Halls of Dionea (Islands of The Ragged Helix)

"Kya, yeah, that's me. Never touched a void suit before, and I cannot say I am any good with a wrench, not usually my area." Kya took a brief look around as she responded to her new commanding officer. She poked through the room, checking the corners and the suits themselves just to see if they all looked about the same in make and quality.

Eventually she turned around and took the tea with a shrug. "I don't think they sent me here to be useful, I think they sent me here to get myself killed. I do not plan on letting that happen, so you tell me what to do and I'll keep myself alive."

Kya figured that the people on the lower decks were likely the easier people to try and get an in with, people that might have heard things about who their captain had worked with and when. But to do that she needed to be friendly. So she'd try that. And if it didn't work she could always burn it out of them later, no skin off her back.

All the suits were the same make and quality for the most part. The one that was heavily personalized seemed to be taken better care of but all the other suits were serviceable.

"I said it isn't the safest but it also isn't the most deadly. It'd take some work to get yourself killed and I don't plan for that to happen on my watch." He taps his bionic eye. "So, yeah, listen to me and you'll be alright."

Gernard walked over the suits and began checking the personalized one. "We'll be doing a ship check as we begin our transition from the Hall out into the black. It will take a few hours and you'll be coming with. First thing is check your suit seals, the oxygen tank, and the tools. After that I'll run you through what we need to do."

Kya listened to what Gernard has to say as they suited up. Most of it was basic and easy to grasp. The harder stuff was when it came to mechanical knowledge but Gernard said he'd handle that.

The suit was heavy and clunky. She wasn't at home at it in all. Gernard noticed.

"It will be easier when we're in micro-g." He said moving into the airlock and motioning for Kya to join him.

Inside the rear door closed. Gernard pulled a lever down and a warning indicator spun above them. Air hissed out as the airlock depressurized. A rune in her helmet flashed to indicate the loss of oxygen.

The far door opened with no noise. Gernard climbed out and disappeared over the edge. It was time for Kya to venture into the void...

[Give me an Agility +0%]

The reasons to never, ever attempt the social route just kept stacking up, it seemed. The distance she was needing to go just to learn what her employer requested was becoming annoying, it all would have been so much easier if she had just burned him in the halls and made her escape. Kya shook her head silently as she got herself ready and familiarized herself with the suit that may well end up being her tomb.

She disliked how heavy it was, how slow and clunky it made every movement and how she, from the moment the airlock opened to the moment she returned, would really have no power to keep herself alive. Her fate was almost entirely in the hands of an ancient suit and a man she had just met who, if asked by the captain, would likely shove her off the ship into space. It was an awful situation all around.

"I hope that is the case, yes. Why do we do this when the ship is in motion, would it not be easier to do while docked?"
Her question was lost to her helmet as the airlock opened. With a long sigh, Kya attempted to follow Gernard outside and onto the hull of the ship to the best of her ability. She took extra care to move as slowly as possible to try and keep her grip on something at all times, but frankly this was so far out of her wheelhouse anything could go wrong despite her best efforts.

OOC:

"We usually don't. The Halls of Dionea have to many eyes for the caps liking and the Free Merchant has a few tricks he doesn't want them to see." Gernard answered over the vox. "So we're doing this as we move out."

Kya felt like a child trying to take their first steps as she floated out of the airlock. Microgravity was disorienting and lack of a horizon threw off her sense of balance. It was all to much and she tried to quickly grab onto something. Moving that fast was a mistake. Her inertia worked against her and sent her spinning and slowly gliding away from the bulkhead of the Free Merchant.

"Slow down. Breath. Focus on the ship. It might also help if you activate your mag boots." Gernard coached.

Kya then felt herself stop and she was dragged back down to the bulkhead. He had come and brought her back to safety. Activating her mag boots she felt herself snap to the bulkhead. She was secure but watching Gernard floating around and bouncing around the bulkhead with uncaring ease showed she'd a long way to go.

Even with her struggles Kya was getting something out of this. She started to understand more about the ship and more importantly she was being given the tour of all the access points into pretty much every area of the ship.

The two were going over the figurehead of the ship which she quickly learned could be morphed into any figurehead shape Nash wanted. She watched as Gernard had it cycle between a few preset options. The variable metal slowly changed between an eagle head to the horns of Khorne.

"So you mentioned they sent you here to get yourself killed. You're new to the ship from what I've been told. Waste of time to see if you die here. Would of been quicker to do it before you got onboard." The voidman, tethered to the ship, circled around the figure head taking it in as it changed. "So I take it that the cap likes you or at least tolerates you. So who did you piss off to get stuck with me?"

Elegen or the snake.

Most of Kya's attention was put towards stopping herself from floating away again. The mag boots helped with that, but this was not how she wanted to die by any stretch of the imagination, and she wouldn't let that happen.
The figurehead was something new though, something quite interesting and unique. She assumed that its main purpose was to help him blend in with whatever fleet happened to hire him at any given time, or perhaps to show his devotion to a specific god while he undertook his work. She gave the creation a small nod of the head in approval, if she ever owned a ship she would get something similar.

