in slowly or I will open fire, keep your hands up and away from any weapons you may have." said Aviza while looking down the sight of her weapon. The Sister of Battle wasnt completely sure but she could have sworn the woman who had knocked had an all to familiar sounding voice.

Lilith froze momentarily as the person in the other room spoke. She knew that voice, her memory was almost infallible.

"It would seem that the forces of Chaos had an unfortunate tendency to be chopped up by their own security systems." She spoke out loud, "You probably remember the beginning of that trend back on Amethyn." Pulling off her camo cloak, she slowly opened the door and walked into the room, "Fancy meeting you here. You still owe me a beer, by the way." She looked back out the door, "The last one was calling for backup, so we might want to hurry."

She walked further into the room, "And... who is this? Seems there was quite the party in here."

Quickly moving to her feet, Aviza opened the protective visor upon her armor and gazed in disbelief at who stood in front of her. There was a moment of doubt before Aviza spoke, "You are the last person I would have expected to see here, all across this galaxy anyone could have walked through that door to my rescue but it seems that once again we are meant to be at eachothers sides. The two men laying on the ground are Vastok, the cult leader and a random guard." Taking off her helmet, Aviza let it fall to the ground next to her, hitting the floor with a heavy thud. "If we keep this up, I am going to owe you more than a single beer, is this the second time you have managed to save my ass?"

Moving to the doorway, Aviza looked outside then quickly grabbed onto two of the fallen elite houseguards bolters. "We can worry about what I owe you when we get back to the safehouse, but for now I think we should take care of those reinforcements you were talk about." More elite guards were now flooding into the hallway with heavy bolters, as soon as they saw Aviza, they opened fire upon everything in their way. Aviza barely had any time to pull herself back into the room as explosive rounds flew past her.

"They sure are not messing around anymore, give me a moment to make us an opening Lilith." Pulling a frag from her belt, Aviza cooked the explosive before tossing it down the hallway, all the same time trying not to get shot. The frag flew through the air and detonated in the air, creating a cloud of white smoke as well as a disorenting flash of light. The gunfiire came to a stop, giving both Lilith and Aviza a moment to strike. Stepping out into the hallway once more, Aviza held down the triggers to both of the bolters she had in her hands and fired until the weapons clicked, informing her that she had ran out of ammo.

Once the smoke had settled, the elite guards could been seen huddled upon the ground, their bodies shredded by the explosive rounds they had been unfortunate enough to be hit by at such a close range. "We need to find the rest of my squad before we shell the mansion Lilith, do you think you can hack the security in the command room? It's not far from here and I doubt we will meet much resistance inside."

"Wait, you're going to shell the mansion?" Lilith raised an eyebrow, "Why did nobody tell me. you... whoever you're working with right now, was doing something here? I've spent the past day sticking melta bombs on everything." She smirked, "Well, I guess there's no kill like overkill."

She pulled her two pistols from their holsters, "Actually, I already did, how do you think I've been getting around without being blown to pieces by the security system?

“Why did nobody tell me that you were here planting metla bombs on the interior of the mansion? I wouldn’t have set up the artillery strike if I knew you were here planning to destroy this place the difficult way.” Aviza bent down and picked up a heavy bolter from a dead elite guard, looking over it to make sure it was still in good working condition. “Then again, the more explosions the better and I do not believe in overkill, I am a Sister of Battle after all.”

The heavy bolters ammunition was locked into place before Aviza motioned for Lilith to follow her. As the two of them walked down the hallway, Aviza kept her finger on the trigger of her newly found weapon, almost wanting to find someone to shoot at. “I should of know that you shut down the security system first before entering the building. Where did you get that cloak anyway? I haven’t seen anything like it in many years.” After kicking the door open to the command room, Aviza quickly moved to the side, “Kill everyone but leave one person alive, I will need to have a chat with them.”

"Why did nobody tell me there was somebody here, on my side, with the resources to shell the mansion?!" Lilith sighed, exasperated. "I was sent here to investigate rumors of a possible Dark Mechanicus cult on the planet. I didn't know the Adepta Sororitas would be here too!" She applied palm to face, "When did you even get here anyway...?"

After a moment she shook her head, "Nevermind, we can talk later." She grabbed her bolt pistols again, "And yes, rule of thumb is - when breaking into a mansion, always disable their heavy bolter death machines first so you can continue to sneak without dying horribly. The cloak, by the way, is a camo cloak, made of cameoline, I'll explain later." Following the Sororitas into the command room, she let the power armored Sister clear a path before following up with her bolt pistols. "A lovely day to eradicate the forces of Chaos, don't you think?" She quipped as she reloaded a pistol.

_____

"So, do you often spy on Lord Vastok?" Adrianne would inquire as she glanced sideways at the woman walking next to her, who was none other than Lady Zara.

Upon hearing this, Zara would let out a hearty laugh and smile back at her!

"Oh, whenever I get the chance, usually. I consider it justified. I am almost always under some form of his many security systems." Zara explained as they walked up a set of lavishly decorated chairs towards the second floor of the mansion.
"He has this obsession with technology, always buying whichever system he thinks looks the fanciest. Truth be told, I don't think he hardly even understands how most of them work, the technophile!"

"Aww, that sounds like a rather harsh judgement, don't you think?" Adrianne let tilt her head as she gazed at Zara, but Zara merely shook her head.

"An over-reliance on technology is a hinderance. Vastok should've known, being a free man in the eyes of the warp." Zara spoke, before she eyed Adrianne's reaction.

"You know what I mean... "

Adrianne would pause for a moment, simply looking back at Zara. It didn't take much to know what she meant. Lord Vastok, Lady Vastok and herself were all psykers, and the sentiment she sported was hardly new to Adrianne!

"I know... perhaps if he had relied more on his own gifts, he could have been better for it."

"He would have been!" Zara was quick to correct, and Adrianne smiled.
"I've told him so many times that... OH, here we are!"

Zara would suddenly exclaim as they reached one of the doorways in the ornate hallway, this one being a solid metal door painted white and with a regal guardsman standing next to it.

The regal guardsman nodded at Zara, but when he saw Adrianne walking next to her, he would raise a brow.

"Guests are not allowed i,-"

"SHUSH with that attitude! This is my house as much as Vastok's!" Zara would immediately snap at the guardsman, whom instinctively backed away in return. Placing one arm around Adrianne, Zara would look at the now quiet guardsman before raising a hand up to him.

"You will let us in."

" ... yes, Lady Zara." The guardsman said after a short pause, turning around and speaking into a vox receiver at the side of the door. The bulkhead soon opened with a mechanical swishing sound, revealing a darkened room filled with screens at the other side.

"Shall we find what that no good husband of mine is up to, no?!" Zara would smirk as she glanced over at Adrianne.
"Maybe get some footage of your friend too."

"Preferably not anything too intimate." Adrianne would mutter, and Zara would let out a chuckle as the two entered the Hound Pit command center and the bulkhead shut behind the two.

*

"Everyday is a good day to kill massive amounts of Chaos, Lilith, the more of them we kill the better the day becomes." said Aviza as she noticed that some modifications had been made to the heavy bolter. "Ok look, there was a lack of information on both of our ends. We are here together and alive, that is all that matters at this moment." Falling silent, the sister of battled concentrated on the objective at hand, there was a large chance that the command room would be very heavily guarded, perhaps even a euphorian or two. "I have always wanted to know Lilith, are you able to construct turrets right at a spot if you have the materials with you? could greatly come in handy." Ahead of them, the hallway turned to the left and headed down a couple flights of stairs to where the main entrance for the command center could be found. Out front of it were two elite guards who were most likely freshly stationed there after graduating from training.

The sight of a elite house guard walking down the hallway with a Mechanicus caused great confusion among the two who merely watched both Aviza and Lilith approach. "Two gaurds, let me handle this." clearing her throat, Aviza walked up to the two guards who quickly scrambled for their weapons and fired her taser pistol. The two men fell to the ground along side the buklhead door, completely unconscious. "If we had killed them, we would have made quite a bit of noise." said Aviza, justifying her actions. As soon as the bulkhead door opened with a loud hiss, Aviza took two steps inside and froze at what she saw. "Lilith, they arrived her before us." The Sister of Battle pointed across the room at Adrainne and Zara. "The non-daemonic one is part of my squad as you can guess. The other person though, Zara, is not." Turning to Lilith with a smile, she motioned for her friend. "Maybe we should go say hello?"

"It does not look like the date went as planned." Adrianne would comment with a smug look on her face as she stood next to Zara, the two of them staring up at one of the grainy green computer screens where they could see a picture of the room with Vastok simply lying on the floor.

"It is hardly surprising." Zara would scoff at the image.
"The man used to have charm, but it has really declined lately. I've always told him that the whole accent thing he tried out was spelled for certain disaster from the get go, it is truly... "

*Swwiiish*

The two women would immediately pause to look to their right just as the bulkhead door to the control room just opened, and a royal guard wearing a notoriously ill-fitted suit of power armor just walked in.

As soon as this happened, the other security officers in the room would have turned around. The two secrity officers at the far side sitting by their terminals would exchange glanes, before immediately running towards the bulkhead on the other side of the room! James, the head chief, would snap a look over his shoulder at Aviza, before throwing himself under his desk, bringing his vox device with him.

"Control room compromised! Send immediate assistance!"

