"Suspected chaos worship, you say?"

Adrianne had put her skull mask back on as she and Nergui had followed Aviza out into the rain, letting the rain drops fall on the expressionless mask. She did not mind the rain. In fact, ever since she had been a little girl she had always found rain beautiful and refreshing to be in.

That was, as long as the rain in question was not the polluted rain of a forge-world!

"If the denizens of an entire forge world have fallen to chaos, that does up the stakes considerable. Tech heresy on a single forge world is a potential threat to the entire sector." Adrianne peered around, noting an abandoned heavy-loader vehicle off to their side that had been partially been stripped for parts by the greenskin.
"It could definitely explain how the forge world's entire population is missing. The adepts of the mechanicum are nothing if not systematic, and if they turned to chaos, they are one of the few groups that could pull off such a total concealment."

Adrianne couldn't help but think of how amusing it looked as the three of them walked down the road. Although Aviza was the leader of the group, she looked simply small between the tall psyker and the broad space marine, almost comically so.

Meanwhile, a sub-part of her mind told her that she should take this more seriously. She had just received news that an entire forge world might have fallen to heresy, and their entire support apparatus was compromised! Getting worried would be a perfectly human reaction to their current situation! Space Marines like Nergui might not be able to feel fear, but Adrianne was still human, and thus had the capacity.

However, as a Psyker; her life had been nothing but a trial in suppressing unnecessary or dangerous emotions.

Fear, insecurity, doubt. Those were the emotions that the neverborn fed upon. Therefore, to be a Psyker meant to have an indominable mind. Nothing short of supreme confidence and belief in oneself could ensure one's protection, even if such a will had to border on self-deception. But when it came to the warp, self-deception was not always a bad thing, for with the warp; the essence of will was what gave it form, and thus a complete sense in one's superiority could be to one's advantage rather than disadvantage.

Therefore, unlike Aviza, Adrianne did not fear for her purity at all; for only if she would be foolish enough to doubt it in the first place would it be endangered!

"If there is an ongoing tech-heresy on this planet, we can expect constructs and war machines without counting." Adrianne commented again after a few steps, as Nergui continued his stoic won't-speak tough-guy routine!

While she normally doubted the chances of even a properly managed chaos insurrection of retaking their planet from a horde of Orks that had already infested it, the dark mechanicum was something entirely different; and Adrianne suspected that if they had planned this all along, then the removal of the Orks would be a relatively easy process.

"If the Dark Mechanicum have their claws on this forge-world, dozens of planet are at risk; and if we cannot rely on our own, it may be necessary that we inform the Adeptus Mechanicum directly. When it concerns a forge-world and the Dark Mechanicum, I doubt few would be faster to answer than them."

After Nergui had finished his outburst of laughter, and Adrianne had said her own part, Aviza was quick to reply to them. "Fear is not the correct term for this situation, for I fear nothing. Concern on the other hand may be more fitting. I have no doubt about my purity in the eyes of the emperor, but I am no fool. Due to the current circumstances at hand, I do not believe a real Inquisitor nor his or her troops will feel that same about us being pure and untouched. We have served under a corrupted, heretical Inquisitor and that makes us ground for much investigation and suspicion, in the eyes of the Ordo Malleus. Where is Inqusitor Solares actually currently heading? Perhaps to aid the Dark Gods in moving their plans for this system forward? Have we unwillingly aided them? Do not be so quick to dismiss all of this as being possible. What we must do now is carry out our original mission and investigate the Titan Forge. As I said before, I feel we will find many answers to our questions there."

“Mhmm... got it.” Was all that Vala replied to Aviza's order. There wasn't much to reply anyways. It was a task that needed to be done and by the man in the shiny golden lounge chair, she was good at setting explosives and blowing stuff up.

“Alright... been a while since I had a good explosion set up... I think the last time It was when I blew up those … ship engines... hehehe.” She snickered real amused and happy about it as she readied her rifle to fire just in case something showed up while they were to set those explosives.” Roger that, Nova. Will contact you when done.”

“Fuel depot means we do not need an absurd amount of explosives, we can simply set the fuel to go critical with a few localized smaller explosions and we should be good and a lot more economical. All in all with the explosives we would save if we do this right, we can explode even more stuff! ” She explained

If nothing else, she sure was looking forward to seeing the fireworks at the end. Probably the only thing worth this whole nonsense.

"Understood, ma'am. Fall in, people."

Without a second thought, Ansgar got moving, constantly scanning and sweeping his surroundings as he took charge leading the group towards the coordinates, letting the tech heretic babble and do the talking. Unsurprising for a Krieger to not be one for talking to outsiders much at all, far as the outside world was concerned, Kriegers did little more than train for when they were going to die, and die. Let them believe what they will, it made their jobs simpler in the long run. The tech heretic made solid points on the fuel depot, scanning the shadows, a note of concern coming to his mind as he kept moving forward and made his own brief statement.

"Two satchels then, one for the central building support to bring it down, the second for the primary fuel dump to send it up. Timed within a second of each other to maximize rubble scatter with minimal explosives. Keep an eye on the shadows, I suspect Orks are not the only thing to watch for..." To hear something other than pure certainty from a Death Korp trooper was likely odd, however, Ansgar had noted one key, unusual thing. Most regiments cared about saving the lives of civilians, and yet, there was not a single one to be seen. He did not believe they had evacuated, and he'd seen a total absence of a civilian population only once before. And if it was what he suspected, they had more to focus on than Orks.

And the Inquisitor would have some serious questions to answer, but that was for later. Right now, the three would arrive at the depot with little issue, Orks focused elsewhere from their prior actions. "Cover the exits, I'll set the charges. No, I do not want either of you helping." He did not expect the Arbites to really know much more than how to handle hand grenades, and he straight up did not trust the Tech Heretic with anything that he owned, let alone his custom work done to his satchel charges. Oddly, things were silent, even the wildlife that would still be around despite the Orks was silent, the only noise audible was the tell tale breathing of a Krieg rebreather, and the rest of the groups own breathing and movements. It did not take long for the Krieger to set his explosives, running det cables to a central point, producing a small vox actuator, effectively an on/off switch tripped by a specific frequency that Death Korp Engineers used for remote demolition, and twisted the two cables together, tying them into the vox actuator.

