Thaddius "Bones" Cogburn's page

"Yeah yeah, hold on Gizmo."

Thaddius collects his gear. A small duffel bag holds all he needs. His pistol tucked to his side.

"Yeah, let's get a move on."

Thaddius began running through what the situation would entail. He'd go undercover as a new miner. Something simple like that. From there he could snoop around without any qualms on the lower levels. As for the more advanced areas... An inspection, but not for the Inquisition of course.

"Servobot, gimme all the details we have on Cystollos III, who runs the mining facility there?"

What kind of tech could they be using? Might they have found? Are they trying to mine it up for their real backers, the REU...

Hell if its something as obvious as dug up xenos tech I'll be able to get in one look and send for the asteroid to be glassed.

If this went smooth enough Thaddius might be gone within the week and could maybe get another gig working a freighter. The Emperor is Just, but the Inquisition pays terribly.

Thaddius stands and opens the cell door.

"Thanks servitor."

Cogburn was catching some shut eye when the chime goes off. He snaps awake, rolling into a sitting position waiting for either the cell door to open or to allow who ever dropped off whatever might be outside time to walk away. He didn't often deal with his superiors directly. Indeed he usually didn't even get real jobs from them.

He was just one of their many low level lackeys, informants really. He made a quick drop whenever there was a suspicion but as of yet hadn't been given a real assignment from them. Because of that Thaddius had boarded the Emperor's Boot being bound for the Core Worlds to maybe find some other less...savory work. He needed to live didn't he? He was no frontline fighter that's for sure. He did his work in the dark, the underbelly, and even on those Core or Hive worlds you'd be surprised what xeno-buggery you could find. If you had the eye for it...

Plasma weapons are of course in use in various branches of the Imperial Armed Forces. Thaddius was slow to learn that. His agriworld only ever had access to slugthrowers, and even then that was for the home branches of Imperial Guard.

Thaddius remembers the first time he tried reporting the obvious Xeno tech to his superiors. They laughed in his face, their large thick jowls rolled with laughter.

"I think--I mean...I mistakenly thought that they originally came from reverse engineering of Xenos tech but I have no such facts. My apologies Inquisitor!" He bowed and excited. Face reddening with embarassment. He would have to worked even harder to overcome that slap in the face.

He shrugged the thought from his mind. Regardless what the superiors thought. That plasma gear was far too close to what those darky knife ears use. He wouldn't be caught dead with a piece like that in his hands.

Thaddius spent his time in the hyper space lanes on ship cleaning his service revolver slug thrower repeatedly, dry firing it to get the weight of the trigger to be second nature. Getting accustomed to the new grip placed on it since his last visit to the core worlds. He loved the tool. Not one of those new backward engineered xeno job's half the punks seemed to carry around. He had seen what could happen with one of those. Just as likely to blow up and disintegrate you and half your squad. Stupid way to go.

He loved it onboard the Emperor's Boot. An all hum-crew. Folks he could trust, rely on. When in FTL transit he felt like it was the space life he had imagined back home. That universe it COULD be, if only the Xenos weren't infecting the fringes of human territories. If there were only Man, Man could live peacefully. It was something Thaddius was absolutely sure of. To hope he would live to see such a day was foolhardy and he knew it. But he would be damned if he didn't do his best to help bring it about. As soon as possible.

In another realm...

Thaddius Cogburn started his miserable excuse for a life on an Agri-world, designated Platte. Those planets within the Imperium that possessed 850 of 1000 parts covered in agriculture development. Thad wanted more. His hilly billy folks kept him on planet and he wanted to see the stars! The galaxy! Surely it wasn't so miserable a place as this boring life he lead.
That desire is what drove Thad to meet up with the "Volunteer Star Academy." A shuttle and representatives touched down a few parts over, offering up transport to a station orbiting one of Hive Worlds. An academy where the simple farmer folks could learn skills to be of service to the Great Emperor and help chart the skies. It was a miracle and all too many of the rural bumpkins were eager to take up the opportunity.

