Dark Heresy - Wisdom is the beginning of fear.

[Jak Snide]

Xerxes sighted incomprehension in the man's eyes, both unable to make sense of the arbitrator's implication and desperately trying to think of anything else he should tell him. "You want to know about our operation?! You must know by now! You've seen them, that's what she's making! We've been getting chemical supplies from a narco-gang! Luntz' lot! We're...we were just hired guns, paid to keep the sector under control while the body snatchers collected and she experimented!" The man's voice had grown quite loud, audible to all the acolytes now.

[Kelne]

Seeing that Xerxes had any bludgeoning that might be required well in hand, Cryvus went back to cleaning the blood and gore off his staff. It had served him well today, and no doubt would do so again.

Now that the fight was done with, he was shivering slightly in reaction. He had come closer to death today than he had in a very long time indeed, and it was beginning to catch up with him. Nor was their work yet done. There was one person yet left in the building, and he rather doubted that it was their adversary. She would have to be hunted down to whatever hole she had found refuge in.

[Capntastic]

Mik just strode to the center of the room, a bit less excited now, and made to cautiously examine the fallen.

[Jak Snide]

Mikolas looked down at the remains of the thing that Gunner had blasted. Two large chunks had been blown out of it, the holes charred and smoldering. He felt his stomach knot as his attention turned to the rest of it; it looked more "human" than the things that had attacked them back in the hab block, but horribly unnatural all the same. He'd seen some disturbing instances of servitors since he'd been recruited, but they had clearly been repurposed and tech-augmented human corpses. Something in his gut told him that these things had never been human, despite their perverse resemblance to his own form.

[Capntastic]

Mik spit on the corpse nearest him.

"I can see why we got tacked on to take these things out. Now, one of ya's gonna have to see if it's got one of them glass spiders in it."

[NamagomiMk0]

Crisis, dropping the stub automatic, now with no need for it, took out his writing tools, scratching down 'Opening a lock' on a piece of paper before showing it to the thug, and shifting the weapon repeatedly in his hands, before finally replacing where the stub auto was on his person with the shiny las-pistol and its pack--. Whatever it was, it looked to be potentially of a different pattern, and could be worth something pending on how much money is obtained for it, or how effective it may be in a fight...

...but as for now, there were more important things to do. The sniper grabbed the coded papers as well as the one that mentioned the cessation of food shipments, rolling up hte ones that aren't already and sliding htem into hab-coat pockets, all before taking his rifle back into his own hands...

...the data-slate could also say something, but that can wait until he left...and why the hell was that thug getting annoying all of a sudden? It was the obnoxious one, too...

[Jak Snide]

Crisis' written explanation met a blank gaze from the thug, the man instead focusing on him grabbing data slates and parchments from the desk and squirreling them away into coat pockets. "When ya done with that get out 'ere an' have a look at what yer pal's up to. Real horror show." he added with a sadistic grin.

Outside, meanwhile, Gunner and the twitchy thug had joined Mikolas in the inspection of the corpse, a sickly green bile having begun to leak from it's mouth and ears. The PDF trooper's mouth remained firmly shut as he cast his eyes over it, while the thug started to look queasy. "Ah....glass spiders?" the latter asked hesitantly.

Julius looked over to Xerxes, lasgun still trained on the bloodied and broken man. "We done with him?" he asked before casting a look through the doorway. "Looks like they got a chem lab set up in there." Xerxes, diverting his attention away from his work for a moment, noted that Jules was correct. Several workbenches lined the walls of the room, laden with bubbling glass crucibles, sparking apparatus and other strange devices, a thin stack of parchment lying a couple of meters away. He was no student of chemistry, but if his guess was right it looked like someone had been in the middle of using these tools before the he and the others had interrupted them.

[Justice Augustus]

Xerxes nodded to Julius, and slowly started to rise up again, looking down at the poor enforcer. "Well, traitor, I tink we all know sentence has already been passed on you." He shook his head, raising his maul up above his head, then pauses for a moment. "But don't worry none now, you have a right to appeal." Again he paused, staring down at the man with the tiniest smirk. "Before the Emperor that is." And then he brought the maul down onto the man's skull.

[Jak Snide]

The enforcer weakly tried to raise his right hand to block the bludgeon, but he was nowhere quick enough. The maul struck the man square in the face, shattering his skull and pulverising this brain. Blood poured from the man's nose, mouth, eyes and ears as his arm dropped to the floor with a thud.

