And so it begins... With a painful wail, the Deceitful Truth emerged from a tear in the universe to return to Realspace. The bridge of the ancient Battle Barge was roughly oval in shape with a large dais in the center of the room. All around the perimeter of the deck were workstations where the bridge crew hastily looked over their readouts and relayed information to one-another. Above the dais itself monitors were hung from the ceiling, suspended around the throne in the center of the room. Upon the throne sat the bloated figure of the ship's captain. His power armour was warped unnaturally, stretched to accommodate his engorged frame. Boils and sores marked his face, as well as the rest of him, and his sickly skin gave off the most pungent of odors. His hair was graying, and came in patches on the top of his head and temples. Beside him to either side stood two Astartes in Tactical Dreadnought armour; their stances stoic, surveying the room for any disruption. There was a fourth figure on the dais as well. A woman whose presence, judging from the expression on the face of the captain, was barely tolerated. She was slender, and stood with a dignified poise. She had long dark hair that cascaded down her back like a waterfall, and eyes so black that one couldn't tell where her iris' ended and her pupils began. She was dressed plainly in an officer's uniform; yet unlike the rest of the crew hers was clean and pressed. "Transition complete Sire!" a junior officer addressed his commander from one of the workstations. "Confirmed arrival in the plotted sector. Drift of thirty-three thousand kilometres off desired location. Bralix is still dead ahead on our course. Estimated time until flyby... three hours." "Acceptable." Grumbled the captain as he stood up, with some effort, and moved a slow step towards the woman. Her attention was focused on one of the monitors, and without turning handed the captain a dataslate. "Have these people brought to me in one hour." His hand clenched, and the crew watched him for a moment fully expecting him to hit her. But instead his fist relaxed and he found his words. "I command here witch. Remember that." She did turn then and gave him a condescending smile, "Of course Captain Mortus. Please have these people brought to me in one hour." With a snort, the hulking Astartes snatched the dataslate from her and and motioned for one of the bridge crew to take it. "Do as the witch desires." With a fearful salute, the man was off. ***** It was a short while later when a servitor found you...
Varis Kar was in his room. Papers and data-slates were spread across the desk, and he was staring at them, wishing to suddenly develop pyrokinesis. It was boring, frustrating, and above all, futile. He didn't regret his ascention to the role, for all the trouble it brought it was better than toiling in the map room, but organising cults was a nightmare, especially trying to coordinate uprisings without a temporal reference. And the infighting! Didn't they realise that a low rank in the pecking order of a fallen planet was still better than a high one when they were being dragged out into the street and shot by the Inquisition? No, they didn't. A servitor clanked its way into the room on rusty tracks, a piece of paper held in its single iron claw. It stopped, and stood silently until Varis took the hint and the paper, at which point it trundled back out. "So, she wants to see me, hmm? Well, it's better than wasting my time here, with my boring routine of failure, and corrupting a planet in person is so much more fufilling..." He said to the sevitor's metal-scarred back, before starting to gather up the things he would need.
It was not a servitor, but a human crew-woman, who delivered the summons to Jessica Q Herriot. She found the strange woman practicing her sword Katas, blade moving in slow, ritualized motions, which the crew-woman knew would be sped-up inhumanly when it came time for the Aspiring Champion to actually fight. "Begging the Mastress pardon, but I have a letter from the bridge." The woman: ('ABS Jade: Something...' Jessica thought,) said bowing and holding the folded piece of parchment over her head. Jessica took it and broke the seal: reading quickly. "A summons from the Captain and his Witch? Interesting. You have done well Jade, have my thralls bring me my armor, this calls for full panoply. When you have given that order, return, I must be relaxed for the meeting, and you seem a fine piece of woman-flesh on which to satiate my lust while my armor is assembled:" Jessica said with a lear, "if you don't mind, of course..." She finished, letting the woman think what she would of any unspoken consequences. (Of which, in actuality, none existed: at least, not from Jessica*...) *(Jade's superiors might take a different view if she refused and was stupid enough to mention the fact: but that was none of Jessica's affair...)
