[MISSION 5] Briefing

[GoldenThrone]

Several weeks after you return to Watch Fortress Erioch, enough time for you to fully recover from your injuries, you are summoned once again to the Chamber of Vigilance.

In addition to being faced with a Deathwatch marine who you do not know (OOC- Marcus Tarlocke, Deathwatch Tactical Marine, meet Palus Maframe, Deathwatch Techmarine. Maframe, Tarlocke), there is also Captain Kasblane, with whom both of you are familiar by now, and a human, who seems slight and puny, given present company. It is odd, having a mere human in this chamber, and it immediately gives a sense of unease to the room.

"Brothers," Kasblane begins, "this is Adebt Narchite, servant to Inquisitor Belaruss of Ordo Xenos. He has presented a writ from Lord Inquisitor Paraclete (OOC- you have heard this name before), also of Ordo Xenos, requesting that Belaruss receive a temporary secondment from the Deathwatch. The secondment has been granted, and Kill Team Previor was dispatched. However, the secondment was also specific in requesting a marine with the technical expertise to examine and perhaps dismantle xenos tech. Such a marine was not attached to Kill Team Previor. Brother Maframe, you will serve that capacity. Brother Tarlocke, you accompany him to keep him alive should things go awry. Beyond that, you are seconded to Adept Narchite's command until you reach Inquisitor Belaruss, at which point you are under his command until your task is complete, until the Deathwatch calls for your return, or until you find you must act independently in the name of the Emperor (OOC- as in things go sideways and you have to act against the inquisitor in order to not die)."

Kasblane falls silent. Narchite, whom has all the appearance of a record-keeping paper pusher, steps up. "Inquisitor Belaruss required that you be briefed en route to our destination. We have a fully equipped Vanguard Cruiser waiting to convey us."

Some time later you are aboard the Vanguard Cruiser. Narchite has made himself scarce, and despite your intimidating presence, none of the crew seems able or willing to tell you where you are going.

OOC- gap for roleplay. Suitable chambers have been provided to each of you; in addition there are whatever facilities available that you might need. THe Vanguard cruiser also has a fully fitted armory, which you will be able to draw on for requisition, which will be handled in a bit. You may assume that you are with the other or separate as you desire.

[Rowgen]

Tarlocke was a man to who had grown to enjoy voidships. Being a Novamarine, the man had long experience with the vessels, and even lived in them for long periods of time. His chapter was, after all, known for being fleet of foot. Having circled the ship many times, and found the crew generally uncooperative, he had now opted to stop trying to wheedle out of them where they might be headed and instead sought out his Brother - familiarizing himself with the man might just help him knowing how best to aid him in his mission.

Finding the man at last, he approached. "Brother Maframe, is it? Tarlocke, of the Novamarines Chapter," he said, offering a massive, armored hand.

[Legendary]

"Brother Tarlocke" Palus slowly turned over through his helmet, wearing his full power armour despite being on the ship. The vox had either been customised, or his voice was in itself mechanical, having a gravelly monotone quality to it.

Palus slowly reached forward and grasped the out reached hand, as if refamiliarising himself with the social convention being presented. He was used to being an solitary efficient weapon, not as part of a team.

"I am an Iron Hands techmarine, as you may have gathered. You appear to not have had success with the crew Brother. I suggest you never trust in the Inquisition."

[Rowgen]

Tarlocke shook the man's hand with a firm grip, then allowed him to retreat from such scary things as social gestures. "I'll remember your suggestion," he replied diplomatically. Compared to the Iron Hand, the Novamarine was practically chipper. He had opted to walk without his helmet - a voidship was home to him. His head was chiseled and hairless - if it weren't for the fact that it moved, the hard features could've been cut from stone. His face was tattooed with deep blue markings of uncertain symbolism, though they reminded of the tribal tattoos of many primitive cultures - jagged shapes resembling claws, fangs, biting jaws, talons.

"Tell me, does your advice apply to the crew, our current host, or our future one?" he asks back, bright blue eyes shifting to watch for eavesdroppers.

[Legendary]

"All. The inquisition is a required part of the Emperor's force, particularly to the masses. Yet, they cannot see unwavering loyalty and the drive to do whatever must to serve the Emperor. I have personally seen corruption within their ranks, and we must treat them with the same mistrust they regard us with. Veiled or open."