Julius relaxed his stance, head turning once again addressing Xerxes. "Reckon' we should go and pay 'her' a visit about now, dontcha think?"

[Justice Augustus]

"Reckon so," says Xerxes, with a smile creeping over his lips.

[Kelne]

Cryvus shook his head vaguely and pointed firmly up and to the right. Those who had been paying attention might recall he'd mentioned a fourth person waiting for them.

[Jak Snide]

Mikolas hovered over the corpse for a few seconds before deciding he didn't want to try hacking it open, a little voice in the back of his head telling him he wanted to get as far away from it as possible. Crisis emerged from the room he'd been searching, the pockets of his long coat laden with evidence. Cryvus seemed certain that there was only a single person left inside the Alms House, and that they were up the stairs behind them.

The third floor of the Alms House stood in start contrast to the lower floors. The wooden floor, while similar to the one of the floor below, was streaked with blood, as if bodies had been dragged along it all too frequently. Three wooden doors lay stacked near the top of the stairs, pried off their hinges and discarded. The two rooms that flanked the party investigate had semi translucent rubberised slats hung in their otherwise empty doorways. No had yet peered inside either of the rooms, though the smell of blood and chemicals was readily apparent to all. The third doorway on was occupied by something quite exceptional; an armoured door, no doubt recently installed, it's bulk looking out of place embedded in the stone walls. The door was featureless, save for the a lone pass key reader, and looked like it was designed to swing outwards when opened.

(Map of the third floor is here for all to see. Doorways have been marked with red, the one leading to L15 being the armoured one. The other two rooms can be moved or looked into quite easily, should you move the slats aside.)

[Kelne]

Cryvus seemed to have gone back to cleaning his staff; it was an ongoing task demanding thoroughness, lest some piece of filth take root and forever taint it. Not much help to be had there.

[Capntastic]

"We gotta clear all these rooms before we press on. I don' wanna get caught from both sides, ya hear?"

And thus Mik walked back and began exploring the room beyond the clear divider.

[Jak Snide]

The first thing that greeted Mikolas as he brushed aside the slats was a wooden set of shelves, almost two meters wide. Along it were stacked more than a score of glass jars containing, if he didn't miss his guess, a variety of harvested organs in fluid suspension. The next thing he saw were the gurneys, the two to his right being metallic and blood splattered. The ones to the left, however, were occupied by corpses. Some had been given the dignity of having a white sheet draped over them, but most lay exposed. The sight of them tied a knot in his stomach. He'd only seen something approaching this level of mutilation once before, but that'd been back home and at the claws of a real monster of a Ribcleaner. The thought that someone, a person, had inflicted these sort of wounds was beyond his ability to comprehend.

Gunner had moved to check the other room and, judging from the look on his face after he'd looked inside, wished he hadn't. "Room's clear" he announced a moment's silence, moving away from the door and letting the slats swing back into place.

(Map updated, the room that Gunner investigated contained corpse laden gurneys similar to the ones Mik found. Anyone wanting to peek inside should say so, otherwise there's only one thing left to investigate: the armoured door.)

[NamagomiMk0]

Crisis shook his head as the door-bashing went on. Apparently, the imbecile was incapable of basic math and logical deduction. He mentioned that there were four waiting. -Three- were killed so far. Would it be that unlikely that someone be able to subtract three from four? And of the doors there, two were normal. The last was armored. How the fuck this moron made it into position to be an acolyte was anybody's guess. From his ever-increasing acts of idiocy, it seemed that it was more feasible to presume that he and the trigger-happy thug who somehow managed to survive up until now should be the first in, no questions asked. Essentially, the decoys. That was the -only- reasoning he could find for why the God-Emperor would have allowed them to serve in His Inquisition...

The now frustrated sniper moved up quickly to an optimal location to shoot; he would be damned if he was denied any cover because some bastard got there first, and the last thing he wanted was to be a target in the open. Serving the God-Emperor is one thing, but His service would be better executed were he to still -survive- by the end of it. Checking his rifle's clip, he took up firing position at the corner nearer to the armored door...


By now, for all he could care, Mikolas and the lead thug were both expendable. The others had some use, but those two seemed to do nothing more than show their idiocy when it came to tactical situations. Thank the God-Emperor that that was -all- they seemed to do on a regular basis so far.

