Session 2: Through His Great Workings

As Ovie navigates the drop ship towards the hive post, I begin to analyze the data downloaded from the bridge of the Cobra class destroyer. “L”, the mangled example of a Space Marine, searches the drop ship for tuberous vegetables. The desires of flesh beings eludes me.
 
Jessima attempts to render aid to herself while the “navigator” explores the drop ship. As she suspected, Jessima does indeed have a concussion. She rests her eyes as Ovie continues to fly us to the hive.
 
The bridge data is encrypted, but I am able to determine the ship was named Myrmidon (a loyal and faithful companion) carrying a contingent of Adeptus Custodes and Adeptus Astartes to reinforce an existing Space Marine chapter. The rest of the data files are corrupted, but with time and servitor cogitators, I am confident The Omnissiah will bless my path towards knowledge.
 
Once we reach the base, I will attempt to examine the augments of the Space Marine we found.
 
As we tend to our own needs, an announcement comes from the cockpit, “Alright, everyone. Who exactly are you?” Ovie sets the autopilot and comes back to the crew quarters.
 
Ovie is a rogue trader, looking for a new ship and crew after losing her previous ship in a complicated situation. “L” points to Ovie and simply says, “Same.” Fig Ortellius, of the House Ortellius Navigator Clan, points to her forehead and says she was stranded on Pelone and is trying to figure out how to get back to her people. The people she was with are now dead. Jessima gives a small snort as I poke her awake. Jessima squints and gives a small wave. “I am Jessima of the Order of the Sacred Rose. I was on my way to the planet to give medical…things.” Lenny, or L, jumps in and gives Jessima’s name and rank from her armor. Jessima agrees, this was her first deployment. I then introduce myself, taking care not to get into detail about my recent change in career paths.
 
The radios light up with chatter – the planetary forces are being overrun by the heretics landing on the planet. We land and are quickly approached by another novitiate who wants to take us to the Preceptor for an urgent mission. The novitiate bows respectfully as Fig asks if anyone has had word from the Ortellius clan – no one has. Ovie questions why she needs to follow – “Because the Preceptor said so.” Yikes. The sergeant limps off to join his crew.
 
We enter the Canoness Preceptor’s tent and she demands a report on the rest of Jessima’s squad – all dead. She asks for information on the ship that crashed into the planet. I download the basics to her data slate. She looks with concern at the information and says the fleet reported this ship came from a warp rift that’s not closing. It may be because cultists are building a throne or altar of some sort outside of the hive for a ritual to bring on the forces of chaos. All civilians, including Ovie and Fig, have been pressed into service in the name of the Emporer. Supplies will be given for this mission.
 
The Canoness Preceptor questions Lenny, “Do you remember anything?” Lenny says no, but does mention the Chaos Space Marine we saw on the bridge of the Myrmidon.
Lenny hands me his broken heavy bolt pistol for repairs. I examine the bent bolter and make plans for its repair.
 
The Canoness pulls up a holographic map, showing the altar’s location. It is heavily fortified and must be destroyed. The warp rift, if it remains open, could consume the planet.
Another novitiate takes us to the supply tent – another ammo reload, standard knives, standard issue imperial guard lasguns, shotguns, etc. I pick up a lasgun and an ammo reload.
It has begun to rain – extra difficulty to athletics, stealth, and investigation checks. Except for my investigation checks because my augmetic eye, acting as Preysense Goggles, gives me thermal readouts and ignores this difficulty.
 
The Sisters head off to the front lines as I create an umbrella headband with transition lens for Fig’s third eye.
 
We decide that taking the drop ship will give us the best tactical advantage. Ovie’s piloting means we successfully land next to the hive wall in a hidden area. No signs of cultists here, and there is a path for us to take.
 
Fig reaches out to sense any psykers in the area – as she reaches into the warp, she senses a gathering of psychic might on the altar. Something in that gathering senses her, too. Fig turns to the group and shares her findings and her challenge back to the gathering forces of psykers. Fig attempts to put out some kind of music or interference into the ether.
We open up the door in the wall, leading into a passageway descending into complete darkness. Lenny and I can see just fine, so Lenny takes point and we put the organics between us.
 
The passageway is wide enough for two Lennys, and we come to an open area that is being used as an ammunition dump. I use my augmetics with the thermal overlay to determine there are no beings in this room – they are further down the hallway across this chamber. The boxes in front of us are marked “Flares”. Idea: take flares, fire down the hallway, light them up and pick them off in an ambush.
 
Ovie tries to listen in on their chatter: hears only “we’ll never find our way through this mess.” Whose side are they on?
 
We plan to send Lenny, holding a flare, down the hallway. We will back him up if they attack. Lenny proceeds down the hall – 5 seen, more in the distance. They are armed and carrying a dull lumenglo. Lenny lights his flare and surprises the group. They have heretical symbols on their guard uniforms – cultists! Lenny fires his bolt pistol as Fig reaches out with her mind – Lenny kills two and Fig kills another. Ovie takes aim but hits Fig, knocking her down. Since Lenny and Fig are ahead of me, I hold my fire until they can move away. I take my action to drag Fig back to Jessima. Jessima heals Fig entirely.
 
There are still two guardsmen with more on the way. Lenny opens fire with his twin bolt pistols, taking out two more guards in a puff of red mist.
 
As 5 furious guardsmen appear down the hallway, I toss another flare to blind them while Fig enfeebles them with her mind. They open fire at Lenny, pinging shots off his armor. Ovie, crouched at the entrance of the hallway, takes aim with her lasgun and shoots a guardsman right through the eye. His other eye socket glows as his brain boils from within his skull. Fig takes a shock as she continues to reach out and enfeeble the enemy. Jessima tries to fire, but her shot pings harmlessly down the hallway and hits nothing.
 
