Jaina hit the ground in a half crouch, and she carefully stood up, her helmet swiveling back and forth as she looked for more of the damn things that had been chasing them.
If she had to be honest with herself, she was more than a little freaked out with her rescuers. They exhibited abilities that didn't really jive with what she understood to be acceptable, tame psykers.
Hell, they could fly!.
Although, in retrospect, Jaina couldn't help but admit that had been rather cool...
Squashing the semi-traitorous thought, the battle sister hefted the flamer she was packing as she searched for targets.
“I'm completely lost here.” She said with a rather regretful tone. Turning to her pint sized protector she asked,
“Uh...which way?”
Down. And don't make more noise than absolutely necessary.
The group moved through the hallway towards the hole in the floor, with Sakuya checking the rooms for any hiding enemies. It was always a sad sight to see homes ravaged by the forces of Chaos and the brutality of war. People had been living here...normal, peaceful people that tried to live their lives as normal. Not soldiers, just ordinary factory workers. Fathers, mothers...children. Remilia looked at the plush toy with a grim expression. Their bodies were gone, for better or for worse. Her stomach turned at the thought of what could have happened to any possible survivors.
Sakuya vanished down the hole first and made sure that no ambush was waiting for them. Finding no immediate danger, she gave a signal to Remilia waiting above.
Time for another short flight. Your armour will make too much noise if you jump. Don't cry out.
The vampire took hold of Jaina's armour, and without waiting for the Sister's confirmation, Remilia lifted the armoured trooper up and gently carried her down to the floor below.
Orpheus charged forward as the corrupted skitarii fired. Rushing towards a suitable piece of cover, the stormtrooper returned fire with his Inferno Pistol while on the move before diving into cover. Behind him, Lucius ran over to Izumi and the downed trooper to see if he could assist the rabbit-eared medic.
edited 18th Aug '12 1:38:43 PM by Lemurian
Join us in our quest to play all RPG video games! Moving on to disc 2 of Grandia!
The adamantine armour of the dreadnought's right arm buckled and blackened as Morrowheim brought his thunder hammer down upon it, and sparks erupted from the point of impact as though some vital component had been pulverized by the blow. The three bits which made up the siege drill began to spin erratically and out of sync, their hundreds of diamond-coated teeth producing a shrill screech as they ground against one another, and a brief plume of flame jetted forth from the muzzle of the heavy flamer nestled between them.
Booming in furious laughter at this injury, the dreadnought's torso swung to the right at an incredible speed, sweeping its arm towards Morrowheim in a blow that would easily send the Argent Crusader flying into the nearest wall in spite of the bulk of his Terminator armour.
"Knononow me azzz Khashei the Undying, brrrrrrrrOther!"
The grenades proved quite effective, reducing at least ten of the gremlins to a shredded pulp and upending several more with the combined force of their explosions. The spidery monstrosities lay helpless on their backs, their spindly metal legs waving feebly through the air in a futile effort to right themselves, and several of them, in continuing to shoot at Corollianus, managed only to blow the legs off several of their upright companions.
They were still coming, though between the Stormtrooper's accurate hellgun shots and the devastating firepower of the Lysander's guns their numbers were being drastically thinned out; perhaps eighteen of the foul creatures remained, all of them having left the hull of the ship to deal with their assailant. Though far fewer now, they still dangerous; the gremlins continued to fire upon Corollianus with their corrupted weaponry, their sickly green lasbolts gradually chipping away at the Stormtrooper's cover, and if this continued he would soon find himself dangerously exposed.
By devoting every bit of their concentration to the task, Adodatus and Akusigos were just barely able to halt the scrapcode in its tracks and prevent its malignant coding from spreading any further throughout their systems and augmetics. Purging the infection would prove to be more difficult, however; a product of Chaos, the scrapcode was almost like a thing alive—it evolved and adapted constantly in an effort to subvert the tech-priests' countermeasures, and if even a single line of coding was left unscathed it would swiftly grow back to its original size and threat once more. It could but done, but it was not going to be easy by any means.