"Recommend getting a minimum safe distance before voxing ready to detonate." To punctuate his words with actions, Ansgar double timed it out of the rigged depot, waiting until he was the bare minimum expected safe distance before opening the vox channel to Nova, assuming the others either kept up, or didn't care to keep up and not get blown to pieces. "Lt. Nova, explosives set, minimum safe distance from detonation point. Proceeding to prior transmitted coordinates for extraction. " Professional and to the point, Ansgar kept moving at a brisk pace, continuing to stick to the shadows as best as his pace allowed, sweeping the surroundings and scanning for both Orkish and other figures in the dark and open.

"Understood."

Herold took the flank of the 3 person squad, keeping an eye out for any would be pursuers or wandering Greenskins. They wouldn't need to travel far thankfully. The ruined architecture around them was ominous and could house dozens if not hundreds of Orkoids. Then again, they usually didn't rely heavily on stealth. He'd once been in a situation similar to this, where the Orks actually leaped off of roofs too high even for their unholy Xenos physique to handle, crushing themselves in order to attempt to get at their quarry. It had been hilarious in a grotesque way.

Other than the occasional crumble of rocks from blasted buildings too damaged to sustain themselves, Herold found it all quiet on his side.

He didn't take offense to the abrupt manner he ordered him around. He simply guarded the exits with his combat shotgun, vigilant and silent as he was grim. Jaw set and helm shining in the soft light of the blasted sky, he regularly maintained a patrol until Angsar told them the charges had been set, and then he hurried out of the building along with the other two. Powerful legs pumping, he'd holstered his gun to free his movements.

It was another few clicks before he and the others felt it was ok to breathe easier. Even though they were the ones to call it in, time was still not on their side, and dangers lurked within every corner.

"Affirmative Ansgar, I will relay the information back to Andromedai immediately." said Nova, as she waved her hand over the control panel for the holographic map table they had all been gathered around a few hours earlier. "I can see your location and Aviza's location currently. Your two are actually not that far from each other." After a few seconds of silence, Nova came back onto the com, now speaking to Aviza and her team. "This is Nova back at the Imperium Headquarters, I just received word from Ansgar that the charges have been placed, they are currently heading towards their extraction point. You are all clear to detonate the charges, as soon as they blow, I will have our Valkyries strafe their targets then land for extraction."

Aviza was quick to respond, "Roger that Nova, if Ansgar and his team are in the clear then I am going to detonate the explosives in ten seconds, I do hope they will be ready for extraction once all of this is over. We are already at our extraction point and were waiting for their confirmation." Glancing over her left shoulder, she gave a slight nod to Adrianne and Nergüi. Opening her coms so that both squads could hear her, she started to count down from ten to zero. Once she reached zero, she pressed down upon a button on the surface of her data pad. Somewhere in the distance, an eruption of fire, light, and raw energy rose up in the evening sky. Nothing happened for a few seconds, but then the shock-wave from the explosion ripped through the city, breaking glass, kicking up dirt and debris, and drawing quite a bit of attention to its location. A number of secondary explosions went off, adding to the cacophony and chaos that flowed through the evening as day quickly turned to night.

The Valkyries had been sent out to strafe their targets as soon as Nova had detected the first explosion. It did not take them long to reach their destination, and when they did, the Orks that had been drawn to the explosion were easily wiped clean from the face of the planet. Swaths of them were cut down by automatic gunfire, decimating their ranks, causing those very lucky few who remained to flee. The Valkyrie gunships would do a couple of passes before breaking off and flying to their designated extraction zones where both squads were waiting for them. Each squad would hear a low roar in the distance as the gunships flew towards them, that roar growing much louder once they had arrived and touched down upon the asphalt below them.

Now seeing her squads Valkyrie, Aviza quickly ran up to the side of it and opened the cargo door. Thankfully, it was much more roomy than she had remembered it being. Aviza stepped inside, motioning for the rest of her squad to do the same and quickly took a seat. Once everyone was ready, she would close the outer door then tap the door that lead into the cockpit, letting the pilots know they were ready to move out. The VTOL aircraft would suddenly raise off the ground and start its short journey towards the Titan Forge. While on their way, Aviza would make contact with Ansgar and his squad, "Ansgar, are you and your squad on the Valkryie?"

"Finally, a ride!"

Those were Adrianne's exact thoughts as the Psyker saw the incoming Valkyrie, relieved to finally be able to ride somewhere instead of trudging around like a simple menial!

Walking was something she had experienced more than she ever cared for back when she had been attached with the Imperial Guard!

Jumping up into the valkyrie with a single step, the large Psyker appearing to almost float in the air for a moment, she would step down into the Valkyrie's internal compartments and slump down into one of the seats with her butt, a sigh of relief escaping the Psyker.

"It feels great to be off the ground... " Adrianne muttered to herself, pausing in her seat as she attached her buckles before rolling a glance over to Aviza as the sister was on the comms.

"I'm sure the two of them will be just fiiiiineee."

*

"I hate those 'umie gitz! They think they can get away after blowing up my gobbin'z? I'll show them!"

Said Graz "Hugkilla", the Ork Big mek's scarred, ugly face lit up; both by his oversized cigar and the distant shine from the after explosions of the aerial attack.

His squig-brained boys might have chosen to run around, chasing the first explosion they saw in hopes that it might lead them to some fighting. But Graz was not that easily fooled! He prided himself on his smarts, for he knew that running headlong into an artillery barrage was unlikely to lead to a good fight! Nay, sometimes you had to wait, and see where the enemy actually was so as to be able to bring the choppa to them!

