A House Divided
Act 1 - The Gates of the Abyss
Chapter 3 - The Price of a Life, continued...
-As the final round of gladiatorial combat came to a close, Vadik frantically came over the closed radio frequency the part was using and told them they had to get out of the Cathedral immediately. His warning came just as Merrick pulled the trigger and finished off Winterscale's gunman.
-Another wave of psychic energy, stronger than the last, rippled outwards as the dead man's blood flowed across the marble floor of the Cathedral. Like a rush of blood in the ears that howled in gleeful rage, it disoriented everyone present who was not psychically sensitive. To those psyker's present, like Shen and Manus, it was a harrowing experience which tested their control over the link that connected them to the Immaterium. Manus kept control, Shen could not...
-With an ear-piercing howl Shen clutched his head and began to flicker in and out of corporeal existence. The temperature in the large space suddenly plummeted, and everyone's eyes were locked on the Rogue Trader. A multitude of Shens suddenly appeared to share the same space, each writhing and struggling to exert control, before collapsing into a singularity and disappearing with an audible crack.
-Skalla roared in outrage, howling obscenities about Warp sorcerers as he charged down the steps of his throne. He stopped short, his eyes suddenly drawn to the void field suspended above the arena. The form within it, comatose and still until that moment, began to twist and deform. Strange growths began to form and expand, so rapidly that it filled the void field within seconds. Skalla lunged back to his throne and hastily punched the release code for the void field in, but it was too late.
-By the time the void field flickered out of existence only a mass of blood, viscera, and broken bone splattered down onto the floor into a disorganized pile. Skalla, furious, pointed a single finger at the remainder of Shen's entourage. In a heartbeat they were all cut apart by a sudden hellstorm of missiles and automatic fire from the bunkers around the room.
-While Skalla was addressing Shen's crew, the party made good use of the distraction to begin a hasty retreat. They chose a nearby service access door which led into the tunnels beneath the Cathedral's arena seating, and were already making their way towards it when the din of gunfire began to die down. Jerrick, the commander of Calligos Winterscale's detachment at the auction, took note of how the party was making its way out. It struck him as too convenient, and he yelled at Skalla that they must be the ones responsible even as he directed his men to fire on them. Skalla, still incandescent and raving with anger, roared for his men to stop the party as well.
-If it had not been for their fortuitous warning from Vadik the group would certainly have been cut apart, as it was they slipped into the tunnels by the skin of their teeth in a haze of well placed smoke grenades while a cacophony of gunfire screamed after them.
-Thinking quickly, Aurora pulled up the schematics of the Hermitage she had downloaded to her datapad after the party had arrived. Though it was difficult to decipher the arcane layout on the move, she managed to guide the party safely through the tunnels. Only twice did Skalla's men seem to be closing the distance on them. Manus led the first group off with careful psychic suggestion, and Aurora laid a trap with hand grenades which crippled the hounds the second group used to track them.
-Finally back at the Queen of Diamonds, the party was shocked to find that Shen was waiting for them with Vadik. He had given the former Arbites the dire warning that had given the party time to escape the Cathedral. How this was possible would have to wait, though, as time was short.
-They buckled in as Cassius fired up the engines for an emergency departure. Skallas men may not have found them in the halls, but they would surely be on their way to the hangar. As he guided his ship out of the docking facility he noted that both Winterscale and Skalla's ships were actively pinging their auspex to search for the group, and Skalla had launched a wing of fighters from his cruiser to patrol the empty space around the station. Thinking quickly, the daring pilot chose to skim the surface of the massive station, moving swiftly between the shadows of satellite arrays and defensive structures to keep his vessel concealed.
-The party turned to confront Shen, demanding answers. Manus, especially, was leery of the psyker. He had witnessed the man disappear in an erratic burst of psychic energy, his survival should have been impossible. Shen told them that he had slipped backwards through time several hours, and that he knew his own entourage would never accept his story. And he could not risk contacting himself, lest the paradox annihilate both his present and future selves. Instead, he chose to come for help to the one group he had managed to establish an understanding with.