"Come see the stars! Join up with the VSA!" Pushing forward Thaddius reached the booth set up outside the small freighter.
"Me! Sign me up! What do I do?!"
"Well son, it'll cost you about..." the man pushes a paper forward, "to enlist, think you can afford that?" the man working the counter had a gleam in his left eye, the socket surrounded by scarring. A cybernetic! Thad hadn't seen much of those.
"That much!? But... How am I-"
"That's not our problem boy. The... VSA is run by donations such as yours to supply proper housing and uhh... What not. If you can get it together, we're scheduled for take off in one standard week. Now if you can't make that then move aside."
"I have a sister, I want her to go with. She's younger, bout twelve or so."
"That'll be double then, move aside."
Dejected, Thaddius moved backwards, chewed on his lip, thinking how he could possibly come up with such a sum. His sister, Kara was who he really cared for. He didn't want her to have to stay on this mud hole of a world. It was for her he truly wanted to go to space. A group of 4 or 5 other boys were murmuring together. Thad walked by and heard enough to know what it was about.
"I want in."

******
Thad found himself playing lookout as the group of thugs robbed the Farmer's Bank. He wasn't ready to hold a gun to a man's face, not yet. The robbery went without a hitch, the group of young men ran from it pistols blazing, hustled to the shuttle before it departed. Thad had Kara at the ramp, waiting with their luggage. They boarded the shuttle quickly and it made for the stratosphere.
******
They had been on the freighter for a day and a half and the conditions were less than expected. Much less. The crew explained it away as being not the usual ship they used, followed by chuckles. Some of the men came, they took Kara.
"We're giving her better circumstances, she can stay in one of the cabins." the men grabbed her by the wrists forcefully. Thad hollered and raged for hours. Kara never came back. The 'passengers' were all moved into cages.
******
The freight shuddered and quaked. An impact, something outside. The wall blew open and men rushed inside. Gunshots fired, explosions erupted.
"Get us out of here! Let me lose!" Thad yelled to the nearest man. They opened the cages.
"Go on, get in the ship." the mass of prisoners ran into the waiting ship.
"Wait! My sister! They have Kara!" Thad got the attention of the nearest rescuer.
Tossing him a gun the man motioned for Thad to follow. They made their way to the cabins. There they kicked into every room and Thad watched as the man blasted the occupants apart. Thad followed the man into a room, screams coming from inside as a man held a blade to Kara's throat. He didn't make any offer or plea.
"Wait wait no! That's my sister! Let her go!" The man pulled his arm across hard and let the blood gush from her throat. He moved to attack Thad. Shots rang out. The man's shoulder exploded from the impact of the slug, his arm tearing off into the corner. He screamed. Thad fired until the revolver was empty, the man was nothing more than a pile of meat. His eyes burned with tears.
The rescuers returned to their shuttle. A man, looked like the captain waited and rushed them inside. He held his hand out to Thad.
"You earned your bones kid. Come with us.

******
It'd been ten years since Captain Guillimen had rescued Bones from the slave ship. The slavers made a good racket, charging folks for their own imprisonment in xeno's slave pits. The memory of that event played in Bones's mind as he stared across the bar on whatever hellhole of a Hive Planet he found himself on. The gleam of a cybernetic eye caught his attention. The man had arrived. Bones followed him into the refresher, jut his knife into the man's side, pulled it out and thrust again and again. The man rolled onto his back, his hands up in a futile gesture for mercy.
"For Kara." Bones slipped the knife into the man's eye socket and prayed the metal orb out of his home. The mans cries slowed and died as blood filled the floor. Bones took it to the faucet, rinsed it off and tucked it into his pocket. His past finally settled. Bones walked to the bar, dropped a gold throne behind it and left to see whatever the hell else this god forsaken grim, dark, miserable excuse for a universe had to offer. He wished he stayed back on Platte.

Aaaayyyep. Get on my level guys.

Ready. Peons.