The man would scream into his small microphone before slamming a button under his desk. A mechanical whirr could suddenly be heard from the roof of the room as a small hatch opened and a roof-mounted multi -aser turret fell down from it. A red blink appeared in the eye socket of the targeting skull attached to the side of it, and it'd whirr around immediately with mechanical proficiency, aiming itself straight at Aviza as the coils on the side of the turret lighted up as it initiated its firing sequence!

Adrianne was left dumbstruck for a moment, simply looking at Aviza and the strange figure behind her.
The same with Zara, except that the security officer James would grab out from below his desk and pull Zara down as the multilas turret fired itself up!

"Uhhh... hi?"

*

"I thought you said you turned off the security system Lilith, that turret seems to think differently." said Aviza as she quickly ran for cover behind a large metal desk that would give her roughly four seconds of cover before it became a pile of glowing ash.

"I didn't turn them off." Lilith muttered, "I modified their IFFs to recognize me as friendly and grant me administrator access. I didn't include you in them because I didn't even know you were on this planet!" She ran over to the turret, bringing the two security officers with the claws on her arms as she began to interface with the system. "Give me a second give me a second..." she muttered.

"I would love to give you a second Lilith, but if you haven't noticed, this weapon turns any and all cover into a pile of glowing embers. No rush though, not if you don't mind your friend ceasing to exist." Reaching down to her belt, Aviza toyed with the idea of tossing a stick frag but decided against it.

The turret spun down and retracted back into the ceiling. "There, disabled." She grumbled, "If you're looking for the security to be friendly to you that's going to take a little while to change." She continued grumbling under her breath about ignorant brutes who couldn't be bothered to learn the basics of IFF systems or technology beyond how to clean their bolters. "Now, whoever it was you wanted me to kill, they probably know we're here now."

While she at first did not realize who the power armored stranger who had just barged through the door was, she soon recognized the slightly metallic voice of Aviza when she spoke to the other tech priest in the room.

"Aviza?" Adrianne would utter, looking towards the desk where Aviza was hiding. Though given how big her power armor was and how small the desk was in comparison, it was a rather amusing image.

"You didn't need to barge in here, I had everything under control!" Adrianne would speak, placing her hands on her hips as she looked down at Aviza.

But while Adrianne was talking, Aviza could feel a slight sting through her mind, as a white flash rolled over the back of her eye sockets. The sensation was only temporary, before quickly abating once more.

Whenever she might look back up from her desk, Aviza would be unable to see anyone else in the command room. To her, it looked completely empty, aside from a single person standing close to one of the interface ports to the system, wearing the abyss black, gold trimmed armor of the euphorians. The euphorian was doing something with the system, before she turned around and gazed back at Aviza with her deep, purple visors.

"Die, false sister!" The Euphorian would exclaim, reaching to a heavy leather bag at the side of her power armored leg that carried a bolt pistol and unholstering it!

To everyone else in the room except Aviza, the room looked completely normal and everyone were still there. Only in Aviza's mind was the room empty, with the only remaining figure she could see being that of Lilith, now appearing as an Euphorian Knight instead!

Aviza would cringe lightly as the string went through her mind, vanishing almost as quickly as it had appeared. Her vision had gone completely white as if she had gone blind, but that also subsided in time. When she could finely see once more, her world had changed around her, everyone in the room had vanished leavigng a long Euphorian Knight bent over at the console where Lilith use to be. The world felt wrong, something was trying to push through the back of her mind but it was just out of reach. The whole event felt as if it was a dream, a nightmare of sorts that she could not wake up from.

Stil under the desk, or at least trying to be under the desk, the Sister of Battle remained. Leaving the cover of the desk would allow the Euphorian knight to shoot her, and if she was merely losing her sanity, the turret would make very short work of her. To huddle and wait, that was the first option that crossed her mind, death was not an issue to her but she was not going to give up. The second option that crossed her mind was the fact that she still had almost all of her grenades upon her belt. An emp frag would shut down the Eiphorian and leave her vulnerable. "But what if it's Lilith?" she asked herself, what if she was hallucinating? There was only one way to find out, and no one would benefit from what she was about to do.

Pulling a stun grenade from her belt, she pulled the pin from her belt and tossed it into the middle of the room. "Three...Two...One..." Aviza counted down the time before it would go off. She focused on the grenade until it detonated. The all to familiar ringing in the ears, only being able to see white, the force from the grenade would effect everyone in the command room, even more so the people near the middle of it. Opening her eyes, the room no longer had a sickly feel to it, not that the feeling she was experioanceing was any better but being back in her own reality was all she wanted. Aviza was merely laying upon her back, looking up at the ceiling as the effect of the grenade wore off slowly. A voice came from Aviza's com, it was the sound of an Imperial Guardsmen asking why there were Valkyries fly around a random mansion in the city so early in the morning. "Well, our radios work again..." said Aviza while she pushed herself up off of the ground and onto her feet.

Adrianne stared at Aviza with a look of disbelief as the sister of battle primed a stun grenade and threw it right in the center of the room - which happened to be just a few steps next to Adrianne - for no apparent reason whatsoever!

"What in the warp are you, EMPRAH!" Adrianne's attention would be fixed on the stun grenade lying next to her, causing her to step back and raise a hand up in front of her as she conjured a rapid, invisible force barrier between her and the stun grenade.

The stun grenade would go off with a blinding flash. Although the makeshift psychic barrier that Adrianne had erected between her and the grenade succceeded in shielding her from the concussion, the light still went through, and the world momentarily became white for Adrianne as she remained upright after the grenade had detonated, fumbling around in a temorary state of half-blindness!

"This is our chance, let's go!" Officer James said following the the stun grenade knocking everyone flat on their asses. Although Zara and James had avoided the brunt of the knockback as they were hidden behind one of the consoles, their ears would still be ringing a bit.

"Aww, I hate to leave the party on such a short notice!" Zara would comment somewhat disappointingly as she followed James, turning to give a quick glance back at Adrianne.
"Sorry about that, girl. Maybe I'll see you another time!"

As James darted out the bulkhead, Zara would turn around. Pointing at the surroundin screens and consoles, she'd step back through the door just as the electricity in the room burst into flames as she cast an incineration conjuration, beginning what would soon become a flaming inferno!

"Ta-ta!"

Walking backwards, and almost tripping one of her heels in the doorway, Zara would step out of the room just as James closed the bulkhead behind her. As the metal door clamped down, James would raise his las-pistol and fire a quick burst into the nearby console, frying it to bits!

"We need to hurry, my lady!"

"Why do you always have to be in such a hurry, James? Can't we ever stick around just to enjoy the show?"

*

"The hell!?" Lilith shouted as Aviza primed and threw a flashbang. She personally had no need to shield her eyes, and she reflexively covered her ears, running for the door as fast as she could.

The blast disoriented her for a few seconds and sent her sprawling to the ground not far from the open bulkhead. She continued crawling, pulling herself past the bulkhead and slipping under the camo cloak as she tried to put as much space as she could between herself and Aviza - whatever was up with the Sororitas she didn't want to find out the hard way.

While Lilith couldn't exactly hear well, she could see just fine - and for the moment that was enough to see the security officer and the woman ,who was apparently the Daemonic one Aviza had mentioned and yet failed to specify, running from the room. She unfortunately lacked almost any knowledge of the situation, but all the same she broke out in a run, doing her best to stay under the camo cloak as she whipped out her bolter, firing a hail of silenced shells downrange at the fleeing pair.

"What, where, who?!"

Adrianne mumbled as she walked aimlesly around the room, her vision still completely white from the flashbang as she flailed her arms around aimlessly. Her ears were ringing, but she could hear something that reminded her of footsteps from the area where she had last seen the door.

Footsteps that would soon be followed by the heavy thumping sounds of silenced bolter rounds being shot indoor!

"ARE THEY SHOOTING AT ME? OH EMPEROR, I CAN'T SEE A THING!!"

Clueless as to whether the bolts were being fired from a friend or foe, Adrianne would spin around and erect a makeshift psychic barrier in their general direction - before throwing her other arm forward and suddenly causing the barrier to shoot forward with a thunderous roar towards the open bulkhead door!

Unfortunately, Aviza would be caught right in its path, and before the battle sister could even get off the floor she would be picked up by the psychic shockwave and thrown into the air, soar straight out through the open door, down the hall, landing right on top of the tech priestess Lilith and knocking them both forward, before crashing into the railing and almost breaking through!

30ft away, Zara and James would stop, staring back at the pile consisting of a power armored Aviza lying sprawled on top of a rather uncomfortable looking Lilith. The look on their faces would be that of utter confusion, before they simply exchanged looks and continued running!

"Did I hit them?! Did I hit? Are they dead?!"

Adrianne's voice could be heard as the psyker stepped outside of the control room and into the corridor with Aviza and Lilith, rubbing her eyes as her vision was slowly returning to focus.