She snapped back to looking at her new mentor when he began to talk, and shrugged which was likely lost to the void suit. "Wouldn't be surprised if it was the captain I pissed off. Asked one too many questions about who he'd be working for while I was with his crew, which apparently most of his crew does not do. If not him, then Elegen or the snake man, both think that I am a rat or here to kill everyone on the ship... Even had be vetted by Scipio and they still think that."

She looked around, slowly stepping closer to the figurehead and waiting for some sort of direction for what she had to do.
"Does anyone even know where we are going? Or is it just... Or does everyone here just go wherever without question?"

"Oh that makes a lot of sense that it is Elegan. Takes one back stabbing to have a suspicion about another." Gernard said swinging his way back to her. He knew what he walked into an gave Kya a quick history lesson.

The Free Merchant wasn't always a pirate ship and Nash and friends weren't always pirates. They were once officers for the rogue trader Raymond Galvanic and this was once his ship. Raymond was hardly an upstanding rogue trader and flirted between that line of a traitor and criminal. The vast majority of his business was in the cold trade. Turns out Raymond was incredibly greedy and wasn't a fan of disrupting his wealth in any fair form to his officers. It was more like a slow and painful trickle. That was the Raymond's ultimate demise. No one backed him when Nash and his current set of officers moved to take the ship. Instead Raymond was unceremoniously ejected out an airlock without a suit.

He finally remembered her final question as he finished the lesson. "Well if the ship is moving that means we're going to work. Work means profit and violence. None will question anything as long as those two things are delivered. Nash picked out a loyal crew and knows how to keep them loyal unlike the last captain."

He clamped back down onto the ship next to Kya noticing he left her without anything to do. "Oh, sorry, not much to the figurehead beyond just checking it's functioning. A one man job so to speak. I do have a few things you can do though."

Gernard sure had some work from her. It was a long day of checking, rechecking, and applying small fixes. She did get something out of it though.

[Kya gains Common Lore (Tech), Forbidden Lore (Pirates), Tech Use, Trade (Voidfarer).]

Back in the ship Kya was free to do as she pleased. Her shift was over with Gernard.

"There is a fine line between loyalty and stupidity if you ask me, and going blindly towards any destination because one man says you should is right on that line. Reflects well on our captain if nothing else, inspiring loyalty is a harder skill than most believe." Kya shrugged, going through the motions of the work as Gernard showed her what to do and how to do it. The suit remained an annoyance the entire time, something she struggled to get used to, but spending a day in it certainly helped her mobility in the thing.

When they finally returned inside the ship, Kya wasted no time getting out of her suit and giving Gernard a firm nod before heading straight out of the room with all of her belongings double-checked as still being on her person.
For a while she just walked. She didn't know where most things were and didn't have any specific destination in mind, but walking through the ship helped to form a mental map.

As she walked she did keep an eye out for a few things. Firstly, where people went to get food and drink and the like. She was hungry and being around some of the crew would be good, get herself used to how they acted. If she found the galley she would sit down for a quick bite, ideally alone so she could just watch the rest of the crew, but if people sat with her that was fine.

The second thing she searched for was anywhere that people who weren't quite so loyal to the captain might be. She would check all the worst, least desirable positions on the ship if she could find them, along with any prison or brig that she could find. Her goal was essentially to see how many people might be willing to divulge a bit of information about what their captain had been up to, or even support a nice little mutiny. Kya wouldn't say no to her own ship, after all. If she did end up finding any people she thought fit the bill for this, then she would try and get a conversation going with them.

OOC:

Finding the galley was an easy task. All Kya needed to do was follow her nose. Someone was cooking something that smelled very good.

The Free Merchant only boosted one galley but it was a massive one where most of the ship's voidfarers could get a bite to eat. The size of the facility also indicated it might of been used for other purposes like a meeting hall or maybe even a theater.

Kya herself drew many eyes. They all knew she was new. Either from word getting around or just an innate feeling. Either because of that or just general mistrust everyone steered clear of her and let her eat alone.

[Give me an Awareness +20 and Trade (Voidfarer) +10.]

Her second task was one that was much harder. Kya learned the Free Merchant had no brig or holding area. Asking around clued her in that Nash had no time giving people second chances. Anyone that went against him or his officers were quickly sent out an airlock. As for the least desirable positions on the ship that she could try and take advantage of...

[Give me a Trade (Voidfarer) -10.]

Kya was becoming convinced that Nash had brainwashed his crew, either psychically or physically, into being possibly the only perfectly loyal ship she had ever been on. Even the Blackships had the lower deck crew that tended to be at least slightly less loyal to the cause.
But not here. All of this was very, very frustrating. Probably not magic or drugs, but it would be so nice if that was the case, vindication.

