The foreman seems to be momentarily taken aback by "Lady Orthiad's" silence, though when she takes his hand and steps into the front of the open-topped truck, he seems to ease a bit. Climbing up into the bed of the truck, Caius and Julius find slim benches on either side, allowing them to pull up close to the front. Following behind them come Balthasar and Ptah 7-Kappa, with Naltos and Zimm taking the last two positions at the back of the bed. Havelock quietly slips forward and takes the seat in the front on the far side from the driver, with Yelisaveta between the two. Climbing in himself, the foreman turns the starter, firing up the low-chugging engine and presses the gas.
Pulling forward from the small bay immediately behind the conference room, you pull out into the central warehouse located just inside the cliff. At more than 100 meters long, there are a collection of large metallic ore hoppers to the right side as you pass, with a utility lifter emptying tow carts into them as they are hauled up by service trucks. To the left are several such vehicles, two up on lifts with repairs being carried out by crew and servitors alike. As you pass they pay you little heed, and before you know it, you are rumbling down a dimly lit stone tunnel, turning to take the occasional redirection.
As the truck moves along, the foreman speaks loudly so that all (or at least most) can hear him. "This mine was opened 43 Terran years prior, with primary yield of magnetite-bearing iron ore, supplemented by limited hauls of cobalt and several other minerals. While a majority of the planetoids within the Gorgon's Tears share a similar composition, Kadenar's bound orbit to Lo draws it away from the asteroid belt for much of it's orbit, making it a more stable mining site. Lady Orthiad, I understand your personnel include prospectors and the like. Pardon me, but may I ask if anyone has any questions as well travel to our first site? Oh, and I'd be curious to know how an Arbite came to be in the service of a merchant house? A little 'pay to play' perhaps?"
+10 (Ordinary)
The Foreman seems ill at ease as he tries to engage your company in banter and small talk.
+0 (Challenging)
The foreman is clearly uncomfortable and actively trying to keep you engaged and unaware of the activities around you.
-10 (Difficult) or better
I will PM you.
+10 (Ordinary)
The equipment throughout the facility is older but still well maintained. A sizable work crew seems to be active in the various areas you pass through. There are rather few crew leaders directing their actions.
+0 (Challenging)
While most of the laborers take no notice of you passing, several meet your eyes with an angry glare. In addition to loading ore into the drag carts, smaller baskets are near each work team, with a small collection of some ore in them.
-10 (Difficult) or better
I will PM you.
Havelock's eyes narrow a little, his previous suspicions rising.
Of course, at the moment, there is little he can do to except keep his vigilance.
Nalthos kept his focus behind as he had to trust Caius was watching ahead. His lasgun was across his lap with one hand gripping it tightly but his finger was off the trigger. His other hand firmly gripped hold the transport... he wasn't sure they'd even slow down for him if he fell of
When Zimm notices that the the destroyed bridge led to new diggings, her curiosity is piqued. She sub-vocalizes on the chosen frequency, "Yeh, noticed a bridge to new diggings was destroyed out by the landing pad..."
Later, she hops up on the transport ,keeping alert...
Distracted by his unseen efforts, Julien finally turns to the man, speaking out loud for the first time since taking off his rebreather.
"Are there any unusual phenomenon here? Unexplained mysteries, that sort of thing?"
Ptah is fully oblivious, lost in contemplation on the mysteries of the Machine God's wisdom.
"You seem to have few overseers for the number of work crews here.", Julien adds.
Yelisaveta, distracted by the Foreman's long-winded explanation, notices little out of the ordinary, save from the little senior workmen directing the efforts. A little unorthodox, perhaps, though stands to reason that they'd be willing to cut expenses at all costs. "Oh, I'm quite certain that my retinue will have plenty of questions regarding the materials and their acquisition, as well as quality control. As for their exact lines of reasoning,", she gives an air-headed shrug. "We pay them to know things so I don't have to burden myself with that knowledge. As for my dearest bodyguard, aren't all Arbites in service to the Throne?", she winks, clearly indicating that she means the currency, and not the Holy Throne of the God-Emperor. "He's rather apt exceptional at spotting faults in my security, and he appreciates our devotion." She glances at the men once more, before tisking with a faint sense of disappointment. "Do pardon my forwardness, foreman, but I did seem to notice there being some shortage of more seasoned workers on the shifts. Not that I doubt your men's ability, but even in those circumstances we'd have to be a little more scrutinous for the supply." She waves her hand in an attempt to dispel the tension. "Of course, it's not high-grade steel we're after, so worry not."