Only a machine would be capable of entering the room of the Heretek without having what organic life would call "the creeps." Nobody could be quite sure what Lola Moreau did for a job, and even the Heretek didn't seem completely confident about what they were supposed to be doing. In this case, the man strapped to table really wanted to know. If Lola had any biological parts left, it wasn't obvious. Her body seemed almost entirely pink and white metal, with two metallic pink pigtails on her head, that he couldn't be sure had any purpose. But it seemed like the least of his problems. "The problem you see...is that you're not a robot. BEEP. Boop. Beep. Boop. That's what you need to go like but NOPE! You're going "thunkity, thunk, thunk, thunk." No worries. I can fix that. I have perfect memory and ROBO brain powers! So I know that I definitely, probably, have seen how this is done before." "What's wrong with you? Why are you such a fucking freak!?" Even for hereteks, this one had a special level of weird. As soon as he asked, Lola raised one of her mettalic tendrils to her face and did something emulating a gasping noise. Lola sunk back against the wall and while her robotic parts made her unable to actually cry, she let out some low pitch noise that sounded close to it. "You HATE me!" The man on the table, heard the door opening and briefly thought this was a good sign. "Miss Moreau. Your presence is requested." "Nu-uh! I didn't do it!" Lola's randomly loud voice sounded incredibly defensive. "Please accept your summons." The pigtailed robot stamped her foot. "NO! He's wrong. Nobody saw me and I'm already working on replacing it anyway." Lola gestured to the man on the table which he knew didn't bode well for him. "Miss Moreau. You have one hour." The robotic girl seemed to be in a stand off with the actual robot, before slumping her shoulders. "Uggggh fiiiinnne. Just let me take care of something real quick. He's barely using it anyway."
Cassandra was standing in the center of the High-G gymnasium that the Traitor Marines used for training. She was stripped down to a set of utilitarian Sports underwear. Her whole body was thickly corded with muscle, it could be easy to take her for a body builder but she had no interest in simply looking strong. She needed to be strong, be the strongest in fact. When the crew member came to summon her he stood at the edge of the gravity field out of habit. Crew members that ignored the black and yellow warning line tended not to live for very long. As crossing that line whilst some of the more demanding training courses was activated was known to fold a normal human in half backward. Instead, he stood and watched her for a moment. She was standing with a barbell, both her hands wrapped around it as she seemed to be deep in meditation. There where only a few small weights on the thing yet her whole body was vibrating under the strain of holding them up. "Miss?" The crewman asked as he finally took a step across the line. After all, she was clearly human and still had all her bones inside or so it couldnt be that strong. As soon as he crossed the line he suddenly felt as if an anvil had been dropped onto his shoulders. His legs sagged under him as he collapsed onto the ground. Letting out an odd little sound as the air was forced from his lungs. Cassandra opened her eyes then, turning her head to look at the man as he floundered on the floor. She was hardly surprised that he couldnt take it. It seemed like most of mankind was weak. With a grunt she dropped the barbell, it slammed into the metal floor, only avoiding leaving a crater due to the fact that this place had been built to take Marines in full armor hitting it at twice this gravity. She strode over to the control station, her powerful legs carrying her through the oppressive gravity as if it was nothing. With an expert flick of a few switches, the gravity slowly returned to ship standard. The generators sinking to that odd edge-of-hearing keen that she had grown used to. When the crewman didn't seem to want to get up she simply flipped him over and pulled the request from his twitching hands.
