Vasyl draws his Armageddon and fires a snap shot at the thing threatening Erkan.
It would be a damn shame to have him go down. Too many questions.
And the shot goes wide, well away from the combatants.
The creature's arm still stuck in the wall, Erkan takes a quick step back and swings his shotlas up, unleashing a furious blast at the creature.
Leaving his shotlas hanging in his offhand, Erkan draws the relic blade Mendanion's Confession from his hip, it's blessed metal shining in the darkness and plunges the blade up into the vile creature.
Lothar draws his sword and moves up to the construct threatening Erkan. "Pull back, I'll keep it tied up while you reposition."
Praetus moves in with a set of swift attacks.
The blade slashes at the Sisters but the blow is deflected.
On the rebound he slashes the beast across the chest.
Heironymous lets loose once again.
But his shots go wide once more.
Erkan steps away from the attacker after unleashing a vicious amount of energy into the former Hospitalier. Between that and Praetus' sword the woman slumped, her head rolling to the side as she wheezed her last.
Unfortunately, the limbs didn't seem to care that there host had passed, and continued to fight.
It remained trapped, and tried to swipe once more at Praetus.
However, it once more failed to land a blow.
Perhaps more alarmingly, the other - the ruined corpse of the former sister also now unmoving - rose to all fours in a spider-like fashion, brass claws clicking on the deck as it struggled under the damage.
Lothar lands two quick glancing blows on the construct.
Vasyl blazes away at his target, trying not to also gun down Praetus.
Got to make it dead for sure!
And succeeds...in not hitting anything besides the far ceiling.
Heironymous pulls back and unloads at the creatures once again, his last shot before needing to reload.
But his shots go wild once again.
Lothar's blows were absorbed by the monstrous being, and the others shots went wide. The creature tried once again to yank her arm out.
The arm tore free of the containers this time, and the creatures was able to turn and fight with both claws as the other closed,moving in an alarmingly inhuman fashion on all fours towards Vasyl.
Hitting the abomination was not proving a challenge, harming it was another matter. Lothar persisted trusting in his training and his comrades to overcome the threat. Two blows, better place than the last struck the thing.
I don't think so.
Vasyl tries to escape the blow.
Frack.
Vasyl draws his brutal blade and hacks back!
Shaking off the horror of the blasphemy before him, something clicks in Erkan's mind. The young acolyte becomes suddenly calm, and drawing the righteous blade Mendanion's Confession, he boldly begins a chant, "Spirit of noxious immateria, be gone from hence, for as the Emperor of Mankind, manifold be his blessings, watches over me, so I will not fear the shadow of the warp..."
Stepping toward the creature he had partially blown apart that now faced Lothar and Praetus, he swings the relic at the abomination.
Lothar's attack was enough to take down the monster this time, and when Erkan drove his blessed weapon home the monstrous limbs burst into white fire, dissolving. For a moment, even though she was dead, you could have sworn that the former sister smiled before the flames took her as well.
With both of them destroyed the only sound was the ship's systems and your own breathing.
"The Emperor gives us strength of limb and courage to hold our ground. Hold to these gifts and fight with cunning then you will see seemingly powerful foes falter before the might of humanity. Let us proceed."
Vasyl kicks away the nearest mechanical limb.
"Yeah, the Emperor wants His business taken care of. And how."
As he speaks, he wipes and puts away his bolo knife, then begins reloading his Armageddon. All the while, looking about.
Heironymous also reloads his weapon, then sends his servo-skull up to survey the room more completely.
The cargo bay seemed to contain little beyond materials for the ship's maintenance and repair. Tools and materials could likely be found, if anyone wished to do so.
Beyond that, what seems to be a prosthetic arm in a shipping case is discarded near the door. Unlike the tainted bronze things you have seen so many of this is a finely crafted piece of plasteel and other lightweight elements, with various blessings and prayers painstakingly etched into the metal. While you all currently have all your limbs, it would likely be easy to trade such a well-made item.
I wonder if there's a combi-tool or auspex I can swipe.
"A tasty piece of craftsmanship, that arm. We should keep it, for whenever one of us has an arm blasted off."
With the mutilated sisters fallen, Erkan offers a brief prayer before resheathing his blade. He then kneels before the corpses of the Brides of the Emperor and offered them the final rites of the Emperor's chosen.
Rising, he looked to the others. "These accursed machinations are supremely dangerous. I am concerned what a confrontation with a massed force would present to us. We must be cautious as we press onward."
This man knows the score.
"I agree Erkan! We're not a guard regiment and shouldn't pretend we're one."
"Brother, I am ready to proceed. I will let you know what I find"
The assassin moves into the dark.
Lothar let Praetus scout ahead of the group before proceeding a minute later behind him. "After our previous encounter in the hallway we need to come up with an alternate means of dealing with all of them. We don't have enough ammo to kill them all efficiently and melee weapons require getting close."
