[IC] The Trail of Dust WH40K Black Crusade

[Omega]

The planet Proditorem, Sector Geminus, Ultima Segmentum. A hive world with a population of 100 billion, or it did, before the cultist uprisings. Over the course of several months this hive world was overrun with Chaos uprisings. Cults are common enough within the region know as the Trail of Dust but cultists rarely work together as well as they seemed to at the beginning of the uprisings. The PDF and arbites could do nothing as they came up from the lower hives and pushed well into the mid-hive when their momentum began to slow. Smelling blood in the water pirates, warbands, and any who believed their was something to be gained began to come to the world to prey upon it in it's moment of weakness. This was shattered though when the Imperium at last got aid to the planet. Several regiments of Imperial Guard, an arbites task force, and rumors even abound of the Inquisition having a presence. The Imperium Navy was fast to act mere moments after leaving the warp torpedoes and strike craft were inbound on the vessels preying upon the world chasing them away and stranding some of the pirates and voidfarers on the world below. The task force while impressive was unable to pursue the chaos vessels beyond the orbit of Proditorem however and thus some now lurk in the asteroid field some distance away.

Even as the fleet secured orbit though the guard was not to be outshone landing light infantry in the upper hive to prepare defenses and setup command and control as well as in the mid-hive almost right on top of the cultists pushing up through the hives. Within the capitol hive of Celatum, they made sure to show a strong presence rapidly shattering and forcing any chaos aligned forces down deeper into the hive while securing almost half of the mid-hive in a few days. A wanted list for the most infamous individuals is now being circulated about with what information they have, the infamous pirate Brutus Lanius Nero and his crewmembers including Choirmaster Verdi and Archmilitant Celeste Davayos are actively pursued wanted by the arbites for a thousand crimes, the reviled Tzeentch sorcerer Embra Parasitif and his allies and cohorts such as Malignus Raevan are prime targets for a dozen Imperial administrations for their acts in the name of their dark god. The goal of the Imperium is to drive them out and kill them in the open. They know they are on the world and will not allow them or any other of the arch-heretics off the world.

Cut off from the upper hive, the outer hive ring, any docks, and any teleportariums the Imperium knows they and all the other cultists are now cut off, forced down in the mid-hive or lower hive it is only a matter of time until the noose closes as the Imperial forces slowly yet assuredly secure the hive one level at a time.

[Crayt]

It was only natural for them to retreat into the lower hive. The cramped spaces and large amount of citizens that came with a hive world didn’t quite meet the requirements for a psyker to battle in, and the further down they fled, the longer the pitiful corpse-servants would be forced to seek. Their search would also be hindered by the remaining followers of his cherished cult antagonistically flinging their powers at the by-passing marines and whatnot. That’s all they were good for anyway: to be expended for the survival of the fittest. Space was vast after all, and it was only a matter of time before more would swarm Embra’s brilliant presence. One remained, however, and what a stubborn one it was. No doubt desperate to scrape Embra’s precious knowledge out of his skull. He’d been working towards it for quite some time now, Embra had noticed - he had definitely noticed. Not a moment passed when this Malignus fellow wasn’t by Embra’s side. One might say it was quite noticeable. And now he refused to follow Embra’s highly subtle directions towards certain death, which would prolong the arrival of the corpse-lovers even further.

Crowds ran past him in panic. Screams echoed across the streets as they passed stores and homes and more stores and seedy taverns. Nothing seemed like a viable place to stay as any sort of individual with a foot would be kicking the doors down in just a little while, looking for the likes of himself and his follower - and these doors weren’t built to hold. These doors looked brittle and worn out, and were quite clearly meant to be doors - not barricades. The surrounding area was quite unsurprisingly a seedy place, with seedy alleyways and seedy people - Embra had to constantly assure himself that everything was where it should be, and was certain on countless occasions that someone had nabbed one thing or another.

The light power armour which he wore and the force staff, which was basically a wooden rod, made the psyker stick out like a sore thumb. The fact that the staff was leaking blood in places didn’t really make him less noticeable either. At a not very close inspection, a large tail was definitely discernible sticking out through the light power armor. The tail was holding onto an object of a tube shape and seemed generally specific as to where it pointed the tube: most of the time it just happened to be Malignus. The man’s long blue hair rested still upon his shoulders as he carried on walking, but his violet eyes noticed that the crowd was finally starting to thin up ahead...

[Raineh Daze]

Argent cheerfully made her way out of the depths, unaware of the conflict on the upper levels and concerned only with finding some more firepower. Such wonders were there for the taking, it was just a matter of getting rid of the few obstacls. But firepower... that meant finding followers of Chaos who were more than mere cultists. Such a nuisance...

