[IC] Warhammer 40k: The Sisk Incident

[Grothnor]

Rayvius was suspicious about this assignment from the beginning. First, he was being sent to a Feudal World. His skills there would be next to worthless. And he knew he was going to the surface, because the files he received with his orders included maps of the planet's surface. Then, he had to go undercover. He picked his usual assumed identity: bounty hunters. It wasn't as glamorous as their usual Rogue Trader monikers, but they were sorely lacking the one thing they needed to pull that off: a ship. That was the next issue he had with the mission. They had to travel there in an Imperial Navy transport. Usually they could hire a Rogue Trader to transport them. These were all rather small complaints compared to the big ones. The two big ones. The first was the encrypted files he was told to deliver to his master. Despite all his attempts and despite orders not to open them, he simply couldn't. And there was little he couldn't do with a cogitator. It all seemed too suspicious, and he was in the business of suspicion.

The other major issue was that he was going to die.

The Kestrel of Luggnum was going down, and he didn't know how, and neither did he have the time to find an interface port to find out. He was just shoved aboard the Life-pod and spat out into space. And then that didn't last much longer either, because the life-pod started falling towards the surface of the planet. He strapped himself into the pilot's chair and interfaced with the pod's nav-computer.

“Do you know how to fly this thing?” someone said.

“No, but it can't hurt to try.” Ray was horrified to see that the life-pod was landing right in the center of a giant lake, the South Sea, as the nav-computer helpfully displayed. However, he looked closer to see that they were actually landing on an island. Ray felt a wave of relief, then growing worry. How were they supposed to get off an island?

And then they landed.

---

Ray awoke some unknown time later. He quickly checked his internal chronometer built into his augmentic eye and saw that only a few seconds had passed. He groaned, partially in relief, but mostly in pain. “Hey, is anyone alive back there?”

[Necrosis]

Maren Klemperer was outside the escape pod, how she couldn't exactly remember how she had gotten here, it had all been a blur and if it had not been for her training she probably wouldn't have made it to this location. “MOVE, MOVE, MOVE.” yelled Maren as she made a circular motion with her hand trying to get as many soldiers in the escape pod. Yet the pod was almost full and thus Maren jump in and quickly strap herself in as the pod then ejected. Maren tried to observe the group around her but was unable to focus. Upon regaining focus as the pod landed, Maren unhook herself from the escape pod. He heard someone asking if anyone was alive. “This is Commissar Maren Klemperer, I am still alive.” said Maren as she grabbed her head trying to stop the pain in her head.

[drallinix]

Sergeant Adrian Cade stood atop the escape pod with rifle in hand. looking around surveying their position and then he turned to the group of people he had landed with. a commissar.....I don't think ive met this one but still no less daunting of a person and im sure as merciless as most. and some man in the cockpit asking if anyone was alive.next Adrian does a quick check of his own gear and his health condition. he had been one of the last few into the pod just before the commissar and had strapped in before landing but his shoulder had still taken a nasty impact on delivery. Aside from this his rifle seemed in working order thank god something is going right and he had his satchel charge strapped neatly into his belt as it usually was. he had lost his fragmentation grenades and the blade of his combat knife had snapped after his shoulder had hit the wall.It would be easy enough for me to slip off but my best chance of survival is to stay with these people also it is my duty to fight beside the lord commissar. Dropping down Adrian slung his rifle over his back and saluted in front of the commissar " alive and well ma'am sergeant Adrian Cade of the KRONUS 1st reporting in and at your service"

[Pathfinder]

Grav hated stupid, small fly ship. Especially since it was falling and covered on fire, at least it was. Now Grav is on his face, missing a tusk or two from the blood in his mouth. Then he heard the voice of the inquisitor. "Hey, is anyone alive back there?" came the question from the vox.

Forgetting about his own vox-caster Grav yelled "Me ok inquisitor!" with a loud bellow.

With that Grav picked up Daisy, kicked open the hatch door, and ran out vowing to never return to the vile machine. Looking around, he spotted a guardsmen, not one of the Catachen ones he was fond of, but a guradsmen nonetheless.

With a wave of his mighty hand Grav yelled "Hi little man!" in a friendly manner, and plodded his way up to the lake bed to await orders form his inquisitor.

