"I, for one, follow no will but my own. If the Gods are in harmony, so be it. If not, I have no need of them. But that is a discussion for another time. We require supplies and provisions. And we also need to know the state of the galaxy. Where are we? What year is this?"
She turns toward Deathraven.
"You are in what we call the Screaming Vortex. Much like the Eye which you are familiar with this is another hole that was created by Chaos far away from the eye but close to the Imperium. You have all slept for nearly 10 thousand years. We are now in the 41st Millennium."
Taloc shakes his head and roars, "The God Emperor has lasted 10,000 more years!
Has the Warmaster launched an assault on Terra in this time?!"
She shifts toward Taloc.
"Several Black Crusades have been launched against the Imperium. Some more fruitful than others. The Warmaster is no fool and is taking his time tearing at the Imperium piece by piece."
"Perhaps then, aiding you will aid the Warmaster's overall plan.
Do not assume that we are pawns of some Dark Gods, we are Astartes, no masters but ourselves plot our Destinies. We aid the Warmaster out of respect, not obligation".
"The gods" he laughs in a more metallic voice through the vox caster "You may be their pawn, but like my brothers say, we vow to no one but ourselves and we are united by a bond of brotherhood, not of service. I do agree a small planet now in a key position can be used to launch a stronger force as a good staging point, we do need start somewhere and begin to harness our own power."
"Brothers, I suggest we take up this cause. It will give us the opportunity to see how our enemies have fared in 10,000 years. We can gauge their strengths and test their mettle in a smaller engagement while building our strength to prepare our thrust into the heart of the Imperium. What say you all?"
"Agreed. Draex needs blood and guts anyway else he may slay all of the minions residing on that ship. It is time to strike back at the Imperium, it has been far, far too long since our names froze the blood of our enemies".
"What more can you tell us of this world?"
"You will be going to the Planet Solace and prepare it for the upcoming disaster. I have forseen the arrival of a dead comet striking the planet. With it's coming, a swarm of xenos could potentially sweep through the Imperium's citadel, sowing death and desruction in its wake. As the same time, this devastgation presents you the perfect opportunity for a ritual to call upon the unholy."
"There is another though, a sorcerer by the name Nereus who also seeks to exploit this chaos but you must steal his ritual out from beneath him."
"I ask for nothing in return just do what you do best."
"How long will it take your ship to get there?"
"About 3 weeks travel. Many of you look like you could use the rest and recovery and my apothocary will take care of that. I know you are all powerful but even the powerful need their rest. Recover for now and when we are closer to our destination we will discuss things further."
Draex leaks blood while listening to this shifty characters request, burning the ground where it falls.
"I and the blood god are in accordance, give me a p-P-pl-eekk-planet"
Draex right eye spasms with his words and left hand contorts as his cerebral sends misfiring triggers of pain
"That needs to know the wrath of choas and I will make it bleed"
"Don't ask for anything in return, but yet you have tasked us with something to do, that is for your benefit more than likely" he looks at the others "Why can't we just destroy him from orbit and observe their cries of pain and agony as we rob him of his victory and escape, to die at the hands of a xenos species?" shrugging his shoulders "Instead we are to go down wage war upon him and defend ourselves of the same fate of the xeno swarm"
"Another choice is to wait here and hope that another vessel eventually comes along."
"If it was only that simple. If we attempted to bombard the planet we would be destroyed before the first salvo hit. The only option is infiltration into the hive. I'm sure some of you could appreciate that." she turns her gaze toward Deathraven and Menstras.
"Please rest now my apothocary will assist with the tending of your wounds and we will let you know when it's time to drop to the planet."
"My wounds will heal on their own. Please direct me to your armory where I may ministrate to my armour."
"Very well then."
I will begrudgingly accept the assistance.
I think I was fine
You all quickly learn this ship is completely devoted to all the dark gods. No one in particular is worshiped higher than the other. Akkad this is like a dream come true type of ship for you.
The Many-Eyed Oracle was right in the amount of time it would take to reach Solace. Three weeks precisely. You can feel the ship leave the warp and enter real space and from the ports you see the planet.
The lower hives of Hive Solace are your destination. Make contact with the local mutants who are against the Imperium and use them to your advantage. Being what you are that should be a fairly easy task.
Drop pod landings are always rattling, physically and mentally. There are countless legends of disastrous atmospheric entries and even more of landings in places that imprisoned the passengers. Fortunately, you encountered neither of those problems. The biggest excitement came from the fact that your drop pod hit the atmosphere under the cover of a meteor storm. Throughout the experience, you were concerned that a rogue meteor might penetrate the pod’s defences. Fortunately, the oracle’s foresight proved accurate, and you made it to the ground without incident. Now, you just need to find a ventilation duct for the mines, stumble through them in near-perfect darkness, and make contact with Solace’s population of renegades, all the while avoiding the notice of any of the world’s defenders, of course.