Even as these disciples of the Machine-God did their best to wipe the scrapcode's taint from their systems, the four skitarii were proving quite a challenge to bring down; despite the fact that they were vastly outnumbered and outgunned (even with Adodatus, Akusigos, Trogg and Izumi effectively out of the fight), the four corrupted tech-guard's chemically- and cybernetically-augmented reflexes made the task of hitting them far more difficult than it had any right to be. Even as they ran for cover, they would twist and bend with impossible speed so that every lasbeam, bolter shell and danmaku sent their way would miss—sometimes by scant millimetres.
Still, for all that the Inquisitors and their two retinues were failing to actually hit their targets, their constant fire did have the fortunate side effect of keeping the skitarii so busy dodging the shots that they had no time to respond in kind. Similarly, the objects which the subverted servants of the Mechanicum now used as cover did not offer enough protection for them to return fire with any degree of safety; for all intents and purposes, they were sitting ducks.
Drake's grenade was the first attack to really score a hit; his projectile exploded next to one of the sheltering skitarii, and even its augmented reflexes could not protect it from the ensuing explosion. He was flung clear of cover and landed in a heap on the frosty ground, crimson robes torn and blood leaking from a wound in his side. The warrior sat up, brought his rifle up to his shoulder and snapped off a shot aimed towards Drake, and only then did he begin to rise to his feet; his delayed reaction would almost certainly to be a mistake, as he had left himself quite exposed while taking the shot.
Zee, for her part, had followed Izumi as she had dragged her patient to the lift, and she continued to stand in front of the seized elevator doors on the off-chance that a lasbolt somehow riccocheted their way. The frozen guardsman's skin had almost returned to a healthy colour, though it was still somewhat pale, and he let out a low groan as his now-thawed limbs flopped around. He seemed quite out of it, and an expression of bleary confusion settled on his face as he took in Izumi's ears.
"Whuzza...fluffy..."
As they set down on the lower floor, Remilia, Sakuya and Jaina would quickly see that this level was identical to the one above in terms of layout—a long hallway, lined on either side with doors that opened into the tiny appartments in which the denizens of this hive had lived, loved and played out their personal dramas. It was also, against all odds, in somewhat worse condition than the previous floor had been; all the signs of neglect and decay, the signs that the people who had once lived here had their met their ends in shocking violence, were still there, but here the patches of rust and mould were larger and more prominent. Here water trickled down the metal walls from damp patches in the ceiling to pool in oily puddles which covered much of the debris-strewn floor.
Filthy rodents with gleaming red eyes scurried about in the rubble, fighting each other for tiny little crumbs of food; as the three women set down, the vermin stopped what they were doing and simply stared at the two Gensokyoans and their Sister companion in silence for a moment. Then, hissing as one, the rats turned tail and fled into the relative safety of the shadows; countless red eyes gleamed as they peered out of the dark, continuing to scrutinize these intruders into their domain with a mixture of hunger, fear and curiosity.
At the far end of this hall, the floor had once again caved in; a ten-foot hole lead down to the next level of the hab-block. The wall beyond this hole had also collapsed, and a wan light shone through the gap to illuminate a small portion of the floor; for the briefest instant, the shadow of some hideous manta seemed to pass across the walls, but then it was gone as though it had never existed.
The Danse Macabre Codex
Flandre nodded to Arcturus and raised up her glowing hand again. She noticed that the Skitarri had taken cover as well, causing her to growl. She could easily flush them out, but destroying parts of the building might not be such a great idea. She noticed one of them get knocked out of cover by the grenade blast, causing her to jump out of cover. She raised her hand up and flung several blasts of Danmaku that lanced out like a shotgun blast to make it very difficult for him to dodge.
Izumi nodded to Lucius, grateful for his help. With his help, she made sure that the guardsman had no external injuries that she hadn't seen before. She was able to hear the Guardsman's muttering thanks to said fluffy ears. She blinked and noticed that he seemed to be looking up at her. She looked relieved that he seemed to be recovering alright. "P-Please. If you can h-hear my voice, tell me your name." She requested, trying to make sure that he stayed awake.