Fig reaches out again, and the guardsmen suddenly stop and drop their guns. They begin to shriek, clutching their heads as blood pours from their eyes and noses. They fall to the ground, dead. Ovie and fig grab a helmet each, using the helmets’ augments to see in the dark. I take one of the helms and am able to tap into their comms, but I have a nagging feeling that these twisted Machine Spirits know of my presence.
 
Lenny takes point again, leading our group through the wall to outside of the hive. We emerge to a surprisingly quiet part of the line, bodies lining the rain drenched trenches. In the distance, we see the dull glow of multiple fires and we head toards them. My thermal sight malfunctions in the rain.
 
Fig extends herself into the ether, and feels the darkness gathering at the altar where the fires are glowing. She hums to herself as an ominous chanting floats on the wind.
 
We make our way across the battlefield. Lenny, Fig, and Ovie move ahead to sneak closer and find a spot for us to plan our attack. As Jessima and I hold back, I spy a deactivated combat servitor in a nearby trench. I tell Jessima to stay where she is and make my way into the trench. Reaching the servitor, I commune with its Machine Spirits, reuniting it with the Holy Spark. It trundles behind me as I make my way back to Jessima.
 
Meanwhile, Lenny, Fig, and Ovie make their way to the altar. Surrounded by fires and chanting cultists, there is a tied up, naked and screaming guardsman awaiting sacrifice on the altar. Towering nearby is a figure in heavy armor, carrying a glowing staff topped with spikes and a crown, a glowing fire above him. He is a World Eater.
 
Ovie yells to Fig and Lenny, “Look out!” and rolls away as a flaming chain axe crashes down where she was once lying. A looming figure shouts a war cry as the group scrambles away. The ritual continues, unabated. Jessima and I run forward, Servitor in tow. On the altar, another figure in heavy armor begins carving heretical symbols into the flesh of the guardsman sacrifice.
 
Ovie throws a frag grenade – it lands on the altar, rolling to land under the sacrificial guardsman. It explodes, killing the sacrificial guardsman and destroying part of the altar. The figure in heavy armor blinks, momentarily confused as to where his sacrifice has gone.
 
Fig uses her abilities to enfeeble the chaos Space Marine attacking them. Enraged, he swings his chain sword around Lenny to attack Fig. He misses and is thrown off balance as Lenny prepares to strike. Lenny uses his chain sword and Astartes combat knife to strike, knocking him to the ground.
 
The chaos sorcerer, floating up from the altar, casts Smite on Lenny, wounding him.
 
Fig channels her wrath, trying to smite the agents of Chaos. The sorcerer “denies the witch”, fizzling her attack across their power armor and denying her attack
.
The World Eater moves away from Lenny and towards the Sorcerer, trying to regain his footing and a combative advantage. Lenny goes on the attack with his chain sword and knife, aided by Jessima’s fervent prayers to His Holy Emperor. He swings, wounding the World Eater across the neck. He falls to the ground, bleeding profusely.
 
The sorcerer tries to cast on Lenny, but is stopped by Fig’s psychic defenses.
 
Ovie prepares to throw another frag grenade, but only succeeds in throwing the pin at the cultists and dropping the grenade at her feet. She kicks it, sending it sailing over the edge of the hill and at the cultists. It explodes, killing 5 cultists in a cloud of smoke and debris.
 
Using my Rite of Magnetronics, I ride the Servitor into the battle. Chanting the sacred chants of the Omnissiah, “Steel of body, steel of mind”, we provide covering fire at the Sorcerer as Jessima runs forward to heal Lenny.
 
The chanting has not stopped, despite our fight. The cultists chants reach a fever pitch, pulling out ceremonial knives from their robes. They begin cutting their flesh, killing themselves for their dark ritual.
 
“From the data at hand, I believe we need to kill these cultists before they can finish their ritual with their ceremonial knives, “ I say, turning to the group. “Servitor, purge these abominations to the Machine God and Emperor.”
 
The Servitor rumbles forward on his tracks, his purpose and will clear, his Machine blessed bionics humming as he raises his four lasguns. “Execute,” is all he says. He kills 3 cultists with a blast of his lasguns.
 
Fig reaches out, killing a cultist with her psyker powers, leaving 1 in one mob, 5 each in 3 other mobs. Ovie aims her lasgun, opening with Rapid Fire at a mob of cultists. She misses, sending up clouds of dirt at her feet. Lenny leaps from the ledge, bolters in his hands, shouting his battle cry. He lands on the lone cultist, crushing his sternum. His bolters belch flame and fire, destroying two mobs of cultists. The cultist that he landed on, though mortally wounded, manages a singular upward petulant stab to the back of Lenny’s knee, wounding him.
 
Jessima runs down the hill and, using the shotgun she brought “just in case”, aims for the last mob of cultists. She screams as she fires from the hip, “PURGE!” She has never felt more alive or closer to the Emperor himself as she does in this moment. She kills the remaining 5 cultists.
 
The Sorcerer, seeing the cultists blasted apart, screams his wrath in otherworldly voices. We are all disturbed – “You may have won this time, but this is not the end!” The purple hue of the sky becomes deeper and brighter as he disappears in a flash of lightening. The body of the World Eater has also disappeared.
 
The rift is not closing – we need to find a way to close it or we need to evacuate the planet. We comm back to the Canoness to begin evacuation of the planet, but she and her Sisters are engaged in another battle. Fig senses the knives are warp tainted and the tear in the warp is growing larger. There is nothing that can stop it now. I use my ingrained wireless uplink to begin broadcasting evacuation processes across all channels.
 
We turn to run back to our ship and get back to the port, leaving the battlefield behind as the sky continues to darken.
 
+ 10 xp