[IC] WARHAMMER 40K: THE TARSON INCURSION

[WardenCelestine]

Watching Nergüi fight the last standing Chaos Warrior in hand to hand combat was an incredibly impressive display to witness firsthand. She had heard of the White Wolfs combat abilities but had never seen one fight a Chaos Warrior in close combat. The two Space Marines were moving so quickly against each other that Aviza's HUD had quite a bit of trouble trying to lock onto the heretic. Thankfully, the Apothecary swiftly took down the Chaos Space Marine with little trouble and there was no reason left to intervene. Glancing around, Aviza noticed that most of of the squad had now advanced to the Apothecary's position, looking over the dead bodies of the Chaos Space Marines. There was an inquiry of the heretics Warband, apparently they had been attacked by those belonging to the World Bearers. Aviza knew their name well, there were normal heretics, but then there were these heretics. Her eyes furrowed into a glare at the mention of them, her grip tightening around her Adrastus Bolt Caliver as she started forward towards the rest of her squad at a quickened pace.

The destroyed Rhino that had now turned into a pile of flaming and smoking debris sat behind Aviza, leaving nothing to be recovered from the mess of twisted metal. Aviza turned around the face the wreak when her HUD informed her that there was movement behind her, besides that of the tech-priest and her Skitarii. She motioned lightly at the group for them to follow, Malig nodded her head but motioned at Vala. The mercenary was laying upon the ground, trying to get back onto her feet, looking quite disoriented. "Mercenary Vala, are you injured?" inquired Aviza, as she quickly made her way over to her. Upon arriving, Aviza took a knee next to Vala and quickly looked the mercenary over for any serious injuries. From what Aviza could tell, the woman had hit her head against something, causing a concussion, which would explain why she was having so much trouble trying to get onto her feet. Wrapping an arm around the mercenary's mid-section, Aviza would help Vala onto her feet. Once she was on her feet, Aviza would try and help the momentarily disoriented Vala walk towards the rest of the squad at a comfortable pace.

"Nergüi, impressive job with the Chaos Space Marines, I'm looking forward to seeing you kill more of them." said Aviza as she glanced over at Vala, wondering if she was feeling any better. Now, she could see that the Chaos Space Marines really were part of the World Bearers. "If you need help walking or staying on your feet, use me as support." said Aviza before the turned to the rest of the squad. "We would stand very little chance against the World Bearers if their numbers are close to what Adrianne said, let us hope that this is just a small incursion and not a full blown invasion." If it was a fully blown invasion of Chaos forces, they were going to need a lot of help to push back their forces without being quickly killed. "Our best option is to scout further ahead and then radio in reinforcements if needed. I am sure the Imperial Guardsmen would not mind us taking their remaining vehicles and men to wipe out the heretics before the situation grows out of hand."

Leaping over the barricade that the heretics had made, Aviza landed upon the asphalt below with a soft thud. It was time to find out why the heretics where here, what they had planned and what part the Orks played in all of this. As the group walked, that uneasy feeling only grew with every step they took. Aviza took this momentary silence and respite from all the combat to ask Adrianne an important question that had been at the back of her mind. "Adrianne, I heard you yell the name Zirael while inside of the Rhino, moments before we were attacked. Who is this Zirael and how do they or it tie into all of what is happening around us?" While Aviza waited for a reply, she noticed that the mini-map on her HUD showed that they were coming up to an area that was below a massive chapel, upon the surface. "Makes complete sense that the source of this corruption would be below a chapel dedicated to our emperor." thought Aviza.

[Eisenhorn]

Ansgar was listening to the discussion going on regarding what warband the traitor marines belonged to. While the Kriegsman had encountered numerous and varied traitor forces before his assignment to the retinue, these Word Bearers were not among them. They fought no where near as savagely as the red and brass colored Traitor Astartes that his regiment had encountered in the past, though their name was similar sounding. Still, dead traitors were dead traitors, and the Grenadier knew full well the odds of besting them in single combat was slim for a mere human, let alone multiples. His divided attention was then caught by the tech heretic as she spoke on the matter of the gate that had been built. Continuing to sweep the perimeter they had secured with his weapon, the Skitarii having moved into positions that would allow them to efficiently sweep and cover the area, he remarked rather calmly despite the injuries he had sustained. "The mercenary is right, as is the psyker to a degree. A gate of this size and power, capable of corrupting the hallowed ground a Cathedral is built on, would warrant unusually precise ritual and corruption."

The one Skitarii moved to Ansgar's position, relieving him so he could focus on the planning at hand. Normally, the Krieger wouldn't have accepted that sort of relief, but he was of more use sharing what he had learned through hard experience over staring down a dark tunnel. Doubly so, considering the Skitarii were augmented for such difficulty conditions. "This is the second time I've encountered scheming on this level, and the last time half succeeded in turned the planet into a Daemon controlled foothold on reality. Losing the planet to the warp is a more likely outcome than it is not. If this gate is anything like the last one, generally speaking, destroying the primary gate will cause it to cascade and collapse the network its connected to planet side. Sufficient explosives to collapse the physical gate would destabilize its connection to the immaterial, violently. It takes a mind of extremely cunning, heretical, but cunning thinking to put something of this magnitude together. Thank the Emperor it only takes a faithful soldier with high explosives to bring it crashing apart. Which, as the Psyker pointed out, would require manpower we do not currently possess for frontal assault." The way he ended that statement indicated that the Kriegsman might have an idea on how to proceed beyond that, but he didn't say at the moment. It wasn't his place to make plans or dictate the order of battle, all he was doing currently was providing what information he could, that was useful to the situation at hand.