[Moving to I9]

[Jak Snide]

Crisis slunk forward, mind on the mission and footsteps falling silently as ever. The lead thug moved out of his way and Julius moved towards the armoured door, weapon held loosely. "Now how we gonna get this thing open? Don't suppose any of y'all found the pass. Or some explosives." he asked, casting a glance back over his shoulder.

The other thug, meanwhile, had moved up besides Mikolas, wanting to see what he'd discovered. Anyone watching him would notice that he seemed to have developed a whole new set of nervous tics.

(Map updated.)

[Justice Augustus]

"The guy I questioned said somethin' about a Sibas an' a key card. Anyone seen anythin' like that?" Xerxes states loudly. After all the ruckus they'd made downstairs he was fairly confident that subtlety was not the answer here.

[Capntastic]

Mik strolled back out into the hall, shaking his head to clear it of what he'd seen.

"Oh, right, is this thing it?"

He withdrew the card and flourished it, hoping it was something useful.

[Jak Snide]

"Might be. You gone go give it a try, boy?" asked Julius.

[Capntastic]

Mik shrugged and shook his head, tossing his mane around whilst grinning.

"I could, I s'pose."

And then he made to quietly tiptoe up and swipe that card, shotgun held aloft in his free hand.

[NamagomiMk0]

Crisis tensed as this occurred, waiting for the door to open, and any opposition to make itself known behind the door...

[Jak Snide]

Mikolas mimicked the actions he'd seen a half-dozen times before since he'd arrived in the hive, the machine spirit in the door responding with a high pitched chirp. A second later the door swung slowly outwards, it's bulk forcing him backwards as a blast if icy cold air struck him.

The room beyond was a far cry from the rest of the Alms House. The floor was covered with sheet metal plating, a heavy mist hanging just above it. A tangle of hissing and crackling machinery lined the wall, punctuated by holo displays which bathed the room in coloured light. What lay right before him, though, quickly caught his attention.

The center of the chamber was dominated by a large operating table, surrounded by all manner of strange instruments, flashing cogitator displays and armatures ending in clusters of blades, manipulators and drills. On the table, strapped down and laid open as if an anatomical exhibit, his heart still pumping weakly in his splayed ribcage, is a young man, clearly conscious and terrified out of his mind. Looming above him was a narrow and impossible tall figure, shrouded in black robes edged with a blood-red cog-tooth pattern, who can only be the architect and master of this chamber of horrors. Perched on the figure's back was a heavy mass of burnished metal, surrounded by dozens of twitching mechanical limbs, like some obscene clockwork spider.

The cowled head turned towards Mikolas and those standing behind him and, as the light catches the face within, he could see what remains of a living woman's face stitched to an iron skull. Glowing lenses in the woman's dead face focused on the man and a grating artificial voice issued forth.

"Foolish meat, interrupting my experiments! You have only hastened the harvesting of your unworthy flesh!"

Fear gripped at Mikolas' heart, the giant of a man shaking visibly as he struggled to keep a hold on his shotgun. Julius simply froze, his former confidence annihilated in a mere moment.

Crisis simply lined up his shot as the mass of mechanical limbs detached from the woman's back, skittering forward towards the acolytes, an under slung human skull staring at them with multifaceted lenses.

(The acolytes have found Her, though only three have seen her so far. Julius is utterly petrified, and Mik will be taking -10 to all tests till he snaps out of it. Crisis, however, passed his Fear test. Her is obviously Her, while the crudely drawn skull represents the whirring mass of mechanical death skittering all too quickly towards Mik. Declare actions for the first turn of combat. Map updated.)

[Kelne]

Cryvus looked up from his cleaning of the staff and reluctantly set it aside for the moment, fingers closing upon the butt of the six-shooter. He had been given the weapon for this specific purpose, and not using it would be an insult to the weapon's spirit.

With Crisis occupying the best firing position, Cryvus would simply have to make do. He settled himself a short distance behind the sniper, and looked upon the face of the enemy.

(Double move to I7)

[Justice Augustus]

He opened the door befor' we were in position? Man, is he tryin' to get us killed?

Xerxes moved forward, preparing himself for the worst, and took sight along his shotgun at the monstrosities in front of him. "Emperor's Breath..." he gasps, trying to stop shaking while drawing a bead on the spider-creature.

(Move to J7, Aim at mechanical thingy.)

