Edge of the Void - Campaign Turn 5
A new planet brings new opportunities. And new leads for the crew to follow. But first they owe a favour to a local noble. Ever one to curry favour with the planetary elite Tareefa leads her crew into battle against a mercenary warband.
Chapter 5 - Welcome to Mehara
The frozen streets of Larom.
Leaving Drusaal took far longer than Rogue Trader Tareefa el-Khatib would have liked, she had hoped to slip away like a thief in the night but alas protocol had to be followed. After informing Planetary Governor Verner Ryant of their departure he insisted on throwing them a feast. Thankfully it being such short notice the festivities were rather tame. Once all was said and done, Tareefa and her crew boarded the Stormspite gun-cutter and made for The Glorious Endeavour in high orbit. Her Seneschal, Martyn Hames, had wanted to throw another feast to welcome the Rogue Trader back on board, but Tareefa demanded they get underway first. And with that the Endeavour fired her engines, and the venerable frigate made its way out of Drusaal’s gravity well.
Boosting away from Arccan’s star, Endeavour’s path took them through a small asteroid field. A particularly violent impact on the Endeavour’s voidshields sent vibrations through the hull that managed to dislodge an overhead gantry in the Stormspite’s hanger. Damage to the gun-cutter was largely superficial but Seneschal Hames did have the work gang responsible for maintaining said gantry flogged with electro-whips for their laxity. Free of the asteroid field the Rogue Trader continues onwards towards their destination of Mehara.
Mehara was the administrative hub of the Arccan system, which in the hierarchy of backwater planets raised it slightly above Grox turd polished to a mirror shine. Still, it was a step above Drusaal. Least of which was because the Planetary Governor on Drusaal had sent word to his sister, the Lady Yasmin Ryant, on Mehara, who whilst not a Planetary Governor in her own right was sufficiently high up in Mehara’s Administratum to have a spare manor house that the Rogue Trader could make use of. Such generosity didn’t extend to waiving the fee to park the Endeavour in orbit, however.
In fact, use of the manor came with its own separate cost. One of Yasmin’s political rivals had hired some goons to cause some trouble in her local district, thereby causing Yasmin some political embarrassment. The local Enforcers had not been of any use, so Yasmin had requested the Rogue Trader and her crew to assist.
It seemed simple enough: roll up, make an example of the mercenaries, get paid. Evidently the goons had been quite the thorn in Yasmin’s side as she has emphasised that when dealing with them there was no such thing as overkill.
Battle 5 - Frozen Ground
The crew make ready for battle.
The more she saw of Mehara, the more the Rogue Trader liked it. Where the shifting sands of Drusaal refused to be tamed, the craggy rocks of Mehara were simply beaten into submission. The architecture was brutal and gothic, even by Imperial standards. And even the atmosphere was so thin and cold as to be barely hospitable. It reminded her of the depths of the void.
A short flight out from Mehara’s central city of Larom, the gun-cutter set them down amongst the stacks not far from the last known position of the mercenaries. The Rogue Trader and crew stomped down the ramp and fan out on the icy ground, weapons raised and scanning for threats. They break into their standard teams, Armsmen Finn, Bron and Adept Gluvico make for the stairs and the high ground, while Tareefa, Guillermo and Shai keep to the ground level.
The enemy mercenaries advance.
Alerted by arrival of the Stormspite, the enemy gang springs into action. Familiar with the terrain they surge forwards, one on the walkway and two on the ground to hit the Rogue Trader’s crew from above and below.
Finn gets to the top of the stairs and skids to a halt, the way up doesn’t lead to the walkway, just a balcony. He curses loudly and gestures to Gluvico and his fellow Armsman to head back down to ground level. Knowing the enemy is close, Tareefa dashes to the under the overhang of the central stack with Guillermo and Shai bringing up the rear.
On the opposite side of the stack, the mercenary catches sight of the Lord-Captain running into cover but is unable to draw a bead on her quick enough. His two companions continue to advance towards the crew, both ready to unleash fire and death at a moment’s notice.