It was a lot more than Ansgar was comfortable with, in terms of amount of words spoken, but it needed to be said. If his experiences in the Death Korp could serve here, then he would be remiss in holding any information that he was allowed to speak of back. At this point the Celestian joined them, speaking of scouting ahead and radioing in the local Guard forces for assistance. Coughing briefly to get her attention, partially due to the internal injuries if he was being honest, he spoke of his current opinion on the Guard surface side now. "An involved set up like this, beneath the very foundations of a major city's Cathedral, would not go unnoticed by competent forces. If this gate can call in Traitor Astartes in number, alongside such rampant mutation we have encountered, they have likely been working at this since before the Ork's arrival. If that is the case, the local forces are either inept, or compromised. The former, they are likely to die en mass to either Orks, should they breach the walls, or the Traitors when they rise up from beneath the city without accomplishing much. If they are in allegiance with the Traitors, then we are on our own with the threat of hostile air coverage and artillery should we surface within effective striking distance."

Ansgar lacked the advanced, integrated HUD that was being utilized by others in the retinue, having only what his eyes and senses showed him, which meant he did not know where they were beneath the city, or even how close they were to any sort of destination. Such was another of the differences between the power armored Sisters and Marines, versus the Guardsmen. It was frankly too cost inefficient to issue such gear to rank and file Guard, and even the Grenadiers of the Death Korp, stomrtroopers in almost every way but name (And grav chute training) did not receive such advanced wargear. Such considerations were for another time, however, for when the Celestian mentioned the psyker shouting some unknown name, the Krieger didn't overtly move. However his posture had subtly shifted none the less, instincts sensing a potential danger to the mission. Psykers shouting unknown names after shock and exposure to traitor forces never boded well, and the Kriegsman was ready to act should the need arise.

[Rithy]

"Adrianne, I heard you yell the name Zirael while inside of the Rhino, moments before we were attacked. Who is this Zirael and how do they or it tie into all of what is happening around us?"

"Eh, it's the whispers of the warp. The barrier to the immaterium is weakening in the proximity of the ritual, allowing the voices from beyond to reach through." Adrianne replied, which; to a certain degree; was the truth.

With the barrier to the warp so weak, even the blunts in the group could hear the ethereal whispering voices if they listened closely, or see bizarre and hideous forms move about in the reflection of pools of water. Which meant Adrianne felt confident they would believe the story, even if it was only a half truth.
On the other hand; Adrianne; being a fully fledged Psyker, saw them surrounded by shadowy forms that eyed them with predatory malice from beyond the veil, walking among them with impatience!

They had an audience on the other side of the warp, which was jeering for their attention as the barrier steadily became weaker...

Adrianne had seen enough unreal horrors stalk the dark to be moved to be moved by the sight, and she was used to listening to the constant begging of things beyond the mortal realm whispering in her ear. But the fact that there was one voice in particular that was stronger than the rest; and even eerily familiar; was enough to cause her to feel a sense of discomfort.

"Ohh, there is no reason to be shy! I am sure your 'friends' won't judge whom you share your company with. Besides, we will meet soon... I have foreseen it!"

"Ughh... " Adrianne groaned, stifling a rebuke as she instead focused on the guardsman.

"I second the krieger's voice; we need an ace in the sleeve if we are to have any real chance of success. Otherwise we are throwing the dice of fate and praying to the emperor for a double sixes."

One thing Adrianne had always appreciated of the guard; especially their veterans; was their healthy respect for practical caution. From what she knew, it was said a smart guardsman would never as much as pick up his dinner fork without ample air and fire support to back him up. If a shelling from many kilometers away could do the job of an otherwise heroic charge, you called the artillery officer rather than the regiment commissar!

And deep down; Adrianne thought as she looked at Aviza; she hoped their Sister of Battle had a squad of Deathwatch marines in her pocket or something for when they encountered a situation as grave as this!

[Eisenhorn]

Ansgar was silent in regards to the Psyker's explanation on the name she had yelled. The grenadier had missed this during the explosion, the concussive force having robbed him of being able to hear the name over the sound and sensation of being thrown clear of a vehicle as it erupted in a roaring inferno. While others might have started noticing the tenuously thin fabric of reality, Ansgar was oblivious to its usual signs, prior exposure plus the debriefing he'd received at the hands of the Ordo Malleus had left him numb to the warp. Still able to be affected by it, but resilient to its taint and whispers all the same. If the others were blunts, he might as well have been as blunt as a brick wall. That didn't make him unawares, that same experience demanded his full awareness of how easily reality could fail this close to a breach leading to the Immaterium, he merely couldn't rely on certain conventional signs. Whether he believed the psyker or not really depended on whether or not the Celestian did, and he would follow orders as necessary beyond that.