[Raineh Daze]

This wasn't the first time she'd found herself having to make a hasty exit from a ship--though it was undoubtedly the first where stopping the ship from breaking entirely had been within her purview, and Honoria was rather... irked that she hadn't the time to ascertain what had gone wrong. Still, she was well versed in escape procedures: step one was always, always to put size and bulk to use securing an escape route. The haft of a chainaxe made a good tool for tripping errant guardsmen, and as she rounded the last corner, one unfortunate man found a metal claw seizing him by the collar and tossing him to the ground.

She wasn't part of the Guard, so it wasn't like immediate commissar reprisal was a threat, and any indication of her actions would soon be lost to the void.

The tech-priest had no difficulty securing a spot in the plummeting craft, even though she ended up securing herself by dint of latching onto the ceiling itself rather than sitting. The craft simply wasn't designed to accommodate mechadendrites, after all.

The landing, however, was not something that she would recommend to endure whilst standing once more. Unlike some of the... fleshier humans in the escape pod, Honoria retained consciousness. Sadly, it wasn't all that useful a bonus, as she had no view of where they had landed. Troublesome indeed, the white-haired enginseer thought, exiting the escape pod to check on the surroundings and those few that had somehow been ejected entirely. Emergency surgery might be needed, though preferably nothing involving missing limbs. There were hardly the tools to replace entire body parts on a feudal world.

Honoria leant against the axe and surveyed her surroundings, glancing briefly at the commissar and the... Ogryn, really? Finally, though, she responded to the asked question. She felt no need to introduce her profession, the metallic edge of her monotone more than gave that away: "Alive and uninjured. Ready to perform emergency surgery."

[Rin]

Trooper Alexis Radclyffe - Lifepod

It took a few moments for her to regain her balance after the rough ride to the surface, but the trooper in the immaculate red tunic got to her feet as soon as she possibly could. She was a woman of Praetoria, after all, and were she to show tardiness or, even worse, were such a thing to cause her to lose consciousness, it would be an insult to her regiment. That and it would probably result in a beating.

Immediately upon getting to her feet, the first thing Trooper Radclyffe did (well, second thing; the first thing she really did was dust off her uniform) was click her heels together and salute the Interrogator. As a member of the Holy Orders of the Emperor's Inquisition, he was the highest ranking person in the pod and thus the one she should address first and foremost.

"Sir! It would take more than that to kill one of the Praetorian 39th, sir!" She barked, before standing at ease. "At ease" being a relative term, as there was still a general stiffness in her posture developed from the beatings earned from the several times she was too at ease. "The Emperor smiles on us today, sir! May I suggest we scout the perimeter and set up base camp, sir!?"

[Grothnor]

Ray heard a couple voices, a guardsman and a commissar. Suddenly his commbead squealed painfully loud in his ear. "Me ok inquisitor!" The Ogryn certainly didn't do subtle. Ray wondered why they bothered going undercover at all.

"It's Interrogator, big guy. In-terr-o-ga-tor." Sure enough, Grav was off, climbing out of the life-pod, and not listening. "Its like teaching flakboard." Ray muttered. He got up out of the cockpit and walked towards the back exit.

And now that the felid was out of the bag, people were lining up to take his orders. A cogboy started introducing herself. Wait, would she be a cogboy or a cog-girl? Ray wondered. A guardswoman hopped up after the techpriestess. Clearly one from one of those regiments where more work was put into making the troops' uniforms perfect than anything useful. Ray's first impression was one of annoyance. He disliked her attitude, he disliked her volume, he just disliked her. "Go..." Ray searched his mind for something for her to do to get her out of his face. "Go check on him," He gestured towards Igam, who as far as he could tell, was out cold. Or was dead. Hopefully the former.

Ray stepped past her and hopped out of the life-pod hatch, where he immediately fell to his hands and knees and vomited. I am so glad that I'm not an Inquisitor. This would be so undignified. After emptying his stomach, he took a look around. Sure enough, it was an island, like the nav-computer said: a beach was hardly 50 meters from the craft. The pod was surrounded by trees in every direction except behind it; it had ploughed through quite a few. So far as the eye could see, there was nothing. No wildlife, no people, nothing, except the distinctive caw of crows in the distance. He went back inside the craft for his portable cogitator. The maps on there would definitely have more info on this place.