[Catherine]
The last few few weeks for Cath passed like a mirrage before her eyes. Not too long ago she was just a regular soldier in the imperial guard and then suddenly she got sent on this insane mission to infiltrate this cult of Slaanesh. At first she suspected the whole thing was just a joke, but as she arrived on her designated place to begin her infiltration it proved to be real. She still had no idea how they chose her for this insanity... to become part of a chaos god's cult so she can spy on them.Inquisitor Zhevon... now there was a person she had no idea what he was thinking, she herself realized how impossible the lure was. It was impossible for him not to realize it as well, that she will eventually succumb to this place's influence. Sure enough It didn't really take long for it to happen, at first she just followed her duties, avoiding to attract attention, but as time passed the whispers in the back of her mind only grew stronger and stronger. It really became hard to keep track of her own mind as the strange emotions she never suspected she had, started to grow beyond her control. She really thought she was going to go insane and completely lose herself to this place... untill she met Salithrielle. She met the Euphorian in one of the underground gatherings of the cult. At first it really didn't seem like anything special that heppened between them. Cath planned to use to other woman as a way to release all these pent up emotions, but now it was different. What she started to feel for the Euphorian was beyond simple friendship. She loved her, wanted to be with her. In her attempts to quell her building up desire to give herself to the darkness of this place, she invited it right into her heart. She couldn't stop it anymore, everything just started rolling into the current place of things. And here she was now, in a closet in the mansion, a place that was outside any observation. This fortress had very few blind spots and this was one of them.

She originally planned to use them to secretly relay back the information she gathered to the Inquisitor in case things got dangerous and there was a danger of her being found out. Now she just used those places when she wanted to be alone with Sali. "What am I doing..." Was one of the things that haunted her mind at first. She endangered her mission, her duty towards the Imperium and the Emperor. At first she couldn't really find a reason for it... she couldn't admit it. Torn between her duty and her present emotions, she waged battle inside her own mind, but in the end the duty towards the Imperium for it lost." This won't endanger the mission..." Was how her thinking changed. Slowly but surely she lost herself to this place. Now more than ever she was at the edge of her own willpower to resist. Just a little bit more and she would probably throw all her past life away for Salithrielle. And this is how she once again found herself here, in this closet.

"I couldn't wait... to get away from those pesky duties..." Cath whispered to Sali as they were cuddled up in the closet." When I'm away from you... everything just doesn't seem right!" She stated with a pleased smile. She loved the Euphorian... Maybe it was going ot be fine to tell her..." Sali... I ..." Cath started to say something when suddenly gunshots started ring through the mansion. Cath's heart contracted at the horror as she realized what probably was happening.

[Salithrielle]

"You mirrored my own thoughts exactly... " Salithrielle would respond in a soft voice, gently stroking through the janitor's white hair with the softer rubber underside of her power armored glove.

"You can't believe how dull my shifts have been lately, and my sisters have lost about all of their old fire and vigor. I don't know what I would have done without you."

Salithrielle spoke, sitting as she was on an iron bucket in the cramped janitor closet with Catherine sitting on her lap. If someone had asked the purple haired Euphorian whether she would ever enter a relationship with a simple mansion janitor some months ago, she would at best have laughed at them, and at worst have shot them.

"Sali... I ... "

"Oh?"

Salithrielle raised an eyebrow as Catherine was about to speak, going quiet herself; when suddenly the sound of some silenced bolter rounds going off in the corridor outside could be heard!

"What was... " Salithrielle would almost exclaim, looking towards the door, then back at Catherine.

"Maybe some of my stupid sisters forget the safety again... " She mumbled to Catherine, letting out a sigh when smiling.

[Catherine]

"I..." Cath was struggling to speak at this moment as she was hearing the bolter sounds. She very much doubted it was some of Sali's moronic sisters(though some really were so to the extremes). The janitor was struggling between admitting to her lover what she suspected was going on, probably revealing who she really was in the process or keeping quiet, hopeing it would all just go away while they were in the closet. Maybe while they were cuddling in here, the fools outside will just kill each other, leaving the two of them to escape in freedom... there were more than enough planets where they can hide.

Somewhow she doubted it would play out that nice though." It's... probably a raid..." Cath managed to mumble with trembling voice." They... are probably... searchign to obliterate the cult..." Cath finished her statement with her trembling voice, keeping her eyes downwards, unable to look at Sali from feeling guilty.

[Salithrielle]

"What... ?"

There was a visible look of surprise on the tattooed face of the Euphorian as she gazed down at the worried looking Catherine. Salithrielle usually found the white haired girl to be rathe confident in most matters, but the worry now displayed by Catherine left the Euphorian feeling troubled herself.

" wha... what makes you say that?" Salithrielle was about to begin to ask, gazing down at Catherine with a worried look herself, when suddenly a loud crash could be heard from the outside, followed by a distant voice yelling!

*CRASH*
*CRACK*

"Did I hit them?! Did I hit? Are they dead?!"

Salithrielle remained quiet for a moment, simply listening to the commotion going on outside before looking back at Catherine.

"Is there... something else you should be telling me? ... "

[Catherine]

"I'm..." Cath began quietly so only Sali can hear her. The janitor's voice was weak and trembling, afraid of what probably was about to happen."... part of the imperial guard... an Inquisitor sent me to spy, but... I never reported back!" Cath said, her eyes closed, afraid of Sali's wrath. The janitor was sure she was going to get probably hated for this... maybe even killed. Frankly the second was basically not even catching her mind anymore... it was the first she was completely terrified of. The fear of losing, of being hated by Salithrielle, was in Cath's mind so much more worse than dying.

"They probably decided to act now for some reason... I didn't know they were going to attack..." Catherine said afraid." I'm sorry... I wanted to tell you, but... it just..."

[Salithrielle]

There was only silence from Salithrielle's face as the Euphorian stared at her with intense, green eyes.

At first her expression had been that of utter confusion and an inability to comprehend the words of the girl, but slowly, her gesture would move towards that of shock, and a sign of horror.

"Cathy... " Salithrielle would utter, the Euphorian looking completely at her own wit's end as she merely looked down at Catherine, clueless as to what she should do!

Salithrielle could feel at least a dozen different feelings flowing through her mind at the same time! One part of her told her that she was supposed to be angry, that she was supposed to hate Catherine for holding such a terrible secret from her, because she was the enemy, sent to do harm to all she had participated in and worked for! But despite her brain telling her that, she couldn't mount any ire or hate towards the sorry looking girl in her lap, no matter how hard she tried or how hard her brain told her to scorn the little girl!

Catherine had been the light in her life for the past weeks at least. A ray of happiness in her otherwise dull days!

The look in Catherine's face spoke of guilt and mistakes, and Salithrielle couldn't bring herself to hate it. In fact she loved her too much, and so placed her hands on either side of Catherine's shoulders.

"We need to get you out of here! Before they know, either my sisters or the loyalists!"

[Catherine]

"...No...no! I'm not getting away without you!" Cath said in horror, throwing a quick glance back towards the door of the closet before looking back at Sally. The Euphorian's face didn't seem to carry the hatred and anger that the janitor expect would follow after her confession.

"Sally, what are you going to do if I escape now?" Cath asked, wrapping her arms around the bigger woman. She had the scary feeling her lover would choose to stay and fight the intruders, but considering the inquisitor was also here along with who knows how many of his posse were with him. She didn't want to let Sally face them in any case!" Don't tell me you plan to fight them!?"

[Salithrielle]

"I don't know! I don't know!" Salithrielle would exclaim at the question of what she was going to do if Catherine escaped!
"I... I never imagined anything like this ever happening, I don't... "

Salithrielle was on the edge of simply starting to ramble when Catherine threw herself around her, and a voice could be heard as the vox device on the side of her collar started to crackle into life.

"This is Euphoria Exarch to Euphoria Team Secundus; the estate is under attack. Commence tactical sweep and eradicate all hostiles, out!"

When Salithrielle heard the voice of Exarch Lucia through the vox device, she could feel hear heart suddenly skip a beat.

She remained frozen in place for a moment, her hands hanging loosely around in the air, before she slowly moved one hand behind Catherine's back.

A tear ran down Salithrielle's eyes as she merely gazed blankly out into the air in front of her, before slowly turning to look down at Catherine who was wrapped around her chest.

"We... first of all, we need to get you to safety; then we'll think of what to do!"

[Catherine]

"Fine..., but I'm not letting you leave me alone... if I escape you come with me! I don't care what happens anymore, just don't want to be separated from you!" Cath said, releasing her hold of Sally.

"We can't leave through the closet door... they are on that side." The janitor said, throwing a quick glance backwards. Then pointed towards the vent that was just above them. It was one of her escape routes that she had planned." I will fit in there..." Cath said and shook her head." You will not though..."

"Alright... I will use the vents to head towards the kitchen. From there the access to the garage is easy." Cath said and looked at her lover." Let's meet there... we can run away... both of us. I used to be stationed at the backwater systems a lot. I know more than a few where we can go and vanish. They will never find us there..."

[Salithrielle]

Salithrielle would grab Catherine's wrist with one of her hands, looking down at the girl.

"Always so crafty, aren't you.. " Salithrielle would throw her a smile, glancing briefly at the hatch to the vent above them. While Catherine was indeed small enough to fit into it, Salithrielle in her power armor, heavier figure and more than two meters in height would not.

"If you want, we can still go together. I can keep you safe on the way." Salithrielle would suddenly say, tilting her head at Catherine.
"not that you'd really need my help, but still... "

[Catherine]

"Alrighty... I don't want to separate from you after all! Let's go together, I've memorized the plans of the entire mansion. I will lead us away from the path of the intruders." Catherine said with a smile and she slightly rose from Sally's lap and leaned on the closet's door, listening for what was happening outside." It seems that they actually aren't exactly outside. If we leave now, we should be able to get away without anyone spotting us." The janitor quickly and carefully opened the door, taking a peek outside.

[Salithrielle]

"Wait," Salithrielle would suddenly say, placing a hand on Catherine's shoulder.
"Let me go first."