The psyker backing up his statement was, while welcome, unnecessary. He spoke from experience, and he would let his superior take that information as she saw fit. She did seem to misconstrue things a tad, considering it was unlikely they had any sort of waiting Ace, as she had put it. They had what was on them, and the Emperor's blessings, and that would have to suffice. "As I said already ma'am, the odds of friendly reinforcements are slim at best. It falls to us to bring this gate down, before it reaches its peak functionality. However, we may not have to proceed along this main access tunnel. When we encountered the first wave of mutated cultists, who were surging out to oppose us, they were using secondary tunnels. Which likely means there are multiple access tunnels into this main opening beneath the Cathedral. If they are expecting a continued frontal assault, they will concentrate their forces in this primary access shaft, which could give us an edge in flanking them and striking at the gate directly while they attempt to organize their response. Chaos is many things, but disciplined and organized are rarely chief among them."

The grenadier paused, checking his explosives bag he was carrying for how much he had left. Several frags, kraks, and a few demolition charges he had acquired from the forge armory, the latter would likely be enough to render the gate inoperable at worst, or destroyed at best. He was not comfortable with how much he had spoken at this point, considering it out of place normally, but here he was probably speaking more in this situation than he had the entire rest of the time surface side so far. Even so, he had been addressing the psyker's remark towards an ace in the sleeve, as she had put it, with a plan that would, with the Emperor's blessing and a bit of luck, mitigate the odds of them encountering further traitor marines. "Ma'am, as we move forward, is it possible for you to discern active physical threats from immaterial ones that are yet to manifest? That would expedite our approach immensely."

[rivaan]

Vala was luckily helped to get up so she blinked a few times, shook her head to clear her mind and nodded." Yeah... I just hit my head when I was thrown in the explosion. The helmet took the blunt of the impact so I should be fine in a little bit." Vala explained, listening to the others as they were forming out glorious plans of combat and nearly sure death. She naturally wans't too much into the subject at hand which was suicide missions at the heart of chaos infestation with possible chaos astartes hanging about. She still had bad memories about a certain chaos ship she nearly got herself killed on...

"Just give me half an hour with some ordinance and you shall have a bomb... a big one." She said finally, shacking her head one last time to get her vision sorted out as she slowly tried to get up without pushing herself too fast too far. She had to give her body a little bit of time to get used to the situation and then sort her concussion. She didn't have time to deal with it medically. She still felt like falling over, but kept it together for the moment." Any decent explosive device you can spare and even spare las cells will do. I have a way to overcharge and destabilize those..." She added." We just throw some blessed seals of purity or holy water or so on on them to sanctify them and we should be good. Alternatively I doubt anything short of full blown artilery or orbital barage can make a hole through everything on the surface through the cathedral all the way to the gate." She explained with a sigh.

She kept an eye on the psycker who was seemingly having whispers of the warp reaching her ears or something like that. The very fact 'whispers of hte warp' were mentioned made Vala regard her with a certain suspicion. Then again the navigator on their ship back when she was a merc was also not quite all in there when it came to his head. His raving about the 'song of the warp' and the dances of the strings of sapace were something she had more or less memories because she heard it like a million time already.

[Rithy]

"Ma'am, as we move forward, is it possible for you to discern active physical threats from immaterial ones that are yet to manifest? That would expedite our approach immensely."

"That would be fairly simple... divination is one of my main disciplines after all." Adrianne stated with a suddenly far more cheerful tone to Ansgar's question.
"Within the tight confines of these corridors and tunnels, I can detect their auras sooner than most imperial sensors can detect their physical presence, and my powers allow me to foresee most forms of traps or ambushes long before we walk into them. It will get harder the closer we get to the warp anomaly, but out here it is still relatively easy."

People were actually asking for her powers ahead of the anticipated situation rather than when they were already knee deep in xenos and heresy!!

"I could get used to this... " Adrianne thought.

" ... I could get used to him!" Said the whisper in her head!

"Shut it!"

"... Any decent explosive device you can spare and even spare las cells will do... "

Adrianne turned to the group's tech heretic asking for free explosives; eyes drifting down to the two melta-bombs shew as carrying around; before giving Ansgar a very peculiar stare with her skeletal mask.

"I have some melta bombs... not sure how good they are if you want the explosion to be particularly big." She said, continuing with an accusing look down at the shorter krieger.
" ... you are the closest this group has to a demolitions expert, do you have anything to help our tech-heretic?"

[Eisenhorn]

"That will suffice ma'am, once we are close enough, stealth will likely no longer be an option regardless of our ability to scout ahead. Chaos forces have a tendency to detect intrusion into sufficiently corrupt areas despite better efforts." Considering 'that will suffice' was as close as the Krieger was going to get to saying thank you, he turned his attention to the tech heretic as she spoke up about explosives. The Grenadier cocked an eyebrow under his mask, the gesture unreadable due to the rebreather, but one could almost sense the reaction that a veteran Guardsman might have with a mercenary just jumping in and effectively doing his job for him. But, he didn't say a word in regards to her remark, instead he was about to sling the bag of explosives he was carrying up to this point over for the mercenary to sift through when the Psyker once again garnered his attention.

Her remark on the melta bombs was accurate enough, considering the plan he suspected that the mercenary was putting together simply boiled down to strap as many explosives as she could into one massive bomb, plant it on a load bearing support, and detonate. It would probably work from sheer brute force, if nothing else, but he would have much rather simply plant them in several locations and detonate at once. But the psyker's question warranted a response, even if her glare could be detected well enough given her intense downward stare, which the Kriegsman had yet to even look up to meet the much taller gaze. "I have frags, which will not help, krak grenades, which could provide secondary effect, and a few demolition charges. She can utilize all explosives I have except for two demolition charges, the other two I will retain for secondary demolition needs. The Psyker should save her melta bombs for vehicles or Traitor Astartes, as needed."