Now that the enemy was sufficiently suppressed and confused from the incoming fire and grenades, Arcturus took the opportunity to break cover and close the distance, snapping up his pistol and firing as he went - though not at the wounded skitarius. In the chaos he'd failed to notice that he was still a threat, and thus he'd elected to try and isolate and kill one the other skitarii instead.
He felt the decision to be sound - with his old power sword he was at a definite advantage up close and personal. The enemy was armed with lasguns, which while nice and pointy once you stuck a good bayonet on them, could be unwieldy in a melée. Particularly when up against an enemy wielding a weapon capable of cutting through the bayonet, the rifle and the man wielding it in one swing.
He rushed at his selected opponent - the man to the far left, slightly out of the way behind the rest of his comrades. He heard the pistol bark loudly another three times before it was dry. The shots were enough, though, to keep the man's head behind whatever cover he was using long enough for the Inquisitor to get close and make a blindingly fast swing at him, accompanied by an angry hiss of air as the power field tore at it.
When in deadly danger, When beset by doubt, Run in little circles, Wave your arms and shout.
I Will SEE To It That This Name Is A Lie, Traitor!
—Morrowheim hefted the thunder hammer, and swung a blow for the arm, hoping to intercept it.—
"Persistent buggers..."
—The Sergeant weighed the risks for a moment, then charged out of cover, heading for the next nearest substantial pile of rubble and scrap. While he did this, Corollianus fired a hail of hellgun blasts to his side, wincing as the foul barrage burned into his shoulder plating. —
-Elmer notes that all his shots curve wild at the last second and briefly considers going full auto. The beastmen warlocks he ended never exhibited this kind of behavior. At that moment, the traitor Inquisitor obligingly inserts himself into his field of fire. Elmer's sights are instantly pointed at the back of his head, but is prevented from firing by a muscular twitch from the ogryn, who seems to be coming round faster than expected. Elmer briefly considers firing anyway, but reluctantly pulls the sights back towards the skitarii. The traitor's death would be a strike for the Emperor and a blow to His enemies, but his followers would undoubtedly turn on Bickerstaff, giving them the final victory. Face set, the sniper continues to fire until a shot gets through.-
The sister of battle dropped into a half crouch, her flamer covering the various door ways as she slowly advanced, letting the much shorter beings keep up with her.
Her helmet swiveled back and forth, its glowing eyes tracking as she moved, her boots crunching the small debris under foot.
“Oh why do I get the feeling that we've dropped in front of a titan without backup?” She asked, her voice light but serious.
edited 26th Aug '12 9:36:55 PM by RevenVrake
Dreams of Revenge
Drake felt a brief surge of determination as he saw his grenade strike home. Yes! Now all I have to do is finish 'em off... he thought as he lined up his Hotshot on the dazed Skitarii. Unfortunately for him, however, the Skitarii wasn't quite down and out and retaliated with a shot of its' own. With its' enhanced capabilities, the Guardsman scarcely had any time to dodge. This ended up denying Drake the chance to finish it off.
Silon had a similar priority, however. Unhurriedly, he took aim with his own weapon and fired a burst at the stunned Skitarii. If the coward in the other retinue would not seize an opportunity when it presented itself, then so be it. The Blank assassin, however, did not have any such problems. At least the Guardsman had provided a handy distraction.
Locking you up on radar since '09
Remilia let the Sister take point as she herself kept an eye out for more Mantas that threatened to appear inside the building. Sakuya covered their rear, making sure nothing was going to jump out from one of the rooms when they passed. The Sister sounded a little nervous so Remilia decided to try to calm her down.
Do not worry, Sister. Sakuya and I have been in much worse situations than this and made it out alive. Backup is on its way.
Orpheus stayed in cover, opting for weakening the Skitarii's cover by shooting it with his Inferno Pistol. He couldn't get a clear shot from his position, so he left that for the others. Like Elmer he too consider shooting at Arcturus and calling it an unfortunate accident, but that bitch Scarlet would turn on him right away. Better to bide his time.
Join us in our quest to play all RPG video games! Moving on to disc 2 of Grandia!
Jaina's armored head swiveled around to look at the much shorter being.