[Capntastic]

Mik was practically stunned. He'd been completely incapable of preparing for these sorts of things. But, humanity's blessed instincts shall guide one's actions even though the mind, besot on all sides with heresy and madness, is rendered incapable.

Mik shifted to the left, staring down the barrel of his shotgun at this skittering monstrosity. And then he pulled the trigger.

(Half aim and shoot)

[NamagomiMk0]

Crisis hesitated a second as he took up aim--that being was an abomination alright. Most would recoil in terror...Crisis had seen worse, and was prepared simply to shoot whatever hostility lay beyond the door...whatever that...freak, was...it wasn't Them. It wasn't That Which Should Not Be...nearly as bad, but not quite the same...a machine toying with human flesh and lives...an abomination and heresy to the highest degree indeed...

While the man in that room may be hanging onto life by a thread, he had more important things to deal with...that whirling mass of limbs was moving independently, but he had the feeling that such was to be a distraction more than anything else... 'It' was likely as much a threat...

Bracing his rifle up against his shoulder, the sharpshooter placed all his trust in the machine spirit residing within his weapon. His weapon of preference for years by now--lining up a shot and pulling the trigger, subsequently firing off the first of many rounds at that...abomination, for lack of a better word...

[Half-action aim and fire at Her.]

[Jak Snide]

Mikolas barely had a chance to react as the mechanical thing flung itself at him, innumerable instruments of pain lashing out at him. A chain-scalpel caught him in the right leg, cutting through the armour with ease and opening up a nasty wound. Even at this range it was too quick for him to blow apart, his retaliatory shotgun blast tearing free a hypodermic injector limb as the thing twisted away. The pain of his injured had sent a surge of adrenaline through the man though, and he bellowed with rage at the contraption in front of him.

Cryvus moved forward in to watch Crisis place his shot dead center in his intended target. The woman rocked slightly from the recoil as the bullet crumpled against something underneath her robes and dropped to the floor with an audible clink, no damage visible. In response a mechanical arm snaked out from behind her back, the pointed of it snapping off a blast of laser energy at the sniper before she moved out of sight. The las bolt went wide, thankfully, impacting against a wall as Gunner and the thugs rounded the corner in time to catch sight of the heretek.

"What the hell is that?!" the PDF trooper exclaimed. The twitching thug seemed to be transfixed with what lay upon the operating table, while the lead one bellowed for Mikolas and Julius to get out of the way. The latter, however, refused to budge, still rooted in place by his fear. Xerxes noted this with annoyance as he moved forward, taking careful aim at the mechanical thing and waiting for a clear shot.

(Map updated. Mikolas was hit in the right leg for 5 damage, and is now Heavily Wounded. Crisis own attack seemed to have no effect on Her, unfortunately, the woman now having moved off to the South West and out of the immediate line of sight. Mikolas did, however, shake off the effects of fear and is no longer at a -10 penalty. Declare actions for turn 2.)

[NamagomiMk0]

Crisis' face twisted in a silent snarl as he watched his shot have no effect. Whatever 'she' was, there was obviously a high degree of protection derived from what was some sort of armoring...and now 'she' was out of sight. If only he had a damn grenade or two...and should he survive this, some anti-armor ammunition, as these events have become more frustratingly common as of recent...

Needless to say, this left him with only one target left to take his newfound frustration out on. Taking aim at the whirling mechanical amalgamation of limbs, he fired another shot--this one aimed for...whatever the hell that thing was supposed to be. Should the moron obstruct his shot, it wouldn't exactly be fatal. After all, that guard flak should be good for something,..

...if that had no effect, it would be time to try something different...


[Half-action aim, fire at the, uh...thing.]

[Capntastic]

Mik's shotgun was out of his hands as soon as its shot failed to bring proper justice against its quarry. His hands, grimy and scarred, reached to the length of gruesome metal at his belt- decked in barbed wire. With the sound of the pin being pulled from a grenade, it was off its clip and being held aloft.

And then, with the whispering sound of a grenade sailing through the air, he brought the Virtue of Mankind down upon that which should not be.

(Weapon switch; attack to the metal hound.)

[Kelne]

While the skittering creature was not his preferred target, Cryvus took careful aim at it nonetheless. If it was still standing at the end of his colleagues' attempts to kill it, he'd see about altering that situation.