With that, he set the bag of explosives Ansgar had been hauling around down in front of the tech heretic for her to sift through. True to his word, there were a number of frags, kraks, and four demolition charges. Considering she had free access to all but two demo charges, it should likely be enough explosives to more than suit her needs. Leave it to a Grenadier to have enough explosives to clear an entire building out, or even outright collapse it. It was at this point the Krieger chose to meet the strange, staring gaze that the psyker had been giving him up to this point, simply making an open remark towards her gaze with two words, muffled yet neutral despite the accusatory nature one might feel from such a gaze. "Yes, ma'am?"

[WardenCelestine]

"Eh, it's the whispers of the warp. The barrier to the immaterium is weakening in the proximity of the ritual, allowing the voices from beyond to reach through."

Adrianne's reply was devoid of any actual information that the Sister of Battle did not already know. She felt as if the Psyker was purposely avoiding informing her of who this Zirael actually was. Aviza figured this was either for her own protection or for some other reason. Aviza was quick to point this out to the Psyker, "That is not what I asked you Psyker Adrianne, I directly asked you who this Zirael is and how they or it tie into all of what is happening around us." Aviza's eyes narrowed behind the visor of her helmet, glaring back at the Psyker who was apparently more than she appeared to be. They would have to talk about this later, but for the moment, they all had some mission planning to discuss.

"I agree with taking a side tunnel to flank the heretics, while at the same time avoiding their main force, is the best option for the situation. As stated, there should be less Chaos in those tunnels. Perhaps we could even quickly and quietly eliminate those hostiles in the tunnels, avoiding unwanted attention and giving us more of a chance to infiltrate their base unnoticed." Aviza scanned her surroundings and looked for the small opening that lead into a side tunnel that the mini-map on her HUD showed. It was easily located, allowing the Sister of Battle to mark its location until they were ready to move out.

The discussion of taking down the Chaos portal and putting a stop to the ritual that allowed the heretics to flood into the city followed shortly after. The tech-heretic, also known as the mercenary Vala had the idea of combining their remaining explosives to create a more powerful explosive that would hopefully destroy or at least severely cripple the Chaos portal. It was as good an idea as any, and Aviza supported it. She handed Vala her metla-bombs, informing her to be careful while tampering with all the explosives. The last thing she wanted was for them to all go off, effectively killing most of the squad.

"Whatever is below the cathedral, we will be able to handle it. I brought a couple special grenades with me that I had quite a bit of trouble trying to get my hands on." Reaching into a securely fitted bag upon her left hip, she produced two hallucinogenic grenades that she knew were bound to come in handy somewhere down the line. "These will cause whoever breath in their particles to go into a hallucinogenic rage, attacking anything and everything around them, regardless of friend or foe. Using these wisely, we could cause pandemonium within their ranks." Aviza placed the grenades back into the fitted bag and sealed it shut with great care. "Vala, get to work with those explosives, every second we waste means more enemies to fight in the end."

[Jb]

The Apothecary may not have been able to see the entity clinging to him in the same way as the psyker, he was not warp-touched (thank the Emperor!) but he couldn't shake the feeling that something very close was very wrong; keeping his eyes directed outward and into the dark depths of the tunnel ahead, he nevertheless listened to the back-and-forth of his comrades - were they his comrades now? - as if he were standing right next to them.

He paid little interest to the chit-chatter until Adrienne announced a previously hidden piece of information, pulling two grenades from her hip and showing them to the group. Hallucinogenic grenades were, as with most other forms of bio-weapon in the Imperium, some of the rarest equipment and even he had only ever seen them used once before.

"You are full of surprises, Celestian," boomed the words from his beaked helmet, his visor glinting in the dim tunnel, "but...should it work...the plan is sound."

Only now, the heat of combat-stimms beginning to cool within his body, did the Astartes finally turn to the rest of the group, "is anyone in need of healing? Step forward now."

[Rithy]

"These will cause whoever breath in their particles to go into a hallucinogenic rage, attacking anything and everything around them, regardless of friend or foe."

"Do those even work against Power Armored astartes or deamons??"

Adrianne didn't voice the question, although she held doubts about the effectiveness of the grenades. Against unprotected flesh and blood beasts and mortals, sure, but the Psyker doubted they'd be much use against otherwordly deamons and astartes firmly sealed off in their power suits.

Still, no reason to shake the Sister's optimism!

"I have a few notions about who Zirael is... as to how they tie into this I honestly have no clue." Adrianne said, while placing one hand on the face of a multi-limbed shadow with a forked tongue, before pushing it away from her. An act that might have looked like an odd gesture to the blunts in the party.

"You know full well, little Adri, that I would never turn down a gracious invitation to join such a 'party!'"

"is anyone in need of healing? Step forward now."

Adrianne gave the rest of the party a look, to see if anyone would take the White Scar apothecarian up on his offer.

Part of her doubted anyone would though. For starters, the Imperium seemed rife with stubborn hard-knocks that would attempt to walk off any injury; even death itself; if they were given a chance to do so. And secondly, there was also always a degree of perturbation for most mortals regarding the idea of going up to an 8ft power armored killing machine and asking him to to heal a simple limb or close a wound!

"I can walk second or third to the front." Adrianne said as she suggested a marching order.
"My powers will allow us to foil any traps or ambushes that might lie ahead, and give us the drop on any hostile elements in these tunnels."