The foreman chuckles at Lady Orthiad's line of questioning. "Hahaha, Lady Orthiad, if you want to keep a lawman on a leash as a guard dog, that is your business. The fact that you have either enough wealth or power to do it, that is all the more impressive. As for our operation, a lack of experienced workers, you say? And you can tell that with but a glance? Well, you might be surprised to know that we only bring highly skilled miners up here to work, so that they need fewer leads than an inexperienced team might. Less people bossing the men around is good for morale, and it saves us more than a bit on the labor costs. Make sense?"
After continuing it's winding path for some time, the truck eventually reaches a large chamber where the edge drops off, a sturdy metal-framed lift in front of you. A team moving an ore cart stand on the lift, waiting to descend, as the foreman pulls the truck forward next to them, and waves his arm at a crewman on the staging nearby. You hear a grinding of gears and feel the shudder of metal as the brakes are released and the lift begins to lower into the darkness.
Riding in the back of the truck, you continue to scan the mines as you pass through. As you crossed your way through the tunnels, you notice that several of the miners are carrying blades clearly not intended for mining on their hips. As the foreman waves to the crew operating the lift, you spot a stub pistol of some make protruding from the crewman's coverall pocket.
Analyzing the myriad details available to you, you notice the travel pattern the foreman is driving you on does not match the most direct route to mine sight Delta as you recall from studying the maps in transit. As your mind works through these details, you come to the realization that the sign you passed before entering this lift chamber bore the exact structural damage you had seen on a sign you passed 10 minutes prior. The same sign, only from a different angle of approach.
With an itch at the back of your mind, you find your eyes repeatedly searching for some threat, real or imagined. After minutes of scanning, your mind begins to settle when something catches your eye. The foreman, who is seated directly in front (and slightly below) of you, bringing his hand back down from waving to the crewman brushes hair back from his right ear. As he does, you catch a brief of a tattoo behind his ear-
-a tattoo you recognize as the 8-pointed star.
Easy. Ready yourself.
"My lady, I beg forgiveness. What was the last thing that we said to our helmsman?"
Hopefully the others get the hint.
"Helmsman" Caius calls out "Once we have landed and disembarked, you are to leave the landing platform and remain on standby. Our callsign will Invictus. The password will be 'kill heretics with fire'.""Remember acolytes: The Emperor Protects!"
Ever vigilant Nalthos hears the meaning, with his weapon at the ready he gave the others a moment to process the situation but looked over his shoulder to keep apprised of the situation at the front of the truck.
Shaking her head, Yelisaveta smiles. "Leash? Oh, no, no. Our Honoured Arbite is merely perceptive enough as to where the bread is buttered." The idea of the men being self-motivated raises Yelisaveta's internal curiousity, but she s Ah. That is exactly one of the reasons why I like to visit personally. When this contract is finished, I'll endeavour to see where this approach can be used. The foremen won't be happy, but that's entirely their concern."[/b] Shrugging, she is, however, caught off-guard by the psyker's comment.
Putting her hand to her face with a barely-concealed groan, she nods at Julien. "Oh. Of course. We told her to keep the engines running, since we weren't expecting a welcome of this caliber. Foreman, may I request that you take us upstairs once again until we get into vox-caster range? Would hate to leave my poor helmsman worried, the girl had enough stress getting us down here." She rolls her eyes. "And I doubt she'd trust anyone who's not us, given our initial impression."
Havelocks mind, capable of near total recall quickly clasps down on what he at first thought to be a rhetoric question from Julien.
Then, when he does recall what the last thing said directly to the pilot, the password, his suspicions crystallize in effect.
The long las was of course impractical at the moment, but the weight of the hand gun within the folds of his robe was a better alternative.
For now, he prepared for what might be imminent danger.
Zimm bends way down to attend to a wayward buckle on her boot. While her head is out of the sight of the foreman, she whispers into her comm, "Yeh, we've got combat knives on some miners and the lift-man has a stubbie...they are not what they seem... she warns on the shared frequency.
She then straightens, her attention sharp, watching for the inevitable ambush..
Caius coughed once and nodded then drew his heavy stubber revolver quietly and said nothing.
Ptah mutters, "Trinity Machina protect me." as his hand moves down to his las carbine.
The foreman lets out a thunderous laugh. "You left your pilot hovering around up there, eh? Well, I'm afraid they'll be hovering for a bit more." The gears continue to grind as the lift descends into the depths below. "Once this lift gets going in one direction, there is no stopping it until it reaches its destination. Only then can it be reversed. And even then, we do not just idly send the lift up and down. It will be going back up when there is a full load ready to be hauled. And even once we are out of this shaft, we have to get all the way back toward the bays before you have any chance of raising your pilot. All the minerals in the rocks, they interfere with broadcast signals. But don't worry, we'll get back topside soon enough. Until then your pilot will just have to enjoy their view of the Tears."