(Half-action aim at the skitterer, shot will be taken if it's still moving by the time Mik and Crisis are done with it)

[Justice Augustus]

"Damnation," mutters Xerxes under his breath, unwilling to fire his shotgun into his meat shields. But only just. He shifted his position and double-timed it to the far side of the room, lining up his gun for a second time when he got there. "Stamp out heresy, wherever ya find it!" he bellows as he moves.

(Move to O9, then half-action aim at the creature.)

[Jak Snide]

The mechanical creature turned into a whirlwind of blades, dozens of limbs flying at Mikolas from more angles than he could deal with. His armour prevented him from being reduced to giblets, but one wickedly sharp scalpel took him in the left shoulder, between the plates. Bellowing in pain he reached for his trusted weapon. It didn't help matters that a number of gunshots rang out around him, impacting in the floor and walls nearby, one shot whizzing past his ear. One shot, however, struck true. A rifle round slammed into the center of the mass of metal, knocking the thing off balance for a moment and exposing the under slung skull. This was all that Mik needed, and he brought his club down hard. The skull fractured, brain matter spilling out from a shattered left temple. The thing reared up and lurched backwards, screaming like a child, before toppling over and spasming for a second before lying still.

Julius managed to regain his senses at the sight of this, though the man was still clearly shaken by what he'd seen. Cryvus, meanwhile, was noting how much more of a kick that revolver had than his usual weapon. Xerxes' aim lay on the motionless thing, while Gunner had a look of horror and disgust written on his face, stopped dead in his tracks by it's death scream.

(Only Crisis and Mik managed to hit this round, the resulting damage being barely enough to put the thing down. Mikolas, however, has taken 6 damage to the left arm and is now on 2 wounds and, as such, is in a world of pain. Map updated, turn 3 comes around. The woman remains out of sight, for now.)

[Capntastic]

One could argue that Mik's pain- a blessed instinct- was his prime motivator. One could argue that Mik's fiery human spirit urged him to destroy that which had no place in the world. To send its twisted form back to the twisted realm it came from; shattered and devoid of its terrible power, as is the duty of all in the Imperium.

Mik just hated it. But that too is a gift of the Emperor.

(All out attack.)

[Justice Augustus]

"Alright, keep that thin' down, and move forward for the Emperor!" shouts Xerxes, hustling forward. He skids next to the wall, covering the other side of the room they're approaching with his shotgun.

(Move to N14 and Overwatch.)

[Kelne]

Somehow, Cryvus doubted that She was going to stick her head out the door in the face of overwhelming firepower. They were going to have to go in after her, which he doubted would be a pleasant experience for whoever was first through the door. He did move up somewhat, intending to back up whichever poor soul volunteered for the duty.

(Double move to N10)

[NamagomiMk0]

Crisis, on the other hand, preferred to exercise caution. God-Emperor forbid that he be on point when trying to deal with an enemy whose location is unknown...he still had one round left in that rifle's clip--perhaps it could be worth something--but he had better ideas as of then...but positioning, of course, is optimal...

[Double-move and taking cover at K14]

[Jak Snide]

Cryvus moved forward, the weighty revolver clutched in one hand, watching the other acolytes move into position. Xerxes moved against the wall, keeping some distance from the door but covering it all the same. Crisis moved into position at the side of the door just as Gunner moved inside, the advance of Julius being blocked by Mikolas descending on the "dead" thing that had assaulted him, bringing his club down on the skull until all that was left were fragments of wet bone.

Crisis was the only one to see Gunner's shot at the woman, their nemesis having interfaced with a wall mounted cogitator. A wail of terror from the man strapped and splayed across the operating table threw the PDF trooper's shot off, the ballistic mechandrite of the woman snapping off a shot in reply. The bolt clipped him in the shoulder, doing little real damage but spinning him around. Crisis saw Gunner's expression turn into one of fear as he looked towards the other end of the room. "She's released four of them!" he yelled, already taking a step towards the door he'd just come through.

(Map updated. Their foe has been sighted once again, albeit a moment before she released four Body Snatchers, also known as "the things that assaulted the acolytes in Lili's hab." Actions for Turn 4, people.)

[Justice Augustus]

"Gunner, fall back, now! Form a defensive perimeter aroun' this doorway. Make 'em come at us one at a time." Xerxes' anti-riot training was starting to kick in, though he was by no means overjoyed at the prospect of facing those abominations again.

[Kelne]

Cryvus went down on one knee, steadying the revolver as well as he could and leveling it at the door. With a little luck, the kick it packed translated into some serious stopping power.

(Overwatch)