And that was exactly what Graz had done, as he had followed the Valkyrie that now loomed over the Fuel Depot. The other one was too far away for him to do anything about, but Graz would be content with simply murdering some fools than none at all!

"This is it! MUSH, boyz! Mush!"

*

The first thing Ansgar, Vala and Herold would hear as they were about to leave the fuel depot would be the roaring sound multiple ramshackled engines coming to life, as emerging out on the other side of the battle scarred and rain soaked plaza from the fuel depot was a literal moving pile of weaponized junk, that only on further inspection revealed itself to be something akin to a makeshift throne! Half a dozen bikes and other scavenged vehicles pulled a rolling chariot resembling a tower of junk/throne or diaz of some kind, filled to the brim with mounted guns on every side. At the center sat a homogeneously fat and muscled Ork, his girth barely able to fit in his throne as he bellowed out orders to the numerous vehicles pulling his massive junk chariot.

"I SEE YOU, YOU DAFT GITZ! YOU ZOGGIN' GROTZ ARE GONNA BE SORRY YOU MESSED WITH THA WRONG MEKBOSS!"

Graz bellowed out towards Herold, Vala and Ansgar as the mekboss's "vehicle" started moving towards them and the fuel depot!

It was, however, anything but a fast attack; the Mekboss's own little moving fortress slowly trudging through the ruins of the forge world...

Herold had trudged through the debris and mud for Emperor knows how long, once the explosion had hit. It was lucky he and his companions had made it a distance away, as well as having ample cover. The bits of rockcrete and Orkish limbs that had fallen from the sky, not to mention the dust, had seemed apocalyptic. Luckily, the Valkyrie had not delayed in its arrival, and upon the plateau it lowered itself so the others could jump in.

Unfortunately, just as Herold was hauling his armored bulk into the gunship, a guttural cry and bellow was heard from behind them, and a Greenskin unlike any he had ever seen before emerged on a mechanical throne. He'd thought all of the Orks had been killed initially, but Herold should have guessed that the Orkoids wouldn't be dispatched so easily. They infected every planet they ever touched, and it would take explosions across the entire world before they'd be exterminated for good.

"Valkyrie!" Herold cried over the engines, pointing his finger at the approaching horde while instinctually searching himself for his combat shotgun. "Take that Warboss down!" His gun didn't have the range to kill the Orkoid or his followers just yet, and if they allowed them to get closer, they could detonate the fuel depot and kill the entire team. If no one did something quickly, he'd hop off the Valkyrie and get up close to take him out if he had to.

"Disregard that, maintain current orders." Ansgar was the picture definition of a calm soldier, overriding the calls from the Arbites towards the air support. The Krieger was analyzing the situation, and an anti air weapon was mounted on one of the vehicles towing the massive Orkish throne, and ducking into cover from the fire incoming from the mass of crude Ork vehicles. As such, the man snapped off orders, being the one in charge of the current half of the group at the moment and acted as necessary. "Artillery on my coordinates, Time on Target. You two, continue with extraction, I'll keep up as necessary."

Ansgar continued his plan as if the continued following of orders wasn't dependent on the agreement of the others, but the fact they were given orders, and that was that. Acting as a representative of a portion of an Inquisitorial strike team, the order for artillery wasn't so much a request as it was treated as the order of the Emperor of Man himself. The Time on Target barrage would limit the warning that early shells would create, the concept that was meant to bring the maximum volume of fire in the shortest amount of time possible, and maximize the damage that would be done of the Orkish pursuit of the three Imperials. The normally follower of a Krieger barking orders was off putting, and the Basilisk crews were quick to follow orders if, for no other reason, to be under the more reassuring command of their Lieutenant.

Ansgar remained in position, which was far too close to the incoming artillery fire to be completely safe, spotting for the incoming fire. Priming a Krak Grenade, the Krieger lobbed a grenade at the oncoming Ork abomination of machinery, taking out the engine on one of the second vehicles, not a lead, forcing the lead vehicles to pull the ruined machine as well as the followers to push the wrecked vehicle. In other words, cripple the pursuit and put them in position to be hammered. Once the shells landed in one, mighty hammering blow, Ansgar withdrew as per his overarching orders from the Celestian. Following after the other two of this team, he would, as necessary, usher the others onto the Valkyrie so they could move on and complete the most important task at hand. Prevent the Titan falling into any hands that would do harm to the Imperium as a whole, or here for that matter.

"Best option's to leave them to enter the fuel depot explosion range... that stuff's going to get really hot." Vala stated as she dashed off to the Valkyrie, more or less without any desire to keep the current position. This in the language of space mercs was what was called... strategic retreat. She had learned hte Imperium didn't really have that as strategy. They just usually threw countless souls at a problem that could have been solved by a retreat and regroup.

She didn't really add anything else as she sped up full towards the Valchyrie. Getting onto that craft was everything! Once the explosions went off things were going to get hot. Hot enough that anything in the vicinity should be rendered to charcoal. Heck as far a s she knew, this was probably going to burn away all spores in teh area.

"Just focus on the dropship!" Vala called to her 2 teammates." Leave the scrap guy to enter the fuel depot, he's slow he cannot escape it once's he's in range of it. WE NEED TO BE OUT OF IT'S RANGE HOWEVER!" She remainded them. There was no time to deal with these ones. The maingoal was elsewhere and they had to be there on time.

"DEY'Z TRYIN' TO GET AWAY, BOSS!" One of the co-operators on the rolling junk-chariot called out as he watched the humans flee towards the valkyrie.

"Oi can see that you daft gretchin!" Graz bellowed from his rustic 'throne' as he motioned to a manned(orked) harpoon gun mounted on his dais.
"I want the gobbo-guided hook on that dat 'umie flyah right now!"