The message was simple; it informed them to meet in one of the small briefing rooms on the command deck. Walking in they found the room was small, clearly designed for a small officers' brief rather than a full battle company. The room was circular, build around a podium that projected a holographic display. There were several seats around the display itself while the perimeter of the room was set up to accommodate two rows of seats. The display itself was of the world they were approaching: Bralix. Landmasses and oceans were represented while small dots circled the world in orbit. A dark haired woman stood behind the display from the entrance and greeted them briskly as they came in, while a tall sandy haired woman sat in one of the back rows. "Thank you for coming so promptly, you may call me Sextia." Said the dark haired woman. "My associate here is Septia. Please, have a seat." Once the group was settled, Sextia began. "As you are all no doubt aware, this ship is only hours away from a quick raid on a lightly defended Imperial target. What you don't know is that you will not be present for it." She paused a moment to let that information sink in before she continued, "We are two hours away from this world: Bralix. It's a relatively primitive world in the Outer Vortex of little regard. After the Warmaster failed at the Battle of Terra and our forces were forced to retreat, an Imperial Battle Fleet engaged a Legion Expeditionary Force over Bralix. The battle was a disaster for both sides and the ruined ships remain in orbit to this day. Over the millennia the world has pillaged the remnants of the fleets for whatever technology it could scavenge. "Officially, you are being dispatched to the surface to procure supplies and barter for parts with the local merchants. When the Truth returns you will then return to the ship." She waited for the collective groan to dissipate. "What Captain Mortus doesn't know is that the four of you have been hand-picked for an assignment. Over the ages it has been rumored that three relics of the battle, important to my master, are located somewhere on Bralix. Through the ruinous powers it has been revealed to him that you are important to finding them. "Therefore your real mission, will be to determine the validity of these rumors and, if true, retrieve these artifacts and deliver them into my possession. The methods you use to achieve this are unimportant, as everyone here knows results are the only things that matter. Should you fail the task that your captain has assigned, you will have to deal with him. Should you fail the task my master has assigned you I promise that result will be infinitely more dire." The woman's expression then turned into a pleasant smile. "Now. Are there any questions?"
"A few, wych: who is your 'master' and what makes you think the captain is not already aware of your ulterior motives, and merely waiting outside that door with a squad of armsmen to shoot any of us who emerge before someone reports your treachery? More to the point, how do WE know that this isn't an elaborate test of our loyalty? I know the Captain, he and I are both heirs of Alpharius, I know nearly nothing about YOU, save that what you have just said is tantamount to a betrayal of your oaths of loyalty. Never forget that the captain and I are Alpha Legion, we did not betray the Emperor, we turned against him because he had betrayed humanity and his sons the Primarchs," Jessica says hands never straying far from her holstered weapons...
Varis Kar thought for a moment. This mission was clearly going behind the captain's back, and he would most likely not be happy were he to find out... and, though he hated to admit it, Varis was the weakest of the four, physically at least, and therefore the most likely to die if the captain found out and decided to make an example. Then there was the fact that he would miss out on the chance to toy with the corpse-king's lapdogs by taking this task. But... it seemed like he would be missing out on the raid no matter what he did, and a chance to advance himself within the Maelstrom, as well as to leave the ship and enjoy things that only a planet could offer (like air that didn't taste like chem-scrubbers) was not to be passed up. And as for rewards, there was the prestige, the riches that might be found (perhaps even an artefact Sextia was unaware of...), as well as the opportunities for hedonism on a planet he would most likely never visit again. He sat back, and waited to see what the others would do.
"Wait. WAIT. WAAAAIIIT." Lola was as loud as her robotic tone could be. Lola had deep fears or at least what she thought might be like fears. "HAVE you seen those chaos marine people? Does it have to be with them? They scare me. They're way too weird." She was aware that getting on one of their bad sides was not a good move, but at the same time knew that people needed to know how freaky they are. "Then it's on this planet for how long?" She didn't give time for an answer before on to the next stream of thoughts. "I don't know anyone at summer camp! Who are they? Are they nice? Are these jerk face Adepts who are stupid jerk faces with their jerkinesses? Or are these reasonable people like me? I like me. Because I'm reasonable, you see." She made another attempt at making a gasping sound. "They're scavengers. Will they just try and steal me on sight? What if they recycle me?" Lola repeated the same gasping sound as if something else just came to her mind. "That means they know how amazing my work is! Probably jealous of my awesome emotionally stable design. I should go and tell them how much smarter I am then them." Lola much to everyone's enjoyment, was quiet for a few seconds as she thought about something. "I can stay or go. But if I'm going, then while I'm gone, someone has to fill his water dish."