She whispered into the back of her ear, ushering the smaller girl a little further back in the closet as she herself stepped forward.

"I'm the armored one, remember? Just stay behind me and you'll be fine!" She smiled, offering Catherine a look of reassurance as she reached to unholster her purple glowing plasma pistol at the side of her thigh.

[Catherine]

"Ehh!?" Cath made surprised sound as she was pushed back into the closed by Sally, who took point and left first. The janitor made a mildly annoyed expression, but din't really say anything. She knew herself that true enough Sally was armored like a tank.

"How I wish I had my trusty chainsaber..." Cath muttered as she followed after her lover." I'm pretty good with that..." She said as she looked around, listening to sings of where the fighting was." I think that way we can evade the invaders and all the people going to fight them.

[Salithrielle]

"That sounds like a good idea, hun. Let's go!" Salithrielle would respond, as she slowly opened the door, stepping out with her plasma pistol in hand and her left hand reaching for the fleshy whip at her side!

*

Standing out in the doorway and looking at the sorry mess that was the heap of Aviza and Lilith, Adrianne would suddenly raise her eyebrows when she heard the sound of a door opening to her left.

Spinning around, the psyker would find herself standing face to face with Salithrielle just as the Euphorian stepped out of the closet!

Adrianne barely even noticed the smaller figure of Catherine walking behind the almost eight feet tall figure of Salithrielle, only noticing the former.

[i]"Crap, so much for surprise!"[//i]

Salithrielle blinked for a moment when she first saw Adrianne, seeing as the psyker was dressed much like any other guest with her sparkly blue and form fitting dress! Yet the uncertainty to would not remain for long, as Adrianne would suddenly raise her hands, and a torrent of purple lightning shot out from the tips of her fingers and flew right into Salithrielle! As she was hit by the fray of lightning, she would be thrown back; into Catherine; before they both flew into one of the nearby pillars with a thud, sparks flying everywhere!

"We got company!" Adrianne called out to Aviza and Lilith as she was turned towards where Salithrielle have landed.
"You guys catch Lady Zara. I'll hold off the reinforcements!"

[Catherine]

"Ohh heck..." Cath muttered as she saw the psychic attack and the next moment she felt Sally colliding into her and then both of her crashed into the pillar behind them. In one brief moment it took Cath to realize what happened, she suddenly screamed as she felt the immense pain in her left arm and her chest. Her arm was hanging in a wierd way and she could feel the already familiar pain of broken rib.

In a moment of panic and pain, while still unable to move due the big powerarmored woman on top of her, Cath quickly reached to Sally's whip with her right hand and swung it towards the psyker. Even if she didn't hit her, it would keep her occupied enuogh to dodge it while Sally get's her bearing together.

[Adrianne]

Adrianne was surprised when she saw a smaller arm reach out from behind Salithrielle as the Euphorian sat against the bottom of the pillar, and suddenly lash out against her!

Acting on pure instinct, the psyker barely managed to dodge to the side in time to avoid the whip!

In the meantime, Salithrielle, still groaning in pain as bouts of smoke rose from her electrocuted armor, would roll off to the side of Catherine and onto the floor, turning around and raising her plasma pistol to fire.

Seeing the raised pistol, Adrianne would immediately extend an arm towards them - causing Salithrielle's arm to suddenly shoot up towards the ceiling and the shot burn a hole in the roof as her aim was thrown off course by the psyker's invisible power!

Having thrown the shot off course, Adrianne would step closer towards the couple lying in front of her; extending her other arm outwards to reach towards a decorative weapons rack on the wall. As the weapons on it began to rattle, one saber would fly off its slot and into Adrianne's right hand as she approached Salithrielle and Catherine, channeling her telekinetic spell holding Salithrielle in place with her left hand!

[Catherine]

Having Sally slump off her, Cath, quickly pulled the Euphoria's sword as she saw the psyker pull one from the nearby rack. Fighting through the pain and heavy breathing, Catherine quickly jumped and dashed towards the woman attacking them, swinging the sword towards her. She made one final correction to her attack just as she neared the psyker. In the final moment, she jumped to the side, then propelling herself from the nearby wall in the opposite direction so instead of attacking the psyker form the right... she was on the left in one brief moment.

"Leave us alone dammit!" She shouted as the sword was already mid swing.

[Adrianne]

Adrianne was about to prepare her initial defense when she noticed the shift in Catherine's attack just in time to switch her own defense as Catherine leaped from one side to the other, blocking Catherine's blow with her saber!

A piercing metallic groan could be heard as Catherine's daemonic sword clashed with Adrianne's saber, the mundane steel saber immediately beginning to fracture as it clashed with the supernatural blade previously belonging to Salithrielle.

"I think not, little girl... " Adrianne responded from the other side of the parry as she glared back at Catherine with her purple eyes.

Tilting her sword and brushing Catherine's own away, Adrianne would strike out at her at multiple times; each time their swords met causing shards of metal to fall off the rapidly withering saber.

On the fourth blow, Adrianne would suddenly reach in and grab Catherine's wrist, pulling her towards her.

But as Catherine was being pulled, the world felt as it completely shifted for a moment and everything turned black! In one moment, she could feel the warm air of the mansion interior, and in the next split second, she could feel the fresh, cold night air!

In the blink of an eye, they would have disappeared from the hallway and instead appeared on top of the roof of the mansion!

Adrianne was still pulling in Catherine's arm, stepping away, only to reveal the edge of the mansion roof whom she was pulling her towards before letting go; the kinetic inertia having carried through the teleportation and now leading her towards the edge!

[Catherine]

"Ohh no you don't!" Cath shouted, pulling suddenly the whip that she tugged in her belt before charging the psyker. In a quick move, she swung it, towards the leg of the annoying woman. As the whip wrapped around the leg of the psycker. Using the momentum and the suppoort of the unexpecting psyker to swing herself back inside the mansion via the window that was just beneath the positon she got thrown out of. As she shattered the glass and was inside, she flicked her wrist to make the whip loosen form the psyker's leg and started painfully moving inward the mansion towards the stairs... hurryign to get back to Sally. She could feel the blood runnign down the edge of her mouth, but she cared not.

[Adrianne]

A smirk passed Adrianne's lips as she watched Catherine soar towards the edge of the roof.

What she had not accounted for would be the whip that she lashed out with, causing it to wrap around her leg without any warning.

"Huh ... ?"

Within the blink of an eye, the smirk on Adrianne's face would soon be replaced by a surprised expression as her leg was pulled out from under her, and she fell flat on her ass onto the roof! The sound of glass crashing could be heard from beneath, and soon the weight on the whip abated, allowing her to stand up.

"That cursed harlot!" Adrianne muttered as she staggered back onto her feet, reaching one hand up into the air.

Soaring down from the night sky, a familiar black raven would pass over where she stood, letting go off Adrianne's staff as it flew away.

Catching the staff as it fell mid air, Adrianne would turn it vertically and click it against the roof beneath her, disappearing in an instant!

*

Down below, as Catherine was about to walk out of the door to the room she had jumped into; she could hear a sudden snap as the air in front of her was expelled outwards and Adrianne appeared out of nothingness in front of her.

With a glare and almost as soon as she had even appeared, she would thrust the bottom of her psychic warstaff upwards in an arc - hitting Catherine in the bottom of the face and knocking her back into the room.

"Did you think losing me would be that easy?!" Adrianne exclaimed as she stepped in after her, holding her staff with both of her hands as she entered the room.

[Catherine]

"I hoped..." Cath replied, doing a quick swing of her hand, using the wip to throw a vase from the nearby table towrads the psyker. Fankly she didn't really have the strenght to stand anymore. She was barely standing and moving earlier. The pain in her chest was one that was enough to send many unconcious, but she... training in that area. For a moment in her mind, she wondered if she should try the codeword now... she didn't really want to because that will probably lead to her having to either leave Sally behind... or her surviving while the Euphoria not. There was also the chance that this group had nothing to do with the inquisitor that tasked her here. There wasn't really any other choice right now though...

"What do you want anyways..." Cath managed to say through the pain." Don't your guys downstair have need of help... there are a lot of guards in this place you know... why taking the time to deal with me?"

[Adrianne]

Adrianne looked down at Catherine as she raised a brow at her.

"Want?" Adrianne repeated, looking down at Catherine whom at that point looked worse enough for wear that she doubted she would be getting up to fight anytime soon.

"I guess in this dress, it might not be obvious... " Adrianne mumbled as she threw a sideway look down at her glittering blue dress, which was far different from her usual battle suit.

"Put simply, little heretic, we are here on imperial authority to wipe out your little nest of villainy!"

Adrianne said as she held her staff up horizontally, grabbing each end before pulling it apart, revealing a long, curved and hidden powerblade that glowed brightly in an ominous purple color as it was released from the shaft of the staff that acted much in the way of a sheat for the sword.

"And I figured I would work myself down from the list, not necessarily from the weakest to the strongest. That would be rather cliche."

[Catherine]

Listening to the woman, Cath smiled amused. It was a very distant smile, one that showed as if she took the woman standing in front of her as a joker that just told something very funny.

"That dress... your 'mission'... you really botched this infiltration job eh? Hahhahahaaha... ouch...*cough* " Cath began laughing before a bloody cough started.

"Well... too bad... " Cath said with a smile." Teacup... *cough* ...*cough*" She wanted to repeat the codeword a few times, but the cough started and she was coughing out blood.