[Lucian]

Gaius gathered himself as the Kestrel of Luggnum lurched violently. Per regulations, he took a deep breathe and equipped his rebreather mask. He only knew the basics of the planet they were currently hurdling toward. The likelihood that they would crash in a swamp and take on water was high, and Gaius had no intention of drowning. Looking around at the others who filled the lifepod, he noted the Interrogator, desperately trying to steer the lifepod clear of any dangers. The Commisar faced her fate with the stern glare of the Commissariat. Gaius noted that he was making a similar face. The Enginseer braced itself on the ceiling of the ship, and Gaius himself knelt down against his suppression shield, in the hopes that the cushioned backside would help break his inevitable impact with the wall. There was a roar of metal as the pod came to an abrupt stop, throwing Gaius forward onto his shield.

Though he had properly braced, it was still a jarring experience. He managed to retain his consciousness throughout, but had to steady himself before he could rise. When he eventually got to his feet, he was pleased to see that there were virtually no casualties. The escape pod had done it's job well. There was a hole in the pod, and the planet's sun shone through. He heard the Interrogator ask if any of the crew had survived. The Commissar's response came over the vox channel, and the Ogryn bellowed annoyingly toward the cockpit. One of the guardsmen saluted the Interrogator and announced her regimen, as well as the Enginseer. Gaius, heaving his suppression shield back onto his back, approached the Interrogator as well.

"I'm alive as well, Rayvius." He said, his rebreather distorting his voice. He didn't know the Interrogator extremely well, but serving the same inquisitor had allowed Gaius a decent amount of time to, at the least, get a general feel for the man.

[Raineh Daze]

Joy, they had the most enthusiastic soldier she'd ever had the misfortune of having to deal with. That was going to do bad things for her peace of mind in the long term; who wanted to deal with noisy military types? At least her uniform was to be respected: clean and well-maintained, which indicated a soldier who was likely to treat her hardware well. That, in the end, was all that Honoria really desired from guardsmen: that they don't damage their stuff and leave her to do more interesting work than basic weapon repair.

With their environment as... bereft of useful tools as it was, there seemed to be few options available for getting off this island. The trees, of course, presented the first and most straightforward option: build something that floated. A ship was out of the question without some actual woodworking tools, but she had a chainaxe, and the bonesaw on the medicae mechadendrite could be repurposed for evening things out.. a raft, if something could be used as a binding, or even several.

Without explaining to anyone else what she was doing, the tall tech-priest headed to one of the trees collapsed by their arrival, and the harsh roar of the chain-axe rent the air as she set to getting usable logs out of the thing. No time like the present, after all.

[drallinix]

Finally breaking his salute Adrian turned to the ogryn and stared up at the large creature. Adrian was by no means small but this creature was massive albeit it did seem friendly and that was a good thing. Adrian replied to the creature "greetings to you as well". surveying the people that had survived the crash he noticed a fellow guardsman well technically guardswoman. She appeared to be the all to uptight generic trooper probably from an extremely strict regiment. Next he took noticed a man in a storm coat vomiting this was presumably the one who had asked if anyone else had made it. The man was throwing up not that Adrian blamed him that had been a rough landing he was in total surprised they had all survived.
The next thing Adrian heard was a mans voice through a respirator on his comms. FInally he noticed the techpriest or what he assumed was a techpriest moving away from the group. what's a techpriest doing here? who knows this is something of a ragtag group but this could be great maybe she can fix my blade. thought Adrian as he started running after the woman. Adrian stopped a few meters behind her and asked in a professional voice " excuse me ma'am are you a techpriest?".

[dereken]

Igam had been one of the first on the pod, right behind the interrogator and the ogryn. He nodded a curt greeting to the pair, and strapped in, clutching his staff for comfort. Igam trembled in fear and apprehension. He had felt a ripple in the warp, and almost immediately the ship started to go down. Soon others came running into the pod, each one ignored by Igam, who was lost in his prayers to the Emperor for strength and guidance. Suddenly, he felt something change, he couldn't tell what at first, but as the sensation grew, he realized with horror that his connection to the warp was being severed. It felt like losing an extra limb. A soldier, female, dressed in red flew into the life pod, and Igam knew immediately that she was the source of the separation. He couldn't stand it, and wanted to flee, but as he went for his buckle, the pod launched, trapping him in the life pod with the horrifying presence of the soldier. All Igam could do is pray and tremble as the pod made its way to the planets surface.