A loud 'thunk' was heard; followed by the whirring sound of a spooling metal line and the terrified scream of a gretchin tied to the magnetic harpoon as it was shot from the cannon and flew throughout the rainy air!
The magnetic harpoon slammed into the side panel next to where Herold stood in the valkyrie, lodging itself in the valkyrie's metal hull; with a green smear painted across the side of the Valkyrie's hull that consisted of what had been; at some point; a gretchin!

With a snap, the heavy iron rope tightened, as it started to reel the entire Valkyrie towards Hugkilla's dais!

"Reel 'em in, boyz! I'm gonna teach those runts why they call me Graz HUGKILL,-"



As the musclebound, obese mekboss had gotten off his throne and began his tirade; he was shortly cut off as the entire vision of the chariot was obscured by an ear-shattering explosion as the artillery shells started to land; with tonnes of dirt, rock-crete and mudwater being thrown high up into the air! The only visible signs of the chariot through the thick layer of smoke and raining shells were the flashing lights of a kustom-force field, half-broken engine pieces and bisected orkoid corpses and bodyparts being thrown out of the hammering barrage!

The sound of the crude grappling hook being launched would have ellicted a great deal of responses from less stoic men, irritation from veterans or terror or hopelessness from green troops. But for the Death Korp, the only proper response was to take it into account and continue issuing his orders. First, the sight of some crude force shield meant that continued barrages would range from ineffective to wasteful, after all, a handful of lives was not worth spending needless amounts of ordinance over. The Imperium produced far more bodies than it did munitions, so wasting munitions was frankly worse than wasting bodies. Despite the shield, damage had been considerably done, so he called it in as such. "Solid hits, fire effective. Halt further ordinance on my target pending further notice."

Next was relaying what was going on to the Valkyries, first the one hooked. "Make every and all efforts to break free and retreat, pilot, then proceed with orders as planned. Arbites, Mercenary, assist the pilot as required. I will continue on foot alone to the objective, further risking the air coverage cannot be tolerated." Which might sound like a suicidal proposition, running on foot through Orkish territory, and it probably would be to most, but a Krieger was raised to die after all. By this point the other two would have boarded the Valkyrie, leaving the Krieger as the only one not currently on a transport. At this point he swapped channels to the command circuit, the sounds of the explosions and reactions against the crude force field apparent.

"Slight delay encountered, ma'am. Ork with inclinations towards machinery intercepted evac route, currently preventing valkyrie lift off due to what appears to be magnetic grapple. Apothecary, does Orkish shielding technology prevent passage of persons?" If the Valkyrie couldn't free itself in the next few moments, Ansgar could not risk them being hauled down and crashing, which meant disabling the grapple. He could see where the line had been launched, being hooked in still, and he had a simple plan. Approach under the chaos of the recent artillery strike, board the Ork's machine, disable the grapple, and kill his way to the next objective. Or at the very least take as many Orks with him as possible, and they hardly seemed as fearsome as the Tyranid, so he would wager that he could take a great deal with him. If he were a gambling man, that is, which he was not.

"FFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU...." Valla's curses were deafened by the roar of artillery shells that were raining from the skies over the Ork target. This she didn't expect... heck she did actually, just not on the bloody ground. She was used to fighting orks in space... Didn't expect to pull a grapling hook atmosphere wise. This was a mistake she'd not make again.

"Leave this to me..." Valla shouted over the comms as she pulled her sniper cannon and moved to the hatch." PILOT OPEN THIS ASAP!" She said, her weapon coming to life with the buzz of energy. As each indicator was on the green, she just took aim." PREPARE FOR THE MOMENTUM AS SOON AS THE GRAPPLE'S FREE! DON'T GET US CRASHED ONCE THE ENGINES'S FULL POWER IS UNLESHSED AND WE'RE NOT TIED!" She warned hte pilot and took the shot.

A searing big red beam came from the energy emitters of the weapon. 4 powerful lazer beams cut through the air right into the magnetic grapple. It lasted a moment before the powerful heat cut through the metal chain. She braced herself for the sudden rocking of the valkyrie that was now freed from the grapple and took aim for another shot, this time at the ork mekboss. 2 empty power cells fell from the weapon as she replaced them, effectively cooling it down." Hug this..." She said, as the lazers once more cut through the air, this time aimed at the force field. This weapon was build to take down shields and armor...

As the force field falters and the beam cuts through it, right at the ork's neck, cutting a hole through just enough for his head to fall into, rendering him into a even more comedic picture with no neck." Should have watched your neck..." She said, realizing the VERY BAD pun of it." Ohh well..."

Ansgar cocked an eyebrow under his rebreather mask, skull faced mask and helmet portraying nothing of the sort as the focused barrage of lasers from the tech heretic managed to punch through a shield that a barrage of Basilisk ordinance failed to breach. Then again, it was only a light barrage, but even so, she should count her blessings. The barrage likely pushed the shield to the brink, so the anti tank weapon she carried around could pierce the remaining remnants of the shield. Of course, just as he was about to depart on foot as he had already determined, a part of him dissapointed in being unable to assault the Ork position, the Valkyrie touched down beside him, the pilot barking over the vox to him directly. "Orders got overruled Sir, get in."

The Krieger knew full well who would overrule him, and he muttered back over the vox as he boarded and found a seat. "Don't 'sir' me, pilot." not even giving the tech heretic a good job or even commenting on the success of her actions. She was doing her job, there was little need to congratulate someone for doing what was expected of them. With that sorted out, the Valkyrie wasted no time in taking off after her partner, the one carrying the other half of the retinue. The rest of the flight to the Titan facility was uneventful, the diversion working as intended outside of the minor hiccup of the Ork managing to figure out their plan. Eventually, the quieting of the engines coupled with the pilot voxxing to his passengers, announced their arrival at Landing Pad D-1283.