-Shen, producing a small insignia, identified himself as an agent of Inquisitor Baylor of the Ordo Xenos. He had been sent to the auction to obtain Crassus under the guise of a Rogue Trader, as Baylor was hunting someone in the Expanse who also wanted to capture Crassus. By obtaining the Serrated Querry agent first, Baylor could bait his target to him. It had been Shen's job to get Crassus, and he invoked the authority of his master to demand the party's assistance in that endeavor.
-Shen insisted that the psyker in the void field at the Cathedral could not have been Crassus. Skalla had placed a sacrifice there to become a vessel of Khorne's power during the blood rituals which were the point of the auction to begin with. Shen believed that even Skalla would not have thrown away so valuable a prize as Crassus, and that he had to be on the pirate's ship. With his ritual ruined, Skalla would likely move to salvage what he could of the affair be either sacrificing Crassus or finally selling him. Shen had purchased a rough diagram of the internal layout of Skalla's cruiser, and believed he could assist the party in reaching the prize if they could help him locate where in the ship Crassus was held.
-Luckily, the scans which the party had requested Hannibal conduct had revealed two interesting things. First, that there was another void field generator operating somewhere in one of the main troop transport days of Skalla's ship. The second, more ominous, finding was that in the same bay an ancient identification transponder code had been registered for a Thunderhawk gunship called the Revenant of Nuceria. Skalla, it seemed, had World Eaters aboard his ship. Traitor space marines in the service of the Chaos god of blood and slaughter.
-The party briefly considered their options, but seemed intent on departing the station with their prize. They hastily came up with a plan of infiltration that emphasized speed, stealth, and misdirection. They knew that if it came to a matter of violence, they would quickly meet their end under the armored fist of traitor Astartes. Only Wu-10, his damage too extensive to allow him any modicum of stealth, would remain on the Queen.
-Cassius stealthily couple his ship to the underside of a massive lance battery running along the starboard side of the cruiser. Comparing Shen's maps with their own auspex findings they plotted a course through the cruiser, entering through a maintenance hatch the gun crews used to service the titanic weapon system.
-The kilometer long journey through the enemy vessel was tense and exhausting. Clinging to shadows, crawling through ducts, and avoiding patrols they finally arrived at the bay doors leading to the hangar that the void shield signature was in. Manus psychically manipulated one of the guards at the doors to input the control code, before putting them both into an state of deep sleep.
-Once inside the bay they say Crassus' comatose form inside of a life support capsule, encapsulated by a void field. It was guarded by a massive space marine in crimson armor, two of his brothers from the World Eaters stood nearby at the ramp to their dropship. They would all have to be drawn away in order to get Crassus.
-After incapacitating the guard shift commander in the hangar control room, Cassius used his radio frequency and identification to broadcast a boarding alarm in a nearby hangar, implying heavily that this incursion had also instigated a riot among the slaves on board the ship. The World Eaters, unable to pass up the chance at shedding blood in the name of their dark master, roared off and left only two naval security crewmen to guard Crassus.Shen incapacitated Merrick approached them both, disguised in a uniform from one of the hangar door guards, and smoked them both with a pair of lightning fast hip shots soon as the Astartes had left the hangar.
-Aurora quickly hacked and disabled the void generator, allowing them to push Crassus out of the bay and back into the tunnels leading back to their ship. The return journey was made even more harrowing by the sudden sounding of intrusion alarms and doubled patrols, but no one found them as they made their way step by step back to the void access doors by the lance battery where Cassius had left the Queen.
-With their prize safely aboard, they abandoned any pretense of stealth and rocketed away from Skalla's cruiser at maximum burn. Hannibal would rendezvous and pick them up in the Gypsy once they got outside of the station's defensive grid, while their astropath calculated a safe route for a fast Warp jump away from the system. Skalla's fighters gave a hard pursuit, but were no match for the modified engines of the Queen. By the time any vessel capable of closing the distance began to give chase they had docked safely with the Gypsy, and within moments were swallowed by the swirling madness of the Immaterium.