“When I arrived here, I had forty eight battle sisters and my Canoness with me. I just buried their remains in that chapel rather than let the enemy get their filthy claws on them. This is about as bad as it gets for me.”
Jaina took point, her armor she figured had to provide more protection than nothing at all...but these inquistors had odd psyker abilities. The glowing red eyes of her helmet slowly panned back and forth as she made her way along the left wall, not standing out in the open as much as she could.
In the back, Sakuya suppressed a wince. Her mistress' method of keeping up the Sister's spirit was clearly not helping. Remilia may have become an Inquisitor, but she still had a tendency to patronize or treat people as junior to her just because she was so much older than them. Perhaps she had noticed this as well, because Remilia was silent as she made her way to the next hole in the floor. There, she stopped, making sure there were no Screamers appearing nearby before they jumped down.
Join us in our quest to play all RPG video games! Moving on to disc 2 of Grandia!
That was not wise on Morrowheim's part; though he swung his thunder hammer with great speed and force, the Argent Crusader was simply not fast enough to intercept his enemy's blow. Kaschei the Undying caught the Terminator at his midriff, his heavy arm striking Morrowheim with so much force that several of the Space Marine's genhanced organs were almost certainly pulverized by the impact, and the weight and power of this monstrous blow sent Morrowheim flying into the nearest wall. The airborne Terminator struck this wall with so much force that it deformed at the point of impact, lodging Morrowheim in a small crater of his own making.
The profane dreadnought straightened up with a shrill screech of stripped gears, fixing the baleful gaze of its sensor dome on the Loyalist's trapped form. "Yoyou haaaave spiririt, brrrrrrrrOther; a pity that yoyoyour courage overrrrrrrode your comcommon senze."
An ear-splitting whine filled the air as those three drill bits whirred to life.
"Still, you have managed to entertain me, brief though this fight was." The dreadnought slowly began to advance upon Morrowheim as it boomed these words. "I shall m-m-make yoyour death quick, though hardly p-painlessless; you have earned that much."
Between Flandre's danmaku and Silon's fire, the exposed skitarii never stood a chance; he twitched and juddered as these projectiles riddled his body and promptly collapsed as soon as the barrage was done, leaking blood and a variety of mechanical fluids all over the frost-covered floor. Unable to do more than twitch and spasm faintly in his death throes, the man was clearly not getting up any time soon.
Arcturus, for his part, managed to reach his foe and behead him without difficulty; even those chemically-enhanced reflexes could not save the corrupted tech-guardsman from the Inquisitor's power sword.
Seeing that their cover was being destroyed and that two of them had been slain, one of the remaining skitarii plucked a small, disc-shaped object from his belt and hurled it towards the Inquisitorial retinues. It sailed through the air on a perfectly straight and level trajectory, then suddenly exploded in a burst of strobing light and deafening, erratic noise; as this blind grenade went off, the two survivors broke cover and began to retreat into the tunnel, firing as they went.
Inside the elevator car, Lucius and Izumi's patient was clearly struggling to keep his eyes open. "Re...Remus, ma'am," he managed to say. "Hos...pitaller?"
Apart from his obvious fatigue, he seemed to be on the mend.
Corollianus' wild firing managed to destroy several more of the foul gremlins, and the continued fire from the Lysander's guns served to send several more of them screaming to the Warp; now only a handful of the spidery monstrosities remained. Before he could reach cover, however, one of the gremlins—seemingly more ambitious or intelligent than the rest of its brethren—pounced on the Stormtrooper and bore him to the ground. A metallic hiss escaped those horrific mandibles, and the profane servitor began trying to claw at his face with hands that bore tiny drills and rusted sawblades.
The next floor brought a change of pace; immediately in front of where Remilia, Sakuya and Jaina landed, the wall had crumbled away to reveal a short skywalk which lead to an adjacent, more-intact building. The skywalk was open, about twenty metres in length and wide enough to accomodate the three of them with plenty of room to spare, and large chunks of broken stonework ran along either side of it to provide convenient hiding spots where they would be concealed from view. However, a sheer drop lay on either side, so far down that the ground below could not actually be seen; if they fell off, it would be a long time before they hit the ground...not that this was a particular concern for the vampiric Inquisitor or her chronomancer maid.