[Adrianne]

" ... what?"

Adrianne would mutter, her eyes growing increasingly narrow as she looked down at Catherine with a distinct 'WTF look' on her face. Tilting her head to the side, she gaze suspiciously at Catherine.

"What did you just say?"

It was hard to tell what the girl was actually trying to say, between all the coughing and blood spitting, and Adrianne's face grew increasingly narrow, as if her brain was working overtime on figuring out what on earth Catherine had just said!

[Catherine]

"I said..*couch* teacup... tea..*cough* cup..." The woman on the floor replied a few more times in struggle." Damn... " She muttered frowling in pain. It was a very bad luck earlier... to get squished between the pillar and Sally. If she didn't she actually was going to show this woman a thing or two of how she faced psykers, but due everything that happened it wasn't going to turn out that way. Now the thing that was in Catherine's mine was Salithrielle... what had happened to the Euphoria... was she still alive...?

[Adrianne]

As the dialogue went on, the confused expression on Adrianne's face only grew rapidly in size and scope.

Teacup? What on earth was the girl trying to say, as she was half dead and repeating the word "teacup"?

Had she officially lost it? Had she finally gone insane? Was it the warp that had burned through her mind?

"That.... does not make sense!"

Adrianne thought to herself. There was obviously some kind of meaning her. No one would waste their last moment of life spouting random nonsense for no reason. "Teacup", the word must surely carry some kind of secret meaning! But what was it?

Was it some kind of riddle? A codeword for a secret project? Was it the name of some kind of superweapon?!

"ENOUGH RIDDLES!" Adrianne would finally exclaim, extending her arm and suddenly levitating Catherine above the ground!

"Answer me; what does "Teacup" mean? Is it a weapon? Is it a secret bunker? Is it the next phase of your vile plan? ANSWER ME!"

[Catherine]

"*cough* I should... have known it would... turn...out...this way...* cough*" Cath managed to say as the woman was shouting at her. A vague smile appeared on her face, thinking that she was indeed send to this place with no plans to bring her back after all... she so should have confessed to Sally a lot earlier." I was told that was my codeword... when I was send to infiltrate this place... by Inquisitor Zhevon... *cough*" Cath said as blood was running down the edge of he mouth." Seems like you were never told... have you? Was I trully send here to die... after...all?"

Cath was talking, but in reality she was gathering her final strenght to do one last action in case the psyker decides to kill her. There was still chance... as small as it was. The moment she tried to kill her, Cath was going to use the whip pull herself towards the window. If she get's close enough... she may just gather the last strenght to jump out... chance of survival were infinitely close to zero, but it was better than nothing.

[Adrianne]

Adrianne merely stared at Catherine for a moment as the girl was hanging in the air in front of her, looking confused as ever.

Leaning her head to the side, she would activate the vox bud in her ear and speak.

"Adrianne here... do any of you know what the word "Teacup" means?" She asked into her comms, simply standing there for a while, still holding Catherine off the ground with her powers.

Seconds passed as Adrianne listened for a response, when suddenly the psyker's eyes grew wide, and she looked back at the almost half-dead Catherine hanging in the air in front of her.

"Oh crap!"

In an instant, the invisible force hanging Catherine would disappear and she would be free to fall crashing onto the floor beneath her with a heavy thud!

Walking up over to Catherine, Adrianne would look down at her, raising a hand.

"I, uh... am sorry about that. Are you okay?"

[Catherine]

"Ughhh!" Cath made a heavily pained sound as she crumbled on the floor, her mind racing as she wanted to reply a very sarcasting thing to this insane woman, but her body was failing on her. She wanted to talk, but she had not the strenght to do so... the pain finally defeated her as she started to lose conciousness." Sally..." She barely whispered as her eyes closed.

While still laying upon the cold metal floor of the command center, Aviza stared up at the ceiling above her, unable to do much else until the disoriented feeling caused from the flashbang wore off. against her better judgemetn, Aviza ateempted to stand but was quickly knocked onto her back once more with a thunderous roar. Having no time to act, the Sister of Battle was lifted from the ground and thrown through the open bulkhead door with a thunderous roar. The power armored projectile managed to miss Zara and James by a couple of inches, though Lilith on the otherhand wasnt so lucky.

Aviza had managed to colide with Lilith in mid-air, sending both of them flying past Zara and James, then coming to a sudden stop at the railing that overlooked the main entryway of the mansion with a crash that echoed through the halls. The next thing she knew was that she was laying ontop of Lilith in her power armor. Quickly moving herself off of Lilith, Aviza forced herself to stand and grabbed onto her weapon wich thankfully had ended up nearby to where she had landed. "Are you alright?" asked Aviza as she offered Lilith a hand to help her onto her feet.

-

Lilith swore in surprise as a heavy power armored weight smashed into her from behind, her shots going wild and slamming into walls and cielings. "What the actual fuck?" She hissed at the Sororitas laying on top of her as she strained to push herself out from under the sudden dead weight. "In the name of..." She didn't finish the thought, straining with all of her superhuman might to push her off so she could resume killing people.

Thankfully she wasn't harmed too much, as plainly evidenced by the stream of information reaching her brain that told her she was bruised, and would be sore for a few weeks, but nothing that would keep her from continuing the slaughter. Suddenly, she became acutely aware of a hard object pressing into her side, and she yelped as she pushed herself off of the detanator for the full arsenal's worth of Melta Bombs on her person and planted throughout the building.

Aviza finally heaved herself off with her painfully slow human reflexes as Lilith sucked in a gulp of air in response. "I'm not dead if that's what you mean." She snarked, "But the detonator was almost triggered, and I still have easily twenty melta bombs left on me." She let the words sink in for a moment before continuing, "You mentioned shelling the building? What's the fastest way out of here so we can do just that? And set off all these melta charges."

-

Lilith had apparently inadvertently turned herself into a suicide bomber, and the two of them had almost been blown up by her failure to pay attention to the fact that a stray round could quite possibly set off the explosives that were strapped onto her body. “Why do you have so many melta charges strapped to your body? One shot with a bolter in the right area and they could all detonate, turning you, myself and everything else into flaming debris.” said Aviza while glancing around her.

“Damn it, where did those two head off to?” Zara and James had disappeared from sight while Lilith and Aviza recuperated after being thrown a good distance. They had left no sign as to where they had gone, it was as if they had vanished into thin air. “Shelling or using any weapon of the such is simply out of the question until we can recover Vastok and Zara. The rest of my squad is also inside of the mansion somewhere. We cannot call off board support until we are all accounted for and our objectives are secure.”

A mere moment later, the com inside of Aviza's power armor quickly turned on, followed by the voice of a Euphorian officer, informing them to move quickly to Vastoks position and recover him before any of the intruders could remove the unconscious cult leader from the mansion and escape. Letting out a soft sigh, Aviza readied her heavy bolter, waiting for any sign of the incoming hostiles.

"I have good news and bad news...." said Aviza, turning to Lilith. "Good news is that we are about to have more hostiles to shoot at, bad news is that they are Euphorians. They are going to be quite the challenge to bring down with bolter fire alone, do you have any ideas on how we can gain an advantage over them?

-

"Perhaps a stray bolt could've set them off, but you realize my intent was to avoid any and all open confrontation whatsoever. Besides, it's not as many as I had earlier, I've wired up exactly on hundred and ninety three melta charges at critical structural points - I wasn't made aware of the fact that anybody with artillery support would be coming here.You owe me an explanation for that, because I've been here for three months sniffing everything out on my lonesome." Lilith grumbled in response to Aviza as she dusted herself off.

Nonetheless, she nodded as Aviza gave her a little more context. "Right, so, we grab this guy and his wife and book it with your friends, one of whom is presumably the person who turned you into an impromptu chainless wrecking ball. Gotcha."

Lilith paused as Aviza listened in on a radio broadcast presumably coming from the guards of this place. When she was updated on the new situation she grinned a Daemonic grin of pure, refined malice. "Oh, perhaps they will. If we were going to fight them the way you're probably thinking of, almost certainly. But..." She produced a vaguely cylindrical object from the row of them on a belt, "This is a melta bomb of average yield. We're going to put these where those Euphorians are going to be coming from, and when they enter the kill zone - we enjoy ourselves a nice molten barbecue."

“Pardon me for a moment Lilith, I need to inform the rest of the squad immediately about this.” Reaching up with her right hand to the helmet of her power armor, Aviza turned on the com inside of it. Quickly attuning it to her squads channel, she began to inform them of the unseen dangers that waited to be detonated.

“This is Aviza Norea, I was just informed by Techpriestess Lilith that there are around two hundred melta charges placed inside of the mansion and are currently awaiting detonation. You are all here by ordered to report your status, and then regroup with Lilith and myself at Vastok’s position.” Turning off her com, Aviza turned to face Lilith once more. “You are spot on with the mission details Lilith, so let us carry them out, easier said than done though. I do however like your idea of using metla charges to take out the euphorians in a blazing inferno, I always have enjoyed a good barbecue.

“No use standing around and wasting time, let’s prepare for the ambush.” Aviza took cover inside of a room at the end of the hall, motioning for Lilith to do the same.

The door was open to the lavishly decorated room they were taking cover in so that they could see when the euphorians arrived and when the ambush could be set in motion.