Cassandra leaned forward in her chair. She studied the pair of women (Could I use Awareness to try and pick out any clues as to who they are aligned with from what they are wearing or is that a Scrutiny check?) listening to the points of the others. "You must have some kind of pull to even be here," She pointed out. "However that isn't nearly enough for us to betray the captain." Sitting back she looked around the room. "I for one have seen what happens to traitors on ships. I imagine the punishment is much worse amoung traitors."
A small smile crept across Sextia's face before ballooning into a bellowing laugh. "Betray the Captain. Treason... Hahaha... such vivid imaginations the lot of you." She let her laugh fade naturally and resumed an amused calm. "Ladies and... gentleman. I have given you the captain's orders: Go down and negotiate for supplies. That's it. That's all he wants of you. I'm asking that while you do that, you find something else that his superiors desire. Who exactly that may be isn't your concern. Not yet. Should you succeed they may well charge you with more important matters. Should you refuse, the task will simply fall to someone else; whether I'm the person to deliver the mission is immaterial. Sextia was quiet for a moment, gathering her thoughts, before continuing. "It was not I who kept information from your Captain, rather it was his commanders. You accuse me to treason? I have followed my orders and delivered unto you a choice. This is but a stepping stone towards your own greatness. My master has seen something in each of you that warrants attention. Feel honored. In this matter your captain is unimportant. If you feel simply sitting here a betrayal of him then walk out that door and tell him! He may kill me he may not, it makes no difference!" Her features softened for a moment, her shoulders slumped and a sigh left her breath. "Captain Mortus is a fine warrior. But that is all he is: a warrior, and all he will ever be. He will fight and win and then fight and die on some world somewhere in the cosmos. He is a blunt instrument and nothing more. Each of you however..." the next she said with contemplation, "each of you could be more." It was at this point she turned and addressed Jessica, "So if it helps then yes, consider this a test. Not of loyalty, but rather of ability. You've proven yourself an able warrior, now be something more." Next she turned to Varis, "You've survived. By undertaking this you take the first steps towards thriving." then to Cassandra, "You've met every challenge. This could test you in ways you are totally unprepared for and make you stronger." finally she regarded Lola "And you my dear... well your work might just be the most important of all. But unless you take this first step. You'll never know." She stopped and let her words sink in. There was more to her briefing, but for the moment she had to know if they were in.
"AHAHAHAHAA." Lola's random outburst seemed out of place and nobody else shared it. "Oh, I already know the punchline to this joke. It's pretty good." The room was still silent. "It's not funny, if I explain the joke." Her mechatendril seemed to fidget up and down as if nodding in agreement. "Still. It's going to be funny for some. I'm in. I like dark humor the best." Whether she actually understood what she was talking about wasn't clear, as Lola paused before looking at the woman again. "But his water dish though?"
Jessica considered, choosing her words carefully, she knew she stood at a precipice, the question was, did she have a jetpack to leap the chasm, or not?* "Then, let me ask you this, Sextus: why not just tell the captain that you'd like to have us undertake this little side quest while we're here on his business anyway? The captain and I both understand the concept of a chain of command, if our superiors in the legion tell him they have a mission they want myself and these others to undertake, and the orders are sealed, he knows full well to turn them over unread. You don't keep secrets from the commanding officer unless that is deemed necessary for some reason." Jessica verbally parried the witch's counter-argument. *(If not, just how wide was it? Narrow enough to be cleared by a running leap: or did it require the building of a bridge? Either way, what was at the bottom also was an issue on Jessica's mind...)