At the moment, there was no sign of the Screamers, though their awful cries could be heard in the distance as the mantalike warp beasts hunted for their prey; if they moved quickly, the three women could reach the other building and get inside without attracting any undue attention to themselves.
The Danse Macabre Codex
-Though the grenade explodes behind him, Elmer is unprepared for the sonic weapon, and cringes reflexively. Several lasbolts go wild, not helped by the ogryn also trashing around. The guardsman crawls away from Trogg, who is now adding his own yells to the cacophony and beating the walls.-
For once, having heightened senses worked against Flandre. Her hands clasped her ears and she fell to her knees, clenching her eyes shut tightly. She was close enough that the sonic flash bang was strong enough to actually cause her harm with how loud it was. The young vampire was far too disoriented to possibly pursue their enemies.
Izumi nodded her head, a small relieved smile forming on her face now that it seemed like the guardsman was recovering. "Y-Yes Remus. I a-am Sister Izumi. I've come w-with two Inquizitorial retinues to h-help with the issue on this world." She said.
Arcturus' ears rang from the noise, and he was temporarily blinded by the intolerably bright flash. After a frustrating few seconds, he could finally crack open an eye as the cybernetic started correcting and his hearing slowly came back to him.
"Clever sons of... They're going give us away now. And you there, cease fire, they're already gone."
On his way back to group, he looked at the sniper. The Inquisitor didn't particularly like the look in his eyes, or his position relative to his own.
Perhaps Trogg's flailings came in handy for once...
He approached the medic and the thawed-out guardsman.
"Good work keeping this one alive, Sister. I was about sure he was a goner."
He knelt down by Remus.
"Yet, here you are. How are you feeling, trooper?"
edited 11th Sep '12 6:20:46 AM by l3wt
When in deadly danger, When beset by doubt, Run in little circles, Wave your arms and shout.
Orpheus was taken by surprise by the grenade, and was left blinded and dazed before he managed to shake it off. Those damned Skitarii ran for it, and there was little he could do stop them. He would get them later, however.
Remilia surveyed the skywalk. This would take them in the right direction, and the next building seemed like a much safer place. However, their crossing would be risky. Screamers could come by any moment.
Okay, we cross over here. But the very moment you detect a Screamer, you flatten yourself against the wall noiselessly. Do not raise an alarm; we will be spotted immediately. If you can, alert the others in silence, but everyone has to keep an eye open out there. Sakuya, you take point, I'll go with the Sister. Right, go.
Sakuya dashed out ahead, keeping a low profile as she darted from cover to cover.
Join us in our quest to play all RPG video games! Moving on to disc 2 of Grandia!
" Uuuaaarghh..."
—Brother Morrowheim was no stranger to agonising pain. Centuries of war had not been kind to his body, and to the Terminator honours, he had broken many bones, and nearly lost his life at least twice. To be rendered immobile by pain was simply not done by his kind. He sucked in a great breath, just barely suppressing the urge to wince, and wrenched himself free of the wall. Morrowheim landed on his feet with a painful series of vibrations blasting upward through him. Once more he hefted the great Thunder Hammer, eyeing the hulk of blasphemous metal with an ill-will. —
" I Will SEE To It That This Is Your Last, Monster."
— He raised his storm bolter, roaring as he fired it into the Undying's drill weapon, hammer ready. —
"Frak off, ya little..."
—Sergeant Corrollianus snarled as he swiped the creature's throat with his combat knife. He hated it when a Chaos creation got close enough for melee combat, even when something as comparatively feeble as this was doing the fighting. Still, this could have been worse... —
-Trogg slowly stands up, nearly crushing Elmer in the process and favoring his injured leg.-
Daaaaah... Did us wins?
-He wanders over to the skitarii's position and picks up a few pieces of metal shrapnel left from the firefight.-
Trogg am punch them skittersies next time!
Two Days Later...