"Wow!" Lilith snarked, "I'm up to date on something for once! Let me take a moment to write that down on this calendar here, so I know that at least one point in this mission I had some idea of what we were doing!" Coughing awkwardly, she continued more seriously, "I can set them for a wide area blast or focused one that'd take out a tank - let me have those back for a second, they're currently set for the latter." She pulled out an unusually shaped tool, twisting it three times on each charge before handing half them back to Aviza. "You can take that side, I assume you know how to maximize their effect."

Shifting the remaining ten charges to the bottom of their bandolier, she quickly moved back to the room Aviza was sheltering in. "I have a sneaking suspicion that this Vastok is the one snoring in that rather unsecure room which just happens to be uncomfortably close to the blast zone..." Glancing over at Aviza, she sighed. "That is him, isn't it? We'd just run away otherwise, instead of fighting head on an assault squad of angry women in power armor."

She too, however, heard the rapidly approaching thunder of power armored feet slamming against the marble flooring, and abandoned the notion of retrieving him from the room. Readying the detonator, she retrieved her own bolter from its strap and made sure there was a round in the chamber.

The sound drew closer, the Euphorians were nearing the bend. Lilith closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them time slowed - for her. As the first power armored figure rounded the corner, she waited, and waited, until the entire group was marching in a perfect formation down the hallway. A few more seconds of slow motion and...

Lilith pressed the button, and instantaneously bright balls of superheated gas erupted from the charge points, enveloping the Euphorians. She grinned maliciously as the roar of vaporizing water vapor and flesh reached her ears. "What was that about being a challenge to take down?" She shouted over the dying roar of the Euphorians being reduced to... lumps of molten slag.

“No shit? That must be quite a first for you, we should celebrate this momentous accomplishment in your history once we arrive back at the safe house. I am sure everyone will be happy to know that you finely managed to be up to date on something important.” Aviza snapped back at Lilith in a strong sarcastic tone. When Lilith asked for the Metla charges back, the Sister of Battle was somewhat hesitant at first but then handed them over and waited for the explosives to be altered. “If the metla charges would explode while you were tampering with them, that would be priceless, then again I would burn alive as well.” Aviza shrugged lightly with a sly smirk spread across her face.

Vastok was indeed rather close to the blast zone where they were about to set up the charges, but grabbing the cult leader and making a desperate sprint for the front door would inevitably end with their death. “Yes that is indeed Vastok and I know that he is rather close to the blast zone but he will be fine, the charges will burn everything outside of the room and nothing inside of it, as I am sure you know.” Carefully taking the explosives from Lilith, Aviza sprinted down the hall before cautiously planting each explosive in their own specific location. Returning to Liliths side, Aviza quickly lowered her body against the floor and went prone, readying her heavy bolter.

Soon enough, the sound of the heavily armored Euphorians could be heard marching towards Lilith and Aviza’s position. As soon as they appeared, the explosives detonated. Aviza opened fire and held down her trigger finger upon her heavy bolter until the end of the barrel glowed white. The Euphorians were thankfully taken down quickly, their bodies scattered across the hallway in grotesque debris.

Closing the visor on her power armor and turning on its filter, Aviza blocked the smell of burning human flesh and chemicals. The hallway had now caught on fire from the explosive rounds and was spreading rapidly, “Now would be a good time to grab Vastok and retreat.” Turning on her com once more, Aviza spoke to her squad to give them updated orders. “Aviza Norea here, belay my last orders and evacuate the mansion immediately, regroup at where we were dropped off.” Standing up, Aviza motioned for Lilith to follow her, “Think you can manage grabbing Vastok while I keep us covered from any other hostiles?

-

Lilith frowned as Aviza decided to snark about the melta chargees going off in her hands. "I am a highly trained member of the Adeptus Mechanicus, you realize? The chances of my making an error that will result in these exploding in my face right now are astronomical, about as likely as us surviving in such an eventuality in fact." Now she smirked, finishing her work as she took her own five charges.

"And you realize, convection is a thing, yes? I'm not concerned about the gas reaching the room, but I am concerned that the convection of the heat through the air will nonetheless reach it, superheat the air in the room, and kill him all the same. But we don't have the time for that now..." she muttered...

-

Lilith didn't mind the smell, in all honesty, she had smelled worse anyway. Her lungs were mechanical, so no concern there. "Honestly, Aviza, it doesn't smell that bad. Small whiff of the acrid stench of burning flesh, sure, the pungent tang of chemicals, but really - we've both smelled worse." She nonetheless sprinted for the room, finding to her immense relief that the heat from the bombs had not reached it.

Two unconscious bodies lay on the floor - and she grabbed the first one, heaving Vastok over her shoulder and turning to leave before stopping and turning around. Despite heartlessly killing scores of his comrades, she couldn't bring herself to leave the guard to die like that. "Damn this morality thing..." she muttered, and moved back towards him, bending down and scooping the other unconscious man over her shoulder.

She ran out of the room and back towards Aviza, "Alright, so, I say we book it." She took off running again, shouting over her shoulder, "Your friends can make it to the main entrance on their own, right?"

Aviza sprinted along side Lilith with her heavy bolter in hand, ready to fire at any hostile that may show itself to them. "I have no dobut they will be here shortly, until then we should hold our position and kill any hostiles that approach us." The mansion was quite empty compared to how busy it had been only moments ago, all the gunfire proved to be a great motive to evacuate it the premises. Unbenounced to them, Lucia and her squad of elite Euphorians were currently heading their way to the front of the mansion with Zara tailing behind them.

"Sir, the art is fascinating and all, but you're going to have to come with us." The more serious one interrupted,
"Ah, I see. Lead the way then." Zhevon replied, conceding. There was something he needed to retrieve from their basement, and he was a bit curious. After a few minutes of walking, they reached a stairwell. The guard opened the heavy door on the bottom, the door flowed smooth and gave no creaks. It was probably often used and well maintained. A few steps into the basement, gunfire was heard, then the guards received a transmission. Zhevon tensed up. Once they rose their weapons at him, the Inquisitor spun around, swatting a lasgun away with his arm and planting a fist into the face of one of the guard on the left. In a flash, Zhevon gripped his sword and whipped it out, slashing at the right guard. He went into a stab, and thrust the blade of his power sword into the chest of the guard on the left. Zhevon pulled it out and smacked the other guard in the face with the pommel of his sword. A quick slash dispatched the last guard. The Inquisitor looked to the exit of the basement, knowing that their cover had been blown, he would have to link up with the rest of his retinue. But the door wasn't there. What he saw was a stone wall, like the other stone walls, with a rack lined with whips of various size and length.
Zhevon's eyes narrowed. His communicator flashed red, jammed.
A transmission barely came through, crammed with static and interference.
"...Nor... Iestess Li... Melta charg... Det... Report... Vasto... Position."

A Techpriestess, Melta Charges, Detonation? Report to Vastok's position? Zhevon clicked his communicator on, receiving static back. He clicked morse code back, "Stuck in basement. Will escape."
He turned to face deeper into the basement, the darkness limiting his vision. The only thing he could see further down were the dim lamps on the walls. He shook his sword, shaking off the excess blood off of it. Since the exit, or entrance, was closed off, the only way to go was deeper into the basement. He walked cautiously, wielding a laspistol taken off of one of the guards in his offhand, and his sword on the other. He noticed scores of boxes, art pieces, shelves full of phallic objects. He saw a particularly large one, so oddly shaped, he stopped and let out an audible Eugh. This must double as both storage and dungeon.

Another transmission came in, like the last, riddled with static and interference.
"Aviza... Evac... Regroup..."
It was more garbled than before, which didn't bode well. After a few moments of travelling, he stumbled upon a Meltabomb. He looked at the Meltabomb, and then at the ceiling. A thought occurred. Not a particularly intelligent one, but a thought. He grabbed it and placed it on the ceiling, then he jogged away about two dozen feet. Took aim with the laspistol, and fired. He missed. Zhevon grimaced and took aim again, firing again. Missing again. He sighed loudly, taking several more shots until a las hit the melta charge and detonated it. Finally, a way out.
Then how to climb up... He walked over to a shelf and leaned it against a wall. He took a running start, stepped on the shelf, and managed to climb his way up. His communications now flashed green, he switched it on.
"This is Inquisitor Zhevon, I was trapped in the basement for a moment, I'm out now. Regroup at the DZ?" He broadcasted on squad communications.

"Owwhhh... owwhhhh... " Adrianne groaned pitifully from where she lay deep within the bushes, before eventually beginning a slow struggle to try to sit up straight in the shrubbery of the gardens surrounding the mansion walls.

"THat hurt... a lot."

...

" ... and my dress is forever ruined."

"Move that Vehicle to the front, make sure to cover the whole entrance!"

But Adrianne would not have much time to mourn the loss of her dress which at that point was torn and shredded in multiple places, as soon she heard the authoritarian voice of a man shouting from somewhere further away, followed by a deep grinding sound and the noise created by a powerful engine revving into life.

"Uh, what?" Adrianne muttered to herself as she eventually peeked out from the bush where she was sitting, only to see a blue Chimera tank rolling up towards the front yard of the mansion, with a group of six house guards dressed in blue and yellow regal uniforms and silver trimmed ornate carapace armor and gas masks. The Chimera had a plated Multi-las turret mounted on top, controlled by one of the House Guards sitting in the hatch behind it. He was currently watching the front of the mansion, which was lit up by powerful spotlights mounted on the front of the Chimera!