Shortly after his words finish, the platform touches down at the bottom of the shaft. The mining crew stays off to the side as the truck powers up. Shifting the truck back into gear, the foreman presses down on the gas and the vehicle lurches forward, accelerating forward, it's lights leading the way. Pulling ahead a few hundred metres, the truck slows, coming up to a set of closed heavy blast doors. The foreman looks to the left, toward a control room cut into the rock. "Oi! Open it up. Don't make me wait while you sleep in there." After waiting perhaps thirty seconds, he chicks his tongue. "Damn scags. Let me take care of this, be right back." And he quickly turns, hopping down from the truck heading for the door into the control room.
So focused on trying to maintain your cover, you are unsure if you have been able to successfully sell your part as a highborn merchant, or if your story is coming apart at the seems.
The evidence you have already seen has you shaken, but you are uncertain of what game is afoot.
The foreman seems to be keen on getting you forward into the mine, and rather hesitant to bring you back to the surface. Sweat also beads on his brow, though it is rather cold down here in the mine.
Both from your very different perspectives (one an analyst, the other a soldier), you analyze your position and clearly identify that you have been lead into a perfect ambush point, with no accessible point of egress and presumed hostiles at your rear and side. Finally, the tone in the foreman's voice offers a fake sense of surprise and frustration - he knew that no one was going to open the blast doors.
Havelock coughs a few times before covering his mouth with his hand, taking the chance to send a quick sub-vocal message to the others.
"We are in a perfect ambush situation, and the foreman is not truly surprised this happened."
Damnation.
"Seize the foreman for hostage?"
Nalthos slides off the back of the truck and moves up towards the front and the foreman. "Look while you sort this can I use some waste collection facilities?" He hoped the foreman would slow to convince him to go away or at the very least get the focus on him.
"Yes, let him come back and we'll take him then."
The foreman had just stepped into the alcove that held the door to the control room when Naltos came up behind him. Spinning quickly with a cluck on his tongue, he is about to say something, until his eyes come face to face with the monstrosity before him. His expression is one of disgust, or perhaps awe. The moment of pause is broken by the harsh crack of a single stub round firing off, launching forth from the pistol pulled from inside the foreman's jacket. I jumped forward, striking Naltos in the jaw.
Caius readied his shield and moved towards the foreman.
He then called out "Surrender in the name of the Golden Throne. You are all under arrest."
With combat joined, Havelock decides to go for his long las after all, it's not like subtlety matters at this point anyway.
He then looks for a good defensible spot to set up a sniping position.
Nalthos' head rocked back a half inch... beneath his goggles his eyes narrowed on the man.
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The Foreman's cheek quivers and his look turns to one of complete fear as he realizes the bullet that he fired into nalto's face left almost no wound.
Caius swings his shield from his back even as he rises from the seat and hops over the side wall of the truck bed, coming down adjacent to the confrontation between Naltos and the foreman.
Havelock slides down from the outer seat on the truck cab to it's boarding steps, positioning the bulk of the vehicle between himself and both the foreman to the side and the length of the tunnel to the rear.
The tunnel where you stand is 12 meters wide, with your open topped truck taking up the center 4 meters of that. Looking back up the tunnel you see the ore cart, with a pair of lights at its front, slowly rumbling down the tunnel towards you. Apparently having its own form of locomotion, you can see a pair of the crew are inside the cart, with a third on a running board to the side, and two hanging off the back. It is perhaps still 100 m behind you.
Ptah begins to chant in Binaric as he moves into position and pulls out his las carbine.
His chanting reverberates through the tunnels, creating a droning mechanical hymn.
Zimm smiles as the expected ambush is sprung, jumping out of the truck and moving to its front to keep it between her and the advancing ore cart full of miners/cultists.
As she does so, she pulls her bow from her harness and snaps it open, also pulling an arrow from the nearby quiver and efficiently knocks it on the bow's string.
Seeing that the mutant has the foreman in hand, she focuses her attention on the oncoming ore cart...
"Oh, pizdya"., Yelisaveta mutters as the foreman fires a shot at Naltos. Raising her lasgun, she peeks out the window towards the incoming cart. "Keep one alive.", she spits out, clearly furious. At least the charade is over.