Even though she was getting to the point where the crowd was moving against her, the renegade tech-priest had no difficulty in continuing to ascend through the Hive World: standing head and shoulders above the rabble let her see where she was going, and very few people were willing to try and push past a power axe. A few tried anyway. The luckier were just shunted off into the crowd by the most basic mechadendrite. Others found out what it was like to have a chainsaw dig into your flesh, or what that axe could actually do.

Most people, by and large, recognised that trying to force your way past someone armoured, even--or especially--if the armour was under tattered robes was a recipe for disaster.

[Fallen Muse]

The streets weren’t quite as full here only a person here or there ducking out of a doorway to grab a scrap. Small gangs of cultists chanting as they walked in a group down the street. The mid level of the hive had become the main warzone. The guard had pushed everyone down it seemed and the battles were still raging some miles away between the False Emperor’s Soldiers and the Cultists. Celeste stepped easily over some debris with a severed hand sticking out of it. She frowned a bit and looked up at a rather large building that was obviously a living habitat. “I think this will be the most defensible.” She was the military buff of the group so she usually took the lead in times when it came to finding defensible positions and such.

Moving slowly up to the large arched doors of the complex she had Kallison and Miva slowly push the doors open. Celeste had her bolter at the ready aiming it at the doorways and the rest of the soldiers beneath her had readied their weapons as well taking aim at the opening before them. When they saw nothing she had them move in motioning for the rest of the group to follow after as they cleared and claimed the first room. She stopped and looked around. “This will work.” She frowns a bit and turns to look at her Captain. “My Lord this place should do perfectly. There are plenty of exits and defensible positions.” With her left hand she would reach up slowly stroking her left horn which sprouted from her forehead a slight curved leading to a sharp point.

Turning quickly to face her troops Celeste spoke in a sweet voice, as if poisoned honey were dripping form her lips. “All of you. Clear the complex first two floors. Any survivors hiding bring them here. If they resist kill them.” With a slow wave of her hand she dismissed the five women on their task to find any living souls inside the building. With a look over her shoulder she gave a slightly half hearted smile that seemed to conflict with her pouty lips. “Will this please you my lord?”

[The Imagination]

The foul plots of Malignus and Embra were put to the test by the might of the Imperium. It may have been their shortcoming, expanding so wide and fast to have brought so much coveted attention toward them. Indeed, even a famed Slaaneshi Warband had touched planetside, and were perhaps in the very vicinity of the Tzeentchian Cult Uprising's spearheads themselves. Following in Embra's shadow, Malignus cackled and cracked his neural whip at the scattering and panicking crowd before them. With his second right arm, protruding grotesquely like a sprouting tree through his original right arm's lower bicep, he wielded this whip and used it to spread a path before him and his fellow collaborator. In his upper right arm, he clung to a plasma pistol which he more than often used to intimidate any distraught cultist or panicked civilian who tried to grow a pair of stones and attempt any acts of thievery against him or Embra.

As they continued down to a lower part of the hive, a frustrated bead of sweat drooped down his face. His crimson and violet feathered wings fluttered against the constricting, although concealing, patchwork purple robes he adorned.

"You know, mi'lord..." He chuckled. "I welcome the presence of these corpse-worshipping dogs, things were streaming along too narrowly and were becoming predictably constant when our uprising first began." He flashed a jester-like smirk to Embra.

"I revel in this...sporadic chaos they have sparked with their arrival. Our Lord will be most pleased with this turn of events. Things are finally changing rapidly now moreso than they have in a long time!" He stated, snickering all the while.

As the crowd slowly thinned up ahead, he took to leveling himself shoulder by shoulder next to his colleague. He had changed his stance, however he knew with such uncertainty ahead there wasn't quite much they could do in terms of preparing. He would have suggested they take cover, hide inside one of these rooms or stores or taverns, perhaps retreat down lower into the hive. Instead he prepared himself to draw his weapons and stabilize his mind as he awaited instruction from Embra.

[Polyjester]

The Choirmaster strides forward behind Celeste, humming some nameless tune alongside his servoskull, as the ugly servitor plods along further behind, making faint bass notes in accompaniment. It's a arrogant, needlessly pompous sort of stride, with the sort of disproportionately large steps a narcissist is free to take when inordinately powerful, or, at the very least, under the protection of terrifyingly powerful others. He'd had some misgivings and doubts about joining up with these pirates, but with blessed solid ground once more beneath his feet, all of that initial hesitation seems to have melted away. Look at these people, these guns! Who would ever dare challenge them, who would even think to oppose Verdi on even the most inconsequential of matters, when he has allies with more capacity for destruction than a drunk ogryn in a china shop?