By the time the pod hit the surface, Igam was ready to put his las-pistol in his mouth and pull the trigger, but the choice was abruptly taken from him by a painful blow to the head, which knocked Igam out.

[Necrosis]

Maren got out of the pod. “Alright everyone, stand and pay attention. We need a plan of action. Savage whatever supplies we can. See if we can get some sort of scanner or vox working. We should also get ready to be staying here for a while. Now then does anyone have any questions?” said Maren in a strict voice as she gave a close glance to everyone. That being said, some of them she couldn't order around, like the tech-priest and the acolyte. Still this seemed like the most logical sense of action. Once that was done she went to the Acolyte. “Will you be taking command, Acolyte of the Inquisition?” ask Maren as she then waited for a response. To be honest this was the first time she had been working with the Inquisition and it was kind of strange. After all they could overrule her orders and even execute her for Heresy, usually it was the other way around. Still Maren knew her place and would follow his commands if he took over.

[Pathfinder]

Grav stood still, unknowing on what to do. The tech priest was starting to cut trees, maybe to build? The inquisit-er interagrater? Grav didn't like big words, it was hard enough to learn inquisitor. As the interagrater puked all over the ground, Grav was almost about to go offer his help before he finished and went back into the pod, Emperor knows he isn't going back in there. Seeing the Commissar taking command grave lumbered up and asked

"What you want Grav to do?" In his simple, baritone voice.

[Lucian]

Gaius shrugged off the interrogator's lack of response. The man was busy exiting the pod to vomit violently outside. After the rather embarrassing spectacle, Gaius left the pod. Outside,the Commissar was barking orders, which was to be expected. Not wanting to spurn the Commissar, but intending to have a look around, Gaius approached her,

"I'm going to survey the immediate area, Commisar. It's likely that some planetary native would have seen our descent. I'll leave it to you to hold down the fort here, and keep the rest of them in check." He paused for a moment, and looked to the eager Ogryn, "Grav, was it? I'd like you to come with me, if the Commissar doesn't have a better use for you. I'm not sure what to expect out here, and scouting alone would be unwise." He removed his rebreather now, confident that he wouldn't be drowning anytime soon.

[Pathfinder]

Grav was admireing some native animal, a small, fluttery thing when he heard the proctor asking if he would fallow him. Grav didn't know him, but his implants told him of his duty to the Emperor as a defender. So Grav trusted him. Seeing as his interagrator didn't need his help and that the commisar could handle with the few around, Grav decided to help the man.

"You go, I fallow, shield man." Grav said with his usual simple tone of voice.

And with that, Grav checked Daisy, put his knife in his holster, and plodded next to the proctor.

[Raineh Daze]

"Building a raft," Honoria stated, having cut out the first log already and hoisted it with two arms--leaving one to carry the chain-axe. This, at least, should deter any disapproving looks from the commissar as she carried the piece of wood to the beach and dropped it: scavenging from the pod, so long as the Ogryn was kept away from it, could not be improved by her assistance. Once the parts were retrieved, however...

Her solo assault on the next tree was interrupted by a guardsman. A brief once-over showed nothing too remarkable: some jumped-up kid that had gained a promotion and some fancy armour to go with it. Not an officer, though, and all around... dull. Just another generic member of the Imperium's forces, without even 'is a snappy dresser' to warrant any closer interest. Plus, he was obviously brain damaged in some way--asking if she was a tech-priests was like asking if the see was wet.

So she ignored him.

[drallinix]

The tech-priest was silent and continued her work so Adrian simply turned away and saw the proctor and ogryn moving away. So far that ogryn has been the friendliest thing on this rock oh well I guess I should go find out about the status of our group Adrian thought. Moving back inside the craft he found the man the one the proctor had called Ray. "hey there need help with anything?" he asked informally well aware of the risk involved in being so informal.

[Grothnor]

Ray found his cogitator. He carried it outside the craft and opened it. A brief examination revealed it had suffered a dent or two in the crash, but little damage beyond that. He extended his interface mechadendrite and connected his consciousness with the cogitator's. The screen on the cogitator failed to display anything for a minute before Ray performed the rite of percussive maintenance to refocus the Machine Spirits of his cogitator. He didn't need the screen to use his cogitator; he could just read all the data from his augmentic eye. However, showing everyone where they were would be hard without the cogitator's 2d holo-display.