Deathraven began looking for a way into the Hive.
Taloc follows along with Deathraven trusting that his Brother will find the best way. He stays close behind, speaking into his vox, "The first being we see, let me speak with. I may be able to glean great insight from their minds, well before Draex kills them and wears them as a decoration anyway".
You realize there are really only two options for entry into the Hive. Either finding an entry into the Mines or going directly into the Hive. Being Adeptus Astartes going directly into the Hive is probably not the best option for you to infiltrate.
Survival
Taloc is able to identify an entry way for your squad to enter into the lower hive via the Mines. There is zero security down here.
After about 20 minutes you see the tell tale signs of violence. Blood, body parts, expended ammunition, etc... An occasional mark of the Warp. The passageways are barely lit by ancient glowglobes embedded in the ceilings and the occasional brazier burning acrid tallow.
There appears to be a trail of broken weaponry, disemboweled bodies with runes of warning carved into them.
Draex's drop pod crashes into the planet creating a dense crater. Taking a few moments to collect himself he kicks the pod door open and hops out. Grabing the twins he takes a few practice swings ready to stain this planet red
"Wearing the skin as decoration ?!! Hmmm"
draex ponders deeply about this notion
.oO (i shall encase my helmet with the bones of the fallen)
"Witch, I like the way you think. Hahaha"
Laughing heartly is the closest you will see draex look of insanity and carnage calm to a calm premeditated murderous form
"Come, its time to devour a planet and I am hungry for war"
vs 63
draex knows that those he was robbed on of a few kills he so desired
v 61
Menstras will examine the broken to get an idea of the local threats.
Menstras surveys the battle and can see it playing out before his eyes as if he was there based on the trajectory of the rounds, placements of wounds and all things that play into a fight.
You can tell there were three distinct groups fighting here. All with high probability of living in these lower hives, probably hive gangs fighting over territory. You can easily tell which way each of the gangs came from by their trails.
- Fail
"Three local gangs by the looks of it. Came from there, there and there."
"I think any choice is as good as any other, at this point, as long as we keep moving. Let's go, brothers. We have a world to take."
Deathraven chose a direction and moved off.
Draex takes off full sprint into one of the three directions death raven was talking about
Draex charges at full speed ready to draw blood, even though he knows these pathetic humans would be no make for the skull harvester.
"Try to contain your bloodlust. These criminals may prove useful.
You all follow Deathraven down a passage and have to make your way through festering sludge and darkness. With your auspex and natural agility you do not have much problems and eventually make your way to light.
Before you is a rancid lake with a giant mutant standing in the center of it waist deep surrounded by about 60 other mutants. You see him slam one of the other mutants heads under the water and begins to drown him. The mutants on the outskirts notice you as it's kind of hard to hide yourself where you current are and yell out. The huge mutant tosses the non moving body of the many he just drowned to the side and grins wide showing razer sharp teeth.
He is about the same size of an Adeptus Astartes but you can tell he is definitely not one of you.
Deathraven watches the mutants carefully, but he wants to give Taloc the opportunity to use his sorcerous abilities to good effect.
"Chieftain, we would have words with you."
Taloc steps forward towards the mutant, "Greetings friend, we have been seeking you as you have been seeking us. It is time for you and yours to claim victory over your foes. We are the key to that victory".
Delude ---
Deceive ---
vs 35
The mutant leader grins wider. He speaks with a deep voice and slight lisp.
"Welcome to my Drowning Circle then friends!" you can see a LOT of bodies in the lake like water now as you look absorb your surrounding better.
He points to Deathraven "You! Since you talk so fast, you will fight me and if you beat me then I will talk with you and yours!"
His mutant followers kind of spread out a bit giving their boss some room and making a path for your group.
"Well, pity that is Deathraven, while I would enjoy Draex doing his job, this is not his kind of fight" smiling within Their weapons must barely work if they don't already malfunction most of the time with these conditions.
"Choose a second, then. If we fight, you may not survive, and then we could not talk."
Deathraven steps forward, shrugging out of his jump pack, but keeping the rest of his gear. No one said anything about fighting fair.
The giant mutant pull off his back a gigantic chain axe that almost resembles and evicerator but in the shape of an axe similar to Draex but larger and holds his two handed grinning wickedly as he yells something you don't understand readying to attack!
Init.
"Ahh I see, you want to steal the glory for your self kinman.... can I take care of the small fry... I'll kill the whole lot of them"
Draex restrains himself from battle but readies his Twins for combat anyway clashing them together as an opening song of battle