With these words, the vessels of the Black Templars fleet opened fire, raining death on the planet below. Bombardment cannons and torpedo launchers blasted great chunks of the world's crust into molten ruin, the explosions and the blazing orange light of the resulting fires clearly visible even from space, and sombre chanting filled the vox channels as the Astartes undid in mere minutes what had taken the people of Vitalstatix generations, centuries, even millennia to build and create. The heat of such terrible weapons would atomize even the most durable of Imperial structures and hives with a single glancing blow, and for miles in all directions the backwash would reduce vast swathes of the ecumenopolis to immense lakes of bubbling slag. In those few areas where urban development had not taken hold and where the original, untamed wilderness of Vitalstatix still eked out a meagre existence, forests which had stood tall and proud for countless thousands of years would go up like a box of matches on a cosmic scale, oceans would boil away into great clouds of superheated steam and the desert sands would be fused together in vast plains of brittle glass.
Few could survive such an onslaught, and if any unfortunate souls who had managed to survive the hell that their world had become over the last ten years still hid within the warrens and underhives of Vitalstatix, they could take some solace in the fact that their deaths would, while not painless by any stretch of the imagination, be mercifully quick; better to die in the blink of an eye, so quickly that you could scarcely comprehend the abrupt cessation of your existence, than to suffer the cruel torments and depredations of Chaos. As for the heretics and the agents of the Ruinous Powers, their profane taint would be purged from the world in a cleansing firestorm of apocalyptic proportions; purified by flame and destruction, no trace of the Dark Mechanicum, their traitor Astartes allies or the daemons with which both had consorted would remain, and in death Vitalstatix would be proof against their corruption for years to come.
On the bridge of the Lysander, Zee watched the Black Templars enact the Exterminatus with some measure of remorse. It was a terrible thing to consign an entire world to oblivion, and in circumstances like these being forced to resort to such extreme measures left a bad taste in the Living Saint's mouth. Yet there had been no choice in the matter; with the psionic inhibitor no longer functional the entire city had been overrun by daemons in short order. Though they were skilled and powerful to be sure, there was little that two Inquisitors and their retinues could do to stem a worldwide invasion of creatures from the Warp—not when forced to deal with a warband of Chaos Space Marines as well as the forces of the Dark Mechanicus at the same time. Against such an overwhelming force, and with most of the planet's population dead and its strategic assets all but destroyed, it was simply not worth the effort that trying to retake Vitalstatix in a protracted ground war would entail.
So the call had gone out. The currents of the Warp had been surprisingly calm, allowing the Black Templars to arrive in a timely fashion; and now, as she watched them work, the angelic vampire could not help but shake her head with a sigh. This was a victory, to be sure, but a hollow one; though it had dealt a heavy blow to the traitors, it had not managed to destroy them all—Halgalor Septim, the Dark Magos who lead the so-called Primus Observatii, had managed to escape through a Warp portal, along with a fairly large portion of his forces, and there was no telling how many of the Chaos Space Marines, if any, had done the same. Even if they had managed to wipe them all out, however, Zee would have felt the same; the destruction of an entire world, an Imperial world, was not something to be taken lightly.
Still, the excursion had not been a total waste; they had managed to recover many, if not necessarily all, of the ST Cs which the Mechanicus had originally come to this world to claim, and Zee had no doubt that they would prove beneficial to the Imperium as a whole. In addition, they had managed to save a small portion of the planet's population as well as those defending it, including that frozen guardsman Remus and the solitary survivor of a convent of Sororitas—Jaina, she believed her name was. Several hundred people now sat within the hold of an Adeptus Mechanicus explorator vessel, and having been deemed free of taint they now waited to be sent off to a new world as colonists and settlers; for many of them it would be a harsh transition, having lived in the spires of hives for all their lives, but at least they were alive.
Sadly, Governor Mortis was not among the survivors; the crippled former Inquisitor had been captured by the Primus Observatii and converted into a monstrous cyborg which Halgalor Septim had dubbed the Triskelion, a towering engine of destruction with multiple limbs, heavy armour and more weapons than the Living Saint could keep track of. No longer in control of himself, the creature Mortis had become had attacked the Inquisitorial retinues in a savage fury, and after a truly ferocious battle with the daemon engine they had been forced to put him down. With his demise, whatever knowledge he possessed of the workings of the psionic inhibitor had been lost; the Imperium would not see that device's useful like again.