"Hey there, need help with anything?" The first guardsman made an inquiry. "Umm, sure, go help the commissar with unloading the supplies. Make sure we have the important stuff like food, medicine and water purification tablets, survival supplies like tents, messkits and luminators, and anything we can use to get out of here, like compasses, magnoculars, vox-casters, auspex, microbeads, whatever. They should also have a few weapons, likely lasrifles. Get everything out of the life-pod so we can take inventory."

He looked around and took in his surroundings while his cogitator booted up. The sky was overcast, so it was hard to tell what time of day it was on the planet. I've been in stickier situations before, and this really doesn't seem to bad, all things considered. So why do I feel so uneasy? He remembered one of his master's teachings: 'Trust your instincts.' My gut tells me this is gonna get a whole lot worse before it gets better. He pulled out his lho case and opened it. He stared at the open case for a few seconds, debating weather or not he should take a smoke or if he should try to conserve his supply, before deciding he needed one after the crap he just went through. He stuck one in his mouth, snapped the case shut and ignited the built-in lucifer. Ray took one long drag before letting the lho-stick hang from his lips.

His cogitator booted up, so Ray deftly accessed the map files for Sisk and was quickly able to identify the South Sea. He zoomed in on the area they were heading towards when the pod was landing and found that the island they were on was actually a small archipelago. He got up and took a compass from the pile of supplies, and after some brief checking, identified that they had landed on the south coast of the southernmost island. There were three other islands, a western one, a northern one and a small central one. Topographical reports said that the only access to the central island were three rope bridges, one connecting to each island, and also stated that the west and south islands were also connected by rope bridge. Census reports from about a century ago stated that there was a small village on the western island and a larger one on the north coast of the north island, along with a manor. The overall population of the island at the time was hardly over 200. The most intriguing piece of data he found was an encrypted file saying that there was an old listening post on the north island, hidden inside a cave. He found some data-slates in the supplies and copied the map info to each of them.

[dereken]

Igam awoke with a start, as he popped up from his position on the floor of the escape pod, searching for a non-existent threat. For a moment he was confused as the where he was, but he quickly remembered the events of the Kestrel of Luggnum and the escape pod. Igam checked his head for any obvious wounds, but found nothing, and reasoned he must be reasonably uninjured. Then he felt something. It was that trooper, he could feel her non-presence in the warp, and though she wasn't near enough to cause him harm, he still felt the need to shy away from her.

Igam wrenched his gaze from the woman in red, and instead took in his surroundings. Outside the pod there was cloudy, grey sky and dirty, debris covered sand, as well as an ocean. "Coast," Igam spoke to himself, "Or an island. Either way, too warm," Igam tried to stand up, but found he was still too woozy for it, and instead leaned up against the opening of the pod. He called out a weary greeting to the group, "Still alive!"

[Lucian]

Gaius trudged along, silently contemplating the situation. He and the Interrogator would need to get back to Inquisitor Case at some point, or at least get in touch with him, but how? As he moved quietly through the wooded area, he noted that Grav was being surprisingly quiet for an Ogryn. Perhaps he understood the need for stealth when scouting. This was definitely good. There may be hope for the brute yet, Gaius thought. Suddenly, there was a noise, a rustling in the foliage. Gaius fingered the shotgun on his back, but opted instead for the power maul at his hip, drawing it out and leveling his glare squarely in the direction of the noise. He prepped his shield and took a stance, signaling for Grav to stop.

"Reveal yourself!" Gaius called. He regretted that he had. Out of the nearby foliage came a hideous mutant. Not massive like the Ogryn next to him, but tall and spindly, with multi-jointed arms and legs that bent in disturbing ways, and a mouth that was just slightly too big for it's face. Gaius flipped the switch on his power maul to it's highest setting, intending to fry the disgusting perversion of humanity when it got close. The thing jumped at him, and he smacked it with his shield, but it latched on, it's multi-jointed arms finding the gaps in Gaius' defense.

"Grav! Go and warn the others! There is mutation here!" Gaius grunted out in a strained voice. He activated his shield's built-in arc-lumin, which shone right into the creature's face. It shrieked and jumped off of Gaius' shield. Gaius backed away slowly, moving towards the camp. He could hear shrieks coming from deeper into the forest, in response to this mutants wailing.