She gave up when she couldn't find anyone to talk to. Nobody who was fully loyal was going to want anything to do with her for now, and Kya was not the most charismatic person in the world so her chances of forcing the issue were low.
So Kya spent the next few hours walking the ship, familiarizing herself with as much of the layout as she could in a short time.

When she felt that it was late enough, something she was very used to after her time on the blackships, she circled her way back towards the bunk she'd been assigned and got herself ready for bed.
Which, in this case, mostly meant securing her room as best she could and keeping all of her equipment in arms reach incase someone tried to jump her.

Unless anything notable happened, it would likely be a very dull and repetitive next few days of working outside the hull, walking the ship, eating alone, and sleeping. At least until they got to whatever their mission was. It would feel /good/ to burn something.

Telling time on the Free Merchant came down to how many shifts you had worked. For Kya that was eight more shifts alongside Gernard doing all kinds of work. It was the end of her eighth shift that she had a knock on her cabin door. This was the first time this had happened.

She was greeted by a voidsmen.

"You've been requested for shore party work," he said. "Follow me."


Kya was lead to a small smoke riddled room. In the center of it a small holo table that was crowded around by hardened individuals. She didn't recognize any of them except for the one that lorded over the image above the table. Hezroq the Mutant.

A man covered in tattoos and piercings grumbled. "The damn psyker? What do we need her for?"

"You need her because the captain says you do, Davkai," Hezroq slithered. "This mission isn't going to happen without her."

"What are we doing anyways?" Another man with two cybernetic eyes inquired.

"Finishing a job we started a while ago." The image on the holo table changed to a simple fortress. Nothing all that impressive. "I'm sure you all remember Two Coins and how we took his home from him. Now we're going to make sure his last hideaway is gone as well. There will be nowhere for him to hide anymore."

The image changed to the rock that the fortress was on. A lifeless thing with no atmosphere and pock marked with craters. "What forces Two Coins has here or what security the fortress sports we don't know. All that is important though is that you get in, plant charges, get out, and give Nash a nice fireworks show."

"Can't just blow it up from orbit?" someone asked.

"No," Hezroq pressed a button and dozens of red markers showed up around the fort. "Two Coins has more then enough orbital defenses to kill the Free Merchant ten times over. What we have in firepower would just tickle the walls anyways. So you get to go in instead. Questions?"

Kya had never been one for mundane work, and the endless routine of shifts with Gernard was grating on her well before the eighth one. The things she did for a contract. By the eighth shift she was aching, literally, to set something on fire - anything. She had been genuinely considering purposefully fucking up her repair work oneday and starting an electrical fire that way. It would have been /something/ at least.

She was relieved, and excited, when she was finally approached about shore work.


The job however was not something she had expected or really wanted to recieve. They were attacking her employer. She listened quietly, arms crossed, to the discussion taking place. She did her best to give nothing away as to how she felt.

"You need me because I am more effective at killing things than any of you can hope to be, and this place will have people inside that do not want to be blown up."

She decided, eventually, that this was a good opportunity. Either she ruined her employers power base and made him next to useless as a threat to her, or she got a golden opportunity to off some of Nash's loyal crew and make it look like an accident. A fiery accident.

"And how are we meant to land ourselves down there if the air defenses can destroy our ship in moments? Do you want us to jump? And who will manage the explosives? Ah, and why does the captain want me specifically? I doubt he just values my skills."

"Well, the air defenses aren't going to spot anything human sized making their way to them," Hezroq smiled. "We'll give you a little kick and inertia will do the rest as you float down in voidsuits. No atmosphere means you also won't burn up."

"When it comes to making things go boom I'm the guy," the man with cybernetic eyes said somberly.

A few heads turned her way at the last part of her question. They also wanted to know why the captain requested her.

"The captain values many things. Some not immediately apparent to some," Hezroq said with all the vagueness he could muster up. "Anything other questions related to the mission?"

No one spoke up.

"Good. Get in, blow the place up, and with that done and the defenses gone with the base we'll come and pick you all up," The mutant said back into the room that he was just about to leave.

Everyone else got up and started to make their way out as well. Kya joined them.


The ground party was crowded into a weapons locker preparing their equipment. No one let Kya touch anything and looks of death shot at her is she got anywhere close to a weapon that wasn't hers.

Patiently watching and listening she got a feel for the team and who everyone was.

- Davkai was the undisputed leader.
- Krenshaw was second in command and was sporting a power fist.
- Quilch, Trav, and Lark were a close trio and they all worked really well together.
- Faz was the one with two cybernetic eyes. Demolition expert. Somber but stoic.

"I'm sure you know how to handle yourself in a fight but one's gotta ask how good of a psyker are you?" The question came from Lark.

"He only asks as the last time we had a warp dabbler they turned themselves inside out before a demon came to collect," Krenshaw contextualized.

Davkai cracked his knuckles "Messy and almost cost us our lives."