The enemy warband prepares to strike.
The moment comes in the blink of an eye, the mercenaries round the corner of a crumbling residential stack to find Finn on the balcony across the way. With a squeeze of the trigger, she sends a hail of bullets towards the exposed Armsman. The hard rounds strike Finn square in the chest and pitch him to the floor. Underneath the walkway another mercenary draws up but is unable to get a bead on any of the crew. Hearing the gunfire, the rotund mercenary pursuing Tareefa rounds on the Rogue Trader unleashing a torrent of las fire in her direction. Fortunately, most of the bolts slam harmlessly into the metal pipe that Tareefa is using as cover and the rest go wide.
The Rogue Trader team reacts like a coiled snake. Bron and Gluvico return fire with their respective precision rifle at both mercenaries, neither scoring a hit. Bron shouts up at Finn who groans, levels his shotgun and blasts the merc on the walkway to the ground below. The Rogue Trader herself vaults over the pipe and lays into the mercenary with her power sword. His immense bulk gives him power but not speed, to which Tareefa takes full advantage. She strikes in a blur, landing half a dozen hits in the blink of an eye. The sword’s power field makes a mockery of the mercenary’s armour slicing through it, and bone, like it isn’t even there. The attacks are lightning quick, but the death isn’t. The mercenary slumps to his haunches, whimpering as blood pours of each of the half dozen wounds.
Shai and Guillermo catch up to the Rogue Trader just as the mercenary slumps over completely into a rapidly growing pool of blood.
“Exsanguina maxima, Lord-Captain?”, Shai asks, recognising the technique from her own Death Cult of cutting both tendon and arteries in precision strikes to leave the victim crippled and bleeding.
Across the way Gluvico and Bron sprint forwards to finish the rest of the mercenary gang off but both of them have already quit the field.
Aftermath
That evening Lady Yasmin Ryant hosted the Rogue Trader and her retinue at the manor that would be their base of operations on Mehara. The political elite would have considered it cramped but for those that had spent a good deal of their lives on void ships, it was an airy and utilitarian space. The décor meanwhile was overtly religious, just about every wall and alcove was covered in a mural or other benediction to the God-Emperor. Lady Yasmin was evidently a deeply religious person, which Tareefa found comforting. Too many these days merely paid lip service to the Master of Mankind. Such laxities were not to be found amongst the Rogue Trader’s crew however, upon discovering a great mural of The Emperor casting out the devil and his nine devil-spawn the Crusader, Guillermo, immediately dropped to one knee in prayer. Upon rising he declared that the dusty alcove would be his billet for their stay. Despite Tareefa politely reminding him that there were rooms enough to accommodate him the old veteran was adamant about sleeping on the cold marble floor, saying that he would sleep on a bed of nails if it meant sleeping under the watchful gaze of Him on Terra.
Once the tour was completed and the crew settled, including Gluvico once again insisting he would lodge aboard the Stormspite, the Rogue Trader and the Lady Yasmin took a light supper attended by servants of the house. It was here that formal introductions were made, and over a platter of sweetmeats did her Ladyship express some displeasure that only one of the troublesome mercenaries met their end. Such annoyance disappeared when Tareefa told how exactly said singular mercenary had died.
“Exsanguina maxima?” Lady Yasmin purred between sips of exquisite sparkling wine, “sounds painful.”
The Rogue Trader drained her fluted glass and set it down, “Not as such as you might think, the level of blood loss means they lose consciousness fairly quickly.”
“However,” picking up her now refilled glass, “as tendons in the arms and wrist have been cut they are utterly unable to stem the loss.”
She continued, locking eyes with Lady Yasmin, “And for those few seconds as their life spills away they are fully aware they can do nothing to prevent their death.”
“There is no finer coup de grâce,” Tareefa added with a smile.
The Lord-Captain cuts the enemy down.