"Oooh! Leave one of the children, if there are any! Medley needs to practice his high notes!" The composer pleads. The servoskull is a useful aid, but can only mimic voices in so many octaves at the present time. Insufficient, if the Choirmaster is to properly fulfill his duties, both to himself, and to the strange pirate lord behind this hapless expedition. Not that he has any idea what the Pirate Prince actually wants of him, of course. Captain Nero was frustratingly obtuse about what Verdi's role in this operation was, or even what the operation itself was meant to entail.

[Omega]

Pushing their way through the crowds Embra and Malignus were easily picked out as few individuals were moving in the opposite direction of everyone else. There seemed to be few if any cultists about now with those streaming through the streets merely civilians caught in the conflict overtaking the hive. As the crowd began to thin Embra at first then Malignus noticed various markings on some buildings and doors. Embra with his time spent with various cults was able to quickly decipher their meaning and note the district they were now moving through. Behind them some distance away was another of the rare individuals not fleeing and even more noticeable due to her appearance Argent cut her way through the crowd with ease taking little heed of those around her or the seedy buildings about her with their minor chaos markings. Embra and Malignus were coming to the end of the crowd only a handful of stragglers were now about them when now Emra suddenly heard a monstrous chanting.

He managed to listen for a moment deciphering the chanting to an extant though it's exact words eluded him. There was only moments to listen to the chanting before it seemed to suddenly change into a dull roar. It was a deep bass roar that seemed to shake the buildings and your very bones. Some distance off now down the street you could see the source of the sound, still hundreds of meters away on the broad avenue there was no missing them, a wave of bodies red and brass. At the front was a large banner with a single mark that you could make out even at such a distance, followers of Khorne, thousands of them were marching through the streets.

They were slowly coming up for the lower hive levels using the broad street to make it easier for their travel. Able to easily see over the head of those yet in front of her Argent managed to see the banner hanging limply in the air and suddenly heard the roar which caused the people about her to flee with new fervor. It was clear to all three now why the people fled so readily in the direction from whence came the sounds of combat for there awaited danger but behind them waited death. Still hundreds of meters away there were few buildings of note nearby, seedy buildings but not squalid though would last less than a moment should they come under the notice of the tide of cultists approaching. There were solid ferrocrete buildings further back into the hive though that meant heading closer to the combat as well as the Imperial Guard forces who were rounding up and executing cultists where they were found.

---

As Celeste strode through the habblock at the head of the small strike force including Verdi and Lord Brutus Lanius Nero detailing out her warriors she noted the building they now occupied it was a solid ferrocrete structure meant to last for centuries under normal conditions. It had fared better than some so far and was still intact the building would be able to take quite some punishment yet. It did not take long before all her warriors returned save for Miva and Kavayah. They were empty quickly informing her that the building was empty and largely stripped, the most noteworthy thing was that on the other side of the building down from the upper hive levels they had noted a squad of arbites moving in formation down the thoroughfare which Miva and Kavayah had stayed behind to observe. The squad was not yet upon the building but would be there within a few minutes and the objective of the arbites was yet unknowable. There were two entrances into the habblock from the side which the arbites were approaching as well as a myriad of windows and the kill team of female warriors reported as well that the path the arbites traveled was generally lacking in cover.

They had scarcely finished their report to Celeste when everyone felt the dull roar begin. It felt as though the building in which they occupied vibrated with it and each person felt it in their bones. The source was unknown as it seemed to be coming from everywhere at once.

[The Imagination]

"These markings...I do not recollect them. What say you, my fellow collaborator?" Malignus inquired, eyeing the strange markings and symbols along the street.

Regardless, after a few brief moments, the roaring call of war was heard bellowing from the bowels of the hive some distance away. Noting the rather massive crowd, and their distinctive banners, the Raevan knew all too well what would happen if they were to stay. Oh, but he did indeed revel in the chaotic turn of events. With a wide grin and a cackle of his whip into the thin and stale air, he beckoned to Embra.

"We should watch our steps, and progress upward to more solid location. The buildings here would not last more than a minute against angry mob of such...caliber. They would certainly string our entrails out like rope, drink our blood like flowing basin." He suggested.

After turning around swiftly, he gazed upon a fellow cultist, with hair gleaming a silver hue and metallic works sprouting all around. A wicked half smiled creeped up the right side of his scruffy cheek, and he whispered loudly to himself.

"Oh, my lord is most certainly having a day with me. I absolutely admire how things have changed, and rightly so!"