Kya was thankfully quite happy with her own belongings. She had flame to do most of the dirty work, and it did so far, far better than any man-made weapon.
So she kept to herself in the corner of the equipment room, not wanting to deal with any of the macho bullshit people had around their gear and since she didn't need any of it there really wasn't any point in poking around. If their gear was bad, they would die and Kya would have more to burn. Win-win.

She tapped her staff once against the floor as Lark brought up the elephant in the room. Everyone always asked, for good reason to be fair, but it was still annoying. "If I was a bad Psyker I wouldn't still be here, would I? Would have blown myself up ages ago. But I have been at this for a while, I know what I am doing. Only things that are going to be on the receiving end of my flames will be the people inside this base."

She pushed off the wall, getting ready to follow the group as they seemed to finish prepping their gear. "Besides. We wouldn't be out here if we couldn't handle the risks that came with working with Psykers, I'm sure you all will manage. You want to point my flames, Davkai? Or am I free to loose them when I think it's needed."

"Feel free to kill anything that isn't us," Davkai slammed a charge pack into a las rifle.


The trip down was something. Basically flung off the Free Merchant and letting physics do the rest. The shore party was tethered together so no one got any smart ideas and everyone came down on the dwarf planet. Time with Gernard was paying off as Kya kept up with the rest of the party with no issues in the voidsuit or the microgravity. They bounded up taking shelter in craters whenever they could passing by the large orbital defense weapon stations. They were now within the shadow of the base. A lone tower sticking out from the crust of the planet. A stair case leading up to large doors. No walls to keep any uninvited guests out.

"I think I've seen this kind of design in the Jericho Reach before. I can't put my finger on it though," Faz droned over the vox.

"Two Coins went cheap or forgot about anti-personnel weapons. Idiot," Krenshaw laughed using up more oxygen in his suit.

"Anything stick out to you, Kya? Those witch eyes see something we can't?" Davkai asked.

Rolling:

Kya was happy to have made groundfall without something horrible happening, and having anything beneath her feet was far preferred to trusting the suit to keep her safe and secured.
She shrugged at Davkai, reaching out as best she could with her warp-attuned senses to try and notice anything that may be amiss on the psychic side of things. Often she was made aware of these things passively, the imperium had made sure she was able to do so as part of her training, but this time she put special effort into it.

When nothing made itself clear, she shook her head. "Nothing notable nearby, no. I would be very disappointed in our prey if they didn't know how to lock a door, so expect something mundane up ahead. I trust you can handle a lock or a trap?"

Kya kept herself ready and alert for any threat, and would follow the group forwards as they moved.

"I thought about knocking first," Davkai joked. "Move it up in bounds. If we take fire stand fast and repel. If it's too much assault hard and fast on the doors."

The move up to the tower and its stairs was surprisingly uneventful. No hint of movement from the tower or the surrounding area. This place seemed more like the dead world it was rather than a pirate lords hideout.

The shore party crept up the stairs flashing paranoid looks out across the cratered landscape and the tower. The doors sensed their presence and cracked apart beckoning them in.

"I don't like this one damn bit." Trav said with a tinge of nervousness in his voice.

"Stow it. Doesn't matter if this is a trap or Two Coins already abandoned this place. We're going to demo it." Davkai cut back over the vox.

Inside they stood upon a large lift. It lead nowhere but down. The doors closed behind them and air blasted forth as the lift descended. Everyone shed their bulky voidsuits and checked their gear one last time.

They halted looking at a room that looked like no one had set foot in for years. Life support hummed but lights flickered on and off or were truly dead. Off to their right there was a large open space with neatly stacked crates. In front of them bypassing the storage area was a hall that lead deep into darkness. There were a few scattered doors lining the edge of the hallway and the storage area. All of them were closed.

"Sweep and clear in pairs. Krenshaw, stay and guard the lift. Faz you're with Kya. Quilch with me," Davkai said flicking on the light attached to his shoulder guard.

[Give me an Intelligence +0% and a Perception +0%.]

Dice Rolls:

Kya was surprised when they met no resistance, and even more surprised when they entered the base and found it seemingly abandoned. The first thought was that this was a trap - her 'captain' had sent her down here to die, either killed by his crew or shelled from orbit.
If it was the latter then there was nothing she could do, the former though... She kept a VERY close eye on Faz as the two of them split off from the main group.

"The captain was sure that this base was inhabited? We should have seen someone by now. The entrance should not be so unused or undefended. Either they have left, or something else has taken residence here and killed them for us." Kya spoke quietly, just to Faz, and continue onwards.

She turned her light on when Davkai did, and moved towards the first door to pop it open and check inside. If all was empty, she would do so for as many rooms as possible while working her way down the hall.
Whenever able, she would let Faz be infront of her so that she could watch him, there was no trust here.

"All of that is possible. It changes nothing though." Faz whispered back as he shouldered his shotgun and pressed on into the darkness.

Faz and her cleared out room after room finding them abandoned and with no signs of life. It seemed to be the same for everyone else as no one said anything over the micro-beads.

As they moved to the next room Kya's ears caught the sound of treads scrapping the ground. It was something small and quick. She scanned down the hall and saw nothing. Whatever was there was gone now.