"It could take a considerable time with our limited manpower to cleanse this place. If the ship can be cleansed and returned to service sooner would be better. Perhaps they have some weakness we can uncover to deal with them quickly or at least contain them so they can be destroyed piecemeal."
Moving along the passageway, Praetus finds nothing too untoward within the nearby areas. There are signs of fighting, but nothing else seems to be active right now.
The way through to the Engineerium seems clear.
Lothar continues advancing with the others as they move towards the Engeerium. There perhaps they would find some more answers and perhaps a way to banish these infernal creatures.
Vasyl cautiously holds the rear as the group advances
The massive doors leading into the cavernous room are covered by the huge symbol of the Omnissiah, Binary prayers written around the massive steel doors. Opposite the door the passageways are flanked by two small shrines to the Emperor. Thankfully, the doors are already open.
Beyond is a massive room, oddly silent and poorly lit, seemingly operating on emergency power - an oddity, given that the rest of the vast ship is operating normally. The engines themselves are certainly not operating, and it's hard to see very far without some kind of aid.
"Well Techpriest Bahrenfahrer, we are in the domain of your priesthood now. What can you divine from the Machine Spirits that slumber here." Lothar says as he advances slowly through the area staying alert for ambushes and traps. His photo contacts allowing him to see quite well in the poorly lit area.
Vasyl stays quiet as he looks around.
I'm keeping a low profile unless I'm asked about tech. Or there's something I need to speak up about quick.
Damn. This is important.
"I don't see any wreckage. Looks powered down, not blown up."
"Did the Techpriests power it down to hamper these aberrations or is it some ploy by the enemy?"
Hieronymous is able to power the room up from one the lecturns near the entrance, but can't figure out why the power is down in the first place. Nothing seems to be dangerous or malfunctioning, but getting the system running should allow checks to run.
'Main engine restart active. Blessed is the Omnissiah's Will. Power restoration to navigation, engines and primary cogitator banks has begun. In His name Mars Endures. Complete System Restart will take 12600 seconds to complete. Prioritising Cogitator systems. Machina ex Deus.'
The mechanical voice of the ship's machine spirt speaks throughout the vox grills located around the room, and the lights change from the emergency red lights to the normal powerful, clean white the Mechanicus seems to prefer.
'Error! Cogitator systems have been corrupted. Commencing vessel purge.' The lights shift to the emergency red once more. 'Cancellation request acknowledged. Purge has ceased at 1756 seconds.' The lights flicker back to white. 'Error! Cogitator systems have been corrupted. Commencing vessel purge.' followed once more by, 'Cancellation request acknowledged. Purge has ceased at 1755 seconds.'
The system began to go around in circles.
"Is this something that can or should be dealt with? Or would it be better to return to Machine Spirits to their slumber." Luthor asked as he stayed vigilant unable to divine the full meaning of the Machine Spirit.
Frack. That does not sound good.
"That sounds like it's counting down...how do we stop it?"
"The machine spirit is corrupted! Curses!"
The Cogitator system is attempting to purge the corruption from the ship in a fairly extreme manner, by destroying its memory banks with radiation. The fact that it will render the rest of the ship sterile as well is considered a useful addition in these situations.
However, such measures are typically only triggered during a significantly worse demonic incursion that this one, where the fabric of the ship has been tainted as well. Nothing you've seen suggests anything but the augmetic construction system has been tainted, along with the crew. The sanctified nature of the ship seems to have protected most of the ship. It suggests something else is happening, or that the system has been triggered and stopped by another outside force.
Unfortunately, the system can't currently be stopped without the Opus Machina held by a magos of the ship.
Think. Find a solution.
"Where is the head red robe? They'd surely have a command word or ident card or something to stop this?"
"A supplication prayer to placate the machine spirits wrath? Would they transcribe such a thing... if they did it would make sense to keep it upon their person." Lothar begins to search for the dead tech priest with the best robes he can find.
"We need to find the magos, Brother Vaughn where do you believe he would be held up?
Lothar's search reveals no sign of a Magos - or for that matter anyone else. There are no signs of fighting here, in fact. Perhaps the Tech-Priests chose to make there stand elsewhere, in fear of the vital heart of the ship being damaged, or perhaps something else called them away.
"We much find one of my brethren!" Heironymous attempts to contact the other groups.
"Peons! It is imperative for the survival of all life on this ship that we contact a Magos. This takes top priority. Immediately cease any other activities and escort any Magos you can find to the Engineering Sector."
Excellent. We might live yet.
"What the red robe said! Let's do this!"
Kepenia's voice crackled over the vox. "Acknowledged. We'll search the command decks again and see if we can locate any signs of a Magos. We can't activate the internal vox from this location, however."
The channel to Volga crackled.