At the same time, she could hear the noise of jet engines, and when she raised her head to look up, she could see a chrome plated Valkyrie hovering above the mansion; sporting one multi-las turret below the nose, a heavy bolter on each side of it crewed by two soldiers dressed in gray fatigues, and at least six different rocket pods beneath its wings; all aimed at the building as it circled around it. Painted on the side of the Valkyrie, Adrianne could see the image of a black hawk.

"This is Inquisitor Zhevon, I was trapped in the basement for a moment, I'm out now. Regroup at the DZ?"

"Uhhh, guys." Adrianne activated her comms to respond.
"I think we're in trouble... "

*

As Lilith and Aviza moved through the mansion with their two prisoners, an unnatural howl could suddenly be heard from above as a series of shadowy missiles emerged from the corner of the view, as six Doombolts smashed into the ground in front of them, shattering the marble floor and leaving heavy chunks of the walls in ruins as nothing but debris and black, mystical smoke remained from where they had landed!

Only moments after they had detonated, a haunting purple light would emerge from within the dark mist as a portal was opened up in front of them, and a black power armored woman walked out through it.

"I hope I am not too late for the party." Sounded the familiar voice of Lucia as the Euphorian stepped through the black mist and walked in front of Aviza and Lilith.

The pale skinned woman grinned at Aviza and Lilith through her purple hair. Her fanciful warped black power armor seemed to exhume shadows constantly, almost shrouding the euphorian in a magical layer of warp mist. Flowing down from her back would be a cape made of living, twiching tendrils that occasionally rattled about, and in each of her hands, she held an elegant, serrated daemonblade richly decorated with blasphemous markings.

Perhaps the most unnerving part of the Euphorian was not her unnatural armor or imposing height of seven feet, but the cursed medallian that she had embedded in her breastplate that carried a living, twitching eye that rapidly looked around, similar to the amulet found previously by Zhevon.

Merely looking in the direction of the eye would create a rattling sound from inside of their heads, as if their skulls were being scratched from something on the inside; a migraine that seemed to build up as a chorus of tiny voices began screaming louder and louder.

"I have been waiting for this moment." Lucia said, looking menacingly at Aviza.

"Rivian, close the portal, and let's entertain our guests... "

As Lucia said that, the purple portal behind her would close, leaving only them in the room. Crossing her blades, her grin only grew in size.

*Just before Adrianne found herself outside in the bushes*

Adrianne remained standing just inside the doorway, merely staring at the woman lying slumped across the floor in front of her.

Catherine had passed out from her wounds and injuries, not much more than murmuring escaping from her lips before she passed off into dreamland. The psyker looked at her with a look of concern for a while, not sure what to do.

"I almost killed a fellow member of the Inquisition?!"

In Adrianne's defense, the woman, Catherine, had played her role pretty well. Almost dangerously so!

But when she would take a step forward towards the unconscious body of Catherine, she could hear a heavy footstep, followed by a sharp voice, coming from behind her!

"Stop! Stay away from her!"

Adrianne would immediately freeze mid step, looking towards her left, before slowly turning around to see who it was who had called out to her.

Now standing behind her at the doorway would be the tall and imposing figure of the purple haired Salithrielle, the Euphorian standing there and pointing at Adrianne with her plasma pistol. Sections of her blackened armor were still exhuming smoke, the occasional static crackle passing across her chestplate as some of the residual lightning from earlier still remained. Yet despite her weathered look, Salithrielle carried a determined look in her green eyes as she glared at Adrianne.

Adrianne looked at Salithrielle, then back over at the unconscious body of Catherine behind her, and then back at the Euphorian.

"I don't think you know who she really is... " Adrianne would mutter, taking a step towards the side while rolling her power sword around in her hand.

"I know the truth, but that does not change the fact that I will always protect her!" Salithrielle exclaimed, taking another cautious step into the room.

Adrianne tilted her head slightly towards the side as she stared back towards the Euphorian with a curious gaze. Holding her blade up in a horizontal position, she would look over it and towards the Euphorian.

"She is protected. However, in this situation, you are not. You may be a pawn, but I will destroy you nonetheless with the same prejudice I would your fallen masters!"

Adrianne spoke while retaining eye contact with Salithrielle all the way, suddenly stopping and pointing her power blade at the Euphorian.

"This ends here... "

Salithrielle's eyes narrowed at the psyker as she walked sideways in front of her, eventually pointing her power blade that glowed with a haunting purple light at her.

"Yes."

She would answer Adrianne's statement, and in that moment, fire off a purple ball of plasma from her plasma pistol! The superheated plasma flew towards Adrianne, before sudddenly being dispersed across the surface of the refractor field she was wearing that came to life just as the shot came towards her!

In the blink of an eye, Adrianne would rush forward, gracefully sidestepping the next shot from Salithrielle!

Before the third shot could be fired, Adrianne would have spun around and come up against Salithrielle with an upward-strike! With a perfect strike, she would cut right through the barrel of Salithrielle's plasma gun, severing it half and unleashing a small mist of superheated plasma that rapidly escaped the back mounted chamer of the pistol!

"Dammit!" Salithrielle would utter, dropping the destroyed plasma gun while taking a step back, and quickly moving her whole body to the right to avoid a downward strike from Adrianne's blade! As Adrianne angled her blade and came in for a sideward sweeping strike against her, the Euphorian would instead rush to the side and roll across the floor towards Catherine, grabbing the whip next to her as she reached the unconscious body of her lover.

"I'll make her pay for this... "

Salithrielle whispered down to Catherine, offering her lover a brief look of sympathy, before raising her head to look back at Adrianne. Except...

... the psyker was gone.

The space in front of her around the doorway was now empty. In that second, Salithrielle would blink, somewhat confusingly, at the empty room, before suddenly hearing a whiplash sound from behind her as Adrianne suddenly rematerialized right behind her, already in the act of swinging her power blade around!

Acting on pure instinct, Salithrielle would roll around to her left and reach up towards the incoming strike - producing a dark sphere from the palm of her hand that succeeded in blocking the sword and throwing it off course!

"My turn!"

Now with the whip in hand, she would lash out with it against Adrianne's feet! It connected, wrapping itself around her other ankle and pulling her feet out from under her!

As Adrianne went to fall backwards and towards the ground, she would suddenly disappear once again, only to reappear the same moment right above Salithrielle as she came down with an elbow strike right down onto the Euphorian's unsuspecting head! Salithrielle would be struck completely off guard, and knocked down face first into the ground as she was hit in the back of the head by Adrianne's elbow! But despite the disorienting blow, she would roll to the side, lashing out once again in the general direction of where she last remembered seeing Adrianne. Seeing the fleshy tendrils of the daemonic whip come towards her for a second time, Adrianne would be ready this time!

With an audible slicing sound, Adrianne would strike out with her sword and sever the whip in half - her power sword easily cutting through the fleshy composition of the whip and its greater half flew wildly into a wall behind her.

"Don't make me laugh!" Adrianne chuckled, stepping back to hold her sword in a high guard!

Staring up at her foe from her own kneeling position, Salithrielle would grit her teeth. She was facing a battle psyker, and Catherine's life was hanging in the balance. Clenching her fists, she uttered some words as she channeled an ability, before suddenly bursting forward with a cry towards Adrianne!

However, this time, Salithrielle would be moving with a surprising amount of speed, already catching Adrianne before she had even been able to bring her sword down.

Catching Adrianne's arms with the back of her gauntlet, Salithrielle would push them aside as she ran straight into Adrianne, bringing a palm forth to strike her straight in the face and knock her backwards! Adrianne let out a groan, before again, disappearing mid air. Seeing her opponent disappear, Salithrielle would lower her posture, before hearing Adrianne reappear to her side!

Immediately dodging downwards, Adrianne's power blade would pass only inches above Salithrielle's head, taking off a couple of strands of hair in the process!

But before she could bring her blade in for a new strike, Salithrielle would already have raised herself and brought up her leg in a backward kick against Adrianne, hitting the psyker square in the chest and knocking her back, causing her to lose her sword in the process! Falling back into the floor, Adrianne rolled back onto the floor! All the air in her lungs had been knocked straight out of her as she scrambled to get back onto her knees, just as the Euphorian charged her anew, this time grabbing Adrianne by her dress and lifting her up!

"It *wheezes* ... won't be that easy!" Adrianne uttered with what little breath she could muster as she reached for either of Salithrielle's shoulder, holding onto her.

As her fingers crept across the black surface of the Euphorian's power armor, tendrils of purple lightning would suddenly shoot through her arms and into Salithrielle on point black range, consuming them both in a fray of sparks and electricity!

Salithrielle, immediately feeling her whole body struggle to stand under the psychic onslaught that set every nerve in her body on fire, would struggle to hold the enemy psyker at an arm's length; slowly taking a couple of strained steps forward, before letting out a pained scream as she tossed Adrianne towards the window, throwing the woman through it but also taking a chunk of the wooden frame with her in the process!

Adrianne's eyes widened as she saw herself being thrown out the window and start to fall, soaring down the three storeys from the window before crashing down into the bushes underneath!

"Owwwwhhh! That bitch... " Adrianne would groan, rolling around as she tried to get back up.

*Now*

Back in the room, Salithrielle would let out a great sigh of relief as she walked backwards, turning to look towards Catherine whom was still lying on the floor.