They cleared the room and came back out and she heard the sound again. This time her eyes were quick enough to catch a glimpse.

Spoiler:

It was a Cyber Altered Task Unit or more simply known as a CAT. She'd seen them hundreds of times and saw a collection of them back on the Free Merchant. This one was sticking to the shadows and trying to remain hidden. Kya was sure it was stalking her and Faz.

"CAT over there, watching us. Place isn't as abandoned as it looks." Kya whispered to Faz, focusing more directly on where she last saw the CAT go to hide. "Got any way to take it out quietly in your bag of tricks?"

If she saw the CAT again, Kya would begin moving towards it at a slow pace, acting as though she hadn't realized they were being watched. She continued to briefly survey the rooms they passed, just in case there was an ambush laying in wait, but her main goal was to get as close to the CAT as possible and - unless Faz had a way to kill it more easily - give it a solid hit with her staff.

"Nothing that wouldn't leave a crater where it is all I have." Faz whispered back.

Faz kept quiet about reporting the CAT to the rest of the ground party. The little machine had the ability to intercept vox traffic and he wasn't about to spook it away.

Meanwhile Kya "played dumb" trying to lure the CAT in. Hopefully the CAT's curious nature would lead it into some trouble it couldn't get out of.

[Give me a Stealth +25%.]

Rolls:

As Kya crept forwards, the CAT seemed to start keeping its distance more and more. As she was just about to close in, she went too quickly and the CAT sped off down the hallway to escape around a corner. Kya had never been the stealthiest person..

So plan B: Kya waited until she got another glimpse of the thing and, when she did, would try to burn it to a crisp with The Final Touch, hoping to burn it from the inside out. A predatory grin dominated her features as the idea crossed her mind, this was what she lived for - fire and flames.
"Going to melt it before it gets away. Keep an eye out for anything else coming. Have the others seen anything yet?"

Rolls for Incinerate if needed:

"Not much else to report but a lack of people or any signs of life," responded Faz.

While she was unlucky in trying to lure the CAT into a trap she was ready the next time the CAT crept out from the shadows. The CAT's internal housing glowed as flame materialized itself. The poor thing raced around as its mechanical components cooked. This time it wasn't trying to hide it was trying to run away. Its treads squealed across the ground like some dying animals cry.

"Don't let it scurry away now! Might be able to rip some data from it." Faz barked but kept his eyes on their surroundings letting Kya deal with the CAT.

[Roll for initiative!]

Faz:

CAT:

Rolls:

Kya grinned as she watched the fire flicker to life inside the CAT. She ran forwards as far as she could (18m), closing the distance as best she could.
"No promises that the things circuits aren't singed to a crisp. Stopping it is first priority. Let the others know we're being watched, might be others."

It was a quick call back to her partner before she focused fully on the CAT again, maintaining the flames and truly enjoying this first chance she'd had to use her fire in days.

The glow within the CAT glowed even brighter and eventually the CAT slowed and came to a rolling stop as its internal smoked. The unit was most certainly dead.

Faz reported back to the others that they found a CAT and disabled it. The others had still found nothing. Faz and Kya were the first to come across anything moving.

The smoke was subsidding and was helped as Faz waved his hand trying to air it out. He pulled out a data slate and connected it to the CAT's MIU Interface Port.

"This might take a few minutes... if there's anything left." He said tapping out something on the slate. There was a beep from it and some runes scrolled across its screen.

The hair on Kya's arms and neck raised from a disturbance. Her witch eyes saw a withering vein of warp energy trace its way across the ceiling above her, down the wall, and then stop under the CAT. Energy then pulsed through the vein and into the CAT.

Faz couldn't see any of this and was to busy looking at his dataslate to notice the small glow of energy starting to radiate from within the CAT.

[Combat hasn't ended just yet...]

Kya stared at the warp energy, letting the flames within the CAT fade as she briefly weighed the pros and cons of allowing Faz to die. She would be one step closer to what was technically her job, which was positive, but the chances the others would allow a death that they didn't see - by something from the warp - to go unanswered was low, even if they just sent her to their resident Psyker for more mind reading..

With a frown, Kya went to kick Faz off the CAT as she gave a quick call out. "Warp energy - under the CAT. Came from the roof. Don't touch it, could be dangerous. If it sticks around then we leave the data. Tell the others to group up. We aren't alone."

Faz did not appreciate being kicked away from the CAT but there was no time to argue.

"We have hostile contact. Warp energy or at least that's what Kya says." Faz reported to the rest of the team as he slide away from the CAT.

The energy being fed into the CAT continued and Kya watched as something new was being born. Six legs sprouted out from the metal hull and its skull morphed into an eyeball. The two utility appendages giving way to a nasty stinger with some sort of liquid dripping from its end and a fleshy whip. It was twisted creature of metal and flesh.

It took up an aggressive stance and let out a high pitched scream.

"Confirmed hostile contact!" Faz repeated over the vox.