-They had done it. They had braved the bowels of a Chaos tainted grand cruiser to retrieve their target and come out alive. Now, the only question left was what to do about Shen...
-Another wave of psychic energy, stronger than the last, rippled outwards as the dead man's blood flowed across the marble floor of the Cathedral. Like a rush of blood in the ears that howled in gleeful rage, it disoriented everyone present who was not psychically sensitive. To those psyker's present, like Shen and Manus, it was a harrowing experience which tested their control over the link that connected them to the Immaterium. Manus kept control, Shen could not...
-With an ear-piercing howl Shen clutched his head and began to flicker in and out of corporeal existence. The temperature in the large space suddenly plummeted, and everyone's eyes were locked on the Rogue Trader. A multitude of Shens suddenly appeared to share the same space, each writhing and struggling to exert control, before collapsing into a singularity and disappearing with an audible crack.
-Skalla roared in outrage, howling obscenities about Warp sorcerers as he charged down the steps of his throne. He stopped short, his eyes suddenly drawn to the void field suspended above the arena. The form within it, comatose and still until that moment, began to twist and deform. Strange growths began to form and expand, so rapidly that it filled the void field within seconds. Skalla lunged back to his throne and hastily punched the release code for the void field in, but it was too late.
-By the time the void field flickered out of existence only a mass of blood, viscera, and broken bone splattered down onto the floor into a disorganized pile. Skalla, furious, pointed a single finger at the remainder of Shen's entourage. In a heartbeat they were all cut apart by a sudden hellstorm of missiles and automatic fire from the bunkers around the room.
-While Skalla was addressing Shen's crew, the party made good use of the distraction to begin a hasty retreat. They chose a nearby service access door which led into the tunnels beneath the Cathedral's arena seating, and were already making their way towards it when the din of gunfire began to die down. Jerrick, the commander of Calligos Winterscale's detachment at the auction, took note of how the party was making its way out. It struck him as too convenient, and he yelled at Skalla that they must be the ones responsible even as he directed his men to fire on them. Skalla, still incandescent and raving with anger, roared for his men to stop the party as well.
-If it had not been for their fortuitous warning from Vadik the group would certainly have been cut apart, as it was they slipped into the tunnels by the skin of their teeth in a haze of well placed smoke grenades while a cacophony of gunfire screamed after them.
-Thinking quickly, Aurora pulled up the schematics of the Hermitage she had downloaded to her datapad after the party had arrived. Though it was difficult to decipher the arcane layout on the move, she managed to guide the party safely through the tunnels. Only twice did Skalla's men seem to be closing the distance on them. Manus led the first group off with careful psychic suggestion, and Aurora laid a trap with hand grenades which crippled the hounds the second group used to track them.
-Finally back at the Queen of Diamonds, the party was shocked to find that Shen was waiting for them with Vadik. He had given the former Arbites the dire warning that had given the party time to escape the Cathedral. How this was possible would have to wait, though, as time was short.
-They buckled in as Cassius fired up the engines for an emergency departure. Skallas men may not have found them in the halls, but they would surely be on their way to the hangar. As he guided his ship out of the docking facility he noted that both Winterscale and Skalla's ships were actively pinging their auspex to search for the group, and Skalla had launched a wing of fighters from his cruiser to patrol the empty space around the station. Thinking quickly, the daring pilot chose to skim the surface of the massive station, moving swiftly between the shadows of satellite arrays and defensive structures to keep his vessel concealed.
-The party turned to confront Shen, demanding answers. Manus, especially, was leery of the psyker. He had witnessed the man disappear in an erratic burst of psychic energy, his survival should have been impossible. Shen told them that he had slipped backwards through time several hours, and that he knew his own entourage would never accept his story. And he could not risk contacting himself, lest the paradox annihilate both his present and future selves. Instead, he chose to come for help to the one group he had managed to establish an understanding with.