"Right, we're here. Thank you for flying Imperial Air, now hop to it. And thanks for cutting that tether, didn't fancy trying to drive a Valkyrie on the ground." Ansgar was the first out, a quick scan confirming they had arrived on the same platform as the other valkyrie had, being the second half of the group to arrive, and once everyone was disembarked, led the three over to reunite with the Celestian, Psyker, and Apothecary. The damaged Valkyrie they flew in on had lifted off, being redirected for necessary repairs before they would get deployed back into the action. He voxxed to the Celestian while scanning for them, standing by for follow on orders. "We've arrived ma'am, standing by for further orders."

Aviza had seen Titan Forges before from a distance, but being up this close to one of the golden age facilities was awe inspiring, even for someone of her rank and stature. The Gothic Architecture of the Titan Forge that towered into the sky was covered in intricate patterns that were inlaid with gold and other fine metals that had now become discolored over many centuries of neglect. The building still held its own unique beauty though, and Aviza had stopped to take in her surroundings as soon as she had stepped out of the Valkyrie gunship and onto the cold metal floor of Landing Pad D-1283. "The mighty golden age Titan Forge, a sight that few of us have ever seen, or have ever been this close to. I look forward to walking through its halls and discovering what secrets it holds for us, perhaps we may even find something to help us along the way." After most of the amusement had passed, Aviza cautiously walked towards the large metal double doors that lead into the Titan Forge and pulled them open, they stayed open by themselves when she let go, seeming to invite them inside. Aviza would stand in the entry way of the double doors and hold her position with bolter in hand, watching and waiting for the second Valkyrie to touch down upon the landing pad. Once it had, and the squad was back to full strength, Aviza turned on her left foot and stepped into the Titan Forge. The double doors would close behind them with barely sound, fully immersing them in their new environment.

The first thing that they would notice would be the complete lack of sound that surrounded them, followed by the lack of anything living or dead. It was as if everything and everyone had vanished into thin air, leaving no sign where they had gone. "Orc's leave corpses, the forces of Chaos do the same, so where is everyone?" asked Aviza mostly to herself as she walked through the Titan Forges hallways. "Psyker Adrianne, do you sense anything out of the normal? anything that would cause alarm?" Aviza brought the visor for her helmet down and it locked into place, sealing itself and starting its air filtration system with advanced optics and sensors. "I can see prints leading down this hallway and towards what my mini-map calls the armory." She raised her bolter to its ready position without even really thinking about it and prepared for a fight, if one was going to happen. As they followed the tracks, Aviza made a hand gesture to her squad, ordering them to be quiet.

All remind the same while they walked, that odd lack of any noise, as if they were in the vacuum of space and the lack of anything living or dead. When they arrived at the armory though, there were clear signs of a struggle with Orc's. The doors to the armory had been broken open, ripped open almost, and a number of imperial guardsmen bodies were scattered around, they had appeared to of been eviscerated. "At least twenty bodies here, clearly a struggle to get into the armory to arm themselves against Orcs." Aviza stepped carefully over the bodies and through the pools of blood and gore that created a hellish scene. Suddenly, Aviza's mini-map lit up with a sign of life from nearby, she raised her weapon and took aim, motioning for her squad to do the same. When they turned the corner into the massive armory, and got a good look at what was causing her sensors to go off, they found a large number of dead Orcs and a lone female guardsmen who was in critical condition, missing her left arm, part of her right leg and appeared to be burned rather badly from some sort of incendiary device.

The woman was propped up against a number of large metallic crates, surrounded in a pool of crimson that stained her clothes, her body, and the floor around her. "My lords, we held them off for as long as we could, there were thousands of Orcs that flooded into the Titan Forge." the voice came weak and stained, it was clearly very difficult for her to speak. Aviza glanced over at their local squad medic and motioned at towards the last surviving guardsmen. "Stabilize her, I have already sent for emergency extraction, her knowledge of what happened here is indispensable." said Aviza, looking around the room for anyone else that may have survived, be that human or Orc. "Something drew them here, to the Titan Forge, the Orcs were drawn here from something else, maybe guided." the guardsmen would let out a few painful sounding coughs, spitting up blood before continuing. "We managed to lock down the Titan and it's equipment before falling back to resupply for the horde of Orcs that were now being funneled our way. That's when the Orc Warboss arrived and cut through us like tissue paper, leaving death and destruction in his wake. He was yelling about something below us while doing so." Her last word trailed off into a slur as she passed out from pain, bloodloss, or both.

"Something below the Titan Forge..." she repeated to herself, "What would the Orcs want below the Titan Forge?" A message came through her vox informing her that a group of imperial guardsmen medics had arrived and were awaiting the arrival of the sole survivor. Once more, Aviza would point at their squads medic and give him orders, "Take her to the landing pad and make sure she makes it there alive." Aviza would attach her bolter to the back of her armor then continue talking. "The rest of us will search the armory for any sign where the Orcs may have gone next, shouldn't be that hard. Once you are done, come back and meet us down here for further orders, now move swiftly."

There would be no time wasted, as soon as Aviza was done talking, she began searching through the armor for any hints, signs, or anything helpful that they could use. This was a Titan Forge after all, and there was bound to be very valuable equipment just waiting to be found. It just so happened to be, that before their squads medic would return, Aviza would rearm herself with an Adrastus Bolt Caliver, an Inferno pistol, a couple Hallucinogen Grenades, Krak Grenades, and remote Melta-Bombs. Each area where she found this rare gear would be marked for the rest of her squad, so they could make use of any rare and valuable equipment they would want to take with them. "Stock up and take what you want, I want us all to be prepared for whatever comes next, these Ork Warbosses are no pushover and we will have a very difficult fight ahead of us." said Aviza, while moving towards a massive metallic door that now had a tank size hole blown in it. "I found out where the Orcs went, and they seem to be gahtering around the Titan..." said Aviza. Through the tank sized hole, they could see the massive Titan, and below it where hordes of Orks were gathered, along with the Ork Warboss, who seemed to be celebrating their arrival to the Titan.