[Same initiative order. Kya is up first.]

Rolls:

Kya took a step back from what she could only assume was a demon of some sort possessing the machinery and flesh of the dead CAT. Without much thought, she began to weave her flames once again, pushing the heat and energy into the CAT to burn it from within as none of her other powers would work in a vacuum. She could tell the fire didn't catch, so she took more steps back with her staff held at the ready.

"It's a demon! Might explain why there aren't any people around, the warp is infesting this place somehow. Tell them to get here now."

Faz:

Corrupted CAT:

"This place has a demon. I repeat! Demon!" Faz yelled into his mircobead as he shouldered his las carbine and fired at the corrupted CAT.

The shots were true but the heavy mechanical construction of the CAT absorbed the las shots well.

The CAT hissed and its eye flicked back and forth between Kya and Faz. It settled on Kya. Seems she was the bigger threat. It crouched low and scuttled over to her in a zig zag pattern.

Corrupted CAT:

Its stinger lashed out but Kya got lucky as it only ripped a hole in her flak cloak.

As Kya repositioned she could here las fire and shotgun blasts coming from elsewhere in the station. Seems the rest of the ground party was also in contact.

[Inside this station there is oxygen. The ground party ditched their void suits back at the elevator. So Kya can use all her attacks here.]

[Ohhhh. I must have missed that, totally thought we were still in vacuum. Good to know! I have a question for the future, it won't apply this round. Some of my skills are free actions. The book mentions not having a limit on the number of free actions you can take. Does that mean I could cast, for example, as many firebolts as I wanted in a single turn?]

Kya stepped backwards away from the CAT, all the while manifesting a ball of flame in her free hand. She did so almost as easily as breathing, pulling fire from the warp and allowing it to float freely above her hand as she began to weave another display of psychic skill and form bolts of flame to launch at the demon. Four flung forth from the ball of fire towards the creature!

Rolls:

[Free Actions are still governed by combat rules which only allow for one attack action during a turn. So while Firebolt is a free action it can only be used once. Leaves room open to do other actions though.]

[The corrupted CAT will be immune to the Warp Whispers but Faz will not.]

Corrupted CAT:

The shifty corrupted CAT dipped and weaved its way around Kya avoiding her firebolts.

Faz:

The warp whispers slips their way into Kya and Faz's minds. The pirate started to blindly fire everywhere trying to hit something that wasn't there. Lucky for Kya he doesn't hit her and unlucky that none of the las rounds hit the corrupted CAT.

[Faz's turn is wasted because of the Warp Whispers effecting him.]

Corrupted CAT:

The warp tainted machine after scurrying around looking for a vector of attack flashed directly towards Kya leaping up to try and bury its stinger in her face...

Kya was still disoriented from her Psychic abilities misfiring, but she caught the CAT Approaching just in time to try and dodge out of the way. She failed quite spectacularly, simply too shaken by the warp whispers filling her mind to react properly to the threat.

Rolls:

[Ahhh, alright. I'll update my sheet! Going to do something that is very much suboptimal, but I think it makes sense for the character. Here's hoping she doesn't die here!]

Kya fell briefly to one knee under the attack from the corrupted CAT. She hadn't been expecting it to hit her so hard, and now her only focus was escape. She disengaged from the CAT, still holding her flame aloft in one hand as she backed away down the hallway, leaving her companion the closest target to the CAT.

She then began to weave the same spell she had cast before, pulling on her fire - her biggest strength - to launch another barrage of flame at the corrupted CAT. She once more allowed herself to cast to her full ability, invoking the power of the warp in her hopes to end the CAT here and now...

Rolls:

Corrupted CAT:

The fireballs splashed around the CAT and engulfed it. The warp tainted machine screamed as it scuttled around trying to put the fire out. It was no use as the fire melted through flesh and circuitry and eventually the foul creature ceased to live.

Faz:

Faz was to occupied with the voices to see the invisible gust of warp wind come up on him. He was unceremoniously dumped on his ass.

[Combat is over.]

The sound of combat from elsewhere did not stop though. Kya could hear voices yelling from Faz's microbead.

The pirate scowled at her as he picked himself up from the ground.

"We're regrouping back in the cargo area." Is all he said to her before moving off.


Entering into the cargo area the two step over dozens of dead corrupted CATs. Davkai and others had pulled everyone back and let the enemy come to them.

"What in the hell are these things?" Krenshaw said picking up one of the dead creatures with his power fist.

"They're CATs but warp power has turned them into a demon." Faz muttered back as he looked over at Kya. "Kya says she saw what happened.

Everyone turned to her for an answer.

Kya let her flames burn the corpse for a bit longer than needed before she truly let her focus drop. She paid little mind to the scowl from Faz, he hadn't been strong enough to resist the effects of the warp and that was his own fault, not hers.
"Understood." She moved to follow Faz back the way they'd come, keeping an eye out for more danger.