The viewport lit up as the final element of the Exterminatus took effect; a solitary cyclonic torpedo, fired from the main gun of the battle barge Hammerfall, struck Vitalstatix in the heart of its capital hive. The effects were immediate and spectacular, its impact and detonation giving birth to a conflagration of nucleonic fire which swept across the planet's surface in a blazing shockwave, covering the entire world from pole to pole in a matter of seconds. Great fissures spread throughout the blazing orb as the torpedo's immense destructive power shattered the planet's crust, the yellow glow of Vitalstatix' mantle bleeding through these great wounds.
The Exterminatus was now complete. All traces of the planet's civilization, corruption and environment which might have remained had been obliterated by the cyclonic torpedo's apocalyptic detonation, and even if Vitalstatix itself somehow survived the grievous wounds inflicted upon her this day she would never again be able to support any form of life more complex than the hardiest and most extremophilic of bacteria.
The Danse Macabre Codex
Arcturus too remained on the bridge for the duration of the bombardment. He didn't have to stay, nor did he really want to. However, out of a sense of responsibility he stood by the viewport and watched the devastation until the entire world was glowing with apocalyptic nuclear fire, and everything, living or dead, was consumed.
He sighed. It was such a hopeless thing, killing a planet. Every single time, the Imperium was lessened for it, permanently. Accomplishments and civilization spanning over so incredibly many years, undone in a matter of hours. It was a cold comfort, but at least some things had been salvaged. Less than a handful of people, and the ST Cs. The mysteries of these ancient devices were beyond the Inquisitor's comprehension, but he could always hope that the Adeptus Mechanicus would be able to extract something of real worth from it.
When he spoke, he made no effort to hide his bitterness.
"I've stood on a ship's bridge and said those words myself. Only once. Can you believe some would call that luck?"
When in deadly danger, When beset by doubt, Run in little circles, Wave your arms and shout.
-Trogg stares out the window in the retinue's quarters. Long ago, someone explained to him that Exterminatus was akin to the Emperor Himself descending upon a world to punish His enemies, and there certainly seem to be a lot down there. Trogg happily waves at the dying planet, secure in the knowledge that whatever hairatiks and other enemies of the Emperor he failed to punch and flatten are now burning to death, just like Pyrus the Flame said.-
It had been a long time since Remilia had been so close to death.
It had all started when she had sent Sakuya and the Sister ahead through a tunnel while she lured a pack of Screamers away from their location. The plan was that when she'd bought enough time, she would follow them. The tunnel opening was small enough to keep the larger Screamers away, and Remilia could easily dispatch the ones that tried to follow her. When enough time had passed, Remilia collapsed the ceiling with a magical attack, blocking entry for the Screamers and went the way Sakuya had gone.
The path Remilia followed took her to a small station, which had probably once been used as a stop for one of the many ways of transportation on Vitalstatix. It was a secluded room with only one other path leading away. It was easy to defend, so Remilia chose to take a brief rest to regain her breath.
It was then she heard the sound. A faint sound that was only brought to her attention by the lull in noise and her sensitive hearing. The low, almost unnoticeable ticking sound of...a bomb.
Remilia acted instantly, rushing off through the opening. A wave of heat hit her as behind her, a small but highly concentrated explosion went off. She dared to look behind her. That was a melta! Had she hesitated one more second, she would have been dead. Chills running down her spine, she turned back to face the way she was heading...
...and had to make a sudden dive to avoid flying into a tripwire. She could hardly believe her eyes...the tunnel had been mined! And with Imperial mines as well...she would have to be careful in passing through here and take her time.
No sooner had she thought that before a rumbling sound behind her made her heart sink. The melta had blasted through the supporting beams, and the tunnel was collapsing! The enclosed place lurched as it started to bend. In a matter of seconds, it would be heading for the planet's distant surface, turning it into a death-trap.