[RangingWolf]

Further in the service tunnels in one of maintenance rooms sat a man smoking a lho stick. Next to him were his various weapons that he had taken off in this minute of respite. Ever since he got to this thrice damned planet he was constantly on the run. First it was the bloody orks. Always interfering with his supply runs. Luckily within the first few days of being here he had found the somewhat hidden maintenance room. Elisha had managed to acquire a few days worth of food and water which he had hoped would give him enough time to disappear since he had been discovered by the heretics that now occupied service. Hell even now they were beating on the reinforced metal door trying to get in.

"Fuckers are going to get in this room any minute." Deciding now would be good time to prepare for their inevitable break in. "Handcannon, autopistol, autogun, seax. All here. Elisha said while putting the weapons in their respective places. Throwing on his backpack that contained his disassembled rifle as well as his extra rations and ammo. Once Elisha had all his gear he made his way over to the barricaded door. From all the constant attempts by the heretics to open the door it was able to open just a smidgen enough for a grenade to pass through.

Elisha was lucky none of the traitors had any explosives though the same couldn't be said for them. Taking another puff from his lho stick, Elisha grabbed one of his grenades from inside his jacket. Pulling the pin, Elisha opened the door and rolled the grenade into the next room. Taking cover behind a wall. Elisha counted down the seconds before it would explode and hopefully clear the next room of the heretics. With a resounding boom that would surely echo in the service tunnel he made his move. Clearing the remaining barricade as fast as possible, he opened the door and saw the carnage that his grenade caused. Blood and flesh painting the walls and ceiling. "Luckily none survived. Though it would be kinda hard to survive something so close." He said talking to himself."Well looks like I gotta find another spot to hide in. Since this location has been found." Taking another drag from his lho stick as he made his way down the long service tunnel.

After a few minutes of travel he came across a intersection. "Now what one should I go down? He muttered to himself. Pulling out another Lho stick. He figured he would wait here for a minute and see if he heard anything unusual. Lighting his lho, from the tunnel to his right and the one in front of him, he could the sound of stumbling and mumbling as well as scrapping. Well at least I know what path I'm gonna take now." Elisha said as he moved to the path on the left. Autogun at the ready, Elisha made his way down the tunnel. Halfway through the tunnel, he heard a horrible screech from behind him. Turning around he saw a small horde of traitors rushing towards him.

Oh fuck. Elisha said, firing a few shot before turning back around and running further into the empty tunnel. Luckily the traitors were horrible shots with their makeshift weapons. Elisha knew that he would have to find some cover fast other wise they would catch up to him sooner or later. Thankfully the Emperor was watching over him as he saw that he tunnel was opening up to the main tunnel. Picking up his speed. Running out of the tunnel he noticed a makeshift barricade to his right. With the speed he was going he was able to easily jump over the barricade. Taking cover behind it Elisha pulled out his last grenade and threw it at into the horde. The explosion killing a majority of the traitors the few that survived were disoriented by the explosion allowing Elisha to finish them off with his rifle. Not noticing that one of the traitors was still alive, Elisha soon found his rifle knocked out of his hands. Throwing a punch at his attacker, gave Elisha enough time to pull out his large handcannon and fire a shot into the traitors chest. His attacker fell and started moaning, in what Elisha believed to be pain though with their type you could never be sure. "For fucks sake just shut up and die." Elisha said firing another shot into the traitors skull. Completely obliterating it. Grabbing his autogun from the floor. Elisha found a spot behind the barricade and sat down. Praise the Emperor I managed to find some extra packs of lho other wise I'd be out by now." He said while lighting another lho.

[rivaan]

"Good... this will take a little while though." Vala replied as she was being given explosives from the rest of hte teammates. Across them they all had a rather impressive variety of stuff ot blow shit up with, the merc had to admit and she had the knowhow how to juryrig it all together into something even better. What's more she was given meltabombs.' Ohh God Emperor above, I've seen your wisdom and my faith is renewed!' She screamed in her mind as those two items of awesomeness landed in her lap. She eyed them like a crazy person who just got her favorite toy. Finally she pulled out her toolcase as the krieger also handed her some nades and epxlosions to be.

"Thank you, this will be more than enough... teeheeheee." She giggled with a lovely smile on her face as she started to disassemble the explosives one by one and the first thing was to secure the metal bombs, decide on the arrangement of the explosives in general and she decided the meltas woudl be the outer shell that way the plasma would be thrown furthest away! If it was the core then the chanses were very well the melta will well melt the other explosives if they triggered as a core.

She then pulled pulled herself up and pulled container thing that was probably used to hold spare ammo in the vehicle or something to neatly arrange grenades into it one by fucking one, connecting all of them with a wire net seh just designed to trigger all of them at the very same moment and like that she piled them up. Then pulled a bunch of insulated wire and ducttape, to arrange the meltas on the sides along the demo charges. She wasn't finished with the wiring just yet but when she was going to be, this whole thing will explode with the force of something you compare giant fucking explosions to dammit! and she was planning to have the meltas explode sliver of a moment later than the rest so their effect will be thrown towrads the outside creating even bigger field of explosions. She might have been giggling like someone who loves their job too much would do right now... All she was missing was to be doing in in binary and you'd confuse her for something else right about now.