Walking slowly towards her, the occasional purple spark still jumping across her armor, she would fall down on her knees next to Catherine, leaning over her as she looked down at her.

"Cath... Cath! Are you alright?" She would ask, placing one hand over Catherine's shoulder.

*Catherine*

It took a little while for Cath to come back into conciousness, but eventually she started feeling and hearing again. She felt a hand on her should and someone calling her. It took her a little bit of time before her eyes focus and see that it was Salithrielle.

"Sally...?" She asked, confused of what was going on. She strained herself to look around the room, unable to understand what had happened. The last thing she remembered was that psycho woman beating the heck out of her and then dropping her on the ground as she realized the codeword." Where is that... psyker woman... why are you still here?" Cath asked in panic.

"You have to run, Sally! They will kill you, if they find you! I..." Cath tried to get up, but her body was refusing to listen." Sally... please... just... go. I don't want to lose you..."

* Salithrielle*

Salithrielle smiled when she saw Catherine finally begin to come back to the realm of consciousness, immediately reaching down to give her a hug but being careful not to pull her battered body too much!

"Where is that... psyker woman... why are you still here?"

"Well, I... " Salithrielle paused for a moment, taking the time to look over her shoulder at the window and then back at Catherine.
" ... let's just say that I helped her find the express elevator down to the first floor."

Salithrielle smiled, happy to see Catherine still being able to talk. She had been worried sick the first time she had seen Catherine's crumpled body behind the psyker, but to hear her talk did a great number for her nerves to calm down!

"But... what about you, Cat? Am I just to leave you?" She asked, looking down with a look of deep concern towards the battered woman beneath her.

*Catherine*

"I..." Cath started to say something but suddenly stopped, closing her eyes to think about what she was going to say. After taking a painful deep breath and coughing some blood she looked at Sally again." They... will not kill me... They still need me alive. I hold the information they need... remember?"

"I didn't want things to turn like this..." She whispered, looking at the Euphorian." Go... I will stall giving them the information as long as I can, but I will surive somehow... untill we meet again... away from all these fools and their petty war..." She whispered to Sally.

* Salithrielle *

"You... you were always so full of stupid ideas." Salithrielle would comment as she looked down at Catherine, struggling to hold back a tear.
"But you always made it through to the end."

With a smile, she would give Catherine a hug, a gentle kiss, before holding her a little further away.

"Promise me you won't fudge this one up, Cat. I'll be waiting for you... and I'll be holding you to your word!"

Salithrielle said, looking down at Catherine with a sorrowful smile. Slowly letting her back down onto the ground, she would stand up; offer her a last look, before turning around to run!

*Catherine*

"You are silly..." Cath said as Sally kissed her." I have a secret place... if something happens wait me on the planet of... Eskizara II." Cath whispered the exact coordinates in the Euphorian's ear before the bigger woman stood up to start running.

"Damn..." Cath muttered to herself as Salithrielle was already away... a few tears ran down her cheeks, mixing with the blood on her face. She wanted to move... to run away with her love, but that was not bound to happen now." I...will..." She began muttering as the
adrenaline produced by the fact she saw Sally started to wear off and Cath once again found herself loosing conciousness."... nerver forgive them... all... were the last thoughts that ran through her head before all faded to black once again, but she forced herself somehow to stay awake, coughing some blood in the process.” Damn it… where the hell is that teleporting annoyance…” Cath muttered wondering what the teleporting psyker was, after all that woman was now her most sure way out of this situation… at least way out alive that is.

After a few moments she decided it was no longer an option to wait, especially hearing the sound of heavy vehicles. Making some gurgling sounds as if she was trying to throw up, she spat out a small transmitter. It’s range was quite limited, but should have been enough to connect with the inquisition members around, if they were using the frequency that was given to her in advance before she started the infiltration mission.” Anyone… out there *cough*… I need help with my extraction… I’m on the third floor, I have the information I was sent to obtain.” She managed to say after activating the small transmitter. Hopefully it was still in working order… but after the beating she took, who knew.

When travelling through an empty corridor, Zhevon received a weak transmission. A person was on the third floor, and had information they were sent to obtain. It sounded like she was beat up pretty badly, but who was she? Lima would have left at the first hint of trouble. Maybe she already did, since Zhevon hadn't received a communication from her in a while. Zhevon looked around him, then out the window. He punched out the window and stuck his head out, looking up and down. Second floor? How does a basement connect to the second floor? He thought to himself. Only a floor up then. He went back to searching for a staircase, thankfully the mansion at this time was mostly empty, with most of the activity on the ground floor or outside.

He wasn't tech savvy, so it took him a while to track down the origin of the transmission. He carefully opened the door, laspistol up. He saw the woman on the floor, as he thought beat up pretty bad. He jogged over to her, sheathing his sword and putting the pistol in a pocket. Ah, throne damn it. He thought as he looked over her injuries. He saw heavy bruising, an arm not the way it's supposed to be and... Well he wasn't a medic.
He knelt beside her, "Don't speak, I'm getting you out of here... Looks like someone threw you down eight flights of stairs." He bluntly remarked, he patted her cheek with his gloved hand several times to keep her awake, "Hey, stay with me here. Blink twice if you think you're in a condition to be picked up. Once if it's a no-go." He held up fingers in front of her vision. He paused for a second to look around the room, just in case she wasn't in a condition to be picked up, he needed a backup. And he found it, but it was kind of a stupid backup. He looked back down at the woman, "Uh, three times if you would rather be dragged on a door or something."

“Huh…” Catherine made a surprised sound as she saw someone finally appearing at the doorframe to the room she was at. Looked… as an inquisitor… or at least that’s what she thought at the time. As the man neared her and pulled away his weapons, she was relieved that she finally might escape this place alive after all.

‘Yeah… your insane psyker woman…’ Cath thought when the man made a statement about her injuries. Had she not been as skillful with the sword and the whip she was going to be dead… probably. Following that she blinked 3 times when he asked her in what condition she was. She certainly didn’t feel in condition to be moved. With all the adrenaline gone she barely felt strong enough to move a finger now.

“The kitchen…” She mumbled through the pain.” It has easy access to one of the garages and should be mostly empty now with the attack going on…” She added painfully.

Without any warning, the sound of a whiplash effect could be heard right next to Zhevon and Catherine!

Now standing three feet next to them was Adrianne, looking down at the pair. Her dress was torn and her hair featured now at least a couple new leafs and twigs adorning it.

"Inquisitor?" Adrianne uttered with a look of surprise when she noticed Zhevon tending to the woman she had just defeated earlier!

"Emperor, what is going on?"

"Be careful, Inquisitor! That woman is in league with the cultists!" Adrianne warned as she pointed her staff at Catherine, her purple eyes narrowing as they centered on the woman on the floor.
"When I attempted to apprehend her, one of the Euphorians... ehh, interrupted me. She could still be around! We need to be careful with this woman."

Adrianne warned as she threw a look of concern towards Zhevon, and then a look of suspicion towards Catherine. She had seen many a noble man fall to a pretty face(granted, Catherine's was pretty battered at that point, courtesy of Adrianne & Salithrielle's backside), and she did not want to see the Inquisitor fall into the same trap!

Insane Psyker woman? Well she can go overboard with her powers sometimes... Zhevon thought to himself. Were the two fighting? Did she get caught in the crossfire? Zhevon stood up and walked to the door, taking out his sword, he stabbed it into the hinges and began to work on getting the door free. The woman spoke again, this time revealing that the kitchen had a passage to the garage, and that the area there should be clear now that the mansion was under attack. Zhevon nodded, a vehicle could be useful for a getaway. He got the door free and then laid it next to Cath, he cut the edge of the door with his power sword to make it easier to slide under the wounded woman.

Then he heard the sound of whiplash, one made by Adrianne's teleportation. Zhevon turned to her,
"Inquisitor?" She asked puzzled, she sprung into action and pointed her staff at the girl, explaining that she was in league with the cultists. Further explaining that a Euphorian attacked her when she tried to apprehend the now hurt girl. Zhevon looked at Adrianne, who had an expression of concern, then they both looked at Cath. Zhevon furrowed his brow. "We get her out of here first, then we can question her." He decided, sliding the makeshift stretcher under Cath, "Adrianne, can you get us to the Kitchen? Or even better, the garage? There should be vehicles there that we can... Requisition." He kept an eye out, scanning the room. The Euphorian that Adrianne spoke of may still be lingering, and he would rather not be caught unawares.

"Teleporting into spaces I haven't seen or been to is a little difficult." Adrianne replied as she entertained the idea of teleporting to one of the kitchens or garage, neither of which she had ever seen or been to.

She was quite good at teleporting, but teleporting to places she had no clue about was generally beyond her. For that to work, she would need to prepare by scrying any buildings or tunnels.

"If I were to try, there'd be a high chance of failure. At best, my cast might just fizzle. At worst, we'd all be instantaneously torn apart at a sub-atomic level." Adrianne said with a thoughtful expression on her face.
"It'd be painless, at least."

Turning to look towards the window, Adrianne could see a small portion of the searchlights from outside bleed through the window frame and into the room at regular intervals. From that point, she could easy see beyond the perimeter of the mansion and to any building or hill afar.

"I could make a long-range teleportation back to our safehouse, with a cirka 93% chance of working." She would then suggest, looking back at Zhevon.
"That is assuming of course that the cultists have no arcane relays or interceptor nodes scattered about the mansion area, which may interfere with any long range psychically driven teleportation."