Varis Kar nodded slightly, accepting her advice. "I'm not sure on this being the first step towards thriving, but if this task has been ordered by Legion forces above even the Captain, then I suppose I have no choice but to comply. After all, I can hardly thrive if I'm dead from a bolt round."
Cassandra looked around the room. She watched the reactions of the others with interest. In her life up to this point, she had never had much need for duplicity. If she wanted someone dead or wanted something for herself she had simply killed them or taken it. The idea of going behind the captain's back didn't sit well with her. Mostly because he had power enough to kill her, at least for the time being. So she sat in silence, watching the rest of the room with interest.
"Because those weren't my instructions." Sextia said in response to Jessica's question. "For reasons unknown to me, my lord didn't wish Captain Mortus to be aware of your task. Take that as you will. Either you have the fortitude to accept that or you do not." Finished, Sextia turned back to the holographic display. "Now then, Bralix is a world rich in three things of worth to this ship. The first is of course salvage and spare parts looted from the destroyed fleets. If you proceed to the main settlement of Jinra you should be able to find merchants." At this Sextia fixed Lola Moreau with a look. "Heretek Locus has a list of available inventory for trade as well as one for desired technology. Speak to him before you depart for those." "The second is manpower. Bralix is home to several nomadic warrior tribes that may have suitable recruits for the ship. As you know the Deceitful Truth is operating at just over one-third strength for its Astartes contingent. This ship must be brought up to full strength as soon as possible. Since training new Astartes is a rather involved and prolonged process the sooner we begin the better. Similarly, the human crew of the ship hasn't been replenished in some time. Any suitable candidates should be 'enticed' into service." "Lastly, there is the world's Repository. Over the centuries, valuable items and artifacts of spiritual significance have been found aboard some of the wrecks in orbit. These have been removed and placed in a secure location where the ruling authority of Bralix uses them to influence the world's populace. Captain Mortus would like you to raid the Repository and reclaim whatever Astartes artifacts are there and deliver those to him." After a deep breath Sextia stood up straight, "Completing one of these tasks is acceptable, two is commendable, but completing all three is desirable."
Jessica made a 'hummmm' sound and then turned her attention to the briefing. "So, we have three primary tasks on the surface, each of which is widely separated and attempting the third of which will make completing the other two immensely more difficult, my question then to all of you, but especially those who will be my companions on this venture, with which of the first two listed do we begin? My inclination, naturally, is to first secure the potential recruits for the legion: I am so inclined for three reasons: one, I too was a young recruit once and wish to see others uplifted as I have been, which furthermore serves the interests of the ship at this time making it doubly desirable. However though that is two reasons in one it only counts as a single cause in this affair: my second discrete reason is that the potential recruits can serve as native guides as part of their testing, for a Space Marine must be clever and cunning as well as brave and strong, which thus furthers the cause of accomplishing our second two goals. Moreover, the third reason is that, if we are exceedingly successful in our recruitment efforts, those that the gene scans prove unsuitable for induction can be utilized as scouts and shock troops towards the completion of our tertiary objective amidst the derelicts in orbit... Do you all find my reasoning to be sound in this matter?" Jessica Asked.
Nobody would think it from Lola's normal way of acting, but she was a machine and her mind worked from a place of logic. "Stuff. We need stuff. ME? I want stuff. Chit chat doesn't help the moment someone says the wrong thing and everyone wants to get all stabby-stabby. Or if someone turns out to be a stupid jerk-face. But stuff? You can always count on things. Planning to make new friends doesn't work well if you don't have the gear to murder them all if you say the wrong thing." Lola paused as she debated. "BUT, even creepy squishy hands are still more hands and that's helpful. The only thing that I think would be really STUPID here is to go off and do the raiding and ninja warrior stuff without any things or people."
"This ship will be passing Bralix in two hours. Your assigned shuttle is located in embarkation deck two. The moment the shuttle returns to the Deceitful Truth this ship will warp into Imperium Space, and we should be back to pick you up in one or two weeks. Best estimate is that you'll be planet-side for about ten standard days." Sextia answered.