Palus suspected that this errand was a convoluted one, constructed by the inquisition to deal with another problem they might never learn of. His servo-arm moved reflexively.

"I suspect we are either being tested for loyalty or will not be given the entire story. Perhaps even after we learn it. The inquisition takes a stance that less knowledge is less corruption, despite our vast forbidden lore known collectively amongst us at Watchfortress Erioch."

[Rowgen]

"I can tell you've given this thought," the Novamarine says, turning his eyes back on the Techmarine. "Don't worry, I've handled corruption from unexpected sources before. I will keep a wary eye on our Inquisition friends," he promises.

A sweeping gaze across the room again. "Have you any idea as to what manner of Xenos tech we are going to find?"

[Legendary]

"I only know as much as you. My ties to Adeptus Mechanicus permit me to view such objects with more than the Xenos lens. It could be of use to us in terms of learning from our enemy, or adapting our own technology. However, this is where the fine line between heresy and knowledge is present."

[GoldenThrone]

At that moment a cowled adept approaches.

"Forgive the intrusion, milords, but Adept Narchite requests your presence urgently on the bridge." The adept keeps his head down, not meeting your eyes.

[Legendary]

Palus pushed past Tarlocke and the adept, striding down the hall. He did not pause to see who followed.

[Rowgen]

Tarlocke offered brief thanks to the adept, and then moved to follow the Techmarine.

[GoldenThrone]

Upon your arrival at the bridge, you are greeted by Adept Narchite, who proceeds to outline the situation.

"We have received a distress call, priority omega, that over rides our current mission for inquisitor Belaruss. We have his orders and blessing in answering this call.

"The call comes from Eclipse Station. It is an Obsidian level station, in other words, there is no official record of it, and there will be no official record of it. The events you are about to participate in must remain under the most extreme secrecy, and failure to do so is treason of the highest order. This includes reporting on this incident to any of your superiors, including the Watch Commander himself.

"Eclipse station is an Inquisition waystation, holding supplies and war materiel and is used to resupply vessels operating for long periods away from other inquisition bases. According to the distress call, there have been many sudden disappearances, made all the stranger by the absence of traffic at the station. To date, some two dozen individuals have vanished. More strange also is the appearance of tunnels that were not there previous. Stormtrooper squads have been dispatched to investigate, but have not reported in, and they are feared lost as well.

"To complicate things even further, Eclipse station is built into an asteroid that is 90% arthenium (OOC- fictional mineral that I invented. It absorbs rather than reflects auspex/augur scans). This was a tactical benefit, as it prevented the station from being detected by passing craft, however it now makes it impossible to use an augur array to pinpoint the location of hostiles."

OOC- you may ask questions, or I will continue the briefing if you prefer.

[Legendary]

"Have you attempted any other forms of tracking- thermal, sonic, vibration, electronic signature? They have disappeared in mined tunnels and caverns, or naturally occurring? Are we permitted to know what weapons we could face, if we assume some of them have turned against us or a malevolent force has gained access to them?

Palus did not fear the inquisition nor their methods. Nor did he feel he needed to address the adept with any formalities. It was no secret that the Iron Hands and Inquisition were not on friendly terms, nor was the inquisition a present force on their homeworld. His brusque statements indicated a test of their efficiency to dealing with problems, then he would allow the adept to continue.

[Rowgen]

Tarlocke remained quiet. He trusted Palus to address the technical factors, and opted not to intervene. Instead, he simply listened for now.

[GoldenThrone]

OOC- excellent, moving onto Eclipse station

IC- It was not a long journey to Eclipse Station; the Adept opted to dispatch a Storm Raven transport. In the face of a quarantine message from Eclipse, Narchite opted to remain behind and only dispatched Palus, Markus, and a half dozen inquisitorial storm troopers.

Landing on Eclipse was without event; the station commander, a grizzled old man with more metal in his face than flesh, greeted you in the landing bay. There was little formality, though he did treat the marines with proper deference and decorum. He led the escort to the station control centre and began answering questions.

-the tunnels were not made by imperial tools, but are not naturally occurring. All of the are new and none appear on any of the initial surveys of the site or completed diagrams of the facility.
-alternative means of tracking are being tried, but have all come up blank, mostly since the mineral content of the asteroid absorbs the augur and auspex signal, meaning that none of their detection equipment works (sonic, vibration, temperature etc is all a function of auspex/augur arrays)
-as for weapons, they aren't sure what they are up against here.