[WardenCelestine]

"If our tech-mercenary makes a mistake, there is going to be one hell of an explosion." thought Aviza to herself before motioning for her squad to retreat quite a distance back, "Remain here until she has finished, I do not want any more casualties than there has to be if Vala makes a mistake." Aviza was not taking any chances. In truth, if the explosives did go off, there was a high chance that the tunnel could collapse on top of them.

While Vala was busy working with great entertainment and glee, Aviza decided upon something that had been in the back of her mind, "White Scar and Psyker Adrianne, each of you will take one of my hallucinogenic grenades. Adrianne, I want you to use your warp powers to teleport a live grenade into the most condensed group of heretics that are not using enclosed air systems on their armor. White Scar, feel free to use the grenade where you see fit, I fully trust your judgement."

After very carefully passing out the hallucinogenic grenades to the White Scar and Psyker Adrianne, Aviza approached Vala and inquired about her progress with the makeshift explosive. "How far along are you with creating the bomb?" The Sister of Battle wanted to get moving as quickly as possible for obvious reasons. She was about to open her mouth and say something about how she hoped the tech-mercenary was being extremely careful though was cut off as the sound of gunfire and the loud bang produced from a frag grenade going off, echoed through the tunnels.

Aviza's HUD informed her that the sound had originated from the smaller tunnel to their right, the one that they were planning on taking to sneak into the heretics supposed base of operation and ritual site. After glancing around at each of her squad members, she spoke to the one person she wanted to join her at the moment, "White Scar, follow me, we are going to go investigate the source of that sound. I want the rest of you to stay here and make sure nothing else happens." She did not have to tell the White Scar to be careful, she knew that the large man knew exactly what he was doing and would be prepared for anything that came their way. None the less, she took the lead and slowly entered the tunnel with her Adrastus Bolt Caliver raised at the ready.

What they found was unexpected, to say the least. Another human of the Imperium, this one dressed in rather odd clothes that made him stand out from everyone else in Aviza's squad, with exception to Vala of course. "Stand down immediately and report soldier, who are you, how did you end up down here?" said Aviza, lowering her weapon but keeping her guard up. She would take no chances, knowing that the heretics were crafty.

The pile of dead heretics helped eased part of her suspicions though. However, she did motion with her left hand for the White Scar to keep his weapon up, it would be a very wise move for this new arrival to be completely honest with everything that he said, Aviza was not in the mood for any smart-ass remarks or any unintelligent comments. She had killed many humans who said they were part of the Imperium in the past, and would not hesitate at all to do the same here if this man made even the slightest misstep.

[POOHEAD189]

Herold Ortega rested his shotgun on his knee, taking a small breather while his companions worked on their various tasks that matched their abilities. He had remained relatively quiet since the Chaos Space Marines they had found behind the bunker. He simply watched over Vala as she worked on the bomb.

With his perpetual frown and hard set jaw, he seemed displeased more often than not, though that wasn't necessarily true. Often he simply had a righteous anger and a passion for adhering to the law of the Imperium. But at the moment, he was a bit displeased. There was nothing to shoot, and he felt his abilities were inadequate for the intricacies at hand.

The Adeptus Arbites was intelligent when it came to memorization reciting the innumerable laws of the Imperium, along with forensics and legal jurisdiction. He had found no such need for any of these skills since coming to this world, though he wouldn't mind it as long as there were Xenos or heretics to slay.

But so far, he was a glorified bodyguard. He wouldn't complain. But at the moment, he wasn't entirely content with it, Emperor help him.

[Jb]

'White Scar'.

Nergüi simply let a sigh escape his lips as he took one of the hallucinogenic grenades, his helms HUD scanning over it as thoroughly as possible and recording everything it could about the weapon for later analysis; it was not every day that one got to hold a weapon which was technically banned in the Imperium since the Horus Heresy.

"I fully trust your judgement." Now that was odd.

Mere moments later and something or someone was moving elsewhere, the Sister clearly having picked it up, the Astartes not even needing his helmet to pick up the scuffle.

"White Scar, follow me, we are going to go investigate the source of that sound. I want the rest of you to stay here and make sure nothing else happens."

Shifting his bolter into a firing position, pressed to his shoulder and prepared to fire at any moment, Nergüi strode carefully after the smaller figure - his glinting lenses like two pinpricks in the darkness of the tunnels, like some spirit from ancient mythology even - the breathing of someone who had recently been in combat sounding like drums in his ears.

"Stand down immediately and report soldier, who are you, how did you end up down here?"

Though she motioned for the Marine to raise his weapon it had never even left his shoulder, now he simply glared down at the rather odd-looking individual, his helmet unable to pull any other expression except that of 'very annoyed/angry' anyway.

[RangingWolf]

"Stand down immediately and report soldier, who are you, how did you end up down here?"

Elisha let out a short sigh exhaling some smoke along with it. Standing up, Iho stick still in hand, Elisha leaned against the makeshift barricade. Making the sign of the Aquilia, Elisha muttered out."Not a soldier that much is for sure."Looking at the two new people in the room. One was some woman in power armor. Looked familiar but he couldn't put a finger on where he'd seen it before. The other person was obviously one of the sons of the Emperor.