"Psyker Adrianne, do you sense anything out of the normal? anything that would cause alarm?

"What's ever the definiton of 'normal'?"

The amusing thought passed briefly through the Psyker's head, but she kept it to herself. Instead, she glanced through the shaded visors of her skull mask at the empty halls and corridors all around them; her Servo-skulls having returned as they floated around in the air on each side of her.

Unlike for the rest of the party, she could clearly hear it in the otherwise complete silence of the grandiose architecture all around them. Voices. Voices whispering in the dark, from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. She glanced towards the right towards a shadowy corner, barely lit by a pair of failing lumen globes. The shadows were deep, they were intense, and the longer one looked at them, it was almost as if they were moving about on their own, writhing and threatening to suddenly spill out and engulf the entire grand archway in complete and utter darkness.

All around, she saw the same; writhing shadows and echoing, ethereal voices. For a moment, she thought she saw a shadowed, horned mask reflected in one of the water pools on the floor, but when she looked directly at it; it was gone. Despite the fact that her helmet and suit was entirely sealed, she could still *smell* the place. The air was thick, rank and almost hard to swallow, leaving a minuscule burning sensation in her throat.

"There is a dark corruption that hangs over this place, Celestian." Adrianne said, turning back to look down at the Celestian.
"It has been here for some time, but it has recently been... boosted, as if some foul ritual or atrocity has recently given it sustenance."

One did not have to be a trained Psyker to detect corruption. Regular mortal humans could do so too, albeit to a lesser extent. Signs of corruption were often the root cause of tales about haunted buildings or mansions.

When they arrived at the armoury, it was a bloody mess; the remains of what had been a decidedly one-sided fight.

She walked through the carnage, stepping over or between the bodies with her long legs. Although she might have been used to the sight, she had no intention to desiccate or dishonour the memories of those who gave their lives in this room.

Rummaging through the large stockpiles, most of what she found was standard Imperial Guard or Mechanicum issue. Rummaging through the armory, she pulled out a dusty, wooden crate filled to the brim with melta bombs. She took and and mag-locked three of them to the side of her legplate, but not after double-checking to make sure her refractor field was still ready.

"How I wish I could bring you along too, sweetie... "

Adrianne murmured for a moment as she stared longingly at a melta-gun lying on a crate nearby, although she knew she hardly had room to carry any more. For her to try to lug with her a melta gun in addition to her already full equipment would be ridiculous!

*

"I found out where the Orcs went, and they seem to be gahtering around the Titan..."

"Unless we brought a gunline of heavy bolters or flamers, I doubt we could take that horde on." Adrianne commented as she placed herself next to and out of sight from the hole, her servo-skulls slithering in the air around her.

There were many Orks. Many Orks. And she knew that nothing short of consistent, concentrated, overwhelming fire & brutality could ever hope to stem the tide of such a mob if they started to move!

Ansgar had been dead silent once they grouped up, following along the eerily silent halls, Type XIV (Heavy) scanning his surroundings as he followed after the Celestian, who had taken point. Between her and her power armor, she did fit the role of a lead element rather well. However, the comment of Heretics not leaving any sort of survivors was not quite true, as he muttered just loud enough to be heard, not hard considering the lack of noise in the facility at the moment. That was also a point of concern, an Adeptus Mechanicus facility that was dead silent was not a good sign, not under any circumstances. Let alone those that involve Orks or, as the Celestian pointed out, Chaos involvement. "Chaos leaves corpses right up until they need materials for their rituals, then they vanish. Doubly so if the bodies are fresh, don't discount heretics so readily Celestian, I've seen worse from their lot than not leaving bodies behind."

Once the signal to maintain silence came, the Krieger was indeed all silence, shifting how he moved to minimize his noise generation. Sure, a standard Death Korp trooper was not rained in such operations, but considering Grenadiers filled the role of Stormtroopers for the Death Korp? It wasn't terribly surprising he could operate as a commando as well as a front line soldier. Even if the subtle portion of the field training did not come into use nearly as often as acting as the leading edge of an assault. Thankfully, since the silent order had come so soon after his comment he did not need to expand on what he had already said about a Chaos cult's influence here being in the works, which saved him the trouble of speaking on classified matters and not giving them answers to questions asked. When they arrived at the Armory, he knelt by one of the corpses, face twisted in the pain of death, and a brief motion closed the eyes and settled their face. No man should die without a Quartermaster to see them off, the Kreiger mused, standing up and heading into the armory proper, looking for something in specific as the Celestian spoke about taking what they willed.

Ansgar found what he was looking for in relatively short order, a sealed room that had Chemical weapons warnings over the door. After testing an old passcode on the door, which came back negative of course, the Krieger wasted no time forcing the issue. Taking his entrenching tool (shovel) to the keypad, popping the cover off, he was working at the circuits and after shocking himself twice, he tripped the door to fail open. Not normal procedure, but reversing the wiring made it remarkably easy to do so. Cogboys weren't nearly as clever as they liked to think, and once inside the Krieger grabbed a barrel of something covered in warnings and precautions, mentioning it would eat through any organic material it came into contact with. Grunting as he dragged the barrel over to a workbench, he next procured a Flamer, setting its tank on the workbench and opening the top up, emptying one of the two tanks and altering the valve to mix the two tanks instead of just alternate as one emptied.

Filling the emptied half of the Flamer's tanks half chemical compound, half promethium, which he sealed quickly after introducing the two together and stepping back, ready to take cover. However, when the tank finished shuddering, he slung the thing onto his back and reaquainted himself with the nozzle and trigger mechanism of this model. Slinging the projection half of the weapon onto his shoulder, and resealing the chemical barrel, he made a casual note to the rest of the party as he began stuffing explosives into his ordinance satchel, which he had emptied during earlier portions of the mission. "Do not get this mixture on you, let alone if its burning. Learned how to mix this fighting Tyranid, Promethium keeps it burning until it contacts organic material, then keeps burning until its out of fuel. Whether that's oxygen, or organic material, doesn't matter. Not good for the skin."