Kya stood back from the door where the CATs had clearly been entering, keeping to the back of the group so that she wasn't the first target if more showed up. She was wounded, and didn't have a death wish.
She had been perfectly content to let the others talk things over without her, until she was dragged in directly by Faz.

Kya took one step forward, rolling her shoulders and motioning at the CATs on the ground. "I saw the warp reach out and grab the CAT we took down, yeah. A vein of it, crawled along the roof then down under the corpse to bring it back." She had never stopped carrying her manifested flame, and quietly bounced it from hand to hand for a moment. "I can't say if it's a psyker doing it, or if this area is just connected to the warp more than it should be. Either way, this place is more dangerous than we expected. Pirates are one thing, but this? I'm guessing leaving isn't an option, here."

Davkai glanced at the lift behind him. "No, leaving isn't an option. The lift is out and I'm sure Nash would have us all spaced for running away like cowards if we did leave."

There was some grumblings from the others. "Shut it! We can either get the job done or die down here. I know which one I'm going to do." Davkai snapped at his men.

"Do we continue with blowing up the plasma generators?" Trav asked.

"If we still want to level the place that's still the best bet." Faz commented.

"Any suggestions, psyker? You know more about this warp shit than we do." Davkai asked Kya.

[Give me a Forbidden Lore (Pyskers) -10% and a Psyniscience +10%.]

Kya looked at each of them for a moment before responding. "Far as I can tell, no psyker could do all that we have seen so far. It has to be a demon, meaning we are hitting way above our weight class here, if we continue with the job. I can't tell where it is, it seems to be everywhere but that can't be the case, I would have seen it. Either it is hiding its exact location somehow, or it has fully taken over the entire station, both are concerning."

She leaned against the closest wall, frowning as she crossed her arms. "If we push in, we are going to see more of those possessed CAT's. Maybe more dangerous things too. The demon knows we are here now, and I'm willing to bet it doesn't want us to destroy this base. Meaning we've got to find a way to blow it up without walking through the whole thing and fighting along the way, we can't outgun a demon. Are there any vents we could sneak through? Or floors we could cut through to get to lower levels faster? Need some sort of shortcut. Plus an escape route."

"I've seen some ventilation shafts." Lark said. "Maybe one of us could squeeze through one. Kya would be our best bet though."

Davkai weighed the option and looked at Kya. "Scout out a way ahead using the vents. Tell us what you see and where we can meet up. If we're going to get out of here I suspect we're going to have to blow our way out. Trav give her your microbead.

The pirate does as he's told and drops the small ear bead into the palm of her hand.

[Give me a Navigate +10% and a Stealth +15% (if Kya is going to go ahead with the plan of course).]

Rolls:

Kya frowned, unhappy that she was being sent off alone. "I'm hurt bad. You sure nobody else here wouldn't be better for this? If you lose me, then you lose any ability to sense the psychic energy in the background. You would be dead in no time."
Still, she took the bead and waited for any response from her 'allies'. If nobody stepped forward, then she understood that this was what had to be done if she wanted to get off of this rock. If somebody did step forward, then she was more than willing to hear out a change of plans first.

-

Assuming Kya had to crawl through the vents, she took the bead and popped it into her ear. After poking around for a few moments to find a vent, she would climb in and crawl inside as she attempted to navigate her way through the vents towards the base power core, or other central area that would be good for explosives. She reached out non-stop with her psychic senses, wary of any CAT's or other demonic things sneaking up on her in the enclosed space of the vent.

[Oh, right.]

Without a word Quilch grabbed onto Kya's jaw and jerked her head towards him. His eyes going over the gruesome wound on her head. The stringer had dug deep and ripped a sizeable chunk from the side of her head. Even with the bandage Faz had fixed to her head blood was still leaking through. Blood loss was a real possibility if she wasn't attended to soon.

Quilch breaks out his medi-kit and gets to work. It wasn't pretty or gentle but he had a patch in place and the bleeding stopped. Full repair or her head would need to wait until she was back on the Free Merchant with its facilities.

[Kya is healed back up to 6 Wounds. All Quilch can do and it's quite the miracle he pulled off what he did in the first place.]

He also passes over to her an auto-injector and a vial. The auto-injector labelled stimm in neatly printed letters and the vial has a hand written label: White-Void.

[Stimm (Page 183, Black Crusade Corebook)

White-Void (Page 135, Rogue Trader, Into the Storm): An addictive and illegal drug mostly found amid front line units entrenched in seemingly endless combat, White Void creates a beatific feeling of well being. Common methods of usage involve either sprinkling the powder onto damp lho sticks, or immersing the sticks in dissolved powder then smoking them once dry. Long-term usage slowly removes coloration from the eye, eventually leaving a small black dot surrounded by white. Users gain +20 WP for 1d10 minutes per dose. If used more than twice in a week long period, the user must make a Hard (–20) Willpower Test or become addicted, unable to fight his cravings and ingesting the drug on a daily basis.]

He points to the Stimm. "Use if in trouble." Then to the vial of White-Void, "Use if in a shit ton of trouble."