Taking a short drag from his Iho. "Well I'll be damned a Space Marine. Never thought I'd live to see the day. Would say its a honor, but circumstances could be better Milord." Taking another drag of his Iho. "Anyway my name's, Elisha Renai, I'm a Marshal from the Ceraph system." Inhale, exhale. More smoke appears. Elisha turned to the Space Marine "Pardon the bluntness, Milord but ya know you don't have to keep your gun pointed at me. Not like I would be able to do anything to harm you or her. Elisha paused for a moment taking another hit. At the moment he could care less if it bothered his two new companions, he needed something to calm his nerves after his fight some few minutes ago. As for how I ended up here. Well I've been mainly doing my best to keep out of sight of the damnable greenskins. For some odd reason they didn't travel down here that much. Was able to set up a short safehouse not far from here, but I got sighted by those Emperor forsaken traitors. Been making my scavenging runs difficult too."

Elisha took one last drag from his Iho stick. Letting out a dry laugh. " Funny thing is, I was already supposed to be back on Ceraph. Was hunting some criminal here. Planetary Governor wanted him dead. Somehow he managed to flee here. Governor got word that he arrived here, don't know how and not my place to ask. Knew my people are known for hunting be it beasts; be it humans, so he sent me and a couple others here. Others didn't last that long, got ambushed by those damned xenos, I was lucky enough to be acting as a sniper that day. Ya know this supposed to be a quick easy mission. I kill him, get some proof of the kill, then I get to go home and start hunting again. Elisha sighed, shaking his head. "But that's besides the point. So now what happens? I don't suppose you're gonna let me walk freely now?" Elisha asked looking at the woman.

[rivaan]

Vala was completely oblivious to the growing commotion around her as she was off tinkering with explosives. It was so partly because she had to concentrate on the task and partly because she god damned loved to tinker with stuff and rigging explosives was just a step away from rigging proper weapons. Maybe in a previous life he was a mechanicus magus or something who knew.

"Oi... keep it more quiet you do not want to know what happens if I cross two wires by mistake here. Ohh where did I put the melta ignition cable again... ehh... found it!" She suddenly stated away as Elisha began his rant about his story, but she didn't give a crap about it hell even registered it. Working with such a quanity of grags and meltas on top of it tended to do that.

"Now... where was I... ohh yea rigging the triggers..." She mumbled as she got to wire setting again, muttering some numbers.

"01001001 00100000 01110011 01110111 01100101 01100001 00100000... actually no 01110010..." Speaking with some difficulty in binary since she didn't have a mechanicus speaker device. She was still well versed in the art of cursing and swearing in binary too!

"We are so 01100100 01100101 01100001 01100100~!" She continued her little mumbles as if she was using trhe moment to practice her binary skills! Who knew maybe she was plannign to attend a magus convention, but more likely than not she was just wanting to be able to swear at tech priests the same way they swore at her in regular basis.

[Rithy]

"I can confirm that... "

"White Scar, follow me, we are going to go investigate the source of that sound. I want the rest of you to stay here and make sure nothing else happens."

" ... "

" ... there are no ambushes down that path."

Adrianne only murmured the last words as Aviza and Nergui had already run off like a jolly black-templar kill team that had just been tipped off about a large gathering of particularly undefended and vulnerable heretics nearby!

"Why do the muscle always run ahead like that without consulting the Psyker first? I'm not gonna be sorry if they run into a minefield!"

The Psyker thought to herself; all the while subconsciously having taken more than half a dozen of steps away from where Vala the Tech Heretic who was working on her own home-made bomb, and displaying all too much glee when working on it for it to ever possibly be safe!

"You could always kill her and drink her blood if she becomes a nuisance! Nobody likes a killjoy!"

"Nobody's killing anyone, Zirael... " Adrianne mumbled with an annoyed tone as the Psyker raised a gloved hand, seeking to expand her senses in order to find something to take her mind off the mindless behavior of her teammates, the nagging daemon and the no less than twelve severed eyes observing her from various water pools and metal reflections.

With the thick corruption lying over the tunnels like a noxious cloud, it was difficult for her psychic mind to see far. Yet, what she found did not require much effort to begin with!

A few levels above them, Adrianne could sense a swarming sea of angry, frustrated feelings coalescing together. It had every hallmark of an ork mob, and for whatever reason they also radiated frustration.

"I sense Orks... " Adrianne began, turning to the remainder of the group around her.
"A few levels above us. And a lot of them. They are not moving, and radiate frustration, but for what reason I cannot yet discern."

[Eisenhorn]

The Celestian and Apothecary heading out on their own was, well, not terribly appreciated by Ansgar. Splitting up an already extremely limited force was not the smartest action, doubly so when the resident psyker had already confirmed she could sweep ahead and look for potential problems. It was a waste of resources in a situation where they had a disappointing amount available to begin with. But he was not the one in charge, so he was intent on following orders barring a change of pace. The Techpriestess noted the mercenary speaking in binary, albeit poorly, one might have mistaken her for being amused as she calmly remarked back in binary as well, speaking at the same speed as she might have if she were conveying low Gothic. "01010000 01110010 01100001 01100011 01110100 01101001 01100011 01100101 00100000 01101101 01100001 01101011 01100101 01110011 00100000 01110000 01100101 01110010 01100110 01100101 01100011 01110100 00100000 01101101 01100101 01110010 01100011 01100101 01101110 01100001 01110010 01111001 00101110"