After duly warning the rest of the squad of the chemical weapon he had turned the Flamer into, he focused on replenishing his explosives. Frags, Krak grenades, and demo charges, not bothering with the melta bombs. Too much effort for tank removal, he'd take a couple rapidly placed krak grenades over a melta charge. He could throw Krak's farther than Melta's, after all. As almost an afterthought, he grabbed a Laspistol plus several spare cells for it, the pattern some local clone of a universally accepted model of Laspistol. It would pair well with his entrenching tool should he be forced into a melee. Otherwise, he was ready, preparing his modified Flamer for action again as he met up with the rest of the party overlooking the gathered Orks. "Rearmed and ready for further orders, ma'am."

If he were honest, Nergüi had phased out once they had landed on the pad and began to wait for the remainder of the squad that they knew to be coming; not for the last time did he wish he were back in the cold corridors of a Deathwatch watch-post, in the midst of a raging battle, or gunning an Assault Bike over the flat terrain of the Chogorian steppes. Ah, to be back upon those grasslands, the wind whipping through ones hair, the vast Chapter monastery visible in the distance as it rose high before you...

"The mighty golden age Titan Forge, a sight that few of us have ever seen, or have ever been this close to. I look forward to walking through its halls and discovering what secrets it holds for us, perhaps we may even find something to help us along the way."

Hailing from a society that continued to live the majority of their lives within yurts of animal hide, roaming in their nomadic fashion across the plains, he had never really been one for architecture. Not that this would have caused the lack of connection that he now felt, turning his head to take in the structures all around – the edifice he assumed that their Sororitas leader spoke of. If it had not been for what he had seen already, well, even then he was forced to admit internally that – as with all the great works of the Emperor's servants – this Forge was a masterpiece of engineering.

What had he seen? Now there was something else.

While still part of a kill-team he had walked upon the smooth surface of an Eldar Craftworld, trod through cities made entirely of physically twisted wraithbone and marvelled at its stark splendour. He had hacked his way through the belly of a Tyranid bio-ship, disgusting and alien, itself formed of a living organism – perhaps not a 'structure' in the customary sense, but a form of building nonetheless. With sand whipping about his feet, and intense heat thrown out by an ancient sun, he and his brothers had marched through the triangular wonders of a Necron tomb-world in order to bring down those very marvels of xenos engineering.

Oh yes, the Forge was as magnificent as any that graced this universe, but it took those of narrow scope – or of stern religious faith – to look upon it the way that their Celestian commander did.

After watching Aviza make her way to the doors of the Forge and push them open, clearly in need of no assistance from either he or the psyker, he turned his head and partially his body to take in the sight of the damaged Valkyrie making its way to the landing pad to disgorge the remainder of their task force. Whilst a sturdy enough transport, and not unimpressive gunship, he had always favoured the dangerous and solid Thunderhawk, although this could simply have been innate Astartes bias.

As with the now united team, he turned and stalked into the isolated interior of the Titan Forge, no weapons present in his hands for the simple reason that he knew they would not be attacked at this precise time.

How did he know?

For the same reason he knew their leader was in a heightened state of alertness, or that both the Krieger and mercenary had been involved in a scrap in which Ork 'technology' had been used, because of the simple fact that he was a living weapon altered to a state of being that no-one else in the group possessed and that, if he was honest, thought was being severely abused; he could already smell blood and weapon discharge in the air on entering the Forge, so he knew that there had been a fight and – although no psyker, and unaware of exactly what Adrienne was seeing – he could feel the oppressive sense of corruption as well as any other.

His footfalls made surprisingly little sound as he consciously ignored the conversation between the psyker and her power-armoured guardian, slowing his pace as the Celestian gestured for them to remain quiet, and stopping completely as they arrived at the door to the armoury. It had been torn asunder, bodies scattered about the place and only one life-sign reading on his helmets HUD, which he click-blinked into nothingness as they entered the inner armoury and found someone remarkably still breathing.

"Stabilize her, I have already sent for emergency extraction, her knowledge of what happened here is indispensable."

His superior she may be, but it was in placement by the Inquisition alone; had this been any other time or place, he would have become a lot more riled than he felt at that moment. He was not some blunt instrument, unthinking, unfeeling, and just there for the ride – he was a centuries old purveyor of death-dealing and the healing of superhuman warriors, a warrior-sage who had fought and seen things that this Sister could only conjure up in her nightmares. The blackened armour and metallic pauldron he wore were enough proof of this, and with any other would have garnered at least a little bit of respect. At this point he did not expect so much as rudimentary manners from her, not even a curt word of gratitude to a living figure of legend that entire regiments of the Guard would kneel too for just being in his presence.

This is what he thought in his mind, outwardly he simply gave a sigh into his helmet and made his way over to analyse the condition of the frail human he had been commanded to save.

Second-degree burns, non-life threatening...

Left arm, severed at the shoulder, blood loss considerable...

Right left, damaged beyond repair, bionic replacement recommended, further blood loss sustained...

Nergüi switched 'views' inside his helmet as Aviza unwisely prompted the woman to continue speaking, informing them of what she knew. It was nothing that the white-haired Astartes really needed to hear, listening to subconsciously as he scanned her internals and watched as a cough of blood flashed clearly onto his display, internal injuries evident. She was in a bad way, but the Apothecary did the best he could, stopping what little bleeding there was left with an infusion from his narthecium and – with astonishing gentleness for one so large – placing a skin patch over the primary burn areas of her body.

If it were up to him he would have given her the Emperor's peace, the reductor feeling a little bit heavier on his wrist as his thoughts turned that way.