-Shen, producing a small insignia, identified himself as an agent of Inquisitor Baylor of the Ordo Xenos. He had been sent to the auction to obtain Crassus under the guise of a Rogue Trader, as Baylor was hunting someone in the Expanse who also wanted to capture Crassus. By obtaining the Serrated Querry agent first, Baylor could bait his target to him. It had been Shen's job to get Crassus, and he invoked the authority of his master to demand the party's assistance in that endeavor.
-Shen insisted that the psyker in the void field at the Cathedral could not have been Crassus. Skalla had placed a sacrifice there to become a vessel of Khorne's power during the blood rituals which were the point of the auction to begin with. Shen believed that even Skalla would not have thrown away so valuable a prize as Crassus, and that he had to be on the pirate's ship. With his ritual ruined, Skalla would likely move to salvage what he could of the affair be either sacrificing Crassus or finally selling him. Shen had purchased a rough diagram of the internal layout of Skalla's cruiser, and believed he could assist the party in reaching the prize if they could help him locate where in the ship Crassus was held.
-Luckily, the scans which the party had requested Hannibal conduct had revealed two interesting things. First, that there was another void field generator operating somewhere in one of the main troop transport days of Skalla's ship. The second, more ominous, finding was that in the same bay an ancient identification transponder code had been registered for a Thunderhawk gunship called the Revenant of Nuceria. Skalla, it seemed, had World Eaters aboard his ship. Traitor space marines in the service of the Chaos god of blood and slaughter.
-The party briefly considered their options, but seemed intent on departing the station with their prize. They hastily came up with a plan of infiltration that emphasized speed, stealth, and misdirection. They knew that if it came to a matter of violence, they would quickly meet their end under the armored fist of traitor Astartes. Only Wu-10, his damage too extensive to allow him any modicum of stealth, would remain on the Queen.
-Cassius stealthily couple his ship to the underside of a massive lance battery running along the starboard side of the cruiser. Comparing Shen's maps with their own auspex findings they plotted a course through the cruiser, entering through a maintenance hatch the gun crews used to service the titanic weapon system.
-The kilometer long journey through the enemy vessel was tense and exhausting. Clinging to shadows, crawling through ducts, and avoiding patrols they finally arrived at the bay doors leading to the hangar that the void shield signature was in. Manus psychically manipulated one of the guards at the doors to input the control code, before putting them both into an state of deep sleep.
-Once inside the bay they say Crassus' comatose form inside of a life support capsule, encapsulated by a void field. It was guarded by a massive space marine in crimson armor, two of his brothers from the World Eaters stood nearby at the ramp to their dropship. They would all have to be drawn away in order to get Crassus.
-After incapacitating the guard shift commander in the hangar control room, Cassius used his radio frequency and identification to broadcast a boarding alarm in a nearby hangar, implying heavily that this incursion had also instigated a riot among the slaves on board the ship. The World Eaters, unable to pass up the chance at shedding blood in the name of their dark master, roared off and left only two naval security crewmen to guard Crassus.
-Aurora quickly hacked and disabled the void generator, allowing them to push Crassus out of the bay and back into the tunnels leading back to their ship. The return journey was made even more harrowing by the sudden sounding of intrusion alarms and doubled patrols, but no one found them as they made their way step by step back to the void access doors by the lance battery where Cassius had left the Queen.
-With their prize safely aboard, they abandoned any pretense of stealth and rocketed away from Skalla's cruiser at maximum burn. Hannibal would rendezvous and pick them up in the Gypsy once they got outside of the station's defensive grid, while their astropath calculated a safe route for a fast Warp jump away from the system. Skalla's fighters gave a hard pursuit, but were no match for the modified engines of the Queen. By the time any vessel capable of closing the distance began to give chase they had docked safely with the Gypsy, and within moments were swallowed by the swirling madness of the Immaterium.
-They had done it. They had braved the bowels of a Chaos tainted grand cruiser to retrieve their target and come out alive. Now, the only question left was what to do about Shen...