At first the vents looked like a maze of metal and fan blades. That is until Kya focused herself and listened. She heard and felt the hum of the base's plasma generators and followed that. It was more stumbling around and making a tad too much noise. She was sure something had heard her.

At a junction of vents she could see down a grate into a room. In it something was flickering and she heard... voices. Quite and on repeat. She couldn't make out the actual words though. Then she heard something skittering down the vent to her right.

"Damnit-" Kya cursed under her breath as she heard the skittering. She quickly began to crawl forwards through the vents, going the opposite direction from the thing in the vents with her, and hopefully around a bend or two. As she went, Kya kept watch for any further grates that showed more of the room with the voices inside. She wanted to figure out if it was empty and playing a recording, or if there were indeed some pirates still alive here.

Once she had made some distance from the skittering, Kya spun around in the vent and held the flame she had been maintaining since the first fight out infront of her, with her force staff at the ready. She wanted to get the drop on anything that turned the corner to face her.

OOC:

Kya waited for whatever was skittering around the vent just before her. The sounds continued but they started to fade away and were replaced by the noise coming from the room below.

She leaned in for the a better listen but kept her eyes peeled on the array of vents just in case. It was a message on repeat. Lots of static and distortion. She could only make out a few words from her current position.

"Death... compromised... warp... unknown location."

It sounded like a message coming from a console. It could also be a servitor malfunctioning or just playing the last message it heard. Hard to tell until she got a better look into the room as the grates she could peer through only gave her glimpses.

Right... Safe for now. Kya waited another minute or so for the skittering to return. If it didn't she attempted to pry off the vent cover and drop down into the room with the goal of uncovering what exactly was playing the message, and to see if she could make that message any clearer.

She assumed it was a distress call, or something that would explain what had happened on the station before the groups arrival. Ideally, it would confirm that her old employer was dead and that she didn't need to worry about her previous job for the time being, but any other information would be good as well.

Once the message had been checked, she did a quick look over the room for any sort of map of the station to get her bearings, and then climbed back up into the vent to continue her journey deeper inside. She needed to find a fast, safe way down for the others. And a way out afterwards.

Kya descended down into the room below her. The only source of light came from the flickering console. Everything else was coated in darkness.

The message was much clearer now and emanating from the console.

"This is Watch Station Vandra of the Deathwatch. Does anyone read? The station has been compromised by unknown forces. Our resident Librarian believes we've suffered from a warp phenomenon. Location is unknown. I say again, does anyone read us?" The message repeated itself over and over.

The console itself was broken. There was no read out coming through. Just it pulsating a beam of light. Every time the screen went blank Kya started to see a figure in its reflection behind her. Something large and slumped over.

She turned slowly and there was no movement from the figure. Her eyes adjusted and the flickering light caught the ruby red lenses of a helmet. The helmet of the last thing Kya wanted to see. An astartes.

However her eyes pulled back the darkness and revealed more. Whoever this astartes was dead. Both his legs had been severed, his right arm torn from its socket, and multiple puncture marks on his chest armor. Astartes might have superhuman resilience but they could only stand so much damage.

This find was much more interesting and troubling than the map or other information she was hoping to find.

Shit. A dead Astartes was not what she had been expecting, and seeing it made this mission suddenly all the more suspicious. And dangerous. If the daemon in the station could do this to a space marine, she didn't stand much of a chance.

She clicked on her comm bead, whispering to the others as she inspected the corpse for any weapons or anything of value. "Our captain has sent us on a suicide mission. This base doesn't belong to two-coins. It belonged to the Deathwatch." She let the message loop again, ensuring it was heard over the comm. "There's a dead space marine in this room. Whatever is in this base was able to pierce his armor, cut off his legs, and pull off his arm."

Once Kya searched the body and taken anything of note that she could carry, she went to look outside the room. She poked her head out first, keeping as quiet as possible as she examined what laid outside for the best route to follow next. She was working even more quickly now, they needed to leave and they needed to do it soon.

"You still wanting to go through with this? No point in blowing this up if it doesn't belong to our target. We should leave before the daemon gets us too."

[Kya finds a Legion Combat Knife and 2 Legion Frag Grenades. They're big and bulky for her but she can carry them around.]

Davkai ignored her first comment. "Calm down. You said this place was inhabited by a demon. Safe assumption it was probably that demon that killed the astartes."

"Well the front door is out of the question and we don't have enough melta charges to blast our way through every bulkhead here." Faz grumbled.

"Mission is a mission. I'm not going back to Nash empty handed. This place is going up one way or another. If anyone disagrees line up on a wall and I'll put you out of your misery myself." Davkai barked over the vox.

Peeking out through the doorway Kya was greeted by darkness and a few dim lights poking through it. She noticed the hall bore scars from a long ago battle. Massive impact holes, burn marks, and deep gouges. The hairs on her arms raised as her psyker senses were acting up.

[Give me a Psyscience +20%.]