"Take her to the landing pad and make sure she makes it there alive. The rest of us will search the armory for any sign where the Orcs may have gone next, shouldn't be that hard. Once you are done, come back and meet us down here for further orders, now move swiftly."

Who the Warp do you think you are speaking to?

“As you wish,” came the robotised voice from behind his helmets vox-grill, “you are welcome, Celestian.”

Making sure not to shift the Guardswoman in a way that would cause further damage, he lifted her effortlessly into her arms, the sight much like a giant carrying a doll – a bloodied and slowly breathing doll – which was honestly what it was.

With all haste, but not too much, he made his way to Landing Pad D-1283 and deposited her with the recently arrived medical team, approving of the way they deferred to him and giving his thanks to them before turning back to make his return to the armoury.

It seemed that preparations for an assault were well under way by the time he arrived, the first thought entering his mind being why Aviza was holding a weapon specifically crafted for the Custodes of the Emperors personal guard. An Adrastus Bolt Caliver, a perfect piece of mechanical engineering and an even better weapon, something irking him inside as he looked at the over-sized weapon in the hands of the Sister.

He was back in time to hear "I found out where the Orcs went, and they seem to be gathering around the Titan..." the very fact that the filth now swarmed about one of the Emperor's own god-machines making bile rise in his throat.

Unlike the rest of the group he did not much change his armament, refilling on frag and krak grenades, and only grabbing another weapon once he found the marked section of the armoury. Once inside, out of all the marvels therein, he took a dust-coated boltgun and enough magazines of various-tipped ammunition to last through what was bound to be a rather impressive fight. Brushing a hand over the side of the weapon, he was happy to find the word Mortis etched into the sublime metal and judged it suitable.

Stepping back into the room he took a short look through the hole in the wall, a grunt escaping his lips and the fire igniting in his veins even as he dragged his eyes away, clutching the bolter readily in his hands and awaiting the call to battle that was bound to come.

“If I may suggest,” he said with a slight pause as he gave a nod toward Vala, “the mercenaries skills as a sniper would be of great use, provided she can slay the Warboss from this elevated position; it would be an opening that would send those lesser Greenskins below into a state of confused – albeit heightened – aggression. As is standard operating procedure, those referred to as 'Nobz' should be targetted next, dismantling the Orkish command structure piece-by-piece.”

In a leisurely movement, one that other Astartes often found vainglorious and even dangerous, he removed his helmet with a small hiss and mag-locked it to his waist. As with every time before his senses became sharper, and the smell of so many Greenskins gathered in one place caused his nose to wrinkle with revulsion, his dark almond eyes moving over the rest of the party as he spoke.

“I do not need to tell anyone here to aim for their heads, most wounds incapable of doing more than debilitating an enraged Ork, or that even a severed limb will do little to slow them down...but it always helps to remember.”

Lapsing back into silence he did his best to calm the fire in his blood, even giving a smile that creased the self-inflicted scars on his face, a smile that probably looked more like a crazed grin than anything. There were foes to kill after all, and he would kill them.

The snide remark from Nergüi was shrugged off and ignored by Aviza, there was no time for pleasantries in their current situation. Instead of commenting, Aviza checked over her newly acquired weapon once more, the Adrastus Bolt Caliver. She had heard of these extraordinary weapons that only the Adeptus Custodes wield, but had never seen one in person until now. The exquisite detail and craftsmanship that had been poured into making the weapon was clear for all to see, and Aviza marveled over it. "Adrasite disintegration beam technology, banned from the wider Imperium." Inside of her helmet, she smirked, quite a bit of fun was going to be had with this weapon, and many enemies would meet their end.

Hearing Nergüi offer a suggestion to the whole retinue brought Aviza out of her dazed like state and back to the current situation at hand. She had to admit, he had made a number of solid points, and so Aviza decided to give her official remark on the suggestion. "Alright, Nergüi has a sound plan that I agree with, so let us discuss what is going to happen down to every last detail. Vala will take her place and let me know as soon as she has her shot lined up. Once I give the all clear to Vala, she will keep firing until the Warboss is dead. If all goes to plan, the lower Orks will go into a frenzy, we will then dismantle the Ork command piece by piece untill there is nothing left. Watch all of your attacks, I do not want any unnecessary damage befalling the forge. Watch where and what you are shooting, I do not want any mistakes. Once the Orks are dead, we will push forward and investigate the Titan.

The Titan looked to be in full, working condition, but Aviza would not be satisfied until she had ran a system check from the control room, many stories above them. That would be taken care of after all the Orks had been killed. For now, she motioned for everyone to take their positions and await her next orders. Though, as Vala walked past her, she placed a hand on the mercenaries left shoulder and cleared one of her past orders, "Never mind about waiting for my word to fire, just let us know when you are going to do so, now go take your position."

" just let us know when you are going to do so, no go take your position."

"Can we start already? The more we delay, the more likely the Orks will spot us through sheer dumb-luck." Adrianne commented as the Psyker was still waiting by the door, glancing across the rest of the assembling party as they were preparing for the assault through the black, violet glowing lenses of her skull helmet.

Her fingers danced impatiently across the shaft of her staff as she let out a sigh behind her helmet, taking a few steps further away from the entrance as she was growing increasingly uncomfortable about standing near where the Orks would inevitable pour out from once they had gotten it through their thick heads that they were under attack! ... unless they somehow managed to figure the ambush out before it even happened, which would be a rarity though not impossible!

"With my powers I can slow the green tide down as they pass through the door. It should make them sitting targets for you to take down, provided you have enough firepower." The Psyker continued, before switching to Vala.

"Tech-Heretic! Do you have a bead on the Greenskin Nobz yet? The sooner we start popping heads, the better!" Adrianne said with an impatient tone.

She did not know why, but the Psyker felt an unnatural urgency in her; some unknown force was urging her forward, and she had a foreboding feeling in the back of her head telling her that with every second wasted, their future woe would only grow!