Julien, never having taken his Talon out of his hands in this place, spends his time moving for cover.
"The Emperor protects!" Nalthos says with a sinister grin. Closing the gap he tried to grab a hold of the 'foreman'.
Well, if there had been no danger to this mission, there wouldn't have been much need to send so many acolytes.
Nor would it serve as much of a test.
Moving away from the gun-wielding foreman, Ptah and Julien hop over the far side of the truck bed and drop down between it and the tunnel wall, giving them a direct sight line back at the ore trolley, but with a little bit of cover from it. Seeing that Naltos and Caius have the Foreman well in hand, Yelisaveta rises in her seat and spins around, using the back of the cab to provide cover across the open truck bed back towards the ore trolley.
As the giant Guardsman barrels down on him, the Foreman throws himself against the control room door, narrowly evading the charging brute. He lets off a frantic burst of shots in response, but with no control they go wide.
The work crew riding within and along the orchard, jeers and curses as their craft continues to rumble down the tunnel towards you. Despite moving under its own propulsion, it is not overly fast and they shorten the distance by 40 meters .
Nalthos rams the butt of his lasgun into the foreman's midsection pinning him place before bringing the rest of his weight to bare. "Manacles now so I can move to oppose the rest!" Nalthos tone is far more demanding than you have previously heard come from him... perhaps a bit rude even if it is a prudent idea.
Having already lodged himself back into the alcove trying to avoid the brute's onslaught, the foreman has nowhere to evade Naltos' rifle butt as it slams into his chest, followed by the hulking mass shouldering down into him. He cries out in pain as the sheer weight of the giant guardsman presses him into the door.
Zimm moves slightly for a better angle, then draws an arrow back to her ear , compensating for the movement of the ore cart, aiming at whichever 'miner' is most exposed. As she gently releases the taut bowstring, she whispers , "Interficiam propter verum imperatorem"
"Cut True for the Emperor"
Zimm smoothly flips over the side of the truck and was moving back along its side to take cover, but spun midway to crouch and draw a line of the miner hanging of the running board of the trolley. With a deep breath and a near silent prayer, the arrow leapt into the air, streaking across the closing distance to impale the heretical miner through the left eye socket. He hung onto the side of the trolley for a moment, his body not yet responding to the adamantium tipped, carbon fibre shaft lodged in his central nervous system. Then his corpse collapsed, falling off the running board and skittering to a halt on the tunnel floor.
Gritting her teeth, Yelisaveta gently flicks on the switch on her lasgun, the weapon humming as the laspack's energy starts flowing into the internal working at increased wattage. Aiming at the miner just about to look up after Zimm's exceptional shot, she pulls the trigger, and the gun hisses out a red las beam.
Resting the stock of the longlas against a rock outcropping, Havelock takes steady aim, allowing the red dot sight to home in on one of the remaining targets.
He then lightly squeezes the trigger, as the humming long las dispenses death.
Death, sadly not being all that accurate, perhaps it was currently on a tea break, or too busy applauding the skill of the resident assassin?
Just a bit closer, then bullets and psyk will come into play...
Julien, crouched behind cover, lets rip with his Talon against the oncoming craft full of hostile workers. Bullets spray wildly.
Caius sheathes his pistol, tosses Naltos a set of Manacles, and then draws his Shock Maul.
"Don't go running off. Let them get into range."
The miner at the front of the trolley ducks as Yelisaveta lets off a blast from her heavy lasgun, but the move serves little purpose as the lance of energy strikes the front plates. They are designed to absorb an impact, but the energy is too much and you hear the miner cry out in pain as the las shot continues through to wound him.
Havelock and Julien's shots add to the chaos and confusion, but cause no apparent injury. Ptah lets off a burst of shots at the miners in the cart, but his shots do little more than harry your pursuers.
Balthasar catches the manacles tossed at Naltos, and claps them onto the wrists of the foreman pinned beneath the giant brute.
The foreman, still pinned beneath Naltos, struggles to break free of the manacles just placed on his wrists, but to no avail.
The ore trolley continues to roll toward you, closing the distance to 20 meters from the rear of your truck. The two within the trolley continue to hunker low against the weapons fire, while the two hanging on to the back seem poised to leap off as soon as they get close.
Zimm smiles as her blessings have the desired effect, the arrow strikes true!
She ignores the sizzle and clatter of her companion's less blessed weapons, pulling another arrow. Calmly, she places it upon the bowstring, draws, holds her breath and once again releases it in a near silent prayer, "Interficiam propter verum imperatorem"
Half action: Aim, Half-Action:Shoot