Ansgar was ignoring the two speaking in Binary, mainly since he hadn't even the slightest idea of understanding the manner of speaking the Adeptus Mechanicus employed. Instead, his attention was focused on what the Psyker had said about Orks being above them, and he moved to the wall, resting a hand on one of the larger pipes that ran through the ceiling, and likely several levels higher. Sure enough, thanks to the Psyker's forewarning, Ansgar's experience in tunnel fighting paid off, as he could feel subtle vibrations, faltering, which meant it wasn't starting yet. A sudden spike, though, warned otherwise, and he turned from the pipe. "Ma'am, they are attempting to tunnel down to right where we are. Likely in an attempt to reach a fight that actually interests them, meaning the Guard have been routed or surrounded. Mercenary, we need to get your device moving now." Ansgar checked his rifle, starting to move to a position along the barricade where he could see, before voxxing the Celestian. "Ma'am, Ork activity detected several levels above us. Likely tunneling downwards towards Chaos forces, and us. We are moving the device before they reach us, and will move to deliver it to the target."

At this point, Ansgar turned to their half of the group, unaware of the person the Celestian and Apothecary had found. Right now, the Grenadier knew, they had to keep moving or else risk getting bogged down in orks. "Arbites, recommend you take point. I will follow alongside. Techpriestess, assist the Mercenary in moving the device and have your Skitarii perform rearguard." At this point the Krieger turned to face the Psyker, comedically taller than he was, and the sound of rumbling and tunneling could be heard by the sharper eared among the group. The Psyker would also notice a spike in Orkish activity, likely pleased with them making progress finally thanks to their Mekboyz, no doubt. "Ma'am, can you still guide us as close to the Gate as possible while avoiding trouble? The Orks may prove useful to us, should they encounter the Chaos forces before us. If so, as soon as the device is ready, point the way we need to move."

Ansgar may not be the most comfortable around the Warp, considering his past experiences, but he was not about to ignore an asset that could get them through enemy lines to deliver their weapon. Just because the Death Korp may be known for its suicidal disregard for losses and frontal assaults, didn't make their specialist forces, Grenadiers included, incapable of operating smartly. Even if the Krieger wanted nothing more than to charge into the heretic ranks and take as many down as possible, they had a mission to accomplish.

[WardenCelestine]

"This man must be daft if he knows what a Space Marine is but does not know what a Sister of Battle is." thought Aviza to herself, looking the strange man over, deciding what to do with him. She came to the conclusion that he could prove useful in some manner and would be recruited into her squad, willing or not. "Elisha was it? I am Celestian Superior Aviza'Norea, of the Order of the Argent Shroud, and acting Inquisitor for this mission. Since you seem to be quite capable with a firearm, I am merging you into my squad for the time being. As for the target you were hunting down, there is a very high chance that he became one of the many casualties to either the Orks or the heretic traitors."

Aviza motioned with her Adrastus Bolt Caliver for Elisha to quickly follow both Nergüi and herself back to the rest of the squad. On their way back though, Aviza was voxxed by Ansgar, informing her that Ork forces were detected several levels above them, and that they were moving out with the explosives that Vala had tampered with, towards their objective. "We are heading back now with a new member to the squad. Once we regroup, we will all head towards the Warp gate together." said Aviza as she gracefully sprinted through the darkened tunnel with Nergüi and Elisha close behind. Once they arrived back with the rest of her squad, Aviza could clearly overhear Ansgar asking their sanctioned Psyker if it was still possible for her to guide them as close to the gate as possible while avoiding trouble.

The heavy footsteps from Nergüi was plenty enough to announce their arrival. Aviza motioned towards Elisha with her Adrastus Bolt Caliver, "This is Elisha, he will be joining us for the rest of the duration of our mission, perhaps beyond as well." Turning to face Adrianne, Aviza now seconded the Krieger's question. "Well? What do you think, Adrianne can we take our original path to the Warp gate or are we going to have to improvise?" Breaking eye-contact but still fully listening to Adrianne, Aviza noticed that the motion tracker upon her HUD was informing her that there in fact was movement from Orks two levels above them. "If we can get the Orks to tunnel down right above the Warp gate, or at least roughly near its location, that would greatly improve the situation at hand."

Aviza turned back to Adrianne and motioned towards the hallucinogenic grenade she had given the Psyker and the White Wolf, then started to pace back and forth between the two. "We need to lure the Orks to the position of the Warp gate. There are a number of ways to do accomplish this but I suggest using one of the hallucinogenic grenades to cause confusion among the ranks of the heretical forces. A well placed hallucinogenic grenade would do this quite well. The ensuing chaos would cause an adequate amount of noise, drawing the Orks to them. If it is possible, Adrianne could teleport her hallucinogenic grenade into the most densely packed group of hostiles, causing in what I assume to be an amusing free for all between the Orks and the heretics. We can wait for the fight to finish and pick off the remaining survivors, which I doubt there will be many of, or we can make use of the free for all and shoot at everything within the area."

Aviza paused for a moment, glancing over at Vala and her custom explosive before addressing her squad once more. "That does bring up the question of how we are going to plant the explosive before more heretical reinforcements decide to show up. I do not want and will not allow any of you to run or sneak or try to get to the Warp gate while any of the plans above are being carried out. Doing so would undoubtedly result in that persons death. We have two options here, our local sanctioned Psyker comes into play for the first and could teleport the explosive to the gate. Our second option is to place the explosive once all the hostile forces are down and risk having a squad of Chaos Space Marines reinforce their position. Not the best two options, but the only two we have at the moment."