More questions?

[Legendary]

"Brother Tarlocke, will you have a look at the patrol or delivery routes and times to see if there is a zone we should target approaching?

"I would like to see what your men are equipped with when transporting materials or performing routine patrols. Weapons, armour, and and transport devices."

OOC - Did we need to requisition from the ship before being planetside?

[GoldenThrone]

OOC- Shame on me! I have negelected one very significant piece of information that may alter questions. I thought I had writted it in a post, but upon closer inspection, it was not included.

Eclipse Station is on an asteroid that is approximately 238 km in diameter.

Because of its secluded, secret nature, patrols are uncommon because, well, there was never anything to patrol until now. The missing people is a sudden, recent development, as are the tunnels in the rock.

[Legendary]

Ok. So...I don't think that changes anything too much for me. Do they have servitors that go out? Are they mapping these tunnels? Do the tunnels appear everywhere all over the asteroid, or only in certain areas? And, are we equipping ourselves from the ship prior to launching ourselves into the tunnels?

[GoldenThrone]

They have been relying on inquisitorial storm troopers, but as yet there have been no survivors, so no successful mapping. Some vague mapping was accomplished via vox network (ie- tunnel goes in this direction 50 meters, then turns x direction), but nothing terribly reliable. The extend of the tunnels is unknown.

The base is equipped with 80 mono-task servitors for maintenance, but they have not yet been used as scouts. Currently the tunnels are most active in a localized area, however there are tunnels appearing in many parts of the base.

Equipment may be drawn from the ship. They will send it over via storm raven transport if Eclipse does not have it on hand. If you choose to req cybernetics before the mission, it will be assumed that you obtained them on the voyage over.

[Legendary]

All you, if you have questions Markus.

[GoldenThrone]

As a note, here are current objectives and requisition amount for the mission-
Primary: Investigate the tunnels, find their source
Primary: Destroy whatever made the tunnels.

Its a good old fashioned find and kill mission.

Requisition is 55 per marine. You are Respected now, which means you have a whole new world of gear and toys.

Also, (Rowgen knows this from when we had Krieg with us) - in order to keep the game moving, 2 days of no posting and your character becomes an NPC. After 7 days of no posting (unless you tell me you will be away first) your character dies in a heroic, though final, manner. Krieg, as part of his death, literally shoved a krak grenade down an orks throat.

[Legendary]

I'll select an exceptional servo-arm as my respected level upgrade.

I'll take 2 chainswords for 10 points.

I'm making my left arm and both legs cybernetic for a total of 45 points.

[Rowgen]

OOC:

Hey, sorry! I've been refreshing, but I didn't understand this forum and didn't realize there was a second page. Sorry.

Care to check if I've got an accurate representation of my Standard Gear? The Power Sword comes with one of my talents (I forget the one).

Requisition:

Special Issue Ammunition:

- Kraken Rounds

Standard gear:

- Astartes Bolt Pistol
- Astartes Bolter (Godwyn)
- Astartes Combat Knife
- Astartes Power Sword
- Astartes Frag Grenade (3)
- Astartes Krak Grenade (3)
- Fire Selector
- Heraldry Scroll
- Mk6 "Corvus" Power Armour
- Repair Cement

Requisitioned gear: 45 req

- Astartes Power Axe (20 req)
- Astartes Flamer (10 req)
- Dipole Maglock upgrade for Power Sword (5 req)
- Red Dot Laser Sight (10 req)

[GoldenThrone]

Your standard gear looks good. Power sword comes from Right Gear for the Job.

Next question- do you want to share an oath and thus be a kill team, or do you guys want to nake individual oaths and operate as two kill marines?

[Legendary]

I can be the squad leader if you like Markus, my personal recommendation for this mission is Oath of the Weapon.

Ignore weapon jams, re-roll if needed to confirm righteous fury in melee, Fire Support / Fire for Effect / Tank Buster

[Rowgen]

OOC: I approve.

IC:

"Brother Palus, I believe you are best suited to lead this mission, given your expertise," Tarlocke informed the other space marine over their private Deathwatch Vox channels. "I will support you, should we come to blows with whatever has caused these tunnels."

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