There was no time for slow deliberation. Remilia pressed her wings close to her body and blasted off through the tunnel, navigating as fast as she could to avoid the tripwires ahead. Behind her, the tunnel started breaking off at an alarming rate, the speed of collapse only increasing as more and more sections broke away from their rusted and worn bearings. The vampire Inquisitor tried to increase her speed as well, but the mines made it a risky proposition.
Finally, she could see the end of the tunnel. The collapsing tunnel behind her was getting ever closer, however. There was only one thing left to do. She poured all her magic power into a shielding aura of crimson magic that enveloped her. And then she rushed through, paying no heed to the tripwires.
The rest of the way, her shield was battered and assaulted by explosions. She picked up more and more speed, trying to outrun the blasts, but she could feel them singe her wings as she boosted through the tunnel.
Finally, she was out, emerging in a transit station that was part of a much larger building. The tunnel she had been flying through broke off with a great crash and plummeted towards he distant surface, and she watched it fall as she tried to regain her breath.
Someone had tried to kill her.
Back on board the Lysander, Remilia had gone through the scenario so many times. Lying on her belly in her room, the injuries sustained on Vitalstatix not yet healed, Remilia had had a lot of time to think. Sakuya had assured her that neither the bomb nor the mines had been present when they had passed through. So, the only reasonable explanation that someone had been trying to kill Remilia in specific.
Who could it be? It was not the work of the forces of Chaos; they would not employ such methods...nor this kind of weaponry. It had to be a member of Darius' retinue. And yet she had not been able to pick up the faintest trace of the attacker's scent. Had it been the work of a human or the Culexus assassin, she should have been able to pick up on it. It was almost like her attacker...was not human.
Join us in our quest to play all RPG video games! Moving on to disc 2 of Grandia!
The side of Remilia's bed dipped down as a certain someone sat down next to her. Flandre hadn't seen her older sister for most of their time on the planet. Next time she saw her, Remilia was injured. Naturally Flandre was worried about her sister. She knew that Remilia would recover, she always did after all, but she still wanted to make sure she was okay. Flandre looked over at Remilia and put a hand on her arm, giving her a concerned look.
Izumi couldn't bare watching the exterminatus. She knew it was a necessary act, but it still wasn't pleasant watch an entire planet being laid to waste. She was spending her time in the medbay, thankful for the lack of windows in the room. If there was one good thing she could take away from today, its that the man she saved had managed to get off of the planet. She'd managed to save at least one life from the chaos infested planet.
Drake had been feeling deeply uncomfortable with the disturbingly unresponsive Skitarii, something worsened by their unusual behaviour when they did finally attack. The frozen Guardsman elicited a sympathetic glance. It seemed that poor luck was something that plagued all Guardsmen, not an affliction peculiar to him. Hopefully Izumi would be able to do something to nurse him back to health. He shuddered for a moment as the cold seeped through his armour. Damn it was cold. What he wouldn't give for -
The Skitarii suddenly opened fire, and with a shout of surprise Drake made all haste for the nearest cover. Once he was behind it he began to return their shots with his own lasrifle, though it didn't appear to phase them one bit. At Arcturus's order, the young noble nodded. In all the confusion, he had almost forgotten about the thing! Hopefully its' machine spirit would smile upon him and allow him to take at least some of the Skitarii out. Supporting himself against his cover, he took aim and fired his grenade launcher.
Silon had been in a heightened state of alertness ever since they had come across the Skitari, and it seemed that his suspicion was rewarded as he flitted across the room to his own piece of cover, the movement almost becoming unnatural in its' execution. Taking the opportunity to check on his master - Darius came first in all matters - the Blank then settled himself down and laid down some fire of his own. As he did so, he tried to see if there were any qualities of the room he could use to his advantage, or whether one of the Skitarii was weaker than the others.
Ideally, he would have picked off each opponent one by one, preferably in a different manner each and from a seperate direction as well, but beggars couldn't be choosers and he would have to take what he was given and extract victory from it. And that, if nothing else, was something he was exceedingly good at, no matter how much he was reviled.
Locking you up on radar since '09